Former Arizona Gov. Says Trump was Cheated
Former Arizona Gov. Says Trump was Cheated
AZ, Jan Brewer the most recent current or former executive to endorse Donald Trump cries foul at the Arizona Republican convention, after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won a large majority of the 58 delegates to the Republican national convention during a state party meeting.
US homeownership falls to nearly its lowest level in history
US homeownership falls to nearly its lowest level in history
MSN.com Home sales may be rising, but homeownership in the United States is heading down once again. After gains in the second half of 2015, the homeownership rate fell to just 63.6 percent, seasonally adjusted, in the first quarter of this year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Homeownership hit a high of 69.4 percent in 2004, during one of the biggest housing booms in history. That was also when mortgage lending was arguably at its loosest level in history. The homeownership rate is now just one-tenth of 1 basis point higher than its all-time low in the second quarter of 2015. Economists continue to point to a recovering job market as fuel for growth in the housing market, but for young Americans, just having a job does not translate to homeownership. High levels of student loan debt, tight mortgage underwriting standards and overheating home prices are all contributing to very low homeownership rates among the nation’s youngest workers. Homeownership among those aged 25-34 today is nearly 10 percentage points lower than it was a decade ago. First-time homebuyers are still barely 30 percent of today’s buyers; traditionally, they comprise 40 percent of “Rental affordability remains a big problem in many places, and that makes it harder to save for a down payment,” said Jed Kolko, an independent economist and senior fellow at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at University of California, Berkeley. “We’re still seeing relatively few first-time homebuyers because young people are buying homes later than they used to. Some of this is a long-term shift toward marrying and having children later in life. Some of this is that the recovery has been slow among young adults.” Most millennials are still on the young side for homeownership. In contrast, homeownership has actually increased among older Americans. This may be because renting is so expensive, and because the expected migration of baby boomers from their larger houses in the suburbs to rental homes has been slow to take off, due to the recent recession and historic crash in home prices. Household formation is now increasing, but two-thirds of it is on the renter side. Just one-third of new households were owner-occupied homes. Homeownership is highest in the...
House panel votes to make women register for the draft
House panel votes to make women register for the draft
Women will have to register with the Selective Service and would be eligible to be drafted in the military, under a provision narrowly approved by a House panel on Wednesday. The proposal passed the House Armed Services Committee without support from its sponsor, Iraq War veteran Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who introduced the measure as a way to force congressional conversation about the role of women in the military. But several Republicans broke ranks with their committee counterparts to support the idea of drafting women for military service, until now a possibility solely reserved for men. MILITARYTIMES Congress takes its first step toward killing the military draft Under current law, all men ages 18 to 26 are required to register for possible involuntary military service with the Selective Service System. Women have always been exempt, and past legal challenges have pointed to restrictions placed on their military service as a reason for their exclusion. But earlier this year, Defense Secretary Ash Carter opened all military jobs to women, negating that argument. Hunter said the move made the Selective Service setup “sexist” and said he was unwilling to leave the draft issue up to the White House or Pentagon. But he also made clear he opposed the idea of adding women to draft lists. MILITARYTIMES Meet the Army’s first female infantry officer Others disagreed, including Nevada’s Rep. Joe Heck, New York Rep. Chris Gibson and Arizona Rep. Martha McSally, fellow Republicans and Iraq War veterans. McSally argued that if a draft was needed, women could serve any number of military roles, including but not exclusive to infantry jobs. The vote came the same day Army officials announced that Capt. Kristen Griest, one of the first women to earn a Ranger tab, will becoming the Army’s first female infantry officer. Defense Department leaders have already backed the idea of adding women to the draft, while also emphasizing they do not see any scenario where a draft will actually happen. No Americans have been pressed into involuntary military service since the last draft ended in 1973. Lawmakers have also included in the legislative language requiring a full review of the Selective Service System and possible “alternatives” to the current system. The agency’s...
Should We LEAVE The UN And Get The UN Out Of The US?
Should We LEAVE The UN And Get The UN Out Of The US?
theNewsClub.info The UN started with good intentions. In 1945, representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco to draw up the United Nations charter, which was signed on June 26, 1945 and came to exist on October 24, 1945. The charter was ratified by China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The purpose was to promote international cooperation. It started with 51 members and now has 193. The United States pays 22% of the U.N.’s annual costs, which are over 1 Billion dollars. Initially, it was an ally to Israel and the United States. Unfortunately, over time, Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, has been chastised three times as often as all other countries combined. The Arab state members have turned the UN into an organization which seems dedicated to the eradication of the state of Israel. There are constant resolutions against Israel in a variety of areas. The ones accusing Israel of human rights violations are the very ones that are committing human rights violations, and no one is chastising them! In addition, there is ongoing corruption, mismanagement, bribes, and a variety of other unseemly activities going on. There is no accountability and fraud, waste, and abuse of resources is ever-present. It has become a bloated bureaucracy which started out with 1500 employees and has now ballooned to 50,000 worldwide. Let’s look at current UN behavior, which should give every American citizen the impetus to scream for the US to get out of the UN, and get the UN out of the US. For starters, most Americans do not know or seem to care about Agenda 21. This is best explained by Rosa Koire, who is the executive director of Democrats Against UN Agenda 21. She writes, UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development is the action plan implemented world-wide to inventory and control all land, all water, all minerals, all plants, all animals, all construction, all means of production, all energy, all education, all information, and all human beings in the world. Inventory and control is what it’s all about. There is no congressional approval, or no citizen approval. This is an elaborate plan to ultimately initiate The New World Order....
Two People Involved In Flint Water Investigation Found Dead
Two People Involved In Flint Water Investigation Found Dead
vigilantcitizen.com The Flint Water Treatment Plant Foreman (an important part of the investigation) and a woman leading the Flint lead poisoning lawsuit were both found dead in less than a week. Everything about the Flint water crisis is as toxic and disgusting as the water that is being pumped into Flint homes. From the crass negligence that allowed such an insidious thing to happen, to the lack of will to fix it in timely fashion – not to mention the obvious attempts at covering up the truth: The situation is poisonous. And that poison could easily spread across America. This is not simply a water cleanliness issue. It is about allowing parts of America to devolve into toxic cesspools, where problems are “solved” with underhanded police-state tactics. In the span of a few weeks, crucial files mysteriously disappeared from the Flint city hall, the Water Treatment Plant Foreman died suddenly at age 43 and a woman leading the lawsuit against Flint was murdered in her home. Toxic Water Flint tap water in dated bottles. Flint tap water in dated bottles. The Flint water crisis began exactly two years ago, on April 2014, when Flint changed its water source from treated Detroit Water and Sewerage Department water to the Flint River – to which officials had failed to apply corrosion inhibitors. Almost immediately, Flint residents complained about the water’s color, taste and odor. In the following months, numerous water issues arose, with little to no governmental action to fix them. August and September 2014 boil-water advisories were issued by the city due to coliform bacteria detection On August 21, 2014 test showed the city’s water tested high for THMs, a chlorine byproduct of disinfecting water, with which long term exposure has been linked to cancer and other diseases. Though the city stated that the water was safe, the employees of the Flint Public Library declared the water undrinkable after noticing that the water from the faucets and toilets was discolored. On March 2, 2016, it was reported that the state of Michigan blocked Flint from returning to Lake Huron water from the Detroit water system when it agreed to grant the city an emergency loan of $7 million in April...
11 arrested during raid on NJ Weedman’s Joint, more than $19k in pot seized
11 arrested during raid on NJ Weedman’s Joint, more than $19k in pot seized
By Penny Ray thetrentonian.com Prosecutors say complaints from the community regarding constant foot traffic in and out of Ed Forchion’s businesses sparked a two-month investigation that resulted in his property being raided Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors also say they received information from multiple sources that Forchion, a pot legalization activist known as NJ Weedman, was distributing marijuana from out of the premises. The Mercer County Narcotics Task Force raided Forchion’s businesses, which includes a restaurant, religious sanctuary and tobacco shop, on East State Street and allegedly seized more than $19,000 in marijuana. During the raid, 11 people, including Forchion, were arrested for various offenses. Some were apprehended in connection with outstanding warrants, and others were charged with new drug offenses. When police searched the building, they allegedly found 56 grams of marijuana and 32 grams of edible marijuana candy in the sanctuary, more than a pound of marijuana butter in the kitchen, as well as ten grams of marijuana and a large amount of drug paraphernalia in the tobacco shop. Police also seized $85 that was in a jar that read, “Nothing is free donate.” Prosecutors say police also found 1,055 grams of marijuana, five grams of hashish, five ounces of promethazine, digital scales and drug packaging materials in an office, where they also found $60 in cash, which was seized. Police allegedly found an additional 28 grams of marijuana in the rear yard of the property. Prosecutors say Shawn Hurley was arrested after police saw him toss a deck of heroin off of the roof when the raid began, and that Tomas Geronimo was arrested for distributing marijuana during the course of the investigation. Police also seized a Toyota Matrix and two other vehicles that were parked outside of the premises during the raid, along with $330 that Forchion had on his person. Prosecutors say police also raided a South Olden Avenue home in Hamilton in connection to the investigation and found seven grams of marijuana in the garage and additional drug paraphernalia throughout the residence. The homeowner, 52-year-old Sharon Shelton, was arrested when she arrived home during the search. Police say the estimated street value of the seized drugs is $19,270. Forchion, 51, is charged with several...
Is it Honorable to be in the Military?
Is it Honorable to be in the Military?
Steve-Patterson.com Courageous. Noble. Honorable. Just some of the adjectives used to describe military men. In most parts of the United States, being a soldier comes with a guarantee of respect. Americans seem to thank soldiers at every opportunity for “defending our freedom.” The story goes like this: Young men and women risk their lives to defend the United States. They are willing to die for their country, which is a reflection of their noble character. Without them, we wouldn’t be free. Therefore, they deserve respect. I disagree with this narrative. In fact, I’d say nearly the opposite is true: in most cases, being in the military is nothing admirable; it’s dishonorable. Pitiful, even. I mean this quite precisely, not as an insult. Allow me to make my case. The central point is this: fighting for your country is insufficient reason for respect. What matters is why the country is fighting. Since most military action in the last half-century has been for illegitimate purposes, most soldiers are fighting for an illegitimate cause. Therefore, they are not honorable; they are dishonorable and dangerous. A Simple Example The first point is easy to make. Merely risking your life in the military cannot be respectable by itself. Take the simplest, most extreme case: Nazi soldiers. They were young men, fighting for their country and family, until the point of death. Yet, we view Nazi soldiers as not only dishonorable, but downright evil. Why? The cause for which they fought. Nazism was immoral. Therefore every single soldier was promoting and defending an immoral cause. In fact, it’s precisely the soldiers who deserve the most blame. They were the ultimate enforcers of Nazism, not Hitler. Note: consider the young Nazi soldier who doesn’t actively hate Jews. He doesn’t desire world domination. He’s “just doing his job” – just making a paycheck for his family. Does he deserve respect? Of course not. His labor still contributes to an evil organization; his paycheck comes from despicable thugs. Consider the Nazi who even disagrees with Hitler. He doesn’t support the war. He even complains to his superiors and becomes disillusioned. But, he is still employed by them and reluctantly gathers their military intelligence. He begrudgingly contributes to...
Half of Americans think the presidential election is ‘rigged’
Half of Americans think the presidential election is ‘rigged’
Chris Kahn Reuters.com More than half of American voters believe that the system U.S. political parties use to pick their candidates for the White House is “rigged” and more than two-thirds want to see the process changed, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. The results echo complaints from Republican front-runner Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders that the system is stacked against them in favor of candidates with close ties to their parties – a critique that has triggered a nationwide debate over whether the process is fair. The United States is one of just a handful of countries that gives regular voters any say in who should make it onto the presidential ballot. But the state-by-state system of primaries, caucuses and conventions is complex. The contests historically were always party events, and while the popular vote has grown in influence since the mid-20th century, the parties still have considerable sway. One quirk of the U.S. system – and the area where the parties get to flex their muscle – is the use of delegates, party members who are assigned to support contenders at their respective conventions, usually based on voting results. The parties decide how delegates are awarded in each state, with the Republicans and Democrats having different rules. The delegates’ personal opinions can come into play at the party conventions if the race is too close to call – an issue that has become a lightning rod in the current political season. Another complication is that state governments have different rules about whether voters must be registered as party members to participate. In some states, parties further restrict delegate selection to small committees of party elites, as the Republican Party in Colorado did this year. ‘SO FLAWED’ “I’d prefer to see a one-man-one-vote system,” said Royce Young, 76, a resident of Society Hill, South Carolina, who supports Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. “The process is so flawed.” Trump has repeatedly railed against the rules, at times calling them undemocratic. After the Colorado Republican Party awarded all its delegates to Ted Cruz, for example, Trump lashed out in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, charging “the system is being rigged by party operatives with ‘double-agent’ delegates who reject...
NSA is so overwhelmed with data, it’s no longer effective, says whistleblower
NSA is so overwhelmed with data, it’s no longer effective, says whistleblower
by Zack Whittaker Zdnet.com NEW YORK — A former National Security Agency official turned whistleblower has spent almost a decade and a half in civilian life. And he says he’s still “pissed” by what he’s seen leak in the past two years. In a lunch meeting hosted by Contrast Security founder Jeff Williams on Wednesday, William Binney, a former NSA official who spent more than three decades at the agency, said the US government’s mass surveillance programs have become so engorged with data that they are no longer effective, losing vital intelligence in the fray. As the Snowden leaks began, there was “fear and panic” in Congress Just a few minutes after the first NSA leak was published, the phones of US lawmakers began to buzz, hours before most of America would find out over their morning coffee. Binney said that an analyst today can run one simple query across the NSA’s various databases, only to become immediately overloaded with information. With about four billion people — around two-thirds of the world’s population — under the NSA and partner agencies’ watchful eyes, according to his estimates, there is too much data being collected. “That’s why they couldn’t stop the Boston bombing, or the Paris shootings, because the data was all there,” said Binney. Because the agency isn’t carefully and methodically setting its tools up for smart data collection, that leaves analysts to search for a needle in a haystack. “The data was all there… the NSA is great at going back over it forensically for years to see what they were doing before that,” he said. “But that doesn’t stop it.” Binney called this a “bulk data failure” — in that the NSA programs, leaked by Edward Snowden, are collecting too much for the agency to process. He said the problem runs deeper across law enforcement and other federal agencies, like the FBI, the CIA, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which all have access to NSA intelligence. Binney left the NSA a month after the September 11 attacks in New York City in 2001, days after controversial counter-terrorism legislation was enacted — the Patriot Act — in the wake of the attacks. Binney stands jaded by...
California City Votes In Favor Of Converting Former Prison Into Marijuana Oil Factory
California City Votes In Favor Of Converting Former Prison Into Marijuana Oil Factory
By Duke London Marijuana.com An abandoned correctional facility in the city of Coalinga, CA is on the verge of undergoing quite the role reversal. The City Council voted 4-1 in favor of leasing the vacant Claremont Custody Center to a privately held company, who would subsequently transform the prison into a large-scale commercial manufacturing plant for marijuana extraction. Coalinga held a public workshop Wednesday evening to vote on the Claremont re-purposing as well as two other related issues. They again voted 4-1, this time in favor of introducing a ballot measure to citizens regarding the opening of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city, and on the third and final issue, voted unanimously to tax these businesses in the event they do become legal. The move could potentially be a financial windfall for the city as they’d theoretically be collecting revenue on the property as well as a tax on the product. David McPherson of HdL, a company that provides financial advice and auditing services to over 160 California cities, counts Coalinga as a client and attended the workshop to discuss how similar ventures affected the balance sheets of other cities. A pioneer in the field, McPherson was the first city administrator in the country to regulate and tax the sale of medical marijuana when he implemented the system in Oakland. On Wednesday night, he offered solutions to maximize the possible revenue for Coalinga, including taxing cultivation operations, like the proposed plan at Claremont, by square footage and dispensaries by their gross income. Councilman Ron Lander, the only member to oppose the Claremont deal, pressed McPherson for financial details in regards to other cities’ adoption of these types of practices. While McPherson was reluctant to provide concrete numbers, he hinted at the potential cash cow this could represent for Coalinga based on the results in Adelanto, CA. “I read in the Orange County Register that they (Adelanto) currently have six cultivations moving forward,” Lander stated. “Twenty-six,” McPherson quickly corrected, as he and HdL also represent Adelanto. “I’ve heard the revenue would be more than their general fund,” Councilman Nathan Vosburg said. “That’s about right,” McPherson said, which resulted in an audible gasp from citizens and the Council alike. For reference,...
A party drug instantly cured my depression
A party drug instantly cured my depression
By Jane Ridley Despite suffering from major depression, Liz Lehmann managed to hold down a job as manager of an animal hospital where scores of pets had surgery each week, anesthetized by the drug ketamine. Four years on, to her amazement, the mother of four discovered that a low dose of the same medication — popularly known as the psychedelic club drug Special K and also used as a horse tranquillizer — held the key to alleviating her depression. “It was a last-ditch measure but it’s been nothing short of a miracle,” Lehmann, 51, says of the regular infusions she receives at Ketamine Treatment Centers of Princeton, NJ, one of a growing number of private clinics offering the procedure, which costs $350 to $1,000 per session. –– ADVERTISEMENT –– “It has changed my life, and I started functioning,” says Lehmann. “Without it, I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning.” Ketamine for depression is poised to be one of the biggest breakthroughs in psychiatric medicine — the largest since Prozac was approved by the FDA in 1987. The American Psychiatric Association is about to issue practice guidelines governing ketamine’s use as an off-label treatment for anxiety and depression, and Johnson & Johnson is expected to apply to the FDA for approval of a nasal spay version of ketamine, called esketamine, for treatment-resistant depression by 2019. Studies show the drug — which is used illegally for its hallucinogenic effects but has been employed for decades as an anesthetic, and since 2010 as a treatment for depression — appears to work by acting on one of the brain’s neurotransmitters and sparking growth of new connections among cells, repairing the structural damage that depression causes to the brain. It may also help combat climbing suicide rates. A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released last week found that US suicide rates are on the rise — jumping an astonishing 60 percent among middle-aged women since 1999. Lehmann, who has suffered from depression since childhood, most recently endured a three-year period of postpartum depression following the birth of her fourth child, Alex, at the age of 47. Her psychiatrist prescribed her practically every antidepressant and anxiety drug on the...
Looting On the Rise As Venezuela Runs Out of Food, Electricity
Looting On the Rise As Venezuela Runs Out of Food, Electricity
PanamaPost.com Despair and violence is taking over Venezuela. The economic crisis sweeping the nation means people have to withstand widespread shortages of staple products, medicine, and food. So when the Maduro administration began rationing electricity this week, leaving entire cities in the dark for up to 4 hours every day, discontent gave way to social unrest. Maracaibo, in the western state of Zulia, is the epicenter of thefts: on Tuesday alone, Venezuelans raided pharmacies, shopping malls, supermarkets, and even trucks with food in seven different areas of the city. Although at least nine people were arrested, and 2,000 security officers were deployed in the state, Zulia’s Secretary of Government Giovanny Villalobos asked citizens not to leave their homes. “There are violent people out there that can harm you,” he warned. In Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, citizens reported looting in at least three areas of the city. Twitter users reported that thefts occurred throughout the night in the industrial zone of La California, Campo Rico, and Buena Vista. They assured that several locals were robbed and that there were people on the street shouting “we are hungry!” The same happened in Carabobo, a state in central Venezuela. Through Twitter, a journalist from Valencia reported the looting of a deli. The crime took place on Tuesday evening amid a wave of protests against prolonged power rationing and outages in multiple parts of the country. Food for 15 Days Supermarkets employees from Valencia told the PanAm Post that besides no longer receiving the same amount of food as before, they must deal with angry Venezuelans who come to the stores only to find out there’s little to buy. Purchases in supermarkets are rationed through a fingerprint system that does not allow Venezuelans to acquire the same regulated food for two weeks. Due to the country’s mangled economy, millions must stand in long lines for hours just to purchase basic products, which many resell for extra income as the country’s minimum wage is far from enough to cover a family’s needs. On Wednesday, the Venezuelan Chamber of Food (Cavidea) said in a statement that most companies only have 15 days worth of stocked food. According to the union, the production of...
FLUORIDATION MAY NOT PREVENT CAVITIES, SCIENTIFIC REVIEW SHOWS
FLUORIDATION MAY NOT PREVENT CAVITIES, SCIENTIFIC REVIEW SHOWS
Newsweek.com If you’re like two-thirds of Americans, fluoride is added to your tap water for the purpose of reducing cavities. But the scientific rationale for putting it there may be outdated, and no longer as clear-cut as was once thought. Water fluoridation, which first began in 1945 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and expanded nationwide over the years, has always been controversial. Those opposed to the process have argued—and a growing number of studies have suggested—that the chemical may present a number of health risks, for example interfering with the endocrine system and increasing the risk of impaired brain function; two studies in the last few months, for example, have linked fluoridation to ADHD and underactive thyroid. Others argue against water fluoridation on ethical grounds, saying the process forces people to consume a substance they may not know is there—or that they’d rather avoid. Despite concerns about safety and ethics, many are content to continue fluoridation because of its purported benefit: that it reduces tooth decay. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Oral Health, the main government body responsible for the process, says it’s “safe and effective.” You might think, then, that fluoridated water’s efficacy as a cavity preventer would be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. But new research suggests that assumption is dramatically misguided; while using fluoridated toothpaste has been proven to be good for oral health, consuming fluoridated water may have no positive impact. The Cochrane Collaboration, a group of doctors and researchers known for their comprehensive reviews—which are widely regarded as the gold standard of scientific rigor in assessing effectiveness of public health policies—recently set out to find out if fluoridation reduces cavities. They reviewed every study done on fluoridation that they could find, and then winnowed down the collection to only the most comprehensive, well-designed and reliable papers. Then they analyzed these studies’ results, and published their conclusion in a review earlier this month. The review identified only three studies since 1975—of sufficient quality to be included—that addressed the effectiveness of fluoridation on tooth decay in the population at large. These papers determined that fluoridation does not reduce cavities to a statistically significant degree in permanent teeth, says study co-author Anne-Marie...
27 Civilians Killed in Airstrike on Hospital
27 Civilians Killed in Airstrike on Hospital
. Jason Ditz While initial reports from last night suggested only a handful of deaths in the airstrike against a hospital in the rebel-held part of the Syrian city of Aleppo, as more and more bodies were recovered from the ruins the toll continued to rise. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has now put the death toll at 27, while other local groups have suggested it was even higher. Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which supports the hospital, says it was more or less completely destroyed in a direct air strike. The Syrian military denied involvement in the strike, insisting they had no warplanes in the area at the time. Russia has yet to comment on the matter. The district attacked is held by rebels including al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front, which has made it a target in recent days. Likewise, the Nusra Front has been shelling and firing rockets at a western Aleppo district controlled by the government. Much as with the airstrikes, the casualties appear to be almost exclusively civilians, with at least 11 killed yesterday in government districts, and the Syrian state media reporting it could be as many as 14. Read More...
US ready to offer Israel largest aid package in history
US ready to offer Israel largest aid package in history
A White House official indicated on Monday that the Obama administration was ready to offer Israel the largest military aid package offered to any country over the course of US history. Amid a push by a large majority of senators to increase foreign aid to Israel, a White House official told Reuters: “We are prepared to sign an MOU [memorandum of understanding] with Israel that would constitute the largest single pledge of military assistance to any country in US history.” The official said discussions with Israel were ongoing on a memorandum of understanding that would increase US military aid to Israel for the next 10 years, due to be renewed before 2018. More than 80 of the 100 sitting US senators signed a letter Monday calling on President Barack Obama to increase aid to Israel and immediately sign an agreement on a new defense package. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is not one of the 83 signatories. “In light of Israel’s dramatically rising defense challenges, we stand ready to support a substantially enhanced new long-term agreement to help provide Israel the resources it requires to defend itself and preserve its qualitative military edge,” said the letter, which was seen by Reuters. Republican Lindsey Graham and Democrat Chris Coons were behind the letter, which was signed by 51 Republican and 32 Democratic senators. Israeli soldiers patrol near an Iron Dome defense system, designed to intercept and destroy incoming short-range rockets and artillery shells, in the Golan Heights, on January 20, 2015. (AFP/Jack Guez) Israeli soldiers patrol near an Iron Dome defense system, designed to intercept and destroy incoming short-range rockets and artillery shells, in the Golan Heights, on January 20, 2015. (AFP/Jack Guez) Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz was one of the signatories, while Sanders was not. Due to expire in 2018, the current aid package stands at $3 billion annually, and, according to reports, Israel wants to up the amount to $5 billion annually. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hinted he may wait to negotiate with Obama’s successor to try and secure a better deal. Israel welcomed the reports but did not comment on the status of talks over the deal. Speaking to The Times of Israel last...
Lyin' Ted and Kasich are mathematically dead and totally desperate. Their donors & special interest groups are not happy with them. Sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2016
The Latest Steps the Establishment Are Using Against Donald Trump
The Latest Steps the Establishment Are Using Against Donald Trump
Ted Cruz and John Kasich join forces to stop Donald Trump In an announcement made on Sunday night, Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio agreed to coordinate a last-ditch effort to deny Donald J. Trump the Republican presidential nomination. Jeff Rowe, Ted Cruz’s campaign manager, said in a statement that the Cruz campaign would quote “focus its time and resources in Indiana and in turn clear the path for Governor Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico.” Kasich’s press release Mere minutes after Mr. Roe’s statement, a spokesman from the Kasich campaign released a similar message. The Ohio governor’s chief strategist, John Weaver, said that his campaign “would shift its resources the to states in the West and give the Cruz campaign a clear path in Indiana.” According to the agreement between the two camps, Kasich will not campaign in Indiana and Cruz won’t run in Oregon and New Mexico. The rationale is that they will not split the anti-Trump vote in these crucial states, thereby increasing the odds that one of them will win, denying Donald Trump the delegates he needs to be the nominee before the Republican convention. The magic number for the nomination is 1,237 delegates, and right now, all of the polls are consistently saying that Donald Trump will win the Republican nomination — without a strongly contested primary in one of these key states. According to the polls, Trump currently leads by a comfortable margin in both Indiana and California, which would, according to the projected numbers secure him the nomination victory. The whole Republican contest could very well come down to Indiana. This is because the state has 57 pledged delegates, and it awards those delegates on a winner-take-all basis. As a result, the difference between a narrow win and a loss is huge for the Trump campaign. If he wins statewide — even by a single point — it will be fairly easy for him to reach 1,237 delegates that he needs to secure the nomination. The alliance by Kasich and Cruz was already falling apart the day after it was announced. Kasich announced that he “still wants the people of Indiana to vote...
If you’re alive in 30 years, chances are good you may also be alive in 1000 years
If you’re alive in 30 years, chances are good you may also be alive in 1000 years
Sounds unlikely? It’s not – it’s actually quite likely. The only way to get people to live for a thousand years or more is to develop advanced technologies that can manipulate our bodies down to the cellular and molecular level. So the question is whether humanity will develop the necessary technologies over the next 30 years, or not. Personally, I think it’s very close to 100% certain that we’ll manage to do this. That is, we don’t have to perfect the technology in 30 years. What we must do is to develop technology that can make old people 10, 20 or 30 years younger, biologically speaking, so an 80-year-old, for example, can get the body of a 60-year-old. In that case, he has bought himself 20 more years of life, and in those 20 years the technology will have progressed even further, so that when he is 100 years and his body again is like an 80-year-old’s, he can rejuvenate more than 20 years. In all likelihood we will take treatments more often than once every 20 years, and if so, the remaining life expectancy can be illustrated like this: Image by Aubrey de Grey (I think) The figure is not entirely accurate, partly because people aged 100 years and 0 years clearly don’t have the same remaining life expectancy today, and also because the curves would be more jagged (since it might go some time between each treatment), but it still illustrates the point well: the numbers above the curves represent how old the person is today (today is all the way to the left in the figure), and if the curve hits the horizontal line at the bottom (the time axis), the person is dead. According to the figure, then, a person who’s 80 years old today will have difficulty living forever, while a typical 50-year-old might just make it. Normally, the remaining life expectancy of a person goes down as time passes and the person gets older. When someone is 50 years old, for example, one thinks that they have a shorter remaining life expectancy than when the person was 30. In the figure that means that the curve always slopes downward towards 0 (the horizontal...
Venezuela to ration power four hours a day for 40 days
Venezuela to ration power four hours a day for 40 days
Recession-hit Venezuela will turn off the electricity supply in its 10 most populous states for four hours a day for 40 days to deal with a severe power shortage, the government said Thursday. It is the latest drastic measure to alleviate a severe electricity crisis which President Nicolas Maduro and his government blame on a drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon. Critics say it is the result of years of economic mismanagement. “Each user will have a temporary suspension of four hours a day. The plan will last approximately 40 days” to ease pressure on the country’s largest hydroelectric dam, said Electricity Minister Luis Motta. Maduro is under growing pressure from the center-right opposition, which vowed to oust him when it took control of the legislature in January after winning a landslide election victory, blaming him for the crippling economic crisis. Venezuela’s economy has plunged along with the price of the oil which it relies on for foreign revenues. Shortages of medicines and goods such as toilet paper and cooking oil are widespread. Maduro blames the collapse on an “economic war” by capitalists. Last week, his government said it was shifting its time zone forward by 30 minutes to save power. Other measures include giving government workers an extra day off each week for the next two months, and Maduro has urged Venezuelan women to stop using their hairdryers. Motta had warned Wednesday that mandatory power cuts were imminent as he toured the Guri hydroelectric plant, where officials say the water level is approaching the critical limit. The dam supplies 70 percent of the country’s electricity. Seventeen other hydroelectric dams are also near critical levels, and citizens regularly suffer blackouts and water rationing. Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but the government has resisted using crude to generate electricity, calling it inefficient. – Beer cuts, too – Maduro’s other measures to cut electricity use include reducing the workday to six hours for ministries and state companies and ordering them to lower their electricity consumption by 20 percent. He has also ordered shops and hotels to ration electricity, obliging them to generate their own power for several hours a day. Shopping centers have cut back their...
Israel To Finally Face ICC Over War Crimes In Gaza
Israel To Finally Face ICC Over War Crimes In Gaza
Palestine plans to lodge its first complaint against Israel for alleged war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in just a couple of weeks. Mohammad Shtayyeh, minister at the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction, told AFP, “One of the first important steps will be filing a complaint against Israel at the ICC on April 1 over the (2014) Gaza war and settlement activity.” Palestine, a United Nations observer state, will officially join the ICC on April 1, having acceded to the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding charter, on Jan. 2. The court now has jurisdiction over the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Palestine lodged a request for the ICC to investigate possible war crimes in its territory on Jan. 1, the day before it acceded to the Rome Statute. The court has since opened a preliminary examination into the situation, which it said it would analyze in “full independence and impartiality.” MintPress News reported last month that Israel responded to the court’s announcement by calling on the 122 member states of the ICC to stop funding the court. The ICC “represents no one. It is a political body,” said Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. He also stated: “We will demand of our friends in Canada, in Australia and in Germany simply to stop funding it.” France, Britain, Germany and Italy told Reuters that they would ignore Israel’s call. Israel also stopped transferring tax revenue to the PLO in apparent retaliation for the PLO’s efforts to have the Mediterranean country investigated for war crimes. December’s taxes amounted up to $127 million, according to Haaretz, and could be used for the salaries of civil servants, including doctors and teachers. “This is money that is Palestinian money and therefore the decision of the Israeli government and [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to freeze it is against international law and it proves the justice of our request to the International Criminal Court,” said Saeb Erekat, a member of the PLO Executive Committee and the former chief Palestinian negotiator in the peace talks with Israel, in an interview with Haaretz. “What Israel did is a war crime that joins the crimes it has committed against the Palestinian people,” Erakat continued....
‘Saudis Did 9/11’ is a Zionist Ruse
‘Saudis Did 9/11’ is a Zionist Ruse
Just last month a US court ordered Iran to pay $10.5 billion in damages to the families of victims of the 9/11 attacks which it had nothing to do with, and now the US Congress is pushing a bill that would allow the government of Saudi Arabia to be sued in American courts for their alleged “role” in the attacks. The US mainstream media has been abuzz with headlines about Saudi Arabia’s alleged guilt. The New York Times ran a story claiming that the Saudis threatened to sell $750 billion in treasury securities and other assets in the US if the congress passed the 9/11 bill. The New York Post published a story headlined “How US covered up Saudi role in 9/11” which lays out the supposed smoking gun evidence that members of the Saudi regime and royal family bankrolled some of the alleged 9/11 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi we are constantly reminded. CNN-Saudis-911 This barrage of stories is clearly designed to provoke public outrage against the government of Saudi Arabia. Not only do these stories infer that the Saudi regime sponsored 9/11, but that they are now attempting to strong-arm the US government into covering it up. The resulting picture painted in the public’s mind is that of domineering Arabs lording it over the hapless and innocent nation of America that was not only attacked by Arabs on 9/11 but is now being forced to succumb to the pressure of Arab financial might. Unsurprisingly, this kosher storyline of Arab duplicity and conspiracy is being volubly championed by the new neoconservative hero Paul Joseph Watson. Manifestly, this utterly farcical narrative serves the Zionist vested interests who actually dominate the US political system. The Zionists and their American lapdogs have ample motive to deceive the public about the true sponsors, executioners and beneficiaries of the 9/11 attacks by laying a false trail of guilt towards Riyadh, just as they had done in 2001 by baselessly linking the atrocity to both the Taliban and Saddam Hussein to justify their overthrow. They’ve even attempted at various junctures to connect 9/11 to Iran, Hezbollah and the Palestinians. As Mike Rivero put it, 9/11 has been wielded by the US and...
Can Cell Phones Cause Cancer? The Answer is Yes
Can Cell Phones Cause Cancer? The Answer is Yes
While the connection between cellphones and cancer is still considered a controversial subject, years worth of studies show a definitive connection between cancer risks and electromagnetic radiation.
Why You NEED Psychological Healing & Education
Why You NEED Psychological Healing & Education
“A great change of our psychological attitude is imminent, that is certain…we need more psychology, we need more understanding of human nature because the only real danger that exists is man himself, he is the great danger, and we are pitifully unaware of it, we know nothing of man, far too little. His psyche should be studied because we are the origin of all coming evil.” ~Carl G. Jung If history has shown us anything, it’s that the human capacity for normalizing unhealthy, pathological behavior is astounding and perilous, even in well-meaning truth-seekers. We all have blind spots. It happens on every level of life more often than you’d think! For a simple, immediate example: observe your body right now. Feel what muscles are unconsciously constricted- your back, jaw, neck, legs, your stomach muscles causing you to take shallow breaths? All of these are physical responses to psychological stress. But are you in any immediate danger now? Probably not (unless you’ve been glued to Facebook for hours, letting your butt slowly pancake to your seat, causing your legs to atrophy. ;-)… In which case, take a walk and come back…) Now, feel your body and sit silently with yourself for a moment. Are you carrying any unresolved stress inside you? Probably. Even sitting in front of the computer for long periods of time causes stress on the body. Now relax your body, take a few slow, deep breaths from your belly, drop the energy from your head in to your body, and feel the difference as your body realigns itself to be more comfortable. Feel the difference? Chances are that you weren’t even consciously aware of how uncomfortable your body was until you were encouraged to stop, observe, and let it unwind. This same “normalizing principle” applies not just to your body but also your mind. Collectively, we have been both consciously and unconsciously influenced to assimilate to unhealthy ideologies and behaviors since childhood. The majority of our functioning stems from the unconscious & subconscious mind, be it the regulation of neurological chemicals, automatic breathing, emotional responses, how we hold our bodies, how we respond to others, etc… The list goes on and on. Despite how...
Watch What Happens When Cannabis Is Injected Into Cancer Cells. This Is Mind Blowing
Watch What Happens When Cannabis Is Injected Into Cancer Cells. This Is Mind Blowing
Back in 1974 there was a study done from the Washington Post that stated that THC, “slowed the growth of lung cancers, breast cancers and a virus-induced leukemia in laboratory mice, and prolonged their lives by as much as 36%.” Unfortunately, nothing was ever done after that study in regards to cannabis fighting cancer. In 1998, a new study, by Madrid Complutense states ” THC can cause cancer cells to die, and unlike chemotherapy, the THC kills nothing but the cancer cells, leaving the brain of course completely unharmed.” Watch the below video to show the effect of THC on cancer cells. While leaps and bounds have been made recently regarding the legalization of this substance, a lot of the research regarding cannabis fighting cancer has been halted due to legalities and major pharmaceutical companies. It is incredible to think that a drug our government has been trying to eradicate can cause cancer to die, why aren’t more doctors and hospitals prescribing cannabis to their patients? The video of cannabis fighting cancer should be enough evidence to fund more research. I’d love to know more about cannabis fighting cancer along with the research that either supports or disproves this video. Read More...
Frank Zappa on crossfire 1986 Censorship
Frank Zappa on crossfire 1986 Censorship
Dee Snider’s Epic Senate Hearing Speech – Censorship
Dee Snider’s Epic Senate Hearing Speech – Censorship
NBC News – Muhammad Ali on not going to war
NBC News – Muhammad Ali on not going to war
What It Means to ‘Know Thyself’
What It Means to ‘Know Thyself’
It is said by several esoteric sources that to “Know Thyself” is one of the most important things a person can do. Without self-knowledge, we are absent from ourselves, easily controlled by others, and lose all direction in our lives. So how do we go about actually “knowing ourselves” and reclaiming our lives?
The Art of Holding Space
The Art of Holding Space
The world can be a demanding and difficult place, and we all need someone to help us through our dark times by holding space for us to process our emotions. You don’t need to be a therapist or a genius to hold space. Holding space is something we can all do for each other, wither it’s with our partners, our children, our friends, our pets, our neighbors, and even strangers in passing. We all need it, yet relatively few of us actually know how to do it well, so let’s explore the art of holding space.
High School Student Invents Cheaper Hearing Aid
High School Student Invents Cheaper Hearing Aid
A summer with his grandfather was all it took for him to be inspired. When Mukund Venkatakrishnan was 14, he visited India and was tasked with helping his grandfather get tested and fitted for a hearing aid. He saw what a costly and difficult process it was and resolved to find an alternative. “Since audiologists are specialists, even finding and getting an appointment with one in India was really hard,” said Venkatakrishnan, who is now 16. “And then we got ripped off.” Venkatakrishnan said they spent about $400 or $500 on doctor’s appointments and about $1,900 on the hearing aid itself. He realized that hearing is a luxury many people in developing countries can’t afford. “In India, the median household income is $616 a year,” Venkatakrishnan said. “If someone in India saves all year without spending a penny, they still can’t afford a hearing aid.” Venkatakrishnan’s device is unique because it not only tests a person’s hearing with a series of beeps, but it also programs itself to become a hearing aid. It only costs about $50 to make and can be used with even the cheapest set of headphones. Unlike with traditional hearing aids, if the ear piece gets damaged it isn’t costly to replace — you just buy another set of ear buds. In its current form, the device is about two inches and looks like a computer processor. Venkatakrishnan is planning to bring it down to about one inch and encase the operating system. He envisions the device, which has a standard headphone port, fitting into someone’s pocket. Venkatakrishnan even created a way for users to calibrate the device themselves. Each device has an audio file of the sound of hands rubbing together. To calibrate it, a person just has to rub their own hands together and match the volume of the audio file with the volume of their own hands. If the user can’t hear their own hands, someone else can calibrate it for them. Venkatakrishnan, now 16, spent two years teaching himself to code, building the audio program and developing the device. He made it completely on his own but received guidance from engineers, like his father, and audiologists. Working with the doctors, he conducted...
Taking Activism to the Next Level
Taking Activism to the Next Level
When it comes to the betterment of humanity, activism is perhaps the most important yet most controversial element in society. Activists are the free thinkers, the system busters, the loving warriors, the boat-rockers, and the truth tellers. These visionaries are the vanguard of social reform, acting as the warning system for a society out of balance. Activists are often criticized, ostracized, and even killed, yet their legacy stands among the most virtuous of contributions throughout history. Whether in the form of social media outcry, boycotts, protests, public art (Banksy), sit-ins, or armed insurrection, activists have undoubtedly been a major driving force of progressive social change. Yet despite the intensity of external focus typical in most activists, honorable and necessary though it is, internal focus for the purposes of Self-Work, tends to be lacking in the majority of activists. This explains why there are social REVOLUTIONS (revolution = revolve = circular spin = going in circles) instead of social EVOLUTION, which transcends the violent, divisive, authoritarian paradigms which has enslaved humanity for centuries. If activists integrated Self-Work as part of their transformative process, not only would they be more effective and healthier on all levels, but their impact on society would move beyond minor accommodations to a deeper paradigm shift. Due to this deficiency of Self-Work, many well-intentioned activists, swept away by their righteous anger in the “revolutionary mindset”, become just as aggressive and power-hungry as the tyrants they vehemently oppose. Violence is all too often met with violence as police brutality is met with rioting (an understandable yet self-defeating reaction), and “in-fighting” by activists against other well-intentioned activists exacerbates our challenges rather then allowing for a peaceful exchange of ideas. This hyper-aggression only serves to perpetuate violence which could otherwise be resolved with responsible self-awareness, compassion, critical thinking, and a broader perspective. This is the obstacle humanity has yet to overcome through Self-Work, and, as the saying goes, “When people do not learn their lessons, history repeats itself.” There are many people speaking out about the atrocities and injustices of the world. Oftentimes activism comes with a lot of finger-pointing and hostility. Understandable. Who wouldn’t be upset? The problems of the world often seem insurmountable and sometimes the weight of life wears down...
@Lukewearechange
Coinbase Address:17zfAyA1kxieD7QzjRUDLrRPRxxfPDZxtD