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Rare Win For Literacy As White House Announces E-book Initiative

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Rare Win For Literacy As White House Announces E-book Initiative

The literacy movement saw a rare win on Thursday after years of attack from the copyright monopolies and tech companies who have sought to remove libraries from our culture.

The White House on Thursday launched an initiative encouraging top book publishers to supply $250 million worth of free e-books to low-income students.

The program will partner with local governments and schools across the country. President Obama hopes that the e-book scheme will assist low-income households who significantly trail the national average in both digital connectivity and computer ownership.

At the Anacostia Library in Southeast Washington, D.C., the President announced that libraries and schools in poor communities would be supported by the program and efforts would be made to increase internet access at community libraries.

Publishers involved in the program include Penguin Random House, Bloomsbury, Macmillan, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster. This represents substantially all the large industry players, which is something of an achievement.

NGOs, such as book donation charity Firstbook, as well as public libraries will be working together to develop apps to support the digital reading program. Why apps will be needed is unclear. The likely case will be to wrap previously free books inside an elaborate and overly complicated digital layer to make them not free.

The program is part of Obama’s ConnectED plan which seeks to provide broadband internet access to 99% of students across the U.S. by 2018.

“If we’re serious about living up to what our country is about, then we have to consider what we can do to provide opportunities in every community, not just when they’re on the front page, but every day,” White House National Economic Council’s director Jeff Zients

The White House has also pledged to work alongside local schools and libraries to provide universal access to library cards. Approximately 30 cities and counties have signed up to support this effort, including Baltimore and San Francisco.

The moves come as the role of libraries in the community evolves with technology. Large publishers have used technological advances to eliminate the free renting of books, which has disproportionately affected access to reading material in poorer communities.

Netflix Moves To Children’s TV, Will Produce ‘Green Eggs And Ham’

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Netflix continues its quest to disrupt the film and television industry as it announced plans Thursday to adapt Green Eggs and Ham – Dr. Seuss’ famous creation – and make it into a TV animation. Thirteen episodes will make up the first series, the release date of which is unknown.

Netflix’s new project is the most recent of several, notably Daredevil, as the company increasingly competes with cable TV and its repeat episodes.

“Thirteen episodes will be done, as a part of season one”

The show will detail the exploits of inventor Guy and friend Sam-I-Am as they travel on a trip across the country that “tests the limits of their friendship.” We’ll likely get to watch Sam-I-Am attempt to force-feed his friend spoiled food in various locations, while we learn how to compose rudimentary rhyming schemes. Plot details are yet to be revealed but, spoiler alert, Netflix says that the characters will, at some point, eat the now-famous Green Eggs and Ham.

The show marks a move by the company to target kids, which it has had some trouble reaching. The company tried with Richie Rich, considered something of a mistake, but its new show is unlikely to become a mess: it’s exec-produced by Ellen Degeneres.

FOIA Request Exposes Keystone Pipeline Failures

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FOIA Request Exposes Keystone Pipeline Failures

According to documents obtained by a Freedom of Information Request parts of TransCanada’s Keystone 1 pipeline show an alarming rate of corrosion.

A mandatory inspection test has revealed a section of the pipeline’s wall corroded 95%, leaving it paper-thin in one area (one-third the thickness of a penny) and dangerously thin in three other places, leading the company to immediately shut it down for fear of a catastrophic oil spill.

The cause of the corrosion is being kept from the public by federal regulators and TransCanada.

“It is highly unusual for a pipeline not yet two years old to experience such deep corrosion issues,” Evan Vokes, a former TransCanada pipeline engineer-turned-whistleblower, was quoted as saying “Something very severe happened that the public needs to know about.”

When TransCanada shut the pipe down, the company and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) told the press that it was due to “possible safety Issues.”

And although an engineer from PHMSA got sent to the site where TransCanada discovered the issue (in Missouri), no further information has been released to the public.

Only after a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to PHMSA in August 2013 — which the agency only responded to this April — was the information detailing that the pipeline had deeply corroded in multiple spots exposed.

Documents explaining just what caused the corrosion and findings concerning a possible spill were not included in the FOIA response. According to PHMSA spokesman Damon Hill, documents showing this information will compromise an ongoing compliance review the agency is conducting of TransCanada and so were withheld.

The revelations are a stunning view into the secret world of crude oil pipelines. They paint a picture, contrary to extensive public ad campaigns and lobbying, that the pipes are dangerous and have severe ecological ramification. The released documents also highlight just how easily a spill can occur and show just how important comprehensive cleanup planning to understanding the safety of pipeline proposals.

U.S. May Be Poised To Sell Iran Nuclear Materials

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Sanctions and an increasingly constrictive global nuclear supply regime have left Iran little other option but to buy nuclear materials in the shadow. The country has built a clandestine global network of front companies and used it to purchase the key goods Tehran needs to keep its centrifuges running and reactor construction progressing along.

This may all change with the framework agreement agreed in Lausanne recently. According to the State Department, one of the agreement’s provisions creates a dedicated procurement channel for Iran’s nuclear program.

The approved channel will “monitor and approve, on a case-by-case basis, the supply, sale, or transfer to Iran of certain nuclear-related and dual-use materials and technology,” a press release on the agreement says. President Obama has described it as being run by a “procurement committee.”

This is perhaps the most notable aspect of the agreement as the provision will open a legal trade line to most aspects of Iran’s nuclear program for the first time in years.

Iranian nuclear procurement is finally going legitimate. That’s a huge shift and potential opportunity that have already raised several questions. How will this channel function and who will oversee it?

The most interesting of these questions is just who will supply Iran the goods it needs to keep its nuclear program running.

Russia seems interested. They built Iran’s nuclear power plant at Bushehr, and Tehran inked a deal recently to add 2 more power units. Russia’s first-mover advantage may not last as the lengthy delays and safety concerns associated with Moscow’s work at Bushehr will make Iran think twice if other options become available to it.

Iran is going to need all sorts of materials and know-how from the market in order to advance its civilian nuclear program. Now that it has the choice, it will no longer have to rely on second or third best products – it can shop the market.

And surprisingly, it might even be American companies that will fill the role of seller.

New Study Suggests Air Travel Greener Than Cars

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New Study Suggests Air Travel Greener Than Cars

A new analysis from Michael Sivak of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, offers a surprising conclusion about which is a greener mode of transport: airplanes or cars?

Notably, Sivak found that driving today is actually much more “energy intensive” than flying, where energy intensity is defined as “the amount of energy needed to transport one person a given distance.”

The reason? While airlines and cars have both become more energy efficient over time, one key factor in determining the energy intensity of a particular form of travel is how many people are being transported per trip. This means that jam-packed modern passenger planes have cars totally beat.

“Flying domestically in the U.S. used to be much more energy intensive than driving, but that is no longer the case,” said Sivak “One of the main reasons is that the proportion of occupied seats on airplanes has increased substantially, while the number of occupants in cars and other light-duty vehicles has decreased.”

His analysis was based on data from the Department of Transportation and found that in 2012, the average energy intensity of driving a car or SUV, in the United States, was 4,211 BTUs (British thermal units) per person mile, while the energy intensity of flying domestically was 2,033 BTUs per person mile. Thus, on average, driving is more than twice as energy intense.

The analysis follows on his report last year, which found that driving is 57 percent more energy intensive than flying. Now, Sivak has gone back to update his analysis through 2012. He also added some corrections to the data on the energy intensity of flying. As a result of these corrections, “the advantage of flying has increased even further.”

One key takeaway is that these are averages. If you drive a car full of people it is significantly better for the environment than air travel.

The study is interesting, as it shows it is more about the capacity utilization of the transportation method, not the method itself, which drives how clean it is. Travel in any sort of vehicle that is under-occupied and it will be bad for the environment.

Apple’s ResearchKit Apps To Require Ethics Board Review

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Apple’s ResearchKit Apps To Require Ethics Board Review

In addition to launching a set of shiny new watches and a razor-thin MacBook in the last couple of months Apple has also unveiled an open-source medical research framework called ResearchKit to go along with the HealthKit platform that it recently debuted.

Apple previously noted that the institutions it had already partnered with to create apps for medical research had undergone third party ethics reviews, but it was unclear if all apps would need to do this.

This week modified the Review Guidelines for any app wishing to leverage ResearchKit to get approved in the App Store.

The guidelines now include the requirement that any apps using ResearchKit for health-related human subject experiments be approved by an independent ethics review board, which is a standard industry practice.

This change is an attempt to ease some of the ethical concerns expressed over the mass collection of health data from iPhone users. There have been numerous questions since the framework was announced about how data would be collected. The guidelines already detail that permission from users must be obtained before collecting data, and that parents or guardians will need to approve this data collection for minors.

Doctors and healthcare professionals were excited by the cameras, infrared sensors and touchscreens included on first generation of smartphones as they could be very useful tools for medical research but lacked a formal framework from Apple to sue them as such.

The announcement of ResearchKit marks the beginning of seeing what those researchers can do with mobile technology. The detection, prevention and treatment of a great number of medical conditions will no doubt be simplified by the use of wearable and interactive mobile technology. Further, the crowdsourcing of data from mobile devices on a daily or even hourly basis will revolutionize the medical research field, as millions of people begin recording important diagnostic data in the coming years.

Researchers now have a framework with which to explore these possibilities and it will be exciting to see what comes of this as the platform and apps that make use of it develop.

Facebook Complains About EU Pressure To Be Accountable For Privacy

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Facebook’s sizable EU lobby, headed by Richard Allan, has taken out advertising in leading newspapers this morning to complain about “multiple” EU nations digging around the network’s data slurping business practices.

The company’s complaint is that the actions of national privacy watchdogs within the 28-member-state bloc pose a threat to the economy. And by economy he means Facebook’s business model of selling your data to advertisers and other interested parties.

Allan claims that regulators are wasting their time investigating Facebook’s data-handling behavior because, apparently, the firm has already undergone an intimate probe from Ireland’s information watchdog. Which also happens to have the most lax privacy safeguards of any EU member state.

Allan whines that Facebook has already fixed its data protection issues, after the privacy invader worked with Irish authorities to address “concerns” about its services.

A number of probes, in addition to Ireland’s, are underway in countries including Belgium and the Netherlands.

According to Allan, national authorities, whose officials are prying into Facebook’s business, are going against the common market spirit of the EU.

He went on to gripe that “Facebook’s recent experience in Europe” told “a disturbing tale.”

European regulators see it differently, however: a Europe-wide probe is already under way, with Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany all working together as part of a so-called Article 29 taskforce to tackle Facebook’s sloppy handling of consumer privacy.

The results of the probe could have ramifications for the company stateside – regulators often watch what the others do and use the finding as a springboard for their own investigation.

The numerous EU probes combined with increasing scrutiny in Latin America suggest Facebook’s days of recklessly invading privacy are about to be over. This could have serious financial ramifications given the company’s ability to earn money depends on the fast and loose treatment of personal data in exchange for financial reward.

First Approved Bitcoin Bank Launches in New York Next Month

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Bitcoin will officially be part of the mainstream financial world next month when New York State’s Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) publishes a regulatory framework governing the virtual currency. The move will allow virtual currency exchange itBit to become the first-ever legitimate Bitcoin bank.

The NYDFS is set to publish its final “BitLicense Regulatory Framework for Virtual Currency Firms” in the next couple of weeks. Most of the provisions contained inside will become immediately applicable.

This means any company that has applied to become a virtual currency exchange will be able to legally launch in New York – the center of the world’s financial systems – as a bank. So far, however, just one company has applied: itBit Trust Company LLC.

The bank regulation means considerable regulatory oversight and financial management. It adds a considerable cost layer, effectively forcing the new technology to compete with incumbent banks. In short, the regulation protects current banks and makes it difficult for anyone to disrupt their business with the new currency. Which is just the way the big, somewhat-criminal banks, want it

itBit has been preparing to launch for the past year – beginning with moving its headquarters from Singapore to New York.

The exchange put in its application for a banking license late last week and has hired three big names to guide its way: former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Sheila Bair, former Financial Accounting Standards Board director Robert Herz, and former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley. All of whom will not come cheap. Expect fees of the new product to rival those of traditional banks, which is the design of the regulations.

Last month, VC-backed itBit also revealed that it was one of three successful bidders in an auction for Bitcoins seized from online drugs market Silk Road. It said it ‘won’ 3,000 of the 50,000 being auctioned, a sum currently worth around $675,000.

“Built by Wall Street professionals,” its website proudly says, as if to convey some sense of security despite the numerous bailouts and criminal prosecutions to hit The Street in recent years.

“itBit is institutional-grade and 100 per cent compliant within every jurisdiction it operates. The company’s stringent compliance program ensures the highest level of customer security and protection.”

The compliance aspect is regarded as critical in building up Bitcoin’s credibility and New York will be the first place to formally build it into its systems.

The NYDFS’ BitLicense Regulatory Framework was first proposed in August 2013 with a notice of inquiry [PDF]. The agency then held public hearings in January 2014 based on its initial plans for how to regulate a virtual currency.

The plans were sped up following the collapse of Mt Gox, the world’s largest virtual currency exchange, in March 2014. The NYDFS asked for proposals to establish regulated virtual currency exchanges in New York, and one set of proposals released in July 2014 and put out to public comment for 90 days received hundreds of comments, most of which were from banks and other invested parties that feared disruption by the cheap payment system.

On February 25 of this year, the NYDFS offered revised rules for public comment for another 30 days.

Now the NYDFS is fairly sure it has a viable set of rules and it plans to release them in the next few weeks, according to a spokesman.

Of most concern has been the compliance costs for new or fledgling virtual currency enterprises. In response, the NYDFS said it was considering a special “Transitional BitLicense” that would allow small businesses and start ups to operate within a more flexible framework for a set period.

The rules address such issues as consumer protection, anti-money laundering compliance, and cyber security rules tailored for virtual currency firms. The Licenses will be required for companies that receive or transmit virtual currency on behalf of consumers, that store or secure virtual currency on behalf of customers, that carry out retail conversion services, and basically all other forms of bridging the virtual currency and the real world.

Rand Paul Snuggles Up To Big Corporations In Presidential Bid

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U.S. presidential hopeful Rand Paul (R-KY) has filed a motion under the Congressional Review Act to block the introduction of the Democrat-driven net neutrality rules.

Paul, who often portrays himself as a libertarian and someone who is in touch with America’s founding values, seems to have decided to forgo these values and pursue corporate money in an effort to win the Republican presidential nomination.

The joint resolution means both houses of Congress are likely to vote on a straight majority basis to reject the broadband regulations, drawn up by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), within the next 30 days. Democratic Party members in the Senate won’t be able to filibuster the vote, thanks to the motion put forward.

“This regulation by the FCC is a textbook example of Washington’s desire to regulate anything and everything and will do nothing more than wrap the internet in red-tape,” said Senator Paul in a rather disingenuous statement.

“The internet has successfully flourished without the heavy hand of government interference. Stated simply, I do not want to see the government regulating the Internet.”

Yet this is not the case, with companies like Google, Netflix, Microsoft and Facebook all now having to pay extraordinary sums of money to ensure their content isn’t relegated to an internet ‘slow lane’.

The regulations put forth by the FCC seem to be the rights ones, as they have been cheered by most Americans and sharply opposed by the telecom monopolies. Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner, AT&T and other monopolists have sued the FCC.

The angry reaction by the notoriously disliked cable companies show the new regulations have teeth and will prevent the big companies from preying on everyday Americans who have no choice but to use their services.

Given the Republicans have a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the joint resolution should get enough votes to pass in both houses. If so, President Obama can veto the motion, which would be impossible to overrule unless two thirds of both chambers vote to do so. This appears to be the likely course of action as the President has made ensuring net neutrality one of his legacy initiatives.

The presidential campaigning has clearly begun, and Paul wants his name associated with the anti-net neutrality camp to boost his credibility in the anti-regulation area, and to bring in some of that sweet campaign finance from telcos. Getting some headlines probably won’t hurt either.

Paul’s move shows just how slippery our politicians can be, flip flopping and spinning their way into corporate money as needed, a requirement to successfully run for office in America.

Apple Destroyed Thousands Of Watches Over Manufacturing Glitch

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Reports emerged Thursday that Apple scrapped a whole batch of Apple Watches after finding a fault with the watch’s vibrating ‘Taptic Engine’.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “people familiar with the matter” said that after mass production began in February, “reliability testing revealed that some Taptic Engines supplied by AAC Technologies Holdings Inc., of Shenzhen, China, started to break down over time.”

A large number of completed watches were discarded as a result.

Scrapping finished products is especially unwelcome in high tech manufacturing. It exposes a deep problem in both the supply chain and also the manufacturing process itself.

Apple is currently facing stock shortages of the watch, although it seems as if a recall will be unnecessary as the report suggests there has been no indication that Tim Cook’s gang shipped any watches with the defective part to customers.

Apple used two supplier of the Taptic Engines and those provided by the second supplier, Japan’s Nidec Corp., continue to function without any problems, according to the report. “Apple has moved nearly all of its production of the component to Nidec […] but it may take time for Nidec to increase its production.”

The defective Taptic Engines are not the only hardware issue to have arisen in regards to the smartwatch. iFixit’s teardown showed that the watch was, unlike most watches, likely to be obsolete within ten years and had no room for upgrades.

In addition it is shipping with a pulse sensor which does not work with tattoos, a major design oversight given their increasing popularity.

The issues with the watch have led Apple to consider adding a second assembler of the Watch, to supplement Taiwan’s Quanta Computer Inc. Foxconn, the main assembler of the iPhone, recently started tests to see if it could handle production of the small device.

“Even if the process goes smoothly, it may take several months for factories to be running at full capacity. Foxconn isn’t expected to start manufacturing the Watch until late 2015 at the earliest,” the source said.

The revelations will no doubt anger Apple, which has a notoriously tough policy on those who speak to the press. Apple goes to great lengths to control its message and news of failures and issues are the opposite of what it wants the world’s press to report. The fact reports are emerging could suggest the problems run much deeper than we know at the present time.

Time will tell, no pun intended.

Confusion As New Evidence Emerges That Freddie Gray May Have Hurt Himself

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Two new accounts of what happened to Freddie Gray question the narrative of police brutality that has fueled protests in Baltimore, it emerged Thursday morning.

The first new evidence comes from a relative of one of the officers involved in the arrest. The witness told the press that the officer believes Gray was injured while he was being arrested, before he was put inside a police van.

The second account comes from a prisoner who was in the same police van. The prisoner reportedly told investigators he thought Gray “was intentionally trying to injure himself”, according to sources at The Washington Post.

The new revelations come just before Baltimore police are set to turn over their investigation to state prosecutors, who will decide whether charges should be filed against any officers.

The woman who spoke to the media did so on the condition of anonymity and is related to the officer. But the woman clarified that the officer didn’t request the interview.

She told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, among others, that the officer isn’t sure how Gray was hurt during his arrest.

The woman gave an explanation of why Gray was not buckled into the police van: he was being belligerent.

“They didn’t want to reach over him. You were in a tight space in the paddy wagon. He’s already irate,” she said.

“He still has his teeth and he still has his saliva. So in order to seat belt somebody you have to get in their personal space. They’re not going to get in his personal space if he’s already irate.”

Police Commissioner Anthony Batts has conceded that Gray should have been buckled in.

“We know he was not buckled in the transport wagon, as he should’ve been. No excuses for that, period,” Batts said last week.

As for when and where exactly Gray suffered the fatal injury, Batts said there was “potential” it could have happened either inside or outside the police van.

Baltimore police plan to hand over findings from their investigation to state prosecutors on Friday. The event will be far from the end of the case however.

“Let me further clear up: When we take our information or our files to the State’s Attorney’s Office on Friday, that is not the conclusion of this investigation,” Batts said.

“That is just us sitting down, providing all the data we have. We will continue to follow the evidence wherever it goes.”

Don’t expect prosecutors to announce a decision about charges anytime soon.

“I hate to say this, but I think if people are waiting for answers or charges to come on Friday. I don’t think that’s going to happen based on the way the process works,” Gray family attorney Mary Koch said.

“I think that the government officials need to advise people of how the process honestly works and to lower their expectations about what’s going to happen this Friday.”

The new revelations show just how racially and socioeconomically charged the situation is. There appears to be a fundamental lack of trust between our marginalized and law enforcement / justice officials. Even without the full set of facts a large group of the population is conditioned to assume the worst.

It shows that, regardless of the circumstances in the Gray case, America has a significant amount of work to in order to restore the faith and trust of all citizens in our justice system.

North Korea’s Young Leader Can’t Leave Country

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Things are not well at home for North Korea’s rotund boy leader, according to a release by the hermit kingdom.

According to a press release the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, has backed out of next month’s visit to Moscow for a World War II anniversary celebration, Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.

“We were informed of the decision via diplomatic channels,” Peskov said. “The decision is connected with North Korean domestic affairs.”

The visit was highly anticipated because it would have marked Kim’s first official foreign trip since inheriting the throne of North Korea in late 2011.

The move is a surprising turn of events, especially since it closely follows the news of a bloody purging in which 15 senior officials were executed recently. Expert think the developments could mean things are not stable inside the kingdom and that the young leader feels he needs to be inside the country to ensure he is not deposed.

Another theory is that Un’s medical problems are back. His immense size has caused gout and other weight related illnesses over the last few years and he recently emerged wearing a bandage on his hand. The cancelled trip could be the latest sign his medical troubles have returned and he is unable to travel due to them.

Kim was to have meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of the May visit, the Tass news agency reported.

Kim’s trip had been anticipated since late December, when Russian state media reported that Moscow had extended an invitation to Pyongyang.

This year’s Victory Day marks the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Russia has said it has invited more than 60 world leaders to the celebrations.

Russia To Resume Long Range Bomber Production

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Russia To Resume Long Range Bomber Production

New reports suggest that the Russian military plans to continue the modernization of its long-range bomber fleet and will consider restarting production of its Tupolev Tu-160 supersonic bomber, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed Wednesday. The fast bomber can carry either conventional or nuclear weapons.

Work will continue despite escalating tension between Russia and Western powers over the Kremlin’s aggressive military activity in the last several months.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has approved new manufacturing equipment for Russia’s Kazan Aviation Plant in Tatarstan to aid the modernization efforts, Russian news outlet Tass reports.

The defense ministry plans to build two Tu-160 bombers by the end of 2015 and upgrade five existing Tu-160s. Russia currently possesses 15 of the long-range bombers.

The expensive military expenditures come amid tough economic times in the communist country. Low oil prices combined with stiff sanctions for invading Ukraine have the country experiencing food shortages and negative economic growth. The focus on military spending shows the ruling class’ lack of compassion for everyday Russians and has upset foreign aid groups that operate in the country.

U.S. Forces Conducting Daily Afghan Airstrikes Despite White House Pledge

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Months after President Obama declared that the United States’ long war against the Taliban was over in Afghanistan, reports came to light this week showing the American military is regularly conducting airstrikes against low-level insurgent forces as well as sending Special Operations troops directly into harm’s way. The forces are in the country under the guise of “training and advising” but it appears they are actively waging war instead.

To justify the continued presence of the American forces in Afghanistan, administration officials have claimed that the troops’ role is relegated to counter-terrorism, which they define as tracking down the remnants of Al Qaeda, and training and advising the Afghan security forces who now carry out the bulk of the fight.

In public, U.S. officials have emphasized that the Taliban are not being specifically targeted and are only engaged if it is for “force protection” — situations where insurgents are immediately threatening American forces.

But interviews with American and Western officials in Kabul and Washington paint a different picture, one of which a more aggressive range of military operations against the Taliban are occurring. In recent months the insurgents have continued to gain ground against struggling government forces.

Instead of ending the American war in Afghanistan, it seems the military is using its wide latitude to instead transform it into a continuing campaign of airstrikes — mainly drone missions — and Special Operations raids. The activities have stretched or broken the parameters publicly described by the White House in recent months.

Military officials said that American forces conducted 52 airstrikes in March, which is months after the official end of the combat mission was declared. Many of these air attacks, which number 128 in the first three months of this year, targeted low to midlevel Taliban commanders in the most remote areas of mountainous country.

As early as January, when officials in Washington were proudly proclaiming the end of the combat mission, about 40 American Special Operations troops were deployed to Kunar Province to advise Afghan forces.

With troops on the ground, the commanders called in airstrikes under the authority of force protection, according to two military officials.

“They are putting guys on the ground in places to justify the airstrikes,” one of the officials said. “It’s not force protection when they are going on the offensive.”

The revelations beg the question: What are America’s military forces really doing there and does this contradict what we have been told by our elected officials?

They reports raise fresh concerns that the American public is being told one thing while another is happening on the ground, far away from the eye of everyday Americans.

Rubella Declared Eradicated From Americas

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In a landmark achievement, North and South America have become the first regions of the world to eradicate rubella, also known as German measles, after zero home-grown cases were reported in the last five years.

The virus, which is spread by sneezes or coughs, can lead to serious birth defects if contracted by pregnant women.

There were 20,000 children born with rubella in the Americas every year until mass vaccinations began.

The last endemic cases registered in the region were in Argentina and Brazil in 2009.

The lack of new cases in five consecutive years, aside from those imported into the region, mean global health chiefs can declare the Americas free of the virus.

The eradication was “an historic achievement,” said Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan-American Health Organization, which is part of the World Health Organization.

“The fight against rubella has taken more than 15 years,” she said. “But it has paid off with what I believe will be one of the most important pan-American public health achievements of the 21st Century.”

Al Jazeera America Accused Of Running Anti-Semitic and Anti-American Newsroom

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With online media increasingly becoming the propaganda arm of nation-states, revelations about middle east media giant Al Jazeera which surfaced on Wednesday cast a shadow over the aspiring network.

A fired Al Jazeera America employee is suing the network alleging a hostile work environment that included “discriminatory, anti-Semitic and anti-American remarks” according to court filings. The allegations paint the picture of a supposedly American network that has interests counter to those of the country.

The complaint, filed in New York State Supreme Court, alleges Matthew Luke was fired in February 10 days after he objected to the behavior of his supervisor, Osman Mahmud, and outlined his concerns to human resources. Luke worked as Al Jazeera America’s supervisor of media and archive management beginning in May 2013, before the news channel had formally launched.

Luke is seeking $5 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages for the company’s alleged retaliation against Luke for complaining about Mahmud.

The suit accuses Mahmud, who oversaw Broadcast Operations and Technology at the network, of making anti-Semitic remarks such as “whoever supports Israel should die a fiery death in hell,” and expressing a desire to replace an Israeli cameraman with a Palestinian one, as well as excluding women from emails and meetings,an industry website reported. Mahmud, the suit says, also replaced female employees with male ones and filled positions with men of Middle Eastern descent.

Mahmud began as a news editor at the network and rose to his supervisory position because he was well connected with Al Jazeera America’s backers, the suit claims.

The allegations should lead Americans to question where they get their media from. While Al Jazeera has invested heavily and produces a slick, professional product, the agenda has always been questionable. The network, prior to coming to America, was known to air pro-Al Qaeda and pro-9-11 pieces.

The allegations against Al Jazeera also highlight Russia’s push to monopolize online media. The communist state is investing heavily in Kremlin mouthpiece RT, which publishes hundreds of stories that massively distort the news yet come across as legitimate thanks to professional design and effective use of language.

The Pentagon has taken note of the trend and is investing to counter the spread of such false information.

Software Giant Salesforce Defending Itself From Hostile Takeover

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Software Giant Salesforce Defending Itself From Hostile Takeover

In a sign of just how hot things are in the cloud software space Salesforce, a company worth $44 billion, has hired financial advisers to field takeover offers Bloomberg has reported.

It’s unknown who the takeover offers are coming from, but the deal would be the largest software company to get acquired in history.

Salesforce shares soared after the news hit the wires and were up almost 13%.

The company who acquires Salesforce would immediately become a market leader in the cloud CRM space.

The most logical buyers for Salesforce would be Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft. These big enterprise software companies have the cash and are in direct competition with Salesforce in the CRM space.

Founded in 1999, Salesforce has been the leader in the enterprise cloud software market. Its main product is Customer Relationship Management software, which helps salespeople track leads and optimize sales strategies.

In its latest quarter, Salesforce had $1.44 billion in revenue, up 26% from last year. For the whole year, it earned $5.37 billion, up 32% from the year before.

HBO And Showtime Sue Over Crimes Yet To Be Committed

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HBO And Showtime Sue Over Crimes Yet To Be Committed

HBO and Showtime are no stranger to online piracy. Their TV-shows are pirated millions of times each month. Yet they haven’t been known to go after sites that host their content illegally yet the upcoming Mayweather v Pacquiao fight has proven to be an exception.

Along with Mayweather Promotions and Top Rank Boxing the companies have sued two websites that announced intentions to stream the fight this weekend.

Yesterday the two companies filed a lawsuit at a federal court in Florida targeting the websites boxinghd.net and sportship.org. The sites are accused of planning to stream the upcoming Mayweather v Pacquiao fight.

It is a unique pre-piracy case, as the companies accuse the sites’ owners of various copyright related offenses that have yet to take place.

“There are no authorized online streams of the Coverage for delivery to United States audiences,” the complaint states, adding that the defendants “are seeking to benefit from this high profile, live Fight by infringing the rights of Plaintiffs.”

HBO and Showtime argue that the anticipated stream of the fight will infringe on their rights and cause damages.

The companies have asked the court for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop the sites’ operators from linking to streams of the event. HBO and Showtime have also demanded damages to compensate for the expected losses.

The lawsuit brings up a scary question: can you be charged or sued for something you have yet to do? Time will tell as the case works its way through court. In the meantime it seems to have had the intended effect as one of the two sites have closed up shop.

Russia Seizes Ukrainian President’s Candy Factory

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Russia Seizes Ukrainian President’s Candy Factory

In the latest belligerent move by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, Russian authorities have seized the assets of a candy factory owned by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in the Russian city of Lipetsk. The move is intended to block the sale of asset, according to parent company Roshen.

Since the March 2014 Russia annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, the Lipetsk plant has been raided by armed police, boycotted and accused by Russian politicians of supporting extremism. The moves are obvious scare tactics by Putin to put pressure on the Ukrainian leader.

“It is safe to say the Russian side is deliberately taking all possible steps to prevent the company selling its assets in Russia,” Roshen said in a statement. It said it would appeal the decision by a Russian court to seize the assets, which it valued at 2 billion rubles ($39 million).

Poroshenko, who is nicknamed the Chocolate King, promised when he was elected last May to sell Roshen, which takes its name from the middle two syllables of his surname and has annual sales of $1.2 billion.

The Russian invasion and resulting economic crisis have complicated the sales process and no deals have yet been announced.

Uber Launching Massive Same Day Delivery Network

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Uber Launching Massive Same Day Delivery Network

Taxi smartphone app Uber is planning a major push into the same day delivery business, according to leaked training documents.

The merchant delivery program that would enable online shoppers to get same-day delivery of goods through both UberRush couriers and regular Uber drivers.

The program is launching in a pilot phase sometime in the next 4-5 weeks.

Reports are that Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany’s, Cohen’s Fashion Optical and Hugo Boss may all partake in the Uber Merchant Delivery program.

The scope of the program is evident in a report that there are over 400 different merchants currently in talks (or already testing) with Uber for same-day delivery.

It also appears that mobile shopping app Spring, developed by David Tisch, is part of the initial test of the platform.

Uber sent out a promotional email yesterday offering Spring + UberRush for a limited time for brands such as illesteva, Bing Bang Jewelry, Phyllis + Rosie, Mack Weldon, Jinsoon, Industry Standard, Outdoor Voices and Negative Underwear.

Spring is a good test partner for this type of service, as it already uses its own back-end for merchants to list the precise amount and type of inventory available on the Spring platform at any given time. partnered with Uber’s merchant program, those same vendors just have to list the daily available inventory as opposed to weekly or monthly.

Traditional retailers, such as Neiman Marcus or Tiffany’s, will have a much harder time transitioning to a system that requires data around exact inventory that is available locally throughout the day. Such systems have traditionally been batch processed at the end of the day, once all sales are complete. To run a proper local delivery service the inventory would need to be updated in real-time.

Uber issued the following statement: “Experimenting and finding new, creative ways for the Uber app to provide even greater value to our riders and driver partners is a way of life at Uber. We have been piloting UberRUSH with multiple retailers for the last year.”

While technically true the leaked manual indicates broader ambitions by the company, since there is now a separate app just for merchant deliveries.

It appears that Uber drivers and couriers are currently taking orders through a different app (and a separate phone) than the one they use to receive regular UberRUSH orders. Eventually Uber will likely just have one app running on one phone to streamline the process.

Uber has already been going deeper into the delivery space, with investments in delivering fresh produce via UberFresh, as well as UberEats in Chicago and New York (already available in Los Angeles and Barcelona), letting users order curated meals for lunch and dinner that are delivered by UberEats drivers.

The merchant program is targeting higher-end brands with a current online retail presence, offering the ability to deliver inventory that is locally available on the same day that a customer places the order. All for a fee, naturally.

It was reported that Uber’s original plan for merchant delivery focused on large e-commerce retailers like Amazon and eBay, but the company found that sourcing inventory from warehouses wasn’t worth it. Picking up inventory from local stores, on the other hand, was more feasible as long as the vendor has control over the amount and type of inventory available in a single day.

While the logistics of same day delivery are difficult, Uber already has the necessary infrastructure with its vast network of drivers and couriers.

The scale at which Uber will launch this service will be unlike anything ever seen before in the tech or logistics space. It will mark a truly new era of delivery, where the many fragmented delivery networks offering various service levels will be challenged by a vast, single network with universal service level expectations.

Russian Nuclear Agency Wants To Triple Iranian Nuclear Capacity

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Russian Nuclear Agency Wants To Triple Iranian Nuclear Capacity

Russia continues to interfere with world peace as revelations emerged that the deputy head of Russian nuclear energy company Rosatom met with the deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization for talks about a power plant expansion and eventual transfer of the plants to Iran.

Russia and Iran spoke about the construction of a second and third unit at the Bushehr nuclear power plant, as well as the transfer of control of the plant to Iran when limits on the country’s uranium enrichment activity expire.

The proposal would mean that full control of the plant will be handed over to Iran after Russia conducts inspections of Iranian-made nuclear fuel. The two new power plants are to be built within the next 10 years.

According to the comprehensive agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, tentatively reached on April 2, Iran’s fuel production will be limited for 10 years and its enriched uranium stocks will be limited for 15 years.

“Questions regarding the construction of new Russian-designed nuclear power plant units, as well as cooperation in related fields were discussed in detail,” Rosatom said in a statement.

The two new units will have reactors of the improved water-water design and will produce 1,000 megawatts each, tripling Iran’s nuclear power production capacity once in operation.

The does not appear to be aimed at creating nuclear weapons but the timing is troublesome as the current agreement with Iran is tenuous and could yet be undone. Russia’s interference will not help the international agenda which would prefer Iran refrain from all nuclear activities on account of its hostile foreign policies and weak governance structure.

Former Fed Chairman Joins Another Hedge Fund

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Former Fed Chairman Joins Another Hedge Fund

In what is surely a conflict of interest, as shown by the fact his lawyers vetted and structured the arrangement, former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is joining bond giant Pimco as a senior advisor.

The firm is seeking to generate a trading ‘edge’ to bolster its returns following the departure of cofounder Bill Gross.

The move is being questioned by competitors who had previously criticized the Fed during Bernanke’s reign for being too close to Pimco. The critics suggested the Newport Beach, California-based firm had an advantage in interpreting monetary policy.

The latest move is no doubt going to stoke those concerns.

The very same allegations have been leveled against high frequency trading firm Citadel, where Mr. Bernanke is also working as an adviser.

The fact Mr Bernanke joins two of the largest, most powerful firms on Wall St. show how problematic the revolving door is between government and industry. Both firms, more than others, rely on information from the Fed to make investment decisions.

The timing and back-story to what should be public information is critical to their success. The fact Mr Bernanke chose these two exposes both the Fed and each firm to allegations of favoritism, insider trading and otherwise rigging the deck.

Both Pimco, which oversees $1.59 trillion in assets as of March 31, and Bernanke declined to say how much he would be paid but did say he will be attending every Pimco quarterly meeting of top executives.

He is unlikely to come cheap, though, given he received as much as $250,000 for a single speaking engagement last year.

In late 2008, the Fed hired Pimco, along with three other big Wall Street firms, to implement enormous purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities to keep interest rates low and spur the US economy. Pimco also managed the commercial-paper assets for the Fed during that period.

Bernanke’s lawyers, Robert Barnett and Michael O’Connor of Williams & Connolly LLP, were the architects of the Pimco arrangement. Barnett and O’Connor are said to also have brokered Greenspan’s advisory deal with Pimco, the source added.

Massive Forest Fire Could Turn Radioactive

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Massive Forest Fire Could Turn Radioactive

Around 400 hectares of woodland is on fire in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl, according to reports from Russian media. While the Ukrainian government claims the fire is “contained,” experts fear the mass burning of radioactive plants has the potential to “resuspend” radioactive particles in the surrounding air.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk played down fears on Wednesday, saying that firefighters had contained the large forest fire and radiation levels in the area were normal. While the words are comforting they are not the most trustworthy, as in virtually all nuclear disasters officials have said the same thing only to later be disproven time and again. Radiation showing up in a children’s park near Fukushima, Japan, is the latest example.

The fires in Ukraine have threatened to spread toward the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant as high winds pushed it toward the plant about 20 km (12 miles) away.

Authorities suspected the fire was started deliberately and had tightened security around the exclusion zone. The Russian military, operating under disguise as ‘rebels’, likely started the fire as their war with Ukraine escalates.

A fire raged at the plant for 10 days after the reactor meltdown 1986, sending huge amounts of radioactive material into the surrounding environment and over large parts of Europe, particularly Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

The area around the plant was evacuated and a 30km (19 mile) exclusion zone remains in place to this day. Work on laying a new seal over the damaged reactor began in 2007 and is due to be completed this year.

Google To Fund Movies, Youtube Channels To Stay Relevant

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Google To Fund Movies, Youtube Channels To Stay Relevant

Netflix, Hulu, Roku, HBO Go and specialist sites like Vevo are all taking a chunk out of Youtube, the once massive online video website. Even Facebook and industry laggard Yahoo are getting a piece of the action.

In a move to stem the flow of content producers switching channels, Google Inc.’s YouTube will directly invest in new shows to be launched in partnerships with its four top content creators, it said in a blog on Tuesday.

The move would see it copy a strategy employed by industry heavyweight Netflix and others such as Amazon and Yahoo.

The world’s No. 1 online video website also said it reached an agreement with DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. unit AwesomenessTV to release feature films, sometime within the next two years.

The partnerships help YouTube, which turned 10 years old last week, secure higher quality advertising as it transitions from a repository home videos to a site with more polished content.

YouTube has been competing to lure more premium video advertising in order to boost margins as overall prices for Google’s ads have been declining.

While the website attracts more than 1 billion unique visitors a month, far surpassing those of Netflix Inc. and Amazon Inc., it makes considerably less of these users than its rivals with higher quality content.

Google did not disclose how much it was investing or how the partnerships would be structured. Knowing Google the structures are likely complicated and are more of a test than a completely new initiative.

The investment marks a significant change in strategy for YouTube and reflects the economics that advertisers want brands associated with high quality, desirable, content rather than homemade movies.

YouTube and AwesomenessTV, a channel aimed at teens and younger adults known as millennials, expect to roll out their first film this fall.

Justice Department Investigating Town That Preys On Its Poor

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Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said that it was investigating the rural Louisiana town of Ville Platte, specifically the police department and the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office. It is looking into allegations that the officers detain residents in their jails without proper cause.

This is the first time the DOJ has opened a “pattern or practice investigation” exclusively into the practice of improper detentions. Under this type of probe, the Justice Department looks for constitutional violations. Should it find any, the department has the power to sue law enforcement agencies to correct them.

It’s not yet clear whether a specific incident prompted the investigation. The DOJ refuses to comment on the origins of investigations targeting law enforcement due to possibility of retribution against those who complained.

In its announcement, the DOJ said it was looking into allegations that law enforcement in Ville Platte improperly keep people in jail under “investigative holds”, effectively detaining them without charges while officials investigate a crime.

A Monetary Gold Mine for the City

Civil-rights activists in Louisiana say the improper detentions are only a piece of a broader problem in Ville Platte, a city in which residents are cited for frivolous violations, excessively fined and put in jail if they cannot pay.

It’s a system that is similar to what Justice Department officials found in Ferguson, Mo., where the police department, at the urging of the city, regularly ticketed mostly African-American residents for violations like “manner of walking in roadway,” and then channeled that money into the city coffers. Those who we unable to pay were sent to jail.

The major difference is that in Ferguson, DOJ officials didn’t start out looking for what they ultimately found to be an entrenched, discriminatory system of fees and fines.

Ville Platte, a town of roughly 7,400, has a well-documented history of ticketing and jailing residents for improper reasons.

Arthur Sampson, a war veteran and a retired local NAACP leader, said that he had filed complaints with the Justice Department for years about the practice.

In 2011, he filed a lawsuit with the American Civil Liberties Union over a curfew the city had imposed. The law required pedestrians — but not drivers — to be indoors after 10 p.m. or face jail time or a $200 fine, a measure that disproportionately impacted low-income residents.

Under the curfew, people we not permitted to walk their dogs, go to the corner store or visit their friends at night, unless they had a car.

Police soon started making arrests, sweeping up “hundreds” of residents every night just for being outside. The mayor, Jennifer Vidrine, said she had imposed the curfew in response to a series of car break-ins, and that it would last for 60 days. The city council extended it three times.

The new fines from curfew violators created a “monetary windfall for the city,” the complaint said, “and thus, a tremendous incentive to continue the curfew.”

It’s readily apparent that justice is not being served in Ville Platte, the question is how deep the rot is and how severe the abuses of justice have been. Expect to hear more developments in this story over the coming months.

Anger Grows Over Disney Use Of Foreign Workers

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Anger Grows Over Disney Use Of Foreign Workers

Near the end of last October, IT employees at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts were called, one-by-one, into conference rooms to be told of their layoffs. At each meeting an executive read from a script informing the worker that their last day would be Jan. 30, 2015.

Workers left the rooms crying or in shock. This went on all day. As each employee received a call to go to a conference room, others in the office looked up with pained expressions.

What followed is a story of competing narratives about the role of H-1B workers versus Americans in our economy.

Disney CEO Bob Iger is one of eight co-chairs of a leading group advocating for an increase in the H-1B visa cap. This is a powerful lobby group which last Friday was a sponsor of an H-1B briefing at the U.S. Capitol for congressional staffers. The briefing was closed to the press but pushed for more immigrant workers on special visas.

One of the briefing documents handed out at the congressional forum made the startling claim: “H-1B workers complement – instead of displace – U.S. Workers.” It claimed that as employers use foreign workers to fill “more technical and low-level jobs, firms are able to expand” and allow U.S. workers “to assume managerial and leadership positions.”

This is patently not the case.

Disney says its restructuring wasn’t about displacing American workers. Yet it proceeded to contract out the fired workers’ roles to HCL and Cognizant, firms which employ an army of H1-B and H1-L visa holders.

Employers prefer visa workers than regular Americans because they pay them less and employees are easier to control. There is no pushing for raises and its difficult for employees to leave one company for another. This means they’re cheaper to hire.

When Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Amazon and Disney all agree on something you know its bad for American workers and everyday Americans. These companies are locked in vicious battles to the death and any time they agree on something it means main street Americans are losing something.

In this case its jobs. Lots of them. By allowing companies to hire foreign workers we reduce the incentive to train domestic ones. Nobody will invest in skill development if they can import already trained workers.

The increased use of visas also means less rights for employees, both through visa-hostage situations and the use of contractors rather than employees.

People are right to criticize Disney, as they are Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and others. The push for more visas isn’t about lack of skills. Its about greedy billionaires wanting to make more money, Americans be damned.

Saudis Bomb Yemeni Airport To Prevent Iran Arms Shipment

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A Saudi-led coalition carried out at least seven separate airstrikes on the Yemen international airport on Tuesday, crippling the airport in order to prevent an Iranian airplane from landing, according to both Saudi and Yemeni officials.

The airstrikes targeted the main runway, destroying one of Yemen’s last usable airports and a major transit point for global aid shipments. An airport official confirmed the damage had made it impossible to use the runway.

The bombings show the extent to which Yemen has become trapped in the escalating proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Saudi Arabia began its bombing campaign against the Houthi rebel movement last month in large part to combat what Saudi officials saw as the influence of Iran, which has supported the Houthis.

Yemen’s airspace and seas have been completely controlled by the Saudi-led coalition since the beginning of the offensive. The UN Security Council has also imposed an arms embargo on the Houthis.

A Saudi military spokesman said that the Iranian airplane had not coordinated its landing in Sana with the coalition authorities and had ignored warnings to turn back.

Suspicion is that the plane was carrying arms or other illicit supplies for the rebels, despite Iran claiming it contained medical supplies.

The drastic measures highlight the Saudi resolve to deny advantage to rebel groups.

The bombing of the airport threatens what had been one of Yemen’s precious few lifelines for international aid shipments. Shortages of medicine, food, fuel and other supplies are chronic in the small country.

Relief officials warn that the shortages are causing a humanitarian disaster. The UN said on Monday that hospitals in Yemen will shut down within seven days unless they receive more fuel.

On Tuesday, the UN released new data showing that the number of people displaced because of the war had more than doubled in less than two weeks, to 300,000 people from an estimated 150,000 people 11 days ago.

One Arrested As 60 Black Teens Rampage Through Charleston Streets

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As many as 60 teens were prowling Charleston streets, randomly attacking pedestrians and drivers early Sunday, witnesses told dispatchers in 911 calls released Tuesday.

All the teens were black, according to witnesses, and all of the people attacked were white.

It’s still unclear if the attacks were racially motivated or sparked by the unrest in Baltimore, which followed the recent shooting death of Walter Scott, a black man, by a white North Charleston police officer.

Investigators have so far been unable to determine a motive, according to Charleston Police Department spokesman Charles Francis.

James Johnson, who has led local protests after Scott’s shooting death, said he had not heard any explanation for the teens’ behavior.

“The Walter Scott incident is fresh in their minds, and then there’s Baltimore,” he said. “But there’s no telling. It could be just spur of the moment. I’m hoping we can find out. Whatever it is, we’ve got to go to the root of the problem so it doesn’t happen again.”

The teens were spotted leaving a party at the YWCA on Coming Street about 12:30 a.m. and hit the streets.

The motto of the YWCA is “Empowering Women and Eliminating Racism.” The group sponsors the annual local celebration of Martin Luther King Jr., who preached nonviolence.

Dot Scott, the leader of the Charleston chapter of the NAACP, said she had not heard anything to explain why the teens went on a rampage but was disturbed by it.

“I have no idea whatsoever,” she said. “It just seems unusual that folks would attack people that way. It’s atypical.”

The number of teens on the prowl is bigger than initially estimated, and the 911 calls released Tuesday show some of the terror the mob caused.

One suspect, Jordan Hall, has been arrested in the disturbing incident which resulted in dozens of 911 calls, including a man who called from his car and said he was being blocked by about 50 teens.

“They just smacked my car,” he told the operator. “I’m flooring it in reverse. This is just ridiculous. … I’m getting the hell out of here, man. They just smacked another car.”

He then went on to detail the group beating a man.

“They’ve got a dude down on the ground,” he said. “There’s like five of them punching the dude. … There’s a guy taunting me. I couldn’t make the green light because he was standing in the intersection taunting me. It’s pretty terrifying, man.”

The incident marks an ugly spate of racially charged violence that divides and polarizes underlying issues rather than addressing them.

What White House Spending $367,258 On Fine Dinnerware Says About Our Country

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At Tuesday’s state dinner with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Obama family finally got to use dinnerware of their own design.

The cost? $367,258, about double the cost of the average American house.

The Obama state china service, a 320 11-piece place settings made by Pickard China of Antioch, Illinois, was introduced Monday.

It even got its own media preview in the State Dining Room. The event was so packed, in fact, there was concern that the mass of TV cameras and pushy reporters might knock over and break the dishes, which are delicate gold-rimmed stemware and massive centerpieces of cherry blossoms and orchids.

The Obama china has been in the works for about a year. The $367,258 cost of the china, all 3,520 pieces, was supposedly paid for by private funds, but is nonetheless extraordinarily excessive.

The tableware, of which the White House has many lovely sets commissioned by previous Presidents, is the ultimate self glorification by President’s and their wives. It shows the colossal ego and lack of humility by our elected leader.

It also shows how out of touch politicians are with regular, working class Americans. To spend such a lavish sum on such a ridiculously priced item highlights that America’s politicians have well and truly lost touch with voters.

It also shows how the institution of President has become a monarchy, where those who hold the office are treated like royalty rather than the elective representative of the people that they are.

Regardless of who paid for this indulgence it is money that could have been spent elsewhere and instead has been used to send a message to the people of America: your leaders are better than you and they want the world to know it.

North Korea Wages Bloody Crackdown To Consolidate Power

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South Korea’s top spy agency told the country’s lawmakers on Wednesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered the execution of at least 15 senior officials this year.

The officials were accused of challenging his authority.

National Intelligence Service chief Lee Byoung also told legislators in a closed-door briefing that Kim appeared likely to visit Russia in May to attend the 70th anniversary of its victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

How the intelligence agency obtained the information is classified but South Korea is known to have the most extensive intelligence operations inside the hermit kingdom.

Since taking over the throne after the death of his father Kim Jong Il in 2011, Kim has systematically executed key members of the old guard through a series of bloody purges.

The process was highlighted by the 2013 execution of his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, for crimes against the state. Jang was married to Kim Jong Il’s sister and was at one point considered the second most powerful official in North Korea.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the Seoul-based University of North Korean Studies, said the purges underline Kim Jong Un’s inexperience and his struggle to find effective ways to control his regime.

At the briefing lawmakers were told that a North Korean official with a rank comparable to a vice Cabinet minister was executed in January for questioning Kim’s forestry policies. Dictators of North Korea have a history of ruling by edict and do not tolerate debate or discussion.

Another official of similar rank was executed in February for resisting Kim’s plans to construct a new building in the shape of a flower named after his grandfather, North Korean founder Kim Il Sung.

South Korea believes that North Korea used a firing squad in March to execute four senior members of Pyongyang’s famous Unhasu Orchestra on charges of espionage which Lee did not detail.

Kim’s planed trip to Moscow would be his first overseas trip since taking power. South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who is increasingly weary of North Korea’s erratic positioning, has decided not to attend the May 9 event in Moscow and plans to send an envoy instead.

North Korea’s dictatorship means it is engaged in a constant internal power struggle, leading to external actions designed more to address internal struggles than advance the kingdom’s international agenda. This makes North Korea related foreign policy difficult if not impossible, with most world power preferring a policy of heavy sanctions and isolationism until more rational leadership is in place.

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