Crisis In Cali: Workers Face ‘Buckets Of Feces And Needles’ As Homelessness Worsens

Workers in California, who are desperately trying to clean up the state because of the skyrocketing homeless population, are facing grotesque conditions. Some workers even fear for their health after being faced with buckets of fecal matter and dirty needles.

In a democrat’s paradise, such as California, you would think all those taxes and numerous regulations would be able to house some people.  But as the taxes and regulations increase so does the homeless rate, and state workers tasked with cleaning up the mess caused by democrat’s policies are facing dire situations.

The taxes will have to continue to rise too in order to cover the cost of cleaning up the shanty towns. According to Fox News, the cost of cleaning up the state’s numerous shanty towns is also hitting record highs, and that price tag is likely to keep rising as workers tasked with tossing the vagrants’ syringes, feces, used feminine hygiene products, and buckets of urine demand safer work conditions; but that doesn’t seem possible considering their job.

The Golden State’s homeless population of more than 130,000 people is now about 25 percent of the nationwide total, and cleaning up after the surging group is getting costly — topping $10 million in 2016-17. But the human cost is getting equally untenable, a workers’ advocate says. In an official grievance filed last week, the union representing California’s maintenance workers accused the state of subjecting its members to hazardous conditions without proper training or equipment.

California will likely provide necessary equipment, and it will all fall onto the backs of the already poverty-stricken taxpayers of the state.  As more are flung into homelessness, instead of easing up on the oppressive government policies that led to this crisis, most politicians in the Golden State will buckle down and pour gasoline on the bonfire.

“It is the Union’s contention that Caltrans is not ensuring that our members are being provided the appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), necessary training, necessary vaccinations and proper compensation for the dangerous hazmat duties they are performing when cleaning up homeless encampments on State Caltrans property,” International Union of Operating Engineers director Steve Crouch said in the complaint.

Crouch said that the workers face slippery and muddy conditions in areas riddled with sharp objects, such as used needles, and that could present a health concern. Considering many of California’s big cities are dealing with Hepatitis A outbreaks because of the homeless problem, Crouch definitely should be concerned.  “Feces and urine and feminine products and all kinds of things on the ground; needles, syringes, you know they use buckets, five-gallon buckets for toilets and it gets really disgusting,”  he said.

Workers also fear confrontations with residents of the shanty towns the state has tasked them with cleaning up. Sometimes they have pit bulls in there. They’ll, you know, let the dogs loose to chase the Caltrans workers out,” Crouch said. “Sometimes they’ll throw rocks at the Caltrans workers.”

A worker who chose to omit his name out of fear of state retaliation said he’s seen it all. “I’ve been exposed to blood, needles, women’s feminine products… five-gallon buckets of human feces,” he told The Sacramento Bee.

‘Caravan’ a Deliberate Attempt to Exploit U.S. Laws and Undermine National Sovereignty

If they’ve already been permitted by government authorities to enter and freely traverse Mexico, they’ve already escaped the danger and oppression they claim to need asylum from. (Pueblo sin Fronteras/Twitter)

“Some people ‘associated with’ Central American caravan have entered U.S. illegally, federal officials say,” the Los Angeles Times “reports” in an agenda piece designed to elicit requisite sympathy for political advantage. “A pregnant woman and some children as young as 4 were detected entering the U.S. through a canyon that authorities described in a statement as dark, treacherous and ‘notorious for human and drug smuggling.’”

The first question one might ask is how the hell border security is so lax that this can happen. We know the “caravan” is coming and the canyon is a well-known route. If a pregnant woman (whose child will be a “birthright citizen” if allowed to stay) and children (who will all become wards of the U.S. taxpayers if they are) can make it through to our side under such conditions, it’s fair to ask how many blind eyes are deliberate, especially with recent reports of U.S. federal and local oath-breakers turning a profit off human smuggling.

What’s the reason we have government again?

“Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the caravan ‘a deliberate attempt to undermine our laws and overwhelm our system,’ pledging to send more immigration judges to the border to resolve cases if needed,” the Associated Press reports.

Why? If they enter the country illegally, if their first act is one of in-your-face criminality, why would it be in the interests of “securing the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” to spend untold millions deciding which of the lawbreakers are to be admitted and then caring for them after they are?

It’s not like all options for lawful entry have been closed off to “asylum seekers” – they’re just being manipulated by open borders subversives to create an incident at the expense of both exploited foreigners and national sovereignty.

“Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said asylum claims will be resolved ‘efficiently and expeditiously’ but said the asylum-seekers should seek it in the first safe country they reach, including Mexico,” the AP report notes.

Yeah. Once they’re in Mexico, which chose to admit them, they can go to the consulate and make their case. Not that once they’re in a “safe” country they really have one.  Trying to pressure and embarrass us, Mexico created this problem. They should be made to own it.

There are other dynamics in play here as well.  If simply being impoverished and living in primitive squalor and tyranny qualifies someone to come here, we need to open our doors to billions from around the world, just to be logically consistent. That’ll suit just fine “no-brainers” Blair Overstreet and Matt Dunn (quoted in the LA Times report), who are eager to open their apartment to a “refugee.”.

Not that most of the transplants will have private accommodations offered. And that, of course, will swamp the lifeboat and we’ll soon all be one big Third World hell hole — with the exception of our elite globalist rulers. And wait ‘til you get a load of their “commonsense guns safety laws.”

That will be OK for those with an alien understanding of the relationship between people and government. Having demonstrated their utter inability at self rule in their native land, they’re here to overwhelm us with their “diverse” ways. And those of us who resist will be branded intolerant, xenophobes, haters…

Which makes it fair to ask if we’re so evil, why are they running toward us rather than away from us?

It’s also fair to ask if “refugees” won’t stand fight for their country, what makes anyone think they’ll stand and fight for ours? In truth, they don’t have to. The oath for naturalized citizens was changed three years ago to where they no longer be expected to “bear arms on behalf of the United States” or “perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States” when required by the law.”

Let the country continue to be swarmed and Balkanized, and we may find no such aversion to bearing arms against the United States.

Also see: How Will Mass ‘Migrant’ Crossing Not Be an Unprovoked Foreign Attack?

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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.

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David Codrea’s opinions are his own. See “Who speaks for Oath Keepers?”

The post ‘Caravan’ a Deliberate Attempt to Exploit U.S. Laws and Undermine National Sovereignty appeared first on Oath Keepers.

Good Drivers are Creating a Budget Shortfall, Proving Gov’t Needs You to Break the Law to Fund Itself

By Rachel Blevins

The state of California is finding that the business model of relying on drivers to break the law in order to fund the state budget, fails miserably when drivers fail to break the law and cannot be slapped with exorbitant fees and fines.

California’s state budget currently relies on more than $450 million from penalties and fees collected from drivers who have been charged with both criminal and traffic violations. However, while trusting drivers to break the law at a rate that would sustain the state’s massive budget worked for a while, the strategy is now causing the state to go bankrupt.

A summary from the California State Auditor, as reported by Courthouse News, revealed that the revenue collected from citations “has decreased from 39 percent to 25 percent over the last three years as the number of criminal citations filed has decreased.”

The audit claimed that California is now facing a “significant financial burden,” which stems from a disconnected system that “lacks a systematic strategy.” In addition to drivers receiving fewer citations from police officers, the report found that a number of drivers who are cited never pay their fines, even when they accumulate substantial late fees.

As an Op-Ed from The Sacramento Bee noted in January, California is known to have some of the highest traffic fines and fees in the United States, and the drivers who are given citations often face a financial burden that can send them spiraling into debt:

California has among the highest traffic fines and fees in the country—and the steepest consequences for traffic violations are reserved for those who can’t afford the fines and fees. This results in crippling debt for the least fortunate Californians, from whom traffic courts have difficulty collecting any fees at all.

According to the Federal Reserve, nearly half of American households cannot afford $400 in unexpected costs. Yet in California, if a family misses a payment on a traffic fine, they can be slapped with a $300 late fee, raising the cost to as much as $500 for a ticket. That can be followed by a suspended driver’s license or jail time, even for non-safety related violations, such as late registration. Of course, this makes it less likely they can pay the fines.

Courthouse News reported that traffic cases represented the overwhelming majority, “approximately 82 percent on average, of all criminal case filings in the state from 2014 to 2016,” and that the audit report recommends “eliminating the use of penalty and fee revenue as funding sources for state and county programs,” based on the fact that the revenue collected through citations is often “unrelated to the needs of the state and county services.”

“The Legislature should reconsider the entire penalty and fee structure (criminal and traffic), decide whether to adjust or eliminate penalty and fee amounts, and whether to distribute the resulting revenue differently,” the report concluded.

If a business was facing the same problems the state government in California is facing right now, it would likely look for ways to cut its budget, in order to reduce the deficit from the decrease in revenue. However, because this is a state government—and a large, liberal state government, at that—California will likely look to increase the revenue it receives through taxes, in order to keep the same budget.

As a result, the residents of California who have followed the law and have not received any traffic citations will find themselves funding the state’s massive budget anyway, through increased taxes that are imposed upon them against their will.

The high taxes from the states, combined with recent changes to the federal tax law—such as putting a $10,000 cap on the deduction for state and local taxes—are likely to force some high-income residents in California and New York to seek refuge in states like Texas, Arizona, and Nevada.

An Op-Ed from The Wall Street Journal noted that California and New York have lost a total of 2.2 million residents since 2007, and that number is expected to grow by as many as 800,000 people within the next three years:

In places like California, where the top income-tax rate exceeds 13 percent, that tax could be deducted on a federal return. Now that deduction for state and local taxes will be capped at $10,000 per family. Consider what this means if you’re a high-income earner in Silicon Valley or Hollywood. The top tax rate that you actually pay just jumped from about 8.5 percent to 13 percent. Similar figures hold if you live in Manhattan, once New York City’s income tax is factored in. If you earn $10 million or more, your taxes might increase a whopping 50 percent.

While many Republicans celebrated the new tax bill and the mainstream media referred to it as “the most extensive rewrite of the tax code in a generation” when it was signed into law in December 2017, former Texas Congressman Ron Paul called out the government for celebrating tax cuts, without actually cutting taxes.

“Once again, under the guise of ‘tax cuts,’ everyday Americans will be hammered with even HIGHER taxes. Sleight-of-hand and slick marketing are about the only things that governments do very well,” Paul wrote on Facebook.

The current status of the state government in California serves as a reminder that the government’s ultimate goal is to extract revenue from you in order to fund its interests. When that cannot be accomplished by making you pay a large fine for running a red light, exceeding the speed limit, or possessing an “illegal” plant, the government will then turn to raising the taxes you are forced to pay on the goods, services, and housing that are necessities in your life, in order to achieve its original goal.

Rachel Blevins is an independent journalist from Texas, who aspires to break the false left/right paradigm in media and politics by pursuing truth and questioning existing narratives. Follow Rachel on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Steemit and Patreon. This article first appeared at The Free Thought Project.

Good Drivers are Creating a Budget Shortfall, Proving Gov’t Needs You to Break the Law to Fund Itself

One state has found that relying on a significant percentage of its budget to be derived from traffic fees and fines leads to a massive shortage when drivers fail to break the law.

The post Good Drivers are Creating a Budget Shortfall, Proving Gov’t Needs You to Break the Law to Fund Itself appeared first on The Free Thought Project.

800,000 people are about to flee New York and California because of taxes, say economists

800,000 people will leave New York and California over the next three years due to the new tax bill, conservative economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore said in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.

Conservative economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore are predicting a new mass exodus of wealth from New York and California because of the new tax law. But academics who have studied taxes and migration call the forecast “pure nonsense.”

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal headlined “So Long, California. Sayonara, New York,” Laffer and Moore (who have both advised President Donald Trump) say the new tax bill will cause a net 800,000 people to move out of California and New York over the next three years.

The tax changes limit the deduction of state and local taxes to $10,000, so many high-earning taxpayers in high-tax states will actually face a tax increase under the new tax code.

Via CNBC

Featured Image: OscarUrdaneta/Wikimedia Commons

The post 800,000 people are about to flee New York and California because of taxes, say economists appeared first on Intellihub.

How Will Mass ‘Migrant’ Crossing Not Be an Unprovoked Foreign Attack?

“Somos Resistencia…” Just what we need — foreign nationals who say they’re dissatisified with their culture to come here and “resist” ours. The world has seen the raised fist before and it’s never stood for American freedom. (Pueblos Sin Fronteras/Facebook)

“Migrant ‘caravan’ at U.S.-Mexico border prepares for mass crossing,” Reuters reported Thursday. “Hundreds of Central American migrants from a caravan that crossed Mexico reunited in Tijuana on Wednesday and planned to cross the border together this weekend in defiance of threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to repel them.”

If allowed to happen, the criminal invasion – and ultimately that’s what it is – will be a direct result of a chain of circumstances aided and abetted by the Mexican government in violation of its own laws.  Mexican law requires foreign nationals be in their country legally and that their presence be beneficial. It is a criminal offense there to aid and abet illegal immigration.

Pueblo sin Fronteras, coordinator of the “caravan,” solicits donations via Paypal but is not listed as a nonprofit on Guidestar. It does not show up on the California Secretary of State business search (Paypal locates them in La Crescenta). Its website domain registrar is hidden behind a proxy. To find out more, we can turn to supportive ”mainstream”  puff pieces, or alternatively, to sites alleging indirect Soros ties.

The other and more significant player on the U.S. side of the border is the state of California, with its sanctuary policies and its opposition to federal enforcement efforts. What happens if leftist federal judges on the 9th Circuit issue an injunction forbidding enforcement? What the options will there be if the state decides to intervene with more than rhetoric?

Chances are this will play out for the cameras and be exploited to feed a meme that further smears those opposed to open borders as violent xenophobes and racists. There are those who wouldn’t mind at all if this results in a bit of for-the-cameras violence — or more than a bit.

Global humanitarian crises will not be solved by subverting U.S. law and culturally terraforming the Republic. But the “organizers” have brought things to the point where an honest, humane desire to solve the plight of such people is used against those who would help, meaning there are those who are cynically exploiting “refugee” pawns and domestic useful idiots to advance a political agenda.

The government of Mexico knows this, and there need to be serious repercussions taken against the ungrateful, in-bed-with-the-cartels officials if they force this on us. They need us a lot more than we need them.

More importantly, this country needs to start acting like one.  But the differences between open borders subversives and political opportunist /cheap labor sellouts vs. Americans who want their country back are irreconcilable.

A rational U.S. policy for admitting foreign nationals could not be simpler: Look to the Preamble to the Constitution.  If government policy — on anything — fails to “form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,” then government is violating “the supreme Law of the Land.”

If oath-breaking representatives weren’t ignoring and subverting the Second Amendment every chance they get, we’d have the border problem pretty much solved peaceably via “a well regulated militia” standing guard to discourage and deter things getting out of hand:

“The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property.”

But that’s the last thing those who would fundamentally transform the Republic want to see happen, with “the security of a free State” via an armed citizen populace being the thing they fear most.

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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.

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David Codrea’s opinions are his own. See “Who speaks for Oath Keepers?”

The post How Will Mass ‘Migrant’ Crossing Not Be an Unprovoked Foreign Attack? appeared first on Oath Keepers.

Hayward Bay Fault Line MORE DANGEROUS Than San Andreas: It’s A ‘Ticking Time Bomb’

Scientists are now saying that the “Big One” in California may not be caused by the San Andreas fault line, but by the Hayward Bay fault line. It is now thought to be the “ticking time bomb” fault line and more dangerous than the San Andres.

The scariest scenario for the next major earthquake may not be from the San Andreas Fault (though that one still threatens), but from the Hayward Fault that runs along the east side of the San Francisco Bay. In fact, many say that the next earthquake on the Hayward Bay fault line would be “disastrous.” According to KTUV, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake along the Hayward Fault could kill as many as 800 people and injure 18,000, according to results of a new research released Wednesday.

The U.S. Geological Survey, citing findings from a simulated tremor with an epicenter in Oakland, said the disaster would cause 400 fires that could destroy 50,000 homes. Nearly half a million people would be displaced, authorities said.

The simulated quake in the video above, known as the “HayWired scenario,” was modeled to occur at 4:18 p.m. on April 18 (yesterday). It replicates a rupture along the fault’s entire 52-mile length, from San Pablo Bay in the north to just east of San Jose in the south. According to this model, the violent shaking from the earthquake could cause the two sides of the fault to split six feet apart in some places. Some of the aftershocks would continue for several months as well. Cities in the East Bay would be hit hard, including Berkeley, Oakland, San Leandro, and Hayward.

If a 7.0 magnitude quake occurred like the one simulated, researchers say that the East Bay residents could be without water from anywhere between six weeks to six months. Electricity could be out for up to four weeks in some locations.

According to Business Insider, the statistical chances of this type of an earthquake occurring are not very comforting either. There’s about a 76% chance that the San Francisco Bay Area could experience a 7.2 magnitude earthquake within the next 30 years, according to some recent reports.

The San Andreas Fault under San Francisco rumbled apart about 112 years ago, causing the devastating 1906 earthquake that swallowed city blocks, broke water mains, and triggered massive fires that burned for days.  However, the threat of another major quake for the Bay Area is “real and could happen at any time,” according to researchers for the US Geological Survey.

The Hayward Fault is a “tectonic time bomb, due any time for another magnitude 6.8 to 7.0 earthquake,” according to a 2008 USGS report. Since then, research has indicated that the likelihood of a Hayward quake is greater and more threatening to the 7 million Bay Area residents than a San Andreas quake would be.

“It’s just waiting to go off,” USGS earthquake geologist emeritus David Schwartz warned when speaking to the Los Angeles Times.

Hayward Bay Fault Line MORE DANGEROUS Than San Andres: It’s A ‘Ticking Time Bomb’

Scientists are now saying that the “Big One” in California may not be caused by the San Andres fault line, but by the Hayward Bay fault line. It is now thought to be the “ticking time bomb” fault line and more dangerous than the San Andres.

The scariest scenario for the next major earthquake may not be from the San Andreas Fault (though that one still threatens), but from the Hayward Fault that runs along the east side of the San Francisco Bay. In fact, many say that the next earthquake on the Hayward Bay fault line would be “disastrous.” According to KTUV, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake along the Hayward Fault could kill as many as 800 people and injure 18,000, according to results of a new research released Wednesday.

The U.S. Geological Survey, citing findings from a simulated tremor with an epicenter in Oakland, said the disaster would cause 400 fires that could destroy 50,000 homes. Nearly half a million people would be displaced, authorities said.

The simulated quake in the video above, known as the “HayWired scenario,” was modeled to occur at 4:18 p.m. on April 18 (yesterday). It replicates a rupture along the fault’s entire 52-mile length, from San Pablo Bay in the north to just east of San Jose in the south. According to this model, the violent shaking from the earthquake could cause the two sides of the fault to split six feet apart in some places. Some of the aftershocks would continue for several months as well. Cities in the East Bay would be hit hard, including Berkeley, Oakland, San Leandro, and Hayward.

If a 7.0 magnitude quake occurred like the one simulated, researchers say that the East Bay residents could be without water from anywhere between six weeks to six months. Electricity could be out for up to four weeks in some locations.

According to Business Insider, the statistical chances of this type of an earthquake occurring are not very comforting either. There’s about a 76% chance that the San Francisco Bay Area could experience a 7.2 magnitude earthquake within the next 30 years, according to some recent reports.

The San Andreas Fault under San Francisco rumbled apart about 112 years ago, causing the devastating 1906 earthquake that swallowed city blocks, broke water mains, and triggered massive fires that burned for days.  However, the threat of another major quake for the Bay Area is “real and could happen at any time,” according to researchers for the US Geological Survey.

The Hayward Fault is a “tectonic time bomb, due any time for another magnitude 6.8 to 7.0 earthquake,” according to a 2008 USGS report. Since then, research has indicated that the likelihood of a Hayward quake is greater and more threatening to the 7 million Bay Area residents than a San Andreas quake would be.

“It’s just waiting to go off,” USGS earthquake geologist emeritus David Schwartz warned when speaking to the Los Angeles Times.

WATCH: Cops Running ‘Smog Checkpoints’, Stopping Motorists to Check Their Emissions

The state of California is now using "Smog Checkpoints" to determine whether drivers are complying with state laws regulating carbon emissions, which raises serious concerns among privacy advocates.

The post WATCH: Cops Running ‘Smog Checkpoints’, Stopping Motorists to Check Their Emissions appeared first on The Free Thought Project.

Many Food Products Contaminated with Acrylamide

A few days ago a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, Elihu Berle, put acrylamide on the mainstream map by forcing California coffee shops – including Starbucks – to add a health warning about the carcinogenic risks of this chemical present in the coffee.

Next Wednesday, April 11, comes into force a regulation of the European Commission that requires implementing a series of measures to limit as much as possible the presence of acrylamide in food: because it is not only in the coffee, it is in potato chips and baby jars.

Acrylamide is a substance that can be formed in many ways, but one that is very common: when food is cooked or processed at temperatures above 120 degrees.

It is then that food-reducing sugars – those that break down more easily, such as potato starch and cereals, fructose or honey-containing products – and proteins react with each other in the heat, and give rise to this element. The higher the temperature and the lower the degree of humidity, the more acrylamide is produced.

It happens in all foods, although those rich in starch are those that have higher levels when fried and roasted. This is what happens with coffee during its roasting process, regardless of whether it is roasted or natural. Hence, the regulation puts a special focus on fried potatoes, bread in all its formats, biscuits, cookies, coffee and substitutes.

Have we been exposed to a carcinogenic substance?

Before alarms are triggered, it is important to clarify that these measures are based on the precautionary principle because, as the regulation itself explains, “in between 10% and 15%” of foods that have excess acrylamide can be reduced by application of good practices “.

“There is no doubt that this substance is carcinogenic in laboratory mice, but no one has been able to prove that the acrylamide that comes to humans through food have an impact on cancer, ” says Dr. Ricardo Cubedo, an oncologist at the IOB Institute of Oncology.

The measure is based on the precautionary principle: although it has not been proven that acrylamide is carcinogenic in people, it is “likely”, and also in 10% of cases, “easy to reduce”, according to the European Commission

In fact, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) considers acrylamide as a probable carcinogen for humans, because, so far, it is not conclusive, after investigations carried out experiments in animals subjected to very high doses of acrylamide and whose results can be extrapolated to humans.

In addition, workers in industries that are exposed to higher levels of this substance – it may be by inhalation, in contact with the skin or through food – have not recorded a higher incidence of cancer than the rest of the population. The main source of exposure remains tobacco smoke.

The alarms jumped in 2002, when the Swedish Food Safety Agency revealed that acrylamide appeared not only in industrial processes, or in tobacco smoke, but also in food.

Since then, the World Health Organization and the rest of the international health institutions have begun to exercise caution.

“In 2007 and 2012, the European Agency for Food Safety (EFSA) established some guidelines to reduce their consumption through diet,” says Marhuenda.

According to this dietician-nutritionist, the levels of acrylamide in daily consumption are low enough to be considered dangerous.

“What EFSA does is what we commonly know as placing the plaster before making the wound, always proposing values as low as possible.”

Can I develop cancer if I eat a lot of chips?

“The minimum consumption stipulated for acrylamide to be related to the probability or the increased probability of cancer is 170 micrograms (0.17 milligrams) per kilo of body weight,” says Marhuenda. “In a person weighing 80 kilos, for example, that minimum dose would be 13,600 micrograms of acrylamide a day.” In addition, he points out, “not to reach this amount on a daily basis we will develop cancer directly, but there is an increase in risk.”

And we arrived? “It is complicated to consume that dose, to get an idea, the average coffee intake per person in Europe represents between 30% and 35% of the minimum amount of risk.”

A calculation: according to the levels of reference that from day 11 the manufacturers will have to comply as far as possible (see table below), so that a person of 80 kilos reaches that amount would have to eat something more than 27 kilos of chips a day.

On average, Spaniards are exposed to 0.53 micrograms of acrylamide per kilogram of body weight per day, according to a study that served as a doctoral thesis to the researcher at the University of Valencia Eva Molina Périz. According to Dr. Cubedo, “the half comes for the chips, one quarter for the coffee and the other quarter for the biscuits or the biscuits “.

In Spain, the bags of potatoes went beyond the limit

That despite the fact that in 2015, in Spain, almost one in five bags of these snacks exceeded the amounts of acrylamide recommended by the European Commission, as found in a study by the Institute of Science and Technology of Food and Nutrition (Ictan-CSIC) . Although it observed a positive evolution: an average of 1,484 micrograms per kilo of fried potato in 2004, 740 in 2009 and 630 micrograms in 2014.

The new European regulation does not establish maximum limits, but reference levels – for this product, 500 micrograms per kilo of potatoes – that must be met unless the manufacturer can justify its excess, for example, by the properties of the variety of potato used.

Kiss that potato chip goodbye

For years the food industry has been reducing the levels of acrylamide in its products, but as of Wednesday it won’t be with the typical small potato and toast that appears in some bags.

The regulation of the European Commission establishes among its measures that warnings must appear on the package. Messages on packagings for biscuits, bread slices and toasts will now be clearer.

In addition, bread, chips, puff pastry dough, pizzas and all those products that contain ingredients such as potato or starch will be accompanied by recommendations to cook them at home, reducing the risk.

Despite the new measures of the European Commission and the low exposure to acrylamide, it is advised to reduce or avoid the consumption of this substance: “Potato chips, snacks, cookies, some cereals, bread crunch, and others.

If we want to reduce the levels of acrylamide in the ingestion we must avoid cooking at high temperatures these particular foods, and, in general, we have to always cook in a non-aggressive way “.

The post Many Food Products Contaminated with Acrylamide appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

Splitting California Into 3 States Just Reached An Important Milestone

An initiative to split the state of California into three different states has gathered enough support via signatures to qualify as a ballot measure in November.  This is one important milestone for those who want to break away from the harsh Communist policies of much of the Golden State.

Venture capitalist Tim Draper said backers of what he has dubbed “CAL 3” would submit petitions with more than 600,000 signatures to election officials next week. The initiative needs signatures from 365,880 registered voters – five percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2014 election – to qualify for the ballot. And according to 10 News, Draper said there’s a lot of support for this.

Breaking the state into three separate states would still require congressional approval. But Draper is hopeful. “This is an unprecedented show of support on behalf of every corner of California to create three state governments that emphasize representation, responsiveness, reliability, and regional identity,” Draper said.

One proposed state would be called California or a name to be chosen by its residents after a split. It would consist of Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey and San Benito counties. The second state, Southern California or a name to be chosen by its residents, would consist of Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Fresno, Tulare, Inyo, Madera and Mono counties.    The remaining 40 counties would be part of the state of Northern California or a name chosen by its residents.  Northern California and parts of southern Oregon have often referred to some of the areas as the State of Jefferson – the “51st state” named after the third president of The United States. 

But without congressional approval, no state will be allowed to succeed and gain sovereignty. That hasn’t stopped Draper, however. He said he conceived the initiative out of a belief that “the citizens of the whole state would be better served by three smaller state governments while preserving the historical boundaries of the various counties, cities, and towns.”  And many in the more rural northern counties of California have been disenfranchised for quite some time now.  Their votes are overwhelmingly irrelevant due to the large Communist populations in the big cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Steven Maviglio, a longtime Democratic Party political consultant who was a co-chair of the effort to oppose Draper’s 2014 initiative to split California into six states, told City News Service, “Splitting California into three and creating three new governments does nothing to solve our state’s challenges other than tripling them.” What Maviglio is saying, is that by splitting California, the state will have to split their 55 electoral votes and it’s highly likely half would go to a Republican president, rather than a Democrat in upcoming presidential elections.  For that reason alone, don’t look for the California government to willingly allow this split regardless of the votes.

Politicians care only about power and most people give it to them. Breaking up the state will have some big political losers.  Never be under the assumption that the rich will allow you to vote away their money or that a politician will allow you to vote away their power.

WATCH: Cops Running ‘Smog Checkpoints’, Stopping Motorists to Check Their Emissions

The state of California is now using "Smog Checkpoints" to determine whether drivers are complying with state laws regulating carbon emissions, which raises serious concerns among privacy advocates.

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San Diego: Flu Season Still Going Strong, Hepatitis A Outbreak NOT CONTAINED

It’s shaping up to be a rough year for those living in San Diego.  With the flu season still going strong in the area, their Hepatitis A outbreak is also not yet contained.

This flu season was especially hard on the city of San Diego. The city boasted a record 20,131 influenza cases and 326 deaths all confirmed by San Diego’s Health and Human Services Agency.  “No one knows really why this season is so much more severe than other seasons,” said Dr. Sayone Thihalolipavan, deputy public health officer for the County of San Diego.

Thihalolipavan said flu season in San Diego typically ends by March. Now in April, the county’s latest report shows 247 new flu cases and seven more deaths. “Especially earlier on the predominant strain of flu was one that is more [sic] deadlier,” Thihalolipavan said. “And that was the H3N2 strain. Now currently we’re glad the predominant strain is the influenza type B or B strain, which is less likely to result in hospitalizations or deaths.”

Meanwhile, the county board of supervisors declared an end to the hepatitis A health emergency in January, but the outbreak is still not over. “We’ve seen about 9 cases this year so far I believe,” Thihalolipavan said. “Unfortunately, mostly centralized in the North County area.” During the peak of the outbreak, San Diego was averaging around 80 hepatitis A cases a month. Since the outbreak started in November 2016, 20 people have died and 587 cases have been confirmed.

The majority of those sickened by this viral infection outbreak have been homeless people. A letter from San Diego County health officials stated that hepatitis A is being spread through contact with a “fecally contaminated environment” as well as person-to-person transmission. A big part of the problem is an apparent lack of public restrooms in areas where the homeless population congregates.

Hepatitis A is a highly contagious viral infection, which can prove fatal. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the virus attacks the liver. Adequate personal hygiene and sanitation can help prevent the spread of the virus. -SHTFPlan

The city and health officials continue to have limited or no success at stopping these infectious diseases. Their one suggestion: get the flu shot and get vaccinated for hepatitis A.

New California Bill Would ELIMINATE Free Speech, Require ‘Online Fact Checkers’

California Senator Richard Pan, the infamous fascist who forced a mandatory vaccination law through in order to rake in money from big pharma, has decided there should no longer be free speech for anyone other than the government.  Pan’s new bill proposes to require “online fact checkers” to verify content before anything can be posted on the internet.

Anyone who has ever said tyranny cannot come to America has been proven wrong. Pan’s new bill would basically outlaw questioning the government’s official narrative, and is reminiscent of the book burning days of Nazi Germany. The bill supposedly only targets social media in California, but as Jon Rappaport points out, once you read the bill, it applies to the whole of the internet.

This isn’t some sort of prank either.  The leftists in power are getting desperate in their attempt to control information and produce propaganda and this is just more evidence of such.  We experienced evidence of this yesterday when SHTFPlan reported that the Department of Homeland Security has been instructed to compile a database of all journalists and online “media influencers.”

But that’s all beginning now, here, in the “land of the free.” Last week, SHTFPlan interviewed Sarah Leach who was detained without charges for survivalist posts on her own Facebook page. But we are expected to believe that DHS has no nefarious reasoning for compiling a list of all journalists, bloggers, podcasters, or as they like to call them: “media influencers”?

FedBizOpps.gov posted a relatively benign-sounding subject: “Media Monitoring Services” by DHS. Of course, the government always makes basic human rights violations sound benign when we all know they are anything but. The details of the attached Statement of Work outline a plan to gather and monitor the public activities of media professionals and influencers and are enough to cause nightmares of constitutional and basic fundamental human rights proportions,particularly as the freedom of the press is under attack worldwide. Yes, that includes in the United States.

And “attack” is not hyperbolic. -SHTFPlan

Should this bill in California pass, the state will actually have major regulations on free speech and give themselves the power to prosecute “speech criminals.”  Don’t believe it? Well, the bill is short.  Here’s what it says:

SB 1424

This bill would require any person who operates a social media, as defined, Internet Web site with a physical presence in California to develop a strategic plan to verify news stories shared on its Web site. The bill would require the plan to include, among other things, a plan to mitigate the spread of false information through news stories, the utilization of fact-checkers to verify news stories, providing outreach to social media users, and placing a warning on a news story containing false information.

(a) Any person who operates a social media Internet Web site with physical presence in California shall develop a strategic plan to verify news stories shared on its Internet Web site.

(b) The strategic plan shall include, but is not limited to, all of the following:

(1) A plan to mitigate the spread of false information through news stories.

(2) The utilization of fact-checkers to verify news stories.

(3) Providing outreach to social media users regarding news stories containing false information.

(4) Placing a warning on a news story containing false information.

(c) As used in this section, “social media” means an electronic service or account, or electronic content, including, but not limited to, videos, still photographs, blogs, video blogs, podcasts, instant and text messages, email, online services or accounts, or Internet Web site profiles or locations.

In other words, no one may use their human right to free speech to question the government’s official story anymore.  Regardless of whether the “facts” given make any sense or not, people will be banned from saying so.

In case you believe there are too many websites and blogs based in California to enforce a new draconian law, let me explain how the game works. Behind closed doors, the state government would decide to focus on a few big issues. For example, gun control, vaccines, and immigration. Enforcement agencies would go after the biggest Internet operations expressing politically unacceptable points of view on those subjects. At first. A spread of smaller operations would feel the heat later.

So-called fact checkers would come from government-supported groups who agree with Official Positions. In other words, they wouldn’t be fact checkers at all. They would be prime news fakers. –Jon Rappaport

Although this and the database of journalists operated by DHS are huge human and constitutional rights violations, it’s become abundantly clear that the government does not care at all and will continue to advance tyranny and grab more power for themselves.  When is the breaking point? It used to be a 3% tax on tea.  Now, it certainly feels like there’s nothing Americans won’t give up to keep giving the government more power over their lives.

Liberals Announce Their Plan To Destroy ‘Normal Americans’ In Civil War

Applauded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, liberals have devised a plan they think will destroy normal Americans in a new “Civil War.” But here’s the spoiler alert: it’s isn’t really that good of a plan, to begin with.

San Francisco-based social media platform Twitter isn’t known for their unbiased approach to social media. Now, the CEO applauded an article in something called Medium in which the writer of said article described how liberals intend to crush Normal Americans into serfdom in a bloodless “civil war.”

The goal of the “war” will be to turn the entire United States into California by offering up a supermajority of liberals in political power.  Because that’s working out so well in California: homelessness is spiking uncontrollably, the tax burden is forcing people to leave, regulations are shutting businesses, housing costs have soared to unbearable levels, and few have basic human rights there unless they pay the government for permission.  Try not to roll your eyes when you imagine your own state running like the communists in charge handle California.

Townhall said it best:

“Why do a bunch of San Francisco dorks think that 150 million Americans with 300 million guns are just going to give up their rights and their say in their own governance and submit to the commands of people who eat kale by choice?” That’s a fair question, and they have an answer.

Because you just are.

I didn’t say it was a good answer.

All humor aside, the article didn’t actually lay out anything that could even remotely be considered a war plan. And the problem with liberals taking over is the same as it’s been throughout history.

Normal Americans are not going to simply give up their rights and their self-determination because a bunch of liberals want them to. Sure, the weaponization of culture with corporations and tech companies trying to silence and marginalize decent citizens is troubling, but in short order, there will be a backlash as Normals react to these new, overtly fascist tactics. –Townhall

Even with enough brainwashing and propaganda, eventually, most people will figure out that they are being controlled.  Humans don’t want to be controlled; the default has always been freedom.  Once they figure it out, a liberal government will crumble and that may happen well before there’s any hope of convincing those who actually exercise their rights to give them up.

The harsh reality is that a Civil War would not be something, anyone, liberals included, should hope for. The last one in the United State was bloody and pitted brother against brother and shouldn’t be an aspiration. But when people are intentionally disregarded and oppressed, they will often react. It almost feels like liberals want to push people to a war then point their fingers and say “ha! We told you so! THEY are they violent ones!”

California Bill to Create Ministry Of Truth To Censor Alternative Media, Punish Those Who Share It

A bill has been proposed in California that would effectively kill free speech by allowing internet censorship that targets everything the state deems as "fake news."

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Californians flee the state in droves over taxation and housing costs

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.

Housing costs and the tax burden is far less impactful in pretty much any place outside of California, whose socialist policies drive up poverty and continuously erode the middle class leaving only the extremely wealthy and those in abject poverty.

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 Poll of 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.”

Via SHTFPlan

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Featured Image: Mario Sánchez Prada/Flickr

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AZ Lawmaker: ‘We Might Need To Build A Wall Between California And Arizona’

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.

Los Alamitos wants nothing to do with California’s ‘sanctuary state’ laws.

Spectators cheer as the Los Alamitos City Council votes to oppose California’s sanctuary state law. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times) 

Will it start a new resistance?

By CINDY CARCAMO, ANH DO and ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN  MAR 19, 2018

With about 12,000 residents spread across a few miles of suburban Southern California, Los Alamitos is better known for its good schools and small-town charms than political activism.

But the city now finds itself at the center of a rebellion against California’s “sanctuary” policies, which aim to protect immigrants here illegally as President Trump vows to ramp up deportations.

Los Alamitos leaders on Monday approved an ordinance that exempts their Orange County municipality from Senate Bill 54, a law that took effect Jan. 1 and restricts local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities. It marks a rare effort by a city to challenge the sanctuary movement, which has wide support among elected officials in left-leaning California.

Many cities have faced the ire of Trump and his administration for policies they say are too lenient toward those here illegally. The president slammed San Francisco over its sanctuary law, which he said had allowed a Mexican national who fatally shot a tourist to remain on the streets. And Oakland’s mayor is now the subject of a federal investigation after she sent out an alert warning residents of an immigration sweep.

Los Alamitos, by contrast, is moving in a different direction, with some residents and officials saying they want nothing to do with those policies.

About 160 people showed up to Monday’s regular City Council meeting, a monthly event that rarely draws enough people to fill the 40-seat chamber. Speakers lined up late into the evening to address elected officials, who eventually voted 4 to 1 to approve the ordinance.

“Sometimes things are bigger than we are,” said Mayor Troy D. Edgar.

Cheers erupted inside the chamber after the vote, with some shouting “Patriots!” and “This is a win for America!” as others waved pro-Trump flags.

Councilman Mark A. Chirco was the sole dissenter, suggesting the initiative could expose the city to litigation.

“We disagree with Sacramento on a lot of things. Are we not going to follow state law every time we disagree with them?” he said. “I don’t think that would be prudent.”

It’s unclear how the ordinance will be implemented, and Mayor Pro Tem Warren Kusumoto, who proposed the initiative, said it may end up being largely symbolic.

“Is it going to hold up? I don’t know,” he said.

Read more at Los Angeles Times

 

 

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‘Flippy’ a Burger-Flipping Robot just Started its First Shift

(The Daily Sheeple) Flippy, a burger-flipping robot, has just begun work at a restaurant in Pasadena, California. It is the first of dozens of locations for the system, which is destined to replace human fast-food workers.

According to a press release from Miso, the company — which bills Flippy as the world’s first burger-flipping robot — began working with Caliburger two years ago to develop it as a “cost-effective and highly efficient solution” that is “specifically designed to operate in an existing commercial kitchen layout and to serve alongside kitchen staff to safely and efficiently fulfill a variety of cooking tasks.”

“The kitchen of the future will always have people in it, but we see that kitchen as having people and robots,” said David Zito, co-founder and CEO of Miso Robotics tells KTLA in Los Angeles. “This technology is not about replacing jobs — we see Flippy as that third hand.”

But Flippy still needs a human to help it do its job. In its current version, the robot has to have a human coworker nearby to place the patties on the grill, put the cheese on top at the right moment, and add the extras, such as lettuce and sauce before wrapping the sandwiches for customers. So all it does is flip burgers.  But it is just one more nail in the minimum wage’s coffin, that’s for certain.

“The Flippy robot takes the form of a relatively small, wheeled cart equipped with a 6-axis robotic arm and what Miso Robotics calls a ‘sensor bar,’ TechCrunch writes. “It takes in data from thermal sensors, 3-D sensors and different cameras onboard to perceive its environment. Digital systems that send tickets from the counter back to the kitchen give Flippy its orders.”

TechCrunch also reported that unlike rival burger bots under development, such as one made by Momentum Machines, Flippy uses artificial intelligence to improve its technique – so the more it works, the better it gets at the job, in much the same way that might be expected from a human worker.

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