Obama Issues Sanctions for Alleged Russian Hacking of DNC and Podesta Emails

December 29, 2016

ABC News - The U.S. government provided new details today that revealed how a state adversary broke into American computer systems and influenced the U.S. democratic process.

In a report issued this afternoon, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security outlined “technical details” that led them to conclude Russian military and intelligence services were behind a massive cyber assault on U.S. institutions, including the breach of the Democratic National Committee that became public earlier this year.

“All Americans should be alarmed by Russia’s actions,” which seek “to harm U.S. interests in violation of established international norms of behavior,” President Barack Obama said in a statement today.

U.S. officials have dubbed the alleged Russian campaign “Grizzly Steppe,” and today’s report was issued shortly after the Obama administration announced new sanctions against Russian agencies and individuals for the cyber attacks.

According to the report, two different Russian groups took part in the hack of “a U.S. political party” – a direct reference to the Democratic Party and DNC, which had tens of thousands of internal emails stolen and then released online this year.

 

The report said one group -- known as “Advanced Persistent Threat 29” or “APT 29” -- first broke into the Democratic Party’s systems in summer 2015, and then the second group -- known as “APT 28” -- successfully breached systems in spring 2016.

The groups often “trick” their victims into divulging “legitimate credentials” by closely mimicking domains and email addresses from their employers, the FBI and DHS said.

“Once APT28 and APT29 have access to victims, both groups exfiltrate and analyze information to … craft highly targeted spearphishing campaigns” and then ultimately “harvest credentials and other valuable information from their targets,” according to the report.

In fact, in summer 2015, operatives from APT29 blasted out a malicious link to more than 1,000 potential victims, many of them within the U.S. government, the report said. And that effort ultimately led to the DNC hack after at least one “targeted individual” clicked on links to malicious software and opened attachments.

“APT29 delivered malware to the political party’s systems, established persistence, escalated privileges, enumerated active directory accounts, and exfiltrated email from several accounts through encrypted connections,” the report continued.

In spring 2016, a new “spearphishing” campaign from APT28 targeting the Democratic Party “tricked recipients into changing their passwords through a fake webmail domain,” ultimately allowing hackers to “steal content,” likely including “multiple senior party members,” the FBI and DHS concluded.

“The U.S. government assesses that information was leaked to the press and publicly disclosed,” the report said.

Internal DNC messages posted online earlier this year appeared to show efforts by DNC officials to undermine Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders during the primary season.

After those damaging emails were publicly released by WikiLeaks, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz stepped down as the DNC's chairwoman. 

https://wikileaks.org/dnc-emails/

Emails stolen from the private email account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, also led to a series of uncomfortable disclosures that were repeatedly highlighted by now-President-elect Donald Trump and other critics during the presidential campaign. 

https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/ 

In October, DHS and the Director of National Intelligence issued a statement saying the U.S. intelligence community was “confident that the Russian government directed the recent compromises of emails from U.S. persons and institutions,” and insisting the “thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the U.S. election process.”

Today’s report expands on that statement, noting that Russian services “are continuing to engage in spearphishing campaigns, including one launched as recently as November 2016, just days after the U.S. election.”

Russia has denied any involvement in such cyber attacks.  

And Trump has continued to question the U.S. intelligence community's unanimous conclusions.

“There’s no debate in the U.S. administration about the fact -- and it's a fact -- that Russian interfered in our democratic election," an administration official told reporters today, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "I would never expect Russia to come out with their hands up and acknowledge what they did. They don’t do that.”

In their report, DHS and the FBI offered “indicators” and details from the malicious software that was used to hack the DNC and other entities, insisting those indicators are directly linked to Russian operatives. DHS also released samples of the Russian “malware” so other U.S. agencies and private companies can further defend themselves, U.S. officials said.

“The U.S. government seeks to arm network defenders with the tools they need to identify, detect and disrupt Russian malicious cyber activity that is targeting our country’s and our allies’ networks,” DHS, FBI and the DNI said in a joint statement today.

December 29, 2016
 

Good Morning America - President Obama has expelled 35 Russian nationals and sanctioned five Russian entities and four individuals for an alleged cyber assault on Democratic political organizations during the 2016 presidential campaign, the White House announced today.

Federal Court Rules Police Can Shoot a Barking or Moving Dog While Entering a Home

December 28, 2016

PEOPLE - A federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, ruled that police can shoot a dog while entering a home if the animal “moves or barks” in the officer’s presence.

The decision is the final step in a case brought to court by Mark and Cheryl Brown of Battle Creek, whose pit bull was killed while officers were executing a search warrant on their home in 2013.

The couple claimed that officers “unlawfully seized their property in violation of the Fourth Amendment when officers shot and killed two dogs while executing a search warrant.”

An officer testified that he shot the first dog when it appeared to move “a few inches” and lunged at him. The dog fled to the basement, where the officer shot and killed it. Court documents reveal that another officer killed the second dog after it too ran to the basement and barked at the officers.

Judge Eric Clay’s decision ruled that the Browns failed to provide evidence that the first dog did not lunge at police and that the second dog did not bark.

“Given the totality of the circumstances and viewed from the perspective of an objectively reasonable officer, the dog poses an imminent threat to the officer’s safety,” the ruling reads. “The standard we set out today is that a police officer’s use of deadly force against a dog while executing a search warrant to search a home for illegal drug activity is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment when … the dog poses an imminent threat to the officer’s safety.”

Turkey's Erdogan: 'Confirmed Evidence' US-Led Coalition Forces Supported ISIS

"Erdogan hates Kurds, particularly secular ones. The Kurds hate him, but they really hate IS, and they have been fighting them from go. His sons trade arms for oil to IS. He's done prisoner swaps with them. He used a very suspicious 'coup' as an excuse to lock up the great bulk of the intellectual professionals in his country. The US has definitely allowed arms to end up in unfortunate places, but this guy is no trustworthy source. He's lying. He's a dictator." - paulie_purr

December 27, 2016

Independent Journal Review - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday made the bombshell claim that he has “confirmed evidence” that U.S.-led coalition forces provided support to terrorist groups in Syria, including ISIS.

Erdogan reportedly told reporters during a press conference in the Turkish capital of Ankara. In addition to ISIS, Erdogan claimed U.S.-led coalition forces have also provided support to the Kurdish militant groups YPG and PYD, according to Reuters.

“They were accusing us of supporting Daesh [Islamic State].”

“Now they give support to terrorist groups including Daesh, YPG, PYD. It's very clear. We have confirmed evidence, with pictures, photos and videos.”

U.S.-led coalition forces have actively helped Syrian rebels battling Bashar al-Assad, but have never openly assisted ISIS or other terrorist groups. Erdogan apparently did not release the “evidence” he purports to have.

However, the Obama administration has faced harsh criticism amid numerous reports that U.S. weapons were ending up in the hands of ISIS fighters.

Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995

The United States Congress recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 1995 and mandated the embassy move, but successive presidents have exercised a waiver on the move, citing national security considerations.”

The U.S. passed a law requiring the movement of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, but every six months the last several presidents have signed a waiver extending the move every six months due to “national security” risks.

Palestinians are up in arms over the apparent soon to be movement of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, fearing a move of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem will cement the clear establishment of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

There is a news article talking about the Islamic and Palestinian objection to the embassy move. They are declaring a move of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem would be a declaration of war. 

The Israel National News website is reporting that an Al-Aqsa imam and Supreme Muslim Council Head Sheikh Ekrima Sa’id Sabri called the promised move by Trump as a declaration of war. The Israel National News website reports:

“Al-Aqsa imam and Supreme Muslim Council Head Sheikh Ekrima Sa’id Sabri attacked in his weekly sermon in Al-Aqsa US President-elect Donald Trump after Trump promised to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

According to Maor Tzemach’s translation of the Arab news site Palestine Information Center, in his sermon on Friday, Sabri said “moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem is a statement and a declaration of war against Arabs and Muslims.” Tzemach is chairman of the ‘Lach Yerushalayim’ organization, which seeks to apply Israeli sovereignty in all parts of Jerusalem.

In Sabri’s opinion, Trump’s decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem is an equivalent to declaring Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”

The Israel National News article went on to further report:

“Sabri also called on all Muslims in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem to act, saying, “We are used to saying Al-Aqsa is in danger, but now the danger is real! Recently, the occupation has added an additional hour for Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount, without the agreement of the Waqf. This decision will add to the number of hours we are being attacked, and allow additional attackers on the Temple Mount.”

According to reports, Trump has already begun searching for an appropriate building in Jerusalem to house the US Embassy.”

I believe that once the transition of power takes place from Obama to Trump, we will see a different tone and stance from the U.S. on the Israeli and “Palestinian” situation. President-elect Trump has already stated that he does not see continued Israeli “settlements” as a barrier to “peace.”

Conspiracy of Silence: Banned Discovery Channel Documentary on Network of Rich and Powerful Pedophiles in Industry, Politics, Media and Law Enforcement

Published on Sep 27, 2012 by ZeroEightyFour

Conspiracy of Silence, a documentary listed for viewing in TV Guide Magazine, was to be aired on the Discovery Channel on May 3, 1994. This documentary exposed a network of religious leaders and Washington politicians who flew children to Washington D.C. for sex orgies. Many children suffered the indignity of wearing nothing but their underwear and a number displayed on a piece of cardboard hanging from their necks when being auctioned off to foreigners in Las Vegas, Nevada and Toronto, Canada. At the last minute before airing, unknown congressmen threatened the TV Cable industry with restrictive legislation if this documentary was aired. Almost immediately, the rights to the documentary were purchased by unknown persons who had ordered all copies destroyed. A copy of this videotape was furnished anonymously to former Nebraska state senator and attorney John De Camp, who made it available to retired FBI Agent Ted L. Gunderson. While the video quality is not top grade, this tape is a blockbuster in what is revealed by the participants involved.

An Open Secret HOLLYWOOD PEDOPHILES EXPOSED


CHICKENHAWK INSIDE THE LIFE OF NAMBLA PEDOPHILES FULL DOC


PizzaGate This Shit is Wicked!!! 26:45 will SHOCK you!!!

Trump Plan to Move Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem Poses Challenges

December 18, 2016

(NBC News) - Donald Trump's pledge to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem poses monumental challenges in one of the world's most tense environments, according to experts.

Relocating the diplomatic outpost to the holy city is "a very big priority" for the president-elect, aide Kellyanne Conway told radio host Hugh Hewitt earlier this week.

David Friedman, Trump's pick for ambassador to Israel, reinforced this commitment Thursday, saying he looks forward to serving "from the U.S. Embassy in Israel's eternal capital, Jerusalem."

Trump is not the first president to make this promise. But if he follows through where others have reneged, he would please some Israelis who have long since been frustrated with the international community for not recognizing Jerusalem as their capital city.

It would also likely enrage the Arab world, largely because the Palestinians see East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

"This could set off demonstrations in Arab cities and capitals throughout the Middle East and the Muslim world beyond," according to Professor Chuck Freilich at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, an Israeli university.

Building anything is a challenge in tension-wrought Jerusalem, where any shovel that breaks ground has a good chance of hitting a site with significance to at least one religion.

But a U.S. Embassy isn't just any building.

“It will be very, very costly to build and very, very costly to defend.”

Confused Barack Obama Essentially Calls Russia a ‘Weak Superpower’

December 17, 2016

THE DURAN - In his end-of-year press conference on Friday, President Barack Obama once again contradicted himself on Russia, while reiterating his belief that the Kremlin helped elect Donald Trump.

While Obama didn’t say that Russia is a small and weak superpower in a single sentence, which would have immediately raised questions about his mental condition, he clearly demonstrated a break with logic and difficulties with making up his mind on Russia’s status and role in the world.

On the one hand, he has repeated on numerous occasions, including this Friday, that Russia is a weak country that is of little interest to anyone else in the world:

“The Russians can’t change us or significantly weaken us. They are a smaller country, they are a weaker country, their economy doesn’t produce anything that anybody wants to buy except oil and gas and arms. They don’t innovate.”

While on the other hand, just a month ago, he said something completely different during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin:

“Russia is an important country. It is a military superpower. It has influence in the region and it has influence around the world. And in order for us to solve many big problems around the world, it is in our interest to work with Russia and obtain their cooperation.”

So which one is it, Mr. President?

If the two of his latest thoughts on Russia are combined, the view can be summarized as such: Russia is a small and weak superpower that doesn’t produce anything but somehow maintains strong influence around the world and is even capable of changing the outcome of elections in the greatest and most powerful nation on earth.

Court Officials Who Jailed a Veteran for Living Off-Grid Were “Just Doing Their Jobs”

December 15, 2016

THE DAILY SHEEPLE - Here’s an entry for the “Job-Doing Hall of Fame.”

What if your job meant that you had to go arrest a guy who just wanted to live off the grid on his own land? What if that guy was a veteran? What if his only crime was refusing a service that he was supposed to pay for, like public water or utilities?

Is it actually acceptable to go to his place, kidnap him, and hold him against his will for that?
If YOU are the person who takes any of those actions, are you to blame if you’re “just doing your job?”

Meet Tyler Truitt

Tyler Truitt is a veteran who owns two acres of land in Madison County, Alabama. He and his girlfriend live off-grid. They have a clean, well-cared-for home with solar panels and a rainwater collection system. They don’t have loud parties, deal drugs, or do anything else that could be deemed anti-social.

Well, except refusing to tie into the grid.

And the government can’t have that.

So, in the interest of keeping law and order in Indiana, a guy who served his country is being harassed by his local government because they deem that not having public utilities makes his home unsafe.

I don’t know about you, but I think the unsafe part is the government officials that commit such crimes as trespassing, kidnapping, and extortion.

Truitt and his girlfriend aren’t hurting anyone. They aren’t endangering the welfare of their neighbors. They aren’t stealing, causing a public health hazard, or damaging anybody’s property.

They’re just living free.

Here’s an interview with Tyler Truitt.



After this interview, Tyler ended up going to court and was put on probation for his “crimes.”

It gets worse. During his probation, he had the audacity to return to his home.  His probation was revoked and last month, he was re-arrested. He spent 10 days, including Veteran’s Day, in jail, as punishment for living in his own home.

House Passed Bill Allowing Government to Microchip Citizens with ‘Mental Disabilities’

December 13, 2016

TRUE ACTIVIST - Though the bill only targets those with conditions such as Alzheimers and autism, critics say the bill’s passage will open a “pandora’s box” of invasive government surveillance.

Six years ago, NBC Nightly News boldly predicted that all Americans would be fitted with RFID microchips by the year 2017. Though at the time, NBC’s prediction seemed far-fetched, the House recently passed a bill that would bring a micro-chipped populace closer to reality before year’s end. Last Thursday, the House passed HR 4919, also known as Kevin and Avonte’s Law, which would allow the US attorney general to award grants to law enforcement for the creation and operation of “locative tracking technology programs.”

Though the program’s mission is to find “individuals with forms of dementia or children with developmental disabilities who have wandered from safe environments,” it provides no restriction on the tracking programs inclusion of other individuals. The bill would also require the attorney general to work with the secretary of health and human services and unnamed health organizations to establish the “best practices” for the use of tracking devices.

Congress Hands Government Authority to Microchip People with 'Mental Disabilities' (HR 4919)

via Truthstream Media

Those in support of the legislation maintain that such programs could prevent tragedies where those with mental or cognitive disabilities wandered into dangerous circumstances. Yet, others have called these good intentions a “Trojan horse” for the expansion of a North American police state as the bill’s language could be very broadly interpreted.

“While this initiative may have noble intentions, ‘small and temporary’ programs in the name of safety and security often evolve into permanent and enlarged bureaucracies that infringe on the American people’s freedoms. That is exactly what we have here. A safety problem exists for people with Alzheimer’s, autism and other mental health issues, so the fix, we are told, is to have the Department of Justice, start a tracking program so we can use some device or method to track these individuals 24/7,” Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX) said in a floor speech opposing the bill.

Gohmert’s assessment is spot-on. Giving local police the authority to decide who is micro-chipped and who is not based on their mental soundness is a recipe for disaster. Though the bill specifically mentions those with Alzheimer and autism, how long before these tracking programs are extended to those with ADHD and Bipolar disorder among other officially recognized disorders. Even the dislike of authority is considered a mental disorder known as “Oppositional Defiant Disorder,” which could also warrant micro-chipping in the future.

If these programs expand unchecked, how long will it be before all Americans are told that mass microchipping is necessary so that law enforcement and the government can better “protect” them?

Many Americans have been content to trade their liberties for increased “security” in the post-9/11 world, particularly when the state uses these talking points. Yet, as Benjamin Franklin once said, “those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”

The Establishment is Riddled with Pedophiles

Is The Establishment Riddled With Paedophiles? Russell Brand The Trews (E244)


Video Above Published on January 28, 2015

Reaction to the delay in Parliament's child abuse inquiry, the allegations of child abuse against former politicians and the recent allegations against Prince Andrew.

"I've known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side." - Donald Trump on his pedophile friend Jeffery Epstein (nymag.com)

From Wikileaks hacked emails of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's Campaign Chairman and Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff during his presidency:

"Then there’s the matter of Jeffrey Epstein, the king of teenage orgies, now once more on the loose. If Bill were in any way serious about a Hillary presidency he would have stayed on the far side of Pluto from that dude. What could he possibly see in Epstein? Intellectual stimulation? Perhaps a new reading of the Upanishads.

"Now the drill is that this is all irrelevant. The mainstream media will not only cover for Bill and Hill as Bonnie and Clyde, as Peggy Noonan dubbed them in her column, they’d cover for them if they were Gilles de Rais and Elizabeth Báthory. And the American public is so anesthetized taking selfies while watching the Kardashians that the outcome of the election is nowhere near as important as when Bruce Jenner will make that final decision. Just keep the free goodies flowing. Well, maybe. But that’s good and bad news for Bill. Can you imagine him sitting around the White House? I think he’d take ambassador to the Netherlands, if people wouldn’t laugh. Amsterdam is his kind of town and it’s only an hour from the Hague. And then there’s always a possible posting to Bangkok…."

From dennismichaellynch.com:

Jeffrey Epstein is a jet-set Democratic mega donor from Palm Beach, accused of trafficking nearly three-dozen underage girls for sex with himself and his powerful political, Wall Street, and celebrity friends. Through his legal team, led by Roy Black, Epstein secured a sealed plea deal, in which he pled guilty to only one count related to prostitution with a minor, registered as a sex offender, served only a portion of in-home detention, just 13 months of a 19-month sentence within his plush South Florida mansion. A sentence, which was a slap on the wrist, considering Epstein was tied by Palm Beach Police to as many as 40 under-aged girls.

In the DNC email chain released by Wikiweaks, flight records show that former President Bill Clinton flew around the world multiple times on the billionaire’s private jet, which was dubbed the “Lolita Express” for its reported reputation of onboard orgies. Clinton took more than 26 flights with Epstein around the world, and flew 10 times abroad to party at the Epstein island home in question, during that period, according to FAA flight logs. The flight logs show that Clinton dismissed his U.S. Secret Service detail for five of those trips.

Attorneys for Epstein have touted his close friendship with the Clintons, claiming the billionaire helped start the Clinton’s family foundation, and he also hosted a trip to Africa in 2002 on his private Boeing 727 for the foundation, which Bill Clinton himself attended. There were multiple witnesses in the Epstein case, along with the flight logs, which place Bill Clinton with Epstein during that time.

From Inquisitr.com:

Politics makes for strange bedfellows, but perhaps there are no stranger bedfellows than Donald Trump and Bill Clinton’s relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who is now out of prison, having served his time. However, his crimes are leaving a stink on both Trump and Clinton, who have both been “entertained” on Epstein’s private Caribbean island, where he was alleged to host orgies with underage girls.

While Donald Trump has actively pointed fingers at Bill Clinton and his behavior with women, he is also being implicated as a close friend of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, says the Inquisitr. Jeffrey Epstein is said to have made donations to both the Clinton and Trump campaigns, and both Bill Clinton and Donald Trump have flown on Epstein’s private jet to Epstein’s private island, where others like Prince Andrew have also enjoyed the company of young women. The book Filthy Rich by author James Patterson outlines Epstein’s relationships with the rich and powerful, and how Epstein got a sweetheart deal for his crimes.

Billionaire Paedophile Jeffrey Epstein Created Clinton Foundation https://t.co/D1q7KyxZi9 via @yournewswire

— LifeLove (@Freedom1776__) November 4, 2016

So many details have come to the surface about Donald Trump and Bill Clinton’s relationships with women other than their wives, but their friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted pedophile, seems to have gone under the wire, as neither candidate wants to discuss a convicted pedophile who each of them vacationed with, says the Daily Caller.

Suggestions of lewd comments and “grabbing” women seem to pale in comparison to even the suggestion of sex with girls below the age of consent. Jeffrey Epstein was said to have run a sex ring, where young girls were trafficked for the pleasure of his “elite circle of friends.” He served time and settled with 17 of his underaged victims.

From Gawker.com:

Donald Trump, Courtney Love, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and uber-lawyer Alan Dershowitz may have been identified by a butler as potential "material witnesses" to pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's crimes against young girls, according to a copy of Epstein's little black book obtained by Gawker.

Amazon Go Stores Could Watch, Listen, and Remember Your Every Move

December 6, 2016

THE VERGE - There’s a lot of excitement about Amazon Go, the company’s new kind of grocery store that lets customers take what they need and leave without ever waiting in line, but there weren’t a whole lot of specifics on how this system works. An Amazon patent filed in 2014 gives us a glimpse of how this could all operate, and it involves — you betcha — hella cameras.

The patent describes a system where cameras could capture you as you walk into the store, then identify who you are based on an ID card that’s associated with your Amazon account (in Amazon Go’s case, an app that you scan when you enter). Facial recognition may also be used.

Once you’re in the store, cameras could follow you around as you navigate the aisles to see where you’re browsing and what items you pick up. “The user's location within the materials handling facility and identification of the inventory location within the user's location may also be determined,” the patent details. “Microphones may record sounds made by the user and the computing resource(s) may process those sounds to determine a location of the user.” In addition to microphones, Amazon also listed cellular triangulation as a potential method for locating a customer’s location.



As you’re shopping, sensors in the inventory shelves monitor when which items are being picked up. The sensors watch for whether the item gets put back down on the shelf or not, and may even check if the weight of the item changes from its original state. This is likely designed so people are correctly charged if they pick up a food or drink and begin consuming them while they’re still in the store.

Static cameras watching the shelf also determine whether multiples of the same item are taken, such as several sticks of gum or a few bags of chips. If you pick up several bags of chips just to get the one on the inside, the camera is supposed to know that you ended up putting the other bags of chips back as well. If Amazon is not confident about how many items you took or what exactly you took (i.e., a Colgate versus Crest toothbrush) it may end up confirming with you to charge the right amount.

The cameras can even go so far as to determine your skin tone color. The patent says this is used to identify the shopper’s hand to see whether they actually pick up anything off a shelf, but combine that with the fact that Amazon knows what you’re buying and who you are down to your skin color and this is pretty next-level market research data. (Not to mention... kind of creepy?)

Snowden Says Petraeus Disclosed ‘Far More Highly Classified’ Secrets ‘Than I Ever Did’

Come back to Yahoo News on Monday to watch the full clip of Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric’s exclusive interview with Edward Snowden.

Yahoo News - In an exclusive interview with Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric, Edward Snowden says that former CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus — who is under consideration to become President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of state — disclosed “information that was far more highly classified than I ever did” and yet never “spent a single day in jail.”

The fugitive former National Security Agency contractor told Couric that Petraeus’s case is evidence that “We have a two-tiered system of justice in the United States, where people who are either well-connected to government or they have access to an incredible amount of resources get very light punishments.”

Snowden’s comments came in an exclusive interview with Couric in Moscow at a crucial moment for him. His lawyers in the United States, fearing that a Trump administration will take an unyielding hard line against him, are seeking either to get him a last-minute pardon from President Obama or to negotiate a plea bargain that would allow him to return to the country without spending a significant amount of time in federal prison for disclosing tens of thousands of classified government documents.

Asked by Couric what sort of plea bargain he might accept, Snowden, who is charged with multiple felonies for theft of government property and violations of the Espionage Act, argued that there were cases “where the government goes, ‘This person was acting in good faith. They were trying to do right by the American people. But they did break the law.’ No charges are ever brought, or they’re brought very minimally.”

Snowden did not cite any examples, but he immediately brought up Petraeus. “Perhaps the best-known case in recent history here is Gen. Petraeus — who shared information that was far more highly classified than I ever did with journalists,” he said. “And he shared this information not with the public for their benefit, but with his biographer and lover for personal benefit — conversations that had information, detailed information, about military special-access programs, that’s classified above top secret, conversations with the president and so on.”

“When the government came after him, they charged him with a misdemeanor,” Snowden continued. “He never spent a single day in jail, despite the type of classified information he exposed.”

Snowden’s remarks about Petraeus are likely to infuriate the retired four-star general’s supporters in Congress and elsewhere. Petraeus did plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge in April 2015 for mishandling classified information, receiving two years’ probation and a $100,000 fine. Court documents in the case show that he turned over a black book of highly classified “code word” documents — including the identity of covert officers and notes of National Security Council meetings — to Paula Broadwell, a biographer with whom he was having an affair.

But the “factual basis” for his plea also states that he retrieved the information from Broadwell three days later. Government officials have said that Broadwell, who was never charged, didn’t use the information in her book about Petraeus and that none of the information he disclosed to her was ever made public. (Petraeus made that same point in an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” While acknowledging that he “made a false statement” to the FBI about his disclosure to Broadwell, he added that “the FBI in the agreement acknowledged that nothing that was in my journals that I shared — certainly improperly — ended up in the biography or made it out to the public. I think that’s a fairly significant point.”)

Snowden, by contrast, disclosed tens of thousands of highly classified NSA documents to multiple journalists, who published them and caused what U.S. intelligence officials have consistently said was harm to national security, in part by making it more difficult for the NSA to intercept the communications of terrorist groups. The “damage done to our national security is profound,” said California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, after the panel released a three-page executive summary of a report on Snowden in September. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., the chair of the panel’s subcommittee on the NSA and cybersecurity, added: “His actions harmed our relationships around the world, endangered American soldiers in war zones, and reduced our allies’ collective ability to prevent terrorist attacks.”

Snowden, in his interview, also cited Director of National Intelligence James Clapper as an example of “two-tiered” justice. In testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in March 2013, Clapper denied to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., that the NSA was collecting information on U.S. citizens — a claim that was later disproved by the release of one of the classified documents that Snowden disclosed.

“When we had the most senior intelligence official in the United States, Gen. James Clapper, who lied to the American people and all of Congress on camera, under oath, in the Senate, in a famous exchange with Ron Wyden, he wasn’t even charged,” Snowden said. “But giving false testimony to Congress under oath, as he did, is a felony. It’s typically punished by three to five years in prison.”

Cryptographic Proof That Donna Brazile is Wrong, WikiLeaks Emails are Real

October 21, 2016

THE DAILY CALLER - Cryptographic signatures demonstrate that Democratic National Committee Chairman Donna Brazile is wrong when she suggests the WikiLeaks emails were altered and that she did not send an email tipping off Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to debate questions.

Many email systems use a verification system called DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) that shows whether an email has been changed. It uses a key stored on the email server that sent the email, so it can’t be forged.

HillaryClinton.com uses Gmail to handle its mail and uses DKIM. Staffer Jennifer Palmieri, using her HillaryClinton.com email, replied to a Brazile email warning that Brazile was “worried” about Clinton’s ability to answer a question about the death penalty, that she said would be asked at an upcoming debate. She copied Podesta — who also uses Gmail — presumably so that he could encourage Clinton to prepare for the question.

The emails were hacked from Podesta’s account by WikiLeaks, but Clinton’s campaign — and Brazile — have all but claimed their contents have been falsified.

But a check of the DKIM signature by the Daily Caller News Foundation against HillaryClinton.com’s key shows that Palmieri did, in fact, send the exact email to Podesta that WikiLeaks says she did.

The email from Brazile had a subject line of “From time to time I get the questions in advance” and said “Here’s one that worries me about HRC,” followed by the full text of a question about the death penalty.

Clinton was indeed asked the question at a debate by moderator Roland Martin.Brazile claimed the emails were “doctored” by “Russian sources” and that she wouldn’t share debate questions with candidates ahead of time. Brazile became Democratic National Committee Chairman after her predecessor, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, resigned amid accusations that she was helping Clinton over rival Sen. Bernie Sanders in the primaries.

When Fox News’ Megyn Kelly asked Brazile about the impropriety of sharing debate questions in advance with candidates, Brazile claimed she was being “persecuted” by the question.

Brazile then called Daily Caller reporter Chuck Ross “so unprofessional” for asking for evidence that the email wasn’t real. Unfortunately for Brazile, she does not understand DKIM.

TheDCNF ran code to confirm that the email was valid as provided by WikiLeaks — the only way it could be false is if Palmieri herself changed the body of Brazile’s email before replying to it and copying Podesta.
TheDCNF downloaded the raw source of the email here: https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/5205
Then ran the following code in Python:

import email
import dkim
data = open(‘00021071.eml’,’r’).read()
msg = email.message_from_string(data)
obj = dkim.DKIM(data)
obj.verify()

The “True” means the email was not tampered with.

Podesta email verification / DCNF photo

U.S. May Forgive More Than $100 Billion in Student Loans

December 1, 2016

CBS News - America’s student debt load has grown into a $1.3 trillion headache, but the migraine appears to worsening.

With more borrowers struggling to handle their loan repayments, the U.S. government created a system that rejiggers their debt according to their income levels, called income-driven repayment. After repaying the new amount for up to 25 years, the borrower’s debt is then forgiven. The problem, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, is that the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) provided wildly unreliable estimates of the program’s costs.

As a result, over the next few years the federal government is likely to forgive up to $108 billion in student loans, according to the GAO, which analyzes issues for Congress. The agency also said the DOE underestimated the federal cost of the income-driven repayment plans, which it said had almost doubled from $25 billion to $53 billion for student loans issued between 2009 to 2016 alone because of the growing volume of loans that are entering the repayment plans.

“At a time when our nation is facing a mammoth national debt, the Department of Education has expanded a student loan program that will cost twice as much as originally estimated,” said Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, in a statement. Enzi had requested the report from the GAO.

He also claims that the Obama administration had been “manipulating the terms of the student loan program without the consent of Congress, while shirking its statutory duty to carefully assess the cost impact of those changes.”

Income-based repayment preceded the current administration, but it was expanded under President Obama as student debt loads continued to mushroom, putting a strain on the ability of some Americans to buy homes and manage their budgets. Under Obama, some borrowers received an even bigger break than those who were the first to enroll in the programs. For instance, income-eligible borrowers who took out loans after July 2014 could cap their payments at 10 percent of discretionary income, compared with 15 percent for loans issued prior to that date.

While that might seem like a boondoggle to some voters, the plans were designed with the idea that even a lower repayment amount would be better for taxpayers than if those borrowers defaulted. To that end, the plans appeared to work, with the GAO noting that fewer than 1 percent of borrowers who entered two of the income-driven repayment programs defaulted, compared with 14 percent of borrowers who hadn’t amended their repayments based on income.

So where did the education agency go wrong, according to the GAO? First, the DOE assumed that borrowers wouldn’t either switch into or out of the income-driven repayment plans. That may seem hard to believe, given that college tuition continues to rise, adding to the debt burden of recent graduates and providing incentives for many to enter the income-based repayment plans. The GAO also faulted the education department for that assumption, as well as several others.

“Education’s approach to estimating IDR plan costs and quality control practices do not ensure reliable budget estimates,” the report said. “Weaknesses in this approach may cause costs to be over- or understated by billions of dollars.”

The percent of direct loan dollars that are now repaid through income-based plans have doubled in the last three years alone, the GAO said. Nevertheless, many borrowers who could benefit from the plans — such as extremely low-income workers — may not even be aware of the plans, the report noted.

The GAO report also called out the education department’s assumption that borrowers’ incomes won’t grow with inflation, which it said would lower estimated costs by $17 billion.

At this point, it’s likely that $137 billion of the roughly $352 billion owed through income-driven repayment plans won’t be repaid, with about $108 billion wiped away through loan forgiveness, the GAO said. Another $29 billion will be discharged, it said.

It’s unclear how President-elect Donald Trump might treat income-based repayment plans, given that he vowed to set payments at 12.5 percent of income while also suggesting he might eliminate the federal government’s role in lending to students. “It’s terrible that one of the only profit centers we have is student loans,” Trump said last year.

Yet the GAO report suggests that the student loan business might not be the profit center the education department had hoped.

Hillary Clinton Linked to Convicted Child Stealer And Sex Trafficker

November 4, 2016

YourNewsWire - Internet sleuths, cross-referencing WikiLeaks emails and archived news reports, have linked Hillary Clinton and her foundation with convicted child stealer Laura Silsby and a convicted sex trafficker.

The news was made more explosive considering rumors and whisperings have emerged from the FBI’s reopened investigation into Hillary’s emails found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop that serious additional crimes are under investigation, unrelated to the email server case, involving among other things, child trafficking.

Wikileaks tweeted about the investigation on Thursday, claiming emails “show how the Clintons supported child stealer Laura Silsby,” whose attorney was a convicted sex trafficker, including an email “where they are literally pricing how much it costs to transport children”.

Laura Silsby was director of the New Life Children’s Refuge (NLCR), an NGO run by American missionaries that attempted to set up shop in the Dominican Republic. Silsby claims they tried to set up an orphanage, but Domican officials claim an application was never submitted. The New Life Children’s Refuge then moved their operations to Haiti.

This part of the story is discussed in WikiLeaks emails here and here.

After the Jan. 12 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the NLCR, led by Silsby, gathered forty Haitian children – claiming they were orphans – and set off for the Dominican Republic. They were stopped by a policeman, who explained that their actions were illegal.

Undeterred the group set out to collect orphans from the devastated town of Calebasse and from the slum of Le Citron in Port-au-Prince.  33 children (20 from Calebasse and 13 from Le Citron) were put under the mission’s care. On the night of January 29, the missionaries were arrested while trying to cross the Dominican border without proper authorization.

They denied any wrongdoing and maintained that they were doing God’s will by helping orphaned victims of the quake. The children were sent to the SOS Children’s Village orphanage in Croix-des-Bouquets, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, and it became clear that most (if not all) of them were not orphans.

NLCR missionaries maintained that they were told that the children were orphaned. In turn, people in Calebasse and SOS Children’s Villages accused the missionaries of lying about their intentions.

Although the children’s relatives were told that they would be able to visit them and eventually take them back, the NLCR’s mission statement clearly outlined plans for sending the kids to America for adoption.

The ten missionaries were charged with criminal association and kidnapping for trying to smuggle 33 children out of Haiti. In an interview, the United States Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten, stated that the U.S. justice system would not interfere and added “the Haitian justice system will do what it has to do.”

The internet sleuths point out that Huma Abedin was constantly forwarding information about Laura Silsby and her NGO to Hillary Clinton during this period.

Eight of the ten missionaries were released, but Silsby was found guilty of the lesser charge of “arranging irregular travel” and was sentenced to the time she had served in jail prior to the trial.

A Harvard Law School Journal article titled Owning Laura Silby’s Shame claims that getting Silsby off the hook was one of the first things Clinton did after arriving on the scene in Haiti.

Read the highlighted text from the article in this link to get a clearer picture.

But the story gets sketchier from here. Not only did Silsby get help from Clinton, the attorney who represented her in court has been exposed as convicted sex trafficker.

As Reuters reported: 

“A Dominican Republic man who acted as legal adviser to a group of U.S. missionaries held for several weeks in Haiti on child kidnapping charges has been arrested in Santo Domingo, local police said on Friday. Jorge Puello Torres, wanted by El Salvador as a suspect in a human trafficking ring, was detained at a car wash in the city late on Thursday, a spokesman from the Dominican Republic’s police anti-narcotics unit said. He was arrested in the Dominican Republic’s capital on a warrant issued by Interpol, the international police organization. U.S. and Dominican Republic authorities had been looking for Puello after El Salvador officials said they suspected him of being involved in running a human trafficking ring that recruited Central American and Caribbean women and girls and forced them to work as prostitutes.”

Jorge Puello Torres, convicted sex trafficker, the attorney who represented Laura Sibly.

And the disturbing finds by internet sleuths continue.  This WikiLeaks  email exposes discussion of pricing regarding the transport of children.

Andrew Breitbart Tweet Before Death Adds Fuel to Online Speculation of D.C. Child Sex-trafficking Ring

Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart died on March 1, 2012. He collapsed and died while taking a nighttime walk near his home. Given his young age -- he was 43 -- and the unexpected manner in which he died, the Los Angeles County coroner's office conducted an autopsy to determine a specific cause of death. In the early afternoon of April 18, 2012, Michael Cormier, an autopsy technician at the Los Angeles coroner’s office, drove himself to Kaiser Permanente Hospital complaining of heart and stomach pain and diarrhea. The doctors suspected a heart issue or an ulcer and recommended he follow up with his regular physician. Two days later, Cormier asked his wife to call 911. An ambulance took him Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, where he died several hours later from massive organ failure. While he was at Providence St. Joseph, an unidentified family member called and recommended that the hospital check Cormier for poison. A screen test found a significant amount of arsenic in Cormier’s system, and the hospital contacted the Los Angeles Police Department. In the early stages of the investigation into Cormier’s death, the police wouldn’t rule out an accident, suicide, or something more nefarious, and the coroner deferred the cause of death pending further toxicology results. Cormier’s death made national news when numerous right-wing blogs linked it to the death of Andrew Breitbart. “According to early reports, Michael Cormier was ‘seemingly healthy,’ yet ‘suddenly stricken’ with a fatal condition—just like Andrew Breitbart.” The blogs were already speculating that Breitbart—who had announced shortly before his death that he had acquired deeply damaging video footage of President Obama—had been assassinated by the president or his supporters. Cormier died on the day the coroner’s office announced Breitbart’s cause of death as a heart attack. [Source]

Breitbart's Coroner Dies from Arsenic Poisoning on the Day His Office Announced That a Heart Attach Killed Breitbart

November 28, 2016

The Washington Times - Andrew Breitbart is making news even in death.

Social media speculation of a sex-trafficking ring in the nation’s capital has burned up social media sites for weeks. Complicating matters is Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s decision not to comment on anything WikiLeaks-related for months.

Explosive claims by Internet sleuths, which were prompted after reading stolen documents belonging to Mr. Podesta, have been derided as “viciously phony” by Fox News’ Howard Kurtz. A tweet by Mr. Breitbart shortly before his March 1, 2012, death is now being cited by online researchers as proof that they are onto something big.

“How prog-guru John Podesta isn’t household name as world class underage sex slave op cover-upperer defending unspeakable dregs escapes me,” Mr. Breitbart wrote Feb. 4, 2011.

The conservative icon’s death at age 43 was attributed to “heart failure.”

Knowledge of the late conservative’s tweet sent Google searches for “Andrew Breitbart” skyrocketing Sunday night as news spread to members of Twitter, Reddit, GAB, Voat and other social media platforms.

“One of America’s best an most respected independent journalists at the time; he is making a very bold claim about John Podesta — back then — based on his own research,” former Huffington Post contributor David Seaman wrote on GAB Sunday night. “This is years before WikiLeaks came out.”

Mr. Seaman and others claim Mr. Podesta and his associates spoke in code in numerous documents released by WikiLeaks. One example includes a Feb. 9, 2014, email with the subject line “Did you leave a handkerchief.”

“Hi John, The realtor found a handkerchief (I think it has a map that seems pizza-related. Is it yorus [sic]?” a woman identified as Susaner asked. “They can send it if you want.”

Such wording led online sleuths to investigate Mr. Podesta’s connections with D.C. power-player James Alefantis, owner of Comet Ping Pong. The Democrat fundraiser and pizza place owner, who is mentioned in 16 different WikiLeaks documents, had a public Instagram account that featured sexual innuendo and bizarre images of children.

Accounts for Comet Ping Pong employees, which are now set to private, featured nudity involving men with slices of pizza strategically placed over their genitals.

“From this insane, fabricated conspiracy theory, we’ve come under constant assault,” Mr. Alefantis, 42, told The New York Times on Nov. 21. “I’ve done nothing for days but try to clean this up and protect my staff and friends from being terrorized. […] It’s endless.”

The editorial board of The Washington Post also lambasted social media sleuths on Nov. 25 in an op-ed titled “‘Pizzagate’ shows how fake news hurts real people.”

“The allegations against Comet Ping Pong, reported by the New York Times, are absurd on their face and detached from any gossamer thread of fact,” the newspaper wrote. “They took root in the dark crevices of the Web and took flight thanks to social media platforms, whose witless ‘who, us?’ posture in the face of misinformation and outright lunacy is a civic embarrassment. …”

“Like 93 percent of Washingtonians, the restaurateur happened to support Ms. Clinton for president; he has some prominent Democratic friends, past and present,” the Post continued. “Mr. Alefantis’s name surfaced in leaked email from Mr. Podesta’s account, published by WikiLeaks, in which the two men discussed holding a Clinton fundraiser. As far as anyone knows, there is no more logic than that as to why Mr. Alefantis and his restaurant became targets. The First Amendment is a bulwark of democracy but provides no protection for defamatory allegations published in knowing disregard for the truth. Mr. Alefantis is more than entitled to sue for defamation and libel, if he can find the purveyors of the garbage heaved his way.”

Mark Phillips and Cathy O'Brien Lecture - Transcript
from ArchiveTC Website
recovered though WayBackMachine Website
Circa 1996



INTRODUCTION

Podesta Group Admits Undisclosed Foreign Government Advocacy

November 28, 2016

Washington Free Beacon - A high-powered Democratic lobbying firm has admitted to the Department of Justice that it failed to file legally required disclosures of White House advocacy on behalf of a foreign government, new federal filings show.  

The Podesta Group this month amended two biannual lobbying disclosure forms from 2014 and 2015 to note meetings and email communications between Tony Podesta, the firm’s principal, and John Podesta, Tony’s brother and a former Obama White House official who chaired Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

The amended disclosures came after the Washington Free Beacon reported on the Podesta Group’s apparent violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires foreign government lobbyists to disclose contacts they made with government officials and news media on behalf of their clients.

The foreign government advocacy in question was undertaken on behalf of the government of India, a Podesta Group client since 2010.

On August 4, 2014, the Podesta brothers met with the Indian ambassador to the United States in the White House, visitor logs show. At the time, John was a senior counselor to the president. His “portfolio” of work there included issues pertaining to India.

A few months later, on Jan. 1, 2015, Tony emailed John inviting him to an event featuring the Indian ambassador, according to emails posted by WikiLeaks after hackers believed to be acting on behalf of the Russian government breached John’s account.

The meeting and the emails should have been disclosed in the Podesta Group’s original “supplemental” disclosure statements, Craig Engle, a partner at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Arent Fox, told the Free Beacon at the time. But the firm’s supplemental statements did not mention either.

In its amended disclosure statements, the Podesta Group noted the August meeting and the January email. It also disclosed three other emails from Tony to John regarding the White House’s work on India. All of them were sent after John left the White House.

One of the emails simply sought a phone conversation. “Can you call me when u get a minute,” Tony wrote. “Couple of India questions.”

In the other two emails, Tony solicited John’s input on whom he should contact at the White House to press the Indian government’s interests after John’s departure in early 2015.

Additional emails show that Tony Podesta served as an intermediary between his brother and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the Indian ambassador who joined them at the April 2014 White House meeting.

“Tony, Believe John tried to call just now. Was with my doctor and couldn’t take it. Could you please ask him to do so again,” Jaishankar wrote in a January 2015 email, while John Podesta was still serving in the White House.

Later that month, Jaishankar was appointed foreign secretary of India. In that capacity, additional emails show, he helped John Podesta resolve a dispute between the Indian government and the Ford Foundation, a high-dollar donor to the Center for American Progress, which John Podesta founded in 2003.

Unions Fear State Lawmakers Will Close Public Pensions

November 26, 2016

Detroit Free Press — Lawmakers may take action during the lame-duck session to force school workers and other public employees out of defined benefit pensions into 401(k)-style plans, though Republican leaders say no plans are finalized about what bills will move.

Action on bills already introduced to force new school employees into 401(k)'s is one possibility. But some public employee unions are worried the Republican-controlled Legislature could go further than that before year's end, possibly closing some public pension systems at the state and local level, and curbing health care benefits for local government retirees.

Unfunded liabilities in public pension plans in Michigan remains a huge issue, despite efforts at the state level in recent years to address shortfalls in pension plans set up for state employees and school employees.

Michigan municipalities owe $9.5 billion in unfunded pension and post-retirement health care costs, according to a 2016 report by a team of MSU local government finance experts led by Eric Scorsone, who in September joined the State of Michigan as senior deputy state treasurer for finance. For many cities, trying to keep up with these commitments are cutting deeper each year into money that once paid for municipal services such as police and fire protection.

Bills to address local government pensions have not been introduced, but conservative groups such as Americans for Prosperity and the Michigan Freedom Fund have been pushing for action. Legislation could be introduced — and possibly passed — during the post-election lame-duck session that resumes Tuesday.

"The first rule to get out of a hole is to stop digging," said Tony Daunt, executive director of the Michigan Freedom Fund, as a rationale for ending further unfunded obligations for defined-benefit pension and retirement health care plans.

Mapping the $100,000+ California Public Employee Pensions at CalPERS Costing Taxpayers $3.0B

November 26, 2016

Forbes Contributor - I cover the “daily greed” of national, state, and local politics.



In California, according to data captured by OpenTheBooks.com, the Top 10 All-Time CalPERS public employee pensions start at $390,485 per year.

The California Public Employee Retirement System (CalPERS) is the USA’s largest pension fund with $301 billion in assets. It’s also a lucrative transfer mechanism helping 1,251 local governments confer ‘highly compensated’ pensions to tens of thousands of public employees. Updated numbers displayed at OpenTheBooks.com show there is a $2.8 billion annual cost to payout 21,862 six-figure public-sector retirees via CalPERS.

It’s a massive payout equivalent to the combined income tax payments of nearly 1.6 million individual California taxpayers.

So which CA governments conferred the most $100,000 plus pensions through CalPERS?

Using our interactive mapping tool below, quickly review (by last employer ZIP code) the 21,862 public employee retirees at CalPERS who pulled-down a pension of $100,000 or more. Just click on a pin and use the scroll bar to review the results rendered in the chart beneath the map.

The ‘Big Dog’ units of government conferring the most $100,000 retirement pensions include the California Highway Patrol (1,066); Santa Clara County (836); City of Oakland (509); CA Forestry and Fire Protection (476); Riverside County (461); City of Long Beach (351); CA Dept. of Justice (280); CA Corrections, Paroles and Com (275); CA Corrections (268); and the City of Anaheim (253).

No one has hit the pension jackpot quite like the sworn officers of the California Highway Patrol (CHP). Of the 1,066 six-figure retirees, their average pension is $10,192 per month or $122,304 annually. On top of that, there are the 6,350 active employees at CHP averaging $115,000 in pay with taxpayers chipping in another $48,300 in pension contributions. Therefore, each officer costs $163,000 in pay and pension costs alone.

Meanwhile, Riverside County has 461 six-figure retirees and the top 12 retirements each exceed $200,000 per year. Last year, the assistant sheriff made $653,025 by cashing in banks of unused benefits, i.e. leave.

Pension envy in California is real. The hard working private sector doesn’t have benefits even remotely close to government workers.

Trump's Energy Plans Look to Roll Back Obama's Climate Moves

November 21, 2016

Fox News - Trump’s campaign promises of reviving the coal industry helped him win over voters in places like Wyoming, West Virginia and other states hard hit by declining production of the energy source. Now as he readies to enter the White House, many of the voters are looking to see when – and, maybe more importantly, how – the incoming president will fulfill that promise.

Coal production has been on the wane for a number of years and the industry struggles to cope with tighter environmental regulations imposed by the Obama administration.

Saving the coal industry is part of Trump’s 100-day action plan and, although he has not given any specifics so far, his campaign trail promises included rescinding the EPA’s Clean Power Plan and the Mercury and Air Toxics Rule.

President Obama’s eight-year effort to rein in the energy and mining industries with environmental regulations will likely come to a halt under President-elect Donald Trump, who is poised to green-light key job-creating projects from the Atlantic Coast to Alaska.

With the election of Donald Trump -- and a transition team that includes GOP energy lobbyist Mike McKenna and outspoken climate change skeptic Myron Ebell -- both sides now see their fortunes reversing amid Trump’s promise to rescind Obama’s signature Clean Power Plan and jump-start oil, and natural gas projects.

“I think 80 percent of President Obama’s policies will be reversed very soon after Trump moves into the White House,” Robert McNally, the president of the Rapidan Group, the energy consulting firm, and former official in the George W. Bush administration, told FoxNews.com. “The Trump administration will reverse the global warming principles enacted under Obama and he will stop the politicization of infrastructure. This will definitely spur on the growth of the oil and gas industries.”

One of the biggest environmental flashpoints of Obama’s presidency, the pipeline’s final phase – which would create a shorter route for American and Canadian crude oil coming from Alberta to Nebraska – was rejected by Obama for not serving “the national interests of the United States.”

Keystone XL faced stiff opposition from environmental groups and a minority of U.S. lawmakers amid concerns of oil spills in highly sensitive ecological terrain and worries from the Environmental Protection Agency about large increases in greenhouse gas emissions from Alberta’s carbon intensive oil sands.

Throughout his campaign Trump vowed to “immediately approve the Keystone XL pipeline” -- adding he believed it would have no environmental impact and would create hundreds of jobs -- and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is already pressing the president-elect to make it a priority in his first 100 days.

    If I am elected President I will immediately approve the Keystone XL pipeline. No impact on environment & lots of jobs for U.S.
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2015

TransCanada, the company tasked with building the pipeline, said it's hopeful that Trump will approve the project and that they’re working to convince the president-elect to move on it quickly.

“TransCanada remains fully committed to building Keystone XL,” the company said in a statement sent to FoxNews.com.  “We are evaluating ways to engage the new administration on the benefits, the jobs and the tax revenues this project brings to the table.”

The Obama administration recently moved to restrict drilling in waters off the Eastern Seaboard from 2017 to 2022, but environmentalists, fishermen and those in the East Coast’s tourism industry want to make that restriction permanent before Trump comes into office.

Despite his vocal stance on U.S. energy independence and support of increased oil and gas development, Trump’s stance toward offshore drilling in the Atlantic has been vague -- saying only that he backs it when “done responsibly" -- but if he green-lights drilling in the Atlantic it would make him many friends in U.S. oil and gas companies and could open the possibility to expand drilling other U.S. waters.

Obama, however, could prevent this by invoking an obscure section of the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Act that would make it difficult, maybe impossible, for future presidents to reverse the ban. He has used the act before to safeguard parts of Alaska’s Bristol Bay and parts of the Arctic.

CUNY Staffer Complains About Earning $100K for ‘Zero Work’

CUNY stands for "City University of New York." It's the public university system in NYC. CUNY schools receive funding from the State of New York. CUNY gets additional funding from the City of New York 

November 20, 2016

New York Post - He gets paid nearly $100,000 a year by CUNY, but has “zero work” to do — and he’s sick of it.

Harendra “Harold” Sirisena was director of the bursar’s office at the New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn for eight years, responsible for all financial matters, including tuition collection, payroll and bank deposits.

But in 2003, without any explanation, he was suddenly replaced by a young office assistant and reduced to a menial biller.

His sole assigned task — plugging names onto form letters — takes up an average 30 days a year, he estimates, leaving him idle for 171 days, or 86 percent of his time.

“I long for the opportunity to earn my salary,” he told The Post.

For the past 13 years, Sirisena has collected his full $96,000 paycheck, more than $1 million in all.

But he has spent most of that time in isolated cubicles — listening to music, watching cricket or soccer games on his computer and doing math problems — or feeding the birds and squirrels at a nearby park.

“Sometimes I’ve fallen asleep,” he said. “It just happens.”

Over the years, Sirisena, now 72, has written many letters to City Tech officials begging to get work commensurate with his skills, education and experience — to no avail. He applied for other CUNY jobs, he said, but the drastic slashing of his duties killed his chances.

As a last resort, Sirisena sent several letters pleading his case to CUNY Chancellor James Milliken, who never replied, he said.

“What a waste. I could have done so much,” he said. “They don’t care.”

Trump Has a Plan for Government Workers and They’re Not Going to Like It

November 21, 2016

Washington Post - President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress are drawing up plans to take on the government bureaucracy they have long railed against, by eroding job protections and grinding down benefits that federal workers have received for a generation.

Hiring freezes, an end to automatic raises, a green light to fire poor performers, a ban on union business on the government’s dime and less generous pensions — these are the contours of the blueprint emerging under Republican control of Washington in January.

These changes were once unthinkable to federal employees, their unions and their supporters in Congress. But Trump’s election as an outsider promising to shake up a system he told voters is awash in “waste, fraud and abuse” has conservatives optimistic that they could do now what Republicans have been unable to do in the 133 years since the modern civil service was created.

“You have the country moving to the right and being much more anti-Washington than it was,” said former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), a leading Trump adviser who serves on the president-elect’s transition team.

“We’re going to have to get the country to understand how big the problem is, the human costs of it and why it’s absolutely essential to reform,” said Gingrich, who urged Trump to shrink big government and overhaul the “job-for-life” guarantee of federal work.

Gingrich predicted that Stephen K. Bannon, a former Breitbart News chief who helped steer Trump’s campaign and is now one of his most influential advisers, would lead the effort. “It’s a big, big project,” he said.

The project aligns with Bannon’s long-stated warnings about the corrupting influence of government and a capital city rampant with “crony capitalism.”

Breitbart headlines also provide a possible insight into his views, with federal employees described as overpaid, too numerous and a “privileged class.”

“Number of Government Employees Now Surpasses Manufacturing Jobs by 9,977,000,” the website proclaimed in November. There are 2.1 million federal civilian employees.

Top Republicans on Capitol Hill say their first priority will be making it easier to fire employees regarded as incompetent or who break the rules.

“It’s nearly impossible to fire somebody,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “When the overwhelming majority do a good job and the one bad apple is there viewing pornography, I want people to be held accountable.”

Chaffetz said he plans to push through wholesale changes to the generous retirement benefits that federal workers receive, by shifting to a market-driven, 401(k)-style plan for new employees.

He said the model would be his home state, which six years ago replaced the defined benefit pensions that have disappeared at most private companies with a defined contribution plan for new state and municipal workers.

“We have a Republican president who will help us drive this to the finish line,” Chaffetz said.

The promises go hand in hand with Trump’s promise to shrink the size and reach of government, from eliminating some agencies outright to lifting regulations and running the bureaucracy with fewer people.

Gingrich said the Trump administration probably would look for guidance from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who stripped public employee unions of most of their collective-bargaining rights and forced workers to pay more into their pensions and for health care in what became a bitter political fight.

Lawyers, Politicians Among 20 Men Arrested in Norwegian Pedophile Network Probe

November 20, 2016

The Associated Press reported that Norwegian police are investigating a pedophile network suspected to involve at least 51 people, and which includes the abuse of infants and at least one case of a suspect acknowledging abusing his own children.

Police have arrested 20 men so far in western Norway, with three convictions, in Norway's largest abuse case to date, Deputy Police Chief Gunnar Floystad said.

The 31 other suspects are from other regions in Norway.

Floystad told reporters Sunday that many of the suspects are highly educated, and include lawyers and politicians.

He said he could not reveal more details pending the conclusion of the investigation, known as "Dark Room," which began in 2015. Prosecutors said the perpetrators met on the dark web, using encryption and anonymity to hide their tracks.

Here's a video with footage from a Aussie 60 Minutes program in the 80's:

15 Years Old Girl Survives Pizzagate Satanic Rituals Abuse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLgNm_ay4Sk

The Economist Magazine Cover - "The World in 2017"

The Economist Newspaper Limited, trading as The Economist Group, is a British multinational media company headquartered in London and best known as publisher of The Economist magazine. The Economist Group is partly owned by the Rothschild family. The Economist is connected to those who have the means and the power to make “predictions” a reality.

The Economist World in 2017 Cover by jkbugout


The Economist The World in 2017 Cover LEAKED: Ominous Nuclear Death on Tarot Cards by New World Agenda


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"And He said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." - Luke 10:18, King James Version (KJV)

Barak, also spelled Baraq, from the root B-R-Q, is a Hebrew name meaning "lightning."