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IMF wants a 71 percent tax rate

by Kurt Nimmo

Romain Hatcheul’s largely passed over article on the Wall Street Journal’s website was revisited last week by Simon Black over at the Sovereign Man blog. Black spells out the latest IMF scheme to steal wealth from the producers and enslave billions of people: a taxation rate over 70 percent.

“The IMF’s team of monkeys has been working around the clock on this one, figuring that developed nations can increase their overall tax revenue by increasing tax rates,” Black writes. “They’ve singled out the US, suggesting that the US government could maximize its tax revenue by increasing tax brackets to as high as 71 percent.”

Black notes that the latest criminal plot by the “grand wizards of the global financial system” is telling. It “might be the clearest sign yet that the whole house of cards is dangerously close to being swept away.”

Can a person still be considered “free” when 71 percent of what s/he earns is taken away at the point of a gun by a bankrupt, bullying government? Or are you merely a serf then, existing only to feed the system?

Hatcheul explains that taxation schemes like the one cooked up by France’s socialist government – a 75 percent tax on income above one million euros – will not produce the result desired: the wealthy will avoid taxation, as French actor Gérard Depardieu did when he turned over his passport and became a tax exile. French billionaire Bernard Arnault applied for Belgian nationality in response to socialist thievery and penned a piece titled: If U.S. Had 75 percent Tax Rate, You’d Leave Too.

Hatcheul:

Of course these measures won’t return the world’s top economies to sustainable levels of debt. That could be achieved only through significant economic growth (the good way) or, as the IMF puts it, “by repudiating public debt or inflating it away” (the bad way). In October the IMF floated a bold idea that didn’t get the attention it deserved: lowering sovereign debt levels through a one-off tax on private wealth.

Think Cyprus.

The IMF is suggesting government should go into your bank account and clip what it deems appropriate and give it to the bankers. Hatcheul says the internationalist loan sharking operation is looking at 10 percent of bank held savings.

“From New York to London, Paris and beyond, powerful economic players are deciding that with an ever-deteriorating global fiscal outlook, conventional levels and methods of taxation will no longer suffice,” he writes. “That makes weapons of mass wealth destruction – such as the IMF’s one-off capital levy, Cyprus’s bank deposit confiscation, or outright sovereign defaults – likelier by the day.”

Old-fashioned taxation is out. Expect outright grand larceny at the local bank enforced by the government.

Even if this highway robbery is limited to a few million rich people – and it won’t be, only a large and unprecedented fleecing will satiate the thieves – we can expect the economic results to be significant.

Stealing from producers who create wealth and prosperity will result in lower standards of living for all except the mega-rich who, of course, never pay a dime in taxes (and the really insidious ones employ government to steal even more from you to pay for their monopolistic enterprises and cover their financial market gambling loses).

The latest IMF scheme is the result of a century of brainwashing that insists taxation is part of a social contract between individuals and government. The internationalist banksters now insist we no longer have use for the social contract concept. In order to prop up a corrupt financial system, outright robbery will be required.

This is part of the reason we have a militarized panopticon police state in place. Burglars usually arrive armed and will easily resort to violence if their plans are challenged or resisted.

In other news: City cites “International Code” in effort to evict off-grid woman

Florida resident who generates her own electricity targeted for not being dependent on the state

by Paul Joseph Watson

After a Fox affiliate did a feature story on the off-grid lifestyle of a Cape Coral, FL woman she was almost immediately hit with an eviction order from the city which cited “international code” as a reason for turfing the woman out of her own home because she was not dependent on city water or electricity supplies.

Just one day after the feature story about how Robin Speronis was living off’ grid by generating her own power via solar panels and collecting rainwater, city code enforcement officers visited her home to declare it unfit for human habitation. The code enforcers were able to make this determination despite not even venturing inside Speronis’ house.

“There’s a good chance they just looked at the water bill for that address and realized the city monopoly had been thwarted,” reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Despite the fact that Speronis’ home looks the same as every other on her street from the outside, because she is not dependent on government, the state is presumably worried about the threat of a good example and is attempting to evict her from her own fully owned property.

A city code compliance manager told Fox 4 that the eviction notice was issued because the home did not have running water or electricity.

Furthermore, the notice posted to Speronis’ property by city officials cites “international property maintenance code” as a justification for the eviction.

The ‘international property maintenance code’ is a lengthy set of regulations published by the International Code Council which, although not law, are “available for adoption and use by jurisdictions internationally.”

The regulations are another example of how global directives in the spirit of the United Nation’s Agenda 21 are being imposed on Americans outside of the law which eviscerate traditional property rights as defined by constitutional protections.

Agenda 21 demands that member nations adopt “sustainable development” policies that are little more than a disguise for the reintroduction of neo-feudalism and only serve to reduce living standards and quality of life.

In response to the eviction threat, residents rallied in support of Speronis, filing hundreds of complaints with the city council, while attorney Todd Allen said that the city’s powers of eviction were non-existent.

“Cape Coral needs to be afraid of me. I’m not afraid of them,” said Speronis. Infowars.

Woman sues over vaginal, anal exams in by Border Patrol in a El Paso drug search

New Mexico woman was searched for six hours at border, University Medical Center

A Border Patrol agent guards the border with México.

by Aaron Bracamontes
El Paso Times

A New Mexico woman claims in a federal lawsuit that she underwent a brutal and inhumane six-hour full-body cavity search by federal officers that included anal and vaginal probes that made her feel like an “animal.”
The woman, a Lovington, N.M. resident, also is suing University Medical Center, where she was forced to have an observed bowel movement, was X-rayed, had a speculum exam, vaginal exam and had a CT scan.
The suit claims the hospital “violated her” and then gave her the $5,000 bill.
The lawsuit names the El Paso County Hospital District’s Board of Managers, University Medical Center, Drs. Michael Parsa and Christopher Cabanillas, two unknown supervising U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and two other CBP officers only identified by their last names of Portillo and Herrera as defendants. The doctors and the agents could not be reached for comment.

The 54-year-old woman, who is not identified in the suit, is asking for an unspecified amount of money and to end the policy that gives federal agents and officers the authority to stick their fingers and objects up people’s cavities when they search for drugs.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union in federal court in El Paso on behalf of the woman who was stopped as she crossed at the Bridge of the Americas a year ago. Despite the six-hour search at the port and then later at UMC, no drugs were found.

The woman is identified as Jane Doe in the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, the woman was first frisked and strip-searched at the port of entry, where officers stuck their fingers inside her rectum and vagina. When that search came up negative, she was taken to University Medical Center.

“These extreme and illegal searches deeply traumatized our client,” ACLU of New Mexico Legal Director Laura Schauer Ives said in the news release. “The fact that our government treated an innocent 54-year-old woman with such brutality and inhumanity should outrage all Americans. We must ensure that government agents never put another person through a nightmare like this ever again.”

A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a prepared statement that the agency could not talk about a specific lawsuit.

“As a practice CBP does not comment on pending litigation,” the statement said. “CBP stresses honor and integrity in every aspect of our mission, and the overwhelming majority of CBP employees and officers perform their duties with honor and distinction, working tirelessly every day to keep our country safe. We do not tolerate corruption or abuse within our ranks, and we fully cooperate with any criminal or administrative investigations of alleged misconduct by any of our personnel, on or off-duty.”

University Medical Center also declined to get into specifics of the lawsuit.

“Hospital policy is to obtain consent from all patients who receive medical services at UMC,” spokeswoman Margaret Altoff-Olivas said in a statement. “Because this case involves litigation, UMC will not be commenting further.”

The search took place at about 2 p.m. Dec. 12, 2012, when the woman was coming back from seeing a family friend, whom she calls “uncle” and tries to visit once a month.

As her passport was swiped, a CBP officer told her she was “randomly” picked for a secondary inspection, where Portillo and Herrera frisked her through her clothing. “One of the agents ran her finger over Ms. Doe’s genital area during the frisk,” the lawsuit said. Then the woman was told to squat as one of the officers “inserted her finger in the crevice of Ms. Doe’s buttocks.”

The frisk did not show any evidence of contraband or drugs, the lawsuit said. Then the woman was told to stand in a line with other people as a drugsniffing dog walked by. The officer with the dog “hit the ground by her feet, but did not hit the ground by any of the others in the line,” the lawsuit said. “The dog responded by lunging onto Ms. Doe and landing its front paws on her torso.”

Ives said she does not believe this was a proper signal to indicate a drugs were present, but officers used it to continue the search. The woman was taken to another room and asked to take off her pants and crouch as her anus and vagina were examined with a flashlight, the lawsuit said. The woman, now crying, was taken to University Medical Center after the strip search did not find anything. “During the car ride to the Medical Center, Ms. Doe asked if the agents had a warrant,” the lawsuit said. “One of them responded that they did not need a warrant.”

While handcuffed to an examination table, the woman was searched again by both officers and Cabanillas and Parsa. She was given a laxative and had a bowel movement in a portable toilet in front of both officers, the lawsuit said.

Then the woman’s abdomen was X-rayed, but there were no signs of drugs or any other contraband in the woman’s body. A speculum was used to probe her vagina and Parsa’s fingers were used to inspect both her vagina and rectum while the door to the examining room was left open, the lawsuit said. At this point the lawsuit claims, “Ms. Doe felt that she was being treated less than human, like an animal.”

The last test was a CT scan of the woman’s abdomen and pelvis, which resulted in no evidence of illegal activity being found.

The lawsuit said after the CT scan one of the officers told the woman she could sign the medical consent form and CBP would pay for the exams, but if she did not sign, she would be charged. The woman refused to sign and eventually she was charged more than $5,000 for the examinations. According to the lawsuit, she repeatedly refused to consent to any of the searches.

A warrant was not obtained, the lawsuit said. In a phone interview, Ives said searches like the one the 54-year-old woman went through are illegal and becoming common among law enforcement. She said: “The fact that this happened to a 54-yearold woman should outrage anyone. She did ask to talk to an attorney and she did ask for a warrant. I don’t know what guarantees there are to our rights other than a lawsuit like this one that hold the government agencies responsible.”

Mexico proves constitutionality of energy reform

by the El Reportero’s wire services

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The Permanent Commission of the Congress of Mexico today upheld the constitutionality of the energy reform, after 24 local legislative ratified the initiative approved by deputies and senators last week.

Six days after the two cameras give their endorsement, the president of the Board, Ricardo Anaya, was commissioned to communicate the validity of the changes to Articles 25, 27 and 28 of the constitution, which for the first time since 1938 opened the hydrocarbons sector to private investment.

In less than 20 minutes at the start of its regular session, lawmakers met the necessary formalities and now sent the measure to the federal chief executive, Enrique Peña Nieto, for enactment.

Before the declaration, several left-wing lawmakers took the floor to express their anti-reform position, while showing signs with “EPN, traitor”, referring to the Mexican president.

Argentine rejects UK pretended rights over Falklands

Argentina firmly rejected a protest of the United Kingdom government arguing pretended rights over the Falkland Islands, Southern Georgia and Southern Sandwich and the surrounding maritime spaces.

Specifically, the Argentinean foreign ministry referred to the protest in London to the norm establishing sanctions to any physical or juridical person with direct or indirect participation in exploration and exploitation activities of hydrocarbon in the continental platform of Argentina.

A note of the Foreign Affairs Ministry specifies that the precept also penalize its transportation or storage, which should not be authorized by the competent authority.

The release remarks that the resolution was sanctioned by the National Congress and has as space environment of implementation the Argentinean maritime spaces, defined as such by the corresponding laws adopted in the framework of the applicable international law.

The position of the Argentinean government was transmitted personally by the vice foreign minister, Eduardo Zuain, to the British ambassador accredited in Buenos Aires.

Mothers of Central American migrants conclude tour of Mexico

The ninth convoy of Central American mothers searching for their children missing migrants in Mexico concludes its journey today in the state of Chiapas, after having found six families.

Women from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala began the journey on December 2, with the aim of going through the two routes followed by Central American migrants through Aztec territory to try to reach the United States.

According to the representative of the General Coordination in Mexico of the initiative, Martha Sánchez, the journey this year has been fruitful, achieving and exceeding the target they have for this year, of finding five children. Young people missing were found in the cities of Palenque, Guadalajara, Nuevo Leon, Mexico City, Tehuantepec and Tapachula. In the central park of the latter town, belonging to the state of Chiapas, organizations such as the Mesoamerican Migrants Movement, the Committee of Relatives of Deceased Migrants and International Health, inaugurated an exhibition of photographs of dozens missing.

During the final day of the caravan, women have planned to meet with Central American residing in the federal entity and commemorate the Dec. 18 the International Migrants Day.

In the different tour stops, Sánchez explained that the route followed through Mexico is sinuous and hides many vexations to the Central American searching a better life in the United States.

Sánches said that support for the caravan has been very good, because they have been well treated and supported in each of the municipalities, but that contrasts with the abuse that their sons, brothers and husbands suffered during passage through this country.

Women questioned why the organized crime has more power than the authorities in different levels of government.

Allergies and cancer on the rise due to GM foods

by Jonathan Landsman

Food allergies have become a global epidemic and conventional medicine has no cure. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control, food allergies (in kids) have increased by 50 percent between 1997 and 2011. Could this have anything to do with genetically engineered foods?

Since the 1990s, when genetically modified (GM) foods were approved, we have seen a dramatic increase in food allergies, asthma, ADHD and many forms of cancer. As expected, most corporately-controlled, government health ‘experts’ would say genetically modified (GM) foods are ‘safe’ – but where are the safety studies to back up this unscientific claim of safety? (there are none).

Leaky gut syndrome ‘sets the stage’ for food allergies and disease

We all know that a ‘leaky gut’ is defined as the development of gaps between the cells that make up the inner lining of our intestinal tract. As the intestines breakdown, they allow unwanted (foreign) substances to enter our bloodstream.

Simply put – if you suffer from leaky gut – undigested food, bacteria and metabolic waste products pollute the entire body causing inflammation, food-related allergies plus many other chronic degenerative diseases.

The digestive system is responsible for maintaining about 80 percent of our natural immunity. How could any physician, in their right mind, not understand that toxic food creates a toxic body – which, in turn, produces symptoms such as food allergies, skin rashes, brain fog, fatigue – the list goes on and on. On the next NaturalNews Talk Hour, every doctor needs to tune in and discover the real reason why GMOs are literally destroying modern society.

GM corn linked to cancer tumors

A study published in the Food & Chemical Toxicology Journal, led by Gilles-Eric Seralini of the University of Caen, clearly states that eating genetically modified corn caused rats to develop horrifying tumors, widespread organ damage, and premature death. To make matters even more shocking – this is the only long-term study examining the health risks associated with eating GM foods.

But that won’t stop greedy corporations, like Monsanto, from pushing their agenda of owning the entire food supply through patent-protected, GM seeds.

If you’re looking for a good reason to avoid GMOs – here are the shocking results of the French study – listed above:

Up to 50 percent of males and 70 percent of females rats suffered premature death. Rats that drank trace amounts of Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup Ready had a 200 percent – 300 percent increase in large tumors. Rats fed GMO corn and traces of Roundup Ready suffered severe organ damage – including liver damage and kidney damage.

This study fed rats NK603, the Monsanto variety of GMO corn that’s grown across North America and widely fed to animals and humans. Keep in mind, this is the same type of corn found in corn-based breakfast cereals, corn tortillas and corn snack chips.

On the next NaturalNews Talk Hour – you will be shocked at what the mainstream media is not telling you about the true cause of allergies and disease.

Robyn O’Brien is an author, public speaker, strategist and mother of four. She brings insight and detailed analysis to her research on the health of the American food system as documented in her first book, The Unhealthy Truth, and has been called “food’s Erin Brockovich” by the New York Times.

Her work has appeared on CNN, the Today Show, Good Morning America, FOX News, in the Washington Post and countless media outlets, and she currently writes a popular column for Prevention – while serving as the Executive Director of the AllergyKids Foundation and doing strategic advisory work for companies making trend-setting changes in the food industry. Stop allergies forever. Beyond the GMO issues, concerned parents will not want to miss a word of what Robyn says about the hidden dangers within our food supply. Contrary to popular belief, government health agencies operate solely in the best interests of major corporations without regard to human health concerns. Join us for an informative and empowering program. Natural News.

Democrats persecute homeschooling parents

by Kit Daniels
Infowars.com

In a coordinated attack on families, a Democratic state senator in Ohio introduced a bill this month that requires parents to submit to a social services investigation, including background checks, before being “permitted” to homeschool their own children.

Introduced by Sen. Capri Cafarao, Senate Bill 248 effectively requires home-schooling parents to be licensed by the state through an application process which includes an investigation, background checks and in-person interviews between social workers and children which the parents are not allowed to attend.

After the investigation, social services would then decide whether homeschooling would be “in the best interests of the children.”

“This bill is breathtaking in its attempt to impose unreasonable government intrusion on Ohio families,” says the Home School Legal Defense Association, which also called the bill the worst homeschooling law ever proposed.

The association also stated that if a family has any record of a child welfare investigation, regardless of its outcome, social services would immediately reject the parents’ request to educate their own children.

Simply put, parents falsely accused of child abuse would be forced to enroll their children into government-run schools, a process that requires immunizations with various vaccines.

If this bill becomes law, it would effectively end homeschooling in Ohio.

SB 248 was written under the socialist belief that children belong to the state and not their parents and that only government workers know what is best for them.

As reported last April by Kurt Nimmo, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry suggested that children don’t belong to their families but are rather owned by the community at large.

“We have to break through our private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families and recognize that kids belong to whole communities,” she said.

The bill was also written with the intent to protect public schools, which are used by the government to indoctrinate children into supporting the state’s own interests.

These schools are immensely successful at conditioning children to believe what they are told and to never question authority while also failing to properly educate them at the same time.

Instead of learning about the intent behind the Bill of Rights, students are told that the Constitution is “outdated” and must be “revised” to better serve the interests of homeland security.

They are given textbooks which inaccurately define the Second Amendment as “the right to keep and bear arms in a state militia.”

The state is ultimately using modern public education to corrupt our youth by instilling collectivist values in them while removed from their parents’ influence.

Whoever controls education controls the future of our culture and that is exactly why politicians are trying to shut down alternatives to government schools.

The following are two e-comments from two different people expressing opposite opinions to the above subject:

Brian: Are bound to be parents that are at least a bit coo-coo on top of being “unconventional” in their beliefs and life-style to the general public that would produce children that can not function in society. No matter how much today’s society can be criticized, a child should have the tools needed to interact with society if they make that choice upon their maturity. Like certifying any public or private school, in theory checking a if a home is fit to be in effect a school isn’t a bad concept. Look at some goofballs in California, or wherever, that had hippie parents and grew up in a commune without any government oversight – do parents have an absolute right to create a person of their choosing any more than the government does? There should be an advocate for the children to help ensure they have the maximum potential of living a full and productive life of their choosing. What organization could do this without a real potential for incompetence or abuse?

Freedomnow: The point is we are not a collectivist nation. We are a nation based on individual freedoms. That is why the founding fathers left other countries and established this once great country and wrote the supreme laws based on INDIVIDUAL FREEDOMS. The same problems they had back then is what we have now. We are slaves to the banks and you can thank the government for that. A government has no right to just come into your home and inspect to see if a parent is fit to teach their own kids and also interrogate the kids without parental supervision. Parents have the absolute right to create a person, as you put it, more than a collectivist government. Explain these “unconventional” beliefs you talk about. Just because they are not the beliefs that you have does not mean they are bad. You have just as much of a right to your opinion as others and you have a right to speak it, that is the first amendment. The problem with California is the government, not the so called “hippies” who believed in freedom and preached peace and love. Is that so “coo-coo” as you put it? If there are some bad apples in the bunch that does not mean you throw the whole bunch away. Your whole statement reeks of socialism, and authoritarianism. My guess is you, just as I but I have realized it, attended a public school indoctrinated into government beliefs. My eyes are open to the corrupt, socialist, fascist, authoritarian, eugenicist, collection of scum that is the United States government. You should think about your statement and read the constitution over and over for the sake of you, your family, you kids, if you have them, or your future kids, and the future of humanity.

Kveldulf: the real problem doesn’t lie with whatever sounds like a good idea, but whether it is a right one; a just one. The moral high ground is found, not made. We can deliberate all we want about good ideals, but no one has purview over the family unless there is an overt, just cause. A child’s education is not an inalienable right, rather education is an effect, and naturally comes from the family: a decision the family makes for the child. However, In this case, the community again is attempting to be ‘family’.

Civil law is (should be) self-evident. Authority from the king, or mere government, does not start with the agent (king) but first starts with those who allow him power – first God, then the family, then the community. Even if one were atheistic, it would still fall in the order of family first – before community.

This order exists in a logical, and in an observable sense – empirical. We are raised by our mother and father; a natural biological, psychological design – then after a family structure, children are greeted with higher sociological institutions outside of the family; mirroring a similar familial paradigm of order.

If the state wishes to regulate familial power, it does so from a contradictory purview.

Windham: Your conclusion that blanket government oversight over people is a necessity falsely presumes a backwards power relationship. The government is not some sort of parental figure designed to guide us through life. WE make up the government and WE are the majority who ought remind those who proclaim themselves masters over us that their rightful position is that of SERVANT. I’m frankly shocked that we now exist in a society which apparently has rationalized away our own parental rights and increasingly are delegating the mechanical, uncaring, authoritarian, criminal elements of those who rule us to raise our children.

This is how you create jobs in the United States Part 1

by Marvin Ramirez

Marvin J. RamirezMarvin Ramirez

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: The following article by Devvy Kidd, is very alarming in showing where our country is heading to, and China is shown as destroying the U.S. Americans, including Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans, etc., have much to lose. People came to this nation for liberty and opportunities to grab a piece of the American dream – the right to have an education, own a place one can call home, have a job, and be happy. But all of that seems to be disappearing, in part because we have a government that doesn’t serve the interests of its own people, but rather those of foreign corporations.’ However, you, the reader be the judge. – Due to its length, it will be published in several parts. PART 1.

This is how you create jobs in America

by Devvy Kidd
truther

“The measure of the wealth of a nation is indicated by the measure of its protection of its industry; the measure of the poverty of a nation is marked by the degree in which it neglects and abandons the care of its own industry, leaving it exposed to the action of foreign powers.” Congressman Henry Clay, 1824

I’m one of those who fought against NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement (No American Factories Taking Jobs) because so many of us knew what was going to happen: the total gutting of our most important job sectors which provided good jobs, good pay and job security. Here we are 20 years down the road with massive trade imbalances, MILLIONS of jobs lost – all for cheap labor for corporations who dumped on American workers. What a bargain. Cheap, you say? Go to Macy’s or other department stores like Sears or Neiman Marcus and compare some rag on the hanger from commie China, commie Hong Kong or Bangladesh. It is equal to or MORE than the same or similar garment made here in America. Go ahead and compare, I have. Maybe you can get some sweats or tees at China (Wal) Mart cheaper, but either we support America first or we will not survive.

We continue to see recalls of products from China. Gifts from the East. Seafood full of dangerous antibiotics. Toothpaste tainted with, love this one – an ingredient in antifreeze. Automobile tires missing a key safety 1component. Years ago it was toys from China slicked with a date rape drug.

Of course, there’s no malice or intent by the companies in China, a Godless, communist country, putting a date rape drug in toys to be sold in America. It’s all just a mistake, not enough ‘quality control.’ Right. That factory making toys for children in America and somehow large quantities of a date rape drug just happens to be in the work area where toys are being mass-produced? Let’s not forget the million or so dogs and cats skinned ALIVE by “businessmen” in China every year who take the fur and put it in sweaters, parkas and doll clothes which gets shipped and sold illegally here in the U.S. The next time you buy a $75 dollar sweater, a $250.00 ski parka or doll clothes for a Christmas gift from China, there’s a good chance it has dog or cat fur from a poor little creature skinned alive. Don’t believe those labels because they’re lying.

How about dangerous prescription drugs being consumed by you or your family?

* Chinese Chemicals Flow Unchecked Onto World Drug Market

* F.D.A. Tracked Poisoned Drugs, but Trail Went Cold in China

*From China to Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine

In July 2013, the lying communist Chinese regulators promised to crack down. Really? Then why are toxic dog treats still coming to America and killing people’s beloved pets? Jerky treat mystery: Nearly 600 pets dead; still no source, FDA said Oct. 2013: “Nearly 600 pets have died and more than 3,600 have been sickened in an ongoing, mysterious outbreak of illnesses tied to jerky treats made in China, federal animal health officials said Tuesday.”

No source? The stinking communists are in collusion with other barbarians in foreign countries to ship their poison to US. Companies like Purina sold out American workers and now their products come back to the U.S. to sicken pets. “The FDA has issued a warning for all pet food treats made in China. But pet guardians should be aware that pet food manufacturers are not required to list the country of origin for each ingredient used in their pet products.” I have never given any of my dogs anything from China. Free trade. The toxic financial suicide that has killed our most important job sectors: manufacturing, industrial and agriculture.

Over the past twenty years since NAFTA (No American Factories Taking Applications), Americans have continued to reelect the same traitors back to the Outlaw Congress (Boehner, Pelosi to name two) who have destroyed the middle class in this country while enriching themselves and their corporate campaign donors. Thank Newt Gingrich for pushing it through Congress, Comrade Bill Clinton for signing that unconstitutional “agreement” into law and Rush Limbaugh for pumping it’s passage on his radio show. Millions and millions and millions of good, secure jobs gone; NAFTA was just the beginning of the carnage as more and more “free” trade treaties have been passed.

China is NOT Our Friend

“If you believe that China is our “friend”, then you have been deceived. While U.S. politicians, the mainstream media and the U.S. military may consider China to be a “friend” and a “partner”, the Chinese see things very, very differently. As you will see below, documents produced at the highest levels of the Chinese government make it abundantly clear that China considers the United States to be a mortal enemy.”

Damn those members of the Outlaw Congress who granted MFN (Most Favored Nation) trade status to our mortal enemy, communist China. They scheme to financially ruin us while smiling for photo ops. They ship us products that make Americans sick if not kill them and our pets. It is the intention of Communist China to destroy the U.S. while the American people continue to throw buckets of money at them by buying the cheap crap they ship here. STUPID Americans who sell property and businesses to communists in China. All for filthy lucre while selling out their own country. Read the articles below:

• Meet Your New Boss: Buying Large Employers Will Enable China To Dominate 1000s Of U.S. Communities http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/meet-your-new-boss-buying-large-employers-will-enable-china-to-dominate-1000s-of-u-s-communities.

• Why China can’t be trusted – the view from a former top secret military planner, stealth pilot http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/11/11/why-china-cant-be-trusted-view-from-former-top-secret-military-planner-stealth/.

In September of this year, the deal closed: Smithfield Foods was sold to the stinking commies. An American icon pork producer now owned by our mortal enemy:

“The purchase of Smithfield was the largest Chinese investment in a U.S. company, with the deal valued at $7 billion, including $4 billion in cash. Shuanghui will now have access to food science secrets that were proprietary to Smithfield Foods. It can use this technology to directly impact competition with other U.S. food companies.”

The ONLY way to send a clear message is to BOYCOTT Smithfield Foods from this day on. Don’t buy any product with their name on it. I’m sorry for the people who work for Smithfield, but we must stop the communists from getting an even bigger foothold in OUR country.

NEXT WEEK: WHAT AMERICANS DON’T UNDERSTAND BUT SHOULD: TRADE DEFICITS.

Edward Snowden is a patriot

by Anthony D. Romero
Executive Director, ACLU

As a whistleblower of illegal government activity that was sanctioned and kept secret by the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government for years, he undertook great personal risk for the public good. And he has single-handedly reignited a global debate about the extent and nature of government surveillance and our most fundamental rights as individuals.

Monday’s court ruling declaring the NSA surveillance program unconstitutional highlights the irony of the government’s prosecution of Snowden. For more than 12 years, the ACLU has raised concerns about the massive changes occurring in our democracy: the rubber stamping of expansive surveillance powers by the judiciary, the clandestine nature of programs that invade the rights and lives of millions of Americans with virtually no oversight, and the quiet acquiescence of a public that believed that individuals had nothing to fear if they had done nothing wrong.

That was true until Snowden awakened the American people – and others across the globe – from complacent lethargy. For his actions, Snowden should be applauded, not vilified. He should be granted full immunity from prosecution. And he should be allowed to resume his life in the United States as a proud American citizen.

Let’s unpack the arguments that are surely rifling through many Americans’ minds as to why Edward Snowden should not be granted immunity and allowed to return home.

First, many thoughtful observers note that Snowden has revealed important facts about an otherwise clandestine program, but wonder why he took it upon himself to bring his evidence to journalists rather than to Congress or the executive branch. The simple answer is that Snowden was too smart to expect real results from the “official” channels. Since September 11, 2001, Congress and the courts have failed miserably at providing constitutional oversight. When the New York Times finally found the courage to expose the earlier NSA spying program in 2005, Congress responded by legitimizing and extending this illegal program through the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. The courts proved little more vigorous in their willingness to serve as a meaningful check on such surveillance programs. Two different lawsuits brought by the ACLU – one in Detroit and one in New York that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court – were dismissed because it was impossible to prove that our clients were in fact targeted by these secret government surveillance programs. Absent such proof, which the government was never going to provide, no American would be in a position to challenge the government surveillance programs. As 1Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Solicitor General Don Verilli in our Clapper litigation: “General, is there anybody who has standing?” In disclosing these documents Snowden took the patriotic route, knowing that nothing short of public release would get the attention of the American people, our government and our allies. He didn’t turn to the normal, government channels to raise his concerns of illegal government activity because he knew that others had used those channels and failed. Fortunately, both the courts and Congress seem to have renewed vigor in looking into the constitutionality of NSA surveillance – but such vigor is a direct result of Snowden’s revelations.

The second argument against immunity goes something like this: “He was employed by the government. He knew he was breaking the law. He should have stayed home and faced the music if he was truly well-intentioned.” If Snowden had stayed in Hawaii after his first revelations became public, the government would have arrested him that very day. The laws that are being used against Snowden do not distinguish between patriotic whistleblowers and foreign agents. It would be a true miscarriage of justice if the government succeeded in imprisoning for life a person who revealed unconstitutional government conduct. Snowden would surely have been subjected to “special administrative measures” and would have been prevented from working with the journalists or engaging the broader public debate. Snowden knew that he couldn’t stay in the U.S. and ignite the public debate that he felt was missing – so he forsook his homeland to further American democracy.

A third argument – often read in The Wall Street Journal editorial pages – questions the authenticity of his motivations by the countries in which he received refuge. If Snowden were such a true believer in democracy, he would never have traveled to China or Russia. That argument fails to recognize the massive power of the American government to lean on other governments to repossess one of its most wanted. Recall the full court press that the American government made through the efforts of President Obama and Secretary Kerry to ensure that Snowden had no other door except one to an American federal prison. Even those countries that have voiced outrage at the NSA surveillance of their leaders and citizens – Germany, Brazil, Mexico – have failed to offer political asylum to the man who uncovered it. Their hypocrisy and capitulation to American diplomatic strong-arming left Snowden with little recourse but to receive help from governments that may have their own agendas in housing someone wanted by the United States.

Spanish-language films fail to advance in Oscar race

by the El Reportero’s news services

Pope Francis.Pope Francis.

Spanish-speaking countries’ hopefuls for a Foreign Language Film Oscar have been eliminated from the race for the statuette.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Friday unveiled a list of nine features that advanced to the next round of voting in that category.

Those films are: “The Broken Circle Breakdown” (Belgium), “An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker” (Bosnia Herzegovina), “The Missing Picture” (Cambodia), “The Hunt” (Denmark), “Two Lives” (Germany), “The Grandmaster” (Hong Kong), “The Notebook” (Hungary), “The Great Beauty” (Italy), and “Omar” (Palestine).

The list will later be narrowed down to five nominees, to be announced on January 16.

Among the films that were part of an initial list of 76 films but which have now been eliminated were Spanish-language entries from Argentina, Colombia, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Spain and Uruguay, as well as Brazil’s submission.

The Chilean film “No,” directed by Pablo Larrain, made the shortlist of five Foreign Language Film nominees at the last Academy Awards ceremony in February, although the statuette was awarded to Michael Haneke’s “Amour.”

The 86th edition of the Oscars will be held on March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

U.S. man wins picasso drawing valued at $1 million in raffle

A U.S. man paid 100 euros ($140) to enter an online raffle to raise funds for preservation efforts in Tyre, Lebanon, and wound up winning a Picasso drawing valued at $1 million.

The 1914 work “L’homme au Gibus” (“Man with Opera Hat”) was raffled off Wednesday evening among almost 50,000 people who participated in the drawing, and organizers collected some 5 million euros (about $7 million) for the preservation project, the promoter of the initiative, Peri Cochin, told Efe.

The winner of the Picasso was Jeffrey Goinviernonano, 25, an employee at a fire sprinkler firm in Pennsylvania.

Cochin, a French-Lebanese television host and producer, took two years to transform his idea – to buy a Picasso to raffle off and collect funds for the city of Tyre – into a reality.

The drawing was held at the Paris headquarters of Sotheby’s.

Getting to this point was “very difficult,” Cochin said, noting that it took him two years to obtain the necessary official authorization.

Olivier Picasso, the grandson of the Spanish artist, “helped us a lot in the promotion of the opera tion, because he found that the project was interesting and very innovative, just as his grandfather would have liked” and eventually Picasso’s heirs gave their official authorization to the effort, Cochin said.

Pope Francis documentary becomes Amazon Bestseller

A recent documentary on Pope Francis, “Francis: The Pope From The New World,” has become a bestseller on Amazon.com and at one point ranked number four in the documentary category.

“This documentary arrives as the world realizes that a very special man has assumed the leadership of the Catholic Church, and this begins — but does not end — with his gestures of humility and care for everyone,” Carl Anderson, an executive producer of the documentary, said Dec. 17.

Anderson said many of the details of the Pope’s life “remain largely unknown to the public,” including “the ways in which he has defended the voiceless and Catholic principles.”

“This documentary delves into those stories,” he said.

Pope Francis, formerly Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, is the first Pope from the Americas and the first Jesuit elected to the papacy. He has long been an advocate for those struggling economically, including those who lived in the slums of Buenos Aires. He also helped protect those endangered in Argentina’s Dirty War.

The documentary includes interviews with the Pope’s close friends, his fellow priests, his co-workers, his biographer, and the poor of Buenos Aires. It covers his personal life, including his family relations and his support for the San Lorenzo soccer team.

It also addresses how his work sometimes drew opposition from Argentina’s political elites.

The online retailer Amazon.com has had to reorder DVDs of the movie several times because it ran out of stock. It is presently selling the English-language DVD for $14.96. The DVD is also available in Spanish.

The documentary has been broadcast on U.S. cable television, and Mexican broadcasts are planned.

Mittens and Mistletoe: A Winter Circus Cabarat

Compiled by the El Reportero staff

An scene of the Cuban film Santiago, Santiago.An scene of the Cuban film Santiago, Santiago.

Sweet Can Productions is proud to announce the 4th Annual Mittens and Mistletoe: A Winter Circus Cabaret! Now a holiday tradition, ‘Mittens’ is back with more comedy, music, spectacular circus feats, and holiday high jinks. This year’s cast includes veterans from Teatro Zinzanni, Circus Bella, Vespertine Circus, The Pickle Family Circus, and will be hosted by Bay Area performing legend, Joan Mankin.

Come see the holiday show that everyone will love.

Friday, Dec. 20 and 21 at 8 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 22 at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., Monday, Dec. 23 at 2 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 24 at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Tickets $15-$60. www.brownpapertickets.com. Produced by Sweet Can Productions presents.

San Jose Jazz High School All Stars

Now in its 15th season, the 2013-14 San Jose Jazz High School All Stars feature some of the Bay Area’s most gifted young musicians. Representing 10 high schools and led by Dr. Aaron Lington, the audition-based big band challenges students to gain a mastery of improvisation techniques while advancing their knowledge of music theory, arranging, composition, performance, and Jazz history.

This will be one of the first concerts with the 2013-2014 High School All Stars.

Friday, Dec.20, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. Free Admission.

Cuba, the island time forgot

Discover the Real Cuba: The island time forgot. Where a rich home-grown culture thrives free of the Commercialized

World of American Mass Media!

In over 50 years since the revolution, Cuba’s isolation has allowed the culture to evolve on it’s own. In 2011, filmmaker Warren Haack went to Cuba on a lark to experience the music and ended up falling in love with the culture. He returned to film this indepth look at the music, dance, religion and everyday lives of the people; in the streets, homes and clubs where life throbs to a distinct, captivating rhythm.

The film features over 12 music groups performing and dancing. Images of everyday life are woven into the music. Although the cars may be old fashioned, the music is revolutionary because it creates new genres by the fusion of styles that the originators had never envisioned.

Tiburon Film Society will present “Santiago is Santiago” at the Bay Model located at 2100 Bridgeway in Sausalito on Tuesday, January 7, 2014 @ 6 PM.

Afro-Latin Percussion Ensemble at CSM

If you love Afro-Cuban and Afro-Latin music and would like to learn the techniques and history of the conga drum this is the class for you. Taught by respected Bay Area musician and historian, seven-time Grammy nominee, SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director and 2012 San Francisco Latino Heritage Arts Awardee, John Santos, this is a beginning/intermediate class.

No prior music training is required.

Enrollment is quick and easy and is OPEN NOW for a limited time!!!

Simply go to the College of San Mateo website collegeofsanmateo.edu, click on future students and follow the directions on how to enroll.

Mus. 231 Afro-Latin Percussion Ensemble

Spring semester at the College of San Mateo (CSM). Thursdays 3:25 to 6:00, Jan. 16 through May 23, 2014. Taught by John Santos

Nominal community college registration fee allows access to nearly all classes offered at the college throughout the semester!

More airports set to install TSA ‘detention pods’

Devices that critics liken to cattle grids have biometric capabilities

A man is let go after the green light of the TSA detention pod. (PHOTO BY DAILYPAUL.COMit)

by Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com

A new Transportation Security Administration directive that mandates airports provide security for terminal exits is likely to lead to the installation of more ‘detention pods’ which have the capability of subjecting travelers to biometric scans.
“Airports across the country have sued to block a new Transportation Security Administration directive that requires them, starting Jan. 1, to begin guarding exit security doors, as passengers leave flights and head for baggage claims,” reports the Associated Press.
The article notes that in order to comply with the regulation and save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in staffing, airports may follow the example set by Atlantic City International, which has “installed five cylinder-shaped glass exit portals since 2009.”

These ‘detention pods’, which temporarily hold a traveler inside the portal until a green light and a voice command signals that the person can leave, have been compared to cattle grids by critics who see them as another way in which travelers are treated as prisoners inside the airport. According to Karen De Coster, the pods are a way “to remind you that you are a captive” and are “meant to make you feel like a prisoner who cannot leave.”

The detention pods, which are also in place at Syracuse International Airport, “were designed and approved by TSA,” according to Syracuse Airport Commissioner Christina Callahan.

Travelers have expressed confusion at the necessity of the pods. “I don’t understand those doors,” Cindy Katz, of Jupiter, Fla. told the Boston Globe. “What are they supposed to do? It slows everyone down.” The article also notes how some are concerned about “being scanned somehow while closed inside.”

Mindy Carpenter, who was waiting for friends to arrive at the airport complained, “It just took so long for the four of them to come through.”

The report adds that the detention pods “could be the wave of things to come,” and that their manufacturer, Eagle Security Group, is currently in talks with other airports.

As we previously highlighted, although the devices currently in use do not (at least publicly) utilize any kind of scanning technology, the pods do have biometric and object-detecting capabilities, meaning in the future Americans could face yet another stifling level of security simply to leave the airport.

A video demonstration of the devices shows a user biometrically scanning his fingerprint before he is allowed to leave the containment area.

“The identity of the user is guaranteed via fingerprint, iris or facial recognition scans before they are allowed to complete their passage from non-secure to secure areas. The Eagle ACP (Access Control Portal) with integrated biometrics of your choice is a complete solution,” states the company’s website.

In other international news:

Russia warns America ‘We will respond with nukes’

Deputy PM says Moscow “preparing a response” to U.S. plans for missile shield in Europe

by Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com

Addressing the threat posed by plans by the United States to install a missile defense system in Europe, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin today asserted that Russia would respond with nuclear weapons if it was targeted by conventional American missiles. Rogozin’s comments arrive just a day after President Vladimir Putin called on Russia to upgrade its weapons systems in order to repel U.S. plans to institute the EPAA missile shield in Europe, which is ostensibly designed to counter Iran’s nuclear build-up yet is also firmly pointed at Russia. Asserting that Russia was “preparing a response” to the U.S. missile defense system, Rogozin warned, ver.” (Naturalnews.com).

“They may experiment with conventional weapons on strategic delivery platforms, but they must bear in mind, that if we are attacked, in certain circumstances we will of course respond with nuclear weapons.”

The Obama White House has refused to mothball plans for the missile defense shield despite the Bush administration initially signaling it would be scrapped. Although Washington has indicated it will abandon long range missiles, medium-range interceptors will be installed in Redzikowo, Poland by 2018. Moscow still fears that NATO powers are using Iran as a camouflage for the true target of the missiles – Russia’s strategic nuclear forces.

Russia ha sit self been working on new Yars (SS-29) Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles that have the capability of penetrating U.S. missile defenses and are set to be added to Moscow’s nuclear arsenal next year. Russia is currently engaged in the largest military build-up since the cold war, including the development of a new missile defense radar in southern and western Russia designed to counter missiles launched from Europe, as part of maneuvers which pose, “a strategic threat to the United States and NATO allies,” according to US military officials.

Earlier this summer, Russia staged its biggest military exercise since the cold war in order to ascertain the readiness of putting intercontinental ballistic missiles on “high-alert” within a short time frame.

The drill was swiftly followed by NATO’s biggest drill since the cold war, an exercise that was based around NATO’s response to a simulated invasion of Poland by a “foreign power.”

The two drills coincided with Japanese fighters being forced to intercept Russian bombers that were practicing attacks on U.S. bases in the western Pacific. A heightening of tensions between the U.S. and Russia would dovetail with the threat of a new arms race in Asia between Japan and China in response to the crisis surrounding the disputed Senkaku Islands.