Israel Most Likely Behind Placement of Cell-Phone Surveillance Devices Near White House and Other Sensitive Locations Around Washington
September 12th, 2019Via: Politico:
The U.S. government concluded within the last two years that Israel was most likely behind the placement of cell-phone surveillance devices that were found near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington, D.C., according to three former senior U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter.
But unlike most other occasions when flagrant incidents of foreign spying have been discovered on American soil, the Trump administration did not rebuke the Israeli government, and there were no consequences for Israel’s behavior, one of the former officials said.
The miniature surveillance devices, colloquially known as “StingRays,” mimic regular cell towers to fool cell phones into giving them their locations and identity information. Formally called international mobile subscriber identity-catchers or IMSI-catchers, they also can capture the contents of calls and data use.
California Approves Statewide Rent Control
September 11th, 2019Via: Reuters:
California lawmakers on Wednesday passed a statewide cap on annual rent increases for most tenants, the boldest step yet to address an affordable housing crunch that has helped push people into the streets.
The bill limits annual rent increases to 5% after inflation and takes effect from March of this year. It also imposes restriction on evictions without cause – a significant factor in the state’s burgeoning homeless population.
America’s “Deep State”: From the JFK Assassination to 9/11, Interview with Prof. Peter Dale Scott
September 11th, 2019This is from 2014.
Via: Global Research:
9/11 was the occasion for major changes both in American foreign and domestic policy, it is the reason we went almost immediately into Afghanistan and it is also why we began planning almost immediately to invade Iraq, which was based on the false assumption that Saddam Hussein had some connection with Al-Qaeda. Where evidence had been provided it was false evidence but the administration chose to believe it. From an American point of view the changes in foreign policy are perhaps not as serious as the implementation on that day of what we call continuity of government (COG) procedures, which have radically altered the status of the American constitution in this country. They had been planning for 20 years what to do in the case of a major emergency like 9/11, and the plans were worked on for two decades by Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, who were also the two men who implemented them on 9/11.
We don’t know in detail the plans but I think we can safely sum them up under three headings; one of them is warrantless surveillance, Edward Snowden has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is massive in the country, and it is because of this COG implementation. One is warrantless detention; we had more than a thousand Muslims rounded up without a warrant and held. We have something called ‘habeas corpus’ in our common law: You are not supposed to hold people for very long without charging them. But more than a thousand people were detained and not charged, and some of them were tortured. That is a huge, huge change in the domestic condition of America.
And then finally the involvement of the military in what we call homeland security. The military now play a police role, and that too is something new. You would occasionally have the army called in briefly to deal with a crisis like the rioting we had in the inner cities in the 1960s. But to have a permanent army command for North America that is called NORTHCOM – that is very new; it is a radical change in the role of the army. And above all this is what I talk about in ‘Deep State’. We now have institutions, which are aiming to operate in America without being controlled by the American constitution. I don’t see how you could have a more radical change than that.
The Trillion-Dollar Military Still Isn’t Enough for the War Party
September 11th, 2019Via: Mises Institute:
Since the end of the Cold War in 1990, US defense spending has increased 182 percent in nominal terms, and 44 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. In inflation-adjusted terms, defense spending is now about equal with the all-time peak reached in 2011, and the White House’s Office of Management and Budget estimates that defense spending will reach an all-time high in 2020.
Why Don’t We Hear Much About Julian Assange?
September 11th, 2019Via: Medium:
In Orwell’s dystopian fiction 1984, the government’s mission through the Ministry of Truth is to supply its people with news, entertainment, books, films, plays and songs, packed with the information it wants the people to know. It constructs lies to fit the narrative it wishes to establish and sets about rewriting historical documents so they match the constantly changing current party line.
Have we slept walked our way into 1984 with the curious witchhunt of Julian Assange?
Trump Says Fed ‘Boneheads’ Should Cut Interest Rates to Zero ‘Or Less,’ U.S. Should Refinance Debt
September 11th, 2019As I was driving through town yesterday afternoon, I saw a bug eyed crazy dude on the side of the road. He was wearing a blanket and frantically babbling to the sky.
That’s about the level we’re at with the suggestion that the U.S. national debt could be refinanced.
Although…
I remember a conversation with my dad about twenty years ago. I was talking about the national debt, how it could never be paid back and how it would keep snowballing until it couldn’t anymore.
Dad’s response was something along the lines of: Simple. The president cancels the debt. The U.S. military has a lot of nuclear missiles and bombers and submarines. Let anyone who wants to collect try it. They were stupid enough to lend money to a country with that kind of firepower—that’s their fuckin’ problem. Fuck ’em.
I laughed and said, “Ok dad, sounds good.”
Then I played this song for dad. It became one of his favorites.
Maybe this could serve as the theme song for how America handles its finances when the debt charade finally breaks down.
F yez all, F yez all, F yez all
Via: CNBC:
President Donald Trump on Wednesday continued his verbal assault on the Federal Reserve, which he blames for slowing the economy, tweeting that the central bank should cut interest rates to zero or even set negative interest rates. The president also called Fed officials “boneheads” in the tweet.
“The Federal Reserve should get our interest rates down to ZERO, or less, and we should then start to refinance our debt. INTEREST COST COULD BE BROUGHT WAY DOWN, while at the same time substantially lengthening the term,” he said.
…
During a CNBC interview in May 2016, Trump said that if the economy turned south, he would try to get creditors to accept partial payment on U.S. debt.
“I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal,” he said then.
His idea was that the U.S. would pay less than face value on the Treasury debt it issues to cover the burgeoning budget deficit.
Trump Says He Fired National Security Advisor John Bolton
September 10th, 2019Via: CNBC:
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he had fired national security advisor John Bolton, saying he had “disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions.”
“I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning,” Trump said in a tweet.
Japan May Be Forced to Dump Radioactive Fukushima Water Into the Pacific
September 10th, 2019Via: U.S. News and World Report:
Radioactive water from Japan’s destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant may have to be dumped into the ocean, the country’s energy minister reportedly said Tuesday, igniting concern and anger from nuclear safety experts and Japan’s neighbors in the region.
The electric utility overseeing the crippled power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, is running out of room to store the contaminated water, the minister, Yoshiaki Harada, said at a news conference. The water has built to a stockpile of more than 1 million metric tons, taken from cooling pipes being used to keep the plant’s fuel cores from melting.
McDonald’s Acquires AI Company to Help Automate the Drive-Thru
September 10th, 2019In other AI news, 120 Million Workers May Need to be Reskilled or Retrained in the Next Three Years.
Via: CNBC:
McDonald’s said Tuesday it has agreed to acquire a company that is trying to automate the drive-thru. It’s the fast-food giant’s third tech-focused deal this year.
Apprente, a Silicon Valley company founded in 2017, uses artificial intelligence to understand drive-thru orders, which could cut down on service times. McDonald’s said the technology also could be used someday in its self-order kiosks and mobile app.
The Chicago-based company said it evaluated Apprente’s technology in McDonald’s test restaurants.
Apprente’s employees will be the founding members of a group called McD Tech Labs, which will be housed within McDonald’s global technology team. The burger chain wants to grow its presence in Silicon Valley by hiring more tech experts, including engineers and data scientists.
IBM: 120 Million Workers May Need to be Reskilled or Retrained in the Next Three Years
September 9th, 2019Via: IBM:
In the next three years, as many as 120 million workers in the world’s 12 largest economies may need to be retrained or reskilled as a result of AI and intelligent automation, according to a new IBM (NYSE: IBM) Institute for Business Value (IBV) study. In addition, only 41 percent of CEOs surveyed say that they have the people, skills and resources required to execute their business strategies.
