Category Archives: Of Interest

Fewer Civil Liberties! Why?

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As always, do your research:

Meet the Senators who recently voted to destroy your civil liberties

There were a few handful of Republicans who voted against it, and they should be commended

By Michael Kriegar –

Yesterday, I published a post warning about an amendment to be put up for a vote in the U.S. Senate that would severely harm the civil liberties of American citizens. I was very disappointed to see an unusually low amount of reads on that particular post, which came in well below average despite being such an important issue.

Well it turns out John McCain’s amendment 4787 came up for a vote earlier today, and it was stopped by one vote. Yes, by one vote.

So what’s at stake? Let’s review an excerpt from yesterday’s post, Republican Senators Use Orlando Shooting to Push for Increased Government Spying Powers:

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell set up a vote late on Monday to expand the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s authority to use a secretive surveillance order without a warrant to include email metadata and some browsing history information.

The amendment would broaden the FBI’s authority to use so-called National Security Letters to include electronic communications transaction records such as time stamps of emails and the emails’ senders and recipients.

NSLs do not require a warrant and are almost always accompanied by a gag order preventing the service provider from sharing the request with a targeted user.

Sounds pretty important, but no one seemed to care yesterday. Fortunately, the vote (barely) went the right way, but Mitch McConnell switched his vote to NO at the end just so that he could regroup and push for another vote.

As US News reported:

Privacy-minded senators on Wednesday blocked an amendment that would give the FBI power to take internet records, including browser histories and email metadata, without a court order. But the victory may be fleeting.

Just one vote kept the measure from clearing a 60-vote procedural hurdle, and political arm-twisting may soon result in a second vote. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., switched his vote to “no” to allow reconsideration in the near future. That made the final tally 58-38, with four senators not voting.

As such, it’s very important that everyone understand where their Senators stand on this issue. Notably, Mr. fake “libertarian” Ted Cruz, who always pretends to care about civil liberties, voted in favor of giving the FBI more unconstitutional powers. There were a few handful of Republicans who voted against it, and they should be commended. They are:

Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
Cory Gardner (Colorado)
Rand Paul (Kentucky)
Steve Daines (Montana)
Dean Heller (Nevada)
Mike Lee (Utah)

To find out how your Senator voted, click here, and let them know how you feel.

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

from:     https://www.intellihub.com/meet-the-senators-who-recently-voted-to-destroy-your-civil-liberties/

EU Train to World Control

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Meanwhile, the news media and anti-EU politicians concentrated on the topic of immigration, leaving the general public in fear of increasing migrants who will drain the economy and swarm their towns (source).

This same fear mongering happened in Norway when they held a referendum in 1994 (source); yet Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland, as non-EU members within Europe, enjoy some of the highest living standards in the world.

Iceland was also the only country to put bankers in prison instead of bail them out (source) and Norway will ban the sale of all fossil fuel-based cars in the next decade (source).

But inside the EU, a member country has the ability to influence the laws of 507 million people. Surely it makes sense to be part of a group of nations working together for a shared common good?

How The EU Works

Let’s have a look at how the EU works:

First, there is the European Parliament, where MEPs are elected by the general public to represent them; their job is to vote for or against proposed new EU laws.

Next there is the European Council, where the nations’ leaders meet; yet their job is also not to propose new legislation.

That is the role of the European Commission, which consists of 28 commissioners — one for each member country. These people are not elected but chosen by each country’s current leader. It is these unelected commissioners who create the laws, not the leaders or MEPs we vote in.

It is also important to note that the 2007 Treaty of Lisbon replaced all previous treaties as the new EU constitution; in this treaty, it is also almost impossible for any country to petition a law once it has been put in force (source).

The ERT

So where are these Commissioners getting their ideas for the laws? They come from the The European Round Table of Industrialists. The ERT consists of “around 50 Chief Executives and Chairmen of major multinational companies” and the ERT was formed with the express intention of shaping and furthering EU integration (source).

For example, in January 1985, the ERT presented “Europe 1990 – an agenda for action,” an action plan for the single market; 10 days later Jacques Delors, the new President of the Commission, gave his speech about the single market in parliament, and in June 1985, the Single Market White Paper was published, which was a copy and paste from the ERT action plan (source).

Today the ERT have a website, but in the 1990s they were extremely secretive, and in 1991 they quietly published their report called “Reshaping Europe.”

In 1997 they negotiated a trade agreement at the OECD called the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), which allowed corporations to sue governments if EU laws increasing environmental protection, improving labor standards, securing equal treatment for women, or taxing capital impeded on their profits (source).

The proposal was leaked and the agreement fell through, so the ERT put the agreement forward again under the name MIA at the WTO, but this time the commissioners resigned due to several counts of fraud and the MIA was also never passed (source).

Trade Agreements

Maybe you have heard about TTIP or CETA? These are new versions of this same trade agreement which now incorporate the USA and Canada, as corporations push harder than ever for their monopoly over governments to be enforced for the greater good.

Greenpeace Netherlands leaked copies of TTIP, stating, “Whether you care about environmental issues, animal welfare, labour rights or internet privacy, you should be concerned about what is in these leaked documents” (source).

Europe, Inc. is another non-profit report showing the dangerous liaisons between industry and EU institutions as well as other international institutions, such as the OECD, WTO, and the United Nations.

But surely none of this really matters because we can trust the EU to ultimately make decisions that are best for the people, right?

In 2002, Marta Andreasen was employed by the European Commission as Chief Accountant, but when she approached the Commission because huge sums of EU monies were unaccounted for, the Commission fired her for “failure to show sufficient loyalty and respect.” When Marta took this to the EU court, she was found guilty of refusing to sign accounts that she believed were unreliable, and she lost her pension (source).

One month after the economy collapsed in 2008, the then President of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, appointed The Independent High Level Group on Financial Supervision. But this was not a group of independent economic experts; it was a group of eight men linked to Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs — three of the US banks that caused the crisis in the first place.

For Greece, the decision was made to have the general public’s bank accounts frozen (source), withdrawals limited (source), and deposits taxed (source), and when the people of Greece voted on rejecting further loans from the EU in 2015 (source),  the EU threatened to punish Greece further (source).

If corporations and banks are deciding what laws the commissioners should create, if politicians are cooperating with these corporations and banks, and if the decision-making processes by these corporations, banks, and politicians are deliberately being carried out in secret, is it enough for us to just say that this is the world we live in today? Where is the EU heading?

Within the EU itself, it is no secret that the goal is to build a superstate renamed the United States of Europe (1, 2, 3), with its own central government (source) and an EU army (source), as well as EU border and coast guards and a European CIA (source).

The EU’s CIA does now exist, Eurojust is also being given power to start criminal investigations and prosecutions, and Europol is the European Union’s police force.

Meanwhile, the EU is blocking its borders to the humanitarian crisis caused by wars that it is supporting, and it is increasingly being called “Fortress Europe” (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).

USA Getting Involved

usa army eu The USA is also sending in a wave of military assistance to provide “a visible symbol of U.S. commitment to the region and our European allies” (1, 2, 3, 4).

Have we not learned from history that when the economic situation gets increasingly worse for the general public (1, 2, 3, 4), and people start to act out of fear towards others (1, 2), they turn a blind eye to their own government’s role in the treatment of others around the world (source), they accept the removal of all their civil rights (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), and they sign up for war (source), which only increases hatred and propagates more violence (source)?

We also know from history that this situation is a potential recipe for fascism, dictatorship, and a police state (1, 2, 3, 4, 5); yet we still cling on to the notion that democracy means letting these people run things on our behalf.

A recent study by Princeton University has statistically proven that the USA is now covertly ruled by a small group of people in government, big business, media, and the intelligence services. Does the evidence presented here not suggest that this is also the case in Europe?

People say there is nothing we can do, but this system only functions because we cooperate. We blame society, but we are society. The question is, when are we going to speak out — at work, in public, on social media — and proudly shout out “no more!”?

WUWE is a project to promote critical thinking and inspire positive systemic change by raising awareness of global issues not covered in mainstream media; please support us on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, or subscribe for our latest updates here.

 

from:    http://www.collective-evolution.com/2016/06/22/brexit-unitedstatesofeurope/

 

Is Texas Next?

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SPUTNIK NEWS

The UK’s Brexit referendum has inspired an activist group from Texas named Texas Nationalist Movement to organize its own voting in a bid to secede from the United States. That’s according to the Guardian newspaper, citing president of the organization Daniel Miller. Sputnik spoke to Miller in an interview.

“Recent polling in 2014 showed that 54% of Republicans, about half of independent voters and over a third of democrats believe that Texas should become an independent nation,” Miller said.

Map of the world
© Photo: Pixabay

He said that he is confident that if Texans gets the chance to go to the polls and vote on this issue after a free and full debate, “Texans would choose to live under free governance.”Talking about whether he received any feedback from the Washington on this matter, Miller said that the Federal Government, aside from the response that they gave in relation to the White House, has responded with silence and indifference.

“The Federal Government has its own set of problems to deal with at this point. Whether it is the economy or massive unrestricted immigration, war issues, the Federal Government has a lot on its plate and it does not know how to handle it,” Miller told Sputnik.

He further said that as the referendum draws closer, the Federal Government will react in a way similar to how they have reacted to Brexit.

Talking about the issues that Texas could end up facing if it separates from the United States, Miller said that it is important to separate facts from fear.

“They want people to fear governing themselves so that they have the power. What the opposition has to offer the people of Texas has been centered on fear. If Texas was standing as an independent nation right now, could this opposition convince Texas to join a nation that has 90 trillion dollars’ worth of national debt?” the president of the organization said.

Miller further said, “Would it join the nation that has 175,000 pages of federal laws and regulations? I do not believe that anyone can make a case at this moment in time for Texas to join the Union, so therefore, it is easy for us to make the case that we should leave the union.”

He further said that the fact is not whether to choose to stay or to leave, but the fact is that just like in the UK it is important to be able to debate on this.

“We have to be able to show that it is possible for the first world powers, for major economic powers to go and have public debates, to have adult conversation about governance and then to go and have a vote on it and that’s all we are asking for,” Miller concluded.

The latest initiative of Texas Nationalist Movement is not the first attempt to hold a referendum in a bid to secede from the United States. Back in 2012 a similar “Texit” petition gathered more than one hundred twenty five thousand votes, but was shot down by the White House.

Texas was an independent republic from 1836 to 1845, when the United States annexed it. Texas Nationalist Movement emerged in the late 1990s and is reportedly backed by more than two hundred sixty thousand Texans.

Its member’s campaign for the state’s secession, arguing Texas would be politically and economically better off as an independent country.

from:    http://www.amtvmedia.com/why-texas-wants-its-independence/

Gold is on the Move

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ZERO HEDGE

Bonds & Bullion are manically bid overnight as the last 5 days of complacent risk-on exuberance has collapsed into a worst-case-scenario “Brexit” raising doubts about the EU’s sustability and dragging central bank experimental ideas into farce…

This is the biggest spike in gold in 7 years back to 27-month highs…

 

and bonds are screaming to record highs…

 

As 30Y yields near record lows…

from:

Time to Take Back Your Power

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The Reason Bilderberg Does Not Matter

By Elle –

Frank Somma

Derrick Broze released a video this week entitled ‘Stop Paying Attention to Bilderberg, Claim your Power’.

The year was 2005, Luke Rudowski lead a march of nearly 1000 people though Manhattan chanting ‘9/11 was an inside job’ and ‘Who Knocked the Towers Down? Bush Knocked Down the Towers’.  We were sharing the message with the world, we were spreading the truth far and wide, we were educating the masses.Over the next 10 years there have been more false flag attacks, there have been some legitimate terrorist attacks and there has been constant and never ending war.  The mainstream media has started to cover what used to be the domain of Alex Jones and David Icke.  The Guardian writes stories about groups such as Bilderberg now.  The goal of those 1000 people, chanting and marching has been achieved.

The truth movement is mainstream, EVERYONE knows that there is a possibility that 9/11 was an inside job, whether they believe it or not, they know that it is a possibility.  EVERYONE knows that Bilderberg, the Trilateral Commission and Skull and Bones mold the leaders of the future.  Everyone saw ‘Don’t Taze me Bro’.  We all know the worlds elites are corrupt and some of them are absolutely mad.

So what?  What do we do?

When The Bundy Ranch standoff occurred there were many pundits making statements claiming that a rag tag group of constitutionalists cannot stand up to drone strikes and the might of the US Military.  The same is true of the masses vs the elite. We DO NOT stand a chance if we are fighting them on their terms.

The solution is not to point cameras in their face, the solution is not to pay thousands of dollars in traveling fees to follow them around like the Grateful Dead.  The solution is to become unbound by their rules and regulations.

If the elite make the masses eat GMO, grow our own food.  If the elite make the masses watch CNN and BBC, then you watch AMTV and TYT.  If the elite make you take out a loan to go to school, buy a car and own a home, then find an alternative solution.

The answer to your problems is not to point the finger at some mysterious bogeyman, the answer is to take control of your own life.  Make the change you want to see in the world today, share it with your friends and family, become a positive role model.  Forget the mass media, forget the elite control grid, forget general consensus, be your own person and create your own path in this world.

from:    http://www.zengardner.com/bilderberg-not-matter/

More on Mind Control

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Mind Control Achieved Through The “Information Flicker Effect”

By Jon Rappoport –

image_print

By Jon Rappoport
Contributor, ZenGardner.com

I wrote this piece in 2012, in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting. I re-post it now, because it equally applies to the Orlando shooting.

No, I’m not talking about the flicker of the television picture. I’m talking about an on-off switch that controls information conveyed to the television audience.

The Sandy Hook school murders provide an example.

First of all, elite media coverage of this tragedy has one goal: to provide an expanding narrative of what happened. It’s a story. It has a plot.

In order to tell the story, there has to be a source of information. The topflight television anchors are getting their information from…where?

Their junior reporters? Not really. Ultimately, the information is coming from the police, and secondarily from local officials.

In other words, very little actual journalism is happening. The media anchors are absorbing, arranging, and broadcasting details given to them by the police investigators.

The anchors are PR people for the cops.

This has nothing to do with journalism. Nothing.

The law-enforcement agencies investigating the Sandy Hook shootings on the scene, in real time, were following up on leads? We don’t know what leads they were following and what leads they were discarding. We don’t know what mistakes they were making. We don’t know what evidence they were overlooking or intentionally ignoring.

The police were periodically giving out information to the media. The anchors were relaying this information to the audience.

So when the police privately tell reporters, “We chased a suspect into the woods above the school,” that becomes a television fact. Until it isn’t a fact any longer.

The police, for whatever reason, decide to drop the whole “suspect in the woods” angle.

Therefore, the media anchors no longer mention it.

Instead the police are focused on Adam Lanza, who is found dead in the school. So are the television anchors, who no longer refer to the suspect in the woods.

That old thread has gone down the memory hole.

What does this do to the audience who has been following the narrative on television? It sets up a flicker effect. An hour ago, it was suspect in the woods. Now, that bit of data is gone. On-off switch. It was on, now it’s off.

This is a break in logic. It makes no sense.

Which is the whole point.

The viewer thinks: “Let’s see. There was a suspect in the woods. The cops were chasing him. Now he doesn’t exist. We don’t know his name. We don’t know why he’s off the radar. We don’t know whether he was arrested. We don’t know if he was questioned. Okay, I guess I’ll have to forget all about him. I’ll just track what the anchor is telling me. He’s telling the story. I have to follow his story.”

This was only one flicker. Others occur. The father of Adam’s brother was found dead. No, that’s gone now. The mother of Adam was found dead. Okay. Adam killed all these children with two pistols. No, that’s gone now. He used a rifle. It was a Bushmaster. No, it was a Sig Sauer. One weapon was found in the trunk of a car. No, three weapons.

At each succeeding point, a fact previously reported is jettisoned and forgotten, to be replaced with a new fact. The television viewer has to forget, along with the television anchor. The viewer wants to follow the developing narrative, so he has to forget. He has no choice if he wants to “stay in the loop.”

But this flicker effect does something to the viewer’s mind. His mind is no longer alert. It’s not generating questions. Logic has been offloaded. Obvious questions and doubts are shelved.

“How could they think it was the dead father in New Jersey when it was actually the dead mother in Connecticut?”
“Why did they say he used two handguns when it was a rifle?”

“Or was it really a rifle?”

“I heard a boy on camera say there was another man the cops caught and they had him proned out on the ground in front of the school. What happened to him? Where did he go? Why isn’t the anchor keeping track of him?”

All these obvious and reasonable questions (and many others) have to be scratched and forgotten, because the television story is moving into different territory, and the viewer wants to follow the story.

This constant flicker effect eventually produces, in the television viewer…passivity.

He surrenders to the ongoing narrative. Surrenders.

This is mind control.

The television anchor doesn’t have a problem. His job is to move seamlessly, through an ever-increasing series of contradictions and discarded details, to keep the narrative going, to keep it credible.

He knows how to do that. That’s why he is the anchor.

He can make it seem as if the story is a growing discovery of what really happened, even though his narrative is littered with abandoned clues and dead-ends and senseless non-sequiturs.

And the viewer pays the price.

Mired in passive acceptance of whatever the anchor is telling him, the viewer assumes his own grasp on logic and basic judgment is flawed.

Now, understand that this viewer has been watching television news for years. He’s watched many of these breaking events. The cumulative effect is devastating.
The possibility, for example, that Adam Lanza wasn’t the shooter, but was the patsy, is as remote to the viewer as a circus of ants doing Shakespeare on Mars.

The possibility that the cops hid evidence and were ordered to release other suspects is unthinkable.

Considering that there appears to be not one angry outraged parent in Newtown (because the network producers wouldn’t permit such a parent to be interviewed on camera) never occurs to the viewer.

Wondering why the doctor of Adam Lanza hasn’t been found and quizzed about the drugs he prescribed isn’t in the mind of the viewer.

The information flicker effect is powerful. It sweeps away independent thought and measured contemplation. It certainly rules out the possibility of imagining the murders in an alternative narrative.

Because there is only one narrative. It is delivered by Brian Williams and Scott Pelley and Diane Sawyer.

Interesting how they never disagree.

Never, in one of these horrendous events do the three kings and queens of television news end up with different versions of what happened.

What are the odds of that, if the three people are rational and inquisitive?

But these three anchors are not rational or inquisitive. They are synthetic creations of the machine that runs them.

They flicker yes and they flicker no. They edit and cut and discard and tailor as they go along. Yes, no, yes, no. On, off, on, off.

And the viewers follow, in a state of hypnosis.

Why?
Because the viewers are addicted to STORY. They are as solidly addicted as a junkie looking for his next fix.

“Tell me a story. I want a story. That was a good story, but now I’m bored. Tell me another story. Please? I need another story. I’m listening. I’m watching. Tell me a story.”

And the anchors oblige.

They deal the drug.

But to get the drug, the audience has to surrender everything they question. They have to submit to the flicker effect and go under. Actually, surrendering to the flicker effect deepens the addiction.

And the drug deal is consummated.

Welcome to television coverage.

Finally, while under hypnosis, the viewing audience is treated to a segue (transition) that leads to…the guns. Something has to be done about the guns. The mind-control operation that brought the passive audience to this point takes them to the next moment of surrender, as if it were part of the same overall Sandy Hook story:

Give up the guns.

In their entrained and tranced state of mind, viewers don’t ask why law-enforcement agencies are so massively armed to do police work in America, why those agencies have ordered well over a billion rounds of ammunition in the last six months, why every day the invasive surveillance of the population moves in deeper and deeper.

Viewers, in their trance, simply assume government is benevolent and should be weaponized to the teeth, because those viewers also assume the television anchors are government allies and spokespeople, and aren’t those anchors good and kind and thoughtful and intelligent and honorable?

Therefore, isn’t the government also kind and honorable?

In case you think the public is too stupid to emerge from its trance, and would never be able to follow a line of rational discourse, if by some miracle television anchors presented one, I disagree.
During my investigation of the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, I encountered several local citizens who were exceedingly awake, alert, and helpful. Again and again over the years, I have had help from private citizens in my research.

This is why I’ve always supported the idea of citizen grand juries, convened to investigate crimes in the area where they live. Tasked to discover the truth, wherever it leads, such people would suddenly display surprising skills. Opportunity is all that is necessary.

The media put people under, flick the on-off switches that short-circuit logic. The media practice hypnosis. The media work for surrender of the mind. The media present boggling absurdities that put the mind to sleep. The media appoint themselves as the final authorities.

This is perverse theater.

That’s all it is.

from:     http://www.zengardner.com/mind-control-achieved-information-flicker-effect/

Orlando – What is the Truth?

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As always, do your research:

Hidden Ties Between Orlando Shooter and FBI Raise Strange Questions

by Jon Rappoport (To read about Jon’s mega-collection, Power Outside The Matrix, click here.)

orlando shooter fbi“…Michael German, a former F.B.I. agent who researches national security law at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, told the Times, ‘They’re [the FBI] manufacturing terrorism cases.’” (The New Yorker, June 10, 2016, “Do FBI Stings help fight against ISIS?” by Evan Osnos)

The website Cryptogon has pieced together some interesting facts, and a quite odd “coincidence.” I’m bolstering their work.

First of all, the Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen, changed his name in 2006.  As NBC News notes: “Records also show that he had filed a petition for a name change in 2006 from Omar Mir Seddique to Omar Mir Seddique Mateen.”

Why is that important? Why is his original last name, Seddique, also spelled Siddiqui, significant? Because of a previous terrorism case in Florida, in which the FBI informant’s name was Siddiqui. And because that previous case may have been one of those FBI prop-jobs, where the informant was used to falsely accuse a suspect of a terrorist act. The New Yorker (cited above) has details:

“This is not the first time that the F.B.I. has attracted criticism from national-security experts and civil-liberties groups for generating terrorism cases through sting operations and confidential informants. In ‘The Imam’s Curse,’ published in September, I reported on a Florida family that was accused of providing ‘material support’ to terrorists. In that case, a father, Hafiz Khan, and two of his sons were arrested. The charges against the sons were eventually dropped, but Hafiz Khan was convicted and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. At Khan’s trial, his lawyer, Khurrum Wahid, questioned the reliability of the key [FBI] informant in the case, David Mahmood Siddiqui. Wahid accused Siddiqui, who’d had periods of unemployment, of lying to authorities because his work as a confidential informant was lucrative. For his role in the case, Siddiqui had received a hundred and twenty-six thousand dollars, plus expenses. But in a subsequent interview with the Associated Press, Siddiqui stood by his testimony and motives: ‘I did it for the love of my country, not for money.’”

The website Cryptogon, which pieced this whole story together, comments: “What are the odds that an FBI informant in a [previous] Florida terrorist case shares the same last name as the perpetrator of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history—also in Florida—[Omar Mateen] a lone wolf cop poser with multiple acknowledged contacts with the FBI, who was formerly listed on the terrorist watch list and associated with a suicide bomber… while holding a valid security guard license?”

Indeed.

And in case you think Siddiqui is a common last name, here is a statement from Mooseroots:

“Siddiqui is an uncommon surname in the United States. When the United States Census was taken in 2000, there were about 4,994 individuals with the last name “Siddiqui,” ranking it number 6,281 for all surnames. Historically, the name has been most prevalent in the Southwest, though the name is actually most common in Hawaii. Siddiqui is least common in the southeastern states.”

If for some reason the name Siddiqui throws you off, suppose the last name was, let me make something up, Graposco? A few years ago, an FBI informant in Florida, Graposco, appeared to have falsely accused a man of terrorist acts—and in 2016, another Graposco, who changed that last name to something else, killed 50 people in a Florida nightclub shooting—after having been investigated twice by the FBI? Might that coincidence grab your attention?

Again—the 2016 Orlando shooter had extensive contact with the FBI in 2013 and 2014. The FBI investigated him twice and dropped the investigations. The FBI used an informant in a previous Florida case, and that informant had the same last name as the Orlando shooter. It’s quite possible the previous informant was told to give a false statement which incriminated a man for terrorist acts.

You can say this is a coincidence. Maybe it is. But it seems more than odd.  Are the two Siddiqui men connected?

Was the Orlando shooter involved in some kind of FBI plan to mount a terror op that was supposed to be stopped before it went ahead, but wasn’t? Was the Orlando shooter “helped” over the edge from having “radical ideas” to committing mass murder?

from:    http://www.realfarmacy.com/orlando-shooter-fbi/

 

Tough Economic Times

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The Stock Market Crash Of 2016: Stocks Have Already Crashed In 6 Of The World’s 8 Largest Economies

June 17, 2016

Network-Earth-Continents-Public-DomainBy Michael Snyder

Over the past 12 months, stock market investors around the planet have lost trillions of dollars. Since this time last June, stocks have crashed in 6 of the world’s 8 largest economies, and stocks in the other two are down as well. The charts that you are about to see are absolutely stunning, and they are clear evidence that a new global financial crisis has already begun. Of course it is true that we are still in the early chapters of this new crisis and that there is much, much more damage to be done, but let us not minimize the carnage that we have already witnessed.

In general, there have been three major waves of financial panic over the past 12 months. Late last August we saw the biggest financial shaking since the financial crisis of 2008, then in January and February there was an even bigger shaking, and now a third “wave” has begun in June. Not all areas around the globe have been affected equally by each wave, but without a doubt this new financial crisis is a global phenomenon.

The charts that I am about to show you come from Trading Economics. It is an absolutely indispensable website that is packed full of useful data, and I encourage everyone to check it out.

Let’s talk about China first. The Chinese economy is the second largest on the entire planet, and since this time last year Chinese stocks are down an astounding 40 percent…

As things have started to unravel in China, the Chinese have been selling off U.S. debt and U.S. stocks like crazy. The following comes from Bloomberg…

(CHECK OUT LINK FOR CHARTS: http://www.activistpost.com/2016/06/the-stock-market-crash-of-2016-largest-economies.html)

For the past year, Chinese selling of Treasuries has vexed investors and served as a gauge of the health of the world’s second-largest economy.

The People’s Bank of China, owner of the world’s biggest foreign-exchange reserves, burnt through 20 percent of its war chest since 2014, dumping about $250 billion of U.S. government debt and using the funds to support the yuan and stem capital outflows.

While China’s sales of Treasuries have slowed, its holdings of U.S. equities are now showing steep declines.

Unfortunately for China, their economy just continues to slow down, and George Soros is so alarmed by this and a potential “Brexit” that he has been selling off stocks and buying enormous amounts of gold in anticipation of an even bigger global downturn.

Japan has the third largest economy in the world, and over the past year Japanese stocks are down a total of 26 percent from the peak…

Personally, I have been extremely alarmed by what has been happening in Japan lately. Japanese stocks were down almost 500 points last night, and overall the Nikkei is down a whopping 1,800 points so far in June.

Of course the Japanese economy as a whole is essentially a basket case at this point. For a detailed analysis of this, please see my previous article entitled “Watch Japan – For All Is Not Well In The Land Of The Rising Sun.”

Germany has the fourth largest economy in the world, and over the past year their stocks have fallen 19 percent from the peak of the market…

(GO TO: http://www.activistpost.com/2016/06/the-stock-market-crash-of-2016-largest-economies.html FOR CHART)

The key thing to watch for in Germany are serious troubles at their biggest bank. I wrote a long article about the slow-motion implosion of Deutsche Bank last month, and just this week Deutsche Bank stock hit an all-time low.

The fifth largest economy on the planet belongs to the United Kingdom, and since last June their stocks have fallen about 13 percent…

(LINK:  http://www.activistpost.com/2016/06/the-stock-market-crash-of-2016-largest-economies.html)

One week from today, the “Brexit” vote will be held in the UK, and if they vote to leave the EU that could have very serious economic and financial implications for them and for the rest of Europe as well.

France has the sixth largest economy in the world, and over the past year French stocks are down 20 percent from the peak of the market…

The French economy is really struggling these days, and we have not heard much about it in the U.S. media, but there have been tremendous riots in major cities in France in recent weeks.

The seventh largest economy on our planet belongs to India. Even though India is facing some very serious economic problems, their stocks are doing okay for the moment. Even though stocks in India are down over the past 12 months, we have not seen a major financial crisis over there just yet.

But there is definitely a major crisis in the eighth largest economy in the world. Italian stocks are down a staggering 32 percent from the peak of the market. That means approximately a third of all stock market wealth in Italy is already gone…

(LINK:  http://www.activistpost.com/2016/06/the-stock-market-crash-of-2016-largest-economies.html)

Earlier this year, I wrote about the horrifying collapse of the Italian banking system that has greatly accelerated since the start of 2016. It looks like virtually all of their big banks will ultimately need to be bailed out, and this threatens to become a far bigger crisis than the crisis in Greece ever was.

And let us not leave off the ninth largest economy in the world. Not too long ago, CNN ran an article entitled “Brazil: Economic collapse worse than feared.” So not only are they admitting that the ninth largest economy on the globe is collapsing, they are also admitting that it is even worse than what the experts had anticipated.

So did I leave anyone off the list?

Ah yes, I haven’t even addressed what has been going on in the United States yet.

U.S. stocks did crash last August, but then they recovered.

Then they crashed again in January, but then they recovered again.

Now U.S. stocks have been taking another tumble here in June, but we are being assured that there is nothing to worry about.

Meanwhile, the underlying numbers for the U.S. economy just continue to get worse and worse and worse.

Hopefully this article will clear a lot of things up. In this piece, I have presented undeniable evidence that a new global financial crisis has begun over the past 12 months. We have not seen global stock declines of this nature since the great financial crisis of 2008, but much worse is still to come.

I would love to be wrong about that last part.

It would be wonderful if the worst was now behind us and good times for the global financial system were ahead.

Unfortunately, every single indicator that I am watching is telling me just the opposite.

 

from:    http://www.activistpost.com/2016/06/the-stock-market-crash-of-2016-largest-economies.html

Mining Data w/Windows 10

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What Microsoft Does NOT Want You To Know About Windows 10

Written by: Daniel Jennings Current Events June 10, 2016

What Microsoft Does NOT Want You To Know About Windows 10

Windows 10 could be a major threat to your privacy, and Microsoft is trying to force you to use it whether you want it or not.

In fact, if you use Windows 7 or 8, Microsoft could automatically update you to Windows 10 and begin tracking your every move.

“Microsoft openly stated that pervasive data collection will be present in any Windows version starting from Windows 10, and as a host of research on the Internet shows, this data collection cannot be disabled using official means,” tech expert Artem S. Tashkinov wrote at itvision.altervista.org.

The default settings for Windows 10 allow Microsoft to track every website you visit, every purchase you make, and every word you type into the search engine. It even allows Microsoft to track your physical location. Microsoft makes upgrading to the operating system tempting by making it free – at least until July 29.

Microsoft uses all of this data and interaction in several ways:

  • Offering users targeted ads.
  • Guiding users to its Windows Store.
  • Funneling users to the search page Bing, which it owns.

None of this is done with the current versions of Windows. (Windows 10 also can drain your battery if you own an older laptop.)

Fortunately, there are some ways to block Windows 10’s data collection and even to go back to Windows 7 or Windows 8 if you want.

Don’t Use Express Settings

Many users may not realize that the version of Windows 10 that automatically installs employs the so-called Express Settings. These automatically share a wide variety of information with Microsoft, including location and browser data, TechRadar reported. You can avoid these by picking “Custom Settings” for the install.

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If you’ve already installed Windows 10 using the Express Settings, then you can reverse Microsoft actions under the Privacy Settings in the control panel. For example, one setting asks if you want to “let apps use my advertising ID, send Microsoft Info about how I write, and let websites provide locally relevant content.” If this is on, both Microsoft and advertisers can collect data from your computer.

Other Problems With Windows 10

IT Pro reported that some of the Window 10 apps can take control of your camera and microphone and collect account information unless you turn them off.

You should also make sure that Wi-Fi Sense is off. If this feature is turned on, it could share your Wi-Fi passwords with routers, PC World reported. To turn Wi-Fi Sense off, go to Settings in the start menu, click on Network & Internet, then Manage Wi-Fi Settings, and chose what Wi-Fi you want to use. Turning off the hotspot keeps the computer from broadcasting your information.

Uninstalling Windows 10

Uninstalling Windows 10 and going back to Windows 8.1 or 7 is actually fairly easy – if you do it within 30 days. Visit Settings, find the Update & Security icon and click Recovery. You should see an option to “Go to Back to Windows 7” or “go back to Windows 8.1.” Click the right icon.

If it has been over a month since you added Windows 10, you will have to do a “clean install.” That will eliminate everything on your hard drive. Make sure you have all of your files on cloud storage or an external drive first.

from:    http://www.offthegridnews.com/current-events/what-microsoft-does-not-want-you-to-know-about-windows-10/

Perils of Smart Meter Grid

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Smart Meter Companies Admit: We’re Spying On You

Written by: Tara Dodrill

Power companies admit: We're spying on you

Smart meters are spying devices. Not breaking news? Likely not for those of us who have researched the issue for quite a long while, but an admission by those who make the devices is rather shocking.

That is exactly what has happened, as SmartGridNews, a website supported by the high-tech meter industry, acknowledged that smart meters are gathering private information on homeowners.

Smart meters utilize wireless technology and instantly tell power companies how much electricity a home is using, and even can report on the power usage by individual appliances, as Smart Grid News said. Smart meters also can literally control newer household appliances that have the capability to communicate with the device.

“One of the next areas of value comes from taking smart meter data and ‘disaggregating’ it to tell us exactly how customers are using electricity,” reads a new story on the website. “Do external devices already do this? Sure. Just as progress in the smart phone world reduced the need for external devices (cameras, alarm clocks, radios, pedometers, navigation systems, etc.) the ability to get accurate, appliance level feedback, without the need to invest in external hardware, is the next step in the world of smart meters.”

The Stop Smart Meters website states that fire dangers are also a problem associated with smart meters. Fire calls after smart meter installations reportedly include the shorting-out of electronics of all varieties and the burning-out of appliances.

Cyber hacking of smart meters to possibly overload and garner control of significant portions of the power grid is also an often-voiced worry about the smart power initiative. In Connecticut, 30 percent of customers in a pilot program had higher bills after smart meters were installed.

According to the Stop Smart Meters group, the smart grid devices do not always emit less RF (radio frequency) exposure than a cell phone — as some utility companies allegedly state.

“People are becoming increasingly aware of the potential harm done by chronic exposure to RF radiation-emitting devices and are taking steps to change how they use them. Most people are not offered a wired smart meter and you can’t turn it off once it is installed,” the group contends.

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Smart grid opponents have long opposed the gathering of their personal usage information.

Former CIA Director David Petraeus once stated that WiFi-connected devices, such as appliances commonly found inside many homes, will “transform the art of spying.” Petraeus also said that spies will be capable of monitoring Americans without going inside the home or perhaps even acquiring a warrant. He went on to state that remote control radio frequency identification devices, “energy harvesters,” sensor networks, and small embedded severs all connected to an Internet network will be all that is necessary for clandestine intelligence gathering.

The Smart Grid News report said customers surveyed in a recent report supported smart meters.

“Customers were delighted with the initiative as it showed how their new smart meters could work for them,” the website said. “Utility companies wanting to meet their specific conservation targets to drive customer engagement should ensure they are making the most of their smart meter investment. They can now use the power of smart meter data disaggregation to identify the customers who are most likely to help them reach their specific targets and turn them into willing partners in the drive for energy conservation.”

Data disaggregation basically means the automatic collection of personal energy habits of the homes attached to smart meters. The more customers know that is the case, the more they will oppose smart meters.

from:    http://www.offthegridnews.com/privacy/smart-meter-companies-admit-were-spying-on-you/