Usa Thread

[unit731]

Makes Truman look all that better.

[Flashermac]

[cavanami]

JFK had a huge fight with his military staff, the CIA and the FBI.

 

JFK made the fatal mistake of thinking since he was president he could actually run the country...

[dean]

Truman left office with approval ratings close to GWB.

[jitagawn]

JFK ,who my father worked with during his administration was I believe IMHO murdered because he was in process

of changing the monetary system. Their is a pattern among assassinated presidents...

[unit731]

Truman left office with approval ratings close to GWB.

 

Truman introduced universal heath care.

 

The Repubs - were against it back then.

 

So what's changed?

[cavanami]

50 million (or whatever) illegals and votes that are there to be gotten!

[Flashermac]

U.S. government thinks China could take down the power grid

 

 

Washington (CNN) -- China and "probably one or two other" countries have the capacity to shut down the nation's power grid and other critical infrastructure through a cyber attack, the head of the National Security Agency told a Congressional panel Thursday.

 

Admiral Michael Rogers, who also serves the dual role as head of U.S. Cyber Command, said the United States has detected malware from China and elsewhere on U.S. computers systems that affect the daily lives of every American.

 

"It enables you to shut down very segmented, very tailored parts of our infrastructure that forestall the ability to provide that service to us as citizens," Rogers said in testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.

 

Rogers said such attacks are part of the "coming trends" he sees based on "reconnaissance" currently taking place that nation-states, or other actors may use to exploit vulnerabilities in U.S. cyber systems.

 

A recent report by Mandiant, a cyber-security firm, found that hackers working on behalf of the Chinese government were able to penetrate American public utility systems that service everything from power generation, to the movement of water and fuel across the country.

 

Related: Mandiant - China is sponsoring cyber espionage

 

"We see them attempting to steal information on how our systems are configured, the very schematics of most of our control systems, down to engineering level of detail so they can look at where are the vulnerabilities, how are they constructed, how could I get in and defeat them," Rogers said. "We're seeing multiple nation-states invest in those kinds of capabilities."

 

Admiral Rogers declined to identify who the other countries, beside China, because of the classified nature of their identities. Russia is generally regarded as also having an aggressive cyber program.

 

In addition to nation-state actors, Admiral Rogers noted the increasing presence of "surrogate" criminal actors in cyberspace that serve to obscure the hidden hand of criminal activity done on behalf of formal nation-states.

 

"That's a troubling development for us," Rogers said.

 

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, the retiring chairman of the committee, called the groups "cyber hit men for hire" for nation-state actors in cyberspace.

 

The testimony also comes in the wake of a report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project that cited a prediction by technology experts that a catastrophic cyber-attack that causes significant losses in life and financial damage would occur by 2025.

 

Admiral Rogers told the committee he did not disagree with the assessment.

 

In addition to the threats from specific nation-states, Admiral Rogers said there are already groups within the U.S. cyber architecture who seek to cause major damage to corporate and other critical sectors of the American economy.

 

"It is only a matter of the when, not the if, that we are going to see something traumatic." he said.

 

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/20/politics/nsa-china-power-grid/index.html?sr=fb112014govthacks7pVODtopLink

[Flashermac]

Remember the fun of getting your Thai wife into the US legally?

 

"The vast majority of illegal immigrants in the US come from Mexico, according to figures supplied by Homeland Security.

 

They made up 59% of undocumented people in 2012, followed by El Salvador (6%), Guatemala (5%), then Honduras and Philippines (3%)."

 

 

 

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30155210

[Flashermac]

Waste Water from Oil Fracking Injected into Clean Aquifers

 

 

State officials allowed oil and gas companies to pump nearly three billion gallons of waste water into underground aquifers that could have been used for drinking water or irrigation.

 

Those aquifers are supposed to be off-limits to that kind of activity, protected by the EPA.

 

“It’s inexcusable,†said Hollin Kretzmann, at the Center for Biological Diversity in San Francisco. “At (a) time when California is experiencing one of the worst droughts in history, we’re allowing oil companies to contaminate what could otherwise be very useful ground water resources for irrigation and for drinking. It’s possible these aquifers are now contaminated irreparably.â€

 

California’s Department of Conservation’s Chief Deputy Director, Jason Marshall, told NBC Bay Area, “In multiple different places of the permitting process an error could have been made.â€

 

“There have been past issues where permits were issued to operators that they shouldn’t be injecting into those zones and so we’re fixing that,†Marshall added.

 

In “fracking†or hydraulic fracturing operations, oil and gas companies use massive amounts of water to force the release of underground fossil fuels. The practice produces large amounts of waste water that must then be disposed of.

 

Marshall said that often times, oil and gas companies simply re-inject that waste water back deep underground where the oil extraction took place. But other times, Marshall said, the waste water is re-injected into aquifers closer to the surface. Those injections are supposed to go into aquifers that the EPA calls “exemptâ€â€”in other words, not clean enough for humans to drink or use.

 

But in the State’s letter to the EPA, officials admit that in at least nine waste water injection wells, the waste water was injected into “non-exempt†or clean aquifers containing high quality water.

 

For the EPA, “non-exempt†aquifers are underground bodies of water that are “containing high quality water†that can be used by humans to drink, water animals or irrigate crops.

 

If the waste water re-injection well “went into a non-exempt aquifer. It should not have been permitted,†said Marshall.

 

The department ended up shutting down 11 wells: the nine that were known to be injecting into non-exempt aquifers, and another two in an abundance of caution.

 

In its reply letter to the EPA, California’s Water Resources Control Board said its “staff identified 108 water supply wells located within a one-mile radius of seven…injection wells†and that The Central Valley Water Board conducted sampling of “eight water supply wells in the vicinity of some of these… wells.â€

 

“This is something that is going to slowly contaminate everything we know around here,†said fourth- generation Kern County almond grower Tom Frantz, who lives down the road from several of the injection wells in question.

 

According to state records, as many as 40 water supply wells, including domestic drinking wells, are located within one mile of a single well that’s been injecting into non-exempt aquifers.

 

That well is located in an area with several homes nearby, right in the middle of a citrus grove southeast of Bakersfield.

 

...

 

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Waste-Water-from-Oil-Fracking-Injected-into-Clean-Aquifers-282733051.html