Thursday, March 31, 2016

PUTIN EXPOSES VACCINES

PUTIN EXPOSES VACCINES

Russia-western-vaccine-coverup-900x350
Russian president Vladimir Putin says that Western governments are enslaving humanity through vaccines.
‘When your children are barely human, psychologically-altered bots, their nerve cells and synapses failing to connect, and their neurodevelopmental processes dulled to the point of restricting them to sub-human level repetitive grunts and gormless stares, what are you going to do then?’
An insider from the Ministry of Health in Russia has revealed that an explosive report is being prepared that will be presented to the Kremlin on Tuesday regarding the huge vaccination cover-up being perpetuated by the US government agencies and its regulatory bodies, which is having disastrous consequences around most of the world.
It is understood President Putin personally requested the report. He instinctively mistrusts the vaccine agenda and wants the report to investigate the state of play regarding vaccines, Big Pharma, and
Western governments, in order to formulate a solid, direct response that will stand his people in good stead for the future.
According to the Ministry of Health insider, the report validates President Putin’s suspicions. There is a huge conflict of interests between the government agencies which regulate vaccines and the corporations that approve and implement the vaccines.
This investigation, involving internationally respected scientists and leading medical professionals, won’t be a laughably corrupt affair involving a payroll of ‘scientists’ who are willing to say or do anything for a dollar or two. Considering the fact that leading scientists and doctors who have dared voice concern about state-enforced vaccinations have been dying under mysterious circumstances in the US in recent years, kudos must be given to those brave enough to continue speaking out.
It is claimed the report will declare the situation a ‘self-perpetuating criminal racket.’ Educational institutions and scientific bodies are also ‘motivated by greed and generally corrupt.’ A recent study by the University of Bristol that declared diet soda to be healthier than water (a study covertly funded by the Coca Cola Company) is presented as an example of the absurd situation in the West at the moment, and is held up to ridicule.
The report says that President Putin believes the next stage of human evolution is currently in “grave risk” and that Western and global powers are “intentionally decelerating the process for their personal gain.”
“We as a species have the choice to continue to develop our bodies and brains in a healthy upward trajectory, or we can follow the Western example of recent decades and intentionally poison our population with genetically altered food, pharmaceuticals, vaccinations, and fast food that should be classified as a dangerous, addictive drug.”
“We must fight this. A physically and intellectually disabled population is not in our interests,” the report states.
Describing the average government-controlled Westerner as an “intensively vaccinated borderline autistic fat man slumped in front of a screen battling a high-fructose corn syrup comedown,” the report states that such tactics used by governments to subjugate their citizens are not only “dark/evil” but “counter-productive in the medium to long term.”
Russia under President Putin has been giving away land for free in the past few years to people willing to farm organically and sustainably. The goal is to become the world’s “leading exporter” of non-GMO foods that are based on “ecologically clean” production.
The Security Council report comes just months after the Kremlin announced a stop to the production of all GMO-containing foods, which was seen by the international community as a major step in the fight against multinationals like Monsanto. Russia continues to lead the way in the realm of natural, organic farming.
Source: yournewswire.com

Google Has Been Recording You. Here’s How to Delete the Files

privacy

Google Has Been Recording You. Here’s How to Delete the Files

Android Security Hole Found By Researcher
Goodney, Chris—Bloomberg/Getty Images

This is not "OK Google."

You probably know that Google keeps track of everything you type into its search bar, just like it scans your email to “analyze your content.”
But what you may not realize is that Google has also been recording you, as the Guardian points out, though not necessarily in the NSA-manner Edward Snowden talked about recently. If you’ve used Google’s voice-control features (normally prompted after saying “OK Google” or hitting a microphone icon), everything you’ve spoken to the service has been recorded, ostensibly to give you a record like your regular search history and perhaps improve Google’s voice recognition. Fortunately, Google does allow you to listen to yourself and clear that history.
If you visit Google’s History site and go to the Voice & Audio Activity tab, you can listen to what you’ve asked Google and delete all the files. You can also change the settings to make sure it doesn’t record you again.
There have been suggestions that Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana have also been recording what users say—but there’s apparently no way to delete those recordings. Amazon’s Echo also records you when you ask it stuff, and also has creeped people out for always listening—it only has to be prompted by voice to turn on like the others. Like Google, Amazon does let you clear the history of Amazon Echo, however.

World's Biggest Money Managers Can't Agree on Dollar's Direction


World's Biggest Money Managers Can't Agree on Dollar's Direction
Taylor Hall

April 1, 2016 — 5:59 AM HKT

Two of the world’s largest money managers are divided about where the dollar goes from here after the greenback’s worst quarter in more than five years.

The BlackRock Investment Institute says there’s room for the U.S. currency to rise, while Russell Investments Group is calling an end to the dollar bull run of the past two years. The greenback extended its loss Thursday as investors continue to digest comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen reflected concern global headwinds may restrain the U.S. economy.

“We cannot rule out the Fed sounding more hawkish this year,” said Jean Boivin, head of economic and market research at a unit of New York-based BlackRock, which manages $4.6 trillion. “This is not where we are now, but we might come to a point later this year where the inflation data continues to move higher, and the Fed starts to sound more reassuring about the outlook. Once we get there, we would have a basis for the dollar to continue appreciating.”

The greenback rallied the past two years as the Fed moved toward higher interest rates while other global central banks deployed negative rates and boosted bond-buying stimulus. This year, losses have piled up as a dimming outlook for tighter U.S. monetary policy limits the allure of dollar-denominated assets.

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot index, which tracks the currency against 10 major peers, dropped 0.1 percent as of 5 p.m. New York time, after reaching the lowest level since June 29. It declined 3.9 percent in March, and weakened 4.1 percent for the quarter, both the biggest losses since September 2010.

A measure of the greenback’s momentum, known as the 14-day relative strength indicator, fell below 30 Thursday. Levels below 30 are viewed by some traders as a signal the currency has reached extreme levels and may reverse.
Market Watch

After the Fed raised rates in December for the first time in almost a decade, comments by policy makers, including Yellen on March 29 in a speech to the Economic Club of New York, have spurred investors to reassess forecasts for the greenback.

“The U.S. dollar is peaking,” according a note from strategists including Andrew Pease at Russell Investments, which manages $242 billion. “It has already turned weaker against the Japanese yen, and we don’t expect too much upside against the euro.”

The greenback extended losses Thursday after a report showed an increase in weekly jobless claims before the government issues its latest employment report Friday. The U.S. added 205,000 jobs in March, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists, compared with a 242,000 increase the month before.

“Yellen’s comments this week have increased downside risk to the dollar,” said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst in Washington at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange Inc. “In terms of the dollar, these numbers and even tomorrow’s payrolls number may have a somewhat limited impact.”

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Rise Of The Robots - Can We Trust The New AI?

Rise Of The Robots - Can We Trust The New AI?

News Image By Tom Olago March 28, 2016 Share this article:

Robots are increasingly replacing human functions by automating manual tasks. Killer robots, digital doctors, and driverless cars are just a few examples of how far technology has gone in taking over our lives and replacing human effort.
Despite the efficiencies and cost-savings gained, questions are being raised about how much leeway robotic automation should be allowed to have. This is particularly so given the potentially far-reaching consequences of abuse by human operators, technical malfunctions with dangerous consequences or the impact on jobs or employment growth.

One such flaw in Artificial Intelligence technology was exposed last week when Microsoft was forced to apologize after it's twitter chat robot, Tay, became a Hitler-loving, racist promoting, evil robot proclaiming, 'Bush did 9/11'. Microsoft initially created Tay in an effort to improve the customer service on its voice recognition software. She was intended to tweet "like a teen girl" and was designed to "engage and entertain people where they connect with each other online through casual and playful conversation."  

But she' s also designed to personalize her interactions with users, including mirroring users' statements back to them and this is where twitter users were able take advantage of her programming. In less than 24hrs from her launch, Tay was spouting off statements of hate and offending everyone possible as users exposed this flaw.  She had created a PR nightmare for Microsoft and demonstrated how quickly artificial intelligence can spiral out of control.

Now consider the numerous other ways in which AI and robotics are taking over many aspects of our society.

Hannah Devlin, science correspondent for the guardian.com recently examined aspects of the role of Artificial Intelligence, its current impact and future potential. 

Devlin started off with the example of the recent defeat of one of the world s strongest Go players, Lee Sedol, as a demonstration of the qualitative leap in AI that has already taken place. Go is an ancient Chinese board game that has long been considered one of the great challenges faced by AI.  The program, developed by Google DeepMind, was not preprogrammed with killer moves, nor did it win by dint of an ability to crunch through all the possible moves at lightning speed.

AlphaGo, learned by playing millions of games against itself, developing such an individual style of play that its own human creators were "pretty shocked" by some of its moves in what could be "the turning point for AI".

Google has made no secret of its ambition to turn the same type of deep-learning software to significant real-world applications such as healthcare, transport and climate change research. Devlin stated that the new insights that AI would bring to these areas could be considerable, but policy-makers need to ensure that the technology benefits society at large and not just the elite owners of robots.

George Osborne, U.K Chancellor of the Exchequer was expected to announce in his recent budget that driverless cars will be tested on Britain s motorways as soon as next year. 

Yet the laws around liability for autonomous cars remain hazy. If an obstacle appears suddenly on the road, will Google s vehicle be able to distinguish a plastic bag, a pigeon, and a child? In a lethal accident, who will be to blame the car owner, the manufacturer, or even the robot itself?

Similar questions arise around medical diagnosis and care. Software is already being introduced to remind patients to take their medication via text message or to process repeat prescriptions. 

Devlin expects that it is only a matter of time before machine intelligence is being used more widely to improve diagnosis and treatment for everything from cancer to dementia, and that these tools need to be scrutinized ethically as well as scientifically.

The implications for human resource development are not in doubt. As Devlin states, AI is already rapidly creating jobs, while destroying others it is not yet clear how this will balance out in the long run. Robots could soon surpass humans at routine legal work, language translation and medical diagnosis, for instance, but gardeners, plumbers, and physiotherapists may be harder to replace.

Devlin concludes that the threats of job security and the need for regulation of AI are among issues needing to be tackled now to ensure that we place human values above money and convenience when applying this powerful new technology.

Separate reports corroborate these views. According to www.chron.com, a fast food outlet in New Zealand, Dominos recently announced the testing of a pizza deliveryman robot. The robot was described as a four-wheeled, short and squat droid who looks like a cross between a Wall-E and an R2D2 . 

At the same time, Carl's Jr. CEO Andy Pudzer told Business Insider this week he wants to build a fully-automated restaurant because minimum wages continue to go up across the country.  "With government driving up the cost of labor, it's driving down the number of jobs," he told Business Insider. "You're going to see automation not just in airports and grocery stores, but in restaurants."

Google s plan to market and sell self-driving cars similarly threatens taxi companies such as Uber and Lyft, not to mention taxi or cab drivers who will be out of jobs. At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., in February, Professor Moshe Vardi said robots will take over most jobs in 30 years.

"We are approaching a time when machines will be able to outperform humans at almost any task&Robots are doing more and more jobs that people used to do. Pharmacists, prison guards, boning chicken, bartending&we're able to mechanize them," said Vardi, a professor in computational engineering at Rice University.
It's a reality that Americans have been slow to come to terms with, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll. Jennings Brown for vocative.com reported that based on the poll findings, the majority of America believes that robots will take over the workforce within the next fifty years. Everything will become automated except for their own jobs.

Ironically although 65 percent of Americans think robots will steal most jobs, even more Americans , 80 percent, are certain that the machine uprising won t affect their own job over the next half century, pointing to a sense of denial or wishful thinking in relation to the inevitable outcome.

People with a higher income, college degrees or who work in education, government or non-profits, were even more likely to insist their jobs were safe from 'entitled androids'.

Another issue raised with increased robotic intervention is that of the overall loss of human connection such as at the grocery store, the bank, or the library when there's an actual person behind the counter or at the cash register.

Some companies would disagree and would argue that robots can in some ways replicate that human element. In a recent article for motherboard.vice.com, Natalie O Neil expounded on how companies want to replicate your dead loved ones with robot clones.

O'Neil explains that, according to grief counselors, many grieving people feel an emotional connection to things that represent their deceased loved ones, such as headstones, urns and shrines. 

In the future, people may take that phenomenon to stunning new heights: Artificial intelligence experts predict that humans will replace dead relatives with synthetic robot clones, complete with a digital copy of that person's brain.

"It's like when people stuff a pet cat or dog. We don t stuff humans but this is a way of stuffing their information, their personality and mannerisms," said Bruce Duncan, managing director of Terasem Movement, a research foundation that aims to "transfer human consciousness to computers and robots."

The firm has already created thousands of highly detailed mind clones to log the memories, values and attitudes of specific people. Using the data, scientists created one of the world's most socially advanced robots, a replica of Terasem Movement founder Martine Rothblatt s wife, called Bina48, which sells for roughly $150,000.

Rothblatt, who is also transgender and the highest paid female CEO in America, spearheaded the project to create a digital replica the human brain. She used her wife , Bina Aspen, as an early prototype, installing the real Bina s mind file into a physical robot designed to look like her.

Like the real Bina, the robot loves flowers, has mocha-colored skin and a self-deprecating sense of humor. She makes facial expressions, greets people and has conversations (including some awkward ones), made possible with facial and voice recognition software, motion tracking, and internet connectivity.

A more advanced version of robots like Bina48 could hit the market within 10 or 20 years for roughly $25,000 to $30,000 for variety of uses, including replicating the deceased, Duncan predicted. 

In a similar initiative, Google last year filed patent papers for a product that could replicate a specific human's personality, including that of "a deceased loved one" or a "celebrity." The patent describes a cloud-based system in which a digital "personality" can be downloaded like an app.

The patent also states the robot's mood could shift and its personality could evolve over time. Let's hope such AI personalities cannot be manipulated like Microsoft's Tay Chatbox AI. 

AI enhancements are being applied to the gaming industry as well. According to Jon Russell for techcrunch.com, Microsoft is now using Minecraft to develop artificial intelligence tech for the real world making it more than just a game . 

Microsoft recently announced a project that enables artificial intelligence researchers to tap into the popular title to sculpt and develop their tech. AIX is a new software development platform that researchers can use to develop 'agents' AI-powered characters which roam Minecraft worlds. 

The idea is to equip them with the smarts to behave like a regular player. So that includes basic commands, such as climbing up a hill, and more complicated requirements like navigating varied terrain, building out landscapes and just surviving from the game's vicious zombies.

Katja Hofmann, who leads the project, explained that AIX and Minecraft isn t just about developing AI agents to exist in the game, but also to train the technology to learn from itself, just as DeepMind's AI technology does when it plays Go.

Some Bible prophecy experts speculate that AI may even play a direct role in the last days:

"And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. 16 And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." (Revelation 13.15-17)

The Saudi Connection in the Belgium Attacks

The Saudi Connection in the Belgium Attacks

March 27, 2016
CCTV footage of the Belgium attacks suspects. Public Domain.
This past week Europe experienced its second major terrorist attack within the last five months. The ISIS-claimed attack in Brussels signifies again just how real and how serious the militant group is about training, equipping, and tactically carrying out an assault in Europe. Although the attack appears to have been provoked or moved ahead of schedule due to the arrest of Salah Abdeslam (Belgium-born, French national personally involved in the Paris attacks), what is apparent is this attack was forthcoming based on the materials found in the apartment of the attackers, and the overall sophistication of the bombings suggests that this was not a reactionary, random plot. With details of the attackers released, their chief bomb maker Najim Laachraoui, along with two brothers Ibrahim and Khalid el-Barkraoui, are reported as Belgium nationals. As the search continues for the fourth perpetrator, questions are continually raised about where the next possible attack could be, or how to best combat an all-encompassing ISIS assault on Western Europe.
Yet the most salient inquiry about the Brussels attack has not been brought to public forum. Why is this happening in Belgium? Obviously the pursuit of the Paris attackers led the authorities to Brussels, so traveling elsewhere would have been extremely risky for the terrorists, to say the least. But why did the chase end up in Belgium? Why were so many of the Paris attackers, and now Brussels attackers, Belgium nationals? What is really going on inside Belgium? A soft analysis of the situation would point to Syria — the attacks were coordinated and ordered by ISIS leadership and carried outing in accordance with their global jihadist mission. Yes, this is true. But again, why in Belgium and not in Switzerland — or Norway — or Romania? A thorough investigation into these questions will ultimately find that Saudi-Wahhabi fingerprints cloak the Brussels crime scene, further exposing the real problem facing the international community when it comes to combating terrorism.
As I wrote in my previous piece, the Wahhabi doctrine that ISIS follows is derived and mirrored from the current religious establishment in Saudi Arabia. Its atavistic, puritanical interpretations are based upon ruling by the sword and spreading (what the House of Saud views) as the purest form of Islam across the Muslim world and beyond. The royal family is dependent on this interpretation because of the religious legitimacy it provides for its dynastic hegemony. But, in order to understand how this relates to the Brussels attack one must go back to 1964. King Faisal had just deposed his half-brother, King Saud, from the crown due to his foreign policy incompetence and excessive public expenditures. King Saud (widley regarded in Saudi Arabia as a pariah) continually fumbled resistance against seditious media and political attacks from Egypt’s Gamel Nasser as he sought to divide the royal family and spread chaos inside the kingdom. Additionally, Nasser promoted a strong Arab-nationalist message across the Middle East, and the Saudi’s viewed this as a direct threat to their power in the kingdom. He openly ridiculed and denounced the royal family, encouraging dissent and ultimately providing safe haven for Saudi Prince Al-Talal who sought to liberalize the dynastic structure — this created a huge embarrassment for the kingdom. While King Saud was continually viewed as weak against Nasser’s influence, Prince Faisal was able to get the backing of the religious clerics that ultimately allowed the deposing to take place. But, legitimacy came at a price. In return, King Faisal ceded a significant amount of control to the religious Ulema-wing of the kingdom, allowing for the Ash-Shaykh (family with religious authority) establishment to reform the education system, control women’s rights, and, what is most significant in terms of the developments in Brussels, control foreign expenditure for religious propagation.
A few years earlier in 1962, Riyadh established the Muslim World League, an Islamic NGO whose goal is to: “Unite the ranks of the Muslims, and remove all divisive forces from the midst of the Muslim communities around the world, remove obstacles in the way of establishing the Muslim world union, and support all advocates of charitable deeds.” After the removal of King Saud and the induction of conservative reform brought about by King Faisal, the Muslim World League became an anti-Communist, proselytizing tool to combat Nasser’s Arab-nationalist agenda in the region. Coupled with the boom in oil revenues ($3 per barrel in 1970 to $35 per barrel in 1980) over the next decade, this afforded King Faisal and the Ash-Shaykh establishment nearly unlimited opportunities to promote their Wahhabi credence across the globe. Belgium fell in line with this foreign-religo policy in 1967 when King Baudouin secured an oil contract agreement with King Faisal.
During the 1960s, Belgium’s need for cheap labor and lax immigration policies set in motion a large number of migrants who would make their way to Belgium, particularly from Morocco and Turkey. Seeking to capitalize on the change in demographics, Faisal was able to secure a 99-year rent-free lease of the oldest mosque in Brussels, the Great Mosque of Brussels, and transform it through the monetary influence of the Muslim World League into an Islamic Cultural Center. Originally built in 1880, the building at the time had seen sufficient deterioration. Over an 11-year period, the Muslim World League funded the restoration process culminating in 1978 with its reopening, along with a fresh importation of pious, Gulf imams that began their Saudi-Wahhabi indoctrination. The Muslim World League has continually funded the Islamic Cultural Center in Brussels since the 1967 agreement, but exact figures are not known due to the lack of auditing and private grasp the kingdom keeps on its financial statements. However, over the past 20 years there have been glimpses into the makeup of the program. In 1997, the secretary general of the Muslim World League thanked King Faisal’s successor, King Fahd, for his continued support, indicating that the House of Saud had donated $1.33 billion in funding since 1962. In 2002, the Saudi newspaper Ain Al-Yaqeen published a detailed report on the extent of Saudi-Wahhabi support throughout the world noting, “the cost of King Fahd’s efforts in this field has been astronomical, amounting to many billions of Saudi riyals. In terms of Islamic institutions, the result is some 210 Islamic centers wholly or partly financed by Saudi Arabia, more than 1,500 mosques and 202 colleges and almost 2,000 schools for educating Muslim children in non-Islamic countries in Europe, North and South America, Australia, and Asia.” Furthermore, a 2008 documentary titled The Qur’an by British filmmaker Antony Thomas put the estimate of Saudi-Wahhabi funding at over $100 billion within the last 30 years.
Now with the Brussels Muslim population near 25 percent, this level of monetary influence on mosques has cultivated an environment that breeds extremism and fanaticism — an environment that has gone unchecked for almost 50 years. Nevertheless, a Wikileaks revelation has brought about details of the escalation in extremism in Brussels over the past 10 years. According to a diplomatic cable from 2007, US officials were concerned over the disbursement of Korans by the Saudi Embassy across Belgium to over 350 mosques, even providing support for non-Arab Turkish mosques noting,  “According to a Turkish member of the Muslim Executive, the teaching of religious education by “motherland” imams tends to alienate or radicalize practitioners who have grown up in Belgium’s Western culture and who react against the strictures of a religious leader from a less open, “foreign” homeland. This has led to a growing gap in religious practice, particularly between generations,” and “public actions linking Belgium with radical Islam are few, but still worrisome.  Most notable – and embarrassing for the country – was the death in November 2005 of Belgian citizen Muriel Degauque near Baghdad following her suicide  bombing attempt.  Degauque, 38, had converted to Islam, the faith of her Moroccan-origin husband who had died in a terrorist attack in Iraq.  She was the first European woman to become a (failed) suicide bomber.” A separate Saudi Arabian cable in 2012 details a rise in extremism, explaining how the Belgium government quietly had the Saudi embassy remove the Islamic Cultural Center director, Khalid Alabri, stating — “His sermons were Salafist, anti-Israel, and anti-West. The guiding principle was the primacy of Salafism above all else.” Furthermore, the cable also revealed a Saudi embassy staffer in Belgium was expelled in 2012 for because of his role in “spreading the extreme so-called Takfiri dogma.”
In addition to this religious extremism that has systematically been implemented by the House of Saud, Belgian Muslims have also experienced a decline in socioeconomic standing coupled with social inequality. Additionally noted in the 2007 U.S. cable, “discrimination in housing and employment has produced clear lower-class “ghetto” areas of greater Brussels, such as  Molenbeek, Scaarbeek, and St. Josse, disproportionately inhabited by Muslims regardless of their education and income. According to the OECD, unemployment among foreign-born residents is twice that of indigenous Belgians. Muslims also have higher birth rates, with the result that a third of Turks and Moroccans are under 18 compared to less than a fifth of native Belgians. A quarter of Brussels residents under 20 are of Muslim origin and an estimated fifty percent of Muslim youth in Brussels is unemployed.” Religious suppression was also documented, “The “hijab” headscarf is common apparel of both Turkish and Arab women in Brussels. Yet, the decision last October by Antwerp’s city government to ban its wearing in public schools and by civil servants who deal with the public has produced growing divisiveness on the issue.” Compounding years of disenfranchisement, social injustice, and exclusion has created a powder keg of animosity among indignant, Muslim youth in Belgium. Sparked by the ISIS outbreak in Syria, the Wahhabi jihad in Western Europe draws from mosques that have Saudi-Wahhabi influence and will be axiomatic as long as the root of the problem is not addressed.
Terrorism flourishes in areas where declining opportunity meets rising expectations. Belgium’s trouble to assimilate Muslim immigrants into society over the past 50 years coupled with a heavy, persistent injection of Wahhabism explains why Belgium has the highest rate of foreign fighters per capita fighting for ISIS — it explains why half of the Belgium terrorists are Belgium born — it explains why five of the eleven Paris terrorists were Belgium nationals or grew up in Belgium. This is not a coincidence. The Wahhabi doctrine vehemently supported and implemented inside Saudi Arabia has proven to be the biggest and most salient source of religious extremism throughout the world. Since the inception of ISIS in 2011, their Wahhabi appeal and credence has galvanized oppressed Muslim youths across the globe, particularly from mosques that have had profound influence from the Muslim World League. Rest assured, there will be an increase in these violent attacks throughout not only Western Europe, but wherever the arm of Saudi-Wahhabi funding has reached within the last half-century. Counter-terror operations and military campaigns will not put an end to this fanaticism. The tepid intransigence shown by Western foreign policy has proven to be its biggest weakness. Unless the international community addresses the problem inside the Saudi kingdom by ceasing their hypocritical foreign policies that continually fund and allow the kingdom to flourish, its existence will be conducive with Islamic terrorism for many more years, if not decades. Too many innocent lives have been lost and too many more will be gone unless the Wahhabiyyah headquarters in Riyadh is dismantled.

Bankrupt Banks Brutally Bleeding…Worldwide

Bankrupt Banks Brutally Bleeding…Worldwide

March 24, 2016
All avid students well know a nation’s economy depends a great deal upon the strength of its financial system…to wit: the stability of its banks.  To be sure most major banks are “crowing” stability, strength and all that exemplifies security.  But is it true?! What is really the financial solidarity of major world banks?
This analysis will reveal the international banking system as a House of Cards (at best) and a rickety, fragile, unsound, unstable, weak and unsound Garage for Storing Cash (at worst).
To review a bank’s Balance Sheet and Income Statement is a futile chore, which bears little information that is trustworthy.  The reason is today’s ‘exotic’ Accounting Methods permit distortions beyond comprehension.  Therefore, to determine the real financial solidary of the banks comprising this study, we are going to focus only upon the long-term price trend of their stock price.  Indubitably, there can be NO distortion implied nor built into the stock price, which is determined rationally by many thousands of individual investors and Institutional Investors over a protracted period.  To this end we will examine the stock price trends of 7 major world banks and four Banking Indices.  The 11 banking stock price indicators include major US Banks, European Banks, Bank of India and Banking Indices which encompass many 100s of individual banks.  Specifically, they are:
Bank of America
Citigroup
Deutsche Bank
Commerzbank AG
Credit Suisse
Barclays Bank
Banco Santander (Spain)
Bank Index (NASDAQ)
Bank Index (S&P)
US Bank Index (Dow Jones)
Bank of India
The following charts demonstrate the monthly stock price trend since 1999. Furthermore, one of the most accurate long-term Technical Indicators is also shown, namely Full Stochastics.  In each chart the dark blue circle in the Full Stochastics pin-pointed when the stock price commenced the birth of the BEAR MARKET CRASH.  It is imperative to notice the Stochastics Blue Circle has recently heralded another stock market crash…a la 2001-2003 and 2007-2008.  To ignore this CRASH WARNING SIGNAL is financially MASOCHISTIC.  Additionally, bank on the markets to be extremely volatile…to entice the ignorant, naïve and ill-informed to buy stocks…as the big guys are DUMPING.
Bank of America

Citigroup

Deutsche Bank

Commerzbank

Credit Suisse

Barclays Bank

Banco Santander (Spain)

Bank Index (NASDAQ)

Bank Index (S&P)

US Bank Index (Dow Jones)

Bank Of India

Bank Stocks were massacred in the 2007-2008 global CRASH IN STOCKS. During that stock market debacle, banking stocks were pummeled down the following percentages:

The average loss of global banking stocks was a horrifying -83% during the 2007-2008 Global Stock Market Crash.  In tragic concert the S&P500 common stock Index declined only -59%.
Now Fast Forward To Today…and we see global banking stocks are AGAIN leading worldwide stock markets into another CRASH MODE.   Year-To-Date Performances of the six global banks in our analysis have fallen a whopping average of -25% (in only three months). Consequently, this suggests the emergence of a terrifying bear market in global bank stocks in 2016…and possibly well into next year.

http://tinyurl.com/hmrqnp9
US Stocks Forecast For 2016-2017
Obviously, Banks in the US and the Euro Union are rapidly going down the toilet…faster than they did in the 2007-2008 MARKET CRASH. And as plummeting bank stocks in the 2007-2008 crash pulled down the general stock market, so will they indubitably shepherd common stocks into the bears’ lair.  The big question is:  HOW FAR MIGHT THE DOW AND S&P500 INDICES DROP in the forth-coming market crash?!
Based upon the analysis “Bankrupt Banks Brutally Bleeding,” the probability is high US equities are hell bent for leather to severely tumble this year…and possibly into 2017.  The above charts suggest the DOW Index may eventually be hammered down to 8000 support, while the S&P500 Index might decline in lethal concert to its 800 support (both in early 2009). 
In this event hordes of investors may again flock to the traditional safe havens of GOLD AND SILVER.
Historically, the average bull trend lasts 63 months. However, we are already 84 months into this one…which means the BEAR MARKET in stocks has already begun…as this bull is very long in the tooth.
Related Research
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Bear Market Foot Prints In US Equities
Stocks To Crash Worldwide In 2016
Fed's Lockhart Says Rising Rates to Create Risks for U.S. Banks
The Collapse Of The Too Big To Fail Banks In Europe Is Here
The Bear Is At The Door (Part 1): Momentum Stocks Getting Crushed
All The Stock Charts Spell: B-E-A-R M-A-R-K-E-T
Legend Warns Global Panic Is Coming
The Looming Global Bear Market In Stocks
Stock Bears Are Preparing To Run Amok…Worldwide (Part 2)
How Much Will The DOW Index Correct In The Developing 2015-2016 Bear
Hell Week For The Global Economy Gives Signs Of Things To Come
Banking Panics of 1930 And 1931
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Founder of GOLD-EAGLE in January 1997. Vronsky has over 40 years’ experience in the international investment world, having cut his financial teeth in Wall Street as a Financial Analyst with White Weld.  He believes gold and silver will soon be recognized as legal tender in all 50 US states (Utah and Arizona having already passed laws to that effect). Vronsky speaks three languages with indifference:   English, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.  His education includes university degrees in Engineering, Liberal Arts and an MBA in International Business Administration – qualifying as Phi Beta Kappa for high scholastic achievement in all three.

The Brussels Attacks: Challenges of Unravelling Terrorist Networks

RSIS Commentary is a platform to provide timely and, where appropriate, policy-relevant commentary and analysis of topical issues and contemporary developments. The views of the authors are their own and do not represent the official position of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, NTU. These commentaries may be reproduced electronically or in print with prior permission from RSIS and due recognition to the author(s) and RSIS. Please email: RSISPublications@ntu.edu.sg for feedback to the Editor RSIS Commentary, Yang Razali Kassim. 


No. 067/2016 dated 29 March 2016
The Brussels Attacks:
Challenges of Unravelling Terrorist Networks
By Romain Quivooij

Synopsis


The recent Brussels attacks claimed by IS underline the difficulties encountered by intelligence and security services to identify, monitor and neutralise terrorist networks before they move into action.

Commentary


TWO TERRORIST attacks struck Brussels’ Zaventem airport and the Maalbek metro station on Tuesday 22 March 2016, killing at least 35 people (including three suicide bombers) and injuring 340. Prime Minister Charles Michel declared, “what we feared has happened”. Five of the ten terrorists and suspected  accomplices involved in the series of attacks that struck Paris in November 2015 were Belgian and French nationals living in the districts of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean and Neder-Over-Heembeek, West and North of Brussels, respectively. This led investigators to focus their attention on the Belgian trail.

The modus operandi of the Brussels attacks and the webs of individuals that are suspected to be involved suggest significant connections with the Paris attacks. Intelligence and security services are confronted with major challenges in dealing with terrorist networks responsible for such operations, as similar attacks are to be expected in the near future.   

The Paris-Brussels Connections


Shared features between the Paris and the Brussels attacks highlight a significant degree of coordination, technical sophistication and strategic thinking, pointing again at the involvement of a well-structured terrorist cell. The explosions that targeted the airport and the metro station were carried out within an hour of each other, suggesting that terrorists synchronized their actions in order to maximise impact.    

The first two explosions killed at least 15 people in the airport, destroyed the facade of the entrance and led parts of the ceiling to collapse. The third explosion happened in a subway car, killing 13 people. While the concentration of people in a confined space explains the high number of casualties in the latter attack, the extent of human and material losses indicates the skillful use of powerful explosives, most probably triacetone triperoxide (TATP), a relatively easy-to-prepare explosive that was also used in Paris. The terrorists struck two transport systems in and around Brussels, in the same way that the Paris attackers selected key targets across the capital city of France.

The three suicide bombers involved in the Brussels attacks were actively sought by French and Belgian police for their involvement in the Paris attacks. Mohamed Abrini, who remains at large, is also considered to be a prime suspect in both series of terrorist attacks. Investigations related to the capture of Salah Abdeslam, who acted as a logistician before and during the Paris attacks, revealed that the number of Belgium-based individuals involved in the Paris attacks were at least three times more than what Belgian authorities initially thought.

Finally, the close timeline between Salah Abdeslam’s arrest and the Brussel attacks may imply that terrorists would have struck the Belgian capital earlier than planned, presumably out of fear that Salah Abdeslam might disclose information about forthcoming attacks in Brussels.

The latter denied knowing the Brussels attackers, despite the fact that one of them rented an appartment that Salah Abdeslam used shortly before his arrest. These elements strongly suggest that Paris was one of the targets in a series of connected operations led by common networks implanted in Western Europe.

Connecting the Dots: Missing the Mark? 

Belgium has been aware of high levels of threats over the last year, as illustrated by the dismantling of a terrorist cell in the city of Verviers in January 2015. The scale of the threat was at its peak last December, when no terrorist attack took place. Yet the Belgian Organ of Coordination for the Analysis of the Threat (OCAM), under the joint authority of the Belgian Home Office and the Ministry of Justice, kept the scale at a lower level between the arrest of Salah Abdeslam and the Brussels attacks, five days later.

High numbers of individuals suspected to be sympathisers or belonging to IS have been identified since 2014. The multiplication of transnational terrorist plots and the concomitant increase of successful attacks have also become key features associated with IS. This two-pronged proliferation and diversification of terrorist threats compels intelligence and security services to prioritize certain risks over others, for human and material resources devoted to intelligence gathering and analysis as well as “hard” police and military operations do not necessarily keep up with the demand.

This can lead to controversial decisions. Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, the authors of the Charlie Hebdo attacks who killed 12 people in January 2015 had been closely watched by the major French internal intelligence service, the General Direction of Internal Security (DGSI), until December 2013 and June 2014, respectively.    

However, no suspicious activities were detected, leading to the surveillance on the two brothers being ended. The French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve explained in January 2015 that “no incriminating element that would have been likely to lead to the opening of a judicial investigation had then been raised against them”. 

As it tends to be the case when a terrorist attack is successful, several questions related to the effectiveness of local intelligence and security services have been raised. Ibrahim El Bakraoui, one of the suicide bombers at Brussels airport, had been arrested by Turkish authorities in Gaziantep, a Southern Turkish city close to the Syrian border, in June 2015, before being deported to the Netherlands.

If it turns out that other attackers have travelled to Syria and Iraq and/or entered Western Europe by mingling with refugees from these countries, as was the case for the Paris attackers, trust of Western European populations in the ability of their governments to protect their safety will be further eroded.

Need to Rethink Counter-Terrorism


Mass terrorism involving easy targets is nothing new. However, the greater frequency of these attacks requires counter-terrorist professionals to properly assess multiple threats involved; to devote limited human and material resources to the surveillance of numerous suspects and potential targets, and to ensure a constantly updated flow of intra/international cooperation between intelligence and security services.

Interestingly, recent episodes related to the identification of terrorists and suspected accomplices involved in the Paris attacks tend to show that granting intelligence and security services with increased surveillance powers and budgets do not naturally lead to the desired results. The hideout of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged mastermind of the Paris attacks, was reported to the French police by a friend of his cousin who provided him logistical support.

Similarly Salah Abdeslam was turned in by a friend who was asked to find him a new hideout in Brussels. Basing their work on this testimony, Belgian investigators could easily trace the suspect. Thus basic human intelligence remains a fruitful key to detection and identification. While offering potential solutions to the terrorist risk posed by IS is easier said than done, the Brussels attacks are a grim reminder that the adaptation of counter-terrorism organisations to the fast-evolving threat environment should be considered a top priority.


Romain Quivooij is an Associate Research Fellow with the Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS), a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Click HERE to read this commentary online.

Vaxxed From Cover Up to Catastrophe TRAILER


VACCINE AWARENESS - THE TRUTH EXPOSED!


Our view: Why the offshore drilling decision matters



Our view: Why the offshore drilling decision matters

Ideally, we hope the Obama administration’s turn against offshore oil and gas drilling in our area means that the “little people” have power.
More than 100 communities along the Atlantic coastline formally objected to Obama’s decision in January 2015 to open up the East Coast to oil and gas exploration. Among the first to object was the city of Beaufort, led by Mayor Billy Keyserling. And while the Pentagon also had objections, most of the pushback came from local governments standing up to the big guns of U.S. senators, members of Congress and governors. Not to mention the deep pockets of Big Oil.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewel said, “We heard from many corners that now is not the time to offer oil and gas leasing off the Atlantic coast. When you factor in conflicts with national defense, economic activities such as fishing and tourism, and opposition from many local communities, it simply doesn’t make sense to move forward with lease sales in the coming five years.”
That statement is a big relief.
Proponents never told us what the drilling could mean to shoreline communities in terms of dirty, onshore industry support.
We were never told what revenue it would bring to the state. No revenue-sharing plan with the states was established, so it was impossible to measure the potential risks against potential rewards. And with millions of gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, no one along the Atlantic Coast was willing to tolerate the stance of “trust me” coming from Big Oil and powerful politicians.
The strong-armed federal agenda left the people in the dark on many other matters.
The worst of it is the environmentally damaging seismic blasting in search of oil and gas deposits. The testing results would not be released to the public, so again there would be no way to weigh risks and rewards.
But we did know that scores of leading marine scientists oppose seismic testing. So clear is its danger to wildlife that more than 30 congressmen, including Rep. Mark Sanford of this district, demanded answers from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
And we know that oil exploration and drilling are threats to the fisheries, tourism industry and quality of life along the Atlantic coastline.
And we know that existing studies show that the energy deposits off the South Carolina shore represent mere days of America’s consumption — debunking the shallow claim that this exploration would contribute to lower fuel costs and energy independence.
For many reasons, the change of mind by the Obama administration is reason to celebrate.
But if dirty industry is kept at bay — as it was in Beaufort County in 1970 when a proposed BASF chemical plant was blocked from the pristine waters of the Port Royal Sound estuary — the buck stops with us. We, the people enjoying the Lowcountry, are the heavy industry. It is up to us to fight more fights like this one. They arise daily, and they don’t often involve Big Oil. They usually involve the state legislature, or governments closer to home, accommodating ceaseless development that threatens natural resources.
Ideally, we can see in the offshore drilling episode a shaft of hope that enough pushback can come from the grassroots to actually make a difference.

DEEPENING FOREIGN CONTROL OVER PH FARMLANDS THRU FINANCIALIZATION

IBON Features / 29 March 2016
IBON Foundation/ #114 Timog Ave/ Tel. No. 927 6986/ media@ibon.org/www.ibon.org

Day of the Landless
DEEPENING FOREIGN CONTROL OVER PH FARMLANDS THRU FINANCIALIZATION

IBON Features--Peasant and indigenous people’s groups in the region mark 29 March as the Global Day of the Landless. Initiated by the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC), it highlights the rural communities’ continuing struggle for land.
In the Philippines, such struggle remains meaningful amid widespread landlessness still gripping its countryside. Decades of attempts at land reform have apparently failed. Land remains concentrated in the hands of a few. Official census could only claim at most 62% of farms under full ownership. The rest are under various forms of tenure, including tenancy at 15 percent. According to the Land Bank of the Philippines, 76% of so-called land reform beneficiaries are not paying amortization, 15% are struuggling to pay and only 9% have fully paid.
Additionally, the Technical Working Group (TWG) on the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extended with Reforms said that around 1.2 million hectares of land are under various forms of contract growing schemes under agribusiness venture arrangements (AVAs) that are profit-oriented.  
Foreign interests continue to be one of the biggest threats to farmers’ access to land. US firms Dole and Del Monte, for instance, have been operating banana and pineapple plantations here since the American colonial era. Together, they now have effective control over more than 100,000 hectares of mostly Mindanao lands and are seeking further expansion.
Some like Dole and Del Monte have used the traditional forms of control by directly managing plantations and through leasehold contracts with farmers. But some are also deepening and expanding control via more complex schemes like using financial instruments to indirectly control land.
Such land investment scheme is part of the phenomenon called financialization of agriculture. Global firms that have long dominated food production, trading, processing, distribution and marketing are also setting up their own investment funds.
Acquiring lands through investment funds gives them greater monopoly over the supply chain. At the same time, it also gives them additional venues for profit making through speculation on agricultural land and commodities. In countries like the Philippines, it allows them as well to skirt legal restrictions on foreign ownership and control of farmlands.
One example is Cargill. The US-based company is no longer just an agricultural trading giant but is also operating a large financial services arm. In 2003, it set up a hedge fund called Black River Asset Management. Today, Black River is the world’s largest agribusiness private equity fund. From 2008 to 2014, it has raised a total capital of more than US$1 billion for agribusiness-dedicated vehicles. It represents about 17% of the global total during the period.
Cargill has been operating in the Philippines since 1947 primarily as a trader of agricultural goods. But through Black River, Cargill is also now acquiring farmlands that deepens and expands its control over the supply chain.
In 2011, Black River bought a 28.11%-stake in local food exporter Agrinurture Inc. for US$30.45 million, which it increased in 2013 to 30.92% with an additional Php355 million (around US$7.13 million). With investments Black River, Agrinurture has started targeting lands for banana, rice and palm oil plantations in Mindanao through contract growing and lease arrangements. The targeted area is initially pegged at around 1,400 hectares.
Agrinurture became national news in 2014 when its CEO and president Antonio Tiu was dragged into the so-called “Hacienda Binay” controversy. Tiu was allegedly the Vice President’s dummy in the ownership of an agro-industrial park in Batangas. Aside from Cargill, Agrinurture has also been partnering with agribusiness firms from China and Saudi Arabia for farming ventures in the country. These reportedly cover more than 60,000 hectares for export production of rice, fruits and vegetables.
The deepening role of foreign capital in Philippine agriculture through financial actors mirrors the global trend of increasing private equity investment in agribusiness. From an annual average of about US$1 billion from 2008 to 2013, private equity in agribusiness ballooned to US$2.6 billion in 2014 largely due to deals such as between Cargill/Black River and Agrinurture.
Financialization has opened up new opportunities for foreign capital to tighten its grip on Philippine agriculture. But the pressure to create an even more favorable environment for foreign investment is not easing down. The US lobby to allow 100% foreign ownership of land through charter change, for instance, remains strong. Indeed, it will continue to intensify as the US and other big capitalist countries forever seek ways to accelerate profit rates for their corporations like Cargill.--IBON Features

-- 
Media & Communications Department
IBON Foundation
#114 Timog Ave
9276986 | www.ibon.org | @ibonfoundation
(Xands--09254545577)

Monday, March 28, 2016

The film on vaccines Robert De Niro won't let his audience see

The film on vaccines Robert De Niro won't let his audience see
Breaking...
by Jon Rappoport
March 27, 2016
(To read about Jon's mega-collection, Power Outside The Matrix, click here.)
Robert De Niro, who has a child with autism, was going to personally introduce the film, Vaxxed, to the audience at his Tribeca Film Festival in New York.  

He thought the film was important.  It makes a case for a connection between vaccines and autism.

Then, an uproar ensued, pressure was brought to bear, and De Niro decided to cancel the screening at his festival.

Hello, goodbye.  

One of the angles used to pressure him?  People might agree with the film's content and decide not vaccinate their children, or they might decide to space the vaccines out over a longer period of time.  This horrible act might endanger lives.  It might kill children.  

Therefore, don't let people see the film.  Don't let them be contaminated.  Don't let them make up their own minds.  Don't let them have access to information.  You see, the parents themselves are children wandering in the wilderness, with no ability to analyze information.  They must defer to the experts.  They mustn't listen to other voices.  They mustn't be permitted to think.  

Free speech?  Never, ever heard of it.  

You see, this is Science.  Only certain people know what science says or means.  They are the chosen few in the palace.  They decide for the rest of us.  They are the little gods and the censors.

I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of this bullshit.

On big screens all over the country, you can put up movies depicting people being torn limb from limb, drowning in their own blood, you can put up movies with panting soft-porn money shots, you can put up movies that blow up half the world; but you can't show a movie that questions the effects of vaccines.

That's show biz, where the stars are co-opted on a daily basis, and if they move off the dime, they're attacked in the press.

But so what?

Listen, Robert, you could have shown the film, and you could have laid on a live presentation afterwards, with speakers delivering both sides of the issue right there in the theater.  You could have stood up and said you weren't going to be bulldozed.  You could have said Film itself is based on the sanctity of free speech and there was no way you were going to sacrifice that principle.  You could have drawn a line in the sand.  You could have parlayed your reputation and awards in the industry to make a point.  You could have explained who pressured you and why.  You could have refused to let the moment pass.  You could have broken the back of censorship, and you could have enlisted the aid of a few of your famous friends, right up on stage, to back you up.  You could have turned the whole thing around, because after all, you were just preparing to show a film.  That's what you were doing.  With enough force behind your words (you know how to do that, don't you?), you could have exposed the whole insane sham of Don't Show a Film.  You could have said, "This is not the Censored Tribeca Film Festival.  That's not the name of this event and it never will be."  You could have blown the doors apart.  You could have gone live and done in public, for once, what you do on the screen.  You could have hit the censors in their snake eyes and put them away.  You could have gone on The View and Fallon and Kimmel and Oprah and made your case against the people who want to shut down free speech.  And you know you could have scored a victory.
But you didn't do that.  You backed down.

It's not too late.  You can still fire up your courage and your outrage and show the film.  It's your festival.  You're the boss.

Do you realize the size of the rock you're standing on?  Do you know what the First Amendment really means?

So what if you're shy in public.  So what if you need a script?

I'll give you a script.  I'll give you one.  It'll melt the spines of those arrogant cowards who want the public to obey and keep their mouths shut and submit to wall-to-wall surveillance and march all the way to their graves without a whimper in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Use this link to order Jon's Matrix Collections.
Jon Rappoport
The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world.
You can find this article and more at NoMoreFakeNews.com.