Erdogan cheers Kurdish leaders’ prosecution as crackdown intensifies

Erdogan cheers Kurdish leaders’ prosecution as crackdown intensifies:

Turkey’s president has welcomed a criminal probe into the leaders of the pro-Kurdish HDP opposition over their calls for autonomy. Ankara has been cracking down on protesters supporting the Kurdish minority in the country.

The criminal investigation was opened last week after the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) issued a statement calling for the Kurdish population in the southeast of the country to be given self-government.

Read moreErdogan cheers Kurdish leaders’ prosecution as crackdown intensifies

Israeli forces shell Lebanese border town after patrol attacked

Israeli forces shell Lebanese border town after patrol attacked

Israeli forces shell Lebanese border town after patrol attacked:

Israeli forces have struck the small Lebanese town of Wazzani, north of the Israel-Lebanon border, local media reported, adding that there are fears of damage and injuries. The IDF has confirmed the attack, saying it was retaliatory fire.

Earlier, an explosion targeted an Israeli patrol near the frontier, Hezbollah’s Al Manar television reported. Lebanon’s LBCI News says that several people were injured in the shelling that followed.

Israeli Defense Force spokesman Brig.-Gen. Moti Almoz told the Jerusalem Post that two heavy armored vehicles, including a D-9 bulldozer, were hit, adding that the explosives were “relatively large.”

“We have opened artillery fire, and created a smokescreen to cover the area. We are in control of the incident,” Almoz said.

Read moreIsraeli forces shell Lebanese border town after patrol attacked

Atlanta Fed Just Slashed Q4 GDP Forecast To Barely Positive 0.7%, Down 1.2% In Ten Days

Atlanta Fed Just Slashed Q4 GDP Forecast To Barely Positive 0.7%, Down 1.2% In Ten Days:

Moments ago, in its latest Q4 GDP revision, the Atlanta Fed just pulled the rug from under the economy (and the market now that bad news for the economy is bad news for stocks), and slashed its latest quarterly forecast by another 50%, from 1.3% to a barely positive 0.7%.  In other words, according to the Atlanta Fed, Janet Yellen launched a rate hike cycle in a quarter when GDP will be just 0.7%, and which when averaged across the prior 3 quarters, would mean that the US will have grown at just 1.8% in 2015, a 25% drop from the 2.4% GDP growth in 2014.

A Stupid Standoff but a Just Cause – My Thoughts on the Hammond Situation in Oregon

A Stupid Standoff but a Just Cause – My Thoughts on the Hammond Situation in Oregon:

Oath Keepers including founder Stewart Rhodes was the only organization to predict how Ammon Bundy’s vague calls for action on the part of the Hammond Family would actually play out.  They received a lot of ignorant attacks in response, and yet, they were absolutely right.

Ammon, apparently trying to recreate what cannot be recreated, is looking for another Bundy Ranch stand-off.  First, I would point out that such events can’t be artificially fabricated.  They have to happen in an organic way.  Whenever a group of people attempt to engineer a revolutionary moment, even if their underlying motivations are righteous, it usually ends up kicking them in the ass (Fort Sumter is a good example).  Ammon’s wingmen appear to be Blaine Cooper aka Stanley Blaine Hicks (a convicted felon), and Ryan Payne (who claimed falsely during the Bundy Ranch standoff that he was an Army Ranger and who worked diligently to cause divisions between involved parties on the ground).  This was the first sign that nothing good was going to come from the Hammond protest.

The plan is basically this – use the Hammond family as a vehicle (yes, this is what is being done) even though they did not want any kind of standoff to result and specifically refused aid.  Occupy federally owned buildings which have little to do with anything of importance and have no symbolic power as did Bundy Ranch.  Elicit federal response.  Wash, rinse, repeat.

Bundy Ranch had many positive elements going for it, which is why it ended the way it did.  This standoff has none of the same elements.

– From Brandon Smith’s article: Oregon Standoff A Terrible Plan That We Might Be Stuck With

I wasn’t originally going to write anything about the armed occupation of a Federal outpost in Oregon by a group of opportunists creating an infantile and staged reaction to yet another egregious injustice of the U.S. criminal justice system. This is a very important distinction, because in today’s world everyone feels the need to take an immediate and unyielding stance on every national story without appreciating the nuances involved. One can support the Hammonds, while at the same time denouncing the tactics of Ammon Bundy.

Read moreA Stupid Standoff but a Just Cause – My Thoughts on the Hammond Situation in Oregon

Angola’s Currency Collapses To Record Low As “Hyperinflation Monster” Looms Over Africa

Angola’s Currency Collapses To Record Low As “Hyperinflation Monster” Looms Over Africa:

Just two weeks ago we warned of the looming “hyperinflation monster” in Africa with the continent appearing to be running out of dollars as some of Africa’s largest economies, including Nigeria, Angola, Ethiopia and Mozambique, are restricting access to the greenback to protect dwindling reserves. Specifically we warned of Angola’s already-soaring inflation hampering its ability to ‘adjust’ its currency towards its black market ‘reality’. But that did not stop the central bank devaluing Kwanza by 15% over the weekend – the most since 2001 – to record lows as crude prices crush their economy and the flow of USDs.

Visualizing Brazil’s Economic Decline In One “Straight-Line” Chart

Brazil2016_0

Visualizing Brazil’s Economic Decline In One “Straight-Line” Chart:

As we kick off the new year, there is perhaps no more tragic economic story than that of Brazil.

Once an EM darling, Latin America’s largest economy fell off the deep end in 2015 as a perfect storm of falling commodity prices, depressed demand from China, a soaring dollar, a devalued yuan, and an intractable political crisis plunged the country into what even the sellside has begun to acknowledge is an outright depression.

Inflation is running in the double digits and the country is facing an unemployment crisis which is bad news for an economy in which consumers have levered up in recent years to finance a middle class lifestyle.

Read moreVisualizing Brazil’s Economic Decline In One “Straight-Line” Chart

Happy New Year: Global Stocks Crash After China Is Halted Limit Down In Worst Start To Year In History

trader hand on face_4

Happy New Year: Global Stocks Crash After China Is Halted Limit Down In Worst Start To Year In History:

It all started off relatively well: oil and US equity futures were buoyant on hopes Iran and Saudi Arabia would break out in a bloody conflict any minute boosting the net worth of shareholders of the military industrial complex, and then, out of nowhere, like a depressed China in a bull shop, the “mainland” crashed the party following a terrible manufacturing PMI report, which sent Chinese stocks sliding slowly at first, then very fast.

20160103_China10

So fast, in fact that as we reported last night, on the very first day China’s new circuit breaker mechanism became operational, it was promptly tested out and led to a marketwide trading halt at 1:34pm local after the Shanghai Composite crashed by the 7% limit. Earlier trading was halted for 15 minutes after the CSI Index – which comprises large capitalization companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen – dropped 5 percent.  This was the worst start of trading in Chinese stock market in history, and oddly enough, was something that not a single pundit predicted as part of their oh so very entertaining year-end forecasts.

china day 1

And just in case crashing stock markets was not enough, the Chinese Yuan likewise crashed by over 0.6%, sliding north of 6.5325 at 4:50 local time after trading hours were extended and when the traditional PBOC intervention to calm the selloff did not appear in late day trading. The USDCNH was up to a whopping 6.6272 as China’s devaluation accelerates with every passing day.

Read moreHappy New Year: Global Stocks Crash After China Is Halted Limit Down In Worst Start To Year In History

China Halts Stock Trading For Day After Entire Market Crashes

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

China Halts Stock Trading For Day After Entire Market Crashes:

Following the initial halt in CSI-300 Futures at the 5% limit down level, the afternoon session opened to more carnage and amid the worst ‘first day of the year’ in at least 15 years, Chinese stocks collapsed further to a 7% crash. At 1334 local time, stock trading was halted for the rest of the day across all exchanges (at least two hours early).

As Bloomberg reports,

Chinese stock trading was halted for the rest of the day after the CSI 300 Index plunged more than 7 percent.

Read moreChina Halts Stock Trading For Day After Entire Market Crashes

1,000 crack British troops deployed to Libyan oil fields to ‘halt the advance of ISIS’

FYI.


ISIS-Terror

1,000 crack British troops deployed to Libyan oil fields to ‘halt the advance of ISIS’:

British Special Forces have been deployed in Libya to wrest back control of more than a dozen oil fields seized by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants, it has emerged.

Approximately 6,000 European and US soldiers, including 1,000 British troops, will be involved in a number of offensives set up to halt the advance of the jihadist terror group.

The operation will be led by Italian forces and supported mainly by Britain and France.

Read more1,000 crack British troops deployed to Libyan oil fields to ‘halt the advance of ISIS’

From Baghdad to Bahrain…From Beruit to Tehran – Tensions Are Exploding Across the Middle East

ISIS-Saudi-Arabia

From Baghdad to Bahrain…From Beruit to Tehran – Tensions Are Exploding Across the Middle East:

Either the rebel prince succeeds in convincing enough people who matter to remove the King, or the King counters and drives the prince out. The former situation is far and away the best option for stability in the Middle East, and would likely allow the Saudi royal lineage to hold on to power for longer. If the second scenario unfolds, current leadership will crack down even harder on dissent and run the state further into the ground. This behavior will ultimately lead to an unpredictable and likely violent revolution, and if you think the Middle East is volatile now, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

As John F. Kennedy accurately noted:

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

This also applies to Saudi Arabia.

– From the post: Regime Change is Coming – Saudi Prince Calls for Coup to Remove King

If you’re like me, you’ve probably been pretty checked out of global news over the past severals days. It’s time to get checked in.

Read moreFrom Baghdad to Bahrain…From Beruit to Tehran – Tensions Are Exploding Across the Middle East

Mid-East Melee: Sectarian Showdown Looms As Bahrain Cuts Ties With Iran, UAE Recalls Ambassador

Mid-East Melee: Sectarian Showdown Looms As Bahrain Cuts Ties With Iran, UAE Recalls Ambassador:

Over the weekend, a geopolitical black swan landed in the Mid-East where Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric set in motion a series of events that led Riyadh to sever diplomatic ties with Tehran.

Protests broke out almost immediately after news of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr’s death hit the wires. Tensions reached a boiling point on Saturday evening in Tehran where demonstrators torched the Saudi embassy. In Bahrain, angry Shiites burned tires and confronted riot police who used tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Bahrain6_0

As BBC notes, Bahrain “has frequently accused Iran of supporting a low-level Shia insurgency that flared following the regional Arab Spring uprisings in 2011.”

Read moreMid-East Melee: Sectarian Showdown Looms As Bahrain Cuts Ties With Iran, UAE Recalls Ambassador

Nigel Farage’s Car Sabotaged After Death Threats, Police Confirm ‘Foul Play’

Same thing happened to two people I personally know.


MoS2 Template Master

Nigel Farage’s Car Sabotaged After Death Threats, Police Confirm “Foul Play”:

Outspoken UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who has received numerous death threats during his tenure as a European parliamentarian, spoke for the first time last night about being the victim of an assassination attempt after his car was sabotaged, causing a terrifying motorway crash. As The Daily Mail reports, Farage careered off a French road after a wheel on his Volvo came loose while he was driving from Brussels back to his home in Kent. When the police arrived at the scene, they told him that the nuts on all of the wheels had been deliberately unscrewed

The “frightening” incident which took place in October, near Dunkirk, followed a series of poisonous feuds within his party over recent years, both in London and in the European Parliament, where he sits as an MEP.

Read moreNigel Farage’s Car Sabotaged After Death Threats, Police Confirm ‘Foul Play’

Armed Militia, Incl. Bundy Brothers, Occupy Forest Reserve HQ In Oregon, Call ‘US Patriots’ To Arms

The biggest revolution of all time is coming to America (as predicted).


Armed militia, incl. Bundy bros, occupy forest reserve HQ in Oregon, call ‘US patriots’ to arms:

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s three sons and “about 150” militiamen have occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge HQ to protest the pending imprisonment of two Oregon ranchers accused of arson, arguing the federal government has no authority in local cases.

“We’re going to be freeing these lands up, and getting ranchers back to ranching, getting the loggers back to logging, getting the miners back to mining where they could do it under the protection of the people and not be afraid of this tyranny that’s been set upon them,” Ammon Bundy, who appears to be the leader of the group, said in a Facebook video posted by Sarah Dee Spurlock on Saturday.

Bundy appears to be standing at the scene of the takeover, surrounded by several men in military-style uniforms with rifles and hand-held radios.

Read moreArmed Militia, Incl. Bundy Brothers, Occupy Forest Reserve HQ In Oregon, Call ‘US Patriots’ To Arms

Google is Collecting Information on Public School Students – Here’s How

Google

Google is Collecting Information on Public School Students – Here’s How:

As a new parent, the idea of sending my children to public school is a frightening thought. The more you read, the more you realize the importance of extreme vigilance when it comes to what’s happening at whatever place you send your kids to for majority of their day. Quite often, parents are simply left completely in the dark about some very important matters.

One such example relates to Google’s penetration of the U.S. public school system, and how the company employs a loophole in order to collect data on children. Google achieves this by referring to itself as a “school official” under the law. I truly wish I was making this up.

From the Washington Post:

Google is a major player in U.S. education. In fact, in many public schools around the country, it’s technically a “school official.” And that designation means parents may not get a chance to opt out of having information about their children shared with the online advertising giant.

Read moreGoogle is Collecting Information on Public School Students – Here’s How

Vatican fully recognizes Palestine state as landmark treaty enters force

Pope Francis (R) embraces Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the end of the ceremony for the canonisation of four nuns at Saint Peter's square in the Vatican City, May 17, 2015

Vatican fully recognizes Palestine state as landmark treaty enters force:

A treaty facilitating relationships between Vatican and Palestine – referred to as a “state” in the text – has entered full force, sealing de-facto recognition of Palestinian statehood by the Holy See.

The Vatican announced Saturday that its “Comprehensive Agreement” with the “State of Palestine” signed in June 2015 has come into full force, in which the Holy See bolstered support for the two-state solution of the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Referring to Palestine as “state” means Vatican has recognized it as an equal partner, thus sealing support for 2012 UN General Assembly resolution granting Palestine a non-member observer status.

“The Holy See and the State of Palestine have notified each other that the procedural requirements for its [the agreement’s] entry into force have been fulfilled, under the terms of Article 30 of the same Agreement,” the Holy See’s said in a statement on Saturday.

Read moreVatican fully recognizes Palestine state as landmark treaty enters force

Dr. Rima Laibow And Retired Major General Albert Stubblebine III On Alex Jones: “The Great Culling Has Begun” – “Emergency Alert: Vaccines Are Designed To Kill You” (Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9m5PeMAWLk

12.11.2015

Alex Jones entitled this program, “Emergency Alert: Vaccines are Designed to Kill You” — the Advance Vaccine Directive card is available here: http://www.DrRimaTruthReports.com/Adv… — please use the Special Code AJ

This video includes excerpts used with permission of Prison Planet.TV — the original full-length interview is at: http://youtu.be/G2-UxWm-z6k

* * *

Flashback (which will further explain the background of the term “the great culling”):

Dr. Rima E. Laibow: The Globalist Depopulation Agenda (Video):

In 2002 one of Dr. Rima E. Laibow’s patients, a head of state, told her:

“It’s almost time for the great culling to begin.”

Dr. Rima E. Laibow’s husband is Albert “Bert” Newton Stubblebine III a retired Major General in the United States Army. He was the commanding general of the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command from 1981 to 1984, when he retired from the Army.

* * *

Lecture in English with simultaneous translation into German:

The videos here …

Dr. Rima E. Laibow on Codex Alimentarius and Food Nazification

have the German translation cut out of the presentation.

Floating Dam Could Revolutionize Ocean Clean-Up

Ocean
The world’s oceans are home to millions of tons of plastic waste.

A free-standing, waste-trapping floating dam could revolutionize ocean clean-up:

In a few months, a giant floating dam—in the form of a 328-feet (100 meters) long barrier segment—will be set up in the North Sea, some miles off the coast of The Netherlands. Its ambition: to cleanse the world’s oceans of plastic trash forever.

Plastic waste is a major threat to animals in the sea, who either choke on the material or suffer from related contaminants. But most ocean waste projects try to collect plastic waste with boats that end up inadvertently endangering ocean life. The revolutionary new dam, scheduled for deployment in the second quarter of 2016, will instead use currents to round up waves of garbage—bags, bottles, and other waste—while also letting sea creatures through. Passive, safe collection is the idea.

Read moreFloating Dam Could Revolutionize Ocean Clean-Up

The Oligarch Tax Bracket – How the Tax Rate for the Wealthiest 400 Americans Plunged from 27% to 17%

Ready For Oligarchy

The Oligarch Tax Bracket – How the Tax Rate for the Wealthiest 400 Americans Plunged from 27% to 17%:

I never liked the saying: “We are the 99%.” While admittedly catchy and effective as a slogan, I think it is ultimately divisive and counterproductive. The reason I say this is because the statement itself alienates much needed allies for no good reason.

In a country with a population of 320 million, the 1% represents 3.2 million people, which is a pretty big number. While the 1% certainly have far superior material lives compared to the 99%, that doesn’t mean a particularly large percentage of them are thieves, cronies or oligarchs. In fact, it behooves people interested in transitioning to another paradigm to court as many of them as possible to the cause. It is very useful to have well meaning people with resources and connections on your side. To blithely assume there aren’t plenty of potential allies from a pool of 3.2 million is committing strategic suicide.

– From the post: Charting the American Oligarchy – How 0.01% of the Population Contributes 42% of All Campaign Cash

Much of my focus throughout 2015 was on the pernicious influence of the 0.01%, i.e., the American oligarchy. Indeed, nothing would please oligarchs more than to define a struggle as the 99% vs. the 1% in order to shift attention away from the real root of the problem, themselves.

Read moreThe Oligarch Tax Bracket – How the Tax Rate for the Wealthiest 400 Americans Plunged from 27% to 17%

ISIS: The ‘Enemy’ The US Created, Armed, And Funded

ISIS-ISIL-Daesh

ISIS: The ‘Enemy’ the US Created, Armed, and Funded:

Out of nowhere, it seems, Daesh, also commonly referred to as ISIL or ISIS, spontaneously formed, a group that perverts aspects of Islam for its own violent ends, and threatens, we are told, all that the civilized world holds dear.

The “war on terror,” governments inform their citizens, has a new front. And that front is Daesh.

Let us not be too hasty. Things are not always what they appear. Daesh is well-financed, and that money must be coming from somewhere other than a ragtag band of malcontents. Daesh soldiers have advanced weaponry and sophisticated communications methods. They have tanks and Humvees. None of these can be obtained without significant funding. Though the source is quite illusive, there is some evidence that will lead to a trail.

Read moreISIS: The ‘Enemy’ The US Created, Armed, And Funded

Keiser Report: Radically Beneficial World (Winter Why Nots) – Video

In this final special, ‘Winter, Why Not?’ episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert conclude with their thoughts on the 2015 that was and the 2016 that is: from increasing productivity, declining wages and decreasing fuel efficiency, rising alternative energy superpower. In the second half, they talk to Charles Hugh Smith of OfTwoMinds.com about a ‘radically beneficial world’ in a post-jobs economy.

“New Research Suggests [Fluoridating Water] Is Dramatically Misguided”

“New Research Suggests [Fluoridating Water] Is Dramatically Misguided”:

To Protect Its Nuclear Weapons Program, Government Hired Top Propagandist to Create the Myth that Fluoride Is “Safe and Effective”

Preface: One of our pet peeves is when erroneous groupthink persists even in the face of contradictory evidence.

As shown below, water fluoridation is based on very shaky science.  And yet – despite the science – the big dental associations in the U.S. and other countries continue to push it as safe and effective.

The Guardian reported last week:

Read more“New Research Suggests [Fluoridating Water] Is Dramatically Misguided”