THIS WEEK IN REVIEW
THIS WEEK IN REVIEW
Lebanon: Demonsrations over uncollected garbage have escalated into violent clashes between citizens and police in what is now being called the “You Stink!” movement. The unrest has now grown from discontent over garbage to ire over ‘government corruption’. The collapse of Lebanon would benefit the West and would leave Assad in Syria with one less ally. InfoWars 2015 Aug 28 (Story) (Cached)
Scotland announced that it will ban GMO crops under the EU’s ‘opt-out’ clause. Germany plans to join Scotland in banning GMOs. More than sixty countries now have some type of ban or labeling requirement for GMOs. Natural Society 2015 Aug 27 (Story) (Cached)
Monsanto traditionally has moved in the direction of monopoly by buying out its competitors. However, Syngenta, a Swiss-based biotech and chemical manufacturer just turned down a $47 billion buy-out. Syngenta shares fell more than 18 percent after the offer was rejected. True Activist 2015 Aug 27 (Story) (Cached)
North Dakota: US District Judge, Ralph Erickson, has issued a temporary injunction blocking the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers from regulating small streams, tributaries, and wetlands under the Clean Water Act. The EPA will honor the injunction in the thirteen states that sued the agency, but the regulations will be implemented in all other states. Huff Post 2015 Aug 27 (Story) (Cached)
North Dakota passed a bill that began with the intent of requiring police to obtain a warrant to use drones, and it proposed banning weapons from being mounted on drones. As often happens, however, lobbyists are able to obtain legislative amendments that produce different results than the public expected. In this case, lobbyist Bruce Beckett rewrote the bill to ban only ‘lethal’ weapons on drones used by law enforcement. That means they can be equipped with tasers and gas canisters. Let’s see, now. How many people have been killed by ‘non-lethal’ gas and tasers? TechAeris 2015 Aug 27 (Story) (Cached)
Virginia: Vester Flanagan was fired from his job two years ago and sought revenge by shooting and killing two journalists who worked for WDBJ, his former employer. Flanagan claimed that he suffered racial and sexual discrimination, but the TV news station says he was fired because of his angry outbursts. ABC News 2015 Aug 26 (Story)
The Obama administration is blaming guns for the shooting by Vester Flanagan in which he killed two journalists. The White House consistently has insinuated that racism is the dominant factor behind similar events over the past several years and even Flanagan admitted that he was motivated by a “race war”. Still, the administration continues to blame gun ownership. InfoWars 2015 Aug 26 (Story) (Cached)
‘Birth tourism’ is a booming business in the US as illegal aliens gain birthright citizenship for their babies born on US soil. Pregnant Chinese women pay up to $50,000 to give birth in luxury homes in Los Angeles. CNN 2015 Aug 26 (Story)
The People’s Bank of China has accelerated its offloading of US bonds and buying yuan to support the exchange rate. This has led to a $315 billion drop in its foreign-exchange reserves over the last 12 months. China controls an estimated $1.48 trillion of U.S. government debt. Bloomberg 2015 Aug 26 (Story) (Cached)
The parents of a 12-year old boy are suing a boarding school in Massachusetts, claiming that the school’s WiFi signal is making their son sick. The school activated a stronger wireless signal in 2013. The family is seeking damages and wants the school to switch to Ethernet cable. [In case anyone is interested, we have disabled WiFi in our home and use only cable connections. We still are bombarded from neighbors’ WiFi and Bluetooth and what-else, but it seems like a good thing to do.] CBS 2015 Aug 25 (Story) (Cached)
Ferguson, Missouri: Municipal Court Judge Donald McCullin ordered that all arrest warrants issued in the city before 2015 be withdrawn. This follows a scathing report by the US Department of Justice that found the police and the court worked together to maximize revenue from those charged with minor crimes, a scheme called ‘policing for profit’. Reuters 2015 Aug 24 (Story) (Cached)
The price of oil has plunged from $103 per barrel last year to a new low of $42. This has been a hard hit on the economies of oil-exporting countries, such as Russia, Nigeria, Venezuela, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, and the Persian Gulf states. The glut in the oil market is a result of greatly increased production by the US and the Saudis who seem to be attempting to drive prices down to force their competitors out of the market. NY Times 2015 Aug 24 (Story) (Cached)
The US and Canada are the only developed nations that offer automatic citizenship to children born on their soil. The US recorded 4.3 million births in 2008, with 340,000 of them (8%) born of illegal aliens. When the babies reach 21, they may sponsor other family members to enter the US. Donald Trump (and others) are questioning the 14th Amendment that allows birthright citizenship. Fox News 2015 Aug 24 (Story)
The Mexican peso has been devalued by 19% over the past year as it slides into a record low of 16 pesos per US dollar. Low oil prices have contributed to the decline. Colombia’s currency has plunged 36% against the dollar and Brazil’s has fallen by 35%. [This makes the US dollar look good by comparison, but we must not forget that it is all relative. The US dollar, also, is in decline compared to prices for goods and services. It’s just that, at this moment, the others are worse. All national currencies are headed for the drain but at different velocities.] CNN posted 2015 Aug 22 (Story)
Utah is suing the federal government to regain some of its territory claimed by the feds. Critics say that states can’t pay for forest fire intervention, road maintenance, erosion control and other maintenance costs. Advocates say they already are paying for all those things through federal taxes. The more important issue, however, is not the cost but the principle of state supremacy. Lew Rockwell 2015 Aug 22 (Story) (Cached)
340 Jewish rabbis have endorsed the Iran nuclear deal, which is in stark contrast to the common belief that all Jews are united in opposition to it. Ron Paul says that, if the deal is repealed in the next presidency, the sanctions will negatively impact Americans. RPI posted 2015 Aug 22 (Story)
Denmark: Former European Parliament member, Mogens Camre, was convicted of “racism” for a Tweet he made in which he compared radical Muslim leaders with Hitler. Based on a UN directive, Denmark has a law that prohibits such comments. Infowars posted 2015 Aug 22 (Story) (Cached)
A former employee of a human-organ procurement company, describes participating in removing the brain from an fully intact fetus with a beating heart. This was done at Planned Parenthood’s abortion clinic in San Jose, California. [We probably will receive irate letters from pro-choice advocates for carrying this story and will be accused of distorting the facts. This, however, has nothing to do with choice, and the images speak for themselves.] InfoWars posted 2015 Aug 22 (Story)