While Russian Anti-American Sentiment Grows to Highest Level Since Cold War, Putin Says War in Ukraine Would be “Apocalyptic”

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War Over Ukraine Would be “Apocalyptic”

By Adam Withnall. The Russian President Vladimir Putin has described war with Ukraine as an “apocalyptic scenario” in his first comments since the signing of a shaky peace agreement in Minsk.

With a ceasefire struggling to take hold and neither the Ukrainian government nor rebels withdrawing heavy weapons from the frontline as promised, Mr Putin gave a confident interview on Russian TV.

Asked if the situation in eastern Ukraine and renewed calls for Russia to return the annexed territory of Crimea meant we could “wake up one day to discover a war has started”, Mr Putin said: “I think that such an apocalyptic scenario is unlikely and I hope this will never happen.”

Foreign ministers from Russia and Ukraine are to meet with those from France and Germany in Paris on Tuesday to discuss how the deal set out on 12 February is progressing. (Read more about what President Putin said about the war in Ukraine HERE)

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Moscow Times: Anti-American Sentiment Reaches 25-Year High in Russia

By Peter Spinella. Russians are more anti-American than they have been at any point in the past 25 years, according to a recent opinion poll.

More than 80 percent of Russians view the United States negatively, the exact inverse of how the public felt in 1992, respected independent pollster the Levada Center said in a statement.

More than 70 percent currently have a negative opinion of the European Union, according to the poll, which was conducted between Jan. 23 and 26.

Russia’s political relations with the West sank to post-Cold War lows last year as Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from neighboring Ukraine, and Russia and the West faced off in a series of tit-for-tat sanctions.

Now, with the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine heating up and U.S. lawmakers renewing a push to supply weapons to the Ukrainian military, popular opinion of the West is not likely to improve anytime soon in Russia. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Report: Crime, Anti-American Harassment in Russia Grows

By Bill Gertz. Anti-American sentiment and criminal activities have increased in Moscow since Russian forces took over Ukraine’s Crimea and continue to destabilize eastern Ukraine, a recent State Department security report reveals.

Security threats in Moscow and Russia include petty crime, physical attacks, activities by organized crime groups, corrupt law enforcement and security officials, widespread cyber crime, and economic espionage, according to the Feb. 6 report produced by the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), a State Department group that supports American businesses abroad.


“The social and political unrest in Ukraine has led to increasing political tensions between the Russian Federation and the U.S. and other Western nations,” the report, based on reports from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, said. “As a result, anti-American and anti-Western sentiment appears to be increasing, especially in certain media outlets” . . .

The report said U.S.-Russia ties were “greatly strained” after Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.

Embassy reports indicate a number of Americans were verbally harassed and physically assaulted in the last part of 2014 . . . (Read more from this story HERE)

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Are the Feds and Mrs. Obama Starving Us?

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By Elizabeth Harrington. The federal committee responsible for nutrition guidelines is calling for the adoption of “plant-based” diets, taxes on dessert, trained obesity “interventionists” at worksites, and electronic monitoring of how long Americans sit in front of the television.

The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) released its far-reaching 571-page report of recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Thursday, which detailed its plans to “transform the food system.”

The report is open for public comment for 45 days, and will be used as the basis by the government agencies to develop the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The guidelines are used as the basis for government food assistance programs, nutrition education efforts, and for making “decisions about national health objectives.”

DGAC proposed a variety of solutions to address obesity, and its promotion of what it calls the “culture of health.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Disgusting Meals by Michelle Obama

By Anucyia Victor. Mouthwatering photos of school lunches served around the world reveal even children in Ukraine, Estonia and Greece are treated to delectable meals each day. School children in America, meanwhile, aren’t nearly so lucky.

Whereas a kid in France might be treated to a juicy steak and a hunk of brie, the richest country in the world’s youths are more likely to receive unidentified meat served alongside little more than a starch like white pasta, fries or a roll.

The contrasts between America’s school meals and those in far less fortunate economies are stark and suggest Michelle Obama’s push for more healthful lunches nationwide may not be enough.

The first new school lunch standards championed by Michelle Obama have been phased in over the last several school years.


In addition to whole grain requirements, the rules set fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits on foods in the lunch line and beyond. While many schools have had success putting the rules in place, others have said they are too restrictive and costly. (Read more about Mrs. Obama starving us HERE)

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You’ll Never Guess What Edward Snowden Says His Only Regret is

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By Military. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden says he wishes he had come forward sooner with documents exposing the agency’s surveillance program.

In a Reddit ask-me-anything interview Monday, Snowden said that’s the one thing he would do differently in 2013 when he revealed NSA practices.

“I would have come forward sooner,” he said.

“Had I come forward a little sooner, these programs would have been a little less entrenched, and those abusing them would have felt a little less familiar with and accustomed to the exercise of those powers. This is something we see in almost every sector of government, not just in the national security space, but it’s very important: Once you grant the government some new power or authority, it becomes exponentially more difficult to roll it back,” he said. (Read more about Edward Snowden and his only regret HERE)

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Oscars Host Slams Edward Snowden at the Event

By Will Oremus. One of the first things users asked the fugitive whistleblower was what he thought of Oscars host Neil Patrick Harris’s pun about him Sunday night.

(“Edward Snowden couldn’t be here, for some treason,” NPH had quipped.)

Many of Snowden’s allies, including Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, slammed the one-liner as insulting and irresponsible.

But Snowden himself took it in stride:

To be honest, I laughed at NPH. I don’t think it was meant as a political statement, but even if it was, that’s not so bad. My perspective is if you’re not willing to be called a few names to help out your country, you don’t care enough.

(Read more from this story HERE)

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Snowden: Spy Agencies ‘Screwed All of Us’ in Hacking Crypto Keys

By Kim Zetter. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden didn’t mince words during a Reddit Ask Me Anything session on Monday when he said the NSA and the British spy agency GCHQ had “screwed all of us” when it hacked into the Dutch firm Gemalto to steal cryptographic keys used in billions of mobile SIM cards worldwide.

“When the NSA and GCHQ compromised the security of potentially billions of phones (3g/4g encryption relies on the shared secret resident on the sim),” Snowden wrote in the AMA, “they not only screwed the manufacturer, they screwed all of us, because the only way to address the security compromise is to recall and replace every SIM sold by Gemalto.”


Gemalto is one of the leading makers of SIM cards used in billions of mobile phones around the world to secure the communications of telecom customers of AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and more than 400 other wireless carriers in 85 countries. Stealing the crypto keys essentially allows the spy agencies to wiretap and decipher encrypted phone communications at will without the assistance of telecom carriers or the oversight of a court or government. The keys also allow the agencies to decrypt previously intercepted messages they hadn’t been able to crack. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Persecution: ISIS Abducts at Least 150 Christians Throughout Syria; Saudi Arabia Gives Death Penalty to Man Who Renounced Islam

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By Suleiman Al- Khalidi. Islamic State militants have abducted at least 150 people from Assyrian Christian villages in northeastern Syria they had raided, Christian Syrian activists said on Tuesday.

A Syrian Christian group representing several NGO’s inside and outside the country said it had verified at least 150 people missing, including women and elderly, who had been kidnapped by the militants.

“We have verified at least 150 people who have been adducted from sources on the ground,” Bassam Ishak, President of the Syriac National Council of Syria, whose family itself is from Hasaka, told Reuters from Amman.

Earlier the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 90 were abducted when the militants carried out dawn raids on rural villages inhabited by the ancient Christian minority west of Hasaka, a city mainly held by the Kurds.

Syrian Kurdish militia launched two offensives against the militants in northeast Syria on Sunday, helped by U.S.-led air strikes and Iraqi peshmerga. (Read more about the abducted Christians throughout Syria HERE)

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Saudi Arabia Court Gives Man Death Penalty for Renouncing Muslim Faith

By Richard Spencer. A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a man to death for apostasy after he filmed himself tearing up a copy of the Koran, a new test case for the country’s human rights record just as its most powerful rising prince was visiting Downing Street.

Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the country’s security supremo who was recently made deputy Crown Prince – the presumed heir-but-one to the throne – was due to have dinner with Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, on Tuesday night.

He will meet Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, on Wednesday and then the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary, Theresa May, on Thursday – a sign of how important Saudi Arabia is held to be across a range of key political issues, from the fight against Islamic State to home-grown radicalisation.

Human rights groups were already calling on the government to raise their concerns with the prince, including the case of the blogger Raif Badawi who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes for criticising the country’s religious establishment. (Read more from this story HERE)

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The Massacre of Assyrians Christians on Way

By Walid Shoebat. Shoebat.com reported yesterday before it became news, that ISIS attacked the Assyrian villages in the Hasaka province in northeast Syria where ISIS fighters were met by members of Natorehs, a Christian brigade which is also called The Assyrian Guards where Assyrian fighters were killed running low on ammunition and help from anyone in the West while killing tens of ISIS fighters. And the fighting is still ongoing in Tel Tamar. In the process an estimated 117 Christians, elderly, women and children were kidnapped by ISIS.

There were 12 Christians abducted from Tel Hurmiz, 15 from Tel Goran. They have been brought to Jabal Abdul Aziz. The residents of the villages of Tel Shamiran (approximately 50) and Tel Jazira (about 40) are being held captive in their own villages by ISIS.


There approximate number (117) is concluded by adding kidnapped and held. These are as good as dead. Hani Zaya, whose parents, who live in Tel Goran, were abducted by ISIS. According to Mr. Zaya, local Arabs who are members of ISIS and who knew the Assyrian village residents reportedly brought them to “safe-houses” in nearby villages. None of the captives have answered or made telephone calls. Calls made by relatives of the captives have been answered by ISIS members, who have said there is nothing to be done for the hostages.

On top of all this, a number of churches have been destroyed, including the church in Tel Hurmiz, one of the oldest churches in Syria, the Mar Bisho church in Tel Shamiran, the church in Qabr Shamiy and the church in Tel Baloua. (Read more from this story HERE)

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17,000 Federal Employees Earned More Than $200K Last Year

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Photo Credit: WNDBy Eric Katz. More than 16,900 federal employees took home in excess of $200,000 in base salary in 2014, according to a partial database of federal salary data.

The information, compiled by FedSmith.com using data from the Office of Personnel Management and other agencies, shows the annual compensation for every civilian federal worker, save those at the Defense Department. The number of workers earning more than $200,000 represented about 1.6 percent of employees on the list and is up from about 15,000 who cleared that salary in 2013. It also makes up a slightly higher percentage of the employees on this list.

Most of the high earners worked as medical officers at the Veterans Affairs Department. Other agencies that require a highly specialized workforce paid several employees at least $200,000; these included the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

More than 1,600 federal employees cleared $300,000 in base salary last year. Just two—VA doctors in Palo Alto, Calif., and Pittsburgh—took in more than $400,000. (Read more from this story about what federal employees earned HERE)

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Lois Lerner Received $129K in Bonuses

By CJ Ciaramella. Former IRS official Lois Lerner received $129,300 in bonuses between 2010 and 2013, records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show.

Over a three-year period, Lerner, the head of the tax-exempt division at the heart of the IRS targeting scandal, received a 25 percent retention bonus—averaging $43,000 a year—on top of her regular salary.

The federal government uses retention bonuses to incentivize valuable employees who are considering retirement or private sector jobs to stay at their agencies.


Former acting IRS commissioner Steven T. Miller recommended Lerner for a $42,000 retention bonus in December 2009, when she first became eligible for retirement.

“Ms. Lerner is eligible for retirement and as an attorney with extensive experience would likely command a much greater pay and benefits if she left the Service,” Miller wrote. “Without a retention incentive she will leave the Service.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Mainstream Media Totally Ignores Explosive Anti-American Demonstrations in Iran

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On February 11, 2015, the Iranian regime marked the Islamic Revolution’s 36th anniversary. Regime spokesmen, and first and foremost Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, emphasized in processions and speeches the anti-American character of Revolution Day, the Iranian regime’s hatred for the United States and its yearning for America’s downfall. Regime spokesmen motivated the public to participate in processions in which the regime’s top leaders, including the heads of the pragmatic camp took part.

With nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran in an attempt to reach an agreement soon in the background, the displays of hatred towards President Obama, depicted as hanging from a gallows, and towards Secretary of State Kerry, who was shown as a devious fox were prominent…















Experts indicate that the deal being worked out by the Obama administration fails to address Iran’s nuclear weaponization program whatsoever.

Which should work out well in the future, what with its development of ballistic missiles, its support of terror groups worldwide, and its virulent hatred of America. (“Mainstream Media Totally Ignores Explosive Anti-American Demonstrations in Iran”, re-posted with permission HERE)

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Posted in-full courtesy of Doug Ross, blogger and cartoonist at Doug Ross @ Journal. Please visit his website for more updates, and check out his novella “Hard-Boiled” at Amazon.com

‘We’re Making it Easier to Spread Terror’: ISIS Opens English Speaking Schools

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By Jamie Schram and Chris Perez. Islamic State militants have opened a pair of English-speaking schools in hopes of teaching jihadi children in Syria how to blend in while visiting other countries — making it “easier to spread terror,” a UN official tells The Post.

“They start out as mini-jihadists and grow up to become adult jihadists,” the official said, speaking under the condition of anonymity.

“The schools are targeting ISIS children who already live in Raqqa,” he added. “They want to give them their form of education, which is teaching them to become jihadists.”

A picture posted online Sunday showing an advertisement for the two schools proves the extremists are trying harder than ever to transform children into Islamic thugs.

“ATTENTION ENGLISH SPEAKING MUHAJIROON!” the ad reads. “By the grace of Allah we have opened schools for English speaking children.” (Read more about ISIS’ attempts to spread more terror HERE)

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New ISIS Video Shows Indoctrination of Kids as Young as Five

By Fox News. The latest disturbing video from ISIS shows what the Islamist group touts as the next generation of jihadist killers, pint-sized terror trainees who appear to be as young as 5 participating in drills and reciting verses from the Koran.

The 9-minute video released Monday shows about 70 camouflage-clad kids, who are reportedly the children of foreign fighters who have flocked to Iraq and Syria to join the Islamist army. An instructor states in Arabic that most of the children are in the second phase of training and that they represent the “next generation” of ISIS. The video illustrates the charge in a UN Human Rights Council report last year that determined that Islamic State “has established training camps to recruit children into armed roles under the guise of education.”


“At the camps, the children recruited received weapons training and religious education,” the report stated. “The existence of such camps seems to indicate that ISIS systematically provides weapons training for children.

“Subsequently, they were deployed in active combat during military operations, including suicide-bombing missions,” it stated. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Iranian Resistance Reveals Secret Nuclear Site in Iran

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By NCRI. National Council of Resistance of Iran revealed on Tuesday the details of an underground top-secret site currently used by Iranian regime for research & development on nuclear field using advanced centrifuges for uranium enrichment.

Ms. Soona Samsami, the Representative of the NCRI in the US and Alireza Jafarzadeh, the Deputy Director of the NCRI US Representative Office made the revelation in a press conference at Press Club in Washington D.C.

Existence of the site, known as Lavizan-3, was unknown until now and had been kept secret for years by the Iranian regime.

The NCRI announced that the explosive revelation was result of several years of detailed work by the network of the Iranian opposition movement, the People’s Mojahedin Organization in Iran (PMOI/MEK).

The PMOI has obtained the intelligence from sources inside of Iranian regime, vetting info from scores of sources independently. (Read more about the Iranian resistance HERE)

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John Kerry Takes Swipe at Netanyahu Over Iran Nuclear Talks

By Reuters. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday appeared to take a swipe at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying critics of an emerging nuclear deal with Iran did not know what they were talking about.

Kerry told a U.S. Senate subcommittee that he also expected to know soon whether Iran was willing to craft an “acceptable, verifiable” plan that would satisfy major powers that it is not seeking to develop a nuclear weapon.

Netanyahu, who is scheduled to make a speech before a joint session of Congress on March 3, has described the agreement under negotiation with Iran as a “bad deal,” and said he would do what he could to prevent it.


“Anybody running around right now jumping in to say, ‘Well we don’t like the deal,’ or this or that, doesn’t know what the deal is. There is no deal yet,” Kerry told senators at a hearing on the State Department’s budget. “And I caution people to wait and see what these negotiations produce.”

It was the second time in recent days in which the Obama administration, irked that Netanyahu’s speech to the Republican-led Congress was scheduled initially without its knowledge, appeared to criticize Israel over Iran. (Read more from this story HERE)

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State Court: Common Core Consortium Violates the Constitution

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Today a Missouri State Court issued a judgment declaring that the “existence and operation” of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) violates the Constitution “as well as numerous federal statutes” and that “Missouri’s participation in [SBAC] as a member is unlawful under state and federal law.” In other words: payments from Missouri to other states to develop and test education assessments, and the agreements to do so, violate the U.S. Constitution, federal statutes, and state statutes.

Although Governor Palin rejected the Common Core, in the spring of 2013, under the leadership of Governor Parnell and Education Commissioner Hanley, Alaska joined SBAC. “The Smarter Balanced assessment will allow us to compare our students more closely with those around the country and confirm the rigor of Alaska’s standards compared to the Common Core,” stated Commissioner Hanley in defending his actions signing up Alaska to the Common Core consortium, the same consortium today declared unconstitutional and in violation of federal law.

Just over one year ago, Alaska abandoned SBAC in favor of paying the University of Kansas approximately $5 million per year to create English and math assessments. It would seem that this interstate compact, too, violates the Constitution and federal law, not to mention the Alaska state law, House Bill 278, that prohibits DEED from spending money on the Common Core.

Considering that even the former General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Education (not to mention Louisiana Governor Jindal in his federal lawsuit) assert that the Common Core violates the Constitution, federal statutes, and Congressional intent by illegally conditioning federal education money on the states’ adoption of the Common Core, one has to wonder why Commissioner Hanley, State Board Chair Cox, and others in the state executive and legislative branches, have ushered in and embraced the Common Core in Alaska. (Note that Commissioner Hanley wrote to the U.S. Department of Education on 1/23/13 that Alaska’s standards are “nearly identical to the Common Core State Standards.”)

In addition to the $5 million per year Alaska unlawfully and unconstitutionally sends to the University of Kansas, the implementation of the Alaska Common Core standards is costing Alaskans exorbitant amounts of money. Exactly how much, nobody knows: when asked ten days ago by the House Education Committee just how much this is all costing, DEED Chair Cox stated that she “could not possibly answer that question.” Want to cut the budget while helping students? Cut expenditures on the implementation of Common Core – such expenditures are illegal under state law away.

We the People can put a stop to this unconstitutional and illegal activity. The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear: the federal government has no authority to condition federal money on the adoption of education standards and the states have no authority to consent to such a requirement. Neither the state legislature nor the state executive – such as Commissioner Hanley or Chair Cox – has the right to consent to a violation of the Constitution. Any such action is, according to the Supreme Court, “invalid and cannot be enforced.” Indeed: these elected officials took an oath to defend the Constitution. Now is the time for citizens to hold their local officials accountable and help the same hold the federal government accountable. This is the intent and design of our Constitutional Republic; U.S. Supreme Court precedent agrees.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio: “We Can’t Surrender, Must Continue Fighting for this Country”

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Sheriff Joe Arpaio was recently interviewed on the The Joe Miller Show and talked about a number of issues regarding President Obama and issues facing his office in Maricopa County, Arizona. He discussed Rev. Al Sharpton and described what happened when Sharpton came to Phoenix for protests. The Sheriff also recounted the last time that he interacted with the President and surmised that Obama isn’t very happy with him given a recent lawsuit that the Sheriff filed against him with the assistance of attorney, Larry Klayman.

Joe Arpaio described his Times Square billboard and the Phoenix Super Bowl, stating that people were generally well-behaved. He talked about the body cams that his sheriffs now wear, too.

As to Obama’s birth certificate controversy, Sheriff Joe stated that his team was still working on it. He mentioned how strange it was that everyone wants to avoid the topic of whether Obama’s birth certificate is counterfeit, even though there’s evidence of a potential crime. The sheriff concluded that Obama would likely not even be qualified to work in his office.

Finally, Sheriff Joe responded to Joe Miller’s question regarding whether he was a vegetarian. He discussed that he was trying to lose weight, and that he had taken away meat from Maricopa prisoners’ meals, but that the announcement regarding his dietary choices would likely be made with a Hollywood star who will be coming to Phoenix in the near future.
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