2017 Is Strange

Phone Separation Anxiety' Is for Real

By Luisa Dillner   September 3, 2017
You know the feeling – you have left your phone at home and feel anxious, as if you have lost your connection to the world. “Nomophobia” (short for no-mobile phobia) affects teenagers and adults alike. You can even do an online test to see if you have it. Last week, researchers from Hong Kong warned that nomophobia is infecting everyone. Their study found that people who use their phones to store, share and access personal memories suffer most. When users were asked to describe how they felt about their phones, words such as “hurt’” (neck pain was often reported) and “alone” predicted higher levels of nomophobia.  

Solution

“The findings of our study suggest that users perceive smartphones as their extended selves and get attached to the devices,” said Kim Ki Joon. “People experience feelings of anxiety and unpleasantness when separated from their phones.” Meanwhile, an American study shows that smartphone separation can lead to an increase in heart rate and blood pressure.

So can being without your phone really give you separation anxiety? Mark Griffiths, chartered psychologist and director of the International Gaming Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University, says it is what is on the phone that counts – the social networking that creates Fomo (fear of missing out).
“People don’t use their phones to talk to other people – we are talking about an internet-connected device that allows people to deal with lots of aspects of their lives,” says Griffiths. “You would have to surgically remove a phone from a teenager because their whole life is ingrained in this device.”
Griffiths thinks attachment theory, where we develop emotional dependency on the phone because it holds details of our lives, is a small part of nomophobia. For “screenagers”, it is Fomo that creates the most separation anxiety. If they can’t see what’s happening on Snapchat or Instagram, they become panic-stricken about not knowing what’s going on socially. “But they adapt very quickly if you take them on holiday and there’s no internet,” says Griffiths.
Deliberately separating from your phone by turning it off or leaving it at home can reduce dependency and anxiety. Griffiths says the criteria for phone addiction include it being the most important thing in your life, building up the time you spend on it, withdrawal symptoms, using it to de-stress or to get excited. Your phone-use also needs to compromise relationships or work and provoke inner conflict – you know you should cut down, but can’t. Few people, Griffiths says, fulfill these criteria. But surely many of us experience some of them.      Alternet

Why aluminum is a problem, biologically speaking

Arjun WaliaSeptember 23, 2017

Below is a great lecture given by Dr. Chris Exley, who is one of the worlds’ leading experts in the subject of aluminum toxicity, and, as he points out in his lecture (2nd video below), which was spoken at a vaccine safety conference, aluminum has absolutely no place in Earth’s biota. Sure, a portion of the Earth’s crust is made from it, but it does a great job of keeping it (aluminum) completely separate from living things, it cannot penetrate up to where life thrives, until we started using it.  Aluminum has no place in the exterior world, biochemically speaking.

Since this lecture was given, multiple studies have surfaced showing that aluminum, from vaccines in particular, does not come into the same methods of excretion as it does when we ingest it from other sources. Injectable aluminum is different because it’s used as an adjuvant, which means “helper” and without it the vaccines are pretty much useless. Injectable aluminum is meant to stick around, and eventually it finds its way to the brain.

Here’s a great video of scientist Dr. Christopher Shaw from UBC explaining why aluminum is a problem, biologically speaking.

This is all information that make one wonder, what is going on here, and why are aluminum containing vaccines constantly marketed as completely safe? As we know, a causative role has already been established in patients who have a  macrophagic myofasciitis (MMF) lesion in patients who have myalgic encephalomyelitis, or brain inflammation. Myalgia, arthralgia, chronic fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, dysautonomia, and autoimmunity have been temporally linked to aluminium adjuvant-containing vaccine administration (Gherardi and Authier, 2003; Authier et al., 2003; Exley et al., 2009; Rosenblum et al., 2011; Santiago et al., 2014; Brinth et al., 2015; Palmieri et al., 2016).

Another fairly recent study (2015) points out:

“Evidence that aluminum-coated particles phagocytozed in the injected muscle and its draining lymph notes can disseminate within phagocytes throughout the body and slowly accumulate in the brain further suggests that alum safety should be evaluated in the long term.” (source)

The Golden Calf of Today

Polish bishops favour outright ban on Sunday shopping

"Free Sundays is what all Catholics, non-Catholics and non-believers need,” Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, head of the Polish Episcopate, has said, as quoted by IAR.
He was speaking ahead of a meeting of Poland’s diocesan bishops during which they plan to discuss issues including a proposal to ban shopping on Sundays.
In July, a Polish trade union leader rejected calls to relax a proposal -- filed by his union and several other organisations in parliament last year -- to ban shopping throughout the country on Sundays and urged its passage through parliament, according to IAR.
Piotr Duda, leader of the Solidarity trade union, told IAR at the time that his union did not agree to "any further concessions” amid a push to restrict trade on Sundays in Poland.
"Four free Sundays [a month], period, end of story," Duda said, as quoted by IAR.
He made the comment after an organisation representing some of Poland’s retailers suggested that grocery stores across the country should be allowed to keep their doors open every Sunday, while employees could be provided with guarantees of at least two free Sundays a month.    Polan Radio

How the CIA made Google

Nafeez Ahmed

In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, western governments are moving fast to legitimize expanded powers of mass surveillance and controls on the internet, all in the name of fighting terrorism.

US and European politicians have called to protect NSA-style snooping, and to advance the capacity to intrude on internet privacy by outlawing encryption. One idea is to establish a telecoms partnership that would unilaterally delete content deemed to “fuel hatred and violence” in situations considered “appropriate.” Heated discussions are going on at government and parliamentary level to explore cracking down on lawyer-client confidentiality.

What any of this would have done to prevent the Charlie Hebdo attacks remains a mystery, especially given that we already know the terrorists were on the radar of French intelligence for up to a decade.

There is little new in this story. The 9/11 atrocity was the first of many terrorist attacks, each succeeded by the dramatic extension of draconian state powers at the expense of civil liberties, backed up with the projection of military force in regions identified as hotspots harbouring terrorists. Yet there is little indication that this tried and tested formula has done anything to reduce the danger. If anything, we appear to be locked into a deepening cycle of violence with no clear end in sight.

As our governments push to increase their powers, INSURGE INTELLIGENCE can now reveal the vast extent to which the US intelligence community is implicated in nurturing the web platforms we know today, for the precise purpose of utilizing the technology as a mechanism to fight global ‘information war’ — a war to legitimize the power of the few over the rest of us. The lynchpin of this story is the corporation that in many ways defines the 21st century with its unobtrusive omnipresence: Google.

Google styles itself as a friendly, funky, user-friendly tech firm that rose to prominence through a combination of skill, luck, and genuine innovation. This is true. But it is a mere fragment of the story. In reality, Google is a smokescreen behind which lurks the US military-industrial complex.

The inside story of Google’s rise, revealed here for the first time, opens a can of worms that goes far beyond Google, unexpectedly shining a light on the existence of a parasitical network driving the evolution of the US national security apparatus, and profiting obscenely from its operation.     More

UK Supermarket Becomes World’s First to Offer Cashless Checkout with Finger Vein Scan

By Nicholas West

The march toward a cashless society has now moved from the theoretical to the phase of widespread adoption. This is primarily due to developments in the tech sector that now enable the easy use of biometric recognition systems, as well as the increasing acceptance from a public who is becoming familiar with turning themselves into a password for their personal devices.

Behind the scenes, governments and corporations have been building the political and economic enticements via the Better Than Cash Alliance to ensure that the world eventually gets “de-cashed.” We’re now witnessing the full roll-out of an architecture that has been in development for many years.

China’s high-tech KFC recently made headlines when it began testing facial recognition payments in its KPRO store. Cashless agenda denialists, however, could readily point to China’s authoritarian government to ease any fears about an impending technocratic takeover occurring in the (supposedly) more democratic West.

Well, today’s cashless agenda news does come from the West, and it’s a world’s first.  As reported by The Telegraph, London’s Costcutter supermarket has announced that its shoppers can now pay by finger vein scan.

It works by using infrared to scan people’s finger veins and then links this unique biometric map to their bank cards. Customers’ bank details are then stored with payment provider Worldpay, in the same way you can store your card details when shopping online. Shoppers can then turn up to the supermarket with nothing on them but their own hands and use it to make payments in just three seconds.

Nice and convenient, of course.

Longtime readers of Activist Post might remember an article by Brandon Turbeville written in 2011 warning that this was being tested as a future payment system. Remarking at the time about how smartphone payments would eventually seem outdated, he explained:

Taking the cashless control grid one step further, an article published on August 8, 2011 in Technology Review, entitled “Beyond Cell Phone Wallets, Biometrics Promise Truly Wallet-Free Future,” explains that major corporations are not even waiting for the “digital wallet” to catch on. They are actually moving forward with a system that will allow for an individual to swipe their palm, not their phone, in front of a digital recognition device in order to gain access to various buildings, pay for merchandise, or otherwise identify oneself.
[…]
Indeed, this new type of technology, even this specific product, is already being introduced all over the United States.
For instance, New York University’s Langone Medical Center has already implemented the vein scanners in some of its medical facilities. Manufactured by Fujitsu, the scanners are being placed in the hospital under the guise of greater convenience (the marketing gift that keeps on giving) and faster access to medical records. Health histories, insurance forms, and other documents are all handled electronically and at a much faster pace with the help of the new vein scanners.
[…]
Schools, too, have begun to implement the Fujitsu systems. For instance, the Pinellas County School District in Florida recently announced that it was introducing the system in order “to identify students and thereby reduce waste and the threat of impersonation.”
With the new scanners, the students are able to have their meals deducted from their account, upon scanning their palms, as they march single file in the feeding lines during lunch time. Of course, this type of technology is not new to Pinellas County. The students have been finger scanning in order to gain access to their lunch for years.

Naturally, these days not everyone is worried only about the intrusive nature of turning one’s body into a password to be mined by algorithms for corporations and governments, but just as legitimately about having their financial data hacked.

No worries, says the developer of the newest form of vein scanning, Sthaler. Although company director, Simon Binns, manages to sound creepy and objectifying even while trying to reassure the vein-scanning public:

New UltraBeam Tactical Laser (Ad)

This is the safest form of biometrics. There are no known incidences where this security has been breached.
“When you put your finger in the scanner it checks you are alive, it checks for a pulse, it checks for haemoglobin. ‘Your vein pattern is secure because it is kept on a database in an encrypted form, as binary numbers. No card details are stored with the retailer or ourselves, it is held with Worldpay, in the same way it is when you buy online.”

System developers are projecting that adoption of the technology will be rapid, with perhaps thousands of stores, nightclubs and membership services getting on board in the near future. The question is: Will it be optional? And if so, for how long?

As Brandon Turbeville concluded more than 6 years ago:

It should be noted that almost every element of any control grid begins by being optional when it is first introduced to the target population. But, as more and more individuals acquiesce to the system, the more inconvenient and, subsequently, the harder it will become for the rest of us to opt out. Eventually, the ability to opt out will be removed altogether.        Activist Post

Puerto Rico Could Face 6 Months Without Power

By Haley Zaremba - Sep 28, 2017

After Puerto Rico was pummeled by Hurricane Maria last week, a Category 4 hurricane with 150 mph winds, the island has been left in shambles. After suffering widespread power outages thanks to Irma, 1 million Puerto Ricans were left without electricity. 60,000 still hadn’t gotten power when Maria brought a total, island-wide power outage and severe shortages in food, water, and other supplies.

As of today there’s still no power on the island except for a handful of generators powering high-priority buildings like select hospitals, and the island likely won’t return to full power for another half a year. This also means that there are next to zero working cell phone towers and no reception anywhere on the island.

Due to the blackout, many residents are relying on small gas-fed generators, and fuel is running out (though authorities in Puerto Rico insist that it’s a distribution problem, not a shortage). Puerto Ricans are waiting in six-hour lines for fuel, while many stations have run completely dry. In most of Puerto Rico there’s no water either - that means no showers, no flushable toilets, and no drinkable water that’s not out of a bottle. In some of the remoter parts of the island, rescue workers are just barely beginning to arrive.

Puerto Rico is experiencing all of the normal catastrophes brought on by a major hurricane - and then some. In Houston after Harvey and Florida after Irma, wastewater pumping systems failed, causing significant sewage spillage. The same is almost guaranteed to happen in Puerto Rico thanks to the sustained power outages, but will be greatly exacerbated by the fact that the island’s electrical system was already “degraded and unsafe”.

In fact, nearly every problem typically faced in the wake of natural disaster will be amplified and accelerated in Puerto Rico thanks to long-existing financial and environmental problems and far fewer rescue and relief workers. Florida and Texas also dealt with contamination from Superfund sites, but Puerto Rico has a whopping 23 in its relatively tiny area.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Public Services, a superfund site is “any land in the United States that has been contaminated by hazardous waste and identified by the EPA as a candidate for cleanup because it poses a risk to human health and/or the environment.” These sites are put on the National Priorities List (NPL), a list of the most dire cases of environmental contamination in the U.S. and its territories. These are places where a person can’t even walk on the ground and breathe the air without seriously endangering their health.

Even within the designation of Superfund, sites can be ranked in their level of catastrophism, and Puerto Rico is home to one of the very worst. For sixty years the U.S. military used Vieques, an outlying island, for extensive bomb testing. Two thirds of the island now have extreme levels of contamination which have been related to disproportionately high cancer rates among the 9,000 residents. Even today Vieques remains blanketed with unexploded bombs, bullets, and projectiles.

Puerto Rico also has more contaminants to worry about thanks to the coal industry, which has been stockpiling coal ash in southern Puerto Rico. According to Adriana Gonzales of the Sierra Club, an uncovered five-story pile of coal ash situated next to a low-income and minority community in the town of Guayama threatens to toxify the entire area thanks to its content of heavy metals like arsenic, mercury, and chromium that will be released when the rain liquefies the ash.

The coal industry also dumped thousands of tons of coal ash in Puerto Rican landfills for years, a common practice that has recently mushroomed into a disaster as local landfills overflow thanks to the territory’s financial crisis. While the ash is not Puerto Rico’s (it’s owned by Pennsylvania-based Applied Energy Systems) they are now faced with its toxic burden, despite the fact that the Puerto Rican government ordered the company to cover and secure the pile under the threat of Hurricane Irma, weeks before Maria hit.

Puerto Rico’s fallout of Maria will result in a long, long road to recovery. Even though the island is home to 3.5 million U.S. citizens, help is few and far between compared to response in the U.S., and the island’s pre-existing poverty and environmentally dangerous Superfund Sites will make rebuilding a tricky and toxic business, costing in the billions of dollars.       OilPrice

Health professionals in Arizona are warning those traveling to Mexico to be aware of possible contaminated 7Up beverages

Marcella Baietto, Sept. 22, 2017 PHOENIX — Health professionals in Arizona are warning those traveling to Mexico to be aware of possible contaminated 7Up beverages in the Mexicali area.

The contaminated soft drinks caused seven people to become ill and has killed one person, according to the Attorney General of Justice of the State of Baja California.

Mexicali is located about 240 miles from Phoenix and 124 miles from San Diego, just south of the California border and Interstate 8.

According to a Banner Health news release, medical toxicologists and physicians are on alert after reports surfaced that methamphetamine was found in 7Up drinks originating in Mexicali.

Baja California's Health Department officials said health authorities have removed the products from shelves. 

Chris Barnes, spokesman for Dr Pepper Snapple Group, reassured that no 7Up products in the United States have been contaminated. The company distributes 7Up in the United States.

"None of the 7Up products sold in the U.S. are affected by the issue being reported in Mexico," said Barnes. "Dr Pepper Snapple owns and licenses the 7Up brand only in the U.S. and its territories. We do not market, sell or distribute the brand internationally."

The Baja attorney general's office announced on its Facebook page that an investigation is underway in order to figure out how the drug made its way into the soda.

Dr. Daniel Brooks at Banner Health cautioned anyone traveling to Mexico. 

“It is important to check that the seal for any food and drink consumed is still intact and shows no signs of tampering,” Brooks said. 

Some side effects of drinking contaminated sodas are burning of the esophagus and stomach, vomiting and a fast or irregular heartbeat, according to Banner Health.

In July, the U.S. State Department alerted travelers to Mexico about possible tainted or counterfeit alcohol that could cause sickness and blacking out.

That warning came in the wake of a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation surrounding a Wisconsin woman’s death that raised questions about drinks being served in all-inclusive resorts in Mexico.                   USA Today

A new study backs up a theory that many Americans have long suspected: the U.S. is no longer the land of opportunity

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: September 26, 2017

A new study backs up a theory that many Americans have long suspected: the U.S. is no longer the land of opportunity, despite what national statistics would have us believe. Rather, America is now narrowly constrained to zip codes of opportunity.

The new research comes from the Economic Innovation Group (EIG), a bipartisan public policy organization funded by successful tech entrepreneurs. The study provides detailed data on the economically distressed communities that have fundamentally changed the economic landscape of America. The authors write:

“A remarkably small proportion of places fuel national increases in jobs and businesses in today’s economy. High growth in these local economic powerhouses buoys national numbers while obscuring stagnant or declining economic activity in other parts of the country. EIG’s prior work shows that this trend represents a fundamental shift in the geography of economic growth in the United States.  Geographic disparities have, of course, always existed in this country, but the prospects of different communities used to rise or fall together to a far greater extent than they do today. Now, national statistics are often far removed from the experience of the typical American community.”

Some of the key findings from the groundbreaking study are the following:

• 53 million individuals (one in six Americans) live in economically distressed zip codes;
• Prosperous zip codes are home to 84.8 million people, more than any other of the five tiers of communities;
• More than half of the country’s population living in distressed zip codes resides in the South;
• A quarter of the distressed population is under 18 years of age, meaning roughly 13 million American children are growing up in communities likely to have deeply negative “neighborhood effects” on young people’s future earnings potential;
• In the average distressed zip code, more than a quarter of the population lives in poverty, and over 40 percent of prime-age adults are missing from the workforce;
• The prime years of the national economic recovery bypassed many of America’s most vulnerable places altogether. Far from achieving even anemic growth from 2011 to 2015, distressed communities instead experienced what amounts to a deep ongoing recession, with a 6.0 percent average decline in employment and a 6.3 percent average drop in business establishments;
• 58 percent of adults in distressed zip codes have no education beyond high school.

One of the most disturbing findings is that the so-called “economic recovery” has been a cruel illusion to a large swath of the U.S. The authors write: “Most distressed zip codes contain fewer jobs and places of business today than they did in 2000.”

The new study builds on 2016 research from EIG which looked at the uneven geographic rate of new business formation following the financial crisis of 2008. The authors wrote in last year’s report:

“The 1990s recovery was fueled by a net increase of nearly 421,000 business establishments, a 6.7 percent uptick. The 2000s recovery saw a similar increase of 400,500 business establishments, or a 5.6 percent uptick. By contrast, over the first five years of the 2010s recovery, the number of business establishments in the United States increased by only 166,500, representing a meager 2.3 percent expansion. Had they increased at the 1990s rate, 496,000 new business establishments would have opened between 2010 and 2014 — 329,000 more than actually appeared.

“The muted increase in new business establishments at the national level was not due to a universal decline in the rate of establishment openings (even though the rate is in long-term decline). One-fifth of all U.S. counties actually saw faster increases in business establishments from 2010 to 2014 than from 2002 to 2006. Rather, subdued national-level growth was the product of a geographically uneven collapse in new business formation that set in across wide swathes of the country but left other corners relatively untouched.”

EIG is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and states as a mission objective the goal of bringing “geographic inequality into the national conversation, analyzing the impact of the decline in entrepreneurship and economic dynamism, and exploring the future of the economy.”    Wall Street On Parade

Television viewers in southern California were startled when an apocalyptic emergency alert flashed on their screens.

Friday, September 22, 2017 LAKE FOREST, Calif. 

Some television viewers in southern California were startled when an apocalyptic emergency alert flashed on their screens.

The Orange County Register reports a Lake Forest woman says she was watching HGTV on her Cox Communications cable service on Thursday when the alert flashed across the screen. Video shows the message included the voice of a man warning that "in the last days extremely violent time will come." The newspaper says Spectrum cable customers also got the message.

A Cox spokesman tells the newspaper that viewers should have seen a typical emergency-broadcast test but a technical malfunction caused it to go on longer than it should have. He says the broadcast picked up an audio feed that bled into the alert.     ABC

NFL Hysteria a Reminder of How the Elite Have Controlled Men for Thousands of Years

September 25, 2017 by Isaac Davis

“So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance… Films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.” ~ George Orwell, 1984

Few things in American culture exemplify the fractured status of the collective psyche quite like the popularity of the National Football League (NFL). The NFL has become a de facto symbol of American freedom, while in reality it performs the function of the Roman circus, keeping the distracted from the extortion and crimes of state.

The NFL is sponsored by major corporations and by the U.S. Armed Forces. The games played in multi-billion dollar subsidized stadiums have become patriotically charged events, where spectators conflate fighting for freedom with watching games for entertainment. Men are told to pick a team and go to war for that team. Fans of different teams are mortal enemies. Military planes conduct fly-bys overhead, and participants are apparently expected to stand for the national anthem.

The euphoria of football has political value. The sport is an important program of deflection and subjugation of the natural male will to protect community and to fight against foe if necessary. This natural drive is captured and projected onto the tightly controlled images of the league, its teams, and its players. Games are presented as life and death struggles, while real-life issues are downplayed in favor of this never-ending drama.

Author William Cooper talked about the importance of football and other major league sports in a society where men must be pacified in order for the government to continually abuse the populace. Cooper’s perspective is that such enormous investment in the sport as a national pastime serves to distract the people from important social issues, deflecting blame away from the oligarchy for it’s contributions in destroying real freedom. When men’s passions are levied on sport, they pay little attention to the workings of the state, and have no gumption to resist creeping tyranny.

“What does the emperor do when the people have become restive, and when the people are asking questions, or when the people don’t like the policies of the emperor? He sends them to the circus. He creates a circus. He builds a giant coliseum and he begins to throw the Christians to the lions, and he has great chariot races, and football games, and basketball games. All to keep the idiots preoccupied with things that don’t mean anything in the scheme of the entire world. So that they don’t have the time to learn what the truth is, so that they don’t ever get smart enough to learn how they’re being manipulated. So that they don’t ever question the emperor.” ~William Cooper

“When a hundred and fifty of the most powerful men and women in the world can meet in secret… to plot the fate of billions, and nobody even cares about it, but six football players go to lunch together, and it’s in the headlines across the country, you have a reflection of the society in which that exists. And it is a sick, sick society that is doomed to self-destruction.” ~William Cooper

And now, as ‘take a knee‘ protests have swept the nation, the NFL’s image has just been shattered in a catch-22 of brainwashing and cognitive dissonance. What originally started as a statement against the very real and destructive issue of police brutality has become a hysteria-fueled social movement and front page news. People are destroying thousands of dollars worth of team branded merchandise to demonstrate that complaints against the state will not be tolerated.

Now, the president has even chimed in, adding fuel to the fire and doubling down on the notion that the National Football League is first and foremost a patriotic organization. In this country, and in this sport, the government is not to be criticized. Not for brutalizing the citizenry with out of control police, or anything else.

Final Thoughts

In a society as rigidly controlled by a monolithic, top-down, know-it-all organization like the state, the archetypal energy of the male is manageable only by suppressing man’s natural drive to protect his community. This is how the elite have controlled men since the days of the Roman Empire.

When President Eisenhower left office, he warned us that the U.S. was changing under the pressures of a new world, and that a military industrial complex had emerged which would pose a sincere menace to a free society. Fast forward almost 60 years and his words are quite prescient.

“Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.” ~Dwight D. Eisenhower         Walking Times

Thousands of Venezuelans are searching for a new life in Colombia as crisis deepens

By Katy Watson  28 September 2017

Many have queued overnight, waiting patiently for the Simón Bolívar International bridge to open. Some 25,000 people cross the bridge into Colombia every day.

It is a short walk between the two countries but with the political and economic crisis in Venezuela deepening, the two neighbours now seem worlds apart.

Venezuela is suffering from acute shortages of medicines, hospitals struggle to treat patients and staple goods have become scarce and unaffordable to many.

Mothers cradle their babies, bringing them to the hospital in the town of Cúcuta, on the Colombian side of the border, to get them vaccinated.

Families push poorly relatives in wheelchairs. Others cross into Colombia with empty suitcases, filling them up with food and supplies they cannot get in Venezuela.

Two women with a baby in a pushchair walk past the border guard, muttering: "What a humiliation." They are clearly embarrassed they have to do this.

Crossing the border for food

The local church in Cúcuta is feeding between 600 and 2,000 people a day in an open-air courtyard filled with plastic tables and chairs.

Verónica Mendoza, 24, is five months pregnant. She is tucking in to a meal of rice, beans, potatoes and mince with her mother, Mariluz.

The two women travel two hours every day from Venezuela to sell fruit at a market in Colombia.

They cannot find work back home. They come here for their only proper meal of the day.

"Look at the weight I've lost," says Mariluz, grabbing her once fleshy arms and showing the loose skin. "I used to be healthy and strong. But we have to walk such a long way and work so hard."

Mariluz's case is not rare. Recent research [in Spanish] suggests that three-quarters of Venezuelans lost weight in the past year, an average of 9kg (20lb).

Living on the streets

The Colombian government recently introduced "border mobility cards" to allow Venezuelans to go back and forth across the border without the need for a passport.

More than 700,000 people have applied for the scheme so far.

But some like Carlos Alberto Ledesma, a professional jazz musician from Caracas, want to stay in Colombia for good.

Mr Ledesma arrived in Cúcuta eight days ago. "I spent a year living on the streets," he says.

"I stopped working in Venezuela because the bars aren't open, half of the musicians have gone."

Official figures put the number of Venezuelans who have left their homeland for Colombia because of the crisis at 300,000. But the actual number is thought to be much higher.

The influx is putting strain on communities in Colombia, which have lived through more than five decades of armed conflict between left-wing guerrilla groups, the armed forces and right-wing paramilitaries.

Luis Fernando Niño López is the secretary for victims, peace and post-conflict for the province of Norte de Santander, where Cúcuta is located.

"At the moment, there's a pretty big flow but not everybody stays," he says of the Venezuelans arriving in the region.

"But what's going to happen when they can't go back because [Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro closes the border or because armed groups that control the border won't let people go back?"

Sheltering Venezuelans

At a shelter run by the Scalabrini International Migration Network in the centre of Cúcuta, the growing scale of the problem is evident.

Between January and June, 650 people came through its doors. In August alone, there were 850 people.

Mr Franklin Díaz, who runs the shelter, says those who come to the shelter are in urgent need of attention and more should be done to help them.

"The action of the authorities is fundamental, they are the ones who manage the resources."

Many of those crossing into Colombia from Venezuela originally fled the armed conflict in Colombia.

Nereidis Ascanio is one of them. Her father was killed by paramilitaries so her family left for Venezuela when she was a child.

A single mother, her two little boys have Venezuelan nationality.

She recently returned to Colombia and now lives in a little shack made out of wooden beams and a corrugated iron roof on the outskirts of Cúcuta. The tarpaulin walls do not even cover the entire shack. 

Ms Ascanio is desperate. "I need to find food for my kids," she says while she wipes away tears.

"And I need to find a job that will allow me to look after my boys."

Getting stuck in Cúcuta

Other Colombians left for Venezuela when the oil industry started booming there in the 1980s.

With oil prices now low and the economic crisis in Venezuela worsening, they too are returning in large numbers.

Many arrive in Colombia with great expectations of a new life.

But Venezuela's triple-digit inflation means their savings in Venezuelan bolivares are worthless once converted into Colombian pesos, so many get stuck.

In the middle of the town is a roundabout with a large sculpture which reads "I love Cúcuta". Some people are curled up sleeping in the letters "c".

Jeferson José Gutierres is one of those sleeping rough along with his wife and their three children. 

He came here a month ago and cannot find work.

But he says life in Cúcuta is still better than in Venezuela and he is not planning on going back while President Maduro is in power.

"I'll return when Maduro goes," he says.

"He's a president who spends money while his people die of hunger."         BBC

Americans work harder than any other country’s citizens: study

By Gregory Bresiger September 3, 2017

Start up the grill. Get the burgers and chicken going. And start imbibing. You deserve it, according to a new work study.

“We’re hard workers. We deserve the day off,” says Liz Bagot, a spokeswoman for NationalToday.com, which conducted the survey of 2,000 Americans.

It turns out the average American works harder than our Japanese counterparts or the average European worker.

“Statistics show that Americans work longer hours than the majority of other countries — 137 hours per year more than Japanese, 260 per year more than in the UK,” according to the study.

By the way, when the comparison is made between the average French worker and the average American worker, we’re talking vive la différence. The American worker records about 500 more working hours per year than his or her French counterpart.

“It’s the reason we can say ‘Thank God it’s Friday.’ Labor Day is a time to celebrate the benefits we enjoy at our jobs — including weekends off,” Bagot adds.

She warns there’s one thing Americans should be careful to avoid during the holiday: “Work, of course.”

Apparently, plenty of Americans already agree with the kick-back, unofficial-end-of-summer Labor Day spirit.

NationalToday.com’s survey found lots of them plan to enjoy the good life this weekend.

Here are some of the results of the poll:

• ­­­Two-thirds of Americans over 21 will quaff a brew this weekend.
• Two-thirds of Americans will also host or go to a barbecue.
• Americans’ favorite barbecue choices are burgers, dogs, chicken and steak.
• The majority of those polled from every region of the nation say they’ll be at a barbecue, although outdoor chow-downs are the most popular in the East.        NY post

Amazon's Echo Spot is a push to get cameras into your home

By Tom Warren on September 28, 2017

Amazon unveiled six new hardware products at its surprise event in Seattle yesterday, but the Echo Spot has everyone talking. Most people think the Echo Spot is cute; a little alarm clock that’s designed to sit next to your bed. While all the focus is on what the Echo Spot looks like, it’s important to remember that Amazon is using the Spot as a very clever way of making you comfortable with having a camera in your bedroom. It’s also a camera that will probably be pointing directly at your bed.

Amazon launched its Echo Look camera earlier this year to judge your outfits. It’s designed to sit in your wardrobe and offer you style advice, and it was Amazon’s first Echo device with a camera. Amazon quickly followed it up with the Echo Show, a touchscreen device that sits in your kitchen and lets you watch tutorials or recipes and participate in video calls. Amazon’s Look device is still only available exclusively by invitation, and in hindsight it now looks like experimental hardware to gauge the reaction of a camera in the bedroom. A litmus test, if you will.

Echo Spot feels like the real push to get cameras inside your smart home. It’s more than just an alarm clock, but Amazon is definitely pushing this as a $130 device that will sit next to your bed. Promotional materials show it sitting on nightstands, providing a selection of clock faces and news / weather information. The privacy concerns are obvious: an always-listening (for a keyword) microphone in your bedroom, and a camera pointing at your bed.

This combination of features would have triggered alarm bells just a few years ago during the NSA spying revelations. Microsoft’s Kinect camera creeped a lot of people out just by sitting in a living room, always listening and ready. So why aren’t people freaking out about Amazon’s Echo Spot? Timing is key.

Over the decades, we’ve witnessed the proliferation of CCTV cameras and laptop webcams in our lives. Both have had obvious privacy concerns associated with them, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg still tapes up his webcam as a result. Still, we’re not concerned about buying laptops with webcams these days, or stepping onto public transport and getting caught on camera hundreds of times a day. Even the phones we put into our pockets have cameras and microphones, and Apple is now at the point where it can put Kinect-like technology into the front-facing camera on the iPhone X.

All of these camera advancements have had obvious benefits to consumers, balanced with privacy concerns. The thought of putting your holiday photos online for anyone to see 15 years ago was insane, but now everyone shares daily photos to Facebook or Instagram without even pausing for thought. We’re now entering a similar phase for cameras in the home. You probably already have a smartphone with a camera beside you while you sleep, but it’s probably pointing at the ceiling instead of your bed. New privacy concerns and social norms are now being broken down through devices like the Echo Spot.               The Verge

America’s most brilliant and powerful military men gathered to discuss Armageddon.

Phil Butler  15.09.2017
In a room, somewhere deep inside the Pentagon generals and admirals met recently in order to prepare an assessment for the United States Senate Armed Services Committee. Present at the metering were General Mark Milley, the U.S. Army’s Chief of Staff, the Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson, the Commandant of the Marine Corps General Robert Neller, and U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General David L. Goldfein. At such a meeting there’s no doubt that Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford attended seeing he’s the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The agenda for this meeting was serious as a heart attack – America’s most brilliant and powerful military men gathered that day to discuss Armageddon.

The minutes of this fateful meeting are top secret. Only a handful of people will ever know what was discussed. But the end result of the strategy session was revealed on September 15, 2017 before the people of the United States. The top generals of the most powerful nation on Earth advised congress that America could in fact win an all-out war with Russia and China. It must have been a scene right out of Director Stanley Kubrick’s classic Cold War film, Dr. Strangelove. I was not there, so I can only imagine the gathering of war hawks, the stoic expertise and military intellect, and the obtuse arrogance being conveyed across the congressional forum that day. The vision makes me wonder, “Who in the hell ordered such an assessment in the first place?” But I think we all know the answer.

General Milley expressed his only concern over World War III by citing the U.S. Army’s “lack of resources and training to execute America’s national security strategy without high military risk.” Admiral Richardson agreed with Milley, but his level of confidence in the U.S. Navy’s dominance seemed somehow higher. Milley told committee:

“I concur with Gen. Milley. If we get into one of those conflicts, we’ll win, but it going to take a lot longer than we’d like and it’s going to cost a lot more in terms of dollars and in casualties.”

Marine General Neller parroted these opinions, only with a typical “Jar Head” obtuseness and psychosomatic bravado proclaiming America’s current force array is “effective” against counterinsurgent forces around the world. I am assuming the General means the Taliban now resurgent in Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda that’s being supported in Syria, and the ultimate enemy ISIL, which Russia has all but destroyed on the ground. I’ll not get into the Marine mentality, they are my shipmates after all. As for the Air Force’s General David L. Goldfein, the former combat pilot’s assessment showed that flying an airplane does not qualify one to be a military bean counter. General Goldfein also concurred with the others but in an overcomplicated way, as if he were the accountant of the group. In short, the man shot down over Serbia when America destroyed Yugoslavia earned his pay September 15th by stating the plainly obvious – World War III is a high-risk endeavor. No !@#$%^&* General.

My fellow Earthlings, it’s abundantly clear that the United States military industrial complex now runs America. The meeting before the U.S. Senate was simply a formality. A psycho-thriller being played out before an audience asleep in the back row of the theater. With Russia’s Vladimir Putin pleading with every breath for discourse and sanity, and after Russia’s military machine has been forced into high alert, America’s top Generals have been put in charge. Let me cite the Army’s General Milley on his plea for more money and weapons in order to abate the “dire consequences” of this Armageddon:

“The butcher’s bill is paid in the blood of American soldiers for unready forces. We have a long history of that— Kasserine Pass, Guadalcanal, Okinawa, Tarawa, Task Force Smith in the Korean War. It goes all the way back to Bull Run—Lincoln thought he was going to fight a war for 90 days. Wars are often thought to be short when they begin—they’re not. They’re often thought to cost less than they end up costing and they end up with outcomes and take turns you never know. It’s a dangerous thing.”

Let me make something abundantly clear here. The “generals” did not prepare their assessments for a waiting U.S. Senate committee, for those same senators work in collusion with the military and the industrial complex, everyone knows this. This dog and pony show was orchestrated for one audience only – the idiots who believe our system works like it should – the American people. Look at the narrative. It’s all PR and propaganda dialogue, grade school fodder crafted to appease convenience store workers. A “dangerous thing”, indeed. Milley went on pandering for a brand new arms race, a brand new Cold War, in suggesting force build up and reequipping for major conflict. We’re right back to Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” initiative. For those of you who believe this is all saber rattling, this Defense Intelligence Agency report shows us the military industrialists and the U.S. President are aware of the ultimate outcome. Part of the report addresses Vladimir Putin’s “preparedness” in the event of Armageddon to the extent he is getting ready just in case. The fact of the matter is that the deep underground bunkers America’s defense industry cites as “Putin’s Armageddon protection” were built during Soviet times.

Finally, if you read about the new role of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, then you’ll understand the takeover of American policy by the deep state is complete. While his colleagues were busy pandering the public for more guns, ships, and missiles, America’s top general was politicking in Asia with career bureaucrats like South Korea’s Moon, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Gen. Fang Fenghui, chief of the general staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. So, with North Korea, Russia, and Iran in the crosshairs of new US sanctions, the Trump administration takes aim with real killing weapons too. Generals as diplomats, and idiot U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley as cheerleader for the ultimate game of war? The insanity is at “Biblical” on the reality meter today. Half the world is on the brink of starving, and most of the rest feels milked dry by the elitist order, so naturally World War III must come. All I have left to offer is this.

“I saw that publishing all over the world was deeply constrained by self-censorship, economics and political censorship, while the military-industrial complex was growing at a tremendous rate, and the amount of information that it was collecting about all of us vastly exceeded the public imagination.” – Julian Assange.                   NEO

Japan considers killing cash by launching own cryptocurrency

27 Sep, 2017 

Authorities in Japan are considering starting a digital currency to be called the J-Coin. By doing so, Tokyo will reduce cash circulation in the country.  

"The project is in the early stages, and we have just held study meetings with other institutions," a spokesperson for Japanese bank Mizuho Financial Group told CNBC on Wednesday.

"This will be pegged with Japanese Yen, and hopefully used to make payments and transfers through a mobile phone app," the bank said.

According to a report by the Financial Times, a consortium of Japanese banks are working on the project, and they are interested in launching the J-Coin before the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

The project has the support of the central bank and regulators. The J-Coin will allow Japanese consumers to pay for goods and services with their smartphones.

The government's goal is to cut dependence on cash, which represents 70 percent of all transactions by value in Japan. The J-Coin will be exchanged at a one-to-one rate with the yen.

Banks behind the project intend to counter the growing e-payments services of international tech giants like Apple or Alibaba.

Japan is one of the first countries to begin to recognize cryptocurrency as a legal method of payment. The country passed legislation into law, effective April 1, categorizing digital currency as a kind of prepaid payment instrument.        RT

The Lord is merciful and gracious