Showing posts with label Debt Collapse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Debt Collapse. Show all posts

Friday, January 30, 2015

How to survive when the dollar collapses

© Natural News
Natural News | Jan 30, 2015 | Daniel Barker

The current administration would like for you to believe that the economy is on the mend and that we can look forward to growth in 2015. But most economists and basically anyone with a grain of sense will tell you otherwise.

The drop in oil prices may seem like a good thing when it's time to gas up the SUV, but the free fall in oil prices is actually very bad news in the long run. And when you take a look at how the Federal Reserve has been artificially stimulating the economy with quantitative easing and the continued printing of ever-more-worthless dollars, it's not difficult to see that there is a huge economic bubble being created, and it will burst sooner or later. My guess is sooner, but maybe I'm just a pessimist -- time will tell...

Many are predicting that 2015 will be the year the dollar collapses, and few of us are truly ready to face what some are forecasting will be a financial "bloodbath" or "Armageddon." Despite the Obama Administration and the Fed's attempts to paint lipstick on a pig by cooking the books, the fact remains that more than 100 million Americans are unemployed -- the highest percentage since the Great Depression.

And with oil prices expected to drop even further, more Americans can expect to lose their jobs -- if they are lucky enough to have one in the first place.

And let's not forget the effects of Obamacare, which is driving employers to cut hours for their workers so that they can avoid having to meet the ACA requirements.

In short, we are headed for an economic collapse that will make the 2008 crisis pale in comparison.

So, how to survive the coming crash?

Daisy Luther, creator of the website offers some useful advice on how to cut costs and prepare as much as possible for the inevitable collapse of the dollar.

As Luther notes: "The key to economic survival is requiring less of things that cost money." She urges readers to realize the difference between essentials and luxuries, and get rid of the things that aren't necessary to survival. Her list of essentials includes:
  • Water
  • Food (and the ability to cook it)
  • Medicine and medical supplies
  • Basic hygiene supplies
  • Shelter (including sanitation, lights, heat)
  • Simple tools
  • Seeds
  • Defense items
Beyond these basics, all else are luxuries. Luther recommends looking for ways to cut monthly costs. Among her suggestions: moving to a smaller home, relocating to a smaller town, getting rid of monthly car payments by buying a cheaper used vehicle with cash, stop using credit cards, eat at home instead of dining out, and generally becoming as frugal and self-reliant as possible.

The more you can provide for yourself, the better off you will be. Do whatever you can to reduce your reliance on the power grid -- harnessing solar energy and limiting the use of electricity to powering actual necessities is a good start.

The more food you can grow or produce, the more money you'll save and the healthier you'll be -- not to mention the fact that you'll be more self-reliant when the SHTF.

It is essential to establish a mindset that will get you through any crisis. The core philosophy of prepping is to be ready before things go sideways. Luther also urges everyone to build a "preparedness library." If the power grid goes down, you'll need books to help you develop and maintain survival strategies -- websites are of no use if you can't get online.

Even if the economy turns around (which is highly doubtful at this point), it makes sense to be prepared for the worst. Don't wait until the proverbial wolves are at the door -- make plans now for facing what could prove to be a very challenging situation when the current economic bubble finally bursts.

Source:

http://www.theorganicprepper.ca

Friday, December 5, 2014

Alarm bells toll for human civilization as world's 12th largest mega-city to run out of water in just 60 days

© Natural News
Natural News | Dec 3, 2014 | Mike Adams

The city of Sao Paulo is home to 20 million Brazilians, making it the 12th largest mega-city on a planet dominated by shortsighted humans. Shockingly, it has only 60 days of water supply remaining. The city "has about two months of guaranteed water supply remaining as it taps into the second of three emergency reserves," reports Reuters. [1]

Technical reserves have already been released, and as the city enters the heavy water use holiday season, its 20 million residents are riding on a fast-track collision course with severe water rationing and devastating disruptions.

But this isn't a story about Sao Paulo; it's a report that dares to point out that human societies are incredibly shortsighted and nearly incapable of sustainably populating planet Earth. In numerous regions around the world -- including California, India, Oklahoma, Brazil, China and many more -- human populations are rapidly out-growing the capacity of their local water systems. Even though keeping populations alive requires food... and growing food requires water... almost no nation or government in the world seems to be able to limit water consumption of local populations to levels which are sustainable in the long term.

Instead, the endless greed of the "grow-consume-profit" business model that dominates the global economy leaves no room for any hint of balance with nature. The overriding philosophy of modern business is to dominate nature with chemicals, mining and monoculture to maximize profit while kicking any really large problems down the road for the next generation to deal with.

The result is a world where nobody thinks about the long-term implications of today's trends because everybody's too busy trying to extract a buck or two out of the very system that will destroy their future.

Vegas, Phoenix and Tucson will also run dry 

Consider Las Vegas while you ponder all this: Here's a city with no water future whatsoever, continuing to build new casinos and grow its population even as the water level of Lake Mead has already dropped to emergency levels (and continues to plummet). What do the people of Las Vegas imagine they will drink when all the cheap, easy water is gone? Will they swallow dust and pretend it's water?

The sobering truth is that nearly everyone who lives in Las Vegas doesn't think about this. By definition, anyone who realized the truth about the disappearing water throughout Nevada, Arizona and California would have already sold their property and moved away. Those who still inhabit regions with unsustainable water supplies -- such as Sao Paulo -- are choosing to make believe the problem doesn't exist.

This delusional psychology is, of course, reflected across modern human civilization and its governments, where delusional rhetoric and make believe fantasies about "endless economic growth" keep the obedient masses toiling away day after day, hoping they are securing a future which has already been mortgaged away.

Dwindling water supplies are like government debt spending 

We're often tricked into believing the government will solve all these problems for us. Yep, some Americans foolishly believe the same government which just issued $1 trillion in new debt to pay the interest on its existing debt is somehow really, really good at planning for the future instead of mortgaging it away. [2]

If fresh water were a bank account, the world's spending deficit against that account would be deeply in the red and approaching a tipping point of default. And in precisely the same way the U.S. government borrows money to cover today's expenses with no intention of ever paying it back, human society is also borrowing water to cover today's water demands with no intention or capability of ever paying it back.

Right now in California and around the world, farmers are pumping water out of the ground that should have remained there until the year 2030. As they keep pumping the aquifers dry, they'll be reaching ever more precariously forward into the future, using up water in 2015 that should have lasted until 2050 (or beyond).

In this same way, aquifers that should have lasted 100 - 200 years will be bone dry in the not-too-distant future. Farms that once produced food will instead produce a new Dust Bowl. Populations that depended on cheap food to afford basic living expenses will find themselves starving and bankrupt (and living on government food stamps, with the accompanying loss of freedom that always follows government handouts). The world's governments -- all of which rely on food affordability to keep populations relatively docile -- will find themselves facing mass revolts and social chaos.

You are about to watch a milestone event in the history of our world 

Unless some miraculous rain reverses the extreme drought, the city of Sao Paulo is about to experience a literal "dry run" of this scenario in as little as 60 days. The history of human civilization has never witnessed a city of 20 million people run out of water before, and no one knows exactly how such a scenario might play out. But whatever happens, a far worse rendition of the crisis will inevitably unfold across Las Vegas, Southern California, North Texas and the Arizona cities of Phoenix and Tucson. (In Tucson, they still wishfully call dry water channels "rivers" even though water almost never flows through them.)

Modern humans will not acknowledge reality until it slaps them hard in the face. Whether the subject is the chemical contamination of the world, the mass over-fishing of the world's oceans, the pharmaceutical contamination of waterways, the using up of world oil reserves, the genetic pollution of crops with GMOs, the deep well pumping of water aquifers or the unsustainable government debt spending that props up fraudulent government regimes everywhere, few people have the will to honestly acknowledge the future implications of today's actions. Most people prefer to just "get by" with the status quo. Besides, isn't there a holiday sale going on at Best Buy?

It's also more convenient to believe the lies told to us all by government and mass media. "Everything is under control" is the biggest lie of all, repeatedly uttered by governments that are almost universally bankrupt and incompetent. The really big lie almost everyone believes is the idea that no radical and sudden changes can ever happen -- that things will continue on the way they've always been for the simple (illogical) reason that they've always been that way. Few people can imagine a world without fossil fuels; without a functioning power grid; without a 911 emergency responder system that functions; without cheap and easy food magically appearing on grocery stores shelves, etc.

And so the citizens of the world will greedily drink down the very last drop of water remaining. They will fill their fuel tanks with the last gallon of gas; clear-cut the last remaining forest; fish the oceans into mass marine extinction; mine the last remaining rare earth elements out of the ground; and dam up the last free-flowing river on the planet. The appetite of Earthlings for immediate satiation and quick-turnaround profits can only lead to self-destruction.

Have no illusions that if oxygen in the atmosphere could be turned into solid gold, people everywhere around the world would be incessantly mining the atmosphere for profit until the entire global population died of asphyxiation. With their very last breath, they'd be saying, "But I'm RICH!"

When Sao Paulo -- the world's 12th largest city -- collides with reality in the next few months, it will be following in the footsteps of Easter Island, the Anasazi Indians, ancient Assyrians and other failed civilizations which collapsed and died out long ago.

If you are reading this, you are living in a time of great historical significance: You will be witness to the unfolding of the "era of collapse" across human civilization. This era has already begun, and although it may take a century to see it all unravel, future historians will view this era as a time of unbridled destruction of the planet at the hands of over-extended human societies grounded in self-delusion.

Sources for this story include:

[1] http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/29/us...

[2] http://cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/terence-p-jeff...

Friday, October 17, 2014

Americans Have Wages Garnished and Assets Seized over Homes They Already Lost

(graphic: Getty Images)
ALLGOV | Oct 16, 2014 | Noel Brinkerhoff, Steve Straehley


Thousands of Americans are being chased by zombies—zombie loans that is.

Many of those who lost homes in the housing crisis last decade are finding that their nightmare still is not over. That’s because banks are still pursuing them over the mortgages they defaulted on, according to Reuters.

Settlements that followed often did not cover the remaining balance on the loan. This has led to “deficiency judgments,” in which debt collectors are now hunting down the former homeowners. In many cases, the judgments result in frozen bank accounts, garnished wages and seized assets.

“The two big government-controlled housing finance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as other mortgage players, are increasingly pressing borrowers to pay whatever they still owe on mortgages they defaulted on years ago,” Reuters’ Michelle Conlin wrote.

From January 2010 through June 2012, Fannie Mae referred 293,134 foreclosure cases to debt collectors for possible pursuit of deficiency judgments, according to a 2013 report by the Inspector General for the agency’s regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

“This is monumentally unfair and damaging to the economy,” Ira Rheingold, the executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, told Reuters. “It prevents people from moving forward with their lives.”

Danell Huthsing of Jacksonville, Florida, wound up being pursued for her share of a mortgage after breaking up with her boyfriend, with whom she shared a house. “For seven years you think you’re good to go, that you’ve put this behind you,” Huthsing told Conlin. “Then wham, you get slapped to the floor again.”

If you went through foreclosure with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase or Citibank, you may be in luck. Those institutions typically do not pursue deficiency judgments, although they reserve the right to do so, Reuters reported.

Friday, September 19, 2014

War on Multiple Fronts and No Talk of Peace - Gerald Celente Offers His Take

NextNewsNetwork | Sep 18, 2014

The world is in a very crucial point in history right now. It seems like everywhere you look, countries are on the verge of splitting apart, going to war or at the very least, economic collapse. Russia and Ukraine. Syria and Iraq. Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Even the United Kingdom could cut ties with Scotland. Public distrust here in America is at an all-time high. The future is always uncertain, but right now, it’s extremely volatile.

Every once in a while, we like to reach out to Gerald Celente and ask him to make a few bold predictions on topics all over the place. From foreign policy, the economy, even the weather, Gerald is a well-known Trends Forecaster. There’s nothing he likes more than a bold prediction. He’s not afraid of controversy either, we always know he’ll say what’s on his mind. He’s provocative. He really gets the people going.

Friday, August 29, 2014

How Energy Vultures Destroyed New Orleans - Greg Palast

The Big Picture RT | Aug 28, 2014

Greg Palast, BBC News / Billionaires and Ballot Bandits /Vultures and Vote Rustlers joins Thom Hartmann.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Why underwater homeowners won't be saved by Bank of America's $17bn deal

Under the latest settlement, Bank of America must
allocate a minimum of $2.15 billion to principal reduction.
Press TV | Aug 22, 2014


Since law enforcement officials first began pursuing banks for misdeeds related to the housing collapse, the stated goal has been the same. The objective, the Justice Department has said, is to hold banks accountable and to aid people most harmed by the financial crash that destroyed home prices and led to an epic wave of foreclosures.

Yet after more than two years of multi-billion dollar deals involving Wall Street's elite, including Thursday's $17 billion settlement with Bank of America, most distressed homeowners have no chance of obtaining the form of help considered the gold standard of borrower aid -- principal reduction, or the forgiveness of mortgage debt.

"Very rarely does principal reduction happen," said Ken Falvey, a housing counselor in Ft. Myers, Florida.
"We're not sure where all that money goes."

Though rising home prices have restored the lost value of millions of homes, about 9 million homeowners in the second quarter of 2014 were underwater, meaning the borrower owes more on the mortgage than the home is worth. For these homeowners, shedding excess mortgage debt can mean the difference between abandoning a house and investing in it again. Principal reduction also frees money for shopping and other purchases that can stimulate the broader economy, and relieves a huge psychological burden.

Under the latest settlement, Bank of America must allocate a minimum of $2.15 billion to principal reduction. Loan modifications will result in "numerous homeowners no longer being underwater on their mortgages and finally having substantial equity in their homes," the Justice Department said in a press release.

But there's little reason to expect that more than a few underwater Bank of America homeowners will receive a loan reduction. That's because the nation's top housing regulator continues to refuse to allow write-downs on loans controlled by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- the vast majority of outstanding mortgage debt. In the past, Bank of America has chosen to offer big write-offs to relatively few homeowners with expensive mortgages, rather than give principal reductions to a larger number of homeowners with smaller loans.

Two leaders of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie and Freddie, have refused to allow write-downs. Former FHFA acting director Edward DeMarco said reducing loan principal would encourage other borrowers to intentionally default, so they, too, could take advantage of a reduction. DeMarco stuck to this "moral hazard" argument, even though independent studies found that writing off debt would save taxpayer money, because fewer people would default.

Because of this stance, DeMarco was vilified by housing activists -- and scolded by the Obama administration, which was pushing for principal reduction in a package of assistance included with the landmark $25 billion mortgage settlement reached with lenders in 2012.

At one point, housing groups picketed DeMarco's home in suburban Maryland.

Mel Watt, a former Democratic congressman from North Carolina, replaced DeMarco in January. Housing activists expected him to quickly reverse course on principal reduction.

That didn't happen. Watt has made other moves to aid low-income borrowers, but he hasn't changed on forgiving mortgage debt. Because Fannie and Freddie control well over half of all outstanding loans, this stance means that the majority of homeowners simply don't qualify for principal reduction -- no matter how many dollars are pledged as part of multi-billion dollar settlements like the one inked by Bank of America.

Housing groups have not complained about Watt as loudly as they did about DeMarco, though they still argue for a change.

"We are pushing for principal reduction because housing is still a drag on the economy and communities are still in distress," said Enrique Lopezlira, senior policy advisor at the National Council of La Raza, a civil rights group that advocates for low-income borrowers.

Loperzlira said that while the housing market has improved, the recovery hasn't been evenly distributed. Nationally, about 17 percent of mortgages are underwater. But that figure jumps to 30 percent for lower-cost homes.

The FHFA's restrictions have kept principal reduction from reaching most of these people. So, too, has Bank of America policy.

As part of the 2012 national settlement, Bank of America forgave $4.6 billion in outstanding homeowner debt, for 28,630 people. That averages $160,905 per borrower. By way of comparison, the median home price in the U.S. is about $188,000.

In Ft. Myers, where housing counselor Falvey lives, the median home price is about $160,000 -- the average amount forgiven by Bank of America under the last deal. To Falvey, the conclusion is obvious: "They aren't helping us."

Rick Simon, a Bank of America spokesman, said using national housing prices to evaluate the bank's efforts "provides a faulty analysis."

Most relief offered under the national mortgage settlement was provided in states with much higher average home prices, Simon said. For example, about 30 percent of the principal reduction was in California, where average home values are among the highest in the country, he said. "Obviously, that pushed up the national average."

The bank has agreed to offer other forms of assistance, such as restructuring mortgages, and aid for buyers, as part of the new settlement.

Simon said most of the assistance in the new settlement likely will target homeowners who didn't qualify under the national mortgage settlement. Simon said the bank will begin reaching out to customers who may qualify at the end of the year.

AGB/AGB

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Eco-Friendly Agriculture Puts Down Roots in Spain

An ecological market that is set up every weekend on one
of the busiest streets in Málaga. Similar markets can
be found in towns and cities all around Spain.
Credit: Inés Benítez/IPS
Ipsnews | Aug 12, 2014 | Inés Benítez

MALAGA, Spain, Aug 12 2014 (IPS) - José María Gómez squats and pulls up a bunch of carrots from the soil as well as a few leeks. This farmer from southern Spain believes organic farming is more than just not using pesticides and other chemicals – it’s a way of life, he says, which requires creativity and respect for nature.

Gómez, 44, goes to organic food markets in Málaga to sell the vegetables and citrus fruits he grows on his three-hectare farm in the Valle del Guadalhorce, 40 km west of Málaga, a city in southern Spain,
And every week Gómez, whose parents and grandparents were farmers, does home deliveries of several dozen baskets of fresh produce, “thus closing the circle from the field to the table,” he told Tierramérica on his farm.

The economic crisis in Spain, where the unemployment rate stands at 25 percent, hasn’t put a curb on ecological farming. In 2012, organic farming covered 1.7 million hectares of land, compared to 988,323 in 2007, according to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment.

Organic farming generated 913,610 euros (1.22 million dollars) in 2012, 9.6 percent more than in 2011.

“Ecological farming is growing in Spain and Europe despite the crisis because those who consume organic produce are loyal,” agricultural technician Víctor Gonzálvez, coordinator of the non-governmental Spanish Society of Organic Agriculture (SEAE), told Tierramérica.

Organic food markets have mushroomed in the streets and plazas of cities and towns around Spain, and some supermarket chains now sell ecological produce.

The southern community or region of Andalusía has the largest extension of land under organic farming: 949,025 officially registered hectares, equivalent to 54 percent of the national total, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Most production from Andalusía is exported to other European countries, like Germany and the United Kingdom – which seems contradictory to those in favour of organic farming that truly provides a local alternative to intensive, industrial agriculture, with a short food supply chain.

“It doesn’t make sense to talk about exporting ecological foods because production should bring benefits to the local economy,” Pilar Carrillo told Tierramérica from her La Coruja farm in the municipality of Tacoronte on Tenerife, one of Spain’s Canary Islands.

She and her partner, Julio Quílez, have been living there for a year with their young son. They have less than half a hectare of land, where they practice permaculture – the use of ecology and local ecosystems to design self-sustaining productive landscapes that, once established, need a minimum of human intervention. They sell their produce every Saturday in the nearby farmer’s market.

“When you buy local ecological products you are eating healthy food, you’re interacting with people from the countryside, and you generate wealth in your local surroundings,” engineer Juan José Galván, who for five years has been buying food in organic markets in Málaga, told Tierramérica.

José María Gómez walking among the tomato plants
on his Bobalén Ecológico farm in the Valle de
Guadalhorce near the southern Spanish city of
Málaga, where he grows organic vegetables
and fruits. Credit: Inés Benítez/IPS
Spain, with its mild climate, has the largest area dedicated to organic farming in the European Union, according to Eurostat 2012 figures, and the fifth largest area in the world, after Australia, Argentina, the United States and China, according to a report by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements.

But the controls and certification of ecological agricultural production, which in Spain are carried out by both public and private bodies, are neither simple nor free of cost.

To be sold as organic food, products must carry a label with the code of the corresponding authority in each community, the Ministry of Agriculture explains on its website.

Certification of ecological farming takes at least two years to obtain, and the inspections are thorough, farmers told Tierramérica. The requisites and controls involved and the economic effort entailed drive up the prices of organic products, they argued.

Quílez, who grows aromatic and medicinal plants in Tenerife, said he has to pay for certification “as an ecological farmer and also as a seller of organic produce, which doubles the cost; a large part of the price of ecologically produced food goes into red tape.”

According to Gonzálvez, public funds in Spain go more towards conventional agricultural production and research in biotechnology than into supporting ecological farming.

He said farmers “are afraid to take the leap” into this kind of alternative production because there are no advisory services, unlike in intensive, industrial agriculture.

“Ecological agriculture is very empirical. If an aphid attacks my melons, I plant beans next to the melons because they draw the aphids away. Every year you get wiser,” Gómez said, standing among his tomato plants on his Bobalén Ecológico farm.

Gómez, who has tousled dark hair and skin tanned by the sun, argues that while “big industry produces market-oriented varieties, ecological agriculture, especially local farming based on geographical proximity, focuses on producing quality food,” as well as preserving the environment and soil fertility.

Critics argue that organic products are expensive and the production methods inefficient, “but it depends on what you buy, and where,” Esther Vivas, with the Centre for Studies on Social Movements at the Pompeu Fabra university in the northeast city of Barcelona, wrote in her article “Who’s afraid of ecological agriculture?”

Vivas told Tierramérica that although the level of consumption of organic products in Spain is still low compared to conventional farm products, the market for ecological produce is growing, as interest has been boosted by various scandals involving food products.

Galván said that while it is true that the higher cost of organic products can turn away consumers, “demand is steadily growing.”

“The real revolution has to come from below, from the consumer who goes to the markets to buy and who demands high-quality products,” Gómez said.

The ecological farmer – who worked for years as an environmental agent – stressed the social dimension of organic agriculture and short food supply chains, pointing to “the affection that your customers give you, as they are aware of the health benefits of the food and of the sustainability of the production.”

Quílez, who left a well-paid job in computers to dedicate himself to ecological farming, said “exploitative agriculture undermined food sovereignty,” and this is seen clearly in the Canary Islands “where 85 percent of the products consumed come from outside.”

On Gómez’s farm it’s time to plant beans, potatoes, cauliflower and broccoli to harvest in October and November. “I get up at 5:30 in the morning and farm for 15 or 16 hours,” he said.

But “it’s the best job I’ve had in my life,” he added, smiling.

Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes

This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Martial Law and the Global Energy Clampdown with Zero Point Author Nafeez Ahmed

TheLipTV | Jul 27, 2014

Zero Point, author Nafeez Ahmed speaks about the energy and economic crisis that faces the world, and how martial law and political clampdown is looming by the globe’s governments. Sustainable energy, the fossil fuel recessions, protests (both through peaceful social media as well as more violent measures), and the need for optimism that will transform society for the better is all dealt with in this Lip News interview hosted by Mark Sovel.


GUEST BIO:

Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed is a bestselling author, investigative journalist, international security scholar, policy expert, filmmaker, strategy & communications consultant, and change activist.The focus of Ahmed's work is to catalyse social change in the public interest by harnessing radical, systemic approaches to understanding the interconnections between the world's biggest problems, while developing and highlighting holistic strategies for social transformation. Whether it be foreign policy and terrorism, climate change and energy, or food and the economy, Nafeez deploys the techniques of critical, rigorous and interdisciplinary analysis to join the dots and challenge power, with a view to bring forth constructive change.

Nafeez is an environment writer for The Guardian, the world's third most popular newspaper website, where he reports, comments and analyses the geopolitics of interconnected environmental, energy and economic crises at his Guardian hosted blog, Earth Insight.

He is founding Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Development (IPRD), an independent nonprofit digital transmedia think tank for the public interest. Currently, he is also Co-Director of The Concordia Forum, an independent nonprofit think tank and leadership network working to strengthen trans-Atlantic civil society partnerships.

Nafeez's journalistic work combines insider information from senior government, intelligence, industry and other sources with interdisciplinary analysis of specialist literature. Over the last decade, he has broken exclusives on FBI whistleblowers and pre-9/11 intelligence warnings; the role of energy in the 2003 Iraq War; pre-7/7 intelligence failures; the 2006 liquid bomb plot; the link between the 'Arab Spring' and ecological, economic and energy crises in the Middle East and North Africa; the depletion of strategic mineral energy resources; cutting-edge climate science; counter-terrorism strategy in the AfPak region; sustainable rural development in Pakistan; the role of energy crisis in the Israel-Palestine conflict; among many others.

Nafeez is co-producer, writer and presenter of the critically-acclaimed documentary feature film, The Crisis of Civilization (2011), adapted by director and producer Dean Puckett from Nafeez’s latest book, A User’s Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: And How to Save It (Pluto, Macmillan, 2010). Nafeez's other books include The London Bombings: An Independent Inquiry(Duckworth, 2006); The War on Truth: 9/11, Disinformation and the Anatomy of Terrorism (Interlink, 2005); Behind the War on Terror: Western Secret Strategy and the Struggle for Iraq (New Society, 2003) and The War on Freedom: How & Why America was Attacked, September 11, 2001 (Progressive, 2002). The latter is archived in the ‘9/11 Commission Materials’ Special Collection at theUS National Archives in Washington DC – it was among 99 books made available to each 9/11 Commissioner of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States to use during their investigations.

ADD’L LINKS:
http://www.nafeezahmed.com/
http://www.nafeezahmed.com/2014/05/ze...
[...]

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Enslaving Humanity By Weaponizing Water

The ultimate control:
The Weaponizing of Water
Sleuth Journal | Jun 15, 2014 | Dave Hodges

Many people are aware that the globalists are attacking humanity in every aspect on multiple fronts. However, what many do not realize is the globalist attacks upon humanity is present in every fabric of our lives. It is stories like these that make this fact so abundantly clear.

Venezuela: The Canary In the Mine


In a scene reminiscent of the 2008 bailouts in which Hank Paulson and friends raped the American economy, Venezuela’s economy is in shambles because its leaders are more worried about pleasing bondholders and importers than meeting the basic needs of its citizens.

Venezuela presently is a record $25 billion in arrears to importers and has its citizens waiting hours in line to buy drinking water. Further, its citizens are finding it increasingly necessary to cross borders in search of medicine. Meanwhile, President Nicolas Maduro is using the nation’s dwindling supply of dollars to enrich bondholders.

The real story in Venezuela is not the declining dollars, but the emerging water crisis. The situation is turning very threatening to the well-being of the population. If Maduro continues to serve the banksters and the preferred insiders, the water crisis could lead to a civil war. In fact, there are widespread water shortages across the planet that threaten to push the entire planet into a state of perpetual social unrest and even war could break out over control of this most precious resource. 

Much has been written about the past wars that have been fought over oil (e.g. Gulf War 1), the wars that have been fought over oil and gas (e.g. Arab Spring) and the wars which will be fought over oil and gas (e.g. Ukraine, Syria and Iran). What is missing from most conversations is that the wars of the future will be fought over water, leaving oil as a secondary consideration.

The Next Ten Years


According to the United Nations research and scientific studies, nearly two-thirds of the entire population inhabiting the planet will face severe, life-threatening water shortages by the year 2025. The reasons most often cited for the water shortages are waste and poor planning which will result in uneven distribution.

Presently this problem is primarily a third world problem. However, the UN report and other ancillary reports mention that England faces serious water shortages and the United States is not far behind England.

In the United States, the planning and contrived water shortages are already underway. T. Boone Pickens is buying up the Ogallala Water Aquifer, the largest in North America. Jesse Ventura, on his show Conspiracy Theory, documented how Nestle is shipping Great Lake water to places like China at the expense of the American taxpayers. I have also documented how in places like Northern and Central California and Southern Oregon, the EPA is systematically removing local farmer and rancher access to water.

The Defense Intelligence Agency Warns the World


Even the Defense Intelligence Agency has clearly echoed the dire warnings of the United Nations report by stating that unstable water supplies will greatly impact all and water will subsequently be used as a weapon. The DIA report evoked a reaction from former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, just prior to leaving office as she commented that the DIA’s findings are “sobering” and that as the world’s population continues to expand, the demand for water will increase but fresh water supplies will not keep pace.

Overpopulation Is the New Globalist Paradigm


Please take note of the fact that the globalists never miss an opportunity to promote the false paradigm of overpopulation in order to justify their depopulation agenda. In several places, the globalists are proclaiming overpopulation to be the new threat to humanity. This has become necessary because the globalists believe that an increasing number of people are waking up to the man-made climate change fraud. Hillary Clinton has commented that as water shortages grow, this inevitably will lead to regional conflicts and violence between nation states and within nation states and that overpopulation is at the root of the problem.

One has to tip their hat to the globalists for their dynamic and flexible approach to achieve total global domination. As the world tires of the phony excuses to fight the banker inspired wars over oil, the globalists have shifted their strategy to appeal to human beings’ basic instinct, the inherent need to possess food and water in order to survive. Clinton, the United Nations and the Defense Intelligence Agency are nicely setting the table for what is to come; a planned global water shortage which can be manipulated into a greater stranglehold on vital resources by the globalists. Look at the latest media documentaries, many are merely a reproduction of this same mantra. This is a classic case of the Hegelian Dialectic in action.

In reality, the plan to bring the world to its knees through the global elite’s creation of artificial water shortages, is already underway. The reports from the DIA and the UN should be labeled status reports, instead of futuristic projections. Consider the following water-related facts from an existing set of realities. Twenty percent of the world’s population, presently lack access to an adequate supply of clean drinking water. Global water consumption is doubling every 20 years, more than twice the rate of human population growth.

The Progress of Contrived Water Shortages


The above-mentioned facts can be exploited by the globalists through controlling water supplies and creating more artificial shortages. The globalist plan to bring the world to its knees by controlling water is already bearing fruit as 31 countries currently face water scarcity. Globalist industries have been doing their part to ferment this conspiracy as more than half the world’s major rivers are either dead or are hopelessly polluted. More evidence to support the notion that the globalist plan is working is evidenced by the fact that, in third world countries, water borne illnesses account for most deaths. Water safety issues are being exacerbated and the death curve is dramatically spiking. Tragically, these deaths are almost completely preventable. As both the UN and DIA reports mention, that by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in absolute water scarcity and accompanying food shortages. There will be no shortage of willing and desperate soldiers to fight in the coming water wars.

The globalists plan for complete planetary domination is brilliant. First, the globalists are making very good progress at privatizing (i.e. stealing) the most precious resource on the planet. Secondly, the globalists will be in position to carry out their much exalted strategy of depopulation. Their plan is incredibly evil due to the hundreds of millions, if not billions, of innocent people who will perish, but it is very brilliant.

Bolivia Was the Beta Test


Bolivia was the beta test for this planned takeover of water.  Bolivia defaulted on its World Bank debt obligations and their water supplies went into receivership, controlled by the globalists, and water prices skyrocketed by 400%.

This scheme is also present in Lima, Peru, where the typical poor family pays private vendors up to $3 per cubic meter to collect contaminated water in buckets while the elite pay 30 cents per cubic meter for treated water that pours out of taps in their homes.

In India, some families spend a quarter of their income on water. Debt manipulation, for the ultimate purpose of controlling water, is not just in play in the third world. The derivative debt has paralyzed the economies of Europe and the United States. Debt default, followed by the banker bailouts. How long will it be until the globalists have to bail out the American economy while we continue on our trek towards unsustainable debt?  When America’s economy falters, the bankers, armed with their central bank printing presses, will come to the rescue. The price for their intervention, judging by what happened in Bolivia, will be total control over our infrastructure and the control of all water will be at the top of the list. Collecting rainwater and purifying stream water to drink, will become illegal acts. All water will be obtained through the public private partnership corporations and you can bet, as history has set the precedent, water will get very expensive. The legal framework for the takeover of American water is already underway in many states, like Colorado, which has adopted policies which prohibit the trapping of rainwater or the reuse of irrigation water. This is how it started in Bolivia and now we are seeing the same thing within the United States.

Controlling Water Gives the Banksters Control Over Food


The DIA report prominently mentions that agriculture uses 70% of the world’s water supply. Therefore, it follows that water shortages will quickly lead to food shortages. And what do the globalists see as the solution to the resulting food crisis which will follow on the heels of the contrived water shortages? The globalists are using this opportunity to promote drought resistant GMO crops. That is right, they are promoting GMO’s on the heels of artificially contrived water shortages!  So, if you don’t die of thirst or break the family budget by attempting to obtain water, you will increasingly find yourself being poisoned by toxic, drought resistant GMO’s. These are the same GMO’s, when examined in French longitudinal studies that demonstrated that lab rats who consumed GMO’s developed fatal tumors and died. Again, the brilliance of this plan is stunning in which an artificial water shortage is created and the public will clamor for GMO drought resistant crops.


A False Paradigm


The globalist notion that they must reduce population in order to save humanity, is a based upon unproven facts and should be considered to be nothing but a deception.

History clearly shows that if one would want to reduce population the best way to do so is through massive industrialization. Presently, the Italian birthrate is 1.2 and the in the United States, the indigenous birthrate is 1.8. Both countries are symbolic of the fact that in industrialized societies, the birthrate declines dramatically because high numbers of children are not needed to work on farms that are far fewer in number. Any sociologist will tell you that birth control and industrialization go hand in hand. Therefore, the globalists should be trying to industrialize the third world instead of preventing progress and deindustrializing everyone else.


Conclusion



The United States is also being pulled into this unhealthy paradigm of an artificially contrived water shortage, through outright theft, government assisted privatization and subsequent hording. Some local American municipalities are already experiencing similar rate increases which are common in the third world.

If all of the other globalist plans to manipulate the planet into accepting a world-wide government and economic system were to fail, the control of water would still represent their default position. If one controls the water, one controls the planet and everyone in it.


(click to enlarge)

Dave Hodges
is the host of the popular weekly talk show, The Common Sense Show, which airs on Sunday nights from 9pm – Midnight (central) on the Republic Broadcasting Network and its 29 affiliate stations. Dave also hosts a website (www.thecommonsenseshow.com) in which he writes daily articles on the geopolitical state of affairs both nationally and internationally. The theme of Dave’s show and website centers around exposing the corruption and treason which has invaded the presidency and Congress as well as their corporate and banking benefactors. Dave is an award winning psychology, sociology, statistics and research professor. He is also a former college basketball coach who retired as the winningest coach in his college’s history. A mental health therapist by training, Dave brings a broad based perspective in his fight against the corrupt central banking cartels which have hijacked the US government. Dave and his wife, Nora have one son and they presently reside in rural Arizona approximately 25 miles north of the greater Phoenix area. Dave was drawn to the fight for freedom when the globalist central banking forces, led by Senator John McCain, attempted to seize his home and property and that of 300 of his neighbors, without one dime being offered in compensation. This attempted public theft of private property was conducted for the purpose of securing cheap land in which the globalists intended on putting in an international highway through their area known as the Canamex Corridor. Dave’s community appointed him the spokesperson and eventually his community won their fight against the bankers and their front man, Senator McCain. This event launched Dave’s career as a broadcaster and an investigative journalist. Dave’s website presently enjoys over a half a million visitors every month.

Friday, June 6, 2014

What Will Happen When the Dollar Collapses?


Sleuth Journal | Jun 5, 2014 | Dave Hodges


Will It Be a False Flag Attack Or a Currency Collapse?


Hitler initiated a false flag event and burned down the Reichstag to gain control over the German government. Could the same happen here in the United States? My initial response to that question is, does it really matter? The pattern of societal collapse and subsequent governmental enslavement of the American people will be largely the same whether the precipitating incident is a false flag attack or a currency collapse. For the purpose of simplicity, let us call the precursor event to all-out martial law, a currency collapse.

The Federal Reserve Is the Enemy of Humanity


The Federal Reserve has been bleeding this country to death for a century. What the dollar bought 100 years ago, can only buy three cents of product today. This means that 97% of the value of our currency has gone into the pockets of the Federal Reserve investors for the past 100 years.

I am amazed at the abject ignorance of the American people and that they think the Federal Reserve is actually part of the federal government. As we like to stay in the alternative media, the Federal Reserve is no more federal than Federal Express. For the record, the Federal Reserve is a privately held corporation which sells stock to preferred insiders. In 1913, a small majority of Congress commissioned the Federal Reserve to control banking in the United States. Without a doubt, this was the worst decision ever made by an act of Congress.

The Dollar Is Diving

 

The world is running from the dollar, or should I more accurately state the Petrodollar. Until recently, our dollar was used as the currency of international trading. Further, the dollar was also the reserve currency for oil. All foreign countries wishing to purchase oil from the Middle East, first had to purchase dollars from the Federal Reserve. After FDR took us off the gold standard during the Great Depression and Richard Nixon finished the task of providing America with a totally Fiat currency, the only backing that our dollar enjoys is that of being the reserve currency for both trading and for oil (i.e. the Petrodollar scam).

The major cause of the present economic calamity is fractional reserve banking. When the government goes to the private Federal Reserve and asks for one trillion dollars, the federal reserve gets to print one trillion for the government, at interest, and $10 trillion dollars for themselves and to lend out at high interest rates. This inflationary practice erodes the value of your dollar while enriching our Federal Reserve investors. Ultimately, the currency upon which we depend on will be destroyed and life as we know it will be changed forever.
The practice of fractional reserve banking should be wholly illegal because it creates a state of permanent inflation for the benefit of a few and sets up economic demise for the many.

A Changing of the Financial Guard


The nations presently running from our petrodollar are India, China, Iran, Japan, South Africa and Australia have signed their own trade agreements and their currency of choice is no longer the dollar!

When the collapse of the dollar occurs, it will literally and figuratively come like a thief in the night, and I do mean overnight!

We are all familiar with the concept of inflation, which is the intentional byproduct of the Federal Reserve. But I am not just talking inflation, I’m speaking about hyperinflation which is caused by the collapse of the value of the currency resulting in runaway prices. Here are three examples of how quickly a currency collapse can occur when a nation’s money no longer holds it value:

1. In Weimar Germany, from 1922 – 1923, prices doubled every three days.

2. In the modern era, in Yugoslavia from 1992-94, witnessed prices doubling every 34 hours.

3. In Zimbabwe, in the two year period from 2007 – 2008, prices doubled every 25 hours.

History is replete with examples of currency collapses and they typically follow very predictable patterns in which a nation unravels and social chaos, and many times, widespread violence and even genocide becomes part of the national landscape.

What Does a Currency Collapse Look Like?


It can accurately be stated that a lot has been written and rehearsed by the federal government on the topic of the effects of a currency collapse and its subsequent impact on society. NORTHCOM, DHS and FEMA as well as other federal entities have practiced for this eventuality. In each and every scenario, the facts remain the same, human beings and society follows a very predictable pattern of decline when the currency of the day collapses. And normally, the currency collapse comes without any warning to the general public.

When George Soros recently pulled his money from the S&P 500 and from Bank of America, Citibank and JP Morgan, all Americans should have sat up and taken notice. Generally, when the currency collapses, a stock market crash is right on its heels. Because of the repeal of Glass-Steagall, a banking meltdown will immediately occur following the collapse of the stock market because since Clinton’s presidency, banks are now allowed to loan money for investment in the stock market and for down payments for homes. It was irresponsible of Congress to repeal Glass-Steagall, because it made surviving an economic Armageddon a near impossibility just as it did during the 1929 crash.

In a currency collapse, your life savings will be wiped out. From this point on, the effect cascades like a roaring tsunami racing across the open ocean.

Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy demonstrated that gas stations will be bone dry within two days following a complete collapse. Subsequently, commerce will not move. If you are on vacation, you may not make it home. On the second day following a currency collapse, being on the road will be a risky endeavor because of other desperate motorists who will lie in wait to rob other motorists of essential supplies and resources.

With no available fuel, the grocery and drug stores will be empty within one to three days. There will be no food to be had except for that which is decaying in your refrigerator and that in which you can beg, borrow and steal from your neighbors who will also be begging, borrowing and stealing from your other neighbors. If you have an adequate food and water supply, you better have an adequate gun and ammo supply in order to defend your assets. And when will you sleep? The protection of your critical assets is a 24/7 proposition. Therefore, having a cooperative survival plan is critical.

Without gas, people will stop going to work. Corporations will disappear overnight. Hurricane Katrina showed America that the police cannot be expected to stay on the job more than 48-72 hours as they will be home protecting their families and foraging for food and water like everyone else. The emergence of former police, now operating as gangs, will become common in an effort to secure the products which will ensure survival. Therefore, when your home is under attack, there will nobody to call. Everyone will be on their own.

The elderly and the chronically ill will be the first to die. Too old to defend their assets, the elderly will find themselves overpowered as they will make easy preys of opportunity for the roving gangs. The chronically ill will have no way to procure their medication and even if they survive the looting rampage which will follow a currency collapse, these poor souls will perish without access to their life-sustaining prescriptions.

The money in your wallet will be useless. Cell phones will not work. Heating and air conditioning will not work either and depending on the time of year, the environment could prove deadly to untold numbers of people.

Water treatment plants will stop operating for the same reasons that you will not be able to find a cop during this crisis nobody will be manning the water treatment plants. Toilets will back up and diseases will spread like wildfire. Cholera will become the leading cause of death even surpassing homicide. Something as simple as toilet paper will become a prized commodity. There will be no trash pickup and more disease will result due to the increased rodent population.

Clean drinking water and hunger will become the dominant motivator in society. Roving bands of looters, turned murderers, will sweep through neighborhoods seeking to obtain these critical elements of survival. Young women will sell themselves for a can of food for their children. Society will see the widespread loss of human dignity and self-respect.

Infanticide and euthanasia of the weak will become common events because there will be decided efforts to reduce the amount of mouths to feed. There will be the stark realization that the lights are not coming back on and the ensuing sense of hopelessness will lead to murder-suicides within families and simple incidences of suicide will be used as a means to escape the horrendous circumstances.

Humanity’s Darkest Hour


There will come a time when all the available animals will be devoured and then there will be only one place to turn to for food. History shows that cannibalism will set in by the beginning of the third week. Extreme hunger will lead to humans hunting humans as an available food supply. There is a real possibility that this could begin to occur within 15-20 days following the currency collapse.

The Government’s Version of the Final Solution


If the establishment military has properly planned, they will move into take control but they will not move quickly. The more death there is, the fewer people there will be to control. Government will typically move in with their solutions towards the end of the second week as has been the case in past economic collapses. The earliest the military could be deployed on the streets would be about four days from the event. Even then, the military cannot be everywhere. Christians should pay particular attention for when the Roman currency was debased in the third century, there was a revolving door for Roman emperors and Christians became the scapegoats for the economic issues.

To fully understand the relationship that will exist between yourself and the government, Google “Executive Order 13603″. The reasons behind the creation of Executive Order 13603 will soon become readily apparent. You will retain ownership over nothing including food, water, guns, ammunition, your house, your car and even yourself. If you survive, you will be conscripted to work in some capacity in a specialty and location not of your choosing. The provisions for dealing with potential dissidents will go into motion under the NDAA which allows for mass arrest and secret incarcerations without due process. There is one ironclad thing that you can count on, food and water will be used to control the people following the collapse of the dollar

Who Will Help Us?


When past currency collapses occur, organizations such as the World Bank, the IMF, the UN and the US have appeared to render their predatory version of help in exchange for control of critical infrastructure and other capital considerations. Because of this aid, more people survived in the impacted areas. However, what happens when the top dog collapses? Who would be able to come and render aid in America? Even in a world disgusted by our imperialistic ways would offer help, could they? Not under the coming circumstances could anyone offer help because they will be in a worse situation.

In short, there will be nobody riding in to rescue the United States. Despite some rebelling against the dollar, the world is still dependent upon our currency. When the currency collapses it will pull the rest of world down with us. The subsequent collapse of global currencies will indeed constitute a major depopulation event and all the elite have to do is wait it out in places like the tunnels under Denver International Airport.

During this time, Americans will truly discover if there really are FEMA camps and what they will be used for. If people want to eat, they will be enticed to go where food is promised. Although you can count on the above mentioned events transpiring in the event of a currency collapse, what lies ahead is unknown to a large extent because the top dog will not have been economically obliterated in modern history.

Conclusion


In addition to what has previously been written, in an economic collapse, we can expect the government to impose travel restrictions and martial law. Life, as we know it will not be recognizable.

Obama is willing to talk about the $17 trillion dollar deficit. However, you never hear the government nor the media discuss the real debt? Our real financial obligations total $240 trillion dollars through programs like social security, Medicare, public pensions and welfare. Subsequently, I want to make one thing abundantly clear; It is not a matter if we are going to have a currency collapse, it is when.  And the when is much sooner than later.  It could happen tomorrow, next month and even next year. We do not have two years left in the American economic engine. A currency collapse is nothing to look forward to, and people who intend on surviving the event should be in the midst of their preparations.



Dave Hodges is the host of the popular weekly talk show, The Common Sense Show, which airs on Sunday nights from 9pm – Midnight (central) on the Republic Broadcasting Network and its 29 affiliate stations. Dave also hosts a website (www.thecommonsenseshow.com) in which he writes daily articles on the geopolitical state of affairs both nationally and internationally. The theme of Dave’s show and website centers around exposing the corruption and treason which has invaded the presidency and Congress as well as their corporate and banking benefactors. Dave is an award winning psychology, sociology, statistics and research professor. He is also a former college basketball coach who retired as the winningest coach in his college’s history. A mental health therapist by training, Dave brings a broad based perspective in his fight against the corrupt central banking cartels which have hijacked the US government. Dave and his wife, Nora have one son and they presently reside in rural Arizona approximately 25 miles north of the greater Phoenix area. Dave was drawn to the fight for freedom when the globalist central banking forces, led by Senator John McCain, attempted to seize his home and property and that of 300 of his neighbors, without one dime being offered in compensation. This attempted public theft of private property was conducted for the purpose of securing cheap land in which the globalists intended on putting in an international highway through their area known as the Canamex Corridor. Dave’s community appointed him the spokesperson and eventually his community won their fight against the bankers and their front man, Senator McCain. This event launched Dave’s career as a broadcaster and an investigative journalist. Dave’s website presently enjoys over a half a million visitors every month.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

The US Housing Market's Darkening Data

WitthayaP/Shutterstock
Peak Prosperity | Jun 3, 2014 | Brian Pretti

When looking at residential real estate, we often tend to focus almost solely on recent price movements in assessing the health of the housing market at any point in time. But as both homeowners and income-earners in the larger economy, of which the housing market is an important component, to really understand what's going on, we need clarity into the larger cycle driving those price movements.

The more we look at today's data, the more it looks like that we are in a new type of pricing cycle -- one that homeowners and housing investors have no prior experience with.

And the more we learn about the fundamentals underlying the current cycle, the harder it becomes to justify today's home prices on any sustained level. Meaning a downward reversion in home values is very probable in the coming years.

Read more..

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Why Would You Want To Spy On Yourself For The Government?

© Alt-Market
Alt-Market | May 28, 2014 | Melissa Melton

And alternately, how “smart” do you really want your home to be?

The commercials have been airing for awhile now: you can protect your home with a smart CCTV camera system that includes full streaming, night vision, two-way talk back, and digital zoom for only $150. You can even add on the optional cloud recording to access stored footage of your home for up to a month (all encrypted for your security, of course).

Now news has surfaced that Google’s “Nest” division, which involves smart thermostats that program themselves and can be remotely controlled to change your home’s temperature over the Internet from anywhere, is looking to move into home security with plans to purchase home CCTV system-maker Dropcam.
“With a Dropcam Wi-Fi video monitoring camera and optional cloud recording service you can remotely drop in on your house, baby, pets, business, or anything else from a smartphone, tablet, or computer,” the firm says. (source)
Check out the video. Dropcam’s CEO says they built it to answer a really simple question: “What goes on at home when I’m not there?”

Guess it depends who is asking the question. Google’s plans ultimately involve, according to Mail Online, total home automation.

Apparently this comes just as Apple is planning to unveil its own home automation app that would tie everything together:
An Apple patent published in November last year gave the first hints of the system, showing a system that automatically turned on lights when a user comes home.
It is believed the firm is already working with home automation firms to ensure their gadgets work with the app.
The firm already sells home automation gadgets in its stores, including including arch rival Google’s Nest thermostats, Dropcam wireless cameras, Philips Hue lightbulbs and Belkin WeMo switches. [SIC] (source)
That means you and your house will be constantly creating bits of data that form a blueprint of your daily life: how much electricity and water you use and when you use it, on top of a camera that video tapes you using it.

And what of privacy?

And if you can “drop in” on your house, you have to wonder, who else can drop in, too?

After all, it was just last month that a hacker tapped into a couple’s app-controlled baby monitor, and they awoke to a strange man operating the camera and screaming at their baby in the middle of the night from inside their home.

Beyond that, we live in a world where the so-called National Security Agency’s habit of spying on Americans through major telecommunications companies like Google and Apple has been fully exposed now. It’s not even a question of if they do it anymore. They are openly doing it. Period.

Why else would they need to build a $3 billion data hub in the Utah desert?

(On a side note, it’s pretty interesting that out of three American cities that Google chose to first launch it’s Fiber super high speed internet, one of them is Provo, Utah…a choice that hardly makes sense in lieu of larger cities until you consider Provo is just 30 minutes away from the aforementioned NSA spy hub.)
In addition to apps that track your house, Apple is also set to unveil an app that tracks…you:
Called Healthbook, the new app is expected to be unveiled in June at Apple’s annual developer conference. It offers everything from food and sleep tracking to blood sugar level analysis – and can even tell how much water you’ve drunk. (source)
Check out the control panel that comes with your trendy new “health-tracking wristband” iWatch:

We now live in such a fear-based technocratic society, we are literally paying to give up liberty for security.

Pretty soon, your smart phone/smart pad/smart watch/computer (and anyone with access to it) will know everything about you, your home, your habits, and basically your whole entire life. The concept of privacy is quickly going out the virtual window.

The human race is about to get sucked up into the Internet of Things — “a global, immersive, invisible, ambient networked computing environment built through the continued proliferation of smart sensors, cameras, software, databases, and massive data centers in a world-spanning information fabric.”

Are you ready?

 This article was written by Melissa Melton and originally published at The Daily Sheeple

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Block-long sinkhole swallows cars in Baltimore, Maryland

The Extinction Protocol | May 2, 2014



MARYLAND - A block-long sinkhole opened up in a residential neighborhood in rain-soaked Baltimore on Wednesday, devouring cars and forcing the evacuation of several houses. The sinkhole opened next to railroad tracks used by CSX in the first block of 26th Street in northeast Baltimore, the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management said. A photo uploaded to the Twitter account showed several cars swallowed in the pit. CSX said an embankment collapsed onto the railroad tracks. It said rail traffic in the area has been suspended. Residents in the rowhouses on the block were being evacuated and a building inspector was called to the scene, the fire department said. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said there were no injuries or fatalities. Cars sit on the edge of a sinkhole in the Charles Village neighborhood of Baltimore, April 30, as heavy rain moved through the region. –NBC News
 

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Protests against World Cup continues in Brazil

© Press TV News Videos
BRAZIL | Mar 15, 2014 | PressTV News Videos

Some two-thousand Brazilian demonstrators have participated in a protest against the World Cup which was focused on the cost of the stadiums and the poor conditions of public transportation.

Shouting slogans such as Come to the streets against the government and there will be no Cup, protesters marched in Sao Paolo, the biggest city in Brazil.

Some 23-hundred policemen were watching over the demonstration and despite the demonstrators' verbal attacks against them, all ended peacefully and for the first time no incident were reported.The police say they are purchasing 14 bullet proof trucks to help the Special Forces during the protests. The equipment they are buying also includes four water cannon trucks.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Is Comcast Merger with Time Warner in the Public Interest?

Is Comcast Merger with Time Warner in the Public Interest?
Feb 18, 2014 | Ben Swann

Comcast is preparing to buy up Time Warner combining the nations largest and second largest cable providers spending about 45 million dollars to do so. So why is the Comcast attempt to merge with Time Warner a big deal? Two words: Public Interest. Watch the video to see why Ben says the Public Interest will not be served with this merger.

Friday, February 14, 2014

The Vampire Squid Strikes Again: The Mega Banks' Most Devious Scam Yet

The Vampire Squid Strikes Again: The Mega Banks' Most Devious Scam Yet
Feb 12, 2014 | Rolling Stone | Matt Taibbi


Call it the loophole that destroyed the world. It's 1999, the tail end of the Clinton years. While the rest of America obsesses over Monica Lewinsky, Columbine and Mark McGwire's biceps, Congress is feverishly crafting what could yet prove to be one of the most transformative laws in the history of our economy – a law that would make possible a broader concentration of financial and industrial power than we've seen in more than a century.

But the crazy thing is, nobody at the time quite knew it. Most observers on the Hill thought the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 – also known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act – was just the latest and boldest in a long line of deregulatory handouts to Wall Street that had begun in the Reagan years.

Wall Street had spent much of that era arguing that America's banks needed to become bigger and badder, in order to compete globally with the German and Japanese-style financial giants, which were supposedly about to swallow up all the world's banking business. So through legislative lackeys like red-faced Republican deregulatory enthusiast Phil Gramm, bank lobbyists were pushing a new law designed to wipe out 60-plus years of bedrock financial regulation. The key was repealing – or "modifying," as bill proponents put it – the famed Glass-Steagall Act separating bankers and brokers, which had been passed in 1933 to prevent conflicts of interest within the finance sector that had led to the Great Depression. Now, commercial banks would be allowed to merge with investment banks and insurance companies, creating financial megafirms potentially far more powerful than had ever existed in America.

All of this was big enough news in itself. But it would take half a generation – till now, basically – to understand the most explosive part of the bill, which additionally legalized new forms of monopoly, allowing banks to merge with heavy industry. A tiny provision in the bill also permitted commercial banks to delve into any activity that is "complementary to a financial activity and does not pose a substantial risk to the safety or soundness of depository institutions or the financial system generally."

Complementary to a financial activity. What the hell did that mean?

"From the perspective of the banks," says Saule Omarova, a law professor at the University of North Carolina, "pretty much everything is considered complementary to a financial activity."

Fifteen years later, in fact, it now looks like Wall Street and its lawyers took the term to be a synonym for ruthless campaigns of world domination. "Nobody knew the reach it would have into the real economy," says Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown. Now a leading voice on the Hill against the hidden provisions, Brown actually voted for Gramm-Leach-Bliley as a congressman, along with all but 72 other House members. "I bet even some of the people who were the bill's advocates had no idea."