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First evidence that natural essential oils counteract inflamation caused by polluted air

by George Zapo

Certain ingredients in essential oils made from plants could provide a natural treatment of liver and lung conditions caused by air pollution.  They may also help in counteracting inflammation.

This recent study evaluated the value of using specific essential oil compounds — like fennel, anise, ylang ylang, and cloves — to treat inflammation caused by the fine particles found in hazy, polluted air known to be carcinogenic.

This new study is the first of its kind.

Different Organic Compounds in Essential Oils

Plants naturally contain a variety of essential oils that consist of different compounds. Some of these compounds have antioxidant value.  They may also be able to fight inflammation.

The essential oils in some plants have a group of organic compounds called phenylpropanoids — possible anti-inflammatory substances.  A few of these substances are estragole (found in basil), eugenol (which occurs in clove bud oil), trans-anethole, (a flavor component of anise and fennel), and isoeugenol (contained in ylang ylang).

Laboratory Tests Discover Essential Oil

Lead author of this new study, Miriana Kfoury and her team of researchers, collected air pollutant samples containing fine particles.  Laboratory test samples were then introduced to human cell cultures of cancer derived hepatic cells and normal bronchial epithelial cells.

The fine particle matter induced inflammation in the cells.  They started to secrete the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-8 — substances that are secreted during infections and tissue damage. Cytokin levels normally increase when our body’s immune system fights specific infections.

Next, the researchers established that the trans-anethole, estragole, eugenol, and isoeugenol all have cytotoxicity — which means that they might cause cell death when exposed to comparatively high concentrations.

Evaluation of Oil Compound Properties

In their evaluation, the researchers were able to determine the level of cytotoxicity of these oil compounds. This was important in order to establish the maximum dose that should be selected in the next step — specifically, the assessment for anti-inflammatory properties.

In the second round of laboratory testing, the researchers introduced the four compounds to the combination of cell lines and air pollutants to see whether the natural essential oil compounds could protect lung and liver cells damaged by fine particles found in air pollution.

The researchers discovered that the essential oil compounds tested decrease the levels of the two types of cytokines in the samples. The levels of cytokine IL-6 decreased up to 96 percent, and the leve ls of cytokine IL-8 by 87 percent.

First Evidence of Essential Oils Counteracting Inflammation

Lead author Miriana Kfoury, of the Unité de Chimie Environnementale et Interactions sur le Vivant, Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale in France and the Lebanese University in Lebanon, offers a brief comment about this new study’s findings.

“The findings provide the first evidence that natural essential oil components counteract the inflammatory effects of particulate matter, such as that contained in polluted air.”

Kfoury and her colleagues published their recent study titled, “Essential oil components decrease pulmonary and hepatic cells inflammation induced by air pollution particulate matter,” in Springer’s journal Environmental Chemistry Letters. Natural News.

Blood in the textbooks

Mexico’s striking teachers stand firm against state repression

by David Bacon

OAXACA- Since the killing of eleven demonstrators at a street blockade in the Oaxacan town of Nochixtlán on June 19, Mexico has been in an uproar over the use of force against teachers resisting corporate education reform. As the Mexican school year is starting, teachers and supporters in four states have refused to return to classes until there is a negotiated agreement to change the government’s program, and until the perpetrators of the Nochixtlán massacre are held responsible.

The government says it will not negotiate, and Mexico’s corporate leaders are demanding that the government use force to suppress the teachers and reopen the schools. The danger of further bloody confrontation is greater than ever.

The resisting teachers are concentrated in a highly organized network, the National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE), within the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE), the largest union in Latin America. The CNTE now controls the union in four states: Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas, and Michoacán. In other states, especially Mexico City, it has a large base of support.

Teachers in assemblies in those four states voted on August 18 not to start classes on the 22. As of August 23, the government was claiming that over 90 percent of schools had opened. The CNTE says that over half of the schools in Oaxaca and Chiapas remain closed. Adelfo Gómez Alvarez, of the Chiapas teachers’ union, told the Mexico City daily La Jornada that “there were strikes and demonstrations in 28 states, including in Mexico City itself.”

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto declared: “There will be no more dialogue if we don’t guarantee beforehand that children can receive an education in their classrooms, which today are closed. First education, then dialogue.” Enrique Enriquez Ibarra, general secretary of Sección 9, Mexico City’s teachers union, responded that for a year teachers had tried negotiating with the government while continuing to stay in their classrooms, but the government didn’t budge. “Today we no longer believe in classes first and then dialogue. The teachers strike will continue,” he warned.

Mexican business interests began proposing changes to the country’s education system over a decade ago, as part of a series of economic reforms that have privatized much of the country’s economy and rolled back rights and protections that workers and farmers won decades ago. Supported by education reform groups in the United States and by the US Agency for International Development, these corporate reforms concentrate on standardized testing for students, and especially teachers. Testing is then used to eliminate educators’ job security and punish militant resistance.

“The real goal is privatizing education,” said Tranquilino Lavariega, a classroom teacher and general secretary of his union chapter in Santa Cruz Ocotlán, in Oaxaca. “These corporations see education as a business. And because our union has been part of the opposition to their growing power in Mexico, they see us as a political threat.”

Heading the push for corporate education reform is Claudio X. González, scion of one of Mexico’s wealthiest and most powerful families. He heads Mexicanos Primero (Mexicans First), the voice of the country’s right-wing ed-reform lobby, whose program for reform was pushed through the Chamber of Deputies three years ago.

Last year, as the government began implementing the tests, thousands of teachers refused to take them. In limited job actions, many refused to report to classes. When resistance mounted, the government began arresting CNTE leaders. (For more on how the conflict developed this past spring, see Bacon, “Why Are Mexican Teachers Being Jailed for Protesting Education Reform?”).

Adding fuel to the indignation were demands by González that the teacher-training schools, or “normals,” be abolished and replaced with private institutions (fresh in the memory of Mexicans is the disappearance, and probable murder, of 43 students at a normal in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, two years ago). On March 22, Education Secretary Aurelio Nuño Mayer proposed a measure that would eventually fulfill González’s goal of eliminating them.

“The students in these schools come from poor families,” Lavariega explains, “so of course they are very critical toward the government and want to fight for their rights. That’s why the government wants them to disappear-those students are a threat too. Nuño Mayer went to private schools. He thinks any professional can teach-that there’s no need for a school to teach anyone to do it.”

After the two top leaders of the union in Oaxaca were arrested, police fired on demonstrators at the blockade in Nochixtlán, killing eleven and wounding dozens. People in Oaxaca and throughout Mexico reacted with outrage. A protest march in Mexico City, organized by the left-wing MORENA party (National Regeneration Movement), headed by former mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, drew over 100,000 participants. More streets were blockaded, especially (but not only) in the four states, and plantóns (occupy-style encampments) sprang up in commercial centers targeting big enterprises like Wal-Mart, Bimbo, and Coca-Cola.
IT WILL CONTINUE NEXT WEEK.

Amid voter ID battles, here are 7 things the government requires ID’s for

by Fred Lucas

As federal courts wrestle with voter ID laws in several states just months before a national election, there is considerably less attention being brought to other constitutional rights that require ID.

Proponents of voter ID have argued that retailers require ID to buy liquor, M-rated video games, prescriptions, or even nail polish.
But these arguments aren’t really applicable to voter ID, said J. Christian Adams, general counsel for the Public Interest Legal Foundation, and a former Justice Department attorney, who supports voter ID and other election integrity laws.

“Tell me where in the Constitution does it talk about the right to buy liquor or rent a car?” Adams told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “The Constitution does guarantee the right to use firearms, and ID is always required to purchase a firearm. If you talk about buying liquor, the left will shred that argument. If you talk about ID when buying a gun, it boxes them in.”
Here are seven common situations that require an ID.

1. Welfare Benefits

While there is no constitutional right to welfare benefits, the Supreme Court held in the case of Goldberg v. Kelly that welfare recipients are entitled to due process with a hearing before benefits can be terminated.

Nevertheless, several states require some type of proof of identity to collect welfare. The states of Massachusetts and Missouri require a photo ID on the electronic benefit cards used for purchases under food stamps or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families expenditures. The EBT cards in Kansas include a photo if a participant agrees, but isn’t required, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

New York City has a  municipal ID program. The city’s website says residents will need an ID to “get a job,” “cash a check,” “open a bank account,” “enter a government building,” and, further, says, “To be eligible for some public benefits you need to prove your identity, age and residence.”

2. Registration for Buying Guns

Laws vary by state and even by municipality on buying a firearm.

The District of Columbia, the point of dispute in the landmark Heller Supreme Court decision that determined every American has the right to bear arms, still has very strict gun control laws.

It requires residents to register those guns. Gun owners must also obtain a gun license for any shotgun, rifle, or handgun. The District of Columbia city government prohibits the sale of handguns, but allows restricted sales on rifles and shotguns.

In another example, New York City allows the selling of handguns, but with stricter rules than New York state. To buy a gun in the city, an individual must appear in person to fill out a 17-page handgun purchase authorization form to qualify for a purchase license. The form costs $340 and $89.75 for fingerprinting. The New York Times wrote that applicants “must provide an original Social Security card, birth certificate, two recent color photographs and other documents.”

The application also requires individuals to explain employment dismissal and health history in addition to the background check that all gun buyers go through.

3. Petition Your Government

It isn’t just the Second Amendment that is subject to ID scrutiny. First Amendment freedoms sometimes require some identification, said Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, and a former Justice Department attorney.

“The First Amendment guarantees the right to petition your government, but anyone who wants to meet with a Department of Justice official has to show a government-issued photo ID to get into the Department of Justice building for the meeting,” von Spakovsky told The Daily Signal.

The right to peacefully petition on Capitol Hill—beyond writing or calling a congressional office—generally requires becoming a registered lobbyist. States have various requirements for registered lobbyists as well.

4. Right of Assembly

Further, many municipalities require permits to hold protests or rallies in a public space under certain circumstances. This process varies based on the city, but requires some paperwork by the organizers.

5. Right to Marry

Official ID for obtaining a marriage license is nearly universal across states, said von Spakovsky. He noted that under the 1967 Loving v. Virginia ruling by the Supreme Court, marriage is a fundamental right.

Today, the state at the center of that case requires photo ID. Fairfax County, Virginia, near the District of Columbia, states that requirements to get a marriage license include a “valid photo identification (a valid driver’s license with picture, passport, or military identification).”

And, New York City’s website states, “You and your prospective spouse must have one form of proper identification in order to apply for a Marriage License.” The options include a driver’s license, active military ID card, passport, or permanent resident card.

6. Freedom of Movement

While the right to board an airplane isn’t spelled out in the Constitution, von Spakovsky said the right to travel could be broadly considered a basic public accommodation and a freedom of movement issue, even though the Transportation Security Administration requires photo ID for everyone boarding a plane.

Freedom of movement is recognized under the privileges and immunities clause of the Constitution. The Supreme Court held in 1869 that this protected the rights of citizens, the “right of free ingress into other states, and egress from them.”

“The 1960s civil rights movement was in part about the fundamental right to travel on trains and public buses,” von Spakovsky said.

7. Public Accommodations

Opponents of voter ID laws contend that it’s difficult for minorities to obtain ID for voting. This could reasonably extend to public accommodations, von Spakovsky said.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits businesses such as restaurants and hotels from denying service on the grounds of race, color, religion, or national origin.

“I can’t remember when I checked into a hotel and they didn’t ask me for photo ID,” von Spakovsky said.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is involved in current litigation against voter ID laws in states such as North Carolina, Kansas, and Texas, told The Daily Signal Wednesday that no one is available to comment regarding these other civil liberties that require some type of ID. (Daily Mail).

Legislation to expand farm worker overtime clears Senate

by the El Reportero’s wire services

After an hour of debate, including emotional words from Senate leader Kevin de León, the California Senate on Monday passed a bill that would expand overtime pay for farmworkers.

AB 1066, introduced by Assemblywoman Lorena González (D-San Diego), squeezed out of the Senate floor with a 21-14 vote. It is now headed back to the Assembly, where it faces its most passionate opposition, for a final vote. 

The proposal would roll out new rules for overtime in 2019, lowering the current 10-hour-day threshold for overtime by half an hour each year until it reaches the standard eight-hour day by 2022. It also would phase in a 40-hour standard workweek for the first time.

Resolution to provide due process, legal representation for unaccompanied minors approved in Senate

a resolution calling on the federal government to provide unaccompanied minors due process by providing government-funded attorneys to all indigent children fighting deportation or seeking asylum. Senate Joint Resolution 28 was approved by a vote of 31-2. 

Every week in immigration courts around the country, thousands of unaccompanied minors act as their own lawyers, pleading for asylum or other type of relief in a complex legal system they do not understand. SJR 28 urges the federal government to provide these children with due process and legal counsel so they can adequately plead their asylum cases in court.

The U.S. legal system provides court-appointed attorneys for all individuals who cannot afford one. However, this same counsel is not guaranteed for unaccompanied minors, leaving thousands of children to navigate the complex legal system on their own.

Colombia convenes referendum on peace agreement

President Juan Manuel Santos signed today the decree to call on the vote to be held on next October 2nd on the final peace agreement between the Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia- People’’s Army (FARC-EP).

According to the newspaper El Espectador, the President confirmed that in the ballot will appear the following question: Do you support the final agreement to end the conflict and build a stable and long-lasting peace?.

Santos said that this question mentions the title of the peace agreement, and therefore, it will not create confusion among Colombians.

The signing of the decree took place after Congress endorsed to convene the referendum, with 71 votes in favor and 21 against.
The Colombian Government and the FARC-EP reached last week a historic peace agreement, after four years of negotiating peace in Cuba. The final text was delivered on last Thursday to Congress in order to start the process for convening the referendum.

What buildings Obama’s new transgender bathroom regulation affects

by Philip Wegmann
The Daily Signal

Biological sex will no longer determine restroom accessibility in thousands of federally operated facilities across the country.
A new regulation from the Obama administration allows individuals to use whatever bathroom they decide is consistent with their gender identity when visiting or working at properties managed by the General Services Administration, the government agency responsible for managing federal workspaces.

The new bathroom mandate was added to the Federal Register Thursday, a GSA spokesman said, “clarifying that the nondiscrimination requirement includes gender identity as a prohibited basis of discrimination.”

The regulation promises to bring sweeping change. It applies to the approximately 9,200 properties managed by the GSA nationwide, an expansive federal list that includes post offices, courthouses, research laboratories, and administrative offices that house agencies like the Social Security Administration.

The regulation affects “all kinds of Americans,” GSA spokesman Ashley Nash-Hahn told BuzzFeed News, who first reported the story. “We wanted to make clear that a person can use facilities that match their gender identity, and we think that’s a good thing.”
Kaeley Triller, a single mother and social conservative community organizer, warned that the new transgender bathroom policy “isn’t safe and won’t end well for Team XY.”

A survivor of sexual abuse, said that the regulation is “reminiscent of exceptionally unpleasant circumstances … it’s about men taking what they want by force without regard to the people it hurts.”

The GSA regulation governs more than just restrooms though. A bulletin circulated to government agency heads explains that the regulation dictates access to “restroom facilities and related areas,” like locker rooms and showers.

Employers are also prohibited, the bulletin states, from asking for proof that an individual has undergone “surgery or any other medical procedure” before allowing them access to the facilities of their choice.

The new regulation comes as part of President Barack Obama’s legacy push to extend nondiscrimination laws and civil rights protections to members of the LGBT community.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Department of Justice have already ruled that prohibitions on sex-based discrimination also encompass gender identity. And in May, the Department of Education instructed public schools across the country to allow transgender students to use whatever bathroom matches their gender identity.   

The administration’s education directive immediately triggered a legal challenge. Two dozen states have filed suit, accusing the Obama administration of overreach.

The administration’s combined LGBT effort has accelerated the contrast between Democrats and Republicans in this area. The GOP platform opposes “wrongly redefining” sex discrimination to include sexual orientation as a plot “to impose a social and cultural revolution upon the American people.”

Congress has been away from the District of Columbia on August recess, and the Republican response to the administration’s transgender guidelines has been sporadic.

One Republican who did respond to the news, Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina, blasted the regulation as overly emotional.
“We should base our laws on facts, not on feelings,” Walker told The Daily Signal. “When you legislate based on feelings you can create unintended consequences of placing others in potentially harmful situations.”

Social conservative groups, like the Alliance Defending Freedom and Family Research Council, agreed and were quick to decry the new regulation as “a political power play.”

“They want to dictate on the national level what every school and government facility must do,” said Matt Sharp, ADF legal counsel, “rather than let them find local, individualized solutions that fit their population, values, and the needs of the people using those facilities.”

Social conservatives complain that the new regulation comes at the cost of the privacy rights of women and children. They argue that there’s nothing to stop predators from abusing transgender bathrooms to prey on their victims.

Liberal groups, like the Human Rights Campaign, have praised the regulation as a step toward ensuring equality for all transgender people.

“Every person should be able to access government programs, facilities, and services without fear of discrimination,” Jay Brown, Human Rights Campaign’s communications director, who is openly transgender, said in a statement.

Without access to restrooms of their choice in government buildings, Brown argued, “it becomes much harder for [transgender Americans] to serve on juries, go to a VA hospital for care, or submit necessary documentation at a Social Security office.”
The new regulation will cover nearly all of the 1 million federal civilian workers employed at GSA-managed facilities. That’s a disparate impact considering that recent studies show that just 0.6 percent of the adult population in the United States identifies as transgender.

“It’s really social engineering when many people of faith, people of modesty, and people who have safety concerns are being ignored,” said Roger Severino, director of the Devos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation.
Severino predicted that the new regulation would spark litigation and blowback against the administration.

“There’s a good chance you will see lawsuits brought against this regulation and the more that are filed, the sooner the administration will get the message,” Severino said.

The Agenda 2030: In 2015 the UN launched a blueprint for a New World Order – Part 2 and Last

Two weeks ago El Reportero published the article Agenda 21. This week we are publishing the continuation of Agenda 2030, part 2, which is about the launching of the UN blueprint for a New World Order with the help of the Pope. This article, authored by Michael Snyder, brings you information of what is being done to humanity in the name of good, but actually it is for the enslavement of all of us and our future generations. And because the mainstream media is owned by those same actors, you won’t read about this in their papers or TV networks. THIS IS PART TWO OF 2.

The 2030 Agenda: In 2015 the UN launched a blueprint for a New World Order with the help of the Pope

by Michael Snyder

But what do many of those buzzwords actually mean to the elite?

For instance, what does “sustainable development” actually mean, and how does the UN plan to ensure that it will be achieved globally?

This is something that was discussed in a recent WND article…

But what is “sustainable development?”

Patrick Wood, an economist and author of “Technocracy Rising: The Trojan Horse of Global Transformation,” says it’s clear the U.N. and its supporters see sustainable development as more than just the way to a cleaner environment. They see it as the vehicle for creating a long-sought new international economic order, or “New World Order.”

Wood’s new book traces the modern technocracy movement to Zbigniew Brzezinski, David Rockefeller and the Trilateral Commission in the early 1970s.

And Wood is quite correct. The environment is a perfect vehicle for the elite to use to bring in their version of utopia, because just about every possible form of human activity affects the environment in some way. Ultimately, they hope to centrally plan and strictly regulate virtually everything that we do, and we will be told that it is necessary to “save the planet”.

And they will never come out and openly call it a “New World Order” because “sustainable development” sounds so much nicer and is so much more acceptable to the general population.

Needless to say, there wouldn’t be much room for individual liberty, freedom or good, old-fashioned capitalism in the world that the elite are trying to set up. In fact, the U.N.’s number one sustainable development official has essentially publicly admitted this…

“This is probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the economic development model, for the first time in human history,” Figueres, who heads up the U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, told reporters in February.

“This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for the at least 150 years, since the industrial revolution,” Figueres said.

They plan to “intentionally transform the economic development model”?

And so what will this new system look like?

How will they achieve this “utopia” that they are promising us?

Sadly, they are just selling the same lies that have been sold to people for thousands of years. Paul McGuire, the co-author of a new book entitled “The Babylon Code: Solving the Bible’s Greatest End-Times Mystery“, commented on this recently…

Deep inside every man and woman is the longing for a far better world, a world without war, disease, death, and pain. Our present world is a cruel world in which every life ends in death. From the beginning of time Mankind has sought to use science and technology to create a perfect world, what some would call Utopia or Paradise. As the Human Race began to organize itself, a Scientific or Technocratic Elite rose to power by promising the masses that they could build this perfect world. Ancient Babylon represented the first historical attempt to build paradise on earth.

In ancient times, Babylon was the very first attempt to create a type of “global government”, and ever since then the global elite have been trying to recreate what Babylon started.

The promise is always the same – the elite swear that they have finally figured out how to create a perfect society without poverty or war. But in the end all of these attempts at utopia always end up degenerating into extreme forms of tyranny.

On Sept. 25, the Pope is traveling to New York to give the opening address at the conference where the 2030 Agenda will be launched. He will be urging all of humanity to support what the UN is trying to do. There are countless millions that implicitly trust the Pope, and they will buy what he is selling hook, line and sinker.

Don’t be fooled – the 2030 Agenda is a blueprint for a New World Order. Just read the document for yourself, and imagine what our world would actually look like if they have their way.

They want to fundamentally transform our planet, and the freedom that you are enjoying today is simply not acceptable. To the elite, giving people freedom and liberty is dangerous because they believe it hurts the environment and causes societal chaos. According to their way of thinking, the only way to have the kind of harmonious utopia that they are shooting for is to tightly regulate and control what everyone is thinking, saying and doing. Their solutions always involve more central planning and more control in their own hands.

So what do you think?

Should we hand the global elite that kind of power and control?
If not, then we all need to start speaking out about this insidious agenda while we still can.

Court bans DOJ from prosecuting medical marijuana users and growers

Court bans DOJ from prosecuting medical marijuana users, growers

by Daniel Barker

Supporters of medical marijuana have gained an important victory with a federal appeals court ruling that prohibits the Department of Justice (DOJ) from prosecuting medical marijuana growers and users if no state laws are being breached.

A unanimous decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals prevents the DOJ from using federal funds to prosecute those who grow, sell or purchase marijuana, despite the fact that marijuana is still illegal under federal law.

The decision has effectively upheld a 2014 congressional budget ruling that protects states from the DOJ if they try to prevent them “from implementing their own state laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.”
“If the federal government prosecutes such individuals, it has prevented the state from giving practical effect to its law,” wrote Circuit Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain, member of the three-judge panel.

Ruling favors states’ rights

The ruling is not only a significant victory in favor of states’ rights, but also for 10 defendants prosecuted under federal marijuana laws who were seeking an appeal.

The 10 defendants – all from Western states in the Ninth Circuit’s jurisdiction – were either indoor growers or medical marijuana store owners. The defendants will now be subject to lower court rulings determining whether they were in compliance with state laws before their charges can be dropped.

The decision should be viewed as only a temporary victory, however. Judge O’Scannlain warned that the ruling does not provide immunity from federal laws, and may be rescinded at a later date.

“Congress could restore funding tomorrow, a year from now, or four years from now, and the government could then prosecute individuals who committed offenses while the government lacked funding,” O’Scannlain wrote.

But at least some legal experts view the court’s decision as a major step towards marijuana legalization at the federal level. Steve McIntosh, a lawyer for one of the defendants, said that the ruling may represent “the beginning of the end of the federal war on medical marijuana.”

Considering the fact that medical marijuana is already legal in half of the United States, and that four states have now legalized recreational marijuana use (with nine more states set to vote on recreational marijuana in November), it would appear that maybe it is time for the federal government to stop wasting taxpayers’ money putting legitimate businessmen and ordinary citizens in jail for offenses that most Americans do not view as a crime.

The cost of the ‘War on Drugs’

The United States’ “War on Drugs” has been an enormous failure with a staggering price tag – both socially and economically.
Kit O’Connell of Mint Press News wrote:

“Since Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs in June 1971, the cost of that ‘war’ had soared to over $1 trillion by 2010. Over $51 billion is spent annually to fight the drug war in the United States, according to Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting more humane drug policies.”

This trillion-dollar disaster has inflicted – and continues to inflict – a terrible cost in terms of human lives.
Even today, someone is arrested in the U.S. for marijuana possession roughly once every minute. People are still being jailed for using a natural healing plant that has been proven in hundreds of studies to have great medicinal value in treating a wide range of illnesses, including Alzheimer’s, PTSD, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and even cancer.

And recreational use of cannabis is far less dangerous than that of alcohol. Marijuana deaths are completely non-existent, while alcohol kills nearly 100,000 Americans yearly; alcohol is the fourth-leading cause of preventable death in the United States.
It’s time to end the senseless and costly prohibition of marijuana, and this latest federal ruling – however temporary it may prove to be – represents an important step in the right direction. Natural News.

Why politics matters?

There can be no health freedom, food freedom and medical freedom without political freedom

by Mike Adams
Opinión

Every Natural News reader agrees on the fundamental principles of health freedom, food freedom and medical freedom. We all believe in the basic human right to grow our own food, save seeds, choose the medical treatments of our choice and say no to medical interventions — such as organ harvesting, vaccine interventions or forced euthanasia — we wish to reject. We also agree with the right to know what we’re eating (honest labeling), the right to access natural medicine and the right for parents to decide the best medical strategies for their children.

Now here’s the big question for everyone: Do you realize that NONE of these rights can coexist with a totalitarian government that despises individual freedom and liberty?

The idea of allowing people the freedom to choose their own medicine is abhorrent to the political class

To understand the really big picture in all this, you must first realize that there are only TWO groups of people in modern society:
1) The political class. (The elitist, connected, crony government pals and corrupt corporate insiders who run the criminal government cartels.)

2) The commoner class. (That’s you and me and all the taxpayers, W-2 wage earners, unemployed citizens and everyone else who isn’t part of the elite.)

The entire aim of the political class is to control, enslave and exploit the commoner class while maintaining their own power and corruption.

In order to do this, the political class must strip away all the fundamental freedoms the commoners once enjoyed: Freedom to choose your health care provider, freedom to grow your own food, freedom to collect rainwater, freedom to own a piece of land free and clear, freedom to say NO to organ donations (harvesting), freedom to carry a firearm for self-defense, freedom to engage in cash transactions, freedom to travel on public roads, and even freedom from government surveillance.

Each of these freedoms is being systematically destroyed by a deliberate campaign of usurpation by the political class. The goal is to concentrate all power into the political class by denying any real freedoms to the commoner class.

Both the Bush and Obama administrations have worked diligently to accomplish this task. The ultimate goal is the complete stripping away of freedom of speech (via the social enforcement of political correctness), the elimination of food honesty (the anti-labeling Dark Act 2.0 just signed by Obama), the elimination of the Second Amendment (via false flag massacres and blaming lawful gun owners for the events), the criminalization of food freedoms (arrests of raw milk producers or hemp farmers) and even the jailing of journalists in America who exercise free speech that challenges the status quo.

The march of tyranny has already taken a huge toll in America, and it’s only going to get worse if establishment politicians continue to win elections.

Politics matters: You cannot have food freedom and health freedom without political freedom

This is why politics matters: Health freedom, food freedom and medical freedom simply cannot survive the efforts of the political establishment to stomp out freedom and replace it with their demands for mindless obedience.

As a case in point, Hillary Clinton is the ultimate establishment insider… steeped in corruption and already sold out to the special interests of the world. It is no coincidence that she happens to be pro-Monsanto, pro-GMO, supportive of vaccine mandates (that strip away a woman’s medical choice), an enemy of the Second Amendment and an enemy of local, small-scale, organic food production.

But this totalitarian agenda isn’t limited to Democrats. Establishment Republicans like John McCain and Jeb Bush are just as dangerous to your liberties and freedoms. After all, the freedom-crushing Patriot Act was passed under George W. Bush, unleashing the surveillance police state that has already transformed America into a semblance of the KGB from the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

Now, with elections fast approaching in 2016, we all have a critical choice to make. And I invite you to look at this choice in a whole new light… not as a choice between Democrats and Republicans, but a choice between enslavement vs. freedom. It is effectively a choice between supporting the Commoners or the Political Class.

This November, vote against the political class (by rejecting the establishment of both parties)

The action we all need to take this November is to vote against the political class at every level of elections (national, state, local, etc.).

Reject any idea of voting for or against a particular party. Instead, vote out the corrupt establishment insiders (like John McCain) and vote in those who are more likely to shake up the power structure at every level. This also means, of course, that you must actively vote against Hillary Clinton by all means.

Only by rejecting the political class — and ultimately making them obsolete — can we restore power where it rightfully belongs: in the hands of the commoners.

If we fail to stop the agendas of the political class, you will see the rise of a totalitarian society featuring mandatory organ “donations”, forced euthanasia on the elderly, government controls on your reproductive rights, the criminalization of home gardening (and saving seeds), forced chemotherapy, forced vaccines, forced GMOs in the food supply and much more.

If you are planning on voting for Hillary Clinton (or any political establishment insider), you are going to get the tyranny you deserve… and you will soon wake up one day and find yourself living in a totalitarian police state that claims total ownership over your body, your mind and your entire existence.

If we do not stop the march of totalitarianism of the political class, we will lose our health freedoms and food freedoms
If we do not defeat the corrupt political class that now seeks absolute rule over America, we will soon discover ourselves to be enemies and slaves in our own nation. This is why, if you believe in the freedom to garden, the freedom to choose natural medicine and the freedom to say NO to organ harvesting, you have a moral obligation to vote against the political establishment this November.

Let your voice be heard in the safety of the voting booth.

This is also why I’m going to continue covering this election all the way up to election day. Politics matters! The outcome of this election will determine the direction of America for generations to come.

If you care about your food, your health, your freedom of choice and your right to live a self-reliant lifestyle, this November may be your very last chance to halt the march of tyranny across America. So get off your butt and exercise it! Even if you usually don’t vote, this November you need to drag yourself out to a local voting center and make your voice heard (or you will soon find yourself enslaved by the establishment).

Hope for Trump: GOP winning registration race in key states

POMPANO BEACH, FL - OCTOBER 04: Mary Collante (L) and Zunilda Boone along with other members of the Florida Immigrant Coalition prepare to go door to door looking to sign up voters during a voter registration drive by on October 4, 2012 in Pompano Beach, Florida. Efforts to get people to register to vote for the upcoming presidential election ends on Tuesday the 9th when the voting rolls close in Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

In Pennsylvania, Florida, Iowa and North Carolina, more new voters identify as Republicans

by Ben Schreckinger
Politico

POLITICO REPORTED — For weeks, Donald Trump has watched his poll standing in battleground states plummet, from Pennsylvania, where his strength among Rust Belt families was supposed to turn a blue state competitive, to North Carolina, where Democrats had been making inroads in recent elections, to the ultimate battleground of them all: Florida.

Trump’s poll numbers remain dire, but he can point to at least one ray of hope for a turnaround: Republicans have continued gaining ground in recent months in voter registration in Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Iowa, while the late surge in Democratic registrations relative to Republican registrations that occurred in battleground states during the final months of the 2012 election had not been replicated in numbers released in early August.

“The atmospherics of voter registration trends in those states do not point to a strong Democratic year, so that’s one negative the Trump campaign does not have to deal with at this point,” said Louisiana pollster John Couvillon, who added that spikes in registration can add a point or two to a candidate’s vote share in a close race. “The voter registration data I’m seeing does not support the idea of a surge in Democratic voter enthusiasm.”

Hillary Clinton remains comfortably ahead by an average of 6 points in the Real Clear Politics average of national polls, and encouraging registration trends alone will be insufficient to carry Trump in must-win states like Pennsylvania, where he trails by an average of 9 points in recent polls. Meanwhile, Republicans have been losing ground in Hispanic-heavy Western battlegrounds of Colorado, Arizona and Nevada, where Democrats have boosted their voter registration standing in recent months.

But the registration numbers in Eastern and Midwestern battleground states offer a rare piece of welcome news to Republicans bracing for the possibility of a November massacre.

In Pennsylvania — where Democrats’ registration advantage has fallen by a fifth since the 2012 election, to 915,000 voters — more than 85,000 former Democrats have become Republicans this year, almost three times the number of voters who made the opposite switch.
The party-switching has been especially lopsided in Pennsylvania counties in the southwest region, coal country and the northeast, which includes Scranton. Megan Sweeney, communications director for the state Republican Party, and Charlie Gerow, a Republican strategist based in Harrisburg, said the party-switching was a mix of push and pull factors. “Certainly part of it is Trump-motivated,” Gerow said. “My view is that a lot more of it is motivated by the disgust that many Democrats have for the administration.”

In North Carolina, Democrats’ voter registration advantage shrunk by 44,000 between June 2015 and May 2016, more than twice the rate it fell at during that period last cycle. As of Aug. 13, the Democratic advantage had dwindled to 641,000.

The picture in North Carolina is complicated by the rise of unaffiliated voters. Even more striking than Democrats’ shrinking registration advantage over Republicans is the influx of new residents into the state who do not register with either party but tend to be less tied than longtime residents to the white Southern culture that has taken a shine to Trump. The number of independents has surged almost 40 percent since 2008, from roughly 1.4 million to more than 1.9 million. During that period, the Republican rolls have remained essentially static and Democrats have lost about 200,000 voters.

“Even though both sides are instituting and working voter registration drive programs, unaffiliateds continue to outpace both of those efforts. That’s what’s going to make 2016 a very interesting year,” said Paul Shumaker, a veteran Republican strategist in the state.

More concerning for Democrats should be Florida, where the party’s registration advantage has shrunk to 259,000 voters — less than half the party’s edge during the 2012 election.

Florida, like North Carolina, has seen a surge in independent voter registrations in recent years, but in a crucial swing state with a large and growing minority population, the shrinking advantage is nonetheless disappointing.

So far this year, Florida Republicans have added close to 70,000 more voters to their rolls than Democrats have. “That [change], especially when you’re talking about a state that Obama carried by less than 100,000 votes last time, could be significant,” said Couvillon, the Louisiana pollster.

The strength of Trump’s ground operation in the primaries varied wildly from state to state, but in Florida, under the direction of former Rick Scott aide Karen Giorno, his campaign has taken credit for registering 35,000 new Republicans and bringing 5,000 independents and Democrats into the party.

That result illustrates the value of concerted registration efforts but also points to a larger problem for Trump. The political neophyte has largely ignored his ground operation and delegated the bulk of it to the Republican National Committee, which is falling short of its target staffing levels in state after state. Republicans and right-leaning groups have been working to catch up to the left’s advantage in mobilizing new registrants — achieved largely by targeting minorities and students — but in all eight battleground states for which POLITICO reviewed historical data, Democrats’ registration spread improved between the beginning of the general election period in mid-2012 and Election Day in November (a pattern that can also be attributed, in part, to the absence of a Democratic presidential primary that year).

And Trump’s biggest fans have already had the chance to register to vote for him in the Republican primary, meaning that pool may be tapped out, while those most motivated to vote against him still have time to register.

But anecdotal evidence reveals he is attracting newcomers, motivated both to vote for and against him.

Groups that register voters under nonprofit auspices are forbidden from pushing one party or another, but in Arizona, where the state Democratic Party has a goal of registering 100,000 voters, party field staffers have found the right way to frame the choice for new voters unsure whether to become Democrats or Republicans. The volunteers ask the new voters whether they tend to agree more with a local Democratic lawmaker — Rep. Raúl Grijalva in Tucson, Reps. Kyrsten Sinema or Ruben Gallego in Tempe — or with Donald Trump. “More often than not, we register Democrats with that line,” said a person involved with the registration drive.

In Iowa — a swing state where Democrats lost their entire 100,000-active-voter edge between the 2008 and 2012 elections and have seen their position continue to erode more slowly this cycle — Joe Henry of the League of United Latin American Citizens said Trump has made his work registering Hispanic voters much easier. “We’ve probably had a 20 percent increase just because of concerns about the hate,” he said.

Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, pointed out that Republicans’ new registrations in the state had more than doubled since last cycle.

Three other states considered battlegrounds — Wisconsin, Michigan and Virginia — do not register voters by party.

Due to lack of space we were unable to publish the complete story. To view the entire article, please visit: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/trump-voter-registration-republican-battleground-227216

Nicaragua kicks off controversial campaign season

by the El Reportero’s wire services

Nicaragua kicked off its presidential election campaign season on Saturday amid opposition calls for a boycott, as the hugely favored President Daniel Ortega seeks a third consecutive term.

A former Sandinista guerilla rebel who has led the Central American nation with an authoritarian hand, the leftist Ortega is running against a fragmented opposition weakened by a court ruling that changed the leadership of a key party and booted many of its deputies from parliament.

Calling on Nicaraguans to boycott the November 6 election ? in which the 70-year-old Ortega named his wife as his running mate ? the opposition dismissed the vote as a “farce” aimed at allowing the president to start a family dynasty.
Ortega has 79 percent of support among the electorate and Murillo 73 percent, a survey by the M&R polling agency taken between July 27 and August 1 showed.

“Who will win these elections goes without saying,” said Yasser Matus, a worker at Managua’s vast outdoor market Mercado Oriental. “There is no more to say, the Sandinista Front will continue to govern.”

Managua’s streets feature giant pictures of Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo.

More than 80 percent of Nicaraguans are afraid to express political opinions in public, M&R found in January.

The opposition has called for the Organization of American States, the European Union and the US Carter Center to monitor the vote.
Ortega has vowed not to allow international monitors to observe the election, calling them “shameless observers.”

Opposition and civil society groups have scheduled protests to demand free and fair elections. Reported by EFE.

A silent swell of a different type is starting to emerge on the U.S. southern border

In 2014, a wave of unaccompanied children from Central America caught the U.S. government off-guard when they flooded into Texas in record numbers, triggering what President Obama called an “urgent humanitarian situation.”

Two years later, a silent swell of a different type is starting to emerge on the U.S. southern border. And it could be a harbinger of another immigration crisis in the making.

Salvadorans are fleeing to the United States in massive numbers, and now they’re bringing the whole family along. Though the number of unaccompanied Salvadoran minors crossing the border has not returned to the surge numbers seen in 2014, the number of Salvadoran family units apprehended on the southern border has increased by a whopping 96 percent over the past year.

Undocumented Salvadoran families are arriving in the U.S. in greater numbers than immigrants from any other Latin American nation. Ten Salvadoran families are apprehended here for every one Mexican family, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol statistics.
There are now more Salvadorans in U.S. immigration deportation proceedings than any other nationality.

For those paying attention to the situation in El Salvador, the timing of the new surge might seem strange considering that the country’s murder rate, which was the highest in the world in 2015, has dropped significantly during the first half of this year. The country’s death toll has dropped from an average of 25 murders each day in January to around 11 murders per day over the past four months.

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