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J.W. McLaughlin Elementary School in North Carolina suspended 5-year-old student Caitlin Miller for aiming a make-believe ‘stick gun’ at fellow students while playing ‘pretend’ during recess.

Brandy Miller said her daughter, Caitlin and two of her friends were playing their favorite game. One of the girls was pretending to be a Queen and the other a Princess. Caitlin pretended to be their private security guard. She grabbed a stick that resembled the appearance of a gun in order to protect the ‘Queen’ and ‘Princess’.

North Carolina mom says her 5-year-old daughter was suspended from school for playing with a stick resembling a gun: https://t.co/UkgXlMFxg8 pic.twitter.com/VX7Rlsd704

— Good Morning America (@GMA) March 29, 2017

As Caitlin pretended to protect the girls, wielding the ‘stick gun,’ a boy ran and told a teacher who then snatched Caitlin and hauled her off to the principal’s office.

Assistant Principal Brooke Griffie stated in a letter sent to Brandy Miller that Caitlin was suspended for one day for:

“Turning a stick into a gun and threatening to shoot and kill other students.”

Hoke County school officials said in a statement “the district does not tolerate assaults, threats or harassment from any student.”

“It is our duty to ensure the safety of our students and staff. Therefore, we respond to all threats in a serious manner and take appropriate action.”

Outraged over the situation, Brandy Miller stated while she understands the strict policy, she demanded the school to apologize to Caitlin. Saying, “tell her that it is okay for her to be 5 and have an imagination.”

Miller further stated:

“She’s confused. Nobody explained anything to her.”

“One minute she is playing with her friends and the next her teachers are dragging her to the principal’s office.”

Caitlin has since returned to school Tuesday, after her one day suspension.

School suspensions similar to this occur more frequently than you may think.

Last May, a kindergarten student in Brighton, Colorado was suspended for wielding a bubble-blowing “gun” at recess.

In March 2015, a 6-year-old in Colorado Springs had the same thing happen when he pointed his index finger like a gun at a classmate while saying, “Boom-You’re dead.”

Also, in March 2013, a 7-year-old in Anne Arundel County, Maryland was suspended for nibbling a breakfast pastry into the shape of a gun.

While it is important to promote and practice a safe environment for our children, school officials must use common sense.

One would hope potential damage caused to this bright, young mind by the school officials that suspended her for playing make-believe would be alarming to educators – with steps taken to avoid similar incidents in the future.

The post North Carolina School Suspends 5-Year-Old For Pretending A Stick Was A Gun appeared first on We Are Change.

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California prosecutors charged two undercover journalists with 15 felony counts on Tuesday, including charges of invasion of privacy.

David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt were charged for allegedly filming 14 healthcare workers without their consent, in Los Angeles, San Francisco and El Dorado counties from October 2013 to July 2015, State Attorney General Xavier Becerra, said in a statement.

Daleiden and Merritt had posed as undercover representatives from a non-existent company seeking to purchase fetal tissue.

“The right to privacy is a cornerstone of California’s Constitution, and a right that is foundational in a free democratic society,” Becerra said. “We will not tolerate the criminal recording of confidential conversations.”

Becerra said the two fabricated a fictitious bio-research company to meet with women’s health care providers to secretly record them.

Daleiden denied the charges, telling Reuters that he had done nothing wrong because the recordings were not confidential and were recorded in public.

“The conversations that we secretly recorded were in open areas and in public areas where people could overhear,” he said. “In fact, they did overhear.”

Daleiden released a statement through the Center for Medical Progress, alleging that the charges were the result of Planned Parenthood’s “collusion with corrupt officials.”

“The bogus charges from Planned Parenthood’s political cronies are fake news,” the statement read. It also teases “yet-unreleased” videos the group plans to disclose.

Daleiden runs the California-based nonprofit Center for Medical Progress, which released the videos in 2015.

[RELATED: Planned Parenthood Exec Caught on Camera Boasting About Harvesting Fetal Organs]

In January earlier this year, a grand jury in Harris County, Texas indicted Daleiden and Merritt for using fake driver’s licenses to infiltratea Houston-area Planned Parenthood office. However, those charges were later dropped with the state ruling that a grand jury had overstepped its authority after they were convened to investigate the Planned Parenthood facility but instead indicted the pair.

The group has said that they will fight the unconstitutional gag order on the remaining Planned Parenthood videos which they call “damning and incriminating.”

CMP will fight unconstitutional gag order on the remaining damning and incriminating videos of @PPact @NatAbortionFed #PeskyFirstAmendment pic.twitter.com/A5yb8Xfko4

— CMP (@CtrMedProgress) March 29, 2017

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a last minute stop in Winnipeg to promote his childcare agenda at a YMCA daycare on March 29th. After a photo-op with a bunch of children, the kids were moved out of the room alongside Trudeau, only to return a few minutes later to take questions from the press.

I was granted a media pass to the event, waited patiently for a few hours and was not allowed to ask a question at the microphone. So, I took it into my own hands and between questions, I loudly asked my question for the Prime Minister to hear from a mere 5 feet away. The media was being pre-screened for questions and no real questions were being asked.

I confronted Trudeau on the carbon tax, which will not only be a tax on everything as companies are forced to raise their prices which affects everyone’s wallet, but it also forces impoverished families, especially in rural communities, to choose between heating their home and buying groceries in the winter.

It will bankrupt companies who export goods and puts Canada at a huge disadvantage when it comes to competition.

This all goes back to Maurice Strong and Norway’s Gro Harlem Brundtland, who pushed forward the first climate change depopulation agendas back in the 1970s.

Today, under the United Nations’ Agenda 2030, there is an organized globalist push to completely destroy any fossil fuel industries, depopulate the world, and tax everyone on their carbon footprint, which is in the negative on average in Canada.

Canada’s carbon output only makes up for about 2% of the global footprint. The carbon tax will simply make it impossible for Canadian companies to compete against businesses in foreign countries and puts a stop on small business competition as major corporations continue to be monopolized by the state.

I’ve done several videos in the past on Canada’s carbon tax.

You can see one here:

I was pulled out of the room as I continued to ask Trudeau questions and got no answers, so I decided to call him out for the true globalist puppet he is. I called Trudeau a scumbag followed by saying “Shame on you and your globalist counterparts!”

The event was highly publicized in the media as the mainstream media did a bang-up job of copying and pasting the original article in the Huffington Post, CTV, CBC, Global, City News and others. In fact, Canadian state-run CBC edited their footage to make it seem as though I’d called Trudeau a scumbag while four year old children were present which is absolutely false.

They all left out the fact that I had questioned Trudeau extensively for minutes before calling him a scumbag and simply claimed that he “claimed to be a member of World Alternative Media”.

Clearly they didn’t do two seconds of due diligence. They would have seen that I’m rather well known across Canada and parts of the United States as the founder of World Alternative Media, but that after all is why the mainstream media is dying.

While I usually wouldn’t call someone a scumbag during a confrontation, watching the Prime Minister arrogantly smirk as he posed for a scripted photo-op with children, then claim he cared about those in poverty boiled my blood. Knowing the high quantity of people starving due to the carbon tax or being forced to move from their rural bankrupt communities to the city while he falsely pretends he’s standing up for the environment all while getting support from the top oil companies and lobbies is truly sickening. As I got manhandled by security, I had to get one last jab in.

Of course, that’s how the mainstream media reported it and it’s to be expected. With that said, I regret nothing.

This was the second time I’d successfully confronted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. I’d confronted him two days before the 2015 election on Bill C-51 which much like the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act, considers all people who openly protest government as “suspected terrorists” and with that, allows the government to arrest people and search their homes without a warrant.

This dramatically opposes the natural individual liberties one is born with. Canada is quickly turning into a cesspool of collectivism. It’s quickly becoming an Orwellian police state as well as a nanny state. Free speech is stifled. Opposition is censored. Debt is abundant and subsidization is blowing sky-high. Corporations are being monopolized by heavy regulations and the poor are getting poorer.

Oh, and for the Americans reading this, no, marijuana is not legal. When it is indeed legal, it’ll simply be another cash grab by the government which will inflate prices and hand most of the industry over to the government. Kind of like taking away your right and giving it back at a price. That’s not a right, that’s the government saying “Let them eat cake!”

I’ve confronted many of the government’s cabinet in the past and have led similar efforts against former Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. This is simply about consistency, truth and individual liberty.

Confronting the Minister of Finance Bill Morneau on selling off all of Canada’s gold and creating a global currency the week before he attended Bilderberg:

Confronting the Minister of Defense on arming ISIS and supporting Saudi Arabia with weapons:

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Former Roswell city councilman Kent Igleheart was arrested this week after accusations of having a physical relationship with a 16-year-old girl, which reportedly started when she was 14.

Igleheart resigned from a position he held for 15 years last November, right after the allegations started coming to light.

Kent Igleheart’s personal profile for his councilman job is still active online and shows that he had a wife during the time when he was allegedly committing statutory rape on a minor. He was also an aspiring professional actor who had “been in more than fifty movies and TV shows” including a feature film and for a TV show on Discovery Channel.

He had previously called for increased gentrification of apartments in his district and was a self-proclaimed conservative.

Local District Attorney Sherry Boston said, “Initially the case was opened because the young victim in this case made an outcry about the sexual relationship.”

For victims of sexual abuse, take note – it is always best to report it.

Police say that the relationship between Igleheart and the minor started online, and eventually turned into a sexual relationship. Locals were furious to hear the reports of the story. As one man said in an interview with reporters, “they should lock him up and throw away the key.”

Another local resident said that “a city leader is someone who should be setting an example, and what kind of example does that set for trust?” A friend of Igleheart said that she was “stunned” and that he had “always been there for us.”

Breaking: Former #Roswell city councilman indicted on new child sex-related charges. @MarkWinneWSB was there for the arrest. pic.twitter.com/sZpPdvDQUf

— Mike Petchenik (@MPetchenikWSB) March 28, 2017

After Igleheart was arrested, police reportedly asked whether or not he sexually exploited a minor. He apparently utilized his right to silence and didn’t answer any questions.

Igleheart will be facing charges of sexual exploitation of a minor, enticing a minor, and furnishing alcohol to a minor. The judge set his bond at $30,000, and police have requested that anyone who knows of any other potential victims in this case to come forward.

The post SHOCK VIDEO: Georgia Councilman Arrested On Child Sex Charges appeared first on We Are Change.

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Article via The Anti-Media by Darius Shahtahmasebi

As tensions rise between Israel and Russia over Israel’s role in the Syrian conflict, reports have begun to emerge that — at best — challenge the current geopolitical paradigm. According to the Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al-Rai, as reported by the Jerusalem Post, the U.S., Russia, and Israel have reportedly reached a consensus on the need to restrict and eventually expel pro-Iranian forces from gaining influence in Syria.

As the Post reports, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “reached an understanding with Washington and Moscow that pro-Iranian forces, including Lebanese terror organization Hezbollah, constitute an ‘existential threat’ to the Jewish state.”

These developments may seem counter-intuitive given Russia and Iran’s close working relationship not only in Syria, but regarding Iran’s own security, as well. However, there may be some truth to this story as Russia and Iran’s interests begin to overlap.

For example, as Middle East Eye reports, Iran and Russia are increasingly at odds over the future of the Syrian conflict:

“Russia’s interest lies in closing down the Syrian conflict sooner rather than later. The last thing Putin wants to do is to repeat the mistake George W Bush made in Iraq or indeed the Soviets in Afghanistan in which both invading forces won the war, but lost the peace.

“Here Russian and Iranian interests diverge. Russia has never had a problem with Israeli air strikes on Hezbollah’s supply lines in southern Syria. Unlike Russia, Iran’s motives in Syria are ideological.”

According to Middle East Eye, Iran has plans for the future of Syria that Russia does not necessarily approve of:

“Iran is the brains behind Assad’s plan to redraw the ethnic map of central Syria. They want to evacuate all Sunnis from their areas between Damascus and the Lebanese border. Iran has brought 300 Shia families from Iraq to repopulate the Damascus suburb of Darayya, which surrendered as an opposition stronghold in August. They have also shipped in Shia families to protect the Zainab shrine. Iran’s planning is strategic, long term and deeply sectarian.  

“Iran pushed for an all-out offensive on Idlib after the fall of Aleppo, arguing, so far unsuccessfully, that the rebels should be given no respite.”

On March 7, 2017, the chiefs of staff of the U.S., Russian, and Turkish militaries met in Antalya, Turkey, to discuss security in Syria and Iraq. Iran was not invited. The Iran Diplomacy website, which is reportedly close to Iranian Foreign Ministry circles, wrote the following in response:

“A Russian proverb says: ‘If you aren’t sitting at the table, you are (being eaten) at the table.’ Iran was not at the table in Antalya…

“The chiefs of general staffs of Turkey, America, and Russia held joint talks in Antalya on the Syrian matter, and Iran’s silence reinforces the rumor that very gradually Iran’s role in the arena of the Syrian developments is being eliminated, or restricted… Russia forcefully entered the Syrian arena, and it played a strategic part in the fall of Aleppo, and America agreed to this. This marks a reduction of Iran’s role in the developments in Syria. The American representative in the U.N. spoke about the need for Iran to exit Syria, while it [the U.S.] supports Turkey, which is threatening to boldly enter [Syria]…”

Despite the fact Iran has contributed greatly to the Syrian conflict, particularly in assisting the Russian military, Iran will clearly not be rewarded for its efforts. It was always a risk for Iran and Russia to cooperate closely on matters of strategic importance, not because their interests necessarily differ but because their interests are by and large the same. They both want to retain a sphere of influence over the same region and want to emerge as strong players with substantial control over the region and its resources. In that context, they cannot both claim the same victory, as they both want the same thing.

Russia might also hope that appeasement of this kind towards the U.S. could result in the lifting of sanctions, something that was being discussed before Michael Flynn was ousted from the Trump administration.

It is unclear whether Russia will totally abandon Iran in the face of repeated provocation from the Trump administration or whether Russia is merely attempting to appeal to the U.S. and Israel to conclude its operations in Syria hassle-free. Perhaps, as the Middle East Media Research Institute notes, Iran may be forced to accommodate Russia even further in order to continue the cooperative relationship the two nations have been enjoying in recent times:

“Despite the fact that the Iranian media addresses the crisis with Russia only rarely, such as in the Iran Diplomacy report cited above, the Iranian regime has been holding intense debates to formulate a strategy to confront the current situation.

“According to the reformist website Amadnews, the strategy is based on two central elements: The first element is to attempt to tie Russia to Iran with a strategic alliance, as part of which Russia will receive extensive benefits from Iran in the form of financial compensation for Western sanctions against it totaling $50 billion, and military-strategic privileges such as military bases and ports in the Persian Gulf on Iran’s southern border. The latter aspect has strategic importance vis-à-vis the U.S., and is historically significant to imperialist Russian interests.”

If this is the case, it is working. Iran just announced that Russia can strike Syria from Iranian airbases on a case by case basis.

If Iran’s role in Syria continues to be restricted, this narrative may have some truth to it. As a result, we may continue to see further appeasement – or a deterioration of relations on all sides — which may end up further exacerbating the Syrian conflict to the detriment of the Syrian civilian population.

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Marine Le Pen to BBC: “if you’re trying to say that Russia is a military danger to European countries, I think you’re mistaken in your analysis.”

“The previous American administration put the Berlin Wall on wheels and pushed it back to Russia’s borders” – Marine Le Pen #newsnight pic.twitter.com/PdT17lRc7x

— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) March 28, 2017

Marine Le Pen on U.S. policy toward Russia:

“The previous American administration put the Berlin Wall on wheels and pushed it back to Russia’s borders.”

Marine Le Pen on if France would defend the Ukraine against an invasion from Russia:

“You want war at all costs! What is your problem? You want to go to war! Do you like war? You want conflicts – you want us to start World War Three!”

“At the moment no one wants to go to war with anyone.”

“I’m happy to go into all the hypotheses, but no one is going to war with anyone – no one wants to go to war with anyone else.”

“There was a territorial conflict with Ukraine – these things happen.”

“Now it has to be resolved diplomatically, and I think France’s voice has weight as long as France is France, not a region of the EU.”

“Honestly, if you’re trying to say that Russia is a military danger to European countries, I think you’re mistaken in your analysis.”

Marine Le Pen on her support of Vladimir Putin:

“There’s Russia, which doesn’t deserve to be treated with prejudice. It hasn’t led any campaigns against European countries, or the US.”

“What I notice is that Putin’s government must be pretty popular with Russians, given that it is constantly being reelected.”

Regarding the end of the European Union, Le Pen said:

“The EU is almost already over – rather than waiting for it’s chaotic collapse, I suggest we organise its transformation to a Europe of nations while respecting the wishes of the European people.”

“The EU is shining with the light of a dead star.”

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John Podesta’s lawyer Marc E. Elias slapped the Daily Caller with a cease and desist letter yesterday after the conservative news website founded by Tucker Carlson published a story they think is fake news.

I sent a cease & desist letter demanding the Daily Caller correct the lies about @johnpodesta‘s financial disclosure. Waiting for response. pic.twitter.com/5Nfi0yG8sL

— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) March 29, 2017

The letter singles out a March 26 article titled, “EXCLUSIVE: John Podesta May Have Violated Federal Law By Not Disclosing 75,000 Stock Shares.”

Daily Caller journalist Richard Pollock wrote that Podesta “may have violated federal law by failing to disclose the receipt of 75,000 shares of stock from a Kremlin-financed company when he joined the Obama White House in 2014,” reports the Examiner.

John Podesta’s lawyer Marc E. Elias says the story is “entirely false,” and thinks Podesta did nothing wrong.

This is is breaking news story and will be updated throughout the night.

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Article via Zero Hedge

The narrative of the “Russian hacking” of the US elections has been thrown for a loop following a report the Obama administration blocked FBI Director James Comey’s attempts to go public as early as the summer of 2016 with information on Russia’s alleged campaign to influence the U.S. presidential election, Newsweek reports citing two unidentified sources with knowledge of the matter.

According to Newsweek, Comey pitched the idea of writing an op-ed about a Russian “interference” campaign during a meeting in the White House’s situation room in June or July 2016, well before the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence accused the Russian government of tampering with the U.S. election in an October 7 statement, the same day as Wikileaks started released the hacked Podesta emails, and the same day that the Trump’s “grab her by the pussy” recording emerged.

“He had a draft of it or an outline. He held up a piece of paper in a meeting and said, ‘I want to go forward, what do people think of this?’” said a Newsweek source with knowledge of the meeting, which included Secretary of State John Kerry, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the Department of Homeland Security’s director and the national security adviser.

However, the ohe other national security leaders didn’t like the idea, and White House officials thought the announcement should be a coordinated message backed by multiple agencies. “An op-ed doesn’t have the same stature, it comes from one person.”

Newsweek notes that the op-ed would not have mentioned whether the FBI was investigating Donald Trump’s campaign workers or others close to him for links to the Russians’ interference in the election, perhaps because such an investigation did not start until later.

Comey would likely have tried to publish the op-ed in The New York Times, and it would have included much of the same information as the bombshell declassified intelligence report released January 6, which said Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to influence the presidential election, the source said.

What to make of this latest revelation: according to Newsweek, “for supporters of Hillary Clinton, news of the op-ed adds to the frustration over Comey’s public disclosure of details about the investigation into her emails, including at a July press conference, but not about the probe involving Russia and Trump, which began that same month.”

Of course, it remains unclear how and if the election outcome would have changed had Comey published the report: recent reports have suggested that despite allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, nothing has been found. In other words, the best that Comey could reveal is that someone may have been trying to hack the DNC, and eventually, John Podesta. And yet, those hacks did nothing to change the actual voting process, they merely shed light on the illicit dealings within the Clinton campaign and the infighting within the DNC, which – as we now know – colluded both internally, with the press and with the Clinton campaign to prevent Bernie Sanders from becoming the Democratic presidential candidate.

In any event, the ball will now be in the Democrats’ court, with fingers pointing right at the White House.

“This raises a lot of questions,” says Jarad Geldner, a senior adviser for the Democratic Coalition Against Trump, which filed a complaint with the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility over Comey’s disclosures about the Clinton investigation. “That raises the question of why Comey or [the Department of Justice] or the White House felt that it was OK to hold that [July] press conference on Hillary Clinton’s emails but not to go public with this.”

That would be the Obama White House, for those who have lost track of the timeline. 

Worse, as Newsweek adds, it was a sluggish White House that denied Comey and delayed the announcement. “The White House shut it down,” that source says. “They did their usual—nothing.”

Of course, the biggest question raised is why did Obama block Comey in the first place. Or rather, make that rhetorical question.

While we doubt that Obama will suffer the Democrats’ wrath as a result of this latest story, it will be sure to keep the “Russian hacking” narrative topical for at least a few more days, before yet another “Russia story” emerges, and then another, and so on, until hopefully one day the bipartisan Senate probe into alleged Russian meddling “gets to the bottom of this.”

This article first appeared on ZeroHedge.com and was authored by Tyler Durden.

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Is NGA more dangerous than the NSA and CIA?

Article via The Anti-Media by Alice Salles

If you’re one of the countless Americans who was distraught to learn of the revelations made by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, the mere idea that there might be yet another agency out there — perhaps just as powerful and much more intrusive —  should give you goosebumps.

Foreign Policy reports that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or NGA, is an obscure spy agency former President Barack Obama had a hard time wrapping his mind around back in 2009. But as the president grew fond of drone warfare, finding a way to launch wars without having to go through Congress for the proper authorization, the NGA also became more relevant. Now, President Donald Trump is expected to further explore the multibillion-dollar surveillance network.

Like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA), the NGA is an intelligence agency, but it also serves as a combat support institution that functions under the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).

With headquarters bigger than the CIA’s, the building cost $1.4 billion to be completed in 2011. In 2016, the NGA bought an extra 99 acres in St. Louis, building additional structures that cost taxpayers an extra $1.75 billion.

Enjoying the extra budget Obama threw at them, the NGA became one of the most obscure intelligence agencies precisely because it relies on the work of drones.

As a body of government that has only one task — to analyze images and videos captured by drones in the Middle East — the NGA is mighty powerful. So why haven’t we heard of it before?

The Shadow Agency That Sees It All

Prior to Trump’s inauguration, the NGA only targeted the Middle East or whatever spy satellites orbiting the globe captured. As far as most of us knew, the agency refrained from pointing its ultra-high-resolution cameras toward the United States. That alone may be why the NGA has been able to stay out of scandals for the most part.

But under Trump, things may look much worse — as if spying on countless people abroad weren’t enough.

Recently, for instance, he gave the CIA the power to wage covert drone warfare, shielding important information on such operations simply by allowing the agency to carry out missions without first seeking authorization from the Pentagon.

Now, Trump might as well move on to NGA, hoping to boost “national security” by turning the agency’s all seeing eyes toward American soil.

As the president hopes to get more money for defense, many have speculated whether he will start to use drones at home, especially since he has already suggested he supports agencies like the NSA based on his desire to target “terrorists.” There’s nothing that implies he wants to slow down the surveillance state.  The White House has expressed its desire to renew Obama-era spying powers — even as the president battles critics who deny his claims that his conversations were intercepted at the same time foreign nationals were under surveillance in 2016.

A partially redacted March 2016 report released by the Pentagon revealed that drones had already been used domestically on about 20 or fewer occasions between 2006 and 2015. Though some of these operations mostly involved natural disasters, National Guard training, and search and rescue missions, quotes from an Air Force law review article found their way into the report. In it, Dawn M. K. Zoldi wrote that technology designed to spy on targets abroad could soon be used against American citizens.

“As the nation winds down these wars,” the report explains, and ”assets become available to support other combatant command (COCOM) or U.S. agencies, the appetite to use them in the domestic environment to collect airborne imagery continues to grow.”

Up until 2015, oversight was so loose that the capabilities provided by the DOD’s unmanned aircraft system weren’t under scrutiny by any other agency. Without statutes that specify the rules such federal government agencies should follow, watchdogs find it hard to keep track. But would it be any better if there were an agency or a branch of the same government overseeing what the government itself is doing?

The short answer is no.

NGA Has A Precedent, And Trump May Want To Explore It

As fears grow that Trump will revamp the NGA, domestic stories of police departments using drones to spy on locals are also resurfacing.

Some of the most highly publicized instances involved Baltimore and Compton, where police departments deployed aerial surveillance technology without issuing a warrant or seeking authorization from local or state lawmakers.

With a precedent already set, the president might as well ignite a new fight in his continued efforts to fight a war against an imaginary, impossible-to-target enemy. After all, he’s not a stranger to scandals and likely wouldn’t feel overwhelmed one bit if he decided to turn the country’s ultra-high definition cameras toward its citizens.

What could help to put an end to his plans might be exactly what helped halt President George W. Bush’s attempts at setting up spy satellites domestically. In 2007, Bush’s Department of Homeland Security set up an agency known as the National Applications Office with the goal of establishing direct spy satellite stakeouts in America. Thankfully, Congress stepped in and cut off the agency’s funding.

But with Americans seldom showing any interest for important violations of privacy or even basic human rights here and abroad, it’s easy to see how this massive spying agency could end up getting a carte blanche to do whatever it wants once Trump realizes he has the power to order it done.

After all, who will pressure Congress to stop him?

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Article via The Anti-Media by James Holbrooks

As Attorney General Jeff Sessions continues to lament what he views as a blight on society, a new study is showing that states with medical marijuana programs are seeing drastic reductions in opioid-related hospitalizations and overdoses.

From a Reuters article published Tuesday:

“In states that legalized medical marijuana, U.S. hospitals failed to see a predicted influx of pot smokers, but in an unexpected twist, they treated far fewer opioid users, a new study shows.

“Hospitalization rates for opioid painkiller dependence and abuse dropped on average 23 percent in states after marijuana was permitted for medical purposes, the analysis found. Hospitalization rates for opioid overdoses dropped 13 percent on average.”

The study, published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, was authored by Yuyan Shi, a public health professor at the University of California in San Diego. According to Reuters, Shi’s study is the fifth in recent years to demonstrate declines in opioid dependence in states where medical weed is legal.

Intrigued by the data, Dr. Esther Choo, an emergency medicine professor at Oregon Health and Science University, spoke to Reuters via email.

“It is becoming increasingly clear that battling the opioid epidemic will require a multi-pronged approach and a good deal of creativity,” Choo, who was not involved in the study, said. “Could increased liberalization of marijuana be part of the solution? It seems plausible.”

One 2014 study showed opioid deaths dropped an average of 25 percent in states where medical marijuana is permitted, and data released just a month ago suggests that given the choice, many patients prefer weed over opioids as a painkiller.

The news of this latest study comes as a congressional committee announced it is opening an investigation into the pharmaceutical manufacturers of the nation’s five top-selling opioid products.

According to a statement released by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, the investigation — to be headed by Senator Claire McCaskill (D) — will explore whether pharmaceutical corporations “have contributed to opioid over-utilization and overprescription.”

The investigation will purportedly be a “wide-ranging” one and will also include the marketing side of the industry. A recent report from the Associated Press, for instance, found makers of opioid painkillers outspend the gun lobby on campaign contributions and lobbying by a ratio of eight to one.

“All of this didn’t happen overnight,” McCaskill said of the opioid epidemic sweeping the United States. “[I]t happened one prescription and marketing program at a time.”

However, neither the mounting evidence of the medicinal uses for marijuana — nor calls from those within Trump’s own government to look into the true causes of the opioid epidemic — have seemed to sway the president’s top cop. Just last week, Jeff Sessions doubled down on his stance that marijuana is nothing short of a danger to society.

“I am astonished to hear people suggest that we can solve our heroin crisis by legalizing marijuana,” he said, “so people can trade one life-wrecking dependency for another.”

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According to a Monmouth University poll released two weeks ago, nearly 6 out of 10 Americans now believe the mainstream media reports ‘fake news.’

Reported within the first two weeks of March, fifty-four percent of the respondents including the majority of Republicans, Democrats and independents had said that ‘fake news’ reports online were published on purpose to further a covert agenda.

Sixty percent also believed that mainstream news outlets reported ‘fake news’ either occasionally, or regularly with forty percent claiming they believed it was intentional due to an underlying agenda.

Seventeen percent reasoned that, due to poor fact-checking, they also believed ‘fake news’ was being reported by the mainstream media.

Approximately one-third of the respondents said they did not believe that the mainstream media was reporting ‘fake news’.

When comparing the 41 percent of independents, and 24 percent of Democrats, it was found that fifty-five percent of Republican respondents believed that ‘fake news’ was reported on intentionally by mainstream media outlets to further their agenda. Republicans were more suspicious of the motivation behind the publication of ‘fake news’ in mainstream outlets.

ABC News, Fox News, and MSNBC more trusted than President Donald Trump.

Republicans said they were more apt to trust Trump over ABC News and MSNBC. Forty-four percent of Republican respondents said they trusted Trump and Fox News equally. Whereas a variety of respondents stated they trusted sources such as ABC News, Fox News and MSNBC more than President Donald Trump.

Over eighty percent stated that prior administrations had better relations with the media than Trump.

Fifty-eight percent claimed the news media intentionally harmed Trump’s image. Thirty two percent said the news media did not affect Trump’s image and seven percent said it helped. Contrariwise, fifty-one percent said the media’s’ image was impacted negatively due to Trump. Thirty-nine percent claimed the image of the news media was not affected by Trump’s relations and the final six percent said the opposite,  that the image improved.

Proposal to outlaw “fake news?”

As the rise of ‘fake news’ continues to soar with the added mistrust of the general public, a legislative proposal has been aimed at outlawing ‘fake news’ websites. However, it has been sidelined in the California State Legislature by California Assemblyman, Ed Chau.

Tuesday’s plans were cancelled to hold a hearing for A.B. 1104, a bill that would’ve made it illegal to publish false or deceptive statements on the internet about a political candidate or ballot measure. The hearing was cancelled upon Chau’s request, according to the California legislature website.

Also known as the California Political Cyberfraud Abatement Act, Chau’s office previously called the proposal:

“An important step forward in the fight against ‘fake news’ and deceptive campaign tactics.”

The proposal would make it:

 “Unlawful for a person to knowingly and willingly make, publish or circulate on an Internet Web site, or cause to be made, published, or circulated in any writing posted on an Internet Web site, a false or deceptive statement designed to influence.”

Under heavy criticism, it was stated that the bill was in direct violation of free speech laws. However, a campaign earlier this week was still held amid First Amendment concerns.

An investigative researcher for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Dave Maas said:

“At a time when political leaders are promoting ‘alternative facts’ and branding unflattering reporting as ‘fake news,’ we don’t think it’s a good idea to give the government more power to punish speech,”

“Political operatives could file complaints at the slightest hint of hyperbole or smallest misstatement of fact by a candidate,” he said. “Prosecutors could launch politically motivated investigations. The bill doesn’t even exempt journalism, leaving bloggers who want to quote false statements before debunking them in a legal limbo. Even satirical websites, such as The Onion, could come under fire for posting technically false information. You could even get in trouble for retweeting something inaccurate that someone else said.”

Without any public explanation, further attempts have been made to contact Chau’s office but remain unsuccessful at obtaining information regarding the status of the bill.

The polls display that the majority of the public believes the mainstream media is reporting ‘fake news’. This shocking revelation proposes a great opportunity for alternative media sources to combat against ‘fake news.’

The public is now searching for alternative news sources they can trust to provide them with accurate information.

As new bills are being proposed that are in direct violation of free speech, disguised as combating against ‘fake news,’ it is important for the public to be informed on this subject matter. Not only does this threaten the alternative news sources that are getting the truth out to the public, this will also personally affect the rights of every individual, moving us all forward when it comes to personal freedom of speech in this country.

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A new batch of Hillary Clinton emails released on Wednesday by Judicial Watch reveals more classified information sent over her private server — and a request for longtime aide Huma Abedin to plan Bill and the former Secretary of State’s funerals.

The emails were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed against the State Department after they failed to respond to a request by the conservative government accountability organization. Judicial Watch had been seeking “all emails of official State Department business received or sent by former Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin from January 1, 2009 through February 1, 2013 using a non-’state.gov’ email address.”

Beyond revealing more instances of classified information being mishandled, the 29 previously unreleased emails also appear to show more instances of donors being granted special access to Clinton, who was serving as Secretary of State at the time.

In an email from 2010, ambassador and Clinton friend Capricia Marshall told Huma Abedin, Doug Band and Cheryl Mills that “every time someone significant passes, I am flooded with requests” regarding the Clintons’ funeral arrangements.

Addressing Abedin specifically, Marshall wrote that “planning is necessary and best done when they are still with us. And once affirmed it will be very hard for someone to deny the type of ceremony she wanted – as well I understand that the President can request certain arrangements for her that she/her rep cannot (ie if you want the motorcade to go through DC – stop somewhere.”

In another email, Band forwarded to Abedin a request for help from Philip Levine — who has been fundraising for the Clintons since the 1990s, Judicial Watch pointed out.

“These emails are yet more evidence of Hillary Clinton’s casual and repeated violations of laws relating to the handling of classified information,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, “The Justice Department should finally begin an independent investigation into the Clinton email matter.”

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A Florida couple tried to get out of an arrest for public indecency by proclaiming they are part of the Illuminati.

The Sebastian Daily reports Kristen Morrow, 37, and George Major Harris, 25,  were arrested after their neighbor complained the two were doing something under a blanket. Law enforcement arrived to perform a welfare check of the area and was just five feet away from the couple when Morrow “came out from under the blanket and started yelling,” the deputy said.

“I am part of the Illuminati and free masons. You have no authority and I don’t have to leave,” Morrow said, according to the report.

Morrow continued to “yell at the top of her lungs even as I stood a few feet from her,” the deputy’s report said. The woman also proclaimed that she was a “famous music talent” and had connections to judges that would cost the deputy his job.

“She continued to yell and rant that she was a famous music talent and she knew judges and her family would have my job,” the deputy wrote in the report.

At this point, the report claims that Harris joined the woman and began yelling that him and his partner were a part of the infamous secret society.

“He continued to yell along with the female about free masons and their impending music record deal and the celebrities, judges, and power their family had,” according to the report.

The couple was subsequently arrested and charged with disorderly conduct ABC Local 10 reported.

The P2 lodge in Italy and Washington DC lodge did not respond to this reporter when asked for a comment.

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An Ethiopian migrant to Sweden has recently been charged with raping at least two underage girls in the city of Östergötland. As reported by Norrköpings Tidningar, Nahom Mengistu Yitayu has recently been charged with rape and aggravated assault of a 14 and 13-year-old girl during the Spring of 2016.

Swedish medical data claims that he was not taking his antiretroviral medication, which puts both himself and his victims at a considerable risk.

The man claims to be 16-years-old, but authorities are seemingly not sure that he is being truthful about his age. There is also a third victim who claims that Yitayu was “indifferent about the fact his sexual partners were underage, and willing to force unprotected sexual acts on his partners against their will,” as reported by Breitbart.

Swedish media claims that since this third alleged raped happened before he was 15 years old, he is “therefore not criminally responsible.” Swedish authorities added that “no one has been infected, fortunately.”

The investigation apparently started after one of the girls discovered that Yitayu is HIV positive. Yitayu has since maintained his innocence of the charges and is waiting for his day in court.

He does, however, admit to having sexual relations with one girl, who he claims was his girlfriend.

This story comes roughly a week after an illegal immigrant was accused of raping two underage girls at a public school in Maryland. White House press secretary Sean Spicer pointed to this story as evidence that the federal government should crack down further on illegal immigration. It is unclear whether Swedish authorities will act in a similar manner.

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A motion filed by Russian tech executive Aleksej Gubarev in his defamation lawsuit against BuzzFeed over the “golden showers” dossier may have the greatest troll title of all time.

The Russian tech executive suing BuzzFeed actually filed this in federal court yesterday. pic.twitter.com/ApU5o3LgyL

— Jose Pagliery (@Jose_Pagliery) March 28, 2017

In his 22-page opposition filing over the motion to dismiss the defamation lawsuit, titled “Six Ways BuzzFeed Has Mislead the Court (Number Two Will Amaze You)… And a Picture of a Kitten,” Gubarev actually did include a picture of an adorable feline.

BuzzFeed has attempted to have the case thrown out or moved to New York, citing jurisdiction issues. Gubarev’s lawyer claims in the listicle-style opposition filing that the website simply wants it moved from Florida because they believe the New York court will be more favorable towards them.

“In a somewhat remarkable Motion to Dismiss, Plaintiffs Buzzfeed, Inc. (‘Buzzfeed’) and Ben Smith (‘Mr. Smith’) intimate that their ties to Florida are so sparse that, collectively, they can barely find Florida on a map and that, as a result, the present case should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction or transferred to the Southern District of New York,” the document states.

Unamused by the mockery, BuzzFeed has responded saying that they were surprised by the nature of the filing.

“We’re surprised by the plaintiffs’ desire to make light of this matter, and we are confident in our motion to dismiss Mr. Gubarev’s suit,” a Buzzfeed spokesperson told Mashable.

Gubarev has filed two suits over the website’s publication of the far-fetched 35-page dossier, which was compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele. One lawsuit filed in the US names Buzzfeed, the other was filed in the United Kingdom against Steele.

Steele had originally been hired to investigate Trump by “political opponents” within the Democratic and Republican parties, but it has not been revealed who hired him. He then decided to share the dossier with the FBI, who took it seriously, despite the outrageous nature of the allegations, due to Steele’s role in providing information important to the bureau’s long-running corruption case against FIFA. It has been reported that Steele was paying his sources, which has further called his, and the document’s, credibility into question.

The dossier accused Gubarev and his companies of being “instrumental” and a “significant player” in hacking the Democratic Party during the election season, which led to party emails being leaked by WikiLeaks. Steele claimed in the documents that Gubarev was blackmailed into assisting the hacking by Russian spies who had compromising information on him. Gubarev has loudly denied the allegations.

BuzzFeed has since apologized to Gubarev and edited his name from the dossier text, which remains published on their website despite the details contained within being unverified. After being published by the news and entertainment website, many journalists and publishers confirmed that they had also been given the dossier – but declined to publish it because of their inability to prove its validity.

The report includes multiple claims that are questionable at best, and libelous at worst. Most famously, it claims that there exists a video, filmed by Russian intelligence agencies, of a urine party hosted by Trump in a Russian hotel, although there is no evidence to support that any such recording exists.

“Trump‘s (perverted) conduct in Moscow included hiring the presidential suite of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, where he knew President and Mrs. Obama (who he hated) had stayed on one of their official trips to Russia, and defiling the bed where they had slept by employing a number of prostitutes to perform a ‘golden showers’ (urination) show in front of him. The hotel was known to be under FSB control with microphones and concealed cameras in all the main rooms to record anything they wanted to,” the dossier states.

Trump responded to the dossier by calling BuzzFeed a “failing pile of garbage” and “fake news.”

Buzzfeed by Colin Daileda on Scribd

Originally published on Sputnik News

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