“I also will choose their mockeries, and will recompense their sins upon them; because I called them, and they did not hearken to me; I spoke, and they heard not: and they did evil before me, and chose the things wherein I delighted not.”
(Isaiah 66:4)
Choose Their Mockeries

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or Right-click to Download PDF.

Lucifer the Divine Androgyne

End Of The American Dream

Jerusalem Post: U.S. Bombing Of Iran “Will Be Massive But Will Be Limited To A Specific Target” (link)

by Michael Snyder

June 17, 2019

I write this article with a heavy heart. In recent weeks I had come to the conclusion that there probably would not be a war with Iran in 2019, but now I have to admit that I was wrong. U.S. officials were very quick to blame Iran for the attack on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, and President Trump’s advisers have reportedly been pushing him very hard to strike Iran. President Trump had been hesitant to engage Iran militarily, but now it appears that he is going to give the war hawks in his administration exactly what they want. According to the Jerusalem Post, a bombing campaign is being planned that “will be massive but will be limited to a specific target”…

According to the officials, since Friday, the White House has been holding incessant discussions involving senior military commanders, Pentagon representatives and advisers to President Donald Trump.

The military action under consideration would be an aerial bombardment of an Iranian facility linked to its nuclear program, the officials further claimed.

“The bombing will be massive but will be limited to a specific target,” said a Western diplomat.

If this happens, it will start a war.

Iran is home to more than 81 million people, it is armed to the teeth, and it is the global central hub for Shia Islam.

It would be the biggest war that the United States has fought since World War II, and the Iranians would fight to the death and they would throw everything that they have at us. That would include unleashing all Iranian and Hezbollah operatives in North America to conduct widespread terror operations. Blood would be spilled on a massive scale, and there would be great chaos inside our own nation.

Are we sure that we really want that?

Unfortunately, events are beginning to spin out of control very rapidly now. On Monday, Iran announced that it will surpass the uranium stockpile limit that was established by Obama’s nuclear deal in just 10 days…

“Today the countdown to pass the 300 kilograms reserve of enriched uranium has started and in 10 days time we will pass this limit,” said Iran’s atomic energy organisation spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi.

“This is based on the Articles 26 and 36 of the (nuclear deal), and will be reversed once other parties live up to their commitments.”

Kamalvandi acknowledged the country has already QUADRUPLED its production of low-enriched uranium.

Needless to say, that is likely to accelerate U.S. military planning.

And very shortly after Iran announced this, U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan released a statement announcing that 1,000 more U.S. troops are being sent to the Middle East…

The United States is sending 1,000 additional troops to the Middle East, amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran. The decision follows last week’s attack on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman that the U.S. blamed on Tehran, with the Pentagon releasing new images on Monday that officials said show Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members removing an unexploded mine from one of the ship’s hulls.

“In response to a request from the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) for additional forces, and with the advice of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and in consultation with the White House, I have authorized approximately 1,000 additional troops for defensive purposes to address air, naval, and ground-based threats in the Middle East,” acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said in a statement on Monday.

Sending troops to the Middle East will raise tensions, but it won’t start a war.

However, bombing Iran will start a war, and there seems to be a growing consensus in Washington that it needs to be done. For example, just consider the words of Senator Tom Cotton…

As the Trump administration works to convince allies that Iran was responsible for last week’s attack on two tankers near the Persian Gulf, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said Sunday that “this unprovoked attack on commercial shipping warrants retaliatory military strikes.”

“The fastest way to get the fire and fury of the U.S. military unleashed on you is to interfere with the freedom of navigation on the open seas and in the air,” Cotton told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Unfortunately, most Americans don’t seem to understand that this would not be anything like our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iran has been preparing for a military confrontation with the west for decades, and many are convinced that their weapons programs are much more advanced than we have been led to believe.

As our friends at ANP have pointed out, back in 2016 a former director of the CIA and four other formerly high ranking U.S. officials co-authored an editorial in which they made the claim that Iran already has nuclear weapons…

We assess, from U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency reports and other sources, that Iran probably already has nuclear weapons. Over 13 years ago, prior to 2003, Iran was manufacturing nuclear-weapon components, like bridge-wire detonators and neutron initiators, performing non-fissile explosive experiments of an implosion nuclear device, and working on the design of a nuclear warhead for the Shahab-III missile.

Thirteen years ago Iran was already a threshold nuclear-missile state. It is implausible that Iran suspended its program for over a decade for a nuclear deal with President Obama.

Iran probably has nuclear warheads for the Shahab-III medium-range missile, which they tested for making EMP attacks. Two recent tests violate UN agreements, demonstrating that Iran is brazenly developing its nuclear-capable missiles. Iran already has the largest medium-range ballistic-missile force in the Middle East.

The individuals that co-authored those paragraphs have some extremely impressive credentials…

Ambassador R. James Woolsey, former director of central intelligence, is the chancellor of the Institute of World Politics and the chairman of the Leadership Council of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies; William R. Graham was President Reagan’s science adviser, and acting administrator of NASA, and is the chairman of the Congressional EMP Commission; Ambassador Henry Cooper was the director of the Strategic Defense Initiative and chief negotiator at the Defense and Space Talks with the USSR; Fritz Ermarth was chairman of the National Intelligence Council; Peter Vincent Pry is executive director of the EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security and served iThe individuals that co-authored those paragraphs have some extremely impressive credentials…

n the Congressional Strategic Posture Commission, the House Armed Services Committee, and the CIA.n the Congressional Strategic Posture Commission, the House Armed Services Committee, and the CIA.

Yes, it is possible that they could be wrong.

But what if they are right?

Could we be walking into a war against a bunch of apocalyptic nutjobs that already have nuclear weapons and wouldn’t be afraid to use them against us and our allies?

There is no way that we should be rushing into a war with Iran, because the consequences of such a war could be unthinkable.

We have an extremely limited amount of time to stop this conflict from happening, because once the missiles start flying there will be no turning back.

The clock is ticking, and one wrong move could spark World War 3. Let us pray that President Trump makes the right decisions, because the fate of countless lives is now in his hands.

(It remains to be seen how this will play out. We know from Ezekiel 38 that Persia, (Iran) is the first ally mentioned of Gog and the land of Magog which come against the land of Israel resulting in the battle of Armageddon. Revelation 16:16)

***

RT

‘Iran made a very big mistake!’ Trump sounds off after US drone shot down

Published time: 20 Jun, 2019 14:29 Edited time: 20 Jun, 2019 15:43

Amid disputes over the authenticity of reports that Iran shot down a US drone, US President Donald Trump tweeted early Thursday with a clear message: “Iran made a very big mistake!”

Washington claims that the surveillance drone was in international airspace at the time that it was brought down, while Tehran says it was spying on southern Iran.

An unnamed US official told Reuters that the debris field from the US military drone was located in the international waters area of the Strait of Hormuz. They also confirmed that US Navy vessels are en route to investigate.

If the remains of the drone are located outside Iranian territory, it could undermine Tehran's account of the incident and mark a significant escalation in simmering tensions between the two states.

“US drone intrusion into Iranian airspace is in clear violation of the UN Charter and national sovereignty of the country," Chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, said Thursday, while urging his government to file a formal complaint with the UN.

Falahatpisheh accused the US of breaching Chapter seven of the UN Charter and that its drone operations constituted a hostile move against the national security and sovereignty of Iran.

MailOnline

Penguin 'racism' storm as publisher releases book by conspiracy theorist 'who peddles anti-Semitic views'

• How They Rule the World: The 22 Strategies of Global Power faces criticism

• The book, written by Pedro Banos, has octopus tentacles on its cover

• Nazi cartoons depicted Jews as octopuses with tentacles encircling the globe

• In Spanish Banos writes of the Jewish Rothschild's family's 'economic power'

By CHRIS HASTINGS FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

PUBLISHED: 22:00, 15 June 2019 | UPDATED: 22:00, 15 June 2019

Publishing giant Penguin is facing a storm of criticism for bringing out a book by a conspiracy theorist accused of peddling anti-Semitic views.

How They Rule the World: The 22 Secret Strategies Of Global Power, by Pedro Banos, is being published by Penguin’s Ebury Press imprint, which says it is ‘an utterly gripping manual on the secrets of how strategic power really works’.

The book’s cover features octopus tentacles – an image long associated with anti-Semitism. Nazi cartoons depicted Jews as octopuses with tentacles encircling the globe.

How They Rule the World: The 22 Secret Strategies Of Global Power, by Pedro Banos, is being published by Penguin’s Ebury Press imprint, which says it is ‘an utterly gripping manual on the secrets of how strategic power really works’

In the Spanish-language original, Banos writes of the Jewish Rothschild family’s supposed ‘gigantic economic power’, ‘ability to influence in all senses’ and ‘capacity to intervene in key global decisions’. These references have been cut out of the English translation, fuelling suspicion that Penguin has tried to sanitise the book.

American historian Deborah Lipstadt joined forces with Penguin in a landmark case in the High Court in 2000, after she accused far-Right author David Irving of being a Holocaust denier and he unsuccessfully sued for libel.

But last night, she told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I am disappointed by Penguin’s decision to publish the book.

‘Why would anyone want to give voice to someone who is racist?

‘The octopus is absolutely an anti-Semitic caricature, especially when used in relation to finance.’

The Campaign Against Anti-Semitism has asked Penguin to withdraw the book.

Penguin said Banos ‘does not in our opinion express views in this publication, including in the parts omitted, that are anti-Semitic’.

The publisher described the octopus ‘as a symbol of domination by an imperialist power’.

CHRISTIAN NEWS

Pastor Jailed During ‘Drag Queen Story Hour,’ SWAT Team Snipers Positioned Atop Library Roof

By Heather Clark

June 16, 2019

SPOKANE, Wash. — A Baptist pastor was arrested and jailed on Saturday after refusing to move across the street from the Spokane, Washington Public Library while exercising his free speech against a “Drag Queen Story Hour.” The event had a significant militaristic police presence, including camouflaged snipers positioned atop the roof to oversee the large crowd that stood both for and against the men dressed like women reading stories to children.

Afhsin Yaghtin of New Covenant Baptist Church was arrested for obstructing an officer as he contended with police that the South Hill Library is public property and that he should be able to speak adjacent to the facility instead of being required to stand across the street.

Video footage posted to social media shows police telling Yaghtin that if he does not support the event, he needs to stand on the other side of the street, away from the library — though those defending the drag queens were permitted to be on the same side.

“So, I can stand right here,” Yaghtin states to one officer. “No, you are going to need to go across the street,” the officer replies.

Yaghtin then speaks to another officer, and is again told to stand across the street. He asserts that the library should be considered public property as the event is solely in one room.

“This is a public library. The only event that they’ve reserved is a private room,” Yaghtin argued. “The rest of the library is U.S. property. … I have the right to free speech wherever I want to speak.”

He was soon taken into custody and charged with obstructing the police, or as reports state, “trying to enter the non-designated protest area.” Yaghtin has since been released.

According to The Spokesman-Review, an estimated 40 police officers were stationed outside of the library. Those who supported the event — approximately 400 in all — stood adjacent to library property, and those opposed to the “Drag Queen Story Time” — about 200 concerned residents — were asked by police to stand on the other side of the street.

One photo posted to social media shows a man in camouflage standing atop the South Hill Library. The Charles Carroll Society also posted photos on its website of men on the roof holding binoculars. See here and here. Sgt. Terry Preuniger of the Spokane Police Department told reporters that the police had thought people were going to bring firearms to the library.

“From looking at online conversations, police expected to see people armed on both sides, which resulted in a strong police presence on Saturday, he said, but no civilians showed up openly carrying guns,” The Spokesman-Review states.

“The police presence was a little ridiculous. They had snipers on the roofs. They wouldn’t allow us into the library,” Anna Bohach of 500 Mom Strong told the outlet.

A law enforcement dispatcher supervisor through Spokane County 911 confirmed to Christian News Network that those atop the library roof were snipers “most likely” with the Spokane Police Department SWAT team as opposed to the county SWAT team.

Other photos of the event show three drag queen supporters dressed as “angels” with sheets for wings, appearing to do so to block out the opposition. Some present held signs such as “All hail the queens,” “God is love; why do you hate” and “Oh, look a guy in a dress reading to kids” with a drawing of Jesus surrounded by children.

“If Jesus was around today, He would be on this side,” one man who brought his son and daughter to the Story Hour claimed. His son wore a dress to the event.

One drag queen, who goes by the stage name Katie Rockswell, read a book to the children entitled “A Family Is a Family Is a Family.” The short story is about children having different parental situations, as some have a mom and a dad, some have two “dads,” some live with their grandmother, and some are split between both parents.

Those who opposed the event preached in the open air, held signs or sang songs. Signs included, “Teach your kids to love their DNA. Gender fluidity is a lie,” “Read the Bible,” “Drag = misogyny” and “Only Jesus saves sinners from Hell.”

According to reports, an estimated 50 children attended the event with their parents.

“May God use this for His glory and His glory alone,” Yaghtin said of his arrest on social media following his release. “God bless all my supporters and friends and those who inspire me to stand strong for the Lord Jesus by their godly example!”

***

RT

‘Radical feminism’ or overdue reform? UK bans ‘harmful gender stereotypes’ in ads

Published time: 15 Jun, 2019 00:15

The UK has officially banned “harmful gender stereotypes” in advertising over concerns it could contribute to societal inequality. But is this political correctness run amok, or long-overdue reform?

The UK Advertising Standards Authority has banned “harmful gender stereotypes” likely to cause “serious or widespread offense” from all ads in a ruling that takes effect Friday. The rule springs from a 2017 review that found absorbing gender stereotypes through advertising could limit people’s potential and play a part in “unequal gender outcomes.”

Complaints will be dealt with on a case-by case basis, examining the “content and context” to assess whether the rule had been broken, as using non-offensive gender stereotypes – such as women shopping, or men doing work around the house – is still OK under the new rules, as is using stereotypes to subvert expectations.

Scenarios like a man failing at changing diapers or a woman unable to park a car, however, would run afoul of the new rules. The advertising authority also called out stereotypes in children’s behavior, warning that ads depicting girls as “caring” and boys as “daring” would come under scrutiny. Violators will be referred to Ofcom or the Trading Standards board for sanctions if the ASA is unable to reach an agreement with the offending company, and their ads may be withheld from broadcast.

“This is just the advertising industry bowing down to radical feminism,” Justice for Men and Boys leader Mike Buchanan told RT, pointing out that while “only 9 percent of British women self-identify as feminists,” their influence is wildly disproportionate.

‘This is all about trying to make women more like men, and that requires men to become more like women.’

The new regulations actually have “nothing to do with feminism,” argued feminist campaigner Linda Bellos. “It’s got to do with the law,” which “has said since the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act that women should be treated no less favorably than men.”

‘We don’t want to see stereotyped versions and visions of us cleaning up after chaps.’

But women don’t “want to become more like men,” Buchanan insisted. “They cherish things like family life, and there’s a big difference in the work ethics of men and women and that isn’t changing.”

“I can’t see what a uterus has got to do with picking up your own clothes, putting in the washing machine, washing the dishes, cooking food for yourself,“ Bellos retorted. “I want my son and grandson to be able to clean up after themselves, not just to think that it’s a women’s job. You might think it’s radical, but this is the 21st century.”

***

ASKDrBrown

Posted Jun 17, 2019 by Michael L. Brown

You would think that these words were taken straight out of my forthcoming book on Jezebel’s War with America. You would think they came from the pen of a conservative follower of Jesus. But they did not. They were written by a self-proclaimed feminist witch. She said, “The fact that the resurgence of feminism and the popularity of the witch are ascending at the same time is no coincidence: the two are reflections of each other.”

Precisely so!

Writing for Time.com, Pam Grossman explains, “Today, more women than ever are choosing the way of the witch, whether literally or symbolically. They’re floating down catwalks and sidewalks in gauzy black clothing and adorning themselves with Pinterest-worthy pentagrams and crystals. They’re filling up movie theaters to watch witchy films, and gathering in back rooms and backyards to do rituals, consult tarot cards and set life-altering intentions. They’re marching in the streets with HEX THE PATRIARCHY placards and casting spells each month to try to constrain the commander-in-chief. Year after year, articles keep proclaiming, ‘It’s the Season of the Witch!’ as journalists try to wrap their heads around the mushrooming witch ‘trend.’”

Shades of the spirit of Jezebel herself. Shades of that idol-worship seductress from biblical times who emasculated men, silenced the prophets, and practiced sorcery and witchcraft.

Jezebel is on the rise.

It is the thesis of my new book that there is a direct and real spiritual connection between the rise of radical feminism, the explosion of porn, the attack on masculinity, the militant abortion movement, and the resurgence of witchcraft. And the ascendancy of Donald Trump to president, for better or for worse, has served to highlight all these different but related streams.

A headline on October 4, 2018, announced, “THE US WITCH POPULATION HAS SEEN AN ASTRONOMICAL RISE.” A few weeks later, another headline proclaimed, “The Fastest Growing Religion In America Is Witchcraft.”

Is it any surprise that, side by side with radical feminism, witchcraft is on the rise in America? It is certainly is no coincidence.

Grossman is absolutely right. These are two sides of the same coin.

At the beginning of her book Radical Feminism: Feminist Activism in Movement, Finn Mackay offers this fascinating account from West Germany: “In the midst of the Cold War, in a divided country, feminists were about to start a global movement that for decades to come would unite women in symbolic protest against male violence against women. Shortly before midnight on 30 April 1977, small groups of women began gathering in the centre of towns and cities across West Germany: Bochum, Frankfurt, Cologne, Hanau. They were dressed as witches, carried flaming torches and had painted women’s symbols on their faces. The date of their synchronised protest was no accident. They were assembling on that night to mark what is still known across Germany as Walpurgis Night, a superstitious tradition to mark the coming of May; a time when witches and tricksters are believed to roam.”

To be sure, all people should stand together to oppose male violence against women. All people should unite in decrying honor killings, acid attacks, and the overall oppression of women in society. All of us should stand against reducing women to sex objects or treating them as second class citizens.

To the extent that feminists stand for those values, I stand with them.

But there is a radical feminism that despises males. That deplores the nuclear family. That demeans motherhood. That views babies as unwanted intrusions (and merely a clump of cells while in the womb). That holds all men guilty.

As expressed by the radical feminist Robin Morgan, “I feel that ‘man-hating’ is an honorable and viable political act, that the oppressed have a right to class-hatred against the class that is oppressing them.”

Or, in the words of Andrea Dworkin, “Marriage as an institution developed from rape as a practice.”

This is the spirit of radical feminism, the man-hating spirit, the spirit of Jezebel.

And it is intimately connected to the spirit of witchcraft.

As expressed by Lily Burana in the Huffington Post last December, “The modern witch, as we would recognize her today, is a mid-20th-century phenomenon, as laid out in a lovely Boston Review piece by journalist Jesse Kindig. ‘In their 1968 manifesto,’ Kindig writes, ‘the women’s liberation activists from W.I.T.C.H. (Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell) proposed that “A witch lives and laughs in every woman. She is the free part of each of us.” It is this history ― from 1486 on ― that explains today’s global feminist protest chant, “We are the granddaughters of all the witches you could not burn!”’”

Jezebel is back with a vengeance.

THE COLLEGE FIX

Texas governor signs bill making sex jokes on campus a criminal offense

GREG PIPER - ASSOCIATE EDITOR •JUNE 17, 2019

Get ready for ‘explosion of frivolous investigations into protected speech’

Greg Abbott issued broad protections for campus speech a week ago. A few days later, he rendered those new protections meaningless.

Ignoring warnings from a civil-liberties groupand yours truly, the Republican governor signed provisions into Texas law that use criminal law to enforce the Obama administration’s unconstitutional definition of campus sexual harassment.

Their practical effect will be scaring faculty and other university employees into reporting any “sex-based” conduct or speech that may be “unwelcome” to someone at their campus. That includes overheard sex jokes.

SB 212 threatens termination and up to six months in jail for any campus employee who “witnesses or receives information” – that means hearsay – that may count as sexual harassment under this exceedingly broad definition, and fails to report it to the Title IX apparatus.

Those staggering employment and criminal penalties practically ensure that Title IX offices will be flooded with sexual harassment reports, and that students will be subjected to wide-ranging administrative investigations for constitutionally protected speech.

Abbott signed both SB 212 and a related bill, HB 1735, that uses the same definition of sexual harassment and deprives accused students of basic due process. Texas law will conflict with U.S. Department of Education rules if proposed Title IX revisions remain substantially similar in the final published regulation.

The purportedly conservative governor has been on notice for three years that broad definitions of sexual harassment are unconstitutional on their face.

In a 2016 op-ed in Abbott’s local newspaper, Executive Director Robert Shibley of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education noted that an anti-gun protest at the University of Texas counts as sexual harassment under the Obama administration’s Title IX guidance.

Why is that? Because students were waving around sex toys in the “Cocks Not Glocks” protest. It would be shocking if the display of silicone erections and sexually themed chanting were not “unwelcome” to someone on campus.

The new Texas laws now functionally incorporate the Obama administration guidance that the Trump administration’s Department of Education rescinded. The “unwelcome” standard – which has no objective component – was mandated by President Obama’s department in a “blueprint” agreement with the University of Montana in 2013, a move it repeated with the University of New Mexico in 2016.

The non-criminal provisions of the bills take effect in September, while the criminal portion takes effect in January, FIRE’s Tyler Coward writes in a blog post:

This means Texas’s students and faculty will be forced to navigate new, unconstitutional speech codes this academic year that will inevitably lead to an explosion of frivolous investigations into protected speech, self-censorship, and possibly even jail time for faculty members who run afoul of the new law.

Coward, who serves as legislative counsel for FIRE, predicted that the new Texas laws will be struck down in court, since similar speech restrictions “have fallen time, and time, and time again in Texas.”

But in the meantime, he encourages students and faculty to contact FIRE if the two laws result in “deprivation of their free speech or due process rights.”

***

Strange Sounds

June 16, 2019

Pupils at an elite primary school in China wear brainwave-detecting headbands that allow teachers to track concentration levels in real-time

Children at an elite primary school in China wear brainwave-detecting headbands that allow teachers to track concentration levels in real-time. Picture via Weibo

The practice was exposed in a series of photos, showing students at Jiangnan Experimental School wearing black electronic headbands while in class.

At the end of a class, the portal provides a report that highlights students with the three highest scores.

A bit of research reveals that Jiangnan Experimental School is far from the only educational institution in China that has embraced the brain-machine interface. The Paper.cn reported (in Chinese) in February that in the city of Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, a primary school introduced the same products in its classrooms. Teachers are able to tell what students are not paying attention based on colors that light up on their headbands.

(How much closer to the “mark of the beast” can they get. Ed)

***

CASEY RESEARCH

New Implants Will Give Humans Superpowers

By Jeff Brown June 12, 2019

By Jeff Brown, editor, Exponential Tech Investor

In the next 10 years, everything you know about “being human” will change…

Everything from how we think… how we’re born… and what it means to die will change in ways we can’t possibly predict.

It’s the biggest inflection point in human history. The changes in the next decade will dwarf anything we’ve seen before.

The impact will be bigger than anything we saw with the internet… the internal combustion engine… or even the printing press.

That’s a bold claim – and I don’t make it lightly. I wouldn’t have said something like that even three years ago. But it’s here now.

Right now, bleeding-edge technologies are in development that’ll either elevate mankind to new highs or throw it into chaos.

You may be skeptical. But let me show you the evidence…

“Superpowered” Humans

Science fiction has always preceded technological progress.

Before we had televisions, airplanes, and FaceTime, there were ideas of “moving pictures,” “flying machines,” and “telephots” in sci-fi novels and pulp comic books.

So the idea of “superpowered” humans might not be as impossible as we think.

Researchers at Brown University have developed tiny wireless brain implants called “neurograins.”

They’re 0.25-square-millimeter implants that can rapidly communicate with external devices like computers or smartphones.

This technology could allow you to control your computer and smartphone just by thinking about what you’d like to do – rather than moving a mouse or tapping a keypad.

What’s more, these implants can harvest energy from the brain’s electrical system. So they don’t need their own power source. And they can serve many purposes…

With paralysis or stroke victims, these implants could be paired with smart wheelchairs or prosthetic limbs to restore motor skills.

And thinking bigger, this technology could eventually give humans “superpowers.” The ability to communicate and control objects through thought isn’t that far off.

What constitutes “normal human abilities” could change dramatically.

And that’s just the beginning…

When Humans Are “Produced”

Some of you may be familiar with CRISPR genetic editing technology.

CRISPR technology is like software programming for DNA. Basically, it allows scientists to “cut out” genetic mutations in our DNA and replace them with “healthy” versions.

CRISPR will one day allow us to cure every disease caused by a genetic mutation. But that’s not where it stops.

It can also be used to genetically modify human embryos. In essence, the technology could produce “better” human beings.

The U.S. and the West have been very vocal against genetically modifying embryos. But the Chinese have shown a willingness to take a different route.

Last November, genetically modified twins were born in China. The man responsible was a Chinese scientist, He Jiankui.

Let’s take a minute to consider the ethical implications of this. We know that genetically modifying human embryos is possible. But what’s the ethical way to use this technology?

Should we use it to increase human IQs? Or what about creating humans with denser muscle tissues? Those are very real questions the world will have to grapple with in the years ahead.

And stretch your imagination a bit further…

What if a nation or a society set up a program to ensure that every child born was stronger and smarter than any other in the world? This is precisely what Aldous Huxley predicted in his sci-fi masterpiece, Brave New World.

This was also the goal of the Nazis. They wanted to create a “master race.” And CRISPR technology in the wrong hands could one day accomplish that.

I know. It’s scary to think about.

And there’s another bleeding-edge technology that should be on your radar…

The Search for Immortality

Back in April, scientists at Yale took a pig’s head from a local slaughterhouse and brought it back to the lab roughly four hours after the pig was slaughtered.

Then, they pumped an artificial blood mixture back into the brain – and restored cellular functionality. The brain cells were able to produce energy and remove waste, helping to maintain the brain’s internal structures.

To be clear, this did not restore the pig’s consciousness, only its mechanical function. But obviously, this is an incredible feat that’s never been done before.

Now, I know this is a weird thing to do… But the potential applications for humans are simply amazing.

Think about what happens when someone has a stroke. A stroke can cause forms of brain damage – which causes loss of muscle control – leading to all kinds of problems.

That’s why stroke victims sometimes have trouble with the left or right sides of their body.

Well, guess what?

The techniques the Yale scientists are working on could restore brain function to stroke victims…

And imagine if this technology progressed further…

What if we could restore consciousness to a recently deceased brain? What if you could bring a human brain “back to life” long enough for a person to settle their affairs and say goodbye?

The implications are staggering – and might even make us a little uncomfortable.

But make no mistake, there’s a niche group of scientists devoted to eliminating death in human beings… essentially, immortality.

I’m not suggesting that’s a good thing, only that there are many technologists looking at extending life far beyond anything we can imagine. And the early results from this experiment show that it might not be as impossible as it sounds.

Plenty of Questions

If what I’ve shown you so far makes you a little uncomfortable, it should.

The ethical questions that mankind will face in the next decade will be unprecedented. There’s no historical example of what we’re going to face.

But I’m not telling you all this to worry you. As a technologist, I believe that technology has always been a force for good. And I believe technology will also solve some of society’s biggest problems in the years ahead.

But we’re at an inflection point. Over the next two decades, society will either become one of abundance for all or descend into chaos.

Time will tell which wins out.

Regards,

Jeff Brown
Editor, Exponential Tech Investor

***

AP

New York ends religious exemption to vaccine mandates

By DAVID KLEPPERJune 14, 2019

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York eliminated the religious exemption to vaccine requirements for schoolchildren Thursday, as the nation’s worst measles outbreak in decades prompts states to reconsider giving parents ways to opt out of immunization rules.

The Democrat-led Senate and Assembly voted Thursday to repeal the exemption, which allows parents to cite religious beliefs to forego getting their child the vaccines required for school enrollment.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, signed the measure minutes after the final vote. The law takes effect immediately but will give unvaccinated students up to 30 days after they enter a school to show they’ve had the first dose of each required immunization.

With New York’s move, similar exemptions are still allowed in 45 states, though lawmakers in several of them have introduced their own legislation to eliminate the waiver.

The issue is hotly contested and debate around it has often been emotional, pitting cries that religious freedom is being curtailed against warnings that public health is being endangered. After the vote in the Assembly, many of those watching from the gallery erupted in cries of “shame!” One woman yelled obscenities down to the lawmakers below.

The debate has only intensified with this year’s measles outbreak, which federal officials recently said has surpassed 1,000 illnesses, the highest in 27 years.

“I’m not aware of anything in the Torah, the Bible, the Koran or anything else that suggests you should not get vaccinated,” said Bronx Democrat Jeffrey Dinowitz, the bill’s Assembly sponsor. “If you choose to not vaccinate your child, therefore potentially endangering other children ... then you’re the one choosing not to send your children to school.”

Hundreds of parents of unvaccinated children gathered at New York’s Capitol for the vote to protest.

Stan Yung, a Long Island attorney and father, said his Russian Orthodox religious views and health concerns about vaccines will prevent him from vaccinating his three young children. His family, he said, may consider leaving the state.

“People came to this country to get away from exactly this kind of stuff,” Yung said ahead of Thursday’s votes.

Supporters of the bill say religious beliefs about vaccines shouldn’t eclipse scientific evidence that they work, noting the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1905 that states have the right to enforce compulsory vaccination laws. During the Assembly’s floor debate, supporters brought up scourges of the past that were defeated in the U.S. through vaccines.

“I’m old enough to have been around when polio was a real threat,” said Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, D-Manhattan. “I believe in science.... Your personal opinions, which may be based on junk science, do not trump the greater good.”

Supporters also suggest some parents may be claiming the religious exemption for their children even though their opposition is actually based on scientifically discredited claims about the dangers of vaccines.

The bill would not change an existing state exemption given to children who cannot have vaccines for medical reasons, such as a weakened immune system.

Cuomo told reporters on Wednesday that he believes public health — and the need to protect those who cannot get vaccinated because for medical reasons — outweighs the concerns about religious freedom.

“I understand freedom of religion,” he said. “I have heard the anti-vaxxers’ theory, but I believe both are overwhelmed by the public health risk.”

The current measles outbreak has renewed concern about the exemptions in many states. The nation last saw as many cases in 1992, when more than 2,200 were reported.

The majority of cases are from outbreaks in New York in Orthodox Jewish communities.

California removed personal belief vaccine exemptions for children in both public and private schools in 2015, after a measles outbreak at Disneyland sickened 147 people and spread across the U.S. and into Canada. Maine ended its religious exemptionearlier this year.

Mississippi and West Virginia also do not allow religious exemptions.

Once common in the U.S., measles became rare after vaccination campaigns that started in the 1960s. A decade ago, there were fewer than 100 cases a year.

***

MailOnline

Mysterious white UFO is filmed hovering over Area 51 by hikers who also capture a giant new aircraft hangar, as military helicopters patrol and jets land

• YouTuber Adventures with Christian filmed secret base Area 51 in Nevada, US

• He scaled to the top of Tikaboo Peak to see the mysterious US Air Base

• At one point a mysterious floating white object can be seen above a hangar

By EMER SCULLY FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 11:01, 14 June 2019 | UPDATED: 14:58, 14 June 2019

Article

An unidentified flying object can be seen at the top left of a hangar a jet is seen travelling through

***

RT

Spirited debate in India over govt call for new Sanskrit-ONLY villages

Published time: 14 Jun, 2019 21:18

Indian participants attend a Sanskrit class at the Sanskrit Samvadshala on the outskirts of New Delhi. © AFP / Sajjad Hussain

The Indian government has floated the idea of establishing two new villages inhabited exclusively by Sanskrit speakers. The push to promote the ancient sacred language – spoken by some 25,000 – has ignited a national debate.

India’s minister for Human Resource Development, Ramesh Pokhriyal, proposed the idea this week, saying that the new villages should be located near the language institutes dedicated to language preservation.

Sanskrit is over 3,500 years old, and is the main language of Hindu philosophy and also the major textual canons of Buddhism and Jainism. The language is studied over 50 million pupils in Indian schools but only around 25,000 people speak it as their mother tongue.

Pokhriyal emphasized the need to hire more Sanskrit teachers and university professors, in order to revive the language within India and promote it at the international level. He added that his ministry plans to establish a center – Bhasha Bhawan – in which institutes representing all Indian languages will have their own office.

The plan has touched off a spirited debate on social media, with some Indians expressing skepticism that the proposal represents a wise use of public money, considering that there are five Sanskrit-only villages in India already.

Another line of criticism was that trying to promote widespread use of Sanskrit was “a fool’s idea” because it is “God’s language” that common people cannot understand.

Others, however, praised the plan as bold step to promote an important part of Indian culture.

Pokhriyal’s initiative falls under the conservative, traditionalist and Hindu nationalist platform of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Its efforts to promote Indian culture as a way of resisting westernization have led to electoral triumph, but also criticism for implicit sectarianism against India’s marginalized Muslim minority.

***

RT

Sanskrit shocker! Claims of 7,000yo inter-planetary planes shake up Indian Science Congress

Published time: 5 Jan, 2015 14:44 Edited time: 5 Jan, 2015 18:20

Mahabharata manuscript illustration of the Battle of Kurukshetra (Image from Wikipedia.org) © Wikipedia

Ancient knives so sharp they could slit a hair in two, 24-carat gold extracted from cow dung and even 7,000-year-old planes that could travel to other planets. Those are just a couple of the startling claims made at this week’s Indian Science Congress.

The surprising discoveries based on ancient Hindu texts, such as the Vedas and the Puranas, were presented at a session on “Ancient Indian Sciences through Sanskrit,” held for the first time in the history of the Indian Science Congress, which took place for the 102nd time in Mumbai on Sunday.

One of the more controversial lectures, presented by Captain Anand Bodas, a retired principal of a pilot training facility, was dedicated to ancient airplane technology. “There is a reference to ancient aviation in the Rigveda,” Bodas said.

“The basic structure was of 60 by 60 feet, and in some cases, over 200 feet. They were jumbo planes,” Bodas said. “The ancient planes had 40 small engines. Today's aviation does not know even of a flexible exhaust system.”

The ancient aircraft could not only move in any direction, but travel between planets, Captain Bodas claimed.

The more than 3,000-year-old manuscript also described ancient pilots’ diet and clothes. According to Bodas, during specific periods pilots drank the milk of buffalo, cow and sheep, and they wore clothes made from vegetation grown underwater.

“Now we have to import aeroplane alloys. The young generation should study the alloys mentioned in his book [Vimana Samhita by Maharishi Bharadwaj] and make them here,” Bodas said.

Bodas’s bodacious claims infuriated other participants in the congress, however.

NASA scientist Ram Prasad Gandhiraman started an online petition, demanding that the Indian Science Congress to cancel Bodas’s lecture, because it mixed mythology and science. "If we scientists remain passive, we are betraying not only the science, but also our children," said the petition, which was signed by over 1,000 people. Overall, in the last couple of weeks dozens of scientists slammed the idea to give a platform to “pseudoscience.”

However, the organizers of the congress, which unites over 30,000 Indian scientists, believed they were reviving the “vast knowledge of science” contained in the Indian holy texts.

At last Saturday’s ceremony at the beginning of the conference, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the nation’s scientists to “explore the mysteries of science.”

"We in India are the inheritors of a thriving tradition of Indian science and technology since ancient times' mathematics and medicine, metallurgy and mining, calculus and textiles, architecture and astronomy,” said Modi, who is a Hindu nationalist. “The contribution of Indian civilization to human knowledge and advancement has been rich and varied.”

Union minister for environment, Prakash Javadekar, stressed the possibility to find application of ancient Indian concepts of technology in the modern world. "Scientists of ancient India, who lacked sophisticated tools or machines, developed accurate scientific concepts based on minute observations and logic," he said, The Hindustan Times reported.

Among other technologies, introduced at the congress there were polymers to build houses, made of cactus juice, egg shells and cow dung; a cow bacteria that turns anything eaten by an animal into pure gold, and the curious procedure of an autopsy, conducted by leaving a dead body floating in water for three days.

***

***

BBC

Electrical failure cuts power to all of Argentina and Uruguay, supplier says

June 16, 2019

A massive electrical failure has left all of Argentina and Uruguay without power, according to a major Argentine electricity provider.

Reports said the power cut had also affected parts of Brazil and Paraguay.

Argentine media said the power cut occurred shortly after 07:00 (11:00 BST), causing trains to be halted and failures with traffic signalling.

It came as people in parts of Argentina were preparing to go to the polls for local elections.

"A massive failure in the electrical interconnection system left all of Argentina and Uruguay without power," electricity supplier company Edesur said in a tweet.

Argentina's energy secretary, Gustavo Lopetegui, said the cause of the power failure had not yet been determined.

The Ministry of Civil Protection estimated that parts of the service could be restored in about seven or eight hours.

Edesur said that power had been restored to parts of Buenos Aires and local media reported that two airports were operating on generators in the capital.

Uruguay's energy company, UTE, said in a tweet that power had been restored to coastal areas.

The combined population of Argentina and Uruguay is about 48 million people.

Among the affected provinces in Argentina were Santa Fe, San Luis, Formosa, La Rioja, Chubut, Cordoba and Mendoza, reports said. Tierra del Fuego is the only area that remains unaffected.

Social media reports of the power were widespread - from the capital Buenos Aires in the north, to Mendoza in the west and Comodoro Rivadavia in the south, among many other cities.

One of Argentina's biggest water companies, Agua y Saneamientos Argentinos, warned those without power to limit their water use, as the distribution of drinking water had been affected by the power cut.

Residents posted pictures of dark towns and cities using the hashtag #SinLuz.

***

BREITBART

Exclusive: Facebook’s Process to Label You a ‘Hate Agent’ Revealed

By ALLUM BOKHARI

June 13, 2019

Facebook monitors the offline behavior of its users to determine if they should be categorized as a “Hate Agent,” according to a document provided exclusively to Breitbart News by a source within the social media giant.

The document, titled “Hate Agent Policy Review” outlines a series of “signals” that Facebook uses to determine if someone ought to be categorized as a “hate agent” and banned from the platform.

Those signals include a wide range of on- and off-platform behavior. If you praise the wrong individual, interview them, or appear at events alongside them, Facebook may categorize you as a “hate agent.”

Facebook may also categorize you as a hate agent if you self-identify with or advocate for a “Designated Hateful Ideology,” if you associate with a “Designated Hate Entity” (one of the examples cited by Facebook as a “hate entity” includes Islam critic Tommy Robinson), or if you have “tattoos of hate symbols or hate slogans.” (The document cites no examples of these, but the media and “anti-racism” advocacy groups increasingly label innocuous items as “hate symbols,” including a cartoon frog and the “OK” hand sign.)

Facebook will also categorize you as a hate agent for possession of “hate paraphernalia,” although the document provides no examples of what falls into this category.

The document also says Facebook will categorize you as a hate agent for “statements made in private but later made public.” Of course, Facebook holds vast amounts of information on what you say in public and in private — and as we saw with the Daily Beast doxing story, the platform will publicize private information on their users to assist the media in hitjobs on regular American citizens.

Breitbart News has already covered some of the individuals that Facebook placed on its list of potential “hate agents.” Paul Joseph Watson eventually was categorized as “hateful” and banned from the platform, in part, according to the document, because he praised Tommy Robinson and interviewed him on his YouTube channel. Star conservative pundit Candace Owens and conservative author and terrorism expert Brigitte Gabriel were also on the list, as were British politicians Carl Benjamin and Anne Marie Waters.

The Benjamin addition reveals that Facebook may categorize you as a hate agent merely for speaking neutrally about individuals and organizations that the social network considers hateful. In the document, Facebook tags Benjamin with a “hate agent” signal for “neutral representation of John Kinsman, member of Proud Boys” on October 21 last year.

Facebook also accuses Benjamin, a classical liberal and critic of identity politics, as “representing the ideology of an ethnostate” for a post in which he calls out an actual advocate of an ethnostate.

In addition to the more unorthodox signals that Facebook uses to determine if its users are “hate agents,” there is also, predictably, “hate speech.” Facebook divides hate speech into three tiers depending on severity and considers attacks on a person’s “immigration status” to be hate speech.

Here’s how “hate speech” — both on and off Facebook — will be categorized by the platform, according to the document:

Individual has made public statements, or statements made in private and later made public, using Tier 1, 2, or 3 hate speech or slurs:

3 instances in one statement or appearance = signal
5 instances in multiple statements or appearances over one month = signal

If you’ve done this within the past two years, Facebook will consider it a hate signal.

Other signals used by Facebook to determine if its users should be designated as hate agents include carrying out violence against people based on their “protected or quasi-protected characteristics,” attacks on places of worship, and conviction of genocide.

Are you a source at Facebook or any other corporation who wants to confidentially blow the whistle on wrongdoing or political bias at your company? Reach out to Allum Bokhari securely at allumbokhari@protonmail.com.

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News.

***

Zero Hedge

Meet The Mini-BOT: Italy Will Break Up The Eurozone

By Tyler Durden

June 19, 2019

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

A crisis is brewing in the Eurozone and it's not even on mainstream media radar. Italy is at the center of the crisis.

BOT stands for Buoni Ordinari del Tesoro (Ordinary Treasury Bonds).

Mini means the denomination is smaller than the lowest denomination of regular treasury bonds, which is €1,000, thus "Mini-BOT".

The Italian government, led unofficially by deputy prime ministers Matteo Salvini (League) and Luigi Di Maio (Five Star Movement) both support the idea of a parallel currency.

The technocrat prime minister, Giuseppe Cont, is not calling the shots and threatened to resign over this issue.

ECB president, Mario Draghi, proclaimed “Mini-BOTs are either money and then they are illegal, or they are debt and then the stock of debt goes up. I don’t think there is a third possibility.”

Possibility Three

A week ago, I noted possibility number three in Italy's Mini-BOT Trojan Horse Could Blow Up the Eurozone.

Possibility three is a Trojan horse designed as a stepping stone to get Italy out of the Eurozone.

Boiling Point

The Telegraph reports Italian Tensions Hit Boiling Point Over Plans for 'Currency' to Rival the Euro.

The two parties that make up the fractious governing alliance – the hard-Right League and the Five Star Movement – want to introduce a new type of government bond that would be used to pay off the state’s debts to companies and individuals.

Both the League and Five Star are deeply eurosceptic and have in the past mooted the idea of abandoning the common currency, with Matteo Salvini, the League’s combative leader, last year calling the euro “a mistaken experiment that has damaged jobs and the Italian economy".

The idea of introducing mini-BOTs has alarmed Europe, with Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank, saying on Thursday that they would either amount to a parallel currency, in which case they would be illegal, or they would simply add to Italy’s towering debt.

He received support a day later from Vincenzo Boccia, the president of Confindustria, Italy’s employers’ federation, who said: “We are on the same wavelength as Draghi about the mini-bots because it would just mean more public debt."

“There’s a complicated game going on between the League, Five Star, the Quirinale (the residence of the president of Italy, Sergio Mattarella), ministers and the prime minister,” said Prof Giovanni Orsina, a professor of politics at Luiss University in Rome.

Showdown Coming Soon

A showdown is certain.

The timing is unknown, but it is sooner rather than later.

At the moment, France is also in breach of economic rules and there is this "little" thing called Brexit on the ECB and EU's mind.

So the EU will do what it always does, pretend there is no crisis and hope it goes away. But it won't.

Meanwhile, Italy wants to do this and will do this, but it would rather the EU trigger the event.

Path Set

Italy's budget is not close to meeting EU rules.The EU has threatened Excessive Deficit Procedures against Italy.

The EU will bush this aside debt targets for as long as it can, but the fate is sealed. The EU will either have to abandon its rules or fine Italy.

The upcoming fine and a spike in Italian bond yields will be the trigger for Italy to escalate the crisis with Mini-BOTs.

The longer the EU waits, the more time Italy has to prepare for the Mini-BOT launch.

I expect this to trigger within a year, and possibly months.

Italy is set to leave the Eurozone. The Mini-BOT is the transition mechanism. Few see it coming.

Zero Hedge (Taken from a longer article.)

Hedge Fund CIO: "I Don’t Think The Public Is Aware Of What’s Coming"

By Tyler Durden

June 16, 2019

Submitted by Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management

“I don’t think we’re well prepared at all. And I don’t think the public is aware of what’s coming,” said the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He was discussing the rapid advance of synthesis technology. This new artificial intelligence capability allows competent programmers to create audio and video of anyone, saying absolutely anything.

The creations are called “deepfakes” and however outrageous they may be, they’re virtually indistinguishable from the real thing.

No sooner had we adjusted to a world where our reality seemed fake, then things that are fake became our reality.

“We’re outgunned,” said a UC Berkeley digital-forensics expert, “The number of people now working on video-synthesis outnumber those working on detecting deepfakes by 100-1.”

Twitter suspended 4,779 accounts it believed are associated with Iran’s theocratic leaders. It republished every tweet sent by these accounts to help researchers analyze and spot behavioral patterns. Already two-thirds of Americans say altered images and videos have become a major problem for understanding the basic facts of current events.

Misinformation researchers warn of growing “reality apathy” whereby it takes so much effort to distinguish between what’s real and fake that we simply give up and rely on our base instincts, tribal biases, impulses. Immersed in our leader’s deceits, we come to believe in nothing. Two oil tankers burst into flames, billowing smoke.

On cue, a suspicious Iranian Revolutionary Guard boat appeared on grainy video. Viral images flooded earth’s nine billion screens. Each side told a different story. No one quite knew who to trust. Conspiracy theories filled the void, as we each clung to what we most want to believe. And as truth slowly slipped away, we turned to market prices as our proxy for reality; oil prices fell, stocks rallied, volatility declined.

But of course, it is precisely because market prices still retain some reflection of reality that our policy makers and politicians work so desperately to manipulate them.

RT

Fears for Merkel’s health after she violently shakes while meeting Ukrainian president (VIDEO)

Published time: 18 Jun, 2019 13:44 Edited time: 18 Jun, 2019 14:41

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was spotted visibly unsteady and shaking when she met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The 64-year-old politician later said she recovered from the sickly condition after drinking water.

Merkel felt unwell while she greeted Zelensky outside the chancellery amid hot weather in Berlin. The two leaders were listening to a band, playing national anthems of the two countries, when Merkel started shaking and swaying around a little, footage from the scene shows.

© RT

Following the anthems, Merkel managed to get herself together and was seen walking quickly alongside Zelensky into the chancellery. The German leader later told reporters that she has fully recovered after drinking several glasses of water.

“Since then I have drunk at least three glasses of water – I obviously needed that and so I'm doing very well now,” she said.

The 64-year-old stateswoman has had similar bouts of trembling in the past, according to DPA International, and in at least one other case blamed the hot weather.

In 2014, she postponed a TV interview stating she felt weak, but was able to carry on after eating, her spokesperson said.

Despite rumors of ill health, however, it is not clear whether Merkel suffers from any health problems.

***

RT

Turkey’s Erdogan says former Egyptian president Morsi was ‘killed’

Published time: 19 Jun, 2019 13:42 Edited time: 19 Jun, 2019 15:09

File photo: © REUTERS/Mike Segar

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed that former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi “did not die, he was murdered” while speaking at an election rally in Istanbul Wednesday.

Morsi suffered a fatal heart attack following a court appearance Monday and now the Turkish leader has vowed his government “will do whatever it takes” to pursue prosecution of the current Egyptian government, whom he holds responsible for Morsi’s untimely death, in international court.

He also promised to raise the issue of Morsi's death while in Egyptian police custody at the upcoming G20 summit to be held in Japan at the end of June. In the meantime, he called on the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to take action following Morsi's death, though he did not specify how exactly.

Erdogan has already raised his suspicions about the former Egyptian leader's death. “Whether it was a normal death, or there were some other elements involved, this [Morsi's death] was suspicious. Personally, I do not believe that it was a normal death,” Erdogan said following a funeral prayer service held for Morsi Istanbul's Fatih Mosque.

Morsi came to power after Hosni Mubarak was deposed in the 2011 Arab Spring, after which the Muslim Brotherhood was legalized with Morsi as its preferred candidate, winning the 2012 presidential election. He was, however, overthrown by the military within a year following a spate of mass protests against his rule.

Erdogan himself was often seen as sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood, and closely aligned himself with Morsi during the latter’s short-lived presidency.

***

RUSSIA INSIDER

Was General Patton Assassinated by the US Government?

Ron Unz

June 17, 2019

During the long Cold War many Russians grew sufficiently disenchanted with the lies and omissions of their own news outlets that they turned to Western radio for a glimpse of the truth.
General Patton U.S. commemorative stamp, issued 1952. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

The growth of the Internet has now provided Americans with a similar opportunity to click on a foreign website and discover the important stories that have somehow escaped the attention of their own leading journalists. Ironically, much of such “alternative media” coverage actually appears in the leading British newspapers, eminently respectable and published in our closest historic ally.

For example, three or four years ago I noticed a link on a prominent libertarian website suggesting that George S. Patton, one of America’s most renowned World War II military commanders, had been murdered by order of the U.S. government. Not being someone much drawn to conspiracy-mongering, the lurid claim seemed totally outlandish, but I decided to click my mouse and harmlessly examine a bit of Internet fringe-lunacy. However, the source turned out to be a lengthy article in Britain’s Sunday Telegraph, one of the world’s leading newspapers, describing a newly published book based on a decade of detailed research and interviews undertaken by an experienced American military affairs writer.

The actor George C. Scott playing General Patton

The book and the article had appeared in 2008 and I had never heard a word about the story in any of my major American newspapers. The description seemed sufficiently factual and detailed that I consulted a couple of prominent academics I know, with backgrounds in history and political science. They had also never encountered the theory, being just as surprised as I was by the material and by the fact that such remarkable revelations had never received any attention in our own country, home of the freest and most scandal-mongering media in the world.

With curiosity getting the better of me, I ordered the book for about $8 from Amazon.com.

Target Patton, written by Robert K. Wilcox and published by Regnery Press, runs over 450 pages, with an extensive bibliography and nearly 700 footnotes. The many years spent by the author on this project are clearly reflected in the contents, which include numerous personal interviews and the careful analysis of an enormous amount of primary and secondary source material. I’ve seldom encountered so detailed and seemingly exhaustive a work of investigatory journalism, quite understandable given the explosive nature of the charges being made. And yet the expose had never reached readers of the American mainstream media.

I personally found the evidence for Patton’s assassination quite persuasive, even overwhelming, and any curious readers can currently order the book for as little as $2.93 plus shipping and judge for themselves.

Wilcox himself had been just as shocked as anyone else when he first encountered the surprising claims, but the initial evidence persuaded him to invest years fully researching the theory before publishing the results. Some of his major findings seem quite telling.

In the months before his death, Patton had become a powerful critic of the American government, its conduct of World War II, and its policy toward the Soviets. He planned to resign from the military after returning to the U.S. and then begin a major public speaking tour against America’s political leadership; as one of our most celebrated war heroes, his denunciations would certainly have had a huge impact. His fatal car accident took place the day before his scheduled departure home, and he had narrowly escaped death twice before under very strange circumstances.

There are extensive personal interviews with the self-confessed government assassin, then attached to America’s OSS intelligence service, the wartime forerunner of the CIA. This operative had a long and substantially documented career in exactly that sort of activity, both during the war itself and for decades afterward, allegedly working internationally on a free-lance basis and “weeding” selected human targets both for the CIA and various other employers.

Towards the end of his life, [former OSS agent] became disgruntled over what he regarded as his ill-treatment by ungrateful U.S. government bureaucrats and also a bit guilt-ridden over having been responsible for the death of one of America’s greatest military heroes, prompting his decision to go public, with his claims backed by a voluminous personal diary. Numerous other interviews with individuals connected with the circumstances of Patton’s death seemed to largely corroborate the theory.

The assassin recounted that OSS Chief William Donovan had ordered the killing on the grounds that Patton had “gone crazy,” becoming a major threat to American national interests. Around this same time, a military counter-intelligence field agent began encountering credible reports of a planned assassination plot against Patton and attempted to warn his superiors, including Donovan; not only were his warnings disregarded, but he was repeatedly threatened, and at one point, even placed under arrest. It seems clear that Donovan’s orders came from his superiors, either in the White House or elsewhere.

The motivation may or may not have ultimately had a foreign origin. Over the last twenty years, scholars such as John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr have exhaustively demonstrated that during the 1930s and 1940s a large network of Communist spies had gained enormous influence in the uppermost reaches of the American government. Indeed, Wilcox carefully documents how the OSS itself had been heavily infiltrated at the highest levels by elements of the Soviet NKVD, and that during this particular period, the two intelligence organizations were in an ambiguous quasi-partnership, with Donovan being especially eager to curry political favor with the pro-Soviet elements near the top of the U.S. government.

Meanwhile, Patton, a zealous anti-Communist, had very different views, urging an immediate military attack on the weakened forces of the Soviet Union. It is easy to understand how Stalin and those American leaders in his orbit might have decided that Patton’s physical removal was an absolute priority.

At the time of his death, Patton was the highest ranking U.S. military officer in Europe, and the story naturally became front-page news throughout the world. Several official reports were produced regarding the exact circumstances of the very strange traffic accident responsible, but all of these have completely disappeared from U.S. government files. I find it difficult to imagine a non-sinister explanation for this.

These few paragraphs provide merely the smallest slice of the enormous amount of documentary material and painstaking analysis that Wilcox spent ten years compiling for his outstanding book. Obviously, many questions remain, and absolute proof is impossible seventy years after the event. But from my perspective, the likelihood of an assassination, almost certainly with the active involvement of top American officials, seems overwhelming.

I have also been reliably informed that for many years there has been a widespread belief within the American intelligence community that Patton was eliminated by the U.S. government for political reasons. Such quiet knowledge in those circles is hardly surprising. The alleged government assassin first publicly confessed his guilt in the plot decades ago in front of a journalist at an OSS reunion dinner in DC, while seated at the table of his longtime friend and colleague William Colby, former Director of the CIA. And although the resulting local news stories were completely ignored by the national media, it is hardly surprising that word soon got around within intelligence circles.

Perhaps some experienced scholar with a different perspective could invest time and effort attempting to refute the powerful case set forth by Wilcox, though none apparently has. But suppose that the evidence for this theory is not nearly as overwhelming as it appears, and only sufficient to provide a reasonable possibility that the story is true, perhaps a 25% likelihood. I would argue that if there exists even a slight chance that one of America’s most renowned generals—our top-ranking military officer in post-WWII Europe—was assassinated for political reasons by America’s own government, the scandal would surely rank among the greatest in modern U.S. history.

The book was written by a reputable author and published by a mainstream though conservative-oriented press, but it went unmentioned in America’s major national publications, whether conservative or liberal, nor was any subsequent investigation undertaken. A leading British newspaper reported what American journalists had totally ignored.

It seems likely that if a similar book had been published providing such solidly-documented historical revisionism regarding the sudden death of a top Russian or Chinese general at the close of the Second World War, the story might have easily reached the front pages of the New York Times, and certainly the weekly Book Review section. Perhaps there might even have been considerable media coverage if the victim had been a prominent Guatemalan general, whose name was totally unknown to most of the American public. Yet similar allegations surrounding the demise of one of America’s most famous and popular military leaders of the 1940s have been of no interest to America’s mainstream journalists.

Once again, we must distinguish the two issues. Whether or not I am correct in believing that the case for Patton’s assassination is overwhelming might certainly be disputed. But the fact that the American media has completely failed to report these revelations is absolutely undeniable.

As mentioned, I had originally encountered this fascinating history a few years ago, and at the time had been too preoccupied with other matters to publish a column as I’d intended. But having decided to return to the topic, I quickly reread the book to refresh my memory, and found it even more persuasive than I had the first time round. Eight years after original publication, I still failed to find any coverage in our timorous mainstream newspapers, but given the enormous growth of looser web-based journalism, I wondered what might have appeared elsewhere.

Googling around a bit, I didn’t find a great deal. A couple of times over the years, Wilcox had managed to place short pieces of his own somewhere, including the New York Post in 2010 and in the American Thinker webzine in 2012, with the latter including mention of a possibly important new witness who had finally decided to come forth. But otherwise his astonishing book seems to have been entirely shoved down the memory-hole.

On the other hand, others have recently begun trying to take advantage of his research, while refashioning the narrative into one more likely to find favor within the American establishment and the media it controls.

Most notable was Bill O’Reilly, the FoxNews pundit, who published Killing Patton in 2014, another in his series of popular history best-sellers co-authored by Martin Dugard. The very title itself challenged the official story of an accidental car crash, and I eagerly opened the book, only to be severely disappointed. The presentation seemed thin and padded, with perhaps 10% of the text merely rehashing the analysis provided by Wilcox while the remaining 90% represented a rather conventional historical summary of the Western Front near the end of the Second World War, including heavy coverage of the Nazi concentration camps, and with little of this material having any connection to Patton. The only interesting part of the text seemed based on Wilcox’s original research, and that relationship was heavily disguised by the total absence of any footnotes, with the only indication being a single short sentence near the end citing the Wilcox book as a very helpful summary of “the conspiracy theories.” Not unreasonably, the latter author seemed somewhat irritated at the lack of appropriate notice or credit he received.

O’Reilly’s dumbed-down book sold over a million copies, with a title proclaiming Patton’s assassination. But the resulting media coverage was still rather scanty and largely negative, criticizing the supposed indulgence of “conspiracy theories.” Media Matters summarized the reaction as “Historians Rip O’Reilly’s New Patton Book,” and given the near-total lack of any documentation provided by O’Reilly, much of that criticism may not have been unreasonable. Thus, the media totally ignored a heavily documented and persuasive book, while attacking and ridiculing a weak one on the same subject, with this dual approach constituting an effective means of obscuring the truth.

America’s opinion leaders tend to rely upon our most elite national newspapers for their knowledge of the world, and the only coverage I found in these of O’Reilly’s best-seller was a rather odd opinion piece by Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen. Cohen seemed rather uninterested in the assassination question one way or another, but harshly condemned O’Reilly for devoting insufficient pages to discussing Patton’s alleged anti-Semitism. Indeed, he almost implied that some of the remarks later found in Patton’s private diaries were sufficiently nasty toward Jews that perhaps no American should even care whether our highest ranking general in Europe had been killed by his own government or anyone else. The mentality of our mainstream media these days is very strange indeed, and we live in the world it creates for us.

Most recently, the success of the O’Reilly book and our revived Cold War with Russia may have led to production of a new documentary making the case for Patton’s assassination, but possibly reconstructing the facts with a distorted twist. Wilcox’s original research had demonstrated that top American leaders organized Patton’s assassination, though probably in conjunction with the Soviets. O’Reilly provided some of those facts in his book, but his media interviews airbrushed out the American role, simply declaring that “Stalin killed Patton.” And based on news reports, I wonder if this new documentary, apparently made without Wilcox’s involvement, will similarly ignore the massive evidence of direct U.S. government involvement, while perhaps attempting to fix the blame solely upon the nefarious Russians.

Finally, this important historical incident provides a useful means of evaluating the credibility of certain widely-used resources. For years I’ve emphasized to people that Wikipedia is absolutely worthless as a source of reliable information on any relatively “controversial” topic. Given Patton’s enormous historical stature, it is hardly surprising that his Wikipedia entry is exceptionally long and detailed, running over 15,000 words, with nearly 300 references and footnotes. But this exhaustive exposition contains not the slightest suggestion of any suspicious aspects to his death. “Wiki-Pravda” indeed.

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The Big Wobble

Astonishing temperatures hit Kuwait with highs of 52.2 degrees C, (126 deg F) and 63 degrees C (145.4 deg F) under direct sunlight

June 18, 2019
Photo Twitter.com, traffic lights melt in Kuwait sun
Earlier this week highs touching 51 deg C (124 deg F) hit parts of India making it the hottest place on the planet, however, Kuwait has smashed that weighing in with an astonishing 52.2 degrees C, (126 deg F).
Kuwait on Saturday recorded the highest temperatures in the world; reaching 52.2 degrees Celsius in the shadows and 63 degrees Celsius under direct sunlight, according to Al Qabas newspaper.
Kuwait yesterday recorded the first death as a direct result of the unbearable temperatures, reports Al-Rai daily.
The daily added, the victim died in Surrah as a result of heatstroke.
When the Operations Room of the Interior Ministry received a report, security and the emergency medical personnel rushed to the spot and found the man dead.
Some of his work tools were found next to the body.
The forensic report showed the man died as a result of sunstroke because of his prolonged stay under the direct heat of the sun.

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Natural News

BREAKING: Big Pharma blood pressure drugs found laced with cancer-causing chemical; but FDA says don’t stop taking them

Tuesday, June 18, 2019 by: Mike Adams

(Natural News) For years, we’ve warned that Big Pharma’s business model is a “repeat business” racket that profits from sickness and disease. We also know that cancer is a multi-billion-dollar industry that generates huge profits from the repeat business of cancer “therapies” such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Now comes news that a popular blood pressure drug sold by Novartis has been found to be laced with a cancer-causing chemical known as “dimethylformamide.”

“A pharmacy warned the Food and Drug Administration that it found a chemical believed to cause cancer in a widely used blood pressure medication, according to a filing from the federal agency,” reports CNBC.

The drugs are part of a popular class of prescription medications the FDA has been quietly recalling after finding them to be laced with cancer-causing chemicals. Those drugs reportedly include valsartan, losartan and irbesartan.

Even more astonishingly, this chemical contamination was discovered by Valisure, an online pharmacy that operates across America. Valisure is apparently running contamination tests on the various medications it sells, and it found that valsartan, the blood pressure medication manufactured by Novartis, contains DMF (dimethylformamide), a chemical known to cause cancer.

A pharmacy that tests the products for contaminants before retailing them… shouldn’t the FDA be doing this?

Here’s what else is fascinating: Valisure is to pharmaceuticals what the Health Ranger Store is to nutritional supplements and superfoods. Both organizations run in-house laboratories that use mass-spec analysis to ensure the clean nature of the products being sold. Valisure says about itself, “We’re the only pharmacy that chemically tests every batch of every medication we sell, at no additional cost.” This is exactly what we do for superfoods at HealthRangerStore.com, too. In fact, Valisure’s lab and our lab use the same instrumentation. In our case, we use ICP-MS for heavy metals tests and HPLC-MS-MS for glyphosate, AMPA, atrazine and pesticide tests. Valisure is using GC-MS, which is a gas chromatography version of mass spec analysis.

Both Valisure at our own in-house lab (CWC Labs) are ISO-17025 accredited laboratories. This is why when Valisure issues this announcement about a cancer-causing chemical in blood pressure medications, it gets my attention.

In a March 15 press release, Valisure described how it’s testing medications for cancer-causing chemicals:

Valisure, the first online Analytical Pharmacy, announced it has expanded its testing capabilities to screen samples from all batches of medications it dispenses for the cancer causing contaminants N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), N-Nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA), and N,N-Dimethylformamide (DMF), the chemical solvent that has been implicated in the production of these impurities.

If you take prescription medications, you might be giving yourself cancer right now

Valisure has filed documents with the FDA, requesting the agency recall the contaminated drugs. Yet right at this moment, pharmacies all across America are dispensing these drugs to patients whose doctors have told them they have a “blood pressure problem” that requires “treatment.”

Is it any surprise that once you start taking prescription medications for one condition, you quickly develop another condition that also requires treatment? In this case, blood pressure drugs cause cancer. Many diabetes drugs cause liver disease, and cancer drugs promote more cancer tumors. Statin drugs cause metabolic disorders, hormone drugs cause cancer, and osteoporosis drugs actually cause skeletal disorders. In fact, repeat business is the entire business model of the pharma cartels: Not only do their drugs almost never solve the underlying condition they claim to “treat,” they actually cause your body to develop entirely new health problems that require additional (high-profit) prescription medications.

This is how people end up on a dozen prescription drugs while getting worse every day with metabolic disorders, heart conditions, cancer, Alzheimer’s and fatigue. The drugs are destroying their health, but that’s the business model because it brings people back to their doctors to ask for more drugs. Amazingly, we now have a drug-selling pharmacy that’s demanding a high level of safety for drug consumers. As CNBC reports:

Valisure asked that the medication be recalled and requested that the FDA review and significantly lower the acceptable intake of DMF from its current level of 8,800,000 nanograms to less than 1,000 nanograms. The online pharmacy said it found the cancer-causing chemical in valsartan produced by five companies.

Yes, that’s five companies. The the FDA’s current “allowable” exposure to this cancer-causing chemical is 8,800 times higher than what this pharmacy thinks is appropriate. That is not a trivial difference. I’ll bet most people taking these drugs had no idea the FDA openly allows 8,800 times higher concentrations of cancer-causing chemicals than what might be safe.

To protect the lucrative prescription drug market, FDA spokesperson Jeremy Kahn said, “Patients should continue to take their blood pressure medication even if it is recalled until their doctor provides a replacement or alternative treatment… Abruptly discontinuing a medication is risky.”

But taking a cancer-causing chemical seems risky, too, and why isn’t the FDA testing drugs for contaminants anyway? For the exact same reason that the Health Ranger Store has taken on the job of the FDA when it comes to food safety testing, Valisure is doing the FDA’s job in the realm of medications. We should all find this astonishing. Why has it come down to private companies doing the job the FDA is supposed to be doing?

Dirty, filthy raw materials from India and China — this is what’s in your high-priced medications

Novartis doesn’t even deny the fact that the chemical is present in its products, by the way. Via CNBC:

In a statement to CNBC, a spokesperson for Novartis said in general the company’s manufacturing process does not use DMF but it cannot currently fully “exclude the possibility that traces of DMF (within applicable limits) may have been present in materials of other Drug Substances suppliers.”

What Novartis means by “Drug Substances suppliers” is chemical supply companies in China and India, which is where most pharmaceutical raw materials come from. (Coincidentally, it’s also where most synthetic vitamin chemicals come from, which is why consuming synthetic vitamins is just as toxic as taking synthetic medications.)

With a few rare exceptions, China’s quality control systems are practically non-existent. This is a country where infant formula suppliers substituted melamine powder for milk powder, effectively murdering thousands of innocent babies by destroying their kidneys. China executed the CEO of that company, but only because the fiasco was too loud and made international headlines. Behind the curtain, thousands of small chemical suppliers provide synthetic molecules to the pharmaceutical industry, and quality control is so horrible on anything coming out of China that the entire country has a reputation among pharmaceutical and food manufacturers as producing the most contaminated, polluted bulk materials in the world. In fact, even organic certifiers don’t trust China, and many believe that “organic” from China is a total fraud.

Contaminants are widespread in bulk materials from China and India alike, which is why we have found very few raw materials from China that can be considered safe or clean. What makes the situation even worse is that pharma companies only check the bulk material for the target molecule they think they purchased, typically using GC-MS or LC-MS. If your target molecule has a mass of, say, 186, then you run the sample and look for 186. If it’s present, the material usually passes. The problem with this approach is that the bulk material may be contaminated with unknown chemicals, and if you don’t know in advance to scan for those chemicals in your mass spec system, you will have no idea they are present.

Mass spec instruments have to be set up in advance to detect each specific chemical, and this requires running the instruments against chemical standards while optimizing ion fragmentation, ionization, flow rates and other factors. As an apt example, on my newest LC-MS-MS instrument, I’m currently scanning food samples for both glyphosate and AMPA (a breakdown molecule of glyphosate). In order to detect these two chemicals, I have to set the instrument to scan for two parent masses (168 for glyphosate and 110 for AMPA) in negative mode, plus two ion fragment transitions / daughter ions for each. The glyphosate daughter ions, for example, are 63 and 80. If you don’t have all this information — and the proper chemical column for your GC or LC system — you won’t be able to see the contaminant chemical at all, especially when it’s only present in concentrations of nanograms per ml (the same as parts per billion).

Thus, pharma companies are running bulk materials all day long without seeing the chemical contaminants because they aren’t looking for them. (A “don’t ask / don’t tell” approach to “medical science.”) It’s only in the rare instances when an independent company like Valisure makes a point to look for specific chemicals that the real truth becomes known.

Is Big Pharma intentionally lacing blood pressure medications with cancer chemicals?

You might think it would be impossible for a company like Novartis to fail to conduct the necessary tests to clear their products of cancer-causing chemicals. Surely Novartis has mass spec instruments in their own quality control lab, right?

Of course they do. And it is very difficult to imagine Novartis accidentally letting this chemical slip through their screening effort. So it raises the obvious question: Do Big Pharma companies deliberately lace their prescription medications with cancer-causing chemicals in order to increase repeat business?

The very question will be derided as a conspiracy theory, but what if it’s just their business model? Big Tobacco used addiction to hook people on their products in order to generate repeat business. Ironically, the tobacco companies also purchased full-page ads in the Journal of the American Medical Association, touting how “Doctors recommend Camels more than any other cigarette.” Is it really much of a stretch to think that pharmaceutical corporations might do almost anything to boost their profits at the expensive of their own customers’ long-term health?

Remember: Healthy people don’t use pharmaceuticals. Repeat business in the pharma industry depends on keeping people sick. Can you think of a better way to accomplish that than lacing your product with chemicals that promote sickness? What is drug companies have been lacing their products with disease-promoting contaminants for years?

If blood pressure medications made by Novartis and approved by the FDA are laced with cancer-causing chemicals, what other toxic chemicals might be lurking in other pharmaceuticals that are also approved by the FDA?

Truth be told, even though I don’t take any medications at all, if I did, I would buy through Valisure.com just because I know they’re testing for contaminants. This is the first pharmacy I actually applaud for their efforts to use good science to confirm clean products. (A “clean” pharmaceutical doesn’t necessary mean it’s 100% safe, of course, since the drug itself can be quite toxic depending on what it is.)

If you’d rather avoid being sick and pursue health and longevity instead, get your superfoods, food-based supplements, essential oils, organic storable foods and ultra-clean home living products through HealthRangerStore.com, where we test everything we sell at no additional cost to you. In fact, we use the same instruments as pharmacies and pharma companies. We just use them for a higher purpose.

Sources for this story include:
CNBC.com
Valisure.com

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Until next week...keep on believing.
Almondtree Productions

“ And they have bent their tongue like a bow: falsehood and not faithfulness has prevailed upon the earth; for they have gone on from evil to evil, and have not known me, saith the Lord.”
(Jeremiah 9:3)