The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
Jan 29, 2015
Description:
Code Pink protesters interrupt the start of the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing with former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright, and George Shultz. Senator John McCain, Chair of the Committee, has the protesters removed. Watch the complete hearing here: http://cs.pn/1uEQRKp
– Putin’s Unexpected Victory: Europe Furious That Greece Is Now A Russian Sanctions Veto (Zerohedge, Jan 29, 2015):
Two days ago, Zero Hedge first, and shortly thereafter everyone else, pointed out something stunning: the biggest surprise to emerge so far out of the new anti-Troika/austerity Greek government was not so much its intention to proceed with the first test of “Odious Debt” – this was largely known in advance – but its dramatic pivot away from Germany and Europe, and toward Russia.
As we noted before, not only has Greece already blocked all ongoing privatization processes, a clear snub of Merkel and the Troika which demands the piecemeal blue light special sale of Greece to western buyers as part of the “bailout”, but is also looking at plans to reinstate public sector employees and announce increased pensions for those on low incomes: further clear breaches of the Troika’s austerity terms.
But the most important message that Tsipras is sending to Europe is that (after meeting the Russian ambassador first upon his election) Greece is now effectively a veto power when it comes to future Russian sanctions!
Read morePutin’s Unexpected Victory: Europe Furious That Greece Is Now A Russian Sanctions Veto
– 2015 Currency Wars Year-To-Date Summary: 13 Rate Cuts, 5 Rate Hikes (Zerohedge, Jan 29, 2015):
For those keeping track of currency wars around the globe, 2015 – a year in which two central banks, those of Switzerland and Singapore have already admitted defeat, is shaping up as nothing short of historic. As DB’s summarizes: just about 31 countries have, in less than a month, eased in the form of 13 mostly “surprise” rate cuts, while just 5 have tightened monetary policy.
What could possibly go wrong?
– Teachers’ Retirement Funds Are Piling Into Manhattan Real Estate At Record High Prices (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Jan 28, 2015):
Rather than buying equity interests in buildings, TIAA-CREF and KTCU are seeking to invest in mortgages backed by office towers, retail properties, warehouses and apartments in major U.S. cities. The venture between the two companies, which manage teachers’ savings in their respective countries, is 51 percent owned by TIAA-CREF and 49 percent held by Seoul-based KTCU.
“You invest in a huge office tower in New York because you want a safe place to put your money and a decent return,” over the long-term, he said. “This is more a capital preservation play than it is a capital appreciation play.”
– From the Bloomberg article: Manhattan Towers Lure Koreans in $1 Billion Joint Venture
As soon as I woke up this morning, I saw an email from a very smart friend of mine in the finance industry. He forwarded me an article from the New York Post, about how TIAA-CREF had paid $3,158 per square foot for a building in the Meatpacking area of Manhattan (a record for the area), which isn’t far from where I lived for several years in the mid-2000s.
For those of you who aren’t aware, TIAA-CREF stands for Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund. According to the company’s own website, it:
Read moreTeachers’ Retirement Funds Are Piling Into Manhattan Real Estate At Record High Prices
– The New Greek Government Arrives In Its Residence: Finds No Power, No Wifi Password And No Toilet Soap (Zerohedge, Jan 28, 2015):
Things in Greece are bad. So bad, that the outgoing government of Antonis Samaras decided to not only leave the new inhabitants of the official residence of the Greek prime minister, the Maximos Mansion, without power, and without the WiFi password, but they decided to “borrow” all the soap in the toilet as well.
More from Spiegel, google translated:
“We sit in the dark. We have no internet, no email, no way to communicate with each other”, said an employee of the Office, who has worked for various government for years. “That’s never happened before.” It shows that Samaras’ team have “no manners and no decency.”
– WA state authorities threaten to kidnap child if entire family doesn’t get flu shot (Natural News, Jan 29, 2015):
The Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) in Washington state is threatening to abduct a foster family’s new baby boy over their refusal to vaccinate each of themselves for the flu in accordance with new state rules. KOMO News in Tacoma reports that the Smith family has until the end of February to either comply with the state’s Orwellian vaccine mandate or face the removal of their one-month-old, healthy baby boy.
The family is refusing to comply because of concerns about the safety of the mercury-laden vaccine, which has been linked to a host of adverse, and sometimes permanent, health events. These include permanent neurological damage, autism, chronic fatigue, autoimmune disease, brain damage, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis and death, among many others.
Read moreWA state authorities threaten to kidnap child if entire family doesn’t get flu shot
– USA Today columnist calls for arrest and imprisonment of vaccine skeptics (Natural News, Jan 29, 2015):
Now we finally come to the real agenda of the vaccine industry. After vaccines have been repeatedly documented by the Natural News Lab to contain neurotoxic chemicals such as mercury, formaldehyde and MSG; after vaccine shots have been repeatedly shown to kill people who take them; and after flu shots have been exhaustively shown to be based on no science whatsoever — with vaccine manufacturers openly admitting there are no clinical trials to show they even work — the rabid vaccine pushers are unveiling their end game: throw vaccine resistors in prison.
This is the call by USA Today columnist Alex Berezow. “Parents who do not vaccinate their children should go to jail,” he writes in this USA Today column.
And just to be clear, what Berezow means is that parents who do not vaccinated their children no matter how toxic the vaccine ingredients really are should be thrown in prison. There is no exemption being discussed or recommended that would allow parents to object to vaccines because of the neurotoxic chemicals they contain (such as the heavy metal mercury, still found in flu shots given to children in America). There is also no discussion that informed parents might reasonably object to vaccines based on the recent confession of a top CDC whistleblower who reveals how the CDC committed scientific fraud to bury scientific evidence showing a link between vaccines and autism.
Read moreUSA Today columnist calls for arrest and imprisonment of vaccine skeptics
FYI.
– The History Of Global Crises Through The Eyes Of The US Dollar (Zerohedge, Jan 28, 2015):
Which is better: a stronger dollar or a weaker dollar? You decide…
“King Dollar” met Queen Caterpillar this week and awoke the beast of broken narratives that a strong dollar may not be the ‘unambiguously good’ thing so many proclaim it to be. However, with the rest of the world competitively weakening their currencies (in order to ‘help’ their economies), we hope the chart above will help readers decide which they prefer… a stronger (US multinational-crushing) dollar or a weak (domestic drag) dollar?
– Zimbabwe’s Gold Mines On Verge Of Collapse Due To Low Bullion Prices (Zerohedge, Jan 28, 2015):
To say that Zimbabwe has not had much luck in its recent, post Robert Mugabe-goes-berserk, history with fiat money is putting it lightly. But did you know that with gold trading at prevailing depressed prices, driven over the past several years not by physical demand but by paper supply, Zimbabwe is about to have another “money” moment, only this time not with fiat but with real money. The reason: the same one why every so often we show the gold cost curve: because some miners simply can not continue operating if the “market” price of gold, with or without central bank and BIS intervention, is below their blended cost. Unfortunately for the south African country, the cost curve of the entire Zimbabwe gold mining industry is on the wrong side of the gold price line.
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– Why The U.S. Shale Boom May Come To Abrupt End (Zerohedge, Jan 28, 2015):
U.S tight oil production from shale plays will fall more quickly than most assume. Why? High decline rates from shale reservoirs is given. The more interesting reasons are the compounding effects of pad drilling on rig count and poorer average well performance with time.
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– Crude Contagion: California’s Kern County Declares Fiscal Emergency Due To Plunging Oil Price (Zerohedge, Jan 28, 2015):
At this point only an act of god, or a sudden Saudi change of heart to cut crude production by 50% (unclear which is more probable) can prevent a recession in Texas. However, one state that few thought would be impaired as a result of the crude plunge, is California. Yet as the LA Times reports, it is precisely California, and specifically Kern County located in the middle of the state and containing the farmer town of Bakersfield and countless oil rigs, that yesterday declared a state of fiscal emergency during the weekly supervisors’ meeting on Tuesday. The reason: predictions of a massive shortfall in property tax revenues because of tanking oil prices.
Oil companies account for about 30% of the county’s property tax revenues, a percentage that has been declining in recent decades but still represents a critical cushion for county departments and school districts.
– Now We ‘Know’ Greek Banks Are Really In Trouble (Zerohedge, Jan 28, 2015):
“When it gets serious, you have to lie,” were the infamous words of one J-C Juncker and today – following the 40-50% collapse in Greek Bank equity capital this week,ECB’s Bank Supervision boss Nouy has come out to calm everything down:
*NOUY SAYS GREEK BANKS ARE ‘PRETTY STRONG’, HAVE STRENGTHENED THEIR BALANCE SHEETS
*ECB’S NOUY SAYS GREEK BANKS WILL SURVIVE CURRENT CRISISWhich, translated for the elites means, “sell-sell-sell.” And then – just to add even more pressure, S&P puts Greece on Watch Negative.
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H/r reader squodgy:
“A greedy, murderous unprincipled rat by another name……..”
Full article and more photos and videos here:
– English Speaking Mercenary in Mariupol ID’d as Brit Leon Swampy From London, England (The Daily Ledge Blog, Jan 28, 2015)
– No longer science fiction: Aborted human fetuses harvested to grow kidney organs in rats for transplantation into human patients (Natural News, Jan 29, 2015):
Human fetal kidneys harvested from aborted babies are being surgically implanted into adult rats to grow new kidneys to be transplanted into awaiting human adults.
This procedure, which is under rapid development, is being framed as a medical breakthrough by scientists who appear to be completely blind to the moral and ethical issues at stake in such a scheme.
“[This] is definitely the first time an actual whole human organ has been grown in an animal, and has sustained the life of that animal,” explains Eugene Gu, the founder and CEO of Ganogen, Inc. in Redwood, Calif. “Our long-term goal is to grow human organs in animals, to end the human donor shortage.” [1]
LiveScience.com reports, “The research shows that it is feasible to remove a kidney from an aborted human fetus, and implant the organ into a rat, where the kidney can grow to a larger size.”
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– Greek Credit Risk Spikes, Default Probability Tops 70% (Zerohedge, Jan 28, 2015):
Greek default risk has surged in recent days and today as it becomes clear what Syriza expects from Europe, short-term CDS are at post-crisis highs with 5Y CDS implying a 76% probability of default (based on standard recovery assumptions – which may be a little high in this case). Given the domestic bank dominance in the buying of domestic government debt, Greek banks are getting hammered as everyone’s favorite hedge fund trade is an utter bloodbath. Greek stocks overall are down and GGBs are tumbling once again – back at 16 month lows (given back all the ECBQE hope bounce). Perhaps not surprising moves, given new Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis reality-exposing comments yesterday, “the problem with the bailout is that it wasn’t really a bailout… it was an extend and pretend, it was a vicious cycle, a debt-deflationary trap, which destroyed our social economy.”
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– Flu shot hoax admitted: “No controlled trials demonstrating a decrease in influenza” (Natural News, Jan 27, 2015):
The flu shot is a fraud. But it’s a fraud that’s so deeply embedded in the delusional pro-vaccine culture of the pharma-controlled medical industry that even well-meaning doctors and pharmacists (who are otherwise very intelligent) fail to realize flu shots don’t work. In fact, flu shot vaccine inserts openly admit there is no scientific evidence demonstrating flu shots work. See the vaccine insert photos below for proof.
This is probably why people who receive the flu shot almost never receive the insert sheet. It’s not handed out by doctors and pharmacists because they don’t want people to realize the extent of the pseudoscience behind the flu shot scam. It’s so much easier to demand blind obedience while screaming “SCIENCE!” than to actually allow people to read the science and realize the science conclusively states there is “…no decrease in influenza disease after vaccination.”
– Crude Supplies Surge To Highest Since At Least 1982 (Zerohedge, Jan 28, 2015):
Remember how exuberant yesterday’s small gains in Crude Oil were perceived to be? Yeah – that’s all over, with WTI back near a $44 handle – following a large 12.7 million barrel inventory build according to API (EIA reports the ‘main event’ at 1030ET today – which Saxo Bank warns “a bigger-than-expected build would likely push the mkt over the cliff edge.”) Additional weakness overnight is also likely due to Goldman’s shift to a ‘sell’ for the next 3 months.
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H/t reader squodgy:
“57 F-35’s allocated to conflict with Russia & China………DOH!!!!!
Why allocate a totally unproved & potentially incapable airplane, already questioned by Military authority, and a ridiculously expensive asset, to an arena of military superiority?”
Related info:
– The Latest Russian Fighter Jet Blows America’s F-35 Away
– AND NOW: Computer Glitch Prevents US’ Most Advanced F-35 Fighter Jet From Firing Until 2019
– $400 Billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Jet ‘10 Years Behind’ Older Jets
– US Military Budget Increase directed against Russia, China and the Middle East (Global Research, Jan 28, 2015):
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
A substantial share of the increase in the US military budget that President Barack Obama has asked for will ultimately be directed against Russia, a political commentator says.
To listen to the audio interview with Michel Chossudovsky, click here
“I should mention that the F35, the submarines, the ships and so on are ultimately directed against China and Russia,” Michel Chossudovsky, the founder and director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) told Press TV on Wednesday.
According to a report circulated by the media, the US Defense Department was set to increase its military budget by eight percent.
Some 57 next-generation F-35 fighters, nine new ships and submarines, and construction of new long-range Air Force tankers are among the items included in the budget.
Read moreUS Military Budget Increase directed against Russia, China and the Middle East
Just imagine how the stock market will crash if profits will start to rise again!
– “New Normal” Fundamentals Hit Chinese Stocks (Zerohedge, Jan 27, 2015):
Fun-durr-mentals…
H/t reader squodgy:
“Another FALSE FLAG?”
– Netanyahu: Whoever is behind the attack will pay the full price (The Ugly Truth, Jan 28, 2015):
PM convenes security briefing after anti-tank missile kills two IDF soldiers on Israel-Lebanon border; Livni says Israel will hit back ‘harshly.’
HAARETZ
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday convened Israel’s security chiefs for a situation assessment at the IDF command’s headquarters in Tel Aviv, after two soldiers were killed by an anti-tank missile on the Lebanese border.
“Whoever is behind today’s attack will pay the full price,” Netanyahu said at the opening of the briefing with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen and other senior security officials.
Read moreNetanyahu: Whoever is behind the attack will pay the full price
H/t reader squodgy:
“Food for thought…….the new ring of power.”
– US military joint chiefs hold an essay contest (The Ugly Truth, Jan 28, 2015)
H/t reader squodgy:
“israeli (sic) bigotry in the good old USA?????
Shurely not for the REAL VETS?”
FYI.
– Auschwitz, Cows and Bigots in Northfield, MN (Veterans Today, Jan 27, 2015):
by Jim Fetzer
Among the latest absurdities from Northfield, MN, an associate dean, Louis Newman, a professor of political science, Laurence Cooper, and Alan Rubenstein have co-authored an editorial in The Carletonian, the student newspaper of Carleton College, in which they assert that, while I claim to be a professor emeritus a UMD, the university denies it; a self-righteous woman, [name deleted], has declared that I am “not a credible source” because I am insulting the memory of the 6,000,000 Jews who died in the Holocaust; and a local attorney, David Ludescher, has offered to debate me on Sandy Hook, but refuses to read any of my (now more than 33) articles about it because they were published in Veterans Today!
All this in spite of the fact that it would have been effortless to verify that I am not only a professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota Duluth but that I am a Distinguished McKnight University Professor Emeritus, which is the second highest honor that the University of Minnesota can bestow, as Kevin Krein observed in his article in Northfield News. The woman who claims I am insulting the Holocaust–and the parents of the children who died at Sandy Hook–simply takes for granted that she is right and I am wrong about both (with no proof whatsoever); and, as its readers well-know, Veterans Today is the internet powerhouse devoted to covert actions and “false flag” attacks and may be the most credible source.
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More info down below.
– 10 Ways to Reduce Radiation from Cell Phone Use (Natural Society, March 30, 2014):
The world loves its cell phones – so much so that there are more cell phones on this planet than people! While these technological devices can offer incredible service and ease in a hectic, modern world, they can also be a serious health hazard.
Cell phones emit radiofrequency energy, a form of non-ionizing radiation. Our bodies absorb this radiation and have a difficult time processing it – leading to numerous bodily complications. One study found that 10 years of cellphone use resulted in an average 290% increased risk of brain tumor development. Interestingly, the tumor development was found on the side of the head in which the cellphone was most used.
