Friday, April 05, 2013

Friday News in April of 2013


 

The situation in North Korea is important to know, to research, and to discuss about. Korea was slaughtered by Japanese imperialists in the early 20th century. During the 1950's, North Korea lost 30% of its population as a result of the U.S. led bombings in Korea. The mainstream media portrays North Korea as some aggressive nation that is a threat to global security. We can't know about the Koran peninsula without understanding about the Korean War. During that war, 20 percent of North Korea's population during the Korea war was killed by extensive bombings. General Curtis LeMay was involved in the massacres. North Korea was destroyed of its 78 cities and thousands of her villages.  Official South Korean government sources estimate North Korean civilian deaths at 1,550,000. Refugees came from Yongdong on July 26, 1950. Hundreds of refugees were massacred by U.S. soldiers and warplanes at bridge at No Gun Ri (eight miles away) the day before. LeMay bragged about killing civilians in the Korean War and WWII. If similar acts occurred in America, Americans would say that these acts are a threat to national security. General Curtis Lemay acknowledges that “[we] eventually burned down every town in North Korea anyway, some way or another, and some in South Korea too.” So, in the inner mind or consciousness of many North Koreans, the USA is seen as the aggressor when ca. 2 million deaths came in the Korean War. The actions in the Korean War define genocide under the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Today, the DPRK is now having a conflict with the White House. On February 12, 2013, the DPRK conducted its third nuclear test. The Security Council then issued Resolution 2094      (S/Res/2094(2013)) on March 7 imposing additional sanctions on the DPRK, including a set of financial sanctions which are intended to reimpose substantial financial hardship on the DPRK. These financial sanctions are part of the focus of Resolution 2094. Some sanctions against North Korea have been agreed to by China. Korea is now divided when it had been unified for 1000 years. The Pentagon has used war games in Asia for a while and there has been agitation in the region. It seems that Washington has used a show of force and this force (from aircraft, etc.) has caused North Korea to show more reactions. The rhetoric from Kim Jong-un is in direct response to this year’s month-long U.S.-South Korea war games, which he interprets as a possible prelude for another war.  It is said that Kim Jong-un actions are done as a means to cause some bilateral discussions on peace. The Wall Street Journal and even CNN admitted that this Pentagon playbook has been created in months in advance (or approved by the Obama administration earlier in the year). There is nothing defensive about B-52 and B-2 nuclear strategic bombers coming near South Korea.   The Pentagon also exploited the opportunity to announce the boosting of anti-ballistic missile systems in the Asia Pacific and to station two US anti-missile destroyers off the Korean coast. It is easy to see that the United States has a stronger military than North Korea and America wants geo-political domination of Asia. The United States is allied with Japan and South Korea.  Ironically, China is hesitant in massively funding North Korea, because of North Korea's perceived instability. There is still debate in Beijing over whether to continue to support Pyongyang. China, historically, used North Korea as buffer of Western influence, but they know that the West can exploit tensions in that part of the world as an excuse to have a military buildup. North Korea has threatened to use missiles on the American coast if necessary. China has mobilized troops near the North Korean border. The only solution is for all sides to come to the peace table, end militaristic threats, and fight to not make the barbarism of war a reality.

 

 

The feds raided indoor gardeners and they find only tomatoes and squash plants. So, when anyone tells you that we do not have tyrannical government action, then they should witness facts like these. This is one fruit of the out of control war on drugs. Some folks are suspected of conducting illegal drug activities when they are just growing plants and vegetables indoors. The state police and sheriff's deputies in Kansas raided the home of Adlynn and Robert Harte.  They were ironically 2 former CIA employees. The feds made a fruitless search for marijuana. They conducted a 2 state drug sweep in conjunction with Missouri police agencies. These 2 human beings just grew vegetables inside of their home. The couple was improperly searched in the operation. So, they filed suit as a means “to get more information about why sheriff’s deputies searched their home in the upscale Kansas City suburb of Leawood last April 20 as part of Operation Constant Gardener – a sweep conducted by agencies in Kansas and Missouri that netted marijuana plants, processed marijuana, guns, growing paraphernalia and cash from several other locations,” The Associated Press reported. That date of them being raided has been used by marijuana users as a means to celebrate the drug. Marijuana remains illegal on the federal level except in 2 states (Colorado and Washington). These 2 states have legalized it for recreational use last November. Attorney Cheryl Pilate represents the Harte couple. The attorney said that the clients' 1,865 square ft. split level home was targeted since they recently purchased hydroponic gear to grow small numbers of tomatoes and squash in their basement. “With little or no other evidence of any illegal activity, law enforcement officers make the assumption that shoppers at the store are potential marijuana growers, even though the stores are most commonly frequented by backyard gardeners who grow organically or start seedlings indoors,” says the suit.  The suit was filed under the Kansas Open Records Act. It came after authorities in Johnson County and Leawood denied their initial requests to see records justifying the search of their particular home. Leawood officials went so far as to say they had no such relevant records, but the Hartes’ say that answer isn’t good enough. Per AP: "The Hartes say the public has an interest in knowing whether the sheriff’s department’s participation in the raids was “based on a well-founded belief of marijuana use and cultivation at the targeted addresses, or whether the raids primarily served a publicity purpose." The Harte family was shocked by the federal raid on their own property. Robert Harte told the AP that it felt like a cops TV show and like Zero Dark Thirty. Cops watched them for months. The deputies are accused in the suit of making rude comments to them and imply that their son was a dope smoker. No charges have been filed in the affairs and both Hartes deny using drugs. “You can’t go into people’s homes and conduct searches without probable cause,” Pilate said, adding that a successful lawsuit could serve as a basis for a future federal civil rights suit. This is not an ambiguous case. This is a clear case of violations of the Harte family's civil liberties.

 

 

The Atlanta testing scandal is representative of the corruption in society. It is being exploited by some as a means to advance reactionary school reform. This school reform agenda has been advanced by the Obama administration. There is the massive use of standardized tests. Sometimes, these tests are alone utilized as an excuse to close schools and massively fire teachers (even if these teachers are doing a great job). In the bigger picture, the drive to privatize education and make a school system based on class is a real threat. Both major political parties agree with this Race to the Top Educational agenda. Corporate interests love this reality, because they can make huge profits. Some teachers' unions agree with the plan as well. The goal of us is to improve the education for the American youth. The harm to public schools grows the lucrative profit filled charter school system. 35 Atlanta school administrators, principals, and teachers turned themselves in to face charges of being involved in the huge falsification of school test results. Of these folks, 13 are teachers, 6 are principals, 2 are assistant principals, 6 are testing coordinators, 3 are school resource team executive directors, 1 is a school improvement specialist, and 1 is a secretary. The others are executive administrators. The grand jury indicted the school employees on charges of racketeering, making false statements, and theft. Most of the teachers' bonds were originally set in huge levels. Later, they have been reduced to between  $50,000 and $60,000. The former Atlanta public schools superintendent Beverly Hall was accused masterminding the manipulating of standardized test results. Her bail is set at $200,000, reduced from $7.5 million. She faces charges of racketeering, theft, influencing witnesses, conspiracy and making false statements. If convicted, she could face up to 45 years in prison. The indicted teachers face between 5 and 40 years in prison if they are found guilty. The indictment accuses Hall of using threats and firings as a means to coerce teachers and administrators to falsify test scores as a means for them to keep their jobs. The mainstream media refuses to make a distinction between Hall and the top officials (who ought to have justice) and other teachers caught up in the scandal. The establishment will demonize teachers in this affair. Hundreds of qualified, great teachers have been fired and schools have been closed. As high as nearly one third of all funding for U.S. public schools by state governments have declined. The White House and Arne Duncan or the Education secretary love Race to the Top. The entire teaching staff in Rhode Island’s Central Fall High School has been fired. Michelle Rhee or the former chancellor of D.C. public school system agrees with the educational reform movement. Rhee will sit comfortable, because she loves charter schools and privatization of education. Rhee fired hundreds of teachers in the D.C. area and threatened closed schools if test scores didn't rise. School districts have been forced by federal law to have yearly standardized tests. If schools fail these schools, then they are in risk of more tests, more firing, closed schools, etc. The cheating epidemic in tests is found in Los Angeles, Houston, D.C. etc. Hall was played plain and simple. She agreed with the reform agenda and even the gentrification plan of BeltLine inside of the Atlanta. The powers that be rewarded her with federal indictments. Many criminals in our government cheat too. The lack of resources and the scourge of poverty contributed to our educational issues as well. Many students now lack food to eat and great nutrition leads into great intellectual output.

 

The truth is that the UK is having record welfare cuts. Millions of families will be affected by this reality. April 1 was the date of the largest welfare cuts in Britain. Millions can be into destitution. Therefore, most welfare benefits will be limited to just a 1 percent rise a year. This is below the expected inflation rate and is equivalent to a 4 percent cut in real terms. Some other benefits are frozen like Child Benefit and the Working Tax Credit that is available to low paid workers. It is predicted that nine million families will lose an average of 165 pounds a year. The cuts are comprehensive, because they will be a new bedroom tax on local council and housing association tenants. The tenants affected are the ones who receive Housing benefits to help with their rents. Anyone found to have a spare bedroom will lose 14 percent of their benefit and those with 2 bedrooms 25 percent. There are as many as 660,000 human beings (or a third of the total) who will lose an average of £14 a week, or be forced out their homes. During this month, the Department for Work and Pensions to local authorities will handle administering the Council tax benefit for those who have difficulty paying the tax levied by council for local services. There is a 10 percent cut in funding on top of the 25 percent cut in real terms that councils have suffered in the last 2 years. Estimates show that over half of the nearly 6 million families will receive this benefit will be worse off. By April 15, another change will happen. This is when 4 London boroughs (named Bromley Croydon, Enfield, and Haringey. The latter 2 is Labour Party controlled) will begin to impose the government's benefit cap. That means that a couple or a lone parent (regardless of the children in the household), the total of all benefits they can claim will be a maximum of £500 a week. Council in London has relocated families to poorer areas of the country. There could be 80,000 households made homeless by this measure. About 1/5 of current DLA claimants are expected to lose their benefits (under stricter eligibility tests), because the Personal Independence Payment will replace the DLA. The PIP deals with folks of working age. More cuts will come because the Universal Credit will be introduced over a four year period. Universal Credit is an amalgamated benefit payment. The UK government is reducing the budget for legal aid. This aid helps the costs of legal advice for those who cannot afford it. The budget will be reduced by £350 million or 16 percent. The government is doing this, because they want to prevent legal challenges to these draconian cuts. One recent court base was brought by 2 unemployed claimants against the imposition of workfare schemes. Many parts of civil law will be entitled to legal aid coverage from private family law like divorce to personal injury. Parts of the welfare provision governing the National Health Service or the NHS could be harmed. The new Health and Social Care Act came in April 1. This new law ends the 1948 legislation that founded the NHS as a provider of free, universal health care. Clause 12 of the act says that the government has no legal duty to give a comprehensive health service. The Clinical Commissioning Groups or the CCGs have a duty to arrange health care instead. The profit making industry is increased, because the CCGs have control of the NHS budget (and buy health care from any service providers). Millions of children can be thrown into poverty after this reality. Taxes are reduced on the income level from 50 percent to 45 percent on the top level. This means that some 13,000 millionaires a £100,000 tax cut—and corporation tax reduced. These actions constitute austerity. The ruling elite want austerity and welfare cuts as a means to drive wage down (including to have high living standards mostly strong for the super-rich).

 

 

For months, individuals have discussed about the World War Z movie. The movie's plot and other compositions are transparent and easily realizable. The movie describes a post-apocalyptic world. It is based on the book of the same title. Brad Pitt is the leading actor of the movie. His girlfriend in real life is Angeline Jolie. Jolie is a CFR member, loves the United Nations, and believes in even the imperialist NATO war in Libya. The whole movie deals with zombies and dehumanization. Human life is readily demonized in the mainstream entertainment world. The film shows an economic disaster and events that deal with depopulation. In real life, the globalists advance depopulation and the usage of biological weapons. The book even talks about the zombies fighting folks and a global government to rule the world (and humans being divided into zones). Brad Pitt in the film machine guns folks to keep folks from the wall. The reality is the new world order agenda is real and it is evil. Pitt plays Gerry Lane or workers in the United Nations. He tried to search the globe for information that can stop the zombie outbreak that is bringing down nations. He tries to stop the pandemic, which is defeating armies and collapsing governments. Mireille Enos plays Karin or Lane's wife (and the mother of their two children). Lucy Aharish plays a young Palestinian woman. World War Z is a science fiction type of movie. Themes in the book and the movie deal with the issues of survivalism, economic disaster, fear and uncertainty, and fights for resources and power. The events of the book are similar to the government's bad response on every level to crises from Hurricane Katrina to other events. The writer of the book is named Max Books. He or Max wants to criticize American isolationism as one major motivating factor in creating his World War Z book. Critics of the movie view it as predictive programming and a glamorization of population control. Even Prince Philip, co-founder with Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), tells an interviewer that he hopes to be "reincarnated as a deadly virus'' to help solve the "population problem.'' The Prince Philip is a high level Freemason and a Windsor (whose history is filled with controversy from Nazi alliances to their sometimes harsh relationship to the late Princess Diana). There has been recent films that either describe terrorism, harm to the White House, or terrorism related issues like Oblivion, Olympus Has Fallen, White House Down, The Host, etc. That is why the government including the Intelligence community is heavily allied with Hollywood. Hollywood consults the military industrial complex via the CIA, etc. for funding, advice, and consent as a means to develop numerous motion pictures. Many films push agendas via celebrities. Even Jim Carrey tried to make an immature mockery of gun rights and Charlton Heston. I do not agree with Heston on every issue, but he was right to advance civil rights, environmental protection, gun rights, health freedom, and individual liberty. That mockery didn't work, because human beings understand fully the great value of individual rights and individual liberty. In the final analysis, not even the government can be a savior for us as humans. The government is a tool, which can be used for good or evil. Only the Creator is the Savior of the Universe. We humans have a brain for the reason of improving the Universe without the violation of human civil liberties or the destruction of Nature. The movie strangely shows a helicopter shooting piles of human beings down.

 

By Timothy

 

 


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