Dollar Is Dropped As Countries And Central Banks Declared Their Holdings In Yuan

Major Operation against Protesters Underway in Kharkiv

MOSCOW, April 8 (RIA Novosti) – Major operation began in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, the city center is currently blocked, acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said Tuesday.

"Counterterrorism operation in Kharkiv has begun, city’s downtown is blocked. So are the metro stations. There is nothing to worry about. Kharkiv Regional State Administration building is clear from protesters. Firearms were not used during the operation,” Avakov wrote on his Facebook page.

He also claimed 70 people have already been arrested.

Pro-Russian opposition protesters have been rallying across Ukraine’s eastern and southeastern regions since the recent change of power in the country.

Acting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deschytsia announced Monday that if the situation in the southeastern regions escalates, the government in Kiev will take “much harsher” measures than those that have preceded Crimea’s reunification with Russia last month.

Ukraine’s interim authorities vowed tough “anti-separatism measures” in eastern and southern regions with substantial ethnic Russian communities, which rallied that in support of greater autonomy over the weekend.

The Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine announced plans Monday to schedule a referendum by mid-May on declaring independence and joining Russia. Ukrainian media said similar intentions were voiced by protesters in Kharkiv late Monday, although no formal measures have been taken so far.

Russia has repeatedly said that Ukrainian nationalists and their aggressive rhetoric bear full responsibility for the crisis in the country, which resulted in the reunification of Crimea with Russia last month.

Moscow said that a federal form of government is the only way out of the protracted political crisis in Ukraine, currently a unitary state which is de-facto split into a Ukrainian-speaking west and Russian-speaking east and south.

Credit to RIA Novosti

CEO Of Liechtenstein Bank Frick Murdered In Broad Daylight

Over the weekend the world was gripped by the drama surrounding the mysterious murder-homicide of the former CEO of Dutch bank ABN Amro and members of his family, and whether there is more foul play than meets the eye. However, that is nothing compared to what just happened in the tiny, and all too quiet Principality of Lichtenstein, where moments ago the CEO of local financial institution Bank Frick & Co. AG, Juergen Frick, was shot dead in the underground garage of the bank located in the city of Balzers.

Based on preliminary reports, the murder is the result of a disgruntled fund manager, Juergen Germann, who had previously been embroiled in a “bitter dispute” with the government and the bank. Bloomberg has more:

A 48-year-old man was shot dead in the underground garage of a financial institution in Balzers at 7:30 a.m. local time, the principality’s police said on its website. The suspect, Juergen Hermann, fled the scene in a Smart car with Liechtenstein number plates, according to police. Neither the victim nor the institution were identified in the statement.

The deceased was Juergen Frick, CEO of Bank Frick & Co. AG, Switzerland’s Radio 1 said in an e-mailed statement, citing employees of the bank. Calls to Bank Frick were answered by a voice-mail message saying the company is closed because of “a death.” It gave no further details.

Hermann is a fund manager who has been embroiled in a dispute with the Liechtenstein government and Bank Frick for many years, Switzerland’s Radio 1 said.

The Liechtenstein government and the country’s Financial Market Authority “illegally destroyed my investment company Hermann Finance and its funds, depriving me of my livelihood,” according to a website registered under the name Juergen Hermann of Hermann Finance AG.

He has filed lawsuits seeking recovery of 200 million Swiss francs ($225 million) from the government and 33 million francs from Bank Frick, according to the website. The lender “illegally enriched itself,” among other alleged crimes, it said.

A representative of Hermann’s lawyer declined to comment when reached by telephone. A call to Hermann Finance’s office was answered by an employee of a law firm who said his company isn’t related to Hermann Finance.

The narrative against the “publicly hostile” alleged shooter has already been flushed out.
Hermann has been “publicly hostile” to the country’s Financial Market Authority and some of its employees, forcing it to take security measures in consultation with the police, FMA spokesman Beat Krieger said in an e-mail today.

The escape vehicle was later found in the village of Ruggell, 25 kilometers (16 miles) north of Balzers, police said.

“The area is being searched by police with dogs and helicopters,” the 120-member police force said. Zurich police are helping to document the crime scene, spokesman Mario Cortesi said.

Here is the update form the local police station:
On Monday morning, it came in Balzers a homicide, the suspect is currently volatile.

Against 07.30 clock in an underground garage of a financial institution is a homicide in which a 48-year-old man was shot occurred. When volatile suspects are Jürgen Hermann from the Moors. He is armed and dangerous, according to police reports, the investigation of the National Police is in full swing.

Notes on a possible whereabouts of the suspects are requested immediately to the police landing +423 / 236 71 11. Upon encountering the suspect, it is important to exercise extreme caution.

Below is the profile of the murdered CEO, still on the bank’s website:
As CEO Jürgen Frick is closely involved in all business activities of the bank with a special focus lying on client advisory, financing and financial product development. As well he supervises all real estate development projects of the Bank.

Jürgen is also Chairman of the Board at Crystal Fund Management AG, a subsidiary of Bank Frick & Co.

As for the bank itself:
Bank Frick is active in modern wealth management and provides a range of advisory services. As well it specializes in fund development and fund administration.

Our Bank entertains close ties to an efficient network of fiduciaries, insurers, tax experts, investment funds and law firms around the world.

We are completely independent. Our advice and our services cater exclusively to the individual needs and requirements of our clients.

Combinvest Establishment serves as holding for all bank shares. Family Frick is the majority stake holder.

After a successful career in international banking and fiduciary services, Kuno Frick senior founded in December 1998 Bank Frick & Co. AG. Due to his wide experience and excellent connections, Bank Frick proved an immediate success.

Since then, the bank’s assets under management have risen steadily. New business segments are continuously being added to the bank’s service portfolio, while existing ones are constantly being refined.

In autumn 2011, Bank Frick’s international presence was significantly enhanced with the opening of Bank Frick UK Branch in Mayfair, London.

Up until now it was mostly banker suicides. With the first open bank CEO murder, one wonders if there will be a change in the pattern.

Credit to Infowars

U.S. Military Changes Drone Rules To Make Targeting Of Civilians Easier

Submitted by Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog, The drone issue is just another topic in which President Barrack Obama has proven himself to be a world-class liar and master of deception. Despite his claims that drone strikes do little damage to civilian populations, in July we discovered that “of the 746 people killed in drone strikes in Pakistan from 2006-2009, an incredible 20% were civilians and 94 (13% of the total) were children.” I suppose that number just isn’t good enough, because The Pentagon has decided to change the rules of engagement when it comes to drone strikes, now making it easierto target civilians. 

From The Washington Times: The Pentagon has loosened its guidelines on avoiding civilian casualties during drone strikes, modifying instructions from requiring military personnel to “ensure” civilians are not targeted to encouraging service members to “avoid targeting” civilians. Hey cops, how about you “try to avoid” beating the shit out of people andviolating their constitutional rights for no reason. Yeah, because that’ll work. In addition, instructions now tell commanders that collateral damage “must not be excessive” in relation to mission goals, according to Public Intelligence, a nonprofit research group that analyzed the military’s directives on drone strikes.   

Administration officials say the strikes are legal because the U.S. is at war with al Qaeda and its associates. They also insist there is a wide gap between the government’s civilian casualty count and those of human rights groups. Right, we are at “war with al Qaeda,” when it is convenient to be at war with them. When it is convenient to be allies with al Qaeda, we will do that too.Despite Mr. Obama’s pledge for more transparency on drone strikes, the administration “continues to answer legitimate questions and criticisms by saying, ‘We can’t really talk about this,’” said Naureen Shah, advocacy adviser at Amnesty International. Can’t. Make. This. Stuff. Up. Full article here.

Credit to Zero hedge

Awesome alignment: Mars, Earth, sun to line up Tuesday

Skywatchers will get a rare treat Tuesday night, when Mars, Earth and the sun will be arranged in a nearly-straight line.

Every two years, Mars reaches a point in its orbit called "opposition," when the planet lies directly opposite the sun in Earth's sky, according toAstronomy magazine.

This means Mars rises near sunset and remains visible all night long as it moves nearly overhead across the night sky. It will be a bright burnt orange color, NASA's Mars Exploration Program reports, and almost 10 times brighter than the brightest stars in the sky.

"From our perspective on our spinning world, Mars rises in the east just as the sun sets in the west," NASA reports. "Then, after staying up in the sky the entire night, Mars sets in the west just as the sun rises in the east."

With no big storms forecast Tuesday night, according to the National Weather Service, Mars should be visible in most areas.

At their closest point next week, Mars and Earth will "only" be about 57 million miles apart. Another treat awaits April 14, when the full moon also will appear near Mars.

Mars won't appear this big and bright again until its next "opposition" May 22, 2016,Astronomyreports.

An artist's conception of a previous Mars opposition from a few years ago. The distances between the sun, the planets and the distant nebula are not to scale.(Photo: NASA)

Credit to USA Today

The 'Crackdown' Begins: Ukraine Launches "Anti-Terrorist" Operations In Eastern Ukraine, Arrests 70

Despite Russia's veiled threat that any ongoing action against pro-Russian demonstrators had the potential to instigate civil war and bring action by the Russian forces, Ukraine's interior minister Arsen Avakov has announced, Reuters reports, that Ukraine has launched an "anti-terrorist" operation in the eastern city of Kharkiv and about 70 "separatists" have been arrested for seizing the regional administration building. Is this the red-line that Putin laid down last night?

As Russia made clear last night, as ITAR-TASS reports,

The Russian Foreign Ministry urged Ukraine to halt any interior military preparations, which could instigate a civil war in the country, the ministry was quoted as saying on its Facebook.com account.

“According to our information, units of the Interior troops and Ukraine’s national guards as well as militants from the illegal armed formation ‘The Right Sector’ are being amassed in the southeastern parts of Ukraine and in the city of Donetsk,” the ministry said.

“We are particularly concerned that the operation involves some 150 American mercenaries from a private company Greystone Ltd., dressed in the uniform of the [Ukrainian] special task police unit Sokol,” the ministry said.

But, in the interests of stability,  as Ukraine also made clear yesterday, Reuters reports that

Ukraine has launched an "anti-terrorist" operation in the eastern city of Kharkiv and about 70 "separatists" have been arrested for seizing the regional administration building, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on Tuesday.

On his Facebook page, Avakov said: "An anti-terrorist operation has been launched. The city center is blocked along with metro stations. Do not worry. Once we finish, we will open them again."

Ukraine's Interior Ministry was quoted as saying by Interfax-Ukraine news agency that those detained were suspected of "illegal activity related to separatism, the organization of mass disorder, damage to human health" and breaking other laws.

So, it is clear that Ukraine's crackdown - with US mercenaries or not - has begun. The question is how long will Putin stand for it?

Credit to Zero Hedge

The Coming Constitutional Convention Contains the Tipping Point for Revolution

 

Pursuant to Article 5 of the US Constitution, if 34 states call for a convention, the convention is required to take place. Last week the state legislature of Michigan became the 34th state to demand a Constitutional Convention in the United States. There is no time requirement so a convention could be dragged out for years.  However, if a national convention does take place, then everything is on the table and the basic structure of our government could be changed forever. Subsequently, the Bill of Rights could be done away with in a formal manner.

Most will speak of the potential for such a convention to right the wrongs of the Obama administration. That is an unrealistic view. With a Constitutional Convention, America risks losing everything that separates us from us and China. If a convention does take place in 2016, it is clear to many of us that the seeds of civil disobedience, at the least, could come to the surface. At the most, the seeds of revolution could blossom into a bloody civil war. What would be the tipping point for such a confrontation in which a slumbering people awakens to reclaim its country?

Many of us are wondering what will be the tipping point when Americans, on a massive scale, begin to totally disregard and flagrantly disobey the authority of a government that does not respect the Constitution and American civil liberties. How far can the globalists push the American people before the American people will strike back? What will be the tipping point as we descend into WW III? Will it be an economic collapse? Will it be triggered by mass arrests under the NDAA? Will it be Obamacare?

Threat Analysis

I have concluded that the globalists who have hijacked our government are trying to provoke a revolution with the intention of crushing that revolution and the spirit of freedom forever. Further, let’s review the more egregious actions by the globalists and it becomes clear that not one of these transgressions against the people has produced the seeds of revolution. Let’s make no mistake about it, the globalists want you to rebel. There are running out of time before most of humanity will rise up. They need to crush freedom, now. Based upon that premise, I constructed a list of the various ways that the globalists are attacking humanity in order to bring the people to their collective knees as they attempt to carry out their expressed desire to “thin out the herd” and to enslave the survivors. As I constructed the list, which consisted of over 30 soft kill methods (e.g. Chemtrails, GMO’s, vaccines, fluoridated water, MSG, the QE Bailouts of 1, 2, 3, 4…, etc.), I came to the realization that globalists could continue to abuse the public in a number of ways and most of us won’t protest in the least.. Despite the fact that on the surface, it seems that our country has become a nation of sheep and appears to be willing to march headfirst toward our own planned demise. However, I am aware that Homeland Security has purchased 1.6 billion rounds of sniper ammunition. DHS is voting with their pocketbook that they strongly anticipate that America may soon be on the verge of standing up to the bankers who have taken over the government. Therefore, I took another long look at all the ways that we are under deadly attack.

Bringing the Average American To Their Knees

The dollar is hanging by a thread. If the dollar hyper-inflates, this will make the Great Depression unemployment numbers look like a walk in the park. We are on the verge of losing our retirements, 401K’s, Social Security, bank accounts and even our property rights.  If and when this happens, the breakdown of society will begin in earnest. Meanwhile, the elite will continue to grab as much of wealth as possible (i.e. MERS mortgage fraud, the Fed printing $40 billion dollars per month to buy real estate, the 2013, 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, that banks can legally steal our deposits). And yet, we still have not stood up to the tyranny.

Groceries have recently risen by 30-40% and a food crisis looms. If and when a war in Ukraine actually breaks out, fuel prices will skyrocket. When the cost of shipping food exceeds the retail value of the food, the game is over. The grocery stores will be empty in a couple of days and the food riots will begin. However, a full scale revolution has not happened even though 25% of American children are going to bed hungry every night. The globalists have even employed a divide and conquer philosophy as a means to deal with social issues.

THE SEEDS OF REVOLUTION?

Black vs.White

Legal vs.Illegal

Gay vs.Straight

Left vs.Right

Yet, not one of these conflicts has resulted in anything approaching a revolution

 Will any of this be the tipping point for revolution? No! America has tolerated these behaviors to this point, there is no reason to believe that we will rise up and take up arms against the government over these issues now. How will the powers-that-be provoke America into one final armed conflict in which the last vestiges America are destroyed forever?

The Constitutional Convention Will Be the Tipping Point

As Michigan became the 34th state to demand a convention, many cheered. At last the people will have their day. At a Constitutional Convention, the good guys will win the day, right? Wrong! There are no good guys. Politics is run by one political party controlled by the globalist banksters, masquerading as two parties (i.e. Democrats and Republicans). Subsequently, any Constitutional Convention will be run by the forces who own and control the Democrats and Republicans and they will after go one thing a Constitutional Convention.

Make no mistake about it, the globalists are pushing the Constitution Convention, not the people.  In other words, America, any Constitutional Convention will be run by those who have destroyed this country’s economy and existing Constitution. As a result, nothing good can come out of this event.

Gun Confiscation Is the Ultimate Goal

In today’s America, we have lost every single one of the Bill of Rights under the NDAA and Executive Order 13603. As a result, 9 out of 10 rights, contained in the Bill of Rights, are gone. The only right remaining is the Second Amendment right to bear arms and it hanging by a thread.

You can shout it from the roof tops, there will be a Constitutional Convention and the Second Amendment will be repealed and all gun owners will be criminalized in one stroke of the pen. 

High unemployment rates, skyrocketing food prices and water and food shortages, alone, might not be enough to trigger the next civil war. However, if the previously mentioned factors are combined with an all-out attack upon the Second Amendment, the globalists are going to get just what they want, a well-armed and angry America. When the Obamanistas come for the guns, there will be no hiding the intentions of the globalists. The veil will have been lifted. For those who don’t think this eventuality is true, then why did the NRA pick up 100,000 new members in one month last year? Why do gun shows have two hour wait lines just to get in? The tide is turning America and we are about to do what some feel should have happened after the murder of JFK. As noble as the last statement might sound, things are about to get very ugly.

Conclusion

I am not a gun enthusiast. I do not belong to the NRA. However, I have reached my limit. My personal line in the sand with this criminal government, is the evisceration of the Second Amendment. I will not submit to registration. I will not submit to a voluntary surrender of my weapon for I know that gun confiscation and impending genocide run hand in hand as there were 17 genocides in the 20th century and each one was preceded with gun confiscation. Therefore, I will resist any attempt to remove the only protection that I possess. And now I believe that I will be in good company as witnessed by the recent behaviors of  my fellow countrymen. And I also know that globalists are aware of this as well and they may get their wish to draw and destroy the dissidents in one fell swoop. This Constitutional Convention idea was NOT the brainchild of the people. It is a part of the plan to strip away the last line of defense that the American people presently enjoy.

Now do you understand why DHS has armed to the teeth?

Credit to Common Sense

Why Are Americans Paying to Be Searched, Spied On, Shot At and Robbed Blind by the Government?

“To force a man to pay for the violation of his own liberty is indeed an addition of insult to injury.”—Benjamin Tucker, 19th century advocate of American individualist anarchism

The State Department wants $400,000 to purchase a fiberglass sculpture of a camel looking at a needle for its new embassy in Pakistan. They’ve already spent their allotted $630,000 to increase the number of “likes” and fans on their Facebook and Twitter pages. The NATO ambassador for the U.S. needs $700,000 for landscaping and gardening, the National Science Foundation would like $700,000 to put on a theatrical production about climate change, and the Senate staffers need $1.9 million for lifestyle coaching. Also, Yale University researchers could really use $384,000 so they can study the odd cork-screw shape of a duck’s penis.

I promise this is no belated April Fools’ joke. These are actual line items paid for by American taxpayers, whose tax dollars continue to be wasted on extravagant, unnecessary items that serve no greater purpose than to fatten the wallets of corporations and feed political graft (such as the $1 million bus stop, complete with heated benches and sidewalks which can only shelter 15 people and provides little protection from rain, snow, or the sun).

Case in point: despite the fact that we have 46 million Americans living at or below the poverty line, 16 million children living in households without adequate access to food, and at least 900,000 veterans relying on food stamps, enormous sums continue to be doled out for presidential vacations ($16 million for trips to Africa and Hawaii), overtime fraud at the Department of Homeland Security (nearly $9 million in improper overtime claims, and that’s just in six of the DHS’ many offices), and Hollywood movie productions ($10 million was spent by the Army National Guard on Superman movie tie-ins aimed at increasing awareness about the National Guard).

This doesn’t even touch on the astronomical amounts of money spent on dubious wars abroad.

Consider that since 2001, Americans have spent $10.5 million every hour for numerous foreign military occupations, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. There’s also the $2.2 million spent every hour on maintaining the United States’ nuclear stockpile, and the $35,000 spent every hour to produce and maintain our collection of Tomahawk missiles. And then there’s the money the government exports to other countries to support their arsenals, at the cost of $1.61 million every hour for the American taxpayers.

Then there’s the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in McCutcheon v. FEC, which reinforces a government mindset in which the rights of the wealthy are affirmed by the courts, while the rights of average, working class Americans are routinely dismissed as secondary to corporate and governmental concerns. Under the guise of protecting free speech, a divided 5-4 Court did away with established limits on the number of candidates an individual can support with campaign contributions.

In doing so, the justices expanded on the Court’s landmark 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, which not only gave unfettered free speech rights to corporations but paved the way for corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money promoting candidates, especially presidential candidates. What this does, of course, is turn the ballot box into an auction block, wherein those who are “elected” to public office are bought and paid for by those who can afford to support their campaigns—namely, lobbyists, corporations and high-dollar donors. (Then again, perhaps it will remain status quo. According to a 2013 study by Trinity University, U.S. Senators do not take into account the opinions and wishes of their lower class constituents. Rather, their voting was aligned with their upper class constituents. This dismissal of lower class opinion held true for both Republican and Democratic Senators, themselves made up of millionaires.)

When all is said and done, what we are witnessing is the emergence of a disconcerting government mindset that interprets the Constitution one way for corporations, government entities and the wealthy, and uses a second measure altogether for average Americans. For example, contrast the Supreme Court’s affirmation of the “free speech” rights of corporations and wealthy donors in McCutcheon and Citizens United with its tendency to deny those same rights to average Americans when government interests abound, such as in its 2012 decision in Reichle v. Howards, where a unanimous Supreme Court allowed immunity protections for Secret Service agents to trump the free speech rights of Americans, and you’ll find a noticeable disparity.

Unfortunately, as I point out in my book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, this constitutional double standard is coming to bear in all aspects of our lives, not just in the realm of campaign finance law. It allows lobbyists intimate access to our elected officials, while prohibiting Americans from even standing silently in protest near a government building; it grants immunity to police officers who shoot unarmed citizens, while harshly punishing Americans who attempt to defend themselves, mistaking a SWAT team raid for a home invasion; and it gives government agents carte blanche access to Americans’ communications and activities, while allowing the government to operate in secret, with secret hearings, secret budgets and secret agendas.

This is a far cry from how a representative government is supposed to operate. Indeed, it has been a long time since we could claim to be the masters of our own lives. Rather, we are now the subjects of a militarized, corporate empire in which the vast majority of the citizenry work their hands to the bone for the benefit of a privileged few.

Adding injury to the ongoing insult of having our tax dollars misused and our so-called representatives bought and paid for by the moneyed elite, the government then turns around and uses the money we earn with our blood, sweat and tears to target, imprison and entrap us, in the form of militarized police, surveillance cameras, private prisons, license plate readers, drones, and cell phone tracking technology.

All of those nefarious deeds that you read about in the paper every day: those are your tax dollars at work. It’s your money that allows for government agents to spy on your emails, your phone calls, your text messages, and your movements. It’s your money that allows out-of-control police officers to burst into innocent people’s homes, or probe and strip search motorists on the side of the road. And it’s your money that leads to innocent Americans across the country being prosecuted for innocuous activities such as raising chickens at home, growing vegetable gardens, and trying to live off the grid.

Just remember the next time you see a news story that makes your blood boil, whether it’s a police officer arresting someone for filming them in public, or a child being kicked out of school for shooting an imaginary arrow, or a homeowner being threatened with fines for building a pond in his backyard, remember that it is your tax dollars that are paying for these injustices.

So what are you going to do about it?

There was a time in our history when our forebears said “enough is enough” and stopped paying their taxes to what they considered an illegitimate government. They stood their ground and refused to support a system that was slowly choking out any attempts at self-governance, and which refused to be held accountable for its crimes against the people. Their resistance sowed the seeds for the revolution that would follow.

Unfortunately, in the 200-plus years since we established our own government, we’ve let bankers, turncoats and number-crunching bureaucrats muddy the waters and pilfer the accounts to such an extent that we’re back where we started. Once again, we’ve got a despotic regime with an imperial ruler doing as they please. Once again, we’ve got a judicial system insisting we have no rights under a government which demands that the people march in lockstep with its dictates. And once again, we’ve got to decide whether we’ll keep marching or break stride and make a turn toward freedom.

But what if we didn’t just pull out our pocketbooks and pony up to the federal government’s outrageous demands for more money? What if we didn’t just dutifully line up to drop our hard-earned dollars into the collection bucket, no questions asked about how it will be spent? What if, instead of quietly sending in our checks, hoping vainly for some meager return, we did a little calculating of our own and started deducting from our taxes those programs that we refuse to support?

If we don’t have the right to decide what happens to our hard-earned cash, then we don’t have very many rights at all. If they can just take from you what they want, when they want, and then use it however they want, you can’t claim to be anything more than a serf in a land they think of as theirs. This was the case in the colonial era, and it’s the case once again.

Credit to Lewrockwell.com

We Are On a Sinking Ship

Bankers Being Killed Could Top 100 Plus

State Department's bookkeeping leaves billions of dollars missing