The surging dollar is a signal that a colossal financial event is just around the corner

 

Mike Bird

Mar. 13, 2015, 10:26 AM

The dollar is set for its strongest quarterly strengthening since 1992, according to Bank of America, a good sign that a rate hike is around the corner.


When markets expect that US interest rates will be hiked, it typically strengthens the dollar. That's because people rush to change other currencies into dollars — they can make more money in dollar-denominated investments. The higher demand for the US currency drives its value up.
In the past, significant dollar gains against other currencies have pretty much happened only during periods of extreme financial or geopolitical distress.


The last four large dollar shocks in the past 45 years have been symptoms of huge financial events: the collapse of Lehman, Britain's panicky ejection from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) in 1992, the first Gulf War, and Paul Volcker's shock rate hikes in the early 1980s.
Today's surge is already considerably larger than the one that surrounded Lehman's collapse, although the economic conditions are very different.


Here's how it looks in historical context:





Bank of America Merrill Lynch


Here's a snippet from BAML's researchers:

In our view, another concern is that the move in the US dollar reflects a dislocation within the financial system. Capital flight to the US is a symptom of systemic risk in financial markets. Certainly dollar shocks in the past have been associated with major market events as shown in detail on Chart 8 (1981 Volker shock, 1992 ERM crisis, Lehman in 2008 and so on).

And yet despite the strength of the dollar move, apart from a few CDS events in EM, there is little sign from the components of our Global Financial Stress Index that systemic risks are surging. Most of the components are less stressed than normal.

Once again, the missing ingredient is a “rates shock”. 

The conditions in global markets right now are a historical anomaly. Rates around the world have been cut 558 times since the collapse of Lehman, according to BAML. So even a small, steady series of interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve is a colossal change in the global financial system — one that's sending the dollar through the roof.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/strong-dollar-is-a-signal-of-a-major-market-event-rate-hike-2015-3#ixzz3UVvxTFsa

McCain, Obama, CIA and your extorted tax dollars at work

ISIS - COMPLIATION OF CURRENT REPORTS

AMERICA - YOU HAVE MCCAIN, OBAMA'S CONTACTS, THE CIA AND YOUR EXTORTED 'TAX DOLLARS' TO THANK FOR ISIS

ISIS Vows to Bomb 'White House, Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower'

Adnani said ISIS wanted control of numerous cities across the globe, including Jerusalem, Kabul, Rome, and Paris.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/ISIS-bomb-White-House-Big-Ben/2015/03/13/id/630122/?ns_mail_uid=80684909&ns_mail_job=1613128_03142015&s=al&dkt_nbr=w2eythng

 

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Defense Sec. Carter: ISIS Terror Threat 'Metastasizing' 

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/ashton-carter-isis-threat-growing/2015/03/11/id/629658/

 

 

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Pledges of allegiance to ISIS from multiple foreign countries across the globe continue to grow rapidly.

 

 

Islamic State builds on al-Qaeda lands

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-31064300

 

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Report: New ISIS Recruits Replace Ones Killed by US Bombs 

U.S. officials said about 4,000 foreign radicals have joined the conflict since the allied airstrikes began — nearly as many combatants as coalition forces claimed to have killed.

 

http://www.newsmax.com/World/GlobalTalk/ISIS-Islamic-State-recruits-bombs/2015/02/05/id/623050/

 

 

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A very powerful 2 minute French video aimed at young people---but will it make a difference?

Shocking French Video Aims to Stop ISIS Seduction of Young People

  

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/French-video-ISIS-citizens/2015/01/30/id/621831/    

 

The CIA and America’s presidents

Many people still think of the CIA as an agency designed to help American presidents make informed decisions about matters outside the United States. That was the basis for President Truman’s signing the legislation which created the agency, and indeed it does serve that role, generally rather inadequately, but it has become something far beyond that.

Information is certainly not something to which any reasonable person objects, but the CIA has two houses under its roof, and it is the operational side of the CIA which gives it a world-wide bad reputation. The scope of undercover operations has evolved to make the CIA into a kind of civilian army, one involving great secrecy, little accountability, and huge budgets – altogether a dangerous development indeed for any country which regards itself as a democracy and whose military is forbidden political activity. After all, the CIA’s secret operational army in practice is not curtailed by restrictions around politics, many of its tasks having been quite openly political. Yes, its charter forbids operations in the United States, but those restrictions have been ignored or bent countless times both in secret programs like Echelon (monitoring telephone communications by five English-speaking allies who then share the information obtained, a forerunner to the NSA’s recently-revealed collection of computer data) and years of mail-opening inside the United States or using substitutes to go around the rule, as was likely the case with the many Mossad agents trailing the eventual perpetrators of 9/11 inside the United States before the event.
As with all large, powerful institutions over time, the CIA constantly seeks expansion of its means and responsibilities, much like a growing child wanting ever more food and clothing and entertainment. This inherent tendency, the expansion of institutional empire, is difficult enough to control under normal circumstances, but when there are complex operations in many countries and tens of billions in spending and many levels of secrecy and secret multi-level files, the ability of any elected politicians – whose keenest attention is always directed towards re-election and acquiring enough funds to run a campaign – to exercise meaningful control and supervision becomes problematic at best. The larger and more complex the institution becomes, the truer this is.
Under Eisenhower, the CIA’s operational role first came to considerable prominence, which is hardly surprising considering Eisenhower was a former Supreme Commander in the military, the military having used many dark operations during WWII, operations still classified in some cases. In his farewell address, it is true, Eisenhower gave Americans a dark warning about the “military-industrial complex,” but as President he used CIA dark operations extensively, largely to protect American corporate interests in various parts of the world – everything from oil interests to banana monopolies in Central America.  Perhaps, he viewed the approach as less destructive or dangerous or likely to tarnish America’s post-WWII reputation than “sending in the Marines,” America’s traditional gang of paid-muscle for such tasks, but, over the long term, he was wrong, and his extensive use of CIA operations would prove highly destructive and not just tarnish America’s image but totally shatter it. It set in motion a number of developments and problems which haunt America to this day.
In the 1950s, the CIA was involved in a number of operations whose success bred hubris and professional contempt for those not part of its secret cult, an attitude not unlike that of members of an elite fraternity or secret society at university. The toppling of disliked but democratic governments in Guatemala and Iran and other operations had, by about the time of President Kennedy’s coming to power in 1960, bred an arrogant and unwarranted belief in its ability to do almost anything it felt was needed. The case of Cuba became a watershed for the CIA and its relationship with Presidents of the United States, President Eisenhower and his CIA having come to believe that Castro, widely regarded by the public as a heroic figure at the time, had turned dangerous to American corporate and overseas interests and needed to be removed. Fairly elaborate preparations for doing so were put into place, and parts of the southern United States became large secret training grounds for would-be terrorists selected from the anti-Castro exile community by CIA officers in charge of a project which dwarfed Osama bin Laden’s later camp in the mountains of Afghanistan.
A just-elected President Kennedy was faced with a momentous decision: whether to permit and support the invasion of neighboring Cuba, great effort and expense having gone into the scheme. Kennedy supported it with limited reservations, reservations which became the source of the deepest resentment by the old boys at the CIA looking for someone to blame for the invasion’s embarrassing public failure. The truth is the CIA’s plans were ill-considered from the beginning, the product of those arrogant attitudes bred from “successes” such as Guatemala. Cuba was not Guatemala, it had a far larger population, fewer discontented elements to exploit, a cohort of soldiers freshly-experienced from the revolution against former dictator Batista, and Castro was widely regarded as a national hero. The Bay of Pigs invasion never had a chance of success, and the very fact that the CIA put so many resources into it and pressured the President to have it done shows how badly it had lost its way by that time.
That failure of the invasion, a highly public failure, created a serious rift between the President and the CIA. When the President, in an unprecedented act, fired three senior CIA figures, holding them responsible for the fiasco, we can only imagine the words which echoed in the halls of Langley. CIA plots against Castro nevertheless carried right on. America was an intensely hostile place on the matter of communism at that time, its press continuously beating the drums, and no President could afford politically to appear even slightly indifferent. Kennedy himself was not quite the peace-loving figure some of his later admirers would hold him to be. He was a work in progress, and he gave speeches often colored by strident martinet and jingo phrases. Secret attempts were made to assassinate Castro, and the Kennedys, at that time, undoubtedly would have been pleased had they succeeded.
Again, in some these attempts, the CIA went to great and genuinely weird lengths, including an arrangement with Mafia figures, something the public did not know until the 1975 Church Committee looking into illegality in CIA operations. Rumors and threats of another invasion, likely often fed by the CIA itself as psychological warfare against Cuba, led to the confrontation known as the Cuban Missile Crisis in late 1962. Here, more than ever, the President was ill-served by the CIA and the Pentagon. They wanted an immediate invasion of Cuba when U2 spy cameras detected what appeared to be missile installations under construction, utterly unaware that Russia already had battlefield-ready tactical nuclear weapons mounted on short-range missiles ready to repel an invasion.
The 1975 Church Senate Committee looking into earlier illegality came into being because a number of sources were suggesting the CIA had been engaged in assassination and other dark practices, matters which at that time quite upset the general public and some decent politicians. The names in rumors included Lumumba of Congo, Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, Diem of Vietnam, Schneider of Chile, and others, but since only part of the Church Report was released we cannot know the full extent of what had been going on. Another possible name is Dag Hammarskjöld of the UN.  It is perhaps a key measure of how far things have deteriorated with the CIA that the Church Committee today appears almost naïve. Following the committee’s report, President Ford issued an Executive Order banning assassinations. This was replaced just a few years later by an Executive Order of Ronald Reagan’s, Reagan being a great fan of dark operations, having appointed one of the more dangerous men ever to hold the title of CIA Director, William Casey.
The CIA, of course, now runs a regular assassination air force which has killed thousands of innocent people apart from the intended targets, themselves individuals proved guilty of nothing under law. The CIA today thinks nothing of using mass killing to reach desired goals, the Maidan shootings of innocent people demonstrating in Kiev being an outstanding example, shootings which precipitated a coup last year in Ukraine against an elected government. And then there are the trained and armed maniacs which were set loose upon the people of Syria to do pretty much whatever they pleased.
Kennedy managed to resist demands for invasion in 1962, perhaps his one great achievement as President, and he took another path which eventually led to an agreement with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. That agreement, which included America’s pledge not to invade Cuba, made Kennedy a marked man. He was hated by the fanatical and well-armed Cuban émigré community, and he was hated by all the men who had devoted a fair part of their lives to eliminating Castro, the émigrés’ recruiters, trainers, handlers, and suppliers – members all of the CIA country club set whose commie-hatred was so intense it could make the veins in their foreheads pop. Some at the CIA were undoubtedly even further irked by backchannel communications which opened up between Kennedy and Khrushchev, and tentative efforts to open something of that nature with Castro. They weren’t supposed to know about these efforts, but they almost certainly did.
It is difficult today for people to grasp the intensity of anti-communist and anti-Castro feelings that pervaded America’s establishment in 1963, more resembling a religious hysteria than political views. One thing is absolutely clear, Kennedy’s assassination was about Cuba, and it was conceived out of a simmering conviction that Kennedy literally was not fit to be President. No important person who ever expressed a quiet opinion on the matter – including Mrs. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and some members of the Warren Commission – ever believed the fantasy story fashioned by the Warren Commission. Neither did informed observers abroad – the Russian and French governments for example later expressed their views – as well as a great many ordinary Americans.
Other facts about Kennedy undoubtedly added to the volatile reactions of the plotters, facts not known by the public until decades later, one fact in particular was his relatively long and intense affair with Mary Pinchot Meyer, a highly intelligent woman, socialite, and former wife of a senior CIA agent, Cord Meyer, who for a time ran Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Kennedy and Mary Meyer are said to have had long talks about world affairs and prospects for peace, and she also is said to have introduced Kennedy to marijuana and LSD, he, given his chronic back pain, willing to try almost anything. She kept a diary which was known to the CIA’s James Angleton because he was discovered searching for it after her mysterious, professional hit-style murder in 1964 (small calibre bullet by a gun held to the head). One can only imagine the raised eyebrows of CIA officials when they learned about drugs and Mary’s influence on Kennedy (could some of their numerous meetings possibly not have been bugged?). Double betrayal over Cuba, backchannel communications with Russia, and drugs and sex with an artistic, intellectual type – those surely would have made the men who decided the fates of leaders in much lesser places extremely uneasy about the future.
My focus is not the assassination, but I’ve gone into some length because I believe it was a defining event in relations between future Presidents and the CIA. After this, every President would work under its rather frightening shadow.
Lyndon Johnson was ready from day one to give the CIA anything it wanted. Whether Johnson was involved in the assassination as some plausibly believe, or whether he was just intimidated by those involved – after all, like all bullies, Johnson was at heart a coward as he demonstrated numerous times. He wasn’t long in launching the most vicious and pointless war since World War II with the cheap trick of a story about an attack upon American ships. The CIA got right into the fun in 1965 with its Operation Phoenix, which over some years involved tens of thousands of silent assassinations of village leaders and others by night-crawling Special Forces soldiers guided to their targets by CIA agents.
Like all the CIA’s more lunatic operations – this one just kept running until at least 1972 – chalking up a toll of murders estimated as high as 40,000 and proving a complete failure in its goal of securing America’s artificial rump-state of South Vietnam. It was madness to be involved in Vietnam, and it proved in the end infinitely more embarrassing and destructive to America’s morale and reputation than the Bay of Pigs invasion, but then more a few people who knew and worked with Johnson have said that he was pretty much mad himself. The CIA fed Johnson the kind of things he wanted to hear, but the War in Vietnam was always characterized by poor intelligence, and when the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese launched the huge, surprise of the Tet Offensive in early 1968, Washington was hit by an earthquake, and a lot of people suddenly understood Vietnam was a lost cause. Johnson, always the coward, his party starting to split into factions over the matter, announced his resignation not long after.
Of course, the truth is that the information side of the CIA’s house has never been very good at its work. Apart from the abject failures of Vietnam, the CIA is said to have never once got the most critical assessments of the Cold War era, those of the Soviet Union’s economic and military strength, anywhere close to accurate. There were many reasons for that, but the perceived need to exaggerate your enemy’s strength to inflate the size of CIA budgets was an important one. Whether Big Intelligence ever really works in obtaining reliable information and reliable information which will be used by politicians is certainly a topic open for discussion. The most successful information-gathering intelligence service of the early Cold War, the KGB, often had its sometimes remarkable material questioned or cast aside by Stalin.
Richard Nixon’s demise in the Watergate scandal likely was served up by CIA dirty tricks. The Watergate break-in was in mid-1972, although it took more than two years before Nixon resigned. Some of the old CIA hands who worked for Nixon’s secret “plumber’s unit,” a private operations group which did jobs like breaking in to the Watergate Hotel offices of the Democrats, had a history going back to the assassination. They undoubtedly kept Langley informed of what steps they were being ordered to take. Nixon was a problem for some of the CIA’s darkest secrets: he was jealous and bitter towards the Kennedys for beating him in the 1960 election (he also knew election fraud was used), and he had an obsessive curiosity about the assassination, having made a number of attempts to ascertain just what happened for which he was rebuffed.
A possible second reason for the CIA’s wanting to dump Nixon was the deteriorated situation in Vietnam. The Paris Peace Accords were signed early in 1973, however there is evidence that Nixon and Kissinger actually put forward their proposals in the hope that they would be rejected and Congress then would allow them a free hand in seeking a clearer victory. But by that time even the CIA recognized the war in Vietnam could not be won by conventional means and that the interests of the United States were being damaged by its continuation. Despite press blurbs about peace, Nixon always desperately wanted to triumph in Vietnam, having gone so far in secret as to discuss the possibility of using nuclear weapons on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Despite various speculations, we have never learned just what Nixon’s burglars were after at the Watergate, and the reason for that may just well be the CIA’s having baited him with false information about what might be discovered there. The job very likely was deliberately sabotaged when old CIA hands do things like sloppy door-taping. The neat little trick alerted a security guard and led to the whole long Watergate Affair and Nixon’s eventual resignation, just the kind of neat outcome operations-types love to chuckle over at expense account lunches.
George H. W. Bush, the man for whom the Langley headquarters is named was more than a short-term appointed CIA Director. He had a long but never acknowledged background in CIA, a fact which has come to light from a few references in obscure documents obtained by assassination researchers over decades. He almost certainly was involved with the operations against Castro before the assassination. He was likely America’s first official CIA President. One of the regular activities of the CIA abroad is to pay secret pensions to likely future leaders in select countries so that they will be both beholden and in a position to be compromised. They do this in dozens of significant countries as part of an effort to control future relations with America. So why not take a similar approach to leadership inside the United States? The first clear example was George H. W. Bush whose single term as President gave the CIA several schemes abroad dear to their hearts, including setting up Saddam Hussein for invasion after his foolish invasion of Kuwait (done following the seeming approval of the United States’ ambassador to Iraq), and the invasion of Panama in 1989. Panama’s General Noriega had apparently done the unforgivable thing of setting up “honey traps” in which American diplomats and CIA officials were photographed having sex, giving Noriega a powerful weapon against Washington’s interference. So he was set up on drug charges – which may or may not have been true, but they were not the business of American justice – other provocations were arranged like a silly stunt about an American sailor being beaten up, and Noriega’s country promptly was invaded.
Of course, George W. Bush was not CIA, lacking the fundamental requirement of a decent brain. But his presidency was effectively America’s first dual presidency, with Dick Cheney serving as senior partner despite his lesser title, and Dick Cheney was CIA-connected, having served as Secretary of Defense under George Bush’s father, overseen such operations as Desert Storm, and after George H. W.’s election defeat, serving as Chairman and CEO of Halliburton, a gigantic oil services company which operates all over the globe. Such companies – in much the same fashion as large American news organizations such as Time-Life, CBS, or The New York Times – notoriously are well connected with the CIA. Because companies like Halliburton operate in scores of countries, deal with strategic resources, travel to remote sites, and often have access to important figures, they provide perfect cover for CIA agents and other intelligence assets. The Bush-Cheney period was certainly a golden one for the CIA in terms of institutional growth and new projects. Many ugly projects now making our world a less secure place were started in this period.
The CIA now is so firmly entrenched and so immensely well financed – much of it off the books, including everything from secret budget items to peddling drugs and weapons – that it is all but impossible for a president to oppose it the way Kennedy did. Obama, who has proved himself a fairly weak character from the start, certainly has given the CIA anything it wants. The dirty business of ISIS in Syria and Iraq is one project. The coup in Ukraine is another. The pushing of NATO’s face right against Russia’s borders is still another. Several attempted coups in Venezuela are still more. And the creation of a drone air force for extrajudicial killing in half a dozen countries is yet another. They don’t resemble projects we would expect from a smiley-faced, intelligent man who sometimes wore sandals and refused to wear a flag pin on his lapel during his first election campaign.
More than one observer has speculated about Obama’s being CIA, and there are significant holes in his resume which could be accounted for by his involvement. He would have been an attractive candidate for several reasons. Obama is bright, and the CIA employs few blacks in its important jobs. He also might have been viewed as a good political prospect for the future in just the way foreign politicians are selected for secret pensions. After all, before he was elected, there were stories about people meeting this smart and (superficially) charming man and remarking that they may just have met a future president.
If Obama is not actually CIA, then he is so intimidated that he pretty much rubber stamps their projects. A young, inexperienced President must always be mindful of that other young President whose head was half blown off in the streets of Dallas. Moreover, there are some shady areas in Obama’s background around drugs and perhaps other matters which could be politically compromising. The CIA is perfectly capable of using anything of that nature for political exposure while making it look as though it came from elsewhere.
So, when people write of America’s secret government or of its government within the government, it is far more than an exaggeration. It is actually hard to imagine now any possibility of someone’s being elected President and opposing what the CIA recommends, the presidency having come to resemble in more than superficial ways the Monarchy in Britain. The Queen is kept informed of what Her government is doing, but can do nothing herself to change directions. Yes, the President still has the power on paper to oppose any scheme, and then so does the Queen simply by refusing her signature, but she likely could exercise that power just once. In her case the consequence would be an abrupt end to the Monarchy. In a President’s case, it would be either a Nixonian or Kennedyesque end.
Source: John Chuckman, Counterpunch, 13-15 March 2015

VLADIMIR PUTIN MISSING – Situation Getting More Strange. Possible Build up to WW3?

Sunday, March 15, 2015 5:11

(Before It's News)
VLADIMIR PUTIN MISSING – Situation Getting More Strange. Possible Build up to WW3?
Eastern Europe, here comes the cavalry.
The U.S. Army says it will soon be sending armored Stryker vehicles on a 1,100-mile convoy through six European countries to show solidarity to allies in the wake of recent Russian actions in the Ukraine and Crimea that have Eastern Europe on edge.
The move was first reported Thursday in the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. U.S. Army Europe posted the Stripes story on its website on Friday.
The convoy is “a highly visible demonstration of U.S, commitment to its NATO allies and demonstrating NATO’s ability to move military forces freely across allied borders in close cooperation,” U.S. Army Europe spokesman Lt. Col. Craig Childs, said in a statement, according to the Stripes report. Russian heavy bomber aircraft flew more patrols outside Russian airspace “than in any year since the Cold War,” though he did not offer a specific number. There have also been increased Russian air patrols across the coastlines of Europe. Kremlin: Huge Announcement Coming – Russian Embassy Personnel In London Depart – Unmarked White Trucks Flood Moscow’s Red Square – Mysterious Construction – Putin Death Rumors Go Viral Across World
Read Full Article

The post VLADIMIR PUTIN MISSING – Situation Getting More Strange. Possible Build up to WW3? appeared first on .

Putin deposed in Russian coup?, Israeli former ambassador to Russia signs of coup, Stroke health issues dead?, Security chief general Viktor Zolotov killed?, Putin not seen in public in 10 days

                                              

Putin deposed in Russian coup?, Israeli former ambassador to Russia signs of coup, Stroke health issues dead?, Security chief general Viktor Zolotov killed?, Putin not seen in public in 10 days

Sunday, March 15, 2015 12:25

(Before It's News) Putin deposed in Russian coup?, Israeli former ambassador to Russia signs of coup, Stroke health issues dead?, Security chief general Viktor Zolotov killed?, Putin not seen in public in 10 days
From Haaretz March 15, 2015.
“Israel’s former ambassador to Russia: ‘There are signs of a coup’
Zvi Magen believes army factions or wealthy businessmen could be behind President Vladimir Putin’s disappearance.”
“Russian President Vladimir Putin was last seen in public on March 5, and in Russia there are increased fears he is the victim of an attempted coup by security organizations and the Russian army.
Israel’s former ambassador to Russia, Zvi Magen, told Haaretz he believes “there are many signs of a coup. The movement of the army around the Kremlin indicates that there is a change in government, or that an attempt at a change in government is being carried out"

Magen believes those responsible for the potential coup are “branches or factions in the army who are working together or against one another, or wealthy businessmen, many of whom worked in these organizations. They could only be people who are free to walk around the corridors of the Kremlin.”
He says possible reasons include the ongoing sanctions imposed by the West on those close to the Kremlin, sanctions “that harm them personally. I don’t believe there’s a controversy there surrounding policy. They’re protecting their own interests.””
Read more:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/.premium-1.647001
From the Russian Monitor March 11, 2015.
(translated into English)
“Putin stroke?”
“Mail “Russian Monitor” received a letter signed by an anonymous employee of the Central Clinical Hospital of President Administration (CDB) in Moscow, in which he reported that the staff of this elite Moscow hospital to which “attributed to” the top management of the Russian Federation, circulate rumors that Vladimir Putin a few days ago was diagnosed with ischemic stroke. The source said that directly to the CDB President not hospitalized.”
http://rusmonitor.com/u-putina-insult.html
From Radio Free Europe March 15, 2015.
“News Analysis: Three Scenarios For A Succession In Russia”
“For a decade and a half, Vladimir Putin has sat at the top of a closed, hierarchical, and personality-based political system that allows for no competition.
As a result, opinion polls in Russia routinely show the public sees “no alternative” to Putin’s leadership.
So what would happen in Russia if Putin suddenly and without warning left the political stage? Over the last few days, we have seen the anxiety that even the rumor of such an event can produce in Russia and around the world. If Putin is the guarantor of stability in Russia, then does a scenario without Putin automatically imply instability — even violent instability?”
“The Constitutional Scenario”
“So if Putin unexpectedly left the scene and the constitution were followed to the letter, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev would return to the Kremlin and a competitive election would take place in three months.”
“The Consensus Scenario
Of course, such a smooth and legal transition of power is unlikely in Russia.
In Soviet times, political heavyweights wrestled behind the scenes until a successor emerged through some unfathomable communist alchemy.
More recently, when President Boris Yeltsin decided to retire, political insiders reached a consensus and produced the unimaginable candidacy of Vladimir Putin as his successor. They then used a combination of their financial, administrative, and media resources to get him elected.”
“The Conflict Scenario
But what if consensus can’t be reached?
Under Putin, the political system has become more personalized and centered around the president himself, who has balanced conflicting parties. And he has almost certainly stifled all discussion of what could or should happen in a post-Putin era.
But the divisions in Putin’s inner circle, always latent, have become more manifest with the Ukraine crisis and have intensified since the February 27 assassination of opposition figure Boris Nemtsov.
“Now the conflict between the clans has become very seriously intense,” says journalist and analyst Raf Shakirov. “It is obvious that different groups are pushing for different paths.”
The main fault line, he says, is between “hawks” who have become ascendant due to the Ukraine crisis and Russia’s showdown with the West and a “liberal group” responsible for the economy who would prefer a thaw at home and a rapprochement abroad.”
Read more:
http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-succession-scenarios/26899859.html



Source: https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/putin-deposed-in-russian-coup-israeli-former-ambassador-to-russia-signs-of-coup-stroke-health-issues-dead-security-chief-general-viktor-zolotov-killed-putin-not-seen-in-public-in-10-days/

The legal case against Internet rules

By Mario Trujillo - 03/15/15 06:00 AM EDT

As legal challenges loom for new net neutrality regulations, GOP members of the Federal Communications Commission are offering some of the first lines of attack.

The dissenting opinions of the two Republicans ran 80 pages, and they telegraph some of the arguments on which critics could rely as they prepare legal filings to scrap the new rules.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has repeatedly said the commission wrote the rules to withstand challenges from the “big dogs.” And while it is still unclear which organization or company will lead the charge, there is little doubt that a legal battle is brewing.

On Thursday, the public got its first look at the actual text of the net neutrality order, two weeks after it was approved. The rules would reclassify broadband Internet access as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Communication Act. The new designation will give the commission increased authority to enforce rules barring Internet service providers like Verizon or Comcast from prioritizing any piece of Internet traffic above another.

Here are four legal arguments already being lobbed against the new rules.

Not enough notice

The GOP commissioners argue that the public was not given enough notice about the plan to reclassify the Internet and other provisions that made their way into the order. The lack of notice, they argue, is a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

The FCC released draft rules last year that relied on alternate authority to enforce net neutrality. Critics have accused FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler of changing course midstream after President Obama made a high-profile public pitch for reclassification.

“Rather than following the proper procedure and issuing a further notice, the FCC charged ahead at the behest of activists who were suspicious of the Commission’s commitment to their cause and thus demanded that agency adopt rules without delay,” GOP commissioner Ajit Pai wrote. “That is not what the Administrative Procedure Act demands nor what the American people deserve.”

The proposed rules last May did include a series of questions asking about reclassification. That, combined with the huge amount of public comment in favor of reclassification, gives Chairman Tom Wheeler and other senior FCC officials confidence that they complied with the law.
 
Not enough justification

The APA also requires the commission to justify the decision made based on the facts on the ground. The GOP commissioners said that record is lacking as well.

GOP Commissioner Michael O’Rielly argued the rules are based on “unsubstantiated fear of future wrongdoing” and said the 4 million public comments the FCC received did not reveal any new instances of abuse justifying the rules.

A court previously accepted the justification for alternate net neutrality rules as a "prophylactic," or preventative, measure to protect innovation. He said there is no guarantee that argument will work again.

“That may have been good enough to narrowly survive review when all that was at stake was net neutrality rules,” he wrote. “But that’s no guarantee that such flimsy reasoning will withstand another round (or two) of scrutiny now that all of Title II hangs in the balance as well.”

Abuse of forbearance

When the FCC reclassified Internet access, it also chose to avoid enforcing many of the more onerous utility-style provisions that come along with it, including rate regulation. The commission did this in a process called forbearance, which allows it to avoid applying certain provisions.

O’Rielly argued the FCC is using the tool to rewrite communications law in a way that Congress did not intend when it approved the tool in 1996. He said it was first implemented as a way to avoid existing regulations during a transition when Congress has just updated communications law for the first time in 60 years.

“It was not meant to be used as a tool to selectively subject new services to previously inapplicable provisions,” he wrote.

“The Supreme Court has made clear that ‘an agency has no power to ‘tailor’ legislation to bureaucratic policy goals’ by interpreting a statute to create a regulatory system ‘unrecognizable to the Congress that designed it,’” he said, quoting from a 2014 Supreme Court opinion involving the Environmental Protection Agency.
 
Mobile broadband restriction
 
For the first time, the FCC decided that net neutrality rules would cover mobile broadband, given its increasing chunk of the Internet market. But the wireless industry has been arguing for months that a section of the Communications Act specifically prevents mobile broadband from being classified as a telecommunications service, and thus a common carrier.

The GOP commissioners ticked off precedent showing that is the case, including a court ruling last year that found “the treatment of mobile broadband providers as common carriers would violate Section 332.”

The order redefined a series of terms in order to get around that, by arguing the landscape has changed in the 20 years since the initial provision was put in place. The order expressed confidence that the change complies with Congress's intent and that the commission gave adequate public notice of the potential change.

Russian Federation Processing Treason Doc Request

Posted by Gordon Duff, Senior Editor on March 15, 2015
   

McCain/Netanyahu treason/espionage proof request to Russian Federation being discussed...

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/03/15/russian-federation-processing-treason-doc-request/

Last Chance for free viewing of the 'BOUGHT' documentary

FINAL NOTICE: A Few Hours Left… BOUGHT Movie Closes TONIGHT! CLICK HERE — TO WATCH THE BOUGHT FILM BEFORE IT GOES OFFLINE — TONIGHT! Jeff Hays Jeff Hays Films "Movies that Make Movements"

Jeff Hays Films 9980 S. 300 W. Ste. 200 Sandy, UT 84070 Tel: (801) 849-8926 Facebook Twitter

To: The EU flag was thrown out from the Hungarian parliament a year ago

The man is talking about how the EU is colonizing the small countries in Europe and the Hungarian people refuse to be colonized. The EU flag is a representation of colonization and there is no place for it in the Hungarian parliament. The Hungarian people love truth and freedom and will stand up to any oppressor.
The man who is walking at the end of the clip is a traitor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5OiE_gpGiE

Hungary is not a colony.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sruvKgGWBuQ

Just to ease the tension!
He is called the “king's violinist” because he played before every monarchs in the world. Makes it look so easy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIXeb2Cb1XI

UK Home Sec'y Theresa May: Pedophilia allegations just the "tip of an iceberg". Pedophilia "woven covertly into the fabric of our society"

Pedophilia in Britain ‘woven into the fabric of society’ – Theresa May
Published time: March 14, 2015

As the UK has launched a new-judge led inquiry panel to investigate a pedophile ring operated in 1980s, the Home Secretary warns the allegations are just a “tip of an iceberg” and the problem is “woven, covertly, into the fabric of our society.”

Following a spate of allegations concerning the abuse of children by adults, many of who abused their positions of power and status, Home Secretary Theresa May said Britons still do not appreciate the “true scale of that abuse.”

Writing in the Telegraph, May warned that the investigation into predators of children will “lead into our schools and hospitals, our churches, our youth clubs and many other institutions that should have been places of safety…”

Following Thursday’s announcement of a four-person panel to investigate the criminal activities against minors, May said Justice Lowell Goddard would be empowered to “compel witnesses and the removal of any cut-off date from the Terms of Reference” allowing Goddard to track the evidence “wherever it takes her.”

~~~~~ CONTINUE AT: ~~~~~

http://rt.com/uk/240777-uk-sex-children-may/

WELCOME TO 2015, the year of depopulation in mass.

THE WAY OF KINGS, RULERS, PRESIDENTS AND POTENTATES

It’s not madness; it’s not out-of-control; it’s not stupidity; it’s not ignorance....IT’S THE PLAN.

We are today where people in mass throughout history have always been, it’s just that most of the people don’t know it because they have indoor plumbing.

Said the rulers, “We only need enough slave population to serve us, and just enough “slaves of slaves” to serve the slaves that serve us. Too many slaves waste resources, and inspires rebellion.”

THAT’S OUR LOT TODAY. It has always been the lot of the masses. It’s the natural state of affairs on planet earth.

If you’re not useful to the rulers, you’re of no use...except perhaps as an example of the terror they can bring to keep the useful slaves inline.

WELCOME TO 2015, the year of depopulation in mass.

Oh...and as to the delusional “NO NUKES CAN GO OFF” alien-channeler-believers, there have been FOUR nukes detonated. One just the other day (check it out...search and you will find...).

REALITY–things as they were, are and will be–is a lot more interesting when paying attention to the now of things (all illusions to the contrary).

“ENJOY THE RIDE. It’s the only one available,” said the carny.

.

Depending on your point-of-view perspective hope belief faith feelings or delusion, you may not appreciate what I have written...so consider not reading this post.

Obama Admin Cites 'Int'l Permission,' Not Congress, As 'Legal Basis' For...

The United States Military Is Now Officially Controlled By The United Nations And NATO

The Legislative Branch Of The United States 'Government' Has Been Officialy Declared Powerless.


If this isn't a coup d'état, I don't know what is!!!


WASHINGTON, March 7—Under question from Sen. Sessions at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing today, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey indicated that "international permission," rather than Congressional approval, provided a 'legal basis' for military action by the United States.

Obama Admin Cites 'Int'l Permission,' Not Congress, As 'Legal Basis' For Action In Syria  

 

Published on Mar 7, 2012  ('A-hole', see my note to you below!)

WASHINGTON, March 7—Under question from Sen. Sessions at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing today, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey indicated that "international permission," rather than Congressional approval, provided a 'legal basis' for military action by the United States.

http://thetruthnews.info/US_Military_Is_Now_Officially_Controlled_By_The_UN_And_NATO.html


***************************************************


Hey 'A-hole'!!  Did you notice the date - Mar 7 2012? Not everyone has the 'high' level of intelligence or is as smart and informed as you are. Not many read the same comic books you read and play the same games on their cell phones as you do.  Most do NOT know that the US military no longer exists as 'the US military', but was turned over in 2012 - lock, stock and barrel at American taxpayer expense - to be used for Rothschild's UN and NATO TERRORISM programs (including ISIS, IL, Al Qaeda, Hamas, et al).  So 'A-h', when Americans join the 'US military', they are actually signing up to fight for OUR ENEMY, WHICH MAKES THEM BILLIONS IF NOT TRILLIONS while slaughtering INNOCENT PEOPLE. They are not signing up to serve and defend our nation as they are led to believe.  BTW - we have been involved in exposing the enemy within and without America since the late 1970s.  With the ever increasing and upgrading of surveillance technology, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to obtain documentation about CURRENT black ops - one being what is currently about ready to occur with CERN - so at times we have to retreat to past publications to get info out in front of people so they can become aware and then begin to research for themselves.  Now they do know - and now YOU know, too.  Your comic books await you. Oh! We also inform you that we reserve our right to hit the delete button on your comments unless, of course, we determine it serves OUR purposes.  OK - NOW you can go back to your comic books.  Is Popeye and Olive Oyl still available?
      

Sampling of enabled American tragedies

Sampling of enabled American calamities, provided by corruption-in-government fighter, and responses by such notables as Senator Robert Kennedy, Supreme Court Justice Byron White, and others.

This documentary started 50 years ago, giving birth to today's American tragedies, with worse yet to come.

www.wikileaksusa.org/american_calamities.html. 

Say Goodbye To Hollywood - 25 Statist Propaganda Phrases (And How To Rebut Them)

Say Goodbye To Hollywood - 25 Statist Propaganda Phrases (And How To Rebut Them)

Ask any political terrorist, or 'law enforcement' terrorist, or judicial terrorist, or banker terrorist, or religious terrorist, or TV talking head terrorist, or corporate CEO terrorist, or military commander terrorist, and the terrorist will tell you that White is Black, Dark is Light, and Right is Wrong.

Believe them? Sure; why not.

After all, you've been programmed so that wouldn't recognize common sense if it bit you in the leg, regardless, because you attended a public school, and continued your higher levels of programming by watching TV.

Don't believe me? Want to take a simple true of false quiz?

Questionnaire: "Is Your Programming Complete"?

Take This Quiz and Discover How Your Programming Influences Your Outlook...

Just a simple quiz with TRUE or FALSE answers.

More here:

http://wp.me/p5GMtX-d9

10 minute video: A Parody...TELLS IT LIKE IT IS... Lord Astor Rockerchild - Your Owner

Real Water Crisis: “We Saw People Behave Like Animals”

Dear Patriot, Governments would like for you to believe that they have everything in control and that everything will be fine as long as that administration or regime is in power. But this recent example shows us otherwise. Imagine the largest city in a country with municipal water. Then imagine this happens... Click Here to See a What Happens in a Real Water Crisis Alan Morris Editor More Survival Institute News: - Try Not To Throw Up When You See This Example of The IRS's Unchecked Power - 10 Super Creative Survival Hacks That Could Save Your Life in a Crisis - How Did Barack Obama's Approval Rating Climb to an 18-Month High So Fast? - Former Soldier Made Film Exposing the Government. The Way He Died Will Scare You to Death.