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New report states police forces are preparing for riots on a national scale

Claire Bernish
The Anti Media
Fri, 22 Apr 2016 19:11 UTC
police state america
Fascism doesn't often sweep in overnight and take over some hapless nation's government; rather, it gradually seeps into the cultural fabric — as is quietly taking place all around the globe, evidenced by an upsurge in sales of riot equipment that has gone largely unnoticed.

A new report from analysts with industry research group, Sandler Research, forecasts the Global Riot Control System Market for the next four years — but beyond a burgeoning market to parallel the expanding global police state, it appears world governments are also keenly aware of civilian discontent. Sandler predicts the market will have an annual growth of 3.5 percent, and makes a telling juxtaposition, emphases added, involving the United States:
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Deteriorating culture: Majority of Americans believe manners and behavior have declined


Phys.org
Fri, 22 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
manners, civility, courtesy
A recent survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 74 percent of Americans think manners and behavior have deteriorated in the United States over the past several decades. A large majority of Americans believe that politicians should be held to a higher standard than the general public, but few think they are living up to that expectation. The Republican campaign is viewed as rude and disrespectful by nearly twice as many Americans as those who characterize the fight for the Democratic nomination in that way (78 percent vs. 41 percent).

The study finds that people are generally in agreement about what sort of behavior is unacceptable. Behavior ranging from use of cell phones in restaurants to swearing in public or online is universally considered to be ill-mannered, but differences in these opinions, and the likelihood of an individual personally engaging in such behavior, emerge based on age and gender. Remarks or jokes based on race, gender, or sexuality, however, are considered inappropriate by 8 in 10 Americans, and only a small percentage of Americans admit to doing so themselves.

Comment: What is occurring in the U.S. is the natural outcome of a society that has become saturated with psychopaths in positions of power, and subsequently infecting the culture with their pathological behavior. As with previous civilizations that succumb to the process of ponerization, the U.S. is likely headed for collapse, and it's time to begin to consider alternative ways of structuring society that work for the common good of humanity.

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Better Earth

March for Water: Thousands Protest Corporate Greed in Guatemala


TeleSUR
Sat, 23 Apr 2016 17:29 UTC
ear
Thousands of Indigenous and campesino protesters have flooded Guatemala City, bringing the demands of their 11-day march for water to the country's highest decision makers and breaking up months of calm in the streets and squares of the capital after the winding down of last year's mass mobilizations, which pressured former President Otto Perez Molina to resign.

The March for Water, Mother Earth, Territory, and Life brought together Indigenous groups from across Guatemala, unified around demands for a guarantee to the right to water and dignified livelihoods in the face industrial agriculture and exploitive mining projects that threaten to contaminate and siphon off water resources from remote and vulnerable communities.
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Health

47 percent of Americans cannot cover $400 emergency room visit

Michael Snyder
Economic Collapse
Wed, 20 Apr 2016 17:12 UTC
Money
If you had to make a sudden visit to the emergency room, would you have enough money to pay for it without selling something or borrowing the funds from somewhere? Most Americans may not realize this, but this is something that the Federal Reserve has actually been tracking for several years now. And according to the Fed, an astounding 47 percent of all Americans could not come up with $400 to pay for an emergency room visit without borrowing it or selling something.

Various surveys that I have talked about in the past have found that more than 60 percent of all Americans are living to paycheck to paycheck, but I didn't realize that things were quite this bad for about half the country. If you can't even come up with $400 for an unexpected emergency room visit, then you are just surviving from month to month by the skin of your teeth. Unfortunately, about half of us are currently in that situation.
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Laptop

Understanding Libya 5 years after NATO destruction: An interview with Alexandra Valiente (Part 1)

Hugo Turner
Anti-Imperialist U
Fri, 22 Apr 2016 16:14 UTC
libya green resistance
In 2011 Libya, the most prosperous democracy in Africa, was targeted for destruction. Terrorist death squads were unleashed upon the nation. A NATO bombing campaign destroyed the country and plunged it into chaos. NATO's death squads seized control of most of the oil-rich territory, although 5 years later, the Libyan people continue to resist. After the 2011 NATO assault, accurate information about what has been going on in the country is very rare. Thus I decided to turn for help to Alexandra Valiente, one of the few in the west who continues to follow events closely and who has contacts inside the country. She is the editor of the Jamahiriya News Agency and Viva Libya websites which cover events in Libya. She is also the editor of Libya 360 (devoted to news and resistance movements in Africa and Latin America), Syria 360 and Revolutionary Strategic Studies. You can follow her on twitter @libya360 and @jamahiriyanews. She generously agreed to do an interview with me on the current situation in Libya and so below I present the first part of our conversation.
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Eye 1

New Yale Law School report: 'Trapped in a Black Box: Growing Terrorist Watchlisting in Everyday Policing'

Derrick Broze
Activist Post
Fri, 22 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
Terrorist Watchlisting

Comment: Since the synthetic terror of 911, the national security surveillance state has slowly but assuredly seen to it that more and more U.S. citizens "fit" the profile of terrorists. With this one label, a perception has been promulgated by the pathocrats that, for all intents and purposes, considers an ever larger section of the general public 'terrorist material' - and ought to be treated as such. Taking these developments to their logical end, we can eventually expect that many more individuals will be added to these lists and at some point incarcerated on the very flimsiest of reasons. We already saw this during WWII. But this time promises to be much worse.


A new report highlights the lack of oversight and exponential growth in the number of Americans placed on domestic intelligence watchlists.

A new analysis from the American Civil Liberties Union and a clinic at the Yale Law School is calling attention to the hundreds of thousands of individuals who have been placed on a variety of domestic terror watchlists. The report, "Trapped in a Black Box: Growing Terrorist Watchlisting in Everyday Policing," details how the ACLU and the clinic at Yale Law School view this expansion of domestic watchlists as a potential threat to privacy and liberty.

The researchers reviewed 13,000 pages of information, including pages released from the Federal Bureau of Investigations via a Freedom of Information Act request and lawsuit by the ACLU and the Civil Liberties and the Civil Liberties and National Security Clinic at the law school. The team also studied information obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the government's Watchlisting Guidance.

They found that there were less than 10,000 entries in 2003 as part of the Violent Gangs and Terrorist Organizations File, but by 2008 that number grown to 272,198 individuals under a successor category, the Known or Suspected Terrorist File. The report states that the KST list, "is part of a vast system of domestic surveillance of people whom law enforcement labels suspect based on vague and loose criteria, with serious constitutional and privacy implications for those who are included in the file."
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Gold Coins

Ecuador: President Correa to tax the rich to salvage the poor to pay for earthquake damage


Sputnik
Fri, 22 Apr 2016 01:28 UTC
Ecuador road
© www.adventistreview.org
Shattered city street from the April 16 earthquake.
On Saturday night a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Ecuador, killing over 525 people and leaving the resourced-strapped country scrambling to conduct adequate search, rescue and relief efforts.

"It's the worst tragedy in 60 years," said Defense Minister Ricardo Patino. "We're facing the most difficult phase right now, which is rescuing victims and recovering bodies."

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa must now manage a tremendously difficult recovery and rebuilding effort, at a time when the OPEC nation's oil revenues have greatly diminished. The government estimates that the damage from the earthquake exceeds $3 billion, and are reducing GDP expectations by 3 percentage points, in the wake of the incident.

To meet the resource shortfall created by the tragic earthquake and exacerbated by a flat oil market, the President Correa on Thursday announced a one-time tax on the rich to pay for relief and reconstruction efforts. Any individual with assets in excess of $1 million will be required to contribute 0.9% of their wealth, while lower earners must hand over a day's salary for every $1000 of their monthly income, up to $5000.

In addition to the one-time tax on the wealthy, President Correa has expressed a willingness to sell off state assets to ensure resources get to earthquake victims struggling to survive in destroyed communities.

Despite heroic rescue efforts and attempts by Ecuador's government to rally the necessary funds to address the catastrophe, residents in rural sectors of the disaster zone say they have yet to receive food, water, or emergency medical aid. Ecuadorian officials quickly moved supplies into populated areas impacted by the earthquake, but damaged and impassable roads continue to limit aid convoys seeking to reach to remote areas.

Comment: Unfortunately, major earthquakes do not wait for good economic times to occur. No matter what kind of solution is found to rebuild Ecuador, the suffering and devastation has to be addressed. Taxing the rich one time--if it is truly one time, and subsidizing the poor--if that actually happens, would be a start. But, knowing how greedy governments and corporations are, what are the chances this is a one time tax and that the funds will be applied as stated? Hope for the best, but wait and see for the outcome.

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Fire

Queensland river near fracking site bursts into flames in Australia


RT
Sat, 23 Apr 2016 11:43 UTC
Queensland river on fire
© Jeremy Buckingham / YouTube
A Queensland river near a fracking site exploded into flames after a coal seam gas (CSP) protester sparked a kitchen lighter above the water surface.

Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham uploaded dramatic footage of the river ablaze to his website and social media accounts to highlight his party's concerns about fracking and the extraction of coal seam gas.

The video shows the New South Wales Greens MP ignite the fire on the Condamine river and then jump up in shock, exclaiming: "Holy f***! Unbelievable - a river on fire!"
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Cardboard Box

Economic retaliation: Baltic countries paying the price for snubbing Russia, entrusting their fates to Washington


Sputnik
Fri, 22 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
baltic sea ports
The ports of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania along the Baltic Sea are facing a historic lull in activity, with cargoes from the east into Europe and from the West into Russia finding new routes circumventing Baltic ports. The situation has led to near-crisis conditions for the local transit sector.

The situation, Russian news journal PolitRussia explains, is also leading to a catastrophic situation for the countries' national railway companies.

Estonian Railways has been hit especially hard, and is looking in Moscow's direction to "resolve the problem" of low cargo traffic. A delegation from the railway company, including company director Sulev Loo, went to Moscow last week following Russia's announcement that it would halve rail transport into the country, from twelve to six trains per day. The answer they got is that the demand just isn't there.
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Red Flag

The Balkan anti-unipolar movement: How to use color revolution technology against its architects

Andrew Korybko
The Saker
Fri, 22 Apr 2016 20:31 UTC
macedonia

Tens of thousands of people rallied in the capital of Macedonia in May 2015
Color Revolutions have brought destabilization and destruction to a growing number of victimized states ever since the US unleashed the first modern one against Serbia in 2000. It might come off as antithetical for any multipolar supporter to claim that constructive and applicable lessons can be learned by studying this technology, but as taboo and 'politically incorrect' as it may be to say that, the present global strategic situation suggests that it's actually true and conforms to the forecast that the author made last summer. The disciplined and selective utilization of key precepts of Color Revolution planning can be instrumental in catapulting a multipolar cause to the forefront of domestic and even international politics, which is why it's so advantageous for activists to learn these techniques.

Whether consciously or by coincidence, the Balkans are once more leading the way in spearheading the deployment of a revolutionary strategy, albeit this time it's not one of unipolar domination, but of multipolar liberation. The civil society movements that have sprouted up in the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia over the past year share in the similarity of being test cases where low-intensity Color Revolution technology has been applied to advance multipolar agendas. While each ongoing case study is presently separate from the other, the exciting potential exists for their respective momentums to converge together in forming the basis for a peaceful multipolar front coalition that could effect serious geopolitical change in the Balkans. In order for that to happen, however, several preliminary steps must be undertaken first.

Comment: The documentary below, from Journeyman Pictures, shows how the color revolution strategy, using Gene Sharp's work as a manual, has essentially been turned into an industry. Wouldn't it be a blast if it were turned against its masters?



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