Record level of “flesh-eating bacteria” cases in Japan – Spike began around 2011 Fukushima disaster – Now at 400% normal rate

TV: Record level of “flesh-eating bacteria” cases in Japan — Spike began around 2011 Fukushima disaster — Now at 400% normal rate — US Gov’t: Radiation from nuclear accident greatly reduces ability to fight this infection — Officials: We don’t know what’s triggering it; Seek immediate help if symptoms develop (PHOTOS & VIDEO) (ENENews, Jan 6, 2015):

Yomiuri Shimbun, Dec. 24, 2014 (emphasis added): Patients with ‘flesh-eating bacteria’ hit record — A record high 263 patients are suffering from streptococcal toxic shock-like syndrome (STSS), a deadly infection… National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) is calling on people to visit a doctor…  immediately after a possible STSS symptom is detected, such as a severe sore throat… [A] maximum of 100 patients suffered from the disease annually until 2010… This year, that number reached 263 as of Dec. 14, topping the previous worst record of 242 in 2012… Tokyo ranked first with 41… The infection is mainly caused by Group A Streptococcus… but details remain unclear. It is unknown what triggers the disease… The condition may lead to a state of shock, multiple organ failure and other results in a few days… It is also called “flesh-eating bacteria” [affecting] tissues such as on limbs and the face… NIID official said [to] “seek immediate treatment… should STSS symptoms appear.”

New studies by scientists from Fukushima Institute of Public Health and others:

Read moreRecord level of “flesh-eating bacteria” cases in Japan – Spike began around 2011 Fukushima disaster – Now at 400% normal rate

Bitter Cold Puts U.S. Wheat Crops In Danger

From the article:

“The cold put wheat crops in danger in parts of Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kansas,” says the Associated Press.


Bitter cold puts U.S. wheat crops in danger (Ice Age Now, Jan 6, 2015):

Brings record low temperatures to Hawaii

Snow followed by a wave of frigid air is moving eastward, threatening to bring wind chills into the single digits even in the Deep South.

The cold is expected to extend deep into Georgia by early Thursday. In metro Atlanta, wind chills below 5 F (-15 C) are expected. Even in Cordele in south Georgia, the wind chill could hit 8 degrees (-13 C).

Read moreBitter Cold Puts U.S. Wheat Crops In Danger

Prepare for Property Prices to Fall Globally

Prepare for Property Prices to Fall Globally

Prepare for Property Prices to Fall Globally (GoldCore, Jan 5, 2015):

At the start of the New Year, there are increasing signs that the recovery seen in property prices in many cities in western countries — namely New York and other U.S. cities, and Dublin, London and other UK cities — is beginning to peter out.

Many cities have seen speculative frenzies return in recent months which led to price surges which would appear to be unsustainable – especially given the uncertain and poor geopolitical and economic backdrop.

This has been the case in the UK and Ireland, the U.S. and indeed in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a few other markets.

The question at the start of 2015, is whether we are likely to see continued price gains or falls. There are all the hallmarks of an echo bubble akin to the one that burst so painfully in the noughties.

Read morePrepare for Property Prices to Fall Globally

Canada Heavy Oil Drops Below $35 As Rig Count Hits Record Low For January

Canada Heavy Oil Drops Below $35 As Rig Count Hits Record Low For January (Zerohedge, Jan 6, 2015):

Think Texas and Pennsylvania have a problem with plunging oil prices, don’t look North. West Canada Select (Heavy) crude oil prices have collapsed to below $35 per barrel (the lowest since Feb 2009). This is a 60% plunge in the last 6 months and has left the industry stunned. While US rig counts have fallen for the last few weeks as the lagged response to falling prices finally catches up to reality, the Canadian oil rig count has never been lower for the first week of January. Will the Canadian housing bubble be next?

Popular Tortilla Chip Brand With ‘No GMO’ Label Contains More Than 75% GMO Corn

Xochitl-GMO

Deception: Major tortilla chip brand using ‘No GMO’ label on contaminated product (Natural News, Dec 22, 2014):

The nonprofit consumer advocacy group Consumer Reports has released a new report on genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) that warns of inadvertent deception and possible outright fraud in non-GMO claims that aren’t certified by independent third parties such as the NON-GMO Project.

The popular tortilla chip brand “Xochitl Totopos de Maiz,” according to the report, is actively selling tortilla chips all across America that bear a “No GMO” label, but that contain high amounts of GM corn. Tests conducted on six separate lots of the product revealed 75 percent or more GM corn content, despite labels to the contrary.

The Latest Russian Fighter Jet Blows America’s F-35 Away

Sukhoi Su-30 Fighter Jet
Russian Sukhoi Su-30 Fighter Jet

The Latest Russian Fighter Jet Blows America’s Away (Russia Insider, Oct 21, 2014):

Outgunned by the Su-30 family of aircraft and suffering critical design flaws, the American F-35 is staring down the barrel of obsolescence – and punching a gaping hole in western air defences.

This article is an excellent read to understand how Russia’s technological level is best in its class in many military sectors, especially with regard to fighter jets.  It originally appeared in Russia & India Report. The SU-30 continues to be the number one choice among global buyers.

Built to be the deadliest hunter killer aircraft of all time, the F-35 has quite literally become the hunted. In every scenario that the F-35 has been wargamed against Su-30 Flankers, the Russian aircraft have emerged winners. America’s newest stealth aircraft – costing $191 million per unit – is riddled with such critical design flaws that it’s likely to get blown away in a shootout with the super-maneuverable Sukhois.

Read moreThe Latest Russian Fighter Jet Blows America’s F-35 Away

Obama Is Watching: White House Monitoring If Crude Crash Is Affecting Stocks

And remember that Obama is also (still) monitoring Fukushima!

obama-golf


Obama Is Watching: White House Monitoring If Crude Crash Is Affecting Stocks (ZeroHedge, Jan 5, 2014)

“Some folks are selling stocks…” and, according to The White House, President Obama is closely monitoring it. As The Hill reports, despite the meme that lower-oil-prices-are-unequivocally-good-news-for-Americans, the Obama administration is monitoring whether the fall in oil prices is affecting the US stock market. Just over 5 years ago, President Obama explained to the American public that profit and earning ratios are starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal,” so we can rest assured that our leaders are (for now) “hesitant” to say whether the fall of the stock market, which came as crude oil trades briefly dipped below $50, was related to oil prices.. so blamed Europe.

As The Hill reports,

The Obama administration is monitoring whether the fall in oil prices is affecting the U.S. stock market, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 300 points.

“We’re always monitoring the impact that any sort of policy area would have on the economy,” Earnest said. “So it’s certainly something that we’re watching.”

But the spokesman said he was “hesitant” to say whether the fall of the stock market, which came as crude oil trades briefly dipped below $50, was related to oil prices. Oil prices have been nearly halved since the summer, and Monday represented the first time crude oil slipped below $50 since 2009.

“I’m always very hesitant to draw any conclusions or offer any analysis about movements in the stock market,” Earnest said. “I know that there are some who have observed — this is a little bit of a chicken and the egg thing, that some of the fall in energy prices is a direct response to a weakening of the economy and a fall in the stock market.”

But, Earnest said, “as a general matter,” falling energy prices have been “good for the U.S. economy.”

*  *  *

Of course, later in the discussion, Josh Earnest explained that it was all Europe’s fault…

Our System Is So Broken, Almost No Patented Discoveries Ever Get Used

Our System Is So Broken, Almost No Patented Discoveries Ever Get Used (Wired, Jan 5, 2015):

We all know the patent system is broken.

But most people believe that the biggest problem with it is abusive litigants who extort so-called “license fees” from small businesses unable to pay the cost of standing up to them in court. Their activities, of course, have no more in common with real patent licensing than a mob protection racket has with the sale of genuine “liability insurance.”

The unspoken reality is that the U.S. patent system faces an even bigger problem: a market so constricted by high transaction costs and legal risks that it excludes the vast majority of small and mid-sized businesses and prevents literally 95 percent of all patented discoveries from ever being put to use to create new products and services, new jobs, and new economic growth.

Read moreOur System Is So Broken, Almost No Patented Discoveries Ever Get Used

Jeff Gundlach: “If Oil Drops To $40 The Geopolitical Consequences Could Be Terrifying”

Jeff Gundlach: “If Oil Drops To $40 The Geopolitical Consequences Could Be Terrifying” (ZeroHedge, Jan 5, 2014):

In a recent interview with FuW, DoubleLine’s Jeff Gundlach explained his concerns about the oil market not being “unequivocally good” for everyone…

Question: The crash in the oil market is already causing jitters in the financial markets around the globe. What is your take on that?

Gundlach: Oil is incredibly important right now. If oil falls to around $40 a barrel then I think the yield on ten year treasury note is going to 1%. I hope it does not go to $40 because then something is very, very wrong with the world, not just the economy. The geopolitical consequences could be – to put it bluntly – terrifying.

What would that mean for stocks?

20150105_10Y

Gundlach is right historically…

Large and rapid rises and falls in the price of crude oil have correlated oddly strongly with major geopolitical and economic crisis across the globe. Whether driven by problems for oil exporters or oil importers, the ‘difference this time’ is that, thanks to central bank largesse, money flows faster than ever and everything is more tightly coupled with that flow.

20150105_oilcrisis

So is the 45% YoY drop in oil prices about to ’cause’ contagion risk concerns for the world?

Read moreJeff Gundlach: “If Oil Drops To $40 The Geopolitical Consequences Could Be Terrifying”

NYPD Facing $3 Million Lawsuit For Nightstick Attack Caught On Video

NYPD facing $3mil lawsuit for nightstick attack caught on video – report (RT, Jan 5, 2015):

A Brooklyn man is planning to file a $3 million lawsuit against the city of New York alleging excessive force was used against him by a nightstick-wielding NYPD officer in November.

The officer, Evans Mazile, was caught on video hitting Donovan Lawson, 20, in the head with a nightstick, drawing a significant amount of blood. The police encounter occurred on Nov. 20, after Lawson allegedly attempted to skip a fare at the Myrtle Ave. and Broadway subway station in central Brooklyn.

Lawson’s lawyer, Ilissa Brownstein, told the New York Daily News that she has filed lawsuit notices with the city on behalf of Lawson and his girlfriend, Ceanna Pulido-Wolf, who was also arrested.

Read moreNYPD Facing $3 Million Lawsuit For Nightstick Attack Caught On Video

11 Predictions Of Economic Disaster In 2015 From Top Experts All Over The Globe

11 Predictions Of Economic Disaster In 2015 From Top Experts All Over The Globe (Economic Collapse, Jan 4, 2015):

Will 2015 be a year of financial crashes, economic chaos and the start of the next great worldwide depression?  Over the past couple of years, we have all watched as global financial bubbles have gotten larger and larger.  Despite predictions that they could burst at any time, they have just continued to expand.  But just like we witnessed in 2001 and 2008, all financial bubbles come to an end at some point, and when they do implode the pain can be extreme.  Personally, I am entirely convinced that the financial markets are more primed for a financial collapse now than they have been at any other time since the last crisis happened nearly seven years ago.  And I am certainly not alone.  At this point, the warning cries have become a deafening roar as a whole host of prominent voices have stepped forward to sound the alarm.  The following are 11 predictions of economic disaster in 2015 from top experts all over the globe…

#1 Bill Fleckenstein: “They are trying to make the stock market go up and drag the economy along with it. It’s not going to work. There’s going to be a big accident. When people realize that it’s all a charade, the dollar will tank, the stock market will tank, and hopefully bond markets will tank. Gold will rally in that period of time because it’s done what it’s done because people have assumed complete infallibility on the part of the central bankers.”

#2 John Ficenec: “In the US, Professor Robert Shiller’s cyclically adjusted price earnings ratio – or Shiller CAPE – for the S&P 500 is currently at 27.2, some 64pc above the historic average of 16.6. On only three occasions since 1882 has it been higher – in 1929, 2000 and 2007.”

Read more11 Predictions Of Economic Disaster In 2015 From Top Experts All Over The Globe

29-Year-Old Russian Hedge Fund CEO “Just Disappeared” With $20 Million

–  29-Year-Old Russian Hedge Fund CEO “Just Disappeared” With $20 Million (ZeroHedge, Jan 5, 2014):

Blackfield Capital CJSC was one of Moscow’s hottest hedge funds, hosting glitzy parties and embarking on ambitious plans to expand to the U.S. The firm’s founder in 2013 even rented a Manhattan apartment for a record-setting price, and bought a $300,000 sports car; but now, as WSJ reports, 29-year-old Kim Karapetyan “just disappeared” leaving the staff of 50 stunned and making off with some $20 million in investor cash

White House Climate Lunacy

Flashback:

Obama’s Science Adviser John Holdren Says CHEMTRAILS (= ‘Death Dumps’) Will Save The Planet!

Obama’s Science Czar John Holdren says: Forced abortions and mass sterilization needed to save the planet


White House Climate Lunacy (Ice Age Now, Jan 4, 2015):

“Facts mean nothing to Dr. Holdren and even less to the President.” – Alan Caruba


White House Climate Lunacy


Obama-Climate-Summit-2014


By Alan Caruba

As January 2014 arrived with a blast of cold air ominously dubbed the “polar vortex”, the White House released a video in which the Chief Science Advisor to President Obama, Dr. John Holdren, managed to get on both sides of it, declaring the “extreme cold” to be “a pattern that we expect to see with increasing frequency as global warming continues.” How the Earth is getting both colder and warmer at the same time defies reality, but that is of little concern to Dr. Holdren and, indeed, the entire global warming—now called climate change–hoax.

Earlier, in November 2013, the White House made Dr. Holdren available to social media saying he would answer “any questions that you have about climate change…”  As noted by Jim Lakely, Communications Director of The Heartland Institute, the invitation welcomed questions “but only if they conform to the notion that human activity is causing a climate crisis, and restricting human activity by government direction can ‘fight it.’” The answers would have to wait “because the White House social media experts are having a hard time sifting through the wreckage of their ill-conceived campaign and finding the very few that conform to Holdren’s alarmist point of view.”

Sadly, in addition to the United Nations where the hoax originated and any number of world leaders including our President and Secretary of State, Pope Francis has announced that he too believes the Earth is warming. Someone should tell him that it has been in a natural cooling cycle going on twenty years at this point!

AA-John-Holdren
Dr. Holdren

Of course, such facts mean nothing to Dr. Holdren and even less to the President. That is why we are likely to not only hear more about climate change from him, but also discover that the White House intends the last two years of Obama’s term in office to be an all-out effort to impose restrictions and find reasons to throw money at the hoax. Dr. Holdren was no doubt a major contributor to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy initiative announced on December 3rd.

This “Climate Action Plan” called the “Climate Education and Literacy Initiative” is primarily directed at spreading the hoax in the nation’s classrooms and via various government entities as the National Park Service so they can preach it to the 270 million people who visit the nation’s 401 parks each year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will sponsor five regional workshops for educators and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, along with the American Geosciences Institute and the National Center for Science Education will launch four videos likely to be shown in schools.

Joining the White House will be the Alliance for Climate Education, the American Meteorological Society, the Earth Day Network, Green Schools Alliance, and others. It adds up to a massive climate change propaganda campaign, largely paid for with taxpayer funding.

The “science” that will be put forward will be as unremittingly bogus as we have been hearing and reading since the late 1980s when the global warming hoax was launched.

When Dr. Holdren faced a 2009 confirmation hearing, he moved away from his early doomsday views on climate change, population growth, and the possibilities of nuclear war. Though warned by William Yeatman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute that Dr. Holdren had “a 40-year record of outlandish scientific assertions, consistently wrong predictions, and dangerous public policy choices” that made him “unfit to serve as the White House Science Advisor”, the committee voted unanimously to confirm him. They should have read some of his published views.

Regrettably Congress generally goes along with the climate change hoax. Dr. Holdren noted that “Global change research (did) well in the 2013 budget. One can look at that as a reaffirmation of our commitment to addressing the climate change challenge. There’s $2.6 billion in the budget for the United States Global Change Research Program.”

Let me repeat that. $2.6 BILLION devoted to “research” on global warming or climate change. One must assume it is devoted to finding ways for mankind to cope with the non-existent global warming or the threat of a climate change about which mankind can do nothing. It is comparable to saying that humans can get the Sun to increase or decrease its radiation.

In June 2014, Ron Arnold, the executive vice president of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise and Washington Examiner columnist, noted that Dr. Holdren has long held the view that the U.S. should “de-develop” its “over-developed” economy.

That likely explains the Obama administration’s attack on the use of coal, particularly in utilities that use it to generate electricity. In the six years since the policy has been pursued by the EPA, coal-fired utilities have been reduced from providing fifty percent of the nation’s electricity to forty percent. Less energy means less investment in new business and industrial manufacturing, less jobs, and less safety for all of us who depend on electricity in countless ways.

Arnold reported that “Holdren wrote his de-development manifesto with Paul and Anne Ehrlich, the scaremongering authors of the Sierra Club book, ‘The Population Bomb.’” Aside from the fact that every prediction in the book has since proven to be wrong, it was clear then and now that Dr. Holdren is no fan of the human population of the planet. Like most deeply committed environmentalists, it is an article of faith that the planet’s problems are all the result of human activity, including its weather.

In December 2014, Dr. Holdren expressed the view that worldwide carbon dioxide emissions should be reduced to “close to zero”, adding “That will not be easy.”  This reflected the deal President Obama agreed to with China, but carbon dioxide plays no discernable role whatever in “global warming” (which isn’t happening) and is, in fact, a gas essential to all life on Earth, but particularly for all vegetation that is dependent on it for growth.

Dr. Holdren’s continued presence as the chief Science Advisor to the President encourages Obama to repeat all the tired claims and falsehoods of global warming and climate change. It is obscene that his administration devotes billions of dollars and countless hours to spreading a hoax that is an offense to the alleged “science” it cites.

AA-Arctic-Ice-Free

The North and South Poles are not melting. The polar bear population is growing. The seas are not dramatically rising. Et cetera!

One can only hope that a Republican-controlled Congress will do what it can to significantly reduce the money being wasted and reverse the EPA war on coal and the utilities that use it to produce the energy the nation requires.

For now, Dr. Holdren will continue to use his influence in ways that confound and refute the known facts of climate science. How does it feel to be the enemy of an environment that Dr. Holdren and others regard as more important than human life?

Controversial DNA Startup Wants To Let Customers Create Creatures

What could possibly go wrong?


Controversial DNA startup wants to let customers create creatures (SFGate, Jan 3, 2015):

In Austen Heinz’s vision of the future, customers tinker with the genetic codes of plants and animals and even design new creatures on a computer. Then his startup, Cambrian Genomics, prints that DNA quickly, accurately and cheaply.

“Anyone in the world that has a few dollars can make a creature, and that changes the game,” Heinz said. “And that creates a whole new world.”

The 31-year-old CEO has a deadpan demeanor that can be hard to read, but he is not kidding. In a makeshift laboratory in San Francisco, his synthetic biology company uses lasers to create custom DNA for major pharmaceutical companies. Its mission, to “democratize creation” with minimal to no regulation, frightens bioethicists as deeply as it thrills Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

Read moreControversial DNA Startup Wants To Let Customers Create Creatures

Deadly cold to strike half of the US

Deadly cold to strike half of the US (Ice Age Now, Jan 4, 2015):

Will bring sub-zero temperatures (colder than minus 17.8 C), heavy rain and snow to 50 MILLION people* in 24 states. 

The first arctic blast will hit on Monday, and will rival last January’s arctic outbreak that was linked to ‘polar vortex,’ say forecasters

New York City will be ‘lucky’ to see temperatures above 20 degrees (-6.7 C).

Read moreDeadly cold to strike half of the US

150,000 customers without electricity in and around Montreal

150,000 customers without electricity in and around Montreal (Ice Age Now, Jan 4, 2015):

Quebec’s icy weather continues into night as temperatures plummet.


More than 150,000 Hydro-Québec customers were without electricity this afternoon in and around Montreal after freezing rain encased southern Quebec in ice.

The blackouts are widespread across Montreal, the Montérégie (South Shore and areas west of the island of Montreal), the Richelieu Valley and elsewhere in southern Quebec.

Read more150,000 customers without electricity in and around Montreal

Heavy snowfall shuts down Kosovo – Heavy Snow and Cold Paralyzes Macedonia – Blizzard hits Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia and Libya

Heavy snowfall shuts down Kosovo (Ice Age Now, Jan 3, 2015)

Heavy Snow and Cold Paralyzes Macedonia (Ice Age Now, Jan 3, 2015)

Blizzard hits Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia and Libya (Ice Age Now, Jan 3, 2015)

Is Citi The Next AIG: 70 Trillion Reasons Why Citigroup And Congress Scrambled To Pass The Swaps “Push-Out” Rule

citigroup

Is Citi The Next AIG: 70 Trillion Reasons Why Citigroup And Congress Scrambled To Pass The Swaps “Push-Out” Rule (ZeroHedge, Jan 5, 2015):

Something stunning and unexpected took place in the third quarter: Citigroup, or rather its FDIC-insured Citibank National Association entity, just surpassed JPM and is now the biggest single holder of total derivatives in the US. Furthermore, as the charts below show, while every other bank was derisking its balance sheet, Citi not only increased its total derivative holdings by $1 trillion in Q2, but by a whopping, and perhaps even record, $9 trillion in the just concluded third quarter to $70.2 trillion!

Flashback:

GAO Audit Of The Federal Reserve Reveals $16 TRILLION In Secret Bailouts (Sott.net, Sep 1, 2012)::

The list of institutions that received the most money from the Federal Reserve can be found on page 131 of the GAO Audit and are as follows..

Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)
and many many more including banks in Belgium of all places

View the 266-page GAO audit of the Federal Reserve (July 21st, 2011):

Sources:
US Government Accountability Office (GAO)
FULL PDF on GAO server.
Senator Sander’s Article

Comment: It’s not “socialism for the rich”; that’s an oxymoron.

It’s corporatism, i.e. fascism, as defined by Benito Mussolini.

 

Russia’s ‘Startling’ Proposal To Europe: Dump The US, Join The Eurasian Economic Union

Eurasian Economic Union

“Russia has presented a startling proposal to overcome the tensions with the EU: The EU should renounce the free trade agreement with the United States TTIP and enter into a partnership with the newly established Eurasian Economic Union instead. A free trade zone with the neighbors would make more sense than a deal with the US.”

Russia’s “Startling” Proposal To Europe: Dump The US, Join The Eurasian Economic Union (ZeroHedge, Jan 4, 2015):

Slowly but surely Europe is figuring out that as a result of the western economic and financial blockade of Russian, it is Europe itself that is suffering the most. And while Germany was first to acknowledge this late in 2014 when its economy swooned and is now on the verge of a recession, now others are catching on. Case in point: the former head of the European Commission, and Italy’s former Prime Minister, Romano Prodi who told Messaggero newspaper that the “weaker Russian economy is extremely unprofitable for Italy.”

The other details from Prodi’s statement:

Read moreRussia’s ‘Startling’ Proposal To Europe: Dump The US, Join The Eurasian Economic Union

“Now There’s Not Even Soap” Maduro Heads To China To ‘Save’ Socialist Utopia Venezuela

Venezuela

“Now There’s Not Even Soap” Maduro Heads To China To ‘Save’ Socialist Utopia Venezuela (ZeroHedge, Jan 4, 2015):

Social media is awash with striking images of #EmptyShelvesInVenezuela (#AnaquelesVaciosEnVenezuela) as the evaporation of basic human staples such as toilet paper has now been hyperinflated to total chaos at warehouses and supermarkets. As President Maduro decries the loss of $100 oil “stability”, vowing to return oil prices to their rightful places (and heads to China for help), lines reach for miles for milk and soap… and the people defy governmental bans on photographing empty market shelves“We couldn’t find shampoo, so we washed our hair with soap. Now there’s not even soap.”

* * *

The line for soap…

And the shelves are bare…

Read more“Now There’s Not Even Soap” Maduro Heads To China To ‘Save’ Socialist Utopia Venezuela

AND NOW: ?UK Government Wants Nurseries To Report Potential Terrorist Toddlers

UK Government Wants Nurseries To Report Potential Terrorist Toddlers

?UK govt wants nurseries to report potential terrorist toddlers (RT, Dec 4, 2015):

It may become a “duty” of nurseries and elementary schools in the UK to track and report any child that shows signs of sympathy with terrorists or is a risk of potential radicalization, according to the government’s plans aimed at preventing extremism.

A consultation document by the Home Office on ways to enhance the UK’s anti-terrorism system, the so-called “Prevent” strategy, calls for senior management and governors to “assess the risk of pupils being drawn into terrorism,” manifested through youths’ extremist ideas that may breed terrorist ideology.

Read moreAND NOW: ?UK Government Wants Nurseries To Report Potential Terrorist Toddlers