Local and Global Community News – Activism / Protests - Animal Advocacy - Animal Rescue- Archaeology/Anthropology/Paleontology/Crypto-zoology , Corporate Assault on our Lives and Our Health, Environmental- Internet/IT - Signs of the Times – Wildlife : News Affiliate of Family Survival Protocol.com
Showing posts with label Conspiracy theories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Conspiracy theories. Show all posts
CDC scientists held meeting to destroy autism-vaccine documents, reveals CDC whistleblower
Thursday, December 03, 2015 by: Julie Wilson staff writer
(NaturalNews) The results of a 2004 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discovered a significant
link between the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella) and autism in
African American boys vaccinated under or around the age 36 months;
however, if it weren't for one whistleblower, you would not have been
privy to any of this, because the evidence was deliberately covered up.
Dr.
William Thompson, currently a senior scientist at the CDC, recently
made a shocking admission that he and his colleagues specifically
arranged a meeting to destroy important documents related to the
study in an attempt to withhold information from the public regarding a
link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
As first reported by Sharyl Attkisson, a former CBS News journalist turned independent investigative reporter, Dr. Thompson and the study co-authors "scheduled a meeting to destroy documents related to the study.
"The
remaining four co-authors all met and brought a big garbage can into
the meeting room, and reviewed and went through all the hardcopy
documents that we had thought we should discard, and put them into a
huge garbage can."
"The omitted data suggested that African
American males who received the MMR vaccine before age 36 months were at
increased risk for autism." – CDC Senior Science Dr. William Thompson
However, aware that destroying documents
in this manner was both illegal and unethical, Dr. Thompson kept hard
copies of all the documents that had been disposed of, as well as
maintained all associated computer files.
After securing a
whistleblower attorney, Dr. Thompson came forward with his admission,
providing relevant documents in August 2014 to the office of Rep. Bill
Posey (R-Florida), who presented details of the cover-up on the floor of
the U.S. House of Representatives.
Posey, who maintains that he is "pro-vaccine," read the following quote by Dr. Thompson on the House floor:
My
primary job duties while working in the immunization safety branch from
2000 to 2006, were to later co-lead three major vaccine safety studies.
The MADDSP, MMR autism cases control study was being carried out in
response to the Wakefield-Lancet study that suggested an association
between the MMR vaccine and an autism-like health outcome. There
were several major concerns among scientists and consumer advocates
outside the CDC in the fall of 2000, regarding the execution of the
Verstraeten Study. One of the important goals that was determined up
front, in the spring of 2001, before any of these studies started, was
to have all three protocols vetted outside the CDC
prior to the start of the analyses so consumer advocates could not
claim that we were presenting analyses that suited our own goals and
biases. We hypothesized that if we found statistically
significant effects at either 18 or 36 month thresholds, we would
conclude that vaccinating children early with MMR vaccine could lead to
autism-like characteristics or features. We all met and finalized the study
protocol and analysis plan. The goal was to not deviate from the
analysis plan to avoid the debacle that occurred with the Verstraeten
thimerosal study published in Pediatrics in 2003. At the Sept 5th meeting
we discussed in detail how to code race for both the sample and the
birth certificate sample. At the bottom of table 7, it also shows that
for the non-birth certificate sample, the adjusted race effect
statistical significance was huge. All the authors and I
met and decided sometime between August and September 2002, not to
report any race effects from the paper. Sometime soon after the meeting,
we decided to exclude reporting any race effects. The co-authors scheduled a meeting to destroy documents related to the study. The
remaining four co-authors all met and brought a big garbage can into
the meeting room, and reviewed and went through all the hardcopy
documents that we had thought we should discard, and put them into a
huge garbage can. However, because I assumed it was illegal
and would violate both FOIA and DOJ requests, I kept hardcopies of all
documents in my office, and I retain all associated computer files. I
believe we intentionally withheld controversial findings from the final
draft of the Pediatrics paper.
The CDC and Dr.
Thompson's co-author Dr. Frank DeStefano, CDC Director of Immunization
Safety, continue to defend the study as originally published.
A July 29 Tweet by Attkisson states:
So far, no hearings scheduled and no known inquiry of the alleged scientific misconduct.
The
NaturalNews Network is a non-profit collection of public education
websites covering topics that empower individuals to make positive
changes in their health, environmental sensitivity, consumer choices and
informed skepticism. The NaturalNews Network is owned and operated by
Truth Publishing International, Ltd., a Taiwan corporation. It is not
recognized as a 501(c)3 non-profit in the United States, but it
operates without a profit incentive, and its key writer, Mike Adams,
receives absolutely no payment for his time, articles or books other
than reimbursement for items purchased in order to conduct product
reviews.
The vast majority of our content is freely given away at
no charge. We offer thousands of articles and dozens of downloadable
reports and guides (like the Honest Food Guide)
that are designed to educate and empower individuals, families and
communities so that they may experience improved health, awareness and
life fulfillment.
A mysterious bright light in the sky has sent Californians into panic - only for it to be explained soon afterwards.
The light was spotted travelling quickly over Orange County and neighbouring areas late on Saturday, leading to fevered speculation online over its origin.
The Orange County sheriff said the light was from a naval test fire made off the California coastline.
Aviation officials had warned of possible US military activity.
Videos posted online show a bright flare rising high, before a wide, bright blue flash emerges in a cone shape. Many videos continue to track the light for several minutes.
On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said night-time flights to and from Los Angeles International (LAX) would avoid flying over the Pacific Ocean to the west of the airport, the second busiest in the US.
The FAA did not disclose the reason for the change, but indicated that military activity in the area would take place between Friday and Thursday.
Media in California confirmed that the light came from an unarmed Trident missile fired from the USS Kentucky navy submarine.
The platinum-selling singer Josh Groban was one of those who tweeted his shock at the light:
A Trident missile the Navy tested off Los Angeles Saturday night is shown from the Fourth Street bridge over 110 Freeway in Los Angeles. Photographer Preston Newman was on a photo shoot at the time. — Preston Newman Photography, on Instagram at @Newman_Photos
A mysterious light that streaked across San Diego’s night sky Saturday, visible as far away as Nevada and Arizona, was a Trident missile test-fired by the Navy.
Navy Strategic Systems Programs conducted the scheduled Trident II (D5) missile test flight at sea from the Kentucky, an Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine, in the Pacific Test Range off the coast of Southern California, a Navy spokesman said.
Mystery light over San Diego
Shot by Jim Boydston.
The test was part of a scheduled, on-going system evaluation test, said Cmdr. Ryan Perry with the Navy’s Third Fleet.
Perry said launches are conducted on a frequent, recurring basis to ensure the continued reliability of the system. “Each test activity provides valuable information about our systems, thus contributing to assurance in our capabilities,” he said in a statement.
The missile was not armed and Strategic Systems Programs does not routinely announce missile testing. Information regarding the test launch of such missiles is classified prior to the launch, Perry said.
The test range is a massive area northwest of Los Angeles. The Navy periodically uses the range to test fire Tomahawk and Standard cruise from surface ships and submarines.
Read More Here
......................................................................................................
Thermonuclear missile launch near Los Angeles is final sign of World War III on the precipice... US, China and Russia all escalating covert attacks in run up to global war
Sunday, November 08, 2015
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
(NaturalNews) "A mysterious bright light in the sky has sent Californians into panic," reports the BBC. "Videos posted online show a bright flare rising high, before a wide, bright blue flash emerges in a cone shape. Many videos continue to track the light for several minutes."
Last night, Californians immediately leapt to social media to propose their theories of the phenomenon, ranging from a nuclear missile attack to meteors. "Law agencies and news media in San Diego were flooded with calls about 6 p.m. from people reporting everything from a flare to a comet to a nuclear bomb in the western sky," reports the San Diego Union Tribune.
Just a day earlier, the FAA had issued flight restrictions for the Los Angeles International Airport, denying aircraft access to one of the most frequent approach paths for international and domestic travel.
The official explanation is a lie
The "official" explanation of this event -- and remember that "official" explanations are almost always cover stories -- is that the U.S. Navy launched a test missile just because they "routinely" test missiles.
"Media in California confirmed that the light came from an unarmed Trident missile fired from the USS Kentucky navy submarine," reports the BBC. While they call the missile "unarmed," they fail to mention that the Trident missile normally carries a thermonuclear warhead. There's also no way for the media to know whether this missile was really unarmed or not, as the sole source on that question is the U.S. Navy itself.
Apparently the media thinks the public is so incredibly stupid that they'll believe the U.S. Navy has nowhere else to launch a test missile other than right next to Los Angeles. Somehow we're supposed to believe the entire Pacific Ocean won't work for such a test launch, so they have to launch it adjacent to the airport and thereby inconvenience commercial aviation traffic for an entire week.
Obviously, the official cover story is pure bunk. So what's the real story behind this? It all has to do with China and the covert war that's already underway between China, the US and Russia.
China's military submarines are a huge threat to U.S. national security
To get up to speed on what's really happening, read this report from the Congressional Research Service (PDF) found at http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33153.pdf
Authored by Ronald O'Rourke, Specialist in Naval Affairs, and just released on Sep. 21, 2015, the report is entitled, "China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities."
The report states:
China is building a modern and regionally powerful navy with a limited but growing capability for conducting operations beyond China’s near-seas region. Observers of Chinese and U.S. military forces view China’s improving naval capabilities as posing a potential challenge in the Western Pacific to the U.S. Navy’s ability to achieve and maintain control of blue-water ocean areas in wartime -- the first such challenge the U.S. Navy has faced since the end of the Cold War.
China’s naval modernization effort encompasses a broad array of platform and weapon acquisition programs, including anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs), anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs), submarines, surface ships, aircraft, and supporting C4ISR (command and control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) systems.
The most important section of this report, in my assessment, is this description of China's ship-killing ballistic missiles:
China is fielding an ASBM, referred to as the DF-21D, that is a theater-range ballistic missile equipped with a maneuverable reentry vehicle (MaRV) designed to hit moving ships at sea. DOD states that China continues to field an ASBM based on a variant of the CSS-5 (DF-21) MRBM that it began deploying in 2010. This missile provides the PLA the capability to attack aircraft carriers in the western Pacific. The CSS-5 Mod 5 has a range exceeding 1,500 km [about 810 nm] and is armed with a maneuverable warhead.
China, in other words, has weapons capable of destroying U.S. aircraft carriers, destroyers and other ships. The 1,500 km range is key because it allows a very wide operational range.
Just recently in August, the Chinese and Russians held their largest naval joint exercise in history as a way to "counter U.S. influence in Asia." As reported by Collapse.news:
The Russian and Chinese navies are set to hold their largest joint exercises ever, featuring scores of warships, hundreds of troops and an amphibious landing, in what appears to be a deepening of ties meant to counter a rising U.S. military presence in Asia.
In September, Chinese warships were spotted operating near the coast of Alaska. This was reported across the mainstream media, including in the Wall Street Journal in an article entitled, "Five Chinese Navy Ships Are Operating in Bering Sea off Alaska."
Fox News also covered the same story: "5 Chinese warships spotted off Alaska coast during President Obama's visit."
In response to that territorial provocation, the U.S. Navy sent the USS Lassen destroyer to within 12 nautical miles of China's newly-constructed military bases in the Spratly Islands.
China's communist government openly condemned the act as a provocation of war. From the Straits Times:
China claims most of the South China Sea and on Oct 9 its Foreign Ministry warned that Beijing would "never allow any country to violate China's territorial waters and airspace in the Spratly Islands, in the name of protecting freedom of navigation and overflight."
Secret space weapon attacks on China's industrial infrastructure
This is all on top of the Pentagon's secret space weapon attacks on China's industrial infrastructure.
As I wrote on August 17 of this year, Natural News was informed by mainland Chinese dissidents that they believe the string of mysterious industrial explosions such as the massive Tianjin explosion was caused by kinetic strikes from orbital platform weapons operated by the United States.
China then retaliated by covertly destroying a U.S. weapons depot in Tokyo, using old-school sabotage techniques. Two additional industrial explosions in China soon followed.
Taiwan surrenders to China with insane "One China" admission by President Ma
China's war of aggression is also in high gear on the geopolitical side, with China pressuring Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou to publicly state yesterday that Taiwan is now part of China!
A massive cultural backlash in Taiwan is now surging, as most of the country's citizens do not want to be part of communist China. Taiwan's DPP party is rapidly rising to prominence on the platform of Taiwan as a sovereign nation, but China remains in an aggressive military stance, always threatening Taiwan with an armed invasion if Taiwan attempts to "secede" from China. (Taiwan's GMT party, which is a "pro-China" party, has been plagued by an endless stream of scandals and corruption.)
From Channel News Asia: "Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou emphasised the island must continue to uphold the 1992 Consensus with China’s Communist Party in order to promote cross-strait relations and development, as he marked the 22nd anniversary of the historic talks between Taipei and Beijing in Singapore."
Taiwan is a critical strategic island for U.S. influence over the Pacific naval theater of operations. Taiwan's airports and military basis provide key strategic locations for staging U.S. aircraft and even bombers if conflict breaks out with China.
As you ponder all this, keep in mind that Taiwan's media giants have all been infiltrated and taken over by communist China. The Taiwan media is now China's state-run media. Only small, independent websites can be trusted to report the truth.
The Trident missile launch near Los Angeles was a warning shot against China in a last-ditch effort to prevent all-out war
The upshot of all this is that the U.S. and China have been engaged in a covert war for quite some time, and that covert war has escalated month by month, even as the official state-run news organizations of both nations have denied any war is happening at all.
Last night's test launch of the Trident missile over Orange County was staged near a high population area for a tactical reason: To have as many witnesses (and videos) as possible, sending a very visible warning message to China that says, "We can destroy you if you don't back off."
The Trident missile, built by Lockheed Martin, is a thermonuclear missile system (Fleet Ballistic Missile) with a range of at least 4,000 nautical miles. See the Trident missile page on the U.S. Navy website. Just one Trident missile launched from somewhere in the Pacific Ocean could devastate China with a nuclear strike on Beijing.
The U.S. Navy's "showcasing" of the Trident missile near Los Angeles is a $31 million billboard that tells China, "Don't f--k with us."
Nobody in the mainstream media is report this; probably because, with a few exceptions, they are mostly clueless, brain-dead propagandists who know nothing about international geopolitics and the real state of conflict in our world. Also, they are ordered what to write by the U.S. government regime in exactly the same way China's "journalists" are ordered what to write by the Chinese regime.
Right now, the United States and China are in an undeclared state of war. China stands ready to strike the USA with nuclear warheads or high altitude EMP weapons that would destroy the U.S. power grid and cause 90% casualties across the unprepared population. Legendary American journalist Ted Koppel has even written a book about this entitled Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath.
China and Russia preparing massive first strike against America
Many people believe that China and Russia are working together to prepare for a massive first strike against the United States that would cripple its defenses and economy. Following that first strike, a land invasion would commence using Russian troops.
Supporting this theory, Russian submarines have been spotted near undersea internet cables in an obvious effort to document their whereabouts so that the cables can be instantly severed, unleashing a devastating blow to the U.S. economy, Wall Street and even military communications. "Russian submarines and spy ships are aggressively operating near the vital undersea cables that carry almost all global Internet communications, raising concerns among some American military and intelligence officials that the Russians might be planning to attack those lines in times of conflict," reports WND.com. " In times of tension or conflict, the ultimate Russian hack on the United States could involve severing the fiber-optic cables at some of their hardest-to-access locations to halt the instant communications on which the West’s governments, economies and citizens have grown dependent."
At the same time a new Russian "drone sub" has been created that can strike U.S. coastal cities and harbors with nuclear weapons. Writing on NationalSecurity.news, Jon Dougherty states, "According to officials, the developmental unmanned underwater vehicle, or UUV, when it is deployed, will be outfitted with megaton-class nuclear warheads that can destroy key ports used by U.S. nuclear-armed and powered submarines like Kings Bay, Georgia, and Puget Sound in Washington state."
The ultimate pre-emptive strike on America: EMP attack, cyber attack, currency wars and bandwidth blackouts
If you put the pieces of the puzzle together, what's really shaping up here is a massive, multi-layered pre-emptive strike against America, an empire seen by the rest of the world as an insane bully that meddles with everything on the international stage. This first strike, combining the forces and expertise of both China and Russia, may consist of:
• High-altitude EMP detonation over North America, destroying regional power grids.
• A devastating currency war initiated by China announcing its own gold-backed currency while dumping U.S. Treasury debt on the open market.
• A Russian-led severing of undersea fiber optic cables.
• Russian-launched nuclear missiles targeting U.S. coastal cities.
• China-led assault on U.S. Navy warships using anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs).
• A cyber warfare attack on key U.S. infrastructure, including water delivery systems, nuclear power plants and the power grid.
As all this is going on, the Obama administration -- a treasonous regime of criminals who have seized control of the U.S. government in an effort to destroy America from within -- has been firing all the top military commanders who know how to survive such an assault. Instead of America's military focusing on how to win wars, troops are now subjected to sensitivity training and the politically correct push for female troops on the front lines.
This is not fiction. Even the U.S. White House is now openly preparing for a massive EMP attack launched by China.
Dave Hodges also reports in this article about World War III:
Congress has now heard testimony that the United States is not ready for World War III while Russia is chomping at the bit to “get it on”. Further Congress has learned that Obama has been once again been badly outmaneuvered by Putin, the master chess player... the Chinese and the Russians are going to kick America’s rear end in the upcoming war.
Very disturbingly, there is a growing awareness, among Congress, that the United States cannot win World War III. There was only discussion, in these congressional meetings, as to whether, or not, the U.S. could prevail in World War III, not win the conflict.
To stay up to speed on all these events and how you might survive them, I strongly urge you to pay attention to the following websites:
TalkNetwork.com - the new talk radio network where I will be discussing this Trident missile launch during tomorrow's show. It airs at 11am Pacific / 2pm Eastern.
NationalSecurity.newsBugout.newsAlternativeNews.comSpace.newsCyberwar.newsCollapse.newsTreason.newsFETCH.newsstevequayle.comallnewspipeline.comthecommonsenseshow.com
Listen to my 4-part broadcast series on this entire story:
The NaturalNews Network is a non-profit collection of public education websites covering topics that empower individuals to make positive changes in their health, environmental sensitivity, consumer choices and informed skepticism. The NaturalNews Network is owned and operated by Truth Publishing International, Ltd., a Taiwan corporation. It is not recognized as a 501(c)3 non-profit in the United States, but it operates without a profit incentive, and its key writer, Mike Adams, receives absolutely no payment for his time, articles or books other than reimbursement for items purchased in order to conduct product reviews.
The vast majority of our content is freely given away at no charge. We offer thousands of articles and dozens of downloadable reports and guides (like the Honest Food Guide) that are designed to educate and empower individuals, families and communities so that they may experience improved health, awareness and life fulfillment.
The American Dream Is Becoming A Nightmare And Life As We Know It Is About To Change
By Michael Snyder, on September 24th, 2015
One
of the biggest steps toward a one world government that we have ever
seen is happening this week, and yet barely anyone is even talking about
it. In fact, it is even being called a “new universal Agenda” for
humanity. Those are not my words – those are the words that the United
Nations is using. If you don’t believe this, just go look at the official document
for this new UN agenda. You won’t have to read very far. The phrase
“new universal Agenda” is right near the end of the preamble.
Officially, the name of this ambitious new program is “the 2030 Agenda“,
and it is being hyped as a way to get the whole world to work together
to make life better for all of us. And a lot of the goals of this new
agenda are very admirable. For example, who wouldn’t want to end global
poverty? But as you look deeper into what the UN is trying to do, you
find some very disturbing things.
If you didn’t like Agenda 21,
then you really are not going to like the 2030 Agenda, because the 2030
Agenda takes things to an entirely new level. Agenda 21 was primarily
focused on climate change and the environment, but the 2030 Agenda goes
far beyond that. As I have noted previously,
the 2030 Agenda addresses economics, agriculture, education, gender
equality, healthcare and a whole host of other issues. It has been
argued that there are very few forms of human activity that do not fall
under the goals of the 2030 Agenda in one way or another.
The UN
says that this new Agenda is “voluntary”, and yet virtually every single
nation on the entire planet is willingly signing up for it. In the
official document that all of these nations are agreeing to, there are
17 sustainable development goals and 169 very specific sustainable
development targets. You can read them for yourself right here.
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: April 28, 2014
It
doesn’t get any more Orwellian than this: Wall Street mega banks crash
the U.S. financial system in 2008. Hundreds of thousands of financial
industry workers lose their jobs. Then, beginning late last year, a rash
of suspicious deaths start to occur among current and former bank
employees. Next we learn that four of the Wall Street mega banks likely
hold over $680 billion face amount of life insurance on their workers,
payable to the banks, not the families. We ask their Federal regulator
for the details of this life insurance under a Freedom of Information
Act request and we’re told the information constitutes “trade secrets.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the life expectancy of a 25 year old male
with a Bachelor’s degree or higher as of 2006 was 81 years of age. But
in the past five months, five highly educated JPMorgan male employees in
their 30s and one former employee aged 28, have died under suspicious
circumstances, including three of whom allegedly leaped off buildings – a
statistical rarity even during the height of the financial crisis in
2008.
There is one other major obstacle to brushing away these
deaths as random occurrences – they are not happening at JPMorgan’s
closest peer bank – Citigroup. Both JPMorgan and Citigroup are global
financial institutions with both commercial banking and investment
banking operations. Their employee counts are similar – 260,000
employees for JPMorgan versus 251,000 for Citigroup.
Both JPMorgan
and Citigroup also own massive amounts of bank-owned life insurance
(BOLI), a controversial practice that pays the corporation when a
current or former employee dies. (In the case of former employees, the
banks conduct regular “death sweeps” of public records using former
employees’ Social Security numbers to learn if a former employee has
died and then submits a request for payment of the death benefit to the
insurance company.)
Wall Street On Parade carefully researched
public death announcements over the past 12 months which named the
decedent as a current or former employee of Citigroup or its commercial
banking unit, Citibank. We found no data suggesting Citigroup was
experiencing the same rash of deaths of young men in their 30s as
JPMorgan Chase. Nor did we discover any press reports of leaps from
buildings among Citigroup’s workers.
Given the above set of facts,
on March 21 of this year, we wrote to the regulator of national banks,
the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), seeking the
following information under the Freedom of Information Act (See OCC Response to Wall Street On Parade’s Request for Banker Death Information):
The
number of deaths from 2008 through March 21, 2014 on which JPMorgan
Chase collected death benefits; the total face amount of BOLI life
insurance in force at JPMorgan; the total number of former and current
employees of JPMorgan Chase who are insured under these policies; any
peer studies showing the same data comparing JPMorgan Chase with Bank of
America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup.
The OCC responded politely by
letter dated April 18, after first calling a few days earlier to inform
us that we would be getting nothing under the sunshine law request. (On
Wall Street, sunshine routinely means dark curtain.) The OCC letter
advised that documents relevant to our request were being withheld on
the basis that they are “privileged or contains trade secrets, or
commercial or financial information, furnished in confidence, that
relates to the business, personal, or financial affairs of any person,”
or relate to “a record contained in or related to an examination.”
The
ironic reality is that the documents do not pertain to the personal
financial affairs of individuals who have a privacy right. Individuals
are not going to receive the proceeds of this life insurance for the
most part. In many cases, they do not even know that multi-million
dollar policies that pay upon their death have been taken out by their
employer or former employer. Equally important, JPMorgan is a publicly
traded company whose shareholders have a right under securities laws to
understand the quality of its earnings – are those earnings coming from
traditional banking and investment banking operations or is this
ghoulish practice of profiting from the death of workers now a major
contributor to profits on Wall Street?
As it turns out, one aspect
of the information cavalierly denied to us by the OCC is publicly
available to those willing to hunt for it. On March 24 of this year, we
reported that JPMorgan Chase held $10.4 billion in BOLI assets at its
insured depository bank as of December 31, 2013.
We reached out to
BOLI expert, Michael D. Myers, to understand what JPMorgan’s $10.4
billion in BOLI assets at its commercial bank might represent in terms
of face amount of life insurance on its workers. Myers said: “Without
knowing the length of the investment or its rate of return, it is
difficult to estimate the face amount of the insurance coverage.
However, a cash value of $10.4 billion could easily translate into more
than $100 billion in actual insurance coverage and possibly two or three
times that amount” said Myers, a partner in the Houston, Texas law firm
McClanahan Myers Espey, L.L.P.
Insurance policies pertaining to bankers’ suicides classified as containing ‘trade secrets’
Published time: April 29, 2014 19:09
After
a recent rash of mysterious apparent suicides shook the financial
world, researchers are scrambling to find answers about what really is
the reason behind these multiple deaths. Some observers have now come to
a rather shocking conclusion.
Wall Street on Parade bloggers Pam and Russ Martens wrote
this week that something seems awry regarding the bank-owned life
insurance (BOLI) policies held by JPMorgan Chase. Traditional life
insurance policies ensure that the loved ones of the deceased are
compensated fairly in the event of a death, but banks are investing
billions in policies that let them receive untaxed payment with the
passing of each employee. While it’s not unusual for major banks to take
out policies that compensate companies in the event of an employee
death, the Martens wrote, attempts to find out more about that practice
have been peculiarly hard and have raised a red flag among bloggers like
those at Wall Street on Parade.
Four of the biggest banks on Wall
Street combined hold over $680 billion in BOLI policies, the bloggers
reported, but JPMorgan held around $17.9 billion in BOLI assets at the
end of last year to Citigroup’s comparably meager $8.8 billion.
Both
banks are global financial institutions with commercial and investment
banking operations, the Martens wrote, and each employs close to a
quarter-of-a-million employees. Nevertheless, they say that JPMorgan has
experienced a far greater rate of suicide among employees in recent
months, particularly in the midst of a series of news reports
documenting unusual leaps off buildings and other bizarre deaths that
have taken the lives of JPMorgan staffers.
For context, this is the same Google whose executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, told MSNBC:
If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.
While
pushing to nullify privacy laws, the Big G obviously doesn’t care
about pesky old-fashioned encumbrances like ethics either, as evidenced
by this gem:
I would argue that [us] implanting things in your brain is
beyond the creepy line – at least for the moment, until the technology
gets better.
The timing of Google’s purchase announcement is interesting, coming only a couple weeks after US federal judge William Pauley ruled that the unwarranted NSA phone surveillance against US citizens is legal.
So where does a ‘smart thermostat’ fit in the current corporatist drive for total in-home surveillance?
For the last couple of years, utilities around the globe have all been
touting their new metering systems with buzzwords such as ‘smart’,
‘advanced’, ‘upgraded’, or ‘modernized’. All rhetoric aside, these
devices are intended to integrate with all appliances in your home to
form an inescapable wireless data-mining dragnet, dubbed as the “home area network”, with your HVAC and likely other in-home systems overseen by spy-giant Google, if they get their way.
Around the world, more than 1 million homeowners have now refused
the corporate push to deploy a ‘smart’ meter on their home.
With smart meters, police will have access to data that
might be used to track residents’ daily lives and routines while in
their homes, including their eating, sleeping, and showering habits,
what appliances they use and when, and whether they prefer the
television to the treadmill, among a host of other details.
Google has spent $3.2 billion (£2bn) acquiring 'smart' home appliances start-up Nest Labs.
California-based Nest makes thermostats and smoke alarms that connect
to the internet, allowing people to remotely monitor and control them
from their smartphones.
The company was founded by Tony Fadell, a
former Apple executive dubbed the "godfather of the iPod" for his work
on the MP3 player. He left the position of head of music at Apple in
2008 to found Nest.
Nest launched is first thermostat in 2011 and
says its products are now in over a million homes. Late last year the
company made its first foray into the UK market, launching its smoke
alarm here.
Fadell said in a statement: “We’re thrilled to join
Google. With their support, Nest will be even better placed to build
simple, thoughtful devices that make life easier at home, and that have a
positive impact on the world.”
In a decision that may "serve as a sorry memorial to the corporate abrogation of free speech," a U.S. appeals court on Tuesday struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s rules on "net neutrality." Image: Free Press Net
neutrality means that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) must treat all
content the same. Internet freedom group Free Press explains that with
net neutrality, ISPs "may not discriminate between different kinds of
online content and apps. It guarantees a level playing field for all
websites and Internet technologies." Reutersreports that during oral argument in the lawsuit brought by Verizon Communications Inc,
Verizon's lawyer said the regulations violated the company's right to
free speech and stripped control of what its networks transmit and how.
Ahead of the ruling Josh Levy of Free Press warned that "If Verizon gets its way, the FCC’s rules protecting Internet users from corporate abuse will disappear."
Tuesday's ruling siding with Verizon "is a game-changer," business and technology site Gigaomreports,
because it upsets the FCC’s current practice of requiring broadband
internet providers to act akin to “common carriers.” In plain English,
this means that they have had to behave in a similar way to phone
companies and not give special preference to one type of call (or
traffic) over another, even though the FCC’s authority to regulate the
broadband providers was not clear cut.
Net neutrality advocates are calling Tuesday's ruling
"disappointing," and are warning that big telecommunications companies
will be able to turn what was a move towards an open Internet into
"something that looks like cable TV."
The ruling "is poised to end the free, open, and uncensored Internet
that we have come to rely on," former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps,
special adviser to advocacy group Common Cause’s Media and Democracy Initiative, said in a statement.
Craig Aaron, President and CEO of Free Press, issued a statement
saying that “ruling means that Internet users will be pitted against the
biggest phone and cable companies—and in the absence of any oversight,
these companies can now block and discriminate against their customers’
communications at will."
“The compromised Open Internet Order struck down today left much to
be desired, but it was a step toward maintaining Internet users’ freedom
to go where they wanted, when they wanted, and communicate freely
online. Now, just as Verizon promised it would in court, the biggest
broadband providers will race to turn the open and vibrant Web into
something that looks like cable TV. They’ll establish fast lanes for the
few giant companies that can afford to pay exorbitant tolls and reserve
the slow lanes for everyone else," Aaron added.
"Without prompt corrective action by the Commission to reclassify
broadband, this awful ruling will serve as a sorry memorial to the
corporate abrogation of free speech," Copps added.
The FCC may appeal the ruling.
______________
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
.....
WASHINGTON — A decision this week by a U.S.
federal appeals court to strike down so-called net neutrality may not
only have major ramifications for Internet users in the United States.
It could also have ripple effects overseas.
Experts say the ruling could be a boon to other countries if innovation is hampered in the U.S.
But it could be bad news, too, for Internet users outside the U.S.
because other governments could adopt similar rules and regulations.
The ruling
by the United States Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia
struck down a Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) order from 2010,
which imposed net neutrality on broadband Internet service providers
(ISPs).
Net neutrality means that ISPs are to provide equal access to all types of Internet content.
The FCC regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable” in the U.S.
According to the 2010 FCC order, ISPs “shall not block lawful content,
applications, services or non-harmful devices, subject to reasonable
network management.” It also said ISPs “shall not unreasonably
discriminate in transmitting lawful traffic over a consumer’s broadband
Internet access service.”
The Washington courts ruling said net neutrality was not needed because
users “can go to another broadband provider if they want to reach
particular edge providers or if their connections to particular edge
providers have been degraded.”
By Michael Snyder, on September 24th, 2015
