Tag: finance

Department of Homeland Security Moves to Install National License Plate Tracking System

*I have just been informed of some really great news. The DHS has canceled the plan due to outrage. This is what we can achieve if we are informed and keep the pressure on. I expect them to be back at it in the future, so stay vigilant. Article on the cancelation can be found here. I have left my original post intact below.

Earlier today, I highlighted a program planned by the FCC named the Critical Information Needs study, which will embed “government researchers” into media organizations in order to make sure they are doing their job properly. This insane anti-free press measure is extraordinarily disturbing and now we find out that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has plans to outsource the creation of a gigantic, comprehensive nationwide license plate database to a private corporation.

The status quo is now overtly doubling down on surveillance in the wake of the Snowden revelations rather than reigning them in. Game is on folks. Things are getting very serious.

From the Washington Post:

The Department of Homeland Security wants a private company to provide a national license-plate tracking system that would give the agency access to vast amounts of information from commercial and law enforcement tag readers, according to a government proposal that does not specify what privacy safeguards would be put in place.

The national license-plate recognition database, which would draw data from readers that scan the tags of every vehicle crossing their paths, would help catch fugitive illegal immigrants, according to a DHS solicitation. But the database could easily contain more than 1 billion records and could be shared with other law enforcement agencies, raising concerns that the movements of ordinary citizens who are under no criminal suspicion could be scrutinized.

It’s for the children! How can you object to saving the children!

“It is important to note that this database would be run by a commercial enterprise, and the data would be collected and stored by the commercial enterprise, not the government,” she said.

Yeah, because that makes me feel so much better…

But civil liberties groups are not assuaged. “Ultimately, you’re creating a national database of location information,” said Jennifer Lynch, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “When all that data is compiled and aggregated, you can track somebody as they’re going through their life.”

The agency said the length of time the data is retained would be up to the winning vendor.Vigilant Solutions, for instance, one of the leading providers of tag-reader data, keeps its records indefinitely.

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Ron Paul: “Ukraine Is Their Business, Not Ours”

“The American people are very leery of getting involved in another squabble in some other country,” warns Ron Paul following the breakdown in the truce in Ukraine and President Obama’s drawing of more red-lines. In this succinct interview with FOX, the former congressman sums it up perfectly, “That’s their business, and it certainly isn’t ours,” he said. “We’ve tried it for too long, and the American people are sick and tired of it, and we’re also out of money.” Indeed, but the Keynesians must be getting excited…

 

“the further we stay away from there, the better…”

 

 

“I would be willing to wager most of the people in the Ukraine would like to see the United States stay out, and they’d like to see the Russians stay out.”


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1eYDgEe Tyler Durden

Ron Paul: "Ukraine Is Their Business, Not Ours"

“The American people are very leery of getting involved in another squabble in some other country,” warns Ron Paul following the breakdown in the truce in Ukraine and President Obama’s drawing of more red-lines. In this succinct interview with FOX, the former congressman sums it up perfectly, “That’s their business, and it certainly isn’t ours,” he said. “We’ve tried it for too long, and the American people are sick and tired of it, and we’re also out of money.” Indeed, but the Keynesians must be getting excited…

 

“the further we stay away from there, the better…”

 

 

“I would be willing to wager most of the people in the Ukraine would like to see the United States stay out, and they’d like to see the Russians stay out.”


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1eYDgEe Tyler Durden

Meanwhile In The “Democratic” Republic Of Congo…

It seems the Democratic Republic of Congo has been learning its diplomacy from other nations…

  • *DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO POLICE FIRE ON OPPOSITION RALLY
  • *CONGO POLICE FIRED TEAR GAS, BULLETS AT RALLY IN BUKAVU
  • *CONGO POLICE BLOCKED OPPOSITION LEADER KAMERHE AT RALLY
  • *CONGO OPPOSITION SAY SEVERAL WOUNDED AFTER SHOTS FIRED

Of course, we will have to see if China (who has been building interest in Africa), Russia, the US, or France (who seem to like to stir things up in Africa) get involved?


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1hz3m8J Tyler Durden

Meanwhile In The "Democratic" Republic Of Congo…

It seems the Democratic Republic of Congo has been learning its diplomacy from other nations…

  • *DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO POLICE FIRE ON OPPOSITION RALLY
  • *CONGO POLICE FIRED TEAR GAS, BULLETS AT RALLY IN BUKAVU
  • *CONGO POLICE BLOCKED OPPOSITION LEADER KAMERHE AT RALLY
  • *CONGO OPPOSITION SAY SEVERAL WOUNDED AFTER SHOTS FIRED

Of course, we will have to see if China (who has been building interest in Africa), Russia, the US, or France (who seem to like to stir things up in Africa) get involved?


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1hz3m8J Tyler Durden

Caracas Is Burning As Maduro Warned May Face Military Coup

With all eyes focused on Ukraine, the situation in Venezuela has once again escalated as protest leader Leopoldo Lopez' arrest (and possible 10 year jail sentence) prompted more violence overnight. However, as we warned, the government crackdown is starting to raise concerns about the stability of the government.

  • *VENEZUELA PROTESTS ESCALATING INTO NATIONWIDE UNREST: IHS
  • *ESCALATION OF PROTESTS PUTS STABILITY OF GOVT AT RISK: IHS
  • *RISING VIOLENCE COULD LEAD TO MADURO OUSTER BY MILITARY: IHS

As opposition leader Capriles asks Venezuela's military to uphold the constitution, he exclaims that "the poor' must participate for government to change.

  • *VENEZUELA HATILLO MAYOR DAVID SMOLANSKY SPEAKS IN CARACAS
  • *VENEZUELA PEOPLE WON'T STAY QUIET: SMOLANSKY
  • *SMOLANSKY SAYS VENEZUELA SUFFERED TERROR LAST NIGHT
  • *SMOLANSKY CALLS FOR MASSIVE VENEZUELA PROTESTS SATURDAY

 

The opposition leader speaks:

  • *VENEZUELA OFFICIALS SHOT AT PROTESTERS YDAY: CAPRILES
  • *VENEZUELA ARMED FORCES SHOULD ALLOW PEACEFUL MARCHES: SMOLANSKY
  • *VENEZUELA STRENGTHENING TIES WITH CUBA, RAMIREZ SAYS
  • *VENEZUELA GOVT USING VIOLENCE TO HIDE ECO PROBLEMS: CAPRILES
  • *CAPRILES SAYS SOME IN VENEZUELA GOVT WANT MADURO OUT
  • *CAPRILES ASKS VENEZUELA ARMED FORCES TO UPHOLD CONSTITUTION
  • *VENEZUELA POOR MUST PARTICIPATE FOR GOVT TO CHANGE: CAPRILES
  • *CAPRILES SAYS HE WON'T BE FORCED TO TALK TO VENEZUELA GOVT

 

And IHS warns:

  • *VENEZUELA PROTESTS ESCALATING INTO NATIONWIDE UNREST: IHS
  • *ESCALATION OF PROTESTS PUTS STABILITY OF GOVT AT RISK: IHS
  • *RISING VIOLENCE COULD LEAD TO MADURO OUSTER BY MILITARY: IHS

 

Images from last night suggest this is getting considerably worse…despite Maduro's claims of "absolute calm"

 

and of course the terrible death of a former Miss Venezuela…


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1gMWDFo Tyler Durden

Is “Buy to Rent” Dead? – Rents on Blackstone Housing Bonds Plunge 7.6%

Just last week, I highlighted the fact that the return of subprime home loans was just another bankster scam to get private equity players and hedge funds out of the properties they had rushed into throughout the U.S. by dumping them on retail muppets. More evidence that this may indeed be the case emerged today as Bloomberg reports that rents backing the properties in the Blackstone’s rental-home bonds dropped 7.6% from October to January.

Look, I have no idea what the assumptions were, but with home prices surging throughout the nation, shouldn’t these Wall Street slumlords have considerable pricing power? Apparently not.

From Bloomberg:

Rents collected on the collateral for the first U.S. rental-home securities declined by 7.6 percent from October to January, according to Morningstar Inc.

Payments declined as expiring leases and early tenant departures left residences backing the bonds of BlackstoneGroup LP’s Invitation Homes vacant, Becky Cao and Brian Alan, analysts at Morningstar’s credit-ratings unit, said in a report. While 8.3 percent of the properties were vacant or occupied by delinquent renters in January, renewals on 78.5 percent of leases that expired the prior month exceeded the analysts’ expected rate of 66.7 percent.

Christine Anderson, a spokeswoman for New York-based Blackstone, declined to comment.

Morningstar said it expects a stabilized vacancy rate of 8 percent for homes underlying the first deal after it granted AAA grades to $278.7 million of the notes. Wall Street ultimately may sell more than $20 billion a year of rental-home bonds as investors become comfortable with those tied to smaller landlords, according to Ryan Stark, a director at Deutsche Bank AG, which structured and helped underwrite the transaction.

Keep flipping them homes ‘merica.

Full article here.

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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Is “Buy to Rent” Dead? – Rents on Blackstone Housing Bonds Plunge 7.6% originally appeared on A Lightning War for Liberty on February 20, 2014.

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European Union Commits To Sanctions Against Ukraine

Following hours of talks between three European foreign ministers and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in Kiev, the EU has decided to go ahead with sanctions:

  • *EU COMMITS TO SANCTIONS AGAINST UKRAINE
  • *EU TO WORK OUT UKRAINE ASSET FREEZE, VISA BAN SOON
  • *EU TO SUSPEND UKRAINE EXP0RT LICENSES FOR `REPRESSIVE’ GEAR

Having already proclaimed this move as “blackmail”, we are sure the Russians will be utilizing this move to further their support for the catastrophically divided nation.


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/NeE2Hb Tyler Durden

NSA’s Spying Program Set To Become Even Bigger

In the aftermath of the Snowden revelations about the NSA’s ubiquitous presence in everyday lives, and unconstitutional interception, eavesdropping and recording of every form of electronic communication, the logical assumption would be that the next step for the NSA would be its reduction instead of expansion, especially following the president’s heartfelt reading from the TOTUS several months ago in which he promised to do all he could, to curb the spy agency. “Surprisingly” expansion is precisely what will happen to the NSA – as WSJ reports the “government is considering enlarging the National Security Agency’s controversial collection of Americans’ phone records—an unintended consequence of lawsuits seeking to stop the surveillance program, according to officials.” Unintended? It is very much intended now that Americans know that the concept of privacy is dead and buried and will instead seek other methods to communicate. Which simply means the NSA has to get even bigger in order to thwart the imminent, daily and “clear and present” danger that US citizen-cum-terrorists pose to the US despotic totalitarian state republic.

From WSJ:

A number of government lawyers involved in lawsuits over the NSA phone-records program believe federal-court rules on preserving evidence related to lawsuits require the agency to stop routinely destroying older phone records, according to people familiar with the discussions. As a result, the government would expand the database beyond its original intent, at least while the lawsuits are active.

 

No final decision has been made to preserve the data, officials said, and one official said that even if a decision is made to retain the information, it would be held only for the purpose of litigation and not be subject to searches. The government currently collects phone records on millions of Americans in a vast database that it can mine for links to terror suspects. The database includes records of who called whom, when they called and for how long.

The irony is that all this is happening as the top drama actor of the US pretends to be dismantlling the agency:

President Barack Obama has ordered senior officials to end the government storage of such data and find another place to store the records—possibly with the phone companies who log the calls. Under the goals outlined by Mr. Obama last month, the government would still be able to search the call logs with a court order, but would no longer possess and control them.

At this point we also get the generic revisionist history false negative.

National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander has said the program, if it had existed in 2001, would have uncovered the Sept. 11 plot.

It would have also prevented the Boston bombing if it had existed in 2013. Oh wait…

The lies continue:

As the NSA program currently works, the database holds about five years of data, according to officials and some declassified court opinions. About twice a year, any call record more than five years old is purged from the system, officials said. A particular concern, according to one official, is that the older records may give certain parties legal standing to pursue their cases, and that deleting the data could erase evidence that the phone records of those individuals or groups were swept up in the data dragnet.

Surely this explains why the NSA recently built a facility in Bluffdale which according to rampant speculation can hold virtually every form of communication every intercepted, not to mention everything currently in print or any other stored medium. The thing is: we don’t know how much it can store because none of the data is public.

Which is why the lies will continue until one day today’s shocking scenes from the Ukraine are taking place in every US alley and square. But for now, the S&P is just shy of all time highs, so please continue your distraction.

The NSA data center in Utah will be up and running by the end of September (source: Forbes)

 

Level 0 of one of the four data halls on the Bluffdale site

 

Level 1 of the data hall, where servers will be housed


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/NeE028 Tyler Durden

NSA's Spying Program Set To Become Even Bigger

In the aftermath of the Snowden revelations about the NSA’s ubiquitous presence in everyday lives, and unconstitutional interception, eavesdropping and recording of every form of electronic communication, the logical assumption would be that the next step for the NSA would be its reduction instead of expansion, especially following the president’s heartfelt reading from the TOTUS several months ago in which he promised to do all he could, to curb the spy agency. “Surprisingly” expansion is precisely what will happen to the NSA – as WSJ reports the “government is considering enlarging the National Security Agency’s controversial collection of Americans’ phone records—an unintended consequence of lawsuits seeking to stop the surveillance program, according to officials.” Unintended? It is very much intended now that Americans know that the concept of privacy is dead and buried and will instead seek other methods to communicate. Which simply means the NSA has to get even bigger in order to thwart the imminent, daily and “clear and present” danger that US citizen-cum-terrorists pose to the US despotic totalitarian state republic.

From WSJ:

A number of government lawyers involved in lawsuits over the NSA phone-records program believe federal-court rules on preserving evidence related to lawsuits require the agency to stop routinely destroying older phone records, according to people familiar with the discussions. As a result, the government would expand the database beyond its original intent, at least while the lawsuits are active.

 

No final decision has been made to preserve the data, officials said, and one official said that even if a decision is made to retain the information, it would be held only for the purpose of litigation and not be subject to searches. The government currently collects phone records on millions of Americans in a vast database that it can mine for links to terror suspects. The database includes records of who called whom, when they called and for how long.

The irony is that all this is happening as the top drama actor of the US pretends to be dismantlling the agency:

President Barack Obama has ordered senior officials to end the government storage of such data and find another place to store the records—possibly with the phone companies who log the calls. Under the goals outlined by Mr. Obama last month, the government would still be able to search the call logs with a court order, but would no longer possess and control them.

At this point we also get the generic revisionist history false negative.

National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander has said the program, if it had existed in 2001, would have uncovered the Sept. 11 plot.

It would have also prevented the Boston bombing if it had existed in 2013. Oh wait…

The lies continue:

As the NSA program currently works, the database holds about five years of data, according to officials and some declassified court opinions. About twice a year, any call record more than five years old is purged from the system, officials said. A particular concern, according to one official, is that the older records may give certain parties legal standing to pursue their cases, and that deleting the data could erase evidence that the phone records of those individuals or groups were swept up in the data dragnet.

Surely this explains why the NSA recently built a facility in Bluffdale which according to rampant speculation can hold virtually every form of communication every intercepted, not to mention everything currently in print or any other stored medium. The thing is: we don’t know how much it can store because none of the data is public.

Which is why the lies will continue until one day today’s shocking scenes from the Ukraine are taking place in every US alley and square. But for now, the S&P is just shy of all time highs, so please continue your distraction.

The NSA data center in Utah will be up and running by the end of September (source: Forbes)

 

Level 0 of one of the four data halls on the Bluffdale site

 

Level 1 of the data hall, where servers will be housed


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/NeE028 Tyler Durden