Dr. Peter Dale Scott on the American War Machine

Dissident Thinker | Mar 26, 2012

We speak to Dr. Peter Dale Scott on his latest book, "American War Machine."

We discuss the politically correct atmosphere in education, CIA drug trafficking, assassination, deep politics and the drug war in Mexico.

You can find Dr. Scott at: http://peterdalescott.net

Busted: Popular “Non-GMO” Tortilla Chips Found to Contain 75% GMOs

Natural Society | Oct 18, 2014 | Christina Sarich

© Natural Society

Do you do your best to avoid GMOs in food by reading labels and only buying from trusted brands? Well how would you feel if you found out that a popular brand of tortilla corn chips that you’ve been buying – specifically because their packaging states they are GMO-free – was FULL of GMO corn? Yea, you’ve been eating those tasty little chips like they were going out of style, all while potentially hurting yourself without even knowing it. That is exactly what’s happening with tortilla chip maker Xochitl, a company recently ousted for covertly including GMO ingredients in its chips.

Xochitl has been printing the GMO-Free label on the bottom left on their packages, branding themselves as a label that consumers can trust. However, after conducting a study looking at many products that are supposed to be GMO-free, Consumer Reports, has found this labeling to be less than honest.

Consumer Reports says that Xochitl has been lying about their GMO content – and not just a little bit. We aren’t talking about trace amounts of GMO corn.

The report even found its way into the mainstream media.

Despite the non-GMO claims by Xochitl (pronounced “so-cheel”) and their Totopos de Maiz original corn chips, the Consumer Reports investigation found that the non-organic (supposedly non-GMO) varieties of the chips contain over 75% GMO corn, after testing 6 different packages.

GMO corn was found in each type of chips, even with the ‘all natural’ and ‘No GMO’ claims on the front and backs of packages.

The Xochitl finding raises an important question about the unverified, non-third party claims of companies trying to sell their GMO-containing products. It also makes the suggestions of the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association that we should just trust food manufacturers to ‘voluntarily’ label their GMOS without independent verification and government mandated labeling even more ridiculous.

Report: 92% of Citizens Want GMOs Labeled

The report, which can be read in its entirety here, states that the majority of samples from companies that make unregulated non-GMO claims contained about 0.9% GMO corn or soy on average. Xochitl just happened to grossly overstep that average.

So, even though looking at packaging can help you to minimize GMO consumption (as most non-GMO advocates have been saying for years), it is going to be more and more difficult to find truly non-GMO products unless they are sourced outside of the US. as so many of our crops are contaminated with genetically modified seed.

It is also vital to note that “All Natural” products had comparable levels of GMO corn or soy to their “conventional” counterparts according to Consumer Reports; in other words, the “All Natural” label is virtually meaningless if you want to avoid GMOs.

Though it is understandable that food companies would want to present their products as GMO-free since over 96% of Americans want their food labeled so they can avoid the stuff, producing a product and selling it to national grocery store chains all over the nation with a false ‘NO-GMO’ brand is unconscionable – and illegal. Their website, not just their brand packaging, states this claim.

If we continue to fight against this trend, I do think we can win. After all, several multi-million dollar lawsuits against Coca-Cola - makers of Vitamin Water, and Tropicana - for claiming their products were ‘all natural’ when they were not, have been won.

We are, in fact, the largest GMO-producing country in the world. Over 90% of the soy we grow and 90% of our corn is now genetically modified.

Please, adjust your grocery shopping habits according to this information, and of course let Xochitl know just how you feel about their fraudulent practices on their contact page here - their Facebook page will no longer load.

"Interstellar" – Science Fiction or Pure Fantasy?

Thunderbolts Project | Oct 13, 2014

In November of this year, movie theaters around the world will begin showing perhaps the year's most anticipated film, the science-fiction blockbuster, "Interstellar." The plot of the film features scientists on Earth devising a plan to send human beings through a wormhole, in a desperate effort to find a new, habitable system. But what is a "wormhole." Mathematician Stephen J. Crothers tells us all the reasons why the wormhole concept is physically meaningless.

Stephen's website, including many of his papers available for free viewing: http://www.sjcrothers.plasmaresources...

Stephen's talk at EU 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXF09...

Common Core Introduces A New Gaming Standard For American Students

Real Science | Jul 18, 2014

Why Would You Want To Spy On Yourself For The Government?

© Alt-Market

Alt-Market | May 28, 2014 | Melissa Melton

And alternately, how “smart” do you really want your home to be?

The commercials have been airing for awhile now: you can protect your home with a smart CCTV camera system that includes full streaming, night vision, two-way talk back, and digital zoom for only $150. You can even add on the optional cloud recording to access stored footage of your home for up to a month (all encrypted for your security, of course).

Now news has surfaced that Google’s “Nest” division, which involves smart thermostats that program themselves and can be remotely controlled to change your home’s temperature over the Internet from anywhere, is looking to move into home security with plans to purchase home CCTV system-maker Dropcam.

“With a Dropcam Wi-Fi video monitoring camera and optional cloud recording service you can remotely drop in on your house, baby, pets, business, or anything else from a smartphone, tablet, or computer,” the firm says. (source)

Check out the video. Dropcam’s CEO says they built it to answer a really simple question: “What goes on at home when I’m not there?”

Guess it depends who is asking the question. Google’s plans ultimately involve, according to Mail Online, total home automation.

Apparently this comes just as Apple is planning to unveil its own home automation app that would tie everything together:

An Apple patent published in November last year gave the first hints of the system, showing a system that automatically turned on lights when a user comes home.

It is believed the firm is already working with home automation firms to ensure their gadgets work with the app.

The firm already sells home automation gadgets in its stores, including including arch rival Google’s Nest thermostats, Dropcam wireless cameras, Philips Hue lightbulbs and Belkin WeMo switches. [SIC] (source)

That means you and your house will be constantly creating bits of data that form a blueprint of your daily life: how much electricity and water you use and when you use it, on top of a camera that video tapes you using it.

And what of privacy?

And if you can “drop in” on your house, you have to wonder, who else can drop in, too?

After all, it was just last month that a hacker tapped into a couple’s app-controlled baby monitor, and they awoke to a strange man operating the camera and screaming at their baby in the middle of the night from inside their home.

Beyond that, we live in a world where the so-called National Security Agency’s habit of spying on Americans through major telecommunications companies like Google and Apple has been fully exposed now. It’s not even a question of if they do it anymore. They are openly doing it. Period.

Why else would they need to build a $3 billion data hub in the Utah desert?

(On a side note, it’s pretty interesting that out of three American cities that Google chose to first launch it’s Fiber super high speed internet, one of them is Provo, Utah…a choice that hardly makes sense in lieu of larger cities until you consider Provo is just 30 minutes away from the aforementioned NSA spy hub.)
In addition to apps that track your house, Apple is also set to unveil an app that tracks…you:

Called Healthbook, the new app is expected to be unveiled in June at Apple’s annual developer conference. It offers everything from food and sleep tracking to blood sugar level analysis – and can even tell how much water you’ve drunk. (source)

Check out the control panel that comes with your trendy new “health-tracking wristband” iWatch:

We now live in such a fear-based technocratic society, we are literally paying to give up liberty for security.

Pretty soon, your smart phone/smart pad/smart watch/computer (and anyone with access to it) will know everything about you, your home, your habits, and basically your whole entire life. The concept of privacy is quickly going out the virtual window.

The human race is about to get sucked up into the Internet of Things — “a global, immersive, invisible, ambient networked computing environment built through the continued proliferation of smart sensors, cameras, software, databases, and massive data centers in a world-spanning information fabric.”

Are you ready?

 This article was written by Melissa Melton and originally published at The Daily Sheeple

North Carolina law would make discussing fracking chemicals illegal

AFP Photo / David Mcnew

RT | May 19, 2014

North Carolina legislators are considering a bill that would make it a crime to publicly disclose toxic chemicals that energy companies use in the hydraulic fracturing process, with offenders on the hook for fines or even jail time.

Known as the Energy Modernization Act, the bill would make any unauthorized disclosure of fracking trade secrets – including the chemicals used – punishable with a Class I Felony, according to an Energywire report.

Fracking, a gas and oil mining technique which involves injecting a mixture of sand and chemicals deep into the earth, has been blamed for contaminated drinking water, infertility, birth defects, cancer, air pollution, and other serious concerns. Americans opposed to fracking have not only struggled with obstacles put in place by gas and oil companies, but also with the high profits and employment that come to struggling communities along with the process.

Environmentalists have called for more transparency in the conversation over the chemicals used, although gas companies have fought back by saying that their chemicals are a trade secret and thus should be protected. Now, under the parameters of the North Carolina bill, even firefighters and individual healthcare workers could be in trouble if they openly discuss the chemicals that are injected into the ground near their home.

“The felony provision is far stricter than most states’ provisions in terms of the penalty for violating trade secrets,” Hannah Wiseman, a Florida State University assistant law professor who studies fracking laws, told Mother Jones.

If the bill, which has the backing of the state’s top Republicans, is signed into law, major corporations could be given the power to force emergency officials to sign confidentiality agreements, although the penalty for breaking that agreement is unclear.

“I think the only penalties to fire chiefs and doctors, if they talked about it at their annual conference, would be the penalties contained in the confidentiality agreement,” Wiseman went on. “But [the bill] is so poorly worded, I cannot confirm that if an emergency responder or fire chief discloses that confidential information, they too would not be subject to a felony.”

Fracking is currently prohibited in North Carolina until the state legislature is able to agree on which regulations to impose on gas companies. Early proposals have already earned praise for creating some of the strictest regulations in the US, although critics have worried that the draft is being used as a distraction until state Republicans are able to devise a strategy that is more beneficial to corporations. The introduction of the Energy Modernization Act is already being portrayed as a step in that direction.

“Environmental groups say they favor some of the provisions [in the bill],” Energywire reported. “It would put the state geologist in charge of maintaining the chemical information and would allow the state’s emergency management office to use it for planning. It also would allow the state to turn over the information immediately to medical providers and fire chiefs.”

Public health advocates warned that such perks could turn the Energy Modernization Act into a Trojan Horse that makes testing chemicals impossible. The US Environmental Protection Agency has waded into the debate as well, announcing earlier this month that it is considering forcing major companies to disclose which chemicals are used in the fracking process.

Deborah Goldberg, a lawyer at Earthjustice, which is dedicated to protecting natural resources, told Salon that the EPA’s involvement, and thus the possibility of more transparency, is essential.

“We want to be sure that there is some agency that actually is collecting the information about what is being used in these shale plays across the country,” she said. “The disclosure we are getting right now is pretty spotty.”

Smart’ meters, data-mining, and surveillance — sans propaganda.

With friends like your energy, water, and
gas providers… who needs enemies?
© Take Back Your Power

Take Back Your Power | Apr 16, 2014 | Josh del Sol

A look at what utility companies, PUCs, and the former CIA director have to say about the ‘smart’ meters, data-mining, and surveillance — sans propaganda.

It’s always a drag to find out when a friend is saying one thing to your face, and another to your back.  As uncovered in our film Take Back Your Power, the way in which most utilities are now delivering the lies and propaganda — with your individual rights, security, and potentially health on the line — is elevating the trait of “two-faced” to a completely new level.

It’s important to note that the first 4 of these references have to do with the smart meters / grid infrastructure capabilities as of this time.  According to the sum of my research over the past 3 years, the plan involves achieving a greater and greater level of granularity and extraction of in-home data over time — see #5 and
#6 below as examples (as well as my article on Google’s Nest acquisition).  So as far as privacy and surveillance go, according to utilities’ own documentation and writings, ‘smart’ meters are effectively a trojan horse.

1) US Congressional Research Service report,
    ”Smart Meter Data: Privacy and Cybersecurity” (February 2012) –

“With smart meters, police will have access to data that might be used to track residents’ daily lives and routines while in their homes, including their eating, sleeping, and showering habits, what appliances they use and when, and whether they prefer the television to the treadmill, among a host of other details.”
Source: https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42338.pdf – see page 7 (page 10 of the PDF)

2) Colorado Power Utility Commission report,
    ”Smart Metering & Privacy: Existing Law and Competing Policies” (Spring 2009) –

“First, the privacy concerns are real, and should be addressed proactively in order to protect consumers. Second and related, a salient privacy invasion—were it to happen and get press—could create significant opposition to smart grid deployment efforts.”

Source:
http://www.dora.state.co.us/puc/DocketsDecisions/DocketFilings/09I-593EG/09I-593EG_Spring2009Report-SmartGridPrivacy.pdf – see page 6

3) California Public Utility Commission press release,
    ”California Commission Adopts Rules to Protect the Privacy and Security of Customer Electricity Usage Data” (July 2011) –

“Our action today will protect the privacy and security of customer usage data while enabling utilities and authorized third-parties to use the information to provide useful energy management and conservation services to customers.”

“I support today’s decision because it adopts reasonable privacy and security rules and expands consumer and third-party access to electricity usage and pricing information. I hope this decision stimulates market interest”

Source:
http://smartenergyportal.net/article/california-commission-adopts-rules-protect-privacy-and-security-customer-electricity-usage-d

4) SF Chronicle article, “California Utilities Yield Energy Use Data” (July 2013) –

California’s electric utilities last year disclosed the energy-use records and other personal information of thousands of customers, according to reports the companies filed with state regulators.

The vast majority of those disclosures – 4,062 – were made by one utility, San Diego Gas and Electric Co. In 4,000 of those cases, the information was subpoenaed by government agencies.

New digital smart meters being installed throughout the state can measure a home’s energy use hour by hour, showing when residents leave for work, go to sleep or travel on vacation. Older analog meters, which measured cumulative energy use over the course of a month, couldn’t do that.

“Before smart meters, what happened inside houses couldn’t be revealed unless there was a police officer inside with a warrant,” Ozer said.

Source: http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Calif-utilities-yield-energy-use-data-4611159.php

5) Raab & Associates, Steering Committee report (February 2013) –

Under the heading “Strategic (3-10 years)”:

“New tools for mining data for intel”

Under the heading “Transformational (10+ years)”:

“Centralized intel combined with widespread local/distributed intel”
and

“Data mining and analytics becomes core competency”

Source: http://magrid.raabassociates.org/articles/raab%20subcommittee%20update%20draft.ppt

View slide 17 only (PDF): http://www.takebackyourpower.net/documents/RaabDraft-17.pdf

6) Wired.com, “CIA Chief: We’ll Spy on You Through Your Dishwasher” (15 Mar 2012) –

“‘Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters — all connected to the next-generation internet using abundant, low-cost, and high-power computing,’ Petraeus said, ‘the latter now going to cloud computing, in many areas greater and greater supercomputing, and, ultimately, heading to quantum computing.

“Petraeus allowed that these household spy devices “change our notions of secrecy” and prompt a rethink of “our notions of identity and secrecy.” All of which is true — if convenient for a CIA director.”

Source: http://www.wired.com/2012/03/petraeus-tv-remote/

* * *

Did we really think that the technocratic oligarchy would stop at collecting information about how we use our phones, who we call, and where we’re located?  If we did, we were naive.  Plainly, there is a corporate intention to effectively colonize your home.

However, there is also a rising awareness, and resistance, as new solutions are uncovered.  The first step is to remove your consent, in writing.

The following is actually written into the California Civil Code. Not only do these provide a strong clue at how the corporatocracy functions (and gets away with what it does), but they also outline a basis for remedy: (notes in red italics)

California Civil Code (2009)

1619. A contract is either express or implied.  (If you didn’t say no, you said yes.)

3515. He who consents to an act is not wronged by it. (The way they do business is in writing. If you didn’t send them a letter or notice to remove your consent, you have agreed to their terms, and thus have agreed to a reduction in rights.)

3521. He who takes the benefit must bear the burden.  (Utilities and their executives – and many public servants – are taking the benefit.  They must, according to their law, accept the liability for all harm if the liability is enforced.)

3523. For every wrong there is a remedy.  (We are not bound into something which would have us be as slaves, if we do not want to be.)

3527. The law helps the vigilant, before those who sleep on their rights.

What statutes are YOUR utilities and governments bound by?

Stay tuned, watch and share Take Back Your Power, and subscribe your email on our website to be informed of important developments and solutions.

Freakin' Eugenicists...

© unknown

TRUTHStream Media | Apr 5, 2014 | CHANNEL

Al Gore recently commented that Africa's population is a problem that "must be addressed" at a World Economic Forum meeting as Bill Gates nodded in agreement. Upon watching this video, one commenter wrote, "Poor Africa. If they only knew that this bloated, white American is planning to de-populate their continent. Gore can't keep his chubby fingers to himself. It's to enough that he's trying to de-populate us, he has to go after AFRICA now too..." Also, make sure there aren't any rusty sporks around as you are watching this, to you can more easily resist the urge to gouge out your own eyeballs.

WELCOME TO ALGORITHMIC PRISON

© NextGov

WELCOME TO ALGORITHMIC PRISON
Feb 22, 2014 | Phantom Report

Corporations and government are using information about us in a new – and newly insidious – way. 

Employing massive data files, much of the information taken from the Internet, they profile us, predict our good or bad character, credit worthiness, behavior, tastes, and spending habits – and take actions accordingly.

As a result, millions of Americans are now virtually incarcerated in algorithmic prisons.

Some can no longer get loans or cash checks. Others are being offered only usurious credit card interest rates. Many have trouble finding employment because of their Internet profiles. Others may have trouble purchasing property, life, and automobile insurance because of algorithmic predictions. Algorithms may select some people for government audits, while leaving others to find themselves undergoing gratuitous and degrading airport screening.

An estimated 500 Americans have their names on no-fly lists. Thousands more are targeted for enhanced screening by the Automated Targeting System algorithm used by the Transportation Security Administration. By using dataincluding “tax identification number, past travel itineraries, property records, physical characteristics, and law enforcement or intelligence information” the algorithm is expected to predict how likely a passenger is to be dangerous.

Algorithms also constrain our lives in virtual space. They determine what products we will be exposed to. They analyze our interests and play an active role in selecting the things we see when we go to a particular website..

Eli Pariser, argues in The Filter Bubble, “You click on a link, which signals your interest in something, which means you are more likely to see articles about that topic” and then “You become trapped in a loop…” The danger being that you emerge with a very distorted view of the world.

If you’re having trouble finding a job as a software engineer, it may be because you got a low score from the Gild, a company that predicts the skill of programmers by evaluating the open source code they have written, the language they use on LinkedIn, and how they answer questions on software social forums Algorithmic prisons are not new.. Even before the Internet, credit reporting and rating agencies were a power in our economy. Fitch’s, Moody’s, and Standard and Poor’s have been rating business credit for decades. Equifax, the oldest credit rating agency, was founded in 1899.

When algorithms get it right (and in general they do a pretty good job), they provide extremely valuable services to the economy. They make our lives safer. They make it easier to find the products and services we want. Amazon constantly alerts me to books it correctly predicts I will want to read. They increase the efficiency of businesses.

But when algorithms get it wrong, real suffering follows.

Read More: NextGov

Uncovered 16th century hallucinatory images suggest that today's climate science is nothing but a persistent human mental disorder

Uncovered 16th century hallucinatory images suggest that today's climate science is nothing but a persistent human mental disorder
Feb 16, 2014 | NoTricksZone | P Gosselin

Fire in the sky, torrential rains, droughts and Biblical floods - all supposedly brought on by the sins and wickedness of man. Is it really a surprise we are hearing it all once again today?

© Taschen Verlag/amazon.de
Hail storm in Dordrecht, Holland, May 17, 1552.

 The online Spiegel today has a report on a new book titled The Book of Miracles which presents and examines a collection of 16th century depictions of celestial phenomena and portentous signs. They were recently discovered as part of a collection of 169 illustrations created in Augsburg, Germany around 1552. End-of-world visions, it turns out, are a human mental disorder that has been around for as long as civilization itself.

The images were created as Europe was in the grips of the Little ice Age, a time of bad weather, bitter cold, storms and crop failures, starvation and human misery. The 16th century depictions reveal images of a civilization obsessed with the end-of-the-world. Priests and elitists of the time conducted terrifying witch hunts to find those allegedly responsible for the black magic that cooked up the extreme weather.

Sound familiar?

The book containing the collection of images was authored by Joshua P. Waterman of the University of Indiana and Till-Holger Borchert of the University of Oregon. The collection of images depict demons, fire, drought, and torrential rains - of blood, stones and hail falling from the sky, which brought or warned of unimaginable misery for sinners on earth.

When one compares these hallucinatory depictions to today's bleak climate scenarios coming from climate scientists, and their shrill demands that we radically change our behavior, the parallels could hardly be more striking.

Spiegel writes:

The Augsburg Book of Miracles (German title: Wunderzeichenbuch) illustrates how mankind from antiquity to the Renaissance imagined the end of things. As a rule: frightening. Only very few positive heavenly appearances are seen in between."

Nowness site here quotes co-author Borchert on what the dire images signified.

The Protestant viewer would have reflected on the greater significance of these wonders: Why are there dragons in the sky? Why does it rain blood? Why are there three suns overhead? We know from contemporary sources that the answer was general: Things are wrong in the world. Repent and prepare for the end times, which are possibly now."

Aren't the similarities to the climate science establishment absolutely stunning? Once again today mankind is being led by obsessive, paranoid charlatans warning of unprecedented colossal weather disasters. Really, there is no other way to accurately describe today's climate science schizophrenia.

Spiegel writes that the book's 167 pages "illustrates the angst" of the times, many having to do with weather extremes. For example one illustration (see above) shows a massive hailstorm hitting Dordrecht Holland on May 17, 1552. Note the perceived "weirdness".

Spiegel writes:

Lightning strikes, comets and the unknown were regarded as the Wrath of God, or as omens for bad things to come. ... Starvation, disease, locusts and falling stars. Many of these signs were distributed as pamphlets. And many of these phenomena indeed happened, says Waterman. But the ten-headed monster with horns and a crown of course never existed."

Extreme weather events being taken as signs for the coming end, unless sinful ways are repented, is as old as civilization. Today's climate panic is merely just the latest relapse into a very old mental disorder that has afflicted mankind for thousands of years. The only antidote is reason and knowledge.

Order here.

The Obamacar

The Obamacar
Jan 29, 2014 | Real Science

Editor's note: Real Science has to be one of the more cynical places online, however, with that said, truth and irony have a particular smell about them, even if it is ugly.
---

Here is one of Obama’s natural gas powered Honda Civics

CNG has to be kept at more than 200 atmospheres pressure. You can think of it as a large conventional explosive located six inches underneath your children.

One of the reasons why is natural gas. If extracted safely, it’s the bridge fuel that can power our economy with less of the carbon pollution that causes climate change. (Applause.)

Businesses plan to invest almost a hundred billion dollars in new factories that use natural gas.

I’ll cut red tape to help states get those factories built and put folks to work, and this Congress can help by putting people to work building fueling stations that shift more cars and trucks from foreign oil to American natural gas.

America is the largest producer of oil in the world.

Climate experts have been telling us for years that methane (natural gas) is a 20X more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. Now Obama says it produces less climate change. He is completely FOS, as always.

Leaked! Food Lobby Threatens to Sue Any State that Tries to Label GMOs

Leaked! Food Lobby Threatens to Sue Any State that Tries to Label GMOs
Jan 27, 2014 | TRUTHstreammedia

The Organic Consumers Association is reporting that the Grocery Manufacturer's Association — the mega corp. lobby group that represents 300 companies and way more than just grocery stores — is using a talking points memo to basically misinform and intimidate our legislators with threats of lawsuits should they even attempt to back a GMO labeling law in their state (http://www.organicconsumers.org/artic...).

This is the same organization that is petitioning to allow GMOs to be considered "natural" on food packaging (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/art...), and the same group that is trying to get a weak voluntary federal law passed to preempt the adoption of any meaningful labeling legislation at the state level (http://truthstreammedia.com/federal-l...).

Oh, and their top lobbyist said the reason these companies are spending over $70 million to defeat state labeling is because telling you GMO is in your food would "misinform" you (http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01...).

Apparently GMOs are so awesome and wonderful, the companies that sell them are doing everything they can to keep people from knowing it.


Website: TruthstreamMedia.com
Twitter: @TruthstreamNews
FB: Facebook.com/TruthstreamMedia

Americans see dirty truth of energy addiction thru oil boom

© RT America

Americans see dirty truth of energy addiction thru oil boom
Dec 29, 2013 | RT America

The US has a long history of keeping industrial activity far away from middle- and upper-class neighborhoods, but that is changing because of our oil boom. Though many like to tout the positive sides to fracking and horizontal drilling - increased energy independence, economic boost, and more jobs - people who live near the new drilling sites are starting to see the big downsides to drilling, up close and personal. And it ain't so pretty. The Resident (aka Lori Harfenist) discusses. Follow The Resident at http://www.twitter.com/TheResident

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Assault on Our Sovereignty, Our Constitution, Our Liberty (Video)

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Assault on Our Sovereignty, Our Constitution, Our Liberty (Video)
Dec 19, 2013 | The new American | William F. Jasper

Over the past couple of years, The New American has presented many articles, including a special “Free Trade Agenda” issue of the print publication (PDF), exposing the dangers of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. It is a regional trade agreement aimed at integrating the economic, legal, and political systems of Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam — and the United States. As such, it proposes a radical, unconstitutional transformation of our republic and of the entire governing structure of our nation.

The architects of the TPP admit that they plan to expand the outrageous ambitions of the TPP to an even larger group of nations, which they have dubbed the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP). The Peterson Institute for International Economics is one of the premier globalist think tanks and a key promoter of the TPP. A Peterson Institute study states that “the TPP is regarded as an interim arrangement or stepping stone toward a broader, regionwide Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific.”

The TPP and FTAAP promoters are consciously using the same formula of lies, deception and subversion that globalist leaders in Europe have been employing for decades to convert formerly independent nations into obedient “member states” of the European Union.


The TPP, if accepted, will transfer increasing legislative, executive and judicial powers to regional entities, and to the World Trade Organization, which claims ultimate jurisdiction over all matters covered by the agreement.

And what kind of matters are those?

Since all negotiations have been held in secrecy, we can only report on the issues the U.S. Trade Representative’s office admits the TPP covers, which include: customs, telecommunications, investment services, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, intellectual property, regulatory coherence, development, non-conforming measures and cross-border trade in services, rules of origin, competition, agriculture, textiles, and environment.

One can only speculate the consequences when surrendering sovereignty on any of these important issues.

Wikileaks, an Internet whistleblower site, leaked one chapter of the text in late 2013. It showed the dangers the TPP presents to alternative, independent media and the right of citizens to communicate via the Internet.

The TPP would, in effect implement the anti-freedom measures of two badly misnamed bills that failed to pass Congress: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). These bills would have drastically affected Internet freedom, allowing virtually anyaone — but especially the ruling powers — to stop publication of anything they find objectionable by claiming copyright infringement.

My colleague at The New American, constitutional attorney Joe Wolverton, points out that “such procedures bypass the U.S. court system and the Constitution by abolishing the due process owed to those accused of crimes.” And notes Wolverton, “The TPP is an attack on our laws, our courts, our freedom of expression, our Constitution, and our sovereignty.”

Contact your representatives now to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and see the additional articles listed below that we’ve published detailing the dangers of the TPP.

Related articles:

WikiLeaks Publishes Key Chapter of Secret TPP Agreement
Regional Scheme for the Pacific Rim
Trans-Pacific Partnership Ready for Christmas Delivery?
TPP Secret Trade Agreement Puts International Tribunal Above U.S.
The “Free Trade” Agenda Threatens Our Rights
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Secret Surrender of Sovereignty

Wells Fargo Forecloses on Breast Cancer Victim, She Loses Home, Life

Wells Fargo Forecloses on Breast Cancer Victim, She Loses Home, Life
Dec 2, 2013 | Opposing Views | Michael Allen

This year Marsha Kilgore, 62, lost her condo and her life.

According to the the Fresno Bee, Kilgore was diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2005 and underwent a double mastectomy.

Even though she could not work any longer, Kilgore was still making the mortgage payments on her Fresno, Calif. condo on time via her Social Security payments and disability money.

However, that all changed when World Savings offered her a “pick-a-payment” loan, which would supposedly allow Kilgore to pay less on her mortgage if she chose to.

Kilgore thought she had signed a fixed-rate loan when she was ill, but in reality the “pick-a-payment” loan hooked her in with a "teaser rate." Her monthly loan payment started at $656 in 2006, but went up to $1,012 in 2012.

Thanks to this “pick-a-payment” loan, Kilgore would owe $177,000 on the same condo that she borrowed $66,000 to buy in 1990.

Wells Fargo bank bought the Wachovia corporation, which included World Savings, in 2008, according to the Wells Fargo bank website.

Lilgire and other customers, who had been burned by World Savings' “pick-a-payment” loans, filed a class action lawsuit, which Wells Fargo settled in 2010.

According to BizJournals.com:

Under the agreement, Wells Fargo will offer affordable loan modifications to about 14,900 borrowers in the state with pick-a-pay loans approved by Wachovia or World Savings. Many of the loan modifications will include principal forgiveness, according to Attorney General officials. The agreement is expected to reach more than $2 billion.

Wells Fargo will also pay $32 million in restitution to more than 12,000 borrowers who used pick-a-pay loans and lost their homes through foreclosure. Payments will average about $2,650.

While that "sounded" good, Wells Fargo told Kilgore that she had to miss three house payments and get evicted from her home before getting a loan modification.

“We did provide a modification, but unfortunately, we could not find an option after that to allow her to stay in her home,” Wells Fargo spokesperson Tom Goyda told the Fresno Bee.
By this time Kilgore was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Kilgore had to have a permanent address in order for Medicare to help pay for her oxygen machines and other medical equipment.

Kilgore was evicted in June and lost her Medicare benefits. She lived in hotels, in her car and with friends.

On Oct. 16, Kilgore died in a Fresno hospital where she had been admitted with "a bad case of asthma."

Now, her attorney has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Wells Fargo for $250,000.

“The bank made a conscious decision that their profit meant more than her life, and that’s despicable,” said Lenore Abert, who was Kilgore's lawyer. “They knew with 100 percent certainty that she would lose her home.”

Pastor Bill Knezovich, of Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Fresno, says the same thing happened to other people in the area.

"Two families in my congregation say the same thing happened to them," Pastor Knezovich told the Fresno Bee. "Because they wanted to make payments and were told to skip three."

Sources: Fresno Bee, WellsFargo.com, BizJournals.com

Agenda 21 “Plan Bay Area” & “Wildlife Corridors” Explained

© Steve Kemp Channel

Cross-posted from FindResolution.info under Austerity as Neuro-linguistic Programming

Agenda 21 “Plan Bay Area” & “Wildlife Corridors” Explained
Nov 21, 2013 | Farm Wars | Heather Gass

Editor's note: Heather Gass outlines how our UN and aristocracy have taken words such as "sustainability," and are using this deceptive language to hide both austerity and the manner of bailouts that are actually in process. This attributes the movement of wealth from that of the people, into the hands of those who have no conscience or humanitarian values. This is a form of psychological warfare and awareness is beyond critical, as partnerships are already being employed world wide with the monolithic powerful.



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Wikileaks Disclosure of Trade Deal Chapter Shows It Will Kill People and Internet; House Opposition is Widespread

Wikileaks Disclosure of Trade Deal Chapter Shows It Will Kill People and Internet; House Opposition is Widespread
Nov 14, 2013 | Naked Capitalism

We posted on the New York Times news story that opposition in the House to authorization of “fast track” authority to the Administration on its pending Pacific and Atlantic trade deals was stiffening right just before a related story broke: that Wikileaks had disclosed the end of August draft of one of the critical chapters of one of the deals.

We wrote yesterday that this deal, the Trans Pacific Partnership, already looked to be in trouble given both Congressional and foreign opposition. The Administration has conducted the talks with an unheard-of degree of secrecy, with Congressional staffers in most cases denied access to the text and even Congressmen themselves facing unheard-of obstacles (Alan Grayson reported that the US Trade Representative created an absurd six weeks of dubious delays in his case). But perversely, 700 corporate representatives got privileged access so they could influence negotiations. It’s not hard to see whose interests are really being served in these deals.

The Wikileaks disclosure could well have struck the fatal blow to this toxic pact. As we’ll see below, it may have been dead anyhow. Obama’s relationship with his own party is already on the rocks as a result of Obamacare (not just the rollout but the increasing recognition that the program has more fundamental flaws), so he has limited political capital available to whip Democratic Congressmen back into line. The opposition is more deep-seated and broad-based than I had realized (for instance, 18 of the 21 ranking full committee members in the House are against it). So the TPP looked to be on the Syria incursion path.

But it’s hard not to believe that the Wikileaks revelations will galvanize opposition among the other prospective members of the pact. It’s hard for democratic countries to agree to a deal that has been revealed will kill their citizens in order to enrich America’s Big Pharma incumbents. And that statement is not an exaggeration. Wikileaks disclosed the end of August version (apparently two drafts behind current text) of the intellectual property chapter, which includes the section on drugs and surgical procedures.

The intent is to strengthen America’s aggressive patent regime and require foreign countries to comply with it. For instance, the FDA considers minor changes in existing drugs, such as developing an extended release version so that a medication need be taking only once a day, to be a “new drug application” and will extend patents based on that. The draft also would severely limit the use of generics. Higher prices will restrict drug use and is certain to have adverse health consequences for some, potentially many, citizens. And although people overseas will suffer the greatest consequences, Americans will be affected as well. As Public Citizen wrote, “The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has proposed measures harmful to access to affordable medicines that have not been seen before in U.S. trade agreements,” and elaborated:



Another medical-industrial complex rent-extraction technique is by covering surgical methods . No, I am not making that up. See this section of an excellent discussion by Knowledge Ecology International:

An interesting example of how the US seeks to change national and global norms are the provisions in the TPP over patents on surgical methods. The WTO permits countries to exclude “diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods for the treatment of humans or animals.” The US wants to flip this provision, so that “may also exclude from patentability” becomes “shall make patents available.” However, when a version of the IP Chapter was leaked in 2011, the US trade negotiators were criticized for ignoring the provisions in 28 USC 287 that eliminated remedies for infringement involving the “medical activity” of a “medical practitioner.” The exception in US law covered ”the performance of a medical or surgical procedure on a body.” The US trade negotiators then proposed adding language that would permit an exception for surgery, but only “if they cover a method of using a machine, manufacture, or composition of matter.” The US proposal, crafted in consultation with the medical devices lobby, but secret from the general public, was similar, but different from the U.S. statute, which narrowed the exception in cases involving “the use of a patented machine, manufacture, or composition of matter in violation of such patent.” How different? As Public Citizen’s Burcu Kilic puts it, under the US proposal in the TPP, the exception would only apply to “surgical methods you can perform with your bare hands.”

I’m not sure how this would work in practice, but I imagine it would be ugly. For instance, Johnson & Johnson dominates the market for replacement hips and knees. They also provide tools used to perform the surgeries on those hips and knees which surgeons need to buy (as in no one had the incentive beside J&J to make these implements, and surgeons would be unlikely to scrimp on a secondary cost when it gets billed back to the patient anyhow). So it looks as if J&J would also somehow be able to charge additional fees on each operation, say if it introduced a new hip replacement which required some change in how the hip was installed (a new surgical method). How this would be enforced is over my pay grade.

The pact in its end of August form would also, as we had discussed based on concerned raised by the Electronic Freedom Foundation, interfere with basic Internet operations. The International Business Times summarized the EFF’s concerns:

Here’s the text of the relevant section of the TPP’s intellectual property chapter leaked Wednesday:

Each Party shall provide that authors, performers, and producers of phonograms have the right to authorize or prohibit all reproductions of their works, performances, and phonograms, in any manner or form, permanent or temporary (including temporary storage in electronic form).

The EFF wrote in a July analysis of the language — which has not been amended in the intervening months — that the provision “reveals a profound disconnect with the reality of the modern computer,” which relies on temporary copies to perform routine operations, during which it must create temporary copies of programs and files in order to carry out basic functions. This is particularly so while a computer is connected to the Internet, when it will use temporary copies to buffer videos, store cache files to ensure websites load quickly and more.
“Since it’s technically necessary to download a temporary version of everything we see on our devices, does that mean—under the US proposed language—that anyone who ever views content on their device could potentially be found liable of infringement?” the EFF wrote. “For other countries signing on to the TPP, the answer would be most likely yes.”

Another way the TPP will harm the Internet is, similar to SOPA and PIPA, is to obligate internet service providers to act as copyright police. Now, as Dean Baker explained on Bill Moyers, if a website posts material improperly, the site owner and the host are obligated to remove it as soon as the publisher is notified (in practice, if the publisher does not comply pronto, a nastygram to the webhost will get the entire site taken down). ISPs are extremely low margin businesses. Forcing high-cost monitoring on them would lead them to increase their staffing considerably. The resulting hosting increases would force the closure of most small independent sites. The increased oversight of ordinary users (they’d be required to monitor ongoing communications for piracy, which sounds like an NSA wet dream) would also likely lead to higher access charges for consumers.

I attempted to read the draft, which was largely over my head (as in you need to know extant intellectual property provisions in order to be able to see how this treaty language stands relative to it). However, even a casual reading shows that much of the language is still under negotiation, with many passages having numerous TPP parties on each side of an issue. So the negotiations looked to be fraught even before the Wikileaks disclosure.

On the US side, Rosa DeLauro and George Miller are leading the opposition to the use of fast track authority altogether. This is the key section of their letter, which already has 151 signatures:

Congress, not the Executive Branch, must determine when an agreement meets the objectives Congress sets in the exercise of its Article I-8 exclusive constitutional authority to set the terms of trade. For instance, an agreement that does not specifically meet congressional negotiating objectives must not receive preferential consideration in Congress. A new trade agreement negotiation and approval process that restores a robust role for Congress is essential to achieving U.S. trade agreements that can secure prosperity for the greatest number of Americans, while preserving the vital tenets of American democracy in the era of globalization.

Twentieth Century “Fast Track” is simply not appropriate for 21st Century agreements and must be replaced. The United States cannot afford another trade agreement that replicates the mistakes of the past. We can and must do better.

Let’s hope that lame duck Obama overplaying his hand on the “trade” front will indeed rouse Congress to pull back authority that it has over the years allowed the Executive to abrogate. If so, this will be an unexpected and welcome important side benefit of blocking these toxic trade deals.

GMO: The Eugenics Connection – F. William Engdahl

GMO: The Eugenics Connection – F. William Engdahl
Nov 6, 2013 | Farm Wars

The foundation of genetic engineering is eugenics. F. William Engdahl breaks it all down. This is a must-listen lecture.


SHOW NOTES:

In "Seeds of Destruction" and elsewhere, F. William Engdahl shatters biotech myths by demonstrating the health hazards of GMO, and also by proving this technology is but a deliberate continuation of eugenics, racial hygiene and population control. The ultimate purpose of this is not to consolidate markets or even to make huge profits. The ultimate purpose is to exert sterilization and slow kill deaths on those who are seen as "unfit": the poor and the middle classes. Mr. Engdahl's approach to this is impeccably accurate and comprehensive.

Time to Jail the Banksters...

© The Big Picture RT

Time to Jail the Banksters...
Oct 30, 2013 | The Big Picture RT

Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone Magazine, joins Thom Hartmann. It didn't take Wall Street's allies in the financial media long to start whining about JPMorgan's $13 billion settlement with the federal government.

But is that record fine really as bad as the people on CNBC say it is?

Long Green: Squandering taxpayers' money on the Green Climate Fund

Long Green: Squandering taxpayers' money on the Green Climate Fund
Oct 27, 2013 | Willis Eschenbach / Watts Up With That

The US has some of the world's most boring looking money - it's all green. So we have terms like "greenbacks" for dollars, and "long green", meaning lots of money.

I offer this as context for what I found when I got to wondering what had happened to the United Nations "Green Climate Fund". You may recall that the Green Climate Fund was set up by the UN as the only result of the recent Rio de Janeiro Cancun conference on climate idiocy. When the Fund is going full throttle, it is supposed to disburse no less than $200 billion ($200,000,000,000) dollars each and every year to the developing countries.

It turns out that, unlike those of us skeptics who are falsely accused of receiving big bucks from big oil, the "Green Climate Fund" has already raked in millions of dollars to spend on fighting the evil forces of carbon. They have a catchy slogan, viz: "The urgency and seriousness of climate change call for ambition in financing adaptation and mitigation". Ambition in financing? What's not to like?

Now, I've worked for development organizations before. The rule of thumb is that no more than 15% of the funds should go for administration, the rest needs to go to the eventual intended recipients of the largesse.

© WattsUpWithThat

So ... how many of the millions of dollars that have been "donated" by taxpayers in a variety of countries have gone to the actual poor, to aid them in their battle against the dread CO2?

Let's start how much money we're talking about.

Here's a list of the countries who are both rich and improvident enough to squander their taxpayers' money on the Green Climate Fund. It's the usual suspects, my condolences to their citizens who are paying for this:

Australia, $513,000
Denmark, $608,000
Finland, $648,000
France, $326,000
Japan, $500,000
Germany, $1,053,000
South Korea, $2,099,000
Netherlands, $286,000
Sweden, $752,000
UK, $770,000
TOTAL, $7,555,000

The Koreans put in two megabucks ... but then, they also negotiated a deal where the Green Climate Fund is headquartered in Seoul. So no tears for them, they'll make out like bandits. Landing a UN drone hive is like landing a money machine, the local landlords will be overjoyed.

Now, of course, $7.5 million, that's a long ways from their goal of dispersing $200 billion per year. In fact, it's about this far from their goal:

© WattsUpWithThat

I see this as very good news - perhaps the countries of the world have figured out that they have better things to do with their money.

Anyhow, I started all of this out with a simple question. How much of the $7.5 million went to help the people it's supposed to help?

Here's the not-so-simple answer. When you do this kind of thing, first you have to hand out the plum jobs. Among those are the Members of the Board. Of course, then you have to pay for their travel, and a place for them to meet, for their meetings. And it turns out that three Board Meetings cost just under a million dollars. Expensive meetings. Very expensive meetings.

Oh, can't forget the Board Committees, Panels, and Working groups. They cost just under four hundred thousand. Total, a million three ...

The next round of plum jobs are the people who make up the "Interim Secretariat". From the name, I take it that these folks are just placeholders until we get more parasites for the real Secretariat ...in any case, there's two million in the budget to hire fifteen people. My mathematics makes that $133,000 per person per year.

So one thing is clear. The UN Personnel came to do good for the poor ... and they're doing very well indeed. A hundred and thirty grand per person? You can see why the South Koreans will be the big winners in the deal.

It gets worse. They actually hire themselves to do the work, at incredible rates. For example, from the UN FCCC they are hiring one full-time and one part-time person, plus some administrative support ... for a cool half million dollars. One and a half people. Half a megabuck.

And from the UN GEF, same deal, one full-time and one 60% time person, cost, another half million.

Now, you and I might be satisfied by that. But the UN folks are realists. They know that even if all those fifteen UN drones could somehow work together, they still couldn't organize a booze-up in a frat house. For that, they always hire consultants. You know, people who can actually do the stuff the UN employees can only talk about.

So the Green Climate Fund has three-quarters of a million bucks in the budget for consultants, to make sure something gets done.

Oh, and did I mention $200,000 per year for the Executive Director?

Now, you gotta know that you can't have fifteen pluted bloatocrats, plus 3.1 loan-drones from other UN agencies, and three-quarters of a million dollars worth of consultants, without renting some executive-type hive to house the worker bees. Plus phones and faxes and the like, that's a million two ...

Of course, you can't do business by email, phone, and Skype. Gotta have a travel budget ... three hundred grand.

Add all that up, and the "Interim Secretariat" costs $5.3 million ...

Lastly, a Trust Fund needs an Interim Trustee. The Green Climate Fund hires that service from the World Bank for just under three-quarters of a million dollars per year ... one trustee ...IT costs ... I can hardly believe it myself, but by a strange coincidence, what it costs them to run the Green Climate Fund adds up to ... well ... about seven and a half million dollars.

And that means that of the $7.5 million dollars donated by taxpayers all over the world, the people in the developing countries will get ...

None.

Like I said, while I bemoan the waste of resources, I see all this as good news. Any country that takes a serious look at what's happened to the first seven plus million that was donated to the Green Climate Fund will certainly have second thoughts about giving them money.

And that's a good thing, because if they are this profligate with the first seven and a half million ... can you imagine these same pack of over-fed fools in charge the dispensing of two hundred billion dollars to the developing world? I shudder to think of the waste, corruption, bribery, blackmail, and tribalism that would be involved in that kind of an industrial-scale goat-rope. The only people who'd be happy if that happened would be corrupt developing world leaders ... and of course, Swiss bankers ...

w.

DATA: I do give the GCF high marks for one thing: transparency. All relevant documents are here.