Recently I interviewed Rob Richardson from Off Grid Survival. One of the main topics we explored was the out-of-control police state in this country and the impact it is having on our neighborhoods and psyche. In doing the research for that interview I came across several very disturbing articles regarding SWAT attacks perpetrated against citizens. Most of the situations did not call for a SWAT attack. Believe it or not a lot of the alarms were sounded by disgruntled gamers! Yes, one person sitting at home playing a video game and calling the police, telling them a story that may or may not be true and the police's response is to send out a SWAT team to investigate!

It appears the police officers in this country should be held up as the reason for gun control. On the one hand we have Moms demanding gun control like it's the ordinary law abiding citizen that is the problem when they should be, in fact, looking at the local police department and demanding action. The police, as the awake and aware have known for some time, are completely out of control. No need to revisit any of the recent high-profile murders at the hands of the local police. Instead lets review what other criminal, murderous activities the gangs in blue have been conducting.

Translator's note: The columnist leaves the letter-writer anonymous, for obvious reasons, and thus gives us the point of view that any one of the thousands of men aged 25 to 60 might have, who have been given their notification. The jail time prescribed for draft-evasion is five years. On January 24, 2015, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry revealed that 7,500 were facing criminal charges. The author might be one of them -- if they caught him.

I'm just an ordinary Kievan. No draft dodger, and I'm no fan of Putin. A call has come from the War Commissariat. Here is a simple question for the president of Ukraine:

Why should I go to war?
Have we declared war?
No.
Are we at war with Russia?
No.

Are we in an undeclared war with Russia? But then, why are Poroshenko and Putin shaking hands? That is, between the two, all is super, but I, I should sort out it with the separatists, about who gets to come back home, and who doesn't?

Maybe it's a civil war? But then, why is there no declaration? Why no state of war? No state of emergency? Is it because then the IMF wouldn't give any loans?

Well screw this! What is it to me if the loans come in or not? 90% of them will just go to cover the interest on loans already taken. As far as I'm concerned, screw it! Maybe they'll use the loans to buy natural gas? No. Meaning my family is going to freeze this winter while I have to go fight?

Kandhar: Staff at a branch of Afghanistan's central bank in southern Kandahar province may have got away with as much as 81 million Afghanis ($1.4 million) when they robbed their own bank and ran, an official said on Saturday.

Security cameras showed the bank's vault had been cleaned out, but investigators were waiting to gain access before confirming the total missing, he said.

"Yesterday we could only open one of the treasury's doors. We hope to open the next one today," the central bank director for Afghanistan's southwestern region, Fazel Ahmad Azimi, said.

Weak regulation undermines confidence in Afghanistan's fragile banking system, which has yet to fully recover from a 2010 scandal over a bank that collapsed triggering a financial crisis.

An international financial watchdog last year threatened to place Afghanistan on a blacklist and has since warned it needs to do more to enforce laws to regulate its banking sector.

The Kandahar raid is believed to have been carried out by a senior official at the bank, an employee of nine years, with the help of his son and brother-in-law who were also on staff, according to Azimi.

The robbery at the branch in Spin Boldak near the border with Pakistan was discovered on Thursday and investigators believed the group has escaped to Pakistan.

The group had removed CCTV recordings before fleeing to Pakistan, Azimi said, but investigators were hopeful that footage might be recovered from the memory chip of the security cameras.

Source: Reuters

"The fliers touted new ballfields, science labs and modern classrooms. They didn't mention the crushing debt or the investment bank that stood to make millions.
— Melody Peterson, Orange County Register, February 15, 2013

Remember when Goldman Sachs - dubbed by Matt Taibbi the Vampire Squid - sold derivatives to Greece so the government could conceal its debt, then bet against that debt, driving it up? It seems that the ubiquitous investment bank has also put the squeeze on California and its school districts. Not that Goldman was alone in this; but the unscrupulous practices of the bank once called the undisputed king of the municipal bond business epitomize the culture of greed that has ensnared students and future generations in unrepayable debt.

In 2008, after collecting millions of dollars in fees to help California sell its bonds, Goldman urged its bigger clients to place investment bets against those bonds, in order to profit from a financial crisis that was sparked in the first place by irresponsible Wall Street speculation. Alarmed California officials warned that these short sales would jeopardize the state's bond rating and drive up interest rates. But that result also served Goldman, which had sold credit default swaps on the bonds, since the price of the swaps rose along with the risk of default.

Belgian weekly Le Vif spoke with Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica who said that the Ukrainian conflict was staged by the United States and it reminds him of the war in his native Bosnia.

On the occasion of the release of his new collection of short films, Emir Kusturica, a celebrated Serbian filmmaker internationally recognized for a number of acclaimed films, spoke with Belgian weekly Le Vif about the situation in Ukraine, which reminds him of the wars in the former Yugoslavia.

Kusturica blamed the United States for not only breaking the promise given to Mikhail Gorbachev about not expanding NATO to Eastern Europe, but also for staging the conflict in Ukraine by helping to start demonstrations on the Maidan Square. Kusturica said the beginning of the Ukrainian conflict was similar to the start of the Bosnian War, which started in Kusturica's hometown of Sarajevo. In Kiev, demonstrations turned violent when snipers started shooting at the crowd. Initially, the government of Viktor Yanukovych was blamed for shooting at the crowd; however, soon the story became murky, after reports appeared that foreign mercenaries may have been hired to shoot at the crowd on the Maidan. Similar events took place in Bosnia: unknown snipers killed several protesters and everyone accused the Serbs, but in the end nobody really knew who had sent the snipers, Kusturica said.

A massive blaze has engulfed the 'Marina Torch' skyscraper in Dubai, forcing hundreds of people to flee the 336-meter-high tower - one of the tallest residential buildings in the world. It took firefighters over two hours to bring the fire under control.

The fire initially started in the middle of the tower, rapidly spreading across some 15 floors, intensifying and reigniting with each gust of wind, according to photos and videos from the scene.

This week Harrison Koehli and fellow Sott.net editors talked about the growing poverty and homelessness in America, dispelling many of the myths, biases and stereotypes of the homeless population. We discussed how the structure of our society contributes to people finding themselves homeless and how many state and local governments are criminalizing the homeless as well as those who are attempting to help. We also explored some creative solutions that individuals and some cities have enacted to shelter the homeless, and what we might do to help those in need.

Running Time: 01:14:00

Download: MP3

If you take a look through history, you'll see the rise and fall of numerous civilizations. Many armchair historians are quick to point to these examples, and say their decline was caused by drought, or war, or economic collapse. But the truth is, it's never just one disaster that causes their collapse. It's often a series of problems that compound and feed each other, begetting more calamities until the system buckles.

It's easy to notice these sorts of conditions being inflicted on America today, but I think the best example in the Western Hemisphere is probably Brazil. Right now they're going through one of the worst droughts in history, and if current rates of consumption continue, cities like Sao Paulo may be out of water in 4-6 months. After three straight years of drought, there's even talk of rationing the water to such an extreme degree, that they'll have to shut off the municipal supply to the public for 5 days a week.

The death toll from the current Ebola outbreak has reached 9,442. As many as 23,371 are infected, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement on Friday.

These cases were reported from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. In line with statistics, the maximum number of Ebola-related deaths and cases has been registered in Liberia — 3,947 cumulative deaths and 9,096 cumulative cases. Liberia is followed by Sierra Leone (3,423 deaths and 11,155 cases) and Guinea (2,072 deaths and 3,120 cases).

The number of Ebola deaths in these three countries rose by 189 and the number of cases rose by 372 since February 13.

Separate cases have also been registered in Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Spain, Great Britain and the United States. In most of these countries the number of Ebola-related cases does not exceed ten, with the only exception of Nigeria, where 20 people are infected by Ebola virus and eight have died.

The World Health Organization describes Ebola virus disease (formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever) as "a severe, often fatal illness, with a case fatality rate of up to 90%." Symptoms include sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. The infection is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected animals or people. People are infectious as long as their blood and secretions contain the virus. The incubation period is 2 to 21 days. There is no known cure or vaccine for the disease. The only treatment offered is "supportive intensive care."

© ViceJosephat Torner is an albino rights activist in Tanzania and has been attacked for speaking out against the brutal murder of other albinos in his country.

A one-year-old albino boy, abducted from his home in northwestern Tanzania over the weekend, was found murdered on Tuesday with his "arms and legs hacked off," according to the local police chief. This gruesome discovery shows that despite new laws banning the witch doctors who prey upon them, people with albinism are still vulnerable in the East African nation.

In Tanzania the body parts of albinos are prized by witch doctors and their superstitious followers as they are said to bring wealth and luck when used in charms. A complete set of body parts can be sold for as much as $75,000, according to the Red Cross.


This victim, Yohana Bahati, was kidnapped from his family home in the Geita region by an armed gang. Police said his mother, Esther, was struck with a machete as she tried to protect him.

"Unfortunately this family resides in a protected forest area," Joseph Konyo, the regional police commander, told Reuters. "It was extremely difficult for the police to immediately arrest the suspected robbers." Two other albino children who were in the house were not taken.


Yohana's mutilated body was discovered a few miles from his home, according to the BBC.

Fueled by superstition, people are violently attacking albinos in Tanzania.

Albinism, a hereditary condition that prevents people from producing pigment in their skin, hair, and eyes, is much more common in parts of Africa than the rest of the world. While an estimated one in 20,000 people are affected globally, this figure rises to one in every 1,400 Tanzanians.

Abductions and killings have become common in Tanzania — over 72 albinos have been murdered in the country since 2000. And the practice is showing no signs of stopping.

VICE News recently traveled to Tanzania to meet with Josephat Torner, an activist fighting for the rights and safety of albinos in his country.