Too Big To Fail Is Now Bigger Than Ever Before

Michael Snyder September 20th, 2013 Economic Collapse Blog

The too big to fail banks are now much, much larger than they were the last time they caused so much trouble.  The six largest banks in the United States have gotten 37 percent larger over the past five years.  Meanwhile, 1,400 smaller banks have disappeared from the banking industry during that time.  What this means is that the health of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley is more critical to the U.S. economy than ever before.  If they were “too big to fail” back in 2008, then now they must be “too colossal to collapse”.  Without these banks, we do not have an economy.  The six largest banks control 67 percent of all U.S. banking assets, and Bank of America accounted for about a third of all business loans by itself last year.  Our entire economy is based on credit, and these giant banks are at the very core of our system of credit.  If these banks were to collapse, a brutal economic depression would be guaranteed.  Unfortunately, as you will see later in this article, these banks did not learn anything from 2008 and are being exceedingly reckless.  They are counting on the rest of us bailing them out if something goes wrong, but that might not happen next time around.
Ever since the financial crisis of 2008, our politicians have been running around proclaiming that they will not rest until they have fixed “the too big to fail problem”, but instead of fixing it those banks have rapidly gotten even larger.  Just check out the following figures which come from the Los Angeles Times…

Just before the financial crisis hit, Wells Fargo & Co. had $609 billion in assets. Now it has $1.4 trillion.Bank of America Corp. had $1.7 trillion in assets. That’s up to $2.1 trillion.
And the assets of JPMorgan Chase & Co., the nation’s biggest bank, have ballooned to $2.4 trillion from $1.8 trillion.

We are witnessing a consolidation of the banking industry that is absolutely stunning.  Hundreds of smaller banks have been swallowed up by these behemoths, and millions of Americans are finding that they have to deal with these banking giants whether they like it or not.
Even though all they do is move money around, these banks have become the core of our economic system, and they are growing at an astounding pace.  The following numbers come from a recent CNN article…
-The assets of the six largest banks in the United States have grown by 37 percent over the past five years.
-The U.S. banking system has 14.4 trillion dollars in total assets.  The six largest banks now account for 67 percent of those assets and the other 6,934 banks account for only 33 percent of those assets.
-Approximately 1,400 smaller banks have disappeared over the past five years.
-JPMorgan Chase is roughly the size of the entire British economy.
-The four largest banks have more than a million employeescombined.
-The five largest banks account for 42 percent of all loans in the United States.
As I discussed above, without these giant banks there is no economy.  We should have never, ever allowed this to happen, but now that it has happened it is imperative that the American people understand this.  The power of these banks is absolutely overwhelming…

One third of all business loans this year were made by Bank of America. Wells Fargo funds nearly a quarter of all mortgage loans. And held in the vaults of JPMorgan Chase is $1.3 trillion, which is 12% of our collective cash, including the payrolls of many thousands of companies, or enough to buy 47,636,496,885 of these NFL branded toaster ovens. Thanks for your business!

A lot of people tend to focus on many of the other threats to our economy, but the number one potential threat that our economy is facing is the potential failure of the too big to fail banks.  As we saw in 2008, when they start to fail things can get really bad really fast.
And as I have written about so many times, the number one threat to the too big to fail banks is the possibility of a derivatives crisis.
Former Goldman Sachs banker and best selling author Nomi Prins recently told Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com that the global economy “could implode and have serious ramifications on the financial systems starting with derivatives and working on outward.” You can watch the full video of that interview right here.
And Nomi Prins is exactly right.  Just like we witnessed in 2008, a derivatives panic can spiral out of control very quickly.  Our big banks should have learned a lesson from 2008 and should have greatly scaled back their reckless betting.
Unfortunately, that has not happened.  In fact, according to the OCC’slatest quarterly report on bank trading and derivatives activities, the big banks have become even more reckless since the last time I reported on this.  The following figures reflect the new information contained in the latest OCC report…
JPMorgan Chase
Total Assets: $1,948,150,000,000 (just over 1.9 trillion dollars)
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $70,287,894,000,000 (more than 70 trillion dollars)
Citibank
Total Assets: $1,306,258,000,000 (a bit more than 1.3 trillion dollars)
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $58,471,038,000,000 (more than 58 trillion dollars)
Bank Of America
Total Assets: $1,458,091,000,000 (a bit more than 1.4 trillion dollars)
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $44,543,003,000,000 (more than 44 trillion dollars)
Goldman Sachs
Total Assets: $113,743,000,000 (a bit more than 113 billion dollars – yes, you read that correctly)
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $42,251,600,000,000 (more than 42 trillion dollars)
That means that the total exposure that Goldman Sachs has to derivatives contracts is more than 371 times greater than their total assets.
How in the world can anyone say that Goldman Sachs is not being incredibly reckless?
And remember, the overwhelming majority of these derivatives contractsare interest rate derivatives.
Wild swings in interest rates could set off this time bomb and send our entire financial system plunging into chaos.
After climbing rapidly for a couple of months, the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasury bonds has stabilized for the moment.
But if that changes and interest rates start going up dramatically again, that is going to be a huge problem for these too big to fail banks.
And I know that a lot of you don’t have much sympathy for the big banks, but remember, if they go down we go down too.
These banks have been unbelievably reckless, but when they fail, we will all pay the price.
Michael T. Snyder is a graduate of the University of Florida law school and he worked as an attorney in the heart of Washington D.C. for a number of years. Today, Michael is best known for his work as the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The American Dream. If you want to know what things in America are going to look like in a few years read his new book The Beginning of the End.

Tolerance Overkill’, the same one keeping the masses asleep, but as lethal as nerve gas

America-hating Obama a Threat to World Freedom

By Judi McLeod (Bio and Archives)  Saturday, September 21, 2013

The impassable roadblock now facing civilized society can be summed up in a single sentence: While radical Islam becomes increasingly intolerant of all others, the West has become hopelessly hooked on ‘Tolerance Overkill’.
The U.S. is tolerating a president whose life’s passion is a poisonous hatred of America.
Not a single Senator from either side of the political aisle has called Barack Hussein Obama out on his palpable hatred of the country that pays his heavy freight.
This is where ‘Tolerance Overkill’ has already taken a not-so-long-ago free society: “I can hear you.  The rest of the world hears you!” The words shouted by President George W. Bush via bullhorn at a decimated Ground Zero in 2001 were replaced 12 years later by a president who trashed freedom by officially throwing America in with al Qaeda, now claiming thousands of lives in Syria.
In 2001, the New York Times openly providing op-ed space for ex-KGB agent, Russia President Vladimir Putin would never have been tolerated without vociferous public outrage.  Nor would Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s op-ed in the Washington Post proclaiming “gone is the age of blood feuds” when those blood feuds were ongoing even as his words were being read,  including today’s terrorist attack in Kenya Mall, where at least 15 are dead when non-Muslims were targeted.
The US mainstream media, which brought a radical malcontent community organizer into power and keeps him there, is now the welcome mat for the American disseminated propaganda of despots like Putin and Rouhani.
It is largely thanks to the mainstream media that the takeover of MidEast countries by the Muslim Brotherhood was passed off on an unsuspecting citizenry as replacement by a democracy-loving Arab Spring.
Why does our tolerance allow the media to define, shape, propagandize and flat out lie about the current shift of power that is leading the Free World into a helpless Socialist State?
Why do the talking heads of cable television networks go so far to distort the big picture of what is actually taking place in the world?
Why do they bore us to tears with specious arguments, talking non-stop about presidents of the past without focusing on the one who hates America and who is getting a pass?
Why is it that every hiccup from a champagne imbibing celebrity makes front page headlines,  but Obama’s latest executive order must be picked up by the alternate media?
How is it even possible that ratings support Tea Party backstabber Karl Rove on a supposedly “balanced” Fox News?
How do ratings support former ‘Britain’s Got Talent’,  ‘America’s Got Talent’ judge and fired Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan, who claims guns and not people kill, or former Obama Green Jobs czar Van Jones on CNN’s Crossfire?
When did it become inevitable for Americans to accept any president that the same faceless elite continue to put forward every election?
When is the rest of the world going to realize that many Western leaders are lemmings on the Obama trail to destruction and will do nothing to protect their own countries when crisis strikes?
When is the rest of the Free World going to realize that Obama is not just a threat to America but to the entire West?
‘Tolerance Overkill’, the same one keeping the masses asleep, but as lethal as nerve gas, is throwing individual rights and freedom into the dust bin of history.

US Government Preparing For Power Grid Shutdown

US Government Preparing For Power Grid Shutdown

The Unnatural Death of Dr David Kelly: The Illusions of the Illicit Hutton Inquiry – the ‘Forensics’

The Unnatural Death of Dr David Kelly: The Illusions of the Illicit Hutton Inquiry – the ‘Forensics’

Edward Heath, Child Killer and Paedophile with Jimmy Savile in Jersey

Edward Heath, Child Killer and Paedophile with Jimmy Savile in Jersey

we got no $$$ .we got NO good paying jobs !!!  we don't make shit no more (well we got ALL the SHIT  you could ever want flowing out~ta OUR ass pipes in ?  well you fucking pick the LEVEL of gov. )   hey folks that "stuff" that IS "raining" down ALL over America .... hint!  it ISN'T  water !    me thinks  we got an ass pipe problem .    ya think ?       & just think ..after you/we can't "pay" fer ASS~bam~our~asses~care ...we'll ALL be sitting in fucking prison ... saying how we didn't see THAT coming :o  you's fucking dummycocks &republipubes ...you'll ALL being saying how you's are "registered"   independents lol   or that "tingly" feeling .....moved to your ass ?                                                                               

Obamacare, Massively Changing Microeconomic Incentives in the Macroeconmy

Saturday, September 21, 2013 7:31

(Before It's News)

Obamacare is causing a massive shift in the way every American interfaces with the economy, their job, and eventually will affect how they interface with their family.
Wall Street Journal columnist/economist Steven Moore noticed that as well.  There are no full time jobs because expectation theory is causing companies to change their hiring behavior.  Moore writes,

 ”Firms are just very reluctant to hire full-time workers,” Mr. Funk says. “So they are taking on more temporary help, which is what we do.” ObamaCare imposes new mandates and penalties on companies with more than 50 full-time employees—and even those working 30 hours a week are considered full-time.
He quickly adds: “The problem isn’t just ObamaCare, though. It’s the entire regulatory assault on employers coming out of Washington—everything from the EEOC”—the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission hits companies hard when employees claim age, race or sex discrimination—”to the Dodd-Frank monstrosity. Employers are living in a state of fear.”
Mr. Funk predicts that the temporary-employment industry could nearly double its share of the U.S. workforce, to about 4%, after ObamaCare fully takes effect. That’s good for him, but awful for America.

The American workforce is being forced to shift from last century model of lifetime employment to the gig economy because of government programs and regulations.
Not only does this have effects on the American worker psyche, but it has underlying ripple effects on all kinds of traditional businesses.  If you don’t have a permanent job, you don’t need an office.
Commercial real estate vacancy rates have improved somewhat.  But, in the recent Wells Fargo report they confirmed what Moore was writing about.

We are somewhat concerned that the pace of asset-price inflation has produced a sense that the underlying fundamentals have improved more than they actually have. While nonfarm employment growth improved during first the few months of 2013, the quality of jobs remains heavily skewed toward lower paying professions, which is weighing on income growth and consumer spending. The wealth effect from rising stock prices has helped offset some of this weakness but the benefits have largely been limited to higher-end merchants. Many middlemarket retailers and grocers are struggling and some further consolidation appears to be on the way. Competition from online retailers, discount stores and club stores is also pressuring traditional retailers, leading many to close underperforming stores and reduce space needs.
Vacancy rates fell another 10 bps in the first quarter and now stand at 17 percent.
Absorption and completions stand at historically low levels leaving the market relatively stagnant. While there has been some improvement in the labor market, it has not been strong enough to turn the dial up on the office market.

Headline employment numbers improve, but it’s not due to economic activity.  Government policy, and Federal Reserve policy have put a stranglehold on business expansion.  We are transitioning from an economy that took risk, to one that plays it safe.
The ranks of independent workers are growing.  Pass any coffee shop, and you will see people anchoring themselves into space to drink coffee and pound on their computer.  Many of them are working.
This trickles down into your family.  Not having a permanent job makes it tougher for families to take risk.  They change their behavior.  They might not try to create businesses, and become passive.  Just looking for the next gig to get money in to afford to live.
They may get hooked on government benefits.  They will have trouble building wealth, unless one of their gigs hits it big.  High unemployment, or unstable employment debilitates families.
Recently, I have seen a huge rise in different businesses to meet the coming demand.  Nextspace, Shiftgig, and Desktime are all businesses that will capitalize on this nascent trend.
They provide a physical/virtual support group for unattached workers.  That’s a group that is rapidly growing, not contracting.

Obamacare Promises To Cut Health Care Cost, Not Increase the Deficit, Nor Limit our Choice Of Doctors or Health Plans and Create Jobs. None of that is True.

Saturday, September 21, 2013 6:58

(Before It's News)

Way back when Clinton’s Health Security Act was supposed to be a comprehensive plan to provide universal health care for all Americans with an enforced mandate for employers to provide health insurance coverage to all of the health maintenance organizationsir employees through competitive but closely regulated, the Sh*t hit the fan:

Opposition to the plan was heavy from conservatives, libertarians, and the health insurance industry that produced a highly effective TV ad, “Harry and Louise“, in an effort to rally public support against the plan. Instead of uniting behind the President’s original proposal, Democrats offered a number of competing plans of their own. Hillary Clinton was drafted by the Clinton Administration to head a new Task Force and sell the plan to the American people, which ultimately backfired amid the barrage of fire from the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries and considerably diminished her own popularity. By September 1994, the final compromise Democratic bill was declared dead by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell.

The problem is the lack of almost any downward pressure on the price of medical care, particularly medicines – a typical over-the-counter medicine that costs $2 in the Third Word at parity price goes for $28 in the U.S. because no one complains when prices go up – “Medical Insurance will pay” – Tom Dennen

1) Instead of bending the cost-curve down, health care consumers in many states will find the average premium prices rise 30% or 40% next year – still no downard pressure on  prices. 2) The federal government is unprepared to protect Obamacare’s information-technology system from hackers and identity thieves. (See “More Bad” below)…
3) Americans may lose their doctors. The Department of Health and Human Services recently posted this on Healthcare.gov: “Depending on the plan you choose in the Marketplace, you may be able to keep your current doctor.”
4) There are 20 new or increased taxes in Obamacare.
5) The federal government’s own General Accounting Office reports Obamacare will increase the long-term federal deficit by $6.2 trillion.
6) A Heritage Foundation analysis found that Obamacare will force seniors to suffer higher out-of-pocket expenses over the next five years.
7) President Obama negotiated an exemption from Obamacare for members of Congress and their staff.
8) Three of the nation’s most influential union bosses (and Obama supporters) declared that Obamacare is poised to “destroy the foundation of the 40-hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.”
9) A Gallup poll found that more than 40% of small businesses have frozen hiring because of Obamacare.
10) The employer mandate requiring employers with 50 or more employees to provide health coverage has been postponed until after the 2014 election. I wonder why?

The list goes on … but the point has been made.

In the run-up to the passage of Obamacare, the president told us that his new law would cut the cost of our health care, would not increase the deficit, would not limit our choice of doctors or health plans and would create jobs. None of that was true.

The time has come to end this charade. The time to defund Obamacare is now. Jim Signorile
Managing Editor, The Sovereign Investor

EVEN MORE BAD

hehe Hey America!  ..hows that condom on banana's class working fer U.S. ! huh  ?   America !!!  we got the "best" ass pipes that OUR extortion/tax  $$$     can buy ?          you pick ANY LEVEL of  OUR    "ass~facials"  at ANY fucking LEVEL of OUR gov.    local/state/fed    "these" people  (walking/talking, up right   sphincters ) got phd's in pumping shit out  :O  ???????       by God what to four ...   the fucking level of the ...just fucking pissing OUR  $$$   away it just booooooogles  the mind !             & here is the truly fucking remarkable thing .....  we ALL walk around & pretend  like we don't smell it ?      

9-Year-Old Suspended Indefinitely For Toy That ‘Looked Like A Gun’

by Mikael Thalen
September 20th, 2013
Updated 09/20/2013 at 2:46 am

A 9-year-old boy was suspended from the Creative Montessori Academy in Southgate, Detroit Thursday, after a teacher accused him of pretending his toy was a gun.

Fox 2 News Headlines
According to a teacher, Gage allegedly pointed his toy, a spinning top machine, at a fellow classmate before school hours and said “bang, bang.” Two of Gage’s friends who were present during the incident deny the teacher’s claim saying Gage never even used the word “bang.” Gage explained that he had simply tapped his friend on the shoulder with the toy to get his attention so he could also play. “He asked if he could see the toy and then he started talking when I was about to give it to him and I went like this,” Gage said as he tapped the toy on his father’s shoulder.
Gage’s father was taken by surprise after learning about his son’s suspension and the school’s telephone call to his wife, also pointing out the over-the-top reaction to the incident.
“They’re kids… they have imaginations and I don’t see any reason like…it doesn’t even look like a gun,” said Gage’s father to My Fox Detroit.
Gage’s parents say he has always been a good student and has never been in trouble before Thursday’s incident. His parents are now worried that he will miss out on classes that are important to his learning, especially given Gage’s epilepsy.
Unfortunately for Gage and young children across the country, actions that were once considered simple childhood fun are slowly become punishable crimes.
Despite a 70 percent drop in gun crime since 1993 according to U.S. Justice Department statistics, a media-induced hysteria has led to a near ban on normal childhood behavior.
Just last March, a 6-year-old student from Washington state was temporarily suspended for talking about a Nerf gun he had at home because others reportedly found the conversation “threatening.”
A 7-year-old student in Maryland was suspended after chewing his “Pop Tart” breakfast pastry into the shape of a gun last March as well.
Two 6-year-old students in Maryland were suspended last January for making gun gestures with their hands while playing “cops and robbers.” The school claimed the boys’ game was a threat to other students.
That same month a 5-year-old girl in Pennsylvania was suspended for simply talking about her “Hello Kitty” toy bubble gun during the bus ride home. According to the school, her actions constituted a “terroristic threat.”

Read more: http://www.storyleak.com/9-year-old-suspended-indefinitely-toy-looked-like-gun/#ixzz2fXFDnH4m

China and Russia are Acquiring Gold, Dumping US Dollars

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, September 21, 2013

Global Research 6 January 2011

Theme: Global Economy

Originally published in June 2011. Both countries have recently been increasing their gold stocks.
There is evidence that central banks in several regions of the World are building up their gold reserves. What is published are the official purchases.
A large part of these Central Bank purchases of gold bullion are not disclosed. They are undertaken through third party contracting companies, with utmost discretion. 
US dollar holdings and US dollar denominated debt instruments are in effect being traded in for gold, which in turn puts pressure on the US dollar.  
In turn, both China and Russia have boosted domestic production of gold, a large share of  which is being purchased by their central banks:

It has long been assumed that China is surreptitiously building up its gold reserves through buying local production. Russia is another major gold miner where the Central bank has been purchasing gold from another state entity, Gokhran, which is the marketing arm and central repository for the country’s mined gold production. Now it has been reported by Bloomberg that the Venezuelan Central Bank director, Jose Khan, has said that country will boost its gold reserves through purchasing more than half the gold produced from its rapidly growing domestic gold mining industry.
In Russia, for example, Gokhran sold some 30 tonnes of gold to the Central Bank in an internal accounting exercise late last year. In part, so it was said at the time, the direct sale was made rather than placing the metal on the open market and perhaps adversely affecting the gold price.
China is currently the world’s largest gold producer and last year it confirmed it had raised its own Central Bank gold holdings by more than 450 tones over the previous six years. Mineweb.com – The world’s premier mining and mining investment website Venezuela taking own gold production into Central Bank reserves – GOLD NEWS | Mineweb

The 450 tons figure corresponds to an increase in the gold reserves of the central bank from 600 tons in 2003 to 1054 tons in 2009. If we go by official statements, China’s gold reserves are increasing by approximately 10 percent per annum.

China has risen to now be the largest gold producing nation in the world at around 270 tonnes. The amount bought in by the government initially looks like 90 tonnes per annum or just under, 2 tonnes a week. Before 2003 the announcement by the Chinese central bank that gold reserves had been doubled to 600 tonnes, accounted for similar purchases before that date. Why so small an amount you may well ask? We think local and national issues clouded the central bank’s view as it was the government that bought the gold since 2003 and have now placed it on the central bank’s Balance Sheet. So we would conclude that the government has ensured central bank gold purchasing must continue. “How will Chinese Central Bank Gold Buying affect the Gold Price short & Long-Term?” by Julian Phillips. FSO Editorial 05/07/2009

Russia
Russia’s Central bank holdings are in excess of 20 million troy ounces (January 2010)

click to enlarge
Russia’s Central Bank reserves have increased markedly in recent years. The RCB reported in May 2010 purchasing 34.2 tons of gold in a single month. Russian Central Bank Gold Purchases Soar In May – China Too? | The Daily Gold
The diagram below shows a significant increase in monthly purchases by the the RCB since June 2009.

(click on chart to enlarge)
Central Banks in the Middle East are also building up their gold reserves, while reducing their dollar forex holding.
Gold reserves of GCC states is less than 5 percent:

Dubai International Financial Centre Authority economists released a report yesterday calling for local countries to build gold reserves, according to The National.
Despite a high interest in gold, GCC states maintain less than 5 percent of their total reserves in gold. Compared to the ECB, which holds 25 percent of reserves in gold, that leaves a lot of room for growth. http://www.businessinsider.com/gcc-boost-gold-holdings-2010-12#ixzz18FEqpTy3

GCC states should boost their foreign reserve holdings of gold to help shield their billions of dollars of assets from turbulence in global currency markets, say economists at the Dubai International Financial Centre Authority (DIFCA).
Diversifying more of their reserves from US dollars to the yellow metal would help to offer central banks in the region higher investment returns, said Dr Nasser Saidi, the chief economist of DIFCA, and Dr Fabio Scacciavillani, the director of macroeconomics and statistics at the authority.
“When you have a great deal of economic uncertainty, going into paper assets, whatever they may be – stocks, bonds, other types of equity – is not attractive,” said Dr Saidi. “That makes gold more attractive.”
Declines in the dollar during recent months have dented the value of GCC oil revenues, which are predominantly weighted in the greenback. GCC urged to boost gold reserves

According to a report in People`s Daily;

The latest rankings of gold reserves show that, as of mid-December, the United States remains the top country and the Chinese mainland is ranked sixth with 1,054 tons of reserves, the World Gold Council announced recently.
Russia climbed to eighth place because its gold reserves increased by 167.5 tons since December 2009. The top ten in 2010 remains the same compared to the rankings of the same period of last year. And Saudi Arabia squeezed to the top 20.
Developing countries and regions, including Saudi Arabia and South Africa, have become the main force driving the gold reserve increase. … .
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European central bank are the major gold sellers, and the IMF’s gold reserves decreased by 158.6 tons. (China’s gold reserves rank 6th worldwide – People’s Daily Online

It should be understood that actual purchases of physical gold are not the only factor in explaining the movement of gold prices. The gold market is marked by organized speculation by large scale financial institutions.
The gold market is characterised by numerous paper instruments, gold index funds, gold certificates, OTC gold derivatives (including options, swaps and forwards), which play a strong role, particularly in short-term movement of gold prices. The recent increase and subsequent decline of gold prices are the result of manipulation by powerful financial actors.

9-Year-Old Suspended Indefinitely For Toy That ‘Looked Like A Gun’

by Mikael Thalen
September 20th, 2013
Updated 09/20/2013 at 2:46 am

A 9-year-old boy was suspended from the Creative Montessori Academy in Southgate, Detroit Thursday, after a teacher accused him of pretending his toy was a gun.        http://www.storyleak.com/9-year-old-suspended-indefinitely-toy-looked-like-gun/

Fox 2 News Headlines
According to a teacher, Gage allegedly pointed his toy, a spinning top machine, at a fellow classmate before school hours and said “bang, bang.” Two of Gage’s friends who were present during the incident deny the teacher’s claim saying Gage never even used the word “bang.” Gage explained that he had simply tapped his friend on the shoulder with the toy to get his attention so he could also play. “He asked if he could see the toy and then he started talking when I was about to give it to him and I went like this,” Gage said as he tapped the toy on his father’s shoulder.
Gage’s father was taken by surprise after learning about his son’s suspension and the school’s telephone call to his wife, also pointing out the over-the-top reaction to the incident.
“They’re kids… they have imaginations and I don’t see any reason like…it doesn’t even look like a gun,” said Gage’s father to My Fox Detroit.
Gage’s parents say he has always been a good student and has never been in trouble before Thursday’s incident. His parents are now worried that he will miss out on classes that are important to his learning, especially given Gage’s epilepsy.
Unfortunately for Gage and young children across the country, actions that were once considered simple childhood fun are slowly become punishable crimes.
Despite a 70 percent drop in gun crime since 1993 according to U.S. Justice Department statistics, a media-induced hysteria has led to a near ban on normal childhood behavior.
Just last March, a 6-year-old student from Washington state was temporarily suspended for talking about a Nerf gun he had at home because others reportedly found the conversation “threatening.”
A 7-year-old student in Maryland was suspended after chewing his “Pop Tart” breakfast pastry into the shape of a gun last March as well.
Two 6-year-old students in Maryland were suspended last January for making gun gestures with their hands while playing “cops and robbers.” The school claimed the boys’ game was a threat to other students.
That same month a 5-year-old girl in Pennsylvania was suspended for simply talking about her “Hello Kitty” toy bubble gun during the bus ride home. According to the school, her actions constituted a “terroristic threat.”

Read more: http://www.storyleak.com/9-year-old-suspended-indefinitely-toy-looked-like-gun/#ixzz2fXFDnH4m

DEFCAD Launches ‘The Pirate Bay’ of 3D Printing

• Ernesto
• September 20, 2013
• 3d printing,
  defcad,
  Physibles

The people behind the first 3D-printable gun have quietly launched a brand new search engine for 3D-print models. The site, defcad.com, is currently in alpha release but even without press attention its library has quickly grown to nearly 75,000 files. Like The Pirate Bay, the new search engine allows users to add links without storing any of the files on its own servers. “We hope to build a piece of infrastructure to help stem the next wave of the IP wars in advance,” founder Cody Wilson tells TorrentFreak.
Late last year the 3D print website Thingiverse decided to ban 3D gun designs, citing their terms of service which clearly prohibit files used to make weapons.
In a response Defense Distributed, the people behind the first 3D printable gun, threw up a website to host the designs that had been banned at Thingiverse. This included the popular blueprints of their own gun “The Liberator.”
The worldwide release of the prints did not sit well with the State Department’s Office of Defense Trade Controls who kindly requested that DEFCAD remove the availability of the 3D printable gun documents, citing a possible violation of International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
The files in question were removed, but at the same time DEFCAD was already working on a new project that would be harder to censor. Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson had started to raise funds for a separate meta-search engine, the first to focus on 3D print models.
“In March of this year, seeing an opportunity to expand the DEFCAD concept to fight the prevailing ideas about intellectual property in the entire physible space, I split Defense Distributed and DEFCAD and turned the latter into another company,” Wilson tells TorrentFreak.
“The idea was to move away from direct hosting to employ the first amendment victories won by Google in the courts and become a meta-search engine as a more robust way of spreading and preserving physibles. We hope to build a piece of infrastructure to help stem the next wave of the IP wars in advance, if you will.”
DEFCAD raised a significant amount of funds and has now quietly rolled out the meta-search engine to the public on DEFCAD.com. While still labeled as an Alpha release the site already indexes more than 74,000 files, all stored on external sites.
DEFCAD has been labeled the “Pirate Bay of 3D printing” as Wilson and his team previously pledged not to take any content down. Those who take a good look at the site will also notice some other Pirate Bay references, including the “kopimi” logo at the bottom and the use of magnet links. In addition, many of the files linked on DEFCAD are hosted on the Bayfiles hosting site which was launched by two Pirate Bay founders.
While DEFCAD doesn’t mind being linked to The Pirate Bay, Wilson believes that the title doesn’t apply as much after they were forced by the authorities to censor their own work. He sees the Pirate Bay comparison mostly as “convenient headline writing,” which we were kind enough to make use of.
“After the State Department came after Defense Distributed and our hand was forced, I believe the Pirate Bay is still the Pirate Bay of 3D sharing. But nothing would be better than building complementary structures in the spirit of TPB,” Wilson says.
The involvement of government changed a few things, and unlike The Pirate Bay, the company has registered Wilson as DMCA agent to deal with takedown requests. While they initially received some complaints from Thingiverse users, DEFCAD has not yet received a single official DMCA takedown notice.
“There was some dissatisfaction with our public testing earlier in the summer. A handful of makers felt like we were taking advantage of Thingiverse’s bandwidth or not adequately respecting their ‘rights’ to their ‘property,’ but since we’ve appointed a DMCA agent we’ve received no takedown requests.”
Of course it is still early days for 3D printing and at the moment the scale of 3D print piracy is rather minimal. This is bound to change in the years to come, but DEFCAD’s founder doubts that it will ever compete with the size and prevalence of more traditional forms of piracy, such as sharing movies and music.
“I’m of two minds about this right now. Having grasped the state of 3D printing at the top and the bottom, I think the deck is stacked against movement physible piracy,” Wilson tells us.
“What I mean is that I don’t see the same passions being exercised to liberate copyrighted design as I see used to liberate entertainment media. This is probably obvious, and it may mean nothing for the future political defense of the physible, but I think the distinction is worthwhile.”
Wilson expects that when the ball starts rolling the entertainment industry might be the first to jump in to protect their 3D designs, as they have done already on a small scale.
“It’s interesting that the old movie and film giants were the first to issue physible takedown notices. It’s quite likely entertainment-related physibles are going to be the battleground in the near future,” Wilson says.
Earlier this year HBO was one of the first to issue a 3D print takedown request for a Game of Thrones iPhone cover. Those who search DEFCAD for the name of the popular series will see that they have plenty of work to do.
For now, however, the most downloaded files on the new meta-search engine are, perhaps fittingly, guns. With more than 6,000 downloads The Liberator v1.1 is the most popular, followed by other gun designs, the FOSSCAD Atlas SSR and DMR Shanrilivan with over 5,000 downloads.
Of course there are thousands of other designs available as well, and for the pacifist pirates out there DEFCAD also has plenty of booty.

Related Posts

• 3D Printing “DRM” Aims to Stop Next-Gen Pirates
• Pirate Bay Takes Over Distribution of Censored 3D Printable Gun
• 3D Printer DRM Patent To Stop People Downloading a Car
• First Downloaded and 3D Printed Pirate Bay Ship Arrives

NSA SPYING, SWIFT, AND HOW NOT TO RUN A BREAKAWAY CIVILIZATION

September 21, 2013 By Joseph P. Farrell 

Regulars at this site will be aware that I have previously blogged about the implications of the Snowden-NSA revelations, and I have spoken to these implications on some of my News and Views from the Nefarium as well. One of the recurrent themes that I have stressed – courtesy of an insight of Secretary Catherine Austin Fitts  and an insight I myself developed in Covert Wars and Breakaway Civilizations - is that such electronic eavesdropping capability is the ultimate insider trading mechanism. It is, moreover, the ultimate data-mining operation to be able to game out “world prediction scenarios” with accuracy. No computer algorithm or program, even that of the massed and networked supercomputers doubtless at the disposal of agencies like the NSA, can spit out accurate scenarios if the data input is bad or non-existent. We’ll get back to that point, because it concerns us in a major way here.
For how, however, our point remains focused on the “insider trading” aspects of this. Regular readers here will recall that I repeatedly noted that the BRICSA entente, if they were to be an effective weight and counterpoise to the enormous financial and political power of the Anglo-American power oligarchy, would have to develop its own international bank(s) and eventually its own competitive clearing systems, independent of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Transfer) in Europe and CHIPS (Clearing House Interbank Payment System) in North America.
Now, in the wake of the Syria mess and Snowden revelations, Russia Today is reporting this:
NSA ‘Follow the Money’ branch spied on Visa customers, SWIFT transactions – report
Notice that the ultimate source here is Snowden, via Der Spiegel in Germany:

“Referring to information leaked by Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee and NSA contractor, German Der Spiegel reports that the surveillance was carried out  by a branch called “Follow the Money” (FTM).
“After the information on transactions was obtained, it was redirected to the NSA’s own financial database, called “Tracfin”.
“According to the leaked documents, in 2011 the database contained 180 million records, with 84 percent of those being credit card transactions details.
“Among the millions of records, the NSA’s Tracfin’s also contained data from the Brussels-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). Used to conduct business operations “with speed, certainty and confidence”, this global financial service is used by more than 10,000 banking organizations in 212 countries.
“The NSA spied on SWIFT on several levels, involving its “tailored access operations” division, according to the report in Der Spiegel. Reading ‘SWIFT printer traffic from numerous banks,’ was just one of the ways the NSA was accessing the information.
One of the NSA’s goals was to ‘collect, parse and ingest transactional data for priority credit card associations, focusing on priority geographic regions.’
“According to documents dated 2010, the agency was spying on large credit card companies’ customers, Der Spiegel adds. In particular, the NSA was getting access to transactions by Visa Inc. customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Reportedly, speaking at an internal conference that year, NSA analysts described in detail how the search through the US company’s complex transaction network for tapping possibilities was conducted.”

At one level, of course, it could be argued that the NSA is simply doing its job and monitoring financial traffic in the regions most suspected to be coupled to international terrorism.  But at the deeper level, the revelations of spying via SWIFT, is a tacit and roundabout confirmation of the implications raised on this website in earlier blogs and videos: such a mechanism would allow, in real time, an accurate picture of large scale international movements of capital, and therefore, constitute the ultimate insider trading mechanism.
The implications of this revelation - and their reportage in RT – would seem to be to be rather profound, and of a geopolitical nature, if we are allowed to indulge in our usual high octane speculation. To point out electronic spying via the vast system of international clearing will, in my opinion, only hasten plans of such nations in the BRICSA entente like Brazil, to severe their internet entirely from that of the USA, precisely in order to secure their citizens’ communications and their own national security.
A competitive mechanism of international clearing for those nations will not be far behind, and with it, the temptation to expand their own electronic surveillance capabilities, for face it folks, those capabilities exist; almost every major power has them in some degree, and every major power will use them.  The question is the extent of trust that the public will invest in their public institutions, and in the West, these are at all time lows.
Which brings us back to our first point: non-existent, or, in another scenario, bad data input. There are stupid voices out there -colossally stupid voices as we’ll see in a moment – calling for a regulation of the Internet. But the ability of a command and control culture and economy decreases exponentially as the amount of accurate feedback and data decreases. It will not do to have your magnificent Five Year Plans reporting that a tractor factory in Pinsk is manufacturing 75 tractors per month(because that’s what it was designed to do), when in fact, it is only making 12 per month, but, you don’t report the vast difference, lest the apparatchiks come banging on your door in the middle of the night and haul you off to the Lubyanka for “slacking.”  Fear breeding corruption breeding inaccurate data, breeding collapse.
The whole point of having the Ultimate Insider Trading Mechanism, folks, is accurate  data input. Regulation is that first step on the road to the tractor factory in Pinsk, and to the corruption of your wonderful money-making machine. When trust begins to crumble, and is reinforced through “regulation” of what ideas are safe, and what are not “convenient”, then the process of decision-making changes, the data collection becomes skewed, and eventually, your World Sentient Programs are gaming out scenarios increasingly disconnected from reality…
… indeed, maybe that’s ultimately why our leaders seem so insane, because the results being spit out from those Crays are already corrupted, like the officials for whom the reports are compiled.
See you on the –  Oh… one more thing. I have no idea if there’s a tractor factory at Pinsk (it’s in the western Pripyat marshes, for those interested), but who else but a bunch of Marxist-Stalinist kookoos would build a tractor factory in a swamp? So it seemed as likely a place as any…

Read more: NSA SPYING, SWIFT, AND HOW NOT TO RUN A BREAKAWAY CIVILIZATION

NSA ‘Follow the Money’ branch spied on Visa customers, SWIFT transactions – report

Published time: September 15, 2013 19:31
Edited time: September 17, 2013 11:27

Get short URL

Reuters / Jason Reed

NSA leaks
Finance, Intelligence, Scandal, USA

The NSA has been widely monitoring international banking and credit card transactions, a new report says referencing Edward Snowden’s leak. The agency targeted Visa customers and global financial service SWIFT and created its own money flows database.
Referring to information leaked by Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee and NSA contractor, German Der Spiegel reports that the surveillance was carried out  by a branch called "Follow the Money" (FTM). 

After the information on transactions was obtained, it was redirected to the NSA's own financial database, called "Tracfin".

According to the leaked documents, in 2011 the database contained 180 million records, with 84 percent of those being credit card transactions details.

Among the millions of records, the NSA's Tracfin’s also contained data from the Brussels-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). Used to conduct business operations “with speed, certainty and confidence”, this global financial service is used by more than 10,000 banking organizations in 212 countries.

The NSA spied on SWIFT on several levels, involving its "tailored access operations" division, according to the report in Der Spiegel. Reading "SWIFT printer traffic from numerous banks," was just one of the ways the NSA was accessing the information.

One of the NSA’s goals was to "collect, parse and ingest transactional data for priority credit card associations, focusing on priority geographic regions."

According to documents dated 2010, the agency was spying on large credit card companies’ customers, Der Spiegel adds. In particular, the NSA was getting access to transactions by Visa Inc. customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Reportedly, speaking at an internal conference that year, NSA analysts described in detail how the search through the US company's complex transaction network for tapping possibilities was conducted.

Visa Inc. told RT in a statement that “with respect to the claims in the Der Spiegel article” they were not aware of any unauthorized access to their network.
“Visa takes data security seriously and, in response any attempted intrusion, we would pursue all available remedies to the fullest extent of the law,” the statement said. “Further, it’s Visa’s policy to only provide transaction information in response to a subpoena or other valid legal process.”

According to one of the documents, the UK's intelligence agency, GCHQ, admitted cooperation with the NSA to spy on the world finance system. In its report, concerning the legal perspectives on "financial data", it said that the collection, storage and sharing of politically sensitive data was a deep invasion of privacy and involved "bulk data" full of "rich personal information," much of which "is not about our targets." 
Experts warn that government could start profiling people that use alternative forms of transactions such as cash or bitcoin. Financial Advisor Margaret Bogenrief, co-founder of ACM Partners, tells RT that it is hardly surprising that financial companies whose dominance was sponsored by the government share intelligence data with it.

“Do I think that people that are traditionally more suspicious of the government would start using Bitcoin and cash and other currencies like that? Yes, probably," Bogenrief believes.

She agrees that raising a red flag once individuals use cash could be another way to “monitor” people. But because of privacy concerns, Bogenrief says, companies who accept cash transactions will not likely share such data with the federal government. “I do not think they will be handing over the information to the federal government any time soon. You would have to see a pretty significant shift in policy and enforcement.”

Video: FEMA Readies 100,000 Person National Disaster Medical System Mobilization For 1,000 Locations

truther September 21, 2013

More and more people are wondering what does the government know that they aren’t telling the masses? What are they are preparing for? Some type of pandemic? A terrorist attack they know is going to happen but haven’t bothered to inform the public? Is it ISON?  The video below shows massive preparations being made for a 100,000 person national disaster system mobilization team,  for 1,000 locations, on just 48 hours notice.

[Update] Noteworthy, reported by Live Free Or Die here at Beforeitsnews, the CDC is also preparing for a “wide scale Pacific Rim mergency.”
Via the details from the video:

Contractor comments/questions call it an “Armageddon scenario” and question the capabilities of their industries to support it. These Government solicitations have all the earmarks of massive logistical incompetence.
The threat being prepared for appears to be coming out of the Pacific Rim region, a likely scenario is the human spread of Avian Bird Flu (H7N9) out of China. We think less it is less likely (but we can’t rule it out) that this is a Fukushima preparation because nuclear threats are invisible and usually deniable. Any such mobilization MUST BE less panic inducing than the threat which it seeks to quell, aka PANDEMIC.
PARTIAL Details:
100,000 “Doctor Scrubs” pants and shirts, 90% Adult Sizes (MUST DELIVER 50,000 with 48 hours notice)
100,000 “Sweat shirts and pants” 90% adult. (MUST DELIVER 50,000 with 48 hours notice)
1000 Shelters each holding 100 people, with mobile showers and restrooms supporting (2000 total showers).
And enough Fuel, Hot food delivery containers, sundries, protective equipment, hygine equipment and etc to supply.
6,000,000 autoclavable cotton blankets and so on and so forth, all must be available under “SURGE TEMPO” and typically in 48 hours notice.
8,100,000 liters of Bottled Drinking Water and 3,000,000 liters of Extended Shelf Life Drinking Water

Notable contractor comments:
Contractor A (Mobile showers and restrooms):
I think the Armageddon scenario is too large to provide the Federal Emergency Management Agency with several responsible parties….we could address and service the 20 camps in California, the 5 in Oregon and the 5 in Washington”
Contractor B: (6,000,000 Pcs order for autoclabable blankets)
Question4. Would we be able to get a longer lead time for the initial order and then 30 days for the remainder of the contract? As the blankets will be manufactured in Pakistan? It will be hard to carry 100,000 Pcs in Inventory. We on a general basis stock no more than 25,000 – 30,000 Pcs in inventory locally in GA.
Answer4. No.
Links to documents available at:
http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.com/…

UK man wins court case against BBC for 911 cover up -- Society's Child -- Sott.net

UK man wins court case against BBC for 911 cover up -- Society's Child -- Sott.net: http://www.sott.net/article/266268-UK-man-wins-court-case-against-BBC-for-911-cover-up

Obama’s DHS seizing local power

truther September 21, 2013

Dave Hodges

The Department of Homeland Security under President Obama is demonstrating troubling signs the agency is shifting the balance of power away from local and state municipalities toward a centralized federal authority, charges a recently released book.

In “Impeachable Offenses: The Case to Remove Barack Obama from Office,” New York Times bestselling authors Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott document the DHS has likely violated the Posse Comitatus Act.

The law expressly forbids direct participation by the military in a “search, seizure, arrest, or other similar activity.”

The authors further cite evidence the DHS is building a de facto domestic military, with the purchase of military-grade equipment and the execution of military-style training exercises.

Aaron Klein’s “Impeachable Offenses: The Case to Remove Barack Obama from Office” is available now, autographed, at WND’s Superstore

Perhaps the DHS is the realization of Obama’s call for a civilian national security force, warn Klein and Elliott.

In his July 2, 2008, “New Era of Service” address delivered at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, presidential candidate Obama said: “We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. … We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.”

Obama’s pre-address prepared remarks delivered to the news media did not include the passage.

DHS on steroids

“Impeachable Offenses” relates Obama revised President Bill Clinton’s 1992 Defense Department Directive 1404.10, Emergency-Essential (E-E) DoD U.S. Citizen Civilian Employees.

The prior directive was rescinded. The new directive issued Jan. 23, 2009, states that a Civilian Expeditionary Workforce “shall be organized, trained, cleared, equipped and ready to deploy in support of combat operations by the military; contingencies; emergency operations; humanitarian missions; disaster relief; restoration of order; drug interdiction; and stability operations.”

Klein and Elliott dedicate a sizable portion of a chapter to the Transportation Security Administration’s Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response program, or VIPR.

A 2007 act authorized the TSA to use any DHS asset for its VIPR teams, including federal air marshals, transportation security officers, surface transportation security inspectors, canine detection teams, explosives detection specialists, behavior detection officers and federal, state and local law enforcement officers. As an extension of the TSA, VIPR teams may be found screening passengers, looking for suspicious behavior and acting as a “visible deterrent for potential terrorist acts.

While VIPR began under President Bush, the drills were expanded exponentially, and possibly illegally, under Obama, “Impeachable Offenses” charges.

How many VIPR teams are there? No one knows for sure. An August 2012 report claims there were 37 VIPR teams. This is up from the 15 existing plus 12 anticipated new teams reported eight months earlier.

By September 2008, the VIPR operations were becoming more grandiose. The Amtrak Office of Security Strategy and Special Operations, Amtrak Police, TSA personnel and officers from approximately 100 commuter rail, state and local police agencies “mobilized” for the “largest joint, simultaneous Northeast rail security operation of its kind, involving 150 railway stations between Fredericksburg, Virginia, and Essex Junction, Vermont.”

The multi-force security “surge” returned in September 2009 for Operation ALERTS – Allied Law Enforcement for Rail and Transit Security – to repeat the operation.

Amtrak Police Chief John O’Connor announced that the operation – with “hundreds” of law enforcement officers across 13 states and Washington, D.C., monitoring an estimated 700,000 travelers – was the “longest wall of security ever mobilized along the East Coast.”

Amazingly, black helicopters – often attributed only to conspiracy theorists’ imaginations – were involved with VIPR team operations the following month. A pair of black helicopters was noted flying low over the perimeter at Yeager Airport in Charleston, W.V., as part of a two-day VIPR operation.

Also reported was “an abundance” of uniformed and plainclothes TSA officers going through the terminal and inspecting delivery trucks.

The purpose of the operation? So the TSA could “spot check security procedures and increase safety.”

Write Klein and Elliott: “Did the black helicopters only fly over the airport perimeter? Of course not! They reportedly made “wide loops over the city, moving slowly over several neighborhoods.”

Also, according to Yeager Airport Director Rick Atkinson, VIPR teams visited every airport at least once a year, with a VIPR team at “an airport or two somewhere in the country every day.”

Violation of law?

In the largest VIPR extravaganza to date, in mid-June 2010 the TSA pulled out all the stops with an operation that incorporated terrain in three states – Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.

More than 300 law enforcement and military personnel representing 83 agencies swept through a 100-mile stretch of the Ohio Valley with the alleged goal of familiarizing themselves with the area’s industrial infrastructure and learn how other agencies responded to emergencies.

It is difficult to see how much real information participants gleaned from the “brief visual inspections of power and chemical plants, rail and riverboat terminals, lock and dam complexes and natural gas pipelines,” note Klein and Elliott.

The inclusion of military personnel in this surveillance activity seems to be a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which expressly forbids direct participation by the military in a “search, seizure, arrest, or other similar activity.”

An extraordinary number of agencies and a variety of equipment were called into play, the authors write.

VIPR teams “used helicopters, emergency vehicles, reconnaissance aircraft, Coast Guard patrol boats and watercraft from the Divisions of Natural Resources in West Virginia and Ohio.”

Michael Cleveland, federal security director for TSA operations in West Virginia, boasted it was his “biggest VIPR ever.” People and resources had been pulled from both Ohio and West Virginia, with federal air marshals borrowed from Pittsburgh.

The TSA outdid itself a year later, in June 2011, when it created the “largest of its nature in the country.” The all-day field exercise encompassed 5,000 square miles along the Ohio River Transportation Corridor that covered parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, including air, water and ground resources.

The widespread VIPR operation included Coast Guard boats on the river, Ohio Air National Guard Black Hawk helicopters with multi-jurisdictional teams onboard and the West Virginia Air National Guard and other aircraft in the air. Law enforcement vehicles were “visible at various ‘targets’ (industrial plants, pipelines, surface or road assets) and other general infrastructure, including the Willow Island Locks and Dam,” and Ohio highway patrolmen on the ground.

In October 2011, the TSA literally took its operation on the road with its “first ever instance where simultaneous statewide VIPR operations” were held in seven locations. In partnership with the Tennessee Department of Homeland Security and “several other federal and state agencies” – allegedly for a “safety enforcement and awareness operation” – the TSA set up checkpoints at five weigh stations on Tennessee’s interstates and at regional bus terminals in Nashville and Knoxville.

Federal and state agents inspected trucks and other vehicles to “identify security threat.”

Book makes impeachment case

Klein and Elliott bill their book as a well-documented indictment based on major alleged violations.

Among the alleged offenses enumerated in the book:

• Obamacare not only is unconstitutional but illegally bypasses Congress, infringes on states’ rights and marking an unprecedented and unauthorized expansion of IRS power.
• Sidestepping Congress, Obama already has granted largely unreported de facto amnesty to millions of illegal aliens using illicit interagency directives and executive orders.
• The Obama administration recklessly endangered the public by releasing from prison criminal illegal aliens at a rate far beyond what is publicly known.
• The president’s personal role in the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attack, with new evidence regarding what was transpiring at the U.S. mission prior to the assault – arguably impeachable activities in and of themselves.
• Illicit edicts on gun control in addition to the deadly “Fast and Furious” gun-running operation intended, the book shows, to collect fraudulent gun data.
• From “fusion centers” to data mining to drones to alarming Department of Homeland Security power grabs, how U.S. citizens are fast arriving at the stage of living under a virtual surveillance regime.
• New evidence of rank corruption, cronyism and impeachable offenses related to Obama’s first-term “green” funding adventures.
• The illegality of leading a U.S.-NATO military campaign without congressional approval.
• Obama has weakened America both domestically and abroad by emboldening enemies, tacitly supporting a Muslim Brotherhood revolution, spurning allies and minimizing the threat of Islamic fundamentalism.

This is Klein and Elliott’s fourth book investigating the Obama administration. Their other titles include “Fool Me Twice,” “Red Army” and “The Manchurian President.”

African states push back on Chinese oil deals

Source: ProactiveInv
African states push back on Chinese oil deals - Here is the opening for this interesting article from the NYT & IHT, using the latter paper’s headline.
NIAMEY, Niger – In Niger, government officials have fought a Chinese oil giant step by step, painfully undoing parts of a contract they call ruinous. In neighboring Chad, they have been even more forceful, shutting down the Chinese and accusing them of gross environmental negligence. In Gabon, they have seized major oil tracts from China, handing them over to the state company.
China wants Africa’s oil as much as ever. But instead of accepting the old terms, which many African officials call unconditional surrender, some cash-starved African states are pushing back, showing an assertiveness unthinkable until recently and suggesting that the days of unbridled influence by the African continent’s mega-investor may be waning.
For years, China has found eager partners across the continent, where governments of every ilk have welcomed the nation’s deep pockets and hands-off approach to local politics as an alternative to the West.
Now China’s major state oil companies are being challenged by African governments that have learned decades of hard lessons about heedless resource-grabs by outsiders and are looking anew at the deals they or their predecessors have signed. Where the Chinese companies are seen as gouging, polluting or hogging valuable tracts, African officials have started resisting, often at the risk of angering one of their most important trading partners.
“This is all we’ve got,” said Niger’s oil minister, Foumakoye Gado. “If our natural resources are given away, we’ll never get out of this.”
My view - There are two important aspects to this situation: 1) Africa’s governments are becoming worldlier, which is certainly in their own interests; 2) Worldwide demand for crude oil, natural gas and all other forms of energy can only rise as the global economy recovers.
This item continues in the Subscriber’s Area and contains a related article.
Merkel gambles on big energy shift - Here is the opening of this informative article published by Power Engineering:
Energy-conscious to an extreme, Olaf Taeuber relies on just a single 5-watt bulb that gives off what he describes as a ”cozy” glow to light his kitchen when he comes home at night. If in real need, he switches on a neon tube, which soaks up all of 25 watts.
Even so, he found himself seeking help last week to fend off a threat from Berlin’s main power company to cut off his electricity, one of a growing number of Germans left unable to pay their soaring energy bills. He is among those feeling the immediate effects of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s most ambitious domestic project: Germany’s energiewende, or energy revolution, under which the country is shutting down its nuclear power reactors, discouraging coal-fired plants and encouraging a near-complete shift to renewable energy sources.
”Often, I don’t go into my living room in order to save electricity,” said Mr. Taeuber, 55, who manages a fleet of vehicles for a local social services provider. ”You feel the pain in your pocketbook.”
”Energy poverty,” as Germans now call it, is just one of the many problems confronting Ms. Merkel’s plan, the likes of which has never been tried – not just in Germany, but in any major industrial country. Energy prices in Germany – the highest in Europe – have spiked 30 percent over the last five years as costs have risen with the transition. Providers pulled the plug on an estimated 312,000 German households unable to pay their bills in 2011, according to official figures.
Newly constructed offshore wind farms churn unconnected to an energy grid still in need of expansion. Carbon emissions actually rose last year as oil- and coal-burning plants were fired up to close gaps in energy supplies. Energy-intensive industries have begun to shun the country for fear of the even steeper costs ahead.
My view - Arguably, this is a brave move by Mrs Merkel and Germany but is it entirely rational? Opinions will obviously vary on the emotive topic of expensive green energy versus fossil fuels such as crude oil and, increasingly, natural gas.