The main thing is her contention that there is no epidemic in Liberia. If not, then why has Liberia just said it needs 84,000 more body bags and a million-and-a-half air filtration masks for people to wear?It seems to me that a number of things are true.
1) The Ebola virus is a bio-warfare virus, likely of USSA manufacture.
2) People really are being killed by Ebola.
3) The Ebola crisis has caused enormous societal disruption in West Africa.
4) Ebola is being purposefully brought into the USSA.
5) There is a threat of a global epidemic.
6) Disinformation about all of these things is rampant.
Liberia had about 3,000 qualified doctors at the start of the civil war in the late 1980s – and by its end in 2003 it had just three dozen”.
Instead of Appointing a Medical Expert, Obama Appoints a Lobbyist as Ebola Czar
What’s He Going To Do? Lobby To Convince Congress That
Ebola Is Not That Big a Risk?
Obama has appointed Ron Klain as the Ebola Czar.
Klain has no medical or healthcare background whatsoever.
Instead, he’s a high-powered lobbyist. He helped the corrupt Fannie Mae to overcome “regulatory issues” in 2004. Wikipedia notes:
Klain [helped in] convincing Congress and Fannie Mae’s regulators that Fannie Mae wasn’t doing anything dangerous, and wasn’t exposing taxpayers to risk. In other words, Ron Klain got paid to help fuel the housing bubble up until a couple of years before it popped.
Klain also:
Represented a company facing asbestos-exposure lawsuits, the embattled drugmaker ImClone and two companies trying to win support for large mergers.
What’s he going to do … lobby to convince Congress that Ebola is not that big a risk?
Klain is also a major Democratic operative, serving as Chief of Staff for Vice Presidents Al Gore and Joe Biden. As such, it is not unlikely that he will be motivated to cover up for any missteps by Obama and CDC chair Tom Frieden.
Matt Stoller – a Democrat who knows as much about D.C. politics as anyone – notes:
Ron Klain is a fixer who is well-connected and knows his way around the exec branch. His skill is fixing PR problems, not logistics.
He’s not a doctor … just a spin doctor.
Obama Fights Ebola With a Czar and Soldiers
The public continues to be reassured that ebola is not a problem for the US, but CNN
Little wonder ebola conspiracy theories are spreading faster than ebola. And as far as any of us know, the conspiracies could be true.
University of Illinois law professor Francis Boyle, an expert of the perfidies of the US government, reminds us that Sierra Leone and Liberia, the countries most affected by the ebola outbreak, are two West African countries that host US biological warfare laboratories. Professor Boyle asks how the disease, which is mainly associated with equatorial Congo reached West Africa thousands of kilometers away.
Washington’s response is itself peculiar. The Obama regime sent 4,000 US soldiers to West Africa to fight ebola. Soldiers don’t have training or equipment with which to combat ebola. Why expose 4,000 Americans to an epidemic? This seemingly pointless decision has raised suspicions that Washington is exposing troops to ebola so that vaccines or treatments can be tested on the troops.
Other commentators have noticed that West Africa is an area of Chinese investments. They wonder if Washington is using the cover of ebola to occupy the countries or even set the disease loose in order to drive out the Chinese. The new US Africa Command was formed to counteract Chinese economic penetration in Africa.
The incompetence of US public health authorities in responding to ebola gives legs to these theories. Real conspiracies abound. Those who say “it’s just a conspiracy theory” need to look up the meaning of conspiracy. As one commentator observed, the CDC’s response to ebola is too stupid for stupid.
The CDC’s protocol is based on assumptions about ebola that do not seem to be true for the current strain. A nurse, who treated the ebola patient in Dallas who died, was given the green light to fly commercially even though she reported to CDC that she had symptoms. She exposed 132 passengers on the flight, and these passengers have since been in contact with thousands of other people. The Daily Mail has published photographs of an American with a clipboard and without protective suiting boarding the nurse on a private airplane on way to hospital quarantine. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2794854/what-thinking-mystery-man-without-hazmat-suit-seen-helping-2nd-ebola-nurse-board-plane-atlanta-joining-them.html
US public health authorities have imposed no quarantine on travel to the US from infected countries. US airlines continue to fly to and fro from the infected countries despite the risk of introducing new infections into the US.
African countries are doing a much better job than the hegemonic superpower. They have closed borders, prevented air travel, and tracked down infected persons and those exposed to them. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AF_EBOLA_AFRICA_CONTAINMENT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-10-16-14-24-38
Instead of taking sensible precautions, the Obama regime appoints an Ebola Czar and sends 4,000 Americans into the areas where the disease rages.
Little wonder that Americans have no confidence in their government.
As the Republicans want to privatize and outsource everything, why not close down Washington and outsource our governance to a more competent country?
Note: And there is this view also: http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2014/10/17/ebola-hoax-hidden-purpose-of-the-operation/
us-army-manuel-says-confirmed-cases-of-airborne-ebola-usamrid
These instances have prompted concern of a rare phenomenon of aerosol transmission of infection. Click image to read official Army manual.
The handbook published by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, USAMRID, titled “USAMRID’s Medical Management of Biological Casualties Handbook,” is now in its seventh edition.
The most recent edition was published in 2011, with more than 100,000 copies distributed to military and civilian health-care providers around the world.
On page 177 of the handbook, in a chapter discussing “Viral Hemorrhagic Fever” (VHF), a category of viruses that includes Ebola, USAMRID says:
“In several instances, secondary infections among contacts and medical personnel without direct body fluid exposure have been documented. These instances have prompted concern of a rare phenomenon of aerosol transmission of infection.”
Page 177 continues to specify:
“Therefore, when VHF is suspected, additional infection control measures are indicated.”
USAMRID recommends the patient should be hospitalized in a private room with an adjoining anteroom to be used for donning and removing protective barriers, storage of supplies and decontamination of laboratory specimen containers.
WEAPONIZED: The Case for Ebola Coming From a Bioweapons Lab
21st Century Wire
Did Ebola really jump from African Fruit Bats to humans in 1976, or has this deadly pathogen emerged from a high-level bioweapons lab?
The Ebola Airline Frenzy hit fever pitch this week in the US. A select few lunatics in the corporate media government are saying some crazy things, too. For the first time ever, establishment conspiracy theorists are out-doing the blogasphere.
Leading the charge is Capt. Al Shimkus, a retired Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, who believes ISIS terrorists will use “human carriers” by intentionally infecting themselves in West Africa, before transporting the deadly virus via passenger airliner. That’s a lot of air miles for ISIS. Other wild wayward politicians, like former US Senator Scott Brown, are saying it too. Just imagine, a plot so outlandish that even Hollywood would have to politely pass on it.
But while highly-paid official media and military conspiracy theorists try to capitalize on the Ebola panic, the real truth is being obscured by their highly ornate, fear-driven PR smokescreen.
Before we make up our mind on the question of a genetically weaponized Ebola, let’s look at some facts, some cover-ups, as well as better understand historically how governments have always had a fatal attraction to a variety of deadly bioweapons…
In addition to a number international theories and analysis pointing to Ebola as a bioweapon, most Americans are completely unaware that the US is set to open one of the world’s largest bioweapons labs in 2015 – not in the US, but in the former Soviet satellite state of Kazakhstan.To top it all off, it’s built on an active seismic zone.
The new off-shore clandestine facility appears to fall under the Pentagon’s previously low-profiled, Orwellian titled, ‘US Defense Threat Reduction Agency’. A colorful former Soviet bioweaons scientist who is now affiliated with CIA, Dr Ken Alibek, also seems to be somehow involved with the the new US lab.
In their article, “Why The U.S. Is Building A High-Tech Bubonic Plague Lab In Kazakhstan?”, Vice Magazine’s Alex Pasternack seems to think other forces are at play:
“Today, biologists who worked in the former Soviet Union—like those who responded to a case of the plague across the border in Kyrgyzstan this week—are likely to brush Alibek’s fears aside. But they’ll also tell you that the fall of the Soviet Union devastated their profession, leaving some once prominent scientists in places like Almaty scrambling for new work.”
“You cannot erase this knowledge from someone’s mind,” said Lt. Col. Charles Carlton, director of the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency office in Kazakhstan. The threat of scientists going rogue, he said, is “a serious concern.” “We’re doing our best to employ these people. Our hope is that through gainful employment they won’t be drawn down other avenues.”
Governments Love Bioweapons
Is Ebola a US-developed bioweapon – as many have speculated already? US patent records show that an Ebola virus strain is held with the CDC. Check it out here.
Government and military fascination (and machinations) with biological weapons, or “bioweapons”, dates back to as early as 1,500 B.C. when the Hittites of Asia Minor sent plague victims into their adversaries’ lands. Later, the Romans used biological warfare on many occasions, including putting dead horses into an enemy’s water supply, and poisoning their enemy’s water supply with an intestinal typhoid bacteria.
Fast forward to the 20th century and we can see industrial development and military deployment of chemical and biological weapons like Anthrax – used by the Japanese against the Chinese, but also ready to be used by the British – against Germany. As it turns out, it is the British who really pioneered the use of live virus bioweapons, with many war historians believing they usedSmallpox as a biological warfare agent in the French and Indian Wars (1754-1763), and the American Revolutionary War (1775-1778).
Aside from classified US bioweapons facilities at Fort Detrick, Maryland and Plum Island in New York, other top bioweapons labs include Porton Down in England, Great Britian, and in South Africa at Roodeplaat Research Laboratories, home of the notorious and deadly Project Coast.
Evidence suggests that the infamous US Anthrax Attacks of 2001 were the result of an engineered bioweapon being taken out of the lab and used against the public. Journalists lik His death seemed to mirror another high profile scientist, Dr. David Kelly (photo, left), who was also ‘suicided’ before being able to testify in front of a public hearing on, among other things, the missing Iraqi WMD’s.
Other popular bioweapons throughout history include Dead bodies, Tuberculosis, Bubonic Plague, Cholera, Tularemia (rabbit fever) and Botulinum Toxins, along with bioweapons still being researched – like Chimera Viruses. Ebola could easily be added to that list, if hasn’t been already.
Watch this video of the Top 10 Deadliest Bioweapons:
If you’ve been following this subject of vaccines, then you will know that the truly mad visions and projects are those of the elite and the think tank-funded ‘futurists’. Melissa Melton fromTruthstream Media explains:
“Questions like what happens if a mosquito bites an infected person, then flies off and bites someone else. Can Ebola spread then? Bill Gates certainly seemed to think so when he was funding research into mosquitoes as vaccine deployment systems.”
Conversely,
, are warranted, considering the depth and pedigree of bioweapons programs, particularly those ‘top secret’ military lab facilities in, or run by the US, which the US is still very reluctant to disclose.
Is the African Ebola the spill-over, either accidentally or intentionally, into Europe and the US – from a bioweapons lab?
DOCTOR’S ORDERS:
If you want to live, ignore the CDC
Exclusive: Dr. Richard Amerling warns government incapable of protecting citizenry
By Richard Amerling, M.D., of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
I almost feel sorry for Tom Frieden, director of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). So many of his pronouncements have been eviscerated by events within hours or days. He has become a punchline and should resign for the good of the country.
To maintain, as does Dr. Frieden, that stopping travel to the U.S. from the few countries where Ebola is running rampant would somehow harm us is illogical to the point of absurdity. And it is now clear to every other sentient being that Ebola is far more contagious, and deadly, than AIDS, to which Dr. Frieden compared Ebola. The latest nugget is that Amber Vinson, the second Dallas nurse diagnosed with Ebola, called the CDC numerous times before boarding her flight from Cleveland back to Dallas and was told it was OK for her to fly because her fever did not quite reach the protocolized threshold!
Michelle Malkin describes how the CDC has been diverted from its original role into one of political “transformation.” Rather than fight disease, the CDC now pushes for mandatory motorcycle helmet laws, and studies playground accidents, video games and violence, and “social norming” in schools! No wonder it can’t handle Ebola.
This perversion of an organization is par for the Obama golf course. It resembles the transformation of NASA into a Muslim outreach group, or sending our military men and women to fight Ebola in Liberia. This latter is an outrageous abuse of our already beaten-down military. There should be generals resigning over this suicide mission.
Last week, Dan Henninger wrote in the Wall Street Journal about “Killer Bureaucracies”: “Ebola, the Secret Service, Veterans Affairs, Obamacare’s rollout, the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Behind all these names are federal bureaucracies that are supposed to protect people or help them. Instead they have been putting individuals at risk, or worse.”
It should be clear to all by now that federal bureaucracies are either too corrupt, politicized, or incompetent to fulfill their core missions. I recently learned a new acronym: POSIWID. The Purpose of Something Is What It Does. This is a useful heuristic to cut through the mission statements, and so-called good intentions of people and organizations. The purpose of bureaucracies is to continually expand their payroll, budgets, and missions to the point of becoming massive, inefficient, and deadly. The federal government is institutionally incapable of protecting the citizenry.
We will have to take care of ourselves if we want to survive. Waiting for more CDC directives and guidelines is worse than counterproductive. There were apparently many lapses in “protocol” in Dallas, including sending the infected patient’s blood samples to the lab through the hospital’s pneumatic tube system.
Individual hospitals must act now to train personnel to deal with Ebola patients. Specialized referral hospitals can and will be set up, but all hospitals must be prepared for an Ebola admission. Appropriate protective gear and respirators must be on hand, and staff trained in how to use them. The issue of waste disposal is critical and must be addressed now.
But we shouldn’t need to deal with Ebola in the U.S. The importation of this dread disease must be stopped at the border.
In the absence of a federal ban on travel from affected countries, airlines should independently refuse to fly anyone who recently visited a region where the disease is endemic. Airlines can and do perform separate screening prior to travel to the U.S. Failing to do this places their crew and passengers at risk of infection. British Airways and Air France have already instituted travel bans.
And we must insist on securing our southern border. This is perhaps the greatest failure of the federal government and places the entire country in jeopardy.
Richard Amerling, M.D., is an associate professor of clinical medicine and a renowned academic nephrologist at the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. Dr. Amerling studied medicine at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, graduating cum laude in 1981. He completed a medical residency at the New York Hospital Queens and a nephrology fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He has written and lectured extensively on health-care issues and is president-elect of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Amerling is the author of the “Physicians’ Declaration of Independence” and is a seasoned speaker and on-air contributor.
Red Algae Extract Defends Against Ebola, HIV, SARS, and More
Red algae, the pigments in which are caused by compounds known as phycoerythrin and phycocyanin, can now be known as yet another one of Mother Nature’s answers to the latest ‘Ebola Pandemic,’ as well as a host of other diseases ranging from HIV, Hepatitis-C, SARS, and more. There is no need to resort to experimental nationwide Ebola vaccines as suggested by U.S. authorities and the current vaccine maker, GlaxoSmithKline.
Red algae is a key antiviral for this crazy world we are living in. Just having a healthy, strong immune system could save your life, and at least minimize your chances of getting sick where other less-propagandized sicknesses are concerned, such as the ‘flu’ or even the common cold. Compounds in red algae help to greatly promote our own natural immune systems.
When researchers were looking into more details of the Gabon Africa Ebola outbreak of 1996, they found that Ebola causes death among about 70% of those who become infected. They also note that there are many people who think that cases deemed to be Ebola are actually hemorrhagic fevers, like Dengue, because they present the very same symptoms.
In any case, this 70% statistic led researchers from Gabon’s Franceville International Center of Medical Research to investigate more fully. How did 30% of the people exposed to Ebola live, even when they were in close contact with Ebola victims?
(Currently, there is controversy as to how Ebola is transmitted. Some say it can be airborne, which could mean it isn’t Ebola, and others say it must be contracted only through direct mucosal or blood such as a transfer of saliva, urine, semen or blood from one person to another.)
These researchers found that nearly half of those who were asymptomatic and seemingly immune developed antibodies (IgM and IgG) to the Ebola virus. Antibodies are protective proteins that guard against disease in the body, and they normally occur naturally in a healthy person.
They also noted that the asymptomatic group exhibited fewer inflammatory responses in general. Not to be too graphic, but Ebola is said to ‘liquefy’ the insides, which is a bit of an exaggeration It does cause extreme inflammation, though, which can eventually lead to heavy bleeding and death.
The asymptomatic group was also found to have higher levels of circulating cytokines and chemokines – which speed up the body’s ability to break down viral cells and stop them from causing people to be sick.
This happens in many diseases, not just Ebola. Mannose-binding lectins attack the Ebola virus but also other lethal infections like HIV, HCV and SARS.
Mannose-binding lectins are produced in the human body via a DNA sequence, called the MBL2. When our genes are working properly, these lectins flood the bloodstream and scourge disease – including unwanted fungi, bacteria, and even parasites, which utilize glycoprotein shells to protect themselves. They also inhibit virus growth.
They do this by breaking apart the surface of the unwanted microbe and breaking them down, allowing the body’s additional immune cells to kill off the virus or toxin and prevent it from replicating.
Research over the past five years has found that low levels of mannose-binding lectins increases the risk of respiratory infections, including syncytial virus infections, pneumonia and others.
Ebola, as many other viruses do, comes with a glycoprotein shell that must be broken down in order for someone who is in contact with it to remain healthy.
Where Red Algae Comes into Play
Furthermore, the glycoprotein shell of the Ebola virus produces glycoproteins that damage cells, allowing the virus to penetrate and replicate within the cell – but red algae has been shown to keep this from happening.
The reason for this mutation/switch-off has yet to be fully understood.
Red algae produces mannose-binding lectins plentifully, which allow the plants to protect themselves from invasion by viruses.
The most promising form of mannose-binding lectins is a component of the Scytonema varium red algae called Scytovirin. The protein extract was isolated by researchers from the National Cancer Institute at Frederick, Maryland in 2003. It contains 95 amino acids, and was found to bind to HIV-1 viral shells.
Another antiviral protein in red algea broke down the glycoprotein shells of HIV and HCV.
And yet another anti-viral extract found in a New Zealand red algae species, Griffithsia sp.. The anti-vrial, Griffithsin, was beneficial in treating mice with epidemic-potentiated SARS and also HIV-1. It stopped the viruses from replicating.
Here’s the Real Proof
In 2010, Harvard researchers tested a recombinant version of Griffithsin – called rhMBL – against Ebola, and found that it broke down those pesky viral shells while giving mice complete immunity to the virus. Other animals have since been tested with similar results.
So, even if you aren’t certain red algae will keep you from contracting Ebola, you can boost your immune system and protect against a number of diseases, from Ebola to SARS, simply by taking a red seaweed supplement.
No fear here.
Additional Sources:
Nat Med. 1999 Apr;5(4):423-6.
Lancet. 2000 Jun 24;355(9222):2210-5.
Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2012;7:767-77. doi: 10.2147/COPD.S33714.
J Clin Immunol. 2008 Mar;28(2):166-73.
Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2014;58(1):120-7. doi: 10.1128/AAC.01407-13.
PLoS One. 2013 May 21;8(5):e64449. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0064449.
J Biol Chem. 2005 Mar 11;280(10):9345-53.
Biochemistry. 2003 Mar 11;42(9):2578-84.
J Infect Dis. 2011 Jan 15;203(2):175-9. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiq025.
Int Immunopharmacol. 2001 Apr;1(4):677-87.
Pleas to Major Powers from Ebola-stricken Countries, Health Professionals Fall on Deaf Ears
The world’s political and economic elite, the financial aristocracy that dominates the
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Sunday broadcast a “letter to the world” from Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf warning that the Ebola virus “respects no borders” and that a generation of Africans are at risk of “being lost to economic catastrophe” because of the impact of the disease on entire societies.
Sirleaf, a former World Bank and United Nations official and longtime puppet of Washington, was restrained in her language, but there is no doubt that the global mobilization of funds, medical supplies, doctors and nurses for which she appealed is desperately needed.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported Thursday that it has received only $100,000 in donations from world governments out of $20 million pledged, compared to the $1 billion immediately required for emergency operations in West Africa. Nearly 10,000 people have contracted Ebola in the region and more than 4,500 have died, the agency said.
Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan told the BBC he was “bitterly disappointed” in the international response, adding, “If the crisis had hit some other region it probably would have been handled very differently.”
Another announcement last week revealed the indifference of the multinational corporations at the prospect of continuing mass death in West Africa. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the giant British-based pharmaceutical company, said Friday its program to develop a vaccine for Ebola would produce results “too late” for the current crisis. Its Ebola vaccine program, one of a handful of such efforts and, by many accounts, the closest to fruition, would not have test data until late next year and will not generate usable vaccines until 2016, the company said.
Although Ebola was first identified in 1976, the pharmaceutical companies that control research and production have not found it profitable to develop a vaccine for a disease that affects impoverished villagers in rural Africa. Only now, with the prospect of reaping billions from a global crisis, is such an effort being mounted.
Manica Balasegaram, an official of Doctors Without Borders, the volunteer aid organization that is treating more than half the victims of the epidemic, issued a statement in response to the GSK announcement, calling it “a disaster scenario.” He told McClatchy News Service, “We want to see serious acceleration. We need to be more ambitious. It’s worrying to hear timelines into 2016. We have got to accelerate. The situation on the ground is a catastrophe.”
Christopher Stokes of Doctors Without Borders told the BBC Friday it was “ridiculous” that the group’s volunteers were overseeing 70 percent of the treatment beds in the three countries hardest hit. Aid pledged by the US, Britain and other industrialized countries was “not having any significant impact on the epidemic and it won’t now for maybe another month or month-and-a-half.” By then, the death toll is expected to top 20,000.
The head of the WHO’s Ebola Emergency Response Mission, Anthony Banbury, said last week that the critical point in the fight against the epidemic was near at hand. Within 60 days, 70 percent of infected people must be in a care facility and 70 percent of burials must be carried out safely. “We either stop Ebola now,” he warned, “or we face an entirely unprecedented situation for which we do not have a plan.”
The New England Journal of Medicine echoed this warning in an editorial that accompanied publication of a report from the WHO. “Without a more effective, all-out effort, Ebola could become endemic in West Africa, which could, in turn, become a reservoir for the virus’s spread to other parts of Africa and beyond,” the magazine wrote.
It went on to explain that the devastating impact of the current epidemic was not the result of any change in the biological characteristics of the virus, but of social and political factors: “Perhaps most important, Ebola has reached the point where it could establish itself as an endemic infection because of a highly inadequate and late global response. This epidemic, in other words, was an avoidable crisis…”
There is no mystery about the methods and resources required to deal with Ebola as a public health issue. Only a handful of cases have been reported in the industrialized countries—two in the United States, one in Spain—and only among health care workers treating patients who contracted Ebola in West Africa.
There have been, as yet, no secondary infections from these cases. Midnight Sunday marked the expiration of the 21-day quarantine for 48 family members and friends of Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who traveled to the United States after contracting the disease, then fell ill in Dallas and died October 8. The 75 health care workers in contact with Duncan have passed the period of greatest danger.
The American ruling elite and the American media have whipped up an atmosphere of panic about the handful of US cases while virtually ignoring the massive crisis in West Africa.
President Obama, in his Saturday Internet/radio address, warned against “hysteria” over the Ebola virus, although the US government has been systematically fomenting groundless popular fears of terrorist attacks for a dozen years to justify the endless US military interventions in the Middle East as well as the build-up of a police-state apparatus within the United States.
Washington’s response to the Ebola crisis has followed that template. Last month, Obama ordered 3,000 US troops into Liberia, ostensibly to build Ebola treatment facilities. Last week another 1,000 troops were added to the deployment, which is intended to pave the way for a permanent base for the Pentagon’s Africa Command (AFRICOM) in the region.
The Pentagon is also using the crisis to flex its muscles at home, albeit on a small scale initially. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Sunday that he had tasked the US Northern Command, established by George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks as the first-ever combat headquarters on US soil, to create a rapid response team for the Ebola crisis. This will consist initially of only 30 military personnel, mostly doctors and nurses, but it is a further step in conditioning the American population to the use of the military at home.
With the mid-term elections only two weeks away, Republican congressional leaders and candidates are seeking to exploit public concern over the US government’s negligent and irresponsible response to the Ebola crisis for electoral purposes. Many are calling for a ban on commercial air traffic originating in the three affected African countries.
The White House has responded with comparable cynicism, naming as its “Ebola czar” a millionaire attorney and longtime Democratic political fixer, Ron Klain, who has no experience in either public health or disaster relief.
These maneuvers express the contempt of the US ruling elite for both the lives of West Africans and the well-being of the American people. As public health officials have made clear, budget cuts supported by both parties are responsible for undermining the health care system. Over the past decade, funding for the National Institutes of Health has declined 23 percent in real terms.
Secret Project Created Weaponized Ebola in South Africa in the 1980s
“No records are available to confirm that the biological agents were destroyed.”
Activist Post
Operating out of South Africa during the apartheid era in the early 1980s, Dr. Wouter Basson launched a secret bioweapons project called Project Coast. The goal of the project was to develop biological and chemical agents that would either kill or sterilize the black population and assassinate political enemies. Among the agents developed were Marburg and Ebola viruses.
Basson is surrounded by cloak-and-dagger intrigue, as he told Pretoria High court in South Africa that “The local CIA agent in Pretoria threatened me with death on the sidewalk of the American Embassy in Schoeman Street.” According to a 2001 article in The New Yorker magazine, the American Embassy in Pretoria was “terribly concerned” that Basson would reveal deep connections between Project Coast and the United States.
In 2013, Basson was found guilty of “unprofessional conduct” by the South African health council.
Basson’s bioweapons program officially ended in 1994, but there has been no independent verification that the pathogens created were ever destroyed. The order to destroy them went directly to Dr. Basson. According to the Wall Street Journal, “The integrity of the process rested solely on Dr. Basson’s honesty.”
Basson claims to have had contact with Western agencies that provided “ideological assistance” to Project Coast. Basson stated in an interview shot for the documentary Anthrax War that he met several times with Dr. David Kelly, the infamous UN weapons inspector in Iraq. Kelly was a top bioweapons expert in the United Kingdom. He was found dead near his home in Oxfordshire in 2003. While the official story claims he committed suicide, medical experts highly doubt this story.
In a 2007 article from the Mail Online, it was reported that a week prior to his death, Dr. Kelly was to be interviewed by MI5 about his ties to Dr. Basson.
Dr. Timothy Stamps, Minister of Health of Zimbabwe, suspected that his country was under biological attack during the time that Basson was operating. Stamps told PBS Frontline in 1998 that “The evidence is very clear that these were not natural events. Whether they were caused by some direct or deliberate inoculation or not, is the question we have to answer.”
Stamps specifically named the Ebola and Marburg viruses as suspect. Stamps thinks that his country was being used as a testing ground for weaponized Ebola.
I’m talking about anthrax and cholera in particular, but also a couple of viruses that are not endemic to Zimbabwe [such as] the Ebola type virus and, we think also, the Marburg virus. We wonder whether in fact these are not associated with biological warfare against this country during the hostilities… Ebola was along the line of the Zambezi [River], and I suspect that this may have been an experiment to see if a new virus could be used to directly infect people.
The Ghanaian Times reported in early September on the recent Ebola outbreak, noting connections between Basson and bioweapons research. The article points out that, “…there are two types of scientists in the world: those who are so concerned about the pain and death caused to humans by illness that they will even sacrifice their own lives to try and cure deadly diseases, and those who will use their scientific skill to kill humans on the orders of… government…”
Indeed, these ideas are not new. Plato wrote over 2,000 years ago in his work The Republicthat a ruling elite should guide society, “…whose aim will be to preserve the average of population.” He further stated, “There are many other things which they will have to consider, such as the effects of wars and diseases and any similar agencies, in order as far as this is possible to prevent the State from becoming either too large or too small.”
As revealed by The Age, Nobel prize winning Australian microbiologist Sir Macfarlane Burnet secretly urged the Australian government in 1947 to develop bio weapons for use against the “overpopulated countries of South-East Asia.” In a 1947 meeting with the New Weapons and Equipment Development Committee, the group recommended that “the possibilities of an attack on the food supplies of S-E Asia and Indonesia using B.W. agents should be considered by a small study group.”
This information gives us an interesting perspective on the recent unprecedented Ebola outbreak. Is it an organic natural phenomenon? Did this strain of Ebola accidentally escape from a bioweapons lab? Or, was it deliberately released?
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‘Major’ Oil Spill Strikes Louisiana, Threatens Waterways
by Andrea Germanos, staff writer
Officials on Sunday are continuing work to contain what an EPA representative called a major oil spill in northwestern Louisiana that could take months to clean up.
The rupture of Sunoco Logistics’ Mid-Valley pipeline near Mooringsport in Caddo Parish on Monday released an estimated 4,000 barrels of crude oil.
That amount makes it one of this year’s largest spills, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing federal records.
KTBS reports: “Raw oil is coating around a four mile section of Tete Bayou.” The spill response team is attempting to stop the oil from flowing into Caddo Lake, which provides drinking water for several municipalities in Louisiana and Texas.
“My biggest concern is that it’s much worse than people realize and that the long-term effects are going to be much worse,” an area property owner told KSLA.
“Anything that eats or rinks from the water is not going to live—crawfish, frogs. And they found a snake that was dead.”
“It’s much bigger than they’re telling us,” she said.
The Shreveport Times reports that the spill “has already killed dozens of fish and some reptiles” and states that “the pungent odor of oil fills the air closer to the work site.”
A spokesperson for Sunoco told press Saturday that 1,900 barrels of oil have been recovered so far.
Officials say they do not yet know the cause of the pipeline rupture or exact amount of oil spilled.
One More Toxic Blow to California
As if things in California are not bad enough already, now another program of toxic insanity is added to the mix. On top of the horrific highly toxic drought inducing spraying from the ongoing climate engineering programs, and the poisoning of California’s remaining ground water with the toxic industrial waste injection wells, now the whole State is being lined up for yet another layer of toxic pest spraying. How much contamination can ecosystems take before nothing is left alive? In the last ten years the terrestrial and aquatic insect populations in Northern California’s Shasta and Siskiyou Counties have already declined some 90% as measured by former USFS biologist Francis Mangles who has done such monitoring for over 30 years. The die-off appears directly related to the toxic metal and chemical fallout from the totally out of control climate modification spraying programs. Already there are almost no insects for birds, bats and fish to eat. Now the State of California is going to kill off what little is left with yet more chemical spraying which will also rain down on an unsuspecting population. We are all passengers on a runaway train of total insanity. It’s not just the power structure that is to blame but also each and every individual that has allowed things to get this bad. Even more blame should be laid on all those that are carrying out the orders of the power structure in exchange for a paycheck. It’s up to us, the population, to hold these people responsible. This means turning off the football games and “American Idol” in order to engage in the fight for the common good. The paradigm we have all known is in its death throws, it’s over and it’s not coming back. If we are to have any life left on our planet to pass on to our children we must all act now, not later. Tomorrow is too late, we have only today. The latest ecocide program to be implemented by the state of California (and the federal power structure that orchestrates the state) is below, I am grateful to my friend Rosalind Peterson for bringing this latest spraying program to my attention.
Dane Wigington
geoengineeringwatch.org
Source: Plant Health & Pest Prevention Services
Project Description
CDFA is mandated to prevent the introduction and spread of injurious insect pests, plant diseases, and noxious weeds in California. To accomplish this, CDFA implements the Statewide Plant Pest Prevention and Management Program (Statewide Program), an ongoing effort by CDFA to protect California’s agriculture from damage caused by invasive pests and plant pathogens. The Statewide Program is implemented in partnership with a number of different entities, including international trading partners, the US Department of Agriculture, County Agricultural Commissioners, other public agencies, industry groups, and academia.
CDFA has prepared this Draft Program EIR to provide an up-to-date, transparent, and comprehensive evaluation of CDFA’s activities. Once certified, the PROGRAM EIR will serve as an overarching CEQA framework for efficient and proactive implementation of Statewide Program activities. As part of this, CDFA plans to implement a CEQA Tiering Strategy (Appendix B), a checklist tool and guide for project-level CEQA compliance and integration of new pest programs and management approach. The Statewide Program activities as they are described in this PROGRAM EIR are referred to as the “Proposed Program.”
DRAFT PEIR (JUMP LINK)
Project Status
CDFA issued a Notice of Availability (NOA) to provide agencies and the public with formal notification that this Draft PROGRAM EIR became available for review on August 25, 2014. The NOA was sent to all responsible and trustee agencies, any person or organization requesting a copy, and county clerks for posting in addition to county agricultural commissioner offices. The notice was published in general-circulation newspapers and CDFA submitted the NOA and a Notice of Completion (NOC) to the State Clearinghouse.
Publication of the NOA triggered a 45-day public review period beginning Monday, August 25, 2014. In response to public requests, the comment period was extended through October 31, 2014. During this time, CDFA will receive and collate public and agency comments on the Proposed Program and the Draft PROGRAM EIR. Please note public review period extension under “How to Comment.”
All interested persons are encouraged to attend the public meetings to present written and/or verbal comments on the PEIR. Five public meetings will be held throughout the State from September 22 thru September 30, 2014. Locations, dates and times are provided in the Notice of Availability and under Public Hearing locations.
HOW TO COMMENT
PUBLIC REVIEW AND COMMENT PERIOD: Based on requests from members of the public, the PEIR public review period has been extended through 5 p.m. on October 31, 2014.
Please send comments on the PEIR at the earliest possible date, but postmarked no later than 5 p.m. on October 31, 2014 in order for your comments to be considered.
- Comments may be mailed to the following address:ATTN: Laura Petro, Senior Environmental Scientist
Statewide Program Draft PEIR Comments
California Department of Food and Agriculture
1220 N Street, Suite 221
Sacramento, CA 95814
Written comments may also be submitted by email to: PEIR.info@cdfa.ca.gov. Emailed comments are preferred, and should include your name, address, and daytime telephone number so a representative of CDFA can contact you if clarifications regarding your comments are required.
All comments received, including names and addresses, will become part of the official public record. A Final PEIR will be prepared which will include responses to comments received during the public review period.
Questions may be directed to the PEIR information line at 916-403-6881.
Official comments on the PEIR are accepted by email or mail only.
DRAFT PEIR
- Volume 1, Main Body (PDF, 26.4 MB)
- Table of Contents (PDF, 1 MB)
- Executive Summary (PDF, 2.64 MB)
- Volume 2, Appendix A (PDF, 36 MB)
- Volume 3, Appendices B-F (PDF, 27.4 MB)
- Volume 4, Appendices G-N (PDF, 5.24 MB)
- Dashboard Database
Bermuda Hurricane Steered? Extortion? Protection Racket? 10 17 14
Posted by Rusty Featured, HAARP Saturday, October 18th, 2014
10/18/2014 — Hurricane Gonzalo hit by Microwave Pulse “anomaly” — Weather Modification 101
Bombs Fall in Syria as Weapons-Makers’ Profits Soar in the West
According to The Independent’s Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk, there is only one clear winner in the new war that has now engulfed Syria and Iraq: the world’s top weapons manufacturers.
As latest U.S. airstrikes hit targets inside Syria on Sunday, Fisk wrote, “Share prices are soaring in America for those who produce the coalition bombs and missiles and drones and aircraft participating in this latest war which – for all who are involved (except for the recipients of the bombs and missiles and those they are fighting) – is Hollywood from start to finish.”
In addition to new bombings by U.S. warplanes, and despite public objections by Turkey’s government, the U.S. military over the last twenty-four hours has air-dropped machine guns, anti-tank weapons, ammunition, food, and medical supplies to Kurdish fighters inside the Syrian city of Kobani as they continue to fight off an assault by Islamic State (or ISIS) militants.
According to CNN:
The move was partly humanitarian but also aimed at shoring up the Kurdish defenders of Kobani, senior Obama administration officials said — acknowledging it was a shift in the administration’s tactics to date.
“This is a part of the President’s larger strategy to degrade and destroy ISIL wherever they are,” one official said.
The gear was delivered by three C-130 cargo planes and appeared to have been received on the ground by Kurdish fighters, senior Obama administration officials.
There have been reports that ISIS may have anti-aircraft missiles, but the officials said they had no evidence to back those reports and that the cargo planes flew in unescorted.
Though Kurds in both Turkey and Iraq have been pleading for Turkey to assist those in Kobani, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been consistently opposed, repeating that it views the mostly autonomos Kurdish population in that region of Syria as members or allies of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which—despite a cease-fire agreement and ongoing peace process—it views as an enemy.
That may have changed, however, in the aftermath of the U.S. airdrops. As the New York Times reports Monday morning:
Hours after American military aircraft dropped ammunition and small arms to resupply Kurdish fighters in the embattled Syrian town of Kobani, Turkey’s foreign minister said Monday that the country would facilitate the movement of Iraqi Kurdish forces, known as pesh merga, to the city to join the fighting.
The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, speaking at a news conference in Ankara, said that his government was “helping the pesh merga cross over to Kobani,” an apparent shift from Turkey’s previous refusal to allow any military assistance to Kurdish fighters in the town.
The developments reflected escalating international pressure to help Kurdish forces push back Islamic State militants who have been attacking the Kurdish town for more than a month. The battle has become a closely watched test for the Obama administration as it embarks on a war reliant on air power against the militant group in Iraq and Syria. It has also raised tensions across the border in Turkey, where Kurds have accused the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of abandoning the city to the militants.
Critics of both the overall U.S. strategy in the region have pointed out how the fight in Kobani highlights the inherent complexities of the new war in Syria and Iraq that is setting the stage for a much wider, longer and unpredictable conflict. But according to Fisk, what is really sinister about the current campaign by the U.S. and their allies is the manner in which the profits of the weapon-makers soar, as the region and its people continue to suffer. Quoted at length, Fisk writes:
When the Americans decided to extend their bombing into Syria in September – to attack President Assad’s enemies scarcely a year after they first proposed to bomb President Assad himself – Raytheon was awarded a $251m (£156m) contract to supply the US navy with more Tomahawk cruise missiles. Agence France-Presse, which does the job that Reuters used to do when it was a real news agency, informed us that on 23 September, American warships fired 47 Tomahawk missiles. Each one costs about $1.4m. And if we spent as promiscuously on Ebola cures, believe me, there would be no more Ebola.
Let us leave out here the political cost of this conflict. After all, the war against Isis is breeding Isis. For every dead Isis member, we are creating three of four more. And if Isis really is the “apocalyptic”, “evil”, “end-of-the-world” institution we have been told it is – my words come from the Pentagon and our politicians, of course – then every increase in profits for Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics is creating yet more Isis fighters. So every drone or F/A-18 fighter-bomber we send is the carrier of a virus, every missile an Ebola germ for the future of the world. Think about that.
Let me give you a real-time quotation from reporter Dan De Luce’s dispatch on arms sales for the French news agency. “The war promises to generate more business not just from US government contracts but other countries in a growing coalition, including European and Arab states… Apart from fighter jets, the air campaign [sic] is expected to boost the appetite for aerial refuelling tankers, surveillance aircraft such as the U-2 and P-8 spy planes, and robotic [sic again, folks] drones… Private security contractors, which profited heavily from the US presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, also are optimistic the conflict will produce new contracts to advise Iraqi troops.”
This is obviously outrageous. The same murderous bunch of gunmen we sent to Iraq are going to be let loose to teach our “allies” in Syria – “moderate” secular militias, of course – the same vicious tactics they used against civilians in Iraq. And the same missiles are going to be used – at huge profit, naturally – on the peoples of the Middle East, Isis or not. Which is why De Luce’s report is perhaps the most important of the whole war in the region.
Israeli society ‘sick with violence’ – country’s president
Israel is suffering from an epidemic of violence that must be treated, the country’s President Reuven Rivlin said. After the latest bloody conflict in Gaza, Jews and Arabs seem to have lost the capacity for dialogue, as relations have reached a new low.
“It is time to honestly admit that Israeli society is sick – and it is our duty to treat this disease,” Rivlin told the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities at a xenophobia conference on Sunday in Jerusalem.
“The tension between Jews and Arabs within the State of Israel has risen to record heights, and the relationship between all parties has reached a new low,” he said, as cited by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“We have all witnessed the shocking sequence of incidents and violence taking place by both sides. The epidemic of violence is not limited to one sector or another, it permeates every area and doesn’t skip any arena. There is violence in soccer stadiums as well as in academia. There is violence in social media and in everyday discourse, in hospitals and in schools.”
He added that he personally endured verbal abuse, including on his Facebook page.
Read: Israel bombards 34 sites in Gaza Strip hours after finding missing teens dead
As hundreds of Palestinians were subjected to searches and arrests in the search for abductees and homes of suspects were demolished, violent clashes erupted. In Israel, a group of Jewish nationalists was arrested after allegedly abducting and burning alive an Arab teenager in revenge for the crime against Jewish teens. Three people were inducted and reportedly planned to plead insanity during the trial.
Read: Kidnapped and slain Arab teen was burned alive – autopsy results
Speaking of acts of violence perpetrated by Jews, Rivlin said: “I’m not asking if they’ve forgotten how to be Jews, but if they’ve forgotten how to be decent human beings. Have they forgotten how to converse?”
The tension escalated into a seven-week military campaign as radical movement Hamas fired rockets at Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces retaliated with air strikes and a ground incursion. The conflict claimed an estimated 2,200 lives, most of them Palestinian civilians.
Today almost 75 percent of Israeli Jews oppose the creation of a Palestinian state along the lines of 1967 – a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict championed by many international mediators, according to a mid-October poll published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Among respondents, who identified themselves as left-wing, opponents of such a move are a majority, comprising over 51 percent.
Rivlin stated that academia had a crucial role in mending the rift through educating parties of each other’s cultures.
“The academic sphere, in which cultures and languages are taught from a desire to get to know them deeper, where there is a ‘you and I’ affinity, there is a place which generates not only learning but also a real encounter,” he said.
British Firebrand Russell Brand Reminds Americans: Revolution Was a Good Idea
As what was a promotional event for his new book, notably titled “Revolution,” turned into an impromptu march to the financial district, Brand spoke about his own status as a celebrity and the inherent contradictions presented by living within a globalized capitalist system while also seeking to challenge and transform it.
“I’m in a weird position,” Brand told those gathered at Zuccotti Park, “because I’ve written a book and the book costs money. But I’m dedicated to and devoted to change and I’ve already agreed, decided, and established the pattern of how the profits of this book are going to be spent creating social enterprises that are not-for-profit to represent people, and in my own small, humble way, represent a demonstrable alternative to some of the systems we currently labor under. As a person that has been famous, tasted fame, been on the inside of it — I have a very different perspective to how I was when I was a kid growing up in a normal town when the fame and the money were solutions to me. I’ve tasted that stuff now and I know it’s not the answer. I’m very grateful to be here, to be part of this — for us all to be in this thing together.”
On the central idea of his book, the need for a global revolution to upend the current corporate-dominated capitalist paradigm, Brand said, “I think it’s inevitable. When universal change is required, people will formulate and organize, and bring about that change. Now we are living under galling inequality, at the point of ecological crisis. People are misinformed, but the means for new communication are merging, and people are awakening.’
Watch:
Later, when he and others marched from Zuccotti to Wall Street, Brand again spoke to the American crowd and described how the nation’s founding revolution offerd plenty of evidence that such an overthrow of elite control of both the economic and political structures is well within the realm of possibility.
“At the time that my country, the British people, ran this country under George III, they had about a one-third approval rating for [the King],” Brand said. “The last time this country was taxed by an elite group that didn’t represent them, there was a revolution and they threw those people out. That is what you should do on this occasion.”
During his recent days in the U.S., Brand has talked about his new book and the arguments it contains on both David Letterman on Tuesday night and Wednesday evening on MSNBC.
On Letterman:
On the Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell:
Russell Brand kicked out of Fox News HQ after canceled Sean Hannity appearance (VIDEO)
In his ongoing spat with Fox News personalities, British comedian Russell Brand risked arrest to seek entrance into the cable news network’s New York headquarters to address Sean Hannity, who had cancelled a scheduled appearance by Brand on his Fox show.
During the latest episode of ‘The Trews’ – Brand’s webcast that has become his vehicle for criticizing the likes of Hannity and fellow Fox News host Bill O’Reilly for content on their respective shows – the British comedian started by excoriating O’Reilly for “helping us become more Islamophobic.”
“No, the least you could say, Bill, would be nothing at all,” Brand replied, “and the world would be a better place.”
Brand went on to examine how O’Reilly was deceptively building a case to support his own bias against Islam, when security outside Fox News’ headquarters approached the comedian.
“Excuse me,” the guard said. “You can’t film here! This is private property!”
“Whose property is it?” Brand responded.
“The building’s,” the guard said.
“Who does the building belong to?” Brand asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” he’s told by the guard.
“It does matter,” Brand answered, moving back to the front of the building. “I’ll just stay here then.”
The guard then threatened to arrest Brand. Another security guard then told Brand the property “belongs to the building.”
Brand is then shown walking into the building, where another guard tells him he “cannot stay on the property and film anything.”
“Can I have a tour?” Brand then asked.
“Are you serious?” the guard said. “You got to wait outside.”
She refused, prompting Brand to add “tell Sean Hannity I came by to have a chat with him.”
The Amish Farmers Reinventing Organic Agriculture
Eight years ago, it was a war that Zook appeared to be losing. The crops on his 66-acre farm were riddled with funguses and pests that chemical treatments did little to reduce. The now-39-year-old talked haltingly about the despair he felt at the prospect of losing a homestead passed down through five generations of his family. Disillusioned by standard agriculture methods, Zook searched fervently for an alternative. He found what he was looking for in the writings of an 18-year-old Amish farmer from Ohio, a man named John Kempf.
Kempf is the unlikely founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture, a consulting firm established in 2006 to promote science-intensive organic agriculture. The entrepreneur’s story is almost identical to Zook’s. A series of crop failures on his own farm drove the 8th grade-educated Kempf to school himself in the sciences. For two years, he pored over research in biology, chemistry, and agronomy in pursuit of a way to save his fields. The breakthrough came from the study of plant immune systems which, in healthy plants, produce an array of compounds that are toxic to intruders. “The immune response in plants is dependent on well-balanced nutrition,” Kempf concluded, “in much the same way as our own immune system.” Modern agriculture uses fertilizer specifically to increase yields, he added, with little awareness of the nutritional needs of other organic functions. Through plant sap analysis, Kempf has been able to discover deficiencies in important trace minerals which he can then introduce into the soil. With plants able to defend themselves, pesticides can be avoided, allowing the natural predators of pests to flourish.
“Instead of trying to grow crops that are healthy with fungicides and pesticides, I started to grow crops that are healthy with nutrition.”According to Kempf, the methods he developed through experimentation on his Ohio farm are now being used across North and South America, Hawaii, Europe, and Africa. The entrepreneur promises clients higher-quality crops, bigger yields, better taste, and produce that carries a lucrative “organic” label. Kempf, however, considers his process as an important improvement upon standard organic farming methods. “Organic certification is a negative-process certification,” he explained, “You can do nothing to your field and become certified. In contrast, we focus on actively restoring the balance found in natural systems.”
I recently sought out Samuel Zook, one of Kempf’s earliest converts, at his farm in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to see Advancing Eco Agriculture’s practices in action. After trailing a leisurely horse and carriage in my car for several miles, I was greeted at the farm by a bounding dog and Zook’s young barefoot son. The boy stared silently with his arms wrapped around a watermelon almost as big as himself. In a straw hat and suspenders, he looked like a miniature version of his father. The elder Zook smiled demurely through a neatly trimmed beard and extended his hand before inviting me on a tour of his fields. A hushed gaggle of children tripped along behind us as we walked among the bales of hay and rows of tomatoes, onions, melons, and squash.
Roc Morin: Can you describe the differences between how you used to farm and how you farm now?
Samuel Zook: The inputs changed drastically. Instead of trying to grow crops that are healthy with fungicides and pesticides, I started to grow crops that are healthy with nutrition.
Morin: What was the hardest part about making the change?
Zook: Well, there was a big psychological block that I had to get through. I’d see a couple bugs out there and feel like I immediately had to do something about it. But, I learned that if I sit back, things will often take care of themselves. That first summer for instance, we saw a lot of horn worms. Before that, I would have sprayed them right away, but this time I waited and a bunch of wasps came along and killed them. Once I saw that, I started getting really excited.
Morin: So, when you use a pesticide you’re killing the predators too, right?
Zook: Right. You’re killing the entire ecosystem.
Morin: Have all of your problems disappeared?
Zook: I wish I could say that, but not entirely. We’re not living in the Garden of Eden yet. The issues I had before have disappeared, but we still have some other issues that we’re working on. One of the main things that has improved is how it feels to farm. Before, if I applied fungicide on my tomatoes, I had to wait three to seven days before I could reenter the area. Now, it’s so nice to just walk in my field any day of the week and not worry a bit. That in itself is huge. The other thing is, when I used to mix these skull-and-cross-bones chemicals to put in my sprayer, I’d have to be suited up. The children would be around and I’d say, “Now, get in the house. It’s not safe.” Now though, if the children want to help, it’s fine. If I want to mix the solutions better, I’ll just put my hand in a stir it around.
Morin: What are some of the problems that you’re dealing with now?
Zook: One of my major issues in the greenhouse is spider mites—little insects that just love a warm, dry environment. It’s very hard to control them, even conventionally. We usually get them under control, but we often lose some yield.
Morin: How do you get them under control?
Zook: Mainly through applying specific trace minerals like iodine and a whole line of ultra-micronutrients. We analyzed the sap of the plants with the help of a lab and I think we’ve narrowed the problem down to excessive ammonium nitrates. If ammonia builds up in the plants, it’s bug food, so we need to figure out a way to convert ammonia fast. I just spent two days with John [Kempf], and he came up with an enzyme cofactor which we’ll use to stimulate that ammonia conversion. We figure things out ourselves now rather than call up the chemical rep.
Morin: What did your chemical rep say when you told him that you didn’t need his services anymore?
Zook: Well, that was an interesting summer. He used to come here every week telling me horror stories about all the diseases in the neighborhood. But, I had made up my made up my mind, “No mas.” He came back every week for eight weeks telling me what I needed to spray. I said, “I’m fine, thanks.” The last time he was here, we were out picking tomatoes and he walked over. He was looking around and talking about this and that, and he didn’t even mention pesticides. “Well,” he said, “your tomatoes look pretty good.” I thought, “Yes!”
Related Story
The War Between Organic and Conventional Farming Misses the Point
Morin: One thing that I immediately noticed is how great everything smells here. Do you still smell it, or are you accustomed to it?
Zook: Oh, I smell it every time I come here. It’s exciting. Those aromas are actually compounds the plants produce to defend themselves from insects and disease attacks. A lot of people don’t realize that plants have immune systems.
Morin: So, you can smell health—can you can smell problems too?
Zook: Yes. There’s a real science to walking through a field and pausing to feel what the plants are feeling. There’s a huge difference between walking in this field and walking in one that has had six fungicide applications. The plants just don’t radiate that same vitality. Another thing I learned is that every time you spray with a fungicide or something, it’s actually suppressing the plant as well as the fungi.
Morin: The same way that antibiotics can weaken a person’s immune system?
Zook: Yes. It might kill the disease, but then because it has weakened the plant, a week later the plant is much more susceptible to that same disease again. That’s the way it is with miticide. If I come in here and spray the mites with it, it would kill some of them, but it kills by messing with their hormones, so the ones that do survive will then mature 50 percent faster. So, it’s pretty much guaranteed that I’d have a huge mite outbreak 10 years later. Instead of doing that, let’s figure out what this plant wants and provide it. They really do respond.
Morin: What else can you tell by looking at your plants?
Zook: Well, one thing we learn is to read the leaves. This asymmetry here indicates zinc deficiency. The spots over here indicate a phosphorus deficiency. And, this here rippling of the leaf usually indicates excess nitrogen.
Morin: Before you started with this method were you able to read the leaves?
Zook: You know, I barely noticed them at all. I just planted and sprayed. Now, it’s much more fun.
Abbas warns of legal measures against Israeli ‘aggression’ on Al-Aqsa mosque
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas warned that his government will seek international “legal measures” to deal with Israeli “aggression” against Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque.
READ MORE: Hamas leader calls on Muslims to ‘defend’ Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque
“The Palestinian leadership will be taking the necessary legal measures, at the international level, regarding the aggression of settlers on the Al-Aqsa mosque,” Abbas said in a speech to the Revolutionary Council of his Fatah party, as quoted by AFP. “We will not allow settlers to attack the mosque.”
Abbas’ statements follow comments made by Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal on Friday, in which he urged Muslims to “defend” the holy mosque after Israeli forces restricted entrance for Palestinians.
“We call on all our people inside the country to hurry up to al-Aqsa to defend it,” Meshaal said in a statement from Doha, Qatar. “We call on the nation to be angry and to send a message of painful anger to the world that the Palestinian people, the Arab and Muslim nation, will not be silent at the Israeli crime.”
Meshaal accused Israel of trying to seize the site, which is considered holy for both Muslims and Jews.
Around 400 people gathered at the entrance to the compound, protesting restrictions put in place to only allow Palestinians over the age of 50 to enter the site, which is considered the third holiest shrine in Islam.
The demonstrators also spoke out against Jews having access to the premises. On Wednesday, around 100 Israelis were given access to the square outside the mosque, accompanied by foreign tourists. However, Jews are not allowed to pray at the site for fear it could cause disturbances and protests from Muslims.
READ MORE: Clashes erupt in Jerusalem as Palestinians ‘denied’ access to holy mosque
Abbas said that the presence of Jews desecrates the site, pledging to ban settlers from entering the Al-Aqsa compound “by any means.”
“It is our sacred place, al-Aqsa [mosque] is ours, this Noble Sanctuary [as Muslims refer to the Temple Mount] is ours. They have no right to go there and desecrate it,” Israel Radio quoted Abbas as saying on Friday.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman responded to Abbas, saying the Palestinian leader was “trying to inflame the situation by using the most sensitive place, the Temple Mount.” He called Abbas’ comments “a religious war,” accusing him and the Palestinian Authority of being “behind the riots” at the compound.
Both the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque are located at Temple Mount. It is considered to be Judaism’s holiest place, as it is where the ruins of the two temples of Jerusalem are located.
The heightened tensions come as the UN ambassador of the Palestine Territories – a non-member observer within the organization – said that the Palestinian government is seeking a UN Security Council vote on a resolution in the next two months that would set a deadline of November 2016 –for the IDF to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
READ MORE: Palestine wants UN vote on 2016 deadline for Israeli troop pullout
Purchase of Election by Chevron Shows We Have ‘Oligarchy, Not Democracy’: Sanders
So far, the oil giant Chevron—which has a major refinery in Richmond and has been in a battle with city officials and residents over safety at the facility following a large fire in 2012—has pumped an estimated $3 million dollars into the local elections, backing its own slate of candidates while funding attack ads on their opponents. One of Chevron’s prime targets is the current mayor, Gayle McLaughlin, an oil company critic who is running for a seat on the city council and who filed suit against the energy companyfollowing the 2012 disaster. Chevron, using its virtually unlimited financial resources, has also targeted other candidates for city council who have voiced criticism of the company’s role in the community, as Steve Early reported for Common Dreams last month.
On Thursday, Sanders met with local activists and progressive politicians at an event titled “Fight for Justice,” hosted by the Richmond Progressive Alliance and which focused on addressing global warming, improving health care for veterans, expanding Medicare and reducing the influence of money in politics. In addition to McLaughlin, two other council candidates, Jovanka Beckles and Eduardo Martinez, are members of the alliance and have also faced attack ads funded by Chevron.
“Chevron is trying to buy the Richmond City Hall. We can’t let them get away with it,” Sanders said ahead of the meeting. “This is not what democracy is supposed to be about.”
According to the Richmond Progressive Alliance, “Chevron is on track to spend between $2 and $3 million trying to gain control of the Richmond City Council on Election Day. The corporation will likely pay out $120 per voter—and that’s just the reported expenditures. The other candidates will be lucky to spend one-tenth as much, combined. Two million dollars buys a lot of billboards, mailers, door knocking and phone-banking. Plus lots of hit pieces on candidates Chevron doesn’t like. It isn’t fair. But it is legal, so this election will be a real test of the power of money in our democracy.”
Sanders’ office, referencing a series of decisions in recent years by the U.S. Supreme Court, said that Chevron’s campaign in a local election like Richmond’s is “a vivid example” of how the U.S. electoral process has been corrupted by “letting corporations and billionaires spend unlimited sums to sway elections.”
According to Sen. Sanders, “Three million dollars may sound like a lot of money, but to Chevron it’s nothing. Over the past decade Chevron has made more than $200 billion in profits ripping off Americans at the gas pump, even as it has paid hundreds of millions in fines for polluting the air we breathe, the water we drink, violating health and safety laws and evading taxes. We cannot allow a company like Chevron that has thumbed its nose at the law to buy politicians.”
Sanders urged progressives in California and across the country make sure they turn out to vote for this year’s upcoming mid-term elections and cautioned against a pattern where less than 40 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot. “We are not living in a democracy when 60 percent of Americans are not voting, while billionaires like the Koch Brothers are spending hundreds of millions to buy the United States Senate,” he said. “We are not living in a democracy when giant corporations like Chevron can buy local governments. That’s called oligarchy, not democracy. We have got to fight back.”
On her evening news show on MSNBC earlier this week, Rachel Maddow offered this reporton the interplay between Chevron and the local politics in Richmond:
BREAKING: Formaldehyde in Water Allegedly Causing Ebola-like Symptoms
A man in Schieffelin, a community located in Margibi County on the Robertsfield Highway, has been arrested for attempting to put formaldehyde into a well used by the community.
Reports say around 10 a.m., he approached the well with powder in a bottle. Mobbed by the community, he confessed that he had been paid to put formaldeyde into the well, and that he was not the only one. He reportedly told community dwellers, “We are many.” There are are agents in Harbel, Dolostown, Cotton Tree and other communities around the ountry, he said.
State radio, ELBC, reports that least 10 people in the Dolostown community have died after drinking water from poisoned wells.
The man also alleged that some water companies, particularly those bagging mineral water to sell, are also involved. The poison, he said, produces Ebola-like symptoms and subsequently kills people.
The Observer had previously been informed that people dressed as nurses were going into communities with ‘Ebola Vaccines’. Once injected, it reportedly produces Ebola-like symptoms and sends victims into a coma. Shortly thereafter, victims expire. Communities are now reportedly chasing vaccine peddlers out of their communities. After 10 children reportedly died from the ‘vaccine’ in Bensonville, the peddlers were reportedly chased out of the community upon their next visit.
It is possible that the ‘vaccine’ is/was composed of the same formaldehyde-water mixture. This publication has received reports from families whose loved ones’ organs were missing upon return of the bodies to the families. Families suspect an organ trafficking operation is capitalizing on the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Liberia.
The district’s representative condemned the act as barbaric, but called upon Liberians not to doubt the existence of the Ebola virus in the country.
An investigation is ongoing.
Sleeping 7-year-old girl shot in head during no-knock police raid on wrong home
“They blew my granddaughter’s brains out. They killed her right before my eyes. I watched the light go out of her eyes.”
Posted on October 14, 2014 by Site Staff in News
DETROIT, MI — A Special Response Team shattered a family’s window in the middle of the night, hurled a flashbang onto a couch next to a sleeping girl, then charged in and shot her in the head. The hyper-aggressive tactics were made worse by the fact that police had taken it upon themselves to raid both sides of a duplex, when their suspect was only known to reside in one of them.
* * * * *
On the evening of May 16, 2010, the Detroit Police Department’s Special Response Team (SRT) prepared for a surprise raid to arrest a wanted man. A surveillance unit had been monitoring the duplex in which he lived throughout the day and a no-knock raid was scheduled for just after midnight.
Police staged a so-called “safety briefing” shortly before the raid; undoubtedly focusing on their own safety rather than the safety of unknown innocents behind the doors they were about to kick in. Officers were briefed that they’d be entering a “possible dope den,” in which the suspect “might be armed” and might even possess “dangerous dogs.”
Police neglected to account for — or flatly disregarded — the safety of any potential children that might be present. Besides the glaring presence of toys strewn about the lawn and front porch, it is unlikely that investigators could have missed the presence of four young children and multi-generational family in the opposite unit during their surveillance of the duplex.
The raid commenced at roughly 12:40 a.m. The Special Response Team arrived in its armored vehicle with a warrant to arrest Chauncey Owens, who was known to stay with his fiancée at 4056 Lillibridge Street.
Armed with MP5 submachine guns, adrenaline, and an unhealthy fear for officer safety, the raiders shuffled past the toys that littered the front yard and ignored the two distinct street address signs hanging on either side of the shared porch of the multi-unit building; 4056 was on the left, 4054 was on the right.
Without warning, officers simultaneously attempted to breach entrances of two discrete living units of the duplex: the suspects’ location and the neighboring residence. What occurred at 4054 Lillibridge — where the suspect did NOT live — would be devastating.
In mere seconds, masked police officers stormed the porch and smashed the window of the neighbors’ downstairs apartment. They immediately tossed in a concussion grenade and kicked down the door. An officer discharged his rifle, and an innocent little girl named Aiyana Stanley-Jones was dead.
Amateur footage shot from the exterior of the building shows how quickly the raid unfolded:
From the footage above, the following timeline can be assessed:
- 0:24 — A dog detects the presence of police and begins to bark.
- 0:27 — Police being shouting indiscernibly.
- 0:28 — An officer uses a bludgeon to shatter the picture window of Aiyana’s residence. A flashbang grenade is thrown in immediately.
- 0:29 — The flashbang explodes inside Aiyana’s residence, lighting up the porch.
- 0:33 — A pop can be heard; presumably the fatal gunshot.
When the smoke cleared, 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones was found on the couch, covered with blood, with a gunshot to the head. She had been sleeping on the couch next to her grandmother, Mertilla Jones. A mere 3 seconds passed from the time of the first shouts until officers entered the home. Aiyana was shot in six seconds.
The grenade had fallen directly onto the couch, where it scorched Aiyana’s “Hannah Montana” blanket, and caused Ms. Jones to dive for the floor.
Officer Weekley’s novel defense was that Mertilla Jones rose up as he entered the apartment and “reached for his gun.” In his version of events, contact with grandmother caused him to pull the trigger of his submachine gun, subsequently striking the sleeping girl.
Mertilla Jones gave a very different account. She said that she had been dozing in and out of sleep on the couch when she was startled by the shattering of glass and the deafening incendiary device hurled through the window. Ms. Jones claims she reached to protect her granddaughter and made no contact with any officer, according to the Detroit Free Press.
“They blew my granddaughter’s brains out,” said Ms. Jones. “They killed her right before my eyes. I watched the light go out of her eyes.”
Officer Weekley was no stranger to controversy. Previously during his six years on the Special Response Team, he had been named among several officers in a federal lawsuit regarding no-knock raid in which officers aimed rifles at small children and shot two family pets in 2007.
In addition to Aiyana, three other children were in the house at the time: Carlos (age four), Pierre (age two), and Christian (age three months). The capacity for mistakes in such a household was monumental.
Aiyana’s parents, Charles Jones and Dominika Stanley, were sleeping nearby and rushed toward the sound of the loud noise and tragic screams. Mr. Jones was forced to lie on the floor, face-down in his daughter’s blood and shards of broken glass.
“Her blood was everywhere and I was trying to stay calm, but nobody would talk to me. None of them even tried to console me,” Mr. Jones told The Detroit News. “I’ll never be the same.”
Ms. Stanley testified similarly that she was forced to sit on the couch spattered with her daughter’s blood for hours while police detained the family at the scene.
Mertilla Jones was not initially detained, despite the claim that she supposedly tried to steal Officer Weekley’s weapon. Before the night was over, however, police decided to cuff her and hauled her down to Detroit Receiving, where she was tested for drugs in her system and later for gunshot residue on her skin. She sorrowfully recalled being detained for at least 8 hours, away from her family on perhaps the most traumatic day of their lives.
The family says it took hours for them to be shown a warrant — not until “about 4 or 5 a.m., as they were driving away” (more on the warrant later).
The actual homicide suspect was arrested in the apartment upstairs without incident.
DISTORTING THE FACTS
One of the major deceptions permeating the coverage of this case was the notion that Aiyana lived in the same residence as the subject of the search warrant. This was plainly false, as the building was a duplex with separate units, not connected internally whatsoever.
Attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who represented Aiyana’s family, stressed during a press conference that various facts were being distorted by the police and media.
“[Police] were going into both doors,” Mr. Fieger said. “The upstairs flat is on the left. Aiyana’s flat — where I want to stress that Mr. Chauncy Owens did not reside, never resided, never stayed — is on the right.”
Furthermore, police charged into the raid with an improper warrant to search both units, Mr. Fieger asserted. After improperly raiding both living units, police went back and covered their mistake by acquiring a retroactive search warrant for the second half. The official story glossed over that detail.
Feiger explained: “In the video they break into both the upstairs flat and the downstairs flat. The problem is they don’t have a warrant for the upstairs. (Assistant Police Chief Ralph Godbee) didn’t tell you when he got the second search warrant. After Aiyana was killed and after he broke into the upstairs apartment and arrested (the suspect).”
Another falsehood was the department’s claim that Aiyana was shot in the neck. In fact, Aiyana was shot in the top of the skull, with the bullet exiting through the bottom of her chin, then grazing her chest.
The third, and most dubious claim, was the story that Aiyana’s grandmother tried to grab the officer’s gun and caused it to fire, under no fault of Officer Weekley. The district attorney’s office did not find the officer’s story credible and charged him with felony involuntary manslaughter and careless discharge of a firearm causing death.
REALITY TV STAR
America’s fetish with the police state may have indirectly played a role in the unnecessary, hyper-aggressive tactics employed against Aiyana and in other situations in Detroit. Author William N. Grigg astutely observed the following:
The truly sickening thing about the death of Aiyana Jones is that the decision to carry out a SRT raid was almost certainly dictated by the media ambitions of Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans, who — in the words of Detroit News columnist Charlie LeDuff — is positioning himself as a “reality TV” star.
“Television executives around the country have been shown what is known in television parlance as the `sizzle reel’ of Chief Evans himself, a video compilation of Detroit’s top cop trying to take back the streets,” writes LeDuff, who saw that footage several weeks ago. “It is part of a pitch for a full-blown television series.”
As Detroit’s civic and economic implosion accelerates, the city has become an irresistible setting for state-centric media outlets “peddling mayhem,” continues LeDuff. “Spike TV featured the Detroit bureau of the Drug Enforcement Administration in 2008. A&E is taping a season of `Parking Wars’ here; production on a series about the Fire Department wrapped late last year. Even Animal Planet is in on the deal with `Animal Cops Detroit.’”
Joseph Weekley had himself been featured numerous times on various Detroit-based police reality shows. His cop nickname was “Brain.”
WEEKLEY’S 1ST TRIAL
At the June 2013 trial, Joseph Weekley’s defense stuck with the argument that the victim’s grandmother was to blame for his sloppy weapons-handling.
“She hit it in a downward motion,” Weekley said of his submachine gun during testimony at his first trial, according to the Associated Press. “As she hits it down, I start to pull it back. I hear the shot.”
Weekley’s defense argued that he should not be scapegoated for behavior linked to the missteps of his bosses. His attorney, Steve Fishman, said in court filings that Weekley “had nothing to do with the planning of the raid and was merely a police officer assigned to a certain position … by a superior officer.” He argued that his client should not be deemed responsible for the “ineptitude of the officer assigned to deploy” the flashbang.
Aiyana’s grandmother was the key witness at the trial. Her testimony marked the fifth day of the emotional testimonies.
“That’s what I figured all of them was there to do — to murder. They came to kill, and they killed a 7-year-old,” Mertilla Jones testified. Breaking down sobbing, she described the raid, saying “their arm was pointed at Aiyana’s head. They pulled the trigger. Blood started coming out of her mouth. She was dead.”
The jury was then excused for about 15 minutes.
Prosecutor Rob Moran closed his argument by emphasizing that Weekley’s story was fabricated to cover for gross negligence.
“It didn’t happen. It did not happen,” Moran stressed, arguing the implausibility of Mertilla Jones rushing for the door in mere seconds after the window broke.
“All he had to do was keep his finger off the trigger,” Moran pointed out, which is among the most elementary of firearms safety rules.
In the end, the jury was hung, and Wayne County Circuit Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway declared it to be a mistrial.
WEEKLEY’S 2ND TRIAL
Officer Joseph Weekley stood trial for a second time in September 2014. This time the more serious charge of manslaughter was dismissed, and Weekley’s trial revolved around the charge of careless or reckless firing of a weapon causing death, which carries a potential 2 year prison sentence.
Prosecutor Rob Moran again poked holes in the police narrative. If Mertilla Jones grabbed for Weekley’s gun, as the officer alleged, then why did it take hours for police to place her in handcuffs, he asked. Wouldn’t police detain and arrest her immediately?
The prosecution also showed using forensic evidence that Mertilla Jones’ fingerprints were not among those found on Weekley’s gun.
Jurors ultimately deadlocked in a 7-5 split in favor of acquittal and could not agree about whether Weekley was negligent or not. Deliberations went on for four days.
Judge Hathaway again declared it to be a mistrial in October 2014 when no unanimous verdict could be reached. At this point, prosecutors could either attempt a third trial, or decline to proceed with further prosecution.
A Caliph in a Wilderness of Mirrors
By Pepe Escobar
The Caliph’s goons are no less than taking over the whole, notorious Baghdad belt, the previous “triangle of death” in those hardcore days of American occupation circa 2004. Continue
The Islamist State
Will Human Decency Survive?
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It’s safe to say that the majority of armored vehicles, weapons, ammunition, and explosives taking lives every minute in the Middle East are stamped “Made in USA”. Continue
How To Create A No-Fly Zone Over Syria:
By Moon Of Alabama
Just claim that the current boogeyman is using planes and one is free to shoot ALL planes, especially Syrian government ones, out of the sky. Continue
Safest Place For Tony Blair Is Behind Bars For His War Crimes
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Video
President Putin answers questions from the international press. Continue
The Neocons — Masters of Chaos
By Robert Parry
America’s neoconservatives, by stirring up trouble in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, are creating risks for the world’s economy that are surfacing now in the turbulent stock markets, threatening another global recession. Continued
Obama Fights Ebola With A Czar and Soldiers
By Paul Craig Roberts
Little wonder ebola conspiracy theories are spreading faster than ebola. And as far as any of us know, the conspiracies could be true. Continue
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Emails show close collaboration between staffers at the American Psychological Association (APA) and government officials, collaboration that offered a fig leaf of health-professional legitimacy to the CIA and military’s brutal interrogations of terror suspects. Continue
Corporate Fascism
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By Mark Weiser
Everyday Americans, through propaganda, are persuaded to sacrifice their lives and tax money for use in the arsenal of weapons to beguile and wrestle the resources away from people in foreign lands. Continue
Richest One Percent Controls Nearly Half Of Global Wealth
By Andre Damon
If the growth of inequality were to proceed at last year’s rate, the richest one percent for all intents and purposes would control all the wealth on the planet within 23 years. Continue
Civil Unrest?
“Beyond the City of Ferguson”
By Paul Street
We all need some civil unrest – a lot actually, on a mass scale. Continue
Washington Admits
FSA Equals Fictitious Syrian Army
By Finian Cunningham
This is a stunning admission, hardly picked up in the Western media. Continue
The Real Secret of Iraq’s Germ Weapons
By Eric Margolis
Chemical warfare manufacturing equipment – came from Germany, France and Holland. The feed stock for the germ weapons came from a US laboratory in Maryland –approved by the US government. Continue
By Noam Chomsky
Chomsky on the threat of nuclear war, the recent escalation of violence in Gaza, and the growth of ISIS in Iraq. Continue
History of Key Document in IAEA Probe Suggests Israeli Forgery
By Gareth Porter
The IAEA has long touted the document, which came from an unidentified member state, as key evidence justifying suspicion that Iran has covered up past nuclear weapons work. Continue
Gaza and the Bipartisan War on Human Rights
By Stephen Zunes
During and after Israel’s war on the people of Gaza, bipartisan congressional majorities have worked to undermine war crimes investigations by the United Nations and human rights groups. Continue
My Grandson Doesn’t Kill Children
What Happens When You Talk With Americans About Drone Murders
By Joy First
This story really illustrates the disconnect and denial going on in our society, about how much we want to believe that we are the good guys, that we wouldn’t hurt others. Continue
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Democracy in Action
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Since literacy tests are no longer allowed, Republicans have come up with three new approaches to dilute the minority vote and, where possible, prevent minorities from voting. Continue
Postcard from the End of America: New Orleans
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By Kathy Kelly
The war on the Islamic State will distract us from what the U.S. has done and is doing to further create despair, in Iraq, and to enlist new recruits for the Islamic State. Continue
George W. Bush: The Gift That Keeps on Giving
By William Rivers Pitt
The single greatest strength of the American right is their utter and complete lack of shame.Continue
US War on Iran Takes Bizarre Turn
By Tony Cartalucci
It is not merely hyperbole when it is said the US created terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda or the so-called “Islamic State.” It is documented fact. Continue
Kobane: The Nightmare Of Reality
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George Galloway Interviews Kurdish Activist Memed Aksoy. Continue
US Bio-warfare Laboratories In Africa Are The Origin Of The Ebola Epidemic
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The U. S., Canada, France, and the U. K. are all implicated in the detestable and devilish deeds that these Ebola tests are. Continue
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We will gladly cooperate with the US staff in this endeavor, not in the pursuit of peace between the two States which have been adversaries for so many years, but, in any case, for world peace, which is a goal that could and should be pursued. Continue
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I have no regrets – in fact, I am pleased to have expelled the US ambassador, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and to have closed the US military base in Bolivia. Continue
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“Democracy” in U.S. discourse means: “serving U.S. interests” and “obeying U.S. dictates.Continue
By Andre Damon
Not only do the politicians do the bidding of the wealthy, they are themselves increasingly numbered among the rich and super-rich. Continue
October 20, 2014
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October 19, 2014
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October 18, 2014
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The Great Change of the Ages Has Arrived
We are right now well into a period that will rival or exceed the Precambrian extinction event of approximately 650 million years ago, when 70 percent of the higher life forms in the world died off.
Look at the numbers: in the last 40 years, 50% of the world’s wildlife has died off or been killed off. At that rate, by 2050 there won’t be any wild animals left. In reality, due to the dynamics of population collapse, the final nail in our collective coffin will come long before 2050. It could be 2030 or 2020 or 2018 when a critical global, ecological threshold is passed and the entire global ecology unravels catastrophically in just a few years, or even less.
This planet is dying. And we are the executioners. That is the plain English translation of the horrifying, 50% die-off of the world’s wildlife in just 40 years.
The Pacific Ocean is dying. The alternative news media in recent weeks and months have been filled with stories about massive die-offs of everything from sea stars to sea gulls to sardines and tuna.
The Pacific Ocean is the largest body of water in the world, so the implications of its death are self-evident for global ecology.
I have written before about the ongoing destruction of the Earth’s great tropical forests. They are being buzz cut, burned down, and bulldozed. Going, going, going ……. I’ve seen what is happening to the Amazon jungle here in Ecuador with my own eyes. It’s being cut down, burned down, bulldozed and herbicide and pesticide sprayed.
The human race has made a collective, profoundly ignorant decision to destroy its home planet. That’s what it amounts to.
It is what it is. Realistically, unless something radically, drastically, unexpectedly alters the status quo, we, the human species, are short timers on this planet. We won’t last much longer.
The exploded and/or melted down nuclear power reactors and spent fuel pools at Fukushima, Japan by themselves are probably an extinction level event. They have released and continue to release so much deadly radioactivity into the Earth’s atmosphere and Pacific Ocean that the extinction of most higher life forms is probably a done deal, with the passage of the years and the spread of the radioactive poison to all corners of the globe.
No one knows how to fix the problems at Fukushima, given the current level of industrial technology on this planet.
The problem will continue for years, maybe thousands of years.
All of this is made ever so much more grave, by the burgeoning Ebola crisis. It is a horrific disease, in and of itself. But what will happen if a spreading Ebola epidemic or pandemic creates sufficient societal chaos that crews do not go to work at the 400 nuclear power plants around the world? What then?
Nuclear power plants need constant, daily, hourly, minute-to-minute monitoring, operation and maintenance. What happens if the plant workers die or do not come to work out of fear, or because of martial law or medical quarantines? What then? Do we then have Fukushima in Chicago? New York City? Phoenix? Houston? Miami? All of that and more?
There are 10 nuclear power plants in the United Kingdom. That’s a small geographic area. A lot of U.K. subjects read this blog. What are their survival prospects if the nuclear power plants on that small island nation should melt down and/or blow up?
It is not an idle question.
You see, we have come hard up against the Great Dying Time. The dying has already begun with a vengeance.
Even if you do not succumb to Ebola or fall prey to the strontium, plutonium, uranium, cesium, etc. being ejected by the failed nuclear power plants in Japan, the mere fact that you are a higher life form on a planet on which half of all wildlife has vanished in the last 40 years, means that your chances of dying, vanishing, being killed, going extinct, etc. in the coming years are also very high, close to 100% actually. That is because as a higher life form dependent on the global ecology for continued survival and sustenance, the human species is prone to the very same dynamics that are killing off this planet’s wildlife.
We are at the top of the food chain, so as the ecology dies, so will humanity.
That’s the way the cookie crumbles, and it is crumbling very rapidly.
In 1958 I was shown by The Bone Lady that a GREAT DARK TIME would come. It is here. It is a very dark time. It is getting progressively darker.
In early 2012 I asked ayahuasca what the future held and was shown a stark vision of rigid totalitarianism. A lock down, not only physically and militarily, but also mentally and spiritually.
TOTALitarianism. It looked grim. Ayahuasca twice showed me the same, precisely identical vision.
I am talking not only about police, military and social control, but insidious mind and even spirit control.
All pervasive control. It’s being set up right now. Many of the elements are already in place
Look at the world with your eyes open. You can see the evidence everywhere.
It appears that soon Ebola quarantines may begin, and martial law, at least in the northern hemisphere countries.
We are close to that now.
Free yourself if you can. It will take a very serious effort.
My Current Situation
This week, the trial of the shaman who hurt me so badly and put me in the hospital for more than four months was finally held. The court received the extensive medical evidence of my grave bodily injury. The court heard testimony that I resided in the same finca with the shaman, that I was his informal apprentice; it heard my version of the events that transpired that morning and night, and more.
Nevertheless the court ruled that he was innocent of causing me harm.
Why?
The shaman and two of his close neighbors testified that they had spent the entire day together making rounds on the finca, beginning not long after dawn and continuing all day. Notwithstanding the near fatal bodily harm I suffered, it was my word against three others.
The presiding judge of the three judge tribunal therefore ruled that there was no proof that the shaman caused my injuries.
Case closed. Court dismissed.
I want to thank all of those who supported me in this long, horrific ordeal. I deeply appreciate your help and concern. It has sustained me in some of the darkest days of my life. I have literally been to the edge of death and back. I don’t know where I would have been without you. I am deeply grateful for your assistance.
For me, the whole process, from the beginning to this point, reflects the working of The Machine.
Ayahuasca itself has pointed The Machine out to me over and over again. It has infiltrated, distorted and warped every aspect of life and reality on this planet, and not in a good way. Once you are alerted to its presence and activity you can see it at work everywhere.
It has negatively infected everything, including the minds and spirits of most of humanity, from shamans to judges, police officers, politicians, bankers, gang bangers, drug smugglers, financiers, actors and actresses, and on and on.
It has this whole planet in its grip.
It is definitely the motivating force behind the Great Dying Time that has now come, and the pervasive evil and crime that is rampant on this planet.
I did my best with very limited resources to defend myself against the great crime that was inflicted on me. In the end, from a legal standpoint, according to the dictates of the “justice” system in the Ecuadorian Amazon, it turns out that you can be nearly killed and your assailant will simply walk away.
It could have been worse. I could have died.
I still do gratefully accept and need your assistance. This is what I do. I write. I comment on the big issues of the day. I am an activist. If you find value in my writing and reflections I welcome your donation.
For USA dollar contributions please e-mail me at: dr.samizdat1618@gmail.com and I will tell you how to send a donation.
Hi Pondo!I hope this finds you well and swell, under the circumstances…..Please read this, it’s 60+ pages…..it’s heavy information, but you are darn well used to that by now….I think the lever that that info provides could help move humanity toward unity and santity….Let me know what comes to you….Blessings,Felix
PS: And here’s a direct link for a pdf for ‘the reality and spirituality of life in the universe’, a bigger and more detailed read
News Links, October 18-20, 2014
Handelsblatt: “Four German Banks On The Brink”
More QE? These Charts Show the Pauperization of Workers in the UK and America since 2008
Nonperforming Spanish Loans Near All-Time High as Overall Credit Shrinks
Why Venezuela is so desperate, in 5 easy charts
About $180 billion of contracts for new construction projects will be awarded in wealthy Gulf states this year, the largest amount for six years, despite falling oil prices, according to a new study.
Tiger Airways Holdings operating loss doubles in 2QFY2015
## Fault lines/flashpoints/powder kegs/military/war drums ##
Iraqi PM Doesn’t Want Foreign Troops, Asks Militias Instead To Help Fight ISIS
Gunfire directed at security forces set fire to an oil pipeline in eastern Saudi Arabia, just days after a dissident Shiite cleric was sentenced to death.
Hong Kong protesters retake Mong Kok streets in battles with police
The global crash in crude prices is reverberating through the oil and gas industry, pressuring producers to curtail investment to protect profits and avoid cuts to dividend payments.
Coal stocks at power plants lowest in 25 years (India)
BP will restart the Rhum gas field in the UK North Sea, half-owned by Iran’s National Oil Company, four years after the field was shut down due to Western sanctions, a BP spokesman said on Friday.
India scrapped controls on diesel prices and increased natural gas tariffs in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s biggest steps toward curbing subsidies, spurring energy output and reviving the economy.
This is What School Lunch Looks Like in Chickasha, Oklahoma
Latest Intellectual Property Chapter Of TPP Agreement Leaked: Would Be A Disaster For Public Health
Analysis ‘has confirmed what farmers, beekeepers and scientists have been saying all along: neonicotinoids do more harm than good’
An alarmed United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in late September asked nations around the world to quickly help raise $1 billion to fight the deadly virus Ebola. As of Friday, only $100,000 has come in — from Colombia.
The movie, “Kill the Messenger,” portrays the mainstream U.S. news media as craven for destroying Gary Webb rather than expanding on his investigation of the Contra-cocaine scandal. So, now one of those “journalists” is renewing the character assassination of Webb.
Cops Need a Warrant to Grab Your Cell Tower Data, Florida Court Rules
A total of 606 data breaches have been recorded so far in 2014 by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC). About 77.6 million records have been exposed, including the breach of 56 million credit and debit card numbers at Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD), the largest breach ever recorded for a retail company.
A mysterious document has been used for a half dozen years to derail nuclear talks with Iran, but its origins remain dubious and one expert says it’s been used to take international inspectors “for a ride.”
## Systemic breakdown/collapse/unsustainability ##
Raising the Dead: Lack of Space Forces Cemeteries Skywards
Japanese Stocks Tumble After BoJ Bond-Buying Operation Fails For First Time Since Abenomics
The Bank of Japan 8301.TO -0.53% is reaching the limit of what it can buy in short-term debt from the market, a development that suggests it may have to shift its asset buying toward longer-term debt.
Slowing housing development drags on China’s growth
Raymond Purdy and Raymond Harris use the growing constellation of cameras that orbit Earth to help solve crime on the ground
Britain is on the verge of becoming permanently divided between tribes of haves and have-nots as the young increasingly miss out on the opportunities enjoyed by their parents’ generation, the government’s social mobility tsar claim.
113 Federal Reserve Staff Members Make $250,000 Annually
Fed Chair Janet Yellen ‘Greatly’ Concerned About Rising Income Inequality
And finally…