5D Mark IV

Canon, being the company with the largest DSLR marketshare, is bound to make the news whenever they release a new camera. And while they may make headlines with others, when they release a new 5D, they make the front page.

Absolute proof of this is the brand new 5D Mark IV, which has been gobbling up column inches in celebrity fashion.

There’s so much going on with this camera that photographers aren’t used to, that they don’t know about, that needs to be witnessed to understand, that it’s perhaps the most intriguing release from the company in years.

So naturally, LensRentals tore one apart, as they’ve done with the 5D MK III, and 5DS.

LensRentals is a behemoth in the rental arena, and it stands to reason that they should have veritable fleets of 5DMK4s, and they do. In an effort to see how the 5DIV does its witchcraft, they’ve plucked one from the lot and peeled back its layers like an onion, and like that practice in the kitchen, it may bring you to tears. Here’s some of what Roger Cicala and Aaron Closz had to say,

…The weather sealing on the Canon 5d Mark IV appears pretty robust, although you know my opinion on weather sealing in general. The shell of the camera has an interlocking construction with lots of pins and clips and more screws than previous Canon cameras. This makes it kind of a pain to get into, but I’m sure it adds to the shell’s overall strength. It might make it more weather resistant if the parts are held together more tightly, but I couldn’t say for certain.

There are more chips, and more and heavier connectors moving electrons from board to board than even the Canon 5DS cameras have. This kind of makes sense because there’s lots of new stuff in here: a touch screen LCD, dual-pixel technology, WiFi, GPS, the list goes on. One thing that didn’t really come across in the pictures, though, is there’s more air inside this camera than we’re used to seeing.

There are some empty spaces that aren’t packed full of electronics. In other words, this camera probably could have been a bit smaller but Canon wanted to keep the form factor the same.

There’s a sort of inherent value in these sorts of teardowns, aside from shock, and that it gives a sense of all the complicated mechanisms that go into modern cameras, and perhaps lends a sense of appreciation. You can check out the full teardown and write-up on Lensrentals.

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A Shadow Government Controls America

White House at Night | UNITED PHOTO PRESS

There is the visible government situated around the Mall in Washington, and then there is another, more shadowy, more indefinable government that is not explained in Civics 101 or observable to tourists at the White House or the Capitol. The former is traditional Washington partisan politics: the tip of the iceberg that a public watching C-SPAN sees daily and which is theoretically controllable via elections. The subsurface part of the iceberg I shall call the Deep State, which operates according to its own compass heading regardless of who is formally in power. [1]

During the last five years, the news media has been flooded with pundits decrying the broken politics of Washington. The conventional wisdom has it that partisan gridlock and dysfunction have become the new normal. That is certainly the case, and I have been among the harshest critics of this development. But it is also imperative to acknowledge the limits of this critique as it applies to the American governmental system. On one level, the critique is self-evident: In the domain that the public can see, Congress is hopelessly deadlocked in the worst manner since the 1850s, the violently rancorous decade preceding the Civil War.

Yes, there is another government concealed behind the one that is visible at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, a hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country…

As I wrote in The Party is Over, the present objective of congressional Republicans is to render the executive branch powerless, at least until a Republican president is elected (a goal that voter suppression laws in GOP-controlled states are clearly intended to accomplish). President Obama cannot enact his domestic policies and budgets: Because of incessant GOP filibustering, not only could he not fill the large number of vacancies in the federal judiciary, he could not even get his most innocuous presidential appointees into office. Democrats controlling the Senate have responded by weakening the filibuster of nominations, but Republicans are sure to react with other parliamentary delaying tactics. This strategy amounts to congressional nullification of executive branch powers by a party that controls a majority in only one house of Congress.

Despite this apparent impotence, President Obama can liquidate American citizens without due processes, detain prisoners indefinitely without charge, conduct dragnet surveillance on the American people without judicial warrant and engage in unprecedented - at least since the McCarthy era - witch hunts against federal employees (the so-called "Insider Threat Program"). Within the United States, this power is characterized by massive displays of intimidating force by militarized federal, state and local law enforcement. Abroad, President Obama can start wars at will and engage in virtually any other activity whatsoever without so much as a by-your-leave from Congress, such as arranging the forced landing of a plane carrying a sovereign head of state over foreign territory. Despite the habitual cant of congressional Republicans about executive overreach by Obama, the would-be dictator, we have until recently heard very little from them about these actions - with the minor exception of comments from gadfly Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. Democrats, save a few mavericks such as Ron Wyden of Oregon, are not unduly troubled, either - even to the extent of permitting seemingly perjured congressional testimony under oath by executive branch officials on the subject of illegal surveillance.

These are not isolated instances of a contradiction; they have been so pervasive that they tend to be disregarded as background noise. During the time in 2011 when political warfare over the debt ceiling was beginning to paralyze the business of governance in Washington, the United States government somehow summoned the resources to overthrow Muammar Ghaddafi-s regime in Libya, and, when the instability created by that coup spilled over into Mali, provide overt and covert assistance to French intervention there. At a time when there was heated debate about continuing meat inspections and civilian air traffic control because of the budget crisis, our government was somehow able to commit $115 million to keeping a civil war going in Syria and to pay at least £100m to the United Kingdom-s Government Communications Headquarters to buy influence over and access to that country-s intelligence. Since 2007, two bridges carrying interstate highways have collapsed due to inadequate maintenance of infrastructure, one killing 13 people. During that same period of time, the government spent $1.7 billion constructing a building in Utah that is the size of 17 football fields. This mammoth structure is intended to allow the National Security Agency to store a yottabyte of information, the largest numerical designator computer scientists have coined. A yottabyte is equal to 500 quintillion pages of text. They need that much storage to archive every single trace of your electronic life.

Yes, there is another government concealed behind the one that is visible at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, a hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country according to consistent patterns in season and out, connected to, but only intermittently controlled by, the visible state whose leaders we choose. My analysis of this phenomenon is not an exposé of a secret, conspiratorial cabal; the state within a state is hiding mostly in plain sight, and its operators mainly act in the light of day. Nor can this other government be accurately termed an "establishment." All complex societies have an establishment, a social network committed to its own enrichment and perpetuation. In terms of its scope, financial resources and sheer global reach, the American hybrid state, the Deep State, is in a class by itself. That said, it is neither omniscient nor invincible. The institution is not so much sinister (although it has highly sinister aspects) as it is relentlessly well entrenched. Far from being invincible, its failures, such as those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, are routine enough that it is only the Deep State-s protectiveness towards its higher-ranking personnel that allows them to escape the consequences of their frequent ineptitude. [2]

How did I come to write an analysis of the Deep State, and why am I equipped to write it? As a congressional staff member for 28 years specializing in national security and possessing a top secret security clearance, I was at least on the fringes of the world I am describing, if neither totally in it by virtue of full membership nor of it by psychological disposition. But, like virtually every employed person, I became, to some extent, assimilated into the culture of the institution I worked for, and only by slow degrees, starting before the invasion of Iraq, did I begin fundamentally to question the reasons of state that motivate the people who are, to quote George W. Bush, "the deciders."

Cultural assimilation is partly a matter of what psychologist Irving L. Janis called "groupthink," the chameleon-like ability of people to adopt the views of their superiors and peers. This syndrome is endemic to Washington: The town is characterized by sudden fads, be it negotiating biennial budgeting, making grand bargains or invading countries. Then, after a while, all the town-s cool kids drop those ideas as if they were radioactive. As in the military, everybody has to get on board with the mission, and questioning it is not a career-enhancing move. The universe of people who will critically examine the goings-on at the institutions they work for is always going to be a small one. As Upton Sinclair said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

A more elusive aspect of cultural assimilation is the sheer dead weight of the ordinariness of it all once you have planted yourself in your office chair for the 10,000th time. Government life is typically not some vignette from an Allen Drury novel about intrigue under the Capitol dome. Sitting and staring at the clock on the off-white office wall when it-s 11:00 in the evening and you are vowing never, ever to eat another piece of takeout pizza in your life is not an experience that summons the higher literary instincts of a would-be memoirist. After a while, a functionary of the state begins to hear things that, in another context, would be quite remarkable, or at least noteworthy, and yet that simply bounce off one-s consciousness like pebbles off steel plate: "You mean the number of terrorist groups we are fighting is classified?" No wonder so few people are whistle-blowers, quite apart from the vicious retaliation whistle-blowing often provokes: Unless one is blessed with imagination and a fine sense of irony, growing immune to the curiousness of one-s surroundings is easy. To paraphrase the inimitable Donald Rumsfeld, I didn-t know all that I knew, at least until I had had a couple of years away from the government to reflect upon it.

The Deep State does not consist of the entire government. It is a hybrid of national security and law enforcement agencies: the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Justice Department. I also include the Department of the Treasury because of its jurisdiction over financial flows, its enforcement of international sanctions and its organic symbiosis with Wall Street. All these agencies are coordinated by the Executive Office of the President via the National Security Council. Certain key areas of the judiciary belong to the Deep State, such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, whose actions are mysterious even to most members of Congress. Also included are a handful of vital federal trial courts, such as the Eastern District of Virginia and the Southern District of Manhattan, where sensitive proceedings in national security cases are conducted. The final government component (and possibly last in precedence among the formal branches of government established by the Constitution) is a kind of rump Congress consisting of the congressional leadership and some (but not all) of the members of the defense and intelligence committees. The rest of Congress, normally so fractious and partisan, is mostly only intermittently aware of the Deep State and when required usually submits to a few well-chosen words from the State-s emissaries.

I saw this submissiveness on many occasions. One memorable incident was passage of theForeign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act of 2008. This legislation retroactively legalized the Bush administration-s illegal and unconstitutional surveillance first revealed by The New York Times in 2005 and indemnified the telecommunications companies for their cooperation in these acts. The bill passed easily: All that was required was the invocation of the word "terrorism" and most members of Congress responded like iron filings obeying a magnet. One who responded in that fashion was Senator Barack Obama, soon to be coronated as the presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. He had already won the most delegates by campaigning to the left of his main opponent, Hillary Clinton, on the excesses of the global war on terror and the erosion of constitutional liberties.

As the indemnification vote showed, the Deep State does not consist only of government agencies. What is euphemistically called "private enterprise" is an integral part of its operations. In a special series in The Washington Post called "Top Secret America," Dana Priest and William K. Arkin described the scope of the privatized Deep State and the degree to which it has metastasized after the September 11 attacks. There are now 854,000 contract personnel with top-secret clearances - a number greater than that of top-secret-cleared civilian employees of the government. While they work throughout the country and the world, their heavy concentration in and around the Washington suburbs is unmistakable: Since 9/11, 33 facilities for top-secret intelligence have been built or are under construction. Combined, they occupy the floor space of almost three Pentagons - about 17 million square feet. Seventy percent of the intelligence community-s budget goes to paying contracts. And the membrane between government and industry is highly permeable: The Director of National Intelligence, James R. Clapper, is a former executive of Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the government-s largest intelligence contractors. His predecessor as director, Admiral Mike McConnell, is the current vice chairman of the same company; Booz Allen is 99 percent dependent on government business. These contractors now set the political and social tone of Washington, just as they are increasingly setting the direction of the country, but they are doing it quietly, their doings unrecorded in the Congressional Record or the Federal Register, and are rarely subject to congressional hearings.

Washington is the most important node of the Deep State that has taken over America, but it is not the only one. Invisible threads of money and ambition connect the town to other nodes. One is Wall Street, which supplies the cash that keeps the political machine quiescent and operating as a diversionary marionette theater. Should the politicians forget their lines and threaten the status quo, Wall Street floods the town with cash and lawyers to help the hired hands remember their own best interests. The executives of the financial giants even have de facto criminal immunity. On March 6, 2013, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder stated the following: "I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy." This, from the chief law enforcement officer of a justice system that has practically abolished the constitutional right to trial for poorer defendants charged with certain crimes. It is not too much to say that Wall Street may be the ultimate owner of the Deep State and its strategies, if for no other reason than that it has the money to reward government operatives with a second career that is lucrative beyond the dreams of avarice - certainly beyond the dreams of a salaried government employee. [3]

The corridor between Manhattan and Washington is a well trodden highway for the personalities we have all gotten to know in the period since the massive deregulation of Wall Street: Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, Henry Paulson, Timothy Geithner and many others. Not all the traffic involves persons connected with the purely financial operations of the government: In 2013, General David Petraeus joined KKR (formerly Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) of 9 West 57th Street, New York, a private equity firm with $62.3 billion in assets. KKR specializes in management buyouts and leveraged finance. General Petraeus- expertise in these areas is unclear. His ability to peddle influence, however, is a known and valued commodity. Unlike Cincinnatus, the military commanders of the Deep State do not take up the plow once they lay down the sword. Petraeus also obtained a sinecure as a non-resident senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard. The Ivy League is, of course, the preferred bleaching tub and charm school of the American oligarchy. [4]

Petraeus and most of the avatars of the Deep State - the White House advisers who urged Obama not to impose compensation limits on Wall Street CEOs, the contractor-connected think tank experts who besought us to "stay the course" in Iraq, the economic gurus who perpetually demonstrate that globalization and deregulation are a blessing that makes us all better off in the long run - are careful to pretend that they have no ideology. Their preferred pose is that of the politically neutral technocrat offering well considered advice based on profound expertise. That is nonsense. They are deeply dyed in the hue of the official ideology of the governing class, an ideology that is neither specifically Democrat nor Republican. Domestically, whatever they might privately believe about essentially diversionary social issues such as abortion or gay marriage, they almost invariably believe in the "Washington Consensus": financialization, outsourcing, privatization, deregulation and the commodifying of labor. Internationally, they espouse 21st-century "American Exceptionalism": the right and duty of the United States to meddle in every region of the world with coercive diplomacy and boots on the ground and to ignore painfully won international norms of civilized behavior. To paraphrase what Sir John Harrington said more than 400 years ago about treason, now that the ideology of the Deep State has prospered, none dare call it ideology. [5] That is why describing torture with the word "torture" on broadcast television is treated less as political heresy than as an inexcusable lapse of Washington etiquette: Like smoking a cigarette on camera, these days it is simply "not done."

After Edward Snowden-s revelations about the extent and depth of surveillance by the National Security Agency, it has become publicly evident that Silicon Valley is a vital node of the Deep State as well. Unlike military and intelligence contractors, Silicon Valley overwhelmingly sells to the private market, but its business is so important to the government that a strange relationship has emerged. While the government could simply dragoon the high technology companies to do the NSA-s bidding, it would prefer cooperation with so important an engine of the nation-s economy, perhaps with an implied quid pro quo. Perhaps this explains the extraordinary indulgence the government shows the Valley in intellectual property matters. If an American "jailbreaks" his smartphone (i.e., modifies it so that it can use a service provider other than the one dictated by the manufacturer), he could receive a fine of up to $500,000 and several years in prison; so much for a citizen-s vaunted property rights to what he purchases. The libertarian pose of the Silicon Valley moguls, so carefully cultivated in their public relations, has always been a sham. Silicon Valley has long been tracking for commercial purposes the activities of every person who uses an electronic device, so it is hardly surprising that the Deep State should emulate the Valley and do the same for its own purposes. Nor is it surprising that it should conscript the Valley-s assistance.

Still, despite the essential roles of lower Manhattan and Silicon Valley, the center of gravity of the Deep State is firmly situated in and around the Beltway. The Deep State-s physical expansion and consolidation around the Beltway would seem to make a mockery of the frequent pronouncement that governance in Washington is dysfunctional and broken. That the secret and unaccountable Deep State floats freely above the gridlock between both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue is the paradox of American government in the 21st century: drone strikes, data mining, secret prisons and Panopticon-like control on the one hand; and on the other, the ordinary, visible parliamentary institutions of self-government declining to the status of a banana republic amid the gradual collapse of public infrastructure.

The results of this contradiction are not abstract, as a tour of the rotting, decaying, bankrupt cities of the American Midwest will attest. It is not even confined to those parts of the country left behind by a Washington Consensus that decreed the financialization and deindustrialization of the economy in the interests of efficiency and shareholder value. This paradox is evident even within the Beltway itself, the richest metropolitan area in the nation. Although demographers and urban researchers invariably count Washington as a "world city," that is not always evident to those who live there. Virtually every time there is a severe summer thunderstorm, tens - or even hundreds - of thousands of residents lose power, often for many days. There are occasional water restrictions over wide areas because water mains, poorly constructed and inadequately maintained, have burst. [6] The Washington metropolitan area considers it a Herculean task just to build a rail link to its international airport - with luck it may be completed by 2018.

It is as if Hadrian-s Wall was still fully manned and the fortifications along the border with Germania were never stronger, even as the city of Rome disintegrates from within and the life-sustaining aqueducts leading down from the hills begin to crumble. The governing classes of the Deep State may continue to deceive themselves with their dreams of Zeus-like omnipotence, but others do not. A 2013 Pew Poll that interviewed 38,000 people around the world found that in 23 of 39 countries surveyed, a plurality of respondents said they believed China already had or would in the future replace the United States as the world-s top economic power.

The Deep State is the big story of our time. It is the red thread that runs through the war on terrorism, the financialization and deindustrialization of the American economy, the rise of a plutocratic social structure and political dysfunction. Washington is the headquarters of the Deep State, and its time in the sun as a rival to Rome, Constantinople or London may be term-limited by its overweening sense of self-importance and its habit, as Winwood Reade said of Rome, to "live upon its principal till ruin stared it in the face." "Living upon its principal," in this case, means that the Deep State has been extracting value from the American people in vampire-like fashion.

We are faced with two disagreeable implications. First, that the Deep State is so heavily entrenched, so well protected by surveillance, firepower, money and its ability to co-opt resistance that it is almost impervious to change. Second, that just as in so many previous empires, the Deep State is populated with those whose instinctive reaction to the failure of their policies is to double down on those very policies in the future. Iraq was a failure briefly camouflaged by the wholly propagandistic success of the so-called surge; this legerdemain allowed for the surge in Afghanistan, which equally came to naught. Undeterred by that failure, the functionaries of the Deep State plunged into Libya; the smoking rubble of the Benghazi consulate, rather than discouraging further misadventure, seemed merely to incite the itch to bomb Syria. Will the Deep State ride on the back of the American people from failure to failure until the country itself, despite its huge reserves of human and material capital, is slowly exhausted? The dusty road of empire is strewn with the bones of former great powers that exhausted themselves in like manner.

But, there are signs of resistance to the Deep State and its demands. In the aftermath of the Snowden revelations, the House narrowly failed to pass an amendment that would have defunded the NSA-s warrantless collection of data from US persons. Shortly thereafter, the president, advocating yet another military intervention in the Middle East, this time in Syria, met with such overwhelming congressional skepticism that he changed the subject by grasping at a diplomatic lifeline thrown to him by Vladimir Putin. [7]

Has the visible, constitutional state, the one envisaged by Madison and the other Founders, finally begun to reassert itself against the claims and usurpations of the Deep State? To some extent, perhaps. The unfolding revelations of the scope of the NSA-s warrantless surveillance have become so egregious that even institutional apologists such as Senator Dianne Feinstein have begun to backpedal - if only rhetorically - from their knee-jerk defense of the agency. As more people begin to waken from the fearful and suggestible state that 9/11 created in their minds, it is possible that the Deep State-s decade-old tactic of crying "terrorism!" every time it faces resistance is no longer eliciting the same Pavlovian response of meek obedience. And the American people, possibly even their legislators, are growing tired of endless quagmires in the Middle East.

But there is another more structural reason the Deep State may have peaked in the extent of its dominance. While it seems to float above the constitutional state, its essentially parasitic, extractive nature means that it is still tethered to the formal proceedings of governance. The Deep State thrives when there is tolerable functionality in the day-to-day operations of the federal government. As long as appropriations bills get passed on time, promotion lists get confirmed, black (i.e., secret) budgets get rubber-stamped, special tax subsidies for certain corporations are approved without controversy, as long as too many awkward questions are not asked, the gears of the hybrid state will mesh noiselessly. But when one house of Congress is taken over by tea party Wahhabites, life for the ruling class becomes more trying.

If there is anything the Deep State requires it is silent, uninterrupted cash flow and the confidence that things will go on as they have in the past. It is even willing to tolerate a degree of gridlock: Partisan mud wrestling over cultural issues may be a useful distraction from its agenda. But recent congressional antics involving sequestration, the government shutdown and the threat of default over the debt ceiling extension have been disrupting that equilibrium. And an extreme gridlock dynamic has developed between the two parties such that continuing some level of sequestration is politically the least bad option for both parties, albeit for different reasons. As much as many Republicans might want to give budget relief to the organs of national security, they cannot fully reverse sequestration without the Democrats demanding revenue increases. And Democrats wanting to spend more on domestic discretionary programs cannot void sequestration on either domestic or defense programs without Republicans insisting on entitlement cuts.

So, for the foreseeable future, the Deep State must restrain its appetite for taxpayer dollars. Limited deals may soften sequestration, but agency requests will not likely be fully funded anytime soon. Even Wall Street-s rentier operations have been affected: After helping finance the tea party to advance its own plutocratic ambitions, America-s Big Money is now regretting the Frankenstein-s monster it has created. Like children playing with dynamite, the tea party and its compulsion to drive the nation into credit default has alarmed the grown-ups commanding the heights of capital; the latter are now telling the politicians they thought they had hired to knock it off.

The House vote to defund the NSA-s illegal surveillance programs was equally illustrative of the disruptive nature of the tea party insurgency. Civil liberties Democrats alone would never have come so close to victory; tea party stalwart Justin Amash (R-MI), who has also upset the business community for his debt-limit fundamentalism, was the lead Republican sponsor of the NSA amendment, and most of the Republicans who voted with him were aligned with the tea party.

The final factor is Silicon Valley. Owing to secrecy and obfuscation, it is hard to know how much of the NSA-s relationship with the Valley is based on voluntary cooperation, how much is legal compulsion through FISA warrants and how much is a matter of the NSA surreptitiously breaking into technology companies- systems. Given the Valley-s public relations requirement to mollify its customers who have privacy concerns, it is difficult to take the tech firms- libertarian protestations about government compromise of their systems at face value, especially since they engage in similar activity against their own customers for commercial purposes. That said, evidence is accumulating that Silicon Valley is losing billions in overseas business from companies, individuals and governments that want to maintain privacy. For high tech entrepreneurs, the cash nexus is ultimately more compelling than the Deep State-s demand for patriotic cooperation. Even legal compulsion can be combatted: Unlike the individual citizen, tech firms have deep pockets and batteries of lawyers with which to fight government diktat.

This pushback has gone so far that on January 17, President Obama announced revisions to the NSA-s data collection programs, including withdrawing the agency-s custody of a domestic telephone record database, expanding requirements for judicial warrants and ceasing to spy on (undefined) "friendly foreign leaders." Critics have denounced the changes as a cosmetic public relations move, but they are still significant in that the clamor has gotten so loud that the president feels the political need to address it.

When the contradictions within a ruling ideology are pushed too far, factionalism appears and that ideology begins slowly to crumble. Corporate oligarchs such as the Koch brothers are no longer entirely happy with the faux-populist political front group they helped fund and groom. Silicon Valley, for all the Ayn Rand-like tendencies of its major players, its offshoring strategies and its further exacerbation of income inequality, is now lobbying Congress to restrain the NSA, a core component of the Deep State. Some tech firms are moving to encrypt their data. High tech corporations and governments alike seek dominance over people though collection of personal data, but the corporations are jumping ship now that adverse public reaction to the NSA scandals threatens their profits.

The outcome of all these developments is uncertain. The Deep State, based on the twin pillars of national security imperative and corporate hegemony, has until recently seemed unshakable and the latest events may only be a temporary perturbation in its trajectory. But history has a way of toppling the altars of the mighty. While the two great materialist and determinist ideologies of the twentieth century, Marxism and the Washington Consensus, successively decreed that the dictatorship of the proletariat and the dictatorship of the market were inevitable, the future is actually indeterminate. It may be that deep economic and social currents create the framework of history, but those currents can be channeled, eddied, or even reversed by circumstance, chance and human agency. We have only to reflect upon defunct glacial despotisms such as the USSR or East Germany to realize that nothing is forever.

Throughout history, state systems with outsized pretensions to power have reacted to their environments in two ways. The first strategy, reflecting the ossification of its ruling elites, consists of repeating that nothing is wrong, that the status quo reflects the nation-s unique good fortune in being favored by God and that those calling for change are merely subversive troublemakers. As the French ancien régime, the Romanov dynasty and the Habsburg emperors discovered, the strategy works splendidly for a while, particularly if one has a talent for dismissing unpleasant facts. The final results, however, are likely to be thoroughly disappointing.

The second strategy is one embraced to varying degrees and with differing goals, by figures of such contrasting personalities as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles de Gaulle and Deng Xiaoping. They were certainly not revolutionaries by temperament; if anything, their natures were conservative. But they understood that the political cultures in which they lived were fossilized and incapable of adapting to the times. In their drive to reform and modernize the political systems they inherited, their first obstacles to overcome were the outworn myths that encrusted the thinking of the elites of their time.

As the United States confronts its future after experiencing two failed wars, a precarious economy and $17 trillion in accumulated debt, the national punditry has split into two camps. The first, the declinists, sees a broken, dysfunctional political system incapable of reform and an economy soon to be overtaken by China. The second, the reformers, offers a profusion of nostrums to turn the nation around: public financing of elections to sever the artery of money between the corporate components of the Deep State and financially dependent elected officials, government "insourcing" to reverse the tide of outsourcing of government functions and the conflicts of interest that it creates, a tax policy that values human labor over financial manipulation and a trade policy that favors exporting manufactured goods over exporting investment capital.

All of that is necessary, but not sufficient. The Snowden revelations (the impact of which have been surprisingly strong), the derailed drive for military intervention in Syria and a fractious Congress, whose dysfunction has begun to be a serious inconvenience to the Deep State, show that there is now a deep but as yet inchoate hunger for change. What America lacks is a figure with the serene self-confidence to tell us that the twin idols of national security and corporate power are outworn dogmas that have nothing more to offer us. Thus disenthralled, the people themselves will unravel the Deep State with surprising speed.

[1] The term "Deep State" was coined in Turkey and is said to be a system composed of high-level elements within the intelligence services, military, security, judiciary and organized crime. In British author John le Carré-s latest novel, A Delicate Truth, a character describes the Deep State as "… the ever-expanding circle of non-governmental insiders from banking, industry and commerce who were cleared for highly classified information denied to large swathes of Whitehall and Westminster." I use the term to mean a hybrid association of elements of government and parts of top-level finance and industry that is effectively able to govern the United States without reference to the consent of the governed as expressed through the formal political process.

[2] Twenty-five years ago, the sociologist Robert Nisbet described this phenomenon as "the attribute of No Fault…. Presidents, secretaries and generals and admirals in America seemingly subscribe to the doctrine that no fault ever attaches to policy and operations. This No Fault conviction prevents them from taking too seriously such notorious foul-ups as Desert One, Grenada, Lebanon and now the Persian Gulf." To his list we might add 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

[3] The attitude of many members of Congress towards Wall Street was memorably expressedby Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), the incoming chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, in 2010: "In Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks."

[4] Beginning in 1988, every US president has been a graduate of Harvard or Yale. Beginning in 2000, every losing presidential candidate has been a Harvard or Yale graduate, with the exception of John McCain in 2008.

[5] In recent months, the American public has seen a vivid example of a Deep State operative marketing his ideology under the banner of pragmatism. Former Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates - a one-time career CIA officer and deeply political Bush family retainer - has camouflaged his retrospective defense of military escalations that have brought us nothing but casualties and fiscal grief as the straight-from-the-shoulder memoir from a plain-spoken son of Kansas who disdains Washington and its politicians.

[6] Meanwhile, the US government took the lead in restoring Baghdad-s sewer system at a cost of $7 billion.

[7] Obama-s abrupt about-face suggests he may have been skeptical of military intervention in Syria all along, but only dropped that policy once Congress and Putin gave him the running room to do so. In 2009, he went ahead with the Afghanistan "surge" partly because General Petraeus- public relations campaign and back-channel lobbying on the Hill for implementation of his pet military strategy pre-empted other options. These incidents raise the disturbing question of how much the democratically elected president - or any president - sets the policy of the national security state and how much the policy is set for him by the professional operatives of that state who engineer faits accomplis that force his hand.

UNITED PHOTO PRESS | 2016

By Mike Lofgren

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Photokina 2016: The Story

We’ve spent a hectic few days in Cologne for Photokina 2016. Here’s what we’ve seen, learned and loved so far.

Most of you already know (or at least have heard about) Fair best-known photograph of the world which is being held this week, we talked about Photokina 2016. For those who do not know her, must know that is the biggest fair commercial in which can be participants in a concentration of the most important brands in the photographic sector. It is held every two years and is the perfect opportunity to know the products and developments highlighted in the photography scene. Moreover, not only what we remainder of the year, but in the next and even to be held again this trade fair taking place in Cologne. We've been there, and we want to tell some of the things we've seen.

Prestigious brands such as Canon, Nikon, Sony and others take the opportunity to be noticed with new products, with no improvement seen so far, advances that make us long teeth. Like many of you, could you not attend but you want to be the last, in Foto24 we intend to bring all the innovations and the most characteristic products this year, so we have planted in Cologne, gathering all the necessary information. If you want to know what were the most important developments in this Photokina 2016 estate well tuned, because these will be talking about them for a long time.

Although the team has already attended Foto24 at other times Photokina, this year it was present in the room air different from the rest, hope, change, refinement and originality is palpable. It seems that the stands, filled with new products and even not so new, will never end. People walk around and look in any direction in search of the scoop or chat they had long been waiting for. The staff of the stands, while friendly nervous about living up to what this event entails. An event changing, which has met our expectations, with the novelty of course, as the protagonist. Then, to keep you abreast of all the news that have taken place there, I will develop new products for Photokina 2016 as the stands that have more prominent in this trade fair.

1. Canon

They have tried to keep it a secret until the last moment, and they have succeeded. They have managed to keep us in suspense until you know what your new release days before the start of Photokina. Canon pulled the pool with his new EOS M5 mirrorless camera with a lightweight design and quality that has not left anyone indifferent. They have taken into account the demands of those who wanted a camera with professional features but with a weight and size suitable for all kinds of situations. Canon has designed this camera high-end mirrorless with a more compact and manageable than conventional DSLR design.

We were surprised at the number of innovations that brings this new design, new features that have to do with a great power, thanks to its Digic 7 processor speed and performance thanks to its CMOS sensor APS-C and focusing system Dual Pixel CMOS AF which gives the precision that all're looking for.

The other big news in regards Canon, has to do with their connectivity. It includes Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth technology, so you can connect the camera to your smartphone and not only transfer images, but also to use your phone as a remote control.

With respect to the objectives, seven are compatible lenses and compact design accompanying this camera without a mirror. If we combine technology with IS stabilization system five axes, you not only will improve the stability of your photos, but also your videos. Focusing on the new EF-M 18-150 mm f / 3.5-6.3 IS STM presented to society at Photokina, we should mention an optical design that breaks with the above, built with an engine USM Nano offer a super quick focus, very fluently and very quiet. What surprised us most of the suitable target for such unequal areas as wildlife, sport or urban scenes, was the electronic display to provide information to the photographer.

2. Nikon

Without any doubt, Nikon has taken a step further as far as innovation is concerned. Despite the many rumors that have enveloped Nikon with a supposed new mirrorless camera, has left us with honey on the lips during his presentation at Photokina with three different models of camcorders action ultra resistant, with features very different from what we've seen so far, some models that attempt to occupy an increasingly large niche market.

Although earlier this year and was offered an advance camcorder 360 KeyMission action, they have designed two models. But first we must expand on the features of this device has broken with everything we knew so far. This is the first camcorder capable of recording 4K UHD with 360 ° format, which I venture to say, that will be a problem for one of its biggest competitors in this sector, GoPro. Following their performance, has been designed with a very compact size and light (as expected in an action camera) and resistant to all kinds of shocks, withstand even falls from 2 meters high, is also waterproof for 60 minutes to 30 meters deep without housing.

The following action camcorder, KeyMission 170, notable for its wide-angle Nikkor lens and also because it allows recording in 4K and Full HD. It has a compact and robust design, it is resistant to all types of strokes. You can work with it under water to a depth of 10 meters during 60 minutes, also without housing. And like his partner KeyMission 360, this model includes a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology, so you can quickly transfer your recordings to other devices or to your social networks.

Finally, the simplest proposal, the KeyMission 80 camcorder is designed for more practical areas of life, therefore, can not make recordings in 4K with her. But that does not mean you have fewer benefits. Designed with two cameras, a front and a rear; perfect, for example, to make recordings from your car, you can document the routes you make. Has a very different from other market action cameras elongated design, it is also very light, and has an LCD and 1.7 "touch screen. Like previous models, it has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

3. Sony

It seems that Sony has heard the criticism he has received throughout this time for having forgotten the Alpha range. It has come to Photokina taking a step up with its new design, the Alpha 99 II camera, a touch of fresh air despite having some similarities with its predecessor. This camera becomes the first in the market with a super compact frame and allows recording in 4K UHD. That will not be fooled by its small size and weight, because we talk about a camera terrain sensor 35 mm (Full Frame) and a resolution of 42 megapixels, with frame rates up to 30p to 100 Mbps in the format XAVC S. Te It allows you to work with an ISO of 50 to 102,400 and a burst of up to 12 frames per second, a continuous shot you can test your engine thanks aa focus focus 4D, the fastest in the market so far.

4. GoPro

The reference mark for the more adventurous, has not been content to present two new camcorders action, Hero 5 Black and Hero 5 Session (with a performance that have honestly improved Nikon), but also adds to its catalog the drone Karma , finally settling in that niche market that needs to look at life with a much broader or higher perspective.

Both chambers of action differs from its predecessor by its external construction, have a much more compact and lightweight design, moreover, they are capable of recording 4K recording format at 30 frames per second. They are water resistant to 10 meters deep without housing. However, Hero 5 Session does not have a GPS receiver, will not allow you to store in RAW or WDR, in addition to photos with 10 megapixels, unlike Black Hero 5 allows you to work with 12.

Another thing they have in common these new action cameras is that they are fully compatible with the new drone presented at Photokina. A drone with a stylish, compact and foldable design, so you can take it with you everywhere. Although you can control with your smartphone or voice controller with new versions of GoPro Hero, a controller with touchscreen for a more practical and intuitive use is included. It also includes a three-axis stabilizer with which you can attach your camera action and get recordings with great stability.

5. Irix

As one would expect, Irix has been noted in the world's most important photographic fair. A new brand in the optical panorama park has burst and has come to stay. It is not surprising that the benefits offered its objectives leave with their mouths open to anyone who knows the first time. We have been accompanying them in their booth Photokina along this intense week and we are pleased to announce that not only will be able to enjoy the aims 15mm Blackstone and Firefly, at the end of the year a new target Irix to be launched 11 mm f / 4 and early 2017 a target of 45 mm f / 1.4, which have been announced in these days and promise much as their brothers.

If we already fascinated the first models created by the Swiss company Swiss HT, we dare to ensure that these new models will not leave you indifferent.

Presentation of accessories for Irix goals. circular, square filters and famous gelatin filters, which are placed in the rear.

6. Olympus

Olympus wanted to go much further, considering that the Photokina festival is only held once every two years, did not want to miss the opportunity to introduce two new cameras, three new goals and an ultra powerful flash.

First, we must mention the Olympus OM-D E-M1 II as it represents the jewel in the crown as far as the brand is concerned, and not just during the remainder of the year, but next. It is not yet known when will the market, but certainly has everyone intrigued us. The new mirrorless camera despite having an electronic shutter has a burst shooting 18 fps per second, which makes us an idea of ​​how fast and effective it can become this device. It consists of a hybrid focusing system Dual Fast AF that will help you work with impressive speed approach. No doubt the speed is what most concerned Olympus, so have made every effort to apply it to all the factors that make this device, and certainly have succeeded, including the response speed of the EVF or processor.

The other chamber is presented at Photokina camera Olympus PEN E-PL8, a new micro four thirds of 16.1 megapixels and a TruePic TM VII processor. Its sensitivity ranges from ISO 100 to 25,600. Allows recording in 1080 to 24 and 30 images per second and we can work with 4K formats, the reason is that this camera compact size is designed for beginning photographers looking for a comfortable camera to carry around and with which good pictures are achieved.

With regard to the new premium should be noted that manage to complete a range of targets for all kinds of needs objectives. First the ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 25mm f / 1.2 PRO is very bright thanks to its large maximum aperture diaphragm, its 9 diaphragm blades allow you to get a mild effect bokeh and blur and if that were not enough, has been designed with a coating Nano Z to avoid any chromatic aberrations, working with unmatchable fidelity color. Regarding the M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 30mm f / 3.5, it is noteworthy that makes a good team with camera OM-D E-M1 II for using bracketing, macro you can get images with different approaches and choose then the one that best suits the results you expect. Finally the M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12-100 objective mm 1: 4.0 IS PRO, a telephoto lens with a super rugged metal design, but very lightweight and easy to handle.

12-100 objective Olympus Photokina

The Olympus M.ZUIKO 12-100mm zoom lens

He could not finish talking Olympus not to mention one of his greatest creations presented at Photokina 2016, the flash FL-900 A. It is one of the most powerful flashes created by the brand so far, it has a guide number 58 and is capable cover a wide viewing angle focal length between 72 and 100 mm. Another new feature is that it answers shutter speeds up to 10 frames per second. And if you need this flash to work with recordings, it has incorporated a continuous illumination with an LED that gives you 100 Lux.

7. Panasonic

Panasonic has officially unveiled its new creation at Photokina, but can not be acquired until the middle of 2017. Have not want to fall behind in terms mirrorless cameras, and in fact we can say that have gone far beyond what Was expected. The camera is capable Lumix GH5 recording in 4K format at 60p / 50p, so stay above even such prestigious cameras like the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, which was presented a few months ago. As commented on the new Sony camera, you can work with a continuous shot high speed, with the difference that the results of this amount to 18MP camera with a resolution much higher than Full HD.

They have also debuted two new compact cameras, Lumix DMC LX15 and Lumix FZ2000 and micro four thirds, Lumix G80. LX15 Lumix compact camera has a pocket design, elegant and stylish, with a large MOS sensor of an inch. Perfect for both work in low light, thanks to its maximum aperture of f / 1.4 to recording in 4K format, like the new model DMC Lumix FZ2000. This model incorporates a 20x optical zoom and Wi-Fi to share your work instantly. It allows you to make recordings in 4K format at 24 frames per second with a resolution of 4096 x 2160 pixels and 24 frames per second in MOV or MP4. 80% is reduced movements and vibrations thanks to the stabilization guide-pole.

Finally, the new micro four thirds designed especially for hard-core adventurers, a camera to break the mold as well says the brand. It offers a high image quality and high performance even in extreme working conditions, as has a rugged design to splash water or dust. They have improved their 4K technology with dual image stabilizer 5-axis razor sharp in every shot. also highlight its digital 16 megapixel MOS sensor and the new Venus processor.

8. Polaroid

It is increasingly committed instant cameras is that, being able to get immortalize your memories and have them in the palm of your hand instantly, it is something that we all love. It is normal for this type of cameras do not have the same quality you would get with a DSLR, but every time progresses more and more developments in this sector. Specifically Polaroid has it wanted to differentiate themselves from their competitors, achieving what few imagined, have designed a camera capable of recording Full HD format, besides its sensor of 13 megapixels with which you get pictures of excellent quality, is Polaroid Touch Snap, a bold at the same time interesting bet. As stated Polaroid Print App and a Bluetooth connection, you can transfer files to your social networks in seconds, since all your photographs will be on your smartphone. Even the pictures of your smartphone can pass this instant camera.

9. Sigma

They have taken the opportunity to Photokina offers to be noticed during this event with three new high-end objectives. First we will discuss the new target belonging to the Sports range, the goal 500mm ƒ / 4 DG OS HSM. It is designed for those adventurous photographers who take your team and go to immortalize the fauna of a place, those who do not care too much for you computer security. So, it has been designed with magnesium alloy, not only to be super tough, but also to make it light. With a lens constructed of 16 elements in 11 groups, with two FLD glass elements and one super low dispersion.

Sigma 500mm Photokina

Regarding the objective 12-24mm ƒ / 4 DG HSM ART range, it is considered the most powerful ultra angular designed by the brand. Not only will offer professional results from center to the edges of your image, but also has a minimum focusing distance of 24 centimeters to 24 mm to not have to lose detail in a scene. These advantages make it one of the most versatile of the range. Also noteworthy is its engine HSM approach that significantly improve computer performance.

Sigma 12-24mm Photokina

Finally, it comes to our target 85mm ƒ / 1.4 DG HSM also part of the ART range. It is certainly one of the best alternatives for those of you who are passionate portrait photography or close-ups, because thanks to its 9 rounded diaphragm blades allow you to make a blur to give an amazing touch to your work. Besides its large maximum aperture of aperture of f / 1.4 will ensure a fantastic light.

10. Fuji

Fujifilm has decided to present at the trade fair Photokina 2016 its new medium format camera. GFX 50S Fujifilm camera with a resolution of 51.4 megapixels. We are surprised by this new creation because the benefits are similar to more expensive models, thus having a value difficult to match. As its exterior design seems to be inspired by DSLR cameras because it has a much more manageable than other medium-format cameras size. It has incorporated a monochrome monitor so you can quickly view the parameters. Fuji knows the importance of viewers in these cameras, so wanted to break away from the rest, creating a removable electronic viewfinder that attaches to the hot shoe of the camera and will allow you to tilt and rotate the monitor easily. It will certainly be a tough competition for the Hasselblad X1D.

Fujifilm at Photokina

Fuji has created three different models compatible with this new camera objectives, which have also wanted to present at Photokina, but nevertheless not be on the market until mid-2017 or even later. They belong to the G series, and respond to the name GF 63mm ƒ / 2.8 R WR, GF 32-64mm ƒ / 4R LM WR and GF 120mm ƒ / 4 Macro.

11. MagMod

The best flash modifiers we know have also had their place in this version of Photokina. Brand new MagMod have also been allowed to see to the general public. The MagMod Magbeam, an extender ideal for use with telephoto lenses flash and the MagMasks, to create patterns of different types, are the newest members of the family.

12. Takeway

Another great present in the hall were the Takeway photography clampod, who Foto24 is official distributor and seller in Spain. This has led them to use our site to teach the public their product line. Here the picture to prove it.

As you can see, this edition Photokina 2016 has brought many or more news from those expected, I hope this summary has dispelled doubts that some you had for some time regarding possible rumors that lurked some brands such as Canon or Nikon . This edition has satisfied us, at least for a while because we are looking forward to the next edition.

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Who really runs America? - The Millennium Report

“The Jesuits are a MILITARY organization, not a religious order. Their chief is a general of an army, not the mere father abbot of a monastery. And the aim of this organization is power – power in its most despotic exercise – absolute power, universal power, power to control the world by the volition of a single man [i.e., the Black Pope, the Superior General of the Jesuits]. Jesuitism is the most absolute of despotisms [sic] – and at the same time the greatest and most enormous of abuses…” — Napoleon I (i.e., Napoleon Bonaparte; 1769-1821; Emperor of the France)

Barack Obama is truly not the President of the United States. He is not a powerful person at all. Rather, he is a front man for more powerful entities that hide in the shadows.

The real power in the world is not the United States, Russia, or even China. It is Rome. The Roman Catholic Church (Vatican) is the single most powerful force in the world.

However, the Vatican has been under the control of it’s largest all-male order, the Jesuits. The Jesuits were created in 1534 to serve as the “counter-reformation” — the arm of the Church that would help to fight the Muslims and the Protestant Reformers. However, they fought with espionage. The Jesuits were expelled from at least 83 countries and cities for subversion, espionage, treason, and other such things. Samuel Morse said that the Jesuits were the foot soldiers in the Holy Alliance (Europe and the Vatican) plan to destroy the United States (Congress of Vienna). Marquis Lafayette stated that the Jesuits were behind most of the wars in Europe, and that they would be the ones to take liberty from the United States.

The head of the Jesuit Order is Adolfo Nicholas. His title is Superior General of the Jesuits. The use of the rank “general” is because the Jesuits are, in reality, a military organization.

Nicholas, as the Jesuit General, is the most powerful man in the world. He ultimately issues the commands that are administered by drones like Obama.

The Jesuit General is nicknamed “The Black Pope” because he always wears black robes. Pope Benedict XIV is, thus, the “White Pope”.

Directly under the Jesuit General is Fr. James E. Grummer, S.J. — one of the five Jesuit priests who serve as direct “assistants” to the Jesuit General. Grummer is his American assistant, and controls the US Jesuit Conference. He is the controller of every American Jesuit university and every American Jesuit Provincial. The New York Provincial has the most contact with Grummer (as the top provincial).

Father Grummer in 2008 when first appointed

Under Grummer is the President of the US Jesuit Conference, Fr. Thomas H. Smolich, S.J., who was the Jesuit Provincial of California during the reign of Governor Arnold Schwarznegger. Smolich was the power behind Arnold during these years. Smolich is a key force behind the planned Sino-Soviet-Muslim invasion, which the Jesuit Order is planning to use to bring down the United States. He is also actively involved in the orchestration of the Chinese-Mexican invasion.

Under Smolich is Fr. David S. Ciancimino, S.J., the Jesuit Provincial of New York. He is the top Jesuit Provinical in the United States, as New York is the capital of the Jesuit Order’s power (that’s why it was chosen as the staging area for 9/11). Here, Ciancimino (and the Jesuits beneath him) control Wall Street, the NYSE, and the Federal Reserve Bank. Ciancimino controls Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the most powerful Roman Catholic official in the United States who is not a Jesuit. Ciancimino is an occultist, as are many other top Jesuits.

Directly under Ciancimino is Fr. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., who is the President of Fordham University — the Jesuit college of New York, and the Jesuits’ military stronghold there. It is through McShane that the Jesuits (led by Ciancimino in New York) control Archbishop Timothy Dolan. He has become known as the “penholder” for Dolan. He wears a decorative necklace that features an equilateral triangle, a Masonic symbol of the Risen Horus.

Under the control of these powerful Jesuits is Pope Benedict XIV, the Vicar of Christ (Horus) and the current Roman Papal Caesar. He represents Osiris in mystery-school/occult mythology.

Below Pope Benedict XIV is the Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York. Dolan is the “American Pope” and the “Archbishop of the Capital of the World”. He heads the American branches of the Knights of Malta and Knights of Columbus. He is a likely occultist and the controller of American Freemasonry, the CFR, the ADL (B’nai B’rith), the Pentagon, and the intelligence community.

O’Hare is a devoted Zionist who supports the State of Israel, which was created in 1948 by the United Nations (UN) — a creation of the Archbishop of New York’s Council on Foreign relations). It was Archbishop Francis Spellman of New York who solicited votes at the UN for Israel. Spellman played a key role in Israel’s founding. The founder of Zionism was Theodor Herzl, who had frequent meetings with the Pope and had once planned to lead the jewish people in a “mass conversion” to Roman Catholicism. The true designers, financiers, and promoters of Zionism are the Rothschilds, who Encyclopedia Judaica describes as “guardians of the papal treasure”. That’s right — the Rothschilds are the banking agents of the Papacy. The State of Israel is just the revived Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, and it’s under the Vatican’s thumb.

Below O’Hare is John J. DeGioa, the President of Georgetown University. DeGioa is also a Knight of Malta and a member of the CFR. He is one of the over-seers of the State of Israel.

Below DeGioa, we find Richard N. Haas — the Chairman of the CFR. Haas is ultimately simply a lowly agent of Archbishop Egan. Haas is a Jewish Labor Zionist and oversees the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). These Jewish Zionists are mainly just Papal Court jewish people.

Below Haas is Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was a member of the CFR, Bilderberg Group, and Trilateral Commission. Brzezinski had co-founded the Trilateral Commission. He was a Knight of Malta, as was the other founder of the Trilateral Commission – David Rockefeller. Brzezinski is a Polish Roman Catholic and an adviser to Georgetown University.

Brzezinski was Soetoro’s professor at Columbia University, and recruited him for presidential grooming. Are we beginning to see the big picture?

Once Brzezinski created “presidential candidate” Obama, his campaign was financed and promoted by the multi-billionaire behind hundreds of organizations on the “political left” — George Soros. Soros was a high-ranking CFR member and a member of the Carlyle Group, an international corporation that served as a front for the Vatican. Soros, a Hungarian jewish, was a strong socialist-communist (like Brzezinski). Like Haas, Brzezinski was a Papal Court jewish and a Labor Zionist. He is also a Freemason. He is a friend of Rupert Murdoch. Soros is a major stockholder in Halliburton.

Murdoch is the protector of Obama, controlling his opposition. Murdoch was knighted by the Pope in 1998 for making large contributions to the Roman Catholic Church. He has said that his corporation – News Corp – is “just like the Jesuits” while speaking at Georgetown University. Murdoch is a member of the CFR.

Joseph R. Biden is the Vice President, and is directly under the Vatican’s big-wheel operatives (Soros and Murdoch). He is Roman Catholic and has been honored at two Jesuit universities. His son is a Jesuit volunteer and a lobbyist for a Jesuit university he attended.

“I always wondered how much sway the Vatican still has in the year 2014. They use to be an obvious powerhouse. Kings and Queens bowed before the Pope and did what he told them to do. That is just not the case anymore. Even within the church itself, power dwindles. Scandal, abuse and a lack of faith has been eating the church, and every church in every religion, from the inside out. And since when did Freemasons and Catholics get along? Conspiracies are funny like that… Keep in mind, Protestants have never liked Catholics…

and vice versa.

UNITED PHOTO PRESS | 2016

Further research:
The Jesuits are the real controllers of all and need to get dispersed. It’s not who you’re not allowed to criticize; it’s who you don’t even know anything about!
Want to know who really did 9/11?
Want to know that the U.S. is planned to become a 3rd world Slave Plantation?
Want to learn about why Dubai is going to be the next “Spiritual and Financial Center of the World?
Want to know how power in the U.S. has shifted from Wash D.C., to Chicago?
http://theunhivedmind.com/UHM/conspiracy-research-interview-1-oct-2013-with-the-unhived-mind/
http://theunhivedmind.com/UHM/conspiracy-research-interview-2-feb-2014-with-the-unhived-mind/
http://www.spirituallysmart.com/lincoln3.htm
Rulers of Evil. .pdf
http://www.granddesignexposed.com/pdf/RulersofEvil.pdf
Red Mass and the U.S. Supreme Court
http://spirituallysmart.com/redmass.html

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Double delight for Navratil in Bosnia

The Czech star landed his second straight win on the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series in Mostar.

After breaking his duck on the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series in the United Kingdom in stop six Michal Navratil carried on where he left off with a stunning victory in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

After a bad shoulder injury put paid to his season in 2015 the Czech diver has roared back to form in 2016 and backed up his win in Wales by doubling up in Mostar.

Talking of shoulder injuries there was a first podium of the season for David Colturi, who ended his season to have surgery with a third-placed finish, behind Britain's Gary Hunt in second.

But this was Navratil's day again and after going 52 events in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series without a win he now has two in two two.

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Revitalize Your Senses With Short Breaks From Dubai

We live in an era of omnipresent digital photography, where almost anything visually conceivable became possible to achieve. The ever-growing simplification of post processing and availability of handy applications allow virtually anyone to alter any kind of imagery – from HDR land vistas to high-end portraiture. 

Black and white photography, at first, might seem like a strange, romanticized anachronism, but in fact, it isn’t so at all. While it is true that color film became mainstream in the 30s and 40s thanks to the invention of Kodachrome, black and white photography didn’t become obsolete. On the contrary, it has persisted as an ultimate choice for many photographers engaged in photojournalism, street photography, weddings, and glamor portraiture.

It is even used by amateurs who convert their Instagram color snapshots to black and white, in order to achieve a certain retro look. Given the fact that us humans see in color and black and white is not our primary mode of perception, is rendering photos monochrome perhaps an act of self-importance? Is it maybe a means of making photographs more memorable than their color counterparts?

Charles Ebbets – Lunch atop a Skyscraper, 1932

What is Black and White Photography?

For all the generations that lived before the occurrence of controversial digital revolution, black and white photography has obtained an important place in the collective consciousness. This is strongly related to the fact that many of the historical photographs taken by preeminent photographers were shot in black and white, often by high-quality, lightweight rangefinder cameras, such as Leica. Color photography became more common from the mid-50s onwards, but it wasn’t popular instantly, due to its high price and incorrect rendering of colors in early color films. Some of the greatest photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson even refused to work in color, disappointed by the mediocre results. 

However, the commercial introduction of digital cameras in the 90s was a true game changer. In the first decade of the 21st century, film-based chemical processes were becoming less common and the previously large interspace between black & white and color photography became almost insignificant. The practical advantages of new technologies have opened the doors for novel possibilities and even the image quality of moderately priced cameras became acceptable, exceeding expectations of those who didn’t believe in digitalization. Nowadays, even though we are fully aware of the certain nostalgia related to analog black and white photography, we still admit there is somethingexceptionally aesthetically pleasing in a well-composed black and white imagery where everything is stripped down to the core – light, contrast, textures, even emotions. 

Because of this, we choose to recreate the old magic in a new, digital way.There is definitely something elemental in black and white, which eliminates so many of the potential distractions that color is all about. Black and white can reduce a scene to something more easily and quickly absorbed. It retains a kind of purity which we respond to without so much study, claims David Burnett, a legendary world-traveling photojournalist.

Sally Mann – Jessie Bites, 1985

Black and White Photography Guide And Tips

It is well-known that black and white photography can give certain scenes a timeless flavor when done properly. However, something that every photographer, even amateur should learn, is that not every shot works well in black and white. In order to obtain truly remarkable monochrome pieces, it is good to follow some basic hints, tips and tricks.

Don’t use light and shadow in an arbitrary way

When color is absent, light and shadow become one of the main tools of photographic expression.The darker the shadows are, the brighter the light will appear. It is advisable to base the composition and overall mood of the photo on the contrast between the available darkness and light if no artificial source of illumination is handy. In Trent Parke’s image from Minutes to Midnight series, a scene of natural birth in water is wonderfully captured through the use of available light only.

Trent Parke – Untitled

Focus on shapes and textures – think like a graphic designer

In addition to light and shadow, the variety of textures and shapes in B&W photos is essential. It is important to introduce someunusual shapes or eye-catching textures capable of mesmerizing the viewer’s eyes. Imogen Cunningham, one of the most revered female photographers, was a true master of portraying the bizarre and dreamlike. Her double exposure from 1968, called Dream Walking, is a perfect example of the skillful use of unusual shapes.

Imogen Cunningham – Dream Walking, 1968, b&w

Aim for clarity and lower your ISO

When shooting in black and white, is it particularly important to lower the ISO (if possible, of course) in order to avoid vague and grainy photographs. While the same is true in color photography,the high ISO noise is even more obvious in black and white photographs and it can ruin the clarity of either main subject or the background. 

A small amount of noise might be welcome occasionally but’s usually good to avoid it altogether in regular shots. This mysterious photograph of Roger Stonehouse represents a fairly clear, grainless image, despite the fact it was taken in low light.

Roger Stonehouse – Untitled

Be More Selective About Composition

Basic tips and tricks on how to compose outstanding shots apply to both black & white and color photography. However, in the case of monochromatic photographs, we are unable to use color to lead the viewer’s eye into or around the image. Instead, we need to base our compositions and their frames on the interesting interplay or unity of shapes, textures, and tonal range. This Ralph Gibson’s sophisticated nude represents a puzzling composition with an excellent use of negative space.

Ralph Gibson – Untitled

Black and White Photographers You Need To Know

Despite the reign of color film, many photographers today intentionally choose to work with only black and white. Yet, photographers from the previous generations didn’t have this choice to make. Working with the only means available, these artists managed to produce some stunning imagery without the play of colors, only relying on the composition, lighting, perspective, contrast or narrative. By reducing imagery to textures, tones and lines, they have touched the very essence of photography. 

We present you the masters of black and white photography whose work has remained a point of reference and a gold standard when it comes to the medium in general. Working with wide a range of subjects such as the outdoor scenery, portraiture, still life or street photography, these black and white photographers have pushed the boundaries of the medium and influenced many generations of artists.

Ansel Adams

An iconic American photographer, Ansel Adams is best-known for his monumental black and white landscape photographs. Characterized by extraordinary clarity and profundity, his photographs capture the American wilderness such as The American West, Grand Canyon in Arizona or Yosemite National Park. A master of his craft, Adams experimented with gradations of light by manipulating the degree of exposure and exploring new techniques. He was a co-founder of f/64, the group of American photographers involved in detailed and realistic work. 

Believing that the artist must discover the beauty in the world, he wanted his work to inspire others to explore their creativity or simply enjoy the nature. The photograph Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico is an image that Ansel himself recognized as important from the moment he first made it. He rushed to capture the image in the fading light knowing that only moment remained before the light was gone.

Ansel Adams – Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941

Danny Lyon

A compelling body of work the photographer Danny Lyon has produced over the course of his career is both politically engagedand personal. Embracing both the lyrical and political potential of the medium and immersing himself intimately in the lives of his subject, Lyon has completely redefined photojournalism.

Developing a restless and compassionate vision, he has tackled a broad range of subjects from the biker subcultures and architectural transformation of Lower Manhattan to the civil rights movement and lives of the prisoners or abandoned children of Columbia. Guided by strong ethical and ideological motivations, he contributed to the change of perception of American life presented in the mass media. The photograph Crossing the Ohio River, Louisville from 1966 is part of The Bikeriders series that was the product of four years od dedication spent on the road as a member of a motorcycle club Chicago Outlaws. Lyon managed to capture the life of the American bike riders in the twilight of their glory days.

Danny Lyon – Crossing the Ohio River, Louisville, 1966

Man Ray

A versatile artist involved with painting, sculpture, film, photography and poetry, Man Ray was influenced by several movements such as the Cubism, Futurism, Dada and Surrealism. Despite regarding himself first and foremost as a painter, he is best-known for his photography works, especially those from the inter-war years. Operating in the gap between art and life, his photography was a means of documenting sculptures that never had an independent life outside the photograph. 

Andre Breton described him as a pre-Surrealist for the Surrealist undertones of his work that were evident even before the movement was founded. Looking almost like a film still, the photograph Glass Tears from 1932 is one of his most recognizable photographs and demonstrates his interest in the cinematic narrative. Using a fashion mannequin and glass bead tears, he explores the real and the unreal by challenging the meaning of still-life photography.

Man Ray – Glass Tears, 1932

Henri Cartier-Bresson

One of the most admired and beloved photographers in the history of the medium, Henri Cartier-Bresson was a true master ofcandid and street photography. His inventive and unique work of the early 1930s helped define the notion of modern photography and his remarkable ability to capture the everyday life on the go made his work synonymous with ‘the decisive moment’ that was the title of his first major book. 

Wandering around the world with his camera and immersing himself in his current environment, he managed to capture many of the world’s biggest events from the Spanish Civil War to the French uprisings in 1968. The photographSeville from 1933 depicting children playing amid ruins of the Spanish Civil War is typical of his early work. Playing with the viewer’s perception, the broken wall acts both as a window to the background drama and as a stage for the foreground actors.

Henri Cartier-Bresson – Seville, 1933

Yousuf Karsh

Considered as one of the greatest portrait photographers of the twentieth century, Yousuf Karsh created a remarkable body of oeuvre characterized by the stunning mastery of technique. The theatrical lighting distinctive of his style served to highlight the most distinctive features of his subjects. Carefully posing and lighting his subjects, his portraits capture both their public and private persona. For this, he would often spend days with them to get to know them better and understand their lives. 

His portrait of Ernest Hemingway created in 1957 is the most recognizable photograph of this praised author. ‘I expected to meet in the author a composite of the heroes of his novels. Instead, in 1957, at his home Finca Vigía, near Havana, I found a man of peculiar gentleness, the shyest man I ever photographed – a man cruelly battered by life, but seemingly invincible’, Karsh wrote about the encounter.

Yousuf Karsh – Ernest Hemingway, 1957

Mary Ellen Mark

The celebrated photographer best-known for her in-depth documentary work, Mary Ellen Mark has produced some of the most delicately shaded studies of vulnerability ever set on film. For over four decades, she has traveled extensively to make influential pictures that reflect a high degree of humanism. 

Her works are imbued by truths about the humor, horror and joy of being alive. She involved herself with projects that sometimes lasted for years to capture difficult subject matters such as prostitution, mental illness or drug users. As a very open and accessible person, she has touched lives of many generations of photographers as a mentor and influence. The photograph Rat and Mike With a Gun from 1983 is part of her series Streetwise where she captured the lives of street children in Seattle. Perceived as America’s ideal and most livable city, Seattle was specifically chosen to show that these children exist everywhere in America.

Mary Ellen Mark – Rat and Mike with a gun, Seattle, Washington, 1983

Bill Brandt

Considered as the most important British photographers of the 20th century, Bill Brandt is credited with revising and renewing the major artistic genres of portraiture, landscapes and the nude. His oeuvre is one of the most varied and vivid social documents of Great Britain, ranging from stark realism and social commentary to pure abstraction and surrealism. 

His earliest experiments in photography involved night photography, but he also explored the British vistas and its natural form. He is also famous for hisseries of extraordinary female nudes where he distorted the human figure by using wide angle lens in close-up, transforming it into a series of abstract designs. The photograph East Sussex from 1977 is part of the nudes series where he made the distorted human form integral element of stark scenery of cliffs and rocky beach turning it into a sculpture.

Bill Brandt – East Sussex. 1977

Larry Fink

A self-proclaimed Marxist, Larry Fink has spent forty-five years photographing people in social situations. His most notable work isSocial Graces where he captured lives and social events of wealthy Manhattanites in contrast with the working-class in the rural Pennsylvania. Perfectly capturing gestures, smiles, glances, wrinkles, troubles and worries of humans, he managed to portray the tension between the public identities and inner turmoils and emotions. 

His life-long exploration of social classes in America has provided and intimate insight into the lives of ordinary people. Drawn to the New York’s counterculture and The Beat Movement, he traveled with the group on a cross-country trip to Houston and Mexico. As he recalled, the group ‘desperately needed a photographer to be with them, to give them gravity, to live within them, record and encode their wary but benighted existence… Marxism notwithstanding, I was called to service, to be on the road’.

Larry Fink – The Beats

Robert Frank

An American-Swiss photographer and documentary filmmaker, Robert Frank is best-known for his 1958 book titled The Americans – the project that earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day de Tocqueville for his fresh and nuanced outsider’s view of American society. Created in the 1950s, this book is considered as one of the most influential photo books of all times. Capturing highways, parades, cars, diners, jukeboxes and many other American symbols, Frank at the same time portrayed an underlying sense ofalienation and hardship. 

He investigated the gaudy insanities and strangely touching contradictions of American culture presenting a basis for a coherent iconography of the time. His photographic style was often considered controversial for his blurred imagery and tilted horizons. The photograph Canal Street, New Orleans created between 1955 and 1956 is one of the photographs from the series.

Robert Frank – Canal Street, New Orleans 1955-56

Edward Weston

Considered as one of the most important and innovative figures in the 20th century, Edward Weston revolutionized the medium of photography. Pioneering the modernist style characterized by the use of a large-format camera and photographs rich in detail andsharply focused, he explored various subjects from panoramas, still lives, nudes and portraits to genres scenes, whimsical parodies and . With his radical approach to composition, lighting, focus and form he wanted to ‘to make the commonplace unusual’. 

After spending some time in Mexico with Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco he developed his characteristic style of sharps contrasts and a full tonal scale. The photograph Pepper #30 from 1930 is considered his seminal work since he managed to elevate a simple vegetable to a high art. Part of the series of close-up studies of different objects, the photograph shows a solitary green pepper in rich black and white tones, with strong illumination from above.

Edward Weston – Pepper #30, 1930

Black and White Photography Today

Nowadays, black and white photography became a niche market for photographers who use the medium for prevalently fine art purposes. It is interesting to note that even the legendary Leica jumped back on this black and white train in 2013, by releasing the model of camera called the Leica M Monochrom , geared specifically towards the black and white imagery. 

Even the social media channels started to incorporate black and white topics into their advertising strategies. For instance, there is a Black and White Challenge group on Facebook, where the participating photographers ask each other to shoot and publish only monochrome photographs for a chosen number of days. They consider this approach a powerful constraint meant to inspire.

To sum up, one of the most common reasons people want to shoot in black and white even today is because it gives a certain timeless quality to the photographs but it is also challenging since the lack of colors makes photographers think and find creative solutions in different ways. Black and white photography transcends the reality by transforming it into a realm that is neither pure abstraction nor regular, well-known home world. A monochrome approach is a powerful means of deconstructing a scene and reducing it to its basic blueprint made of lines, shapes and textures and free of distracting colors. 

Because of this, black and white photography allows both photographers and viewers to explore the basic elements of visual appeal found in the well-composed imagery.

Written by Jacqueline Clyde and Elena Martinique.

United Photo Press 2016

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