China Cites ‘Insufficient Censorship’ In Threat To Shut Down Sina Weibo

Weibo

China Cites “Insufficient Censorship” In Threat To Shut Down Sina Weibo (ZeroHedge, April 12, 2015):

A little over a month after Chinese authorities moved to crack down on discussion of “Under The Dome,” the viral documentary which highlighted China’s pollution problem, and less than a week after Turkey banned social media after photos depicting now deceased prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz with a gun to his head showed up on Facebook and Twitter, free speech is yet again under attack in emerging markets as Beijing has reportedly threatened to shut down Sina Weibo which China’s internet czar claims is disseminating false information, providing a platform for terrorists, questioning the “facts,” not exercising enough censorship, and, much like the townsfolk of colonial era Salem, “propagating heresy”.

Here’s WSJ with more:

The regulator’s statement said since the start of the year, 6,038 complaints against Sina were made, including 1,227 in just the first eight days of this month alone, which was more than any other major website had received.

Read moreChina Cites ‘Insufficient Censorship’ In Threat To Shut Down Sina Weibo

Kiev’s military attempted tank attack on Donetsk airport — Donetsk Republic

Kiev’s military attempted tank attack on Donetsk airport — Donetsk Republic (TASS, April 12, 2015):

“The attempt of a tank breakthrough was made last night in the area of the settlement of Zhobunki located on the outskirts of the airport,” the Donetsk news agency quoted Basurin as saying

MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/. The Ukrainian military made an attempt to break into Donetsk airport using tanks, spokesman for the Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Eduard Basurin said on Sunday.

“The attempt of a tank breakthrough was made last night in the area of the settlement of Zhobunki located on the outskirts of the airport,” the Donetsk news agency quoted Basurin as saying.

Read moreKiev’s military attempted tank attack on Donetsk airport — Donetsk Republic

Armed conflicts registered among Ukraine’s army units in Donbass

Armed conflicts registered among Ukraine’s army units in Donbass (TASS, April 11, 2015):

The fact that Kiev’s authorities describe the episodes when Ukrainian units open fire on one another as DPR militia’s violations of the ceasefire, the spokesman for the self-proclaimed DPR said

MOSCOW, April 11. /TASS/. Confrontation among Ukrainian Armed Forces’ units in Donbass has resulted in armed conflicts, the spokesman for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said on Saturday.

“We have registered cases of a sharpening confrontation not just between Ukrainian regular army’s units and ‘volunteer battalions’ but also among units of Ukraine’s Armed Forces,” the Donetsk news agency quoted Eduard Basurin as saying.

Read moreArmed conflicts registered among Ukraine’s army units in Donbass

French Military Intelligence Rules Out ‘Russian Invasion Plans’ For Ukraine

france-ukraine

French military intelligence rules out ‘Russian invasion plans’ for Ukraine (RT, April 11, 2015):

France’s intelligence chief has questioned NATO’s claims of Russia preparing to attack Ukraine as their agents failed to spot any activities signaling this – either before or after the crisis began.

A statement by the chief of France’s military intelligence, General Christophe Gomart, was published on the National Assembly’s website.

“NATO announced that the Russians were about to invade Ukraine. But, according to French intelligence, there is nothing to corroborate this hypothesis – we determined that the Russians were deploying neither command posts nor logistical facilities, including field hospitals, needed for a military incursion,” General Gomart told a parliamentary hearing.

Read moreFrench Military Intelligence Rules Out ‘Russian Invasion Plans’ For Ukraine

Iranians Are Much Talked About on Sunday Morning TV, But Never Heard From

Iranians Are Much Talked About on Sunday Morning TV, But Never Heard From

Iranians Are Much Talked About on Sunday Morning TV, But Never Heard From (The Intercept, April 11, 2015):

Sunday morning news television is where Washington sets its media agenda for the week and, more importantly, defines its narrow range of conventional, acceptable viewpoints. It’s where the Serious People go to spout their orthodoxies and, through the illusion of “tough questioning,” disseminate DC-approved bipartisan narratives. Other than the New York Times front page, Sunday morning TV was the favorite tool of choice for Bush officials and neocon media stars to propagandize the public about Iraq; Dick Cheney’s media aide, Catherine Martin, noted in a memo that the Tim Russert-hosted Meet the Press lets Cheney “control message,” and she testified at the Lewis Libby trial that, as a result, “I suggested we put the vice president on Meet the Press, which was a tactic we often used. It’s our best format.”

Read moreIranians Are Much Talked About on Sunday Morning TV, But Never Heard From

California Food Facts – Production & Crops California

California Food Facts – Production & Crops California (Beach California):

California food facts are incredibly interesting. Most people think of the Golden State as a tourist destination where you can visit Hollywood film locations, see celebrities and go to beaches. In additional to California ranking as the top destination in the United States, it also ranks as the top food production state for a number of crops.

Though tourists hardly consider the agricultural significance of California as a food growing region, the temperate year-round climate and expanses of land provide foods the nation and world have grown to enjoy and count on. Below are some of the top crops and percentage of the nation’s supply produced in California.

Read moreCalifornia Food Facts – Production & Crops California

DoD Blocks Millions of Computers From Viewing Alternative News

Obama internet

DoD Blocks Millions of Computers From Viewing Alternative News (Activist Post, June 29, 2013):

After the initial surge of web traffic to alternative news websites following The Guardian breaking the NSA spying story, traffic has slowed considerably despite the continued interest in the NSA story as well as other alternative headlines.

This dramatic drop in traffic may be due to broad censorship by the Department of Defense on “millions of computers”.

Read moreDoD Blocks Millions of Computers From Viewing Alternative News

Elite Child Sex Slaves “1981” Forgotten Documentary

Description:

Disturbing public access documentary from 1981 that later was proven true … to the Franklin cover up , the pedo priests , the Sandusky fiasco we see today. This is a ongoing theme we see in the upper crusts of our society pedophilia with young boys within major respectable institutions. I personally do not understand it.

Arabian Game of Thrones: House of Saud Playing Dirty in Yemen

From the article:

Thus, Riyadh is trying to bomb one of the poorest Arab states into accepting an authoritarian regime of ousted Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a loyal vassal of Saudi Arabia and the US.


Yemen-conflict

Arabian Game of Thrones: House of Saud Playing Dirty in Yemen (Sputnik, April 11, 2015):

The US-backed House of Saud has long been playing different Yemeni governments, the Houthis, the Muslims Brotherhood, and al-Qaeda all against one another in a real life version of “Game of Thrones,” Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya noted.

While Yemen is currently being bombed into accepting the US-Saudi authoritarian order, one could hardly imagine that the House of Saud has previously worked with the Houthis, supporting the idea of Zaidi imamate and exploiting the sectarian group as a counterbalance against the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence in Yemen, Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, an author and geopolitical analyst noted.

Read moreArabian Game of Thrones: House of Saud Playing Dirty in Yemen

Meet The Secretive Group That Runs The World

bis-bank-for-international-settlements-basel-switzerland

Meet The Secretive Group That Runs The World (ZeroHedge, April 11, 2015):

Over the centuries there have been many stories, some based on loose facts, others based on hearsay, conjecture, speculation and outright lies, about groups of people who “control the world.” Some of these are partially accurate, others are wildly hyperbolic, but when it comes to the historic record, nothing comes closer to the stereotypical, secretive group determining the fate of over 7 billion people, than the Bank of International Settlements, which hides in such plain sight, that few have ever paid much attention.

BIS committee

This is their story.

BIS table

First unofficial meeting of the BIS Board of Directors in Basel, April 1930

* * *

The following is an excerpt from TOWER OF BASEL: The Shadowy History of the Secret Bank that Runs the World by Adam LeBor.  Reprinted with permission from PublicAffairs.

The world’s most exclusive club has eighteen members. They gather every other month on a Sunday evening at 7 p.m. in conference room E in a circular tower block whose tinted windows overlook the central Basel railway station. Their discussion lasts for one hour, perhaps an hour and a half. Some of those present bring a colleague with them, but the aides rarely speak during this most confidential of conclaves. The meeting closes, the aides leave, and those remaining retire for dinner in the dining room on the eighteenth floor, rightly confident that the food and the wine will be superb. The meal, which continues until 11 p.m. or midnight, is where the real work is done. The protocol and hospitality, honed for more than eight decades, are faultless. Anything said at the dining table, it is understood, is not to be repeated elsewhere.

Read moreMeet The Secretive Group That Runs The World

World Lit Up: Stunning European Night Sky As Seen From ISS (VIDEO)

iss-mediterranean-time-lapse
A still from YouTube video by AstronautiCAST. Footage courtesy of http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/

World lit up: Stunning European night sky as seen from ISS (VIDEO) (RT, April 11, 2015):

A recently released time-lapse clip filmed from the International Space Station (ISS) shows European and North African cities lighting up the sky, in contrast to the dark expanses of the Mediterranean Sea at night.

ISS Expedition 43 captured the footage, as the spacecraft was traveling over the Mediterranean region on March 28. It was then merged into a video and uploaded to YouTube on Thursday.

The breathtaking views of European cityscapes from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Balkans are revealed from two different angles, with the northern coast of Africa also partly visible.

Read moreWorld Lit Up: Stunning European Night Sky As Seen From ISS (VIDEO)

Mass Whale Beaching Re-Ignites Quake Fears Among Japanese

Mass Whale Beaching Re-Ignites Quake Fears Among Japanese (ZeroHedge, April 11, 2015):

Six days prior to Japan’s devastating 2011 undersea earthquake that killed over 18,000 people, around 50 melon-headed whales – a species that is a member of the dolphin family – beached themselves on Japan’s beaches. Now, 4 years later, and despite a lack of scientific evidence linking the two events, many Japanese took to social media in fear as the mass beaching of over 150 melon-headed whales on Japan’s shores has fueled fears of a repeat of the monster quake, which unleashed a towering tsunami and triggered a nuclear disaster.

Mass Whale Beaching Re-Ignites Quake Fears Among Japanese

As Japan Times reports,

The mass beaching of over 150 melon-headed whales on Japan’s shores has fueled fears of a repeat of a seemingly unrelated event in the country — the devastating 2011 undersea earthquake that killed over 18,000 people.

Despite a lack of scientific evidence linking the two events, a flurry of online commentators have pointed to the appearance of around 50 melon-headed whales — a species that is a member of the dolphin family — on Japan’s beaches six days prior to the monster quake, which unleashed a towering tsunami and triggered a nuclear disaster.

Read moreMass Whale Beaching Re-Ignites Quake Fears Among Japanese

None Dare Call It Fraud—–Its Just A “Savings Glut”

None Dare Call It Fraud—–Its Just A “Savings Glut” (David Stockman’s Contra Corner, April 10, 2015):

They were jawing again this morning about the low “natural rate” of interest on bubble vision, implying that the workers of the world have succumbed to an atavistic fit of wild-eyed thrift. Gosh, the world is so inundated in a savings glut, averred Wall Street economist Ed McKeon, that the interest rate would be near zero—–even without the concerted action of the central banks.

Hogwash! Since the turn of the century the major central banks have purchased upwards of $15 trillion worth of government bonds and other fixed income assets. Yes, these reckless money printers have suspended common sense, but they have not repealed the law of supply and demand, nor even suspended its relentless operation for a nanosecond.

So in adding massively to “demand” for something that sells at a price (the interest rate), the big fat bid of the central banks has caused fixed income markets to clear at much higher prices (lower yields) than would otherwise be the case. That’s just economics 101.

By contrast, were the market dependent solely upon the savings of America’s hand-to-mouth middle class, Europe’s legions of socialist pensioners, Japan’s mushrooming retirement colony or the millions of former peasant girls who labor for comparatively meager in Foxcon’s sweatshops, one thing would be certain: There would not be trillions of government bonds trading at negative nominal interest rates this very moment, or tens of trillions trading close to the zero bound and therefore at negative rates after inflation and taxes.

In a word, there is a $100 trillion bond market out there that has been priced by a handful of central bankers, not a planet teeming with exhuberant savers. The mad descent of the former into the whacky world of QE and ZIRP has caused a double whammy distortion in the bond markets of the world.

Read moreNone Dare Call It Fraud—–Its Just A “Savings Glut”

Russian Fighter Jet Gives US Recon Airplane ‘Top Gun’-Style Interception

flyby

Russian Fighter Jet Gives US Recon Airplane “Top Gun”-Style Interception (ZeroHedge, April 11, 2015):

Over the past year, NATO has flooded the media with over 100 reports of its aircraft intercepting Russian spy and warplanes over neutral territory which supposedly were getting too close to native soil for comfort and in urgent need of an escort. Last week, however, the roles were reversed when a US RC-135U reconnaissance aircraft was intercepted in very close proximity by a Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet over the Baltic Sea near Russia’s Kaliningrad Region.

The Pentagon promptly accused the Russian pilot of coming dangerously close to the US aircraft.

Read moreRussian Fighter Jet Gives US Recon Airplane ‘Top Gun’-Style Interception

General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt: Now Is A ‘Perfect Time To Be A Seller’

Thelma

GE CEO Says Now is a “Perfect Time To Be a Seller” (Dark Bid, April 10, 2015):

If you thought you had market impact problems, then you have never tried to sell $273 billion of loans.

GE Capital’s 2014 loan portfolio was marked at $363 billion. It will take a lot of maneuvering to bring it down to the $90 billion target. With the market at all-time highs and with valuations stretched beyond all conceivable rationality, GE CEO Jeff Immelt said now is a “perfect time to be a seller. People are lining up at the starting line.”

Read moreGeneral Electric CEO Jeff Immelt: Now Is A ‘Perfect Time To Be A Seller’

Two Iran Officers Captured In Yemen

Sure!!!

Aaaand they were surely wearing their ‘Revolutionary Guard’ uniforms and had their passports with them …

Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko holds Russian passports to prove the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine

Moscow Demands Copies Of ‘Russian Soldiers IDs’ Shown By Poroshenko In Munich

‘Political comedy’: Poroshenko’s ‘Russian army evidence’ raises eyebrows

Yeah, right.


Two Iran Officers Captured In Yemen (ZeroHedge, April 11, 2015):

In a move that, if confirmed, is certain to escalate the Yemen conflict which as a reminder is a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, overnight local media first, and Reuters subsequently, reported that local militiamen in the southern Yemeni city of Aden said they captured two Iranian military officers advising Houthi rebels, during fighting on Friday evening.

Since Tehran has strongly denied providing any military support for Houthi fighters, proof of the arrest would indicate that the proxy war has transformed into a land incursion by at least one of the interested parties.

Read moreTwo Iran Officers Captured In Yemen

NYC Pension Earns $40 Million Over 10 Years, Pays Fund Managers $2 BILLION

NYC Pension Earns $40 Million Over 10 Years, Pays Fund Managers $2 Billion (The Reformed Broker, April 9, 2015):

“We asked a simple question: Are we getting value for the fees we’re paying to Wall Street?” Mr. Stringer said. “The answer, based on this 10-year analysis, is no.”

The party is over.

At great political risk to his own ambitions (given the local campaign-funding base), New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer took a look at how much the city’s been paying to Wall Street (or Greenwich) to manage its money over the last decade and what they’ve gotten in return.

It doesn’t look good.

via the New York Times (emphasis mine):

over the past 10 years, the five pension funds have paid more than $2 billion in fees to money managers and have received virtually nothing in return…

Until now, Mr. Stringer said, the pension funds have reported the performance of many of their investments before taking the fees paid to money managers into account. After factoring in those fees, his staff found that they had dragged the overall returns $2.5 billion below expectations over the last 10 years.

Over the last 10 years, the return on those “public asset classes” has surpassed expectations by more than $2 billion, according to the comptroller’s analysis. But nearly all of that extra gain — about 97 percent — has been eaten up by management fees, leaving just $40 million for the retirees, it found.

It’s bordering on parody. They report investment returns gross of fees and then add the fee information onto their statements as footnotes. Do you know of anyone who can eat their returns gross of fees and taxes? I don’t.

Read moreNYC Pension Earns $40 Million Over 10 Years, Pays Fund Managers $2 BILLION

Billionaire Stan Druckenmiller’s “Horrific Sense” Of Deja Vu: “I Know It’s Tempting To Invest, But This Will End Very Badly”

Stan Druckenmiller’s “Horrific Sense” Of Deja Vu: “I Know It’s Tempting To Invest, But This Will End Very Badly” (ZeroHedge, April 11, 2015):

“I just have the same horrific sense I had” before, Druckenmiller said to an audience at the Lost Tree Club in North Palm Beach, Florida (according to a transcript obtained by Bloomberg). “Our monetary policy is so much more reckless and so much more aggressively pushing the people in this room and everybody else out the risk curve that we’re doubling down on the same policy that really put us there.”

‘The Blob’ In Pacific Ocean Might Be To Blame For California Drought, Erratic US Weather – Studies

H/t reader squodgy:

“The Blob.

Of course it won’t have any connection whatsoever to an accumulation of highly radioactive particles drifting across the ocean and settling off the California shelf.

It is coincidentally 4 years since the radioactive conveyor belt was kick started.

Just trying to join the dots, that’s all. I may be presumptious, but something has to explain it and Government lies.”

In my opinion HAARP is the main cause for the blob and the drought:

California Drought Emergency: Weather Modification Through HAARP & Chemtrails – Satellite Photos Show Pacific Storms Stopped Cold, Destroyed

TPTB have planned the same fate for Europe. If they will push their plans through you will be able to walk through the Rhine.

Related info:

Dust Bowl 2.0: California’s Historic Drought About To Get Even Worse As “Snowpack Melts Early Across The West”


mystery-blob-pacific-ocean

‘The blob’ in Pacific Ocean might be to blame for California drought, erratic US weather – studies (RT, April 10, 2015):

Coined “the blob,” a massive patch of warm water off the US West Coast is contributing to warmer-than-average drought conditions in states like California, in addition to lower temperatures on the US East Coast, according to two new reports.

The blob — measuring about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) in diameter and 300 feet (91 meters) deep — is currently positioned against the West Coast. It is about 2 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit (1 to 4 degrees Celsius) above normal average temperature. Climate scientist Nick Bond was first to call the warm weather anomaly “the blob” nearly a year ago.

“In the fall of 2013 and early 2014 we started to notice a big, almost circular mass of water that just didn’t cool off as much as it usually did, so by spring of 2014 it was warmer than we had ever seen it for that time of year,”said Nick Bond of the University of Washington-based Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, a joint research center of the school and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Read more‘The Blob’ In Pacific Ocean Might Be To Blame For California Drought, Erratic US Weather – Studies

No One Bothers To Lie Anymore

H/t reader squodgy:

“The Mainstream Media have actually achieved their goal…….total apathy.”


sheeple-1

No one bothers to lie anymore (The Ugly Truth, April 11, 2015):

When Bush invaded Iraq, he lied about WMDs. When Obama destroyed Libya, he first got UN approval for a “no fly zone.” When Obama wanted to start bombing Syria, he lied about Syrian government nerve gas, and he invented the “ISIS” group.

Today no one bothers to lie any more.

No one bothers to use euphemisms and double-talk. No one bothers to create fairy tales about terrorist groups. No one bothers to claim that the targeted victims are a threat to the homeland. No one bothers with false flags and mass propaganda.

Read moreNo One Bothers To Lie Anymore

India: Police To Use Pepper-Spraying Drones On Unruly Protesters

Indian police to use pepper-spraying drones on unruly protesters (AFP. April 7, 2015):

Police in a northern Indian city said Tuesday they have a new weapon for controlling unruly protesters in the world’s largest democracy: pepper-spraying drones.

Yashasvi Yadav, police chief of Lucknow, said his officers have successfully test-flown the newly purchased drones with a view to better crowd control.

“The results were brilliant. We have managed to work out how to use it to precisely target the mob in winds and congested areas,” Yadav told AFP.

“Pepper is non-lethal but very effective in mob control. We can spray from different heights to have maximum results,” he said.

Read moreIndia: Police To Use Pepper-Spraying Drones On Unruly Protesters

The Next-Generation Weapons That Russia Will Use Against The United States In World War III

H/t reader:

“Even if the Germans possessed the HOLY HAND GRENADE OF ANTIOCH, it would be useless against this….”

Their Haunebu’s armed with laser cannons on the other hand ….

haunebu
Found via http://images.google.com/

🙂

But joking aside, the arsenal of weapons at the disposal of the Russians is nothing short of … awesome.

But thanks to NATO we are all “much safer” now …

NATO Conducts First Test Of ‘Russia Rapid Response Force’:

“The previous NATO standard times for that were between 10 and 80 days.”


Russian-Submarine-Launching-A-Nuclear-Missile

The Next-Generation Weapons That Russia Will Use Against The United States In World War III (The End Of The American Dream, March 30, 2015):

The Russian military is in the midst of a sweeping modernization program, and it is currently developing some incredibly impressive offensive and defensive next-generation weapons that are designed to be used in a future war with the United States.  The key to winning World War III will be to strike hard and to strike fast, and the Russians understand this.  Meanwhile, the U.S. military has totally shifted gears from a “Cold War mindset” and is now completely focused on fighting smaller regional wars in the Middle East and elsewhere.  As a result, U.S. strategic forces have suffered.  There has been very little effort to modernize, and many of our nuclear missile silos are using technology that is ridiculously outdated.  For example, CBS News has documented that eight inch floppy disks are still being used in many of our missile silos.  And don’t expect things to change any time soon.  At this point, the U.S. military plans to keep Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles that were originally deployed in the 1960s and 1970s in service until 2030.

What all of this means is that the Russians are feverishly preparing to fight World War III and we are not.  The following are just a few of the next-generation weapons that Russia will use against the United States during the next great global war…

Read moreThe Next-Generation Weapons That Russia Will Use Against The United States In World War III

This Is How Much Russians Hate America …

H/t reader squodgy:

“What can Americans expect after the Ukraine coup?

Putin has had his mettle tested, but the voters have had enough…..

lovely pic.”


American-Flag-Doormat

This Is How Much Russians Hate America… (End Of The American Dream, Dec 29, 2014):

In Russia, shopping malls are putting out American flag doormats for people to wipe their feet on, and there are stores that are selling toilet paper with the American flag imprinted on it.  Surveys show that Russian attitudes toward the U.S. are now even worse than they were during the end of the Cold War, and ordinary Russians are blaming America for everything from the overthrow of the Ukrainian government to the collapse of the ruble.  The Russian government has just authorized a new military doctrine which identifies the United States as a top threat, and commentators on Russian television are using extremely strong language to condemn the United States.  In fact, one of the most prominent Russian commentators has referred to the United States as “the kingdom of the Antichrist“.  To the Russians, a new Cold War has erupted, and they very clearly view the United States as enemy number one.

Read moreThis Is How Much Russians Hate America …