WASHINGTON -- The Senate passed a $1.1 trillion government-wide spending bill Saturday night after debate that highlighted fissures inside both political parties in an era of divided government.
The 56-40 vote capped a day of intrigue in which Democrats launched a drive to confirm about 20 of President Barack Obama's stalled nominees before their majority expires at year's end. Several Republicans blamed tea party-backed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for creating an opening for the outgoing majority party to exploit.
Although President Obama had said he objected to several aspects of the spending bill, he was expected to sign it into law. The measure provides funding for most of the federal government until the end of the budget year on Sept. 30.
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
Saturday, December 13, 2014
NY Protester Arrested After Punching NYPD Cop in Head on Video
A New York protester was arrested after punching a police officer in the head during a massive Eric Garner protest at the Whitehall Ferry Terminal days ago. The NYPD has identified the man as 22-year-old Yotameli Sayer, and the night of the incident he was arrested for assaulting an officer, as well as other charges like resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
In the video posted online days ago, you can see a crowd gathered around several police officers as one has an individual pinned to the ground. And then, not a minute later, one protester punches a cop clear in the head. For a few seconds after that, you can see the officer just staying where he is.
Police added an additional assault charge after seeing the video.
Watch the full video from the protest below:
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In the video posted online days ago, you can see a crowd gathered around several police officers as one has an individual pinned to the ground. And then, not a minute later, one protester punches a cop clear in the head. For a few seconds after that, you can see the officer just staying where he is.
Police added an additional assault charge after seeing the video.
Watch the full video from the protest below:
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Update On Salisbury Burn Victim
Breaking News: Young Girl Set On Fire In Salisbury
We stated that the young girl had been doused with a chemical and set on fire. We received this information from Firefighters and then confirmed that information within a Fire Department Website. The information is not accurate.
The young girl was standing very close to a stove in her home in which her shirt caught on fire and she was badly burned. Again, there were no chemicals involved and she was NOT set on fire.
Survey: Military Morale Has Plummeted 35 Points Since Obama Became Commander-in-Chief
When someone has a complete and utter lack of respect and appreciation for the military, it’s going to have an effect. That’s why it’s not exactly surprising to learn that military morale has taken a huge hit since Obama has taken over as Commander-in-Chief.
A Military Times survey of 2,300 active-duty troops found morale indicators on the decline in nearly every aspect of military life. Troops report significantly lower overall job satisfaction, diminished respect for their superiors, and a declining interest in re-enlistment now compared to just five years ago.
Today’s service members say they feel underpaid, under-equipped and under-appreciated, the survey data show. After 13 years of war, the all-volunteer military is entering an era fraught with uncertainty and a growing sense that the force has been left adrift.
One trend to emerge from the annual Military Times survey is “that the mission mattered more to the military than to the civilian,” said Peter Feaver, a political science professor at Duke University who studies the military. “For the civilian world, it might have been easier to psychologically move on and say, ‘Well, we are cutting our losses.’ But the military feels very differently. Those losses have names and faces attached to [them].”
Acording to the Military Times survey, active-duty troops reported a stunning drop in how they rated their overall quality of life: Just 56 percent call it good or excellent, down from 91 percent in 2009. The survey, conducted in July and August, found that 73 percent of troops would recommend a military career to others, down from 85 percent in 2009. And troops reported a significant decline in their desire to re-enlist, with 63 percent citing an intention to do so, compared with 72 percent a few years ago.
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A Military Times survey of 2,300 active-duty troops found morale indicators on the decline in nearly every aspect of military life. Troops report significantly lower overall job satisfaction, diminished respect for their superiors, and a declining interest in re-enlistment now compared to just five years ago.
Today’s service members say they feel underpaid, under-equipped and under-appreciated, the survey data show. After 13 years of war, the all-volunteer military is entering an era fraught with uncertainty and a growing sense that the force has been left adrift.
One trend to emerge from the annual Military Times survey is “that the mission mattered more to the military than to the civilian,” said Peter Feaver, a political science professor at Duke University who studies the military. “For the civilian world, it might have been easier to psychologically move on and say, ‘Well, we are cutting our losses.’ But the military feels very differently. Those losses have names and faces attached to [them].”
Acording to the Military Times survey, active-duty troops reported a stunning drop in how they rated their overall quality of life: Just 56 percent call it good or excellent, down from 91 percent in 2009. The survey, conducted in July and August, found that 73 percent of troops would recommend a military career to others, down from 85 percent in 2009. And troops reported a significant decline in their desire to re-enlist, with 63 percent citing an intention to do so, compared with 72 percent a few years ago.
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The Next Round of the Crisis Will Reveal that the Entire System is Based on Fraud
The biggest problem with the financial markets today is the fraud.
Fraud is endemic in the financial system today. We know that the currency, stock, bond, and even commodity markets have ALL been manipulated by Investment Banks or Central Banks.
Fraud is endemic in the financial system today. We know that the currency, stock, bond, and even commodity markets have ALL been manipulated by Investment Banks or Central Banks.
No matter how sophisticated your analysis is, if your data inputs are garbage, your forecasts are garbage. We now know that the prices in just about every asset under the sun are garbage. Good luck computing with that.
Then there is balance sheet fraud. After the 2008 Crash, the regulators suspended accounting standards that required the banks to price their assets at market-based values. The reason the regulators did this was because the market priced these assets at pennies on the Dollar, if not ZERO.
This meant that most banks were insolvent and bankrupt.
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Then there is balance sheet fraud. After the 2008 Crash, the regulators suspended accounting standards that required the banks to price their assets at market-based values. The reason the regulators did this was because the market priced these assets at pennies on the Dollar, if not ZERO.
This meant that most banks were insolvent and bankrupt.
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Avondale Man Saves Wife From Home Intruder With 12-Gauge Shotgun
An Avondale man with a 12-gauge shotgun rescued his wife from a home intruder. The suspect forced his way into the couple’s home. That’s when the woman’s husband subdued him at gunpoint until police arrived. What a lucky woman to have her home and husband armed!
Al.com reported:
A woman who just finished walking her dog in Avondale this morning was attacked when a man apparently followed her home and forced his way inside. The woman wasn’t injured, and was rescued when her husband awoke.
Birmingham police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards said the incident happened at 4:56 a.m. The woman was walking her dog in the 3800 block of Fifth Avenue South. When she finished and opened the door to her apartment, the assailant forced his way in behind her. He pushed her down and covered her mouth with his hand to keep her from screaming.
The husband was in the bedroom asleep, and heard his wife yelling. He rushed out to the living room, and the two men got into a fight, Edwards said.
While the men were fighting, the woman called 911 and stayed on the phone with a dispatcher until police arrived. The fight moved from the living room to the bedroom, where the husband was able to grab his 12-gauge shotgun.
He held the man at gunpoint until officers arrived.
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Al.com reported:
A woman who just finished walking her dog in Avondale this morning was attacked when a man apparently followed her home and forced his way inside. The woman wasn’t injured, and was rescued when her husband awoke.
Birmingham police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards said the incident happened at 4:56 a.m. The woman was walking her dog in the 3800 block of Fifth Avenue South. When she finished and opened the door to her apartment, the assailant forced his way in behind her. He pushed her down and covered her mouth with his hand to keep her from screaming.
The husband was in the bedroom asleep, and heard his wife yelling. He rushed out to the living room, and the two men got into a fight, Edwards said.
While the men were fighting, the woman called 911 and stayed on the phone with a dispatcher until police arrived. The fight moved from the living room to the bedroom, where the husband was able to grab his 12-gauge shotgun.
He held the man at gunpoint until officers arrived.
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Ohio legislature sends sweeping gun rights bill to Governor
Bill relaxes the residency requirements to apply for a permit
In a victory for Second Amendment advocates in the Buckeye State, the Ohio House gave final concurrence to a bill that will allow hunting with suppressors, loosen rules for concealed-weapons permits and other reforms.
Beginning life as a bill that only legislated a repeal in the state’s ban on using legally possessed suppressors while hunting in the state, the measure over time grew to include a number of changes to the state’s concealed carry laws. These include reducing the number of hours required in training, relaxing the residency requirements to apply for a permit, and providing a grace period for renewals by active duty members of the military.
The bill passed the Ohio Senate on Dec. 9 by a large 24-6 margin and was concurred 69-16 by the House on Wednesday. It now proceeds to Gov. John Kasich (R) for consideration.
Read more
In a victory for Second Amendment advocates in the Buckeye State, the Ohio House gave final concurrence to a bill that will allow hunting with suppressors, loosen rules for concealed-weapons permits and other reforms.
Beginning life as a bill that only legislated a repeal in the state’s ban on using legally possessed suppressors while hunting in the state, the measure over time grew to include a number of changes to the state’s concealed carry laws. These include reducing the number of hours required in training, relaxing the residency requirements to apply for a permit, and providing a grace period for renewals by active duty members of the military.
The bill passed the Ohio Senate on Dec. 9 by a large 24-6 margin and was concurred 69-16 by the House on Wednesday. It now proceeds to Gov. John Kasich (R) for consideration.
Read more
America Is Among Least Racist Countries In The World
With all the recent race clanging on MSNBC and other cable news networks, now’s probably a good time to remind everyone that America is among the least racist countries in the world.
I know this statement will be shocking news to regular viewers of “PoliticsNation,” but it also has the quality of being true.
From 2010 to 2014, the World Values Survey asked residents in over 50 countries who they would not want as neighbors. Just over five percent of respondents in the United States said “people of a difference race.” That’s far more tolerant a response than citizens of most European, African and Asian countries gave. As a comparison, 15 percent of Germans, 41 percent of Indians and 22 percent of Japanese said they wouldn’t want to live next to “people of a different race.” The Washington Post depicted the results in a useful chart.
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I know this statement will be shocking news to regular viewers of “PoliticsNation,” but it also has the quality of being true.
From 2010 to 2014, the World Values Survey asked residents in over 50 countries who they would not want as neighbors. Just over five percent of respondents in the United States said “people of a difference race.” That’s far more tolerant a response than citizens of most European, African and Asian countries gave. As a comparison, 15 percent of Germans, 41 percent of Indians and 22 percent of Japanese said they wouldn’t want to live next to “people of a different race.” The Washington Post depicted the results in a useful chart.
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Tell Md. elected officials to reduce pollution from manure
Thanks for keeping this on everyone’s radar! Not only do we want a public hearing, but more importantly, we want AELR to hold the regulation. Here are our points of why we think the PMT regulation should be put on hold by the AELR committee:
- As pointed out in the PMT Economic Impact Study, the cost of implementing the PMT in public funds will be $39 million over 6 years. Of the $39 million, $15.5 million is new funding that is currently not budgeted and would be the next administration’s responsibility to find funds to pay for it. This new funding would most likely come at the expense of proven nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment reduction practices such as the Cover Crop program.
- The Economic Impact Study was not able to determine the added improvement in Phosphorus reduction over and above the Phosphorus Site Index that is currently being used by farmers in their Nutrient Management Plans to control Phosphorus application. Because of this, there is no way to determine if the cost of implementing the PMT is actually viable when compared to other science based tools that are currently coming online and being discovered. MFB believes that there is new and emerging technology being researched and commercialized that will more effectively address Phosphorus in the bay region, without putting farmers out of business. We need to have the limited public funds available to implement these tools versus wasting them on a PMT that most likely won’t address the Phosphorus issue in the Bay.
- Based on Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay current milestone, Maryland agriculture is at 130% of where it needs to be at this time when looking at the 2025 goal for cleaning up the bay. Why implement a tool that will be devastating to a major sector of Maryland Agriculture when Maryland Ag is already 30% ahead of where is needs to be?
- By holding the regulation, this will allow the next administration (the administration that will have to pay for the regulation implementation) the proper amount of time to determine whether full implementation of the regulation is the correct call for Maryland or if there is a better solution.
Feel free to use these talking points if/when you plan to contact the AELR committee.
Colby Ferguson
Director of Government Relations
Maryland Farm Bureau
Presenting The $303 Trillion In Derivatives That US Taxpayers Are Now On The Hook For
Courtesy of the Cronybus(sic) last minute passage, government was provided a quid-pro-quo $1.1 trillion spending allowance with Wall Street's blessing in exchange for assuring banks that taxpayers would be on the hook for yet another bailout, as a result of the swaps push-out provision, after incorporating explicit Citigroup language that allows financial institutions to trade certain financial derivatives from subsidiaries that are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, explicitly putting taxpayers on the hook for losses caused by these contracts. Recall:
MoreFive years after the Wall Street coup of 2008, it appears the U.S. House of Representatives is as bought and paid for as ever. We heard about the Citigroup crafted legislation currently being pushed through Congress back in May when Mother Jones reported on it. Fortunately, they included the following image in their article:
Breaking News: Young Girl Set On Fire In Salisbury
UPDATE: This story has been updated. Click HERE to see the update
Crippling Children By Selling Them Racism
The recent “rash” of police officers killing blacks is prompting “civil rights activists” to describe America — despite the election and re-election of a black president — as still a simmering caldron of racism. Never mind that according to the CDC, in 2012 (the most recent year with available data) 140 blacks were killed by cops — versus 386 whites killed by cops.
This dreary movie scene comes from a film about inner-city black teens called “Menace II Society.” A black high school teacher speaks to two former students: “Being a black man in America isn’t easy. The hunt is on, and you’re the prey! All I’m saying is … all I’m saying is — survive! Alright?” In case the identity of the alleged “hunter” is unclear, we hear a police siren in the background. Cops are out to get young black men.
Ridiculous.
But that gloomy narrative tracks closely with Attorney General Eric Holder’s assertion that America suffers from “pernicious racism.” And a few weeks after the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin shooting happened, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, “Blacks are under attack.”
Absurd.
In 1997, CNN and Time conducted a poll that asked white and black teens about “racism.” Question: Is racism a major problem in America? Both black and white teens said, “yes.” But when black teens were asked if racism is a “big problem,” a “small problem” or “no a problem at all” — in their own lives — 89 percent called racism a “small problem” or “not a problem at all” for themselves.
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This dreary movie scene comes from a film about inner-city black teens called “Menace II Society.” A black high school teacher speaks to two former students: “Being a black man in America isn’t easy. The hunt is on, and you’re the prey! All I’m saying is … all I’m saying is — survive! Alright?” In case the identity of the alleged “hunter” is unclear, we hear a police siren in the background. Cops are out to get young black men.
Ridiculous.
But that gloomy narrative tracks closely with Attorney General Eric Holder’s assertion that America suffers from “pernicious racism.” And a few weeks after the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin shooting happened, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, “Blacks are under attack.”
Absurd.
In 1997, CNN and Time conducted a poll that asked white and black teens about “racism.” Question: Is racism a major problem in America? Both black and white teens said, “yes.” But when black teens were asked if racism is a “big problem,” a “small problem” or “no a problem at all” — in their own lives — 89 percent called racism a “small problem” or “not a problem at all” for themselves.
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Black Leaders Are Committing Black-on-Black Crime
We know about the skyrocketing black-on-black murders in major cities, but there’s a subtle and more insidious form of black-on-black crime that is devouring the souls of millions of black Americans.
After the New York grand jury decision not to charge NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, protesters shut down streets and disrupted businesses.
After the Ferguson grand jury decision exonerating Officer Darren Wilson in the self-defense shooting death of Michael Brown, blacks rioted and looted businesses.
The common thread behind the organized chaos unleashed on innocent people is the incitement by liberal black leaders.
Black-on-black crime is being perpetrated on the souls of black Americans, from the president on down. The crime is committed every time the black leadership deliberately stokes the anger of black people.
Anger consumes and kills the soul.
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After the New York grand jury decision not to charge NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, protesters shut down streets and disrupted businesses.
After the Ferguson grand jury decision exonerating Officer Darren Wilson in the self-defense shooting death of Michael Brown, blacks rioted and looted businesses.
The common thread behind the organized chaos unleashed on innocent people is the incitement by liberal black leaders.
Black-on-black crime is being perpetrated on the souls of black Americans, from the president on down. The crime is committed every time the black leadership deliberately stokes the anger of black people.
Anger consumes and kills the soul.
More
Community College Programs Can Lead To Big Payoffs — In The Right Fields
When it comes to higher education, we've all heard the talking points: More people than ever are pursuing four-year degrees — despite skyrocketing tuition costs — because they don't have many other choices if they want to be competitive in the workforce.
But new research suggests that some community college degrees, which are much less expensive, can significantly increase a student's potential income.
Analyzing seven years of post-graduation data from more than 20,000 students who attended Washington state's 34 community and technical colleges, researchers from Columbia University and the Career Ladders Project in Oakland, Calif., found that programs that take more than a year to complete lead to better employment odds and higher wages — sometimes even more so than a bachelor's degree.
There has been scarce research on community colleges, says Mina Dadgar, one of the study's lead authors and director of research at the Career Ladders Project, leading to the assumption that the schools are less valuable than they really are. The fact that many associate's degrees, particularly in humanities, are meant only to get students in the door at four-year colleges, and thus aren't useful by standard measures, also undermines community colleges' reputations.
In more practical fields, though — including health care, technology and skilled labor — students with community college credentials can make their way into the workforce and immediately start making salaries above $50,000 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor.
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But new research suggests that some community college degrees, which are much less expensive, can significantly increase a student's potential income.
Analyzing seven years of post-graduation data from more than 20,000 students who attended Washington state's 34 community and technical colleges, researchers from Columbia University and the Career Ladders Project in Oakland, Calif., found that programs that take more than a year to complete lead to better employment odds and higher wages — sometimes even more so than a bachelor's degree.
There has been scarce research on community colleges, says Mina Dadgar, one of the study's lead authors and director of research at the Career Ladders Project, leading to the assumption that the schools are less valuable than they really are. The fact that many associate's degrees, particularly in humanities, are meant only to get students in the door at four-year colleges, and thus aren't useful by standard measures, also undermines community colleges' reputations.
In more practical fields, though — including health care, technology and skilled labor — students with community college credentials can make their way into the workforce and immediately start making salaries above $50,000 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor.
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Hillary Clinton's Speaking Skills Raise Doubts
Since stepping down as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton has made hundreds of speeches for which she has been paid handsomely, but her ineffective delivery and frequent gaffes have some questioning her strength as a presidential candidate.
"Given that she has been in public life since 1992, it's a bit incongruous to consider that her speaking style is often so lacking. She has yet to master 'the big speech,' which is part of the toolbox of any major politician," contends The Washington Post's Nia-Malika Henderson.
While making speeches and appearances on behalf of candidates during the midterm elections has kept her name in the public's mind, Clinton's frequent missteps and verbal gaffes exposes her lack of political skills in their mind as well.
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"Given that she has been in public life since 1992, it's a bit incongruous to consider that her speaking style is often so lacking. She has yet to master 'the big speech,' which is part of the toolbox of any major politician," contends The Washington Post's Nia-Malika Henderson.
While making speeches and appearances on behalf of candidates during the midterm elections has kept her name in the public's mind, Clinton's frequent missteps and verbal gaffes exposes her lack of political skills in their mind as well.
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Why Are Big-Box Stores Pricing Barbies Differently By Race?
Are pricing algorithms racist? That’s not really possible, and several big retailers are blaming “pricing errors” for discrepancies in the prices of Barbie dolls of different ethnicities. Shoppers interested in a doll in a figure-skating costume, for example, have to pay $1.99 extra at Walmart for a doll with darker skin and black hair. How does that happen?
After 11 Quarters In A Row, US Households See Net Worth Tumble $141 Billion In Q3
US Household net worth dropped $141 billion in Q3 2014 after rising non-stop on the heels of various QE-inflated stock and real-estate prices for 11 quarters in a row. Mrs. Chairman, get back to work...
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The Challenge Of Drawing Minorities To The Police Force
Since the Ferguson, Mo., shooting, there have been renewed calls for police departments to hire more minority officers, but it turns out it's not that simple.
Police in the U.S. are more diverse than they were a generation ago. In the 1980s, 1 in 6 officers belonged to an ethnic or racial minority. Now it's about 1 in 4. The challenge these days is finding enough recruits to keep that trend going.
The most stubborn diversity problem seems to be in the inner-ring suburbs — places where the population has shifted to majority minority, but that are still served mainly by white police.
White police such as St. Louis County officer Erich Von Almen.
In the days after the August protests in Ferguson, he and his white colleagues were on patrol in Jennings — a neighboring suburb that's also mostly African-American. He says he understood the outcry for more black officers in communities such as this but that it's easier said than done.
"We can't get more black officers. We recruit predominantly at black schools, the military, and for the life of me I don't know why. It's not the best-paying job; they'd probably do better in the private sector. That's all I can think of. But I know it's not for the lack of trying," he says.
You hear that a lot in America's inner-ring suburbs: Departments say they just can't attract enough minority applicants.
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Police in the U.S. are more diverse than they were a generation ago. In the 1980s, 1 in 6 officers belonged to an ethnic or racial minority. Now it's about 1 in 4. The challenge these days is finding enough recruits to keep that trend going.
The most stubborn diversity problem seems to be in the inner-ring suburbs — places where the population has shifted to majority minority, but that are still served mainly by white police.
White police such as St. Louis County officer Erich Von Almen.
In the days after the August protests in Ferguson, he and his white colleagues were on patrol in Jennings — a neighboring suburb that's also mostly African-American. He says he understood the outcry for more black officers in communities such as this but that it's easier said than done.
"We can't get more black officers. We recruit predominantly at black schools, the military, and for the life of me I don't know why. It's not the best-paying job; they'd probably do better in the private sector. That's all I can think of. But I know it's not for the lack of trying," he says.
You hear that a lot in America's inner-ring suburbs: Departments say they just can't attract enough minority applicants.
More
State Of Ky. Withdraws Tax Breaks From Noah's Ark Park
The state of Kentucky has withdrawn its offer of tax breaks for a religious themed park.
The tourism secretary says the Ark Encounter changed from a tourist attraction to a Christian ministry, so state tax incentives cannot support it.
He also said the group was no longer honoring its pledge to not discriminate in hiring for the Ark Park.
The Ark Project was approved in July for up to $18 million dollars in tax rebates.
Soure
The tourism secretary says the Ark Encounter changed from a tourist attraction to a Christian ministry, so state tax incentives cannot support it.
He also said the group was no longer honoring its pledge to not discriminate in hiring for the Ark Park.
The Ark Project was approved in July for up to $18 million dollars in tax rebates.
Soure
Dick Cheney On Senate Torture Investigation: 'The Report Is Full Of Crap'
"The report is full of crap."
That's what former Vice President Dick Cheney told Fox News in an interview about a Senate investigation that found the Central Intelligence Agency used brutal techniques to interrogate terrorism suspects and then misled lawmakers, the White House and Congress about what they were doing.
Cheney was combative and unrepentant, saying both he and President George Bush knew full well the techniques being used on detainees. Bush, he said, was an "integral part of the program" and "had to approve it before we went through with it."
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That's what former Vice President Dick Cheney told Fox News in an interview about a Senate investigation that found the Central Intelligence Agency used brutal techniques to interrogate terrorism suspects and then misled lawmakers, the White House and Congress about what they were doing.
Cheney was combative and unrepentant, saying both he and President George Bush knew full well the techniques being used on detainees. Bush, he said, was an "integral part of the program" and "had to approve it before we went through with it."
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Bank CEO Rips Walmart For Allowing ID Thieves To Spend $12K Without Anyone Noticing
How do ID thieves spend $12,000 in just a couple of hours at Walmart without anyone noticing? Quite easily, apparently. Which is why one CEO of a Texas-based bank is criticizing the nation’s largest retailer.
NBC Dallas/Fort Worth reports that scammers in the Fort Worth area went on a Walmart spending spree over the weekend with fake debit cards created using information stolen from data breaches at other retailers.
The CEO of Citizens National Bank of Texas says that he learned over the weekend that his fraud department had flagged $12,000 worth of Walmart purchases made in the area over the course of only a couple of hours.
“I just wish they would check ID just a little bit,” says the CEO. “If they would just be a little more responsible and check who they were doing business with. Ask for a driver’s license. What’s it take? Two seconds.”
These debit card transactions were presumably processed as credit cards since that doesn’t require the user to enter a PIN.
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NBC Dallas/Fort Worth reports that scammers in the Fort Worth area went on a Walmart spending spree over the weekend with fake debit cards created using information stolen from data breaches at other retailers.
The CEO of Citizens National Bank of Texas says that he learned over the weekend that his fraud department had flagged $12,000 worth of Walmart purchases made in the area over the course of only a couple of hours.
“I just wish they would check ID just a little bit,” says the CEO. “If they would just be a little more responsible and check who they were doing business with. Ask for a driver’s license. What’s it take? Two seconds.”
These debit card transactions were presumably processed as credit cards since that doesn’t require the user to enter a PIN.
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Cop-punching protester busted after strolling into police HQ
His fanny pack landed his butt in jail!
A protester who was locked up on a charge of slugging a cop went to Police Headquarters to pick up his fashion accessory — and was promptly rearrested for attacking another officer on an earlier occasion, police sources said Wednesday.
Yotemeli Sayer, 22, allegedly punched a sergeant during a rally at the Staten Island Ferry’s Whitehall Terminal at 8 p.m. Dec. 4 to protest the Eric Garner grand-jury decision, the sources said.
An hour and half later, he allegedly assaulted another cop at a protest on 14th Street near Eighth Avenue and was arrested in that incident.
Cops confiscated his fanny pack before tossing him in a holding cell.
More/Video
A protester who was locked up on a charge of slugging a cop went to Police Headquarters to pick up his fashion accessory — and was promptly rearrested for attacking another officer on an earlier occasion, police sources said Wednesday.
Yotemeli Sayer, 22, allegedly punched a sergeant during a rally at the Staten Island Ferry’s Whitehall Terminal at 8 p.m. Dec. 4 to protest the Eric Garner grand-jury decision, the sources said.
An hour and half later, he allegedly assaulted another cop at a protest on 14th Street near Eighth Avenue and was arrested in that incident.
Cops confiscated his fanny pack before tossing him in a holding cell.
More/Video
Survey: 4-In-5 Consumers Say They Won’t Be Spending More This Holiday Season
Consumer spending this holiday season got off to a rather slow start last month when fewer people hit up retailers over Black Friday weekend. And that trend of spending less likely won’t change in the final few weeks of 2014 if a new holiday spending survey is to be believed.
Imam Joe Biden Schools an Infidel
The courageous ex-Muslim human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali recently recounted that at a speech in Washington not long ago, she met Vice President Joe Biden. Biden seized the opportunity to tell her that “ISIS had nothing to do with Islam.” Hirsi Ali politely disagreed, whereupon Biden began a lesson in the teachings of the Religion of Peace: “Let me tell you one or two things about Islam.”
Unfortunately, Hirsi Ali didn’t hear much of Imam Joe’s Islamic wisdom: “I politely left the conversation at that. I wasn’t used to arguing with vice presidents.”
This wasn’t just Joe being Joe, saying another foolish thing that, if he were a conservative Republican, would have ended his political career in an avalanche of ridicule long ago. For in confronting Hirsi Ali and assuming he knew more about Islam than she does, Biden was reflecting what virtually every policymaker in Washington believes – on both sides of the aisle.
Even though Ayaan Hirsi Ali was raised a Muslim in a Muslim country, and educated in Islam from an extremely early age, and despite the fact that Joe Biden has almost certainly never opened a Qur’an, Biden was sure that what she said about Islam must be wrong – it just had to be. Why? Because her opinion of the religion was negative, and the possibility that such a view could have any merit whatsoever is inconceivable in Washington circles. Those who hold it must be ignorant.
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Unfortunately, Hirsi Ali didn’t hear much of Imam Joe’s Islamic wisdom: “I politely left the conversation at that. I wasn’t used to arguing with vice presidents.”
This wasn’t just Joe being Joe, saying another foolish thing that, if he were a conservative Republican, would have ended his political career in an avalanche of ridicule long ago. For in confronting Hirsi Ali and assuming he knew more about Islam than she does, Biden was reflecting what virtually every policymaker in Washington believes – on both sides of the aisle.
Even though Ayaan Hirsi Ali was raised a Muslim in a Muslim country, and educated in Islam from an extremely early age, and despite the fact that Joe Biden has almost certainly never opened a Qur’an, Biden was sure that what she said about Islam must be wrong – it just had to be. Why? Because her opinion of the religion was negative, and the possibility that such a view could have any merit whatsoever is inconceivable in Washington circles. Those who hold it must be ignorant.
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17 Items Tucked into Trillion Dollar Spending Bill
Congress is on track to approve a $1.014 trillion,1,603-page annual spending package that includes $512 billion in defense spending and $492 billion in non-defense spending.
The sweeping legislation covers the entire discretionary budget of the federal government. It sets funding priorities and new policies for the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
It does not include entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security, which are funded separately. It also does not include a full year's funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which will only be funded through February, buying Congress more time to engage with President Obama over the nation's immigration policies.
Notable new spending, funding cuts and policies tucked into the bill include:
1. $5.4 billion to treat and fight the spread of the Ebola virus in the U.S. and abroad.
2. $64 billion in war funds to combat the rise of the Islamic State and overseas operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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The sweeping legislation covers the entire discretionary budget of the federal government. It sets funding priorities and new policies for the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
It does not include entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security, which are funded separately. It also does not include a full year's funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which will only be funded through February, buying Congress more time to engage with President Obama over the nation's immigration policies.
Notable new spending, funding cuts and policies tucked into the bill include:
1. $5.4 billion to treat and fight the spread of the Ebola virus in the U.S. and abroad.
2. $64 billion in war funds to combat the rise of the Islamic State and overseas operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Governor-elect Larry Hogan visits Costco distribution facility in Frederick County
John Thelan, senior vice president of depot operations for the Costco Wholesale Corporation, gave the Governor-elect a presentation and a tour of the distribution facility. In his presentation, Mr. Thelan spoke about Frederick’s many advantages, including a central location to both the East Coast and Midwest for distribution of goods, and access to a skilled workforce.
Costco Wholesale wants to build a 593,400-square-foot warehouse in Monrovia, which would join the existing distribution center Governor-elect Hogan visited today. The proposed building would serve as an e-commerce hub and location for returning merchandise to vendors, and is expected to create new jobs and bring business to the region.
“We’re happy to be in Frederick, where Costco has become a staple of our local economy,” said Governor-elect Hogan. “It was a pleasure to meet the dedicated employees at the Costco distribution center, and it is my hope that in a Hogan-Rutherford administration, we can help other companies grow and prosper in Maryland.”
Renting Now Half as Affordable as Buying in the US
As rent soars across the US, Zillow found that renting a home is half as affordable as buying one. In the third quarter of 2014, U.S. renters could expect to spend about 30 percent of their incomes on rent, while those buying homes could expect to spend just 15 percent of their monthly incomes on their mortgage payment.
The report reveals a big shift from the years before the real estate bubble, between 1985 and 2000, when rent was typically more affordable in major metros than buying. Now, in most metros, those who can come up with a down payment are better off buying, in terms of affordability
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Even in the least affordable metros — like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Boston — renting was a more affordable option before the real estate market crash. But since then, rent has increased while the cost of buying a home has fallen in many places, so that renting is now the less affordable option — sometimes by a large margin.
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The report reveals a big shift from the years before the real estate bubble, between 1985 and 2000, when rent was typically more affordable in major metros than buying. Now, in most metros, those who can come up with a down payment are better off buying, in terms of affordability
.Even in the least affordable metros — like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Boston — renting was a more affordable option before the real estate market crash. But since then, rent has increased while the cost of buying a home has fallen in many places, so that renting is now the less affordable option — sometimes by a large margin.
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Banks Get OK to Use Taxpayer Money for Derivative Speculation
Politicians share many of the same skills as magicians. They both use psychological misdirection by making big gestures to distract and fixate spectators, while quietly performing their tricks.
A good example of this is the House and Senate agreeing to raise the budgets for the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and Securities & Exchange Commission in exchange for quietly repealing the Lincoln Amendment to the Dodd Frank financial regulation law. The action looks like more money for tougher regulation, but eliminating the Lincoln Amendment means American banks are once again free to use taxpayer money to back-stop their speculative derivative trading.
Involving government with financial institutions and derivatives has a very nasty history in the United States. It has been 20 years since Orange County, California filed for bankruptcy after losing $2.7 billion from derivatives; 16 years since Long Term Capital Management threatened America’s largest banks with $1 trillion in default risks; and 6 years since AIG’s $14.5 billion defaulted margin call on $20 trillion in derivatives almost wiped out the U.S. banking system and forced taxpayers to fund an $85 billion bailout.
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A good example of this is the House and Senate agreeing to raise the budgets for the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and Securities & Exchange Commission in exchange for quietly repealing the Lincoln Amendment to the Dodd Frank financial regulation law. The action looks like more money for tougher regulation, but eliminating the Lincoln Amendment means American banks are once again free to use taxpayer money to back-stop their speculative derivative trading.
Involving government with financial institutions and derivatives has a very nasty history in the United States. It has been 20 years since Orange County, California filed for bankruptcy after losing $2.7 billion from derivatives; 16 years since Long Term Capital Management threatened America’s largest banks with $1 trillion in default risks; and 6 years since AIG’s $14.5 billion defaulted margin call on $20 trillion in derivatives almost wiped out the U.S. banking system and forced taxpayers to fund an $85 billion bailout.
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Cheney: George W. Bush Was Fully Aware Of The CIA Torture Program
Washington (AFP) - President George W Bush was fully aware and an "integral part" of the CIA's torture of terror suspects, his vice-president Dick Cheney said Wednesday.
The long-awaited US Senate report released Tuesday on the program of harsh treatment and torture of detainees said Bush only learned details of it in 2006, four years after it started in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.
Detainees were beaten, waterboarded -- some of them dozens of times -- and humiliated through the painful use of medically unnecessary "rectal feeding" and "rectal rehydration", the report said.
Speaking to Fox News, Cheney denied Bush was kept out of the loop. He said the then-president "was in fact an integral part of the program and he had to approve it."
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The long-awaited US Senate report released Tuesday on the program of harsh treatment and torture of detainees said Bush only learned details of it in 2006, four years after it started in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.
Detainees were beaten, waterboarded -- some of them dozens of times -- and humiliated through the painful use of medically unnecessary "rectal feeding" and "rectal rehydration", the report said.
Speaking to Fox News, Cheney denied Bush was kept out of the loop. He said the then-president "was in fact an integral part of the program and he had to approve it."
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Md. fire house damaged when truck crashes backing in
The incident occurred Thursday at approximately 10 p.m. as the crew was returning to the station, located at 1411 Cape St. Claire Road, according to a news release. The driver and officer in charge made the decision to back in, and as the vehicle was backed on to the ramp, the driver mistakenly believed he had the bay door lined up in his mirrors.
In fact, the driver had two different bay doors in his mirrors and he backed the trucked into the exterior brick column between the two doors.
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Schlafly: Hatred of men gave rise to UVA rape story
'People who make false accusations about a dangerous crime ought to be punished'
Feminists are distraught now that Rolling Stone has retracted the sensational University of Virginia rape story published last month. Many are continuing to defend “Jackie,” the UVA student whose tale of a horrific gang rape was found to contain numerous holes.
Jessica Valenti, columnist for London’s Guardian newspaper, wrote: “I choose to believe Jackie. I lose nothing by doing so, even if I’m later proven wrong.”
Liberal blogger Melissa McEwan tweeted: “I can’t state this more emphatically: If Jackie’s story is partially or wholly untrue, it doesn’t validate the reasons for disbelieving her.”
Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly believes feminists are so vehemently defending Jackie and her partially discredited allegations because they don’t want to lose out on an anti-male narrative.
“The reason they bought into the story and didn’t have any suspicions about the flakiness of it is antagonism toward men in general,” Schlafly said. “Their cry is they want to abolish the patriarchy, and anything that hurts men is something that pleases the feminists.”
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Feminists are distraught now that Rolling Stone has retracted the sensational University of Virginia rape story published last month. Many are continuing to defend “Jackie,” the UVA student whose tale of a horrific gang rape was found to contain numerous holes.
Jessica Valenti, columnist for London’s Guardian newspaper, wrote: “I choose to believe Jackie. I lose nothing by doing so, even if I’m later proven wrong.”
Liberal blogger Melissa McEwan tweeted: “I can’t state this more emphatically: If Jackie’s story is partially or wholly untrue, it doesn’t validate the reasons for disbelieving her.”
Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly believes feminists are so vehemently defending Jackie and her partially discredited allegations because they don’t want to lose out on an anti-male narrative.
“The reason they bought into the story and didn’t have any suspicions about the flakiness of it is antagonism toward men in general,” Schlafly said. “Their cry is they want to abolish the patriarchy, and anything that hurts men is something that pleases the feminists.”
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UVA Jackie's 'friends' who were blasted in Rolling Stone claim she was 'fine'
Three students who featured prominently in a now under-question Rolling Stone article about rape at the University of Virginia, have revealed their identities to refute their cold portrayal in the sickening story.
The article sent shockwaves through the university community, after the magazine published a female student's account of being gang-raped by seven men at a UVA fraternity two years ago, leading to the temporary shut down of all Greek life at the Charlottesville campus.
Next to victim 'Jackie's' account of the horrifying assault, one of the most appalling aspects of the story are the apathetic reactions of her three friends 'Randall', 'Andy' and 'Cindy' who she called for help after escaping the frat that night in September 2012.
The trio are now coming forward to refute key aspects of the Rolling Stone article, saying that while they believe Jackie was the victim of a 'traumatic' sexual assault they have found several inaccuracies in the article and are skeptical of the story.
Furthermore, the students say they never discouraged her from reporting the assault, and that they only stopped insisting she contact police when she asked to be taken back to her dorm room.
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The article sent shockwaves through the university community, after the magazine published a female student's account of being gang-raped by seven men at a UVA fraternity two years ago, leading to the temporary shut down of all Greek life at the Charlottesville campus.
Next to victim 'Jackie's' account of the horrifying assault, one of the most appalling aspects of the story are the apathetic reactions of her three friends 'Randall', 'Andy' and 'Cindy' who she called for help after escaping the frat that night in September 2012.
The trio are now coming forward to refute key aspects of the Rolling Stone article, saying that while they believe Jackie was the victim of a 'traumatic' sexual assault they have found several inaccuracies in the article and are skeptical of the story.
Furthermore, the students say they never discouraged her from reporting the assault, and that they only stopped insisting she contact police when she asked to be taken back to her dorm room.
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Sheriff Joe Arpaio wins first court battle in lawsuit over Obama amnesty
A report published last night by World Net Daily says a judge has ruled in favor of Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the first battle in what is expected to be a major court fight over the constitutionality of President Obama’s executive amnesty order. Arpaio's lawsuit is now on a fast track for case arguments and hearings.
US District Judge Beryl A. Howell in Washington, DC, granted a motion by Arpaio's attorney, Larry Klayman of FreedomWatch, to allow the case to move along quickly. Howell ordered President Obama to respond to Arpaio’s motion for a preliminary injunction -- to protect the U.S. while the court considers the constitutionality of Obama’s actions -- by Dec. 15. A full preliminary injunction hearing is set for Dec. 22. Two Department of Justice attorneys representing Obama in the case had asked for the deadline for their initial response to be delayed until late January.
"We are very pleased that Judge Howell has ordered an expedited hearing on our motion for preliminary injunction which asks to preserve the status quo and stop the implementation of President Obama’s executive order," Klayman said after the hearing. "The executive order violates the Constitution, as it seeks to circumvent the powers which the Framers delegated to Congress."
Klayman argued during the hearing that Obama’s executive action "thwarts Sheriff Arpaio’s duties and responsibilities as the chief law enforcement officer of Maricopa County, Arizona."
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US District Judge Beryl A. Howell in Washington, DC, granted a motion by Arpaio's attorney, Larry Klayman of FreedomWatch, to allow the case to move along quickly. Howell ordered President Obama to respond to Arpaio’s motion for a preliminary injunction -- to protect the U.S. while the court considers the constitutionality of Obama’s actions -- by Dec. 15. A full preliminary injunction hearing is set for Dec. 22. Two Department of Justice attorneys representing Obama in the case had asked for the deadline for their initial response to be delayed until late January.
"We are very pleased that Judge Howell has ordered an expedited hearing on our motion for preliminary injunction which asks to preserve the status quo and stop the implementation of President Obama’s executive order," Klayman said after the hearing. "The executive order violates the Constitution, as it seeks to circumvent the powers which the Framers delegated to Congress."
Klayman argued during the hearing that Obama’s executive action "thwarts Sheriff Arpaio’s duties and responsibilities as the chief law enforcement officer of Maricopa County, Arizona."
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Buchanan: GOP Leadership Has Same Agenda as Chamber of Commerce
Columnist Pat Buchanan declared "find out what the agenda is of the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable and you will find out what the agenda is of the leadership of the Republican Party on Capitol Hill" on Wednesday's "Hannity" on the Fox News Channel.
"There are parts of the Republican Party, the corporate conservatives or the corporate Republicans, they want an amnesty...and basically they're throwing the Tea Party folks under the bus" he stated. And "I think that the leadership of the Republican Party in its heart would like to fulminate against this, to keep the folks, say 'we fought the good fight, we tried to stop it.' But in the end, I think the Republican leadership will go into the tank on this one." He later added "find out what the agenda is of the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable and you will find out what the agenda is of the leadership of the Republican Party on Capitol Hill"
Buchanan was more optimistic on Obamacare, stating "I think there's things they can do on Obamacare that they will try to do because that is an enormous thing, and that frankly you get a lot of corporate conservatives and others want the battle fought there," but that the GOP would not go for full repeal and replace.
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"There are parts of the Republican Party, the corporate conservatives or the corporate Republicans, they want an amnesty...and basically they're throwing the Tea Party folks under the bus" he stated. And "I think that the leadership of the Republican Party in its heart would like to fulminate against this, to keep the folks, say 'we fought the good fight, we tried to stop it.' But in the end, I think the Republican leadership will go into the tank on this one." He later added "find out what the agenda is of the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable and you will find out what the agenda is of the leadership of the Republican Party on Capitol Hill"
Buchanan was more optimistic on Obamacare, stating "I think there's things they can do on Obamacare that they will try to do because that is an enormous thing, and that frankly you get a lot of corporate conservatives and others want the battle fought there," but that the GOP would not go for full repeal and replace.
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Four young Christians brutally beheaded by ISIS
Four young Christians brutally beheaded by ISIS in Iraq for refusing to convert to Islam, says British Vicar of Baghdad Canon Andrew White
Four young Christians were brutally beheaded by ISIS in Iraq for refusing to convert to Islam, according to a British reverend forced to flee the country.
Canon Andrew White, known as the Vicar of Baghdad, told the horrifying story how of the youths, all under 15, were murdered for standing up to the jihadists.
The vicar of the city’s St George's Church, the only Anglican church in the whole of Iraq, has had to leave the country for Israel amid constant threats on his life by Islamic State.
In a harrowing interview with the Orthodox Christian Network, he said ISIS had killed ‘huge numbers’ of believers in Jesus.
‘Islamic State turned up and said to the children, “you say the words that you will follow Mohammad”’, he said, his voice cracking with emotion.
‘The children, all under 15, four of them, said “no, we love Yesua; we have always loved Yesua; we have always followed Yesua; Yesua has always been with us”.
‘They [ISIS] said, “Say the words.” They [the children] said, “No, we can't”.
‘They chopped all their heads off. How do you respond to that? You just cry.
‘They are my children. That is what we have been going through and that is what we are going through.'
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Four young Christians were brutally beheaded by ISIS in Iraq for refusing to convert to Islam, according to a British reverend forced to flee the country.
Canon Andrew White, known as the Vicar of Baghdad, told the horrifying story how of the youths, all under 15, were murdered for standing up to the jihadists.
The vicar of the city’s St George's Church, the only Anglican church in the whole of Iraq, has had to leave the country for Israel amid constant threats on his life by Islamic State.
In a harrowing interview with the Orthodox Christian Network, he said ISIS had killed ‘huge numbers’ of believers in Jesus.
‘Islamic State turned up and said to the children, “you say the words that you will follow Mohammad”’, he said, his voice cracking with emotion.
‘The children, all under 15, four of them, said “no, we love Yesua; we have always loved Yesua; we have always followed Yesua; Yesua has always been with us”.
‘They [ISIS] said, “Say the words.” They [the children] said, “No, we can't”.
‘They chopped all their heads off. How do you respond to that? You just cry.
‘They are my children. That is what we have been going through and that is what we are going through.'
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Black Police Officer: I’m Called Uncle Tom By Black Community « CBS St. Louis
ST. LOUIS (CBS St. Louis/AP) – Jorge “Jinho” Ferreira feels the tension between being black and carrying a badge every day as a sheriff’s deputy in Alameda County, California.
“I feel like you have to prove yourself on every level,” said Ferreira, 39, who patrols about 30 miles east of San Francisco. “You have to prove yourself to the black community, you have to prove yourself to all of your co-workers, you have to prove yourself to society.”
With the nation roiled by two grand juries’ recent decisions not to indict white police officers in the deaths of unarmed black men, some black officers say that as they enforce the law, they also wonder whether the system they’re sworn to uphold is stacked against black men.
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“I feel like you have to prove yourself on every level,” said Ferreira, 39, who patrols about 30 miles east of San Francisco. “You have to prove yourself to the black community, you have to prove yourself to all of your co-workers, you have to prove yourself to society.”
With the nation roiled by two grand juries’ recent decisions not to indict white police officers in the deaths of unarmed black men, some black officers say that as they enforce the law, they also wonder whether the system they’re sworn to uphold is stacked against black men.
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The CIA Tortured More Than ‘Some Folks’——-And Now The MSM Invites The Perpetrators To Lie, Again
It wasn’t that bad, we’ve been told, over and over again, for more than a decade. “We only waterboarded three people” goes the line American officials have been force-feeding the world for years. “We tortured some folks,” Barack Obama admitted recently, still downplaying war crimes committed in America’s name. But we now know those statements do not even begin to do justice to the horrific activities carried out by the CIA for years – atrocities that now have been exposed by the US Senate’s historic report on the CIA’s torture program, finally released on Tuesday after years of delay.
There are stories in the CIA torture report of “rectal rehydration as a means of behavior control”, threats to murder and “threats to sexually abuse the mother of a detainee” – or cut a mother’s throat. There are details about detainees with broken bones forced to stand for days on end, detainees blindfolded, dragged down hallways while they were beaten. There were even torture sessions that ended in death. The list goes on and on, and on and on.
But beyond all the the depravity, perhaps the most shocking part of this exposed history is the action of US officials who knew these horrors were unfolding – and covered them up.
For years, as the 480-page executive summary of the report documents in meticulous detail, these officials lied to the Senate, the Justice Department, the White House, to the American public and to the world. They prevented CIA officers involved from being disciplined. They investigated and marginalized those who were investigating them. They happily leaked classified information to journalists – much of it false – without worry of consequence.
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There are stories in the CIA torture report of “rectal rehydration as a means of behavior control”, threats to murder and “threats to sexually abuse the mother of a detainee” – or cut a mother’s throat. There are details about detainees with broken bones forced to stand for days on end, detainees blindfolded, dragged down hallways while they were beaten. There were even torture sessions that ended in death. The list goes on and on, and on and on.
But beyond all the the depravity, perhaps the most shocking part of this exposed history is the action of US officials who knew these horrors were unfolding – and covered them up.
For years, as the 480-page executive summary of the report documents in meticulous detail, these officials lied to the Senate, the Justice Department, the White House, to the American public and to the world. They prevented CIA officers involved from being disciplined. They investigated and marginalized those who were investigating them. They happily leaked classified information to journalists – much of it false – without worry of consequence.
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From Republicanism To Tyranny: How Did We Lose Our Rights
If an effort is to be undertaken by Americans in which they are to reclaim their rights under natural law (rights that are being stolen from them every day by the tyrannical fascist American regime), then an understanding of what has transpired to take away those rights must first be achieved. For if one does not know how his rights were taken from him, there is no way he can adequately labor for their return.
The Founding Fathers drafted the Constitution, ostensibly, to create a vehicle to keep a check on government. It was a compact of states, and the document was ratified by the states (see Article VII). It was not ratified by the people in a mass election, but by the states one by one.
The Constitution drafted by the Founders was not intended to form a strong “national” government with heavily centralized power, but as a means to represent a group of states only on matters that concerned them all. The government was given a list of enumerated powers in Article I, Section 8. As James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 14:
In the first place, it is to be remembered, that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any.
In Federalist No. 45 Madison wrote:
The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the State.
The Constitution was not a document designed to restrain the people or the states, but to place restraints on the federal government the Founders were creating. This is an important distinction. It would not have been ratified if not for the promise of a bill of rights to further check the federal government. That’s because most of the Founders — particularly the Anti-Federalists — feared the Constitution wasn’t strong enough to prevent the Federal government from stealing power from the states.
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The Founding Fathers drafted the Constitution, ostensibly, to create a vehicle to keep a check on government. It was a compact of states, and the document was ratified by the states (see Article VII). It was not ratified by the people in a mass election, but by the states one by one.
The Constitution drafted by the Founders was not intended to form a strong “national” government with heavily centralized power, but as a means to represent a group of states only on matters that concerned them all. The government was given a list of enumerated powers in Article I, Section 8. As James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 14:
In the first place, it is to be remembered, that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any.
In Federalist No. 45 Madison wrote:
The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the State.
The Constitution was not a document designed to restrain the people or the states, but to place restraints on the federal government the Founders were creating. This is an important distinction. It would not have been ratified if not for the promise of a bill of rights to further check the federal government. That’s because most of the Founders — particularly the Anti-Federalists — feared the Constitution wasn’t strong enough to prevent the Federal government from stealing power from the states.
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Pimping Passports For Chinese Capital: America's Ingenious Ploy To Raise CapEx From China's Oligrachs
A week ago we wrote how Pennsylvania is financing various state infrastructure projects by selling residency to Chinese "investors" for $500K each. As it turns out, the practice of pimping passports for Chinese capex is hardly new or just isolated to Pennsylvania and is, in fact, massively widespread throughout America's insolvent states whose tax collections are far below budget and which are in desperate need of fresh funds toembezzle invest in random boondoggles.
Case in point, New York, where the Biggest real-estate project in a generation, the Hudson Yards, is now officially financed by 1200 Chinese families in search of visas allowing them to live (and park their stolen cash) in the US.
According to the WSJ, "Developer Related Cos. says it has raised roughly $600 million from the families to build the foundation for three skyscrapers at the West Side project, a 17-million-square-foot colossus of office, retail and residential space set to open over the next decade.
To finance the concrete-steel platform, Related tapped a little-known and at times controversial federal visa program known as EB-5, which offers green cards to foreign families who invest at least $500,000 in U.S. projects that create at least 10 jobs per investor.
The amount brought in so far, which privately held Related hasn’t previously disclosed, is a record for the cash-for-visa program.
Related’s success shows how the once-obscure federal program has grown in popularity among developers and foreign investors since the recession.
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Case in point, New York, where the Biggest real-estate project in a generation, the Hudson Yards, is now officially financed by 1200 Chinese families in search of visas allowing them to live (and park their stolen cash) in the US.
According to the WSJ, "Developer Related Cos. says it has raised roughly $600 million from the families to build the foundation for three skyscrapers at the West Side project, a 17-million-square-foot colossus of office, retail and residential space set to open over the next decade.
To finance the concrete-steel platform, Related tapped a little-known and at times controversial federal visa program known as EB-5, which offers green cards to foreign families who invest at least $500,000 in U.S. projects that create at least 10 jobs per investor.
The amount brought in so far, which privately held Related hasn’t previously disclosed, is a record for the cash-for-visa program.
Related’s success shows how the once-obscure federal program has grown in popularity among developers and foreign investors since the recession.
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Poll: Millionaires Want Jeb or Hillary in White House–and Amnesty
CNBC recently polled "500 people with investable assets of $1 million or more, which represents the top 8 percent of American households," and the poll was "evenly split between Democrats, Republicans and Independent." Clinton received 31% of the vote while Bush received 18%.
According to the poll, "immigration reform" was the second most important priority for millionaires—behind corporate tax reform.
Because of their ties to the bipartisan permanent political class, both Bush and Clinton are distrusted by their respective bases while hailed by their respective political establishments.
Source
Poll: 70 percent Want Congress to Keep Probing IRS
Most American voters want Congress to keep investigating the IRS targeting of conservative political groups, according to the latest Fox News poll.
Seventy percent say the IRS investigation should last until “someone is held accountable.” That’s down from a high of 78 percent in June 2013. Only about one in five thinks it is time to "move on" (22 percent).
Call it a “kumbaya” question, as majorities of Democrats (60 percent), independents (75 percent) and Republicans (78 percent) support lawmakers continuing to dig.
The new poll also asked why the White House is refusing to release thousands of pages of documents related to the IRS targeting. By nearly three-to-one people think it’s because the administration wants to keep its role in the scandal secret (63 percent) rather than to keep taxpayer information confidential (22 percent).
Even Democrats are more likely to say the Obama White House is withholding documents to hide its involvement (45 percent) rather than to protect taxpayers (35 percent). Another 20 percent is unsure.
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Seventy percent say the IRS investigation should last until “someone is held accountable.” That’s down from a high of 78 percent in June 2013. Only about one in five thinks it is time to "move on" (22 percent).
Call it a “kumbaya” question, as majorities of Democrats (60 percent), independents (75 percent) and Republicans (78 percent) support lawmakers continuing to dig.
The new poll also asked why the White House is refusing to release thousands of pages of documents related to the IRS targeting. By nearly three-to-one people think it’s because the administration wants to keep its role in the scandal secret (63 percent) rather than to keep taxpayer information confidential (22 percent).
Even Democrats are more likely to say the Obama White House is withholding documents to hide its involvement (45 percent) rather than to protect taxpayers (35 percent). Another 20 percent is unsure.
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Top 9 Chem Trail Health Effects – HAARP Congress Counts On
This winter of discontent, the New England states have been hit with one after another particularly strange snowstorms. The previous 2007-08 winter was also similar. The snow smells full of chemicals, as it comes down uniformly and looks like manufactured snow that is used on ski slopes (i.e., fluffy, packed powder). Sometimes, the falling snow stops abruptly, and does not trail off, as it used to do. It is definitely not the same snow that, for millions of years, used to be provided by Mother Nature, in all her magnificence.
Snow is now provided by the US military, the Pentagon, and commercial planes especially equipped to dump on us highly toxic aerosols, from various altitudes. No doubt, these chemical mixtures are created in some secret US bio-weapons laboratory. With enormous egotistical hubris, the Air Force is already on record as saying that they "want to own the weather by 2025."(1) No longer a Star Trek or Star Wars movie fantasy, some of this is already a reality with the now more than 60 Clandestine Weather Modification programs that assault us daily. Despite this, there is a weather news blackout about Chemtrails. The exception is meteorologist Kevin Martin who reports Chemtrails on his website.
There has been absolutely NO PUBLIC DISCUSSION about Chemtrails! Over the past 10 years, not one public official has replied to the countless concerned citizen phone calls or letters. That's due to these "programs [being] secret because the Federal EPA and State Environmental Quality Agencies need to ‘not know’ about the by-products of the metabolites of biological, illegal, and [extremely] harmful agents are. It is for that reason the projects [have] been declared secret from citizens. It is all illegal under federal and state law."(2) Congress is complicit in this cover-up. So, we are the unwitting guinea pigs in a now global military assault of such magnitude that they are massive war crimes. Federal agencies may deliberately want not to know, but, nevertheless, Chemtrails continue to affect us detrimentally.
According to United States Code, Title 50, Chapter 32, Section 1520a, it is illegal "to use a civilian population for testing of chemical or biological agents." Will Thomas, who also has been writing about Chemtrails for a decade, has a Chemtrail Petition to Congress posted on his website:www.willthomasonline.net/willthomasonline/Chemtrails_Congressional_Petiti.html
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Snow is now provided by the US military, the Pentagon, and commercial planes especially equipped to dump on us highly toxic aerosols, from various altitudes. No doubt, these chemical mixtures are created in some secret US bio-weapons laboratory. With enormous egotistical hubris, the Air Force is already on record as saying that they "want to own the weather by 2025."(1) No longer a Star Trek or Star Wars movie fantasy, some of this is already a reality with the now more than 60 Clandestine Weather Modification programs that assault us daily. Despite this, there is a weather news blackout about Chemtrails. The exception is meteorologist Kevin Martin who reports Chemtrails on his website.
There has been absolutely NO PUBLIC DISCUSSION about Chemtrails! Over the past 10 years, not one public official has replied to the countless concerned citizen phone calls or letters. That's due to these "programs [being] secret because the Federal EPA and State Environmental Quality Agencies need to ‘not know’ about the by-products of the metabolites of biological, illegal, and [extremely] harmful agents are. It is for that reason the projects [have] been declared secret from citizens. It is all illegal under federal and state law."(2) Congress is complicit in this cover-up. So, we are the unwitting guinea pigs in a now global military assault of such magnitude that they are massive war crimes. Federal agencies may deliberately want not to know, but, nevertheless, Chemtrails continue to affect us detrimentally.
According to United States Code, Title 50, Chapter 32, Section 1520a, it is illegal "to use a civilian population for testing of chemical or biological agents." Will Thomas, who also has been writing about Chemtrails for a decade, has a Chemtrail Petition to Congress posted on his website:www.willthomasonline.net/willthomasonline/Chemtrails_Congressional_Petiti.html
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Indiana woman Kay Kise beaten but refuses to give up car to thieves at gunpoint
An Indianapolis grandmother stood up to a bunch of teenage would-be car thieves by refusing to give them the keys to her minivan.
Kay Kise, 67, had just arrived home and was just getting out of her car when three black males approached her.
One of the teens asked her for directions and then pulled a gun on her.
While gathering her belongings, a teenager approached Mrs Kise outside her van.
'He come up to my car and he said, 'Do you know where Hendricks Place is?'' said Mrs Kise.
'I told him it was just two blocks over and continued grabbing my shopping bags. The next thing you know, I turned back around and he had this gun right in my face,' she told WTHR.
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Kay Kise, 67, had just arrived home and was just getting out of her car when three black males approached her.
One of the teens asked her for directions and then pulled a gun on her.
'He come up to my car and he said, 'Do you know where Hendricks Place is?'' said Mrs Kise.
'I told him it was just two blocks over and continued grabbing my shopping bags. The next thing you know, I turned back around and he had this gun right in my face,' she told WTHR.
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Australia Prepares For World War III, Revives Air Warfare Destroyer Programme
The Abbott government revives the $8.5 billion Air Warfare Destroyer Programme, or AWD, to enhance wartime capabilities of the Royal Australian Navy. The government had also announced a three-point plan that will create a sustainable naval shipbuilding industry that supports shipbuilding jobs, Defence said in a statement.
The government's three-point plan includes working with the industry's best to revive the AWD programme, creating a sovereign submarine industry to avoid a submarine capability gap and creating a naval shipbuilding industry around a fleet of future frigates. The three-point plan is the government's way of showing that it is willing to invest for a safer and secureAustralia.
The looming World War III had been widely reported since the annexation of Crimea by Russian President Vladimir Putin In March, with the Western countries imposing sanctions thereafter. Western countries said the annexation was illegal and had since displayed their hard stance against Russia. Russia's military presence had subsequently become alarming, with NATO intercepting Russian jets in unusual frequency.
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The government's three-point plan includes working with the industry's best to revive the AWD programme, creating a sovereign submarine industry to avoid a submarine capability gap and creating a naval shipbuilding industry around a fleet of future frigates. The three-point plan is the government's way of showing that it is willing to invest for a safer and secureAustralia.
The looming World War III had been widely reported since the annexation of Crimea by Russian President Vladimir Putin In March, with the Western countries imposing sanctions thereafter. Western countries said the annexation was illegal and had since displayed their hard stance against Russia. Russia's military presence had subsequently become alarming, with NATO intercepting Russian jets in unusual frequency.
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Armstrong Williams: Blacks 'Allowed Gov't to Become Their Parents'
When it comes to the plight that faces African-Americans across the country, they only have themselves to blame because they have let government play too much of a role in their lives, Armstrong Williams tells Newsmax.
"If you look at any culture, whether it's Jewish, Irish Americans and many American blacks in this country, and if you think about where they come from and their history and you think what they have been able to do in the United States to make it their foot stool," Williams, host of "The Armstrong Williams Show" told Ed Berliner on Newsmax TV Thursday.
"Why? Because while they realized that they were disenfranchised at one time, they did not allow the government to break down their family, to become their role models, to decide how much you're going to eat . . . how many babies you're going to have, and whether the father is going to be in the household next year," he explained.
"If they break away from that government plantation mentality and realize that they need to gain back their self-worth, self-esteem, work ethic and discipline, then the world around them will begin to change," he added.
According to Williams, "it's not an issue of laziness . . . . It's about personal responsibility and accountability. It's about what you want to become in life.
"Do you want to give your life to the government to run or do you want to live it yourself? "
Read more here
"If you look at any culture, whether it's Jewish, Irish Americans and many American blacks in this country, and if you think about where they come from and their history and you think what they have been able to do in the United States to make it their foot stool," Williams, host of "The Armstrong Williams Show" told Ed Berliner on Newsmax TV Thursday.
"Why? Because while they realized that they were disenfranchised at one time, they did not allow the government to break down their family, to become their role models, to decide how much you're going to eat . . . how many babies you're going to have, and whether the father is going to be in the household next year," he explained.
"If they break away from that government plantation mentality and realize that they need to gain back their self-worth, self-esteem, work ethic and discipline, then the world around them will begin to change," he added.
According to Williams, "it's not an issue of laziness . . . . It's about personal responsibility and accountability. It's about what you want to become in life.
"Do you want to give your life to the government to run or do you want to live it yourself? "
Read more here
Confident Biden sets timeline for presidential candidacy
Vice President Biden said Tuesday he’ll make up his mind about whether to run for president “at the end of the spring or early summer.”
"I honest to God haven't made up my mind,” Biden said at a ‘Women Rule’ event hosted by Politico. “I'm confident I'd be in a position to be competitive."
"The one thing that moves me — I think that I have the ability to bring the sides together,” he added.
Biden’s daughter Ashley appeared on stage with him at the event, and called his potential presidential aspirations a “family decision.”
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"I honest to God haven't made up my mind,” Biden said at a ‘Women Rule’ event hosted by Politico. “I'm confident I'd be in a position to be competitive."
"The one thing that moves me — I think that I have the ability to bring the sides together,” he added.
Biden’s daughter Ashley appeared on stage with him at the event, and called his potential presidential aspirations a “family decision.”
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Central Banks Have Failed Because They Can't Push Wages Higher
You can print all the money you want, but it will never boost wages to keep up with prices.
Central banks have been pursuing two goals for the past six years: ignite inflation and an expansion of debt that will supposedly generate "growth." Despite squandering trillions of dollars, yen, yuan and euros, central banks have failed to ignite sustainable inflation or growth.
There's nothing mysterious about their failure: you can't get "good" inflation or growth if wages are stagnant or declining.
The central banks don't bother to distinguish between "good" and "bad" inflation: any and all inflation is considered not only wonderful but essential to propping up the Ponzi scheme of debt-dependent consumption, a dynamic I described in Central Banks Create Deflation, Not Inflation.
"Good" inflation is wages rising faster than prices. When wages rise faster than consumer prices, households have more money to spend on consumption, and it's progressively easier for them to pay down debt and support additional borrowing.
"Bad" inflation is prices rising while wages stagnate. In "bad" inflation, prices keep rising as central bank money-printing devalues the currency, but wages don't rise along with prices. As a result, wages decline in real terms, i.e. purchasing power.
Central banks have been pursuing two goals for the past six years: ignite inflation and an expansion of debt that will supposedly generate "growth." Despite squandering trillions of dollars, yen, yuan and euros, central banks have failed to ignite sustainable inflation or growth.
There's nothing mysterious about their failure: you can't get "good" inflation or growth if wages are stagnant or declining.
The central banks don't bother to distinguish between "good" and "bad" inflation: any and all inflation is considered not only wonderful but essential to propping up the Ponzi scheme of debt-dependent consumption, a dynamic I described in Central Banks Create Deflation, Not Inflation.
"Good" inflation is wages rising faster than prices. When wages rise faster than consumer prices, households have more money to spend on consumption, and it's progressively easier for them to pay down debt and support additional borrowing.
"Bad" inflation is prices rising while wages stagnate. In "bad" inflation, prices keep rising as central bank money-printing devalues the currency, but wages don't rise along with prices. As a result, wages decline in real terms, i.e. purchasing power.
Somebody Is Manipulating the Numbers: ‘In The Realm Of Economics A Change Of This Magnitude Is A Collapse’
A paradigm shift is coming. Judgment Day… is inevitable
According to the U.S. government the American economy grew at an astounding 3.8% last quarter, signaling to many that the recession responsible for wiping out trillions in wealth and millions of jobs over the last six years is finally over.
But is it?
Or have the Gross Domestic Product statistics joined the same Bizarro world within which the fabricated unemployment numbers and historic stock market highs are being used to convince Americans that the recovery is complete and boom times are sure to return?
According to the X22 Report, something just doesn’t seem right.
We’re not seeing many corporations hire here. They are laying off at this point. This is why we are seeing the retail sales completely falling. We have an unemployment rate of 5.8%, but prior years the unemployment rate was higher but we had better sales.
Somebody is manipulating the numbers… and we know who that ‘somebody’ is… it’s the U.S. government and central bankers.
In the real world, where people regularly eat food, we see inflation… and if we really calculate it out we see inflation is around 10%…when we subtract a realistic estimate of inflation, once we get even close to 10%, suddenly a negative 11% on Black Friday becomes negative 20%.
Black Friday shopping in the U.S. this year plummeted by 20% or more.
In the realm of economics a year-over-year change of this magnitude is not a plunge. It is a collapse.
More
According to the U.S. government the American economy grew at an astounding 3.8% last quarter, signaling to many that the recession responsible for wiping out trillions in wealth and millions of jobs over the last six years is finally over.
But is it?
Or have the Gross Domestic Product statistics joined the same Bizarro world within which the fabricated unemployment numbers and historic stock market highs are being used to convince Americans that the recovery is complete and boom times are sure to return?
According to the X22 Report, something just doesn’t seem right.
We’re not seeing many corporations hire here. They are laying off at this point. This is why we are seeing the retail sales completely falling. We have an unemployment rate of 5.8%, but prior years the unemployment rate was higher but we had better sales.
Somebody is manipulating the numbers… and we know who that ‘somebody’ is… it’s the U.S. government and central bankers.
In the real world, where people regularly eat food, we see inflation… and if we really calculate it out we see inflation is around 10%…when we subtract a realistic estimate of inflation, once we get even close to 10%, suddenly a negative 11% on Black Friday becomes negative 20%.
Black Friday shopping in the U.S. this year plummeted by 20% or more.
In the realm of economics a year-over-year change of this magnitude is not a plunge. It is a collapse.
More
SFD Calls For Service 12-12-14
- Friday December, 12 2014 @ 21:25Nature: Medical EmergencyCity:Salisbury
- Friday December, 12 2014 @ 20:32 Nature: Citizen AssistAddress: 2710 N Salisbury Blvd Salisbury, MD 21801
- Friday December, 12 2014 @ 17:58 Nature: Automatic AlarmAddress: 1117 E Church St Salisbury, MD 21801
- Friday December, 12 2014 @ 16:17Nature: Medical EmergencyCity:Salisbury
- Friday December, 12 2014 @ 15:59Nature: Medical EmergencyCity:Salisbury
Central Banks Create Deflation, Not Inflation
Financial and risk bubbles don't pop in a vacuum--all the phantom collateral constructed with mal-invested free money for financiers will also implode.
If there's one absolute truism we hear again and again, it's that central banks are desperately trying to create inflation. Perversely, their easy-money policies actually generation the exact opposite: deflation.
I will leave the debate as to what constitutes deflation to my economic betters. My definition of deflation is simple: deflation is any increase in the purchasing power of nominal wages.
By nominal I mean unadjusted: $1 is simply $1. It is not seasonally adjusted or adjusted for inflation/deflation or anything else.
When your paycheck loses purchasing power--that is, it buys fewer goods and services-- that's inflation. When your paycheck gains in purchasing power--it buys more goods and services, even though you didn't get a raise--that's deflation in my terminology.
I find that purchasing power cuts through a lot of economic jargon and data-clutter: how much does your paycheck buy today, compared to last month or last year?
Since the economy is dynamic, purchasing power is constantly increasing or decreasing on a variety of goods and services. This bedevils any attempt to discern systemic inflation/deflation.
The Federal Reserve and other central banks desperately want inflation, even though it destroys the purchasing power of paychecks and savings, for one reason:in a system based on phantom collateral supporting ever-increasing mountains of debt, the Prime Directive of central banks is to make it ever easier to service yesterday's debt.
The only systemic way to make it easier to service existing debt is to inflate the nominal value of money by debasing the currency. The net result of inflated money is a debt of $100 stays $100, but the face value of newly issued money keeps rising.
If there's one absolute truism we hear again and again, it's that central banks are desperately trying to create inflation. Perversely, their easy-money policies actually generation the exact opposite: deflation.
I will leave the debate as to what constitutes deflation to my economic betters. My definition of deflation is simple: deflation is any increase in the purchasing power of nominal wages.
By nominal I mean unadjusted: $1 is simply $1. It is not seasonally adjusted or adjusted for inflation/deflation or anything else.
When your paycheck loses purchasing power--that is, it buys fewer goods and services-- that's inflation. When your paycheck gains in purchasing power--it buys more goods and services, even though you didn't get a raise--that's deflation in my terminology.
I find that purchasing power cuts through a lot of economic jargon and data-clutter: how much does your paycheck buy today, compared to last month or last year?
Since the economy is dynamic, purchasing power is constantly increasing or decreasing on a variety of goods and services. This bedevils any attempt to discern systemic inflation/deflation.
The Federal Reserve and other central banks desperately want inflation, even though it destroys the purchasing power of paychecks and savings, for one reason:in a system based on phantom collateral supporting ever-increasing mountains of debt, the Prime Directive of central banks is to make it ever easier to service yesterday's debt.
The only systemic way to make it easier to service existing debt is to inflate the nominal value of money by debasing the currency. The net result of inflated money is a debt of $100 stays $100, but the face value of newly issued money keeps rising.
Video Captures Exactly Why It Bugs So Many People When Cops Turn Their Lights on Just Before Crossing an Intersection
LANGUAGE WARNING ON VIDEO
We’ve all seen it. We’re waiting at a red light when a police officer waiting there with us decides to throw on his lights and cross through the intersection. Now a video shows exactly why that annoys so many people.
Before going any further, we should note that it’s unclear if the officer in this video actually got a call the moment he approached the intersection, was possibly going to a call without his lights and sirens on so as to not tip off his presence, or was simply using his authority to blow off the red light. But either way, the video still shows exactly what can happen when officers do it for valid or invalid purposes.
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We’ve all seen it. We’re waiting at a red light when a police officer waiting there with us decides to throw on his lights and cross through the intersection. Now a video shows exactly why that annoys so many people.
Before going any further, we should note that it’s unclear if the officer in this video actually got a call the moment he approached the intersection, was possibly going to a call without his lights and sirens on so as to not tip off his presence, or was simply using his authority to blow off the red light. But either way, the video still shows exactly what can happen when officers do it for valid or invalid purposes.
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Volunteers Honored by Wicomico County’s Recreation, Parks & Tourism at Annual Banquet
Salisbury, MD – Each year, community members dedicate over 4,000 hours of time to Wicomico County’s Recreation, Parks and Tourism Department. These volunteers, who are working to make a positive difference in Wicomico County, were honored at the annual Volunteer Appreciation and Sportsmanship Awards Banquet on Tuesday, December 9 at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center.
Nearly 20 volunteers were nominated this year by their peers. Based on the nominations submitted, the Recreation Commission presented awards to the following recipients.
Award recipients included:
Outstanding Youth Volunteer Award: Trevor Owens
Outstanding Youth Sportsmanship Award: Fallon Harvill
Outstanding Youth Coach Sportsmanship Award: Steve Sidell
Outstanding Community Volunteer Award: Nancy Springer & Jane Sonnier
Environmental Improvement Volunteer Award: “I Love Salisbury” SU SGA
Outstanding Business Booster Award: Schmidt’s Bakery
Outstanding Civic Booster Award: Steve Gustus
Outstanding Citizen Volunteer Award: Ellis Crump
Outstanding Sports Coach Award: Allen Seaton
Outstanding Tourism Volunteer: Rotary Club of Salisbury
Outstanding Recreation Council Volunteer: Krossin’ Lanez Biker Club
Nearly 20 volunteers were nominated this year by their peers. Based on the nominations submitted, the Recreation Commission presented awards to the following recipients.
Award recipients included:
Outstanding Youth Volunteer Award: Trevor Owens
Outstanding Youth Sportsmanship Award: Fallon Harvill
Outstanding Youth Coach Sportsmanship Award: Steve Sidell
Outstanding Community Volunteer Award: Nancy Springer & Jane Sonnier
Environmental Improvement Volunteer Award: “I Love Salisbury” SU SGA
Outstanding Business Booster Award: Schmidt’s Bakery
Outstanding Civic Booster Award: Steve Gustus
Outstanding Citizen Volunteer Award: Ellis Crump
Outstanding Sports Coach Award: Allen Seaton
Outstanding Tourism Volunteer: Rotary Club of Salisbury
Outstanding Recreation Council Volunteer: Krossin’ Lanez Biker Club
Jeb Bush Has a Mitt Romney Problem
Over the last several months, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has been giving speeches, campaigning for candidates, appearing at public forums, and meeting with wealthy donors, which has led many people to believe that he may soon enter the race to become the next Republican presidential nominee. On Dec. 1, Bush told a gathering of business leaders at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington that he would make a decision about his political future “in short order.” But Bush’s recent business ventures reveal that he shares a number of liabilities with the last nominee, Mitt Romney, whose career in private equity proved so politically damaging that it sunk his candidacy.
Documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 27 list Bush as chairman and manager of a new offshore private equity fund, BH Global Aviation, which raised $61 million in September, largely from foreign investors. In November the fund incorporated in the United Kingdom and Wales—a structure, several independent finance lawyers say, that operates like a tax haven by allowing overseas investors to avoid U.S. taxes and regulations.
BH Global Aviation is one of at least three such funds Bush has launched in less than two years through his Coral Gables, Fla., company, Britton Hill Holdings. He’s also chairman of a $26 million fund, BH Logistics, established in April with backing from a Chinese conglomerate, and a $40 million fund involved in shale oil exploration, according to documents filed in June and first reported on by Bloomberg News. His flurry of ventures doesn’t suggest someone preparing to run for president, according to a dozen fund managers, lawyers, and private-placement agents who were apprised of his recent activities by Bloomberg Businessweek. Most private equity funds have a life span of 10 years. While it isn’t impossible that Bush could bail on his investors so soon after taking their money, “that would be unusual,” says Steven Kaplan, a private equity expert at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. One fundraiser for private equity adds that normally you’d be winding down such businesses, rather than expanding them, if you were going to run.
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Documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 27 list Bush as chairman and manager of a new offshore private equity fund, BH Global Aviation, which raised $61 million in September, largely from foreign investors. In November the fund incorporated in the United Kingdom and Wales—a structure, several independent finance lawyers say, that operates like a tax haven by allowing overseas investors to avoid U.S. taxes and regulations.
BH Global Aviation is one of at least three such funds Bush has launched in less than two years through his Coral Gables, Fla., company, Britton Hill Holdings. He’s also chairman of a $26 million fund, BH Logistics, established in April with backing from a Chinese conglomerate, and a $40 million fund involved in shale oil exploration, according to documents filed in June and first reported on by Bloomberg News. His flurry of ventures doesn’t suggest someone preparing to run for president, according to a dozen fund managers, lawyers, and private-placement agents who were apprised of his recent activities by Bloomberg Businessweek. Most private equity funds have a life span of 10 years. While it isn’t impossible that Bush could bail on his investors so soon after taking their money, “that would be unusual,” says Steven Kaplan, a private equity expert at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. One fundraiser for private equity adds that normally you’d be winding down such businesses, rather than expanding them, if you were going to run.
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Inside the 'traditional' tribal wedding ceremony that still takes place in Kenya
Clad in tribal jewellery and with their hair tied up in braids, some of the women can be seen struggling as they are hauled away, traded by their fathers for 20 goats, three camels, and ten cows.
Many of the girls, who are members of the Pokot tribe, are not aware they have been bargained away until their husbands come to collect them after spending a month in isolation before the ceremony takes place.
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Swiss company offers to turn cremated ashes of loved ones into gems
When a loved one passes, most keep their memory alive with pictures and by visiting burial sites, but some take it one step further, by turning the remains of a family member into a diamond.
Swiss company Algordanza has been turning human cremation ashes into 'memorial diamonds' for a decade.
The unusual keepsakes are made at a temperature between 1,600 and 2,000 degrees, and have a starting price of £2,800.
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Swiss company Algordanza has been turning human cremation ashes into 'memorial diamonds' for a decade.
The unusual keepsakes are made at a temperature between 1,600 and 2,000 degrees, and have a starting price of £2,800.
More
Football fan sees spectator sexting in front of her boyfriend
A man named 'Lye' has written about his experiences confronting a stranger at a Detroit Lions football game, after he claims he saw the man's very pregnant girlfriend 'romantically texting' another man throughout the match.
At the end of the game, Lye handed the man a note revealing the alleged adulterous text messages, and later posted a picture of the note and the pair he claimed to be the couple to Facebook.
Those images have since gone viral and are now sparking a heated debate online about whether it's appropriate to wade into a complete stranger's relationship.
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