---BREAKAWAY CIVILIZATION ---ALTERNATIVE HISTORY---NEW BUSINESS MODELS--- ROCK & ROLL 'S STRANGE BEGINNINGS---SERIAL KILLERS---YEA AND THAT BAD WORD "CONSPIRACY"--- AMERICANS DON'T EXPLORE ANYTHING ANYMORE.WE JUST CONSUME AND DIE.---
from RT.com: The
United States Department of Defense is asking engineers to develop a
nearly microscopic-sized component that could be used to help identify
and combat counterfeit or otherwise suspect electronic parts. DARPA —
the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — published a
call for proposals this week that, if all goes as planned, could save
the US military millions of dollars. According to the agency, more than
one million suspect electronic parts have been spotted in just the last
two years, and seriously-flawed components could theoretically cause
entire systems to crash. Counterfeit, or otherwise suspect electronic components, present a critical risk for the Department of Defense,”
DARPA said in their call for proposals this week, “where a
malfunction of a single part could lead to system failures that can
put warfighter lives and missions at risk.” To avoid any such complications, DARPA has launched a program
that seeks to develop a tool — a tiny component, or “dielet” — that
can verify the authenticity of a protected electronic component and
ensure that it is trustworthy enough to be used.
“The dielet will be designed to be robust in operation, yet
fragile in the face of tampering,” Kerry Bernstein, DARPA program
manager, said in a statement
this week. ”What SHIELD is seeking is a very advanced piece of
hardware that will offer an on-demand authentication method never
before available to the supply chain.” Very advanced, but also very affordable — the SHIELD program,
Bernstein said, “demands a tool that costs less than a penny per unit,
yet makes counterfeiting too expensive and technically difficult to
do.” Already, though, counterfeiting has cost the US military plenty.
A 2011 Senate Armed Services Committee investigation found more than
1,800 cases of counterfeit parts being used in US weapons, including
the Alenia C-27J Spartan medium-sized military transport aircraft,
Boeing's P-8A Poseidon long-range surveillance and reconnaissance
aircraft, Lockheed Martin’s turboprop military transport aircraft
C-130J Super Hercules and Sikorsky’s SH-60B Seahawk helicopter used by
the US Navy.
Around 70 percenet of the bootleg electronic founds in those machines originated from China, the Senate found.
In another instance, the Missile Defense Agency found 800 fake
parts in a single missile intercept system. To correct that issue
alone cost the US government over $2 million.
Should the SHIELD program succeed, the DARPA hopes tiny, 100
micron x 100 micron dielets will be able to catch counterfeit
components. The agency says they want to receive proposals that would
"revolutionize electronic authentication with potential scalability
and advanced technology not available today,” and will host a workshop
at DARPA headquarters next month so interested parties can learn
more.
According to DARPA, proposed dielets should contain a full
encryption engine, sensors to detect tampering and would readily affix
to today’s electronic components such as microchips.
“Successful development of SHIELD technology would provide 100
percent assurance against common threat modes,” the agency said.
Must Watch Video: The Threats of Facebook and Data Mining Explained
from youtube.com: Eben Moglen talks about freedom of thought, data mining, facebook, google, Steve Jobs' death, and what we can do about it.
the threats of Facebook and data mining explained by Eben Moglen : sous-titré en français
March 5th, 2014
It’s not just law enforcement running those license plate scanners. This is absolutely nuts.
Via: BetaBoston: Few notice the “spotter car” from Manny Sousa’s repo company as
it scours Massachusetts parking lots, looking for vehicles whose owners
have defaulted on their loans. Sousa’s unmarked car is part of a
technological revolution that goes well beyond the repossession
business, transforming any industry that wants to check on the
whereabouts of ordinary people.
An automated reader attached to the spotter car takes a picture of
every license plate it passes and sends it to a company in Texas that
already has more than 1.8 billion plate scans from vehicles across the
country.
These scans mean big money for Sousa — typically $200 to $400 every
time the spotter finds a vehicle that’s stolen or in default — so he
runs his spotter around the clock, typically adding 8,000 plate scans to
the database in Texas each day.
“Honestly, we’ve found random apartment complexes and shopping
plazas that are sweet spots” where the company can impound multiple
vehicles, explains Sousa, the president of New England Associates Inc.
in Bridgewater.
But the most significant impact of Sousa’s business is far bigger
than locating cars whose owners have defaulted on loans: It is the
growing database of snapshots showing where Americans were at specific
times, information that everyone from private detectives to insurers
are willing to pay for.
While public debate about the license reading technology has centered
on how police should use it, business has eagerly adopted the $10,000
to $17,000 scanners with remarkably few limits. At least 10 repossession companies in Massachusetts say they
mount the scanners on spotter cars or tow trucks, and Digital
Recognition Network of Fort Worth, Texas, claims to collect plate scans
of 40 percent of all US vehicles annually.
The One and only
photo released of children at SH. Suppose to have happened at 10:47 AM -
would have been in front of police dash cam shown below. Never
happened in front of dash cam. They were not running, but walking.
The official timeline says they began evacuating the children at 9:58 AM
from the school and walking them across the parking lot to the
firehouse.
The official timeline of the
evacuation of children from the school to the Police dash cam. No children are
ever seen during the time they should have been going across the lot.
There are different times going to 10:03 AM of masses of children being
evacuated at one time from the school and going across the lot.
The dash cam video has a few redacted seconds, but they are only seconds
of time and there would be no way of getting the children across the
lot in that amount of time.
Watch the Police Dash Cam showing the parking lot compared to the official Timeline:
Sandy Hook Police Dash Cam Video does not show children evacuating per Official Timeline.
“According to the LinkedIn profile for Salais, he was
engaged in Client Technology Service “L3 Operate Support” and previously
“FXO Operate L2 Support” at JPMorgan. Prior to joining JPMorgan in
2008, Salais had worked as a Client Software Technician at SunGard and a
UNIX Systems Analyst at Logix Communications.”
Then there’s this odd “coincidence”:
“But perhaps the most important link is this: three weeks
before the death of Salais and within a little more than a month of the
other deaths, JPMorgan had been put under a form of probation by the
U.S. Justice Department. In exchange for a Deferred Prosecution
Agreement that ran for two years and $1.7 billion in fines to avoid the
criminal indictment of individuals and the firm for facilitating the
largest financial fraud in U.S. history, Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme,
JPMorgan was forced to agree to “secure the attendance and truthful
statements or testimony of any past or current officers, agents, or
employees at any meeting or interview or before the grand jury…provide
in a responsive and prompt fashion, and upon request, on an expedited
schedule, all documents, records, information and other evidence in
JPMorgan’s possession, custody or control as may be requested by the
Office, the FBI, or designated governmental agency…bring to the Office’s
attention all criminal conduct by JPMorgan or any of its
employees…commit no crimes under the federal laws of the United States
subsequent to the execution of this Agreement.” “When a rash of sudden deaths occur among a most unlikely cohort
of 30-year olds at a bank that has just settled felony charges and been
put on notice that it will be indicted if it commits any further
felonies; when it is currently under investigation on multiple
continents for potentially committing criminal acts in the realm of
interest rate and/or foreign exchange rigging — for the press to
cavalierly call these deaths “non suspicious” before inquests have been
conducted and findings released by medical examiners shows an unseemly
indifference to a worker’s life and an alarming insensitivity to the
grief stricken families still searching for answers.”(Emphasis added)
Now, before we indulge in our bankster-high octane speculation of the
week, let’s look at the second article linked above concerning the
“suicide” of Chinese JP Morgan employee, :Dennis Li Junjie:
Just two days before his suicide, Junjie told a friend
that he planned to return to Toronto, where he had worked as an analyst
at the Royal Bank of Canada.
“RIP … What happened to all the promises and plans you
made? What happened to your return to Toronto? I didn’t know you were
that upset! I will miss you always,” remarked the friend.
Junjie had recently bought a HK$5.5 million apartment in
Hong Kong and friends commented on how he always had a smile on his
face.
The fact that Junjie did not seem to be depressed and
had made specific future plans suggests that his suicide was quite
spontaneous and may have been in response to information he was told or
had uncovered in the 48 hours preceding his death.
Now for the high octane part:
I’ve already drawn attention to the curious set of
dots-that-might-be-connected in the case of the unfortunate Mr. Li. As I
pointed out in Babylon’s Banksters, Dr David Li was the
Chinese mathematician whose Gaussian copula formula enabled and in fact
to a great extent drove the formation of derivatives and bundles and
default swaps that led to the financial crisis of 2008. I also pointed
out that the Hong Kong branch of the Li clan was quite famous and
wealthy, and had served on the transition team of the city from British
back to Chinese home rule. I also noted that Dr. Li had served in
various Canadian banks, including the Imperial Bank of Commerce. These
context of “dots” to my mind make Mr. Li’s “suicide” worth of
investigation in and of itself. Add to this his own connection to the
Royal Bank of Canada and it almost screams for a deeper investigation.
What did Mr. Li learn that could have driven him to suicide? or, what
might have driven him to an apparent suicide, when in fact – with appropriate technologies – it might even be murder?
We have noted that in the case of the London JP Morgan employee who
was suicided, that FOREX(foreign exchange) seems to be implicated. In
the case of other suspicious suicdes, Mr. Talley of Colorado, for
example, we have the case of someone involved in the title business, and
perfectly positioned to know if there was widespread mortgage fraud
taking place.
So my speculation, for part one, is this: what unites all these
people? We have (1) computer programmers, (2) foreign exchange
specialists, and (3) in the case of the unfortunate Mr. Li, a possible
connection to the whole derivatives and credit default formula of
another Chinese Li, one also connected to Canadian banks. And of course,
the massive amount of derivatives paper – in the quadrillions of
dollars and many times more than the entire amount of the GDP of the
whole planet – were based in large part on mortgages bundled into the
credit default swaps of major banks. When the housing bubble burst…that
paper became toxic. So I suggest we’re looking at the Mafia cleaning
its own corrupt house of people that could provide sensitive details
endangering the whole house of cards…
… but there’s something else, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.
Powerful New Way To Edit DNA: Must read Xenogenesis to see the end game. Human species wipeout!
March 5, 2014-In
the late 1980s, scientists at Osaka University in Japan noticed unusual
repeated DNA sequences next to a gene they were studying in a common
bacterium. They mentioned them in the final paragraph of a paper:
“The biological significance of these sequences is not known.” Now
their significance is known, and it has set off a scientific frenzy.
The
sequences, it turns out, are part of a sophisticated immune system that
bacteria use to fight viruses. And that system, whose very existence
was unknown until about seven years ago, may provide scientists with
unprecedented power to rewrite the code of life.
In
the past year or so, researchers have discovered that the bacterial
system can be harnessed to make precise changes to the DNA of humans, as
well as other animals and plants.
This
means a genome can be edited, much as a writer might change words or
fix spelling errors. It allows “customizing the genome of any cell or
any species at will,” said Charles Gersbach, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University.
Photo
The enzyme Cas9, shown in blue and
gray, can cut DNA, in gold, at selected sites, as seen in this model
from electron microscope images.CreditDavid Taylor and Jennifer Doudna
Already the molecular system, known as Crispr,
is being used to make genetically engineered laboratory animals more
easily than could be done before, with changes in multiple genes.
Scientists in China recently made monkeyswith changes in two genes.
Scientists
hope Crispr might also be used for genomic surgery, as it were, to
correct errant genes that cause disease. Working in a laboratory — not,
as yet, in actual humans — researchers at the Hubrecht Institute in the Netherlands showed they could fix a mutation that causescystic fibrosis.
But
even as it is stirring excitement, Crispr is raising profound
questions. Like other technologies that once wowed scientists — like
gene therapy, stem cells and RNA interference — it will undoubtedly encounter setbacks before it can be used to help patients.
It
is already known, for instance, that Crispr can sometimes change genes
other than the intended ones. That could lead to unwanted side effects.
The
technique is also raising ethical issues. The ease of creating
genetically altered monkeys and rodents could lead to more animal
experimentation. And the technique of altering genes in their embryos
could conceivably work with human embryos as well, raising the specter
of so-called designer babies.
“It does make it easier to genetically engineer the humangerm line,” said Craig C. Mello,
a Nobel laureate at the University of Massachusetts Medical School,
referring to making genetic changes that could be passed to future
generations.
Still,
Crispr is moving toward commercial use. Five academic experts recently
raised $43 million to start Editas Medicine, a company in Cambridge,
Mass., that aims to treat inherited disease. Other start-ups include
Crispr Therapeutics, which is being formed in London, and Caribou
Biosciences in Berkeley, Calif.
Agricultural
companies might use Crispr to change existing genes in crops to create
new traits. That might sidestep the regulations and controversy
surrounding genetically engineered crops, which generally have foreign DNA added.
The
development of the new tool is an example of the unanticipated benefits
of basic research. About 15 years ago, after it became possible to
sequence the entire genomes of bacteria, scientists noticed that many
species had those repeated DNA sequences that were first noticed a
decade earlier in Osaka. They were called “clustered regularly
interspaced short palindromic repeats” — Crispr for short.
A complex immune system found in bacteria is already proving useful in editing DNA and may lead to future therapies.
STORAGE Researchers in the 1980s noticed that bacteria had small
blocks of palindromic DNA repeated many times, with nonrepeated spacers
of DNA stored in between. This pattern is a sophisticated immune system
known by the acronym Crispr, for “clustered regularly interspaced short
palindromic repeats.”
RECOGNITION These spacers match pieces of DNA from viral invaders
that bacteria or their ancestors have faced before. When needed, the DNA
contained in the spacer is converted to RNA. An enzyme and a second
piece of RNA latch on, forming a structure that will bind to strands of
DNA that match the spacer’s sequence.
CUTTING When a matching strand of DNA is found, the enzyme opens the
double helix and cuts both sides. The double cut breaks the strand and
disables the viral DNA. If a bacterium survives an attack by an
unfamiliar virus, it will make and store a new spacer, which can be
inherited by future generations.
EDITING Researchers are learning how to use synthetic RNA sequences
to control the cutting of any piece of DNA they choose. The cell will
repair the cut, but an imperfect repair may disable the gene. Or a
snippet of different DNA can be inserted to fill the gap, effectively
editing the DNA sequence.
By The New York Times
Sources: Nature; Addgene
But
what was their purpose? In 2007, researchers at Danisco, a company that
supplies bacterial cultures used in making cheese and yogurt, confirmed hypotheses that Crispr protects bacteria from viruses.
It
is part of an adaptive immune system — one that remembers a pathogen so
it is ready the next time that same invader appears. The human adaptive
immune system is why people get measles only once and why vaccines work. But it was not imagined that single-cell organisms like bacteria had such systems.
Here
is how it works. The repeated DNA sequences in the bacterial genome are
separated from one another by other sequences. These “spacers” are
excerpts from the sequences of viruses that have attacked the bacterium
or its ancestors. They are like genetic mug shots, telling the bacterium
which bad guys to watch for. The Crispr defense system will slice up
any DNA with that same sequence, so if the same virus invades again, it
will be destroyed.
If a previously unseen virus attacks, a new spacer, a new mug shot, is made and put at the end of the chain.
That means the Crispr region “is like a tape recording of exposure to prior invaders,” said Erik J. Sontheimer, a Northwestern University professor who helped unravel the mechanism.
And
it provides a way to tell two bacterial strains apart, because even two
strains from the same species are likely to have encountered different
viruses. This is already being used to identify sources of
food-poisoning outbreaks.
Cheese
and yogurt companies can examine Crispr regions to see if their
bacterial cultures are immunized against particular viruses that could
slow production.
“Now you can extend the shelf life of that great strain,” saidRodolphe Barrangou of
North Carolina State University, who previously worked at Danisco and
was the lead author on the 2007 paper. “That has changed the game quite a
bit for the dairy industry.”
The real frenzy, however, started in 2012, when a team led by Emmanuelle Charpentier, then at Umea University in Sweden, and Jennifer A. Doudna of the University of California, Berkeley, demonstrated a way for researchers to use Crispr to slice up any DNA sequence they choose.
We’re still learning new and fascinating things about a class of
fossils, long gone but not short on character; a new technique allows a
kind of chromosomal editing; Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about hosting the
new-old series “Cosmos.”
By DAVID CORCORAN and JEFFERY DelVISCIO
Scientists
must synthesize a strand of DNA’s chemical cousin RNA, part of which
matches the DNA sequence to be sliced. This “guide RNA” is attached to a
bacterial enzyme called Cas9. When the guide RNA binds to the
corresponding DNA sequence, Cas9 cuts the DNA at that site.
The
cell tries to repair the cut but often does so imperfectly, which is
enough to disable, or knock out a gene. To change a gene, scientists
usually insert a patch — a bit of DNA similar to where the break
occurred but containing the desired change. That patch is sometimes
incorporated into the DNA when the cell repairs the break.
Would
this work in organisms besides bacteria? “I knew it was like firing a
starting gun in a race,” Dr. Doudna said, but sure enough, by early 2013
scientists had shown it would work in human cells, and those of many
other animals and plants, even though these species are not known to
have Crispr-based immune systems.
“I don’t know any species of plant or animal where it has been tried and it failed,” said George Church, a professor ofgenetics at Harvard Medical School. “It allows you to do genome engineering on organisms that are very hard to do otherwise.”
In
the past, making an animal with multiple genetic changes usually
required creating separate animals with single changes and then
crossbreeding them to produce offspring with multiple changes. With
Crispr, multiple genetic changes can be made in one step, by putting
multiple guide RNAs into the cell.
“It
just completely changes the landscape,” Dr. Doudna said. Berkeley
scientists used to farm out that work to specialized laboratories or
companies. Now, she said, “people are able to make mice in their own
labs.”
There are other techniques that can do what Crispr does, though Crispr is “the easiest by far,” Dr. Church said.
RNA
interference, for instance, can silence particular genes. It is similar
to Crispr in that it also uses RNA that matches the gene to be
silenced.
But
RNA interference works by inhibiting messenger RNA, which translates a
gene into a protein. That usually provides only a partial and temporary
disabling of the gene, because the cell can make new messenger RNA.
Crispr disables the gene itself, potentially a more complete and
permanent inactivation.
Photo
The dairy industry can use the Crispr
immune system to protect important bacteria like Lactobacillus
acidophilus, which is widely used in yogurts and dietary supplements,
from viruses.CreditTodd Klaenhammer/North Carolina State University
There are also already ways to change genes, namely zinc-finger nucleases and
transcription activator-like effector nucleases, or Talens. The
biotechnology company Sangamo BioSciences is already conducting a
clinical trial of a treatment for H.I.V. that uses zinc fingers to alter patients’ immune cells to make them resistant to the virus.
Both
techniques use proteins to guide where the DNA is cut; it is more
difficult to develop a protein that binds to a specific DNA sequence
than it is to make a piece of RNA with the matching sequence.
With
zinc fingers “it might take you months or years to get something to
work well for one gene,” said Dr. Gersbach at Duke. With Crispr, “it
takes days to weeks.”
Quick
is not always accurate, however. While Crispr is generally precise, it
can have off-target effects, cutting DNA at places where the sequence is
similar but not identical to that of the guide RNA.
Crispr “may not yet have adequate specificity to completely displace” the older techniques, Dana Carroll, a biochemistry professor at the University of Utah, wrote in a commentaryin Nature Biotechnology in September.
Still, scientists are already figuring out how to make Crispr more specific.
Another obstacle for treating diseases will be the delivery of the genetic changes to all the cells in the body that need it.
For
some diseases, it may be possible to extract blood stem cells from the
body, alter them using Crispr, and put them back. If that is not
possible, the DNA needed to make Cas9, the guide RNA and the corrective
patch might be put into a disabled virus. This technique is used for
gene therapy, but does not always work well.
It is likely to be a few years before Crispr is tested in people. For now, there is a lot more to learn about it.
Chase L. Beisel at North Carolina State reported that
Crispr could be used to kill one strain of bacteria in a mixture of
strains, by targeting a sequence unique to that strain. That might one
day lead to antibiotics that can kill the bad bugs without also killing the good ones.
David S. Weiss of Emory University found that some bacteria use
Cas9 to silence one of their own genes, rather than that of a virus, to
help them evade detection by their host’s immune system.
The
pace of new discoveries and applications is dizzying. “All of this has
basically happened in a year,” Dr. Weiss said. “It’s incredible
Native American tribes adopt Bitcoin-like currency, prepare to battle US government
March 5, 2014
– The programmer and Native American activist Payu Harris raised a
gavel Monday night and vigorously banged the bell to open trading at The
Bitcoin Center, a meeting space for virtual currency geeks that looks
like an empty art gallery in the middle of New York’s Financial
District. Harris was there to promote MazaCoin, a cousin of Bitcoin that is now the official currency of the seven bands that make up the Lakota nation.
After an hour of
questions, Harris thanked the small crowd and was promptly accosted by a
tall man and a woman in red who wanted to buy some MazaCoin, which
Harris was selling for 10 cents apiece. The two trailed him around the
room as he hunted for a printer so he could issue the digital currency
on paper. MazaCoin is a month-old cryptocurrency based on the same
proof-of-work algorithm as Bitcoin, the virtual currency that
approximates cash on the internet —but no one in the room was equipped
to made a digital trade.
There have been a slew of copycats since the rise of
Bitcoin in 2009. The first wave attempted to improve on the basic
Bitcoin protocol. The second wave, which includes the meme-based
Dogecoin and the Icelandic Auroracoin, are catering to specific groups.
SINCE THE RISE OF BITCOIN, THERE HAVE BEEN A SLEW OF COPYCATS
MazaCoin was developed by an anonymous cryptographer
who had built a new implementation of the Bitcoin protocol and was
looking for a good cause to associate it with, Harris says. Anyone can
buy or sell the currency, but the Lakota are keeping half of it in
reserve in order to prevent the wild speculation that has caused Bitcoin
such price volatility. Harris has also had inquiries from other tribes
that want to use the currency or start their own.
Currencies knit communities together. Having one’s
own currency is empowering; the Latvian 5-lat coin, nicknamed “Milda”
for the woman in traditional clothing depicted on it, became a symbol of
Latvian independence during the Soviet occupation. A dedicated currency
also boosts economic activity within a community, the impetus behind
the (questionably legal) hyperlocal currency movement that has produced
alternative monies such as BerkShares, IthacaHours, and the Brooklyn
Torch.
Tribes using MazaCoin automatically make it easier to
spend money at the local reservation general store than changing it
into dollars to spend at Walmart, for example. But perhaps more than
that, it will give the Lakota people a sense of unity and independence.
“Our tribe has an idea of what sovereignty is, but not at a level like
the Ukrainians,” Harris says, referring to the fierce battle for
democracy taking place there. “There is no sense of national identity.”
“WE’RE ON SOVEREIGN SOIL SO WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO HAVE BITCOIN, LITECOIN, MAZACOIN.”
That fragmentation contributes to the tribes’
crippling dependency on the US government. Half the tribal members on
Harris’s reservation, the Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in
South Dakota, live in poverty. It’s a problem that afflicts tribes across the country as Native Americans have grown dependent on federal welfare after being ghettoized on reservations.
Roughly $220 million flows through the reservation
every year, through the Prairie Wind casino and other venues, according
to Harris. But he estimates less than $45 million of that stays in the
local economy. With MazaCoin, he hopes to stop that money from flowing
back to Rapid City and out of the state. “We’re building a new economic
foundation for the reservation,” he says.
The US Treasury Department has indicated that
Bitcoin is legal but carries certain bookkeeping requirements related to
money transmission. At the same time, some politicians are calling for
a ban on the currency.
Harris is hoping to avoid all that with MazaCoin. Federal laws granting
Native Americans special legal status provide an argument for a
currency totally independent of the US dollar. Native American
sovereignty is legally defined over a patchwork of treaties, laws, and
precedent. “We’re on sovereign soil so we have the right to have
Bitcoin, Litecoin, MazaCoin,” Harris says.
But Chase Iron Eyes, South Dakota legal counsel for
the Lakota, believes the federal government will push back if MazaCoin
succeeds. “There hasn’t been a tribal nation that has declared its own
currency and has mandated that that currency is used within its
borders,” Iron Eyes says. “But it’s because of this pervasive,
ever-present asserted dominion of the United States. They’ll try to shut
us down, try to cite us with law violations.”
While the leadership of the Lakota nation has signed
off on adopting MazaCoin as a national currency, there is resistance
within the ranks. Digital currencies are not always an easy sell,
especially to older generations who are not accustomed to using apps
constantly throughout the day. A further complication is that not all
tribal members have internet access or smartphones, which means Harris
has to develop a paper wallet system where members’ MazaCoins are held
in cold storage at a central location like a bank. In theory members can
walk into the bank, get their MazaCoins in a paper wallet that can be
processed by reservation businesses, then return the balance to digital
storage at the bank before driving home.
There is also a fear of letting go of the US dollar,
which holds the implicit threat of letting go of the federal subsidies
denominated in it. Iron Eyes believes the legal battle and the public
perception battle are worth fighting. “We’ve gone through 100 years of
imposed poverty. That’s the fight we’re having,” he says. “What we’re
trying to do with MazaCoin is just spark something to get us out of this
cycle of victimhood.”
Forbes magazine published its 28th annual list of the
world’s wealthiest individuals and families on Monday. In all, the
research team behind the Forbes Billionaires list found a total of 1,645
billionaires worldwide as of February 12, with a combined net worth of
$6.4 trillion, an increase of $1 trillion from 2013. The number of new
billionaires, at 268, was the highest figure in the report’s history.
A surge in equity markets resulting from the ultra-loose money
policies of the US Federal Reserve pushed the total number of American
billionaires to 492, the highest of any nation. China, the foremost
cheap labor platform in the global economy, boasts the second highest
number of billionaires at 152. The Russian Federation, politically
dominated by a narrow layer of compradors who liquidated the USSR and
plundered its state assets in 1990-91, rounded out the top three
nations, with 111 billionaires.
Around 100 people lost billionaire status, including 19 in Turkey,
where a reversal of foreign investment flows has dashed the stock
indexes and the currency, as have eight individuals in Indonesia due to
the same global financial imbalances caused by the US Federal Reserve’s
policies. Algeria, Lithuania, Tanzania and Uganda all saw their first
appearances on the Forbes list, and Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote became the
first African to make the top 25, with a fortune of $25 billion.
Microsoft founder and charter school champion Bill Gates has become
the wealthiest individual in the world once again, with a yearly growth
in his personal fortune of $9 billion and a total net worth of $76
billion, a sum more than four times larger than the entire municipal
debt of the city of Detroit, or, stated another way, enough money to pay
for four years of state college tuition in the US for 2.1 million
students.
Other Internet-related persons featured prominently on the Forbes
list, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg, whose fortune nearly
doubled this year from $15.2 billion to $28.5 billion. Zuckerberg was
the year’s biggest dollar gainer thanks to the soaring value of Facebook
shares, which increased over 130 percent in the last 12 months.
Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg made the list as well, as did the
company’s vice president Jeff Rothschild.
The year 2013 saw windfall compensation for executives of top private
equity firms, cashing in on record share values and awarding generous
dividends to their investors and to themselves. A Wall Street Journal article this week, headlined “Blowout Haul for Buyout Tycoons , ”
examined public filings for Apollo Global Management LLC, Blackstone
Group LP, KKR and Co., and the Carlyle Group LP. The article reports
that the nine founders of these firms took in a total of $2.6 billion in
2013, a year-on-year increase of more than 100 percent. This amount
averages over $160 million for each of the executives in question,
enough to pay the starting salary of nearly 3,500 public school teachers
in New York City for one year.
Of this elite, parasitic group, Leon Black, the co-founder and chief
executive of Apollo Global Management, raked in the most at $546.3
million, followed by Blackstone Group’s Stephen Swarzman with $465.4
million. The three co-founders of Washington, DC-based Carlyle Group
pocketed a total of nearly $750 million, more money than was spent on
all of the district’s capital outlays for public schools between 2005
and 2008. Unlike the corporate giants of a previous era, which at least
built railroads, factories and infrastructure, the highly profitable
private equity funds that nourish today’s robber barons excel in the
wholesale dismantling of entire sections of industry, buying companies
or public entities, laying off the bulk of their workers, and then
selling them at a profit as “competitive” enterprises.
The exploding fortunes of the world’s richest people in the last
decade and a half are a consequence of a deliberate assault on the
living standards of working people, including the slashing of social
spending, declining real wages and almost unprecedented layoffs. A
number of striking figures illustrate this fact: * The world’s 85 richest people have more wealth than the poorer half
of the world’s population combined. Some 2.4 billion people live on
less than $2 per day. * In the United States, 95 percent of all income gains between 2009
and 2012 went to the wealthiest 1 percent of the population. The
proportion of income held by this layer has grown by nearly 150 percent
since 1980. New records for unemployment, inequality and social misery
are set on a regular basis. To juxtapose the enormous and growing opulence at the top of society
on the one hand, with the increasingly wretched, untenable position of
most of the world’s population on the other, is to pose the necessity of
socialism. Plainly said, society cannot afford the financial
aristocrats, who make the feudal monarchs of the past look modest by
comparison.
Is North Korea The Most Evil Nation On The Entire Planet?
By Michael Snyder, on March 5th, 2014
There are a lot of evil nations in the world today, but it is fairly
easy to make a case that North Korea is the worst of them all. Some of
the things that you are about to read about in this article are
absolutely horrifying. In fact, if you have a weak stomach you might
not want to read this article at all. In North Korea, public
executions, rape and torture are all just part of the lifestyle. In
fact, according to the Daily Mail
there were “between 40 to 80 public mass executions in North Korea in
2013.” Some of the things that got people publicly executed in North
Korea during 2013 included “watching unsanctioned South Korean TV shows and being found in possession of a Bible“.
And as you will read about below, other Christians have had it even
worse than that in the past. In one instance, little children were
hanged in front of their parents, and then their parents were crushed to
death with a steamroller. So no, I am not exaggerating when I describe
North Korea as an “evil nation”.
The new “leader” of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, even executed his
ex-girlfriend and his own uncle. And he publicly executed a whole bunch
of people for “inappropriate mourning” after the death of his father
Kim Jong Il.
In case you are curious, you can find video of “appropriate mourning” right here.
Now, we have learned that North Korea is about to execute 33 more people for working with a South Korea Baptist missionary…
Thirty-three North Koreans face execution after being charged with attempting to overthrow the repressive regime of Kim Jong-un.
The Koreans have landed themselves in hot water after it emerged they
had worked with South Korean Baptist missionary Kim Jung-wook and
received money to set up 500 underground churches. It is understood they
will be put to death in a cell at the State Security Department.
So why aren’t Barack Obama and the U.S. State Department screaming bloody murder about this?
If those 33 individuals were from one of Obama’s “favored groups”, it would be headline news.
But whenever Christians are in trouble, the Obama administration seems to be eerily quiet.
Please pray for those dear brothers and sisters. They are going to need it.
Of course not all Christians are put to death in North Korea. Much
more commonly, they are sent to gulags for the rest of their lives where
they are beaten, tortured and raped before they finally die…
He revealed detainees were forced to dig their own graves and were then killed with hammer blows to their necks.
The former guard said he also witnessed prison officers strangling detainees and then beating them to death with wooden sticks.
Prison officials frequently raped women inmates who were then killed, he said.
“After a night of ‘servicing’ the officials, the women had to die
because the secret could not get out. This happens at most of the
political prison camps,” he told Amnesty.
You can view some incredible drawings of what goes on inside the
gulags of North Korea that were actually drawn by a survivor of those
camps right here.
You see, the truth is that only one “religion” is permitted in North
Korea. Most people don’t realize this, but North Koreans must worship
their “eternal president” Kim Il Sung every single day…
“The best wall on every house in North Korea must have
well-cared-for photos of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il,” explains Seoul
USA CEO Eric Foley. “At every meal, families look up at the picture and
pray, ‘Thank you, Father Kim Il Sung, for this food.’”
While
most Americans view the hermit kingdom as an atheist nation, Foley says
in reality it is perhaps the most religious nation on earth because 100
percent of its citizens are required to worship Kim Il Sung. North
Korea is the world’s only “necrocacy”—ruled forever by its deceased
eternal president.
Isn’t that sick?
If you try to fight the system, it could cost you everything.
Would you be willing to risk everything to stand up for what you believe?
As I mentioned above, some of those that have dared to worship the
God that created all things have had to watch their own children hanged
right in front of their eyes. The following story originally comes
from the Voice of the Martyrs…
The young brown-eyed girl looked up at her mother. What would she decide?
Earlier that morning, the young girl’s mother, their pastor, and
twenty-six others in her North Korean village of GokSan were bound and
taken before a screaming crowd of Communists.
One of the guards ordered Pastor Kim and the other Christians, “Deny
Christ, or you will die.” The words chilled her. How could they ask her
to deny Jesus? She knew in her heart he was real. They all quietly
refused.
Then the Communist guard shouted directly at the adult Christians,
“Deny Christ, or we will hang your children.” The young girl looked up
at her mother. She gripped her and knowing how much her mom loved her.
her mother then leaned down. With confidence and peace she whispered,
“Today, my love, I will see you in heaven.”
All of the children were hanged.
The remaining believers were then brought out onto the pavement and
forced to lie down in front of a huge steamroller. The Communists gave
them one last chance. “Deny this Jesus or you will be crushed.” The
Christians had already given up their children; there was no turning
back.
As the driver started the heavy piece of equipment, the singing from
the villagers started softly. “More love, O Christ, to thee, more love
to thee.”
Yes, North Korea is truly an evil nation.
You can watch an absolutely incredible National Geographic documentary about what life is like inside North Korea on YouTube right here. If you have never seen this particular documentary before, it is definitely worth the time that it takes to watch it.
Sadly, life in the United States is slowly but surely becoming a little bit more like life in North Korea with each passing day.
If you think that things could never get quite so bad here, you
should be made aware that the North Korean constitution also guarantees
freedom of speech and freedom of the press just like our constitution
does.
Of course we are not like North Korea yet, but we are on the path
there. It is way too easy to allow our liberties and our freedoms to
slip away from us, and once they are gone they will be nearly impossible
to get back.
16 Examples That Show The United States Has Become A Seriously Messed Up Country
By Michael Snyder, on March 5th, 2014
In
recent years, it has been quite common to hear our politicians and top
media personalities talk about the need for America to use military
force to impose “our values” on the rest of the world. But what
“values” could they possibly be talking about? The truth is that we
don’t have any “values” worth sharing with anyone at this point.
America has become a festering cesspool of garbage and filth, and it is
getting worse with each passing day. As a nation, we need to humble
ourselves and turn away from our wicked deeds and rediscover the values
that once made this country great. But instead, we seem to have
developed a thirst for evil that can never be satisfied. The entire
nation seems to be slowly going insane, and not that many people are
even alarmed by this. I hope that you will share this article with
others, because the American people desperately need a giant wake up
call. The following are 16 examples that show that the United States
has become a seriously messed up country… #1 The American flag is starting to be banned in schools all over the nation, and federal courts are backing them up on this…
Last week in Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified School Dist., the 9th Circuit ruled that a public school can actually ban the American flag. Making matters worse, the decision allows the school to ban the American flag and still allow students to display flags of other countries.
#2 Speaking of our courts, many of them appear to
have literally gone insane. Just check out what the highest court in
Massachusetts recently ruled…
Massachusetts’ highest court has ruled that a man accused
of secretly snapping photos up a woman’s skirt on an MBTA train did not
break the law.
The State Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday dismissed charges
against Michael Robertson of Andover, who was arrested in August 2010 by
transit police.
Officers had set up a sting on the Green Line after getting reports
that Robertson was using his cellphone to take photos and video up
female rider’s skirts and dresses.
#3 Parents are starting to lose the natural
affection that they should have for their children. For example, a
pregnant mother that already had three children recently tried to kill
them all by driving her minivan into the ocean…
“The two in the back seat was crying, with their arms out saying ‘Our mommy’s trying to kill us, please help,’” said Tesseneer.
A bystander’s video of the rescue shows a rescuer carrying two
children away from the sinking van when the children tell them there was
another child inside.
“The kids are like, ‘No there’s a baby. There’s a baby,’” Tesseneer
said. “She (the mother) wouldn’t say a word. She didn’t tell us nothing
about a baby.”
The men are seen on video frantically trying to get to the small child through the hatchback and the driver’s side door.
#4 In the old days, some people would cruelly abandon their pets in the woods, but now this is actually happening to children…
A Florida couple was arrested for allegedly abandoning their three young children in the woods, authorities said.
Michael and Sarah Butcher, both 30, were
first arrested Friday after illegally parking their red truck in a
private RV park in Punta Gorda.
Cops later found crystal meth in
their car’s glove compartment, along with a syringe and a burnt spoon,
according to the arrest report.
After the pair was taken to jail
–- where they repeatedly claimed to be brother and sister –- the police
received a call that three children were found walking in the woods,
“very dirty, hungry, and cold,” according to a police report.
#5 Teenagers in America just continue to become even more cruel. Perhaps we should rethink the way that we are raising our children…
Four teenagers are accused of carving a swastika into the forehead of a 16-year-old boy. The Oregonian
reports that Jenna Montgomery, 15, Jess Taylor, 17, Blue Kalmbach, 15,
and a 14-year-old boy attacked the boy in a shed, shooting him with a BB
gun and hitting him with a crow bar, on top of carving a swastika into his forehead.
#6 The FDA is actually considering making it legal for doctors and scientists to create “three parent babies” in the United States. #7 Our financial system appears to be more corrupt than it ever has been before. And yet nobody ever seems to go to prison…
In a nearly $13 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department in November 2013, JPMorganChase admitted that
it, along with every other large U.S. bank, had engaged in mortgage
fraud as a routine business practice, sowing the seeds of the mortgage
meltdown. JPMorgan and other megabanks have now been caught in over a
dozen major frauds, including LIBOR-rigging and bid-rigging; yet no
prominent banker has gone to jail.
#8 Sexual perversion of all types is running rampant in America. Just consider what one Florida man recently did with a dog…
Police have arrested a Tampa man after his neighbors reported that he was having sex with a dog.
According to Tampa Police, officers were flagged down by the man’s neighbors on N. Marks Street Tuesday afternoon.
“When officers arrived on scene, they were greeted by a small crowd
of residents who were disturbed by their neighbor’s activity with the
dog,” a police spokeswoman explained. “Several of the witnesses stated
that they yelled at the suspect to stop, but he ignored their commands.”
#9 An all-time high 59 percent of all Americans believe that the traditional definition of marriage needs to be changed. #10 The popularity of “throuples” has surged so much that a new dating website has been launched that will cater to them specifically. #11 Authorities around the nation are alarmed at the
rise in occult-inspired crimes that appears to be happening. Most of
you have probably heard about “the Craigslist Killer” by now…
A woman in Pennsylvania who has been charged with murder
for killing a man she met on Craigslist has told reporters that she has
committed over 20 murders as part of a satanic cult.
“When I hit 22 [murders], I stopped counting,” 19-year-old Miranda Barbour told the Daily Item on Saturday.
#12 The United States already has the highest rate
of divorce in the entire world, and now the divorce rate is on the rise
again. Some pundits are blaming the “improving economy” for this. #13 In America today, there are 60 million people that abuse alcohol and there are 22 million people that use illegal drugs. #14 As I wrote about recently, there are 747,408 registered sex offenders
in the U.S. according to the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children. That number only includes the ones that have been
caught and convicted. #15 Planned Parenthood has produced a video “that promotes bondage and sadomasochism” to teens…
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE)–which
received more than $2.75 million in government funding in 2012–has
produced and posted online a video specifically aimed at teenagers that
promotes bondage and sadomasochism (BDSM) and proposes “rules” to follow
when engaging in these activities.
“People sometimes think that those who practice BDSM are emotionally
scarred or were once abused—not true, it’s a total myth,” the host of
the video, Laci Green, informs its intended audience of teens.
“BDSM relies upon and creates trust,” she says.
By the way, the U.S. government gives hundreds of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood each year. #16 Speaking of Planned Parenthood, more than 56 million American babies have been slaughtered in this country since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.
What should be done to a nation that does such a thing?
The
EU was created by the Vatican as the successor to the ill-fated Vatican
Nazi Third Reich (WWII occupied Europe). It was originally named the
European Economic Community (EEC). The framework for the Vatican's
future occupied Europe (European Union) was first made public in Germany
on 22nd June 1940 as the European Economic Community (EEC). The first
EEC conference was held at the Berlin University (a Catholic university
renamed Humboldt University of Berlin) in 1942. After the fall of the
Vatican’s Third Reich (Third Holy Roman Empire), the Holy See changed
the EEC ideology from Nazism to a Communist European Community (Euism)
in 1946. The Communist EEC wasn’t officially formed until the signing of
the Vatican’s Treaty of Rome (Treaty establishing the European Economic
Community) of 1957. However, it didn’t enter into force until 1993 –
with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty at which time the EEC was
renamed the European Community (EC) to reflect that it covered a wider
range of Vatican policies. The three European Communities, including the
EC, were collectively made to constitute the first of the three pillars
of the European Union (EU). The EC existed in this form until it was
rebranded by the 2009 Treaty of Lisbon, which merged the EU’s former
pillars and provided that the "EU replace and succeed the European
Community (EC).” The violence in Ukraine has everything to do with the
Vatican violently preventing Ukraine from exiting the Vatican occupied
Europe.
People get ready
There's something in the air
Creeping in slow so we don't even notice
Brothers and sisters beware
People get ready
Open up your eyes
Hatred and violence, millions fall silent
We don't even hear their cries
It's time to love one another, we're sisters and brothers
What are we fighting for?
Too many backs that are breaking, lives being taken
What are we killing for?
I think it's time for forgiveness, to rise up and end this
What are we waiting for?
Love teach us the way, to overcome hate
And weapons of war
People get ready
What's your loaded gun?
Silent indifference
Hunger for vengeance
Or words from a wicked tongue
People get ready
Only you can choose
What you will do
When it comes down to you
No one else can walk in your shoes
It's time to love one another, we're sisters and brothers
What are we fighting for?
Too many backs that are breaking, lives being taken
What are we killing for?
I think it's time for forgiveness, to rise up and end this
What are we waiting for?
Love teach us the way, to overcome hate
And weapons of war
Oh my Lord
I have a dream
Oh my Lord
One day we'll see
Oh my Lord
All men be free
Oh my Lord
I still believe
People let's love one another, we're sisters and brothers
What are we fighting for?
Too many backs that are breaking, lives being taken
What are we killing for?
I think it's time for forgiveness, to rise up and end this
What are we waiting for?
Love teach us the way, to overcome hate
And weapons of war
Texas Voters Take A Stand: 9 out of 10 Want Obamacare Repealed and Welfare Recipients Drug Tested
Just because one part of the country has seemingly lost its mind and is willing to give up their freedom for the promise of more security doesn’t mean everyone is on board.
In Texas, where voters took to the polls Tuesday night, a completely
different set of ideas is at play. And if nationwide sentiment is any
indication, other conservative and libertarian leaning states will soon
follow.
Though only about half of the votes have been tallied so far, the
people of Texas have spoken. It’s a roar, in fact. Voters are standing
in unison and have overwhelmingly approved a variety of propositions
that may well send shivers down the spines of supporters of things like
universal health care, rampant welfare dependency, special privileges
and gun rights. The following results speak for themselves. First on the chopping block is the Patient Affordable Care Act, more
commonly known as Obamacare. Apparently, 93% of Texans don’t take well
to having the federal government mandate what they should or shouldn’t
buy with the penalty for non-compliance being IRS harassment and prison
time:
The Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare”, should be repealed.
This one might be a little scary for those folks who spend their lives on their couches smoking weed or mainlining heroin while hard working Americans pay for their dope:
Texas recipients of taxpayer-funded public assistance
should be subject to random drug testing as a condition of receiving
benefits.
You’ll never see the U.S. Congress vote for this, because they’re way too special:
All elected officials and their staff should be subject
to the same laws, rules, regulations, and ordinances as their
constituents.
If you’re an anti-gunner this is where you should stop reading:
Texas should support Second Amendment liberties by
expanding locations where concealed handgun license-holders may legally
carry.
It’s a sad state of affairs when the public
has to actually vote on their right to pray in public places. Isn’t
that covered by the First Amendment? Just in case it isn’t Texas will
make sure you can worship and pray as you see fit:
Texans should be free to express their religious beliefs, including prayer, in public places.
Silly Texans. Didn’t anyone tell you that it’s government, not businesses, that creates jobs and grows the economy?
Texas should abolish the state franchise tax, also known as the margins tax, to encourage business growth.
Common sense laws and regulations. What a novel concept.
There’s a reason why Americans all over the
country are flocking to Texas in the hopes of finding the American
Dream that has been lost in so many other parts of the Union.
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