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Knife Regulation Arrives: This Is The US Government, Hard At Work

When it comes to the contents of the TPP, the most important law of Obama's second term, merely leaking its contents to the press can have result in imprisonment or treason charges, which, considering recent revelations that a substantial portion of the bill was drafted by and for the express benefit of pharmaceutical companies, was to be expected:  when the US population learns that their elected legislators not only don't read the laws they "pass", but are merely bribed figureheads that don't even write them, the resultant collapse of the "democratic" process would be unpleasant. 

And yet, other laws such as S.1315, are perfectly transparent and open. So, with nobody in Congress drafting the TPP (and apparently not even able to pass it, despite corporate backers' demands), here is a vivid example of the US government, hard at work.

presenting: S. 1315, Knife Owners’ Protection Act of 2015

S. 1315 would allow people to possess knives in states where they are illegal if the person is travelling to and from states where the knife is legal, if the knife is secured, or if the knife is a safety blade designed for cutting seatbelts. Based on information provided by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, CBO estimates that implementing S. 1315 would have no effect on the federal budget. Because enacting S. 1315 would not affect direct spending or revenues, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. 

S. 1315 would impose an intergovernmental mandate as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) by preempting some state and local laws related to possessing and transporting knives. Laws regulating knives vary from state to state. The costs for state and local governments to comply with that mandate would include the cost to change protocols and train law enforcement officers. CBO estimates the total costs for state and local governments would be small and would not exceed the threshold established in UMRA ($77 million in 2015, adjusted annually for inflation).

Yes, it would cost US taxpayers $77 million to "protect" knife owners, and yes if you own a knife, you too may be considered a threat.

Credit to Zero Hedge

The Next Great European Financial Crisis Has Begun

The Greek financial system is in the process of totally imploding, and the rest of Europe will soon follow.  Neither the Greeks nor the Germans are willing to give in, and that means that there is very little chance that a debt deal is going to happen by the end of June.  So that means that we will likely see a major Greek debt default and potentially even a Greek exit from the eurozone.  At this point, credit default swaps on Greek debt have risen 456 percent in price since the beginning of this year, and the market has priced in a 75 percent chance that a Greek debt default will happen.  Over the past month, the yield on two year Greek bonds has skyrocketed from 20 percent to more than 30 percent, and the Greek stock market has fallen by a total of 13 percent during the last three trading days alone.  This is what a financial collapse looks like, and if Greece does leave the euro, we are going to see this kind of carnage happen all over Europe.

Officials over in Europe are now openly speaking of the need to prepare for a “state of emergency” now that negotiations have totally collapsed.  At one time, it would have been unthinkable for Greece to leave the euro, but now it appears  that this is precisely what will happen unless a miracle happens…

Greece is heading for a state of emergency and an exit from the euro following the collapse of talks to agree a bailout deal, senior EU officials warned last night.

Europe must be prepared to step in otherwise Greek society would face an unprecedented crisis with power blackouts, medicine shortages and no money to pay for police, they said.

In the past, the Greeks have always buckled under pressure.  But this new Greek government was elected with a mandate to end austerity, and so far they have shown a remarkable amount of resolve.  In order for a debt deal to happen, one side is going to have to blink, and at this point it does not look like it will be the Greeks…

The world’s financial markets are facing up to the possibility that Greece could soon become the first country to crash out of Europe’s single currency. Talks between Athens and its eurozone creditors have collapsed in acrimony just days before a final deadline for Greece to unlock the €7.2bn (£5.2bn) in bailout funds it needs to avoid a catastrophic debt default.

The Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, accused the creditor powers of hidden “political motives” in their demands that Greece make further cuts to public pension payments in return for the financial aid. “We are shouldering the dignity of our people, as well as the hopes of the people of Europe,” Mr Tsipras said in a defiant statement. “We cannot ignore this responsibility. This is not a matter of ideological stubbornness. This is about democracy.”

As we approach the point of no return, both sides are preparing for the endgame.

In Greece, members of parliament have been studying what happened in Iceland a few years ago.  Many of them believe that a Greek debt default combined with a nationalization of Greek banks and a Greek exit from the euro could set the nation back on the path to prosperity fairly rapidly.  The following comes from the Telegraph…

The radical wing of Greece’s Syriza party is to table plans over coming days for an Icelandic-style default and a nationalisation of the Greek banking system, deeming it pointless to continue talks with Europe’s creditor powers.

Syriza sources say measures being drafted include capital controls and the establishment of a sovereign central bank able to stand behind a new financial system. While some form of dual currency might be possible in theory, such a structure would be incompatible with euro membership and would imply a rapid return to the drachma.

The confidential plans were circulating over the weekend and have the backing of 30 MPs from the Aristeri Platforma or ‘Left Platform’, as well as other hard-line groupings in Syriza’s spectrum. It is understood that the nationalist ANEL party in the ruling coalition is also willing to force a rupture with creditors, if need be.

Meanwhile, in a desperate attempt to get the Greeks to give in at the last moment, Greek’s creditors are preparing to pull out all the stops in order to put as much financial pressure on Greece as possible…

Germany’s Suddeutsche Zeitung reported that the creditors are drawing an ultimatum to the Greeks, threatening to cut off Greek access to the European payments system and forcing capital controls on the country as soon as this weekend. The plan would lead to the temporary closure of the banks, followed by a rationing of cash withdrawals.

For a long time, most in the financial world assumed that a debt deal would eventually happen.  But now reality is setting in.  As I mentioned at the top of this article, the cost to insure Greek debt has risen by an astounding 456 percent since the beginning of this year…

Given these dramatic stakes, the risk of a Greek default has gone way up. One way to measure that risk is by looking at the skyrocketing price of insurance policies that would pay out if Greek bonds go bust. The cost to insure Greek debt for one year against the risk of default has skyrocketed 456% since the start of the 2015, according to FactSet data.

These insurance-like contracts, known as credit default swaps, imply there is a 75% to 80% probability of Greece defaulting on its debt, according to Jigar Patel, a credit strategist at Barclays.

The probability of a Greek default soars to a whopping 95% for five-year CDS, Patel said.

“Default is looking more and more likely,” Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group, wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday.

And in recent days, we have also seen Greek stocks and Greek bonds totally crash.  The following comes from CNN…

The Greek stock market has plummeted 13% over the past three trading days, including a 3% drop on Tuesday alone.

In the bond market, the yield on Greek two-year debt has skyrocketed to 30.2%. A month ago, the yield was only 20%. Yields rise as bond prices fall.

Of course if there is a Greek debt default and Greece does leave the euro, it won’t just be Greece that pays the price.

As I have written about previously, there are tens of trillions of dollars in derivatives that are directly tied to currency exchange rates and 505 trillion dollars in derivatives that are directly tied to interest rates.  A “Grexit” would cause the euro to drop like a rock and interest rates all over the continent would start to go crazy.  The financial chaos that a “Grexit” would cause should not be underestimated.

And there are signs that some of Europe’s biggest banks are already on the verge of collapse.  For example, just consider what has been going on at the biggest bank in Germany.  Both of the co-CEOs at Deutsche Bank recently resigned, and it is increasingly looking as if it could soon become Europe’s version of Lehman Brothers.  The following summary of the recent troubles at Deutsche Bank comes from an article that was posted on NotQuant…

Here’s a re-cap of what’s happened at Deutsche Bank over the past 15 months:

• In April of 2014,  Deutsche Bank was forced to raise an additional 1.5 Billion of Tier 1 capital to support it’s capital structure.  Why?
• 1 month later in May of 2014, the scramble for liquidity continued as DB announced the selling of 8 billion euros worth of stock – at up to a 30% discount.   Why again?  It was a move which raised eyebrows across the financial media.  The calm outward image of Deutsche Bank did not seem to reflect their rushed efforts to raise liquidity.  Something was decidedly rotten behind the curtain.
• Fast forwarding to March of this year:   Deutsche Bank fails the banking industry’s “stress tests” and is given a stern warning to shore up it’s capital structure.
• In April,  Deutsche Bank confirms it’s agreement to a joint settlement with the US and UK regarding the manipulation of LIBOR.   The bank is saddled with a massive $2.1 billion payment to the DOJ.  (Still, a small fraction of their winnings from the crime). 
• In May,  one of Deutsche Bank’s CEOs, Anshu Jain is given an enormous amount of new authority by the board of directors.  We guess that this is a “crisis move”.  In times of crisis the power of the executive is often increased.
• June 5:  Greece misses it’s payment to the IMF.   The risk of default across all of it’s debt is now considered acute.   This has massive implications for Deutsche Bank.
• June 6/7:  (A Saturday/Sunday, and immediately following Greece’s missed payment to the IMF) Deutsche Bank’s two CEO’s announce their surprise departure from the company.  (Just one month after Jain is given his new expanded powers).   Anshu Jain will step down first at the end of June.  Jürgen Fitschen will step down next May.
• June 9: S&P lowers the rating of Deutsche Bank to BBB+  Just three notches above “junk”.  (Incidentally,  BBB+ is even lower than Lehman’s downgrade – which preceded it’s collapse by just 3 months)

And that’s where we are now.  How bad is it?  We don’t know because we won’t be permitted to know.  But these are not the moves of a healthy company.

For a very long time, I have been warning that a major financial crisis was coming to Europe, and for a very long time the authorities in Europe have been able to successfully kick the can down the road.

But now it looks like we have reached the end of the road, and a day of reckoning is finally here.

Nobody is quite sure what is going to happen next, but almost everyone agrees that it isn’t going to be pretty.

So you better buckle up, because it looks like we are all in for a wild ride as we enter the second half of this year.

Credit to Economic Collapse

North Korea claims it fired anti-ship missile that can hit targets 120km away

NORTH KOREA’s desire to play with the big boys seems to be edging closer to reality after fresh claims it has acquired new weaponry.

The country’s leader Kim Jong-un announced today his navy fired its first anti-ship missile that is capable of destroying a target 120km away, hailing it as “another fresh milestone” in North Korea’s bid to bolster its naval force.

According to the state-run KCNA news agency, the bizarre leader watched the tests before delivering his verdict.

He “noted with great pleasure that it marked another fresh milestone in bolstering up the Juche (self-reliance)-based naval force”, it said.

“Ultra-modern strike means of Korean style have been studied and developed one after another recently to completely contain the hostile forces,” Kim was quoted as saying.

South Korea’s defence ministry said the North had tested three short-range missiles with a range of nearly 100km on Sunday off its east coast.

“North Korea appears to be developing new missiles that would replace its old Soviet-designed anti-ship missiles,” ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok told reporters.

The test was the latest since Pyongyang claimed on May 9 it had successfully test-fired an SLBM, a technology that could eventually offer the nuclear-armed state a survivable second-strike capability.

A fully developed SLBM capability would take the North Korean nuclear threat to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula.

But some experts have questioned the authenticity of the May test, saying photos of the launch might have been digitally manipulated.




A South Korean soldier walks along barricades on the road leading to North Korea at a military checkpoint in the border city of Paju. Picture: Jung Yeon-Je Source: AFP

Today’s revelation comes after a North Korean soldier defected to the South, a rarity according to South Korean officials.

The soldier, who is in his late teens, surrendered himself to South Korean border guards after walking across the frontier in Hwacheon, northeast of Seoul, the South’s defence ministry said.

“We’ve confirmed his will to defect after he reached our guard post,” a ministry spokesman said.

Credit to news.com.au

Biometrics: Key to Mastering the Human Domain

China and US on collision course for war over South China Sea

A QUIET battle lingering over the South China Sea just got a whole lot more dangerous after reports China tested hypersonic glide vehicles capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

The vehicle, dubbed the WU-14, was the fourth test of the missile in 18 months, RT News reports.

The weapon is extremely advanced and can travel at 10 times the speed of sound.

And it’s ticking off the Americans.

The US has labelled the testing as an “extreme manoeuvre” amid tensions in the South China Sea, theSouth China Morning Post reports.




This artist's rendering, provided by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), shows a Hypersonic Technology Vehicle. Picture: AFP Source: AFP



But China has been quick to dismiss any suggestion the tests were anything other than a normal exercise.

“The scheduled scientific research and experiments in our territory is normal, and those tests are not targeted at any country and specific goals,” the ministry told the Post.

Tensions between the two military superpowers have been increasing due to a cluster of tiny islands in the South China Sea.

And the US and China have been doing a lot of peacocking about them.

US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter has previously warned the US would not shy away from confronting Beijing about the continued expansion.

The problem is also placing Australia in an awkward position over who it would be better off being best buddies with.




A Chinese flag, red-coloured, flies from one of the two concrete structures on the Mischief Reef off the disputed Spratlys group of islands in the South China Sea. Picture: AP Photo/Aaron Favila Source: AP


War paradise

The tiny man-made islands popping up in the South China Sea have been dubbed a “flashpoint” of war due to the land grab they inspire.

The Chinese have used dredging engineering to create the islands from what were previously reefs — and it claims it has the sovereign right to do this, despite some of them being 1400km from China’s mainland or on the continental shelfs of the Philippines and Vietnam.

Militarisation of those islands could very well result in conflict between China and US, which runs its ships through the area.

That would drag Australia firmly into the war muck — Australia needs China for trade, but the US is one of its closest defence allies.

As well as US military interests in the area, countries including the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also have a stake in the region.

As each island appears, China stakes a claim in the sea around it and this is the crux of the issue for China’s neighbours.

About 1500 hectares of land has been reclaimed by the Chinese. It gives the country another 12 nautical miles of territory at each new border, and also creates 200 extra miles of economic zones to dig for oil, gas and to fish in.

The deputy dean of global studies at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Professor Joseph Siracussa, told news.com.au that the two nations were “spoiling for a fight”.

Despite the economic ties between China and the global economy, he said it wouldn’t stop a war.

“Economics mean very little at the end of the day,” said Prof Siracussa, who is an expert in human security and international diplomacy.

“Once you militarise a problem, you don’t get a diplomatic solution.

“The [US] Secretary of Defence’s job is to think about the next war and how to beat them up.

“The trigger is there, it’s just waiting to happen,” he said.

During a “Re-assessing the Global Nuclear Order” conference in January, Prof Siracussa said discussions about “inevitable” war between the US and China were quite open and on the table.

“They were discussing the inevitable war with China,” he said.

“This will happen. This is about power.

“The American pentagon is on a collision course with China.

“So the South China Sea has become a flashpoint for war.”

Credit to news.com.au

Rare Inscription from King David Discovered in Jerusalem Hills

Ancient city at Khirbet Qeiyafa and shards that were discovered from the period of King David.
Photo Credit: Skyview Company and Tal Rogovsky

A previous version of this article contained incorrect Biblical references by the archaeologist.

A rare inscription from the time of King David was discovered at Khirbet Qeiyafain the Elah Valley, southwest of Jerusalem and near Beit Shemesh.

A ceramic jar approximately 3,000 years old that was broken into numerous shards was found in 2012 in excavations. Letters written in ancient Canaanite script could be discerned on several of the shards, sparking the curiosity of researchers, Prof. Yosef Garfinkel of Hebrew University and Saar Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Its artifacts department glued together hundreds of pottery shards to form a whole jar and solved the riddle – the jar was incised with the inscription, ” Eshbaʽal Ben Bada.”

Professor Garfinkel and Ganor said:

This is the first time that the name Eshbaʽal has appeared on an ancient inscription in the country. Eshbaʽal Ben Shaul, who ruled over Israel at the same time as David, is known from the Bible.

It is interesting to note that the name Eshbaʽal appears in the Bible…only during the reign of King David, in the first half of the tenth century BCE. This name was not used later in the First Temple period.

They added that the correlation between the biblical tradition and the archaeological finds indicates this was a common name only during that period. “The name Bedaʽ is unique and does not occur in ancient inscriptions or in the biblical tradition,” they added.

The fact that the name Eshbaʽal was incised on a jar suggests that he was an important person, according to the researchers. He apparently was the owner of a large agricultural estate, and the produce collected there was packed and transported in jars that bore his name.

The researchers stated:

This is clear evidence of social stratification and the creation of an established economic class that occurred at the time of the formation of the Kingdom of Judah.

Khirbet Qeiyafa is identified with the biblical city Shaʽarayim. During several seasons of excavation, a fortified city, two gates, a palace and storerooms, dwellings and cultic rooms were exposed.

The city dates from the time of David – the late 11th and early centuries BCE. Unique artifacts that were previously unknown were discovered at the site.

According to Garfinkel and Ganor:

In recent years four inscriptions have been published: two from Khirbet Qeiyafa, one from Jerusalem and one from Bet Shemesh. This completely changes our understanding of the distribution of writing in the Kingdom of Judah, and it is now clear that writing was far more widespread than previously thought.

It seems that the organization of the kingdom required a cadre of clerks and writers and their activity is also manifested in the appearance of inscriptions.

 Credit to Jewishpress.com