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28 Signs That U.S. Public Schools Are Rapidly Being Turned Into Indoctrination Centers And Prison Camps

It has been said that children are our future, and right now the vast majority of our children are being “educated” in public schools that are rapidly being turned into indoctrination centers and prison camps. Our children desperately need to focus on the basics such as reading, writing and math, but instead a whole host of politicians, “education officials” and teachers are constantly injecting as much propaganda as they possibly can into classroom instruction.  Instead of learning how to think, our children are continually being told what to think.  Not only that, our children are also being trained how to live as subservient slaves in a Big Brother police state.  Today, nearly everything that children do in public schools is watched, monitored, recorded and tracked.  Independent thought and free expression are greatly discouraged and are often cracked down upon harshly.  If students get “out of line”, instead of being sent to see the principal they are often handc

Sony hack not North Korea, FBI sticking to their fairy tale.

FBI agents investigating the Sony Pictures hack were briefed Monday by a security firm that says its research points to laid-off Sony staff, not North Korea, as the perpetrator — another example of the continuing whodunit blame game around the devastating attack. Even the unprecedented decision to release details of an ongoing FBI investigation and President Barack Obama publicly blaming the hermit authoritarian regime hasn’t quieted a chorus of well-qualified skeptics who say the evidence just doesn’t add up. Researchers from the cyber intelligence company Norse have said their own investigation into the data on the Sony attack doesn’t point to North Korea at all and instead indicates some combination of a disgruntled employee and hackers for piracy groups is at fault. Read more: here

Hacking Collective Anonymous Says FBI Is Lying, "North Korea Is Not Source Of Hack"

Having confirmed unequivocally, in a statement by the FBI and reiterated by President Obama, that "the North Korean government is responsible" for hacking Sony, it appears the YouTube-less 'evidence' the FBI provided is being questioned by the hacking-collective 'Anonymous' and former Lulzsec hacker Sabu. As The Daily Beast reports , the hackers blasted, the North Koreans "don’t have the technical capabilities," and added "we all know the hacks didn't come from North Korea, and "all of the evidence FBI cites would be trivial things to do if a hacker was trying to misdirect attention to DPRK." Meanwhile, on Saturday afternoon, Guardians of Peace, the hacking group that’s so far claimed responsibility for wreaking havoc on Sony, posted a message online mocking the FBI’s investigation - a series of gyrating animated bodies shrieking, "You are an idiot!" Read more: here

North Korea proposes a 'joint investigation' with US to prove its innocence in Sony hack

North Korea is  continuing to deny any involvement with the devastating cyber attack on Sony Pictures. But the entire affair just got even stranger: foreign ministry officials have announced through the government's state-run news agency that "we propose a joint investigation with [the US] into this incident." The government then warned that there will be "grave consequences" if the US continues its "groundless slander" of North Korea and rejects its proposal of a joint investigation. Officials also added, "Without resorting to such tortures as were used by the CIA, we have means to prove that this incident has nothing to do with us." Read more: here

Despite the accusations, there's still little evidence linking North Korea to the Sony hack

After weeks of rumors and speculation, it looked like the mystery surrounding the hackers who hit and embarassed Sony Pictures in the last few weeks may have finally been solved: North Korea did it, according to anonymous U.S. officials quoted in various news reports on Wednesday. "We have found linkage to the North Korean government," said one of the anonymous sources. See also: Sony ends 'The Interview' and hands hackers a terrifying new script But despite government officials pointing the finger at North Korea — behind the comfort and safety of anonymous quotes — there is still little evidence linking the Sony hackers to the regime led by Kim Jong-un, and cybersecurity experts are just as unconvinced of this theory as they were more than two weeks ago .  Read more: here

Security experts: FBI report light on evidence linking North Korea to Sony hack

Even after the Federal Bureau of Investigation 's official statement that North Korea was behind the Sony attack, many cybersecurity experts are still skeptical the hermit nation is truly the culprit, citing a lack of new and more convincing evidence. “It’s mostly a repeat of information that has been in the public before,” Rob Graham, chief executive officer of research firm Errata Security, said of the FBI's statement issued Friday. Many prominent names in the field, Graham and others, took to Twitter to express their concern. "I'm completely underwhelmed by the FBI's 'proof' attributing Sony attack to North Korea," Graham tweeted from his @ErrataRob account.  Read more: here

The Evidence That North Korea Hacked Sony Is Flimsy

Today Sony canceled the premiere of “The Interview” and its entire Christmas-Day release of the movie because of fears that terrorists might attack theaters showing the film. The actions show just how much power the attackers behind the Sony hack have amassed in a short time. But who exactly are they? 1 The New York Times reported this evening that North Korea is “centrally involved” in the hack, citing unnamed U.S. intelligence officials. It’s unclear from the Times report what “centrally involved” means and whether the intelligence officials are saying the hackers were state-sponsored or actually agents of the state. The Times also notes that “It is not clear how the United States came to its determination that the North Korean regime played a central role in the Sony attacks.” The public evidence pointing at the Hermit Kingdom is flimsy. Other theories of attribution focus on hacktivists—motivated by ideology, politics or something else—or disgruntled insiders who

Criminally negligent brain dead porker stops asmatic man hold him till he dies.

Data Driven or Driven Data

By:  Peter Schiff    Tuesday, December 9, 2014   There can be little doubt that data releases rather than experience or intuition are driving the economic conversation. This is perhaps a function of the disconnection that many people feel about an economy that they no longer understand. Rather than trusting their own eyes or their own gut to form an opinion, it's much easier to grab a set of convenient numbers. The big question then becomes what numbers you choose to look at and which you choose to ignore.   While there are a great many types of economic data releases, issued by a myriad of public and private sources, two reports have risen above the rest in importance: the Quarterly GDP estimates issued by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the monthly jobs report issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And those two reports have been recently coming up roses. The 3rd quarter GDP growt

In Defense of Scrooge

It's Christmas again, time to celebrate the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge. You know the ritual: boo the curmudgeon initially encountered in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol , then cheer the sweetie pie he becomes in the end. It's too bad no one notices that the curmudgeon had a point—quite a few points, in fact. To appreciate them, it is necessary first to distinguish Scrooge's outlook on life from his disagreeable persona. He is said to have a pointed nose and a harsh voice, but not all hardheaded businessmen are so lamentably endowed, nor are their feckless nephews (remember Fred?) alwavs "ruddy and handsome," and possessed of pretty wives. These touches of the storyteller's art only bias the issue. So let's look without preconceptions at Scrooge's allegedly underpaid clerk, Bob Cratchit. The fact is, if Cratchit's skills were worth more to anyone than the fifteen shillings Scrooge pays him weekly, there would be someon

Marijuana kills brain cancer, new study confirms

The active molecules in cannabis kill brain cancer — another study has revealed. Scientists using an extract of whole-plant marijuana rich in pot’s main psychoactive ingredient THC as well as cannabidiol (CBD) showed “dramatic reductions in tumor volumes” of a type of brain cancer. “High-grade glioma is one of the most aggressive cancers in adult humans and long-term survival rates are very low as standard treatments for glioma remain largely unsuccessful,” according to researchers Katherine A. Scott, Angus G. Dalgleish, and Wai M. Liu from the Oncology Department at St. George’s University of London Writing in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics this month, the team recounts how they decided to build on existing research that shows “cannabinoids have been shown to specifically inhibit glioma growth as well as neutralize oncogenic processes such as angiogenesis.” Read more: here

Blackwater Contractors Found Guilty But Will It Prevent Future Violence?

On October 22 four former Blackwater military contractors were found guilty in the deaths of fourteen Iraqi citizens. The ruling is related to a 2007 incident where Blackwater contractors fired automatic weapons, sniper rifles, and grenade launchers at a public square. In addition to the fourteen deaths, seventeen other individuals were injured. Read more: here

Rand Paul on cover of TIME

1938

Labor Participation Rate Drops To 36 Year Low

While by now everyone should know the answer, for those curious why the US unemployment rate just slid once more to a meager 5.9%, the lowest print since the summer of 2008, the answer is the same one we have shown every month since 2010: the collapse in the labor force participation rate, which in September slid from an already three decade low 62.8% to 62.7% - the lowest in over 36 years, matching the February 1978 lows. And while according to the Household Survey, 232,000 people found jobs, what is more disturbing is that the people not in the labor force, rose to a new record high, increasing by 315,000 to 92.6 million! And that's how you get a fresh cycle low in the unemployment rate. Read more: here

How John McCain Wound Up Canoodling With Terrorists

by Justin Raimondo , September 26, 2014 Print This | Share This Did Senator John McCain, a leading advocate of arming Syria’s Islamist revolutionaries, meet with members or allies of the Islamic State in al-Sham [the Levant] (ISIS) during his trip to Syria on May 27 of last year? Read more: here

Amazon, Google moves highlight robotics wave: Schiff

The "robots are taking over the world" concept has been a staple of science fiction for generations. However, the reality of automated production lines and self-propelled disc vacuums has thus far proved much less intimidating. But the next generation of robots will likely be much more significant. And while we feel that financial markets remain highly distorted by excess liquidity, and that growth stocks always involve higher risk, it is undeniable that transformative innovations can present opportunities. Recent moves by Google ( GOOGL ) and Amazon ( AMZN ) highlight the wave in robotics. In 2013, Google purchased eight startups focused on robots, and this year it unveiled dramatic improvements to the driver-less car concept that it first introduced in 2012. Recently, Amazon made a big stir on "60 Minutes" by introducing an internet-controlled air drone delivery system. Although some dismissed it as a stunt, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos insisted that th

U.S. Hikes Fee To Renounce Citizenship By 422%

Over the last two years, the U.S. has had a spike in expatriations. It isn’t exactly Ellis Island in reverse, but it’s more than a dribble. With global tax reporting and FATCA, the list of the individuals  who renounced is up. For 2013, there was a 221% increase, with  record numbers of Americans renouncing . The Treasury Department is required to publish a  quarterly list , but these numbers are under-stated, some say considerably. The presence or absence of tax motivation is no longer relevant, but that could change. After Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin  departed for Singapore, Senators  Chuck Schumer  and Bob Casey introduced a bill to double the exit tax to 30% for anyone leaving the U.S. for tax reasons. That hasn’t happened, but taxes are still a big issue for many. Read more: here

Gazprom Begins Accepting Payment For Oil In Ruble, Yuan

Several months ago, when Russia announced the much anticipated "Holy Grail" energy deal with China, some were disappointed that despite this symbolic agreement meant to break the petrodollar's stranglehold on the rest of the world, neither Russia nor China announced payment terms to be in anything but dollars. In doing so they admitted that while both nations are eager to move away from a US Dollar reserve currency, neither is yet able to provide an alternative. This changed in late June when first Gazprom's CFO announced the gas giant was ready to settle China contracts in Yuan or Rubles, and at the same time the People's Bank of China announced that its Assistant Governor Jin Qi and Russian central bank Deputy Chairman Dmitry Skobelkin held a meeting in which they discussed cooperating on project and trade financing using local currencies. The meeting discussed cooperation in bank card, insurance and financial supervision sectors. And yet, whil

Global warming data FAKED by government to fit climate change fictions

(NaturalNews) When drug companies are caught faking clinical trial data, no one is surprised anymore. When vaccine manufacturers spike their human trial samples with animal antibodies to make sure their vaccines appear to work, we all just figure that’s how they do business: lying, cheating, deceiving and violating the law. Now, in what might be the largest scientific fraud ever uncovered, NASA and the NOAA have been caught red-handed altering historical temperature data to produce a “climate change narrative” that defies reality. This finding, originally documented on the Real Science website , is detailed here. We now know that historical temperature data for the continental United States were deliberately altered by NASA and NOAA scientists in a politically-motivated attempt to rewrite history and claim global warming is causing U.S. temperatures to trend upward. The data actually show that we are in a cooling trend , not a warming trend (see charts below). This st

4 Ways that Mass Surveillance Destroys the Economy

Prosperity Requires Privacy Privacy is a prerequisite for a prosperous economy.    Even the White House admits : People must have confidence that data will travel to its destination without disruption. Assuring the free flow of information, the security and privacy of data, and the integrity of the interconnected networks themselves are all essential to American and global economic prosperity , security, and the promotion of universal rights. Here are four ways mass surveillance hurts our economy ... Read more: here

House GOP leader loses to Tea Party-backed rival

In a stunning upset, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost the GOP Virginia primary Tuesday night to Dave Brat, an economics professor and political novice.  The Associated Press called the race for Cantor about an hour after polls closed at 7 p.m. ET.  Cantor is the second-most powerful member of the U.S. House and was widely seen as the  next in line to succeed House Speaker John Boehner.  Cantor's loss to a political novice with little money marks a huge victory for the Tea Party movement, which supported Cantor just a few years ago. Read more: here

Veterans died on wait lists so that Government officials could receive bonus pay

"You've got an organized crime syndicate" Emails and VA memos obtained exclusively by The Daily Beast provide what is among the most comprehensive accounts yet of how high-level VA hospital employees conspired to game the system. It shows not only how they manipulated hospital wait lists but why—to cover up the weeks and months veterans spent waiting for needed medical care. If those lag times had been revealed, it would have threatened the executives’ bonus pay. Read more: here

Meet Directive 3025.18 Granting Obama Authority To Use Military Force Against Civilians

Directive No. 3025.18, “Defense Support of Civil Authorities,” was issued Dec. 29, 2010, and states that U.S. commanders “are provided emergency authority under this directive.” “Federal military forces shall not be used to quell civil disturbances unless specifically authorized by the president in accordance with applicable law or permitted under emergency authority,” the directive states. “In these circumstances, those federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the president is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances” under two conditions. The conditions include military support needed “to prevent significant loss of life or wanton destruction of property and are necessary to restore governmental function and public order.” A second

Study: New Technology Development Pushed by Feds Allows for Data Collection on Every Child

A new study released by the Boston-based Pioneer Institute finds that new technology development that has been encouraged through the use of federal grants has served to threaten children’s privacy by allowing the collection of data on every child. Authors of the study Emmett McGroarty, Joy Pullmann, and Jane Robbins make the case that by means of the nationalized Common Core standards, which states were lured into adopting through competitive grants in the Obama administration’s Race to the Top (RttT) stimulus program in 2009, the federal government has used grant funds to induce states to build identical, increasingly sophisticated student data systems. McGroarty, executive director of the Education Project at the American Principles Project (APP), said the study, entitled “ Cogs in the Machine: Big Data, Common Core, and National Testing ,” exposes “an idea that dates back to the Progressive era.” Read more: Here

Barclays Fined For Manipulating Price Of Gold For A Decade; Sending "Bursts" Of Sell Orders

It was almost inevitable: a week after we wrote " From Rothschild To Koch Industries: Meet The People Who "Fix" The Price Of Gold " and days after " Barclays' Head Of Gold Trading, And Gold "Fixer", Is Leaving The Bank ", earlier today the UK Financial Conduct Authority finally formalized what most in the "tin-foil" hat community had known for years, when it announced that it fined Barclays £26 million for manipulating "the setting of the price of gold in order to avoid paying out on a client order." Furthermore, the FCA confirmed that those inexplicable gold raids which come as if out of nowhere, and slam gold with a vicious force so strong sometime they halt the entire market, had a very specific source: Barclays , whose trader Daniel James Plunkett, born 1976 , "sent out a burst of orders aimed at moving the price of the yellow metal." Read more: here

Welcome to the post-Constitutional Era

“We Are No Longer a Nation Ruled By Laws” Pulitzer prize winning reporter Chris Hedges – along with journalist Naomi Wolf, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, activist Tangerine Bolen and others – sued the government to join the NDAA’s allowance of the indefinite detention of Americans. The trial judge in the case asked the government attorneys 5 times whether journalists like Hedges could be indefinitely detained simply for interviewing and then writing about bad guys. The government refused to promise that journalists like Hedges won’t be thrown in a dungeon for the rest of their lives without any right to talk to a judge. The trial judge ruled that the indefinite detention bill was unconstitutional, holding: Read more: here

FBI Releases Heavily Blacked Out Sandy Hook Records

The FBI has released about 175 pages of heavily blacked-out documents from the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre investigation. Of the 175 pages released in response to a Courant Freedom of Information request, 64 were completely redacted and most of the other 111 pages were heavily redacted. The Courant submitted the request in January after state police released a report on the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting that left 20 first-graders and six women dead at the Newtown school. The names of all witnesses interviewed by federal agents have been removed and there are no references to attempts by federal authorities in Washington, D.C. , to recover information from a computer disk that shooter Adam Lanza destroyed. Read more: here

13 Worst Predictions Made on Earth Day, 1970

Ricochet.com Editor  and Freedomworks contributor Jon Gabriel looks back at some of the doomsday predictions made when Earth Day debuted in 1970. Below is Gabriel's top 13, as first published by Freedomworks, reprinted with permission: 13 Worst Predictions Made on Earth Day, 1970, by Jon Gabriel The 1970s were a lousy decade.  Embarrassing movies ,  dreadful music and  downright terrifying clothes reflected the national mood following an unpopular war, endless political scandals and a faltering economy. Popular culture was consumed with decline, especially Hollywood.  The Omega Man, Soylent Green, Damnation Alley and countless other dystopian films showed a planet wrecked by war, pollution and neglect. In large part, the entertainment industry was reflecting the culture at large. In 1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated - okay, "celebrated" doesn't capture the funereal tone of the event. The events (organized in part by then hippie and now c

Flood Of Students Demanding Loan Forgiveness Forces Administration Scramble

"Loan forgiveness creates incentives for students to borrow too much to attend college, potentially contributing to rising college prices for everyone," is a study's warning over government plans that allow students to rack up big debts and then forgive the unpaid balance after a set period. As WSJ reports , enrollment in student debt forgiveness plans have surged nearly 40% in just six months, to include at least 1.3 million Americans owing around $72 billion . The administration is looking to cap debt eligible for forgiveness, as President Obama's revamped Pay As You Earn scheme has seen applications soar and is estimated to cost taxpayers $14bn a year. The 'popularity' of the student loan bailout plan surged after Obama promoted it in 2012, and now the administration must back-track as costs have massively outpaced government predictions. More: here

QE Infinity

As if there was any surprise that Yellen was fundamentally an uber dove, she just confirmed it. Here are the key highlights from her speech from Bloomberg. YELLEN SEES `CONSIDERABLE SLACK' IN ECONOMY, LABOR MARKET YELLEN SAYS QE TAPER DOESN'T MEAN REDUCED STIMULUS COMMITMENT YELLEN SAYS ECONOMY, JOB MARKET ` ARE NOT BACK TO NORMAL HEALTH ' YELLEN SAYS FED SHORT OF REACHING EMPLOYMENT, INFLATION GOALS YELLEN SAYS POST-CRISIS LABOR MARKET STRENGTHENED CONSIDERABLY YELLEN SAYS FED TAKES ITS 2% INFLATION GOAL `VERY SERIOUSLY' YELLEN SAYS DECLINE IN JOBLESS `GRADUAL BUT REMARKABLY STEADY' YELLEN SAYS ECONOMY NEEDS EXTRAORDINARY SUPPORT FOR `SOME TIME' Read more: here

Russia annexing Crimea is the cost of U.S.-EU intervention in Ukraine

One wonders how deep a hole the United States and the EU are going to dig for themselves in Ukraine. It was, of course, U.S. and EU leaders — and their media acolytes — who caused the problem we face today by intervening on behalf of self-styled “democrats” in Kiev who without foreign intervention could not have overthrown the Ukrainian president. It is getting to be that any half-baked gaggle of protestors at any location on the planet need only to chant the word “democracy” and the West will come running to their aid with diplomatic assistance, money, and a fierce disregard for either the target nation’s sovereignty or regional stability. Indeed, it may well be that the whole Ukraine protest movement was primed for action by funds, advisers, and computer systems paid for by Hillary Clinton’s State Department in a program similar to those she ran in several Arab countries. The difference in the Ukraine intervention from others the West has conducted is that the termin

The Debt Bubble Expands As Auto Loan Amounts Hit A New Record

Is anyone surprised that the poorest and least credit worthy of Americans are being saddled with piles of debt in order to buy new cars? It’s not enough that a generation of our citizens will toil pointlessly to pay off more than $1 trillion of student loans, we may as well add some other form of debt burden on top of it. It’s hard to even imagine this is happening so shortly after the last credit bubble train wreck, but happening it is. Creative ways for people to purchase cars they can’t afford have been on my radar screen for some time now, and if you recall, I posted an article last April titled:  Just Keep Dancing: Introducing the 97-Month Auto Loan . Well the dancing has continued, and now we have Americans borrowing at all-time record levels to buy cars. USA! USA! Read more: here

Gold Price "Manipulated For A Decade", Repeatedly Slammed Lower, Bloomberg Reports

While the FT promptly retracted an article on precisely the topic of gold manipulation from earlier this week ( recorded for posterity here ), Bloomberg appears to not have had the same "editorial" concerns and pressures, and today released an article once again slamming the final conspiracy theory that while every other asset class is manipulated, gold is in a pristine class of its own, untouched by close-banging, price fixing traders or central bankers, and reports that "the London gold fix, the benchmark used by miners, jewelers and central banks to value the metal, may have been manipulated for a decade by the banks setting it, researchers say. " Read more: here

“How, as a socialist, can you not be an anti-Semite?” - Hitler 1920

On 16 June 1941, as Hitler readied his forces for Operation Barbarossa, Josef Goebbels looked forward to the new order that the Nazis would impose on a conquered Russia. There would be no come-back, he wrote, for capitalists nor priests nor Tsars. Rather, in the place of debased, Jewish Bolshevism, the Wehrmacht would deliver “der echte Sozialismus”: real socialism. Goebbels never doubted that he was a socialist. He understood Nazism to be a better and more plausible form of socialism than that propagated by Lenin. Instead of spreading itself across different nations, it would operate within the unit of the Volk. Read more: here

Connecticut Tells Gun Owners, Destroy or Hand Over Rifles & Standard Capacity Magazines

Read more: here

Obama Administration Embeds "Government Researchers" To Monitor Media Organizations

Last week, I highlighted the fact that the latest Press Freedom Index  showcased a 13 point plunge in America’s press freedom to an embarrassing #46 position in the global ranking. If the authoritarians in the Obama Administration have their way, this country is set to fall much further in next year’s index. Incredibly, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is set to roll out something called the  Critical Information Needs  study, which will embed government “researchers” into media organizations around the nation to make sure they are doing their job properly. No this isn’t “conspiracy theory.”  It is so real, and represents such a threat to the First Amendment, that a current FCC commissioner, Ajit Pai, recently wrote an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal , warning Americans of this scheme. Read more: Here

Mortgage Applications Plunge Further - Near 19 Year Lows

The past 5 weeks have seen mortgage applications crumble a further 16% - their biggest such drop in 14 months as the index for home purchase applications hovers close to its lowest level since 1995 . Non-seasonally-adjusted, this is the worst start to a year in over a decade. Must be the weather? Read more: Here

U.S. Plunges To 46th In World Press Freedom Index... Below Romania

One of my most popular posts of 2013 highlighted the decline of America’s once large and enviable middle class. It was titled: How Does America’s Middle Class Rank Globally? #27 , and it helped to dispel many myths Americans (particularly the mainstream propaganda media) continue to tell to themselves. As you might expect, the economic decline of a nation into rule by a handful of corrupt oligarchs will have many other negative repercussions . One of these is a loss of civil rights and freedoms that many of us have taken for granted. Reporters Without Borders puts out their  Press Freedom Index every year, and the 2014 ranking came out today. It was not a good showing for the USSA. Specifically, the U.S. registered one of the steepest falls of all nations, down 13 slots to the #46 position . As the screen shot shows, just above Haiti and just below Romania. Read more: here

The Crisis Circle Is Complete: Wells Fargo Returns To Subprime

"The bank is looking for opportunities to stem its revenue decline as overall mortgage lending volume plunges. It believes it has worked through enough of its crisis-era mortgage problems, particularly with U.S. home loan agencies, to be comfortable extending credit to some borrowers with higher credit risks. The small steps from Wells Fargo could amount to a big change for the mortgage market. After the subprime mortgage bust brought the banking system to the brink of collapse in the financial crisis, banks have shied away from making home loans to anyone but the safest of consumers. Any loosening of credit standards could boost housing demand from borrowers who have been forced to sit out the recovery in home prices in the past couple of years, but could also stoke fears that U.S. lenders will make the same mistakes that had triggered the crisis." and ........ "So far few other big banks seem poised to follow Wells Fargo's lead, but some smaller

How the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences

It was Christmas Eve 1926, the streets aglitter with snow and lights, when the man afraid of Santa Claus stumbled into the emergency room at New York City's Bellevue Hospital. He was flushed, gasping with fear: Santa Claus, he kept telling the nurses, was just behind him, wielding a baseball bat. Before hospital staff realized how sick he was—the alcohol-induced hallucination was just a symptom—the man died. So did another holiday partygoer. And another. As dusk fell on Christmas, the hospital staff tallied up more than 60 people made desperately ill by alcohol and eight dead from it. Within the next two days, yet another 23 people died in the city from celebrating the season. Read more: here

Killer cops walk free after beating and tasing unarmed homeless man to death

FULLERTON, CA — In 2011, a group of police officers brutally beat an unarmed homeless man to death on a street corner with clubs, fists, and repeated electric shocks.  The story got national attention when the video of the attack showed the mentally ill man wailed for his father as police bludgeoned him mercilessly.  The story reached its heartbreaking conclusion when a jury announced that the police officers who had been charged with his death would all walk away as free men.  The frustrating story shows that even in the rare instances when police officers face criminal charges for their brutality, their position of power makes it incredibly easy for them to get away with murder.  The only objection the Fullerton Police Department had with the behavior of their officers was their use of profanity. Read more: here