Nicholas Kristof notes at the New York Times that inequality in the US is worse than it was in apartheid South Africa: The net worth of the average black household in the United States is $6,314, compared with $110,500 for the average white household, according to 2011 census data. The gap has worsened in the last decade, and the United States now has a greater wealth gap by race than South Africa did during apartheid. (Whites in America on average own almost 18 times as much as blacks; in South Africa in 1970, the ratio was about 15 times.)

Indeed, economist and inequality expert Thomas Piketty notes that – according to an important measure – inequality in America today is the worst in world history: For those who work for a living, the level of inequality in the US – writes Piketty – is “… probably higher than in any other society at any time in the past, anywhere in the world …”

In other words, there might have been some squalid country in the distant past where the disparity between people without any job and the king was higher than between a jobless American and the top fatcat in the US. But the spread between the American worker and the American oligarch is the greatest in world history. Indeed, inequality in America has become so extreme that the “99% versus the 1%” meme is grossly inaccurate … because it’s really the .01% versus the 99.99%.

The cause of America’s runaway inequality? The Wall Street Journal notes: Many aspects of the recovery, and the Federal Reserve’s stimulus policies, have benefited the rich over others.

The 20 page instruction leaflet for party members was produced in November 1937 by the Heimatwerk organisation of the Saxony branch of the Nazi Party. The Heimatwerk was formed the previous year and billed itself as the promoter of 'Saxon Germanic culture as a shining example of true Germanness.' It was never intended for publication but distributed to party functionaries to see that the population buckled down to the new way of doing things.

The Nazi guide to Christmas starts off by telling followers that 'no festival is as German as Christmas' and then gives instructions about how many baubles should be placed on the tree. The swastika is 'firmly recommended' to replace a fairy or an angel at the top. Because Nazism viewed organised religion as a competitor - and therefore an enemy - of the movement, its disciples were told that it wasn't really a Christian celebration at all.

The manuscript goes on: 'The festival has been introduced against the wishes of the Church. Priests had to reinterpret it in a Christian light, in their favour, later on. The deep mystery of the German Christmas can only be understood by those who feel its originality and authenticity.'

This was part of the Nazi hijacking of Christmas, turning it into a form of pagan worship in which Germanic myth and legends became central to the celebrations. 'Maria is the German mother,' says the manuscript, 'and Jesus Santa Claus is no longer located in the crib, but will be relocated in a cradle to stand for the constant renewal of the German people.'

Thus it was not the Three Wise Men 'but the German workers and peasants who flock to him!' said the guide discovered in the archives of the Institute of Saxon History and Folklore in Dresden. Presents, parents were advised, should be part of a game of hide-and-seek so that the 'entire festival will be celebrated without Christ, but as a Germanic-fertility jubilee.'

Hitler, who was the Messiah to so many Germans, was indeed to become the new God of the German people. A prayer was suggested for the family to say together: 'We spent Christmas in the field, during combat, with the Germans. One was always with us… He is still with us. We greet him!' Him is not meant to be Jesus, but Hitler, the 'Saviour of the Germans.'

Privately, fissures emerged over fears that the UN initiative could inadvertently prop up Syrian President Bashar al Assad. The war continued to rage on Monday, with an al Qaeda-linked rebel group, the Nusra Front, saying it captured two strategic military bases from the Assad regime in Syria’s northwest after three years of failed attempts.

They have been censoring information in the past but now they are mulling the idea of a 'dislike' button. It won't be hard to find some good minders who will disappear information that your Government doesn't approve of. Facebook is far from being aboveboard when it comes to censorship and users can't dislike ads or privacy infringement. If you are not paying for the service then you are the product. You have no say in how Facebook does their business. Your first amendment rights are now privileges that can and will be taken away.

"Carmike Cinemas has canceled the nationwide Christmas Day release of Sony's 'The Interview,' the first theater chain to do so on the day hackers threatened 9/11-like attacks on theaters that showed the movie," reported The Wrap today. Sony pictures has been under siege ever since an elaborate hack stole studio files and emails, some of which have already been released to the great embarrassment of studio executives and Hollywood stars. Natural News hasn't covered any of this because it all seemed so pointless... until today.

Today the hacker group responsible for all this issued a direct terror threat, warning that a 9/11-style attack might take place at any movie theater that dared to show the movie. The threat elevated this entire incident to a whole new level: now it's not just hacking and stealing studio records; it's a direct and unambiguous terror threat against the American public.

The threat, reprinted at TheWrap.com, reads as follows:

“We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places ‘The Interview’ be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to. Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made. The world will be full of fear. Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time. (If your house is nearby, you'd better leave.) Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment. All the world will denounce the SONY.”

If this message sounds a bit too similar to "all your base are belong to us," that's because the FBI suspects there's a North Korea link behind all this. Regardless of what happens with this Sony hack, the tone is now set: more corporations are going to be targeted by more hackers, and I predict we will one day see an elaborate hack literally destroy a large multinational corporation. The future of cyber security may literally be found in... typewriters. When it comes to cyber security, low tech is the new tech.

A major development finally unfolded on December 3, 2014 when a Member of Parliament rose in the House of Commons "to present a petition, from petitioners in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and particularly in the Ottawa area, calling on the government of Canada to conduct a parliamentary review into the events that occurred in the United States on September 11."

Mainstream media quickly picked up the story, predictably labeling the petition "a call to support a conspiracy theory." Also unsurprisingly, the MP came under fire when she insisted that it was her duty as a Member of Parliament to present the petition to the government, even though she "does not agree with it."

Brinnier, a New York architect whose best friend, World Trade Center construction manager Frank Di Martini, was killed in the North Tower, traveled to Ottawa from Kingston, New York, to make a plea on behalf of all of the 9/11 family members: "I am here today because, like so many other people touched by this unthinkable tragedy, I know that the official story of what happened on that day simply does not add up, and I want the truth."

Later, in the Q&A session with reporters, Brinnier, who is a board member of the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now, reiterated, "To believe that simple office fires could cause the collapse of a 47-story office building — that's impossible." He vowed to continue fighting for the truth about 9/11 "as long as I have breath in my lungs."

These shorthand’s are just some of the 28 online abbreviations that feature in a new report by CNN about teenagers' secret online language. The list, collated by Kelly Wallace with the help of Internet safety expert Katie Greer, also contains slang such as '420' for 'marijuana', 'POS' for 'parent over shoulder' and the phrase every parent dreads their teenager reading '(L)MIRL' for 'let's meet in real life'.

Greer's research has found the majority of teens think their parents are trying to keep tabs on them online, so these acronyms are used to hide certain parts of their conversations. 'Acronyms used for this purpose could potentially raise some red flags for parents,' she warns.

[Go to link for full list]

The GRACE data, presented Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, showed those river basins losing about 4 trillion gallons per year — more than state residents use annually, NASA said.

In another finding, NASA said airborne measuring indicates the Sierra Nevada range snowpack was half previous estimates. "The 2014 snowpack was one of the three lowest on record and the worst since 1977, when California's population was half what it is now," Airborne Snow Observatory principal investigator Tom Painter of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in the NASA release.

California has been blasted by autumn storms dumping inches of much-needed rain - but that's still not enough to get the Golden State out of its drought. "Recent rains are no reason to let up on our conservation efforts," Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, said recently.

The eight-day festival marks the victory of the Maccabees - a group of Jewish rebels - over the Syrian-Greek occupiers of Israel, and in particular the liberation of the Temple Mount and re-sanctification of the Temple in 164 BCE, which included the lighting of the Menorah. But one hanukkiah-lighting taking place in Jerusalem next week will have particular significance: for the first time in nearly 2,000 years, experts have reproduced the pure olive oil precisely as it was used in the Temple to light the Menorah.

Next week history will be made as experts reveal - and light - a batch of pure olive oil precisely as it was used in the Temple. The oil's "purity" is not just physical; among the many complex laws surrounding the Menorah's olive oil is a critical requirement that it remain ritually pure - not an easy task in an age when the Jewish laws (halakhot) surrounding ritual purity have been widely neglected and forgotten due to the fact that most apply only to the Temple service.

But it is precisely that challenge, explains Temple Institute International Director Rabbi Chaim Richman, which makes the project so poignant for this time of year. The Maccabees, too, were ritually impure at the time they liberated the Temple from Hellenistic control (having been fighting a bloody war against the Hellenists). In fact, the "Hanukkah miracle" commemorated via the lighting of the hanukkiah is the very fact that the Jewish freedom-fighters were able to locate a pure jug of olive oil despite the defilement of the Temple - a jug which miraculously burned for eight full days despite only containing enough for a single day.

"This is unprecedented... really in the entire recorded history since the Temple's destruction it hasn't happened. We are resurrecting the ancient laws of ritual purity," Rabbi Richman told Arutz Sheva.

In the warning to the Jewish people in Jerusalem and across Israel that they are about to be eliminated from their land:

“We are living in a time when the battle with the Jews has drawn near, as our Prophet Muhammad was reported to have said: ‘You fight the Jews until the trees and the stones will say: Oh servant of Allah, oh Muslim, there is a Jew behind me. Come and kill him.’” Sara declared.

The sheik continued his warning from the Quran, telling of the impending “battle with the Jews,” who he called “the most evil of Allah’s creations.” The Islamic cleric also referred to the Muslim holy book when prophesying that soldiers submitting to Allah will exterminate the Jews from existence while “liberating” the Palestinians. Sara then summoned his god to put an early end to the Jews. “Oh Allah, hasten the day of their killing,” the Muslim cleric said amidst another chant of “Amen” coming from the crowd. “Oh Allah, hasten the day we fight them.”

The Muslim inciter prepared those around him to get ready for an Islamic takeover of Israel and the world. “Oh Allah, hasten the day of their slaughter,” Sara continued, blanketed by more calls of “Amen” from onlookers. “Oh Allah, hasten the establishment of the state of the Islamic Caliphate.”

Hamas dominates Gaza and fought a 50-day war with Israel earlier this year. Under its charter, the movement is committed to Israel's destruction. Israel, the United States and several other nations have designated Hamas a terrorist organisation due to its long record of attacks and its refusal to renounce violence. Hamas, which was founded in 1987, won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 and reinforced its power in Gaza the following year after ousting its Fatah rivals. Its supporters see it as a legitimate resistance movement against Israel, with whom it has fought for years.

Hamas contested the decision and on Wednesday the EU's General Court found it had been "based not on acts examined and confirmed in decisions of competent authorities but on factual imputations derived from the press and the internet". The court said it was therefore annulling Hamas' designation but would temporarily keep existing measures against the group "in order to ensure the effectiveness of any possible future freezing of funds".

But European Commission spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said the EU continued to "consider Hamas a terrorist organisation" and would consider its response to the ruling. The Israeli economy minister called the court's decision immoral. "Israel is strong and can defend itself against its enemies, but those who will suffer from strengthening terrorist groups will be the Europeans themselves," Naftali Bennett warned.

Arab spokesmen were so skillful and able to manipulate history that today the UN, Europe, America and the chattering classes, which have no religion at all, are all reinforcing the Arab claim that any who died on the Temple Mount were martyred defenders of holy places, mowed down by savage, unprovoked “Israeli settlers”.

But the world's feeble attempts to erase Jewish history from Jerusalem and the Land of Israel don't cut the mustard. The contrary proof is simply undeniable and overwhelming. And those who advocate the Arab view are liars and charlatans. But at this point, only people like Moshe Feiglin can peacefully liberate the Temple Mount. Because Israel as a nation and as a state is losing the holy site. Those who ascend, like Feiglin and other brave people, are the only obstacle to the Temple Mount's final islamization.

But Jews are stronger than their leaders. A few weeks ago, I visited Jerusalem and I wanted to see the synagogue in Agassi street, Har Nof, where four rabbis had been killed by Israeli Arabs. In the synagogue of the massacre I met a rabbi, Avraham Nadler, who told me: “The terrorists targeted us because we, the religious Jews, are the symbol of unity of the country. We must grow and get stronger after the attack”.

The Israeli authorities must show the same fortitude and moral clarity in front of anti-Semitism and terrorism, which is now focused on Temple Mount. Bring freedom to the House of God or prepare to lose the entire State of Israel. Everybody wants to control those few sacred acres. Will the Jews take what is theirs?

More than seven years after the start of the financial crisis, banks have made strides towards improving financial stability but they are still struggling and pose risks. The move by western nations towards bail-in regimes whereby “too big to fail” banks confiscate individual and companies' deposits has been put in place with very little public discussion or awareness of the risks and ramifications of bail-ins.

If bail-ins take place, which now seems almost certain when banks get into difficulty again, there is a very significant risk that bail-ins alone will lead to a collapse in consumer and business confidence as consumers and businesses see their savings and capital confiscated. This alone will likely compound a difficult economic environment and lead to sharp recessions and depressions - economic contagion.

There is also the financial contagion risk. Many of the bonds are held by pensions funds, institutions and even leveraged investors like hedge funds. If much of the loss-absorbing debt is held by leveraged investors then there is a risk of contagion across the financial system and the contagion boomerang back to banks.

Oh what a tangled web, we weave...

In the summer of 2008, the price of oil utterly collapsed and we all remember what happened after that. Well, the same patterns that we witnessed back in 2008 are happening again. As the price of oil crashed in 2008, so did prices for a whole host of other commodities. That is happening again. Once commodities started crashing, the market for junk bonds started to implode. That is also happening again. Finally, toward the end of 2008, we witnessed a horrifying stock market crash.

Could we be on the verge of another major one? Last week was the worst week for the Dow in more than three years, and stock markets all over the world are crashing right now. Bad financial news continues to roll in from the four corners of the globe on an almost hourly basis. Have we finally reached the “tipping point” that so many have been warning about?