March 28, 2024

The Power Hour

Knowledge is Power

Today's News: September 11, 2018

World News
 
The Latest: Sex abuse: Pope to meet Thursday with US bishops
Fox – The Vatican says Pope Francis will meet Thursday with the head of the U.S. bishops conference and other top U.S. church officials over the sex abuse and cover-up scandal roiling the Catholic Church.
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has said he wants Francis to authorize a full-fledged Vatican investigation into the scandal of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was removed as cardinal in July after a credible accusation he groped a teenager.
DiNardo has also said recent claims of cover-up of McCarrick’s misconduct — including against top Vatican officials and the pope himself — deserve answers.
 
Separatists launch ‘autumn of protests’ on Catalonia Day
Fox – Hundreds of thousands of Catalan separatists let out a collective shout as they marched along a main artery in Barcelona on Tuesday, marking the first of a series of mass mobilizations demanding independence from Spain and the release of several high-profile secessionists from jail.
With the official slogan “Let’s Make the Catalan Republic” printed on pink T-shirts and signs, protesters went silent at 5.14 p.m., which on a 24-hour clock is 1714 — the year when Barcelona fell in the Spanish War of Succession.
 
Communist China Cracks Down on Christianity
The New American – Proving once more that communism demands total loyalty to the state, the Chinese government is engaged in an extensive crackdown on religion, especially Christianity, by shuttering unapproved churches, burning Bibles, and restricting what can be posted on religious websites.
While Christianity is generally in decline in the West, it is growing rapidly in China. According to the Associated Press, “China has an estimated 38 million Protestants, and experts have predicted that the country will have the world’s largest Christian population in a few decades.”
Since the Christian faith requires believers to serve God rather than the state — particularly a tyrannical, atheistic one — this creates quite a problem for Beijing, which has long tolerated a large network of underground churches despite laws requiring people to worship only in churches that have registered with the government.
 
Washington Quietly Increases Lethal Weapons to Ukraine
The American Conservative – Among other actions, the Trump administration has involved U.S. forces in NATO military exercises (war games) in Poland and other East European countries on Russia’s border, as well as in naval maneuvers in the Black Sea near Russia’s sensitive naval base at Sevastopol. Washington has even sent U.S. troops as participants in joint military exercises with Ukrainian forces—an act that Moscow considers especially provocative, given its tense relations with Kiev.
Filming of staged chemical attack in Syrian Idlib begins – Russian MoD
RT – Footage, meant to serve as proof that the Syrian government has conducted a chemical weapons attack in Idlib, Syria, is to be handed to global news outlets by the end of Tuesday, the Russian military claims.
 
U.S. News, Politics & Government
 
Never Forget: What the Deep State Wants You to Remember About 9/11
Corbett Report – “Never forget.”
This is the mantra. The mantra that is repeated in the wake of every major false flag, every psychologically traumatizing incident that the deep state wishes to become a rallying cry for their next agenda item.
And so it is completely unsurprising that this mantra has been invoked to remind the public of that foundational event of the age of terror, 9/11.
“Never forget,” we are told by the mockingbirds of the establishment press every year come September. And when I say “every year” I mean every / single / year / without / fail. (Well, sometimes it’s a fail, but you get what I mean).
But never forget what? That is the question.
Never forget that false flag terrorism has been used time and time again throughout history to whip up war hysteria among the public? Never forget that the Afghan war and the war of terror in general was based on the lie of 9/11? Never forget that the official government conspiracy theory of 9/11, the 9/11 Commission Report, is a tissue of lies and omissions based on torture testimony that would be inadmissible in any court and is self-contradictory to boot? Never forget that official government cover-ups into the events have relied on outright lies, confiscation and memory holing of key evidence that proves that 9/11 was not the work of the magical cave-dwelling dialysis patient and his band of box-cutter-wielding henchmen?
No, of course not. “Never forget” the officially sanctioned, government-approved lessons of 9/11, silly! That’s what “never forget” means.
 
Experts: Global extremism threat has grown since 9/11
Fox  – Experts say violent extremism has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks and poses a greater global threat today than it did 17 years ago. And that’s despite costly U.S. military action overseas.
Deaths from terrorist attacks each year have increased substantially since 2001 and extremism has spread globally, according to a report released Tuesday on the anniversary of the attacks.
The report was written by a group of experts that included former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, who led the 9/11 Commission that was created in 2002 to investigate the attacks.
Their assessment comes as the war in Afghanistan, which was triggered by the Sept. 11 attacks, is in its 17th year with no end in sight.
 
U.S. Marks the 17th Anniversary of 9/11 With Somber Tributes and a New Monument
Yahoo – The president and first lady Melania Trump plan to join an observance at the Sept. 11 memorial in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where a new “Tower of Voices” was dedicated Saturday. Pence is attending a ceremony at the Pentagon. Trump, a Republican and native New Yorker, took the occasion of last year’s anniversary to issue a stern warning to extremists that “America cannot be intimidated.”
 
17 years after 9/11, Al-Qaeda rebranded by US government & media as besieged rebels
RT – Seventeen years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the US government and media outlets have decided that Al-Qaeda is now a rebel group worthy of our sympathy. The cynical narrative change is par for the course, experts told RT.
As somber newspaper headlines mark the anniversary of the devastating attacks, some commentators have pointed out that the terrorist group accused of murdering 3,000 Americans seventeen years ago is now occupying northeastern Syria – with the US threatening to take military action if the “rebels” are evicted from the region by the Syrian army and its allies.
The United States has spent an estimated $1.5 trillion on its Global War Against Terrorism, launched in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, but the United States now seems to find itself providing diplomatic cover – not to mention excellent press – to the terrorists that it once vowed to eradicate.
The majority of Syria’s Idlib province is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a State Department-designated terrorist group that is regarded as indistinguishable from Al-Qaeda. But the US has signaled that it will respond militarily to any efforts by Damascus to evict the internationally-recognized terrorist group from its last stronghold in Syria, with the New York Times even fawning over the jihadists as “a de facto governmental authority, facilitating trade across the long border with Turkey and organizing aid deliveries.” What happened?
Never forget?
Even as social media fills up with maudlin GIFs vowing to “Never Forget” the September 11 attacks, one of the reasons that Al-Qaeda has been able to remain in Idlib is because Americans have actually “forgotten,” analysts say.
 
Joe Scarborough: Trump Graver Threat Than 9/11 Attacks
Newsmax  – Joe Scarborough said President Donald Trump is a “far graver” threat to the “idea of America” than the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Scarborough is host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” He made his remarks on Tuesday – the 17th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
 
Official US 9/11 Narrative Based on Fake News – Journalist
Sputnik – 17 years after the September 11 attacks, many Americans still question the official story behind the US State Department’s official report, sparking a growing independent news movement in the United States and abroad.
Michael Bielawski, a native New Yorker and an independent journalist for Vermont-based True North Report, told Sputnik about his thoughts on the post-9/11 society and how it galvanized him into starting a career as an independent journalist.
Sputnik: How did 9/11 change your perspective on US politics? What began to change and how did the event reshape US foreign policy?
Michael Bielawski: I was living near NYC at the time, roughly 20 miles away, and initially responded like most Americas did with shock and anger, but also worried that the attacks would trigger a lot of war with the Middle East. 5 years later, I watched the documentary Loose Change, which exposed many misconceptions and lies about 9/11 and reshaped my views much further.
Sputnik: Can you tell us a little about your experiences while working in mainstream media? How were you instructed to report on post-9/11 news?
Michael Bielawski: Yes, I was employed with NBC a few years later in their news archives center. I got to see a lot of their uncensored 9/11 footage most Americans could not access. For example, many firefighters, survivors and witnesses were found questioning the official 9/11 narrative, talking about hearing explosions going off in the building, and many of us working there were really puzzled about building 7. Unfortunately, those videos were embedded into a computer database [before smartphones were common] and I could not take them off or sneak them out at the time without risking my job.
On 9/11’s 5-year anniversary, I wrote an article for a local newspaper called the New York Megaphone, where I interviewed a US expert on 9/11 and he opened my eyes to US politics.
 
US identifies 2 Korean War dead from North Korea remains
Fox – Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says that two Korean War dead have been identified from remains turned over to the U.S. in July by North Korea.
Mattis tells Pentagon reporters Tuesday that experts moved swiftly on analyzing those two sets of remains, as they thought they had a good chance of identifying them because of where they were located and other information.
He didn’t publicly identify them.
 
Anti-Gun Rights David Hogg Calls for Canadians to Intervene to Save America
The New American – Apparently, David Hogg and liberals like him are not so sure they and their Democratic Party allies can win back Congress, and are now resorting to calling for foreign intervention.
 
Economy & Business
 
House and Senate plan conference meet for 2 ‘minibus’ spending bills
The Hill – The House and Senate have scheduled conference meetings for Thursday on two spending bill packages to limit a shutdown come October 1.
The first of the so-called “minibus” packages covers defense spending as well as the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education bill, which combined make up a large share of Congress’s annual spending.
The second package, which lawmakers hope to pass before the new fiscal year begins, includes Interior and Environment, Financial Services and General Government, Agriculture, and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations.
The meeting mark progress toward the goal of resolving the differences between the chambers’ spending bills.
 
More companies dropping college degree requirement for new hires
Fox Business – No diploma? No problem.
More and more companies are scrapping college degree requirements for jobs. They’re not saying you shouldn’t seek higher education, but not having a degree won’t be a barrier for you to work in certain jobs at their companies.
Some of the 15 big companies saying “no bachelor’s degree is fine” include Google, Nordstrom, Bank of America, Ernst & Young, IBM and Apple.
The changes are coming as job seekers, as well as high school graduates, consider whether college is worth the skyrocketing cost.
 
Oil rises more than 2 percent as U.S. sanctions on Iran squeeze supply
Reuters – Oil prices rose more than 2 percent on Tuesday as U.S. sanctions squeezed Iranian crude exports, tightening global supply despite efforts by Washington to get other producers to increase output.
 
Energy & Environment
 
10,000 People Have Cancer from 9/11 Dust – Which the EPA Said Was Nothing to Worry AboutEdward Griffin – The 17th anniversary of 9/11 is approaching, and a new report shows that 9,795 people, many first responders, are suffering from cancer caused by inhaling the highly toxic dust. The report is from the federally funded World Trade Center Program, which reports 400 deaths from this source. Following the demolition of the Twin Towers and Building 7, the government said the air was safe. One week after the attacks, Christine Todd Whitman, Administrator of the EPA, assured people in New York and Washington, DC, that “their air is safe to breathe, and their water is safe to drink.”
 
Hurricane Florence could strengthen to ‘life-threatening’ Category 5, as about 1.5M people evacuate
Fox – Hurricane Florence, with its 140 mph winds, continues its “life-threatening” push toward the Carolinas and the Mid-Atlantic states — where more than 1.5 million people have been ordered to evacuate.
President Trump late Monday approved an emergency declaration for North Carolina, which authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA to coordinate disaster relief efforts for “the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population,” a White House statement said.
 
State of emergency declared in DC, 1 mn told to evacuate from coastline ahead of hurricane Florence
RT – The mayor of DC followed in the footsteps of the Carolinas, Maryland and Virginia by declaring a state of emergency in preparation for Hurricane Florence, a category 4 storm expected to hit the East coast this week.
Mayor Muriel e. Bowser signed the effective immediately state of emergency, along with several other DC officials, on Tuesday and held a news conference to share how authorities are preparing.
At this point DC is mainly preparing for periods of heavy rain, starting Thursday night and continuing into Friday, say officials.
 
Science & Technology
 
Scientists Use AI to Find 72 Mysterious Radio Bursts From Far-Off Galaxy
Sputnik – Members of the Breakthrough Listen team released a new study on Monday, detailing their discovery of 72 new fast radio bursts from a mysterious source located some 3 billion light years from Earth.
Officials based at the University of California, Berkeley, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Research Center found the new signals after using an artificial intelligence algorithm to comb through 400 terabytes worth of radio data from a dwarf galaxy.
The data researchers recently re-examined was collected over a five-hour period by the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia on August 26, 2017. A previous examination of the recording turned up only 21 bursts. Officials were able to find dozens of new bursts by using a new algorithm known as a convolutional neural network, according to officials.
 
Health
 
Acupuncture improves cognitive function of Alzheimer’s patients
NaturalNews – Acupuncture has seen some use as a means of alleviating the effects of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) on the brain. However, recent systematic reviews have expressed some doubt on the effectiveness and safety of the traditional Chinese medicinal treatment. Therefore, a new study sought to confirm the findings of earlier researchers regarding acupuncture’s effect on AD.
 
Another white flour alternative: Plantain peel flour has high levels of dietary fiber
NaturalNews – Plantains, or “cooking bananas,” are often used to create different dishes. But according to research published in CyTA – Journal of Food, flour made from plantain peel can be used as a healthier substitute for white flour.
Unripe plantain pulp is rich in dietary fiber (DF), polyphenols, and resistant starch (RS). Producing unripe plantain flour to starch isolation results in unused peel, which makes up about 35 percent of the fruit’s weight.
 
Entertainment
 
New NFL Season — Same Old National Anthem Protests
Fox – The 2018-2019 football season kicked off this past weekend, and much to the dismay of many fans, so did a new season of National Anthem protests.
 
Good News
 
Wendy’s staffer praised for going the extra mile for blind couple
Fox – One New Mexico Wendy’s employee is being praised for going the extra mile to ensure that a blind couple enjoyed their meal. A fellow customer was so moved by the worker’s kindness that she shared the story to social media, where it has since struck a heartstring with many.
Cindy Griswold shared photos of the sweet scene she witnessed on Sept. 9 at the fast-food chain’s location at 2203 Wyoming Blvd. in Albuquerque to Facebook.
“So this Wendy’s employee, took care of this two blind customers with so much love! He didn’t do it because is part of his job, he did it because he wanted to help from the bottom of his heart,” Griswold wrote. “I went and [thanked] “Richard” because these little things are a big impact on people’s lives and such a positive attitude the way he made them feel.”
“He made sure the table was in a good spot and he carried the sodas, straws, napkins, ketchup and of course, he place the food in the right order, so they knew who’s sandwich was in front of them. He went back several times to make sure everything was fine,” she continued. “We need more “Richard’s” in this world.”
 

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