Rapper DMX Sentenced to One Year in Prison for Evading Theft

(TMU Op-ed) This week, Earl Simmons, A.K.A DMX, was sentenced to a year in prison for tax fraud, a charge that he plead guilty to in November. U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim, who is working the case, said in a statement that, “For years, Earl Simmons, the recording artist and performer known as DMX, made millions from his chart-topping […]

Unprecedented: China to Pay for Oil Imports With Yuan in Major Blow to Dollar

(ZHE) Just days after Beijing officially launched  Yuan-denominated crude oil futures (with a bang, as shown in the chart below, surpassing Brent trading volume) which are expected to quickly become the third global price benchmark along Brent and WTI, China took the next major step in the challenging the Dollar’s supremacy as global reserve currency (and internationalizing the […]

DASH Cryptocurrency is Shattering the Paradigm of Establishment Control Over Money AND Media

The power DASH cryptocurrency is not only taking the control of money back from the establishment and giving it to the people but it is also doing the same thing with information.

The post DASH Cryptocurrency is Shattering the Paradigm of Establishment Control Over Money AND Media appeared first on The Free Thought Project.

Saudi Crown Prince’s Militarized Entourage Invades Harvard and MIT

Last weekend, both schools were stops on his US tour – attempting to burnish his rogue image, make Saudi despotism look benign, along with courting investors from Wall Street to Big Oil to Silicon Valley and Hollywood.

Nary a mention of aggression in Yemen was made during his visit, a taboo topic, Washington and Britain up to their ears in raping and destroying the country, conspiratorially responsible with Riyadh for the world’s severest humanitarian crisis – out of sight and mind during his tour.

Billions of dollars in US and UK weapons sales to the kingdom matter more, along with wanting access to its oil reserves and Saudi investments in America and Britain.

According to the Harvard Crimson student newspaper, heavily armed security personnel, an armored vehicle, 30 security vehicles and 10 motorcycles accompanied Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) during his visit.

He participated in discussions with university professors and presidents of Boston area college presidents.

According to Harvard’s vice provost of international affairs Mark Elliot, he expressed interest “in the connection between research, entrepreneurship and innovation, and how they fit together to fuel the economy.”

On arrival, Harvard provost Alan Garber greeted MBS, not university president Drew Faust – because of a prior commitment, according to university spokesperson Tania deLuzuriaga.

Or did pangs of conscience keep her away? Was she reluctant to be part of a photo-op with MBS, tarnishing her image more than already?

According to the Crimson, university officials didn’t publicize MBS’ visit, despite shamefully inviting him on campus.

No public events were scheduled – nor at MIT, both Cambridge campuses about a mile from each other.

MIT’s student newspaper The Tech commented on his visit, saying it was “in conjunction with the second annual Innovation to Impact forum” on campus.

According to director of media relations and deputy director of MIT News Kimberly Allen, “Saudi Arabia and MIT have a longstanding collaborative relationship focused on subjects of mutual interest,” adding:

“Saudi Aramco is a founding member of the MIT Energy Initiative.”

A Saudi prince earlier donated $40 million dollars to Harvard and Georgetown universities, the amount divided equally between them.

Saudi entrepreneurial billionaire Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel earlier donated $43 million to MIT. Saudis have contributed large sums to other US universities, including Johns Hopkins, UC Berkeley and Stanford.

AT MIT, MBS met with university president L. Rafael Reif among others. Heavy security during his visit to both schools disrupted things for students, faculty and city residents.

According to The Tech, “numerous security details patroll(ed) the area over the course of the afternoon.”

“This included a combination of MIT police, (heavily armed) Cambridge police, secret service agents…several black-clothed persons,” and Saudi security.

Ahead of his arrival at Harvard and MIT, dozens of Massachusetts Peace Action members protested his visit – a March 23 commentary saying:

“Should the architect of a devastating humanitarian crisis in a poor country be given a welcome at two of America’s most prestigious universities? Most certainly not.”

University relationships with the kingdom “should end…MIT and Harvard should cancel any invitation they have extended to Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and for MIT to cease its cooperation in the Saudi defense and tech sectors until Saudi Arabia has withdrawn from Yemen, helped to reconstruct the country, and reformed its own institutions and policies.”

Northeastern University Professor of Sociology Valentine Moghadam wrote the above remarks.

She’s a member of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, as well as a Massachusetts Peace Action board member.

Harvard Graduate School of Education student Shireen al-Adeimi said the following:

“The crown prince has committed countless war crimes that have been documented by human rights groups, and so I think it’s an embarrassment for (Harvard and) MIT to be associated with him, and to welcome him here this weekend – on the third anniversary…of the (Yemen) war.”

A Yemeni national, Adeimi added: “We have people back home, friends and family, who can’t find adequate food, who can’t find clean water.”

“It’s getting harder and harder for people to survive every day. Already people are dying in the tens of thousands.”

Shamefully, both universities invited him on campus – a thuggish future leader of the Arab world’s most ruthless state.

The post Saudi Crown Prince’s Militarized Entourage Invades Harvard and MIT appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

Russia"s Game-Changing Weapons That Were Not Mentioned In Putin"s Speech

Authored by Arkady Savitsky via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Not all of Russia’s game-changing weapons were mentioned in the president’s landmark speech that the mainstream media keep writing so much about. The president’s address simply could not include all the numerous breakthroughs in military technology Russia has achieved recently.

Some cutting-edge systems exist but are not yet operational.  A few are already part of the Russian arsenal, although in rather small numbers. But that’s just a start. Many achievements have flown under the media"s radar and deserve more exposure. The information available from public sources is worth discussing to get an idea of where things seem to be headed. 

The military added Kh-32 air-to-surface missiles in 2016 to advance the operational capabilities of the Tu-22M3 Backfire. The weapon was created on the basis of radical updates to the Kh-22.  After being launched, the Kh-32 climbs up to the stratosphere, reaching an altitude of 40 km (130,000 ft) for the midcourse phase of its flight. As it nears its target, it goes into a steep dive. The attack is too fast and the missile too maneuverable for the enemy to mount an air defense.

The approach can be flown at an altitude as low as five m, going undetected by a ship’s defense systems until a distance of about 10 km.  This leaves a reaction window of roughly 10 seconds before this extremely agile target is hit.  It doesn’t have a chance. This deadly weapon is a threat to any ground target.

The weapon boasts an inertial navigation system and a seeker head. It needs no navigation satellites for guidance and is impossible to jam. Its primary mission is to knock out aircraft carriers and large surface ships, as well as ground-based assets.

The Kh-32 has a range of roughly 1,000 km (620 mi) and a speed of over 5,400 kilometers per hour (1,500 meters per second). Its 500-kilogram (1,102 lb.) warhead can be either nuclear or conventional.  

The US doesn’t have anything comparable to the Kh-32, nor does it have an effective system to protect its assets from it. Even the speed and altitude of the famous Aegis (SM-6) are useless against this new weapon. The Kh-32 does not breach the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, as its trajectory does not envisage going into orbit. And this is not the only breakthrough worth talking about.

On March 15, Russian Defense Chief Sergey Shoigu made quite a splash when he claimed that mass production of combat robots would begin this year.  The military had 160 unmanned aerial drones a few years ago, but today operates about 1,800 of them. The trials of the robots designed for land operations are almost complete. Robotic mine-clearing vehicles have also been successfully developed.

Combat, transport, and artillery-reconnaissance variants of the Nerekhta robot exist. The system consists of a compact, light-tracked chassis, and a hull for mounting special equipment. It is used to take on armored weapons.  The robot can also be used for transportation and reconnaissance. The Nerekhta can operate alongside drones. The suite of weapons can include a Kord or Kalashnikov machine gun, an AG-30M automatic grenade launcher and an anti-tank missile system.

The biomorphic (four-legged) 400-kg Lynx robot will be equipped with a machine gun and anti-tank guided missiles, and can operate in urban and industrial areas, on asphalt, marble, wood, sand, and unpaved roads. Almost no terrain would be off-limits, even ice, grass, snow, or shallow waters. The Lynx can travel up to 15 km/h on flat terrain, and 10 km/h on uneven surfaces.

Russia uses robotic security guards to keep its strategic sites safe, including ICBM silos.  These vehicles, armed with a machine gun and an automatic grenade launcher (both with a kill range of about 400 meters), can detect targets at night while remaining invisible and moving around the perimeter of the site. Since 2017, strategic nuclear missile sites have been guarded with the Mobile Robotics Complex (MRC), designed to detect and destroy stationary and moving targets. There are many more robots at different stages of development that are close to becoming operational. The robotization of the Russian armed forces is one clear trend and it’s not the only one. 

Five Udaloy Project 1155 destroyers are being refurbished to be armed with Kalibr long-range cruise missiles, providing them with anti-ship as well as deep land strike capability.  The prestigious Russian newspaper Izvestia has just reported on the installation of weapon systems on the ships, which has already started and will be completed by 2022.  The program will greatly increase the Navy’s strike power and power projection capability.

Russia’s radar-invisible bombs are already in service, striking terrorist targets in Syria. The Drel (Drill) gliding bomb cartridge delivers 15 self-guided killing elements, each weighing about 20 kilograms. The weapon does not breach the international convention banning the use of cluster bombs. With no engine, the bomb can glide for dozens of miles.  It boasts an operational range of more than 30 km after separating from the carrier. A single sub-munition can take out up to ten tanks – almost twice as many as its closest competitor, the US AGM-154. It can detect targets while producing no infrared emissions. The Drel’s friend-or-foe identification system prevents it from striking the wrong targets.

This year, the Army-2018 exhibition will see a light aircraft powered by a hydrogen-air engine.  The forum is slated to be held August 21-26. The concept behind this engine is known as “Electric Aircraft,” which uses fuel cells as a power source to produce electrical energy without the combustion process. The fuel used is hydrogen, which is transformed into electricity. Such a plane could stay in the air for a very long time and would be very inexpensive. No other country has managed to make such an aircraft operational. It could be used for a multitude of various missions by the military and other security agencies.

Since Moscow launched its operation in Syria, the most frequently asked question among military wonks and pundits has been “Does Russia really have superior military technology?”  And the answer often heard was, “No, it does not, it is unsophisticated and is clearly lagging behind.”  More and more evidence has emerged recently to illustrate that Russia is actually the leader in military technology and more information arrives almost every day confirming this fact.

Can the cutting-edge breakthroughs, which are such a feather in the military"s hat, that are being produced by the defense sector of the economy be isolated from the remaining sectors?  Impossible nowadays, especially given how much is being done to transfer the achievements of the defense industry over to the civilian sectors of the economy. The West’s sanctions have helpfully expedited the process of replacing Western technology with “made-in-Russia” solutions. Military technologies targeted for the civilian sector will inevitably invigorate Russia’s economy.

The West wanted to turn Russia into a backward country on its knees. This was a strategic mistake that instead encouraged it to stand tall and lead the way in the state-of-the-art technology race, forcing the US and its allies to lag behind.

Israel Will Respond "Inside Gaza Strip" If "Organized Terrorist Operations" Continue

As Israel inches ever-closer to an all-out war against Hezbollah in Syria (a war that could expand to encompass southern Lebanon), the IDF this week also mercilessly crushed yet another massive Hamas-organized border protest in Gaza, deploying drones to shower thousands of demonstrators with tear gas while firing live rounds and rubber-coated steel pellets into the crowd. By the time yesterday"s border clashes had ended, at least 15 Palestinians were dead and over 500 were wounded.

Of course, a spokesman for the IDF - a Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis - denied allegations of excessive use of force. He said the men killed by the IDF belonged to a violent, militant faction of Hamas, and that several dozen people - at most - were injured by live fire while the rest were merely impacted by the tear gas and other crowd-control responses. Gaza"s Shifa Hospital received 284 injured people Friday - most of them with bullet wounds. Of those, 70 were under the age of 18. And 11 were women, per the Associated Press.

Already Saturday, several hundred people returned to the five makeshift tent encampments several hundred meters from the border; the encampments were meant to be a launch point for the marches. But if demonstrators try to rush the border fence again, Manelis said Israel would have no choice but to "expand" its response beyond the border area - echoing the extremely deadly assault unleashed on Gaza City during the summer of 2014. That episode left nearly 2,000 Palestinians dead. Of those, nearly 500 were civilians, per AP.

He said that Hamas and other Gaza militant groups are using protests as a cover for staging attacks. If violence continues, “we will not be able to continue limiting our activity to the fence area and will act against these terror organizations in other places too,” he said.

Indeed, just like during the runup to the IDF"s Operation Protective Edge, the IDF labeled Palestinians efforts to "breach" the border fence "organized terrorist operations."

Sure enough, on Saturday Israeli troops fired warning shots toward Palestinian youths gathered at the Gaza-Israel border on Saturday, wounding 13 people, health officials said according to Reuters.

And, as we previewed last week, it is only a matter of time before Israel decides to retaliate not on the border but inside the Gaza Strip itself, potentially sparking yet another regional war.

“We won’t let this turn into a ping-pong zone where they perpetrate a terrorist act and we respond with pinpoint action. If this continues we will not have no choice but to respond inside the Gaza Strip,” Manelis told reporters in a phone briefing.

Separately, during a series of tweets, an IDF spokesperson said the army is "only interested in terrorists who are trying to disrupt Israeli life; we only act against them." The army also claimed that "nothing was carried out uncontrolled" and that the IDF "knows where every bullet landed." The IDF also touted its successful thwarting of an infiltration attempt by three terrorists in northern Gaza.

Curiously, those tweets by the Israeli army were then swiftly deleted.

‘We know where every bullet landed’, Tweeted the Israeli army. ‘Nothing was carried out uncontrolled’. Bullets which killed 15 Palestinian demonstrators and wounded 1,400. They’ve since deleted their admittance of guilt #Gaza https://t.co/1U3EXgl7Jf pic.twitter.com/tgPuOTiGrQ

— Joseph Willits (@josephwillits) March 31, 2018

Friday"s demonstrations were meant to be part of a six-week long campaign calling for a "right of return" for Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel. The protests are set to culminate in May when Israel celebrates the 70th anniversary of its independence - a day that Palestinians call Nakba (catastrophe) day.

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is calling for an "independent" investigation of what happened on Friday. The UN Security Council urged restraint on both sides following the clashes, but didn"t decide on any concrete actions.

Since seizing control of Gaza back in 2007 and splitting with the more moderate Fatah party, Hamas has been involved with several deadly clashes with the IDF, as a border blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt has made it increasingly more difficult for Hamas to govern.

In Unprecedented Move, China Plans To Pay For Oil Imports With Yuan Instead Of Dollars

Just days after Beijing officially launched  Yuan-denominated crude oil futures (with a bang, as shown in the chart below, surpassing Brent trading volume) which are expected to quickly become the third global price benchmark along Brent and WTI, China took the next major step in the challenging the Dollar"s supremacy as global reserve currency (and internationalizing the Yuan) when on Thursday Reuters reported that China took the first steps to paying for crude oil imports in its own currency instead of the US Dollars.

A pilot program for yuan payment could be launched as soon as the second half of the year and regulators have already asked some financial institutions to "prepare for pricing crude imports in the yuan", Reuters sourcesreveal.

According to the proposed plan, Beijing would start with purchases from Russia and Angola, two nations which, like China, are keen to break the dollar’s global dominance. They are also two of the top suppliers of crude oil to China, along with Saudi Arabia.

A change in the default crude oil transactional currency - which for decades has been the "Petrodollar", blessing the US with global reserve currency status - would have monumental consequences for capital allocations and trade flows, not to mention geopolitics: as Reuters notes, a shift in just a small part of global oil trade into the yuan is potentially huge. "Oil is the world’s most traded commodity, with an annual trade value of around $14 trillion, roughly equivalent to China’s gross domestic product last year." Currently, virtually all global crude oil trading is in dollars, barring an estimated 1 per cent in other currencies. This is the basis of US dominance in the world economy.

However, as shown in the chart below which follows the first few days of Chinese oil futures trading, this status quo may be changing fast.

Superficially, for China it would be a matter of nationalistic pride to see oil trade transact in Yuan: "Being the biggest buyer of oil, it’s only natural for China to push for the usage of yuan for payment settlement. This will also improve the yuan liquidity in the global market,” said one of the people briefed on the matter by Chinese authorities.

There are other considerations behind the launch of the Yuan-denominated oil contract as Goldman explains:

• A commercial benchmark and hedging tool. Until now, Chinese oil imports were based on FOB benchmarks, with long-term procurement contracts settling off Platts Oman/Dubai or Dated Brent. The INE contract has therefore the potential to become the pricing reference for CIF China crude oil, enabling corporate financial hedging. Its warehouse structure is however likely to limit its use for physical crude delivery and may in fact at times reduce its hedge efficiency.


• A new investment vehicle for onshore investors. The majority of China commodity futures trading volumes are from retail investors, yet these had until now little ability to trade oil futures. China’s capital control was the main bottleneck  to trading contracts like Brent as authorities only allow $50,000 outflow a year per person. While several petrochemical and bitumen contracts already trade in China, INE will be the first contract for crude oil, likely drawing significant interest.


• Direct access to China’s commodity markets for offshore investors. China offers deep and liquid commodity markets to its onshore investors. Due to China’s tight capital controls, however, foreign investors have so far only been able to trade these through qualified onshore subsidiaries. The INE contract opens up the first channel for offshore investors to trade in its onshore commodity market, with both the USD deposit and capital gains transferable back to offshore accounts. The government further announced last week that it would waive income taxes for foreign investors trading these new contracts for the first three years. The obligation to trade in Yuan will also add a currency risk exposure to offshore investors. We illustrate in Exhibit 6 a likely template (amongst others) of how overseas investors will be able to access INE liquidity.

The danger, of course, is that such a shift would also boost the value of the Yuan, hardly what China needs considering it was just two a half years ago that Beijing launched a controversial Yuan devaluation to boost its exports and economy.

Still, in light of the relative global economic stability, Beijing may be willing to take the gamble on a stronger Yuan if it means greater geopolitical clout and further acceptance of the renminbi.

Which is why restructuring oil fund flows may be the best first step: as of this moment, China is the world’s second-largest oil consumer and in 2017 overtook the United States as the biggest importer of crude oil; its demand is a key determinant of global oil prices.

If China"s plan to push the Petroyuan"s acceptance proves successful, it will result in greater momentum across all commodities, and could trigger the shift of other product payments to the yuan, including metals and mining raw materials.

Besides the potential of giving China more power over global oil prices, "this will help the Chinese government in its efforts to internationalize yuan," said Sushant Gupta, research director at energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie. In a Wednesday note, Goldman Sachs said that the success of Shanghai’s crude futures was “indirectly promoting the use of the Chinese currency (which, however as noted above, has negative trade offs as it would also result in a stronger Yuan, something the PBOC may not be too excited about).

Meanwhile, China is wasting no time, and Unipec, the trading arm of Asia’s largest refiner Sinopec already signed a deal to import Middle East crude priced against the newly-launched Shanghai crude futures contract, which incidentally is traded in Yuan.

The bottom line here is whether Beijing is indeed prepared and ready to challenge the US Dollar for the title of global currency hegemon. As Rueters notes, China’s plan to use yuan to pay for oil comes amid a more than year-long gradual strengthening of the currency, which looks set to post a fifth straight quarterly gain, its longest winning streak since 2013.

In a sign that China"s recent Draconian capital control crackdowns have sapped market confidence in a freely-traded Yuan, the currency retained its No.5 ranking as a domestic and global payment currency in January this year, unmoved from a year ago, but its share among other currencies fell to 1.7 percent from 2.5 percent, according to industry tracker SWIFT.

A slew of measures put in place in the last 1-1/2 years to rein in capital flowing out of the country amid a slide in yuan value has taken off some its shine as a global payment currency.

But the yuan has now appreciated 3.4 percent against the dollar so far this year, with solid gains in recent sessions.

“For PBOC and other regulators, internationalization of the yuan is clearly one of the priorities now, and if this plan goes off smoothly then they can start thinking about replicating this model for other commodities purchases,” said a Reuters source.

Still, it will be a long and difficult climb before the Yuan can challenge the dollar and for Beijing to shift the bulk of its commodity purchases to the yuan because of the currency’s illiquidity in forex markets. According to the latest BIS Triennial Survey, nearly 90% of all transactions in the $5 trillion-a-day FX markets involved the dollar on one side of a trade, while only 4% use the yuan.

* * *

Still, not everyone is convinced that the new Yuan-denominated contract will create a "petro-yuan" as the following take from Goldman highlights:

The launch of the INE contract is not just about oil, as it will also be the first Yuan denominated commodity contract tradable by offshore investors. Such a set-up meets the PBOC’s monetary policy committee goal to raise the profile of its currency in the pricing of commodities. It has raised however the question of whether the INE contract is an incremental step in achieving the currency reserve status for the Yuan. We do not believe so.

While the INE launch does represent an additional step in the CNY internationalization, the CNY denomination of the INE contract does not in itself imply CNY investments. The INE contract does not represent an opening of China’s capital accounts since foreign deposits operate in a closed circuit, deposited in designated accounts and not to be used to purchase other domestic assets. In practice, the collateral deposit and any capital gains can be transferred back to offshore accounts. The potential for greater foreign ownership of Chinese assets is therefore not impacted by CNY oil invoicing and would require instead oil exporters to recycle their proceeds in local assets, for example. The incentive to do this has not changed with the introduction of the INE contracts. In particular, most Middle East oil producers still have currencies pegged to the dollar and limited ability to hedge CNY exposure.

Whether or not Goldman is right remains to be seen, however it is undeniable that a monumental change is afoot in global capital flows, where the US - whether Beijing wants to or not - will soon be forced to defend its currency status as oil exporters (and investors in this highly financialized market) will now have a choice: go with US hegemony, or start accepting Yuan in exchange for the world"s most important commodity.

France To Send Military Forces To Syria As Trump Prepares To Withdraw; Turkey Furious

On the same day that Trump made his unexpected announcement that US troops would be "coming out of Syria very soon," French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly pledged to send a French military force into northern Syria in support of US-backed Kurdish forces near Afrin - now under Turkish control.

News of Macron"s promise to Kurdish officials in a closed door meeting was met with a swift and harsh response from Turkey: “If it’s accurate, the statement on mediation between Turkey and SDF amounts to crossing the line,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. “Those who yesterday hosted terrorists at the highest level once again should know this is only an expression of enmity against Turkey,” Erdogan added, essentially calling France a "state sponsor" of terror. 

Emmanuel Macron and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Jan 2018. Image source: AFP via Getty images.

Though the French Presidency did not immediately confirm the news Thursday, reports circulated widely after Macron met with a delegation of Syrian Kurdish officials on Thursday representing the self-declared autonomous region of Rojava, of which the Syrian Kurdish People"s Protection Units (YPG/YPJ) are the prime defense forces on the ground.

Turkey"s Erdogan has repeatedly denounced the YPG as a terrorist extension of the PKK, and after successfully capturing the largely Syrian Kurdish Afrin canton following a bloody two-month cross border operation, has vowed to continue pushing deeper into Syrian territory toward Manbij and Tal Rifaat. Early this week Erdogan put the US on notice while addressing a crowd in the Black Sea province of Trabzonin: "the U.S. needs to transfer the control of Manbij to its real owners from the terrorist organization as soon as possible," Erdogan brazenly declared, while adding, "of course we will not point gun to our allies, but we will not forgive terrorists."

CONFIRMED : Trump tells advisers he wants U.S. out of Syria: senior officials https://t.co/RPmkCCLFKj

— EHSANI2 (@EHSANI22) March 30, 2018

Such an expansion would undoubtedly put Turkish troops and Turkey"s proxy FSA forces face to face with US-backed forces - as Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are present in both places. Days after Erdogan"s speech on Sunday, Turkish forces began clashing with SDF fighters in Tal Rifaat, in the northern Aleppo countryside - thus it appears the Turkish president is making good on his promise. 

Kurdish regional media, Kurdistan24 described Thursday"s meeting at the the Élysée as follows: 

A delegation representing the Kurdish, Arab, and Christian components of Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) held talks with the French Presidency on Thursday to discuss the situation in the country’s north...

Accompanied by his special chief of staff, Admiral Roger, Macron announced that he would send French Special Forces to Manbij in coordination with the US, another report by Le Parisien said.

An unidentified number of French troops will be deployed “very quickly,” Macron assured the Rojava delegation, according to a Kurdish representative who attended the meeting.

Multiple reports identified the initial deployment of French troops to northern Syria as special forces - though it"s likely that French special forces who are already present in the region or in Syria itself would simply be relocated to take a more direct advisory role alongside the Kurdish YPG and SDF. 

In statements reported by Reuters, Macron appeared to confirm the headlines of French deployment, however, stopped short of outright confirming direct military deployment: 

“The president ... paid tribute to the sacrifices and the determining role of the SDF in the fight against Daesh,” Macron’s office said in a statement.

“He assured the SDF of France’s support for the stabilization of the security zone in the north-east of Syria, within the framework of an inclusive and balanced governance, to prevent any resurgence of Islamic State.”

Macron has been seen as less hawkish regarding France"s Syria policy, which recently led former president Francois Hollande to level the accusation of Macron"s abandoning the Syrian Kurds. 

Meanwhile, Turkey’s National Security Council on Wednesday repeated Erdogan"s prior threats that Ankara would “take action” to eradicate all Syrian Kurdish groups from northern Syria. 

With Trump pledging to withdraw all US troops from Syria "very soon" it appears that France and other coalition allies are declaring their willingness to step in and replace US occupying forces in Syria.

On Friday Trump confirmed to senior aides that US forces will be exiting Syria.  In statements carried by Reuters, Trump said, “Let the other people take care of it now. Very soon, very soon, we’re coming out. We’re going to get back to our country, where we belong, where we want to be.”

Trump"s initial announcement of US troop withdrawal came the same day two US coalition soldiers were reported killed in Syria (overnight Thursday). According to early reports, confirmed by the Pentagon, an American & British soldier were killed by an improvised explosive device in Manbij where US personnel are stationed. 

With this news and with Turkey"s latest bellicose rhetoric aimed at France, Macron is likely already second-guessing his willingness to jump straight into northern Syria"s quagmire of actors just as the US may be in the process of exiting.

In Angry Tweetstorm, Trump Renews Attack On Amazon, Demands "Fake Washington Post" Register As Lobbyist

President Trump"s obsession and escalating feud with Jeff Bezos, and bringing Amazon to heel before it destroys what"s left of America"s crumbling brick-and-mortar retail industry, was on display Saturday morning when he fired off a series of angry tweets claiming the Bezos-owned Washington Post should register as a lobbyist and that the Post Office should jack up its parcel rates to stick it to Amazon.

"While we are on the subject, it is reported that the U.S. Post Office will lose $1.50 on average for each package it delivers for Amazon," Trump tweeted.

"That amounts to Billions of Dollars. The Failing N.Y. Times reports that "the size of the company’s lobbying staff has ballooned," and that does not include the Fake Washington Post, which is used as a "lobbyist" and should so REGISTER. If the P.O. "increased its parcel rates, Amazon’s shipping costs would rise by $2.6 Billion." This Post Office scam must stop. Amazon must pay real costs (and taxes) now!"

While we are on the subject, it is reported that the U.S. Post Office will lose $1.50 on average for each package it delivers for Amazon. That amounts to Billions of Dollars. The Failing N.Y. Times reports that “the size of the company’s lobbying staff has ballooned,” and that...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 31, 2018

...does not include the Fake Washington Post, which is used as a “lobbyist” and should so REGISTER. If the P.O. “increased its parcel rates, Amazon’s shipping costs would rise by $2.6 Billion.” This Post Office scam must stop. Amazon must pay real costs (and taxes) now!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 31, 2018

Trump"s latest salvo follows several attack tweets earlier this week, where Trump accused Amazon of paying "little or no taxes" while putting "thousands of retailers out of business."

His angry tweets have sent the company"s shares plunging, extending a drop that began with an Axios report saying Trump is fixated on containing Amazon"s inexorable expansion, potentially by invoking anti-trust measures and breaking down the company. In total, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos saw his net worth plunge by $13 billion during the selloff

I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election. Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2018

As slumping Amazon shares weighed on the broader market last week, the White House clarified that the White House had no actions planned against Amazon.

"The president has expressed his concerns with Amazon," White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters told the press pool on Air Force One. "We have no actions at this time."

As Politico points out, Trump"s $1.50 number comes from a WSJ op-ed which cited a Citigroup analysis that the Postal Service loses about $1.46 for every package it delivers for Amazon. But part of this is due to a law that prevents the limits the chronically money-losing USPS ability to compete with for-profit private sector peers such as FedEx and UPS.

Tesla Admits Autopilot Was Engaged During Deadly Model X Crash

It"s not just Facebook which keeps digging a deeper hole by the day. One week ago, when we discussed the tragic death of a Tesla Model X driver, who seemingly burned to death, trapped inside his flaming vehicle...

... whose batteries exploded after colliding with a barrier separating the carpools lanes on Highway 101 in Mountain View...

... we said that the biggest, and most troubling for Tesla shareholders, question was yet to be answered:

it remains unclear if the car"s autopilot was engaged when it slammed into the carpool lane divider, resulting in the driver"s death.

On Friday night we got the answer, when Tesla finally acknowledged that its autopilot self-driving system was engaged when the Model X electric crossover SUVs crashed one week ago, killing the driver. In the latest troubling indication that Musk is desperate to hide any bad news about his company, the admission only took place after local news reported that the victim had made several complaints to Tesla about the vehicle’s Autopilot technology prior to the crash in which he died.

Tesla said in a blog post on its website that it has been able to deduce from logs recovered from the SUV that the autopilot was engaged, but in hopes of mitigating its liability, it also said that the driver, identified as Apple engineer Wei “Walter” Huang, had his hands off the steering wheel and was not responding to warnings to re-take control for six seconds prior to the crash. It did not say that the Autopilot system was at fault in the accident:

In the moments before the collision, which occurred at 9:27 a.m. on Friday, March 23rd, Autopilot was engaged with the adaptive cruise control follow-distance set to minimum. The driver had received several visual and one audible hands-on warning earlier in the drive and the driver’s hands were not detected on the wheel for six seconds prior to the collision. The driver had about five seconds and 150 meters of unobstructed view of the concrete divider with the crushed crash attenuator, but the vehicle logs show that no action was taken.

In the blog post, Tesla again blamed the complete destruction of the vehicle on the crash attenuator separating the two lanes and which the vehicle exploded upon slamming into:

The reason this crash was so severe is because the crash attenuator, a highway safety barrier which is designed to reduce the impact into a concrete lane divider, had been crushed in a prior accident without being replaced. We have never seen this level of damage to a Model X in any other crash.

Justifications notwithstanding, Tesla"s disclosure is guaranteed to prompt a new NTSB inquiry into the accident, which comes at a time when an Uber self-driving vehicle recently struck and killed a woman walking a bicycle across a street in Tempe, Arizona. The renewed scrutiny will likely set back the self-driving program even further back.  Following the Tesla crash, the agency said it sent two investigators.

The investigation into the fatal #Tesla crash continued today with the #CHP & #NTSB digging through the scorched EV 🎥 https://t.co/rfdgY88bn7 pic.twitter.com/vd2YzFmAZ0

— Dean C. Smith (@DeanCSmith) March 29, 2018

Furthermore, the crash in Mountain View, not far from Tesla"s headquarters in Palo Alto, could renew questions about Tesla"s Autopilot program, which was also engaged when a Model S sedan crashed into a truck and killed its driver in Florida last year.

In the latest crash, Tesla said Autopilot"s adaptive cruise control was in the minimum following distance setting and that the driver had received several visual and one audible hands-on warning as reminders to keep his hands on the wheel prior to crashing into the center divider.

Sensing which way the wind is blowing, Tesla defended its Autopilot, saying that the first version was found by the government to reduce crash rates by up to 40% and that it"s only gotten better since then. It also says Tesla"s fatal crash rate on vehicles equipped with Autopilot is 3.7 times better than the national average.

Over a year ago, our first iteration of Autopilot was found by the U.S. government to reduce crash rates by as much as 40%. Internal data confirms that recent updates to Autopilot have improved system reliability.

In the US, there is one automotive fatality every 86 million miles across all vehicles from all manufacturers. For Tesla, there is one fatality, including known pedestrian fatalities, every 320 million miles in vehicles equipped with Autopilot hardware. If you are driving a Tesla equipped with Autopilot hardware, you are 3.7 times less likely to be involved in a fatal accident.

Still, as Tesla concluded "Tesla Autopilot does not prevent all accidents – such a standard would be impossible – but it makes them much less likely to occur. It unequivocally makes the world safer for the vehicle occupants, pedestrians and cyclists," although coming at a time when precisely the opposite happened, the impact on Tesla"s stock when trading resumes on Monday will be an autopilot in the "down" direction.

Facebook In Turmoil: Employees In Uproar Over Executive"s Leaked Memo

Facebook"s problems are just getting worse, and now investors can add worker morale to the (bucket) list of problems as the New York Times reports that employees furious over a leaked 2016 memo from a top executive seeking to justify the company"s relentless growth and "questionable" data harvesting - even if it led to terrorists attacks organized on the platform.

VP Andrew "Boz" Bosworth - one of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg"s most trusted executives, wrote that connecting people is the greater good even if it "costs someone a life by exposing someone to bullies.

“Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools.”

On Friday, the fallout from Bosworth"s leaked memo - following several weeks of outrage over the company"s data harvesting practices, has Facebook employees in an uproar, according to The Times.

According to two Facebook employees, workers have been calling on internal message boards for a hunt to find those who leak to the media. Some have questioned whether Facebook has been transparent enough with its users and with journalists, said the employees, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. Many are also concerned over what might leak next and are deleting old comments or messages that might come across as controversial or newsworthy, they said. -NYT

One former Facebook employee, Alex Muffett, wrote on Twitter that Bosworth"s memo was a "significant" part of his decision to leave the company. 

“Between overwork and leadership direction evidenced thusly, I could never stay,” wrote Muffett. 

Backplot: my "goodbye" posting to Facebook was in significant part in response to this work by @boztank, and subsequently garnered considerable support from Facebook"s under-represented Engineering community, who genuinely do care about user privacy: https://t.co/GaoHLYoh17

— Alec Muffett (@AlecMuffett) March 29, 2018

It was kinda bittersweet to see @MikeIsaac referring to my essay slightly, here: https://t.co/nRunBbzCr4 pic.twitter.com/Nls1hMnyGk

— Alec Muffett (@AlecMuffett) March 29, 2018

This was all — to my considerable surprise — broken by @MikeIsaac in late 2016 (see attached) — I still don"t know who else left apparently the company regarding this work, but if they held their hand up thusly, they have my admiration. https://t.co/XpfZwUKbug

— Alec Muffett (@AlecMuffett) March 30, 2018

“There are some amazing engineers working at Facebook, folks who care deeply about user privacy, security, and how people will use the code that they write,” Mr. Muffett said later in a message. “Alas this episode may not help” to achieve more transparent internal product discussion, he said.

Buzzfeed article suppressed? 

Following Buzzfeed"s Thursday"s publication of the "growth at any cost" leak, BuzzFeed reporter Ryan Mac suggested Facebook was censoring the article - tweeting "Interesting that only about 14k views (about 2% of total) for our story have come through Facebook referrals. Facebook"s users should be aware of this, so feel free to share it on Facebook."

Interesting that only about 14k views (about 2% of total) for our story have come through Facebook referrals. Facebook"s users should be aware of this, so feel free to share it on Facebook.https://t.co/8Ne15KUZrI

— Ryan Mac (@RMac18) March 30, 2018

When Vox"s Matthew Yglesias chimed in to corroborate Mac"s observation, Facebook head of news feed Adam Mosseri chimed in to say that the social media giant "100% do not take any action on stories for being critical of us." 

I experienced this too.


Facebook appears to throttle traffic to anti-Facebook stories which is I guess what I would do if I controlled the platform and fundamentally didn’t believe in editorial values or civic virtue. https://t.co/WTae6PPGRV

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 30, 2018

We 100% do not take any action on stories for being critical of us.

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) March 30, 2018

Mark Zuckerberg responded to Bosworth"s letter in a statement essentially disavowing the Boz, while also noting that Facebook changed their entire corporate focus to connect people and "bring them together"...

Boz is a talented leader who says many provocative things. This was one that most people at Facebook including myself disagreed with strongly. We"ve never believed the ends justify the means.

We recognize that connecting people isn"t enough by itself. We also need to work to bring people closer together. We changed our whole mission and company focus to reflect this last year.

Meanwhile, Facebook is rapidly becoming radioactive, inside and out.

The question is when will investors - and especially hedge funds, for whom FB was the second most popular stock as of Dec. 31 - agree, and do what Mark Zuckerberg has been aggressively doing in recent weeks: dump it.

10 Truth-Seeker Terms That Are Nonexistent To The Typical Blind Sheep

The gap of consciousness, knowledge, and awareness between those that genuinely seek truth and those who blindly believe what they are told by government and mainstream media without challenging the information, is at an all-time high and getting worse. The widening differences between truth seekers and those who are hypnotized in the matrix of lies and mass media fed government propaganda, is greater than its ever been. Though I have no way of measuring this, I can’t imagine we have ever seen such a wide gap in consciousness amongst people living in the same era, sharing the same general standards of living and technology. No, I’m not talking about merely differences in points of views, opinions, and personalities. And I’m not talking about differences in class or economic status. I’m talking about a wide gap of consciousness and enlightenment about the reality of our world that is manifesting within humanity today.

My point is based on the fundamental principle that “government” (and all its mouthpieces, as it exists today) is fundamentally opposed to truth. In the presence of truth, government (as we know it) cannot exist unless it is transparent and truly reflects the will of the people. This concept of a true transparent ‘Republic’ reflecting the will of the people is so far from the current model we live in now that it is laughed at by many today and is considered a near utopian, primitive, outdated idea. This idea often described by Liberals as utopia and outdated is however at the root of our very own Constitution. These widely different views of the world are also typical of a society divided against itself and is largely reflected in the use of words.

One must first understand that there is such a thing as a widening gap of knowledge and consciousness. This mental and spiritual energy difference and wide manifestation of human consciousness is undeniable and its tension can now be cut with a knife. Don’t believe it? Listen in on conversations between genuine truth seekers and their polar opposites, those that believe mainstream media lies. Between truthers/critical thinkers and their intellectual, spiritual and fundamental opposites- the hypnotized masses- those deeply mentally enslaved in the matrix of lies- the makings of a large consciousness gap exists and their use of words gives them away.

Most people whether they realize it or not, belong to one of these groups. How can you tell the difference? Listen to the words that regularly come out of your mouth. Truth language, based on knowledge and understanding of factual events of the present and past, versus conditioned and engineered language and perceptions entirely engineered by government, is what we are talking about.

Throughout history, the meanings of words, grammar and language have played a key role in defining the journey of humanity. Humans use words to communicate, and words have power and important meanings. Great contrasts in word usage can thus be used as a gauge to determine the level of conflict in a generation. This is true today as much as in any other time in history.

That said, here are 10 key terms that for the most part are completely nonexistent in the minds of the average unassuming blind sheep whose entire paradigms are engineered by government propaganda. Meaning that for the most part, if you even mention the term to these people, they will give you a confused look as if they’ve never even heard the term before. Many truth seekers themselves fail to realize that what is common knowledge to you is completely alien to these consciously debilitated and mentally enslaved brainwashed sheep. Here are some of the terms that make for a great vocabulary litmus test which you can use to test the brainwashed sheep in your life.

1- Controlled opposition – As simple as it may sound. Most sheep have never thought about this concept because it is often related to corrupt controlling governments, specifically the U.S. government and its (Intelligence) strategies for infiltrating and controlling political movements whose purpose is to expose government at some level. The strategy of controlled opposition, so alien to brainwashed sheep, is thus employed by often placing individuals in leadership positions of groups whose purpose involves some sort of activism. Since those that are asleep in the matrix don’t ever consider the concept of oppressive government unless they are reading about ANOTHER government, they think while it can happen to other countries, it would never happen to us here in the U.S.. Thus this concept is entirely foreign to them.

2- False flag – False who? That is the likely reaction you will get from those who are still asleep in the matrix of lies. (pardon the constant reference to ‘matrix’ but it really is bests described as a matrix of lies). Clueless to what a false flag is even dedicated activists who are otherwise still asleep in the matrix of lies will protest wars never even considering that the war they are protesting about was started by a false flag event like Vietnam or Afghanistan. Watch the look of confusion and disorientation as you explain to a sheep that a false flag is simply creating a catastrophic event or attack of some kind, then simply blaming it on an enemy that you wish to attack. The meaning is so simple. It’s one of the oldest military tricks in the book, yet sadly today, given our wide gap in consciousness and knowledge, many have no clue what a false flag means.

3- Fractional reserve banking – Fractional what? Yes, that will be the typical response from someone completely asleep who is not by chance an economy expert or banking professional. I’m talking about your average sheep. They will have no idea that this is the master scheme employed by the western banking system to create money out of thin air. The entire scheme of how money is created by the private Federal Reserve and the entire western-global banking system of today is for the most part completely unknown to the masses. Few if any sheep realize that banks can lend out ten times the (pretend) money (which they don’t have) for every single loan they create that gets transferred to a receiving account. None of them realize that these banks then turn around and charge interest on this very money they never had to begin with. The receiving account in this example is the bank of the person or company who sold the item to the buyer (ie car dealer etc). This ability to perpetually create money and thus real debt for which they will ruin people’s lives if not paid back, may be quietly one of the great human slavery tools of our times and a concept far too overwhelming for the average person to wrap their heads around.

4- Geoengineering – Good luck finding sheep who have heard this word or know what it is. Few if any of the brainwashed masses have been able to wrap this concept around their heads. The idea that scientists here in the U.S., (many who are likely carryovers from Project Paperclip) are actively experimenting genetically and microscopically, to manipulate nature and play god on behalf of government and mega-corporations. From chemtrails spraying of chemicals in our skies to manipulate the climate to tampering with our food and replacing natural food with genetically modified organism, geoengineering is sadly and shockingly to the large masses, still an unknown word.

5- Compartmentalization of knowledge – This is exactly how the U.S. military manages to fool soldiers into believing their mission is noble and worth dying for. Understanding this one powerful and deceptive technique would unlock a sea of knowledge for anyone who wants to learn how military does what they do. It describes how military orders are trickled down the chain of command on a “need to know” bases. And it explains how important it is that knowledge about the true nature of a mission is revealed only to the very few at the top, while others below are told only what they need to be told in order to carry out the mission. In other words, compartmentalization of knowledge is a fancy term to explain how they lie to military soldiers to ensure the mission carries out. With all the wars today, you would think this phrase would be common knowledge especially within our military, but apparently knowledge about the concept of ‘compartmentalization of knowledge’ is itself compartmentalized so the sheep can’t ever connect the dots and are thus easily controlled.

6- Cognitive dissonance– Another phrase that most brainwashed sheep will never think of, or ever for a minute consider they are experiencing themselves. If you find a brainwashed mainstream media believing sheep who has even heard this term before, rest assured they will never have considered that they are experiencing this disorder themselves. Like an invisible enemy ‘Cognitive dissonance’ looms in the background of every piece of truth that the sheep hear. And that is the unsettling feeling, the mental contradiction that arises when information you hear, while it may appeal to your common sense and reason, conflicts with the belief system and paradigm you are committed to. Faced with the decision to accept or reject, this information is then rejected leaving the person with an awkward feeling or anxiety referred to as cognitive dissonance. Sadly most brainwashed sheep are completely unaware of this term much less have considered confronting their own cognitive dissonance about the new world order and the lies we are told daily by the mainstream media and government.

7- Agenda 21– Test your zombie friends out for yourself. Ask them, have you heard of Agenda 21? Then watch their reaction. Very few know of or have ever heard of the U.N.’s Agenda 21. They simply have no idea what it is. Again, these are terms that truth seekers take for granted and they forget how ignorant most people are of these programs and terms. Much less will they know that Agenda 21 is the global blueprint for enslavement, monitoring, control, and taxation of all of humanity globally under the guise of “sustainable” living.

8- Nano-thermite– Even 13+ years after the globalist terror attacks of 9/11 and years after 3 teams of independent scientists discovered nano-thermite in the dust samples of the World Trade Center proving controlled demolition of all 3 towers once and for all, the blind mainstream media (and Popular Mechanics) believing zombies have no clue what nano-thermite is. They have no idea it’s been used for controlled demolition at least as early as the mid 1930’s in Germany (Reichstag dome), or that together with cutter charge technology (which is patented) nano-thermite is a great tool for large-scale military style controlled demolition, like the kind we saw on 9/11. Despite all of this knowledge easily and freely available to the general public, most blind sheep will look at you like you are a crazy conspiracy theorist as soon as you say nano-thermite.

9- GMO– Even with labeling becoming more common, especially amongst food companies whose products are GMO-free (non-GMO), the masses for the most part still have no idea that most of what they eat is genetically modified and has been altered by Genetically Modified Organism. Forget understanding what makes a food item genetically modified, we’re just talking about the term itself. Sadly, most of the brainwashed sheep who reject and ignore knowledge about GMO’s (and other genetically related alterations of nature) are the same ones mostly consuming GMO foods. It is highly likely that cancer rates amongst brainwashed (mainstream media believing) sheep is likely to be much higher than it is amongst truth seekers who are often committed to eating healthy and completely avoiding GMOs. I’d be very interested in seeing a poll comparing the health status of two groups- those that have never heard of GMO and those who have.

10- Orwellian– Finally, the term ‘Orwellian’ comes from the George Orwell novel ‘1984’ where Orwell depicts a society so brainwashed by government propaganda that it literally flips the value of what is good and what is evil to its exact opposite, just as we see today. Ask an un-awakened sheep about who said ‘war is peace’, ‘Freedom is slavery’, ‘ignorance is strength’ or what any of this means. Ask them if they know what is an Orwellian society, but don’t expect them to know. Don’t expect them to see that ‘1984’ is frighteningly similar to today’s America.

Today, as we have seen throughout human history, words have become the very thing that separates truth seekers and blind sheep. Government has not only created its own words to use as a weapon (ie “conspiracy theorists”), but it has also created an unreachable threshold to isolate the minds of those controlled by mainstream media-government propaganda. As a result of this mental isolation, terms that are otherwise now common knowledge to anyone who opens their minds to truth and thinks critically, are completely unheard of by these poor mass mind control subjects.

Let us not take for granted the power of words and how words can be used to widen the gap of consciousness and thus push the masses into deeper and deeper unawareness.

Solutions

One solution for this widening consciousness and awareness (or lack thereof) is to keep sharing the information with as many people as you can. Let’s consider that though this widening gap of consciousness exists between truth seekers and sheep followers, so does the growing numbers of people that are waking up. Ultimately, truth is slowly winning and will prevail. Let us keep exposing the deceivers, share articles like this and help bring more awareness and awakening until we see a critical mass effect. Till then, simply sharing these terms and concepts and helping others become more aware of them will help us break through some of the denial and narrow the knowledge gap that exists.

The post 10 Truth-Seeker Terms That Are Nonexistent To The Typical Blind Sheep appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

High school counselor arrested after threatening to ‘execute’ white people

The in-school suspension coordinator/counselor at a Bridgeport, Connecticut high school has been arrested after threatening to “execute every white man he gets his hands on.” Warren Harding High School’s Carl Lemon was taken into custody Wednesday on charges of second-degree threat and breach of the peace.

Saudi Crown Prince warns of war with Iran within 10 years

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince has warned of “potential war” with Iran within the next 10 to 15 years,Anadolu reported on Friday. Mohammad bin Salman called on the international community to put more political and economic pressure on Tehran in order to avoid “direct military confrontation.”

How the CIA hid their MKULTRA mind control program

In case there is any doubt about it, the idea of relying on the CIA to admit what it has done in the mind-control area, what it is doing, and what it will do should be put to bed by John Mark’s statements. The CIA always has been, and will continue to be, a rogue agency. To give you an idea of how far the CIA, the US military, and its allied academics will go in MKULTRA “research,” here is what I wrote in 1995 about several human experiments.

Dutch panic over infiltration of an apostate Scientology-alike into education and government

Avatar is a self-actualization "technique" created by an ex-Scientologist named Harry Palmer, who defected from the "church" in 1986 to found a lookalike multi-level-marketing version where he serves as a commission-earning "upline" from practitioners who teach his high-priced "courses" -- his Scientology-alike borrows heavily from the original cult and even used some of its symbols until he lost a trademark suit to Scientology.

MIT scientist gets 15 months prison for insider trading

A research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology was sentenced on Friday to 15 months in prison after admitting to insider trading on a mining company merger that his wife, a corporate lawyer, had been working on. Fei Yan, 31, a native of Nanjing, China and postdoctoral associate at MIT, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan. He was also ordered to forfeit $119,429 of proceeds from suspicious trading.

Trump freezes $200 million in funds for YPG/PKK-held areas in Syria

President Donald Trump has ordered the State Department to freeze more than $200 million in funds for recovery efforts in Syria’s YPG/PKK held areas, according to a report yesterday.

Woman Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Voting While on Probation

Because a Texas woman didn"t wait until the end of her probation period before voting in the 2016 election, she was arrested, charged, and convicted of illegally voting and sentenced to five years in prison.

The post Woman Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Voting While on Probation appeared first on The Free Thought Project.

After No Charges, And 2 Years, Video Released of Cop Threatening, Then Killing Alton Sterling

Two years after police killed Alton Sterling, the graphic body camera footage was released which was so disturbing that it led to the officer being fired.

The post After No Charges, And 2 Years, Video Released of Cop Threatening, Then Killing Alton Sterling appeared first on The Free Thought Project.

The Petroyuan Was Born This Week. Here’s What It Means.

Russia warns UK of reciprocal measures if Aeroflot plane search not explained

If the UK provides no explanation for the search of an Aeroflot plane in London, Moscow will consider the action to have been illegal and will take reciprocal measures against British aircraft, the Russian Transport Ministry said.

COLLEGES AND LANDLORDS ARE CRUSHING MILLENNIALS WITH DEBT

The youngest millennials — Americans born between 1977 to 1995 — graduated college a year ago, but they may soon realize that the initiation into adulthood is a far cry from joining a sorority or fraternity. As if the twin-scourge of soaring student debt and stagnant wages weren’t bad enough, they also pay much higher rent than previous generations.

Cambridge Analytica Is What Happens When You Privatize Military Propaganda

The Gulf War Did Not Take Place. This audacious claim was made by the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard in March 1991, only two months after NATO forces had rained explosives on Iraq, shedding the blood of more than a hundred thousand people. To understand Cambridge Analytica and its parent firm, Strategic Communication Laboratories, we need to get our heads round what Baudrillard meant, and what has happened since: how military propaganda has changed with technology, how war has been privatised, and how imperialism is coming home.

Russia closes Seattle consulate, but refuses to remove flag

The Russian consulate in Seattle has been closed by order of the US authorities. The staff has decided not to take down the Russian flag, though, leaving it for the Americans to deal with. "It"s a decision of principle – we"re not removing the flag. We are leaving the matter of the flag"s safety to the decency of our American colleagues," Antonov said.

Israeli forces kill 16 in Gaza as Palestinians demonstrate on Land Day

Israeli forces killed at least 16 Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip on Friday, according to authorities, as tens of thousands demonstrated across the occupied territories and Israel on "Land Day".

In Angry Tweetstorm, Trump Renews Attack On Amazon, Demands "Fake Washington Post" Register As Lobbyist

President Trump"s obsession and escalating feud Jeff Bezos and bringing Amazon to heel before it destroys what"s left of America"s crumbling brick-and-mortar retail industry was on display Saturday morning when he fired off a series of angry tweets claiming the Bezos-owned Washington Post should register as a lobbyist and that the Post Office should jack up its parcel rates to stick it to Amazon.

After No Charges, And 2 Years, Video Released of Cop Threatening, Then Killing Alton Sterling

After the state of Louisiana announced that they would not be charging the officers responsible for ending the life of a man who had caused harm to no one, body camera footage was released showing the travesty that was the seeming premeditated murder of Alton Sterling.

Trump ally detained, served with Mueller subpoena at Boston airport

A professor and author who once presented himself as a possible Trump administration ambassador to the European Union was detained and questioned by the FBI at Boston Logan airport and served a subpoena from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is probing possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

China can succeed with petro-yuan where Gaddafi failed – killing the US dollar in oil trade

Muammar Gaddafi wanted to shatter the dominance of the greenback in the Middle East by introducing gold-backed dinar, but failed. China has a chance to finish what he started, one industry expert has told RT.

Clinton State Department Suppressed International "Novichok" Discussions

While the last act of the "Novichok" drama, the seasonally appropriate resurrection of the Skripals, proceeds, some additional details of the history of "Novichok" nerve agents come to light. Details on "Novichok" nerve agents were published in a 2007 book by Vil Mirzayanaov, a Soviet scientist offered asylum in the United States. After the publication the U.S. and the UK actively suppressed international discussions about the book and the "Novichok" chemical weapon agents.

Thanks to Marijuana Being Illegal, People in Illinois are Now Bleeding from Their Eyes

Thanks to the prohibition of marijuana a synthetic chemical compound is being sold in its place and it is causing horror movie-like side effects like bleeding from the eyes.

The post Thanks to Marijuana Being Illegal, People in Illinois are Now Bleeding from Their Eyes appeared first on The Free Thought Project.