http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/18/first-term-nebraska-republica...

Another Senator taking off..

Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE), in his first term in the Senate, unexpectedly announced Monday that he will not be seeking re-election.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21514530

BHP Billiton chief Marius Kloppers to retire

Mining giant BHP Billiton has announced that its chief executive Marius Kloppers will retire in May.

He will be replaced by Andrew Mackenzie, currently head of the company's base metals business.

"The board has decided that Andrew is the right person to lead BHP Billiton in a changing global environment," the company said in a statement.

It comes as the group reported a 58% fall in half-year net profit, knocked by weaker metal prices.

The Anglo-Australian miner said net profit for the first half fell to $4.2bn, compared with $9.9bn in the corresponding period a year earlier.

BHP chairman Jac Nasser said Mr Kloppers, who was appointed chief executive just before the financial crisis, had made an "outstanding contribution" to the firm's growth and was leaving BHP "a safer and stronger company".

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/cardinal-obrien-resign...

and

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21572724

Cardinal Keith O'Brien resigns as Archbishop

By Robert Pigott Religious affairs correspondent, BBC News

The BBC's Daniela Relph reports on the cardinal's resignation

Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, is stepping down as leader of the Scottish Catholic Church.

It follows allegations - which he contests - of inappropriate behaviour towards priests dating from the 1980s.

In a statement, he apologised to those he had offended during his ministry.

The cardinal confirmed he would not take part in the election for a successor to the Pope - leaving Britain unrepresented in the election.

Cardinal O'Brien said in his statement he had already tendered his resignation as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, due to take effect when he turned 75 next month, but Pope Benedict "has now decided that my resignation will take effect today".

He said the pontiff would appoint an apostolic administrator to govern the archdiocese in his place until his successor is appointed.

Chief of staff of Homeland security resigns

“I extend my deepest appreciation to DHS Chief of Staff Noah Kroloff for his over four years of service to the Department of Homeland Security and his eight years of service to me while I served in Arizona as Governor and Attorney General. Noah has been a trusted advisor, a good friend, and a superb Chief of Staff to this department. Since January 2009, he has been instrumental in establishing and guiding many of the department’s key initiatives,” wrote Napolitano, according to the email obtained by Mike Allen. – See more at:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/chief-staff-out-dhs_704981.html...

Poli.. I see that the Wikipaedia entry for the prophecies has already been changed to include Francis I with an "explanation" of "While often read as part of the 'Peter the Roman' prophecy, others interpreters view it as a separate, incomplete sentence explicitly referring to addditional popes between the 'glory of the Olive' and 'Peter the Roman'".. another example of TPTB changing their story to suit perhaps!

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy_of_the_Popes

@Kris H, good point...Since pope francis was a leader in the Jesuit order of South America as well!!!

If anything I believe that the church won't make it easy to draw a connection with the prophecy (not picking a Peter or having a pope named Peter) but as you pointed out, if one digs deep enough they find the truth. This is interesting as well, because I also read that his past is not well known...although he has had his run-in with controversy and scandal.

I have found another article that does a great job of exposing some of the hidden stories of the new pope:

http://www.alternet.org/world/new-popes-disturbing-past-revealing-f...

Apparently a book was published about his involvement as well. Maybe its just a matter of time before people expose him for what he truly is?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2299583/David-Miliband-quit...

David Miliband 'to quit as MP tomorrow to take dream job working at charity in New York'

Shell CEO to head for the hills..

Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) chief executive Peter Voser, who built the
oil company into a leader in liquefied natural gas after a reserves accounting
scandal, is to retire next year in a shock early departure.

Can you smell the fear?

Chief executives and the itch to quit

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/16/us-bosses-quitting-idUSBR...

Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano Resigning

ZetaTalk Chat Q&A for September 21, 2013

"When Napolitano joined Obama’s team in 2009 the issue of admitting the near presence of Planet X was not on the table. The Earth changes were moving slowly, or so it seemed, and the tight cover-up over the presence of Nibiru, aka Planet X, seemed to assure that life during her reign would proceed without surprises. She did not follow ZetaTalk closely, nor was she a fan, considering our warning to be alarmist and our track record on predictions unimpressive. She chose to believe the cover-up crowd when they stated that the passage would occur with scant damage to the Earth, a few high tides, a few earthquakes, nothing more.

"It is not so much the threat of the 7 of 10 plate movements, and the pending New Madrid adjustment that alarms Napolitano. It is the riots that she anticipates will emerge when the public is informed. Loading up her agents with hollow point bullets is one thing, but having to coordinate her agents with other federal agents under her direction during a crisis is a frightening specter. It moves beyond dealing with a riot in this or that city, or mustering support from one area to another due to a local disaster. Katrina she could handle. Having a Katrina in almost every city in the US, simultaneously, was a nightmare she could bear to think about.

"To be a leader during the times ahead requires more than a dictatorial personality, using suppression to control unease. In the US, a dictatorial approach is not tolerated, as freedom of movement is a legal right. How then to deal with millions of displaced citizens, leaving devastated cities after the New Madrid ruptures the bridges crossing the Mississippi ? Obama has a plan, as we explained when his Executive Order 13575 became public. He plans to lead by encouraging the right path toward self-sufficiency, a plan that will position displaced citizens to survive the coming Pole Shift as well. Napolitano could not imagine such a scene, so fled."

ABC’s Mike Levine (@MLevineReports) reports:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano plans to step down from her cabinet position in order to become president of the University of California system, ABC News has learned.

“For more than four years I have had the privilege of serving President Obama and his Administration as the Secretary of Homeland Security,” Napolitano said in a statement on Friday. “The opportunity to work with the dedicated men and women of the Department of Homeland Security, who serve on the frontlines of our nation’s efforts to protect our communities and families from harm, has been the highlight of my professional career.”

Napolitano, who has been serving in her current post since 2009, was the first woman to helm of the Department of Homeland Security. A Democrat, she previously served as governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009 and before that was the state’s attorney general.

Napolitano notified President Obama of her decision to step down a month ago, sources say. She is planning to leave her post in early September.

“Since day one, Janet has led my administration’s effort to secure our borders, deploying a historic number of resources, while also taking steps to make our immigration system fairer and more consistent with our values,” President Obama said in statement. “And the American people are safer and more secure thanks to Janet’s leadership in protecting our homeland against terrorist attacks.”

Her departure paves the way for what could be a rocky confirmation battle for whomever President Obama decides to appoint to succeed her at a time when the administration’s nominees are facing delays in Congress.

Current U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services department director Alejandro Mayorkas has been nominated to be Deputy Secretary for DHS. His confirmation hearing is July 30. If he is confirmed before Napolitano’s departure, he will become acting secretary. However, if he is not confirmed before then, Homeland Security Undersecretary Rand Beers will become the senior leader of DHS, but due to law will not have “acting secretary” title.

Napolitano is  preparing to take over leadership of the 10-campus University of California system — the the state’s marquee public higher education network that has been plagued by budget cutbacks in recent years. A U.C. spokesman said that her appointment would be made official at a July 18 meetingof the system’s Board of Regents in San Francisco that Napolitano plans to attend.

“I will be nominated as the next President of the University of California to play a role in educating our nation’s next generation of leaders,” Napolitano said. “I thank President Obama for the chance to serve our nation during this important chapter in our history, and I know the Department of Homeland Security will continue to perform its important duties with the honor and focus that the American public expects.”

Source:  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/07/homeland-security-secr...

This is HUGE news especially for the announcement and the fact that this is happening in conjecture with other political moves by Obama et al. is quite telling of when to expect an announcement:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/08/19/pol-harper-commons...

Conservative government plans to kick off fall session with October throne speech..

"There will be a new throne speech in the fall, obviously the House will be prorogued in anticipation of that. We will come back — in October is our tentative timing,"

The Prime Minister's Office later clarified that Harper will ask for Parliament to be prorogued before the scheduled return of the House on Sept. 16, meaning Parliament will not sit again until after the throne speech in October.

You get the feeling that the announcement is creeping EVER CLOSER!!!

 I like rats,  And these people remind me more of cockroaches or ticks.

Microsoft CEO stepping down. (I.e. running like a scared cockroach) 

http://rt.com/business/microsoft-ceo-ballmer-retirement-906/

Not really an exodus per se, but I didn't know where else to put it.  Prince William of England will be taking agriculture classes at Cambridge next year.  Seems he wants to brush up on farming.  I wonder why... ;)  

http://www.today.com/news/prince-william-plans-go-back-school-study...

http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/55th-Wing-Commander-Chief-Reliev...

Another high ranking military official loses his authority for undisclosed reasons

The 55th Wing Command Chief at Offutt Air Force, Nebraska, was relieved of duty Monday, but Air Force officials said privacy requirements prevented them from divulging why.

Chief Master Sgt. William W. Thomaston Jr. was transferred to a non-supervisory position outside the wing after 55th Wing commander Col. Gregory Guillot determined he was no longer able to effectively perform his duties, said Ryan Hansen, an Air Force spokesman at Offutt.

“There were no criminal charges and no charges were preferred, and no court martials are pending,” Hansen said.

Because there were no criminal charges, Hansen said he was not at liberty to provide further information about the reason for his reassignment, or any actions taken against Thomaston.

According to Offutt’s website, Thomaston enlisted in the Air Force in 1986 and began his career as a medical service specialist. Among his assignments, Thomaston has served as a senior flight medic, group superintendent and chief of the Air Force Enlisted Force Development and liaison to the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force at the Pentagon. In his duties at Offutt, he was principal adviser to the 55th Wing commander and responsible for overseeing more than 5,000 enlisted airmen.

The 55th Wing operates a variety of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, as well as the E-4B Advanced Airborne Command Post.

So another scandal involving 9 commanders being fired at a nuclear military base....more 'house cleaning' in preparation for the announcement and subsequent 8 of 10 sociological fallout as well:

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/air-force-fires-9-commanders-nuclear-chea...

King Juan Carlos of Spain is abdicating

King Juan Carlos of Spain is abdicating, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has announced.

Juan Carlos, who is 76, has ruled since 1975, taking over after the death of dictator Francisco Franco.

The king's son, Crown Prince Felipe, 45, will take over the throne.

For much of his reign, Juan Carlos was seen as one of the world's most popular monarchs, but recently many Spaniards have lost confidence in him.

His reputation has been tarnished by a long-running corruption investigation into his daughter and her husband.

Support for the king fell further when it was discovered he had been on a lavish elephant hunting trip to Botswana in April 2012, in the middle of Spain's financial crisis.

Source and Additional Information:  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27662301

Steve Ballmer Exits Microsoft’s Board After Departure as CEO

Aug 19, 2014 4:00 PM GMT-0400

Steve Ballmer resigned fromMicrosoft Corp. (MSFT)’s board, eight months after his departure as chief executive officer, ending more than three decades of direct involvement in the world’s largest software maker.

Ballmer, 58, remains Microsoft’s top individual shareholder. He had initially remained as a director after handing the top job over to one of his deputies, Satya Nadella, in February. Ballmer recently bought the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion and appeared in front of the team and fans yesterday, vowing to lift the team to “higher heights” and promising not to micromanage.

The former CEO’s departure ends a 34-year association with Microsoft, which he led as CEO from 2000 to February 2014. Revenue tripled under Ballmer’s tenure, even as the Redmond, Washington-based company struggled to compete with Apple Inc. and Google Inc. in areas such as mobile phones, tablet computers and Internet search.

“I want to be a great shareholder and I want to pay appropriate attention to my shares but between teaching classes and my new responsibilities at the Clippers and my civic duties, it’s a lot,” Ballmer said in an interview. “I love Microsoft.”

Source:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-19/ballmer-steps-down-from-mi...

SHOE COMPANY: Our CEO Just Disappeared And Most Of The Money Is Gone

By Myles Udland – Tue, 16 Sep, 2014 1:50 PM EDT

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/company-ceo-coo-disappeared-most-...

In a statement, German-based shoe company Ultrasonic said its CFO,  Chi Kwong Clifford Chan, has been unable to reach the company's CEO, Qingyong Wu,  and COO, Minghong Wu,  who apparently left their homes and are untraceable.

Chan also said most of the company's cash funds have been transferred and are no longer "in the company's range of influence."

So basically the money's gone.

Shares of Ultrasonic trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange were down as much as 76% on Tuesday.

Ultrasonic's market cap, according to Google Finance, is $91 million. Playing microcap Chinese companies listed in Frankfurt comes with, it appears, substantial risks.

Interesting turn of events...could this be a new 'trend' with some of the Elite...Based on some of the elites antics, I wouldn't put anything past them...including: "take the money and run tactics"

Larry Ellison stepping down as Oracle CEO

By David Goldman  @DavidGoldmanCNN September 19, 2014: 10:19 AM ET

http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/18/technology/enterprise/larry-ellison...

Larry Ellison is stepping down as Oracle's CEO, a position he has held at the company since he founded it in 1977.

Ellison is the world's top-paid CEO, bringing in $78.4 million last year. Technically, his salary is only $1 -- he gets paid in company stock options. He's the fifth-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $51 billion, according to Forbes.

He will continue to work "full time," shifting his focus from management to product engineering, according to company director Michael Boskin

I like how they put "full-time" in quotation marks, a person of Ellison's stature in the business world obviously has information and he has preparing to scurry away!!

The hot new trend among CEOs is to retire

The data is until July 2013. August is unaccounted for. But the retirements in July itself was a huge explosion.

US Attorney General Eric Holder to step down

Eric Holder, the United States’ first black attorney general, will announce later on Thursday that he plans to resign from his post as soon as a successor can be confirmed. President Obama will make a statement about Holder’s resignation from the White House Thursday afternoon, though he will not immediately announce who he plans to name as his choice to be the next attorney general.

A Department of Justice official said Holder has “no immediate plans” after he leaves office, but that he wants to “stay actively involved in some of the causes to which he has devoted his time in office” and that “following his recent visit to Ferguson, Missouri, he has spoken with friends and associates about his wish to find a way to continue helping to restore trust between law enforcement and minority communities.”

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi confirmed Holder’s resignation during a meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus, where he had been due to speak.

The news, first reported minutes earlier by National Public Radio, drew gasps from many in the audience and a panel including several prominent African American politicians.

Just beforehand, the panel had been praising Holder for his instrumental role in pushing the administration on sentencing reform and other key issues. “I do associate myself with the comments … about the excellence our of great attorney general Eric Holder,” Pelosi said.

She went on: “I do, then, want to say that the word is that the attorney general will resign today. He has served our country very well, but the message is that the attorney general will be submitting his resignation to the president.”

Holder had been attorney general since the beginning of President Obama’s administration, and will, if he remains in office through the end of the year, be the third-longest serving attorney general in US history. He had previously been the US attorney for the District of Columbia and then deputy attorney general under Bill Clinton, and a judge in Washington.

MORE INFORMATION AND SOURCE:  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/25/eric-holder-stand-down...

Italian President to Resign, Posing Challenge for Renzi

Dec 31, 2014 4:51 PM GMT-0400

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said he’ll resign “soon,” setting up a challenge for Premier Matteo Renzi, who will now need to form alliances among lawmakers to push through his own candidate for the job.

“It’s my duty not to underestimate the signs of fatigue,” Napolitano, 89, said in his traditional Dec. 31 end-of-year speech, giving his age among the reasons for his resignation. He also cited the need to “return to constitutional normalcy” putting an end to his prolonged term. He gave no exact date for his resignation in the televised address.

Napolitano, who took office in 2006, reluctantly accepted a second term in April 2013 after inconclusive elections led to a hung parliament which failed to strike a deal on his successor for days. The president had signaled from the start that he wouldn’t serve a full seven-year term. Now Renzi, 39, will have to find a name appealing enough to at least half of an over 1000-member electoral college in order to push through a candidate of his liking.

While Italy’s head of state is largely a ceremonial figure, the role and powers are enhanced at times of political crisis as the president has the power to dissolve parliament and designate prime minister candidates. Napolitano picked Renzi to lead a new government in February and his efforts to guarantee political stability have supported the prime minister’s reform package aimed at lifting Italy out of recession.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-31/italian-president-to-resig...

http://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2015/jan/23/nervo...

As inequality soars, the nervous super rich are already planning their escapes

 Hedge fund managers are reportedly buying airstrips and farms in remote areas because they think they need a getaway. Photograph: Ken Lambert/AP

http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/baird-to-resign-as-minister-not-seek...

John Baird is expected to confirm he is resigning from cabinet and will not seek re-election Tuesday, as Canadians surprised by his departure wonder what is next for the globetrotting foreign affairs minister.

CTV News learned Monday night, that Baird is leaving politics to take a  in the private sector. The move has surprised both Canadians and Baird's colleagues on Parliament Hill, but insiders say the timing of his resignation was likely strategic.

CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife says the minister hoped to wait to the announcement, but the news was leaked, forcing his hand.

Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird takes part in a press conference in Ottawa on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014. (Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

"He didn't want it to get out so soon, but it got out because this is how Ottawa operates. And so today at 10 a.m. he will announce it," Fife said.

Very few people in government had known about Baird's plans, Fife says. However, sources close to the minister say the 45-year-old political veteran had been thinking about leaving government for months.

On March 18, 2014, then Canadian Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty announced his resignation. Three weeks later he was found dead at his home after suffering a heart attack. The cause was tied to a side effect of steroid treatment he was taking for an autoimmune disease. Baird should be careful if he knows too much. Everyone else on the sinking ship is always suspicious of the first one to swim himself to safety.

Prince Harry To Leave Military.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/27/prince-harry-leaving-milit...

http://allnewspipeline.com/Mass_Exodus_CEOs_Bug_Out.php

With names in link

May 4, 2015

Mass Exodus Has Begun - CEO's Bugging Out! 500+ Retiring CEO's Another Sign Of Something Ominous To Come?

In a follow-up to Susan Duclos' recent story "Movement To The Bunkers: 'They Know It Is Coming' - Elite Actively... we have embedded the scribd document below that contains the names of over 500 CEO's of large companies that have either retired from their CEO positions in 2015, late 2014 or plan on doing so within the next month or so as we begin to see a mass exodus from the business world has begun.

With the US dollar poised to soon lose its' world reserve currency status and the US and global economies teetering on the edge of destruction, a brand new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll reveals that 96% of Americans believe there will be more civil unrest and possible race wars in cities across the country this summer, is this another reason why so many CEO's have chosen to 'retire' now?The list below of CEO's 'getting out of Dodge' is like a 'Who's Who' of the corporate business world in America. Are these retirements just a coincidence or another sign of something ominious coming? From Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse Blog.:

Only 4 percent of people that believe that everything will be just fine.  In this day and age, it is virtually impossible to get 96 percent of Americans to agree on anything.  So the fact that just about everyone agrees that we are going to see more civil unrest should really tell you something.  The anger that has been building under the surface for so many years in this country has finally started to erupt.  If you have been following my website for a while, you know that this is something that I have been warning about for a very long time.  Many people may have thought that I was exaggerating when I talked about the civil unrest that was coming to American cities.  But I was not exaggerating at all.  In fact, if anything I was downplaying it.  In the years to come, we are going to see things happen in our cities that are going to absolutely shock the world.

Gawker's Phase Zero's William Arkin has an excellent new story out called "The Secret Mountain Our Spies Will Hide In When Washington Is Dest... which uncovers a secret mountain bunker 100 miles outside of Washington DC in Virginia that leads us to ask, how many more of these secret bunkers are out there that have yet to be discovered? Do these billionaires and multi-millionaires have 'inside information' that the rest of us do not have access to? With all of this information now coming forth, we think that it's very interesting that the Pentagon has also chosen now to be the time that they move much of their HQ and equipment back into their cold war era Cheyenne Mountain bunkers. 

The list below goes on like a 'Who's Who' in the corporate business world. Every day more names are being added to the list. What do these people know that we don't know? Several videos below on the elite's underground lairs as well as more up-to-date info and questions asked about Jade Helm 15. 

NASA Chief Wants to Cut Mars Travel Time in Half

http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-chief-wants-cut-mars-travel-time-half-20...

CANOGA PARK, Calif. — Getting astronauts to Mars will take all the spacefaring expertise the United States can muster, including advanced propulsion technologies such as solar-electric engines and perhaps even nuclear rockets, according to NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden.

In statements made during a visit to the Aerojet Rocketdyne plant here last Thursday (May 28), Bolden stressed that he'd like to slash the travel time required to send astronauts to Mars.

"Right now it's about an eight-month mission; we'd like to cut that in half," Bolden told reporters after speaking to Aerojet Rocketdyne workers for 30 minutes or so. [Superfast Propulsion Concepts (Images)]

Superfast propulsion tech would help limit astronauts' radiation exposure during the trek to Mars and reduce the amount of water, food and other "consumables" such a mission would require, NASA officials have said.

Bolden was flanked by Aerojet Rocketdyne's CEO and president Scott Seymour and Julie Van Kleeck, the company's Vice President of Advanced Space & Launch Systems, during the news conference. The trio discussed the advanced solar-electric propulsion systems (SEP) the company has been working on.

"We're now trying to get to higher power levels; that's the next step," Seymour said, referring to the 5-kilowatt (kW) engines Aerojet Rocketdyne is currently building for NASA robotic missions. "Fifteen kilowatts would be the next step, and then to cluster them together ... then, in the long term, 50 to 100 kilowatts."

"The limiting power of this type of propulsion has been the power to drive it," Bolden said. "Aerojet Rocketdyne has partnered with different entities around the country in looking [at] how to get more energy density onto a solar cell. The more power we can get, the larger we can make the engine and its capability.

"The advantage of using that kind of propulsion, pound for pound, is that it can fly nearly forever as opposed to chemical engines," Bolden added, in reference to the traditional liquid-fueled rocket engines that propel the vast majority of NASA's spacecraft.

But these SEP units — which generate thrust by accelerating charged atoms and molecules out the back of a spacecraft — are limited in what they can accomplish. Discussing more advanced in-space propulsion, Van Kleeck referred back to nuclear rockets, such as the NERVA (Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Performance) system studied by NASA decades ago.

"This country did a lot of work on that back in the 1960s and 1970s, and there is some technology being looked at regarding the fuels aspects of that, to make it lower cost and safer for the future," Van Kleeck said. (NERVA was scrapped in 1972, despite successful ground-firing tests and promising performance.)

"We don't build rocket engines; we depend on our industry partners. " Bolden said. "My job is to try and keep things stable for them, to let them know that we are committed to in-space propulsion."

Bolden said that he wanted to put more money into these advanced space-only systems, which could potentially be "game changers" — and not just for delivering cargo to Mars.

"You've got to be specific," Bolden said. "If I say I want game-changing in-space propulsion, everyone will go back to [the idea of] moving cargo. I want industry to focus on getting peopleto move really fast. I think we can do far better than we are doing today, but we've got to show our commitment by putting some money into it."

--------------------------------

Watch NASA test the rocket engine that might one day take us to Mars

http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/3/8718141/nasa-rocket-engine-test-rs-25

NASA's heavy-lifting Space Launch System (SLS) is set to become the most powerful rocket ever constructed — ferrying humans to nearby asteroids and perhaps, one day, even Mars. Late last month, the space agency put the rocket's RS-25 engine through its paces at the same site where the Apollo Program was tested. This particular firing was intended to try out a new computer controller used to monitor the engine (the RS-25 itself is an old-hand at space travel, and was first used on the Space Shuttle), with the steam in the footage created by the tens of thousands of gallons of water used as coolant.

The Space Launch System will be equipped with four of these rocket engines

A resounding 'Zetas right again'!  The elite are bringing together the worlds most clever minds to allow them to colonize Mars.  The biggest enterprise for space exploration in history is underway in Seattle!

http://www.zetatalk.com/newsletr/issue442.htm

The reality of the alien presence and the reality of Nibiru and its pending passage are not the threat, as these issues are being disclosed at present or in the process of being disclosed. What the elite fear is that their personal plans to abandon the common man and escape to other worlds such as Mars or the Moon will be revealed. This is all disguised as the wealthy funding space exploration, but their motives will be obvious when the announcement occurs.

-----------------------------------------------------

Billionaires aim for cheaper spaceflight

http://phys.org/news/2015-06-billionaires-aim-cheaper-spaceflight.html

In the booming commercial space business, ventures founded by tech billionaires Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Paul Allen are reinventing the most expensive aspect - launching spacecraft into orbit.

All three are intent on tapping the Seattle region's aerospace and software talent, and all three speak in visionary terms.

"Earth - this blue planet - in all its beauty, is just our starting point," Amazon chief executive Bezos says on the Blue Origin website. "Now is the time to open the promise of space to all."

In April, Blue Origin successfully tested its New Shepard rocket. It's also partnering with Boeing and Lockheed to design American rocket engines that will replace the current Russian engines on government launches.

Bezos has gathered a 350-strong engineering team at Blue Origin headquarters just outside Seattle.

Serial entrepreneur Musk, who made his fortune as a co-founder of PayPal and reinvented the car at Tesla Motors, formed SpaceX to pursue his ambition to colonize Mars.

Already he has aggressively muscled his way into the heavy rocket market formerly dominated by Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

And SpaceX has just opened an office in the Seattle area where a team expected to grow to hundreds of engineers will design an ambitious satellite constellation.

Chuck Beames, president of Microsoft founder Allen's Vulcan Aerospace, says his boss perceives a business tipping point "analogous to the PC industry in its infancy."

From offices overlooking the stadium where Allen's Seahawks play in the NFL, Vulcan is developing a launch concept quite different from the Blue Origin and SpaceX rockets.

Later this year, it plans to roll out from a hangar in the California desert the biggest airplane ever built, designed to carry a rocket under its wing and shoot it into space from 30,000 feet.

The premise for all three companies is that launch vehicles must be reusable so getting to space becomes dramatically cheaper. That could revolutionize the sector by encouraging startups to develop new space-based applications.

"The key to anything that any space company does is relatively inexpensive access to space," said Marco Caceres, space-industry analyst with the Teal Group. "The moment you see launch costs come down dramatically, you'll see a lot of companies popping up."

BLUE ORIGIN

Rob Meyerson, who in the 1990s worked at Kistler Aerospace - the reusable-rocket pioneer that went bankrupt after the dot-com bubble killed off its satellite-maker customers - is now president of Bezos' Blue Origin.

Though the company has been very secretive and still won't permit press visits to its facility, Meyerson opened up about some details in an email interview.

He said the company has about 400 employees, including "more than 350 and growing" at its engineering, manufacturing and business headquarters in a 260,000-square-foot facility on 26 acres.

"We're proud to call Washington our home base," Meyerson said.

The rest of the employees are at Blue Origin's remote launch site in West Texas.

In April the company launched the first developmental flight of its New Shepard vehicle, blasting an empty crew capsule capable of holding six people to a test altitude of 58 miles then returning it safely to Earth by parachute.

The plan to land the rocket itself back on the ground near the launch site failed when the hydraulic system lost pressure. Yet Bezos was undeterred, promising in a statement "to fly again soon."

Meyerson said the company is also getting ready for the next step - orbital spaceflight. "We're already designing our orbital launch vehicle that is many times New Shepard's size."

That rocket will be powered by a new Blue Origin engine fueled by a combination of liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas. In a coup for Bezos, United Launch Alliance, the Boeing/Lockheed space-rocket joint venture, has earmarked that BE4 engine to replace the current Russian engines on its future heavy rocket.

Meyerson touted it as an "all-American rocket engine that will help assure American access to space."

Starting in 2010, Blue Origin received almost $26 million from NASA for work on the agency's space-taxi concept, a project to replace the space shuttle with a vehicle to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Since 2013, Blue Origin has been privately funded, though collaboration with NASA continues.

Asked about Blue Origin's ambitions, Meyerson said space tourism is one nearer-term goal.

"Offering the adventure of spaceflight to a new generation of explorers and adventurers is certainly something we're looking forward to," he wrote.

As for future destinations, "we want to go everywhere," Meyerson added. "We're focused on our goal of making spaceflight more affordable and accessible so that one day there are millions of people living and working in space."

Caceres said Blue Origin has made quiet but impressive progress.

"They are for real," he said. "They are probably where SpaceX was six or seven years ago."

SPACEX

Founded in 2002, SpaceX has already slashed the cost of space access.

Caceres said the launch of a Boeing Delta IV Heavy rocket to launch a big military satellite costs $350 million or more. A Lockheed Atlas V launch for smaller payloads costs at least $150 million.

SpaceX, by contrast, lists its Falcon 9 rocket launches at about $70 million, he said.

After Musk dropped a lawsuit attempting to force the issue, the Air Force last month granted SpaceX certification for national-security missions - ending the monopoly on military launch contracts long held by the Boeing/Lockheed joint venture.

"The United Launch Alliance will have to change to survive," Caceres said. "It's not competitive commercially."

Having disrupted the launch business, the ever-moving Musk is now progressing to satellites.

He has talked about initially hiring about 60 engineers for the new Seattle-area office and potentially growing that base to as many as 1,000 within five years.

Musk plans a constellation of more than 4,000 low Earth-orbit satellites that will provide planet-wide broadband Internet access.

If the project progresses to the manufacturing stage, it's likely he'll look for state incentives to locate a factory to build the satellites - just as he did in choosing to manufacture the lithium-ion batteries for his Tesla cars in Nevada.

Still, the engineering work alone is a huge boost for Washington.

Alex Pietsch, who heads Gov. Jay Inslee's office of aerospace, said state officials are "excited at the chance to further diversify the aerospace industry" here.

VULCAN AEROSPACE

Vulcan Aerospace's concept is to launch space rockets into orbit from 30,000 feet up.

The idea is to make launches more routine, substituting an airport for a launchpad and costing only as much as the jet fuel to fly two 747s from Seattle to Los Angeles, according to Beames.

Vulcan's giant carrier plane, now taking shape inside a hangar in Mojave, Calif., is called Stratolaunch.

The main structure features twin fuselages - each roughly the size of a 747 jumbo jet.

A huge wing stretches across the top - the wingspan of 385 feet is the length of the Seahawks' home field, including the end zones. The payload-carrying booster rocket will be slung under that wing, between the two fuselages.

The jet's airframe is largely carbon-fiber composite plastic. Janicki Industries - which has expertise in fabricating large, one-off composite structures - had more than 150 people working on providing large pieces of it, Vulcan confirmed.

Stratolaunch's engines, avionics, cockpit and landing gear have been cannibalized from a pair of used 747s.

That provenance highlights the challenges ahead; even test flights of new conventional airliners from Airbus or Boeing usually throw up unwelcome surprises, like the wing-flutter problems that caused unacceptable vibration in early flights of Boeing's 747-8.

With the Stratolaunch's novel shape, Vulcan will almost certainly run into such hard-to-predict issues once the plane flies.

Despite that, Vulcan has used Boeing engineers only as consultants, reflecting a typical tech-industry bias against established players.

"Candidly, I specifically recruit engineers who are not typically cut from the traditional cloth but are more entrepreneurial and less big-company-oriented," said Beames.

That spirit of pioneering innovation comes with risks.

Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic suborbital-space-tourism project is based on a precursor to the Stratolaunch concept and operates the technology under license from Vulcan.

The deadly in-flight breakup last October of Virgin's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane - which killed one of the two pilots on board - served as "a cold, hard reminder that this can be a dangerous business," Beames said.

Unlike Blue Origin and SpaceX, privately funded Vulcan hasn't received any government contracts.

Its strategy has already undergone several changes, and right now what will be strapped under that huge wing is not clear.

Originally, SpaceX was to provide the booster rocket; Vulcan then switched to relying on rocket-maker Orbital ATK.

As recently as last fall, Beames spoke about a plan to put a human-crewed spacecraft developed by Sierra Nevada on the tip of the Orbital booster rocket.

But now that human spaceflight plan is shelved, along with Orbital's planned rocket.

Beames said Orbital's rocket "was not hitting the economic sweet spot to generate revenue," so Vulcan has reopened the design plan and is "evaluating over 70 different launch vehicle variants."

This shift won't affect the timetable for flying the carrier plane, he said, but it could mean "maybe a little delay" in the plans to use it to launch spacecraft into orbit.

Launching a manned spacecraft will be even further out, "in 10 years," he said.

Meanwhile, said Beames, Vulcan has decided to diversify beyond the Stratolaunch project by investing in other space companies. It put money into Seattle-based Spaceflight this spring and is actively searching for more candidates.

As for direct Vulcan Aerospace employment, Beames declined to say how many engineers the company has in Seattle but predicted, "It'll likely double in the next year or two."

Though in 2011 Vulcan had said its space unit headquarters would be in Huntsville, Ala., Beames said it's now firmly established here.

"Paul (Allen) wanted a closer, more personal leadership on it," said Beames. "All future work ... will be run out of Vulcan Aerospace here in Seattle."

Billionaire Bunkers: Exclusive Look Inside the World's Largest Plan...

For the very first time, a modern day Noah’s Ark has opened its doors for an exclusive inside look offering up plans for the ultimate Billionaire bunker and doomsday escape.  

Or, as I like to refer to them, The best "Titanic" Tombs money can buy. 

Abandoned, rotting sea forts improbably transformed into luxury getaways

https://homes.yahoo.com/blogs/spaces/abandoned-sea-forts-turned-lux...

Three weird sea forts left to rot off the south coast of England are seeing new life.

Directly across the English Channel from France, about a mile from Portsmouth, they were built about 150 years ago at the order of the prime minister at the time, Lord Henry Palmerston. He feared a French invasion after Napoleon III -- nephew of the much more famous Napoleon Bonaparte -- went from  popularly elected French president to emperor of France through a coup.

Where once there were soldiers, now there are weddings, day spas and highbrow vacations. A company called AmaZing Venues has been snapping up these little defensive rotundas and transforming them into luxury accommodations, similar to those you might find on a cruise ship.

As forts, they were cutting edge for the time: Divers had to place huge concrete rings down on sandbanks, about 20 or 30 feet below the water level, and stuff them with concrete slabs until the base peaked out over the water, according to the book "Ramparts of Empire."

Hundreds of soldiers were stationed at the sea forts. But the French never came after Portsmouth -- Napoleon III's reign ended in 1870, long before the Brits were even finished building -- and the pricey forts went down in history as "Palmerston's Follies."

Even though the view proved useless to the British military, it now works to the advantage of those looking for unique oceanside (or, rather, in-ocean) venues. Instead of keeping watch for the enemy, guests of the forts can luxuriate in ultra-private upscale lounges.

The forts' modern features include a dance club, a fine-dining restaurant, wine tastings, a fort-top hot tub, laser tag and game rooms. The company has big plans to host "Great Gatsby-themed parties, Bond nights and Royal Britannia-themed lunches," according to its website.

AmaZing Venues opened Spitbank Fort first, in 2012, then No Man's Fort in April 2015. The company plans to open the third fort, Horse Sands Fort, as a museum in 2016. Plans for the fourth remaining fort, St. Helens Fort, are not yet disclosed.

Tsipras resigns, paving way for snap Greek election

Thu Aug 20, 2015 6:26pm EDT

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned on Thursday, hoping to strengthen his hold on power in snap elections after seven months in office in which he fought Greece's creditors for a better bailout deal but had to cave in.

Tsipras submitted his resignation to President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and asked for the earliest possible election date.

Government officials said the aim was to hold the election on Sept. 20, with Tsipras seeking to crush a rebellion in his leftist Syriza party and seal public support for the bailout program, Greece's third since 2010, that he negotiated.

"I will go the president of the republic shortly to submit my resignation, as well as the resignation of my government," Tsipras said in a televised address before he met Pavlopoulos.

More information and source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/20/us-eurozone-greece-resign...

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Regional/2015/09/12/Egypts-PM-govern...

Published: Saturday September 12, 2015 MYT 6:44:00 PM
Updated: Saturday September 12, 2015 MYT 6:48:39 PM

Egypt’s PM, government resigns: presidency

John Boehner, House Speaker, Will Resign From Congress

SEPT. 25, 2015

WASHINGTON — Speaker John A. Boehner, under intense pressure from conservatives in his party, announced on Friday that he would resign one of the most powerful positions in government and give up his House seat at the end of October, as Congress moved to avert a government shutdown.

Mr. Boehner, who was first elected to Congress in 1990, made the announcement in an emotional meeting with his fellow Republicans on Friday morning.

The first job of any speaker is to protect this institution that we all love,” Mr. Boehner said in a statement released later. “It was my plan to only serve as speaker until the end of last year, but I stayed on to provide continuity to the Republican conference and the House. It is my view, however, that prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable damage to the institution. To that end, I will resign the speakership and my seat in Congress on Oct. 30.”

Mr. Boehner, 65, from Ohio, had struggled from almost the moment he took the speaker’s gavel in 2011 to manage the challenges of divided government and to hold together his fractious and increasingly conservative Republican members.

Most recently, he was trying to craft a solution to keep the government open through the rest of the year, but was under pressure from a growing base of conservatives who told him that they would not vote for a bill that did not defund Planned Parenthood.

Mr. Boehner’s announcement lessened the chance of a government shutdown next week, because Republican leaders will push for a short-term funding measure to keep the government operating and the speaker will no longer be deterred by those who threatened his job.

More information and source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/26/us/john-boehner-to-resign-from-co...

Buckingham Palace could become Queen's 'third home' as she opts for more time at Balmoral

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/queen-elizabeth-II/12056883/...

Buckingham Palace is likely to become the Queen’s “third home” after plans were put in place for her to spend increasing amounts of time at Windsor Castle and Balmoral when she enters her nineties.
Her Majesty already spends more nights at Windsor than she does at the Palace, and she will gradually lengthen the time she spends in Scotland every summer to conserve her energy for the hundreds of royal engagements she fulfils every year.
Royal Household staff have begun to re-arrange her diary so that her engagements are packed into fewer days each year.
She still works every day except Christmas Day by going through her red boxes of official government papers and holding meetings with staff, but the more relaxed pace of life at Balmoral in particular is less mentally and physically demanding for the Queen, who will be 90 in April.

An analysis of the Queen’s diary over the past five years shows that she has already dramatically reduced the amount of time she spends at Buckingham Palace over the last five years.

http://home.bt.com/news/world-news/denmarks-queen-margrethe-says-hu...

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/chinese-billionaires-mysteriously-...

http://anonhq.com/chief-privacy-civil-liberties-advisor-nsa-resigns...

Chief Privacy and Civil Liberties Advisor To The NSA Unexpectedly R...

March 31st, 2016

3-29-2015 – In a report first filed by Jenna McLaughlin of The Intercept it has been announced that David Medine, chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board will be resigning from office July 1, 2016 – his current contract would have kept him office until January 2018. In a statement to the press Mr. Medine went on to say he will be leaving office “ to protect low-income consumers and the privacy of their data in developing countries” but did not specify with whom or where.

“During my tenure and thanks to the support of the president and Congress, the board has been able to carry out its timely mission of conducting oversight and providing advice to ensure that federal counterterrorism efforts properly balance national security with privacy and civil liberties.“

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board or PCLOB is an independent agency which exists within the executive branch. The agency was established in 2007 as a result of the Implementing Recommendations clause of the 9/11 Commission Act. The board consists of only five members, all of whom are appointed by the President to be confirmed by the Senate. Only the chairman, David Medine serves a full time role. According to the groups mission statement the board exists “to ensure that the federal government’s efforts to prevent terrorism are balanced with the need to protect privacy and civil liberties.​” The news today comes as shock to many, including President Obama. Earlier today the White House addressed the matter in an official press release:

I am deeply appreciative of David Medine’s skilled stewardship of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), which he has led since 2013 as the first full-time Chairman. David has served our Nation as PCLOB Chairman during an especially momentous period, coinciding with a concerted examination of our national security tools and policies to ensure they are consistent with my Administration’s commitment to civil liberties and individual privacy. Under David’s leadership, the PCLOB’s thoughtful analysis and considered input has consistently informed my decision-making and that of my team, and our country is better off because of it. There is no question that David Medine is as talented and dedicated a public servant as they come, and I thank him and wish him well as he prepares for the next chapter.

The news comes directly on the heels of national headlines in recent days/weeks which call into question the legality and morality of federal attempts to further expand upon domestic spying capabilities. All attempts of expansion of course have been successful. It would be speculation to say this is why Mr. Medine resigned, but it would be foolish to think it did not at least weigh in his decision making. As one political analyst pointed out “trying to convince the NSA to scale back domestic spying is like trying to convince a lion to become more vegan.”

3-24-2016 | House Oversight & Government Reform Committee Sends Open Letter To NSA – Discontinue Any & All Attempts To Expand Information Sharing of United States Citizens: https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Lieu-Farenth...

3-27-2016 | Google Reveals The United States Government Hacked Nearly 1 Million GMail Accounts: http://www.techworm.net/2016/03/one-million-gmail-accounts-governme...

3-28-2016 | FBI Hires Israel Intelligence Firm & Cracks Apple Encryption Making It Worthless – Wont Share Methodology: https://theintercept.com/2016/03/28/fbi-got-into-san-bernardino-kil...

3-29-2016 | US Officials Say They Will Continue To Use Court Systems To End Encryption Privacy: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/03/us-says-it-would-use-cou...

https://theintercept.com/2016/03/29/top-privacy-watchdog-suddenly-r...

THE CHIEF of the independent government agency tasked with evaluating the risk that federal counterterrorism programs present to Americans’ constitutional rights is stepping down unexpectedly.

David Medine, who was confirmed as chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board shortly before NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the massive scale of the U.S. government’s spying operations, has been tugging on the reins of expanding government surveillance power since.

The board is often referred to by its acronym, PCLOB, pronounced “pee-clawb.”

Medine was scheduled to stay on until January 2018. His last day will now be July 1.

“During my tenure and thanks to the support of the president and Congress, the board has been able to carry out its timely mission of conducting oversight and providing advice to ensure that federal counterterrorism efforts properly balance national security with privacy and civil liberties,” Medine said in a statement about his resignation on Tuesday.

Medine wrote that he has decided to work to protect low-income consumers and the privacy of their data in developing countries, but he did not name the organization he’ll be joining.

Prior to joining the board, Medine worked on similar issues — privacy and data security — both in government, including at the Federal Trade Commission, and private practice. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday morning.

President Barack Obama thanked him in an emailed statement, but gave no indication of when he might nominate a replacement or who it might be. “David has served our nation as PCLOB chairman during an especially momentous period, coinciding with a concerted examination of our national security tools and policies to ensure they are consistent with my administration’s commitment to civil liberties and individual privacy,” Obama wrote.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, first created in 2004 after counterterrorism efforts ramped up in response to the 9/11 attacks, was shuttered and reborn as an independent watchdog in 2013.

The bipartisan five-member panel — chosen by the president and confirmed by the Senate — had access to many of the classified details that surveillance reformers have been clamoring for since Snowden, and its reports have become central to the ongoing debate.

In 2014, the board criticized the NSA’s mass surveillance program vacuuming up millions of Americans’ telephone records, supposedly authorized under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act —  concluding that there was no real legal foundation for it and it wasn’t fighting terrorism anyway.

Congress chose to shutter the program in 2015, replacing it with a new one that keeps the phone records in the hands of the telephone companies, not on the NSA’s servers.

But PCLOB’s review of the NSA’s overseas spying frustrated privacy and civil liberties activists. The board’s review of the NSA’s surveillance program under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act left unanswered many central questions, including: How much American data is swept up in a program ostensibly intended to capture only foreign communications?

And the board is only now working on a report on the most massive body of spying: NSA surveillance conducted under the Reagan-era Executive Order 12333. Medine’s departure “will not affect the 12333 report,” writes PCLOB spokesperson Jen Burita in an email to The Intercept. “The board is still going to release it this year.”

Elon Musk Officially Unveils Plan To Colonise Mars

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/elon-musk-spacex-mars-mission...

Elon Musk has officially unveiled SpaceX’s masterplan for sending humans to go and live on Mars.

The billionaire entrepreneur unveiled his vision for space travel at the International Astronautical Conference in Mexico introducing both the spacecraft that’ll take us there but also when he plans on doing it.

Speaking to the audience and to those that tuned in to watch the livestream Musk presented us with two options: We either stay on Earth and become extinct, or we colonise other planets and live.

As far as Musk and SpaceX are concerned, that other planet is Mars.

Musks’s grand vision is the result of years of work by SpaceX to not only speed up the development process but vastly decrease the cost of space travel, two factors that will need to be accomplished if we are to have a hope of reaching the red planet within our lifetimes.

The pinnacle of both those achievements is the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS), a vast reusable spacecraft that will be the largest rocket ever built by man.

Capable of carrying 100 passengers at any one time, the ITS requires a brand-new type of rocket and SpaceX has already built that rocket in the form of the Raptor.

The Raptor is a methane-fuelled rocket that when completed will be more powerful than any other rocket on Earth. Of course that won’t be enough though.

To lift a spacecraft large enough to hold 100 people SpaceX estimates that the ITS will need 40 Raptor engines to lift it into orbit.

Once there the spacecraft enter a holding orbit while the booster lands back down on Earth, refuels and then launches a second spacecraft containing nothing but fuel.

Another billionaire with his space escape plans:

Touchdown! Blue Origin passes its 'toughest test yet' as in-flight escape pod blasts off

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3823465/Touchdown-Bl...

The New Shepard escape system has been put to the test in the rocket's 'toughest test yet'.

The in-flight escape pod was tested by Blue Origin in a live stream from West Texas.
The rocket launched and the crew capsule ejected from the booster, falling to the ground slowly with parachutes.
The booster then successfully landed too, meaning the test was even more successful than the crew had hoped.

'Nothing like a rocket and a countdown clock to get your heart going' said the live launch's narrator, before the rocket launched.
Blue Origin engineers had expected searing exhaust from the capsule's motor would tip over the New Shepard rocket, causing it to shut down and then crash in a massive fireball in the desert.
When the capsule and booster successfully landed, the team was overjoyed.
'Beautiful,' one of the engineers said.
'There it is,' another added. 'There you go New Shepard, look at her!'
The Blue Origin spacecraft has two main parts: the rocket booster, and a crew capsule on top.
The main aim of the test was to recover the crew capsule.
After the pressure was at its maximum, the escape motor burnt out and the capsule was ejected.
It then used parachutes to lower itself safely to the ground.
The company, owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, said it would ideally be able to recover the booster, but said it was likely to be lost in the tests.

From a link:

New Zealand PM , John Key , had suddenly and without much explanation , announced his immediate resignation , effective December 12, 2016.

Matteo Renzi , Italy s PM, announced his resignation too.

Why is this is important news?

Over the past several months , Italy has been hammered with a number of Weather events , from devastating floods to damaging hailstorms and to three earthquakes .

Hundreds of Italians lost their lives in the M6.2 quake on August 24th, the M6.3
quake on october 26 and , the M6.6 quake on october 30, 2016.

As you recall , New Zealand experienced a devastating M7.8 earthquake on November 14 . 2016.

Italy's PM Matteo Renzi to resign after constitutional referendum defeat

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/04/world/italy-constitutional-refere...

(CNN)Italian center-left Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said he will resign on Monday, after conceding an "extraordinary clear" defeat in an Italian constitutional referendum.

"Tomorrow the President of the Republic will have a meeting with me and I will hand in my resignation," Renzi said. "I take on full responsibilities for defeat and so I say I lost, not you," he told supporters.

New Zealand PM John Key resigns: 'Ten years at the top is a long time'

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/04/asia/new-zealand-john-key-resigns...

Auckland, New Zealand (CNN)New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has resigned, in a move that shocked many observers.

"They Know Something That We Don't" – Corporate Insiders Are Dumping Their Stocks "At Levels Rarely Seen"

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-03/they-know-something-we-don...

May 3, 2017 1:45 PM

There aren’t any surefire ways to tell if the stock market, and perhaps the rest of the economy, is about to take a nosedive. That’s because millions of people with millions of ideas are involved, so it’s an inherently unpredictable system. However, there are certain players in our economy that have a lot more influence and insider knowledge than the rest of us. So when they make a move in unison, you know there’s a good chance that something is about to go down.

And that’s exactly what’s going on with the stock market right now. The people who would stand to lose the most if the markets crashed; the corporate executives and insiders, are all jumping ship and selling their stocks.

As the investing public has continued to devour stocks, sending all three major indexes to record highs in the last few months, corporate insiders have been offloading shares to an extent not seen in seven years. Selling totaled $10 billion in March, according to data compiled by Trim Tabs

It's a troubling trend facing an equity market that’s already grappling with its loftiest valuations since the 2000 tech bubble. If the people with the deepest knowledge of a company are cashing out, why should investors keep buying at current prices?

The groundswell of insider selling has the attention of Brad Lamensdorf, portfolio manager at Ranger Alternative Management, and he doesn’t like what he sees.

“This is definitely a negative sign,” Lamensdorf wrote in his April newsletter. “They do not see value in their own companies!”

And this isn’t a recent trend. While ordinary investors were optimistically diving into the stock market after Trump was elected, these people were dumping their stocks as far back as February.

Chief executives and other corporate insiders are selling stock hand over fist now that the quarterly earnings season is over, a report from Vickers Weekly Insider shows. Transactions by insiders are restricted around a company’s report.

“Insider selling has jumped again, and this time to levels rarely seen,” analyst David Coleman wrote in Monday’s note.

In the last week, insiders' sale transactions on the NYSE outnumbered their purchase transactions by more than 11 to 1, according to Vickers, a publication of Argus Research. The 11.47 reading is 3.5 standard deviations above the mean, according to Coleman.

Clearly, they know something that most Americans don’t. I’d wager that they know the stock market can’t keep reaching record highs indefinitely, they know the economy is resting on shaky ground, and they know that this sudden surge of investments in the stock market is their last chance to make a killing before the whole thing comes crashing down.

The Dominoes Fall

Why have these 50 Wall Street darlings resigned suddenly?

What do they have in common? Clinton Foundation? John Podesta? Exploitation of personally identifiable data stolen by the rogue C.I.A.? Pedophilia? Money laundering? Drug and child sex trafficking? Murderous satanic rituals? Patent theft?  Or, are they rats leaving a sinking ship and headed for their bunkers before everyone finds out about Planet X?

https://www.fbcoverup.com/docs/library/2017-12-26-CEO-stepdown-epid...

A technology expert is interviewed by the super wealthy on how best to survive "The Event".

Survival of the Richest: The wealthy are plotting to leave us behind 

Last year, I got invited to a super-deluxe private resort to deliver a keynote speech to what I assumed would be a hundred or so investment bankers. It was by far the largest fee I had ever been offered for a talk — about half my annual professor’s salary — all to deliver some insight on the subject of “the future of technology.”

After I arrived, I was ushered into what I thought was the green room. But instead of being wired with a microphone or taken to a stage, I just sat there at a plain round table as my audience was brought to me: five super-wealthy guys — yes, all men — from the upper echelon of the hedge fund world. After a bit of small talk, I realized they had no interest in the information I had prepared about the future of technology. They had come with questions of their own.

They started out innocuously enough. Ethereum or bitcoin? Is quantum computing a real thing? Slowly but surely, however, they edged into their real topics of concern.

Which region will be less impacted by the coming climate crisis: New Zealand or Alaska? The CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system and asked,

“How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?”

This single question occupied us for the rest of the hour. They knew armed guards would be required to protect their compounds from the angry mobs. But how would they pay the guards once money was worthless? What would stop the guards from choosing their own leader? The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers — if that technology could be developed in time.

That’s when it hit me: At least as far as these gentlemen were concerned, this was a talk about the future of technology. Only for them, the future of technology is really about just one thing: escape.

When the hedge funders asked me the best way to maintain authority over their security forces after “the event,” I suggested that their best bet would be to treat those people really well, right now. They should be engaging with their security staffs as if they were members of their own family.

They were amused by my optimism, but they didn’t really buy it. They were not interested in how to avoid a calamity. For all their wealth and power, they don’t believe they can affect the future. They are simply accepting the darkest of all scenarios and then bringing whatever money and technology they can employ to insulate themselves — especially if they can’t get a seat on the rocket to Mars.

Douglas Rushkoff, author of "Team Human"
11 July 2018

Source (excerpted)

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/11/survival-of-the-richest-the-wealthy...