Americans' trust and confidence in the mass media "to report the news fully, accurately and fairly" has dropped to its lowest level in Gallup polling history, with 32% saying they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. This is down eight percentage points from last year.

Gallup began asking this question in 1972, and on a yearly basis since 1997. Over the history of the entire trend, Americans' trust and confidence hit its highest point in 1976, at 72%, in the wake of widely lauded examples of investigative journalism regarding Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. After staying in the low to mid-50s through the late 1990s and into the early years of the new century, Americans' trust in the media has fallen slowly and steadily. It has consistently been below a majority level since 2007.

A group of activists are sailing from Barcelona to the Gaza Strip in an effort to draw attention to the role of women in the survival of Palestinian people, blockaded in Gaza.

On September 14 two sailing boats set sail from the port of Barcelona on the Women's Boat to Gaza, in order to raise awareness of the plight of Palestinians living under blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The two boats are called "Amal" (Hope in Arabic) and "Zaytuna" (Olive), and are crewed by women from 15 different countries. One of the crew, Jaldia Abubakra, told Sputnik Mundo that the activists want to draw attention to the blockade of the Gaza Strip. "I hope that we will wake up the conscience of humanity, and draw attention to this criminal blockade of Gaza, which has lasted for nearly ten years," said Abubakra, who was born in the city of Beersheba in southern Israel and now lives in Madrid.

At least six people have lost their lives and more than 150 others sustained injuries in a train crash in central Pakistan.

According to media sources in Pakistan, the casualties occurred early on Thursday when a passenger train collided with a freight train near the central Pakistani city of Multan in Punjab Province.

Explaining the accident, Saima Bashir, a railway official, said the freight train had stopped so its driver could remove the body of a man who had been crushed to death while crossing the railway track, and as a result, the freight train was then hit from behind by the passenger train.

Bashir placed the blame on the passenger train's driver, saying he failed to heed a red signal that had gone up after the freight train had stopped.

A massive fire erupted on Tuesday in a Brazilian favela in the country's most populous city of Sao Paulo.

The fire at the Esperanca favela, or shantytown, began at Tuesday evening and quickly burned hundreds of homes in its path. The favela is thought to contain about 500 homes.

According to local media, more than 30 firefighters were called in to battle the blaze.

It was not immediately clear if anyone was killed in the fire or what caused the blaze.

Many of Brazil's poorest residents live in favelas, or urban slums, which traditionally have crime rates.

Two women are suing a group of cops after they were forced to pull out their breasts and shake them during a traffic stop, according to a lawsuit filed this week.

The women claim the incident happened around 2 a.m. on June 5. According to the lawsuit, the women were driving home when they were pulled over for allegedly crossing a white line.

After being pulled over, according to the lawsuit, an illegal search was conducted, and a small baggie of cocaine was found on a male passenger in the vehicle. However, both women were doing nothing illegal.

After police found the cocaine, they made the women come to the front of the vehicle one by one. First, the officers made the women lift up their shirt, then pull up their bras, and then shake their breasts as oncoming traffic watched. As the four officers and the passing cars watched, one officer filmed the incident with his cellphone, telling them women to shake their breasts harder.

The fight against legalized pot is being heavily bankrolled by alcohol and pharmaceutical companies, terrified that they might lose market share.

On the heels of a filing last week that revealed that a synthetic cannabis company is financing the opposition to legal marijuana in Arizona comes a new disclosure this week that a beer industry group made one of the largest donations to an organization set up to defeat legalization in Massachusetts.

The Beer Distributors PAC, an affiliate that represents 16 beer-distribution companies in Massachusetts, gave $25,000 to the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts, tying it for third place among the largest contributors to the anti-pot organization.

William A. Kelley, the president of the Beer Distributors of Massachusetts, did not respond to a request for comment, but his organization's decision to oppose legalization is hardly unique in the alcohol industry.

In Arizona, one of the five states with marijuana legalization ballot measures this November, the Arizona Wine and Spirits Wholesale Association donated $10,000 to a group opposing legalization. In 2010, the last time California considered marijuana legalization, another alcoholic beverage distribution group provided financing to a law enforcement-backed campaign to defeat legalization.

The family of Korryn Gaines has announced plans to sue Baltimore County in relation to a standoff between officers and Gaines, 23. Gaines was shot in a confrontation with police where the details remain murky at best and are disputed by eye witnesses.

The family of Korryn Gaines sent a notice of intent to sue to Baltimore County and the police officer who killed her, known only as Officer First Class Ruby. J. Wyndal Gordon, attorney for the Gaines family, explained at a press conference that Gaines had been shot as the result of frustration and not necessity, making her killing illegal according to the letter of intent.

The family is suing for $2 million from the county and $2 million from Officer Ruby.

Korryn Gaines' death did not receive the attention that other black people killed by the police did, possibly due to the bizarre actions she was reported to have taken that led to her death.

According to the Baltimore County Police Department (BCPD), she barricaded herself in her home and used her child as a shield while pointing a gun at police officers while threatening to shoot.

There are several movies I will watch every time they are aired on one of my generally useless 600 cable channels. They all have the same thing in common - a compelling character portrayal which keeps you riveted and mesmerized by how the protagonist deals with adversity and circumstances beyond their control. The movies I can't resist include: The Godfather I & II, The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, Apocalypse Now, and Patton. Another captivating movie, which didn't do well at the box office, is Cinderella Man. The portrayal of Depression era heavyweight boxing champion James J. Braddock by Russell Crowe is inspirational, with a rousing and improbable victory by the champion of the common man. While watching this great movie a few weeks ago I found myself equating the themes to the current presidential campaign.

The Greater Depression

Braddock was an inspiration to all downtrodden demoralized Americans during the Great Depression. The parallels between the 1930's Great Depression and today's Greater Depression are uncanny, despite the propaganda emitted by the establishment politicians, media and banking cabal that all is well. The corporate mainstream media faux journalists scorn and ridicule anyone who makes the case we are currently in the midst of another Great Depression. They are paid to peddle a recovery narrative to keep the masses ignorant, sedated, and distracted by latest adventures of Caitlyn Jenner and the Kardashians. An impartial assessment of the facts reveals today's Depression to be every bit as dreadful for the average American as it was in the 1930's.

The Obama administration has used the identical failed fiscal policies utilized by FDR. $800 billion stimulus packages, cash for clunkers, payroll tax holidays, student loans for anyone with a pulse, and hundreds of other useless Keynesian claptrap ideas have driven the national debt from $10 trillion in September 2008 to $19.4 trillion eight years later, a 94% increase. The national debt in October 1929 was $17 billion. Eight years into the Great Depression, after billions in wasteful New Deal programs the national debt stood at $36.5 billion, a 115% increase.

Perhaps it's just another sign of the times, but people seem to be quite at ease when disrespecting nature if they know a camera is rolling.

In recent years there have been a number of highly publicized and shared incidents of people, often operating in irrational hordes, mobbing wild animals in order to get selfies with them, often killing the animal in the melee. In Argentina beachgoers killed a rare baby dolphin while snapping selfie photos. In Costa Rica a flock of clueless tourists destroyed hundreds of sea turtle nests and eggs in frenzy of a photo shoot. These are two examples of many.

Narcissism such as this is an indication that the human being at large is becoming more disconnected from nature and more attached the self, seeking self-aggrandizement at the expense of the environment that supports, sustains and inspires us.

Some recent examples of this type of self-absorbed sickness, albeit of a different sort, include instances of self-recorded vandalism and outright disregard of nature, where presumably the vandals considered their acts to be fitting of the approval or admiration of their peers and therefore thought to record and post them on the internet, with pride.

"We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one." — Jacques Cousteau

"When drinking water, remember its source." — Chinese proverb

"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." — Matthew 7:16-20, Holy Bible

Japan has an amazing food culture thanks in part to the rich volcanic soil and ample rainfall, despite the lack of spacious farms. As it stands, Japan can feed approximately one third of its population from domestic production.