The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities

A VERY long read that is worth your while.

It reminds you of how well you don’t know your city if you’re living in one of these eight.

 

420 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles

 

The secrets are hidden behind fortified walls in cities across the United States, inside towering, windowless skyscrapers and fortress-like concrete structures that were built to withstand earthquakes and even nuclear attack. Thousands of people pass by the buildings each day and rarely give them a second glance, because their function is not publicly known. They are an integral part of one of the world’s largest telecommunications networks – and they are also linked to a controversial National Security Agency surveillance program.

Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. In each of these cities, The Intercept has identified an AT&T facility containing networking equipment that transports large quantities of internet traffic across the United States and the world. A body of evidence – including classified NSA documents, public records, and interviews with several former AT&T employees – indicates that the buildings are central to an NSA spying initiative that has for years monitored billions of emails, phone calls, and online chats passing across U.S. territory.

The NSA considers AT&T to be one of its most trusted partners and has lauded the company’s “extreme willingness to help.” It is a collaboration that dates back decades. Little known, however, is that its scope is not restricted to AT&T’s customers. According to the NSA’s documents, it values AT&T not only because it “has access to information that transits the nation,” but also because it maintains unique relationships with other phone and internet providers. The NSA exploits these relationships for surveillance purposes, commandeering AT&T’s massive infrastructure and using it as a platform to covertly tap into communications processed by other companies.

Pensions Timebomb In America – “National Crisis” Cometh

“This is going to be a national crisis…”

“This” being America’s woefully underfunded pension liabilities, according to Karen Friedman. She’s the executive vice president of the Pension Rights Center.

(A place called the Pension Rights Center does in fact exist. We checked.)

MarketWatch columnist Jeff Reeves howls in confirmation that “collapsing pensions will fuel America’s next financial crisis.”

“This is not a distant concern,” warns he, “but a system already in crisis.”

Illinois Is Essentially Experiencing Its Own Private Great Depression

 

The state of Illinois has not passed a budget for close to three years.

Arguably it’s just as well because Illinois budgets for decades have been nothing but a moth-eaten collection of lies, one time deficits repeated endlessly, and financial wizardry statements designed to disguise Illinois’ real problems: failure to rein in spending coupled with a very business unfriendly environment.

As Illinois’ bond rating careens towards junk, Illinois Unpaid Bills Jumped to $14.3 Billion. Today, the state told contractors to halt roadwork other that required for safety.

Michael Savage Predicted ‘Violence’ by ‘Marginals’ Day Before Attack

 

‘We are at a boiling point. There’s going to be a civil war’

Less than 24 hours before a supporter of former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders fired at Republican members of Congress at a baseball practice, seriously injuring House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and four others before U.S. Capitol Police took down the assailant, talk-radio host and author Michael Savage warned of violence by “marginal” people who are set to explode and “kill somebody.”

Savage, the host of the nationally syndicated “The Savage Nation,” was commenting on recent developments that have escalated the anti-Trump “resistance,” such as comedian Kathy Griffin’s ISIS-style photo shoot of the decapitated likeness of Trump and the “Julius Caesar” play in Central Park featuring the assassination of a Trump-like figure.

The Germans Are Coming… And Their Groceries Will Cost Up To 50% Less Than Wal-Mart

 

Back in February we reported that as America’s deflationary wave spread through the grocery store supply chain, the scramble for America’s bottom dollar was on, and it prompted America’s largest low-cost retailer Wal-Mart to not only cut prices, but to squeeze suppliers in a stealthy war for market share and maximizing profits, a scramble for market share which is oddly reminiscent of the OPEC 2014 price fiasco and is certain to unleash a deflationary shock across wide portions of the US economy.

US Population Migrating South to Less Taxed States

 

The US Census report has shown that the net migration from the New York City area has surged during 2016, and that even included myself. Indeed, much more people are leaving the New York region than any other major metropolitan area in the country. Since 2010, the New York area has lost almost 4.5% of its population. This included New Jersey, Connecticut, Long Island, and the lower Hudson Valley. The number of people who left in 2015 was 187,034. Last year, 2016, that number jumped to 223,423. The number of international immigrants settling in the tri-state area declined from 181,551 to 160,324. The international migration has slowed and this trend means that taxes will only rise.

FBI reports more attempts to hack voter registration system

There have also been ‘scanning activities,’ which could be preludes to attacks

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has found more attempts to hack the voter registration systems of states, ahead of national elections.

The agency had reportedly found evidence in August that foreign hackers had breached state election databases in Illinois and Arizona, but it appears that there have been other attempts as well, besides frequent scanning activities, which the FBI describes as preludes for possible hacking attempts.

FBI warns that hackers are targeting state election systems

Voter registration databases from two states were reportedly targeted in the hacks

The FBI has reportedly found evidence that foreign hackers breached two state election databases in recent weeks.

An FBI alert warning election officials about the breach was leaked, and it was posted in a report by Yahoo News on Monday. Voter registration databases from both Illinois and Arizona were targeted in the hacks, according to the report.

Illinois on the Fiscal Brink

Illinois—a state that has long embraced progressive fiscal policies—has moved one step closer to the financial abyss. Last week, Moody’s Investors Service issued the jarring announcement that it was downgrading Illinois’s general obligations bonds to Baa2 from Baa1, which is just two levels above junk bond status. The next day, Standard & Poor’s followed suit by lowering its rating to BBB+, or three levels above junk bond status. In one important sense, this is really not news at all, since Illinois had thirteen bond downgrades under its previous governor, Patrick Quinn, even though it passed a temporary tax increase that collected an additional $31 billion in revenues between 2011 and 2015, 90 percent of which was funneled into pension payments for public employees.

Report: Homegrown Violent Extremists Planting Roots Across U.S.

Foiled ISIS attacks, plots, and terror funding grows across nation

At least 75 homegrown violent extremists were found to be operating across the United States in 2015, with the largest portion of these individuals pledging allegiance to the ISIS terror group, according to recent figures published by New Jersey’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.

The largest number of homegrown extremists were caught providing material support to various terror organizations, while at least 21 percent of the terrorists were found to be planning attacks in the United States, according to the figures.

FBI Files Document Communism in Valerie Jarrett’s Family

America has been infiltrated at the highest levels across the board. Anyone really paying attention the last seven years sees nothing new with this story. Once-Congressman Allen West even declared there are over 80 active Communists within Congress alone. The amount of Communist/Socialist infiltrators is staggering. It’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s real.

For more extensive background information on Valerie Jarret and her Communist background, please see HERE and HERE.

 

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files obtained by Judicial Watch reveal that the dad, maternal grandpa and father-in-law of President Obama’s trusted senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, were hardcore Communists under investigation by the U.S. government.

Jarrett’s dad, pathologist and geneticist Dr. James Bowman, had extensive ties to Communist associations and individuals, his lengthy FBI file shows. In 1950 Bowman was in communication with a paid Soviet agent named Alfred Stern, who fled to Prague after getting charged with espionage. Bowman was also a member of a Communist-sympathizing group called the Association of Internes and Medical Students. After his discharge from the Army Medical Corps in 1955, Bowman moved to Iran to work, the FBI records show.

California Passes Stealth Law Banning Businesses That Aren’t Profitable and Fair Enough

Essentially, voters allowed themselves to be duped into voting themselves out of business. Look for the cannibalization of the economy through layoffs and closures of businesses to begin a little before 2018, when the law goes into effect.

 

Business owner who supported new minimum wage realizes math isn’t strong suit—layoffs now likely.

What would you do if some small-minded government bureaucrat told you that your coffee shop or widget factory didn’t make enough money to justify letting you stay in business, and you were hereby ordered to shut down?

You would probably show him the exit.

Fivefold surge in Americans on Chinese-firm payroll in the US: report

Although the numbers are still quite low, the key issue is not the amount. It likely wouldn’t take more than running 5% of American businesses nation-wide in the most critical industries and businesses to wreak economic havoc if the CCP so wished to pull the trigger — and as the last few years have increasingly shown us, the Chinese leadership’s behavioral patterns and actions indicate wreaking havoc on America is their intention.

 

The number of Americans on Chinese company payrolls has surged more than fivefold over the past five years along with growing foreign direct investment by China in the United States, a study by two US-based organisations has found.

The report – released this month by non-profit group, the National Committee on US-China Relations, and economic think tank Rhodium Group – highlighted the expansion of Chinese firms in various American congressional districts.

…

The report, titled “New Neighbours: Chinese Investment in the United States by Congressional District”, showed Chinese firms had invested US$46 billion in new establishments and acquisitions in the US since 2000.

U.S. States Aren’t Prepared for the Next Fiscal Shock

U.S. states, still grappling with the lingering effects of the longest recession since the 1930s, are even more vulnerable to another fiscal shock.

The governments have a little more than half the reserves they’d stashed away before the 18-month recession that ended in June 2009, according to a report last month by Pew Charitable Trusts. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Arkansas have saved the least.

Americans on the move want warmth, affordability: reports

(Reuters) – Americans moving out of state in 2014 were most likely to head to places that were warmer and more affordable, such as the South and Southwest, according to studies by two major moving companies.

The 47th annual report by Allied Van Lines showed that Illinois topped the list of states people are moving away from with 1,372 net moves, followed by Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan and New Jersey. The states have remained in the top five since 2010, the company said.