Last week, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill into law that takes another step toward establishing gold and silver as money. The new law supplements Federal Reserve notes with honest money that has stable, constitutionally protected value.
Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Tucson) introduced House Bill 2013 (HB2013) on Jan. 9. The new law recognizes silver and gold as liquid capital for trust companies.
Practically speaking, the bill does two things.
Modifies the definition of “liquid capital” to include legal tender for trust company certification. (Sec. 1)
Defines legal tender as a medium of exchange, including specie, that is authorized by the U.S. Constitution or Congress for the payments of debts, public charges, taxes and dues. (Sec. 1) Specie is defined as coins having precious metal content.
Trust businesses act as “fiduciaries.” A fiduciary is a person who holds a legal or ethical relationship of trust. Typically, a fiduciary handles money or other assets for another party. A trust company in Arizona must maintain $500,000 of liquid capital reserves in order to operate. The bill would allow trust companies to count gold and silver specie as part of their liquid capital.
Under the current law, liquid capital is defined as capital in the form of certificates of deposit issued by banks, savings banks or savings and loan associations that do business in Arizona. These certificates of deposit are insured by the FDIC. HB2013 expands the definition to include gold and silver. Finchem explained the impact of the bill.
This would fortify the capital asset reserve of trust companies in Arizona. Since the FDIC only insures up to $250,000 of personal deposits in an FDIC insured bank, and they can take up to 99 years to pay a claim under federal law, this move permits investors in trust companies to place hard assets on deposit as ready, liquid capital reserve without converting the real money to fiat currency and then digital currency as in a deposit in the ACH system.
From a broader perspective, the passage of HB2013 recognizes hard money as a legitimate risk reducer. It also expands the role of gold and silver as money in Arizona, and further undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.
It sure doesn’t seem like Arizona approves of California’s sanctuary cities and one GOP Lawmaker hammered that point home. Marth McSally, in what was likely a tongue in cheek moment, proposed building a wall around California to protect the state of Arizona from their neighbor’s disastrous policies.
McSally announced her bid for Senate to replace Senator Jeff Flake (R) earlier this year. Flake is retiring at the end of this Congress. Other candidates in the primary include former Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former state Senator Kelli Ward (R).
When first hearing her quote, one could assume she wanted Arizona protected from those feeling the housing crisis and high taxation in California. But McSally, a congresswoman representing Arizona was referring to the “dangers of the southern border” and the sanctuary cities that California has allowed to infect the Golden State. Sanctuary cities are municipalities that do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
“As we look in Arizona, we often look into the dangers of the southern border,” McSally said during a round-table discussion about “sanctuary cities” Tuesday at the White House. “But if these dangerous policies continue out of California, we might need to build a wall between California and Arizona as well to keep these dangerous criminals out of our state,” she said, smiling, and perhaps a little sarcastically.
She added that California can’t just “provide sanctuary for these criminals and think that it’s only impacting California dangerously.” McSally’s comments come on the heels of the announcement that the federal government is suing the state of California (state government) for failing to enforce their laws.
The Trump administration’s “America First” policy is a thorn in the side of many states that use illegal immigrants as votes to elect far-left Communists.
California’s governor, Jerry Brown (D), was upset that he has to follow others’ rules while making California almost unbearable with the number of rules, laws, and regulations he demands the residents of the Golden State adhere to, Brown became the offended hypocrite everyone knew he was in the wake of the federal lawsuit over sanctuary cities. Try not to choke on California’s hypocrisy. Never forget that the state (and Democrats in general) loves laws, just not the laws of others.
“You called this an act of war from the federal government,” a reporter began asking Brown. Brown immediately looked confused. “An act of war? That’s pretty strong. But I reciprocate that comment,” Brown responded.
Californians are bailing on the Golden State in droves as the tax burden and housing costs make the price of living unbearable for far too many. Many of those fleeing are the hearty middle-class who are being pushed into poverty by the socialist policies forced on them by the state’s elites.
The trend is a symptom of the state’s housing crunch and the ever increasing taxation. Census Bureau data show California lost just over 138,000 people to domestic migration in the 12 months ended in July 2017. Lower-cost states such as Arizona, Texas, and Nevada are popular destinations for relocating Californians.
The surging number of those working in Silicon Valley and still unable to afford adequate housing should be a warning about big government, but it sure doesn’t seem like anyone is taking notice as their taxes continue to rise. As governments creep toward socialism though, poverty becomes the norm, not the exception. Silicon Valley has the highest median income in the nation. But a soaring tax burden and expensive regulations have caused housing prices to increase which has also caused homelessness to surge. –SHTFPlan
“There’s nowhere in the United States that you can find better weather than here,” said Dave Senser, who lives on a fixed income near San Luis Obispo, California, and now plans to move to Las Vegas. “Rents here are crazy if you can find a place, and they’re going to tax us to death. That’s what it feels like. At least in Nevada, they don’t have a state income tax. And every little bit helps.” Senser added that he previously lived in the east San Francisco Bay region, and said housing costs and gas prices are “significantly lower in Las Vegas. The government in the state of California isn’t helping people like myself. That’s why people are running out of this state now.”
A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Pollof Californians last fall found that the high cost of living, including housing, was the most important issue facing the state. It also found more than half of Californians wanted to repeal the state’s new gas tax, which raised fees by a whopping 40 percent further burdening those already living paycheck to paycheck.
During the 12-month period that ended in July of 2017, California saw a net loss of just over 138,000 people, while Texas had a net increase of more than 79,000 people. Arizona gained more than 63,000 residents, and Nevada gained more than 38,000. “You can literally have a lot of buying power for the dollar in Southern Nevada versus Southern California,” said Christopher Bishop, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. “So it has been a major trend over the year, year and a half, and we’re seeing it increase.”
“Experienced – Educated – Professional”: Per “Only One” Mark Napier, he is, but you’re not and can’t be.
“Governor Ducey, in reaction to the recent school shooting in Florida, has declared the need to ‘do something’ in Arizona,” an alert from Arizona Citizens Defense League warns. “Unfortunately, his solution appears to be to resurrect proposed restrictions on your rights in bills that have already failed in the legislature. In particular, it looks like Governor Ducey will propose cherry picking bad ideas found in legislation that calls for the criminalization of the transfer of private property (your firearms) and the ability of your family members to have your firearms confiscated for ‘mental health’ reasons. All these proposals are aimed at punishing you for violent acts committed by others. None of them address the issue of why kids today feel empowered to kill their classmates.”
Their concerns are not without foundation.
“With backing of Governor Ducey, Arizona could be on verge of stricter gun laws,” AZCentral reports:
“If we can prevent it and use the power of the office and the law… that’s what we’re going to do and I intend to do it,” Ducey said during the interview on KTAR (92.3 FM). “I think we need to act in those situations.”
“The Sheriff says he and Governor Ducey feel it’s not practical to arm teachers because they’d have to become as well trained as deputies.”
It’s fair to ask how “well trained” that is, especially since it’s the most common excuse given to disparage armed citizens and defer to the superior skills and judgment of the “Only Ones.” Those familiar with that term know it originated with a now-“classic” video of DEA agent Lee Paige telling a classroom full of students he was “the only one in this room professional enough, that I know of,” to carry a gun, and then promptly shooting himself in the foot when he then tried to holster his sidearm.
With the understanding that no one is expecting to turn teachers into Tier 1 SMUs, what are the requirements for one of Sheriff Napier’s deputies to establish firearms competence to where they are trusted to carry a gun in public as part of their job duties?
“Commissioned members must qualify annually, at minimum, with a weapons system intended for on-duty use on a Department-approved firearms qualification course and must meet all Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training (AZ POST) firearms qualification requirements,” Pima County Sheriff’s Department General Order 2015-003 mandates.
Once a year for “each weapon system used in an official capacity”? And how many tries do they get?
“Members shall be allowed up to two (2) attempts to qualify on their initial qualification date. In the event of two (2) failures on the initial qualification date, the member shall be rescheduled by PRTC staff to return to the range, within five (5) business days, for an additional qualification attempt.”
OK, and what is it they get three tries to do?
Assuming we’re talking handguns, there is a revolver course you can check out, but for our purposes, let’s assume semi-automatic handguns are the more likely choice.
50 shots on TQ-19 andTQ-21 targets? Timed stages at 25 (seven rounds), 15 (12 rounds), seven (19 rounds) and three (12 rounds) yards? Shooters have to manage their ammunition and perform a few reloading/malfunction drills? “Five points for shots within the designated scoring area (center of mass or head)” and a minimum of 210 points out of 250 maximum? So basically they get three chances to get a “B” and there’s nothing to stop those with the initiative from doing as much practice as they need in advance?
Does anyone here know anyone who does not have a badge but who is nonetheless capable of meeting these requirements? Or capable of learning how to?
As an aside, the next time some smug hoplophobe tells you citizens shouldn’t carry because police are trained, test them to see if they know what they’re talking about.
Oh, but officers get other training? And the rest of us don’t or can’t?
Isn’t this a perfect opportunity for the sheriff and the governor and the legislature and other LEO officials to help with training and community outreach to enhance “the security of a free state,” and to support the Constitution the way their oath requires them to do?
Instead of just acting like “ordinary” citizens – and teachers at that – are too ignorant, intemperate and unskilled to be trusted to keep and bear arms, and like that’s a task best left to professional “Only Ones”… ?
—–
If you believe in the mission of Oath Keepers, to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, please make a donation to support our work. You can donate HERE.
As Conspiracy Corner is supposed to, “Highlight the week’s most significant and under-reported news events throughout the world, focusing on special preparation for the difficult times ahead for all mankind”, one of the most apropos fulfillment of this mantra, will be this story . . .
If you follow the alternative media, then you are more likely to have heard, in some part, of the events I will discuss. Though some of these occurrences may have been casually mentioned by the Mainstream Media in order to appear as if they are reporting actual events from time to time, the problem is, when these topics are briefly discussed by the Corporate Propaganda Press, they deliberately fail to give their audience the important overview of what the pieces of the puzzle reallymean, once you put them all together. When you painstakingly group the pieces into one, as I have done, to see the complete revealing picture, as the media is supposed to do for the public they falsely claim to “serve”, it reveals a most alarmingimage.
On Tuesday, October 4, 2016, a “fireball” (an asteroid falling to earth as a meteor) was reported over northeastern Canada and the United States. On Monday, September 26, 2016, another meteor was seen over eastern Australia. On Thursday, June 2, 2016, a meteor was spotted over Arizona.
Just as it often “sprinkles” a little bit before it rains a downpour, the same could be said of meteor storms. While most are harmless and merely “light up the sky”, the meteor which exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia on Friday, February 15, 2013, had the explosive power of 29 Hiroshima atomic bombs . . . and this was just one, not severalat thesame time, as a meteor storm would inevitably bring.
Fortunately, this powerful meteor over Russia never reached the ground. If it did, it is likely that thousands would have been killed, tens to hundreds of thousands had the meteor hit a populated area. All four of these aforementioned meteors were not “officially” discovered in advance, in that, if the governments of the world had foreknowledge of these asteroids (and they may not have), they kept the information to themselves, “to not cause public panic”, as would have likely been the arrogant-selfish excuse.
Above is a picture of the Russian meteor.
As you can see, the natural track of a meteor is a straight line, normally perceived at about a forty-five degree angle from the point of view of the observer.
Above is a picture of the Arizona meteor.
(Likewise, falling in a straight line.)
Because the Arizona meteor occurred just before sunrise, a local photographer took a picture of the “aftermath” in the sky, just as the day was dawning.
Above is the “aftermath” of the Arizona meteor.
The Lying Corporate Media claimed that this irregular zigzag pattern in the sky was caused by “upper atmosphere wind”, as no “swamp gas” was available to blame.
Above are two pictures of a rocket trail from a launched missile.
(Zigzagging as it adjusts, mid-air, to reach its moving target.)
Again – Above the “aftermath” of the Arizona meteor.
Obviously, a missile was fired at the Arizona meteor.
The Arizona meteor was not of such a size nor in such a location that it posed any threat to life or property . . . Why then was a missile fired at it?
To Practice.
To practice for what?
An Upcoming Meteor Storm.
I will keep reminding us of the following point until it hits home . . .
On Tuesday, August 27, 2013, outgoing “Homeland Security” director Janet Napolitano said . . .
“A natural disaster . . .
the likes of which the nation has never seen . . .
is likely on its way.”
Napolitano then implied that she was resigning so that she would not have to deal with this foretold calamity (although she did not say exactly what it was), even joking that her successor would “Need a big bottle of Tylenol” to deal with the coming event.
Just as President Eisenhower, on the last day of his presidency, gave his final and ominous warning about the “shadow government”, which was subverting the will of the congress and the people, Napolitano also issued a personalized “farewell warning” of her own, though sworn to secrecy as to not specifically reveal the details thereof, rather doing so in such a way as to longingly clear the conscious of her duplicit mind, not actually warning her countrymen, as she swore to do as “Homeland Security” director, protecting instead confidential corporate and government interests, as ordered by her unscrupulous superiors. (These destinations alone will be the only locations they choose to protect in the very near future, hence the practice missile in Arizona, with which to do so.)
Nevertheless, she left three clues as to the upcoming event to which she was really referring.
1) The impending calamity is NATURAL.
2) A disaster which the USA has NEVER BEFORE SEEN.
3) A catastrophe PREDICTABLEYEARS IN ADVANCE.
Hummm . . .
There is only ONE type of event that I know of which fits . . .
all THREEcategories . . .
A Disaster from Outer Space.
A Comet, Asteroid, Meteor Storm, or “Rouge Planet”, which can cause allof these, is a natural disaster, it has never before happened in the USA, and it can be predicted years in advance, due to the calculable geometrical pathways by which the heavenly bodies move.
The fact that there is a sudden increase in meteors, is a bad sign for mankind. The fact that the Arizona meteor was fired upon by a government missile as a “test” andkept a secret, is a bad sign for mankind. The fact that our own government leaders, sworn to protect us, refuse to give the citizens under their alleged care specific details about such a coming disaster so that they can be best prepared for it, is also a verybad sign.
Apparently the “Elite” want to depopulate us “useless eaters” from the surface of the earth, without going down in history as the next genocidal maniac. Thusly, by not properly warning the public of this coming catastrophe, they intend to let “mother nature” do the dirty work of “depopulation” for them, which all of their rich world leaders are continually talking about being a “good thing” for planet Earth. (Since when is it good for billions of people to die?)
If you are a Believer in Divine Prophecy, that is, the ability to Spiritually Discern global events hundreds, if not thousands, of years in advance, then you may take note of this . . .
“People fainting from terror . . .
as to what is coming upon the world . . .
for the HEAVENLY BODIES will be shaken.”
Luke 21:26
And this . . .
“The stars of heaven fell upon the earth . . .
Kings and Rich Men hiding inside of mountains.”
Revelation 6:13-15
You might also wish to note that “Cheyenne Mountain”, a Department of Defense “Cold War” bunker, inside of a mountain, is admittedly being re-stocked at this hour . . . for the “Kings” (word leaders) and the “Rich Men” (the “Elite” who own the media, and who for their own selfish motives, are not informing the public enough in advance to save them from the coming cataclysm.)
Yet now, you few out there, have been warned.
What will you do about it?
If you are a Believer, then do not be mistaken to think that the Creator Himself will deliver your daily food and water during this coming trail for which you have been warned, if you do not act upon the warning which you received.
“My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.”
Hosea 4:6
Perhaps this is why the “Rich Elite” like owning ALL of the mainstream media . . . so that they can limit this SAVING KNOWLEDGE for themselves and their kindred alone.
It has been said that the older testimonies in the Scriptures, which were suffered by the Patriarchs locally, are examples to us in the Last Days WORLDWIDE, to warn us that the same suffering which they endured regionally will be experienced GLOBALLY in the Last Days, so that we mayfollow their past prudent example . . . NOW.
If you read Genesis 41:25-37 , you will see that during the Seven Years of “Tribulation” (famine) that our forefathers (Joseph) suffered, it was not survived by them because the Creator personally dropped food from the sky every day, rather they endured this crisis by adhering to aDivine Prophetic Warning, which was givento them in advance, “to those with ears that hear”, and thusly they were saved by preparing for the coming calamity about which they were warned.
I will discuss all this, and much more, in this week’s episode of Conspiracy Corner News.
Bart Sibrel is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com
When you want to Shop on Amazon, please come back to this page and Click on the Large Button above to visit the Amazon Homepage, or Copy and Paste the following url into your Browser’s Bookmarks as “Amazon” to Save for Future Shopping Use (http://amzn.to/2bvcs9I).
Arizona citizens are now in a government database that uses facial recognition technology to track them simply for getting a driver’s license. This allows federal and local law enforcement to use the “perpetual lineup” of suspects not accused of a crime to see if someone is wanted for a crime, Arizona Capitol Timesreported.
The state says that the program is to prevent identity theft and fraud. Here’s how it works according to Arizona Capitol Times.
After someone at the Motor Vehicle Division takes your photo, your face is scanned by a system based on a proprietary algorithm that analyzes facial features. The system compares your face against the 19 million photos in the state’s driver’s license database to look for similarities. If an image is similar enough, the system will flag it for further review.
The program is an effort that is part of a nationwide initiative called the REAL ID Act that was created by Congress in 2005 as a response to the September 11th terror attacks. The system allows the state to comply with the federal act, which increased standards for identification documents. Although the REAL ID Act does not explicitly call for facial recognition, it does maintain that states need to take measures to reduce fraud.
But the use of the system to prevent identity theft isn’t what people are worried about; the problem is the lack of oversight in government programs that allows anyone with access to look into the database. As such, state-run facial recognition databases are dangerous and can lead down a slippery slope to allow other operations the technology wasn’t intended for.
The other key issue is the fact that residents in Arizona aren’t even being told that this is going on – coupled with the lack of oversight and disclosure, it becomes a nightmare for privacy rights advocates.
“If you don’t know that a system is in place, you actually don’t have the choice of consenting to it or not,” said Clare Garvie who authored the “perpetual line-up” study.
Jim Dempsey, the executive director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, also had some reservations about the lack of disclosure currently in effect.
Informed consent, through giving notice to people that their faces will be matched up against millions of others when they apply for a license, is a basic tenet of privacy, Jim Dempsey, the executive director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, said.
Even if notice is given, it’s unlikely that people would opt out of getting a license because facial recognition technology is used because people will decide driving a car and having a legal ID outweigh the risks, Dempsey said.
“It’s an important element. The lack of it is an issue, but it’s one that should be corrected and would be easy to correct,” he said.
Both the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have voiced their concerns about state facial recognition databases and how this could be tied into the push by the federal government to use these databases in airports and border checkpointscreating a dystopian Orwellian surveillance state.
“DMV photo databases are probably the most comprehensive databases in existence,” which means they’re “very, very powerful” tools for potential surveillance, something the ACLU worries could be a “next step,” Jay Stanley a senior policy analyst at ACLU said.
One of the main pitfalls of such a system is not only the lack of oversight on the program by any government watchdog, but the fact that there are no laws to justify the collections, or a court between law enforcement and access to millions of people’s identities.
The only requirement for those that search is that it must involve people suspected of committing a crime or “who law enforcement may suspect is about to commit a crime.” People could also be involved in activities that are threats to public safety, sought as part of a criminal investigation or “intelligence-gathering effort.”
Such extremely broad terms for using this technology is extremely worrying and has a high potential for abuse.
“There should at the very least be a court involved before law enforcement can access millions of unwitting people’s identities,” EFF staff attorney, Adam Schwartz, said.
“It’s really hard to function in a car-based society without a driver’s license, and people shouldn’t be subjected to an invasive technology when they decide to follow the law and get a legal document that allows them to drive,” he added. “It’s a misuse of data to collect data, in this case images, for one thing and use them for other purposes.”
Schwartz added that
in many states, including Arizona, agencies have started using facial recognition technology outside of any formal approval from the public and its representatives, state lawmakers.”
“Before government starts using powerful technology to surveil the public, there ought to be a more open and transparent process where the public controls whether or not this is picked up.
In an odd moment of clarity, Senator John McCain went "renegadey" in an interview with Esquire magazine, telling Hillary Clinton to "get over it," comparing his post-2008 doldrums with Clinton"s current struggle to understand how she lost to Donald Trump.
"You"ve got to understand that you can"t rewrite history," McCain said in the interview published today.
"One of the almost irresistible impulses you have when you lose is to somehow justify why you lost and how you were mistreated...
I did the right thing! I did!... The hardest thing to do is to just shut up."
""History will judge that campaign, and it"s always a period of time before they do. You"ve got to move on."
"What"s the f***ing point?" he concluded.
What"s the point indeed!! We look forward to Senator McCain claiming he was taken out of context when the establishment hears about this.
A bright flash ripped across Phoenix, Arizona’s night sky last night, terrifying residents. The mysterious flash was caught on security cameras as concerned onlookers watched.
The remarkable bright object was spotted by numerous people in the area, with reports streaming in from Arizona and the surrounding states, including California, Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico.
“Subtle” would be far from the correct way to describe that bright flash of light streaking downward. But, based on the fact that it is “falling” from the sky, scientists say that it was more than likely nothing more than a big hunk of space junk burning up in the atmosphere.
But that didn’t stop people from taking to social media to share their experiences with the world. “Something BRILLIANT just flew across the Phoenix sky around 8:30 this evening!” the City of Phoenix, AZ tweeted last night.” Check out what our Phoenix City Cam Captured! Look to the right of this screen.”
Something BRILLIANT just flew across the Phoenix sky around 8:30 this evening! Check out what our Phoenix City Cam captured! Look to the right of this screen……#Meteor#Citycam#PHXpic.twitter.com/T3Zys30gXR
According to the American Meteor Society, this week alone has several sources of meteoric activity, leading to fireball sightings all around the world. In the span of just ten hours between November 14 and 15, there were four major sightings, with events in France and Germany, and two parts of the US. Some have suggested that the Taurid meteor shower, which peaked last weekend, may be to blame. But, as for the Arizona flash, the experts say this is not the case.
“Both branches of the Taurids are most notable for colorful fireballs and are often responsible for an increased number of fireball reports from September through November,” according to AMS. “The first analysis conducted by former IMO president Dr. Juergen Rendtel of the Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam from the raw data shows that the events that occurred over Arizona and France cannot be linked to the Taurids: the Arizona event was moving from North-West to South-East while the French event was moving from North-East to South-West.”
[image: Annie Fairbanks and her 9 month old son. Credit: Facebook]
Dr. Annie Fairbanks, a holistic doctor practicing out of Arizona, was found shot dead in her home with husband Jason Fairbanks, 3 year old daughter and 9 month old son. This makes the 77th holistic doctor to have been found dead in this way over the past couple of years.
Sgt. Ben Hoster, a spokesman for the Scottsdale Police Department, stated that the police do not believe any other parties are involved. This essentially means there are no suspects and that this is likely a murder-suicide. Even the local paper is calling it that. Oddly, this statement and conclusion was made just hours after the incident took place, hardly giving anyone enough time to make a call like that.
“This is an isolated incident,” Hoster told reporters during a news conference in the neighbourhood on Friday afternoon. “We do not believe there are any outstanding suspects.”
The family ran a health practice called Macrotherapy, which focused on natural and holistic healing. It’s unclear whether or not the practice was employing new or outside the box methods like GcMAF, but further investigations should tell us.
GcMAF (Glycoprotein Macrophage Activating Factor) is a protein made by our body and is pretty much the ‘director’ of our immune system. Our immune system is our body’s defense system against viruses and other pathogens. As healthy persons we all produce thousands of cancer cells every day. When we are unhealthy, GcMAF production drops. If one is able to be injected with GcMAF, they can once again heal. GcMAF was linked to a number of holistic doctors that were showing up mysteriously dead over the past two years.
People who knew the Fairbanks family, saw Dr. Fairbanks as patients, and who were personal friends, had been reaching out to a colleague we work with over at Health Nut News stating they doubt the claim and explanation given by the police. Especially since it was made so quickly. As mentioned, the more that we uncover about this story, the more we will report on in the future.
Laura Fairbanks, Jason’s sister, recalled her older brother as a protector. “He loved his family so much, he wasn’t a bad person.”
[image: Annie & Jason Fairbanks]
Laura explained that Jason was working seven days a week to provide for his family while funds were tight in their new ventures. Funds were not coming in like Jason needed them to, but he was still working away.
Although Jason was a man of few words, Laura said she could always tell and see how he was really feeling. She gave no indication that she would have expected a suicide. This of course does not rule it out in any way, but adds to the mystery around this story.
We will continue to follow this story and its hasty decision to call it a murder-suicide within hours of it happening. We will update and produce more stories as we know more.
Some people are living symbols, sheer embodiments of a concept that fits their persona as snugly as their skin:e.g. the Dalai Lama personifies Contemplative Piety, Harvey Weinstein is the incarnation of Brazen Vulgarity, and John McCain’s very person exudes the sweaty blustery spirit of Empire.
His entire history – born in the Panama Canal zone, son of an admiral, third-generation centurion, the War Party’s senatorial spokesman – made it nearly impossible for him to be other than what he is: the country’s most outspoken warmonger and dedicated internationalist.
As George Orwell remarked, “After forty, everyone has the face they deserve,” and in McCain’s case this is doubly true. That Roman head, fit for a coin of high denomination, looks as if it might sprout a crown of laurel leaves at any moment: Grizzled brow, wrinkled with the tension of an inborn belligerence, eyes alight with a perpetual flame of self-righteous anger, McCain is Teddy Roosevelt impersonating Cato the Elder. In the extreme predictability of his warlike effusions, he’s become a bit of a cartoon character. Who can forget his enthusiastic rendition of “Bomb bomb bomb Iran!” to the tune of “Barbara Ann”?
The Senator from Arizona represents something relatively new on the American scene: the emerging class of colonial administrators, Pentagon contractors, and high-ranking military personnel, and their families, many of them stationed overseas. These people have a material interest in the expansion of our role as global cop, they number in the tens of thousands, and they are strategically placed in the social order, with enough social power to constitute an influential lobby.
As the prototype of this mutant species of Homo Americanus, McCain is the perfect enemy of the new nationalism that handed the White House to Donald Trump and sundered the Brits from the EU. It’s no surprise he’s become the antipode of the Trumpian “America First” foreign policy doctrine – a doctrine that is almost never implemented, but that’s another column. His latest philippic perfectly summarizes the spirit and content of the brazen imperialism that is his credo and the credo of his class, We get the whole grand tour of McCainism as a worldview, from the rather odd idea that “America is an idea” and not an actual place to the glories of the “international order.” There is much shedding of blood “to make a better world” – a cause we are told has “made our own civilization more just, freer, more accomplished and prosperous than the America that existed when I watched my father go off to war on December 7, 1941.” Now here is crackpot Keynesianism with a vengeance: the destruction of World War II was good for the economy!
Having “liberated” the world from itself, the United States, as the champion of World Order, is in danger of turning away from its sacred duty to always be shedding lots and lots of blood on behalf of Others. And we know just who McCain is talking about:
“To fear the world we have organized and led for three-quarters of a century, to abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain ‘the last best hope of earth’ for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history.”
The idea that we led and organized the world for the entire postwar era erases the cold war from history, a neat trick given McCain’s record. And as for our “ideals” and this “last best hope” business, none of that is worth a single American soldier – nor does it have anything to do with a soldier’s proper job, which is protecting this country. Yet what is one to expect from someone who actually believes “we live in a land of ideals, not blood and soil.” Blood never comes into it for McCain unless it’s being shed in some ill-conceived totally unnecessary war. And as for soil – there is none. There’s just “ideals,” floating in a void.
While admitting that the Trumpian version of American nationalism is somewhat undercooked – and, perhaps, not all that digestible – one has to wonder: where does a supporter of the Iraq war, who assured us it would be a glorious victory, get off calling anybody or anything half-baked?
McCain doesn’t even try making a coherent argument: instead, he simply lies by claiming that, having taken the road to Empire, “we have become incomparably powerful and wealthy as we did.” It’s utter nonsense, of course: empires are an expansive luxury. We spend more on the military than the top ten powers combined, and the national debt is at historic heights. We’re effectively bankrupt thanks to out-of-control military spending and McCain’s favored wars of choice.
The idea that we have a “moral obligation” to enforce McCain’s beloved “international order” is rooted in the crazed post-millennial pietism that has motivated so much that is mischievous in American history. The old religious impulse that motivated Prohibition and the “anti-vice” campaigns of the nineteenth century has, today, been secularized and internationalized. The old fundamentalists sought to remake the country, their secular successors seek to remake the world. This accounts for the quasi-religious tone of McCain’s remarks, this talk of “moral obligation” and “shame” if we fail to take up the burden of Empire, manfully and willfully, because “We will not thrive in a world where our leadership and ideals are absent. We wouldn’t deserve to.”
In other words: Americans have no right to live their lives in peace, and to leave others in the same condition: they must perpetually be sticking their noses in other peoples’ business, sniffing out “injustice” and making sure the trains run on time.
McCain hails the crusade to “help make another, better world” – yet the American people don’t want another world, they want to live in this world in peace and security, rather than sacrificing themselves to some imaginary “duty” to uplift the world on Uncle Sam’s shoulders. That’s one reason why Trump is in the White House and McCain is on the outside looking in.
President Trump issued his first official pardon on Friday, sparing former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was found guilty of criminal contempt after he violated a court order in a racial profiling case by continuing to target illegal immigrants.
While both Trump and many of his supporters have applauded Arpaio, who refers to himself as “America’s toughest sheriff,” there is one thing he is not always tough on—pedophiles.
In fact, according to a report from the Associated Press in December 2011, Airpaio’s office failed to investigate “more than 400 sex-crimes” that were reported in Maricopa County from 2005 to 2007, “including dozens of alleged child molestations—that were inadequately investigated and in some instances were not worked at all.”
Advertisment
The report cited current and former police officers familiar with the cases who claimed that victims of the horrific crimes were as young as 2 years old. In El Mirage, the city where Arpaio’s office was providing contract police services, officials reportedly discovered at least 32 reported child molestations, and even though suspects were known in all but six cases, Arpaio “failed to follow through.”
While Arpaio made headlines for his infamous Tent City Jail, a camp in which nearly 1,000 illegal immigrants were forced to live outdoors in Arizona’s sweltering 120-degree heat, he did not make headlines for his treatment of the children of illegal immigrants. According to the officers who worked with him, many of those children were victims of sex crimes, which Arpaio ignored, as he let their American citizen predators run free.
READ MORE:Cop Accidentally Shoots Pistol Inside Airport While "Practicing his Quick Draw Skills"
After Arpaio’s contract ended, and his office was no longer required to provide police services for El Mirage, Detective Jerry Laird told the AP he found that an overwhelming majority of the cases he received from the office hadn’t been worked, which meant that “there were no follow-up reports, no collection of additional forensic evidence and zero effort made after the initial report of the crime was taken.”
While some of the cases Arpaio’s office neglected were turned over to prosecutors, the report noted that the El Mirage Police Department claimed “most were no longer viable—evidence dating as far back as 2006 had grown cold or wasn’t collected in the first place, victims had either moved away or otherwise moved on.”
Arpaio held a news conference in response to the 2011 report, in which he said, “If there were any victims, I apologize to those victims.”
As The Free Thought Project has reported, a number of cases involving pedophiles have come to light under the Trump Administration, such as a pedophile ring investigation that resulted over 900 arrests in May, and a sex-trafficking investigation that resulted in over 1,000 arrests earlier this month. This raises the question—why aren’t Arpaio and other members of his office being held to the same standards?
Joe Arpaio’s harsh treatment towards illegal immigrants has stirred up controversy, but his outright neglect of children who are victims of sex crimes seems to have slipped under the radar.
Children have no control over which country they are born in, and they are the most vulnerable to predators. If a child is a victim of a sex crime, the question of whether the predators are “illegal aliens” or “legal American citizens” should not keep officials like Sheriff Arpaio from holding them accountable for their actions, and he should be held accountable for his failure to do so.
Something very unusual and interesting has happened within the political sphere of Arizona state politicking: “a utility regulator is asking the Arizona Supreme Court to void last week’s vote giving the state’s largest electric utility permission to immediately charge its customers an extra $7 a month.” [1]
According to published reports, Regulator/Commissioner Bob Burns is calling for the Court immediately to void the rate increase due to its being a violation of his rights and the constitutional duties of the other commissioners.
Wow! Applause, applause, applause. Finally, a public utility commissioner who understands, believes in, and works to uphold the constitutional rights of everyone affected by the four-to-one vote of the Arizona Corporation Commission [2] and which Commissioner Bob Burns is protesting.
Burns contends, “…any precedent set — is critical to providing voters and ratepayers information on how much utilities are spending to elect the people who regulate them.” [1]
“There hasn’t been interference or participation or whatever the proper term is of utilities in elections at the rate that APS decided to get into them up to this point,” he said.
“That includes the company’s admission it spent $4.2 million last year to elect a commission of its liking and questions about how much of $3.2 million filtered through “dark money” organizations that refuse to disclose their donors spent in the 2014 campaign came from the utility.” [1]
The admonition “follow the money” seems to apply, or ought to apply, especially when the following took place:
Company officials will neither confirm or deny they are the source of those dollars. But Pinnacle West in a 2015 statement to shareholders, all but admitted it played a financial role in that race, saying that spending by solar leasing companies on behalf of “anti-APS” Democrat candidates caused the firm to “reevaluate” how it would protect what it said were its interests and those of its customers and shareholders in the political process.
It was trying to get to the bottom of that 2014 spending Burns said, that led him to subpoena Brandt and company documents — the subpoenas that the other four commissioners quashed. [1] [CJF emphasis]
The question everyone who is having problems with their respective state utility commissions, whether it be rate hikes or AMI Smart Meter issues, e.g., no opt-outs, needs to be asking is: Have similar “money talks” shenanigans been going on, and ongoing, in order to keep public utility commissions not so honest!
Personally, I wonder how much money utility companies contributed to key Pennsylvania state legislators’ re-election campaigns.
That’s something a consumer advocacy committee needs to look into at every state level, especially in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania where a vested interest case is quite apparent and obvious in Consumer Affairs Chairman Robert Godshall, who prevents opt-out bills from passing into law since at least 2009.
Godshall’s son, Grey, works as a Project Manager for Exelon/PECO, the utility which is emotionally brutalizing customers with harassment techniques and threats of power turn off within a couple of days, or slapping new AMI Smart Meters on homes without the homeowner even knowing it!
One PECO Philadelphia customer was out of town on business; had a formal complaint filed with the PA PUC, which had not been resolved yet; and still PECO retrofitted an AMI Smart Meter while she was out of town, thereby depriving that customer of her federal and state Constitutional rights, plus granting PECO a “defacto” PA PUC decision!
Folks, the seemingly dirty politicking that goes on regarding AMI Smart Meters in numerous states, where there are no opt-out provisions, just may need more investigating into “follow the money,” as seems to be a significant factor in Arizona.
Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies. Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting.
There is no shortage of controversies surrounding Trump"s appearance tonight in Phoenix that could turn what is supposed to be a peaceful political rally into complete chaos. With Trump"s reaction to the Charlottesville tragedy still fresh in the minds of political activists on the left, there are expected to be as many protesters outside the Phoenix Convention Center as there are inside watching the President"s speech. Sprinkle on top of that the fact that Trump could comment on a potential pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and/or blast Arizona Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake and you have all the ingredients of another national disaster in the making.
As The Hill points out, the Phoenix Police Department has planned for "maximum staffing" during Trump"s visit and the FBI and DHS are also coordinating on the event.
Political leaders and law enforcement officials in Arizona are on high alert ahead of President Trump’s campaign rally Tuesday night in Phoenix.
The big question is whether there will be more supporters of Trump inside the Phoenix Convention Center, which holds 29,000, or protestors outside.
Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said in a statement that her force will have “maximum staffing during the visit.”
The department is “working 24/7 with our partners to ensure all of our resources are in place,” Williams said.
Stanton said the city is committed to keeping everyone inside and outside the arena safe.
“The Phoenix police is always professional and the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have been great about coordinating with local law enforcement,” former Arizona GOP chairman Robert Graham told The Hill.
Meanwhile, Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams offered the following warning to protesters:
"There is a distinct difference between voicing your first amendment rights and committing unlawful acts. As always, free speech will be supported but criminal conduct will be immediately addressed."
Of course, racial tensions arising from Charlottesville are only part of what makes tonight"s rally a recipe for disaster. Some fear that Trump could use the occassion to announce that he"ll pardon Maricopa County"s controversial former Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, who was found guilty of racially profiling hispanics and sentenced to jail time.
The president has mused publicly about pardoning controversial former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an early Trump supporter who was found guilty of racially profiling Latinos. Arpaio, who was prosecuted and convicted of racial profiling by former President Obama’s Justice Department, is a well-known and controversial figure in Phoenix.
Democrats are warning that a public pardon at a campaign rally would stoke racial tensions at a time when the nation is on edge.
Stanton said a pardon would “enflame emotions and further divide our nation,” while Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) said Arpaio “shouldn’t be let off the hook for his crimes” just so Trump can win “some bonus points with his most racist supporters.”
But some Republicans in the state believe Arpaio was railroaded by the Obama Justice Department and are eager to see his name cleared.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) released a statement on Monday calling Arpaio’s conviction “the culmination of a political witch hunt by the Obama administration to sideline and destroy a formidable opponent.”
"Sheriff Arpaio has been a faithful servant of this nation for over six decades,” Biggs said. “He should be allowed to live out the rest of his days in peace and confidence that his efforts were not in vain.”
And then there is Trump"s growing fued with Arizona Senator Jeff Flake whose book “Conscience of a Conservative,” which argues that Republicans must reclaim the soul of their party from Trump, apparently didn"t sit well with the White House.
Speculation is rampant among political operatives in Arizona about whether Trump will meddle in the state’s 2018 primary, where Flake has attracted a primary challenger in state Sen. Kelli Ward (R), who will attend the rally — though not as a guest of Trump’s.
The president has not made an endorsement in Flake’s race but has tweeted support for Ward, a former state senator who is not viewed as a credible challenger by many establishment Republicans.
A super PAC supporting Ward’s bid has received a $300,000 donation from conservative mega-donor Robert Mercer and several operatives from a pro-Trump outside group have peeled off to work for her.
Great to see that Dr. Kelli Ward is running against Flake Jeff Flake, who is WEAK on borders, crime and a non-factor in Senate. He"s toxic!
Finally, of course, we all know how Trump feels about John McCain who cast the deciding vote to kill the Obamacare repeal bill just before the August recess.
The fireworks are set to start at 7pm local time...
When Mick Ohman found himself standing on a road made of boulders staring at a trail of transmission fluid strung out behind his broken down SUV, he had no idea that he’d be able to survive for days on just the beer and crackers he had in his car. Ohman’s harrowing tale of survival can be a lesson to the rest of us too if we simply care to take heed and prepare.
Ohman was several miles southwest of Crown King and all alone in the sweltering Arizona desert. He picked up his phone and talked, recording a message in a quivering and emotional voice. It was a message that he hoped nobody would ever hear, “If you find this phone and I didn’t do so well, please tell my sisters how much I love them.” As sad as that message is, it’s speaker did come out and fight for his life.
Mick realizes now there were several little mistakes that led to the life threatening survival situation in the desert. “I didn’t tell anybody where I was going. “I thought I was just going to Crown King to have lunch,” said Mick. He also said trusting Google Maps was a bad idea. Google maps did show Mick that there was a road, but it did not detail the primitive conditions of the road. That left the man driving alone on a road made of rocks with deep ruts. After his lunch in Crown King, he tried to take his Honda CRV on the road picked up by Google Maps.
Mick Ohman shows a picture of his broken down car.
After the Honda broke down, Mick hiked for hours in hopes of finding a cell signal so he could call for help. But he had no luck. Back at his car, he had only a half-bottle of water, a couple beers, a spoiled sandwich, and some crackers. That’s when he realized that things had turned dire. The hike to look for cell phone service in staggering heat had taken its toll, making him thirsty. “I’ve really never felt that thirsty before. When I tried to swallow I couldn’t. My throat stuck together. I had to urinate and I did… and I was surprised it wasn’t as obnoxious as I thought it would be. The temperature was what got me, as warm as it was,” said Mick, with a laugh about drinking his own urine. He knows many people would find drinking urine unacceptable, but he believes it saved his life and got him through that first night.
Mick was awarded with another little ray of hope on day two. He grabbed his beer and went out looking for help. He walked in the right direction and came across a spring of fresh water. “I found this little stream; it couldn’t have been more than four inches,” said Mick, adding it was the sweetest water he’d ever tasted and he drank until he was nauseous. Then he dumped out the beer and filled the empty cans with water before returning to his car to attempt to signal rescue by starting a fire but he could not get it to light. Mick even tried to shot a gun in Morse code. He built an “H” out of small boulders to signify “help.” That night, it rained, and Mick even recorded himself giddy that he experiencing the huge rain drops while stranded in the desert. “It’s coming down pretty nice,” he said into his cell phone camera, soaked to the bone and happy.
On day three, Mick decided it was time to be rescued. He left a note on his car saying where he’d be walking, and took off on foot again. He began hiking at first light but soon found himself trudging in the mid-morning sun. “I’m running out of gas. I’ve got water, but I’m running out of steam. My legs are super heavy,” said Mick, recounting his journey. Ready to collapse, Mick encountered the man who saved his life; a dirt biker named Troy, who had seen Mick’s note on his broken down Honda, and went looking for him.
An hour long ride to Lake Pleasant and Mick was safe. “I’m screaming in his ear the whole way, ‘You know, today you can say you saved a life,"” Mick said. If we care to take anything from Mick’s story, it’s that those meant to survive can and will with nothing more than their wit. But we can also see it as a lesson: have provisions in your car, just in case the undesirable happens.
Mick also hopes his story can help save a life by drawing attention to the need for preparedness.
Click here to subscribe: Join over one million monthly readers and receive breaking news, strategies, ideas and commentary.
Please Spread The Word And Share This Post
Author: Mac Slavo Views: Read by 280 people Date: August 6th, 2017 Website:www.SHTFplan.com
Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.
