Volunteers for Planetary Climate Action (VPCA) October 29, 2014
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https://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/geoengineering-what-do-our-children-have-to-say-about-it/
Geoengineering, What Do Our Children Have To Say About It?
October 27, 2014 6 Comments
We fight to save a future for our children, we owe our lives to them. Too many in our society have rationalized their own personal pursuits of pleasure while claiming to love their children. To truly show our love for the children of the world, we must fight for them with every breath we take, with every fiber of our being. It is this that drives me forward in this battle. The video below is particularly close to my heart, two of the voices in this video are from my son and my daughter. Our reality and theirs is changing and darkening by the day. Our collective challenges are growing at a pace that cannot be truly comprehended. Will we go silently into the night? Or will we join hands and struggle against the fading of the light? It is time for all to stand and join this fight for our very survival, and the survival of our children. There is only now, make your voice heard in this all important battle to expose and stop the greatest of all human assaults against life on Earth, global climate engineering. My sincere gratitude to Mauro Oliveira for producing this video.
Dane Wigington
geoengineeringwatch.org
——————————————————————————————————————————-Canada: Decoding Harper’s Terror Game. Beneath the Masks and Diversions
By Prof. John McMurtry
Global Research, October 28, 2014
Region: Canada
Theme: US NATO War AgendaStephen Harper is the most deeply reviled Prime Minister in Canada’s history. On the world stage, he is the servant of Big Oil boiling oil out of tar-sands to destroy major river systems and pollute the planet with dirty oil, while his attack dog John Baird leads the warmongering and bullying of nations like Iran and Syria targeted by the US-Israeli axis.
He is the most despotic and toxic first minister in the life of our country. His administration defunds every social program and life protective system it can. It strips the country of its public information infrastructures at every level – including now the gagging of non-profit NGO’s by eliminating their charitable status if they question any policy of his regime.
Just as his friend George Bush Jr., Harper holds government by big-money backing, continual lies, attack ads, and life-blind policies to enrich the already rich. Canada’s neo-con political class may have its head on backwards, but Harper is very cunning in skirting, subverting and perverting the law to abuse power at every level. He is the poster boy of the global corporate agenda of wrecking society and its common life support systems.
Harper also owes his political life to the RCMP. After a after non-confidence vote triggered the 2006 election, RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli instructed his staff to include former Liberal finance minister Ralph Goodale’s name in a news release announcing a criminal investigation. This reversed the stench of the Harper regime’s continuous scandals and corruption onto the Liberals by a false RCMP smear. As a former top insider of the Tory party advised me, “the RCMP won the election for Harper”. The re-elected Harper regime then surrounded the RCMP with blocks to silence all facts – the signature operation – so the truly deepest scandal of the era proceeded with impunity to the present day. So it is not surprising that CSIS, the RCMP and Harper are collaborating to get more secret powers for the police and spooks in return for serving Harper’s underlying agenda.
How “Acts of Terrorism” Fit the Known M.O.
Harper certainly needs an accepted domestic enemy to save him from the rising revulsion of the thinking public against his rule. His regime’s record of destroying the life substance of Canada piece by piece cannot be denied. One already knew what was coming when Harper immediately called the crazed run-over of soldiers in Quebec on October 20 “a terrorist act” about which he was “deeply worried”. In fact, it was the act of a criminally insane loner run amok in a small Quebec town without any evident objective as required under the law’s definition of terrorism. But with the foreknowledge of his addled Islam by the RCMP and CSIS, he seems to have been an ideal patsy for Harper’s home “terrorism” claim. He had already been arrested and his passport cancelled in June. We can imagine how an effective undercover agent might have whipped him into a Jihad frenzy knowing he would soon be full of holes and unable to report what happened.
One can more clearly see such a scenario in the case of the clinically insane, drug-addicted petty criminal living in a homeless shelter in Ottawa who had warned a judge in front of the police back in 2011:”‘If you can’t keep me in, I’m going to do something”. Who could have been a better tool for the events to come? On October 22 after the first “As a “radicalized terrorist” attack, a double-barrelled shotgun impossible to hide that no-one saw before ended up in the hands of Micheal Zebaf-Bibeau. The rest is history. He went on a killing spree with no known blood testing afterwards for the drugs he was evidently driven by in the video record of his frenzied and super-charged behaviour, just as there was no known test of the body of crazed drive-over killer, Martin Couture-Rouleau. How extraordinary. How unspoken in the lavish profusion of other details and official false connection to ISIS.
“Terrorist” stops the mind, and “jihadist” locks it in. Harper’s first invocation of the mind-stopper was, as always, strategic. Although blood tests for a substance-abuse driving offense are automatic, none was reported although the videos show every sign of chemical possession. Bibeau too went crazy and was dead with countless bullets through him before any questions could be asked. All such strange coincidences are part of the now familiar covert-state MO.
Joining the Dots
Since Harper publicly claimed an “act of terrorism” two days before the sensational Ottawa murder and crashing of Parliament and as soon as the Quebec killing occurred, questions arise. The normally zipper-lip Harper did so long before any forensic facts were in, and before the idea even occurred to anyone else. Why? Revealingly the federal security state had been running war games exercises depicting just such attacks weeks before the crazed murders (Canadian Authorities Ran War Game Drills Depicting ISIS Attack Scenarios Brandon Martinez, Global Research, October 24, 2014). Lone-wolf nut cases, killings out of nowhere, unknown motivators and arming, and the state leader most profiting from mutation of the demented murders into “terrorist acts” before anyone else – – who joins the dots? It is taboo to think through such situations, and this too is known beforehand. Sure enough within the day, the RCMP and CSIS get the new extraordinary powers they sought, and for the first time in office the robotic Harper is behaving with a warmth not even extended to his young son with whom he shakes hands in farewell. He is hugging opposition leaders in Parliament to show a new human side to complete the image makeover in motion.
Harper is happy because he thinks his next election is saved. But the first forensic question in acts of murderous crimes is again never asked. The hypnotic trance of “terrorism” in sedate Ottawa holds the narrative unchallenged. Cui bono? Who benefits from these unbelievable closed-case murders in two days which have the media headlining “terrorism” and “anti-terrorist legislation” everywhere Canadians look, and Harper now as the strong hand in charge. The top banner headline of the weekend Globe screamed “How far should we go?”
Home-Grown Terror for Harper’s Re-Election
The first function of the terrorist claim is the standard one – diversion from the ailing economy and the majority’s growing revulsion of the leader and his party. Harper has made enemies of every thinking Canadian in the country by his stripping of the country’s public life and knowledge bases, and reversing the country’s global reputation as an agent of peace, social conscience and reverence for nature. Diversion to a constructed Enemy is the oldest strategy in the book of despised heads of state, and Harper is in unprecedented need for distraction to another target to uplift him at the same time. Bush Jr. ran on this formula for eight years.
If the stratagem is not seen through, the second big boost to Harper will be to justify the despotic rule and quasi-police state he has built with ever more prisons amidst declining crime, ever more ant-terrorist rhetoric and legislation, ever more cuts to life support systems and protections (the very ones which would have prevented these murderous rampages), and ever more war-mongering and war-criminal behaviours abroad. The evil regime of despotic control and life oppression he has instituted surpasses any ill rule in the nation’s history. As the US prototype of the life-blind right wing has taught him, the greatest justification of one’s rule is knee-jerk hatred of a safe Enemy. But in Canada, that does not work over time. So the domestic “acts of terrorism” in Quebec and Ottawa itself provide the needed Enemy within Canada to justify anything with ever new pomp, mandatory agreement of others, and ruling power at centre stage.
Diagnosing the Drive to Total Control
The rest follows. The “New Terrorist Laws” in execution were already the feature news headline on Oct 25, allowing for any new surveillance and control of citizens. Keep in mind our already-installed totalitarian airport regime that deprives people of water and hygiene products, dehumanizes all, and undresses millions with no questions allowed any step of the way. It is a synecdoche of the larger total rule advancing with the Harper gang in charge further than ever before. “Nothing can be the same again” cheer the corporate media in choral support.
More favours to the Harper regime from the RCMP and CSIS may be in store – for example, false allegations and naming of even the most honest opponents like Ralph Goodale who spent “the worst year of my life” recovering from the RCMP smear that kept Harper in power. It is a bit like the War Measures Act – new capacity to lock down any city at any time with armed-force control pervading the streets and police-army powers in the glory of mass-controlling armed command and kill license. It has already happened in Ottawa with a lone crazy, and the lock-down was infinitely more heavy-handed than in 1970 Montreal which I observed first hand. Keep in mind the trumped-up cause for it – one likely-drugged and managed murderous homeless mental case dead before any questions could be asked.
Observe too how the language changes to fit the agenda of total control. The keys are “terrorists” for lone individuals driven crazy with no more social supports for them, and “radicalization” with no modifier as the ultimate problem of thought behind the terror. What deprived group or oppositional rethinking cannot be so labelled? These psych-ops are already in full motion now. They have been minted into ruling group-mind by the mocked-up “terrorists attacks” at home, and Harper rule can only go further by such trances of normalized stupefaction now reinforced with Canadian blood.
Behind all the public psych-ops is the operation of reverse projection long perfected by the US war-machine. Blame the opposition for what you are doing as the reason for attacking them. At the Canada level, the reverse projections define the Harper regime. He is punitively and vindictively despotic, rigidly and vengefully doctrinaire, intolerant of deviation, shames and slanders at will, and overrides every democratic constraint to his insatiable drive to total control. Narrow and life-blind absolutism, indifference to others’ suffering, and certitude of virtue while destroying people and common life support systems complete the unseen rule of terror at work. A coterie of mediocre and corrupt subordinates surround and serve him to allow no shard of light in on the ruling mission of society destruction.
With most people not yet suspecting it, Harper rule is an Americanada mirror image of the jihad-fascism he uses to multiply his and his corporate allies’ rights and powers. Behind him lies the transnational money-sequence cancer he embodies in every policy line.
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Japan: Doctors Threatened to Lose Right to Practice for Linking Illnesses to Fukushima
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Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy Education on Radio Ecoshock, released Oct 29, 2014:
Alex Smith, host of RadioEcoshock (at 10:30 in): We’ve heard almost nothing about the impacts [of the Fukushima catastrophe] on people in that region. There are accounts coming out of there of strange tumors, kids dying, pets dying — what have you heard? Can we ever expect an honest accounting from Japanese authorities?
Arnie Gundersen, nuclear engineer (emphasis added): That’s a pretty good summary, frankly. We continue to get information from people who live there about cancer rates — and illnesses in general, not just cancer. We think of radiation as a cancer causing thing, but it also causes many other ailments. Much higher incidences of a whole range of illnesses than they had in 2010, the year before the accident… We’re also working with doctors in Japan, and some brave doctors are saying that they’ve been threatened — that their hospital rights have been threatened — if you tell your patient this illness is radiation related you’ll lose your right to practice and things like that. So there’s enormous pressure on the medical community to tell the patients that what they’re experiencing is not at all related to radiation. The key is statistics, and the question is when will the statistics be released for mortality, morbidity, and general illnesses… We’re not seeing the data. The medical community now has to file every report that it writes with the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, before it’s issued. So if you’re a hospital, and you’ve got mortality data, you’re not allowed to issue that to the public until those reports have been cleared by the IAEA. Well, Article II of the IAEA charter is to promote nuclear power. So even if the hospital was conscientious — there’s a lot of political pressure not to be — but even if it was conscientious, there’s another step in the process, and they’ve got to clear an IAEA hurdle before those numbers are released.It’s truly frightening, the pressure the medical community is undergoing in Japan. Very few of them are willing to tell the truth.
Arnie Gundersen, nuclear engineer, Oct. 20, 2014 (at 15:00 in): There’s experts out there like me – independent experts – who are saying that as many as a million cancers may result.
Sneak peek of Oct. 29 broadcast here | Watch Oct. 20 presentation here
——————————————————————————————————————————–http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/10/29/chickenshit-public-feud-erupts-between-named-and-unnamed-us-israeli-officials
Published on Wednesday, October 29, 2014
by Common Dreams
“Chickenshit”: Public Feud Erupts Between Named (and Unnamed) US-Israeli Officials
by Jon Queally, staff writer
Reporting by The Atlantic’s Jeffery Goldberg published late Tuesday, in which he offers anonymity to a “senior Obama administration official” who called Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “a chickenshit,” has set off a public relations firestorm in both Tel Aviv and Washington, DC.
Goldberg reports that U.S.-Israel relations are in tatters and uses the anonymous quote to illustrate the “red-hot” anger felt by White House officials over the Israeli government’s continued expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank. The comment, writes Goldberg, “is representative of the gloves-off manner in which American and Israeli officials now talk about each other behind closed doors, and is yet another sign that relations between the Obama and Netanyahu governments have moved toward a full-blown crisis.”
Critics of the reporting, however, were quick to point out the troubling decision to allow such an intentionally provocative statement to be published without identifying the source. No stranger to covering U.S.-Israeli relations in the wider context of the Middle East, prior to becoming a journalist focusing on the region Goldberg himself served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) while living in the country more than two decades ago.
Dan Murphy, a journalist with the Christian Science Monitor, responded to the reporting by tweeting:
The National Interest’s Jacob Heilbrunn characterized the impact of Goldberg’s reporting by writing, “If there wasn’t a crisis in U.S.-Israel relations before the appearance of Jeffrey Goldberg’s explosive new article in the Atlantic, then there is one now.”
And independent journalist and commenter Marcy Wheeler wondered publicly if the timing of Goldberg’s scoop wasn’t suspiciously timed:
Other reactions on Twitter:
Despite these various interpretations, what did these unnamed U.S. officials even mean when they call the Israel PM a “chickenshit”? According to Goldberg (h/t MotherJones) :
Over the years, Obama administration officials have described Netanyahu to me as recalcitrant, myopic, reactionary, obtuse, blustering, pompous, and “Aspergery.”….But I had not previously heard Netanyahu described as a “chickenshit.” I thought I appreciated the implication of this description, but it turns out I didn’t have a full understanding.
[…] “The good thing about Netanyahu is that he’s scared to launch wars,” the official said, expanding the definition of what a chickenshit Israeli prime minister looks like. “The bad thing about him is that he won’t do anything to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians or with the Sunni Arab states.”
[…] I ran this notion by another senior official who deals with the Israel file regularly. This official agreed that Netanyahu is a “chickenshit” on matters related to the comatose peace process, but added that he’s also a “coward” on the issue of Iran’s nuclear threat. The official said the Obama administration no longer believes that Netanyahu would launch a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities in order to keep the regime in Tehran from building an atomic arsenal.
[…] Another manifestation of his chicken-shittedness, in the view of Obama administration officials, is his near-pathological desire for career-preservation. Netanyahu’s government has in recent days gone out of its way to a) let the world know that it will quicken the pace of apartment-building in disputed areas of East Jerusalem; and b) let everyone know of its contempt for the Obama administration and its understanding of the Middle East.
In Israel on Wednesday, in response to the story, Netanyahu forcefully defended Israel’s policies. As the Guardian reports:
Speaking to the Israeli parliament – the Knesset – a few hours after the comments were revealed, Netanyahu angrily insisted he was “under attack simply for defending Israel”, adding that he “cherished” Israel’s relationship with the US.
“When there are pressures on Israel to concede its security, the easiest thing to do is to concede,” he said. “You get a round of applause, ceremonies on grassy knolls, and then come the missiles and the tunnels.”
The Obama officials’ comments underline the dismal state of relations between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu after a series of damaging announcements by Israel – including again this week – regarding its determination to push ahead with settlement building in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
However, following Goldberg’s report, U.S. National Security Spokesperson Alistair Baskey downplayed the level of acrymony between the two U.S. and Israeli governments. “We do not believe there is a crisis in the relationship,” Baskey said. “The relationship remains as strong as ever and the ties between our nations are unshakable.”
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Syrian Army Leaders ‘Slaughtered’ as Isis and Nusra Front Militants Storm Idlib
By Robert Fisk
Hundreds of fighters stormed into the provincial capital, Idlib, captured the newly installed governor’s office and began beheading Syrian army officers. Continue
Terrorism and ‘The True Believer’
By Patrick J. Buchanan
Why do young men and women travel from a free prosperous West to fight in Syria and perhaps die in a suicide bombing? What do they seek? Continue
Islamic State Video Shows British Hostage John Cantlie in Kobani
Video
“The mujahedeen are just mopping up now, street to street, and building to building.” Continue
How Israel Is Turning Gaza Into A Super-max Prison
By Jonathan Cook
Where else in the world apart from the Palestinian territories would the international community stand by idly as so many people suffer. Continue
The Special Interest Problem
By Lawrence Davidson
Like those with a strong addiction, these politicians seem unable to free themselves from the monkey on their back. Continue
How Will The Stock Market React To The End Of Quantitative Easing?
By Michael Snyder
Most people do not realize how vulnerable our financial system truly is. It is essentially a pyramid of debt and credit that could fall apart at any time. Continue
By Gary
Based on the lessons of history, all empires collapse eventually; thus, the probability that the US empire will collapse can be set at 100% with a great deal of confidence. Continue
The Adult War On Children.
By Robert J. Burrowes
Perpetrators of violence learn their craft in childhood. If you inflict violence on a child, it learns to inflict violence on others. Continue
The Challenges of Defending Your Child’s Mind from Propaganda
By Daniel Ameduri
I truly believe that most Americans suffer from Stockholm Syndrome. Continue
US Child Poverty Remains At Highest Rate In 20 Years
By Andre Damon
“It shouldn’t be this hard for kids to grow and thrive in the world’s richest, most powerful nation,” Continue
Law Lets I.R.S. Seize Accounts on Suspicion, No Crime Required
By SHAILA DEWAN
Using a law designed to catch drug traffickers, racketeers and terrorists by tracking their cash, the government has gone after run-of-the-mill business owners and wage earners without so much as an allegation that they have committed serious crimes. Continue
Video
Innocent Man Refuses to Submit to Lie Down Even With Guns Pointed at Him. Continue
Resolving Key Nuclear Issue Turns on Iran-Russia Deal
By Gareth Porter
The briefing was translated by BBC’s monitoring service but not reported in the Western press. Continue
The Kerry-Abdullah Secret Deal
Oil-Gas Pipeline War On Iran, Syria And Russia
By F. William Engdahl
One of the weirdest anomalies of the recent NATO bombing campaign, is that the price of crude oil has been dropping, dramatically. Continue
Putin’s Head
By Vasily Koltashov and Boris Kagarlitsky
Who will remove the head of Russian President Putin and offer it on a platter to the U.S.? Continue
Jerusalem, the Capital of Apartheid, Awaits the Uprising
By Gideon Levy
Mass arrests, violent settlers, expulsion, and dispossession: With that as the lot of Jerusalem’s Palestinians, no one should have been surprised with Wednesday’s terror attack. Continue
The Genius Of Israeli Evil: It Poses As Concern
By Amira Hass
The genius of Israeli evil is in its ability to disguise itself as compassion and concern. Continue
Canada: Decoding Harper’s Terror Game.
Beneath the Masks and Diversions
By Prof. John McMurtry
Stephen Harper is the most deeply reviled Prime Minister in Canada’s history. Continue
The Stark Facts of Global Greed
By Paul Bucheit
With total U.S. wealth of $84 trillion, the three-year change represents a transfer of wealth of over a trillion dollars from the bottom half of America to the richest 1% Continue
Bogotá: Improving Civic Behavior
Documentary
A unique and surprising story of two mayors, who have changed behaviour patterns in the Colombian capital, bringing Bogotá out of a negative spiral of violence and chaos and remaking it as something of a visionary role model for other megacities. Continue
October 28, 2014
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October 27, 2014
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Federal Reserve ends quantitative easing bond-buying program
Published time: October 29, 2014 18:06
The Federal Reserve has officially announced an end to its quantitative easing bond-buying program, but economists are split over whether the central bank’s decision will help or hinder post-recession recovery.
As expected, the Fed said Wednesday afternoon that it’s third and most recent round of quantitative easing, QE3, would come to an end.
“The Committee judges that there has been a substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market since the inception of its current asset purchase program. Moreover, the Committee continues to see sufficient underlying strength in the broader economy to support ongoing progress toward maximum employment in a context of price stability. Accordingly, the Committee decided to conclude its asset purchase program this month,” reads part of a statement released by the Fed on Wednesday.“The Committee is maintaining its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in agency mortgage-backed securities and of rolling over maturing Treasury securities at auction. This policy, by keeping the Committee’s holdings of longer-term securities at sizable levels, should help maintain accommodative financial conditions.”
The confirmation surprised few since the Fed was largely reported ahead of Wednesday’s decision to be considering making such an announcement. As far as what the result will be, however, is up for debate as economists weigh potential outcomes ranging from outright optimism to doom and gloom.
Combined, the three rounds of QE undertaken by the Fed since 2008 have generated trillions of dollars for the American economy through a process in which the central bank has perpetually pumped money into long-term government bonds and bonds backed by home mortgages. But David Wessel, the director of the Hutchins Center at the Brookings Institution, told NPR recently that the three-and-a-half-trillion dollars’ worth of bonds purchased during that six-year span has been “far more than anybody inside or outside the Fed expected when this all began.”
Indeed, the Fed has twice announced an end to its bond purchasing programs, only to soon after start again when it was realized that the desired effect failed to be achieved. Six years later, though, the end to QE3 might once and for all be the final nail in the program’s coffin.
In 2009, Ben Bernanke, then the chairman of the Fed, said that quantitative easing would only end“when credit markets and the economy have begun to recover,” at which point the central bank would resume business as usual.
“As the size of the balance sheet and the quantity of excess reserves in the system decline, the Federal Reserve will be able to return to its traditional means of making monetary policy–namely, by setting a target for the federal funds rate,” he said. “In considering whether to create or expand its programs, the Federal Reserve will carefully weigh the implications for the exit strategy. And we will take all necessary actions to ensure that the unwinding of our programs is accomplished smoothly and in a timely way, consistent with meeting our obligation to foster full employment and price stability.”
Today, the American economy is statistically sounder than six years ago: not only have three rounds of QE allowed faltering banks to get boost after boost from the government, but, partially as a result, jobless claims are down drastically from post-recession figures.
Nevertheless, optimism isn’t universal when it comes to what ending QE3 means for the world economy.
“Well there are some improvements, but we can’t say that it is recovering as everyone hoped,” Nour Eldeen Al-Hammoury, a chief market strategist at ADS securities in Abu Dhabi, told Euro Newsrecently. “GDP is growing based on the inventories, which doesn’t mean that sales are increasing. The slack in the economy remains and so far there is no clear strategy on how this slack will be resolved. Moreover, the slowing down in Europe and Asia will be something to consider as the US economy is unlikely to grow on its own.”
According to Al-Hammoury, markets the world over may suffer as a result of ending QE3. “It is not the Middle East markets only, it is global markets and especially the emerging markets,” he said. “Let’s say, for example, Dubai — Dubai stock market was one of the best performers in the world. However, we will see some more declines at the end of the year. These markets are again sensitive to any events. However, these Middle East markets may benefit again from what’s happening in Europe. I mean the outflow that is happening in Europe and also don’t forget that this region has also opened its doors to foreign investors so with the Fed ending QE we might see some declines again, and if the global slowdown continues, global markets, including the Middle East, may continue with the current downside correction.”
Even in the west, that pessimism is present: Pedro Nicolaci da Costa wrote for The Wall Street Journalthis week that the Fed may deploy another round of quantitative easing if the decision to end the third series proved to be unsuccessful, which, according to his report, may be the case.
“Many of the studies of large-scale asset purchases, known as quantitative easing or QE, agree they worked very well to prevent deflation and stabilize the financial system during the 2008 crisis, but disagree about how effective the programs have been in boosting growth since then,” da Costa wrote.
Although Bernanke has attributed QE with cutting unemployment, da Costa wrote, Fed researchers and academic economists have for years studied the practice and are split with regards to how successful the rounds have been, and what the eventual outcome will be when all is said and done.
“I do think they’re overly optimistic,” Barbara J. Cummings of the Boston Private Bank & Trust Company told CNBC this week. “The market and the Fed are definitely saying two different things. And the market is right. It usually is.”
To some, the outcome is even drearier. “Without another dose of stimulus, the US will likely slide into recession,” Worth Wray, chief strategist at Mauldin Economics, predicted to Equities earlier this month.
## Global Ponzi meltdown/House of Cards ##
German Business Morale Weakens At Lowest Level In Almost 2 Years
Why Germany’s households are more fragile than you think
El-Erian: “Europe Is One or Two Rounds of Sanctions From Recession”; El-Erian Far Too Optimistic
Stock markets threatened by collapse in Chinese consumer demand
The capitulation of the Chinese consumer threatens to drag stock markets around the world into a death spiral as one of the pillars of global growth is undermined.
Another Unbelievable Stress-Free Test; Whitewash Math and Deferred Tax Assets
In an effort to fool the public into believing the latest round of bank stress tests were actually designed to find stress, the ECB found 25 scapegoats, with the biggest losers in Italy and Greece.
Iran mulling currency side step
Using national currencies for trade deals between Iran and Russia is high on the list of items to be discussed during upcoming talks, an Iranian lawmaker said.
Italian banks hit hard by European test results
Forget “Free Trade”–Focus on Capital Flows
Where is the “free trade” in a world in which the comparative advantage is always held by mobile capital? And what gives mobile capital its essentially unlimited leverage? Central banks issuing trillions of dollars in nearly-free money to banks and other financial institutions that funnel the free cash to corporations and financiers, who can then roam the world snapping up assets and arbitraging global imbalances with nearly-free money.
Europe’s Glacial Growth Lowers Prospects for Job Seekers
Pump and Dump: How to Rig the Entire IPO Market Without Raising ANY Money
Europe’s bank test celebrations mask mounting challenges
Why Do Banks Want Our Deposits? Hint: It’s Not to Make Loans.
Ukraine unlikely to receive IMF loan tranche this year – finance minister
Total War over the Petrodollar
A meditation on the circumstances surrounding the death of Total SA’s chief executive, Christophe de Margerie. — RF
The European Central Bank Embarks on Asset Purchases
These three charts show McDonald’s biggest problem## Airline Death Spiral ##
Dutch arm of Air France-KLM to shed 7,500 jobs: report
Fuel costs weighed on JAL’s first-half operating profit
Airplanes of the future are windowless## Fault lines/flashpoints/powder kegs/military/war drums ##
Kobani Death Toll Crosses 800 As Kurds Await Reinforcements From Iraq
Pakistan experts expect more defections to the Islamic State
Suicide bomber in Iraq kills 27 Shi’ite militiamen near Baghdad: police
Syria Says Providing Military Support to Kurds in Kobani
Afghanistan looks to China as US troop withdrawal continues
Afghanistan has requested assistance from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in its fight against the Taliban, according to an Oct. 24 report from Duowei News, a media outlet operated by overseas Chinese.
Poland to move 1000s of troops toward eastern border
Pakistan and Iran exchange mortar fire on border
India to build 6 submarines
U.S. may join Japan-Aussie sub project
Saab finalizes $5.4 billion Brazil order for 36 fighter jets
Israel’s Iron Dome Missile Defense System To Be Altered For Use At Sea
Netanyahu to expedite plans for 1,000 new settler homes
Mexico Arrests Four Gang Members, Uncovers New Mass Grave In Search For Missing Students
Saudi Arabia Sentences 3 Lawyers to Jail for Tweets
Scientists spot Russian sub in Arctic Ocean
Israel’s ranked as Middle East’s best military
Saudi Arabia carries out 61st execution of 2014
Libya near ‘point of no return’, U.N. says as fighting toll rises
## Global unrest/mob rule/angry people/torches and pitchforks ##
Cologne Hooligan Riot: Alleged Neo-Nazis Clash With German Police In Anti-Salafism Demonstration
African Boys Attacked at Bronx School, Called “Ebola”: Advocacy Group
Italians Rally in Rome to Protest Renzi’s Labor Rules Change
Do Hong Kongers Think The US Is Behind Occupy Protests?
It would be naive to think that the US is not somehow involved. Perhaps not pulling the strings, but stirring the pot to facilitate unrest, thereby creating a headache for China. — RF
Holding Computers Aloft, Thousands March in Budapest Against Anti-Democratic Internet Tax
Demonstrators oppose state secrecy law (Japan)
## Energy/resources ##
Fracking, a ‘False Premise’ that manufactures ‘False Promises’
Ukraine Facing Harsh Winter Due To Coal Shortages
Big changes in US heating oil (Platts video)
Sulfur levels used in heating oil in the US Northeast are tightening and about to get tighter. Some of these new restrictions requiring states to cut the maximum sulfur content in home heating oil by 75% will be in full force this winter. John Kingston, director of news, and David Henry, associate editor, US diesels, discuss how the restrictions could affect distribution companies and the potential affect of a supply squeeze on diesel.
WTI falls below $80 per barrel, Brent sheds gains
Solar Struggles To Compete With Other Renewables On Cost
Why Oil Prices Are About To Settle
Low oil prices threaten Norway’s Arctic, UK’s mature fields
Big oil and gas finds in waters along Europe’s northern edge may remain undeveloped now that oil prices have dropped, keeping potential supply of over a billion barrels of oil equivalent out of the market for the foreseeable future.
Copper Surges After Report Mysterious London Buyer Has Cornered Up To 90% Of Market
Shell may abandon Arctic drilling plans without lease extension: letter
A variety of unanticipated delays may force Shell to abandon its roughly $6 billion venture in Arctic waters if the Obama administration does not extend its leases by five more years, according to a company letter made public this week.
Maersk: Drilling Industry Dip Could Last Into 2016
## Infrastructure scavenging ##
Don’t Park Tractors in Houston, Equipment Theft Capital
## Got food? ##
Warm autumn hits fruit prices as too much is produced (UK)
Shashe farmers demonstrate practical food sovereignty
## Lifestyle Solutions ##
Own Physical Gold and/or Silver? Here Are Some Ideas On How To Store/Hide It
## Environment/health ##
Liberia tightens anti-Ebola rules at seaports
Australia bans travel from Ebola-hit countries; U.S. isolates troops
BP Oil Spill Left Rhode Island-Sized ‘Bathtub Ring’ on Seafloor
New research shows that the BP oil spill left an oily “bathtub ring” on the sea floor that’s about the size of Rhode Island. The study by UC Santa Barbara’s David Valentine, the chief scientist on the federal damage assessment research ships, estimates that about 10 million gallons of oil coagulated on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico around the damaged Deepwater Horizons oil rig.
Colorado researchers working on Ebola vaccine for military
U.S. Army Troops Returning From Ebola Zones Held 21 Days
Surge In Hydroelectricity Could Spell Disaster For Biodiversity
European researchers say an unprecedented surge in the construction of hydropower dams around the world could double renewable electricity generation, but potentially at the expense of freshwater wildlife.
Syringes are now currency in heroin-addicted Myanmar
Facing Imminent Extinction, African Lions Demand Federal Protection, say Officials
## Intelligence/propaganda/security/internet/cyberwar ##
Former CBS Reporter Accuses Government of Secretly Planting Classified Docs on Her Computer
‘Blimp in a Box’ Deployed in Search for Cop-Killer Suspect Eric Frein
Unique ID May Follow Some Verizon Wireless Customers Online
US official urges allies to combat IS ideology
Payment Wars: How Merchants And Carriers Are Trying To Block Payment Systems They Can’t Track
The wearable technology future is coming, and it sounds pretty awful
FBI Raids Federal Contractor’s Home – Has the Government Identified the “Second Leaker”?
More “War on Terror” Abuses – Spying Powers Are Used for Terrorism Only 0.5% of the Time
FBI Created Fake Seattle News Story to Catch Bomb Threat Suspect
Report Reveals Wider Tracking of Mail in US
In a rare public accounting of its mass surveillance program, the United States Postal Service reported that it approved nearly 50,000 requests last year from law enforcement agencies and its own internal inspection unit to secretly monitor the mail of Americans for use in criminal and national security investigations.
Homeland Security steps up protection at federal buildings
Feds introduce new anti-terrorism bill (Canada)
Cyber breaches put 18.5 million Californians’ data at risk in 2013: report
How the Washington Press Turned Bad
There was a time when the Washington press corps prided itself on holding the powerful accountable – Pentagon Papers, Watergate, Vietnam War – but those days are long gone, replaced by a malleable media that puts its cozy relations with insiders ahead of the public interest.
Ed Snowden Taught Me To Smuggle Secrets Past Incredible Danger. Now I Teach You.
## Systemic breakdown/collapse/unsustainability ##
Post-peak Italy: the decline continues
Italy is in full collapse, with all economic and financial indicators in decline. Industries are closing down and restaurants are opening; the system is trying to adapt by tapping the remaining available resources in the form of foreign tourists.
The SUV goes from All-American to global star
US States Slashing Education Spending
State-level K-12 education spending has fallen dramatically in many states since 2008. In that time, 29 states cut per pupil spending, shifting the burden of financing education to local school districts and, in many instances, forcing schools to cut costs and even teachers.
## Japan ##
Despite Worrisome Volcano Warning, Nuclear Restart Approved for Japanese Plant
JR Hokkaido found to have ignored 260 track irregularities
Radioactive soil stored at Fukushima schools not covered by recent disposal law, has nowhere to go
Down and out in upscale Japan
Tokyo government claims its homeless population has hit a record low, but analysts – and the homeless – beg to differ.
Strong earnings no longer a magic wand for Japanese companies
Japan to create cabinet post for Tokyo Olympics
Takata air bag crisis ‘has roots in rapid global expansion’
Ebola likely to necessitate biosafety facility’s activation
## China ##
China “Ghost Town Index” – Here Are China’s 10 “Ghastliest” Cities
Beijing Tells Its Residents to Leave Town Ahead of APEC Summit
Online financing, rising costs squeeze profits at China’s midsize banks
Ebola Outbreak In China Is A Likely Scenario As A Result Of Chinese Workers In Africa: Expert
China’s oil demand setting records
China Fake Invoice Evidence Mounts as HK Figures Diverge
One reason China’s housing market collapse will get even uglier: home ownership is already 87%
A Chinese Soft-Landing Will Inevitably Lead To A “Very Brutal Hard Landing”, Pettis Warns
China says more heavy smog expected ahead of APEC summit
China aims to reform military, online media
China will more closely manage its military and increase online limitations, a meeting of its Communist Party indicated Tuesday.
China announces plans to set up anti-terrorism intelligence system
Chinese Communist Party Members Urged to Abstain From Mahjong, Other ‘Small Thrills’
## UK ##
Britain faces tight power supply this winter-National Grid
Lack of wind or nuclear problems ‘could wipe out UK’s spare power capacity’
Household lights could be dimmed this winter if wind doesn’t blow and nuclear plants stay offline – despite new emergency measures to prevent blackouts, experts warn
Study questions British wind energy resilience
Rising numbers of GPs turfing patients off lists
## US ##
Getting More Likely Jeb Bush Will Seek Presidency, Son Says
Durable Goods Decline Second Month; Key Take-Aways
How Will The Stock Market React To The End Of Quantitative Easing?
We Don’t Have One Problem–We Have Three Interlocking Sets of Problems
The additional sets of problems added as “solutions” only guarantee that the third and final crash of asset bubbles just ahead will be far more devastating than the crashes of 2000 and 2009.
To Protect and Perve – California Cops Share Nude Photos Stolen from Citizens’ Cellphones
Sheriff defends using officers, armored truck in seizure
Marathon County authorities acted appropriately when they sent two dozen officers and an armored vehicle to seize property from an elderly couple in the town of Stettin, Sheriff Scott Parks said Monday in response to critics.
Lenders Facing Soaring Costs Shutting Out U.S. Homebuyers
Does This Look Like A Housing Recovery To You?
New Home Prices Plunge the Worst EVER (in One Ugly Chart)
Cities Rebel Against Federal Immigration Enforcement Programs
A growing number of U.S. cities are rebelling loudly and clearly against a federal program designed to streamline the deportation of immigrants in the criminal justice system. From Miami to San Diego to Chicago, cities are simply refusing to hand over immigrants to federal authorities unless there is a court order for their arrest.
One Percenters Drop Six Figures at Long Island Mall
At Americana Manhasset, the salespeople know your closet better than you do. They call designers in Paris or Milan to find the perfect little black dress. They deliver soup when you’re ill.
America Secretly Recruited Thousands Of Nazis As Cold War “Assets”
Guess How Much Americans Plan To Spend On Christmas And Halloween This Year…
“Stop Thanking Me for My Service” – Former U.S. Army Ranger Blasts American Foreign Policy and The Corporate State
Woman asked to stop breast-feeding in OB-GYN office
Official: Deputy not wrong to point gun at 2 men
15 Signs That We Live During A Time Of Rampant Government Paranoia
Time Warner’s HBO to cut 7 percent of staff
Rental rates are outpacing wage growth: What are the implications of rising rents when wages are simply not keeping up?
Here Is The Reason For The Surge In Consumer Confidence
What’s Keeping Americans From Buying Homes? Try College Debt
Scared of the Stock Market? Try Investing in Consumer Debt
And finally…
Caught on Camera: ‘China’s Worst Driver’
NBC News Man was dubbed by Chinese media as “China’s worst driver” after numerous failed attempts to back out of a parking spot are caught on camera.
‘Hello Kitty’ arrested on drunken driving charge
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