NC Renegades

The following statistics seem impossible to believe. While I wonder how accurately the UK has been tracking these numbers historically, the enormous spread seems much too large to ignore, and is a national embarrassment that should be dealt with immediately.

From the Free Thought Project:

A new report by ThinkProgress.com unearthed disturbing figures when it came to the number of police-related deaths that occurred in America in the month of March alone.

Just last month, in the 31 days of March, police in the United States killed more people than the UK did in the entire 20th century. In fact, it was twice as many; police in the UK only killed 52 people during that 100 year period.

According to the report by ThinkProgess, in March alone, 111 people died during police encounters — 36 more than the previous month.

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The probability of a major escalation over the latest proxy Middle Eastern civil war just escalated substantially.

While it has been widely reported that the United States has been accelerating its weapons supply to the Saudi-led coalition striking rebels in Yemen as a sign of how foreign powers are deepening their involvement in the conflict, the biggest regional backer of the Houthi rebels, the state of Iran, had been mostly inert. Until this morning, when as AP reports, Iran dispatched a naval destroyer and another vessel Wednesday to waters near Yemen.

According to Iran’s English-language state broadcaster Press TV, the official reason for the mini flotilla is a peacekeeping mission meant to deter piracy. It quoted Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari as saying the ships would be part of an anti-piracy campaign “safeguarding naval routes for vessels in the region.” The real reason has nothing to do with pirates and everything to do with showing that there is another interest party in a conflict that until now has seen unilateral involvement mainly by the Saudi-led and US supported Gulf Arab air campaign targeting the Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis.

As for the topic of US support, speaking a day earlier in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken blamed the violence in Yemen on the Houthis, and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, saying that the U.S. is committed to defending Saudi Arabia.

“We have expedited weapons deliveries, we have increased our intelligence sharing, and we have established a joint coordination and planning cell in the Saudi operations center,” he said in a statement to reporters after meeting with Saudi royals and Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled his country amid rebel advances.

Ironically, the U.S. said that the chaos has allowed the local al-Qaida branch, which it considers the world’s most dangerous wing of the group, to make “great gains” on the ground, causing Washington to rethink how it prevents it from launching attacks in the West.

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published on April 1.

Hillary Clinton Hires Michelle Obama’s ‘Image Adviser’

Likely Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has taken another step closer in what appears to be a plan to run for president in the 2016 election.

The former secretary of state’s campaign most recently hired Kristina Schake, a veteran image adviser who shaped first lady Michelle Obama’s public perception into a down-to-earth image, NBC News confirmed on Monday.

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Switzerland Wednesday became the first country ever to issue 10-year debt that gives investors a yield under 0%.

Several European countries inside and outside the eurozone have sold government debt with up to five years of maturity at negative yields, which means investors effectively pay for the privilege of buying it. But no other country has previously stretched this out as long as 10 years.

The Alpine country sold a total of 377.9 million Swiss francs (about $391 million) of bonds maturing in 2025 and 2049. On the 10-year slice, the yield was -0.055%, compared with 0.011% on its most recent similar bond two months ago.

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Desperation.

David DeGerolamo

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) was reelected Tuesday, CBS Chicago projected, beating back a challenge from Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D).

The Chinese Navy has deployed three ballistic missile submarines at sea capable of striking the United States with nuclear missiles, the commander of the U.S. Northern Command said Tuesday.

Adm. William Gortney, the commander, said the submarines are a “concern” and will be able to strike the United States when fully deployed with missiles and warheads.

The missile submarines are deployed in the South China Sea at a base on Hainan Island, according to a defense official.

“They’ve not loaded their missiles or begun strategic patrols,” the official said. “But we believe they are likely to begin this year.”

Gortney also stated explicitly that U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that North Korea is capable of mounting a small nuclear warhead on its new road-mobile KN-08 intercontinental missiles.

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When President Obama announced a “framework” nuclear agreement with Iran – which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns threatens the very existence of his nation – few noticed the significance of the date.

On the Jewish calendar this year, April 1 coincided with Nisan 13, the date in history when a Persian king signed an agreement calling for the destruction of the Jews.

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The book of Esther declares, in Esther 3:12, 13, that on Nisan 13 the Persian king Ahasuerus was tricked by a viceroy by the name of Haman into signing an agreement to destroy all the Jews in the land at a future date.

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A few months ago, Sony used a ridiculous “hacking” publicity stunt to generate some $40 million more in revenues for what would otherwise have been the latest Seth Rogan “comic” flop, in which the film agency  blamed North Korea for hacking its computer system, a hack which was subsequently revealed to be the result of disgruntled former employee. Fast forward to today, when moments ago CNN reported that Russian hackers which according to left “tell-tale codes and other markers that they believe point to hackers working for the Russian government”, had penetrated the White House computer system.

Of course, reading beyond just the first paragraph reveals that this was anything but an actual hack: as CNN reports, “the White House has said the breach only ever affected an unclassified system.” So anyone could have accessed it really. But for the sake of the second cold war let’s make it seem that Vladimir Putin had nothing better to do than to sift through Obama’s golfing schedule and discover what his true handicap is. And now it’s clearly time to declare war on Syria’s Assad in retaliation, right?

The humor continues:

The hackers had access to sensitive information such as real-time non-public details of the president’s schedule. While such information is not classified, it is still highly sensitive and prized by foreign intelligence agencies, U.S. officials say.

It is also, well, public. It is unclear if Putin is now also in possession of Obama’s real birth certificate.

It gets better.

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