Today's News: November 05, 2018

Top Headlines

Texas Citizens Request Vote Fraud Investigation
The New American – Three affidavits have been filed with the Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, alleging ballot counting discrepancies in the March 6, 2018 Dallas County Democratic Primary elections. A group of voters in Dallas and Denton counties contacted True Texas Elections, LLC, to assist with the analysis of multiple election records. Dr. Laura Pressley, founder of True Texas Elections, announced today that a number of contradictory results were uncovered and it appears that legally cast ballots were not counted, among other discrepancies.
For instance, in six precincts a combined total of approximately 393 ballots were cast on ballot propositions, but in those same precincts zero votes appear to have been cast for any of the candidates seeking Democratic nominations.
Conversely, in four precincts apparently no ballots whatsoever were cast for any of the propositions, yet approximately 239 ballots were cast for candidates seeking Democratic nominations. Such contradictory results appear to be statistical impossibilities.
In a precinct that is listed as having only one registered voter, the official canvas shows zero ballots cast in that precinct in person on election day. The total number of votes for candidates in that precinct was zero, but the vote totals for that precinct for the Democratic ballot propositions was 14. Were there 14 ballots cast? If so, by whom? If not, how did the vote totals for propositions add up to 14 in a precinct with only one registered voter who apparently didn’t vote in that election?
The concerns are that the Dallas Democratic primary of March 6 primary was possibly interferred with and tampering of vote totals potentially occurred.

Fox News Will No Longer Run Trump Caravan Ad
Breitbart – The Fox News Channel has pulled a Trump-approved campaign advertisement about the migrant caravan marching towards the U.S. border after CNN and other left-wing media figures labeled it “racist.”
“Upon further review, Fox News pulled the ad yesterday and it will not appear on either Fox News Channel or Fox Business Network,” ad sales executive Marianne Gambelli told Mediaite.
NBC also said Monday that “after further review,” it will stop airing President Trump’s campaign advertisement that includes footage of Luis Bracamontes, a twice-deported immigrant from Mexico sentenced to death in California for killing two police officers.
>> Related: Facebook pulls Trump ad as well

Armed Militia Groups Head To The Border, Sparking Military Concerns
Huffington Post – Armed bands of civilian militia members are traveling to the southern U.S. border, where President Donald Trump has ordered thousands of active-duty troops to rebuff the approaching migrant caravan.
About “200 unregulated armed militia members [are] currently operating along the southwest border,“ says a planning document for Army commanders leading the 5,200 troops Trump has deployed at the border, according to Newsweek. The groups “operate under the guise of citizen patrols supporting” border officials, the document says, pointing out “reported incidents of unregulated militias stealing National Guard equipment during deployments.”
The U.S. Border Patrol late last month warned landowners in Texas to expect “possible armed civilians” to come onto their property because of the caravan, The Associated Press reported.
Militia groups ― heavily armed organizations that train members in paramilitary techniques ― often are right-wing extremist organizations. The Southern Poverty Law Center identified 689 active anti-government extremist groups in 2017. Of those, 273 were militias.
One militia group, the Texas Minutemen, has 100 volunteers heading to the Rio Grande to block migrants now traveling through Mexico, leader Shannon McGauley told The Washington Post. The untrained volunteers plan to dig in along border spots with camouflage clothing, flak jackets, semiautomatic weapons, night-vision goggles and aerial drones with thermal sensing equipment to locate people in darkness, McGauley said. They’ll also come with camping gear and food supplies.
The Minuteman Project — in conjunction with the Texas Minutemen — issued an “urgent” call to action last week on its website urging members to set up camp along the border for 90 days
The Patriots of the Constitution militia put out a call last month for a “full deployment” to make a “stand to secure our border from a mob of migrating immigrants,” the Albuquerque Journal reported.
Trump said last week that rocks thrown by immigrants should be considered a firearm, and that the military would fight back. He later said he was suggesting that rock-throwing immigrants would be arrested — not shot.

Idaho Elementary Teachers Who Dressed Up As Mexicans And The Border Wall Suspended
Huffington Post – The group of 14 from Idaho’s Middleton School District were met with swift criticism last week. ver a dozen Idaho elementary school teachers and staff members were suspended Saturday after the group dressed up as Mexicans and President Donald Trump’s Mexico-U.S. border wall for Halloween.
Middleton School District superintendent Dr. Josh Middleton announced during a Saturday morning school board meeting that 14 employees of the school district’s Heights Elementary school were put on paid administrative leave following the controversial costumes. After Middleton’s announcement, a statement from the school district’s board of trustees was read aloud, the Idaho Statesman reports.
“This type of behavior has no place in education and certainly is not tolerated here at Middleton School District,” the statement read.
“This situation is being taken very seriously. We are in full support of our superintendent and administrative staff as a full investigation is being conducted, and are awaiting the results of the investigation,” the statement continued. “This is an unfortunate incident of very poor judgment. Yet it is not indicative of the Middleton School District or our teachers as a whole.”
The photos of staffers were posted to the Middleton School District’s Facebook page the day after Halloween and quickly went viral after people from the district and other social media users expressed outrage over the racist costumes. In the photos, half the group is dressed as the border wall, which reads “Make America Great Again,” while the other half are holding maracas while dressed in ponchos and sombreros.

World News

NHS clinic for transgender children announces review into its operations amid fears youngsters are being ‘fast-tracked’ into changing sex without proper checks
Daily Mail – Britain’s only NHS gender identity service for children, The Tavistock Centre, has been hit by insider claims that it is ‘fast tracking’ life-altering decisions.
A senior member of staff made the claims, shared by a group of parents of transgender children, and the centre is now reviewing its operations.
The claims state that staff at the centre are not fully assessing the personal histories of children seeking gender reassignment.
In a letter to the trust’s board parents outlined their fears of an accelerated time-crunch influencing the due diligence of the decisions being made.

US will allow Iran’s civilian nuclear projects in Arak, Bushehr & Fordow to continue
RT – The US will allow civilian nuclear projects at three sites – Arak, Bushehr and Fordow – to continue “under the strictest scrutiny,” to “ensure transparency and maintain constraints” on Iran, the State Department said.
This means that significant parts of Iran’s civilian nuclear program were effectively given a waiver from the US sanctions, imposed on Monday as part of Washington’s withdrawal from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal.

The blacklist: Targets of new US sanctions against Iran
RT – The US has re-imposed all of the sanctions against Iran that had been suspended under the 2015 nuclear deal. From airlines to oil firms, the list of companies and people targeted is exhaustive.
The sanctions, applied on Monday, reimpose financial penalties lifted under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which promised Iran some sanctions relief in exchange for a halt to its nuclear weapons program. President Trump withdrew from the deal in May, and has since reimposed sanctions in 19 rounds.
Described by Trump as the “strongest sanctions our country has ever issued,” Monday’s penalties target the Islamic Republic’s banking, energy and transport sectors, and according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, aim to “fundamentally alter the behavior of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s leadership.”

Ireland warns UK over post-Brexit border issue
BBC – The UK government has been told by Ireland to “stand by its commitments” on avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar said an arrangement with a time limit would not be “worth the paper it’s written on”.
The border issue is the main barrier to progress between the two sides.
With time running out, Theresa May, who briefs her cabinet on Tuesday, has to get both the EU and her MPs on side.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Gunman posed as customer before killing 2 women, injuring 5 others
CBS – 11/03/18 – A gunman posing as a customer opened fire inside a yoga studio in Tallahassee, Florida, on Friday, killing two women and wounding five others before killing himself, authorities said. Local police identified the shooter as Scott Paul Beierle, 40.
Police said Beierle shot six people with a handgun and pistol-whipped another. Patrons fought the gunman and prevented him from harming others. Two of the victims died, while another two are in stable condition. Three have been released from the hospital.
“The fact we had people fight this attacker and prevent him from doing further harm speaks to the true spirit of Tallahassee,” police chief Michael DeLeo told reporters Friday.

Sadly, Sound Money ISN’T on the Ballot
Activist Post – Americans will be headed to the polls to cast ballots in the midterm elections. Polling suggests that Democrats will return to power in the House of Representatives. Republicans are favored to hold on to the Senate.
However, political polls have proven less than reliable. There are plenty of people expecting a surprise once the votes are counted.
But there are many policies that won’t change regardless of who holds Congressional power come Wednesday.
For starters, we can count on the continuation of huge deficits. The Treasury Department’s most recent estimate is that government borrowing will double in 2018 versus last year. The bureaucracy is going to blow through $1.34 trillion more than this year’s record tax revenue.
That deficit will be the highest since 2010, back when the U.S. economy was mired in deep recession. Today, the IRS stands in high cotton. Imagine what deficit would look like if tax receipts were at recessionary levels and/or Congress was launching a major stimulus program.
The best-case scenario for deficit hawks would be a Republican victory in tomorrow’s election (although an argument could be made that a splitting of power between the two chambers would result in somewhat of a stalemate in Washington, possibly meaning less expansion of governmental programs).
Unfortunately, the “best case” is not all that good. Big government Republicans are already in control of Congress, and even the President’s supporters admit Donald Trump is not conservative when it comes to borrowing and spending.
The deficit is already exploding in size under “best case” conditions. That is why forecasters have been calling for trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see.
Almost nobody in Washington DC cares about sound money, and that won’t change regardless of who wins tomorrow.
Democrat and Republican leadership both adore the Fed for enabling them to perpetually spend way beyond their means. Candidates instinctively know better than to seriously rock the boat. That includes Republicans who are more concerned with reassuring voters they will protect entitlements and key programs like military spending.

Veteran News

List of 2018 Veterans Day Free Meals, Discounts, Sales and Deals – Updated Daily!

Economy & Business

“Red October”: We Just Witnessed The Worst Month For The S&P 500 In 7 Years
Economic Collapse – This was an October that many of us will never forget. The month of October is typically the most volatile month of the year for stocks, and that was definitely the case in 2018. It was the worst month for the S&P 500 in 7 years, and it was the worst month for the Nasdaq in almost 10 years. But the damage could have been much worse if we had not seen a bounce the last two trading days of the month. On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 241 points, and investors are hoping that this is a sign that things are starting to settle down a bit. And hopefully things will be calmer in November, because things were so chaotic in October that the month has already been branded “Red October” by the mainstream media

Energy & Environment

California Hit By 39 Earthquakes Within 24 Hours As Scientists Warn Of “Movement Along The San Andreas Fault”
Economic Collapse Blog – A series of large earthquakes has rattled California over the last 24 hours, and scientists are telling us that the shaking was the result of “movement along the San Andreas Fault system”. In recent months there has been an alarming amount of seismic activity all along “the Ring of Fire”, and there have been times when the number of global earthquakes has been way above normal. Could it be possible that all of this unusual seismic activity is leading up to something? As you will see below, experts are telling us that we are overdue for the “Big One” to hit California. And when it does eventually strike, it could be far worse than most people would dare to imagine. Most of the 39 significant earthquakes that have struck California within the last 24 hours have happened along the San Andreas Fault. The following comes from CBS News

Science & Technology

Robots roam Midwest grocery stores
STL Post Dispatch – In at least 15 Schnuck Markets stores, the future is now.
Aisle-scanning retail inventory robots, known as Tally, will soon be wheeling around in a growing number of locations as the St. Louis area’s leading grocer expands its partnership with San Francisco firm Simbe Robotics.
The robot, which moves around on a Roomba-looking base, uses cameras and sensors to perform inventory checks and alert employees when an item needs restocking or if price tags don’t match advertisements.
The grocery chain piloted the Tally robot in July 2017 in three stores. Then, several months ago, Schnucks officials began operating the Tally robots in four stores — Ballwin, Des Peres, Webster Groves and Woods Mill in Chesterfield.
Tally will keep its job at those four stores.
“We saw that our out-of-stock positions improved greatly,” said Bob Hardester, Schnucks’ chief information officer.
Schnucks plans to roll Tally out at four more stores in the next month: Granite City, Twin Oaks, Cross Keys in Florissant and Sierra Vista in Spanish Lake.

Health

FDA Approves Painkiller 1,000X More Powerful Than Morphine Despite Epidemic of Drug Overdoses & Natural Alternatives
Green Med Info – In an extremely irresponsible move,* the FDA just approved a painkiller 1,000 times stronger than morphine, despite the fact that the U.S. is already experiencing a deadly opioid drug crisis that takes over 100 lives a day.
On Friday, Nov. 2nd, U.S regulators approved a fast-acting, extremely potent opioid tablet 10 times more powerful than Fentanyl called Dsuvia, developed as an alternative to IV painkillers. This decision comes with a backdrop of reports of tens of thousands of annual deaths caused by overdoses from pharmaceutical opioid-type painkillers throughout the United States. According to a NY Daily News article, “The drug’s manufacturer, AcelRx, said the drug will be marketed with the name Dsuvia and cost between $50 and $60 per dose.”
Lawmakers and consumer advocacy groups have expressed deep concern about this decision. For instance, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., released the following statement on Friday: “There was no public health need to approve this formulation of supercharged fentanyl in the face of these questions, opposition from one FDA advisory committee chair, and without the full participation of another advisory committee devoted to drug safety.”
On the same day Public Citizen released a statement titled, “FDA Makes Wrong Call; Super-Strong Opioid Medication Will Be Abused and Kill People,” which describes how the FDA rigged the committee vote to ensure a positive recommendation.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “Opioid overdoses accounted for more than 42,000 deaths in 2016, more than any previous year on record. An estimated 40% of opioid overdose deaths involved a prescription opioid.”
The HHS attributed the crisis to the pharmaceutical industry’s push in the 1990’s to misinform the medical community that patients receiving prescription opioid painkillers would not become addicted. According to the HHS, this lead to both increased prescription of opioid medications and widespread misuse of both prescription and non-prescription opioids before it became clear that these medications could indeed be highly addictive. Below is an infographic provided by the HHS that depicts the extent of the crisis.

Common Chemical Causes Language Delay in Children
Newsmax – Children may suffer delayed language skills if their mothers come in contact with common chemicals contained in numerous products — from nail polish and hair spray to food packaging and vinyl flooring – while pregnant, according to new research.
The chemical at the center of the controversy is called phthalates. Phthalates are in countless products and as plasticizers, they make things more pliable; as solvents, they enable other substances to dissolve.
In the new study, researchers found that the risk for language delay at about age 3 years was up to 30 percent higher among children whose mothers had higher exposure to two phthalates in particular: dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP). Both chemicals are in products such as older vinyl flooring, cosmetics and plastic toys.
“Phthalates are known to be hormonally active and affect the body’s hormone system,” said researcher Shanna Swan, a professor of environmental and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

FDA Bans Toxic Chemical From Hair Dyes
Newsmax – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday said that hair dyes can no longer contain lead.
The new rule does not take effect for 12 months, but it ends the only remaining legal use of lead, a neurotoxin, in cosmetic products in the United States.
“In the nearly 40 years since lead acetate was initially approved as a color additive, our understanding of the hazards of lead exposure has evolved significantly,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb explained in an agency news release.
“We now know that the approved use of lead acetate in adult hair dyes no longer meets our safety standard,” he added. “Lead exposure can have serious adverse effects on human health, including for children, who may be particularly vulnerable. Moreover, there are alternative color additives for hair coloring products that consumers can use that do not contain lead as an ingredient.”
For the most part, the hair dyes that now contain lead acetate, such as Grecian Formula, are used to darken gray hair, according to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).
Along with new scientific data, the FDA’s decision was prompted by a petition opposing the use of lead as a color additive.
“A ban on lead acetate in off-the-shelf hair dyes is long overdue,” said Melanie Benesh, a legislative attorney at EWG, one of a dozen public interest groups and individuals who petitioned the FDA for the ban. “There is no safe level of lead exposure, which has been linked to developmental issues, reduced fertility, organ system toxicity, cancer and other serious health problems. We welcome the FDA’s effort to protect public health from this source of exposure to one of the most hazardous chemicals known.”

Improve your heart health with aged garlic extract
NaturalNews – Using aged garlic extract can keep cardiovascular diseases at bay, thanks to its ability to prevent platelet aggregation, suggests a study in the Journal of Natural Medicines. In the study, researchers from Japan looked at the effect of aged garlic extract on the functional property of platelet.
Platelet aggregation is the clumping together of platelets in the blood. It is part of the sequence of events that result in the formation of a clot. Aged garlic extract, which is a garlic preparation rich in water-soluble cysteinyl moieties, has been shown to possess multiple beneficial effects on cardiovascular diseases, such as prevention of platelet aggregation. However, its mode of action on platelets has not yet been fully understood.
For the study, the researchers treated mice with aged garlic extract to mice. They also examined the platelet aggregation in response to collagen in laboratory testing.
The results showed that the treatment of aged garlic extract greatly reduced the ability of platelet to clump together after two weeks of treatment. In addition, the aged garlic extract treatment produced platelets that responded to collagen. It also dose-dependently suppressed the phosphorylation of signaling proteins.
Based on the findings of the study, the researchers concluded that aged garlic extract can protect the heart from cardiovascular diseases by inhibiting platelet aggregation. It does this by changing the functional property of platelets in response to collagen.

Skin cancer death rates soar, mostly for men
AFP – Skin cancer deaths among men have soared in wealthy nations since 1985, with mortality rates among women rising more slowly or even declining, researchers told a medical conference in Glasgow Sunday.
Reasons for the discrepancy between sexes are unclear but evidence suggests men are “less likely to protect themselves from the sun” or heed public health warnings, lead researcher Dorothy Yang, a doctor at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust in London, told AFP.
More than 90 percent of melanoma cancers are caused by skin cell damage from exposure to the sun or other sources of ultraviolet (UV) radiation such as tanning beds, according to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
In eight of 18 countries examined, men’s skin cancer death rates increased over three decades by at least 50 percent.
In two nations — Ireland and Croatia — it roughly doubled.
Also seeing a sharp jump were Spain and Britain (70 percent), The Netherlands (60 percent), as well as France and Belgium (50 percent).
In the United States, which was not included in the study, male melanoma mortality went up by about 25 percent, according to CDC statistics.

Preventing Prostate Cancer with Green Tea
Care 2 – “Prostate cancer is a leading cause of illness and death among men in the United States and Western Europe,” but rates in Asia can be as much as ten times lower. Perhaps Asians are genetically less likely to get prostate cancer? No. Japanese Americans and Chinese Americans have high prostate cancer rates as well.
In the United States, up to nearly one in three men in their 30s already has small prostate cancers brewing and that grows to nearly two thirds of American men by their 60s. On autopsy, most older men were found to have unknown cancerous tumors in their prostates. What’s remarkable is that Asian men seem to have the same prevalence of these hidden, latent prostate cancers on autopsy, but they don’t tend to grow enough to cause problems. In Japan, men tend to die with their tumors rather than from their tumors. Of course, that’s changing as Asian populations continue to Westernize their diets.
What is it about Western diets that fuels cancer growth? It could be carcinogens in the diet accelerating the growth of cancer. Indeed, the typical American diet is rich in animal fats and meats, but it could also be something protective in Asian diets that is slowing the cancer growth, such as fruits, vegetables, soy foods, or green tea.
How might we determine if there is a link between tea consumption and the risk and progression of prostate cancer? Dozens of studies have examined whether tea drinkers tend to get less cancer in the future and if cancer victims tend to have drank less tea in the past. Although the results have been mixed, overall, tea consumption was associated with a lower risk of prostate cancer. So, tea consumption might indeed play a protective role. However, just because tea drinkers get less cancer doesn’t mean it’s necessarily because of the tea. Perhaps drinking tea is just a sign of a more traditional lifestyle and maybe tea drinkers are less likely to be patrons of the thousand KFC fast-food restaurants now in Japan.
In vitro studies performed in a lab allow for as many factors to be controlled as possible. When everything is removed from the equation except for green tea and prostate cancer, dripping green tea compounds directly on prostate cancer cells in a petri dish can cause them to self-destruct. But we do not appear to absorb enough green tea compounds into our bloodstream to reach those kinds of levels.
This may explain why some studies failed to find an association between tea drinking and cancer. Maybe we’re not drinking enough? In the United States, for example, the “high” tea-drinking group may be defined as more than five cups of tea a week. In Japan, however, the “high” tea-drinking group can consume five or more cups a day, which was associated with about halving the risk of aggressive prostate cancer. How? Apparently, it was not by preventing the formation of the cancer in the first place, but perhaps by slowing or stopping the cancer’s growth. If green tea can stop the growth of prostate cancer, why not try giving green tea to prostate cancer patients to see if it will help?