Pentagon Studying Protesters to Prep for ‘Mass Civil Breakdown’

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Photo Credit: AP / Mary AltafferThe Department of Defense has disbursed some funds to universities so that scientists might study the dynamics of civil unrest — and how the U.S. military might best respond.

It’s called the “Minerva Research Initiative,” and it’s a program that was kicked off in 2008 to “improve DoD’s basic understanding of the social, cultural, behavioral and political forces that shape regions of the world of strategic importance to the U.S.,” The Guardian reported.

More to point: the multi-million dollar research program seeks to uncover “warfighter-relevant insights” to help senior ranking officials in the “defense policy community” come up with “combatant commands” that work in civil unrest situations, The Guardian reported.

One area of study that’s planned for the 2014-2017 time frame partners Cornell University researchers with the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research to come up with a model for the “dynamics of social movement mobilization and contagions,” the text of the program stated. That particular research area will ultimately determine the “critical mass (tipping point),” of civil uprisings, where protests turn violent, the program text states, The Guardian reported.

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It Looks Like Chelsea Clinton Made $26,724 For Each Minute She Appeared On NBC

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Photo Credit: Rob Kim / GettyOn Friday morning, Politico published on the previously unknown and “closely held” details of former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton’s contract with NBC News. According to the story, Clinton was given an annual salary of $600,000 when she joined NBC News as a “special correspondent” in November 2011. Based on these figures, Clinton has earned about $26,724 for each minute she subsequently appeared on air.

NBC News declined to confirm Politico’s report about Clinton’s salary. A spokesperson for the news outlet instead said they, “don’t comment on details of existing contracts.” Politico also said Clinton’s contract “was up for renewal or nonrenewal this year” and she was placed on the payroll on a month-to-month basis to allow her to cut ties with the network if her mother, Hillary Clinton, launches her long rumored presidential bid in 2016.

Assuming Politico’s reporting is correct and that Clinton is still earning at the same rate after moving to month-to-month payment, she has earned about $1.55 million from NBC News.

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After 550 Homosexual Couples Wed, US Judge Stays Her Ruling

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Photo Credit: Andy Davis / The Stevens Point Journal / APA week after striking down Wisconsin’s ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, a federal judge in Madison, Wis., issued an order Friday postponing her decision pending the outcome of an expected appeal.

But US District Judge Barbara Crabb took the action only after more than 550 same-sex couples in the state cited her June 6 decision in order to get married over the past seven days.

Judge Crabb had been asked two weeks ago by state officials to issue a stay of any ruling striking down the state’s same-sex marriage ban until the issue could be heard by an appeals court.

The officials expressed concern that same-sex marriages should not be performed until appellate courts have an opportunity to examine the underlying legal and constitutional issues.

On Friday, the judge acknowledged that there had been “much confusion among county clerks” regarding the legal effect of her decision last week.

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Study: West Antarctic Glacier Melt Due To Volcanoes, Not Global Warming

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Pauline AskinA new study by researchers at the University of Texas, Austin found that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is collapsing due to geothermal heat, not man-made global warming.

Researchers from the UTA’s Institute for Geophysics found that the Thwaites Glacier in western Antarctica is being eroded by the ocean as well as geothermal heat from magma and subaerial volcanoes. Thwaites is considered a key glacier for understanding future sea level rise.

UTA researchers used radar techniques to map water flows under ice sheets and estimate the rate of ice melt in the glacier. As it turns out, geothermal heat from magma and volcanoes under the glacier is much hotter and covers a much wider area than was previously thought.

“Geothermal flux is one of the most dynamically critical ice sheet boundary conditions but is extremely difficult to constrain at the scale required to understand and predict the behavior of rapidly changing glaciers,” UTA researchers wrote in their study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The geothermal heat under the glaciers is likely a key factor in why the ice sheet is currently collapsing. Before this study, it was assumed that heat flow under the glacier was evenly distributed throughout, but UTA’s study shows this is not the case. Heat levels under the glacier are uneven, with some areas being much hotter than others.

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Child Immigrant Facility ‘Dog And Pony Show’ Invite Comes With Tons Of Rules

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Eric ThayerThe U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is welcoming members of Congress and their senior staff to tour a temporary shelter being used to house illegal immigrant children — but the invite comes with a list of rules, including a suggestion that members leave their cellphones in their vehicles.

The 40-minute tour will take place Friday at the Ventura County Naval Base in Oxnard, Calif., according to the email invitation, obtained by The Daily Caller.

The tours are meant to give members and staffers an inside look at how temporary facilities being used to house illegal immigrant children who came to the U.S. without their parents. The minors, who hail mostly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, are being called “Unaccompanied Children,” or UACs.

Sent to members of Congress and staff by Rose Hacking, of the office of the assistant secretary of legislation at HHS, the invitation comes with the following commands:

No recording devices will be allowed (We may ask you to leave your cellphone in our vehicle)

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US Pushing Local Cops to Stay Mum on Surveillance

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Photo Credit: APThe Obama administration has been quietly advising local police not to disclose details about surveillance technology they are using to sweep up basic cellphone data from entire neighborhoods, The Associated Press has learned.

Citing security reasons, the U.S. has intervened in routine state public records cases and criminal trials regarding use of the technology. This has resulted in police departments withholding materials or heavily censoring documents in rare instances when they disclose any about the purchase and use of such powerful surveillance equipment.

Federal involvement in local open records proceedings is unusual. It comes at a time when President Barack Obama has said he welcomes a debate on government surveillance and called for more transparency about spying in the wake of disclosures about classified federal surveillance programs.

One well-known type of this surveillance equipment is known as a Stingray, an innovative way for law enforcement to track cellphones used by suspects and gather evidence. The equipment tricks cellphones into identifying some of their owners’ account information, like a unique subscriber number, and transmitting data to police as if it were a phone company’s tower. That allows police to obtain cellphone information without having to ask for help from service providers, such as Verizon or AT&T, and can locate a phone without the user even making a call or sending a text message.

But without more details about how the technology works and under what circumstances it’s used, it’s unclear whether the technology might violate a person’s constitutional rights or whether it’s a good investment of taxpayer dollars.

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More Liberal Media Deception: MSNBC Edits Dave Brat Interview to Claim He Dodged Questions

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesOn Wednesday, Newsbusters’ Ken Shepherd reported that MSNBC.com edited a June 11 phone interview with Republican Dave Brat in order to portray him as someone who dodged questions from Chuck Todd. Brat, an economics professor, defeated Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., in a stunning upset on Tuesday.

“Virginia primary winner and Tea-Party member Dave Brat joins Chuck Todd to discuss his primary win – and it appears that’s all he wanted to talk about,” reads the subtitle at the MSNBC link, leaving the viewer with the impression Brat did not want to discuss anything further.

But a transcript obtained by Newsbusters indicates that Brat said much more than MSNBC wanted its viewers to know.

While it is true that Brat said he wanted to discuss the celebratory nature of his upset victory, he also addressed a number of issues like the minimum wage and immigration, but viewers would never know it watching MSNBC’s clip.

For example, Brat told Todd he would love to see everyone in sub-Saharan Africa make $100 an hour. But, he explained that wages cannot be arbitrarily set by law.

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Ted Cruz Joins Demonstrators in Front of White House; Calls on Obama to Help Imprisoned Sudanese Christian Woman

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Photo Credit: The Christian Post / Sonny HongA group of demonstrators representing over 40 different organizations gathered outside the White House to demand that Meriam Ibrahim, a Sudanese Christian woman sentenced to death for apostasy in Sudan, be freed.

Dozens of protesters, including U.S. Congressman Trent Franks of Arizona and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, stood outside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. on a warm overcast Thursday morning to demand the freeing of Ibrahim.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Senator Cruz said that the effort to free Meriam Ibrahim was part of a grander need for the United States to address international religious liberty.

“There are assaults on religious liberty across the globe and Christians in particular are being persecuted across the globe,” said Cruz, who called the Ibrahim episode “startling.”

“We need far more leadership speaking out for religious liberty of everyone. And especially for Christians who are being targeted.”

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Ex-Border Agents: Immigrant Flood ‘Orchestrated’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: WNDAn organization of former Border Patrol agents Wednesday charged that the federal government, under the administration of President Obama, is deliberately arranging for a flood of immigrant children to arrive in America for political purposes.

“This is not a humanitarian crisis. It is a predictable, orchestrated and contrived assault on the compassionate side of Americans by her political leaders that knowingly puts minor illegal alien children at risk for purely political purposes,” said the statement released by the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers.

“Certainly, we are not gullible enough to believe that thousands of unaccompanied minor Central American children came to America without the encouragement, aid and assistance of the United States government,” the officers said.

“Anyone that has taken two six- to seven-year-old children to an amusement park can only imagine the problems associated with bringing thousands of unaccompanied children that age up through Mexico and into the United States.”

Republicans are blaming Obama’s immigration policies for enticing the illegals, particularly the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program launched in 2012, which recently was renewed.

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Bowe Bergdahl Arrives in the US

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Photo Credit: Fox News Bowe Bergdahl, the US Army sergeant who spent five years as a captive in Afghanistan before being traded for five high-profile Taliban leaders, arrived at an Army medical center in San Antonio, Fox News confirms.

A Pentagon spokesman, Rear Adm. John Kirby, said Bergdahl arrived early Friday at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio on a flight from Ramstein Air Base. The Idaho native is expected to be reunited there with his family.

He was captured in Afghanistan in June 2009 and released by the Taliban on May 31 in a deal struck by the Obama administration in which five Taliban officials were released from detention.

Kirby said that Bergdahl will — quote “continue the next phase of his reintegration process” at the Texas base. It is not known how long he will remain there or if and when he will be questioned about the circumstances behind his apparently voluntary departure from an Army base in Afghanistan in 2009.

Defense officials have said that Bergdahl’s case will undergo a full investigation. It is not known whether his mental state is currently an issue, but a journal he kept as well as Facebook posts written in the weeks leading up to his disappearance, have revealed a portrait of a young man frustrated with authority and attempting to deal with mental instability.

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