United States

The US government has begun asking foreign visitors on the visa waiver program to volunteer links to their social media accounts. It comes in the same week that the Dept. of Homeland Security announced it was going to stop its registry of visitors from predominantly Muslim and Arab countries. RT.com reports: Foreign travelers arriving in the United States, participating in the visa waiver program, are being asked by US customs and border guards to volunteer “information associated with your online presence – Provider/Platform – Social media identifier”.

Following today's surprising decision by the US' Samantha Power to abstain in a UN vote over Israel settlements, one which provoked Israel to lash out at the Obama administration  "friends don't act that way", but more importantly defied Trump who in a previous tweet urged Obama to veto the resolution, it was only a question of how long before Trump tweets his response. The time was less than an hour, because just minutes after the vote, the president-elect slammed the current administration's decision, while ominously warning the UN that it would be "different" under his presidency.

We can only imagine the establishment's reaction to their arch-nemesis appearance on their doorstep, but as TASS reports, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he is ready to pay a visit to the US if the new US President Donald Trump sends an invitation to him.

"If Trump invites to come to the United States, then I will certainly come," Putin told reporters.

 

The Russian president refrained from providing the exact date of his possible meeting with the US President-elect.

 

While the Russian government in general, and Putin in particular, supposedly has a grudge on US voters and, according to the 'serious' press, orchestrated the hacking of the US elections, China's interests appear to be focused on America's money. In the latest such breach, according to Reuters, the FBI is investigating how Chinese military hackers infiltrated computers at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for several years beginning in 2010.

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

People were poor by today's standards, so why do people remember the plantation life fondly? The answer is simple: community, purpose, sacrifice and meaning.

Allow me to connect two apparently unconnected dots. Dot #1: The last sugar plantation in Hawaii is closing down, ending more than a century of plantation life in the 50th state.