FBI Studies Two Broken Cameras Outside Cell Where Epstein Died
August 29th, 2019Mmm hmm.
Via: Reuters:
Two cameras that malfunctioned outside the jail cell where financier Jeffrey Epstein died as he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges have been sent to an FBI crime lab for examination, a law enforcement source told Reuters.
Epstein’s lawyers Reid Weingarten and Martin Weinberg told U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan on Tuesday they had doubts about the New York City chief medical examiner’s conclusion that their client killed himself.
The two cameras were within view of the Manhattan jail cell where he was found dead on Aug. 10. A source earlier told Reuters two jail guards failed to follow a procedure overnight to make separate checks on all prisoners every 30 minutes.
He had been taken off suicide watch prior to his death.
The cameras were sent to Quantico, Virginia, site of a major FBI crime lab where agents and forensic scientists analyze evidence.
Cost of U.S. War in Afghanistan: About $1 Trillion
August 29th, 2019Via: BBC:
So, according to the US Department of Defense, the total military expenditure in Afghanistan (from October 2001 until March 2019) was $760bn.
That’s significantly more than the figure given by the Afghan president.
But an independent study carried out by Brown University’s Cost of War Project argues that the official US figures for Afghanistan are a substantial underestimate.
It says they do not include spending on war veterans’ care, money spent on other government departments for war-related activities and the cost of interest on debt incurred to pay for the war.
It estimates the total cost, factoring in these additional elements, is closer to one trillion US dollars.
Sacramento Zombie Apocalypse
August 29th, 2019Via: DailyMail:
‘All we do is lie around, eat ice-cream, have sex, and take drugs,’ said Cali. ‘Man, I love ice-cream.
Carlisle says she needs heroin just to exist. ‘I need it for everything — just to walk and to breathe.
‘I did go to rehab once, she added. ‘In Orangeville I think… or maybe it was somewhere else.’
Why Does DARPA Need A Huge Underground Facility By Friday?
August 29th, 2019Via: Gizmodo:
Attention, city dwellers! We’re interested in identifying university-owned or commercially managed underground urban tunnels & facilities able to host research & experimentation. https://t.co/tHZ1Tqy5nV
It’s short notice… We’re asking for responses by Aug. 30 at 5:00 PM ET. pic.twitter.com/TSWO07bJam
— DARPA (@DARPA) August 28, 2019
Yield Curve Inversions Recessions
August 28th, 2019Via: Economic Collapse Blog:
You can believe that we will somehow beat the odds this time if you want, but history is completely against you. One of the biggest reasons why there is so much anxiety on Wall Street right now is because of how the yield curve is behaving. We have seen yield curve inversions before each of the last seven U.S. recessions, and now it has happened again.
Fake-Branded Gold Bars Slip Into World Markets
August 28th, 2019Via: Reuters:
A forgery crisis is quietly roiling the world’s gold industry.
Gold bars fraudulently stamped with the logos of major refineries are being inserted into the global market to launder smuggled or illegal gold, refining and banking executives tell Reuters. The fakes are hard to detect, making them an ideal fund-runner for narcotics dealers or warlords.
In the last three years, bars worth at least $50 million stamped with Swiss refinery logos, but not actually produced by those facilities, have been identified by all four of Switzerland’s leading gold refiners and found in the vaults of JPMorgan Chase & Co., one of the major banks at the heart of the market in bullion, said senior executives at gold refineries, banks and other industry sources.
…
Fake gold bars – blocks of cheaper metal plated with gold – are relatively common in the gold industry and often easy to detect.
The counterfeits in these cases are subtler: The gold is real, and very high purity, with only the markings faked. Fake-branded bars are a relatively new way to flout global measures to block conflict minerals and prevent money-laundering. Such forgeries pose a problem for international refiners, financiers and regulators as they attempt to purge the world of illicit trade in bullion.
Possibly Related: How Drug Lords Make Billions Smuggling Gold to Miami
National-Security Concerns Threaten Undersea Data Link Backed by Google, Facebook
August 28th, 2019The U.S. killed Pacific Fibre back in 2012 due to Chinese involvement.
Via: Wall Street Journal:
U.S. officials are seeking to block an undersea cable backed by Google, Facebook Inc. and a Chinese partner, in a national-security review that could rewrite the rules of internet connectivity between the U.S. and China, according to people involved in the discussions.
From Darkness To Light
August 27th, 2019Via: Ty Schmitt:
From Darkness To Light is an 8k Time-Lapse film shot by storm chaser Ty Schmitt. All the clips in the film were captured on the Great Plains during the 2019 spring storm season. Ty traveled over 30,000 miles in 3 months chasing Mother Nature’s most intense moments.
Experimental U.S. Air Force Space Plane Breaks Previous Record for Orbital Spaceflight
August 26th, 2019Via: Space.com:
The U.S. Air Force’s X-37B space plane just broke its spaceflight-duration record.
At 6:43 a.m. EDT (1043 GMT) today (Aug. 26), the robotic X-37B sailed past the program mark of 717 days, 20 hours and 42 minutes, which was set by the previous mission, known as Orbital Test Vehicle 4 (OTV-4).
The current mission, OTV-5, began on Sept. 7, 2017, with a liftoff atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It’s unclear what the space plane is doing up there now, or what it has done on past flights; X-37B missions are classified, and the Air Force therefore tends to speak of the vehicle and its activities in general terms.
“The primary objectives of the X-37B are twofold; reusable spacecraft technologies for America’s future in space and operating experiments which can be returned to, and examined, on Earth,” Air Force officials wrote in the X-37B fact sheet.
Biden: “I’m Not Going Nuts”
August 26th, 2019I wonder if we’re going to see something similar to Clinton’s van scene with this asshole…
Via: ZeroHedge:
While the anti-Trump media has pivoted back to the whole ‘Trump is crazy’ / 25th Amendment impeachment fantasy revived by GOP challengers Bill Weld and Joe Walsh, former Vice President Joe Biden’s stumbling senior moments have gotten so bad that he’s now swearing he’s sane.
