Who Suspended 125,000 Twitter accounts? #OpISIS#Anonymous #GhostOfNoNation http://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-islamic-state-idUSKCN0VE2GM …
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How To Hack A Presidential Election
How To Hack A Presidential Election
There is a growing recognition of the increasing tail wagging the dog nature of the internet’s control over election outcomes. We recently detailed “the hidden persuaders” at work showing how the internet has spawned subtle forms of influence that can flip elections and manipulate everything we say, think and do. Confirming all of this to be chillingly true is Andrés Sepúlveda, who rigged elections throughout Latin America for almost a decade. On the question of whether the U.S. presidential campaign is being tampered with, he is unequivocal – “I’m 100 percent sure it is.”
Liberty Blitzkrieg’s Mike Krieger excerpts a must-read Bloomberg article,
In July 2015, Sepúlveda sat in the small courtyard of the Bunker, poured himself a cup of coffee from a thermos, and took out a pack of Marlboro cigarettes. He says he wants to tell his story because the public doesn’t grasp the power hackers exert over modern elections or the specialized skills needed to stop them. “I worked with presidents, public figures with great power, and did many things with absolutely no regrets because I did it with full conviction and under a clear objective, to end dictatorship and socialist governments in Latin America,” he says. “I have always said that there are two types of politics—what people see and what really makes things happen. I worked in politics that are not seen.”Rendón, says Sepúlveda, saw that hackers could be completely integrated into a modern political operation, running attack ads, researching the opposition, and finding ways to suppress a foe’s turnout. As for Sepúlveda, his insight was to understand that voters trusted what they thought were spontaneous expressions of real people on social media more than they did experts on television and in newspapers. He knew that accounts could be faked and social media trends fabricated, all relatively cheaply.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Dozens Arrested, Tear Gas Deployed As French Labor Reform Protests Turn Violent
Dozens Arrested, Tear Gas Deployed As French Labor Reform Protests Turn Violent
In a stark reminder of the entrenched problems facing the French economy, today police used tear gas to disperse thousands of angry activists across the nation, who are protesting new labor reforms. French rail and air traffic suffered serious disruption on Thursday after transport staff stopped work and took to the streets along with high-school students to challenge plans for a pro-business loosening of the country’s protective labor laws.
In Paris the protest started in Place de la Nation, the same place where previous anti-labor rallies took place. The demonstrators threw bottles with flammable liquid and stones at police officers. Video footage relayed on social media showed some hooded youths jumping on cars and taunting police. CGT chief Martinez played down reports of a dozen arrests, saying there was often a bit of trouble caused by “some people who have nothing to do with the issue”.
“Everyone hates the police,” the protesters were
shouting. At least two protesters have been beaten by police officers in
the city of Lille, according to photo reporter Julien Pitinome, who tweeted a picture of the incident.
In the city of Nantes demonstrators tried to storm the town hall and smash windows.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Anonymous claim Twitter is shutting down their accounts for harassing ISIS
Anonymous claim Twitter is shutting down their accounts for harassing ISIS
Online activists involved in the #OpISIS campaign to rid social media of an Islamic extremist presence say Twitter has been suspending their accounts for online harassment against the terrorist group.
An Anonymous hacker made the claims after Twitter said it suspended 125,000 accounts for “threatening or promoting terrorist acts, primarily related to ISIS” since mid-2015.
“You do realize if we all stopped reporting terrorist accounts and graphic images, Twitter would be flooded with terrorists,” WauchulaGhost, an anti-terrorist hacker with Anonymous told The Epoch Times.
Hackers from groups such as Anonymous, GhostSec,and Ctrl Sec regularly publish lists of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) supporters and recruiters, and call on the wider online community to report the related social media accounts for suspension.
However, the hacktivists say they are now the ones being targeted by Twitter, which recently strengthened its rules regarding online harassment.
A number of the hackers’ accounts have been suspended, including some of the main #OpISIS accounts, with the handles being taken down one-by-one or in groups.
Twitter has tended to reinstate the accounts within hours after it is bombarded with requests to do so by other hackers and supporters.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
HSBC Looks At “Life Below Zero,” Says “Helicopter Money” May Be The Only Savior
HSBC Looks At “Life Below Zero,” Says “Helicopter Money” May Be The Only Savior
In many ways, 2016 has been the year that the world woke up to how far down Krugman’s rabbit hole (trademark) DM central bankers have plunged in a largely futile effort to resuscitate global growth.
For whatever reason, Haruhiko Kuroda’s move into NIRP seemed to spark a heretofore unseen level of public debate about the drawbacks of negative rates. Indeed, NIRP became so prevalent in the public consciousness that celebrities began to discuss central bank policy on Twitter.
When we say “for whatever reason” we don’t mean that the public shouldn’t be concerned about NIRP. In fact, we mean the exact opposite. The ECB, the Nationalbank, the SNB, and the Riksbank have all been mired in ineffectual NIRP for quite sometime and the public seemed almost completely oblivious. Indeed, even the financial media treated this lunacy as though it were some kind of cute Keynesian experiment that could be safely confined to Europe which would serve as a testing ground for whether policies that fly in the face of the financial market equivalent of Newtonian physics could be implemented without the world suddenly imploding.
We imagine the fact that equity markets got off to such a volatile start to the year, combined with the fact that crude continued to plunge and at one point looked as though it might sink into the teens, led quite a few people to look towards the monetary Mount Olympus (where “gods” like Draghi, Yellen, and Kuroda intervene in human affairs when necessary to secure “desirable” economic outcomes) only to discover that not only has all the counter-cyclical maneuverability been exhausted, we’ve actually moved beyond the point where the ammo is gone into a realm where the negative rate mortgage is a reality.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Meanwhile In Greece, Familiar Scenes Are Back: General Strike, Molotov Cocktails, Tear Gas
Meanwhile In Greece, Familiar Scenes Are Back: General Strike, Molotov Cocktails, Tear Gas
Greece was fixed for a few months, when the so-called “anti-austerity” government of PM Tsipras which came to power just over a year ago did what each on its predecessors did by kicking the can and trading off what little sovereignty Greece has left for promises of more cash from Europe, but it is broken once again.
Earlier today, services across Greece ground to a halt Thursday as workers joined in a massive general strike that cancelled flights, ferries and public transport, shut down schools, courts and pharmacies, and left public hospitals with emergency staff. Even the undertakers are striking.
Thursday’s general strike is the most significant the coalition government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has faced since he initially came to power about a year ago. As an opposition party, Tsipras’ radical left Syriza party had led opposition to pension reforms, but he was forced into a dramatic policy U-turn last year when he faced the stark choice of signing up to a third bailout or the country being kicked out of the eurozone.
The strike comes as the government negotiates with Greece’s international debt inspectors, who returned to Athens this week to review progress on the country’s bailout obligations. The central Athens hotel where the inspectors were staying was heavily guarded by police.
As CBC reports, well over 20,000 supporters of a Communist party-backed union were marching through central Athens, while around 10,000 more people — including about 1,000 lawyers in suits and ties — were gathering for a separate demonstration. A heavy police presence was deployed in the capital, as previous protests have often degenerated into riots.
Unions are angry at pension reforms that are part of Greece’s third international bailout.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
When “Story Stocks” Crash Like this, the Market is Kaput
When “Story Stocks” Crash Like this, the Market is Kaput
Reality suddenly mucks up the rosy scenario.
Many of our heroic “story stocks” are getting totally destroyed. Yet not much has changed: Their business model, if any, is the same; they’re still losing money hand over fist; and they’re still trotting out the same custom-designed metrics that seduced analysts and the media once upon a time. But it’s not working anymore.
After the drubbing on Wednesday – the Nasdaq plunged 3.4% and is down 13.5% from its high – we know one thing for sure: there will be a rally someday that lasts longer than a few hours. But something big has changed.
There was the old guard of new tech. Netflix plummeted 8.6% on Wednesday and is down about 20% from its 52-week high. Apple dropped 2.6% and is down 28% from its 52-week high. Facebook lost 3.9% and is 14% off its 52-week high. The list goes on.
But the real drubbing was reserved for the new darlings, the fruits of the recent IPO boom, and other “story stocks”:
Etsy dropped 4.9% for the day to a new low of $6.99. After its IPO at $16 in April last year, it spiked to $35.74 and has gotten whacked down 80% since. Twitter plunged 4.8% to a new low of $18.68. After its IPO at $26, it spiked to $78, from which it has now plunged 76%. Shopify plunged 10% during the day and is down 48% from its high in June.
Mobileye, which makes software for camera-based systems and sensors for (self-driving) cars, plunged 10.3% for the day, and 47% from its 52 week high. And yet, self-driving car tech is one of the hottest, most hyped wonders of the day.
Oh, and GoPro! In after-hours trading, shares plunged 25% to $11 a share. But it’s an exception among our IPO heroes: it has actual profits and a real P/E ratio! And it has a real business model, even if it resembles a one-trick pony that’s getting tired.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Canadians Panic As Food Prices Soar On Collapsing Currency
Canadians Panic As Food Prices Soar On Collapsing Currency
It was just yesterday when we documented the continuing slide in the loonie, which is suffering mightily in the face of oil’s inexorable decline.
As regular readers are no doubt acutely aware, Canada is struggling through a dramatic economic adjustment, especially in Alberta, the heart of the country’s oil patch. Amid the ongoing crude carnage the province has seen soaring property crime, rising food bank usage and, sadly, elevated suicide rates, as Albertans struggle to comprehend how things up north could have gone south (so to speak) so quickly.
The plunging loonie “can only serve to worsen the death of the ‘Canadian Dream'” we said on Tuesday.
As it turns out, we were exactly right.
The currency’s decline is having a pronounced effect on Canadians’ grocery bills. As Bloomberg reminds us, Canada imports around 80% of its fresh fruits and vegetables. When the loonie slides, prices for those good soar. “With lower-income households tending to spend a larger portion of income on food, this side effect of a soft currency brings them the most acute stress,” Bloomberg continues.
Of course with the layoffs piling up, you can expect more households to fall into the “lower-income” category where they will have to struggle to afford things like $3 cucumbers, $8 cauliflower, and $15 Frosted Flakes. Have a look at the following tweets which underscore just how bad it is in Canada’s grocery aisles.
Three bucks. For a cucumber.
Oil Spike Risk: Iran Police Use Water Cannon On Angry Protesters Near Saudi Consulate
Oil Spike Risk: Iran Police Use Water Cannon On Angry Protesters Near Saudi Consulate
Despite official pleas for “calm” following the death of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, Iranians are in no mood to stand down.
Perhaps the Ayatollah’s calls for “divine vengeance” have incited a riot or perhaps the Shiite world has simply had enough of the House of Saud, but whatever the case, crowds once again gathered outside the Saudi consulate in Mashhad on Sunday where riot police tried in vain to disperse the mob with water cannons just hours after angry protesters torched the Saudi embassy in Tehran.
Below, find images from the scene which underscore just how precarious the situation has become in the wake of Saturday’s executions in Saudi Arabia.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Turkey’s Erdogan Praises “Hitler’s Germany” As Example Of Effective Government
Turkey’s Erdogan Praises “Hitler’s Germany” As Example Of Effective Government
Back in August, Nationalist opposition leader Devlet Bahceli took to Twitter to call Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “locally produced Hitler, Stalin or Qaddafi”:
Yönetim sistemi bir kişinin eline kaldıysa vay halimize! Bizim yerli üretimHitler’e, Stalin’e, Kaddafi’ye tahammülümüz olmaz, bu iyi biline
That comment came as Erdogan was busy undermining the coalition building process on the way to calling for new elections. “Accept it or not, Turkey’s governmental system has become one of an executive presidency,” Erdogan said, the day before the tweet shown above was published. “What should be done now is to finalize the legal framework of this de facto situation with a new constitution,” Erdogan continued.
For anyone in need of a refresher, Erdogan’s plans to make Turkey an executive presidency were derailed in June when the pro-Kurdish HDP put on a better show at the ballot box than expected, robbing AKP of its absolute majority in parliament.
The President effectively nullified the election results by calling for a November redo ballot.
“He’s now saying ‘I won’t listen to the laws or constitution.’ This is a very dangerous period,” warned Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the Main Republican People’s Party. “He wants to give a legal foundation to this coup he’s carried out. Those who carry out coups always do this: First they carry out the coup, then they give it a legal foundation.’”
Fast forward four months and we’ve seen Erdogan shoot down a Russian warplane and intensify a crackdown on the Kurds which many thought would dissipate once AKP reinstated its iron grip on politics in November.
Now, as Erdogan pushes to officially transform the Turkish presidency from a figurehead role (obviously Erdogan is anything but a figurehead, but this is about enshrining powers he shouldn’t have into law) into a chief executive position, the President is appealing to history.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Russia Presents Detailed Evidence Of ISIS-Turkey Oil Trade
Russia Presents Detailed Evidence Of ISIS-Turkey Oil Trade
On Monday, Turkey’s sultan President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said something funny. In the wake of Vladimir Putin’s contention that Russia has additional proof of Turkey’s participation in Islamic State’s illicit crude trade, Erdogan said he would resign if anyone could prove the accusations.
Now obviously, conclusive evidence that Ankara is knowingly facilitating the sale of ISIS crude will probably be hard to come by, at least in the short-term, but the silly thing about Erdogan’s pronouncement is that we’re talking about a man who was willing to plunge his country into civil war over a few lost seats in Parliament. The idea that he would ever “step down” is patently absurd.
But that’s not what’s important. What’s critical is that the world gets the truth about who’s financing and facilitating “Raqqa’s Rockefellers.” If a NATO member is supporting this, and if the US has refrained from bombing ISIS oil trucks for 14 months as part of an understanding with Erdogan, well then we have a problem. For those who need a review, see the following four pieces:
- The Most Important Question About ISIS That Nobody Is Asking
- Meet The Man Who Funds ISIS: Bilal Erdogan, The Son Of Turkey’s President
- How Turkey Exports ISIS Oil To The World: The Scientific Evidence
- ISIS Oil Trade Full Frontal: “Raqqa’s Rockefellers”, Bilal Erdogan, KRG Crude, And The Israel Connection
Unfortunately for Ankara, The Kremlin is on a mission to blow this story wide open now that Turkey has apparently decided it’s ok to shoot down Russian fighter jets. On Wednesday, we get the latest from Russia, where the Defense Ministry has just finished a briefing on the Islamic State oil trade. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Turkey may be in trouble.
First, here’s the bullet point summary via Reuters:
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Fourth Turning–Our Rendezvous With Destiny
FOURTH TURNING – OUR RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY
We are now in the seventh year of this Fourth Turning. A famous quote from the seventh year of the last Fourth Turning portended the desperate, bloody and ultimately heroic trials and tribulations which awaited generations of our ancestors. What will be our rendezvous with destiny?
“There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt – June 27, 1936 – Philadelphia, PA
Our Rendezvous With Destiny
“The seasons of time offer no guarantees. For modern societies, no less than for all forms of life, transformative change is discontinuous. For what seems an eternity, history goes nowhere – and then it suddenly flings us forward across some vast chaos that defies any mortal effort to plan our way there. The Fourth Turning will try our souls – and the saecular rhythm tells us that much will depend on how we face up to that trial. The saeculum does not reveal whether the story will have a happy ending, but it does tell us how and when our choices will make a difference.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning
The people have been permitting a small cadre of elitists, billionaire financiers, corporate chiefs, propagandist media moguls, and crooked politicians to make the choices dictating the path of our country since the 2008 dawn of this Fourth Turning. The choices they have made and continue to make have imperiled the world and guaranteed a far more calamitous outcome as we attempt to navigate through the trials and tribulations ahead. Their strategy to “save the country” by saving bankers, while selling the plan to the public as beneficial to all and essential to saving our economic system, has proven to be nothing more than the greatest wealth transfer scheme in human history. The ruling class is deliberately blind to their own venality and capacity for evil.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
France Arrests 24 Climate Activists Using New “State Of Emergency” Laws, As Clashes Break Out In Paris – Live Feed
France Arrests 24 Climate Activists Using New “State Of Emergency” Laws, As Clashes Break Out In Paris – Live Feed
As Intellihub’s Shepard Ambellas writes, one-hundred and fifty heads of government, a.k.a. the elite, are gathering over the course of the next few weeks for a massive climate summit that’s anticipated to attract and indoctrinate over 40,000 visitors from around the globe. The summit, dubbed COP21, is sponsored by the United Nations (UN) and will reportedly focus on combating climate change. However it’s doubtful that geoengineering, which ironically is mostly to blame for current climate patterns, will even be a topic of interest to scheduled speakers. To boot any chance of that information making it out to the general public is limited as 24 activists have already been placed under house arrest.”
He further observes that “emergency powers” declared in the wake of the recent Paris attacks – in the name of terrorism – and adopted virtually overnight, were extended for a period of up to 90-days by the country’s leadership allowing for such activists to be jailed in advance of the summit or at anytime within period.
France 24 confirms the “pre-crime” arrests, writing that twenty-four environmental activists have been placed under house arrest ahead of the Paris climate summit, using France’s state of emergency laws. Two of them slammed an attack on civil liberties. The order ends on December 12, the day the Paris climate summit draws to a close.
French security forces have been on edge since Islamist gunmen killed 130 people in a deadly rampage across Paris on November 13, in the country’s worst ever terrorist attacks.The ensuing state of emergency, declared by President François Hollande and extended by lawmakers for three months, has given police sweeping powers to search homes, handcuff residents and place people under house arrest, without judicial oversight.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
“It Looks Like A Warzone” – Army, APCs, Roadblocks Deployed In Brussels After Explosives, Chemical Weapons Found
“It Looks Like A Warzone” – Army, APCs, Roadblocks Deployed In Brussels After Explosives, Chemical Weapons Found
In the aftermath of last night’s warning of an “imminent” terror threat in Brussels when OCAM Crisis Center and the government raised the country’s terror alert to the highest level, today the escalation continues and the Belgian capital looks like not only a ghost town but something out of a Call of Duty warzone after authorities deployed special forces, and APCs, shut the metro, locked down shopping centers, closed sporting events, and warned the public to avoid crowds, train stations, airports and commercial districts because of a “serious and imminent” threat of an attack.
As Reuters reports, a week after the Paris attacks carried out by Islamic State militants, of whom one suspect from Brussels is at large and said by authorities to be highly dangerous, Brussels was placed on the top level “four” in the government’s threat scale after a meeting of top ministers, police and security services.
“The advice for the population is to avoid places where a lot of people come together like shopping centers, concerts, events or public transport stations wherever possible,” a spokesman for the government’s crisis center said.
As AFP reported earlier, the spike in the terror threat is due to a risk of attacks by “weapons and explosives”.
#BREAKING Belgium terror alert linked to a risk of attacks by ‘weapons and explosives’: PM
The local security forces are taking no chances, and as can be seen on the photos below, APC have been deployed as the city barricades itself with the use of roadblocks at strategic locations.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
EU Commissioner’s Dire Warning: “The Only Alternative To Europe Is War”
EU Commissioner’s Dire Warning: “The Only Alternative To Europe Is War”
While the saying goes “good fences make good neighbors,” it appears the leadership of The EU is starting to get frustrated with the lack of acquiescence among some of the ‘union’s’ newer or more marginal members. In a somewhat stunning statement, following ongoing and contentious meetings to discuss solutions to the migrant ‘problem’, EU Commissioner Timmermanns appeared to warn disagreeable member states, “There is an alternative to everything. I believe in EU cooperation because of all other forms in history have been tried to help Europeans get on better, and with the exception of this one, all other forms have led to war – so let’s stick to this one.”
@BrunoBrussels @TimmermansEU Direct quote, or gloss?
As Elsevier reports (via Google Translate),European leaders read the last few days the alarm about the survival of the European Union (EU). Prague said Commissioner Frans Timmermans (PvdA) Friday that the EU is only one alternative: war.“The only alternative to the EU is war,” said Timmermans Friday gave a speech at a conference in Prague, said a reporter for The Times of London who attended the speech.
Timmermans is the way Europe responds to the migration crisis’ the biggest threat to the EU ever. The Commissioner underlined that countries should cooperate better when it comes to border controls. “Migration is part of life, but we must lead these movements together in the right direction,” said Timmermans.
Matching words Timmermans in the alarmist tone that European leaders were heard in recent days about the survival of the EU.Earlier this week, Timmermans at the House of Europe Lecture in Amsterdam that he fears for the survival of the EU.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
US Ground Troops In Syria Is “Illegal, Big Mistake”, Russia Warns Obama Of “Unpredictable Consequences”
US Ground Troops In Syria Is “Illegal, Big Mistake”, Russia Warns Obama Of “Unpredictable Consequences”
On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the US would no longer hesitate to engage in “direct action on the ground” in Iraq and Syria.
The change in rhetoric (and apparent shift in strategy) comes just days after the US seemingly prepared the public for what might be coming by releasing helmet cam footage of what Washington says was a raid on an ISIS prison by Delta Force (accompanied by the Peshmerga). 70 prisoners were allegedly freed although not before the US suffered its first combat death in Iraq since 2011.
The timing of the video is suspect, to say the least. It came just days after Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford visited Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi in an effort to dissuade Baghdad from requesting Russian airstrikes on ISIS targets. In short, it appears as though Washington is trying to simultaneously, i) prove to Mid-East governments that the US can still be effective in the fight against terrorism even as questions remain about ulterior motives and even as Russia racks up gains in Syria, ii) prepare the public for the possibility that America is about to put boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria. Here’s more from WSJ on Washington’s new “strategy”:
The White House is seriously considering deploying a small squadron of Apache attack helicopters to Iraq as part of a package of new assistance programs to counter Islamic State, according to U.S. officials.
The move could ultimately require the deployment of hundreds more U.S. service members to Iraq. Among other proposals, U.S. officials said some in the military recommend openly deploying a small number of forces on the ground in Syria, embedded among moderate rebels or Kurdish forces there, for the first time.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
