Puppet MastersS


Sheriff

FBI changes "Law Enforcement" to "National Security" as Primary Mission

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The FBI's creeping advance into the world of counterterrorism is nothing new. But quietly and without notice, the agency has finally decided to make it official in one of its organizational fact sheets. Instead of declaring "law enforcement" as its "primary function," as it has for years, the FBI fact sheet now lists "national security" as its chief mission. The changes largely reflect the FBI reforms put in place after September 11, 2001, which some have criticized for de-prioritizing law enforcement activities. Regardless, with the 9/11 attacks more than a decade in the past, the timing of the edits is baffling some FBI-watchers.

"What happened in the last year that changed?" asked Kel McClanahan, a Washington-based national security lawyer.

McClanahan noticed the change last month while reviewing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the agency. The FBI fact sheet accompanies every FOIA response and highlights a variety of facts about the agency. After noticing the change, McClanahan reviewed his records and saw that the revised fact sheets began going out this summer. "I think they're trying to rebrand," he said. "So many good things happen to your agency when you tie it to national security."

Camera

Life in the electronic concentration camp: The many ways that you're being tracked, catalogued and controlled

"[A security camera] doesn't respond to complaint, threats, or insults. Instead, it just watches you in a forbidding manner. Today, the surveillance state is so deeply enmeshed in our data devices that we don't even scream back because technology companies have convinced us that we need to be connected to them to be happy." - Pratap Chatterjee, journalist
Surveillance State
© Louie Psihoyos/CorbisWatching you: the state will gain wider powers of access to the data of communication companies.

What is most striking about the American police state is not the mega-corporations running amok in the halls of Congress, the militarized police crashing through doors and shooting unarmed citizens, or the invasive surveillance regime which has come to dominate every aspect of our lives. No, what has been most disconcerting about the emergence of the American police state is the extent to which the citizenry appears content to passively wait for someone else to solve our nation's many problems. Unless Americans are prepared to engage in militant nonviolent resistance in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, true reform, if any, will be a long time coming.

Yet as I detail in my book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, if we don't act soon, all that is in need of fixing will soon be unfixable, especially as it relates to the police state that becomes more entrenched with each passing day. By "police state," I am referring to more than a society overrun by the long arm of the police. I am referring to a society in which all aspects of a person's life are policed by government agents, one in which all citizens are suspects, their activities monitored and regulated, their movements tracked, their communications spied upon, and their lives, liberties and pursuit of happiness dependent on the government's say-so.

That said, how can anyone be expected to "fix" what is broken unless they first understand the lengths to which the government with its arsenal of technology is going in order to accustom the American people to life in a police state and why being spied on by government agents, both state and federal, as well as their partners in the corporate world, is a problem, even if you've done nothing wrong.

Indeed, as the trend towards overcriminalization makes clear, it won't be long before the average law-abiding American is breaking laws she didn't even know existed during the course of a routine day. The point, of course, is that while you may be oblivious to your so-called law-breaking - whether it was collecting rainwater to water your lawn, lighting a cigarette in the privacy of your home, or gathering with friends in your backyard for a Sunday evening Bible study - the government will know each and every transgression and use them against you.

Popcorn

Nigel Farage's UKIP rocks political system across the pond

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© ReutersMay 3, 2013: UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage poses for a photograph with a pint of beer in the Marquis of Granby pub, in Westminster.
The often stale British political system is being rocked by its very own Tea Party.

The UK Independence Party (UKIP), formed in 1993 opposing Britain's entry into the European Union, failed to make an electoral dent for a long time. However UKIP has built up steam in recent years and is spearheading a seismic shift in the British political spectrum.

In this year's local elections - the British version of midterms -- UKIP took a stunning 23 percent of the vote, up from the 3.1 percent they won in the 2010 national election. Their leader, Nigel Farage, is buoyed by their recent success.

"We want to take back our country, we want to take back our government, and we want to take back our birthright," Farage told FoxNews.com in forthright language rarely seen in British politics.

Farage has good reason to be confident of UKIP's potential. Since he took the party's helm for a second time in 2010, the party has been revitalized, capitalizing on dissatisfaction with the Conservative Party's shift to the center under current Prime Minister David Cameron.
"The sense of frustration the Tea Party feels about the remoteness about the bureaucratic class of the Washington beltway is similar to our frustration with being dealt with by Brussels." - Nigel Farage, UK Independence Party
Cameron has radically overhauled the "Tories," embracing nationalized health care, fighting for gay marriage, and changing the party logo from the flame of liberty to an environmentally conscious tree. This, UKIP argues, makes them indistinguishable from the left-wing Labour Party and Liberal Democrats.

Arrow Down

Revolving door 2014: Former Head of the Federal Communications Commission joins Carlyle

Carlyle Group
© Peu Report
What better way to kick off 2014 than with the first (and most certainly not last) egregious example of USA banana republic revolving door crony capitalism. In this case, the crony in question is former head of theFederal Communications Commission (FCC), Julius Genachowski, who was earlier today named Managing Director and partner in the U.S. Buyout team for private equity giant Carlyle Group. Carlyle is so giddy about its latest example of regulatory capture, they issued a glowing press release on the matter. Here are some excerpts:
Tech & Media Business Executive and Former Head of U.S. Federal Communications Commission Will Focus on Global Technology, Media and Telecom Investments

Will Help Carlyle Further Capitalize on Internet and Mobile Revolution

Washington, DC - Global alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) today named Julius Genachowski a Managing Director and partner in the U.S. Buyout team. He will focus on investments in global technology, media and telecom, including Internet and mobile. Mr. Genachowski is returning to the private sector after serving as Chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for four years, departing last May. He is an accomplished leader and expert in technology, media and telecom and brings to Carlyle almost 20 years of experience in the space. Mr. Genachowski joins Carlyle today and will be based in Washington, DC.

Since leaving the FCC, Mr. Genachowski has taught a joint class at Harvard's Business and Law Schools, and served as a Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute, the non-partisan education and policy organization. Over the course of his career, he has been a Special Adviser at General Atlantic, a board member and advisor to several public and private companies, and a law clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice David Souter.

Since inception, Carlyle has deployed on a global basis more than $18 billion in equity in investments in the technology, media and telecom sectors. Investments include Syniverse Technologies, Nielsen, Dex Media, AMC Entertainment, Insight Communications, CommScope and SS&C Technologies.
Congrats Mr. Genachowski, this is your big payday.

Newspaper

Ezra Klein to leave WaPo after Jeff Bezos kills $10M dream project

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© BreitbartEzra Klein
As new owner Jeff Bezos begins his tenure as the head man for the Washington Post, Wonkblog editor Ezra Klein is reportedly making plans to exit the paper after being denied funding for a pet project.

Klein built a media presence on the Internet, newspapers, and TV as a "wonk" at a young age. Now, he apparently wants to expand his reach in the media with an extensive new website that he wanted the Washington Post to fund.

As described by The New York Times, the project would be a "a new website dedicated to explanatory journalism on a wide range of topics beyond political policy."

After presenting his plan to the Post's publisher Katharine Weymouth and editor Marty Baron, the major website project - costing eight figures, according to the Times' sources - was rejected by Weymouth and the paper's new owner, Jeff Bezos.

Gear

Hillary Clinton: Betrayal that whitewash won't cover

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Transparency, the current vogue word for truth-telling, is usually a good thing, unless you're trying to fool all the people some of the time, like spending 7,000 words to resurrect a fairy tale in Benghazi, all to give a helping hand to a lady in distress.

The New York Times understands that Hillary Clinton is likely to be the only credible hope the Democrats have for 2016 and that she already needs lots of remedial help. The Times huffed and puffed to deliver an excuse for betrayal in Benghazi, meant to second Mrs. Clinton's famous alibi for her tortured misfeasance as secretary of state - "What difference, at this point, does it make?"

The right response might have made a lot of difference to an American ambassador who lay dead, slain at the hands of Islamic terrorists, and three other Americans who had to give up their lives because nobody at the White House could be bothered to ride to the rescue. President Obama and his frightened and timid acolytes, including Mrs. Clinton, insisted that this was not Islamic terror or the perfidy of al Qaeda, but merely the reaction of innocent Muslims offended by a video posted on YouTube mocking the religion of the Prophet Muhammad.

Even after the White House dispatched Susan Rice, who was then the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to push the confection about the video as revealed truth, almost nobody believed it. The White House couldn't even find anybody else who would say he believed it.

Arrow Down

Three warning signs that a financial crash is imminent

DJIA
© UnknownDow Jones Industrial Average
For years, prophets of profit have warned us that the next stock market crash "will be soon", and that such a crash will be utter catastrophic. Farber, Celente, et al., have told us that such a crash will be epic and that life as we know it will be forever changed. There are some that challenge their assertions because of fondness for the Gold Market. Many take their advice because they are conservative - play-it-safe investors.

But hearing the same wailing for years does no one any good unless you can see the threat.

Seeing a threat makes it personal. It makes it "in your face" where you MUST deal with it.

Our ancestors could see the tracks of a beast, and knew that danger was near. How near?

They couldn't know unless they saw the creature.

Welcome to our financial beast. It's right in front of you.

These three warning signs are brand new to the news, but we've told you in the past to be ready and how to prepare for it.

Eye 1

The NSA beast refuses to deny spying on members of Congress

Sen. Bernie Sanders
© Brendan Smialowski/Getty ImagesSen. Bernie Sanders
"Has the NSA spied, or is the NSA currently spying, on members of Congress or other elected officials?"

That's the question Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) put to the National Security Agency's chief in a bluntly worded letter Friday. It seems, however, that the agency cannot categorically say no.

Sanders didn't use the word "spy" lightly. He was careful to define his terms, indicating he meant the collection of phone records from personal as well as official telephones, "content from Web sites visited or e-mails sent," and data that companies collect but don't release to the public.

When asked by The Washington Post, an NSA spokesman said that the agency's privacy safeguards are effective at covering all Americans.

"Members of Congress have the same privacy protections as all U.S. persons," the spokesman said. "We are reviewing Sen. Sanders's letter now, and we will continue to work to ensure that all members of Congress, including Sen. Sanders, have information about NSA's mission, authorities, and programs to fully inform the discharge of their duties."

Stock Down

Billionaires Dumping Stocks

Despite the 6.5% stock market rally over the last three months, a handful of billionaires are quietly dumping their American stocks . . . and fast.

Warren Buffett, who has been a cheerleader for U.S. stocks for quite some time, is dumping shares at an alarming rate. He recently complained of "disappointing performance" in dyed-in-the-wool American companies like Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, and Kraft Foods.

In the latest filing for Buffett's holding company Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett has been drastically reducing his exposure to stocks that depend on consumer purchasing habits. Berkshire sold roughly 19 million shares of Johnson & Johnson, and reduced his overall stake in "consumer product stocks" by 21%. Berkshire Hathaway also sold its entire stake in California-based computer parts supplier Intel.

With 70% of the U.S. economy dependent on consumer spending, Buffett's apparent lack of faith in these companies' future prospects is worrisome.

Unfortunately Buffett isn't alone.

Newspaper

Chinese tycoon to make move to buy The New York Times

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© Commons.wikimedia.org
The New York Times in the hands of a Chinese owner? Shares rose this week to a five-year high at the notion of Chinese business tycoon Chen Guangbiao's reported push to buy a controlling interest in the company.

Mr. Chen is reportedly going to meet a shareholder to discuss the possible purchase this weekend, The New York Post said. But the Sulzberger family still owns the bulk of shares in the company and says it's not selling - despite pressure from investors over the past few years to overcome its financial woes.

But Mr. Chen insists Times Co. could be bought, for the right amount of money.

"There's nothing that can't be bought for the right price," he said, The New York Post reported.