Sergei Lavrov

– Meanwhile, This Is What Is Really Taking Place Behind The Second US-Russian Cold War:

It appears John Kerry is at it again. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the US Secretary of State called on him to “pay no mind” to a statement by President Obama, in which Russia was included to a list of top global threats. Seeking Russia’s cooperation in Iran and on the Korean Peninsula, Kerry told Lavrov to “forget about” what Obama said. As US foreign policy credibility dissolves, we leave it to Lavrov to conclude, “it is flippant,” he jabs, “it’s not appropriate for a powerful country to have such a consumer attitude to its partners – where you’re needed, help us; where you’re not, obey us.“

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The dust has barely settled on the latest high profile banker suicide in which Deutsche Bank’s associate general counsel, and former SEC regulator, Charlie Gambino was found dead, having hung himself by the neck from a stairway banister, and here comes the latest sad entrant in the dead banker chronicles of 2014 when earlier today, the Post reports, a Citigroup banker was found dead with his throat slashed in the bathtub “of his swanky downtown apartment, authorities said Wednesday.”

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However, unlike previous more “clearcut” suicides, this time there may have been foul play: the Post adds that “there was no knife recovered at the scene, leading officials to suspect the death was not a suicide, and they were trying to determine who had access to his apartment.”
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– 21 Facts That Prove That Dependence On The Government Is Out Of Control In America:

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1. According to a Congressional Budget Office study that was just released, approximately 60 percent of all U.S. households get more in transfer payments from the government than they pay in taxes. 

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– Stunning Photos Of Record Snow Covering Upstate New York: 100 Total Inches Of Snow Expected:

As previously reported, the anticipated Polar Vortex 2.0 has struck, pushing temperatures in all 50 states to below freezing, while heavy snow prompted a state of emergency in western New York and contributed to the deaths of four people. According to Reuters, it was the coldest November morning across the country since 1976, according to Weather Bell Analytics, a meteorologist consulting firm. It remains to be seen how many GDP percentage points were wiped out as a result, unless of course, this time it will be different from last winter. But it was the situation in upstate New York, especially around Bufallo and parts of Erie County, where things got most dire and where 60 inches (1.5 m) of snow accumulated, with more falling, said Steven Welch of the National Weather Service near Buffalo. It gets worse: forecasters are calling for more snow on Thursday, as much as three feet more, for a total of up to 100 inches over four days – a year’s worth for the region! …

50 inches of snow in 24 hours? Useful. #BuffaloSnow pic.twitter.com/2tiMQXGOxg

— Bipartisan Report (@Bipartisanism) November 19, 2014

– More than a year’s snowfall in three days:

“This will be a historic event… absolutely. It is a historic event,” said Dave Zaff of the National Weather Service in Buffalo. “A stunning amount of snow.”

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– Climate can change drastically in mere decades – With no help from humans:

“The results show that the climate over the past hundred thousand years has been a roller coaster. Within just a few decades, the climate could tip from an ice age into a warm period,” says Doctor Thomas Litt of the University of Bonn’s Steinmann Institute and spokesman for the PALEOVAN international consortium of researchers.

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– America Throws Up Over Obama’s Immigration Executive Action Even Before It Is Announced:

Ahead of President Obama’s address to the nation tomorrow to dictate his executive orders on immigration, potentially allowing millions of undocumented immigrants to stay legally in the US, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds nearly half of Americans disapprove of his plan. Only a dismal 38% support the President taking this executive action… which makes us wonder if there has ever been so much revulsion at the policies of a standing President. It’s good to be king.

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– President Obama To Dictate Immigration Executive Order In Vegas On Friday:

While what normally happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas; President Obama’s decision to dictate his Immigration Executive Order from sin city will likely have repurcussions across the entire nation. As NY Times reports, Obama is preparing to use his executive authority to provide work permits for up to five million people who are in the US illegally, and to shield them from deportation. But these new arrivals will not receive one key benefit: government subsidies for health care available under Obamacare. The immigrants would also be unlikely to receive benefits like food stamps, Medicaid coverage or other need-based federal programs offered to citizens and to some legal residents. “The costs of extending these programs to millions of low-wage illegal immigrants would be enormous,” said Senator Jeff Sessions “this is yet another danger posed to Americans by the president’s unconstitutional action.”

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– Bill to have all Russians fingerprinted and DNA profiled submitted to parliament:

MPs from the populist nationalist party LDPR have prepared and drafted a motion requiring universal fingerprinting and DNA profiling of all Russian citizens for reasons of security.

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– Ebola cure: WATER! Drinking a gallon of fluid daily recognized as key to survival:

One of the primary lessons being learned from the Ebola crisis is that fancy meds and vaccines aren’t needed to cure the disease. Simple water, it turns out, is one of the best treatments for the hemorrhagic illness, supplying the body with much-needed hydration that is quickly lost when the advanced stages of nausea and vomiting begin to develop.

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(Recommended is steam-distilled water (See HERE & HERE.)

– Prescription drug vending machines now being installed on college campuses across America:

The total insanity of over-medication in America has reached a new low as Arizona State University has installed a prescription drug vending machine called InstyMeds.

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With growth rates for steel products at or near record lows and prices for end-product having plunged to record lows, it is little surprise that the Steel industry would provide the largest Chinese bankruptcy yet in this cycle. As Bloomberg reports, unlisted Haixin Iron & Steel – which halted production and defaulted on CNY3 bn in March – has started bankruptcy proceedings. Having spent 8 months hoping for the government bailout that every Western onlooker believes is every firm’s god-given right, a reorganization application for the Wenxi, Shanxi province-based company (with $1.7 billion of total debt) was accepted by the Yuncheng City Intermediate People’s Court. This is just the start as “Haixin Group’s bankruptcy will be followed by others,” warns one analyst, adding that the major flaw of producers of iron ore, the most traded commodity after oil, is they tend to be “over-bullish.”

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Just a week after Dr. Craig Spencer was declared ‘Ebola-free’, The Daily Mail reports a woman, who had arrived from Guinea 18 days ago (and was on the NYC Ebola monitoring list), dropped dead in a Brooklyn hair salon this afternoon. FDNY sent their Special Operations and Hazmat units but she was declared dead at the scene. Witnesses said she was bleeding from the “face, nose, mouth, everything.”

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– ‘US foreign policy in ME dictated by Israel’:

A US journalist and political analyst said Israel is the supporter of al-Nusra and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) Takfiri terrorists.

“And if Israel supports ISIS, we support ISIS, because our foreign policy in the Middle East is dictated by Israel,” Wayne Madsen told Habilian.

Regarding the US airstrikes on ISIS positions, Madsen said they are like Saudi Arabia’s bombing ISIS militants and financing them at the same time.

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ISIS is an operation run by the Israeli Secret Intelligence Service and the CIA … (More info HERE.)

–  “Helpful” Britain Tweets “How To Spot A Russian Tank In Ukraine”:

In case you are wondering through Ukraine and come across a tank, the British embassy in Kiev has issued a handy pocket guide to indentifying whether it is Russian (bad guys) or Ukrainian (good guys)…

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Now that was indeed very ‘helpful’ …

H/t reader squodgy:

 “What the hell just happened to my world?

Were the parents asked if it was OK, first??

http://rt.com/usa/206311-chicago-5thgraders-sex-ed-anal/“

This is so sick:

– ‘Use lots of lube & enter anus slowly’: Chicago schools teach anal sex to 5th graders:

Parents at an elite, magnet elementary school in Chicago were “horrified” when they saw the “obscene” sexual education materials their fifth graders would be learning. The curriculum included condom demonstrations and discussions of anal sex.

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666 … just another ‘coincidence’

– Royals and Thatcher to blame for Jimmy Savile scandal, says Noel Edmonds:

The Royal Family and Margaret Thatcher were as much to blame as the BBC for failing to stop Jimmy Savile’s “unspeakable” crimes, Noel Edmonds has suggested.

The television presenter, who worked with Savile at the Corporation, said the whole establishment was implicated for allowing the paedophile DJ to flourish.

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(And I know whose TV career just ended.)

– Jimmy Savile ‘raped girl, 15, in flat’:

Jimmy Savile raped a 15-year-old girl with another DJ who told her “you should be thanking us”, a court has heard.

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– ‘Operation Midland‘ investigates Tory MP over boy’s murder:

– Germany and Bulgaria Confirm Strong Opposition to GM Crops:

Germany’s Farm Minister Christian Schmidt and Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov both confirmed their countries’ strong opposition to GM crops on Friday.

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– 57 Million Americans Warn UK over Dangers of GM Food and Farming:

In an open letter published in The Times newspaper and promoted through a digital billboard at Waterloo station, American celebrities, Susan Sarandon, Daryl Hannah and Robert Kennedy Jr joined US NGOs, trade groups and businesses such as Food & Water Watch, the Sierra Club, the Rachel Carson Council, Friends of the Earth, the Organic Consumers Association, Dr Bronner’s and NYR Organic to warn British citizens of the dangers of growing GM crops and urge them to speak out before it’s too late.

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The fully referenced letter, signed by groups and individuals representing some 57 million members and supporters, argues that GM crops have never delivered on their promises to increase yields and profits or to decrease pesticide use. In fact, they have done the opposite with the cost of growing GM crops now greater than conventional crops in the US and pesticide use 24% higher amongst GM farmers than non-GM farmers planting the same crops.

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– Global GMO Free Coalition Set to Help Fund World’s Largest GMO Safety Study:

The Global GMO Free Coalition welcomes the launch of the largest ever study on GMO and pesticide safety – Factor GMO. This is the type of study that should have been carried out on all GM foods before they were released into our food and feed supplies.

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–  What Do College Undergrads Spend Their Student Loans On: High-School Classes:

While the impact of the student loan bubble on the labor participation rate has been extensively covered in the past, there is a just as important question of just what these “students” spend their money on. Among the items revealed: “A U.S. Middle District Court indictment alleges that Price spent much of the loan money on crack cocaine, cars, motorcycles, jewelry, tattoos and video games.” And iPhones of course, because someone has to indirectly provide US subsidies to the NSA’s favorite company. Now we know one more thing that America’s young adults, of whom some 24% expect that their debt will ultimately be forgiven, are blowing Uncle Sam’s debt on. The answer: high-school level classes.

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 – Homebuilder Hope Hammered As Housing Starts Tumble:

With surging homebuilder sentiment, we suspect the disappointing plunge in Housing Starts (-2.8% vs +0.8% exp) will surprise a few but there is hope… as Building Permits rose 4.8% (vs 0.9% expectations) on the back of an 8% surge in multi-family / rental units. This is the highest level fo Permits since June 2008 (but still over 50% below peak permits levels in 2005). The only region with any increase in starts was the South.

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–  One Reader’s Shocked Response Upon Learning His Health Insurance Cost Just Doubled:

“Attached is the ACA notification of next year’s price increase.  As you can see the cost goes from $281 to $555, a monthly increase of $274, a percentage increase of 97%. Basically we are now paying the same amount for the two of us that we paid for all four of us one year ago.  How can that increase occur in a “free market” economy?  Did I miss something? Has some input cost leaped exponentially in order to double the price I pay? Or has private industry colluded with government to rig the markets (again) in their favor?”

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– Drone operators had bin Laden in crosshairs a year before 9/11:

?The first American to ever launch a drone strike from an armed unmanned aerial vehicle now says he had Osama bin Laden in his crosshairs in 2000, a full year before the terrorist attacks of September 11.

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Flashback: President Bush Rejects Taliban Offer To Surrender Osama Bin Laden

Confronting Riot Cops in Tampa: