Today's News: August 27, 2018

World News

US Drone Strikes Kill Afghan ISIS Leader
Daily Caller – U.S. drone strikes killed an Afghan Islamic State (ISIS) leader and 10 other fighters Saturday night.
Abu Sayeed Orakzai was the fourth ISIS leader in Afghanistan killed since July 2017, according to the provincial governor of Nangarhar, NBC News reported Sunday.
The airstrikes were launched near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, according to Agence France-Presse, Fox News reported. Orakzai led Islamic State Khorsan (ISIS-K), which was responsible for a series of recent bombings that killed hundreds of civilians.
An ISIS-K fighter detonated explosives that injured 57 students and killed 34 in a private school, The Associated Press reported Aug. 16.

Thieves replace Paraguay police rifles with toy replicas
BBC – Thieves in Paraguay have stolen 42 powerful rifles from the police armoury.
During an inspection, officers found that the FN FAL battle rifles had been replaced with wooden and plastic replicas.
The inspection had been ordered after the rifles started appearing a year ago on the black market, where they can fetch up to $10,000 (£7,785).
The rifles had been put into storage but were still in working order.
Some of them are thought to have ended up in Argentina while others are believed to have been smuggled to Brazil.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

John McCain dead at 81
Fox – U.S. Sen. John McCain, a war hero who survived five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, served three decades in Congress and went on to become the Republican Party’s nominee for president in 2008, died Saturday. He was 81 years old.
In his last hours, the Arizona Republican turned down further medical treatment, his family announced in a statement.
McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer in July 2017. Doctors discovered the tumor during a medical procedure to remove a blood clot from above his left eye. He remained upbeat after the diagnosis, flying back to Washington days after surgery with a large scar visible above his eye to partake in the Senate’s health care debate.

Sorry America, McCain Was No Hero, Here’s a List of Wars He Begged For That Proves It
Free Thought Project – Earlier this week notorious war hawk US Senator John McCain (R-Az) died from brain cancer. While the liberal and conservative establishments are sending their regards, Geopolitics Alert instead compiled a list of reasons why we don’t care about McCain. The list is, of course, a history of all the instances McCain has called for US-led intervention around the world. There’s clearly a long history here, so Geopolitics Alert has compiled the most blatant examples from Europe to Asia.

3 dead, including gunman, after shooting at Florida video game tournament
WTAE – Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said three people are dead after a shooting at a video game tournament.
Among those dead was the suspect, believed to be a 24-year-old Baltimore man, David Katz, who took his own life, Williams said.
Williams said there were 14 victims, 12 of which had gunshot wounds, but that number could change as they continue to investigate.
The FBI has confirmed agents were at an address in South Baltimore as part of the investigation of the mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida. Agents spent more than four hours at the Baltimore location but did not leave with any boxes. Neighbors said Katz lived at the location with his father and his father’s girlfriend.

DACA Recipient Arrested for Alleged Human Smuggling in Texas
Breitbart – Agents assigned to the Laredo Sector arrested a former recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on charges of human smuggling after a call for assistance from Texas Department of Public Safety Troopers.
The Laredo South Station agents received a call for assistance on August 22 from DPS troopers who suspected the driver of a stopped vehicle may have been involved in an attempt to smuggle illegal immigrants. Agents arrived on the scene and conducted an immigration interview that revealed a U.S. citizen and a former DACA recipient were attempting to smuggle two migrants from Mexico, according to Laredo Sector officials.
A records check revealed the foreign national’s DACA protection expired in July.

Family builds ‘Mailbox Library’ to Give Out Free Books, So Naturally, the Cops Made Them Remove It
Free Thought Project – We can now add giving away free books as a reason police will show up to your home and threaten you with fines. Earlier this month, that is exactly what happened to a New Jersey family when they built a “Mailbox Library” in their front yard to encourage the neighborhood children to read.
The Hagemeyer family had just finished construction of their new library — which was already being used by children in the neighborhood — when police showed up at their door telling them it needed to be removed.
“We’re still shaking our heads over the whole thing,” Grace Hagemeyer told Patch.

Battle Print: Document Emerges Detailing Democrat Plans to Crush Trump Should GOP Fail to Hold House
This document only begins to demonstrate exactly what the Democrats will do to Trump if they take control of Congress
Under the headline “Scoop: Republicans secretly study their coming hell,” Axios’s Jonathan Swan on Sunday evening revealed the existence of the document that lists exactly the line of attack the Democrats plan to pursue should they win control of the House in the midterm elections. The document specifically focuses on certain investigatory pathways and lines of inquiry they have already sought.
The document, prepared by House GOP officials, walks through document and interview requests Democrats have already sent to the Trump administration, the president’s business The Trump Organization, and the president’s campaign in 2016.
“Congressional Republicans are getting ready for hell. Axios has obtained a spreadsheet that’s circulated through Republican circles on and off Capitol Hill — including at least one leadership office — that meticulously previews the investigations Democrats will likely launch if they flip the House,” Swan writes.
Swan then lists some of the more than 100 items contained in the lengthy GOP document. Here is a direct quote of the bullet point list from Swan’s piece in Axios:

President Trump’s tax returns
Trump family businesses — and whether they comply with the Constitution’s emoluments clause, including the Chinese trademark grant to the Trump Organization
Trump’s dealings with Russia, including the president’s preparation for his meeting with Vladimir Putin
The payment to Stephanie Clifford — a.k.a. Stormy Daniels
James Comey’s firing
Trump’s firing of U.S. attorneys
Trump’s proposed transgender ban for the military
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s business dealings
White House staff’s personal email use
Cabinet secretary travel, office expenses, and other misused perks
Discussion of classified information at Mar-a-Lago
Jared Kushner’s ethics law compliance
Dismissal of members of the EPA board of scientific counselors
The travel ban
Family separation policy
Hurricane response in Puerto Rico
Election security and hacking attempts
White House security clearances

Top Senators Back Trump Plan To Remove Sessions – Banned Videos
Infowars – Trump wants to get rid of Sessions and many Republicans, including Lindsay Graham, are on board with the plan.
The Obama-ran sector of the shadow government is making moves against Trump and his allies.
Meanwhile, Apple’s Tim Cook and Virginia Senator Mark Warner have chosen Alex Jones as the main target to serve as a smokescreen while they begin mass censorship.

Court case could torpedo Mueller report
Politico – A little-noticed court case stemming from the apparent murder of a Columbia University professor six decades ago could keep special counsel Robert Mueller from publishing any information about the Trump campaign and Russia that he obtains through a Washington grand jury.
The substance of the case is entirely unrelated to Mueller’s investigation into whether any of President Donald Trump’s associates aided Russia’s efforts to intervene in the 2016 election.
But if a Washington appeals court set to hear the murder-related case next month sides with the Justice Department and rules that judges don’t have the freedom to release grand jury information that is usually kept secret, it could throw a monkey wrench into any plans Mueller has to issue a public report on his probe’s findings, lawyers following the issue said.
And it might even keep the special counsel from sending a report to Congress.

Economy & Business

NAFTA No More: President Trump Announces United States-Mexico Trade Agreement
Breitbart – President Donald Trump announced a new bilateral trade deal with Mexico on Monday morning from the Oval Office alongside U.S. and Mexican officials.
“It’s a big day for trade, big day for our country, a lot of people though we’d never get here because we all negotiate tough. We do, so does Mexico,” said Trump.
Trump told reporters he wanted to do away with the name NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) in favor of a new trade deal, The United States México trade agreement. He said the name NAFTA has a bad connotation because the U.S. has been hurt badly by it. He called the new deal a really good deal for both countries, the U.S. and Mexico.
He added, “we’ll see if Canada can be part of deal.” President Trump spoke of possibly making a separate bilateral trade deal with Canada and that negotiations on that would start soon.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto joined the group by phone for the announcement.

Energy & Environment

US cities push to remove lead pipes, but some property owners resist
Christian Science Monitor – As states and cities across the US begin to remove lead water pipes in earnest, they’ve run into a surprising problem: some property owners don’t want them gone, especially if they have to pay for it.
It isn’t easy for many homeowners – and even some utilities – to pay $3,000 to $5,000 to replace a lead pipe running into a home. And even when utilities are inclined to pay, property laws or homeowners may stop them.

Gardening, Farming & Homesteading

WashPost: Farm Wages Are Just Too High
Bretibart – The government should allow farm companies to import an army of minimum-wage foreign workers to pick and process the fruits preferred by upper-income consumers, according to an op-ed in the Washington Post.
The article was posted by editors working for Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon Corp. and the Whole Foods Market grocery chain, who is also the world’s richest man.
The op-ed, “Our fruit is rotting in the trees as laborers are kept out of the country,” was signed by Bruce Talbott, who co-owns Talbott’s Mountain Gold, which is an orchard and fruit-processer in Palisade, Colo.
Talbott wrote his article with support from the billionaire-created “New American Economy” group which lobbies for laws which import more customers, workers, and renters. The NAE founders, including Michael Bloomberg, Rupert Murdoch, and other billionaires, support the proposed H-2C visa-worker program which would bring in roughly 1 million cheap workers for the farming and meat-processing sectors. The group also wants to raise the inflow of foreign college-graduates into U.S. jobs.
Talbott wrote:
We lack an efficient, farmer-friendly guest-worker program. The current one for temporary H-2A visas was created more than three decades ago; it’s outdated and can’t cope with increasing demand for workers. The labor shortage is so severe that farmers have overwhelmed the system, which had to issue nearly 135,000 visas for seasonal agricultural workers in 2016. That’s nearly double from five years ago.
It’s also expensive. In addition to wages, farmers have to pay, on average, $2,500 per worker every season in visa-processing fees, transportation and housing costs. Yet every year since 2014, there have been delays. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, 72 percent of growers said that workers arrived, on average, 22 days after the “date of need.” When workers arrive late, crops are lost.
The current H-2A visa-worker program is also inadequate, Talbott said, because it denied him just one of the 42 visa-workers he sought in 2018 and delayed the arrived of eight other workers.

Health

Mother’s Pesticide Exposure Linked to Autism in her Children
Tree Hugger – A new study provides the first biomarker-based evidence that maternal exposure to insecticides is associated with autism among their offspring.
One of the many problems with unleashing vast amounts of synthetic chemicals into the environment is that if they turn out to pose a threat, they can be banned, but they may persist in the environment for many many years to come. Such is the case with the infamous DDT. The miracle pesticide was banned in the United States in 1972 – and largely credited with starting the modern environmental movement – and then banned worldwide for agricultural use. (It is still used in some countries for vector control.)
Alas, DDT is a persistent organic pollutant that loves to linger in the environment, finding its way into food chains, and into us as well. The breakdown product of DDT is DDE; the CDC says that most of the population has detectable levels of DDE.\And now, a new study finds an association with elevated levels of DDE in pregnant mothers with an increased risk of autism among their children.
The authors say that their findings “provide the first biomarker-based evidence that maternal exposure to insecticides is associated with autism among offspring.”

The Monsanto Secret is Out
Power Hour Guest Post – case you haven’t heard, Monsanto Corporation, the maker of Round-Up Ready Weed Killer, was found guilty in a Federal trial of concealing information about the dangers of this product. Monsanto has known about these serious health concerns since 1981. Exposure to Round-Up Weed Killer, which contains Glyphosate, causes cancer and 14 other diseases. List of those diseases is linked below.
The family of the man dying of cancer was awarded 289 million dollars in damages. The list of products contaminated with Glyphosate is long and disturbing.
Stop eating any of the foods on the THIS LIST you want to regain your health.
Click Here for List of Diseases Caused by RoundUp Weed Killer

Naturopathic doctor forced to shut her clinic after wave of death threats and government regulator pressure… medical freedom is DEAD
NaturalNews – A world-famous doctor who offered her naturopathic services for free was forced to close her clinic after the Philippine equivalent of the FDA went after her and she received a wave of death threats.
She recently announced to her 3 million Facebook followers that she had to temporarily close her operations after the lives of her patients, children and herself were threatened if she remained open. She stated that several cases were filed against her after government offices and agencies received complaints from unnamed medical societies. She said that her clinic and property were raided, and she has been prohibited from manufacturing health products, administering them to patients, and distributing them. If she continues to help patients right now, she could lose her license to practice medicine and her career as a doctor would come to an end.
After her clinic was closed for allegedly selling supplements that were unauthorized, she said in a video message on Facebook: “I was also told that if my outpatient clinic was still open tomorrow, that I would be arrested and my license to practice medicine would be revoked.”
She said that she’s cooperating with the government agencies and using legal remedies to help fix the situation. She apologized to her patients for the inconvenience and suffering this situation could cause for them and said that she hopes to reopen as soon as possible so she can continue helping people.
A tearful Dr. Bunch added in her video message: “If something bad happens to me, please remember that I fought for my fellow Filipinos to have choices in their healthcare.”
It’s an unfortunate turn of events for the patients who rely on her treatment, but it’s not surprising. Naturopathy, homeopathy, chiropractic, acupuncture, and other so-called “alternative” medicine areas have long been under attack by conventional doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and the FDA in the U.S. and countries around the world. As authorities continue to bully trained professionals who are only trying to heal people, medical freedom is slipping away from us and few people are noticing and speaking out about it.

12 Ways Thyme Oil Can Heal, Help You Sleep, And Even Chase Away Bugs
Off Grid News – Thyme essential oil, made from the herb Thymus vulgaris, has been traditionally used in the Mediterranean region for thousands of years as a common remedy for a number of ailments. It had a widespread reputation across many countries and ancient cultures. The Egyptians used it for embalming; the Greek for courage; the Romans for purification of the air; and many Asian cultures for spicing up their food and for aiding digestion. However, the herb is important in French cuisine, too, with the fresh sprigs
being part of bouquet garni.
Here are some ways you can get the most out of this highly potent essential oil.