Saturday, September 30, 2017

Every Known Cognitive Bias


Quote For The Day - 9/30/2017

“The best way to teach your kids about taxes is by eating 30% of their ice cream.”
Bill Murray

Forcing Humans Off The Road ???

California known as the sunny state is eyeing a ban on sales of fossil-fuel cars in hopes of reducing carbon emissions as they seed the deeper agenda to eventually ban humans from driving as we switch to an autonomous lifestyle.

California Gov. Jerry Brown has reportedly “expressed an interest” in the restrictions, according to Bloomberg, which cited California Air Resources Board (CARB) chair, Mary Nichols.

California may become the first U.S. territory to take action, similar to China, France, and the UK—all of which plan to phase out gas- and diesel-car sales over the next three decades.

“I’ve gotten messages from the Governor asking, ‘Why haven’t we done something already?’” Nichols told the news agency. “The Governor has certainly indicated an interest in why China can do this and not California.”

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 requires the state to have a sharp reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 in an effort to return to 1990 levels in three years, and drop 80 percent lower by 2050.

To reach these “ambitious” goals, “we have to pretty much replace all combustion with some form of renewable energy,” Nichols told Bloomberg. “We’re looking at that as a method of moving this discussion forward.”

You can read the rest @
https://www.activistpost.com/2017/09/california-ban-on-diesel-fuel-cars-laying-the-ground-work-to-ban-humans-from-the-road.html

Dear Mary - Because we're NOT China; that's why.

Don't kid yourself, this agenda is not about forcing humans to ride in driverless cars. It's about getting us off the road entirely.

In the "connected" world of the future, there will be no reason for humans to go anywhere. Anything you can think of you will be able to do at home via VR.

Mark my words: Soon only the rich will have private vehicles. And that means most of us will not.

Another O In The White House ???

Now Oprah may want to be US President:


No, I'm not voting for her. We don't need another rich entertainer in the White House.

Who Gives Trump His Orders ???

Trump wants war with Iran, but clearly his generals do not. You can read about it here:

https://www.vox.com/world/2017/9/27/16373166/trump-iran-deal-dunford-senate

Dear Donald - Stop taking orders from Israel and the US deep state. You were elected to get us OUT of America's wars, not to start new ones.

Friday, September 29, 2017

Has Russia REALLY Destroyed Its Chemical Weapons ???

According to this report, Russia has completed the destruction of its chemical weapons:

https://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de/2017/09/30/opcw-bestaetigt-russland-hat-seine-chemiewaffen-vollstaendig-vernichtet/ [translation required]

But we should not celebrate yet, for at least two reasons:

  1. They did not incinerate all their weapons - they merely broke them down chemically; and
  2. The Novichok series of weapons was not covered by the Chemical Weapons Convention and possibly could be reconstituted from the residues of what they DID "destroy".

You can read about the Novichok chemical weapons here:

https://sainthoward.blogspot.com/2013/05/were-chemical-weapons-used-during-first.html

and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novichok_agent

Thought For The Day - 9/29/2017

From John Pilger, one of the world's last true journalists:

The oldest cliché is that truth is the first casualty of war. I disagree. Journalism is the first casualty. Not only that: it has become a weapon of war, a virulent censorship that goes unrecognised in the United States, Britain and other democracies; censorship by omission, whose power is such that, in war, it can mean the difference between life and death for people in faraway countries, such as Iraq.

You can read the rest @
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47921.htm

How To Deal With Bankgangsters ???

In Vietnam a bank executive has been sentenced to death for fraud:

According to the BBC, the former head of a major Vietnamese bank has been sentenced to death for his role in a fraud case involving some 800 billion dong (which sounds like a lot of dong, but equals roughly $35 million) of illegal loans. Nguyen Xuan Son, who served as general director of OceanBank, was convicted of embezzlement, abuse of power and economic mismanagement. Bank founder, tycoon Ha Van Tham, and dozens of other banking officials are also on trial, accused of lending violations.

You can read the rest @
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-09-29/vietnam-shows-how-clean-banking-system-ex-banker-sentenced-death-fraud

Meanwhile in the US, corrupt bank CEOs either retain their jobs or retire with generous golden parachutes. None have been prosecuted, let alone sentenced to death, for their apparent crimes.

How do you feel about this? Is Vietnam overreacting, or is the US too lenient?

Tropical Forests DO NOT Absorb Carbon

Since humans began to worry about having put too much carbon in the atmosphere, we’ve considered tropical forests an important “carbon sink.” Their fast growth rate, dense vegetation, and rich soils sucked more carbon out of the atmosphere then they produced. In other words, tropical forests were a natural greenhouse-gas vacuum. Except now, just when the world most needs them to be, they’re not.

At some point, it turns out, deforestation, drought, and other forest-disturbing factors tipped the scales, making tropical forests a net producer of carbon rather than a sink, according to a new study published today (Sept. 28) in the journal Science. Each year, instead of absorbing carbon, these degraded forests are a source of more carbon (roughly 425 teragrams of carbon per year) than an entire year’s worth of US transportation emissions.

You can read the rest @
https://qz.com/1090142/tropical-forests-are-no-longer-a-carbon-sink-emitting-as-much-carbon-per-year-as-all-transit-in-the-us/

Another tenet of the climate change hoax movement bites the dust.

By the way, those guys at Woods Hole sure get a lot of nifty vacation time, don't they? Who paid for this "study", the US taxpayer via some grant?

What's The Point Of This ???

Facial recognition software allegedly can determine your "sexual orientation":

https://www.activistpost.com/2017/09/stanfords-facial-recognition-algorithm-can-determine-sexual-orientation-up-tp-91-accuracy.html

Why? What's the point? Is this a sales gimmick, or just another gross invasion of privacy?

The more I read about "the Internet of Everything", the less I like it. This kind of crap is NOT helpful - it is intimidating and SOCIOCIDAL.

Why Is Antifa Not In Jail ???

Apparently members of Antifa are publicly advocating the overthrow of the US government:

https://www.infowars.com/antifa-plans-civil-war-to-overthrow-the-government/

But instead of going after them, the President is focused on "knee takers" and the FBI and DOJ are going after bribe takers in college sports:

https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2017/09/26/coaches-corruption-fraud-scheme

What kind of nitwits are running our government?

Assange Is Dumber Than I Thought

Julian Assange is making a lose-lose offer to the US:

https://pjmedia.com/video/julian-assange-says-will-provide-evidence-russia-narrative-false-exchange-pardon/

Dear Jules: No one in a position to pardon you wants to hear this, including President Trump. There is adequate evidence available already, and it's free of charge. But for some reason Trump does not seem to care:

http://sainthoward.blogspot.com/2017/09/more-holes-in-russia-gate-narrative.html

No one - I repeat - NO ONE in charge wants the kind of transparency Wikileaks provides. If there is one person whom the powers that be will NEVER pardon, Assange is he.

Thursday, September 28, 2017

The US Should Invade Puerto Rico

Only the US military has the physical assets and the personnel needed to rescue Puerto Rico from the mess left by Hurricane Maria:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/28/554297787/puerto-rico-relief-goods-sit-undistributed-at-ports

Instead, they're out harassing goat herders in Afghanistan and foolishly waving their swords at China, North Korea, and Russia.

If our military cannot protect We The People (and that includes the citizens of Puerto Rico), then it is a colossal waste of money and talent.

US Sanctions Against Russia Have Flopped

Great assessment by Eric Zuesse:

Did U.S. President Barack Obama create the anti-Russia sanctions in order to weaken the EU in its competition against America? If so, the policy has been a huge success - it has enormously damaged the EU’s economy. But, if Russia was the actual target - as Obama claimed - then it’s been a total flop: It has produced $100 billion loss to the EU, thus far - almost twice as much as the $55 billion total hit to Russia, and the hit to Russia might be even less than that, maybe even zero, because the harms to Russia included the harms from the plunging oil-prices, which weren’t at all due to the sanctions. Furthermore, the sanctions strongly helped Russia’s economy, in ways that don’t yet show up in the economic data but that constitute long-delayed reforms whose pay-offs will start only during the years to come. Washington’s economic sanctions against Russia could thus end up producing a net plus for Russia, on a long-term basis.

You can read the rest @
http://thesaker.is/exclusive-news-economic-sanctions-against-russia-flop-the-first-comprehensive-study-of-anti-russia-sanctions-shows-they-hit-eu-much-more-than-russia/

Once again proving that Obama ad-Dajjal is either an idiot or a liar.

What Will Replace The Petrodollar ???

As you know, I previously have pondered why the powers that be in the West apparently are not opposed to the demise of the US petrodollar:

http://sainthoward.blogspot.com/2017/09/demise-of-us-dollar.html

This is a particularly troublesome topic, especially because the BRICS and others are creating a new global financial system of their own to replace the US dollar:

http://sainthoward.blogspot.com/2017/04/brics-are-unveiling-their-version-of.html

Now comes this report by Graham Vanbergen which appears to explain what the Western powers that be are up to - the creation of an INFORMATION-based economy which will eclipse current and future economies which are based mainly on physical assets and commodities:

The oil industry has dominated the global commodity market for a hundred years one way or another. In that time it has also been the cause of considerable geopolitical conflict – hardly surprising when you consider than more than four billion metric tons of oil is shipped worldwide every year. Approximately one third comes from the Middle East. America and Russia account for around 12 percent each of the world’s total oil production annually. There are around 1.7 trillion barrels of oil in known reserves and although Saudi Arabia boasts a global oil reserve of 15.6 percent, Venezuela boasts 17.6 percent. Europe is the world’s largest importer and road transport is the world’s largest consumer. Overall, nearly 100 million barrels of oil are consumed every single day. In 2016, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon and BP had combined overall revenues from oil of around $620 bn.

By contrast Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft are now the most valuable listed firms in the world leaving their energy stock competitors in the dust. Their profits are surging: they collectively racked up over $600bn in revenue last year (and rising) and banked $25bn in net profit in the first quarter of 2017. Amazon now captures half of all dollars spent online in America. Google and Facebook accounted for almost all the revenue growth in digital advertising in America last year. And although Facebook (listed 8th most valuable listed company) is by far the lowest cash generator of this top five, between it and Google, they captured 20 percent of global advertising expenditure. The market cap of Apple, Google and Amazon is now a whisker off $2 trillion, truly eclipsing the aforementioned big three energy corps who boasts a paltry collective value of just $700 billion.

You can read the rest @
http://truepublica.org.uk/global/data-overtakes-oil-leading-geopolitical-global-commodity/

Don't know why I didn't see that before. A data based economy makes perfect sense in a world of growing populations and dwindling physical resources.

By the way, "data dollars" will be kinda like US dollars - they will be printed ad infinitum, with absolutely nothing to back them ... except the military muscle hired by the global bankgangsters and their collaborators in the one percent.

Do We Want AI To Be Our God ???

Here is a report about a former Googler who wants artificial intelligence to be humanity's god:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/28/artificial-intelligence-god-anthony-levandowski

This is more or less exactly what this Bible passage predicts:

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.
Revelation 13:15 KJV

Resist this with every fiber of your being, and DO NOT take the mark.

Toto, We're Not In Kansas Anymore

I don't think Dorothy would recognize her home state. The witches appear to have taken over:

http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/town_talk/2017/sep/27/a-witch-themed-store-opens-in-eastern-la/

G-d and Christianity are being driven out of the US, replaced with paganism and Islam.

Someone please explain to me why we're allegedly fighting our so-called enemies "over there" but completely giving up to them "over here". What kind of strategy is THAT?

Hint: It's a strategy of intentional defeat. Satan is winning, at least for now.

US Is Building Skynet

Here is confirmation of what I have been saying all along:

Service chiefs are converging on a single strategy for military dominance: connect everything to everything.

Leaders of the Air Force, Navy, Army and Marines are converging on a vision of the future military: connecting every asset on the global battlefield.

That means everything from F-35 jets overhead to the destroyers on the sea to the armor of the tanks crawling over the land to the multiplying devices in every troops’ pockets. Every weapon, vehicle, and device connected, sharing data, constantly aware of the presence and state of every other node in a truly global network. The effect: an unimaginably large cephapoloidal nervous system armed with the world’s most sophisticated weaponry.

You can read the rest @
http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2017/09/future-us-military-constructing-giant-armed-nervous-system/141303/

Whether the Pentagon is ignoring the warnings from the "Terminator" movies or using them as a blueprint, the danger is the same. When this system gets out of control (and it will), humanity is at mortal risk. THIS is the extinction level event we should be most concerned with now.

Ironically, our taxes are paying to construct these instruments of our extermination.

And by the way, I doubt this can be stopped. The US military has not really complied with the wishes of We The People or "our" Congress for quite some time. The so-called National Security State is a law unto itself.

Southwest Airlines Blues

Southwest Airlines just send me an email offer with the caption "behind every seat is a story ..."

I wonder if they had this particular story in mind:

https://youtu.be/H1YGg8nYkv0

I'm not sure I'll EVER fly again.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

H-Bomb Hypocrisy

The US conducted LOTS of atmospheric tests of H-bombs, putting the lives of Pacific islanders at risk. You can read about it here:

http://www.mintpressnews.com/us-pacific-h-bomb-testing-forgotten-media-frenzy-north-koreas-new-threat/232514/

But now we're whining that North Korea may do something similar.

I'm tired of hearing that the US is "exceptional". EVERYONE should follow the law, protect the environment, and be respectful of the rights of other peoples.

That includes the US.

By the way, here is what I believe to be the REAL reason the US is threatening Iran and North Korea over the issue of nuclear weapons:

And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
Revelation 17:12-17 KJV

The "ten kings" of these Bible verses are nations which possess nuclear weapons. Currently there are nine of them (US, UK, France, China, Russia, Pakistan, Israel, India, and North Korea). The next nation to possess nuclear weapons will bring the count to ten, and if that happens to be Iran the "fire" of Revelation 17 is certain to burn the Earth.

NEVER forget that it was Zionists who actually created nuclear weapons. Should you doubt that fact, please read The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes.

Is Puerto Rico The New Gaza ???

Puerto Rico is without electricity or safe drinking water. You can read about it here:

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/352529-pentagon-more-than-80-percent-of-puerto-ricos-electric-system

A similar situation exists in Gaza:

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Israeli-mayors-to-US-Help-resolve-Gaza-electricity-water-crisis-503840

Q: Why do Israeli mayors want the US to help the Gazans?

A: Israel created the problem; let THEM fix it ... and we'll take care of Puerto Rico.

Any decent US President would cut off all funding to Israel until they meet their humanitarian responsibilities. I know I would.

Wasting Ammo

U.S. officials are not sure that $702 million spent on ammunition for Afghan forces from 2015 to 2016 was used for its intended purpose, according to a recent Defense Department inspector general’s report.

“Without consistent, timely, and accurate reporting from the ministries, CSTC-A [Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan] cannot account for all ammunition consumed by the ANDSF [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces],” the report reads.

You can read the rest @
https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2017/09/26/report-nearly-a-1-billion-worth-of-ammunition-may-have-been-wasted-in-afghanistan/

If the intended purpose for this ammo was "encouraging democracy", it was a total waste.

If, however, its intended purpose was creating chaos (a much more believable scenario), it was a complete success.

By the way, $702 million would have been a good start towards the rescue of the US citizens in Puerto Rico. But they have no oil or other resources for Uncle Sam to steal, so apparently we're just going to leave them to die.

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Rewarding Another Incompetent CEO

The departing head of Equifax apparently will get a very generous golden parachute:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-09-26/equifax-ceos-parting-gift-18-million-bonus

If it were up to me, I'd just fire his ass.

Quote For The Day - 9/26/2017

"Democracy has become a business plan, with a bottom line for every human activity, every dream, every decency, every hope. The main parliamentary parties are now devoted to the same economic policies - socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor - and the same foreign policy of servility to endless war. This is not democracy. It is to politics what McDonalds is to food."
John Pilger

Robot Farmers Taking Over ???

Humans have been cultivating plants for some 10,000 years and, for much of that time, we’ve used beasts of burden to help tend the fields. Just last century, humans turned from animal strength to machine power, leading to huge leaps in agricultural efficiency and scale. Over the past few years, farms have deployed emerging technologies like drones and autonomous driving systems to make the farmers’ job even less strenuous - but human hands were still needed throughout the process.

Now, researchers at Harper Adams University and agricultural company Precision Decisions have removed humans from the farm entirely in a project called Hands Free Hectare. From planting to tending and harvesting, no human stepped foot on the acre and a half barley farm in rural England. It was all done by robot farmers.

You can read the rest @
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/robot-farmers-harvest-barley/

I assume these robot farmers did this because that's what humans programmed them to do.

But what happens when the robots start programming themselves? Why in the world would they want to keep feeding us?

The Ghost Towns Of Texas

Here is a good photo essay of the oil ghost towns of Texas:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-09-26/the-oil-ghost-towns-of-texas

Whether it's mining or drilling for oil, extractive industries always leave two things when they're finished - mountains of waste and empty dwellings.

Modern man does not "improve" the land; we suck out its lifeblood and then abandon it.

Face ID Vs. Touch ID - Does It Matter ???

Apple's new method for unlocking the iPhone X, called Face ID, certainly raised some eyebrows. Is it secure? Is it necessary? And is really going to be as convenient, if not more so, than unlocking the phone with your fingerprint?

This is perhaps the stickiest sticking point: Touch ID has a proven ability to quickly and conveniently unlock the phone. With the home button completely gone on Apple's most premium phone, you'll be completely reliant on Face ID. Apple thinks you won't miss it one bit.

You can read the rest @
https://www.cnet.com/au/news/iphone-x-face-id-versus-touch-id/

If you think about it, both methods are consistent with this passage in the Bible:

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
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 13:16-17 KJV

So, whether you use your forehead (Face ID) or the finger of your right hand (Touch ID), Apple will ensure that you are "beast-compliant" in the New World Order.

As you may recall, the price of the first Apple computer was $666.66, which also was "beast-compliant":

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
Revelation 13:18 KJV

If these symbols don't really matter, then why do they keep showing up in the Internet of Things?

Monday, September 25, 2017

Quote For The Day - 9/25/2017

"The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles."
Mahatma Gandhi

The Internet's Economic Model

With the new Safari 11 update, Apple takes an important step to protect your privacy, specifically how your browsing habits are tracked and shared with parties other than the sites you visit. In response, Apple is getting criticized by the advertising industry for "destroying the Internet's economic model." While the advertising industry is trying to shift the conversation to what they call the economic model of the Internet, the conversation must instead focus on the indiscriminate tracking of users and the violation of their privacy.

You can read the rest @
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/apple-does-right-users-wrong-advertisers

That model seems based on two premises:

  1. Anything can be turned into a commodity, and
  2. Corporations have the right to steal those commodities and sell them to whomever they wish without compensating the victims of their thefts.

Screw the Internet. I would happily give it up if it meant that Apple-Facebook-Google-Microsoft-CIA-FBI-NSA could no longer meddle with our lives.

What do you think?

Demise Of The US Dollar ???

The significance of the shift taking place on a geo-political basis to unseat the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency cannot be understated. It is, by all means, a complete upending of the financial and economic systems as we have come to know them. According to Keith Neumeyer, the Chairman of First Mining Finance and Chief Executive Officer of First Majestic Silver, the world’s purest silver producing mining company, the move is already taking place with countries like China, Russia, Venezuela and Iran already beginning to trade commodities with Yuan, Rubles and gold.

You can read the rest @
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/the-demise-of-the-dollar-as-we-know-it-a-break-is-coming-on-a-worldwide-basis_09242017

I have been wondering why the powers that be in the US are supporting policies which will lead to the collapse of our currency. Chief example of these policies is their support for the curtailment of the use of fossil fuels. Since the existence of the petrodollar is the main (if not the only) reason the US Treasury is still solvent, why destroy the oil-dollar linkage?

But the answer has been staring us in the face all along - they want a GLOBAL CURRENCY, and they no longer want that currency to be the dollar. Thus, destroying the oil-dollar linkage serves two purposes:

  1. It facilitates the creation of a new global currency, and
  2. It destroys whatever remains of the economy of the US.

Since the powers that be are neither patriots nor in any way beholden to the US itself, they're gonna be really happy when the shit hits this particular fan.

The rest of us ... not so happy.

US Working With ISIS In Syria

According to these Russian photos, the US and ISIS are ALLIES in the fight to overthrow the Syrian government:

http://www.mintpressnews.com/russia-releases-photos-showing-us-special-ops-at-isis-positions-in-syria/232432/

As I have suggested before, the only enemies we have are the ones we create for ourselves ... or that Israel creates on our behalf.

Stop these phony wars. If Israel won't comply, the US should bomb them instead.

Taking A Knee Violates NFL Rules

Once again, Trump is right ... but the powers that be do not seem to care:

The NFL rule book specifically requires both teams appear on the field for the playing of the anthem, standing, remaining quiet, and holding their helmets in their left hands. Failure to do so can result in fines, suspensions, and the loss of draft picks. 

The rules are found on pages A62-63 of the league’s game operations manual:

The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem.

During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.

You can read the rest @
https://news.grabien.com/story-roger-goodell-ignoring-leagues-own-rule-book-letting-players

Fire them, and fire Goodell, too. Exactly what does he do to deserve a salary that high?

I don't watch football anymore, and considering what is going on in the NFL I'm not likely to start any time soon. I don't find stupidity to be entertaining.

Sunday, September 24, 2017

The Impact Of Sovereign Debt



It looks like China and Russia are in great shape, no?

Cancelling Free Speech Week

According to this report, Berkeley has cancelled "free speech week":

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/09/23/uc-berkeley-free-speech-week-officially-canceled/

This is truly amazing. Shouldn't "free speech" be something engaged in all the time at our colleges and universities?

We are well into a new dark age, and it's being driven by forces which falsely claim to be enlightening us.

And that folks is how Satan works.

Facebook's Deals With The Devil

Here is a great assessment of Facebook in Forbes by Elizabeth MacBride:

The ad business has always been about making a fraught deal with our own self-destructive demons. But at least we had some power in those complicated negotiations. We could see what was happening, and we were in what we all knew was a game, together.

Then we turned over the negotiations to Facebook’s algorithms. "No surprise that as our attention has shifted to internet that we have sold our souls ... we think for free ... to FB and Google," said Bill Meehan, a McKinsey director emeritus and lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

On our behalf, Facebook has been perfectly willing to deal with any devil at all.

You can read the rest @
https://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethmacbride/2017/09/24/dark-posts-and-facebooks-deals-with-the-devil/#31ce9f333511

No deals made with the Devil are going to benefit humanity. Facebook is building digital monuments to Mark Zuckerberg's ego, and we have yet to see any benefit from his promised "philanthropy".

Facebook allegedly is a "social" platform, right? Then how come they haven't asked the public how Mark should be spending the money he stole earned from us by selling our private data?

For another dark take on Zuckerberg's shenanigans, I suggest you read this revealing op-ed by Maureen Dowd:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/23/opinion/sunday/facebook-zuckerberg-dowd.html

Saturday, September 23, 2017

Ken Burns' Vietnam Extravaganza

John Pilger doesn't think highly of Ken Burns' new series about the Vietnam War. Here is his assessment:

I watched the first episode in New York. It leaves you in no doubt of its intentions right from the start. The narrator says the war “was begun in good faith by decent people out of fateful misunderstandings, American overconfidence and Cold War misunderstandings”.

The dishonesty of this statement is not surprising. The cynical fabrication of “false flags” that led to the invasion of Vietnam is a matter of record – the Gulf of Tonkin “incident” in 1964, which Burns promotes as true, was just one. The lies litter a multitude of official documents, notably the Pentagon Papers, which the great whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg released in 1971.

There was no good faith. The faith was rotten and cancerous. For me – as it must be for many Americans -- it is difficult to watch the film’s jumble of “red peril” maps, unexplained interviewees, ineptly cut archive and maudlin American battlefield sequences.

You can read the rest @
http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-killing-of-history

I tend to agree with Pilger. The Vietnam War was a cynical lie from start to finish. That so many of us still believe that lie is amazing, and if Burns supports it then I will be crossing him off my list of must watch documentarians.

Israel's Population Bomb

According to this report, Israel's population is getting too large for their existing land and resources to support:

http://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report/Racing-toward-disaster-Israels-unsustainable-population-bomb-504249

Q: Could this be one of the chief reasons they are promoting wars in the region which depopulate neighboring countries ... to provide lebensraum and resources for a burgeoning Israeli population?

A: You can bet your sweet bippy on that one, regardless of what Valerie Plame says or doesn't say.

By the way, how could a (former?) CIA agent NOT know who is behind all the wars in the Middle East?

Tyrants 'R' Us

According to Freedom House's rating system of political rights around the world, there were 49 nations in the world, as of 2015, that can be fairly categorized as "dictatorships." As of fiscal year 2015, the last year for which we have publicly available data, the federal government of the United States had been providing military assistance to 36 of them, courtesy of your tax dollars. The United States currently supports over 73 percent of the world's dictatorships!

You can read the rest @
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/42020-us-provides-military-assistance-to-73-percent-of-world-s-dictatorships

And that's just the ones we know about. I suspect that "black" funds and other off-the-books sources may support even MORE dictatorships and drug/weapons cartels.

We are not a decent country anymore. Not by a long shot.

The Real Lesson Of Election Hacking

According to DHS, several state election systems have been "hacked". You can read about it here:

https://www.apnews.com/cb8a753a9b0948589cc372a3c037a567/Federal-government-notifies-21-states-of-election-hacking

What we SHOULD be learning from this, the Equifax hack, and the general shenanigans of Facebook and Google is that the Internet is not and never will be a place where one can expect either security or privacy.

Let's dismantle the Internet and go back to paper ballots, sound currency, and banking which benefits We The People instead of the rich.

If we don't, I can promise you that "the Internet of Everything" is going to be a complete disaster for the common person and our traditional institutions.

Friday, September 22, 2017

John McCain's Conscience

Senator John McCain said the following today:

“I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal."

You can read all about it here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/us/politics/mccain-graham-cassidy-health-care.html

REALLY ???

Here are some of the things John's conscience apparently has no problem with:

  • Bombing the peasants of Vietnam;
  • Collaborating with the North Vietnamese while at the Hanoi Hilton;
  • Accepting inappropriate gifts from Lincoln Savings and Loan (returned only after he got caught);
  • Consorting with terrorists in Iraq and Syria;
  • Sabotaging Obama's presidency; and
  • Sabotaging Trump's presidency.

This is a very sick man, and I'm not referring to his cancer. He is mentally unstable, and his actions while in the military and while serving in the US Congress border on treason.

Dear John: I don't know what you mean by "in good conscience" ... and apparently neither do you.

Another Bloodbath On The Way ???

President Donald Trump is reportedly gearing up to roll back even the most limited restrictions on U.S. drone operations overseas, further opening the door for the expansion of airstrikes and commando raids into nations like the Philippines and Nigeria and setting the stage for an upsurge in civilian casualties - already at record highs in Afghanistan and soaring in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

You can read the rest @
http://theantimedia.org/blank-check-kill-impunity-trump-scrap-drone-restrictions/

Will our thirst for blood ever be slaked?

Moral Lesson For Today - 9/22/2017

Any white cop can kill a black man at any time, and the cop will not go to jail.

Source - https://dissidentvoice.org/2017/09/any-white-cop-can-kill-a-black-man-at-any-time/

Using HIPAA To Circumvent Habeas Corpus

... activist attorney Andy Ostrowski was taken into custody by the Wilkes-Barre, PA police department on September 19, for a forced mental health evaluation. Ostrowski was reached later that afternoon at General Hospital in Wilkes-Barre, where he asserted he was being held as a political prisoner.

Ostrowski, a radio talk show host and civil rights advocate, also made a run for Congress in 2014.

Per hospital protocol, Ostrowski was subsequently transferred to another facility. And now, no one can say where he is.

You can read the rest @
https://www.activistpost.com/2017/09/how-to-disappear-an-activist-where-is-andy-ostrowski.html

If you recall, this used to happen in the former Soviet Union and in Nazi Germany.

How far we have fallen, and I don't think we've reached bottom yet.

US To Strip Mine Afghanistan ???

Well, at least now we know we're not there just to protect the opium harvest:

US To Extract Minerals From Afghanistan To ‘Defray Cost Of US Assistance’

The U.S. military has had its eyes on Afghan mineral deposits for some time. A 2007 Pentagon memo that the New York Times quoted in a 2010 article says that Afghanistan could be the “Saudi Arabia of lithium.”

You can read the rest @
https://www.mintpressnews.com/us-to-extract-minerals-from-afghanistan-to-defray-cost-of-us-assistance/232333/

This should sound familiar - it's exactly what we did to the American Indians. We stole their lands, killed them when they resisted, and then imprisoned the survivors on "reservations" when they refused to "assimilate" (i.e., die out).

If you were an undeveloped country, whose help would you want - the US, or the BRICS?

Salt Lake's Disappearing Homeless

The streets around Salt Lake City’s downtown emergency shelter have long been home to hundreds of homeless people. In recent weeks, though, nearly all seem to have vanished following a police operation. Local residents are mystified as to where they’ve gone.

The Salt Lake City police chief, Mike Brown, said he had visited parks and the Jordan river, which threads its way to the Great Salt Lake and has homeless camps dotted along its banks, but he hadn’t seen an influx from downtown. Sgt Brandon Shearer has been up in a police helicopter looking for camps and seemed equally perplexed when asked where the people had gone. “I don’t know,” he said. “That’s a good question.”

You can read the rest @
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/22/salt-lake-city-homeless-people-missing

I would check the local landfills and dumpsters. All those bodies had to be disposed of somewhere.

If you think the people of Utah would not do such a thing, please read this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_massacre

Is SOS Tillerson An Idiot ???

In comments that may provide some insight into the Trump Administration position on Iran, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson conceded that “no one” disagreed with Iran being in compliance with the P5+1 nuclear deal. He insisted, however, that this compliance was only “technically” compliance.

This led to talk of Iran violating the “spirit” of the deal, even though they are complying with all the actual written terms of the deal. Tillerson suggested that the expectation was that the deal would “remove” Iran as a threat in the eyes of the US.

You can read the rest @
http://news.antiwar.com/2017/09/21/tillerson-iran-technically-complying-with-nuclear-deal/

Dear Rex: If they're in compliance with the deal, then shut up. If you don't like what they're doing in Syria, then stop all the US meddling in the Middle East.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Why Democracy Isn't Working In India

Here is an insightful essay by Jayant Bhandari:

I have attempted to show that now that since the British left 70 years ago, Indian institutions have continued to fray, degenerate, degrade, and fall apart. The British left a robust judiciary, a university system, and parliament in place. Except for their facades, all these institutions are now soulless shells, something that politically correct intellectuals at the IMF, the World Bank, etc., completely fail to see.

The math is very simple: If Western institutions are to be imposed on India, such institutions must be run by Westerners as well. The corollary is also very simple: Without the British running India, India cannot continue to exist the way the British left it.

You can read the rest @
http://www.acting-man.com/?p=51383

A similar situation exists in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc. We cannot force democracy on anyone anymore, not even immigrants to our own country.

And our failure to recognize this is causing us to waste trillions of dollars on a fool's errand.

By the way, what Bhandari is saying about India is quite similar to what I wrote about the US cargo cult:

https://dissidentvoice.org/2013/04/america-the-cargo-cult/

More Holes In Russia-gate Narrative

This report more or less proves the so-called Russian "hack" of the DNC servers was actually a data transfer done locally (i.e., it was a leak and not a hack):

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47866.htm

Q: Why won't anyone do what Binney and McGovern suggest in the report - get the NSA to analyze their record(s) of the transfer?

A: Why indeed. At the very least, Trump should be an interested party. His failure to act on this suggests one of two things:

  1. His staff has isolated him from the facts; or
  2. He himself is part of this scam.
Possibility 1. is quite believable, while possibility 2. is downright frightening.

Yet Another War On Terror Success Story

Modesto parents are upset that their 5-year-old son's "pretend play" resulted in him being suspended from school, and said they want the disciplinary action removed from his permanent record.

Jackson Riley attends the Great Valley Academy public charter school in Modesto and was suspended for a day for making terrorist threats, TV station Fox 40 reported.

The incident occurred Aug. 31, Jackson's father, Ian Riley, told The Bee. He got a call from the school saying the kindergartner had refused to take off his backpack and, when asked why, said there was a bomb in it that would explode if he did so.

You can read the rest @
http://www.modbee.com/latest-news/article174321526.html

US movies, TV shows, and video games pump this kind of fantasy into our kids' heads on a nearly continual basis. And yet we think a 5 year old can tell the difference between play and reality?

Way to go, Modesto. Never forget, never forgive.

USA, USA, USA !!!

The Myths Of Kim Jong-un

Here are the latest "revelations" of a so-called North Korean defector:

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/north-korean-defector-details-horrific-government-murders-and-sex-slavery-under-kim-jong-un_09212017

Do these perhaps remind you of similar revelations which turned out to be false?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1994/02/26/the-kuwaiti-incubator-hoax/35b1e882-f796-4acb-a106-9280a7dda521/?utm_term=.5d7958195874

And lets also not forget that Bill Clinton may have used the services of some "sex slaves":

http://nypost.com/2016/10/09/the-sex-slave-scandal-that-exposed-pedophile-billionaire-jeffrey-epstein/

... and that more than one president has blown apart innocent people in the Middle East:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/oct/15/90-of-people-killed-by-us-drone-strikes-in-afghani/

Face it ... our tyrants are just as bad as theirs.

The Rods From God

Will the US use a space-based kinetic weapon to assassinate Kim Jong-un? You can read about it here:

https://www.activistpost.com/2017/09/us-defense-secretary-jim-mattis-weighs-using-kinetic-weapon-north-korea.html

I thought we had agreed to not weaponize space. Whatever happened to THAT commitment?

Living In Another World ???

Take a look at this story in The Jerusalem Post:

http://www.jpost.com/International/The-year-that-wasnt-Top-10-stories-of-5777-that-didnt-happen-505563

The thing I find most remarkable about it is that Israel lives by its own calendar (i.e., in Israel it's 5777, not 2017).

The rest of the world appears to adhere to the Julian/Gregorian calendar, but not Israel. They live in their own little world, from which they frequently reach out to mess with the rest of us, and to collect the tribute they extort from us.

But this is not apartheid or exceptionalism.

Of course not.

I Don't Believe Anything Facebook Says

Please read (or at least glance at) this Facebook apology piece:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/20/facebook-jew-haters-ad-targeting-sheryl-sandberg

I don't think Ms. Sandberg's explanation is credible.

Here's what I think may be happening:

  • Facebook monitors the Internet for "hate groups" and sells their information to the US government, Israel, and any interested intelligence services; and
  • At the same time, they use what they have gleaned to generate some "advertising" income.

Killing two birds with one stone, in a MOST self-serving and cynical way.

And you want Zuckerberg to be your president? You MUST be joking !!!

Censorship In The US

In the US, the drive for Internet censorship has been spearheaded by the so-called “liberal” wing of the political establishment, concentrated in the Democratic Party, whose chief media organ is the New York Times. On the eve of the UN assembly, the Times published an unambiguous brief for censorship of the Internet in the form of an op-ed column by the ambassador to the UN under Barack Obama, Samantha Power.

Under the headline “Why Foreign Propaganda Is More Dangerous Now,” and on the pretext of combating Russian disinformation and subversion, Power calls for the use of “professional gatekeepers” to police public discourse on the Internet.

Power, a leading proponent of “human rights” imperialism, looks back nostalgically at the Cold War as a golden age of news dissemination, when “most Americans received their news and information via mediated platforms.” She continues: “Reporters and editors serving in the role of professional gatekeepers had almost full control over what appeared in the media. A foreign adversary seeking to reach American audiences did not have great options for bypassing these umpires, and Russian disinformation rarely penetrated.”

You can read the rest @
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/09/21/pers-s21.html

During the aforementioned "Cold War", I used to listen to and compare Radio Moscow and the Voice of America. It quickly became obvious that both usually were discussing the same facts, and that the biggest difference between the two was the spin they put on those facts.

Today, however, East and West appear to be peddling totally different sets of "facts". The only tool we have to determine which set to believe is the Internet, and I think that is why the US government is trying so hard to discredit it.