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Wednesday 27 May 2015

Is 'San Andreas' a cryptic warning about what is going to happen in America's future?

© endoftheamericandream.com
Movie Poster.

    
Hollywood has a long history of inserting political messages, social commentaries, subliminal effects and even cryptic warnings about the future into big budget films. So is someone attempting to use to tell us something? For many years, doomsayers have been warning that the "Big One" is going to come along and rip the coastline of California to shreds. Up until this moment, it hasn't happened, but without a doubt we have moved into a time of increased geological activity all over the globe. As you read this article, 42 volcanoes around the planet are currently erupting. That means that the number of volcanoes erupting right now is greater than the 20th century's average for an entire year. In addition, we have been witnessing a great deal of very unusual earthquake activity lately. Just in the United States, we have seen unusual earthquakes hit Michigan, Texas, Mississippi, California, Idaho And Washington within the last month or so. Could it be possible that our planet has entered a period of heightened seismic activity? And could it also be possible that someone behind is aware of this and is trying to warn us about what is coming in our future?

Of course just about everyone in the scientific community acknowledges that the "Big One" is eventually coming to California. In fact, the U.S. Geological Survey recently came out and said that the probability of a megaquake along the west coast is greater than they had previously been projecting...

A recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey shows the inevitability of just such a quake, which is predicted to hit within the next couple of decades.

"The new likelihoods are due to the inclusion of possible multi-fault ruptures, where earthquakes are no longer confined to separate, individual faults, but can occasionally rupture multiple faults simultaneously," lead author of the study and USGS scientist, Ned Field says. "This is a significant advancement in terms of representing a broader range of earthquakes throughout California's complex fault system."

And it is undeniable that California has been hit by an unusual number of earthquakes recently. Could this be a sign that our portion of the "Ring of Fire" is heating up? Just over the past few days, there have been significant earthquakes at dormant volcanoes all over the state of California and in Nevada. I don't know about you, but to me all of this shaking is reason for concern.

If the state of California does get hit by a major earthquake in the near future, the damage that would be caused would be immense. Among those trying to raise awareness about this is Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti...

"I hope this movie can be a gut check and a visceral reminder to people of the danger from quakes," Garcetti said before the screening. "But then that people will also do a head check about how they can really be prepared...to react by looking at some good research and using their heads about the dangers we really face."

Garcetti has recently introduced a series of proposals called "Resilience by Design" to try to make sure the city's buildings, telecommunications system and water supply are able to withstand a large earthquake. Emphasizing the challenges Los Angeles faces, the mayor noted how mobile phone service largely went down after the 1994 Northridge quake. And he said the water supply could also be challenged in the next big shaker, considering that the San Andreas Fault (depicted as causing the giant temblor in the Warner Bros.' film) crosses the California Aqueduct in 20 places.

But not everyone appreciates this new film. One of the features of that has been heavily criticized as being "unrealistic" is the giant tsunami that engulfs San Francisco. According to the it is not possible for the San Andreas fault to even cause a tsunami...

And, unlike the film, the San Andreas can't spawn tsunamis.

Most tsunamis are triggered by underwater quakes, but they can also be caused by landslides, volcanoes and even meteor impacts.

So why is a giant tsunami in the film?

Is it just there to make a summer disaster movie a little bit more spectacular, or is there something more to it?

In the United States today, 39 percent of all Americans live in counties that directly border a shoreline, and there have been many that have been warning about the immense devastation that will happen when a giant tsunami hits either the east coast or the west coast.

Could it be possible that the tsunami was in the film because someone believes that a giant tsunami is in our future?

Very few filmmakers make movies purely for entertainment. Most of them want to "say something" through their films.

So what is saying to us?

Whatever your opinion on that is, what is undeniable is that the Ring of Fire has been extremely active lately. In fact, just this week Costa Rica was hit by a cluster of 23 earthquakes near a volcano not too far from the capital...

In a span of eight hours on Monday night and into early Tuesday, experts from the University of Costa Rica and the National University registered at least 23 temblors with epicenters located north of the province of Cartago, some 22 kilometers northeast of the Costa Rican capital.

Ronny Quintero, a seismologist at UNA's Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI) reported that the temblors originated on local faults west of IrazĂș Volcano's main crater. Experts said they are not directly related to the volcano's activity.

And all over the planet, volcanoes that have long been dormant are suddenly springing to life.

For instance, a volcano in the Galapagos Islands has spectacularly erupted after being dormant for 33 years...

After almost 33 years of inactivity, Wolf Volcano, the highest in the Galapagos Islands and home to the only population of pink iguanas in the world, began to erupt early Monday, the Galapagos National Park reported. "The volcano is not located near a populated area," the Park said. "There is no risk for the human population." The Galapagos Islands are located in the Pacific Ocean, some 1,000 kilometers off the coast of Ecuador. Pink iguanas share the habitat with yellow iguanas and giant tortoises, located on the northwest flank. The lava flow has southeasterly direction, so the park expects the animals won't be affected.

Our planet is becoming increasingly unstable. I am fully convinced that we are going to see enormous natural disasters both inside the United States and all over the globe during the next few years. In fact, I am of the opinion that we will actually witness natural disasters that are so destructive that they will literally change the geography of nations.

So what do you think? Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below...

Jawbone fossils reveal new human ancestor species scientists say

© Yohannes Haile-Selassie, Cleveland Museum of Natural History
The new species, combined ape-like and human-like traits.

    
Jaw and teeth fossils found in Ethiopia's Afar region in 2011 represent a previously unknown member of humankind's family tree that lived 3.3 to 3.5 million years ago alongside the famous human ancestor Lucy, scientists say.

The fossils shed new light on a key period in the human lineage's evolution before the emergence of our genus, , and provide the first evidence that two early human ancestor species lived at the same time and place prior to 3 million years ago.

The new species, combined ape-like and human-like traits as did Lucy's species, , but was sufficiently different to warrant recognition as a separate species, scientists said announcing the discovery on Wednesday.

Lucy's skeleton was unearthed in 1974 from the Hadar site, near Woranso-Mille, where the new fossil was found.

The species' cheekbone position and generally small tooth size likely made it look more like our genus than did Lucy's species, said Cleveland Museum of Natural History paleoanthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie, who led the study published in the journal .

© Erin DiMaggio
Infographic: A detailed map shows where the Ledi Heraru site is located in reference to other important fossil sites in Ethiopia.

    
The scientists found upper and lower jaws and teeth from at least three individuals, but no other remains.

They previously found a 3.4 million-year-old partial fossil foot and "cannot rule out" that it belongs to the new species, Mr Haile-Selassie said.

Compared to Lucy, the new species had a more robust lower jaw, cheekbones further forward on the upper jaw, molars with thicker enamel and relatively small upper and lower cheek teeth, said paleoanthropologist Stephanie Melillo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology's Department of Human Evolution in Germany.

One unanswered question is how Lucy's species and the managed to co-exist.

"They would have been rivals if they were exploiting the same resources or had similar foraging strategies," Mr Haile-Selassie said.

Dental differences suggest they had different diets, meaning they may not have competed for the same resources.

Another human relative, also lived relatively nearby in Kenya.

Our species, , appeared 200,000 years ago. The earliest known member of our genus lived 2.8 million years ago.

Scientists previously had argued there was only one human ancestor at any time between 4 and 3 million years ago, each giving rise to another new species.

"The story is becoming more complicated as more branches are added to the human phylogenetic tree," Ms Melillo said.

© Laura Dempsey, Cleveland Museum of Natural History
The scientists found upper and lower jaws and teeth from at least three individuals, but no other remains.

    

Prepare yourselves, your homes, and your neighborhoods for the violence that is going to sweep America

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The thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted on a daily basis is beginning to disappear, and a new era of chaos and anarchy is coming to our cities. I don't know if you have noticed, but violence is increasing on the streets of America. Over Memorial Day weekend, 29 people were shot in Baltimore and 55 people were shot in Chicago. But of course the trend that I am talking about is much broader than that. According to the FBI, the number of police officers "feloniously killed" in the line of duty rose by an astounding 89 percent in 2014. We live at a time when Americans are becoming extremely angry and extremely frustrated, and this is only going to intensify as economic conditions worsen. But already we have seen some of this anger and frustration boil over into violence in Ferguson and in Baltimore. And you know what? The vast majority of Americans expect more of the same in the coming months. According to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey that was recently released, 96 percent of all Americans believe that there will be more civil unrest in America this summer. What we have seen up until now is just the warm up act. The main event is still to come.

If things are this bad already, how bad will they be when the next great economic crisis hits this nation and unemployment skyrockets and poverty is everywhere?

That is why I am encouraging people that currently live in the heart of our major cities to consider moving. Unfortunately, most Americans are completely dependent on the jobs that they currently have, so moving is not really a practical option for a lot of people.

For those that cannot move, you are just going to have to get prepared right where you are. That means making your home and your family as unattractive a target to potential criminals as you possibly can. The goal should be to avoid a violent confrontation if at all possible. So you will want multiple layers of security between you and those that would potentially harm you and your family. You want to try to deter the bad guys from ever coming on to your property in the first place, but if they do come, you need to be ready to deal with them.

At the moment, we are still in the midst of relatively stable economic times. But even in these relatively stable times, violence is escalating. Just consider what happened in Baltimore over the recent holiday weekend. A grand total of 29 people were shot...

Police say 29 people were shot, 9 of them killed over this weekend, adding to the record-breaking violence.

The shooting didn't stop on Monday night after a 9-year-old boy and another man were both injured by gun fire in the 2900 block of Arunah Avenue. Police say the child was shot in the leg and another man suffered a graze wound to the head.

Overall, this past month has been the deadliest month for Baltimore in 15 years.

Things are even worse in the city of Chicago. Over this past weekend, 55 people got shot...

Twelve people were killed and at least 43 — including a 4-year-old girl — were wounded in shootings across Chicago this Memorial Day weekend, police said.

The 4-year-old, identified by her family as Jacele Johnson, was shot about 8 p.m. Friday in the West Englewood neighborhood. She and her 17-year-old cousin Romare Wilson were inside an SUV in the 7000 block of South Justine when another vehicle pulled up and someone inside opened fire, according to their family and Chicago Police.

Early in April, I went on the record and specifically named Chicago and Baltimore as two of the cities where we would be seeing civil unrest. Since that time we have seen horrible rioting in Baltimore and the violence in Chicago continues to spiral out of control.

Other experts are issuing similar warnings. For example, consider what an assistant professor at New Jersey City University recently had to say...

Urban unrest expert Dr. Max Herman says that the United Statesis on the "cusp" of a wave of domestic disorder and that the country will see more race riots.

Herman, Assistant Professor of Sociology at New Jersey City University, told the New Republic's Joel Gillin that the economic downturn, in addition to incidents of police brutality, have provided fertile conditions for civil unrest.

He sees the re-emergence of a 60's-style "protest ideology" amongst black communities which will lead to more disorder.

"It's very clear from studying history that these things tend to run in cycles," said Herman, adding, "I think we are at the cusp of another cycle."

Author Chris Hedges is saying similar things. The following comes from a recent article about him in the National Post...

The United States is primed for a rebellion. So argues Chris Hedges in his new book, Wages of Rebellion, in which the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and polemicist examines revolts from 1700s to the ending of apartheid in South Africa, as well as the "sublime madness" that drives the people at the centre of such rebellions.

When asked by the National Post why he wrote his new book, this is what Hedges had to say...

I didn't write it as a warning or a prediction. I wrote it more as an assessment. I covered disintegrating societies like Yugoslavia.I know how they break down; I know what the warning signs are, so it's familiar. I don't think at this point there's much dispute. Even just the financial indicators in terms of wealth disparity and chronic unemployment. The fact that Congress has a nine-per-cent approval rating. Where I'm coming from, the book is an attempt to explain where we are in this particular historical period.

But it isn't just that we are entering a new cycle of unrest. Our "leaders" have made things much worse by the decisions that they have made. For instance, Barack Obama's decision to leave our southern border virtually unguarded has resulted in a massive flood of illegal immigrants coming into this country. As a result, violent gangs that have roots in Central America and South America have mushroomed in size. So now major cities far from the border such as Charlotte, North Carolina are being absolutely terrorized by these gangs...

Recent busts of murderous MS-13 gangsters put the lie to President Obama's sympathetic amnesty narrative of illegal immigrants as "workers who mow our lawns, make our beds (and) clean out bedpans."

Authorities Wednesday rounded up 37 MS-13 gang members in Charlotte, N.C., on racketeering conspiracy charges, along with charges of murder, attempted murder and firearms violations. All of them are illegal aliens from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Several are round-trippers — illegals who broke in once, committed crimes, got deported and broke back into the U.S. — proving that our border is porous and unsecured.

Charlotte police discovered the rat's nest of foreign gangsters after some of them started shooting up local nightclubs and bars.

In 2015, it isn't just our own citizens that we need to be concerned about. At this point, many of our biggest cities are absolutely packed to the gills with gangs made up primarily of illegal immigrants.

I discussed Chicago earlier. Did you know that it is estimated that approximately 150,000 gang members now live there?

When things start really breaking down in this country, those gangs are going to have a field day.

America is changing, and not for the better. And when violence starts sweeping this nation, don't count on the government to come in and rescue you. After watching what happened in Ferguson and in Baltimore, you should know better than that by now.

It is time for the American people to prepare their own homes and their own neighborhoods for the chaos and the violence that is coming.

For the moment, things are still relatively stable so we have a little bit of time to prepare, but it won't last for long.

Is an ISIS false flag nuclear attack on America planned within the next 12 months?

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Captured British journalist John Cantlie has written an article for the Islamic State in which he claims that the possibility of an ISIS nuclear attack on America has risen "infinitely."

The article appeared in the new edition of Dabiq, the ISIS online english magazine with Madison Avenue design cues. Cantlie was abducted by ISIS in 2012 and is now apparently being forced to write their english language propaganda.

Claiming ISIS has billions of dollars, Cantlie outlined how the terrorist group could acquire the weapon and transport it into America. Press TV reports:

British journalist John Cantlie wrote in the article ISIL "has billions of dollars in the bank, so they call on their wilayah (Province) in Pakistan to purchase a nuclear device through weapons dealers with links to corrupt officials in the region."

"The weapon is then transported overland until it makes it to Libya, where the mujahidin move it south to Nigeria," the journalist said.

He added that "drug shipments from Columbia bound for Europe pass through West Africa, so moving other types of contraband from East to West is just as possible."

Cantlie continued the weapon and accompanying radicals would then move up through Central America and Mexico before entering the US.

"From there it's a quick hop through a smuggling tunnel and hey presto, they're mingling with another 12 million 'illegal' aliens in America with a nuclear bomb in the trunk," he wrote.

"Perhaps such a scenario is far-fetched but it's the sum of all fears for Western intelligence agencies and it's infinitely more possible today than it was just one year ago," Cantlie said.

Another report, this time by Zerohedge, provided more details:

Three weeks after the first supposed attack by Islamic State supporters in the US, in which two ISIS "soldiers" wounded a security guard before they were killed in Garland, Texas, the time has come to raise the fear stakes.

In an article posted in the terrorist group's English-language online magazine Dabiq (which as can be see below seems to have gotten its design cues straight from Madison Avenue and is just missing glossy pages filled with 'scratch and sniff' perfume ads ) ISIS claimed that it has enough money to buy a nuclear weapon from Pakistan and "carry out an attack inside the United States next year."

In the article, the ISIS columnist said the weapon could be smuggled into the United States via its southern border with Mexico.

Curiously, the author of the piece is John Cantlie, a British photojournalist who was abducted by ISIS in 2012 and has been held hostage by the organization ever since; he has appeared in several videos since his kidnapping and criticized Western powers.

As the Telegraph notes, "Mr Cantlie, whose fellow journalist hostages have all either been released or beheaded, has appeared in the group's propaganda videos and written previous pieces. In his latest work, presumed to be written under pressure but in his hall-mark style combining hyperbole, metaphor and sarcasm, he says that President Obama's policies for containing Isil have demonstrably failed and increased the risk to America."

While ISIS is obviously conducting a propaganda campaign through the captured journalist, one has to wonder if the possibility of a nuclear attack on America may be more real than most believe.

So how easy would it actually be for terrorists (or elements of our own intelligence agencies working with the supposed terrorists) to carry out a nuclear attack on America?

"With nuclear material having been stolen on multiple occasions in Mexico, and close terrorist ties to intelligence organizations in the middle east, it appears that if an organization was committed to acquiring nuclear material they could do so. Finding the scientists to build such a weapon, whether dirty or actual, wouldn't be all that difficult. Moreover, smuggling such a device into the U.S. is possible, as evidenced by a 2011 report which confirms that at least one nuclear weapon of mass destruction was seized as it entered the United States," reported Mac Slavo.

It seems clear that if a nuclear attack were to happen in the United States, certain elements of the government would almost have to be involved for they are the ones who originally created the terrorist group.

"Thanks to a lawsuit by Judicial Watch, a 2012 Defense Intelligence Agency assessment has been released, in heavily redacted form, that indicates the US Intelligence Community knew from the beginning that its regime change policy in Syria would boost al-Qaeda and ISIS. Yet they did it anyway. They knew they needed the extremists if they were going to achieve their goals. But what about the blowback," read a report on the Ron Paul Institute website.

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"We have definitive confirmation via declassified documents that the Islamic State is a creation of the U.S. Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency, and their influence across the middle east was predicted well in advance of anyone ever having heard the name ISIS or ISIL. We also know that false flag operations, such as the German Reichstag fire of 1933, are often used by governments (or rogue elements within a government) to implement changes to existing political and social paradigms."

Whatever the case may be, the fact that a terrorist group that was created by the U.S. government is now publicly talking about a nuclear attack on American soil should, at the very least, raise eyebrows throughout the informed populace.

It is also important to consider the numerous reports in the last three years throughout the alternative media that claimed that the powers that be were planning a nuclear false flag attack.

While most of the reports gave specific dates that have come and gone, the idea that rogue elements of our government may be in on a false flag nuclear attack as a last resort has been discussed repeatedly in conspiracy circles.

New 'Peace' lobby pressures US Presidential candidates to favor war

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Here comes the peace.

    
There is a long history of the U.S. military-industrial complex lobbying the government for funding and influencing foreign policy, e.g., to help pick out countries to bomb or invade.

However, the latest pressure group to be formed in the run up to next year's U.S. presidential elections is an insult to basic intelligence. It calls itself Americans for Peace, Prosperity and Security but literally hides its sinister motives in broad daylight. The name sounds so innocent, so appealing and credible. After all, don't we all want peace, prosperity, and security!?

Except this group wants everything but that. For them a $600 billion military budget is not nearly enough. As is often the case, you just need to look at the names of board members to see right through the organization's name.

According to the :

Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers has formed a new pressure group, now active in Iowa and New Hampshire, to serve as the "premiere national security and foreign policy organization during the 2016 debate" and to "help elect a president who supports American engagement and a strong foreign policy."

Roger's group, Americans for Peace, Prosperity, and Security, is hosting candidate events and intends to host a candidate forum later this year. The organization does not disclose its donors. But a look at the business executives helping APPS steer presidential candidates towards more hawkish positions reveals that many are defense contractors who stand to gain financially from continued militarism:

  • Advisory Board Member John Coburn is chairman and CEO of VT Systems, a company that delivers communications technology for the Defense Department.
  • Advisory Board Member Stephen Hadley is a principal at the consulting firm RiceHadleyGates and serves as a board member to defense contractor Raytheon, a position that pays him $228,007 in annual compensation.
  • New Hampshire Board Member Rich Ashooh lists his employment as Director, Strategy at BAE Systems.
  • New Hampshire Board Member James Bell is the chief executive of EPE Corporation, a manufacturing company that says it is a "premier supplier to the defense community."
  • Advisory Board Member John Engler is the president of the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group for major corporations, including defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, United Technologies and Northrop Grumman.
  • New Hampshire Board Member Ken Solinksy is founder of Insight Technologies, a night vision and electro-optical systems firm acquired by L-3 Communications.
  • New Hampshire Chairman and Advisory Board Member Walt Havenstein is the former chief executive of BAE Systems and SAIC, two of the largest defense contractors in America. Havenstein, who left SAIC in 2012, was paid partially in company stock options.

[embedded content]

Towards a militarized police state in America? Explosive new revelations over "Jade Helm 15 exercise" and potential false flags

© http://ift.tt/1HMwVQH

    
A growing segment of the American population is waking up to the implications of the Jade Helm 15 military operation to be conducted by Special Forces in conjunction with local law enforcement, the FBI, DHS, the DEA and Border Patrol across the entire Southwest. This massive unprecedented exercise will also commence in June sooner than first announced and last for 10 weeks through the summer till September 15.

The risk of it triggering civil unrest or that it may coincide with a potential false flag scenario followed by another possibly timed crisis situation is both feasible and real, despite mainstream media's ridicule dismissing any such possibilities as pure paranoid conspiracy theory. What we do know for sure is this nation has turned into a militarized police state and that both the military and the government lie all the time.

We also are aware of the globalists' long planned agenda of a national crisis that would induce Obama to quash civil unrest by declaring martial law. A recent poll of Americans found that near half (45%) see Jade Helm as imposing more control over the states. If martial law doesn't actually come to pass this time around, it certainly sets the stage for next time in this incrementally increasing militarization of America.

We also know that a specific Department of Defense manual FM 3-39.40 has existed since 2010 delineating how the federal government in cooperation with the UN will respond to civil disturbance that includes FEMA camp roundups to fill waiting empty Haliburton-refurbished prison camps after a $385 million no bid contract during the former CEO Cheney's vice presidency. We also know that each prison camp includes a tribunal section and a mortuary section along with psychological officers responsible for reprogramming US detainees. Despite this layout presented so matter-of-fact and by-the-book, Americans will be killed. During the upheaval of a national crisis, a lethal outcome is also most probable. Meanwhile, countdown to global war appears to be ticking away as troops from virtually every nation are busily training in preparation for a likely West versus East endgame scenario of World War III.

President Kennedy spoke of subversive forces operating inside the shadow government several months prior to those same forces killing him. And those demonic forces posing as our international crime syndicate government boldly went on unconsequenced by the JFK assassination to stage the worst false flag in history on 9/11 giving birth to the neocons' war on terror. And it's been all downhill ever since with nonstop wars, a runaway deficit (over $18 trillion), a fragile and broken global economy, and within a few years after 9/11 a militarized totalitarian police state. Long gone is America's once democratic republic, replaced by a fascist oligarchy controlled by a military-security-prison complex. As Obama's personal army, Homeland Security has grown gluttonously evil bringing tyranny and oppression to the United States of America as never before.

But to those of us aware enough to study and learn from history, there are no accidents and no surprises here. Armed with the latest technology, the global elitists in control have done their homework, long in advance manipulating everything in its Orwellian place for these shuttering events and developments to unfold. From the overreaching CIA grooming their Manchurian Candidate president to his unqualified meteoric rise to puppet power, Obama was the perfect made man for the job. Obscured by a shadowy, made over past that includes a fake birth certificate, he was steeped in Communist ideology and socialist collectivism by his deep connection with ex-terrorist Bill Ayers (who also was the Common Core architect responsible largely for dumbing down public education) and fellow mentor Saul Alinsky. Obama displayed dazzle as an early orator on the big stage of big politics, wore the right skin color to prey on people's hope for change and progress, appearing as a different kind of leader who many thought would represent the common people, a unifier and uplifter for the downtrodden. Boy were they dead wrong!

Once elected, Obama became the Manchurian Trojan Horse presidential imposter occupying the White House. This is the same man as presidential candidate who bragged and promised as a former constitutional law professor for over 10 years that he'd be the most open and transparent president in US history after the criminal Bush regime. Then once Obama became president, he only demonstrated that he is the most secretive and closed off president in history. Even worse, in the same speech he denounced Bush and Cheney for violating America's rule of law, he proposed to develop "an appropriate legal regime for indefinite prolonged detention of American citizens" prior to ever breaking the law based purely on the government's suspicion that they may become a future threat to national security. This statement uttered early in his first term ominously spelled out his sinister agenda to lock up and throw away the key to any citizen that he and his minions believe might become a future threat.

Based on Obama and his administration's subsequent actions, their definition of "future threat to national security" is simply anyone who disagrees with his treasonous policies, DHS declaring them a greater threat than even ISIS, which is really quite telling. Those citizens honest and brave enough to expose the criminal truth about his evil agenda betraying our Constitution, nation and people have been singled out and targeted on dissident watch lists.

Americans believing in our Constitution who object to the feds' criminality of constantly violating the nation's rule of law that used to protect citizens with privacy rights over unlawfully invasive surveillance and search and seizure, the right to peaceful assembly to public protest, the right to own a gun, the right to freedom of speech and religion, the right to due process, the right to habeas corpus dating back to the 1066 Magna Carta, all these previously guaranteed civil liberties under Bush-Obama were usurped and denied Americans. The 2012 National Defense Authorization Act was a traitorous package deal depriving us of all these rights, as well as violating and repealing the 1878 Posse Comitatus law prohibiting US military from involvement in civil matters that fall under state National Guard and law enforcement jurisdiction.

This president and his DHS in one fell swoop have equated US patriots who are returning veterans from warfronts (regardless of war) as potential home grown terrorists. So after placing their life on the line for their nation in combat, risking and often incurring serious life threatening injuries while experiencing the trauma of witnessing their comrades die sacrificing their lives for their nation, upon return home from US Empire's blood for oil wars, their nation turns on them in betrayal, calling them terrorist threats and developing a criminally subversive plan to remove not only their private weapons violating their Second Amendment right, but physically removing them from society by locking them away in prison or worse killing them under false suspicion they might become homegrown terrorists. This is how our diabolically treasonous and insane government led by our current commander-in-chief repays our veterans. It's unbelievably despicable that America's come to this.

© Global Research
The Last Whistleblowers.

    
On to another targeted population, Obama has harassed, threatened, accused and locked up more journalists and whistleblowers than any previous administration ever. Moreover, he has charged more whistleblowers with violating an antiquated 1917 espionage act for treason than all past presidencies combined, sentencing them to jail time 25 more times than all previous combined. The least transparent president in history also denied more Freedom of Information Act requests in 2014 than all previous administrations, only proving himself to be the most vindictive, revengeful, secretive despot president in history.

When Obama came to power everything was in place for the globalist war machine to continue uninterrupted, unleashing the same imperialistic US Empire aggression launched by the war criminal invaders and occupiers Bush and Cheney. Following his globalist marching orders, Obama seamlessly maintained the Empire's role as world policeman and murderous bully around the globe. He prolonged the war in Iraq for another three years in time to claim credit for ending the Iraq War during his reelection campaign. In the other decade-long war he ensured the fighting in Afghanistan would continue unabated for another half dozen years. Then with the help of Israel and Saudi Arabia, he created ISIS, which conveniently provided the fine print disclaimer ensuring the US-NATO military presence in both war ravaged nations would be on an as needed, permanent basis.

In the meantime hidden from public view, Obama guaranteed the proliferation of new, sneakier kind of lower intensity, out of sight, out of mind wars around the world fought by none other than the killer elite Special Forces. Now Americans cannot even tell you who the US is at war with because it's all a deep state secret. Did I mention Obama's the most secretive prez in history? Investigative reporter and author Nick Turse has determined the exponential growth of US Special Operations at last count over a year ago is deployed in more than 134 nations around the globe with the highest concentration throughout most of Africa and much of Central and East Asia. That's most nations on earth along with a thousand US military posts around the world.

Expanding the presence of US proxy wars, Obama refined a new and improved formula for churning out the most barbaric, savage, seemingly unstoppable monster enemy of them all - the Islamic State (IS). Pretending IS jihadists are the most evil enemy since Russian Communists, complicit in showcasing their staged youtube beheadings to horrify the world for effect, Obama secretly engineered their expanding global dominance in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and possibly just eight miles from the US border near El Paso in Mexico where reports from Judicial Watch recently claimed a high ranking Mexican police and a military officer stated ISIS is currently undergoing joint training operations with the drug cartel ostensibly to potentially terrorize Americans on US soil during Jade Helm. Of course the US government vehemently denies the presence of Islamic State in Mexico yet speculation still lingers based on US FBI and DHS meetings with Mexican authorities. In any event, the bottom line if the US really wanted to destroy ISIS, as the most lethal killing force on earth, it could eliminate Islamic State forces within a month.

Apparently it was two homegrown ISIS fighters from Arizona that showed up in Dallas bent on a shooting spree at a cartoon contest lampooning Islam earlier this month in what seemed a staged event, the same state deemed "hostile" by the Jade Helm game plan. Then came the bizarre mass biker gang shootout killing 9 in Waco, Texas a week ago. Evidence is coming to light that hidden ISIS recruiters are presently embedded in US, UK and Canada college campuses around those Western nations attempting to entice non-Muslims to join their cause. Based on a recent UN report almost two months ago, more than 25,000 new recruits did join from most countries in the world just since June last year. Whether ISIS is really here in North America amongst us or not, Washington's been hyping the eminent dangers posed by right wing domestic terrorists lurking to kill government authorities like police, almost as if to prep us for an upcoming false flag that could occur during Jade Helm.

As the US-created hired gun, after training, arming and financing Obama's secret ally that holds a calling card reading "Terrorism-R-Us-Will-Travel," Obama and his globalist puppet masters have been increasingly outed with incontrovertible evidence of newly declassified documents that the so called ISIS enemy is actually a mere extension and creation of the US, its Western allies and their oligarch masters. It was just released that the Pentagon had devised a plan back in August 2012 for the rise of ISIS (that we never even knew existed then) to later take over two key Iraqi cities Mosul and Ramadi. Is it any wonder that Iraqi security forces simply cut and ran without a fight from both cities?

The latest disturbing revelations surfacing are disclosures from whistleblowers inside the military high command and a recently retired Homeland Security officer. One recently purged lieutenant general among the 270 high ranking military officers Obama has forced out of the service has just revealed in an email that this summer's Jade Helm will in fact bring not only dissident extraction but the start of "a ground war, city by city, street by street" to America. The anonymous retired three star general went on to write:

Additionally what is coming will be unlike any civil war in history, it will be very personal, the government will call the Patriots forces terrorists and traitors, they will arrest, intern, torture and murder suspected terrorists families, this will result in bloody reprisals which will start a vicious cycle lasting for years.

Lending credibility to his dire prediction was the general's assignment in 2012 to be part of a Pentagon study assessing the rank and file personnel in all the US armed forces on whether they would be willing or not to fire upon and kill US citizens in a civil war scenario. He revealed that 80% of the National Guard would side with the American people, 90% of the Marines also, 60% of the Army would, the Navy would remain on active patrol in defense to interdict any possible foreign intervention and only the Air Force will side with Obama's government at 75%. So from his email he believes the majority of US military would fight right alongside Americans against the government oppressors. It was alluded that a number of veterans up and down the ranks would also be armed as patriots actively resisting the government attack on its own citizens, which would far outnumber the treasonous government forces. But the bottom line according to this high ranking flag officer, an all-out civil war is fast approaching where many US citizens are likely to die and be imprisoned.

Another anonymous career insider from Homeland Security just admitted:

Preparations have been finalized to respond to a crisis of unprecedented magnitude within the United States. The response will include the use of lethal force against US citizens under the instructions of Barack Obama.

The whistleblower described the atmosphere inside the DHS mega-bureaucracy as forebodingly paranoid where no one trusts anyone and workers are leaving in droves. Afraid of information leaks, conditions have become so oppressive to create an ultra-hostile, toxic work environment. The DHS retiree maintains that the upcoming crisis will be "rooted in an economic collapse." He said a key precursor just before the crash to look for will be falling gold and silver prices. The orchestrators behind it are the Wall Street bankers who of course like with every fixed crash in the past will be busily buying up all the precious metals for untold illegal profiteering. The insider maintains that America's already sliding into crash mode though most people don't realize it yet, adding:

The 'big bang' comes at the end, when people wake up one morning and can't log in to their bank accounts, can't use their ATM cards, and find out that their private pension funds and other assets have been confiscated.

He states that the above scenario of a cyberattack on the US banking system is but one possible plan he was privy to. Though the whistleblower admitted that DHS, the NSA and IRS are all militant, totalitarian arms of the White House, he doubly emphasized that it's not Obama pulling all the strings:

[Obama] is a creation of the globalists who have no allegiance to any political party. He is the product of decades of planning, made for this very time in our history. He was selected to oversee the events I just disclosed. Who has that ability? He's a product of our own intelligence agencies working with the globalists. He should be exhibit 'A' to illustrate the need to enforce the Logan Act.

Unlike the whistleblowing general, the former Homeland Security employee said he did not know the exact timing of when he foresees the plan being executed with high probability of two near simultaneous false flags triggering martial law and the violence directed against US citizens. But the general did, feeling certain that Jade Helm would go live in response to government induced crises. Because we live in an interconnected global economy, the disaster that will soon afflict the US will reverberate with ripple effects around the globe. And though many Americans will refuse to believe any such malevolent harm can possibly come to the United States that relative to most of the world has had it so good for so long, the globalists responsible are heartless evildoers who have no compassion or guilt for the atrocities and suffering they directly inflict on humankind. Bringing down America puts them one huge step closer to one world government. It will be up to us patriots like the revolutionaries of our War of Independence to fight for our liberty and life for a rebirth of a new nation fashioned after what originally was our Founding Fathers' lasting legacy.

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Baikal Technologies announces the Baikal-T1 microprocessor with MIPS P5600 CPU

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Baikal Electronics, a fabless semiconductor company specializing in ARM-based and MIPS-based processors and systems on a chip (SoC), has announced the release of engineering samples of its new Baikal-T1 multi-core microprocessor created using a 28 nanometer process and designed for use in consumer and industrial devices.

The Baikal-T1 will become the first Russian offering for the communications market to use a MIPS Warrior CPU, boasting highly competitive properties in terms of performance, technology node and compatibility, the company said. At the heart of the chip sits a dual-core MIPS P5600 CPU clocked at 1.2 GHz. The Baikal-T1 also includes multiple high-speed (1G/10G Ethernet, PCIe, SATA 6G, USB) and low-speed interfaces (GPIO, I2C, UART, SPI). The package measures 25 x 25 mm and is manufactured on 28nm process technology, achieving less than 5 W of total power consumption - an ideal figure for fanless device designs.

The MIPS P5600 CPU is an OmniShield-ready, 32-bit CPU from Baikal's high-performance P-class range of Warrior processors; it boasts a superscalar, out-of-order (OoO) design that implements Release 5 features such as hardware virtualization for increased security and reliability, and a 128-bit SIMD engine for high performance on data parallel operations.

The MIPS P5600 recently achieved a 5.6 CoreMark/MHz, the highest score per core for 32-bit licensable microprocessor IP, Baikal added.

Additional features of the CPU include EVA (Enhanced Virtual Addressing) and XPA (eXtended Physical Addressing), two technologies that extend the limits of traditional 32-bit architecture. For example, XPA extends the amount of addressable physical memory in devices to a maximum of 1 Terabyte; in addition, as typical networking-related workloads require a larger address space, EVA extends the amount of virtual addressing to almost the full 4GB space. Therefore, the combination of these two features will help to alleviate bottlenecks in software performance, Baikal claims.

Development of the Baikal-T1 was carried out with the support of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, under a special program established in 2008 to foster the development of Russia's electronic component base, the company said. Additional financial backing was provided by the investment firms T-Nano and T-Platforms, though the company refused to divulge how much.

Baikal's release comes just weeks after another Russian firm, the Moscow Center of SPARC Technologies (MCST), unveiled what it claimed was Russia's first domestically-made microprocessor, the Elbrus-4C. MCST claimed at the time its chip was the most high-tech processor ever built in Russia, built using a 65nm process and offering a performance comparable with Intel Corp's Core i3 and Intel Core i5 processors.

Engineering samples of the Baikal-T1 will be available on June 1.

Swarm of twenty-three earthquakes reported near Costa Rica's Irazu volcano

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© Tico Times/Google
The epicenters of 23 temblors are in an area near the IrazĂș Volcano.

    
In a span of eight hours on Monday night and into early Tuesday, experts from the University of Costa Rica and the National University registered at least 23 temblors with epicenters located north of the province of Cartago, some 22 kilometers northeast of the Costa Rican capital.

Ronny Quintero, a seismologist at UNA's Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI) reported that the temblors originated on local faults west of IrazĂș Volcano's main crater. Experts said they are not directly related to the volcano's activity. The first occurred at 8:19 p.m. with a magnitude of 3.1 and and an epicenter 10 kilometers northwest of Pacayas. Several minor earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from 2.4 to 3.7 followed, mainly in areas north and east of Cartago in the cantons of JimĂ©nez and Oreamuno. Most of the minor quakes went unnoticed by local residents.

The strongest, at magnitude-4.2, was registered at 8:50 p.m. with an epicenter 9 kilometers northeast of San Rafael de Oreamuno. The most recent was reported at 7:09 a.m. on Tuesday with a magnitude of 2.4. OVSICORI received reports from residents throughout the Central Valley who felt at least three of the temblors, but there has been no significant damage or injuries.

New Comet: C/2015 K4 (PANSTARRS)

BET nr. 4108, issued on 2015, May 27, announces the discovery of a comet (magnitude ~18) by PANSTARRS survey in three w-band exposures taken with the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS1 telescope at Haleakala on May 24.5 UT. The new comet has been designated C/2015 K4 (PANSTARRS).

We performed follow-up measurements of this object, while it was still on the neocp. Stacking of 20 unfiltered exposures, 30-sec each, obtained remotely on 2015, May 26.3 from U69 (iTelescope network - Auberry California) through a 0.61-m f/6.5 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a ill-defined central condensation surrounded by diffuse irregular coma about 6" in diameter.

Our confirmation image (click on it for a bigger version)

© Remanzacco Observatory

    
M.P.E.C. 2015-K114 assigns the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements to comet C/2015 K4: T 2015 May 1.79365; e= 1.0; Peri. = 357.56; q = 2.01; Incl.= 80.25

This may be the earliest murder victim in human history

© Javier Trueba/Madrid Scientific Films
This is a frontal view of Cranium 17 showing the position of the traumatic events T1 (inferior) and T2 (superior).

    
Wounds discovered on a 430,000-year-old human skull discovered in Spain could indicate that the individual was one of the first-ever murder victims, according to a new study published in the May 27 edition of the open-access journal .

In the study, Dr. Nohemi Sala from Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de EvoluciĂłn y Comportamiento Humanos, Spain, and her colleagues explain that the skull was discovered at Sima de los Huesos, a site located deep within a series of underground caves located in northern Spain.

The skull, known as Cranium 17, was found with the skeletal remains of at least 28 individuals dating back to the Middle Pleistocene period. The specimen is comprised of 52 cranial fragments recovered during a series of excavations at the site over the past two decades, and contains a pair of penetrating lesions on the frontal bone, just above the left eye, Dr. Sala's team said.

Injured skull discovered at possible early burial ground

By analyzing the skull using modern forensic techniques, such as contour and trajectory analysis of the traumas, the study authors discovered evidence that the fractures were produced by two separate impacts with the same objects. The impacts came at slight different trajectories around the time of death, the authors said, and are unlikely the result of an accident.

The site where they were discovered is only accessible through a 13-meter deep vertical shaft, they said in a statement, but the injuries do not appear to be consistent with a fall down the shaft. Instead, the type and location of the fractures, and the belief that they appear to have been caused by two blows with the same object.

This discovery has led the authors to conclude that the injuries came as a direct result of intentional, lethal interpersonal aggression. In other words, Dr. Sala and her colleagues explained that this individual may be the victim of "the earliest case of murder" in human history.

In addition, they noted that if this one individual was killed, his or her body was probably carried by other humans to the top for the vertical shaft, then dumped into it. Such an act would appear to indicate that it and the rest of the bodies found at the Sima de los Huesos site had been placed there intentionally, and that the site could potentially be an ancient burial ground of sorts.

Tony Blair set to resign as Middle East peace envoy

© Reuters / Suzanne Plunkett

    
Tony Blair has reportedly resigned as envoy to The Quartet group of Middle East nations.

The news was reported in a tweet by the Associated Press, which claimed an official had told the agency the former UK Prime Minister would stand down.


Speaking ahead of his formal resignation, Blair told officials he had written to the UN General Secretary Ban-ki Moon to step down from his post.

The former Prime Minister has served as a peace envoy for the group, made up of the UN, the US, the EU and Russia, for eight years.

He is thought to be stepping down due to an increasingly strained relationship with Palestinian authority figures.

His letter to Ban-ki Moon comes as the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, a steering group for the Middle East peace talks, met in Brussels on Wednesday.

His reported resignation follows speculation from the on March 15, which claimed Blair was looking to step back from his role, and had been looking at alternative options in the run up to the Israeli election.

Blair met with US Secretary of State John Kerry in March to discuss other roles, after reportedly deciding a frontline job was no longer a tenable option.


The former PM's office said: "Over a year on from the breakdown in talks between Israel and the Palestinians, there is still no tangible political horizon in sight."

The Stop the War Coalition, which opposed the Iraq and Afghan wars during Blair's tenure as prime minister, welcomed news of his resignation.

National convenor Lindsey German said: "Tony Blair's legacy remains; a devastated and war torn Iraq, a Middle East in turmoil, and a much more dangerous world. We will continue to campaign against the aggressive foreign policy he championed and for him to answer charges of war crimes."

Netanyahu increases demands for 'up to $45 billion' in US military aid

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© Reuters / Wolfgang Rattay
V-22 Osprey - due to be exclusively supplied to Israel in the coming years.

    
Israel is hoping to receive $4.2 - $4.5 billion a year in military aid from the United States for ten years, to counter the threat from Iran and oil-rich Middle East states that have been re-arming rapidly, a senior Israeli source has told .

Under a 10-year deal signed in 2007, Israel receives just over $3 billion a year in American aid, with stipulations that over 70 percent of that aid has to be spent buying US military hardware. An extension of that agreement, running to 2028, was principally agreed on by Barack Obama during a visit to Israel in 2013, but according to , talks on its terms have been "preliminary and unofficial."

Among the purchases to be covered by the new deal are supplies of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, which the US has refused to export to any other country, as well as up to 75 fifth-generation F-35 joint strike fighters, whenever they overcome their teething troubles. The US also provides technology, parts and rockets for Israel's missile defense systems such as the Iron Dome and Arrow 3.

Up to 25 percent of Israel's defense budget is already being funded by Washington under the current agreement, with the figure likely to grow. Israel is already one of the top three recipients of US military aid, vying for the top spot with countries locked in open warfare, like Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Israel has always fought its own battles and has never asked American troops to fight on its behalf. Instead, it has requested US assistance to supplement the tremendous resources Israel already invests in its defense budget," Howard Kohr of pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC told the House Appropriations Committee last month.

"The new realities of the rapidly changing Middle East have also led to many unexpected costs for Israel, including the need to build a $360 million barrier along Israel's southern border with Egypt and a similar, more modern one at its northern border with Syria."

Kohr also accused the Gulf States, many of which are also US allies and clients, of ramping up the arms race in the region, and said that Israel may have to spend $160 billion on its defense budget in the period covered by the next funding agreement.

The US is currently legally committed to maintaining Qualitative Military Edge, a doctrine that ensures Israel's superiority over its neighbors, purportedly in the name of maintaining stability in the volatile region.

© Reuters / Ronen Zvulun

    
The X-factor remains Iran, which is in the process of concluding a deal with the world's leading powers that will allow it to continue its nuclear program, in exchange for greater openness and assurances it does not plan to acquire nuclear missiles.

Israel, which is suspected to maintain its own undeclared nuclear arsenal, has consistently disbelieved Tehran's assurances.

"I see no reason to rush to a deal and certainly not a bad deal that paves Iran's path to the bomb, but also fills Iran's coffers with tens of billions of dollars to pursue its aggression throughout the Middle East and around Israel's borders," recently re-elected prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a US Senator on Tuesday.

"As horrific as ISIS is, once Iran acquires nuclear weapons, it will be a hundred times more dangerous and more destructive than ISIS."

Senior Israeli official Amos Gilad, who is negotiating the new deal with Washington, said last weeks that any aid increases "are not vis-a-vis the coming agreement" with Iran, but that it remains a factor in Israel's future spending.

In fact, Jerusalem officials have said that any increase in belligerence from Iran, as well as provisions for the creation of an independent Palestinian state, will entail separate, additional demands for military support from the Pentagon.

No justice: Ex-police chief gets 50 days in prison for abusing his four adopted children


Cheryle and Richard Burton

    
What started as a tragically common report of a missing teenager, turned out to be a far more sinister saga with a conclusion so bereft of justice, it attests to all but irrefutable proof of law enforcement impunity. In case after case, incidents of undeniable police brutality and murder become opportunities for public victim-blaming; and when no punishment is wrought on the perpetrators, that blame turns to self-righteous indignation. Because law enforcement is infallible, right?

A 13-year-old boy was reported missing the evening of November 5, 2012 in Habersham County Georgia, but when located the following morning, authorities quickly realized he wasn't another disgruntled runaway. Sheriff Joey Terrell discovered marks and bruising on the boy's neck and back inconsistent with spending one night outdoors, and the teen subsequently explained they were the result of being at home. After child welfare advocates interviewed the boy, authorities were dispatched to arrest his mother, father, and 17-year-old sister.

explained the Sheriff, and so Jamie Lynn Burton was "charged with aggravated assault, cruelty to children in the second degree and terroristic threats and acts." Richard Scott Burton, his father, who was 49 at the time, was initially charged with four counts of cruelty to children in the second degree and obstruction, and his mother Cheryle Lynn Burton, 50 at the time of arrest, faced four counts of cruelty to children in the second degree as well as influencing a witness. All other siblings were then placed in state custody with the help of the Dept of Children and Family Services. As more sickening details emerged, it quickly became apparent the initial charges were wholly inadequate.

"As they went through counseling, they opened up," Terrell said. Indeed they did.

In 2004, the Burtons adopted the boy, his brother, and their two sisters, who ranged in age from two to eight, when their birth mother lost parental rights; but the adoption was far from a blessing. As one of the boys explained, "It was good at first but something changed."

There were years of neglect, violence, and cruelty in the Burton household, including sexual abuse by the father. Locked in a bedroom, dark from boards nailed to the windows, the siblings were underfed — as one boy explained, "We had to eat noodles and they would put leftover food that they didn't want into our pot of noodles...We didn't have warm food, it was cold from the refrigerator." Beatings were a frequent occurrence, too, "Getting hit in the head with a wooden paddle, being swung around the room, throwing us on the walls we had to stand upside down on the corner on our heads."

Charges mounted, and eventually the adoptive parents faced 28 counts of first degree child cruelty. Richard, however, was additionally charged with child molestation, aggravated child molestation, and two counts of sodomy/aggravated sodomy.

By all accounts, these siblings, who are now 13- to 19-years-old, deserve justice. It would seem spending one's youth confined to a bedroom and subject to such cruel and unforgiving abuse demands some sort of reprisal. But this is where the stunning lack of law enforcement accountability, as testament to a systemic epidemic, becomes glaringly apparent.

Richard Scott Burton is the former police chief of Mt. Airy — a position actively held while 'allegedly' inflicting cruel abuse on children in his care. And it was this former job that led to what certainly amounts to a gross miscarriage of justice for the four teens.

As the trial was about to begin, the couple copped deals that belie the magnitude and significance of what allegedly occurred. In exchange for pleading guilty to just three counts of second degree child cruelty, all other charges, including aggravated molestation and sodomy, were dropped. And their sentence? Each received ten years, to be served by 25 consecutive weekends in jail (50 days), followed by felony probation, and a $10,000 fine. Neither will have a felony on their record nor will they be listed as sex offenders.

So, how did this happen? Chief Assistant District Attorney Eddie Staples said it was for the good of the children, of course. "The reason is it provides finality and admission of wrongdoing that I think is beneficial for the children involved without them having to go through trial discussing their life in public." And, besides, a jury trial would have been lengthy:

But Staples also admitted that the former police chief's connections came into consideration, "The witness list for the defense included law enforcement officers from this community. Those are the people we go into court everyday and tell the jurors, 'These are credible people.' And they were going to come and testify to Richard Burton particularly, but the Burtons' good character."

And that, in no uncertain terms, encapsulates every nuance and flagrant malfunction of the criminal justice system in this country — the DA who should hold victims' justice as the utmost priority, caving to a former head of law enforcement whose police buddies will unquestioningly speak to his character, and in whom the people have inherent trust, because: The Thin Blue Line.

As to be expected, the couple deny the allegations. Chief Public Defender Drew Powell, who represented Richard Burton said, Cheryle Burton's attorney, Elizabeth Pendleton, says the abuse actually occurred at the hands of their birth mother,

If anything can be satisfactory in this case, it is found in the former victims' happiness. All four teens have since been adopted by Fran Chastain, and have a new family with 11 other adoptive siblings, where they live on 13 acres of farmland in the same county where they had lived with the Burtons. She is stupefied by the sentence, "I think it's way too light. We feel like this is just sending this wrong message."

It could be argued that the message is precisely the one intended: the job that grants a badge and gun, comes complete with a pass to get away with anything the bearer chooses.

Pentagon reports live anthrax shipped across states by accident

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© Reuters / David Moir

    
The Pentagon says that live anthrax was inadvertently shipped across state lines from a military lab in Utah. However, a Department of Defense spokesperson says the public is not at risk.

Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren confirmed to on Wednesday that the anthrax had been shipped out of state, but assured, "there are no risks to the public."

"We are investigating the inadvertent transfer of live anthrax from a DoD lab from Dugway Proving Ground," Col. Warren said. Dugway Proving Ground is a US Army facility in Utah.

According to the Pentagon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is assisting the military with investigating the matter.

Col. Warren told the Associated Press that the government had confirmed that a single shipment meant to contain dead, or inactivated anthrax samples for research use actually contained live specimens. According to AP, Warren said the government believes eight other shipments contained similarly live samples.

The samples in question were shipped to labs in Texas, Maryland, Wisconsin, Delaware, New Jersey, Tennessee, New York, California and Virginia, according to AP.

Last year, the director of the CDC's bioterror laboratory resigned after a scare raised concerns that dozens of government employees has potentially been exposed to anthrax at an Atlanta facility.

Thousands protest in Japan demanding removal of U.S. military base in Okinawa

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Japanese protesters gathered outside the parliament building in Tokyo on Sunday to demand the removal of a US base on the island of Okinawa. Numerous rallies have been held recently, both on the island and the Japanese mainland, to oppose the US military's presence in the country.

An estimated 15,000 people took part in Sunday's protest, denouncing plans to move the US Marine Corp Air Station Futenma base to a new location at Henoko, which is currently being constructed. Futenma is located in the city of Ginowan, while Henoko sits along a less populated coast in Okinawa. Many people held banners reading, "No to Henoko." They demanded the base be removed from the prefecture altogether.

One protester, Akemi Kitajima, told the press: "We must stop this construction. The government is trying to force the plan, no matter how strongly Okinawa says 'no' to it." The demonstrators also expressed opposition to US plans to deploy CV-22 Ospreys to the Yokota Air Base in Tokyo.

A larger protest took place on the previous Sunday, when 35,000 people gathered on Okinawa to oppose the base relocation plan. The protests began that Friday and continued throughout the weekend. On the Saturday, demonstrators marched around the Futenma base and were joined in other cities across the country by approximately 2,600 others. Besides their opposition to the base, people shouted slogans, such as "Oppose enhanced Japan-US defense ties," directed against Japan's turn to militarism.

Plans to move the Futenma base have been in the works since 1996, following the 1995 brutal kidnapping and rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by three US servicemen, which resulted in widespread anti-US protests. Other, less publicized crimes by US personnel have also stoked anti-US sentiment.

Okinawa, however, is on the front lines of any conflict with China. A majority of the 47,000 American troops stationed in Japan are on the island, strategically located in the East China Sea adjacent to the Chinese mainland. Okinawa plays a key role in Washington's "pivot to Asia," designed to surround China militarily and economically subordinate it to US interests.

There is little chance the Obama administration would agree to relocate the Marine base off the island, especially at a time when it is engaged in provocations with China. The relocation of the base, which was outlined in a 2006 agreement between the US and Japanese governments, has provoked persistent protests. The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) came to office in 2009 promising to revise the agreement, but the Obama administration refused point blank to discuss the issue with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, and worked to undermine him. He was forced to accept the 2006 deal, then resigned in June 2010. His DPJ replacement, Naoto Kan, quickly reaffirmed his full support for the US alliance.


The current Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) government has not only made clear that the base relocation will proceed. It has stepped-up the remilitarization of Japan, acting in concert with Washington as part of the US "pivot" against China.

The recent demonstrations have been organized by citizens groups with ties to the Okinawan prefectural government. Governor Takeshi Onaga was elected last November as an independent, largely on his opposition to the Futenma base and its relocation. He is formerly of the ruling LDP and draws support from the conservative Shinpukai faction that left the LDP due to its support for the Okinawan bases.

Onaga is not opposed to the military alliance with the United States, nor to Japanese militarism. His is simply making the limited, parochial demand that the Marine base be moved to another location in Japan. Onaga recently declared: "I fully understand (the importance) of the Japan-US alliance. You should never break it down."

At the same time, the governor has fostered illusions in the possibility of a shift by Washington. Onaga said recently: "Only Okinawa is burdened with this heavy load, and I want to let the United States, a democratic nation, know about this unfair situation."

Despite his explicit backing for US militarism, Onaga has been backed by the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party, both of which posture as opponents of Japanese re-militarization. They function as a political safety valve. The protests allow people to blow off steam while the governor plays to Okinawans' sense of mistreatment at the hands of the mainland.

For politicians like Onaga, the battle over the bases also provides a pretext for land grabs. Nearly one-fifth of Okinawa is covered in US military bases, taking up territory that the wealthy elite would rather use to turn a profit. The governor views the bases as the "biggest impediment" to increased business opportunities.

Onaga hopes to turn the island into a hub for tourism, which means more hotels, restaurants, and other businesses to cater for visitors, as well as construction deals. In 2013, a record 6.58 million tourists visited Okinawa while the number of overseas visitors jumped 64 percent to 630,000 over the previous year. In total, tourism accounted for 448 billion yen ($US3.87 billion) in revenue during the 2013 fiscal year.

Onaga is seeking to attract foreign investment. He visited China in April as a delegate for the Association for the Promotion of International Trade Japan. Before the visit, an Okinawa prefectural government spokesperson stated: "We would like to take this opportunity [of Onaga's visit] to promote economic exchanges between Okinawa and China. We hope companies use special economic zones in China and Okinawa to trade with each other."

Onaga is offering up the Okinawan people as a source of cheap labor. Okinawa is the poorest prefecture in Japan with an unemployment rate twice as high as on the mainland. "Companies were attracted by subsidies, low labor costs, and the abundant workforce," Takehide Kinjo told the Wall Street Journal last November. Kinjo is president of Dinos Cecile Communications Company, based in Uruma City, an hour north of Naha, Okinawa's capital.

Local investors are eager to get their hands on the land now occupied by the Futenma base. "Expectations are rising for redevelopment projects on the land after it is vacated," an Okinawan bank official told the . "Futenma has good transport connections, and the average land price there can rise higher than that in Naha's new city center." Naha's city center, once the site of residences for US military personnel, now hosts shopping malls and duty-free shops offering luxury brands.

Okinawans have for decades had a strained relationship both with Japan and the United States. Known as the Ryukyu Kingdom until it was annexed by Imperial Japan in 1879, the island saw heavy combat at the end of World War II, during which more than 100,000 civilians were killed. Following the war, Okinawa remained under direct US control until 1972, two decades after the US occupation ended in the rest of Japan.

Failed war on drugs: Doctors create more heroin addicts than street dealers

    
A recently released Drug Enforcement Administration report reveals not only that heroin use has exploded, but that 4 out of 5 new users have previously abused prescription drugs. The details of the analysis, titled the "National Heroin Threat Assessment," unwittingly demonstrate that the Drug War has failed to curb drug use and has actually exacerbated the problem.

The report opens with an overview of heroin addiction:

The report acknowledges more specific data about heroin use. It explains that the strength of the drug has skyrocketed since the 1980s, increasing from 10% purity in 1981 to 40% in 1999. Due to this purity, the drug has become easier to snort and smoke, which broadens its appeal. Alternatively, the reformulation of Oxycontin in 2010 made the prescription opiate harder to inject, leading some pill addicts to turn to heroin for a drug they could use intravenously.

Further, the report admits that for these reasons—and a drop in price— "there is no longer a typical heroin user." Usage has spread across demographics including class, age and race. This is reflected in the fact that the number of people reporting heroin use nearly doubled, from 161,000 in 2007 to 289,000 in 2013. The number of arrests for heroin doubled from 2007 to 2014.

The drug trade itself has also grown more grim. The DEA reports that the influence of Mexican drug traffickers has broadened, overtaking Colombian influence and expanding toward the East coast. The amount of heroin trafficked at one time has more than doubled (the report makes no mention of questionable ties between the CIA and the Afghanistan opiate trade). Seven of 21 local DEA agencies named heroin as the number one threat in 2014. Six named it second.

In spite of the vast resources diverted to the Drug War, the flow, strength, and influence of drugs has increased. Perhaps most concerning is the DEA's own admission that of new heroin users, 80%—4 out of 5— started using the drug after developing an addiction to legal, prescription painkillers:

For decades, the FDA has approved countless painkillers in spite of the risks of addiction. In November, it even approved a painkiller that claimed to curb addiction while containing a potent dose of addictive hydrocodone. The DEA report lamented over 8,000 deaths due to heroin in 2013—triple the number in 2010. It failed to acknowledge, however, that in 2010 22,134 people died from pharmaceutical overdoses—60% of total overdose deaths that year. Painkillers are more lethal than heroin and cocaine combined, causing 46 deaths a day.

The turn to heroin is partially exacerbated by the government's own attempts to curb the painkiller addiction it helped create. The report plainly admits that the unavailability of painkillers pushes users into heroin use to replace the opiate high.

In the decades that the federal government and DEA have waged the war on drugs, they have enjoyed free reign to spy on citizens, throw individuals in jail for cannabis (and other non-violent) crimes, and create the world's largest prison population. In all of this time—according to its own report—the agency has failed to curb the proliferation of drugs, the power of the cartels, or rates of addiction.

Though the heroin problem is severe, small efforts to combat it are slowly appearing. A police station in Gloucester, Massachusetts announced last month that it will offer treatment over arrest for addicts who turn themselves in. The state of California decriminalized all drug use with the passage of Proposition 47. While the infrastructure of the Drug War remains intact, these small gestures signal a shift in public perspective toward the War on Drugs and the desire for a non-violent approach to addiction.