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Sergey Lavrov
Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2014-11-22 20:50:00 Comment: On the heels of the publication of President Putin's lengthy interview with ITAR-TASS (which rivals the 14-year-old First Person interviews in terms of their scope and candidness), the Russian Foreign Ministry has published an important speech given by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the XXII Assembly of the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy, given last week. Here's what the Saker had to say about it:
I'm happy to be at this annual Assembly of the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy (Russian abbreviation SVOP). It is always a great pleasure for me to meet people and feel the intellectual potential, which enables the Council, its leaders and representatives to respond to global developments and analyse them. Their analysis is always free from any hysteria, and its members offer well-grounded and solid arguments, taking a step back, since those caught in the midst of events can hardly adopt an unbiased perspective. We are inevitably influenced by the developments, which makes your observations, analysis, discourse and suggestions even more valuable to us. | |
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Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg 2014-11-25 10:39:00
While I haven't covered the topic of drones very much as of late, it was a core topic at Liberty Blitzkrieg several years ago. The most recent, relevant piece I published on it was during the summer of 2013 and titled: The Truth About Drones. Here's an excerpt: I strongly believe that the reason so many Americans blindly support the widespread use of drones is due to the mistaken belief that they are precise and result in few civilian casualties. It's important to get some of the facts out to the public in order to have a more informed debate on the matter. | |
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Aeneas Georg
The merchants of death and destruction in the US are still itching for a fight with Russia, and they're willing to sacrifice as many Ukrainians as necessary to do so. Things have not exactly gone their way however. In contrast to US puppet Poroshenko's claim that the so-called 'anti-terrorist operation' would be over in a matter of weeks, the rebels of Dontesk and Luhansk have so far successfully repelled all attempts by Kiev's neo-Nazis to bludgeon them into submission. As is usual in cases where the US is waging a proxy imperial war in someone else's country and the plan isn't going as expected, top US officials have flown in to Ukraine for 'attaboys' to get things moving.Sott.net 2014-11-25 11:34:00
Last Thursday, US vice-president Joe Biden made his third call to Kiev in seven months to meet his So what did daddy Biden say in Ukraine: Yes, the US is so generous,don't you think? $23 million in further assistance to the Ukrainian government, which will undoubtedly go to the war effort. That the US stole the best part if not all of Ukraine's 42 tons of gold back in March is of course a minor issue, something that the Ukrainian people will only be to happy to give. And who needs gold in the life hereafter, a place/condition that the US is doing its level best to achieve for every Ukrainian. If any of the previous visits by top officials is an indicator, then this can only mean an escalation of the war, which despite the supposed ceasefire has continued with daily Ukrainian bombings of civilian targets ever since. The US has not officially given lethal aid, but it doesn't have to, since its compliant puppets in NATO countries such as Poland and Lithuania are more than willing to supply it on behalf of the US. Lithuania just agreed to supply Ukraine with weapons and training. The empire of chaos is like a Lernaean Hydra, that pops up two more heads for every one cut off. In this case, since there was no official US backing for the supply of lethal arms to Ukraine, up pop the puppets AND the CIA to the rescue, just like in Syria where the CIA and NATO puppet Turkey supplied the Syrian rebels aka ISIS with heavy weapons and training. The script is the same every time, with just a few minor changes. So has Poroshenko been encouraged by recent signals from the West, including the outrageous vote by the US to not fight Nazi ideology? It appears so. The OSCE have reported movement of the Ukrainian army's Uragan launch rocket systems in the security zone in eastern Ukraine. These are serious heavy weapons (220mm) and according to the defunct Minsk agreement all heavy weapons should be moved out of the security zone...not into it. Poroshenko also made a speech less than two weeks ago that made it clear that he understood the signals. He showed complete and utter disregard for the ordinary people of Donbass. Talk about winning hearts and minds! It is easy for billionaire oligarch Poroshenko to sacrifice the population of Ukraine, as he himself can, at any time, scurry off to a cushy palace on the French Riviera, while the Ukrainian people suffer hunger, cold and instability under the onslaught from Poroshenko and NATO's Nazi stormtroopers. The Ukrainian government have directly targeted the civilian population, through shelling, cutting of pensions, bombing of infrastructure such as power stations, water purification plants, bridges and the like, shelling hospitals, schools, residential buildings, use of phosphorous bombs and cluster munitions. The list of war crimes goes on and the Western presstitute mass media remains not only silent about it, they actively support the fascism on display in Ukraine, by willfully turning a blind eye to these war crimes and Kiev's reign of terror. | |
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Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
Global Research 2014-11-22 18:59:00 Comment: As Putin said earlier this year: "Do you remember the joke: 'Whatever Russians make, they always end up with a Kalashnikov?' I get an impression that whatever Americans touch they always end up with Libya or Iraq." The world is faced with a choice: will we continue to live in a world dominated by one global superpower, which uses threats, terrorism, demands, and war to secure its hegemony and which sees other states as either vassals or enemies, or will we choose a system based on mutually-agreed-upon laws, cooperation, and diplomacy?
In 2011, as the entire world watched the Arab Spring in amazement, the US and its allies, predominantly working under the banner of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), militarily overran the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. The peaceful civilian protesters they claimed to be intervening to protect were not really what the US and its cohorts presented to the world. Many of these so-called "protesters" were armed, and when this became apparent they eventually began to portray themselves as "rebel forces." These so-called "rebels" in Libya were not a military force that emerged spontaneously for the most part, but an insurgency movement cultivated and organised before any opposition activities were even reported in Libya.
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John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute 2014-11-24 19:11:00
Should police officer Darren Wilson be held accountable for the shooting death of unarmed citizen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9, 2014? That the police officer was white and his victim black should make no difference. In a perfect world, it would not matter. In an imperfect world such as ours, however, racism is an effective propaganda tool used by the government and the media to distract us from the real issues. As a result, the national dialogue about the dangers of militarized, weaponized police officers being trained to act like soldiers on the battlefield, shooting first and asking questions later, has shifted into a largely unspoken debate over race wars, class perceptions and longstanding, deep-seated notions of who deserves our unquestioning loyalty and who does not. Putting aside our prejudices, however, let's not overlook the importance of Ferguson and this grand jury verdict. Tasked with determining whether Wilson should stand trial for Brown's shooting, the grand jury ruled that the police officer will not face charges for the fatal shooting. However, the greater question - whether anything will really change to rein in militarized police, police shootings, lack of accountability and oversight, and a military industrial complex with a vested interest in turning America into a war zone - remains unanswered. Ferguson matters because it provides us with a foretaste of what is to come. It is the shot across the bow, so to speak, a warning that this is how we will all be treated if we do not tread cautiously in challenging the police state, and it won't matter whether we're black or white, rich or poor, Republican or Democrat. In the eyes of the corporate state, we are all the enemy. This is the lesson of Ferguson. | |
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Sputnik
2014-11-25 16:56:00
Despite earlier claims that US had no intention of supplying Ukraine with weapons, a recent leak of government documents has revealed plans to supply weapons to Kiev. The leak was published online by Ukrainian hackers group CyberBerkut. The Ukrainian hacker group CyberBerkut published on Tuesday documents showing, in particular, that the Ukrainian military are receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from Washington. According to the hackers, the information was obtained during the visit of US Vice President Joe Biden to Ukraine last week, when they were able to access confidential State Department documents via a mobile device of a US delegation member. "After examination of just a several files there is the impression that the Ukrainian army is the branch of US Armed Forces. The volume of US financial assistance amazes with its scale. They also show the highest level of degradation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Besides, thousands of dollars go on personal accounts of military personnel and used by certain officers in personal needs. What will the American taxpayers say?" the statement published on the official CyberBerkut web page said. Other documents published by the hackers indicate that Washington is ready to supply Ukraine with "400 units of sniper rifles, 2,000 units of assault rifles, 720 hand grenade launchers, nearly 200 mortars and more than 70,000 shells for them, 150 stingers and 420 anti-tank missiles." The United States said earlier that it had no intention of supplying Ukraine with lethal weapons. Comment: Intention leaves open the possibility that covertly something might be done against the intention. Click here to see the full list of US military aid to Ukraine (English transcript included). | |
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Corey Schink
Sott 2014-11-24 14:14:00
On October 21st, 2001, America invaded Afghanistan under the false pretext of waging a "War on Terror". They toppled the Taliban government, itself a reaction to the mujahadeen America had placed in power to fight the Soviets, placed their puppet Karzai in power, and chaos has ensued ever since. Due to the chaos, pathological individuals have had a heyday in the production and selling of drugs, constant bombings, and the inability of the central government to enforce the rule of law across the country. The most recent developments in the country continue to reek with the involvement of "Secret Teams" using the chaos to play their pathological games with the people of Afghanistan. | |
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The James Petras Website
2014-11-20 00:00:00
Introduction: There are clear signs that a major war is about to break out in Ukraine: A war actively promoted by the NATO regimes and supported by their allies and clients in Asia (Japan) and the Middle East (Saudi Arabia). The war over Ukraine will essentially run along the lines of a full-scale military offensive against the southeast Donbas region, targeting the breakaway ethnic Ukraine- Russian Peoples Republic of Donetsk and Lugansk, with the intention of deposing the democratically elected government, disarming the popular militias, killing the guerrilla resistance partisans and their mass base, dismantling the popular representative organizations and engaging in ethnic cleansing of millions of bilingual Ukraino-Russian citizens. NATO's forthcoming military seizure of the Donbas region is a continuation and extension of its original violent putsch in Kiev, which overthrew an elected Ukrainian government in February 2014. The Kiev junta and its newly 'elected' client rulers, and its NATO sponsors are intent on a major purge to consolidate the puppet Poroshenko's dictatorial rule. The recent NATO-sponsored elections excluded several major political parties that had traditionally supported the country's large ethnic minority populations, and was boycotted in the Donbas region. This sham election in Kiev set the tone for NATO's next move toward converting Ukraine into one gigantic US multi-purpose military base aimed at the Russian heartland and into a neo-colony for German capital, supplying Berlin with grain and raw materials while serving as a captive market for German manufactured goods. An intensifying war fever is sweeping the West; the consequences of this madness appear graver by the hour. | |
Comment: A horrific and impossible situation set up by the U.S. via NATO - who have no compunction about destroying the lives of many thousands of innocent people in order to accomplish its ultimate goals of decimating Russia (and, ultimately, other large swathes of Asia like China.) Mr. Petras is correct in referring to President Putin's statement about not being able to stand by and allow such a massacre without doing anything. But the question is what? Damned if he does: He'll be demonized even further by the bought-and-paid-for main stream media; piling on more justifications for more punitive actions towards Russia. Damned if he doesn't: He'll have NATO breathing down Russia's neck with such a strategic foothold, and will have an even bigger humanitarian crises in the form of many killed and displaced ethnic Ukraine-Russians. Hopefully, Putin has some cards up his sleeve that he can use to prevent or neutralize the effects of the planned carnage.
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F. William Engdahl
While Western mainstream media concentrates attention on the emissions agreement signed by US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi at the recent APEC Beijing Summit, Russia's Putin and China's Xi quietly signed major new energy agreements that will have enormous geopolitical significance in bringing about the very nightmare that US strategists such as Zbigniew Brzezinski warned about way back in 1997 when America seemed indomitable as sole Superpower.New Eastern Outlook 2014-11-24 23:36:00 The impetus, ironically, to the array of strategic Russia-China deals are the very economic and financial sanctions the rather stupid strategists at the US Treasury and National Security Council devised to "punish" Putin beginning last May for allegedly "invading" Crimea. China to be Russia's major gas customer On November 9 in meetings on the periphery of the Beijing APEC summit, Putin and Xi signed 10 agreements. Far the most significant is the one for the so-called West Route gas pipeline that will connect gas fields in western Siberia with northwest China through the Altai area of Xinjiang Autonomous Region. They also agreed on provisions for possible second and third sections to be added later that would bring capacity to a staggering 100 billion cubic meters a year. West Route is designated a priority and to be finished in six years. Initially it will give China another 30 billion cubic meters of gas annually over 30 years. |
Comment: Blindness to consequences is the very essence of psychopathy.
It's tempting to think the Western leaders are consciously plotting to create the maelstrom of chaos we see in the world today, but that's not exactly the way it is. Each intervention, from Afghanistan and Iraq (overt), to the numerous covert CIA-sponsored "color revolutions", and the rise of ISIS, was assumed to be a completely controllable situation. Now each of them is individually spinning out of control, and the interplay between these situations is ramping up the danger of total war by orders of magnitude. But none of this matters the the Western Imperialists. As Mr Engdahl has stated, they are seeking only to preserve the power they've accumulated. It was all laid out in the late 1990's with the assumption that "things will unfold as they should". The psychopathic elite are in for a very rude shock. .
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The Saker
The Vineyard of the Saker 2014-11-25 00:58:00 Comment: "So the quest is on for a criteria, a worldview, a unifying ideology which would allow Russians to separate the good from the bad and, hopefully, keep the good." The Saker poses this question at the end of the interview that follows (the original English of an interviewconducted by Anacronista of Controinformazione in Italy. The answer is simple, and somewhere in the KGB archives is probably just waiting for someone to read it and understand it: Political Ponerology. It's simply not true to see every single Russian leader for the past 300 years as all good. And it's certainly not helpful to see only a history of corruption and oppression. But the solution is rather simple: For 300 years, Russia has been the playground of psychopaths. Yet the majority of Russians - the ordinary people - have shown themselves to be resilient. They have suffered the worst, survived, and are now poised to be the example the world needs. They have broken out of the cycle of pathocracy (a cycle the West is entrenched in - the root of the 'civilizational conflict' the Saker speaks of below). And we can all learn something from that. If we don't, we can simply continue to suffer the same oppression.
Anacronista: Today the contrast between Russian and US foreign policies is striking: on one side moderation, common sense, respect for sovereign states; on the other side coups d'etat, threats, sanctions and lies. Is the contrasting behaviour of the two powers due to incidental political calculations or to a different underlying view of life? The Saker: The first thing to point out is that Lavrov and Putin are extremely well educated menwho come from elite institutions: Lavrov from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Putin from the former external intelligence directorate of the KGB. They are far better educated that modern US diplomats. In the past the US also had distinguished diplomats like James Baker, but now they are either total idiots (like Psaki) or arrogant liars (like Powers). The second thing is that the USA truly does not have a "diplomacy". After all, US "diplomacy" is just a combination of demands, promises, threats and bombings which do not require any real diplomatic skills. Third, Russia has greatly suffered from the costs of empire, both under the Czars and under the Soviet rule. As a result, Russia does not want to be an empire, or a super power, or a world policeman or a hegemon. All Russia wants is to be a *normal* but, and this is important, a *truly sovereign* country. In order to achieve that Russia has a few basic fundamental rules she really believes in: | |
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David Edwards
Rawstory 2014-11-24 15:48:00
An expert hired by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) argued in court that a 9-year-old girl seeking damages after she was sexually assaulted would be protected from emotional stress by her low IQ. Court documents obtained by KPCC investigative producer Karen Foshay detailed forensic psychologist Dr. Stan Katz's 2013 testimony in a trial to determine how much in damages the 9-year-old girl would receive after she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a boy at one of the district's schools. The girl reportedly had an IQ between 64 and 70, but the boy was not developmentally disabled. According to the transcripts, attorney David Ring, who represented the girl, asked Katz to explain what he meant when he said that the girl's disability "acts as a protective factor." "There's a relationship between intelligence and depression," Katz replied. "What happens is the more you think about things, you can ruminate, you can focus on things, you can look at the complexities of the matter and become less depressed." "So because she may be less intelligent than a general education student, she's going to suffer less depression because of it?" Ring pressed. "Very possible, yes," Katz insisted. He did agree that the girl would need therapy to cope with the trauma. But he said that he had interviewed the girl in 2012 - two years after the 2010 sexual assaults - and had determined that the crime was not connected to her emotional distress. Instead, he blamed her problems on a lack of a father in her life, and on her mental disability. | |
Comment: Thankfully for the 9-year old girl, the jury didn't buy the lie. They recognized that the slime-ball psychologist (and defense attorney) was blaming the victim.
Interestingly, the LA School District seems to choose legal defense teams that artfully blame the victim: Los Angeles school district fires lawyer who successfully defends them by blaming 14-year old for sexual relationship with teacher See also:
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Tom Boggioni
Raw Story 2014-11-21 20:45:00
In video captured by a bystander in a Brooklyn subway station, a New York City police officer can be seen hitting a young man in the head with his baton after the young man allegedly attempted to avoid paying the fare by jumping the turnstiles. According to PIX11 - which obtained the video - the man who filmed the altercation said the struggle began after the officer used pepper spray against the young man, identified as 20-year-old Donovan Lawson of Brooklyn. | |
Comment:
Cops terrorizing their citizens is nothing new. Just this past week in Cleveland Ohio: Apparently New Yorkers are getting fed up with psycho cops that are tasing, pepper spraying, beating, and shooting it's citizens. Police brutality reads like an epidemic these days, as it seems no city is immune. | |
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Meg Wagner
New York Daily News 2014-11-25 19:40:00
At least one person died during a night of fiery chaos in Ferguson. Police found a body inside a car parked near the Canfield apartment complex in the St. Louis suburb, close to where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot dead in August. The victim - an unidentified black male in his 20s - was shot and burned, KTVI reported. Police are investigating the incident as a suspicious death. It's not clear if he was a victim of Monday's riots, which erupted after a grand jury refused to indictofficer Darren Wilson for the August shooting death of the unarmed teenager. Furious protesters set at least 25 buildings ablaze and looted a slew of local businesses in suburb and greater St. Louis overnight Monday and into early Tuesday. The riots - which led to at least 82 arrests across the city and injured 13 overnight - were the most violent since the Aug. 9 shooting. Among the vandalized stores: Ferguson Market & Liquor, the convenience shop Brown robbed before his fatal confrontation with Wilson. "While we support everybody's right to come out and have their voice heard, we don't tolerate violence," St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said at a Tuesday press conference. He promised to increase police presence Tuesday night. Police reported hearing more than 100 gunshots throughout the night Monday, which for a time prevented crews from fighting the fires ignited by protesters. "We have been fighting approximately 25 structure fires tonight, along with a car dealership where we lost 10 cars that were burned up," Assistant Fire Chief Steve Fair told KSDK. More than a dozen of those buildings were destroyed. A Little Caesars Pizza, a butcher shop, a beauty supply store and two auto parts stores were among the businesses that were burned. Area hospitals reported 13 injures, including two gunshot wounds, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. | |
Comment: This court decision just added more fuel to the fire.
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Aeneas Georg
WOW! That didn't take long. Not three days after the Dutch National Bank announced it had managed to get 122 tons of gold back from Uncle Sam, detailed here, the leader of France's largest party, Marine Le Pen of the National Front, has demanded - via an open letter to the governor of the French central bank - the repatriation of France's gold.Sott.net 2014-11-25 16:16:00 News about this open letter is nowhere to be found on a Google news search (in French), only on the web site of Le Front National.
Yes, the mainstream media in France, just like in the US, only tells the people what it wants them to hear - usually via the 'left' and 'right' wings of the one-party oligarchial state system, cleverly presented to electorates as if they were two separate parties. Thus the puppet in France changes from Sarkozy to Hollande, just as in the US it changed from Bush 2 to Obama. Same circus, same BS! And hence no news about this important letter. Marine Le Pen asked for the full audit of all French gold, including tests for purity, quantity and where it is stored. She would like to see 20% of foreign currency reserves kept in gold, which is what the Swiss are asking for too. She also sees it as decisive for France's future and, unlike the Dutch, is fully aware that 'cold war hysteria' is being used to thwart the 'threat' of the Western countries developing economic ties with the BRICS countries. | |
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John Vibes
The Free Thought Project 2014-11-25 19:02:00
Moreauville, Louisiana - A town in Louisiana has recently voted to ban all Pit Bulls and Rottweilers, calling them "vicious breeds" of dogs. Current owners of these specific breeds have just one more month to either move out of town, or hand their family pet over to the government to be killed. While there has traditionally been heavy debate over larger breeds of dogs, in recent years the debate has began to die down, because an overwhelming majority of people now agree that like humans, a dog's temperament and personality are largely based on their upbringing and life experiences. Sadly, town officials in Moreauville, Louisiana are stuck in a very immature state of mind where they are basically prejudice against breeds of dogs. Dog owners were notified of the recent ordinance by mail, in a letter which stated that the dogs will be taken away by the local government and killed on December 1st. | |
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Kate Briquelet
East Side Community High School is teaching its students how to interact with the NYPD during stop-and-frisks. New York Post 2014-11-23 02:14:00
It's Cops 101. The principal of East Side Community HS invited the New York Civil Liberties Union to give a two-day training session last week on interacting with police. The 450 kids were coached on staying calm during NYPD encounters and given a "What To Do If You're Stopped By The Police" pamphlet. NYCLU representatives told kids to be polite and to keep their hands out of their pockets. But they also told students they don't have to show ID or consent to searches, that it's best to remain silent, and how to file a complaint against an officer. Principal Mark Federman said he brought in the NYCLU because students told teachers they had bad experiences with being stopped by police. He said the training also was relevant to history classes studying the Ferguson, Mo., shooting. "We're not going to candy-coat things - we have a problem in our city that's affecting young men of color and all of our students," Federman told The Post. "It's not about the police being bad," he added. "This isn't anti-police as much as it's pro-young people . . . It's about what to do when kids are put in a position where they feel powerless and uncomfortable." The hourlong workshops - held in small classroom sessions during advisory periods - focused on the NYPD's stop-and-frisk program and how to exercise Fourth Amendment rights when being stopped and questioned in a car or at home. | |
Comment: Comment: "As I write, I googled "videos of US police brutality" and 7,660,000 results appeared in 0.31 seconds. There are more cases of gratuitous police violence, almost always against the innocent, than a person can absorb in a lifetime. Police body slam elderly infirm people, taser cripples in wheel chairs, pepper spray, taser, and mace kids, young women, and mothers with babes in their arms. Just the other day police shot and killed a 13-year-old kid who was walking down the street with a toy rifle doing no harm to anyone. Only the goon cops regarded the 13-year-old as a threat. The goon cops simply couldn't let the opportunity pass to experience the thrill of killing a person."
Goon cops have gone wild all over America | |
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Alex Berezow
Realclearscience.com 2014-11-24 17:31:00
Recently, there has been much talk of various "epidemics" in America. The three most commonly mentioned are suicide, gun violence, and drug overdose. A close examination of the data, however, reveals two surprises: First, one of them is not actually an epidemic. Second, one of them is a much bigger epidemic than most people realize. (See chart.)
The "suicide epidemic" (red line) has received the most attention as of late. This is for good reason. At a rate of 12.54 deaths per 100,000 Americans, the suicide rate is at a 25-year high WISQARS) from 1999 to 2012, shows that the suicide rate over that period has increased by nearly 19.7%. Similarly, school shootings and other mass killings result in highly partisan debates about the "gun violence epidemic." However, the CDC data does not show that this even is an epidemic. Instead, the homicide-by-firearm rate (purple line) has been declining from a high of 4.27 per 100,000 in 2006 to 3.76 per 100,000 in 2012, a roughly 12% drop. The average American is more than three times as likely to commit suicide than to be shot and killed. The most shocking data are the deaths due to unintentional drug poisonings (green line). From 1999 to 2012, deaths by drug overdose increased from 4.00 per 100,000 to 10.54 per 100,000, a whopping 164% increase. While the suicide rate has slowly climbed over the past decade, the death rate from unintentional drug overdoses has skyrocketed. Indeed, the term "epidemic" was invented for trend lines like this. (Note: More detailed information on what exactly constitutes unintentional drug poisoning can be found in the ICD-10 under codes X40-X49.) It should be noted that accidental drug overdoses include far more people than just celebrities and gangbangers who snort cocaine and guzzle alcohol. Indeed, a substantial proportion of overdoses are with prescription drugs, such as opioids (e.g., OxyContin, Vicodin) and benzodiazepines (e.g., Xanax, Valium, Ativan). Additionally, as reported this week in an article appropriately titled "The Great American Relapse," The Economist notes that heroin is making a comeback. Deaths from heroin overdoses have doubled from 2010 to 2012 as opioid painkiller addicts forgo expensive prescription meds for cheaper heroin from the street. | ||
Comment: It's quite tragic that an increasing number of people feel as if they have no choice but to self medicate in order to live in this psychopathic world.
CDC: Prescription painkillers more lethal than cocaine and heroin combined | ||
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Bill Holter
Global Research 2014-11-25 00:00:00
It is with a deep sense of gratitude that I have had all of you as friends and associates during what has been a long war, not a good war, but a very long "financial war". As you know from these writings; this has been a war conducted by the Federal Reserve against the entire world, aided and abetted by major international banks via the manipulation of most every market on the planet. The ethics and morals our country was originally built on ...be damned! The events mentioned herein relative to the suppression of gold and silverusing dollar hegemonyas the tool indicate a major international monetary crisis is dead ahead, this is obvious. Power in the hands of the few have made massive gains for those at the top of the economic ladder while the average man has become a debt slave to the few. There are of course the laws of Mother Nature and "unintended consequences". Those at the top who intend to "rule the world" are being challenged from the East in what I believe to be almost a winner take all "war". It did not have to be this way but the "West" has forced this. | |
Comment: Paul Craig Roberts has expressed much the same, noting that the East (China/Russia) can bring an end to US Dollar hegemony quickly in just this way - breaking the West's paper manipulation of the gold and silver markets.
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BBC
2014-11-25 17:28:00
Burial workers in the Sierra Leonean city of Kenema have dumped bodies in public in protest at non-payment of allowances for handling Ebola victims. The workers, who went on strike over the issue, left 15 bodies abandoned at the city's main hospital. One of the bodies was reportedly left by the hospital manager's office and two others by the hospital entrance. The workers have now been sacked for treating the corpses in a "very, very inhumane" way, an official said. Sierra Leone is one of the countries worst affected by this year's Ebola outbreak, with more than 1,200 deaths. Kenema is the third largest city in Sierra Leone and the biggest in the east, where the Ebola outbreak first emerged in the country. The burial workers told a BBC reporter they had not been paid agreed extra risk allowances for October and November. The BBC's Umaru Fofana in Freetown says the bodies have now been taken away but the workers had refused to end their strike. | |
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David Ferguson
Raw Story 2014-11-25 17:33:00
A teen girl in Sarasota, Florida was arrested Friday and charged with running a high school prostitution ring that included girls from Sarasota High School and nearby Venice High School. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that Alexa Nicole De Armas was charged with a felony count of human trafficking of a person under the age of 18. One client was arrested, 21-year-old John Michael Mosher, who paid $40 and a bottle of liquor to have sex with a 15-year-old girl. The scheme came to light when four girls at Venice High School confessed to a school administrator that they had been approached about joining the prostitution ring. Venice Police Department Captain Tom Mattmuller told the Herald-Tribune that a third person will be arrested on Tuesday, but declined to comment further, saying the department's investigation is ongoing. De Armas is believed to have concocted the scheme over the summer as a way of making money and getting access to alcohol and drugs. She ran the business via Facebook private chat. | |
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Robert Wilonsky
Dallas Morning News 2014-11-22 17:28:00
A Richardson High School English teacher remained in custody Saturday on a charge of having an improper relationship with a student. James Quigley, who was arrested Thursday night, also has been charged with sexual assault. Police say a 16-year-old female student reported that Quigley, 34, had harassed her after he obtained her email address and cellphone number in March. According to an affidavit, investigators have copies of messages she received. The student said Quigley had threatened her and parked in front of her house "on multiple occasions for no reason," according to the affidavit. He tried to persuade her to sign a contract that promised her good grades if she would keep the messages secret, the affidavit stated. The student said Quigley did not want his wife, who is also a Richardson High teacher, to find out about the messages. | |
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Rachel Riley and Juan Esteban Cajigas Jimenez
Boston Globe 2014-11-23 17:15:00
Two suspects were arrested and charged with assault in separate incidents at Logan International Airport Saturday, State Police said, while a brief security scare was touched off when a son of former baseball player Curt Schilling left a toy grenade in his carry-on luggage. At around noon, a woman using the ladies' restroom in Terminal C reported that a naked man had fallen through the ceiling into the stall area before running out of the bathroom, State Police spokesman Dave Procopio said. The man, later identified as a 26-year-old Cameron Shenk of Boston, then assaulted an elderly man he encountered upon fleeing from the restroom, according to Procopio. "He assaulted the elderly man, bit the man on the ear causing laceration to ear, and then began choking the man with [the elderly man's] own cane," Procopio said. After a brief struggle with troopers, Shenk was taken into State Police custody. Charges against him include attempted murder, assault and battery on a police officer, assault and battery on a person over 60, and a lewd and lascivious act, Procopio said. | |
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Cherri Gregg
CBS - Philly 2014-11-21 16:05:00
Multiple sources involved in cases in Philadelphia Family Court say sheriff's deputies improperly strip-searched juveniles in both criminal and DHS custody cases who were appearing at the court for hearings earlier this week. And once court administrators discovered what was going on, they put a stop to it. According to multiple sources, juveniles in county custody for both criminal and non-criminal matters who were making courtroom appearances at the new Family Courthouse, at 15th and Arch Streets, were first strip-searched by sheriff's deputies as a security measure all day Monday of this week and possible part of Tuesday. These sources say the searches occurred individually and in small groups, and that the juveniles were asked to remove all their clothes, to squat, and to cough. Multiple sources tell KYW Newsradio that the juveniles complained about the practice and, when court administration learned what was going on, administrative judge Kevin Dougherty put a stop to it. The new courthouse officially opened on Monday. A spokesman for Philadelphia Family Court issued a statement today that said, "On Tuesday morning of this week, in response to concerns raised by child advocates over allegations of strip searches of juveniles, the leadership of Philadelphia Family Court directed the Sheriff's Office to cease and desist all strip searches pending further notice. Today, Family Court issued new rules governing the screening and detention of juveniles that the Court developed in collaboration with the Sheriff's Office." Our sources were unable to say how many juveniles were searched and/or whether any practice of this sort was in place at the old courthouse. | |
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Sabrina Rubin Erdely
Jackie was just starting her freshman year at the University of Virginia when she was brutally assaulted by seven men at a frat party. When she tried to hold them accountable, a whole new kind of abuse began.RollingStone 2014-11-19 06:54:00
Sipping from a plastic cup, Jackie grimaced, then discreetly spilled her spiked punch onto the sludgy fraternity-house floor. The University of Virginia freshman wasn't a drinker, but she didn't want to seem like a goody-goody at her very first frat party - and she especially wanted to impress her date, the handsome Phi Kappa Psi brother who'd brought her here. Jackie was sober but giddy with discovery as she looked around the room crammed with rowdy strangers guzzling beer and dancing to loud music. She smiled at her date, whom we'll call Drew, a good-looking junior - or in UVA parlance, a third-year - and he smiled enticingly back. "Want to go upstairs, where it's quieter?" Drew shouted into her ear, and Jackie's heart quickened. She took his hand as he threaded them out of the crowded room and up a staircase. Four weeks into UVA's 2012 school year, 18-year-old Jackie was crushing it at college. A chatty, straight-A achiever from a rural Virginia town, she'd initially been intimidated by UVA's aura of preppy success, where throngs of toned, tanned and overwhelmingly blond students fanned across a landscape of neoclassical brick buildings, hurrying to classes, clubs, sports, internships, part-time jobs, volunteer work and parties; Jackie's orientation leader had warned her that UVA students' schedules were so packed that "no one has time to date - people just hook up." But despite her reservations, Jackie had flung herself into campus life, attending events, joining clubs, making friends and, now, being asked on an actual date. She and Drew had met while working lifeguard shifts together at the university pool, and Jackie had been floored by Drew's invitation to dinner, followed by a "date function" at his fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi. The "upper tier" frat had a reputation of tremendous wealth, and its imposingly large house overlooked a vast manicured field, giving "Phi Psi" the undisputed best real estate along UVA's fraternity row known as Rugby Road. | |
Comment: American society, sick to the core! See also Sex trafficking of Americans: Business in the slave trade has never been better.
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RT
2014-11-25 02:26:00
Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson will not be indicted on any charges for shooting and killing unarmed African American teenager Michael Brown, a St. Louis grand jury has decided. The grand jury's decision was announced Monday evening by Bob McCulloch, the prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County. He said that "no probable cause exists" to file any charges against Wilson. Officer Wilson potentially faced charges of first- or second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, or involuntary manslaughter. At least nine of the 12 people on the jury needed to agree to bring charges in order to indict Wilson. It's unclear exactly how that vote unfolded. In the wake of the decision, the Brown family released a statement saying: "We are profoundly disappointed that the killer of our child will not face the consequence of his actions. While we understand that many others share our pain, we ask that you channel your frustration in ways that will make a positive change. We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen." | |
Comment: Brown was unarmed. He taunted the cop. The cop shot him dead. That's about the height of it.
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| Secret History |
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Tia Ghose
Live Science 2014-11-25 18:49:00
A sculpture of a mysterious, never-before-seen Roman deity has been unearthed in an ancient temple in Turkey. The 1st century B.C. relief, of an enigmatic bearded god rising up out of a flower or plant, was discovered at the site of a Roman temple near the Syrian border. The ancient relief was discovered in a supporting wall of a medieval Christian monastery. "It's clearly a god, but at the moment it's difficult to say who exactly it is," said Michael Blömer, an archaeologist at the University of Muenster in Germany, who is excavating the site. "There are some elements reminiscent of ancient Near Eastern gods, as well, so it might be some very old god from before the Romans." [See Images of the Mysterious Roman God] The ancient Roman god is a complete mystery; more than a dozen experts contacted by Live Science had no idea who the deity was. | |
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ScienceDaily
2014-11-24 00:00:00
Biogeologists have shown how Gravettian people shared their food 30,000 years ago. Předmostí I is an exceptional prehistoric site located near Brno in the Czech Republic. Around 30,000 years ago, it was inhabited by people of the pan-European Gravettian culture, who used the bones of more than 1000 mammoths to build their settlement and to ivory sculptures. Did prehistoric people collect this precious raw material from carcasses -- easy to spot on the big cold steppe -- or were they the direct result of hunting for food? This year-round settlement also yielded a large number of canids remains, some of them with characteristics of Palaeolithic dogs. Were these animals used to help hunt mammoths? To answer these two questions, Tübingen researcher Hervé Bocherens and his international team carried out an analysis of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in human and animal fossil bones from the site. Working with researchers from Brno and Brussels, the researchers were able to test whether the Gravettian people of Předmostí ate mammoth meat and how the "palaeolithic dogs" fit into this subsistence picture. | |
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| Science & Technology |
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| Earth Changes |
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Alex Sosnowski
A storm with rain and heavy snow will cause major disruptions and delays for Thanksgiving travel on the East Coast and in the Appalachians.Accuweather 2014-11-25 15:13:00 According to AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Elliot Abrams, "In most cases, the worst time to travel in the mid-Atlantic and New England due to the storm will be on Wednesday and Wednesday night." "The best time to travel will be through Tuesday night in these same areas, with the next best time on Thanksgiving Day." Rain will initially spread northward along the Interstate-95 with snow and rain to start farther west in the I-81 corridor. However, a change to snow will take place from west to east from northern Virginia to New England. The storm will bring mostly snow to the I-81 swath in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, I-84 in southeastern New York state, as well as much of interior New England, where a general 6-12 inches of snow are forecast. In anticipation of delays or cancellations, several airlines, including US Airways, American and Delta, have announced they will waive change fees for passengers scheduled to fly into airports in the line of the storm.
Some places across the Hudson Valley and New England could even have snow totals exceeding a foot. "The storm should rapidly strengthen off the coast of New England on Wednesday night, leading to strong and gusty winds, especially near the coast," stated AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Ben Noll as he discussed the impacts in this storm scenario. | |
Comment: See video coverage courtesy of Accuweather here.
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japantoday.com
2014-11-06 20:40:00
A 74-year-old man was found dead Thursday morning at his apple orchard in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, after having apparently been attacked by a bear. Police said Kazuo Harada told his wife Wednesday night he was going out to see if there were any bear tracks near the apple trees, TBS reported. Harada's wife went to bed early and found her husband's body at 7:45 a.m. Thursday, police said. Harada's face and throat had injuries and claw marks consistent with a bear attack, police said, adding that bear tracks were found near Harada's body. Police said there have been numerous bear sightings in the area recently. Authorities said that in autumn, bears aggressively search for food before hibernating for the winter. | |
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adaderana.lk
2014-11-25 20:21:00
A father and his six-year-old son were killed after being attacked by a wild elephant in the Paludeniya area in Aralaganwila this morning, the Police Spokesman's Office. The 45-year-old victim, who is employed as a security guard at a private company in Paludeniya, was with his son at his occupation when the elephant attack took place. They were both rushed to the Dehiattakandiya Hospital with critical injuries following the attack, however were pronounced dead on admittance, police said. | |
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Marketta Davis
Pensacola News Journal 2014-11-25 18:51:00
Beach visitors were caught off guard early Monday morning to find a deceased Beaked Whale on shore near Margaritaville Hotel on Pensacola Beach. The 20-foot whale beached Sunday night, said Cassity Bromley, chief of science and resource stewardship for the Gulf Islands National Seashore. "The whale had washed up and was half buried right where the tide was coming in," said Josh Bell, a hotel employee. "They brought a bulldozer-type thing and a big tractor, dug it out, tied it up around the tail area, picked it up and took it across the beach." Bell said he works on the beach every day, and he has seen sharks and fish wash ashore but never anything like a whale. | |
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Mark Torregrossa
Mlive.com 2014-11-24 21:42:00
Ice is already starting to develop on Michigan's Great Lakes. This is the earliest ice on some of the Great Lakes in at least 40 years. According to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, on November 20, 2014, three of Michigan's Great Lakes had ice starting to form. Lake Superior and Lake Michigan were one-half percent ice covered, while Lake Huron had one percent ice. Lake Erie was not reporting any ice as of Nov. 20, 2014. Decent early season ice coverage records date back to 1973. Last Friday was the earliest date that all three Great Lakes already had ice since the better reporting of early season ice began. Lake Superior actually had ice forming on November 15th of this year. That is the earliest ice on Lake Superior in the good data set. Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron had ice 10 days earlier this year than last year. Lake Superior only had five and a half months without any ice on the lake. | |
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Erika Ferrando
KPLCtv.com 2014-11-25 15:35:00
Severe weather hit Southwest Louisiana Saturday night, but south Cameron Parish was hit quite a bit harder. Residents from Rutherford Beach to Sabine Pass woke up around 2 a.m. Sunday to thunderstorms and flooding. Many residents said it was something they've never seen before, at least outside of a hurricane. It was a storm surge without the tropical storm, an occurrence so rare that there is not a name for it. In a matter of minutes, the land was covered by water. RVs were knocked off their blocks, fences and AC units were tossed around the landscape. Authorities shut down La. 82 due to the high water and debris. Andy Patrick with the National Weather Service called the weather phenomenon extremely rare. Video | |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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BBC News
2014-11-25 20:37:00
A mysterious explosion heard across parts of Manchester and Salford remains unexplained. Hundreds of people took to social media to describe hearing a "loud bang" at about 22:30 GMT on Monday. Firefighters were called after a report in the Weaste area of Salford but later admitted they could find no evidence of a fire, or any other disturbance. Shinydan Howell posted on Twitter: "Everyone in Manchester ok? Loud bang in Salford could be anything." | |
Comment: Yet another overhead explosion to add to the list. People really should start paying attention and learn how to read the signs. Because the reality doesn't paint a pretty picture.
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| Health & Wellness |
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Sayer Ji
Greenmedinfo.com 2014-11-23 22:58:00
Deadly bacteria grow in your gut when you eat GMO food, according to a new study. A new study titled, "The Influence of Glyphosate on the Microbiota and Production of Botulinum Neurotoxin During Ruminal Fermentation," confirms a growing suspicion that GM foods tainted with the ubiquitous agrochemical Roundup are causing widespread changes in the microbiome of those who consume them, resulting in bodily changes that are believed to lead to a wide range of lethal diseases. As we reported in 2012, in an article titled "Roundup Herbicide Linked To Overgrowth of Deadly Bacteria," a growing body of research points to the world's most popular herbicide as causing dysbiosis (pathogenic alteration of gut bacteria), a condition which profoundly affects and alters the so-called holobiont, or total set of organisms plus human cells that make up our bodily constitution, and as a consequence, health. Because we depend on the proper selection and quantity of bacterial strains with which we co-evolved over countless eons, any significant disruption of the commensal ties to this microbial universe will result in a state of suboptimal functioning, ultimately leading to disease. | |
Comment: This new study is very concerning when one considers the fact that gut health is connected with the overall health of the immune system. While it is not surprising that GMO foods cause major disturbances in gut flora, research into the specific bacteria present in products like glyphosate/RoundUp, that lead to gut imbalances/toxicity, is really frightening!
Read the following articles that have been published on this topic: | |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Seppo Ilmarinen
There was recently a short article in the Guardian by Oliver Burkeman where he pondered the question of free will in the context of some studies done in the recent years. There is clear evidence that our choices are not so free as our conscious experience would tell us. Our bodily states -- like being hungry, tired or wanting sex -- can affect our fundamental beliefs and decision-making processes, therefore making us more prone to biased thinking, especially when these conditions are off balance.Sott.net 2014-11-25 17:00:00
Here Burkeman says: It's good to keep in mind that there are big holes in hard determinism and the materialistic worldview. It flies in the face of common sense, as philosopher Thomas Nagel has stated in his book Mind and Cosmos. Still it seems that our free will is somehow limited. Recent cognitive science studies have shed light on this topic and improved the understanding of how our mind works. | |
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| High Strangeness |
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Jack Brewer
The UFO Trail 2014-11-25 22:23:00 Comment: The 'Roswell slides' story is the latest ufological brouhaha making waves online. In a word, some people are claiming to have a series of slides from 1947 showing alien bodies, but have not released them. Roswell researcher Tom Carey claims to have the slides, and isplanning to release them next year (see the link for more background). Real? More COINTELPRO? We'll see (or not)!
Ross, a commenter at the 'UFO Conjecture(s)' blog, stated today in an email exchange with 'The UFO Trail' that his email and the accounts of some high profile UFO-researchers were hacked in relation to the alleged Roswell slides. Ross further stated that he believed "a three letter agency" was responsible. Ross stated that he assumed he was initially targeted due to his involvement in email exchanges about the slides. He first got involved in the saga, he indicated, about 18 months ago through reading 'UFO Conjecture(s)' and exchanging emails with its author, Rich Reynolds. "The 'hacking' thing involved Tony Bragalia, Rich Reynolds, Nick Redfern and myself," Ross wrote. | |
Comment: Nick Redfern commented on the above here:
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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