THIS WEEK IN REVIEW

European finance ministers are calling on the European Central Bank to restrict the use of 500-euro notes. The official story is that this would hinder the financing of terrorism. [We note, however, that the international banking systems now are trying to phase out all paper currency as a means of establishing all-digital money, and this could merely be another step in that process. The reasons for that have nothing to do with terrorist funding but everything to do with increasing tax revenue, producing bank fees on every transaction, and monitoring everyone’s purchasing habits.] Euronews 2016 Feb 12 (Story)

Munich, Germany: US Secretary of State John Kerry announced that a dozen countries, including the US and Russia, have agreed to a “cessation of hostilities” in Syria one week from now. [We hope this is a real agreement and not just rhetoric as usual. The test will be to see what happens in the next week. If Russia succeeds in destroying the ISIS stronghold in the city of Allepo, the US, Turkey and the Saudis will have to abandon their long-term mission to topple the Syrian government – or break the agreement to cease hostilities. In that case, they will claim that they are merely reacting defensively against new aggression by Russia, Syria, and Iran. We shall see.] CNN 2016 Feb 11 (Story)

Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who touched off an armed showdown with federal authorities in 2014 and who supported a similar confrontation in Oregon in 2016, was arrested at the Portland airport. He faces charges of conspiracy related to the standoff at his ranch. His sons face similar charges. The remaining four occupiers of the federal building in Oregon surrendered on Thursday. The mini revolt is over. Oregon Live 2016 Feb 11 (Story) (Cached)

A major prison riot in the city of Monterrey began as a clash between rival gangs. It has killed 52 prisoners and wounded 12 more. Family members are pleading at the gate to know who is dead and who is alive. Reuters 2016 Feb11 (Story)

The US Department of Justice is suing the city of Ferguson, Missouri, for misconduct and multiple violations of citizens’ rights. The DOJ is calling for major reform within the police department, but city council rejected the plan because it was too costly. ABC News 2016 Feb 11 (Story)

Bernie Sanders publicly chastised Hillary Clinton for taking foreign policy advice from former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. He says that Kissinger is responsible for bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam-War era and clearing the way for Pol Pot, which launched one of greatest genocides in history. However, he did not say what his own foreign policy would be. Yahoo 2016 Feb 11 (Story)

Argentina: A report from an organization called Physicians in Crop-Sprayed Towns has challenged the theory that the Zika virus epidemic in Brazil is the cause of the increase in microcephaly among newborns. The doctors discovered that most of the sick people live in areas where a chemical called Pyriproxyfen is added to the water to eliminate mosquitoes. It does this by producing malformations in developing mosquitoes, and the doctors say it also produces the malformation called microcephaly in human embryos. The chemical was introduced to the water supply in 2014, and the malformations began to appear in that area shortly thereafter. Pyriproxyfen is manufactured by Sumitomo Chemical, a Japanese ‘strategic partner’ of Monsanto. GM Watch 2016 Feb 10 (Story) (Cached)

The US Supreme Court, in a surprise decision, halted Obama’s climate-change regulation against coal plants until all legal challenges have been heard in court. This delay could undermine Obama’s commitment to the Paris Agreement to cut emissions by 26% or more by 2025. A final ruling on this matter likely will not be made until June, 2017. NY Times 2016 Feb 10 (Story) (Cached)

Hawaii’s Big Island has declared a state of emergency over an outbreak of dengue fever. 250 cases of the mosquito-borne illness have been confirmed. PBS Newshour 2016 Feb 10 (Story)

Ohio Governor John Kasich, a current presidential candidate, is expected to sign a bill blocking state and federal funds for groups that perform or promote abortions. Kasich is accused of supporting the bill for political gain, because Ohio law already prohibits state funds from being used for abortions. However, state funds are now used by Planned Parenthood to provide other procedures, and this indirectly releases funds for abortions. Reuters 2016 Feb 10 (Story) (Cached)

Monsanto agreed to pay the government $80 million in fines for presenting false accounting information to its shareholders. It failed to list expenses for a costly rebate program to bolster sales for its RoundUp Ready pesticide. Sales plummeted when RoundUp’s patent expired and cheaper brands appeared on the market. Monsanto’s CEO Hugh Grant will voluntarily return $3,165,852 to the company that he received in cash bonuses and stock awards. He will be able to recover this quickly, because his base annual pay was increased to $1.6 million plus a new $1.9 million bonus plus nearly $10 million in “long-term incentives”, which, typically are in the form of stock options at prices below market value. Washington Post 2016 Feb 10 (Story) (Cached)

US: Winners of the New Hampshire primaries were announced. On the Republican side, Donald Trump took 34% of the vote followed by John Kasich with 16%, Ted Cruz with 12%, and Jeb Bush with 11%. On the Democrat side, Bernie Sanders won 59% of the vote and Hillary followed with 38%. The National 2016 Feb 9 (Story)

Bernie Sanders trounced Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire Democrat Primary, with 151,584 votes over Clinton’s 95,252, yet Hillary is in the lead for delegates. She has 431 while Sanders has only 52. Truth In Media 2016 Feb 10 (Story) (Cached)

Unknown hackers broke into FBI computers and posted online the identities, job titles, emails, and phone numbers of 20,000 FBI employees. The identities of 9,000 Department of Homeland Security employees also were posted. The Secretary of Defense quickly responded by asking for a $7 billion budget increase to improve cybersecurity. [Get it? Unknown hackers post information publicly available from government departmental directories, the press plays it up as a cyberattack, and the Pentagon tells Congress it needs another $7 billion to improve cybersecurity. Is it possible that some of this money will be used to pay the people set up the whole thing in the first place? Just asking.] PressTV 2016 Feb 9 (Story)

CNN reports that Saudi Arabia is preparing to send 150,000 troops to invade Syria, by way of Turkey, in March. Many observers believe [as we do] that this has nothing to do with fighting ISIS but is solely to topple the Syrian government. InfoWars 2016 Feb 8 (Story) (Cached)

Syria: The city of Aleppo is on the verge of being liberated from rebel control by Russian and Iranian forces, which would result in Assad resuming power over the region. This may be the real reason the Saudis are planning to send 150,000 troops to Syria, not to fight terrorist rebels, which now are all but defeated, but to battle against Russia, Syria, and Iran. [World wars are started by situations like this.] ZeroHedge 2016 Feb 7 (Story) (Cached)

New York: Ground water at the Indian Point nuclear power plant has had a 65,000 percent increase in radioactive tritium, and the source of the leak is unknown. Officials at the power plant say that the contamination has not spread off-site and that there is no health danger. New York Governor Cuomo has been trying to close the plant for years because of its proximity to twenty million residents in the nation’s largest city. RT 2016 Feb 7 (Story) (Cached)

During a Republican debate in New Hampshire, Donald Trump said that he supports waterboarding to combat terrorism. USA Today 2016 Feb 7 (Story) (Cached)

US: Conflicts-of-interest continue to be exposed at the EPA. The EPA routinely appoints those who benefit from federal research grants to peer-review their own work. Members of the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee have received millions in funding by the EPA itself. Six of the seven members of that committee have received a total of $119,217,008 in EPA grants. [In other words, corruption-as-usual.] Truth in Media posted 2016 Feb 6 (Story) (Cached)

California: High levels of Uranium-238 and radon are spewing out of a methane leak and hovering over north Los Angeles. Resident complaints of feeling ill, nausea, and vomiting have been chalked off by officials as the result of breathing the natural gas and not related to radiation poisoning. SHTFplan posted 2016 Feb 6 (Story) (Cached)

The Chinese are expanding their U.S. holdings, already valued at $72 billion, to now include the Chicago Stock Exchange. InfoWars posted 2016 Feb 6 (Story)

US: Catholic Charities and a few other organizations that thrive on federal funds are welcoming refugees to 180 cities across the US. The official line is that 10,000 ‘Syrian refugees’ will be brought in by the federal government. In truth, however, most of these will be neither Syrian nor refugees. Furthermore, 10,000 is a misleading number, because it excludes an additional eight people that each ‘refugee’ is allowed to bring. The real number could be 90,000. Constitution posted 2016 Feb 6 (Story) (Cached)