United States and Japan Decline to Join China-led International Bank

Framework for China-led international bank signed

June 29, 2015

AFP - Countries from five continents formally signed up to the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank at a ceremony on Monday, officials said, as Beijing steps up its global diplomatic and economic role.

Australia was the first country to sign the articles of association creating the AIIB's legal framework in the Great Hall of the People, an AFP journalist saw, followed by 49 other founding members.

Seven more are expected to do so by the end of the year.

The bank will have a share capital of $100 billion, with $20 billion paid in initially, the document showed.

The bank "will provide new opportunities for our businesses and also promote sustainable growth in Asia", said Singapore's senior minister for finance and transport Josephine Teo, who represented the city-state.

The AIIB has been viewed by some as a rival to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, and the United States and Japan -- the world's largest and third-largest economies, respectively -- have notably declined to join.

Beijing will be by far the largest shareholder at about 30 percent, the articles of association posted on the website of China's finance ministry showed. India is the second biggest at 8.4 percent with Russia third on 6.5 percent.

The voting structure gives smaller members a slightly disproportionately larger voice, and a statement accompanying the articles said China will have 26 percent of the votes.

The share is not enough to give Beijing a formal veto over the bank's decision-making, but it will still have an outsized say.

Among non-Asian participants, Germany is the largest shareholder with 4.5 percent, followed by France with 3.4 percent and Brazil on 3.2 percent.

The AIIB is expected to go into operation later this year and its headquarters will be in Beijing, despite calls from Indonesia that it be based in Jakarta, further cementing China's prominence in the institution.

But all financial terms in the agreement are in US dollars, rather than China's currency, the renminbi, and the bank's working language will be English.

- Transparency concerns -

Only 50 of the 57 countries that have applied for founding membership signed up in Beijing on Monday, and the finance ministry said the remainder -- Denmark, Kuwait, Malaysia, Philippines, Poland, South Africa and Thailand -- have yet to ratify the necessary agreements.

Washington sought to dissuade its allies from taking part but European countries including Britain, France and Germany have rushed to sign up as they seek to bolster ties with the world's second-largest economy.

There are some concerns over transparency of the lender, which will fund infrastructure in Asia, as well as worries that Beijing will use it to push its own geopolitical and economic interests as a rising power.

The articles of association promise the bank will "be guided by sound banking principles in its operations" and "ensure that each of its operations complies with the Bank’s operational and financial policies, including without limitation, policies addressing environmental and social impacts".

But equally vague statements in the past have done little to soothe critics.

Supporters say fears over undue Chinese influence are overblown, and that the participation by more than 50 countries will dilute Beijing's power.

The articles of association specify that the bank's president must come from the Asian region and will serve a maximum of two consecutive five-year terms.

In Tokyo, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said: "We hope the AIIB will play a role as a financial institution that contributes to Asia's development while meeting standards of international institutions, including for its governance.

"We'd like to watch it closely, including its actual operations."

Related: 

The Church Will Be 'Raptured' at Armageddon

FBI Muslim Patsy Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Admits to Guilt in 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings and is Sentenced to Death by Lethal Injection for Crimes He Didn't Commit

Tsarnaev speaks: 'I am sorry for the lives I have taken'

June 24, 2015

Yahoo News - Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev spoke publicly for the first time since his arrest, telling a packed courtroom at his sentencing hearing Wednesday that he was sorry for his role in the 2013 attacks that that killed three people and injured nearly 300.

"I would like to now apologize to victims and survivors," Tsarnaev said. "Immediately after the bombing that I am guilty of... I learned of some of the victims, their names, their faces, their age. And throughout this trial, more of those victims were given names, more of those victims had faces, and they had burdened souls."

The 21-year-old, who declined to testify on his own behalf during his trial, was given the opportunity to speak before he was formally sentenced to death. He spoke with a soft voice and a slight accent to a courtroom full of family members and survivors that seemed stunned to finally hear his voice more than two years after his arrest.

"If there is any lingering doubt, I did it, along with my brother," Tsarnaev said, choking up as he spoke. "I am sorry for the lives I have taken, for the suffering I have caused you, and for the damage I have done, the irreparable damage."

The courtoom remained silent as Tsarnaev spoke. Many of the jurors who convicted him and sentenced him to death in May were seated in the jury box, and some cried as he offered his apology to the victims. 

Tsarnaev offered no explanation of why he did what he did--only that he was guilty and that he was sorry  for the suffering he had caused.

At several moments, Tsarnaev, who was criticized for showing little emotion during his trial, seemed to be on the brink of tears. His voice became choked, and at several points, he paused to clear his throat and regain control. He did not look back at the victims who sat behind him in court as he addressed them.

"I pray to Allah to bestow his mercy on you," Tsarnaev said. "I pray for your relief, for your healing, for your well-being, for your strength."

He concluded by asking "Allah to have mercy upon me, my brother and my family" and for those "present here today."

Earlier, bombing survivors and family members of those killed or injured in the bombings delivered victim impact statements, directly addressing Tsarnaev about the suffering and loss he caused.

“I don’t know what to say to you," Patricia Campbell, mother of bombing victim Krystle Campbell, told Tsarnaev. “What you did to my daughter was disgusting.’’

Later, Judge George O’Toole addressed Tsarnaev before handing down a sentence of death by lethal injection.

"When people remember you, they will remember only the evil you have done," O'Toole said. "No one will remember that your teachers were fond of you, that you were funny, a good athlete. What will be remembered is that you murdered and maimed innocent people."

Tsarnaev was then cuffed and led out of the courtroom by U.S. Marshals.

His attorneys looked grim and victims stared, but he didn't look back.

Bank Foreclosures Rise, Driving Foreclosure Activity to 19-month High

U.S. foreclosure activity up in May as bank repossessions rise

June 19, 2015

Reuters - Bank repossessions rose again last month, driving overall U.S. foreclosure activity to a 19-month high on an annual basis, industry firm RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

A total of 126,868 homes across the country were at some point in the foreclosure process in May, up 1 percent from April and up 16 percent from the same time last year, RealtyTrac said.

Foreclosure activity includes foreclosure notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.

Lenders reclaimed a total of 44,892 homes in May, down 1 percent from April but up 58 percent from a year ago. May was the third straight month of annual increases in bank repossessions, which remained far below the peak in September 2013 when lenders reclaimed 102,134 properties.

Foreclosure starts were down 1 percent in May, but rose 4 percent from the same period last year, RealtyTrac said. Lenders started the foreclosure process on 51,414 properties last month.

"May foreclosure numbers are a classic good news-bad news scenario, with the number of homeowners starting the foreclosure process stabilizing at pre-housing crisis levels but the number of homeowners actually losing their homes to foreclosure still well above pre-crisis levels and on the rise," said Daren Blomquist, RealtyTrac vice president.

"Lenders and courts are pushing through stubborn foreclosure cases that have been languishing in foreclosure limbo for years as options to prevent foreclosure are exhausted or left untapped."

A total of 49,413 properties were scheduled for auction in May, up 6 percent from the prior month, up 5 percent from May 2014.

Florida continued to post the highest foreclosure rates last month, followed by New Jersey, Maryland, Nevada and Ohio, RealtyTrac said.

Global Warming Zealot Pope Francis (the False Prophet) is a Member of the Jesuit Society, a Secret Military Organization Which Has Instigated Most of the Wars in Europe

All the ‘intelligence’ agencies -- CIA, Mossad, MI6, ISI, etc. -- are all connected with the secret societies in an unholy, strangely-knotted alliance.

America and the West are clearly nervous about the Vatican’s overtures to the Moscow-Bejing axis and the alleged transfer of millions of Vatican Bank Euros into the new Asian Investment Bank, which hopes to rival the IMF for global financial supremacy. Ever the consummate Jesuit politician, Jorge Bergoglio (Pope Francis), knows how to play both sides of the Great Game by feigning loyalty to each faction. All of his words, and his managerial instinct to play to the crowd, need to be appreciated in that light. Despite what people may hear or want, there is no great reform movement underway in the Vatican; on the contrary, Pope Francis has challenged none of the standing Vatican policies. In truth, what his regime is doing is taking sides in the new global cold war by realigning the Roman Catholic Church towards the Eastern power bloc and influencing America to do the same. After all, three quarters of Catholics are in the third world now, and coming from there himself, Jorge Bergoglio knows that the old supreme Imperium of Western Europe and America is on the wane. Official America must realize its twilight condition as well, election-time rhetoric notwithstanding, considering the abject prostitution of both Democrats and Republicans to the Fixer from Rome. [Source]

On March 13, 2013, the Catholic cardinals elected a new pope after just two days of deliberations, selecting 76-year-old Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio on the fifth vote. He has taken the name of Francis and was not considered to be one of the front runners. He is the first Jesuit pope and the first non-European pope since the 8th century. It has been 1,272 years since a non-European pope led the Church, and is particularly appropriate today, as the number of Catholics have declined in Europe, but grown significantly throughout Latin America. It is now home to 41 percent of Catholics and is “perceived as a Catholic bedrock that needs support to counter the tremendous growth of Protestantism.” Latin America is also home to a replica of Solomon's Temple, which was inaugurated in Brazil on July 31, 2014.

Pope Francis calls global warming a major threat to life on the planet, says it is due mainly to human activity, and describes the need to reduce the use of fossil fuels as an urgent matter in a rare encyclical, or teaching letter, released on June 18, 2015. In the letter he promotes climate action as a moral imperative. "The encyclical is going to go out to over 1 billion Catholics — that's a way of getting a message across to a segment of society that the scientific community could never do," said an excited Jeff Kiehl with the National Center for Atmospheric Research. "I mean it's just unbelievable." Scientists see this year as crucial to the planet's future because of the religious document from Pope Francis. "I'm not a religious person at all," said Gavin Schmidt, a NASA climatologist. But he sees faith-based efforts to shift thinking on climate action as very promising. "The pope's encyclical is probably going to have a bigger impact than the Paris negotiations," he said. [Source]

Pope Francis says culture of consumption has led to global warming

June 18, 2015

LA Times - Pope Francis on Thursday called for immediate changes in human behavior to fight global warming and save the environment, saying damage caused by contemporary lifestyles could leave future generations in a world of filth.

In a powerfully worded encyclical, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church chastised those who would deny a human connection to climate change. Francis declared that the planet was indeed growing warmer and that the dangerous trend was due largely to a culture of instant gratification.

Tragically, he said, people have grown increasingly self-obsessed, ever more distant from nature and alarmingly preoccupied with technological novelty.

“Doomsday predictions can no longer be met with irony or disdain,” Francis wrote in the highly anticipated encyclical, or teaching document, released Thursday. “We may well be leaving to coming generations debris, desolation and filth. The pace of consumption, waste and environmental change has so stretched the planet’s capacity that our contemporary lifestyle, unsustainable as it is, can only precipitate catastrophes.”

At a Vatican news conference, Cardinal Peter Turkson, who wrote a draft of the document, said humanity is facing a “crucial challenge” that needs to be addressed through dialogue.

“For Pope Francis it is imperative that practical proposals not be developed in an ideological, superficial or reductionist way,” he said.

Pope Francis' encyclical on climate change

Metropolitan of Pergamon John Zizioulas, representing the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Orthodox Church, said the environmental crisis was also a spiritual problem caused by the rise of individualism and a greed for personal happiness.

Israel Insults 'Palestinian Society' in Animated Video Released to Public

Israel's cringe-inducing Gaza cartoon shows its worsening PR problem

June 17, 2015

Vox World - On Monday, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released this video: a kooky, animated 45-second spot about a fictional American reporter covering last summer's Gaza war. The reporter is shown lavishing praise on the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and on Palestinians generally, before putting on glasses and seeing how wrong he'd been.

The video is cringe-worthy in its belittling tone, its fallacies (does anyone really believe the US media has reported that "there are no terrorists" in Gaza?), and its focus on slighting "Palestinian society." The message of the video appears to be that only an idiot would see any moral complexity in the Gaza war, which seems more likely to alienate viewers than to sway them to Israel's cause.

This is what Israel's government actually believes a winning PR campaign looks like. And that speaks to a serious and growing problem for the country: stuck in an echo chamber of its own making, it is struggling to connect to anyone who doesn't buy its government's line.

This video doesn't make much sense unless you're already totally on board with the Israeli government's narrative of the conflict. Many Israelis, especially on Israel's right, believe the international press is deeply and often willfully unfair to Israel (there's something to this point, but Israelis often overstate it).

Pointing this out plays well among right-wing Israelis and pro-Israel supporters. But among everyone else, it does not. It's a textbook case of preaching to the choir, and it's in line with Israel's larger international public outreach strategy. For a country that depends on international support, that's more than a PR problem.

Israel's PR strategy is becoming a problem

For quite some time, Israel's pitch has been pretty simple: we're a tolerant liberal democracy and our enemies are not, so you should support us. You can see the hallmarks of that narrative in the above video.

And indeed, Hamas is a deeply nasty organization correctly labeled as a terrorist group. It intentionally killed civilians, including Palestinians, during the Gaza war.

But focusing on that sort of misses the point. International public opinion is turning against Israel because of 1) a sense that Israel uses disproportionate force relative to the threat posed by Hamas, killing hundreds of civilians unnecessarily, and 2) anger at Israel's continued occupation of the West Bank and oppression of the Palestinians living there, as well as its policies toward Gaza.

Pointing out that Hamas does terrible things doesn't actually address those problems — and it risks leaving viewers with the impression that Israel doesn't see those problems at all.

Federal Employee Pension Funds Hold $837 Billion in Treasury Securities, and the Thrift Savings Plan Holds Another $194 Billion

Fun Fact: Federal employees own $1 trillion of U.S. debt

April 6, 2015

Federal Times - If federal employees were a foreign country they would rank only behind China and Japan as holders of U.S. Treasury securities, according to federal data.

The Civil Service Retirement System and the Federal Employee Retirement System hold a combined $837 billion in Treasury securities, and the Thrift Savings Plan holds another $194 billion. In combination they rank only behind the Social Security Trust Fund, China and Japan as holders of public debt.

U.S. Public Debt
(All figures in billions $)
Debt holder	Debt owned
Social Security	2,738
China	1,239
Japan	1,238
Federal employees	1,039
Military retirement fund	536
Belgium	354
Carribean Banking Centers	338
Oil Exporters	291
Brazil	256
Russia	82
Source: Treasury Department

While federal employees do not directly control the pension system portion of the public debt, federal employee retirement funds constitute about 6 percent of the $18 trillion in debt the Treasury Department is currently financing.

This fact is made sharper by the recent debt limit standoffs in Congress, as one of America's major creditors are its own federal workers.

On March 16 the Treasury Department notified Congress that it was once again at its statutory limits and would have to begin various measures to juggle debt payments until Congress raises the debt limit.

On March 17, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew sent a letter to Congress notifying them that one of the "extraordinary measures" the agency can take to stay under the debt limit is to suspend the investment of the G fund – the securities investment fund of the TSP – and the federal pension funds as well.

"By law, the G Fund will be made whole once the debt limit is increased. Federal retirees and employees will be unaffected by this action," Lew wrote. 

In October 2008, when plummeting stocks were decimating federal employees' retirement savings, federal employees responding in large numbers by pulling their remaining money out of the Thrift Savings Plan's stock-based funds and putting them into the safer G Fund pegged to U.S. Treasury securities.

According to the Federal Times on October 11, 2008:

U.S. Government to Cut Benefits for Hundreds of Thousands of Retirees Covered by Underfunded Multi-employer Private Pension Plans, But It Will Not Cut Benefits for Retirees and Surviving Spouses of the U.S. Government Even Though the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund is Underfunded by $800 Billion

Government paves way for multi-employer pension plan cuts

June 16, 2015

AP - The government is preparing to cut benefits over the next few years for hundreds of thousands of retirees covered by underfunded multi-employer private pension plans.

The Obama administration announced on Wednesday that well-known mediator Kenneth Feinberg review applications from pension plans under a law passed last year. The law would cut benefits as a last ditch means to stave off insolvency of troubled plans such as the huge Teamsters Central State Fund.

The new law earned mixed reviews from the unions whose members are covered by such defined benefit plans, including construction workers, Teamster truckers and food service workers.

The Teamsters and AARP opposed the law when it passed last year as part of a government-wide spending bill. But other unions saw it as a solution that was preferable to plans becoming insolvent and getting a federal bailout.

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew named Feinberg, an attorney, to review applications for fairness. Feinberg has administered the compensation funds for claims from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and from families of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Feinberg said the job is a "very, very difficult, challenging assignment" and said he won't accept compensation for the task.

More than 10 million people are covered by 1,400 or so multi-employer plans, but about 1 million of those are covered by plans expected to run out of money in coming years. They would be eligible under the new system that would cut benefits to people already in retirement.

People 80 years old and over are protected from any upcoming cuts, while those over 75 are partially protected.

Federal Employees’ Retirement System: Budget and Trust Fund Issues Congressional Research Service Summary 

The Federal Office of Personnel Management has estimated the normal cost of the FERS basic retirement annuity at 12.7% of payroll. Employee contributions for FERS employees first hired before 2013 are set in law at 0.8% of pay, so the contributions of federal agencies [taxpayers] are equal to 11.9% of basic pay for these employees [taxpayers contribute 11.9% and the federal employee contributes only 0.8% toward his/her pension]. For employees first hired (or rehired with less than five years of FERS service) in calendar year 2013, employee contributions are set in law at 3.1% of pay, so the agencies’ contributions [taxpayers] for these employees are equal to 9.6% of basic pay [taxpayers contribute 9.6% and the federal employee contributes only 3.1% toward his/her pension]. If the assumptions underlying these cost estimates prove to be accurate, FERS will be “fully funded.”

March 24, 2014

Congressional Research Service - Most of the civilian federal workforce is covered by one of two retirement systems [additionally, they have a Thrift Savings Plan, which is similar to a 401k, and has about $250 billion in combined accounts]:

(1) the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) for individuals hired before 1984 or
(2) the Federal Employees’ Retirement System (FERS) for individua ls hired in 1984 or later.

FERS annuities are fully funded by the sum of employee [whose income comes from taxpayers] and employer contributions [taxpayers are the employers] and interest earned by the Treasury bonds held by the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund (CSRDF).

The federal government makes supplemental payments [from taxpayers] into the CSRDF on behalf of employees covered by the CSRS because employee and agency contributions [from taxpayers] and interest earnings do not meet the full cost of the benefits earned by employees covered by that system. 

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) estimated that in FY2014, obligations from the CSRDF would total $80.0 billion, of which $79.4 billion will represent annuity payments to retirees and survivors. Other outlays consist of refunds, payments to estates, and administrative expenses. Obligations from the fund are projected to increase by 3.4% to $82.7 billion in FY2015, of which $82.1 billion will represent annuity payments. OPM estimated that receipts to the CSRDF from all sources would be $95.3 billion in FY2014 and $98.5 billion in FY2015. The year-end balance of the CSRDF was projected to increase from $848.5 billion at the end of FY2014 to $861.8 billion at the end of FY2015.

The Pace of Healing in the Housing Market is Losing Steam

This Is the Housing Chart That Keeps One Economist Up at Night

June 12, 2015

Bloomberg - It’s the one chart that keeps Stan Humphries up at night.

A decade after U.S. home sales peaked, 15.4 percent of owners in the first quarter owed more on their mortgages than their properties were worth, according to a report Friday by Zillow Inc. While that’s down from a high of 31.4 percent in 2012, it’s still alarmingly above the 1 or 2 percent that marks a healthy market, said Humphries, the chief economist at the Seattle-based real-estate data provider. Worse yet: The pace of healing is losing steam.


• Share of mortgages in negative equity has been halved in almost four years, but a long way from healthy

The blotch stains the economy by restraining the housing recovery and by preventing the job market from becoming even more vigorous. It also will probably exacerbate wealth inequality for years to come as homes valued in the bottom third of the market are more likely to be underwater.

“There’s a large swath of the housing market which could become quite static, which creates real long-term problems,” Humphries said.

The share of mortgage borrowers underwater in the first quarter was down 3.4 percentage points from 18.8 percent at the same time last year, according to the Zillow data. That’s a marked slowdown in the pace of improvement from the 6.6 point drop in the 12 months through March 2014. Just over half the owners were 20 percent or more away from breaking even.

The problem “was kind of on a glide-slope to fade away and it’s now circling the airport,” said Humphries.

Home Appreciation

While the healthiest way for the underwater mortgages to heal is through home-price appreciation, those increases are diminishing. Residential property values nationally rose 4.14 percent in March from the prior year, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. The gauge has decelerated each month since the end of 2013, when it climbed 10.8 percent.

“I expect a more moderate pace of home-price appreciation,” said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst for Bankrate Inc. in North Palm Beach, Florida. Therefore, the progress in rebuilding home equity “is unlikely to come as quickly in the next three years as it has in the last three.”

The prospect of having so many properties lingering underwater, probably for another five or six years, is what unsettles Humphries.

“The problem you could be creating is 15 to 20 percent of the housing stock becomes non-tradeable, which means inventory shortages continue, prices remain very spiky because liquidity is thin, and foreclosures remain very high,” he said.

Less Spending

People with no equity in their homes also have little spending power to renovate them, devaluing the stock further, according to Nicolas Retsinas, director emeritus of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a member of the board of directors at Freddie Mac.

What Happens When You Stop Paying Your Federal Student Loans?

Here's what happens when you stop paying your federal student loans

June 12, 2015

Business Insider - Two years after leaving school, students default on their federal loans at a rate of 9.1%, according to a 2013 report by the New York Federal Reserve. That figure jumps to 13.4% at the three-year mark. 

Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Lee Siegel wrote an op-ed article in The New York Times on Saturday in which he advised people to default on their student loans rather than remain stuck with crippling debt. 

But what actually happens when you default?

VICE recently talked to Heather Jarvis, a self-proclaimed student loan expert who graduated from Duke Law School with $125,000 of debt and has been an advocate for borrowers ever since.

According to Jarvis, if you decide one day to stop paying your federal student loans, after 270 days the loan will default, at which point the government will start garnishing your wages, seizing tax refunds, and intercepting government benefits (like social security) without a court order.  

The government may also sue if they think it will give them access to your assets.

"They can and do — literally do — pursue debtors to their graves," Jarvis said.

Jarvis says defaulting on your student loans can also affect your credit and hurt your chances of qualifying for mortgages and loans down the road. She does note that the government cannot put you in jail for owing debt. 

The internet is littered with stories of what happens when you can't pay your student loans, but not nearly as many about what to do after you have already defaulted.

Santa Ana Cops Joke About Kicking Amputee in 'Nub' and Eat Marijuana Edibles After Unlawfully Removing Surveillance Equipment (But They Missed a Camera) During a Raid at a Dispensary

Santa Ana officers caught on video eating edibles, joking about kicking amputee in 'nub', attorney says

June 12, 2015

KABC - Surveillance video shows a raid conducted by Santa Ana police officers at an unlicensed marijuana dispensary last month.

The edited video shows officers telling everyone to get on the ground. It also shows officers removing surveillance equipment, but the lawyer for the dispensary says hidden cameras caught much more, including officers eating marijuana edibles and joking about kicking an amputee.

"Did you punch that one-legged old Benita?" one officer says.

"I was about to kick her in her ****ing nub," a female officer replies.

Marla James volunteers at the Sky High Collective. She's legally blind and says several medical issues keep her confined to a wheelchair.

"How can I respect someone like that? It just makes your stomach turn -- maybe she doesn't know what it's like to have an amputation. I don't know what was going through her head, but man that was so disrespectful," James said.

She now plans to sue the city for the actions of the female officer in the video.

"Obviously, we're concerned about what we saw in this edited video. Anytime we get an allegation or indication that our officers might be engaged in misconduct, we want to make sure we conduct a thorough administrative investigation," said Santa Ana police Cmdr. Chris Revere.

James' lawyer, Matthew Pappas, says he plans to include other alleged misconduct from the video in his lawsuit. He's unhappy with the force officers used. He also alleges the video shows officers playing darts and eating what he believes is marijuana edibles from the store.

"He's eating it right there in the marijuana collective. If you're a police officer, you probably shouldn't be eating things from a marijuana collective," Pappas said.

The Santa Ana Police Department says every allegation will be thoroughly investigated.

"We expect our officers to hold themselves to a certain standard and represent the department and the profession well," Revere said. "If that wasn't done in this case, it's certainly something that, as part of the administrative investigation, the chief will make the appropriate disciplinary recommendation if it's warranted."

As for James, she says all of the officers involved in the raid need to be disciplined in one way or another.

"I think there's some sensitivity training that needs to be done here," she said.

Teacher Fired for Shockingly Racist Post Defending Overzealous Cop at McKinney Pool Party

Teacher Fired for Shockingly Racist Post

Posting a fiery rant on her personal Facebook page defending the police officer who confronted a group of teens at a Texas pool party cost one teacher her job. (Photo: YouTube)

June 12, 2015

Yahoo! Parenting - The police officer caught on tape throwing an African-American bikini-clad teenage girl on the ground at a chaotic pool party last week in McKinney, Texas, isn’t the only person out of a job.

Yesterday, a teacher from McKinney got axed from her position for posting a racially inflammatory rant about Officer Eric Casebolt’s resignation on her personal Facebook page — hotly defending his actions and referring to African-Americans as “having no education” and “the ones causing the problem” when it comes to racial tension.

“This makes me ANGRY! This officer should not have to resign,” wrote Karen Fitzgibbons, formerly a fourth-grade teacher at Bennett Elementary School in McKinney, on her Facebook page on Tuesday, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. The page has since been deleted.

“I guess that’s what happens when you flunk out of school and have no education. I’m sure their parents are just as guilty for not knowing what their kids were doing; or knew it and didn’t care,” she continued. “I’m almost to the point of wanting them all segregated on one side of town so they can hurt each other and leave the innocent people alone.”

Karen Fitzgibbons apologized for her inflammatory post, but she was fired anyway. (Photo: Fire Karen Fitzgibbons/Facebook)

Fitzgibbons, who had worked for the school district for 16 years, according to the Avalanche-Journal, ended her post with this sentence:

“Now, let the bashing of my true and honest opinion begin…GO!” 

She got her wish. The post went viral, and outraged readers called for the school district to fire her.

District officials took just a day to give Fitzgibbon the boot.

Homeless Man Holding Stick in Park Shot Five Times by Cop in Front of Dozens of Children

"I served 11 1/2 years with the VIPD and never shot anyone. I am only 5'6" and disarmed many a foe without firing a shot. In my day, if you killed anyone you were charged just like any other criminal, so you had that on your mind every time you responded to a call. You were taught self defense, including karate and boxing. I trained privately and earned a first degree black belt. I believe the proliferation in killings has to do with the training and the emphasis on the use of the weapon. We were given a baton, a black jack and handcuffs, which you could use before using deadly force. I don't think that the average officer understands what it is to be criminally charged and that is why they are so eager to use deadly force. The stress that you face when you are charged is worse than having a tooth ache. Also, the culture of the higher-up to condone and cover-up for the rank and file does the profession a disservice and puts the officers at more risk. The culture and training must change as we are living in an audio-video world. Big Brother is everywhere. - Augustin, Yahoo!, June 12, 2015



Here are accurate eye-witness quotes:

Nichelle Miller said she saw the confrontation, which took place around 10 a.m., inside the park at Northwest 13th Street and Third Avenue. It happened in front of the entrance to the Culmer/Overtown branch library. Miller said the officer fired five times.

“The man had a stick in his hand. They could have Tasered him. He was a homeless guy who’s there every morning,” Miller said. She said the man didn’t swing the pipe at the officer, but pointed it at him.

Another witness, Stephanie Severance, told Miami Herald news partner CBS4 that the officer stopped Severe, and when he began pointing the metal stick at the officer, the officer opened fire.

“The next thing you know, the man shot him,” she said. “I didn’t know whether to run, duck or hide.”

Arrest Information

Full Name: Fritz Severe

Date:03/03/2013

Arresting Agency: ORLANDO PD

Personal Information

Arrest Age:43

Current Age: 45

Gender: Male

Birthdate: 10/05/1969

City: Orlando, Florida32805 

BURGLARY OF DWELLING

STATUTE: 810.02(1)(B)(1)-4 (SECOND DEGREE FELONY)

 

Arrest Information

Full Name: Fritz Severe

Date:08/09/2013

Arresting Agency: ORLANDO PD

Personal Information

Arrest Age:43

Current Age: 44

Gender: Male

City: Orlando, Florida 32808

TRESPASS (SIMPLE)

STATUTE: 810.08-22 (FIRST DEGREE MISDEMEANOR)

Autonomous Kamikaze Drones Could Soon Hunt in Swarms

Drones could soon hunt in Packs

• Darpa is hosting meetings to discuss how aircraft could work together to find, identify and engage targets with fewer humans controlling them (illustrated). Its 'Code' programme is also designed to cut the number of operators needed to control a single unmanned vehicle, allowing one person to operate six simultaneously Darpa will host a number of meetings in March to discuss how drones could work together to find, identify and engage targets
• Aims to enable one human operator to control a pack of drones
• Software could ‘extend the mission capabilities of existing unmanned aircraft,’ and make them more autonomous
• Idea for drones that hunt in packs was floated in the US Department of Defence's Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap for the next 25 years

January 26, 2015

The Daily Mail  - Flying a military drone in a warzone or other dangerous locations currently requires a team of human operators.

But this could be about to change, as the US military looks to enable drones to hunt in ‘coordinated packs’ with minimal human supervision.

Hezbollah Might Just Be Our Best Bet for Middle East Stability

Suicide bombers, the Holocaust and ‘terrorism’

June 10, 2015

Observer Opinion, Ken Silverstein

“Dear Alvin, I tried to tell you something, but it is very hard for me to write about this all…There are such a lot of questions in my life that have no answers. I sometimes give it completely up. You asked about grandmother — she died in the first month of the German occupation. About my family, I don’t know anything, I don’t think they are alive. I don’t need anything specially, but when we meet I will ask you for something.”

That’s part of a letter Alvin Sloofman — my uncle and my mother’s oldest brother — received on June 14, 1945, a little over a month after WWII ended in Europe and about six weeks after Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide in their bunker as Soviet troops rolled into Berlin.

I got a copy of the letter from Alvin’s daughter, Pam, a few years ago, at a family reunion in St. Louis organized by my mother. People came a long way for the reunion, including a number of relatives from Buenos Aires, where relatives had fled before and after World War II.

Tragically, a child of one of those relatives was killed during the “Dirty War” conducted by the right-wing Argentine junta that ruled — with extensive support from the U.S. government — between 1976 and 1983. The young man who was killed was a leftist activist who the Argentine junta “disappeared” during the so-called “Dirty War.”

Jorge Werber, a second cousin who I met at the family reunion and who I spoke to on Monday night, told me that to the best of his knowledge, the young man — his first name was Oscar — was kidnapped from a café, while he was having a meeting with companions. He was ratted out by someone who had been kidnapped earlier and revealed Oscar’s identity under torture.Oscar’s body was never found and his family never learned exactly what happened to him, though they spent many years pursuing the case in Argentina and in the United States.

As to that letter to Alvin, it was written to him by a cousin and delivered to a U.S. Army camp in Italy, where Alvin fought during the war. The letter writer was then in Egypt after having fought against the Nazis as part of the Jewish Brigades, which were part of the British Army.

The letter closes with these words: “In a short time I will go on leave to Palestine to saw [sic] aunt and then I shall probably see you. I have written today to your family too. Write me again soon!”

The letter writer’s signature is illegible. Alvin, who died about a decade ago, never met him and many members of family — including my mother — never heard from him again or knew what became of him.

I think about that letter a lot and found myself reading it over and over again after recently returning from a trip to the Middle East, where I spent a great deal of time with members of Peshmerga, the Kurdish militia, and in Lebanon, with friends who support and fight for Hezbollah, the militia of Lebanese Shias led by Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s religious leader.

The Kurds are the primary military enemy of ISIS in Iraq, and Hezbollah is ISIS’ main military foe in Syria. 

Interestingly, the Kurds are an official American “friend” and Hezbollah is an official “enemy,” which U.S. governments have shunned for decades and written off as a “terrorist” organization, when in fact it is a social, political, cultural and religious group with deep roots among Lebanese Shiites. Hezbollah’s armed wing is effectively Lebanon’s primary army.

As a journalist, I believe in talking and listening to all sides, and I try to understand and accept conflicting points of view. As a human being, I am not nearly as tolerant.

I first traveled to Lebanon a decade ago and this was my third trip. I’ve always been warmly welcomed by Hezbollah officials and people on the street—primarily Shias, as I especially love being in the Dahieh, Beirut’s predominately Shia southern suburb. I have never encountered any hostility toward me as a Jew, though I have occasionally encountered some serious misperceptions about Jewish people. Instead, I found deep appreciation that I had come to Lebanon to spend time with Shias and Hezbollah, and to listen to their points of view.

TSA Failed to Detect 73 People with Links to Terrorism Who Were Hired by U.S. Airports; Investigators Were Able to Smuggle Mock Explosives and Weapons Through Checkpoints Dozens of Times

Dozens of US airport workers linked to terror: official

June 10, 2015

AFP - The agency in charge of US transportation security came under renewed fire as a report revealed that American airports had hired dozens of people with terror links.

The Transportation Security Agency is already reeling after a recent Department of Homeland Security report found that investigators could sneak fake bombs and weaponry through security with a 95 percent success rate.

Homeland Security Inspector General John Roth discussed before lawmakers his new report that found the TSA failed to detect at least 73 people with links to terrorism who were hired by US airports.

By law, the TSA had "limited oversight" over the hiring process and thus "lacked assurance that it properly vetted all credential applicants," the report report said.

Roth said the law needed to be changed to give the agency access to all relevant information, including FBI terrorist watchlists.

Becky Roering, an assistant security director at the Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport, told the hearing that former "badged" employees had even gone to Syria to join the Islamic State group.

During the same hearing, a TSA official criticized a program to pre-check passengers either randomly or because they have been given "known" or "trusted traveler" status and are deemed to pose a low risk.

"TSA is handing out 'PreCheck' status like Halloween candy in an effort to expedite passengers as quickly as possible," Roering said.

More than a million people have signed up for the TSA's PreCheck program, and another seven million have been randomly chosen for expedited boarding checks.

In one case, a former member of an extremist organization found himself randomly given access to the PreCheck line but a TSA worker recognized him and alerted his superior.

Roering also said TSA staff have low morale and work in a climate of fear and distrust.

Last week, Homeland Security head Jeh Johnson announced new measures to improve security screenings at American airports after investigators were able to smuggle mock explosives and weapons through checkpoints dozens of times.

Johnson reassigned Melvin Carraway, the TSA's acting head, and replaced him with another interim director, Mark Hatfield.

FBI Agents and Boston Police Shoot to Death a Man Under Investigation for 'Spreading Islamic State Propaganda Online' After He Refused to Drop His Knife

Rahim Stands in the Same Place by the Light Pole, While Six LEOs Move Toward and Around Him and Then Two of Them Shoot Him


Boston Police Release Video of Fatal 'Terror Suspect' Shooting - Narrated

Family of slain Boston man: Video shows he wasn't aggressor

June 8, 2015

AP - Usaama Rahim's family said in a statement that the blurry video shows that the 26-year-old security guard was not the initial aggressor and that he did not appear to be breaking any laws as he walked toward a bus stop on his way to work on June 2.

They suggested many unanswered questions remain, including whether deadly force was necessary and whether the decision to approach Rahim with a team of armed police officers "in a military-like formation, without benefit of a warrant, constituted an attempted illegal arrest."

"The family asks that the public keep an open mind," the statement said. "The video reveals part of the story, but not the entire story."

Police Commissioner William Evans said Monday in releasing the video that officers "made the right call," drawing their guns only after backing away and giving Rahim "multiple chances" to drop the military-style knife he was holding.

"We averted a serious tragedy that day," he said. "I don't think he was going to go down very easy. ...We can second-guess this, but it unraveled so quickly. I believe my officers acted responsibly."

The brief video comes from a security camera from a nearby Burger King. It shows a man identified by police as Rahim walking through a CVS parking lot on his way to a bus stop in the city's Roslindale neighborhood.

Six officers, who authorities say were in plainclothes, approach Rahim but appear to back up as Rahim advances toward them.

The officers, who encircle Rahim, then draw their firearms. Rahim, who is mostly obscured by a light pole during the altercation, falls to the ground a few moments later.

There is no audio on the video and it is not clear what specifically led officers to draw their weapons or which officers discharged them. Police have said two officers — an FBI agent and a police officer — fired three shots.

Officials on Monday released the original version of the video as well as a version that zooms in on the encounter. In both, it's impossible to discern faces and people resemble little more than dark silhouettes with no distinguishing features. The video also isn't clear enough to make out whether Rahim, who is black and Muslim, was holding a knife.

China Tells Israel It Will Not Allow Migrant Builders to Work on Settlements in the Occupied West Bank

Israel says China demands no workers in settlements

June 8, 2015

AFP - China has told Israel it will not allow migrant builders to work on settlements in the occupied West Bank, a senior Israeli government official said on Monday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged during his reelection campaign to step up settlement construction, and cabinet ministers in his new government have called for more building in the occupied territories, which is seen as an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.

And Israel is hoping to bring in thousands of foreign workers to accelerate the pace of the construction across the country and in the West Bank, media reported.

"We are negotiating with China for an agreement on the arrival of thousands of additional workers," the official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

"For the moment, the talks are stumbling over several problems, including the employment of these immigrants in settlements in Judea and Samaria," he said in reference to the West Bank.

"Beijing is demanding that we ensure there are no workers in this region," he added, without elaborating.

There has been no immediate comment from Beijing, but China's position could undermine lengthy negotiations between the two countries aimed at striking a labour agreement.

Under the deal the Israeli government would be responsible for bringing foreigners into the country to work in the construction sector, Haaretz newspaper reported on Sunday.

"The agreement would replace the current arrangement, in which private companies contract directly with Chinese firms that supply the labour, an arrangement that has resulted in allegations of serious violations of labour laws," the paper said.

- Growing boycott calls -

The Israeli official denied that China's decision had anything to do with growing calls for an economic and cultural boycott of the Jewish state.

"It is more likely linked to Beijing's diplomatic position that supports the creation of a Palestinian state and opposes Israel's presence" on occupied Palestinian territory, he said.

The international community regards all Israeli construction on Palestinian land seized during the 1967 Six-Day War as illegal.

Putin: “Publish a World Map and Mark All the U.S. Military Bases on It; You Will See the Difference Between Russia and the U.S.”

Vladimir Putin pulls no punches in an interview with Corriere della Sera. See the full transcript below. 

June 8, 20115

Vladimir Putin:

Russia does not speak with anyone in a contentious tone, and in such matters, to quote a political figure from the past, Otto von Bismarck, it is not discussions but the potential that counts.

What does the actual potential show? US military spending is higher than that of all countries in the world taken together. The aggregate military spending of NATO countries is 10 times, note – 10 times higher than that of the Russian Federation. Russia has virtually no bases abroad. We have the remnants of our armed forces (since Soviet times) in Tajikistan, on the border with Afghanistan, which is an area where the terrorist threat is particularly high. The same role is played by our airbase in Kyrgyzstan; it is also aimed at addressing the terrorist threat and was set up at the request of the Kyrgyz authorities after a terrorist attack perpetrated by terrorists from Afghanistan on Kyrgyzstan.

We have kept since Soviet times a military unit at a base in Armenia. It plays a certain stabilising role in the region, but it is not targeted against anyone. We have dismantled our bases in various regions of the world, including Cuba, Vietnam, and so on. This means that our policy in this respect is not global, offensive or aggressive.

I invite you to publish the world map in your newspaper and to mark all the US military bases on it. You will see the difference.

Sometimes I am asked about our airplanes flying somewhere far, over the Atlantic Ocean. Patrolling by strategic airplanes in remote regions was carried out only by the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War. In the early 1990s, we, the new, modern Russia, stopped these flights, but our American friends continued to fly along our borders. Why? Some years ago, we resumed these flights. And you want to say that we have been aggressive?

American submarines are on permanent alert off the Norwegian coast; they are equipped with missiles that can reach Moscow in 17 minutes. But we dismantled all of our bases in Cuba a long time ago, even the non-strategic ones. And you would call us aggressive?

You yourself have mentioned NATO’s expansion to the east. As for us, we are not expanding anywhere; it is NATO infrastructure, including military infrastructure, that is moving towards our borders. Is this a manifestation of our aggression?

Finally, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which was to a large extent the cornerstone of the entire international security system. Anti-missile systems, bases and radars are located in the European territory or in the sea, e.g. in the Mediterranean Sea, and in Alaska. We have said many times that this undermines international security. Do you think this is a display of our aggression as well?

Everything we do is just a response to the threats emerging against us. Besides, what we do is limited in scope and scale, which are, however, sufficient to ensure Russia’s security. Or did someone expect Russia to disarm unilaterally?

I have proposed to our American partners not to withdraw from the treaty unilaterally, but to create an ABM system together, the three of us: Russia, the United States and Europe. But this proposal was declined. We said at the time: “Well, this is an expensive system, its efficiency is not proven, but to ensure the strategic balance we will develop our strategic offensive potential, we will develop systems of overpowering anti-ballistic defence. And I have to say that we have made significant strides in this area.

As for some countries’ concerns about Russia’s possible aggressive actions, I think that only an insane person and only in a dream can imagine that Russia would suddenly attack NATO. I think some countries are simply taking advantage of people’s fears with regard to Russia. They just want to play the role of front-line countries that should receive some supplementary military, economic, financial or some other aid. Therefore, it is pointless to support this idea; it is absolutely groundless. But some may be interested in fostering such fears. I can only make a conjecture.

For example, the Americans do not want Russia’s rapprochement with Europe. I am not asserting this, it is just a hypothesis. Let’s suppose that the United States would like to maintain its leadership in the Atlantic community. It needs an external threat, an external enemy to ensure this leadership. Iran is clearly not enough – this threat is not very scary or big enough. Who can be frightening? And then suddenly this crisis unfolds in Ukraine. Russia is forced to respond. Perhaps, it was engineered on purpose, I don’t know. But it was not our doing.

Let me tell you something – there is no need to fear Russia. The world has changed so drastically that people with some common sense cannot even imagine such a large-scale military conflict today. We have other things to think about, I assure you.

U.S. Billionaires Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban, Split on U.S. Politics, Have United to Fight Global Trend to Boycott, Divest and Sanction Israel Over Its Policy Toward Palestinians

U.S. Billionaire Political Foes Unite to Fight Israel Boycotts

June 7, 2015

Bloomberg - One donated more than $100 million to the Republicans, the other has been the Clintons’ biggest backer. Now billionaires Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban, split on U.S. politics, have united to fight boycott threats against Israel.

Adelson and Saban hosted a conference of pro-Israel business executives and activists over the weekend in Las Vegas, to begin an initiative aimed at countering the growing threat of international sanctions against Israel.

“That he’s a Democrat and I’m a Republican has really very little to do with it,” said Las Vegas Sands Corp. founder Adelson, who holds the 25th slot on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, in a joint interview with Saban on Israel’s Channel 2 on Saturday.

While you can “rest assured” the two men will not be supporting the same person in the 2016 presidential election, Saban said, “when it comes to Israel, we are absolutely on the same page.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has identified the global trend to boycott, divest and sanction Israel over its policy toward the Palestinians, known as the BDS movement, as a major threat.

The boycott issue gained new prominence after Stephane Richard, chief executive officer of Orange SA, said on Wednesday that the Paris-based telecom company would end its licensing deal with Israel’s Partner Communications Co. “tomorrow” if he wasn’t concerned about legal repercussions. Richard later apologized for his comments, made in response to a question over a threatened boycott of Orange’s Egyptian subsidy, Mobinil, and said they weren’t motivated by political concerns.

‘Blatant Lie’

The Israel-born Saban, who owns a controlling stake in Partner, called Richard’s clarification “a blatant lie.”

“Any company that chooses to boycott business in Israel, they’re going to look at this case, and once we’re done, they’re going to think twice about whether they want to take on Israel or not,” he said.

BDS supporters say their tactics are the only effective means of getting Israeli to stop building West Bank settlements that most of the world views as illegal under international law, and an impediment toward peace with the Palestinians.

Overzealous Cop Screams Profanities, Uses Excessive Force, Pulls Out and Points Gun, and Unlawfully Handcuffs Black Children at 14-Year-Old's Pool Party in McKinney, Texas

UPDATE JUNE 9, 2015: The National Bar Association, a network of predominantly African-American attorneys, judges and law professors, called for Officer David Eric Casebolt's immediate firing. "It is insufficient to place him on paid administrative leave, when it is obviously clear that this officer was not enforcing the law, but instead was enforcing his will and power and showing explicit bias towards these African-American teenagers," the Washington, D.C.-based group said. "The girl is obviously in distress and not in any manner moving or attempting to get away from the officer. She posed no physical threat to the officer."

Resignation is the easy way out. We demand that #EricCasebolt be charged w/ Official Oppression #mckinneypoolparty pic.twitter.com/Og3Wj52eEl

— DallasforChange (@DallasforChange) June 9, 2015

UPDATE JUNE 9, 2015: Casebolt has resigned. Officer David Eric Casebolt's actions were "indefensible," though he was not pressured to quit, McKinney Police Chief Greg Conley said at a press conference after the officer submitted his resignation Tuesday, June 10th. Benét Embry, a black local radio personality who witnessed the Friday incident, said neighbors told him that a woman who lives in the community reserved the pool for a party. The homeowners' association limits the number of guests each homeowner may have at the pool to two. But about 130 people, mostly kids, showed up. At one point, several kids began jumping over the fence to get into the pool area and were causing a disturbance, Embry said, and a couple of fights broke out. "This was a teenage party that got out of hand," Embry said. Police said some of the young people did not live in the area and did not have permission to be at the pool.

Protesters listen during a rally against what demonstrators call police brutality in McKinney, Texas, June 8, 2015. Hundreds marched through the Dallas-area city of McKinney on Monday calling for the firing of police officer Eric Casebolt, seen in a video throwing a bikini-clad teenage girl to the ground and pointing his pistol at other youths at a pool party disturbance. (REUTERS/Mike Stone)

McKinney, Texas, police officer who pulled gun on unarmed teenagers at pool party placed on leave

Video of incident stirs outrage, prompts charges of racial bias 

Warning: The video above contains obscene language. Viewer discretion is advised.

June 7, 2015

Yahoo! News - A Texas police officer who drew his gun on unarmed teenagers while responding to a disturbance at a pool party and threw a 14-year-old girl in a bathing suit to the ground has been placed on administrative leave, officials said Sunday.

The incident occurred Friday night in McKinney, Texas, about 30 miles north of Dallas, when police were called to a private community pool where a large crowd had gathered.

In a video taken by a teenage bystander and posted to YouTube, the officer, who is white, can be seen shouting obscenities and ordering some black teens to lie on the ground while telling others to disperse. The officer is then seen grabbing the back of the girl's head, throwing her to the ground and pushing her face down, then pulling his gun on a pair of black teenagers who appeared to be coming to her aid..



"This video has raised concerns that are being investigated," the McKinney Police Department said in a statement.

$265 Billion in Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOCs) Will Enter the Repayment Period in the Next Few Years; 10 Million HELOCs in Default Will Be a Downward Drag on America's Housing Recovery for Years to Come

The $265 Billion Wave That's About to Crush Homeowners

June 4, 2015

Credit.com - Millions of consumers will have to absorb a major hit to their household budget in the coming months. About $265 billion in home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) will enter the repayment period in the next few years, according to a study from Experian, and consumers may see their monthly payments spike — in some cases, triple or quadruple what they previously paid.

HELOC originations soared from 2005 up until the start of the housing crisis, and because many HELOCs enter the repayment phase after 10 years, these billions of dollars in outstanding credit balances are just now coming due. This wave of HELOC resets is expected to significantly stress borrowers' finances and the lending industry.

"This analysis is critical as we want to not only help lenders prepare and understand the payment stress of their borrowers, but also give consumers an opportunity to understand what the impact may be to their financial status and how to be better prepared for it," said Michele Raneri, Experian's vice president of analytics and business development, in a statement about the study.

HELOCs are generally divided into two periods: draw and repayment. During the draw period, consumers can use the line of credit while making minimum, interest-only payments. Once the HELOC resets, consumers can no longer borrow from that line of credit, and they must restore the equity they haven't yet repaid.

"Instead of using it like a line of credit, borrowing and then repaying the loan to restore the home equity that had been tapped into, most people simply took the maximum amount in cash and never tried to pay down the outstanding amount for the entire 10-year period," said Charles Phelan, a debt-relief consultant who specializes in HELOC negotiation, in an email.

He contributes content on the topic to Credit.com.

"In effect, most existing HELOCs are therefore like a huge credit card debt that has been at the maximum limit for years, with only interest expense being paid each month to keep the balance the same and not reduce it."

How much your payment increases depends on many things, like the interest rate and the length of the repayment period — a shorter repayment period generally translates into a larger increase in payment. Some HELOCs have no repayment period and require a lump-sum repayment when the draw period ends.

The HELOCs that are coming due were opened in very different economic times, under the impression that home values would continue to rise. Because that didn't happen, borrowers may not be prepared to handle this significant change to their finances.

"A lucky few will be able to absorb the new high monthly payment without defaulting and thereby risking foreclosure, and some will have sufficient equity to obtain a traditional refinance to a new single mortgage," Phelan wrote. "For a majority of homeowners with HELOCs, however, options are limited due to real estate prices having dropped to the point where the most HELOCs are not covered by equity. This blocks people from refinancing to a single new mortgage at a more reasonable payment level."

Even if refinancing is an option, it requires the borrower to have great credit. Phelan said borrowers without the ability to refinance can look into government loan-modification programs, Chapter 13 bankruptcy or settling the second lien, but he expects HELOC defaults to skyrocket. No matter how you plan to address your HELOC reset, it's crucial to have a grasp on your credit standing so you can better research your options for managing repayment and how those options will impact your credit. 

"With more than 10 million of these contracts having been issued during 2005-2008, a tsunami of defaults is likely and will be a downward drag on America's housing recovery for years to come," Phelan wrote.

If you took out a HELOC between 2005 and 2008 and you're not sure what you'll be facing when the HELOC resets, it's time to look at your agreement and understand what you're dealing with. Simply by calling your lender, you can get a handle on the situation and prepare to absorb this shock to your finances.

Pentagon Actively Considering the Use of Nuclear Missiles Against Military Targets in Russia

U.S. Considers Nuclear Strikes As An Option Against Russia [REPORT]

June 6, 2015

ValueWalk - As tensions increase between Russia and the United States, a chilling report suggests that a nuclear strike is not beyond the realm of possibility. According to the report, numerous sources have reported on the meeting of US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter at the headquarters of the US European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, with two dozen other US military commanders and European diplomats in tow.



Nuclear option on the table

The purpose of this meeting is ostensibly to discuss how the economic and military campaign that is currently being waged against Russia will be further escalated. Carter is expected to lead a discussion that will assess the impact of current economic sanctions, as well as encompassing debate on the success of the NATO strategy in exploiting the crisis in eastern Ukraine.

Most serious of all, though, is a recent report published by the Associated Press which suggests that the head of the US military effort, the Pentagon, has been actively considering the use of nuclear missiles against military targets in Russia. This may seem like a dire prospect to anyone aware of the possible consequences of such an action, yet the United States administration apparently considers this a possible response to alleged violations of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty.

Reports suggest that three separate options are currently being considered by Pentagon top brass, which include a pre-emptive deployment of nuclear missiles against targets inside Russia. Although this would be a particularly extreme option, it is widely believed to be on the table alongside two other less drastic courses of action. The placement of anti-missile defenses in Europe aimed at shooting Russian missiles straight out of the sky, and pre-emptive non-nuclear strikes are also reportedly under consideration.

A Pentagon spokesman that spoke to the Associated Press did not explicitly confirm the reports, but did state that all military options under consideration are designed to ensure that Russia gains no significant military advantage from the alleged violation. Meanwhile, Russia continues to deny the suggestion that it has violated the 1987 Treaty, stating that its actions have been entirely consistent with this legislation.