Alphabet-owned Nest has had a rough year, but now it’s trying to move forward with an outdoor version of its connected Nest Cam security camera. …read more
Source: Nest finally has a new product … but don’t get too excited
Money doesn’t exist – as we explain in Splitting Pennies. Money is an idea, an abstraction – a belief system. A dogma. So is a country. In fact, a country IS a currency. EU nations have given up their sovereignty to join the Euro (and we see how well that’s working out for them).
Brexit made a lot of money for FX traders, but planted a seed in the masses that change is possible (we’ll see, if the British government actually goes through with Brexit..) Countries are born, and die. As far as countries go, the United States of America (USA) is actually one of the world’s oldest countries. Actually there’s only a small handful of older countries, such as San Marino (1600), Vatican City (1274), and the United Kingdom (1707). USA changed the global political landscape in many ways, especially during the 20th century – not only directly (through invasive foreign policy) but by example. USA was one of the first ‘superstates’ – now such superstates are common (the EU being one). USA was the first country to detach from cultural or ethnic identity, Americans were a mix of Europeans and others. So, what has USA become – does Television define what USA is? No, it’s just a powerful control mechanism. Millions of Americans don’t watch TV. In fact, for the majority of residents in USA, they are completely oblivious to how the other 99% live. Not everyone lives in Midtown and works for a prop shop. Not everyone lives in the burbs. But if you do – it seems that – this is America! We define the outside world by what we see inside our own. Which is a big mistake, but at least we have freedom to do it (so they tell us).
Through the evolution of the global system, USA became a big business, a big corporation. America, Inc. is the largest employer in the world. What the US government actually does is a mystery to many analysts in the world, but one thing is for sure – they create employment. US Citizens who can’t find reasonable jobs, and can’t teach, usually end up working for the government. According to government data (here’s the need for a governemnt job, compiling data on how many jobs), about 4.1 Million work for the government, down from it’s 1970 peak of 6 Million +. Jimmy Buffet has a song “Everyone has a cousin in Miami” which is basically true for 99% of Americans – also everyone has a cousin that works for the government. This business runs very well. It greases all the right palms. That’s why it exists. Not because of voters. Corporation America is a global octopus of trade. It’s a form of uber Facism – words can’t describe the system we have now …read more
Source: Endgame for Corporation USA without Trump
Craig Sager, Turner’s NBA sideline reporter, gave an impassioned speech about his fight with cancer at Wednesday ESPYs. …read more
Source: Craig Sager on cancer battle: ‘I will never give up’
European programs that provide residency or citizenship to wealthy investors who shell out big bucks are losing their appeal after the U.K. decided to exit the EU. …read more
Source: Investors will shun Europe’s ‘golden visas’ after Brexit
On the surface, things seem pretty quiet in mid-July 2016. The biggest news stories are about the speculation surrounding Donald Trump’s choice of running mate, the stock market in the U.S. keeps setting new all-time record highs, and the media seems completely obsessed with Taylor Swift’s love life. But underneath the surface, it is a very different story. As you will see below, the conditions for a “perfect storm” are coming together very rapidly, and the rest of 2016 promises to be much more chaotic than what we have seen so far.
Let’s start with China. On Tuesday, an international tribunal in the Hague ruled against China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. The Chinese government announced ahead of time that they do not recognize the jurisdiction of the tribunal, and they have absolutely no intention of abiding by the ruling. In fact, China is becoming even more defiant in the aftermath of this ruling. We aren’t hearing much about it in the U.S. media, but according to international news reports Chinese president Xi Jinping has ordered the People’s Liberation Army “to prepare for combat” with the United States if the Obama administration presses China to abandon the islands that they are currently occupying in the South China Sea…
“Chinese president Xi Jinping has reportedly ordered the People’s Liberation Army to prepare for combat,” reports Arirang.com. “U.S.-based Boxun News said Tuesday that the instruction was given in case the United States takes provocative action in the waters once the ruling is made.”
A U.S. aircraft carrier and fighter jets were already sent to the region in anticipation of the ruling, with the Chinese Navy also carrying out exercises near the disputed Paracel islands.
Last October, China said it was “not frightened” to fight a war with the U.S. following an incident where the guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen violated the 12-nautical mile zone China claims around Subi and Mischief reefs in the Spratly archipelago.
Meanwhile, the relationship between the United States and Russia continues to go from bad to worse. The installation of a missile defense system in Romania is just the latest incident that has the Russians absolutely steaming, and during a public appearance on June 17th Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to get western reporters to understand that the world is being pulled toward war…
“We know year by year what’s going to happen, and they know that we know. It’s only you that they tell tall tales to, and you buy it, and spread it to the citizens of your countries. You people in turn do not feel a sense of the impending danger – this is what worries me. How do you not understand that the world is being pulled in an irreversible direction? While they pretend that nothing is going on. I don’t know how to get through to you anymore.”
And of course the Russians have been feverishly updating and modernizing their military in preparation for a potential future conflict with …read more
Source: War Is Coming And The Global Financial Situation Is A Lot Worse Than You May Think
By Tyler Durden
Authored by Paul Craig Roberts, originally posted at Strategic-Culture.org,
FBI Director James Comey got Hillary off the hook but wants to put you on it. He is pushing hard for warrantless access to all of your Internet activity.
Comey, who would have fit in perfectly with Hitler’s Gestapo, tells Congress that the United States is not safe unless the FBI knows when every American goes online, to whom they are sending emails and from whom they are receiving emails, and knows every website visited by every American.
In other words, Comey wants to render null and void the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution and completely destroy your privacy rights.
The reason Washington wants to know everything about everyone is so that Washington can embarrass, blackmail, and frame on felony charges patriots who stand up in defense of the US Constitution and the rule of law, and dissidents who criticize Washington’s illegal wars, reckless foreign policies, and oppression of American citizens.
Washington’s demand for power has nothing to do with our security. It has to do with destroying the security that the US Constitution gives us.
The security that Comey wants to protect is not our security or the national security of the United States. Comey’s intent is to make Washington secure despite its violations of statutory law and the US Constitution. The way Comey intends to do this is by intimidating, harassing, and arresting Washington’s critics.
Comey wants the unconstitutional power to demand from the providers of telephone and Internet services all records and information about you. These demands are not to be subject to oversight by courts, and the communication companies that serve you are prohibited from telling you that all of your information has been given to the FBI.
US Senators rushed to stick their swords into the Fourth Amendment. John Cornyn slapped an FBI-written amendment on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act Amendments Act of 2015. This caused the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International to withdraw their support for the act, which caused the act to be withdrawn.
Senator John McCain rushed to the aid of the FBI. This Constitution-hating senator proposed an amendment to a criminal justice appropriations bill that would use a provision in the unconstitutional PATRIOT Act to grant the unlimited unaccountable power to the FBI to totally destroy your privacy.
McCain’s amendment failed, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) changed his vote so that he could negate the Senate’s vote with a vote to reconsider.
The FBI’s senators will continue with amendments to legislation, related or not, until they deliver to the FBI the power it wants.
Unfortunately, most Americans today, unlike their forebears, are too ignorant and uneducated to know the value of the privacy rights that our Founding Fathers put in the US Constitution. The imbeciles say nonsense such as: “I haven’t done anything wrong. I have nothing to fear”. God help the imbeciles.
If the American people were sufficiently sophisticated, they perhaps would wonder why such a large chunk of the US Senate had rather represent the FBI …read more
Source: Paul Craig Roberts Warns "’Adolf Hitler’ Is Alive & Well In The US"
By Tyler Durden
The State Department restarted their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails following the DoJ’s unanimous recommendation that Attorney General Loretta Lynch not pursue criminal charges for Hillary’s negligence in handling classified documents. FBI insiders now believe a deal was struck when Bill Clinton met Loretta Lynch on a Phoenix airport tarmac in June. Agents have also said they were forced to sign a document that went above and beyond the typical NDA signed when performing investigations
When news broke of the infamous tarmac Lynch-Clinton meeting we said: “Well then, if Lynch says it was a completely random encounter with Hillary Clinton’s husband on a tarmac (admit it, that happens often to most people), and nothing was discussed that pertains to official business, then that certainly must be the truth.”
We were sarcastic. We may also have been right.
According to The New York Post, which not only cited a source saying that “FBI agents believe there was an inside deal put in place after the Loretta Lynch/Bill Clinton tarmac meeting”, but it also reports that FBI agents had been required to sign a Case Briefing Acknowledgment Addendum. To wit:
In an unusual move, FBI agents working the Hillary Clinton email case had to sign a special form reminding them not to blab about the probe to anyone unless called to testify.
As for what that “special form” is:
Sources said they had never heard of the “Case Briefing Acknowledgment” form being used before, although all agents must initially sign nondisclosure agreements to obtain security clearance.
A retired FBI Chief opined on agents signing a Case Briefing Acknowledgment saying:
“This is very, very unusual. I’ve never signed one, never circulated one to others”
Zero Hedge searched for “Case Briefing Acknowledgment” throughout various databases and found no credible hits relating to such a document. Which is odd in light of that by-chance meeting on a tarmac because the document was acknowledged in a July 1 letter from Stephen Kelly, the top legislative affairs official for the FBI in a response to Chairman Charles Grassley’s letter requesting more information about the Case Briefing Acknowledgment.
The Clintons continue to display an uncanny ability for creating the best timed coincidences.
* * *
Stephen Kelly, Asst. Director Office Congressional Affairs Letter To Grassley
Source: FBI Agents Were Told To Sign A "Very, Very Unusual" NDA In Hillary Email Case
By Tyler Durden
Germany's AfD politician Steffen Königer ridiculed the Greens in the Brandenburg Parliament for their proposal of a “Campaign for Acceptance of Gender and Sexual diversity, Self-Determination and against Homo and Transphobia in Brandenburg” as well as “Giving equal rights and societal equality for LGBTTQQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Trans, Two-spirit, Queer, Questioning) people in Brandenburg” by quoting 60 of the Genders considered by Leftists to be actual identities… straight from Facebook's Gender option list.
He finished his introduction of almost 2 minutes by stating that his party rejects the proposal.
Enjoy…
Full List of Genders, official English version:
Gentlemen, ladies, agender, androgyne, androgynous, bigender, cisgender, cis female, cis male, cis men, cis women, cisgender females, cisgender males, cisgender men, cisgender women, females to males, FTM, gender fluid, gender nonconforming, gender questioning, gender variant, genderqueer, intersex, males to females, MTF, neither, neutrois, non-binary, other, pangender, trans, trans*, trans females, trans* females, trans males, trans* males, trans men, trans* men, trans people, trans* people, trans women, trans* women, transfeminine, transgender, transgender females, transgender males, transgender men, transgender people, transgender women, transmasculine, transsexual, transsexual females, transsexual males, transsexual men, transsexual people, transsexual women, people of spirit, womyn, womyn*, two-spirit, three-spirit, four-spirit, Other.
Pick one? Or two if you like... you're in a safe space here.
Source: 60 Different Genders? Leftist LGBTTQQ-Proposal Ridiculed By AfD Politician In German Parliament
By Tyler Durden
Amid record unemployment, painful labor reforms, economic collapse, and the most serious social unrest in decades, the shockingly 'let them eat cake'-ish revelations of French President Hollande's lifestyle will do little to improve the socialist's ratings from their record lows. As Bloomberg reports, a French satirical magazine has exposed the fact that Hollande’s hairdresser is paid a gross salary by the state of ~$11,000 per month (more than a European parliament member).
Although just a third less than Hollande’s salary, it is more than the gross monthly wage of a European Parliament member, which stands at about 8,213 euros, excluding expenses.
The salary paid to the Socialist president’s coiffeur at the Elysee presidential palace was confirmed by the government after satirical magazine Canard Enchaine published details of the terms, including an image of his contract.
As The Express reports, despite preaching austerity during his premiership, Mr Hollande’s outrageous contract with the barber is causing outrage.
The hairdresser, who the leaked contract names only as Oliver B, is set to earn half a million pounds over the course of Hollande’s current premiership, in exchange for being available at every waking moment and signing a contract promising not to speak about his position.
It read: “Mr B. commits to maintaining the utmost secrecy, during and after the completion of his contract, on the work he has done and the information he has had access to.”
The hairdresser issue sits at odds with Hollande’s campaign promise in 2012 that he’d be a “normal” head of state in contrast with his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, who earned the label of the “bling-bling” president for his Ray-Ban sunglasses and fancy vacations. It also comes at a time when Hollande is seeking to push through a bill that would shrink workers’ benefits and making firings easier.
“Everyone needs their hair done, no?” Stephane Le Foll, the government spokesman, said after the weekly cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace Wednesday in Paris. “I can understand people’s questions, I can understand their judgments. He’s not just anybody, that’s all.”
Revelations about his hairdresser come two years after one of his closest aides, Aquilino Morelle, was forced to resign amid allegations of a conflict of interest and also because he reportedly used his Elysee office, overlooking the palace’s lawn, to have a shoe-shiner come in to brush his expensive leather shoes.
Vive La Revolution…
Source: ‘Shampoo Socialism’? Hollande’s Hairdresser Costs French Taxpayers $11k Per Month
The FDIC got hacked by Chinese spies, then US officials tried to cover it up. That’s according to a Congressional report that was released this week. …read more
Source: Report: China hacked FDIC and U.S. covered it up
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