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US Marshals arrest man over $1,500 student loan from 1987...


RT
Tue, 16 Feb 2016 19:15 UTC
US marshal
© AFP
Being behind on student loan payments in Texas could cost you more than your credit score. The US Marshals Service in Houston is arresting people who aren't paying their federal student debt. Paul Aker said that seven deputy US Marshals showed up at his Houston home in combat gear.

"I was wondering, why are you here. I am home, I haven't done anything," he told Fox 26, adding that he didn't receive any notice about a $1,500 student loan he received in 1987. He claims he was taken to federal court, where he signed a payment plan for the debt.

"It was totally mind-boggling," Aker said. This is far from an isolated incident, a source told the station. It isn't the first time Marshals have served someone for being behind on loans, and they are planning to serve between 1,200 and 1,500 other people who have student debt.

Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) told Fox 26 that it's worrisome that private debt collectors are able to use US Marshals as muscle to retrieve payments for loans.

"There's bound to be a better way to collect on a student loan debt that is so old," Green said.

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Better Earth

Cast of new film about resistance in Nazi Germany sees parable for today's Europe


Yahoo News
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 00:00 UTC
Cast of Alone in Berlin
The drama "Alone in Berlin," about a middle-aged German couple who risk their lives to oppose the Nazis, contains lessons for present-day Europe and its treatment of refugees, cast members said Monday.

Premiering at the Berlin Film Festival on Monday, the film is based on a 1947 book by German author Hans Fallada that became a surprise hit in the U.S. and Britain when it was first translated into English seven years ago.

Comment: Other films and novels hold a mirror up to the horrific times we live in. See also: Truth: The Enemy of the State

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Flashlight

A journalist's visit to Aleppo shows the destruction and danger that lurks around every corner courtesy of the US Empire


Sputnik
Tue, 16 Feb 2016 18:08 UTC
aleppo
© Sputnik/ Michael Alaeddin
View of Aleppo from the clock tower
A RIA Novosti correspondent visited the ancient streets of Aleppo and found out how dangerous it is to be close to the Aleppo citadel, the centerpiece of a UNESCO-recognized cultural heritage site.

Before entering the historic center the correspondent and his team were stopped by the police. The officer asked them if they were sure they wanted to go to the center and the market. He warned them that in some streets, the militants are only separated from the visitors by a metal shield or a building.

Aleppo
© SPUTNIK/ MICHAEL ALAEDDIN
Clock Tower in the Old Town of Aleppo
There are enemy snipers hiding between the buildings. In order to see the ancient castle, one has to go with a guide who is familiar with the safe streets in order to avoid the militants.

Aleppo is the largest and most populous city in Syria. Various powers have fought to control the city for thousands of years. "The pearl of the city has always been the citadel — a massive fortress built on a hill in the heart of Aleppo," the correspondent noted.
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Bulb

German media calls for Washington and Brussels to end the blame game against Russia and work with them


Sputnik
Tue, 16 Feb 2016 17:55 UTC
View of Kremlin from Moscvoretsky Bridge
© Sputnik/ Alexey Kudenko
View of the Kremlin from Moscvoretsky Bridge
Although the Kremlin is often held responsible for "everything that goes wrong" in Europe and beyond, the blaming of Russia has to stop, because the West needs to work with Moscow to tackle global security challenges, the German media outlets wrote in response to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's remarks at the Munich Security Conference.

Medvedev asserted that relations between Russia and the West, as well as NATO increasingly resemble a new Cold War. He also called for a closer dialogue on regional and global security at a time when many have tried to present Moscow as a security threat to its Western neighbors. Russian officials and experts have repeatedly said that these allegations have no merit.

"The Ukrainian conflict, the refugee crisis, Pegida: the Russian president is blamed for everything that goes wrong on the continent," Jakob Augstein wrote for Germany's Spiegel. Should this trend be reinforced, Vladimir Putin will be blamed for Angela Merkel's hairstyle in the near future, he observed.
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Question

Was Scalia murdered? Forget "conspiracy theory" - this is real

Jon Rappoport
Jon Rappoport's Blog
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 17:10 UTC
Antonin Scalia
© CNN
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who was found dead on Saturday, February 13, was one of the most influential conservative justices in history. He was 79.
Was Justice Scalia murdered? Forget "conspiracy theory." This is real.

Let's jump right in with quotes from the Washington Post, 2/15, Conspiracy theories swirl around the death of Antonin Scalia. The Post published extraordinary statements from the Facebook page of "William O. Ritchie, former head of criminal investigations for D.C. police":

"As a former homicide commander, I am stunned that no autopsy was ordered for Justice Scalia."

"You have a Supreme Court Justice who died, not in attendance of a physician. You have a non-homicide trained US Marshal tell the justice of peace that no foul play was observed. You have a justice of the peace pronounce death while not being on the scene and without any medical training opining that the justice died of a heart attack. What medical proof exists of a myocardial Infarction? Why not a cerebral hemorrhage?"

"How can the Marshal say, without a thorough post mortem, that he was not injected with an illegal substance that would simulate a heart attack..."

"Did the US Marshal check for petechial hemorrhage in his eyes or under his lips that would have suggested suffocation? Did the US Marshal smell his breath for any unusual odor that might suggest poisoning? My gut tells me there is something fishy going on in Texas."

Comment: Very suspicious that such a high-profile person as a Supreme Court Justice would not require an autopsy, apparent cause of death by "natural causes" or not.

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Heart - Black

UK social service cuts linked to largest increase in national death rate in decades


RT
Tue, 16 Feb 2016 15:23 UTC
austerity deaths UK
© Thomas Samson / AFP
Government cuts to social services could be killing large numbers of vulnerable people in England, a health journal has said, as new figures show 2015 saw the biggest increase in the national death rate for decades.

Preliminary figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicate mortality rates in 2015 rose by 5.4 percent on 2014 - an increase of nearly 27,000 deaths, bringing the total to 528,340.

Death rates in England and Wales had been falling since the 1970s, but this trend reversed in 2011 when mortality rates started rising.

Health advisers are now saying the rising death rate could be caused by cuts to vital social services. Oxford University Professor Danny Dorling, who is also an adviser to Public Health England, said the increase in deaths could be the biggest since World War II.

Comment:

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Document

Texas ranch owner recalls Antonin Scalia's last hours

John MacCormack
My San Antonio
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 15:20 UTC
Antonin Scalia
© Associated Press
A first-time guest to the Cibolo Creek Ranch, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was animated and engaged during dinner Friday night, as one of three dozen invitees to an event that had nothing to do with law or politics, according to the ranch owner.

Just hours later, he would be found dead of apparent natural causes, which media outlets were reporting Sunday was a heart attack. "He was seated near me and I had a chance to observe him. He was very entertaining. But about 9 p.m. he said, 'it's been a long day and a long week, I want to get some sleep," recalled Houston businessman John Poindexter, who owns the 30,000-acre luxury ranch.

When Poindexter tried to awaken Scalia about 8:30 the next morning, the judge's door was locked and he did not answer. Three hours later, Poindexter returned after an outing, with a friend of Scalia who had come from Washington with him.

"We discovered the judge in bed, a pillow over his head. His bed clothes were unwrinkled," said Poindexter. "He was lying very restfully. It looked like he had not quite awakened from a nap," he said. Scalia, 79, did not have a pulse and his body was cold, and after consulting with a doctor at a hospital in Alpine, Poindexter concluded resuscitation would have been futile.

He then contacted federal authorities, at first encountering a series of answering services because he was calling on a weekend. "Ultimately they became available and handled it superbly. They flew in by helicopter. They told me to secure the ranch, which I did until this morning," he said.

Comment: It's strange that a Supreme Court justice's death was reported as 'apparent natural cause' before an autopsy was performed (that we know of). Other than heart trouble, reported after the fact, where is the evidence that he died naturally?

See also:

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Bomb

Miss Australia's face blown up because police threw a flashbang grenade into her bed as she slept

Andrew Emett
Free Thought Project
Tue, 16 Feb 2016 13:51 UTC
miss australia
While sleeping in bed with her fiancé, a former Miss Australia awoke to a police flashbang grenade disfiguring her face and melting her hand. Although she required immediate medical attention, paramedics did not arrive at the scene until 40 minutes later.

Crowned Miss International Australia in 2013, Felicia Djamirze was asleep in bed with her fiancé, Dean O'Donnell last week, when a police flashbang grenade landed in their bedroom. Accused of drug trafficking, the former Miss Australia was placed under arrest as police waited 40 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. The cops refused to allow Djamirze to see her injuries even though she suffered third-degree burns to her face and right hand.

During a series of early morning drug raids, Queensland Police callously decided to toss a flashbang grenade into the bedroom of alleged Rebels biker associate Dean O'Donnell. Despite the fact that the police had been conducting surveillance on the house, the cops chose to throw the flashbang into the room while O'Donnell was asleep with his fiancée.
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Attention

No answer for loud explosion reported across multiple counties in Georgia

Nick Watson
Gainesville Times
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 18:07 UTC
North Georgia residents across multiple counties reported noise

Mystery boom
If you heard a strange noise Sunday night, you're not alone.

Residents across North Georgia are trying to figure out what happened around 6:30 p.m. Sunday that sounded like an explosion.

"In regards to an earlier post about a loud explosion last night, we will continue to attempt to locate the source of the noise," according to a post on the Banks County Sheriff's Office Facebook page. "No injuries or damage have been reported. People in Hall, Habersham, Jackson and Madison (counties) also have reported hearing the noise. We will provide the public with an answer, if we get one."

The Sheriff's Office asked anyone with information to contact the department at 706-677-2248.

Gainesville Police Sgt. Kevin Holbrook said people had posted to the department's social media accounts about the noise, but he didn't receive any information.

"We have had several inquiries about the same but received no calls into our 911 center," Hall County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Deputy Nicole Bailes wrote in an email.

Mitchell Mintz said he was at a residence a few miles from Lula when he thought a thunderstorm passed through.

"I was sitting in the bedroom watching TV and we heard this loud, thunder-like noise," he said. "It was really loud and echoed for maybe like five seconds and then it stopped."

Mintz checked for weather information, thinking it was a storm, saying the noise sounded like it was coming from the Gainesville area. He then posted it on Facebook to see if anyone else had heard it.

"I got like 40 comments with people saying about the same thing," Mintz said.
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Eye 1

Modus operandi of COINTELPRO: Disinformation up close and personal

Milicent Cranor
WhoWhatWhy
Thu, 11 Feb 2016 00:00 UTC
Trolls fighting
This is Part 3 of our three-part series on the techniques of trolls. The first two installments were concerned mostly with sabotage and disinformation on the Internet. They were posted anonymously some time ago. The first two appear to have been written by a professional troll for the "benefit" of less experienced trolls on how to prevent the sharing of inconvenient facts on political forums.

As we pointed out in Part 1, we would normally not publish such material because we cannot verify any of it. Yet, we feel we have actually witnessed these maneuvers on Internet forums.

Part 3 goes back in time to those days when activists unwittingly came face-to-face with infiltrators.

We cannot know for sure, but the anonymous author of Part 3 appears to have had first-hand experience with the FBI's Counterintelligence Program — also known as "COINTELPRO" — that tormented the anti-war movements of the 1960s and 1970s

Comment: See parts one and two of this excellent series:

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