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A special report on the National Emergency in the United States of America – Part 1 of two

A Special Report on the National Emergency in the United States of America – PART 1 OF TWO

Senate Report 93-549: War and Emergency Powers Acts, Executive Orders and the New World Order

From data available on the web

The Introduction to Senate Report 93-549 (93rd Congress, 1st Session, 1973) summarizes the situation that we face today – except it is far worse today than it was in 1973!

“A majority of the people of the United States have lived all of their lives under emergency rule. For 40 years [now 66 years], freedoms and governmental procedures guaranteed by the Constitution have, in varying degrees, been abridged by laws brought into force by states of national emergency. The problem of how a constitutional democracy reacts to great crises, however, far antedates the Great Depression. As a philosophical issue, its origins reach back to the Greek city-states and the Roman Republic. And, in the United States, actions taken by the Government in times of great crises have – from, at least, the Civil War – in important ways, shaped the present phenomenon of a permanent state of national emergency.”

The Foreword to the Report states in part:

“Since March 9, 1933, the United States has been in a state of declared national emergency. In fact, there are now in effect four presidentially proclaimed states of national emergency: In addition to the national emergency declared by President Roosevelt in 1933, there are also the national emergency proclaimed by President Truman on December 16, 1950, during the Korean conflict, and the states of national emergency declared by President Nixon on March 23, 1970, and August 15, 1971.

These proclamations give force to 470 provisions of Federal law [hundreds more since 1973, particularly in the Clinton administration since Jan 21, 1993]. These hundreds of statutes delegate to the President extraordinary powers, ordinarily exercised by the Congress, which affect the lives of American citizens in a host of all-encompassing manners. This vast range of powers, taken together, confer enough authority to rule the country without reference to normal Constitutional processes.

Under the powers delegated by these statutes, the President may: seize property; organize and control the means of production; seize commodities; assign military forces abroad; institute martial law; seize and control all transportation and communication; regulate the operation of private enterprise; restrict travel; and, in a plethora of particular ways, control the lives of all American citizens.”

When the Southern states walked out of Congress on March 27, 1861, the quorum to conduct business under the Constitution was lost. The only votes that Congress could lawfully take, under Parliamentary Law, were those to set the time to reconvene, take a vote to get a quorum, and vote to adjourn and set a date, time, and place to reconvene at a later time, but instead, Congress abandoned the House and Senate without setting a date to reconvene. Under the parliamentary law of Congress, when this happened, Congress became sine die (pronounced see-na dee-a; literally “without day”) and thus when Congress adjourned sine die, it ceased to exist as a lawful deliberative body, and the only lawful, constitutional power that could declare war was no longer lawful, or in session.

The Southern states, by virtue of their secession from the Union, also ceased to exist sine die, and some state legislatures in the Northern bloc also adjourned sine die, and thus, all the states which were parties to creating the Constitution ceased to exist. President Lincoln executed the first executive order written by any President on April 15, 1861,  Executive Order 1, and the nation has been ruled by the President under executive order ever since. When Congress eventually did reconvene, it was reconvened under the military authority of the Commander-in-Chief and not by Rules of Order for Parliamentary bodies or by Constitutional Law; placing the American people under martial rule ever since that national emergency declared by President Lincoln. The Constitution for the United States of America temporarily ceased to be the law of the land, and the President, Congress, and the Courts unlawfully presumed that they were free to remake the nation in their own image, whereas, lawfully, no constitutional provisions were in place which afforded power to any of the actions which were taken which presumed to place the nation under the new form of control.

President Lincoln knew that he had no authority to issue any executive order, and thus he commissioned General Orders No. 100 (April 24, 1863) as a special field code to govern his actions under martial law and which justified the seizure of power, which extended the laws of the District of Columbia, and which fictionally implemented the provisions of Article I, Section 8, Clauses 17-18 of the Constitution beyond the boundaries of Washington, D.C. and into the several states. General Orders No. 100, also called the Lieber Instructions and the Lieber Code, extended The Laws of War and International Law onto American soil, and the United States government became the presumed conqueror of the people and the land.

Hawaii considering decriminalization of all recreational drugs for personal use

by L.J. Devon

It’s a bold move, the likes of which hasn’t been seen in recent United States history: The state of Hawaii is on the cusp of decriminalizing ALL recreational drugs. If the resolution passes, Hawaii would become the first state to investigate alternative solutions for treating drug addiction other than just locking people up.

Instead of imprisoning drug users, Hawaii would look at the situation from a different angle. Drug users caught in a vicious cycle will be able to get professional help instead of fearing long-term imprisonment. Families, friends and support groups will be more empowered and able to create an environment of accountability that breaks the addiction and resets the priorities of drug users.

Hawaii lawmakers admit that incarceration isn’t working: “Despite a longstanding policy that enforces illicit drug prohibition and imposes some of the world’s harshest penalties for drug possession and sales, illicit drug use in the United States has been increasing,” states the resolution.

With drug use rising in the U.S., and with incarceration rates continuing to climb, the root of the problem isn’t really being dealt with.
Criminalizing drug use has perpetuated hard drug abuse while creating heightened fear and violence where it is unnecessary.

A shift in how we approach drug addiction

For so long, all drugs have been treated in the same way, as something for law enforcement to use as evidence against people to lock them up. This doesn’t solve addictions or help people strive to have better priorities. There’s now growing support for looking at each substance for what it is, and how best to approach the problem on an individual basis. Instead of locking people up for possessing the cannabis plant, for example, resources could be better used helping people who are dependent on methamphetamine. Distinctions have to be made, and better approaches have to be used, other than violence and control.

That’s why Hawaii is looking to set up a commission to study the benefits of drug decriminalization. If the measure passes both chambers of the legislature, the state’s Legislative Reference Bureau would be activated to, “conduct a study on the feasibility and advisability of decriminalizing the illegal possession of drugs for personal use in Hawaii,” so that such conduct, “would constitute an administrative or civil violation rather than a criminal offense.” The state of Hawaii is officially recognizing that the force of the state only makes the root of the problem worsen.

Portugal has seen great results in crime reduction since the country decriminalized all drugs in 2001. Since then, the country has witnessed a drastic reduction in drug use and overdoses. “The positive results from Portugal’s drug decriminalization system provides a potential model for more effectively managing drug-related problems in the United States,” stated the Hawaii resolution.

U.S. Surgeon General, Vivek Murphy, is on board with the shift in public policy. In January he announced, “It’s time for us to have a conversation in this country that’s based on facts; A conversation that’s based on medicine and science.” The Surgeon General will be presenting the first-ever report in 2016 on how decriminalization of all drugs can reduce violence and injustices carried out by law enforcement.

Former secretary of the United Nations, General Kofi Annan, calls the war on drugs a war on people. “I believe that drugs have destroyed many lives, but wrong government policies have destroyed many more,” he recently stated. “We all want to protect our families from the potential harm of drugs. But if our children do develop a drug problem, surely we will want them cared for as patients in need of treatment and not branded as criminals…”

A positive shift is taking place, and Hawaii may be the first state to lead the Nation away from the bloodshed and failed police-state mentality of the war on drugs. (Natural News).

Why freelancers need to get together

OAKLAND CA - 5MAY14 - Sign language interpreters strike against Purple Communications. Workers belong to the Pacific Mediaworkers Guild, CWA. Copyright David Bacon

by David Bacon
In first person

As freelancers, we know we do the work. Ad while the way we work is what defines us, it’s also the root of many of our problems.
We provide the content, but because we don’t have a traditional employer-employee relationship with the publications that run our articles or photos, we don’t get regular paychecks.

Some of us used to be staff writers or photographers or graphic artists. Maybe we took a buyout, or got downsized and laid off. Others of us are just beginning our careers as digital natives, and never had the chance to work on staff.

We’ve always had to sell what we produce, article by article, photo by photo, drawing by drawing. And at some publications, we have to ask to use our own words or images because we’re forced to surrender all copyright claims in order to work.

Many of us are also living without a parachute.

Freelancers in dangerous countries have to survive without the expense accounts and protections afforded to foreign correspondents and photojournalists on staff. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, freelancers comprised 17 percent of all journalists killed worldwide since 1992. In 2015, over 25 percent of all journalists imprisoned were freelancers, and at least six freelancers have “disappeared” since 2004.

For most of us, that lack of support is evident in many ways. No single employer takes responsibility for our healthcare, nor provides a consistent income that can pay the rent. It’s up to us to piece together enough work to survive on.

It’s like living on a roller coaster: our income swings wildly, and we constantly have to look for a new editor to buy our pictures or stories.

That gives the gatekeepers in our lives a lot of power. We survive on personal relationships, and if they go sour we’re in trouble. All of a sudden we’re too old, not the right color or gender, or just not friendly or humble enough – and the door closes. Off we go down the digital street looking for another buyer for our skills and product.

Since we’re dealing as individuals with the people who pay us, we really have no power in this situation. The proof is the rates we’re paid.
Dollars and cents.

In the pre-digital era, one print article might’ve paid $1,000 – a month’s rent in those days – and a photo assignment could’ve paid the same. Now print assignments are disappearing along with the print publications themselves. That leaves us with the web, and the rates there are just a fraction of what we used to make.

One or two hundred dollars for an article, or even less for a photo, pays about a day or two’s worth of a market-rate rental in San Francisco. That means squeezing three or four people into two-bedroom apartments, or having a partner with a good job. We ourselves take other jobs to survive.
The bottom line is that most of us can’t live on what we’re making.

So if this is due to our lack of power in economic relationships – bargaining as individuals with the media that use what we produce – the big question is: Can we get together? After all, even for staffers, it’s the same question.

Without the ability to act together, we can’t change anything.

But for freelancers especially, getting together means overcoming some serious obstacles. To begin with, even if we’re given a contract at all (and mostly we work on a handshake or verbal commitment) the first thing it says is that we’re independent contractors, not employees.

We believe that if we look at The Newspaper Guild’s history, we can see that it used to be like this for direct employees, too. That’s why they organized, at the risk of losing jobs or getting blacklisted. In those early days, publishers said reporters and photographers would never be able to get together, and even if they did, the big papers would never sit down and agree to change wages and conditions.

Today’s publishers are still saying it. That’s what our members heard at the Contra Costa Times, for instance, when they first joined the union. They persisted in spite of threats and dire predictions, and today they have a contract.

That we have a union today is proof our predecessors in the union were right and the publishers were wrong.

Greater than the sum

If we can find a way to get together as freelancers, no piece of paper that says we’re independent contractors, and no high priced lawyers saying we’re legally barred from bargaining, will be able to stop us. After all, the companies we work for need what we produce. They need our content to fill those blank pages, whether on paper or on the web.

What could we gain as a union that we couldn’t get otherwise?

We can raise rates. Many of us have been talking about trying to make $1-a-word a new standard for our industry. For a photo, it might be $100 for an image. These are just ideas – we need to talk about rates and agree on what we want to fight for.

We need a way to complain effectively about mistreatment or discrimination. This could mean help getting paid if we get stiffed, or support if we’re not treated fairly.

We’ve already been able to negotiate better dental and vision insurance than we could have gotten as individuals, through the Pacific Media Workers Guild. Freelance members also have access to press passes.

That’s a starting point.

If we could get collective agreements for freelancers, we could get publishers to take responsibility for better healthcare. And since we will all want to stop working at some point, we might even be able to negotiate a modest retirement plan.

Our union already provides training programs for journalism students, and free training courses to members.

We are often pitted against each other as freelancers. This creates an unhealthy atmosphere in which we look at each other as competition.
Instead, we need to see that we are all in this together.

Let’s find in each other the strength to make our lives better.

(Guild Freelancers, A Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, CWA Local 94521.)

After huge minimum wage hike, what California economic future could look like?

by Melissa Quinn

California lawmakers and labor leaders are cheering a new deal that, if passed, raises the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, making the Golden State the first in the country to do so.

But labor experts are already warning that such a wage hike could lead to higher prices for consumers, more automation, and a drop in employment.
According to media reports, lawmakers and labor unions reached a deal this weekend raising the statewide minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022. Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, formally announced the proposal Monday.

“California is proving once again that it can get things done and help people get ahead,” Brown said. “This plan raises the minimum wage in a careful and responsible way and provides some flexibility if economic and budgetary conditions change.”

The deal would raise the minimum wage to $10.50 an hour next year, with increases of $1 per hour taking place annually until the minimum wage hits $15 an hour. Businesses with fewer than 25 employees have until 2023 to comply.

According to the Los Angeles Times, state lawmakers could vote on the proposal as early as this week.

Though the new proposal has labor unions and Democratic state lawmakers cheering, labor experts are already forecasting increased prices for consumers and more transitions to automation for business owners.

James Sherk, a research fellow in labor economics at The Heritage Foundation, said a $15-an-hour minimum wage is unprecedented for any state in the U.S., and the long-term impacts are therefore unknown.

Sherk said such a wage hike is likely to lead to a reduction in employment, specifically for manufacturing companies that sell products across state lines.

Those businesses, he told The Daily Signal, don’t have the opportunity to raise prices, and the industry employs 1.6 million Californians, 37 percent of which make less than $15 an hour.

“A lot of those jobs will move to other states and countries,” Sherk said.

Sherk also warned that in the fast food and hospitality industries, consumers can expect to see prices increase to compensate for increased labor costs.
“For industries like fast food or hotels or anything like that, the only place they can get money is by raising their prices,” he said. “This will cause consumers to purchase less goods and services. It’ll hurt consumers in their wallets.”

Some cities in California like San Francisco and Los Angeles have already enacted minimum wage increases above the statewide $10 an hour. Though many advocates argue that such wage hikes are intended to help workers struggling to make ends meet, particularly in cities with high costs of living, Marc Joffe, a policy analyst at the California Policy Center, fears that a wage hike could hurt the very people it’s intended to help.

According to an analysis of how a $15-an-hour minimum wage would impact the state, Joffe found that such a wage hike would negatively affect areas of the state that have higher unemployment rates and weaker economies, such as the Central Valley.

“A place like San Francisco can probably absorb [a wage increase], but the problem is that California is a really very diverse state in terms of income levels, levels of prosperity, productivity, and so forth,” Joffe told The Daily Signal. “When you put a one-size-fits-all solution like that in, you’re really hurting less affluent counties.”

In the wake of the most recent minimum wage hike from $9 an hour to $10 an hour, Joffe said that areas are already turning to automation as a way to cut down on labor costs. Self-checkouts are replacing cashiers in supermarkets, he said, and customers place restaurant orders on kiosks in San Francisco restaurants.

“Even in downtown San Francisco, which could sustain higher prices, they’re doing things to substitute for workers,” he said. “When you take these differences in cost of living and economic vitality, [raising the minimum wage] becomes a real problem in areas that are less affluent.”

Sherk, too, warned that more and more places could turn to automation to cut down on labor costs and employment substitution, which occurs when employers opt to hire more skilled workers.

“Companies will be choosier,” he said. “What we’ve seen in other cases is, you have more disadvantaged workers losing out. Those with more skills begin to get disproportionately favored and hired.”

Though Brown announced Monday the deal with state lawmakers and labor leaders, he previously said he was hesitant to raise the minimum wage beyond $10 an hour.

“Raise the minimum wage too much and you put a lot of poor people out of work,” he told reporters in January. “There won’t be a lot of jobs. It’s a matter of balance.”

According to Brown’s budget summary for 2016, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would cost the state $4 billion annually by 2021.

Additionally, the state warned that not only would such a wage hike return the state budget to annual deficits, but it would also “exacerbate” a recession and add to job losses.

Similarly, the California Department of Finance warned against raising the minimum wage to beyond $10 an hour in a legislative analysis conducted in March. According to its analysis, which looked at a bill raising the minimum wage to $13 an hour in July 2017, the Department of Finance warned that such a wage hike would cost the state more than $4.7 billion over a three-year span.

The agency also stressed that the increased minimum wage would have a negative impact on California’s economy and lead to slower employment growth.
Brown said Monday the wage hike will cost the state $20 million in 2016.

“Small businesses in California are still struggling to cope with the 25 percent minimum wage hike over just the past two years,” Tom Scott, director of the California National Federation of Independent Business, said in a statement opposing the proposal. “Proposing a 50-percent increase on top of that is reckless and ignores serious negative consequences including job loss and increased costs to job creators, senior citizens, and nonprofits.”

The minimum wage proposal unveiled Monday comes days after an initiative backed by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West qualified for the state’s Nov. 8 ballot. The proposal would have raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021.

A second proposal, also backed by the SEIU, is still being circulated for signatures, according to The Los Angeles Times. In addition to raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, the measure also requires businesses to provide employees three new sick days annually.

Panama increases troops on border with Colombia

by the El Reportero’s news services

The Panamanian government has ordered troops to step up their presence in the Darien zone, after an attack by a Colombian criminal gang on a National Border Service (Senafront) check-point.
The director of the National Border Service, Cristian Hayer, confirmed the fact that members of the Úsuga gang, who rammed into the border post, had been pursued by police agents and the Colombian army.

According to official sources, the Úsuga gang is considered the largest and best organized criminal gang in Colombia, and an important drug cartel on the continent.

Panamanian police data has revealed that Colombia has increased its drug production by 80 percent.

Mexico liberalizes fuel imports

Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) does not have the monopoly of the gas and diesel imports to the country, opening the market to private enterprises, national and international.

The decision is part of the energy reform pushed by president Enrique Peña Nieto, who promised that prices of those fuels will not rise for the population.

Last year, imports by Pemex amounted to 16.5 billion dollars.

Enterprises will be allowed to freely import gasoline and diesel without the need to have special waivers or pay tariffs.

Some foreign enterprises, such as Gulf, are interested in buying, managing or franchising service stations.

José Ángel García Elizondo, president of the National Organization of Oil Vendors, indicated there are transnational oil companies doing business with Mexican gasoline vendors looking to widen their presence in the industry.

More Honduran schools under police protection

The number of Honduran schools under protection by military police due to the threat of gangs rose to five, the provincial director of Education, Miguel Gomez, said.

“Five schools are facing this problems and insecurity and we already asked for support to the authorities of the Ministry of Security and the Army to help us to improve the situation”, said Miguel Gomez to the newspaper La Tribuna.

He said that the violence is closely related to drug trafficking and gangs, as well as territorial fights among different criminal organizations operating in the country.

According to El Heraldo, about 25 troops are guarding and patrolling the premises of one of the institutes of the capital, while in other institute, classes were suspended after several days of police presence.

“The number of agents was increased, we cover all access points, we have agents in the hallways and motorized patrols in the perimeters”, said the spokesman of the military police, Mario Rivera.

Mario Rivera also noted that the entry to schools is restricted and everyone is verified before accessing the facilities.

Mexican adolescents suffer from some disorder

About 90 percent of adolescents in Mexico City suffer from some kind of disorder, according to results of the first diagnosis Young People Emotional Health carried out by the Youth Institute of Mexico (INJUVE).

In order to counteract this situation, the city government will soon open the first center Emotional Health “Cuidate”, the only one of its kind in the country, where counseling and individual and group therapy will be provided to people between 14 to 29 years of age.

According to the study of 2015, depression, psychological distress or anxiety are some of the symptoms perceived among the young people in Mexico city, and aid will focus on issues such as pregnancy prevention, addictions, eating habits and violence.

To make this diagnosis, INJUVE surveyed 1,675 adolescents, and the results indicate that 28.23 percent of then suffer from depression, 18.28 percent from psychological distress, 19.82 percent from anxiety and 20.80 percent feel apprehension and tension.

According to the estimates, more than 500,000 young people should be treated every year in that center, once launched.

7 strange questions about Brussels terrorist attacks not covered by media – Part 2 of two

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:

Dear readers: I am publishing the following article on the recent Brussels terror attack, which highlights very important questions that will probably make you think a little bit, since the mainstream media has been quite about it. It’s very important that we, as the people who mostly get affected by this type of events, be able to see other points of views to help us shape in our understanding of this type of world events. PART 2 AND LAST.

7 strange questions about the Brussels terror attacks that the mainstream media is not asking

by Michael Snider
Economic Collapse

#4 Does 3/22 have special occult significance?

There are some people out there that are suggesting that it was no accident that these attacks happened on 3/22. And without a doubt, we have seen other events of this nature fall on dates that have special significance for the occult. I do not know exactly what to make of all of this, but we do know that 322 is extremely significant to the Skull and Bones Society at Yale University (of which George W. Bush and John Kerry are members)…

#5 Why did Barack Obama spend less than a minute talking about the terror attacks in Brussels during his speech down in Cuba?

You would think that something this historic would deserve more than 51 seconds, but this is precisely the kind of behavior that we have come to expect from Obama over the years.

#6 Is it odd that the mainstream media so quickly reported that ISIS took full responsibility for these attacks?
It is entirely possible that ISIS was behind these attacks. But it is also entirely possible that these attacks are being blamed on ISIS by other parties with ulterior motives.

What we do know is that a “bulletin” supposedly from the Islamic State was posted on Tuesday which took full responsibility for the bombings. The following comes from WND…

“Islamic State fighters carried out a series of bombings with explosive belts and devices on Tuesday, targeting an airport and a central metro station in the center of the Belgian capital, Brussels, a country participating in the coalition against the Islamic State,” the bulletin said. “Islamic State fighters opened fire inside the Zaventem airport, before several of them detonated their explosive belts, as a martyrdom bomber detonated his explosive belt in the Maelbeek metro station.”

#7 Will the terror attacks in Brussels be used to justify a ground invasion of Syria?

These attacks have produced a tremendous amount of outrage in the western world, and already many prominent voices are calling for a U.S.-led invasion of Syria in order to finally put a permanent end to ISIS.

In fact, a former top adviser to Hillary Clinton started calling for a Syrian invasion within just hours of the attacks…
A former adviser to Hillary Clinton on Syria, Frederic C. Hof, now a Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, has called for invading Syria in the wake of the deadly attacks in Brussels.

“For the better part of a year, one clear recommendation has been on the table: assemble an American-led, coalition-of-the-willing, professional ground component—one top-heavy in regional and European forces—to enter eastern Syria to close with and kill ISIS. Engaging the Syrian opposition at all levels, consistent with an executable civil-military stabilization plan, can produce an administrative structure for an ISIS-free eastern Syria. Killing ISIS in Syria can ease the migration crisis and hasten the demise of this murderous band in Iraq. And it can demonstrate to the credulously stupid that linking up with losers will be a one-way trip to self-destruction,” Hof writes.

Last month, I received quite a bit of criticism for suggesting that we could be on the verge of World War 3. But the truth is that Saudi Arabia and Turkey remain absolutely committed to the removal of the Assad regime, and now these Brussels terror attacks have conveniently shifted sentiment in Europe and in the United States in favor of a ground operation in Syria.

The current ceasefire in Syria is on the verge of completely falling apart, and if an American-led coalition does invade, that could very easily spark a major regional war. The Russians, the Iranians and Hezbollah are not just going to sit back and watch as the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Turkey and their allies march to Damascus and remove Assad.

I keep trying to warn people that 2016 is the year when everything changes, and I have a feeling that these terror attacks in Belgium are going to turn out to be exceedingly significant.

Our world is becoming more unstable with each passing day, and sometimes all it takes is a little shove to set us on a path that we never intended to go down.

I don’t have all the answers, but unlike the mainstream media, at least I am not afraid to ask the hard questions…

Need to speed up your metabolism?

Turn to these teas to fight fat in all the right places

by David Gutiérrez

Are you already eating a healthy diet, but you need an extra boost to shed or keep off some extra pounds? Why not try adding a healthy tea to your daily routine?

Teas, or herbal infusions, are a potent way to attain the medicinal benefits of natural healing plants. Teas are rich in antioxidants and have been shown to produce benefits including speeding up metabolism and digestion, lowering cholesterol, shrinking fat cells, providing steady energy, fighting tooth decay, preventing cardiovascular disease, boosting immune function and promoting general health.

The following five teas have research-proven weight-loss benefits. Start drinking one today!

Three flavors of true tea

Three of the top five weight-loss teas actually come from the same plant: Camellia sinensis, or true tea.

The most widely known of these in the West is green tea, which is made from dried, unwilted, unoxidized tea leaves.

Green tea is incredibly rich in antioxidants, including some, such as EGCG, which have been shown to accelerate the body’s metabolism and cause the liver to burn up more stored fat. As an added bonus, high consumption of green tea has been linked to lower rates of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. It’s no wonder that this beverage is a staple in many cultures.

A less well known variety of tea, oolong tea, is made from tea leaves that have been wilted, bruised and slightly oxidized before drying. Because oolong tea leaves are not as heavily oxidized as black tea leaves, they still contain high levels of antioxidants. Oolong tea is also particularly high in catechins, which have been shown to boost the body’s ability to metabolize fat.

But the tea variety with the highest antioxidants is actually white tea. Like green tea, white tea is made from unoxidized tea leaves. Unlike green tea, however, these are only the youngest leaves of the plant, and may also include unopened tea buds. These young leaves and buds are lightly steamed (wilted) before drying.

In addition to its high antioxidant content, white tea also speeds metabolism and speeds the body’s process of breaking down stored fat. It also blocks the formation of new fat cells. White tea has also been shown to lower blood pressure, prevent cardiovascular disease, increase bone strength, lower cancer risk, improve skin health and boost energy levels. Natural News.

Farmworker groups march on Driscoll’s corporate headquaters, call for boycott

by ZH

WATSONVILLE, CA – A loose circle of people, many dressed in green t-shirts bearing the message “Boycott Driscolls!”, stood around in an empty space in the parking lot shared by an Applebee’s, a AAA, and Watsonville’s Green Valley Cinema.

“Does anyone want to make a sign?” asked Michael of the Watsonville Brown Berets, carrying a bag of markers and white posterboard. Three people took him up on the idea and kneeled on the asphalt to sketch out designs. Boycott Driscolls!, #sanquintín, and Union Contract for Farmworkers were some of the slogans that flowed out of their marker tips, as well as images of crossed out strawberries.

The circle grew over the next half hour as cars drove up and unloaded passengers with more signs and banners. Organizers with the Santa Cruz support committee for the now cross-border Driscoll’s berry boycott walked between small groups in the circle and handed press releases to media representatives.

“Si se puede lograr tener una reunión, por favor?” asked Ramon Torres, trying to gather together the assembled people, who then numbered nearly forty. Torres, president of a Washington state berry-pickers union called FUJ or Familias Unidas por la Justicia, is on a month-long tour of Oregon and California to publicize the union’s struggles with their employer, Sakuma Brothers. However, FUJ’s beef extends to Driscoll’s because Sakuma distributes its berries through the larger company. The press release distributed by the local support committee explains further: “FUJ first called for a boycott of Sakuma in 2013 after signed agreements made in mediated negotiation between the company and an elected committee of 11 workers were all broken by the company. In 2014 FUJ called for a boycott of Driscoll’s when Sakuma stopped using their own label and had workers picking directly into Driscoll’s flats.” Torres is accompanied by Lazaro Matamoro, also a berrypicker and member of Familias Unidas.

FUJ was not the only farmworker union present. Gloria Gracida, a representative from el Sindicato Independiente Nacional Democrático de Jornaleros Agrícolas – a recently formed union representing upwards of 80,000 campesinos (field workers) in San Quintín, Baja California – stood alongside the FUJ members. On March 17th, to begin her part of the coastal boycott tour, Gracida walked for four days from San Quintín to Tijuana before crossing the border there to participate in the California-Oregon tour.

These people gathered on March 31 to march to Driscoll’s corporate headquarters in Watsonville and deliver a message asking the company to pressure its client growers to bargain for and respect agreements made with independent unions of farmworkers. The march began just before noon and traveled a short distance down the road to the Driscoll’s building, a one-story building located in a complex of glass-fronted offices and parking lots. The marchers stopped on the sidewalk before the office, where they displayed signs and listened to speeches from Torres and Gracida.
Speaking in Spanish and accompanied by a translator, Gracida highlighted the brutal working conditions under which she and other campesinos in Baja exist.

“I have seen many little girls (niñas) and women working in the fields [who become] sick from agricultural chemicals, [who are] raped and sexually harrassed in the fields. For this we shout ‘Boycott Driscoll’s!’”

Gracida also demanded that workers receive fair compensation for their labor.

“Driscoll’s website says workers receive between five and nine dollars per hour in San Quintín,” she said, “Eso es una mentira [a lie]! Driscoll’s is slavery!”

She then issued a challenge to the company to refute her claims.

“Here in front of Driscoll’s, I challenge you to declare publicly that it’s true or false that workers in Mexico make six dollars for twelve hours of work!”

Driscoll’s corporate website states that it has a zero tolerance policy for child labor, coercion, abuse, harrassment, and health and safety conditions posing immediate threat to life and limb. It also states that violations of this zero tolerance policy must be corrected immediately by suppliers or result in termination of business relations. This policy is the lynchpin on which the workers demands swing. They say the company can pressure its suppliers to change their practices.

Ramon Torres spoke to the simple, specific demands of the farmworker unions, highlighting requests for medical care, dignified and sanitary housing for workers, pensions, a fifteen-dollar minimum wage, and union contracts for workers organized independently of larger, more established unions. These demands would provide long term stability to farmworker families. “You have the power to stop exploitation,” Torres said, “Our children don’t deserve the fields, they deserve opportunity!”

Two Driscoll’s employees came out from the offices with a plastic jug of water and paper cups for the protestors, as well as a sign printed on office paper stating Driscoll’s respect for the assembled people’s right to be present and a request that such protest occur peacefully. They were met with hisses and boos from the crowd. One person yelled, “Water? This is bullshit, they want justice, not your water!” Gracida stated that the water was an insult, saying that the same respectful treatment is lacking in Baja, where workers commonly carry water with them in empty soda cans because no clean water is available in the fields.

The Driscoll’s employees spoke to the assembled crowd. “We admire your passion,” they said. Torres then held an extended conversation with them. “Do you know that kids in Washington berry fields get paid only 85 percent of what adults are paid? Talk to your bosses.” He reiterated a central demand of the boycott movement as well, saying, “We want a union contract.”

The protest continued on until about 1pm. Marchers gathered before the Driscoll’s office to take a group photo with signs and banners. Representatives from community organizations including the Center for Farmworker Families, the International Migrants Alliance, and the Watsonville Brown Berets took turns on the megaphone with messages of support.

Hillary’s rigged Primary victories are showing the world presidents are selected – not elected

by Jay Syrmopoulos

Phoenix, AZ – The fix is apparently in for the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries, after massive voter suppression was reported in the Arizona Democratic primary.

In 2012, Maricopa County had 200 polling locations open on primary day, but reduced the number of polling stations to only 60 for 2016.

The extreme reduction of polling locations served to create wait times of over 5 hours to cast a ballot; an extreme amount of time that working class citizens often don’t have the luxury of waiting.

Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell, who was responsible for the reduction in polling places in 2016, attempted to justify her actions by claiming that voter turnout was traditionally low, so she simply reduced the number of polling locations to save money.

Indicative of something more nefarious afoot, Pima County, home to Tucson, had almost double the number of polling locations open compared to Maricopa County, even though Pima County is only approximately one-third the size.

On top of having far too few polling locations open in general, the lack of stations in densely populated Latino neighborhoods indicate something far more organized, given that almost 41 percent of Phoenix residents are Latino.
“In my district, there is only one polling place,’’ Democratic State Senator Martin Quezada told AZCentral.com. “In my neighboring district, LD 30, there are no polling places.”

“It is no coincidence many poor and predominantly Latino areas didn’t get a polling place,” AZCentral.com editorial columnist Elvia Díaz wrote Tuesday night.

These types of anomalies are seemingly par for the course though when it comes to establishment political elites like Hillary Clinton, which begs the question; are elections being rigged?

A statistical analysis of the 2008 to 2012 vote results revealed that widespread electronic vote rigging taking place, exposing that over 1 million votes were switched from other GOP candidates, to Mitt Romney, during the 2012 GOP presidential primary.

“This substantial effect exceeds reasonable statistical bounds and we calculate that the probability of such election results happening by chance is beyond typical or even extreme,” Francois Choquette, co-author of the analysis said.

Think back to 2008, Clinton was facing upstart candidate Barack Obama, who had just won Iowa and had a commanding lead going into New Hampshire in both pre-election polls, as well as exit polling on election night.

But the final results were dramatically different from the polls, in which every one had Obama winning with an average lead of 8.3 percent, yet Clinton ended up winning by 2.6 percent, somehow unaccountably gaining 10 percentage points over night.

Adding to the suspicion, various pre-election polls had been fairly precise in their predictions for all other candidates in the same race, but had mysteriously miscalled the numbers for Clinton and Obama.

Interestingly, the hand-counted paper ballot results favored Obama, while Clinton won in the districts where electronic voting machines secretly counted ballots.
Clinton: statewide optical scan tally: 52.73 percent
Obama: statewide optical scan tally: 47.27 percent
Clinton: statewide hand-count tally: 46.75 percent
Obama: statewide hand-count tally: 53.25 percent
According to a report featured in Truth-out:

Hillary Clinton’s upset win was imagined by some as a fix perpetrated by rogue elements among her more conservative New Hampshire Democratic backers. Others pointed the finger at Republican operatives who they believe may have orchestrated her victory, judging Obama the stronger horse against Romney (or any other GOP candidate).

As it happens, the Premier Voting Machine company, which controlled over three-quarters of the New Hampshire primary, was actually the same Republican-friendly Diebold Voting Machine Company involved in the controversial upset victory by President George W. Bush over John Kerry in Ohio in 2004. (The company had just switched names).

Diebold CEO Walden O’Dell, who had publicly pledged to deliver Ohio to Bush in 2004, was later mired in widespread accusations of a conspiracy to rig out Kerry late on election night in Ohio. Top cyber-security experts charged that Karl Rove’s online vote-gathering apparatus used a “man in the middle” hack to alter the results, in collusion with the ultra partisan Ohio secretary of state, Kenneth Blackwell, the co-chair of the Committee to Re-Elect George W. Bush.

The man who built the vote-tabulating system, GOP tech guru Michael Connell, died in a suspicious private plane crash after being subpoenaed and then compelled to testify against Rove. Two election officials were eventually convicted of rigging the Ohio recount.

Programming the counting for the 2008 New Hampshire primary was a little known company called LHS Associates, which used the same infamous GEMS software long proven to be easily manipulated by insiders to alter the outcome of the election and produce a matching, fraudulent poll tape report.

With such entrenched political elites working to game the system, is there actually any hope that our elections are representative?

Sadly, the answer is no.

Even after being made aware of the vulnerabilities of the voting machines, by computer expert Harri Hursti, prior to the 2008 NH primary, the New Hampshire State House Subcommittee on Election Equipment chose to continue to use the easily tampered with software.

Over the course of this election cycle, one thing has become apparent; the political elite and the party bosses are the ones that select the President of the United States, citizen voting is simply a formality to provide legitimacy to the ruling elite.

Presidents are selected, not elected. – Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Key witness in Berta Caceres killing leaves Honduras

by the El Reportero’s wire services

Mexican Gustavo Castro, the main witness of the killing of indigenous leader and ecologist Berta Cáceres today left Honduras after being held by the authorities for several weeks.
The environmental activist left the capital of Honduras early this morning in an Avianca airline flight to San Salvador.
According to local radio stations, Castro arrived at Toncontín international airport under strong police security, accompanied by the Mexican ambassador to Honduras, Dolores Jiménez, and other officials of the diplomatic mission in Tegucigalpa.
The Mexican sociologist was finally allowed to leave the country after receiving authorization from a judge in Intibuca, who lifted the restriction imposed by the authorities as part of the investigation process.
The Public Ministry said in a statement that it was possible that they would request the presence of the witness in the future if new issues emerged in the investigation process.

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