Healthcare.gov Violates Open Source License

from the this-could-be-interesting dept

With all of the other problems associated with the launch of the Healthcare.gov website, you'd think that some of those expensive government contractors would understand open source licensing and how it works. Apparently not. It would appear that the site uses DataTables, which is a free and open source plug-in for jQuery, allowing for much better data handling and display. But, as most people who understand open source software recognize, there are often conditions for such usage, including the need to retain the license information in the software. DataTables is available as both a GPL v2 and BSD license, and even the DataTables team notes that basically all you have to do is "keep the copyright notices in the software."

But Healthcare.gov did not do that.

Oops. While it's not exactly "blatant software piracy" as some consipiracy-theory sites are claiming, it is a violation of the license, and thus, a form of copyright infringement. SpryMedia, the company behind DataTables has responded by saying it's "extremely disappointed". While the almost always sensationalistic Russia Today is claiming that SpryMedia "plans to sue" that doesn't seem to be supported anywhere else. So far, there's just a tweet saying that it's "excellent to see DataTables being used" and that "leaving the copyright header in place isn't too much to ask :-)."

Open source developers don't often sue over misuses of their licenses, though it does happen. Of course, a better solution than going to court would be for the government to fix the mistake, make a public statement about this and, potentially, donate to DataTables.

MORE CONFIRMATION OF THE ROSIN AFFIDAVIT: ASTEROIDS, NUKES AND A NEW US-RUSSIAN ACCORD

October 19, 2013 By Joseph P. Farrell

So many of you saw this and sent it to me that I cannot thank you all individually.
The reason for this week’s “synchronicity” will, however, be evident from the moment you read the headline on this one:
Russia and the U.S. unite: Former enemies sign agreement to work on nuclear weapons to tackle the danger of ASTEROIDS
Before we can move on to why I think this article is both significant, and a bit of theater, it’s worthwhile to recall what the Rosin Affidavit is, for those readers who may be unfamiliar with it. When Dr. Wernher von Braun was retired from NASA (and I’m one of those who think he “was restired” rather than “retired” from NASA), he moved into a consultancy as a vice president of Fairchild industries. There, he disclosed to another Fairchild Industries engineer, Dr. Carol Rosin, what he alleges to have been the “strategic game plan” he heard from “insiders”. According to Dr. Rosin, von Braun told her that the “game plan” for weaponizing space was to concentrate on a series of “targets of opportunity.” First, he said, the “Communists” would be the threat used to justify weaponizing space (remember the whole anti-ballistic missile defense that began in the Eisenhower Administration and culminated in Reagan’s “Strategic Defense Initiative.”) Then, according to Rosin, it would be “terrorists’. Well, in that respect, remember the subtle pushes for regional missile defenses in Europe after 9-11 by the Bush II administration. And we all recall Iraq’s Scud missiles being aimed at Israel and Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, which Israeli calls for the US Patriot missile system as a defense. Then according to Rosin, Von Braun indicated that the concern would move from “terrorists” to “nations of concern.” These, it might be argued, were President Bush’s “axis of evil” nations, and they became a “selling point” for pushing the European missile defense system. Of course, Russia was a primary unstated reason for the extension of a missile defense shield to Europe, but that’s another story.
According to Rosin, however, the penultimate and ultimate threats to be used to justify the weaponization of space were “asteroids” and then, finally, “extra-terrestrials.” Rosin relates that when von Braun got to “extra-terrestrials,” he chuckled, as if not regarding that possibility as genuine, or, perhaps, he had some sort of unspoken inside knowledge that he was laughing off, possibly nervously.
In any case, I would suggest that we’re looking at a partial confirmation, even if it is also a bit of theater, of Rosin’s Affidavit. But before we get to the theater part, let’s recall that one month prior to the Cheyabinsk meteor event, Russian prime minister Dmitri Medvedev gave indications that Russia would press forward, on its own if need be, with a defense against near Earth asteroids. Subsequent statements from Russia indicated that the method to destroy them would use thermonuclear weapons “or other means.”
It’s that phrase “or other means” that has me thinking that, perhaps, this concentration on nuclear weapons as the means for asteroid destruction might be a bit of theater, to accustom us to the idea and “necessity” of having hydrogen bombs in orbit above us. This idea was the nightmare of 1950s and 1960s “nuclear planners.”
But why would it be theater? Well, apparently, there’s been another near Earth asteroid (according to some), or Russian missile test (according to most), in Russia. And like the Chelyabinsk meteor, this one appears to have been destroyed by means that are clearly not nuclear, and that clearly do not resemble that of a standard kinetic impact or collision with another object either. Note in the following the clear indications that the “meteor” is a rocket, that simply dissolves or disappears:
Bizarre Jellyfish UFO Photographed By Two Astronauts And From Ground In Russia
Strange Clouds Photographed from ISS Tied to Secret Russian Missile Launch
Other photos of the same event show a clear contrail, and Russia announced a test of its new TOPOL strategic missile more or less within the time frame of the incident.(See Topol launch from Kapustin Yar tests new combat payload) So…
….what are we looking at? Missile test? A UFO? Well, definitely a missile test according to the Russians, but in either case, we’re looking at a very strange disappearance of the object in, and that’s the point. Not an impact, not an ABM, but clearly something in the destruction of the “meteor”  or missile.
I suggest what we’re looking at is (1) deliberate obfuscation of the sources concerning what happened and (2) that the reason for the obfuscation is to disguise the existence of a human “anti meteor” system that is not based on nuclear weapons or kinetic impacts with the objects.  Those who’ve read my books will recall the existence of a document detailing the testimony of a German prisoner of war from World War Two, who testified seeing an Allied bomber simply “disintegrate” when hitting some sort of “invisible barrier.” What we have here looks almost similar.
And Chleyabinsk? that strange event over a major Russian city, and also a premier site in the development of Russia’s nuclear energy and defense systems? Well, they’ve now recovered chunks of that meteor:
Giant Chunk of the Chelyabinsk Meteor Raised from Lake
Why the effort to recover that meteor? Well, from the scientific perspective alone, it is a literal godsend to scientists. But I also suggest that those chunks are going to show why the meteor exploded, and if something impacted with it. And that’s the real reason for the interest.
Bottom line? I suspect, once again, we’re looking at messages being sent, clearly by Russia, but to whom? The USA would be one obvious target, given Russian-American geopolitical clashes down on Earth; but in space, clearly the two world powers are concerned about “asteroids,” and they’re conveniently showing up at the precise time that they need to in order to justify a new kind of “international space cooperation” against the threat.
And that’s all preparation for the ultimate raison d’etre for space defense as Von Braun told Dr. Rosin four decades ago…

Read more: MORE CONFIRMATION OF THE ROSIN AFFIDAVIT: ASTEROIDS, NUKES AND A NEW US-RUSSIAN ACCORD

Russia and the U.S. unite: Former enemies sign agreement to work on nuclear weapons to tackle the danger of ASTEROIDS

• The two countries signed an agreement to research nuclear technology
• It claims the technology could one day be used as 'defense from asteroids'
• Plans build on existing research and computer simulations in California
• However, international treaties could prevent the plans becoming reality

By Victoria Woollaston
PUBLISHED: 10:38 EST, 16 October 2013 | UPDATED: 13:31 EST, 16 October 2013

The two countries were once at loggerheads over the use of nuclear warheads, but now the U.S. and Russia have joined forces to develop the technology together - and the partnership could one day lead to weapons being used to destroy asteroids hurtling towards earth.
Last month an agreement between the two countries was signed outlining the use of technology to create 'international safeguards' and offer 'defense from asteroids.'
The move signals a step closer towards the technology being used for such projects and builds on the work of various leading nuclear experts who have been actively developing the idea in recent years.
Scroll down for video

A meteor fireball, pictured, crashed into Russia in February, It was part of a 656-feet wide asteroid called 2011 EO40. Spanish astrophysicists analysed fragments of the meteor and claim it came from the Apollo asteroid that regularly crosses passed earth as it orbits the sun

Entitled the 'Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Russian Federation on Cooperation in Nuclear - and Energy-Related Scientific Research and Development', the document provides the legal framework needed to expand cooperation between U.S. and Russian nuclear research laboratories.
It was signed by the U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and Director General of the Russian Federation State Corporation Sergey Kirienko, on 16 September.
It is hoped the new agreement will complement provisions of the U.S.-Russian Agreement for Cooperation in the Field of Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, that came into force in January 2011.
'This agreement supports President Obama’s non-proliferation and climate priorities by providing a venue for scientific collaboration and relationship-building between the U.S. and Russian research and technical communities,' said Energy Secretary Moniz at the time.

HOW SERIOUS IS THE THREAT OF AN ASTEROID DESTROYING EARTH?

Nasa claims astronomers have detected more than 10,000 asteroids with orbits that could potentially bring them closer, or in contact, with earth since 1995.

Around 9 per cent of these are believed to be around 3,000 feet long, according to reports in The Atlantic.

The most threatening of these, predicted to strike only once every 700,000 to 100 million years, could desolate the planet.
This impact would be similar to that caused by the asteroid thought to have killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. 
A 60-foot asteroid damaged around 4,000 buildings in Russia when it exploded over the town of Chelyabinsk earlier this year.
Yet, objects this large are said to only plummet to earth once every 100 years or so.

Rocks around 460ft long, that would have 300 megatons of force, hit every 30,000 years.

'Jointly, these communities will work to further develop advanced technologies that can address some of our most pressing nuclear energy and nuclear security challenges.'
The original plans to join forces date back to 1995 when nuclear weapons designers from the Soviet Union and the U.S. met to discuss the imminent threat of asteroids and how technology could prevent it.

 

More...

• Why are moose dying out in the U.S? Sudden decline baffles scientists
• Jellyfish Armageddon! Experts claim creatures are taking over the seas - and it might be too late to stop them

Since that time Nasa claims astronomers have detected more than 10,000 asteroids with orbits that could potentially bring them closer, or in contact, with earth.
Around nine per cent of these are believed to be around 3,000 feet long, according to reports in The Atlantic.
The most threatening of these, predicted to strike only once every 700,000 to 100 million years, could desolate the planet - similar to the asteroid believed to have killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. 
However, as Douglas Birch from the The Center of Public Integrity, explains: 'even smaller rocks between 460 and 3,170 feet wide can flatten cities or wreak havoc.'
The theory has also been used in science fiction films, for example, in the 1998 blockbuster film Armageddon, an asteroid the size of Texas threatens earth and a team of astronauts, led by Bruce Willis, fly towards it and blow it up. 
Two years ago, research physicist and nuclear weapons designer David Dearborn, from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California received a discretionary grant for his work into solving how the weapons could be used.
His work runs parallel to that of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where American nuclear weapons are designed.
Research scientist Robert Weaver, from the laboratory, has been studying the effects of detonations on asteroids since 2012 and has simulated explosions using the Energy Department’s Cielo supercomputer. 

Model of how nuclear energy could kill Earth-threatening...

In the 1998 blockbuster film Armageddon, an asteroid the size of Texas threatens earth and a team of astronauts, led by Bruce Willis, pictured, fly towards it and blow it up

Elsewhere, Keith Holsapple, from Washington University recently received a million-dollar research grant from Nasa to discover if an 'impact device or nuclear explosion could deflect an asteroid from its path.'
Holsapple told Douglas Birch from - who has conducted a series of interviews with these leading experts - he is using a device called a 'gas gun' set up at Nasa’s Ames Research Center to study the impacter.
He explained that a complete nuclear deflection could work if researchers knew about the imminent danger around a decade in advance.
If the time to impact was closer than that, Hosapple added 'it would be too late for deflection but a carefully executed nuke strike would prevent most damage.'

A 60-foot asteroid damaged around 4,000 buildings when it exploded over Russia earlier this year. The city of Chelyabinsk, pictured, 900 miles east of Moscow and close to the Kazakhstan border, took the brunt of the impact. Objects this large are said to only plummet to earth once every 100 years or so

A 60-foot asteroid damaged around 4,000 buildings in Russia when it exploded over the town of Chelyabinsk earlier this year - although objects this large are said to only plummet to earth once every 100 years or so.
While rocks around 460ft long, that would have 300 megatons of force, hit every 30,000 years.
The likelihood of the plans being put into action, however, could be limited after President Obama announced in 2009 he is committed 'to seeking a world without nuclear weapons', and the plans could potentially go against the 1967 Outer Space Treaty signed by 129 countries, that prevents using nuclear weapons in space.
Concerns have been raised about radioactive debris falling to earth.

Read more:

• The Atlantic

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2463153/Russia-U-S-sign-nuclear-agreement-protect-planet-asteroids.html#ixzz2iBL3HVMV

Illuminati Exposed Media Interesting !!!! — with Krzysztof Qsza, Ricco Montanez and Darma Marie.

9 Signs That China Is Making A Move Against The U.S. Dollar

By Michael Snyder, on October 17th, 2013

 

On the global financial stage, China is playing chess while the U.S. is playing checkers, and the Chinese are now accelerating their long-term plan to dethrone the U.S. dollar.  You see, the truth is that China does not plan to allow the U.S. financial system to dominate the world indefinitely.  Right now, China is the number one exporter on the globe and China will have the largest economy on the planet at some point in the coming years.  The Chinese would like to see global currency usage reflect this shift in global economic power.  At the moment, most global trade is conducted in U.S. dollars and more than 60 percent of all global foreign exchange reserves are held in U.S. dollars.  This gives the United States an enormous built-in advantage, but thanks to decades of incredibly bad decisions this advantage is starting to erode.  And due to the recent political instability in Washington D.C., the Chinese sense vulnerability.  China has begun to publicly mock the level of U.S. debt, Chinese officials have publicly threatened to stop buying any more U.S. debt, the Chinese have started to aggressively make currency swap agreements with other major global powers, and China has been accumulating unprecedented amounts of gold.  All of these moves are setting up the moment in the future when China will completely pull the rug out from under the U.S. dollar.
Today, the U.S. financial system is the core of the global financial system.  Because nearly everybody uses the U.S. dollar to buy oil and to trade with one another, this creates a tremendous demand for U.S. dollars around the planet.  So other nations are generally very happy to take our dollars in exchange for oil, cheap plastic gadgets and other things that U.S. consumers "need".
Major exporting nations accumulate huge piles of our dollars, but instead of just letting all of that money sit there, they often invest large portions of their currency reserves into U.S. Treasury bonds which can easily be liquidated if needed.
So if the U.S. financial system is the core of the global financial system, then U.S. debt is "the core of the core" as some people put it.  U.S. Treasury bonds fuel the print, borrow, spend cycle that the global economy depends upon.
That is why a U.S. debt default would be such a big deal.  A default would cause interest rates to skyrocket and the entire global economic system to go haywire.
Unfortunately for us, the U.S. debt spiral cannot go on indefinitely.  Our debt is growing far, far more rapidly than our GDP is, and therefore our debt is completely and totally unsustainable.
The Chinese understand what is going on, and when the dust settles they plan to be the last ones standing.  In the aftermath of a U.S. collapse, China anticipates having the largest economy on the planet, more gold than anyone else, and a respected international currency that the rest of the globe will be able to use to conduct international trade.
And China is not just going to sit back and wait for all of this to happen.  In fact, they are already doing lots of things to get the ball moving.  The following are 9 signs that China is making a move against the U.S. dollar...
#1 Chinese credit rating agency Dagong has downgraded U.S. debt from A to A- and has indicated that further downgrades are possible.
#2 China has just entered into a very large currency swap agreement with the eurozone that is considered a huge step toward establishing the yuan as a major world currency.  This agreement will result in a lot less U.S. dollars being used in trade between China and Europe...

The swap deal will allow more trade and investment between the regions to be conducted in euros and yuan, without having to convert into another currency such as the U.S. dollar first, said Kathleen Brooks, a research director at FOREX.com.
"It's a way of promoting European and Chinese trade, but not doing it with the U.S. dollar," said Brooks. "It's a bit like cutting out the middleman, all of a sudden there's potentially no U.S. dollar risk."

#3 Back in June, China signed a major currency swap agreement with the United Kingdom.  This was another very important step toward internationalizing the yuan.
#4 China currently owns about 1.3 trillion dollars of U.S. debt, and this enormous exposure to U.S. debt is starting to become a major political issue within China.
#5 Mei Xinyu, Commerce Minister adviser to the Chinese government, warned this week that if the U.S. government ever does default that China may decide to completely stop buying U.S. Treasury bonds.
#6 According to Yahoo News, China has already been looking for ways to diversify away from the U.S. dollar...

There have been media reports this week that China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the body that handles the country's $3.66 trillion of foreign exchange reserve, is looking to diversify into real estate investments in Europe.

#7 Xinhua, the official news agency of China, called for a "de-Americanized world" this week, and also made the following statement about the political turmoil in Washington: "The cyclical stagnation in Washington for a viable bipartisan solution over a federal budget and an approval for raising debt ceiling has again left many nations' tremendous dollar assets in jeopardy and the international community highly agonized."
#8 Xinhua also said the following about the U.S. debt deal on Thursday: "[P]oliticians in Washington have done nothing substantial but postponing once again the final bankruptcy of global confidence in the U.S. financial system".  The commentary in the government-run publication also declared that the debt deal "was no more than prolonging the fuse of the U.S. debt bomb one inch longer."
#9 China is the largest producer of gold in the world, and it has also been importing an absolutely massive amount of gold from other nations.  But instead of slowing down, the Chinese appear to be accelerating their gold buying.  In fact, money manager Stephen Leeb says that his sources are telling him that China plans to buy another 5,000 tons of gold.  There are many that are convinced that China eventually plans to back the yuan with gold and try to make it the number one alternative to the U.S. dollar.
So exactly what would happen if the Chinese announced someday that they were going to back their currency with gold and would no longer be using the U.S. dollar in international trade?
It would change the face of the global economy almost overnight.  In a previous article, I described some of the things that we could expect to see happen...

If China does decide to back the yuan with gold and no longer use the U.S. dollar in international trade, it will have devastating effects on the U.S. economy.  Demand for the U.S. dollar and U.S. debt would drop like a rock, and prices on the things that we buy every day would soar.  At that point you could forget about cheap gasoline or cheap Chinese imports.  Our entire way of life depends on the U.S. dollar being the primary reserve currency of the world and being able to import things very inexpensively.  If the rest of the world (led by China) starts to reject the U.S. dollar, it would result in a massive tsunami of currency coming back to our shores and a very painful adjustment in our standard of living.  Today, most U.S. currency is actually used outside of the United States.  If someday that changes and we are no longer able to export our inflation that is going to mean big trouble for us.

The fact that we get to print up giant mountains of money and virtually everyone around the world uses it has been a huge boon for the U.S. economy.
When that changes, the word "catastrophic" is not going to be nearly strong enough to describe what is going to happen.
According to a Rasmussen Reports survey that was released this week, only 13 percent of all Americans believe that the country is on the right track.  But the truth is that these are the good times.  The American people haven't seen anything yet.
Someday people will look back and desperately wish that they could go back to the "good old days" of 2012 and 2013.  This is about as good as things are going to get, and it is only downhill from here.

33 Stats That Prove That SOMETHING Desperately Needs To Be Done About The National Debt

By Michael Snyder, on October 17th, 2013

The U.S. national debt is 36 times larger than it was just 40 years ago.  That is not a misprint.  That is actually the truth.  We are literally destroying the future of America, but most Americans don’t really seem to care.  In fact, the most hated politicians in America are the Tea Party politicians that recently tried to take a stand against the out of control borrowing that the federal government has been doing.  Pew Research has just released a new survey that shows that the popularity of the Tea Party is at an all-time low.  So while many Americans may say that they theoretically want something to be done about the national debt, when push comes to shove they don’t actually mean that.  You see, the reality of the matter is that about 128 million Americans get money from the federal government every month.  That accounts for the majority of all government spending.  Anyone who tries to take those goodies away is going to be hated.  So we are going to continue down this crazy path until the system completely crashes someday.
The “deal” that was just made in Congress does nothing to reduce our spending or control the growth of our debt.  It just kicks the decisions about government spending and the debt ceiling down the road for a few months.
In fact, the agreement on the debt ceiling did not actually place any limits on how much the federal government can borrow over the next few months.  It just temporarily suspended enforcement of the debt ceiling.  So the federal government could technically go out and borrow trillions of dollars during the next few months and nobody could do anything about it.
Let’s hope that does not happen.
And of course the “debt deal” contained all kinds of pork that will benefit certain politicians that were instrumental in putting together the deal.
When are the American people finally going to get sick and tired of this kind of thing?
Meanwhile, our debt problem continues to get even worse.  The following are 33 stats that prove that SOMETHING desperately needs to be done about the national debt…
#1 The U.S. national debt is on pace to more than double during Obama’s eight years in the White House.  In other words, under Barack Obama the United States will accumulate more debt than it did under all of the other presidents in U.S. history combined.
#2 During fiscal year 2013, the U.S. Treasury paid off $7,546,726,000,000 in maturing U.S. government debt and issued $8,323,949,000,000 in new debt.  In fiscal year 2014 those numbers will be even larger.
#3 In September, the average rate of interest on the government’s marketable debt was 1.981 percent.  In January 2000, the average rate of interest on the government’s marketable debt was 6.620 percent.  If we got back to that level today, it would collapse our entire financial system.
#4 Between 2008 and 2012, the ratio of government debt to government income increased from 4.0 to 6.6.
#5 Between 2008 and 2012, U.S. government debt grew by 60.7 percent, but U.S. GDP only grew by a total of about 8.5 percent during that entire time period.
#6 Since 2007, the U.S. debt to GDP ratio has increased from 66.6 percent to 101.6 percent.
#7 A revised IMF policy paper entitled “An Analysis of U.S. Fiscal and Generational Imbalances: Who Will Pay and How?” projects that U.S. government debt will rise to about 400 percent of GDP by the year 2050.
#8 At this point, the federal government hands out money to approximately 128 million Americans every single month.  In case you were wondering, that is about 41.3 percent of the population of the entire country.
#9 Back in 1980, the U.S. national debt was less than one trillion dollars.  Today, it is rapidly approaching 17 trillion dollars.
#10 Since the year 2000, the size of the U.S. national debt has grown by more than 11 trillion dollars.
#11 During Barack Obama’s first four years in the White House, the amount of new debt accumulated by the federal government breaks down to approximately $50,521 for every single household in the United States.
#12 The United States already has more government debt per capita than Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland or Spain.
#13 At this point, the United States government is responsible for about a third of all the government debt in the entire world.
#14 According to the U.S. Treasury, foreigners hold approximately 5.6 trillion dollars of our debt.
#15 The amount of U.S. government debt held by foreigners is about 5 times larger than it was just a decade ago.
#16 If the federal government used GAAP accounting standards like publicly traded corporations do, the real federal budget deficit for 2011 would have been 5 trillion dollars instead of 1.3 trillion dollars.
#17 As I noted recently, if the U.S. national debt was reduced to a stack of one dollar bills it would circle the earth at the equator 45 times.
#18 How much money is one trillion dollars?  If you were alive when Jesus Christ was born and you spent one million dollars every single day since that point, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now.
#19 If right this moment you went out and started spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.
#20 If you started paying off just the new debt that the U.S. has accumulated during the Obama administration at the rate of one dollar per second, it would take more than 189,000 years to pay it off.
#21 The U.S. national debt is now more than 5000 times larger than it was when the Federal Reserve was first established in 1913.
#22 If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his entire fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for 15 days.
#23 The federal government is stealing close to 100 million dollars from our children and our grandchildren every single hour of every single day.
#24 Historically, the interest rate on 10 year U.S. Treasuries has averaged 6.68 percent.  If the average interest rate on U.S. government debt rose to that level today, the U.S. government would find itself spending more than a trillion dollars per year just on interest on the national debt.
#25 Federal spending on entitlement programs has been increasing six times faster than population growth has.
#26 Overall, the federal government runs nearly 80 different “means-tested welfare programs“, and almost all of them are experiencing explosive growth.
#27 According to a Government Accountability Office report that was released earlier this year, Obamacare is going to cause the federal debt to rise by $6.2 trillion.
#28 If you can believe it, today more than 70 million Americans are on Medicaid, and it is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.
#29 As I have written about previously, the number of Americans on Medicare is projected to grow from a little bit more than 50 million today to 73.2 million in 2025.
#30 Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars over the next 75 years.  That comes to approximately $328,404 for each and every household in the United States.
#31 It is being projected that the number of Americans on Social Security will rise from about 62 million today to more than 100 million in 25 years.
#32 Overall, the Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years.
#33 Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff is warning that the U.S. government is facing a gigantic tsunami of unfunded liabilities in the coming years that we are counting on our children and our grandchildren to pay.  Kotlikoff speaks of a “fiscal gap” which he defines as “the present value difference between projected future spending and revenue”.  His calculations have led him to the conclusion that the federal government is facing a fiscal gap of 222 trillion dollars in the years ahead.
Our financial situation is clearly not even close to sustainable.  We are heading for an inevitable collapse, but in the aftermath of the “deal” in Congress, Barack Obama declared that all Americans “need to stop focusing on the lobbyists, and the bloggers, and the talking heads on radio”.  Apparently he does not want you reading articles like this or listening to radio programs that are warning about the dangers of our national debt.
At the same time, the U.S. government continues to waste money in some of the most bizarre ways imaginable.  It is almost as if they don’t even care that they are destroying the future of our children and our grandchildren with their incredibly reckless spending.
And of course the mainstream media is very much on the side of the big spenders.  In recent weeks, those that identify themselves with the Tea Party have been endlessly called names on the big mainstream news networks even though they are just about the only ones that are trying to pull us back from the path to self-destruction that we are on.
The big mainstream news networks have portrayed those that identify with the Tea Party as idiots and morons, but the truth is that studies have found that Tea Partiers are better educated, more scientifically literate and have higher incomes than the general population.
The real idiots and morons are the ones that want us to continue down this road to financial oblivion.  We have accumulated the largest mountain of debt in the history of the world, and unless something dramatic is done, America is not going to have any kind of a future.

SAS SURVIVAL HANDBOOK

Posted by George Freund on October 18, 2013

http://gonzoj.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/sas-survival-handbook-revised-edition.pdf

Slavery: A $32 bil. industry with 23.9 mil. employed

By Alex Williams · http://www.webpronews.com/slavery-a-32-bil-industry-with-23-9-mil-employed-2013-10?utm_source=Life_sidebar

inShare1

We marvel at our technology, wear clothes as a means of status, indulge in our spices, and unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible not to live off the abundant 130 product types made by the hands of children and forced laborers.
Right now, according to an updated report for this year by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation, there are 29.8 million people living as slaves in the world. Worldwide, it’s a $32 billion industry, with nearly half the total made in wealthy industrial countries.

The roles in the work of slavery include, but not are limited to, child brides in forced marriages, child shrimp peelers, forced laborers, forced prostitutes, child soldiers, all of which are owned under another person’s will as property.
According to Force4Compassion, an organization that collects data on human trafficking, for every one day, 3,287 people are sold or kidnapped and forced into slavery.

Time	Slaves
One Hour	136
One Minute	2.2

Among the top countries with the most slaves, India ranks first, with around 13.9 million (that’s more than Tennessee and Kentucky combined), followed by China with 2.9 million, and then Pakistan with 2.1 million. More than one per cent of the populations in Haiti, Pakistan, and India are in slavery.

You are most likely to be a slave in Africa’s Mauritania, where 10 to 20 per cent (340,000 to 680,000) of the population (one out of every 25 people) lives as a slave, and one in 10 children are placed into child labor. Sure, it may be outlawed, but it’s rarely enforced, and there’s only been one conviction – the country doesn’t even believe slavery exists.

Rich and developed countries like the US have the lowest rates in slavery. Ultimately, low drops in slavery are due to government policies, rule of law, political stability, human right movements, and development levels. Equal rights among sexes in a society also tend to correlate with lower levels of slavery.

Like a desperate message in a bottle sent overseas, factory working slaves will often times hide letters in the products they make. Above is a letter that was tucked away in a Kmart Halloween decorations kit.
And even under the radar and hidden in America’s backyard there are 60,000 slaves. A woman on Reddit posted back in 2012 claiming to be a child slave in the US for four years:

A user on Reddit made a correlation with India’s slave issue to a certain well-known country:

(Images via Target Map, Wikicommons (1), (2), The United Nations, FreeTheSlaves.Net,

Prenda’s massive trolling take revealed: $1.9 million in 2012

Steele and Hansmeier are said to have taken in 70 percent of that sum.

by Joe Mullin - Oct 18 2013

• Copyright

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/10/prenda-massive-trolling-take-revealed-at-least-1-9-million-in-2012/

Philip Taylor

Who's behind Prenda Law?

• Prenda’s John Steele: Accused of identity theft by his own mother-in-law
• In three-hour hearing, Prenda attacks its former lawyer
• Comcast letter said to confirm that Prenda, Steele planted porn torrents
• Lawsuit with alleged collusion will cost Prenda Law another $64k
• Prenda officially dissolves as Steele agrees to pay $5,400 penalty

View all…

A startling new document has been filed in court that sheds new light on the saga of copyright troll Prenda Law, one which reveals the huge sums that accused copyright "pirates" paid: at least $1.9 million in 2012 alone.
The spreadsheet detailing Prenda's finances was filed as evidence by former Prenda associate Brett Gibbs, a California lawyer who is desperately trying to distance himself from the two lawyers widely pointed to as the masterminds behind Prenda—John Steele and Paul Hansmeier.
Since 2010, Prenda has sued thousands of John Doe defendants for illegally downloading pornographic movies. But after a Los Angeles federal judge slapped the company with a tough sanctions order in May, its business has ground to a halt.
Yesterday, Gibbs filed a motion asking US District Judge Otis Wright to exempt him from that order. The sanctions have been appealed, and Steele has insisted they are illegal and misguided. Gibbs filed the new documents yesterday in Wright's court.
As part of his argument showing his relative distance from the scheme, Gibbs has evidence showing Steele and Hansmeier's firm links to Prenda. That includes a spreadsheet showing Prenda's income from the "pirates" as being more than $1.9 million in 2012. Steele and Hansmeier collected about $1.3 million of that, according to Gibbs.
The spreadsheet, which was e-mailed to Gibbs in January of this year, has a section labeled "payment to old owners." Steele and Hansmeier were paid directly and also through a company they jointly owned called "Under the Bridge Consulting," according to Gibbs. He claims he was told in a telephone call that Under the Bridge is owned by Steele and Hansmeier. "The name 'Under the Bridge' presumably refers to a place where trolls congregate," notes Gibbs in a footnote.
The spreadsheet doesn't include payments that may have come from other Prenda accounts, "or settlements that may have bypassed Prenda completely."
Steele and Hansmeier have stated repeatedly they had no ownership stake in the Prenda enterprise. Steele even filed a bar complaint against Gibbs specifically stating "I never had an ownership interest in Prenda Law Inc.," and that he never had an ownership interest in Prenda shells like AF Holdings and Ingenuity 13. Gibbs titled the section of the motion introducing the financial evidence, "New Evidence of Lies and Fraud by Steele and Hansmeier."

A secret interest

And the $1.3 million they were paid directly isn't all, notes Gibbs.
Overall, Hansmeier received $645,821.29—$185,321.28 directly and $460,500.00 through Under the Bridge. Steele received $660,915.94, of which he got $200,415.94 directly and $460,500.00 via Under the Bridge.
Those sums don't include "tens of thousands of dollars in additional payments to or on behalf of Steele and Hansmeier for travel and entertainment, meals, credit card charges, and miscellaneous reimbursements, or payments to Steel’s wife, Kerry Eckenrode Steele," notes the motion. It also does not include payments totaling $37,069.56 to Prenda lawyer Paul Duffy or Duffy Law Group.
The spreadsheet doesn't show exactly how the money flowed into the accounts. It simply lists the money flowing in from the copyright settlements as coming from "pirates," not specifying which Prenda shell handled the money. The spreadsheet doesn't list the individual settlement sums collected by Prenda either, most of which were a few thousand dollars or less. The money transfers shown on the spreadsheet as coming from "pirates" are big lumps of money, in several cases $100,000 or more at a time.
"Steele and Hansmeier were the primary beneficiaries of settlement payments to Prenda Law, giving them a compelling, if secret, financial interest in all aspects of Prenda’s operations and litigation," concludes Gibbs.

Gibbs: I never thought this was unethical

Steele and Hansmeier, as well as official Prenda head Mark Lutz, have attacked Gibbs as a disgruntled ex-employee, culminating in "unsworn and virtually fact-free" bar complaints, states Gibbs, who fights that characterization here. He writes:

[T]he Principals’ attempts to silence or discredit him are, in themselves, strong new evidence that Gibbs was truthful in his testimony. The Principals have not produced and cannot produce any evidence that Gibbs is lying, so their only hope of escaping sanctions in this and other courts is to destroy Gibbs’ credibility or otherwise find a way to prevent him from testifying truthfully about their conduct. It is understandable that, as courts move closer to discovering the truth about Prenda Law and the Principals, their attempts to “Blame Everything On Gibbs” grow ever louder, more far-fetched and desperate.

Gibbs' motion goes on to highlight other elements of the Prenda fraud that have been alleged on the record by various defense attorneys, but weren't entirely clear at the time of Wright's May sanction order. For instance, he re-tells the story of how BitTorrent consultant Declan Neville found that Prenda had created a "honeypot," uploading its own files on Pirate Bay in order to induce downloading. As came out in a recent San Francisco hearing, Steele actually impersonated his former housekeeper, Alan Cooper, in phone calls to GoDaddy customer service, according to Gibbs, who identified his voice.
Cooper's name appears on several Prenda-related copyright assignments used by Prenda in litigation. The recorded phone calls make Steele's denial that he forged Cooper's name on those assignments "even less credible," asserts Gibbs.
Gibbs goes on to note that he testified extensively in San Francisco, helping defense lawyers in their attempt to win sanctions against Prenda in a separate case. While Gibbs was helpful, the supposed top guy at Prenda—Mark Lutz—couldn't even be bothered to show up. Gibbs writes:

Lutz...  did not appear in court or telephone to explain his absence. Duffy did not attempt, in any meaningful way, to answer any of the specific questions posed by the court. When Lutz did not appear, Duffy called no other witnesses and presented almost no new evidence. Gibbs, on the other hand, voluntarily appeared and testified for over an hour answering every question posed to him by Defendant’s attorney, the Court, and Duffy. Gibbs again testified that Steele and Hansmeier were the decision-makers at Prenda Law. Gibbs provided phone records of calls with Steele and Hansmeier detailing hundreds of calls, including calls on dates that were specifically relevant to issues arising in the Navasca case.

Gibbs didn't know about the allegedly forged documents, he emphasized. He thought that "clients" like AF Holdings were actual, independent entities, not shells set up for lawsuits. He took direction from Steele and Hansmeier and "never thought he was being directed to do anything illegal or unethical."
Finally, Gibbs notes that while he's asking for the court to toss out the sanctions order against him, he has no problem with being referred, along with Duffy, Steele, and Hansmeier, to the IRS, the state bar, and to criminal investigators. "Gibbs wants these investigations to proceed and will continue to cooperate fully with them," his motion concludes.

Megaupload Raid ‘Destroyed’ (Way) More Than 10,000,000 Legal Files

• Ernesto
• October 18, 2013
• MegaUpload,
  research

New research from Boston’s Northeastern University shows that with the shutdown of Megaupload, the U.S. Government took down at least 10.75 million legitimate files. The researchers examined the percentage of legal and copyright-infringing content on six file-hosting services. While infringing content outnumbers legitimate files on all sites, the volume of non-infringing content casts doubt on the drastic seizure that took place early last year.
When the U.S. Government took down Megaupload it branded the company as a pirate site with seemingly few legitimate uses. Up until now, however, there has been no research to back up this claim.
In an attempt to fill this gap researchers from Boston’s Northeastern University, together with colleagues from France and Australia, examined millions of files that were uploaded to five cyberlockers (FileFactory, Easy-share, Filesonic, Wupload and Megaupload) and the reupload service Undeadlink.
To find out whether the files were legitimate or not, the researchers extracted metadata from the site’s uploads using a link checker. The researchers controlled for several factors including split archives, and then manually determined the legitimacy of the files based on random samples of 1,000 uploads per site.
The results just published in the article titled “Holiday Pictures or Blockbuster Movies? Insights into Copyright Infringement in User Uploads to One-Click File Hosters” provide a unique insight into the proportion of infringing content on these services.
The main results displayed in the figure below reveal that the percentage of infringing files varies heavily between the six services. In addition, it also shows that for the majority of the files the researchers couldn’t conclusively determine whether a file was infringing or not.
For Megaupload (MU) the researchers found that 31% of all uploads were infringing, while 4.3% of uploads were clearly legitimate. This means that with an estimated 250 million uploads, 10.75 million uploads were non-infringing. For the remaining 65% the copyrighted status was either unknown, or the raters couldn’t reach consensus.
Using the most conservative estimate the findings show that the Megaupload raid took down at least 10.75 million legitimate files. In addition, the researchers found that FileFactory had a highest percentage of non-infringing uploads (14%).
With 0.1% Wupload and Undeadlink had the fewest uploads that were clearly legitimate, while 79% of all files added to these services were without a doubt infringing.
The research confirms that “one click” file-hosting services appear to be predominantly used to upload pirated content. However, there’s clearly also plenty of non-infringing uses, something the U.S. Government may have overlooked when it took Megaupload offline.
TorrentFreak spoke with Tobias Lauinger, one of the authors of the paper, who told us that the high volume of legitimate files is one of the most interesting aspects of the study.
“What I find most interesting about our results is that they support what many people were already suspecting before: That Megaupload was partially being used for “illegal” file sharing, but that there were also millions of perfectly legitimate files stored on Megaupload.”
One of the main drawbacks of the findings is that the researchers couldn’t determine the infringing status of the majority of the files. For two-third of all uploads to Megaupload this remains uncertain.
While unlikely, this means that in the most optimistic scenario 69.3% of the files uploaded to Megaupload could be perfectly legal. This means that the Megaupload raid could in theory have destroyed 172,500,000 million non-infringing files.
TorrentFreak talked to Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom who says that both the number of files as well as the non-infringing use was much higher in reality.
The researchers, however, found that based on the number of possible file IDs and the hit rate they got by randomly guessing these IDs there were an estimated 250 million files available at the time of the experiment.
Of course, the many users who lost access to their personal files are not helped by this statistics. But perhaps it may serve as a reminder for the District Court to finally make a decision on whether or not to allow former users to retrieve their files. It’s been almost two years after all.

Don’t Leave Your Money in the Bank Without Reading This First

truther October 19, 2013 

Dave Hodges

According to Naomi Wolf’s New York State Supreme Court complaint, she first discovered “unexplained activity” on her three Washington Mutual (WaMu) checking accounts in 2005. The prominent feminist author claims that she diligently sought to “monitor the activity of her accounts.” However, Wolf was blocked in her own self-monitoring efforts when WaMu stopped sending her monthly statements and denied her access to her online account. The net result of WaMu’s alleged actions is that Wolf alleges that more than $300,000 was stolen from her three accounts and this resulted in her filing a law suit against the bank. What happened to Naomi Wolf is going to be played out all across this country. And we are not going to have to wait too long for all of us to realize that we are Naomi Wolf.

What Used to Be Unthinkable Is the New Norm

“. . . the game itself changed. By raiding the depositors’ accounts, a major central bank has gone where they would not previously have dared. The Rubicon has been crossed.”

Eric Sprott and Shree Kargutkar, “Caveat Depositor”

America, we now live in a thugocracy. The banksters are using the power of government to steal from Americans. These banksters control the Congress, the President and the judges. There is seemingly nobody who is beyond their sphere of influence as these criminals are the poster children for the old adage which states that “Every man has his price”.

This is the part of the article where the reader would be advised to hang on every word that is written, because the following will have a devastating effect on the financial well-being of every American.

There is absolutely no integrity in the banking system. There is no honor among these thieves. A scientific, technocratic mafia runs the banking system. These money changing criminals will keep enticing you to put your hard earned money into their privately run lairs of thievery. Everyone reading these words will be victimized in a manner similar to Naomi Wolf, if you keep the bulk of your funds in one of the Federal Reserve banks. Americans are woefully ignorant regarding how much danger their deposits are truly in. The thief is at the door and you are in danger of having everything stolen.

Most Americans Think That Their Deposits Are Safe

Some readers have written to me and have dutifully reminded me that the FDIC is at their bank standing guard over their deposits. How woefully and depressingly ignorant is that statement?

The FDIC does not have the money to cover your deposits as it has only $25 billion in its deposit insurance fund. By law, the FDIC is required to keep a balance equivalent to only 1.15% of insured deposits on hand. Yes, America, that means that less than 2% of your deposits are covered.

Others have pointed out to me that the Dodd-Frank Act (Section 716) now bans taxpayer bailouts of most speculative derivatives activities. You remember the derivatives don’t you? They were the imaginary wealth that was built upon more imaginary wealth but were guaranteed with hard assets backed by the banks. When this house of cards collapsed, it pulled the banks down and led to the series of bailouts which has devastated our economy. Before continuing in this analysis, we need to review one very important detail.

The derivative debt in this country is estimated at $1 quadrillion to $1.5 quadrillion dollars. This is more than 16 times the value of every asset on the planet. There is no way that this debt can ever be paid, but that is not stopping the banks who are actively co-mingling their derivative debt with their other banking instruments including their customer savings deposits. We could fund 1,000 bail outs and there is only one unmistakable conclusion:

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO WAY THAT THIS DEBT CAN EVER BE PAID OFF! IT IS THE EXCUSE BEING USED, IN PERPETUITY, FOR THE BANKSTERS TO KEEP STEALING FROM YOU!

Therefore, when your bank defaults, and it will, the depositors as well as the banks will turn to the FDIC for relief. The FDIC will have no choice but to draw upon its credit line in order to cover a BofA, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan derivatives bust which has been co-mingled with savings account funds. The resulting effect is that this will require a taxpayer bailout to cover the credit line.This will negate the safety from the bailouts that the public thought that they were receiving under the Dodd-Franks bill of no more bailouts.

What very few people are talking about, and as is the case with all credit lines, this money will have to be paid back. Therefore, the coming default of the FDIC, used to cover the derivatives debt, will become the excuse for another taxpayer bailout. And on and on it goes.

When the last instrument has been looted and then deflated, where do you think that will leave you and your computerized digits that represent the bulk of your self-built financial empire? All of your life, most of you have worked for banker backed interest in some capacity and now, these banksters are stealing back the pittance they paid you in the first place. Where’s Karl Marx when you need need him? Bank depositors of the world, unite!

Conclusion

America is only 90 days away from another potential date with destiny, yet, another government default and shutdown. Meanwhile, the banksters are the driving force which forces us to the edge of financial destruction and it is never going to end until, we the people, have nothing left to steal. I am still highly concerned about the Cyber attack drill in the which the first of phase was completed yesterday without any apparent incident. As a reminder the cyber attack drill consisted of a simulated attack on more than 1,000 banks participating in a National Cyber-Attack Drill October 16-17 and again on October 23-24.  

Phase two of this cyber drill will take place next week. As I have said before, I do not make predictions and I am not predicting a false flag event emanating from this event. However, given the nature of past false flag events (e.g. 9/11, 7/7 bombings and the Boston Marathon bombing), the conditions are ripe that this could turn into another false flag event. I think if the government had not avoided total default two days ago, the likelihood of this scenario turning into a false flag event would have been more certain. It would be wise for us to keep our eyes on October 23rd, but there is another major event that is rapidly approaching and it will require our immediate attention.

Of course, you could take your money out of the bank. Well, maybe you can….  Yesterday, Chase announced it is limiting customer withdrawals.

The International Monetary Fund is suggesting that countries tax the rich to fix the deficit. This proposal is a Trojan Horse. The rich will not be taxed more, you will be.  On the surface, this sounds like a wonderful idea. However, this proposal will allow the banks to reach further into your pocket. And the best thing of all for the banksters is that no false flag attack is required in order to keep on stealing from us. This will be the topic of the next part in this series.

Dianne Feinstein's Bragging About NSA Surveillance Program May Finally Result In It Being Declared Unconstitutional

Dianne Feinstein's Bragging About NSA Surveillance Program May Finally Result In It Being Declared Unconstitutional