Empowering Citizens And Deterring Crime, One Free Shotgun At A Time (Video)

Empowering Citizens and Deterring Crime, One Free Shotgun At a Time (SHFT Plan, July 27, 2103):

The 400 homeowners of the Oak Forest neighborhood in Northwest Houston were terrorized by 107 home invasions last year. It’s a neighborhood ripe for the picking by criminals who have no worries about being stopped in the act or even pursued by an already overworked police force.

But one Houston man has decided he’s fed up with the bullying and victimizing of innocent people and he’s evening the playing field. He’s put a plan into action that takes direct aim at the problem – in the form of 12 gauge and 20 gauge shotguns.

“We give brand new pump action shotguns…”

Kyle Coplen is offering free shotguns to every homeowner here in the Oak Forest area of Northwest Houston.

Coplen came up with the Armed Citizen Project in January, after he was disgusted by one of those break-ins when World War II veteran Albert Wood had his house broken into.

Read moreEmpowering Citizens And Deterring Crime, One Free Shotgun At A Time (Video)

Israel Bombs ANOTHER Syrian Weapons Convoy (Israel National News)

IAF jets bombed trucks carrying missiles to Hizbullah, according to Syrian opposition sources.


Report: Israel Bombs Another Syrian Weapons Convoy (Israel National News, July 28, 2013):

Israeli air force jets bombed trucks carrying Syrian missiles bound for Hizbullah’s warehouses in Lebanon, according to Syrian opposition sources. The sources, were cited Sunday by Voice of Israel radio’s Arabic-language service, which was quoted by i24 News.

The Friday night bombing reportedly targeted a Syrian military base near the town of Quneitra, not far from the Golan Heights cease-fire line.

This was the fifth known Israeli attack this year on Syrian weapons bound for Hizbullah. Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad reportedly wants to send the weapons to Hizbullah for safekeeping, out of fears they will fall into the hands of the rebels forces fighting him inside Syria, whilst the Iranian-backed terrorist group seeks “game changing weapons” – such as anti-aircraft missiles – in exchange for its costly intervention in the Syrian civil war on behalf of the Syrian regime.

Read moreIsrael Bombs ANOTHER Syrian Weapons Convoy (Israel National News)

Equifax Must Pay $18.6 Million After Failing To Fix Oregon Woman’s Credit Report

Equifax must pay $18.6 million after failing to fix Oregon woman’s credit report (The Oregonian, July 26, 2013):

A jury Friday awarded an Oregon woman $18.6 million after she spent two years unsuccessfully trying to get Equifax Information Services to fix major mistakes on her credit report.

The judgement, likely to be appealed, appears to be one of the largest awarded to a consumer in a case against one of the nation’s major credit bureaus.

Julie Miller of Marion County, who was awarded $18.4 million in punitive and $180,000 in compensatory damages, contacted Equifax eight times between 2009 and 2011 in an effort to correct inaccuracies, including erroneous accounts and collection attempts, as well as a wrong Social Security number and birthday. Yet over and over, the lawsuit alleged, the Atlanta-based company failed to correct its mistakes.

Read moreEquifax Must Pay $18.6 Million After Failing To Fix Oregon Woman’s Credit Report

What Does Heart Surgery Really Cost, And Why Is It 70 Times More Expensive In The US?

What Does Heart Surgery Really Cost, And Why Is It 70 Times More Expensive In The US? (ZeroHedge, July 29, 2013):

Indian philanthropist and cardiac surgeon, Devi Prasad Shetty is obsessed with making heart surgery affordable for millions of Indians. As Bloomberg notes, Shetty is not a public health official motivated by charity. He’s a heart surgeon turned businessman who has started a chain of 21 medical centers around India. By trimming costs, he has cut the price of artery-clearing coronary bypass surgery to 95,000 rupees ($1,583), half of what it was 20 years ago, and wants to get the price down to $800 within a decade. The same procedure costs $106,385 at Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic. Of course, this will come as no surprise after we showed the incredible spread of the price of an appendectomy. “It shows that costs can be substantially contained,” notes the World Heart Federation, “it’s possible to deliver very high quality cardiac care at a relatively low cost.” But, for Americans of course, when you have government footing the cost (and deficit spending), who cares?

Via WaPo,

Via Bloomberg,

“It shows that costs can be substantially contained,” said Srinath Reddy, president of the Geneva-based World Heart Federation, of Shetty’s approach. “It’s possible to deliver very high quality cardiac care at a relatively low cost.”

Read moreWhat Does Heart Surgery Really Cost, And Why Is It 70 Times More Expensive In The US?

DHS Prepares For Second American Revolution & Total Collapse (Video)


YouTube Added: 26.07.2013

Flashback:

DHS Insider Update … Looks Like “It’s About To Get Very Ugly” … Very Soon!!!

80% Of US Adults Are Near Poverty, Rely On Welfare, Or Are Unemployed

–  80% Of US Adults Are Near Poverty, Rely On Welfare, Or Are Unemployed (ZeroHedge, July 28, 2013):

Despite consumer confidence at a six-year high, the latest AP survey of the real America shows a stunning four out of five U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, are near poverty, or rely on welfare for at least parts of their lives amid signs of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream. Hardship is particularly on the rise among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among whites about their families’ economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987.

“Poverty is no longer an issue of ‘them’, it’s an issue of ‘us’,” as ‘the invisible poor’ – lower income whites – are generally dispersed in suburbs (Appalachia, the industrial Midwest, and across America’s heartland, from Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma up through the Great Plains) where more than 60% of the poor are white.

More than 19 million whites fall below the poverty line of $23,021 for a family of four – accounting for more than 41% of the nation’s destitute – nearly double the number of poor blacks and as one survey respondent noted “I think it’s going to get worse.”

Via AP,

Hardship is particularly on the rise among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among that racial group about their families’ economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987. In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63 percent of whites called the economy “poor.”

Read more80% Of US Adults Are Near Poverty, Rely On Welfare, Or Are Unemployed

Meet The UK’s Chinese Firewall – Censorship Extends Far Beyond Pornography

UK Porn Filter: Censorship Extends Beyond Pornography, But One ISP Is Fighting Back (International Business Times, July 26, 2013):

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announced Monday that British Internet service providers (ISPs) must install porn filters and require customers to opt-in for adult content. Cameron said the policy is aimed at combating child porn and the “corroding influences” of sexual content in the U.K., but several people are unhappy with the plan. Reports have linked the filters to controversial Chinese company Huawei, and others have found that the filters will block much more than just porn. Some ISPs have publicly refused to force the filters on their users.

The Open Rights Group spoke with several ISPs and found that in addition to pornography, users will also be required to opt in for any content tagged as violent, extremist, terrorist, anorexia and eating disorders, suicide, alcohol, smoking, web forums, esoteric material and web-blocking circumvention tools. These will all be filtered by default, and the majority of users never change default settings with online services.

One U.K. ISP, TalkTalk, already has “The HomeSafe System,” which was singled out for praise by David Cameron when announcing the new policy. It gives another good idea of the kind of Internet censorship the British government is looking to implement.

HomeSafe Filters
The HomeSafe filters may give an idea of what David Cameron wants to be mandatory for all UK ISPs.  TorrentFreak

More troubling is the revelation that HomeSafe is actually operated by Huawei, a Chinese company that both the U.K. and the U.S. accused of having close ties with the Chinese government. Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, is a former officer of China’s People’s Liberation Army, and a recent report by the Intelligence and Security Committee said, “the alleged links between Huawei and the Chinese State are concerning, as they generate suspicion as to whether Huawei’s intentions are strictly commercial or are more political.” The U.S. has branded Huawei a threat to national security.

Read moreMeet The UK’s Chinese Firewall – Censorship Extends Far Beyond Pornography

Halliburton To Plead Guilty To Destroying Gulf Evidence And To Pay Maximum Fine Of $200,000

$200,000???

FLASHBACK:

US Presidential Panel: Halliburton Knew Cement Mixed For BP Blowout Well Was Unstable

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: The Halliburton Connection:

The company acknowledged Friday that it had completed the final cementing of the oil well and pipe just 20 hours before the blowout last week.

And don’t forget this fact (!!!):

“Just eight days before the Gulf blow-out, Halliburton also announced that it had agreed to buy Boots & Coots for $240.4 million. Who are Boots & Coots?

The world’s largest oil-spill clean-up company which also deals with oil and gas well fires and blowouts.

What an incredibly fortunate coincidence. What a slice of luck.”


Halliburton to plead guilty to destroying Gulf evidence (BBC News, July 26, 2013):

US company Halliburton will plead guilty to destroying evidence relating to the 2010 Gulf Of Mexico oil spill.

The plea agreement, which is subject to court approval, means Halliburton will have to pay the maximum possible fine.

The spill occurred at BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico and was the worst in US history.

BP had accused Houston-based Halliburton, its contractor, of destroying evidence and asked it to pay for all damages.

The major oil spill three years ago followed a blast at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 workers.

“A Halliburton subsidiary has agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanour violation associated with the deletion of records created after the Macondo well incident, to pay the statutory maximum fine of $200,000 and to accept a term of three years probation,” the company said in a statement.

Read moreHalliburton To Plead Guilty To Destroying Gulf Evidence And To Pay Maximum Fine Of $200,000

The Full Layout Of Modern Shadow Banking

The Full Layout Of Modern Shadow Banking (ZeroHedge, July 28, 2013):

Following up on yesterday’s essay comparing Walter Bagehot to a modern-day shadow banker, we have received numerous requests for more information on this fundamentally critical  financial topic. So without further ado, we present a full and unabridged map of the modern shadow banking system.

Read moreThe Full Layout Of Modern Shadow Banking

Is This The Recovery Obama Is Talking About?

Is This The Recovery Obama (And Jack Lew) Is Talking About? (ZeroHedge, July 27, 2013):

Obama: “…the economy is far stronger now than it was four and a half years ago.”

…as long as one ignores the reality of the following chart…

We’ve seen macro “Hope”and micro “Reality”, but for the man in the street, it would appear from the chart above that the trajectory for ‘recovery’ green shoots is decidedly down and getting worse… even as the President tells the American public they are so much better off…

Egypt After Morsi … Edging Ever Closer To Civil War

Egypt After Morsi (ZeroHedge, July 28, 2013):

With the bloodiest weekend since the ouster of Mubarak, it seems the supposed coup-less people’s revolution appears to be edging ever closer to civil war. Egypt lies at the heart of the Arab revolution, even if the original spark occurred in Tunisia. But Egypt – with its strategic location, stable borders, large population, and ancient history – has been the principal power of the Arab world for centuries, defining the movement of history there like no other. This implies that the overthrow of Egypt’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, will have much broader repercussions. Europe’s bloody revolutions of the 19th century changed the status quo forever and while the Arab world might not be so deeply affected, the near future there will certainly be neither peaceful nor stable.

Authored by Joschka Fischer, originally posted at Project Syndicate,

Egypt lies at the heart of the Arab revolution, even if the original spark occurred in Tunisia. But Egypt – with its strategic location, stable borders, large population, and ancient history – has been the principal power of the Arab world for centuries, defining the movement of history there like no other. This implies that the overthrow of Egypt’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, will have much broader repercussions.

Read moreEgypt After Morsi … Edging Ever Closer To Civil War

Chicago Next? Windy City Cash Balance Plummets To Only $33 Million As Debt Triples

Chicago Next? Windy City Cash Balance Plummets To Only $33 Million As Debt Triples (ZeroHedge, July 28, 2013):

While everyone’s attention is focused on the Detroit bankruptcy, and just what assets the city will sell in lieu of raising a DIP loan, perhaps it is time to refocus attention to the city 300 miles west: Chicago. According to the Chicago Sun Times citing year-end audits, Obama’s former right hand man, Rahm Emanuel, closed the books on 2012 with $33.4 million in unallocated cash on hand — down from $167 million the year before — while adding to the mountain of debt piled on Chicago taxpayers. In addition to a liquidity problem, Chicago may also be quite insolvent as the city’s total long-term debt soared to nearly $29 billion. That’s $10,780 for every one of the city’s nearly 2.69 million residents. More than a decade ago, the debt load was $9.6 billion or $3,338 per resident. Of course, in a world in which debt is “wealth”, this is great news… at least until debt becomes “bankruptcy.”

Ironically last year, now-retiring City Comptroller Amer Ahmad argued that the city’s debt load was not “troubling” because, “We still have a very strong bond rating. Our fiscal position is getting better every year and we are aggressively managing our liabilities and obligations” (very much awhat the ECB’s Mario Draghi tells the world when he gives the periodic monthly update of European capital markets during the central bank’s press conference). It is ironic because last week, Moody’s downgraded Chicago from Aa3 to A3 in an unprecedented three notch cut in the city’s bond rating, citing Chicago’s “very large and growing” pension liabilities, “significant” debt service payments, “unrelenting public safety demands” and historic reluctance to raise local taxes that has continued under Emanuel.

Read moreChicago Next? Windy City Cash Balance Plummets To Only $33 Million As Debt Triples

Neuroscientists Plant False Memories In The Brain

Neuroscientists plant false memories in the brain (MIT News, July 25, 2013):

MIT study also pinpoints where the brain stores memory traces, both false and authentic.

The phenomenon of false memory has been well-documented: In many court cases, defendants have been found guilty based on testimony from witnesses and victims who were sure of their recollections, but DNA evidence later overturned the conviction.

In a step toward understanding how these faulty memories arise, MIT neuroscientists have shown that they can plant false memories in the brains of mice. They also found that many of the neurological traces of these memories are identical in nature to those of authentic memories.

“Whether it’s a false or genuine memory, the brain’s neural mechanism underlying the recall of the memory is the same,” says Susumu Tonegawa, the Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience and senior author of a paper describing the findings in the July 25 edition of Science.

Read moreNeuroscientists Plant False Memories In The Brain

Famed Hacker Barnaby Jack ‘Dies’ Week Before He Planned To Reveal How To Hack Into Implanted Heart Devices And Kill A Man From 30 Feet Away

Famed hacker Barnaby Jack dies a week before hacking convention (Reuters, July 26, 2013):

Barnaby Jack, a celebrated computer hacker who forced bank ATMs to spit out cash and sparked safety improvements in medical devices, died in San Francisco, a week before he was due to make a high-profile presentation at a hacking conference.

The New Zealand-born Jack, 35, was found dead on Thursday evening by “a loved one” at an apartment in San Francisco’s Nob Hill neighborhood, according to a police spokesman. He would not say what caused Jack’s death but said police had ruled out foul play.

The San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office said it was conducting an autopsy, although it could be a month before the cause of death is determined.

Jack was one of the world’s most prominent “white hat” hackers – those who use their technical skills to find security holes before criminals can exploit them.

His genius was finding bugs in the tiny computers embedded in equipment, such as medical devices and cash machines. He often received standing ovations at conferences for his creativity and showmanship while his research forced equipment makers to fix bugs in their software.

Jack had planned to demonstrate his techniques to hack into pacemakers and implanted defibrillators at the Black Hat hackers convention in Las Vegas next Thursday. He told Reuters last week that he could kill a man from 30 feet away by attacking an implanted heart device.

Read moreFamed Hacker Barnaby Jack ‘Dies’ Week Before He Planned To Reveal How To Hack Into Implanted Heart Devices And Kill A Man From 30 Feet Away

Feds Raid Marijuana Dispensaries In Washington State

Feds Raid Marijuana Dispensaries in Washington State (Liberty Blitzkrieg, July 25, 2013):

Like an insecure bully trying to demonstrate how tough he or she is and feel better about itself, the Feds raided marijuana dispensaries in Washington state despite the fact that Proposition 502 made it legal. Recall, I warned about this last year in my piece: Colorado Legalizes Marijuana: Your Move Eric Holder.

Read moreFeds Raid Marijuana Dispensaries In Washington State

AND NOW: Mayor Bloomberg Claims Whites Are Overly Victimized By ‘Stop And Frisk’

Incredibly, Mayor Bloomberg Claims Whites are Overly Victimized by “Stop and Frisk” (Liberty Blitzkrieg, July 26, 2013):

“More than 86 percent of people stopped during the Bloomberg administration were black or Latino, according to an analysis by the NYCLU based on an extrapolation of Police Department data. And 4.4 million of these stop-and-frisk encounters, or 88 percent, were of innocent people who were not arrested or issued a summons.”


Who Are We At War With? Sorry, That’s ‘Classified’

Who Are We at War With? Sorry, That’s “Classified” (Liberty Blitzkrieg, July 26, 2013):

You’d think that a nation that has allowed the shredding of the civil liberties enshrined in its founding document might deserve to know who the dastardly enemy is to justify such a dramatic transgression, right? Wrong. Amazingly, Carl Levin (D-Michigan) asked the Pentagon to define who exactly the “Al-Qaeda affiliates” we are at war with are. While Mr. Levin received and answer, guess what he told the public? Yep, you guessed it. It’s classified.

From ProPublica:

In a major national security speech this spring, President Obama said again and again that the U.S. is at war with “Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and their associated forces.”

So who exactly are those associated forces? It’s a secret.

At a hearing in May, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., asked the Defense Department to provide him with a current list of Al Qaeda affiliates.

The Pentagon responded – but Levin’s office told ProPublica they aren’t allowed to share it. Kathleen Long, a spokeswoman for Levin, would say only that the department’s “answer included the information requested.”

A Pentagon spokesman told ProPublica that revealing such a list could cause “serious damage to national security.”

Read moreWho Are We At War With? Sorry, That’s ‘Classified’

Here Is What Happens When A Central Bank Goes Bust

Today I talked to several supposedly intelligent people among them economists, doctors & computer scientists.

ALL OF THEM agree that the greatest financial collapse in world history is coming but EVEN the economists are so brainwashed nowadays that they think there’s no need to do nothing about it.

And so they don’t care about preparing themselves in order to save their assets.

They really do not care if they would lose 60% of their wealth overnight.

They literally think that the very next day right after the collapse the baker will continue to bake bread and everything will be just fine.

What can you say?

“There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution.”
– Aldous Huxley, 1961


Here’s what happens when a central bank goes bust (Sovereign Man, July 26, 2013):

July 26, 2013
Kiev, Ukraine

Over the past several decades, people around the world have become so brainwashed that few people really give much thought anymore to the safety of their currency.

It’s not something people really understand… there’s apparently some Wizard of Oz type figure at the top of the hill pulling all the levers of the monetary system. And we just trust them to be good guys.

This is partially true. Today’s financial system is dominated by central bankers who have been awarded nearly dictatorial control of global money supply.

In allowing them to set interest rates, they are able to control the ‘price’ of money, thus controlling the price of… everything.

This power rests primarily in the hands of four men who control roughly 75% of the entire world money supply:

Read moreHere Is What Happens When A Central Bank Goes Bust