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Water

When it comes to water, we're not all equal

Mac Slavo
SHTFplan.com
Mon, 15 Jun 2015 20:15 UTC
sunbathing
As water resources in California near a worst-case scenario where all surface water sources have run out, the ultra wealthy have yet to pull back on their usage. In response, counties all over the state have implemented water restrictions with hefty fines for those who go over their daily allotments. But those fines, often amounting to a small drop in the bucket for the more well off, have done little to curb use in high dollar communities.

Moreover, though California's sanctions purportedly aim to save water, large mega corporations like Nestle and Walmart are still pulling water out of the ground at fractions of pennies on the dollar and reselling bottled products for hundred-fold or more profits. It's been reported, for example, that Nestle puts a mark up of 53 Million percent on a single bottle.

So while California lawmakers argue that the new restrictions make water usage equal for all, the fact is that, as George Orwell so succinctly put it in his classic novella Animal Farm, "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
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Dollars

Wall Street takes offense at consumers' failure to follow orders and spend, spend, spend

James Quinn
The Burning Platform
Sun, 14 Jun 2015 19:40 UTC
empty shops
Last week the government reported personal income and spending for April. After months of blaming non-existent consumer spending on cold weather, shockingly occurring during the Winter, the captured mainstream media pundits, Ivy League educated Wall Street economist lackeys, and Keynesian loving money printers at the Fed have run out of propaganda to explain why Americans are not spending money they don't have. The corporate mainstream media is now visibly angry with the American people for not doing what the Ivy League propagated Keynesian academic models say they should be doing.

The ultimate mouthpiece for the banking cabal, Jon Hilsenrath, who does the bidding of the Federal Reserve at the Rupert Murdoch owned Wall Street Journal, wrote an arrogant, condescending, putrid diatribe, directed at the middle class victims of Wall Street banker criminality and Federal Reserve acquiescence to the vested corporate interests that run this country. Here are the more disgusting portions of his denunciation of the formerly middle class working people of America.

Comment: Why aren't Americans spending? Is it because they have nothing to spend?

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Attention

US politicians use "Rent a Crowd" company to give illusion of support

Kristan T Harris
The RunDown Live
Tue, 16 Jun 2015 19:01 UTC
Rent a Crowd
© The Rundown Live
Have you ever wondered how a politician disliked by most could fill a room with screaming supporters giving the perception they have your local communities support?

Look no further than a company called "Crowds on Demand", a company who hires multi-talented actors who are experts of improvisational theatre to provide the illusion of support for a candidate. Nothing draws a crowd, like a crowd.

The company who has provided its services for athletes, artists and fashion people has recently admitted to providing services for both Republican and Democrat candidates.

Ceo and founder Adam Swart was emailed a few questions about his services by activist Ian Cioffi. The company owner was asked if his system is proven to work in U.S. politics?

Swart claimed, he has done work for "dozens of candidates in the US primarily but not exclusively Republican. Mostly they are candidates who suffer from lack of enthusiasm/turnout at rallies and in need of a 'game change' (sorry, that's a loaded term now!). The candidates have been primarily congressional/senate candidates. We've only worked with one (serious) presidential candidate thus far.".

So what other benefits could a company of this magnitude offer?
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Arrow Down

TTIP talks and industry pressure caused EU bureaucrats to cancel pesticide bans

F. William Engdahl
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 16 Jun 2015 00:00 UTC
pesticide sprayer
© n
Using the argument of the top secret Trans-Atlanic Trade and Investment Partnership talks, as well as enormous reported lobbying pressure from such chemical giants as Bayer AG and BASF as their excuse, the EU Commission has quietly abandoned plans for tighter safety regulations on pesticides. This is no minor bureaucratic issue. The health and safety of hundreds of millions of people in the EU are at risk to say nothing of animals, birds and insects, and nature at all.

Way back in 1999, sixteen years ago, the EU Commission began to look at possible health dangers from a class of chemical pesticides known as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Until now, tragically, nothing has been done by Brussels to safeguard the health and safety of her citizens based on the "precautionary principle," otherwise stated, if it might harm, there is evidence it does, and you cannot be more precise, ban it until you are absolutely certain, whether GMO crops and glyphosate herbicide Roundup or ECDs or DDT.

Scientists link ECD exposure, even in low doses, to a rise in foetal abnormalities, genital mutations, lowered sperm counts, genital malformations, non-descended testes, misplaced penis holes, infertility, cancer and even to IQ loss. One recent study by the Washington University School of Medicine linked 15 EDCs found in plastics, personal care products, cosmetics and many household items, to early onset of menopause.

Comment: Under shadow of trade deal, US pesticide lobby pressured EU to dump toxic pesticide rules

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Airplane

United Airlines plane flying to London diverted to Canada, passengers stranded in Army barracks for over 20 hours

Elisha Fieldstadt
NBC News
Sun, 14 Jun 2015 12:35 UTC
Image
United Airlines passengers expressed frustration on social media Saturday after their flight to London was diverted to Canada — and they were put up in army barracks for more than 20 hours.

According to outraged passengers, their flight from Chicago to London was diverted to Goose Bay, in Newfoundland, Canada, where they were put up overnight at a military base, while the flight staff stayed in hotels and was nowhere to be found.

"Once we landed there was nobody at all from United Airlines to be seen anywhere," passenger Lisa Wan told NBC News once she landed in London, 48 hours after her trip began. "No United representative ever reached out to anybody — no phone calls, no human beings, nothing. Nobody had any idea what was going on," she said.

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Fire

Electrical malfunction likely caused huge Pennsylvania chemical plant fire

Ivey DeJesus
Penn Live
Mon, 15 Jun 2015 16:03 UTC
Miller Chemical plant fire
© WHTM
A massive fire was reported at Miller Chemical in Adams County, Pennsylvania, June 8, 2015.
The Hanover-based chemical company at the center of a contamination of a major midstate waterway on Monday issued an advisory stating that preliminary reports suggest the fire, which destroyed the company's plant, was likely caused by an electrical circuit malfunction "rather than by arson or any product or manufacturing process of the company."

In one of the first major media advisories since the June 8 fire, Miller Chemical and Fertilizer, whose Adams County plant was destroyed in a fire a week ago, said company representatives, environmental experts and a state- certified remediation firm continue to coordinate efforts with the Department of Environmental Protection to prevent further runoff. The advisory states that further runoff into Slagle Run and Conewago Creek has been stopped.

With no retention structure in place at the time of the fire, water that was used to fight the fire last week entered the waterways that feed into the Conewago, forcing authorities to issue mandatory water restrictions.

The contaminated water led to widespread fish kills, with thousands of dead fish floating on the surface of the creek in places as it worked its way north on its snake route. The Conewago, which flows north in places, is a source of public water for thousands of residents in Adams, York and Cumberland counties. The creek eventually empties into the Susquehanna River downstream.

Image
© AP

Comment: Other large fires in the last week include industrial ones: the Nestle plant in Burlington, Wisconsin, a chemical fire at a solar plant near Forbes, in central New South Wales, Australia following an explosion, a major fire at a recycling plant in Newry, Northern Ireland, fire at an Estonia rare metals plant.

As well as fires at an oil pipeline in India, the apparent ruptured pipeline which caused a massive blaze in Texas, a pipeline fire which raged in southwest Nigeria and the massive fire at the oil depot near Kiev, Ukraine that is reigniting.

A huge blaze ravaged the roof of a 19th century basilica in Nantes, western France, as 70 firefighters tackled a huge fire at a row of shops in Hackney, London.

In Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection, Pierre Lescaudron presents the possibility that certain types of buildings or factories can act as attractors for dramatic electrical discharges, whether 'sparked' by incoming comet fragments or atmospheric electrical conditions. So could something similar be responsible for some of these fires?

SOTT Exclusive: Solar System 'grounding':Transformer explosions and electrical anomalies

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Nuke

Reactor shut down at New York's Indian Point nuclear power plant following an 'electrical disturbance'


The Washington Times
Mon, 15 Jun 2015 06:56 UTC
Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant
© n/a
The Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant is even older and more antique than the Fukushima #1. Almost 20,000,000 New Yorkers live within a 50 mile radius of the installation. The nuclear waste stored on the site has been the subject of litigation with significant ramification for the US nuclear industry .
BUCHANAN, N.Y. (AP) - A reactor at a suburban New York nuclear power plant was shut down following an electrical disturbance at a switch yard outside the plant.

Plant owner Entergy Nuclear said Indian Point 3 was shut down at 7:20 p.m. Monday. They said the unit's main electrical generator automatically shut down as a protective measure.

The company said there was no release of radioactivity and no threat to the safety of workers or the public. The cause of the electrical disturbance was not immediately known.

Last month, the reactor was shut down during a transformer fire.

The other reactor on the site was unaffected. Together the reactors generate about a quarter of the power used in New York City and Westchester County.

The facility is about 30 miles north of midtown Manhattan.

By Associated Press

Comment: Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant: A disaster in the making

As Robert Kennedy Jr., Chief Prosecuting Attorney for Riverkeeper and Senior Attorney at NRDC, said:
"The more you learn about Indian Point, the more you know it must close. It's too old, near too many people, and too vulnerable to fire, earthquake, outside attack and a host of other potential disasters. What's more, we simply don't need Indian Point's dirty, dangerous power: current surpluses are sufficient to consign Indian Point to the scrap heap when its licenses expire if not sooner. New York is safer, more secure and simply better off without Indian Point."


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Brick Wall

Prisons without walls: We're all inmates in the U.S. police state

John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
Mon, 15 Jun 2015 19:07 UTC
"It is perfectly possible for a man to be out of prison and yet not free—to be under no physical constraint and yet be a psychological captive, compelled to think, feel and act as the representatives of the national state, or of some private interest within the nation wants him to think, feel and act. . . . To him the walls of his prison are invisible and he believes himself to be free."—Aldous Huxley, A Brave New World Revisited
Image
© highdefdiscnews.com
"Free worlders" is prison slang for those who are not incarcerated behind prison walls. Supposedly, those fortunate souls live in the "free world." However, appearances can be deceiving.

"As I got closer to retiring from the Federal Bureau of Prisons," writes former prison employee Marlon Brock, "it began to dawn on me that the security practices we used in the prison system were being implemented outside those walls." In fact, if Brock is right, then we "free worlders" do live in a prison—albeit, one without visible walls.

In federal prisons, cameras are everywhere in order to maintain "security" and keep track of the prisoners. Likewise, the "free world" is populated with video surveillance and tracking devices. From surveillance cameras in stores and street corners to license plate readers (with the ability to log some 1,800 license plates per hour) on police cars, our movements are being tracked virtually everywhere. With this increasing use of iris scanners and facial recognition software—which drones are equipped with—there would seem to be nowhere to hide.

Detection and confiscation of weapons (or whatever the warden deems "dangerous") in prison is routine. The inmates must be disarmed. Pat downs, checkpoints, and random searches are second nature in ferreting out contraband.

Sound familiar?

Metal detectors are now in virtually all government buildings. There are the TSA scanning devices and metal detectors we all have to go through in airports. Police road blocks and checkpoints are used to perform warrantless searches for contraband. Those searched at road blocks can be searched for contraband regardless of their objections—just like in prison. And there are federal road blocks on American roads in the southwestern United States. Many of them are permanent and located up to 100 miles from the border.

Comment: The best way to overcome cognitive dissonance is to be aware of the mental trap. In order to see the true agenda and the power behind it, we have to stop believing our own lies.
"One phenomenon all ponerogenic groups and associations have in common is the fact that their members lose (or have already lost) the capacity to perceive pathological individuals as such, interpreting their behavior in fascinated, heroic, or melodramatic ways. When the habits of subconscious selection and substitution of thought-data spread to the macrosocial level, a society tends to develop contempt for factual criticism and to humiliate anyone sounding an alarm."

Andrew M. Lobaczewski, Political Ponerology



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Stormtrooper

Florida cops command police dog to attack 12-year-old boy

Reagan Ali
Counter Current News
Tue, 16 Jun 2015 02:51 UTC
orlando_cops-dog
© Unkown
Orlando police recently let trained, police attack dogs loose on a boy that is only 12 years old. Officers said that this attack was justifiable since the boy was allegedly "trying to break into Shingle Creek Elementary School."

Police arrived on scene and told the boy as well as two suspects to stop. Two of them reportedly complied, but the third did not.

The police then set the dog loose onto the boy, allowing the dog to violently attack him, leaving him with bite marks all over his body.

The attorney for the boy's family says that this is a clear-cut case of police "excessive force."

The boy ended up spending two days in hospital and now has to visit the doctor every week.

Because he is underage, the youth has not been named. What the police would tell us is that he was allegedly breaking into Shingle Creek Elementary School in Orange County, on June 4.

But his family is now taking legal action against Orlando Police Department, saying that they will be the ones who have to answer for police brutality in court.
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Eye 1

Smart cities will facilitate the total monitoring, control and management of the population

Steven MacMillan
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 15 Jun 2015 00:00 UTC
Surveillance Cameras
© Wikimedia Commons
The century of 'big data' will be the century of unprecedented surveillance. The dream of tyrants down through history has been the total monitoring, control and management of the public, with the ability to predict the behaviour of entire populations the most efficient means of achieving this objective. For millennia, this has mainly existed in the realm of fantasy, however with the vast leap in technology in recent decades, this idea is becoming less a dystopian science fiction movie and more the daily business of totalitarian high-tech regimes.

Most readers are now familiar with the predatory surveillance practices of agencies such as the NSA and GCHQ, which high-level NSA whistleblower William Binney describes as "totalitarian" in nature, adding that the goal of the NSA is "to set up the way and means to control the population". Yet many people may not be aware of the next phase in 21st century surveillance grid; the 'smarter city'.

Promoted by some as a low-cost and efficient way of managing the workings of a city, others see the surveillance implications of such initiatives as chilling to say the least. Smart cities are broadly defined as digitally connected urban areas filled with ubiquitous sensors, monitors and meters, which collect data on every aspect of the city; from energy usage, to transport patterns. This data is then analysed and used by city planners to 'improve decision making'.

Comment: If our society was not dominated by psychopaths intent on controlling every facet of human behavior, such smart cities could actually be creative and cooperative rather than venues for technological surveillance.

Smart cities should be sharing and cooperative rather than solely technology focused

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