Baltimore Flush With Federal Cash, Can’t Tell Where It All Went

Adding to the barrage of criticism of prominent Baltimore Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), President Donald Trump recently said “billions and billions” in federal assistance to the city has been “stolen.”

Plenty of federal dollars flow to Baltimore every year, but what happens to all of it is hard to determine since the city has long had a problem tracking its dollars.

“What Elijah Cummings should do is he should take his [House] Oversight Committee, bring them down to Baltimore, and invest all of them and really study the billions and billions of dollars that’s been stolen,” Trump told reporters upon his departure from the White House on July 30.

He suggested the same should be done for “other Democratic-run cities.”

Plenty of Cash

In 2018 alone, $16 billion dollars in federal money went to Cummings’s 7th District, said Lynne Patton, Housing and Urban Development’s regional director, during a July 30 Fox News interview. The district includes west Baltimore, parts of the city’s north and downtown, as well as some surrounding towns and suburbs.

A large chunk of that sum (over $7 billion) went to Medicaid and CHIP, subsidized healthcare for children and the poor, according to USAspending.gov. Although the funds went to an agency based in Cummings’ district, it appears it’s the allocation for the entire state. About 20 percent of the money would have been slated for the city, based on 2014 Medicaid enrollment data (pdf).

Excluding Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and disability payments, the city received about $5 billion in federal funds in 2018.

Bad Accounts

The city government has long failed to account for how it spends state and federal grant money.

The city’s 2014 audit revealed bookkeeping so deficient, it wasn’t possible to track what $40 million in grants from federal, state, and other sources was spent on.

The 2018 audit found similar problems: “Grant money coming into government coffers is not balancing out with what city agencies are spending,” as the Baltimore Sun put it.

Baltimore auditor Audrey Askew, who came a year earlier from a private auditing firm, warned the city could lose access to grants, about a sixth of its $2.8 billion budget.

A year later, however, Askew abruptly resigned, offering only a cryptic explanation.

”Baltimore will never know why, but they know why,” she told BaltimoreBrew, declining to specify who “they” were.

“I am a person of integrity, and I am honest,” she said. “Anything that alters that, I don’t do.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/baltimore-flush-with-federal-cash-cant-tell-where-it-all-went_3029844.html

Salvini Victory: NGO Ship Gives Up on Landing Migrants in Italy, Heads to Malta

The German-based NGO Sea-Eye have announced they will not be challenging the closed port policy of Lega leader Matteo Salvini, opting instead to head for Malta to drop off migrants.

The Sea-Eye vessel Alan Kurdi announced on Friday that they would be changing course from the Italian island of Lampedusa and heading instead to the Maltese port capital of Valletta, Il Giornale reports.

Gordon Isler, a spokesman for the NGO, said they would “not offer Matteo Salvini another opportunity for such an unworthy show. We take our responsibilities to the saved people seriously and now we go to Malta.”

Spanish migrant transport NGO Proactiva Open Arms also announced Friday that they had picked up 123 migrants and were heading to Europe — rather than closer ports in North Africa — for a “safe haven”, but did not give any specifics on which country they were headed.

Immediately after the announcement, Italy’s populist Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini signed a ban on the vessel docking in Italy.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and SOS Méditerranée have also begun a new mission just off the coast of Libya in the so-called search and rescue (SAR) zone after initially giving up operations in December of last year.

The new MSF vessel, the Ocean Viking, set sail for Libya from the port of Marseille on Friday. At 69.3 meters long and 15.5 meters wide, it is slightly smaller than the NGO’s previous vessel the Aquarius, which had its Panamanian flag removed last year and MSF blamed pressure from Matteo Salvini and the Italian government for the move.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/08/04/salvini-victory-ngo-ship-gives-up-on-landing-migrants-in-italy-heads-to-malta/

Hundreds Of Bees Are Dropping Dead Around 5G Cell Phone Towers In California As Controversy Mounts Around New Mobile Technology

Bizarre footage showing hundreds of bees dead on the floor surrounding what appeared to be two 5G cell phone towers in California has gone viral.

There is a lot of conspiracy theory being generated about the nascent 5G cell phone technology that has come online now in California and soon to the rest of the country. Some of it is hype and nothing more, but as is the case with the vast majority of conspiracy theory, there is a lot of truth to it as well.

As a kid growing up in the 1970’s, I can well remember the cigarette ads in magazines touting the virtues and benefits of smoking cigarettes. The tobacco companies denied for years that there was any link between smoking and cancer, and the US government backed them up because it was big business and everyone was making obscene amounts of money. But cigarettes and smoking does indeed cause cancer, all packs contain those warnings. On a personal note, both my parents died of stage 4 lung cancer caused by years of smoking the cigarettes doctors told them were OK. Now apply this same logic to cell phones, wifi and 5G cell phone towers.

Our mobile devices operate through microwave radiation, and that can be deadly. You should NEVER talk more than a few minutes on any mobile device with the device pressed against your ear. And guess what? Bluetooth wireless earbuds also use microwave radiation to transmit the signal, and you should never use those either.

A personal friend of mine, Doris, told me the story of what happened to her husband and brother. The two of them were great friends, and would talk to each other on their rides into work on separate trains in the morning and again in the evening coming home. Doris’ husband held the phone on the left side of his head, and her brother held his on the right side. After a few years of that, Doris’ husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor on the left side of his head and died. Her brother was diagnosed with a brain tumor on the right side of his head, is still alive, but the tumor is inoperable. You will risk the same fate with either a cell phone or wireless earbuds on the sides of your head.

5G cell phone towers and signals may not live up to the deadly hype we read about online, but neither should you take it lightly either. Now, about those dead bees…

Hundreds of bees drop dead around 5G cell phone towers in California

FROM THE DAILY STAR UK: The superfast broadband has sparked controversy since rolling out this year, with health experts claiming it could have serious side effects on humans. And there are now claims online that bees could also be affected after a video went viral. The clip – taken in Sierra Madre, California – shows the lifeless bodies of the bees lying on the ground.

But others questioned what was seen in the clip. Some pointed out the bees could just be drone bees – which die after mating. Others claimed the poles could not be holding 5G broadband, with one saying: “5G has only been installed in major cities, dude. It’s not in Sierra Madre and it probably never will be.”

More

https://www.nowtheendbegins.com/hundreds-of-bees-are-dropping-dead-around-5g-cell-phone-towers-in-california-as-controversy-mounts-around-new-mobile-technology/

James Rickards – Secret Societies Control the World

If you were really a member of the global elite, you’d know this already: the world is ruled by a powerful, secretive few. Many of the rest of us peons have heard that in 2004 both candidates for the White House were members of Yale University’s secretive Skull and Bones society, many of whose members have risen to powerful positions. But Skull and Bones is small potatoes compared with the mysterious cabals that occupy virtually every seat of power, from the corridors of government to the boardrooms of Wall Street.

Take the Illuminati, a sect said to have originated in 18th century Germany and which is allegedly responsible for the pyramid-and-eye symbol adorning the $1 bill: they intend to foment world wars to strengthen the argument for the creation of a worldwide government (which would, of course, be Satanic in nature). Or consider the Freemasons, who tout their group as the “oldest and largest worldwide fraternity” and boast alumni like George Washington. Some think that despite donating heaps of cash to charity, they’re secretly plotting your undoing at Masonic temples across the world. Or maybe, some theorize, the guys pulling the strings aren’t concealed in shadow at all. They might be the intelligentsia on the Council on Foreign Relations, a cadre of policy wonks who allegedly count their aims as publishing an erudite bimonthly journal and establishing a unified world government — not necessarily in that order.

Startling allegations. Suppressed evidence. Missing witnesses. Assassinations. Cover-ups and threats. Documented connections to even deeper intrigue. Allusions to the New World Order. Coincidences? Too many to be mere coincidence? American history is replete with warnings of hidden plots by the Illuminati, the Freemasons, the Zionists, the Roman Catholics, the Communists, World Bankers, the Secret Government, and Extra-Terrestrial Invaders, to name a few.

Separating fact from fiction, this compelling work provides gripping details and presents the information without bias, including hundreds of individuals, organizations, and events where official claims and standard explanations of actions and events remain shrouded in mystery. Conspiracies and Secret Societies: The Complete Dossier examines the most common subjects among conspiracy theorists, from historical topics such as the true relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the Roswell UFO crash, and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. to more current issues such as the death of Princess Diana, FEMA’s response following hurricane Katrina, and the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

THE REAL NEW WORLD ORDER

A significant number of Americans believe that they’re still relatively safe behind the walls of Donald Trump’s Fortress America. Homeland Security protects them from international terrorists. Border patrol agents block caravans of refugees and asylum-seekers. By refusing to ratify membership in institutions like the International Criminal Court, Congress keeps the United States safe from foreign influences. President Trump has only reinforced such feelings by pulling the United States out of international pacts like the Paris climate accord and global bodies like the UN Human Rights Council.

https://youtu.be/zeaf0pPZBu0

https://www.mydailyinformer.com/james-rickards-secret-societies-control-the-world/

>>7344696

Hi Rabbi

El Paso Shooting: Let’s Have A Real Discussion About What Actually Happened!

Amid predictable mainstream narratives about the latest mass shootings, combined with leaps into immediate conspiracy theories, it is becoming more difficult than ever to keep track of evidence of what actually might have happened.

Jason Bermas looks at eyewitness testimony from the horrific El Paso shooting and offers context from other shootings worth keeping in mind as more details emerge.

Our thoughts go out to the victims and all who have been affected by these terrible events.

https://www.activistpost.com/2019/08/el-paso-shooting-lets-have-a-real-discussion-about-what-actually-happened.html

NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden Says Facebook, Instagram Spying On Customers – Wants To Help Combat Surveillance

National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden wants to fight back against corporate surveillance by Instagram and its parent company Facebook, as well as YouTube, which is owned by Google.

In a tweet rant posted on Twitter, Snowden expressed that both social media giants owned by Mark Zuckerberg were involved in spying on their users, as well as YouTube. Snowden also announced that he has created new accounts on the platforms and that he will explain how the sites spy on users. He added, that he would “explain methods to limit how much they know about you,” if you choose to use them.

Earlier in the day Snowden announced a new forthcoming memoir called Permanent Record, due out in September, which will tell all his secrets. Snowden has also released a YouTube ad for the book.

Snowden quickly rose to prominence in 2013, after leaking classified information on widespread warrantless NSA surveillance programs like XKeyscore and PRISM to The Guardian and The Washington Post. In fact, the first Snowden leak was a FISC order issued to Verizon under Section 702 that required the company to turn over all of its calling records to the NSA.

FISA was enacted in 1978 as a response to illegal domestic surveillance operations revealed by two Senate committees in the 1970s, including President Richard Nixon’s use of federal intelligence agencies to monitor his political opponents. It was brought into law “to authorize electronic surveillance to obtain foreign intelligence information.”

The law requires the government to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before setting up an electronic or physical wiretap targeted at foreigners and foreign agents.

Congress amended FISA in 2007 to let the government wiretap communications that either begin or end outside the United States jurisdiction without Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) approval; in a stronger 2008 overhaul, they further limited that power to non-U.S. persons. The last reauthorization of the Act was in 2012, which set the current expiration date of Dec. 31, 2017.

More

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/74100/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-says-facebook-instagram-spying-on-customers–wants-to-help-combat.html

Google’s File on You Is 10 Times Bigger Than Facebook’s — Here’s How to View It

April 9, 2018

With all the attention paid to Facebook in recent weeks over ‘data breaches’ and privacy violations (even though what happened with Cambridge Analytica is part of their standard business model), it’s easy to forget that there are four other Big Tech corporations collecting just as much — if not more — of our personal info. Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft are all central players in “surveillance capitalism” and prey on our data. New reports suggest that Google may actually harvest ten times as much as Facebook.

Curious about just how much of his data Google had, web developer Dylan Curran says he downloaded his Google data file, which is offered by the company in a hub called “My Account.” This hub was created in 2015, along with a tool called “My Activity.” The report issued is similar to the one Facebook delivers to its users upon request. Whether or not these reports are comprehensive is still up in the air, but Curran says his was 5.5 GB, which is almost ten times larger than the one Facebook offered him. The amount and type of data in his file, Mr. Curran says, suggests Google is not only constantly tracking our online movements but may also be monitoring our physical locations.

Curran’s Google report contained an incredible amount documentation on his web activity, going back over a decade. But perhaps more importantly, Google had also been tracking his real-life movements via his smartphone device or tablet. This included fairly random places he’d frequented, many of the foreign countries and cities he visited, the bars and restaurants he went to while in these countries, the amount of time he spent there, and even the path he took to get there and back.

This, of course, is not new. It has been well-known for some time that Google silently tracks you everywhere you go and creates a map of your physical movements through its Location History feature. You can deactivate it by going to your timeline and adjusting the preferences.

Another Google user downloaded his file and discovered the company had been archiving his data even when he browsed in Incognito mode, a setting that advertises itself as one that does not save browsing history.

Like Facebook, Google gathers your info for sale to 3rd-party advertisers, including your name, email address, telephone number, credit card, specific ways you use Google’s services, your mode of interaction with any website that uses Google technology (such as AdWords), your device, and your search queries. And if you don’t enter your account and make adjustments, pretty much anything you do online while deploying a Google tool is tracked. Google’s policy states:

“If other users already have your email, or other information that identifies you, we may show them your publicly visible Google Profile information, such as your name and photo.”

But much of the location data stems from the use of Google apps like Maps or Now, which broadcast your location. If you want to stop this information from being shared, you have to go into your account settings and make adjustments.

https://theantimedia.com/google-10-times-data/

The corrupt FBI is projecting their crimes onto us