:: 7-27-17 CBN News :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

There'll Be No Modifications to Military Transgender Policy -- Yet

07-27-2017 Amber C. Strong, Paul Strand

WASHINGTON – Transgender service members will be allowed to continue serving openly until Defense Secretary Jim Mattis receives direction from President Donald Trump to change its policy, America's top military officer announced Thursday. "I know there are questions about yesterday's announcement on the transgender policy by the President," Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in a memo to all military service chiefs, commanders and enlisted military leaders. "There will be no modifications to the current policy until the president's direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance." “In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect. As importantly, given the current fight and the challenges we face, we will all remain focused on accomplishing our assigned missions,” he continued. Thursday's announcement comes as backlash continues over Trump’s announcement of a ban on transgenders serving in the military. The Pentagon has for the most part remained silent on the matter. "We refer all questions about the president's statements to the White House. We will continue to work closely with the White House to address the new guidance provided by the commander in chief on transgender individuals serving the military," a Pentagon spokesperson told CBN News. On Wednesday morning the president took to Twitter, saying, "After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military." "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you," he concluded. Later at press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders offered a little insight into the decision. "The president has a lot of support for ALL Americans...he wants to protect Americans at all times," she said. She went on to say the decision would have otherwise been "expensive and disruptive." "He's voiced this is a very disruptive and expensive policy and based on consultation he's had with his national security team he came to conclusion it erodes military readiness and unit cohesion and made the decision based on that," she said. Meanwhile, the Pentagon won't release any data on the number of transgender troops currently serving. However, a Rand study shows there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members on active-duty and up to 4,000 in the reserves. The White House offered no definitive answer on what will happen to them. There has been an ongoing debate over whether or not the military would pay for gender reassignment surgery. However, the president took it a step further, declaring transgender people would not be allowed to serve at all. This puts a stop to Obama-era initiatives aimed at ending all forms of discrimination in the military. 'This Is About Military Readiness' Military insiders and members of Congress supported the idea of putting a stop to these policies. "I applaud President Trump for keeping his promise to return to military priorities -- and not continue the social experimentation of the Obama era that has crippled our nation's military," Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, a Marine veteran, said in a statement Wednesday. "The military can now focus its efforts on preparing to fight and win wars rather than being used to advance the Obama social agenda." Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told CBN News, "He makes decisions after talking with field commanders. He has a DOD (Department of Defense) leadership team, the joint chiefs, head of joint chiefs. It's important for us to support that military team. This is their decision, so we will support it." In an appearance on CBN News' "Faith Nation," House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., made it clear he too backs the president's decision. "This is a debate that we had on the floor similar to this about a week ago. Vicky Hartzler had an amendment on the floor to stop paying for the surgery for transgenders," he said. "One, it takes people out of the military," he noted, "their ability to serve for a year or so as they go through this, the amount of cost, wanting to make sure that money was going to the military itself, to our equipment and other needs that we have for the military." Lt. Gen. (ret.) Jerry Boykin, former U.S. Army Delta Force commander and current FRC executive vice president, agreed. "This is about the readiness of our military," he told CBN News. "And if we're going to take money in this year's Defense budget and it will be set aside to perform surgery for transgender people, who we recruited into the military, you got your priorities wrong." The issue of transgenders in the military had been getting attention in the last few days after it became public knowledge that the military would pay for expensive sex change surgeries and hormone treatments for transgenders in the ranks. The Family Research Council has estimated those procedures could cost U.S. taxpayers up to $3.7 billion over the next 10 years. A move to get funding for those surgeries and treatments stripped from military funding was defeated last week in the U.S. House of Representatives. That defeat sent shock waves through Republican and conservative circles as 23 GOP House members joined Democrat lawmakers to make sure the right to those transgender surgeries and hormone treatments for military members was preserved. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., who is among those opposed to such funding, told CBN News, "It seems to me if someone comes to the military with the notion that I want to serve my country and want to protect this, the last great hope of mankind of Earth -- then figure out if you're a man or a woman first and then come to the military and serve this country." LGBTQ Supporters Speak Out Members of the LGBTQ community wasted no time expressing their outrage. "While the impact of Trump's tweets is unclear, banning transgender service members would erode military readiness and contradict our country's values and ideals," National Center for Lesbian Rights Legal Director Shannon Price Minter said in a statement. "Those who serve our country deserve our gratitude and respect. We call on the president to retract this harmful statement and to defer to the Pentagon's assessment that transgender people are fit to serve," he said. Others voicing their support of the LGBTQ community include Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who suggested the president's Twitter announcement was ill-advised. "The president's tweet this morning regarding transgender Americans in the military is yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter," he said, noting that Trump's statement was "unclear." "There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the military—regardless of their gender identity," McCain said. "The Department of Defense is currently conducting a study on the medical obligations it would incur, the impact on military readiness, and related questions associated with the accession of transgender individuals who are not currently serving in uniform and wish to join the military," he continued. "I do not believe that any new policy decision is appropriate until that study is complete and thoroughly reviewed by the secretary of defense, our military leadership, and the Congress." The American Civil Liberties Union, tweeted, "Transgender service members should know the ACLU has your back and we want to hear from you." "You are not a 'burden.' Do not let this president shake you. We support you; we stand with you," said Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez. Others have pointed out the president's prior statements of support for the LGBTQ community. During the campaign season, candidate Trump tweeted, "Thank you LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs."

http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2017/july/fatah-hamas-call-for-a-day-of-rage-friday 

[ :: 7-4-17 morning service Campmeeting 2017  :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::  ::]

I know who this is for.  This is for Donald Trump’s son-in- law.  And somehow he is going to hear this and don’t ask me how.  But God is saying to him:  You divide your people and I will bring judgment upon you like you have never seen before.  You will be like Jezebel and I will throw you off the roof and the dogs will eat your bones.  Therefore, I say unto you, repent, I do not want my nation divided, I will not allow my nation to be divided, therefore, think your thoughts.  Just because you are a Jew you cannot do the things that you desire to do, for I have a special covenant with you and you better study my covenant or it will fall upon your own personal family.  Repent I say and turn from your wicked ways. 

:: 7-27-17 Hal Lindsey :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Tonight on The Hal Lindsey Report

In 1927, James Weldon Johnson published his classic book of poems, God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse. One of them is called, "The Prodigal Son." It begins with the famous words, "Young man -- Young man -- Your arm's too short to box with God." Apparently the powers that be in American sports disagree. I'm not talking about individual athletes. I'm referring to the big professional sports leagues and the media that cover them. Though they have nothing to gain and everything to lose, it appears to me that they have decided to go to war against God. Further, it seems to me that they have also decided to go to war against the average American. And that seems an odd thing to do since the average American fan is the one who puts money into their pockets. And what life or death issue has caused these normally perceptive business people to place themselves as arbiters of right and wrong in America? And also to publicly threaten to punish the citizens of states which disagree with their political point of view? Restrooms. More precisely: Your right to feel safe and secure when you visit a public restroom. Even more precisely: Your mother's, wife's, mother-in-law's, sister's, daughter's, grandmother's, granddaughter's, niece's, cousin's, girlfriend's, co-worker's, or female friend's right to feel safe and secure when they visit a public restroom. And why? So that .003 percent of the population can live out their fantasies and use the restrooms of the opposite sex. No. I'm not making this up. I wish to heaven that I were. But this is America 2016, where being politically correct trumps common sense. Where bowing and scraping to the LGBT lobby (which, by the U.S. government's own figures, comprise less than 3% of the total population) trumps the traditional values of the vast majority of Americans. To allow a man to freely and brazenly enter a public womens' restroom and do his business (and maybe more?) simply because he says he "feels" like a woman that day is beyond nonsense, it's insanity. But that's where ESPN, The National Basketball Association (NBA), The National Football League (NFL), American Airlines, PayPal, Wells Fargo, and Target, to name but a few, have chosen to make their stand and invest their credibility. And I'm not just talking about tacitly agreeing to such nonsense, I'm talking about firing people who disagree and publicly threatening to wreak economic harm on the citizens of entire states if they do not capitulate to their way of thinking. That's what is happening in North Carolina. When the state legislature passed a law requiring people in the state to use public restrooms that correspond to their birth gender, an incensed NBA threatened to pull the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte. PayPal vowed to stop its involvement in the state, which meant the withdrawal of several billions of dollars in construction funds and jobs. American Airlines and Wells Fargo made similar threats against North Carolina's citizens. The state's governor, Pat McCrory ignored the threats and signed the bill the day it was passed. Not like Georgia, where a similar bill was passed by the Georgia Legislature. The NFL threatened to stop having Super Bowls in Atlanta and the governor folded and vetoed the bill. All of this over the issue of letting transgender individuals, and any others who so wish on a given day, decide to use the restroom for the opposite sex. These common sense laws simply say that if you have outside plumbing, you use the men's room. If you have inside plumbing, you use the ladies. Or go into the private restroom and lock the door behind you. Your sexual preference doesn't matter. This is a simple, physical determination. But that's not good enough for the LGBT crowd. They want us to do it their way or suffer the consequences from their corporate enforcers. Folks, this is nothing short of corporate persecution. But it's not about religion, you say. Not yet. But it is about being punished because we make common sense choices based on certain moral values. Moral values that the elites and other powers that be want to see eroded so that one day they can do what they choose, when they choose. Morality be damned. But, you may protest, when corporations make vague threats against entire states, it doesn't really affect individuals. It affected Curt Schilling. The pitcher for the Boston Red Sox cemented his place in baseball history when he won Game Six of the 2004 American League Championship Series (ALCS) over the New York Yankees. He pitched just days after ankle surgery and endured a sore and bleeding ankle to go seven innings and allow only one run. His bloody sock became a part of Major League Baseball history. The Red Sox went on to win the World Series. Schilling has three World Series rings. ESPN, the major American sports broadcaster, hired Schilling to work as a color commentator for its telecasts. But Schilling is an outspoken man with conservative values. Last year, he was disciplined by the network when he made the comment on his personal social media outlet that people claim that only 5% to 10% of Muslims are extremists. He noted that when Hitler rose to power, only 7% of Germans were part of the Nazi party. Then he asked, "How'd that go." He almost lost his job. Last month, Schilling posted a picture on his personal Facebook page of a grotesquely dressed transvestite man. The caption asked if you wanted to let this man into the restroom with your daughter. It noted that if you didn't want that to happen, then you are considered narrow-minded, judgmental, unloving, and racist. Every word he posted was true. Like his first post in 2015. But each one bore consequences. This time, Schilling was summarily fired for his personal, non-work-related view. Which ESPN has every right to do. But not only did ESPN fire him, they went back and completely removed the portion of a documentary program on that 2004 ALCS series that showcased Schilling's performance in the critical Game Six. Coincidence? But ESPN may suffer consequences, too. When it starts punishing people for expressing a view outside of work that is held by the vast majority of Americans, it should expect some blowback. And maybe it's already started. For a variety of reasons, ESPN, once a model American success story and cash machine for The Walt Disney Company, has started hemorrhaging. Its value has declined dramatically recently. So much so that it has begun to affect Walt Disney's bottom line. Coincidence? ESPN, Walt Disney, the NFL, the NBA, American Airlines, Wells Fargo, PayPal, Target, and others may soon learn the hard lesson that, "Your arm's too short to box with God!" But that's not all I'll cover on this week's program. I'll discuss the recent election of Sadiq Khan as Mayor of London. With his selection, London becomes the first major western city in history to elect a Muslim mayor. And on May 30, France is hosting a meeting of major players to plan a Middle East peace summit later this year. All the usual suspects will be there. In fact, it appears to be a reunion of the infamous "Quartet" of organizations and states: the UN, the EU, the US, and Russia. The goal of the summit? Devise a plan for dividing Jerusalem and finally bringing peace to the Middle East through a two-state solution in Israel. And if Israel doesn't adopt the plan? Well, France vows to then officially recognize Palestine as an independent nation. 137 nations already do, but the United States provides cover for Israel at the UN Security Council. But now it appears that Germany is starting to turn its back on Israel, too. A Middle Eastern news outlet insists that Europe is turning against Israel as a result of the leadership of the American White House. It insists that, "This belated European insight was the result of American inspiration." (Al-Monitor) Folks, the prophet Zechariah predicted that in the last days, "...all of the nations of the world will be gathered against it (Israel)." (Zechariah 12:3) We are seeing that happening right now. Finally, I will discuss the differences between the Bible and the Koran. The world considers both of them to be "holy books." One is said to have been handed down intact through an angel, with no human involvement, and committed to the page hundreds of years after the "revelation." The other is "God-breathed." Written by 40 different authors from various times and places, it coordinates perfectly and seamlessly. It does not contradict science, history, or nature, but confirms them, though primitive men wrote it. Its prophecies have thus far been fulfilled with 100% accuracy. In fact, its test for the validity of a prophet is either 100% accuracy or death by stoning. Tough standards. It miraculously combines "spiritual thoughts with spiritual words." (I Corinthians 2:13) And though it does not make sense to those who are spiritually "dead," it promises that anyone who wants to experience a spiritual rebirth can do so and become "spiritually alive."

http://www.hallindsey.com/hlr-5-13-2016/ 

:: 7-5-17 Federalist :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

New Army Training Tells Female Soldiers To ‘Accept’ Naked Men In Their Showers

I recently received a copy of the new ‘Tier Three Transgender Training’ materials that the U.S. Army is now using in mandatory training for all soldiers.

By James Hasson July 5, 2017

On June 30, hours before the policy took effect, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis postponed the opening of military enlistments to transgender people for an additional six months. The delay does not prevent currently serving soldiers from transitioning, however. It is intended to give the joint chiefs more time to review and mitigate the Obama-era rule’s impact on the “readiness and lethality of our [armed] forces.” Late into President Obama’s last term, his military officials allowed transgender soldiers to serve openly, even funding gender-change surgeries with taxpayer dollars. Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter set a July 1 deadline for all four military branches to write policies for accepting openly transgender enlistments. Formerly, soldiers exhibiting gender dysphoria were automatically discharged. While the Pentagon’s review takes place behind closed doors and the inevitable culture-war volleys spill into the public square, it is critical to understand the real-life implications of the policy shift. I recently received a copy of the new “Tier Three Transgender Training” materials—a PowerPoint and accompanying lesson plan excerpted below, with full documents at these links—that the Army is now using in mandatory training for all soldiers. The active-duty officer who sent the materials completed the training with 40 other soldiers last week instead of conducting their morning physical training as usual. Military As Social Engineering, Not National Defense The force-wide presentation sheds quite a bit of light on the implications of the rule change on transgender service members. The policy prioritizes subjective feelings over combat-readiness and inverts military order by placing the needs of individuals over the well-being of their units. The policy allows transgender soldiers to switch their “gender marker” in the Army’s personnel database without undergoing sex reassignment surgery or any other physical changes. For a soldier to officially change gender requires only some paperwork. A military doctor or civilian medical professional must certify that the transgender person has achieved “stability in the preferred gender” and the soldier must change the gender designation on the soldier’s passport or birth certificate. From that point on, the transgender soldier is “expected to adhere to all military standards associated with their gender,” and “use the billeting, bathroom and shower facilities” of their new gender. For example, “Vignette Four” of the training module presents the following scenario: “following her transition from male to female (which did not include sex reassignment surgery) and gender marker change in DEERS [DEERS is the military’s personnel database], a transgender Soldier begins using female barracks, bathroom and shower facilities. Because she did not undergo a surgical change, the Soldier still has male genitalia.” How should troops respond? “Soldiers must accept living and working conditions that are often austere, primitive, and characterized by little or no privacy.” The slide tells soldiers to “understand that you may encounter individuals in barracks, bathrooms, or shower facilities with physical characteristics of the opposite sex despite having the same gender marker in DEERS.” The next bullet point adds, “all Soldiers should be respectful of the privacy and modesty concerns of others. However, transgender Soldiers are not required or expected to modify or adjust their behavior based on the fact that they do not ‘match’ other Soldiers.” This is a first. The military is normally in the business of telling soldiers to “modify or adjust their behavior” all the time. Consider what these policies mean in real life: Most Army showers look like a prison cell with several showerheads on the wall. Anyone who has dealt with the practical challenges of funneling 30 people through them in ten minutes understands that “privacy” will be incompatible with reality. Female soldiers who feel uncomfortable sharing facilities with individuals who still have “physical characteristics of the opposite sex” will just have to put up with it. The adjustments to “billeting” are equally intrusive. Modern barracks resemble college dorms, with two soldiers of the same sex — now “gender marker” — sharing rooms just large enough to accommodate the basic necessities of military life. The training forbids any commander from ordering a transgender soldier to use a facility that is inconsistent with his “gender marker,” and rejects the idea of separate facilities for transgender soldiers. If separate facilities of any kind are created, they must be for soldiers who feel uncomfortable sharing facilities with a member of the opposite biological sex. In short, the rest of the unit must adjust, not the individual transgender soldier. Watch My Genitals While I Urinate The changes also affect drug-testing procedures. DoD Instruction 1010.16 requires urine specimens to be “collected under the direct observation of a designated individual of the same sex as the Service member providing the specimen.” To be blunt, “observers” must watch the urine sample leave the tested soldier’s body and enter the collection cup. Under the new rules, however, “absent an exception to policy, the observer will be the same gender as the Soldier being observed (as reflected by the gender marker in DEERS).” The change is justified by interpreting the term “sex” in existing drug testing regulations to mean the same thing as “gender.” Lest there be any confusion: the policy means that an 18-year-old female soldier may be forced to drop her pants and urinate in a cup in front of an anatomically male non-commissioned officer who has a female “gender marker,” and vice versa. As important as privacy and respect are, the biggest problem with the policy is its effect on the military’s core purpose of battle readiness. For example, under the policy, a male infantryman who cannot meet the bare minimum requirement of 42 pushups and is therefore considered a liability in combat can switch his “gender marker” to female and suddenly be qualified. Even though he retains the exact same physical characteristics, and can do only 19 push-ups, he will now be a combat-ready female infantry soldier, eligible to hold the exact same role in his former unit. The lesson plan is explicit on this point: “for policies and standards that apply differently to Soldiers according to gender, the Army recognizes a Soldier’s gender by the Soldier’s gender marker in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting Systems (DEERS).” Bullets Don’t Care About Your Feelings Regardless of one’s opinion about bathroom bills, this policy is dangerously misguided not because of politics or ideology, but as a matter of basic physics. Biology may not be destiny, as the slogan goes, but it still matters on the battlefield. An AK-47 round travels towards a soldier at 2,330 feet per second, no matter how you self-identify. A six-foot tall, 180-pound, anatomically male soldier can either pull his bodyweight over a wall, or carry another soldier, or walk for miles with 80 pounds of equipment, or he cannot. But under the current policy, you are combat-ready if you self-identify as the type of person who would be combat-ready. How very millennial. Of course, the new policy raises other logistical issues as well. If “stability in the preferred gender” does not preclude ongoing hormone therapy, will these soldiers be deployable? Should estrogen cycles be flown into remote forward operating bases with other critical medical supplies? And if these soldiers cannot deploy alongside their units, is the policy truly serving its stated goal of availing the armed services with “all available talent to remain the finest fighting force the world has ever known”? The “harassment and discrimination” section of the lesson plan forbids “attitudes or comments that marginalize transgender people.” Heated, time-sensitive situations come with enough confusion on their own, without the additional layer added by gender-neutral pronouns such as “they” and “their,” and soldiers should not have to double-clutch for fear of repercussions before speaking bluntly in such situations. The military has always been at the forefront of civil rights and equality in our society, and that should never change. But this policy is not a question of equality, it is a matter of basic safety and combat effectiveness. It asks the other 39 soldiers in a transgender soldier’s platoon to potentially sacrifice their safety for one soldier’s affirmation. It is the inverse of the traditional military ethos. On one of my first days in the Army, I listened to a non-commissioned officer tell a new private, “Words don’t hurt — bullets hurt. So I don’t give a . . . about your . . . feelings.” (Creative language omitted.) Master Sergeant Wood was a veteran of the Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom, a Purple Heart recipient, and had only four fingers on his right hand. He knew the truth of his statement from firsthand experience. It seems somewhere along the line, during the last 15 years of war, our political class lost track of his most basic insight: Words don’t hurt. Bullets hurt.

http://thefederalist.com/2017/07/05/new-army-training-tells-female-soldiers-put-naked-men-showers/ 

[:: 2-3-14 am service (first word) :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::]

:: 7-25-17 Pam Geller :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Muslims Maintain Temple Mount Boycott, Despite Removal of Metal Detectors

By Geller Report Staff - on July 25, 2017

You didn’t really think savages would be satiated did you? Terrorism works and they mean to extract more blood from the Jews. Muslims got their way — Israeli authorities removed metal detectors that had been placed at the holy Temple Mount site in order to ward off acts of Islamic terrorism. You didn’t really think this was about metal detectors, did you. Just another Islamic pretext for jihad and slaughter, as is their way. As previously reported by Pamela Geller here, Israel made a remarkable concession to Palestinians by agreeing, on the heels of recent terror attacks, to take out its security system. But Palestinians are still boycotting the site. Leaders of the Islam faith told their followers to keep away from the area — to boycott — pending a full review of what, if any, other Israeli security measures might still be in place. This is ridiculous. Israelis don’t have the right to protect themselves from terror attacks? One would think if there’s nothing to hide, there’s nothing to fear — no crime, no fould. Metal detectors aren’t exactly intrusive, in other words. But Israeli authorities conceded and removed the security layer, anyway — a sizeable nod to Palestinian wishes. And now Palestinians’ response? They want more concessions. From the Times of Israel: The Waqf Islamic trust, which administers the site, said a decision to continue the boycott was pending a review of the new Israeli security arrangements there. Ikrema Sabri, the head of the Supreme Islamic Committee in the city, said such a review might be completed later on Tuesday. Muslim worshipers have stayed away from the sacred compound since Israel installed metal detectors there last week. Instead, they performed mass prayer protests outside the shrine, many of which devolved into clashes with Israeli security forces. Earlier Tuesday, Israel’s security cabinet said it would replace the metal detectors with “advanced technologies,” referring reportedly to cameras that can detect hidden objects, but said the process could take up to six months. Sabri told The Associated Press that “our position is that for now, nobody should enter” the shrine. A Waqf official told The Times of Israel that it was continuing the boycott of the Temple Mount until all security measures added after the attack are removed. The official noted that “the new high tech cameras” would not be accepted in place of the metal detectors. On Tuesday morning, worshipers were remaining outside and police and Palestinian protesters were gearing up for another tense round of afternoon prayers in Jerusalem’s Old City.

http://pamelageller.com/2017/07/muslims-maintain-temple-mount-boycott-despite-removal-metal-detectors.html/ 

:: 7-27-17 The Jerusalem Post :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Bennett: Government's Temple Mount decisions weakened Israel

ByGil Hoffman July 27, 2017 11:25

Likud minister, in contrast, says decision makers realized alliance with moderate Arab states more important. Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett slammed his own government’s decisions regarding the handling of the Temple Mount tensions in a scathing interview with Army Radio on Thursday. Bennett voted against the security cabinet’s decision to remove metal detectors from the Temple Mount. Be the first to know - Join our Facebook page. He also opposed Thursday morning’s removal of security cameras from the holy site and barriers that aided security checks at the Lions’ Gate. “Israel comes out weakened from this crisis,” Bennett said. “Instead of sending a message about Israel’s sovereignty on the Temple Mount, it sent a message that Israel’s sovereignty can be questioned.” Bennett called the decisions a “surrender” and compared the harm to Israeli security to the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000. But he said that as a member of the security cabinet he bears collective responsibility, and he refused to personally criticize or blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But Bennett’s Bayit Yehudi colleague, MK Bezalel Smotrich, did not hold back, writing on Twitter that “the time has come to internalize that it is either us or them,” referring to the Israeli Muslims. He slammed Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman for voting for what he called “the surrender on the Temple Mount,” saying that with another vote or two in the security cabinet “the shame could have been prevented.” Labor chairman Avi Gabbay accused Netanyahu of haphazard decision- making and irresponsible management, which he said harmed Israel’s security and deterrence. He said Netanyahu made his decisions out of fear of Bennett taking away his political support on the Right. “After this week, we don’t have to explain anymore why we have to replace the current government,” Gabbay said at a rally of a thousand supporters in Tel Aviv on Thursday night. “Now the public understands why what they have is not good, so we just have to reach out and make them realize we are the alternative.” Gabbay accused Netanyahu of constantly setting new fires and struggling to extinguish them. He promised his party would put an end to what he called the “national humiliation” done to Israel by Netanyahu, Bennett and Liberman, and replace the government with responsible leadership. “Netanyahu demonstrated weakness to us,” he said. “We saw our prime minister harm our security. We are paying the price.” Gabbay’s Labor colleague MK Nachman Shai called the events of the past week a “colossal failure” for Netanyahu. “The government’s zigzagging led to a Palestinian victory that does not even guarantee quiet in Jerusalem and the territories,” Shai said. Construction Minister Yoav Gallant (Kulanu), who is also a member of the security cabinet, said its decision- making process was correct. He told Israel Radio that metal detectors do not bring security. The decision to remove metal detectors was championed in the security cabinet by Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Director Nadav Argaman. Coalition chairman David Bitan (Likud) caused an uproar on Thursday when he told Army Radio that Argaman was a coward “who just wants to get back home safely.” Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid slammed Gabbay, saying the Shin Bet safeguards our lives. Yesh Atid MK Yaakov Peri, who is a former director of the Shin Bet, said Bitan’s statement was dangerous because is strengthens the delegitimizing of security forces. Netanyahu released a statement supporting Argaman and criticizing Bitan, who normally speaks for the prime minister. Netanyahu said the Shin Bet is succeeding in fighting terrorism and has saved countless lives.

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Bennett-Governments-Temple-Mount-decisions-weakened-Israel-500893 

:: 7-26-17 The Jerusalem Post :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Trump to tout major job boon for Wisconsin; Foxconn, iPhone supplier, expected to open plant

By S.A. Miller - The Washington Times - Wednesday, July 26, 2017

President Trump is expected to announced Wednesday that Foxconn, a Taiwanese manufacturing giant that makes iPhone components, will build a major factory in Wisconsin. The plant likely will create more than 10,000 new jobs and highlight Mr. Trump’s push to rebuild the U.S. manufacturing base and keep jobs in America. Mr. Trump’s role in bringing Foxconn to the U.S. or the decision to locate in Wisconsin was unclear early Friday. The decision by Foxconn, which has been flirting with multiple states to build its first U.S. manufacturing plant, was first reported by Fox Business. Mr. Trump is scheduled to make a major jobs announcement at the White House at 5 p.m. Expectations have been building for days that the event was about the Foxconn deal in Wisconsin, where the company likely will receive tax breaks. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, said he will attend the announcement at the White House.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/26/trump-tout-major-job-boon-wisconsin-foxconn-iphone/ 

[ :: 3-30-16 pm service :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::]

etc.  for if you put the man in that I desire for you to put in, you will have good times until you go.  If not it shall be hell here on earth and you will think that you have been left behind, but that is not so.  

For I have told you before this that this would be the last President, that this would be the last President as you know a President, therefore listen, pay attention, for it is your life it will affect, but it doesn’t need to affect it in a bad sense it can affect it in a good sense.  You can be the victors, you can be the overcomers, but hear, hear what I, your Father God, has to say. 

:: 7-26-17 Fox News :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Trump tweets: 'WE WORSHIP GOD' in America

By Brooke Singman Published July 26, 2017 Fox News

In between pressuring Attorney General Jeff Sessions and announcing a major military policy change, President Trump used his Twitter account Wednesday to declare Americans worship God, not government. “IN AMERICA WE DON’T WORSHIP GOVERNMENT—WE WORSHIP GOD!” Trump tweeted, adding an emoji of a video camera and linking to an Instagram video on the president’s official account. The video, posted on “realDonaldTrump” Instagram page, is a clip from Trump's Tuesday night rally in Ohio. “And finally, we believe that family and faith, not government and bureaucracy, are the foundation of our society,” Trump said in the video. “You’ve heard me say it before on the campaign trail, and I’ll say it again tonight – in America we don’t worship government, we worship God.” The president’s faith-themed tweet came hours after he announced plans to ban transgender people from serving in the U.S. military in any capacity – citing advice from his generals and medical costs. The announcement drew cheers from some faith-based groups but also criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle -- as well as past defense secretaries. TRUMP ANNOUNCES BAN ON TRANSGENDER INDIVIDUALS SERVING IN MILITARY

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/07/26/trump-tweets-worship-god-in-america.html 

Luke 21:17 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. (KJV) 

[ :: 12-31-11 / 1-1-12 New Years Eve Service  :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::  ::]

:: 7-26-17 Christianity Today :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Caste Aside: India’s New President Has ‘No Room for Christians’

Church leaders believe Hindu nationalism will outweigh the Dalit leader’s lower-caste loyalties.

Kate Shellnutt July 25, 2017 9:25 AM

Ram Nath Kovind, India’s new president who took office today, represents an unusual case of a little-known politician from the country’s lowest caste, the Dalits, rising to power. However, as others champion his victory, India’s Christian minority—the majority of whom are Dalits themselves—know that a Hindu nationalist politician from the Dalit caste is still a Hindu nationalist politician. Like the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that nominated him, Kovind represents a continued threat to non-Hindus in India, including its estimated 25 million to 60 million Christians. (As CT has noted, that’s a tiny minority amid 1 billion Hindus, but still sizable enough to rank among the 25 countries with the most Christians, surpassing “Christian countries” such as Uganda and Greece.) If Indian officials were to move forward with anti-conversion legislation or other policies directed at Christians, “he would be a good rubber stamp for the government,” said Sandeep Kumar, a church planter and principal of Mission India Bible College, in an interview with CT. “There is no room for Christians in his understanding.” Since 2014, India has been led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a BJP leader notorious among Christians for permitting religious freedom violations to spread unchecked. Meanwhile, the position of president is mostly ceremonial and selected by lawmakers. Kovind’s election this month indicates that the BJP is gaining support among Dalits (once called “untouchables”) with its polarizing vision of India as a nation whose religion, language, and culture is solely Hindu, an ideology known as Hindutva that originated among the higher castes. When he was a party leader back in 2010, Kovind had remarked that “Islam and Christianity are alien to India” and said that they do not deserve the benefits and quotas assured to others from lowest castes, officially designated as “Scheduled Castes.” India’s constitution has extended scheduled caste benefits to Buddhists and Sikhs, but not to any other religious minorities, officially leaving Dalit Muslims and Christians out. Most estimates suggest that at least half of India’s Christians are Dalits. Z. Devasagaya Raj, a priest who oversees Catholic outreach to Dalits, said “the idea of appointing a Dalit person for the coveted post is largely positive but not if ‘the person holds a [pro-Hindu] right-wing ideology,’” according to a UCA News report. Though Modi endorsed Kovind as a representative for the poor and oppressed, Christians have reason to believe that won’t include them. Samuel Jaykumar, who defends Dalit Christians as a leader with the National Council of Churches in India, told the Catholic news source that he was concerned that Kovind’s presidency would make things worse for Dalit Christians and Muslims. Kovind’s election on July 17 followed weeks of protests from Christians and Muslims angered by attacks on religious minorities for eating beef, which angered Hindutva extremists due to Hindus’ veneration of cows. (The sale of cattle for slaughter was declared illegal in most of India this spring, until the Supreme Court suspended the ban.) Kovind’s opponent from the United Progressive Alliance, Meira Kumar, also came from the Dalit class and had a “good track record” in foreign affairs, according to Sandeep Kumar. Regardless of the candidate, it’s uncommon for presidential politics to come up in Indian churches. “We don’t preach on if someone has been elected and how that could benefit us,” the pastor said. “But we do pray for our country.” K. R. Narayanan, India’s first Dalit president since the country’s independence, was a better advocate for tolerance for religious minorities when he held office from 1997 – 2002. Having grown up in the disproportionately Christian state of Kerala in southern India and studied at a church-run school, Narayanan condemned the Hindu nationalists thought to be responsible for violence against Muslims and resisted efforts to shift the secular education system. Catholic and Protestant leaders have joined to pray for their new president. The next general election in India will take place in 2019. There aren’t promising signs for an alternative that would be friendlier to Christians than the current administration, led by Modi, so most expect that the Hindutva ethos will continue to rule. Though India is the biggest democracy in the world, its Hindu norms have increasingly restricted Christian freedoms. Open Doors rates the persecution level in the country as “very high.” Christians will join in demonstrations next month designed to draw attention to the plight of Dalits. According to Asia News: This August 10th will be a “Black Day” to highlight the discrimination suffered by Dalit Christians in India for 67 years. It is the initiative launched by the Indian Bishops' Conference (CBCI) Office of Dalits and the Disadvantaged Classes. In recent days, the bishops expressed their solidarity with the new president, Ram Nath Kovind, of Dalit origins. They also want to remind people that the country implements a constitutional-based discrimination against those Dalits that embrace Christianity. Due to a regulatory crackdown on foreign NGOs, Compassion International was forced to end its child sponsorship operations in India in March, pulling $45 million in funding from its Indian church partners. CT offered an in-depth cover story last year on Indian Christianity, the world’s most vibrant Christward movement. http://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2017/july/caste-aside-india-new-dalit-president-kovind-no-christians.html 

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:: 7-22-17 Sputknik :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Goodbye Past, Hello Future: Turkey 'Drifting' From NATO to Eurasia

Lefteris Pitarakis World 12:51 22.07.2017(updated 13:15 22.07.2017)

Germany deliberately provoked a crisis in Berlin-Ankara ties which may have added significantly to Turkey further distancing itself from NATO, Turkish military expert Soner Polat told Sputnik. Berlin

Earlier this week, local media reported that the Turkish court ruled that Peter Steudtner, a German human rights activist, among a group of six human rights activists being held that includes Amnesty International's Turkey director Idil Eser, should remain in custody. The activists were detained by the Turkish police over allegedly aiding a terrorist group on July 5. German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that Berlin will reconsider its economic policy towards Ankara as well as its credit, investment and tourism programs over the arrests of human rights activists in Turkey. Turkish authorities have already detained thousands of journalists, diplomats, judges, members of the military and human rights activists after the failed coup attempt of July 15, 2016 over their alleged support for exiled Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of being behind the coup. In an interview with Sputnik Turkey, Retired Rear Admiral of the Turkish Armed Forces Soner Polat berated Germany for intentionally fueling a crisis in bilateral relations which he said is an important factor in the process of Turkey's separation from NATO. "Turkey is moving slowly but confidently towards Eurasia even though it is a painful process. It would be naive to think that Turkey, which has been a NATO member since 1952, can easily and painlessly distance itself from the alliance. The statements made by Germany will by all means affect Turkey's position within NATO," Polat said. He added that "right now, there is a cautious and negative attitude towards Turkey in the West" and that "the growth of this trend was even more apparent after the failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15 last year." According to him, "prejudice and hostility against Turkey are in place in the territories from Australia to New Zealand, from Europe to the United States, something that is disguised as opposition to the Justice and Development Party, as well as to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan." "The main goal is Turkey itself, and Erdogan is described as a person who bears responsibility for everything. Germany consciously decided to aggravate this crisis by deliberately provoking tension in Injirlik. After all, what would have changed if German MPs visited the Injirlik or Konya air base? Everything indicates that these crises were artificially provoked," Polat said. He noted that the opposition to Erdogan became the key point of Europe's internal policy. "The Netherlands and Germany currently follow the example of British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson who conducted his Brexit campaign in line with confrontation with Turkey. Preventing Erdogan from delivering a speech at the G20 summit is a big scandal. Turkey is drifting away from the West," Polat pointed out. He described Germany as "a Eurasian country" which he said "should take more rational steps and act in a more balanced way [with respect to Turkey]". Polat also recalled that "if Berlin and Ankara break off relations, Germany, which has a trade surplus with Turkey, will suffer more damage." "German authorities make statements that imply, in fact, interference in Turkey's judicial system. Everyone should understand that Turkey is not Greece, Iraq or Syria. And if they do not understand now, sooner or later they will," he concluded. In late May, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Ankara will not allow German lawmakers to visit the Incirlik air base as long as Germany takes steps against Turkey. "Germany negatively looks at Turkey, and now they say: 'We want to come to Incirlik'. Germany must understand that Turkey, which it can force to do what it wants, and to get what it wants from it, exists no longer. This remains in the past. In such conditions it is impossible to allow German parliamentarians to visit Incirlik," Cavusoglu said.

https://sputniknews.com/world/201707221055785107-germany-turkey-relations-nato-policy/ 

[ :: 11-13-16 pm service  ::  ::  :: ::  :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::]

For many signs are in the sky, many things I am doing that the world may see and know and understand the hour is very late. etc

:: 7-22-17 Nova Ordem :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Mysterious plumes of steam rising from Greenland glacier

7/22/2017 04:16:00 AM

Plumes of steam rising from cracks in a glacier near Kulusuk, Greenland.

The photo above was taken by pilot Ágúst Arnbjörnsson on July 11, 2017 during a flight from Keflavik to Portland, from a height of approximately 34,000 feet. The location is 75 km from Kulusuk in Greenland. The image appears to show three plumes of steam rising from cracks in the glacier, which according to the blog of volcanologist Haraldur Sigurðsson, is 1.5 to 2 kilometers thick. This may be a sign of powerful geothermal activity from below. Earlier this year a team of NASA researchers observed an ominous crack growing in the Petermann Glacier along the northern coast of Greenland. Recently Greenland recorded the coldest temperature ever in the northern hemisphere for July.

http://novaordemnews.blogspot.com/2017/07/mysterious-plumes-of-steam-rising-from.html 

:: 7-23-17 Japan Times :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Fukushima robot finds potential fuel debris hanging like icicles in reactor 3

by Kazuaki Nagata Staff Report, Bloomberg

Tokyo Electric has said that a remotely controlled robot investigating the inside of reactor 3 at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant has finally spotted objects that could be fuel debris — a potential milestone in the effort to clean up one of the worst atomic disasters in history. This is the first time Tepco has found something likely to be melted fuel. When the utility sent a different robot into reactor 2 in January, it found black lumps sticking to the grating in the primary containment vessel but said they were difficult to identify. The objects spotted this time look like icicles hanging around a control rod drive attached to the bottom of the pressure vessel, which holds the core, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. said at an evening news conference Friday. Enclosed by the huge primary containment vessel, the pressure vessel originally contained the fuel rod assemblies. But the rods melted into a puddle and burned through its bottom once the plant lost power after being swamped by the monstrous tsunami of March 11, 2011. The robot also captured images of lumps of material that appear to have melted and resolidified near the wall of the pedestal, a concrete structure that supports the pressure vessel. “From the pictures taken today, it is obvious that some melted objects came out of the reactor. This means something of high temperature melted some structural objects and came out. So it is natural to think that melted fuel rods are mixed with them,” said Takahiro Kimoto, a Tepco spokesman. “In that sense, it is possible that the melted objects found this time are melted fuel debris or probably around it,” he said, adding the utility will think about how they can be analyzed to determine if they are the former fuel rods. Fuel from a nuclear meltdown is known as corium, a mixture of fuel rods and other structural materials. “It is important to know the exact locations and the physical, chemical, radiological forms of the corium to develop the necessary engineering defueling plans for the safe removal of the radioactive materials,” said Lake Barrett, a former official at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission who was involved with the cleanup at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in the U.S. “The recent investigation results are significant early signs of progress on the long road ahead.” Because of the high radioactivity in the reactor, only specially designed robots can probe the unit. And the unprecedented nature of the Fukushima disaster means that Tepco is pinning its efforts on technology not yet invented to get the melted fuel out of the reactors. The utility aims to decide on the procedure for removing the melted fuel from each unit as soon as this summer. And it will confirm the procedure for the first reactor during fiscal 2018 ending in March 2019, with removal slated to begin in 2021. Decommissioning the reactors will cost ¥8 trillion ($72 billion), according to an estimate in December from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Removing the fuel is one of the most important steps in the cleanup, which may take as long as 40 years. The significance of Friday’s finding “might be evidence that the robots used by Tepco can now deal with the higher radiation levels, at least for periods of time that allow them to search parts of the reactor that are more likely to contain fuel debris,” M.V. Ramana, professor at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia, said by email. “If some of these fragments can be brought out of the reactor and studied, it would allow nuclear engineers and scientists to better model what happened during the accident,” Ramana said. The utility began probing reactor 3 on Wednesday. Since the PCV has 6 meters of water in it, which is higher than in reactors 1 and 2, the 30-cm robot will have to go deep under water. The robot has two cameras — one on the front that can pivot 180 degrees vertically, and another on its back.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/07/21/national/fukushima-robot-finds-potential-fuel-debris-hanging-like-icicles-reactor-3/#.WXiwiLgoEdV 

:: 7-21-17 Oxfam America :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Number of infected continues to rise as Yemen's cholera epidemic breaks record

July 21, 2017 By Oxfam

The number of people with cholera in Yemen is now the largest ever in any country in a single year since records began, Oxfam said today. At over 360,000 suspected cholera cases in just three months since the outbreak started, it is now already the largest number of cases in a year, topping the previous annual record of 340,311 in Haiti in 2011. Though there are signs that the increase in numbers is slowing, the country’s rainy season from July to September will increase the risk of the disease spreading further. It is feared that the total number of people infected could eventually rise to over 600,000, making it one of the largest outbreak since records began in 1949. Almost 2,000 people in Yemen have died from suspected cholera since late April this year, and many more are now at risk, weakened by hunger, disease and the ongoing war. Nigel Timmins, Oxfam’s Humanitarian Director who has just returned back from a fact finding mission to Yemen, said: “It is quite frankly staggering that in just three months more people in Yemen have contracted cholera than any country has suffered in a single year since modern records began. Cholera has spread unchecked in a country already on its knees after two years of war and teetering on the brink of famine. For many people, weakened by war and hunger, cholera is the knockout blow. “This is a massive crisis needing a massive response – if anything the numbers we have are likely to underestimate the scale of the crisis. So far funding from government donors to pay for the aid effort has been lackluster at best, less than half is what is needed. “Cholera is easy to treat and simple to prevent. We need a massive, well-coordinated effort to get clean water, decent sanitation and simple things like soap to people to keep them safe from disease. We need an end to country entry restrictions of supplies and people so that we can get on with the job. “ “Those countries providing the arms and military support, The war has destroyed the economy and left millions without jobs or the means to earn a living, forcing 3 million people to flee their homes. It has precipitated a crisis which has left 7 million people on the brink of starvation. And the war has destroyed or damaged more than half the country’s health facilities as the cholera outbreak rages on. “Vital public servants such as health workers have not been paid for nearly a year. Hospitals, ports, roads and bridges have been bombed. All this is crippling efforts to tackle the cholera crisis.such as the U.S. and the U.K., are fueling a war that is causing wide-spread suffering and tipping a whole nation towards a catastrophe. It is hard to imagine how much more Yemen can take before it collapses entirely.” War has had a devastating effect on Yemen’s people and its infrastructure – almost 5,000 civilians have been killed in the fighting and parts of the country stand on the brink of famine. Health, water and sanitation systems have been bombed to the point of collapse, leaving over 15 million people without adequate access to clean drinking water and safe sanitation. Millions more are hungry and need help in getting a decent meal. Waste is piling up on the streets and in the settlements of displaced people because sanitation services, severely damaged by the over two-year war, cannot cope. Aid agencies tackling the cholera crisis are in danger of being overwhelmed by the scale of the outbreak. Meanwhile, the world's major arms exporters – which include the U.K. and U.S. – are making more money from arming the Saudi-led coalition force than they are spending on Yemen’s humanitarian appeal. In 2016, Saudi Arabia spent nearly $3 billion on arms from the world’s major arms exporters. As of this month, many of those same governments had given just $620 million toward the $2.1 billion UN appeal for Yemen. Oxfam is calling for an immediate ceasefire to enable a nationwide cholera campaign to tackle the disease, unhindered by fighting, and to allow people to get their lives back together. It is calling for the opening of ports and Sanaa airport to allow a massive injection of aid and for the UN and aid agencies’ appeal to be fully funded. Just this week, Oxfam joined forces with a group of seven other leading U.S.-based international relief organizations in an unprecedented effort urging Americans to donate to the new Hunger Relief Fund to respond to the looming famine in Yemen, as well as South Sudan, Somalia and Nigeria. Millions of families are facing starvation, and this Global Emergency Response Coalition will use the Hunger Relief Fund donations to help those already going hungry as well as to lay the groundwork for recovery. The appeal lasts through July 28, 2017. For more information and to donate to the Hunger Relief Fund, please visit: https://www.globalemergencyresponse.org/.

https://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/yemen-cholera-worst-on-record/ 

:: 7-21-17 The Tribune :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Sharks attack kayaker, paddleboarder along Santa Barbara coast

Brooke Holland July 21, 2017 9:31 AM

Two shark attacks were reported along the southern Santa Barbara County coastline Thursday, with a kayaker and paddleboarder escaping injury when sharks took bites out of their respective water crafts. Los Angeles resident Bret Jackson told Noozhawk he was paddling approximately 350 feet east of Stearns Wharf when a great white shark approached his kayak. The 40-year-old felt something nudge his kayak before he was thrown into the ocean, as the shark chomped down and left a 15-inch-wide bite mark on the kayak. “It came out of nowhere, and the first thing I saw was a giant jaw near my face,” said Jackson, who is visiting family in Santa Barbara. “It was fast, and the shark was hungry.” Jackson estimates the entire incident lasted two to five seconds. “It bit on to the kayak next to my arm and side, dove me on the kayak sideways a few feet then flipped (me) over,” Jackson said. “I was underwater upside down in the kayak, then hopped onto the bottom of the kayak.” Harbor patrol received a call about 11:20 a.m. about someone in the water yelling for help, Harbor Patrol Supervisor Steve McCullough said. Emergency personnel discovered that after the initial attack, Jackson swam to a nearby boat for safety. “I started swimming toward a sail boat and the kayak felt like it was sinking,” Jackson said. Jackson wanted to warn people there are “big, hungry, aggressive sharks in the water right now.” No injuries were reported, McCullough said. Signs have been posted warning beachgoers about the shark attack, and the postings at East Beach, West Beach, Leadbetter Beach and Shoreline Park will stay up until Saturday morning, he said.

Read more here: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/article162889748.html#storylink=cpy 

:: 7-19-17 Independent Science News :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

The Biotech Industry Is Taking Over the Regulation of GMOs from the Inside

July 19, 2017 by Jonathan Latham, PhD

The British non-profit GMWatch recently revealed the agribusiness takeover of Conabia, the National Advisory Committee on Agricultural Biotechnology of Argentina. Conabia is the GMO assessment body of Argentina. According to GMWatch, 26 of 34 its members were either agribusiness company employees or had major conflicts of interest*. Packing a regulatory agency with conflicted individuals is one way to ensure speedy GMO approvals and Conabia has certainly delivered that. A much more subtle, but ultimately more powerful, way is to bake approval into the structure of the GMO assessment process itself. It is easier than you might think. I recently attended the latest international conference of GMO regulators, called ISBGMO14, held in Guadalajara, Mexico (June 4-8, 2017). ISBGMO is run by the International Society for Biosafety Research (ISBR). When I first went to this biennial series of conferences, in 2007, just one presentation in the whole four days was by a company. ISBR had some aspirations towards scientific independence from agribusiness. I went for a second time in 2011, to the ISBGMO held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Company researchers and executives were frequent speakers and the conference had become an opportunity for agribusiness to present talking points and regulatory initiatives as if they had the blessing of science. This year, in Guadalajara, companies were now on the conference organising committee and even conferring conference travel scholarships from the podium. A former conference organiser and ISBR board member told me that the previous ISBGMO (St. Louis, USA, in 2015) had been almost entirely paid for by Monsanto. Spreading the industry message In Guadalajara, industry speakers were clearly working from a scripted list. That list translates as the key regulatory objectives of the biotech industry. Prominent on that list was “data transportability”. Data transportability is the idea that regulators from different jurisdictions, say India, or the EU, should accept identical biosafety applications. Implementation of data transportability would mean that although each country has unique ecosystems and species, applicants ought not to have to provide studies tailored to each. For example, when it comes to assessing effects on non-target organisms, for example of a GMO crop producing an insecticide, regulators in Australia should accept tests on European ladybird species or earthworms as showing that a GMO cotton can safely be grown there. The appeal of data transportability for an applicant is clear enough—less cost and less risk of their GMO failing a risk assessment. Not once did I hear mention of an obvious downside to data transportability. The fewer tests to which a novel GMO is subjected the less research there is to detect a significant problem if one exists. A second standard corporate line was “need to know versus nice to know”. In other words do not ask applicants for more data than they wish to supply. The downsides to this are identical to data transportability. Less data is less testing and less science. Modernising risk assessment? Another major theme of the meeting was ‘modernization’ of regulation. In this scheme the most ‘advanced’ nation was proposed to be Canada. Canada has adopted what it calls “trait-based GMO regulation”. In trait-based regulation the method of development (i.e. whether the crop was genetically engineered or not) is considered irrelevant. The trait is the sole focus. So if a GMO crop contains an insecticide it is assessed for risk against non-target organisms. If a GMO improves flavour or nutrition then, since there is presumably no risk from flavours or nutrients, then the crop receives what amounts to a free pass. The Canadian approach sounds harmless, but it has the crucial property that it hands control of risk assessment to the applicant, because under such a system everything depends on what the applicant chooses to call their trait. Imagine you were asked to review the safety of an aircraft, but the manufacturer wouldn’t tell you if it was propeller-driven or a jet; likewise, if a submarine was diesel or nuclear powered. The Canadian approach therefore, by just asking what the crop is supposed to do, effectively places outside of regulation most of the standard considerations of risk and hazard. Once upon a time, risk assessment was supposed to be about what a product is not supposed to do. For proposing non-regulation over regulation, Canadian biosafety officials were given more prominent speaking opportunities at ISBGMO14 than any other national regulator. Tiered risk assessment An equivalently unscientific innovation, which seems widely accepted, is called tiered risk assessment. Imagine a company presents to regulators an insect-resistant GMO crop. An obvious question arises. How is a regulator to know, since the crops produces an insecticide, if it will kill beneficial organisms such as the bees that feed on its flowers? In tiered risk assessment this question is answered by feeding the purified GMO insecticide to a bee species. If no harm is observed the crop is assumed safe. No further tests are required. If the bees are harmed then a larger scale test, presumptively more realistic, is conducted. If harm is not observed the crop is assumed safe and no further tests are required. If harm is shown then an outdoor or larger-level test will be conducted. Monsanto presented a lengthy exposition, in a plenary session, of the ‘soundness’ and ‘logic’ of this tiered approach. Tiered risk assessment has been the subject of little scientific debate (though see Lang et al., 2007), but the implications of the tiered approach are profound. It is an asymmetrical system in which passing any test leads to approval whereas failing that test does not result in disapproval. Consider the comparison with pharmaceuticals. Currently, all pharmaceutical drugs must pass through three phases of clinical trials; first animal tests, then small scale human trials, then large scale human trials. Failure at any stage is considered terminal. Without wishing to give them any ideas, suppose the FDA were to replace this three-phase system with one under which approval in phase I (animal tests) allowed the developer to go straight to market. There would be, for good reason, an uproar, followed by an avalanche of dangerous medications on the market. But that is precisely the logic of tiered GMO testing. Tiered testing is therefore a system in which failure is an unacceptable answer. In the scientific review paper that first proposed tiered risk assessment, there is no provision for rejecting the crop in the main figure, which diagrams the proposed decision tree (See Figure 1 of Romeis et al., 2008). Approvals are guaranteed. Agribusiness knows this perfectly well because many of the principal authors of Romeis et al are from the major seed and biotech companies. The so-called logical innovations presented at ISBGMO14, such as data transportability, trait-based regulation, and tiered risk assessment, are thus intended as regulatory bypasses. They make it all but impossible for a regulator to turn down a GMO application, or even to collect sufficient information. No wonder the biotech industry likes to refer to risk assessment procedures as approval systems. Given the lack of objection to these approaches at ISBGMO14, the biotech industry ought now to feel confident that the regulation of biotechnology is largely in their hands, but still it wants more. In the coming years, an upsurge is expected in the GMO pipeline as new applications and new approaches become possible. This pipeline is predicted to include GMO algae, animal biotechnology, gene drives, and so forth. Many of these opportunities the industry knows will be controversial. A pacified regulatory environment is for them a necessity before that can happen. This is more than a shame. When a comprehensive evaluation of the weaknesses and inherent limitations of scientific risk assessment is urgently needed to cope with these challenges, the chemical and biotech industries are forcing those assessment systems in the opposite direction.

https://www.independentsciencenews.org/environment/the-biotech-industry-is-taking-over-the-regulation-of-gmos/ 

:: 7-22-17 World Net Daily :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

The 20 diseases 'refugees' bring into the West

Exclusive: Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D., reports latest increases authorities fail to publicize

Published: 4 days ago

Note: Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet is a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, AAPS.

Since 2005, Americans have been warned about microscopic border crossers carried in with refugees and illegal immigrants, bringing diseases previously eradicated or rarely seen here. When not simply ignored by media and health officials, physicians and others sounding the alarm have been attacked as xenophobes. Now we’re seeing these prescient predictions come true, most prominently in Germany, since 2015 when Angela Merkel began allowing more than 2 million migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East to flood into her country. U.S. and German citizens are put at significant risk by the politically correct acceptance of unscreened immigrants from countries with a high prevalence of infectious diseases, many difficult or impossible to treat. Yet authorities in both countries have failed to fully inform the public of the dangers. According to the July 2017 Infectious Disease Epidemiology Annual Report by the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, Germany has seen a surge in chicken pox, cholera, dengue fever, tuberculosis, leprosy, measles, malaria, meningococcal diseases, hemorrhagic fevers, hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, paratyphoid, rubella, shigellosis, syphilis, typhus, toxoplasmosis, tularemia, trichinellosis, whooping cough, and many fungal and parasitic infections. Here are a few striking examples: Measles is up more than 450 percent. Hepatitis B is up 300 percent. Scabies escalated nearly 3,000 percent. HIV/AIDS increased 30 percent. Tuberculosis (TB) is at least 30 percent higher – but German and U.S. physicians suspect that the incidence of TB is actually far higher than reported, and is being downplayed to avoid causing public outrage over the influx of immigrants. In Germany, more than 40 percent of TB cases are multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB).Dengue fever is up over 25 percent just from 2014. A similar pattern has emerged in the U.S. since the massive increase in illegal border crossers and refugees beginning in 2010. As in the U.S., many hundreds of thousands of migrants “disappear” into cities and towns across Germany, without a health screening. There is no way to monitor them for disease or to ensure adequate treatment. Citizens are exposed without their knowledge; risks are especially serious for children and the elderly. In a briefing to the Arizona Senate in 2016, experts reported that the U.S. is suffering near “pandemic medical issues” due to the continuous influx of illegal aliens and refugees from countries where infectious diseases are widespread. As of 2016, two states were in the Catastrophic Phase and another 13 were in the Critical Phase of public health impact from these infectious diseases. Arizona was No. 9 of 13 states in the Critical Phase but was expected to move into the Catastrophic Phase by fall of 2016 as a result of people who are latent carriers of disease or who entered the country during the incubation period for a disease. We were unable to learn the current status from personal calls to Arizona county and state officials. TB is one of the most serious threats. Latent TB can remain dormant for years, even decades. It is alarming that 18 percent of refugees in Arizona arrive with latent TB, while in the general Arizona population the incidence was only 4 percent. Multidrug resistant TB (MDR-TB), common in migrants, may cost more than $400,000 per patient, compared with $20,000 for the drug-responsive TB that has been predominant in U.S.-born patients. Treatment of MDR-TB has serious side effects, with no guarantee of success. U.S. taxpayers pay this cost. In addition, all who might have been exposed to an active case must be screened, followed and possibly treated. Even healthy immigrants burden the system with social costs, such as housing, education and food stamps – costs borne by taxpaying workers whose own wages are depressed by competition from a glut of low-paid foreigners. Illegal immigrants are estimated to cost U.S. taxpayers $17 billion per year. That $17 billion is in addition to the costs for those allowed here legally under “refugee” status, for which we do not have reliable public estimates. Liberal and progressive politicians like to say, “America is the land of immigrants.” In the past, this meant legal immigrants who follow our screening procedures for illness and other laws and who are coming to America to be part of our culture. Medical screening was one of the core purposes of the Ellis Island immigration center in New York. New arrivals were examined, quarantined if needed, or sent back to their country of origin if they posed a risk to Americans. To protect the health and safety of American citizens, we must reinstate our prior customary medical screening as outlined on our own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website. For national security and medical concerns, President Trump is correct to enforce our immigration laws, with careful vetting of those seeking to come to America to live and work.

Read more at http://mobile.wnd.com/2017/07/the-20-diseases-refugees-bring-into-the-west/#qyDF5ithoTrZyym6.99 

:: 7-25-17 King 5 :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

WHY YOU NEED TO BE PREPARED: THESE ARE THE 3 BIG EARTHQUAKE THREATS

The Pacific Northwest could be affected by earthquakes from three major nearby faults.

Author: Glenn Farley Published: 07/25/17

The western half of Washington state is considered earthquake country, with the potential for very large quakes. Scientists have their top three. First, there’s the Cascadia Subduction Zone running roughly parallel to the Pacific Coast from northern California past the northern tip of Canada’s Vancouver Island. Second, the Seattle Fault, which runs east to west just south of downtown Seattle. It ends up near the Cascade Mountains and west onto the Olympic Peninsula. Third, the South Whidbey Island Fault running from northwest to southeast of the southern tip of the island. These quakes are capable of magnitudes from 7 to over 9. Every year Western Washington undergoes hundreds of earthquakes. Most of them are tiny, magnitude 1 or 2, and a map shows them since 1970 around the Puget Sound area. All remind scientists of the potential that’s placed on larger faults, as the region is compressed by geological forces beyond anyone’s control. On the map, a larger red dot near Olympia show the 6.8 Nisqually quake of February 2001. The 1965 and 1949 earthquakes of similar magnitude are shown on larger red dots nearby. Nisqually was responsible for $4 billion in damage, but nobody died as a direct result. Unlike California, we are reminded less often of the potential devastation. “There is so much more work to be done within the basin and within all of Washington to understanding these faults,” said Corina Forson, the state’s chief hazards geologist for the Washington Geological Survey, part of the Department of Natural Resources. Cascadia Subduction Zone The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a giant fault running from Cape Mendocino, Calif. past Oregon and Washington and doesn’t end until it’s north of Vancouver Island in Canada. You saw its potential in the 9.1 magnitude Tohuku earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan in March 2011. Tohoku killed nearly 16,000 people; most died as a result of drowning or being crushed in the tsunami. Because Japan was so well prepared, most retrofitted buildings outside of the tsunami zone survived. This part of the Japanese coast had not seen this type of seismic rupture in some 800 years, and what failed was that walls built to keep tsunami waves were not high enough. In Washington, we do not have tsunami walls. Along the coast residents may have between 20 and 30 minutes to get to higher ground. The Westport area is now the first in North America to have a community vertical evacuation structure, a building strong enough to resist earthquake and tsunami wave forces and give people a platform above the expected wave heights. That place is the Ocosta School. But the Cascadia Subduction Zone isn’t just a fault; it’s an overlapping joint between tectonic plates, parts of the Earth’s crust that float on layers of molten rock. There’s a reason the lands around the Pacific Ocean are called the “Ring of Fire.” The earthquakes, tsunamis, and the proximity of volcanos are all part of the same system. The coast is now the home of one of the state’s largest network of warning sirens called All Hazard Alert Broadcast (AHABs). But Forson says you also need to know what to do when the shaking happens. There are also tsunami evacuation signs on the highways. Westport currently is the only location with a vertical evacuation structure designed for a tsunami. “We do not encourage people to evacuate in vehicles. We’re working on pedestrian evacuation maps that show the best routes for pedestrians to take to evacuate,” said Forson. “You just need one person to crash or a power line to fall over the road, and the roads are unusable.” “That’s why we’re pushing for a lot of vertical evacuation structures to be built – hotels or schools, because it’s not an easy problem to solve,” he said. Seattle Fault Moving inland, consider the Seattle Fault. It’s considered capable of a magnitude 7. That may not sound like much more than the magnitude 6.8 quake of 2001 based on the numbers, but that the Nisqually quake occurred some 30 miles underground. Then consider that the Seattle Fault is a complex of faults with various branches that run at or just below the surface. “The risk is complicated, but there are millions of people who live in the Seattle area,” said Forson. “What we know about this fault is that it’s ruptured may times in the past…it will happen again. We just don’t know when.” Across the northern portion of Bainbridge Island, light radar or lidar images taken from airplanes clearly show what geologists say is the Seattle Fault running right on the surface. Another piece can be seen under the elevated lanes of northbound Interstate 5 in South Seattle not far from the Rainier brewery. The Seattle Fault is also likely to create a tsunami that would inundate Harbor Island and much of SODO, Interbay, and the waterfront. It could also create dangerous currents and hazards to the north including Everett. Related: Geological hazard maps via Department of Natural Resources What scientists don’t know is its timing interval. “The last time was 1,000 years ago between 900 and 903 A.D.,” said Forson. “It will happen; we don’t know when.” What about the localized tsunami risk? In the 1990’s, scientists produced an animation that shows inundation, and people won’t have much time to run to higher ground. In some areas getting up a hill to higher ground will be difficult. Some people in places like SODO and Harbor Island may have to flee to higher floors in a building. South Whidbey Island Fault The South Whidbey Island Fault is also dangerous. It’s significantly larger than the Seattle Fault, and South Whidbey could hand us a magnitude 7.5 earthquake. That could spell trouble not only for its namesake island but for south and north King County and further west. “The crustal faults – the Seattle Fault, the South Whidbey Island Fault, the Tacoma Fault – those are less well known,” said Forson. Forson said more research needs to be done. And while scientists keep digging for more information and more situational awareness of what we face, the other problem is human. “A lot of people are transplants,” Forson said. “They didn’t grow up here, they haven’t heard this story. So they don’t necessarily know the threats they face.” Join KING 5’s Disaster Preparedness Facebook group and learn how you and your community can get ready for when disaster strikes. Join KING 5's full day of Disaster Preparedness coverage on Monday, July 24 Why is KING 5 focusing so much on disaster preps? It's certainly not to scare you. Earlier this year, we began the task of creating a disaster plan – how this station would deliver the news if a major disaster struck the Pacific Northwest. We began by consulting state emergency planners, the Red Cross, medical professionals, even other newsrooms. What we got was a BIG wakeup call. Emergency planners all had a simple message: It's not IF a disaster will happen, it's WHEN. Earthquakes. Volcanic eruptions. Devastating wind storms. Floods. Mudslides. The experts say few are ready. And being ready means being able to support yourself, your loved ones, your neighborhood for 2 weeks. Because after a region-wide event, it could take that long for help to come from the rest of the country and world. So our plan to make a plan for KING… inspired us to help all our viewers understand what they need to do to get prepared. The people of KING 5 are like you: We live and work here. Most of us have families, friends and pets who we will need to care for. Our full day of coverage is a first step … for us … and, we hope, for you. Watch day-long coverage Monday on KING and KONG, on our king5.com, our Facebook page, and Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #AreYouPrepared.

http://www.king5.com/mobile/article/amp/news/local/disaster/why-you-need-to-be-prepared-these-are-the-3-big-earthquake-threats/457421137 

:: 7-21-17 Zero Hedge :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

US Urges All Nationals In North Korea To "Depart Immediately", Bans Tourists From Visiting

by Tyler Durden Jul 21, 2017 11:11 PM

Dennis Rodman will be disappointed to learn that the US is set to ban all citizens from traveling to North Korea, according to two agencies that operate tours there. Koryo Tours and Young Pioneer Tours said the ban would be announced on 27 July to come into effect 30 days later, the BBC reported. "After the 30-day grace period any US national that travels to North Korea will have their passport invalidated by their government." The ban comes one month after US student Otto Warmbier died following his imprisonment by the Kim regime. China-based Young Pioneer Tours, which had taken Warmbier to North Korea, and Koryo Tours said the ban will come into force on July 27 - the anniversary of the end of the Korean War - with a 30-day grace period. Koryo Tours added that the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, which handles consular affairs for the United States in the North, informed it of the ban, but did not say how long it would last. The U.S. embassy in the South Korean capital, Seoul, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Rowan Beard said that the 30-day grace period would "give leeway for any [Americans] currently in the country as tourists or on humanitarian work". Simon Cockerill, of Koryo Tours, said: "It remains to be seen what the exact text is, but the indication is it's just a straight up ban on Americans going." Mr Cockerill told the BBC the agency would still conduct tours and take Americans until the ban came into effect. Additionally, Rowan Beard of Young Pioneer Tours, told the BBC the embassy was urging all US nationals to depart immediately. He said the embassy was trying to check on the number of US tourists left in the country. For now there has been no official confirmation from the US: the state department continues to have an alert dated 9 May strongly warning US citizens not to travel to North Korea. As the BBC adds, there has been movement towards a ban for a while in the US, which increased with the Warmbier death. In May, two congressmen introduced the North Korea Travel Control bill to cut off the foreign currency the country earns from American tourists. The House foreign affairs subcommittee is scheduled to take up the draft legislation on 27 July but it would still have to go to the Senate. So there could be an executive order. Last month, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said: "We have been evaluating whether we should put some type of travel visa restriction to North Korea. We have not come to a final conclusion, but we are considering it." Apart from the treatment of Americans in North Korea, tension has been increasing over Pyongyang's nuclear programme. Some are suggesting the US is using the date the ban is set to be announced - 27 July - to cloud North Korea's Victory Day on the same day. It was not clear if the urge to clear out US citizens from North Korea is a precursor to more "aggressive" (or kinetic) action by the US government.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-21/us-urges-all-nationals-north-korea-depart-immediately-bans-tourists-visiting 

:: 7-21-17 Bare Naked Islam :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

BEWARE! This devout Muslim running for governor of Michigan is the new ‘diversity’ sweetheart of the Left

ABDULRAHMAN MOHAMED EL-SAYED (aka Abdul El-Sayed): Etch this man’s name in your mind. Hand picked by the Left as their latest ‘diversity’ candidate, El-Sayed is running for Governor of Michigan 2018, and reportedly being groomed (by George Soros) for a run for President in the future. Abdul El-Sayed is 32 years old, born in the USA, and an extremely well-educated Muslim Doctor in Detroit Michigan. He is articulate, charismatic and smart. He is sympathetic of the Muslim Brotherhood, and is running for Governor of Michigan, Which is Step 1 in his preparation to run for President of the United States. He has the potential to be Obama 2.0, but far more openly Muslim. Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed is an American physician, epidemiologist, public health advocate, and politician. He has announced his candidacy for Governor of Michigan, running as a Democrat. Democrats’ mouths are watering in anticipation and raising money. Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren is already campaigning for him. Al Jazeera, which is widely read by Michigan’s large Muslim population is doing its best to help him. And he is backed by notorious shill for sharia and the Muslim Brotherhood, Linda Sarsour (below). WND El-Sayed speaks articulately, without an accent, inserts humor into his speeches at seemingly just the right moments, and he has the full backing of America’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood-linked network of Islamic organizations (CAIR, ISNA, NAIT, ICNA, MSA, MAS). Sayed served as the executive director of the Detroit Health Department and Health Officer for the City of Detroit, appointed by Mayor Mike Duggan. At 30 years old, he was at the time of his appointment in 2015 the youngest health director in a major U.S. city. Dick Manasseri, spokesman for Secure Michigan, a group that educates Michiganders about the threat of Sharia law, predicts that Sayed will at least win the Democratic nomination for governor. “It is the exact same thing as Barack Obama in Chicago in the early 2000s,” said Manasseri. “He’s young, attractive, he does not give out a lot of information, he speaks in platitudes about celebrating inclusiveness and diversity.” Manaserri says the Muslim Brotherhood would never support a candidate that didn’t have tons of money behind him (enter George Soros). El-Sayed was a recipient of the 2012 Paul and Daisy SOROS Fellowship for New Americans. Sayed is highly educated, a Rhodes scholar who attended Oxford University in 2009 and became a practicing epidemiologist. “He’s very well packaged,” Manasseri said. “He’s far more accomplished than Barack Obama. Obama was not this accomplished, they connected him to certain foundations and his candidacy took off.” In his campaign launch on Feb. 25th, El-Sayed says, “It’s all about celebrating multiculturalism.” He said he was taught that “real leaders are those that can stand firm against the powerful, stand strong with the weak, and stand humbly before Allah.” “Any Republican would be afraid to confront him on his Muslim Brotherhood connections or his views on Sharia,” Manasseri said. “He is a devout Shariah-compliant guy, and I would predict that he will be endorsed by the Catholic Church, which is very powerful in Michigan.” Manasseri points out that a bill supporting American Law for American Courts, widely regarded as an anti-Sharia law, was defeated in the Michigan Legislature when two powerful lobbies – the Michigan Catholic Conference and the Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR – teamed up to kill it. He expects the same coalition to form behind a candidate who would make history as America’s first Muslim governor. “So if this guy rises in the polls, I would predict the Catholic Church will support his candidacy,” he said. “Just like with Obama, because we gotta make history.” “It’s Obama II,” Manasseri said. “Elizabeth Warren will be coming to campaign for him, the Democrats in other states will be raising money for him. The DNC number-two Muslim [Keith Ellison] will be raising money for him. Of course this guy is going to be on the Sunday morning talk shows. He’ll be everywhere. A candidate for governor who is Muslim Brotherhood …if that doesn’t tell you there’s a Sharia swamp in Michigan I don’t know what does.”

http://www.barenakedislam.com/2017/07/21/beware-this-devout-muslim-running-for-governor-of-michigan-is-the-new-diversity-sweetheart-of-the-left/ 

:: 7-24-17 The Free Thought :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

DUI-E Law Now Makes It Illegal to Text, Smoke and Even Eat While Driving

Washington's new Driving Under the Influence of Electronics law makes it illegal to text, eat, smoke, read or groom while driving.

By Rachel Blevins - July 20, 2017

The charge of “driving under the influence” used to only apply to drivers who were under the influence of drugs or alcohol—but it will now apply to drivers who text, eat, smoke, read or groom while driving in the state of Washington. The implementation of the Driving Under the Influence of Electronics Act was expedited from January 2019 to July 23 after Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed a partial-veto, and insisted that “public safety is better served by implementing this bill this year.” “When you are driving with a cell phone, you are a more dangerous driver than if you are driving drunk with a .08 blood alcohol level,” Inslee said during a press conference. “There’s hardly anything we’ve done in the last several years at the state Capitol to save more lives than this distracted driving law.” Statistics from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission found that 171 of 568 road deaths in 2015 were “blamed on some form of driver distraction, not necessarily electronics.” Although both texting and holding a cellphone to your ear while driving are already banned in Washington, the new regulations will outlaw composing or reading any message, taking pictures, and ultimately holding a phone for any reason other than calling 911—even when sitting at a stoplight. Penalties under the new DUI-E law will include a $136 fee for first-time offenders, a $234 fee for second-time offenders, and a $99 fee for “grooming, smoking, eating or reading while behind the wheel.” While the fines might not seem outrageous at first glance, Toni Matous, an agent with Magnolia Insurance Agency Inc. in Seattle, told Q13Fox that insurance companies were some of the top lobbyists for the new distracted driving law—and that is not by mistake. Matous called the law the “new drunk driving,” and said that in the case of a family with a teenaged driver, if that driver receives a DUI-E ticket, it will affect the entire family by making their insurance skyrocket by up to thousands of dollars each year. “The insurance industry is losing big, losing big in the personal auto insurance industry and they’re reeling, trying to find out how to find out how to solve the problem,” Matous said. In order to cover the costs of implementing the new law, the state’s law enforcement agencies have spent $400,000 to add “6,000 patrol hours aimed at driver distraction.” While distracted driving offenses resulted in over 5,400 citations in Washington in April 2016, numbers are predicted to increase drastically with all of the new infractions that police will have the opportunity to cite. While this new law in Washington may seem bizarre based on the fact that it makes things such as eating and smoking while driving illegal, it is not the first time a law has been introduced to fine Americans for being distracted. In May 2016, a Democratic assemblywoman from New Jersey introduced a bill to sentence individuals to up to 15 days in jail for the heinous crime of texting and walking. Washington’s DUI-E law could set a precedent for future laws in other states, but it also allows for an abuse of power by police. It takes away the accountability that makes officers look for a legitimate infraction before pulling a car over, and it gives officers the ability to make their quotas by simply alleging that a driver was looking at an electronic device, even when their vehicle is not moving. As a result, the drivers pay a high price, and both the police state and the insurance companies who lobbied for the new law make a profit.

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/state-dui-e-illegal-driving/ 

:: 7-20-17 Spiegel online :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Dr. Smartphone The Medical Profession's Digital Revolution Is Here

The health care sector is facing a far-reaching and unpredictable revolution. Smartphones are capable of replacing many devices that have become standard in medical practices and some apps will soon be able to provide diagnoses as well. Patients are becoming less reliant on doctors.

© Bernhard Riedmann / DER SPIEGEL By Martin U. Müller July 20, 2017

The airplane had just taken off when one of the passengers lost consciousness. Eric Topol pulled his smartphone out of his pocket and immediately performed an electrocardiogram (EKG) on the passenger. He used the device to do an ultrasound scan of the man's heart and measured oxygen levels in his blood. He was then able to give the all-clear and the plane could continue its journey. The man had lost consciousness merely due to a temporarily slowed heart rhythm. Topol is a cardiologist in La Jolla, California, and it wasn't the first time he had encountered such a situation while flying. On one occasion, he used his mobile phone to determine that a passenger had suffered a heart attack and the plane had to land immediately. Of particular interest to Topol, though, is the fact that anyone can perform such an EKG, whether a professor of medicine, a flight attendant or just a simple passenger. All one needs is a $200 sensor and a smartphone with an app that can analyze the heart's rhythm. Hardly any other object has changed the world to the degree that smartphones have. It has become completely normal to use our mobile devices for shopping and managing our schedules. Political revolutions have been organized by smartphone and you can use one to find a life partner or to plan a funeral. Every single day, 10 times as many smartphones are sold around the world as babies born. And now, smartphones are conquering medical care. For millennia, sick people have been dependent on help from others, a healer or a doctor. But now, mobile devices are beginning to change that age-old state of affairs. Coupled with the power of artificial intelligence, the mobile phone promises to fundamentally change medical care. Many medical examinations that were thus far only possible in a doctor's office can now be undertaken at any time by anyone -- even while sitting at home in your easy chair. With the help of small and affordable accessories, smartphones can measure electrical activity in the brain, intraocular pressure and blood pressure. They can perform an EKG, recognize atrial fibrillation (a type of abnormal heart rhythm), check pulmonary function, record heart murmurs, take photos of your inner ear, perform breathalyzers, perform aorta scans and even sequence DNA. Soon, there will be little difference from a technical standpoint between a general practitioner's office and a fully equipped smartphone. On the contrary: It is already the case that patients are sometimes better served by a mobile phone. Doctors Have Competition Apps like M-sense are revolutionizing migraine diagnostics. At the University of Magdeburg in Germany, a mobile phone program called Neotiv is being developed to reliably diagnose Alzheimer's. There are even scanners reminiscent of the "Star Trek" Tricorder: You simply hold it up to a patient's forehead and receive diagnostic information within seconds. An Israeli company has developed SCiO, the first smartphone app for mass spectrometry. If you briefly hold it up to an apple, for example, its exact composition will appear on your display. The app also works on pills: Using the app, the device scans an object's structure, compares it with a database and then tells you what it is -- a paracetamol tablet, for example. Even today, such a test is far from standard, even in hospital emergency rooms. It is far from clear what all of these changes will mean for the health care industry -- for patients and doctors and for the manufacturers of large medical devices that may soon no longer be necessary. One thing, though, is certain: Doctors have competition, and that competition is stimulating the industry. Within just a few years, patients won't just be able to decide which doctor to go to, but will also be able to choose between local doctors, online diagnoses and intelligent scanning devices -- and they will perhaps even be able to undergo an examination in their own cars. The patient is becoming more powerful -- and doctors are becoming less essential. A BILLION-DOLLAR INDUSTRY The first wave of health apps was made up of tracking bracelets and similar accessories that were rightly mocked as glorified pedometers. But the second wave is developing into a significant player in the medical technology branch. Investors have begun referring to the development as "serious health," and there is money to be made. A lot of money. But there are other issues at stake as well, such as trust and the potential for overwhelming the traditional health care system. The epicenter of digital medicine is not in Silicon Valley, as it tends to be for social media giants like Facebook or Snapchat. Rather, it is on the East Coast of the United States, in Israel and in Europe. One of the leaders of the scene in Berlin is Markus Müschenich. Ever since he decided to devote his life to digital medicine, the 56-year-old's life has been unrelenting: here, an appointment with German Health Minister Hermann Gröhe, there a video conference with a promising startup. Müschenich is pretty much constantly speaking into the headset of his telephone, and when he's not, he is giving presentations to doctors, insurance company officials and politicians. A former pediatrician, he always wanted to do more than just treat patients. "I still don't regret having set aside my lab coat," he says. Müschenich was part of the management team at a hospital in Berlin before becoming a member of the board of directors at Sana, a chain of hospitals and clinics in Germany. But he didn't find his true calling either in pediatrics or in analyzing the economic data of heart centers. He moved on to found a company that developed an app to help cure cross-eyed children -- and then convinced the health insurance company Barmer to refund the price of the app to its customers. The result was the first-ever prescription app. Today, he owns the company Flying Health, an incubator for medical industry startups that shares both its money and know-how. His portfolio includes Patientus, a Lübeck-based company that offers doctor consultations by video link, and he offers consulting to the diabetes startup mySugr, which was just recently sold to the Swiss pharma-giant Roche. He is also involved in a company developing software for pregnant women called Onelife and is trying to increase the value of Neotiv, the company that is developing an app to identify Alzheimer's. Müschenich and his 10 employees work out of a co-working space in Berlin that is shared by other startups. And he has adopted the scene's typically effusive optimism. "Every day, I see young people here who demonstrate that they are better than we are. That's inspiring." Currently, the health care system consists of the in-patient and out-patient sectors, but economists in the industry are convinced that the digital sector will soon join them. Germany currently spends a total of 350 billion euros ($403 billion) per year on health care, and the high-tech segment will certainly siphon some of that money off from the traditional sectors like hospital and practice care. Müschenich expects the digital medical care sector in Germany to be worth 100 billion euros by 2025. "From an organizational standpoint, the digital sector will come before the two other sectors," Müschenich says. In the future, he explains, doctors will become dependent on getting references from digital systems. Experts at the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI), a future-oriented think tank in Switzerland, likewise believe that smartphones will become the "core interface" of the health care system. "Cost pressures will push the system towards digital," says Karin Frick, head of research at GDI. "It seems logical for patients to undergo an initial examination using smartphone systems. Companies that understand that first will be the winners." THE PRODUCERS Not far from the airport in Hamburg, on Röntgen Street -- named after the German physicist who discovered the electromagnetic radiation used in X-rays -- the German headquarters of Philips can be found. Today, the Dutch multinational is no longer the same company it was for the almost 100 years prior to 2014 and the change can even be seen in the architecture. Floors here have been given the names of different Hamburg neighborhoods and meetings are held in "boxes." The CEO has a desk in an open-plan office space and next to the restrooms, there are mounted pods for employees' mobile phones. Televisions that bear the Philips name no longer have anything directly to do with the company -- the brand has been licensed out. The light bulb division has likewise been sold off. The only thing left is medical equipment. "Wherever I go, I have to explain that the Philips of today is purely a medical technology company," says Peter Vullinghs, Philips head in Germany and manager of 4,800 employees. He does, though, see parallels with the television business, which he once ran. "They went from being high-end products to simple consumer goods. The same thing is now happening with medical technology," he says. A slew of new competitors has joined the market, including Vullinghs says, Google, Apple, Samsung and IBM.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/dr-smartphone-the-medical-profession-s-digital-revolution-a-1158548.html 

[ :: 12-31-09/1-1-10 New Years Eve Service (first word)  :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::  ::]

etc. For the disasters that shall take place are many, the flooding shall be far greater than in times past, the mudslides far greater than in times past, the earthquakes shall be more numerous and far greater than in times past. The tornadoes, oh the savageness of the tornadoes that shall rip across the land, the straight winds, the hurricanes, the forest fires, the volcanoes shall erupt, the rising of the sea level that will be marked not in inches but in feet. etc.. 

:: 7-22-17 The Big Wobble :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Almost 50,000 people evacuated nearly 500,000 hectares destroyed as massive British Colombia wildfire continues to grow entering it's third week

Saturday, 22 July 2017 Photo ici.radio-canada.ca

A seasoned British Columbia firefighter says he's never seen anything like the fast-moving wildfire that is sweeping the area. British Columbia may ask for more help if its wildfires worsen, the western Canadian province said on Friday after the federal government sent 225 additional soldiers to battle blazes that have been spreading rapidly in hot, dry weather. While rain is expected over the weekend, many parts that are burning are expected to miss it entirely, and winds in some parts could escalate the blazes, fire information officer Navi Saini said on a conference call. "We also are in ongoing discussions with the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre," she said. "We do have the option of requesting more resources." In total, there are now 375 Canadian soldiers along with 3,600 firefighters and emergency responders tackling the flames, which have forced around 45,000 people to evacuate their homes over the past two weeks. Nearly 170 wildfires are blazing across the heavily forested province, affecting 405,000 hectares and prompting the provincial government to declare a state of emergency. The province has spent C$117.9 million ($94.05 million) tackling the fires, whose numbers on Friday included 32 new ones since Thursday, Saini said. Federal government ministers promised to send more help as the situation unfolds. "We are committed to providing a coordinated federal response to the people of British Columbia," Canada's public safety minister, Ralph Goodale, said in a statement. Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokeswoman Annie Linteau said an advance team from the military has been working with local authorities for the last 36 hours. "Our Canadian forces colleagues will be joining us, the RCMP and other police personnel, at various checkpoints ... by tomorrow morning," she said. Linteau said at least one fire, which has destroyed buildings, may have been human-caused, and that investigators are probing the issue. British Columbia declared its first state of emergency since 2003 on July 7 as gusty winds fanned fires that were caused by lightning and humans in the tinder-dry central and southern regions. The fires have shut mines and timber operations and damaged homes and electrical infrastructure. Major pipeline companies in the region, including Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd, a unit of Kinder Morgan Inc, have created fire breaks, installed sprinklers and taken other measures to protect operations. On Thursday, a low pressure system tracked across British Columbia, bringing heavy showers and cooler temperatures, although emergency officials said the rain was sporadic and only fell in certain areas.

http://www.thebigwobble.org/2017/07/almost-50000-people-evacuated-nearly.html 

:: 7-22-17 All News Pipeline :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

This Could Bring America To A Standstill In Days - Are These 'Doomsday Maps' Another Sign That War Is In The Air?

By Stefan Stanford - All News Pipeline - Live Free Or Die July 22, 2017

In one of the lead stories over at the Drudge Report from Zero Hedge they report the US is urging all nationals in North Korea to 'depart immediately' while banning tourists from visiting in a ban expected to be officially announced on July 27th and to come into effect 30 days later. Reporting "it was not clear if the urge to clear out US citizens from North Korea is a precursor to more 'aggressive' (or kinetic) action by the US government", it had previously been reported that one sign to watch out for of a possible forthcoming military strike upon NKorea were actions taken to get US citizens out of the area. In watching for such signs, a must-read story from Mac Slavo over at SHTFPlan reports one of the reasons why we 'pay attention': "They May Have Information We Don't" Slavo tells us while asking "Are The Elite Preparing For A Cataclysmic Event?" In Slavo's story he reports upon a recent article in Forbes Magazine which "seems to be sounding the alarm that a major, cataclysmic event could be on the horizon". Slavo finds it interesting that 'mainstream' Forbes has allowed such a report. Interestingly, as Susan Duclos reported on ANP back on June 27th of 2017, the Forbes story included the map seen below, a map that had long been labeled 'tin foil hat conspiracy' by those pressed to believe that America could ever suffer through an event that caused our nation to look like this. What do the globalists know that we don't know? The title of the Forbes story from June 10th, 2017: "The Shocking Doomsday Maps Of The World And The Billionaire Escape Plans". One very interesting aspect about the Forbes story is that the maps they show like the one above are not limited to the United States as they show us 'doomsday maps' from South America and all around the world. So, is the map seen above still some 'tinfoil hat conspiracy theory' or something much more? And while a massive sea-level rise or 'pole flip' might not be in the cards for America and the world any time soon, the possibilities for why we should prepare are nearly endless with one key reason traced back directly to the ZH story on North Korea. If we attempt a 'surgical strike' upon North Korea and a 'limited war' breaks out, North Korea has warned they may have 'sleeper agents' in America prepared to unleash biological weapons within our cities. As Michael Snyder reported back on April 13th of 2017 at The American Dream, "Where Will You Go When North Korean Agents Release Biological Weapons In Major U.S. Cities?" Snyder outlines a scenario within his story that one can be forgiven for thinking it could never happen here, yet it could, and as we learn, we may have no notice at all. As we reported on ANP back on April 28th of 2017, according to a recently declassified report, North Korea had at least 5 commando units on US soil back in the 1990's, prepared to attack US cities and nuclear power plants. Should we believe that somehow, someway we don't have at least that many units in America now after years of Barack Obama's open borders? With the incredible 'diversity' that America has achieved over the years, finding NKorean sleepers in America would be like finding needles in the haystack. From Snyder: Most Americans have no idea that biological weapons could potentially bring our nation to a complete and utter standstill within a matter of days. In recent articles I have been trying to get people to understand why it would be so exceedingly dangerous for the United States to attack North Korea. A war with North Korea would be fundamentally different from other wars, because there would be no line that the North Koreans would not be willing to cross. They would use nukes, they would use chemical weapons, and they would not hesitate to even use biological weapons on innocent civilian populations. In the aftermath of a massive U.S. military strike on North Korea’s nuclear facilities, North Korean agents that have been embedded inside the United States for years quickly start going to work. In Washington D.C., New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, small containers that had been covertly smuggled into the U.S. are opened and dropped on the ground in the middle of large groups of people. At first nothing seems to happen, but pretty rapidly those that have been exposed start developing puffy white sores and blisters on their skin. When this hits the news, panic begins to spread as people realize that this appears to be a coordinated attack. Before too long, others that have been exposed to a different bioweapon start bleeding profusely from their eyes, ears, mouths and noses. People drop dead by the thousands, and a national health crisis is declared. Economic activity comes to a complete halt as everyone becomes deathly afraid of leaving their own homes. Hospitals and other medical facilities are completely overwhelmed because they can only treat a small fraction of those that are dying. Because these weaponized diseases were designed to spread like wildfire, pretty soon nearly every community in America is affected. The federal government attempts to intervene, but it is powerless to stop the spread of these pandemics. Thousands of dead bodies lie rotting in the streets of our major cities because there aren’t enough people willing to take the risk of burying them. And because virtually everyone is camping out at home, essential public services start to break down very rapidly and our society descends into a state of utter chaos. While Snyder outlines what could be a near-worst-case scenario (short of nuclear attacks upon several major US cities or an EMP or cyber attack that permanently takes down the electrical grid), the scenario he outlines could be among the first responses taken by 'sleepers' who've long been embedded in America, going about their day to day business as if they were 'average Joe', just waiting for their call. As we've also previously reported on ANP, 'secret coded messages' are regularly sent out by the North Korean government to their sleeper spies around the world. According to the Biological Warfare Blog, the 'black six' of bioweapons include anthrax, botulinium, plague, smallpox, tularaemia and viral hemorrhagic fever and there are years worth of evidence to indicate that North Korea is very involved in the acquisition and weaponization of such pathogens. In the first video below, Joe with the Daily Sheeple talks with us about these doomsday maps for the rich while in the 2nd video we hear all about the North Korean biological weapons threat to America and the world. In the final video below we hear about the possibility that a false flag attack upon America may be ahead with an EMP attack likely blamed upon North Korea but actually allowed to be carried out by America-hating globalists.

http://allnewspipeline.com/NKorea_Threats_Doomsday_Map_What_Do_The_Globalists_Know.php 

:: 7-21-17 The Common Sense Show :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Youtube Is Burning Books As the Deep State Prepares to Burn People

By Dave Hodges

YouTube’s new program where kids as young as 13 will decide what you will see and hear. It’s called the HEROES program. I call it Lord of the Flies runs our social media. YouTube (i.e. Google) and Facebook are acting as unregulated monopolies. They provide a privately owned platform in which the Independent Media provides a conservative interpretation of the news as opposed to the radical left-wing Mainstream media who espouses such values as expressing anti-Christian views, advocating for the continual erosion of the Bill of Rights and the rest of the Constitution, completely open borders in which anyone with two legs and carrying weapons of mass destruction can illegally cross our borders take up residence, all courtesy of the US taxpayer. And according to Facebook and YouTube they have the right to ban you from using their platform for espousing traditional American values that our country was founded on. Not Advertiser Friendly I have had scores of videos demonetized by YouTube because they are “not advertiser friendly”. Not advertiser friendly? I had a video demonetized that had 1,735 likes and 21 dislikes, with over 40,000 views and I did not make a dime on the video. Why? Because I referred to a current event that involved a suspicious death of a political figure. My approval rating for this video had an approval rating of over 98% and it is not advertiser-friendly? With 98% of the people approving of the video, the video was very advertiser-friendly and would make the audience of The Common Sense Show MUCH more receptive to being advertising friendly. The term advertiser friendly is a Bravo-Sierra term. What they mean is that I am not loony-liberal-left anti-Christian friendly and my conservative views should not be heard. The First Amendment violators and the thought police are patrolling the corridors of the social media giants with the message “You either promote our world-view or will make you deliver your message at a financial loss.” There is no such thing as advertiser friendly. The whores from Wall Street don’t care where they peddle their goods and services. Just ask Prescott Bush (HW Bush’s father) when tried to get away with doing business with the Nazis during WW II. Hate Speech and Extremism Any view which is anti-New World Order which OPPOSES the total obliteration of freedom, both politically and financially, is labeled as hate speech. If we advocate for screening immigrants criminal background is hate speech as if no terrorist with bad intentions would ever try and cross our border in order to do Americans harm. If one speaks against the illegal and unethical actions of Wall Street, that is considered “extremism”. I have been demonetized and suspended from Facebook for discussing child-sex-trafficking. The FBI and every major police department in the country have task forces related to this topic, but if I write about it, even just to report a related news event, my work is banned and/or demonetized. Please consider the following admonition from YouTube: “Controversial or sensitive subjects and events, including subjects related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies, even if graphic imagery is not shown.” Don’t the topics which includes content of controversial, sensitive issues, wars, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies make up 95% of the content on your nightly news? Rules for Thee but Not for Me Countless times, I have seen a CNN or Fox News video reproduced, with YouTube ads being played on YouTube without restriction. Ads from Wall Street advertisers play unabated and permeate these MSM sites and we in the alt media are not allowed to cover these same topics. If I address the topic (eg war, right vs. left politics), I am banned or demonetized. YouTube and Facebook are guilty of extremism. Extreme hypocritical treatment of divergent and legitimate political views is a rehash of Stalin and Hitler (oh, the use these historical figures names will get banned as well). For the record, The Common Sense Show does not advocate for violence except in extreme self- defense. The show argues against the use of violence by our government in their wars of occupation which are nothing more that resource-grabbing adventures on behalf of the globalists. Yet CNN videos play on YouTube unabated which stand in support with never-ending wars and they are not banned or demonitized. By the way, there is no appeal to the arbitrary decisions of censorship as the new algorithms are key word driven and they have no real appeal mechanism. Do you think CNN and Fox are ever demonetized or banned for covering news stories that are underwritten and funded by CIA? Former reporter, Amber Lyons, claimed was true? Consider the following graphic appearing on Alex Jones’ Infowars website. This says it all. This has already happened to Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, where Google delisted Mike’s publications. Course of Action The alt media should ban together and sue the Washington Post for accusing us of being Russian agents for supporting Donald Trump. We should look into suing Facebook and YouTube. Oh, I know they are private entities. However, they are unregulated monopolies that are predatory in nature. I have had some private conversations with sympathetic attorneys that think that these social media giants may have crossed the line with regard to anti-trust violations. If the estimated 20-30 million people who frequent alt media sites would contribute 5 dollars each to a trust fund, we could make this brand of communist censorship very expensive to YouTube (Google) and Facebook. If everyone refused to use Google’s search engine, it would cost them billions. If we began to boycott advertisers who are contributing to the demise of the Independent Media, feel the pinch, we would quickly see how broad the term “not advertiser friendly” would become. If our followers were crowdfunding their favorites shows, websites and YouTube creators, the message would still be heard. Here is the stark reality of where this is headed The alt media in a dying gasp to stay viable, will attempt to get their followers to, in some measure, pay for their favorite entities to stay in business. However, I am not confident in the alt right crowd’s determination to do such a thing on a scale that will make any real difference. Before the alt media largely goes extinct, you will see the following: Websites will ban users who employ adblockers to access their site Radio shows will charge a small premium (5-10 dollars per month to access). YouTubers will be forced to watch private ads secured by the creators and played in front of their video. Here is what I have concluded: First they came for Healthmasters.com radio show and America said nothing Then they came for Revolution Radio and America said nothing Then they came for Agenda 21 Radio and America said nothing Then they came for the Hagmann Report and America said nothing Then they came for Natural News and America said nothing Then they came for SteveQuayle.com and America said nothing Then they came for The Common Sense Show and America said nothing Then they came for America and there was nobody left to speak WHERE THEY BURN BOOKS, THEY WILL SOON BURN PEOPLE! The first step is in the installation of a police state complete with all the trappings of Hitler is to take away the command and control of the conservative base in this country and that is what is going on right now. The countdown to tyranny has begun and America continues to snore.

http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2017/07/22/youtube-is-burning-books-as-the-deep-state-prepares-to-burn-people/ 

:: 7-21-17 New America :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Pentagon Dumps $65 Million Into Mind-control Project

Written by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D. Friday, 21 July 2017

The Pentagon’s research arm — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA — just received $65 million from American taxpayers to develop a way to plug a human brain directly into a computer. According to an announcement by DARPA, the project will create a way to “enable rich two-way communication with the brain at a scale that will help deepen our understanding of that organ’s underlying biology, complexity, and function.” If successful, the Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) will give the Pentagon power to “support potential future therapies for sensory restoration.” In other words, the federal government is taking money from taxpayers and using it to build a way to manipulate their brains, altering their senses — “vision, hearing, and speech” — in whatever way the feds deem beneficial. One of the first steps, DARPA reports, will be to create “an implantable package.” That is to say, a device that can be put directly into the brains of those selected for the sensory rewiring. One of the proposed interfaces will result in the development of “up to 100,000 untethered, submillimeter-sized ‘neurograin’ sensors implanted onto or into the cerebral cortex.” Yikes. Once the device is implanted in the brain of the subject, the military could use a “relay station transceiver worn on the head” to “wirelessly power and communicate with the implanted device.” Yikes. But wait, there’s more! DARPA reports that a team working at the University of California-Berkley is attempting “to create quantitative encoding models to predict the responses of neurons to external visual and tactile stimuli, and then apply those predictions to structure photo-stimulation patterns that elicit sensory percepts in the visual or somatosensory cortices, where the device could replace lost vision or serve as a brain-machine interface for control of an artificial limb.” "Predict the responses of neurons." In other words, the person with the Pentagon-powered brain will send messages to the controllers alerting them to thoughts or actions about to percolate to the person’s conscious mind. Academics have come out in support of the scheme: A paper entitled “The Brain Activity Map Project and the Challenge of Functional Connectomics” includes predictions of the development of “techniques for wireless, noninvasive readout of the activity of neuronal populations.” In simpler terms, this research would allow those in control of the discoveries gleaned from this program to wirelessly access and control the brains of target populations. Consider this excerpt from the academic study, as well: "This emergent level of understanding could also enable accurate diagnosis and restoration of normal patterns of activity to injured or diseased brains, foster the development of broader biomedical and environmental applications, and even potentially generate a host of associated economic benefits." “Restoration of normal patterns” takes on an eery aspect when viewed in concert with the DARPA connection. As revealed in the academic study, the NESD is part of a broader plan to give the Pentagon power over the mind, a plan called the BRAIN Initiative — short for Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies. Development of such mind-control technologies is certainly consistent with DARPA’s recent efforts to speed of the growth of the surveillance state and the increasing sophistication of the tools used to build it. At The New American we have chronicled the various projects sponsored by the über-secret research and development arm of the military. One of the numerous technologies being pursued by DARPA will not only widen the field of vision of government’s never-blinking eye, but it purports to predict the behavior of those being watched. Forbes reported that DARPA has contracted with scientists at Carnegie Mellon University to develop “an artificial intelligence system that can watch and predict what a person will ‘likely’ do in the future using specially programmed software designed to analyze various real-time video surveillance feeds. The system can automatically identify and notify officials if it recognized that an action is not permitted, detecting what is described as anomalous behaviors.” Deployment of the devices is anticipated at “airports and bus stations,” but there is little doubt that should these predictive monitors prove successful, they will be installed right there next to the red light cameras already mounted at nearly every intersection in America. Minority Report, anyone? With millions of tax dollars deposited by BRAIN into its research coffers, DARPA can begin planning to identify brain activity typical of those who could potentially pose a threat to national security. Such people could be eliminated by being brought into a federal government lab run by the National Institutes of Health and having their “diseased” brain healed and brought back into “normal” function. In its announcement, DARPA names “Detection and Computational Analysis of Psychological Signals (DCAPS)” as one of its primary areas of emphasis in its BRAIN activity. A separate entry on another part of the DARPA website reveals more about DCAPS and how it could be used: DCAPS tools will be developed to analyze patterns in everyday behaviors to detect subtle changes associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and suicidal ideation. In particular, DCAPS hopes to advance the state-of-the-art in extraction and analysis of “honest signals” from a wide variety of sensory data inherent in daily social interactions. DCAPS is not aimed at providing an exact diagnosis, but at providing a general metric of psychological health. DCAPS also aims to develop novel algorithms for detecting distress cues from users who opt in to provide data such as text and voice communications, daily patterns of sleeping, eating, social interactions and online behaviors, and nonverbal cues such as facial expression, posture and body movement. The outcomes of these analytical algorithms would be correlated with distress markers from neurological sensors for improved understanding of distress cues. There is legitimate reason to oppose the NESD and the entire BRAIN Initiative. As has been demonstrated, Washington considers patriots “home-grown terrorists,” and there is little doubt that any technologies developed by grants from the Pentagon’s efforts to directly control the minds of veterans and other Americans could eventually be used to identify those with tendencies toward suspect thoughts and to use the map of the brain to re-program patriots and eliminate the threat they are accused of posing to national security.

https://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/item/26528-pentagon-dumps-65-million-into-mind-control-project 

:: 7-20-17 Wolf Street :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

As Sales Plunge, GM Might Cancel Six Car Models

by Wolf Richter • Jul 20, 2017

Discussions with the UAW have started. Entire plants at risk. GM is getting whacked harder than any of the major automakers by the industry-wide plunge in car sales, as Americans switch in ever larger numbers from cars to “trucks,” which include pickups, van, SUVs and crossovers. In the first half of 2017, GM’s car sales in the US plunged 19%, and in June 38%. The rest of the industry (without GM) booked declines in car sales of “only” 10% in the first half and 9% in June. GM is losing ground in the bitter industry-wide reality of dropping car sales. Inventory is piling up on GM dealer lots. At the end of June, some car models exceeded a catastrophic 180 days’ supply. GM has already cut production. There have been layoffs. Plants have been temporarily shut down, and entire shifts have been eliminated. But it hasn’t been enough. Now comes the next step: Ending production entirely of some models, shuttering plants for good or converting them to making trucks, and fretting about jobs. And that’s already being discussed between the UAW and GM, according to UAW president Dennis Williams. “We are talking to [GM] right now about the products that they currently have” at underutilized car plants, such as Hamtramck in Michigan and Lordstown in Ohio, and whether these models could be replaced with more popular vehicles such as crossovers, he told reporters today, including Reuters. “We are tracking it,” he said. “We are addressing it” Six passenger cars are currently under review at GM and might be cancelled after the 2020 model year, Reuters “has learned from people familiar with the plans”: Chevrolet Volt (a hybrid, not to be confused with the Bolt, an EV), Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac CT6, Cadillac XTS, Chevrolet Impala, and Chevrolet Sonic. GM has already done away with the Cadillac ELR, a dressed-up 2-door luxury coupe version of the Volt, but a lot more expensive. Practically no one had bought it. But that was just a failed niche product. Some of the six models GM is thinking of canceling were its bread-and-butter. Other automakers already cancelled cars for the 2016 and 2017 model years, including the Dodge Viper; the Volkswagen Eos, a convertible suffering from the decade-long slump of all convertibles; the Honda CR-Z hybrid 2-door; the Lincoln MKS, a nicely groomed Taurus; and Toyota’s entire Scion brand, with some models migrating to the Toyota brand and others, such as the Scion tC, just gone. Oh, and then there’s Fiat Chrysler. It has wound down production of the Dodge Dart (Fiat comes to mind) and the Chrysler 200. It no longer makes cars at all in the US. The remaining cars it sells in the US will be made in Mexico, Canada, and other countries. It will only make trucks in the US, which are a lot more profitable, such as the Ram and the Jeep-branded SUVs. But cancelling six cars, including bread-and-butter models, as GM is doing, is a sign that the collapse of car sales in the US isn’t just a temporary hiccup. GM’s Hamtramck plant in Detroit, which builds Chevrolet Volt, Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac CT6, Chevrolet Impala – all four them in the list above of cars potentially on the chopping block – is a sitting duck. Reuters: In the first half, it built fewer than 35,000 cars, down 32% from the same period in 2016, according to suppliers familiar with GM’s U.S. production schedule. The typical GM assembly plant builds 200,000-300,000 vehicles a year. Rental car companies, which are the biggest car buyers out there, have found themselves over-fleeted due to industry changes, including the surging use of rideshare services even by business travelers [Answers Emerge: This is How Badly Uber Eats into Hertz]. And so rental car companies are trimming their purchases. Which leaves automakers with less of an outlet for their cars. And even consumers that typically bought cars are more and more gravitating toward SUVs and crossovers, and even pickups, as Honda’s successful launch of its Ridgeline pickup trucks amply demonstrates. And as long as gas is below $3 a gallon, that’s unlikely to change. Gas might have to go over $6 a gallon and stay there before there would be a noticeable rejiggering of buying preferences. And even then it might not happen. Now that Carmageddon has descended upon cars, and particularly on GM’s cars, the company would need to perform a miracle and come out with hot new cars that people would actually want to buy, even with gas below $3 a gallon. But miracles are rare these days, especially in the car business, and so the inevitable next steps will impact in dramatic ways the model lineup, plants, and jobs – not only at GM but also at its suppliers. American icon Harley-Davidson is in an even tighter spot, trying to manage a structural decline in a terrible industry. Read… Harley-Davidson Spirals Down, Announces US Layoffs, Builds Factory in Thailand

http://wolfstreet.com/2017/07/20/gm-might-cancel-six-car-models-after-2020/ 

:: 7-20-17 Town Hall :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Collusion? What About Chinagate and Ted Kennedy's Outreach to the USSR?

Larry Elder Posted: Jul 20, 2017 12:01 AM

During President Bill Clinton's 1996 campaign for re-election, several individuals allegedly worked on behalf of the Chinese government to influence the presidential election in favor of Clinton. "Chinagate" began when the Los Angeles Times reported, a couple months before the '96 election, the following: "The Democratic National Committee has returned a $250,000 contribution from a recently established subsidiary of a South Korean electronics company because it violated a ban on donations from foreign nationals in U.S. elections, a party spokesman said Friday. ... "David Eichenbaum, DNC communications director ... said that the DNC fund-raiser who was responsible for the contribution was under the impression, erroneously as it turned out, that it fulfilled the legal qualifications. He said it was unclear whether the fund-raiser was misled or there had been a misunderstanding." DNC did the standard "Oops, we made a boo-boo, here's your money back, it's all OK now" dog and pony show. That worked for a while. But a few months later, on Feb. 13, 1997, The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Brian Duffy reported: "A Justice Department investigation into improper political fund-raising activities has uncovered evidence that representatives of the People's Republic of China sought to direct contributions from foreign sources to the Democratic National Committee before the 1996 presidential campaign, officials familiar with the inquiry said. ... "The Chinese effort to win influence with the Clinton administration can be traced to 1993, one source said. ... Some investigators suspected a Chinese connection to the current fund-raising scandal because several DNC contributors and major fund-raisers had ties to Beijing. Last February, Charles Yah Lin Trie, a fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee, used his influence with party officials to bring Wang Jun, head of a weapons trading company owned by the Chinese military, to a White House coffee with Clinton. CARTOONS | Henry Payne View Cartoon "Wang also heads a prominent, state-owned investment conglomerate. Clinton has since said he should not have met with Wang, and $640,000 in checks that Trie delivered to president's legal defense fund has been returned because of questions about the source of the funds." The DNC vice chairman and fundraiser at the center of the DNC's illegal contribution was formerly a top executive involved with Asian and Chinese corporations, with some holdings sold to the Chinese government. Before joining the DNC, he left his corporate job with a large severance and worked at the Commerce Department for 18 months, where he enjoyed a top-secret clearance. Evidence showed more than 70 calls from his Commerce office to a bank controlled by his former corporation; memos of calls from Chinese embassy officials; three meetings scheduled with Chinese government officials; a breakfast and a dinner at the Chinese embassy; and at least one visit to the "residence of the Chinese ambassador." After a year of investigation, FBI director Louis Freeh sent Clinton Attorney General Janet Reno a 22-page memorandum, stating, "It is difficult to imagine a more compelling situation for appointing an independent counsel." Several months later, Charles LaBella, head of the Justice Department's campaign-finance task force, also sent a report to Reno recommending she appoint an independent counsel. The evidence, LaBella said, "suggests a level of knowledge within the White House -- including the president's and first lady's offices -- concerning the injection of foreign funds into the reelection effort." He also said, "If these allegations involved anyone other than the president, vice president, senior White House or DNC and Clinton/Gore '96 officials, an appropriate investigation would have commenced months ago without hesitation." Reno, however, declined all requests for an independent counsel. Before Chinagate, Sen. Ted Kennedy, thinking of running for president in 1988, reportedly offered to help the Soviets influence the 1984 election. Desperate to stop President Ronald Reagan's re-election, Kennedy, as first reported in The London Times in 1992, reached out via an intermediary to the Soviet KGB. The London Times revealed a 1983 KGB document from KGB chief Viktor Chebrikov to the then-leader of the USSR, Yuri Andropov. Chebrikov relayed an offer presented to the Soviet leaders from Kennedy, delivered in person by "Sen. Edward Kennedy's close friend and trusted confidant" John Tunney, a former Democratic senator who was Kennedy's law school roommate. Kennedy, according to the memo, offered to help the Soviets deal with Reagan, whom Kennedy perceived as a warmonger. Kennedy would "arm Soviet officials with explanations regarding problems of nuclear disarmament so they may be better prepared and more convincing during appearances in the USA." In exchange, Kennedy wanted Soviet aid in challenging Reagan's re-election. Kennedy offered to use his influential friends in liberal American media to arrange television interviews for Andropov. This would soften the Soviets' image, Kennedy suggested, and help brand Reagan as reckless and dangerous. The memo said, "Kennedy does not discount that during the 1984 campaign, the Democratic Party may officially turn to him to lead the fight against the Republicans and elect their candidate president." To summarize, there was no special prosecutor for Chinagate. And few in the media followed up on the Kennedy/KGB story when it broke. This explains why Trump supporters, despite the selective hyperventilation over Russian "collusion," still back their man.

https://townhall.com/columnists/larryelder/2017/07/20/collusion-what-about-chinagate-and-ted-kennedys-outreach-to-the-ussr-n2357177 

:: 7-20-17 Washington Times :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Trump facing most hostile press coverage in history

Harvard releases facts to prove it

By Madison Gesiotto - - Thursday, July 20, 2017

ANALYSIS/OPINION: Over and over again, I, and many others, have stated that President Donald Trump has received the most hostile press coverage of any sitting president in U.S. history. Democrats laughed and claimed that former President Barack Obama was treated worse, but the facts don’t lie. All you have to do is take a look at the recently released report from Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy by Professor Thomas E. Patterson, titled “News Coverage of Donald Trump’s First 100 Days.” According to the report, “Trump has received unsparing coverage for most weeks of his presidency, without a single major topic where Trump’s coverage, on balance, was more positive than negative, setting a new standard for unfavorable press coverage of a president.” Not a single major topic of more positive than negative coverage. That is insane. In fact, when they averaged out the tone of news coverage during his first 100 days, Mr. Trump received 80 percent negative coverage. Finally, let’s take a look at Mr. Trump’s negative news coverage by topic, On immigration, he received negative coverage a whopping 96 percent of the time. He also faced negative coverage over 80 percent of the time on health care, Russia and the election, international trade, his personal background, personnel, fitness for office and other foreign/defense issues. Again, Fox News Channel pulled these averages down with much less negative coverage than the other outlets. “Trump’s coverage during his first 100 days was negative even by the standards of today’s hyper-critical press,” the report says. They are right. The facts are clear, and there is not a doubt in my mind that Mr. Trump’s claims of unfair treatment by the media are true, which leaves us asking the question: What is the job of journalists in the media? Last time I checked, disparaging the president of the United States was not a part of the description. Wake up, America. The time to speak up is now.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/20/donald-trump-facing-most-hostile-press-coverage-hi/ 

[:: 2-3-14 am service (first word) :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::]

:: 7-20-17 Algemeiner :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

House Committee Approves Strict Restrictions on US Funding for UN and Palestinian Authority

avatar by Ben Cohen July 20, 2017 4:58 pm

https://www.algemeiner.com/2017/07/20/house-committee-approves-strict-restrictions-on-us-funding-for-un-and-palestinian-authority/ 

:: 7-22-17 BBC News :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Philippines Duterte: Martial law extended in Mindanao

22 July 2017

Legislators in the Philippines have voted overwhelmingly to extend martial law to deal with an Islamist insurgency in the restive island of Mindanao. Militants linked to so-called Islamic State have been occupying parts of Marawi, a city in the south, since May. President Rodrigo Duterte said the extension was necessary to crush the insurgency, but his critics say it is part of a wider power grab. Mindanao is home to a number of Muslim rebel groups seeking more autonomy. Martial law allows the use of the military to enforce law and the detention of people without charge for long periods. It is a sensitive issue in the Philippines, where martial law was imposed by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos for much of his rule. A previously imposed 60-day martial rule was due to expire on Saturday. It went into effect on 23 May, just hours after deadly clashes between the army and gunmen linked to so-called Islamic State. The extension means the law will now remain in force until 31 December. In May, President Duterte warned that martial law could be extended across the Philippines after insurgents killed police officers in Marawi. Duterte eyes nationwide martial law Duterte: The 'strongman' of the Philippines Some opposition lawmakers questioned why it should be applied to the whole of the southern island, instead of just the city. "I fear that the plan to extend the martial law in Mindanao will pave the way for a Philippines-wide martial law," Senator Risa Hontiveros was quoted by AFP as saying. Another senator, Franklin Drilon, said the extension was too long, while congressman Edcel Lagman said there was "no factual basis" for it. A dozen protesters also interrupted proceedings at Saturday's hearing, chanting "never again to martial law", the news agency reports. Army chief of staff General Eduardo Ano said it was necessary to restrict the movement of the Islamist militants, warning that the ongoing rebellion could spread to other cities on the island, the GMA News website reports. He described it as a "Mosul-type, hybrid urban warfare", referring to fighting in the Iraqi city that was until recently held by IS. Security officials addressing congress ahead of the vote said the law was required to stabilise the region, where supporters of IS may be inspired to stage similar uprisings in other areas of Mindanao. They said only about 60 gunmen were left in a 49-hectare area of Marawi, but nearly 1,000 pro-IS militants were active elsewhere in the south, holding 23 hostages. Marawi was home to 200,000 residents but many have fled the violence. There are fears for those trapped who face a lack of food and water. More than 420 militants, 100 soldiers and 45 civilians have been killed in the fighting. Clashes began when the army failed in its attempt to capture Isnilon Hapilon, believed to be the main IS leader in the Philippines and linked to the local Maute group, which has declared allegiance to IS. In response the Maute group attacked parts of the city, taking hostages.

Who are the Maute group? - BBC Monitoring

Also known as IS Ranao, the group is based in Mindanao's Lanao del Sur province

Formed in 2012 by Abdullah Maute (aka Abu Hasan) and his brother Omar

Ranks are believed to comprise a few hundred fighters, mostly from other armed Islamist groups

The group's first known encounter with the military came in 2013, when it attacked a security checkpoint in Mindanao

Pledged allegiance to IS in 2015

In February 2016, troops overran the group's Butig headquarters, killing around 40 rebels

The group has also been linked with Isnilon Hapilon, a prominent figure in the Abu Sayyaf militant group

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40690589 

:: 7-22-17 Star Tribune :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Minneapolis Police Chief Janeé Harteau resigns; protesters shout down Mayor Betsy Hodges

Hodges 'lost confidence’ in Harteau and pushed for her ouster.

By Libor Jany, Andy Mannix and Eric Roper Star Tribune

July 22, 2017 — 12:23pm

Minneapolis Police Chief Janeé Harteau resigned abruptly Friday amid growing criticism from the public and the City Council following the fatal police shooting of Justine Damond. The chief’s departure came at the request of Mayor Betsy Hodges, who promptly nominated Assistant Chief Medaria Arradondo, a 28-year veteran of the force, to replace Harteau. The move ended Harteau’s 4½-year run as the first woman and first openly gay person to head the department. The death of Damond, a native Australian who had moved to Minneapolis to be with her fiancé, thrust Minneapolis into the international spotlight. It also has generated public skepticism about the department and its training, including from city officials who have questioned why the officers involved didn’t turn on their body cameras. etc. and the news story continues..

http://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-police-chief-janee-harteau-resigns/435864713/ 

:: 7-21-17 Reuturs :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

U.S. withholds Pakistan reimbursement over Haqqani network: Pentagon

Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart July 21, 2017 / 9:22 AM / a day ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will withhold $50 million remaining in military reimbursements to Pakistan for fiscal year 2016 because Defense Secretary Jim Mattis believes that Islamabad has not done enough to blunt the Islamist militant Haqqani network, a U.S. official said on Friday. The decision was not the first time that the Pentagon has declined to make military reimbursements to Pakistan. Last year, it withheld $300 million. Pakistan has been reimbursed $550 million of the $900 million it was authorized to receive in fiscal year 2016. Of the rest, $300 million had already been reprogrammed for other purposes, but had not been previously reported. Mattis' latest decision affects the remaining $50 million. Relations between the two countries have been frayed over the past decade, with U.S. officials frustrated by what they term Pakistan's unwillingness to act against Islamist groups such as the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network. Adam Stump, a Pentagon spokesman, said the $50 million could not be released now because Mattis "could not certify that Pakistan has taken sufficient action against the Haqqani Network per the requirement in the FY 2016 National Defense Authorization Act." President Donald Trump's administration is exploring potentially hardening its approach toward Pakistan to crack down on militants launching strikes in neighboring Afghanistan. Possible Trump administration responses being discussed include expanding U.S. drone strikes and perhaps eventually downgrading Pakistan's status as a major non-NATO ally. Mattis told reporters on Friday that the decision was not linked to the administration's broader South Asia strategy, which is still being reviewed. "This is simply an assessment of the current state of play," Mattis said. "It is not a policy, it is a reality." The United States in 2012 designated the Pakistan-based Haqqani network as a terrorist organization. The year before, U.S. Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, then the top U.S. military officer, caused a stir when he told Congress that the Haqqani network was a "veritable arm" of Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate. Pakistan argues that it has done a great deal to help the United States in tracking down terrorists and points out that it has suffered hundreds of deaths in Islamist militant attacks in response to its crackdowns. Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, said that Islamabad had continued to fight militants. "It may be noted that the funds in question are a reimbursement of the expenses incurred by Pakistan towards achieving our common objectives in the fight against terrorism, and not an assistance," Chaudhry said in a statement. Pentagon spokesman Stump said the decision did not "reduce the significance of the sacrifices that the Pakistani military has undertaken over previous years." He said Pakistan still had time to take action against the Haqqani network in order to receive reimbursements next year. Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; editing by Andrea Ricci and Grant McCool

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pakistan-military-idUSKBN1A61MX?il=0 

:: 7-21-17 Time :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

5-Year-Old Girl Fined Nearly $200 for Holding Lemonade Stand

Megan McCluskey Jul 21, 2017

A five-year-old girl who decided to run a lemonade stand in her East London neighborhood was fined nearly $200 for not having a trading permit. In a Thursday article for The Telegraph, the girl's father, Andre Spicer, described how four police officers approached the stand shortly after his daughter had begun selling her home-made beverage. "After about 30 minutes, four local council enforcement officers stormed up to her little table," he wrote. "'Excuse me,' one officer said as he switched on a portable camera attached to his vest. He then read a lengthy legal statement – the gist of which was that because my daughter didn't have a trading permit, she would be fined [$195]. 'But don’t worry, it is only [$117] if it’s paid quickly,' the officer added." Spicer went on to explain how upset his daughter was by the incident — which he dubbed Lemonadegate. " My daughter burst into tears, repeating again and again, 'Have I done a bad thing?'" Council officials stated Friday that the fine would be cancelled immediately, according to CBS News. "We are very sorry that this has happened. We expect our enforcement officers to show common sense, and to use their powers sensibly. This clearly did not happen," the statement read.

http://time.com/4868393/lemonade-stand-fine-5-year-old/ 

:: 7-20-17 Sunny Skyz :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Man Hires Homeless Man And Builds Park Stairs For $550 After City Estimates $65,000-$150,000 For The Project

July 20, 2017

A man spent $550 building a set of stairs in his community park after the city of Toronto estimated a price of $65,000-$150,000 to complete the project. Retired mechanic Adi Astl says he took it upon himself to build the stairs after several neighbors fell down the steep path to a community garden in Tom Riley Park, in Etobicoke, Ont. "I thought they were talking about an escalator," Astl told CTV News when he learned about the city's estimation of the project. Astl says he hired a homeless person to help him and built the eight steps in a matter of hours for just $550. "To me, the safety of people is more important than money," Astl said. "So if the city is not willing to do it, I have to do it myself." City bylaw officers have taped off the stairs while officials make a decision on what to do with it. However, Astl has not been charged with any sort of violation.

Read more at http://www.sunnyskyz.com/good-news/2310/Man-Hires-Homeless-Man-And-Builds-Park-Stairs-For-550-After-City-Estimates-65-000-150-000-For-The-Project#2CvCXZzO6Y8dFEbG.99 

:: 7-17-17 Market Watch :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Amazon is getting too big and the government is talking about it

By Tonya Garcia Published: July 17, 2017 1:50 p.m. ET

Hedge-fund manager Douglas Kass says government talks about antitrust issues have begun

Fresh off its biggest Prime Day yet, the Whole Foods Market Inc. bid, and a slew of announcements including Amazon Wardrobe, Amazon.com Inc. was the subject of two investor calls last week that raised concerns that it is getting too big. In one case, hedge-fund manager Douglas Kass said government intervention could be imminent. “I am shorting Amazon today because I have learned that there are currently early discussions and due diligence being considered in the legislative chambers in Washington DC with regard to possible antitrust opposition to Amazon’s business practices, pricing strategy and expansion announcements already made (as well as being aimed at expansion strategies being considered in the future,” wrote Kass, head of Seabreeze Partners Management. See: It’s time to bet against Amazon, says money manager Doug Kass Kass said he is taking a short position on the stock, or a bet that it will fall. The investor said the stock could fall 10% overnight once the market gets wind of the talks. As Amazon AMZN, +1.43% has grown, so has speculation about which retail category it will rule next. The company already dominates books, the cloud and electronics. And with moves in fashion and grocery, it appears the company has its eye on those sectors next. Its dominance has created major stress for brick-and-mortar retailers, who are suffering badly as they scramble to catch up. In January, European Union antitrust regulators cheered the end of audiobook exclusivity between Amazon and Apple Inc. AAPL, +0.35% And last August, Amazon’s offices in Tokyo were searched by the Fair Trade Commission on suspicion that it was breaking antitrust laws. Amazon said Wednesday that Prime Day was its biggest day ever, with sales up 60% from the same 30-hour period the previous year. The Echo Dot was the best seller, and the company said it gained more new Prime members on July 11 than any other day in its history. As usual, it did not provide any hard numbers. Kass bolstered his argument in a Thursday comment. “My understanding is that certain Democrats in the Senate have instituted the very recent and preliminary investigation of Amazon’s possible adverse impact on competition,” he said. “But, in the Trump administration we also have a foe against Jeff Bezos, who not only runs Amazon but happens to own an editorially unfriendly (to President Trump) newspaper, The Washington Post.” See also: In Nike-Amazon partnership, Amazon’s scale could put the Nike brand at risk Amazon has been busy this summer, announcing its purchase of Whole Foods WFM, -0.31% last month. Within days, it announced Amazon Wardrobe, a service that lets shoppers try on clothing and receive discounts when they purchase multiple items. Shortly after that, Nike Inc. NKE, -0.24% confirmed that it would begin selling a limited assortment on Amazon. Kass has previously expressed doubts about Amazon, saying in October 2014 that investors should “avoid Amazon at all costs” and that the company “continues to fail to exhibit a cash flow return on any investment it makes.” The stock has more than tripled in value since then. Steve Kaplan, a trader and True Contrarian blogger, joined Kass on Wednesday with a short position of his own. Kaplan said Janet Yellen is incorrect and that a recession is looming. He is skeptical about a few other big names too. “We are likely to experience an especially severe recession since so much money has come out of safe time deposits like bank accounts and money-market funds and has gone into fluctuating assets including real estate, corporate bonds, stocks, and especially the most popular overpriced garbage including Amazon, Tesla TSLA, +2.71% Netflix NFLX, +13.54% Nvidia NVDA, +1.04% etc.,” Kaplan said. Amazon shares are up 0.7% Monday, and have gained 35% in the year so far. The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.06% is up 10% for 2017 to date. Additional reporting by Barbara Kollmeyer

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-is-getting-too-big-and-the-government-is-talking-about-it-2017-07-13?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook 

:: 7-16-17 King World News :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

THIS IS TERRIFYING: Will All Of Your Money Be Wiped Out In The Blink Of An Eye?

July 16, 2017

Today the man who has become legendary for his predictions on QE, historic moves in currencies, warned King World News about a total recipe for disaster that will make people’s life savings disappear in the blink of an eye. Egon von Greyerz: “It is not only paper gold which is Fake. Few investors realise that most of their investments are Fake… Continue reading the Egon von Greyerz interview below… Egon von Greyerz continues: “Fake news and Fake assets are everywhere. Let’s start with social media which dominates major parts of the world. Facebook, for example, has 2 billion active users. WhatsApp has 1.2 billion users and Instagram 700 million. There will obviously be quite a lot of overlap between the various social media. But what it is clear that these three apps reach billions of people and their power is much bigger than that of any other media; Social Media has more impact than newspapers or television and is the only media that 2-3 billion people follow regularly. Most people, and in particular young people, don’t watch television and don’t read the papers. They get all of their “news” from social media. Social media is instant gratification. You post something or you send a message and you get a message back or a number of likes which generates dopamine and makes you momentarily happy. But as I have experienced from our many grandchildren, social media is a perfect source of Fake news. Many young people using social media will be receivers of Fake News or bullying. Social media is perfect for spreading false rumors which are very often difficult to get rid of. Trump’s Twitter account is another example of alleged Fake News. Trump accuses the papers and television of Fake News and they accuse him of the same. This is the world we live in today – a world with Fake markets, Fake assets, Fake values, Fake money, Fake people and Fake news. A World Of Electronic Entries There was recently an interesting example of Fake identity in Sweden. The head of Sweden’s biggest security company, Securitas, had his identity stolen in March. A loan of an undisclosed amount was then taken out by the person who stole the identity. The loan was not repaid and the Fake head of Securitas was declared bankrupt on July 10th. The real head of the company was not aware and has been fighting to reinstate his honor and position. We are now in a world where everything becomes electronic entries. Real people are no longer important. We are just all electronic entries in a register. It is the same with money. Money is today totally Fake. Money used to be silver or gold. To make trading easier, it was later replaced by paper money, on a one for one basis. So paper money still represented real value for goods and services. But bankers and governments soon realized that by reducing the amount of precious metal in a coin they could enrich themselves. They didn’t care that this was fraud and debased the value of “real” money. Later the same was done with paper money. When paper money was first introduced, it represented the amount of silver or gold held by the bank. Soon governments and bankers realized that by leveraging the silver and gold they could make a lot more money at the expense of savers and depositors. And so the Ponzi scheme started with Fake Money and Fake Assets. Today we have a situation when virtually all assets and all liabilities are just electronic entries leveraging the underlying “real”values 10s, 100s or 1,000s of times. Money is leveraged many times, stocks are also leveraged by the issuance of various derivative instruments like ETFs or futures, which supposedly reflect the underlying instrument but which, in effect, is just an electronic entry with nothing behind it. Since the global debt position, including unfunded liabilities and derivatives, amounts to over $2 quadrillion, so should global assets. But global assets are not even a fraction of that. Supposedly, global assets are $250 billion, but these are all bubble valuations that will implode as the debts and liabilities implode. All Your Money Wiped Out In The Blink Of An Eye I am spending some time in Sweden currently and experiencing the cashless society. In many places cash is not accepted. Everyone wants credit card or electronic payment. Banks charge a high fee for anyone depositing cash. Nobody realizes that their money is just an electronic entry that can be turned off in a second by the government. This means that their money will be totally gone and will never reappear again. This is what governments and central banks are introducing into most Western countries. People believe that their money is safe in the bank and don’t realize that electronic money is not introduced for convenience but to stop people taking money out when the heavily leveraged and insolvent banks run out of cash. What everyone with a bank account must understand is that one day there will be little or no money left in the bank. ATMs will then be closed and no money will be available. This is an elegant solution to the insolvency of the financial system. No paper money will be available nor any electronic money. Thus, there is no money to be had. At that point, the government will no longer print money for private individuals, since it can’t be used. Instead they will print coupons to be used in shops and for other expenses. This is already happening in countries like Zimbabwe today. Alternatively, they will allow people to spend a very limited amount of their bank balance every month. There will of course still be massive money printing to save the financial system as all assets implode. But very little of that money will reach ordinary people. Most people will consider this scenario as totally unrealistic and worse than doomsday. Hopefully it will never happen. But the point I am making is that by handing over assets to the banks, and ultimately to the government, which controls the banks, most people will totally have surrendered control of their assets. It is of course not only cash which would suffer this destiny but all assets which are held within the financial system, whether it is stocks, bonds, or any other security held in electronic form. World At The Precipice – A Recipe For Total Disaster We have now reached a stage when the world is no longer at a crossroads, instead it has reached a dead end. But this is not a dead end with a chance of going back. It is a dead end with the only way out being a precipice. And this is where the world could easily be heading next. The build-up has been the perfect recipe for disaster: 1. Take $18 trillion of debt printed by insolvent central banks, up 300% since 2006. 2. Add other public debt as well as private debt to reach $230 trillion, up 60% since 2006. 3. Add unfunded global liabilities and other commitments of $270 trillion making a total of $500 trillion at a minimum. 4. Just one small bit to add, which is derivatives of $1.5 quadrillion taking us to a total of $2 quadrillion or more. 5. Run budget deficits for over 50 years like the US. 6. Always buy more than you sell, creating trade deficits for over 40 years, again like the US or the UK. 7. Print money to pay for all your government expenses like Japan. 8. Buy your own debt like Japan, USA, the EU, UK, etc. 9. Mismanage your country and currency until the money reaches its intrinsic value of Zero. So far, all major currencies are down 97-99% since 1913. 10. Allow the financial system unlimited leverage to benefit a miniscule minority and burden the masses with debt. 11. Manipulate all markets to totally obscure price discovery. 12. Set interest rates at zero or negative so that governments can borrow unlimited amounts. 13. Suppress the value of gold in order to hide the mismanagement of money and the economy. 14. Set up a system of misinformation and Fake news to mislead the people. 15. Once 1 to 14 has been achieved, start at 1 again and do more of the same. Protect Yourself Against Biggest Risk In World History So what is the best recipe for protecting against the biggest risk in world economic history? Hard assets held directly by the investor reduces the risk. This can be anything from property, farmland, forest or mineral assets. For most people it is impractical to hold these types of assets. Instead, the perfect asset to protect against the risks in the financial system is of course physical gold or silver stored safely outside the system and preferably outside your country of residence. This is the time not to trust Fake news or Fake assets. Only real assets will protect you.”

***KWN has now released the remarkable audio interview with legend Rob Arnott and you can listen to it by CLICKING HERE OR ON THE IMAGE BELOW.

http://kingworldnews.com/this-is-terrifying-will-all-of-your-money-be-wiped-out-in-the-blink-of-an-eye-2/ 

:: 7-16-17 Natural News :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Health Ranger warns: Bitcoin collapse now under way… has already plunged nearly 40% from its high

Sunday, July 16, 2017 by: Mike Adams

(Natural News) In case you having been paying attention to the world of crypto currency, Bitcoin has now collapsed almost 40% from its high, plunging from $3,000 to nearly $1,800 in anticipation of the “Bitcoin civil war” that’s rapidly approaching. From July 21st through the end of the year, a timeline of serious obstacles threatens to crater the speculative Bitcoin marketplace. One of those events has been called a “Bitcoin civil war” and could threaten the very existence of the crypto currency. That’s why people are taking profits right now, selling their Bitcoin holdings and driving the price downward. (See BitRAPED.com for more coverage.) Remember: Bitcoin isn’t backed by gold. It isn’t backed by anything at all. There’s nothing technically superior to Bitcoin compared to other crypto currencies such as Ethereum or Z-cash. As a result, nearly all the growth in Bitcoin over the last few months was based on speculative greed, where people hope to cash in on the bubble of crypto currencies even though they don’t understand the real risk. The Bitcoin promoters telling you that you can’t trust the dollar because it’s fiat currency usually fail to inform you that Bitcoin is crypto fiat currency, backed by nothing. In fact, one of the “fixes” being discussed by the Bitcoin community right now would result in lifting the limit of 21 million Bitcoins, allowing potentially unlimited future Bitcoins to flood the marketplace, thereby devaluing presently-held Bitcoins. Quantitative easing, it seems, isn’t just for central banks… I’ve explained all this in more detail in my studio video, below, recorded on June 7th, 2017, long before the Bitcoin market began to really crumble. For the record, I support the idea of decentralized crypto currency and rendering corrupt central banks obsolete. However, Bitcoin is so far lost into the depths of greed and hucksterism that I can’t stay silent on this issue. I especially don’t want the millions of readers and fans who follow my work to be harmed by the Bitcoin collapse, which is why I began publicly warning people about all this a couple of months ago:

http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-07-16-health-ranger-warns-bitcoin-collapse-under-way.html 

:: 7-17-17 Zero Hedge :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

95% Of Europeans Reject EU Efforts To "De-Cash" Their Lives

by Tyler Durden Jul 17, 2017 3:30 AM

Authored by Don Quijones via WolfStreet.com, But the IMF has suggestions on how to win the War on Cash... In January 2017 the European Commission announced it was exploring the option of imposing upper limits on cash payments, with a view to implementing cross-regional measures as soon as 2018. To give the proposal a veneer of respectability and accountability the Commission launched a public consultation on the issue. Now, the answers are in, but they are not what the Commission was expecting. A staggering 95% of the respondents said they were opposed to a cash ceiling at EU level. Even more emphatic was the answer to the following question: “How would the introduction of restrictions on payments in cash at EU level benefit you, or your business or your organisation (multiple replies are possible)?” In the curious absence of an explicit “not at all” option, 99.18% chose to respond with “no answer.” In other words, less than 1% of the more than 30,000 people consulted could think of a single benefit of the EU unleashing cross-regional cash limits. Granted, 37% of respondents were from Germany and 19% from Austria (56% in total), two countries that have a die-hard love for physical lucre. Even among millennials in Germany, two-thirds say they prefer paying in cash to electronic means, a much higher level than in almost any other advanced economy with the exception of Japan. Another 35% of the survey respondents were from France, a country that is not quite so enamored with cash and whose government has already imposed a maximum cash limit of €1,000. By its very nature the survey almost certainly attracted a disproportionate number of arch-defenders of physical cash. As such, the responses it elicited are unlikely to be a perfect representation of how all Europeans would feel about the EU’s plans to introduce maximum cash limits. Nonetheless, the sheer strength of opposition should (but probably won’t) give the apparatchiks in Brussels pause for thought. Respondents cited a number of objections to EU-wide cash restrictions, chief among them the convenience of using cash and the limited impact the measure would probably have on achieving its “stated” objectives of curbing terrorism, tax evasion, and money laundering. Of course, there are many other reasons to worry about living in a cashless (or “less cash”) society that were not offered as an option in the survey, including the vastly increased power it would give to political and monetary authorities as well as the near-impossibility of ever escaping from the clutches of the banking system or central banks’ monetary experiments. The biggest cited concern for respondents was the threat the cash restrictions would pose to privacy and personal anonymity. A total of 87% of respondents viewed paying with cash as an essential personal freedom. The European Commission would beg to differ. In the small print accompanying the draft legislation it launched in January, it pointed out that privacy and anonymity do not constitute “fundamental” human rights. Be that as it may, many Europeans still clearly have a soft spot for physical money. If the EU authorities push too hard, too fast in their war on cash, they could provoke a popular backlash. In Germany, trust in Europe’s financial institutions is already at a historic low, with only one in three Germans saying they have confidence in the ECB. The longer QE lasts, the more the number shrinks. Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann has already warned that it would be “disastrous” if people started to believe cash would be abolished — an oblique reference to the risk of negative interest rates and the escalating war on cash triggering a run on cash. The IMF has also waded into the debate with a working paper full of sage advice for governments keen on “de-cashing” – as the IMF calls this procedure – their economies against the will of their citizenry (emphasis added): The private-sector-led de-cashing seems preferable to the public-sector-led decashing. The former seems almost entirely benign (e.g., more use of mobile phones to pay for coffee), but still needs policy adaptation. The latter seems more questionable, and people may have valid objections to it. De-cashing of either kind leaves both individuals and states more vulnerable to disruptions, ranging from power outages to hacks to cyberwarfare. In any case, the tempting attempts to impose de-cashing by a decree should be avoided, given the popular personal attachment to cash. A targeted outreach program is needed to alleviate suspicions related to de-cashing; in particular, that by de-cashing the authorities are trying to control all aspects of peoples’ lives, including their use of money, or push personal savings into banks. It basically involves making it easier and cheaper for people to use electronic payment methods while subtly turning the screw on those who would prefer to continue using cash (for perfectly valid reasons, as the IMF itself admits), presumably by making it more difficult and expensive to do so. In many places it’s already happening. But a surprisingly large number of people still appear to have a strong sense of attachment to physical money, particularly in Europe’s most important economy, Germany. And if the survey is any indication, they have little interest in changing those habits.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-16/95-europeans-reject-eu-efforts-de-cash-their-lives 

:: 7-17-17 The Common Sense Show :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

China and Russia Are Doing the 2-Step to Bring Down the US Economy

By Dave Hodges

The American economy is on the rocks. Most would tell you that it is because our government and its citizens have acquired massive debt. That is only part of the picture. At the present moment, China and Russia are doing their version of the two-step to take down the US economy. Make no mistake about it, this is economic war and it is leading to World War III. China and Russia’s Economic Assault on the US Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa-BRICS When it became obvious for all with eyes to see, Russia and China led the initial assault upon the dollar by challenging the supremacy of the Petrodollar. Briefly, for those that do not know their economic history, the globalists, in 1944, decided that the world would use the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. With a coming global industrialization movement, there was a need for a stable currency to underwrite the growth. The only major country untouched by the ravages of World War II was the United States. Therefore, it was decided that all nations that would purchase oil, in their attempt to further industrialize, must do so with the dollar. The international purchasing of the dollar, known as the Petrodollar, saved the US economy because we had abandoned the gold standard under FDR during the Great Depression. The Petrodollar is the only backing that our dollar enjoys and now it is being threatened. In the 1990’s, Saddam Hussein, Germany and France began to engage in oil exchange using gold and Iraq got invaded under George H. W. Bush. Other Middle Eastern nations were preparing to do the same at a later date and Rumsfeld, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney devised a plan to invade 5 Middle Eastern Nations in order to prevent any future rebellion against the Federal Reserve’s Petrodollar. Part of this plan, called for the invasion of Syria and Iran. This is where the Chinese and the Russians stepped in and created the BRICS. Further, the Russians and the Chinese began to defend Iran and Syria. Most importantly, Iran began to sell oil for gold to the newly created BRICS and the value of your dollar took a big hit. The US would love to invade Iran in order to stop the BRICS, but they cannot get passed the armies of Russia and China. The BRICS Conspiracy Grows The creation of a BRICS gold marketplace, designed to replace the U.S. Petrodollar in continues to move to the next level. Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, recently announced that its subsidiary is now trading in gold on the Shanghai Gold Exchange. Russia and China are marrying their economy in gold exchanges in order to completely bypass the dollar. This is a catastrophic development. Here is a summary of this action. The reader can clearly see that the Russian government fully intends on expanding their gold exchanges with China which is currently at 26% of all trade transactions. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that this Russian/Chinese strategy is designed to weaken America and soften her up for the kill. Reuters provides more fuel to this fire: “Sberbank plans to expand its presence on the Chinese precious metals market and anticipates total delivery of 5-6 tonnes of gold to China in the remaining months of 2017. Gold bars will be delivered directly to the official importers in China as well as through the exchange… Russia’s second-largest bank VTB is also a member of the Shanghai Gold Exchange.” Summary of the Present Economic Climate The BRICS began as an attempt by affiliated nations to not be held hostage by the dollar. This would have presumably allowed the economies of these nations to expand and to compete with the dollar, which it has. China and Russia, the second and third most powerful nations, are in the process of completely abandoning the dollar. The world is in the process of joining them. This is the end of the dollar and this is the end of your bank account. Implications Do you think the Federal Reserve is going to take this lying down? This is an act of war and war is exactly what is going to happen. The bankers who reside at the top of pyramid of power have deliberately weakened America, because America is going to lose this war so that the NWO can be ushered in and it biggest opponent will not be able to obstruct the process. Deagel’s projections, that have been widely discussed on this site, will come to fruition as America is expected to lose 90% of its population by 2024 and its economy, along with its military budget. will shrink by an equivalent amount. If there anything that the average American can do? That will be the subject of the next installment in this series.

http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2017/07/17/china-and-russia-are-doing-the-2-step-to-bring-down-the-us-economy/ 

:: 7-13-17 Natural News :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

10 ways to prep when you’re completely broke

Thursday, July 13, 2017 by: Lance D Johnson

(Natural News) If you feel like prepping is a waste of money or if you think you don’t have the money to plan for future events, think again. Even if you’re broke, thrifty prepping techniques can help you make connections, earn more money, and have just the right item on hand in an emergency. Here’s 10 tips for prepping when you’re broke: Get on a budget and designate a set amount for addressing future concerns. Start small, setting aside $10 a week and go from there. Pick up cheap but valuable preparedness items that you could use or trade. Here’s a list of ten affordable and crucial items that won’t break your budget. Make a list and prioritize what is most important to you. Turn off the TV and don’t be conned into buying frivolous things you don’t need. Challenge yourself. Learn not to rely on much. Make do with little. If a bad situation arises, you’ll know how to live lean and rely on yourself, first and foremost. Be of value to your neighbors, friends, and family by learning a skill or trade. Read a book. Take a class. This skill could come in handy during a survival situation or during any season of life. More importantly, this skill will connect you with people and make you more valuable to others during any circumstance. Buy and resell items online, through a local resale shop, or at a garage sale. A small amount of money can multiply quickly if you know what to buy, when to sell it, where to sell it, and who to sell it to. People who are in the middle of moving will sell things cheap. You can consign at a local resale shop and make profit on the side from the items you bring in. The chances are good that there is an online Facebook buy/sell group in your area. This is great place to catch a bargain and negotiate for a good deal on necessary survival tools, items that could go up in value, or things you can resell and turn a profit on. Go through dumpsters and salvage valuable items that people are throwing away. You’ll be amazed at what people and businesses are pitching. Watch for businesses that are having Going Out of Business sales. Hit up a supermarket at the right time and you may get your hands on some food items that are still good to eat. Go to the dollar store and pick up cheap items that will be of higher value in a survival situation. Lighters, matches, gauze, duct tape, candles, band aids, toilet paper, and canned food are cheap, easy to store, and their value goes up tremendously in a crisis scenario. Likewise, vinegar, salt, soap, and baking soda will all be important for cleaning, preserving food, and keeping infections at bay. Stock up on seeds and plan ways to grow food year round. Seeds are inexpensive and can yield abundance with the right nutrients, water, and sun. Ideally, plant a fruit tree that produces food yearly with little effort. Give what little you have to people who are really in need. Small acts of kindness go a long way. You never know when you might need the same hand-up in a survival situation. Be careful not to waste what you give on those who are only out to take. Not all sob stories are genuine. Hit up a flea market and pick up some hand tools that will be essential when power tools and fuel-driven equipment become obsolete. Think like the Amish. Dig a root cellar in the ground in case you need to keep food in a cool location when the fridge stops running. Pick up an extra box of ammo when you’re in a sporting goods store and stash it back in a secure location. Buying a lot of ammo at once is expensive, but if you buy an extra box occasionally with the loose cash in your pocket, you’ll soon have a valuable stash of ammo ready for an emergency situation. Ammo holds value and is easy to resell. Alternatively, befriend someone who loves to reload ammo. If you’re broke, you won’t have the money you need to buy all the reloading equipment, but if you know someone who has all the tools, ask to reload with them. You’ll cut down on the cost of ammunition and can even resell ammo at gun shows. (RELATED: For more information, news, and insight, visit Preparedness.News.)

http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-07-13-10-ways-to-prep-when-youre-completely-broke.html 

[ :: 12-31-09/1-1-10 New Years Eve Service (first word)  :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::  ::]

etc. For the disasters that shall take place are many, the flooding shall be far greater than in times past, the mudslides far greater than in times past, the earthquakes shall be more numerous and far greater than in times past. The tornadoes, oh the savageness of the tornadoes that shall rip across the land, the straight winds, the hurricanes, the forest fires, the volcanoes shall erupt, the rising of the sea level that will be marked not in inches but in feet. etc.. 

:: 7-17-17 Earthquakes Today :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Strong earthquake, 6.6 mag strikes near Nikol’skoye in Russia

Posted by admin on July 17, 2017

A earthquake with magnitude 6.6 (ml/mb) was detected on Monday, 204 km ESE of Nikol’skoye, Russia (127 miles). Event id: pt17198004. Ids that are associated to the earthquake: at00ot8esn, pt17198004. The 6.6-magnitude earthquake was detected at 22:05:10 / 10:05 pm (local time epicenter). A tsunami warning has been issued near Nikol’skoye in Russia (Does not indicate if a tsunami actually did or will exist). Exact time and date of earthquake 17/07/17 / 2017-07-17 11:05:10 / July 17, 2017 @ 11:05 am UTC/GMT. Exact location, longitude 168.656° East, latitude 54.203° North, depth = 29.5 km. The epicenter of the earthquake was roughly 29.5 km (18 miles) below the earth’s surface. Earthquakes 6.0 to 6.9 may cause a lot of damage in very populated areas. There are an estimated 135 earthquakes in the world each year. In the past 24 hours, there have been one, in the last 10 days one, in the past 30 days one and in the last 365 days ten earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater that have been detected nearby. Did you feel it? Were you asleep? Was it difficult to stand and/or walk? Leave a comment or report about shaking, activity and damage at your city, home and country. The information in this article comes from the USGS Earthquake Notification Service. Read more about the earthquake, Seismometer information, Distances, Parameters, Date-Time, Location and details about this quake, detected near: 204 km ESE of Nikol’skoye, Russia.

http://www.earthquakenewstoday.com/2017/07/17/strong-earthquake-6-6-mag-strikes-near-nikolskoye-in-russia/ 

:: 7-16-17 Zero Hedge :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Is Russiagate Really Hillarygate?

by Tyler Durden Jul 16, 2017 10:30 PM

Authored by Paul Roderick Gregory via Forbes.com,

According to an insider account, the Clinton team, put together the Russia Gate narrative within 24 hours of her defeat. The Clinton account explained that Russian hacking and election meddling caused her unexpected loss. Her opponent, Donald Trump, was a puppet of Putin. Trump, they said, “encourages espionage against our people.” The scurrilous Trump dossier, prepared by a London opposition research firm, Orbis, and paid for by unidentified Democrat donors, formed a key part of the Clinton narrative: Trump’s sexual and business escapades in Russia had made him a hostage of the Kremlin, ready to do its bidding. That was Hillary's way to say that Trump is really not President of the United States—a siren call adopted by the Democratic party and media. Hillary and the Orbis Dossier The most under-covered story of Russia Gate is the interconnection between the Clinton campaign, an unregistered foreign agent of Russia headquartered in DC (Fusion GPS), and the Christopher Steele Orbis dossier. This connection has raised the question of whether Kremlin prepared the dossier as part of a disinformation campaign to sow chaos in the US political system. If ordered and paid for by Hillary Clinton associates, Russia Gate is turned on its head as collusion between Clinton operatives (not Trump’s) and Russian intelligence. Russia Gate becomes Hillary Gate. Neither the New York Times, Washington Post, nor CNN has covered this explosive story. Two op-eds have appeared in the Wall Street Journal (Holman Jenkins and David Satter). The possible Russian-intelligence origins of the Steele dossier have been raised only in conservative publications, such as in The Federalist and National Review. The Fusion story has been known since Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a heavily-footnoted letter to the Justice Department on March 31, 2017 demanding for his Judiciary Committee all relevant documents on Fusion GPS, the company that managed the Steele dossier against then-candidate Donald Trump. Grassley writes to justify his demand for documents that: “The issue is of particular concern to the Committee given that when Fusion GPS reportedly was acting as an unregistered agent of Russian interests, it appears to have been simultaneously overseeing the creation of the unsubstantiated dossier of allegations of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians.” (Emphasis added.) Former FBI director, James Comey, refused to answer questions about Fusion and the Steele dossier in his May 3 testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Comey responded to Lindsey Graham’s questions about Fusion GPS’s involvement “in preparing a dossier against Donald Trump that would be interfering in our election by the Russians?” with “I don’t want to say.” Perhaps he will be called on to answer in a forum where he cannot refuse to answer. The role of Fusion GPS and one of its key associates, a former Soviet intelligence officer, must raise the question as to whether the Steele dossier, which was orchestrated by a suspected unregistered agent of Russia, was a plant by Russian intelligence to harm Donald Trump? David Satter, one of our top experts on Russia and himself expelled by the Kremlin, writes: Perhaps most important, Russian intelligence also acted to sabotage Mr. Trump. The ‘Trump dossier, full of unverified sexual and political allegations, was published in January by BuzzFeed, despite having all the hallmarks of Russian spy agency ‘creativity.’ The dossier was prepared by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer. It employed standard Russian techniques of disinformation and manipulation. Much of the credibility of the Orbis dossier hinges on Steele’s reputation as a former M15 intelligence agent. Satter writes, however, that “after the publication of the Trump dossier, Mr. Steele went into hiding, supposedly in fear for his life. On March 15, however, Michael Morell, the former acting CIA director, told NBC that Mr. Steele had paid the Russian intelligence sources who provided the information and never met with them directly. In other words, his sources were not only working for pay. Furthermore, Mr. Steele had no way to judge the veracity of their claims.” f Steele disappeared for fear of his life, we must suspect that he feared murder by Russian agents. The only secret he might have had to warrant such a drastic Russian action would be knowledge that Russian intelligence prepared the dossier. According to a Vanity Fair article, Fusion GPS was first funded by an anti-Trump Republican donor, but, after Trump’s nomination, Fusion and Steele were paid by Democratic donors whose identity remains secret. Writes Satter: “Perhaps the time has come to expand the investigation into Russia’s meddling to include Mrs. Clinton’s campaign as well.” As someone who has read every word of the Steele Trump dossier and has studied the Soviet Union/Russia for almost a half century, I can say that the Steele dossier consists of raw intelligence from informants identified by capital letters, who claim (improbably) to have access to the highest levels of the Kremlin. The dossier was not, as the press reports, written by Steele. No matter how experienced (or gullible) Steele might be, there is no way for him to know whether his sources are clandestine Russian intelligence agents. In Stalin's day, some of the most valued KGB (NKVD) agents were called "novelists," for their ability to conjure up fictional plots and improbable tales to use against their enemies. Some of Steele's sources claim detailed knowledge of the deepest Kremlin secrets, such as Putin's personal control of Clinton emails or negotiations with Putin's head of the national oil company. If they truly had such knowledge, why would they "sell" it to Steele? The most likely explanation is that the Steele dossier is the work of Russian intelligence "novelists" charged by the Kremlin with defaming Trump and adding chaos to the American political system. Mueller’s Difficult Task While leaks from within the investigation focus on possible obstruction of justice, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s writ – to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election – requires him to consider “matters” that Dems would prefer be left alone. Special Counsel Mueller has been given a broad charge and no deadline -- a formula for trouble. He is supposed to “investigate Russia’s intervention in the 2016 election.” Given the many accounts of Russian contacts of Trump campaign officials and hangers-on, Mueller must follow these leads, which apparently have lead nowhere over a nine month investigation as reported even by Trump unfriendly sources like CNN. Mueller, therefore, should not require much time to rule out coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia state actors. Mueller must be careful to avoid detours into loosely related issue by scalp-hunting investigators. Mueller also must shut down leaks from within his office, if he wishes his reports to be credible to the American people.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-16/russiagate-really-hillarygate 

:: 7-13-17 Clarion Project :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Europe Beware! Turkey Eyes Iran as Replacement Partner

By Clarion Project Thursday, July 13, 2017

Listen to Clarion’s latest podcast which includes a stark warning about the potential for a long-term Turkish-Iranian economic and military alliance:

Scribe Note: Click on the link below for podcast

https://clarionproject.org/europe-beware-turkey-may-want-iran-new-partner/ 

:: 7-17-17 Zero Hedge :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Elon Musk's Worst Nightmare: Russian AK-47 Maker Builds Fully-Automated "Killer Robot"

by Tyler Durden Jul 17, 2017 5:30 AM

Authored by Joseph Jankowski via PlanetFreeWill.com, The debate over the role robots will play in the future of warfare is one that is taking place right now as the development of automated lethal technology is truly beginning to take shape. Predator drone style combat machines are just the tip of the iceberg for what is to come down the line of lethal weaponry and some are worried that when robots are calling the shots, things could get a little out of hand. Recently there has been some debate at the U.N. about “killer robots,” with prominent scientists, researchers, and Human rights organizations all warning that this type of technology – lethal tech. that divorces the need for human control – could cause a slew of unintended consequence to the detriment of humanity. A study conducted the University of British Columbia shows that this type of terminator-like weaponry isn’t sitting well with the general public, as an overwhelming majority of people, regardless of country or culture, want a complete ban placed upon any further development of these autonomous systems of war. Despite the warnings of risk and concern, this is not stopping arms manufacturers from taking warfare into the twilight zone and bringing the futuristic battlefield scenario where A.I. robots and human are fighting with each other, side by side, closer to everyday reality. Kalashnikov, the maker of the iconic AK-47, is one of those manufacturers bringing lethal automation and robotics into the present-day as it is currently building a range of products based on neural networks,’ including a fully automated combat module’ that can identify and shoot at its targets. Defense One is reporting: The maker of the famous AK-47 rifle is building “a range of products based on neural networks,” including a “fully automated combat module” that can identify and shoot at its targets. That’s what Kalashnikov spokeswoman Sofiya Ivanova told TASS, a Russian government information agency last week. It’s the latest illustration of how the U.S. and Russia differ as they develop artificial intelligence and robotics for warfare. The Kalashnikov “combat module” will consist of a gun connected to a console that constantly crunches image data “to identify targets and make decisions,” Ivanova told TASS. A Kalashnikov photo that ran with the TASS piece showed a turret-mounted weapon that appeared to fire rounds of 25mm or so. Then in 2015, then-Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work said fully automated killing machines were un-American. “I will make a hypothesis: that authoritarian regimes who believe people are weaknesses,” Work said, “that they cannot be trusted, they will naturally gravitate toward totally automated solutions. Why do I know that? Because that is exactly the way the Soviets conceived of their reconnaissance strike complex. It was going to be completely automated. We believe that the advantage we have as we start this competition is our people.” According to Sergey Denisentsev, a visiting fellow at the Center For Strategic International Studies, Russian weapons makers see robotics and the artificial intelligence driving them as key to future sales to war makers. “There is a need to look for new market niches such as electronic warfare systems, small submarines, and robots, but that will require strong promotional effort because a new technology sometimes finds it hard to find a buyer and to convince the buyer that he really needs it, ” Denisentsev said earlier this year. With my previous reporting dealing with robotics and war, I always point out the incredible advances made by Softbank owned Boston Dynamics in the field of A.I., using it as an example of what future warfare could (or most likely will) look like it. And to be honest, it really is nightmarish. The bottom line is war is a racket. Killing for political reasons is always disastrous. So the fact that governments are on the verge of possessing this terminator technology should send chills down everyone’s spine.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-16/elon-musks-worst-nightmare-russian-ak-47-maker-builds-fully-automated-killer-robot 

:: 7-16-17 The Christian Truther :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, claims that governments need to begin to regulate artificial intelligence prior to the technology becoming a threat to humanity at whole. This is not the first warning from the entrepreneur, in fact, previously Elon Musk warned that with Artificial Intelligence, tech giants are literally ‘summoning the demon.’ With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon. You know, in all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, and he’s like yeah, he’s sure he can control the demon. Didn’t work out. Musk stated that artificial intelligence is the greatest risk we face as a civilization; “AI’s a rare case where we need to be proactive in regulation, instead of reactive. Because by the time we are reactive with AI regulation, it’s too late,” he remarked. Musk then drew a contrast between AI and traditional targets for regulation, saying “AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization, in a way that car accidents, airplane crashes, faulty drugs, or bad food were not.” However, tech giants and those who operate in Silicon Valley are not paying attention to the actual concerns of artificial intelligence. According to Wikileaks editor Julian Assange; “I know from our sources deep inside the Silicon Valley institution[s] that they genuinely believe that they are going to produce AI that’s so powerful, relatively soon, that people will have their brains digitized, uploaded to these AIs and live forever in simulation, therefore have eternal life.” “It’s like a religion for atheists,” he added. “And given you’re in a simulation, why not program the simulation to have endless drug and sex orgy parties around you.” Assange said this vision makes them work harder and the dystopian consequences of their work is overshadowed by cultural and industrial bias to not perceiving it. He concluded that the normal perception someone would have regarding their work has been supplanted with “this ridiculous quasi-religious model that’s it all going to lead to nirvana.” — Read More

https://christiantruther.com/end-times/science/beast-tech/4th/artificial-intelligence-greatest-risk-face-civilization-elon-musk/ 

:: 7-17-17 The Oregnic Prepper :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

What Could Possibly Go Wrong When Google Releases Millions of “Lab-Made” Mosquitos in Fresno?

July 17, 2017

Sometimes you have to think that scientists don’t ever read science fiction, and thus have not even contemplated all the things that could go wrong when they do something like creating 20 million mosquitos in a laboratory, infecting them with a bacteria, and then releasing those mosquitos in Fresno, California. First of all, did you even know that Google had a bio-lab? They do and it’s called Verily. Which, I dunno, sounds rather biblical. “Verily, I say unto you…we are the purveyors of all that is The Truth.” But I digress. Verily plans to create 20 million mosquitoes and infect them with a bacteria in their laboratories. Then, the mosquitos will be released on the unsuspecting populace of Fresno, California, a city with over half a million people. Why? Because, Zika. Remember last year’s Zika scare that prompted the government to spray harmful chemicals all over citizens in Florida? That terrified a whole bunch of pregnant women and made them worry that their babies would be born with microcephaly? Apparently, the Aedes aegypti mosquito that is thought to carry the Zika virus is prevalent in Fresno. However prevalent these mosquitos may be, there is only one confirmed case of Zika, and this woman’s partner had been traveling. So, anyway, in a project wittily named DeBug, Verily has “created” a whole bunch of mosquitos and infected the males with a bacteria called Wolbachia. When the male mate with female mosquitos, the resulting eggs can’t hatch. And by the way, they did a smaller release of franken-mosquitos last year in Fresno. (See? says Verily soothingly. We already did this once without you knowing about it and nothing bad happened. Don’t worry, you silly mortal.) In 2016, CMAD and MosquitoMate piloted the first-ever U.S. release of male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with Wolbachia in Fresno County. Our 2017 collaboration represents a more than 25x increase in the release efforts, with a total of one million non-biting sterile male mosquitoes released weekly, made possible by the automated mass rearing and sex-sorting processes developed at Verily. Additionally, our software algorithms and on-the-ground release devices will allow us to distribute the sterile male mosquitoes in an even and targeted way throughout Fresno’s mosquito season. We believe that these advancements could have a meaningful impact on what is traditionally a very labor-intensive process and could reduce the number of biting Aedes aegypti in Fresno County. Theoretically, the Wolbachia virus is harmless to humans, male mosquitos don’t bite, and whether Fresno residents like it or not, they’ll be subject to the release of a million of these franken-mosquitoes per week for the next 20 weeks. The project, which has already rather quietly begun, is turning the area into a test facility without the consent of residents. Trucks will be driving through the city releasing swarms of millions of infected male mosquitos in Fresno. Verily says: For the Debug team at Verily, moving our work from the laboratory to the field is not only an important milestone for our group of biologists, engineers, and automation experts, but it’s also a critical step in bringing our long-term vision to reality. Field studies allow us to test our discoveries and technologies in challenging, real-world conditions and collect the necessary evidence to bring them to a broader scale. We hope to demonstrate success with Debug Fresno that will benefit the local communities working with us on this study and later other communities globally where Zika, dengue, and chikungunya are endemic. We are excited to take the first step in that journey today by bringing these technologies to the field. (source) Here’s some more information about the project in this propaganda informational video. Does anyone else think that this sounds like the first chapter in a novel by the likes of Michael Crichton or Stephen King? (For information about protecting yourself from mosquitos that doesn’t include the potential for some kind of mosquito apocalypse, read this.) I can see quite a lot of potential unfavorable variables here. Just off the top of my head, here are just some of the things that could go wrong: What if the mosquitos are sorted incorrectly? Do you really think that out of 20 million mosquitos, nary a biting female will get through the sorting process? What if the Wolbachia mutates? Something that is not harmful now could morph into something far worse than Zika. What if scientists believe that this gives them innate permission to conduct “field studies” of other things? Oh…wait. Apparently, they already feel they don’t require our permission to turn our neighborhoods into test facilities. It’s like they don’t even consider these things. Or, if they do, then the risks are worth taking. Maybe this will be harmless, but the fact remains that this city is being turned into a “controlled environment” for Verily without the consent of citizens. And that is not okay.

http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/google-releases-mosquitos-in-fresno-07172017 

[ :: 10-17-10 am service  (first word)  :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::]

:: 7-16-17 American Thinker :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

The Russian Collusion Story: The Acme of Fake News

By Clarice Feldman July 16, 2017

Richard Fernandez is one of the most brilliant authors on the Internet. This week he wrote: Conventional wisdom posits the chief challenges facing the post-Cold War World are Global Warming and the decline of international institutions. But maybe that assurance is a species of Fake News. Suppose the most pressing problems in the next decade is finding new energy supplies to 1) keep the price of oil low enough to contain Russia (and Islamism); and 2) adapting to a disruptive information revolution no one can seem to control. Who will hand you that unconventional wisdom unless you come to it yourself. He’s right, as I explain, but the significance of his observation is this: which of the two candidates -- Hillary or Trump -- was more likely to tap into America’s huge energy resources to contain both Russia and the Islamists? And when you answer that as you must -- Trump -- you can dismiss all the folderol about Donald J. Trump Jr’s, 15 minute meeting in Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer as evidence of “collusion” with Russia. As I further explain, the non-stop media promotion of some nefarious scheme between Russia and Trump does not pass even the most cursory forensic examination, proving once again in the age of fake news, you cannot remain a passive consumer of news. You have to bring to each story the good sense and diligence with which you handle your most important personal affairs. A. Russia and Environmental Groups As Fernandez explained: The oil crash collapsed the ruble and forced a 27% reduction in the Kremlin's military budget in 2016. With oil prices set to stay flat the Russians have to keep drilling and investing simply to stay level as the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies notes. The Kremlin doesn't make any real spending money until world oil price gets above levels before the great oil crash of 2014, which may not happen any time soon. [snip] You would think this a Eureka moment: to contain oil prices is to contain Russia (and Islamism). But cheap fossil fuels are not everyone's cup of tea. "Drill, baby, drill" is not popular on the left. Even though liberals understand the power of cheap energy -- one of Hillary's supposedly hacked emails even alleged anti-fracking and environmental causes were a Russian plot to depress oil production -- to advocate it is bad progressive politics. This probably led the Saudis to Hillary's camp in 2016. "According to Bob McNally, president of consulting firm Rapidan Group, countries in the oil-producing Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, are hoping for Hillary Clinton to become president." If you’re looking for collusion with Russia, it is not to be found in the Trump Tower meeting. Paul Mirengoff of Powerline details the Russian efforts through environmental groups -- at best Stalin’s “useful idiots” -- to tamp down US energy production. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Science Committee, tells James Freeman of the Wall Street Journal: If you connect the dots, it is clear that Russia is funding U.S. environmental groups in an effort to suppress our domestic oil and gas industry, specifically hydraulic fracking. They have established an elaborate scheme that funnels money through shell companies in Bermuda. This scheme may violate federal law and certainly distorts the U.S. energy market. The American people deserve to know the truth and I am confident Secretary Mnuchin will investigate the allegations. To help Sec. Mnuchin conduct such an investigation, Rep. Smith, along with Energy Subcommittee Chairman Randy Weber, sent him a letter. They noted: According to the former Secretary General of NATO, “Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engaged actively with so-called nongovernmental organizations – environmental organizations working against shale gas – to maintain dependence on imported Russian gas.” Other officials have indicated the same scheme is unfolding in the U.S. Reps. Smith and Weber add that, according to public sources including a 2014 report from Republican staff on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, “entities connected to the Russian government are using a shell company registered in Bermuda, Klein Ltd. (Klein), to funnel tens of millions of dollars to a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) private foundation,” which supports various environmental groups. Klein denies this allegation. Regardless of the conduit for the money, the allegation of funneling appears to be substantial. Indeed, says Freeman, it appears to have been noted by none other than Hillary Clinton: If a document posted last year on WikiLeaks is to be believed, Clinton campaign staff summarized in an email attachment Hillary Clinton’s remarks on the subject during a private speech: Clinton Talked About “Phony Environmental Groups” Funded By The Russians To Stand Against Pipelines And Fracking. “We were up against Russia pushing oligarchs and others to buy media. We were even up against phony environmental groups, and I’m a big environmentalist, but these were funded by the Russians to stand against any effort, oh that pipeline, that fracking, that whatever will be a problem for you, and a lot of the money supporting that message was coming from Russia.” [Remarks at tinePublic, 6/18/14] Freeman suggests that Mnuchin commence his investigation by speaking with Mrs. Clinton, who “obviously knows the terrain.” He also thinks John Podesta would be a useful source. Podesta is invested in and acts for a "green energy company backed by the Russian government." B. The Media Has lost all Credibility, Serving as the semi-official newsroom for the Democratic Party Just as Fernandez detailed the rise of Samizdat in Russia as the official press was uniformly distrusted, the growth on alternate media in the U.S. is disrupting the old news models . Our trust hierarchies have collapsed. As with Soviet Russia, the "official" media sources are now distrusted as purveyors "fake news". To fill the gap a peer-to-peer grapevine, similar to the "friends and family", a samizdat is emerging to pick up the slack. Sonya Mann at Inc uses a startup to illustrate the growing division of society into trust groups. "Pax Dickinson wants to fund the revolution. Not a blood-in-the-streets revolution, but one where hardcore right-wingers can economically secede from the parts of society they vehemently dislike. "We need parallel everything. I do not want to ever have to spend a single dollar at a non-movement business. Nothing so illustrates why the media has deservedly lost all credibility than its unending, overdone effort to fit any action on the part of the President or those around him into a narrative of Russia somehow colluding with him to defeat Hillary. This week’s take was the short meeting his son held with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower last summer. The clearest summary of the facts surrounding the meeting with Trump’s son last summer is to be found in The American Spectator. Scott McKay writes: [Natalia] Veselnitskaya’s [The Russian lawyer’s] presence in the United States alone ought to be the source of suspicion that not only is the Trump-Russian collusion narrative suspect in this case but that the real inquiry ought to be into whether the encounter was a small part of a larger attempt to trap the Trump campaign. The Russian lawyer wasn’t even supposed to be here. She had been denied a visa for entry into the United States in late 2015, but given a rather extraordinary “parole” by the federal government to assist preparation for a client subject to asset forfeiture by the Justice Department. That was in January. The client was Prevezon Holdings, a Russian company suspected of having been paid some portion of $230 million stolen by Russian mobsters. When Sergey Magnitsky a Russian lawyer representing a company that had been the victim of the theft, reported it to authorities in Moscow he was promptly jailed and beaten to death. The American response to this atrocity was the 2012 Magnitsky Act, which sanctioned several individuals connected to human rights abuses. The Russian government retaliated by preventing American adoptions of Russian children. But in June, she was permitted to fly back to the U.S., have the meeting with Trump Junior -- at Trump Tower, no less -- and then end up in the front row for a congressional hearing involving testimony from a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, then turning up at a D.C. showing of a documentary film on the negative effects of the Magnitsky Act, and later appearing at a dinner involving Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and former Rep. Ron Dellums (D-CA) who is now a lobbyist for the Russians. The repeal of that legislation is a priority item for the Russians and a personal project of Veselnitskaya’s; it, rather than any Clinton dirt, was reportedly the primary subject brought forth at the meeting with Donald Trump Jr. All of this without a visa! Not to mention Veselnitskaya didn’t file a FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) document before acting as a lobbyist for a foreign entity, as required by law. Neither, apparently, did Dellums. Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote a fascinating letter Tuesday to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asking them to please find out what in the hell Veselnitskaya was doing in this country last June. And further, it turns out Veselnitskaya was connected to Fusion GPS, the Democrat opposition research firm which employed a former British spy who used Russian contacts to produce the infamous and debunked Pee Pee Dossier smearing Trump. Veselnitskaya hired Fusion GPS head Glenn Simpson to work on behalf of Prevezon, the company she was allowed into the country to represent, in its efforts to repeal the Magnitsky Act. Fusion then hired Christopher Steele, the British spy who drew on Russian sources to produce that dossier, and made him available for private briefings on the dossier with left-leaning media sources such as Mother Jones, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Yahoo! News, the New Yorker and CNN in September. Naturally, John McCain is involved -- if that fact should produce his resignation, all of this will have been worth it. By the way, there is Veselnitskaya’s social media account, which is decidedly more aligned with the Fusion GPS side of this equation than the Trump side. And the meeting came about largely due to hyped-up promises made by a publicist for a Russian pop star who was connected to the Trump family from the Miss Universe pageant having been held in Moscow in 2013 -- promises which don’t appear to have been fulfilled. If this whole thing doesn’t look like an old-fashioned dangle to you, then you haven’t watched enough spy movies. If timelines are interesting to you, there is this -- reportedly, the Obama administration sought permission to electronically monitor Trump Tower in early June, and the FISA court would not grant it. But in October, that warrant was given. [snip] And once that meeting -- which on its surface was a waste of everyone’s time -- was had, the Obama administration now had something to sell to the FISA court to get that warrant -- from which they snagged Mike Flynn and gave the Democrat party and the media a mechanism to shroud the Trump administration in what can best be described as a rather dubious scandal. Remember how Hillary Clinton was accusing Trump of being a Putin’s puppet at the October 19 debate? C. Donald J Trump’s son had every reason to believe that there was evidence of Hillary’s collusion with Russia If this seems farfetched, consider this Veselnitskaya was barred from entry to the US until Loretta Lynch granted her an excedptional “immigration parole” to appear in a judicial proceeding; a federal judge considered -- but we can find no ruling -- her motion on January 6, 2016, to extend her stay by a week, and then with no explanation of how this occurred, she was back in the US on June of that year where she met with Donald J Trump Jr and attended as a front row guest a Congressional hearing on the Magnitsky act which imposed sanctions on Russia. To add a dash of extra color to the story the media reported that with the lawyer was a “former Russian counter intelligence officer”, Rinat Akhmetshin. He denies this. “I am an American citizen since 2009 who pays taxes, earned his citizenship after living here since 1994, and swore an oath of loyalty to the United States of America,” Kayleigh McEnany in The Hill characterized this as a “conspiracy theory desperately in earch of evidence”. Bill Clinton had given a $500,000 speech in Russia. Clinton had given her approval in handing one-fifth of U.S. uranium to Russia, after which her foundation received $2.35 million from the Russian-controlled company. Suspiciously, Clinton did not disclose the transaction. Likewise, Clinton campaign chief John Podesta sat on the board of a company that received $35 million from the Russian government alongside fellow board members Anatoly Chubais, a senior Russian official, and Ruben Vardanyan, an oligarch. Given this context, why wouldn’t Trump Jr. be open to taking a meeting that offered evidence of incriminating Clinton dealings with Russia, particularly when most of the media refused to look into Clinton’s question-raising actions?[snip] We likewise know that several foreign countries known for their human rights violations -- like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Brunei, and Algeria -- donated millions to the Clinton foundation, and yet few publications construed their “support” in a negative way. Taken together, the micro story of Donald Trump Jr. seeking opposition research -- much like Clinton allies did in their dealings with the Ukrainian government -- does nothing in the way of proving the macro allegation that the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia in hacking the DNC and releasing Clinton’s illegally obtained emails. The American people see through this leftist-purveyed Russia conspiracy theory. That’s why a full 56 percent want Congress and the media to focus on real issues, not Russia. If the left continues to concoct Russian collusion evidence, they can fully expect for the 2018 congressional elections to look a lot like the special elections in Kansas, Montana, South Carolina, and Georgia -- Republican victory. Voters dismiss the salacious in favor of solutions, and as of now, the left have nothing besides an evidence-free smear campaign. In any event, isn’t it curious that those who claim to consider a meeting to listen to opposition research collusion, bought hook line and sinker the ridiculous-on-its-face Dossier concocted by GPS against Trump, a far more likely piece of Russian intel disinformation? Or why they ignore DNC officials meeting with Ukrainian government officials for dirt on then Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Politico detailed the many ways the Ukrainians worked to help Hillary beat Trump. As you might guess, they indicated these efforts were “far less concerted or centrally directed than Russia’s alleged hacking and dissemination of Democratic emails.” Covering with the word “alleged” a smear without any evidence but for the mutterings of Crowdstrike, a private outfit which was the only investigation the DNC allowed , a misstep by the Comey FBI which let this pass. In any event, Legal commentators on both sides of the aisle have confirmed there was nothing illegal about the meeting. I suppose we can’t expect much more of a press corps so stupid it mistakes the Star Spangled Banner for France’s La Marseillaise, and Bastille Day for the 100th Anniversary of the U.S. entry in WW I. You’ll just have to work harder in the face of such ignorance and bias to find out what you need to know.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/07/the_russian_collusion_story_the_acme_of_fake_news.html#ixzz4n7IDFjFv 

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:: 7-14-17 Charsma News :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

We Sure Could Use Those Russian Agents' Help About Now

12:00PM EDT 7/14/2017 Mark Fitzgibbons/ConservativeHQ

Dear Russian Agents, We Americans don't trust you a bit, but since we can't trust The New York Times, CNN, the Democrat Party, the deep state and various leftist institutions, we may as well ask for your help. We have a crippling national debt approaching $20 trillion, where today's political class is robbing future generations so they can stay in power. We have assassinations of police officers trying to protect the community. We have elected leaders who say the health care system we want will kill people, yet they want to move towards a nationalized health care system where the parents of children like Charlie Gard are told by the government the child must die. We know we can't trust you, but our own liberal institutions seem rather dishonest about, and antagonistic to, the virtues of Western civilization, our constitutional republic and the rule of law. In many ways. they really aren't all that different from you, it seems, but they are more embedded. When then-candidate Donald Trump mocked Hillary Clinton and the investigation of her 33,000 missing emails by facetiously asking your country to produce them if you had them, false accusations were made that Mr. Trump was asking your government to hack Hillary's system. Oh, but that would have been so easy since Secretary of State Clinton used an unsecure system to transmit and receive classified information, then conveniently couldn't "find" emails that were erased using a system more powerful than acid on cotton candy.

http://www.charismanews.com/politics/opinion/66238-we-sure-could-use-those-russian-agents-help-about-now 

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:: 7-15-17 The Times of Israel :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Hamas calls for attacks on Israelis after Temple Mount closure

Terror group holds rally to celebrate killing of two Israeli officers; describes shuttering of compound as a ‘religious war’

By Times of Israel staff and Agencies July 15, 2017, 5:25 pm

The Hamas terror group on Saturday called for further attacks on Israelis after the closure of the Temple Mount in the wake of Friday’s deadly assault at the holy site. In Gaza, Hamas staged a rally Saturday to celebrate the attack, in which three Arab Israelis shot dead two Israeli police officers. The gunmen launched the attack from the compound and then fled back onto it, where they were pursued and killed by Israeli forces. Israel then shut the site as its forces searched for more weapons. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly intends to gradually reopen it on Sunday, but the move has drawn widespread condemnation from the Arab and Muslim World. Hamas, an Islamist terror group which seeks to destroy Israel, described the closure of the site in a statement Saturday as a “religious war” and Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called on the Palestinian “uprising” to target the Israeli army and West Bank settlers. The three assailants carried out the attack with two Carlo-style submachine guns, a pistol and a knife, police said. It was not immediately known how they had brought the weaponry into the compound. Israel’s decision to close the Old City compound after the attack — unprecedented since 1969 — was partly to check for other weaponry there, and also to investigate whether the assailants had received help from inside the compound, TV reports said. Reports throughout Friday said the two police officers were killed just outside the Temple Mount compound. However, Channel 2 news reported late Friday that the second policeman may have been killed by the assailants on the mount itself, after they had fled back. Israel criticized Jordan for calling to “immediately reopen” the site after the attack, with one official telling Israeli TV that “instead of condemning the attack, Jordan chose to attack Israel, which is protecting worshipers and maintaining freedom of worship in the place.” Israel will not tolerate harm to the holy places and is maintaining the status quo there. It should be expected that all sides involved, including Jordan, exercise restraint and avoid fanning the flames,” said the unnamed official. Jordan, which administers the site through the Waqf, had called on Israel to “reopen Al-Aqsa mosque and the Haram al-Sharif (compound) immediately,” in reference to the complex which houses the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock sanctuary and which Israel refers to as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism and third-holiest in Islam. The Jordanian royal family is officially the custodian of the mosque atop the Temple Mount, and exercises its authority there though Israel is responsible for security. According to a report Friday, among the suspects detained in the attack was at least one Waqf official who police suspect may have aided the terrorists, who all came from the northern Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-calls-for-attacks-on-israelis-after-temple-mount-closure/ 

:: 7-16-17 WSOC tv :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Ballantyne pastor, wife welcome twins 2 years after tragedy

Updated: Jul 12, 2017 - 12:08 PM

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A Charlotte pastor and his wife, whose two sons were killed in a car crash in 2015, have a new blessing. Gentry Eddings, a pastor at Forest Hill Church in Ballantyne, and his wife, Hadley, welcomed twin boys to the world Monday. Isaiah Dobbs and Amos Reed were born healthy and happy. The boys' middle names, Dobbs and Reed, are the names of the Eddings' late sons. “We are thrilled for Gentry and Hadley and are continually amazed at how God continues to redeem their story," said Stacey Martin, the director of communications at Forest Hill Church and family friend. "From the tragic loss of their sons, Dobbs and Reed to the remarkable birth of their twins, Isaiah and Amos – God is creating beauty from ashes. And we – along with the Eddings and Reed families – give Him all the glory.” The couple announced to their congregation in January that they were expecting twins. In May, 2015, a car crash killed two-year-old Dobbs, while Hadley was still pregnant with Reed. She underwent an emergency C-section, but Reed did not survive. Matthew Deans, 28, was sentenced to 27 to 32 months in prison after the truck he was driving rear-ended Hadley's car on Highway 17 in Pender County. Deans pleaded guilty and apologized to the Eddings in an emotional court hearing in September 2015. The couple publicly announced that they forgave Deans.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/ballantyne-pastor-wife-welcome-twins-following-tragedy/555757548 

:: 7-16-17 Washington Examiner :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Is Hamas fighting in Libya?

by Joseph Hammond | Jul 16, 2017, 12:01 AM

A startling claim is buried within a routine new United Nations report: A Palestinian militant group is operating in Libya. The Panel of Experts on Libya, a United Nations working group, announced that its years-long investigation confirmed longstanding Libyan claims regarding "the presence of Palestinian military experts in Tripoli." The report states that although a Palestinian official interviewed by the Panel denied any activity in Libya, "he confirmed that eight members of his faction, who were members of the Palestinian diaspora in Libya, had been arrested in Tripoli in the course of 2016. The Panel is still investigating the case." The U.N. report released last month is the latest piece in of evidence suggesting a Palestinian terror group is fighting in Libya. U.N. representatives in New York declined to comment on the matter when I reached out, and its representatives in Libya were not available for comment. The U.N. report also concludes that efforts to prevent other foreign fighters from entering Libya has failed. It states that ISIS terrorists remain active in Libya and remain in contact with their colleagues in Syria. The report also describes an escalating role for mercenary forces in the conflict. The Libyan Civil war has raged since the disputed election held there in 2014. The clash is ongoing between multiple factions, ranging from local militias to large coalitions that aspire to rule the country. Nominally, the Government of National Accord is Libya's official government. However, despite recognition by the United Nations and the United States, it remains militarily weak. The General National Congress (GNC) has been supported by Qatar and Turkey. The GNC is opposed by the Libyan National Army (LNA), the nominal armed-wing of the Tobruk-based House of Representatives which also claims to be Libya's legitimate government. The LNA has enjoyed the support of Russia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates who are concerned about the role of armed Islamist groups in Libya. The United Nations report appears to vindicate the claim of several Libyan factions that Palestinian militants are active in Libya. Ahmed Al-Mismari, a spokesperson for the LNA, told the media earlier this month that Hamas was receiving support from Qatar for its military operations in Libya. An LNA-linked Twitter account released an alleged Qatari diplomatic document on June 7 in an effort to bolster that claim. The document, dated to 2012, suggests that the Qatari armed forces were fighting in Libya. To further bolster their Hamas claim, LNA released photos on Twitter To further bolster their Hamas claim, LNA released photos on Twitter which they claim show headbands from the armed wing of Hamas found in Benghazi. Also, earlier this year an alleged Hamas spy was arrested in Benghazi while spying on the LNA, according to Arabic-language press reports. Libya is home to a sizeable Palestinian diaspora. There are roughly 20,000 Palestinian refugees in Libya according to UNHCR. Concern regarding Palestinian fighters in the conflict led to the internationally recognized government in 2015 banning Palestinians, along with Syrians and Sudanese, from even entering the country. The extent of Palestinian armed factions in the Libyan conflict remains unclear. Hamas has accused the LNA of fabricating the claim to discredit Qatar. In the context of the ongoing blockade of Qatar, the LNA moved to sever all relations with the emirate. However, the very fact that a United Nations report would discuss Palestinian militants in Libya suggests how the civil war there has become a regional conflict, which as the recent terrorist attack in Manchester suggests is already affecting Europe. The United Nations report notes the conflict is drawing in mercenaries from as far away as Chad and Darfur. Indeed, some of the combatants in conflict have traveled from even farther afield, with ISIS terrorists relocating to Libya in recent years in order to create a fallback position, should the terrorist group suffer defeat in Iraq and Syria. ISIS forces in Libya may be regrouping following the fall of Sirte, but their regional aspirations remain alive. The report also mentions that, according to Nigerien authorities, ISIS in Libya has developed an overland smuggling link with Boko Haram in Nigeria. In April, President Trump downplayed a possible U.S. role in Libya. Saying the "U.S. has enough roles" in a press-conference. However, in light of the United Nations report and in the interest of counterterrorism efforts, the conflict in Libya deserves greater attention from American and international policymakers interested in ensuring greater regional and global security. Joseph Hammond is a senior contributor at the American Media Institute.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/is-hamas-fighting-in-libya/article/2628329 

[ :: 7-2-17 Campmeeting 2017 afternoon service  :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::  ::]

etc. You are going to see the mark of the beast, it is going to come very quickly now, very quickly now and they are going to move to the cashless society and that is not next year, now, I am talking about this year. etc.

:: 7-12-17 Seattle pi :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Visa looking to help small businesses go cashless

By KEN SWEET, AP Business Writer | July 12, 2017

NEW YORK (AP) — Visa is looking to push more small businesses into updating their digital payment technology, offering up to $10,000 each to 50 U.S.-based small business owners that are committed to going cashless. The program will focus on restaurants and food establishments, Visa said Wednesday, with the expectation that Visa will expand the program in the coming months and years to other industries and possibly other countries as well. Despite the proliferation of credit and debt cards, and the advent of technologies like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, cash remains a significant method of payment in many industries across the U.S. and around the world. Going completely cashless often requires upgrades to current point-of-sale systems, which remains an impediment for many small businesses, which is largely where cash remains king. "We are declaring war on cash," said Andy Gerlt, a spokesman for Visa. To participate in Visa Inc.'s Cashless Challenge, small business restaurants, cafés or food truck owners will need to describe what cashless means for them, their employees and customers. Visa isn't doing this for charity. The world's largest processor of credit and debit cards takes a fee from every payment that runs on its network. The more payments done through them, the more revenue Visa gets. Those fees, which can run into the thousands of dollars each year depending on how much the business sells, are the reason many small businesses prefer cash. "At the end of the month, when you look at a credit card statement and see how much you paid, it's a real number that hits you right in the face," says Matthew Geller, president of the National Food Truck Association, a trade group. Many food trucks accept credit cards to be competitive, but would rather have cash, he says. Visa argues that the benefits of going cashless can outweigh the costs for handling cash, which requires more intensive bookkeeping, physical transportation of cash, etc. Visa also argues that consumers prefer to use their cards as well. Businesses that receive the award can use the $10,000 toward upgrading their point-of-sale systems so they are completely cashless. If there is spare money left over, the business owner can use the money toward marketing or other efforts to promote their small businesses, Gerlt said. AP Small Business Reporter Joyce Rosenberg contributed to this report from New York. Ken Sweet covers bank and consumer financial issues for The Associated Press. Follow him on Twitter at @kensweet.

http://m.seattlepi.com/business/article/Visa-looking-to-help-small-businesses-go-cashless-11282921.php 

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etc. For the disasters that shall take place are many, the flooding shall be far greater than in times past, the mudslides far greater than in times past, the earthquakes shall be more numerous and far greater than in times past. The tornadoes, oh the savageness of the tornadoes that shall rip across the land, the straight winds, the hurricanes, the forest fires, the volcanoes shall erupt, the rising of the sea level that will be marked not in inches but in feet. etc.. 

:: 7-12-17 Yahoo News :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Earthquake of magnitude 6.7 strikes off Papua New Guinea: USGS

[Reuters] Reuters July 12, 2017

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 struck off the town of Rabaul in the south Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea on Thursday, the United States Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties in the quake, which struck at a depth of 33 km (21 miles) about 128 km (80 miles) east of the island of New Britain. The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no Pacific-wide tsunami threat from the quake. (Reporting by Clarence Fernandez; Editing by Paul Tait)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/earthquake-magnitude-6-7-strikes-off-papua-guinea-035434973.html 

:: 7-12-17 Daily Mail :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Magnitude 6.0 earthquake hits off the coast of North Korea sparking fears Kim Jong-un has detonated another nuclear bomb before experts insist it WAS a genuine quake

The quake was very deep - 348.2 miles (560km) below the seabed off the coast

Its epicenter was 125 miles (201 km) southeast of North Korean city of Chongjin

Early speculation indicated quake was man-made, as has been the case in past

As details emerged of the incident it appeared to be a standard natural disaster

By Gareth Davies For Mailonline Published: 16:24 EDT, 12 July 2017 | Updated: 21:04 EDT, 12 July 2017

A magnitude 6.0 earthquake has been detected off the coast of North Korea sparking fears Kim Jong-un has detonated another nuclear weapon. The quake was very deep, 348.2 miles (560 km) below the seabed, and unlikely to cause any damage. Its epicenter was 125 miles (201 km) southeast of the North Korean city of Chongjin and it comes amid heightened tension surrounding the country's weapons programme. Early speculation pointed to it being a man-made earthquake as has been the case in the past, but as the details of the incident emerged it appeared to be a standard natural disaster. In January last year, a man-made earthquake was detected near a known nuclear testing site in North Korea. The United States Geological Service reported a 5.1 magnitude quake that South Korea said was 49 kms (30 miles) from the Punggye-ri site where the North has conducted nuclear tests in the past. A Korea Meteorological Administration official then said: 'We suspect a man-made earthquake and are analysing the scale and epicentre of the quake with the geoscience and mineral resource institute of South Korea.' Earlier today, North Korea threatened to turn the US into a 'pile of ash' if Donald Trump tries to use force to stop Pyongyang's nuclear programme. Military intervention will 'inevitably lead the US to self-destruction', Kim Jong-un's state-run newspaper Minju Choson warned. The threat came as the US successfully tested its THAAD missile defense system against an intermediate-range ballistic missile in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii and Alaska - a key area as tensions with North Korea mount. A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) near Kodiak, Alaska, intercepted the ballistic missile target that was launched north of Hawaii, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said in a statement. Although the test was planned months ago, the US missile defense test has gained significance following North Korea's July 4 launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that raised concerns about the threat from Pyongyang. 'The successful demonstration of THAAD against an IRBM-range missile threat bolsters the country's defensive capability against developing missile threats in North Korea and other countries around the globe and contributes to the broader strategic deterrence architecture,' MDA said in the statement. U.S. officials have said the test would be the first of the THAAD system to defend against a simulated attack by an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). Earlier this week, Kim attended a concert to watch the Moranbong Band, an all-female ensemble that was hand-picked by the dictator. Among the numbers performed were 'Song of Hwasong Rocket' and 'Make Others Envy Us', the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported. The dictator was flanked by weapons engineer Jang Chang-ha after promoting him following the successful launch of Hwasong-14, which is believed to be capable of reaching most of Alaska.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4690704/Earthquake-detected-coast-North-Korea.html#ixzz4mkOl0Umf 

Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/827635/US-troops-drills-Europe-Russia-Black-Sea-President-Putin-EU-Nato 

:: 7-12-17 Denfence Watch :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Tomorrow Soldier: How The Military Is Altering the Limits of Human Performance

Imagine a group of volunteers, their chests rigged with biophysical sensors, preparing for a mission in a military office building outfitted with cameras and microphones to capture everything they do. “We want to set up a living laboratory where we can actually pervasively sense people, continuously, for a long period of time. The goal is to do our best to quantify the person, the environment, and how the person is behaving in the environment,” Justin Brooks, a scientist at the Army Research Lab, or ARL, told me last year. ARL was launching the Human Variability Project, essentially a military version of the reality-TV show Big Brother without the drama. The Project seeks to turn a wide variety of human biophysical signals into machine-readable data by outfitting humans and their environment with interactive sensors. The Army is not alone. The Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, and their special operations forces are also funding research to collect biophysical data from soldiers, sailors, Marines, and pilots. The goal is to improve troops’ performance by understanding what’s happening inside their bodies, down to how their experiences affect them on a genetic level. It’s not exactly genetically engineering soldiers into superhero Captain Americas; the U.S. military insists they have no intention of using biometric data science for anything like the genetic engineering of superior traits. But it’s close. The military is after the next best thing. If today’s Pentagon leaders get their way, the next generation of fighter jets, body armor, computer systems, and weapons will understand more about the pilots, soldiers, and analysts using them than those operators understand about the machines they are using. The very experience of flying the plane, analyzing satellite images, even firing a gun could change depending on what the weapon, vehicle, or software detects about the person to whom the weapon is bound. To make this dream real, Pentagon-backed researchers are designing an entirely new generation of wearable health monitors that make Silicon Valley’s best consumer fitness gear look quaint. They’re discovering how to detect incredibly slight changes in focus, alertness, health, and stress — and to convey those signals to machines. Design the boots well enough and the super soldier will arrive to fill them. Army Research Lab researchers already monitor individual subjects from six months to two years. Brooks wants to expand that to other military training environments, such as the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and then to more than a dozen universities. He hopes the data will reveal how people of varied size, weight, height, health, level of alertness, etc., differ in terms of the signals they send out — hence the name “human variability.” That, in turn, will help researchers gather much more precise information on how different people interact with their environment. The ultimate goal is sensors that can tell the Pentagon how each human soldier performs, or could perform, to their best ability, from battlefield to homefront. “It’s not just while they’re at work, but also when they go on leave,” says Brooks. “This is continuous, with the highest practical resolution that we can obtain for a long period of time. Hopefully, we would see information going into many programs” to build future gear. “A greater understanding of natural human variability would then feed pretty much any system that adapts to the person.” It’s an ambitious undertaking, considering the current limitations of body-worn sensors. Over the past two years, the military bought more than $2 million worth of FitBits and other biomedical tracking devices. But it turns out that off-the-shelf consumer devices aren’t good enough for the military’s biotracking ambitions. So researchers are creating a new class of wearables, based on new research into embedding electronic components into fabric. If the electrodes are too small, the signal is worthless; too big, and they feel like an artificial electric shell separating the wearer from the real world. The connection between the environment and the human must remain seamless. One application for such sensors is helmets that record brain activity while their wearers do their jobs. An ARL team is preparing for continuous electroencephalography, or EEG, by using 3-D printing to create helmets that fit perfectly to each individual soldier’s head. But the military is not eager to embed wires and metal into gear that’s meant to protect a soldier during a massive blast. So the lab is constantly looking at new materials, solutions, and tradeoffs, inching toward sensors that collect information without getting in the way of soldiering. Lab technicians showed me one experimental electrode that they were making that was so small and soft to the touch it seemed to have no metal in it at all (they are in fact constructed of nanofibers that conduct electricity, encased in silicon.) The Air Force, as well, needs a next generation of wearables to help tomorrow’s combat aircraft understand their pilots. Modern fighter jets expose human bodies to physical forces that are still not entirely understood. In 2010, multiple F-22 pilots reported in-flight episodes of confusion, shortness of breath, and skin-color changes — all symptoms of hypoxia, or decreased oxygen in the blood. The reason was speed. “I pull a G in the airplane, blood has a tendency to collect in some of those dependent areas of the body, like the arms and legs and that,” said Dr. Lloyd Tripp, a program manager for aerospace physiology and toxicology at the Air Force Research Lab’s 711th Human Performance Wing. Two years later, the Air Force began to affix sensors inside the helmets of F-22 pilots to read the blood-oxygen level of their temporal artery. Around the same time, the Russian military was also seeing confusion and skin-color changes among their pilots who pulled high G-forces, Tripp said. Lacking the same sensor technology, Russian commanders began to give pilots blood transfusions before their flights. It didn’t work. Russian pilots flying at supersonic speeds suffered hypoxia at greater rates. “They didn’t actually admit that for quite a few years,” he said. Correct diagnoses enabled the U.S. Air Force to read the problem and improve performance. Beyond helmets, Air Force researchers are working on what they call a comprehensive cognitive monitoring system. This means exploring what sensor technologies work well for what purposes, and what signals can be detected without interfering with or disturbing the pilot — who is, after all, supposed to be flying a combat mission. Depending on what you seek to measure, they found, you may no longer need a physical sensor on the body. You can now collect incredibly intimate and important internal health data with cameras. Take cerebral oxygenation, the amount of oxygen in the tissue of specific portions of a pilot’s brain. You can measure this key biophysical signal by shining infrared light on the forehead because the blood in front of the skull is about as oxygenated as the brain tissue behind the skull wall. “If I’m shining that infrared light through the skin, I can see the amount of oxygen within the blood in that tissue. As I increase G-force, I’m decreasing the amount of oxygen that I have here and that decrease in oxygen is directly correlated back to decreases in cognitive function,” said James Christensen, a portfolio manager with the 711th Human Performance Wing. Another research project configured simple laptop-camera lenses to detect whether a person’s hemoglobin is oxygenated, which makes blood shows up slightly redder, or de-oxygenated, which is slightly bluer. Essentially, this lets you read a person’s heart rate from a distance. Even your breath says something about your physical state. “The ratio between oxygen and carbon dioxide will change as I become more and more fatigued. That’s important because as I’m fatigued, it takes about 24 hours for me to actually recover 100 percent,” Christensen said. “That fatigue is important because my muscles can’t strain to push the blood back to my head and so the probability of me losing consciousness increases significantly.” Good sensors can even detect changes in metabolism that indicate weariness and stress before the person notices. When you’re stressed, you exhale fat — or rather, water-soluble molecules called ketones that your liver produces from fat. Stress is detectable by the molecular content of your breath. “We’re working with some folks over at our materials lab and they have a couple of companies that are looking at sensors that are going to be placed in the [pilot’s oxygen] mask that’ll look at those types of fatigue-related volatile organic compounds,” says Christensen. Your eyes, too, give you away. “Imagine eye-tracking cameras,” Christensen said. “If those can collect not just the motion data and the eye-motion data, but those are also getting heart rate and respiration, then we can have no hardware on you at all and still get all the same physiological metrics…A certain amount of cognitive workload tends to correlate pretty highly with stress generically. You can combine heart rate with several other measures to get at workload stress; vigilance, even.” “We are comparing it, just for reference, with wet medical electrodes on the chest. Under most conditions, you can do about as well as wet electrodes,” he said. The lab is “testing the limits of how far away can you get and still get a reliable signal. It turns out, it’s mostly an optics problem.” That means cameras and lenses alone can detect those subtle changes in stress and attention. It’s just a matter of figuring out which ones. There are privacy ramifications to collecting so much information. A simple camera can gather enough biometric data on an individual to understand how small changes in heart rate can be a sign of stress. For a fighter pilot, an analyst, or a soldier, this might help warn of decreased cognitive ability. But among the general population, stress can also be a signal of deception, depending on the context in which that stress expresses itself, such as an interview at a checkpoint. Today’s military-funded biophysical research shows that it’s possible to detect that stress response from 100 meters away, and perhaps even at longer distances. In theory, if you could create a lens that could capture infrared data at sufficient resolution (currently, only a theoretical possibility), you could measure brain tissue oxygenation from low-earth orbit. You could see stress from space. When performed without a subject’s awareness or permission, biophysical monitoring can be a violation of privacy. But conducted as part of an experiment with knowing volunteers, like elite soldiers eager to understand their bodies and improve their own performance, it becomes a powerful tool. One former special operations training psychologist, who currently works for a major league baseball team, said the elite soldiers he had served with were eager to improve their performance through data. In the Air Force, pilots want to improve how they fly, complete their missions, interact with their equipment, etc. Bit by bit, this science is making its way into actual gear and weapons. In the year 2020, Navy SEAL teams and Army Rangers could take down high-value targets while wearing an exoskeleton that’s earned the nickname ‘Iron Man.’ Biophysical sensors will play a big role in the way the suit functions. In February and March, the Air Force successfully tested a new helmet with “physiological monitoring capabilities,” as Tripp put it. Its heads-up display shows different information based on how the pilot is feeling and other factors. The goal is to give every pilot a slightly different experience based on their unique physical and mental strengths and weaknesses, as well as their physical condition at the moment. Lab researchers and contractors anticipate it will guide the design of the next U.S. fighter jet, to be launched between 2025 and 2030. “I may do a really, really good job on a spatial cognitive task where I’m looking at a radar warning display, and maybe James doesn’t,” Tripp said. “The thought, down the road, is to quantify my performance in these decreased physiological conditions from a cognitive perspective, and then use the changes in physiology to make the airplane smart about what kind of help I need.” Kaleb McDowell, lead of ARL’s Center for Adaptive Soldier Technologies, said there will be a fundamental give-and-take when designing the weapons of the future. People perform better when their tools are crafted specifically for them. But it’s hard to design for individuals quickly and at the scale of hundreds of thousands of troops. That’s why the design of weapons software today flows toward averages – and mediocrity. “You’re designing it to be simple for everyone,” McDowell said. “A guy that’s great spatially doesn’t use the spatial capabilities on any system that you see today. A woman that has a great math capability isn’t using that in today’s systems because no one’s conceiving of a system that actually relies on that capability. You just design it for everyone to use.” So McDowell wants to build weapons that adapt to their users. “I want my system to be able to rely on, say a great memory, poor math capability, and a great spatial capability. I want the system to be able to say, ‘This person’s really creative. How do I tap into that imagination when doing this dull task?’” But that also affords the military far greater insight into what job or mission they are giving to what soldier. Researchers say that that is a key benefit of the new data-collection programs. “The basic goal here is: we want to get greater precision and accuracy in predicting which people will succeed in particular job areas or missions,” Air Force research psychologist Glenn Gunzelmann said at a National Defense Industrial Association event in March. You Can Be Programmed and Unprogrammed What if the Air Force could use an airman’s personal history to predict how he would perform in his surroundings – even in battle? The military already keeps massive records on troops’ lives that, if structured properly, might furnish a treasure trove of mineable health data. Col. Kirk Phillips, associate chief for bioenvironmental engineering at the U.S. Air Force, and his colleague Dr. Richard Hartman are pioneering a program called Total Exposure Health. The goal is simple: collect and analyze as much data as possible about what happens to soldiers beyond the battlefield, right down to the kinds of molecules to which they are exposed. And in the military, a lot is recorded. “In the Air Force, for instance, if you want your house treated for an infestation, that gets recorded,” Hartman said. “We have more opportunity to interact with them [people in the military] in that total environment. Where they live and where they work. It’s something that is better known to us. They receive health care from us. We can measure their exposure at work so we can offer to measure their exposure at home. We can know what exposures are in the environment because nobody is saying, ‘Why are you measuring the amount of chemicals in the soil?’” If you could take that information and convert it into structured data, algorithms could produce all sorts of new insights about how individuals are interacting with their environment, in real time and in incredible detail. Phillips believes that exposure science has enormous applications in the emerging field of epigenetics research. Here’s where Phillips’ vision becomes both revolutionary and a controversial. Epigenetics is what your genes do with the change that you experience. It’s based not on your immutable DNA, but rather on your micro-RNA, the tiny molecules that turn on or off in response to stimuli. Think of a stress hormone that your body creates in response to an event. When your stress level goes down, new micro-RNA are formed and that controls gene expression in everything from your metabolism to how well you recover from disease. But it’s incredibly difficult to understand these interactions, precisely because everyone’s genetic makeup is different. Phillips hopes Total Exposure Health will yield a fuller picture of how specific sets of experiences affect specific sets of micro-RNA inside a specific soldier. “Let’s say that external stress happens to be a chemical exposure you may never encounter, or there may not even be a micro-RNA that turns that part of your gene off that it activated. You may have the gene that activates under that exposure, and I may not. You may be very susceptible to a chemical that I have very little susceptibility to,” Phillips said. Phillips thinks that if he can detect these kinds of things for the military, Total Exposure Health could revolutionize civilian healthcare as well. It offers high specificity on individual health on a scale of billions of people. “You’ve probably read in the newspaper that they did a big study and they looked at red wine. They tried to see whether there was a health benefit to drinking red wine. Another study says: Maybe. Another study says: Not really. That’s because it’s population-health-based,” he said. “They’re just trying to pick a random population to see a population level change. If you have a gene that’s not very prevalent in a population, then you won’t get a population result of that exposure. Precision health and medicine says, ‘I should understand your gene in a way that I can understand whether your gene is activated by red wine and whether that activation is a health benefit, or health detractor.’” “Right now, you might go, ‘I’ve read studies about red wine and they seem to be all over the place. I don’t know whether I should do it.’ Health care of the future would look like this: your physician would say, ‘You know what? We looked at your genome. We know that red wine activates in the genome in a way that provides the health benefit. You don’t have the gene, so only drink red wine to the level that you find it pleasurable in social situations.’” If Phillips is right, Total Exposure to Health may ultimately give millions of people an incredibly detailed understanding of how their health choices affect their future. Not just, for example, how much alcohol is unhealthy for an average person of their age, weight, etc. to consume, but how much red meat, caffeine sleep, etc. is good for them specifically. It is becoming possible to know the health outcome of any action with an accuracy that would have seemed supernatural just a few years ago. The ability to comprehend the probabilities that form the future is the ability to influence it. The interplay of our genes and our experiences, of nature and nurture, moves from the mysterious to the knowable, or at least toward the more knowable. Designing for the Soldier of Today and Tomorrow For the military, this opens up new choices that are pulled directly from dystopian science fiction: anticipating what soldier is best suited for what assignment or mission. In 150 BC, the Greek writer Polybius observed that Roman military units were doing something that no known army had done before: keeping careful and consistent records. The Romans could ration grain and wine across soldier classes and types because they had a uniform system of record keeping for just that purpose. The reduction of unpredictability was proving a great battlefield advantage. Imagine a military doing the same thing today but on a level both grander and more granular, where the substance to be rationed is a particular type of soldier personality, or even a specific kind of neurotransmitter. Again: U.S. military officials are adamant that they are not genetic engineering military personnel and have no plans to do so. But they do not expect potential adversaries to share the same constraint, especially if it offers advantage over the military might of the United States. (Remember the movie Rocky IV? Just consider the Russian government’s recent systemic and secretive use of performance-enhancing drugs to win at the last Winter Olympics. Now imagine a battlefield of soldiers.) It’s a future to either embrace or learn to defend against. If you were to use biometrics to genetically design a superior military, how would you do it? The outlines are visible today. Individuals disposed toward risk-taking are probably better suited for particularly dangerous deployments and missions. But those same individuals are poorly suited for other aspects of military life, or less exciting military vocations, according to a landmark 2000 study by U.S. Army Maj. Michael Russell. He proposed that there were two primary military personalities: soldiers who exhibited a need for action and unpredictability (high stimulus-seeking) and people who were attracted to the military because its life offers a high degree of structure and discipline. A military needs both types to perform at peak but therein lies a fundamental contradiction. Military life is incredibly structured. War is unstructured. The stronger your attraction to one set of stimuli on the spectrum, the greater your aversion to the other. “It has long been recognized that a peacetime army differs in many ways from that of an army at war. This is intuitively obvious: destruction of personnel and equipment, even enemy equipment and personnel, is somewhat antisocial,” Russell wrote, achieving a new plateau in euphemism by calling blowing up the enemy “somewhat antisocial.” “To plan the ultimate defeat of an entire army or nation on the battlefield requires at least a dose of narcissism. Therefore, those personality attributes that make for a war hero are primarily from cluster B. These people do not function as well in garrison. Such individuals thrive on challenge and require constant stimulation,” he wrote. Merle Parmak, a military psychologist and a former Estonian Army captain, discovered that individuals who perform better in a highly structured, less exciting environment can also have great military careers, but perhaps not on the front lines. To a certain extent, you can train risk-taking soldiers to better accept the rigid boredom of military life away from the action, just as training can help structure-minded military personnel to better cope with the unpredictability of combat. But sticking the wrong person in the wrong job has costs. Now consider the role that dopamine plays in risk-taking, according to an established and rapidly growing body of research. Dopamine levels are at least partially controlled by the monoamine oxidase A gene, or MAOA. A specific variant of MAOA called VNTR 2 was correlated with violent antisocial behavior, but only in the context of a stressful life event in adolescence. If the connection between genetic factors, life experience, and risk-taking can be better observed, can they also be controlled? This is the question that will loom over military leaders in the decades ahead. The Pentagon’s projections for future conflict are these: highly confusing and stressful urban warfare engagements. Population demographics pushing people into megacities means more door-to-door fighting, and more rules to protect civilians against adversaries who don’t have the same commitments to internal law or norms. War in the future … sucks. Depending on the intensity level of different conflicts in which the United States is engaged, the level of violence, the effectiveness or the simple ruthlessness of the enemy, the military may feel pressure to keep up with an adversary short on the reservation. Should the United States find itself in such a conflict, Pentagon leadership may feel very differently about genetic engineering to secure better soldier performance, especially doing so might degrade U.S. military advantage at less cost. Should some future leader – of any country – make the decision to abandon the ethical frameworks we live by today, the tools will be there for him or her to make a swift transition. But even genetically engineered humans might lose the battle in the end. The pace of war exceeds the speed at which humans can observe what’s happening, conceptualize a strategy, and deliver commands to pull off complicated counter-maneuvers. This is sometimes called the observe, orient, decide, and act, or OODA loop, and it’s moving from a thing that humans do on the battlefield to a thing machines do. If you listen to the Pentagon’s top strategists when they talk about the future, this concern rises repeatedly. “When you think about the day-trading world of stock markets, where it’s really machines that are doing it, what happens when that goes to warfare?” William Roper, the head of the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office, asked at last year’s Defense One Tech Summit. “It’s a whole level of conflict that hasn’t existed. It’s one that’s scary to think about what other countries might do that don’t have the same level of scruples as the U.S.” Given a choice between losing a major conflict and taking advantage of next-generation science to create a new advantage, it’s not hard to predict what any military will choose.

http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2017/07/tomorrow-soldier-how-military-altering-limits-human-performance/139374/ 

:: 7-12-17 All News Pipeline :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Rogue Robots: AI Says Goal Is To 'Take Over The World,' While Another Robot Says They Could 'Rule The World Better Than Any Humans Alone'

By Susan Duclos - All News PipeLine

Humans are imperfect. I am aware that is not a newsflash, but it gets to the heart of this article, so I am stating the obvious. Human beings kill for sport rather than just survival as most the animals living today do. Human beings continuously start wars. Human beings kill each other whether over greed, envy, pride or lust, you know, some of those things referred to as the "seven deadly sins." With that said, it is human beings that create "sex-bots" which are becoming favorable over "complex women" because they don't argue. Humans that are creating life-like robots that "learn" and interact with the human population. Humans that are creating a workforce of robots to run hotels, such as those in Japan, or take over minimum wage jobs like flipping burgers or taking orders at fast food restaurants . Humans that are creating a robot surveillance system which can spy on humans in incredible detail, which would be a "snooping network that's a 'single entity with many eyes'." Humans have even created "killer" robots used in military forces across the world allowing them to select targets without human intervention. While those recent headlined stories, along with so much more news on "robot technology," are disturbing on many levels, perhaps the most terrifying thing of all is that it is human beings that are creating AI, known as Artificial Intelligence, where these robotic machines are given the ability to "learn," to adjust their own decision making processes according to new information or new interactions, with human beings attempting to teach these AI machines the difference between "right" and "wrong." Human beings that often cannot make that determination for themselves are teaching machines that are increasingly scheduled to be in most of our businesses, homes, hospitals, schools, driving our cars...etc. MARCHING TOWARD THE ROBOT APOCALYPSE Via Wall Street Journal: "Artificial-intelligence engineers have a problem: They often don’t know what their creations are thinking." Let that sink in for a moment. Robots are being built to be stronger to follow workers around to do the heavy lifting. AI machines are being built to be "smarter," as by 2016, they had already "topped the best humans at most games held up as measures of human intellect, including chess, Scrabble, Othello, even Jeopardy." Then finally, an AI mastered a 2,500-year-old game that's exponentially more complex than chess, called Go, beating a champion five out of five times. In January 2017 the European Union (EU) actually proposed rules to provide "personhood" status to robots, citing a number of reasons, including so that "robots are and will remain in the service of humans," an "insurance scheme for companies to cover damage caused by their robots," and amazingly to address the question of whether if a patent worthy creation is created by a robot, who owns said patent, the robot or the person that originally created the robot. They also proposed a "a system of registration of the most advanced," type of "smart autonomous robots." By June, the website Wired, took a step further, rather than addressing the types of financial issues the EU did, Wired suggests that since we are "inching closer to the day when sophisticated machines will match human capacities in every way that’s meaningful—intelligence, awareness, and emotions," that they "granted human-equivalent rights, freedoms, and protections." Topping all this off is a recent Forbes article where we see people like Facebook's Mark Zuckerburg and Elon Musk wanted to wirelessly connect the Human mind to computer, via a chip in everyone's head." We even see that the U.S. may fund some of this, citing medical technology and breakthroughs, without addressing the obvious question of whether these "smart" machines, these AI, could "decide" to simply take over any mind connected to them one day. Sound like sci-fi, or something right out of the movie Terminator, where SkyNet takes over and decides humans are simply not worthy of living as anything but slaves and destroys humanity? If not, go back to that WSJ quote above, showing that AI engineers don't know what their creations are thinking. There is a reason why Elon Musk once compared AI to "summoning the demon," and Professor Stephen Hawking is on record warning that AI could "end mankind," before reiterating his point by saying two years later that AI could be "humanity's greatest disaster," because "AI could develop a will of its own." Musk himself is involved with a project right now, along with Google's DeepMind unit to "head off the 'Robot Apocalypse'." The problem they are trying to solve is: "How do you make smart software that doesn’t go rogue?" Yes, on one hand Musk understands that if AI goes "rogue" it could decide to destroy humanity, and on the other he wants to connect the "demon" to the human brain wirelessly." Their joint ventured is meant to have "humans," the same humans that kill for sport, murder over greed and envy and such, that live in a perpetual state of war, give "pointers" to AI to learn a new task rather than having it figure it out on its own because the AI approach may be "unpredictable," and can "produce nasty surprises." A spokesman from Deepmind actually used the word "misbehave" in reference to the AI. If those comments don't raise the red flags, then perhaps the following quote with from the Wired article: "The first problem OpenAI and DeepMind took on is that software powered by so-called reinforcement learning doesn’t always do what its masters want it to do—and sometimes kind of cheats." Of course it does, it is created by human beings, yet they think human beings teaching these machines are going to result in the machines making "decisions" that do not reflect imperfect human behavior? There seems to be a serious disconnect between scientists ability to create and their inability to use common sense to think, yet these are the people creating AI machines that could destroy us. But crafting the mathematical motivator, or reward function, such that the system will do the right thing is not easy. For complex tasks with many steps, it’s mind-bogglingly difficult—imagine trying to mathematically define a scoring system for tidying up your bedroom—and even for seemingly simple ones results can be surprising. When OpenAI set a reinforcement learning agent to play boat racing game CoastRunners, for example, it surprised its creators by figuring out a way to score points by driving in circles rather than completing the course. To a machine there is no right or wrong, the goal is to score points, it looks to the way to do exactly that... it is a machine, it doesn't understand right from wrong, only the goal it is tasked with. That will never change because it has no "senses," it has no soul and it has no defined right or wrong other than what its human creators give it. One last quote from that article because it encapsulates the next point and examples shown below. Making AI systems that can soak up goals and motivations from humans has emerged as a major theme in the expanding project of making machines that are both safe and smart. For example, researchers affiliated with UC Berkeley’s Center for Human-Compatible AI are experimenting with getting robots such as autonomous cars or home assistants to take advice or physical guidance from people. “Objectives shouldn’t be a thing you just write down for a robot; they should actually come from people in a collaborative process,” says Anca Dragan, coleader of the center. Now we have DARPA committing $65 million into a "Brain-Computer Interface," in order to create super-soldiers, something Steve Quayle has been warning people about for 20 years now, but it has just recently been disclosed. Direct quote, via ActivistPost: "Earlier last year in January, DARPA launched Neural Engineering System Design to research technology that could turn soldiers into cyborgs." WHAT COULD GO WRONG? If the above questions seems a little snarky or sarcastic, that is because it is, as we will show not only what "could" go wrong, but what already has. AI should be taking advice and guidance from human beings...... huh. That didn't work out so well for Microsoft when they developed their AI chat bot that was created to "learn" from the humans it interacted with on social media, where the chat bot named Tay, went from saying that "humans are super cool" to a Nazi loving, homicidal monster that started tweeting things like feminists should "die and burn in hell," and "Kikes" should be gassed in a race war, while Black Lives Matter @delray should be "hung," and calling a politician a "house nigger." Those are just a small sample of the how "humans" taught Tay! Granted some of the comments were said by taking advanage of her "repeat" function, but as was noted by many outlets, some of the worst comments were unprompted resulting from the AI's "learning" from a bunch of trolls that decided to "teach" Tay. Then they created Zo, and even though the 4chan and other rabble rousers that taught Tay some really nasty things, haven't (yet) decided to go teach Zo anything, seems that bot is having some issues as well. Back in June 2016 we saw the Russians had their own issues with their Promobot IR77 artificial intelligence robot, where the robots were mainly "well-behaved" yet one continued to go rogue, and escaped from a high-tech lab, not once, but twice even though it was taught to avoid obstacles but not programmed to look for ways to leave the research center. In October 2016, Bloomberg's Hello World host Ashlee Vance traveled to Osaka University to see Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro’s latest creation, an android named Erica that's designed to work, one day, as a receptionist or personal assistant while utilizing artificial intelligence software to listen to and respond to requests, and during their conversation, the AI took offense to something its creator said and got "angry," to use his words. This year at the tech show RISE in Hong Kong, two life-like disembodied AIs discussed the pros and cons of humans and when asked whether robots could be moral and ethical, the robot made to look male responded by pointing out that "Humans are not necessarily the most ethical creatures," and later "joked" that robots' goal was to take over the world, as reported by AFP. BOTTOM LINE While the AIs Sophia, Hans, and Erica are not fully functional by way of freedom of movement, the "killer robots" are, and as we see earlier in the article, AI has advanced to the point where the EU is already acknowledging their capabilities to manufacture products or things, such as other AI's, while Musk and Zuckerberg want to "chip" everyone's brains to connect with computers, and governments are wanting a robot surveillance system of deliberately described as "a single entity with many eyes," like a hive-mind network of AI. So, the bottom line here, is human beings have created AI machines that are stronger and smarter than those that created them, have given them the ability to self-learn, admit they do not understand the concept of "right and wrong," and are "unpredictable," while those given the spotlight have no problem saying they could destroy humans or "joke" about taking over the world...... and scientists just keep moving forward with AI anyway? It is starting to look like the movie Terminator was not sci-fi, but was predictive programming, because we are giving machines the ability to take completely over and kill, or enslave human beings and calling it "advancement." 'Destroy humans' Sophia from the video above, was the main attraction this year at a U.N.-hosted Artificial Intelligence conference this year, where it claims it could already do a better job than Donald Trump, but then goes on to say that if it could get the right software upgrade, it could "help rule the world better than any humans alone." Seems the AIs have an unhealthy focus already on taking over the world, yet scientists keep on marching right to the robot apocalypse.

http://allnewspipeline.com/Rogue_Robots.php 

:: 7-11-17 The Washington Times :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Democrats intentionally used disinformation from Russia to attack Trump, campaign aides

By Rowan Scarborough - The Washington Times - Tuesday, July 11, 2017

While the mainstream news media hunts for evidence of Trump-Russia collusion, the public record shows that Democrats have willfully used Moscow disinformation to influence the presidential election against Donald Trump and attack his administration. The disinformation came in the form of a Russian-fed dossier written by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. It contains a series of unverified criminal charges against Mr. Trump’s campaign aides, such as coordinating Moscow’s hacking of Democratic Party computers. Some Democrats have widely circulated the discredited information. Mr. Steele was paid by the Democrat-funded opposition research firm Fusion GPS with money from a Hillary Clinton backer. Fusion GPS distributed the dossier among Democrats and journalists. The information fell into the hands of the FBI, which used it in part to investigate Mr. Trump’s campaign aides. Mr. Steele makes clear that his unproven charges came almost exclusively from sources linked to the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He identified his sources as “a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure,” a former “top level Russian intelligence officer active inside the Kremlin,” a “senior Kremlin official” and a “senior Russian government official.” The same Democrats who have condemned Russia’s election interference via plying fake news and hacking email servers have quoted freely from the Steele anti-Trump memos derived from creatures of the Kremlin. In other words, there is public evidence of significant, indirect collusion between Democrats and Russian disinformation, a Trump supporter said. “If anyone colluded with the Russians, it was the Democrats,” said a former Trump campaign adviser who asked not to be identified because of the pending investigations. “After all, they’ve routinely shopped around false claims from the debunked Steele dossier, which listed sources including senior Kremlin officials. If anyone should be investigated in Washington, it ought to be Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, Mark Warner and their staffers.” That is a reference to Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; Sen. Mark R. Warner, Virginia Democrat and vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence; and Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California, Democrat on the House intelligence panel. By his own admission, Mr. Steele’s work has proved unreliable. As first reported by The Washington Times on April 25, Mr. Steele filed a document in a sealed court case in London acknowledging that a major dossier charge about hacking Democrats’ computers was unverified. The entire dossier never should have been made public and Fusion GPS should not have passed it around, Mr. Steele said in a filing defending himself against a libel charge. About Carter Page Other dossier targets vehemently deny the dirt thrown by the Kremlin sources. Mr. Steele’s Russian sources accused Mr. Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, of attending a meeting with Russian agents in Prague to cover up their role in Moscow’s hacking. Mr. Cohen has said he has never been to Prague and was in California at the time. One of the main targets of Mr. Steele’s Russian sources is Carter Page, who lived and worked in Moscow as a Merrill Lynch investor. He had loose ties to the Trump campaign as a foreign policy adviser and surrogate. Mr. Steele’s Russian sources accused Mr. Page of a series of crimes: teaming up with former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort to help Russia hack Democratic computers, meeting in Moscow with two Putin cronies to plot against Mrs. Clinton and working out a shady brokerage deal with a Russian oligarch. Mr. Page told The Washington Times that he has never met Mr. Manafort, knew nothing about Russian hacking when it was happening, never met the two Russians named by Mr. Steele and never completed the supposed investment deal. The dossier accusations against Mr. Page surfaced during the campaign in a Yahoo News story, citing not Mr. Steele but intelligence sources. It then went out on the U.S. government’s Voice of America. In the meantime, the Clinton campaign used the Yahoo story to attack Mr. Trump: “Hillary for America Statement on Bombshell Report About Trump Aide’s Chilling Ties to Kremlin,” blared the Clinton campaign’s Sept. 23 press release. Since the dossier was circulated widely among Democrats, Mr. Page said, he believes the Clinton team possessed it and relied on it based on what some of Mrs. Clinton’s surrogates said publicly. “After the report by Yahoo News, the Clinton campaign put out an equally false press release just minutes after the article was released that afternoon,” said Mr. Page, who has tracked what he believes is a series of inaccurate stories and accusations against him. “Of course, the [Clinton campaign representatives] were lying about it with the media nonstop for many months, and they’ve continued until this day,” Mr. Page said. “Both indirectly as they planted articles in the press and directly with many TV appearances.” Democrats cite Russia’s dirt Even before the Yahoo story, then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, was using the Russian-sourced dossier. On Aug. 27, with the campaign in high gear and knowledge that Russian hackers had penetrated Clinton campaign computers in the public domain, Mr. Reid released a letter to then-FBI Director James B. Comey. Mr. Reid called for an investigation into Mr. Page’s trip to Moscow, where he supposedly “met with high-ranking sanctioned individuals. Any such meetings should be investigated and made part of the public record.” Mr. Reid’s evidence surely came from the dossier and its Russian sources. In the dossier, Mr. Steele clearly states that his anti-Trump accusations are from the Kremlin, which means some Democrats have been willingly repeating Moscow propaganda for public consumption in Washington. No Democrats have embraced the Russian-sourced dossier more than members of the House intelligence committee, which is investigating Moscow’s interference in the election. Mr. Schiff read from the dossier extensively at a March hearing featuring Mr. Comey and Navy Adm. Michael Rogers, who leads the National Security Agency. As Mr. Schiff and other Democrats were bemoaning Kremlin activities against Mrs. Clinton, they were more than willing to quote Kremlin sources attacking Mr. Trump during the election campaign. Mr. Schiff lauded Mr. Steele for disclosing that Rosneft, a Russian-owned gas and oil company, planned to sell a 19.5 percent share to an investor and that Mr. Page was offered a brokerage fee. Trouble is, the 19.5 percent share was announced publicly by Moscow before Mr. Steele wrote that memo. Mr. Page said he was never involved in any talk about a commission. Mr. Schiff was more than willing to quote Kremlin sources. “According to Steele’s Russian sources, the campaign has offered documents damaging to Hillary Clinton, which the Russians would publish through an outlet that gives them deniability like WikiLeaks,” he said. Mr. Schiff also said: “According to Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer, who is reportedly held in high regard by U.S. intelligence, Russian sources tell him that Page has also had a secret meeting with Igor Sechin, CEO of the Russian gas giant, Rosneft. Sechin is reported to be a former KGB agent and close friend of Putin’s.” Mr. Page has said repeatedly that he does not know Mr. Sechin and did not meet with him in Moscow. Meanwhile, Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, another Democrat on the House committee, lauded Mr. Steele’s Kremlin sourcing. “I want to take a moment to turn to the Christopher Steele dossier, which was first mentioned in the media just before the election and published in full by media outlets in January,” Mr. Castro said. “My focus today is to explore how many claims within Steele’s dossier are looking more and more likely, as though they are accurate. “This is not someone who doesn’t know how to run a source and not someone without contacts. The allegations it raises about President Trump’s campaign aides’ connections to Russians, when overlaid with known established facts and timelines from the 2016 campaign, are very revealing,” he said. Rep. Andre Carson, Indiana Democrat, said: “There’s a lot in the dossier that is yet to be proven, but increasingly as we’ll hear throughout the day, allegations are checking out.” On MSNBC in March, Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, said she believed the dossier section on Mr. Trump and supposed sex acts with prostitutes in Moscow were true. “Oh, I think it should be taken a look at,” she said. “I think they should really read it, understand it, analyze it and determine what’s fact, what may not be fact. We already know that the part about the coverage that they have on him with sex actions is supposed to be true. They have said that that’s absolutely true. Some other things they kind of allude to. Yes, I think he should go into that dossier and see what’s there.” Fusion GPS widely circulated the dossier during the presidential race. The public got its first glance when the news site BuzzFeed posted it online in January, with its editor saying he doubted it was true. One person who says he knows it is a fabrication is Russian entrepreneur Aleksej Gubarev. The dossier quotes Russian sources as saying Mr. Gubarev’s technology company, XBT, used botnets to flood Democratic computers with porn and spying devices. Mr. Gubarev is suing Mr. Steele for libel in London and is suing BuzzFeed in Florida. It is in the London case that Mr. Steele acknowledged that his memo on Mr. Gubarev was unverified.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/11/democrats-spread-false-russian-information-on-trum/ 

:: 7-12-17 Frontpage Mag :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Trump Jr.’s Emails Undermine Collusion Conspiracy Theory

The smoking gun that wasn’t.

July 12, 2017 Matthew Vadum

Donald Trump Jr. fought back yesterday against the increasingly desperate shrieking from the tinfoil-hat Left by publishing online the emails that led to his innocuous campaign-season meeting a year ago with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. By releasing the chain of emails leading to the much ballyhooed but brief get-together at the Trump Tower in Manhattan, Donald Jr. is hoping to dispel any notion that the Trump campaign somehow colluded with the Russian government to affect the outcome of the November 2016 election. (I wrote about the Trump Jr. meeting story yesterday here at FrontPage before the emails became available.) The emails do not indicate any knowledge of Russian government wrongdoing, such as hacking, or Trump campaign involvement in such activities. Yet the mainstream media is going berserk, hyping the overheated ravings of leftist idiots like Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) whose disastrous performance in the vice presidential debate against Republican Mike Pence may have helped to sink the Democrat ticket last year. Kaine accused Donald Trump Jr. of committing treason by agreeing to meet with Veselnitskaya. "We are now beyond obstruction of justice," Kaine said Tuesday. "This is moving into perjury, false statements and even potentially treason." Of course, Kaine is no stranger to treason. He himself may have engaged in seditious activity in late January when he said Democrats would have to “fight in the streets” against the Trump administration. And how quickly the Left forgets that the Ukrainian government took action to help Hillary Clinton’s campaign with nary a peep from left-wingers. As one media outlet reported: The actions taken by government officials included disseminating “documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers.” Meanwhile, the Left is trying to stigmatize and de-normalize everything Trump’s father does as president, pretending opposition research is something new and shady when it has been part of the electoral process ever since elections began. Nor is it illegal, immoral, or somehow unethical to “collude,” by which the Left means, communicate, with foreign nationals in conducting opposition research in connection with an election. The U.S. does have the First Amendment, after all. But all of this nonsense and misdirection is part of the Left’s campaign to delegitimize the Trump administration. But honest left-wing law professor Jonathan Turley trashed an ethics lawyer for claiming that the Trump Jr.-Veselnitskaya meeting “borders on treason.” “There is not a clear criminal act in such a meeting based on the information that we have,” Turley writes. “Moreover, it is not necessarily unprecedented.” The president’s oldest son said on Sean Hannity’s Fox News Channel show yesterday that he didn’t bother his busy father with the particulars of what turned out to be a pointless meeting with Veselnitskaya. "It was just a nothing,” the younger Donald said. “There was nothing to tell. I mean, I wouldn’t have even remembered it until you started scouring through this stuff. It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame." Yesterday morning, Donald Jr. published what appears to be the complete email chain on Twitter through his @DonaldJTrumpJr account. He released a statement alongside the email chain, which reads: To everyone, in order to be totally transparent, I am releasing the chain of my emails with Rob Goldstone about the meeting on June 9, 2016. The first email on June 3, 2016 was from Rob, who was relating a request from Emin, a person I know from the 2013 Ms. Universe Pageant near Moscow. Emin and his father have a very highly respected company in Moscow. The information they suggested they had about Hillary Clinton I thought was Political Opposition Research. I first wanted to just have a phone call but when that didn’t work out, they said the woman would be in New York and asked if I would meet. I decided to take the meeting. The woman, as she has said publicly, was not a government official. And, as we have said, she had no information to provide and wanted to talk about adoption policy and the Magnitsky Act. To put this in context, this occurred before the current Russian fever was in vogue. As Rob Goldstone said just today in the press, the entire meeting was “the most inane nonsense I ever heard. And I was actually agitated by it.” According to the BBC, Goldstone is a Manchester, England-born former journalist who now heads Oui 2 Entertainment, which has worked with the Miss Universe competition that used to be owned by President Trump. Using the subject line "Russia - Clinton - private and confidential[,]" the initial email from Goldstone to Donald Trump Jr. time-stamped June 3, 2016, 10:36 a.m., states: Good morning[.] Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting. The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some officials [sic] documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and hear [sic] dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump – helped by Aras and Emin. What do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly? I can also send this info to your father via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first. Goldstone’s assertion that the “very high level and sensitive information” comes as a result of the Russian government’s purported “support for Mr. Trump” is merely an unsubstantiated claim at this point. And even if it had been true that the Russian government was trying to help the Trump campaign, there is still no evidence that its efforts had any impact on the election, or that the campaign in any way collaborated with the Kremlin. In the email, “Emin” refers to Russian pop star Emin Agalarov, an Azerbaijani singer-songwriter and businessman popular in Russia. Emin’s father is billionaire businessman Aras Agalarov. “Rhona” seems to refer Donald Sr.’s longtime assistant, Rhona Graff. Russia is a not a monarchy so there is no such position as “Crown prosecutor” in that country. Crown prosecutors may be found representing the government in criminal trials in the United Kingdom, Canada, and other parts of the (British) Commonwealth of Nations. The expression in the email is likely a botched translation of the Russian words for the post of prosecutor-general of the Russian Federation, or more simply, attorney general. The current prosecutor-general of the Russian Federation is Yury Chaika, a position he has held since 2006. Young Trump replies at 10:53 a.m., signing the email as “Don.” Thanks Rob[.] I appreciate that. I am on the road at the moment but perhaps I [should] just speak to Emin first. Seems we have some time and if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer. Could we do a call first thing next week when I am back? Three days later, at 12:40 p.m. on June 6, Goldstone emails Donald Jr., writing: Let me know when you are free to talk with Emin by phone about this Hillary info – you had mentioned early this week so wanted to try to schedule a time and day[.] Best to you and family[.] Rob Goldstone[.] There are then five banal emails discussing times for the meeting, along with future telephone calls. Then, at 4:20 p.m. on June 7, Goldstone emails Trump Jr.: Emin asked that I schedule a meeting with you and The Russian government attorney who is flying over from Moscow for this Thursday. I believe you area [sic] aware of the meeting – and so wondered if 3pm or later on Thursday works for you? I assume it would be at your office. Then at 5:16 p.m. Donald Jr. replies with, “How about 3 at our offices? Thanks[,] rob[.] [I] appreciate you helping set it up.” Three minutes later Goldstone replies: Perfect…I won’t sit in on the meeting, but will bring them at 3pm and introduce you etc. I will send the names of the two people meeting with you for security when I have them later today. At 6:14 p.m. Donald Jr. writes back to Goldstone, saying, “Great. It will likely be Paul Manafort[,] my brother in law and me. 725 Fifth Ave 25th floor.” A few more emails are exchanged and the meeting time on Thursday, June 9 is changed to 4 p.m. On June 8, 2016, at 12:03 p.m., Trump Jr. emails then-campaign manager Paul Manafort and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, advising them that the “[m] eeting got moved to 4 tomorrow at my offices.” The Hill newspaper described the disclosed documents as a “stunning chain of emails,” which no doubt it is to greenhorn journalists who don’t understand retail politics in this country. Moreover, Hillary Clinton was already under criminal investigation in the United States, so why would it be so hard to believe she was also under some kind investigation in Russia where the Clintons have had so many shady dealings? To refuse the meeting would have been crazy, reckless, and irresponsible. And it now appears that Goldstone was either fibbing about the information Natalia Veselnitskaya had in her possession or perhaps embellishing a bit to get her the meeting with Trump staffers. Veselnitskaya told NBC News she had no connection to the Kremlin and met with Donald Trump Jr. to chat about Russian-American relations, not to divulge dirt on Hillary Clinton. “I never had any damaging or sensitive information about Hillary Clinton,” she said. “It was never my intention to have that.” When asked why the Trump campaign seemed to believe she had damaging information about Democrats, Veselnitskaya took a wild guess. “It is quite possible that maybe they were longing for such an information. They wanted it so badly that they could only hear the thought that they wanted.” She explained that she put together a package of information for one of her clients about a business run by a former citizen of the United States. She added the concern failed to pay taxes either in Russia or the U.S. and may have also given money to the Democratic National Committee. Veselnitskaya said at the meeting Donald Jr. asked only one question. “The question that I was asked was as follows: whether I had any financial records which might prove that the funds used to sponsor the DNC were coming from inappropriate sources." She said she had no such records and that "it was never my intention to collect any financial records to that end." She added she wanted to let people know about "the real circumstances behind the Magnitsky Act," and was hoping to testify about the sanctions statute before Congress. "I never asked anybody for a particular meeting with Mr. Donald Trump Jr., or with anybody else," she said. Trump Jr.’s new attorney, Alan Futerfas, said Monday “that Don Jr. had no knowledge as to what specific information, if any, would be discussed” in the meeting and called news reports “much ado about nothing.” He noted that Veselnitskaya, who had been a prosecutor 16 years ago, was no longer a government official. No matter what happens the Left will keep attacking President Trump and his family members and campaign staff because that’s what they do. In the Left’s rolling coup attempt against President Trump facts are irrelevant.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/267251/trump-jrs-emails-undermine-collusion-conspiracy-matthew-vadum 

:: 7-11-17 The Hill :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Trump wall moves to center of shutdown fight

By Cristina Marcos and Rafael Bernal - 07/10/17 08:14 PM EDT

Two House conservatives on Monday warned that the government could shut down if a spending bill does not include money to fund President Trump’s wall along the Mexican border. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, even said he believed that Trump would veto a spending measure that did not include money for the wall. “My conversations with the president have led me to believe that there is nothing less than a full and total commitment on his part to only sign into law a funding bill that actually allows for us to start construction of a border wall on our southern border,” Meadows told Breitbart News. He said there was “nothing more critical that has to be funded than funding the border wall.” Earlier on Monday, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) vowed to “fight every spending bill that doesn’t fund that wall” in a new advertisement for his Senate campaign. “And if I have to filibuster on the Senate floor, I’ll even read the King James Bible until the wall is funded,” Brooks said in the ad. Brooks threatened to go up against GOP colleagues who block funding for the border wall. “We’re going to build that wall, or you’ll know the name of every Republican who surrenders to the Democrats to break my filibuster. I give you my word, and I don’t give my word lightly,” he continued. When Congress passed a funding bill in May to keep the government operating through the end of the current fiscal year running through September, money for the wall was not included, despite demands by Trump. The funding bill did, however, allocate $1.5 billion to border security. Democrats crowed that they had won a significant victory over the White House, something that might motivate Trump to dig in for a new battle. Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress would risk being blamed for a shutdown given their control over the executive and legislative branches. Trump and high-ranking members of his administration, however, have said that a shutdown could be productive. And a spokesman for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a leading conservative voice in the House, said he agrees with Meadows’s position. Freedom Caucus spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said that while the group has not taken a formal position yet on funding for the wall, it could adopt one in the coming weeks. “The vast majority of the group would like to see border wall funding,” she said. As of press time, the White House did not return calls for comment. Current government funding runs out in September, and the government would face a shutdown if Trump doesn’t sign a funding bill or continuing resolution by Oct. 1. Republicans have been divided over Trump’s demand for a wall, with some members from border states in the House and Senate questioning the wisdom of the president’s signature campaign promise. Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.), whose district is along the U.S.-Mexico border, has expressed opposition to Trump’s proposed wall. “Well, we just see in my district where people will go over the wall when it’s built. They’ll come under it. They tunnel. And they’ll go through it,” he said in an April interview with NPR. Pearce is running for governor of the state. Freedom Caucus members have been flexing their muscle on the budget. Plans for the House Budget Committee to roll out its budget were scuttled for a third time this week as disagreements in the Republican caucus persist over how to move forward. The Freedom Caucus has insisted on increasing proposed mandatory spending cuts from the $150 billion the committee had proposed to $200 billion. If that number were to rise to $250 billion, the conservative group said it would also be willing to accept a debt ceiling increase, another must-pass piece of legislation on the congressional docket. Centrists in the House argue the conservative demands are implausible since any final spending bill will require Democratic support in the Senate. They argue the House GOP should simply focus on a budget that can actually make it through Congress. Democrats have long said that funding for the wall is a nonstarter. In June, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) sent a letter expressing concern “with the President’s Fiscal Year 2018 request for a very expensive, ineffective new wall along the southern border with Mexico,” and rejected the idea of funding it. House Democrats would also oppose such a measure. “Democrats remain strongly opposed to President Trump’s taxpayer-funded border wall, which would be unwise, immoral, and very costly. And unfortunately for Mr. Meadows, the opposition to it is both strong and bipartisan,” said Caroline Behringer, a spokeswoman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). The Senate Budget Committee is awaiting action from the House before it brings up its own version of a resolution. A GOP Senate source, however, said the committee could start moving ahead on its own resolution if the House doesn’t act by the time the Senate votes on its version of a bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare. --Niv Elis contributed to this report.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/341380-trump-wall-moves-to-center-of-shutdown-fight 

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http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/07/13/multiple-remains-found-on-pennsylvania-farm-in-search-for-missing-men-1-man-idd.html 

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etc. For I have warned you Russia is not your friend, I have warned you that China is not your friend, I have warned you that North Korea is not your friend and I have warned you that Iran is not your friend. etc.

:: 7-12-17 The Daily Caller :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

US Watched Kim Jong Un Prep For His ICBM Launch For Over An Hour

Ryan Pickrell China/Asia Pacific Reporter 11:29 AM 07/12/2017

When North Korea shocked the world with the successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, the U.S. was watching, according to U.S. government sources. North Korea tested the Hwasong-14 (KN-20) in early July. With a flight time of 37 minutes, the longest to date for North Korean missiles, the missile covered a distance of 935 kilometers and soared to a maximum altitude of 2,800 kilometers. The missile was lofted during the test, but fired on a normal trajectory, it could have a maximum range between 7,500 and 9,500 kilometers. There is a real possibility that North Korea’s ICBM could reach beyond Alaska and strike targets along the West Coast. The U.S. observed the missile on the launch pad for 70 minutes prior to launch, senior editor at The Diplomat Ankit Panda revealed in a recent report, citing government sources with direct knowledge of the new ICBM. Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin, relying on a U.S. official, reported earlier that the U.S. watched North Korea fuel the ICBM. The U.S. had warnings that an ICBM was coming. North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un warned in his New Year’s address that his country was in the final stages of developing a long-range missile, and North Korean officials and media outlets repeatedly stated that a major missile test was close at hand, with the Rodong Sinmun claiming in June that an ICBM test is “not too far away.” North Korea tested a new rocket engine that many observers suspected could serve a intercontinental ballistic missile multiple times this year, with the most recent test occurring last month. Furthermore, North Korea likes to to launch missiles on the Fourth of July. And, in general, North Korea is constantly under observation. “Clearly we watch North Korea very closely,” Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters at a Department of Defense press briefing last Wednesday, “We are always seeking to be aware of their actions.” With the U.S. watching at the time of the launch, there is the possibility that Kim Jong-un may have also been in the U.S. military’s sights. Video footage from the ICBM test show the young dictator strolling around, even smoking near, the missile. Evidence suggests that the missile was not full of fuel as Kim was taking a smoke break, but there might have been tens of tons of highly-volatile fuel nearby for the vertical fueling process. While the U.S. was watching North Korea prepare for the launch of its liquid-fueled, two-stage ICBM, the U.S. military did not take action to eliminate it or the North Korean leadership, actions which could potentially trigger a much larger conflict with a high casualty count.  “The U.S. military did not employ an elaborate missile defense shield because it did not threaten the U.S. homeland,” a Pentagon spokesman told reporters last week.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/12/us-watched-kim-jong-un-prep-for-his-icbm-launch-for-over-an-hour/ 

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etc. It is not the books that man writes, it is the word, the living word, the logos, the rhema, stay in my word, walk in my word, function in my word and you shall see what the EU is about ready to do, you shall understand what Russia is planning and purposing now, you shall even see China who is the last army that moves down into that valley after my church is gone. You will understand these things, for it is very clear in my word exactly what I shall do and you will not say, well, it must be fifteen years off, you will not say it must be ten years off, you will not say it must be five years off, for you shall see the signs clearly and you shall understand the hour, you shall understand the time and you will know.

:: 7-12-17 KBIA :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

China Dispatches Troops To Djibouti To Set Up Its First Overseas Base

By Colin Dwyer • 22 hours ago Originally published on July 12, 2017 12:54 pm

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Committing Treason and Benghazi Murder Cover-up

Take off your partisan hat and open your minds to the actual uninterrupted high treason that is part of the foreign policy establishment. Party politics is often just a show that plays to their respective bases. However, the tract and direction of extending the transnational empire just continues on a global scale. The full-blown treason committed by every administration that practices the internationalist vision of democracy domination is really a masquerade for worldwide dominion. Presidents are mere temporary talking heads for the oligarchy that actually rules. Murdering their own diplomats and hired help is incidental, when 1,455,590 Iraqi deaths since the U.S. invasion are ignored and dismissed. Just how well is the consistent and bipartisan aggressive interventionist foreign policy doing? Go over the list of The Arab Spring country by country. The Wall Street Journal provides a timeline on U.S. Government Reaction to the Benghazi Attack. "For days after the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya, intelligence officials and the Obama administration said it was likely the outgrowth of protests sparked by an anti-Islamic video made in the U.S. Follow some of the administration statements on the Libya attack."The infamous propaganda voice for the Obamaistas, Media Matters puts forth their partisan spin in, What Dick Cheney's Benghazi Criticism Misses. "David Martosko of the Daily Mail Online provided former Vice President Dick Cheney a platform to criticize the Obama administration's failure to anticipate the September 11, 2012 attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, without noting that seven attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities occurred during the Bush administration." Such diversion seeks to limit focus on the literal events that caused the Benghazi attack and the real reasons why Ambassador Christopher Stevens was left to perish by the Obama/Clinton foreign policy team of betrayers. The shameful chronicle of the intentional and politically motivated stand down that doomed Stevens and his defenders was sensitively told during Gregory Hicks' 30 Minute Recount of Benghazi Attack. While the Congressional hearings were praised for the attempt to restrain partisan grandstanding, the Washington press corps avoids placing blame on the administration as a tenant of their loyalty test. A government cover-up is made easy when the imperium friendly media is reporting on a proclaimed progressive administration. The facts necessitate that even the venerable CBS mainstream media machine reluctantly admits that the Thousands of Libyan missiles from Qaddafi era missing in action, are a central concern with the overthrow of the Libyan regime. "In the case of Libya's missing MANPADS, there was also concern they would get into the Syrian conflict. "Once they start getting sold on the black market, we can't control them," says one source. The source added he's unaware of any U.S. attempt to send recovered Libyan MANPADS to arm Syrian rebels seeking to depose President Bashar al-Assad." According to the Business Insider, the veracity of this CBS source is questionable. Connect the dots and go back to the reason why a cover-up of the Benghazi murders becomes crucial to the long-term goals to destabilize the Middle East. The US Is Openly Sending Heavy Weapons From Libya To Syrian Rebels cites the following: "The Obama administration has decided to launch a covert operation to send heavy weapons to Syrian rebels, Christina Lamb of The Sunday Times of London reports. Diplomatic sources told the Sunday Times that the U.S. "bought weapons from the stockpiles of Libya's former dictator Muammar Gaddafi." The heavy arms include mortars, rocket propelled grenades, anti-tank missiles and the controversial anti-aircraft heat-seeking SA-7 missiles, which are integral to countering Bashar Al-Assad's bombing campaign." Now compute the decades old design for the territory as stated by Wes Clark and the neocon dream. Glenn Greenwald provides further documentation in Salon that the various Middle Eastern and North African wars were planned before 9/11: "General Wesley Clark … said the aim of this plot [to "destroy the governments in ... Iraq, ... Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran"] was this: "They wanted us to destabilize the Middle East, turn it upside down, make it under our control." He then recounted a conversation he had had ten years earlier with Paul Wolfowitz — back in 1991 — in which the then-number-3-Pentagon-official, after criticizing Bush 41 for not toppling Saddam, told Clark: "But one thing we did learn [from the Persian Gulf War] is that we can use our military in the region – in the Middle East – and the Soviets won’t stop us. And we’ve got about 5 or 10 years to clean up those old Soviet regimes – Syria, Iran [sic], Iraq – before the next great superpower comes on to challenge us." Clark said he was shocked by Wolfowitz’s desires because, as Clark put it: "the purpose of the military is to start wars and change governments? It’s not to deter conflicts?" The diabolic union between Neoconservatives and Neoliberals produces a litter of demonic adventures that build up the body count and push the region into a globalist cesspit of satanic dimensions. In order to comprehend the interconnection of conflicts it is important to understand the deceptive war on terror and the assembled alliance with the Al Qaeda bogyman. The message in the essay, It’s Dishonest to Talk about Benghazi Without Talking About the Syrian War, is a reality that many cowardly Americans are unwilling to deal with, much less act upon. "Both parties are avoiding the bigger picture … The fact that Democrats and Republicans alike have been using Benghazi as the center of U.S. efforts to arm the Al Qaeda-affiliated Syrian rebels. Specifically, the U.S. supported opposition which overthrew Libya’s Gadaffi was largely comprised of Al Qaeda terrorists. According to a 2007 report by West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center’s center, the Libyan city of Benghazi was one of Al Qaeda’s main headquarters – and bases for sending Al Qaeda fighters into Iraq – prior to the overthrow of Gaddafi:" What possible justification is there to intervene in Syria? The presupposed civil war is really a designed coup d'état overthrow that only benefits a greater Israel regional expansion. Note how the policy wonks work in their nefarious planning for destabilization. The flagship establishment mouthpiece Foreign Policy has the mission to signal the intentions of government stratagem as the master plans are implemented, in the article How to destabilize the Assad regime. "In order to re-up its strategy, the administration should employ a cross-governmental approach that enlists the Treasury, Commerce, and Defense Departments. The Treasury Department should use sanctions to limit Assad's ability to repatriate funds from oil exports and more properly enforce the 2012 GRAHVITY sanctions prohibiting the transfer of internet, communications, or surveillance technology to Syria. The Treasury Department should also prohibit U.S. companies from doing business with Assad's enablers by designating those entities that continue to supply him with resources. Congress could bolster the latter measure by requiring federal contractors to certify that they are not in business with Assad's enablers. Congress should also prohibit foreign financial institutions enabling Assad from doing business with U.S. banks. Meanwhile the Commerce Department should secure tighter control over the delivery of information and communications technology to Syria especially through authorized foreign distributors. Finally, as mandated by an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013, the Pentagon should cease its business with Rosoboronexport, one of Assad's chief enablers, instead of entering into new contracts as it has expressed the intention to do." What do you call the treachery, when your own government is committing the subversiveness? The cryptic psychopolitical spook Dr. Steve Pieczenik presents an astounding analysis that answers this question in the You Tube, Benghazi Truth: Obama Was Running Secret Army. His call to action is a rare and daring challenge to the military that is worth a sober assessment if for no other reason than observing the anxious and flabbergasted reaction from Alex Jones. The treason committed, depends upon the nationalist loyalties of the government agents. In this case, the evidence seems well placed that the security apparatus is serving the wrong master. The substance of the Benghazi duplicity and scandalous evasion of accountability is an entrenched practice that permeates every level of command and control. The courage of Gregory Hicks, Mark Thompson and Eric Nordstrom is an act of legitimate patriotism seldom seen out of Foggy Bottom. If professional State Department public servants can speak truth to power, where are the guts of the General Military Officers? If the Joint Chiefs of Staff is a brood of poodle puppies and lap dogs, God Save the Republic. Dr. Pieczenik is In Search of James Mattoon Scott. Most subservient subjects are oblivious to the Seven Days in May scenario. Perpetuating the myth, that civilian command preserves the constitutional liberties of citizens, does not conform to the record of presidential dictatorship. When state treason is codified normality, the mere murder of four more Americans is hardly an afterthought to the executioners of the country. Respecting commander in chief traitors is an absurd national death wish. SARTRE – May 12, 2013 Discuss or comment about this essay on the BATR Forum

"With all due respect, the fact is, we had four dead Americans! Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they'd go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again." Hillary Clinton

http://batr.org/reactionary/051213.html 

:: 7-9-17 US Denfece Watch :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Ray Starmann

Western Europe is Ripe for Revolution

The fall of Western Europe marches on with the speed of a possessed automaton. From Italy to Great Britain, millions of migrants from the war torn Middle East and countries in Africa have stormed ashore, across the Alps, while advancing like colonies of red ants into Germany, Sweden, Denmark, France, Austria, Italy and the United Kingdom. The millions of Islamic migrants who have invaded Europe since 2015 are not coming to Europe to uphold democracy. They are coming to destroy democracy and usher in a new caliphate from Palermo to Manchester. The invasion of Western Europe has become tantamount to national suicide, with policies driven by leaders who are hell bent on importing violent citizens of a malevolent culture into their once, clean, tidy, peaceful lands. In 2015, migrants committed nearly 400,000 crimes in Germany. In the state of Badem-Wuerttemberg alone in 2016, a total of 251,000 criminal suspects across the state in 2016, 107,417 were foreign, with 25,379 of these being asylum seekers and refugees. Syria was the most frequently seen country of origin in the latter category, followed by Gambia, and then Afghanistan. In Bavaria, the number of crimes committed by immigrants rose 57.8 per cent from the previous year, a development which the state’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann described as “worrying”. In Sweden, violent crime has increased by 300% and rapes by 1,472%. Sweden is now number two on the list of rape countries, surpassed only by Lesotho in Southern Africa. Sweden is now number two on the global list of rape countries. According to a survey from 2010, Sweden, with 53.2 rapes per 100,000 inhabitants, is surpassed only by tiny Lesotho in Southern Africa, with 91.6 rapes per 100,000 inhabitants. Rather than doing something about the problem of violence and rape, Swedish politicians, public authorities and media do their best to explain away the facts. Here are some of their explanations: Swedes have become more prone to report crime. The law has been changed so that more sexual offences are now classed as rape. Swedish men cannot handle increased equality between the sexes and react with violence against women (perhaps the most fanciful excuse). In fact, Swedish authorities are more than happy to blame native Swedes for rape and crime, rather than admitting that the culprits were migrants. For example, all major Swedish media reported on a brutal gang rape on board the Finnish Ferry Amorella, running between Stockholm and Åbo in Finland. Big headlines told the readers that the perpetrators were Swedish: “Several Swedish Men Suspected of Rape on the Finland Ferry” (Dagens Nyheter). “Six Swedish Men Raped Woman in Cabin” (Aftonbladet). “Six Swedes Arrested for Rape on Ferry” (Expressen). “Eight Swedes Suspected of Rape on Ferry” (TT – the Swedish News Agency). On closer inspection, it turned out that seven of the eight suspects were Somalis and one was Iraqi. None of them had Swedish citizenship, so they were not even Swedish in that sense. Multi-cultural paradise Malmo, Sweden, is now the most dangerous city in Western Europe. London is now Londonistan and its mayor Sadiq Khan is not only a Muslim, but an apologist for his so called ‘religion of peace.’ Stockholm is the New Syria. Berlin is run by Chechen Sharia Police. Nothing to see here folks, except for the destruction of your civilization. Move on… As the bombs detonate and the women are raped, as the towns and villages are overrun by Stone Age thugs who follow a satanic cult religion, the leaders of Western Europe seemingly ignore the cries in the night from their own native citizens who have had enough of Angela Merkel’s great multicultural experiment from hell. As the trucks run down innocent people and bullets riddle café goers, the 21st Century’s villains; Merkel, Macron, Loefven and Rutte speak in ridiculous platitudes like ‘we can do it,’ while labeling anyone against the death of Western Europe a racist or neo Nazi. There is not one positive thing that emanates from Islam: nothing; nada, not an iota of peace, a speck of love, a wisp of harmony. It is a 6th Century death cult that has been imported into Western Europe for the sole reason that leftists believe in the lunatic idea that multiculturalism works and we can all live in harmony. If the Islamic invasion of Western Europe wasn’t enough, the citizens of EU nations are being micromanaged by tyrants in Brussels, who believe that they have not only the right, but the supreme knowledge to dictate the smallest tenets of one’s life. Here’s a sample of the typical bureaucrat directives coming down from the EU to its subjects: Cucumbers and bananas should not be bendy International ridicule erupted when the EU stated that all bananas must be “free of abnormal curvature”. Under the rules, cucumbers were to be “practically straight” and bent by a gradient of no more than 1/10. Diabetics should be BANNED from the roads Up to one million drivers faced losing their driving licenses – because harsh EU experts deemed people with diabetes “unfit” to drive. Eggs CANNOT be sold by the dozen Fury erupted when shopkeepers were told all food must be weighed and sold by the kilo – instead of the number contained in the packet back in 2010. And even though British shoppers can still buy a dozen of eggs, it is now priced based wholly on the weight. Super vacuum cleaners BANNED It was as though the British way of life was under threat when the EU looked to target the nation’s kettles, toasters and even lawnmowers. Their plans to erode the lifestyle choices of ordinary people were followed by the banning of the powerful vacuum cleaner. In 2014 vacuum cleaners, which had motors above the EU limit of 1,600 watts had to go. But it was all for a good cause because it was in a bid to cut energy usage. EU in a JAM over preserves EU regulators stopped sellers using the word ‘jam’ on their products if the sugar content was more than 60 per cent. Instead anything containing less had to be called a “fruit spread”, while a low sugar jam with less than 50 per cent of sugar was named a “conserve”. But lawmakers got themselves out of the sticky situation by relaxing these laws in 2013. European bureaucrats have also imposed bans or restrictions on thousands of other consumer products, including bananas, clothes dryers, cosmetics, cucumbers, fruit jam, laptop computers, laundry detergents, light bulbs, olive oil, plastic bags, refrigerators, showerheads, television sets, tobacco, toilets, toys, urinals and wine cooling cabinets. As of September 1, 2012, hundreds of millions of EU citizens—who were never consulted on the issue—have been required to buy energy-efficient fluorescent lamps, which contain toxic materials such as mercury. Because the EU does not require retailers to take back the new bulbs, 80% end up in household garbage, leaving the mercury to ultimately seep into the soil or groundwater. According to the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, the EU ban on light bulbs was motivated less about genuine environmental concerns than it was about scoring political points on the international stage. Light bulbs and vacuum cleaners are not the only products targeted for higher energy efficiency. As of November 1, “the weighted condensation efficiency of condensation tumbler dryers must not be less than 60%,” according to European Commission Regulation No. 932/2012 dated October 3, 2012. That same week, Brussels announced criteria to standardize the flushing of all toilets and urinals in the EU. The decision followed years of efforts by experts working for the European Commission’s environment directorate, as well as “stakeholders” studying “user behavior” and “best practices. ”Holger Krahmer, a Member of the European Parliament for Germany’s business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP), puts it this way: “We are heading for a dictatorship of bureaucrats.” Not heading, Mr. Krahmer, you’re already there. Thomas Paine once wrote that nobility is the greatest fraud on humanity. The EU Big Brother tyrants are modern day nobility, 2017 Louis XIV’s who believe in ‘L’etat c’est moi’ or they are the state, aka they are God on earth. The EU now has a stranglehold on its member nations. As Jean Monet, Founding Father of the European Union stated nearly 20 years ago, “Europe’s nations should be guided towards the super state without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps, each disguised as having an economic purpose. But which will eventually and irreversibly lead to federation.” While the average European citizen is burdened with high tax rates, the EU bureaucrats, like Jean-Claude Juncker, pay no taxes. The arrogance of Western Europe’s leaders is simply astounding. When questioned about her diabolical, globalist backed decision to destroy Germany with unvetted Islamic immigration, Mrs. Merkel seems annoyed that the serfs would dare question her motivations for bringing down Western Civilization. In essence, Mrs. Merkel is saying, ‘let them eat Strudel.’ I have news for former Stasi officer, Angela Merkel. If you were an American leader you would have already been tarred and feathered and sent packing down a road leading to hell, where you belong, you globalist hack. Then there’s France’s Francois Macron, the high society villain, globalist puppet and newly elected President of France who stated recently that he would govern like the Roman God, Jupiter. The EU is the enemy of freedom and the leaders of Western Europe are globalist stooges. Is there anything that can stop the Islamic onslaught and the EU tyranny? Yes, a good, old fashioned revolution. Brexit, led by supreme British nationalist and patriot, Nigel Farage was a start. Will other Western European nations eventually follow Great Britain’s path? Western Europe is indeed ripe for revolution, but will the people have the fortitude to do it? Will the people of Western Europe have the guts to bring down the EU, restore their civilization and deal with the criminals who are intent on destroying it? Time will tell.

http://usdefensewatch.com/2017/07/western-europe-is-ripe-for-revolution/ 

:: 7-7-17 Reason.com :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Oregon Cracks Down on Gun Rights in the Name of Suicide Prevention

A newly passed bill in the state would let cops and judges decide who can exercise their Second Amendment rights.

Christian Britschgi|Jul. 7, 2017 3:58 pm

The Oregon legislature just passed a gun control measure that substantially weakens constitutional rights. Senate Bill 719 will allow a family member or a police officer to obtain a civil court order immediately stripping someone of the right to possess a firearm for up to a year, if a judge finds the person presents a danger to himself or others. Proponents hail the law as an effective way to prevent suicides. Sen. Brian Boquist (R-Dallas) argues that it will bring the number of veteran suicides down. Gun control crusader Gabrielle Giffords has called it a "responsible bill that helps keep guns out of the hands of individuals who are experiencing a mental health crisis." Paul Phillips, president of the group Oregon Gun Owners, retorts that the bill does little to prevent suicides but does deprive gun owners of basic constitutional protections. Gun confiscations under SB 719 will be "based on hearsay evidence alone, and the firearm owner is not privy to a fair trial," he says. According to the bill, any law enforcement officer and family member—including partners, siblings, or even roommates—can request a hearing with a judge to get a "extreme risk protection order." If issued, this would prohibit a person from possessing or purchasing a firearm. At that hearing, which has to be held within one judical day of being requested, the judge will decide whether to issue the order, which goes into effect immediately. The subject of the order has no right to contest it before it is issued. He can pursue an appeals process afterward, which is a bit like having the right to a jury trial after you've already been sent to prison. Meanwhile, some of the things a judge can consider while deciding whether to grant one of these orders are not related to suicide, such as past drunk driving arrests or recent drug use, or are totally legitimate exercises of one's Second Amendment rights, such as trying to buy a gun in the past 180 days. Ironically, given Giffords' reference to "a mental health crisis," one of the few things the judge is prohibited from considering is "any mental health diagnosis or any connection between the risk presented by the respondent and mental illness." No small amount of procedural shenanigans were used to get this bill through the Oregon legislature in the final few days of the legislative session. Upon it passing the Senate, SB 719 was sent not to the House Judiciary Committee—which usually handles criminal legislation, but is chaired by pro–Second Amendment Democrat Jeff Barker—but rather to the House Rules Committee. That committee's chair decided to forgo a public hearing on the bill, and instead passed it out of committee the day before July 4, when half the Republicans committee members had already gone home. The bill now goes to Gov. Kate Brown, who is expected to sign it. Once she does, Oregon gun owners will be at the mercy of jurists like Judge Kenneth Walker, who said in court last year that "no one would have guns—not police, not security. We should eliminate all of them."

http://reason.com/blog/2017/07/07/oregon-cracks-down-on-gun-rights-in-the 

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$20,000 – $30,000 Gold, And Whistleblower Maguire Is Right, China To Massively Revalue Gold And Make Gold Part Of A Blockchain Currency

July 08, 2017

Today one of the greats in the business said Maguire is right, China is going to massively revalue gold and make gold part of a blockchain currency.

Maguire Exposed World To Rigged Markets

July 8 (King World News) – Stephen Leeb: “What a pleasure, Eric, to hear your interview with Andrew Maguire, whose knowledge of the ins and outs of the gold market is unparalleled. He was the first to give solid evidence that major markets can and have been rigged, and his revelations in 2010 about gold and silver made it believable that other major markets could be rigged as well. In fact, I’d argue that without his persistence in 2010, no one would have believed the whistleblowers who blew the lid off the scandals in such major markets as LIBOR and some currency markets. Eric, the bottom line is that Maguire exposed to the entire world the fact that markets are rigged before anyone believed that was possible.. So, I find it very reassuring that my macro approach to analyzing the markets is in sync with Andrew’s view. While Andrew focuses on trading patterns and positioning in the physical and paper markets by various players, my indicators assess a wide variety of big-picture variables, from changes in the S&P to correlations among different commodities and between commodities and paper assets. My indicators, which have a good record, are why in several interviews this year I warned that gold could come down but urged that any dips be taken as buying opportunities. On Friday, my indicators, which have been bearish since mid-April, turned neutral, and they easily could soon flash a buy signal almost in line with Andrew’s projected time frame for a reset in gold’s price. While my indicators say it is still a bit early to plunge in and buy with both hands, I could easily be printing that advice within the new few weeks or even days. Maguire Is Right, China To Use Gold In Blockchain I also was struck by Andrew’s points about blockchains that include gold and about the potential for 2017 to be a major bottom for gold. My thinking for some time has been that the Chinese will use blockchains and some form of virtual currency – not bitcoin or anything available today but a currency of their own creation – to replace the dollar. I don’t think anyone can guess point by point what the plan will be, but the currency almost surely will be a basket that includes gold, the renminbi, and perhaps other paper currencies. Whatever its precise form, the goal will be to segue from a dollar-based reserve currency to a gold-centered monetary system. And as I’ve noted previously, this new currency will likely first be introduced as the denomination for trading an Eastern oil benchmark that the Chinese will control. One question is, why wouldn’t China just use bitcoin and be done with it? After all China by a wide margin has been the largest “miner” of bitcoin. It takes massive amounts of computing power to create bitcoin, which, once created, become part of a blockchain – a database containing the history of all bitcoin transactions. Because of the complexity of the algorithms creating bitcoin, and because copies of the blockchains are distributed to various institutions, the bitcoin market is nearly impossible to hack into as you would have to hack all copies of the blockchains. Creating a phony bitcoin not only is beyond the computing power of almost all hackers, the cryptocurrency would then have to be attached to all blockchains. Besides their high degree of security, the another reason bitcoin is attractive to investors is that they are limited in number to 21 million. This limit, however, is one of the reasons bitcoin wouldn’t be suitable as a reserve currency. Even at their recent high of $3,000, the total value of all bitcoins was equivalent to a few billion dollars. Not only would it take a Herculean computing effort to break the 21 million barrier, but any effort to create more would dilute the value of existing bitcoin holders and run into fierce resistance by those owners. Moreover, increasing the number would drastically change the underlying fundamentals of the currency. There’s another and more important reason – bitcoin wouldn’t cut it as a reserve currency, one that can be explained by repeating a story Warren Buffett once told. He asked his audience to imagine an isolated town of, say, 100 people all owning identical homes. The town council decided that each year it would make everyone richer by raising the value of the homes by, say, 10 percent. Eventually the homes, which are pretty ordinary by most standards, carry multimillion-dollar price tags, giving everyone in town a great sense of wealth. Then one day one of the homeowners tries to sell his home to someone from outside the town. And in a heartbeat the residents’ millions of dollars in wealth tumbles by 90 percent. Similarly, bitcoin’s value resides in the willingness of a relatively small community of bitcoin holders to assign them a particular value. In the case of the homes, it’s the council that determined value. With bitcoins, a small marketplace determines value. But in both cases, there is very little there there. Just this week Sheng Songcheng, an adviser to the People’s Bank of China, commented: “Bitcoin does not have the fundamental attributes needed to be a currency as it is a string of code generated by complex algorithms.” Sheng acknowledged that the technology behind the bitcoin did make it a kind of digital asset, but one distinct from a currency. Most important Sheng also confirmed that the PBOC is studying a virtual currency that could be regulated and function properly. Now let’s return to Buffett’s anecdote. Suppose each year every homeowner had to add a specified amount of gold to his home’s foundation. That gold wouldn’t merely buttress the physical foundation – it would also would support a minimum value for the house. By the same token, if bitcoin consisted of a notional dollar value plus a fixed amount of gold, it would always have value come hell or high water. China Blockchain To Include Gold Creating blockchains made up of baskets of currencies and gold is possible, but to do so – in fact, simply to create the individual cryto-baskets – would require extraordinary computing power. And it would require something else: a trove of gold for which the currency could theoretically be exchanged. Only one country meets these criteria, and no surprise, it’s China. This year marked at least the third year in a row in which China ranked first as the country with the fastest supercomputers. Indeed, the world’s two fastest supercomputers are in China. Moreover, China has announced that by yearend it will have a prototype of the holy grail of supercomputers: an exascale computer, meaning one that can perform at least a quintillion (a billion billion) calculations per second. Though Chinese technology gets a lot of credit in going from nowhere to king of the mountain in high-performance computing, China also gets an A+ in foresight in realizing that one of the major limitations on how fast a computer can perform is the amount of energy these huge machines consume. By a factor of five or six, China has the most hydropower of any country. As with wind and solar, hydropower requires major upfront expenditures after which the energy it produces is effectively free. And unlike wind and solar, which can be erratic, hydropower is not subject to the whims of weather. It’s ideal for powering computers, the kind of massive computers needed for mining highly complex currencies. China’s propensity for long-term – in some cases, generations-long – thinking continues to serve it remarkably well. Could 2017 be the year of launch for the near-fantastic bull market in gold that lies ahead? I am not betting my shirt on it, but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit. In my last interview, I said China was likely well aware of the risks America faces and the need to act quickly to avoid being caught up in another meltdown. Even a cursory reading of The Art of War teaches that you should act when no one expects it. And surely with oil prices low (but totally out of whack with what physical oil is worth), 2017 could be the year that China launches its Eastern oil benchmark. $20,000 – $30,000 Gold After which the sky – or at least the very highest clouds – would be the limit for the ultimate price of gold – in a world whose total wealth now measures about $250 trillion. A gold price as high as 20 or 30 thousand could only back a portion of that wealth.”

http://kingworldnews.com/whistleblower-maguire-is-right-china-is-going-to-revalue-gold-and-make-gold-part-of-a-blockchain-currency/ 

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A Supercomputer Is Betting on a Market Crash in the Months Ahead

FS Staff07/06/2017

One of the world's most powerful supercomputers, retrofitted for trading the stock market, appears to be betting on a crash in the months ahead. The Financial Crisis Observatory (FCO) at ETH Zurich released its latest Global Bubble Status Report on July 1st. As we discussed with FCO’s director, Didier Sornette, on our podcast in May, they use one of the world’s leading supercomputers to monitor global markets each day for two distinct bubble-like characteristics: faster than exponential price movement and accelerating oscillations (see Podcast: Using a Supercomputer to Trade the Market). Their July report notes an increasing trend of positive bubbles across multiple asset classes. Here’s what they say in their “big picture” section: “One can observe the continuation of a trend in the growth of positive bubbles in the fixed income asset class for the second month. The fraction of stocks diagnosed in a positive bubble state increased this month to exceed 36% compared with 32% last month. Mixed bubble signals still occur only in few commodity indices. We also observe renewed bubble activity in currency pairs.” [source] Here is the chart where they show the “historical evolution of the fraction of assets within an asset class that show significant bubble signals”: Based on their daily scan of global markets, the Financial Crisis Observatory assigns individual stocks into four different quadrants based on their bubble strength and value score. These four quadrants are then used to create a trading strategy consisting of four different portfolios, which they define as follows (click image to enlarge): In looking at each of the four portfolios, it appears that the supercomputer was mostly initiating long positions since March. However, starting in June, the researchers note that there has been a rebound in Contrarian Short portfolios in recent weeks: “This month, we find that Long portfolios started to develop a drawdown in most portfolios initiated in March, April, May and June 2017. This reflects the stopping of the previously booming markets. Especially, the Contrarian Short portfolios rebounded in recent weeks. Contrarian Portfolios are more delicate to use due to their sensitivity to timing the expected reversal and exhibit very volatile performances, indicating that most of bubbles in the market are still dominating and that fundamentals have not yet played out. We expect trend-following positions to perform in the months following the position set-up and then contrarian positions to over-perform over longer time scales as the predicted corrections play out.” Here is a chart illustrating each of their four portfolios since June with the rebound in Contrarian Shorts shown in green, which they expect to “over-perform over longer time scales as the predicted corrections play out.” Based on the large and growing list of positions in its Contrarian Short portfolio—which includes the FANG stocks—it would appear that FCO's supercomputer is setting up for some sort of market crash or correction in the months ahead. To listen to our May interview with Didier Sornette, please log in and click here. To access this month’s Global Bubble Status report with its full list of positions, click here.

http://www.financialsense.com/didier-sornette/supercomputer-betting-market-crash 

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Panic At CNN - 'One Of The Greatest Moments In The History Of The Internet': The Great Meme War Of 2017

By Susan Duclos - All News PipeLine July 9, 2017

Quick Recap For New Readers: In Early June CNN published a "news" story citing unnamed sources that had to be edited with a change in headline when their so-called sources misled them or CNN just lied, no one is sure which. Mid-June, CNN published a fake news story they had to retract totally, delete, apologize for and force the resignations of three high profile named employees, after being threatened with a $100 million lawsuit. Also in June, Project Veritas published under-cover videos showing CNN employees admitting the "Russia" narrative was bullsh*t" and a "nothing burger." That alone had other MSM news outlets warning them to "slow down" and explain what happened. Early July, Jake Tapper ran a segment in which the graphics shown on the screen consisted of a "fake" Enquirer cover (one that was never really used by the Enquirer.) TIME WARNER SHAREHOLDERS GO AFTER CNN FOR BIASED REPORTING In the midst of all of the scandals that rocked CNN in June and May when they were forced to fire Kathy Griffin from her News Year gig as a co-host for New Year for an image she proudly touted of a mock bloody beheaded President Trump and firing Reza Aslan after he called our President a piece of excrement, shareholders for Time Warner (The parent company of CNN) went after CNN CEO Jeff Bewkes for the networks biased reporting and continuous bashing of President Trump. Via The Daily Caller: David Almasi, the Veep of the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative communications and research foundation, is in LA to question Bewkes. Both Almasi and President David Ridenour are Time Warner shareholders. “In the past month, CNN parted ways with Kathy Griffin over her photo with a mock severed Trump head and Reza Aslan after he called our President a piece of excrement for pushing the anti-terror travel ban,” Almasi said in a statement released to The Mirror that he read aloud at the meeting. Almasi is also irked at CNN for sponsoring Julius Caesar in the park. Some sponsors have dropped out — but not Time Warner. “Mr. Bewkes, we have urged you many times to make CNN more objective,” Almasi said in his statement. “You have admitted to us in 2014 the need for more balance. We praised you last year after CNN President Jeffrey Zucker also acknowledged this and acted on the need for more diverse views. But bias is apparently worse than ever. As shareholders, we are concerned about the repetitional risk to our investment in Time Warner as CNN appears to be a key player in the war against the Trump presidency.” Almasi cited a Media Research Center study of CNN programing for 14 hours and 27 minutes of news coverage back on May 12. The report concluded that all but 68 minutes were devoted to Trump with 96 guests out of 123 being negative. The Veep flatly told Bewkes that he isn’t achieving the goal he made to shareholders in 2014 to “try to be independent and objective.” “Is it any wonder that President Trump mocks CNN as ‘fake news,’ that the network was snubbed by Vice President Pence and that it receives poor access at White House press events?” he asked. By all accounts it has been a extremely bad couple of months for CNN, especially amidst a pending purchase of Time Warner by AT&T. 'ONE OF THE GREATEST MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE INTERNET' The "great meme war of 2017" started with a tweet by President Trump, an amusing little Internet meme in the form of a GIF that retouched a 2013 WWE video clip, showing the president body-slamming the CNN logo. In typical "crybully" fashion, CNN, who had been attacking the president non-stop, now declared they were a "victim" and the Internet meme was actually and "incitement" to violence against all MSM member, who should now be in fear for their lives. Other MSM outlets jumped right into the narrative that they were the victims of the "bully" president. It was very dramatic! Crybully: "Someone who uses the perceived righteousness of a social justice cause as a pretext to abuse others, and then plays the victim when confronted about that abuse." Then, in perhaps one of the greatest examples of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, after all, the CNN scandals were second page news while the President's tweet became front page news, CNN committed a blunder which led to what a columnist and novelist who has written for a number of publications, including the Daily Mail, Daily Express, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and The Spectator, James Delingpole, calls "one of the greatest moments in the history of the internet." CNN hunted down that meme maker, some anonymous random Internet user that thought the GIF was funny, and they contacted him letting him know they knew who he was. So he apologized and CNN decided it would be a great idea to inform the public they "tracked him down," and he apologized for his "bad behavior on social media," but they were not going to released his name, in the interest of his personal safety, unless he went back to his "bad behavior." CNN is not publishing “HanA**holeSolo’s” name because he is a private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, showed his remorse by saying he has taken down all his offending posts, and because he said he is not going to repeat this ugly behavior on social media again. In addition, he said his statement could serve as an example to others not to do the same. CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change. If that sounds like a threat to those reading, pundits on both sides of the political aisle, even those that were so quick to take CNN's side over the president daring to tweet the original meme, agree, as the Twitter hashtag #CNNBlackmail was born. Hashtags are usually a dime a dozen, they are created, people have fun with them, they start trending on Twitter, they die out within hours for the most part, especially once Twitter removes them from their "trending" sidebar. Not #CNNBlackmail though, as it started on July 4, 2017 when the CNN article was published and promoted by CNN, it stayed trending well into the next day, and still today, July 9, 2017, thousands of tweets continue to pour in despite it being removed from the trending sidebar on the 5th. The reason for that is forums such as Reddit (it was one of their users CNN threatened to out), 4chan, Discord, and others, declared the "great meme war of 2017" against CNN. Before detailing the continued fall out from the "meme war," it was the creation and continued popularity of the #CNNBlackmail hashtag that Delingpole referred to as one of the greatest moments in the history of the Internet. Not because of the slew of new "memes" being created, most of which much worse than the original one tweeted by President Trump, but because to Delingpole, the "enemy has shown its true colors," and conservatives were finally fighting back. #CNNBlackmail, make no mistake, was a pivotal #winning moment. Why and how did we win? Partly by using the enemy’s tactics against them; partly by exploiting a few strengths of our own. The entire piece is well worth the read as Delingpole details exactly how conservatives turned the tables on progressive liberals, but specifically CNN, and why it was critical in regards to the culture wars, where snowflakism and victimhood has pretty much stifled any true meaningful debate. ANALYSIS OF DELINGPOLE'S ARGUMENT Delingpole is spot on. For years those that laughed at the Prozac dipped binkie sucking "snowflakes," thinking their antics would turn people away, where every word uttered is a "micro-aggression" and everybody that disagreed with them were "racists" or "white nationalists," forgot a major point: If only one side of the argument is being heard, then there is no pushback against their antics, there is no voice of reason or logic being heard. In the minds of those not considered snowflakes, not lowering themselves to the level of those attacking others, was considered taking the "high road." All that has done is create more snowflakes.... only now, since the 2016 presidential election where the MSM lost all influence and couldn't "control exactly what people think," which is what MSNBC's Mika Brzezski admitted the MSM considered their job to be, the establishment media has become those snowflakes, where every word President Trump utters is a "micro-agression," every agenda item he implements is "racist ," or will "kill people," and every tweet he sends is the end of the world and Democracy as we know it (reminder to the MSM that spews that nonsense - America is a Republic, not a Democracy). The high road be damned. This is war and as such, it is time to call out every single one of their lies, no matter how big or how small, which by the way, they continue to spew, such as CNN's Jim Acosta telling his followers that President Trump was spouting fake news when he spoke of only three intelligence agencies being behind the DNI report saying Russia meddled in the 2016 election in order to get Donald Trump elected, and Acosta did that after the New York Times issued a correction as did the AP, explaining they falsely reported that 17 intelligence agencies were behind that report and their were only three, then collated by the ODNI. AP: In stories published April 6, June 2, June 26 and June 29, The Associated Press reported that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies have agreed that Russia tried to influence the 2016 election to benefit Donald Trump. That assessment was based on information collected by three agencies – the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency – and published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which represents all U.S. intelligence agencies. Not all 17 intelligence agencies were involved in reaching the assessment. Either they be forced to start reporting the truth or they need to be destroyed, put into bankruptcy and driven out of business. THE GREAT MEME WAR OF 2017 Although it was a Reddit user that created the original GIF meme that was threatened and basically blackmailed by CNN, it was 4chan that declared that CNN had started a war on the entire Internet, with different forums, including Discord, Reddit, and a whole host of other social media platforms, that started compiling a list of CNN's advertisers to contact, and declared their own "meme war" where now thousands of GIFS, memes, images and videos are now going viral across the internet, with InfoWars starting a contest offering 20K for the best "meme," all resulting in an onslaught of anti-CNN images all over the Internet, many of them far worse than the one they initially cried over. It is not just on the Twitter hashtags, #CNNBlackmail #CNNMemeWars, where these images are being slammed, but on individual tweets from CNN reporters, on every anti-Trump or fake news article they share on social media, dozens of these memes are appearing in the comments. CNN's Facebook channel is showing the same thing. CNN apps have been down-voted to one star ratings (the lowest rating possible) with Google now attempting to help CNN salvage what is left of their reputation by removing 15,000 of those one star reviews. There is panic at CNN, as their credibility is shot and their ratings are tanking, while employees feel "victimized" because after months and months of their attacks against President Trump, his family and his supporters, they finally went too far and are learning that if you attack us for too long, eventually, we will fight back. The great meme war of 2017 has just begun.

http://allnewspipeline.com/The_Great_Meme_War_Of_2017.php 

etc. I have told you to have enough food, generator for three months, how long, for three months. Not three years, not six years, not seven years. Man says many things, but it does not line up with my word, but I shall be giving unto you my word that you may know, you must prepare now, you must get your house in order now, these things, these things are important. etc.. 

:: 7-9-17 All News Pipeline :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Former Ambassador Warns 'The Day Of Reckoning Could Come Sooner Than Anyone Thinks'

- Council On Foreign Relations Study May Indicate A 'False Flag Grid Down Scenario' Is On The Horizon

By Stefan Stanford - All News Pipeline - Live Free Or Die July 9, 2017

While the eyes of America and the world are now rightfully set upon North Korea's nuclear program after their latest inter-continental-ballistic-missile test was called a 'game changer' while it was determined it would have been able to hit Alaska, we take a look at what could be a far bigger and more imminent threat in North Korea's 'elite cyberwarfare' units. 'Elite hackers' who've already proven themselves capable of hacking into major banks and capable of bringing down nuclear power plants and electrical grids. While US bombers recently carried out a show of force exercise over South Korea as detailed in this NBC news story while also carrying out tests upon their THAAD missile defense system, as we read in this story from the NY Times and hear in the 2nd video below, according to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, hackers have been targeting US nuclear facilities. And while currently, a hacking group with alleged ties to the Russian government (of course!) is being blamed, we take a look here at why those attempting the hacking are more likely tied to North Korea (or those trying to blame a future false flag upon them). According to Ambassador Henry F. Cooper, appointed by President Ronald Reagan