AUGUST 2015
Monday
- August 31, 2015 - Today in History:
1852 - The first pre-stamped envelopes were created with legislation of
the U.S. Congress.
1920 - The first news program to be broadcast on radio was aired. The
station was 8MK in Detroit, MI.
1920 - John Lloyd Wright was issued a patent for "Toy-Cabin
Construction," which are known as Lincoln Logs. (U.S. patent 1,351,086)
1964 - California officially became the most populated state in America.
1965 - The Department of Housing and Urban Development was created by
the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.
1989 - Great Britain's Princess Anne and Mark Phillips announced that
they were separating. The marriage was 16 years old.
1990 - U.N. Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar met with the Iraqi
Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz to try and negotiate a solution to the
crisis in the Persian Gulf.
1990 - East and West Germany signed a treaty that meant the harmonizing
of political and legal systems.
1991 - In a "Solidarity Day" protest hundreds of thousands of union
members marched in Washington, DC.
1993 - Russia withdrew its last soldiers from Lithuania.
1994 - A cease-fire was declared by the Irish Republican Army after 25
years of bloodshed in Northern Ireland.
1994 - Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East
Germany and the Baltics after a half-century.
1997 - Britain's Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris at age 36.
1998 - A ballistic missile was fired over Japan by North Korea. The
missile landed in stages in the waters around Japan. There was no known
target.
2009 - Walt Disney Co. announced it was acquiring comic book giant
Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion.
2010 - President Barack Obama ended the U.S. combat mission in Iraq,
declaring no victory after seven years of bloodshed.
NATO kicks off naval drills in Black Sea with Ukraine
RT - Ukraine is hosting naval military exercise in the Black Sea
with NATO forces, involving 2,500 troops and some 150 military
vehicles, from warships and helicopters to armored cars. The
host nation of Sea Breeze 2015 has deployed 1,000 troops, nine
warships and eight aircraft for the drill. The US has sent 1,000
troops as well as five warships, two submarines and six
aircraft. The remaining 500 troops, six warships, three
submarines and 6six aircraft were provided by Bulgaria, Germany,
Greece, Italy, Romania, Turkey, the UK and the non-NATO nations
Moldova and Sweden.... NATO is also currently conducting another
war game, called Swift Response, in Germany, Italy, Bulgaria and
Romania. It is one of the largest such events since the Cold War
and is planned to last until September 13. A separate exercise,
called Simple Strike, is under way in the Baltic.
Saudi-led airstrike kills 36 civilians at north Yemen bottling
plant
RT - At least 36 people have been killed after an airstrike by
Saudi-led coalition forces hit a bottling plant in northern
Yemen, residents told Reuters. "The process of recovering the
bodies is finished now. The corpses of 36 workers, many of them
burned or in pieces, were pulled out after an airstrike hit the
plant this morning," the agency learned from one resident, Issa
Ahmed, by phone. Since the Saudi-led forces started their
bombing campaign in March, ostensibly to halt the advance of the
Shiite Houthi rebels, more than 4,300 people have lost their
lives, while the country is in a state of complete collapse,
with millions at risk… The news comes days after it became
apparent that the country could no longer tolerate the situation
unless some form of humanitarian intervention was to take place,
with some 13 million Yemenis at risk of starvation, of which
about half face a critical situation, according to the UN's
World Food Programme (WFP).
Malaysia's ex-PM calls for 'people power' mass protests to
topple govt
RT - Former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad called for the
current prime minister to be ousted in a speech to tens of
thousands of people, who have gathered for a second day of
anti-government protests in Kuala Lumpur. The protesters want PM
Najib Razak to resign over a financial scandal. "The only way
for the people to get back to the old system is for them to
remove this prime minister," Mahathir told media before going to
the protests in downtown Kuala Lumpur. And to remove him, the
people must show people's power. The people as a whole do not
want this kind of corrupt leader."... The Saturday rally
attracted 300,000 people, according to the organizers' count.
US to Create Elite Police Unit in Ukraine
Sputnik News - Canadian and American military instructors in
Ukraine will create a new Special Forces - the elite police unit
for rapid response. The first stage of selection and training of
the elite police is due to begin soon. Interior Minister Arsen
Avakov said that the selection of the troops for the new unit
will be tough. But preference may be given to the former Special
Forces veterans and Kiev-led military soldiers… The new Special
Forces are designed to replace all existing Interior Ministry
units in the future, combining them into one similar unit like
the American SWAT.
Gold Standard Marks Its Unlikeliest Return With Islamic State
Sputnik News - In yet another attempt to behave as if they were
the government of a nation, the notorious terrorist group
Islamic State has just reintroduced a warped version of the gold
standard the way it existed a century ago. With the announced
‘return of the gold dinar’, Islamic State seemingly hopes to
provide substantial support to their black-market oil-based
economy. Whilst the new ‘currency’ will hardy gain international
convertibility, the move might have significant consequences for
the global economy, one of them being larger and less
predictable fluctuations in gold prices, as the scale of black
market operations with precious metals is inevitably poised to
grow.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
U.S. developing sanctions against China over cyberthefts
Washington Post - The Obama administration is developing a
package of unprecedented economic sanctions against Chinese
companies and individuals who have benefited from their
government’s cybertheft of valuable U.S. trade secrets. The U.S.
government has not yet decided whether to issue these sanctions,
but a final call is expected soon — perhaps even within the next
two weeks, according to several administration officials, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal
deliberations.... Any action would also come at a particularly
sensitive moment between the world’s two biggest economies.
President Xi Jinping of China is due to arrive next month in
Washington for his first state visit — complete with a 21-gun
salute on the South Lawn of the White House and an elaborate
State Dinner.
University of Texas Removes Jefferson Davis, Woodrow Wilson
Statues
Infowars - Statue removal follows nationwide campaign to take
down historical items deemed “racist.” Statues of Jefferson
Davis and Woodrow Wilson were removed from the campus of the
University of Texas at Austin Saturday after a local Confederate
heritage group failed to block the move at the state Supreme
Court. Announcing the plan earlier this month, University
President Greg Fenves stated that the statue of Davis, a leader
in the Confederacy, would be removed from UT’s Main Mall because
“it was no longer in the university’s best interest to continue
commemorating” him, reports the Statesman. Wilson, a Democrat
president known for praising the KKK, was moved as well merely
to “maintain symmetry on the mall.”
Election News
Rand Paul Promises To Shut Down NSA Data Center If He Becomes
President
Inquisitr - Republican Senator Rand Paul has been one of the few
vocal critics of the U.S. government’s spying programs. He’s the
only presidential candidate that has made NSA spying a central
topic of their campaign. NSA spying is so important to Rand that
he’s promised to shut down the NSA data center if he becomes
president. After he stops the indiscriminate collection of
Americans’ data, he’ll convert the data center into a
“Constitutional Center” where the Fourth Amendment will be
studied. “I’m on my way to the airport, but we decided to stop
by the NSA facility in Utah. When I become President, we’ll
convert it into a Constitutional Center to study the Fourth
Amendment! Bulk data collection must end!”
MI6 spy Gareth Williams found dead in bag had 'hacked Clinton
secrets'
International Business Times - A MI6 spy who was discovered dead
in a holdall at his apartment in 2010 had hacked into sensitive
information about former US President Bill Clinton, it has been
claimed. The spy had obtained Clinton’s diary for an event and
passed it to a friend. Gareth Williams, 31, hacked into the
event’s guest list as it was to be attended by President
Clinton, passing it to his friend who was also to be a guest at
the party, according to sources speaking on condition of
anonymity to the Sun on Sunday. “The Clinton diary hack came at
a time when Williams’s work with America was of the most
sensitive nature,” one source said. “It was a diplomatic
nightmare for Sir John Sawers, the new director of MI6 at the
time.” The death of Williams remains an unsolved case after five
years.
“Dark-Complexioned Male”: AP Refuses to Call Cop Killer “Black”
Paul Joseph Watson - Surveillance footage clearly shows suspect
is African-American. Some media outlets are refusing to identify
the race of the suspect involved in the murder of a sheriff’s
deputy in Houston last night, despite the fact that he is
clearly black. At around 8:30pm last night, Deputy Darren
Goforth was pumping gas into his vehicle in full uniform before
he was approached by a man who shot him from behind multiple
times. “Police described the suspect as a dark-complexioned male
who is believed to be between 20 and 25 years old, and stands
about 5-foot-10 to 6-feet tall,” reports the Associated Press.
* Related:
Texas Deputy Executed Days After Black Radical Group Calls for
Killing Cops
Baltimore Sun: July violence: 45 murders in 31 days
Baltimore Sun - July saw 45 homicides across Baltimore, a toll
that matched the deadliest month in the city’s modern history
and came amid a violent crime surge that has stretched the
entire summer. The killings occurred across the city,
overwhelmingly in historically impoverished neighborhoods. The
victims included a 5-month-old boy and a 53-year-old
grandmother, a teen stabbed to death in a dispute over a cell
phone and a carryout deliveryman killed in a robbery. The
Baltimore Sun sought to profile each victim, through interviews
with relatives, friends, neighbors and police, as well as
information on social media — and to chronicle the impact on
those left behind.
Whistleblower’s Daughter is Terrorized, Detained, and Kidnapped
Health Impact News - The following two videos recorded the scene
on the night of April 14, 2014, when Cheyenne and Randy Davis
were followed for at least a mile by law enforcement, pulled
over, and brutally separated by Sampson County Deputies. No
reasons were given for the stop and subsequent arrest of Randy,
nor the abduction of his daughter, Cheyenne. The second video
shows officers assaulting and forcibly removing Cheyenne from
the car and away from her father. Another adult female, along
with her son, were also in the vehicle, and the officers removed
her child also. There was apparently no court order from a judge
to take the children into custody. The officers were simply
following directions from CPS social workers. This is what we
refer to as legal kidnapping in the United States today.
The Illusion of Choice … 90% of American Media Controlled by 6
Corporations
Activist Post - It is worth repeating again and again that the
bulk of America’s mainline media is owned and controlled by a
mere 6 corporations. This, of course, means that unless you’re
already consciously avoiding these mainline media sources, then
most of the news and entertainment that makes it onto your
screen and into your mind comes from a small pool of corporate
sources, all of which play important roles in delivering
propaganda, social programming and perpetual crisis narratives
to the public. The conglomerates are: General Electric, News
Corp., Disney, Viacom, Time Warner and CBS.
Trump Wins Nashville Grassroots Straw Poll With 52 Percent
Breitbart - After delivering an energetic 50 minute speech using
no notes or teleprompter, GOP frontrunner Donald Trump easily
won a presidential straw poll conducted at the annual convention
of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, garnering
52 percent of the votes cast. Tea Party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz
(R-TX) finished second with 24 percent, and Dr. Ben Carson,
another political outsider and Tea Party friend, finished behind
Cruz in third.
Blame the Federal Reserve, Not China, for Stock Market Crash
Ron Paul - Following Monday’s historic stock market downturn,
many politicians and so-called economic experts rushed to the
microphones to explain why the market crashed and to propose
"solutions” to our economic woes. Not surprisingly, most of
those commenting not only failed to give the right answers, they
failed to ask the right questions. Many blamed the crash on
China’s recent currency devaluation. It is true that the crash
was caused by a flawed monetary policy. However, the fault lies
not with China’s central bank but with the US Federal Reserve.
The Federal Reserve’s inflationary policies distort the economy,
creating bubbles, which in turn create a booming stock market
and the illusion of widespread prosperity. Inevitably, the
bubble bursts, the market crashes, and the economy sinks into a
recession.
Citigroup braces for global recession, calls for QE in China
Hang The Bankers - China has bungled its attempt to slow the
economy gently and is sliding into “imminent recession”,
threatening to take the world with it over coming months,
Citigroup has warned. Willem Buiter, the bank’s chief economist,
said the country needs a major blast of fiscal spending financed
by outright “helicopter” money from the bank to avert a
deepening crisis. Speaking on a panel at the Council of Foreign
Relations in New York, Mr Buiter said the dollar will “go
through the roof” if the US Federal Reserve lifts interest rates
this year, compounding the crisis for emerging markets.
Professor Zhiwu Chen from Yale University told the same event
that China will be doing well if it can contain its slow-motion
crisis to mere stagnation for the next 10 years, given the
dangerous levels of debt in the system.
In 2008, Fewer Than 30 Million Used Food Stamps. Now 46 Million
Do
The Daily Signal - The number of Americans using food stamps in
2014 declined slightly from the previous year… In 2008, it was
below 30 million. By 2013, it had hit 47.6 million. It has since
dipped a bit… One out of every seven Americans received SNAP
benefits in 2014, and the program cost $74.1 billion, making it
one of the largest means-tested welfare program. Before the 2008
recession, 55 percent of SNAP households consisted of children
and the elderly. Now, however, a slight majority of recipients
are non-elderly, able-bodied adults. There has also been an
uptick in the number of working-age, able-bodied adults on SNAP
who are not working… At least part of the reason can be traced
to the waiving of work requirements for childless, able-bodied,
working-age adults during the recession.
Illinois Pays Lottery Winners In IOUs After $30K/Month Budget
"Guru" Fails To Produce Deal
Zero Hedge - After years of struggling financially, Susan Rick
thought things were looking up when her boyfriend won $250,000
from the Illinois Lottery last month. She could stop working
seven days a week, maybe fix up the house and take a trip to
Minnesota to visit her daughter. But because Illinois lawmakers
have not passed a budget, she and her boyfriend, Danny Chasteen,
got an IOU from the lottery instead. Under state law, the state
comptroller must cut the checks for lottery winnings of more
than $25,000. And lottery officials said that because lawmakers
have yet to pass a budget, the comptroller's office does not
have legal authority to release the funds. Prizes of $25,000 or
less will still be paid at lottery claim centers across the
state, and people who win $600 or less can cash in their ticket
at the place where they bought it.
1,100 union workers to strike at nuclear weapons plant
Knoxville News Sentinel - Union workers at the Pantex nuclear
weapons plant — a sister plant to Y-12 in Oak Ridge — this week
rejected a final contract offer and voted to go on strike,
effective at midnight Friday. The strike by more than 1,100
workers at the national security site received the necessary
blessing of the Metal Trades Department of the AFL-CIO in
Washington, and it reportedly will be the first strike by the
main workforce at Pantex since 1970. Pantex and Y-12 are managed
by Consolidated Nuclear Security, a Bechtel-led contractor team,
and union negotiations at Y-12 have been on hold for months
while the situation at Pantex played out.... Clarence Rashada,
president of the umbrella labor group, said union workers were
upset by proposed cuts to their benefits, and he said that was
the primary reason for the 3-to-1 rejection of CNS's final
contract offer and their vote — with a two-thirds majority — to
strike.
When the Bank Robs You: Wells Fargo Contractors Allegedly Stole Family
Heirlooms Rescued From Nazis
The Intercept - The few remaining defenders of the Obama
administration’s failure to prosecute the executives who helped cause
the 2008 financial crisis argue that the bankers’ actions were unethical
but not criminal.... The president might want to take this up with David
Adier, who says he was victimized by Wells Fargo breaking and entering
into his family’s home in Morris Township, New Jersey, and then
committing property damage and theft. Burglary is a felony subject to
prison time — if anybody but a bank does it. Adier’s case is doubly
disturbing because of what was taken: items his father retrieved from
his family’s apartment in France before fleeing the Nazis in 1940,
including a Kiddush cup, a Seder plate and a sewing machine used by his
grandmother. Adier has since filed suit against Wells Fargo. According
to the complaint, Wells Fargo’s contractors deemed the house abandoned,
despite explicit instructions that it was not.
Three Category 4 Hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean: How Rare Is
That?
Weather.com - A very rare meteorological event occurred Saturday
evening into early Sunday morning when three Category 4
hurricanes were ongoing simultaneously in the Pacific Ocean. At
11 p.m. EDT Saturday, Hurricane Kilo (135 mph) was located well
southwest of the Hawaiian Islands followed by Hurricane Ignacio
(140 mph) to the east of Hawaii and Hurricane Jimena (140 mph)
in the eastern Pacific.... This is the first recorded occurrence
of three Category 4 hurricanes in the central and eastern
Pacific basins at the same time. In addition, it's also the
first time with three major hurricanes (Category 3 or stronger)
in those basins simultaneously, according to hurricane
specialist Eric Blake of the National Hurricane Center.
Joe Biden's Son Blames "Russian Agents" For Ashley Madison
Profile
Zero Hedge - [...] Vice-President Joe Biden's son "Hunter" has
unleashed his own set of excuses for member ship of the
extramarital affairs website, as Breitbart reports - Biden
thinks international agents, possibly Russian, who objected to
his board membership with a Ukrainian gas company set up a fake
account to discredit him. However, IP mapping suggests
otherwise... account information shows that the profile, which
was confirmed by a credit card purchase in 2014, was used at the
latitude/longitude point of 38.912682, -77.071704… A source
close to Biden told People Magazine after the first Breitbart
story ran that the IP address for the account traces to
Jacksonville, Florida. That latitude-longitude point just
happens to exist on the Georgetown University campus, at an
administrative building on Reservoir Road. And Hunter Biden just
happened to be teaching there around the time the account was
set up.
Gardening, Farming & Homesteading |
Industry Watchdog Asks USDA to Ban Use of Wastewater From
Fracking and Sewage Systems for Organic Food Production
Cornucopia News - The organic industry watchdog has launched a
national petition drive to the USDA calling for new regulations
to prohibit the wastewater practices. Cornucopia pointed to
research that shows that the copious amounts of wastewater, a
byproduct of the hydraulic fracturing technique in gas and oil
production, is contaminated with toxic chemicals and oil. Recent
reporting has indicated its use in the growing of organic food
in California. Effluent from sewage plants, which co-mingles
waste from domestic and industrial sources, can contain
pathogens and drug residues in addition to heavy metals and
toxic chemicals. This is also a concern of Cornucopia’s.
“Because of these potential contaminants, spreading sewage
sludge is explicitly banned in organic production,” said Mark A.
Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst at The Cornucopia Institute.
Center for Food Safety Sues Department of Agriculture for
Withholding Genetically Engineered Crop Records
Center for Food Safety - Center for Food Safety (CFS) today
filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) under the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), alleging that APHIS has
violated FOIA by routinely failing to respond to requests for
records related to genetically engineered (GE) crops, unlawfully
delaying its responses, and withholding public disclosure of
information. APHIS has failed to provide a timely final response
to at least 29 of CFS’s FOIA requests or appeals. Of these,
APHIS has entirely failed to provide a final response to 10
requests and 2 appeals. The lawsuit asks the court to direct
APHIS to promptly provide CFS with the requested information and
to order APHIS to stop its practice of failing to respond to
FOIA requests related to GE crops.
State Orders Dairy To Label All-Natural Milk ‘Imitation’
Off the Grid News - The owners of an dairy are dumping hundreds
of gallons of skim milk down the drain because of a state order
to label their all-natural product “imitation.” Under Florida
state rules, the only way the Ocheesee Creamery can market its
product as skim milk would be to inject it with artificial
Vitamin A – and thus avoid the imitation label. The owners of
the creamery have sued the state and are being represented by
the Institute for Justice.
Last Chance to Stop Forced Vaccinations for Adults in California
Health Impact News - SB792 is the FIRST vaccine mandate for
adults in the US. CA Assembly Floor Vote is next Monday Aug.31.
Call and write to urge a NO voteTODAY! Currently SB792 mandates
SEVEN vaccines – DPT, MMR and Flu – for ALL daycare and
preschool workers, including home day care providers – WITHOUT
personal belief exemptions as a condition of employment. If
SB792 passes the Assembly next week it goes back to the Senate
for a concurrence vote on the Assembly Amendments. Go ahead and
contact CA Senators as well. Don’t wait! Do it now! The original
bill included the full CDC Adult Vaccine Schedule.There has been
great progress during the legislative process to reduce the bill
to SEVEN vaccines. It’s not really 3 vaccines. You cannot get
the whopping cough vaccine or measles vaccines by themselves.
You have to get the Dtap, or Tdap (3 vaccines in 1 shot), and
the MMR (again, 3 vaccines in 1 shot). They are in effect
mandating SEVEN vaccines.
9 Surprising Risk Factors Associated with Alzheimer’s Disease
Natural Society - In a new study published in the Journal of
Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, scientists have found 9
surprising risk factors that are associated with Alzheimer’s
disease... The disease, which is a form of dementia, affects one
in 14 people over age 65, according to the Alzheimer’s Society.
There is currently no documented treatment, although anecdotal
evidence suggests coconut oil may be effective. For the
research, researchers analyzed more than 300 studies to identify
the most common risk factors for the disease. They not only
found these 9 risk factors for Alzheimer’s, they also uncovered
evidence suggesting that some of the treatments for high blood
pressure, hormones and vitamins, may also help decrease the risk
of developing Alzheimer’s disease. It was also announced this
week that another group of scientists believe they have found a
simple and inexpensive way to diagnose Alzheimer’s.... Jennifer
Stamps, a neuroscientist at the University of Florida in
Gainesville, and colleagues found that by placing a glob of
peanut butter on one end of a ruler and holding the other end to
a patient’s nose, they could figure out if there was a problem
with the olfactory system.
The day Al Gore was born there were 7000 polar bears on Earth
Today, only 26,000 remain.
Friday
- August 28, 2015 - Today in History:
1774 - The first American-born saint was born in New York City. Mother
Elizabeth Ann Seton was canonized in 1975.
1830 - "The Tom Thumb" was demonstrated in Baltimore, MD. It was the
first passenger-carrying train of its kind to be built in America.
1833 - Slavery was banned by the British Parliament throughout the
British Empire.
1907 - "American Messenger Company" was started by 2 teenagers, Jim
Casey and Claude Ryan. It's name was later changed to "United Parcel
Service."
1916 - Italy's declaration of war against Germany took effect during
World War I.
1917 - Ten suffragists were arrested as they picketed the White House.
1922 - The first radio commercial aired on WEAF in New York City. The
Queensboro Realty Company bought 10 minutes of time for $100.
1939 - The first successful flight of a jet-propelled airplane took
place. The plane was a German Heinkel He 178.
1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his "I Have a Dream" speech at
a civil rights rally in Washington, DC. More than 200,000 people
attended.
1981 - "The New York Daily News" published its final afternoon edition.
1990 - Iraq declared Kuwait to be its 19th province and renamed Kuwait
City al-Kadhima.
1995 - The biggest bank in the U.S. was created when Chase Manhattan and
Chemical Bank announced their $10 billion deal.
1996 - A divorce decree was issued for Britain's Charles and Princess
Diana. This was the official end to the 15-year marriage.
2004 - George Brunstad, at age 70, became the oldest person to swim the
English Channel. The swim from Dover, England, to Sangatte, France, took
15 hours and 59 minutes.
2008 - In China, the Shanghai World Financial Center officially opened.
The observation decks opened on August 30.
2014 - Google announced its Project Wing. The project was aimed at
delivering products across a city using unmanned flying vehicles.
Who slipped? How fake report on ‘Russian soldier deaths’ in
Ukraine set MSM on fire
RT - A Forbes report on alleged Russian army casualties in
Ukraine citing a dodgy Russian website has sparked a media and
Twitter storm. Some said Russia had “finally slipped” with the
leak on its troops in Ukraine; others were baffled by the “fake
publication.” RT decided to investigate. A Forbes contributor,
Paul Roderick Gregory, published an article on Wednesday citing
a Russian web source called “Delovaya Zhizn” (translated as
Business Life), which was said to reveal “official figures on
the number of Russian soldiers killed or made invalids in
eastern Ukraine.” The report, dated March 2015 and entitled
“Increases in Pay for Military in 2015,” was altered, with the
relevant information being removed, after the Forbes publication
came out. However, the original copy was webcached by Google.
Fake Goldman Sachs bank found in China
Hang The Bankers - Famous for making fake iPhones, Louis Vuitton
bags and Rolex watches, China managed to surprise the world once
again. A Goldman Sachs (Shenzhen) Financial Leasing Company was
found operating in the country without any connection to the US
investment giant. “We don’t have any connection with the US
Goldman Sachs, we just picked the name out, and it’s not
intentionally the same,” a woman who answered the company’s
listed phone number told AFP. Bloomberg made a filing with the
Shenzhen government that reveals the replica Goldman Sachs has
been operating since May 2013. It’s not the first case of
setting up fake banks in China. A 39-year-old man in eastern
China’s Shandong Province was arrested this month after starting
a fake branch of the China Construction Bank with card readers,
passbooks, teller counter and convincing looking logos, the
Xinhua news agency reported. The bank was taking deposits but
didn’t allow withdrawals.
Russia, Egypt support forming anti-ISIS coalition with Syria -
Putin
RT - Russia and Egypt support the creation of a broad
anti-terrorist coalition, which would include Syria, to fight
Islamic State militants, Russian President Vladimir Putin said
at a joint media conference with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel
el-Sisi. “We underline the fundamental importance of the
formation of a broad anti-terrorist front involving key
international players and regional countries, including Syria,”
Putin said on Wednesday. “We have common views on the need to
intensify the fight against international terrorism, which is
relevant, considering the aggressive ambitions of radical
structures, particularly the so-called Islamic State.”
Total War in Yemen Totally Ignored by Western Media
Tony Cartalucci - With almost a whimper, the Western media
reported that the US-backed regimes of Saudi Arabia, the United
Arab Emirates (UAE), and their auxiliary fighters drawn from Al
Qaeda have begun carrying out what is the ground invasion of
Yemen. Along with an ongoing naval blockade and months of
bombing raids, the ground invasion adds a lethal new dimension
to the conflict – for both sides. Landing at the port city of
Aden on Yemen’s southern tip, it is reported that an “armor
brigade” consisting of between 1,000 – 3,000 troops primarily
from the UAE are now moving north, their ultimate destination
Sana’a, the capital of Yemen. Columns of the UAE’s French-built
Leclerc main battle tanks were seen moving out of the port city
though their numbers are difficult to establish. Reports
claiming that the UAE unit is brigade-sized might indicate as
many as 100 tanks involved – a third of the UAE’s total armored
force.
France Prepares For Mass Unrest, Radicalized Immigrants Taking
Over Cities
Paul Joseph Watson - French security forces are preparing for
mass civil unrest and radicalized immigrants taking over entire
neighborhoods, according to intelligence sources. The Army is
making contingency plans for the “reappropriation of national
territory,” winning back areas of cities, in the event of
immigrant populations obtaining weapons and becoming openly
hostile to authorities. “There are a lot of alienated and angry
fourth-generation immigrant kids in the suburbs and the prospect
of radicalisation is increasingly likely,” the intelligence
source told the Telegraph, adding that highly organized networks
of Islamist militants have smuggled Kalashnikov automatic rifles
and anti-tank missiles into the country.
It's Official: China Confirms It Has Begun Liquidating
Treasuries, Warns Washington
Zero Hedge - As Bloomberg reports, "China has cut its holdings
of U.S. Treasuries this month to raise dollars needed to support
the yuan in the wake of a shock devaluation two weeks ago,
according to people familiar with the matter. Channels for such
transactions include China selling directly, as well as through
agents in Belgium and Switzerland, said one of the people, who
declined to be identified as the information isn’t public. China
has communicated with U.S. authorities about the sales."
Latvia and Greece Start Green Wave of GM Crop Bans across Europe
Sustainable Pulse - Latvia and Greece are the first countries in
the EU to have had their geographical opt-out’s from growing GM
crops accepted by Monsanto. Many other EU countries, including
Germany and France, are expected to request geographical
opt-outs from growing Monsanto’s MON810 GM Maize over the next
month. Under the EU law signed in March individual countries can
seek geographical exclusion from any approval request for GM
cultivation across the EU. While the European Commission is
responsible for approvals, requests to be excluded also have to
be submitted to the company making the application i.e. Monsanto
for MON810.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
American taxpayers spend nearly $10 million a day fighting ISIS
RT - The Pentagon has spent nearly $4 billion fighting Islamic
State across Syria and Iraq since operations began a year ago,
according to statistics released this week. The average daily
cost of the campaign is $9.9 million, or $6,785 a minute. A
colossal $3.7 billion in expenses have been racked up since the
campaign began on August 8, 2014 up to August 15 of this year.
President Barack Obama authorized a bombing campaign against the
Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS/ISIL) last year, sending
3,400 American soldiers to Iraq to advise and train Iraqi
forces. Since Operation Inherent Resolve began, the US and its
coalition allies say they have conducted a total of over 6,000
airstrikes in the region. Of those strikes, nearly 4,000 have
been made in Iraq and nearly 2,500 in Syria.
Inspiration Behind ‘Black Lives Matter’ is on the FBI’s ‘Most
Wanted Terrorists’ List
Paul Joseph Watson - The inspiration behind the ‘Black Lives
Matter’ movement – the individual cited by its founder and
regularly quoted by its supporters – is a convicted cop killer
who is on the FBI’s ‘Most Wanted Terrorists’ list. ‘Black Lives
Matter’ was founded by militant feminists Alicia Garza, Patrisse
Cullors and Opel Tometi, with Garza widely recognized as the
most influential of the three. In an article which details the
philosophical foundation of ‘Black Lives Matter’, Garza cites,
“Assata’s powerful demand in my organizing work.” Assata is a
reference to Assata Shakur, otherwise known as Joanne Deborah
Chesimard, a radical feminist and Marxist revolutionary who
escaped from prison in 1979 while serving a life sentence for
the murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster.
Virginia gunman followed TV station's order to seek outside
help, boss says
The Guardian - The television news reporter who shot dead two
former colleagues during a live broadcast complied with an order
from management that he seek outside help for persistent
performance and behavioral issues, the general manager of WDBJ
confirmed on Thursday. The 10 months Vester Flanagan worked as a
multimedia journalist at WDBJ7, a CBS affiliate in Roanoke,
Virginia, were fraught with workplace disputes and flare-ups, as
detailed in a series of memos obtained by the Guardian –
including a mandatory referral to a third-party program
dedicated to counseling.
Savannah State University on Lockdown After Shooting, Officials
Say
ABC News - Shots rang out on Savannah State University's campus
Thursday, with one student killed and the university placed on
lockdown. The shooting, which occurred at the SSU Student Union
building, was sparked by an altercation, the university said in
a statement. Christopher Starks, a junior from the metro Atlanta
area, died in the shooting, the school said. At this point, no
arrests have been made. The campus was put on lockdown following
the shooting. The lockdown order was later lifted.
Muslims Buying Up Christian Churches Across U.S.
Kit Daniels - Muslims are exponentially buying up Christian
churches and converting them into mosques, which indicates Islam
could be a dominant U.S. religion by the 22nd century.... The
demand for mosques is being driven primarily by refugees from
Syria, Somalia and other countries where Islam is a dominant
religion. And it’s not just the demand driving this religious
transformation; Christian churches are going bankrupt as
Americans become increasingly secular, meaning it’s a buyer’s
market for newly-arrived Muslims looking for church property to
call home.
Associated Press sues US DoJ over access to FBI records
RT - The lawsuit concerns a 2014 Freedom of Information request
to obtain documents in the case of a 15-year-old boy who was
suspected of making bomb threats to his school in the state of
Washington. The FBI decided to send a web link to the MySpace
profile of the suspect which led to a fake article on a bogus
Seattle Times website. By clicking on stories with headlines
such as “Bomb threat at high school downplayed by local police
department” and “Technology savvy student holds Timberline High
School hostage,” the teenager infected his computer with
surveillance software that helped reveal his location and
Internet address.“The FBI both misappropriated the trusted name
of The Associated Press and created a situation where our
credibility could have been undermined on a large scale,” AP
General Counsel Karen Kaiser wrote in a letter to then-Attorney
General Eric Holder in 2014... “... the individual could easily
have reposted this story to social networks, distributing to
thousands of people, under our name, what was essentially a
piece of government disinformation.”
‘Race War’ Shooter Passed Government Background Check, Used
Legal Firearm
Steve Watson - It has emerged that Vester Flanagan, the reporter
in Virginia who shot two of his ex colleagues in cold blood
while on live TV passed a government-required background check
and acquired his gun legally. Buzzfeed reports that it has
spoken with Thomas Faison, a spokesman for the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who confirmed that
Flanagan’s Glock 19 pistol was bought “weeks ago,” and that
Flanagan had successfully passed all the required background
checks. Faison also noted that Flanagan had purchased a second
gun. The finding again makes void arguments made by those
calling for universal background checks. One such person was
Democratic Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, who within 3 hours
of the killings was calling for new gun control legislation to
ensure checks for all gun purchases.
Suddenly Media Worried Over Reporting Race-Based Motive of
Killer of White Reporters
Breitbart - During the reporting of the murders in a black
church in Charleston, the assumed racist motive of the shooter,
white man Dylann Roof, was immediately the talk of the media.
But now, after an African American murdered two white former
co-workers and then released a 23-page, race-tinged manifesto,
some in the media are suddenly squeamish about reporting the
race-based motives of the killer.... CNN, for instance, wrote an
entire report focused on Flanagan’s mental state but mentioned
his comments about race only once in a 1,500 word story. A CBS
report never mentioned the shooter’s racial comments at all. The
piece did tiptoe around the shooter’s problems with race in two
paragraphs, but never actually stated his race rhetoric seen in
the explicit terms revealed in his manifesto. Then, a piece in
the Chicago Tribune called the killer “off kilter” and “bizarre”
but steered clear of fully reporting on his racist ideas.
5 Yrs. after Earthquake U.S. Extends “Temporary” Amnesty for
Haitian Illegal Aliens
Judicial Watch - In yet another depiction of the nation’s flawed
immigration policies, the Obama administration is extending a
humanitarian measure designed to temporarily shield illegal
immigrants from deportation during emergencies for the fifth
time in five years. It’s officially known as Temporary Protected
Status (TPS) but should be renamed permanent—or at least
long-term—protected status. It involves tens of thousands of
Haitians, who were originally granted TPS after an earthquake
devastated the poverty-stricken Caribbean island in 2010. Then
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the benefit
would last only 18 months and be limited to Haitian nationals
who were in the United States as of January 12, 2010.... More
than five years later the Obama administration continues to
allow the same group of foreigners, who would otherwise be
deported, remain in the U.S. under the never-ending “temporary”
measure.
Meet America’s First School District to Serve 100% Organic Meals
Common Dreams - When schools in California’s Sausalito Marin
City District return to session this August, they will be the
first in the nation to serve their students 100 percent organic
meals, sustainably sourced and free of genetically modified
organisms (GMOs). More than 500 students at Bayside MLK Jr.
Academy in Marin City and Willow Creek Academy in Sausalito will
eat fresh, local food year-round, thanks to a partnership with
the Conscious Kitchen, a project of the environmental education
nonprofit Turning Green.... The organization says meals will be
accompanied by nutrition and gardening education.
Trump: The Problem is Not Guns, It is Mental Illness (Video)
Kurt Nimmo - During an interview with CNN on Thursday,
presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said the issue in the wake
of the shooting in Virginia is not guns, but mental illness.
“This isn’t a gun problem, this is a mental problem,” Trump
said. “It’s not a question of the laws, it’s really the people.”
“In the old days they had mental institutions for people like
this because he was really, definitely borderline and definitely
would have been and should have been institutionalized,” Trump
told CNN. “At some point somebody should have seen that, I mean
the people close to him should have seen it.” Pressed by CNN’s
Chris Cuomo on the gun issue, Trump said he supports the
Constitution. “I’m a very strong 2nd Amendment person,” he said.
Rand Paul: Black Lives Matter Should Change Its Name
BuzzFeed News - Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul said
on Wednesday night that the Black Lives Matter movement should
change its name. “I think they should change their name, maybe —
if they were ‘All Lives Matter’ or ‘Innocent Lives Matter,’”
Paul said during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show.
“I am about justice, and frankly I think a lot of poor people in
our country, and many African-Americans, are trapped in this war
on drugs, and I want to change it. But commandeering the
microphone and bullying people and pushing people out of the way
I think really isn’t a way to get their message across.”
Media Blackout: Canada Plans To Dump Nuclear Waste Less Than
Mile From US Border
Zero Hedge - Over the last few years, the United States has not
had the best track record with Deep Geologic Repositories (DGR)
for nuclear waste. In February of 2014, the U.S.’ DGR, known as
the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), had two separate
incidents that compromised the integrity of the project by
releasing airborne radioactive contamination. While most U.S.
citizens were relatively unaffected by the events, our Canadian
neighbors have proposed a plan to construct a DGR 0.6 miles from
America’s largest source of fresh water, the Great Lakes — and
the U.S. State Department is remaining relatively uninvolved.
EPA withholds mine spill documents from Congress
Tori Richards - A congressional committee blasted the
Environmental Protection Agency today for blocking release of
documents related to the Gold King mine disaster, which poured
deadly chemicals into the largest source of drinking water in
the West. “It is disappointing, but not surprising, that the EPA
failed to meet the House Science Committee’s reasonable deadline
in turning over documents pertaining to the Gold King Mine
spill,” said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX). “These documents are
essential to the Committee’s ongoing investigation and our
upcoming hearing on Sept. 9. But more importantly, this
information matters to the many Americans directly affected in
western states, who are still waiting for answers from the EPA.”
Gardening, Farming & Homesteading |
9 Foods You Didn’t Know You Could Dehydrate
Off the Grid News - Many homesteaders and off-gridders dehydrate
food but limit themselves to the “basics.”... We all know the
usual stuff that gets dehydrated... And then there are all the
foods you may not have known could be dehydrated. Here’s a list
of nine, although you may know of others...
Blood pressure drugs increase risk of breast cancer
(NaturalHealth365) Hypertension and pre-hypertension have become
out-of-hand in the U.S., and the number of people developing the
disease is increasing all the time. According to the Centers for
Disease Control (CDC), 2 in 3 adults are either hypertensive or
pre-hypertensive – many of them women. The risk of high blood
pressure increases with age, affecting approximately half of all
post-menopausal women over age 55.... One class of drugs in
particular – calcium channel blockers (CCBs) – has been linked
to very serious health consequences for post-menopausal
women.... This is not the first time a link has been found
between CCB and breast cancer. In fact, data can be traced back
to the mid-1990s, when two studies hypothesized the
anti-hypertensive drugs could cause breast cancer.
There are 271 New Vaccines in Big Pharma’s Pipeline
Health Impact News - “No vaccine manufacturer shall be
liable…for damages arising from a vaccine-related injury or
death.” – President Ronald Wilson Reagan, as he signed The
National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) of 1986, absolving
drug companies from all medico-legal liability when children
die, become chronically ill with vaccine-induced autoimmune
disorders or are otherwise disabled from vaccine injuries. That
law has led directly to an expected reckless, liability-free
development of scores of new, over-priced, potential
block-buster vaccines, now numbering over 250. The question that
must be asked of Big Medicine’s practitioners: How will the CDC,
the AMA, the AAFP and the American Academy of Pediatrics fit any
more potentially neurotoxic vaccines into the current well-baby
over-vaccination schedule? -
Adrenal Fatigue Treatment – 15 Essential Rescue & Recovery Tips
Natural Society - Adrenal fatigue symptoms are often confused
for other health issues, and are largely ignored by mainstream
medicine. Just as with thyroid conditions, those who are easily
fatigued, full of anxiety, or exhausted constantly can face a
battle that not many others understand. If you suspect you might
have adrenal fatigue (and so many of us do), it is time to
uncover adrenal fatigue treatment and solutions that could
really work.
9 amazing health benefits of chamomile tea
Natural Society - Chamomile, meaning ‘ground apple,’ has been
imbibed for centuries in the Roman Empire, during Egyptian rule,
and in ancient Greece. Prized for its special flavanoids,
chrysin, chamomile (Matricaria recutita, or Matricaria
chamomilla) offers numerous health-boosting benefits. Here are 9
amazing health benefits of chamomile tea that every foodie
should know about....
A Vet's Dire Warning: "This Product Can Kill Your Cat"
Dr. Becker - Earlier in the year, after cats in two different households
became ill, the FDA issued a safety alert for flurbiprofen-containing
topical pain medications. Flurbiprofen is a human non-steroidal
anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) applied to the skin to relieve muscle,
joint, or other pain. The FDA’s safety alert was prompted by reports of
five cats that became ill after their owners applied prescription
topical medications on their neck or feet. The medications contained
flurbiprofen and a variety of other active ingredients including
cyclobenzaprine (a muscle relaxer), baclofen, gabapentin, lidocaine, or
prilocaine. Since the pet owners applied the medicated cream or lotion
to their own bodies and not directly to their cats, according to the
FDA, it isn’t known exactly how the cats became exposed to the
medication. However, it’s reasonable to assume one of three likely
scenarios occurred...
Thursday
- August 27, 2015 - Today in History:
1831 - Charles Darwin set out on a voyage to the Pacific aboard the HMS
Beagle. Darwin's discoveries during the voyage helped him form the basis
of his theories on evolution.
1845 - Dr. Crawford Williamson Long used anesthesia for childbirth for
the first time. The event was the delivery of his own child in
Jefferson, GA.
1859 - Edwin L. Drake drilled the first successful U.S. oil well near
Titusville, Pa.
1904 - James Barrie's play "Peter Pan" premiered in London.
1945 - The World Bank was created with an agreement signed by 28
nations.
1947 - The children's television program "Howdy Doody," hosted by Bob
Smith, made its debut on NBC.
1965 - The BP oil rig Sea Gem capsized in the North Sea, with the loss
of 13 lives.
1979 - Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. Babrak Karmal
succeeded President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed.
1992 - The U.S. shot down an Iraqi fighter jet during what the Pentagon
described as a confrontation between a pair of Iraqi warplanes and U.S.
F-16 jets in U.N.-restricted airspace over southern Iraq.
1996 - Muslim fundamentalist Taliban forces retook the strategic air
base of Bagram, solidifying their buffer zone around Kabul, the
Afghanistan capital.
2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush granted China permanent normal
trade status with the United States.
2002 - North Korea ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors to leave the country
and said that it would restart a laboratory capable of producing
plutonium for nuclear weapons.
2008 - Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois was nominated for president by the
Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Moscow outraged as US restricts Russian upper house chair’s visa
for intl conference in NYC
RT - Washington has derailed Russian plans to take part in an
inter-parliamentary conference at UN headquarters by issuing a
highly restrictive visa to the head of Russia’s delegation,
upper house chair Valentina Matviyenko, the Foreign Ministry
said. Matviyenko, who is the chair of the Federation Council,
Russia’s upper house of parliament, and the country’s
highest-ranking female politician, was invited to attend the
Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament organized by
the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) – an international group
founded in 1889, which closely works with the UN. She was also
going to take part in the IPU’s 10th Meeting of Women Speakers
of Parliament that precedes the event, scheduled for August 31 –
September 2.
EU countries sidestep international refugee law with tear gas,
razor wire
Al Jazeera - Police in Hungary on Wednesday used tear gas
against refugees trying to cross into the country through its
border with Serbia, the latest in several recent incidents in
which member states of the European Union used force against
asylum seekers, in what experts say might be a violation of
international law. Hungarian politicians resolved to send
mounted police, dogs and even helicopters to the area in order
to stem the tide of refugees pouring in each day, mostly from
Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea. Government spokesman Zoltan
Kovacs said the lawmakers would debate a possible military
deployment next week.
Court awards French woman disability allowance of €29,000 for
'sensitivity to gadgets'
RT - A French court has awarded a monthly disability grant of
some €800 to a woman claiming to have an allergy to
electromagnetic radiation from gadgets such as cellphones. Most
countries, including France, do not recognize the condition as a
medical disorder. Marine Richard, a 39-year-old former radio
documentary producer, hailed the unprecedented ruling as a
"breakthrough" for people affected by Electromagnetic
Hypersensitivity (EHS), AFP reported.
Despite US Bombings, Taliban Capture District in Afghan's
Helmand Province
Sputnik News - Keeping the Musa Qala’s district headquarters out
of the hands of the Taliban is seen as a vital strategic move.
Recaptured by NATO and Afghan security forces in 2007, the
region was once a major cog in the Taliban’s opium trade. On
Saturday, the US launched three air strikes against insurgents
to defend the district. Supporting Afghan ground forces, the
strikes reportedly killed 40 Taliban fighters… With most foreign
security forces withdrawing from Afghanistan last December,
fighting has intensified in recent months. Roughly 12,000 NATO
troops remain in the country, but with the goal of training the
Afghan military. The Taliban has used the transition to their
advantage, pushing to reclaim territory. Last month, the group
seized the Nawzad district, also in Helmand province.
1000s Of Political Figures Are Stashing Cash In Swiss Accounts,
Foreign Ministry Admits
Zero Hedge - In spite of all the attention the nation has
received in recent years, SCMP reports that thousands of
so-called "politically exposed persons”, or PEPs - a category
that includes heads of state and other top officials - hold
Swiss bank accounts, a Swiss foreign ministry official said.
But, perhaps not for much longer as Bern aims to finalize a law
aimed at simplifying the process of freezing and unblocking such
funds… Switzerland has repeatedly been embarrassed by
revelations, splashed across front pages worldwide, of global
political heavyweights hiding funds - sometimes embezzled from
public coffers - in the Alpine nation’s famous banks. But the
country has not taken such scandals sitting down: it has been
freezing suspicious assets for a quarter century.
Malaysia To Introduce RFID Tracking For Every Vehicle
Tech Dirt - A new vehicle security tracking system suitable for
all types of vehicles -- the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
-- will be implemented nationwide by the Road Transport
Department (JPJ) by 2018.... This new system will enable the
police and other authorities to effectively track down
criminals. And: the RFID technology will herald a new era for
vehicle security in Malaysia and it could be the answer to
combat vehicle theft and cloned vehicle syndicates.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
Fort Bragg Troops Train for Domestic Emergency: “This Exercise
Is About the Home Front”
Mac Slavo - Slightly below the surface, these Fort Bragg Army
engineers are also training — this time in Florida — to assist
local authorities in the event of domestic disorder and
potential chaos — prepared to quell civil unrest, riots, mass
unrest or even the aftermath of terrorist attacks. Scenarios
which could all be really coming to America. And that’s when the
potential for martial law kicks in. ABC11 out of North Carolina
reports: Early Friday morning, more than 300 20th Engineer
Brigade soldiers prepped convoys. Over the next five days they
will join more than 400 additional troops in an Emergency
Deployment Readiness Exercise. […] While the soldiers may be
called on domestic or foreign disasters, this exercise is about
the home front, and how to handle a situation that’s
overwhelming to local and state officials. “It’s absolutely
essential to ensure trained and ready forces,” Gilberti said. “I
don’t believe we’re never ‘not ready.’ You can never be ready
enough.”
Pentagon Investigating Centcom for Allegedly Hiding Expansion of
ISIS
Mikael Thalen - Officials at United States Central Command are
being investigated by the Pentagon’s inspector general for
allegedly downplaying the expansion of ISIS by altering
intelligence reports. According to the New York Times, a
whistleblower within the Defense Intelligence Agency told
Pentagon officials he had obtained evidence showing Centcom had
altered “the conclusions of intelligence assessments prepared
for policy makers, including President Obama.” “The prospect of
skewed intelligence raises new questions about the direction of
the government’s war with the Islamic State, and could help
explain why pronouncements about the progress of the campaign
have varied widely,” the Times notes.
White House Pushes Race War, Then Blames Guns For Flanagan’s
“Race War”
Kit Daniels - The Obama administration is blaming guns for the
WBDJ-TV shooting, even though the shooter, Vester Flanagan, was
influenced by the White House’s race baiting. The White House
has been falsely insinuating that racism is the dominant factor
behind numerous events over the past several years, even those
that didn’t involve race at all, and although Flanagan admitted
he was motivated by a “race war,” the administration’s now
blaming gun owners. “As you’ve heard me in the past, this is
another example of gun violence that’s becoming all too common
in communities large and small, all across the United States,”
said W.H. Press Secretary Josh Earnest, who wasted no time to
politicize the tragedy. But in reality, the shooting is an
example of what happens when the Obama administration racially
divides the country.
*Related:
Breaking Updates: TV Reporter & Cameraman Shot Dead Live On Air
Warning Graphic Video: WDBJ Live Shooter Filmed Himself as He
fired
Live Leak - The fellow who shot the two reporters live on the
air posted this video to his Facebook account. He actually
filmed himself as he shot those two individuals. Unbelievable.
We've entered a new age of reality folks.
North Dakota Becomes First State to Legalize Drones Weaponized
with Tasers, Tear Gas, Rubber Bullets & Sound Canons
Liberty Blitzkrieg - It is now legal for law enforcement in
North Dakota to fly drones armed with everything from Tasers to
tear gas thanks to a last-minute push by a pro-police lobbyist.
With all the concern over the militarization of police in the
past year, no one noticed that the state became the first in the
union to allow police to equip drones with “less than lethal”
weapons. House Bill 1328 wasn’t drafted that way, but then a
lobbyist representing law enforcement—tight with a booming drone
industry—got his hands on it.
Census: Anchor Baby Delivered Every 88 Seconds
Breitbart - One out of about every twelve newborns in the United
States is an anchor baby, or the U.S.-born child of illegal
migrants, according to a Pew Research Center study. This means
that one anchor baby is delivered every 93 seconds, based on the
2008 census data analyzed by the Pew. The huge number of foreign
children born on U.S. soil– roughly 340,000 per year— is also an
economic imposition on Americans, who pay taxes to help raise,
feed, and educate those children of illegal migrants.
Eventually, those 340,000 U.S.-born foreign children can join
the U.S. workforce and compete for wages against the roughly
four million children of U.S. parents that enter the
slow-growing U.S. economy each year.
Judge illegal Aliens — Have Second Amendment Rights!
Breitbart - In a case regarding a specific gun control law which
bans “unauthorized aliens” (illegal immigrants) from possessing
firearms in the United States, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Seventh Circuit did the work of a contortionist by upholding the
law while also pointing out that they “see no principled way to
carve out the Second Amendment and say that the unauthorized (or
maybe all noncitizens) are excluded.” In a word—illegal
immigrants have Second Amendment rights too.
Charlie Daniels Pens Open Letter to 'Burned-Out Political Hacks'
in Congress
Breitbart - Charlie Daniels, of Charlie Daniels Band fame,
penned an open letter to Congress on Monday blasting the
“sold-out, jaded, burned-out political hacks” for what he called
their lack of courage. “The courageous politicians that once
championed this nation have been replaced, for the most part, by
a breed of milksop, politically correct, scared of their own
shadow, pushover, pathetic excuses for public servants who are
supposed to be representing a constituency of citizens who have
to live with the circumstance of their timid folly,” the rocker
wrote on the band’s Facebook page. Check out Daniels’ full
letter…
California home school interest surges as parents look to
sidestep vaccine law
The Guardian - With the passage of a new law this summer
mandating vaccines for schoolkids in California, home school
advocates and organizations say they are seeing surging interest
in off-campus education options that would exempt them from the
requirement.... The controversial mandate, co-authored by state
Senator Richard Pan, a pediatrician backed by the California
Medical Association, requires any student in public or private
school to have 10 vaccinations as an attendance requirement,
with some exceptions for medical conditions. En route to
passage, the proposal sparked scathing controversy on both sides
of the issue, with opponents (wearing red to symbolize children
who have been harmed by vaccines and often with their own kids
in tow) regularly flooding hearings at the state capitol to
protest.
Poll: Donald Trump Sets Record, Hits 40 Percent in New Poll
Breitbart - Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner, hit the 40
percent marker in a recent Gravis Marketing poll. According to a
report, this is the first time a candidate has reached above the
30 percent mark. Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner, hit the 40
percent marker in a recent Gravis Marketing poll. According to a
report, this is the first time a candidate has reached above the
30 percent mark. Trump, Carson, and Fiorina three of the top
five GOP presidential candidates, have never held office.
GOP loyalty oath proposal in Virginia may signal trouble for
Donald Trump
Washington Post - The Virginia Republican Party is considering
requiring a loyalty oath from presidential primary contenders --
a move widely considered an early sign of GOP skittishness about
Donald Trump's campaign. State party officials are debating
whether to require candidates to pledge their support to the
eventual nominee and promise not to run as a third-party
candidate -- as Trump has hinted he might do. The development
could be an early sign of trouble for Trump, particularly if
other state parties consider similar ideas. But it also is being
debated cautiously by Republicans who worry that it could
backfire and breed resentment among activists who are suspicious
of attempts by the GOP establishment to control the party.
CNN Tells Americans That The Stock Market Is Not Going To
Crash
Economic Collapse - On Wednesday we witnessed the third largest
single day point gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average ever.
That sounds like great news until you realize that the two
largest were in October 2008 – right in the middle of the last
financial crisis. This is a perfect example of what I wrote
about yesterday. Every time the market crashes, there are huge
up days, huge down days and giant waves of market momentum. Even
though the Dow was up 619 points on Wednesday, overall we are
still down more than 2,000 points from the peak of the market.
During the weeks and months to come, we are going to see many
more wild market swings, but the overall direction of the market
will be down.
Despite Annual Budget of more than $27 Billion, Nuclear Security
Administration Says it Doesn't have Enough Money to Protect
against Fires
AllGov - Despite government claims of safety, officials admit
that one way nuclear material could be spread into the
atmosphere is if a nuclear facility was hit by a fire. Now a
report says that a federal nuclear agency has failed to upgrade
aging fire suppression systems in its buildings. The agency, the
National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), claims it
doesn’t have enough funding to replace aging water pipes and
other infrastructure intended to prevent or fight fires at
nuclear weapons facilities. The NNSA has a budget of $27
billion, but insists it has “a constrained budget” when it comes
to fire suppression. The watchdog group Project on Government
Oversight (POGO) calls this claim by NNSA “curious” considering
the agency sought a $1.2 billion budget increase and insists on
building unneeded new facilities.
Leaked report cites design flaws in Hanford plant built to treat
nuclear waste
Washington Post - A nearly completed government facility
intended to treat the radioactive byproducts of nuclear weapons
production is riddled with design flaws that could put the
entire operation at risk of failure, according to a leaked
internal report. A technical review of the treatment plant on
the grounds of the former Hanford nuclear site identified
hundreds of “design vulnerabilities” and other weaknesses, some
serious enough to lead to spills of radioactive material. The
draft report is the latest in a series of blows to the clean-up
effort at Hanford, the once-secret government reservation in
eastern Washington state where much of the nation’s plutonium
stockpile originated.
Yellowstone Alert: Man + Dogs burned alive in Challis Idaho
hot springs — Earthquake Swarm Location
Dutchsinse - A man hiking in the Idaho “Salmon” wilderness
around Challis, ID suffered severe burns, and his dogs were
burned alive after jumping into a volcanic hot springs normally
fit for human swimming. Challis Idaho is a location I have
covered in detail for the past 2 years due to a large EARTHQUAKE
SWARM which has been happening in the area. The man + dogs were
burned in the Salmon Wilderness near Challis Idaho along the
deep Western edge of the Yellowstone supervolcano magma chamber.
The magma chamber has been confirmed to reach down over 30
miles, and cover an area the size of 11 Grand Canyons (filled
with magma).... These are signs of magma movement associated
with the Yellowstone supervolcano. Shallow magma is causing
major heating, thus causing earthquakes, and hot springs to have
major issues.
Most Medicines Create Superbugs, Not Just Antibiotics
Health Impact News - Careless prescriptions and cattle fattening
antibiotics are blamed for the rise of superbugs resistant to
everything in the hospital arsenal, but that’s all wrong.
Antibiotics fail, because we are all abusing common medicines
that also have powerful antibiotic activity. All painkillers,
anti-inflammatories, statins, antidepressants, and the whole
list of common pharmaceuticals are the problem. We simply use
too many drugs. Common drugs should also be labeled as
antibiotics, because they kill the sensitive bacteria in your
gut and leave behind just the resistant bacteria. Unfortunately,
the genetic mutations that make your gut bacteria resistant to
drugs, also provide resistance to antibiotics needed to stop
infections and that broad resistance to antibiotics can spread
to pathogens that then become the dreaded superbugs.
Unique Gene Expression Study Shows Roundup Causes Massive Kidney
and Liver Damage at Low Doses
Sustainable Pulse - A new ground-breaking peer-reviewed study
has been published in Environmental Health Journal that shows
the levels of glyphosate-based herbicides which the general
public are commonly exposed to in drinking water, altered the
gene function of over 4000 genes in the livers and kidneys of
rats. The study results suggest that long-term exposure to an
ultra-low, environmental dose of Roundup at an glyphosate-equivalent
concentration of only 50 ppt (parts per trillion), in an
established laboratory animal toxicity model system, can result
in liver and kidney damage, with potential significant health
implications for humans as well as domesticated animal and
wildlife populations.
This One Simple Exercise Can Restore and Repair Your Vision
Natural Blaze - Palming, as it is called, is perhaps the most
important exercise you can do for good eye health, and the
benefits can be felt the very first time you try it.... The
method is simple and is based upon the principle of completely
relaxing the muscles, nerves, eyelids, and parts of the eye
itself that are continuously being strained by whatever behavior
is causing the tension. In essence, this is done by briefly
loosening up the neck and shoulders, then sitting at a table
with the palms of the hands gently pressed against the orbits of
the eyes while the breath is concentrated on filling the upper
body and eyes with air. This is done for as long as is possible,
meaning that you can do it for a few minutes, or relax into it
for 30 minutes or an hour in order to experience extremely
beneficial deep relaxation of the eyes. Yoga for the Eyes can be
seen in its entirety here. The course begins with a detailed
explanation of palming and warm-up exercises. Enjoy!
Our guide to selecting a primary-care physician who will work
with you to get the alternative treatments you want and need
The American Holistic Health Association - The search for a
doctor who combines conventional medical expertise with
hard-core knowledge of alternative practices or, at the very
least, who is open-minded and willing to refer a patient to
alternative practitioners, can be a difficult, time-consuming
process. In fact, there are more people interested in holistic
health care than there are doctors to provide it. Why? Joel
Evans, M.D., an obstetrician-gynecologist practicing in
Stamford, Conn., suggests that the problem is a matter of
economics. Effective alternative therapies, such as acupuncture
and nutrition, take more time than most conventional treatments.
Because their insurance reimbursements have decreased under the
managed-care system, physicians are pushed to see more patients
a day. "It's faster to prescribe a pill than to talk to patients
about other options or administer them," says Evans.... Use
these steps to guide your own search for a primary-care doctor
and any alternative practitioners you consult.
Wednesday
- August 26, 2015 - Today in History:
1842 - The first fiscal year was established by the U.S. Congress to
start on July 1st.
1896 - In the Philippines, and insurrection began against the Spanish
government.
1920 - The 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect. The
amendment prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in the voting
booth.
1934 - Adolf Hitler demanded that France turn over their Saar region to
Germany.
1937 - All Chinese shipping was blockaded by Japan.
1945 - The Japanese were given surrender instructions on the U.S.
battleship Missouri at the end of World War II.
1957 - It was announced that an intercontinental ballistic missile was
successfully tested by the Soviet Union.
1957 - The first Edsel made by the Ford Motor Company rolled of the
assembly line.
1973 - A U.S. Presidential Proclamation was declared that made August
26th Women's Equality Day.
1978 - Sigmund Jahn blasted off aboard the Russian Soyuz 31 and became
the first German in space.
1981 - The U.S. claimed that North Korea fired an antiaircraft missile
at a U.S. Surveillance plane while it was over South Korea.
1987 - The Fuller Brush Company announced plans to open two retail
stores in Dallas, TX. The company that had sold its products door to
door for 81 years.
1990 - The 55 Americans at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait left Baghdad by
car and headed for the Turkish border.
1991 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev promised that national
elections would be held.
1992 - A "no-fly zone" was imposed on the southern 1/3 of Iraq. The move
by the U.S., France and Britain was aimed at protecting Iraqi Shiite
Muslims.
1998 - The U.S. government announced that they were investigating
Microsoft in an attempt to discover if they "bullied" Intel into
delaying new technology.
2003 - Investigators concluded that NASA's overconfident management and
inattention to safety doomed the space shuttle Columbia as much as
damage to the craft did.
French Expert Slams F-22 Deployment in Europe as Provocation
Sputnik News - Richard Labeviere, chief editor of the Defense
magazine of the French Institute of Higher Studies of National
Defense, has described the planned US F-22 deployment in Europe
as a NATO provocation, which he said is seeking to bolster its
global clout. "There are several aspects related to this
decision, which, briefly speaking, is a provocation on the part
of NATO and indicates the growth in the alliance's presence in
Europe and other parts of the world", Labeviere said.
China stocks down again on volatile Asia trading
RT - It was a choppy Wednesday session for Chinese stocks, which
finished down 1.27 percent, falling for the sixth consecutive
session. At the start of trading, the Shanghai Composite Index
opened down 2 percent, briefly falling below 3,000 points before
recovering to 3 percent higher. In the last hour of trading,
Chinese stocks collapsed, dragging most of Asia's markets down
with them.
Saudi Arabia ‘could cut billions’ from budget amid plunging oil
prices – report
RT - Saudi Arabia is preparing to cut billions of dollars from
its budget amid a steady drop in crude oil prices, a Bloomberg
report suggests. Reportedly, Riyadh is currently working with
advisers to review capital spending plans and delay some
projects.... According to the sources, besides reviewing its
capital spending, the Saudi government may delay or reduce some
of its projects to save money. However, spending items such as
public sector salaries would not be affected, the report claims.
The Saudi budget, which draws some 90 percent of its revenue
from the petroleum sector, has been heavily hit by a 50 percent
drop in oil prices and is expected to incur a deficit amounting
to 20 percent of GDP in 2015, the International Monetary Fund
has estimated.
Global stocks surge as China cuts interest rates
RT - The People’s Bank of China has lowered its interest rate
for the fifth time since November boosting European and US
stocks higher in Tuesday's trading. The one-year lending rate
has been reduced by 25 basis points to 4.6 percent, which is
record low for China. The decision by the central bank
immediately sent European stocks higher. London’s FTSE is up
over 2 percent, the German DAX and France's CAC are gaining 4.5
percent and Russia's RTS is almost 5 percent higher as of 15:00
GMT. Wall Street opened in positive territory on news from
China. The Dow Jones Industrials and the S&P 500 were up over 2
percent, while the Nasdaq was 3 percent higher at opening bell.
Oil prices have also rebounded from Monday’s lows. Brent crude
is trading 2 percent higher at $43.52 per barrel, while US
benchmark WTI is up 3 percent, trying to get back up to $40 per
barrel as of 15:30 GMT.
Chinese Central Banker Blames Fed For Market Rout
Zero Hedge - While the western mainstream media meme is that
"this is all China's fault" - despite the fact that the real
break happened after the FOMC Minutes last week - As Xinhua
reports, A researcher with China's central bank on Tuesday
blamed wide expectation of a Fed rate rise in September for the
global market rout. Yao Yudong, head of the People's Bank of
China's Research Institute of Finance, said the expected Fed
rate hike next month had been the "trigger" for the wild market
swings. Analysts worried that the Fed rate hike could accelerate
the plunge of U.S. stocks and trigger a sell-off of assets
worldwide and even a new global credit crisis.
Devaluation Stunner: China Has Dumped $100 Billion In Treasurys
In The Past Two Weeks
Zero Hedge - ... in the past two weeks alone China has sold a
gargantuan $106 (and over) billion in US paper just as a result
of the change in the currency regime! But wait, there's more:
recall that one months ago we posted that "China's Record
Dumping Of US Treasuries Leaves Goldman Speechless" in which we
reported that China has sold some $107 billion in Treasurys
since the start of 2015. When we did that article, we too were
quite shocked at that number. However, we - just like Goldman -
are absolutely speechless to find out that China has sold as
much in Treasurys in the past 2 weeks, over $100 billion, as it
has sold in the entire first half of the year!
Scottish National Party Welcomes German Moves to Ban GM Crops
Sustainable Pulse - German Agriculture Minister Christian
Schmidt has informed German states of his intention to use a new
EU law, passed in March, to ban the use of GM crops. This
follows the Scottish Government’s announcement earlier this
month that they will take similar action to protect Scotland’s
clean, green status. The German announcement also comes as
Professor Carlo Leifert, Professor of Ecological Agriculture at
Newcastle University, said that he strongly believes the
Scottish Government ban on GM crops is right and that “there are
likely to be significant commercial benefits from Scotland being
clearly recognized as a GM-free region”.
Russia Removes Colgate-Palmolive, Procter & Gamble Products Over
‘high levels of toxins’
(AP) - Russian authorities have begun to remove foreign brands
of detergents from stores, claiming that they pose health risks.
The Russian Consumer Protection Agency said in a statement
Tuesday that recent inspections of selected goods by top foreign
brands such as Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble have found
high levels of toxic ingredients in them.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
State Dept.: We Expect to Welcome 5,000 to 8,000 Syrian Refugees
in FY16
CNS News - It was the final question at Monday's State
Department news briefing: How many Syrian refugees does the
United States expect to take in this year? "We expect to welcome
between 1,000 and 2,000 Syrian refugees this fiscal year, and
5,000 to 8,000 Syrian refugees in next fiscal year, 2016,"
spokesman John Kirby responded. "There are 15,000 Syrian refugee
referrals in the pipeline from UNHCR (United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees). You know, we continue to be a leader
in this regard, both in terms of refugees we bring in, but also
the amount of money that we contribute to the effort.
New Consumer Reports Study Finds that Nearly All Ground Beef
Sold in America Has Feces in It
Free Thought Project - Consumer Reports tested several hundred
packages of ground meat from stores across America, and their
findings were shocking, to say the least. According to the
report, New lab tests conducted by Consumer Reports found that
of the 300 packages of ground beef purchased in stores across
the country, almost all contained bacteria that signified fecal
contamination. More than 40 percent contained Staphylococcus
aureus. Almost 20 percent contained Clostridium perfringens,
which causes nearly 1 million cases of food poisoning annually,
many related to beef. A significant amount also contained
superbugs, bacteria that are resistant to three or more classes
of antibiotics. A key reason is the overuse of antibiotics on
cattle farms. The irony here is that local organic farmers who
have harmed no one, are being raided by SWAT teams for selling
raw milk, eggs, or grass fed beef. Meanwhile, millions of people
are getting sick and dying across the country by
government-subsidized factory farms.
New Video: Planned Parenthood Baby Parts Buyer Asks For “Another
50 Livers Per Week”
Steve Watson - In an EIGHTH damning video released by the Centre
for Medical Progress, the CEO of baby parts buying company
StemExpress admits that Planned Parenthood sells intact fetuses,
and describes the organization as “a volume institution.” While
sipping red wine, Cate Dyer also laughs about wanting “another
fifty livers a week” from aborted babies, while weirdly laughing
about how dirty and bacteria-laden abortion clinics are.
TSA airport style searches on all Amtrak trains!
MassPrivateI - Our government is stepping up its plans to search
EVERYONE, ANYWHERE, whether you're traveling by air, rail, ferry
or bus. Beginning this week and almost four years since writers
warned Americans that our government wants to search people on
trains... The Baltimore Sun reported Amtrak will begin searching
all passengers: “Passengers failing to consent to security
procedures will be denied access to trains.”
Austin Police Institute "No Refusal" Blood Draws Until "End Of
Summer"
Adan Salazar - “The no refusal initiative is an effort to
enforce DWI laws, keep the public safe, and to conduct blood
search warrants on suspects who refuse to give a breath or blood
specimen as required by law,” the department claimed in a press
release. “A high number of DWI arrests are made in Austin each
year.” “No refusal” means police can forcibly extract blood or
breath samples against a person’s will after they have refused,
enabling law enforcement to secure evidence which may aid in
future prosecution. A judge is typically on hand to sign
warrants, an effort to give the blood draws an air of legitimacy
in the face of Fourth Amendment violations.
Innocent Couple Shocked At What Happens When CPS Worker Goes
Rogue
Off the Grid News - A state social worker deliberately tormented
her neighbors with false child abuse claims – claims that
resulted in multiple law enforcement visits to the home, police
say. Social worker Beth A. Bond and her fiancé were charged with
six counts of making false reports to a state child abuse
hotline, court records in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, indicate. The
calls led to late-night visits from police, six child abuse
investigations and drug tests for the innocent couple, April
Rodgers and Corey Chaney, The Courier-Journal newspaper
reported. To make matters worse, officials with the state
Cabinet for Health and Family Services refused to listen to
Chaney and Rodgers until police proved the claims were false....
“There is no way to hold a rogue social worker accountable,”
Chaney told The Courier-Journal. “There’s got to be a system in
place to protect families. There’s everything in place to
protect anonymous callers.”
School Fingerprints Elementary Students for Lunch Program
EAG News - The southern Indiana school district is one of the
latest to deploy technology which “biometric identification to
match a finger scan with a personal identification number,” WAVE
reports. According to a notification issued by the New Albany
Floyd County school system, the technology is used to “eliminate
pin numbers, eliminate misused pin numbers, maintain the privacy
of students on subsidized food programs and speed up the amount
of time in the lunch line.” School administrators “refused” to
go on camera to discuss the new technology. But the change in
the name of convenience has some parents very concerned.
Researchers Find Horse Meat and Other Undeclared Species in
Products Labeled Ground Beef
Natural Society - Most people don’t give much thought into what
is in a package of ground beef, but 2 shocking new studies
conducted by Chapman University researchers show that what the
labels on meat products say and what consumers actually consume
are sometimes very different things. One study focused on
identification of species found in ground meat products, while
the other zeroed in on game meat species labeling. All of the
products examined were sold on the U.S. commercial market.
Researchers found examples of species mishandling in both
studies.
Give Up Already: Almost Half Of Americans Say Hillary Should
Halt Presidential Campaign
Steve Watson - As she faces possible criminal charges and even
prison time, almost half of Americans surveyed believe that
Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign is done, and that she
should quit now. The findings come from a Rasmussen poll
released today, showing that 46 percent of Likely U.S. Voters
believe Clinton should suspend her campaign for the Democratic
presidential nomination until the legal implications of her use
of a private e-mail server while Secretary of State are
resolved. The survey reveals that even a quarter of Democrats
think Hillary is done.
Donald Trump Goes Head to Head with Univision Reporter on
Immigration
Infowars - Presidential candidate Donald Trump had Univision
reporter Jorge Ramos temporarily removed from an Iowa press
conference Tuesday after the journalist unexpectedly stood up
and began demanding answers on the Republican frontrunner’s
proposed immigration policy. Ramos, who peppered the business
mogul with questions as soon as he reached the podium, refused
to sit down as Trump attempted to call on other reporters. “Sit
down,” Trump said repeatedly. “Excuse me, sit down. You weren’t
called.” After being told to “go back to Univision,” Ramos was
physically removed from the room by what appeared to be a member
of Trump’s staff. The reporter, who was eventually allowed back
in the room and permitted to ask his question, argued that it
would be impossible to deport millions of illegal immigrants and
to build a wall on the country’s Southern border. Trump’s back
and forth with the journalist, which covers everything from drug
smuggling to the deportation of violent Mexican gang members,
can be viewed below.
* Related:
FULL Donald Trump Press Conference Before Dubuque, Iowa Rally
During Every Market Crash There Are Big Ups, Big Downs And Giant
Waves Of Momentum
Economic Collapse - This is exactly the type of market behavior
that we would expect to see during the early stages of a major
financial crisis. In every major market downturn throughout
history there were big ups, big downs and giant waves of
momentum, and this time around will not be any different. As I
have explained repeatedly, markets tend to go up when things are
calm, and they tend to go down when things get really choppy.
During a market meltdown, we fully expect to see days when the
stock market absolutely soars. Waves of panic selling are often
followed by waves of panic buying. As you will see below, six of
the ten best single day gains for the Dow Jones Industrial
Average happened during the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009.
So don’t be fooled for a moment by a very positive day for
stocks like we are seeing on Tuesday. It is all part of the
dance.
Nearly 1 Million Left Homeless in 9 Years in L.A., Report Says
RT - About 13,000 of the two million LA county residents
receiving some form of public assistance slip into homelessness
every month, according to a new report entitled “All Alone.”
Researchers said that 70 percent of the 13,000 people tumbling
into homelessness quickly find work or rely on family to get off
the streets. However, a quarter of those people, amounting to
some 3,700, were experiencing periods of “continuous,
unremitting, chronic homelessness,” when they were homeless four
or more times within three years. The problem is escalating
despite 10,000 people having been placed in housing over the
last three years, according to the report produced by a research
organization based in Los Angeles called the Economic
Roundtable. The population of Los Angeles County was estimated
to be over 10 million by the 2014 United States census.
Scientists Shocked by Dimensions of The Great Pacific Garbage
Patch
Sputnik News - A research expedition, sponsored by Ocean
Cleanup, has returned on Sunday with devastating news. The Great
Pacific Garbage Patch, floating between California and Hawaii,
is much bigger than the scientists could imagine. Using 30
boats, the team of scientists spent a month collecting samples
and measuring the dimensions of the patch which they hope to
clean up in the future. According to those findings, the cleanup
effort could take much longer than previously anticipated, as
the collection of discarded plastic waste is nightmarishly big.
The stretch of accumulated pollution is roughly twice the size
of Texas.
There were only 3 ZIP codes in America without any Ashley
Madison accounts — here they are
Business Insider - Gawker’s Gabrielle Bluestone has uncovered
that there are precisely three ZIP codes across the country that
have no record of Ashley Madison users. That’s ZIP codes, not
area codes. And what do they have in common? They're partially
lacking two things: the internet and a large amount of people.
Gawker’s discovery highlights a pretty dark truth. These three
ZIP codes are probably the only ones in the United States that
don't house spouses looking to cheat — at least not by using
Ashley Madison.
Vaccines deliver 4,925 mcg of aluminum by 18 months, safe limit
is 25 mcg
(NaturalHealth365) While parents across the country are led to
believe they are doing the best thing for their children by
vaccinating them according to a childhood vaccination schedule,
the little known fact is that those vaccines can introduce toxic
aluminum into the body at nearly 200 times the safe level....
Scientists at the University of British Columbia point out that
aluminum clearly causes a negative impact on the nervous system
of all ages. Yet, immunizations continue to administer this
toxic substance directly into the systems of some of the most
vulnerable to its effects.
Vaccine Alternative Homeoprophylaxis to be Explored by Leading
Experts
Natural Blaze - Medical doctors, homeopaths, an immunologist, an
attorney specializing in vaccine exemptions, researcher sand
other experts from around the world will converge in Dallas this
October for the 1st international conference on homeopathic
prophylaxis, a three-day event that examines the non-toxic
alternative to educating the immune system and preventing
infectious disease.... This first of its kind, international
event is sponsored by Worldwide Choice, an educational
organization focused on supporting parents’ right to choose
health practices, and providing them information about healthy
alternatives to vaccination for disease prevention. It will take
place October 2-4, 2015 in Dallas, Texas.
How is This Doctor Accused of False MS Diagnoses Still
Practicing Medicine?
Natural Blaze - Dr. Sean Orr is the former head of neurology for
Baptist Health and one of the doctors accused of violating that
sacred trust on multiple occasions. In 2013, Dr. Orr’s license
was suspended for a year after he faced allegations of sexual
misconduct with one of his patients from 2011. Dr. Orr used his
position of authority to trick his patient into having sexual
relations with him, even claiming that the relationship would
benefit her health. The next year, Baptist Health ─ a chain of
hospitals and care offices based in Jacksonville, Florida ─
faced a lawsuit after a whistleblower reported that the
organization had been overfunded by the Medicare program through
false claims made by Dr. Orr, supported by misdiagnosis and
mistreatment. They eventually paid a $2.5million settlement to
the U.S. government while Orr agreed to pay $150,000. Now,
several patients have come forward with a different issue,
accusing Dr. Orr of misdiagnosing them with MS. One of them is
Amber Taylor, who claims her regular doctor referred her to Dr.
Orr for her chronic migraines. After only a couple months, Dr.
Orr diagnosed Taylor with MS.
Here’s a Simple Way to Teach Your Kids About Taxes...
Tuesday
- August 25, 2015 - Today in History:
1718 - Hundreds of colonists from France arrived in Louisiana. Some
settled in present-day New Orleans.
1814 - The U.S. Library of Congress was destroyed by British forces.
1825 - Uruguay declared independence from Brazil.
1916 - The National Park Service was established as part of the U.S.
Department of the Interior.
1920 - The first airplane to fly from New York to Alaska arrived in
Nome.
1921 - The U.S. signed a peace treaty with Germany.
1941 - Allied forces invaded Iran. Within four days the Soviet Union and
England controlled Iran.
1941 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the bill appropriating
funds for construction of the Pentagon.
1944 - Paris, France, was liberated by Allied forces ending four years
of German occupation.
1944 - Romania declared war on Germany.
1950 - U.S. President Truman ordered the seizure of U.S. railroads to
avert a strike.
1972 - In Great Britain, computerized axial tomography (CAT scan) was
introduced.
1983 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union signed a $10 billion grain pact.
1987 - Saudi Arabia denounced the "group of terrorists" that ran the
Iranian government.
1988 - Iran and Iraq began talks in Geneva after ending their eight
years of war.
1990 - Military action was authorized by the United Nations to enforce
the trade embargo that had been placed on Iraq after their invasion of
Kuwait.
1997 - The tobacco industry agreed to an $11.3 billion settlement with
the state of Florida.
1998 - A survey released said that 1/3 of Americans use the Internet.
Chinese markets crash again in biggest collapse in 20 years
RT - The key Shanghai Composite Index sank another 7.63 percent
Tuesday, extending its worst four-day rout since 1996. The index
has fallen 22 percent since August 19. Investors were rattled as
the China Securities Regulatory Commission made no attempt to
reassure markets after Monday’s crash, as they did a month ago
after an 8.5 percent drop. It’s panic selling and an issue of
confidence,” Wei Wei, an analyst at Huaxi Securities in
Shanghai, told Bloomberg News. "The government won’t step in to
rescue the market again, as it’s a global selloff and it’s
spreading everywhere now. It’s not going to work this time.”
S. Korea agrees to end propaganda as North expresses regret for
provocations
The Washington Post - North and South Korea reached an agreement
early Tuesday morning to resolve the showdown on the divided
peninsula, with Pyongyang expressing regret for recent
provocations, including a land mine attack that severely injured
two Southern soldiers. In return, Seoul agreed to turn off the
loudspeakers that had angered Pyongyang so much that it had
entered a “quasi state of war.” They will be silenced at noon
local time Tuesday. The deal came after three days of marathon
talks, during which North Korea was moving troops and military
equipment to the border, apparently trying to signal it was
ready for combat, while South Korea declared it would retaliate
against any provocation.
Stock up on canned food for stock market crash, warns former
Gordon Brown adviser
The Independent - A former adviser to Gordon Brown has urged
people to stock up on canned goods and bottled water as stock
markets around the world slide. mDamian McBride appeared to
suggest that the stock market dip could lead to civil disorder
or other situations where it would be unreasonable for someone
to leave the house. “Advice on the looming crash, No.1: get hard
cash in a safe place now; don't assume banks & cashpoints will
be open, or bank cards will work,” he tweeted. “Crash advice
No.2: do you have enough bottled water, tinned goods & other
essentials at home to live a month indoors? If not, get
shopping. “Crash advice No.3: agree a rally point with your
loved ones in case transport and communication gets cut off;
somewhere you can all head to.”
Aussie stockmarket tumbles amid growing fears over health of
global economy
Herold Sun August 24, 2015 - Australian shares have taken their
biggest tumble since the global financial crisis with $59
billion stripped from the market as uncertainty grips global
markets. The benchmark ASX 200 index has closed down 4.1 per
cent, with the losses felt across the board from banks to
resources stocks.
Powerful Lobby Group Calling For Mandatory Vaccinations In
Canada
Dave Mihalovic - Canada's largest doctors’ group are calling for
the same policies under heavy influence by the American Medical
Association to change the way medicine is practiced in Canada.
At its annual meeting in Halifax, August 23-26 the 80,000 member
group of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) is intending to
vote on a "mandatory vaccination" resolution requiring that all
children registering for school or daycare show proof they are
fully vaccinated. Under the guidance of some of the largest
pharmaceutical companies in the world, and in addition to
calling for proof of vaccination, the CMA board is endorsing a
multi-year plan to increase vaccination rates.
Record-breaking typhoon to make direct hit on Japan's only
restarted nuclear plant
ENE News - Record-breaking typhoon to make direct hit on Japan’s
only restarted nuclear plant — 159 mph gust last night,
strongest ever measured at location — Waves near 40 ft. high
expected around island — Gov’t alerts for landslides and floods
— Cracks and leaks already found at nuclear plant.
US media blackout: French oppose vaccines
Jon Rappoport - Here, from
thevaccinereaction.org, is a shocker: “The French National
Debate on Vaccines,” by Marco Caceres, August 19: Between 2005
and 2010, the proportion of French people in favour or very in
favour of vaccination dropped from 90% to 60% (2013 INPES
Peretti-Watel health barometer). The percentage of French people
between the ages of 18 and 75 who are anti-vaccination increased
from 8.5% in 2005 to 38.2% in 2010. In 2005, 58% of doctors
questioned the usefulness of vaccines administered to children
while 31% of doctors were expressing doubts about vaccine
safety. These figures must surely have increased since then.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
Exclusive: Hillary Clinton Sanctioned Child Rape in Afghanistan
Joe Biggs - A U.S. State Department directive issued under
former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2012 ordered U.S.
troops in Afghanistan to avoid criticizing certain “taboo”
aspects of Afghan culture, including “pedophilia” and “women’s
rights.” Now, three years after the policy change, a decorated
Green Beret is being kicked out of the U.S. Army for a 2011
incident in which he shoved an Afghan police commander accused
of raping a boy and beating his mother.
IRS finds yet another Lois Lerner email account
Washington Times - Lois Lerner had yet another personal email
account used to conduct some IRS business, the tax agency
confirmed in a new court filing late Monday that further
complicates the administration’s efforts to be transparent about
Ms. Lerner’s actions during the tea party targeting scandal. The
admission came in an open-records lawsuit filed by Judicial
Watch, a conservative public interest law firm that has sued to
get a look at emails Ms. Lerner sent during the targeting. IRS
lawyer Geoffrey J. Klimas told the court that as the agency was
putting together a set of documents to turn over to Judicial
Watch, it realized Ms. Lerner had used yet another email
account, in addition to her official one and another personal
one already known to the agency.
California Parents Blamed for SIDS Death – Lose Remaining
Children to CPS
Health Impact News - Crystal Avenger of El Dorado, California
states that 3-month old Alana Jo received a Hepatitis B
vaccination in the hospital shortly before her death.
Approximately one week prior to her death, in March 2015 they
took her back to the hospital for a sick visit and she was
diagnosed with a common cold. On the morning of March 18, 2015,
Christopher awoke and noticed his daughter, Alana, didn’t look
normal. His voice laden with emotion as he recalled, “I picked
her up from the bed and her arms went completely limp.” He
immediately called 911 and frantically followed the 911
operator’s instructions for CPR on his baby.... The baby was
taken away in an ambulance, and her mother Crystal was not even
allowed to go with her. An investigation began, and despite no
evidence of abuse with the parents, the remaining four children
were removed from the home by force, screaming as they were
ripped away from their parents.
School band told to stop performing 'How Great Thou Art'
Fox News - There was no halftime show under the Friday night
lights at Mississippi’s Brandon High School — the marching band
had been benched. The band was ordered off the field because the
Christian hymn “How Great Thou Art” was a part of their halftime
show — in violation of a federal court order… During halftime of
Friday night’s game - a lone voice began to sing the forbidden
song… “We were just sitting there and then one by one people
started to stand,” she told me. “At first, it started out as a
hum but the sound got louder and louder.” She said it was a
“truly incredible” moment to watch hundreds of people singing
together in the stadium.
School District Responds To Confederate Flag Flap By BANNING ALL
FLAGS
Steve Watson - In an act designed to prevent anyone from any
background being perpetually offended, a school district in
Tennessee has declared that ALL flags and banners are banned,
even the stars and stripes.... Students were warned that they
would be kicked out if they brought ANY flag with them to
school. The decision was made “Based on some actions and
behaviors of students displaying banners behind a vehicle....
The story drew the ire of Fox & Friends host Tucker Carlson, who
lambasted the move as part of a general attack on expressions of
patriotism. This is not about a school district in Tennessee,”
Carlson said Sunday. “This is a about a long-term trend where
the people who run everything — the elites in Washington, New
York and L.A. — despise rural America and its culture, suspect
anybody that doesn’t live in their cities of being a bigot, and
they’re trying to crush that culture by banning its symbols.”
As China Goes, So Goes America… Trump Pounces as Foreign Markets
Take Down American Stocks
John Nolte - As the American stock market opened to lows unseen
since the 2008 economic meltdown, (as of this writing it is down
only 373 points — a fairly typical down day), Republican
presidential frontrunner Donald Trump took to Twitter to refresh
his longstanding political message that the American economy
allows “China and Asia to dictate the agenda”: "As I have long
stated, we are so tied in with China and Asia that their markets
are now taking the U.S. market down. Get smart U.S.A."...
Regardless of how this stock day ends, this startling reminder
that “so goes China, so goes America” is bound to unsettle many
Americans and play into Trump’s decades-long message about our
country being too reliant on China and other countries. Once
again America is paying a price for following instead of
leading.
* Related:
Trump talks stock market slide...
Dow off 588; S&P 500, Nasdaq in correction
USA Today - Investors hoping for a market bounce after the Dow's worst
week in four years got a vicious plunge instead after the opening bell
when the blue chip stock gauge went into freefall and fell 1,089 points
in a dive described as a "huge whoosh," by Bespoke Investment Group. The
Dow's closing point loss of 588.40 points, or 3.6%, to 15,871.35, was
its 8th worse one-day point loss in history and worse daily point
decline since Aug 8, 2011. The selling spree on Wall Street, which has
been driven by a global growth scare sparked by fears of a severe
economic slowdown in China, has now infected every corner of the U.S.
stock market… The turbulence has Wall Street debating whether it is just
a short-term correction that has created pockets of value in what had
been an overpriced market or something worse.
Pension Funds Sue Big Banks over Manipulation of $12.7 Trillion
Treasuries Market
AllGov - At least two government pension funds have sued major banks,
accusing them of manipulating the $12.7 trillion market for U.S.
Treasury bonds to drive up profits, thereby costing the funds—and
taxpayers—millions of dollars. As with another case earlier this year,
in which major banks were found to have manipulated the London Interbank
Offered Rate (LIBOR), traders are accused of using electronic chat rooms
and instant messaging to drive up the price that secondary customers pay
for Treasury bonds, then conspiring to drop the price banks pay the
government for the bonds, increasing the spread, or profit, for the
banks. This also ends up costing taxpayers more to borrow money.
Danger of toxic ‘blow-out’ at Colorado mine known to EPA since 2014 –
documents
RT - The Environmental Protection Agency knew about the danger of toxic
water potentially spilling out of Colorado’s Gold King Mine more than a
year ago, new internal documents show. It’s unclear what, if anything,
the agency did to reduce the risk. Released on Friday, the documents
show that no maintenance had been conducted at the mine since 1999, and
in a document dated June 2014, officials warned that a 1995 mine portal
collapse, as well as other subsequent internal collapses, made the mine
more susceptible to “blow-out.” This condition has likely caused
impounding of water behind the collapse,” the document reads.
“Conditions may exist that could result in a blow-out of the blockages
and cause a release of large volumes of contaminated mine waters and
sediment from inside the mine, which contain concentrated heavy metals.”
US man sues Ashley Madison for 'emotional distress' after
infidelity site's hack
The Independent - A California man is suing the infidelity
website Ashley Madison and its parent company for negligence,
saying he has suffered emotional distress. The lawsuit, filed in
US District Court in Los Angeles against Ashley Madison and Avid
Life Media, seeks class-action status. It accuses the companies
of failing to adequately protect clients' personal and financial
information, and seeks unspecified damages. Data from about 37
million people using the Ashley Madison website was released
online in August by a group calling itself The Impact Team.
Microsoft Increases Secrecy; Expands Spyware to Windows 7 and 8
The New American - The Windows 10 update that turns your PC into
a portal for spying on you was just the beginning of what
Microsoft is doing. As more and more people begin to adopt
Windows 10… the Redmond Giant is building on that foundation to
further violate users' privacy and liberty… Microsoft seems to
be rolling out updates to Windows 7 and 8 that bring them into
line with the "spyware" elements of Windows 10. Because
Microsoft's Services Agreement and Privacy Policy apply to all
products and services offered by Microsoft, it looks as though
the company is expanding its spying to include Windows 7 and 8.
The New American covered the specifics of these agreements in a
previous article. According to hakspek.com, "new updates that
are being deployed to all Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 machines will
turn their computers into a big piece of spyware, just like"
Windows 10.
Iodine Supplements in Pregnancy May Boost Babies’ Brains
Dr. Mercola - Iodine is a vitally important nutrient that is detected in
every organ and tissue in your body. Along with being essential for
healthy thyroid function and efficient metabolism, there is increasing
evidence that low iodine is related to numerous diseases, including
cancer. Iodine might also severely affect your child's brain and
intellectual prowess, as it is important for healthy brain development.
New research now suggests an iodine supplement during pregnancy might
help to boost children’s IQ scores while benefitting the economy.
Research published in 2013 showed that mild iodine deficiency during
pregnancy lead to decreased intellect in children. Those born to mothers
with low iodine in early pregnancy had lower IQs at age 8, by an average
of three points, compared to those born to mothers with healthy iodine
levels. The children of low iodine mothers also had worse reading
ability at age 9.
Adrenal Fatigue Treatment – 15 Essential Rescue & Recovery Tips
Natural Society - Adrenal fatigue symptoms are often confused for other
health issues, and are largely ignored by mainstream medicine. Just as
with thyroid conditions, those who are easily fatigued, full of anxiety,
or exhausted constantly can face a battle that not many others
understand. If you suspect you might have adrenal fatigue (and so many
of us do), it is time to uncover adrenal fatigue treatment and solutions
that could really work.
24 Unknown Facts Why Hydrogen Peroxide Should Be In Every Home
Natural News Blogs - Hydrogen peroxide is the only germicidal agent
composed only of water and oxygen. Like ozone, it kills disease
organisms by oxidation! Hydrogen peroxide is considered the worlds
safest all natural effective sanitizer. It kills microorganisms by
oxidizing them, which can be best described as a controlled burning
process. When Hydrogen peroxide reacts with organic material it breaks
down into oxygen and water.
It's Hair in Pedigree Dog Food
Susan Thixton - Reports of pieces of "wire" in Pedigree dog food have
been spreading on social media. Consumers are concerned what the wire
like substances found sticking out of pieces of Pedigree kibble are. The
answer - it's animal hair. Pedigree admits they are pig hair. In a
response to a concerned consumer Pedigree stated “We understand your
concern and our pet’s safety is our first priority too. Our team has
conducted testing on affected kibble and determined these are natural
fibers from meat and bone meal, like pig hair, that occur with products
made using those ingredients.
* Related:
Hair for the Dog (and Cat)
Dangerous School Supplies That Can Attract Your Pet Like a Moth to a
Flame
Dr. Becker - It's that time of year when families start shopping for
back-to-school supplies. And some can be like candy, especially to a
dog. Be safe rather than sorry and know the top 10 most commonly used
school supplies that don't belong anywhere near your pet.
Monday
- August 24, 2015 - Today in History:
1814 - Washington, DC, was invaded by British forces that set fire to
the White House and Capitol.
1932 - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the U.S.
non-stop. The trip from Los Angeles, CA to Newark, NJ, took about 19
hours.
1949 - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) went into effect.
The agreement was that an attack against on one of the parties would be
considered "an attack against them all."
1954 - The Communist Party was virtually outlawed in the U.S. when the
Communist Control Act went into effect.
1968 - France became the 5th thermonuclear power when they exploded a
hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific.
1986 - Frontier Airlines shut down. Thousands of people were left
stranded.
1989 - Pete Rose, the manager of the Cincinnati Reds, was banned from
baseball for life after being accused of gambling on baseball.
1990 - Iraqi troops surrounded foreign missions in Kuwait.
1991 - Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as the head of the
Communist Party.
1992 - China and South Korea established diplomatic relations.
1998 - U.S. officials cited a soil sample as part of the evidence that a
Sudan plant was producing precursors to the VX nerve gas. And, therefore
made it a target for U.S. missiles on August 20, 1998.
2001 - The remains of nine American servicemen killed in the Korean War
were returned to the U.S. The bodies were found about 60 miles north of
Pyongyang. It was estimated that it would be a year before the identies
of the soldiers would be known.
2001 - U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly was randomly picked to
take over the Microsoft monopoly case. The judge was to decide how
Microsoft should be punished for illegally trying to squelch its
competitors.
2001 - NASA announced that operation of the Upper Atmosphere Research
Satellite would end by September 30th due to budget restrictions. Though
the satellite is best known for monitoring a hole in the ozone layer
over Antarctica, it was designed to provide information about the upper
atmosphere by measuring its winds, temperatures, chemistry and energy
received from the sun.
2005 - The planet Pluto was reclassified as a "dwarf planet" by the
International Astronomical Union (IAU). Pluto's status was changed due
to the IAU's new rules for an object qualifying as a planet. Pluto met
two of the three rules because it orbits the sun and is large enough to
assume a nearly round shape. However, since Pluto has an oblong orbit
and overlaps the orbit of Neptune it disqualified Pluto as a planet.
Black Monday: Biggest slide in Chinese stocks since 2007, Brent
oil below $44
RT - Shanghai composite has closed down 8.5 percent in a brutal
selloff, as Beijing’s measures have failed to ease investor
concerns about the slowdown of the world's second-largest
economy. China's stocks are now down for the year after being up
60 percent in June. “This is a real disaster and it seems
nothing can stop it,” Chen Gang, Shanghai-based chief investment
officer at Heqitongyi Asset Management Co., told Bloomberg. “If
we don’t cut holdings ourselves, the fund faces risk of forced
closure. Many newly-started private funds suffered that
recently. I hope we can survive.” The ripple effects are being
felt on the European markets.
Ukraine Comes Hat in Hand to Russia for Winter Gas Supply
Sputnik News - Reality is harsh: after all political jabs, Kiev
is begging Moscow for gas to survive the winter. Brace
yourselves, winter is coming: the chiefs of Ukraine's Naftogaz
and Russia's Gazprom held an unexpected bilateral meeting for
the first time since May 2014, Russian daily Kommersant
reported. Naftogaz addressed Gazprom, asking for a prepayment
for the transit of Russian gas to Europe via the Ukrainian
territory. Kiev would then use the money to buy gas for the
winter period. Kiev has 13,9 billion cubic meters of gas in its
underground storages and needs three billion more to make it
through the winter.
Al-Qaeda overruns parts of strategic Yemeni port 'liberated' by
Saudi-led coalition
RT - Taking advantage of a power vacuum in Yemen following
months of Saudi airstrikes and battles between Houthi militias
and those loyal to exiled President Hadi, Al-Qaeda fighters have
reportedly managed to capture key parts of the recently
“liberated” strategic seaport city of Aden. According to
military sources and witnesses on the ground, alleged Al-Qaeda
militants have now managed to take several key neighborhoods in
and around Aden, both AFP and AP reported. An anonymous Yemeni
official told AFP that Al-Qaeda fighters entered Aden two weeks
after Saudi-backed forces drove the Houthi fighters out on July
17 and the exiled Yemeni government announced the “liberation”
of the port city.
Global Trade In Freefall: Container Freight Rates From Asia To
Europe Crash 60% In Three Weeks
Zero Hedge - […] key shipping freight rates for transporting
containers from ports in Asia to Northern Europe fell by 26.7
percent to $469 per 20-foot container (TEU) in the week ended on
Friday. The collapse in rates is nothing short of a bloodbath:
"it was the third consecutive week of falling freight rates on
the world’s busiest route and rates are now nearly 60 percent
lower than three weeks ago. Freight rates on the world’s busiest
shipping route have tanked this year due to overcapacity in
available vessels and sluggish demand in goods to be
transported. Rates generally deemed profitable for shipping
companies on the route are at about $800-$1,000 per TEU. Other
Europe-focused freight rates did even worse, with container
freight rates from Asia to ports in the Mediterranean plunging
32.1%, while those to the US West and East coast slid by 7.9%
and 9.9%, respectively.
Gulf Markets Melting Down: Saudi Arabia Plunges 7%, Dubai Sold
Zero Hedge - Over the weeks, months, and years ahead we’ll begin
to understand more about the fallout from the death of the
petrodollar and nowhere is it likely to be more apparent than in
Saudi Arabia where widening fiscal and current account deficits
have forced the Saudis to tap the bond market to mitigate the FX
drawdown that's fueling speculation about the viability of the
dollar peg. As Bloomberg reports, the current situation mirrors
a "very scary moment" in Saudi Arabia’s history.
Huge explosions at US army base in Japan as warehouse burns and
emergency services rush to scene
Mirror Online - Several huge explosions were heard today at a US
army base in Japan. At least 10 fire engines rushed to the scene
in Sagamihara city, south of Tokyo, amid reports of a blast
sparked by an unknown cause. Footage shows several small bangs
and one huge explosion, which witnesses described on social
media as like "a fireworks display.".. Pentagon spokesman US
Navy Commander Bill Urban confirmed there are no injuries. The
site is part of a US army complex next to the capital where
three deliberate explosions were reported in April, in what
police suspect was an act of left-wing Japanese extremists.
China rocked by second deadly chemical plant blast in two weeks
Reuters - A huge explosion ripped through a chemical plant in
eastern China, killing one person and injuring nine, Xinhua news
agency said, less than two weeks after two deadly blasts
destroyed a warehouse storing chemicals in the northeast. The
fire on Saturday night in Huantai in the eastern province of
Shandong was put out after about five hours and authorities said
no contamination has been detected, Xinhua said. But the
disaster is bound to raise more questions about safety standards
in a country where industrial accidents are all too common
following three decades of fast economic growth… The factory
produced adiponitrile, a colorless liquid that releases
poisonous gases when it reacts with fire, according to Xinhua.
MH17 Crash: West Hushed Up Risks of Ukraine Overflights -
Australian Media
Sputnik News - During a July 14, 2014 briefing Ukrainian
officials told Western ambassadors that Russian tank units had
intervened in the conflict resulting in a dramatic escalation in
air combat… The German foreign office has said that civilian
flights over eastern Ukraine and their safety were not discussed
at the July 14 briefing. However, Correctiv says it has a copy
of a report on the briefing by Dutch diplomat Gerrie Willems
that contradicts the office's claim and insists that the staff
of the embassies of the European Union member states, the United
States, Canada, Brazil and Japan actually attended the briefing.
Although there is no specific mention of civil aviation, the
Willems' report refers to the escalation in aerial combat. The
German foreign office had refused to release information about
the briefing, arguing it had been confidential and that all
those attending had acknowledged this.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
US airman says train attacker 'ready to fight to the end'
My Way - Three Americans, including two US service members,
managed to overpower a gunman and thwart an attack on a
high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday.
The shooter has been identified as a 26-year-old Moroccan man
with links to Islamist militant groups who had recently traveled
to Syria… Stone and Skarlatos moved in to tackle the gunman and
take his gun. The third young man, Anthony Sadler, 23, moved in
to help subdue the assailant. "All three of us started punching"
him, Stone said. Stone said he choked him unconscious. A British
businessman then joined in the fray… Stone is also credited with
saving a French-American teacher wounded in the neck with a
gunshot wound and squirting blood. Stone described
matter-of-factly that he "just stuck two of my fingers in his
hole and found what I thought to be the artery, pushed down and
the bleeding stopped."
* Related:
French Leader to Award Highest Honor to Five Passengers for
Stopping Gunman
Judge lifts restraining order on Planned Parenthood videos; new
one released immediately
American Thinker - The prior restraint censorship of videos
taken by the Center for Medical Progress of StemExpress
officials discussing the trafficking in baby parts has ended, as
a judge who understands the First Amendment lifted a restraining
order. In response, the CMP immediately released a short new
video… The new release consists of bits and pieces of old
videos, but with one new section: The one new section featured
Cate Dyer, the CEO of StemExpress in a lunch meeting with
undercover operatives posing as representatives of a biotech
firm. Dyer is seen laughing about how StemExpress purchases
fully intact aborted babies from Planned Parenthood. As she paid
the check, Dyer is laughing about how shippers of the aborted
babies should give a warning to lab workers to expect such a
whole (intact) baby.
* Related:
Massive Planned Parenthood Protests Across US
AZ Sheriff Paul Babeu: Drug Cartels With AK-47s Control American
Soil 30 Miles from Phoenix
Breitbart - Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “Your World With Neil
Cavuto,” Pinal Co., AZ Sheriff Paul Babeu said drug cartels
armed with AK-47’s “control many areas on American soil” noting
that they are only 30 miles from Phoenix. Babeu detailed touring
the border yesterday with Republican presidential candidate Ben
Carson and said, “We flew him in our helicopter, showed him the
drug smuggling routes, the actual caves—these cartel scouts live
on top of mountains, 30 days at a time. And how on mountain top
to mountain top, over a 50-mile swath of land, and this is only
30 miles from Phoenix.” He continued, “This is literally an
unsecured border. We have cartels that think they own the place.
They control many areas on American soil and this how they
freely move billions of dollars of drugs and hundreds of
thousands of illegals into our country.”
Media Ignores Constitutional Experts Debunking Birthright
Citizenship
Breitbart News - Breitbart News first explained that the debate
of who becomes an American citizen by virtue of being born on
U.S. soil turns on the words “subject to the jurisdiction
thereof.” And we later explained in greater detail how the
Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Citizenship Clause over
time supports the original meaning of that clause, a clause
which does not extend citizenship to the children of illegal
aliens.... There are others. Professor Peter Schuck, who holds
an endowed chair at Yale Law School (the top-ranked law school
in America), and Professor Roger Smith, a political scientist
who holds an endowed chair at the University of Pennsylvania
(another Ivy League university), coauthored a scholarly treatise
on this subject, Citizenship without Consent, and conclude in
their book that “the framers of the Citizenship Clause had no
intention of establishing a universal rule of birthright
citizenship.”
* Related:
The Original intent of the 14th Amendment
Too Many Rich Foreigners are Scamming the System that Allows
them to Live in U.S. if they Create 10 Jobs and Pay $500,000
AllGov -Residents of China have accounted for 90% of the visas
issued from DHS in 2014, according to government data. “For rich
Chinese, a green card is a ticket out of China -- a way to
escape heavy pollution or gain access to improved education
options,” wrote CNN’s Sophia Yan. EB-5 has proven popular with
scammers and possibly even spies who have used the program to
gain entry into the country. The SEC reportedly received more
than 100 tips of possible securities fraud connected to the
EB-5. The program has proven to be very popular. For instance,
DHS allotted 10,000 visas in 2014 for EB-5 applicants, and all
of them were gone in just a matter of a few months. Residents of
China have flooded the department with applications for EB-5,
and accounted for 90% of the visas issued from it in 2014,
according to government data compiled by CNNMoney.
“The War on Drugs is Over, and We Lost,” Meet the Police Chief
Who’s Starting a Revolution
The Free Thought Project - Leonard Campanello is not your
average police officer, which makes him even more of an atypical
police chief. While police departments across the United States
double down on the war on drugs with more military gear and
violence, Campanello is doing it right. While cops continue
busting down doors of suspected drug users, and killing their
dogs, or killing them, Campanello is reaching out his hand....
“If you are a user of opiates or heroin, let us help you. We
know you do not want this addiction. We have resources here in
the City that can and will make a difference in your life. Do
not become a statistic,” wrote Campanello. Campanello then got
in touch with the local mayor and began the Police Assisted
Addiction and Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.) which would help
drug addicts instead of lock them in cages.
Federal Election Commission Refuses to Release Study Relating to
Computer Security Flaws
AllGov - The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is refusing to
release an internal study of its vulnerable computer network,
which Chinese hackers infiltrated two years ago. The Center for
Public Integrity, which revealed the hacking from October 2013,
filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see a nearly
$200,000 study performed by an outside company, SD Solutions,
but the FEC rejected the request. That study reportedly
discusses the security flaws in the FEC computer network and
provides recommendations for fixing them. FEC Chairwoman Ann
Ravel told the center it would not publish the study because
“the concern is that it contains information that details
potential vulnerabilities.”
Trump gets biggest crowd of any 2016 candidate so far
NY Post - Donald Trump scored the biggest crowd of any
presidential candidate so far this election year Friday, drawing
30,000 raucous, cheering fans to his rally at a college football
stadium in Mobile, Ala. “I’m going to be the greatest jobs
president that God ever created. You are going to be so proud,”
he declared to tremendous cheers.... Some of The Donald’s
diehard fans came from as far as LA and Pensacola, Fla., and
waited up to seven hours in the steamy Alabama heat to score the
best seats.
* Related:
Donald Trump holds rally in Alabama - Full speech
VIDEO: Senator Jeff Sessions Joins Donald Trump on Stage in
Alabama
Gateway Pundit - The AMAZING Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) joined
Donald Trump on stage in Mobile, Alabama tonight sporting a
Trump hat. Sessions is widely respected for his commitment to
border security, American workers and immigration control.
Joe Biden Is Leaning Toward a 2016 Run
WSJ - Vice President Joe Biden, who has long been considering a
presidential bid, is increasingly leaning toward entering the
race if it is still possible he can knit together a competitive
campaign at this late date, people familiar with the matter
said.... “The vice president has not made a decision about his
political future,” Biden spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said.
“Anyone speculating that he has made a decision is wrong.” Mr.
Biden would enter as a clear underdog. Polling shows Democratic
front-runner Hillary Clinton running far ahead of the vice
president, who would be building a campaign team largely from
scratch.
Colorado Board of Health Refuses to Allow Marijuana for
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; Tells Veterans to Stick to
Opioids
AllGov - The Colorado Department of Public Health and the
Environment and its Board of Health voted last month to deny
those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
access to medical marijuana, despite the recommendation from the
state’s chief medical officer that it add marijuana to the list
of approved treatments… The six board members who voted against
the proposal said it was because there’s not enough evidence
that marijuana is a safe and effective treatment for the
condition. “I’m struggling with the science piece,” board member
Dr. Christopher Stanley said, according to the Post. Part of the
reason for that is that the federal government makes it
difficult to study marijuana’s therapeutic uses. So, victims of
PTSD, many of them veterans, will continue to be treated with
opioid drugs that can lead to addition, overdose and many other
unpleasant side effects.
U.S. banks moved billions of dollars in trades beyond
Washington’s reach
Reuters - This spring, traders and analysts working deep in the
global swaps markets began picking up peculiar readings:
Hundreds of billions of dollars of trades by U.S. banks had
seemingly vanished. The vanishing of the trades was little noted
outside a circle of specialists. But the implications were big.
The missing transactions reflected an effort by some of the
largest U.S. banks — including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase,
Citigroup, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley — to get around
new regulations on derivatives enacted in the wake of the
financial crisis, say current and former financial regulators.
The trades hadn’t really disappeared. Instead, the major banks
had tweaked a few key words in swaps contracts and shifted some
other trades to affiliates in London, where regulations are far
more lenient. Those affiliates remain largely outside the
jurisdiction of U.S. regulators, thanks to a loophole in swaps
rules that banks successfully won from the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission in 2013.
This 2 Day Stock Market Crash Was Larger Than Any 1 Day Stock
Market Crash In U.S. History
Economic Collapse - We witnessed something truly historic happen
on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 530
points, and that followed a 358 point crash on Thursday. When
you add those two days together, the total two day stock market
crash that we just witnessed comes to a grand total of 888
points, which is larger than any one day stock market crash in
U.S. history. It is also interesting to note that this 888 point
crash comes in the 8th month of our calendar. Perhaps that is
just a coincidence, and perhaps it is not.
VIDEO: Operation Choke Point: The Government's Covert War on
Small Business
ReasonTV - Banks are sending notices of account closure out to
small businesses across the country, to clients they've done
business with for years, even decades. The reason? They often
don't provide one. But a growing number of business owners
believe they know why they're being cut off from the financial
system. It's Operation Choke Point, ostensibly an attempt to
crack down on fraudulent businesses, but in reality a dragnet
that has ensnared innocent entrepreneurs unfairly classified as
"high-risk" players.
7 Million People Haven't Made A Single Student Loan Payment In
At Least A Year
Zero Hedge - Nearly seven million Americans have gone at least a
year without making a payment on their federal student loans, a
staggering level of default that highlights how student debt
continues to burden households despite an improving labor
market. As of July, 6.9 million Americans with student loans
hadn’t sent a payment to the government in at least 360 days,
quarterly data from the Education Department showed this week.
That was up 6%, or 400,000 borrowers, from a year earlier. The
figures translate into about 17% of all borrowers with federal
loans being severely delinquent—and that share would be even
higher if borrowers currently in school were excluded.
Additionally, millions of other borrowers who haven’t hit the
360-day threshold that the government defines as a default are
months behind on their payments.
Government Gives Away Billions In Grants To Students Who Never
Graduate
Zero Hedge - [...] some $16 billion in loans to students
attending colleges that graduated fewer than a third of their
students after six years.... As NBC reminds us, "Pell grants are
given to low-income families and, unlike student loans, do not
need to be paid back - [they] are the costliest education
initiative in the nation. [...] it turns out that despite the
fact that taxpayers have dumped $300 billion into the program
since 2000, "the government keeps no official tally of what
proportion of those who receive the grants end up getting
degrees."
EPA Sends Water Tanks Lined With Oil Residue To Navajo Farm
GovtSlaves - That toxic spill caused by the EPA out west
continues to be a PR nightmare for the agency. Now they’re in
even more trouble with the Navajo tribe, who couldn’t water
their livestock because of the contamination. So the agency sent
the tribe nine water tanks that turned out to be fouled with oil
residue. Washington Times: Navajo Nation president Russell
Begaye’s finger came up brown and oily after he ran it inside
the spigot of a water tank, one of nine delivered by an EPA
contractor to Shiprock, New Mexico, in the aftermath of the
accident that sent orange mining waste down the Animas and San
Juan rivers.
Two Major US Aquifers Found to Be Saturated with Uranium
The Daily Sheeple - They found that the parts of the High Plains
Aquifer (also often referred to as the Ogallala) is saturated
with uranium at a level that is 89 times higher than the EPA’s
safe limit. The southern half of California’s Central Valley was
even worse, with a uranium concentration that is 180 times
higher than the EPA’s “maximum contaminant level.”
California Is Literally Sinking as Its Water Goes and Ag
Industry Takes Hit
Natural Blaze - Overpumping of California's dwindling
groundwater supply is causing the Central Valley to sink at a
historic pace, in some places 2 inches per month, according to a
NASA report released Wednesday. Satellite and aircraft images
revealed sinking basins throughout the state, including an area
near the California Aqueduct that sank 8 inches in four months
last year. Land in the Tulare basin near Corcoran sank 13 inches
in an eight-month stretch, according to the NASA report.
Forget License Plate Readers On Police Cars, How About On
Garbage Trucks?
Ars Technica - San Jose, California, America’s 10th largest
city, isn’t just content to put license plate readers on police
cars anymore—rather, it now wants to deputize garbage trucks to
be an additional tool in its ongoing surveillance. According to
the San Jose Mercury News, the mayor and one city councilman put
forward a new proposal Wednesday that would allow sanitation
vehicles to use the scanning devices and feed the data
automatically to city police....
If passed, the city would likely become the first in the country
to expand the law enforcement tool to another public entity
besides parking enforcement.
Hackers dump SECOND, even bigger batch of Ashley Madison records
Daily Mail - Hacking group 'the Impact team' at lunchtime on
Thursday released another mine of documents and confidential
information to back up their first 9.7 gigabyte leak... The new
documents were dumped with a taunting message to the adultery
website's founder as exposed users began to publicly admit their
involvement. 'Hey Noel, you can admit it's real now,' read the
post - presumably directed at the company's millionaire CEO Noel
Biderman, who has refused to admit the material is all
legitimate. The 20GB is focused on the inner workings of the
website rather than individual subscribers but the release will
do little to calm the nerves of the cheaters whose personal
details have been exposed.... AP traced their government
Internet connections — logged by the website over five years —
and reviewed their credit-card transactions to identify them.
They included workers at more than two dozen Obama
administration agencies, including the departments of State,
Defense, Justice, Energy, Treasury, Transportation and Homeland
Security. Others came from House or Senate computer networks
Gardening, Farming & Homesteading |
Oregon County Set to Destroy Monsanto’s GMO Crops
Natural Society -Monsanto has been warned, and Syngenta already
moved their operations outside the county. Notice was given by
Josephine County, Oregon that citizens are very serious about
the GMO ban (Measure 17-58) that was passed last year. The
cultivation of GMO crops will not be tolerated. Biotech
companies have until September 4th, just a few short weeks away,
to either harvest their crops or destroy them, or they face
monetary penalties.
Flaxseed: Just An Ounce A Day May Extend Your Life
Green Med Info - A new study published in Experimental
Gerontology indicates that consuming about an ounce a day of
flaxseed (30 grams) may profoundly benefit elderly subjects,
possibly neutralizing age-associated increases in inflammation,
by modulating levels of a class of fat derived biomolecules
known as oxylipins.
One Acupuncture Treatment Drops Blood Pressure For Over a Month
Without Medication
April McCarthy - Emerging evidence from a research study shows
acupuncture may be an effective treatment for hypertension.
Acupuncture regulates blood pressure, blood flow and body
temperature. Patients with hypertension treated with acupuncture
experienced drops in their blood pressure that lasted up to a
month and a half, researchers with the Susan Samueli Center for
Integrative Medicine have found.
6 ways to speed up your metabolism with essential oils
(NaturalHealth365) Are you looking to speed up your metabolism?
What gimmicks have you tried in the past? Did it work? Today,
we’ll reveal how to speed up your metabolism naturally by using
essential oils. Essential oils are organic compounds extracted
from plants that contain many healing properties. Even though
essential oils are not a weight-loss miracle, they can
definitely help to increase your metabolism by curbing appetite,
improving digestion, boosting metabolism, balancing mood and
controlling blood sugar levels.
McDonald’s Kicked Out of Cleveland Clinic Cafeteria
Natural Society - Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, a top health care
institution in the US, has finally given McDonald’s the boot
upon the realization that fast food may just not be the best
choice for the sick (or anyone, really). The riddance of the
junk food restaurant is one of many changes the hospital is
making to “promote healthy food choices, exercise, and a smoke
free environment.” Cleveland Clinic spokeswoman Eileen Sheil
said, “Our goal is to reduce the risk factors that contribute
significantly to chronic diseases.”... Cleveland Clinic is the
7th hospital in the nation to remove McDonald’s from their
cafeterias in the past six years
Friday
- August 21, 2015 - Today in History:
1831 - Nat Turner, a former slave, led a violent insurrection in
Virginia. He was later executed.
1878 - The American Bar Association was formed by a group of lawyers,
judges and law professors in Saratoga, NY.
1912 - Arthur R. Eldred became the first American boy to become an Eagle
Scout. It is the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America.
1923 - In Kalamazoo, Michigan, an ordinance was passed forbidding
dancers from gazing into the eyes of their partner.
1943 - Japan evacuated the Aleutian island of Kiaska. Kiaska had been
the last North American foothold held by the Japanese.
1945 - U.S. President Truman ended the Lend-Lease program that had
shipped about $50 billion in aid to America's Allies during World War
II.
1959 - Hawaii became the 50th state. U.S. President Eisenhower also
issued the order for the 50 star flag.
1963 - In South Vietnam, martial law was declared. Army troops and
police began to crackdown on the Buddhist anti-government protesters.
1991 - The hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
ended. The uprising that led to the collapse was led by Russian
federation President Boris Yeltsin.
1993 - NASA lost contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft. The fate of
the spacecraft was unknown. The mission cost $980 million.
1997 - Hudson Foods Inc. closed a plant in Nebraska after it had
recalled 25 million pounds of ground beef that was potentially
contaminated with E. coli 01557:H7. It was the largest food recall in
U.S. history.
1997 - Afghanistan suspended its embassy operations in the United
States.
2003 - In Ghana, businessman Gyude Bryant was selected to oversee the
two-year power-sharing accord between Liberia's rebels and the
government. The accord was planned to guide the country out of 14 years
of civil war.
North Korea Prepares to Bring Troops to Full Combat Readiness -
Reports
Sputnik News - Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, has
ordered the country’s army to bring the troops to full combat
readiness following the Thursday exchange of fire between North
and South Korea, the Yonhap News Agency reports. North Korea’s
frontline forces should be fully prepared for an offensive
starting from 17:00 local time on Friday (08:00 GMT), the South
Korean news agency said, citing the North Korean Central
Broadcasting Station. The order came after North Korea held a
Central Military Commission session following an exchange of
fire between North and South Korea across the demilitarized zone
– the first major armed clash between the neighbors in five
years.
Kiev's Renewed Assault on Donbass to Trigger US-Russian War –
Stephen Cohen
Sputnik News - There are some worrisome signs emerging that Kiev
may be planning a new military assault against Donbass,
Professor Stephen F. Cohen notes, warning that a US/NATO
involvement in the civil war in Ukraine may potentially prompt a
backlash from Russia, leading to a direct standoff between the
two nuclear powers.... Stephen F. Cohen emphasized that despite
Western media labelling the Donbass independence supporters as
Russia's "proxies," trying to deprive them of humanity, the
people of eastern Ukraine are not attacking, but defending their
homes. But why is Kiev considering escalating its military
operation in the East? There are three possible reasons,
according to the scholar.
* Related:
As Donbas Heats Up, War Between US and Russia Seems Inevitable
Israeli strikes on Golan confirmed by Syrian state TV
RT - Syrian state television has confirmed Israeli strikes on
Golan Heights, Reuters reports. Israel previously said that the
bombardment was a response to rockets fired at its territory
from Syria. Israel fired “several missiles,” which targeted a
transportation center and a public building in a Syrian area of
the Golan Heights, Quneitra, a military source told Syrian state
TV. According to the IDF, earlier rockets came to Israel from
the central part of the Golan Heights controlled by Syrian
President Bashar Assad’s forces.
Greek PM Tsipras steps down, calls early elections
RT - Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has confirmed his resignation
and early election plans for Greece in a live address. The move
comes after Athens managed to pay a huge chunk of its €3.4
billion debt to the ECB. “The political mandate of the January
25 elections has exhausted its limits and now the Greek people
have to have their say,” Tsipras said in a televised address
Thursday night. Tsipras said that he will now be looking for the
Greek people to vote to continue the government program of his
leftist Syriza party. Local media have been speculating about
the possible upcoming announcement since Thursday morning.
Citing a source in the government, Reuters reported that Tsipras
would propose holding the snap elections on September 20.
Judge Overturns Mexico GMO Maize Ban in Tragic Ruling
Sustainable Pulse - Mexico’s XII District Court has overturned a
2013 ruling that prevented biotech companies, including Monsanto
and Syngenta, planting genetically modified (GM) maize in
Mexico. The decision has been appealed by Acción Colectiva del
Maíz and will not come into force until the appeal/s have been
heard and ruled on. The tragic ruling follows two years of 93
appeals by the Biotech Industry after the planting of GMO Maize
was banned in September 2013 by the Twelfth Federal District
Court for Civil Matters of Mexico City. Judge Jaime Eduardo
Verdugo J. cited “the risk of imminent harm to the environment”
as the basis for the decision.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
US Jails People for Cannabis While Govt Promotes It as Cancer
Treatment
Sputnik News - Criminalized by the US federal government since
1937, cannabis is being advertised by the US Department of
Health as "useful in treating the side effects of cancer and
cancer treatment" on the agency's official cancer advice
website. The National Cancer Institute claims cannabinoids,
which are the active chemicals in cannabis, can be smoked,
inhaled, eaten in baked products, drank in herbal teas, or even
sprayed under the tongue as treatment.... Despite these studies,
as well as a general push for decriminalization across the
country, the US penal system imprisons a shocking number of
individuals for nonviolent crimes related to marijuana. In 2013
alone, 609,423 individuals were arrested for possession of a
substance which is now recommended by the US Department of
Health.
Hillary Clinton Admits Classified Information Was Stored On Home
Server
Zero Hedge - With the controversy unlikely to dissipate any time
soon, and with many analysts claiming that the issue could well
imperil her run for The White House, Clinton has now admitted
that in fact, her private server did contain classified e-mails.
Here’s the story from WSJ: Hillary Clinton’s campaign said
Wednesday that emails on the private server she used when she
was secretary of state contained material that is now
classified, the clearest explanation thus far of an issue that
has roiled her bid for the presidency. At the same time, the
campaign sought to play down the disclosure by saying the
material had been retroactively classified out of an abundance
of caution by U.S. intelligence agencies. “She was at worst a
passive recipient of unwitting information that subsequently
became deemed as classified,” said Brian Fallon, a spokesman for
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign.
*Related:
Everything You Need to Know About the Hillary Clinton Email
Scandal in Two-and-a-Half Minutes
Federal Judge Orders DEA to Release Information about Illegal
Mass Surveillance
AllGov - The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been
ordered by a federal judge to provide information on its
secretive mass surveillance program to a human rights group.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), with legal help from the Electronic
Frontier Foundation (EFF), sued the DEA and other federal
agencies to stop the collecting of data on international phone
calls made by Americans to overseas parties—a form of
unauthorized surveillance that the DEA quietly performed for two
decades, according to EFF.
16 Journalists Accept Planned Parenthood Awards – Despite
Horrifying Abortion Videos!
News Busters - While the media stay away from the recent videos
exposing Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of aborted baby parts,
they are drawn to Planned Parenthood’s annual media awards
ceremony. During Planned Parenthood’s Maggie Awards for Media
Excellence Tuesday night, the abortion giant recognized 16
journalists for pushing “reproductive rights.” From Buzzfeed and
Yahoo! to MSNBC, MRC Culture compiled a list of several
prominent media attendees – and found a picture announcing the
winners.
The September List: 36 Converging Events
The Daily Crow - There is an unprecedented convergence of events
falling on this September. The only prediction I will make with
certainty is that by the start of October life as we know it
will change forever.Whether you are a prophecy buff, a skeptic
or both, it is my belief that the overwhelming events of
significance pointing to this month should cause anyone pause.
The underlying premise for anyone to accept the magnitude of
what follows is simply this: the nature of man is evil and there
are forces at work who seek power and self interest above all
else.
Trump Smash: Leads Jeb by +18 Points in Pennsylvania Primary
Breitbart - Just two months ago, in early June, a Quinnipiac
poll showed Trump with only 4% support among Republican primary
voters in Pennsylvania. The billionaire business was in tenth
place. A new Quinnipiac poll released Thursday shows a startling
reversal. Trump is not only in first place with 24% support,
he’s beating second place Ben Carson by a whopping +11 points.
Trump beats second and third place (Rubio) combined. Jeb Bush
has dropped -4 points from 10% support to just 6%. Sen. Marco
Rubio (R-FL). According to the Real Clear Politics poll of
polls, Trump leads in the early states of Iowa +7.6%, New
Hampshire +13.5%, South Carolina +20%, and Florida +2.5%.
Nationally, Trump leads the 16 person field by +11.3%.
Donald Trump's venue for Alabama rally moved to larger stadium
(CNN) - Donald Trump has been drawing large crowds at events
throughout the country, but his next event in Alabama could draw
his largest gathering yet. Trump is holding a Friday night "pep
rally" in Mobile, Alabama, and because of increased expected
attendance, a last minute venue change is taking place, the
campaign said Thursday. Previously planned for the nearby Civic
Center -- which can hold up to 4,000 people -- the event is now
being moved to the 43,000-seat Ladd-Peebles Stadium, normally
home to high school football games. As of Thursday morning,
35,000 tickets to the event have been distributed, according to
the Trump Campaign.
How Google Could Rig the 2016 Election
Politico - Research I have been directing in recent years
suggests that Google, Inc., has amassed far more power to
control elections—indeed, to control a wide variety of opinions
and beliefs—than any company in history has ever had. Google’s
search algorithm can easily shift the voting preferences of
undecided voters by 20 percent or more—up to 80 percent in some
demographic groups—with virtually no one knowing they are being
manipulated, according to experiments I conducted recently with
Ronald E. Robertson. Given that many elections are won by small
margins, this gives Google the power, right now, to flip upwards
of 25 percent of the national elections worldwide. In the United
States, half of our presidential elections have been won by
margins under 7.6 percent, and the 2012 election was won by a
margin of only 3.9 percent—well within Google’s control.
We Have Already Witnessed The First 1300 Points Of The Stock
Market Crash Of 2015
Economic Collapse - What has been happening on Wall Street the
past few days has been nothing short of stunning. On Thursday,
the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 358 points. It was
the largest single day decline in a year and a half, and
investors are starting to panic. Overall, the Dow is now down
more than 1300 points from the peak of the market. Just
yesterday, I wrote about all of the experts that are warning
about a stock market crash in 2015, and after today I am sure
that a lot more people will start jumping on the bandwagon. In
particular, tech stocks are getting absolutely hammered lately.
The Nasdaq has fallen close to 3.5% over the past two days
alone, and it has dropped below its 200-day moving average. The
Russell 2000 (a small-cap stock market index) is also now
trading below its 200-day moving average. What all of this means
is that the stock market crash of 2015 has already begun.
Global markets down over Fed rate hike uncertainty
RT - Fading expectations of a US interest rate hike left global
markets in the red on Thursday following the release of US
Federal Reserve minutes of the July 28-29 meeting. The report
left it unclear whether the Fed will raise rates at the policy
meeting on September 16-17, stoking anxiety about the health of
the global economy. “Most [officials – ed.] judged that the
conditions for policy firming had not yet been achieved, but
they noted that conditions were approaching that point,” said
the minutes published Wednesday. This can be interpreted that
the Federal Reserve is considering a rate hike in September.
However, the Fed has been saying that its rate decision depends
on whether inflation will reach the goal of two percent after
running below that for more than three years.
Nestle Pays Only $524 to Extract 27,000,000 Gallons of
California Drinking Water
Anti-Media - In 2013, the company drew 27 million gallons of
water from 12 springs in Strawberry Canyon for the brand —
apparently by employing rather impressive legerdemain —
considering the permit to do so expired in 1988. But, as Nestle
will tell you, that really isn’t cause for concern since it
swears it is a good steward of the land and, after all, that
expired permit’s annual fee has been diligently and faithfully
paid in full — all $524 of it.... In 2014, Nestle used roughly
705 million gallons of water in its operations in California,
according to natural resource manager Larry Lawrence. That’s
2,164 acre-feet of water — enough to “irrigate 700 acres of
farmland” or “fill 1,068 Olympic-sized swimming pools,” as Ian
James pointed out in The Desert Sun.
San Francisco's 4.0 Earthquake May Be Signaling the ‘Big One’
Coming Soon
Sputnik News - A 4.0 earthquake on August 18 along the Hayward
fault line in northern California has caused worry among some
residents that the “big one” may be coming. It was the first
seismic event to take place along the fault line since 1868-
when a massive 7.0 earthquake that was dubbed “the great San
Francisco earthquake,” hit.
Millions crash websites listing the names of Ashley Madison
'cheaters' as thousands of email addresses linked to banks,
universities and America’s biggest companies are shared online
Daily Mail - Millions of panicked cheaters and their suspicious
spouses have crashed websites claiming to host the 'cheat sheet'
list of names leaked in the Ashley Madison hack. Several
searchable databases of names, emails and sexual fantasies
linked to the 9.7 gigabyte data leak had to shut down within
minutes of going live because they could not cope with demand.It
comes as lists of email addresses - purporting to show
registered users of the adultery site - have been shared across
the web and in the controversial forum 4chan - without any
evidence or means of validation.
* Related:
'I have been the biggest hypocrite ever': Josh Duggar ADMITS
being unfaithful to his wife after being exposed as an Ashley
Madison user
It's A Divorce Lawyer Orgy: "Ashley Madison Hack Is The Best
Thing To Happen Since Moses"
Zero Hedge - Husbands and wives across the world are waking up
to their partners' extramarital affairs after, as AP calls it, a
catastrophic leak at adultery website Ashley Madison spewed
electronic evidence of infidelity across the Internet. Online
forums were buzzing Thursday with users claiming to have found
evidence that their significant others were on the site. But
it's not all doom and gloom... as Reuters notes many professions
stand to benefit from the unfolding saga, from lawyers to
therapists to cyber security firms. Prominent divorce lawyer
Raoul Felder said the release is the best thing to happen to his
profession since the seventh Commandment forbade adultery in the
Bible, "I've never had anything like this before." So hey, those
cheating spouses are now helping the economy grow...
World’s Smallest Quadcopter Drone Now Available to the Public
Activist Post - You can now buy the Aerius drone for $50, and
it’s about 3x3x3 cm in size. It has a 5 minute flight time, and
is small enough to fit inside its own remote control, which
doubles as a charger.... As you can imagine, something this
small would make it incredibly easy to spy on someone without
their knowing. Fortunately, it doesn’t have a camera, but the
manufacturer mentioned in the YouTube comments of the video that
“It’s a quadcopter, still working on a camera this small.” Make
no mistake, we’re rapidly approaching the day when anyone can
buy a bug sized spy drone for less than the cost of a cell
phone.
No need for diets & exercise? Scientists find obesity gene with
off switch!
RT - Researchers have managed to identify a generic ‘console’
that makes some people more prone to obesity. But this ‘console’
can be switched off. So those who enjoy a Big Mac and sitting in
front of TV instead of working out can lose weight while asleep.
The so-called FTO region that “harbors the strongest genetic
association with obesity” was identified in the study conducted
by scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and
Harvard University Medical School. The paper was published in
the New England Journal of Medicine. "Obesity has traditionally
been seen as the result of an imbalance between the amount of
food we eat and how much we exercise, but this view ignores the
contribution of genetics to each individual's metabolism," said
senior author Manolis Kellis, an MIT professor of computer
science.
Gardening, Farming & Homesteading |
Eco-Friendly 3D Printer Prints LIVING Gardens From Organic Ink
Natural Blaze - If you weren’t impressed by the Origami pot that
grows with your plant, you’re bound to be inspired by this
invention capable of producing living gardens. Project
PrintGREEN is transforming 3D printers into on-demand gardeners
after it created the world’s first “Green” 3D printer in 2013.
The innovation is capable of producing living prints by printing
customized objects in a variety of sizes and forms.... The
eco-friendly “ink” is a combination of soil, seeds, and water
which can be designed to print in any shape or letter. Once the
ink dries, the muddy mixture holds its form and begins to sprout
grass from the organic material.
8 Highly Medicinal Plants You Can Grow at Home
Natural News Blogs - Grow medicinal herbs in your home garden
can provide convenient access to many natural home remedies, and
you can save money at the same time.…
The CDC Just Acknowledged What We All Fear About Bird Flu
Off the Grid News - Experts at the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) are worried that a strain of flu that has
killed 48 million birds this year could spread to humans. As of
now there is no vaccine for the influenza, which could return to
the United States this fall. “We don’t want to see any, but we
are getting ready in case there are cases of human infection,”
Dr. Michael Jhung, the head of the CDC’s Influenza Division,
told CNBC’s On the Money. CDC researchers started researching
the possibility that the flu could infect humans in April, USA
Today reported. “These are the first of these types of viruses
that we’ve seen in the United States,” Jhung said. “Because
they’re new, we’re a little concerned because we don’t know how
dangerous they could be.”
Drug-Resistant Head Lice Found in 25 States
Natural Society - Permethrin, part of the pyrethroid class of
insecticides, has been used to fight head lice, mosquitoes,
bedbugs, and other insects for years. Researchers say overuse of
the drug has caused head lice and other insects to develop
genetic mutations that make them completely resistant to
permethrin.... So far, 25 states have tested positive for the
genetically mutated lice, but results from several other states
are still pending. According to Yoon, the majority of the lice
are 100% immune to the effects of permethrin, a realization the
scientist called “really alarming.” Completely-resistant bugs
have been located in...
* Related:
Natural Remedies For Lice
10 Natural Health Remedies For Numbness In The Extremities
Marianna Pochelli - A large percentage of the population suffers
silently from numbing of the extremities, specifically the hands
and feet. There are many different causes of numbness and in
several cases, it can be an indication of a serious problem.
However, there are many natural remedies to help increase
circulation and assist with coping strategies to alleviate
symptoms and even decrease their frequency. Numbness may or may
not be accompanied by pain, tingling, weakness and prickling.
Some of the causes of numbness include...
How 3-D Printing Can Offer Enhanced Treatment Options for Animals
Tech Swarm - The 3-D printing process retains — and can enhance — the
important information found on the scan that a doctor or veterinarian
needs in making a diagnosis. Walter Renberg, an orthopedic surgeon and
professor and head of small animal surgery at the Veterinary Health
Center, said the 3-D models Castinado and Headley have produced are
proving beneficial in a variety of ways. "While Kansas State University
is not the first to use 3-D printing in veterinary medicine, we've
thought about doing so for awhile," Renberg said. "It helps us with a
couple of things clinically, particularly with bone deformities, which
can be difficult to reconstruct with a CT scan. For example, when
planning a surgery to correct a deformity or even determining whether
such a surgery is necessary, the model can help us determine the right
surgical approach or come up with less expensive alternatives to certain
procedures."
VIDEO: Homeowner Turns House Into Amazing Cat Playland
Dr. Becker - Feral, at-risk cats threatened by nearby traffic are
adopted by a new homeowner who turns his home into a cat’s crazy, truly
amazing indoor playland!
Thursday
- August 20, 2015 - Today in History:
1741 - Danish navigator Vitus Jonas Bering discovered Alaska.
1866 - It was formally declared by U.S. President Andrew Johnson that
the American Civil War was over. The fighting had stopped months
earlier.
1914 - German forces occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War I.
1940 - France fell to the Germans during World War II.
1953 - It was announced by the Soviet Union that they had detonated a
hydrogen bomb.
1964 - A $1 billion anti-poverty measure was signed by U.S. President
Lyndon B. Johnson.
1977 - Voyager 2 was launched by the United States. The spacecraft was
carrying a 12 inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in
dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.
1991 - A rally of more that 100,000 people occurred outside the Russian
parliament building to protest the coup that removed Gorbachev from
power.
1997 - NATO troops seized six police stations in Banja Luka that had
been held by troops controlled by former Bosnian Serb President Radovan
Karadzic.
1998 - Canada's Supreme Court announced that Quebec could not secede
without the federal government's consent.
1998 - U.S. military forces attacked a terrorist camp in Afghanistan and
a chemical plant in Sudan. Both targets were chosen for cruise missile
strikes due to their connection with Osama bin Laden.
1998 - The U.N. Security Council extended trade sanctions against Iraq
for blocking arms inspections.
2009 - Voting in Afghanistan's presidential election was marred by
rampant ballot-box stuffing. (Hamid Karzai was declared the winner in
November.)
2009 - The only man convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
returned to Libya after his release from a Scottish prison on
compassionate grounds.
2010 - The last American combat brigade exited Iraq after more than
seven years after the U.S.-led invasion began.
S. Korea orders civilian evacuation near western border, after
exchanging fire with N. Korea
RT - South Korean military shelled the North’s border area in
response to an apparent earlier shelling from the North. South
Korean military fired dozens of artillery shells across the
border on Thursday, the Yonhap news agency reported. The attack
came in response to apparent shelling of the southern part of
the border area by the North’s military.
* Related:
S. Korea orders civilian evacuation near western border, after
exchanging fire with N. Korea
Yemen bombed into Syria-grade catastrophe in just 5 months – Red
Cross
RT - Five months of Saudi-led airstrikes and ground military
campaigns in Yemen have created “catastrophic” conditions in the
country and destruction which the Red Cross can only compare to
the devastation of after five years of civil war in Syria.
“Yemen after five months looks like Syria after five years,” the
head of the international Red Cross, Peter Maurer told AP, after
witnessing the destruction first hand. “The images I have from
Sanaa and Aden remind of what I have seen in Syria.”
Chinese Report Details Role of Political Connections in Tianjin
Blasts
The New York Times - On Wednesday, China’s state-run Xinhua news
agency reported that two major shareholders in Rui Hai had
admitted to using their political connections to gain government
approvals for the site, despite clear violations of rules
prohibiting the storage of hazardous chemicals within 3,200 feet
of residential areas. Yu Xuewei, the company chairman, is a
former executive at a state-owned chemical company, and Dong
Shexuan, the vice chairman, is the son of a former police chief
at the Tianjin port. The two executives, who deliberately
concealed their ownership stakes behind a murky corporate
structure, told Xinhua that they had leveraged their personal
relationships with government officials to obtain licenses for
the site. Both men have been detained. “The first safety
appraisal company said our warehouses were too close to the
apartment building,” said Mr. Dong, 34, referring to a
residential complex that was severely damaged and now stands
empty. “Then we found another company who got us the documents
we needed.”
Insouciance Rules The West
Paul Craig Roberts - Europe is being overrun by refugees from
Washington’s, and Israel’s, hegemonic policies in the Middle
East and North Africa that are resulting in the slaughter of
massive numbers of civilians. The inflows are so heavy that
European governments are squabbling among themselves about who
is to take the refugees. Hungary is considering constructing a
fence, like the US and Israel, to keep out the undesirables.
Everywhere in the Western media there are reports deploring the
influx of migrants; yet nowhere is there any reference to the
cause of the problem.
As Crisis in Yemen Worsens, US Steps Up Involvement in Saudi-Led
Invasion
Sputnik News - Nearly 4,300 people have been killed in Yemen
since Gulf allies began bombing the country in March, and
roughly half of these people were civilians, according to the
United Nations. A further 1.3 million people were forced to flee
from their homes as a result of the fighting. Meanwhile, the
United States has more than doubled the number of Pentagon
advisors providing enhanced intelligence for coalition
airstrikes. The Obama administration has maintained that the US
is only acting in a non-combat advisory role, and it seems that
role is only growing.
Israel preparing itself to face ICC
Press TV - Israel is facing fresh challenges in the wake of
Palestinians' complaints filed against it at the International
Criminal Court. Now the Israeli army has appointed a new
Military Advocate General to deal with what it calls external
and internal challenges. It is said that Sharon Afek has been
asked to prepare for fighting a possible ICC verdict against Tel
Aviv over its violation of Palestinians' human rights. Mona
Kandil reports from Ramallah.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
State Dept. Says BlackBerries Issued to Clinton Aides Were
Probably ‘Destroyed or Excessed’
Breitbart - The latest development in the lawsuit filed by
Judicial Watch to examine the highly unusual terms of top
Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s employment at the State
Department is a federal court filing in which State says the
secure BlackBerry phones issued to Abedin and another Clinton
aide, Cheryl Mills, have most likely been destroyed, or at least
wiped clean and reissued to other employees.
* Related:
State Department Did Not Give Hillary Clinton Her BlackBerry
Horror: Intact Fetus Moves Arms, Legs Outside Womb in Latest
Planned Parenthood Video
Adan Salazar - A fully intact human fetus is seen moving its
arms and legs outside of the womb, in the latest damning Planned
Parenthood sting video released by the pro-life Center for
Medical Progress. Ex-Stem Express procurement technician Holly
O’Donnell appears again in the 7th installment of the group’s
series, revealing even more horrific details about her former
employer’s partnership with Planned Parenthood and their
customized abortion for profit racket. “O’Donnell describes the
harvesting, or ‘procurement,’ of organs from a nearly intact
late-term fetus aborted at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s
Alameda clinic in San Jose, CA,” CMP notes in their latest
video’s description.
Three Violent Criminal Aliens Released In Arizona, Sheriff
Sounds Alarm
Breitbart - An Arizona sheriff is sounding the alarm about three
violent criminal aliens released into the state, and charging
the Obama administration with not doing enough to keep such
offenders off the streets.... The three offenders released into
Arizona include: Dennis Valerievitch Tsoukano, an illegal
immigrant from Russia who killed a police informant by burning
him alive; Musa Salah Abdelaziz Abdalla, an illegal immigrant
from Sudan with multiple assault arrests; and Nasser Hanna
Hermez, a legal permanent resident from Iraq who killed his 7
week old daughter.... While the convicts ICE released appear to
qualify as enforcement priorities under the administration’s
guidelines, ICE said it did not have the legal authority to
continue to detain them, as it could not verify the citizenship
of the two illegal immigrants and Hermez is a lawful permanent
resident.
Wisconsin High School To Randomly Drug Test Students
Steve Watson - Using loophole to violate Constitutional rights.
A wisconsin high school district has been caught up in
controversy over a new policy to randomly drug test students,
much like a prison would inmates. The Crivitz school district
will usher in the new policy in the fall, claiming that it is to
“protect” students.... Tests will be conducted by randomly
picking student identification numbers via computer every
fortnight. Should a student test positive, or refuse to be
tested, they will be barred from athletic involvement, mandated
to attend counseling, and their parents will be alerted. The
school says it will not expel any students or involve police.
City bans woman from living in tent on her own property
Off the Grid News - North Carolina resident Ingrid Larsen is
being prevented from living in a tent on her own property
because she has no sewer line. Larsen’s home was destroyed
during Hurricane Ophelia in 2005 when a sewage pumping station
failed, caused 10,000 gallons of human waste to flood Larsen’s
home – for 10 straight hours. The sewage was so toxic that
Larsen’s house became a biohazard that had to be torn down. She
lost most everything she had owned. She wants to build again on
the property but wants to use a septic tank already on the
property instead of the sewer.... he local sewer district, the
Southeast Brunswick Sanitary District, will not let her use the
septic system because there is a sewer line near her property —
the same sewer line that backed up and flooded her home.
Typically, only homes away from sewer lines receive exemptions.
Trump could boost bill ending birthright citizenship
Washington Examiner - "I don't have any doubt that the
immigration statement that Trump put out is going to help
provide momentum for a number of different pieces of immigration
enforcement legislation, and especially birthright citizenship,"
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, told the Washington Examiner. King is
the sponsor of a House bill that would restrict automatic
birthright citizenship, but his legislation has stalled, as has
a companion measure in the Senate. But the bill could get a
boost from Trump, who released an immigration reform plan that
also calls for ending the policy.... Watchdog groups say up to
400,000 children are born in the United States to illegal
immigrants each year. If they are born on U.S. soil, they are
entitled to citizenship under an interpretation of the 14th
Amendment. Children of non-citizens who are born here can
petition for legal status for their parents when they turn 21,
which critics of the law say provides incentive for people to
try to cross illegally into the United States in order to give
birth.
It Begins - Hillary "Trump'd" By The Donald In Key Swing State
Zero Hedge - As The Hill reports, Donald Trump tops Hillary
Clinton (45% to 42%) in the latest poll from swing-state North
Carolina. Clinton tops Jeb Bush and Rand Paul, so there's that,
but eight Republicans (including Trump) are beating the former
secretary of state. Perhaps most notably however, is that a new
survey from FOX shows Trump (45%) closing in on Hillary (51%) in
the presidential election matchup.
Bland Monster Jeb Bush “Proud” of His Brother’s Torturing People
The Intercept - Maybe you’ve seen that Jeb Bush has refused to
rule out more torture if he’s elected president. But what’s gone
unnoticed — perhaps because Bush is so dreary it’s hard to
listen to him without losing consciousness — is he actually said
he’s “proud” of his brother’s torture policies. BUSH: I do
think, in general, that torture is not appropriate. It’s not as
effective, uh, and the change of policy that my brother did and
was then put into executive order form by the president was the
proper thing to do. I also would say that right after 9/11, I
mean, we were attacked, and, uh, my presid — my brother — and
I’m not saying this because I’m a Bush, I’m saying this because
I love this country just like everybody in this room — I’m proud
of what he did to create a secure environment for our country.
A great 24 hour Markets Watch Website
Investing.com - Real Time Streaming Futures Quotes
Fraud was Worth It for Citigroup; Pays Only $180 Million after
Gaining $3 Billion from Hedge Fund Investors
AllGov - Before the financial crisis of 2008, Citigroup talked
up two hedge funds with investors, saying the investments
carried about the same risk as municipal bonds. The pitch worked
wonderfully for Citigroup, which wound up pulling in almost $3
billion for the ASTA/MAT fund and the Falcon fund from 2002 to
2007. Then Wall Street crashed the following year, and the 4,000
people who invested in the hedge funds watched them collapse
along with their investments. Even as the funds were tanking,
they took in another $110 million from investors, according to
Courthouse News Service. The Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) went after Citigroup for making false and misleading
claims about the funds and fined the corporation $180 million,
or about 6% of the amount Citigroup flushed down the financial
toilet via those funds.
Made in China: GM Might Introduce Chinese-Made Buicks to US
Market
Sputnik News - Controversy is growing as Buick, one of America’s
oldest automobile companies, may begin importing models to the
US from China. General Motors, which oversees the brand, has
been criticized by US automotive labor union UAW for considering
the plan.... Automobile experts note that it’s much easier for
GM to maintain production of the Envision in its current plant
in northeastern Shandong province. Diversifying the
manufacturing process to include American auto workers would add
unnecessary costs.
China and the Decline in Quality (and Soon in Profits)
Washington's Blog - But planned obsolescence is not the entire
problem; the quality of goods has declined dramatically due to
shoddy manufacturing, poor quality control and low-quality
materials. This trend has accelerated as production moved to
China. A few decades ago, things built in the U.S.A. and
elsewhere were built to last:not just tools and appliances, but
electronics: My 31-Year Old Apple Mac Started Up Fine After 15
Years in a Box (February 28, 2015). Correspondent Mark G. has
been sharing his experience with machine tools that were made in
the U.S.A. 60 or 70 years ago that are still going strong. By
his reckoning, table saws sold in the U.S. in the early
1960s–tools that are still working today–were only 10% to 15%
more than current table saws (when adjusted for inflation) that
are made of plastic and inferior components that won’t last a
decade, never mind 60 years.
States ration birth, marriage, death certificates after paper
company suddenly closes
Fox News - Someone call Dunder Mifflin: Several states are
reporting a paper crisis, after an Ohio company that produces
highly specialized paper for vital records closed without
warning. California has been hit the hardest by the shortage,
and several counties are now being forced to ration birth,
marriage and death certificates. In California, the only other
company that can meet its needs, under state law, is in Canada.
Officials say it would likely take months for Canadian Bank Note
Co. to get up to speed with the state’s paper needs – but that’s
only after a contract is signed.
New York: Manhattan accommodation for $39 a night - if you sleep
in a taxi
IB Times - The words 'New York City' and 'budget' tend not to go
hand in hand. But a new venture offers budget travelers
million-dollar views of Manhattan for about $39. Adventurous
travelers can sleep overnight in a taxi, van or camper parked on
the street in New York City. Entrepreneur Jonathan Powley
started offering the rentals in April on the Airbnb website. He
said the idea came to him after his van broke down on the side
of the road. Powley said he now rents what he calls "rolling
rooms" inside three vans, two campers and one taxi. While the
prices vary, Powley said the lowest price for a night is $22.
HUD Subsidies Allow Nebraska Millionaire to Pay $300 Rent
Americans for Tax Reform - An individual worth $1.6 million living in
Oxford, Neb. pays $300 a month for a one-bedroom apartment, but not
because of the Nebraska housing market. This tenet is among the more
than 25,000 well-off families and individuals that have a
taxpayer-subsidized roof over their heads thanks to ‘egregious’ abuse of
the public-housing system. According to an Inspector General (IG) audit
of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released in
July, thousands of ‘over income’ families have received housing
assistance despite exceeding the program’s income eligibility limits....
The report estimated that taxpayers will pay over $104.4 million this
year to keep these families in subsidized housing. Despite the IG’s
report, HUD has no plans to evict any of these families. The department
doesn’t require HUD officials to remove over income families –it urges
them to stay.
The Agency That Contaminated the Animas River Looks to Regulate
Water in Your Backyard
Breitbart - Unless a federal judge issues a preliminary
injunction, the definition of the “Waters of the U.S.” will
change on August 28—giving the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) the authority to regulate the water in your backyard.
Thirty-one states, in four districts, have filed motions with
the federal courts to block the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (ACOE) from beginning to enforce the new “Waters of
the U.S.” (WOTUS) rule, which represents a new interpretation of
the Clean Water Act (CWA). The Federal Register calls the new
rule “definitional” and states: “The rule will ensure protection
for the nation’s public health and aquatic resources, and
increase CWA program predictability and consistency by
clarifying the scope of ‘waters of the United States’ protected
under the Act.”
Thousands of government emails implicated in Ashley Madison
affair
RT - The release of records pilfered by hackers from the
infidelity website Ashley Madison may present a headache for
thousands of US government and military personnel, who used
their official emails to register. According to preliminary
analysis of the data, which appeared on the 'dark web' on
Tuesday, almost 60,000 members have addresses in Washington, DC,
and over 15,000 accounts were affiliated with a .gov or a .mil
address.
* Related:
Josh Duggar revealed as having 'paid almost $1,000 for multiple
Ashley Madison accounts'...
First almost fully-formed human brain grown in lab, researchers
claim
The Guardian - The team behind the feat hope the brain could
transform our understanding of neurological disease. Though not
conscious the miniature brain, which resembles that of a
five-week-old foetus, could potentially be useful for scientists
who want to study the progression of developmental diseases. It
could also be used to test drugs for conditions such as
Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, since the regions they affect are
in place during an early stage of brain development. The brain,
which is about the size of a pencil eraser, is engineered from
adult human skin cells and is the most complete human brain
model yet developed, claimed Rene Anand of Ohio State
University, Columbus, who presented the work today at the
Military Health System Research Symposium in Fort Lauderdale,
Florida.
Large Study Shows Calcium and Magnesium Reduce The Risk of High
Blood Pressure, High Blood Glucose and Excess Belly Fat
April McCarthy - Calcium and magnesium may reduce the risk of
metabolic syndrome, a a cluster of conditions including
increased blood pressure, a high blood sugar level, excess body
fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol, but men need
above and beyond recommended levels for this effect, say
researchers. The researchers from the Case Western Reserve
University in the US used 9,148 adults to test the theory that
higher dietary intakes of calcium and magnesium decreased the
risk of metabolic syndrome. Multiple health benefits from the
super mineral magnesium include transmission of nerve impulses,
body temperature regulation, detoxification, energy production,
and the formation of healthy bones and teeth.
* Related:
Stay Healthy: Boost Magnesium Levels with These Two Foods
Ginger Treats Osteoarthritis with Topical Application
Heal Naturally -Research from Australia’s Edith Cowan University
has confirmed an ancient treatment – that osteoarthritis pain is
decreased and mobility is improved with the application of
ginger root topically.... This is not the first study to find
that ginger has the ability to decrease inflammation and reduce
pain in general, as well as among arthritis patients. Studies
have found that ginger extract blocks cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2)
and lipoxygenase-5 (LOX-5) enzymes.... The anti-inflammatory
effects of ginger in osteoarthritis are also experienced when
ginger is taken orally.
Chamomile Tea Reduces Thyroid Cancers, Thyroid Conditions
Heal Naturally - The research – published in the European
Journal of Public Health – found that drinking chamomile tea
regularly over a 30-year period reduced the risk of thyroid
cancer by nearly 80 percent. More specifically, those who drank
chamomile tea two to six times each week reduced their risk of
any thyroid disease by 74 percent.
Oregon Vet Ramps Up Campaign Warning About Xylitol and Dogs
Food Safety News - An Oregon veterinarian is expanding efforts to get
the word out that a sugar alcohol-derived sweetener used in an
increasing number of foods poses a serious, and potentially fatal,
threat to dogs. Dr. Jason Nicholas of Portland (Preventive Vet) has
posted a list of products containing xylitol, along with two online
petitions seeking warning labels from manufacturers and related action
from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In Case of Emergency
Susan Thixton - This is a great idea sent to me by one of the TAPF
followers…a emergency alert card to carry in your wallet to notify
authorities you have pets at home that need to be cared for in case you
are injured or become ill. Many pet owners live alone and worry that
should an accident or illness occur, who would care for their pets.
Below is an example card (business card size) you can print to carry in
your wallet (or design your own).
Wednesday
- August 19, 2015 - Today in History:
1812 - "Old Ironsides" (the USS Constitution) won a battle against the
British frigate Guerriere east of Nova Scotia.
1848 - The discovery of gold in California was reported by the New York
Herald.
1909 - The first car race to be run on brick occurred at the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
1919 - Afghanistan gained independence from Britain.
1929 - "Amos and Andy," the radio comedy program, made its debut on NBC
starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll.
1934 - Adolf Hitler was approved for sole executive power in Germany as
Fuehrer.
1940 - The new Civil Aeronautics Administration awarded honorary license
#1 to Orville Wright.
1942 - About 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launched a raid against
the Germans at Dieppe, France. They suffered about 50 percent
casualties.
1960 - Francis Gary Powers, an American U-2 pilot, was convicted of
espionage in Moscow.
1974 - During an anti-American protest in Nicosia, Cyprus, U.S.
Ambassador Rodger P. Davies was killed by a bullet while in the American
embassy.
1981 - Two Libyan SU-22s were shot down by two U.S. Navy F-14 fighters
in the Gulf of Sidra.
1991 - Soviet hard-liners announced that President Mikhail Gorbachev had
been removed from power. Gorbachev returned to power two days later.
1998 - The first piece of the 351 foot bronze statue of Christopher
Columbus arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
1999 - In Belgrade, thousands of Serbs attended a rally to demand the
resignation of Yugoslavia's President Slobodan Milosevic.
2004 - Google Inc. stock began selling on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The
initial price was set at $85 and ended the day at $100.34 with more than
22 million shares traded.
German Parliament overwhelmingly approves Greek bailout
AP - Germany's Parliament has overwhelmingly approved a third
bailout package for Greece despite misgivings by some
conservative lawmakers of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian
Democratic party.... Lawmakers in Spain and Estonia approved it
Tuesday, while those in the Netherlands are expected to do so
Wednesday as well. The deal needs to clear all hurdles so Greece
can get the first tranche of money available and make a big debt
repayment to the European Central Bank due on Thursday. Under
the terms of the deal, Greece has to make further spending cuts
and tax increases and implement big reforms to its economy.
Israel “Drills” Ground Incursion In Syria; Pretext Fighting
Terror Israel Helped Create
Brandon Turbeville - According to reports coming from both
Israel and Europe, the Israeli Defense Forces appear to be
preparing for a ground incursion of Syrian territory in the
Golan Heights area. Whatever the plans of the IDF, the Israeli
military clearly engaged in wide-scale maneuvers on the border
with Syria on Sunday which simulated an incursion into Syrian
territory and the evacuation of Israelis currently residing in
border towns. The justification for the concern over the Golan
border area is that “Iran has opened a new front against Israel
on the Golan Heights.” This accusation is leveled repeatedly
throughout the articles detailing the drills and preparations
being made by Israel yet neither the media outlets nor the
Israeli government has offered credible evidence to buttress
their claims.
NATO Constructs Tent City in Spain for Largest Military Drills
in History
Sputnik News - More than 30 countries are to participate in the
Exercise Trident Juncture 2015 in Spanish Zaragoza. NATO is
constructing a tent city in the Spanish city of Zaragoza to host
more than 650 command and control staff in preparation for the
largest joint exercise in more than a decade, the alliance
announced in a press release on Tuesday. Approximately 36,000
personnel from more than 30 NATO and partner nations will
participate in Exercise Trident Juncture 2015. The drills are
scheduled to take place in September throughout southern and
central Europe, and across the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean
Sea.
U.S. Navy on alert: China, Russia to launch largest-ever joint
navy exercise
Washington Times - The Chinese and Russian navies are gearing up
for their largest ever joint exercises, slated to begin Thursday
in the Pacific with more than 20 ships from the two nations and
to feature anti-submarine operations as well as a joint-beach
landing. The exercises, dubbed “Joint Sea 2015 II” will run
through Aug. 28 in the Sea of Japan and off the coast of
Vladivostok, the Russian port city situated roughly 100 miles
north of the Chinese and Russian borders with North Korea.
China's Richest Traders Are Rushing To Dump Their Stocks To The
Retail Masses, Just Like In The US
Zero Hedge - As it turns out it is not just in the US that the
"smart money" is bailing out as fast as it can: according to
Bloomberg, the wealthiest investors in China’s stock market are
also scrambling for the exits. To wit: "The number of traders
with more than 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) of shares in their
accounts shrank by 28 percent in July, even as those with less
than 100,000 yuan rose by 8 percent, according to the nation’s
clearing agency. While some of the drop is explained by falling
market values, CLSA Ltd. says China’s rich have taken advantage
of state buying to cash out after the nation’s record-long bull
market peaked in June."
Greece to Receive 1,000 Bitcoin ATMs as Trust in Banks ‘Long
Gone’
CoinTelegraph - Bitcoin service provider and exchange Cubits has
partnered with Greek bitcoin exchange BTCGreece to install 1,000
bitcoin ATMs and help small and medium sized businesses move
money. “We are creating the ecosystem of bitcoin and blockchain
solutions in the Greek market.” BTCGreece founder Thanos Marinos
told CoinTelegraph. “That will include the rollout of 1,000 ATMs
and solutions for the e-commerce and tourism industry.
Partnering with best of breed companies in the bitcoin space
will enable us to provide the Greeks with solutions that will
ease the difficulties of the capital controls.” Today, many
Greek businesses have failed to pay their suppliers and partners
outside of the country due to the countries record high
financial problems and the recent capital controls, which froze
all bank accounts, credit cards and debit cards in the country
for weeks.
Greek Liquidation Sale Begins: German Company Wins Privatization
Bid For 14 Greek Regional Airports
Zero Hedge - A German company, airport operator FRAPORT won the
bid to operate and maintain 14 regional airports, considered to
be top of the top in Greece. With an offer of 1.23 billion euro,
the consortium of Fraport-Slentel (a unit of Greek energy group
Copelouzos) won the bid to lease the regional airports for 40+10
years. Among the 14 regional airports are those on most popular
tourist Greek islands like Mykonos, Rhodes, Kos, Santorini and
Corfu. It is the first privatization deal under SYRIZA-ANEL
coalition government and the biggest privatization deal in
Greece since beginning of the crisis and the bailout programs in
2010.
Global population will soar to 11.2bn by 2100 - with Africa
accounting for much of the growth, says UN forecast
The Independent - Fertility rates – the average number of
children born per woman – have declined globally but they are
not decreasing as fast in Africa as on other continents, said
John Wilmoth, director of the UN Population Division in New
York. In countries such as Nigeria – Africa’s most populous
nation – there are now signs that fertility rates are once more
on the increase, which could have a significant impact on future
estimates of the global population, Mr Wilmoth said… “Africa has
the highest fertility level, with around 4.7 children per woman.
Even assuming a continued decline in fertility, given this high
starting point, we should anticipate a continued rapid growth of
the African population, which will roughly double in size
between now and 2050,” he said… Africa is the only major region
of the world that will continue to experience substantial
population growth after 2050, even if there is a significant
reduction in fertility levels in the near future, the UN said.
* Related:
Polio Vaccines Laced with Sterilizing Hormone Discovered in
Kenya – WHO is Controlling Population?
EU Commission Declares Report on Glyphosate Risk Assessment A
Secret
Sustainable Pulse - In a letter to Testbiotech dated 10 August
2015, the Commission says that the documents made available to
the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) by the German
government “are protected in their entirety” as confidential.
The EU Commission can see “no overriding public interest” that
would justify access. There is, however, clearly public interest
in the matter since the International Agency for Research on
Cancer (IARC) of the World health Organisation (WHO) has already
declared that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans.
However, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR),
is claiming there would be no risk to human health.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
Hillary's email firm was run from a loft apartment with its
servers in the BATHROOM, raising new questions over security of
sensitive messages she held
Daily Mail - The IT company Hilary Clinton chose to maintain her
private email account was run from a loft apartment and its
servers were housed in the bathroom closet, Daily Mail Online
can reveal. Daily Mail Online tracked down ex-employees of
Platte River Networks in Denver, Colorado, who revealed the
outfit's strong links to the Democratic Party but expressed
shock that the 2016 presidential candidate chose the small
private company for such a sensitive job. One, Tera Dadiotis,
called it 'a mom and pop shop' which was an excellent place to
work, but hardly seemed likely to be used to secure state
secrets. And Tom Welch, who helped found the company, confirmed
the servers were in a bathroom closet.
These Alarming New Passport Laws Are Being Snuck Through
Congress Right Now
Daniel McAdams - Just the other day we wrote about a U.S. House
“suspension” bill that would give the Secretary of State the
authority to cancel your passport if he decided that you had
“aided” an organization that he rules is terrorist. There is no
definition of what “aided” means, no chance to dispute the
Secretary’s decision, no trial or presentation of evidence, and
in fact any evidence the government has can be classified as
secret so that you may not see it. In effect the Secretary of
State can unilaterally consign you to internal exile and there
is nothing you can do about it.
32 Cops, Fired 600 Bullets into 1 Car Full of Hostages, Killing
a Hostage
Free Thought Project - On July 16, 2014, three suspects, armed
with handguns and an AK-47, robbed a Bank of the West branch and
took three women hostage before fleeing in a bank employee’s
SUV. A lengthy and dangerous chase ensued which spanned three
counties, 63 miles, and reached speeds in excess of 120 mph.
During the chase, police and bank robbers exchanged fire. By the
time the chase came to a stop, 32 officers were amped up and
ready to let loose, so they did. According to the report, some
officers were so primed to start firing that they engaged in
“sympathetic fire,” meaning they only fired their weapons
because other officers were shooting. Complete lunacy.
US Plans to Provide $20 Million in Defense Assistance to Georgia
- Pentagon
Sputnik News - The announcement came after US Defense Secretary
Ashton Carter met with Georgian Minister of Defense Tinatin
Khidasheli in Washington, DC earlier in the day. "The leaders
reviewed ongoing US security assistance to Georgia's armed
forces, including plans for the $20 million in additional
funding in 2015 through the European Reassurance Initiative."
Carter explained in the release that the United States is
committed to continue defense cooperation with Georgia,
including via bilateral and multilateral exercises and training.
He noted that the United States, together with its allies,
remains committed to "supporting Georgia through the
NATO-Georgia Commission and the Substantial NATO-Georgia package
agreed at the 2014 Wales Summit."
30 Million Illegal Immigrants in US, Says Mexico’s Former
Ambassador
Breitbart - Mexico’s former ambassador to the U.S. said that 30
million “undocumented immigrants” are living in the United
States in the beginning of an interview before later stating a
different number at the conclusion. The former diplomat, Arturo
Sarukhan, took to MSNBC to attack presidential hopeful Donald
Trump’s recently released plan to secure the border and deport
illegal immigrants. The MSNBC clip began with presidential
hopeful and Florida Senator Marco Rubio claiming that only 12 or
13 million illegal immigrants are in the country. The former
ambassador stated,” If you were to deport the 30 million
undocumented immigrants in the United States that’s going to
cost you about 130 billion dollars.”... Many conservative and
border watchdog groups have long contended that the actual
number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. is closer to 30 million
while the U.S. government contends the number is closer to 11
million.
Biggest Gay Lobby Group in America Urges Schools to Ban Words
‘Boy’ and ‘Girl’
Paul Joseph Watson - The biggest gay rights lobby group in the
United States has called on schools to eliminate “gender
stereotypes” by training staff to avoid using the words “boy”
and “girl” in class. A new back to school guide published by the
Human Rights Campaign designed to make classrooms “gender
inclusive” urges teachers to “avoid using gender to divide and
address students” so as to prevent any transgender students from
becoming upset. “Instead of addressing your class using “boys”
and “girls,” try something new. Words like “friends,” “students”
or “scholars” allow all students to feel included, expand
student vocabulary and model inclusive language and behavior for
other students and teachers,” states the guide.
Parents Not Charged for Leaving Toddler in Hot Car Until She
Died, They Both Work for the System
Free Thought Project - Prosecutors have declined to file charges
against the parents responsible for leaving their 16-month-old
daughter in a sweltering hot car for hours killing her. Although
many parents are often arrested for negligence or murder for
leaving their infants and toddlers in locked cars, these
neglectful parents work for the Third Judicial Circuit of
Florida. In a similar case, an Arkansas judge remains free after
recently leaving his 18-month-old son to die in a scorching
car.... Under Florida law, it is illegal to leave a child under
6 years old in a vehicle for more than 15 minutes.
Rand Paul Says He’ll Pay for Kentucky to Switch from Primary to
Caucus
Breitbart - Republican Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) says he has
contributed $250,000 and pledged another $200,000 to pay for a
proposed GOP presidential caucus in his home state of Kentucky
next year. State GOP officials are scheduled to vote Saturday on
rules for the proposed March 5 caucus. The state party’s
proposed switch from a primary to a caucus would allow Paul to
run for president and re-election to his U.S. Senate seat
simultaneously without violating a state law banning candidates
from appearing on the ballot twice. Senate Majority Leader Sen.
Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Monday that Paul is sticking to his
commitment to defray caucus costs. McConnell has endorsed the
caucus.
Latest CNN Republican Poll Has Donald Trump at 24%
NY Times - Support for Donald J. Trump remains robust among
Republicans after the first debate, according to a new poll from
CNN that shows nearly a quarter of the party's likely voters
would support his nomination for president. According to the
latest survey, Mr. Trump leads the Republican field by a large
margin with 24 percent supporting his White House bid. Former
Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, whose standing dipped after the
debate, is in second place with 13 percent, and Ben Carson,
whose prospects have improved, comes in third at 8 percent.
If History Is Any Indication, Junk Bonds And Copper Are Telling
Us Exactly Where Stocks Are Heading Next
Economic Collapse - Yields on the riskiest junk bonds are
absolutely soaring and the price of copper just hit a fresh six
year low. To most people, those pieces of financial news are
meaningless. But if you understand history, and you are aware of
the patterns that immediately preceded previous stock market
crashes, then you know how how huge both of those signs are.
During the summer of 2008, junk bond prices absolutely cratered
as junk bond yields skyrocketed. This was a very clear signal
that financial markets were about to crash, and sure enough a
couple of months later it happened. Now the exact same thing is
happening again.
Cost of EPA’s toxic spill could soar to nearly $30 billion
Washington Examiner - The cost of cleaning up a major toxic
waste spill in the West caused by an Environmental Protection
Agency contractor could soar as high as $27.7 billion. That’s
the conclusion of study released Tuesday morning by the
right-leaning American Action Forum. The group is one of the
first to attempt to estimate the clean-up cost of what will
likely be remembered as one of the biggest environmental
disasters of 2015.
200 US Army soldiers to fight wildfires in Western states as
budgets shrink
RT - With dozens of wildfires raging in multiple Western states,
the US Army is preparing to deploy 200 soldiers in order to help
firefighters. The federal government is quickly burning through
its annual budget as it struggles to keep flames from spreading.
The move marks the first time since 2006 that troops have been
sent out against fires.... Meanwhile, National Guard troops were
mobilized to fight fires in Washington State, the Military Times
reported. There are roughly 95 wildfires currently burning in
seven states, according to the Interagency Fire Center.... The
Forest Service is burning through more than $100 million every
week and that the entire yearly budget for fighting wildfires
will be spent this week. "We're out of crews, we're out of
engines, we're out of helicopters," Carol Connolly of the
Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, which coordinates
firefighting efforts inside Oregon and Washington with the state
and federal governments, said to NBC.
Hackers release data of millions of Ashley Madison cheating site
users
RT - A group of hackers who threatened to release sensitive data
about millions of Ashley Madison cheating website users last
month have apparently fulfilled their promise after the site’s
owner refused to take the resource “offline permanently in all
forms.” A massive dump of data just short of 10 gigabytes was
released on the dark web on Tuesday by the Impact Team group
claiming to be behind the scandalous Ashley Madison hack. The
data appear to include sensitive customer information, such as
payment transaction and credit card details, emails, names,
addresses, phone numbers and member profiles. Although the
leaked data did not include full credit card details and billing
information, the hack is still a major embarrassment to Avid
Life Media Inc., which owns the site, and some 38 million of its
users whose private data was exposed.
New Warning: Diabetes drugs shown to cause heart failure and
pancreatic cancer
Natural Blaze - There are several types of diabetes drugs used
in the U.S. and around the world, some of the most common of
which are GLP-1 agonists and SGLT2 and DPP-4 inhibitors. Keep
this in mind, big pharma will manufacture these drugs under
competing names, but nearly all have been linked to serious
complications and risks.... A study of more than 95,000 patients
published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology found that
nearly 10 percent of people taking these drugs eventually suffer
a serious cardiovascular problem or event, while approximately 4
percent experience heart failure. Equally concerning is the
increased risk for pancreatic cancer... In 2013, and independent
study found that people taking certain DPP-4 and GLP-1 diabetes
drugs were twice as likely to be admitted to hospitals for
inflammation of the pancreas than people taking other types of
medications.
Olive Oil Compound Kills Cancer Cells in 30 Minutes
Green Med Info - Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) already has a
reputation as a superfood. It contains an abundance of
antioxidants that are proven to confer health benefits. Studies
show that one phenolic compound in EVOO – oleocanthal (OC) –
provides many of the health benefits we see from diets rich in
EVOO like the Mediterranean diet. Recently researchers put
oleocanthal from EVOO to the test against cancer. They found
that OC can induce rapid death in cancer cells while leaving
healthy cells intact. The researchers from Hunter College,
Rutgers University, and the Monell Chemical Senses Center
investigated the effect of oleocanthal on prostate, breast, and
pancreatic cancer cells. They found that OC induced the loss of
cell adhesion within as little as 30 minutes. Within 24 hours
100% of the cancer cells were non-viable.
Overuse of Antibiotics Linked to Juvenile Arthritis
Natural Society - A recently published study in the journal
Pediatrics adds more credence to experts’ warnings that the
overuse of antibiotics is making people sick, including the
littlest of patients. Researchers now say that antibiotics
increase children’s risk of developing juvenile arthritis, a
painful and chronic disease. More than 400,000 British children
were analyzed by researchers, including 152 that were diagnosed
with juvenile arthritis. The researchers discovered that
youngsters who were prescribed antibiotics had twice the risk of
developing the illness compared with those the same age who
didn’t take antibiotics.... The risk of juvenile arthritis
increased with the number of courses of antibiotics prescribed.
The study was conducted because previous studies have shown that
antibiotics disrupt microbes in the gut, which can predispose
children to autoimmune diseases.
Tuesday
- August 18, 2015 - Today in History:
1735 - The "Evening Post" of Boston, MA, was published for the first
time.
1846 - Gen. Stephen W. Kearney and his U.S. forces captured Santa Fe,
NM.
1894 - The Bureau of Immigration was established by the U.S. Congress.
1914 - The "Proclamation of Neutrality" was issued by U.S. President
Woodrow Wilson. It was aimed at keeping the U.S. out of World War I.
1916 - Abraham Lincoln's birthplace was made into a national shrine.
1920 - Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The Amendment guaranteed the right of all American women to vote.
1937 - The first FM radio construction permit was issued in Boston, MA.
The station went on the air two years later.
1938 - The Thousand Islands Bridge was dedicated by U.S. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt. The bridge connects the U.S. and Canada.
1940 - Canada and the U.S. established a joint defense plan against the
possible enemy attacks during World War II.
1966 - The first pictures of earth taken from moon orbit were sent back
to the U.S.
1982 - The longest baseball game played at Wrigley Field in Chicago, IL,
went 21 innings before the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Cubs 2-1.
1990 - The first shots were fired by the U.S. in the Persian Gulf Crisis
when a U.S. frigate fired rounds across the bow of an Iraqi oil tanker.
1998 - Mrs. Field's Original Cookies announced that they would acquire
the Great American Cookie Co.
2004 - Donald Trump unveiled his board game (TRUMP the Game) where
players bid on real estate, buy big ticket items and make billion-dollar
business deals.
23 Nations Around The World Where Stock Market Crashes Are
Already Happening
Economic Collapse - All over the world, stock markets are
already crashing. Most of these stock market crashes are
occurring in nations that are known as “emerging markets”. In
recent years, developing countries in Asia, South America and
Africa loaded up on lots of cheap loans that were denominated in
U.S. dollars. But now that the U.S. dollar has been surging,
those borrowers are finding that it takes much more of their own
local currencies to service those loans. At the same time,
prices are crashing for many of the commodities that those
countries export. The exact same kind of double whammy caused
the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s and the Asian
financial crisis of the 1990s.
Chinese stocks sink dragging Asian markets with them
RT - The Shanghai Composite Index sank 6.15 percent to 3,748.16
points; the biggest daily fall since July 27. The Shenzhen
Composite plunged even further - 6.58 percent - to 2,175.42
points. Other Asian markets also closed in the red. The Japanese
Nikkei lost 0.32 percent, the Hang Seng – 1.16 percent with the
Taiwan TSEC 50 Index depreciating 0.44 percent. The weak Chinese
stock market and a slowdown in the real economy add to worries
about the country’s economic growth despite continued government
measures.
Greek bank bonds collapse on bailout promises
RT - Greece’s biggest lenders are seeing their bonds plummet, on
the promise of the Eurogroup president to protect depositors
from any losses in the €86 billion bailout. According to
Bloomberg, as of 9:30am GMT, Greece’s Eurobank senior unsecured
4.25 percent June 2018 bonds were sinking 33 percent to 37 cents
on the euro. The second worst performer was Piraeus Bank that
saw its senior unsecured 5 percent March 2017 bonds drop 27
percent to 38 cents. Alpha Bank’s senior unsecured 3.375 percent
notes due June 2017 stumbled 15 percent. Greece’s four banks –
National Bank of Greece, Piraeus Bank, Alpha Bank, and Eurobank
– account for 91 percent of Greek banking assets.
Greek Deposits Become Eligible For Bail-In On January 1, 2016
Zero Hedge - Earlier today an EU official was reported as saying
that Greek banks will exclude all depositors from losses until
the EU’s Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive rules go into
effect on Jan. 1, 2016. Needless to say this was vastly
different to Dijsselbloem's blanket guarantee statement from
Friday, and suggests that depositors will indeed be bailed-in,
but not right now: only after BRRD rules come in place on the
first day of 2016.
China Says No to US Pork Due to Feed Additives
Sputnik News - American pork producers face giant financial
damages, as China has banned the importation of meat produced
with the use of a popular growth hormone which is widespread in
the US. Europe will deliver more pork to China this year than
the US despite the latter being considered a world leader in the
export of pig products, Robobank reported. The reason is simple
— Beijing has banned a growth-inducing hormone which is fed to
80 percent of hogs in the US, according to Bloomberg. The drug,
called Ractopamine, promotes quick weight gain in animals which
are raised for their meat, and according to the agricultural
regulators of most countries throughout the world, poses a
threat to human health as well. Imports of American pork to
China have decreased by 41 percent year over year in the first
six months of 2015, the worst results since 2010.
Bombing rocks tourist area in Bangkok, 19 dead & scores injured
RT - A motorcycle bomb has exploded in a commercial and tourist
center in Thailand's capital Bangkok, killing 19 people,
according to police. Over 120 others were injured, local media
reported. At least three foreigners were among those killed.
According to the latest information provided by the Royal Thai
Police Office, 12 of the 19 victims died at the scene of the
attack… The explosion took place at the Ratchaprasong
intersection near Erawan shrine, a tourist attraction in the
downtown Chidlom district… Erawan is a Hindu shrine which is
visited by thousands of people every day. Located on a main
road, the shrine is surrounded by three major shopping malls and
is popular among both tourists and locals… Two more devices were
found near the scene and detonated, the Bangkok Post reported.
Police have also recovered an electronic circuit, suspected to
be part of the original device, about 30 meters from the blast
scene, according to the Bangkok Post.
ISIS Document Reportedly Discovered by Think Tank Calls for End
of the World Battle
Kurt Nimmo - A think tank linked to the neocon-centric Hudson
Institute claims it has discovered an Islamic State version of
“Mein Kampf” in Pakistan. The American Media Institute says the
32-page Urdu language document calls for an end of the world
conflict in what the Israeli newspaper Arutz Sheva characterizes
as a “final solution,” a distinct reference to the Third Reich’s
mass extermination of Jews. The document also allegedly calls
for a single worldwide caliphate to rule over more than a
billion Muslims.
Away From Dollar: Russia, China to Create Entirely Different
Gold Market
Sputnik News - While key Western banks are artificially
restraining gold prices to breathe life into the diluted and
devalued dollar system, Russia, China and other emerging
economies are involved in "the genial move" to establish an
entirely different gold market, F. William Engdahl underscores.
Key central banks, particularly the Federal Reserve and Bank of
England, and Western market players have long been accused of
clandestine gold price manipulating aimed at preserving the
dollar's role "as world reserve currency primus,"… Furthermore,
Western banks are issuing numerous paper "gold-futures" and
other speculative contracts which are in fact disconnected from
real physical gold… This new approach is connected closely with
the China-led New Silk Road project and the Shanghai-based Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). In May 2015 Beijing
announced it had established a state-run gold investment fund,
aiming to bolster China's role in global gold trade.
8 Reasons Why The Telegraph Thinks The Market Doomsday Clock Is
One Minute To Midnight
Zero Hedge - “Time is now rapidly running out,” warns The
Telegraph’s John Ficenec as the British paper takes a deep dive
into the dark realities behind the mainstream media headlines
continued faith in central planning. Sounding very “Zero Hedge”,
Ficenec warns that from China to Brazil, the central banks have
lost control and at the same time the global economy is grinding
to a halt. It is only a matter of time before stock markets
collapse under the weight of their lofty expectations and record
valuations. There are signs things could get a whole lot worse..
China Shutters 50 Websites for ‘Inciting Panic’ Over the Tianjin
Disaster
Time -Beijing’s internet regulators have suspended or shut down
50 Chinese websites in the wake of last week’s explosions at a
chemical warehouse in the city of Tianjin — the world’s 10th
largest port — claiming they incited panic by spreading
unconfirmed information about the blasts.... Among the rumors
about Tianjin that have flared up online are claims that the
disaster’s death toll was above far higher than stated; that
looting had erupted; and that the city’s political leadership
was in flux. Meanwhile, by midday Monday local time, the
official fatality count in Tianjin was 114, with hundreds
injured and at least 70 people still unaccounted for in the
rubble of the blast site, CNN reported.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
US Military Prepares Drastic Escalation of Global Drone Program
Common Dreams - The U.S. Pentagon is poised to dramatically
increase the deployment of surveillance drones over "global hot
spots" such as Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, the South China Sea, and
North Africa, as well as expand its capacity for lethal drone
strikes, the Wall Street Journal revealed on Monday. Citing
exclusive interviews with senior U.S. officials, the WSJ's
Gordon Lubold reports that the number of daily flights by
aircraft such as MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones will surge
an estimated 50 percent. Further, the expanded drone program
will "draw on the Army, as well as Special Operations Command
and government contractors," in addition to the U.S. Air Force,
which currently carries out most of the operations for the
Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency.
New Clinton email count: 305 documents referred with potentially
classified information
Washington Times - More than 300 of former Secretary Hillary
Rodham Clinton’s emails — or 5.1 percent of those processed so
far — have been flagged for potential secret information, the
State Department reported to a federal court Monday. Officials
insisted, however, that the screening process is running
smoothly and they are back on track after falling behind a
judge’s schedule for making all of the emails public. The
reviewers have screened about 20 percent of the 30,000 emails
Mrs. Clinton returned to the department, which means if the rate
of potentially secret information remains steady, more than
1,500 messages will have to be sent to intelligence community
agencies, known in government as “IC,” to screen out classified
information.
* Related:
State Dept. Finds 17,855 Missing Hillary Clinton Adviser Emails
Bob Woodward compares Clinton emails to Nixon tapes
The Hill - Veteran Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward on
Monday compared Hillary Clinton’s private email account to the
Nixon tapes. “Follow the trail here,” Woodward said on MSNBC's
“Morning Joe,” noting that emails erased from Clinton’s private
server when she led the State Department were either sent or
received by someone else, too. “You've got a massive amount of
data. It, in a way, reminds me of the Nixon tapes: thousands of
hours of secretly recorded conversations that Nixon thought were
exclusively his,” Woodward said. Woodward as a younger reporter
helped break the Watergate scandal that eventually led to
President Richard Nixon’s resignation. He noted the tapes Nixon
kept documenting conversations in the Oval Office were
eventually turned over.
FBI Evidence Proves Innocence of Accused Boston Marathon Bomber
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
Paul Craig Roberts - I have been contacted by attorney John
Remington Graham, a member in good standing of the bar of the
Minnesota Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court. He
informs me that acting in behalf of Maret Tsanaeva, the aunt of
the accused Tsamaev brothers and a citizen of the Kyrgyz
Republic where she is qualified to practice law, he has assisted
her in filing with the US District Court in Boston a pro se
motion, including an argument of amicus curiae, and an affidavit
of Maret Tsarnaeva. The presiding judge has ordered that these
documents be included in the formal record of the case so they
will be publicly accessible. The documents are reproduced below.
This is What Americans Want from Police: Dramatic Video Shows
Hero Cop Save Trucker’s Life
The Free Thought Project - In April, truck driver John Depue had
a medical emergency while he was driving his semi through Miami
County. His distress caused him to run off the road, sending his
18-wheeler careening off of an embankment. Trooper Eric Devers
of the Piqua Post was the first person on the scene, who arrived
approximately 12 minutes before paramedics. When Devers found
Depue, he was losing consciousness, and his eyes were rolling
back into his head. He was barely breathing. The sound from the
officer’s mic picked up the event that happened next and paints
a heroic picture. Depue stopped breathing, and Devers began to
perform CPR. You can hear the officer pleading with the driver
to “keep breathing” and telling Depue “don’t die on me!”
Virginia Finally Drops America's 'Worst Voting Machines'
WIRED - If you voted in a Virginia election any time between
2003 and April of this year, your vote was at serious risk of
being compromised by hackers. That’s the assessment reached by
Virginia’s board of elections, which recently decertified some
3,000 WINVote touchscreen voting machines after learning about
security problems with the systems, including a poorly secured
Wi-Fi feature for tallying votes. The problems with the machines
are so severe that Jeremy Epstein, a computer scientist with SRI
International who tried for years to get them banned, called
them the worst voting machines in the country. If the WINVote
systems weren’t hacked in a past election, he noted in a recent
blog post and during a presentation last week at the USENIX
security conference, “it was only because no one tried.”
Chris Christie Said To Be “Seriously Considering” Dropping Out
Of Race By End Of August…
DCWhispers - Though Rick Perry’s lack of campaign dollars
received the most attention this week, whispers are now
circulating of a possible second GOP candidate giving serious
consideration to dropping out of the race by the end of this
month – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Christie is facing
the very real possibility of not qualifying with the other ten
first-tier candidates in what will be the second Republican
presidential debate scheduled for September. His performance at
the first debate last week was most notable for the heated back
and forth between himself and Senator Rand Paul regarding
government surveillance and the need to abide by the confines of
the 4th Amendment.
Economic Crisis: Soros-Linked Billionaire Buys Up Gold
Kit Daniels - A billionaire hedge fund manager linked to George
Soros bought up gold shares after multiple financial experts
warned a stock market crash is coming. Stanley Druckenmiller,
who runs Duquesne Capital after previously working for Soros,
now owns 2.88 million shares of SPDR Gold Trust, making it his
largest single holding and long position. That means if the
price of gold goes up, Druckenmiller profits tremendously.
“Druckenmiller’s [SPDR Gold Trust] stake had a value of $300.3
million at the end of the quarter based on the June 30 closing
share price of $104.27,” Business Insider reported.
“Druckenmiller has previously said that when he sees something
that really excites him he will ‘bet the ranch on it.'”
US Steel Permanently Closing Alabama Plant
Kelly Poe - The US Steel blast furnace in a Birmingham suburb
won’t just be idled – it’ll be shut down permanently on or after
Nov. 17, the Pittsburgh company announced Monday. It’s been a
turbulent year for the steelmaker which has sent potential
layoffs for more than 4,000 of its workers, including about
1,800in Fairfield, where the company has operated a blast
furnace and flat-rolled finishing operations. Today about 2,000
people work at the US Steel operations in Fairfield, about 1,300
of which work at Fairfield Works. About 1,100 people will lose
their jobs as a result of the closure, a US Steel spokeswoman
told AL.com.
EPA Chief McCarthy Faces “Criminal Liability” For “False,
Misleading Statements”
The New American - The EPA’s toxic mega-spill of millions of
gallons of heavy metal-laden wastewater into Colorado’s Animas
River is not EPA Chief Gina McCarthy’s (shown) only problem; a
congressional committee has sent her a letter posing the
possibility of charging her with “criminal liability” for making
“false and misleading” statements during her testimony at a
committee hearing on July 9. A key issue of the hearing, which
was entitled “Examining EPA’s Regulatory Overreach,” was the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s use of “secret science”
to further its ever-expansive, intrusive, oppressive, and
enormously expensive regulatory agenda. EPA critics have been
charging for some time that the agency has been basing many of
its most outrageous claims and grabs for power upon supposed
“scientific studies” and data that are not available for public
examination, or even for members of Congress to evaluate.
New Research Proves Coal Fly Ash Is The Source Material for
"Chemtrails"
Green Med Info - The new study published in the International
Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health titled,
"Evidence of Coal-Fly-Ash Toxic Chemical Geoengineering in the
Troposphere: Consequences for Public Health," offers a
convincing explanation for what is behind the so-called "chemtrail"
phenomenon, revealing that the source material used to create
artificial weather visible throughout the world is the extremely
toxic waste material from the electric industry known as coal
fly ash.... Coal fly ash is a fine particle residue generated by
coal combustion and is an extremely toxic material for the
primary 3 reasons:...
IRS hackers hit 334,000 accounts, almost 3 times worse than
first reported
RT - Hackers who breached the networks of the Internal Revenue
Service may have stolen data from as many as 334,000 taxpayer
accounts, the agency announced on Monday – nearly three times
more than originally believed. When the hack was first reported
by the IRS in May, the agency said that hackers were able to
gain access to taxpayer information from roughly 114,000
accounts via the “Get Transcript” service. On Monday, the IRS
said a new analysis of 23 million service requests revealed the
number is actually far higher.... Additionally, the IRS stated
that hackers tried to gain access to an additional 170,000
taxpayer accounts but were unsuccessful. That, in addition to
the 111,000 failed attempts announced in May, brings the total
number of unsuccessful attempts up to 281,000.
Watch Google's terrifying humanoid robot running through a
forest as firm pledges it will soon be MORE agile than a human
Daily Mail - According to Google owned Boston Dynamics, Atlas is
a 'high mobility, humanoid robot designed to negotiate outdoor,
rough terrain. 'Atlas can walk bipedally leaving the upper limbs
free to lift, carry, and manipulate the environment. 'In
extremely challenging terrain, Atlas is strong and coordinated
enough to climb using hands and feet, to pick its way through
congested spaces.'
My browser visited Weather.com and all I got was this lousy
malware (Updated)
Ars Technica - Millions of people visiting weather.com,
drudgereport.com, wunderground.com, and other popular websites
were exposed to attacks that can surreptitiously hijack their
computers, thanks to maliciously manipulated ads that exploit
vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash and other browsing software,
researchers said…A few hours after Ars published this article,
Malwarebytes updated the blog post to say the campaign had moved
to yet another ad network, which happens to be associated with
AOL. Visitors to eBay were among those who were exposed to the
malicious ads distributed through the newly discovered network.
Malvertising is a particularly pernicious form of attack because
it can infect people who do nothing more than browse to a
mainstream site. Depending on the exploit, it can silently
hijack computers even when visitors don't click on links.
Gardening, Farming & Homesteading |
California To Confiscate 300 Farms By Eminent Domain, For
Unapproved Water Project
GovtSlaves - State contractors have readied plans to acquire as
many as 300 farms in the California delta by eminent domain to
make room for a pair of massive, still-unapproved water tunnels
proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown, according to documents obtained by
opponents of the tunnels. Farmers whose parcels were listed and
mapped in the 160-page property-acquisition plan expressed
dismay at the advanced planning for the project, which would
build 30-mile-long tunnels in the delta formed by the San
Joaquin and Sacramento rivers.... Opponents say the tunnels
would jeopardize delta farming and destroy vital wildlife
habitat.... Under the plan, landowners would have 30 days to
consider and negotiate a one-time state offer, while officials
simultaneously prepare to take the land by forced sale if owners
declined to sell. “Negotiations to continue in parallel with
eminent domain proceedings,” the plan notes. Contractors also
appear to call for minimal public input.
12 Ways to Make Your Food Last Longer
Dr. Mercola - A study by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
found Americans throw away $165 billion worth of food a year,
which amounts to up to $2,200 per household. Many Americans
succumb to grocery store marketing tactics that encourage
impulse buys and larger purchases, yet when they bring such
perishables home find they end up spoiling before being eaten.
The tips below, from TIME, can help you to make your food last
longer so, ultimately, you waste less.
GcMAF, Nagalase and the Immune System
Natural Blaze - This blog will be short and to the point, since
the important information is to be heard in the link that
discusses the researcher’s theory as to why some very prominent
doctors have left the planet recently. Doctors Jeff Bradstreet
and Nicholas Gonzalez apparently were on to the biochemistry of
what was causing autism and many chronic diseases. Their
research apparently had zeroed in on a specific set of proteins
and enzymes that can cause the human immune system to
malfunction.... Apparently, the European company that
manufactured GcMAF had been shut down in July 2015. Also,
another coincidence is that many of the dead doctors were
visited by U.S. government agency officials in the weeks prior
to their deaths.
* Related:
Another Doctor (Osteopath) Found Slain in Her Home
Questionable Big Pharma Company Could Soon Release First ‘Female
Viagra’ Drug
Natural Society - Sprout, founded by a husband-and-wife team,
once ran Slate Pharmaceuticals, which marketed an implantable
testosterone pellet to men with low levels of the hormone.
Sprout is facing harsh criticisms due to Slate’s misleading and
unsupported statements concerning the benefits of testosterone
therapy while downplaying the risks, breaking federal rules.
Last year, the FDA held a meeting to examine the
over-prescribing of testosterone and used Slate’s commercial as
an example of inappropriate marketing. Sprout’s critics are
frustrated with the company’s aggressive push to win the new
drug’s approval. The medication has already been rejected twice
due to a lack of efficacy and because of side effects including
nausea, dizziness, and fainting. Sprout “already has a history
of unethical marketing,” said Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman of
Georgetown University. “If approved, I think this drug will be
widely prescribed, and we would see an epidemic of adverse
effects.
Obama-Appointed Judge Gives Potentially Breakthrough Ruling
Giving Drug Companies the Right to Market Drugs for Uses not
Approved by FDA
AllGov - A federal court has given a drug company preliminary
approval to market a drug for a condition not approved by the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Amarin Pharma’s drug Vascepa
is approved for use in treating extremely high levels—over 500
milligrams per deciliter—of fats known as triglycerides, in the
blood. Amarin also wanted to promote the drug for use in
patients with “persistently high levels,” from 200 to 499, of
triglycerides. The FDA denied approval for that use earlier this
year, concerned that Vascepa wouldn’t help such patients avoid
heart disease or heart attacks. Amarin then went to court,
claiming its First Amendment rights allowed it to give
information to physicians. Physicians have long prescribed drugs
for “off-label” uses, but drug companies have been forbidden to
market their products for those purposes.
Pineapple juice is 500% more effective than cough syrup, study
shows (Recipe)
(NaturalNews) Back in 2010, researchers in India – which has a
strong history of natural healing due to its Ayurvedic
traditions – compared the effects of over-the-counter syrups to
a natural mixture of pineapple juice, salt, pepper and honey on
the coughs of tuberculosis patients. It was found that the
natural mixture was far more effective at soothing down coughs
and throat irritation than the commercial preparation. This
sparked other studies on the subject, and scientists came to the
conclusion that the reason that pineapple juice is so effective
for taming a cough is the presence of bromelain, an enzyme that
has powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties which
allow it to reduce irritation of the throat and thus relieve
even persistent coughing.
Monday
- August 17, 2015 - Today in History:
1790 - The capital city of the U.S. moved to Philadelphia from New York
City.
1807 - Robert Fulton's "North River Steam Boat" (known as the
"Clermont") began heading up New York's Hudson River on its successful
round-trip to Albany.
1815 - Napoleon began serving his exile when he arrived at the island of
St. Helena.
1863 - Federal batteries and ships bombarded Fort Sumter in Charleston,
SC, harbor during the Civil War.
1896 - The Klondike gold rush was set off by George Carmack discovering
gold on Rabbit Creek in Alaska.
1903 - Joseph Pulitzer donated a million dollars to Columbia University.
This started the Pulitzer Prizes in his name.
1939 - The movie "Wizard of Oz" premiered in New York. It had premiered
in Hollywood on August 15.
1943 - The Allied conquest of Sicily was completed as U.S. and British
forces entered Messina.
1961 - The Communist East German government completed the construction
of the Berlin Wall.
1982 - The U.S. Senate approved an immigration bill that granted
permanent resident status to illegal aliens who arrived in the
United States before 1977.
1996 - Ross Perot was announced to be the Reform Party's presidential
candidate. It was the party's first-ever candidate.
1998 - U.S. President Clinton admitted to having an improper
relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern.
2010 - A mistrial was declared on 23 corruption charges against ousted
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. (He was convicted of 17 counts of
corruption in a retrial.)
US to pull Patriot anti-air missiles from Turkey
RT - The US has followed in Germany’s footsteps, announcing that
it will not be renewing its Patriot defense system in Turkey
once it expires in October. The anti-air missile units will be
shipped home for upgrades. The information was released in a
joint statement by Washington and Ankara. “The United States has
informed the Turkish government that the US deployment of
Patriot air and missile defense units in Turkey which expires in
October will not be renewed beyond the end of the current
rotation,” said the message posted on the US Embassy in Turkey’s
website. The statement added that the units will be sent back to
the US to be upgraded. “
Several US wines recalled from Russian market over harmful
chemicals
RT - The Russian agency for health and consumer rights has
banned several batches of US-made wines after tests found they
contained excessive amounts of harmful substances. The tests
showed the wines had phthalate and bifenazate insecticide in
them. The discovery prompted further checks of other US-made
alcohol products. All in all, wines of three American wineries
have been withdrawn from the market: Geyser Peak Winery (dry red
merlot), Crane Lake Cellars (white sweet Crane Lake moscato),
and Delicato Family Vineyards (white semidry Gnarly Head
chardonnay). The tests have established that these three wines
contain phthalate and bifenazate insecticide in quantities
exceeding the maximum permissible dose. The bifenazate pesticide
is used in grape cultivation against plant-feeders.
Brazil street protests demand removal of Dilma Rousseff from
power
The Telegraph - Anti-government protests took place across
Brazil on Sunday as voters repeated calls for the removal of
Dilma Rousseff, the president, from power. Crowds of thousands
marched through streets in at least 13 states and the federal
district Brasília, wearing the green and gold of the Brazilian
flag, with many calling for military intervention to end the
ruling Workers’ Party government… Public dissatisfaction with
the government has swelled since the revelations of a massive
corruption scandal within state-controlled oil company Petrobras,
which has resulted in the arrest of several public officials. Ms
Rousseff, who was chairman of Petrobras at the time of the
multi-billion pound kickback scheme, was then re-elected last
October in a closely fought vote. Meanwhile, the economy has
struggled and positive approval of the president has fallen to
just eight per cent.
Japanese volcano alert issued just miles from newly reopened
nuclear reactor
The Independent - Officials have raised their alert to its
second highest level after it detected a spike in seismic
activity in a volcano on Saturday near the offshore volcano
Sakurajima, Agency France Presse reported. They have warned an
evacuation of the city of just over 600,000 people may be
necessary… It comes as a nuclear reactor 50 kilometres (31
miles) away was switched back on for the very first time on
Tuesday after it was closed in the wake of the Fukushima
disaster in 2011. Critics had warned that the reopening of the
Sendai plant, the first in Japan’s renewed nuclear programme,
was premature and Japan’s nuclear reactors are still vulnerable
to natural disaster.
China Sends In Chemical Warfare Troops, Orders Tianjin Blast
Site Evacuation After Toxic Sodium Cyanide Found
Zero Hedge - Initially the government did everything in its
power to cover up the spread of deadly contaminants. As we
reported yesterday, People’s Daily openly lied to the local
population: “Authorities tasked with marine monitoring announced
there were no hazardous chemicals detected in waters off the
blast site in north China's port city Tianjin on Friday. A
statement from the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said major
measurement of seawater composition did not show any anomaly
compared with historical records… Which is why we were not
surprised to learn that Chinese authorities ordered the
evacuation of residents within a 3km radius of the Tianjin blast
site “over fears of chemical contamination” according to BBC.
Replace fears with reality: the evacuation came as police
confirmed the highly toxic chemical sodium cyanide was found
near the site… According to a tweet by The People's Daily,
anti-chemical warfare troops have entered the site to handle
highly toxic sodium cyanide which had been found there.
* Related:
Tianjin explosions: sodium cyanide on site may have been 70
times allowed amount
Sydney fishermen film the moment they remove fishing line and
plastic from a whale's head after it 'came up to them for help'
The Independent - A group of fishermen have captured
extraordinary footage of the moment they helped free a whale
from entangled rubbish after it seemed to seek out their help.
Michael Riggio, 17, and Ivan Iskenderian told the local Manly
Daily newspaper they were sailing home from a fishing trip when
they noticed the animal, thought to be a southern right whale,
near Sydney, Australia… “He had a big scar on his back, and some
fishing line and two plastic bags on his head,” Mr Kovacs said.
“He [kept] popping his head up so you could reach out and remove
the garbage. He tried on my boat bit [it was] a bit harder as we
are a bit higher – I made one grab for the bag but missed. “He
later came up to a trailer boat and presented his head as they
removed the bag and [then] the fishing line. It was as if he
wanted them to take it off.”
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
Number of Hillary Clinton's emails flagged for classified data
grows to 60 as review continues
Washington Times - While media coverage has focused on a
half-dozen of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s personal emails
containing sensitive intelligence, the total number of her
private emails identified by an ongoing State Department review
as having contained classified data has ballooned to 60,
officials told The Washington Times. That figure is current
through the end of July and is likely to grow as officials wade
through a total of 30,000 work-related emails that passed
through her personal email server, officials said. The process
is expected to take months… State officials and the intelligence
community are working to resolve questions about those and other
emails with possible classified information, a process that
isn’t likely to be completed until January.
Pentagon Trained "Rebel" Group in Syria Pledges
Allegiance to ISIS-aligned Al-Nusra
Kurt Nimmo - Division 30, also known as the New Syrian Forces,
was created by the United States as part of a propaganda
campaign to counter the fact virtually all of the mercenaries in
Syria have gone over to the Islamic State… In early July
two-thirds of the Division 30 mercenaries, including the group’s
commander Nadim al-Hassan, were captured in Syria north of
Aleppo by Jabhat al-Nusra fighters… Late Saturday it was
reported seven members of Division 30 were released by al-Nusra
and it was hoped Nadim al-Hassan would be released soon. The
Division 30 statement described al-Nusra as “brothers” and went
on to declare the Pentagon trained group is on the “same page
with all holy warriors in Syria.” Division 30 represented the
last “vetted” non-jihadi mercenary group fighting to overthrow
al-Assad in Syria. In November the Syrian Revolutionary Front
handed over bases and weapons to Jabhat al-Nusra in the Idlib
province.
US Military Uses IMF and World Bank to Launder 85% of Its Black
Budget
Anti-Media - Though transparency was a cause he championed when
campaigning for the presidency, President Obama has largely
avoided making certain defense costs known to the public.
However, when it comes to military appropriations for government
spy agencies, we know from Freedom of Information Act requests
that the so-called “black budget” is an increasingly massive
expenditure subsidized by American taxpayers. The CIA and and
NSA alone garnered $52.6 billion in funding in 2013 while the
Department of Defense black ops budget for secret military
projects exceeds this number. It is estimated to be $58.7
billion for the fiscal year 2015.
Sen. Brown blocks Obama nominee for deputy US trade
representative over administration's refusal to grant his staff
access to key TPP documents
Huffington Post - Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is blocking an
Obama nominee for deputy U.S. trade representative over the
administration's refusal to grant his staff access to key trade
documents, reigniting an intraparty battle over the
Trans-Pacific Partnership. Brown, Sen. Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.) and many other Democratic critics have long maligned
the intense secrecy provisions that the administration imposes
on negotiation drafts of the controversial trade pact with 11
other Pacific nations. The administration treats the text as
classified information, making it a crime for lawmakers to
publicly air specific complaints about the deal. Throughout the
TPP talks, the administration has continued to impose barriers
that have prevented Brown's top trade staffer from reviewing
negotiation documents unless Brown himself is physically present
in the room with her. Brown has said such standards are stricter
than the government's information controls for some Iran
sanctions work and CIA briefings.
Oath Keepers to Hold March Through #Ferguson With 50 Armed Black
Protesters
Free Thought Project - Missouri chapter of the Oath Keepers are
planning to hold an open carry march through downtown Ferguson,
Mo., which will reportedly involve arming 50 black protestors
with AR-15 rifles. The decision to hold the event transpired
after St. Louis County officials, in violation of Missouri’s
open carry law, insisted that members of the group could not
open carry long barrel rifles within the city. In a video
uploaded to YouTube, police chief Jon Belmar is seen warning a
number of Oath Keepers that open carrying long barrel rifles
would be a violation of the law.
Acoustic Cannon Sales to Police Surge After Black Lives Matter
Protests
The Intercept - LRAD manufactures an acoustic cannon that can be
used either as a mounted loudspeaker or as a weapon to fire
deafening noises at crowds of people. Over the last year,
following a wave of protests over officer-involved killings of
black Americans, LRAD has seen an uptick in inquiries from
police departments around the country. Brown told financial
analysts in a May conference call about the “renewed interest”
from police departments. “A lot of grant money starts to flow to
law enforcement, and we’re getting a lot of inquiries” following
protests, he said… Local law enforcement agencies have been
courted by a range of companies hoping to sell next-generation
crowd control and surveillance technology. In September 2014,
just after the protests in Ferguson, the Military Policy Expo, a
convention for companies supplying law enforcement, hosted an
event in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, for vendors to “showcase
their products.”
Parents May Face Jail Over Owning a Child’s Swing Set
Anti-Media - The claim against the family swing set is that it
infringed on HOA guidelines, which specifically state that play
equipment must be “subdued and within harmony with other colors
of the community.” Let’s note, for the record, that the
definition of “harmony” is suspiciously missing from the HOA’s
guidelines. Marla Stout, speaking for her family, said the
dispute originally began over the color of the swing set, which
was red. That color was deemed not in “harmony” by the HOA, and
the Stout family was fined. They fought the HOA on that charge
and the decision was reversed. To compromise, the family changed
the color to purple, which also failed to appease the HOA. It
went on to threaten further legal action.
Ben Carson Wants Forced Vaccines
The EdgyTruth - Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson is making waves
yet again, this time because he announced his pro-mandatory
stance on vaccines. Carson, who is [horrifyingly] second in the
GOP polls behind Donald Trump, also wants schools to be set up
to enforce the provisions.... This would men no religious or
philosophical exemptions. This could also mean proposing
stricter checkpoints at schools nationwide if Carson was to be
elected. . His perspective on the matter runs in contrary to his
GOP opponent, Rand Paul, who has said he does not believe
vaccinations should be mandatory, although he himself receives
vaccines.
Paul heads to Haiti for pro bono medical work
The Hill - Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is getting off the campaign
trail briefly for a medical aid mission in the Caribbean. The
presidential candidate is visiting Haiti this weekend and
performing pro bono eye surgeries, according to The Washington
Post. “We kind of suggested it,” he said of the trip’s genesis.
“There was talk about Haiti being in great need, and it’s fairly
close to the United States. Haiti, unfortunately, is famous for
a long history of problems.” The University of Utah’s Moran Eye
Center is conducting and sponsoring the philanthropic journey,
according to the report. Paul previously partnered with that
organization for a similar visit to Guatemala in 2014.
Jeff Sessions: Donald Trump’s Immigration Policy Is ‘Exactly the
Plan America Needs’
Breitbart - Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) , the intellectual leader
of the conservative movement and chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Immigration and the
National Interest, issued a statement on Sunday afternoon
praising 2016 Republican frontrunner Donald Trump’s immigration
policy plan for America. ... “For too long, ‘immigration reform’
plans in Washington have served the special interests at the
expense of working Americans. By contrast, this plan puts the
needs of working Americans foremost, and develops an effective
strategy for improving their wages and job prospects.
“Crucially, this plan includes an emphasis on lifting struggling
minority communities, including our immigrant communities, out
of poverty — by preventing corporations from bringing in new
workers from overseas to replace them and drive down wages.
Al Gore said to be looking at another run for president
MarketWatch - Yes, Al Gore is reportedly talking about a
possible run for president in 2016. Gore, of course, won the
popular vote 15 years ago but veered off in different
directions, environmental and otherwise, after conceding the
White House to George W. Bush. Having racked up an Oscar and a
Nobel peace prize in 2007, Gore has been notably absent from the
public eye in recent years. But that could change in a hurry.
According to BuzzFeed, a senior Democrat said, “They’re getting
the old gang together.” That team is said to be working on
“figuring out if there’s a path financially and politically.”
Lightning Strikes 44 Soldiers and Instructors at Army Ranger
School
Matthew Cox - Forty students and four Ranger instructors in the
swamp phase of Ranger School were struck by lightning Wednesday
afternoon. All 44 were evacuated to a local hospital, but many
were discharged, according to a press release from Fort Benning,
Georgia, home of the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade.
Eleven soldiers remained hospitalized Thursday evening,
according to a news report. “At the time of the incident, they
were conducting lightning-protection protocols when lightning
struck nearby,” the release states. This is the same class that
includes two female candidates who are participating in the
third and final phase of Ranger School at Camp Rudder at Eglin
Air Force Base, Florida. All of the lightning-strike victims
were males. The group was in day seven of the 10-day training
cycle during the so-called “swamp phase.”
Ford announces new U.S production day after Trump blasts its
$2.5 Mexican plant
Fox News - A day after GOP Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump slammed Ford Motor Company for its plan to invest
$2.5 billion in plants in Mexico, Ford announced that it is
actually moving production out of Mexico to a plant outside of
Cleveland. While Trump's comments and Ford's announcement appear
to have no connection, the move to build the medium-duty F-650
and F-750 commercial trucks at a plant in Avon Lake, Ohio is the
first time that the Detroit-based company has returned its
auto-manufacturing operation back to American soil from a
foreign country. The shift back to the 41-year-old Ohio plant
means that about 1,000 workers represented by the United Auto
Workers union will keep their jobs, Jimmy Settles, United Auto
Workers vice president, said in a statement released by Reuters.
Share of Income Used to Pay Rent Reaches
Highest on Record
AllGov - Rents have risen steadily since the housing crisis, so much so
that the share of income people spent on rent reached 30.2% during the
second quarter this year. That rate is the highest recorded by real
estate company Zillow, which has been tracking such data since 1979. The
percentage was 29.5% during the second quarter of 2014. The median rent
nationwide also is up from last year, by 4.3%. From the mid-1980s to
1999, the rate was about 24.4%... “Looking forward, the picture doesn’t
look bright for renters,” Zillow’s Svenja Gudell wrote. “Rents will
likely keep rising at roughly their current pace for at least the next
few years, which will lead to a continued affordability crunch unless
wage growth significantly improves.”
Forest Service Official Who Let Nestle Drain California Water
Now Works for Them
Anti Media - San Bernardino National Forest — An ongoing
investigation by The Desert Sun into Nestle’s contentious
bottled water operations in drought-stricken California first
disclosed that the company’s permit to draw water had a rather
astonishing expiration date that occurred over a quarter century
ago, in 1988. Recently, the Sun reported an update in the
investigation with a jaw-dropping twist: the Forest Service —
not Nestle — is the agency primarily responsible for failing to
renew Nestle’s permit. In fact, judging by the government
agency’s complete inability to even review Nestle’s long-expired
permit — not to mention the lucrative job a retired Forest
Service supervisor currently enjoys — there is an arguable case
that collusion and corruption are at the heart of the entire
issue.
Chinese Air Pollution "Exported" to U.S. Cancels Progress Made
in American Emissions
AllGov - A new study by U.S. and Dutch researchers says
pollutants from Chinese factories and cars have been blowing
across the Pacific Ocean. The volume of ozone-causing chemicals
is so great that it essentially erased the progress U.S. states
made with their own reductions from automobiles and industrial
production. Lead researcher Willem Verstraeten of the Royal
Netherlands Meteorological Institute said “the dominant westerly
winds blew this air pollution straight across to the United
States,” according to Phys.org. “In a manner of speaking, China
is exporting its air pollution to the West Coast of America,” he
said… This research revealed that China expanded its ozone
levels by about 7% from 2005 to 2010, and that this pollution
was enough to counter the 20% reductions in the U.S. during the
same period.
Exposed: Big Brother's 'Unique and Productive' Relationship
with AT&T
RINF - Newly disclosed National Security Agency documents show
that the U.S. government’s relationship with telecom giant AT&T
has been considered “unique and especially productive,”
according to a joint investigation by the New York Times and
ProPublica published Saturday… AT&T has given the NSA access,
“through several methods covered under different legal rules,”
to billions of emails, metadata records, and cellphone call
records as they have flowed across its domestic networks,
according to the reporting. “The NSA’s top-secret budget in 2013
for the AT&T partnership was more than twice that of the
next-largest such program, according to the documents,” the
investigation revealed. “The company installed surveillance
equipment in at least 17 of its Internet hubs on American soil,
far more than its similarly sized competitor, Verizon. And its
engineers were the first to try out new surveillance
technologies invented by the eavesdropping agency.”
Did You Know That The U.S. No Longer Has Any Strategic Grain
Reserves At All?
Economic Collapse - Once upon a time, it was popular to say that
the U.S. government only had enough wheat stored up to provide
everyone in America with half a loaf of bread. But that is not
true anymore. Recently, I discovered that the U.S. does not have
any strategic grain reserves left at all. Zero. Nada. Zilch. As
you will see below, the USDA liquidated the remaining reserves
back in 2008. So if a major food crisis hit this country, our
government would have nothing to give us. Of course the federal
government could always go out and try to buy or seize food to
feed the population during a major emergency, but that wouldn’t
actually increase the total amount of food that was available.
Instead, it would just give the government more power over who
gets it.
Eat Half a Teaspoon of Turmeric and These 10 Things Will Happen
to Your Body
Healthy Food House - Read the 10 ways the body will
benefit from your use of Turmeric in foods you eat regularly.
Scientists Develop ‘GMO Painkillers’ Using Rat DNA, Yeast
Natural Society - Are you in enough pain to swallow this pill?
Stanford scientists have developed a new way of creating
painkiller components like hydrocodone by injecting 23 different
engineered genes from plants, bacteria, and rats into yeast....
As the New York Times reports: “Smolke’s yeast — which contains
23 engineered genes from plants, bacteria and rats — is capable
of making a direct conversion from sugar to hydrocodone, as well
as from sugar to thebaine, a precursor of opioid compounds that
would essentially take the place of poppies in the production of
pain medication, but would still requite refinement. But it
doesn’t make much of it.”
FDA Approves Opiate Painkillers For Children
Natural Blaze - Yesterday [8/13/15], the Food and Drug
Administration approved a powerful and addictive painkiller
OxyContin for use in children ages 11 to 16 enduring sever and
long-term pain. Purdue Pharmaceuticals notes that it
reformulated its OxyContin in 2010 to hedge problems with
addiction, overdose and death. Slower release was also a part of
the reformulation. Sudden doses of opioids can cause overdose
and death especially without previous exposure. Deaths from
painkillers have been a controversial topic in recent years. So
much so that states that have legalized medical cannabis have
seen a 25% drop in painkiller death rates.
Splenda Contaminates 65% of Breastmilk Sampled, Gov. Study Finds
Green Med Info - An article soon to be published in the Journal
of Toxicology and Environmental Health on the presence of
synthetic sweeteners in breast milk is bound to upset the apple
cart when it comes to assessing the toxicological risk of these
chemicals to breastfed infants.... Even more concerning, when
Splenda is heated at temperatures that occur in baking
applications it produces dioxin, one of the most deadly
chemicals known to man.
No Added Sugar, No Grains, Easy and Amazing Paleo Banana Bread
Natural Blaze - We all like a dessert, but we all don’t have the
pleasure of eating it. Whether it be a food allergy or a weight
problem fear no more, this banana bread will have you drooling.
Most people love banana bread; it is a food staple in the homes
of many, but some people simply cannot eat it. This bread is
sugar-free, grain-free, and easy to make. It is wonderful
toasted for breakfast, or simply as a delicious dessert. This is
something you will feel good about giving to your family. All
you need is a few ingredients, so grab them and let’s get to it!
Just a Few Weeks of Love Can Transform These Pets Completely
Dr. Becker - Owners of rescue pets belong to a special club. They know
what it means to be a homeless animal’s hero. People who welcome a
shelter pet into their lives often feel that their pet rescued them
instead of the other way around. Rescue pets are typically thriving
after several weeks or months in their new homes, leaving the stress of
shelter life behind.
VIDEO: Surviving Work with Your Cat
They walk on your printer, they walk on your keyboard, they drop your
mouse, and they steal your pen, but bringing your cat into your work
environment offers delightful perks.
Friday
- August 14, 2015 - Today in History:
1805 - A peace treaty between the U.S. and Tunis was signed on board the
USS Constitution.
1848 - The Oregon Territory was established.
1896 - Gold was discovered in Canada's Yukon Territory. Within the next
year more than 30,000 people rushed to the area to look for gold.
1917 - China declared war on Germany and Austria during World War I.
1935 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act
into law. The act created unemployment insurance and pension plans for
the elderly.
1941 - The U.S. Congress appropriated approximately $83 million to
construct the Pentagon. The building was the new home of the U.S. War
Department.
1941 - U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter. The charter was a statement of
principles that renounced aggression.
1945 - It was announced by U.S. President Truman that Japan had
surrendered unconditionally. The surrender ended World War II.
1962 - A U.S. mail truck was held up in Plymouth, MA. The robbers got
away with more that $1.5 million dollars.
1969 - British troops arrived in Northern Ireland to intervene in
sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics.
1973 - The U.S. bombing of Cambodia ended. The halt marked the official
end to 12 years of combat in Indochina by the U.S.
1980 - People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was incorporated.
1992 - The U.S. announced that emergency airlifts of food to Somalia
would begin. The action was being taken to stop mass deaths due to
starvation.
1998 - A U.S. federal appeals court in Richmond, VA, ruled that the Food
and Drug Administration had no authority to regulate tobacco. The FDA
had established rules to make it harder for minors to buy cigarettes.
2003 - A blackout hit the northeastern United States and part of Canada;
50 million people lost power.
2006 - Israel halted its offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas as a
U.N.-imposed cease-fire went into effect after a month of warfare that
killed more than 900 people.
2009 - Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a Charles Manson follower who tried to
assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975, was released from a Texas
prison hospital after more than three decades behind bars.
Greek Parliament Approves Third Bailout As Tsipras Support
Tumbles, Snap Elections Imminent
Zero Hedge - Moments ago the Greek parliament, … gave its
approval for the third Greek bailout when Tsipras secured votes
of more than 151 lawmakers in country’s 300-seat parliament. As
on previous cases, the vote passed with substantial opposition
support… The measures to be passed immediately include diesel
fuel tax for farmers going from 66 euros per 1,000 liters to 200
euros/1,000 liters from October 1, 2015, and to 330 euros by
October 1, 2016. Farmers’ income tax to be paid in advance will
rise from 27.5 percent to 55 percent. Income tax for farmers is
set to rise from 13 to 20 percent for 2016 and to 26 percent for
2017. Freelancers will be subject to a gradual increase from 55
to 75 percent in advanced tax payments for income earned in
2015, increasing to 100 percent in 2016. The 2 percent tax break
for single payments on income tax is also being abolished from
January 1, 2015. Private education, previously untaxed, will be
taxed at 23 percent…
China explosions: death toll rises to 50 as troops dispatched
The Guardian - Elite military units trained to deal with
chemical, nuclear and biological disasters have been dispatched
to the site of a deadly explosion in northern China, where fires
still smouldered in a landscape of destruction more than a day
after the original devastating blasts. At least 50 deaths have
been confirmed and 701 people admitted to hospital with injuries
-- 71 of those said to be "severe" -- after a fire at warehouse
containing "dangerous chemicals" sparked a series of blasts on
Wednesday night. Four vehicles carrying more than 200 soldiers
trained to deal with nuclear, biological and chemical
catastrophes were dispatched to Tianjin, which is around 100
miles from Beijing.
Earthquakes Hit Japan, One Near Fukushima Reactors
Sputnik News - A 5.0-magnitude earthquake struck the Fukushima
prefecture located on the Honshu Island in central Japan, early
in the morning. Later, a 5.1-magnitude earthquake struck the
east of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, its epicenter
located at a depth of about 49 miles. No information about
damage or casualties was immediately available. A tsunami is not
predicted.
‘We don’t want to be a mere buffer zone’: New polish president
calls for more NATO troops
RT - Andrzej Duda, new Polish president, has called on the NATO
countries to deploy more troops as well as create new permanent
military bases in his country and other Central Europe saying
Poland does not want to be a “buffer zone.” Duda, elected in
May, criticized the alliance for not effectively adjusting
itself to the recent Russia’s “imperialist actions” in Georgia
and Ukraine as well as for treating his country as a “buffer
zone” rather than an equal NATO member. He also urged the
Atlantic bloc to strengthen its forces and increase its military
presence in the Central Europe, particularly, by placing
additional permanent bases in Poland. That, in his view, should
symbolize recognizing Poland as a full-fledged NATO member.
Finnish Politician Suggests Tracker Implants for Welfare
Recipients
Sputnik News - A politician from Finland’s conservative Finns
Party suggested implanting welfare recipients with
satellite-tracking chips following news that some recipients
continued receiving payments after leaving the country to join
ISIL. A member of Finland’s right-wing Finns Party, Pasi
Maenranta, has suggested implanting all recipients of government
assistance with satellite-tracked chips if they choose to leave
the country. Maenranta made the proposal after Finnish media
revealed that some recipients of government assistance continued
to receive payments after leaving the country to join ISIL in
Syria and Iraq. Maenranta does not believe that the idea raises
privacy concerns because of existing tracking technology in
services such as Facebook.
Russia Sanctions Triggered Worst EU Dairy Crisis in 30 Years
Russia Insider - European farmers take it on the chin for Uncle
Sam. European dairy farmers are facing their most serious
economic crisis in decades, largely as a result of the ongoing
sanctions war between EU member countries and Russia. In a
recent report on the subject, Radio Sweden explained that the
ongoing Russian embargo of European agricultural products is
expected to lead to a new wave of lowering milk prices in the
near future. The broadcaster noted that “the current crisis is
[already] regarded as one of the most serious in the last 40
years,”... The Association of Swedish Farmers is convinced that
if the situation is not dealt with in the next six months, many
of Sweden’s 4,200 private dairy farmers may simply begin go
bankrupt, with 4 out of 5 already suffering serious economic
difficulties.
India sues Nestle for nearly $100m over food safety
Al Jazeera - India's government is seeking damages of nearly
$100m from Nestle India for "unfair trade practices" after the
food safety regulator banned its hugely popular Maggi noodles
brand in June for containing unsafe levels of lead. The
government said on Wednesday that it has filed a suit with the
country's top consumer court, National Consumer Disputes
Redressal Commission (NCDRC), for 6,400 million rupees ($98.6m)
in damages from the Indian arm of the Swiss food giant.... In
April, laboratory tests ordered by some state governments found
the noodles contained far higher levels of lead than legally
allowed. The tests also detected the flavour enhancer chemical
monosodium glutamate, or MSG, which is not mentioned in the
product's list of ingredients.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
Tech company which maintained Hillary's secret server was sued
for 'illegally accessing' database and 'stealing White House
military advisers' phone numbers'
Daily Mail - The Internet company used by Hillary Clinton to
maintain her private server was sued for stealing dozens of
phone lines including some which were used by the White House.
It also seized 390 lines in a move that created chaos across the
US government. Among the phone numbers which the company took -
which all suddenly stopped working - were lines for White House
military support desks, the Department of Defense and the
Department of Energy, a lawsuit claims. Others were the main
numbers for major financial institutions, hospitals and the help
desk number for T2 Communications, the telecom firm which owned
them. A lawsuit filed on behalf of T2 claims that the mess took
11 days to fix and demands that Platte River pay up $360,000 in
compensation.
Hillary finally hands over her server—after it's been
professionally wiped clean
The Observer - After years of holding herself above the law,
telling lie after lie, and months of flat-out obstruction,
HIllary Clinton has finally produced to the FBI her server and
three thumb drives. Apparently, the server has been
professionally wiped clean of any useable information, and the
thumb drives contain only what she selectively culled. Myriad
criminal offenses apply to this conduct.
Special Ops Soldiers Use Rental Trucks to Infiltrate & Occupy
California Town
Paul Joseph Watson - U.S. Special Ops soldiers infiltrated and
occupied a town in California using hay trucks and rental
trucks, an admission that is sure to stoke concern amongst those
wary of Jade Helm, an U.S. Army exercise that began last month
amidst a whirlwind of controversy. The revelation is contained
within an article by the Desert Dispatch’s Mike Lamb about U.S.
Army exercises taking place throughout the High Desert area near
Barstow, CA which began last month.
Hillary Clinton Requested Book With Tips On ‘How to Delete
Something So It Stays Deleted’
Breitbart - According to ABC News, the latest dump of Hillary
Clinton’s emails released by the State Department reveals that
the Democrat presidential frontrunner asked to borrow a book
that contained tips on how to permanently delete your emails:
The last batch of Hillary Clinton emails released by the State
Department included one from Clinton asking to borrow a book
called “Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It
Better,” by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe. Take, for example,
Chapter Six: “The Email That Can Land You In Jail.” The chapter
includes a section entitled “How to Delete Something So It Stays
Deleted.
White House warns states: Keep funding Planned Parenthood
RT - After secret videos showing sales of body parts from
aborted babies provoked calls to defund the birth control clinic
chain, federal officials warned the states that cutting off
Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood might violate federal
laws. The federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
told state officials in Louisiana and Alabama that their plans
to cancel Medicaid provider agreements may illegally restrict
beneficiary access to services. Federal laws require state
Medicaid programs to cover family planning services and supplies
for anyone of child-bearing age, according to a HHS
spokesperson, who added that ending current arrangements with
Planned Parenthood would limit beneficiaries’ access to care and
services from providers of their choice.
Armed militias celebrate victory in Montana mine stand-off with
federal govt
RT - The Oath Keepers and other militia groups are celebrating a
victory after a conflict over surface rights for a mine in
Montana was taken to court. The militias were brought in to
protect mine owners from federal interference. "We will continue
to remain vigilant and on site and make sure what we achieved
yesterday is upheld," spokesman for the militias Chris McIntire
told AP on Wednesday... The White Hope mine is located under the
Helena National Forest near the town of Lincoln. The right for
surface rights over the mine claim is contested between owners
George Kornec and Phil Nappo and the Forestry Service.
Picture Perfect for Further Divide: Ferguson Revenge Shooter
“Posed Holding Guns, Bragged About Being a Gangster”
Mac Slavo - With the right packaging, he is picture perfect to
forward an agenda, as other shooters favored by the media have
been. Check out how Tyrone Harris is portrayed in the Daily Mail
and beyond: Armed teenager shot by police in Ferguson on
anniversary of Michael Brown’s death called himself ‘Glocks’,
posed with guns and boasted of being a gangster. Social media
images posted by Tyrone Harris, 18, who was shot by police when
he waved a handgun and opened fire in Ferguson, MO show he
bragged about being a member of ‘pistol gang’.
‘I Want My Church Back!': Irate Man Interrupts Catholic Climate
Change Confab
Paul Joseph Watson - An irate man interrupted a Catholic meeting
about global warming in California this past weekend to accuse
the church of selling its soul – another indication of how many
Catholics feel uneasy about Pope Francis parroting rhetoric
about global government and climate change. The event, organized
by Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, featured a number of
speakers, from relief workers to scientists, who parroted the
official view that man is causing global warming and that
anthropogenic climate change represents an environmental crisis.
School Officials Used Young Girl as “Bait” in Rape Sting, She
Was Raped and they Covered it Up
Free Thought Project - In 2010, a 14-year-old Huntsville girl
was approached by school officials who wanted to use her as bait
in a “sting operation.” The plan was to use the young girl to
catch a boy in the act who’d been accused of sexually harassing
students.... The plan was for the girl not to do anything and
teachers would burst in and catch the boy with a girl in the
bathroom, but the boy changed bathroom locations. The girl,
known in court records as BHJ, was not found by the incompetent
school officials until after the student raped her. After their
plan had failed, school officials attempted to sweep the
incident under the rug. The boy never went to jail. Instead, he
was placed in an alternative school, and his records shredded.
Police barge into man’s apartment with guns drawn because they
thought he might be a squatter
Police State USA - What makes this all-too-common occurrence
more notable is that the man on the receiving end of the raid is
an Iraq War veteran and author, 30-year-old Alex Horton. He is
now a public affairs specialist who writes for the Department of
Veterans Affairs, and has written articles for the New York
Times, the Guardian, the Atlantic, and more. “My situation was
terrifying,” Horton wrote of his experience in a Washington Post
article. “Lying facedown in bed, I knew that any move I made
could be viewed as a threat. Instinct told me to get up and
protect myself. Training told me that if I did, these officers
would shoot me dead.” Mr. Horton admitted to having come home
late the previous evening from a bar and neglected to close his
apartment door fully. The cracked door alarmed neighbors who
called for a police response, which arrived around 9:00 a.m. the
following morning.... Mr. Horton, who ordinarily writes about
veterans’ issues, now wrote that the treatment he received by
local police reminded him of the military operations he used to
be involved in while serving in Iraq. He wrote...
46 million Americans go to food banks, and long lines for
dwindling food supplies begin at 6:30 AM
Economic Collapse - Those that run food banks all over America
say that demand for their services just continues to explode. It
always amazes me that there are still people out there that
insist that an “economic collapse” is not happening. From their
air-conditioned homes in their cushy suburban neighborhoods they
mock the idea that the U.S. economy is crumbling. But if they
would just go down and visit the local food banks in their
areas, they would see how much people are hurting. According to
Feeding America spokesman Ross Fraser, 46 million Americans got
food from a food bank at least one time during 2014. Because the
demand has become so overwhelming, some food banks are cutting
back on the number of days they operate and the amount of food
that is given to each family. As you will see below, many
impoverished Americans are lining up at food banks as early as
6:30 in the morning just so that they can be sure to get
something before the food runs out.
Fifteen U.S. states seek to block EPA carbon rule
Reuters - "This rule is the most far-reaching energy regulation
in the nation's history, and the EPA simply does not have the
legal authority to carry it out," West Virginia Attorney General
Patrick Morrisey said. The Obama administration unveiled the
final version of the Clean Power Plan on Aug. 3. It aims to
lower emissions from the country's power plants by 32 percent
below 2005 levels by 2030.... States, particularly those that
have relied on coal for electricity, have argued the EPA has
overstepped its regulatory authority. "The Clean Air Act was
never intended to be used to create this type of regulatory
regime, and it flies in the face of the powers granted to states
under the U.S. Constitution," said Morrisey. Alabama, Arkansas,
Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan,
Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming
joined West Virginia in requesting the stay.
EPA Contractor Behind CO Mine Spill Got $381 Million From
Taxpayers
Daily Caller - The EPA may have been trying to hide the identity
of the contracting company responsible for causing a major
wastewater spill in southern Colorado, but the Wall Street
Journal has revealed the company’s identity. Environmental
Restoration (ER) LLC, a Missouri-based firm, was the “contractor
whose work caused a mine spill in Colorado that released an
estimated 3 million gallons of toxic sludge into a major river
system,” the WSJ was told by a source familiar with the matter.
The paper also found government documents to corroborate what
their source told them.
Family Burned by Explosion of Well Contaminated by Fracking
AllGov - A Texas family is suing several companies involved in
fracking after their water well exploded, injuring all four of
them. In August 2014, Cody Murray and his father, Jim, went to
inspect the family’s pump house after seeing pressurized water
spraying from it. Upon entering the building and turning on a
switch, a fireball erupted from inside the well. Cody sustained
serious burns on his arms, upper back, neck, forehead and nose
after pulling his father away from the explosion, which caused
serious injuries to Jim, Cody’s wife and his 4-year-old
daughter. Cody says he is unable to work and may never be able
to do so again. Their attorneys say the explosion was caused by
methane gas that leaked into the well from nearby fracking
operations run by the defendants, EOG Resources, Fairway
Resources LLC and three Fairway subsidiaries. Fairway Resources
GP, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Goldman Sachs, according
to Courthouse News Service.
Military Facial Recognition Tech Now In The Hands Of Local
Police
Cop Block - According to a new Washington Post report, facial
recognition software utilized by intelligence agencies and the
military is currently being imported from places like Iraq and
Afghanistan to local United States police departments.
Originally utilized to identify terrorists, the Post reports,
the technology has currently been adopted by dozens of police
departments around the country to track voluntary traders like
drug dealers, prostitutes, and other victimless “criminals.” The
software works to determine the distance between a suspects eyes
or the shape of their lips – and is able to identify over 16,000
distinct points on a face. The technology then compares the
points with thousands of other similar points in booking and
other photos at a rate of more than one million faces per
second.
Gardening, Farming & Homesteading |
How to Make Your own Lacto-Fermented Salsa
Health Impact News - While canning pasteurizes the raw
components of salsa, ridding them of their enzymes and most
beneficial qualities, fermentation actually enhances these
benefits, adding lactic acid bacteria to the mix. It is this
lactic acid bacteria – widely loved for its probiotic potential
– that preserves the salsa. The acidification keeps harmful
bacteria at bay and allows the salsa to be preserved for weeks
or even months in cold storage, if the process is done properly.
Can Wild Oregano Oil Provide Relief From Engineered Diseases?
Green Med Info - Today we are faced with a plethora of "unusual"
emerging illnesses sometimes causing practitioners to scratch
their heads, bewildered. For example, the illness now termed
"winter vomiting disease," has been seen globally. How about
digestive disorders on the rise? Are bacteria or yeasts
proliferating unchecked, creating havoc with our inner worlds?
Its very possible, though the precise cause not clear yet. We
are also dealing with new toxic consequences from engineered
food (GM), as well as unknown bacteria in soils and water,
intentionally modified viruses, etc ... There is a new name for
these vague new diseases, sometimes referred to as GMO-D's,
(genetically modified organism-disease) - no wonder we are
getting odd new ailments! Some practitioners are using the
benefits of Wild Oregano Oil for relief from assaults.
4 Natural (Legal) Herbs for Pain Relief You Don’t Know About
Natural Society - Ever heard of opium lettuce? How about kratom?
These are just a few of the many natural herbs that have been
used over the centuries as pain-killers. Read on to find out how
to use natural herbs for pain to achieve pain relief without
over-the-counter and pharmaceutical drugs.
6 Excellent and Overlooked Sources of Protein
Karen Foster - People always fall back to the same old sources
of high quality proteins including meat, fish and eggs.
Regardless if you are vegetarian or not, there are plenty of
other excellent sources which can be incorporated into your
diet. More people are modifying their choices for protein out of
concern for their health, environment, and economy and the
following are very worthy alternatives over the norm.
FDA Denies Pet Food Consumers Freedom of Information
Susan Thixton - Nineteen months past the deadline federal law required
them to respond, FDA told pet food consumers they are denying our
Freedom of Information Act request (Chinese jerky treat) because
“disclosure could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement
proceedings.” The FDA response alludes to something more might be coming
with the jerky treat investigation; ‘records compiled for law
enforcement purposes could interfere with enforcement proceedings’.
Sounds hopeful doesn’t it? Is this actually hope for thousands of
Chinese jerky treat victims or is it something else?... [In] January
2014 TruthaboutPetFood.com published NY Department of Agriculture
testing results of jerky treats showing the significant differences
between what FDA told the public and the actual test results from NY.
Such as…
Dogs Sent to Prison Get a New Chance at Life
Dr. Becker - Combine at-risk shelter dogs with prison inmates for 12
weeks, 24/7 and what do you get? Dogs that are given a new opportunity
for life and inmates who receive a fresh start as well. The program,
called a New Leash on Life, operates in the Philadelphia Prisons System
and the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution at Graterford, but
hopefully other correctional institutions will adopt similar programs
soon as, to date, the results have been phenomenal. The program enrolls
dogs at greatest risk of being euthanized at animal shelters. During
their stay in prison, specially trained inmates get them ready for the
American Kennel Club’s (AKC) Canine Good Citizen test.
Thursday
- August 13, 2015 - Today in History:
1792 - French revolutionaries took the entire French royal family and
imprisoned them.
1784 - The United States Legislature met for the final time in
Annapolis, MD.
1846 - The American Flag was raised for the first time in Los Angeles,
CA.
1876 - The Reciprocity Treaty between the U.S. and Hawaii was ratified.
1889 - A patent for a coin-operated telephone was issued to William
Gray.
1912 - The first experimental radio license was issued to St. Joseph's
College in Philadelphia, PA.
1931 - The first community hospital in the U.S. was dedicated in Elk
City, OK.
1932 - Adolf Hitler refused to take the post of vice-chancellor of
Germany. He said he was going to hold out "for all or nothing."
1961 - Berlin was divided by a barbed wire fence to halt the flight of
refugees. Two days later work on the Berlin Wall began.
1990 - Iraq transferred $3-4 billion in bullion, currency, and other
goods seized from Kuwait to Baghdad.
1994 - It was reported that aspirin not only helps reduce the risk of
heart disease, but also helps prevent colon cancer.
2004 - The 28th summer Olympic games opened in Athens.
2011 - Seven people were killed when a stage collapsed at the Indiana
State Fair during a powerful storm just before a concert was to begin.
2011 - In Republican presidential politics, Rep. Michele Bachmann won
the Iowa straw poll and Texas Gov. Rick Perry declared his candidacy.
ISIS truck bomb in Baghdad kills more than 70 and injures 200
RT- A powerful truck bomb blast has hit the Shia-dominated Sadr-City
district of the Iraqi capital, killing dozens and injuring more
than 200 people. Islamic State fighters claimed responsibility
for the explosion. There are conflicting reports of the number
of casualties. The Associated Press cited Iraqi officials who
said that at least 54 were dead and 86 wounded, while Agence
France-Presse said that at least 33 people have been killed in
the explosions. Reuters has given the highest numbers of
casualties so far, at 76 dead and 200 injured.
ISIL to Shift Recruitment Focus to Caucasus, Central Asia,
Indonesia
Sputnik News - The Islamic State (ISIL) jihadist group will soon
shift its recruitment focus from the Arab region to the
Caucasus, Central Asia and Indonesia, a report by the Egyptian
flagship body for religious legal research said in a report.
"After the beginning of the ideological and armed war with the
Islamic State by the Arab world… the group is changing its
recruitment strategies and expands from the Middle East, is
looking for new safer regions for attracting new recruits
disguising themselves with religion and slogans for protection
of Islam and Muslims," the Egyptian House of Fatwa said in the
report seen by RIA Novosti.
US planes begin bombing ISIS from bases in Turkey
RT - American bombers have begun operations against Islamic
State militants from the Incirlik airbase in Turkey, the US
military confirmed on Wednesday. Turkish aircraft were not
involved in the missions. Six F-16 strike fighters were deployed
to Incirlik Airbase near Adana in southeastern Turkey earlier
this week. The US forces stationed there have already been
conducting drone operations against Islamic State (IS, also
known as ISIS/ISIL), but Wednesday’s strikes were the first
manned missions staged from Turkey under an arrangement reached
with the government of President Erdogan in July.
ISIS releases ‘hit list of US military personnel’, claims
hacking victory
RT - Islamic State terrorist group has released what it claims
to be a list of US government and military officials, complete
with personal data, obtained through hacking. There are doubts
that the information is as authentic as it is claimed to be. he
data was published on a website and advertised on social media
by the self-proclaimed Islamic State Hacking Division,
supposedly a group of hackers working for the radical Islamist
group. It includes a spreadsheet with names, emails, passwords
and contact information of some 1,500 people. There are also
alleged bank card numbers and screenshots of what appear to be
private Facebook conversations between serving US military
personnel discussing operations.
Why More Conflict Is Inevitable In The Middle East
Zero Hedge - We all know how sectarian, religious and political
differences have thrown many Middle Eastern countries into chaos
and armed conflict. But there is a deeper factor at play which
deserves greater recognition: severe water scarcity.... Using
satellite data, scientists from the University of California
(Irvine), NASA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research
found that large parts of the arid Middle East region saw a
dramatic loss of freshwater reserves over a seven-year period
starting in 2003. Parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran along
the Tigris and Euphrates river basins lost some 144 cubic
kilometers of total stored freshwater – almost the total amount
of water in the Dead Sea. The scientists attributed the majority
of this loss to pumping from underground reservoirs.
Bibi Netanyahu threatened with arrest by British as anti-Semitic
crimes increase
Examiner - When visiting London during an upcoming trip to the
United Kingdom, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi"
Netanyahu will be met with crowds of protesters who have been
pushing a petition calling for the arrest of the Jewish State's
leader, according to news stories on Tuesday. A petition calling
for the arrest of Netanyahu during his London visit has over
35,000 signatures and climbing, but the U.K. Embassy in Tel
Aviv, Israel, told Israeli officials that there is no chance
that anyone will take action on behalf of the signatories.
Black sea: IEA warns of biggest oil oversupply in 17yrs
RT - The excess of oil on the global market reached 3 million
barrels per day (bpd) in the second quarter, says the
International Energy Agency (IEA). The supply is growing "at
breakneck pace" despite a collapse in oil prices. The main
culprit seems to be Saudi-led OPEC, which is sticking to keeping
its market share rather than defending the prices. The cartel
boosted its output to 31.8 million bpd (OPEC says 31.5 million)
in July, which is bigger that its quota it officially promised
in June not to neither cut, nor increase. This is the highest
output from King Salman-dominated bloc in three years. However,
OPEC’s role in the global oversupply is only part of the story.
Big brother bailout: Troika to play hardball with Greece –
report
RT - A document obtained by the Financial Times reveals the new
draconian laws that are in store for Athens if it wants to get
the €86 billion from its creditors. According to the 29-page
document acquired by FT, it becomes obvious that Greece’s
left-leaning government will have its hands tied on all aspects
of economic policy, starting from drug prices to tourist
rentals, let alone tax administration. The first package of
austerity measures needs to be implemented before the deal. PM
Alexis Tsipras’ Syriza government will have to cancel
cross-border withholding taxes, introduced recently. Among the
other measures are raising the retirement age to 67, cutting
drug prices and liberalizing energy supplies to homes by 2018.
After that, the austerity will continue, as Greece will have to
adopt various fiscal, financial, regulatory and pension reforms
and keep to a strict budget program.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
Jimmy Carter Says He Has Cancer, Revealed by Recent Surgery
ABC News - Former President Jimmy Carter, who at age 90 still
travels the world supporting the humanitarian endeavors that
have consumed his time in the decades since he left office,
announced Wednesday he has cancer that has spread to other parts
of his body. "Recent liver surgery revealed that I have cancer
that now is in other parts of my body," Carter said in the
statement released by the Carter Center. "I will be rearranging
my schedule as necessary so I can undergo treatment by
physicians at Emory Healthcare."
Latest Video Shows Planned Parenthood Sold Aborted Baby Parts
Without Patient Consent
Adan Salazar - Expectant mothers signed consent forms to donate
fetal tissue often before agreeing to abortions, the latest
video released by the pro-life Center for Medical Progress
reveals. In the latest installment of their Human Capital exposé
on Planned Parenthood’s reported sale of aborted baby body parts
for profit, a former tissue procurement technician explains how
she approached pregnant mothers at Planned Parenthood clinics
and asked them to sign over their unborn baby’s blood, tissue
and organs, often before patients had agreed to an abortion.
Harvard-trained Beverly Hills Doctor Mom Has 4 Children
Kidnapped by LA County DCFS
Medical Kidnap - Dr. Susan Evans graduated from Harvard Medical
School with dual medical degrees in dermatology and internal
medicine. She established her medical practice specializing in
dermatology in the heart of Beverly Hills, CA.... Dr. Susan’s
expertise has been sought as a medical expert on Dr. Oz, Oprah,
the Doctors, CNN, the TODAY show and many more.... However, like
thousands of other parents in Los Angeles County, she has lost
her 4 children to LA County Department of Child and Family
Services (DCFS), even though no charges have ever been filed
against her. Not only have no charges been filed against her, a
dependency court judge ruled that there was no reason for DCFS
to keep her children out of her custody, and dismissed the case
with prejudice (meaning the evidence they presented could not be
brought before the dependency court again). So why is she still
battling LA County DCFS to get her children back?
City of Austin Considers Ban on Asking About Criminal History on
Applications
Breitbart - In the latest “Ban the Box,” movement, an Austin,
Texas city council member thinks that the city ought to adopt a
“fair chance ordinance.” The movement is an attempt to force
employers to stop stop tossing employment applications because
of a checked box. Austin City Council member Greg Casar told Fox
7 News that it is good policy to give people a “fair shot at a
job.” He said, “Fair chance ordinances have started spreading
around the country which creates more opportunity for people’s
job applications not to get tossed because they have a past
criminal history.” The city councilmen added, “The point is we
don’t want folks being discriminated in employment for criminal
history that’s not relevant to a job they applied for.”
Majority of New Driver’s Licenses Issued in California This Year
are to Undocumented Immigrants
AllGov - Undocumented immigrants have not hesitated to take
advantage of a new law in California that allows them to get
drivers licenses despite their legal status. Undocumented
immigrants have received the majority of new drivers licenses
issued in the state in 2015, thanks to AB 60, which went into
effect this year. That law allows anyone with proof of residency
and passing grades on driving and written tests to obtain a
license, regardless of their immigration status.
Man Invades Home to Steal Confederate Flag, Attacks Owner,
According to Police
Kit Daniels - A Racine, Wis., man invaded a woman’s home to
steal her Confederate flag and assaulted her in the process,
according to police. Although the suspect, 37-year-old Tajaun
Boatner, faces multiple charges, including criminal trespassing
and misdemeanor battery, the presiding judge set his bail at
$100 over the recent incident spurred by a Confederate flag
hanging in a window.
As Turkey Bombed Anti-ISIS Fighters, It Hired Lobbying Firm Tied
to 2016 Candidates
The Intercept - On July 24, Turkey launched a massive military
campaign that included sweeping attacks against Kurdish forces
as well as minor strikes on Islamic State positions south of
Turkey’s border. Just five days later, the Turkish government
inked a contract to hire a team of prominent lobbyists to add to
its already formidable army of influence-peddlers in Washington.
The contract, revealed Wednesday in a filing with the Justice
Department, shows that the law and lobbying firm Squire Patton
Boggs was retained on July 29 on a $32,000 a month retainer — as
a subcontractor to Gephardt Government Affairs, acting for
Turkey on its own 10-month, $1.7 million contract. Squire Patton
Boggs is no ordinary lobbying firm. It is among the highest
grossing firms inside the Beltway, with a roster of former
senior government officials and lawmakers. Individuals from the
firm are now helping to fundraise for Jeb Bush and are among the
top 20 donors to Hillary Clinton over the course of her
political career.
Black Lives Matter Vows to Target Trump Campaign Events
Paul Joseph Watson - Following Donald Trump’s promise that he
would physically remove any Black Lives Matter activists who
interrupted his campaign events, a leader of the protest group
today guaranteed that such action is being planned. Daunasia
Yancey, founder and lead organizer of Black Lives Matter in
Boston, told CNN’s Carol Costello that it was “terrible” that
Trump had made “actual threats of violence against black
people.”.... During a press conference yesterday, Trump accused
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders of “weakness” for allowing Black
Lives Matter activists to derail his campaign stop this past
weekend, before asserting that he wouldn’t allow similar
behavior at his own event.... While Black Lives Matter
demonstrators have targeted Sanders more than once and are now
vowing to target Trump, their behavior towards Hillary Clinton
has been noticeably less hostile. Clinton met with BLM activists
after they complied with an order not to crash her forum in New
Hampshire yesterday.
Audio: 52 minutes of Donald Trump: Hear his speech at Michigan
event
MLive - Donald Trump, the current Republican frontrunner for
president in 2016, drew a sell-out crowd of more than 2,000
people to the Birch Run Expo Center. It was his first Michigan
campaign stop, arranged for a GOP fundraiser in Birch Run on
Tuesday, Aug. 11. The event was so popular, organizers said,
large numbers of people had to be turned away at the door after
all available tickets sold out earlier in the day. Trump spoke
for nearly an hour to the crowd, who repeatedly rose to give the
candidate a standing ovation or launch into impromptu chants of
"U.S.A." He talked about issues ranging from foreign trade
policy to the national job climate to nuclear proliferation....
Here are some standout quotes from Trump's speech…
A Death Cross, Wild Market Swings And A Currency War – And We
Haven’t Even Gotten To September Yet
Economic Collapse - Things continue to line up in textbook
fashion for a major financial crisis by the end of 2015. This
week, Wall Street has been buzzing about the first “death cross”
that we have seen for the Dow since 2011. When the 50-day moving
average moves below the 200-day moving average, that is a very
important psychological moment for the market. And just like
during the run up to the stock market crash of 2008, we are
starting to witness lots of wild swings up and down. The Dow was
up more than 200 points on Monday, the Dow was down more than
200 points on Tuesday, and it took a nearly 700 point roundtrip
on Wednesday. This is exactly the type of behavior that we would
expect to see during the weeks or months leading up to a crash.
After 100 Years Of Making Oreos In The US, Nabisco To Lay Off
Half Of It’s Workforce & Send 600 Jobs To Mexico
MAM - Mondelez International (Nabisco) will lay off half of its
1,200 employees in its bakery on Chicago’s Southwest Side after
deciding to make a major investment in a Mexico plant rather
than its long-standing facility here. The Nabisco company
decided not to make a $130 million upgrade to the facility, the
company’s largest U.S. bakery, which dates to the 1950s, because
the three unions that represent workers either did not make a
proposal to keep the work or their concession packages were
inadequate, said Laurie Guzzinati, a Mondelez spokeswoman. The
layoffs at the plant, at 7300 S. Kedzie Ave., will occur over
the next year.
McDonald’s To Close 59 US Locations In the Next Four Months
The Blade - McDonald’s Corp. plans to shrink by 59 locations
this year in the United States as the company cuts costs and
tries to revive sales. The chain is closing 184 restaurants and
opening 125 new ones in 2015, according to a franchise
operations document filed with the Minnesota Department of
Commerce last month. The company said in June that it was
closing more U.S. restaurants than it was opening this year but
didn’t give an exact figure. The world’s biggest restaurant
chain, which had about 14,350 domestic locations at the end of
last year, is shuttering stores across the country as it
struggles to reverse its worst sales slump in more than decade.
In the U.S., where it gets about 32 percent of revenue,
same-store sales have dropped for seven straight quarters.
Hormone-Mimicking, Endocrine-Disrupting Nightmare? L.A. Just
Dumped Millions of Plastic Balls into Its Drinking Water
Truthstream Media - You know it's bad when the people in charge
have decided the "answer" to keeping the water from evaporating
in the drought and turning carcinogenic due to toxic chemical
reactions is to spend millions of dollars to pour millions of
black plastic balls into reservoirs to block sunlight from
hitting the water. Because we all know that hormone disrupting
chemicals never leach into liquids from hot plastic... The Los
Angeles Department of Water and Power is buying 80 million
4-inch black polyethylene balls to cover the surfaces of three
Los Angeles reservoirs that serve 4 million residents. At a cost
of 33 cents each, the hollow spheres are designed to block
sunlight from turning bromide and chlorine in the water into
bromate, a suspected carcinogen.
EPA’s Gold King Mine Spill Was Predicted 6 Days In Advance
GovtSlaves - The environmental disaster the EPA caused at the
Gold King mine in Colorado was predicted 6 days in advance: This
letter to editor, posted below, was published in The Silverton
Standard and The Miner local newspaper, authored by a retired
geologist, one week before EPA mine spill. The letter detailed
verbatim, how EPA officials would foul up the Animas River on
purpose in order to secure superfund money. If the Gold King
mine was declared a superfund site it would essentially kill
future development for the mining industry. The Obama EPA is
vehemently opposed to mining and development.
Google using NASA partnership to test drones inside the US -
report
RT - A partnership with NASA has enabled Google to test-fly its
drones in US airspace, dodging federal aviation regulations.
Citing current rules as too restrictive, several US tech
companies have conducted their drone research elsewhere. While
Amazon used a research facility in Vancouver just across the US
border in Canada, Google tested its Project Wing drones in
Australia. However, Google seems to have also tested its drones
on US soil, using a partnership with NASA to obtain certificates
of authorization (COA) to skirt restrictions imposed by the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), according to the
Guardian’s Mark Harris.
As Phone Companies Ditch Copper, They Nix The Ability To Call
During Blackouts
CS Monitor - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on
Thursday put several new rules in place to regulate telecom
companies looking to move away from the old copper wires that
have carried voices across town and around the world for more
than a century.... Phone companies have been making the move to
fiber optic cable for a while now, says Mark Wigfield from the
FCC’s Media Relations Office..... The biggest benefit to those
old copper wires is that they carry their own electricity. So,
when the power goes out, you can still make a call as long as
your phone unit itself is still in operation. This is not so
with fiber. “The Commission took this fact very seriously,
especially as it related to 911 calling,” says Wigfield. “That
means that the new rules include a mandate that requires phone
companies to make direct-to-consumer offers of power backups.”
Wigfield says that these backups would be at the consumer’s
expense, but at least they would know exactly what they needed
and where to get it.
Can a fungus increase your cancer risk?
Natural Blaze - Mycotoxins are substances produced through the
metabolic processes of certain micro fungi. According to the
U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information, the most
common forms of mycotoxins relevant to humans and animals are:
aflatoxin, citrinin, ergot akaloids, fumonisins, ochratoxin A,
patulin, trichothecenes, and zearalenone (ZEA). Mycotoxins, in
general, can be quite harmful and even fatal to humans and
animals. In fact, a few – such as aflatoxin – are classified as
carcinogens. The following is some basic information you need to
know to keep yourself and your family safe from modern mold
toxins and the many health risks associated with them, including
diseases like breast cancer.
Cranberry Juice Lowers Diabetes and Heart Disease Risk
Natural Blaze - Researchers from the University of Scranton
previously suggested that nutrients found in cranberry juice can
effectively reduce the risk of heart disease -- in some cases,
up to 40 percent -- mostly by increasing levels of HDL, the
"good" cholesterol. The juice was also shown to increase blood
levels of antioxidant nutrients by up to 121 percent. Previous
research has also shown that cranberry juice helped relax blood
vessels clogged with high blood cholesterol and narrowed by
atherosclerosis, according to a study by researchers at the
University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine.
Conquer drug-resistant superbugs with natural essential oils and
traditional medicine validated by science
(NaturalNews) As antibiotic-resistant superbugs continue to
thrive, it is becoming obvious even to mainstream diehard modern
medicine folks that finding natural alternatives is imperative.
While Obama's 2016 budget proposal includes $1.2 billion to
fight antibiotic resistance, people everywhere are finally
waking up to realize the natural answer is simpler, healthier
and certainly much cheaper!... Here are five great all-natural
antibiotics backed by scientific studies to consider including
in your wellness cabinet...
Wednesday
- August 12, 2015 - Today in History:
1865 - Disinfectant was used for the first time during surgery by Joseph
Lister.
1867 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him when
he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
1877 - Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and made the first sound
recording.
1898 - The Spanish-American War was ended with the signing of the peace
protocol. The U.S. acquired Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
Hawaii was also annexed.
1953 - The Soviet Union secretly tested its first hydrogen bomb.
1960 - The balloon satellite Echo One was launched by the U.S. from Cape
Canaveral, FL. It was the first communications satellite.
1962 - The Soviet Union launched Pavel Popovich into orbit. Popovich and
Andrian Nikolayev, who was launch a day before, both landed on August
15.
1964 - Mickey Mantle set a major league baseball record when he hit home
runs from both the left and ride sides of the plate in the same game.
1977 - The space shuttle Enterprise passed its first solo flight test.
1981 - IBM unveiled its first PC.
1985 - A Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 crashed into a mountain killing 520
people.
1986 - It was announced by NASA that they had selected a new rocket
design for the space shuttle. The move was made in an effort at
correcting the flaws that were believed to have been responsible for the
Challenger disaster.
1992 - The U.S., Canada, and Mexico announced that the North American
Free Trade Agreement had been created after 14 months of negotiations.
1993 - U.S. President Clinton lifted the ban on rehiring air traffic
controllers that had been fired for going on strike in 1981.
1994 - Major league baseball players went on strike rather than allow
team owners to limit their salaries. The strike lasted for 232 days. As
a result, the World Series was wiped out for the first time in 90 years.
1998 - Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion as restitution to World
War II Holocaust victims.
1999 - Hang Thu Thi Ngyuen shot an arrow from a bow with her feet on
"Guinness World Records: Primetime" and hit a target that was 16 feet
and 5 inches away.
China stuns financial markets by devaluing yuan for second day
running
The Guardian - China stunned the world’s financial markets on
Wednesday by devaluing the yuan for the second consecutive day,
triggering fears the world’s second largest economy is in worse
shape than investors believed. The move sent fresh shockwaves
through global markets, pushing shares sharply lower and sending
commodity prices further into reverse as traders feared the move
could ignite a currency war that would destabilise the world
economy. There were widespread losses in Asia, and in Europe
stock markets suffered falls of about 1%, with the FTSE 100
tumbling almost 2% at one stage. The Chinese currency hit a
four-year low on Wednesday after the People’s Bank of China set
the yuan’s daily midpoint even weaker than in Tuesday’s
devaluation.
* Related:
Global stocks, yields tumble after China pushes yuan lower again
Greek MOU foresees rapid sale of ports, grid operator, airports
Reuters - Greece will move rapidly to privatize its ports,
regional airports and its power grid operator under a memorandum
of understanding (MOU) agreed with its international lenders.
According to the 29-page MOU, a copy of which was obtained by
Reuters, Greek privatization proceeds, excluding bank shares,
are expected to total 6.4 billion euros between 2015 and 2017.
The MOU lists a range of measures that the Greek government must
implement in order to obtain a new three-year bailout program
that is expected to total roughly 85 billion euros. Under the
agreement, Athens has committed to take "irreversible steps" by
October 2015 to privatize grid operator ADMIE unless an
alternative scheme offering equivalent results is presented.
12 Signs That An Imminent Global Financial Crash Has Become Even
More Likely
Economic Collapse - The devaluation of the yuan by China
triggered the largest one day drop for that currency in the
modern era. This caused other global currencies to crash
relative to the U.S. dollar, the price of oil hit a six year
low, and stock markets all over the world were rattled. The Dow
fell 212 points on Tuesday, and Apple stock plummeted another 5
percent. As we hurtle toward the absolutely critical months of
September and October, the unraveling of the global financial
system is beginning to accelerate. At this point, it is not
going to take very much to push us into a full-blown worldwide
financial crisis. The following are 12 signs that indicate that
a global financial crash has become even more likely after the
events of the past few days…
Ousting Assad militarily would enable ISIS to seize Syria –
Lavrov
RT - The ousting of President Bashar Assad by force would only
lead to ISIS seizing power in Syria, Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov has warned, adding that Islamic State can only be
defeated if all forces who are battling it unite. Speaking at a
press conference after negotiations with his Saudi Arabian
counterpart, Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir, Russia’s foreign minister
once again warned against a “military solution” regarding Syrian
President Bashar Assad, who has been targeted by the west and
the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. “I would not want any
powerful state involved in attempts to solve the Syrian crisis
to believe that Assad issue may be solved militarily, because
the only way of such a military solution is the seizure of power
[in Syria] by Islamic State and other terrorists,” Lavrov said,
adding: “I don’t think anybody wants that.”
NATO Braces for Possible Military Conflict With Russia -
Think-Tank
Sputnik News - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and
Russia are bracing for a possible military confrontation, a
European defense think-tank policy analysis revealed Wednesday.
“Russia is preparing for a conflict with NATO, and NATO is
preparing for a possible confrontation with Russia,” the
European Leadership Network (ELN) brief stated. The London-based
institute cited two major military exercises conducted this year
as grounds for its prognosis. NATO held Allied Shield drills
involving 15,000 personnel from 19 member states in a number of
Eastern European nations in June. These included Trident Joust
in Romania, BALTOPS, Saber Strike and Noble Jump – NATO’S first
Very High Readiness Joint Task Force deployment – in Poland. In
March, 80,000 Russian troops and thousands of units of equipment
took part in nationwide snap combat readiness inspections.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
Utah Transit Authority to conduct TRAX terrorism exercise at
Salt Lake airport
Deseret News - The Utah Transit Authority, along with various
other agencies, will test emergency response protocols during a
live-action drill scheduled Wednesday. But don't worry, it's
only a test. UTA, in conjunction with the Utah National Guard
85th Civil Support Team, the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force,
Salt Lake City International Airport, Salt Lake City Fire
Department and the Salt Lake City Police Department will conduct
the exercise called “Operation Green Cloud.” The exercise will
be a six-hour, full-scale emergency response drill simulating an
attack on a Green Line TRAX train.
New surveillance footage shows Ferguson protester shot by cops
had pistol – police
RT - St. Louis County police have released surveillance footage
allegedly showing Tyrone Harris, a black teen, with a gun.
Police said Harris fired the weapon at plainclothes officers
before they shot back, leaving him critically wounded in
Ferguson on Sunday. The 13-second video comes from a
surveillance camera owned by Solo Insurance Services. It opens
with people casually walking past a row of shops and parked
cars.
US Chief of Staff Ray Odierno Warns Army Too
Small to Deter Global Threats
Sputnik News - The US Army has been slashed in size so much by
budget cuts that it is dangerously close to being too small to
deal with potential threats, Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno
warned in an interview published in the Army Times. If we get
small enough where some of these [world] leaders don't believe
the Army can respond or deter them… that increases the threats
and danger to the United States,” Odierno said in an interview
published on Tuesday.... Since 2012, the US Army has cut 80,000
soldiers and shut down 13 brigade combat teams, including two in
Germany and one in South Korea, to reach an end-strength of
490,000, according to the Army Times.
‘Top Secret’ emails found as Clinton probe expands to key aides
McClatchy - As pressure builds on Hillary Clinton to explain her
official use of personal email while serving as secretary of
state, she faced new complications Tuesday. It was disclosed her
top aides are being drawn into a burgeoning federal inquiry and
that two emails on her private account have been classified as
“Top Secret.” The inspector general for the Intelligence
Community notified senior members of Congress that two of four
classified emails discovered on the server Clinton maintained at
her New York home contained material deemed to be in one of the
highest security classifications - more sensitive than
previously known.
Pentagon orders Ferguson Police to return Humvees amid concerns
about police militarization
The Guardian - The city of Ferguson, Missouri, is being forced
by the Obama administration to return two military vehicles that
it obtained from the Pentagon, amid widespread concern and
criticism over the deployment on American streets of equipment
intended for war zones. The US Department of Defense will
reclaim a pair of Humvees that were given to the beleaguered St
Louis suburb under a controversial program to distribute surplus
weapons, vehicles and other gear, according to several
government officials involved in the process.
Media Launches New Demonization Campaign as Oath Keepers Arrive
in Ferguson
Paul Joseph Watson - Despite the fact that the Oath Keepers
immediately began educating Ferguson demonstrators on their
constitutional rights and having constructive conversations
about how the movement should be about unity and not race hate,
the media jumped on their presence and instantly turned it into
another opportunity for race baiting and division. Newsweek
quoted the Southern Poverty Law Center, a George Soros-backed
outfit that exists solely to smear conservative groups, accusing
Oath Keepers of being “fiercely anti-government” and
“militaristic”. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar also
said the group’s presence was “both unnecessary and
inflammatory,” while #BlackLivesMatter activist Talal Ahmad
questioned why “white citizens” were even allowed to enter a
“black community” at all.
* Related:
St. Louis County Police and
Prosecutors Will Consult on Legality of Armed Oath Keepers in
Ferguson
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence Signs Bill Saying Aborted Babies May be
Buried or Cremated
After national controversy surrounding the Planned Parenthood
abortion businesses’ sale of aborted babies and aborted baby
body parts, Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed into law a new
measure providing that aborted babies may be buried or
cremated.... The aborted fetal remains bill (SEA 329),
establishes rules as to how abortion facilities must dispose of
aborted babies and allows the pregnant woman to choose a
different method at her own expense (i.e. burial). As testimony
revealed, the Indianapolis Planned Parenthood facility was
disposing of aborted babies down a drain into the sewer system,
the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) implemented
emergency disposal rules on July 1.
Target Stores Eliminating ‘Gender-Specific’ Labels and Colors
for Kids’ Stuff
Breitbart - The Target department store chain has announced that
it intends go “gender neutral” in its stores by eliminating the
colors blue and pink in displays and signage and getting rid of
the words “boys” and “girls” on clothing and toys wherever
possible. In a statement posted to the corporation’s website,
Target insisted that it “puts a lot of thought into how things
are organized” in its stores and that the corporation is
“listening” to customers who want a change.
Rand Paul: 'My tax plan gets rid of the payroll tax'
Washington Examiner - Republican presidential candidate Sen.
Rand Paul had one regret from the GOP debate Thursday – the Fox
News hosts didn't ask him about his tax plan. On "Fox News
Sunday," Chris Wallace made up for ignoring the Kentucky
Republican by interrogating him on the plan. Wallace questioned
whether Paul's flat tax on personal income would lower revenue
by $3 trillion, citing the Tax Foundation's analysis of Paul's
plan. "It depends on how you look at it, Chris," laughed Paul.
"I look at it as a $3 trillion gain for the taxpayer; and that's
a debate we ought to have." "We ought to have a debate [about]
whether you want the government to be bigger or smaller, and
whether you want the private sector to be bigger or smaller,"
Paul said. "I want the private sector to be $3 trillion bigger.
That's how jobs are created. Government doesn't create jobs. And
this is a real debate we ought to have in our party."
Presidential Straw Poll Conducted Using Blockchain Voting
Technology
Coinivore - Nearly 300 people attended the Republican debate
party at New York’s Metropolitan Republican Club last Thursday
night, a number of whom participated in the club’s post-debate
straw poll giving their assessment of the night’s winner. The
poll was the first of its kind conducted utilizing the
technology underlying the bitcoin cryptocurrency– provided by
the Blockchain Apparatus company, a subsidiary of Blockchain
Technologies Corporation. Among other things, the company can
conduct secure elections using the blockchain to ensure votes
that are cast are unique and not counterfeit. “Blockchain
Apparatus ran the most transparent poll I have ever been
involved with,” said Jeff Goolsby, manager of the club. “I think
what they bring to the voting process is the future of free and
open elections.”
How Blockchain Technology Works for Secure Online Voting
Bitcoin Magazine - Just as Bitcoin users make transactions by
sending the digital currency to the recipient’s digital wallet,
blockchain voting systems involve creating wallets for each
candidate or option in an election. All voters are then
allocated a digital “coin” that represents one vote, which they
can cast by sending their “coin” to the wallet of their choice.
As in a bitcoin transaction, the entire process is recorded in
the blockchain public ledger, meaning that unlike most current
elections, a voter can verify that his or her vote was actually
counted.
The Fed Is Out Of Options, "QE Is All It Can Do Here" Art Cashin
Predicts
Zero Hedge - Weakness in commodities "is not transitory," Art
Cashin tells CNBC, if you look at things like copper, "this is
really a deflationary push... where things can get a little out
of control." The Fed says they must get off zero interest rates
because,, as Cashin notes, "they can't do anything else."
However, as the venerable floorman who has seen it all explains,
"they're in a kind of silly loop where they did QE expecting a
reaction... didn't get it.. and then they did QE again because
it didn't live up to their expectations... but I think they have
no other options, if things get negative on the economy, QE is
all they can do."
Bundled Cable Death Watch: Another half-million subscribers
quit cable, satellite in second quarter
Breitbart - The largest swindle big business ever played on the
American people — forcing us to pay huge cable bills for dozens
of channels we never watch — is slowly coming apart. Even with
an ever-increasing population, the pay TV industry (cable and
satellite) lost a net 566,000 subscribers last quarter. When you
add in Q1, that’s a total of 887,000 lost customers in just six
short months. There is just no question that customers are
getting tech savvy and budget savvy. The result is a growing
wave of cord-cutters (last quarter was the second biggest drop
in pay TV customers in history) as people discover the beauty of
streaming on budget-conscious services like Netflix and Amazon,
that charge around $10 a month.
EPA won’t face fines for polluting rivers with orange muck
Washington Times - Unlike BP, which was fined $5.5 billion for
the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, the EPA will pay nothing in
fines for unleashing the Animas River spill. “Sovereign
immunity. The government doesn’t fine itself,” said Thomas L.
Sansonetti, former assistant attorney general for the Justice
Department’s division of environment and natural resources....
What the EPA can be expected to cover is the cost of the cleanup
and compensation for the damage caused, funding that would have
to be appropriated by Congress, meaning that the taxpayers will
foot the bill.
Low Cholesterol Levels Associated with 990% Higher Mortality
After Heart Attack
Health Impact News - A recent study in Critical Care Medicine is
titled, “Lipid Paradox in Acute Myocardial Infarction- The
Association with 30-Day In-Hospital Mortality.” This study
followed 724 hospitalized patients who suffered an acute heart
attack (i.e., myocardial infarction). The scientists attempted
to clarify the relationship between the lipid profiles and the
30-day mortality in patients who suffered a heart attack.
VIDEO: Researchers (Funded By Coke) Say Soda May Not Be The
Problem
Newsy - Coca-Cola's new research group has a message for
consumers: Lack of exercise, not sugary drinks, might be the
problem. "Most of the focus in the popular media and the
scientific press is, 'Oh you're eating too much.' Blaming fast
food, blaming sugary drinks and so on," said University of South
Carolina professor Steve Blair. After the info-graphic heard
'round the world, Coca-Cola has a new message for consumers:
Exercise more because we don't really know if sugary drinks are
the problem. Coca-Cola is providing funding for a group of
scientists to research proper "energy balance." Or in other
words, the biggest soda company on the planet is paying for
research that emphasizes the importance of exercising.
* Related:
10 things Coke, Pepsi and the soda industry won’t say
Why Agave is Harmful despite being a Natural Sweetener
Natural News Blogs - The agave sap contains compounds called
fructans, which are found mostly found in foods such as wheat,
onions, garlic, leeks, asparagus, and artichokes. Fructans are
generally harmless but over intake of these may pose certain
health ill-effects such as abdominal discomfort, bloating, and
other gastrointestinal problems. The agave syrup that we
purchase off the shelves at supermarkets is the highly processed
variety, which unfortunately does more harm than good. The
processing of agave involves the breakdown of fructans into
fructose via the action of enzymes and heat. This, as a result,
destroys the nutritional benefits of the syrup. Also, the
effects of prolonged consumption of agave nectar resemble those
exhibited by high fructose corn syrup. Bottled agave syrups are
excessively refined and unhealthy.
Click here to check out EWG’s Dirty Dozen: Cancer Prevention
Edition.
Environmental Working Group - Scientists are only beginning to
investigate how certain chemicals may interact to contribute to
cancer development. But given that we live in a sea of
chemicals, it makes sense to begin reducing exposures to ones we
know are bad actors. Here are EWG's tips for avoiding 12 harmful
chemicals that have now been found to also disrupt
cancer-related pathways — known as cancer hallmarks.
The Loving Pet with a Memory That's 192
Times Longer Than a Dog's
Dr. Becker - While the US can certainly be described as a pet-loving
nation, there is at least a slight bias toward dogs. In one survey by
Public Policy Polling, 52 percent of respondents said they preferred
dogs while only 21 percent said they preferred cats (another 27 percent
couldn’t decide).... As cat lovers know, cats can be equal parts loving,
affectionate and loyal, with an independent streak that only adds to
their appeal. If you’re not currently a cat owner, VetStreetrecently
compiled seven great things you’re missing out on.
Tuesday
- August 11, 2015 - Today in History:
1877 - The two moons of Mars were discovered by Asaph Hall, an American
astronomer. He named them Phobos and Deimos.
1909 - The American ship Arapahoe became the first to ever use the SOS
distress signal off the coast of Cape Hatteras, NC.
1924 - Newsreel pictures were taken of U.S. presidential candidates for
the first time.
1934 - Alcatraz, in San Francisco Bay, received federal prisoners for
the first time.
1941 - The Atlantic Charter was signed by U.S. President Franklin
Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
1942 - During World War II, Pierre Laval publicly announced "the hour of
liberation for France is the hour when Germany wins the war."
1945 - The Allies informed Japan that they would determine Emperor
Hirohito's future status after Japan's surrender.
1965 - The U.S. conducted a second launch of "Surveyor-SD 2" for a
landing on the Moon surface test.
1975 - The U.S. vetoed the proposed admission of North and South Vietnam
to the United Nations. The Security Counsel had already refused to
consider South Korea's application.
1984 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan was preparing for his weekly radio
broadcast when, during testing of the microphone, the President said of
the Soviet Union, "My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you that I
just signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin
bombing in five minutes."
1988 - Dick Thornburgh was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to
be the next attorney general. He succeeded Edwin Meese III.
1990 - Egyptian and Moroccan troops joined U.S. forces in Saudia Arabia
to help protect from a possible Iraqi attack.
1991 - The space shuttle Atlantis ended its nine-day journey by landing
safely.
1994 - A U.S. federal jury awarded $286.8 million to about 10,000
commercial fishermen for losses as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil
spill.
1995 - All U.S. nuclear tests were banned by President Clinton.
1997 - U.S. President Clinton made the first use of the line-item veto
approved by Congress, rejecting three items in spending and tax bills.
2003 - In Kabul, NATO took command of the 5,000-strong peacekeeping
force in Afghanistan.
2006 - The TSA banned all liquids, gels and aerosols from passenger
cabins on airliners one day after a thwarted terrorist attack
Lifting of Anti-Iran Sanctions to Lower Global Oil Prices by $10
Per Barrel
Sputnik News - Lifting of the sanctions the West had imposed
against Iran in relation to its nuclear program will lead to
significant drop in global oil prices, the World Bank said in a
press release. "Iran’s full return to the global market will
eventually add about a million barrels of oil a day, lowering
oil prices by US$10 per barrel next year, according to the World
Bank," the bank said in a Monday press release.... Due to
oversupply in the global market, oil prices have dropped more
than twofold against the 2014 summer levels, when the price of
Brent crude stood at about $115 per barrel. The prices are now
hovering at about $50 per barrel.
China devalues yuan after poor economic data
Reuters - China devalued its currency after a run of poor
economic data, a move it billed as a free-market reform but that
some suspect could be the beginning of a longer slide in the
exchange rate. The central bank set its official guidance rate
down nearly 2 percent prior to market open to 6.2298 yuan per
dollar - its lowest point in almost three years - from 6.1162
the previous day in what it said was a change in methodology to
make it more responsive to market forces.
* Related:
China "Loses Battle Over Yuan", And Now The Global Currency War
Begins
Israeli jailed 6 months for burning baby and father to death,
Palestinians jailed 20 years for throwing stones
Hang The Bankers - Israel has imprisoned two high-profile
ultranationalists for six months without charge and arrested
additional suspects in West Bank settlement outposts, security
authorities have said. The crackdown on Jewish extremists
follows the firebombing of a Palestinian home in the West Bank
last month that killed an 18-month-old boy and his father and
severely wounded his mother and brother. Israeli authorities
said the arson attack on 31 July was an act of “Jewish
terrorism”, and Israel’s security cabinet approved the use of
tough measures to combat an increasing problem, including
administrative detention, which allows suspects to be held for
lengthy periods without charge. Such detentions have been mainly
used against Palestinians suspected of involvement in militant
groups, but rarely against Israelis.
Germany made €100bn profit on Greek crisis – study
RT - Greece’s biggest creditor Germany has made a huge profit on
the country’s debt crisis over the last 5 years as it saved
through lower interest payments on funds borrowed amid investor
"flights to safety." Each time investors got bad news about
Greece, they rushed to the ‘safe haven’ of Germany, with the
interest rates on German government bonds falling, according to
the study from the private, non-profit Leibniz Institute of
Economic Research, Agence France-Presse reported Monday. The
estimated €100 billion Germany had saved since 2010 accounted
for over three percent of its GDP, the report said.... Berlin
continues hindering the process. Last week, the creditors urged
for more reforms from Athens, arguing that another two-or
three-week bridging loan was better than hurriedly striking a
three-year deal. Germany’s proposed option of a €5-billion
bridging loan to give negotiators more time is still on the
table.
Brazil’s Water Crisis So Bad That The Army Is Staging A Mass
Uprising At A Water Utility
Tech Insider - The Brazilian megacity of São Paulo, currently
dealing with Brazil's largest water crisis in 40 years,
continues to experience severe drought over the next several
months. The crisis deepens, and soon, some residents lose access
to water altogether. The next step: a riot or crowd-driven
attack on Sabesp, the local water utility. It's the kind of
desperate measure that seems more like a distant
post-apocalyptic situation for other drought-ridden places like
California, but as one São Paulo water activist recently
discovered, the Brazilian army is actually preparing for this
possibility.
Spain Turns Down Oxitec GM Flies Release Again
Sustainable Pulse - After protests by a broad coalition of NGOs
against plans to release genetically engineered olive flies in
Spain, the UK company Oxitec has now withdrawn its application.
As reported by Spanish media, Oxitec was informed by regional
authorities that the experiments will not be allowed. After
2013, this is the second time that the company has failed to get
approval for its application in Spain. Once released, the
genetically engineered flies might spread throughout the
Mediterranean region and all the locations where native
populations of olive flies occur. A broad coalition of mostly
representative organisations from Mediterranean countries are
demanding that any release of these flies should be banned
completely.
Russian cop rams his car into oncoming vehicle to save busload
of children
Hang The Bankers - A Russian police officer risked his own life
to prevent a road accident that put dozens of children in
danger. He ran his patrol car into a vehicle, speeding head on
into a convoy of children’s buses. The cop miraculously survived
the crash. On Saturday, the officer, now hailed as a hero,
Aleksandr Kosolapov, was escorting a convoy of nine buses
transporting about 300 children from a summer camp to the city
of Abakan, the capital of the Khakassia Republic in sourthern
Siberia.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
Psychology group bans members from harsh national security
interrogations
Ars Technica - The American Psychological Association (APA) has
approved a ban on psychologists' involvement in national
security interrogations. The group approved its new ethics
guidelines Friday in Toronto. The APA adopted the plan in the
wake of 542-page independent investigation (PDF) that discovered
psychologists worked with the Central Intelligence Agency to
help silence dissent over harsh interrogation tactics being
employed by the Bush administration (including torture). What's
more, the report found that APA officials colluded with military
officials to adopt APA ethics rules in order to allow
psychologists to be a part of tortuous interrogations in the
wake of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. Psychologists'
involvement in torturous interrogations aided the President
George W. Bush administration's assertions that the techniques,
such as waterboarding, were legal. That's because having
psychologists involved in interrogations helped the Justice
Department draw up secret legal opinions saying that harsh
interrogations were OK—and not torture—since health officials
were taking part.
VIDEO: 4th night of Ferguson protests brings confrontation,
arrests
AP - Police arrested nearly two dozen people in Ferguson during
a fourth consecutive night of demonstrations marking the
anniversary of the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
The gathering that stretched into early Tuesday morning came a
day after a protest along West Florissant Avenue that was
interrupted by gunfire and a police shooting that left an
18-year-old critically injured. The violence set the St. Louis
suburb on edge and had protest leaders worried about whether
tensions would escalate.
U.S. Army in Secretive Purchase of “Riot Control” Agent
Paul Joseph Watson - The U.S. Army is buying an undisclosed
number of riot control CS gas canisters in order for troops to
“become familiar with the effects of the agent,” as concerns
grow about civil unrest inside the United States. According to a
solicitation posted on August 5, the U.S. Army is looking to
secure a five year contract for the procurement of K765 CS
Capsules. “The CS (ortho-chlorobenzylidene malono-nitrile) Riot
Control Agent Capsule is used in training scenarios for troops
to become familiar with the effects of the agent,” states the
solicitation. The exact nature of the solicitation and the
quantity of canisters being purchased remains secret as a result
of the “Technical Data Package” that accompanies the order being
classified.
NYPD spending $4.5million on Tasers and expanding stun gun
arsenal to nearly 3,000
Daily Mail - In an effort to give officers more nonlethal
alternatives when dealing with criminals, the New York Police
Department is expanding its arsenal of stun guns. An NYPD
spokesman confirmed the city is contracting to spend up to
$4.5million on Tasers and officers are already undergoing
training on how to use them. Currently, only patrol sergeants
and members of the Emergency Service Unit are qualified to use
the stun guns. There are currently 700 Tasers in use by the
department and another 1,000 in inventory, the New York Post
reported. Officials say all supervisors on patrol will be given
Tasers.
State of emergency declared in St. Louis county; activists
arrested at federal courthouse
RT - About 40 protesters, including prominent activist Cornel
West, have been arrested during the rally in front of the
federal courthouse in St. Louis. The rally was organized on the
anniversary of Michael Brown’s killing. The ‘Day of civil
disobedience’ march started at Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral
in St. Louis and ended at the Thomas F. Eagleton federal
courthouse, where dozens formed a living chain.... Meanwhile,
St. Louis County has declared a state of emergency, authorizing
Police Chief Jon Belmar to “exercise all powers and duties
necessary to preserve order, prevent crimes, and protect the
life and property of our citizens.”
* Related:
VIDEO: Twice Looted Ferguson Market Owners Sit Outside Store
With Shotguns
Protesters Declare They Are Ready For War As America’s
Impoverished Inner Cities Threaten To Erupt
Economic Collapse - Are we about to witness a new round of
racially-charged protests, riots and demonstrations all across
the United States? On Sunday night, a protest that had been
organized to commemorate the one year anniversary of Michael
Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri took a very violent turn. An
18-year-old named Tyrone Harris that is being described as a
“real close” friend of Michael Brown opened fire on police with
a stolen handgun. Police returned fire and Harris got hit. He is
now in the hospital and his prognosis is uncertain. Of course
this just raised tensions to an entirely new level, and at this
point a state of emergency has been declared in Ferguson.
White House response to anti mandatory vaccine petition
Hang The Bankers - With the White House finally responding to
the petition to pardon NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden with a
big fat ‘NO’, the government went one step further and responded
to an anti mandatory vaccine petition with a similar response.
Both ‘We the People’ petitions exceeded the necessary 100,000
signatures, despite efforts to freeze the signature count,
requiring the White House to respond. These petitions are
nothing more than an avenue for the public to vent, no real
action is ever taken despite the popularity of the petitions
measured in signatures.... Here is the official response from
the
whitehouse.gov website...
Trump holds post-debate lead in Iowa
The Hill - Donald Trump has a healthy lead over the field of
Republican presidential candidates in Iowa, according to the
first poll of voters in the Hawkeye State since the GOP debate
last week. A new poll from the Democratic firm Public Policy
Polling released Monday found Trump taking 19 percent support in
Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state. Wisconsin Governor
Scott Walker and Ben Carson are tied for second place at 12
percent support each, followed by Jeb Bush at 11 percent,
businesswoman Carly Fiorina at 10 percent and Texas Sen. Ted
Cruz at 9 percent. Walker spent months atop the polls in Iowa
but in recent weeks has been overtaken by Trump, who has been
surging.
VA Backs Down on Threat to Take Idaho Veteran's Guns
The New American - When Idaho State Representative Heather Scott
learned that the Veterans Administration (VA) was about to
descend on a veteran living in her district and confiscate his
firearms, she enlisted the power of the Internet… By noon more
than a dozen of Priest Lake, Idaho’s 1,700 residents walked over
to veteran John Arnold’s home and waited for the officials from
the Department of Veterans Affairs to show up. Those in the
crowd besides Representative Scott included Representative Matt
Shea from just over the border in Washington State and Bonner
County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler. When the VA official arrived,
Sheriff Wheeler confronted him, telling him that he would stop
any inspection or attempt to confiscate Arnold’s firearms. He
told the press: I took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution
and uphold the laws of Idaho. This seemed appropriate to show my
support. I was going to make sure Mr. Arnold’s rights weren’t
going to be breached.
US Postal Service Reports $586 Million Net Loss For Spring
GovtSlaves - The U.S. Postal Service on Monday reported a net
loss of $586 million this spring, a big improvement for the
cash-strapped agency compared to a nearly $2 billion loss during
the same period last year. Postal officials said the loss was
mitigated largely because interest rates, which are associated
with worker’ compensation expenses, swung in the agency’s favor.
Operating expenses outside the Postal Service’s control dropped
by $1.6 billion during the same period last year to $389 million
this spring.
Chicago public schools to lay off 1,500 teachers and staff
Reuters - Chicago Public Schools on Monday began notifying
nearly 1,500 teachers and support staff who are being fired amid
a previously announced, $200 million budget cut and a shift in
student enrollment. The announcement came as CPS released its
$5.7 billion 2016 budget, which includes a historic $1.1 billion
budget deficit driven by rapidly rising pension payments. The
layoff notices will affect 479 teachers and 1,012 other staff
members out of more than 41,500 employees, according to the
school system.
What You Need to Know About Unwanted Robocalls
Fox Business - Some robocalls are perfectly legal. For instance,
the one from your doctor’s office reminding you of your next
appointment. Or the automated call you get about your child’s
school being closed due to snow. The illegal kinds of robocalls
are the ones you never signed up for. For instance, the
telemarketing calls that try to sell you something. You know,
those aggravating, dinner-disrupting, “Press 3 to sign up for a
free trial” calls that make you want to throw your phone at the
wall. They’re the latest technique scammers are using to trick
you into giving them your credit card number or other personal
information so they can wipe out your bank account.
Obama Pentagon Flogs Discredited Climate Fears
The New American - The Obama Defense Department is at it again,
ratcheting up the global warming fear index in preparation for
the big UN climate summits in New York (September) and Paris
(December)… The Department of Defense released its latest
alarmist salvo on the supposed dangers of anthropogenic
(human-caused) global warming, or AGW, on Wednesday. Entitled
National Security Implications of Climate-Related Risks and a
Changing Climate, the 14-page report warns that “climate change
is an urgent and growing threat to our national security.”
Naturally, it was given abundant favorable coverage by the same
establishment media choir that have been dutifully parroting
every climate apocalypse prediction for the past 20-plus years.
According to this most recent DOD warning, man's burning of
carbon-based fuels is “contributing to increased natural
disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources
such as food and water.”
Someone At DEF CON Made a Drone That Hacks Computers
Defense One - You can buy it for $2,500 — and turn it into a
flying malware injector. Forget Facebook drones that broadcast
Wifi. The future is drones that hack from above. A company
called Aerial Assault has turned a quadcopter into a flying
hacker that scans the world below for insecure devices and
vulnerable Wifi ports. Its makers say they built the tool for
penetration testing — to help “good guys” diagnose their own
weaknesses — but they concede that with a bit of modification,
it could be used to exploit those vulnerabilities and install
malware from the air. The unnamed drone, which may be the first
unmanned aerial penetration tool for sale to the public, was on
display at the DEF CON hacker conference here last week.
Gardening, Farming & Homesteading |
Minnesota Expands Food Freedom in New Cottage Food Bill
Freedom Works - Under the new law, bakers can sell directly from
their homes and even online to buyers in state. The annual sales
cap was also raised to $18,000, a huge relief for many bakers
who are reliant on the money they make from their home
businesses and have been unable to expand because of the
burdensome regulations. The new law is not perfect. Though it
“modif[ies] license exclusions for the direct sale of certain
prepared food,” the bill still mandates that individuals
register with the commissioner and pay a $50 fee every year
unless they make less than $5,000 annually. Individuals must
also take a course in handling food (up to eight hours long)
every three years.
Saturated Fat Helps Avoid Diabetes
Dr. Mercola - About one in four Americans now has diabetes or
pre-diabetes. That's nearly 80 million people, the majority of whom
suffer from type 2 diabetes – a preventable and, often, reversible
condition. The problem is that many Americans are unaware that the foods
they're eating could be setting them up for a dietary disaster, and this
isn't their fault. Public health guidelines condemn healthy fats from
foods like butter and full-fat dairy and recommend whole grains and
cereals – the opposite of what a person with diabetes, or any person
really, needs to stay healthy.
Are You Trading Heartburn for a Heart Attack?
Green Med Info - The burning pain of acid reflux can be unbearable. Most
doctors offer a quick-fix in the form of drugs like Prevacid, Nexium, or
Prilosec. But a new study finds those drugs may calm heartburn at the
price of a heart attack. Researchers from Stanford University showed
that proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are linked to higher risks of
myocardial infarction and death – even among people without heart
disease. PPIs block acid production in the stomach to reduce or
eliminate heartburn. They are prescribed primarily for gastroesophageal
reflux disease (GERD). But they've been called one of the most dangerous
and over-prescribed medications on the market. The Stanford study
published online in the journal PLoS One found that people taking PPIs
were 16 percent to 21 percent more likely to suffer a heart attack and
122 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease.
Here's Why Every Mother-To-Be Should Be Taking Iodine
Karen Foster - One of the most significant and under-consumed minerals
today is iodine. It plays an important role in regulating the thyroid
gland and metabolism. In pregnancy, iodine also helps your baby's brain
and nervous system develop. Iodine deficiencies are one of the most
important causes of preventable intellectual disability and brain damage
worldwide.... Iodine helps brain development, particularly in the womb
and first months, and can improve a child's IQ by 1.22 points....
Pregnant women need a minimum of 220 micrograms (mcg) of iodine per day
while breastfeeding women about 290 mcg.
Monday
- August 10, 2015 - Today in History:
1792 - King Louis XVI was taken into custody by mobs during the French
Revolution. He was executed the following January after being put on
trial for treason.
1821 - Missouri became the 24th state to join the Union.
1846 - The Smithsonian Institution was chartered by the U.S. Congress.
1881 - Thomas Edison's exhibit opened the Paris Electrical Exhibition.
1885 - The first electric streetcar, to be used commercially, was
operated in Baltimore, MD, by Leo Daft.
1914 - Austria-Hungary invaded Russia.
1921 - Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio.
1927 - Mount Rushmore was formally dedicated. The individual faces of
the presidents were dedicated later.
1944 - U.S. forces defeated the remaining Japanese resistance on Guam.
1945 - The day after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan announced
they would surrender. The only condition was that the status of Emperor
Hirohito would remain unchanged.
1949 - In the U.S., the National Military Establishment had its name
changed to the Department of Defense.
1988 - President Reagan signed a measure that provided $20,000 payments
to Japanese-Americans who were interned by the U.S. gov't.
during WWII
1993 - A massive deficit-reduction bill was signed into law by U.S.
President Bill Clinton.
1994 - U.S. President Clinton claimed presidential immunity when he
asked a federal judge to dismiss, at least for the time being, a sexual
harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Corbin Jones.
1995 - Norma McCorvey, "Jane Roe" of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court
decision legalizing abortion, announced that she had joined the
anti-abortion group Operation Rescue.
2003 - Ekaterina Dmitriev and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko were
married. Malenchenko was about 240 miles above the earth in the
international space station. It was the first-ever marriage from space.
Overnight blast at police station, shooting at US consulate in
Istanbul kill 1, injure 10 (PHOTOS)
RT - One police officer has been killed, with seven others and
three civilians injured in a “bomb attack” which targeted a
police station in Istanbul's suburb of Sultanbeyli. That blast
was followed by an attack on the US consulate in the city. The
explosion on Sunday night caused a fire at the police station,
located in the Sultanbeyli neighborhood of Istanbul, injuring at
least seven people, Anadolu Agency reported. Part of the
three-story building collapsed and nearby structures were also
damaged, as well as up to 20 vehicles nearby, Dogan news
reported.
Turkey Protecting ISIL to Limit Kurdistan Workers' Party - PKK
Leader
Sputnik News - Turkey is protecting the Islamic State (ISIL), in
order to limit the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the
country, PKK leader Cemil Bayik said Monday. "The Turkish claim
they are fighting Islamic State… but in fact they are fighting
the PKK… They are doing it to limit the PKK's fight against ISIL.
Turkey is protecting ISIL," Bayik told BBC. According to Bayik,
Turkish authorities are behind massacres allegedly committed by
ISIL, and Istanbul's aim is to "stop the Kurdish advance against
[ISIL], thus advancing [their] aim of Turkishness in Turkey."
China approves usage of ruble instead of US dollar for border
city
RT - China's central bank has put the Russian ruble into
circulation in Suifenhe City, Heilongjiang Province, launching a
pilot two-currency (ruble and yuan) program. The ruble is being
introduced in place of the US dollar. The announcement was made
on Saturday by Jin Mei, deputy secretary for monetary policy at
the opening ceremony of a trade exposition in Suifenhe, reported
state-run Xinhua news agency. The newly-adopted initiative is to
promote bilateral trade relations and boost tourism, enabling
Russians traveling to the Chinese region to pay for their
expenses directly in rubles. This year’s six month Russia-China
financial results look promising with yuan-denominated payments
reaching the value of $1.32 billion, added Mei.
'Syria ready to join intl. anti-ISIL bid'
PressTV - "Iraq's government has agreed [to join anti-ISIL
coalition]; the Syrian government has never been requested,
though, I am sure, if Damascus were approached, it could agree,"
Lavrov told Rossiya-1 television channel on Sunday. Russia’s top
diplomat also lashed out at Washington and certain regional
countries for their hypocritical disregard of Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad in their alleged fight against terrorism. “It is
another example of double standards - for the purposes of
eliminating the chemical weapon, Assad was quite a legitimate
counterpart, but for fighting terrorism - for some reason - no,"
he added.
Saudi Arabia's Cash Reserves Dwindling, Forcing It to Borrow
The New American - In an astonishing admission that the Saudis
have gambled with a bet that is now going sour, the Saudi Arabia
Monetary Agency (the country’s central bank) reported: It is
becoming apparent that non-OPEC producers [in the United States]
are not as responsive to low oil prices as had been thought, at
least in the short run… But patience will last only as long as
their foreign reserves of cash, and Saudi Arabia’s reserves
(immense though they be) are dwindling rapidly… It seems they
didn't have any idea that 1) fracking was so much less capital
intensive, and 2) so much more responsive to market prices. Not
to mention how aggressive frackers have been in reducing their
costs, which has allowed many/most of them to remain profitable
even under the falling price scenario.
Scotland Announces Ban on Growing GMO Crops
Activist Post - Today, Scotland’s secretary of rural affairs,
Richard Lochhead, announced a ban on growing genetically
modified crops. According to the BBC: Richard Lochhead said the
Scottish government was not prepared to “gamble” with the future
of Scotland’s £14bn food and drink sector. He is to request that
Scotland be excluded from any European consents for the
cultivation of GM crops. But farming leaders said they were
disappointed by the move. Mr Lochhead said the request for
opt-outs from GM crop consent would cover an EU approved variety
of genetically modified maize and six other GM crops that are
awaiting authorization. He said that Scotland was known around
the world for its “beautiful natural environment” and banning
the growing of genetically modified crops would protect and
further enhance its “clean, green status”.
Japan split over restart of first nuclear reactor since
Fukushima disaster
The Guardian - After months of debate about safety, Japan will
begin producing nuclear energy for the first time in almost two
years close to the town of Satsumasendai as early as Tuesday.
Restarting one of the Sendai nuclear plant’s two 30-year-old
reactors represents a victory for the prime minister, Shinzo
Abe, who insists that without nuclear energy the Japanese
economy will buckle beneath the weight of expensive oil and gas
imports. But his call for Japan to confront its Fukushima demons
has been greeted with scepticism by most voters, whose
opposition to nuclear restarts remains firm, even in the face of
rising electricity bills… Sendai reactor No 1 is one of 25
reactors being targeted for possible restarts.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
NASA signing $490M contract with Russia
The Hill - NASA informed lawmakers on Wednesday that because
Congress has failed to fully fund its Commercial Crew Program
for the last five years, it is signing a $490 million contract
extension with Russia to send Americans to space. The new
contract, running through 2019, means that NASA will continue to
depend on Russia to get its astronauts to space even as tensions
between Washington and Moscow escalate. It will put money in
Russia’s pockets even as U.S. economic sanctions seek to put
pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government over
the conflict in Ukraine. It will also make the U.S. susceptible
to threats from Russia, which in the past has suggested it could
stop taking U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station.
The U.S. has relied on Russia since retiring its space shuttle
program.
Man shot in Ferguson identified as black 18yo Tyrone Harris,
'friend of Michael Brown'
RT - The person shot in Ferguson by a police officer after a day
of commemorating the first anniversary of Michael Brown’s death
has been identified by his father as 18-year-old Tyrone Harris
Jr., of St. Louis, who was “real close” to Brown, the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch reports. "We think there's a lot more to this than
what's being said," Harris Sr. said, according to the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch, adding that his son had graduated from Normandy
High School. Harris Sr. also added that his son had just come
out of surgery early on Monday.
* Related:
Man in critical condition after being shot by police in Ferguson
Fighting Caps on Military Budget, Top Defense
Contractors Increase Lobbying Budget by 25%
AllGov - Companies such as Boeing, General Electric, General
Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and many others ramped up their
spending on lobbying, increasing their budgets by 25% in an
effort to push Congress into giving the Pentagon more money in
the coming years. The Center for Public Integrity reported that
“an army of more than 400 lobbyists” invaded Capitol Hill to
urge increased spending on military hardware. The center said
total lobbying expenditures by the 53 top defense contractors
was up to $58.5 million during the second quarter of this year,
compared to $45.7 million during the same period in 2014.
FBI to begin offering therapy to would-be jihadists in the US
Bizpac Review - The Obama administration has launched a new
approach to deal with potential ISIS supporters in the United
States and it will require the FBI to offer therapy for the
would-be jihadists. And an even more disturbing aspect of the
plan is that there are “thousands of Americans” who fall into
this category. The Wall Street Journal reports: Faced with a
wave of potential homegrown Islamic State supporters, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation is embarking on a new approach
with some suspects: putting them in counseling rather than
handcuffs… Proponents of the intervention model say it provides
a possible “off ramp” from radicalization and addresses a hard
truth: The FBI cannot effectively investigate all of the
thousands of Americans who are believed to be interested in
Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
Jade Helm Martial Law Forces Are Completely Occupying Every
Corner of America
Dave Hodges - The martial law forces of Jade Helm are
everywhere. In the United States, we are witnessing
unprecedented troop movements. Some of the American people are
becoming hyper vigilant as they know, from what they are seeing,
that something is terribly wrong. The following is a small
cross-section of what I receive everyday. The takeover of
America well under way as the country sleeps its way through the
major events and embraces the beginning of a new NFL season.
Los Angeles Mayor Signs Confiscatory Magazine Ban Into Law
Chris Eger - In 60 days, there will be no such thing as a
legally grandfathered civilian-owned magazine capable of holding
more than 10 rounds in Los Angeles. Mayor Eric Garcetti signed
the citywide ordinance Friday prohibiting the ownership of what
the state deems large-capacity detachable firearm magazines. The
controversial measure was introduced by City Councilman Paul
Krekorian and passed the council by unanimous vote on July 28.
Here's the proof a NYC high school diploma is worthless
New York Post - “‘The Three Little Pigs’ story was read
round-robin style in a grade 11 classroom, which demonstrated
limited student access in this class to grade-level text,”
according to the department’s Office of Accountability. A
two-day review of the Chelsea school — which has been flagged
for poor performance — found some obviously “low-level” texts in
other classes as well. But some students at Landmark struggled
to deal with age-appropriate books. “In classes where students
were observed reading challenging text, when asked to answer
simple questions about the text, most either reread the words in
the text or said they did not know,” the report says.
* Related:
Would You Have Wanted This Curriculum in High School?
Trump campaign: ‘Only a deviant’ would misunderstand Kelly
remark
The Hill - Donald Trump is pushing back against the growing
backlash over his most recent comments in an ongoing barrage of
criticism against Fox News host Megyn Kelly. During a phone
interview Friday night on CNN, Trump blamed Kelly’s alleged
mistreatment of him during this week’s GOP debate on having
"blood coming out of her wherever.” In a statement released
Saturday morning, the Trump campaign insisted the billionaire
businessman meant to say “blood was coming out of her eyes and
whatever, meaning nose.” “Only a deviant would think anything
else,” the statement continued. The fallout from Trump’s
interview on CNN came swift, with excoriation from both the
right and the left that culminated with Trump being uninvited to
the 2015 RedState Gathering — a major conservative forum where
many presidential candidates are due to speak — by RedState
founder and Fox News contributor Erick Erickson.
* Related Video/Article:
Donald Trump: No apology...
Gerald Celente Is Predicting That A Stock Market Crash Will
Happen By The End Of 2015
Economic Collapse - Gerald Celente of the Trends Research
Institute has just gone on the record with a prediction that
there will be a stock market crash by the end of this calendar
year... Just a couple of days ago, he told Eric King the
following: “I’m now predicting that we are going to see a global
stock market crash before the end of the year.” Celente says
that it won’t just be U.S. stocks either. He believes that
crashes are also coming to “the DAX, the FTSE, the CAC,
Shanghai, and the Nikkei”. It other words, it is going to be a
truly global financial crisis and he says that there is “going
to be panic on the streets from Wall Street to Shanghai and from
the UK down to Brazil”.
Going Bankrupt Like Trump Did Is for High Rollers, Not
Homeowners
The Intercept - Donald Trump took advantage of the nation’s
bankruptcy laws four times in the last 24 years, and if ordinary
Americans in this country were allowed to do the same, the
country would be in markedly better shape economically, with a
far stronger post-recession recovery… Only one group of people
in America are denied this fully legal, fully rational, fully
American opportunity to wipe the slate clean, and decried as
deadbeats for even thinking about it: The homeowner of a primary
residence, who by law cannot get mortgage debt discharged in
bankruptcy… Only one group of people in America are denied this
fully legal, fully rational, fully American opportunity to wipe
the slate clean, and decried as deadbeats for even thinking
about it: The homeowner of a primary residence, who by law
cannot get mortgage debt discharged in bankruptcy.
Blue Shield of California Must Rebate Some of Huge Obamacare
Profits
Breitbart - Blue Shield of California violated Obamacare’s
mandated requirement that their medical expenditures be a
minimum of 80 percent of healthcare premiums paid. Under the
law, Blue Shield will be required to rebate almost $83 million
to individuals and small businesses. But by destroying small and
regional competition, the supposedly not-for-profit Blue Shield,
after its rebate, still made $52 million more profit under
Obamacare.
Mainstream Media Stock Prices Collapsing as People Choose
Internet Over TV
Activist Post - The long-term decline in viewership for
America’s big TV outlets is finally starting to catch up to
their stock prices. Since 2009, media stocks have been some of
the best performers in S&P 500, but the last few days have seen
$50 billion wiped from these companies. According to Bloomberg,
Ignited by a plunge in Walt Disney Co., shares tracked by the
15-company S&P 500 Media Index have tumbled 8.2 percent in two
days, the biggest slump for the group since 2008…In just five
stocks — Disney, Time Warner Inc., Fox, CBS and Comcast Corp. —
almost $50 billion of value was erased in two days. Viacom slid
14 percent on Thursday alone, its biggest drop since October
2008.
EPA: Amount of mine waste water 3 times original estimate
9News - The Environmental Protection Agency said Sunday the
amount of waste water that spilled from the Gold King Mine and
turned the Animas River orange was three times its original
estimate. Shaun McGrath, administrator from the EPA Region 8
Office, said three million gallons of the toxic water laced with
heavy metals spilled into Cement Creek last Wednesday. McGrath
said the agency updated its initial estimate of one million
gallons after checking a U.S.G.S. stream gauge on Cement Creek…
Sunday marked five days since an EPA team mistakenly released
the waste water from the abandoned Gold King Mine in Silverton.
The orange plume was still moving at about 500 feet per minute,
thinning as it reached areas near Farmington, New Mexico.
Insanity: Turning Smart Meters into a Supercomputer Platform
Smart Grid Awareness - Forbes just published an article where a
company called Hive Computing plans to connect smart meters and
utilize their spare capacity to create a networked
supercomputer... Hive Computing, a start-up company, has an idea
that meshes smart meters and computing. Eric Frazier, Co-Founder
of Hive, has noticed that utility smart meters sit idle over 95%
of the time and have the computing capability of a cellphone....
If in fact the smart meter were to be used for purposes
unrelated to delivery of electrical service, then the duty cycle
for a smart meter could easily approach 50%. That is, the smart
meter could be active 100% of the time, receiving transmissions
50% of the time and sending transmissions 50% of the time. This
would be horrifying news to those who report that their health
is already being negatively affected by smart meter emissions.
VIDEO: EPA crew accidentally turns Animas River orange
CNN - According to the EPA, the spill occurred when one of its
teams was using heavy equipment to enter the Gold King Mine, a
suspended mine near Durango. Instead of entering the mine and
beginning the process of pumping and treating the contaminated
water inside as planned, the team accidentally caused it to flow
into the nearby Animas River. Before the spill, water carrying
"metals pollution" was flowing into a holding area outside the
mine.
Massive Toxic Algae Bloom Spreading Across Pacific Coast
Sputnik News - The massive algae bloom emerged in May and spans
from the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California to
Alaska's Aleutian Islands… The bloom produces a profusion of
demoic acid, a chemical compound that accumulates in shellfish,
sardines, and anchovies. It also works like a neurotoxin on
higher marine life such as sea lions. According to the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, contaminated seafood can
cause amnesic shellfish poisoning in humans which can lead to
short-term memory loss, brain damage, and death… Researchers
believe it was partially spawned by unusually warm water along
the West Coast. Trainer said scientists are also concerned about
the El Nino effect, a recurring phenomenon that alters sea
currents and temperatures.
Facebook Monitors Your Private Messages and Photos For Criminal
Activity, Reports them to Police
Blacklisted News - The software will monitor individuals who
have a ‘loose’ relationship on social media networks, according
to an interview with Facebook Chief Security Officer Joe
Sullivan. Reuters interview with the security officer explains,
Facebook’s software focuses on conversations between members who
have a loose relationship on the social network. For example, if
two users aren’t friends, only recently became friends, have no
mutual friends, interact with each other very little, have a
significant age difference, and/or are located far from each
other, the tool pays particular attention. The scanning program
looks for certain phrases found in previously obtained chat
records from criminals, including sexual predators… The
relationship analysis and phrase material have to add up before
a Facebook employee actually looks at communications and makes
the final decision of whether to ping the authorities.
Gardening, Farming & Homesteading |
How to Harvest, Cure and Store 20 Storage Crops
Mother Earth News - Learn how to harvest, cure and store 20
favorite storage crops — from beans and potatoes to cabbage and
carrots.
Mumps outbreak strikes Illinois college students who already
received TWO MMR vaccines
(NaturalNews) Reports indicate that some 69 cases of mumps have
thus far been reported on the UIUC campus, and most of these,
according to Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH)
Director Nirav Shah, occurred among students who had previously
received two rounds of the combination vaccine for measles,
mumps and rubella. As you may recall, the efficacy of the mumps
component of the MMR vaccine was called into question by two
former Merck scientists who filed a False Claims Act complaint
in 2010. They allege that the vaccine giant fabricated study
data to promote this controversial vaccine as effective, when in
reality it doesn't actually work as claimed… And yet IDPH's Shah
believes the solution is to push more MMR vaccines on students
to supposedly curb the disease's spread. He told the media that,
even though the first two rounds of MMR apparently didn't work
amongst the affected students at UIUC, they should still opt for
a third round of the vaccine because it "could help control the
outbreak," reports Fox News.
These 2 Grapefruit Compounds May Act Through DNA to Stop Cancer
Natural Society - Just in the past few years, scientists have
discovered that two compounds found in grapefruit can aid in
repairing DNA damage, possibly bringing it closer to the 100%
mark. Naringenin is a bioflavonoid found in all citrus fruits in
very small amounts, but grapefruit is the only source of
substantial amounts.... Apigenin is another bioflavonoid found
in high amounts in grapefruit, and also in parsley, onions, and
chamomile tea. It has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects,
as well as anti-tumor properties. Apigenin has been studied
intently in the last few years too.
10 Evidence-Based Health Benefits and Unexpected Uses for
Cinnamon
Natural News Blogs - Cinnamon has been widely used for thousands
of years because of its medicinal properties. It’s quite potent
and can take your health to the next level. Following are some
health benefits that are supported by scientific research and
the recommended ways you can use of this super spice. Try to
incorporate it into your everyday routine to reap the most
benefits.
VIDEO: Service Dog Saves Blind Owner's Life During House Fire
NBC News - Yolanda is a special service dog who has now saved her blind
owner twice from emergency. NBC10's George Spencer talks to Yolanda's
grateful owner.
This Human Delicacy Could Poison Your Dog Fast
Dr. Becker - Chocolate contains the natural stimulants caffeine and
theobromine, both of which are toxic for pets. Dogs are more often the
victims of chocolate poisoning than cats. Small amounts of chocolate can
cause problems for pets. Baker’s chocolate and dark chocolate are the
most common causes of toxicosis in dogs. Symptoms of chocolate ingestion
usually appear within 4 to 5 hours, progress rapidly, and can continue
for 12 to 36 hours. Treatment involves inducing vomiting, administering
activated charcoal, and providing supportive care.
Friday
- August 7, 2015 - Today in History:
1789 - The U.S. War Department was established by the U.S. Congress.
1782 - George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart.
1914 - Germany invaded France.
1928 - The U.S. Treasure Department issued a new bill that was one third
smaller than the previous U.S. bills.
1934 - The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling striking
down the government's attempt to ban the controversial James Joyce novel
"Ulysses."
1942 - U.S. forces landed at Guadalcanal, marking the start of the first
major allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II.
1959 - The U.S. launched Explorer 6, which sent back a picture of the
Earth.
1960 - The Cuban Catholic Church condemned the rise of communism in
Cuba. Fidel Castro then banned all religious TV and radio broadcasts.
1964 - The U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which
gave President Johnson broad powers in dealing with reported North
Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces.
1976 - Scientists in Pasadena, CA, announced that the Viking 1
spacecraft had found strong indications of possible life on Mars.
1981 - After 128 years of publication, "The Washington Star" ceased all
operations.
1987 - The presidents of five Central American nations, met in Guatemala
City, and signed an 11-point agreement designed to bring peace to their
region.
1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush ordered U.S. troops and warplanes
to Saudi Arabia to guard against a possible invasion by Iraq.
2003 - In California, Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he would run
for the office of governor.
2003 - Stephen Geppi bought a 1963 G.I. Joe prototype for $200,000.
ISIS abducts at least 230 after taking town in Homs province, Syria -
monitor group
RT - The hostages were taken in the town of Al Quaryatayn, which is the
biggest capture by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria since
the taking of Palmyra in May.... Al Quaryatayn was taken overnight after
heavy fighting between IS and Syrian army fighters, which involved
several suicide bombing attacks on military checkpoints. The town
occupies a strategic position near a road connecting Palmyra to the
Qalamoun Mountains, along the border with Lebanon.
US-Led Coalition Launches 27 Airstrikes Against ISIL in Syria, Iraq
Sputnik News - The coalition has carried out more than 5600 airstrikes
in its air campaign against the Islamic State.... "The coalition and our
partners on the ground are continuing to tighten the noose around Daesh
[ISIL] in Iraq and Syria," the coalition’s Chief of Staff Brig. Gen.
Kevin Killea said in the statement. “Every member of the coalition plays
a vital role in degrading the terrorist organization, and we are all
working to dismantle Daesh [ISIL[ while limiting their ability to harm
civilians," the commander added. The continuing airstrikes follows a
damning report earlier this week by Airwars project, a group monitoring
the anti-Islamic State coalition’s attacks, which found that more than
450 civilians have been killed in US-led airstrikes against ISIL in
Syria and Iraq since the start of its campaign in 2014.
US Wants Russia to Become More Involved in Anti-ISIL Fight - State Dep't
Sputnik News - Washington wants Moscow to get more involved into the
global fight against the Islamic State terrorist group, US State
Department Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner told journalists on
Thursday.... “Russia hasn’t frankly been very involved with the
coalition or with anti-ISIL [Islamic State] efforts. We certainly would
like to see Russia to become more involved, but at this point we are
still in discussion.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday
Russia had no plans to send its military personnel to fight the ISIL
militants in Syria or to join the coalition airstrikes against ISIL
positions.
US Heavy Military Equipment May Be Deployed in Latvia in 2016
Sputnik News - Formal negotiations on the deployment of US heavy
military equipment at the Adazi base were launched in July. "We do not
know the details at the moment. The coordination with the neighboring
countries where the equipment will also be placed, such as Lithuania and
Estonia, is currently in progress. The implementation will start, more
likely, next year," Bergmanis said Thursday, as quoted by Latvian
internet-media TVNET.
Russia ready to build Suez Canal industrial zone – PM
RT - Russia is willing to take part in establishing a Russian industrial
zone in the new Suez Canal project, Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev told
Egypt’s daily Al-Ahram. The canal’s new 72-kilometer section aims to
attract foreign capital to Egypt.... The two countries are discussing
new joint projects in high-tech, heavy and light industries,
conventional and renewable power engineering, transport engineering,
agriculture, the telecommunications sector, pharmaceuticals, medicine
and education. Egypt’s latest project, called the Suez Canal Axis,
involves a new 37-kilometer waterway and deepening and expansion of the
existing 145-year-old Suez Canal along a 35-kilometer stretch.
Construction on the $8-billion canal extension started 10 months ago.
The new route will reduce navigation time from the current 22 to 11
hours. Both canals will be connected by four smaller waterways and
together will continue to provide the fastest route for shipping between
Europe and Asia.
Greece Makes IMF Repayment Amid Talks With Creditors on Third Bailout
Sputnik News - The payment, made on Thursday, amounts to 186.3 million
euros (about $203.6 million) and is the first timely transfer that
Greece has made to the IMF since the beginning of June. Greece’s next
repayment to the fund is scheduled for September 1. Athens and its
creditors, which include the IMF, the European Central Bank (ECB) and
Eurozone countries, are currently negotiating a new bailout package,
which will be the third provided to Greece by the lenders since 2010.
The press service of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on
Thursday that Athens and its creditors should finalize the third bailout
deal right after August 15. On August 20 Greece is due to make a 3.4
billion euro ($3.8 billion) repayment to the ECB. If Athens does not
reach an agreement with its creditors before that date, it will most
likely need a bridge loan.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
Democrat Think Tank Proposes Breaking Syria up Into “Autonomous
Zones”
Kurt Nimmo - The Brookings Institute — the Democrat think tank
funded by the Ford Foundation, the Rockefellers, and Goldman
Sachs — has called for balkanizing Syria.... Brookings made the
call a few days before the Obama administration declared war on
Syria. It is essentially a rehash of the neocon agenda to
balkanize states in the region not aligned with the United
States, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Russia hacks Pentagon computers: NBC, citing sources
CNBC News - U.S. officials tell NBC News that Russia launched a
"sophisticated cyberattack" against the Pentagon's Joint Staff
unclassified email system, which has been shut down and taken
offline for nearly two weeks. According to the officials, the
"sophisticated cyber intrusion" occurred sometime around July 25
and affected some 4,000 military and civilian personnel who work
for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.... The officials say its not
clear whether the attack was sanctioned by the Russian
government or conducted by individuals. But, given the scope of
the attack, "It was clearly the work of a state actor," the
officials say.
* Related:
The Same Ol’ Story: Russia Blamed for Pentagon Hack, Once Again,
Without Evidence
Former intelligence officials DEMAND Hillary lose her security
clearances
Bizpac Review - Intelligence officials who know the game think
Hillary shouldn’t be a player anymore. In a letter to Secretary
of State John Kerry, a group of former intelligence and security
officers called OPSEC are asking Kerry to revoke “any and all
security clearances” security clearances the former Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton might hold. Hillary’s unapologetic use of
a private email server during her days as the nation’s top
diplomat – and her unwillingness to cooperate with investigators
trying to determine whether classified information was
compromised because of it, make Clinton and her advisers unworth
of trusting with the nation’s secrets, the officers wrote.
Planned Parenthood Head Wants All ‘Bogus’ Videos Released At
Once
Steve Watson - “Spoken like someone who REALLY wants to know how
much dirt they have on her.” The Center for Medical Progress,
responsible for producing the undercover exposé videos on
Planned Parenthood, has hours more footage in the can, and is
deliberately drip feeding it to the public to keep the issue of
organ harvesting from aborted fetuses in the headlines – and
Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards HATES it. Richards took
to Twitter yesterday to complain about the method in which CMP
is releasing the videos: "If you’re concerned about what’s going
on, you should release all at once. Leaking one at a time,
that’s politics."
Planned Parenthood still claims they provide access to
life-saving mammograms
LifeNews - [...] the Secretary of Obama’s Health and Human
Services department defended federal funding for the abortion
giant by mentioning mammograms. Sylvia Mathews Burwell said,
“What I think is important is that our HHS funding is focused on
issues of preventative care for women, things like mammograms.”
However, the truth is Planned Parenthood does not provide
mammograms or breast biopsies or ultrasounds. They don’t help
women catch cancer; instead they refer women to legitimate
health centers that offer those services.
Texas Launches Criminal Probe into ‘gruesome and barbaric’
Planned Parenthood Fetal Organ Harvesting Claims
Adan Salazar - The State of Texas has opened up a criminal probe
into allegations that a Houston Planned Parenthood may be
selling intact fetuses as part of an illegal organ harvesting
scheme. Yesterday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick urged the Houston
District Attorney’s office to investigate “gruesome and
barbaric” claims made in a recent video produced by the pro-life
Center for Medical Progress. “In this video, taped at the
Houston Planned Parenthood Center, the Gulf Coast Director of
Research, Melissa Farrell, discusses selling entire aborted
fetuses for profit,” a statement released by Patrick said.
Texas Sheriffs: Fed Policy Allows Criminal Aliens to Bond Out
and Disappear
Breitbart - Jackson County Sheriff Aj (Andy) Louderback,
immediate past president of the Sheriff’s Association of Texas,
told Breitbart Texas that the federal government’s PEP program
“has created a sanctuary state for criminal aliens because it
has gutted the immigration system.... The sheriffs complained
that aliens are being brought into the criminal justice system
in Texas but are being released into the community because of
the federal policies. In the past, ICE (Immigration and Customs
Enforcement) could place a 48-hour hold on illegal immigrants
when they were wanted on immigration related issues. The PEP
program replaced the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s
(DHS) Secure Communities plan and now that is no longer
possible.
Chicago Police Detained Thousands of Black Americans at
Interrogation Facility
The Guardian - At least 3,500 Americans have been detained
inside a Chicago police warehouse described by some of its
arrestees as a secretive interrogation facility, newly uncovered
records reveal. Of the thousands held in the facility known as
Homan Square over a decade, 82% were black. Only three received
documented visits from an attorney, according to a cache of
documents obtained when the Guardian sued the police. Despite
repeated denials from the Chicago police department that the
warehouse is a secretive, off-the-books anomaly, the Homan
Square files begin to show how the city’s most vulnerable people
get lost in its criminal justice system People held at Homan
Square have been subsequently charged with everything from
“drinking alcohol on the public way” to murder. But the scale of
the detentions – and the racial disparity therein – raises the
prospect of major civil-rights violations.
Federal court rules that bumper stickers, air fresheners are
reasonable suspicion of criminal activity
Police State USA - A panel of judges unanimously held that the
presence of bumper stickers, air fresheners, and religious
symbols in a vehicle can be considered “reasonable suspicion of
criminal activity” during a traffic stop. The case stems from a
March 9, 2011, traffic stop that took place along U.S. Highway
77 in Kingsville, Texas. Officer Mike Tamez of the Kingsville
Police Department observed a Chevy Tahoe with a woman behind the
wheel, going 2 MPH above the posted speed limit. The family
vehicle had a man in the passenger seat and a young girl in the
back. The vehicle’s bumper was decorated with a Drug Abuse
Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) sticker and other “pro-police”
decals. There were also a few rosaries hanging from the rear
view mirror, and some air fresheners visible. From these visual
clues alone, Officer Tamez “concluded that they were probably
drug runners.” He pulled them over for speeding, with the
premeditated intention of searching the vehicle for drugs.
VIDEO: 1st 2016 GOP Presidential Debate (8PM - Part 1 - #1) FOX
News
This is the first "late debate" (at 8PM) consisting of Ted Cruz,
Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Rand Paul, John Kasich,
Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Jeb Bush, and Donald Trump.
(Video #2 end of this segment after stream froze - 4-minutes
long)
* Related:
Transcript: Read the Full Text of the Primetime Republican
Debate
US News & World Report Poll: Who won tonight's prime-time
debate?
Drudge Poll: Who won the first republican debate '16?
Trump To Megyn Kelly: I Don’t Have Time For Political
Correctness And Neither Does This Country
Real Clear Politics - The big problem this country has is being
politically correct. I’ve been challenged by so many people and
I don’t frankly have time for total political correctness. And
to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time either.
This country is in big trouble. We don’t win anymore. We lose to
China, we lose to Mexico both in trade and at the border. We
lose to everybody. Frankly what I say and oftentimes it’s fun,
it’s kidding, we have a good time. What I say is what I say. And
honestly, Megyn if you don’t like it, I’m sorry....
Sparks Fly During GOP Debate When Rand Paul Goes After Chris
Christie: ‘Use the Fourth Amendment!’
The Blaze - Sen. Rand Paul faced off with Gov. Chris Christie
over the Fourth Amendment Thursday during the first Republican
presidential debate. The debate came after moderator Megyn Kelly
asked the New Jersey governor about criticism he has leveled
against Paul over the Kentucky senator’s opposition to the the
NSA’s bulk collection of phone records.
Donald Trump’s Plan to Significantly Reduce Income Taxes
Kurt Nimmo - “Imagine your paycheck was 40 percent higher than
it currently is.” Frontrunner Donald Trump’s plan to radically
reduce income taxes will bolster his popularity with the
American people.... The plan will abolish the estate or “death”
tax, lower tax rates on capital gains and dividends, reduce
corporate tax rate from 39 percent to zero to spur job growth,
and implement a simple “1-5-10-15 income tax plan” to address
and fix the country’s unfair tax system. On Sunday Trump told
CBS he pays as little taxes as possible. “I fight like hell to
pay as little as possible for two reasons. Number one, I’m a
businessman. And that’s the way you’re supposed to do it,” he
said. “The other reason is that I hate the way our government
spends our taxes. I hate the way they waste our money. Trillions
and trillions of dollars of waste and abuse. And I hate it.”
Trump Warns The Fed "Is Creating A Bubble That Could
Explode"(Video)
Zero Hedge - Paul Volcker's "policy and demeanor were very
solid," explains Donald Trump in a brief Bloomberg interview,
point out that the inflation-taming Fed head is a role model for
the type of central banker he would pick. While admitting he
"has always done well in a low rate environment," Trumps slammed
the current Fed's ZIRP for "creating a bubble.. and the bubble
could explode." Trump had - as usual - plenty to say on topics
from Ex-Im Bank (against it as not "free enterprise"), to
campaign financing (favoring full transparency of money in
politics) careful to brag - jabbing at The Kochs - that "I don't
need anybody else's money." BloombergTV "With All Due Respect"
Interview...
Former Halliburton Subsidiary is Suing Sick Military Veterans
they Poisoned
Antimedia - Halliburton, the transnational oil field services
company formerly run by former Vice President and accused war
criminal Dick Cheney, is under public scrutiny again after it
was revealed its former subsidiary is suing Iraq War veterans
for $850,000.
Showdown: State Reps Rally to Stop VA-Ordered Gun Confiscation
of Vietnam Vet
Mikael Thalen - State representatives and citizens alike are
descending on Idaho in an attempt to stop the Department of
Veterans Affairs from confiscating the firearms of a Vietnam
veteran. Idaho State Representative Heather Scott, who first
brought attention to the issue Thursday morning, stated that the
veteran had issued a plea for help after the VA determined him
unable to own firearms following a minor stroke. “Based on an
assessment of a letter I received, I believe that the Department
of Veterans Affairs is coming to a veteran’s home in Priest
River today to check for and confiscate his guns based on
nothing more than a stroke which has left him with some mild
physical impairment,” Scott wrote on her Facebook page.
Job Cuts Soar To Highest Since September 2011 After Mass Army
Terminations, Highest YTD Layoffs Since 2009
Zero Hedge - Challenger Gray, which has done a far better job of
compiling true layoff data, and which reported that in July
there was a whopping 105,696, up 136% from the 44,842 job cuts
in June, and the highest in nearly four years, or since
September 2011, which the last time there were more than more
than 100,000 layoffs.... According to Challenger, more than half
of the July job cuts were the result of massive troop and
civilian workforce reductions announced by the United States
Army. The cutbacks will eliminate 57,000 from government
payrolls over the next two years.
The Dow Has Already Fallen Nearly 900 Points From The Peak Of
The Market
Economic Collapse - In an eerie repeat of what we witnessed in
2008, U.S. stocks are steadily sliding throughout the summer as
we head toward the month of September. From August 1st, 2008 to
September 1st, 2008 the Dow fell by nearly 700 points. And of
course we all remember what happened the following month. Right
now, we are watching a similar thing happen. The Dow has
plummeted nearly 700 points since July 16th, and it is down
nearly 900 points from the peak of the market back in May. At
this point the Dow has now fallen for six days in a row and
eleven of the last thirteen. Of course most of the talking heads
on television are still insisting that everything is going to be
just fine and that a repeat of 2008 is not possible. So what do
you think? Should we trust them?
TBTF Mega Banks Lowering Downpayments and Credit Standards to Keep High
End Housing Market Going
Liberty Blitzkrieg - What do you do when even wealthy people begin to
face an increasingly hard time purchasing a home in a vertical market
completely disconnected from income trends? You reduce downpayments and
lower credit standards, of course. From the Wall Street Journal: The
nation’s largest bank by assets plans to announce Wednesday that it is
lowering the minimum credit score and down payment it requires for
mortgages as big as $3 million. The New York firm’s moves follow similar
steps at Bank of AmericaCorp., Wells Fargo & Co. and other banks on
requirements for “jumbo” mortgages—those that exceed $417,000 in most
parts of the country or $625,500 in pricier markets. At the same time,
some big banks are backing away from smaller loans where they see higher
regulatory costs and litigation risks. Guess it’s gonna be shipping
container apartments for everyone else.
Gulf Of Mexico Dead Zone Has Grown In Size This Summer, NOAA
Says
IBT - A dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, an area with low oxygen
that is harmful to marine life, has grown in size this summer,
scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) said Tuesday. Heavy rainfall in June
across the Mississippi River watershed and a loss of nutrients
in the water were cited as possible causes. This year, the dead
zone is over 5,000 square miles large and is equivalent to the
combined size of Connecticut and Rhode Island, according to NOAA.
Also known as hypoxia, the dead zone is formed mostly from the
overuse of fertilizers on farming land.... Another dead zone is
in the Chesapeake Bay, which researchers at the University of
Michigan in June predicted would be below average this summer.
However, they said that the dead zone would still remain
significantly large.
3D-Printed Drugs Will Bring Hope and Hazards to American Homes
Natural Society - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
just approved a drug created by a 3D printer, in what is
believed to be a first for the agency. The drug, Spritam, is
made by Aprecia Pharmaceuticals and treats seizures. The
medication is expected to reach the market in the first quarter
of 2016.... Eventually, when medical facilities obtain their own
3D printers, it will allow doctors to tailor drugs to be more
specific to individual patients’ needs. Hospitals could adjust
medication doses for people by merely manipulating the software
just a touch before printing, which would be outrageously
expensive to do without the technology.... The inherent danger
of 3D molecular printing is that it will allow people to make
illicit drugs even more readily available, in every quality and
quantity imaginable.
Gardening, Farming & Homesteading |
Top 10 Reasons to Bring Your Kids to the Farmers Market
Natural Blaze - The Farmers Market is a great place to bring
your kids for so many reasons! The Farmers Market allows you to
provide your family with wholesome, healthy food while
supporting your local community at the same time. Here's the
reality - Family farmers need your support! Now that large
agribusiness dominates food production in the U.S., small family
farms have a hard time competing in the food marketplace. Buying
directly from farmers gives them a better return for their
produce and gives them a fighting chance in today’s globalized
economy.
14-Year Study Reveals Top Heart Attack Predictor
Dr. Mercola - After reviewing more than 300 studies to ascertain how
many hours of sleep most people need to maintain their health, an expert
panel concluded that, as a general rule, most adults need right around
eight hours per night. Getting less than seven hours has been shown to
raise your risk of weight gain, by increasing levels of
appetite-inducing hormones. Getting less than six hours of sleep leaves
you cognitively impaired, which can have repercussions both at home, at
work, and on the road. Even a single night of sleeping only four to six
hours can impact your ability to think clearly the next day. Over the
long term, sleep deprivation has been linked to health effects such as
diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's, and even cancer. In one
study, women who got less than four hours of shut-eye per night doubled
their risk of dying from heart disease.
Liver Disease Linked to Gut Bacteria and Leaky Gut
Green Med Info - Much speculation has revolved around the causes for
nonalcoholic liver disease and cirrhosis over the years. New findings
provide surprising links between our gut bacteria, leaky gut and the
liver's health.... This is a chronic disorder that has mystified medical
researchers and doctors over recent years, as the incidence of
nonalcoholic liver disease – also called NAFLD for nonalcoholic fatty
liver disease – has become a crises among western countries.... Several
studies have linked nonalcoholic liver disease with an increase in
pathogenic bacteria within the small intestines.,,, The research found
that the nonalcoholic patients had over double the frequency of small
intestine bacterial overgrowth compared to the healthy patients.
8 Artichoke Health Benefits to Boost Total Health
Natural Society - When prepared right, artichokes can be delicious –
this is no secret. But what many people aren’t aware of is that the
spiny globes (actually called “globe artichokes”) pack quite a
nutritious punch. Below you will learn of 8 artichoke health benefits
that will keep you coming back for that delicious heart.
Independent Lab Confirms Kashi Go Lean Cereal Loaded with Toxic
Glyphosate
Natural Society - An independent lab has found that Kashi’s ‘healthy’
GoLean Original breakfast cereal (owned by Kellogg’s) is loaded with the
herbicide chemical glyphosate. What’s more, it actually contains 6x the
amount of glyphosate previously found in Kellogg’s’ Froot Loops cereal.
Thursday
- August 6, 2015 - Today in History:
1787 - At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia debate began on
the first draft of the U.S. Constitution.
1806 - The Holy Roman Empire went out of existence as Emperor Francis II
abdicated.
1914 - Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia. Serbia declared war
against Germany.
1945 - The American B-29 bomber, known as the Enola Gay, dropped the
first atomic bomb on an inhabited area. The bomb named "Little Boy" was
dropped over the center of Hiroshima, Japan. An estimated 140,000 people
were killed. (8:16am Japanese time)
1960 - Nationalization of U.S. and foreign-owned property in Cuba began.
1965 - The Voting Rights Act was signed by U.S. President Lyndon B.
Johnson.
1985 - The 40th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing brought tens
of thousands of Japanese and foreigners to Hiroshima.
1986 - William Schroeder died. He lived 620 days with the Jarvik-7
manmade heart. Known as the world's longest surviving recipient of a
permanent artificial heart.
1990 - The U.N. Security Council ordered a worldwide trade embargo with
Iraq. The embargo was to punish Iraq for invading Kuwait.
1993 - The U.S. Senate confirmed Louis Freeh to be the director of the
FBI.
1995 - Thousands of glowing lanterns were set afloat in rivers in
Hiroshima, Japan, on the 50th anniversary of the first atomic bombing.
1996 - NASA announced the discovery of evidence of primitive life on
Mars. The evidence came in the form of a meteorite that was found in
Antarctica. The meteorite was believed to have come from Mars and
contained a fossil.
1998 - Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky spent 8 1/2 hours
testifying before a grand jury about her relationship with U.S.
President Clinton.
2012 - The Mars rover Curiosity landed on the floor of Gale Crater. The
Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity spacecraft launched from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, on November 26, 2011.
Russian PM Says External Interference in Syrian Conflict 'Unacceptable'
Sputnik News - According to Medvedev, the actions of the US-led
anti-Islamic State coalition in Syria, as well as Turkish air strikes on
targets in Iraq raise doubts about their legitimacy as they are carried
out without the consent of the UN Security Council or national
governments. "I would like to emphasize that we consider any external
intervention unacceptable. The Syrians must decide who should lead their
country. Nobody has the right to do this for them," Medvedev said in an
interview with Egyptian daily Al-Ahram ahead of his visit to Egypt.
US Rotates More Military Units Back to Iraq, Afghanistan - Pentagon
Sputnik News - In addition, 450 soldiers from III Corps, based at Fort
Hood, Texas, will deploy to Kuwait in September for a 12-month rotation
in the headquarters for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent
Resolve. Some 1,250 soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th
Mountain Division, Fort Drum, New York, will rotate to Iraq in support
of Operation Inherent Resolve, the report cited Davis as saying. Another
300 troops from the 10th Mountain Division based in Fort Drum will
deploy with 1,000 soldiers from the Fort Polk, Louisiana-based 3rd
Brigade Combat Team to Afghanistan to support Operation Freedom
Sentinel, the paper added.
ISIS branch in Egypt threatens to kill Croatian hostage ‘in 48 hours’
RT - An Islamic State affiliate in Egypt has kidnapped a Croatian
citizen working for a French company. In a video released online, the
jihadists are threatening to kill him if Muslim women kept in Egyptian
prisons are not released. The hostage was identified as Tomislav Salopek,
30, from Croatia. He is employed by Ardiseis Egypt, a subdivision of CGG,
a company specializing in oil and gas geology, and based in France. In
the video titled ‘A message to the Egyptian government’, a masked man
with a knife is seen standing near kneeling Salopek, who is dressed in
an orange jumpsuit. The black flag of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/SIL)
is clearly seen in the video.
You Can Add Iraq And Ukraine To The List Of Economies That Are
Collapsing
Economic Collapse - The list of nations around the globe that have
collapsing economies just continues to grow. In recent weeks I have
written about the ongoing saga in Greece, the stock market crash in
China, the debt crisis in Puerto Rico and the economic meltdown in South
America. But there are more economic flashpoints that I have not even
addressed yet. For example, did you know that a full-blown economic
collapse is happening in Iraq right now? And did you know that the
economy of Ukraine is contracting rapidly and that it cannot pay its
debts? Back in 2008, the financial crisis was primarily centered on the
United States, but this time around it is turning out to be a truly
global phenomenon.
Putin, Hollande officially cancel Mistral contract, Paris to pay less
than €1.2bn
RT - Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Francois
Hollande have reached an agreement to cancel the contract for two
Mistral helicopter carriers. Paris will pay Moscow all the costs for the
canceled contact – the sum will be less than €1.2bn.... On Wednesday,
the Russian president's press service said the parties agreed that
Russia will be reimbursed what it had already paid under the contract.
This includes all its equipment and materials.
Hiroshima remembers atomic bomb: 'Abolish the evil of nuclear weapons'
The Guardian - Hiroshima has marked the 70th anniversary of the moment
the city was flattened by an atomic bomb with prayers, a moment’s
silence, and vows to redouble efforts to halt nuclear proliferation. On
a sweltering day in Hiroshima, tens of thousands of people lowered their
heads and stood in silence at 8.15 am, the time the bomb was dropped on
6 August 1945, instantly killing 80,000 people and another 60,000 in the
months that followed.... Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said that
as the only country to have suffered a nuclear attack, Japan had an
“important mission” to promote nuclear disarmament. Abe said Japan would
submit a new resolution to the UN general assembly this autumn calling
for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
* Related:
The Guardian view on the Hiroshima legacy: still in the shadow of the
bomb
US launches first anti-ISIS drone strikes from Turkey
RT - The US has launched its first drone strikes at northern Syria from
a Turkish airbase, the Pentagon has reported. This comes as Washington
struck a deal to use the base in its fight against Islamic State. A
spokesman for Pentagon said on Wednesday that an unmanned drone was
launched on Monday from Incirlik Air Base and that preparations were
underway for strikes inside Syria by manned US warplanes, Reuters
reported.
Greek stocks continue free fall, Tsipras says bailout talks on ‘final
stretch’
RT - The bloodbath on the Greek stock market continued for the third day
in a row, after the exchange reopened following a five-week shutdown.
The Greek banking sector has led the rout, which has wiped out half
their value this week.
Piraeus Bank, Eurobank and Alpha Bank sank almost 30 percent as of 12:30
GMT, while the National Bank of Greece plunged 25.62 percent. The four
banks – National Bank of Greece, Piraeus Bank, Alpha Bank, and Eurobank
– account for 91 percent of Greek banking assets.
Ebola tests negative for Birmingham patient, family members,
firefighters
Alabama Media Group - A patient exhibiting Ebola-like symptoms tested
negative for the virus, authorities confirmed this morning. Six
Birmingham Fire and Rescue firefighters quarantined overnight have also
been released after the test results, Battalion Chief C.W. Mardis said
this morning. The patient has been diagnosed with malaria after two
tests, Mardis said.... The laboratory results were returned Wednesday.
While this person is no longer currently under investigation for Ebola,
public health will continue to monitor until the 21-day period is over.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
Obama accuses Iran deal opponents of luring Congress toward
Middle East war
The Guardian - US president warns against heeding the ‘drumbeat
of war’ ahead of congressional vote, saying the Iran deal’s
dissenters also argued for the war in Iraq. Barack Obama turned
his opposition to the Iraq war into a trump card against critics
of the Iran nuclear deal on Wednesday, in a speech that accused
“armchair” warmongers in Washington of luring Congress toward
another military conflict in the Middle East. As US lawmakers
prepare for a potentially crippling vote of disapproval, his
verbal assault not just on arguments against the deal, but on
the credibility of the hawks making them, marks a new chapter in
what may prove the most intensive legislative battle of his
presidency.
State Dept. ‘Doesn’t Know’ Legal Authority Behind Obama’s Green
Light to Attack Syrian Troops
Paul Joseph Watson - When asked by RT’s Gayane Chichakyan what
the legal basis was for this decision or whether it could be
justified by Congressional backing, the State Department’s Mark
Toner was left dumbfounded. “I frankly don’t know what the legal
authority is,” Toner said, arguing that the measure was
defensive in nature and would only be used if Assad’s forces
attacked US-trained rebels (many of whom have gone on to join
Al-Qaeda affiliate groups and ISIS itself). Toner refused to
admit that the decision represented a major change in US policy,
arguing, “There’s no change in the legal framework, our main
goal is to take the fight against ISIL. Nothing’s changed in
that regard.”
One person detained following reports of shootings at Camp
Shelby
NBC News - Investigators are questioning a person of interest
after shots were reportedly fired a second consecutive day near
a military facility in southern Mississippi, officials said
Wednesday. There were no reported injuries. At about 8 a.m.
Wednesday, soldiers training at the Camp Shelby Joint Forces
Training Center reported shots fired into the air, said Lt. Col.
Christian Patterson. It was in the same area where soldiers
reported gunshots fired from a pickup truck a day earlier,
Patterson said.
New Hampshire Executive Council Votes To Defund Planned
Parenthood
Truth in Media - New Hampshire Executive Councilors Chris
Sununu, David Wheeler and Joe Kenney voted to end the state’s
contract with Planned Parenthood, essentially ending the state’s
funding of the Planned Parenthood of Northern New England
facilities. In a statement, New Hampshire Republican State
Committee Chairman Jennifer Horn said: “The appalling videos
showing Planned Parenthood executives discussing the sale of
human body parts have raised serious and legitimate concerns.
Instead of calling for an investigation of Planned Parenthood’s
potentially criminal activity, Governor Hassan has turned a
blind eye to this controversy and tried to give more taxpayer
dollars to this scandal-plagued organization.
Aborted Human Fetus Brains Are Being Transplanted Into Mice
Steve Watson - While the Planned Parenthood harvesting scandal
rumbles on, fewer news items have actually focused on what those
who procure aborted fetal tissue and organs are actually doing
with it. Pro life website LifeNews.com sheds some light on this
today with a piece that reveals the brains of aborted babies are
being transplanted into mice. The article notes that a recent
commentary piece in The Scientist, entitled “When Does a Smart
Mouse Become Human?” highlights how researchers at the
University of Rochester injected lab mice with glial cells from
human fetuses, and discusses the ethical issue of transplanting
human cells into animals.... The article then goes on to reveal
that the Glial cells were obtained from second trimester
abortions (18–22 weeks), citing a paper in the Journal of
Neuroscience.
Kentucky is Being Investigated for Corruption: Will the State’s
Sordid History of Legal Kidnapping Finally be Punished?
Health Impact News - As part of the “End Corruption Now
Campaign,” the FBI began an investigation into public corruption
in Kentucky, just after a recent Harvard study identified
Kentucky as “one of the most corrupt states in the country.” The
FBI website noted that between 2003 and 2012, approximately 300
individuals were convicted of federal crimes related to public
corruption. MedicalKidnap.com has exposed many stories revealing
the corruption within Kentucky’s Department for Community Based
Services (DCBS) and the unwarranted removal of children from
loving homes. Often these stories reveal blatant violations of
Kentucky citizens’ Constitutional Rights by social workers and
law enforcement when conducting home visits, searching homes,
and removing children, often without a warrant or exigent
circumstances.
Illegal Alien on Probation Allegedly Rapes, Beats Woman with
Hammer During Home Invasion
Breitbart - Victor Aureliano Martinez Ramirez, an illegal alien
who allegedly broke into 64-year-old Marilyn Pharis’s home,
raped her and savagely beat her with a hammer, had been arrested
four times by Santa Maria police in California — and was on
probation at the time of his arrest.... Pharis died eight days
later. Ramirez may face additional charges for murder after an
autopsy is conducted. Police say they “don’t care” that Ramirez
is an illegal alien, who rather than being detained and
deported, was free to rampage through the neighborhood.... Had
he been deported, of course, Pharis would still be alive. Santa
Maria police arrested Ramirez four times in the past two years,
most recently in May 2014. He was on probation when he allegedly
raped and beat Pharis in the dead of night.
Blue Bell gets approval to resume Alabama plant production
Nola.com - Blue Bell can resume production and sale of ice cream
manufactured at its Alabama plant, the Alabama Department of
Public Health announced Wednesday after being shut down in April
because of concerns about listeria. Its ice cream was linked to
10 listeria illnesses in four states, including three deaths in
Kansas. The recall prompted Blue Bell to lay off a third of its
workforce.
Head of Rand Paul Super-PAC Indicted
The Hill - The FBI has charged three members of former Texas
Rep. Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign with conspiracy,
including Jesse Benton, who now runs the pro-Rand Paul super-PAC
America’s Liberty. According to the indictment, Benton, Paul’s
former Campaign Manager John Tate, and former Deputy Campaign
Manager Dimitrios Kesari arranged payments of more than $70,000
to former Iowa Sen. Kent Sorenson to switch his endorsement from
former Rep. Michele Bachmann, who was also running for president
at the time.... Benton’s lawyer, Roscoe Howard, said his client
has fully cooperated with the government during its multi-year
investigation. He said the timing of the FBI’s announcement on
the eve of the first Republican debate was evidence the
investigation is politically motivated.
Appeals court strikes down 'discriminatory' Texas voter ID
Reuters - A U.S. appeals court struck down a Texas law on
Wednesday requiring voters to show authorized identification
before casting ballots, saying the measure violated the U.S.
Voting Rights Act through its "discriminatory effects." The
decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
pertained to one of a series of laws enacted in
Republican-governed states requiring potential voters to show
identification that Democrats saw as intended to disenfranchise
minorities who typically support their party.
'Funtenna' uses sound waves, radio to hack internet of things
RT - A new hacking technique that uses sound and radio waves can
siphon data from devices even without internet access. Showcased
at the Black Hat security summit in Las Vegas, the ‘Funtenna’
hack has the potential to unravel the Internet of Things. By
uploading a malicious program to a device, the hackers can
vibrate the physical prongs on general-purpose input/output
circuits at a frequency of their choice. The resulting
vibrations can be picked up by an AM radio antenna.
Fujifilm's New Camera Is The Closest You'll Get To X-Ray Vision
Medical Daily - Fujifilm says that when they created their X-T1
IR camera, they wanted to design something for crime-scene
investigators, health care workers and scientists. When it comes
to putting the bad guys behind bars, crime-scene investigators
will use infrared imaging to analyze blood splatter, as well as
deep-tissue injuries; they can even use infrared light to find
preexisting text that was scratched-out of documents, or
determine the authenticity of paintings based on the sketching
below the surface. However, on top of all these really cool,
efficient features of the new X-T1 IR comes the somewhat awkward
ability to see through clothing, and capture it. While
completely unintentional, X-T1 IR’s infrared sensing technology
makes it capable of penetrating clothing, albeit very thin
clothing, to uncover what is underneath.
* Related Video:
New Digital Camera Can See You Naked Through Clothes
Wize Mirror May Soon Offer Health Consumers A Way To Detect
Disease Risk Simply By Looking At Your Reflection
April McCarthy - Wize Mirror soon available to consumers, looks
like a mirror, but incorporates 3D scanners, multispectral
cameras and gas sensors to assess the health of someone looking
into it. The mirror will assess health status by examining the
person’s face, looking at fatty tissue, facial expressions and
how flushed or pale they are, including telltale markers of
stress or anxiety, while the gas sensors take samples of the
user’s breath looking for compounds that give an indication of
how much they drink or smoke. The 3D scanners analyse face shape
to spot weight gain or loss, while the multispectral cameras can
estimate heart rate or haemoglobin levels. Wize Mirror is being
developed by a consortium of researchers and industry partners
from seven European Union countries, with EU funding. Sara
Colantonio and colleagues from the National Research Council of
Italy, which coordinates the project, want to use Wize Mirror to
address common long-term health issues that are difficult to
treat once something has already gone wrong, like heart disease
or diabetes.
Adult with chicken pox prompted lockdown at Danville hospital
WKYT - Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center in Danville says
a patient who tested positive for two strains of adult chicken
pox is what prompted a lockdown at the facility Saturday
evening. In a news release, the medical center says it was
determined that isolation of the patient was appropriate.
Because of the lockdown, other patients and visitors were
contained until additional testing could be completed. To assure
that there was no risk to the community, the medical center says
it worked closely with local and state health officials and the
Center for Disease Control.
* Related:
Latest Vaccine Psyop? ER LOCKED DOWN over Chickenpox
The Major Role Soybean Oil Plays in Obesity and Diabetes
Dr. Mercola - Researchers recently designed a series of four
diets to investigate the effects of saturated fats (coconut oil)
versus unsaturated fat (soybean oil) as well as fructose on
obesity and diabetes. Their results show just how very backward
most nutritional advice is when suggesting vegetable oils are
better than saturated fats…Mice fed a high-fat diet from coconut
oil remained healthy, but when soybean oil was added in they had
significant increases in weight gain, body fat, diabetes,
glucose intolerance, and insulin resistance. The addition of
soybean oil proved to be even worse than fructose, the latter of
which did lead to rectal prolapse and fatty liver. The
soybean-oil diet was also found to upregulate genes involved in
obesity, diabetes, inflammation, mitochondrial function, and
cancer.
15 Serotonin Supplements To Boost Mood Naturally
Natural Blaze - Serotonin supplements like specific amino acids,
vitamins, minerals and herbs increase serotonin levels helping
depression and other brain-related disorders. Serotonin is a
neurotransmitter that plays a large role in mood, learning,
appetite control, and sleep. It’s believed that low serotonin is
the underlying cause of depression.
Revealing Graphic Shows What Happens When You Drink a Coca Cola
Natural Society - The following graphic provides shows how
drinking a Coca Cola can have adverse effects on your health,
starting with 10 minutes and ending with 60 minutes.... Because
of the well-known ingredients in Coca Cola such as high fructose
corn sweetener, sucrose in the form of refined sugar, phosphoric
acid, caramel color, caffeine, coca extract, and glycerin, it’s
easy to understand why it has various adverse effects on human
health.
Wednesday
- August 5, 2015 - Today in History:
1833 - The village of Chicago was incorporated. The population was
approximately 250.
1861 - The U.S. federal government levied its first income tax. The tax
was 3% of all incomes over $800. The wartime measure was rescinded in
1872.
1864 - During the U.S. Civil War, Union forces led by Adm. David G.
Farragut were led into Mobile Bay, Alabama.
1884 - On Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor, the cornerstone for the
Statue of Liberty was laid.
1914 - The electric traffic lights were installed in Cleveland, Ohio.
1944 - Polish insurgents liberated a German labor camp in Warsaw. 348
Jewish prisoners were freed.
1953 - During the Korean conflict prisoners were exchanged at Panmunjom.
The exchange was labeled Operation Big Switch.
1963 - The Limited Test Ban Treaty was signed by the United States,
Britain, and the Soviet Union. The treaty banned nuclear tests in space,
underwater, and in the atmosphere.
1964 - U.S. aircraft bombed North Vietnam after North Vietnamese boats
attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
1966 - In New York, groundbreaking for the construction of the original
World Trade Center began.
1969 - The Mariner 7, a U.S. space probe, passed by Mars. Photographs
and scientific data were sent back to Earth.
1974 - U.S. President Nixon said that he expected to be impeached. Nixon
had ordered the investigation into the Watergate break-in to halt.
1981 - The U.S. federal government started firing striking air traffic
controllers.
1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush angrily denounced the Iraqi
invasion of Kuwait.
1991 - An investigation was formally launched by Democratic
congressional leaders to find out if the release of American hostages
was delayed until after the Reagan-Bush presidential election.
1991 - Iraq admitted to misleading U.N. inspectors about secret
biological weapons.
1998 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein began not cooperating with U.N.
weapons inspectors.
2011 - NASA announced that its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had captured
photographic evidence of possible liquid water on Mars during warm
seasons.
2011 - Juno was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a
mission to Jupiter. It was the first solar-powered spacecraft to go to
Jupiter.
2011 - Standard & Poor's Financial Services lowered the United States'
AAA credit rating by one notch to AA-plus.
Greek Bank Stocks Crash Again Amid Fresh Signs Of Economic
Disintegration
Zero Hedge - After trading limit-down on Monday when Greek stocks opened
for trading for the first time since PM Alexis Tsipras called a
referendum, shares of Greek banks once again flirted with the daily 30%
loss limit on Tuesday as there were simply no bids for a set of
institutions that everyone knows is insolvent. Meanwhile, Kathimerini
reports that "the state’s losses from indirect taxes alone in the first
couple of weeks of capital controls and the shuttering of banks
[amounted to] more than half a billion euros.
* "Related:
Greece needs wide debt relief to avoid permanent depression, thinktank
warns
TEPCO Officials To Be Tried for Role In Fukushima Meltdown
Zero Hedge - A Japanese citizens’ judicial committee has overruled
government prosecutors and forced them to bring three former executives
of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) to trial on charges of criminal
negligence for their inability to prevent the 2011 nuclear disaster at
the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. But it appears unlikely that
the defendants can be convicted. The decision by the panel of 22
anonymous citizens, was reached July 17 but not announced until July 31.
It overrules two previous decisions by the Tokyo prosecutors not to
indict the former executives… Decisions by the prosecutors in September
2013 and in January 2015 said they lacked sufficient evidence to bring
criminal charges against the three men… Such citizens’ committees became
a powerful features of Japan’s judicial system after World War II in an
effort to combat government abuse of power. Their members are chosen by
lottery and the panelists’ identities are kept secret. While they’re
powerful, these committees are seldom used.
Heartwarming pics of Beijing hero cop rescuing baby girl from public
toilet (PHOTOS)
RT - The picture of a heroic Chinese cop rescuing a newborn baby girl,
who was dumped in the pipe of a public toilet in Beijing, has captured a
lot of hearts. The baby survived and is now recovering in a local
hospital thanks to her guardian angel. A police station in western
Beijing received a call from locals who said they heard baby crying in
the public toilet. The officer Qian Feng immediately rushed to the scene
and discovered the tiny infant.
Nine people in Birmingham being monitored after possible Ebola exposure
Alabama Media Group - A patient exhibiting Ebola-like symptoms was
admitted to University of Alabama-Birmingham Hospital Tuesday night, and
eight others are being quarantined or monitored after coming into
contact with that patient...Two Birmingham rescue workers who came into
contact with the patient were also taken to UAB Hospital, where they are
being quarantined overnight. Two family members of the initial patient
have been asked by officials to remain inside their home at 1612 17th
Street SW, Birmingham police Lt. Joe Roberts said. Additionally, four
other Birmingham emergency responders were quarantined outside the home
and later taken to a "secure facility inside the (Birmingham) city
limits," where they will remain overnight for monitoring.
* Related:
Man with 'Ebola-like' symptoms under observation at UAB Hospital
The Ebola vaccine we dared to dream of is here
The Guardian - More than 7,600 people in Guinea have received the
vaccine, known as rVSV-ZEBOV, in a study that targeted people from
communities with cases of Ebola. None who received it immediately has so
far contracted the virus. That’s an efficacy of 100%. And not only has
it been shown to be so effective, it has also been well tolerated, with
few side effects. This is rare for vaccines such as this one that
contain a live virus, and it’s something to be thankful for. It is in
fact incredibly unusual for any vaccine to show such efficacy, and so
swiftly, too.
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
Pennsylvania to Become First State to Use “Precrime” Statistics
in Criminal Sentencing
Liberty Blitzkrieg - Pennsylvania is on the verge of becoming
one of the first states in the country to base criminal
sentences not only on what crimes people have been convicted of,
but also on whether they are deemed likely to commit additional
crimes. As early as next year, judges there could receive
statistically derived tools known as risk assessments to help
them decide how much prison time — if any — to assign..
Fifth Planned Parenthood Video: Official Brags That WHOLE BODIES
OF BABIES are “Just A Matter Of Line Items”
Steve Watson - A fifth video has been released that features a
Planned Parenthood official haggling with potential ‘buyers’
(undercover reporters) about the sale of fetal body parts. This
time the official discusses selling INTACT specimens – that is
whole bodies of babies. The video, entitled Intact Fetuses “Just
a Matter of Line Items,” for Planned Parenthood TX Mega-Center
shows Melissa Farrell, director of research for Planned
Parenthood Gulf Coast, talking about how an abortion can be
performed in a specific way to ensure “intact fetal cadavers.”
“So, if we alter our process and we are able to obtain intact
fetal cadavers, then we can make it part of the budget that any
dissections are this, and splitting the specimens into different
shipments is this,” she says, adding “I mean that’s — it’s all
just a matter of line items.”
* Related:
Democrats Who Voted Against Defunding Planned Parenthood Never
Even Watched The Exposé Videos
Corporations including Coca-Cola pull sponsorship of Planned
Parenthood; Pepsi drops use of aborted fetal cells
(NaturalNews) Planned Parenthood's corporate sponsors are
dropping like flies after the women's healthcare nonprofit made
national headlines for its involvement in an illicit organ trade
scheme involving aborted fetal tissue. Coca-Cola, Xerox and Ford
have all told Planned Parenthood to remove their names from its
website, and other corporations like Pepsi that previously made
use of aborted fetal cells in the manufacture of their products
have announced that they're likewise cutting ties.
Feds Investigating Cecil the Lion's Killer - but Planned
Parenthood Still in Clear
The New American - Walter Palmer the hunter is now the hunted,
with worldwide reprobation making him a social pariah and
social-media threats driving him into hiding. And now a federal
investigation into the Minnesota dentist who allegedly poached
famed Cecil the Zimbabwean lion has been launched. Yet Planned
Parenthood, revealed on video to have been selling the body
parts of murdered babies, is receiving relatively little
scrutiny… Then there was yesterday’s procedural vote to defund
PP: It failed with only 53 yea votes, 7 short of the 60 needed
to advance the bill. Forty-six senators opposed it, with all but
two Democrats voting to maintain funding and all but two
Republicans voting to strip it. This means that 46 percent of
senators apparently have little problem with the trafficking in
innocent children’s body parts — and with PP getting more than
$500 million a year in your tax money to help fund the carnage.
FBI Raids Jade Helm Martial Law Preppers
Adan Salazar - Three North Carolina men accused of violating
federal firearms laws were reportedly amassing a weapons arsenal
to fight back against a government martial law takeover, the FBI
claims. On Saturday, federal agents and local and state police
raided a tattoo parlor and two other homes near Charlotte before
arresting three men accused of building explosives and
conspiring to violate federal firearms laws.... FBI documents
reportedly claim the men were preparing to defend against a
martial law scenario which could result out of the Jade Helm
military exercises, the sophisticated, domestic multi-state US
SOCOM training exercise seeking to “master the human domain.”...
Reports have not shown why the FBI believes the men were
prepping for a military exercise taking place in southwestern
states nearly 1,000 miles from their location.
CPS Kidnaps 11 Children from Texas Homeschool Family
Medical Kidnap - Claire Rembis was sick, and had to spend 3 days
in the hospital. Her attack of pancreatitis paled in comparison
to what happened next. The mom from Plano, Texas, came home to a
nightmare that no parent should ever have to face. CPS came and
took her children, all 11 of them, because a “well-meaning”
couple, members of her oldest son’s former youth group, didn’t
think that the 16 and 14 year olds could handle babysitting
their siblings while their dad took the baby to the hospital to
visit Claire.... The children were returned after a few days,
because the removal on July 7, 2015, was reportedly illegal.
However, the family is terrified because the CPS involvement
opened the door to a long list of “services” ordered by the
court – services which threaten to rip the family apart.... Not
only is their homeschooling under fire, but the social workers
allegedly want her to discontinue breastfeeding their 3 month
old baby.
Video Shows Cop Handcuffing Elementary School-Age Disabled Child
Paul Joseph Watson - The ACLU has filed a federal lawsuit in
response to a video which shows a deputy from the Kenton County
Sheriff’s Office handcuffing a disabled elementary school child
to restrain him. Deputy sheriff Kevin Sumner handcuffed two
children, an 8-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl.... The
children are so small that the officer had to handcuff them
around their biceps rather than their wrists. Both of the
children have ADHD and other disabilities. The lawsuit charges
that the actions of the officer caused the children trauma and
pain. It also names names Kenton County Sheriff Chuck Korzenborn,
accusing him of failing to adequately train and supervise
Sumner.
Police Can Now Take Your DNA for Mere 'Suspicion' of A Violent
Crime
Cop Block - On Monday August 3rd, 2015, the Dakota County
(Minnesota) Sheriff’s Office became the first in the nation to
implement a new Supreme Court ruling that allows police to
collect DNA from those arrested for suspicion of a violent
crime. The old laws stated that a conviction must occur before
the state could steal your biological recipe… Although DNA
evidence is often a powerful crime-fighting tool, its collection
presents a number of ethical dilemmas. There remain many known
and even more unknown dangers of an individuals genetic
information being posted on the internet.
Texas introduces bill to mandate GMO labeling
(NaturalNews) Despite a major setback last month when the U.S.
House of Representatives voted 275-150 to pass legislation that
would prohibit states from enacting the labeling of genetically
modified organisms (GMOs), the Right to Know movement continues
to gain traction as it lays its eyes upon the Lone Star State.
Fox announces lineup for GOP debate -- with Trump at center
stage
LA Times - Fox News has announced the lineup for the first
Republican presidential debate, one that will probably be
dominated by the figure standing at center stage, Donald Trump,
whose attention-grabbing skills have allowed him to leap to the
front of a crowded GOP field over the last six weeks. Flanking
Trump in the 10-candidate debate lineup will be Jeb Bush, the
former governor of Florida and onetime GOP front-runner, and
Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin. Sens. Marco Rubio of
Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, former
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey
and John Kasich of Ohio and Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon,
will round out the field.
Bloomberg: Trump ‘Laps the Field’, Dominates GOP in Pre-Debate
Poll
Breitbart - A new Bloomberg poll released Tuesday shows that
billionaire Donald Trump continues to defy conventional
political wisdom. Twenty-one percent of registered voters who
identify as Republicans now selected Trump as their first choice
for president, followed by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush at
ten percent and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker at eight
percent. According to Bloomberg, Trump is leading nearly all
categories in the poll, including evangelicals and those with
incomes over $100,000. Bush beat him by one point among those
defining themselves as moderates.
8 Financial Experts That Are Warning That A Great Financial
Crisis Is Imminent
Economic Collapse - An increasing number of respected financial
experts are now warning that we are right on the verge of
another great economic crisis. Of course that doesn’t mean that
it will happen. Experts have been wrong before. But without a
doubt, red flags are popping up all over the place and things
are lining up in textbook fashion for a new financial crisis. As
I write this article, U.S. stocks have declined four days in a
row, the Dow is down more than 750 points from the peak of the
market in May, and one out of every five U.S. stocks is already
in a bear market. I fully expect the next several months to be
extremely chaotic, and I am far from alone. The following are 8
financial experts that are warning that a great financial crisis
is imminent.
Chinese Companies Find Cheap Labor in the U.S. South
AllGov - Textile companies have started to relocate to states in
the South where labor is cheap by American standards. “The
reasons for Keer coming here? Incentives, land, the environment,
the workers,” Zhu Shanqing, the Keer Group chairman, said on a
recent trip to the United States, according to The New York
Times. Keer opened a cotton mill earlier this year in South
Carolina. Labor salaries have tripled in China over the past
decade, from $4.35 to $12.47 an hour. The average manufacturing
wage in the U.S. is $22.32, which is still higher than in China.
But when the costs of energy and materials are factored in,
Chinese executives have concluded their businesses may be better
off in the U.S. American states can provide tax breaks and
subsidies and the companies get better prices on natural gas and
cotton.
List of Pesticides To Avoid If You Want To Help Save The Bees
True Activist - In recent months, we have been reporting on the
worldwide bee die-off, which is likely the result of pesticides.
Last week, we reported that in the past few years, bee
populations in the US have actually begun to climb, as farmers
and beekeepers avoid pesticides and seek alternatives. Luckily,
you can be a part of the solution also, by avoiding over the
counter pesticides that are known to hurt bees. 2 years ago, The
Center For Food Safety released a list of 68 garden pesticides
that are dangerous to the bee population.
Homeland Security admits CISA info-sharing bill could 'sweep
away' privacy protections
RT - The deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
has admitted that a new cybersecurity bill could “sweep away”
privacy protections, adding that it raises privacy and civil
liberties concerns. The bill could hit the Senate floor this
week… The bill authorizes companies to share information about
cyber threats with “any federal entity.” Any company
participating in the data sharing would be immune from consumer
lawsuits… The data would be exempt from Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) disclosures. Opponents of the bill have argued that
minimal requirements are in place for businesses to erase
personal information before circulating cyber threat information
– dubbed “cyber threat indicators” – before sharing that data
with the government. This has led to worries that such data
could include a range of personal details including credit card
histories, lists of goods purchased, and healthcare records.
FDA Issues its First-Ever Cybersecurity Alert
AllGov - The FDA warned that the Symbiq Infusion System,
manufactured by Hospira, contains vulnerabilities in its
software that could allow a hacker to adjust the dosage of a
drug. The vulnerabilities were first detected by cybersecurity
researcher Billy Rios, and later confirmed by the Department of
Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency
Response Team… In addition, Rios said he has found similar
vulnerabilities in other pumps made by Hospira. The company’s
PCA LifeCare pumps; PCA3 LifeCare and PCA5 LifeCare pumps; and
its Plum A+ model of pumps are all able to be accessed by
hackers, according to Wired.
Gardening, Farming & Homesteading |
Idaho “Ag-Gag” Law Ruled Unconstitutional in Federal Court
ACLU - Idaho’s Ag-Gag law is unconstitutional, the U.S. District
Court for the District of Idaho ruled today. In a landmark
victory for a broad-based public interest coalition of national
nonprofits, including the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF),
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Idaho, and Center for Food
Safety (CFS), the court held that the Ag-Gag law, Idaho Code
sec. 18-7042, violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to
the U.S. Constitution. Today’s decision marks the first time a
court has declared an Ag-Gag statute unconstitutional.
Organic faces growing pains as demand outpaces supply
GovSlaves - Organic food sales have risen by double digits
annually as the public consumes more fruits, vegetables, pastas,
dairy and meats raised and grown without pesticides, genetically
modified crops or antibiotics, among other stringent
requirements. Despite the organic farming’s booming growth —
organic food revenue has tripled over the past decade to a
record $36 billion last year... The industry’s growth isn’t
expected to subside anytime soon, according to the Organic Trade
Association. It predicts sales will increase 12-to-15 percent
annually for the next three years. But the rapid growth has
brought challenges the organic industry is struggling to
address. One of those challenges is demand, which organic
producers are struggling to meet. Shortages of some organic
products has led to sky-high prices. And more livestock
producers, hungry for organic feeds, are importing from overseas
because they can’t find enough in the U.S.
How To Build An All-Natural Heal-Anything First-Aid Kit
Off the Grid News - Take a look inside the average first-aid kit
and you’ll likely find chemical-filled antibiotic sprays and
ointments. While these products tend to be quite effective and
cheap, they are far from natural and holistic. Fortunately, you
can create your own first-aid kit with healthier products
relatively easily.
50 Reasons Why Preppers Need Vinegar in Their Stockpiles
Natural Blaze - As preppers, if we stored a different product
for each of our cleaning needs, we’d need a storage room the
size of Costco to put it all in. That’s why I love vinegar.
Vinegar is multi-purpose, non-toxic and inexpensive. With the
addition of a few drops of essential oil, it even smells good.
There are about a million different ways to use it, and that’s
before you even get into the use of vinegar in some of your
recipes.
Profit over Safety – Centers for Disease Control Names 271 New
Vaccinations
Vac Truth - In a recent article published by Robert F. Kennedy,
Jr., titled Children at Risk – Vaccines, Government & Big
Pharma’s Dirty Money, [1] he highlighted the fact that every
vaccine introduced to the vaccine schedule guarantees its
manufacturer millions of customers, increasing vaccine revenue
by billions of dollars. However, it appears that a minimum of 56
doses of 14 vaccinations before the age of eighteen is not quite
lucrative enough for the pharmaceutical industry, as according
to Mr. Kennedy’s research, the CDC has 271 new vaccinations
under development in the hopes that vaccine revenues will reach
a staggering $100 billion by 2025.
FDA Adds Heart Attack and Stroke Warning to Some Painkillers -
Try This Instead
Natural Blaze - Earlier this month, the FDA announced it would
be strengthening its warnings on non-aspirin nonsteroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), updating what is already
printed on many NSAID labels about the drugs’ increased risk of
heart attack or stroke. The updated labels will include language
which warns that these serious side effects can occur as early
as the first few weeks of using an NSAID; that the risk may
increase with longer use of the NSAID; and that the risk appears
greater at higher doses.... The good news is there is research
and clinical evidence supporting natural solutions for pain that
are non-addictive and cost-effective....
Boost Your Immunity Naturally — with Elderberry
Natural News Blogs - Battling a serious disease, such as cancer,
is sometimes a matter of weighing the odds: potent, life-saving
treatments may come with their own set of risks and side
effects. A bout of chemotherapy or radiation may leave the body
in a weakened state, with a compromised immune system. But
natural supplements and health-giving extracts, such as those
made with European Elderberry (Sambucus nigra), are giving new
hope in the fight to return to health. Elderberry’s
antibacterial and antiviral power may help shift the balance
back to wellness faster, giving the immune system a much-needed
boost against bacterial and viral infections.
Tuesday
- August 4, 2015 - Today in History:
1735 - Freedom of the press was established with an acquittal of John
Peter Zenger. The writer of the New York Weekly Journal had been charged
with seditious libel by the royal governor of New York. The jury said
that "the truth is not libelous."
1753 - George Washington became a Master Mason.
1790 - The Revenue Cutter Service was formed. This U.S. naval task force
was the beginning of the U.S. Coast Guard.
1821 - "The Saturday Evening Post" was published for the first time as a
weekly.
1914 - Britain declared war on Germany in World War I. The U.S.
proclaimed its neutrality.
1922 - The death of Alexander Graham Bell, two days earlier, was
recognized by AT&T and the Bell Systems by shutting down all of its
switchboards and switching stations. The shutdown affected 13 million
phones.
1944 - Nazi police raided a house in Amsterdam and arrested eight
people. Anne Frank, a teenager at the time, was one of the people
arrested. Her diary would be published after her death.
1972 - Arthur Bremer was found guilty of shooting George Wallace, the
governor of Alabama. Bremer was sentenced to 63 years in prison.
1977 - U.S. President Carter signed the measure that established the
Department of Energy.
1987 - The Fairness Doctrine was rescinded by the Federal Communications
Commission. The doctrine had required that radio and TV stations present
controversial issues in a balanced fashion.
1990 - The European Community imposed an embargo on oil from Iraq and
Kuwait. This was done to protest the Iraqi invasion of the oil-rich
Kuwait.
1997 - Teamsters began a 15-day strike against UPS (United Parcel
Service). The strikers eventually won an increase in full-time positions
and defeated a proposed reorganization of the company's pension plan.
2007 - NASA's Phoenix spacecraft was launched on a space exploration
mission of Mars. The Phoenix lander descended on Mars on May 25, 2008.
2009 - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il pardoned two American
journalists, who had been arrested and imprisoned for illegal entry
earlier in the year.
Saudi-Led Coalition Deploys Nearly 3,000 Troops in Yemen - Reports
Sputnik News - A ground force of 2,800 pro-government troops,
accompanied by tanks and armored personnel carriers, pushed toward a
Houthi-controlled military base in Yemen Monday as Saudi-led coalition
airstrikes cleared their path. The al-Anad military base, located just
north of Yemen’s port city of Aden, is the main Houthi encampment in the
country's south… The ground forces are comprised mostly of Saudi special
operations, intelligence and logistics personnel supported by personnel
and equipment from the United Arab Emirates and trained Yemeni fighters,
a coalition force told Defense News.
Anger in Athens as Troika Set to Demand More Austerity Measures
Sputnik News - The Greek bailout talks are set to hit troubled waters
yet again, as it emerged that its creditors - the International Monetary
Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Eurozone members -
are set to demand Athens passes even more austerity measures.
Negotiations over the third bailout since 2010 were only started
Tuesday, following a series of delays. As a pre-requisite of the third
bailout talks beginning, Greece was forced to pass legislation on tax
and pension reform, as well as other issues.
VIDEO: Bin Ladens Die In Plane Crash In Perfect Conditions
InfoWars - Three members of the extensive Bin Laden family, Osama’s
stepmother, half sister and her husband suspiciously died in a plane
crash on Friday. The Saudi owned Embraer Phenom 300 private Jet crashed
into a British Car Auction lot on the edge of the Blackbushe Airport in
Hampshire, England, wiping out roughly 30 cars and killing everyone
onboard, including the Jordanian pilot.
* Related:
Osama Bin Laden's stepmother and sister 'killed in Hampshire private jet
crash'
Taking sides in Syrian civil war? Obama authorizes airstrikes ‘to
defend’ US-trained rebels
RT - The US president has reportedly authorized the Air Force to protect
Syrian rebels trained by Washington to fight against Islamic State by
bombing any force attacking them, including Syrian regular troops. Thus
the US may become involved in the Syrian civil war on the rebel side.
The change was first reported by US officials speaking on condition of
anonymity with the Wall Street Journal Sunday. The first airstrikes to
protect American trainees in Syria have already taken place on Friday,
July 31, when the US Air Force bombed unidentified militants who
attacked the compound of the US-trained rebels. So far the fighter jets
of the anti-Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) US-led coalition have
been bombing jihadist targets in Syria’s north and the national air
defense units were turning a blind eye to foreign military aircraft in
their airspace.
Hundreds of civilians killed in US-led air strikes on Isis targets –
report
The Guardian - The air campaign against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria
has killed more than 450 civilians, according to a new report, even
though the US-led coalition has so far acknowledged just two
non-combatant deaths. More than 5,700 air strikes have been launched in
the campaign, which nears its first anniversary this Saturday, with its
impact on civilians largely unknown. Now Airwars, a project by a team of
independent journalists, is publishing details of 52 strikes with what
it believes are credible reports of at least 459 non-combatant deaths,
including those of more than 100 children.
Greek shares nosedive as manufacturing data reveals economy in shock
The Guardian - The full extent of the damage caused by the Greek crisis
was laid bare when the first day of stock market trading after five
weeks of economic paralysis saw shares lose a sixth of their value. Bank
stocks bore the brunt of a wave of pent-up selling that eclipsed
anything seen in the past three decades on the Athens stock market, with
three of the leading Greek financial institutions losing the maximum 30%
permitted in a single day’s trading.
First Default By U.S. Commonwealth In History: Puerto Rico Fails To Make
Required Debt Payment
Zero Hedge - Over the weekend Puerto Rico was supposed to make a modest
principal and interest payment of some $58 million due on Public Finance
Corp. bonds, which however few expected would be satisfied… Melba
Acosta, president of the Government Development Bank, confirmed as much,
when he announced that only $628,000 of the $58 million payment, or just
about 1%, had been paid… In other words, small or not, PR has failed a
mandatory principal repayment and is now in default under the PFC bonds.
Up next, as per Bloomberg's preview "the default promises to escalate
the debt crisis racking the island, where officials are pushing for what
may be the biggest restructuring ever in the municipal market."
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
Drones Buzzing Airports; THREE Planes Narrowly Miss UAVs As
Homeland Security Warns Of Terror Attacks
Steve Watson - In three separate incidents this past weekend,
drones were witnessed buzzing planes close to airports, with one
pilot having to literally swerve to avoid hitting a remotely
operated aircraft.... The reports come in tandem with a bulletin
issued by The Department of Homeland Security warning police
that there is an increasing risk that a terror attack will be
carried out using drones. While the alert did not identity a
specific security threat, it warned of “emerging adversary use
of Unmanned Aircraft Systems present detection and disruption
challenges.”... The FAA says it is now receiving on average two
reports per day from pilots saying they have seen drones. The
machines are banned within five miles of airports, and are not
permitted to fly above 400 feet.
Huntington Park to allow immigrants in U.S. illegally to serve
on commissions
LA Times - In a move likely to heighten debate about illegal
immigration, a Huntington Park city councilman said Monday he
will appoint two immigrants in the U.S. illegally to become
commissioners on city advisory boards. The move is an effort to
give people here illegally a voice in government in a part of
Los Angeles County that has long drawn immigrants from Latin
America.
Senate blocks Planned Parenthood defunding measure
Reuters - Republican legislation to cut off federal funding for
Planned Parenthood failed to gather enough support in the U.S.
Senate on Monday, halting at least for now moves to punish the
women's health group for its role in gathering fetal tissue from
abortions for medical research. Senate Democrats succeeded in
stopping the bill on a procedural vote. Sixty votes were needed
to advance it in the 100-person chamber. It received 53 votes,
with 46 senators opposing it.... Republicans are likely to try
again in September to stop Planned Parenthood from getting
federal funds, which currently amount to more than $500 million
a year.
Louisiana Cuts Off Planned Parenthood Funding
Kit Daniels - Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has cut off state
taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood in the wake of shocking
videos showing the organization harvesting baby organs for
profit. Not only has Jindal blocked Medicaid money to Planned
Parenthood of the Gulf Coast on Monday, but he also barred the
State Dept. of Health and Hospitals from funding the
organization.
Federal Court Rules 2-1 that Florida can Punish Doctors for
Talking to Patients about Guns
AllGov - A federal appeals court for the second time has
affirmed a Florida law that forbids physicians from asking
patients about gun ownership. The Florida Firearm Owners Privacy
Act prohibits doctors from asking patients whether there are
guns in their home. It also bans recording information about gun
ownership.... A federal judge subsequently halted enforcement of
the law, ruling that it was a violation of the First Amendment.
But two Republican-appointed judges on a panel from the 11th
Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the injunction, first in
July 2014 and again on Tuesday.
73% of Inmates who Die in Jail Haven’t been Convicted of a Crime
AllGov -Being arrested for a crime isn’t supposed to be the same
thing as being convicted, yet many people awaiting trial suffer
the ultimate penalty—death—while they’re in custody. A report (pdf)
by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) shows that 73% of
those who die in jail haven’t been convicted of a crime. In
addition, 29% of those who die are African-American, more than
double their percentage of the U.S. population at large. Studies
have shown that black people are more likely to be held while
awaiting trial, partly because they are assigned higher bail
amounts, by thousands of dollars, than whites are. For that
reason, African-Americans are more likely to be stuck in jail
awaiting trial even for minor offenses.
Rand Paul Names Russia, China as First State Visits if Elected
Sputnik News - The GOP senator from Kentucky was joined by 16
major and minor Republicans who had thrown their hats in the
race. Multibillion real estate mogul Donald Trump, who leads all
Republicans in the polls, was not included in the Voters First
Forum. "As far as the first country I will travel to… I would
say either China or Russia," Paul said at the Voters First Forum
in New Hampshire via teleconference on Monday. Paul stressed it
is important for the United States to "engage with the world."
"I think that even though China is sometimes our adversary,
Russia is sometimes our adversary, we do interact with these
once great superpowers and emerging superpowers." The first
sanctioned Republican debate is scheduled for Thursday.
Jimmy Carter Rages At What The U.S. Has Become: "Just An
Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery"
Zero Hedge - On July 28th, Thom Hartmann interviewed former U.S.
President Jimmy Carter, and, at the very end of his show (as if
this massive question were merely an afterthought), asked him
his opinion of the 2010 Citizens United decision and the 2014
McCutcheon decision, both decisions by the five Republican
judges on the U.S. Supreme Court. These two historic decisions
enable unlimited secret money (including foreign money) now to
pour into U.S. political and judicial campaigns. Carter
answered: "It violates the essence of what made America a great
country in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy,
with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting
the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the
same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress
members. So now we’ve just seen a complete subversion of our
political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and
expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the
election’s over."
Donald Trump Looms Large over First GOP Presidential Debate
Breitbart - While candidates and their teams have spent hours
privately strategizing how best to tackle the billionaire
businessman in Thursday’s debate, they publicly discounted the
idea of Trump’s rise even as a new poll showed the billionaire
businessman continuing a summer surge.... A new NBC News/Wall
Street Journal poll released on Sunday showed Trump as the first
choice of 19 percent of GOP primary voters, followed by
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at 15 percent and Florida Gov. Jeb
Bush at 14 percent. Fox News, host of the Aug. 6 debate, intends
to allow onstage only the 10 candidates who fare best in polling
averages from the five most recent national public opinion
surveys as of Tuesday evening. Candidates who do not qualify for
the debate will be invited to participate in a forum to be aired
on the afternoon of the debate.
As debate looms, Rand Paul sees a chance to be the GOP dove
Washington Post - The first Republican debate of the 2016
presidential campaign, said Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, will be
between him and people who “want to blow up the world.... “I
want to be known as the candidate who’s not eager for war, who
thinks war’s the last resort,” Paul said on a weekend swing
through Iowa. “When we fight, we fight to win, but much of our
involvement has led to consequences that made us less safe.
You’ll see that come into sharp distinction.” Paul’s approach
almost ensures that there will be a vigorous debate Thursday
night over foreign policy, an issue that many Republicans see as
a major distinction between them and Democrats.
Crashing: Apple, Twitter, Oil, Commodities, Greek Stocks,
Chinese Stocks
Economic Collapse - Tech stocks are crashing, oil is crashing,
industrial commodities are crashing, Greek stocks crashed the
moment that the Greek stock market reopened for trading, and
Chinese stocks continue to crash. At this point we have not seen
a broad crash of U.S. stocks yet, but it is important to note
that the Dow is already down more than 700 points from the peak
in May. If it continues to slide like it has in recent days, it
won’t be too long before we will officially reach “correction”
territory.
Adult Medical Kidnapping in New York: 1950s Air Force Veteran
Held Hostage in Hospital
Health Impact News - Laredo Regular just wants to take his
grandfather home, but a New York Hospital is keeping him
hostage... Not happy with the medical treatment his grandfather
was receiving, Laredo and his mom sought to transfer him to a
different facility. They are the holder of a Health Proxy as
well as POA (power of attorney) for their family member, and
filled out the required forms for an AMA (or Against Medical
Advice) hospital discharge. But the hospital would not discharge
him, and later both Laredo and his mother were dragged out of
the hospital room and banned from the hospital. The Laredo
family has sought help through various legal entities—the
police, attorneys, and the political system; all of whom, we are
told, are in complete agreement with the family, but have not
been able to get the hospital to budge from its decision to hold
the grandfather against their will.
San Fran Residents Pay $1,000 a Month to Live in Shipping Containers
Liberty Blitzkrieg - Luke Iseman has figured out how to afford the San
Francisco Bay area. He lives in a shipping container. The Wharton School
graduate’s 160-square-foot box has a camp stove and a shower made of old
boat hulls... “It’s not making us much money yet, but it allows us to
live in the Bay Area, which is a feat,” said Iseman, 31, who’s
developing a container-house business... Iseman used to pay $4,200 a
month in San Francisco’s Mission District for a two-bedroom apartment
with a slanted floor and mosquito-breeding puddles.
Monsanto sued over PCB contamination of Spokane River in
Washington state
RT - Struggling with the pollution of the Spokane River, a town
in the state of Washington is taking agrochemical giant Monsanto
to court for selling chemicals that endanger human health and
the environment, despite it allegedly having known of the hazard
for decades.... “No company should be allowed to contaminate the
environment and rely upon taxpayers to clean up the mess,”
Attorney Scott Summy, a shareholder at Baron & Budd, P.C., one
of two firms representing Spokane in the lawsuit said.
“Monsanto, one of the most sophisticated chemical companies in
the world, knew decades ago that PCBs were a significant
contamination threat. And yet the company was concerned more
with continuing profits than with protecting the public.”
VIDEO: California wildfires torch 134,000 acres -- and counting
(CNN) Firefighters worked Monday in steep terrain and other
rugged conditions to fight California's Rocky Fire, one of
nearly two dozen wildfires that have torched more than 134,000
acres of the parched state this year, according to state fire
officials. That's nearly three times the state's 5-year wildfire
average of 48,153 acres for this time of year, according to
statistics posted by the California Department of Forestry and
Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. At 60,000 acres, the Rocky Fire is
the largest ongoing blaze.
‘Gene drive': Scientists sound alarm over supercharged GM
organisms which could spread in the wild and cause environmental
disasters
The Independent - The development of so-called “gene drive”
technology promises to revolutionise medicine and agriculture
because it can in theory stop the spread of mosquito-borne
illnesses, such as malaria and yellow fever, as well as
eliminate crop pests and invasive species such as rats and cane
toads. However, scientists at the forefront of the development
believe that in the wrong hands gene-drive technology poses a
serious threat to the environment and human health if
accidentally or deliberately released from a laboratory without
adequate safeguards. Some believe it could even be used as a
terrorist bio-weapon directed against people or livestock
because gene drives – which enable GM genes to spread rapidly
like a viral infection within a population – will eventually be
easy and cheap to generate.
Are DHS 'front' companies capturing your kids irises and
fingerprints?
MassPrivateI - Virginia Commonwealth University is the latest
school to record your kids biometrics. VCU announced last week
it had added two iris cameras to their campus dining hall.
Students won't need their ID to enter the dining center
anymore," said Stephen Barr, the director of campus services who
oversees VCU Dining Services. "With iris identification, it’s as
simple as a camera taking a picture of their eyes and two
seconds later they walk through." The iCAM 7100 iris cameras,
made by ColorID, take a high-definition photo of the user's iris
and then identify 220-plus unique points. It then generates a
number, which is associated with that individual meal plan
holder's iris.
Gardening, Farming & Homesteading |
How to Make Homemade Lacto-Fermented Crunchy Dill Pickles
Health Impact News - Besides the health benefits, one of the
many wonders of using lactic acid fermentation as a means of
preserving food is its versatility. While this recipe has that
perfect dill and garlic cucumber pickle flavor, the recipe can
be applied to any similar organic vegetable coming from the
garden or market such as zucchini, yellow summer squash, Swiss
chard stems, and even organic watermelon rinds.
Blood Clots: ‘The Silent Danger of Road Trips’
Natural Society - Many are quick to dismiss the necessity of making ‘pit
stops’ as they travel by automobile with the excuse that they must
arrive at the destination on time. Many do not even consider the
profound changes in the body which can occur by sitting in the same
position for prolonged periods of time. Of course, there are multiple
risk factors at play, including heredity, health status, and dietary
intake, which ought to be taken into consideration. Likewise, there are
various medical conditions and health problems that clearly increase the
potential for deep vein thrombosis (a blood clot that forms in a vein
deep in the body). Diabetes and obesity, metabolic syndrome, and
hypertension are just a few of those which should alert an individual to
their enhanced risk of a DVT event.
Exercise Reduces Your Cancer Risk
Dr. Mercola - For starters, exercise drives your insulin levels down,
and controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to
reduce your cancer risk. It's also been suggested that apoptosis
(programmed cell death) is triggered by exercise, causing cancer cells
to die. Exercise also improves the circulation of immune cells in your
blood. The job of these cells is to neutralize pathogens throughout your
body, as well as destroy precancerous cells before they become
cancerous. The better these cells circulate, the more efficient your
immune system is at defending itself against infections and diseases
like cancer.
10 Signs You Need a Vacation
Dr. Mercola - Americans are taking fewer vacation days than they did 15
years ago, often not taking all of their earned vacation days, according
to a survey by the US Travel Association. But the decision to put work
over family and friends can lead to burnt bridges among personal
relationships that can make your life richer for decades to come.... In
short, many Americans find it hard to find a suitable work-life balance
that allows them to pay the bills and earn financial security while
still spending time with family and having ample free time for their own
sanity. If it’s been awhile since your last vacation, you may be
starting to feel it. Lack of adequate time off can manifest in many
mysterious (and not so mysterious) ways, as the list below, compiled by
TIME, explains.
4 Disturbing Reasons to Pay Attention to Your Salad Dressing
Natural Society - If you are using salad dressing from a salad bar,
grocery store, or restaurant, you are likely indulging in GMO-riddled,
unhealthy dressing.
Monday
- August 3, 2015 - Today in History:
1492 - Christopher Columbus left Palos, Spain with 3 ships. The voyage
led him to what is now known as the Americas.
1750 - Christopher Dock completed the first book of teaching methods. It
was titled "A Simple and Thoroughly Prepared School Management."
1777 - During the Siege of Fort Stanwix the first U.S. flag was
officially flown during battle.
1914 - Germany declared war on France. The next day World War I began
when Britain declared war on Germany.
1923 - Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th president of the U.S.
after the sudden death of President Harding.
1933 - The Mickey Mouse Watch was introduced for the price of $2.75.
1936 - The U.S. State Department advised Americans to leave Spain due to
the Spanish Civil War.
1943 - Gen. George S. Patton verbally abused and slapped a private.
Later, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered him to apologize for the
incident.
1956 - Bedloe's Island had its name changed to Liberty Island.
1958 - The Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole
underwater. The mission was known as "Operation Sunshine."
1981 - U.S. traffic controllers the Professional Air Traffic Controllers
Organization, went on strike. They were fired just as U.S. President
Reagan had warned.
1988 - The Iran-Contra hearings ended. No ties were made between U.S.
President Reagan and the Nicaraguan Rebels.
1990 - Thousands of Iraqi troops pushed within a few miles of the border
of Saudi Arabia. This heightened world concerns that the invasion of
Kuwait could spread.
1992 - The U.S. Senate voted to restrict and eventually end the testing
of nuclear weapons.
1995 - Eyad Ismoil was flown from Jordan to the U.S. to face charges
that he had driven the van that blew up in New York's World Trade
Center.
2004 - In New York, the Statue of Liberty re-opened to the public. The
site had been closed since the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on
September 11, 2001.
2004 - NASA launched the spacecraft Messenger. The 6 1/2 year journey
was planned to arrive at the planet Mercury in March 2011. On April 30,
2015, Messenger crashed into the surface of Mercury after sending back
more than 270,000 pictures.
2009 - Bolivia became the first South American country to declare the
right of indigenous people to govern themselves.
Pentagon Authorizes Air Support for US-Backed Forces in Syria
Sputnik News - The United States, doubting the legitimacy of the Syrian
government, has been supporting moderate Syrian opposition through
training and equipment programs. The new rules authorize attacks even on
the Syrian government forces if they clash with the US-trained groups.
“President Barack Obama has authorized using air power to defend a new
US backed fighting force in Syria if it is attacked by Syrian government
forces or other groups,” the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
According to the Wall Street Journal, US officials consider that this
decision finalized the discussion about the role of US army in the
Syrian conflict.
Greek Shares Collapse as Exchange Market Reopens
Sputnik News - The Athens Stock Exchange lost 22.87 percent after the
market opened for the first time in five weeks, the BBC said on Monday.
Greece's four major banks, Piraeus Bank, National Bank, Alpha Bank, and
Eurobank, suffered the biggest losses, falling on average by 30 percent
each, according to the news outlet. The five-week suspension was
instituted to prevent the Greek banking system from collapsing. Greece's
total state debt currently stands at $350 billion, of which some $270
billion is owed to its main international creditors, the European
Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and some eurozone
countries.
US to Continue Supporting Egyptian Army in Fight Against Terrorism –
Kerry
Sputnik News - The United States will continue aiding the Egyptian
military to help the country combat terror threat, US Secretary of State
John Kerry said Sunday. Earlier in the day, Kerry, who began his Middle
East tour on Saturday, arrived in Cairo to meet with his Egyptian
counterpart Sameh Shoukri and President Abdel Fattah Sisi. It is the
first leadership-level meeting between the two countries since 2009.
Washington “will continue to provide robust training to the Egyptian
military” in order to build capacity and professionalism to efficiently
combat terrorism, Kerry said at the meeting in Cairo.
Calais migrant crisis: French riot police use chemical spray on migrants
trying to enter Channel Tunnel
The Independent - French riot police have sprayed migrants with chemical
irritants as they attempted to enter the Channel Tunnel late on Saturday
night. An estimated 200 migrants broke down several security fences and
were forced to retreat by riot police as they tried to break through the
final fence near the entrance of the 30 mile English Channel. The group
clashed with security forces for nearly an hour, reportedly chanting
slogans such as “Open the border” and “We are not animals”. In recent
weeks thousands of migrants have been scaling fences near the tunnel
attempting to jump onto freight trains or trucks heading for Britain.
Productivity Soars When Chinese Factory Replaces 90% of Staff With
Robots
Sputnik News - Replacing 90% of personnel with robots at a tech factory
in China’s Dongguan city increased productivity by an astonishing 162%.
The new robotic workforce at the Changying Precision Technology
Company’s factory has rapidly expanded the facility’s production
capacity from 8,000 items per worker to 21,000, almost tripling output,
according to the People's Daily… A human staff of 650 has been whittled
down to only 60. There are now 60 robotic arms, which work 24 hours a
day on ten production lines, according to the Times of India. The
facility is almost exclusively run by robots – almost every piece of
equipment, including trucks for transporting the manufactured goods,
work without human assistance.
UK: 3-Year-Old Deemed ‘Potential Terrorist,’ Placed Under Gov’t Care
Off the Grid News - A 3-year-old child in London has been labeled a
“potential terrorist” and placed under social workers’ care and police
surveillance because of his or her family’s religious beliefs. The
unidentified child was one of 1,069 Londoners placed in an
“anti-extremism program” by the British government, The Evening Standard
newspaper reported. “The three-year-old is from Tower Hamlets [in
London] and was referred as ‘part of a wider family group’ that had been
displaying alarming behavior,” The Standard noted.... The idea behind
the program is to prevent children who apparently come from Muslim
families from being “radicalized” into Islamic terrorists and recruited
into organizations like ISIS, The Standard reported.
Fukushima Daiichi Decommissioning: Follow The Money
Green Med Info - In Fairewinds' latest video, Chief Engineer and nuclear
expert Arnie Gundersen updates viewers on what's going on at the
Japanese nuclear meltdown site, Fukushima Daiichi. As the Japanese
government and utility owner Tokyo Electric Power Company push for the
quick decommissioning and dismantling of this man-made disaster, the
press and scientists need to ask, "Why is the Ukrainian government
waiting at least 100 years to attempt to decommission Chernobyl, while
the Japanese Government and TEPCO claim that Fukushima Daiichi will be
decommissioned and dismantled during the next 30 years?"
U.S. News, Politics & Government |
NSA paid Utah over $1M to guard data center roads - records
(AP) - The National Security Agency has paid Utah more than $1
million over the past year and a half for state troopers to
guard the entrance to the spy agency's massive data center south
of Salt Lake City, according to Utah Highway Patrol records.
From January 2014 through March of this year, the NSA has paid
for state troopers to sit in their vehicles on roads outside the
agency's data storage warehouse in Bluffdale and ensure no one
blocks traffic. A group opposed to government surveillance has
staged occasional protests outside the facility, but the NSA
says the security contract was not prompted by any incident.
President Obama’s hopes for a globalist pact integrating
economies on four continents ran aground in Hawaii on Friday
WND - Trade negotiators from 12 nations announced Friday they
failed to reach a deal on the proposed Trans-Pacific
Partnership, TPP.... Negotiations stalled when national
governments failed to accede to corporatist demands to open
their borders and allow “people, goods, capital and information
to flow freely through the zone,” as Japanese Trade Minister
Akira Amari described TPP’s goals at a news conference Friday
evening. Striking a deal over how long to protect data used to
develop biologic drugs was described as the biggest source of
frustration by a source from a non-U.S. negotiating nation. U.S.
drug manufacturers want 12 years, but Australia wants five. A
compromise of seven or eight years is seen as a possible
compromise. “The US was on one side of the issue, while
practically every other country were on the other side,” the
source told Associated Press.
US Marines Say F-35 is Ready for War
Defense One - Seven years late and billions of dollars over its
original budget, the Joint Strike Fighter is deemed ready to
fight. The Pentagon has declared the U.S. Marine Corps version
of the F-35 joint strike fighter ready for war, seven years
later than planned in 2001, when the U.S. launched its ambitious
project to build a common warplane for the military and its
closest allies. The battle-ready milestone marks the most
significant moment for the $400 billion program, the most
expensive project in Pentagon history.
U.S. intel fears hundreds of secrets leaked in Hillary’s private
emails
Washington Times - The U.S. intelligence community is bracing
for the possibility that former Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton’s private email account contains hundreds of
revelations of classified information from spy agencies and is
taking steps to contain any damage to national security,
according to documents and interviews Thursday. The top
lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committee have
been notified in recent days that the extent of classified
information on Mrs. Clinton’s private email server was likely
far more extensive than the four emails publicly acknowledged
last week as containing some sensitive spy agency secrets.
Obama Appointee Blocks More Video Releases By Group Behind
Planned Parenthood Sting
The Federalist - Judge William H. Orrick, III, granted the
injunction just hours after the order was requested by the
National Abortion Federation. Orrick was nominated to his
position by hardline abortion supporter President Barack Obama.
He was also a major donor to and bundler for President Obama’s
presidential campaign. He raised at least $200,000 for Obama and
donated $30,800 to committees supporting him, according to
Public Citizen.
Assailant in Garland, Texas, attack bought gun in 2010 under
Fast and Furious operation
LA Times - Five years before he was shot to death in the failed
terrorist attack in Garland, Texas, Nadir Soofi walked into a
suburban Phoenix gun shop to buy a 9-millimeter pistol. At the
time, Lone Wolf Trading Co. was known among gun smugglers for
selling illegal firearms… What Soofi could not have known was
that Lone Wolf was at the center of a federal sting operation
known as Fast and Furious, targeting Mexican drug lords and
traffickers…Soofi's attempt to buy a gun caught the attention of
authorities, who slapped a seven-day hold on the transaction,
... Then, for reasons that remain unclear, the hold was lifted
after 24 hours, and Soofi got the 9-millimeter.
Naval officer that stopped active shooter to face charges for
discharging weapon
Police State USA - When a deranged killer crashed a vehicle into
a military reserve center and began shooting, a Naval officer
drew a personal handgun and helped stop the attack. Now it is
being reported that the officer, regarded as a hero to many,
will be facing federal charges because he discharged a weapon on
federal property… Despite the prohibition on carrying personal
weapons on base, at least two servicemen apparently broke that
rule, risking consequences but ultimately saving innocent lives
by hindering the efforts of the active shooter.
New Rand Paul video ad attacks Planned Parenthood
Washington Examiner - Republican presidential candidate Sen.
Rand Paul, R-Ky., has a new video ad touting his bill to defund
Planned Parenthood in the wake of the undercover videos that
reveal high-level executives haggling prices for fetal organs.
“Over half a billion tax dollars every year. They perform
abortions and sell baby body parts,” says a voice-over in the
video. “Rand Paul is taking action. As a pro-life doctor, Rand
Paul cared for premature babies to save their site. As a
conservative leader, Rand is forcing a vote this week to end
taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. Standing for life from
day one — Dr. Rand Paul for President.”
On Disputed No-Fly Zone, Clinton Campaign Got Its Way With the
FAA
The Intercept - The morning after the Hillary Clinton campaign
was told that the New York City mayor’s office wasn’t going to
bar news helicopters from buzzing her official campaign launch
event on Roosevelt Island, the Secret Service expressed concerns
to the Federal Aviation Administration about aircraft
“loitering” over the event, according to emails obtained by The
Intercept. And the Clinton campaign got its way: On the eve of
the event held last month, the FAA announced a “national defense
airspace” over the island, threatening to shoot down anything
airborne that appeared to present an imminent security threat.
Veterans learn VA hospital dumped patient records with Social
Security, personal info
Fox News - A Veterans Affairs hospital in South Dakota has
waited more than two months to notify 1,100 patients that files
containing their Social Security numbers and other personal
information were dumped in a trash bin. The Rapid City Journal
reports that the data breach at the VA Hot Springs hospital took
place in May, but it wasn't until July 29 that anyone was
notified. The paper said the breach was the most recent in a
string of embarrassments that has engulfed the nation’s VA
system over charges of doctored wait lists, poor care and
wasteful spending. The VA Black Hills Health Care System blamed
the breach on an employee who mistakenly tossed the patient
files in a Dumpster. The records were found two days later by
another employee who fished them out of the trash and notified
hospital security guards.
Obama’s Climate Fascism Is Another Nail In The Coffin For The U.S.
Economy
Economic Collapse - Is Barack Obama trying to kill the economy on
purpose? On Sunday, we learned that Obama is imposing a nationwide 32
percent carbon dioxide emission reduction from 2005 levels by the year
2030. When it was first proposed last year, Obama’s plan called for a 30
percent reduction, but the final version is even more dramatic. The
Obama administration admits that this is going to cost the U.S. economy
billions of dollars a year and that electricity rates for many Americans
are going to rise substantially. And what Obama is not telling us is
that this plan is going to kill what is left of our coal industry and
will destroy countless numbers of American jobs. The Republicans in
Congress hate this plan, state governments across the country hate this
plan, and thousands of business owners hate this plan. But since Barack
Obama has decided that this is a good idea, he is imposing it on all of
us anyway.
700,000 U.S. Seniors Owe $18 Billion in Student Debt; Fed Taps Retirees'
Social Security Checks
AllGov - Ninety-one thousand seniors with student loan balances are in
default, putting their Social Security payments at risk of being
garnished. The government can garnish up to 15% of a Social Security
check to repay a student loan, as long as the check amount does not drop
below $750 a month. The federal government sucked a total of $150
million out of seniors’ checks in 2013 to satisfy student loan debt,
according to the Government Accountability Office, which also made it
clear that 82% of senior still owe money for their own student loans
rather than those of their children or other dependents. Social Security
checks used to be entirely protected from any kind of garnishment. But
that changed in 1996, when Congress carved out an exception for student
loan debt.
USA to Issue More Green Cards Than Populations of Iowa, New Hampshire,
and South Carolina Combined
Breitbart - The overwhelming majority of immigration to the United
States is the result of our visa policies. Each year, millions of visas
are issued to temporary workers, foreign students, refugees, asylees,
and permanent immigrants for admission into the United States. The
lion’s share of these visas are for lesser-skilled and lower-paid
workers and their dependents who, because they are here on
work-authorized visas, are added directly to the same labor pool
occupied by current unemployed jobseekers.
Economics 101: Wal-Mart Hikes Minimum Wages, Prepares To Fire 1000
Zero Hedge - [...] an internal memo sent to employees of Northwest
Arkansas recruiting firm Cameron Smith & Associates… references an
expected wave of layoffs at Wal-Mart's home office in Bentonville... The
first such sacrifice (apparently) were the 2,500 or so employees at the
five locations with intractable plumbing problems, but clearly that was
not enough which is why now, the company is moving to cut 1,000 higher
paying jobs in Bentonville… Just don’t dare suggest that the cuts are
the indirect or even direct result of the wage hikes that will cost the
retailer around $1 billion this year, because that would mean that
critics of the push to hike the pay floor are correct to assert that
forcing employers to pay more will immediately result in equal and
offsetting layoffs.
Incredibly intrusive’: Windows 10 spies on you by default
RT - According to Zach Epstein of BGR News, all of Windows 10’s
features that could be considered invasions of privacy are
enabled by default. Signing in with your Microsoft email account
means Windows is reading your emails, contacts and calendar
data.... As examples, Porta cited Microsoft having access to
contacts, calendar details, and “other associated input data”
such as “typing and inking” by default. The operating system
also wants access to user locations and location history, both
of which could be provided not just to Microsoft, but to its
“trusted partners.”... Opting out of all these default settings
requires navigating 13 different screens and a separate website,
the bloggers have found.
* Related:
How to stop Windows 10's prying eyes
Off-the-Grid Text Messaging: No Need for WIFI or Data Plan
(Video)
Coinivore - Open Garden wants you to forget SMS and IM and go
with OM — off-the-grid messaging — using their peer-to-peer mesh
network.... Open Garden’s encrypted texting app FireChat allows
private messaging to groups or individuals without an Internet
connection. The app has become popular at protests when
authorities try to shut down or spy on centralized channels of
communication. The new video clearly explains how mesh networks
work without WIFI or cell service plans, and how it gains in
speed, strength and usefulness as more users are added. If they
grow large enough, decentralized mesh networks like these may
one day replace how we access the Internet, making current
Internet service providers (ISP) obsolete.
Gardening, Farming & Homesteading |
Are Aquaponics and Hydroponics Better than Organic?
Natural Society - The USDA decided to give an organic label to
produce that is grown in controlled, water-based environments.
The decision to label aquaponics and hydroponics as organic has
angered a lot of people.... According to experts and critics of
the USDA’s decision to label this produce as organic, there is a
huge difference between plants that grow in this environment and
plants that grow in soil. First of all, plants that grow in
aquaponics and hydroponics methods depend on what people put in
the water. Additionally, if the quality of water isn’t monitored
properly, it can decrease the value of produce. Moreover,
according to Jeff Moyer, farm director of the Rodale Institute,
plants that grow in water don’t have same level of vitamins,
minerals and other nutrients as plants that grow in soil, as
plants need soil in order to develop properly.
Rhode Island Mandates 7th Graders Get Dangerous HPV Vaccine – Adverse
Reactions Hidden from Parents
Health Impact News - It was announced this week that 7th graders in
Rhode Island would be required to have the Gardasil HPV vaccine as a
requirement for attending school. The Providence Journal reports:
Starting this fall, seventh-graders in all public and private schools
will be required to get a vaccine that protects against a sexually
transmitted virus linked to various genital cancers, especially cervical
cancer in women. Students who fail to get the vaccine for HPV — or the
human papillomavirus — will be precluded from attending school unless
their parents seek an exemption for medical or religious reasons.
Robotic Surgical Systems Linked to 144 Deaths, 1,000+ Injuries in 14
Years
Natural Society - In the last 14 years, at least 144 people have died
and more than 1,000 have been injured in the U.S. as a result of
undergoing robotic surgery. The injuries, many of them fatal, were the
result of broken instruments falling into patients’ bodies, electric
sparks burning patients’ tissues, and system errors making surgical
procedures take longer than planned.... Robotic surgery is intended to
reduce infection and help patients heal more quickly, but surgeons have
complained that the robots are sometimes too powerful for simple
procedures. What’s more, many doctors have complained that they didn’t
receive adequate training or were pressured by the manufacturer to start
performing robotic surgery before they felt comfortable. Although
surgeons are trained in how to use the machine, they are not trained in
how to use it for specific operations.
This One Fruit Kills Malignant Cells of 12 Different Types of Cancer
Natural Society - Mainstream media reports that the fruit known as
graviola, also known as soursop fruit, guanabana, or guyabano, is not a
noteworthy cancer-fighter, but there are studies showing it effectively
fights ovarian, colon, breast, prostate, lung, liver, cervical,
lymphoma, and pancreatic cancers.... Graviola contains potent
anticancerous agents called acetogenins which play a key role towards
many varieties of cancer. Acetogenins are potent inhibitors of NADH
oxidase of the plasma membranes of cancer cells.
The Top 24 Anti-Inflammatory Foods
Mae Chan - Researchers at the University of South Carolina, including
James Hebert, ScD, and Philip Cavicchia, PhD, scored foods and food
components thought to positively or negatively affect levels of
inflammation, based on a review of peer-reviewed studies relating to
diet and inflammation that were published between 1950 and 2007. Since
then, research is bringing the index closer to "prime time"--ready to be
used in epidemiological and clinical studies.
PAST NEWS
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