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In ‘uncharted’ period of violence, police change tactics but keep perspective

by Josh Siegel

As police around the country grapple with recent violence against their own, Chief Brandon del Pozo of the Burlington Police Department in Vermont is requiring his officers to pair up when responding to calls for service, as a method for added safety and support.

“It’s important for cops to have someone to talk to about what’s going on instead of stewing in a car alone for hours,” del Pozo told The Daily Signal in an interview. “Tense and uncertain environments stop cops from slowing things down, problem solving, and listening to citizens. Just having a partner on hand to process what’s going on will help us return to normalcy.”

Other police departments that are implementing two-person patrols include San Diego, Los Angeles, Oakland, Boston, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.
Meanwhile, another big city agency, the City of Orlando Police Department, is looking into purchasing bullet-proof vests designed to repel sniper fire in a way that normal protective gear can’t.

“It’s just hard for us, especially the past few years, where we’ve seen more ambush style shootings,” Orlando’s police chief, John Mina, told The Daily Signal in an interview. “Here in Orlando, we have a pretty rich history of engaging with the community and we aren’t afraid of doing that. Though morale is good, we are telling officers to be super vigilant, everywhere.”

In interviews with The Daily Signal, law enforcement leaders across the country caution that the fatal shootings of police officers mounting this year are forcing at least a short-term change in law enforcement tactics, and causing anguish among families of police who worry about the people they care for risking their lives on the frontlines.

Yet at the same time, police departments are responding to recent ambush attacks in Dallas and Baton Rouge and that left eight officers dead by mostly taking the long view, emphasizing the importance of shoring up community ties as a way to diffuse historic tension around law enforcement.

“Community policing has to continue because it’s the right way to police our communities,” said del Pozo, who polices a predominantly white city experiencing the opioid crisis and violence associated with it. “But my officers have to feel safe before they can connect with citizens. They know that in Vermont we feel a little lucky to have it better than Missouri, or Louisiana, or Minnesota, but we know sometimes there is no logic behind where violence can strike.”

‘Easy targets’

While larger police departments have the manpower to take extra precautions, and can still maintain quick response times across the areas they cover, other smaller agencies are not changing their tactics because they can’t afford to.

Mark Wasylyshyn, the third-term Republican sheriff of Wood County, Ohio, has not been able to double up patrols in the sprawling rural area policed by his 125 deputies.

He recognizes how police officers are particularly vulnerable to ambush-style shootings, even though the mostly white county he represents is far removed from the tension that exists in more urban cities.

“If someone wants to kill us, we unfortunately are easy targets,” Wasylyshyn told The Daily Signal in an interview. “If someone really wants to kill a cop, they can call 911 and tell us where to be. But while we always have to be vigilant, we are very engaged with our community and I truly believe most people are really good and appreciate their local law enforcement. There are a very small amount of people who want to do us harm.”

Even though Wasylyshyn doesn’t have the flexibility to institutionalize two-person patrols formally, he says deputies always have the option to radio in a request for a second deputy to assist a scene.

The sheriff’s department is also taking other actions to handle mass protest situations, even though there have been few in Wood County.
A mobile field force made up of representatives of area law enforcement agencies, including the police representing the nearby Bowling Green State University, convened for the first time on Monday with the mission of training officers how to maintain peace in situations of civil unrest without imposing on freedoms.
“I truly believe most people are really good and appreciate their local law enforcement,” says @woodctysheriff.

“A lot of problems arise with law enforcement not knowing how to respond to an incident of unrest,” said Eric Reynolds, the chief deputy of Wood County Sheriff’s Office. “When we have officers make mistakes, we discipline them and take care of business. As long as you do that, and focus on training officers the right way, the community appreciates it and doesn’t judge all law enforcement by that one misdeed.”

‘Public and police together’

Capt. Marc Yamada of the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland is tasked with reiterating the community-first approach that has come to define modern policing.

It’s a counterintuitive idea, to engage after you’ve been wronged, rather than withdraw — to walk through neighborhoods as a matter of routine, instead of just in response to an emergency.

But this is the way Yamada is telling his fellow officers to respond — including his son, Ryan, a recent college graduate and once-aspiring accountant who chose the most contentious of times to instead join Montgomery County’s police academy.

“While yes, the current events are extremely negative in nature, it just strengthens our belief in community policing,” said Yamada, director of community outreach for the police, a recently created position in the department.

“It’s the public and the police together,” Yamada told The Daily Signal in an interview. “If they trust us and see and know you, they are our first line of defense. The community sees and hears things before we do, and promoting an environment that makes them comfortable enough to just call us leads to prevention and detection of criminal activity.”

‘It’s a Philosophy’
Margaret Mims, the 10-year sheriff of Fresno County in California, says her agency has earned the respect of the community.

In the past five and a half years, she says, the sheriff’s office has had 11 officer-involved shootings out of 1,220,000 calls for service.
The agency trains its 430 deputies on developing verbal de-escalation techniques before resorting to force.

In addition, she says, the sheriff’s office meets regularly with representatives of Fresno County’s minority communities, especially its large Hispanic population.
Due to the length of this article and lack of space we unable to publish the whole article. To read the complete story visit: To read the complete story visit:
http://dailysignal.com/2016/07/22/in-uncharted-period-of-violence-police-change-tactics-but-keep-perspective/)

Rothschild doubles down on gold as banking collapse begins

Germans told to stockpile food/water

by Jay Syrmopoulos
The Free Thought Project

Berlin, Germany – The most prominent bank in Germany is at risk of imminent collapse, with potentially profound effects for the EU, the United States and the rest of the world. The prospect of a cataclysmic global banking collapse of this nature has not been seen since the implosion of Lehman Brothers in 2008, and subsequent fallout in the global banking world.

But these events haven’t taken place in a vacuum, as earlier this year savvy international investor Lord Jacob Rothschild, during a semi-annual address to RIT Capital Partners, announced that they are reducing stock market and currency exposure and increasing their gold holdings, warning that the world is now in “uncharted waters” and the consequences are “impossible” to predict.

Rothschild stated:

“The six months under review have seen central bankers continuing what is surely the greatest experiment in monetary policy in the history of the world.
We are therefore in uncharted waters and it is impossible to predict the unintended consequences of very low interest rates, with some 30 percent of global government debt at negative yields, combined with quantitative easing on a massive scale.”

The collapse of Deutsche Bank would most likely begin a cascade of Western banking institutions falling like dominos (which could include Barclays in London and CitiGroup in the U.S.). According to the same expert who valued Lehman’s worth at it’s collapse, Deutsche Bank’s current value of $1 trillion dollars is significantly more than Lehman Brothers’ valuation during their collapse in 2008.

The contagion from a collapse of this magnitude could potentially trigger a systemic banking collapse the likes of which the world has never seen. The EU would almost certainly disintegrate upon a collapse of this magnitude, as Deutsche Bank is the largest bank in Germany — which is essentially the financial heart and soul of the EU.

When Jacob Rothschild says that he is buying gold because the central banks are out of control, you begin to understand the scope and magnitude of what is transpiring, as his family has been in de facto control of the world’s central banks for centuries.

Deutsche Bank shares have fallen sharply on the news that German Chancellor Angela Merkel won’t bail out the struggling bank, with shares falling by as much as six percent in early week trading, turning in their worst performance since 1992. Since just January, the bank’s shares have lost over 52 percent of their value.

Merkel has also refused to provide state financial assistance to Deutsche Bank in its legal battle with the U.S. Department of Justice. The chancellor made her position clear during talks with Deutsche CEO John Cryan, according to Focus magazine. The German-based lender may be fined up to $14 billion over its mortgage-backed securities business before the 2008 global crisis.

The German Chancellor also noted that Deutsche Bank will not be getting a bailout from the European Central Bank – the lender of last resort for European banks.
Revealing the truly dangerous threat the German megabank poses to the international banking system, a report from the International Monetary Fund in June implied that Deutsche Bank was a systemic risk to the global financial system.

Of all the world’s big banks, the I.M.F. said,“Deutsche Bank appears to be the most important net contributor to systemic risks.”

Many fear that in the wake of Merkel’s refusal to bail out Deutsche Bank, Germany may now be considering a bail-in instead?

According to Investopedia:

A bail-in is rescuing a financial institution on the brink of failure by making its creditors and depositors take a loss on their holdings. A bail-in is the opposite of a bail-out, which involves the rescue of a financial institution by external parties, typically governments using taxpayers money. Typically, bail-outs have been far more common than bail-ins, but in recent years after massive bail-outs some governments now require the investors and depositors in the bank to take a loss before taxpayers.

Essentially, this entails the bank stealing deposited funds, with virtually no recourse for those individuals who have their savings stolen.

It’s not at all beyond the realm of possibility, as it has happened before in very recent history. To keep the bank solvent, the Bank of Cyprus took almost 40 percent of depositor’s funds – leaving customers with essentially nothing they could do about having their money stolen. Assets were frozen and ATM machines were not refilled.

Perhaps this explains why in mid-August Germans were told by their government to stockpile 10 days worth of water, and five days worth of food in case of a “national emergency” hitting the country, with the Czech Republic following suit and making a similar announcement within days of the German warning.

Deutsche Bank’s unbelievably risky portfolio and its exposure to the derivative markets, which stands at over $40 trillion dollars, would undoubtedly cause exponentially more damage than the Lehman Brothers collapse did back in 2008, which precipitated the Great Recession of 2008.

This risk of failure has now gotten so threatening that a number of funds that clear derivatives trades with Deutsche Bank AG have withdrawn excess cash and positions held at the lender, according to Bloomberg.

While the vast majority of the bank’s more than 200 derivatives-clearing clients have made no changes, the hedge funds run on cash highlights serious concern. The paranoia of an imminent collapse spread to the US on Thursday, as 10 hedge funds that are Deutsche Bank clients have decided to withdraw cash and listed derivatives positions from the bank, according to a Bloomberg News report.

Millennium Partners, Capula Investment Management and Rokos Capital Management are among about 10 hedge funds that have cut their exposure, said a person familiar with the situation who declined to be identified talking about confidential client matters.

The hedge funds use Deutsche Bank to clear their listed derivatives transactions because they are not members of clearinghouses. Millennium, Capula and Rokos declined to comment when contacted by phone or e-mail.

Highlighting the contagion banking effect, news that some hedge funds were pulling positions and excess collateral from Deutsche Bank caused shares of U.S. banks to quickly reverse early gains, according to Bloomberg.

Just as Lehman Brothers disingenuously claimed they were financially solvent as the upcoming financial storm brewed in 2008, only to file for bankruptcy, Deutsche Bank has attempted to allay investor concerns by claiming that their financial fundamentals are sound. One would be wise to be very suspicious of any statements made by a failing banking institution.

When the government warnings start, you can be assured that it’s already too late, as the availability of supplies in the case of emergency would be severely constrained after a warning due to the large number of people attempting to procure an extremely limited amount of supplies.

Will Germany become the powder keg that implodes the global economy? Only time will tell, but all signs point to a very similar situation to 2008 — but without central banks having much recourse, as negative interest rates and quantitative easing were some of the last arrows in the quiver being used to prop up the global economy.

What is certain is that an ounce of prevention, ahead of any potential collapse, is the most viable solution for those looking to safeguard themselves and their families. The key is to stock up on food, water and other necessities in advance of the actual crisis fully manifesting. A minimal amount of effort put into preparing early for the side effects of a major economic disaster could be the difference between surviving the crisis, or not, for your family.

Please share this extremely important information to help others be prepared for this potentially dangerous crisis, the severity of which is largely being covered up by mainstream media!

Mexican authorities to investigate missing Honduran immigrants

by the El Reportero’s wire services

A tunnel used for transferring drugs from Mexico to the United States has been found near the International Airport of Tijuana, Baja California, the Ministry of State Security confirmed today.

The drug tunnel, located near La Hielera del Aeropuerto company, was found early yesterday.

According to local media, the ice factory was surrounded by preventive state police agents and soldiers, as several packages of drugs were detected inside.
Tijuana is the most populous town in the Mexican state of Baja California, bordering San Diego County (California, United States) to the north and is considered the westernmost city in Latin America.

In Jalisco, army soldiers found a drug lab in El Rodeo delegation, in the Ixtlahuacan de Los Membrillos municipality.

Mexico: López Obrador proposes free zone instead of wall

The leader of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena, in Spanish) and former Mexican presidential candidate, Manuel Lopez Obrador, has proposed creating a free zone on the border with the United States, it emerged today.

Obrador made the proposal in response to Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for the White House, who has promised to isolate Mexico with a border wall.
According to Obrador, the development of the border zone with the United States is fundamental to stopping migration and combatting illegal activities.

He announced a ‘comprehensive plan’ for the border, which includes tax cuts as well as standardized and competitive fuel and electricity prices, among other measures.

‘The vision would be to convince and persuade the authorities of the neighboring nation that for the sake of both countries is more effective and humane to implement a development policy rather than insisting on giving priority to police and military affairs,’ he said during a visit to the USA.

‘The migratory flow will not be stopped by building walls, carrying out raids and deporting or militarizing the border’, said the potential presidential candidate for the elections in 2018.

Costa Rica receives donation of 2 aircrafts from China

President of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solis, received today two aircraft donated by China to be used in the fight against organized crime, drug trafficking, humanitarian and emergency actions.

The planes, type Y12E of two engines, can accommodate up to 17 people and can also carry cargo and carry out patrols and maritime surveillance, as explained in the ceremony to receive the devices, attended by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs Manuel Gonzalez and of Public Security Gustavo Mata.
The president pointed out his government’s decision to strengthen the fight against organized crime and to ensure humanitarian and emergency response actions in this Central American country.

Crews and mechanics to operate the aircraft have received a six-week training in China, who will shortly prepare other members of Air Surveillance.

Panama: 350 gang members arrested in 2016

A report of the Panamanian Prosecution Ministry revealed that more than 350 persons were arrested linked to different gangs, as a result of 15 police operations this year.

According to the prosecutor specialized in organized crime, Nathaniel Murgas, offenses like sale and distribution of drugs, robbery, extortion and kidnappings are included.

Murgas said many of the gang members are hired by organized crime groups or leaders.

He said the actions carried out by the gangs, increased in the provinces of Colon and Chiriqui, but it was gradually being reduced after the operations started.
By applying a resocializing program called BARRIOS SEGUROS (Safe Neighborhhods) Murgas stated that most of the gang members reach a condition and eventually return to society, others get registered, receive economic benefits (200 dollars a month) but they eventually return to crriminal activities.

San Jose Jazz Fall concert series

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

Saxophonist and composer Rudresh Mahanthappa presents the music of Bird Calls, his critically acclaimed Charlie Parker-inspired CD of the same name. Few musicians have remained as influential to so many generations of players and fans as Charlie Parker, and few contemporary saxophonists are more cutting edge than Mahanthappa.
His stellar quintet of forward-thinking musicians features some long-time collaborators as well as Latin GRAMMY® nominee and trumpet prodigy Adam O’Farrill, Joshua White on piano, Thomson Kneeland on bass and Dan Weiss on drums.

Sunday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m., at Cafe Stritch 374 South First Street, San Jose, tickets $20 SJZ Members / $25 General Admission

Mariachi Flor de Toloache

Latin GRAMMY® nominated Mariachi Flor de Toloache continue to win the hearts of music and mariachi fans alike through their distinct vision and enlightened interpretation of traditional instruments. The band’s diverse ethnicities and musical backgrounds are transcending culture and gender by forging new paths for mariachi music, showcased in an NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert. Like the legendary Toloache flower used in Mexico today as a love potion, the ladies of Flor de Toloache cast a spell over their audiences with soaring vocals and physical elegance. 

The New York City-based band and first all-women Mariachi is led by co-directors

Mireya I. Ramos (founder) on violin and Shae Fiol (original member) on vihuela, with Julie Acosta on trumpet and Eunice Aparicio on guitarron. 
Sunday, Oct. 30 @ 4:30 p.m. SJZ Boom Box Stage at La Ultima Parada San Jose Mexican Heritage Plaza, 1700 Alum Rock Ave., San Jose.
FREE Admission to Concert.

Admission $5 to La Ultima Parada, a Celebration of Life on the Day of the Dead

Fusion of Latin and Reggae music with Rúckatan

Rúckatan Latin Tribe is composed of seven players who have all contributed to the local Latin Rock scene in the Bay Area and internationally with various Latin, Reggae and Rock acts.

Rúckatan is a fusion of Latin and Reggae. Members hailing from three different continents infuse their culture and love of their roots.

The music is very dance oriented with many Latin, Caribbean and World flavors. On Saturday, Nov. 5, 7pm doors / 8pm show, at Club Fox, 2209 Broadway, Redwood City. Tickets $15 adv / $20 door. For more info call 650-369-7770.

6th Annual Yerba Buena Nights Festival
Grupo LA GENTE are happy to announce we will be performing at the 6th Annual Yerba Buena Night Festival. We hit the main stage at 8 p.m. Check out the Yerba Buena Nights website for the full lineup of over 40 acts! Nos vemos!

Saturday Oct. 15, AT Jessie Square, 220 Stevenson St, San Francisco.

Founder of Sonora Ponceña band, Mr. Quique Lucca, dies

by the El Reportero’s news services

The legendary founder of the Sonora Ponceña, Mr. Enrique ‘Quique’ Lucca Caraballo, died last week in Ponce, at the age of 103 years.
According to an insider confirmed family, Don Quique died at the Ladies Hospital, where he was recovering from surgery after fracturing a hip last Sept. 15.
Meanwhile, Zulma Lucca told La Perla del Sur his father died in the company of children and friends.
Lucca Caraballo founded the Sonora Ponceña in 1954. It is directed by his son, the virtuoso pianist Enrique ‘Papo’ Lucca.
The Sonora has released more than 20 albums, among which include Fire in the 23 ( 1969), Creole Christmas (1971), Some of madness (1971) and from Puerto Rico to New York (1972), Warring (1992), Soul of Puerto Rico (1993), Gritting (1995),0 Pure flavor (2000) and Another Creole Christmas (2008).
Among his most successful songs include Bear mountain, Yambeque , Bomba Carambomba, the tweet Boranda, Until we break the leather, Song of love, Moreno am, My cute Yambú, Remembrance and Second thought. (Reported by Jason Rodriguez Grafal).

Mexican musical project to perform in Cuba

Excited for offering the pleasant Mexican music to the Cuban public, the Harmony & Melody music project will perform today at Casa de las Americas in Havana.
Invited to the 5th edition of the Meeting of Popular Voices, the young members of the group will hold a dialogue with the public for promoting music as an extraordinary means of communication.

Erika Alcazar (soprano), Coral Díaz (mezzosoprano), Rubén Mondragón (cello), Christian Velasco (guitar) and Samuel López (guest pianist) are the members of the musical project and all together endorse the goal of the event, which is to strengthen cultural ties. Harmony & Melody has carried out numerous concerts on stages of the Mexican capital, and auditoriums of the Autonomous University of Mexico, the José Luís Cuevas Museum, and the Hermilo Novelo hall at the Cultural Center Ollin Yoliztli, among others.

The Meeting of Popular Voices will conclude on Oct. 9. It was organized by the eponymous foundation that promotes Cuban singer and teacher Argelia Fragoso.

The Dirty Game film on the Chevron case in Ecuador

The filme The Dirty Game will soon be screened in Ecuador about the mechanisms used by the U.S. oil company Chevron-Texaco in this country to evade responsibility in the pollution caused by that corporation.

The premiere will take place at the Anthropological Museum of Contemporary Art (MAAC), located in the city of Guayaquil, next Wednesday Oct. 12, indicated a note of the institution.

The film shows the story of a U.S. journalist, hired to travel to Ecuador and round-up the alleged frauds committed in the South American nation against the oil company, during the trial that took place in the Provincial Court of Sucumbios.

Paulo Coelho wins the Nobel Prize for Literature 2016

Latin America reached a new Nobel Prize for Literature, and to everyone’s surprise, from the hand of the Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho de Souza (Rio de Janeiro, 1947), which outperformed other renowned authors of the caliber of the Syrian Adonis, the American Philip Roth and Italy’s Claudio Magris, who loomed as favorites to win the award.

Thus, Paulo Coelho will become the seventh Latin American writer to receive this award and the first Brazilian-born along with Mario Vargas Llosa (2010), Octavio Paz (1990), Gabriel García Márquez (1982), Pablo Neruda (1971) Miguel Angel Asturias (1967) and Gabriela Mistral (1945).

2016 – The year America realized the inevitable result of constantly choosing the “lesser of two evils”

by Claire Bernish
The Free Thought Project

Election after election, Americans sat idly by as decent candidates who challenged the status quo were shunned and dismissed by the media as unelectable. All the while, demagogues on power trips were continually thrust into the limelight as the only viable options. Well, the chickens are finally coming home to roost.
Exactly how nonsensical the 2016 presidential election could get — and how far mainstream media would go to distort facts and significance — received a resounding answer this week, thanks to Wikileaks first massive disclosure of Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta’s hacked emails and the oh-so-convenient twin reminder from the DNC via the media that Trump said some awfully lewd and disgraceful shit some 12 years ago.
While the two campaigns are now lobbing barbs at one another over the supposed revelations (the sensible among us knew all along to be true), the corporate media presstitutes busied themselves condemning all things Trump — while pretending not to notice the ginormous implications of any number of eye-popping disclosures about Clinton found in the Podesta leak.
Let’s face it, America — we’re doing it wrong.
Perhaps this first installment of Julian Assange’s long-awaited October Surprise should have fallen in our laps in the nascent stages of Clinton’s bid for the White House. Perhaps the Washington Post — in virtual certain coordination with the DNC and/or Clinton campaign — should have let slip the repulsive Trump video when he first began to lead the field of GOP presidential hopefuls.
Perhaps Hillary’s perfect track record of fabrication, mendacity, near — if not outright — criminal behavior, and interminable list of scandals should have nullified any integrity for the presidency in the American public’s collective mind, if not landed her behind bars, years ago.
Perhaps Trump’s laughably false reputation as businessman extraordinaire, despite a history replete with scamming, conning, shortchanging, failing to pay, lawsuits, swindles, bankruptcies, and, oh yeah, those not-at-all worrisome underage rape allegations and the aforementioned statements, from his own mouth, about forcing himself on women against their will, should have prohibited any intimation of hopes for the White House before the thought ever crossed his mind.
Apparently none of these matters occurred to any of the players involved — or, maybe they did — and strategy dictated their timing less than a month prior to the national election because, at this point, it’s too late for America to reverse its idiotic, failed-from-jump-street course toward utter disaster.
We’re not only speeding toward the edge of a perilous cliff, but arguing over who should steer the wheel — leaving no one competent enough available to man the brakes.
It’s additionally entirely possible control of the wheel won’t matter, considering the current driver’s obstinance might first divert us into full-scale world — if not nuclear — war.
War, it should be noted, that will be funded through debt and with our tax dollars.
And several theaters of military operations — as war has not yet been officially and never will be declared in Syria, Yemen, and other sovereign nations — directly fuel this potentially decimating and longer-lasting theoretical World War III.
Wars having nothing to do with the betterment of humanity, the advancing of innovation, the freeing of enslaved peoples, the furthering of liberty, the enriching of anyone but the military-industrial machine, or even, necessarily, with the hegemonic taking of someone else’s natural resources.
Wars the imperialist government of the United States, which has incidentally gone rogue and no longer represents its people, undertook in the name of fighting both the terrorism and terrorists it created and continues to fund — again, with our tax dollars.
Wars which somehow made acceptable the bombing of hospitals and markets and schools and aid convoys and emergency workers and weddings — as well as militaries against which no official declaration of war, again, has ever been made.
And as if these altogether astronomically alarming points weren’t telling enough of 2016’s surreality, there’s actually so much more.
Americans not embroiled in vicious debate over which godawful candidate could be worse for our future posit inane theories about Kim Kardashian’s … whatever … or freak out about a nonexistent clown apocalypse or scold the dead victims of police violence for not being in complete compliance with laws governing nonviolent, noncriminal, victimless acts that should not exist in the first place or lambaste an athlete for protesting the wrong way and showing ostensible disrespect for a piece of cloth and a song symbolic of all of these problems.
Have we lost our fucking minds?
Much of the world seems to think so — and, given the evidence, how far off can they really be?
We’ve become a culture of victim-blamers, censors, politically-correct social justice warriors, hypocrites, race-baiters, xenophobes, instigators, whiners, tattletales, finger-pointers, perpetual victims, hyperbolic crybabies, narcissists — and generally experts in everyone else’s lives but our own.
On the other hand — though you might not realize, since these headlines don’t sell — we’ve also quietly innovated, organized peaceful resistance, come together despite differences, taken successful stands against callous policies and reckless industries, usurped the mainstream media’s forever-faulty narratives, subverted Big Government, spread awareness, helped save our planet’s flora and fauna from near ruin, and generally effected good works.
So, perhaps, hope does indeed spring eternal.
Perhaps someone cagey and powerful or loud enough might yet dive for the brakes. Perhaps absurdity’s epic proportions will prove to the public-at-large that — once and for all — our loyalty to the parcel of land on which we exist should not extend arbitrarily to the ideologues claiming to rule it.
Perhaps elections are distractions, war only lines a few wallets, and the end of the American empire will not only ultimately bring peace — but is far past due.

The Council of Foreign Relations

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Dear readers: As the Presidential Election goes on in high gear and many of us can see the obvious biases practiced by the mainstream media, I thought this article, written by James Perloff, could bring some light of who the power to be really and who really rule the US. THIS IS THE FIRST PART OF A SERIES.

What is, how it formed and who are the Council of Foreign Relations – PART ONE OF A SERIES.

by James Perloff

During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama consistently promised Americans “change.” Such promises aren’t new to the voting public.

When Jimmy Carter ran for president, he said: “The people of this country know from bitter experience that we are not going to get … changes merely by shifting around the same group of insiders.” And top Carter aide Hamilton Jordan promised: “If, after the inauguration, you find a Cy Vance as Secretary of State and Zbigniew Brzezinski as head of National Security, then I would say we failed. And I’d quit.” Yet Carter selected Vance as Secretary of State and Brzezinski as National Security Adviser; the “same group of insiders” had been shifted around; and Jordan did not quit.

Carter’s administration was dominated by members of the Trilateral Commission, which had been founded by Brzezinski and David Rockefeller. In 1980, when Ronald Reagan was campaigning against Carter, he protested:

I don’t believe that the Trilateral Commission is a conspiratorial group, but I do think its interests are devoted to international banking, multinational corporations, and so forth. I don’t think that any Administration of the U.S. Government should have the top nineteen positions filled by people from any one group or organization representing one viewpoint. No, I would go in a different direction.

Yet after his election, President Reagan picked 10 Trilateralists for his transition team, and included in his administration such Trilateralists as Vice President George Bush, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, U.S. Trade Representative William Brock, and Fed Chairman Paul Volcker. Yet the entire North American membership of the Trilateral Commission has never numbered much over 100.

The reason that presidential candidates’ promises of “change” go largely unfulfilled once in office: they draw their top personnel from the same establishment groups — of which the Trilateral Commission is only one.

Chief among these groups is the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the most visible manifestation of what some have called the American establishment. Members of the council have dominated the administrations of every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, at the cabinet and sub-cabinet level. It does not matter whether the president is a Democrat or Republican. As we will later see, Barack Obama is no exception to CFR influence.

Power Behind the Throne

In theory, America’s government is supposed to be “of the people, by the people, for the people.” While this concept rang true in early America, and many individuals still trust in it, the last century has seen the reality of power increasingly shift from the people to an establishment rooted in banking, Wall Street, and powerful multinational corporations. Syndicated columnist Edith Kermit Roosevelt, granddaughter of Teddy Roosevelt, explained:

The word “Establishment” is a general term for the power elite in international finance, business, the professions and government, largely from the northeast, who wield most of the power regardless of who is in the White House. Most people are unaware of the existence of this “legitimate Mafia.” Yet the power of the Establishment makes itself felt from the professor who seeks a foundation grant, to the candidate for a cabinet post or State Department job. It affects the nation’s policies in almost every area.

Roosevelt added that this group’s goal is “a One World Socialist state governed by ‘experts’ like themselves.”

David Rockefeller, the longtime chairman (and now chairman emeritus) of the CFR, acknowledged the role of the establishment in trying to lead America in the one-world direction in his 2002 book Memoirs:

For more than a century ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents such as my encounter with Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as “internationalists” and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure — one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.

Two major means the establishment employs for controlling government policy: (1) through its influence within the two major parties and the mass media, it can usually assure that both the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates will be its own hand-picked men; (2) by stacking presidential cabinets with CFR members at key positions — especially those involving defense, finance, foreign policy, and national security — it can assure that America will move in the direction it wants. Since the council’s founding in 1921, 21 secretaries of defense or war, 19 secretaries of the treasury, 17 secretaries of state, and 15 CIA directors have hailed from the Council on Foreign Relations.

Background

Prior to the CFR’s founding, what Congressman Charles Lindbergh, Sr. (the father of the famous aviator) called the “Money Trust” — a cabal of international bankers including the houses of Rockefeller, Morgan, and Rothschild — conspired to create the Federal Reserve System. Their agents, such as Paul Warburg and Benjamin Strong, who had secretly planned the Fed at a nine-day meeting on Jekyll Island, were then put in charge of the system itself. This gave them control of American interest rates, and, by virtue of this, control of the stock market, as well as the capacity to have the U.S. government spend without limit by having the Fed create money from nothing. The result has been decades of inflation and skyrocketing national debt. (For full details, see the April 13, 2009 New American or Our Monetary Mayhem Began With the Fed.).

Not just an accumulation of wealth, but a consolidation of political power was involved. The Money Trust had backed Woodrow Wilson in the presidential elections, and then controlled him through their front man, Edward Mandell House, who lived in the White House. The trust recognized how the power of government could be used to advance their own interests.

Wilson, surrounded by the bankers, traveled to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, which was settling the aftermath of World War I. His chief proposal there, of course, was the League of Nations — a first step toward world government. However, although the League was established by the Versailles Treaty, the United States did not join because the Senate refused to ratify the treaty.

In response to this rejection, the bankers’ circle, still in Paris, held a series of meetings and proposed to establish a new organization in the United States, whose purpose would be to lead America into the League. This organization was incorporated in New York City two years later as the Council on Foreign Relations.
IT WILL CONTINUE NEXT WEEK.

Shrimp and lobsters have powerful anti- inflamatory properties

a lobster with sea in background

by Ben Fuchs
Critical Health News

Shrimp and lobsters make their own anti-inflammatory molecules, and that has scientists very excited. In a press release posted last week by the College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University, officials announced that they had received a $380,000 National Institute of Health grant to investigate just how the marine medicine could be used to eliminate inflammatory diseases in humans.

The crabby chemical that is the center of attention is called a chitin, and it’s a key constituent of the shells of various oceans animals including crayfish, shrimp, krill, and barnacles, and is one of the most abundant molecules in all of nature, second only to cellulose. And, as it turns out, in addition to being abundant (and cheap), chitin has powerful anti -inflammatory properties. Properties that are so impressive, that the natural molecule found in so many crust critters is being studied in hope of finding a pharmaceutical treatment for inflammatory diseases including Irritable Bowel Syndrome, arthritis, and heart disease.
And it’s not just shellfish that contain this fascinating medicinal molecule. You can find chitin in the hard shells of insects as well as in the cell walls of most fungi and algae.

Chitin is made up of repeating pieces of sugar to which it owes its interesting medicinal properties. Actually the sugar isn’t any old glucose. It’s a “specialty” glucose that scientists call a “proteo-glycan” (protein-sugar) because it has a little chunk of amino acid attached to it. The little proteanaceous piece turns the ordinarily “one trick pony” glucose, which is basically only good as a source of energy, into glucose-amine, a sort of “super” glucose that provides structure and support for everything from bones to butterfly wings and has therapeutic properties to boot. Arthritis sufferers, in particular, have exploited the healing powers of glucosamine for decades.

The glucosamine pieces that make up chitin are a type of glucosamine called NA-glucosamine (NAG). The NA component makes this type of glucosamine especially effective at healing and soothing. This is really what has scientists and drug companies so excited. In addition to NAG’s calming and quenching qualities, it contains the precursors for hyaluronic acid, one of the most important of all growth and repair and anti-inflammatory molecules in the body. NAG is especially effective at helping to take the edge off of intestinal pain and discomfort associated with various digestive ailments.

If you don’t to wait for some drug company to patent a molecule and sell it to you for 20 dollars a dose to enjoy the benefits of crustacean chitin, use glucosamine supplements. If you’re looking to heal the gut get some NAG. They’re available in health food stores or on the internet, very inexpensive, and both are completely non-toxic.

Food can be an especially good source of NAG, especially homemade chicken soup. The knobby cartilage on chicken bones is a great source of NAG as well as other substances like amino acids, chondroitin, and collagen that can all contribute joint health benefits. You can save shrimp shells and throw put in a tea ball and let them steep in the soup. Make sure you throw in some lime or lemon; a little acid is required to dissolve the NAG into the soup. Aloe is also a good source of NAG, as is Noni. Algaes, a great source of everything good and healthy, also contain appreciable amounts of NAG.

8 myths and atrocidies Christopher Columbus and Columbus Day

by Vincent Schilling

On the second Monday of October each year, Native Americans cringe at the thought of honoring a man who committed atrocities against Indigenous Peoples

Columbus Day was conceived by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic Fraternal organization, in the 1930s because they wanted a Catholic hero. After President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the day into law as a federal holiday in 1937, the rest has been history.

In an attempt to further thwart the celebration of this “holiday,” we at ICTMN have outlined eight misnomers and bloody, greedy, sexually perverse and horrendous atrocities committed by Columbus and his men.

On the way—Columbus stole a sailor’s reward

After obtaining funding for his explorations to reach Asia from the seizure and sale of properties from Spanish Jews and Muslims by order of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, Columbus headed out to explore a new world with money and ships.

Brimming with the excitement of discovering new land, Columbus offered a reward of 10,000 maravedis or about $540 (a sailor’s yearly salary) for the first person to discover such land. Though another sailor saw the land in October 1492, Columbus retracted the reward he had previously offered because he claimed he had seen a dim light in the west.

Columbus never landed on american soil—not in 1492, not ever

We’re not talking about the Leif Ericson Viking explorer story. We mean Columbus didn’t land on the higher 48—ever. Columbus quite literally landed in what is now known as the Bahamas and later Hispaniola, present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Upon arrival, Columbus and his expedition of weapon laden Spaniards met the Arawaks, Tainos and Lucayans—all friendly, according to Columbus’ writings. Soon after arriving, Columbus wrecked the Santa Maria and the Arawaks worked for hours to save the crew and cargo.

Impressed with the friendliness of the native people, Columbus seized control of the land in the name of Spain. He also helped himself to some locals. In his journal he wrote:
“As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts.”

Columbus painted a horrible picture of peaceful Natives

When Columbus first saw the Native Arawaks that came to greet him and his crew he spoke with a peaceful and admiring tone.

“They … brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things… They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features…. They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane… . They would make fine servants…. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”

After several months in the Caribbean, on January 13, 1493 two Natives were murdered during trading. Columbus, who had otherwise described the Natives as gentle people wrote “(they are) evil and I believe they are from the island of Caribe, and that they eat men.” He also described them as “savage cannibals, with dog-like noses that drink the blood of their victims.”

The cannibal story is taught as fact in some of today’s schools.

Columbus’ men were rapists and murderers

On Columbus’s first trip to the Caribbean, he later returned to Spain and left behind 39 men who went ahead and helped themselves to Native women. Upon his return the men were all dead.With 1,200 more soldiers at his disposal, rape and pillaging became rampant as well as tolerated by Columbus.

This is supported by a reported close friend of Columbus, Michele de Cuneo who wrote the first disturbing account of a relation between himself and a Native female gift given to him by Columbus.

Columbus enslaved the native people for gold

Because Columbus reported a plethora of Natives for slaves, rivers of gold and fertile pastures to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, Columbus was given 17 ships and more than 1,200 men on his next expedition. However, Columbus had to deliver. In the next few years, Columbus was desperate to fulfill those promises—hundreds of Native slaves died on their way back to Spain and gold was not as bountiful as expected.

Columbus forced the Natives to work in gold mines until exhaustion.

Those who did not fulfill their obligation had their hands cut off, which were tied around their necks while they bled to death—some 10,000 died handless.

In two years’ time, approximately 250,000 Indians on Haiti were dead. Many deaths included mass suicides or intentional poisonings or mothers killing their babies to avoid persecution.

According to Columbus, in a few years before his death, “Gold is the most precious of all commodities; gold constitutes treasure, and he who possesses it has all he needs in the world, as also the means of rescuing souls from purgatory, and restoring them to the enjoyment of paradise.”

Columbus provided native sex slaves to his men

In addition to putting the Natives to work as slaves in his gold mines, Columbus also sold sex slaves to his men—some as young as 9. Columbus and his men also raided villages for sex and sport.

In the year 1500, Columbus wrote: “A hundred castellanoes are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand.”

Columbus’ men used native people as dog food

In the early years of Columbus’ conquests there were butcher shops throughout the Caribbean where Indian bodies were sold as dog food. There was also a practice known as the montería infernal, the infernal chase, or manhunt, in which Indians were hunted by war-dogs.

Columbus returned to Spain in shackles—but was pardoned

After a multitude of complaints against Columbus about his mismanagement of the island of Hispaniola, a royal commissioner arrested Columbus in 1500 and brought him back to Spain in chains.

Though he was stripped of his governor title, he was pardoned by King Ferdinand, who then subsidized a fourth voyage.

15 facts about US poverty the government hides

by Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield

On Tuesday, the Census Bureau released its annual poverty report declaring that 43.1 million Americans lived in poverty in 2015.

We should be concerned about any American living in real material hardship, but much of what the Census reports about poverty is misleading.

Here are 15 facts about poverty in America that may surprise you.(All statistics are taken from U.S. government surveys.)
• Poor households routinely report spending $2.40 for every $1 of income the Census says they have.
• The average poor American lives in a house or apartment that is in good repair and has more living space than the average non-poor person in France, Germany, or England.
• Eighty-five percent of poor households have air conditioning.
• Nearly three-fourths of poor households have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more cars or trucks.
• Nearly two-thirds of poor households have cable or satellite TV.
• Half have a personal computer; 43 percent have internet access.
• Two-thirds have at least one DVD player
• More than half of poor families with children have a video game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation.
• One-third have a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV.

(The above data on electronic appliances owned by poor households come from a 2009 government survey so the ownership rates among the poor today are most likely higher.)

Poverty and Hunger

Activist groups spread alarming stories about widespread hunger in the nation, but in reality, most of the poor do not experience hunger or food shortages. The U.S. Department of Agriculture collects data on these topics in its household food security survey. For 2009, the survey showed:
• Only 4 percent of poor parents reported that their children were hungry even once during the prior year because they could not afford food.
• Some 18 percent of poor adults reported they were hungry even once in the prior year due to lack of money for food.
Poverty and Housing
The following are facts about the housing conditions of the poor.
• Poverty and homelessness are sometimes confused. Over the course of a year, only 4 percent of poor persons become homeless (usually a temporary condition).
• Only 9.5 percent of the poor live in mobile homes or trailers; the rest live in apartments or houses.
• Forty percent of the poor own their own homes, typically, a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths that is in good repair.
Facts About Extreme Poverty
• The left claims that one in 25 families with children live in “extreme poverty” on less than $2 per person per day. Government surveys of self-reported spending by families show the actual number is one in 4,469, not one in 25.The typical family allegedly in “extreme poverty” reports spending $25 for every $1 of income the left claims they have.

In calculating poverty, Census ignores the almost entire welfare state

Why does the Census identify so many individuals as “poor” who do not appear to be poor in any normal sense of the term?The answer lies in the misleading way the Census measures “poverty.” The Census defines a family as poor if its income falls below a specified income threshold. (For example, the poverty threshold for a family of four in 2015 was $24,036.) But in counting “income,” the Census excludes nearly all welfare benefits.

In 2014, government spent over $1 trillion on means-tested welfare for poor and low-income people. (This figure does not include Social Security or Medicare.) Welfare spending on cash, food, and housing was $342 billion.

The cash, food, and housing spending alone was 150 percent of the amount needed to eliminate all poverty in the U.S. But the Census ignored more than four-fifths of these benefits for purposes of measuring poverty. Effectively, the Census counts poverty in the U.S. by ignoring almost the entire welfare state.

Poverty and self-sufficiency

Do the higher living standards of families receiving welfare mean the welfare state is successful? The answer is no. The real aim of welfare should be to make families self-sufficient: capable of supporting themselves above the poverty income threshold without reliance on government welfare aid.

Despite having spent over $25 trillion on means-tested welfare since the beginning of the War on Poverty under President Lyndon Johnson, many Americans are less capable of self-sufficiency today than when the War on Poverty began.

The pathways to self-sufficiency are work and marriage. We should reform the welfare state to promote these. Able-bodied recipients should be required to work or prepare for work as a condition of getting aid. Penalties against marriage in welfare programs should be removed.

Let’s make welfare a hand-up, not a handout.

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