| Puppet Masters |
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John Vibes
The Free Thought Pro 2015-12-20 19:20:00
It seems that in Western countries, the people who follow the mainstream media and public school narrative have a pretty twisted outlook on how people in other countries live. They like to focus on the absolute worst things that happen in that society, and act like that defines the society. The perception is that people in non-NATO countries are primitive savages who are constantly attacking and hurting one other, but this type of behavior occurs to a certain degree in nearly every society. The mainstream western narrative does not pay any attention to the actual daily lives of the people who live in foreign countries. Instead, only they only focus on the tragedies. Just like in the US and Europe, people in the middle east, Africa, and other areas of the world have thriving music scenes, talented artists, brilliant philosophers, exceptional athletes, and children that play games similar to those played by western children. In fact, National Geographic Traveler recently named Iran as the#1 tourist destination in the world. People who live in other parts of the world have festivals and holidays and favorite foods, they also have sickness, traffic jams, and crime, just as we do. | |
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Frédéric Helbert
2015-11-18 18:04:00 Comment: This is a translation by the author, of the interview published one month and half before the Paris attacks which took place November 13 2015. The judge, specialized in antiterrorist was step down some months before the bombing. First published in Paris-Match magazine on the 30th of september... THE ALARM CRY OF JUDGE TREVIDIC
Paris-Match: Based on your experience, your knowledge of the files, everything you know, can you estimate the level of threat to the hexagon? Marc Trévidic: It has reached its maximum level, never reached before. First of all, we have clearly become the number one enemy to the Islasmic state. The French should know: France is the main target of an army of terrorists with unlimited means. We are particularly vulnerable because of our geographical location, the facility to enter our territory for all the jihadists from Europe, French or not, and because of the clear and constant will expressed by the men of Islamic State (ISIS) to hit us. Then it must be said that given the scale of the threat, and diversity of forms it can take, our anti-terrorism controls have become permeable, fallible, and it is no longer effective like it used to be . Finally, I have become convinced that men of ISIS (acronym of the Islamic state) have the ambition and the means to hit us much harder by organizing larger scale actions incomparable to those conducted so far. I say this as a technician: The darkest days are ahead. The real war that the Islamic state intends to bring to our soil has not yet begun. Why such a dark observation ? First of all, it must be understood that we have in front of us a more powerful terrorist group than ever. Much more powerful that al Qaeda during its great past. To give you an idea, Islamic state has about 30,000 « soldiers » recruited over al Qaeda members in 15 years! And it is not the end. We are indeed facing a double threat. That of the surge of what I call « human scuds » individual Jihadists who take action without much training or preparation, acting alone, with more or less success, like we've seen lately. And that the incommensurable I dread: Undoubtedly Islamic state is preparing major actions, such as those conducted in the past by al Qaeda, which have sometimes resulted in appalling slaughter. You have elements that indicate we are heading towards these type of large-scale actions? | |
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Sputnik News
2015-12-20 18:14:00
The new documentary film World Order was aired on Rossiya 1 television channel Sunday. Vladimir Putin was among those interviewed for the documentary. For your convenience Sputnik compiled best bits and pieces of the interview with the Russian president. Putin emphasized the importance of being careful when it comes to nuclear weapons, stating that although Russia has its nukes ready, it "never either swung or would never swing its nuclear club at others." "I hope no person is insane enough on Planet Earth who would dare to use nuclear weapons,"Putin said. On the issue of foreign interference into internal affairs of countries, the Russian president said a national government's drawbacks shouldn't be a reason for an intervention. "The most important thing is not to undermine legitimate governments, not to destroy their statehood even if it appears to be imperfect," the president said. "I think that no one should ever impose any values, which he/she considers to be correct, on others. We [Russia] have our own values and our own ideas about justice," Putin explained. Some countries out there have "lost a sense of reality" thinking that they could tell Russia how to conduct its politics. That isn't going to happen, according to Putin. "I guess that political nouveaux riches have lost a sense of reality... There are some countries and nations that will never accept a secondary role, a role of an occupied country or some kind of a vassal. It will end sooner or later. Soon enough, I guess," Putin said Geopolitics is an important issue the world has always faced. Putin thinks if the geopolitical struggle cannot be avoided, then it should at least be civilized, with its principles uniformly understood and supervised. | |
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Global Research
2015-12-19 16:20:00
The Federal Reserve Bank (or simply the Fed), is shrouded in a number of myths and mysteries. These include its name, its ownership, its purported independence form external influences, and its presumed commitment to market stability, economic growth and public interest. | |
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David Moberg
In These Times 2015-12-15 16:05:00
It's no wonder the Obama administration tried to keep this secret—the corporate-friendly trade agreement, decoded. In October, President Obama hailed the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as "the most progressive trade deal in history." But progressive public-interest organizations say that the final text, the fruit of seven years of secretive trade talks between the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries, dashed even their low expectations. The deal not only continues most of the troubling features of trade agreements since NAFTA but also breaks worrisome new ground. Like most recent international economic agreements, the TPP only glancingly resembles a classic trade deal, concerned mainly with tariffs and quotas. Rather, like the WTO agreements or NAFTA, it is an attempt to set the rules of the global economy to favor multinational corporations over everything else, trampling on democracy, national sovereignty and the public good. The more than 600 corporate lobbyists who had access to the draft texts used their insider status to shape the deal, while labor unions, environmentalists and others offered testimony from outside, with little impact. | |
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Sputnik
2015-12-20 16:08:00
A report compiled by an independent Norwegian oil and gas consulting firm verified earlier claims that Daesh, also known as ISIL/ISIS, smuggles most of its oil to Turkey, where it is then sold on the black market at reduced prices. After the request of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry the petroleum consulting firm Rystad Energy came up with the report back in July, using its own database and sources in the region. The Norwegian daily Klassekampen got its hands on it and leaked the details of the report on Sunday. "Large amounts of oil have been smuggled across the border to Turkey from IS-controlled areas in Syria and Iraq... Oil is sent by tankers via smuggling routes across the border [and] is sold at greatly reduced prices, from $25 to $45 a barrel," the report said, as cited by the Norwegian daily. | |
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RT
2015-12-19 17:46:00
United Nations experts have called for an end to the harassment of human right defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, calling the attacks which include physical violence and death threats "unacceptable". The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says human rights defenders in the region are being subjected to abuse, arrest, detention and harassment by the Israeli authorities and settler elements, in what is thought to be a bid to stop their work. "Amidst a charged and violent atmosphere over past months in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Palestinian and international defenders are providing a 'protective presence' for Palestinians at risk of violence, and documenting human rights violations," said the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst. Earlier this month UN human rights experts urged the Israeli government to allow for a protective space for human rights defenders to work without restriction and fear. Israeli authorities had carried out raids on the Youth Against Settlement organisation in Hebron and settlers called for its closure. "The Center has now effectively been shut down as a result of the Israeli military declaring the surrounding area a military zone," UN Special Rapporteur Makarim Wibisono said. Wibisono, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, urged the Israeli authorities to lift the military order. His statement that has been endorsed by the special rapporteur on torture and degrading treatment and the special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly. | |
Comment: The UN 'slamming' Israel and appealing to those psychopathic bottom dwellers to have some humanity has not been very effective over the years. Israel is guilty of the most heinous war crimes and has violated international law over and over without consequence. Maybe it will take a space rock slamming into the UN building or slamming smack dab on their heads?
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Sputnik
2015-12-20 16:02:00
The main purpose of the Pakistani Taliban is to overthrow the leadership of the country and establish a Sharia state. However, as reported by the media, the rebels are not going to take the oath of allegiance to Daesh. Pakistani Taliban, just like Afghanistan's Taliban, have refused to pledge allegiance to the terrorists of Daesh (Islamic State) and their leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, newspaper Dawn reported. | |
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Southfront.org
2015-12-18 00:00:00
The Arabic-language al-Masirah news website reported that the army, backed by Houthi fighters, launched a Tochka ballistic missile at the military camp in the west-central province of Ma'rib, Yemen on Friday afternoon. The casualties include the killings of a number of Saudi officers and military personnel. The website had earlier put the toll at 120. According to a Yemeni source the forces had also fired two Qaher 1 ballistic missiles at the Narjan region in southwestern Saudi Arabia. The source adds that the counterattacks came after Saudi Arabia's violation of the ceasefire. Following the truce on Tuesday, the kingdom has escalated its heavy bombing of Yemen and forces loyal to pro-Saudi Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi have overrun two towns. A Yemeni army spokesman announced that Saudi warplanes have conducted more than 300 airstrikes against Yemen since the beginning of the ceasefire. | |
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RT
2015-12-18 00:00:00
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended the planned Nord Stream-2 pipeline that would deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea. The deal is being criticized by Eastern European countries, left out of the project. "I made clear, along with others, that this is a commercial project; there are private investors," Merkel said Friday. Russia's Gazprom holds a 50 percent stake in the project. The other 50 percent is divided equally between Royal Dutch Shell, Germany's E.ON and BASF, Austria's OMV and France's Engie. In September, Gazprom signed a deal to begin construction of Nord Stream-2. It will include two new pipelines that will deliver an additional 55 billion cubic meters to the existing Nord Stream pipeline which bypasses Ukraine. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said the project would cost his country $2 billion annually in transit fees. | |
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RT
2015-12-20 15:04:00
Foreign intelligence services are increasing their activity in Russia, President Vladimir Putin said stressing that the country is ready to provide an adequate response to the challenge. Russian counterespionage services have "exposed 320 personnel and agents of secret services of foreign states as well as their accomplices," the Russian President said as he spoke to the Russian secret and security services on their professional holiday. "We see that intelligence services of some countries are intensifying their efforts... focused on Russia," Putin said expressing confidence that Russian security services "are ready to provide an adequate response to this challenge." | |
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RT
2015-12-20 14:56:00
The West is making a strategic mistake by focusing its anti-terrorist effort on Islamic State (IS. previously ISIS/ISIL) and overlooking other groups, an upcoming report claims. Sixty percent of fighters in the country can be classified as Islamists and have goals similar to IS. Those fighters belong to at least 15 other militant groups, which are mostly being ignored by the West, British media cited the Centre on Religion & Geopolitics, a think-tank run by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, as saying. Fewer than one quarter of the groups surveyed by the center had no ideological agenda, but many of them were willing to fight alongside the Islamists and accept their leadership in a post-war Syria. "The West risks making a strategic failure by focusing only on IS. Defeating it militarily will not end global jihadism. We cannot bomb an ideology, but our war is ideological," said the report, due to be published Monday, as cited by the Guardian. | |
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RT
2015-12-20 13:45:00
The US is not seeking regime change in Syria, US Secretary of State John Kerry told Russian media on a Moscow trip. However, calling the Syrian president "a magnet for terrorists," Kerry said Bashar Assad cannot stay in the country's "long-term future." Kerry was interviewed by Rossiya 24 channel during his trip to the Russian capital on Saturday between meetings with his counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Russian President, Vladimir Putin. "I am here to talk with President Putin about Syria and our need to join together to stabilize Syria; try to make peace in a way that keeps it as a whole country, and also - most importantly - also destroy Daesh (Islamic State, formerly ISIS/ISIL). Daesh is a terrorist organization, a threat to all of us. We have a common interest and we need to work together," he stressed. | |
Comment: Does the US want to see a stronger Russia in order to ramp up the anti-Russia rhetoric that they want to 'rule the world'?
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Sputnik
2015-12-20 13:20:00
Russia considers the improvement of its nuclear weapons as a deterrence and security factor, President Vladimir Putin said in a documentary aired Sunday. The US tactical nuclear weapons in Europe pose a greater threat to Russia than Russia's do to the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a documentary aired on Rossiya-1 television channel. "The United States has stationed its nuclear weapons in Europe ever since the end of WWII, after it had become a nuclear power. Right now the Americans are simply updating their nukes there." | |
Comment: Also see: Eighty years ago Edgar Cayce predicted Putin's role in stopping WW3
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RT
2015-12-20 13:24:00
Hezbollah leader Samir Kuntar, of the Palestine Liberation Front, has reportedly been killed in a "terror attack" in Damascus, Syrian state TV said, citing official sources. Hezbollah earlier backed reports that he had been killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike. Kuntar was reportedly killed in the district of Jermana in the Syrian capital, Syrian TV added. Damascus radio station Sham FM has reported that Kuntar's body was recovered from under the wreckage of the building. | |
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| Society's Child |
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UnicornRiot
In the early morning of December 15th, Denver police forced dozens of homeless community members of Resurrection Village into blizzard conditionsTrue Activist 2015-12-20 21:00:00
In the early morning of December 15th, Denver police forced dozens of homeless community members of Resurrection Village into blizzard conditions. Since their tiny homes action on Oct. 24th, Resurrection Village members have been sleeping near various unused empty lots owned by the Denver Housing Authority and had set up tents the night before to provide temporary shelter from the impending snowstorm.
Unicorn Riot was at the scene of the newly fashioned tent city and documented Denver Police threatening everyone with arrest if they did not dismantle their camp. Police arrived around 6 am in the midst of hard snowfall and brutal winds while everyone was warm, dry and sleeping.DPD then ordered the community to dismantle their tents and disperse. We were able to live stream the encounter:
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Susan Abram
Los Angeles Daily News 2015-12-19 16:09:00
The smell came from the canyons and drifted over their neighborhoods in late October, but most residents who live in the gated communities of Porter Ranch thought the northerly gusts of wind common to their area would sweep the stench of rotten eggs away. Instead, the odor persisted. It became a phantom that haunted them during their twilight jogs and on their morning walks on dusty horse trails. It was there in their dens where they watched TV and in bedrooms where their children slept. It was even there on the playgrounds of nearby elementary schools. "It was smelling really bad," said Susan Gorman-Chang, who along with her husband, George, has lived in Porter Ranch for more than 20 years. Now, the couple has chosen to leave the area. "Our neighbor called the fire department. It was that bad." The Southern California Gas Co. knew what was happening a day before the fire department was called. They knew methane was leaking from a 40-year-old well in Aliso Canyon above the Santa Susana Mountains, that it was spewing tons of gas into the air. Several days later, they informed residents through letters that the agency would plug the leak as fast as possible. Eight weeks after that call was made, the leak continues. It has caused massive disruption in the northwestern San Fernando Valley community of Porter Ranch, an affluent community of nearly 31,000 residents about 28 miles from downtown Los Angeles. More than 1,800 families have been relocated by the gas company and more than 1,000 remain on a waiting list. Some say they can't remember a displacement of residents this large since the Northridge earthquake in 1994, when 20,000 people were left homeless. Two local elementary schools have been impacted, with nearly2,000 schoolchildren and staff slated to be moved to other schools in January. Enough methane gas is being released to fill the Empire State building each day, state officials have said, and the concern has even reached the Federal Aviation Administration, which issued temporary flight restrictions over the area for small aircraft and helicopters. The gas company has apologized but has said the leak may take four months to plug and to create a relief well. "It's like the BP spill on land," said environmental activist Erin Brockovich, who was made famous by successfully battling Pacific Gas and Electric Co. over groundwater contamination in the community of Hinkley in the Inland Empire in 1996. "I've really never seen anything like this. I think the magnitude is enormous. Its like a volcano, and the gas is like the lava that can't be shut off." | |
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PINAC
2015-12-19 19:12:00
A disturbing video emerged Friday showing two Los Angeles sheriff's deputies killing a man after they had chased him for riding a bicycle while wearing headphones. The incident took place more than a year ago with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department initially telling the media that they shot and killed 23-year-old Noel Aguilar, a "known gang member," after he pulled out a gun and shot a deputy. But now a video shows the two deputies struggling to arrest Aguilar when one deputy pulls out his gun and shoots the second deputy before placing his gun back into its holster, then placing the blame on Aguilar. | |
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Bernard E. Harcourt
The Intercept 2015-12-14 17:13:00
Power circulates differently in the digital age. It's all about controlling the digital traces — collecting, mining, sharing, exposing, delaying, or erasing the data. Inevitably, some handling will occur in ordinary politics. But when the data are manipulated in order to obstruct criminal justice or steal an election, then it's no longer ordinary politics; it becomes a cover-up. With each new day, there is growing evidence of a cover-up in Chicago. First, late on Friday night, December 4, 2015, Chicago's mayor, Rahm Emanuel, released hundreds of pages of police reports from the October 2014 Laquan McDonald murder — including false statements by police officers who were at the scene of the crime. The data dump came at such a late hour that the Chicago Tribune was not able to report on the massive discrepancies between those statements and the dashcam video of McDonald's death until an article posted early Saturday morning, at 1:25 a.m., while most of the city was asleep. | |
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Nicole Bitette
Daily News 2015-12-19 17:20:00
The three Tennessee teens spared from a barrage of bullets by a heroic high school football star's death dive never had a chance to say thank you. Zaevion Dobson, 15, was dead barely an instant after jumping atop the girls, acting as a human shield after running off a Knoxville porch to surrender his young life for theirs. Survivor Faith Gordon recounted how Dobson appeared from nowhere Thursday night, and how his body laid lifelessly on top of her when the shooting stopped. "I kinda like pulled on him and I was like 'You can get up now' ... He didn't get up, so I just went upstairs, and I came back to make sure everything was real and I looked at him and he was shot in the head," Gordon told WVLT-TV. She later sent a Twitter tribute to Dobson: "You're my hero, I'll never forget you." Her pal Kiara Rucker, speaking to WVLT, echoed Gordon's praise of the heroic 10th-grade student. "If it wasn't for Zaevion, if he would have just ran off the porch, we would have probably been shot," Rucker said. | |
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Eric Draitser
Telesur 2015-12-17 00:00:00
This is not a revolution that can be undone with one election, nor can it be simply legislated out of existence. Much has been written about the outcome of Venezuela's Dec. 6 legislative elections, with many of the analyses justifiably focusing on the shortcomings of the Socialist Party (PSUV) and the difficulty of the current state of affairs in the country. Indeed, even before the political body was cold, post-mortem examinations abounded in the corporate and alternative media, with dissections of seemingly every aspect of the Bolivarian Republic's political, economic, and social life. But what these journalists and political analysts often overlook is the determination of the core of the Bolivarian Revolution, the radical base that is committed to preserving what Hugo Chavez began building more than 17 years ago. This is not a revolution that can be undone with one election, nor can it be simply legislated out of existence. This Revolution will not, as some cynics have argued, be brought down by the weight of its own contradictions, or by internal rot and corruption, or by external forces such as assassinations and economic destabilization. | |
Comment: It seems that despite the spirit that lives on in the hearts of many Chavistas, the subversion outlined above will take its toll:
See: Death of Chavismo in Venezuela: Election of right-wingers heralds privatization, pillage, and pro-Americanism as well as: | |
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RT
2015-12-20 20:20:00
The little island of Ireland occasionally gets angry when their neighbors in Britain forget about their tense history and call them British. No lesson has yet been learned - the London Film Awards has just inadvertently deemed several Irish actors Brits. Irish talents Colin Farrell, Michael Fassbender and Saoirse Ronan had been nominated by the London Film Critics' Circle in the "British Actor" and "British Actress" categories. The categories were hastily renamed to "British/Irish" on Tuesday following several complaints. British media have previously made numerous attempts to steal/mistake Irish high-achievers for Brits before. Dublin-born UFC champion Conor McGregor, who spends most of his time draped in an Irish flag and wearing green shorts, was identified by the BBC as "the first UFC champion from the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland". Irish Olympic gold-medal winning boxer Katie Taylor was also listed as British by The Daily Telegraph. Irish musician Hozier has also been called British by the BBC and Huffington Post. Oscar-winning Irish actress Brenda Fricker once famously said, "when you are lying drunk at the airport, you're Irish. When you win an Oscar, you're British." To clarify, the Republic of Ireland is not part of Britain, it has been a self-governing state since 1922. Northern Ireland, consisting of six counties in the north of the island of Ireland, remains under British rule, but the remaining 26 counties (also known as the Republic of Ireland) are not. All the celebrities mentioned are from the Republic of Ireland, making them exclusively non-British. Northern Irish examples of celebrities who blur the line include golfer Rory McIlroy who is from Northern Ireland and can compete for either Ireland or Britain in the upcoming Olympics - something sure to cause many a heated debate over a pint of Guinness in the pubs of Ireland. | |
Comment: You would think that after fighting against them for 800 years, the English would get the hint that Irish people really don't want to have anything to do with them. Imperialism and the racist, elitist mindset that it engenders, even in later generations, is a hard habit to break apparently.
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Sputnik
2015-12-20 15:57:00
According to German political magazine Cicero, European countries should take Russian President Vladimir Putin into consideration, because without him it is impossible to resolve current international crises. In one of its publications, German political magazine Cicero called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "Man of the Year". "It is impossible not to admit that Putin has managed to become a key figure in world politics", Editor-in-Chief Christoph Schwennicke wrote in the publication. "There is nothing happening without Russia. This was proved by the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program; it is now evident in the case of the Syrian war and at the Vienna talks aimed at finding a political solution to the Syrian conflict," the article said. | |
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RT
2015-12-19 21:01:00
Thousands of people have joined demonstrations in cities across Poland to protest against the new government's attempts to take control of the country's Constitutional Court in a lingering political row. The rallies against the actions of the month-old government formed by the ruling Law and Justice party were staged in more than 20 cities in different regions of Poland as well as in several cities abroad, including London, Brussels, Berlin and Tokyo, according to rally organizers. A protest in front of the parliament building in the Polish capital of Warsaw was attended by about 20,000 Poles, Reuters reported citing city officials. The protesters were waving Polish and EU flags and chanting "Stop destroying democracy!" and, "We will defend democracy, constitution and Constitutional Court!" The demonstrators were also carrying banners and placards that read "no to the dictatorship!" and "hands off Constitutional Court!"
The rally was organized by the Committee for the Defense of Democracy movement (KOD) via social networks and was supported by all major opposition parties with some politicians, including a former Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski,who attended the demonstration. Many activists from Poland's Solidarity movement, which opposed the country's Soviet regime in the 1980s also joined the protest. "We have our freedoms and we will fight in order to protect them," the founder of the KOD movement, Mateusz Kijowski, said as quoted by Germany's Tagesspiegel newspaper.
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Elahe Izadi
The Washington Post 2015-12-20 15:21:00
The number of people who have been forced to flee their homes has reached a staggering level, with 2015 on track to break previous records, according to a United Nations report released Friday. People who have been forcibly displaced — including those who fled domestically as well as international refugees and asylum-seekers — has likely "far surpassed 60 million" for the first time, reads the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees report. Last year, 59.5 million had been displaced. "In a global context, that means that one person in every 122 has been forced to flee their home," the agency said in a statement. | |
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RT
2015-12-20 13:15:00
An Air France passenger jet flying from Mauritius to Paris has made an emergency landing in Kenya after an alleged explosive device was found on board. Kenya's airports authority is referring to the device as a "bomb," saying "suspicious" passengers from the flight are being investigated.
Kenya Airports Authority said that experts have discovered a bomb on the Air France plane. "The explosive was carried away to a safe place outside the airport. Bomb experts from the Kenya Navy took the bomb away to safety," the authority said on Facebook. At least six passengers are currently being interrogated by the authorities over the suspected bomb, a police official told AP on condition of anonymity. Earlier, the Kenyan airport authority reported two people had been taken in for questioning. "There was a very big noise in the plane. Then, at some point, the plane shook a lot," Audrey, one of the passengers, told Europe 1 radio. "They [plane crew] told us... that our lives were in danger." | ||
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Sputnik
2015-12-20 12:56:00
According to Kenya airport officials, experts confirmed that the device found onboard the Air France flight 463 is a bomb. Earlier on Sunday, an Air France flight AF463 bound for Paris performed an emergency landing in Kenya's Moi International Airport after a suspected explosive devide was found in the lavatory on the plane. | |
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thelocal.it
2015-12-17 11:43:00
Disaster was very narrowly averted on Thursday after a wheel fell off a large passenger jet bound for Milan onto a Sicilian beach that is popular among summer bathers. The incident took place shortly after the Boeing 737-36 Meridiana jet took off from Catania's Fontanarossa airport at 9.28am. The jet was a direct flight bound for Milan's Linate airport, Corriere Della Sera reported. But shortly after take off, the plane experienced a severe technical fault, resulting in one of its rear wheels falling off. The wheel landed on Della Plaia beach, which was fortunately empty at the time. The beach is crowded during the summer months, during which time a similar incident would probably have resulted in tragedy. | |
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Justin Gardner
AlterNet 2015-12-19 00:00:00
During the Civil Rights movement, one of the KKK's first orders was to infiltrate police departments around the country. In 1991, a neo-Nazi white supremacist gang was terrorizing the streets of Lynwood in Los Angeles County. The reason these violent thugs could run amok was because they were deputies at the Lynwood Sheriff's station, having the power of blue privilege. A federal judge acknowledged that the gang of deputies carried out "systematic acts of shooting, killing, brutality, terrorism, house-trashing and other acts of lawlessness and wanton abuse of power." These maniacs were not the sudden appearance of a unique group of individuals among law enforcement, but the progeny of a decades-long effort by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) to infiltrate police departments wherever possible That's why it is so difficult to believe the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) when it said on Tuesday that there was no racial profiling in any of the 1,365 allegations leveled against the department from 2012 to 2014. | |
Comment: Even if the vast majority of police have no affiliations to organizations like the infamous KKK, it is clear that there is an institutionalized racism that permeates the police forces in the US that are sworn to 'serve and protect'. As the video above suggests, and as articles such as this one make clear, the very foundations of US society seem to rest on the subjugation and abuse of African-Americans. It is just that now, as the most pathological elements of our society (which have always existed to some extent or another) have been nurtured in service to the US's worst drives and modes of operation - that we see more clearly what's always been a very disturbing problem.
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William N. Grigg
The Free Thought Project 2015-12-19 05:35:00
With protesters thronging the streets of Chicago demanding police accountability and clamoring for the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the city's police union is frantically trying to destroy decades of records documenting police misconduct. As is always the case, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) sees "officer safety" as the highest priority - including protection from legal accountability. "I protect all my members, and I will continue to do that," Dean Angelo, president of the Chicago FOP,explained to CNN.
An injunction filed by the FOP insists that preserving those records violates Section 8.4 of its bargaining agreement with the City of Chicago. That provision specifies that all files of misconduct investigations and officer disciplinary histories "will be destroyed five (5) years after the date of the incident or the date upon which the violation is discovered, whichever is longer, except that not sustained files alleging criminal conduct or excessive force shall be retained for a period of seven (7) years after the date of the incident or the date upon which the violation is discovered, whichever is longer...." Once that deadline passes, the episode of excessive force or other misconduct "cannot be used against the Officer in any future proceedings in any other forum" unless it deals with a matter subject to litigation during the five year period or "unless a pattern of sustained infractions exists." This element of the bargaining agreement creates an incentive for the police department to delay, obstruct, and obfuscate investigations of misconduct and abuse complaints until the deadline expires - and to keep the process opaque to the public. "Basically, they bargained away transparency and accountability," points out Chicago University Law Professor Craig Futterman, who is fighting in court to prevent the destruction of the officer misconduct records. "In a world where an incident like [the fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald] happens and the public statements are 'Deny, deny, deny,' and then close off and circle the wagons, and then a code of silence and an exoneration at the end of the day - in that system, you cannot create public trust," Futterman explained to the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. | ||
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| Secret History |
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Alicia McDermott
Ancient Origins 2015-12-20 19:21:00
Are the symbols on the Dighton Rock Native American? Norse? Phoenician? Chinese? Portuguese? Japanese? All or none of the above? There have been numerous theories about who carved the inscriptions found on the 40-ton boulder in Massachusetts, USA. Nonetheless, no one has been able to say with certainty who first wrote on the rock, what they wanted to communicate, or why. Description of Dighton Rock The Dighton Rock is a 40-ton boulder that arrived to the Taunton River during the melting of the glaciers during the last ice age. It measures 5 feet (1.5 meters) high, 9.5 feet (2.9 meters) wide, and 11 feet (3.4 meters) long, and is made of gray-brown crystalline sandstone. What has drawn attention about the great boulder is not the size, but the petroglyphs across one of its six sides. These carvings have been the inspiration for over 1000 books and articles, and the basis for over 35 hypotheses. Although no one can say for certain who was/were the maker(s) of the inscriptions on the petroglyph, it has been agreed that they certainly are very old and very real. | |
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Garikai Chengu
Counterpunch 2015-12-18 00:00:00
Today marks the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in America and contrary to popular belief, slavery is not a product of Western capitalism; Western capitalism is a product of slavery. The expansion of slavery in the first eight decades after American Independence drove the evolution and modernization of the United States. Historian Edward Baptist illustrates how in the span of a single lifetime, the South grew from a narrow coastal strip of worn-out tobacco plantations to a continental cotton empire, and the United States grew into a modern, industrial, and capitalist economy. Through torture and punishment slave owners extracted greater efficiencies from slaves which allowed the United States to seize control of the world market for cotton, the key raw material of the Industrial Revolution, and become a prosperous and powerful nation. | |
Comment: Indeed, not much seems to have changed in the "land of the free":
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| Science & Technology |
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| Earth Changes |
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Strange Sounds
If you have ever been privy to the phenomenon of light pillars, then you know it is truly an amazing sight. They appear when the weather is extremely cold and form vertical columns of light beaming directly towards the sky. Here a compilation of pillars of light for December 2015.2015-12-20 21:15:00 They sometimes look like multiple fireballs heading to the sky:
They are created when light from the sun, moon, streetlamps, or any terrestrial source, reflects on the surface of a flat piece of ice crystal as shown in the diagram below:
When the light source is close to the ground, the light pillar appears above the floating crystals.
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Channel News Asia
2015-12-20 04:05:00
A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia early on Monday (Dec 21), the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, but no immediate damage or casualties were reported. The quake, which was relatively shallow, struck the northeastern corner of Kalimantan on the Indonesian part of Borneo island, 34 kilometres north of the coastal city of Tarakan, according to the USGS. The agency reported the quake hitting at a depth of 22 kilometres. Indonesia's tsunami warning centre said there was no potential for the quake to trigger a tsunami. There were also no immediate reports of damage. The archipelago nation sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity in the region. Last month, a 6.1-magnitude undersea earthquake struck eastern Indonesia that was felt in Saumlaki and prompted some residents to run outside, though the tremor had no tsunami potential, disaster officials said. Earlier in November, two powerful quakes struck Sumatra - an initial 6.1-magnitude undersea tremor followed hours later by a strong 6.4-magnitude quake. | |
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Ana Vicario and Sarah White
NewsDaily 2015-12-20 20:07:00
Dozens of forest fires raged across northern Spain on Sunday after strong winds hindered efforts to keep them from spreading, forcing some homes to be evacuated in the worst-affected Asturias region. More than 100 fires were still burning on Sunday morning in Asturias alone despite rain overnight in some areas, emergency services said. Television pictures showed several rural houses destroyed by fire but officials said there had been no reports of casualties or damage to villages or towns. Some residents were told to leave their houses as a precaution. Spain is prone to wildfires in summer, especially in the more arid southern regions and along its Mediterranean coastline. But such incidents are unusual in winter, especially in rainier northern regions including Asturias. | |
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Colleen Anne
LatinOne 2015-12-20 19:25:00
The rare quetzal bird, long seen as the national bird of Guatemala, is now on the verge of extinction. Reports say that the beautiful bird's numbers are dwindling at an alarming rate. There are a range of threats that pose a danger to the rare bird, including poaching and habitat loss. In a report with Fox News Latino, the endemic bird of southern Mexico and Central America, is now on the verge of extinction due to habitat loss and poaching. Sofia Solorzano Lujano, researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said that the resplendent quetzal faces a range of existential threats, such as illegal trafficking and habitat loss and forest destruction. The researcher from the institution also said that the birds have fallen prey to predators such as the green toucan, squirrels, as well as other nocturnal mammals. These predators normally attack quetzal eggs or young chicks. The researcher also added that bigger prey, like falcons and eagles, prey on the adult quetzals.
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Asia Times
2015-12-20 13:35:00
At least 22 people went missing after a landslide hit an industrial park collapsing nearly 20 buildings, including two dormitories, on Sunday in Shenzhen city of south China's Guangdong Province, rescuers said. Police received the report of the landslide at 11:40am, which took place in the Liuxi Industrial Park in Guangming New District in northwest part of the city. An area of 20,000 square meters (24,000 square yards) was covered under soil, the Ministry of Public Security's fire-fighting bureau said in an online statement. More than 700 people are searching in debris for life. Rescuers have brought four people to safety, three of them suffering minor injuries. A total of 185 firefighters, 37 fire trucks and rescue dogs have been rushed to the scene, according to the Weibo account of People's Daily.
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ndtv.com
2015-12-19 13:17:00
A moderate earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale rocked parts of Uttarakhand in the wee hours today. Epicentred in the India-Nepal border region, the earthquake occurred at 3.47 am, the MeT department in Dehradun said. As the tremors were moderate and occurred in the wee hours when people are usually asleep they were not felt by many, it said. However, a report from Chamoli said the quake shook people out of their sleep in the district. The tremors were also felt in Pithoragarh district which borders Nepal. Source: Press Trust of India | |
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Tilamook County Pioneer
2015-12-20 11:55:00
(Update) The driver of the vehicle that encountered the sinkhole early this morning was not injured. He was driving a hay truck for Jenck Farms, of Tillamook, and managed to avoid landing in the hole, but did end up with the vehicle in a nearby ditch, according to Michelle Jenck, Jenck Farms co-owner. The truck is heavily damaged. Oregon Highway 22, also known as the Three Rivers Highway or - by locals - "the Sour Grass," is closed until further notice owing to a sinkhole located about 2.5 miles east of the Dolph Junction and roughly 12 miles east of Hebo and the U.S. Highway 101 intersection. Early reports indicate the hole is roughly 5 feet wide and 4 feet deep and affects both lanes. A vehicle narrowly avoided landing in it about 1 a.m. this morning, Tuesday, Dec. 8. It is unknown at this time if the driver was injured. A detour to Grand Ronde and the Willamette Valley is available via U.S. Highway 101 south to Lincoln City, and then east via Oregon Highway 18, the Salmon River Highway. | |
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Extreme fire danger for Victoria, Australia: Temperatures soar to 45 degrees with strong north winds
Darren Gray
The Age 2015-12-19 07:07:00
Victoria will roast under temperatures tipped to soar as high as 45 degrees in the state's north-west on Saturday, with Melbourne not expecting a reprieve from the dangerous heatwave until Sunday afternoon. "Extreme" fire danger ratings have now been applied to four Victorian fire districts for Saturday, Central - which includes Melbourne and surrounds - North Central, Wimmera and South West. A further four districts are facing "Severe" fire danger conditions. A total fire ban has been declared for the whole weekend and a number of parks have been closed. Ambulance Victoria meanwhile is bracing for what could almost be a "perfect storm" on Saturday night, due to the extreme heat and the potential for people to party too hard. Higher wind speeds than were earlier expected, which could gust to 70 or 80km/h on Saturday and Sunday, have increased fire danger ratings. Melbourne is expecting a staggering 41 degrees on Saturday - an unusual peak before Christmas - with northerly winds in the morning of 35 to 50km/h. The hottest temperature for Saturday, 45 degrees, is forecast for in the Mallee including the small towns of Werrimull and Underbool. | |
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BNO News
2015-12-19 14:40:00
A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 has struck east of the city of Ovalle in Chile's Limarí province, seismologists say, with shaking felt over a large area. The earthquake, which struck at 4:25 p.m. local time on Saturday, was centered about 13 kilometers (8 miles) east of Ovalle, or 82 kilometers (51 miles) southeast of La Serena. It struck about 49 kilometers (30 miles) deep, making it a relatively shallow earthquake, according to Chile's seismological center. The earthquake could be felt over a large area, with medium intensity shaking reported in the regions of Atacama and O'Higgins. There was no immediate word about possible damage or casualties. Chile's seismological center initially put the magnitude of the earthquake at 6.2, but later downgraded it to 6.0. Chile's Hydrographical and Oceanographical Service of the Navy said the earthquake did not meet the characteristics necessary to generate a tsunami off the coast. | |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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| Health & Wellness |
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Daisy Luther
The Activist Post 2015-12-18 16:39:00
For some people, preparedness is about the big things: the well-stocked retreat home, buying yet another firearm, or getting a super-fancy generator. While these things can certainly be classified as preparedness endeavors, it isn't the expensive and dramatic gestures that make us truly prepared people. The way prepared people spend their time before an emergency is the real key to survival, and this is something that no amount of money can buy. It's the small daily habits that become an innate part of our everyday lives - habits that may not even be noticeable to someone outside the lifestyle. Real preppers, the ones you should look to for advice if you happen to be new to preparedness, are the ones who quietly conduct their daily lives with an eye towards readiness. Not only are these the qualities you should strive for yourself, but they are also the qualities that can help you to determine whether someone is the "real deal" or an armchair survivalist. | |
Comment: Also read: Are you prepping your diet?
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Kenneth Lovett
NY Daily News 2015-11-30 17:36:00
The head of the powerful Senate Health Committee has up to $130,000 in investments in pharmaceutical and other health-related companies, state records show. Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Nassau County) in 2014 invested in 14 companies that would fall under his committee's purview. By comparison, Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) did not report owning any stock in health-related companies. In addition to his investments, Hannon over the past four years also received more than $420,000 from pharmaceutical and other medical interests, records show. Hannon's office had no comment. On the part of his 2014 state financial disclosure form dealing with investments, he wrote that sales and purchases were "at sole discretion of the broker." While seemingly legal, the senator's investments and the campaign contributions he received from the medical community have raised eyebrows at a time when how Albany does business is under legal scrutiny. | |
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Erin Elizabeth
Health Nut News 2015-12-18 17:28:00
State Senator Kemp Hannon, Chair of the New York Senate Health Committee, and author of the recently passed law that will require all seventh and twelfth graders in the state to get meningitis shots, has been caught with his hand in the pot, according to the New York Daily News: specifically, the pharma pot. And to no small sum, mind you. His investments in pharmaceutical and health companies is at $100,000 while it is also being alleged that he has received more than $400,000 from the same interest groups. Hannon's investments are a direct conflict of interest and he should be charged criminally. This is an act of using your position toinfluence and write laws for the sole result of personal gain. | |
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Maggie Fox
NBC News 2015-12-09 18:55:00
A pineapple pesticide that made its way into milk in Hawaii also made its way into men's brains, and those men were more likely to develop Parkinson's disease, a new study finds. It's the latest in a very long series of studies linking various pesticides to Parkinson's, which is caused by the loss of certain brain cells. And the study also seems to support a mystifying observation: smokers seem to be protected against Parkinson's. For the study, Dr. Robert Abbott of the Shiga University of Medical Science in Otsu, Japan, and colleagues studied 449 Japanese-American men living in Hawaii who were taking part in a larger study of aging. They gave details of how much milk they drank as part of a larger survey, and they donated their brains for study after they died. | |
Comment: This news is consistent with other studies on some possible causes of Parkinson's:
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Natural News
2015-12-19 21:22:00
In 2001, GlaxoSmithKline published a trial in children and adolescents, study 329. This study reported that Paxil (Seroxat) was effective with minimal side effects, and it was widely believed and cited, no less than 184 times by 2010, which is remarkable. However, the trial was fraudulent. We know this because the Attorney General of New York State sued the company in 2004 for repeated and persistent consumer fraud in relation to concealing harms of Paxil, which opened the company's archives as part of a settlement. | |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Erica Troiani
The Fix 2015-12-08 19:50:00
It's a common refrain every year during the holidays: Dealing with your family, particularly parents, can be a real nightmare. There's the usual concerns. Will they talk to you like you're still 12? How long until your weird uncle says something racist? But for anyone from an alcoholic family, the concern gets piled upon: How long til someone triggers one of those character defects from no-longer-useful childhood survival skills? What if one of those parents is still drinking? How long til we're screaming at each other? I used to live in denial that my father could bring out the worst in me. I'd hear other people get exasperated about visiting their families at holidays and wonder why they found it so difficult. My parents are lovely, I always thought. They're interesting and curious. They have insightful wisdoms!And all this was true, but I conveniently forgot that around the last night of every trip home, my dad and I would land ourselves in a knock-down, drag-out fight. The kind where I don't recognize myself as a person anymore. The kind where I can't totally remember or understand what happened the next day because I'm never fully sure how they started. | |
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Gracie Lofthouse
The Atlantic 2015-12-17 19:24:00
Do you feel something less strongly if you don't have a word for it? There's plenty of disagreement over how to define emotions, but at least one thing is certain: They are intensely personal things. A flood of anger, a flash of annoyance—that feeling is yours, is a result of your own unique set of circumstances, is shaping the way you see the world at a given moment. At the same time, though, our emotions are also shaped by the world around us, and different cultures collectively experience emotions in different ways. Korea, for example, has han, or the state of feeling sad and hopeful at the same time. Finland, Denmark, and Norway all have their own terms for the specific kind of coziness that comes from being warm on a cold day, surrounded by loved ones. In the recently published The Book of Human Emotions, the cultural historian Tiffany Watt Smith collected emotion words like these from around the world. I spoke to her about how vocabulary can affect the experience of feeling. Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation. | |
