Tuesday - December 30, 2014 - Today in History:

1853 - The United States bought about 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase.
1919 - Lincoln's Inn, in London, admitted the first female bar student.
1922 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formed.
1935 - Italian bombers destroyed a Swedish Red Cross unit in Ethiopia.
1936 - The United Auto Workers union staged its first sit-down strike, at the Fisher Body Plant in Flint, MI.
1940 - California's first freeway was officially opened. It was the Arroyo Seco Parkway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena.
1953 - The first color TV sets went on sale for about $1,175.
1972 - The United States halted its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.
1993 - Israel and the Vatican established diplomatic relations.
1996 - About 250,000 striking workers shut down vital services across Israel in protests against budget cuts proposed by Prime Minister Netanyahu.
1997 - More than 400 people were massacred in four villages in the single worst incident during Algeria's insurgency.
2006 - Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was hanged.
2010 - Top-ranked Connecticut's record 90-game winning streak in women's basketball ended with a 71-59 loss to No. 9 Stanford.

World News

AirAsia plane wreckage found, bodies being recovered (VIDEO)
RT - Over 40 bodies have been recovered from the missing AirAsia flight, the Indonesian Navy said. Objects resembling parts of the plane, as well as what was thought to be the plane’s outline underwater, were seen in the search area.

Afghan ‘kill list’ leak: NATO risked civilian lives by targeting low-level Taliban fighters
RT - Besides targeting top Taliban leaders, NATO forces in Afghanistan included low-ranking fighters and drug dealers on their list of “legitimate” targets, risking civilian lives in a wider airstrike campaign, Der Spiegel reported, citing Snowden archives.

US Military Stockpiling "Massive Amounts" Of Gear Near Iraq
Zero Hedge - Since June, the U.S. military has been slowly stockpiling massive amounts of its gear coming out of Afghanistan at a depot in Kuwait adjacent to a bustling commercial port, in preparation for ultimately shipping it across the border into Iraq for an allied offensive against the Islamic State group, US News reports. Air Force Maj. Gen. Rowayne “Wayne” Schatz admitted, "from June to December, we’ve worked a lot on moving items into Kuwait," including 3,100 vehicles, most of them MRAPs.

U.S. coalition launches 18 air strikes against Islamic State: task force
(Reuters) - The U.S.-led coalition launched 18 air strikes against Islamic State on Monday, including 12 in Syria and six in Iraq, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement. In Syria, the strikes hit near the border town of Kobani as well as Raqqa and Day az Zawr. In Iraq, the strikes hit near Mosul, Sinjar and Asad, according to the statement.

Ditching US dollar: China, Russia launch financial tools in local currencies
RT - China and Russia have effectively switched to domestic currencies in trading using financial tools as swaps and forwards, as they seek to reduce the influence of the US dollar and foreign exchange risks. The agreement signed in the end of October comes into force Monday, December 29, and provides a currency swap of CNY150 billion (up to US$25 billion).

Disappeared AirAsia Plane Likely "At Bottom Of Sea"; No Signal Detected
Zero Hedge - One would have thought that more than half a year after the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia flight MH-370 airlines would have taken precautions to keep track of airplanes at any given moment. One would be wrong, and as the latest mystery surrounding AirAsia's missing jet deepens, it has become clear that like with its Malaysian predecessor, nobody has any clue where the plane may be, so the speculation begins.

AirAsia CEO Dumped Shares Days Before Flight Disappeared
Paul Joseph Watson - AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes dumped 944,800 shares in Tune Insurance Holdings Bhd, the organization that provides travel insurance for AirAsia passengers, just days before the disappearance of Flight QZ8501.
* Related: Did Mysterious Chinese Blogger Predict Disappearance of AirAsia Flight?

Company Using Faulty Radiation Detectors Sees 71% Profit Increase
Natural Society - TEPCO claims that its soaring profits in 2014 are due to increased electric fees. But how is it justifiable that the same company which used radiation detectors that gave low readings in order to lie about the true levels of contamination at Daiichi should be nearly doubling its profits as they continue to pollute the world with radioactive waste?

Ebola news

Number of Ebola Cases in West Africa Exceeds 20,000: WHO
Sputnik News - The total number of Ebola cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone has increased by 386 during the last three days and surpassed 20,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday.

Scottish Government Confirms Ebola Diagnosed In Glasgow Patient
Zero Hedge - After Japan's stock market slid overnight following reports of Ebola in Tokyo, one wonders what a recurrence of Ebola headlines will do to risk complacency this time? Perhaps, since the Ebola Tzar's work is done in America, they can lend him out to The Scots?

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Obama Claims Illegal Immigrants Don’t Burden Taxpayers
Breitbart - President Barack Obama claimed that illegal immigrants do not burden taxpayers and are not a drain on public resources. In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR), Obama also slammed and dismissed those who are concerned about the negative impact that illegal immigration often has on American workers (U.S.-born and legal immigrants) as “nativists.”

Kidnappings Near Texas Border Prompt US Warning
Breitbart - A series of kidnappings in the Mexican border city of Matamoros prompted the U.S. Department of State to issue a security warning to American travelers. The short message states that the U.S. Consulate in Matamoros learned of several “express kidnappings” in the Jardin neighborhood which is the same area where their offices are located.

NYPD commissioner: Officers turning backs on mayor at funeral ‘very inappropriate’
RT - New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton criticized the officers under his command for protesting a perceived lack of support from New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. He also defended the NYPD to city residents rallying against police brutality. After the August death of Eric Garner ‒ who died when he was placed in a banned chokehold by NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo ‒ and several other high-profile police brutality incidents and officer-involved shootings, city residents haveprotested the use of force by police officers throughout the Big Apple.

Autopsy reveals LAPD shot unarmed black man Ezell Ford in back, side, arm
RT - An autopsy into the killing of a 25-year-old unarmed mentally ill black man during a scuffle with LAPD officers earlier this year has revealed that Ezell Ford was shot three times at close range, with two wounds being fatal.

Michigan Governor Signs Bill Requiring Drug Testing Of Welfare Recipients
Blacklisted News - The Senate and House bills, which were signed into law Friday, will create a yearlong pilot program in three counties that will screen welfare recipients and applicants to determine whether or not they’re suspected of using drugs.

California Activists Want Sexual Consent Taught to Kindergartners
Patriot Rising - Aiming to address the “rape culture” pervasive at college campuses across the country, a student activist group has proposed teaching children as young as five about sexual consent. An organization called Take Back The Campus, made up of students from three California colleges, has released a list of demands it says will help curb the incidence of campus sexual assaults.

Economy & Business

Gold Held In NY Fed Vault Drops To Lowest In 21st Century After Biggest Monthly Withdrawal Since 2001
Zero Hedge - In November some 47.1 tons of gold were withdrawn from the NY Fed, bringing the Fed's total earmarked gold to just 6,029 tonnes: the biggest single monthly outflow going back to the turn of the century. This is also the lowest amount of gold held at the NY Fed in the 21st century.

The American People Are Utterly Clueless About What Is Going To Happen As We Enter 2015
Economic Collapse - The American people are feeling really good right about now. For example, Gallup’s economic confidence index has hit the highest level that we have seen since the last recession. In addition, nearly half of all Americans believe that 2015 will be a better year than 2014 was, and only about 10 percent believe that it will be a worse year.

Twenty states will raise their minimum wage on Jan. 1
Washington Post - In nine states, the hike will be automatic, an adjustment made to keep the minimum wage in line with rising inflation.

Federal Judge Blocks Minimum-Wage Protections for Home Care Workers
AllGov - The Obama administration sought to expand protections provided under the 1974 Fair Labor Standards Act (pdf) (FLSA), which included an exemption for home care workers who provide “care and fellowship” to their clients. Congress was unwilling to amend the FLSA to provide minimum wages to those workers, so the Labor Department attempted to do it by way of a regulation.

Veteran News

Deputy Guns Down Decorated Army Sergeant After Responding to Medical Emergency
Mikael Thalen - A Utah sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a 28-year-old Army sergeant this weekend while responding to a medical emergency call. According to Tooele County Sheriff Frank Park, police were called to Purple Heart recipient Nicholas McGehee’s home early Sunday morning after the Iraq war veteran cut his foot on a piece of broken glass.

Obama's Golf Game Disrupts Soldiers' Wedding
Zero Hedge - Natalie Heimel and her fiancé, Edward Mallue Jr., a pair of captains in the Army, received two letters from President Obama in less than 24 hours as they prepared for their wedding ceremony at Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course in Hawaii. The first, a nicely worded regretful but congratulatory RSVP to their wedding invite... and the second, as Bloomberg reports, informing them that their wedding would have to be moved since President Obama wanted to play through.

Scientist terrified of geoengineering technology being developed under guise of halting global warming
(NaturalNews) Dr. Matthew Watson from Bristol University in the UK told the media recently that he's "terrified" by many of the geoengineering projects currently in the works to thwart man-made climate change, which is still being hawked by many in mainstream science as a threat to humanity.

Colorado locks down water supply, promising "not a drop more" to California
(NaturalNews) Recent storms dropped torrential rains across much of California, causing flooding and mudslides across many areas, leaving some residents homeless and killing at least two people. There was even a tornado in Los Angeles. Despite record rainfall on December 10 of between 1.54 inches at Long Beach Airport and 2.36 inches in Oxnard, the amount of rain that fell was a mere drop in the bucket for this drought-stricken state. A milder storm December 12 added to the rainfall total.

---

Monday - December 29, 2014 - Today in History:

1812 - The USS Constitution won a battle with the British ship HMS Java about 30 miles off the coast of Brazil. Before Commodore William Bainbridge ordered the sinking of the Java he had her wheel removed to replace the one the Constitution had lost during the battle.
1813 - The British burned Buffalo, NY, during the War of 1812.
1837 - Canadian militiamen destroyed the Caroline, a U.S. steamboat docked at Buffalo, NY.
1845 - U.S. President James Polk and signed legislation making Texas the 28th state of the United States.
1890 - The U.S. Seventh Cavalry massacred over 400 men, women and children at Wounded Knee Creek, SD. This was the last major conflict between Indians and U.S. troops.
1934 - Japan renounced the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
1940 - During World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.
1972 - Following 36 years of publication, the last weekly issue of "LIFE" magazine hit the newsstands. The magazine later became a monthly publication.
1975 - A bomb exploded in the main terminal of New York's LaGuardia Airport. 11 people were killed.
1996 - The Guatemalan government and leaders of the leftist Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union signed a peace accord in Guatemala City, ending a civil war that had lasted 36 years.
1997 - Hong Kong began killing 1.25 million chickens, the entire population, for fear of the spread of 'bird flu'.
1998 - Khmer Rouge leaders apologized for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed 1 million lives.

World News

CBR launches SWIFT alternative for domestic payments
RT - The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has launched a new SWIFT-style payment service aimed at moving away from Western financial dominance. The system is already operating, and will be fully functional within six months.

Russia-n SWIFT, BRICS Bank, China defends ruble: Revolt has begun. Independence from West’s global financial slavery, blackmail at hand
Investmentwatchblog.com - The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has launched a new SWIFT-style payment service aimed at moving away from Western financial dominance. The system is already operating, and will be fully functional within six months.
“The new service was launched in order to ensure smooth and safe transmission of financial messaging within the country, and is another step towards improving the system of services provided by the Bank of Russia,” said the bank statement Friday.
The regulator said the new service will allow credit institutions to transmit messages in a SWIFT format through CBR to all Russia’s regions without restrictions.

Russia says to supply coal, electricity to Ukraine
(Reuters) - Russia has agreed on a new deal to supply coal and electricity to Ukraine, which is struggling with a lack of raw fuel for power plants due to a separatist conflict in the industrial east, Russian officials said on Saturday. The move comes a day after Kiev said it would suspend train and bus services to Crimea, effectively creating a transportation blockade to and from the region annexed by Moscow in March this year. Kiev has briefly cut off electricity to Crimea before.

Airstrikes against Islamic State top $1bn, kill over 1,100 people
RT - US and coalition airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria have killed nearly 1,200 people ‒ including 52 civilians ‒ and wounded at least 800 others at a cost of more than $1 billion since the bombings began in September.

US Armed Rebels Gave TOW missiles to Al Qaeda
NEO - US supplied TOW anti-tank missiles have ended up in the hands of Jabhat Al Nusra, Syria’s branch of Al Qaeda. The US provided the missiles to CIA vetted Syrian rebel faction Harakat Hazm in May. A video posted by Al Nusra shows the weapons being used to take over Syrian military bases, Wadi Deif and Hamidiyeh in Idlib province.

More stable & prosperous than ever'? NATO officially ends 13-yr mission to Afghanistan
RT - After over 13 years, the US and NATO have formally ended their war in Afghanistan. As the Taliban expands its power in the region, fears are growing over whether Afghan forces will be able to maintain security…The symbolic ceremony marking the end of ISAF was held under tight security and was closed due to a high terror threat.

Search for missing AirAsia flight halted till morning as relatives gather at airport
RT - Anxious family members of the missing AirAsia flight have gathered at the airport in Surabaya to await news of their loved ones. Meanwhile, air search for the missing plane has been suspended for the night as darkness fell…The passenger jet, carrying 162 people, went missing during a flight between Indonesia and Singapore on Sunday morning after losing contact with air traffic control at 7:24am. Before disappearing, the pilot had asked for permission to deviate from the flight path due to storm clouds, said the Malaysian based airliner. Live Updates

Ukraine's Largest Nuclear Power Plant Suffers 2nd Emergency Shutdown In 3 Weeks
Zero Hedge - Following a reported "minor" accident three weeks ago, Ukraine's Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest and the 5th biggest in the world, was shutdown. The 'glitch' it appears has reoccurred as RT reports, one of the reactors at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant has automatically shut down. Causes are still being investigated.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Western Nebraska Law Enforcement Cheers Colorado Pot Lawsuit
Denver.cbslocal.com - Some western Nebraska law enforcement officials are cheering a new state lawsuit that seeks to thwart Colorado’s legalization of marijuana, even as Colorado vows to fight it in court.

Another Fabricated Jobs Report
Paul Craig Roberts - Friday’s payroll jobs report is another government fairy tale or, to avoid polite euphemisms, another packet of lies just like the House of Representatives Resolution against Russia and every other statement that comes out of Washington.

The Lawless Manipulation of Bullion Markets by Public Authorities
Paul Craig Roberts and Dave Kranzler - The Federal Reserve and its bullion bank agents are actively using uncovered futures contracts to illegally manipulate the prices of precious metals in order to keep interest rates below the market rate. The purpose of manipulation is to support the U.S. dollar’s reserve status at a time when the dollar should be in decline from the over-supply created by QE and from trade and budget deficits.

The Destruction Of The Middle Class Is Nearing The Final Stages
Infowars.com - The events of the past few months seem astounding when taken in all at once. The plan to destroy the U.S. dollar and the American middle class is moving at an ever increasing speed.

Congress to face issue of cops' militarization
WND - According to a Buzzfeed report online, Paul’s staff members said he will reintroduce a bill that “goes after the federal programs that send military-grade equipment to local police departments.” “Paul will be trying to force a Republican-controlled Senate to examine federal programs that funnel millions in grant money and surplus to arm local police forces with weapons and vehicles designed for the battlefield,” the report said.

1000s take to streets across US protesting police brutality
RT - A wave of peaceful protests, aimed at denouncing police violence, swept across the US on Saturday, with the number of protesters peaking in Los Angeles, where there were over 5,000 in the “Millions March for First Amendment Rights.”

Supreme Court Rules Police Can Violate The 4th Amendment (If They Are Ignorant Of The Law)
Zero Hedge - In a blow to the constitutional rights of citizens, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in Heien v. State of North Carolina that police officers are permitted to violate American citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights if the violation results from a “reasonable” mistake about the law on the part of police. “By refusing to hold police accountable to knowing and abiding by the rule of law, the Supreme Court has given government officials a green light to routinely violate the law,”

Election News

Bush-Clinton Dynasty Dominates Presidential Poll
Kurt Nimmo - Americans more interested in brand name than political change. If the 2016 presidential election was held today, Jeb Bush would square off against Hillary Clinton. At least, that’s what a CNN poll states.

Economy & Business

Civil Asset Forfeiture: The Final Stage Of Collapse Of Empire
Zero Hedge - This is the final stage of the collapse of the Roman Empire. When the state runs out of money, it historically attacks the people. In Rome, whole armies began sacking their own cities to get paid. The police are doing just that. Whatever they can confiscate goes to funding their own pensions. This is a national problem that will only get much worse going into 2020. We have nobody in Washington representing the people any more.

Billionaire Warns Of Massive Crash That Will Wipe Out America’s Colleges: “You’re Going To See A Repeat Of What We Saw In The Housing Market”
Mac Slavo - For years the federal government has been subsidizing loans, much like they did with houses ahead of the 2008 crash. This has led to increased tuition costs and lending to individuals who will more than likely never be able to pay back their student loans. The end result, according to Mark Cuban, will be a bursting of the debt bubble, a significant drop in college tuitions, and an outright collapse of America’s institution of higher learning...

The 2.6 Billion Dollar Welfare Payment That The U.S. Government Gives To Wal-Mart
Economic Collapse - Should the federal government be spending billions of dollars to pump up Wal-Mart’s profits? I know that question sounds really bizarre, but unfortunately this is essentially what is happening. Because Wal-Mart does not pay them enough money, hundreds of thousands of Wal-Mart employees enroll in Medicaid, food stamps and other social welfare programs. Even though Wal-Mart makes enormous profits, they refuse to properly take care of their employees so the federal government has to do it.

Does Your Pet Lick and Cough Incessantly? It Could Mean This...
Dr. Becker - These behaviors (plus 6 more) are hints that your pet may have this painful disease... linked to a number of causes, including anesthesia, vomiting, and cancer. Get the lowdown now, so you know what to do if you see these symptoms.
 

---

Wednesday - December 24, 2014 - Today in History:


Wishing all of our listeners a very Merry Christmas.  The Power Hour will return LIVE Monday, DEC. 29, 2014.

 

---

Tuesday - December 23, 2014 - Today in History:

1783 - George Washington returned home to Mount Vernon after the disbanding of his army following the Revolutionary War.
1788 - Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the seat of the national government. About two-thirds of the area became the District of Columbia.
1888 - Following a quarrel with Paul Gauguin, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh cut off part of his own earlobe.
1913 - The Federal Reserve Bill was signed into law by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. The act established 12 Federal Reserve Banks.
1919 - The first ship designed to be used as an ambulance for the transport patients was launched. The hospital ship was named USS Relief with 515 beds.
1922 - The British Broadcasting Corporation began daily news broadcasts.
1941 - During World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese.
1942 - Bob Hope agreed to entertain U.S. airmen in Alaska. It was the first of the traditional Christmas shows.
1968 - Eighty-two crewmembers of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.
1987 - Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, serving a life sentence for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ford in 1975, escaped from the Alderson Federal Prison for Women in West Virginia. She was recaptured two days later.
1997 - Terry Nichols was convicted by a Denver jury on charges of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the 1995 federal building bombing in Oklahoma City. The bomb killed 168 people.
1998 - Guerrillas in south Lebanon fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel.
2003 - The government announced the first suspected case of mad cow disease in United States.
2004 - Former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland pleaded guilty to a corruption charge. (He served 10 months in prison.)
2009 - The parents who pulled the "balloon boy" hoax in hopes of landing a reality TV show, were sentenced to jail by a judge in Fort Collins, Colo.

World News

Russia to probe media reports that Ukraine military shot down MH17
RT - Russia’s Investigative Committee is to investigate a Russian newspaper report alleging that a Ukrainian military jet shot down Malaysian Airlines passenger plane MH17 over the rebel-held eastern part of the country last summer.

Ukrainian Combat Jet Returned Without Missiles After MH17 Crash: Reports
Sputnik - A Ukrainian air force Su-25 combat jet took off from an airbase in eastern Dnipropetrovsk carrying air-to-air missiles and returned without them on the day a Malaysia Airlines plane crashed in eastern Ukraine in July, Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported, citing an airbase employee.

Belarus In Full-Blown Hyperinflation Panic: Blocks News, Online Stores; Bans All FX Trading For 2 Years
Zero Hedge - “We have to do something with these Belarussian rubles,” exclaims one Belarussian as she shops to turn worthless rubles (BYR) into physical assets. As AFP reports, The Belarussian currency was dragged down by the slide of the Russian ruble last week, leading authorities to impose draconian measures, forbid price increases even for imported goods, and warn people against panic.

China pledges to help Russia overcome economic hardships
RT - China’s foreign minister has pledged support to Russia as it faces an economic downturn due to sanctions and a drop in oil prices. Boosting trade in yuan is a solution proposed by Beijing’s commerce minister.

Oil for peace? China to send 700 peacekeepers to S. Sudan, signs energy deal
RT - China has announced it will deploy a 700-strong infantry battalion in South Sudan at the beginning of 2015. It comes as the war-torn African country signed an agreement with Chinese petroleum giant CNPC to boost oil production.

Ukraine Central Bank Conned Into Swapping Its Gold For Lead Bricks
Zero Hedge - As Bloomberg reports, Ukraine opened a criminal probe after several gold bars at the central bank’s storage in the southern city of Odessa turned to be painted lead. The latest gold fraud involved a central bank employee passing lead bars covered with golden paint to the storage unit, registering them as gold, the Vesti newspaper reported today, citing an unidentified person with knowledge of the matter in Odessa’s police department. In other words, the central bank was actually conned into buying the gold-plated lead.

Kazakhstan Prepares For $40 Oil, Gary Schilling Says "Oil Going To $20"
Zero Hedge - "People should not be worried," explained Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev in a TV address over the weekend, "we have a plan in place if oil prices are $40 per barrel." Kazakhstan, the second largest ex-Soviet oil producer after Russia, explains "there are reserves which could support people, preventing living conditions from worsening." However, if A. Gary Schilling's reality check of $20 oil being possible comes to fruition, as he explains, what matters are marginal costs - the expense of retrieving oil once the holes have been drilled and pipelines laid. That number is more like $10 to $20 a barrel in the Persian Gulf... We wonder who has a plan for that?

Did U.S. Take Down North Korea’s Internet?
Kurt Nimmo - The New York Times reports the network failure or probable take down is one of the worst in years. North Korea’s internet is managed by Star Joint Venture, a state-run company that routes much of its traffic through China Unicom, China’s state-owned telecommunications company. According analysts, North Korea began experiencing problems on Friday after Obama pledged a response to the unsubstantiated claim the government of Kim Jong-un was responsible for a hack at Sony Pictures after the movie studio produced a film portraying the murder of Jong-un.

North Korea Says Obama Behind “The Interview”
Kurt Nimmo - The North Korean National Defense Commission, led by Kim Jong-un, says the Obama administration is behind the production of Sony Pictures’ “The Interview,” a film featuring the assassination of the North Korean president. “The DPRK has clear evidence that the U.S. administration was deeply involved in the making of such dishonest reactionary movie,” a dispatch claims. It is unlikely Obama was directly involved in the production of the movie, which Sony pulled after theaters were allegedly targeted.

Former Airline CEO Claims US Military Shot Down MH370 Near Diego Garcia
Zero Hedge - A second senior airline industry source has revealed his belief that there is some sort of conspiracy behind the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.... Now a second senior airline industry source has voiced his doubts about the fate of the plane, with the even wilder claim that the Boeing 777 may have been shot down by US military personnel who were fearing a September 11-style attack on the US Navy base on Diego Garcia.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Federal Court Gives “Early Christmas Present” to War Criminals Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Others, Immunizing Them From Civil Inquiry Regarding Iraq War
Global Research - Late Friday, a federal judge dismissed a civil claim filed against George W. Bush and other high-ranking officials regarding their conduct in planning and waging the Iraq War, and immunized them from further proceedings.

World War III may have already begun: U.S. empire vs. Russia, China and North Korea
(NaturalNews) A few geopolitical observers think World War III began when the United States and much of the West launched military campaigns against militant Islam. Both President Bush and President Obama have warned the American people that the fight against radical Islam would take years to prosecute.

FBI To Train 30,000 Officers For Active Shooter Situations At Stadiums, Businesses, Schools
Daily Caller - The FBI will hold active shooter training drills at sports stadiums as part of a massive program to prepare for what the agency says is a growing concern for law enforcement. Thirty thousand agents will take part in the training sessions, which will also help prepare officers for active-shooter situations at businesses, schools and public places, according to the USA Today.

A Cyber War With North Korea And An Economic War With Russia
Economic Collapse - In addition to all of our wars in the Middle East and the war that has erupted on the streets of America, we are now engaged in a cyber war with North Korea and an economic war with Russia. Without a doubt, the United States has the capability to do a tremendous amount of damage to both of them. But what about the damage that they could potentially do to us?

Snowden, Poitras & Others Sued For 'Billions Of Dollars' Spent By US Government In Response To Leaks
Techdirt - Navy veteran and former Secretary of Transportation for the state of Kansas, is suing Edward Snowden, Laura Poitras and a handful of "Hollywood Defendants" for profiteering from the distribution of "stolen documents." This is supposedly being done on "behalf of the American people" ("John and Jane Does 1-10" listed in the "Plaintiffs" field).

Missouri Bill Would Ban Material Support or Resources to the NSA
Activist Post - The Missouri Fourth Amendment Protection Act would ban "material support or resources" from the state to warrantless federal spy programs. House Bill 264 (HB264) was introduced by third-term Rep. Keith Frederick (R-Rolla), and reads, in part:...

Report: Feds Pressuring More Doctors to Ask Patients About Their Guns
Patriot Rising - The feds are using Medicare reimbursements along with the new electronic medical record format standardized by the government to coerce doctors to ask patients about their guns and other personal questions, reported Dr. Mark Kestner, who writes for The Murfreesboro Post.

Our Top 20 Works of Fabulous Fiction to Inspire Self-Reliant, Liberty-Loving Children and Teens
The Organic Prepper - My kids are total bookworms, so I enlisted their help to compile this list of favorites. Some folks may pooh-pooh the idea of fiction as a teaching tool, but reading about a character who is smart, adaptable, self-reliant, and skilled can influence the way your child or teenager thinks. These books are not all specific to kids in prepper families – many of them are just tales of kids who are put into situations in which they must rely on their wits and courage to survive, while others outline the dangers of too much government.

Veteran News

40K Calls for Help at VA’s Homeless Call Center Go Unanswered
Military.com - So 40 Thousand vets called in for help, and received no attention or follow-up. From another article in Military. com, the VA was to get buckets of money to hire more psychiatrists to hand out psych pills and send vets home to try. Coburn vetoed that, as it has already been covered in the new VA bill just passed. He said it was duplication. They will still commit suicide as no pill is going to stop them in fact it's been proven that most of the shootings by vets on family, friends, strangers or themselves is by vets already on Psych meds.

Smart Meters Have Failed and Were a Dumb Investment
SkyVision Solutions - Whether all utility executives yet realize it or not, smart meters have failed. They have failed miserably to the deliver the promised benefits. We are left with nothing but the increased costs and risks associated with boondoggle projects reminiscent of pork barrel spending bills approved in the middle of the night by a Congress wanting to get home for the Christmas holidays.

Economy & Business

Banks Win Again – They Have Delayed (Repealed) the Volcker Rule
Armstrong Economics - The NY money center Banks won again in Washington, the second time in a single month. They succeeded in repealing Dodd-Frank and have now succeeded in repealing the Volcker Rule, which it is officially put on “delay” that will be permanent. The Federal Reserve has repealed the Volcker Rule that will let the highly speculative banks hold onto billions of dollars in private-equity and hedge-fund investments for at least two more years until it is delayed again if not just forgotten about silently.

YouTube: Janet Yellen’s Christmas Gift to Wall Street
Ron Paul - Last week we learned that the key to a strong economy is not increased production, lower unemployment, or a sound monetary unit. Rather, economic prosperity depends on the type of language used by the central bank in its monetary policy statements. All it took was one word in the Federal Reserve Bank's press release -- that the Fed would be “patient” in raising interest rates to normal levels -- and stock markets went wild.

Gas Prices Drop Below $2 in 5 Cities
EPJ - According to GasBuddy, these cities are Tulsa, Okla., ($1.96); Lubbock, Texas, ($1.98): Kansas City, Mo. ($1.99); Fort Worth, Texas, ($1.99); and Dallas ($1.99). The gas prices in several other cities have fallen below $2.05, and could be below $2 in a matter of days.

Wastebook 2014: Eight Absurd Government Projects Funded With Your Money
The Federalist - It’s that time of year again: Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) just released Wastebook 2014, his annual list of the most wasteful government projects during 2014. Coburn’s wastebook list includes a comprehensive analysis of 100 of the most wasteful government projects funded over the last year. The full report, which includes detailed descriptions and investigations of every wasteful project, spans more than 200 pages.

Washington officially endorsed a new round of unstable mortgages. Fannie and Freddie are setting up housing market for repeat of 2008 crisis!
InvestmentWatch - Federally controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced they’ll back loans to low-income Americans who put just 3% down, even though such loans have a high default rate. The risky mortgage program has the blessing of Federal Housing Finance Agency chief Mel Watt, the former Congressional Black Caucus leader whom President Obama recently appointed to regulate Fannie and Freddie.

Amazing Story: How a Rescue Dog Saved His Owner from Breast Cancer
Natural Society - Conlin suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome and benign breast disease, she was used to getting lumps in her breast that were nothing to really worry about. Her dog, Ted, was insistent upon a certain lump that developed which could have taken her life. He would cry and nuzzle her at on the same spot on her breast so much so that she decided to get it checked out.
 

---

Monday - December 22, 2014 - Today in History:

1775 - A Continental naval fleet was organized in the rebellious American colonies under the command of Ezek Hopkins.
1807 - The U.S. Congress passed the Embargo Act, designed to force peace between Britain and France by cutting off all trade with Europe.
1864 - During the American Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman sent a message to U.S. President Lincoln from Georgia. The message read, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."
1910 - U.S. Postal savings stamps were issued for the first time. They were discontinued in 1914.
1941 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington for a wartime conference with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt.
1961 - James Davis became the first U.S. soldier to die in Vietnam, while U.S. involvement was still limited to the provision of military advisers.
1984 - New York City resident Bernhard Goetz shot four black youths on a Manhattan subway. Goetz claimed they were about to rob him.
1991 - The body of Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, an American hostage murdered by his captors, was found along a highway in Lebanon.
1998 - A unit of RJR Nabisco pled guilty to attempting to smuggle cigarettes into Canada.
2005 - Astronomers announced the discovery of two more rings encircling the planet Uranus.
2010 - President Barack Obama signed a law allowing gays for the first time in history to serve openly in America's military.

World News

US to Fire Russians From its Embassies and Consulates, Swap for Americans
Sputnik News - The US has opted to only hire American citizens for supervisory positions in its embassies in Russia, and subject them to a “thorough background check”, which will reduce its reliance on Russian staff. Experts believe the move reflects growing suspicion towards Russian citizens and is aimed at creating an agent network within the embassy.

Ukraine forms 'ministry of truth' to regulate the media
The Guardian - Ukraine has a new government ministry. This month, the parliament voted to create a ministry of information policy that will be led by Yuriy Stets, the head of the information security department of the national guard. According to the new minister, the information war against Russia cannot be won without it.

Slumping Russian ruble threatens German economy – top exec
RT - German companies doing business with Russia are suffering from the weak ruble, as one in three companies will have to fire employees or cancel its projects, the managing director of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce warned.

US Escalates Campaign against North Korea
Global Research - The American public is asked to take on faith the FBI’s declaration that it “now has enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible for these actions.” The statement continued: “North Korea’s actions were intended to inflict significant harm on a US business and suppress the right of American citizens to express themselves.” Such language is ironic coming from a federal agency that plays a central role in the build-up of a police state apparatus in America.

North Korea denies hacking Sony
(Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama moved to prevent U.S. anger at North Korea from spiraling out of control on Sunday by saying the massive hacking of Sony Pictures was not an act of war but instead was cyber-vandalism. Washington's longstanding dispute with North Korea, which for years has centered on its nuclear weapons program, has entered new territory with the accusation that Pyongyang carried out an assault on a major Hollywood entertainment company.

Pakistan hangs four more prisoners as execution campaign widens
The Guardian - Pakistan continued its retribution against terrorists on Sunday with the execution of four more prisoners. The deaths followed the executions of two other convicted terrorists on Friday amid seething public anger at the massacre of 148 people in the city of Peshawar last week… Prime minister Nawaz Sharif decided to abandon a six year unofficial moratorium on executions following the attack on Army Public School in Peshawar, though the decision imperils an EU trade deal.

Fukushima2020? Disaster-stricken area hopes to host Tokyo Olympic events
RT - Fukushima hopes to host some of the events for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo to show the world that the worst days of the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster are behind it.

Ebola news

Male Ebola survivors told to abstain from sex for three months to avoid infecting partners
(NaturalNews) Officials with the United Nations' World Health Organization are warning that it is possible for the Ebola virus to remain in semen for up to three months after a patient recovers, and as such, male survivors of the dreaded disease should abstain from sex for at least that long.

Sharyl Attkisson: CDC Is Tracking 1,400 Possible Ebola Cases in US Today
Gateway Pundit - Today, investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson responded to Politifact.
Attkisson noted that the media coverage of Ebola vanished after the White House appointed a far left hack with expertise in revolutionary politics as Ebola czar. Attkisson told Howard Kurtz on Media Buzz that the CDC is hiding suspected cases from the American public.

Ebola kills Sierra Leone's most senior doctor
The Guardian - Sierra Leone’s most senior doctor has died of Ebola just hours after an experimental drug to treat him arrived at Freetown’s airport. Dr Victor Willoughby is the 11th of the country’s 120 doctors to die from the virus, during an outbreak that has killed almost 7,000 people.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

NYPD Shooting Eyewitness: People ‘Clapping and Laughing’
Breitbart - Police Commissioner William Bratton choked up at a news conference at the Woodhull medical Center on Saturday afternoon as he talked about the fatal shootings of two officers in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Meanwhile, an eyewitness who spoke toThe Daily Beast said that ‘a lot of people were clapping and laughing’ following the murder of the two police officers. ‘Some were saying, “They deserved it,” and another was shouting at the cops, “Serves them right because you mistreat people!”’said the man, identified as Carlos.

Fmr FBI Asst Director: ‘Race Provocateurs’ Incited Violence Towards Police
Daily Caller - Ronald T. Hosko — a former assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and current president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund — issued a statement Sunday condemning the brutal murder of two New York Police Department officers and placing the blame for their deaths on “race provocateurs.”

NYPD Officers Turn Their Backs On NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio
Zero Hedge - Demonstrating just how frayed the relationship between the NYC mayor's office is and the city's law enforcement had gotten, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association issued a statement for the use of police officers requesting that Mayor de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito not attend their funerals.

NYPD Officer Attacked in Precinct House, Suffers Broken Arm
Breitbart - The New York Police Department reported late Sunday afternoon that a person off the street entered the 28th Precinct station house in Manhattan and began attacking the officers. One officer is reported to have suffered a broken arm in the assault.

“I don’t feel safe with a gun in my house”: Gun Control PSA Tells Kids to Steal Parents’ Guns, Turn Them in at School
Mac Slavo - Show and tell on your parents. Here’s the latest plan to end gun violence – by encouraging concerned children to steal their parents’ firearms from them and turn them in at schools, or perhaps police precincts. Unbelievable, but it is happening...

Dick Cheney should be in prison, not on ‘Meet the Press’ – Greenwald
Liberty Crier - Journalist Glenn Greenwald said Dick Cheney is able to brag about the success of torture on weekend news shows because the Obama administration has decided to shield torturers rather than prosecute them.

Raul Castro thanks Obama, says Cuba will not abandon communism
Washington times - Three men who served long U.S. prison terms for spying received a standing ovation in Cuba’s parliament Saturday, shaking their fists in victory as President Raul Castro declared that detente with Washington won’t change the communist system he leads.

US Agribusiness Licking Its Chops Over Thawed Cuba Relations
Common Dreams - One group that appears to be licking its chops over the newly-thawed relations between the United States and Cuba is U.S. agribusiness. Though the change does not end the embargo, the White House states that it does "authorize expanded sales and exports of certain goods and services from the U.S. to Cuba."

NYPD’s Cop Union: ‘We Have Become a Wartime Police Department’ after Two Officers Slain
Melissa Melton - The New York Police Department has declared “war” after two officers were killed Saturday in their squad car while taking part in an anti-terrorism drill by a gunmen said to be taking revenge for the death of Eric Garner. The accused, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who reportedly took his own life after the killings, is said to be connected to the Black Guerilla Family prison gang, who police recently warned were gunning for police.

Two More Cops Shot After Yesterday's Brutal New York "Execution"
Zero Hedge - Just a day after the premeditated execution of two NYPD officers in New York by a deranged, suicidal psychopath, two more police officers have been shot in America today. In St.Louis, an off-duty officer was shot multiple times and remains in critical condition while in Tarpon Springs, Florida, 45-year-old officer Charles Kondek - a 17-year-veteran and father of 5 children - was shot and killed early Sunday morning.

Anti-police brutality rally paralyzes Mall of America (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
RT - Riot-equipped police have made at least two dozen arrests after a massive rally in one of America's largest shopping malls, where activists were protesting against racially charged police violence and interrupting the last pre-Christmas shopping weekend.

Judge Orders Former Gun Store Owner to Hand Over His Facebook Password. Guess What Happened When He Didn’t Do It
The Blaze - Alcede was ordered to hand over his Facebook page’s password to the new owners when the business went bankrupt. He refused to provide it and was subsequently arrested for contempt of court on Wednesday.

Economy & Business

Paul Craig Roberts – Russia To Unleash Ultimate Black Swan Against The West
King World News - Dr. Paul Craig Roberts warned King World News that the Russians are going to unleash what he called the "ultimate black swan" against the West. Dr. Roberts also discussed how a terrifying series of events would then bring the Western financial system to it knees as the banking system completely collapses.

Chart Points To Massive Slow Down: "This Is The Biggest Collapse In The 'Trade' Indicator Since Records Began"
The Daily Sheeple - … the Baltic Dry Index has become such a key indicator of economic health and stability. It would stand to reason, then, that if the value of the BDI is falling then a slow-down in global trade is taking place. Prepare to be shocked, because despite the glowing reports from the U.S. government about the economic recovery, the Baltic Dry Index has collapsed to nearly the same levels we saw in 2008.

These 15 Arguments Will Destroy Chemtrails Deniers
Activist Post - As we approach the end of another year let's remember that humanity is now subjected to yet another full year of spraying with metal particles. Not just humanity but all the poor creatures on earth are being sprayed; every plant and every tree, the bees and birds, the soil and all the little creatures that live in it, even the fish and inhabitants of the sea are suffering as aluminum, sulfur, barium and other toxic metals pile on everywhere altering the pH of the soil, contaminating the water and attacking the very essence of life on earth.

The Alarming Research Behind New York's Fracking Ban
The Atlantic - The 184-page report, conducted by the New York State Department of Health, cites potential environmental impacts and health hazards as reasons for the ban. The research incorporates findings from multiple studies conducted across the country and highlights the following seven concerns...

---

Friday - December 19, 2014 - Today in History:

1777 - General George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, PA, to camp for the winter.
1842 - Hawaii's independence was recognized by the U.S.
1843 - Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" was first published in England.
1957 - Air service between London and Moscow was inaugurated.
1959 - Walter Williams died in Houston, TX, at the age of 117. He was said to be the last surviving veteran of the U.S. Civil War.
1972 - Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, ending the Apollo program of manned lunar landings.
1986 - Independent counsel Lawrence Walsh was appointed to investigate the Iran-Contra issue.
1989 - U.S. troops invaded Panama to overthrow the regime of General Noriega.
1998 - U.S. President Bill Clinton was impeached on two charges of perjury and obstruction of justice by the U.S. House of Representatives.
1998 - A four-day bombing of Iraq by British and American forces ended.
2000 - The U.N. Security Council voted to impose sanctions on Afghanistan's Taliban rulers unless they closed all terrorist training camps and surrender U.S. embassy bombing suspect Osama bin Laden.
2003 - Images for the new design for the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site were released.
2008 - U.S. President George W. Bush signed a $17.4 billion rescue package of loans for ailing auto makers General Motors and Chrysler.

World News

Top Islamic militants killed; more US troops going to Iraq
Yahoo News - The top U.S. commander for the mission in Iraq and Syria said Thursday the next wave of American troops will begin moving into Iraq in a couple of weeks, and cautioned that it will take at least three years to build the capabilities of the Iraqi military.

Mass Stabbing in Australia Leaves Eight Children Dead: Reports
Sputnik News - Eight children, aged between 18 months and 15 years were found stabbed to death on Friday in Cairns, Australia.

‘No borders in space’: Russian cosmonaut, US astronaut get ready for longest ISS flight
RT - While tensions between the US and Russia are high, an astronaut and a cosmonaut are “great friends, colleagues and professionals,” the pair said ahead of their joint year-long ISS flight in preparation for a manned Mars mission.

American troops battle ISIS for first time as they see off attempted attack by militants on Iraqi base
Daily Mail - A number of militants have been killed in Islamic State's very first battle with U.S. ground troops after the extremists attempted to overrun an Iraqi military base. The militants attacked Ein al-Asad military base on Sunday where more than 100 U.S. military support troops are based. Despite launching the surprise attack just after midnight, ISIS's offensive was swiftly repelled when U.S. troops and F18 jets joined in the skirmish in support of the Iraqi Army.

Russia Has Begun Selling Its Gold, According To SocGen
Zero Hedge - "It appears possible that the Central Bank of Russia has started to sell off some of its gold reserves in December, with some sources reporting that official gold reserves dropped by $4.3 billion in the first week of the month."

Russia crisis leaves banks around the world exposed by the billions
RT - Major banks across Europe, as well as the UK, US, and Japan, are at major risk should the Russian economy default, according to a new study by Capital Economics. The ING Group in the Netherlands, Raiffeisen Bank in Austria, Societe General in France, UniCredit in Italy, and Commerzbank in Germany, have all faced significant losses in the wake of the ruble crisis. On Tuesday, the currency had its biggest fall in a decade and a half, losing 20 percent, nearing the 27 percent drop it experienced in 1998 that led to a default.

"It's A Huge Crisis" - The UK Oil Industry Is "Close To Collapse, People Are Being Laid Off"
Zero Hedge - With great delight we present the latest blowback from Obama's "brilliant" strategy to cripple Putin: in addition to the default wave about to crush America's own shale industry, America's biggest foreign ally and military partner when it comes to "ideologically pure missions of liberation" - the UK, and specifically its North Sea oil industry which according to the BBC is in a "crisis" and according to Robin Allan, chairman of the independent explorers' association Brindex, the industry was "close to collapse".

Europe to Pay More for US Gas Rather Than Russian: Energy Agency
Sputnik News - The executive director of the International Energy Agency stated that the Europe’s plans to diversify energy supplies away from Russian sources towards American LNG imports should not be dramatized, as the price is higher than piped Russian gas.

Obama Signs Venezuela Sanctions Bill: White House
Sputnik News - “On Thursday, December 18, 2014, the President signed into law the "Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014," which imposes sanctions on persons, responsible for violations of human rights in Venezuela,” the document released Thursday said.

Obesity can be viewed as disability – EU court
RT - Obese people can be considered disabled if extra weight hinders their "full and effective participation in professional life," the EU Court of Justice has ruled. The decision could have dramatic consequences for employees across the continent.

Ebola news

Ebola Doctor’s Recovery Shows Promise of Resurrected Lung Drug
Bloomberg - An experimental drug that fights a condition called vascular leak may play a role in helping people survive Ebola, said doctors in Germany who used it to treat a fellow physician who contracted the virus in West Africa.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

CIA: US unsuccessful in “targeted killings”
Press TV - US counterinsurgency programs and drone strikes targeting militants in Iraq and Afghanistan have been unsuccessful, shows a leaked CIA report.

The CIA Didn’t Just Torture, It Experimented on Human Beings
The Nation - Human experimentation was a core feature of the CIA’s torture program. The experimental nature of the interrogation and detention techniques is clearly evident in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s executive summary of its investigative report, despite redactions (insisted upon by the CIA) to obfuscate the locations of these laboratories of cruel science and the identities of perpetrators.

Spokane Cop’s remarks on targeting ‘Constitutionalists’ Causes Planned Protests
Ben Swann - When asked to justify the purchase of Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) military-style vehicles and to explain when something like that would be used in the United States, and not in a war zone, a sheriff’s deputy’s answer has caused people to plan protests. Jerry Moffett, a deputy in Spokane County, Wash., said, “We’ve got a lot of Constitutionalists and a lot of people that stockpile weapons, a lot of ammunition. They have weapons here locally.”

No Charges For California Officer Caught With 5 Pounds Of Marijuana
Ben Swann - Robin Lipetzky, the county’s chief public defender, told the Raw Story, “They are cutting him some slack because he’s a police officer… Anybody else found with 5 pounds of marijuana in their possession, I don’t care who that is, that person is going to be charged with a crime.”

Flashback: Court Rules You CAN Be ‘Too Smart’ to Be a Cop
Melissa Melton - Robert Jordan, a 49-year-old college graduate, scored a 33 on an intelligence test he took as part of the application process to become a police officer in the town of New London, Connecticut. The score meant Jordan had an IQ of 125. The average score for police officers was a 21-22, or an IQ of 104. New London would only interview candidates who scored between 20 and 27.

Study reveals cops are the most obese workers in America
Daily Mail - A study has revealed US cops have the highest rates of obesity among any profession in the country. Along with firefighters and security guards, nearly 41 per cent of boys in blue are obese, according to a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Thieves Yell "Police" Before Invading Home, Shooting and Robbing Resident
Activist Post - Opportunistic thieves now seem to recognize that they can take advantage of people's perception of authority in police and the prevalence of violent police raids. SWAT's no-knock home invasions are increasingly used to serve non-violent drug warrants. This tactic conditions the public to stand down when masked thugs barge through their front doors.

California Highway Patrol Describes Itself as “Paramilitary Organization”
Paul Joseph Watson - America’s largest police agency, the California Highway Patrol, is now officially describing itself as a “paramilitary organization,” a revelation that will undoubtedly feed into concerns that the militarization of domestic law enforcement is intensifying. The CHP’s adoption of this term is now so prevalent that the organization is openly using it as a recruiting tool for new employees.

Obama to Create Task Force for Communities to Gain Trust in US Police
Sputnik News - President Barack Obama signed an executive order Thursday that sets up the “Task Force on 21st Century Policing” to determine how to strengthen the public’s and local communities trust for law enforcements…. The 11-member group, officially entitled “Task Force on 21st Century Policing” will work with different federal and local leaders and organizations to listen to their testimonies and recommendations on how to gain back the public’s trust in law enforcement.

Tennessee City Outlaws First Amendment
Kurt Nimmo - In South Pittsburgh, Tennessee, the city council recently voted 4-1 to approve an “all-inclusive” social networking policy aimed at discouraging criticism of the government. It outlaws the exercise of the First Amendment for all city elected representatives, appointed board members, employees, volunteers, vendors, contractors and anyone associated with the town in an official capacity who uses social networks, according to Ryan Lewis, writing for the Times Free Press.

Breaking News: Maui Wins Battle Against Monsanto over New GMO Moratorium
Natural Society - An attorney for the SHAKA Movement in Hawaii that has been trying to uphold a democratically voted moratorium on GMOs on the island of Maui reports that residents and activists have won. An intervention in a federal lawsuit that was brought on by Monsanto and Dow trying to push their genetically modified agenda on islanders will not go through.

Economy & Business

Junk Bonds Are Going To Tell Us Where The Stock Market Is Heading In 2015
Economic Collapse - Do you want to know if the stock market is going to crash next year? Just keep an eye on junk bonds. Prior to the horrific collapse of stocks in 2008, high yield debt collapsed first. And as you will see below, high yield debt is starting to crash again. The primary reason for this is the price of oil. The energy sector accounts for approximately 15 to 20 percent of the entire junk bond market, and those energy bonds are taking a tremendous beating right now.

The IRS is considering its own temporary shutdown due to recent budget cuts enacted by Congress
Politico - The agency estimates each closed day would save $29 million. The news comes a day after Koskinen in an email warned IRS employees that overtime would be suspended and a hiring freeze enacted. He also said more tough news would likely follow as IRS leadership negotiates with the National Treasury Employees Union, particularly because personnel costs comprise about 75 percent of the IRS costs.

Complete List of BANKS Owned/Controlled by the Rothschild Family
The Global Elite - “Give me control over a nations currency, and I care not who makes its laws” – Baron M.A. Rothschild

Pregnancy Mistake Can "Poison" Your Child's Brain - Linked to Autism and More
Dr. Mercola - Scientists think this could be abnormal in children with autism and delayed development. Lets toxicity flow into your child's brain... also messes up the expression of mitochondrial uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) in mice - affecting brain function even in adulthood. Do this now to help prevent it.

6 simple steps to health that you can start now
(NaturalNews) We are quickly approaching New Year's Day and the annual accounting that accompanies it. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions last year? The year before? Most of the time, resolutions focus on health issues.

Obama Increases Allowable Levels of Radiation in Drinking Water ‘Dramatically’
Natural Society - A Japanese government official has reported, “I was overwhelmed by the amount of contaminated water coming from the reactors, we must dump it in the ocean.” This isn’t such great news for the US since President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently gave their approval for “dramatically raising permissible radioactive levels in drinking water and soil following “radiological incidents,” such as nuclear power-plant accidents and dirty bombs.”

Pincushion Pregnancy: New Data on the DTaP Vaccine
Green Med Info - Despite evidence of inefficacy and risk associated not only with active spread of infection, but with the hazards of aluminum AND mercury, the DTaP vaccine is recommended to pregnant women as of 2012. As is the nature of the vaccination program, there is no regard for personal history, immunologic risk factors, or lifestyle.

The Vaccine Conundrum: Problems and Solutions
Natural Blaze - This is part two in a two-part series... PART 1. There are two major drawbacks to the current vaccination doctrine that have not been explored very well in the debates. They are about the evolution of vaccine-resistant microbes and about over-stimulation of the immune system.

Parents Find Injury to Baby After Daycare, Doctor Visit Results in CPS Removing all 3 Children
Health Impact News - Three children removed from family home when the parents reported a cut on the baby’s tongue to doctor after picking up from daycare. A South Dakota couple still can’t figure it out. All they know is their three children, all under 3 years old, have been taken away for reasons they cannot fully explain because it makes no sense to them. They also have no idea how to get their children back from Child Protective Services (CPS).
 

---

Thursday - December 18, 2014 - Today in History:

1787 - New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1862 - The first orthopedic hospital was organized in New York City. It was called the Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled.
1865 - Slavery was abolished in the United States with the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution being ratified.
1903 - The Panama Canal Zone was acquired 'in perpetuity' by the U.S. for an annual rent.
1912 - The discovery of the Piltdown Man in East Sussex was announced. It was proved to be a hoax in 1953.
1915 - U.S. President Wilson, widowed the year before, married Edith Bolling Galt at her Washington home.
1916 - During World War I, after 10 months of fighting the French defeated the Germans in the Battle of Verdun.
1917 - The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Senate and then officially proposed the states.
1940 - Adolf Hitler signed a secret directive ordering preparations for a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Operation "Barbarossa" was launched in June 1941.
1944 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the wartime relocation of Japanese-Americans, but also stated that undeniably loyal Americans of Japanese ancestry could not be detained.
1950 - NATO foreign ministers approved plans to defend Western Europe, including the use of nuclear weapons, if necessary.
1956 - Japan was admitted to the United Nations.
1972 - The United States began the heaviest bombing of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The attack ended 12 days later.
1996 - Despite a U.N. truce, factional fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, broke out in which at least 300 fighters and civilians were killed.
1998 - The U.S. House of Representatives began the debate on the four articles of impeachment concerning U.S. President Bill Clinton. It was only the second time in U.S. history that process had begun.
1998 - Russia recalled its U.S. ambassador in protest of the U.S. attacks on Iraq.
2002 - Nine competing designs for the World Trade Center site were unveiled. A design expected by January 31, 2003.
2009 - James Cameron's movie "Avatar" was released in the United States. On January 26, the movie became the highest-grossing film worldwide.

World News

Putin: Russian economy will inevitably bounce back, 2 years in worst case scenario
RT - The Russian economy is to start growing again in 2 years in the worst case scenario, President Vladimir Putin said at his annual press conference. Russia, which is facing recession, is ready to fight the impending crisis, as it did in 2008, he said.
* Read More: Putin's 2014 Q&A marathon LIVE UPDATES

Power Moves: US-Cuba Deal Isolates And Weakens Russia
Blacklisted News - As if tensions between the United States and Russia were not high enough, the Russian government-owned oil corporation Rosneft is now seeking a major oil deal with Cuba. At the World Petroleum Congress in Moscow, Rosneft met with Cuban Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines, Ruben Cid, to discuss new oil fields right in America's backyard.

China Prepares To Bailout Russia
Zero Hedge - The South China Morning Post then hinted in a story entitled "Russia may seek China help to deal with crisis," which which noted that Russia could fall back on its 150 billion yuan ($24 billion) currency swap agreement with China if the ruble continues to plunge, that was signed in October. Furthermore, two bankers close to the PBOC reportedly said the swap-line was meant to reduce the role of the US dollar if China and Russia need to help each other overcome a liquidity squeeze. Is 'isolated' Russia about to be bailed out by the world's largest economy China?

Next Round of EU Sanctions Targets Crimea
Russia Insider - The European Union is to ban all investment in Crimea, annexed by Russia in March, to keep up the pressure on Moscow and show that the issue is not being forgotten, EU diplomatic sources said Tuesday. The export of EU-made goods for the transport, telecom, energy and oil and gas exploration sectors in Crimea will also be halted, the sources said. In addition, tourism services will be banned and cruise ships will be barred from calling at Crimean ports, they said.

U.S. slaps sanctions on Swiss, Dutch companies over Syria
(Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on Dutch and Swiss oil trading firms for their dealings with the Syrian government, which has been engaged in bloody civil war with opposition forces.

Obama Signs Ukraine Freedom Support Act: Psaki
Sputnik News - State Department’s spokesperson Jen Psaki announced that US President Barack Obama signed the Ukraine Freedom Support Act, providing lethal and non-lethal aid to the Ukrainian government and imposing a new round of economic sanctions on Russia’s defense, energy and finance sectors.

IMF, World Bank to Increase Assistance to Ukraine: US Official
Sputnik News - US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland stated Wednesday that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank will increase the financial assistance for Ukraine to help to fill a fiscal hole of $10-15 billion.

Russian Foreign Ministry Hopes US Realizes Futility of Sanctions Pressure
Sputnik News - "It is specific that the US president has recognized the futility of years of trying to "isolate" Cuba. It is left to hope that Washington will be quick to realize the futility of similar sanctions pressure on other countries," the ministry said.

Sydney Siege Aftermath: Australian Government Seeks More Anti Terrorism Laws
Brandon Turbeville - Right on schedule, following a high profile terrorist attack, the government of Australia is now “investigating new security laws” and other methods that can be used to gut the civil liberties, privacy, and general way of life of Australian citizens. Only a day after the Sydney Siege, Australian “lawmakers,” intelligence agencies, legal branches, and other government officials sprung into action in order to discuss the possibility of passing yet another law allowing the collection and housing of telecommunication and Internet data of Australian citizens.

ISIS’ Bloody Footprints Lead From NATO Territory
Tony Cartalucci - It was reported recently that Germany’s broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) investigated what turned out to be hundreds of trucks a day carrying billions of dollars in supplies, flowing into Syria and directly into the hands of the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS).

Ebola news

Sierra Leone cancels Christmas as Ebola virus ravages country
(NaturalNews) According to the AFP, state officials are prohibiting any public displays or celebrations of Christmas, citing escalating Ebola rates in what has been declared to be the worst Ebola outbreak in history. Citizens of Sierra Leone will be required to stay indoors and will be promptly ushered back into their homes if caught in the streets.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

For Truly Better Relations with Cuba, Open the Door and Get Out of the Way!
Ron Paul - […] I have a better suggestion if the US truly wants Cuba to become a free and prosperous country: the US government should completely remove all restrictions on US citizens and then step aside. American tourists, businessmen, students, and scholars can do far more to promote real American values than bureaucrats, government-funded NGOs, and US-funded propaganda broadcasts. A better future for the United States and Cuba simply requires our government opening the door and getting the heck out of the way!

Cop's Act of Kindness Toward Shoplifting Grandma
Yahoo News - When Tarrant, Alabama Police Officer William Stacy was called to the Dollar General store on Saturday, December 6, he wasn’t especially surprised. “We get shoplifting calls at Dollar General all the time,” he tells Yahoo Parenting. “Usually people are stealing things like makeup or phone chargers – not things they need to get by.” So when Stacy arrived to find 47-year-old Helen Johnson stealing eggs to feed her two daughters, her niece, and two young grandkids, he knew this incident was different.

Signed or not? White House contradicts State Dept. on new anti-Russian bill
RT - President Barack Obama has already signed a bill opening the way for more economic sanctions against Russia, according to a State Department spokesperson. A White House representative however said the bill is not yet signed. The bill was expected to be signed “by the end of the week” despite some concerns about its contents, according to White House press secretary Josh Earnest’s statement in Tuesday.

Obama tries ‘new approach’ on Cuba with normalized trade relations and diplomacy between Washington and Havana for the first time in a half-century
Daily Mail - President Barack Obama declared the end of America’s ‘outdated approach’ to Cuba Wednesday, announcing the re-establishment of diplomatic relations as well as economic and travel ties with the communist island – a historic shift in U.S. policy that aims to bring an end to a half-century of Cold War enmity. ‘Isolation has not worked,’ Obama said in remarks from the White House. ‘It’s time for a new approach.

Lawsuit: ‘Thousands’ of Babies Kidnapped By County CPS
Mikael Thalen - Speaking with the Courthouse News Service, the Plaintiffs’ attorney, Shawn McMillan, said that he “uncovered an alarming trend” when investigating similar cases in the area the year prior. “County child welfare agencies regularly subvert the constitutional rights of parents and children by seizing children from their parents when there is no danger to the child, and in fact no need to seize the child at all,” McMillan told Courthouse News. “The class action is designed to address a procedural problem. They [Riverside County social workers] as a matter of course don’t get warrants before seizing kids.”

Billion Dollar Surveillance Blimp to Launch over Maryland
First Look News - In just a few days, the Army will launch the first of two massive blimps over Maryland, the last gasp of an 18-year-long $2.8-billion Army project intended to use giant airships to defend against cruise missiles. And while the blimps may never stave off a barrage of enemy missiles, their ability to spot and track cars, trucks and boats hundreds of miles away is raising serious privacy concerns.

Economy & Business

There Is Hope In Understanding That A Great Economic Collapse Is Coming
Economic Collapse - My point is that there is hope in understanding what is ahead of us, and there is hope in getting prepared. … The millions of people that have absolutely no idea what is coming and have made absolutely no preparations are going to be absolutely blindsided by the coming economic collapse. Just like the 1930s, we are going to see people jumping out of windows and jumping in front of trains. Others will sink into a state of despair so deep that nobody will ever be able to shake them out of it. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Gas Prices Will Spike in California Jan. 1 Due to Cap-and-Trade
Breitbart - AB 32, passed in 2006 and signed by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, was intended to reduce “global warming” by reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. As Assemblyman Tim Donnelly noted, CARB slipped a tax into the program that will force refiners and importers to buy carbon credits. Not only will drivers be hurt at the pump, but the ripple effect of the price increase for transportation will also inflate the prices of fresh produce and household goods. The bill will be implemented January 1, 2015.

WHERE THE INFLATION IS: Breaking Down the Consumer Price Index into 8 Subcategories
EPJ - Note: Paul Krugman thinks this is deflation.

$4.20 Per Pound: Price of Ground Beef Climbs to Another Record
CNS News - The average price of a pound of ground beef climbed to another record high — $4.201 per pound — in the United States in November, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Buffett’s Smart-Grid Idea Takes Over Your Washing Machine
Bloomberg - Warren Buffett wants to tell you the best time to wash your clothes. Or at least his energy company in the U.K does. Buffett’s Northern Powergrid Holdings Co. is working with Siemens AG (SIE) to test a so-called smart grid that has the ability to control when consumer appliances will be used in the home.

New York state to ban fracking for natural gas
Ars Technica - Today, the health commissioner of the state of New York, Howard Zucker, announced that he has completed a study into the health impacts of hydraulic fracturing for the recovery of natural gas. Although there are few demonstrated health risks, Zucker noted that there are a great many uncertainties about the process, and these make it impossible to design intelligent regulations that minimize potential risks. As a result, the state will ban the practice indefinitely.

Science & Technology

Is Cyberattack on Sony Disruptive Enough to Constitute an Act of War Against US?
Breitbart - The government of North Korea’s suspected involvement in the cyberattack against Sony Pictures Entertainment has not been officially confirmed. North Korea is suspected of hacking Sony in retaliation for an American comedy film about a fictional assassination attempt on leader.

---

Wednesday - December 17, 2014 - Today in History:

1777 - France recognized American independence.
1903 - The first successful gasoline-powered airplane flight took place near Kitty Hawk, NC. Orville and Wilbur Wright made the flight.
1944 - The U.S. Army announced the end of its policy of excluding Japanese-Americans from the West Coast which ensured that Japanese-Americans were released from detention camps.
1953 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decided to approve RCA’s color television specifications.
1957 - The United States successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.
1969 - The U.S. Air Force closed its Project "Blue Book" by concluding that there was no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings.
1975 - Lynette Fromme was sentenced to life in prison for her attempt on the life of U.S. President Ford.
1992 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari signed the North American Free Trade Agreement.
1992 - Israel deported over 400 Palestinians to Lebanese territory in an unprecedented mass expulsion of suspected militants.
1997 - U.S. President Clinton signed the No Electronic Theft Act. The act removed protection from individuals who claimed that they took no direct financial gains from stealing copyrighted works and downloading them from the Internet.
2002 - U.S. President George W. Bush ordered the Pentagon to have ready for use within two years a system for protecting American territory, troops and allies from ballistic missile attacks.
2004 - U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law the largest overhaul of U.S. intelligence gathering in 50 years. The bill aimed to tighten borders and aviation security. It also created a federal counterterrorism center and a new intelligence director.
2005 - President George W. Bush acknowledged he'd personally authorized a secret eavesdropping program in the U.S. following Sept. 11.

World News

EU court removes Hamas from terror blacklist
RT - The EU General Court has ordered that the Palestinian militant group Hamas be removed from the bloc’s terror blacklist. The move comes over four years after Hamas appealed its terror designation before the EU.

Palestine pursues UN bid amid threat of US veto
Press TV - The Palestinians will present a bid for statehood to the UN Security Council (USNC) on Wednesday amid reports that Washington and Tel Aviv are formulating a joint position against the Palestinian move at the headquarters of the world body, where the US has persistently used its veto privilege to block any resolution not favored by the Israeli regime.

Israel's Arrow 3 missile system fails interception test
Press TV - The test failure is said to be the latest setback for the system which Tel Aviv has presented as its counter-punch to Iran. Arrow 3, an advanced US-supported system, has been built to intercept incoming ballistic missiles which fly above the Earth's atmosphere. Israel has been the largest recipient of US military assistance since World War Two. The US gives more than three billion dollars in direct aid to the Israeli military each year. This accounts for one-fifth of America’s entire foreign aid budget.

Pentagon confirms military buildup along Russian borders for ‘peace and stability’
RT - The Pentagon has confirmed the military buildup along Russia’s borders to ensure long-term “peace and stability” in the region. Earlier Moscow accused NATO of a sharp increase in air activity and intelligence flights in the border zone.

Russia has enough resources to reverse ruble crisis – Medvedev
RT - "We will coordinate actions”, he said, specifying that it would include an increase in foreign exchange bank refinancing, and balancing demand and supply of foreign currency through increasing provision of foreign currency liquidity if necessary. Medvedev admitted there are certain fundamental factors behind the weakening ruble, like lower oil prices and no access to international financial markets, but said the psychological factor is huge.

Apple halts online sales to Russia as the ruble plunges in value
The Verge - According to reporters at Bloomberg, Over the last twelve months the value of the ruble has plunged more than 50 percent against the dollar, destabilizing the Russian economy. That drop was already making it difficult for ordinary Russian citizens to purchase imported goods, but Apple's move shows things may get far worse, as foreign companies decide to stop accepting a currency that has been rapidly shedding value with each passing week.

Goldman Sachs: $1 Trillion in Oil Projects at Risk Because of Falling Oil Price
EPJ - Goldman has examined 400 oil and gas fields around the world, many of which are still awaiting a final investment decision. Its analysis, based on a $70 oil price, shows that fields representing 2.3m b/d of output by 2020 and awaiting a green light have now become uneconomic, reports FT.

Ruble plummets losing more than 20% in a day, hitting new dollar and euro lows
RT - No end seems to be in sight for the plight of the Russian ruble, which slumped to new record lows against hard currencies Tuesday. The EUR traded at 93.5 against the ruble, and the USD at 75. The Russian stock market also went haywire, dropping more than 15 percent as of 2:30pm Moscow time, after it dropped 11 percent the day before. Sberbank, the country's largest lender, lost 17.77 percent, and VTB, the second biggest bank, fell by 14.29 percent. State-owned oil and gas companies Gazprom, Rosneft, and Surgut also saw shares plummet.

The Engineered Fall of the Russian Ruble
Kurt Nimmo - Saudi Arabia, the most influential member of OPEC, and the United States are working together to destroy the Russian economy and destabilize the country. Despite the best efforts of the Russian central bank, the ruble is experiencing a dramatic fall. “We are seeing an economic crisis,” Natalia V. Akindinova, a professor at the Higher School of Economics, told the New York Times on Tuesday. “We are seeing a sharp devaluation of the ruble at a time when the central bank doesn’t have the reserves to influence the market, as it did in the past crises.”

Rouble collapse prompts Moscow shopping spree
CNBC News - Russians hurried to change their savings and pensions into dollars and euros while also stocking up on furniture and jewellery as the rouble's collapse accelerated. Their mounting concern was reflected on Tuesday morning in the red lights of the currency exchange booths that dot the city, which were ticking over to show ever weaker rouble rates.

Who Gets Citgo's Assets If Venezuela Defaults?
Bloomberg - Venezuela’s bondholders have long held that if the South American country ever defaulted, they’d be able to seize its refineries and almost 6,000 gas stations in the U.S. That notion is starting to unravel, just as plunging oil prices, a collapsing economy and dwindling foreign reserves have made swaps traders almost certain that Venezuela will renege on its obligations in the next five years.

‘Human microwave’: China's controversial ray gun inflicts unbearable pain
RT - China has presented Poly WB-1, a non-lethal ray gun that can be used for crowd dispersal, by making its targets feel like their skin is on fire. The US version of the weapon was shelved due to practical difficulties and the potential public backlash.... Using a similar principle to a microwave oven it incites movement in the fat and water molecules located just below the skin surface, making the target feel like they are burning from the inside. As soon as the target steps away from the ray, the pain ceases, purportedly leaving no damage to nerve endings and blood vessels, which are located deeper below the epidermis.

Ebola news

Ebola serum supply reaches Liberia
BBC - Liberia has begun treating Ebola patients with serum therapy - a treatment made from the blood of recovered survivors. Doctors hope the experimental treatment could help combat the virus that has been sweeping West Africa and killing thousands of people. Up to 13 December, 6,841 people had been reported as having died from the disease.

Better Ebola Tests Expected Within Months
VOA News - New diagnostic tests to more rapidly and simply detect Ebola could be available for use in the West Africa epidemic in the next few months, the World Health Organization and partner agencies say. It now takes between nine hours and four days to get confirmation of a suspected case of Ebola in West Africa. By any measure, this is too long because the virus spreads quickly and more infections can occur while awaiting test results.

Justice targets Ebola-based discrimination
Washington Times - The Justice Department is working to stem what it describes as an increase in discrimination tied to the Ebola outbreak, issuing guidelines Monday prohibiting any bullying or harassment based on a perception that certain people or groups might carry the virus.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

US sanctions bill to cement Russia-China alliance: Dennis Kucinich
Press TV - Kucinich, former US Representative from Ohio, wrote in an article published by Truthdig on Tuesday that the recent sanctions bill is “hydra-headed incubator of poisonous conflict.” “The second provocative anti-Russian legislation in a week, it further polarizes our relations with Russia, helping to cement a Russia-China alliance against Western hegemony,” Kucinich said. He also noted that the anti-Russia legislation would undermine “long-term America’s financial and physical security by handing the national treasury over to war profiteers.”

Obama issues 'executive orders by another name'
USA Today - President Obama has issued a form of executive action known as the presidential memorandum more often than any other president in history — using it to take unilateral action even as he has signed fewer executive orders. When these two forms of directives are taken together, Obama is on track to take more high-level executive actions than any president since Harry Truman battled the "Do Nothing Congress" almost seven decades ago, according to a USA TODAY review of presidential documents.

Arizona Sheriff: Obama Amnesty Will Apply To 20 MILLION Illegals
Steve Watson - A County Sheriff in Arizona has warned that the President’s executive order on immigration could see as many as twenty million illegal immigrants provided amnesty. Appearing on Your World With Neil Cavuto, Pinal County, Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu pointed to a memo written by the Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, which cited the 20 million figure. “The fact is it’s not just the 5 million that President Obama promised.” Babeu explained.

Black Helicopters Descend on Dallas For Special Forces Drill
Paul Joseph Watson - The maneuvers were part of preparedness training for U.S. Special Operations Forces, exercises which will continue for the next two weeks, Dallas police confirmed, adding that the exact locations of the drills would not be disclosed. “If any members of the public learn of the training locations, we ask the public to remain clear of these areas while training is conducted,” according to a press release.

Suspected Pennsylvania killer of 6 found dead as schools close, security tightens
RT - Bradley William Stone, the Iraq War veteran suspected of killing at least six people, was found dead near his home Tuesday, officials say. The victims were found at three separate locations in Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County on Monday. Stone killed his ex-wife and five of her family members before going on the run. The ex-Marine was found in the woods near his Pennsburg home around 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.

New Date Rape Prevention Tools Exist—But the FDA Is Blocking Their Development and Sale
Alliance for Natural Health - This spring, a group of four engineering students at North Carolina State University announced they had developed a fingernail polish that changes color when it comes into contact with drugs like Rohypnol (“roofies”), Xanax, and GHB, which rapists commonly put into women’s drinks.

Election News

Bush v. Clinton In 2016? New World Order Dream Matchup Being Touted As ‘Inevitable’
Michael Snyder - The next presidential election is still nearly two years away, and yet the mainstream media is already telling Americans who they are supposed to vote for. Now that Jeb Bush has all but officially declared that he is running for president, a “dream matchup” between Bush and Hillary Clinton is being touted as “inevitable”.

Economy & Business

Courts rule Philadelphia man must pay $280,000 that he does not owe
(NaturalNews) Commonwealth Court imposed the order for $280,772 in taxes on Nathan Lerner, even though city officials had acknowledged on the record that the tax bill he received was a "jeopardy assessment" that was based on pure fabrication. "The problem is that Lerner didn't follow the right procedural course in challenging it, a Commonwealth Court panel found in a ruling issued [recently]. And so, the state judges determined, he's stuck with that unfounded tax tab,".

---

Tuesday - December 16, 2014 - Today in History:

1773 - Nearly 350 chests of tea were dumped into Boston Harbor off of British ships by Colonial patriots. The patriots were disguised as Indians. The act was to protest taxation without representation and the monopoly the government granted to the East India Company.
1835 - In New York, 530 buildings were destroyed by fire.
1944 - During World War II, the Battle of the Bulge began in Belgium. It was the final major German counteroffensive in the war.
1950 - U.S. President Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency in order to fight "Communist imperialism."
1995 - Many U.S. government functions were again closed as a temporary finance provision expired and the budget dispute between President Clinton and Republicans in Congress continued.
1995 - NATO launched a military operation in support of the Bosnia peace agreement.
1996 - Britain's agriculture minister announced the slaughter of an additional 100,000 cows thought to be at risk of contracting BSE in an effort to persuade the EU to lift its ban on Britain.
1998 - The U.S. and Britain fired hundreds of missiles on Iraq in response to Saddam Hussein's refusal to comply with U.N. weapons inspectors.
2000 - Researchers announced that information from NASA's Galileo spacecraft indicated that Ganymede appeared to have a liquid saltwater ocean beneath a surface of solid ice. Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter, is the solar system's largest moon. The discovery is considered important since water is a key ingredient for life.
2000 - President-elect George W. Bush selected Colin Powell to be the first African-American secretary of state. Powell was sworn in January 20, 2001.
2001 - In Tora Bora, Afghanistan, tribal fighters announced that they had taken the last al-Quaida positions. More than 200 fighters were killed and 25 captured. They also announced that they had found no sign of Osama bin Laden.
2001 - Cuba received the first commercial food shipment from the United States in nearly 40 years. The shipment was sent to help Cuba after Hurricane Michelle hit Cuba on November 4, 2001.
2001 - A British newspaper, The Observer, reported that a notebook had been found at an al-Quaida training camp in southern Afghanistan. The notebook contained a "blue print" for an bomb attack on London's financial district.
2009 - Iran test-fired a missile capable of hitting Israel and parts of Europe.

World News

The “Shape-Shifting Sheik” and the “Sydney Siege”
Tony Cartalucci - Another embarrassing chapter has unfolded for Western intelligence and security communities in the wake of the so-called “Sydney Siege.” The suspect named by the media as “Man Haron Monis” also has gone by the names “Manteghi Boroujerdi” and “Mohammad Hassan Manteghi” and was an individual now confirmed to have long been on the radar of the Australian government, media, law enforcement, and court system since his arrival on Australian shores almost two decades ago.

Kerry to press Palestinian negotiator on statehood bid: Report
Press TV - According to AFP, US Secretary of State John Kerry will try to persuade Palestinians not to rush ahead with a draft UN resolution to end the Israeli occupation. The top US diplomat is scheduled to hold talks with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and the secretary general of the Arab League, Nabil al-Arabi, in London on Tuesday.
* Related: Israel fumes at Europe over Palestine

More than 130 killed by Taliban in Pakistan army school seizure
RT - More than 130 people, most of them students, have been killed and at least 122 others injured in a Taliban seizure of a military-run school in the city of Peshawar, Pakistan, according to provincial authorities.

Despite Sydney’s Gun Control, Gunman Holds Hostages For 16 Hours
Kit Daniels - Despite Australia’s gun control laws, a gunman held hostages for 16 hours at a Sydney cafe, resulting in at least three deaths including the perpetrator. Australia’s gun laws, which have nearly eradicated private gun ownership in the country, allowed Man Haron Monis, 49, to walk into the Lindt Chocolate Cafe and take hostages at gunpoint Sunday because he neither encountered nor likely expected any resistance.

Media Buries Islamist Motivation Behind Sydney Siege
Paul Joseph Watson - Despite demanding to speak with the Prime Minister, asking for an ISIS flag, and telling hostages that the media was covering up ISIS responsibility for the attack, the narrative in the Sydney siege quickly shifted to portray culprit Haron Monis as an “isolated figure” who had no real political motivations.

Who Created Cartoon Character "Man Haron Monis" Behind "Sydney Siege" Circus?
The Daily Sheeple - Whatever the case is, Monis/Boroujerdi is certainly no “lone wolf terrorist.” He, at best, is yet another Frankenstein of the establishment run amok after an abortive attempt to cultivate and use him to advance Western foreign and domestic policy. At worse, he is directly involved in an intelligence operation to further inflame division in Australian society and promote the long stalled war in Syria aimed at regime change there, before heading to Iran – the scorn of Monis/Boroujerdi.

5 Reasons to Question the Official Story of the 'Sydney Siege'
Brandon Turbeville - In the aftermath of yet another highly publicized terror attack (or at least the potential for a high profile attack) in Australia by foreign-born jihadists, the Western public is once again experiencing a variety of emotional reactions that they have carefully been trained to experience whenever such events take place at home or abroad.

Denmark claims North Pole
CBC News - Denmark says scientific data shows Greenland's continental shelf is connected to a ridge beneath the Arctic Ocean, giving Danes a claim to the North Pole and any potential energy resources beneath it.Denmark will deliver a claim on Monday to a United Nations panel in New York that will eventually decide control of the area, which Russia and Canada are also coveting, Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard said.

The UK Is Outlawing Homelessness
Mint Press News - Ubsdell is referring to new legislation introduced by the Conservative-Liberal-Democrat coalition government called the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, which went into effect in October. The legislation defines anti-social behavior as, “conduct capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to a person in relation to that person’s occupation of residential premises or conduct capable of causing housing-related nuisance or annoyance to any person.”

Ebola news

There's no evidence that sewage isn't teeming with Ebola virus, according to researchers disputing WHO's claims
(NaturalNews) Practically nothing coming out of the mouths of government health officials these days concerning the spread of Ebola virus is scientifically verifiable. And in a new study, researchers from two prominent universities in Pennsylvania challenge specific claims by the World Health Organization (WHO) that Ebola dies in waste sewage, showing that this simply isn't true based on published science.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

US Military Cancels Terror Suspect Hearing
Sputnik News - A pretrial hearing of the men suspected of masterminding the September 11 attacks has been cancelled by the US military in Guantanamo Bay on Monday, a week after last Tuesday's publication of the Senate Intelligence Committee report summary on CIA torture practices.

Political prisoner Barrett Brown to be sentenced today – Why the result matters to freedom in America
Michael Krieger - The Feds went after Barrett Brown in the same manner in which they went after Aaron Swartz (tactics that led to the suicide of the latter). They came out with a bunch of trumped up charges, including that of copying and pasting a link (that charge was later dropped), and threatened him with 105 years in jail. Brown has now served over two years in federal penitentiary without bail and his sentencing is tomorrow. He faces 10 years in jail for basically exposing the shady relationship between intelligence contractors and the U.S. government.

America gone crazy: College president forced to apologize for saying "all lives matter"
(NaturalNews) Kathleen McCartney, president of the very prestigious Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts, not only agreed with these protestors, but she went on to point out what should be inherently obvious to most -- people of all races matter.

Former CIA Chief: ISIS to Attack U.S. Soon
Kit Daniels - Former CIA Director Mike Morrell said terrorists will attack the U.S. “sometime over the next year or so, guaranteed.” Morrell was commenting on the current Sydney, Australia, hostage situation on CBS Monday when he claimed jihadist militants will likely carry out a similar operation in the U.S.

Homeland Security Chief Opens Largest Immigration Detention Center in U.S.
NY Times - Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, came to this South Texas outpost on Monday to inaugurate a 50-acre detention center that will hold as many as 2,400 migrants caught crossing the Southwest border illegally, becoming the largest immigration detention facility in the country.

At least six killed in Pennsylvania shootings, suspect still at large
RT - Local residents told the Morning Call website on Monday morning that the suspected gunman is thought to be a local Marine veteran diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, and that one of the victim's was his ex-wife.

Families of Newtown Victims Sue Rifle Manufacturer
ABC News - The families of nine people killed in the Newtown school massacre filed a lawsuit against the maker and sellers of the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle used in the shooting, saying the gun should not have been sold for civilian use because of its overwhelming firepower. The lawsuit alleging wrongful death and negligence was filed in state court and announced on Monday ? the day after the second anniversary of the shooting, which left 20 children and six educators dead and became a rallying point for gun-control efforts.

Congress decides to get serious about tracking police shootings
Washington Post - Congress reauthorized legislation this week that will require states to report the number of people killed during an arrest or while in police custody… The Death in Custody Reporting Act was originally passed in 2000, but expired in 2006. Scott has attempted to reauthorize the bill unsuccessfully four times since then. The first time the bill was passed, it took years for data to start coming in, and it expired shortly thereafter, Scott said.

Cops in Wisconsin No Longer Allowed to Investigate Themselves
The Daily Sheeple - The Bell family filed a wrongful death civil suit, and six years later, received a $1.75 million settlement. They used the settlement money to fund a grassroots campaign using billboards, newspaper ads, and commercials to question whether police officers should be allowed to investigate other officers who kill citizens while on duty…The law they put forth, Wisconsin Assembly Bill 409, was signed into law by Governor Scott Walker in April. That law made Wisconsin the first state in the US to mandate that outside investigators must investigate officer-involved shootings.

The Supreme Court just made it easier for police to search your car
VOX - The Supreme Court ruled Monday that police officers can sometimes conduct a search and seizure of a car even if that search is the result of an unlawful stop. The 8-1 decision resolved a North Carolina case in which a police officer pulled over Nicholas Heien's car because his right brake light was out, even though state law requires only one functioning brake light.

Feds Graciously Agree Not to Steal Restaurateur's Bank Account
Jacob Sullum - Mrs. Lady's, Carole Hinders' Mexican restaurant in Arnolds Park, does not take credit cards, so she has a lot of cash to deposit. There is nothing illegal about that, although the Bank Secrecy Act requires financial institutions to report deposits of $10,000 or more. Deliberately keeping deposits below that threshold to avoid the reporting requirement is a crime (known as "structuring"), but Hinders was never charged with it. Instead federal prosecutors argued that her bank account had facilitated the crime of structuring, making it subject to civil forfeiture.

'Do They Know It's Christmas?' ACLU Stops School From Feeding African Orphans
NewsBusters - Thank Gaia for the ever-vigilant ACLU! Who else would have discerned the dire threat to civil liberty lurking in a California school’s effort to raise money for starving children in Africa? A middle school in San Marcos, Cal., partnered with a local charity, Friends and Family Community Connection (FFCC), to raise money to send meals to children in Tanzania – innocent enough, right? Wrong. It turns out FFCC also worked with Kids Around the World (KATW) to accomplish the same goal. KATW is [cue sinister music] a Christian charity.

Economy & Business

China, Russia Dump US Treasurys In October As Foreigners Sell Most US Stocks Since 2007
Zero Hedge - Perhaps the most notable feature of the October Treasury International Capital report is that in October foreigners sold a whopping $27.2 billion in US equities, surpassing the dump just after the first Taper Tantrum, when they sold $27.1 billion in June of 2013 when they also sold $40.8 billion in Treasurys. This was the largest selling of US corporate stocks by foreign entities since the August 2007 quant flash crash, when some $40.6 billion in US stocks were sold by offshore accounts.

Are You Really Ready for the World to be Ruled by Bankers?
Armstrong Economics - Believe it or not, Citigroup announced on Friday that it would move its headquarters from New York to the actual U.S. Capitol Building, in Washington, D.C., in early 2015. Yes! They might as well had since they got everything they wanted.. Could you imagine Citi outbid JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs to lease thirty thousand square feet of prime real estate on the floor of the House of Representatives.

4 Biggest Banks Win Big in Spending Bill
AllGov - The wide-ranging bill included a provision, the swaps push-out rule, which forced banks to relocate their risky derivatives trades to parts of their businesses that aren’t backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC). The four biggest U.S. banks, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank and Wells Fargo, have been working to get rid of this provision ever since.

Kansas Governor Proposes Using Pension Money to Cover Budget Gaps Created By His Tax Cuts
IB Times - Brownback's proposal: Slash the state’s required pension contribution by $40 million to balance the state budget. But Kansas already has one of the worst-funded pension systems in the nation. The state was also recently sanctioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission for not accurately disclosing the shortfalls.

Prairies Vanishing in the US Amid Push for Corn Ethanol-Based Energy
Dr. Mercola - A tragic irony: farmers are rapidly destroying native grasslands to grow environmentally destructive monocrops to support so-called "renewable" energy. The US boasted nearly 92 million acres of corn crops in 2014 – the fifth largest corn acreage in the US since 1944 (and 93 percent of it is genetically modified). Since the US government began requiring corn ethanol in fuel in 2007, more than 1.2 million acres of grassland have been lost to corn (and soy) crops

Unexpected Dangers Lurk in Your Pet's Food -- What to Do Now
Dr. Becker - Two years ago, I wrote about an alarming situation with the mislabeling of commercial dog food. ELISA Technologies, Inc., a laboratory in Florida, tested 21 dog food formulas for gluten and animal protein sources. The lab then compared their test results with the ingredient labels on the dog food packages, and learned that 10 of the 21 foods were mislabeled as follows...
 

---

Monday - December 15, 2014 - Today in History:

1791 - In the U.S., the first ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, went into effect following ratification by the state of Virginia.
1890 - American Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed in Grand River, SD, during an incident with Indian police working for the U.S. government.
1938 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt presided over the ground-breaking ceremonies for the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC.
1939 - "Gone With the Wind," produced by David O. Selznick based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell, premiered at Loew's Grand Theater in Atlanta. The movie starred Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable.
1941 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into practice Bill of Rights Day.
1944 - American forces invaded Mindoro Island in the Philippines.
1961 - Former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death in Jerusalem by an Israeli court. He had been tried on charges for organizing the deportation of Jews to concentration camps.
1978 - President Carter announced he would grant diplomatic recognition to Communist China on New Year's Day and sever official relations with Taiwan.
1995 - The U.N. Security Council authorized NATO to take over the peacekeeping operations in Bosnia.
1999 - Syria reopened peace talks with Israel in Washington, DC, with the mediation of U.S. President Clinton.
2000 - The Chernobyl atomic power plant in Kiev, Ukraine, was shut down.
2000 - New York Senator-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton agreed to accept an $8 million book deal with Simon & Schuster. The book was to be about her eight years in the White House. The advance was the highest ever to be paid to a member of the U.S. Congress.
2005 - Millions of Iraqis turned out to choose a parliament in a mostly peaceful election.
2009 - The Washington, D.C. City Council voted to legalize same-sex marriage.
2010 - The U.N. Security Council gave a unanimous vote of confidence to the government

World News

Siege at Sydney’s Lindt cafe: Martin Place long identified as a terrorist target
News Corp Australia - A SYDNEY court heard details of an alleged terror plot to be carried out in Martin Place in the wake of terror raids in Sydney and Melbourne in September this year. The plot involved abducting a random Australian, executing them by beheading in a public place, possibly Martin Place in Sydney’s CBD, and filming the act and posting it on social media.

Up To 40 Hostages In Sydney Financial District Coffee Shop, Jihadists Suspected; US Consulate Evacuated - Live Feed
Zero Hedge - Only weeks after Australia broke up a plan by ISIS to publicly behead a member of public, reports suggest 2 gunmen are holding up to 40 hostages at a Lindt coffee-shop in Sydney, Australia. The terrorists have shown a black jihadist flag - which is not an IS flag - and has paraded the hostages at the windows. The coffee shop is directly across the street from the Reserve Bank of Australia - which is under lockdown.

Russia Warns May Send Troops To Ukraine After Congress Unanimously Votes To Give Lethal Aid To Kiev
Zero Hedge - While the market, and America’s media, was focusing over the passage of the Cromnibus, and whether Wall Street would dump a few hundred trillion in derivatives on the laps of US taxpayers once again (it did), quietly and unanimously both houses passed The Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014, which authorizes ”providing lethal assistance to Ukraine’s military” as well as sweeping sanctions on Russia’s energy sector.

Crude Crash Set To Continue After Arab Emirates Hint $40 Oil Coming Next
Zero Hedge - UAE's Energy Minister Suhail Al-Mazrouei said OPEC will stand by its decision not to cut crude output "even if oil prices fall as low as $40 a barrel" and will wait at least three months before considering an emergency meeting.

U.N. “Peacekeepers” Use Live Ammo on Protesters
Daily Sheeple - The establishment media usually insists the United Nations is impartial and sends blue helmets to hotspots in the spirit of neutrality. This fallacy was trounced yesterday when a Jordanian “peacekeeper” opened fire with live ammo on protesters demanding the resignation of Haiti’s President Michel Martelly and Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe.

Watchdog: Radioactive Fukushima water to be cleaned, dumped into Pacific
RT - Japan’s nuclear watchdog says the radioactive water that has accumulated at the battered Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant must be decontaminated and dumped into the ocean, local media reported. The news has sparked concern from local fisherman.

Ebola news

IV ozone Ebola cure documented by Dr. Rowen, then systematically suppressed by government
(NaturalNews) Mainstream media's attention in America to the Ebola crisis in West Africa has long since wandered off, but that doesn't make the crisis any less real for the people living there.... The treatment method for African Ebola patients which Dr. Rowen and Dr. Robins taught uses direct intravenous oxygen gas, which is 99 percent oxygen (O2) and one percent ozone (O3).

Bureaucratic Ebola czar steps down from position, returns to private sector
(NaturalNews) President Obama's "Ebola czar" is stepping down from his position after a few short months on the job, a financial magazine reported recently. Fortune magazine said the 53-year-old Ron Klain, former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, will return to the private sector by March 1, following a short tenure that was nonetheless widely panned.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

YouTube: All I Want for Christmas is a Government Shutdown
Ron Paul - The political class breathed a sigh of relief Saturday when the US Senate averted a government shutdown by passing the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill. This year’s omnibus resembles omnibuses of Christmas past in that it was drafted in secret, was full of special interest deals and disguised spending increases, and was voted on before most members could read it....

Boston Authorities Complain as Cost of Protests Reaches Almost $2 million
Sputnik News - Authorities in Boston have announced that the cost of overtime pay for officers that have been policing demonstrations since late November against police brutality and the killings of unarmed black men in Missouri and New York City has reached almost $2 million, according to the Boston Herald.

“Chaptered Out”: US Military Seeks to Balance Budget on Backs of Disabled Veteran
Project Censored - The US military has been engaged in a policy of forcing wounded and disabled veterans out of service to avoid paying benefits and to make room for new able-bodied recruits. Identifying injured combat soldiers as delinquent and negligent has lead to a practice called “chaptering out” which results in those soldiers being forced to leave the military without an honorable discharge. Because of this, thousands of soldiers have been chaptered out, losing federally sponsored benefits including health care, unemployment, and educational programs.

Mysterious Death of Obama Critic and Reporter on Bin Laden’s Death and Ferguson Labeled Suicide
Daily Sheeple - Former Fox News correspondent Dominic Di-Natale was found dead in Colorado on Wednesday, the network reports. Di-Natale most recently worked as a freelancer for Fox News West Coast bureau in Los Angeles. His last day with the network was November 30. The exact cause of his death has not been released, but Fox News reports that the 43-year-old took his own life:

#ICantBreathe: Thousands march against police brutality across US (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
RT - Tens of thousands of Americans across the country joined in a massive march against the killing of unarmed black men by police. Protesters staged rallies and ‘die-ins’ under the banners ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Justice for All.’ Major cities where the rallies took place included New York, Washington, Boston, Chicago, Oakland, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

How far will cop unions go to halt reform?
U-T San Diego - The arrest this week of two ex-cop private investigators — charged with felonies related to their alleged attempt to frame a Costa Mesa city councilman for a false DUI — is about more than the disturbing tactics of two hired guns. It offers insight into the way some police unions across California intimidate political opponents into silence.

Veteran News

WWII vets in Baltic countries to receive Russian pensions
RT - The Russian government has ordered that all WWII veterans from Baltic nations who fought against Nazi Germany should receive lifelong pensions from the Russian state in the currency of their choice. Veterans in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia can choose whether they prefer to receive their money monthly from Russian banks, or twice a year by wire transfer to accounts in local banks, reads the decree published on the government web portal on Thursday.

Economy & Business

We Just Witnessed The Worst Week For Global Financial Markets In 3 Years
Economic Collapse - What we witnessed last week is being described as “a bloodbath” that was truly global in scope. The following is how Zero Hedge summarized the carnage…

Are Your Savings Safe From Bail-Ins?
Zero Hedge - The truth is that banks in most western nations are vulnerable to bail-ins in 2015 and the recent G20 meeting in Brisbane was a further move towards the stealth bail-in regimes.

So You Thought Only Gold and Silver Prices Were Rigged? (And Forex, And Libor ...)
Activist Post - Goldman Sachs and HSBC are being sued by a New York jeweler for rigging the platinum and palladium price fixes for the last eight years.... The manipulation of platinum and palladium prices can be rather lucrative, as the two metals enjoy strong industrial demand like their cousin silver, but come at a much heftier price tag: palladium spot prices are currently more than 50 times the price of silver, and platinum is about 50% more expensive than palladium.

Bank of America Ordered to Pay $1 Million for Harassing Couple with 700 Robocalls
AllGov - The Coniglios had fallen behind on their mortgage, prompting the bank to unleash their robocaller—the computer system that routinely (if not maniacally) will call customers multiple times a day about bank debts. In the Coniglios’ case, the calls were relentless … upwards of five a day over a period of four years. The total reached 700. Even after the couple won rulings in court ordering B of A to stop the calls, they just kept coming.

Deadly Fukushima radiation up 50,000% as elevated radiation levels seen across North America
(NaturalNews) Beta radiation levels are off the charts at monitoring sites all across North America, according to new reports. But experts are blaming these radiation spikes on practically everything except for Fukushima. Data gathered from tracking units in California, Arizona, Illinois and elsewhere reveal radiation levels up to 50,000 percent higher than what was observed at the same time last year, and in some cases compared to levels seen this past summer.

New Mexico Fines U.S. over Nuclear Waste Violations
AllGov - The leak exposed at least 20 workers to radiation. Citing 37 violations of hazardous waste permits, the state has thus far levied $54 million in penalties against the DOE and its contractor. It is expected to take years to clean up the facility at an estimated cost of more than half a billion dollars. Fifty WIPP staff employees have been at work in the underground facility to make an assessment of the degree of contamination and to draft a cleanup plan.

US woefully unprepared for major sun storm – report
RT - A study by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims up to 100 million Americans could lose electrical power in the event of a magnetic space storm, which would knock out the electric grid and cause other infrastructure to fail. An internal fact sheet in 2012, from the just-released DHS’ Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), noted that the damage and impact from a future solar storm isn’t known.

Science & Technology

Judge says reporter can’t get public records about cops’ “stingray” use
Ars Technica - A local judge in Arizona ruled Friday that the Tucson Police Department (TPD) does not have to disclose records related to the use of stingrays, also known as cell-site simulators, under the state’s public records act.... The devices are often used covertly by local and federal law enforcement to locate target cellphones and their respective owners. However, stingrays also sweep up cell data of innocent people nearby who have no idea that such collection is taking place. Stingrays can be used to intercept voice calls and text messages as well.

---

Friday - December 12, 2014 - Today in History:

1787 - Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1800 - Washington, DC, was established as the capital of the United States.
1870 - Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina became the first black lawmaker to be sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives.
1917 - Father Edward Flanagan opened Boys Town in Nebraska. The farm village was for wayward boys. In 1979 it was opened to girls.
1925 - The "Motel Inn," the first motel in the world, opened in San Luis Obispo, CA.
1946 - A United Nations committee voted to accept a six-block tract of Manhattan real estate to be the site of the UN's headquarters. The land was offered as a gift by John D. Rockefeller Jr.
1951 - The U.S. Navy Department announced that the world's first nuclear powered submarine would become the sixth ship to bear the name Nautilus.
1975 - Sara Jane Moore pled guilty to a charge of trying to kill U.S. President Ford in San Francisco the previous September.
1995 - The U.S. Senate stopped a constitutional amendment giving Congress authority to outlaw flag burning and other forms of desecration against the American flag.
2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court found that the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court in the 2000 U.S. Presidential election was unconstitutional. U.S. Vice President Al Gore conceded the election to Texas Gov. George W. Bush the next day.
2000 - Timothy McVeigh, over the objections of his lawyers, abandoned his final round of appeals and asked that his execution be set within 120 days. McVeigh was convicted of the April 1995 truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK, that killed 168 and injured 500.
2002 - North Korea announced that it would reactivate a nuclear power plant that U.S. officials believed was being used to develop weapons.
2009 - Houston became the largest U.S. city to elect an openly gay mayor, with voters handing a solid victory to City Controller Annise Parker.

World News

Move your arsenal! US tanks, APCs, Humvees roll through Latvia
RT - A freight train carrying a whole column of American armored vehicles has been caught on camera in Latvia. Dalbe Railway Station, where the train was reportedly spotted several days ago, is less than 300km from the Russian border.

Top Canada court rules cops don't need warrants to search cell phones
RT - In a major blow to privacy rights, the Supreme Court of Canada has decreed that police are allowed to conduct limited searches of suspects’ cellphones upon arrest, without obtaining a search warrant, though officers must follow strict guidelines… Writing for the majority, Justice Thomas Cromwell, said that the ability of law enforcement to effectively do their jobs outweighs a suspect’s right to privacy.

Rebels in northern Syria say U.S. has stopped paying them
McClatchy News - The United States has stopped paying most of the pro-western rebels fighting in northern Syria and has suspended the delivery of arms to them, rebel commanders told McClatchy Tuesday. A top civilian coordinator for rebel forces estimated that the cutoff affects 8,000 of the estimated 10,000 fighters in Idlib and Hama provinces, where the so-called moderate rebels face a severe challenge from the Nusra Front, al Qaida’s affiliate in Syria.

British ex-soldiers fighting ISIS head home, held at border as terror suspects
RT - A pair of British former soldiers, previously accused of being mercenaries after leaving the UK to help Kurdish troops fight the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), were detained at Heathrow Airport as terror suspects after flying home for Christmas. James Hughes, 26, and Jamie Read, 24, were accused of being paid mercenaries in November after it was revealed they had flown to Syria to help the battle against IS extremists.

Yuan Has Real Shot at IMF Blessing on Reserve Status
Bloomberg - China would need to satisfy the Washington-based lender’s economic benchmarks and get the support of most of the other 187 member countries. The Asian nation is likely to pass both tests, said Eswar Prasad, who until 2006 worked at the IMF… Reserve-currency status for the yuan would make central banks, particularly those in developing economies, more eager to hold yuan assets and “diversify at the margin away from dollars,” as well as euros, yen and Swiss francs, Prasad said.

Google Pulls Out The Nuclear Option: Shuts Down Google News In Spain Over Ridiculous Copyright Law
Techdirt - Back in October, we noted that Spain had passed a ridiculously bad Google News tax, in which it required any news aggregator to pay for snippets and actually went so far as to make it an "inalienable right" to be paid for snippets -- meaning that no one could choose to let any aggregator post snippets for free. Publishers have to charge any aggregator. This is ridiculous and dangerous on many levels.

Iceland Unleashes Confiscatory “Exit Tax” On Wealth Deposits
Zero Hedge - While on the one hand, Iceland’s decision to inch towards lifting its capital controls is a positive step, it appears what they give with one hand they are taking with another.... Iceland plans to impose an exit tax as part of removing capital controls, anticipating all bank assets will be subject to the levy, regardless of whether assets are held in local (ISK) or foreign exchange.

This Greenpeace Stunt May Have Irreparably Damaged Peru's Nazca Site
George Dvorsky - The Peruvian government is planning to file criminal charges against Greenpeace activists who may have permanently scarred the Nazca Lines World Heritage Site during a publicity stunt… The ground around the site is so sensitive and so sacred that Peru has even forbidden presidents and top officials to walk where the Greenpeace activists went.

Ebola news

American nurse exposed to Ebola arrives at treatment center
(Reuters) - An American nurse who was exposed to Ebola while volunteering in an Ebola treatment unit in Sierra Leone arrived at the National Institutes of Health's Clinical Center in Maryland on Thursday, NIH said in a statement. The nurse was transferred to the Bethesda facility via a private medical evacuation flight. NIH did not release any further information on the nurse, including when he or she might have been exposed to the virus, current medical condition or affiliation.

Sierra Leone puts district on ‘lockdown’ after surge in Ebola cases
Al Jazeera - Sierra Leone ordered a “lockdown” for the eastern district of Kono on Wednesday after health workers sent there to investigate an alarming spike in deaths from Ebola uncovered a grim scene: piles of bodies, overwhelmed medical personnel and exhausted burial teams. "In 11 days, two teams buried 87 bodies, including a nurse, an ambulance driver and a janitor who had been drafted into removing bodies piled up at the only area hospital," the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement Wednesday night.

Ebola vaccine trial suspended for checks after joint pains
The Guardian - A clinical trial of an Ebola vaccine has been suspended in all 59 volunteers in Geneva a week early “as a measure of precaution” after four patients complained of joint pains in hands and feet, the University of Geneva hospital said.... The human safety trials of the vaccine being developed by the pharmaceutical firms Merck and NewLink are scheduled to resume on 5 January in up to 15 volunteers after checks to ensure that the joint pain symptoms were “benign and temporary”, the hospital added.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Ferguson protesters win injunction to stop cops using tear gas
MSNBC News - A federal judge ruled Thursday that police can no longer use tear gas on protesters without declaring an illegal assembly, giving them fair warning and time to vacate the area. The temporary restraining order comes just weeks after the last rounds of heavy protest in Ferguson in response to a St. Louis County grand jury’s decision not to indict the police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown Jr.

Undercover cop, discovered by activists at Oakland protest, pulls gun on crowd
PrivacySOS - Protesters at the scene reported on Twitter that the cop pulled his gun after he was 'outed' as an undercover. One person tweeted that the undercovers were "instigators of looting," while another said they were "banging on windows." After they were unmasked, one of the cops drew his baton and then pulled a gun on the crowd.

University bans Christmas on campus to ‘respect diversity,’ but students aren’t buying it!
BizPac Review - The University of Maine has banned Christmas and Hanukkah decorations from the campus, according to Campus Reform.... The university defended its position in a statement saying that the rules are in place to “respect diversity,” which is hard to believe as the directive bans diverse religious symbols.

Obama Accepts Decision Not to Prosecute CIA Officers: White House
Sputnik News - President Barack Obama agrees with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) finding that CIA officers involved in enhanced interrogation should not be prosecuted, White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said.

Cheney says he would do it again, emails show CIA officers troubled
End the Lie - The response to the now-infamous CIA “torture report” released Tuesday has been mixed, with former Vice President Dick Cheney saying he would do it all over again if he had to and Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) defending the report.

All Senate Republican Staffers To Sign Up For Obamacare
Zero Hedge - if it was so good for the general population, then why are most Congressional staffers exempt from its provisions? That is about to change after Senate Republican staffers will be required to obtain health insurance through ObamaCare's exchanges under a rule passed Wednesday by the GOP Conference.

Army building an airport just for drones
DefenseSystems - The Army’s ever-growing use of unmanned aerial systems has gotten to the point where two of the most commonly used UAS are getting their own airport. The service’s Corps of Engineers at Fort Worth, Texas, has awarded a $33 million contract to SGS to build a 150-acre unmanned aircraft launch and recovery complex at Fort Bliss for Gray Eagle and Shadow UAS

Sheriff Joe scores victory against Obama’s amnesty
WND - A judge has sided with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the first clash in what is expected to be a major court fight over the legality – or not – of Barack Obama’s looming amnesty program, ordering a fast track for case arguments and hearings. The announcement came on Wednesday from U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell in Washington, and granted a motion from Arpaio’s attorney, Larry Klayman of FreedomWatch, to move things along quickly

VIDEO: Trapped Whittier Couple Underscores Need for Local Network
Liberty Crier - Forty-minutes after learning that a family friend was hospitalized, a Whittier, California couple found their apartment surrounded by men with guns who ordered the couple to obey their commands. This incident showcases the inherently coercive “service” of police institutions, and the value in developing robust, decentralized networks....

YouTube: Truth in Media: The Root of Police Militarization
Ben Swann takes a look at the root of police militarization and why even if military equipment is removed from police departments across the nation, militarization will not come to an end.
* Related Video: Ben Swann inadvertently proves there are no good cops

Economy & Business

US Government Secures Funding Through September 2015 After Passage Of Spending Bill
Zero Hedge - And with just over 2 hours left until the funding deadline, and amid high straght to C-SPAN drama, the Crominus bill has passed thus funding the government until September 2015. And with that, Wall Street wins again because with the swap pushout rule, a few hundred trillion in derivatives will get taxpayer backing.

$1 trillion spending bill barely hangs on in first test vote
Washington Times - The $1.1 trillion spending bill narrowly survived its first test Thursday... Senate Democrats were pleading for the bill’s passage, saying it was the best deal possible in divided government, but a House Democratic leader said the bill was so bad it would “fundamentally change our republic” because it altered campaign finance laws and made changes to how banks can trade derivatives.

This Is What Americans Will Spend Their Whopping $380 In “Low Gas Price Savings” On
Zero Hedge - Sadly, it is neither trinkets, nor gadgets, nor BigMacs, nor even surging cell phone and home internet bills. Unfortunately for the proponents of the “oil crash is unquestionably bullish for America” (as an aside, the falacy of a statement is directly proportional to how “unquestionable” it is), where the bulk of “savings” for those Americans who have to spend on gas (primarily those Americans who commute to work, i.e. the middle class) is… on Obamacare.

How Wal-Mart Fabricated And Lied About Its "Strong" Chinese Sales For Years
Zero Hedge - ...as Bloomberg explains, "After years of heralding China as one of its best markets, Wal-Mart in August said its performance there was among the worst in its major countries." How is that possible? Read on to find out how Wal-Mart fabricated, lied and misled investors for years using every single trick in the book and then some.

Full scale of plastic in the world's oceans revealed for first time
The Guardian - More than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes, are floating in the world’s oceans, causing damage throughout the food chain, new research has found. Data collected by scientists from the US, France, Chile, Australia and New Zealand suggests a minimum of 5.25tn plastic particles in the oceans, most of them “micro plastics” measuring less than 5mm.... Large pieces of plastic can strangle animals such as seals, while smaller pieces are ingested by fish and then fed up the food chain, all the way to humans.

---

Thursday - December 11, 2014 - Today in History:

1816 - Indiana was admitted to the Union as the 19th American state.
1844 - Dr. Horace Wells became the first person to have a tooth extracted after receiving an anesthetic for the dental procedure. Nitrous Oxide, or laughing gas, was the anesthetic.
1872 - Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback became America's first black governor when he took office as acting governor of Louisiana.
1930 - The Bank of the United States in New York failed.
1941 - Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The U.S in turn declared war on the two countries.
1946 - The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established by the U.N. General Assembly. The fund provides relief to children in countries devastated by war.
1961 - The first direct American military support for South Vietnam occurred when a U.S. aircraft carrier carrying Army helicopters arrived in Saigon.
1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed into law legislation creating $1.6 billion environmental "superfund" that would be used to pay for cleaning up chemical spills and toxic waste dumps.
1985 - The U.S. House of Representatives joined the U.S. Senate by giving final congressional approval to the Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law.
1985 - General Electric Company agreed to buy RCA Corporation for $6.3 billion. Also included in the deal was NBC Radio and Television.
1998 - Majority Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee pushed through three articles of impeachment against U.S. President Clinton.
2001 - U.S. Attorney General Ashcroft announced the first federal indictment directly related to the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11.
2001 - It was announced that U.S. President George W. Bush would withdraw the U.S. from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia.
2001 - Federal agents seized computers in 27 U.S. cities as part of "Operation Buccaneer." The raids were used to gain evidence against an international software piracy ring.
2002 - A congressional report found that intelligence agencies before Sept. 11, 2001, were poorly organized, poorly equipped and slow to pursue clues that might have prevented that day's terrorist attacks.
2008 - Bernard Madoff was arrested, accused of running a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. (He later pleaded guilty and is serving 150 years in prison.)

World News

Taliban Using Jihadist Textbooks…Supplied by the U.S.
AllGov - As part of the U.S. campaign to undermine Soviet control over the country, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) oversaw the creation of school books in local Afghan languages that taught children how to become jihadists. The books, such as The Alphabet for Jihad Literacy, were produced for USAID by the University of Nebraska Omaha…

US Navy Deploys Laser Weapon System in Persian Gulf
Sputnik News - The US Navy successfully deployed and operated, for the first time, a cutting-edge ship-based laser weapon system aboard a naval vessel in the Persian Gulf that will enhance both surface, air and ground capabilities, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) announced.

Preemptive nuclear strike omitted from Russia’s new military doctrine - reports
RT - The new draft of the Russian military doctrine doesn’t provide for the possibility of a preemptive nuclear strike, news agencies report quoting unnamed sources in the Defense Ministry. “The renewed draft of the military doctrine would not have a reservation for preventive nuclear strikes on potential enemy. Article 198 of the document is very precise on the conditions under which Russia can use the nuclear weapons,” a person involved in the preparation of the new doctrine told the Interfax on Wednesday.

Russia can completely do away with foreign food imports 'mid-term' - PM
RT - In a couple of years Russia will be able to substitute 100 percent of “unnecessary” food imports, Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said during a live TV interview Wednesday.

Snowden Says No Longer Has Access to Classified Information
Sputnik News - US whistleblower Edward Snowden said Wednesday that he no longer has access to any classified information and that all of it has been provided to journalists. “I don’t have access to any classified information anymore. I destroyed my own access in the wake of Hong Kong. Everything had been provided to the journalists,” Snowden during an online conference with Amnesty International France.

In Austerity-Weary Ireland, Having to Pay for Water Is the Last Straw
Bloomberg - For many Irish, being charged for the Emerald Isle’s plentiful water is “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” as one protester told the Irish Times on Wednesday. Succeeding governments have imposed €30 billion in spending cuts and tax increases since 2008, including painful sacrifices demanded by international lenders who bailed the country out in 2010. The water billing plan is one of the last such demands to be put in place.

‘Die-in’ for Eric Garner: Hundreds shut down mall, block streets in London protest
RT - A crowd of people stormed a London mall, blockaded roads, and shouted slogans in an anti-police brutality demonstration against a Staten Island grand jury’s decision not to indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo for Eric Garner’s death on December 4.

Ebola news

US military converting transport planes to carry wave of infected Ebola victims to the U.S.
(NaturalNews) As most Americans know, the president has ordered thousands of U.S. troops to Ebola-plagued West Africa, a move that critics have said not only misappropriates American military personnel but also put their lives needlessly at risk -- though so far, no reports of American servicemen or women being sickened by Ebola have surfaced. Now, it appears as though the U.S. Air Force has been ordered to modify scarce transport planes to be able to transport patients stricken with the deadly virus.

US agency offers legal immunity to Ebola vaccine makers
Fox News - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday offered liability protections to drugmakers rushing to develop Ebola vaccines and urged other countries to follow suit. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell made the announcement as part of the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act in a move aimed at encouraging the development and availability of experimental Ebola vaccines.

House Speaker John Boehner has decided to give President Barack Obama $5.4 billion to fight Ebola around the world and at home
Breitbart - The 1,603-page omnibus spending bill Boehner’s House GOP leadership team introduced on Tuesday after 8 p.m. includes, according to a summary document GOP leadership published, $5.4 billion “to fight Ebola in the U.S. and abroad.” The text of the legislation has the word “Ebola” on at least 16 separate pages, a search of the document shows. The money is going to the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, and State—each of which will be getting millions upon millions of dollars.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Congress Passes Bill Which Grants “Unlimited Access to Communications of Every American”
Paul Joseph Watson - According to Congressman Justin Amash, Congress just passed a bill which grants the government and law enforcement “unlimited access to the communications of every American”. When the Michigan lawmaker discovered that the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY 2015 had been amended with a provision that authorizes “the acquisition, retention, and dissemination” of all communications data from U.S. citizens, he desperately attempted to organize a roll call vote on the bill.

CIA paid 2 torture experts $81mn for their 'unique expertise'
RT - The so-called “Torture Report” released this week contains startling facts about the ways in which the CIA treated detainees. Also included, though, are details about the agency’s pricey contracts with those who designed the program described therein.

GOP Cuts Spending Deal: Yes on Obama's Amnesty (Thru At Least Feb. 27); No on Light Bulb Regulation
CNS News - The Republican leadership in the House of Representatives has cut a deal with Senate Democrats on a government funding bill that will permit funding for the implementation of President Obama's unilateral amnesty of as many as five million illegal aliens through at least Feb. 27, 2015. By contrast, the bill also uses Congress's power of the purse to prohibit the administration from moving forward with regulations that would effectively outlaw incandescent light bulbs.

Lawsuit: Cops Confiscate Guns From Home After False Arrest
Kit Daniels - After falsely arresting a concealed carry permit holder nearly four months ago, Bakersfield, Calif., police confiscated all the guns from his home and never returned them, according to a lawsuit filed this week. The permit holder, former vice principal Kent Williams, was arrested at Tevis Junior High School on Aug. 28 for carrying on campus despite state law exempting concealed carry permit holders.

Cop Finally Fired After Refusing to Turn on Body Camera When He Shot Woman
Counter Current News - An investigation that began back in April determined that Officer Jeremy Dear’s camera was intentionally disabled right before he shot and killed Mary Hawkes, 19. Now, Albuquerque Police Chief Eden has fired Officer Dear, as part of what is being called a “zero tolerance” policy on police camera use during citizen interactions.

Watch What Happened When Two Thugs Started a Gunfight With a 74-Year-Old Woman
Paul Joseph Watson - A 74-year-old woman came out on top of a gunfight with two criminal thugs after they tried to rob her pawn shop in Springdale, Arkansas this past weekend, but was subsequently blamed by her neighbor for daring to defend herself.

Missouri Legislation Will Change Constitution to Allow Vote on Marijuana Legalization
Activist Post - The Missouri state legislature will consider a constitutional amendment that would allow the voters to decide on the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes during the 2015 session, effectively nullifying the unconstitutional federal prohibition of the same. House Joint Resolution 15 (HJR15) was pre-filed on Dec. 5 by State Rep. Brandon Ellington (D-Kansas City). It will be introduced officially in early 2015. If it is passed through the state house and then the state senate, it becomes a ballot initiative that would go before the voters in Nov. 2016.

Congress to block marijuana legalization in DC
RT - The Republican-led US House is using a crucial spending bill in an effort to block legalization of recreational marijuana in Washington, DC, where a ballot initiative last month received nearly 70-percent support.

Economy & Business

14 Facts That Prove That The Number Of Children Living In Poverty This Christmas Is At A Record High
Economic Collapse - Did you know that 65 percent of all children in the United States live in a home that receives aid from the federal government? We live at a time when child poverty in America is exploding.

Why Is The US Treasury Quietly Ordering “Surival Kits” For US Bankers?
Zero Hedge - The Department of Treasury is spending $200,000 on survival kits for all of its employees who oversee the federal banking system, according to a new solicitation. As Free Beacon reports, survival kits will be delivered to every major bank in the United States and includes a solar blanket, food bar, water-purification tablets, and dust mask (among other things). The question, obviously, is just what do they know that the rest of us don’t?

Rain, Winds Hit Northern California Ahead of Heavy Storm
Sputnik News - The storm is expected to be one of the windiest and rainiest in five years and could cause landslides, especially in areas hit by this year’s wildfires. Big waves are expected along the coast.

British Company Offers No Reassurance to Concerns of Proposal to Release GM Mosquitoes in U.S.
Activist Post - Last Thursday, a town hall meeting at Harvey Government Center in Key West drew a large crowd that erupted in opposition to a proposal to release genetically modified mosquitoes this coming Spring. It's a proposal from a seemingly strange choice - the United Kingdom.

Facebook AI ‘mediator’ will analyze every upload…to warn against drunk selfies?
RT - Facebook says it is developing artificial intelligence that will not just monitor – but will also understand – every single action you make on the social network, so that it can guide and control your online behavior.

Mark of the Beast: Microchips ‘Trending’ to Become Essential Keeper of Passwords and Digital Currency
Mac Slavo - Many see microchips becoming not only mandatory under an Orwellian super-surveillance state – but utterly indispensable to modern life, as dozens of hard-to-remember passwords, payments and transactions for online business and leisure become not just commonplace but overwhelming and pervasive. The chip might become too necessary not to take. How will you keep track of all your online keys, and how will they know you are who you say you are?

FDA admits overused agricultural antibiotic poses a 'high public health risk'
(NaturalNews) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has labeled ceftiofur, a potent antibiotic used in agriculture, a "high public health risk," agriculture, a "high public health risk," according to a Reuters report. The warning was issued due to the frequency of misuse by cattle and dairy farmers which has created a threat to human health.

Good News for Organic Farming -- Berkeley Study Says Productivity Higher Than Previously Thought
Natural Blaze - Organic farming is of course environmentally and socially sound, but many critics have argued it simply cannot compete with industrial farming which uses chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and even genetically modified crops. However, a new study conducted by UC Berkeley challenges that notion, proving the gap between organic and industrial cultivation is not only smaller than previously thought, but most likely can be closed or exceeded with proper research and development.

Health

Triclosan found to induce liver cancer in scientific study
(NaturalNews) The evidence continues to mount regarding the harmful health effects of triclosan, an antimicrobial agent found in many consumer care products, including toothpaste. Despite industry claims that the chemical is totally safe, the results of a new study performed by UC Davis scientists beg to differ. A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed in 2012 revealed that Colgate-Palmolive Co. conspired with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to deliberately withhold research on the safety of triclosan in the 1990s.

Big Pharma labs routinely delete toxic drugs' failed test results, then ship them to US customers
(NaturalNews) One of the problems with pharmaceuticals (as opposed to most natural remedies) is the fact that, whenever you swallow a pill or receive an injection, you are forced to place your trust in whoever manufactured the medication.

The Fight Against Water Fluoridation Continues
Stuart Cooper - The fluoride-free movement has continued to grow throughout the world at a staggering pace. We have had more than 400 communities around the world end existing fluoridation programs or reject new efforts to fluoridate either by council vote or citizen referendum since 1990. In 2014 alone, we’ve confirmed that at least 30 communities providing water to more than 9,961,111 residents rejected or ended fluoridation. Some of 2014’s victories include...

6 Ways to help your body detoxify
(NaturalNews) When you choose to do a cleanse or detox, your goal is to rid the body of as many toxins as possible. ?Pathogens, parasites, heavy metals, chemicals, and Candida are all targeted for elimination.? A really good detox diet helps to cleanse the digestive tract, the kidneys, the liver, and the gallbladder, followed by the rest of the body. So what other actions can you take to help the process?

The health benefits of 5 holiday herbs and spices
(NaturalNews) When we enter that time of year where it cools down and friends and families start gathering together to celebrate the holidays, one can't help but smile with anticipation of the sights and smells of various holiday spices. These aromatic and delicious additions to beverages, baking, and other holiday treats are irresistible.

Virgin Coconut Oil More Effective than Drugs in Combating Stress and Depression
Green Med Info - Is it time for a new paradigm in mental health? Are non-drugs, like virgin coconut oil, a safer and more effective alternative to stress and depression? A new study conducted in Malaysia looked at the effects of consuming high-antioxidant virgin coconut oil on mental health.... Their results were quite impressive, and suggest that using a high quality virgin coconut oil can rival antidepressant drugs without the dangerous side effects.

The 11 Most Significant Factors Guaranteed To Depress Your Immune System
M.Chan - From our environment, to our food, medicine and lifestyle, we are surrounded by things that depress our immune system. Knowing the culprits can make a big difference in how long and how often you encounter illness.

The 4 Worst Fast Food ‘Ingredients’ They Don’t Tell You About
Natural Society - Remember back when Burger King was found to be secretly selling horse meat? It sounded concerning at the time, but the reality is that horse meat may be the least of your worries when it comes to dining out on fast food. In fact, some of the ‘meat’ you believe to be eating in the first place may actually be derived from a host of synthetic junk. And that’s just for starters.

FDA: Reusable Menstrual Pads to be Subject to $4000 a Year in Extortion Fees
Natural Blaze - The FDA has decided that reusable menstrual pads are Class I Medical Devices. That means those who manufacture these products must pay an annual fee of THREE TO FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS to continue doing so.

Pet News

The Choice of Last Resort When Traveling with Your Pet
Dr. Becker - Before you make travel or care arrangements for your cherished pet, learn about the safe and not-so-safe options for them, because a tragic event in 2010 showed what can go wrong. Here's what you should know before making this potentially devastating decision.

 

---

Wednesday - December 10, 2014 - Today in History:

1817 - Mississippi was admitted to the Union as the 20th American state.
1869 - Women were granted the right to vote in the Wyoming Territory.
1898 - A treaty was signed in Paris that officially ended the Spanish-American War. Also, Cuba became independent of Spain.
1901 - The first Nobel prizes were awarded.
1906 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
1941 - Japan invaded the Philippines.
1941 - The Royal Naval battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk by Japanese aircraft in the Battle of Malaya.
1953 - Hugh Hefner published the first "Playboy" magazine with an investment of $7,600.
1958 - The first domestic passenger jet flight took place in the U.S. when 111 passengers flew from New York to Miami on a National Airlines Boeing 707.
1990 - The U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved Norplant, a long-acting contraceptive implant.
1995 - The first U.S. Marines arrived in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo to join NATO soldiers sent to enforce peace in the former Yugoslavia.
1996 - South Africa's President Mandela signed into law a new democratic constitution, completing the country's transition from white-minority rule to a non-racial democracy.
1998 - Six astronauts opened the doors to the new international space station 250 miles above the Earth's surface.
1999 - After three years under suspicion of being a spy for China, computer scientist Wen Ho Lee was arrested. He was charged with removing secrets from the Los Alamos weapons lab. Lee later pled guilty to one count of downloading restricted data to tape and was freed. The other 58 counts were dropped.
2003 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld new restrictions on political advertising in the weeks before an election. The court did strike down two provisions of the new law that involved a ban on political contributions from those too young to vote and a limitation on some party spending. (McConnell v. FEC, 02-1674)
2003 - The U.S. barred firms based in certain countries, opponents of the Iraq war, from bidding on Iraqi reconstruction projects. The ban did not prevent companies from winning subcontracts.
2007 - Cristina Fernandez was sworn in as Argentina's first elected female president.
2009 - President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with a humble acknowledgment of his scant accomplishments and a robust defense of the U.S. at war.

World News

Report: Islamic State Claims ‘Radioactive Device’ Now in Europe
Free Beacon - An alleged weapons maker for the Islamic State (IS) claimed that a “radioactive device” has been smuggled into an undisclosed location in Europe, according to an intelligence brief released Monday by the SITE Intelligence Group. “A Radioactive Device has entered somewhere in Europe,” according Twitter user Muslim-Al-Britani, who claims to be a freelance jihadist weapons maker now working alongside IS (also known as ISIL or ISIS), according to tweets captured and disseminated by SITE.

Ukraine Needs Additional $15Bln to Avoid Financial Collapse: IMF
Sputnik News - A 7 percent drop in Ukraine’s gross domestic product (GDP) and a disruption of exports to Russia, the country’s biggest trading partner, have contributed to the fiscal gap, the newspaper stated Tuesday, adding that those factors have led to large capital outflows and a rundown in central bank reserves. Before the start of political unrest in the eastern Ukraine, those regions accounted for around 16 percent of the country's economic output.

OPEC ‘effectively dissolved’; oil will slide to $50 - Bank of America
RT - OPEC has lost its competence, as it failed to stabilize oil prices at the last meeting, according to Bank of America. It warns oil will slide to $50 a barrel leading to wild prices, where only rich Middle East states like Saudi Arabia will benefit.

US Naval Expansion in Spain to Protect Europe From Iran: DoD
Sputnik News - Doubling of the US fleet at the Rota base in Spain is aimed at protecting Europe against potential Iranian missile attacks, US Department of Defense (DoD) spokesperson told Sputnik Tuesday.... The spokesperson added that these assets will help “maximize their [US and NATO’s] operational flexibility for missions in the Atlantic and Mediterranean,” and will allow the United States to conduct a wide range of naval activities, including missile defense, deterrence and the ability to support NATO and US missions, exercises and engagements.

Sanctioned Russian banks begin testing national payment system next week
RT - Russia’s Rossiya and SMP banks, which fell under Western sanctions, are among the eight lenders that will start testing the country’s new national payment system on December 15.... The move comes as a part of Russia’s ambitious initiative to move away from the Western dominance of its financial markets. Last month the Russian Central Bank said it would have its own international inter-bank payment system, an alternative to the global SWIFT network up and running by May 2015.

Palestine officially granted ICC observer status
RT - The International Criminal Court has officially granted Palestinians observer status at a meeting of the 122 member countries. This is a pivotal step on the way to Mahmoud Abbas’s strategy to press war crimes charges against Israel. It is still unclear if Palestine can actually sue Israel, because the court’s judicial body has not recognized it as a state. Abbas is planning to pursue a full membership to the court if the UN Security Council fails to act on the proposed resolution to compel Israel to withdraw and cease all activity beyond the pre-1967 demarcation line.

Netherlands rejects MH17 relatives' request for UN investigation
RT - The Netherlands has rejected a demand to allow the UN to replace Dutch experts at the helm of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 investigation. The proposal was made by relatives of the plane's passengers. The law firm that represents 20 relatives from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and the US filed a letter request for “the UN to appoint a special envoy to take over” the inquiries on Friday, Reuters reported.

Ebola news

WHO Admits Relaxed Attitude Triggered June Ebola Spread in West Africa
Sputnik News - WHO General-Director Margaret Chan said it was the relaxed attitude within the international community that resulted in worsening of the Ebola outbreak this summer. According to December 3 estimates by WHO, the total number of confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of the Ebola virus has exceeded 17,000, with over 6,000 deaths reported.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

US Justice Department Refuses to Resume Torture Investigation
Sputnik News - The Justice Department rejected the prosecution of CIA officers on the ground that "the admissible evidence would not be sufficient to obtain and sustain convictions beyond a reasonable doubt." The decision, passed on Tuesday, led to renewed discussions about possible penal measures for those responsible for the use of inhumane practices against detainees of the notorious US prison.

CIA Torture Report: Top 10 Enhanced Interrogation Techniques
Sputnik News - CNN has singled out ten most shocking interrogation techniques, used by the CIA in its Detention and Interrogation Program, launched in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Hush money: CIA paid Poland to host its secret prisons and detainees
RT - The CIA paid at least a million dollars to Poland for it to host secret prisons, where it incarcerated alleged 9/11 terror suspects, according to the recent US torture report. Warsaw had initially tried to halt the transfer of suspects, but after a generous offer, it suddenly became more “flexible.”

Obama Admits Amnesty Is For Many More Than 5 Million
Daily Caller - The confession contradicts his many suggestions, and many media reports, that his Nov. 21 amnesty covers only 5 million illegal immigrants whose children have citizenship or green cards. In practice, the president is allowing all 12 million illegals who have not committed major felonies or who are not terrorists, to illegally stay and compete for work against lower-wage Americans and American professionals.

Kentucky Residents Complain of Low Flying Military Choppers During Government ‘Alert’
Paul Joseph Watson - Kentucky residents flooded the Laurel Co. Sheriff Department’s Facebook page with complaints about low flying military helicopters which coincided with a government “emergency alert” sent to thousands of people’s cellphones yesterday.

VIDEO: Police Stupidity Leads to Handcuffed Man’s Drowning Death
The Daily Sheeple - On May 31, 20-year-old Brandon Ellingson was stopped by a Missouri Highway Patrol officer for suspicion of boating while intoxicated. The events that followed Brandon’s arrest are shocking, horrible, and tragic.

Illinois General Assembly just passed a bill that would prevent citizens from recording the police
Illinois Policy - The bill would make it a felony to surreptitiously record any “private conversation,” which it defines as any “oral communication between 2 or more persons,” where at least one person involved had a “reasonable expectation” of privacy. When does the person you’re talking to have a reasonable expectation of privacy? The bill doesn’t say. And that’s not something an ordinary person can be expected to figure out.

Senate accuses CIA of torturing prisoners, overstepping legal boundaries
RT - The intelligence committee of the United States Senate has released its long-awaited congressional report detailing the CIA’s use of torture on prisoners in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. On Tuesday, the executive summary of the roughly 6,000-page report was finally published by the Senate Intelligence Committee, for the first time exposing the panel’s findings following a four-year-long investigation conducted at a cost of more than $40 million.

UN Expert Calls for Prosecution of US Officials After CIA Torture Report
Sputnik News - Those responsible for the torture, detailed in the CIA secret interrogation report, published by the US Senate Committee on Tuesday, should be prosecuted for crimes, UN Special Rapporteur on counter terrorism and human rights Ben Emmerson said.

Ex-CIA Operative Says Prison Was Punishment for Whistleblowing on Torture
ABC News - Former CIA officer John Kiriakou is the only CIA employee connected to its interrogation program to go to prison. But he was prosecuted for providing information to reporters, not for anything connected to waterboarding or other actions that today’s Senate Intelligence Committee report calls “torture.”

More than 150 detained in California as police killing protests reignite
RT - Some 150 people have been arrested in California as protests spilled into a third night, after decisions not to charge white police officers for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner prompted outcries about the use of force on minorities. Protests in Berkley involved more than a thousand people, several hundred of whom stormed a major California freeway on Monday night, blocking it off and holding traffic up.

Great Timing: Marines to Train in Downtown L.A. Starting Friday, Raids in Several “Undisclosed Locations”
Daily Sheeple - Starting Friday and extending through December 16, Marines from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit at Camp Pendleton will be training in Los Angeles “in preparation for a deployment” which includes flying as many as six military helicopters over the downtown area and conducting raids at multiple “undisclosed locations” that will be “off limits to the public for safety reasons,” CBS News is reporting.

The Most Violent Police Force in U.S.: Albuquerque, New Mexico
AllGov - Alan Gomez is one of 27 people killed by Albuquerque police in just four years. Forty more have been wounded in that period. “In a city of just over 540,000, the body count is staggering. Indeed, the rate of officer-involved shootings by Albuquerque police is eight times that of the NYPD and two times higher than in Chicago, a megalopolis with one of the steepest levels of violent crime in the country,” according to Blumenthal.

When Cops Lose Civil Rights Violation Judgments, They Don’t Pay the Damages
AllGov - Joanna Schwartz, an assistant professor at UCLA law school, Schwartz reviewed data on police civil rights settlements from 44 large and 37 small or midsized police departments from 2006 to 2011. In 9,225 cases from large cities, officers paid only .02% of the settlements, or $171,300 out of $735 million. In the small or midsized cities, officers didn’t pay any of the $9.4 million awarded to victims. “Taxpayers almost always satisfy both compensatory and punitive damages awards entered against their sworn servants,”...

Economy & Business

Not Just Oil: Guess What Happened The Last Time Commodity Prices Crashed Like This?…
Economic Collapse - It isn’t just the price of oil that is collapsing. The last time commodity prices were this low was during the immediate aftermath of the last financial crisis. The Bloomberg Commodity Index fell to 110.4571 on Monday – the lowest that it has been since April 2009. Just like junk bonds, industrial commodities are a very reliable leading indicator.

VIDEO: Washington pay-by-mile pilot program approval expected
King5 News - The Washington State Transportation Commission is expected to approve a pilot project designed to charge drivers for every mile they travel on public roads. A Road Usage Charge would eventually replace the gas tax in Washington State, which has brought in less revenue with more hybrid and electric vehicles using less gas. A GPS device would track miles driven and charge accordingly. Testing would begin in 2016.

President Obama charges taxpayers $1.7 MILLION for one-night hotel stay at G20 summit in Australia
The Daily Mail - The cost is said to have covered 4,096 rooms at three separate hotels for his entourage of security guards and assistants on November 15.... The revelation from The Weekly Standard comes just eight months after MailOnline revealed Americans footed Obama's $2.9 million bill for hotels and rental cars in Brussels. The president's own room was the most expensive of all the world leaders at the summit as he based himself at the $2,000 (AUS$2,500) a night Marriott Hotel.

40% of Americans Live Paycheck To Paycheck (Up From 30% In 2012)
Zero Hedge - Nothing screams economic recovery like 2 out of every 5 Americans living paycheck to paycheck. Especially when that number has reportedly increased by 33% since 2012. Perhaps someone should inform these destitute plebs that the stock market is up nearly 45% over the past two years, and after all, nothing says economic success like the 0.01% enriching themselves via fraud and financial engineering.

Watchdog Report: IRS Paid Out More Than $20 Billion in Erroneous Low-Income Tax Credits
Breitbart - The Internal Revenue Service paid out $14.5 billion in erroneous Earned Income Tax Credit payments and between $5.9 billion and $7.1 billion in improper Additional Child Tax Credit payments in Fiscal Year 2013, according to a new government watchdog report.

Somebody Is Manipulating the Numbers: ‘In The Realm Of Economics A Change Of This Magnitude Is A Collapse’
Mac Slavo - According to the U.S. government the American economy grew at an astounding 3.8% last quarter, signaling to many that the recession responsible for wiping out trillions in wealth and millions of jobs over the last six years is finally over. But is it? According to the X22 Report, something just doesn’t seem right....

Is Electromagnetic Radiation Killing You?
Activist Post - A mountain of evidence continues to be compiled showing that WiFi and other EMFs are causing biological harm, most especially to pregnant women and young children.... The film below, entitled Is Your Cell Phone Killing You? looks at perhaps the most pervasive source, but gives a full overview of electromagnetic radiation emitted in our modern world. The compelling new scientific research in this film looks at some of the specific consequences ranging from depression and miscarriage to Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.

California: Worst Drought in 1,200 years
Daily Sheeple - It’s now drier in California than during the 1930s dustbowl and the historic droughts of the 1970s and 1980s, a study published by the American Geophysical Union said. The scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and the University of Minnesota used tree rings to reconstruct the Golden State’s temperature and precipitation history back to 800 A.D., Washington Post reports.

Feds say cleaning up most contaminated nuclear weapons site in US is too costly
RT - The United States government recently argued in court filings that the state of Washington’s request of $18 billion over 14 years to address the nation’s most polluted nuclear weapons production site should be rejected based on expense. The US Department of Justice said in a court filing on Friday that the cost of the state’s proposal for a hastened cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation would cast into doubt other nuclear projects funded by the Department of Energy.

The Real Cost of Fracking: How America’s Shale Gas Boom Is Threatening Our Families, Pets, and Food
Green Med Info - Many fracking chemicals are known carcinogens, endocrine disruptors or other classes of toxins (Colborn et al. 2011). Bamberger and Oswald's studies, carried out during the ongoing fracking boom, uncovered serious adverse effects including respiratory, reproductive, and growth-related problems in animals and a spectrum of symptoms in humans that they termed "shale gas syndrome".

Pet food is allowed the privilege to “cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent disease” at FDA’s ‘enforcement discretion’
Susan Thixton - FDA gives pet food this legal loophole privilege with the requirement that prescription pet foods (foods that can “cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent disease”) can only be sold by veterinarians and “labeling and promotional materials with any disease claims for the product is limited so that it is provided only to veterinary professionals.” We can assume the FDA forgot to tell the numerous websites that sell prescription pet foods about those disease claims…

Open letter to the TV personality Meredith Vieira – hoping she’ll stop feeding her dog Jasper ‘as seen on TV’ treats
Susan Thixton - I heard you say it on a recent show – that Jasper loves Pup-Peroni. Have you ever wondered what is in that treat? Here are the ingredients from the original Beef Flavor Pup-Peroni… Beef, Meat By-products, Soy Grits, Sugar, Liver, Salt, Propylene Glycol, Garlic Powder, Caramel Color, Natural Smoke Flavor, Potassium Sorbate (Used as a Preservative), Sodium Nitrite (for Color Retention), Red 40, BHA (Used as a Preservative), Onion Extract.

---

Tuesday - December 9, 2014 - Today in History:

1783 - The first executions at Newgate Prison took place.
1803 - The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress. With the amendment Electors were directed to vote for a President and for a Vice-President rather than for two choices for President.
1907 - Christmas Seals went on sale for the first time, in the Wilmington, DE, post office.
1940 - During World War II, British troops opened their first major offensive in North Africa.
1941 - China declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy.
1958 - In Indianapolis, IN, Robert H.W. Welch Jr. and 11 other men met to form the anti-Communist John Birch Society.
1975 - U.S. President Gerald R. Ford signed a $2.3 billion seasonal loan authorization to prevent New York City from having to default.
1984 - Iranian security men seized control of the plane ending a five-day hijacking of a Kuwaiti jetliner, which was parked at the Tehran airport.
1990 - The first American hostages to be released by Iraq began arriving in the U.S.
1992 - U.S. troops arrived in Mogadishu, Somalia, to oversee delivery of international food aid, in operation 'Restore Hope'.
1993 - The U.S. Air Force destroyed the first of 500 Minuteman II missile silos that were marked for elimination under an arms control treaty.
1999 - The U.S. announced that it was expelling a Russian diplomat that had been caught gathering information with an eavesdropping device at the U.S. State Department.
2002 - United Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after losing $4 billion in the previous two years. It was the sixth largest bankruptcy filing.
2004 - Canada's Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage was constitutional.
2008 - Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on suspicion of scheming to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for cash or a job for himself in the new administration. (Blagojevich was convicted of lying to the FBI; he awaits re-trial on 23 other charges.)

World News

Reported Israel airstrikes in Syria “dangerous”: Russia
BRICS News - “Moscow voices deep concern over the dangerous development of events. Their circumstances should be clarified. In any case it is certain that the use of force is unacceptable in interstate relations and deserves disapproval,” Lukashevich was quoted by Russian Tass agency.

Canada sends military police to Ukraine to boost security
RT - Canada will send its military police to Ukraine as a part of a security cooperation agreement signed Monday that aims to help the government and security forces to protect the country's territorial integrity.

Israel Committed War Crimes in Gaza: Amnesty International
Sputnik News - The destruction of multistory buildings in Gaza by airstrikes during Israel's Operation Protective Edge in August was a deliberate act and amounts to war crimes, Amnesty International said in a statement Tuesday.

Barbaric propaganda': Top Al-Qaeda commander denounces ISIS beheadings
RT - A senior military commander of Yemeni branch of Al-Qaeda has denounced the beheadings performed by the so-called Islamic State militants, saying it is was propaganda and filming it is “not acceptable” whatever they say to justify that.

Russia To Conduct Observation Flight Over US
Sputnik News - Russian inspectors will conduct an observation flight over the United States under the Treaty on Open Skies, head of Russia's National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center has announced.

The Mother of all Bank Runs!
Global Research - We already know Germany had publicly requested their gold back beginning in early 2013 and gotten very little so far. Just a couple of weeks back, The Netherlands announced the repatriation of 122.5 tons of gold …after the fact...Several days afterwards, a leading candidate for France’s next election also brought up the possibility of French gold being repatriated …and now it’s Belgium!!!

Icelandic Parliamentarian Says Mass Surveillance Programs Expanding
Sputnik News - Mass surveillance programs are expanding more than ever, Icelandic Member of Parliament Birgitta Jónsdóttir told Sputnik on Monday. “The extent of the surveillance is not rolling back at all, they are just expanding more than ever and that is quite disturbing,” she said in an exclusive interview with Sputnik.
*  Related: London Worst Place in Terms of Civilian Surveillance: Parliamentarian

China Blocks US Imports Over GMO Contamination
Natural Society - China has zero tolerance for many GMOs. They’ve made this clear by refusing US exports that contain genetically modified ingredients – not even in the parts per million range. Due to the recent contamination of hay from RoundUp ready GMO alfalfa, the Chinese government has now blacklisted hay from the US, and they are looking at Canada’s exports closely to determine if they will also need to be blacklisted.

German Poultry Industry Giant Returns to GMO-Free Production
Sustainable Pulse - Wiesenhof confirmed on Friday that they will soon be in a position to supply GM-Free fed poultry again, as this is what is “desired by customers”. Alexander Hissting of VLOG (Association Food without Genetic Engineering) told Spiegel; “We expect an almost complete return of the poultry meat industry to GMO -free production in the coming months.”

Ebola news

10th Sierra Leonean physician dies from Ebola
Press TV - The 10th Sierra Leonean doctor has died from the Ebola virus, a health official in the country says. Dr. Aiah Solomon Konoyeima succumbed to the disease on Saturday, said Sierra Leone's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brima Kargbo, describing as "shocking the continuing death rate among Sierra Leonean frontline medical doctors."

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Michael Brown Shooting: Federal Autopsy Shows Evidence Of Scuffle In Brown’s Death, Close-Range Shot
IB Times - A federal autopsy performed on Michael Brown at the request of the Justice Department confirmed details revealed by previous autopsies that the 18-year-old’s death was caused by multiple gunshot wounds to the head and chest, documents released Monday evening show. The latest autopsy also revealed details of gunshot wounds to the hand, indicating a struggle.

Sheriffs to Converge On DC, Demand GOP Block Boehner's Plan to Fund Obama's Amnesty
Breitbart - On Wednesday, 50 sheriffs from around the country will converge on Washington, D.C. to demand that the GOP block House Speaker John Boehner's (R-OH) plans to fund Obama's executive amnesty.... The press conference is being held on December 10 because that comes less than two days "before government funding expires."

Report: Boehner's Amnesty Omnibus Begins To Fall Apart
Breitbart - The first sign of a crack in the coalition is that the bill—a more-than-$1 trillion omnibus that funds all of government except for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through the end of the 2015 fiscal year in September—may not be introduced on Monday.

VIDEO: 100-year-old math teacher shreds Common Core
BizPac Review - A 100-year-old teacher has seen a lot in the classroom. But one thing Madeline Scotto doesn’t want to see any more of is the Common Core curriculum and its strange way of teaching math. In an interview with Business Insider, Scotto said she’s never seen teaching method quite like it.

Bill to Halt NSA Warrantless Surveillance, Passed by House, Quietly Dropped before Going to Senate
AllGov - The do-nothing House of Representatives almost slipped up and did something to protect Americans’ privacy…The House passed a government funding bill that included an amendment that would have ended the ability of the National Security Agency to conduct “backdoor” warrantless surveillance of the content of Americans’ electronic communications under section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act…The bipartisan amendment passed with a veto-proof 293 votes. However, it was stripped from the bill by House leadership before it was sent to the Senate.

Eric Garner Protesters Throw Explosives at Police
Kurt Nimmo - Police are not certain what sort of explosives were used, but Highway Patrol Sgt. Diana McDermott told CNN she believes they consisted of Molotov cocktails and M-80 firecrackers. M-80 firecrackers were originally made by the U.S. military to simulate explosives or artillery fire. After they were sold as consumer fireworks, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives made them illegal in the 1970s.

Berkeley #EricGarner Protesters Vandalize Martin Luther King Building
Gateway Pundit - Berkeley protesters chanting “No Justice, No Peace” smashed windows and vandalized several stores and city buildings. Two police officers were injured on Saturday when protesters hurled rocks and bricks at officers. Several businesses and the Martin Luther King Civic Center were targeted on Sunday.

New York Confiscating Guns from Owners Deemed Mentally Unstable
Adan Salazar - As part of provisions listed in the state’s draconian SAFE Act, New York’s Division of Criminal Justice Services has found 278 gun owners whom physicians and other “mental health professionals” have identified as mentally unstable, according to a FOIA request submitted by the Syracuse Post-Standard. Gun owners can be identified by physicians, psychologists, registered nurses or licensed clinical social workers as unfit without their knowledge, as the law does not require health professionals to inform a patient or ask their permission before reporting them to the state.

Beloit Police Ask Residents To Volunteer To Have Their Homes Searched For Guns
Wisconsin Public Radio - Police in Beloit are launching a new effort to reduce gun violence in which they're asking city residents to volunteer to have police search their homes for guns. Police Chief Norm Jacobs said he doesn't expect the phone to be ringing off the hook with requests for police to search their homes… Jacobs said he hopes some searches will result in the discovery of guns they didn't know were in their own homes. He said that there’s also a chance they’ll find guns linked to crimes.

Election News

Cassidy Replaces Landrieu; GOP Gains Nine Senate Seats
New American - The Louisiana runoff election on Saturday for U.S. Senate was closer than many polls indicated, with Congressman Bill Cassidy (shown) defeating three-term incumbent Senator Mary Landrieu by 56 percent to 44 percent…Remarkably, Democrats will be without a single governor or U.S. senator across nine Old South states, from the Carolinas to Texas…Louisianans didn’t so much vote for Cassidy as they voted to get rid of Landrieu, once considered one of the Democrat Party’s strongest incumbents.

Economy & Business

10 Reasons Why A Severe Drop in Oil Prices Is A Problem
Zero Hedge - If high oil prices can be a problem, how can low oil prices also be a problem? In particular, how can the steep drop in oil prices we have recently been experiencing also be a problem? In our view, a rapid drop in oil prices is likely a symptom that we are approaching a debt-related collapse.

Slain MassMutual Executive Held Wall Street "Trade Secrets"
Wall Street on Parade - Information has now emerged that Millan had access to highly sensitive data on bank profits resulting from the collection of life insurance proceeds from her insurance company employer on the death of bank workers – data that a Federal regulator of banks has characterized as “trade secrets.”

Judge rules that banks can sue Target for 2013 credit card hack
Ars Technica - After the breach, multiple banks and consumers sued Target in Minnesota, where the company is headquartered. The lawsuits from both banks and consumers were grouped together into two consolidated class action complaints. Target filed a motion to dismiss the claims made by the financial institutions, but District Court Judge Paul A. Magnuson ruled that the plaintiffs' claims were valid.

Supreme Court rejects BP appeal over oil spill payments
RT - Without comment and with no Justices dissenting, the Supreme Court turned down a plea by BP to reopen its 2012 deal aimed at settling hundreds of millions in claims over the April 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This decision leaves intact a lower court opinion approving the settlement that BP negotiated, signed and asked the Court to approve in 2012. It will allow the businesses and families of the Gulf Coast to continue to make claims for another six months.

Be Aware of This "Walking Drunk" Condition -- Get to Your Vet Quickly
Dr. Becker - If your dog suddenly shows signs of instability while walking, get your pet evaluated for this uncommon, yet serious condition. Toy breeds are especially at risk, and any dog of any age or breed may be at risk after a traumatic neck injury.
 

---

Monday - December 8, 2014 - Today in History:

1776 - George Washington's retreating army in the American Revolution crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey to Pennsylvania.
1863 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln announced his plan for the Reconstruction of the South.
1886 - At a convention of union leaders in Columbus, OH, the American Federation of Labor was founded.
1941 - The United States entered World War II when it declared war against Japan. The act came one day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Britain and Canada also declared war on Japan.
1953 - Los Angeles became the third largest city in the United States.
1987 - U.S. President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a treaty agreeing to destroy their nations' arsenals of intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
1987 - The "intefadeh" (Arabic for uprising) by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories began.
1992 - Americans got to see live television coverage of U.S. troops landing on the beaches of Somalia during Operation Restore Hope. (Due to the time difference, it was December 9 in Somalia.)
1993 - U.S. President Clinton signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement.
1994 - In Los Angeles, 12 alternate jurors were chosen for the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police could not search a person or their cars after ticketing for a routine traffic violation.
1998 - The FBI opened its files on Frank Sinatra to the public. The file contained over 1,300 pages.
1999 - In Memphis, TN, a jury found that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been the victim of a vast murder conspiracy, not a lone assassin.
2008 - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal he would confess to masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks; four other men also abandoned their defenses.

World News

‘Heinous crime’: Syria urges UN to sanction Israel over Damascus airstrikes
RT - Syrian officials demanded the UN impose sanctions on Israel after Tel Aviv conducted airstrikes near Damascus Airport. They say the attack was a heinous crime against their sovereignty by a country which doesn’t hide its policy of supporting terrorism.

US gets hostage killed hours before his release, provides cover for news Pentagon is keeping 10,800 troops in Afghanistan
CLG News - The new year will open with 1,000 more troops in Afghanistan than President Barack Obama pledged. S.African hostage Pierre Korkie, killed just day before release 6 Dec 2014 Pierre Korkie, a South African teacher who was taken hostage by Al-Qaeda [al-CIAduh] militants in Yemen more than a year ago, was killed Saturday in a failed rescue bid just a day before he was due to be released.

U.S. Keeping 1,000 More Troops in Afghanistan Than Obama Pledged
Bloomberg - The new year will open with as many as 10,800 U.S. troops still in Afghanistan, 1,000 more than President Barack Obama pledged, with transition plans running several months behind, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said.

Be Careful What You Wish For: 5 Ways Russia's Demise Could Spread Around The World
Zero Hedge - Russia matters. It mattered in 1998 when the shock waves from its debt default reverberated around the world. And it would matter again should the plunging oil price lead to economic collapse. That’s despite the fact that Russia is a massive land mass with a relatively small economy. It accounts for only 3% of global GDP and it is dominated by an energy sector that is responsible for 70% of exports.

50,000 tons of Russian coal enter Ukraine
RT - The Ukrainian Energy Ministry has announced that hundreds of wagons full of Russian coal which had been held up at the border in Ukraine’s east since last week, have now started entering the country.

Israeli airstrikes hit near Damascus airport – Syrian state TV
RT - Israeli airstrikes have hit targets near Damascus International Airport and in the town of Dimas near the Lebanon border, Syrian state TV reports.

Kiev ignored EU request to close E. Ukraine airspace days before MH17 crash – report
RT - European air traffic control regulator urged Kiev to close the south-east of the country for civilian aircraft days before the MH17 flight was downed near Donetsk, but the plea was ignored by the Ukrainian authorities, a new report claims.

French homeless forced to wear 'yellow triangles'
The local - The city of Marseille has been blasted for using Nazi-era tactics to identify its homeless population by issuing them with ID cards, adorned with a yellow triangle. The cards detail their health issues and will be worn visibly.

Chlorine chicken, hormone beef? European fears that TTIP deal brings American 'Frankenfood' imports
The Independent - “Hormone-boosted beef. Chlorine-washed chicken. Genetically altered vegetables. This is what they want for us,” warned Cabaret, standing before his majestic herd of free-range cows. “In France, food is about pleasure, about taste. But in the United States, they put anything in their mouths. No, this must be stopped.” In Europe, this is a season of angst — even paranoia — over a historic bid to link the United States and the 28-nation European Union in the world’s largest free-trade deal.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

House Chooses New Cold War With Russia
Ron Paul - Last week the US House voted overwhelmingly in favor of an anti-Russia resolution so full of war propaganda that it rivals the rhetoric from the chilliest era of the Cold War. Ironically, much of the bill condemns Russia for doing exactly what the US government has been doing for years in Syria and Ukraine!

Congress is poised to give a foreign mining company 2,400 acres of national forest in Arizona that is cherished ancestral homeland to Apache natives
RT - This week, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees quietly attached a provision to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would mandate the handover of a large tract of Tonto National Forest to Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of the Australian-English mining company Rio Tinto, which co-owns with Iran a uranium mine in Africa and which is 10-percent-owned by China.

VIDEO: Caught On Tape - State Department Spokesperson Admits Her Own Propaganda Is "Ridiculous"
Zero Hedge - Filed under "it's funny coz it's not funny." The State Department's Jen Psaki appears to forget her mic is hot following the most cryptic piece of propagandist misinformation regarding the acquittal of Egypt's ex-leader Hosni Mubarak... "that was ridiculous".

#Anonymous brings down Oakland PD website after cops gas protesters
RT - The fifth night of nationwide protests over the widespread failure of the system to prosecute white officers who kill unarmed black men and boys, culminated in hacktivist group Anonymous taking down the Police Department’s website in Oakland, California.

US sends 6 Guantanamo Bay detainees to Uruguay as 'refugees'
RT - The US has taken up Uruguay’s offer of resettling six detainees from Guantanamo Bay detention center, which has stained the reputation of Barack Obama after he promised to close the facility in 2008.

Rubber bullets, tear gas in Berkeley as police disperse #EricGarner, #Ferguson rally
RT - Protests against police brutality have turned violent in Berkeley, California, as officers are resorting to rubber bullets, flash bang grenades and tear gas in a tense standoff with demonstrators demanding justice.

‘Demonized’ NYPD officers claim obese, asthmatic chokehold victim Eric Garner contributed to his own death
Daily Mail - Police officers in the NYPD have hit back at outraged protesters furious at the death of Eric Garner, a black man who died in a police chokehold, saying he brought it upon himself. Union officials and police supporters have seized on findings showing that Garner’s asthma and obesity contributed to his death, and say they feel ‘thrown under the bus’ by demonstrations and politicians.

US racial profiling 'to remain at airports, border checks'
RT - The White House will permit a large section of the Department of Homeland Security, specifically the Transportation Security Administration and the US Customs and Border Protection, to continue with the controversial practice of racial profiling while selecting who should receive special consideration at border checkpoints and at airports, law enforcement officials told The Washington Post.

19 Signs That You Live In A Country That Has Gone Completely Insane
The Daily Sheeple - Do you ever feel like you are living in a “Bizarro World”? That is how I feel much of the time. I look around and it seems as though some form of mass psychosis has descended on most of the population.

Does the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife Really Need Assault Rifles?
All Gov - Attention New Jersey fishermen: Don’t forget to renew your fishing licenses. If you do, you might find yourselves staring at the muzzle of an assault rifle. The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife is now the proud owner of 16 M-14 automatic rifles, supplied by the Department of Defense’s 1033 program, which has given millions of dollars’ worth of surplus military equipment to law enforcement agencies across the country.

Austin police chief insults gun owners: If you know gun enthusiasts, turn them in
BizPac Review - Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo made the odd request in a televised Monday press conference, held after a so-called “homegrown American extremist” went on a shooting spree at a Mexican consulate, police station, bank and federal courthouse. Larry Steven McQuilliams, said to be part of a cult that opposes gays, taxes and inter-racial marriages, was killed when an officer returned fire.

Scottsdale Police Union Gives Telemarketer Two-Thirds Of Donations Made For Needy Kids
KJZZ - Annual donations for the programs jumped by more than 82 percent between 2006 and 2012, according to the union’s tax records. Tax records for 2013 have not yet been filed. In total, almost $4.5 million was raised over that seven-year period. But how much actually goes to the kids each year? Not much. In some years, less than 10 percent.

Economy & Business

“Riddles” Surround 36th Dead Banker Of The Year
Zero Hedge - 52-year-old Belgian Geert Tack – a private banker for ING who managed portfolios for wealthy individuals – was described as ‘impeccable’, ‘sporty’, ‘cared-for’, and ‘successful’ and so as Vermist reports, after disappearing a month ago, the appearance of his body off the coast of Ostend is surrpunded by riddles…

New Law Would Make Taxpayers Potentially Liable For TRILLIONS In Derivatives Losses
Economic Collapse - If the quadrillion dollar derivatives bubble implodes, who should be stuck with the bill? Well, if the “too big to fail” banks have their way it will be you and I. Right now, lobbyists for the big Wall Street banks are pushing really hard to include an extremely insidious provision in a bill that would keep the federal government funded past the upcoming December 11th deadline. This provision would allow these big banks to trade derivatives through subsidiaries that are federally insured by the FDIC.

Comptroller says feds improperly reported $619 billion
Washington Examiner - Because government agencies don’t have a unified method of reporting how much they spend, it’s virtually impossible to gauge the full extent of federal expenditures, a congressional watchdog said.

BP Set To Slash 100s Of Jobs Amid Oil's "Unequivocally Good" Slump
Zero Hedge - The slump in oil prices has BP "concentrating minds on making the organization more efficient" which means, as The FT translates, the 'unequivocally good news' of lower oil prices is accelerating plans for the oil giant to reduce its headcount.

YouTube: Missouri Nuclear Plant Shuts Down; "No Public Risk"-St Louis Radiation Levels Rising
An Ameren Corp. nuclear plant in central Missouri shut down Wednesday due to an electrical equipment failure, but the company and federal regulators say there is no risk to the public.

---

Friday - December 5, 2014 - Today in History:

1776 - In Williamsburg, VA, at the College of William and Mary the first scholastic fraternity in America, Phi Beta Kappa, was organized.
1782 - The first native U.S. president, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook, NY.
1797 - Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in Paris to command forces for the invasion of England.
1812 - Napoleon Bonaparte left his army as they were retreating from Russia.
1839 - General George Armstrong Custer was born in New Rumley, OH.
1848 - U.S. President Polk triggered the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming the fact that gold had been discovered in California.
1932 - German physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa making it possible for him to travel to the U.S.
1933 - Prohibition came to an end when Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1944 - During World War II, Allied troops took Ravenna, Italy.
1945 - The so-called "Lost Squadron" disappeared. The five U.S. Navy Avenger bombers carrying 14 Navy flyers began a training mission at the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station. They were never heard from again.
1955 - The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO.
1962 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union agreed to cooperate in the peaceful uses of outer space.
1977 - Egypt broke diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen due to peaceful relations with Israel.
1984 - Iran's official news agency quoted the hijackers of a Kuwaiti jetliner parked at Tehran airport as saying they would blow up the plane unless Kuwait released 14 imprisoned extremists.
1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin kept the power to appoint Cabinet ministers, defeating a constitutional amendment that would have put his team of reformers under the control of Russia's Congress.
1998 - James P. Hoffa became the head of the Teamsters union, 23 years after his father was the head. His father disappeared and was presumed dead.
2001 - In Germany, Afghan leaders signed a pact to create a temporary administration for post-Taliban Afghanistan. Two women were included in the cabinet structure. Hamid Karzai and his Cabinet were planned to take over power in Afghanistan on December 22.
2006 - New York became the first city in the nation to ban artery-clogging trans fats at restaurants.
2008 - A judge in Las Vegas sentenced O.J. Simpson to 33 years in prison (with eligibility for parole after nine) for an armed robbery at a hotel room.

World News

Ukraine's Nuke Plants are a Huge War Risk No One Has Mentioned Yet
Russia Insider - In Ukraine there are four nuclear power plants with 15 reactor blocks. These are available in Khmelnytsky, Rivne, Zaporizhia and Mykolaiv. But it is mostly old buildings from the Soviet era that are not adequately protected. The nuclear power plant Zaporozhye is about 200 kilometers away from the combat zone in Donetsk. Precautions for prevention of sabotage acts against nuclear facilities do not exist.

‘Terrorism exported to Middle East from Europe’ – Assad
RT - Terrorism is being exported to the Middle East from Europe, especially from France, said Syria’s President Bashar Assad in an interview to French media. He also criticized Western states for politically supporting terrorists in the region.

500 more dead sea lions; Fukushima radiation continues to spread across ocean
(NaturalNews) Another mysterious wave of dead sea animals has washed ashore in Peru, the possible consequence of ongoing radiation releases from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility in Japan. BBC News reports that 500 dead sea lions were recently discovered on Peru's northern coastline, some 250 miles north of the capital city of Lima, with no obvious explanation as to why this occurred.

‘Remember lessons we taught Hitler’: Top 10 quotes from Putin’s State of Nation address
RT - In his yearly address to parliamentarians and dignitaries, Vladimir Putin gave a reminder of Russia's strength as the country that Hitler failed to defeat, while also comparing Crimea's significance to that of the Temple Mount to Jews.

How The Ukrainian Government Is Giving Away Citizenships So Foreigners Can Run The Country
Zero Hedge - Claims that the new government in Ukraine is nothing more than a Western puppet Parliament have been swirling around consistently since February.... Nothing proves this fact more clearly than the recent and sudden granting of citizenship to three foreigners so that they can take top posts in the government. At the top of the list is American, Natalie Jaresko, who runs private equity fund Horizon Capital. She will now be Ukraine’s Finance Minister,...
* Related: Fight Breaks Out In Parliament When Ukraine Learns It Has Quietly Become The Newest US State

Vatican finds hundreds of millions of euros 'tucked away': cardinal
(Reuters) - The Vatican's economy minister has said hundreds of millions of euros were found "tucked away" in accounts of various Holy See departments without having appeared in the city-state's balance sheets.... Australian Cardinal George Pell wrote that the discovery meant overall Vatican finances were in better shape than previously believed.

Ebola news

CDC prepares for imminent Ebola wave with designation of 35 US hospitals as Ebola treatment centers
(NaturalNews) In a press release, the Department of Health and Human Services said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that some state officials have identified the hospitals as Ebola treatment centers, and more are expected to be designated as such in the coming weeks.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Reckless Congress 'Declares War' on Russia
Ron Paul - Today the US House passed what I consider to be one of the worst pieces of legislation ever. H. Res. 758 was billed as a resolution “strongly condemning the actions of the Russian Federation, under President Vladimir Putin [...] If anyone thinks I am exaggerating about how bad this resolution really is, let me just offer a few examples from the legislation itself...

CIA torture report to be published on Monday without the word 'torture'
RT - The long-awaited publication of the so-called “CIA torture report” is expected to finally occur early next week, but would-be readers, be warned: according to leaks, the executive summary will be absent any and all use of the word “torture.”... After a lengthy back-and-forth between the Senate committee and the CIA, however, the 600 page summary that will soon be made public — less than one-tenth of the actual report — will be ripe with enough redactions and wordplay to still leave much of the agency’s post-9/11 practices a mystery.

“$38 Billion Reasons” 2nd Amendment is Crumbling: Bloomberg Targets 12 More States with Gun Control
Mac Slavo - State by state encroachments of the 2nd Amendment are on the move, and they are marching to beat of the drums of billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor and publishing mogul, and his complex of gun control organizations.

SC Jury Indicts White Officer for Killing Black Man – Media Ignores
Truth Revolt - In a case with several parallels to both the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases, a South Carolina grand jury indicted a white police officer with murder Wednesday for the shooting of an unarmed black man. Despite the significant parallels and timing, however, the national media has largely ignored the story.

House of Representatives passes resolution against Russia
RT - The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a document which strongly condemns Moscow's actions against its neighbors, calling them a policy of aggression. Passed with 411-10 votes, the resolution slams Russia’s “continuing political, economic, and military aggression” against Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova and the “continuing violation of their sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.”

Obama Mulling Sanctions on Israel
Free Beacon - The Obama administration is refusing to discuss reports that emerged early Thursday claiming that the White House is considering imposing sanctions on Israel for continuing construction on Jewish homes in Jerusalem. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf dodged several questions on Thursday when confronted with reports that the administration had held secret internal meetings to discuss taking action against Israel for its ongoing building in East Jerusalem.

About 250 Fort Bragg soldiers will deploy to Iraq
Army Times - About 250 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division will deploy in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, officials announced Monday... They will deploy for nine months to the Central Command area of responsibility to conduct security operations. The soldiers are not part of the 1,500-troop increase authorized Nov. 7 by President Obama.

Obama never signed amnesty order
WND - It’s common knowledge President Obama signed an executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security to forgive millions of illegal aliens for their past violations of immigration law, right? Wrong. Today the National Archives and Records Administration, responsible for such maintaining such filings, said no such executive order was ever signed or filed, confirming WND’s report Wednesday.

Homeland Security already hiring 1,000 employees to carry out Obama amnesty
The Washington Times - Department of Homeland Security officials wasted little time in ramping up for President Obama’s amnesty, posting 1,000 job openings the day after his announcement and announcing it already has space for hundreds of employees at a new location in Arlington, Virginia — an indication that it had laid its plans well before Mr. Obama’s announcement.

California Sheriff Acquires ‘Crowd Control’ Drones That Can See Inside Buildings, Track Guns
Steve Watson - A county sheriff’s department in California has acquired two surveillance drones which it intends to deploy next year, despite being forced to scrap the plans last year after intense opposition. The Alameda County Sheriff’s office, close to San Francisco, could still become the first law enforcement agency in the state to deploy FAA authorized drones after it revived the plans, despite not significantly changing any policy on privacy safeguards.

Utah to seize own land from government, challenge federal dominance of Western states
Washington Times - In an unprecedented challenge to federal dominance of Western state lands, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert in 2012 signed the “Transfer of Public Lands Act,” which demands that Washington relinquish its hold on the land, which represents more than half of the state’s 54.3 million acres, by Dec. 31.

The Red Cross CEO Has Been Serially Misleading About Where Donors’ Dollars Are Going
Pro Publica - The American Red Cross regularly touts how responsible it is with donors' money. "We're very proud of the fact that 91 cents of every dollar that's donated goes to our services," Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern said in a speech in Baltimore last year. "That's world class, obviously." McGovern has often repeated that figure, which has also appeared on the charity's website. "I'm really proud" that overhead expenses are so low, she told a Cleveland audience in June. The problem with that number: It isn't true.

Teacher Forces 8-Year-Old to Unclog Toilet with Bare Hands
Mikael Thalen - A teacher who forced an eight-year old student to unclog a toilet with his bare hands will remain employed despite a history of inappropriate behavior with children. Brent Taylor, teacher at Scootney Springs Elementary in Othello, Washington, admitted to making his student put his hands inside the toilet after the third grader alerted his parents to the incident.

Economy & Business

China’s Economy Surpassed U.S. … a Long Time Ago
Washington’s Blog - We’re no longer No. 1. Today, we’re No. 2. Yes, it’s official. The Chinese economy just overtook the United States economy to become the largest in the world. For the first time since Ulysses S. Grant was president, America is not the leading economic power on the planet. It just happened — and almost nobody noticed.

‘Near Perfect’ Indicator That Precedes Almost Every Stock Market Correction Is Flashing A Warning Signal
Economic Collapse - Are we about to see U.S. stocks take a significant tumble? If you are looking for a “canary in the coal mine” for the U.S. stock market, just look at high yield bonds. In recent years, almost every single time junk bonds have declined substantially there has been a notable stock market correction as well.

Five Facts About Crony Profits from Food Stamps
Aaron Dykes & Melissa Melton - One-sixth of the country is now receiving food stamps and the number just continues to climb. Most argue this increase simply has to do with the terrible recession and resultant unemployment; but the food stamp program, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, is yet another crony capitalist scheme (surprise, surprise). Here are a few more crony facts most people might not realize about our nation’s food stamp program.

San Diego citizens forced to drink their own pharmaceutical pollution through emergency sewage recycling program
(NaturalNews) The drought in California has unfortunately become a way of life for the majority of its residents, with many of them resorting to showering in portable stalls located in parking lots and getting on board with drinking recycled sewage water.

---

Thursday - December 4, 2014 - Today in History:

1783 - Gen. George Washington said farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York.
1918 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson set sail for France to attend the Versailles Peace Conference. Wilson became the first chief executive to travel to Europe while in office.
1942 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the dismantling of the Works Progress Administration. The program had been created in order to provide jobs during the Great Depression.
1942 - U.S. bombers attacked the Italian mainland for the first time during World War II.
1979 - For the second time, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to urge Iran to free American hostages that had been taken on November 4.
1980 - The bodies of 4 American nuns slain in El Salvador two days earlier were unearthed. Five national guardsmen were later convicted of the murders.
1983 - U.S. jet fighters struck Syrian anti-aircraft positions in Lebanon in retaliation for attacks directed at American reconnaissance planes. Navy Lt. Robert O. Goodman Jr. was shot down and captured by Syria.
1984 - A five-day hijack drama began as four men seized a Kuwaiti airliner en route to Pakistan and forced it to land in Tehran. Two American passengers were killed by the hijackers.
1986 - Both U.S. houses of Congress moved to establish special committees to conduct their own investigations of the Iran-Contra affair.
1987 - Cuban inmates at a federal prison in Atlanta freed their 89 hostages, peacefully ending an 11-day uprising.
1988 - The government of Argentina announced that hundreds of heavily armed soldiers had ended a four-day military revolt.
1990 - Iraq promised to release 3,300 Soviet citizens it was holding.
1991 - Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson was released after nearly seven years in captivity in Lebanon.
1991 - Pan American World Airways ceased operations.
2000 - O.J. Simpson was involved in an incident with another motorist in Miami, FL. Simpson was accused of scratching the other motorists face while pulling off the man's glasses.
2001 - O.J. Simpson's home in Florida was raided by the FBI in an ongoing two year international investigation into drug trafficking, satellite service pilfering and money laundering. Some satellite equipment was taken from Simpson's home and no drugs were found.

World News

State of the Nation: President Putin addresses Federal Assembly — Live Updates
RT - Putin: Russia will respect Ukraine as a brotherly country.... Russian President Vladimir Putin is addressing the Federal Assembly - both houses of parliament, the cabinet and other dignitaries - outlining his stance on his policies for the coming year.

Obama: Putin ‘scares heck out of neighbors’ with ‘nationalist, backward-looking’ policy
RT - The US president has lashed out at his Russian counterpart for pursuing what he called a “nationalist, backward-looking” policy. Obama has vowed to maintain sanctions against Russia, but added he doubts they could actually change Putin’s “mindset.”

Cutting Russia out of SWIFT banking system would mean ‘war’ – head of VTB
RT - Excluding Russia from the global SWIFT banking transactions system is another form of sanctions and would mean “war,” said Andrey Kostin, head of VTB Russia’s second largest bank, adding that should it happen Russia has a “Plan B.”

Al-Qaeda Releases Video Threatening to Execute British-US Hostage
Sputnik News - Al-Qaeda in Yemen have released a new video on YouTube in which Sheikh Nasser al-Ansi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula, makes a speech saying that a British-American hostage they are holding will be executed if US doesn’t meet their demands.

US Army Sends 100 Tanks To Eastern Europe To "Deter Russian Aggression"
Zero Hedge - Military.com reports that the new Army commander in Europe plans to bolster the U.S. armored presence in Poland and the Baltic states and keep rotations of U.S. troops there through next year and possibly beyond to counter Russia. Lt. Gen. Frederick "Ben" Hodges, who replaced Lt. Gen. Donald M. Campbell earlier this month as commander of U.S. Army Europe, said the Army was looking to add about 100 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles to the forces in Eastern Europe.

Forgotten History: US Chemical Giant Fined $2,100 for Killing 15,000 People in Bhopal
Natural Blaze - Union Carbide, later bought by Dow Chemical, operated a chemical facility in Bhopal. On December 2nd, 1984 the plant that was not properly maintained leaked a toxic chemical gas. Thousands died. The death toll estimates from the first week range between 7,000 and 15,000. Compensation was paid to the survivors in the amount of $500 for a lifetime of disability or loss because, as Dow spokesperson Kathy Hunt said You can’t really do more than that, can you? $500 is plenty good for an Indian.

Ebola news

After claiming Ebola is "hard to catch," Obama Administration halts deportations of West Africans
(NaturalNews) In a stunning development, the Department of Homeland Security has announced that it is granting temporary protected status to anyone currently residing in the U.S. from the three West African nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, which have been the hardest-hit by the current Ebola virus outbreak, the worst in the history of the disease since it was identified in 1976. Obama and his team have said that Ebola is hard to catch anyway, so the policy is no big deal.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

American lawmakers pass bill to deepen US bonds with Israel
Press TV - The US House of Representatives on Wednesday unanimously approved the US-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2014, which reflects "the sense of Congress that Israel is a major strategic partner of the United States," and declares Washington's "unwavering support" for Israel.... The bill would also increase the value of US weaponry kept in Israel by $200 million to a total of $1.8 billion, allowing Tel Aviv to use them in the event of an emergency.

VIDEO: 17 states to sue Obama over immigration executive order
CNBC News - Texas is leading a 17-state coalition that sued the Obama administration on Wednesday over its executive order to ease the threat of deportation for some 4.7 million undocumented immigrants, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said.

Protesters decry Eric Garner grand jury vote LIVE UPDATES
RT - Protesters are taking to the streets of New York City and other cities after a grand jury voted not to indict an NYPD police officer over the chokehold death of Eric Garner. Department of Justice will open civil rights investigation in the case.

US Defense Bill Prohibiting Purchase of Russian Rocket Engines
Sputnik News - The 2015 US defense funding bill would prohibit the future purchase of Russian-made rocket engines, used to launch US national security satellites, but will honor existing contracts.... With a current stockpile of 16 Russian-made RD-180 engines, the United States has enough rockets to continue launches until 2016, after which, if the supplies are stopped, there would be significant delays in the ability to launch national security satellites into space, according to an RD-180 Availability Risk Mitigation Study.

Globalists Applaud Obama’s Amnesty, War on Constitution
Kit Daniels - The Council on Foreign Relations, a “global governance” think tank with extreme influence over U.S. policy, is applauding President Obama for granting himself lawmaking power in defiance of “an obstreperous Congress.” An article published today on CFR.org said Obama “did the right thing” by running around Congress to enact amnesty for illegals despite “accusations of an imperial presidency,” and encouraged him to sign more executive orders on “climate change.”

White House: Obama Was ‘Speaking Colloquially’ When He Admitted To Violating Constitution
Steve Watson - Being White House Press Secretary these days seems to involve doing a lot of back pedaling and trying to persuade the nation that the President meant something completely different to what he actually said.

VIDEO: Feds balk at releasing IRS/White House shared tax documents
Washington Examiner - Less than a week after ’fessing up that it found some 2,500 documents potentially showing that the IRS shared taxpayer returns with the White House, the Obama administration has reversed course and won’t release the trove to a group suing for access. In an abrupt decision, the Treasury inspector general’s office said that the documents are covered by privacy and disclosure laws and can’t be provided to Cause of Action, despite a promise last week to hand over some 2,500.

SESSIONS: Republicans On Verge Of Breaking Campaign Promises
National Review - Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) suggested that House Republicans are on the verge of breaking their campaign promise to fight President Obama’s administrative amnesty, judging by the legislative text currently being circulated. Sessions said that the proposed language “fails to meet [the] test” established by Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, who promised earlier this year that the GOP would do everything possible to thwart Obama’s executive orders.

Grand jury doesn’t indict NYPD officer accused in chokehold death
RT - A New York City grand jury has decided not to indict the New York Police Department officer accused of killing a Staten Island man by putting him in an illegal chokehold. The NYPD is now preparing for more protests stemming from the decision.

Obama to Continue Arming Nation’s Police with Military Gear, But with Some Tweaks
AllGov - He said the nation needed to keep its police forces from turning into military units. But in the end President Obama is unwilling to slow down or stop the transfer of military gear to law enforcement agencies. Instead, he just wants to tweak the programs that help militarize the nation's police. “It is possible to constrain these programs with oversight, but it doesn’t seem like many people are really wanting to do it,” said Cato's Trevor Burris.

Economy & Business

Plummeting Oil Prices Could Destroy The Banks That Are Holding Trillions In Commodity Derivatives
Economic Collapse - The big Wall Street banks did not expect plunging home prices to cause a mortgage-backed securities implosion back in 2008, and their models did not anticipate a decline in the price of oil by more than 40 dollars in less than six months this time either. If the price of oil stays at this level or goes down even more, someone out there is going to have to absorb some absolutely massive losses.

Video: Financial Analyst: “We Are Very, Very Close To A Major Event Here”
The Daily Sheeple - We’re not just talking about another recession or a 30′s style depression here. When the debt-based system upon which the entire global economic system depends finally falls apart the shockwave will be violent and it will be felt everywhere. No nation will be immune.

New US Oil Well Permits Collapse 40% In November, Fed Still "Not Worried"?
Zero Hedge - As Reuters reports, Data provided exclusively to Reuters on Tuesday by industry data firm Drilling Info Inc showed 4,520 new well permits were approved last month, down from 7,227 in October. The pullback was a "very quick response" to U.S. crude prices, which settled on Tuesday at $66.88 CLc1, said Allen Gilmer, chief executive officer of Drilling Info.

Houstonians to Boycott RE/MAX for being "a real estate giant that markets and rents properties in illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land."
Martin Hill - A group of Houston, TX activists are going to hold a public boycott tomorrow December 4th outside of a RE/MAX real estate office, in an action dubbed "No Open House On Stolen Land." Another activist involved in the Houston "Stop Billions To Israel" billboard campaign sent out an e-mail alerting readers of the REMAX/ BDS protest tomorrow...

Fracking ban goes into effect in its birthplace
RT - An unprecedented ban on fracking went into effect Tuesday in Denton, Texas, a town of 123,000 located on top of the natural-gas goldmine that is the Barnett shale formation, the birthplace of the much-maligned oil and gas extraction method. Denton voters approved the ban last month, making it the first city or county to do so in the energy-rich, fracking-heavy state of Texas.

Science & Technology

Worst corporate hack? Leaked Sony docs reveal Sony salaries, employee details
RT - After falling victim to a devastating cyber-attack last week, the entertainment giant has braved a hack revealing the salaries of 17 of its highest paid executives, the private information of over 6,000 employees, and at least one unreleased script. A massive cyber offensive launched against Sony Pictures Entertainment last week dumped five of the studio’s upcoming movies and knocked out the company’s entire computer network.

---

Wednesday - December 3, 2014 - Today in History:

1818 - Illinois was admitted as the 21st state of the union.
1828 - Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States.
1917 - The Quebec Bridge opened for traffic after almost 20 years of planning and construction. The bridge suffered partial collapses in 1907 (August 29) and 1916 (September 11).
1931 - Alka Seltzer was sold for the first time.
1950 - Paul Harvey began his national radio broadcast.
1982 - Doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center removed the respirator of Barney Clark. The retired dentist had become the world's first recipient of a permanent artificial heart only one day before.
1983 - 3-foot-high concrete barriers were installed at two White House entrances.
1987 - U.S. President Reagan said there was a good chance of progress toward a treaty on long-range weapons with Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
1992 - The UN Security Council unanimously approved a U.S.-led military mission to help starving Somalians.
1997 - In Ottawa, Canada, more than 120 countries were represented to sign a treaty prohibiting the use and production of anti-personnel land mines. The United States, China and Russia did not sign the treaty.
1999 - The World Trade Organization (WTO) concluded a four-day meeting in Seattle, WA, without setting an agenda for a new round of trade talks. The meeting was met with fierce protests by various groups.
1999 - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) lost radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander as it entered Mars' atmosphere. The spacecraft was unmanned.
2010 - The Boeing X-37 returned to Earth on successfully after its first orbital mission. It launched on April 22, 2010.

World News

Accident at Ukraine nuclear plant revealed by prime minister
RT - There has been an accident at a nuclear plant in the southeast of Ukraine, Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk has revealed during the first session of his new Cabinet.

Pentagon says Iran bombs ISIS in Iraq, Tehran 'cannot confirm'
RT - According to spokesperson Rear Adm. John Kirby, the strikes were not co-ordinated with the US military and may be the first of their kind.

UN urges Israel to renounce nuclear arms, join non-proliferation treaty
RT - The UN General Assembly has passed an Arab-introduced resolution calling on Israel not to develop, produce or possess nuclear arms and criticizing the country for not being part to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

Aiming for Two Militant Leaders in Pakistan, U.S. Drone Pilots Killed 233 People, including 89 Children
AllGov - Ayman al Zawahiri, the current leader of al-Qaeda, has been the target of U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan at least twice. A total of 76 children and 29 adults have died for the sake of getting al Zawahiri, but he’s still alive. Still, the body count there is less than in the six attempts to kill Qari Hussain, a deputy commander of the Tehrike-Taliban Pakistan. One hundred twenty eight people, including 13 children, died before the CIA was able to kill Hussain.

French parliament votes to recognize Palestinian state
RT - France’s Socialist-led parliament has passed a symbolic vote to recognize Palestinian statehood, despite staunch objections from Israel. MPs in Britain and Spain have already passed similar motions. The proposal was passed with 339 votes in favor and 151 against, meaning that it was supported by more than two-thirds of French lawmakers. Israel immediately responded, saying that the motion would “harm the peace process,” AFP reported.

With Its Gold "Vaporized", A Furious Ukraine Turns On Its Central Bankers
Zero Hedge - As reported two weeks ago, following a stunning announcement by the head of Ukraine's central bank, Valeriya Gontareva, on primetime TV we learned that (virtually) all of Ukraine's gold was gone, or - in the parlance of Jon Corzine - had "vaporized."[...] Interfax.ua reported "a Kyiv-based court has instructed Kyiv prosecutors to bring an action against National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Governor Valeriya Gontareva on charges of abuse of power or misuse of office to obtain illegal profit, the Vesti newspaper reported on Tuesday."

Growing Anxiety over U.S. Technology Seen in Europe’s Call for Breakup of Google
AllGov - The Parliament on Thursday adopted a nonbinding resolution calling for the dissolution of Google. The vote was merely symbolic because the legislative body lacks the legal authority to force Google to divest portions of its empire. But it demonstrated just how fed up Europeans are with the growing might and invasive capabilities of American technology.

Ebola news

President Obama Reminds Americans Of The Threat Of Ebola (& The Need To Spend $6 Billion To Fix It)
Zero Hedge - With Ebola off the front-pages of every media outlet, President Obama appears to finding it tough to get his $6 billion funding request to fight the deadly disease... time for some hope (things are good in America, Spain declared Ebola-free) and fearmongery (5,987 deaths and 16,889 cases currently) as The White House increases Ebola response units in the US and sends more military and civilians into Africa...

U.S. News, Politics & Government

FBI continues to investigate former CIA director General Petraeus
RT - Current and former US intelligence officials say the FBI still has an open investigation into whether David Petraeus improperly provided highly classified documents to a mistress. The case has been open since 2012, when he resigned as CIA director.

VIDEO: Judge Napolitano Calls Out Stewart’s Hypocrisy: ‘You Don’t Believe That For a Minute!’
Liberty Crier - Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano, whose new book Suicide Pact: The Radical Expansion of Presidential Powers and the Assault on Civil Liberties was recently released, appeared on The Daily Show December 1 and let loose on Stewart with an unexpected zinger that took the liberal talk show host a moment to recover.

Pentagon Still Waiting for Congressional Approval to Train Syrian Militants
Sputnik News - The US military is awaiting funding approval from Congress before it can start vetting and recruiting moderate Syrian opposition forces to fight Islamic State jihadist group in Syria and Iraq, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

White House: Obama Will Shut Down Gov't if Congress Defunds Exec Amnesty
Breitbart - White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest is warning that President Barack Obama would veto any spending bill that prohibits federal funds from being spent to enact Obama's executive amnesty. That means Obama is willing to shut down the government to preserve his executive amnesty.

Obama’s New $263 Million Proposal Is Not Just About Body Cameras
Ben Swann - On Monday, the White House proposed a $263 million “investment package” in an effort to improve police departments across the country in response to continuous tension between residents and law enforcement in Ferguson, as well as criticism from the public nationwide regarding police militarization and police power. A White House press release included several strategies to “strengthen community policing and fortify the trust that must exist between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve.” The strategies include...

New York Prepares for Riots As Grand Jury Weighs Eric Garner Decision
Kurt Nimmo - His crime? Allegedly selling cigarettes not approved and taxed by the state. Garner was knocked to the ground and a white police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, strangled him to death. The suffocation was exacerbated by the fact Garner suffered from asthma.

Police Blame Zemir Begic For His Own Murder by Hammer-Wielding Teens
Kit Daniels - St. Louis, Mo., police have effectively blamed murder victim Zemir Begic for being at the “wrong place” at the “wrong time” when teenagers attacked him with hammers after shouting “kill the white people.”

Remain silent, don’t answer any questions during a police stop
MassPrivatel - It's very important to understand that the 5th Amendment protects the innocent more than the guilty.... Because of the SCOTUS ruling in Salinas v. Texas, you are now expected to know that you have a right against self-incrimination, and unless you specifically and clearly invoke this right, anything you say or do not say, including your mannerisms at the time you stop talking, can be used against you. You actually have to say, “I do not answer questions.”

Economy & Business

5 Complete Lies About America's New $18 Trillion Debt Level
Zero Hedge - And as the US government just hit $18 trillion in debt on Friday afternoon, it has taken a measly 403 days to accumulate its most recent trillion. There’s so much misinformation and propaganda about this; let’s examine some of the biggest lies out there about the US debt...

Mainstream Media Finally Admits to Massive Gold Manipulation
Activist Post - Unfortunately (or fortunately if you’ve already bought gold), the mainstream media has done nothing to inform the public of these market shenanigans. They have long derided gold investors by calling them conspiracy theorists, and claiming that gold is nothing more than a bubble. However, it appears that the media is finally coming around to the idea that these markets are rigged, for reasons that I can only speculate.

America Drops Out of the Top 10 Economically Freest Countries
The Drucker Exchange - Are you economically free? If you live in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia or Switzerland, the answer is yes. If you live in Zimbabwe, Cuba or North Korea, then no. And if you live in the United States, your economic freedom is slipping away—with dire consequences.

YouTube: America’s 3 Most Fee-Ridden Cities
ReasonTV - Fee-based revenue generation can create an undercurrent of hostility between citizens and the government officials who are supposed to serve them. Former Reason writer Radley Balko uncovered a pattern of overzealous fee-collection in the suburbs of St. Louis county for the Washington Post and speculated that the overbearing law enforcement helped create a pressure-cooker environment that finally erupted in the wake of the Michael Brown shooting....

How Did Christmas Become A Festival Of Greed?
Economic Collapse - This year, Americans will spend somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 billion dollars on Christmas, but most people have no coherent explanation for why they are buying all of these gifts.

No One Wants The Home Of Ed And Elaine Brown
The Guardian - Federal officials expect to hold a second auction to sell a secluded hilltop home in New Hampshire that has failed to attract bidders – and possibly contains hidden explosives. In August, a US marshal-hosted auction failed to attract a single bidder for the 100-acre property that was once owned by Ed and Elaine Brown, who were based there during a nine-month standoff with federal officials in 2007.

Miami Area Nuclear Plant In Partial Shutdown After Steam Leak
Activist Post - Perhaps the most dangerous nuclear reactor in the U.S. is in partial shutdown following the discovery of a steam leak. South Florida's ailing Turkey Point nuclear power station is in the news again, with Unit 4, one of its two reactors, taken offline Sunday due to a steam leak, according to a Dec.1st update released by Industrial Info Resources online. Conspicuously, as of the writing of this article, there is no indication that this highly concerning event has received mainstream media coverage.

Government-Backed Green Energy Goes Bust
Ira Stoll - According to the Toledo Blade, one of the few press outlets following the story, “In 2010, the company received $34.5 million in tax credits as part of the stimulus bill. U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) helped secure nearly $3 million in federal earmarks for the company. The company received a $3 million grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a more than $4 million loan from the state, and more than $2 million in state and local tax credits.”

---

Tuesday - December 2, 2014 - Today in History:

1816 - The first savings bank in the U.S., the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, opened for business.
1823 - U.S. President James Monroe outlined his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere.
1901 - Gillette patented the KC Gillette Razor. It was first razor to feature a permanent handle and disposable double-edge razor blades.
1917 - During World War I, hostilities were suspended on the eastern front.
1927 - The Ford Motor Company unveiled the Model A automobile. It was the successor to the Model T.
1954 - The U.S. Senate voted to condemn Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy for what it called "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute." The censure was related to McCarthy's controversial investigation of suspected communists in the U.S. government, military and civilian society.
1961 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared in a nationally broadcast speech that he was a Marxist-Leninist and that he was going to lead Cuba to communism.
1969 - The Boeing 747 jumbo jet got its first public preview as 191 people flew from Seattle, WA, to New York City, NY.
1982 - Doctors at the University of Utah implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired dentist Barney Clark. He lived 112 days with the device. The operation was the first of its kind.
1993 - The space shuttle Endeavor blasted off on a mission to fix the Hubble Space Telescope.
1994 - The U.S. government agreed not to seek a recall of allegedly fire-prone General Motors pickup trucks. Instead a deal was made with GM under which the company would spend more than $51 million on safety and research.
1995 - NASA launched a U.S.-European observatory on a $1 billion dollar mission intended to study the sun.
1997 - U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to seek an independent counsel investigation of telephone fund-raising by President Clinton and Vice President Gore. It was concluded that they had not violated election laws.
1998 - Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates donated $100 million to help immunize children in developing countries.
1999 - The British government transferred political power over the province of Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive.
2001 - Enron Corp. filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. The filing came five days after Dynegy walked away from a $8.4 billion buyout. It was the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
2010 - NASA announced the discovery of a new arsenic-based life form.

World News

Obama Reverses Policy As US-Turkey Set To Agree On Syrian No-Fly-Zone
Zero Hedge - With the apparent goal of 'protecting civilians' from ISIS and Syria's al-Assad, the US and Turkey appear to be close to agreeing on the creation of a no-fly-zone along a portion of the Syrian border. As WSJ reports, U.S. and Turkish officials have narrowed their differences over a joint military mission in Syria that would give the U.S. and its coalition partners permission to use Turkish air bases to launch strike operations against Islamic State targets across northern Syria.

As many as 300 Swedes believed to have joined ISIS
IceNews - There are fears that up to 300 Swedes have travelled to the Middle East to join Islamic State, according to the Scandinavian country’s intelligence chief. Anders Thornberg explained that they have already confirmed around a hundred cases of Swedes who have left the country to join the insurgency, but then they must take into account the presumed cases and those which have yet to be counted. This, he said, brings the overall number to between 250 and 300 people.

Food supplies to Syrian refugees halted as UN's money runs out
The Telegraph - The WFP announced on Monday that it could no longer afford the cost of its main project to help the millions of Syrians who have flooded over the country's borders into Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and beyond since the war started three years ago. It had been providing food vouchers to 1.6 million people, and said the consequences of its decision would be "disastrous".

VIDEO: Venezuela's future? 'Barbarity and people looting'
CNBC News - For Saudi Arabia, its decision last week not to cut oil production seems to have been an attempt to protect market share. But for Venezuela, that decision may mean "game over" for the economy. Oil accounts for 95 percent of Venezuela's export earnings,and combined with gas, it's 25 percent of the country's gross domestic product. As the price of oil hits a four-year low at $70 per barrel, the OPEC nation's oil-dependent economy is set to implode, experts say, bringing deeper political instability and chaos to the world's 10th-largest oil exporter.

Israel rejects Turkey's Gaza floating generator: Official
Anadolu Agency - Since 2012, electricity in the Gaza Strip has been operating according to a rotation system; it works for six hours in some areas and cuts off for another six hours to provide other areas with power. Palestinian National Economy Minister Mohamed Mustafa said Sunday that the Israeli authorities have officially rejected the proposal of having a Turkish floating power-generating ship near the Gaza Strip coast to help solve the electricity crisis in the embattled enclave.

Oil at $40 possible as market transforms Caracas to Iran (Video)
Bloomberg - Oil's decline is proving to be the worst since the collapse of the financial system in 2008 and threatening to have the same global impact of falling prices three decades ago that led to the Mexican debt crisis and the end of the Soviet Union. Russia, the world’s largest producer, can no longer rely on the same oil revenues to rescue an economy suffering from European and U.S. sanctions. Iran, also reeling from similar sanctions, will need to reduce subsidies that have partly insulated its growing population.

Putin: Russia forced to withdraw from S. Stream project due to EU stance
RT - Russia is forced to withdraw from the South Stream project due to the EU’s unwillingness to support the pipeline, and gas flows will be redirected to other customers, Vladimir Putin said after talks with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
* Related: Gazprom to build new 63 bcm Black Sea pipeline to Turkey

Note to China and Russia: did you import Depopulation Corn?
Activist Post - It’s been called contraceptive corn and spermicidal corn. A San Diego company called Epicyte developed it. Here’s a brief backgrounder from The Guardian, Sept. 9, 2001; “GM corn set to stop man spreading his seed,” by Robin McKie: “Scientists have created the ultimate GM crop: contraceptive corn.... “The pregnancy prevention plants are the handiwork of the San Diego biotechnology company Epicyte, where researchers have discovered a rare class of human antibodies that attack sperm.

Ebola news

'It Doesn't Look Good': World Health Body Fails to Meet Ebola Containment Goals
Common Dreams - The World Health Organization has failed to meet their December 1 goal for isolating and containing the deadly Ebola outbreak in many regions of West Africa, the United Nations reports. The targets, set in early October, aimed to get 70 per cent of the Ebola cases isolated and treated and to have 70 percent of the deceased safely buried by December 1.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Instead of Reacting Militarily, Nashville Police Welcomed Protests: No Violence or Looting
Free Thought Project - “In Nashville, if you want to come to a public forum and express your thoughts, even if they’re against the government, you’re going to get your First Amendment protection, and you’re going to be treated fairly by the police officers involved. That’s what we do here in Nashville,” Metro Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson told WKRN-TV 2.

Heroes: Oath Keepers Come To The Rescue In Ferguson
Oath Keepers - feel a lot better having those guys up on the roof.” – Ferguson resident Greg Hildebrand. “Historically, the government almost always fails to protect people.” – Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers. Despite a militarized police force and an unfulfilled promise of National Guard protection in Ferguson, dozens of businesses were vandalized and many were even burnt to the ground, as reported at Broadside News.

Police Order Oath Keepers To Stop Guarding Ferguson Rooftops
TPM Livewire - Although Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) called in the National Guard to prepare for potential unrest in Ferguson following a grand jury's decision in the Michael Brown shooting, some local business owners and residents turned to volunteers from a group called the Oath Keepers to protect their property instead.

A Blast From The Past!
Oath Keepers - [Note from Shorty Dawkins: We re-post this article by Stewart Rhodes, because the Washington Post posted an article: "The Oath Keepers: The little-known militia now roaming the streets of Ferguson", by Terrence McCoy, where he referenced this piece by Stewart Rhodes, calling it a "manifesto". Being from the Washington Post, it's not surprising that it is a hit piece. The article can be seen on the old Oath Keeper blogspot.]

Obama Doesn't Really Care About Police Militarization
Scott Shackford - The White House promised to study police militarization in the wake of how various law enforcement agencies in Ferguson, Missouri, responded to the peaceful protesters, not just the aggressive or criminal ones. What comes out of the report is a call for better documentation and transparency, and an easily supportable demand that local governments must actually review and authorize acquisition of the "controlled property"…What the report doesn't recommend is scaling back the programs in any notable or significant way.

Ron Paul: Nobody wants to be Obama's defense secretary
RT - The Obama administration is currently in the midst of finding a new secretary of defense to replace outgoing Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel – but longtime lawmaker Ron Paul says it's a task easier said than done. On Monday, the former Republican congressman for Texas said “it seems nobody wants to be secretary of defense” in an administration that will soon install its fourth person to that position in only six years.

FAA Wins Legal Battle as Drones Re-Classified as Aircraft Subject to FAA Regulations
PINAC - The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has declared that “drones,” also known as quadcopters or remote-controlled copters, are aircraft subject to regulation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), overturning last May’s NTSB decision that effectively made commercial drones legal. “An ‘aircraft’ is any ‘device’ ‘used for flight in the air,'” the board said. “This definition includes any aircraft, manned or unmanned, large or small.”

Economy & Business

Federal Shutdown: Will Congress Ruin the Holidays?
NBC News - The current government spending bill runs out in less than two weeks — December 11 — and it must be re-upped to prevent another federal shutdown. The good news is that Congress set the deadline with nearly three weeks before December 25, allowing a buffer of negotiating time before Social Security payments are jeopardized and national parks close.

Total US Debt Rises Over $18 Trillion; Up 70% Under Barack Obama
Zero Hedge - Last week, total US debt was a meager $17,963,753,617,957.26. Two days later, as updated today, on Black Friday, total outstanding US public debt just hit a new historic level which probably would be better associated with a red color: as of the last work day of November, total US public debt just surpassed $18 trillion for the first time, or $18,005,549,328,561.45 to be precise, of which debt held by the public rose to $12,922,681,725,432.94, an increase of $32 billion in one day.

Gas Heading Below $2.00 a Gallon in Southern U.S.
Kit Daniels - Gas prices are headed below $2.00 a gallon in the southern U.S. due to the region’s low taxes and numerous refineries as oil prices continue to fall, but the decline points to the beginnings of a global recession.

Veteran News

From pups to healers: Companions change wounded warriors' lives
WTOP News - Can a furry, four-legged creature really help save a life? Many wounded warriors and their spouses say, "yes." It's in part thanks to the Warrior Canine Connection. The pioneering program enlists recovering wounded service members to train service dogs for fellow wounded members. Rick Yount, a social worker of nearly 30 years, came up with the concept.

---

Monday - December 1, 2014 - Today in History:

1835 - Hans Christian Andersen published his first book of fairy tales.
1934 - Sergei M. Kirov, a collaborator of Joseph Stalin, was assassinated at the Leningrad party headquarters.
1941 - In the U.S., the Civil Air Patrol was created. In April 1943 the Civil Air Patrol was placed under the jurisdiction of the Army Air Forces.
1942 - In the U.S., nationwide gasoline rationing went into effect.
1943 - In Teheran, leaders of the United States, the USSR and the United Kingdom met to reaffirm the goal set on October 30, 1943. The previous meeting called for an early establishment of an international organization to maintain peace and security.
1955 - Rosa Parks, a black seamstress in Montgomery, AL, refused to give up her seat to a white man. Mrs. Parks was arrested marking a milestone in the civil rights movement in the U.S.
1965 - An airlift of refugees from Cuba to the United States began.
1969 - The U.S. government held its first draft lottery since World War II.
1984 - A remote-controlled Boeing 720 jetliner was deliberately crashed into California's Mojave Desert to test an anti-flame fuel additive. The test proved to be disappointing.
1986 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan said he would welcome an investigation of the Iran-Contra affair if it were recommended by the Justice Department.
1990 - Iraq accepted a U.S. offer to talk about resolving the Persian Gulf crisis.
1994 - The U.S. Senate gave final congressional approval to the 124-nation General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
1998 - Exxon announced that it was buying Mobil for $73.7 billion creating the largest company in the world to date.
2000 - Vicente Fox was sworn in as president of Mexico, ending 71 years of ruling-party domination.
2004 - Tom Brokaw signed off for the last time as anchor of the "NBC Nightly News."
2009 - President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 more U.S. troops into the war in Afghanistan but promised to begin withdrawal in 18 months.

World News

Russia launches ‘wartime government’ HQ in major military upgrade
RT - Russia is launching a new national defense facility, which is meant to monitor threats to national security in peacetime, but would take control of the entire country in case of war.... The Defense Ministry won’t disclose the price tag for the site, but it is estimated at the equivalent of several billion dollars.

Iraq graft probe exposes 50,000 ‘ghost troops’ crowding army payroll
RT - A headcount during the latest Iraq military payroll period revealed 50,000 ‘ghost soldiers’, who don’t work - or don’t even exist - but are paid, the PM told the parliament. The US has spent billions of dollars arming and training the Iraqi army.

Despite 2 Months Of ‘Coalition’ Airstrikes, ISIS “Is Not Weaker”
Zero Hedge - That is the awkward message US propagandists face from no lessor boots on the ground witness than Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem. “All the indications say that (Islamic State) today, after two months of coalition air strikes, is not weaker,” Walid al-Moualem emphasized, contrasting the US ‘coalition’ military efforts with a Russian call for restarting the political process between Damascus and ‘the constructive Syrian opposition’. Now that certainly is not a message the west wants the world to hear…

European Nations Repatriate Gold Reserves From United States Vaults
Sputnik News - Growing concerns over economic stagnation and unprecedented money printing have pushed European nations into repatriating their gold and as well as increasing their gold bullion national reserves…This trend is especially pronounced in Europe, where central banks face public pressure to buy more gold or bring back home what they hold in vaults overseas," the Wall Street Journal reported.

Swiss Gold Referendum Fails: 78% Vote Against "Protecting The Country's Wealth"
Zero Hedge - As Bloomberg reports, the proposal stipulating the Swiss National Bank hold at least 20 percent of its 520-billion-franc ($540 billion) balance sheet in gold was voted down by 78 percent to 22 percent, according to projections by Swiss television SRF as of 1:00 p.m. local time.

Malaysia Becomes Angry About Exclusion from MH17 Investigation
Washington's Blog - Now nearly five months after the Malaysian Airlines MH17 passenger plane got shot down in Ukraine, killing all 298 aboard, Malaysians are going public with anger about their having been excluded from the investigation-team that is to write the official report on the disaster (or possibly mass-murder).

Mother of MH17 plane crash victim sues Ukraine in European court: paper
(Reuters) - The mother of the victim named as "Olga L." was seeking $1 million in compensation from Kiev for manslaughter by negligence and had begun proceedings in the past week, Bild am Sonntag newspaper said on Sunday. According to the indictment, Ukraine should have closed its airspace to civil air traffic because of fighting with pro-Russian separatists.

Italy says 13 Novartis flu vaccine deaths
The Australian - Italian authorities issued a partial ban on FLUAD on Thursday after being alerted that three people had died and a fourth had been taken seriously ill within 48 hours of being administered the product. More cases came to light in the following days.

Were mysterious bangs heard all over Britain and in New York caused by U.S. stealth jet? (Video)
The Daily Mail - An expert claims the loud bangs which baffled Britons last night sounded like a type of experimental jet engine - which conspiracy theorists enjoy linking to a rumoured spy plane. Dr Bhupendra Khandelwal added his comparison to a debate which began when hundreds of Twitter users from Aberdeen to Devon - and even New York - reported 'explosions' which shook windows and disturbed sleeping children at around 10pm.

Ebola news

Homeland Security Now Forcing Ebola-Risk Passengers to Five US Airports
Breitbart - In response to the Ebola outbreak, President Obama's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is now requiring all airline passengers from afflicted nations to fly into one of five U.S. airports.

Ebola cases being hidden from public as government stockpiles survivors' blood before epidemic resurgence
(NaturalNews) Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, plans to begin stockpiling blood plasma from Ebola survivors, leading some observers to question whether the government is merely being prudent or is expecting a widening of the current outbreak inside the U.S.

Number of Ebola infections in west Africa passes 16,000
The Guardian - The number of people with Ebola in west Africa has risen above 16,000, with the death toll from the outbreak reaching almost 7,000, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says. The number of deaths is more than 1,000 higher than the figure issued by the WHO just two days ago, but it is thought to include deaths that have gone unreported in the weeks or months since the outbreak began. Most of the new deaths were recorded in Liberia.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Obama to Host Meetings with Civil Rights Leaders on Ferguson
Breitbart - President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet on Monday with Vice President Joe Biden, his Cabinet, civil rights leaders, and law enforcement officials among others, to discuss the the civil unrest that happened in Ferguson, Missouri, the Associated Press is reporting.

NAACP Begins Seven-Day, 120-Mile March from Ferguson to Missouri State Capital
Breitbart - The NAACP—disappointed Officer Darren Wilson was not indicted for the death of Michael Brown despite the evidence exonerating him—has organized and initiated a seven-day, 120-mile march called the “Journey for Justice” from Ferguson, Missouri to the state capital, Jefferson City.

Police state run amok as 40 federal agencies now deploying undercover agents as doctors, ministers, protesters and more
(NaturalNews) More and more agencies of the federal government are turning to the use of undercover operatives in expanded operations in recent years, with some 40 agencies now using officers who pose as welfare recipients, businessmen and women, doctors, political protesters and even ministers, in attempts to expose criminal activity.

Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson Resigns, Hopes His “Resignation Will Allow The Community To Heal”
Zero Hedge - Days after Ferguson was torched by angry rioters following a grand jury verdict not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, the policeman’s lawyer announced moments ago that he has resigned from the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department. As ABC reports, Wilson has been on administrative leave since the shooting. One of his attorneys, Neil Bruntrager, said the resignation is effective immediately.

United: Black Gun Owners Protect White Owned Business During Ferguson Riots
Blacklisted News - The reason these four brave men protected this business had nothing to do with their skin color nor the skin color of the owner of the store. These men were protecting the Conoco gas station owned by Doug Merello, because Merello has employed them over the years. They had mutual interests in the store’s survival as well as respect for one another.

Feds Enable Arsonists, Target Oath Keepers Protecting Ferguson Businesses
Mikael Thalen - Police in Ferguson, Missouri, have been pressured by the federal government to stop members of Oath Keepers from guarding local homes and businesses targeted by arsonists.... Almost immediately after receiving praise in a local paper for protecting vulnerable residents, Oath Keepers standing watch on top of a locally-owned bakery witnessed a three-man sniper team exiting a silver Suburban on the ground below. The three men were then seen setting up sniper hides in a nearby building before aiming their rifles directly at the group. Across the street, on top of the fire hall, a seperate sniper team began setting up as well.

VIDEO: Para-Military Police Caught Setting Fires In Ferguson?
Activist Post - Video shows para-military police "guarding" Advance Auto Parts on W Florissant Ave in St. Louis MO, the same street where nearly every fire occurred. Fires were already burning nearby while this unit lurked around a vehicle. No fire department was present. Despite appearing to have the building locked down, Advance Auto Parts burnt down to the ground along with several other buildings along the route allegedly patrolled by this force.

Gun Sales Skyrocket on Black Friday
Truth Revolt - More than 144,000 background checks will need to be performed after the the Friday sales, CNN reported Friday. The three-requests-per-second number is three times the daily average. Some 600 FBI and contract call center employees now must work 17-hour workdays to complete the background checks in three business days, as required by law, FBI spokesman Stephen Fischer said.

Charges Dropped For Cop Who Fatally Shot Sleeping 7-Year-Old Girl
Counter Current News - In all of the melee resulting from the shooting of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson, the media has overlooked a number of other very important shootings of unarmed civilians by police officers. One of the most egregious offenses is that of Officer Joseph Weekley’s fatal shooting of 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones. Officer Weekley recently saw manslaughter charge dropped against him, for shooting the 7-year-old while she slept.

Corrupt Federal Judge Rules Against Big Island Anti-GMO Law, Maui Next
Natural Society - Hawaii Federal Judge, Barry Kurren (and his wife) have deep ties with Monsanto, Dow, and Big Ag. The judge has recently overturned a democratically voted initiative to limit GMOs on the Big Island of Hawaii. Without an upswelling of public pressure, he’ll do it again in Maui.

Economy & Business

The Remarkable Increase in Sales of US Mint Silver Eagle Sales
EPJ - The price of gold and silver have recently been weak, but this doesn't mean there are no buyers…Below is the chart of the remarkable increase in purchases of US Mint direct physical silver purchases via silver eagles.

Ponzi: Treasury Issues $1T in New Debt in 8 Weeks-To Pay Old Debt
CNS News - The Daily Treasury Statement that was released Wednesday afternoon as Americans were preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving revealed that the U.S. Treasury has been forced to issue $1,040,965,000,000 in new debt since fiscal 2015 started just eight weeks ago in order to raise the money to pay off Treasury securities that were maturing and to cover new deficit spending by the government.

Guess What Happened The Last Time The Price Of Oil Crashed Like This?…
Economic Collapse - There has only been one other time in history when the price of oil has crashed by more than 40 dollars in less than 6 months. The last time this happened was during the second half of 2008, and the beginning of that oil price crash preceded the great financial collapse that happened later that year by several months. Well, now it is happening again, but this time the stakes are even higher.

Retail Disaster: Holiday Sales Crater by 11%, Online Spend Declines: NRF Blames Shopping Fiasco On "Stronger Economy"
Zero Hedge - Demonstrating the sad state of America's "economic dynamo", shoppers spent an average only $380.95, down 6.4% from $407.02 a year earlier. In fact, as the NRF charts below demonstrate, there was a decline across virtually every tracked spending category…So to summarize: holiday sales plunged, and Americans refused to shop because the economy is "stronger than ever" and because Americans have the option of shopping whenever, which is why they didn't shop in the first place.

Black Friday: A Pavlovian Mental Disorder – Now Medicated by ‘Cyber Monday’
21st Century Wire - This year, Black Friday has a new nemesis: the internet. Last year, Black Friday lost $ billions of dollars in annual sales to online shopping, and that trend is expected to continue this year.

Podesta Hurrying on Climate Change Before Time Runs Out
Breitbart - John Podesta, former chief of staff to Bill Clinton and now a chief advisor to Barack Obama to implement Obama’s climate change agenda, is hurrying as fast as he can to get Obama’s programs in place before he may be summoned to help run Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the GOP takes over the Senate.

California government elites use 500% more water than citizens
(NaturalNews) At at time when water conservation should be a high priority in drought-plagued California, it would appear that something else has been deemed a high priority: an elitist mind set whereby people self-appoint themselves as an exception to the rule. In the drying up state, this disturbing way of thinking is taking place at the Los Angeles mayoral mansion, Getty House, where it's been reported that approximately 2,100 gallons of water are used per day.

Building an Unbreakable Forever-Bond with Your Adopted Dog
Dr. Becker - Meet an incredible team of dedicated dog trainers who are bridging a huge gap in the no-kill movement. Learn about the invaluable tools they've created to help stressed and special needs rescue dogs transition successfully into new homes.

No Wonder Your Pet Makes You Smile... These 25 Absurd Pet Names Are Hilarious
Dr. Becker - Pet healthcare company VPI Pet Insurance has published their picks so far for the wackiest dog and cat names of 2014. Taking top honors for goofiest dog name was Peanut Wigglebutt. And staying with the “butt” theme, the weird kitty name winner was Snuggles Butt Le Lee.