Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Sunday, 5 June 2016

The European Union Times


Posted: 05 Jun 2016 02:39 AM PDT

Democrats are joining forces with Big Tobacco to stop the exploding eCigarette industry.
Under pressure from the Big Tobacco lobby, the Democratic Federal Drug Administration has extended regulations of tobacco products to eCigs, which ironically could flip hipster Bernie Sanders voters to Trump.
Major tobacco companies fear the rise of vaping, but instead of competing with the upstart industry in the free market, they’d rather outlaw it out of existence by forcing them to adhere to expensive rules only Big Tobacco can afford.
“In terms of what they’re trying to do, they want to limit competition and encourage the cartelization of their markets,” Case Western University law professor Jonathan H. Adler told theObserver. “They want regulation of e-cigarettes because it lessens the competitive threat to traditional cigarettes and because it makes the remaining e-cigarette market something that’s easier for them to dominate.”
The anti-vaping movement is also getting help from the major health companies behind Obamacare because eCigs, which many smokers transition to while quitting, threaten their $100 billion investment in smoking-cessation products covered under Obamacare.
“As someone who, thanks to vaping, was able to quit the deadly habit after decades of smoking myself, this is a very disturbing development,” wrote Brad Friedman of the left-leaning Daily Kos. “It’s made even more disturbing by the particular big-name Democrats… who support the new regulations that will only help both Big Tobacco.”
And this Democratic alliance with anti-vaping forces is alienating young, hipster Bernie Sander supporters who represent a large portion of vapers, and these voters are already disgusted with mega-corporations controlling everything.
It wouldn’t take much for them to vote Trump over Hillary if Sanders is out of the race, especially considering that 50% already support the GOP nominee.
Despite their different ideologies – Sanders a socialist and a Trump a Reaganesque nationalist – both candidates are populists who are viewed as outsiders, unlike the Wall St.-financed Clinton.
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Posted: 05 Jun 2016 02:24 AM PDT

US Special Operation Command is one step closer to its dream of creating a next-generation Iron Man-like suit to improve the warrior’s fighting capabilities and resilience.
US Special Operation Command (SOCOM) is pushing ahead with its secretive Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS) program aimed at creating an Iron Man-like suit to provide special operatives, such as the Navy SEALs and Special Forces, with enhanced mobility and protection technologies, Kris Osborn of Scout.com reports.
“The technologies currently being developed include body suit-type exoskeletons, strength and power-increasing systems and additional protection. A SOCOM statement said some of the potential technologies planned for TALOS research and development include advanced armor, command and control computers, power generators, and enhanced mobility exoskeletons,” Osborn explains.
Citing an Army statement, the journalist reveals that TALOS will also have a physiological subsystem to monitor core body temperature, skin temperature, heart rate, hydrate levels and body position.
The initiative was kicked off back in 2013 by former SOCOM chief Adm. William McCraven, who regarded TALOS as a potential means to protect Special Ops soldiers during raids.
Dion Nissenbaum of the Wall Street Journal narrated in 2014 that the “tipping point” for the development of the multi-functional suit came in December 2013 when members of the SEAL Team Six conducted a mission aiming to liberate a Colorado doctor held hostage in eastern Afghanistan. In the course of the operation one SEAL was shot dead.
“Afterward, Adm. William McRaven, the head of US Special Operations Command who oversaw the SEAL Team Six raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, decided his forces needed better protection,” Nissenbaum wrote.
The project brought together bioengineers, academics, combat veterans, small tech firms and defense giants such as Raytheon Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and General Dynamics.
Furthermore, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are involved in developing a next-generation armor dubbed “liquid body armor,” that will transform “from liquid to solid in milliseconds when a magnetic field or electrical current is applied.”
SOCOM spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Matt Allen told Scout.com that the goal of the project is to create a working prototype by 2018 that will be then evaluated for operational purposes.
However, there are skeptics that express doubts that the project will ever come true.
Ryan Devereaux of the Intercept wrote in July 2015 that “there are growing doubts… and a sense that the evolution of the project has become a symbol of wild and unnecessary Pentagon spending.”
He cited DefenseTech.org that reported back in April 2014 that although it was expected that SOCOM’s four-year research and development project would cost $80 billion, “the program will likely cost hundreds of millions more to perfect the sophisticated technology.”
Time will show whether or not the defense skeptics were right.
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Posted: 05 Jun 2016 02:05 AM PDT

Front National leader Marine Le Pen has double the polling numbers of current president François Hollande ahead of the 2017 French presidential election.
It is less than a year until the French public will vote on the highest office in the country, and new polls suggest that the current socialist president François Hollande could be in serious trouble.
A survey published by Le Monde on Thursday shows the French president polling at 14 per cent while likely Republican candidate and former president Nicolas Sarkozy scored 21 per cent. The clear winner of the poll was anti-mass migration Front National party leader Marine Le Pen who was favoured by 28 per cent of those surveyed.
The survey, which began in November and will be conducted until just before the presidential elections in June 2017, is based on a large sample of 19,455 people who are asked their opinion on multiple occasions. These results come from the fourth time the participants have been surveyed on their political preference over the period of 12 to 22 May.
The biggest loser in the poll is Mr. Hollande whose disapproval rating rose among the group surveyed. The percentage of those totally dissatisfied with the Socialist leader have gone from 43 per cent in March to 53 per cent. The level of satisfaction with Mr. Hollande, on a scale of 1 to 10, now rests at 2.1.
The recent 100 year anniversary of the World War One Battle of Verdun “art performance” last Sunday may also have also affected Mr. Hollande’s popularity as many, including Marine Le Pen, denounced it as “indecent”.
Ms. Le Pen, with 28 per cent, is up one percentage point from the last round. If the polling numbers remain steady going into 2017, the FN leader is guaranteed a place in the second round of the French presidential elections.
The French presidential election system is much like the Austrian system. The Austrian presidential election this year saw anti-mass migration Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) candidate Norbert Hofer win 36.4 per cent of the vote in the first round, but lose by a mere 31,000 votes in the second round to former Green Party leader Alexander Van der Bellen.
Many who support the populist candidate worry that although she may win the first round of the presidential election she will lose the second round as other parties unite to vote against her. Those fears may be increased after European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker announced that the bloc would do all in its power, including economic sanctions, to ensure no anti-mass migration party would ever come to power in Europe.
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Posted: 05 Jun 2016 01:50 AM PDT

A stunning new report from Judicial Watch claims vanloads of illegal immigrants are being driven from the border into the United States and put on buses with no paperwork or oversight.
From the report:
DHS Quietly Moving, Releasing Vanloads of Illegal Aliens Away from Border
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is quietly transporting illegal immigrants from the Mexican border to Phoenix and releasing them without proper processing or issuing court appearance documents, Border Patrol sources tell Judicial Watch. The government classifies them as Other Than Mexican (OTM) and this week around 35 were transferred 116 miles north from Tucson to a Phoenix bus station where they went their separate way. Judicial Watch was present when one of the white vans carrying a group of OTMs arrived at the Phoenix Greyhound station on Buckeye Road.
The OTMs are from Honduras, Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala and Border Patrol officials say this week’s batch was in custody for a couple of days and ordered to call family members in the U.S. so they could purchase a bus ticket for their upcoming trip from Phoenix. Authorities didn’t bother checking the identity of the U.S. relatives or if they’re in the country legally, according to a Border Patrol official directly involved in the matter.
American taxpayers pick up the fare for those who claim to have a “credible fear,” Border Patrol sources told JW. None of the OTMs were issued official court appearance documents, but were told to “promise” they’d show up for a hearing when notified, said federal agents with firsthand knowledge of the operation.
The fact that this is being done by the Department of Homeland Security is especially shocking. Since when is this the purpose of the agency?
To make matters worse, this is all happening right under the noses of the American people with virtually no coverage from the media.
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Posted: 05 Jun 2016 01:28 AM PDT


The United States district court judge overseeing the class-action lawsuit against Trump University is a member of the La Raza Lawyers of San Diego.
According to the Daily Caller, Gonzalo Curiel openly admitted in a 2011 judicial questionnaire to having a long history with the group – whose name translates to none other than “the race.”
The controversial judge, who has attended at least two La Raza Lawyers of San Diego meetings and was involved with giving “a law school scholarship to an illegal alien,” is also a supporter of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
“I think first of all it’s important to establish that the judge is not only a Mexican radical, he’s a Hillary Clinton contributor,” political insider Roger Stone told Alex Jones Saturday.
The judge’s position is seen by many as a conflict of interest given his public support of illegal immigration.

Meanwhile, the media has all but completely overlooked a massive educational scandal involving both Bill and Hillary Clinton that dwarfs accusations leveled towards Trump.
“Trump University was a real estate course and it was a very successful one for many people. Now there were a very small percentage of students who were unhappy with the success of the course because they didn’t go out and make a million dollars immediately,” Stone said.
“There’s an overwhelming satisfaction rate. The number of dollars involved here are relatively small. This scandal pales in comparison to Laureate University.”
As detailed by multiple journalists including Breitbart’s Stephen K. Bannon, Bill was forced to step down as honorary chancellor of Laureate Education last year after several shocking revelations surfaced.
“The reason for Clinton’s immediate departure: Clinton Cash revealed, and Bloomberg confirmed, that Laureate funneled Bill Clinton $16.46 million over five years while Hillary Clinton’s State Dept. pumped at least $55 million to a group run by Laureate’s founder and chairman, Douglas Becker, a man with strong ties to the Clinton Global Initiative,” Bannon writes.
“Laureate has donated between $1 million and $5 million (donations are reported in ranges, not exact amounts) to the Clinton Foundation. Progressive billionaire George Soros is also a Laureate financial backer.”
Daily Caller writer Peter Schweizer noted in 2015 that with “$4 billion in annual revenue, Laureate Education is America’s largest for-profit college company.”
As more facts regarding the looming and gargantuan Laureate debacle are uncovered, Trump’s alleged scandal will appear even more infinitesimally small in comparison – especially given the ties to Clinton by the very judge expected to fairly rule over the Trump University case.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 20:18