March 28, 2024

The Power Hour

Knowledge is Power

Today's News: October 22, 2019

World News

Transit only: US troops pulled out of Syria & moved to Iraq are now asked OUT of the country
RT – US forces that crossed into Iraq after pulling out from Syria can only use its territory for transit and do not have permission to stay, the Iraqi military said on Tuesday.
Hundreds of military vehicles carrying American troops crossed into the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq in a long convoy on Monday.
The Iraqi statement adds more uncertainty to a vision of what will actually happen to the troops after their withdrawal from Syria. In the last few days, the American military were simultaneously reported to be “going home” – that’s according to President Trump  – and continuing their mission in Iraq to conduct operations against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in a plan outlined by US Defense Secretary Mark Esper. He also mentioned some soldiers may remain in Syria to protect oil fields from IS takeover.
On Tuesday, Esper told reporters during his stop in Saudi Arabia that his troops would make preparations in Iraq to go home from there – without specifying how long they would stay. “The aim isn’t to stay in Iraq interminably, the aim is to pull our soldiers out and eventually get them back home,” the defense secretary said in front of a Patriot missile battery at the Prince Sultan Air Base near Riyadh.
Russian Helicopters Land on Former US Military Base in Northern Syria
Sputnik – The American forces had to abandon their facility at the destroyed airfield as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) left the area amid intense clashes with the Turkish Army this month.
Russian Aerospace Forces helicopters have landed at the Tabqa Airfield in the Raqqa Province of Syria, at what was formerly a US military base. The facility is secured by the Syrian Arab Army and militants allied with Damascus.
According to one of the Syrian officers guarding the compound, Daesh terrorists destroyed the landing strip after seizing the base in 2014. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces claimed the area in 2017, allowing the American military to base there.
Canada: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Wins Tight Election Race
Breitbart – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party won enough seats Monday night to secure him a second four-year term following a contentious election cycle. However, he lost his majority government and will lead a minority in Parliament instead.
Liberals won 157 seats in the Canadian Parliament with 33 percent of the vote share or 5.62 million votes to Andrew Scheer’s Conservative Party’s 121 seats with 5.88 million votes or a 34.5 percent share.
Trudeau, in Montreal, Que., told his supporters and staff Tuesday that this victory was because of them.
Erdogan, Putin hold talks as truce in Syria set to expire
Al Jazeera – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is holding talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, at the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Tuesday, hours before a ceasefire between Turkish and Kurdish forces in northern Syria is set to expire.
Putin and Erdogan’s talks will focus on “normalising the situation” in northeast Syria, according to the Kremlin.
Northern Ireland abortion and same-sex marriage laws change
BBC – Abortion has been decriminalised and same-sex marriage is to be legalised in Northern Ireland.
Legislation making the changes – which was passed by MPs at Westminster – came into force at midnight.
The first same-sex weddings in Northern Ireland are set to take place in February 2020.
The government has until the end of March to come up with regulations for the provision of abortion services.
The legislation took effect after the 21 October deadline passed without a devolved government being re-formed.
Before now, abortion was only allowed in Northern Ireland if a woman’s life was at risk or there was a danger of permanent and serious damage to her physical or mental health.
The Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 has also placed a duty on the government to implement the recommendations of a report by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), published in 2018.
The CEDAW report said abortion should be legalised where there is a threat to a pregnant woman’s mental or physical health, without the conditionality of “long-term or permanent” effects.
It recommended terminations should be permitted in cases of rape or incest.
UK Population Set to Hit 70m in Just over a Decade, Three-Quarters Driven by Migration
Breitbart – By mid-2028, the population of the UK is set to increase by three million to 69.4 million, primarily driven by immigration.
According to projections published on Monday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 73 per cent of the growth is predicted to be due to the net international immigration of 2.2 million people. Less than one-third, 27 per cent, of the increase will be due to natural population growth (more births than deaths).
The government statistics agency made that immigration prediction based on the average annual net long-term international migration of 190,000. That figure is derived from the average immigration figures from mid-1993 to mid-2018. In terms of gross immigration, 5.4 million people are expected to immigrate long-term to the UK in the ten years to mid-2028.
Palestinian court blocks access to 59 websites critical of govt
RT – A Palestinian court has blocked access to 59 websites critical of the Palestinian Authority, a decision that has drawn wide criticism, AP reported.
The court ruling, handed down on October 17 but only revealed this week, says the websites publish materials that “threaten national security and civil peace.”
Most of the sites are run by supporters of the Islamic militant group Hamas or Mohammed Dahlan, rivals of President Mahmoud Abbas.
In a rare move, Abbas’ government called on the attorney general to overturn the decision. Ammar Dweik, head of the Palestinian Commission for Human Rights, says his organization will appeal the ruling, which “restricts free reporting and free speech.”
China blocks quarter of accredited foreign news sites
AFP – China’s “Great Firewall” system of online censorship blocks domestic access to nearly a quarter of the foreign news organisations accredited to report in the country, a press watchdog said Tuesday.
Beijing bars its citizens from accessing the publicly available websites of 23 percent of 215 international news organisations that have journalists based in China, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) said in a statement.
Thirty-one percent of news organisations that publish primarily in English, the most widely-spoken foreign language in China, are blocked, the FCCC said in a statement.
SOCIALISM: Venezuelans buy gas with cigarettes to battle inflation
AP – Motorists in socialist Venezuela have long enjoyed the world’s cheapest gasoline, with fuel so heavily subsidized that a full tank these days costs a tiny fraction of a U.S. penny. But the economy is in such shambles that drivers are now paying for fill-ups with a little food, a candy bar or just a cigarette.
Bartering at the pump has taken off as hyperinflation makes Venezuela’s paper currency, the bolivar, hard to find and renders some denominations all but worthless, so that nobody will accept them.
Without cash in their wallets, drivers often hand gas station attendants a bag of rice, cooking oil or whatever is within reach.
“You can pay with a cigarette,” said Orlando Molina, filling up his subcompact Ford Ka in Caracas. “Heck, it’s no secret to anyone that it goes for nothing.”
Gas is so dirt-cheap that station attendants don’t even know the price. Emptyhanded drivers get waved through, paying nothing at all.
This barter system, while perhaps the envy of cash-strapped drivers outside the country, is just another symptom of bedlam in Venezuela.
Chile extends curfew again as violent unrest paralyzes one of Latin America’s biggest cities
CNN – Broken glass and bricks littered streets in Santiago after more violent protests Monday, prompting Chile’s government to extend a curfew in the capital for a third straight day.
Shops and business have been looted and set on fire, and metro stations vandalized and closed to the public in widespread demonstrations over economic inequalities, living costs and rising debt in the usually stable country.
Thousands of demonstrators took part in a massive protest in Santiago’s Plaza Italia Monday, banging drums and pans and calling for the ouster of conservative President Sebastian Pinera, in protests that have paralyzed one of Latin America’s biggest cities.
Clashes between protesters and security forces have led to the deaths of 11 people, with eight killed on Sunday in the most deadly day of demonstrations. Many of the deaths occurred during looting when supermarkets were set on fire.
Protests began eight days ago over a proposed price hike for subway tickets in the capital city Santiago but have since expanded, revealing deep-seated anger among ordinary Chileans who feel they have been excluded from the country’s economic rise.
Chile is one of Latin America’s wealthiest countries, but it also has one of highest levels of income inequality in the world.
Many jobs are informal or temporary, with young people and women among those struggling the most to find quality, skilled work. Calls for wider economic reform over a number of issues including pensions, healthcare and public education show the cracks in the country’s progress since its transition to democracy in 1990.
Pinera announced the suspension of the price hike on Saturday but it did little to quell the unrest. On Monday night, the Chilean Senate approved the cancellation of the proposed fare increase, with Senators condemning the acts of violence and calling for more unity and empathy to resolve the country’s problems.
Pinera said in a press conference Monday night that he has heard the people’s plight for a better life and insisted “violence will not prevail.” He also announced plans to meet with different groups including the opposition on Tuesday to come up with solutions for the country in crisis.
The President had previously incensed protesters by saying, “we are at war with a powerful enemy … that does respect anyone or anything.”

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Civil Unrest Is Erupting All Over The World, But Just Wait Until The United States Joins The Party
SHFTPlan – All over the globe, the mood is turning sour.  Anger and frustration are bubbling over, and protests are becoming violent in major cities all across the planet.  In some cases, economic pain is driving the protests and in other cases, political matters are motivating the protesters, and it has been a very long time since we have seen so many angry protests happening all over the world simultaneously.
Unfortunately, many believe that what we have seen so far is just the beginning.  Global economic conditions are rapidly deteriorating, and as economic pain intensifies that is only going to make everyone more frustrated.  And here in the United States, the drama surrounding the potential impeachment of Donald Trump is going to greatly escalate the political tensions that are already deeply dividing this country.  No matter how things turn out, a large percentage of the population is likely to be deeply frustrated with the result, and that could very easily lead to tremendous civil unrest.
But before we get to Trump, let’s take a look at what has been going on around the rest of the world first.  In Chile, we are witnessing violent protests, unlike anything that we have seen in decades
Economic conditions are tough in Chile and rapidly getting tougher, and it is very unusual to hear of “looting” in a country that is normally so stable.
Meanwhile, political corruption appears to be the main motivation for the violent protests in Lebanon
When people lose hope that things are ever going to get any better, they tend to take to the streets.
Unfortunately, corruption appears to be a way of life over in Lebanon at this point, and there seems to be little hope of major reforms any time soon.
In the UK, the drama surrounding the Brexit saga drew “hundreds of thousands of people” into the streets of London this weekend…
Yet another Brexit agreement appears to have failed, and many are wondering if it will ever be possible to get one through Parliament.
Many of those favoring Brexit are hoping for a “no-deal” exit from the European Union at this point, and meanwhile many of the “remainers” are holding out hope that there will somehow be a second referendum.
Over in Spain, violent protests have erupted night after night in the aftermath of the arrest of nine key pro-independence leaders in Catalonia…
These protests may fade after a while, but they are not going away.  Those involved in the pro-independence movement in Catalonia are very passionate, and it has widespread public support.
Of course, the protests that have made the biggest splash on the global stage have been the relentless pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.  Despite the brutality of the police, the protesters just keep coming back again and again, and “tens of thousands” of protesters were in the streets once again on Sunday
Here in the United States, we don’t have protests like this going on right now.
But we could very soon.
The impeachment process is bringing a focal point to the deep anger that has been building on both sides of the political spectrum for many years.  Now that this process has begun, there is no going back, and both sides believe that there is only one result that will bring justice.
For the left, any result that does remove Donald Trump from office will be a bitter disappointment.  The Democrats in the House of Representatives are going to draft articles of impeachment, and they believe that they already have the votes they need to send those articles of impeachment to the U.S. Senate.
If the Republican-controlled Senate does not vote to convict Trump and remove him from office, this will greatly upset the left and could result in an explosion of anger in our city streets.
On the other hand, if the Republican-controlled Senate does vote to convict Trump and remove him from office, tens of millions of hardcore Trump supporters are going to be absolutely livid.  There would be an explosion of righteous anger on the right, and it would almost certainly spill into our city streets.
Of course, it is likely that both sides will start protesting well before there is a final result, but once the final vote in the Senate happens that is when things are likely to get very interesting.
The Democrats should have never gone down this road because one way or another this process is going to tear us apart.
If our founders could see us today they would be rolling over in their graves, because this is not what they intended.
Police Groups Oppose Beto’s Plan to Confiscate Guns
The New America – Several police and other local law-enforcement organizations have said they would ignore a presidential order from Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke to send them into private homes to confiscate firearms.
Back in September, O’Rourke responded, “Hell, yes,” to a question at a Democratic Party presidential debate about whether he would, as president, take guns away from Americans, including those who have committed no crime.
Then, last week, O’Rourke told MSNBC that he would order “law enforcement to recover” guns from those who defy his buy-back plan. This promise — that he would be dispatching police officers and sheriffs to confiscate firearms — did not sit well with many of those representing the officers who would be expected to carry out such an order.
The Washington Free Beacon interviewed several leaders of groups who represent officers, such as the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). The FOP is the nation’s largest police union. It represents more than 330,000 law-enforcement officers. FOP Executive Director Jim Pasco told the Beacon, “Mr. O’Rourke may not be aware that state and local police officers (who comprise more than 90 percent of all police in the U.S.) receive their orders from their local jurisdictions — not from the federal government. Further, any such legislation, if it passed, would no doubt be vigorously litigated with a view to its apparent inconsistency with the Second Amendment.”
One sheriff in O’Rourke’s home state of Texas, AJ Louderback, said he would refuse to obey such an order from a President O’Rourke. “I think he’s seriously misjudging the law-enforcement response to what he wants to do. Many sheriffs would not comply.”
O’Rourke has suffered some friction with local law enforcement in Texas since his unsuccessful U.S. Senate race against Senator Ted Cruz. In a debate with Cruz, O’Rourke said he did not like the “system” of searching a person, stopping a person, and even “shooting that person” just based on the “color of their skin.”
When Cruz challenged O’Rourke during the debate, O’Rourke protested that he was not criticizing police officers (but one wonders who else would be perpetrating such gross civil liberties violations that O’Rourke described other than police).
Other local law-enforcement officers were critical of O’Rourke’s lack of support for the “men and women at our borders who are trying to disarm violent drug cartels and human traffickers in the real world, instead of fantasizing about using America’s police to confiscate rifles from ranchers in Texas.”
Many Democrats have expressed displeasure at O’Rourke’s avowed intention to disarm law-abiding American citizens, but one wonders if their displeasure is more that he spoke too plainly, rather than having any actual opposition to his gun-confiscation goals.
For example, former Vice President Joe Biden said, “Over 90 percent of the American people think we have to get assault weapons off the street period.” Times have changed, Biden argued, and now public opinion favors stricter gun control. In other words, constitutional rights only exist at the pleasure of the majority?
When asked the next day after the debate if he believed Americans would actually comply with his intention to confiscate certain guns, O’Rourke said he believed most would. He added that he did not intend to have a federal door-to-door confiscation of weapons, but would work with local police chiefs to develop a plan to take away guns.
White House Personnel Director Tells Trump Top DHS Secretary Picks Ineligible for Job
WSJ – The White House personnel office chief has told President Trump that his top two picks to fill the Homeland Security secretary job aren’t eligible under a federal law dictating who can fill the role without Senate confirmation, said people familiar with the matter.
Taylor arrives in Capitol to discuss Ukraine affair
The Hill – The top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine arrived in the Capitol Tuesday morning to be interviewed as part of the Democrats’ fast-advancing impeachment investigation, the latest in a string of witnesses to testify on President Trump‘s dealings with Kiev.
William Taylor, the U.S. chargé d’affaires of Ukraine, had expressed concerns last month that Trump had crossed a line by threatening to withhold U.S. military aid to Ukraine to pressure the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, for political favors.
Taylor entered the Capitol just before 9:30 a.m. and was escorted to the secure meeting room, three floors below ground, where the House Intelligence Committee — joined by the Oversight and Foreign Affairs panels — are leading the investigation into allegations that Trump enlisted foreign help to boost his reelection chances next year.
Taylor did not comment as he passed reporters on his way to the room.
Donald Trump: Impeachment a Democrat-led ‘Lynching’
Breitbart – President Donald Trump described the impeachment inquiry led by Democrats as a “lynching” on Tuesday, noting that there were no legal rights in the process.
“All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “But we will WIN!”
Trump said he had no due process or legal rights in the process, noting that the impeachment inquiry had disintegrated into the tyranny of the majority in the House.
“So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights,” he wrote.
The president praised Republicans who voted to censure House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) — 185 out of 185 present voted for the process on Tuesday night despite facing defeat as Democrats voted 218 to table the motion.
“Really good!” he noted.
Ready to Pay $30,000 for Sharing a Photo Online? The House of Representatives Thinks You Are   
Activist Post – Today the House of Representatives has scheduled to vote on what appears to be an unconstitutional copyright bill that carries with it life altering penalties. The bill would slap $30,000 fines on Internet users who share a copyrighted work they don’t own online.
Supporters of the bill insist there’s no problem, because $30,000 isn’t that much money. They even laughed about it. We know the reality: when nearly half of this country would struggle to afford an emergency $400 expense, the penalties in this bill are deadly serious. What’s worse, they’ll be imposed not by an experienced judge, but instead by a committee of unaccountable bureaucrats.
Hunter Biden agrees to DNA test in Arkansas paternity case
Fox – Hunter Biden on Monday agreed to submit a DNA test in response to a paternity claim filed by a woman in Arkansas who says the embattled son of the 2020 Democratic hopeful Joe Biden is the father of her now 14-month-old child, according to court documents.
Kellogg’s introduces new gay cereal to teach children how to become transgenders while they eat processed breakfast junk food
NaturalNews – Do you ever wake up in the morning and think to yourself, gee, I wish my breakfast cereal was just a little bit more gay. Well, never fear, Kellogg’s is here with a brand new gay breakfast cereal that the company hopes will encourage more children to “be themselves,” including by getting sex changes to become “transgenders.”
According to reports, the new “All Together Cereal” by Kellogg’s combines Corn Flakes, Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, Frosted Mini Wheats, Raisin Bran, and Rice Krispies “exclusively together” in a bright purple box with the word “Together” emblazoned on both the front and back in an LGBT rainbow color display.
Timed to coincide with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defemation’s (GLAAD) recent “Spirit Day” on October 17, the release of All Together Cereal by Kellogg’s is an effort to promote “equality and inclusion in the workplace, marketplace and in the communities where we work and live,” according to Kellogg’s chief diversity officer Priscilla Koranteng.
According to Koranteng, Kellogg’s has also donated $50,000 to GLAAD to continue promoting the LGBT agenda to children, which presumably includes having drag queen perverts read to children at public libraries.
“We all belong together,” Kellogg’s says on its website about its new gay cereal, emphasizing the LGBT theme of coexistence as part of its marketing tactic.
“So for the first time in history, our famous mascots and cereals are offered exclusively together in the same box for All Together Cereal,” the website goes on to explain. “It’s a symbol of acceptance no matter how you look, where you’re from or who you love. We believe that all people deserve an environment where they can be their best selves.”

Energy & Environment

PG&E Warns Californians Of 10 Years Of Power Shut Offs
SHFTPlan – California residents are facing up to a decade of widespread, precautionary, power shut-offs until Pacific Gas & Electric Corp., the bankrupt utility giant, will be able to prevent its power transmission lines from sparking fires, the company’s top official said.  Californians could experience power shut-offs for the next ten years.
Chief Executive William D. Johnson said at an emergency meeting Friday of the California Public Utilities Commission in San Francisco, that ten years is a probable timeline. “I think this is probably a 10-year timeline to get to a point where it’s really ratcheted down significantly.” Of course, that isn’t sitting well with Californians or politicians.
Between June and early October, PG&E carried out four power shut-offs in an attempt to prevent wildfires, for which the company is being sued for. The largest and most criticized outage was from October 9 through October 12.  This shut off ended up affecting 738,000 customers in 35 counties radiating outward from the Sacramento area.
“What we saw play out by PG&E last week cannot be repeated,” commission President Marybel Batjer said Friday, according to prepared remarks. “The loss of power endangers lives … and imposes additional burdens on our most vulnerable populations.” Food spoiled, traffic signals died, and cellphones faded out. Schools and businesses came to a standstill and frustrations grew into concerns over safety as hospitals switched to emergency generators.
“PG&E was not fully prepared to manage such a large-scale power shut-off,” said Batjer. During the planned outage, the utility’s website crashed and customers unsuccessfully tried to reach the utility by any means for information, according to the Los Angeles Times. 
Even though Batjer says that this “cannot be repeated,” PG&E is warning that not only will this be repeated, but there is likely to be ten more years of this repetition. Batjer said the purpose of Friday’s meeting was to ensure that the state’s utilities “are better prepared — and that their customers are better served — when our state faces the next wildfire threat and if warranted, another power shut-off incident.”
PG&E isn’t the only utility company likely to shut off power to customers in the coming years. Another utility, Southern California Edison, was weighing potential power shut-offs that could affect some customers in Inyo, Kern, and Los Angeles counties. About 11,500 customers in the Santa Clarita area could be impacted
This potential shutoff was pondered due to a red flag warning, indicating a high risk of fire, that was in effect until late Sunday night for the Pacific coastline south of Santa Barbara and nearby mountains, with dry, gusty winds in the forecast, according to the National Weather Service.
Exxon Mobil fights accusation of misleading investors in trial with ex-Trump official
Fox – A trial on claims by New York’s attorney general that Exxon Mobil misled shareholders about the costs of climate change regulations begins in a Manhattan state court on Tuesday.
The Attorney General’s Office says the oil and gas behemoth didn’t share one of its calculations of the future costs of the rules, causing shareholders to overvalue the company’s stock by $476 million to $1.6 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Science & Technology

Texas Rep Introduces H.R. 4741 So Telecoms Can Skip Environmental and Historic Preservation Reviews to Install 4G and 5G Small Cells       
Activist Post – Doctors, engineers, environmentalists, meteorologists, NASA, NOAA, The U.S. Navy, security experts and utility companies are all warning that the widespread installation of 5G technology will cause disastrous results (see 1, 2, 3, 4).
American opposition against 5G continues to increase.  So do the lawsuits against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for forcing 5G installation on communities despite the fact that telecom executives have provided NO scientific evidence that it’s safe.  People and their pets are also getting sick where 5G has already been installed .
A growing number of American elected officials are taking action against 5G.  Unfortunately, some are still hell bent on forcing it on the country despite everything.  Two big thumbs down to Texas Rep Pete Olson for being one of them:
H.R. 4741: To provide that the Federal Communications Commission and communications service providers regulated by the Commission under the Communications Act of 1934 shall …
… not be subject to certain provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and the National Historic Preservation Act with respect to the construction, rebuilding, or hardening of communications facilities following a major disaster or an emergency declared by the President, and for other purposes.
Volocopter takes to Singapore sky, but can air taxis take off?
Al Jazeera – German aviation start-up Volocopter conducts urban air taxi test flight, but questions abound over emerging technology.
Singaporeans got their first glimpse of a flying taxi on Tuesday, however fleeting, with a public demonstration of what its designers hope could become a new way to get around urban centres far above congested roads.
The air taxi’s maiden flight above Singapore‘s Marina Bay lasted about two minutes – a minute short of the advertised three-minute test run – perhaps because the thunder had begun to rumble. It was manned by a pilot, although future flights are expected to be fully autonomous.
The air taxi’s maker, German aviation start-up Volocopter, has previously conducted public demonstration flights in Germany, Dubai and Finland.
“[This] is an important milestone for the introduction of urban air mobility, simply because we give people the image in their mind and the opportunity to see how the vehicle behaves in the air, and how quiet it is in full flight,” Volocopter CEO Florian Reuter told Al Jazeera after the test run.
Volocopter is one of several companies developing a drone equivalent to traditional helicopters, and proponents say electrically powered air taxis offer a safer, quieter, emissions-free alternative.
Its aircraft can take off and land vertically, flown either automatically or by a pilot, with a beta design that can fly two people and their luggage for distances approaching 30 kilometres.
Volocopter said it hopes to cover high-traffic routes in major cities, such as between airports to city centres, at a speed of up to 110km per hour.
The Navy initiates program to track UFOs… but the public isn’t allowed to know what they find
NaturalNews – The U.S. Navy is setting up a proper reporting and investigative system that will keep track of UFO rumors from its pilots. However, while this information may sound exciting, any news that comes out of it won’t be disclosed with the public.
Joe Gradisher, a spokesman for the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare, said that the Navy was going to consider anything gathered by this system as “privileged information in order to preserve the free and honest prioritization and discussion of safety among aircrew.”
This makes more sense when put into the context of just when these Navy pilots would be reporting their information. “Furthermore,” Gradisher continued in his statement, “any report generated as a result of these investigations will, by necessity, include classified information on military operations.”
This new system instituted by the Navy hopes to streamline the process of investigating whether or not these reports are credible.

Health

Beware of ‘Nitrate-Free’ Organic Cured Meats
Mercola – Nitrates and nitrites are used to cure (preserve) processed meats of all kinds, and studies have repeatedly found they raise your risk of colorectal cancer, even at relatively small amounts.
Processed or cured meats (either conventional or organic) labeled as “no nitrates or nitrites added,” “no nitrite” or “uncured,” are not a healthier option, as they are simply cured with nitrite-rich celery powder.
Most organic processed meats (whether labeled nitrite-free or not) are cured using nonorganic celery powder. The problem is that part of the technique used to produce conventional celery powder is extra loading of nitrogen fertilizer which the celery plant is very adept at taking up.
The nitrate loading makes conventional celery powder a very rich source of nitrate — far richer than organic celery powder. Organic celery powder is not nitrate-rich enough to be able to replace nonorganic celery powder.
In addition to synthetic fertilizer, nonorganic celery powder may also contain traces of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals. For these reasons, organic leaders believe celery powder must be taken off the organic exemption list
Acupuncture is BETTER than opioids, especially for treating pain
NaturalNews – Opioid-related overdose is a top concern in the U.S., where it claims around 130 lives every day, according to data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In the midst of this crisis, people have turned to alternative treatments for pain relief. A therapy that’s gaining ground is acupuncture, a form of traditional Chinese medicine that involves inserting needles into the skin.
A safer way to relieve pain
Acupuncture has been around for a long time: It’s been studied and practiced for well over 2,500 years, with practitioners using it to treat pain, boost well-being, and cure illnesses. An article published in Rheumatology even identified sharpened bones and stones to potentially be the earliest instruments for acupuncture.
The minimally invasive approach targets specific points in the skin with needles to stimulate nerve-rich areas and influence various functions in the body.
“Each acupuncture needle produces a tiny injury at the insertion site, and although it’s slight enough to cause little to no discomfort, it’s enough of a signal to let the body know it needs to respond,” explained New York-based acupuncturist Paul Kempisty in an interview with Healthline. “This response involves stimulation of the immune system, promoting circulation to the area, wound healing, and pain modulation.”
The World Health Organization lists acupuncture as the most widely practiced form of alternative medicine. In its latest survey, over 113 WHO member states report the use of acupuncture or having regulations in place for its practice.
Researchers: Eating fatty fish can boost omega-3 levels and reduce heart disease risk
NaturalNews – Omega-3 fatty acids are important nutrients that the human body needs. In fact, omega-3 intake has been linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. A recent study in the journal Nutrition Research supports this link as a team of researchers from the U.S. and Italy found that olive oil, fatty fish, and omega-3 supplements may boost a person’s omega-3 levels, which could then protect against cardiovascular disease (CVD).
The researchers looked at whether the consumption of olive oil, fatty fish, or omega-3 supplements could improve a person’s levels of red blood cell oleic acid and omega-3 index, which is a blood marker for omega-3 levels. An omega-3 index of eight percent or above is considered optimal, while a low omega-3 index suggests a higher risk of sudden cardiac death. (Related: Consuming EPA and DHA omega-3 produces a “desirable” Omega-3 Index score and also reduces your risk of heart disease.)
The researchers examined 461 participants from the Gruppo Italiano per lo Studio della Sopravvivenza nell’Infarto Miocardico–Heart Failure (GISSI-HF) study. For three months, the participants took either an olive oil placebo or an omega-3 supplement every day. They also kept a record of their consumption of olive oil and fatty fish. Before and after the intervention, the research team collected samples of red blood cells from the participants to measure their omega-3 index.
The results showed that the levels of red blood cell oleic acid reflected the participants’ olive oil intake, while omega-3 levels reflected fatty fish consumption and omega-3 supplementation. After treatment, the researchers observed an improvement in the omega-3 index of the participants who took the supplement. At three months, more participants reached the proposed target omega-3 index level of eight to 12 percent.

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