Showing posts with label Black Mail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black Mail. Show all posts

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Forty-one of the 50 states have become more dependent on the federal government since 2001 — with federal dollars accounting for an increasing share of their total revenues.



 Washington Examiner

 

EXography: State government dependence on federal funding growing at alarming rate

By David Freddoso | APRIL 15, 2014 AT 5:18 AM
Source: Annual Survey of State Government Finances, U.S. Census Bureau



Only 11 states depended on the federal government for more than one-third of their total revenues in 2001. By 2012, 24 states found themselves in this situation.
State-by-state data from the U.S. Census Bureau, compiled by the State Budget Solutions nonprofit, illustrates the trend of increasing state dependence on federal financial assistance.
Forty-one of the 50 states have become more dependent on the federal government since 2001 — with federal dollars accounting for an increasing share of their total revenues.
This trend of increased state dependency on Washington reduces state and local control, while threatening the states' long-run autonomy.
The reason is that with federal patronage comes federal leverage. The original Obamacare plan, for example, was to force states to expand Medicaid by threatening them with loss of all federal matching Medicaid funds if they refused.
Although that particular scheme was struck down by the Supreme Court, state governments hate to turn down revenue, and federal dollars have strings attached that force states either to operate as Washington prefers or lose the money.
This problem is exacerbated by the federal government's control of the currency and ability to borrow virtually unlimited amounts of money.

Read More Here
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Saturday, November 30, 2013

BFP Roundtable - Pilot Episode

corbettreport corbettreport


   



Published on Nov 30, 2013
Peter B. Collins, Sibel Edmonds and James Corbett of BoilingFrogsPost.com present the latest BFP series, the BFP Roundtable. In this pilot edition of the series the panel discusses the latest "reporting" on Guantanamo by 60 Minutes, the truth about the Iranian nuclear deal, and the importance of open source journalism. Stay tuned to BoilingFrogsPost.com for future editions of this series.

Sources cited:
How Many Secret Files Did Snowden Get?
http://ur1.ca/g4g9o
Processing Distortion: "Lara Logan Isn't the Only Problem at 60 Minutes"
http://ur1.ca/g4g9q
Talking Turkey & The Possible Machiavellian Angle in the Latest Developments on Iran
http://ur1.ca/g4g9w
Open Source Journalism
http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=8298



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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

NSA 'collected details of online sexual activity' of Islamist radicals

Document leaked by Edward Snowden shows agency sought out 'vulnerabilities' such as looking at explicit material online



NSA
The NSA is said to have targeted 'radicalisers' by collecting details that could undermine them, including online viewing habits. Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP

The NSA has been collecting details about the online sexual activity of prominent Islamist radicals in order to undermine them, according to a new Snowden document published by the Huffington Post.
The American surveillance agency targeted six unnamed "radicalisers", none of whom is alleged to have been involved in terror plots.
One document argues that if the vulnerabilities they are accused of were to be exposed, this could lead to their devotion to the jihadist cause being brought into question, with a corresponding loss of authority.
As an example of vulnerabilities, it lists: "Viewing sexually explicit material online or using sexually persuasive language when communicating with inexperienced young girls."
The names of the six targeted individuals have been redacted. One is listed as having been imprisoned for inciting hatred against non-Muslims. Under vulnerabilities, the unnamed individual is listed as being involved in "online promiscuity" as well as possibly misdirecting donations.
Shawn Turner, press spokesman for the US director of national intelligence, in an email to the Huffington Post, said it was not surprising the US government "uses all of the lawful tools at our disposal to impede the efforts of valid terrorist targets who seek to harm the nation and radicalise others to violence".

Read More Here

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NSA 'planned to discredit radicals over web-porn use'


NSA operation at Fort Meade, Maryland
The document highlights ways to embarrass six Muslim targets

 

The US authorities have studied online sexual activity and suggested exposing porn site visits as a way to discredit people who spread radical views, the Huffington Post news site has reported.

It published a document, leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, identifying two Muslims said to be vulnerable to accusations of "online promiscuity".

An official said this was unsurprising.

But campaign group Privacy International called it "frightening".

"Without discussing specific individuals, it should not be surprising that the US government uses all of the lawful tools at our disposal to impede the efforts of valid terrorist targets who seek to harm the nation and radicalise others to violence," Shawn Turner, director of public affairs for National Intelligence, told the Huffington Post.

Privacy International said: "This is not the first time we've seen states use intimate and private information of an individual who holds views the government doesn't agree with, and exploit this information to undermine an individual's message."

The report came shortly after a group of United Nations experts adopted a "right to privacy" resolution.

It will be passed by the UN's General Assembly before the end of the year, but is largely symbolic since it is not legally binding.

The UN's Human Rights Committee said it was "deeply concerned at the negative impact" the interception of data "including extraterritorial surveillance" could have "in particular when carried out on a mass scale".
'Young girls'
The latest of Mr Snowden's leaked documents is dated October 2012 and says it was distributed by the office of the director of the NSA to other US government officials.

It names six Muslims whom it describes as "prominent, globally resonating foreign radicalisers" about whom surveillance efforts had revealed potential "vulnerabilities that can be exploited".

Read More Here

Related Stories

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Friday, October 4, 2013

Pot Meet Kettle : Obama accuses the GOP of holdng the Nation for Ransom. In reality Obamacare subjects the entire nation to the ransom demands of a criminal, coercive regime......

.....Not to mention  direct  access to the  IRS who will garnish  your  bank accounts for fines imposed if you  cannot  afford  to  get  the  mandated  insurance.

Now let's  see  who will be  affected , shall we?

The  poor  who  qualify  for  the assistance  programs  will be taken  care  of . 


The  rich  can  afford  any  insurance  they prefer. 


So  who  does  that  leave?

Oh  yes  ,  that's   right the  Working Middle  Class.  The  same  Middle  Class  that  has  been  bearing the  brunt  of  the  load  of the  Deficit. 

The  same  Middle   Class   who is  having a  hard  time   keeping a  roof  over  their   families  heads  and   food on the  table. 

The  same  Middle  Class  who's  children's  future  has  been gambled  away  by greedy ,   inept  and entitled politicians.  Concerned  only  for the money they  are  making  for  themselves  by  selling that  same  Middle  Class  up the   river.

Excuse me  if  I  call BS and  say that the  American  People  are  being  held  hostage  by the   political  system on  both  sides  of the  aisle.   So spare me  the  holier  than  though  and  change  for a  better  future  rhetoric.  The  way  things  are   going  the only  ones   with a  better  future  on the  horizon are the   corrupt  politicians  and the  corporate  crooks  they  enable!!

~Desert Rose~


 


Right-Wing Republicans vs. Corporate Democrats vs. Progressive Populists
           Right-Wing Republicans vs. Corporate Democrats vs. Progressive 
                                                      Populists          Truthout.org

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Obamacare subjects entire nation to ransom demands of coercive government

Obama
Friday, October 04, 2013
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)

(NaturalNews) You've probably noticed I'm not covering pure politics anymore here on Natural News, but I am covering Obamacare and health issues quite intensely. And when it comes to Obamacare, you can't separate the insane politics from the Affordable Care Act policies, so I'll give you an advance warning that this article delves into some hard-hitting issues of what I believe is really wrong with America today.
For starters, the rhetoric over Obamacare and the government shutdown has reached a point of insanity. Obama himself has begun using "gun to the head" rhetoric, invoking highly-inappropriate violent imagery and trying to cast it upon his political enemies. Furthermore, with Obama's approval, White House spokespeople have also begun characterizing Republicans as "terrorists, kidnappers and arsonists" for their taking a stand against Obamacare. Even the more mild characterizations depict Republicans as "holding the nation ransom" while behaving like "suicide bombers" for daring the question the sanity of government gone insane.
Click here to read 11 more violent metaphors currently being invoked by liberals against the GOP.
I'm no water-bearer for the Republican party, as you well know, but this poisonous rhetoric from a failed, desperate administration demands to be honestly answered. If we're going to invoke these metaphors, after all, let's do it accurately. Because if you get right down to it, Obamacare subjects the entire nation to the ransom demands of a criminal, coercive regime that seems more rooted in Soviet-style communism than American freedom.
If Obamacare were a person passing you on the sidewalk, he would pull out a gun, stick it to your forehead and scream at you to "Give me all your money or else!" The so-called "Affordable Care Act" is built on a foundation of coercion and theft. It is not a voluntary program. It does not ask for nor require your consent. It is a grotesque example of government abuses gone terribly wrong at the hands of a wildly deceptive, insidious administration that honors no law whatsoever.

Metaphors that make sense: the Obama administration is a mafia

What's emerging right now in the actions and rhetoric of the White House is that there is no difference whatsoever between the philosophy of the Obama administration and the philosophy of a criminal mafia. Both the mafia and the Obama administration:
• Use fear and intimidation to force people into surrendering their money.
• Threaten the use of force to coerce you into capitulating to their demands.
• Lie to the media and the public about their true intentions.
• Have a strong contradiction between their public persona of "compassion" versus their private behavior of ruthless aggression and destruction.
• Believe they have an inherent right to rule over everyone else.
• Have no respect whatsoever for individual rights, liberties or the rule of law.
• Believe they can simply invent the rules as they go along, complete outside of law.
• Believe they are exempt from the same laws and rules they force everyone else to follow.
• Blame everyone else for the problems and disruptions they have caused to society.
• Are led by sociopaths.

Unlimited theft is now the Big Government game plan

The "Affordable Care Act" is the landmark legislation of the Obama mafia, because it establishes the government's "right" to engage in unlimited theft and confiscation of money from the American people. Thanks to Chief Justice Roberts and the U.S. Supreme Court, a dangerous precedent now exists that allows the federal government to simply seize funds out of your bank account at any time, for any amount, for any reason whatsoever, as long as they call it a "tax."
This is a mafia-style approach to governing by coercion. Before long, Obama (or a future president) might decide that every American should buy war bonds through a mandatory "Affordable War Bonds" program. Such a program might automatically withdraw $500 from your bank account each and every month, redirecting that money to the wealthy arms manufacturers whose bombs and missiles need replacing because we're suddenly in a war with Eurasia... or wherever.
Understand the gravity of this when I explain that the federal government now has no limits whatsoever to its powers of confiscating private wealth. This is crucial to really grasp because it means that when the government runs out of suckers willing to keep lending it more cash -- and it can no longer print new money without triggering a global sell-off -- there is a 100% chance it is going to resort to the nationwide confiscation of private wealth in order to keep itself afloat.
Yes, you head me right: Your retirement funds, pension funds, private bank account and investment funds will all be subject to government confiscation, much like what recently happened in Cyprus. And because there are no longer any limits to government -- the Constitution apparently be damned! -- there is no way to stop this cancerous plague of economic destruction from sucking a significant portion of the private wealth in America into a black hole of bureaucratic waste and crony capitalism.




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'Unprecedented And Catastrophic' Things Could Happen If The US Defaults

 

 

Gimme

Gimme

Last I checked Republicans  were  not the  only political party in Congress.  From the looks  of  it   the  democrats  are  more  than  happy  to  step in  and  play the  hostage  game.

So,  when  are  we  all  going to  wake  up and  understand  that  this is  not  a  political party issue? 


It is a corrupt  system and  government  issue  and both  sides  are  rotten to the  core.  This  blame  game  may  look good from  plush  offices and  homes  but  for  the  people  it stinks.   Government  spending  has  be   checked, not  something they  want  to  understand.   If the  citizens  are  expected  to  balance  their  budgets  without a  bail out then so  must  the  government.  Simply  because they have  been living  high  on the  hog  all this  time does not  excuse  them from their  lack  of  discipline  and  fiscal  responsibility.  They  have  played  fast  and  loose  with money  taken  from  the   Citizens wasting  it frivolously without a  second  thought  to  the  consequences.  Yet  again  it is   the  people  that  will pay the  price.  

The  poor  and the Working  Middle Class are  the ones  who will suffer  for  their  posturing  and manipulation.  None  of  the politicians  in  question,  and that  includes   Obama, have  to  worry  about  where  their next  meal   or  where the  money  for  rent is going to  come  from.  None  of  those  fat  cats  will have to  worry   whether  Grandma  will be  able to  afford  her medication  or be forced to choose  cat food  to  get  by  this month.  They  certainly won't have to  concern themselves about  the baby  having  enough  diapers or  formula  to  make  it  through the  month. 

But  guess  who  does ?


I am  sick  of  the  partisan B.S..  Republicans  and Democrats  alike  are  responsible  for  this  mess and  it is  time  they  were  both  held  accountable..  They are  destroying   this  Nation and taking   us  with them  for  what? 


For a grand political  pissing  contest,  only  "We The  People" are  the  damn  target!!

~Desert Rose ~

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'Unprecedented And Catastrophic' Things Could Happen If Republicans Force The US To Default


Business Insider
Jason Lange and Andy Sullivan, Reuters

uncle sam
REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Broken glass covers an armed forces recruiting poster at the scene of an explosion outside the U.S. Armed Forces Career Center in New York's Times Square, March 6, 2008.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nobody knows exactly when America would default on its bills if Congress fails to raise a cap on government borrowing. But the recent past gives a pretty good idea of how a default could unfold.
Even the Treasury Department can't know how much tax revenue will come in each day after October 17, when it expects to hit its $16.7 trillion debt ceiling. Nor can officials anticipate exact costs, such as how many people will apply for jobless benefits that week.
Yet we can infer how quickly the government might run out of cash by looking at the equivalent of the Treasury's daily bank statements from that same period a year ago.
What follows is a timeline that shows what a default might look like, based on daily Treasury statements from October and November of 2012.
OCT. 17
The Treasury Department exhausts all available tools to stay under the cap on borrowing and can no longer add to the national debt. Treasury expects it would still have about $30 billion cash on hand to cover its bills. Among the many inflows and outflows that day, it takes in $6.75 billion in taxes but pays out $10.9 billion in Social Security retirement checks. By the end of the day, its cushion has eroded to $27.5 billion.
OCT. 18 - OCT. 29
Treasury's cash reserve quickly dwindles. Washington only takes in about 70 cents for every dollar it spends and is now unable to issue new debt to cover the difference.
The tide turns briefly on October 22, when the government takes in $3.5 billion more than it spends.
But that temporary gain is soon erased. October 24 is an especially rough day: Treasury pays $1.8 billion to defense contractors, $2.2 billion to doctors and hospitals that treat elderly patients through the Medicare program, and $11.1 billion in Social Security, while taking in only $9.6 billion in taxes and other income.
One possible wild card: Treasury could lose the trust of the bond market.
Even though the government cannot add to the national debt at this point, it can legally roll over expiring debt. Investors have the opportunity to cash out about $100 billion worth of U.S. debt every week but choose to reinvest it. If fear of default causes investors to steer clear of new debt offerings, Treasury's finances could unravel almost overnight.
"It's very hard to predict," said Brian Collins, an analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center, which helped Reuters with this analysis. "It's the same thing that causes (bank) runs or credit markets to freeze."
OCT. 30
Default happens. By the end of the day, the government is $7 billion short of what it needs to pay all of its bills.
So who gets stiffed?
Everybody, according to the Obama administration.
Treasury says it doesn't have the ability to pick and choose who gets paid. The last time the government faced this situation in 2011, they planned to wait until public coffers were full enough to pay a full day's bills before cutting any checks, according to a Treasury Department watchdog report from 2012.

Read More Here

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Gross Says U.S. Will Avoid ‘Catastrophic’ Default on Debt

Play
Pimco's Gross on U.S. Shutdown, Debt Ceiling
Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Bill Gross said the U.S. will avoid a “catastrophic” default on Treasury securities if lawmakers fail to extend the debt limit on the nation’s debt.
Pacific Investment Management Co. Co-Chief Investment Officer Bill Gross said a default would trigger a “complex series of events worldwide” throughout financial markets. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
“The U.S. Treasury is the center of the global financial complex,” Gross, manager of the world’s biggest bond fund, said during a Bloomberg Television interview with Trish Regan and Adam Johnson. A default would be “unimaginable,” as it would have “catastrophic” consequences on U.S. borrowing costs, and would trigger a “complex series of events worldwide” that would ripple through global financial markets.
The U.S. government began its first partial shutdown in 17 years after Congress failed to break a partisan deadlock by a midnight deadline. Congressional leaders have scheduled no further negotiations on spending legislation, raising concern among some lawmakers that the shutdown may have an impact on the more consequential fight over how to raise the U.S. debt limit to avoid a first-ever default after Oct. 17.
The odds of a default are “a million-to-one” as the Treasury Department will be able to take other measures to ensure it is servicing the country’s debt, Gross said.
“The Treasury is not going to default on their debt simply because the debt ceiling isn’t going to be raised,” Gross said. “There will be other repercussions like slower economic growth. But the Treasury is not going to default.”

Read More and Watch Video Here

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Obama's Trump Card for Government Shutdown Stalemate is holding Social Security Checks Hostage

Devastating Trump Card


Business Insider

bridge cards trump card
Bruno Vincent/Getty

The shutdown battle has become, essentially, a high-stakes blame game.
Republicans tried to raise those stakes yesterday by offering a piecemeal plan to reopen popular parts of the federal government, in the hopes that it would be politically costly for the Democrats to oppose things like aid to veterans. The bill failed to move forward.
But in a note to clients, Potomac Research Group's Greg Valliere says that President Obama still has one "trump card" of his own left to play, Social Security:

THE HEAVY ARTILLERY:  We have thought for weeks that Obama would play the Social Security trump card if there was no deal on the debt ceiling by mid-October. This is one of several reasons why we think a default is unlikely, and it's one of several reasons why Boehner will capitulate; the only questions are when and under what terms. We think he may get a few crumbs, but no major concessions.


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Obama Just Played His Big 'Trump Card' On The Debt Ceiling

Business Insider
Brett LoGiurato Oct. 3, 2013, 11:59 AM

Barack Obama

Early Thursday morning, Potomac Research Group analyst Greg Valliere predicted that if the debt-ceiling deadline grew closer, President Barack Obama would play his "trump card" in the debate. He would remind seniors that if Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling, seniors wouldn't get their Social Security checks. "GOP strategists like Karl Rove surely know that it's just a matter of time before President Obama throws a game-changer — warning senior citizens that their Social Security checks won't be mailed because of John Boehner," Valliere wrote in a note to clients.
A few hours later, Obama did just that during a speech at M. Luis Construction Company in Rockville, Md. He spent much of the speech warning that while the ongoing government shutdown was damaging, failure to raise the debt ceiling by an Oct. 17 deadline would be even worse.
"In a government shutdown, Social Security checks still go out on time. In an economic shutdown — if we don't raise the debt ceiling — they don't go out on time," Obama said. "In a government shutdown, disability benefits still arrive on time. In an economic shutdown, they don't."

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Friday, August 2, 2013

US using satellites to spy on Americans: Former NSA analyst


Sat Aug 3, 2013 12:26AM GMT


Edward Snowden for the first time revealed the US agency’s massive spying programs.
Former National Security Agency analyst Russell Tice says the US government has used satellites to spy on Americans, collecting the exact contents of every digital communication in the country.
“The United States were, at that time, using satellites to spy on American citizens. At that time, it was news organizations, the State Department, including Colin Powell, and an awful lot of senior military people and industrial types,” he said in an interview with PBS.
“This was in 2002-2003 time frame. The NSA were targeting individuals. In that case, they were judges like the Supreme Court. I held in my hand Judge Alito's targeting information for his phones and his staff and his family,” Tice added.
Tice, who worked as an analyst of the agency for two decades, also noted that he was fired in 2005 after asking Congress to provide greater protection to whistleblowers.
He also explained about his recent communication with his colleagues at the NSA.



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NSA Collects 'Word for Word' Every Domestic Communication, Says Former Analyst

SUMMARY

Judy Woodruff sits down with two former NSA officials who blew the whistle on what they said were abuses at the NSA, along with that agency’s former inspector general, to talk about whether that secretive agency is recording all domestic calls in the U.S.


JUDY WOODRUFF:   And we pick up on the continuing fallout from the revelations of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Last night, we debated the role of the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence court, which approves the government's requests to gather intelligence information on Americans.
Tonight, we have a conversation with three former NSA officials, a former inspector general and two NSA veterans who blew the whistle on what they say were abuses and mismanagement at the secret government intelligence agency.
William Binney worked at the NSA for over three decades as a mathematician, where he designed systems for collecting and analyzing large amounts of data. He retired in 2001. And Russell Tice had a two-decade career with the NSA where he focused on collection and analysis. He says he was fired in 2005 after calling on Congress to provide greater protection to whistle-blowers.
He claims the NSA tapped the phone of high-level government officials and the news media 10 years ago.
RUSSELL TICE, former National Security Agency analyst: The United States were, at that time, using satellites to spy on American citizens. At that time, it was news organizations, the State Department, including Colin Powell, and an awful lot of senior military people and industrial types.
JUDY WOODRUFF:   So, this is the early 2000s.

RUSSELL TICE: This was in 2002-2003 time frame. The NSA were targeting individuals. In that case, they were judges like the Supreme Court. I held in my hand Judge Alito's targeting information for his phones and his staff and his family.
JUDY WOODRUFF:   Bill Binney, what was your sense of who was being targeted and why they were being targeted? And what was being collected, in other words?
WILLIAM BINNEY, former National Security Agency technical leader: Well, I wasn't aware of specific targeting like Russ was. I just saw the inputs were including hundreds of millions of records of phone calls of U.S. citizens every day. So it was virtually -- there wasn't anybody who wasn't a part of this collection of information.
So, virtually, you could target anybody in this country you wanted.
JUDY WOODRUFF:   Both Binney and Tice suspect that today, the NSA is doing more than just collecting metadata on calls made in the U.S. They both point to this CNN interview by former FBI counterterrorism agent Tim Clemente days after the Boston Marathon bombing. Clemente was asked if the government had a way to get the recordings of the calls between Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his wife.
TIM CLEMENTE, former FBI counterterrorism agent: On the national security side of the house, in the federal government, you know, we have assets. There are lots of assets at our disposal throughout the intelligence community and also not just domestically, but overseas. Those assets allow us to gain information, intelligence on things that we can't use ordinarily in a criminal investigation.
All digital communications are -- there's a way to look at digital communications in the past. And I can't go into detail of how that's done or what's done. But I can tell you that no digital communication is secure.


Read  More and Watch Video Here


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NSA Blackmailing Obama? | Interview with WhistleblowerRussTice 

 


  Published on Jul 9, 2013

Abby Martin talks to Russell Tice, former intelligence analyst and original NSA whistleblower, about how the recent NSA scandal is only scratches the surface of a massive surveillance apparatus, citing specific targets the he saw spying orders for including former senators Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama.


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