More Ultra-Vivid Headlines from
G. Edward Griffin’s RealityZone.com

2012 JULY 28 – AUGUST 3

Click on headlines to see full articles
If original sources are missing, click on Cached.
Star indicates article worth printing for future reference.
See the entire collection here.
 Camera indicates video or slideshow. 
 Speaker indicates audio.
 Asterisk indicates an amazing event or phenomenon.
See the entire collection here.


    

US: The media is reporting an improvement in employment, but the numbers are distorted by statistical tricks such as an exaggerated adjustment for seasonal employment and birth-and-death adjustments. [Bottom line: employment is still bad.]ZeroHedge 2012 Aug 3 (Cached)

Syria: It has been reported that Obama signed a secret order allowing the CIA and other agencies to support the anti-government rebels, similar to the secret order he signed for Libya last year. [The rebels have been granted $25 million is US taxpayer money, and there are reports that they also have received anti-aircraft missiles.] RT 2012 Aug 2 (Cached)

US: The FDA has approved a microchipped pill that transmits a signal when it contacts digestive juices. That allows medical attendants to monitor your drug consumption. [The good side is that it could alert them to an overdose. The bad side is that, if you are confined to an institution, such as a hospital or school or detainment camp, it will be difficult to avoid medications you do not want.] NaturalSociety 2012 Aug 2 (Cached)

 Warning: graphic video of rebels in Syria executing prisoners. RT 2012 Aug 1

New York federal judge rules that al-Qaeda and Iran were responsible for the 9/11 attacks and has ordered them to pay $6 billion to American survivors and their families. [The money could be taken from seized Iranian property and funds inside the US. Although this decision is popular, there is no credible evidence to support it.] InfoWars 2012 Aug 1 (Cached)

 Ron Paul lays it on the line in this short message to Congress. [He speaks of the foolishness of war in Iran, which is no threat to the US, and he hammers at the hypocrisy of claiming that wars in the Middle East are to protect the civil liberties of their citizens while Americans are subjected to assassination, indefinite detention, and warrantless wiretaps in their own homeland. Powerful!] YouTube 2012 Aug 1

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says that US military action will be used if Iran fails to limit its nuclear production, as he contends that Iran has plans to build nuclear bombs. [Obama and Romney support “Israel’s right to defend itself” (with the help of the US) and Obama recently released an additional $70 million in funds to Israel. Can there be any doubt about where this is headed?] FoxNews 2012 Aug 1 (Cached)
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US: In February of this year, 16 US intelligence agencies concluded that Iran does not have nuclear weapons and has no plans to build them. 
NY Times Posted 2012 Aug 1 (Cached)

 The BBC and the Guardian are reporting that a Syrian TV news reporter defected to Turkey because he didn’t want to report pro-Syrian-government propaganda. Now there is evidence that his story is not true, and that the BBC-Guardian version is, itself, propaganda against the Syrian government. 
RT 2012 Aug 1

China warns Obama that his new sanctions against Iran violate international law and will strain the US-Asian relationship. [China’s banks are adversely affected by these sanctions.] RT 2012 Aug 1 (Cached)

 US: The former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration says that the CIA has been a major drug smuggler of cocaine into the US for decades and that the government has worked with and protected drug smugglers in other countries. [The reason for this is that it generates ‘secret’ funding for CIA activities around the world that would never be approved by Congress or the American people.] 
Alexander Higgins 2012 Jul 31

 Reality Check (on the Fox News channel) gives an excellent ‘short course’ on the Federal Reserve and why an audit would be useful to expose the profound corruption that is embedded in the system. [To our surprise, it even includes a plug for our book, The Creature from Jekyll Island.] YouTube 2012 Jul 31

 Los Angeles citizens protest oil and gas fracking, which is unregulated in California. Companies that use this method of extracting gas and oil have spent $747 million lobbying Congress to obtain exemptions from customary safeguards against water pollution and triggering earthquakes. [Their fracking chemicals remain secret even though they can end up in the water supply.] RT posted 2012 Jul 31

Iran sentences 4 people to death for a $2.6 billion banking-embezzlement scam by an Iranian investment group. Others were sentenced to long-term imprisonment. [Does this stimulate any ideas?] 
Business Insider 2012 Jul 30 (Cached)

USA: National Security Agency asks for control over who is allowed to use the Internet. The proposal calls for requiring all users to be registered with the government and have a pass code before being allowed to access the Internet. [If the government does not approve of your message, your code can be de-activated. This is to protect against terrorism, of course.] 
InfoWars 2012 Jul 30 (Cached)

 Global bank HSBC is implicated in 3 separate fraud schemes: money laundering, business-loan fraud, and LIBOR interest-rate rigging. [HSBC has set aside $2 billion to settle the first two cases. Their part in LIBOR is still under investigation. The fines are a small price to pay for the much larger illegal and unethical profits derived from their fraud. Do not expect senior executives to pay any of this. It will all come from stockholders who, generally, are not concerned so long as profits exceed fines.] Reuters2012 Jul 30

US: Supreme Court Justice Scalia hints at future decisions that would undermine the Second Amendment by allowing the government to limit private ownership of guns. [The fact that this statement is made at the launch of a new campaign for gun control is significant. It is clear that plans have been made to condition the public to accept this.]
InfoWars 2012 Jul 29 (Cached)

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said that sanctions have not stopped Iran’s nuclear plan, so a military threat is needed. An Israeli newspaper reported that US National Security Advisor, Tom Donilon, briefed Netanyahu on contingency plans for a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.[This report later was criticized by an unidentified Israeli official who said it was “full of factual errors. … Donilon did not meet the prime minister for dinner, he did not meet him one-on-one, nor did Donilon present operational plans to attack Iran.” [That means Donilon met the prime minister after dinner, met with him and others, and presented a contingency plan, not an operational plan.] 
AFP 2012 Jul 29 (Cached)

US: Record number of 57 coal plants will be shut down in 2012 due, in large measure, to new EPA regulations. [Higher energy prices will follow, particularly in the mid-Atlantic states.] 
Daily Caller 2012 Jul 28 (Cached)

Ireland: Several top Irish-Anglo-Bank officials are arrested for fraud and making secret loans to insiders. [After losses, the bank was bailed out for $36 billion at a cost of $8000 for every person in Ireland. If convicted, their maximum penalty will be only five years in prison.] Canadian Business Posted 2012 Jul 28 (Cached)

US: In a subcommittee hearing, Republican members of Congress said that journalists at the NY Times should be charged under the Espionage Act for their recent stories about Obama’s ‘Kill List’ and cyber attacks in Iran. EFF Posted 2012 Jul 28 (Cached)

US: House passes Red-Tape-Reduction bill to rollback new regulations that have increased by 35% under Obama. The cost to the economy is estimated at $11.3 billion a year. [The bill will meet tough opposition in the Senate, and Obama can veto it, so no one should expect much. Anyway, a better approach would be for Congress to simply de-fund or cancel the laws that carry the regulations in the first place. But that will never happen so long as Congress is controlled by collectivists – in both major parties.] 
House.gov Posted 2012 Jul 28 (Cached)

 The US Inspector General (IG) has found that the IRS is encouraging fraud by allowing illegal aliens to use bogus child credits on their tax forms to gain huge refunds, costing US taxpayers $4 billion a year.[Due to publicity from the IG finding, the IRS says it now will crack down on the fraud. Congress has introduced legislation to limit the child tax credit only to US citizens, but it lacks support.] 
WTHR Posted 2012 Jul 28 (Cached)

US Department of Defense has contracted with Medicago, a government-funded vaccine company, for 10 million doses of a Swine-Flu vaccine that is cultured inside the leaves of live tobacco plants.[Sounds impressive. Now, if only the threat of Swine Flu were real and if only those vaccines actually worked. That hasn’t happened yet in all the previous so-called pandemics, but hope (or is it hype?) springs eternal. Anyway, nice sale, Medicago. Bonuses should be big this year.] GSN Posted 2012 Jul 28 (Cached)



                            ANALYSIS
Reports and commentaries that look beyond the news to identify historical facts and trends that must be understood to place the news into perspective. This is our “think-tank” section that makes it possible to anticipate future events.

The US Postal Office is defaulting on the $5.5 billion it has failed to generate to pay for its retirees’ healthcare. [This analyst says that privatizing the postal service is the only answer because that is the only way to remove politically motivated subsidies from unprofitable classes of mail. To this we might suggest closing it down completely and letting UPS and Federal Express purchase the useful assets.]PolicyMic 2012 Aug 1 (Cached)

Russian scientists say that the wealthy elite will be able to achieve artificial immortality by 2045 by way of holographic human avatar bodies and synthetic brains. [Just because we report this does not mean we believe it.] NaturalSociety 2012 Aug 1 (Cached)

‘Bill Gates Leveraged Philanthropy’ is a penetrating analysis of how the Gates Foundation appears to be working for the benefit of mankind but, in reality, is supporting research and global programs that benefit the corporations in which he is invested – such as Monsanto. Mercola 2012 Jul 31 (Cached)

US: House Republicans say they want to stop Obamacare but, if they were sincere, all they have to do is refuse to fund it. [Instead, they have voted thirty times to abolish it, knowing that such a measure will not pass the Democrat-controlled Senate or avoid Obama’s veto – but they never fail to authorize funding. In this way they can look good to their constituents but stop short of effective action. Such is the political charade of the so-called two-party system.]Western Journalism 2012 Jul 30 (Cached)

 Financial analyst, Ron Hera, says there is no end in sight to the bankers’ financial crime wave because a ‘too-big-to-fail’ policy inevitably leads to bank bail-outs financed by an ever-expanding money supply and inflation. [This is a simple concept that often is lost in the technical jargon of mainstream commentators. Ron has it exactly right.] YouTubePosted 2012 Jul 28

The Washington Post reported that Skype, which used to be private and secure, now is sharing share its transmissions with government. [The Post also implied that the only people who are concerned about privacy are political dissidents and criminals. This article nicely obliterates that argument.] Liberty Crier2012 Jul 28 (Cached)