Today's News: February 19, 2018

World News

Cannabis to become legal? Weed bill set for UK parliament this week
RT – The UK parliament will debate a proposal to partially legalize cannabis this week, as campaigns in favor of using the drug for medicinal purposes gather momentum.
On Friday, politicians will revisit the issue in the first debate over the introduction of a right for sick people to use the cannabinoid drugs.

Russian senators list 100 examples of US meddling in foreign nations’ affairs
RT – A Russian parliamentary commission has prepared a report that lists over 100 cases of US interference in other nations’ internal affairs since the end of World War Two. “We have counted approximately 100, about 101 or 102 absolutely verified and recorded facts of American involvement in the sovereign affairs of over 60 UN member-nations since the approval of this organizations’ charter that bans any such involvement – since 1946 till this day,” the head of the upper house Commission for Protection of State Sovereignty, Senator Andrey Klimov, was quoted as saying on Monday by TASS.
The senator named one particular example from the list – the 1973 coup d’état in Chile that installed Augusto Pinochet as a military dictator and as a result of which the country’s parliament was dissolved and numerous human rights violations were committed. “Every such fact has a multitude of episodes of the US interference,” he noted.
>> Related: ‘US only gets away with meddling because of its UN veto’

U.S. News, Politics & Government

America, Please Dump This ‘President’s Day’ Nonsense
Constitution – Monday, February 19 has been designated as “President’s Day,” another fake holiday seemingly meant to tear down American heroes and replace them with a meaningless day off work (for some). But I urge you, America, reject this sham holiday. The problem with “President’s Day” is that it homogenizes all the great deeds done by individual presidents into a meaningless mélange. By celebrating all the presidents at once, we are necessarily negating the important historical works of, say, the father of our country.

NYT Columnist: Let’s Repeal the Second Amendment
Townhall – Back in October, after the Las Vegas Shooting, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens argued that the Second Amendment should be repealed. Since Wednesday’s shooting in South Florida, Stephens’ OpEd has re-circulated across social media, which eventually led to another OpEd pushing for repealing the Second Amendment.

ABC, NBC Eagerly Tout New Gun Control Efforts By ‘Angry’ Students
Infowars – The liberal media flocked to a gun control rally that was held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida Saturday in the wake of the Parkland school shooting. They were eager to spread the group’s message and during their Sunday morning shows, ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Sunday Today hyped the new wave of “student activism” and claimed they had the “momentum here.”
>> Related: Florida students to march on Washington in call for gun reform

Ohio Sheriff Offers Free Concealed Carry Classes to Teachers
Townhall – Richard K. Jones announced that he will be offering an opportunity for educators to learn how to defend themselves and potentially protect the lives of their students.Sheriff Jones tweeted that he will offer free concealed carry classes to teachers in Butler County, OH.

Trump open to improving background checks, spokesman says
CNN – President Donald Trump “is supportive of efforts to improve the federal background check system” for gun purchases, less than a week after the Florida school shooting that killed 17 people. Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said in a statement on Monday that Trump spoke with Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, on Friday about a bill he introduced with Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, that aims to strengthen how state and federal governments report offenses that could prohibit people from buying a gun.

Florida suspect said he heard voices telling him to carry out massacre: Sources
ABCNews – The 19-year-old who is accused of killing 17 people and injuring dozens more when he opened fire on a South Florida high school Wednesday afternoon told investigators that he heard voices in his head, giving him instructions on what to do to conduct the attack, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

Rick Gates is reportedly about to plead guilty to Robert Mueller
CNBC – A LA Times report suggests that Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide, will plead guilty to Special counsel Robert Mueller. Gates is the latest of several former 2016 campaign staffers caught in the web of Mueller’s investigation, which last week indicted 13 Russians on conspiracy charges.

REPORT: Andrew McCabe Altered Peter Strzok’s 302 Notes on General Flynn interview – Then Destroyed Evidence
Gateway Pundit – According to Mike, former Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Andrew McCabe altered far left FBI investigator Peter Strzok’s notes on his interview with General Michael Flynn. And then McCabe destroyed the evidence. This comes after Byron York reported that former FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers Flynn did not lie under oath.
Then Flynn was indicted by the Mueller witch hunt months later for lying.
What changed? According to Cernovich Andrew McCabe altered Strzok’s 302 reports — then destroyed the evidence. In March he’ll retire with 1.8 million in pension, paid by us, the taxpayers

Economy & Business

Venezuela about to launch its ‘petro’ cryptocurrency
RT – The pre-sale of the commodity-backed digital currency ‘petro,’ which has been announced by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, is expected to start on Tuesday. The country hopes this will help to replenish its depleted budget.
The new cryptocurrency will be limited to 100 million units, called the mene. The petro token will be backed by Venezuelan oil, gas, gold and diamond reserves.
Venezuela’s regulator said last week that it would draw investment from Qatar, Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries, as well as from European nations and the US.

Australia, US, India and Japan in Talks to Establish Alternative Market to China’s ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative
Newsmax – Australia, the United States, India and Japan are talking about establishing a joint regional infrastructure scheme as an alternative to China’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative in an attempt to counter Beijing’s spreading influence, the Australian Financial Review reported on Monday, citing a senior U.S. official.

Energy & Environment

Lunatic climate change scientists now pushing “outlandish, scary” geoengineering schemes to “cool the planet”
NaturalNews – The pressure is on to make geoengineering experiments widely accepted. “We are past a point of no return in the quest to avoid dangerous warming,” said Clive Hamilton, the author of 2013’s “Earthmasters: The Dawn of the Age of Climate Engineering” and a professor at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, Australia.Some geoengineering ideas presented include: Spraying marine clouds with salt water to pale their color and make them reflect more sunlight. Another idea is to inject micro-bubbles into the oceans to reflect more sunlight. Another method is to fertilize the oceans with iron sulphate to stimulate the growth of phytoplankton to pull carbon dioxide from the skies. The most nefarious proposal yet is for planes to inject biological agents into cirrus clouds to thin them out quickly and allow heat to escape.
These lunatic plans to engineer climate are frightening, with dire consequences for human life and ecosystems. The arrogance of scientists and global planners to propose such goals is blood-curdling. At least their plans are now in the open.

Science & Technology
Scientists create first human-sheep hybrids – paving the way for organs to be grown in animals for transplant even providing a cure for diabetes
Daily Mail – The Stanford University project grew embryos which had sheep and human cells. Scientists plan to implant stem cells into sheep and hope human organs grow . While scientists have previously developed human-pig hybrids, sparking excitement that they could use them grow human organs, no team has been able to take it to the next step. But Stanford’s team, which has already successfully transplanted pancreases into mice, is tipped to be the first after now that they have produced a human-sheep model to use.

Health

CDC: U.S. Fertility Rate Below Replacement for 9th Straight Year
Infowars – The total fertility rate of the United States fell below the replacement level for the ninth straight year in 2016, according to the final birth data report for that year published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The last time it was above the replacement level was 2007, according to CDC historical data published in the final birth report for 2015.

Benefits of Himalayan Salt
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