The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity : Obama Has No Middle East Strategy? Good!

The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity : Obama Has No Middle East Strategy? Good!.
written by ron paul
sunday august 31, 2014



Last week President Obama admitted that his administration has not worked out a strategy on how to deal with the emergence of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as a dominant force in the Middle East. However, as ISIS continues its march through Syria and Iraq, many in the US administration believe it is, in the words of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, a threat “beyond anything we have ever seen.”

Predictably, the neocons attacked the president’s speech. They believe the solution to any problem is more bombs and troops on the ground, so they cannot understand the president’s hesitation.

Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Buck McKeon made it clear that fighting ISIS is going to cost a lot more money and will bring US forces back to Iraq for the third time. The post-Iraq, post-Afghanistan peace dividend disintegrates.

Mr. McKeon said last week:

ISIS is an urgent threat and a minimalist approach, that depends solely on FY15 funding or pinprick strikes that leave fragile forces in Iraq and Syria to do the hard fighting, is insufficient to protect our interests and guarantee our safety in time.

What does this mean in practice? If the neocons have their way, the Federal Reserve will “print” more money to finance another massive US intervention in the Middle East. In reality this means further devaluation of the US dollar, which is a tax on all Americans that will hit the poorest hardest.

A new US military incursion will not end ISIS; it will provide them with the recruiting tool they most crave, while draining the US treasury. Just what Osama bin Laden wanted!

McKeon and the other hawks act as if they had only recently become aware of the ISIS. Or if they noticed it, they pretend US policy had nothing to do with its rise.

McKeon also said last week, “ISIS threat was allowed to build and fester over a period of time.”

In fact, US regime change policy in Syria was directly responsible for the rise of ISIS over these past three years. As journalist Eric Margolis observed recently, the emergence of ISIS is the “mother of all blowback.” The neocons who want us to get tougher on ISIS, including a US attack on Syria, are the same ones who not long ago demanded that we support groups like ISIS to overthrow the Assad government in Syria. US-trained and funded “moderates” from the Free Syrian Army joined the Islamist militias including ISIS, taking US weapons and training with them.

Three years of supporting any force that might overthrow the secular government of President Assad has produced a new monster in the Middle East that neocons insist the US must slay.

Why can’t they just admit they were wrong? Why can’t the interventionists just admit that their support for regime change in Syria was a terrible and tragic mistake?

If ISIS is as big a threat as they claim, why can’t they simply ask Assad to help out? Assad has never threatened the United States; ISIS has. Assad has been fighting ISIS and similar Islamist extremist groups for three years.

Why does the US government insist on aligning with theocracies in the Middle East? If there is anything that contradicts the US Constitution and American values it is a theocratic government. I do not believe that a majority in the Middle East wants to live under such a system, so why do we keep pushing it on them? Is that what they call promoting democracy?

A lack of strategy is a glimmer of hope. Perhaps the president will finally stop listening to the neocons and interventionists whose recommendations have gotten us into this mess in the first place! Here’s a strategy: just come home.

Leading Researchers Who Oppose Legal Pot Are Paid by Painkiller Manufacturers | Substance.com

Leading Researchers Who Oppose Legal Pot Are Paid by Painkiller Manufacturers | Substance.com

Now why would companies that make opioids want to line the pockets of marijuana prohibitionists?



Mixing your drugs. Photo via

Let’s face it, many of us would need a little extra incentive to spend our careers standing on the wrong side of history. And a whole bunch of leading researchers who are frequently cited by supporters of marijuana prohibition look to be no different, according to a report by investigative journalist Lee Fang: They’re paid by companies that manufacture painkillers.

The academics on Fang’s list include:

*Dr. Herbert Kleber, director of the Substance Abuse Division of Columbia University’s Department of Psychiatry. Widely quoted and published by mainstream media, and cited by the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police and the American Psychiatric Association to justify anti-pot positions, Kleber has served as a paid consultant for Purdue Pharma, Reckitt Benckiser and Alkermes—the manufacturers of OxyContin, Nurofen and Zohydro, respectively.

*Dr. A. Eden Evins, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and board member of SAM—the anti-legalization organization fronted by Patrick Kennedy and Kevin Sabet. Fang notes a disclosure by the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry that Evin, another widely quoted figure, has been a ”consultant for Pfizer and DLA Piper and has received grant/research support from Envivo, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer.” Pfizer owns a company that manufactures opioids and is aiming to establish Remoxy as a competitor to OxyContin.

*Dr. Mark L. Kraus, a board member of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. In 2012 Kraus submitted testimony against a medical marijuana law in Connecticut. He has been on the scientific advisory panels of pharma companies including Pfizer and Reckitt Benckiser.

A study released this week showed that in the 13 states which passed laws to permit medical marijuana between 1999 and 2010, deaths attributed to opioid overdose (of which there are 16,000 nationally per year) fell 25%. And growing evidence points to the efficacy of marijuana (which has never caused a single overdose death) as an “exit drug,” or substitute for more dangerous substances.

All of which makes the academics’ often-unmentioned financial links awkward, to say the least.

Secret Internal Document Urging Closure of California Nuclear Plant Revealed | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

Secret Internal Document Urging Closure of California Nuclear Plant Revealed | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
Secret Internal Document Urging Closure of California Nuclear Plant Revealed


Former plant inspector first raised concerns about seismic safety in 2010
by
Deirdre Fulton, staff writer


Diablo Canyon Power Plant. (Photo: Wikimedia)

In a report written last year but not made public until Monday, a former federal inspector expresses uncertainty over whether California's last operating nuclear plant, Diablo Canyon, could withstand strong shaking from nearby earthquake faults.

In a 42-page document (pdf) filed in July of 2013, Dr. Michael Peck, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s former senior resident inspector at Diablo Canyon, calls for the plant to be shut down “pending demonstration that...safety functions can be met at the higher seismic stress levels.”

Observers criticized the NRC's withholding of the report. Though Peck asked that his dissent—known as a Differing Professional Opinion, written in response to the NRC's decision to let the plant’s twin reactors keep running despite the failure of both plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric Co and the NRC to conduct a rigorous safety analysis and take action to address newly identified seismic risks—be made public, the NRC has not released it; the organization Friends of the Earth posted the document on its website Monday. Also, despite the agency’s requirement that Differing Professional Opinions are to be ruled on within 120 days of filing, the NRC has not ruled on Peck's opinion. Peck says he first raised concerns about the plant's safety in 2010.

“We find it completely disgraceful that the NRC hid these concerns for all these years.”
—Jane Swanson, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace

In response to the revelations, which the Associated Press reported Monday, California's Senate Environment and Public Works Committee announced it would hold hearings into how the NRC has handled Peck's recommendation.

Diablo Canyon is located on the central California coast, near San Luis Obispo, in close proximity to faults that seismic studies show could trigger an earthquake stronger than the reactors and internal equipment were built to withstand, according to Friends of the Earth.

"Inspector Peck is the canary in the coal mine, warning us of a possible catastrophe at Diablo Canyon before it’s too late,” Damon Moglen, senior strategic adviser at Friends of the Earth, said in a statement. "We agree with him that Diablo Canyon is vulnerable to earthquakes and must be shut down immediately. Rather than the NRC keeping this a secret, there must be a thorough investigation with public hearings to determine whether these reactors can operate safely.”

The AP reports:

The NRC, which oversees the nation's commercial nuclear power industry, and Diablo Canyon owner Pacific Gas and Electric Co., say the nearly three-decade-old reactors, which produce enough electricity for more than 3 million people annually, are safe and that the facility complies with its operating license, including earthquake safety standards.

PG&E spokesman Blair Jones said the NRC has exhaustively analyzed earthquake threats for Diablo Canyon and demonstrated that it "is seismically safe." Jones said in an email that the core issue involving earthquake ground motions was resolved in the late 1970s with seismic retrofitting of the plant.

But Peck's analysis calls specific attention to major fault lines located near the facility, including the recently discovered Shoreline fault less than 700 feet away, which could produce significant shaking during an earthquake—more than was accounted for in the design of important plant equipment. The NRC must take "new seismic information" into account, Peck says, before affirming the plant's safety.

Coming on the heels of this weekend's earthquake in northern California, the Diablo report and the circumstances of its release are particularly worrisome.

“We find it completely disgraceful that the NRC hid these concerns for all these years,” Jane Swanson, spokeswoman for the anti-nuclear group San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, told the San Luis Obispo Tribune. On its Facebook page, the group declared: "Until PG&E can PROVE that the emergency backup systems will function in an earthquake, the facility needs to STOP OPERATING."

Maryland Sheriff to Feds: Try and Take Our Guns, and You’ll Get a Civil War

http://www.tpnn.com/2014/08/30/maryland-sheriff-to-feds-try-and-take-our-guns-and-youll-get-a-civil-war/


Sheriff to Feds: Take Away Our Guns and There’ll Be “Civil War” [WATCH CLIP]

When conservatives think about states that honor the Second Amendment right of all Americans to keep and bear arms, they most likely think primarily of states in the West and Deep South–states like Texas, Arizona, or perhaps North Carolina.

But a surprising number of Democrat strongholds farther to the north, as it turns out, can be just as adamant when it comes to defending their gun rights. Citizens of New York, for example, have defied the a new law requiring gun registration, and local sheriffs have refused to enforce it. Connecticut residents staged a huge protest against gun regulations at their capitol building earlier this year. And a nationalpro-gun organization has won legal victories in such left-leaning states as New Jersey and California.

Now a new report proves that Maryland deserves as spot on that list, as well.

According to a short video available from The Center for Public Integrity, Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis has vowed never to allow the government to impinge upon the Second Amendment rights of his citizens.

“I made a vow and a commitment,” he says. “As long as I am sheriff of this county, I will not allow the federal government to come in here and strip my citizens of the right to bear arms.”
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Lewis says he understands that steps must be taken to keep guns out of the wrong hands. “We need to get guns out of the hands of convicted felons,” he agrees, saying that a “gun in the hands of any bad person” is obviously dangerous.

Click here to learn why one American gun maker challenged Attorney General Eric Holder directly to his face.

That’s a different matter from prohibiting legal gun ownership, however. “[W]e do not need to strip law abiding citizens of their Second Amendment right to bear arms. That I get upset over. I really do.”

The video concludes with Sheriff Lewis’s prediction of what would happen if the federal government attempts to confiscate all guns. “I can tell you this,” he says, “if they attempt to do that, it will be an all-out civil war. No question about it.”



A determined effort by the federal government to confiscate guns from law-abiding citizens can only mean one thing, and it’s the same thing it means whenever a government anywhere around the world has attempted to control all firearms. It means that the right to bear arms is only the first right that the government is preparing to strip from the American people.

No question about it.

Hillary Clinton is Just Plain Wrong on GMOs

Here are a couple more articles for your education on why we don't want this evil- anti-American-wolf in sheep's clothing-Traitor, seen anywhere but in a noose! WAKE UP AMERICA!!! BENGHAZI BENGHAZI BENGHAZI

Hillary Clinton is Just Plain Wrong on GMOs.
By Katherine Paul and Ronnie Cummins
Organic Consumers Association, August 28, 2014
For related articles and more information, please visit OCA's Millions Against Monsanto pageand our Environment and Climate Resource Center page.
Related Article:
http://bangordailynews.com/2014/08/27/opinion/contributors/when-it-comes-to-gmos-which-side-is-hillary-clinton-on/


In her June 25 keynote address to the BIO International Convention in San Diego, Calif., Hillary Clinton voiced strong support for genetic engineering and genetically engineered crops. She earned a standing ovation that day by stating that the biotech industry suffers from a public perception problem and that it just needs “a better vocabulary” in order to persuade GMO skeptics who don’t understand “the facts” about genetic engineering.

And then Hillary proceeded to get the facts wrong.

Why does it matter what Hillary, who holds no public office and has not (yet) declared her candidacy for president, says or believes about genetic engineering and genetically modified crops and foods?

It doesn’t—unless she throws her hat in the ring for the Democratic nomination. And then it matters not just what her position is on GMOs, not just how deep her financial ties to the biotech industry run, not just how much she distorts the facts about the “promise” of biotech crops.

It matters, deeply, to more than 90 percent of Americans, what her position is on laws requiring mandatory labeling of GMOs in food and food products.

If elected, will Hillary support consumers’ right to know? Or will she support the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act, a bill introduced in Congress earlier this year, which if passed, will preempt state GMO labeling laws?

Hillary has been coy about announcing her candidacy. But when it comes to clarifying her position on GMO labeling laws, she’s been dead silent.

As she soon heads to Iowa—the testing ground for presidential candidates—Hillary’s presidential aspirations will no doubt become more clear. If she runs, as the pundits predict, it will be up to the GMO labeling movement to demand that she take a stand on GMO labeling laws.

Meanwhile, here’s why Hillary’s speech to the BIO convention was just plain wrong.

Wrong on the science of genetic engineering

Hillary brought the BIO convention-goers to their feet with her call for “a better vocabulary” to win over consumers.

No wonder. After all, that’s the line Monsanto has been feeding the public ever since the public became wise to the lies and false promises of an industry known for its reckless disregard for public health. It’s part of an aggressive, widespread public relations campaign to sugar-coat the facts about genetically engineered foods and the toxic chemicals required to produce them.

As scientists release studies, each one more alarming than the next, revealing the devastating health and environmental hazards of the herbicides required to grow GMO crops—toxic chemicals such as glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, and Dow’s 2,4-D —consumers are connecting the dots between the rise of chronic illness and the unleashing of toxins into the environment (and onto our food).

No amount of “better vocabulary” will be able to counter the science behind the impact of toxic herbicides and pesticides on soil, on the environment, on human health.

But here’s where Hillary’s call for a “better vocabulary” really ran off the rails. Coverage of the convention included a video in which Hillary wrongly equated the age-old practice of seed hybridization with modern genetic engineering, in order to make the case that genetic engineering has been around since the beginning of farming.

Hillary would do well to go back to her science books. Here are the facts, as understood by every biologist. Seed hybridization occurs when the seeds of two compatible parent plants, within the same species, are crossed, either in a controlled environment or in nature. That process is in no way equivalent to genetic engineering, a process that requires human intervention, and consists of changing the genetic code of one organism by inserting into it the DNA from a completely different plant or animal.

Genetic engineering is an unnatural process that can take place only in a laboratory, aided by a human.

Wrong on genetic engineering and drought

In the same video from the June 25 conference, Hillary perpetuates industry claims that as global warming leads to more droughts, GMO crops will feed the world. She does this by focusing on GE drought-resistant seeds—as if engineering seeds for drought-resistance were a major focus on the biotech industry.

It’s not, of course. Drought-resistant seeds and crops make up a miniscule portion of the GMO crop market. Close to 98 percent of GE crops are corn, soy, alfalfa, canola and sugar beets, used to make biofuels, animal feed and processed food products, such as high fructose corn syrup. These crops are engineered to produce their own Bt toxins in every cell or else to withstand massive doses of herbicides, such as Monsanto’s Roundup, which are sold to farmers as companions to their GMO seeds. They have nothing to do with drought-resistance.

In fact, attempts to engineer seeds to thrive during droughts are still in the experimental stages and so far have largely failed.According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, Monsanto’s DroughtGard, the only drought-resistant crop approved so far by the USDA, produces “only modest results, and only under moderate drought conditions.”

Yet to hear Hillary tell it, genetic engineering is all about saving farmers by providing them with magic seeds that thrive without water.

Wrong on genetic engineering and global warming

Toward the end of her video interview, Hillary switched gears to talk about climate change. She endorsed the Obama climate plan and called out the media for giving too much attention to climate-change skeptics.

Hillary believes we must address global warming. Good news.

But there’s just one problem.

A growing chorus of scientists warn that we cannot successfully address global warming unless we acknowledge the huge role that industrial agriculture, with its GMO mono-crop culture and massive use of chemicals, plays in cooking the planet.

If we’re truly serious about averting a global warming disaster, reducing carbon emissions isn’t enough. We have to acknowledge, and harness, potential of organic, regenerative agriculture to reverse global warming by sequestering carbon.

According to groups like the Rodale Institute, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and theAlliance for Food Sovereignty, a transition to sustainable, regenerative agriculture—not genetic engineering—is not only the only way we will feed the world, but absolutely essential if we want to slow global warming.

Hillary is just plain wrong if she thinks we can solve global warming while simultaneously promoting GMO agriculture, here in the U.S. and abroad. That’s why the Organic Consumers Association has launched a petition asking her to rethink her support for biotech, and commit to supporting a transition to a sustainable, organic food and farming system.

As consumers grow more knowledgeable about the link between food produced using toxic chemicals and the declining health of the U.S. population, they are looking more closely at those politicians who side with, and take money from, the biotech industry. Clinton’s ties to the biotech industry date back to the 1970s, when she was a partner in the Rose Law Firm which represented Monsanto.

A recent ABC News poll revealed that 52 percent of Americans believe food containing GMOs are unsafe, while 13 percent are “unsure.”

On mandatory GMO labeling laws, Americans are clear: 93 percent want labels.

Hillary, where do you stand?

Katherine Paul is associate director of the Organic Consumers Association.

Ronnie Cummins is the international director of the Organic Consumers Association and its Mexico affiliate Via Organica.

Activist Post: Proof That People Are Reversing ALS, Lou Gehrig's

Activist Post: Proof That People Are Reversing ALS, Lou Gehrig's

Activist Post: She Used to Be In A Wheelchair - The TED Talk That Comes With a Warning

Activist Post: She Used to Be In A Wheelchair - The TED Talk That Comes With a Warning

Welcome to the Skinner Box: Corporate industrial psychology, consent-free operant conditioning of Hennepin County residents, "mystery shoppers" & mental illness | HongPong.com

Welcome to the Skinner Box: Corporate industrial psychology, consent-free operant conditioning of Hennepin County residents, "mystery shoppers" & mental illness | HongPong.com

Independent Living Bullion

Independent Living Bullion.

https://www.independentlivingbullion.com/news/2014/08/25/secret-buyer-of-us-debt-emerges-to-fill-feds-shoes-000593?AID=3818#disqus_thread

Secret Buyer of U.S. Debt Emerges to Fill Fed’s Shoes Precious Metals Market Update
August 25th, 2014

Reported strength in the U.S. economy is boosting the dollar and putting a damper on precious metals at this moment. Increasing geopolitical turmoil around the world has not, as of yet, driven enough buying demand for gold and silver to offset selling related to the brighter economic outlook.

The FOMC minutes released last week confirmed the Fed bond purchase program, which has run nearly continuously for the past 6 years, will end in the fall. Meanwhile, they’ve suggested increasing the key Fed funds rate within a few months thereafter.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen and crew have not made a credible case that the housing and stock markets won’t suffer a large setback when rates go up significantly. But investors aren't asking.

How Long Can the Fed Have It Both Ways?

Fed officials began tapering late last year. Nine months later, the flow of freshly printed cash flooding into the markets to buy Treasuries and mortgage securities has dwindled from more than $80 billion per month to a “mere” $25 billion.

By October, Fed bond purchases using newly created money appear likely to end altogether. (But Fed officials have not suggested they would sell the trillions of dollars in bonds they now hold.) Interest rate hikes could be coming next year.

Partly in reaction to this shift in Fed policy, the dollar has strengthened, and the precious metals markets have struggled to move up.

But some market movements are difficult to explain. Record equity market valuations and lower Treasury yields don’t make a lot of sense if the flow of newly printed Fed cash is coming to an end.

Markets are famous for being irrational. There are plenty of examples of counterintuitive moves persisting for some time. But we don’t think investors should expect the current dichotomy to last forever.

The strength in the market for U.S. Treasuries is perhaps the most bizarre. Prior to tapering, the Fed bought more than 80% of all new issuance. Some rightly wonder how the central bank could now prevent bond yields from rising as needed to attract replacement buyers.

Perhaps all is not quite as it appears.

About the time the Fed implemented the first round of tapering late last year, a mysterious new buyer suddenly appeared on the Belgian-based Euroclear clearinghouse. This buyer filled the enormous demand void left by the Fed. The surge in holdings is attributed to Belgium itself in the reports, but don’t be misled. The tiny nation is simply where Euroclear is based, and the real buyer remains a well-guarded secret.

The secret buyer of U.S. government debt may well be the European Central Bank in cooperation with the Fed. It is also quite possible our privately held and unaccountable central bank is working with some other proxy. The market-manipulators at the Fed can certainly create the illusion of buyers clamoring to buy Treasuries at epic low yields -- even if they can’t have it in reality. The Fed is all about psychological manipulation.



Clint Siegner is a Director at ILB, the nation's largest and fastest-growing dealer in low-premium precious metal coins, rounds and bars. Siegner, a graduate of Linfield College in Oregon, puts his experience in business management along with his passion for personal liberty, limited government and honest money into the development of ILB's brand and reach. This includes writing extensively on the bullion markets and their intersection with policy and world affairs.

If You Haven’t Listened To It Yet Here It Is: Irish Senator Gives An Eye Opening Speech On Gaza | Collective-Evolution

If You Haven’t Listened To It Yet Here It Is: Irish Senator Gives An Eye Opening Speech On Gaza | Collective-Evolution

8/20/2014 -- Giant fissure opens in North Mexico -- 1km long / 25 feet d...

Holocaust survivors pen open letter condemning Israel’s Gaza war

http://rt.com/news/182472-israel-holocaust-gaza-war/
Holocaust survivors pen open letter condemning Israel’s Gaza war
Published time: August 24, 2014 17:26



Palestinians look at the remains of a commercial center, which witnesses said was hit by an Israeli air strike on Saturday, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip August 24, 2014 (Reuters / Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)
Tags
Army, Conflict, Israel, Military, Religion,War

Over 300 survivors and descendants of the Holocaust have published an open letter condemning what they call Israel's "genocide" in Gaza. http://ijsn.net/gaza/survivors-and-descendants-letter/

The letter slamming the “massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing occupation and colonization of historic Palestine” was signed by 327 descendants and survivors of the Nazi genocide and placed by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network as an advertisement in the New York Times.

1The letter also condemns politicians and opinion writers who have, the signatories say, openly called for the “genocide of Palestinians” in what they say is an “extreme, racist dehumanization of Palestinians in Israeli society.”

The survivors point to the death of more than 2,100 Palestinians in Israel’s campaign, many of whom are children and the bombing of UN shelters, homes, hospitals and universities. On the Israeli side, 68 people have been killed, mainly soldiers.

The letter concludes by calling the Gaza campaign “genocide of Palestinian people” and demands an end to the Israeli blockade of the tiny strip of land.
Hollywood against Hamas

The letter was published just moments after 190 influential people in Hollywood put their names on a statement condemning the actions of Hamas, saying the organization “cannot be allowed to rain rockets on Israeli cities”.


A general view of the rubble of a residential tower, which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike, is seen in Gaza City August 24, 2014 (Reuters / Mohammed Salem)

It was published by the Creative Community for Peace, which was founded in 2011 and aims to bring together “prominent members of the entertainment industry to counter the cultural boycott against Israel and promote an accurate image of the Jewish state.”

The list included actors Minnie Driver, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, although the vast majority of actors did not put their names to the statement.

The statement referred to Article 7 of Hamas’ charter which says, “There is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!” which they say reflects Hamas’ true nature.

However, the statement is also headlined “Commitment to justice and peace”.

Hamas cannot be allowed to “hold its own people hostage. Hospitals are for healing, not for hiding weapons. Schools are for learning, not for launching missiles. Children are our hope not our human shields,” it reads.

Israel tightened its blockade of Gaza in 2007 after Hamas, which rejects Israel's right to exist, took control of the territory, having won elections the year before and ousted political rivals Fatah.

Tel-Aviv’s operation Protective Edge which started in early July was triggered by rocket attacks by the military wing of Hamas on Israeli. Hamas has been shelling Israel’s south with barrage of rockets, some of which made it as far as the capital’s metropolitan area.

Since then, over 17,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged beyond repair in the Gaza Strip, making around 100,000 Palestinians homeless, since the war began on July 8, according to UN estimates.

Egypt called on Israel and the Palestinians on Saturday to halt hostilities and resume peace talks, but both sides kept up attacks.

Bergdahl swap – Obama used illegal means say US investigators | shaunynews

Bergdahl swap – Obama used illegal means say US investigators | shaunynews




The Pentagon violated the law when it swapped a soldier held in captivity for five years in Afghanistan for five Taliban detainees without giving politicians sufficient notice, US investigators have found. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that President Barack Obama’s administration violated a law, which bars defence officials from using federal funds to transfer any Guantanamo detainees without giving key committees in Congress at least 30 days’ notice. The Department of Defence used $988,400 of its wartime funding for the transfer that freed Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. The GAO also said on Thursday that the department had spent money that was not “expressly appropriated for the purpose”. With a 2014 law, Obama gained some flexibility in transferring prisoners from the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

But he was still required to notify Congress 30 days in advance. The GAO said members of congress were advised by telephone of the decision to make the swap on May 31, the day it took place, and June 1, and received written notice on June 2, the AFP news agency reported. At the time, Republicans, and even some of Obama’s Democratic allies, fumed over what they considered a bad and dangerous deal. The White House and Pentagon defended the transfer, arguing that protecting US lives was the executive branch’s constitutional obligation. They cited Bergdahl’s rapidly deteriorating health and security to justify quick action and keeping Congress in the dark until the last minute. “We believe it was lawfully done and lawfully conducted and this was a judgment shared with the Justice Department,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told CNN after the GAO released its findings.

Qatar-brokered deal

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has said the deal brokered by Qatar represented the “last, best opportunity” to ensure Bergdahl’s freedom. Bergdahl disappeared from his post at a base in eastern Afghanistan in June 2009. To get him back, five senior Taliban leaders were released from Guantanamo and sent to Qatar, where they are due to remain for one year. The soldier has returned to duty by working a desk job at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. On Wednesday, his lawyer said Bergdahl wanted to leave the military and return to civilian life, the Reuters news agency reported. “It is time for Sergeant Bergdahl to just become plain old Bowe Bergdahl and move on with his life,” Eugene Fidell said. He remains under investigation for leaving his unit in Afghanistan, and a US Army investigator began formal questioning of the former prisoner of war on August 6.

http://redalertpolitics.com/2014/08/21/government-watchdog-says-bergdahl-swap-illegal-doubly-illegal/

Rethink Military Action ‘Before Our Men Die’ | Voices of Liberty, Powered by Ron Paul

Rethink Military Action ‘Before Our Men Die’ | Voices of Liberty, Powered by Ron Paul Updated: August 21, 2014 by Ron Paul
Rethink Military Action ‘Before Our Men Die’

August 9, 2014 – The president has forewarned us that we must plan to be in Iraq for a long time. I guess our 24-year involvement hasn’t been enough time to bring unity and democracy to Iraq.

How many more years and how many more lives lost must we endure attempting to justify such a miserable failure in policy? I guess we’re supposed to be pleased because it’s certainly been a bipartisan effort. One of the sickest argument made for continuing our effort and even expanding it is to make sure the men and women who lost their lives did not do so in vain.

How will more losses justify what has already been lost?

The 24-year effort to remake the Middle East and, in particular, Iraq and Afghanistan, was doomed to fail from the start. Many informed Americans from the very beginning in 1990 argued the case for staying out of this effort. They were ignored by both Republican and Democratic leaders. The president suggested the problem is that the Iraqis are not united. They were once, under Saddam Hussein. Getting rid of him solved nothing since the right of self determination was denied.

Permitting the natural desire for smaller and separate government entities could have gone a long way in preventing the chaos which set the stage for the Islamic State invasion armed with American weapons coming from our ridiculous policy of arming the rebels in Syria.

We’re now hearing about the humanitarian concerns for the refugees in in northern Iraq. The real motivation may well be the danger to our military advisors trapped in Erbil—some boots on the ground that never left.

More people should listen to Ronald Reagan as he reflected in his memoirs on the tragic loss of 241 marines in a suicide attack in Beirut in 1983.

“Perhaps we didn’t appreciate fully enough the depth of the hatred and the complexity of the problems that made the Middle East such a jungle. The irrationality of Middle Eastern politics forced us to rethink our policy there. If there would be some rethinking of policy before our men die, we would be a lot better off. If that policy had been changed to a neutral position and neutrality, those 241 Marines would be alive today.”

Bill Gates Eugenics Empire Exposed: Forcibly Innoculated

Open Letter of Warning to Governor Nixon From Missouri Oath Keepers

Open Letter of Warning to Governor Nixon From Missouri Oath Keepers

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=f5a38c39-4870-4d9c-a743-cc128522e47a&c=587a5b70-cd6d-11e3-b5ca-d4ae5275b3f6&ch=597a6650-cd6d-11e3-b62c-d4ae5275b3f6





An Open Letter To Missouri Governor Nixon from Oath Keepers

There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. - Marine General Smedley Butler - Two-time recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Governor Nixon:

The events in Ferguson have shown us daily that the looting and violence by a few is not being stopped, while the right of the people to peaceably assemble and petition government for redress of grievances is not being respected. The current riot control tactics of the local police, rooted in outmoded techniques developed in the 1950's - and only made worse by the ongoing militarization of our police - are failing the people of Ferguson, giving them a false choice between rampant looting on the one hand, and hyper-militarized police and curfews on the other (which also fail to stop the looting, leaving the mistaken impression among many of the American people that even more militarization and curtailment of free speech and assembly is needed). Our local boots on the ground, made up of retired police officers, military veterans, and intelligence workers (with critical input from current serving Missouri police officers) have answers that could provide the people of Ferguson the relief they need and deserve while respecting their rights. It is time to change a losing game.

The militarized police response we saw in Ferguson did not work. All it did was violate the rights of peaceful protesters and media, alienate the community, and make our country look even more like a police state, with big, intimidating displays of heavily armed, militarized officers, in full "battle-rattle" and backed by BearCat type armored vehicles, firing CS gas and rubber bullets into peaceful protesters and even at media personnel, while failing to stop those relative few who were actually looting, throwing Molotov cocktails, and shooting.

The police focus on peaceful protesters, with lines of policemen equipped in riot gear, in fundamentally static positions - at best, slow, plodding, on-line advances - are easily thwarted by modern looters and thugs with cell phones and team work. Such outdated tactics fail to apprehend those actually looting and shooting.

What they do succeed in doing is alienating the local population while risking additional shooting incidents due to unsafe gun-handling. There were multiple instances of police officers pointing M-4s and sniper rifles at unarmed, peaceful protesters, media, and local residents just going about their business, in displays of spectacularly unsafe weapons discipline and methodology. As one of our police sniper veterans pointed out, even police snipers deployed in response to prior incidents of shots fired should have used spotting scopes to observe the crowd and search for potential threats, not their rifle scopes.

Even worse were the well-publicized incidents of officers routinely pointing M-4s at unarmed protesters at close range for no apparent reason other than to intimidate. An officer facing an actual lethal threat should be moving to cover, not standing there in a static bunch with other officers, using the rifle as a threat display. And a properly trained and disciplined professional keeps his rifle pointed down, where it is pointed in a safe direction but still ready to bring up on target within a second at close range, and it stays pointed down unless and until he identifies an actual lethal threat, while he uses his presence and voice, first and foremost, to control the situation - all without covering anyone with his muzzle.

Such over-the-top threatening displays, with rifles pointed-in indiscriminately at protesters and residents, only anger and frighten the people and reinforce the perception that it is "the police vs. the people" rather than the police vs. a small number of criminals, while risking the lives of the very people our police are supposed to be serving.

And much like over-the top and indiscriminate threat displays and use of force in Iraq lost the hearts and minds of the locals, so too does it lose the battle for hearts and minds here at home - assisting in the agendas of those who wish to divide us along racial lines and create an "us vs. them" mentality among both the people and the police.

The overt displays of heavily armed officers lined up to intimidate the crowds were also tactically unsound for the officers themselves, leaving them exposed in the streets. The more skilled the opposition, the more such tactics fail. So far, it has only been random, inaccurate, handgun fire directed at the police in Ferguson, not rifle fire. Against rifle fire, a long line of exposed officers standing in the open would be a disaster for the police. One active duty police sergeant told us, "I don't want my guys stationary - they just become targets for the thugs throwing bricks and taking pot shots at us with their pistols." The analysts in our group take this kind of feedback from the rank-and-file very seriously, and you should too. And, again, it doesn't get the job done. It doesn't secure the arrest of those who are looting and shooting. It leaves the officers exposed while it only punishes and threatens those who are there to protest - those who are not looting and shooting.

Likewise for the imposition of curfews, which violate the right of the people to peaceably assemble, while also failing to stop the looters and shooters who ignore such decrees. The First Amendment prohibits "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances" period. It doesn't add on "unless a politician declares a state of emergency and imposes a curfew." Nor does it say "unless other people are looting and being violent, in which case all of you lose your right to peaceably assemble." Curfews punish the peaceable majority for the actions of a violent few, and again, alienate the community and send the message that the police see them all as the enemy and seek to trample on the rights of all of them.

The local police are capable of handling the current situation in a way that both respects the rights of the people and gets the actual criminals off the streets, but only if a paradigm shift in strategy and tactics can be made. The leadership, starting with you, Gov. Nixon, and on down the chain of command, must make the changes that are needed to bring sane, effective, and constitutional policing to this situation.

A Constitutional and Effective Strategy

One retired Special Forces veteran in our group suggested that instead of grouping the police officers in large blocks (50 to 100 men), that you should break up these groups into rapid reaction teams of 20 to 25 officers and disperse them, staging them in places spread around Ferguson, with a focus on the looters, not the protesters. Our intelligence and police veterans concurred, and added that you should also task some officers to go out in street clothes to blend in to the crowds and work as Scouts, identifying threats and looters. The plainclothes Scouts should be directing the rapid reaction teams to protect the businesses from the ongoing crime, and refocus the police assets away from unconstitutional activities like shooting CS gas at peaceful protesters and enforcing curfews, and get to the business of putting the real criminals behind bars. If you think you need more minority officers for this role, you could easily find them in the St. Louis County Police Department, St. Charles County Sheriff Department, and other local municipal police departments. The plainclothes officers can identify and locate the trouble-makers and their caches and resources, such as gas cans and bottles for Molotov cocktails, bricks, etc., and they can also film the trouble-makers in support of later arrests and prosecutions.

Those plainclothes Scouts can also be directly backed up by small teams of five to seven additional plainclothes officers to take down identified looters in a manner that uses minimum force along with effective surprise applied only to the actual suspected looter. And those plainclothes small reaction teams can be further backed up by the uniformed rapid response teams, if needed, as they apprehend the looters and shooters. If possible, each officer should have a small, discrete camera - such as a badge camera - pinned to their clothing and running at all times, so that there is a recording of all that occurs.

An additional recommendation from one of our members was that, rather than closing portions of West Florrisant Avenue and ordering protesters to disperse, officers could place cones on the street to reserve the center lane for police use only (warning that any others entering that lane will be arrested), staging officers at various points along that center lane and using it for police vehicles, while leaving traffic free to move North and South (with appropriate turn lanes interspersed), leaving the sidewalks open for protesters and media, and not trying to confine either to any particular area. That preserves the middle lane for police to move freely back and forth along that critical two mile stretch while not restricting free speech and assembly rights.

The initial response of the Highway Patrol, to deescalate and demilitarize the situation, was on the right track.  However, it also failed to secure the arrest of the looters. In fact, officers were explicitly told to not go after the looters. De-escalating of militarized policing against peaceful protesters was a good idea. But the "de-escalation" toward the looters and shooters - intentionally NOT going after them - was insane and failed to protect the people and businesses of Ferguson. Backing off and letting the looters run free failed to solve the problem and actually made it worse, with the success of the looters drawing trouble-makers from all over the country, who came to Ferguson to loot and shoot and incite more violence. As evidence of the failure, we now have local business owners having to hire private security to protect them from looting because the police in their community are failing to do so.

De-escalation and demilitarization must go hand-in-hand with effective policing that stops the looters and shooters. The officers must be told that if they see an act of looting or violence, they must arrest that man. That needs to be the policy from the beginning to the end. Again, we recommend the use of plainclothes officers and small reaction teams to effectively arrest looters and shooters while respecting the rights of the peaceable protesters.

With hundreds of criminals stealing the businesses of Ferguson blind and damaging private property, how many arrests of actual looters took place? The percentage is embarrassing (and arrests of otherwise peaceful protesters for "failure to disperse" or "failure to keep moving" don't count). The Highway Patrol's tactics did not work, and it is time to admit it. It was a mistake to remove St. Louis County from a command role. Instead, Governor, you should have directed them to use their considerable assets to go after the looters while respecting the right of the people to peaceably assemble.

Likewise, bringing the National Guard in for "force protection" secured the Command Location, but what about all the other locations where people's lives were being destroyed? The National Guard was not the answer. Effective, smart, focused policing was. You did the right thing by finally pulling the National Guard back out. Now you just need to direct the application of effective, focused policing.

We need officers focused on looters, not on bullying the media and protesters. We need officers to put violent criminals in jail, not shoot tear gas and rubber bullets at reporters too ignorant to not shine lights in the officers' eyes while they are trying to work. We need a Governor smart enough to reject the riot control tactics developed before cell phones - tactics that are now failing catastrophically - and smart enough to not try to stifle free speech and violate our Bill of Rights. We need a Governor to show enough wisdom to lead our state by the Constitution rather than against it with ineffective abuses like curfews. Governor Nixon, tell us you are wise enough to defeat the criminals without violating our rights. No, SHOW us you are wise enough to change your failing tactics and demand from your men that they discern between peaceful protesters and looting thugs. SHOW US, you will protect the rights of the FREE PRESS and have the courage to demand your officers arrest the real bad guys. Stop gassing the innocent and start arresting the looters!

Wisdom and discernment will go a long way on the streets of Ferguson, and it is time you focus the police on putting real criminals behind bars, not reporters and peaceful protesters. It is time the people of Ferguson look up and see a beautiful moon, instead of a cloud of smoke and tear gas. Truth demands change.

A Critical Warning

In closing, we must warn you that you are making a grave mistake by continuing the pattern of militarization and abuse of rights that we saw during Occupy Wall Street (with curfews imposed on peaceful protesters, who were wrongly ordered to disperse and then pepper-sprayed at point-blank range); with the egregious death of Marine combat veteran Jose Guerena at the hands of a Tucson SWAT team while serving a mere search warrant; during the response to the Boston Bombing (with families being ordered out of their homes at gun-point, with many veterans telling us that the people of Iraq were treated with more respect and consideration than they saw in Watertown, Massachusetts); and with the recent horrendous use of "First Amendment Areas," military trained snipers, and militarized, heavy-handed Federal law enforcement at Bundy Ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada that galvanized veterans from all across America to travel there to prevent that ranching family from being "Waco'd" (with the Washington Times later disclosing that the Obama Administration did, in fact, consider using military force against the Bundy family and their supporters, but thankfully decided not to). Those examples only scratch the surface of a systemic problem that has been ratcheting up over the years in nearly every community in America, as Washington Post journalist Radley Balko has exhaustively documented.

The rapidly escalating militarization of America's police is fundamentally incompatible with our Constitution and incompatible with a free nation, and inevitably leads to violence against We the People and gross violations of our rights, for which so many of our brothers have fought, bled, and died throughout this nation's history.

For us, this is not about race. This is about defending the Bill of Rights, which is a shield against government abuse that is meant to protect ALL Americans, of whatever color. Those of us who served as Marine or Army infantry learned to see only one color: green. Some of our brothers in our fire-teams and squads were dark green, while others were medium or light green, but they were all our brothers, and in combat, they all bled the same color - red - in defense of this nation and in defense of the Constitution, which each of us swore an oath to defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And the same can be said for those constitutional Sheriffs and police officers among us who still know what it means to be a peace officer, not a "law enforcer."

The militarization of our police is not a "black problem." It's an American problem, and it affects all of us. Senator Rand Paul is right. We must demilitarize our police. Governor Nixon, you stand at a critical moment in history. You must reverse course and set the example for other states to follow, to demilitarize our police and bring police methods back within the bounds of the Constitution. A failure to do so will further place millions of us American veterans who still take our oaths seriously on a fateful collision course with a burgeoning police state that is going down the same road that other nations have traveled, with tragic ends.

Our grandfathers and fathers fought against totalitarian police states overseas. Please don't force us to fight against one here at home. Demilitarize the police now, and let us all live in peace under the Constitution, with liberty, and justice, for all.

Missouri Oath Keepers

https://www.facebook.com/stloathkeepers

www.oathkeepers.org

View and comment on this article at: http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2014/08/22/open-letter-of-warning-to-governor-nixon-from-missouri-oath-keepers-2/

The Dirty Secrets of George Bush - Study your history

Independent Living Bullion

Independent Living BullionPetrodollar Spiral

David H. Smith



Over the past few years, a sea change in international finance has been underway which will impact your pocketbook in a big way. Little noticed at first, it is becoming more obvious (and dangerous) with each passing month.



Western banking interests avoid the awkward topic when they speak publicly, but privately they speak of it in guarded tones. Most Americans ignore the issue, assuming that because it seems to be taking place “over there,” we don’t need to pay attention. That attitude is about to change...



I am referring to the unfolding peril posed by the decline of the petrodollar.



Let’s take a brief look at the history leading to the petrodollar’s formation and how it came to play such a pivotal role in today’s world – for better, and now – for worse.



The Bretton Woods system, set up near the end of WWII, obliged participating countries to keep an exchange rate by tying their currencies to the U.S. dollar. The dollar became the primary reserve currency. Global commercial transactions were conducted in dollars and settled through the U.S. banking system. Other countries could redeem their dollars for gold at a fixed price of $35/ounce.



Over time, U.S. government officials began to see that strong foreign demand for their currency meant they could print more dollars (run deficits) than they had gold to back up those dollars. Soon, foreigners caught on too. Losing confidence in the dollar’s value, they began demanding gold in exchange.



The gold outflow became so pronounced that in 1971, President Nixon closed “the gold window,” ending dollar/gold convertibility. Other currencies began to float in value, but the dollar (now a fiat currency since it was no longer backed by gold) remained a reserve currency.



With the dollar set adrift from its golden moorings, Nixon’s Secretary of State Henry Kissinger hastened to persuade the House of Saud to price Middle Eastern oil sales in dollars going forward. (In return, the U.S. would provide the Saudi princes with military backing if needed.) Thereon, any country wishing to purchase oil would have to exchange their currency for dollars beforehand and, for practical purposes, would need to hold large piles of U.S. dollars in reserve. These dollars, which do not circulate inside the U.S. and are not considered part of our domestic monetary supply, came to be known aspetrodollars.



The effect of this was to exchange a de jure gold standard for a de facto oil standard.



It’s now 2014, and the U.S. has massively expanded it its currency base, much of it held in debt instruments by foreigners. We export some of our inflation, weakening the value (purchasing power) of the petrodollar. That causes foreign interests to doubt the wisdom of holding so much of an untrustworthy asset.



Add to this the rise of the BRICs (a coalition of Brazil, Russia, India and China), who actively question the wisdom of relying solely on the U.S. dollar, and who now use their own currencies in transactions whenever possible. Finally, throw in a large dose of geopolitical conflict, Middle East brushfire warfare, and continued NSA spying around the globe.



Add it all up and you’ve got the petrodollar sitting perilously on its perch, in a position likely – at the very least – to be knocked down a peg or two.



The trend towards owning fewer U.S. dollars (and dollar equivalents like T-Bonds and Bills) is well underway around the globe. Dollars no longer form the exclusive basis for international lending. Dollars are being used less to purchase American-produced goods, most notably from China.



Holding fully 75% of its foreign exchange reserves in dollars in 2002, China is now down below 54% -- and falling. (Continued below…)

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A Weakening Petrodollar Impacts Your Finances





This changing environment will affect you. And you should consider owning gold and silver because of it…



Though most observers feel that the petrodollar won’t totally collapse in the near future, Jim Rickards, in his new book The Death of Money, believes that such an event is a distinct possibility. Even if the U.S. dollar only weakens enough to be ranked as “first among equals” – this would still be a major change, with huge implications for the rate of inflation, your purchasing power – and for the price of gold and silver.



According to calculations by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the dollar has lost over 80% of its purchasing power since 1973. In other words, what cost you a dollar to buy in 1973 now costs you $5. In just the last 10 years, the U.S. dollar’s purchasing power has lost 30%. During that time, gold has risen 400%. Are you willing to bet this trend won’t continue?



Compliments of the U.S. dollar’s reserve currency status, we have been able to live wildly beyond our means – taking for granted our position as top dog. Like the diner who gets a poor meal at a once well-respected restaurant and stops going back, our profligate monetary policies are creating more and more dissatisfied customers. The time when America could run up debts in excess of 100% of its GDP – which is currently the case – is a chapter that’s rapidly coming to a close.



Whether the dollar dies a slow death over a number of years, or one day just falls off a cliff as foreigners desert it en masse, the effects on largely unsuspecting Americans will be severe and long-lasting.



Sam Zell, chairman of Tribune Company and Equity Group Investments, and one of the nation’s most prescient and astute investors, issued this warning:



My single biggest financial concern is the loss of the dollar as the reserve currency. I can't imagine anything more disastrous to our country. I think you could see a 25 percent reduction in the standard of living in this country if the U.S. dollar was no longer the world's reserve currency. That's how valuable it is.









David Smith is senior analyst for TheMorganReport.com and is now a regular contributor to IndependentLivingBullion.com. For the last 15 years, he’s investigated precious metals mines and exploration sites all over Argentina, Chile, Mexico, China, Canada, and the U.S. and shared his findings and investment wisdom with readers, radio listeners, and audiences at North American investment conferences.

THE SHOCKING TRUTH HISTORY CHANNEL CAN'T BROADCAST -- Bix Weir

The Road to Roota Theory

The Road to Roota Theory

The Road to Roota Theory
Bix Weir
___________________________________________________
It was January 2007 when I first discovered the information released by the Federal Reserve Bank, Boston that changed my understanding of the gold & silver markets, the financial markets, the energy markets, the monetary system as well as the true essence of my country, the United States of America. Interestingly enough it came in the form of a children's comic book.



The Road to Roota Theory postulates that there is a group of people in the United States as well as around the world that are working to remove and destroy the financial banking powers that have secretly controlled all aspects of our lives for hundreds of years. The original idea of this group sprang from the mind of Alan Greenspan and involved rigging markets with computer programs that he had invented in the 1960's. The original articles can be found here:

The Original Road to Roota
http://www.roadtoroota.com/public/120.cfm

My understanding of the way the world worked was blown to bits and replaced with a more unified theory on all things monetary... all things that lead us down The Road to Roota otherwise known as the Road to the Gold Standard.

Greenspan's Golden Secret
http://www.roadtoroota.com/public/101.cfm

The following concepts are the key support pillars in The Road to Roota Theory and I have linked the support articles as back up. Once you understand these concepts you will understand what is happening all around you as the world you once knew comes crumbling down to be replaced by a new and better system.

KEY COMPONENTS OF THE ROAD TO ROOTA THEORY:

1) All markets have been 100% controlled by computer programs since the 1970's in order to steer and control prices thus prolonging the fiat monetary system.
http://www.roadtoroota.com/public/94.cfm

2) A powerful cabal of the world's elite have taken over that market manipulation process and twisted it to enhance their own profits while pretending to service their nation's best interests.
http://www.roadtoroota.com/public/133.cfm

3) In the early 1900's the United States embarked on a secret policy to hide all of its own natural resources and exploit the rest of the world's until resource scarcity was fully recognized.
http://www.roadtoroota.com/public/181.cfm

4) In order to support the oil backed US Dollar and the world's petro-based economic system the "powers that be" have hidden new energy technologies that would greatly benefit the world's population as well as the environment.
http://www.roadtoroota.com/public/141.cfm

5) Since 911 there is a group of people and governments that have decided "enough is enough" and are in the process of removing the banking cabal from their seat of power.
http://www.roadtoroota.com/public/120.cfm

6) The planned destruction of the fiat monetary system is the type of "Creative Destruction" event that will force the implementation of a new Gold Standard within the United States.
http://www.roadtoroota.com/public/117.cfm

You may argue all you want about my interpretation and conclusions but there will be no arguing the final results. When the final crash comes the facts will show that the Road to Roota Theory was the closest thing to a "correct analysis" of the gold market available at this time in history.

This is your peek behind the curtain of the Great and Powerful OZ!

As we read the papers today the events are unfolding before us. The real question now is what will happen in the future? Will we be cast into a deep and dark depression with no hope for future generations or will we survive and even thrive as we make this transition?

Here is my interpretation of all the information found in the RoadtoRoota.com archives:
http://www.roadtoroota.com/public/department36.cfm

These conclusions may sound way too positive and outrageously naive but everything I watch points to a very bright future…even if it takes a few bumps to get there!

1) The collapse of the fiat monetary system will be total and complete equalizing the playing field between the "haves" and the "have-nots".

2) All paper/electronic debt and assets will evaporate with the collapse of the fiat money system.

3) Those who have perpetrated the outrageous and monstrous crimes of the past 100 years will be hunted down and prosecuted (if they are lucky).

4) The US will issue a new gold backed currency (domestically) allocating it according to future social security payments due.

5) The US will allocate much of the new gold backed money to support the funding of schools, police, health care, infrastructure and other necessities for a fully functioning society.

6) Globalization will end upon the collapse of the derivative structure and all countries will end global trade concentrating on their own internal commerce.

7) All US overseas troops will return home to protect our borders and ensure the safety of our citizens.

8) The US population will be fully employed working to replace all the overseas production lost in the reversal of Globalization.

9) The United States will tap into its VAST natural resources that have been hidden away for years in National Parks, Military Bases and sites deemed "Ecologically Sensitive".

10) A vast array of new energy technologies will be revealed since there will be no more need for the "oil standard" that has supported the US Dollar for the past 50 years.

11) The implementation of the new monetary system will usher in a glorious new "Golden Age" that the world will embrace after years of being lead around like "Sheeple".

We are on the cusp of something truly momentous in the history of the human race. With the full transition there is no need to lose the free markets system. Truthfully, a true "Free Market" system has never been given the chance it deserves with all the market rigging of the past 100 years.

We will be free again. We will resurrect our Constitution and we will make the United States of America the Land of Liberty that our forefathers envisioned.

Let's pray that the change is peaceful.

May the Road you choose be the Right Road.

Bix Weir

#Declassify the Redacted Information on 9/11 and Support H. Res. 428!

Court hears missing US citizen has been transferred to secretive, US-funded Yemeni court | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

Court hears missing US citizen has been transferred to secretive, US-funded Yemeni court | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community


For Immediate Release
Wednesday, August 20, 2014 - 2:45pm
Reprieve
Contact:
Katherine O'Shea: +1 917.855.8064 or katherine.oshea@reprieve.org
Court hears missing US citizen has been transferred to secretive, US-funded Yemeni court


WASHINGTON - A court in Yemen today heard that an American citizen who disappeared in February this year may have been transferred to a secretive, US-funded ‘court’ which has been strongly criticised by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for failing to meet international fair trial standards.

Sharif Mobley, from New Jersey, disappeared from Sana’a Central Prison six months ago and has been held in secret detention ever since. He has not been produced for any of his last four trial hearings in a civilian court in the country’s capital, where he is facing murder charges. He continues to be denied any access to his lawyers.

Today, the civilian court heard – in comments which the judge subsequently ordered to be struck from the record – that Mr Mobley has been transferred to face trial before the Specialized Criminal Court administered by the US-backed National Security Bureau (NSB).

The judge, Abdelwali al-Shaabani, ordered the Attorney General to locate Mr. Mobley and bear the responsibility for bringing him to hearings, as well as ordering an investigation into the Attorney General’s failure to bring Mr. Mobley to five hearings.

While representatives of the Attorney General’s office did not indicate that they knew where Mr. Mobley is being detained, a lawyer for the victim’s family stated before the court that he had been informed by a prison guard that Mr. Mobley had been transferred to the Specialized Criminal Court.

In July, U.S. Embassy officials admitted to having visited Mr. Mobley but refused to identify his location to either his lawyers or his family.

Mr. Mobley had been on the verge of presenting key evidence regarding U.S. and Yemeni complicity in his 2010 abduction when he was forcibly disappeared. He was first kidnapped in January 2010 by unidentified gunmen from outside his house in Sana'a, shot in the leg and held incommunicado for several months. While in secret detention he was interrogated by two US agents, threatened with further abuse (including rape, and the rape of his wife) and beaten so badly he had to be hospitalized. He currently faces murder charges relating to the death of a Yemeni police officer in the course of an alleged escape attempt.

Mr. Mobley’s Yemeni lawyer, Khalid Al-Anasi said: “I have serious concerns for my client’s health and safety. The Attorney General’s office’s failure to produce him confirms that the case is not in the judiciary’s hands but in the hands of the Yemeni security services and the US government, represented by its embassy in Sana’a.”

Reprieve Investigator Katie Taylor said: “Mr Mobley is being denied justice at every turn. He has been tortured, blocked from seeing his lawyers, and is now being prevented from even attending his own trial. Rumours that he has disappeared into a secretive, abusive court system are worrying enough. But the prospect that those abusing a US citizen are being funded by US taxpayers should set alarm bells ringing in Washington.”


###


Reprieve is a UK-based human rights organization that uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantánamo Bay.

Activist Post: Did Ferguson Police Use "Kill Switch" on Livestream Signal The Moment They Created Chaos?

Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Did Ferguson Police Use "Kill Switch" on Livestream Signal The Moment They Created Chaos?

"It keep saying 'no network error'. We had a foreign reporter on the roof with us and she wasn't able to get a signal on her cell phone. And people on the ground were saying 'I can't tweet out.'" -Livestreamer Argus Radio.

Eric Blair
Activist Post

It seems like the police state is using protests in Ferguson as a testing ground for all of their crowd-control weapons. Many are obvious like the curfew enforced by platoons of soldiers, armored tanks mounted by snipers, stun, tear and smoke grenades, no-fly zone, sound cannons, and designated free speech zones and media zones (apparently they're different now).

However, some weapons are less obvious like technology to kill livestream feeds during questionable police activity. And that's precisely what happened last night according to Ferguson's most prolific livestreamer Argus Radio.




The GIF above, taken from the final seconds of Argus Radio feed from last night, shows the moment the police bum rush the crowd and create mass panic in an attempt to catch someone. Moments later the livestream feed was cut and registered a network error, according to Argus Radio.

The Argus livestream has been filming the protests non-stop for the last week manned by volunteer University of Missouri post-grad student Mustafa Hussein.

A week ago, Hussein reported live "We’ve just been told by the St. Louis Police Department to turn off our cameras. We will not be turning off our cameras. We will continue to broadcast, even if it is at our own peril." So the cameras continued to film.

Flash forward a week and on early Wednesday morning just after midnight, Argus had no choice in the matter as their feed was cut off. Hussein reported afterward:

As soon as the conflict happened there was an over-running of the media station by the protesters who were fleeing from the police. We don't know what the agitation was, but we do know that we lost signal.

We reset the broadcast three times and it keep saying "no network error". We had a foreign reporter on the roof with us and she wasn't able to get a signal on her cell phone. And people on the ground were saying "I can't tweet out, I can't tweet out."
Use of a government "kill switch" during protests is precisely what civil liberties groups warned makes this technology so dangerous. It's important to note that this kill switch appears to have jammed the cell signal rather than shutting down the entire Internet or specific digital equipment. A recent California bill requires smartphones to have kill switches to prevent theft, but critics worry the government can use them to remotely shut off phone cameras and 4G access.

Regardless, last night the digital surveillance state seemed to merge with the militarized police state in a spectacular show of power.

Interestingly, the evening before authorities tried another bizarre tactic. The police created what appeared to be a two-tiered "free speech" zone; one area for protesters and another for the press. Protesters marched in circles on the street and journalists took pictures from the sidewalk. The journalists far outnumbered the protesters and it all seemed very staged.

The police eventually got tired and claimed that everyone must disperse, except for the "credentialed media," who were allowed to stay. It was eerily similar to journalists who're embedded with the troops. As the militarized police assault began in the "free speech" zone, many protesters hid with media to use them as human shields. Surreal. Later, State Police Captain Ron Johnsonsaid that they identified credentialed press as those with $50,000 cameras. Apparently violating the rights of elite journalists is forbidden, but crushing peaceful assembly and citizen journalists is just fine. Maybe they just can't hack the satellite signal on expensive cameras?

The very root of the uproar in Ferguson is the lack of accountability for a police officers' actions, and that outrage is being met with new and improved ways to hide unethical police actions, now including information kill switches. The ultimate police state weapon is one that hides its brutalityfrom the public, at least until they come to a town near you.

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Mainstream Media Calls for More Attacks on Protestors

County police report 155 arrests since Michael Brown was killed - The Washington Post

By Wesley Lowery August 20 at 5:46 PM



Police officers arrest a demonstrator on Monday in Ferguson. (Joe Raedle/Getty)
St. Louis County Police have recorded 155 arrests for crimes linked to protests, demonstrations, and rioting in the 11 days since 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed, according to records provided to The Washington Post on Wednesday.

The numbers are very likely an understatement of the total number of those taken into custody, as numerous residents and journalists have been detained and released without being charged. The list obtained by the Post only includes those held in St. Louis County facilities. It is likely that there are others who have been arrested and held in municipal jails.

Nightly arrest numbers have fluctuated widely from night-to-night, due at least in part to shifts in police tactics.

The overwhelming majority of those arrests came for “refusal to disperse,” with 123 people facing that charge. Another 20 people were arrested for burglary or possession of burglary tools, four for unlawful use of a weapon, three for assaulting a police officer, two for trespassing on private property, two for interfering with an officer and one for general disturbance of peace.

There were 30 people arrested during the first four nights of unrest, between Aug. 10 and Aug. 13, when the St. Louis County Police Department was overseeing crowd control in Ferguson.

That number dropped to just one arrest, a burglary offense, on Thursday, Aug. 14, when authority was given to Cpt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri State Police. Not a single arrest was recorded on Friday, Aug. 15 – a nightwhen four businesses were looted – and only one arrest was recorded on Saturday, Aug. 16 – when a curfew of midnight was imposed.

Arrests have spiked this week, with 17 on Sunday, 30 on Monday, 47 on Tuesday and 28 already as of 5 p.m. on Wednesday.


Several people have been arrested more than once during the ongoing unrest in Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb. The records show that the vast majority of the arrests (126) were of Missouri residents – primarily from the St. Louis area.

Nine of those arrested were of Illinois residents, six were from New York, five from California, three from Texas, two from Ohio, and one each from Georgia, Washington D.C., Alabama and Iowa.

The roster includes some journalists, including Ryan Deveraux of The Intercept. However, the list of arrests does not include the majority of journalists who have been detained or arrested, which numbers at least a dozen but could be higher.


Wesley Lowery covers Capitol Hill for The Fix and Post Politics.