Friday, March 31, 2017

Apple Doesn’t Think You’re Mature Enough to Know Truth About U.S. Drone Strikes




(ANTIMEDIA) “At its core was a question: do we want to be as connected to our foreign policy as we are to our smartphones? My hypothesis was no. Americans don’t care about the drone war because it is largely hidden from view.”


That’s how Josh Begley, writing for The Intercept on Tuesday, described the concept behind an app he created five years ago. The app, he says, was a simple one. It merely sent users an alert every time a U.S. drone strike was reported in the news.





Apple rejected the app three times on the grounds that it was “excessively objectionable or crude content,” but Begley didn’t give up on the project.




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“Over the years, I would occasionally resubmit the app, changing its name from Drones+ to Metadata+,” he wrote. “I was curious to see if Apple might change its mind. The app didn’t include graphic images or video of any kind — it simply aggregated news about covert war.”







He went on to tell how, after five rejections, Apple finally accepted the app in 2014. It remained in the App Store for a year and was downloaded by over 50,000 people. But then, the following September, Apple removed the app, once again citing “excessively objectionable or crude content.”


Begley persisted. The reason he was writing the post this week, in fact, was because that day — March 28, 2017 — Apple had once again accepted the app. He wasn’t writing to talk about his ordeal with Apple, though. He was writing about the issue that motivated him to create the app in the first place:


“As an artist who works with data, I think the story of this app is about more than a petty conflict with Apple. It is about what can be seen — or obscured — about the geography of our covert wars.”


He pointed out that over the past 15 years, people have worked tirelessly to document what’s happening on the ground where these drone campaigns are being waged. And that work is certainly praiseworthy. But Begley went further, pointing out what he calls the “difficult truth” of drone warfare — that at the end of the day, we don’t really know who these missiles are killing.


Again, rather than focusing on his spat with Apple, Begley stayed with the issue that inspired him and talked about the end product of that inspiration:


“Because the particulars of drone wars are scant, we only have ‘metadata’ about most of these strikes—perhaps a date, the name of a province, maybe a body count. Absent documentary evidence or first-person testimony, there isn’t much narrative to speak of.


“The name ‘Metadata’ has a double meaning: the app both contains metadata about English-language news reports, and it refers to the basis on which most drone strikes are carried out.”


The only time Begley questioned Apple’s earlier decisions to refuse his app was in his summation.


“Smartphones have connected us more intimately to all sorts of data,” he wrote. “Yet information about drone strikes — in Apple’s universe — had somehow been deemed beyond the pale.”


He used the past tense, of course, because Apple had, that very day, re-accepted Metadata. But as it turned out, the party was short-lived. Hours after Begley’s post ran at The Intercept, Apple pulled his app once more.


Highlighting the suddenness of Apple’s move, here’s how Reason opened its coverage of the news on Tuesday:


“This was supposed to be a post about how anybody who wants to easily keep track of U.S. drone strikes overseas can do so through an app on their iPhone. But never mind. They can’t anymore.”


Josh Begley chose not to go after Apple in his article when he easily could have. He took the high road and stuck to the far greater issues — the nature of drone warfare itself and how we, as a society, are responding to it in an age of instant communication.


This writer will follow Begley’s lead and not speculate on the myriad possibilities of why Apple seems afraid of his app. That’s the far less important aspect of what’s happening here. It all goes back to the core of the Metadata project and the question that drove Begley to get started: Given the option, would we really want to be as connected to U.S. foreign policy as we are to our smartphones?


Or, in other words, would we really want constant updates on all the killing?


Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo

How To Avoid These “Rookie Prepper Mistakes” That Could Get You Killed


preparedness-poster


So you’ve been convinced that there are many major threats that humanity faces… and you’ve decided to get prepared. You’ve decided to survive.


That’s great. But there are many pitfalls and potential mistakes that newbies and long-term preppers alike should be wary of.


But getting ready for unrealistic doomsday scenarios means that many preppers are focusing on the wrong problems, and will end up ill prepared.


Too many gadgets, not enough time learning to use them. Too much expensive gear, and not enough essentials, or at least not enough to last when you need it.


Be practical, be thorough, but focus on the scenarios that are most likely to hit your local area – with natural disasters being perhaps the most likely in the real world, but complex conspiracies and apocalyptic mega disasters ranking much further down the line.



You are not prepping to save the world – though you can try in your spare time. You are prepping to keep you and yours alive, safe and prepared to thrive in the aftermath.


What real world crisis are actually likely to strike in your neighborhood and affect you?


And your preps don’t necessarily have to be expensive. Just the bare basics and the right mentality could be more valuable than features and high-end gear.


This guy focused on how many useful or life-saving materials he could easily fit into a survival pill bottle, with the things lying around his house, spending no more than $1.



Which items would you include? And what do you think are the most important detail items for an emergency.


Often times laying low, bugging in, and staying off the radar are more important than heroic, firepower or bold cross-country adventures.


Something to think about anyway.


25 Survival Myths That Could Actually Hurt You


Read more:


A Step-By-Step Guide To Prepare For Any Disaster


Worst Mistakes To Avoid When Going Off Grid: “We Wish We’d Known”


Off Grid Antibiotics: For When There is No Medicine


When the Lights Go Out: Tips and Tricks for Priming Off-Grid Light Sources


Rookie Preppers: 8 Mistakes To Avoid



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Author: Mac Slavo
Views: Read by 3 people
Date: March 31st, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com


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Parliament Attack “Staged” to Distract from Obama Wiretap Scandal (VIDEO)

Parliament Attack “Staged” to Distract from Obama Wiretap Scandal (VIDEO) | false-flag-1024x645 | False Flags Government Corruption Multimedia Politics Special Interests World News


By: The Voice of Reason |


We know by now exactly how our domestic intelligence agencies circumvent that ‘inconvenient’ law barring them from spying on American citizens domestically. This is the true collusion that the media doesn’t talk about – the collusion between the Western intelligence agencies to each monitor each other’s domestic activities. As the Trump wiretapping scandal heats up, more and more of the public are now being made aware of it, and now here comes another conveniently timed terror attack.


In the following video, Right Wing News asks the inconvenient question – was the terror attack outside Westminster yet another false flag to divert the attention of the global public? The British intelligence agency, GCHQ, is after all the one that was likely colluding with our domestic intelligence agencies to spy on Trump. The timing seems a little coincidental; and that’s not even taking into account the fact that this attack will no doubt be used as further justification to expand the powers of these intelligence agencies even more.





“There’s no question that those terrorist attacks right next to the seat of British power were conducted to quickly change the growing national conversation regarding the GCHQ’s Trump affair.”



— Veteran Intelligence Analyst


State of the Nation Reports:


By all insider accounts, the GCHQ scandal was blown up by President Donald Trump for very good reasons.


In fact, the only realistic way for Trump to fulfill his campaign promise to “drain the swamp” — inside the Beltway — is to expose the shadow government that has run the United States of America for many decades.


Known variously as both Deep State and the World Shadow Government, the secret entity that exercises complete command and control over the U.S. Federal Government is the slowly being forced out of the shadows.


This inexorable process of uncovering Deep State began many years ago but has seen a dramatic uptick of paradigm-shattering revelations since the election of Trump. His extraordinary lack of political correctness has been quite instrumental in exposing the ongoing sedition and perfidy committed against the American Republic by the U.S. Intelligence Community, as well as law enforcement agencies like the FBI and DHS .


First among those intelligence agencies are the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Defense Intelligence Agency DIA. It is important to note that each of these organizations coordinates very closely with their British counterparts—MI6, MI5 and GCHQ. They also collaborate intimately with all the major MSM organs of propaganda both in the United States and Great Britain.


Key Point: Virtually all of the London-based news outlets have been virulently anti-Trump since he first declared his candidacy. The Telegraph, BBC, Independent, The Guardian, Daily Mail, The Sun, Mirror, among many others have formed a veritable echo chamber of Trump bad news. Not only do these MSM organs of propaganda originate much of that bad news disseminated globally each and every daily news cycle, they are fed copious amounts of intelligence from the GCHQ which inform their “breaking” stories. Just as the C.I.A. effectively owns and operates the MSM throughout the USA, so, too, does the GCHQ closely control the output of the British media. (The C.I.A. And Deep State Conspiracy Finally Exposed)


GCHQ PROVIDED PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY!


Given the hard evidence that now exists that proves that Donald Trump’s Trump Tower headquarters has been “wiretapped” for many years, especially during the entire 2016 presidential election cycle, there is now a Congressional mandate to ferret out the facts. All of that evidence now points directly to the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).


The spying on and surveillance of a U.S. presidential candidate for purposes of political gain are both illegal and unprecedented (that we know of), even when contracted out to the GCHQ. Nevertheless, the current narrative, whereby the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies worked directly with the GCHQ in order to have plausible deniability for their unlawful conduct, appears to be exactly what has happened.



Whenever a fake conspiracy gets so out of control as the purposefully fabricated “Russian election hacking” story, it’s liable to ensnare every individual and/or organization that buy into it. And so it has—BIG time!


Because of the patently false accusations, which the Democratic party has been trumpeting in unison across the nation about a non-existent collusion between Trump and Putin to defeat Hillary Clinton, enormous political pressure has been exerted across Deep State to maintain the ridiculous façade of seriousness. As a matter of fact, this anti-Russia campaign has been so intense and unrelenting that it’s no wonder that the GCHQ was drawn into the fiasco. What’s really behind all the fake anti-Russia hysteria?


Some have even posited that it was GCHQ that was acting on behalf of those who forever prosecute the Great Game. For it’s the ever-running Great Game that has predicated all of the deliberately orchestrated Russophobia by the Zionist-controlled British governments over the past 100 plus years. Now that the bigwigs in Cheltenham (location of GCHQ headquarters) have been thoroughly outed for their unparalleled complicity in the interference of a U.S. presidential election, all hell is breaking loose in London. Apparently the agents of Deep State neglected to consider the potential consequences of the Trump “wiretapping” beforehand, as they simply never get caught in the act or otherwise.


STAGED FALSE FLAG TERROR EVENT OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT:


As the specter of a transatlantic brawl began to break out in the open[1], the Brits did what they always do so well—perpetrate a shocking terrorist attack to distract the public’s attention. The following mainstream media report shows just how complicit the London press is in the sensationalizing of this false flag terror operation.


U.K. Parliament attack: Five dead and 40 injured in ‘sick and depraved terrorist incident’ at Westminster


The London establishment knows that the disclosures outlining the GCHQ’s direct involvement in the affairs of a U.S. presidential candidate, who is now the sitting POTUS, does not bode well for Anglo-American relations. Because half the U.S. electorate enthusiastically voted for Donald Trump, the Brits know that such radioactive divulgences will profoundly alter the special relationship that the USA supposedly has with the UK. Therefore, the GCHQ did what it has never felt compelled to do in its history—TPTB went into crisp denial mode. As follows: Is the GCHQ “unprecedented denial” really an admission of guilt?


By engaging in such outright interference in a US election, the British Intelligence Community was in the spotlight like never before. The London establishment leaders certainly determined the necessity to “change the national conversation”, particularly the chatter in Parliament, in a decisive manner; hence, the surprise terror attack was carried out yesterday, Wednesday, March 22, 2017.


BRITISH PM THERESA MAY WELL TRIGGER BREXIT TALKS ON MARCH 29TH.


Not only did the public discourse regarding the GCHQ scandal cease immediately, a much more conducive environment has been created for PM Theresa May to trigger article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. Like all false flag operations, the Westminster Bridge terror attack has various goals which are seemingly unrelated. The fear-mongering associated with such terror events always serves to make the populace, and especially the public servants, much more compliant.


The Prime Minister knows that there is a festering discontent among the manipulated Bremain minority that wanted to stay in the European Union. Although much smaller than the Brexit majority, they have been very vocal in this dismay. In fact, only the County of London voted against Brexit throughout all of England proper (See map below.). In the wake of the London attacks, there is likely to be very little resistance going forward to finalizing Brexit. That the terror attacks were executed so close to both “Houses of Parliament” well demonstrated how very vulnerable the MPs and government officials really are.


Parliament Attack “Staged” to Distract from Obama Wiretap Scandal (VIDEO) | LEAVE-768x431 | False Flags Government Corruption Multimedia Politics Special Interests World News


The other goals associated with this terrorist event concern the ever-expanding national security state. Great Britain has established the most intensive nationwide security apparatus in the world–bar none. And yet those who are in charge of imposing this Orwellian model are still determined to go further. Truly, George Orwell was writing prophetically about Great Britain when he authored his dystopian novel and classic Nineteen Eighty-Four.


The global elites know full well that the Global Economic & Financial System is on the verge of collapse and that the banksters in London are the primary culprits. Hence, they feel compelled to put into place all of the controls and safeguards, laws and technology necessary to preclude a replay of the French Revolution … … … in London.


The Millennium Report
March 23, 2017


Editor’s Note


When the top FOX News commentator — Judge Andrew Napolitano — is abruptly suspended from this news platform, it’s most likely the case of speaking truth to power in public. Truly, the extreme reaction by Deep State to such a journalistic ‘transgression’ is a sure sign that the good judge got it right during prime time. Did Deep State Order Fox News to Fire Judge Napolitano for Exposing GCHQ Spying on Trump?


Recommended Reading


Trump Wiretapping Mystery Solved: G C H Q


Source


[1] NYT Headlines Should Read ‘Trump Never Apologized To The UK Because The Spying Allegations Are True’


___
http://themillenniumreport.com/2017/03/false-flag-terror-attack-outside-of-parliament-staged-to-distract-from-the-gchq-scandal/



THE VOICE OF REASON is the pen name of Michael DePinto, a graduate of Capital University Law School, and an attorney in Florida. Having worked in the World Trade Center, along with other family and friends, Michael was baptized by fire into the world of politics on September 11, 2001. Michael’s political journey began with tuning in religiously to whatever the talking heads on television had to say, then Michael became a “Tea-Bagging” activist as his liberal friends on the Left would say, volunteering within the Jacksonville local Tea Party, and most recently Michael was sworn in as an attorney. Today, Michael is a major contributor to www.BeforeItsNews.com, he owns and operates www.thelastgreatstand.com, where Michael provides what is often very ‘colorful’ political commentary, ripe with sarcasm, no doubt the result of Michael’s frustration as he feels we are witnessing the end of the American Empire. The topics Michael most often weighs in on are: Martial Law, FEMA Camps, Jade Helm, Economic Issues, Government Corruption, and Government Conspiracy.

So Called Preppers Are Going To Starve




Stewart Rhodes, Army Airborne Veteran, Yale Law School Graduate, OK Founder and President


Sheriff Richard Mack, Former Sheriff of Graham County, Arizona


John D. Shirley, Retired Duty Peace Officer - Houston, TX. National Lead Liaison to Peace Officers.


Jay Stang, Veteran US Marine Corps - Texas Chapter President


Jim Ayala, EMT Veteran, Oath Keepers Treasurer, Merchandise


Sgt. Maj. Joseph Santoro, Retired Army, infantry, EOD. OK National Operations NOC


Michele Imburgia, Texas State VP


Sheriff Denny Peyman, Retired Jackson County, KY Sheriff, OK National Peace Officer Liaison


John Kerriman, Current Missouri police academy instructor, police veteran, OK National Peace Officer/LEO Liaison




Seattle Files Suit Against Trump Admin. to Preserve Sanctuary City Status

In response to President Trump’s January 25 executive order directing that jurisdictions that fail to comply with federal immigration law will not receive federal funds, the city of Seattle filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on March 29 that names as defendents President Donald Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly.


The timing of the lawsuit, which came just two days after Sessions — in a White House press briefing — urged states and local jurisdictions to comply with federal immigration laws and that failure to remedy violations of those laws could result in the withholding of federal grants, indicates that Seattle Mayor Ed Murray intends to go to battle with the Trump administration over this issue.


The Hill reported that in the suit Seattle asked a federal district court judge to declare that the city is acting in accordance with federal law. It also asked the judge to declare that Trump’s order is an unconstitutional violation of the 10th Amendment by attempting to force the city to enforce federal immigration law.


The suit also argues that the order violates Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, by withholding federal money unrelated to immigration enforcement in an attempt to force the city to comply.


It does not, however, seek a restraining order halting Trump’s executive order.


“This week, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions told American cities they are breaking the law in making their communities unsafe,” said Murray at a press conference announcing the lawsuit. “Apparently, the Trump Administration, their war on facts has now become a war on cities.”


“Our values of inclusion, of community, our values are the values we will stand by. Let me be clear about the facts: We are not breaking any laws and we are prioritizing safety,” Murray continued. “And let me be clear about the president’s executive order. It is violating law. It is unconstitutional.”


Murray’s statements were a continuation of his fight to defend Seattle’s sanctuary city status against the Trump administration that he launched the day after Trump was elected president last November. Speaking to a large crowd gathered inside Seattle’s city hall the day after the election, Murray vowed that Seattle will remain a sanctuary city for illegal aliens (which some refer to as “undocumented immigrants”) in spite of Trump’s election as president.


“These are our neighbors, and we will continue to support our neighbors,” Murray was quoted as saying by the Seattle Times, which reported that he used the term “sanctuary city” that some of his supporters dislike. “We can’t allow ourselves to be divided and sorted out. That’s not America.”





The Times, in its November 9, 2016 article, cited information from Murray’s office that Seattle’s so-called sanctuary status stems from a 2003 ordinance that (unless otherwise required by law or court order) bars police officers from inquiring into a person’s immigration status without reasonable suspicion that the person has been previously deported and has committed a felony.


For some unexplained reason, except perhaps to demonstrate his unbridled social liberalism, during his speech Murray included an entire smorgasbord of alleged oppressed minorities — refugees, Muslims, women, and gay Americans, among others — along with illegal aliens.


“Seattle is the same city today that it was yesterday … guided by equality and inclusion and openness,” Murray said, while charging that Trump has “demonstrated outright misogyny, demonstrated xenophobia and homophobia, nationalism, racism and authoritarian tendencies.”


During the press briefing that apparently motivated Seattle to file its lawsuit, Sessions said:


The President has rightly said, disregard for the law must end. In his executive order, he stated that it is the policy of the executive branch to ensure that states and cities comply with all federal laws, including all immigration laws. 


Today, I"m urging states and local jurisdictions to comply with these federal laws, including 8 U.S.C. Section 1373. Moreover, the Department of Justice will require that jurisdictions seeking or applying for Department of Justice grants to certify compliance with 1373 as a condition of receiving those awards.


This policy is entirely consistent with the Department of Justice"s Office of Justice Program"s guidance that was issued just last summer under the previous administration. This guidance requires state and local jurisdictions to comply and certify compliance with Section 1373 in order to be eligible for OJP grants. 


Seattle’s lawsuit alleges that the Trump executive order violates the 10th Amendment to the Constitution because it supposedly attempts to force the city to enforce federal immigration law.


What the executive order does state (in part) is that “the Attorney General and the Secretary, in their discretion and to the extent consistent with law, shall ensure that jurisdictions that willfully refuse to comply with 8 U.S.C. 1373 (sanctuary jurisdictions) are not eligible to receive Federal grants, except as deemed necessary for law enforcement purposes by the Attorney General or the Secretary.”


The 10th Amendment is very concise. It states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” 


So while the Constitution may not require the states or cities to enforce federal immigration law, neither does it require the federal government to provide any aid at all to those entities. 


Therefore, Seattle and other sanctuary cities such as San Francisco apparently want to have their cake and eat it, too. They do not want to cooperate with federal immigration laws (mostly by honoring ICE detainers — requests to hold illegal aliens until ICE agents can come to the police station and pick them up), which is their right. But they still want to receive federal funds — which is not their right.


Officials in local jurisdictions must learn the basic lesson that all federal aid comes with a price tag. Those who do not want to pay the price should not ask for federal aid.


CFSii banner


Related articles:


San Francisco Sues Trump to Stop Executive Order About Sanctuary Cities


California Advances Bills to Become Sanctuary State


 Illegal Alien Sues San Francisco for Violating Sanctuary City Law


“Sanctuary Cities” Make a Mockery of Our Laws

5 Old-Fashioned Toothache Remedies That Really Do Work!

5 Old-Fashioned Toothache Remedies That Really Do Work!


I don’t know about you, but I really (really) hate going to the dentist. Unfortunately, this means that I often wait until I’ve made the problem worse with my procrastination. I know I should go regularly, but I always seem to find a reason to put it off.


You have to admire our ancestors, though. Imagine having a toothache with no dentist (or money for a dentist) in sight. How did they live with it?


Most times, people used herbs to relieve toothache pain until they could find a dentist or until they could find someone to pull the tooth! Other types of mouth pain, such as sores from ill-fitting dentures or canker sores, were made bearable through pain-relieving and healing herbs.


Although most of these remedies have been forgotten due to over-the-counter pain relievers and better dental care, there might come a time when we wish we knew what these herbs were.


Let’s take a look at the top 5 herbs that work to relieve mouth pain or a toothache.


1. Cloves


This is perhaps the oldest and best-known remedy for relieving toothache pain and helping gums to heal. My dentist actually has a little homemade concoction that his grandfather used to make to help with these problems. He won’t tell me everything that’s in it, but I can taste cloves and I must say that this stuff really worked to heal a stubborn sore on my gum!


Need All-Natural Pain Relief With No Nasty Side Effect?


The active ingredient, eugenol, is in the oil of the clove. In fact, many dental items you buy today contain oil of cloves. Cloves have antimicrobial compounds, as well as a numbing effect, which makes them perfect for tooth or gum pain. Crush a couple of cloves and place it where the pain is for 10 or 15 minutes.


2. Cabbage


This common food once had an uncommon use — as a dental pain reliever! When applied topically, it is said to help heal mouth sores quickly, as well as numb the pain. Cabbage leaves were softened with a rolling pin, and then rolled up like a tortilla and placed where the pain was. This very old-fashioned remedy calls for using 4 to 6 leaves a day.


3. The toothache plant (Acmella oleracea)


5 Old-Fashioned Toothache Remedies That Really Do Work!

Toothache Plant. Image source: Wikipedia



This little plant works so well, its medicinal use has become its name! Other names include buzz buttons or sechuan buttons. The flowers of this plant have a super-numbing effect in the mouth, even more so than cloves. If you look at the flowers, they do remind you of a tooth with a red “sore” spot in the middle! The remedy calls for using just the fresh flower and holding it on the painful area.


4. Onions


Onions seem to appear on every medicinal herb list, don’t they? Some people claim that onion juice is so effective at relieving pain that it’s better than ibuprofen. I don’t know if that is true or not, but the remedy is that you cut a large piece of onion (apparently yellow onions are best for this, as they are the strongest) and place it between the teeth, as close to the painful area as you can.


Beet Powder: The Ancient Secret To Renewed Energy And Stamina


Now slowly bite the onion, but only until you feel the juice come out. The idea is to get as much of the juice from the onion as possible. So bite slowly, turn the onion piece a bit, and then repeat until the pain is gone.


5. Sage and vodka


This old remedy came to America via German immigrants. Since sage has antibiotic and anti-inflammatory compounds, this remedy makes sense. Two teaspoons of dried crushed sage leaves were put in a small glass container, along with one teaspoon of salt and about one-fourth cup of vodka. This mixture should sit for five minutes before using. Mix this solution gently, and then take a sip and swish it around, biting the mushy sage leaves. Then spit. Don’t drink this or you will most likely end up vomiting. Repeat two or three times, and then throw out any leftover. This needs to be repeated three times a day with a fresh mixture, as it supposedly goes “stale” after just 15 to 20 minutes.


What all-natural methods do you use to relieve mouth and tooth pain? Share your tips in the section below:

EU Threat to Break up U.S. Merits Appropriate Reminder

Yeah, what do “the people” know that’s not better dictated to them by their superiors? [EPP/Facebook]



“European Union boss Jean-Claude Juncker issued a jaw-dropping threat to the United States, saying he could campaign to break up the country in revenge for Donald Trump’s supportive comments about Brexit,” the UK’s Daily Express reported Friday. “In an extraordinary speech the EU Commission president said he would push for Ohio and Texas to split from the rest of America if the Republican president does not change his tune and become more supportive of the EU.”

Expressing support is hardly the same as pledging to use the apparatus of government to interfere in sovereign matters. But the threat was nonetheless repeated for good measure in a “tweet” by Eurocrat Siegfried Mureșan, spokesman for Juncker’s European People’s Party:


Good boy, Siegfried. Here’s your Scooby Snack.



That such arrogance reflects imperious rejection of the right to self-determination for Europeans, and that Constitutionalists in the U.S. may not welcome foreign globalist subversion, are hardly considerations that sway the type of mentality that believes his place is to dictate and yours is to obey. Either that or the old Eurorummy’s drunk again.


This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this Juncker character express contemptuous disdain for individual choice and freedom.


This is the character whose lickspittles characterize those opposing his determination to rule them from afar as “extremists,” a tactic we see “profiteers of hate” like the SPLC routinely use here to smear people of principle.


So, quite unsurprisingly, this is also the character who is spearheading European citizen disarmament, showing they have either learned nothing from the genocides of the last century, or else learned its lessons only too well.  But just like our domestic gun-grabbers, he knows how to couch things in a way to make the herd believe it’s in their interests to leave the arming to him:



“We have fought hard for an ambitious deal that reduces the risk of shootings in schools, summer camps or terrorist attacks with legally held firearms. Of course we would have liked to go further, but I am confident that the current agreement represents a milestone in gun control in the EU.”



Of course he would have liked to go further. And not just in the European Union.


“Mr. Juncker’s comments did not appear to be made in jest and were delivered in a serious tone, although one journalist did report some ‘chuckles’ in the audience and hinted the EU boss may have been joking,” the Express report notes.


Perhaps they’ll also chuckle at a sentiment I first saw expressed in a poster on the (long discontinued) GunTruths.com website I was part of long ago. Those following Juncker’s lead may not have fully considered the implications of a weakened America:



—–


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Pensions Will Be Wiped Out In America: “Perfectly Primed For the Greatest Financial Disaster”

pension cuts_0


This article was written by Michael Snyder and originally published at the Economic Crisis blog.


Editor’s Comment: The problem with waiting for a gigantic disaster to unfold is witnessing how thoroughly wired for demolition the whole thing is. The set up has been precise, even if ugly and basal in its fall. The Federal Reserve has long fed or starved panic and disaster with its creation of money, with the pumping of the prime, or the contraction of money supply. Now, after 8 years of Obama and a “recovery” from the 2008 economic crisis that has been based around unlimited liquidity, a major hot potato has been passed around for all those drenched in debt, and dependent upon a system that works.


Public pensions systems are the god-awful nightmare in the basement that threatens to make any such crisis – perhaps initially centered only around Wall Street behaviors – much, much worse by scale. Rather than lock boxes, they have become heavy-abused IOUs cash stashes, and in the most recent decades, these ‘vehicles’ for pay-it-later investing have been tossed around by private equity firms. They are agents for attempting to grow pension values on the open market, but they are also vulnerable as a carcass of ill-guarded funds that are easily spent on risky investments, and there to take the loss, while those who’ve done the betting once again go on the run.


The Ticking Time Bomb That Will Wipe Out Virtually Every Pension Fund In America


by Michael Snyder


Are millions of Americans about to see the big, juicy pensions that they were counting on to fund their golden years go up in flames in the biggest financial disaster in U.S. history? When Bloomberg published an editorial entitled “Pension Crisis Too Big for Markets to Ignore“, it simply confirmed what a lot of people already knew to be true.  Pension funds all over America are woefully underfunded, and they have been pouring mind boggling amounts of money into very risky investments such as Internet stocks and commercial mortgages.  Just like with subprime mortgages in 2008, this is a crisis that everyone can see coming well in advance, and yet nothing is being done about it.


On a day to day basis, Americans generally don’t think very much about pensions.  Most of those that have been promised pensions simply have faith that they will be there when they need them.


Unfortunately, the truth is that pension plans all over the country are severely underfunded, and this has already resulted in local fiascos such as the one that we just witnessed in Dallas.


But what happened in Dallas is just the very small tip of a very large iceberg.  According to Bloomberg, unfunded pension obligations on a national basis “have risen to $1.9 trillion from $292 billion since 2007″…



As was the case with the subprime crisis, the writing appears to be on the wall. And yet calamity has yet to strike. How so? Call it the triumvirate of conspirators – the actuaries, accountants and their accomplices in office. Throw in the law of big numbers, very big numbers, and you get to a disaster in a seemingly permanent state of making. Unfunded pension obligations have risen to $1.9 trillion from $292 billion since 2007.



And of course that $1.9 trillion number is not actually the real number.


That same Bloomberg article goes on to admit that if honest math was being used that the real number would actually be closer to 6 trillion dollars…



So why not just flip the switch and require truth and honesty in public pension math? Too many cities and potentially states would buckle under the weight of more realistic assumed rates of return. By some estimates, unfunded liabilities would triple to upwards of $6 trillion if the prevailing yields on Treasuries were used. That would translate into much steeper funding requirements at a time when budgets are already severely constrained. Pockets of the country would face essential public service budgets being slashed to dangerous levels.



So where are all of these pensions eventually going to come up with 6 trillion dollars?


That is a very good question.


Ultimately, even if financial conditions stay as stable as they are right now, a whole lot of people are not going to get the money that they were promised.


But things will get really “interesting” if we see a major downturn in the financial markets.  According to Dave Kranzler, if the stock market were to fall by 10 percent or more and stay there for a number of months, that “would cause every single public pension fund to blow up”.  And Kranzler is also deeply concerned about the tremendous amount of exposure that these pension funds have to commercial mortgages…



Circling back to the mall/REIT ticking time-bomb, while the Fed can keep the stock market propped up as means of preventing an immediate nuclear melt-down in U.S. pensions (all of which are substantially “maxed-out” in their mandated equities allocation), the collapse of commercial mortgage-back securities (CMBS) will have the affect of launching a nuclear sub-missile directly into the side of the U.S. financial system.


The commercial mortgage market is about $3 trillion, of which about $1 trillion has been packaged into asset-backed securities and stuffed into yield-starved pension funds. Without a doubt, the same degree of fraud of has been used to concoct the various tranches in these CMBS trusts that was employed during the mid-2000’s mortgage/housing bubble, with full cooperation of the ratings agencies then and now. Just like in 2008, with the derivatives that have been layered into the mix, the embedded leverage in the commercial mortgage/CMBS/REIT model is the financial equivalent of the Fukushima nuclear power plant collapse.



I have previously talked about the ongoing retail apocalypse in the United States which threatens to make so many of these commercial mortgage securities go bad.  It is being projected that somewhere around 3,500 stores will close in the months ahead, and this is going to absolutely devastate mall owners.  In turn, it is inevitable that a lot of their debts will start to go bad, and pension funds will be hit extremely hard by this.


But the coming stock market crash is going to hit pension funds even harder.  Stocks are ridiculously overvalued right now, and if they simply return to “normal valuations”, pension funds are going to lose trillions of dollars.


We are talking about a financial tsunami that will be absolutely unprecedented in our history, and yet investors continue to act like the party can last forever.  In fact, we just learned that margin debt on Wall Street has just hit another brand new record high



The latest data from the New York Stock Exchange show margin debt, or cash borrowed to buy shares, hit a record $528.2 billion in February, up from its prior high of $513.3 billion in January.



Of course my regular readers already know that margin debt also shot up to dramatic peaks just before the last two stock market crashes as well



Prior periods when margin debt hit records occurred around stock market peaks, including 2000 when the dot-com stock boom went bust, and 2007 when stocks began to crater amid early signs of trouble in the housing market ahead of the 2008 financial crisis.


Margin debt jumped 22% from the end of 1999 before peaking in March 2000 at $278.5 billion, the same month stocks peaked. In 2007, margin debt shot up to $381.4 billion in July, three months before stocks topped.



We are perfectly primed for the greatest financial disaster in American history, and yet very few people are sounding the alarm.


This massive financial bubble is a ticking time bomb, and when it finally goes off it is going to wipe out virtually every pension fund in the United States.


This article was written by Michael Snyder and originally published at the Economic Crisis blog.

BREAKING: Cop Receives Unprecedented 40-YEAR Sentence for Killing 6yo Boy

Jeremy



Marksville, LA — Moments ago, in one of the stiffest sentences ever handed down to a cop for killing an innocent person while on duty, one of the Marksville police officers who killed 6-year-old Jeremy Mardis was sentenced — to 40 years in prison. 


As the Free Thought Project reported last week, Officer Derrick Stafford was found guilty of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter in the horrific fatal shooting of the six-year-old with autism on November 3, 2015.


During the heartbreaking trial, Chris Few, Jeremy’s dad, noted that Stafford and officer Norris Greenhouse Jr. immediately started firing — with no warning — when they stopped him on that fateful night.


“The only thing I heard was gunshots. Then I heard verbal commands after they were through firing,” Few said. “I stuck my hands out the window. They kept firing.”




After he was shot, Few lost consciousness and didn’t know his son died until he woke up in a hospital six days later — the day of Jeremy’s funeral.


“Innocent people do not run from the police. Innocent people stop their vehicles, surrender to the police,” defense attorney Jonathan Goins said as he called Few “the author of that child’s fate,” during the trial.


However, the jury and the judge did not buy it.


As the Associated Press reports, Ruth Wisher, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office, said Stafford was sentenced to 40 years for manslaughter and 15 years for attempted manslaughter. He will serve the sentences concurrently.


Stafford was facing a maximum sentence of 60 years for his role in the murder of Jeremy Mardis when state District Judge William Bennett sentenced him.




READ MORE:  10 Things Many People Fear That Are Far Less Likely to Kill You Than American Police



The fact that a police officer received such a hefty sentence is a win for victims of police misconduct across the country. All too often we see police officers murder the innocent only to be exonerated by a grand jury or acquitted during a trial.


Case in point: Officer Joseph Weekley.


Weekley had not been on the force since 2010 when he shot a sleeping child in the head during a botched raid executed on the wrong home.


The raid was being filmed for an episode of The First 48, and many believe the excessive tactics used were employed simply to create drama and excitement for the camera. Unfortunately, a beautiful little girl, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7, lost her life because of his reckless and violent actions.


Not only was the justice system unable to hold Weekley accountable for the slaughter of a young girl — but he was reinstated to the force in 2015.


Unfortunately for the family of little Aiyana, justice failed them. However, in Jeremy’s case, they seem to be making ground — for now.


The other cop who shot and killed Jeremy that night has yet to go to trial. Greenhouse, whose defense team has been pulling insane tactics out of the woodwork up to and including demanding to know if any prosecution witnesses underwent hypnosis or any “truth-determining examinations,” such as polygraph tests or sodium pentothal.


Greenhouse also happens to be the son of the assistant district attorney in Marksville.



As the Free Thought Project has previously reported, this entire scenario could’ve been over a relationship. In November 2015, Few’s fiancée came forward about her relationship to Greenhouse.



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According to the Advocate, Megan Dixon, Few’s fiancée at the time, said Few had a previous run-in with Greenhouse. A former high school classmate of Dixon, Greenhouse had started messaging her on Facebook and had come by the house Few and Dixon were sharing at the time.


The tainted relationship motive appears to be the only possible motive for the stop that night as no definitive explanation has yet to be given as to why Greenhouse was moonlighting, riding alone that night and decided to pull Few over.


According to the Greenhouse and Stafford, the officers decided to conduct a traffic stop because Few had an outstanding warrant. However, the Clerk of Court, the District Attorney’s Office, Marksville Police Department, and City Court noted that they did not have any warrants against him. The officers also claimed Few had a weapon, that was also a lie.


The only reason Few ran from Greenhouse that night was to catch up with Dixon so he could give her Jeremy in case he was arrested.


“The whole reason there was even a chase was for his well-being,” he said.


Dixon’s testimony did confirm that Few was, in fact, attempting to waive her down and pointing at Jeremy.


Sally LaBorde, a passenger in the van Dixon was driving, also testified, saying she could clearly see Few pointing to Jeremy in the car, and the implication was unmistakable that he wanted Dixon to take care of his son, according to the Advocate.



Sadly, for Jeremy Mardis, who will never see another Christmas or Birthday or throw the ball with his dad, the reason for the stop that night is irrelevant. However, for his family, the outcome of Greenhouse’s future trial and the fact that Stafford just got 40 years, are the only things that can provide even a semblance of comfort.



READ MORE:  Shocking Video Shows Multiple Police Officers Open Fire and Kill a Man in a Wheelchair



Trump’s Pick For FDA Attempts To Distance Himself From Big Pharma


By Derrick Broze


Critics are calling attention to the relationship between pharmaceutical companies and President Trump’s nominee to the Food and Drug Administration.



Dr. Scott Gottlieb is promising to recuse himself from more than 20 companies he is involved with should he be accepted as the head of the Food and Drug Administration. Gottlieb made the promise after his relationship with pharmaceutical corporations became a concern to those who oppose his nomination to the FDA. In a letter to the ethics head of the Department of Health and Human Services, Gottlieb promised to recuse himself from more than 20 companies in which he is financially involved.


Gottlieb is a physician who was the deputy commissioner at the FDA from 2005 to 2007 under the Bush administration. He currently sits on the board of several small “biopharma” companies and advises GlaxoSmithKline, the sixth largest pharmaceutical company in the world. Gottlieb also works for  venture capital fund New Enterprise Associates and is managing director of investment banking firm TR Winston & Co.



The increased focus on these connections come after a report from the Wall Street Journal revealed details of Gottlieb’s relationship with pharmaceutical companies. According the WSJ, Gottlieb has earned millions of dollars as an executive and in speaking fees and consulting fees from the pharmaceutical industry.





As Fortune notes, “Gottlieb has previously promoted fewer FDA regulations in order to speed up the drug approval process, a goal which has also been strongly endorsed by President Donald Trump.” These conflicts will be explored on April 5 at the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP)  committee’s hearing on Gottlieb’s nomination. Interestingly, Reuters reports that Gottlieb – or whoever the nominee ends up being – would “be responsible for implementing key elements in the recently passed 21st Century Cures Act, which calls on the agency to streamline the drug approval process.”


Implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act points to a deeper purpose for the incoming head of the FDA. For more on that we look to a recent report from Truthstream Media. “The “21st Century Cures Act” – HR 34 – became law in December, 2016 and most people have no idea what it contains,” an Activist Post Editor’s Note states. “Essentially, it redefines what is meant by informed consent. Or, put another way, it expands the ability for Big Pharma to experiment on the population under the assumption that the dangers of vaccines and pharmaceuticals are too minimal for serious consideration.”



Derrick Broze is an investigative journalist and liberty activist. He is the Lead Investigative Reporter for ActivistPost.com and the founder of the TheConsciousResistance.com. Follow him on Twitter. Derrick is the author of three books: The Conscious Resistance: Reflections on Anarchy and Spirituality and Finding Freedom in an Age of Confusion, Vol. 1 and Finding Freedom in an Age of Confusion, Vol. 2


Derrick is available for interviews. Please contact Derrick@activistpost.com


This article may be freely reposted in part or in full with author attribution and source link.


Image Credit: Medscape


The “dependent victim” psy-op

The “dependent victim” psy-op


By Jon Rappoport


“American and British feminism has amazingly collapsed backward again into whining, narcissistic victimology…Too many of today’s young feminists seem to want hovering, paternalistic authority figures to protect and soothe them, an attitude I regard as servile, reactionary and glaringly bourgeois…” (Camille Paglia, the National Catholic Review, 2/25/15)


I could have titled this piece: “What government fears: the black entrepreneur.”


But the situation is much wider than that—-


ANY person who comes out of an “officially designated victim-group”…and then succeeds in life on his own…and then goes one step further and refuses to identify his entire existence with his group…but instead stands as a unique individual…why, that person, at the very least, must be a criminal, if not a terrorist, right?


That’s the crux of the issue: never leave your group.


That’s how society, civilization, and culture are promoted these days.


“Groups have needs, agendas, and problems, and the solution will come from government.” That’s the all-embracing formula.


The fake appearance is: victim groups are fighting for recognition and special status, and the government is pushing back—but that’s now a ruse. That’s a cover story. In fact, victim groups and government have the same goal: a relationship based on dependence. One side depends and the other side gives and protects.


The individual is out of the equation. He is portrayed as the greed-obsessed reason these victim groups exist and need help in the first place.


Banks, Wall Street, and mega-corporations are depicted as the end result of individualism, whereas the government is valiantly striving to solve this endemic problem.


In fact, government, banks, Wall Street, and mega-corporations are joined at the hip. They brush each other’s teeth first thing every morning.


Political correctness and the burgeoning movement to outlaw “offensive language” are merely tactics to: preserve groups’ separate identities; foment conflict between them; and ultimately foster their dependence on government authority.


The truth is, you can’t get free individuals to depend on government. Only “besieged groups” can be relied on for that purpose.


In the State’s eyes, a perfect society would be composed of groups who have entirely forgotten the concept of the individual, as if it never existed.


Peter Collero, of the department of sociology, Western Oregon University, has written a book titled: The Myth of Individualism: How Social Forces Shape Our Lives:


“Most people today believe that an individual is a person with an independent and distinct identification. This, however, is a myth.”


When Callero writes “identification,” he isn’t talking about ID cards and Social Security numbers. He’s asserting an absence of any uniqueness from person to person. He’s claiming there is no significant distinction between any two people. There aren’t two individuals to begin with. They’re a group.


This downgrading of the individual human spirit is far from accidental. It’s launched as a sustained propaganda campaign, the ultimate purpose of which is top-down control over billions of people organized into groups.


Here are several remarks, meant to defame the individual, from people I would call high-IQ idiots (at best):


“The cold truth is that the individualist creed of everybody for himself and the devil take the hindmost is principally responsible for the distress in which Western civilization finds itself — with investment racketeering at one end and labor racketeering at the other. Whatever merits the [individualist] creed may have had in the days of primitive agriculture and industry, it is not applicable in an age of technology, science, and rationalized economy. Once useful, it has become a danger to society.” (Charles Beard, 1931)


Beard, a celebrated historian, sees no difference between individual racketeering and the individual freely choosing and living his own life. In making this judgment, he becomes an intellectual/propaganda racketeer of the highest order.


“British empiricist philosophy is individualist. And it is of course clear that if the only criterion of true and false which a man accepts is that man’s, then he has no base for social agreement. The question of how man ought to behave is a social question, which always involves several people; and if he accepts no evidence and no judgment except his own, he has no tools with which to frame an answer.” (Jacob Bronowski, Science and Human Values, 1956).


Bronowski is quite sure that hearing other people’s evidence and then keeping one’s own counsel is wrong. One has to accept that evidence on its face. This is sheer idiocy. Individuals are capable of deciding, on their own, what social agreements to enter into.


On the other hand, here is a quite insightful statement from a contemporary journalist.


Here’s what journalist Glenn Greenwald (who is gay) wrote about the symbolic nature of the American Presidency, before the election. Though not making reference to the group vs. the individual, Greenwald’s remarks illustrate the degree to which victim-symbology has taken hold in the US:


“…Hillary’s] going to be the first female president, and women in America are going to be completely invested in her candidacy. Opposition to her is going to be depicted as misogynistic, like opposition to Obama has been depicted as racist. It’s going to be this completely symbolic messaging that’s going to overshadow the fact that she’ll do nothing but continue everything in pursuit of her own power. They’ll probably have a gay person [as president] after Hillary who’s just going to do the same thing.”


Regardless of the fact that the State and its allies are real oppressors who contribute mightily to creating real victims, what I’m talking about here is something quite apart from that: growing numbers of people who voluntarily take on the victim-mantle and seek comfort in nests of self-promoting groups who exaggerate and distort their own claims to special status.


The State needs these people. The State wants these people. Increasingly, the State employs these people.


Edward Bernays, the father of modern public relations, wrote: “It is sometimes possible to change the attitudes of millions but impossible to change the attitude of one man.”


Bernays understood that the basis of successful propaganda is a mass audience, an audience composed of groups, not individuals.


Retired high-level propaganda operative, Ellis Medavoy (pseudonym), once told me, “There are two aspects of propaganda. There is everything you do to get people to think of themselves as group members. And then there are all the messages you send to those conditioned group members. You need both aspects.”


When a group assigns itself solid “victim-status,” it creates one basic rule: a member must not leave the group. Why? Because if he does, he’s claiming he is no longer a victim—and that assertion is a betrayal.


Nice and neat. A prison.


“I’m a free individual.”


“You’re crazy. There is no such thing. Now get back in the group where you belong.”


Down at the root, betrayal begins as self-betrayal. The individual gives up the ghost. From that point on, his politics don’t matter. He forgets what he could have been. He defines himself by race and religion and country and rank ideology and group. He finds words and feeling through which he can express his role in a stage play that decays him from the inside out.


Eventually, if lunatics have their way, every person on planet Earth will be designated a victim. That will be the group of groups.


It won’t matter why and how everyone supposedly turns out to be a victim. The reasons will be forgotten. People will “instinctively” sign on to the agenda.


And the management team running the world will put another check mark on their sheet of objectives:


“Earth is beginning to resemble one giant hospital/mental institution. Break out the champagne.”


There is only one problem. That plan is fraying at the edges. People are waking up and swimming to the surface through layers of deception. They’re returning to themselves. They’re recognizing group-ism for what it is: a meltdown into self-sabotage.


The artifact is the collective. The self is real.


Power, choice, and freedom never go away.


They may hide, but they can be resurrected.


Then the whole fake game crumbles.



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Connecticut Bill Would Allow Police to Arm Drones

The Connecticut State Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill on Wednesday that would allow local police to weaponize drones. The vote by the Judiciary Committee was 34-7 and the bill"s threats to privacy were downplayed by the committee’s co-chair, Republican John Kissel:


This bill has had a hard time over the last few years getting past the finish line because it is complicated and it’s a balancing of individual rights and law enforcement…. Obviously, [armed drones would be used] for very limited circumstances [but] we can certainly envision some incident on some campus or someplace where someone is a rogue shooter or someone was kidnapped and [the police use the drone] to try to blow out a tire.


Three cities in Connecticut — Hartford, Plainfield, and Woodbury — already use unarmed drones. If this bill becomes law, it would make Connecticut the first state in the union to allow police to use armed drones in their work.


According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, three dozen states have enacted laws regulating so-called unmanned aircraft systems, with much of the debate centering on privacy and surveillance issues. Civilian-owned drones are finding use in commercial, scientific, recreational, and agricultural applications, including product deliveries and aerial photography. But privacy discussions often refer to a Supreme Court case decided in 1989 — Florida v. Riley — in which the court ruled 5-4 that individuals have precious little privacy from eyes in the sky. The court held that “helicopter surveillance at an altitude of 400 feet did not constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment,” reversing a lower court’s ruling that it did.


Drones have been used for more than a decade in various ways that have benefitted the public. In 2005, for instance, a drone was used by the Irwin County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia to assist in the search for a local teacher who went missing. In 2011, a drone was used to assist in the apprehension of Rodney Brossart, a North Dakota cattle rancher. In that case, USNews.com reported:


Brossart"s trouble began in 2011, when six cows wandered onto his property. After Brossart refused to return the cows to their owner, the Grand Forks, N.D., SWAT team was called in to arrest the man. What followed was a 16-hour, armed standoff that eventually ended when the SWAT team called in a Predator drone on loan from the Department of Homeland Security"s Customs and Border Patrol. The drone was able to locate Brossart and his three armed sons on the property and let police know it was safe it make to make an arrest.


The Brossart case is instructiven as the drone was used without judicial approval or the issuance of a warrant. The Border Patrol has loaned out its drones more than 700 times between 2010 and 2012 to various law-enforcement agencies, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). What is unclear is how many of those “loaners” involved the securing of a warrant as required by the Fourth Amendment prior to their use.


The bill passed by the Judiciary Committee is being sent to the floor of the Connecticut State House for a full debate, including rules for drone usage by police. The bill presently would require police to obtain a search warrant before using a drone, unless there are “emergency circumstances.” It would also require police departments to report back to the state government annually on how often drones were used and under what circumstances.  


Observers with great concerns over privacy, such as the EFF, will be watching that debate closely. One basic rule of technology is that “if something can be done, it will be.” At issue is just how careful Connecticut legislators will be in crafting rules that keep that technology, and the police, from invading precious rights guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.



An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American magazine and blogs frequently at LightFromTheRight.com, primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Tulsa Teen Comes Home From School with Contraceptive Implant

In a shocking case coming out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a mother who consented to what she was told was a “field trip” discovered that her 16-year-old daughter had been taken — by representatives of a local clinic and with the consent of school officials — to receive the Norplant contraceptive implant.


The girl — whose name is being withheld because she is a minor — is a student at Langston Hughes Academy, an arts and technology charter school located in North Tulsa. Her mother, Miracle Foster, told FOX23 that she was blindsided when her daughter came home with the implant. “Had I known that this field trip was to get that done, I would not have allowed her to go,” Foster said, adding, “I just feel like my rights as a parent were violated.”


While it is obvious to any right-thinking person that Foster is correct in her assertion that her parental rights were violated, the overreaching federal guidelines in the Title X Family Planning Program serve to give Uncle Sam’s stamp of approval to that violation. Because of the overreach of the federal government — and the acquiescence of state governments addicted to federal monies — parental rights have come under increasing attacks in the past few decades. According to interpretations of Title X, teens as young as 12 years old are allowed to receive contraceptives without a parent"s consent.


While the report from FOX News makes it appear this was a recent event, Foster’s daughter actually received the implant in November. When her daughter told her about it that evening, Foster cried. In an interview with The New American, Foster said, “It’s like they take the parental control away. These are children who cannot make decisions.” She added that children need their parents “to nurture them” and “to protect them” She also said that by taking the place of the parent, the government school system deprives those children of that nurturing and protection.


At least one Oklahoma state legislator agrees with Foster. Dr. Mike Ritze spoke with The New American about the issues surrounding this case. Dr. Ritze is well qualified to speak to this issue. He is a family physician who has delivered around 2,000 babies. He is also the Chairman of the Oklahoma House Public Health Committee and a ranking member of the Oklahoma House Public Safety Committee. He told The New American, “If the mother [had given her] permission, I would disagree with her, if she was not properly informed of the dangers of Norplant,” adding, “Norplant can cause strokes, blood clots, migraine headaches and other side effects.” But since Foster did not consent to her minor daughter receiving a hormonal implant, Dr. Ritze pointed out the duplicity in the way the law deals with this issue. “A school official cannot give a [minor] student an aspirin without the parent’s consent, but can take them out of school to get contraception.” Or an abortion.





Dr. Ritze said it may be “legally wrong” for the school to have allowed the student to be taken to the clinic to get the implant without her mother’s consent. He added that — either way — it is certainly morally wrong. “The government shouldn’t have anything to do with promoting anything but abstinence,” he said. He added that abstinence is not just the best method for avoiding pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases; it is the only method that always works. But because government schools have been drinking at the poisoned well of of progressive liberalism, Dr. Ritze said the attitude of the government schools seems to be “We know students are going to promiscuous — like monkeys — so let them go out there and use a condom or other birth control or get an abortion if they get pregnant.” He added, “The truth is that they (the students) are not monkeys, they are people, made in the image of God, and when they are given the right information about their choices and the consequences, they can make better choices — like abstinence.”


Those are some pretty serious risks for a 16-year-old girl to take — especially since it seems that she was never even made aware of them. Foster said her daughter was not given any information about the dangers of Norplant. She said her daughter told her “the lady told her about the different choices she had” but did not discuss side effects or risks.


Foster knows her daughter. Granted, her daughter made a decision without talking it over with her, but that seems to be a mark of teenagers. This writer asked Foster if she thought her daughter would have had any type of medical implant — for any reason, contraception or otherwise — that carried those risks if she had been educated about them. “No, no. She would not agree,” she said, “I think that would have scared her. I know for sure she would not have.” She added, “I wasn’t there, so I don’t know how much information they gave her. I don’t know if there was pressure there — I don’t know.”


And because the government school system and the clinic can hide behind Title X, Foster may never know. After all, the only reason she knows about the Norplant implant in the first place is because her daughter told her.


Laws are supposed to protect minors. Because society recognizes that young people do not always have the best judgment, they are protected from those who would prey on them. That is why minors cannot enter into many legal contracts without parental consent. For instance, minors in most states are protected from incurring debt by not being able to get credit cards. But the way Title X is interpreted, as soon as a child is at “reproductive age” (as young as 12), he or she can be exploited by the contraception industry.


Let that sink in: A person whose judgment is rightly considered underdeveloped to the point that he or she cannot make decisions about the ramifications of incurring debt is considered wise and experienced enough to make decisions about having sex, receiving contraception, or getting an abortion. The parent cannot object because the parent doesn’t even have to be told.


Oklahoma’s government school sex-education curricula (like all government school curricula in the state) has to be approved by the legislature. Currently, it favors an approach toward teaching abstinence. But as Dr. Ritze explained, “What is happening with the advent of Planned Parenthood and some of the other more progressive and liberal elements is that they have tried to introduce legislation year after year” to include what he called “how-to” education. “It’s like the failed DARE program [which ostensibly was a drug use prevention program] that turned out basically to be a ‘how-to’ course on drug experimentation — teaching kids how to use drugs.”


In fact, a bill “masquerading as a bill about HIV and STD prevention”— authored by Representative Emily Virgin — introduced this legislative session would have placed sex education curricula under the control of the State Department of Education. Dr. Ritze said, “several of us rose to the concern in the debate that that was morally wrong and something we couldn’t agree with because that is our job as legislators to spell out what they should do and not do in education on such a critical subject.” The progressive liberals in the legislature objected, saying that the legislature didn’t have the expertise to address those issues. “I rose again to remind them of my credentials — and there’s another physician in the House who has credentials on teaching all about HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.”


Dr. Ritze said that while speaking out against the bill on the floor of the House, he asked Representative Virgin about what kinds of condoms she would want to recommend to students, since her bill would have allowed that to be taught as part of the “how-to” sex education class. He told The New American, “She said, ‘Well, that’s a very sensitive subject. I don’t think we should be discussing that.’ I said, ‘Wait a minute. You’re wanting to teach children — seventh graders and on — how to use condoms, but you don"t want to discuss that amongst adults on the floor of the House and let parents know what we’re going to be teaching?’ and she got embarrassed and didn’t want to go any further when she realized the bill was headed for defeat.” The bill was defeated, but it — or something much like it — will likely return.


Reintroducing bills — time and again — seems to be a favorite tactic of those whose agenda it is to reshape the very fabric of American society by attacking basic morality. And schools seem to be one of their favorite points of attack. Even as they seek legislation on the one hand, they rely on overreaching — and largely unknown or misunderstood — interpretations of federal guidelines on the other hand.


That can be illustrated by Foster’s experience. She told The New American, “The day it happened, I contacted the school.” She spoke to Assistant Principle, Mario Choice. “He said he was going to contact the organization that picks up the children and that he would call me back.” Because this was the week of Thanksgiving break, she didn’t get that call until the next week. She said Choice told her that the representative at the clinic — Youth Services of Tulsa — that he spoke with said that because of Title X, “the kids didn’t have to have consent to get any type of birth control.” Foster added, “To me that just didn’t sound right, because I’ve never heard that before. Like I said it was a school field trip, so I didn’t know anything like this could happen. Had I known, I wouldn’t have given consent for her to go on the field trip.”


Foster said she thought the reason for the field trip to the clinic was to get information that her daughter could bring home for them to discuss as mother and daughter. “We have our own doctor. We have a relationship with our doctor.” She added that contraception is something she and her daughter have discussed. “In October we talked about birth control.” But because Foster — as a parent — wanted to be a part of that decision, she was shocked to hear that the school and the clinic had circumvented her parental authority and responsibility by removing her entirely from that decision-making process.


A statement released by the school echoes Choice’s words to Foster:


This was not a field trip. Youth Services of Tulsa does an annual in-service on Sex Education. They offer students an opportunity to contact them on their own for more information. The parent gave her child permission to leave the school. Under Title X once young people are at the clinic and are of reproductive age, they can make decisions on their own without parental consent. As you can understand this situation involves a minor and we do not release information about students. Nevertheless, the student was well within their rights of Title X which is a federal guideline that provides reduced cost family planning services to persons of all reproductive age.


Next, Foster reached out to the school board. She told us, “I went to the school board before I went to the news.” She added that the school board admitted to being ignorant of the situation. “The school board didn’t know about it.” She said the school board asked questions — such as “How did this happen?” and “Was the disclosure out there?” and “Who is this organization?” — of the school principal, Dr. Rodney L. Clark. She said the principal “didn’t know that this could be a possibility for them [the students] to get anything done” at the clinic.


But in the end, the only answer Foster got was that — because of Title X — no one had any obligation to get her consent or even to inform her. When asked how she feels about it even all these months later, she told The New American, “I’m p***ed! Quote that. I’m p***ed off.”


And, who can blame her?


Because the girl is a minor, the school is legally obligated not to “release information about” her. This magazine is not publishing the girl’s name out of a moral responsibility because of her age. It is a bizarre situation when everyone seems to agree that the girl — based solely on her age — deserves to be protected by not having her name and information published, but the school and school board cannot see that she needed protection from being exploited by the contraception industry.


Foster is not alone in her concern about the direction government schools are taking to supersede the authority of parents. Casey Polczynski, who lives in Central Virginia, is a mother of two children. Last year, her daughter — who, at the time, was in kindergarten and not yet six years old — came home and announced she wanted to marry her friend when she grows up. Her friend is also a girl. Polczynski asked her daughter why she thought she could do that. She said her daughter told her, “My teacher said boys can marry boys and girls can marry girls.” Polczynski explained to her daughter that the teacher was mistaken.


This year, because of that episode opening her eyes, Polczynski is taking a more proactive approach. While visiting the school last week, she asked the school nurse about any programs that may be coming up that she would need to know about. She told The New American, “I asked what programs I needed to know about to make sure my rights as a parent were being protected.” She said the nurse was taken aback by the question and answered that Polczynski’s son’s fifth grade class would be having the “boys talk” but there was nothing to worry about because “this is not the sex education talk, it’s just about things like hygiene and wet dreams.” If classroom discussion about "wet dreams" is not “the sex education talk,” one wonders what subject matter will be taught in sex education.


Polczynski told the nurse that she would not want her son in that class and was informed that a consent form would be sent to her and unless she signed it, he would not be in the class anyway. If that is true, it"s likely because her son is shy of his 12th birthday and not yet considered of “reproductive age” by the prevalent interpretation of Title X. Next year, Polczynski will probably not be involved in that decision. In fact, if the trend continues, her son may well be taken off campus to a contraception clinic and sent home with a box or three of condoms.


As the government school system continues down into the sewer, concerned parents who care about their children’s moral formation are seeking solutions. As Dr. Duke Pesta, Director of FreedomProject Academy, explained in an interview with The New American:


For years, we at FreedomProject Academy have been fighting this [the immoral agenda of the government school system]. I’ve given hundreds of talks all over the country about this. What’s happening here — and this is a symptom of a larger problem — the federal government has taken control over America’s public schools. And they have decided that the primary purpose of public schools is to serve as surrogate parents. It is not to educate your kids; it is not to make your kids college-ready; it is not to prepare your kids to be entrepreneurs or business owners. The primary purpose of America’s public schools now is social justice education. That means that teachers, school nurses, school administrators, are assuming almost every aspect of parental responsibility — from your kids’ health-care to your kids’ birth control choices to how young they’re going to teach your kids about sex and homosexuality.


Dr. Pesta added, “They are doing this whether you want them to or not.” When asked what parents whose children are in government schools can do to fix this, Dr. Pesta said, “There’s no way you’re going to fix this because control has now been ceded to the federal government.” As Foster’s story illustrates, Dr. Pesta is correct. Local, city, county, and state schools and school boards will simply hide behind Title X and keep on keeping on with the immoral agenda of — as Dr. Ritze said — treating kids like promiscuous monkeys.


Fortunately for those parents who don’t want to go along with — and have their children exposed to — that Godless agenda, there are choices. FreedomProject Academy is one such choice. It is a fully accredited online school offering a classical liberal arts K-12 education where each parent can have as much control as he or she wants. Every class is streamed live via the web and is recorded for parents and students alike to review at any time. The instructors teach the subjects they are qualified to teach and share a worldview consistent with the Judeo-Christian ethic of morality and liberty upon which our country was founded. It offers everything from individual classes to full programs.


As Dr. Pesta explains, FreedomProject Academy meets a need because “there is no in-house solution” to fixing the government school system. You can’t fix something that wants to be broken. As more parents like Foster and Polczynski continue to have these experiences and reach the end of their ropes, programs such as FreedomProject Academy will continue to grow.


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