Pentagon pushes space force programs even without Congress’ approval, funding

 

The US Defense Department is plowing ahead to make good on US President Donald Trump’s promise to start up a Space Force, proposing the establishment of a satellite-procurement agency, a new Space Operations Force and a brand-new combatant command ? though without Congressional approval or clear funding.

The Pentagon is circulating a 14-page document to lawmakers that outlines a general plan for the Space Force and how Congress can write it into law, Defense One reported Tuesday.

CIA Warns of Extensive Chinese Operation to Infiltrate American Institutions

China Marks Confucius’s 2558th Birthday (Getty Images)

 

Intel report: Beijing provides ‘strings-attached funding’ to ‘coerce’ self-censorship

The CIA has issued a classified report detailing China’s far-reaching foreign influence operations campaign in the United States, which imparts financial incentives as leverage to permeate American institutions.

In an unclassified page of the report obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, the CIA cautions against efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to stipulate funding to universities and policy institutes in exchange for academic censorship.

Pentagon Warns 2 Million Troops, Workers May Have to Work Without Pay Next Week

The Pentagon warned 1.3 million U.S. troops and 742,000 workers they could be forced to work without pay or furloughed in less than one week if Congress doesn’t pass a budget.

Lawmakers have six days until the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30 to come up with a stopgap measure to fund the government. If not, federal government offices will close. The military must still report to work, but their paychecks will be withheld until the government reopens.

Putin undeterred by $32 billion in capital flight, continues assault on dollar’s role

Fearing the collapse of the Russian financial system and burdensome Western sanctions in the aftermath of the Ukraine crisis, investors and businesses moved more than $32.6 billion in assets outside of Russia, primarily to offshore accounts, in the first quarter of 2015, according to reports.

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Capital flight has several negative effects on the Russian economy, including the loss of tax revenue and the reduction in funding available for investment.

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Lack of investment funding also delays attempts to modernize the economy. The Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and short-term forecasts assesses that investment activity is down 20 percent since 2013.

U.S. to Fund Russian Nuclear Security Despite Ukraine Sanctions

Not only has America been sold New Lies for Old and been lulled into a false sense of security via Soviet Perestroika Deception, it has continued a decades long capitulation to Russia’s nuclear blackmail game.

Send the money over, or… “oops, the terrorists ‘accidentally’ get a hold of the nuclear weapons grade material.”

This is how long-term plans for an American Hiroshima happen, where numerous large American cities are lit on fire from coast to coast.

What’s worse is that America is funding the Russian military modernization, even the nuclear weapons modernization. It’s helping create the rope from which itself will be hanged.

America needs not only to wake up, but act, and very soon.

 

Over $60 million in non-proliferation aid planned

The Energy Department plans to spend more than $60 million in Russia for nuclear security activities at the same time U.S. and European Union sanctions are punishing Moscow for aggression against Ukraine.

The Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which is in charge of nuclear arms and nuclear security, has budgeted the funds to be spent this year through an international organization called the Multilateral Nuclear Environmental Program in Russia (MNEPR), a little-known group, said administration officials familiar with the funding plan.

It is not clear how the funds will be used. One official said talks between U.S. and Russian officials were held earlier this year regarding a program to remove nuclear material dumped in the Arctic Ocean by the Russians as waste fuel. A second official said the funds would be used for an array of talks and other “feel good” measures on nuclear nonproliferation with the Russians.

Greece wants to start charging people for cash withdrawals to prevent a run on banks

The cash-strapped Greek government has introduced a surcharge at cashpoints to prevent Greek citizens from withdrawing their cash.

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A senior finance ministry official said: “The surcharge is just one of a grab-bag of measures we are considering if things get tough.”

Withdrawals exceeded €15 billion in the run up to the February elections that catapulted Alexis Tsipras and the far-left Syriza government to power. Greek residents were reported to have stashed wads of money behind bathroom tiles and under floorboards.

Bank Deposits No Longer Guaranteed By Austrian Government

If you’re not already familiar with one of the more recent invented economic terms of the last few years, “bail-in”, it essentially means your respective government has given the banks the green light to legally take your deposits to cover their obligations should there be another crisis. Instead of the corrupt government bailing ‘out’ the banks, you, the depositor, are bailing them ‘in’. This is also an indication of an anticipated crisis.

In 2013, the United States reportedly missed one by a hair’s length.

 

– Austria will remove state guarantee of bank deposits
– Austrian deposit plan given go ahead by the EU
– Banks to pay into a deposit insurance fund over 10 years
– Fund will then be valued at a grossly inadequate €1.5 billion
– New bail-in legislation agreed by EU two years ago
– Depositors need to realise increasing risks and act accordingly
– “Bail-ins are now the rule” and ‘Bail-in regime’ coming

Bank deposits in Austria will no longer enjoy state protection and a state guarantee in the event of bank runs and a bank collapse when legislation is enacted in July. The plan to ensure that the state is no longer responsible for insuring deposits has been readied by the Austrian government in conjunction with the EU two years ago according to Die Presse.

The Greek Bank Runs Have Begun: Two Greek Banks Request Emergency Liquidity Assistance

The first time the phrase Emergency Liquidity Assistance, or ELA, was used in the context of Greece was in August 2011, when Greece was imploding, when its banking sector was on (and past) the verge of collapse, and just before the ECB had to unleash a global coordinated bailout with other central banks including global central bank liquidity swap and unleash the LTRO to preserve the Eurozone.

As a reminder, this is what happened back then: “In a move described as the “last stand for Greek banks”, the embattled country’s central bank activated Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) for the first time on Wednesday night.”

“Although it was done discreetly, news that Athens had opened the fund filtered out and was one of the factors that rattled markets across Europe. At one point Germany’s Dax was down 4pc before it recovered. The ELA was designed under European rules to allow national central banks to provide liquidity for their own lenders when they run out of collateral of a quality that can be used to trade with the ECB. It is an obscure tool that is supposed to be temporary and one of the last resorts for indebted banks.”