Right Fears Entitlements Are Killing American Dream

President Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney agree that the American dream is out of reach for too many people today. They disagree on how to fix the problem.

That’s one of the fundamental tensions in this presidential campaign.

On the campaign trail, Romney’s definition of the American dream sounds pretty universal: “If you’re willing to take risk and work hard, get an education, have the right values, anyone can make a better life. We are the land of opportunity.”

That’s a definition Obama could get behind. The parties disagree more over how to make sure the American dream survives, and what to do when it disappears from places like Elyria, Ohio.

“It used to be a thriving area. It’s not thriving anymore because people aren’t working,” says Pam Malcolm, who works as a cashier and is active in the Tea Party movement.

Tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs have left this part of Ohio. But Malcolm says if the government steps in to help, that will just make people sit back and stop trying. She says she sees the impact of government assistance every day. Read more......

Federal cuts to strip 70,000 more US workers of jobless benefits in June

Next month, another 70,000 US workers will be cut off of unemployment benefits weeks earlier than would have been the case had President Obama and Congress not reduced the duration of extended jobless pay. The early loss of benefits in June will come on top of early cutoffs for more than 200,000 workers two weeks ago as a result of the anti-working class bill brokered by the White House in February.

That bill, which extended a payroll tax cut, included provisions reducing the maximum duration of jobless benefits over the course of this year from 99 weeks to 73 weeks in states with official jobless rates above 9 percent. In most other states, the maximum will be slashed from 93 to 63 weeks. It also incorporated provisions making it harder to obtain benefits, including allowing states to carry out the demeaning practice of drug-testing laid-off workers applying for relief.

The June cutoffs will bring the number of people stripped of benefits thus far due to the bipartisan assault on jobless pay to nearly half a million. This is in addition to the millions of workers who exhausted their benefits prior to the enactment of the February bill. A report issued earlier this year by the Government Accountability Office estimated that 5.5 million workers who lost their jobs between 2007 and 2009 had exhausted their benefits by the end of 2011. Read more.......

How to Save the Global Economy: Hire Everybody

Through the 1930s, a young Ohio lawyer named Benjamin Roth kept a diary about the economic and social chaos he saw around him, chronicling the extreme uncertainty about the future that was affecting ordinary, middle-class Midwesterners. The striking thing to readers now is how many false dawns there were and how accordingly slow the authorities were to take action; they kept thinking -- hoping -- that the economy was about to improve. "When I started these notes it never occurred to me that the depression would last more than two years," Roth wrote in 1936. "We are now in the beginning of the seventh year and the road is not yet clear."

Measured by the length and depth of the downturn in global GDP, the current economic crisis is set to be even worse than that of the 1930s. As in the 1930s, governments in the United States and Europe must switch from doing the least they can get away with to avert immediate disaster to acting with enough commitment to the future that their citizens begin to believe in a brighter economic outlook. Above all, this means creating jobs -- perhaps even creating a modern equivalent of the Depression-era Works Progress Administration.

Unemployment breeds hopelessness. Whether it affects young people just entering the workforce or older people who will find it hard to get re-employed, it scars their prospects for the rest of their lives. As of November, 16- to 19-year-olds in the American workforce and adults seeking to re-enter it had nearly the same alarming unemployment rate: about 25 percent. Of course, it is best if private businesses start to create jobs for these people by growing -- but until they do, the government must step in. Read more......

Fundamentally Changing America: Obama Then and Now

When President Obama promised Americans ‘hope and change’ during the run up to the 2008 Presidential election his supporters thought he meant a change for the better.

Few would have believed that when Barack Obama said he would “fundamentally change America,” it would actually make things worse – much worse.

This latest video montage from Fox News and now disavowed by the network as the work of a rogue associate producer, has democrats and some republicans claiming it is biased against the President and reminiscent of 1930′s propaganda.

The video, which takes a look at where the nation stood on jobs, prices for food and energy, the national debt, and government assistance programs, compares how far we’ve come (or fallen) since President Obama took office. Read more....

DAMMIT WOMAN! WHERE'S MY PROZAC! Honey, You're Brushing With It!

Hey, it's Marco! Did you know that sodium Fluoride is also one of the basic ingredients in both PROZAC (FLUoxetene Hydrochloride) and Sarin Nerve Gas (Isopropyl-Methyl-Phosphoryl FLUORIDE) – The truth the American public needs to understand is the fact that Sodium Fluoride is nothing more (or less) than a hazardous waste by-product of the nuclear and aluminum industries. In addition to being the primary ingredient in rat and cockroach poisons, it is also a main ingredient in anesthetic, hypnotic, and psychiatric drugs as well as military NERVE GAS! Why then is it allowed to be added to the toothpastes and drinking water of the American people?
But my Dentist Says...

FLUORIDE IN PROZAC! WHAT THA HELL??

Hey, it's Marco! First of all, it shall be stated that the 'substance' referred to as 'Fluoride' is a misnomer - there is no such substance listed in the periodic chart of the elements, nor in the prestigious CRC handbook, nor in the sacred 'bible' of the pharmaceutical industry - the illustrious 'Merck Index'. Instead, we find a GAS called Fluorine - and from the use of this gas in various industries such as aluminum manufacturing and the nuclear industry -certain toxic byproducts are created which have 'captured' fluorine molecules. One such toxic, poisonous 'byproduct' is called sodium Fluoride - which according to the Merck Index is primarily used as rat and cockroach poison and is also the active ingredient in most toothpastes and as an "additive to drinking water". But sadly, there is much more to this sordid tale.

Whodda Thunkit?

Silent Killer!

TALK TO THE HAND! Why You Should Teach Your Child Manners!

     Hey Howdy Hey! Nothing will give your child an edge in the world like having good manners.  Because polite behavior has become so rare in our society, nice manners really standout and draw positive attention to young people.
     Hopefully manners are something you have taught your child for years.  Even so, anyone can use a refresher course, so here is a top ten list of good manners and positive attitudes that will help your child stand out from the crowd...
Please and Thank Yooz!

Roseanne Barr on Presidential Run: Two Major Parties Are a 'Bunch of Prostitutes Who Work for Big Money'

The irrepressible comic is trying to bring attention to electoral issues that are too often ignored.

Roseanne Barr leveraged her comedic skills to become a household name. But while she's known for her biting humor, and some critically acclaimed acting in the film adaptation of Fay Weldon's novel, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, Barr's life experiences also left her with an appreciation of just how hard it is to climb the ladder today. It was reflected in her writing; in her standup routine and on her hit TV show, Roseanne was always most comfortable breathing life into the struggles of working-class families. An outspoken small “d” democrat, Roseanne is now running to head the Green Party's presidential ticket on a platform that stresses empowering the “little guy.”

A few weeks back, AlterNet interviewed Jill Stein, Barr's primary opponent in the race (you can read that interview here). This week, Barr appeared on the AlterNet Radio Hour for some equal time. Below is a lightly edited transcript of the discussion (you can listen to the whole show here).

Joshua Holland: Roseanne, I want to say that I’m a big fan. I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but you kind of remind me of my mother.

Roseanne Barr: Oh, I don’t take that wrong. I take that as a great compliment. Read more.....

Charles Ferguson's 'Predator Nation: Corporate Criminals, Political Corruption, and the Hijacking of America'

Ferguson, who lives at the far west end of Soho in New York City, spent a lot of time around Prince and Mercer streets when working on Inside Job, so I met him at the Mercer Hotel on the day his book was officially published.

The title of Ferguson’s book certainly gets the reader’s attention, and he powerfully delivers the goods, with a scathing, detailed history of what led to the biggest financial disaster since the Great Depression. Ferguson takes the reader on a revealing journey -- a sordid and corrupt trail that leads from the Pandora’s box of deregulation from 1980 through 2000, through the two major economic bubbles. The first was the dot.com stock market bubble of 2000, exacerbated by the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Then came the much larger housing/mortgage bubble, fueled by sub-prime lending and the emergence of a host of new esoteric financial tools, meant to protect investments -- in fact, they did the opposite, provoking the financial crash.

The economic disaster was driven, Ferguson writes, by a combination of “very low interest rates, pervasive dishonesty through the financial system, massive lending fraud, speculation, demand for high yield securities, and not insignificantly, a squeezed American consumer desperate to maintain living standards, and told by everyone – including George Bush and Alan Greenspan, the brokers and the banks, that home borrowing was the way to do it.” Read more......

20 Years of GMO Policy That Keeps Americans in the Dark About Their Food

Dan Quayle and Michael Taylor's nightmare lives on

Popular resistance is boiling over on the GMO labeling issue, as the New York Times reported last week in a front-page story.

More than a million people have asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food on a legal petition in March and on May 2, nearly a million voter signatures were submitted in California to place a GMO labeling initiative on ballot in November. Clearly, Americans believe strongly in their right to know what's in their food. Ninety percent of U.S. voters want this type of labeling. Yet we still don't have it. Why?

Twenty years ago this week, then-Vice President Dan Quayle announced the FDA's policy on genetically engineered food as part of his "regulatory relief initiative." The policy, Quayle explained, was based on the idea that genetic engineering is no different than traditional plant breeding, and therefore required no new regulations.

Five years earlier, then-Vice President George H.W. Bush visited a Monsanto lab for a photo op with the developers of Roundup Ready crops. According to a video report of the meeting, when Monsanto executives worried about the approval process for their new crops, Bush laughed and told them, "Call me. We're in the dereg businesses. Maybe we can help." Read more.....

Obama's Second Term Transformation Plans

The 2012 election has often been described as the most pivotal since 1860. This statement is not hyperbole. If Barack Obama is re-elected the United States will never be the same, nor will it be able to re-capture its once lofty status as the most dominant nation in the history of mankind.

The overwhelming majority of Americans do not understand that Obama's first term was dedicated to putting in place executive power to enable him and the administration to fulfill the campaign promise of "transforming America" in his second term regardless of which political party controls Congress. That is why his re-election team is virtually ignoring the plight of incumbent or prospective Democratic Party office holders.

The most significant accomplishment of Obama's first term is to make Congress irrelevant. Under the myopic and blindly loyal leadership of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats have succeeded in creating an imperial and, in a second term, a potential dictatorial presidency. Read more.......

How to Save the Global Economy: Spend $1 Trillion on the Future

It may seem obvious, but three years and counting into the economic crisis we need to say it: An economy that's not growing fast enough will struggle to pay its bills and create jobs. And that's exactly what's happening. Growth in the developing world, while still well above that of advanced countries in 2011, was hit hard by the extreme volatility in international financial markets, which in turn hurt domestic demand in many emerging-market economies and also had spillover effects in terms of capital flows and trade. Meanwhile, the International Labor Organization estimated a 2011 global unemployment rate of 6.1 percent -- that's 203.3 million people out of work.

Clearly, something must be done -- and here's an idea that could benefit economies large and small, wealthy and poor: a massive global investment in infrastructure, financed with the creativity required in this age of austerity and aimed at jump-starting growth.

Higher growth can only be realized through worldwide investment, yet as long as factories continue to carry spare capacity and homes and office buildings remain vacant, the private sector is unlikely to lead the way. Governments must play an active role, and the solution could take the form of a global infrastructure investment initiative of at least $1 trillion. A worldwide initiative of this type has not been attempted before. There are, however, proposed infrastructure plans for East Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. We should make these plans real, and global, by building consensus among multilateral development institutions, as well as through the G-20 and other important groupings. Read more.....

How to Save the Global Economy: Write Off the World's Debt

The best way to restart global growth is with debt. We need both more and less of it. Bear with me here.

We need less debt now: Developed-world debt is holding the recovery back. Individuals are cutting what they owe as fast as they can, especially in the United States and Europe, and governments aren't picking up the difference. After briefly loading up on debt -- in part because of stimulus, but now mostly because of bailing out broken banking systems -- they now have the deleveraging bug, too.

Cash diverted to paying off bills must come from somewhere, however, and that somewhere is consumption. With the United States and Europe together accounting for half of global GDP and with consumption making up 70 percent of U.S. GDP, we have a math problem: No matter what innovations are introduced, no matter what entrepreneurial ideas are tried, there aren't enough customers for the United States to export its way out of the self-imposed austerity that comes with deleveraging. Consumer demand is the most precious product in economic life, and the United States, normally demand's biggest provider, is rationing its supply. A deleveraging U.S. consumer is not reconcilable with a speedy global economic recovery. Read more.....

Pre-Collapse Ramp Up: Retailers Stock Up On Shutters, Organize Security Details Ahead of Financial Meltdown and Social Unrest

With hundreds of billions spent to save the ailing economy of Greece (and the rest of the continent), unemployment rates in excess of 50% among those in their twenties and a solution nowhere to be found, many in Europe and around the world are realizing that this entire system is about to come unhinged.

And when it does, as we have noted on several occasions over the years, there will be riots in the streets.

Retail business owners in Greece and greater Europe are now planning for the worst.

This is not some alarmist overreaction. This is happening right here and now, and people are starting to understand that the consequences of a collapse in Europe, the United States and the world are going to be serious:

The planning, says Dixons chief Sebastian James, may look alarmist but it’s good to be prepared.

Company bosses around Europe agree. As the financial crisis in Greece worsens, companies are getting ready for everything from social unrest to a complete meltdown of the financial system.

Those preparations include sweeping cash out of Greece every night, cutting debts, weeding out badly paying customers and readying for a switch to a new Greek drachma if the country is forced to abandon the euro. Read more.....

While You Were Sleeping...

Meet your Meat! 

Hey, it's Marco! Do you have any idea what you're really eating?? If you did, you would know why you look and feel like crap all the time... Remember, profits are more important than Humans! 

The Drugging Of Our Children (Full Length)

"Kiddie Cocaine!" 

Stop the Madness!

www.Hypersmash.com

got Ritalin? The New Candy For Children!

Beats "Skittles!"

CCHR: Big Pharma—Define 'Better'

Psycho/pharma spends billions of dollars a year marketing mental 'disorders' & drugs for kids -- yet these drugs are documented by international drug regulatory agencies to cause mania, psychosis, hallucinations, suicide, violence, homicidal ideation, heart attack, stroke and death. What's more, they are being prescribed for psychiatric disorders that are simply a checklist of behaviors. Get the facts! 


Read more...
Even more!

The Drugging of Our Children (Trailer)

Gary Null examines the increasingly common practice of prescribing psychotropic drugs for children - including preschoolers as young as age 2 to 4 - who have been diagnosed with ADD, or ADHD.In the absence of any objective medical tests to determine who has ADD or ADHD, doctors rely in part on standardized assessments and the impressions of teachers and guardians while the they administer leave little room for other causes or aggravating factors, such as diet, or environment.

New Big Brother Cyber Weapon Can Turn on Your Computer’s Microphone, Take Screen Shots, Copy Data, Record Communications

To the disbelief of many of our readers, in a 2011 report titled Everything You Do Is Monitored, we noted that microphones and cameras on cell phones and computers allow interested parties (translated to mean your respective government) to hear and see everything going on in the direct vicinity of the device without the knowledge of its owner.

That these monitoring features are available on cell phones was a known fact, as FBI surveillance networks already have the ability to turn on any cell phone microphone or camera remotely without tipping off the user. It’s believed that this surveillance technique can work even when the cell phone user has shut down their phone, with the only surefire way to prevent such surveillance being removal of the unit’s battery.

Computers, however, were believed to be secure from these kinds of backdoors, and the majority of computer users believe their PC’s are protected from such intrusive technologies once they install virus and malware protection software. Read more......

What I’ve been waiting for: Confirmation the dollar is heading up!

Back on November 19 in my Money and Markets column, I listed nine reasons why I expected we were in the midst of a multi-year bull market in the dollar. Then on March 17, I repeated that forecast and said the dollar looks quite good relative to Europe and Japan.

This week that seems to be playing out as we’re getting some technical confirmation of another major leg up in the buck.

Today, I want to review the rationales as given in November, show you some current technical analysis on the buck, and share my long-term target for the euro.

My nine original reasons why the U.S. dollar may have bottomed (as they appeared back in November 2011):

1. Credit crunch forces change — U.S. savings are going up; debt sentiment has changed.
2. Flight from risk — Euro-zone crisis.
3. Growth in U.S. — Not as bad as expected; it’s all relative. Much better in U.S. than Europe, U.K., and Japan.
4. Carry trade history — The Fed hiked rates before the Bank of Japan and before the European Central Bank (ECB); and the ECB should be cutting rates soon. Read more.....
   

Economic Collapse: The End of the World As We Know It

As everyone is well aware, Europe is an absolute mess. The gravity of the global debt crisis is getting worse and for sure it’s the end of the world as we have known it.

EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht recently said, “The endgame has begun, and how it will finish I do not know.”

There is an implosion happening in Greece, and Spain is not far behind with Portugal and Ireland running neck and neck into the full embrace of depression and life-shattering bank runs.

Greece is a big deal and Spain is even bigger. Right now the European Central Bank (ECB) is starting to cut off funds from several Greek banks and there is a run going on at the same time.

Those banks are going down the toilet into a black hole and there will be a loud sucking sound as these banks pull hard on other banks. The Titanic is going down at the bow and just because you are at the stern (in the United States), not in Spain or Greece, it does not mean the cold waters of economic calamity are not going to come to the shores of your life. Read more......

US officials targeted in Iranian assassination plot

Several American diplomats, along with Israeli and Saudi Arabian officials, were reportedly on a hit list linked to an ongoing assassination campaign by Iranian intelligence.

The U.S. officials targeted in the alleged plot were stationed at the American embassy in Azerbaijan, according to reports in the Washington Post. The central Asian country shares its southern border with Iran.

Details of the plot, uncovered by U.S. and Azerbaijani intelligence, included a planned sniper attack on American embassy officials and their families.

Alleged Iranian conspirators also schemed to kill embassy members with a car bomb, according to the Post.

The ongoing investigation by American and foreign intelligence into the planned attacks have uncovered evidence tying the plot to Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah and other smaller factions working inside Iran. Read more........

Hackers Take Down Largest Survival Web Site; Threatening Email Sent Prior to Attack

SurvivalBlog.com, the most widely visited survival web site on the internet became the target of a Denial of Service (DoS) Attack which rendered the site inaccessible on the evening of May 26. According to an email published at The Orange Jeep Dad Blog, Lily Rawles, the wife of founder and author James Rawles, says the attack “appears to have been a “pinging” DOS attack.”

The Survival Blog main server, which is located in Sweden, is unavailable by using its www.SurvivalBlog.com URL (uniform resource locator) or direct IP address http://95.143.193.148/.

As of Sunday May 27 @ 21:30 efforts are underway to redirect the domain name servers to the US-based mirror web site at the following currently available IP address: http://64.92.111.122/

A threatening letter sent to the web site anonymously this week via email demanded that the site remove all hyperlinks to various other web sites that were interlinked from Survival Blog. It also threatened to openly publish James Rawles books on pirated web sites. The email, in what appears to be broken English, called for Rawles to immediately cease the interlinking within 5 days and threatened to attack unless Rawles complied with demands to publish a racist headline and post on his web site. Read more......

The Smarter Science of Slim Trailer (With Jonathan Bailor)

Please stay tuned! I'll expand on this later tonight... Absolutely love this!!

6 Little Known Signs of Adrenal Fatigue

Hey, it's Marco! You’d have to be living under a rock not to notice that adrenal problems are at epidemic proportions in our modern culture.  The fact that a Starbucks or some other coffee shop is on practically every corner and that the average American now consumes a whopping 180 lbs per year of refined sugars is surely evidence enough.     By the way, the 180 lbs of sugar per year figure is a shocking 27% increase just since 2003 when sugar consumption was 142 lbs per person per year!


Just in case you're wondering... Here are some tell-tale signs:

* difficulty getting up in the morning, feel terrible in the morning
* needing coffee or energy shots to get going or keep going during the day
* mid-morning energy low
* afternoon energy low between 2-5pm
* second burst of energy at around 11pm lasting until 1-2am
* best sleep comes between 7-9pm
* craving salt and foods high in salt (potato chips, pretzels, etc.)
* low blood sugar under stress
* low blood pressure
* craving sweets
* intolerance to foods high in potassium (i.e. bananas)
* generally don’t feel well throughout the day
* no motivation... shall I keep going?


6 Little Known Signs of Adrenal Fatigue

Stop Worrying...There Probably Is An Afterlife

Whats in a Twinkie? How bout 39 Ingredients...

Limestone, jet fuel, partially hydrogenated... Ahh, nothing like "shelf life!" I bet these things last longer than the plastic wrapper! LOL!

AND ON THE 9TH DAY, GOD CREATED PASTEURIZATION!

“WARNING: This product has not been pasteurized and, therefore, may contain harmful bacteria that can cause serious illness in children, the elderly and persons with weakened immune systems.” ~ Whole Foods Market

Hey, it's Marco! Sayer Ji says it best: "I think warnings like this require a certain dumbing down of the general public to be fully accepted without incredulity. For one, if the juice in that cup was truly produced from vegetables (as I was told) grown in organic soil, the bacteria found there in all likelihood would be highly beneficial to my health – not harmful.

In fact, if we pasteurized everything we ate, we would die from a lack of bacteria – probiotics – which are required to sustain the very infrastructure of our health. Pasteurizing a healthy food containing healthy bacteria, virtually guarantees it (and we who consume it) will become more susceptible to being overrun by unhealthy bacteria. Case in point….."

Whole Foods...

RUN FROM THE CURE - Full Version "got weed?"

"All I want to do is teach people to heal themselves!" Rick Simpson

The following presentation of RUN FROM THE CURE: The Rick Simpson Story was made possible by Rick Simpson and video producer Christian Laurette... made for free to teach YOU how to heal yourself of disease and illness using cannabinoids. Hmm, I wonder how many years it takes to study a plant...

Government Ad Portrays H1N1 Vaccine Skeptics As Raving Lunatics

Hey, it's Marco. Here's a glib 33 second propaganda ad produced by the Kentucky Department for Public Health portrays skeptics of the swine flu vaccine as raving lunatics, despite the fact that the head of the Council of Europes investigation into the 2009 outbreak labeled it one of the greatest medical scandals of the century. Nice try Pharma!

(I know, I know, this is kinda old, but whatever...)

The commercial, which is entitled ‘H1N1 Vaccine Myths,’ features a group of office workers spewing ridiculous theories about the swine flu vaccine that have never been embraced by any vaccine skeptic, in an attempt to build a classic straw man and smear people who question the necessity for taking the shot as unstable lunatics. While the advertisement frames suspicion about the vaccine in the context of tin-foil hat wearing madness, in reality the swine flu pandemic has been denounced as a gargantuan hoax not by demented paranoid psychotics, but by the head of the Council of Europe’s Sub-committee on Health, Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, who as the chief of a major investigation into the H1N1 outbreak, labeled the case a “fake pandemic” manufactured by pharmaceutical companies in league with the WHO to make vast profits while endangering public health. I wonder what the flu will be called this year... Ooo, the 2012 Flu! Mommy?

GUBMENT CLAIMS GLOBAL WARMING MAY CAUSE CANCER, MENTAL ILLNESS!

While the report does not claim that global warming will cause new types of cancer, it says that “higher ambient temperatures” caused by global warming will have an effect on cancer rates, probably pushing them higher.

“There are potential impacts on cancer both directly from climate change and indirectly from climate change mitigation strategies,” the report said. 

A new government report says global warming could lead to an increase in both cancer and mental illness worldwide, and it calls for more federally funded research to determine how that might happen. The report, A Human Health Perspective on Climate Change, was published by the Interagency Working Group on Climate Change and Health – a combination of scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NIH, State Department, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Agriculture, the EPA, and the Department of Health and Human Services.


Oh My...

MORE AND MORE COUNTRIES ARE BANNING AMERICAN FOOD!

Hey, it's Marco! More and more countries are banning imports of American food products for safety reasons. Last week, Indonesia became the first country to halt imports of US beef following the discovery of an American dairy cow infected with mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The disease is fatal to cows and can cause a deadly brain disease in people who eat tainted beef.

     In February, Taiwan began refusing meat products from the US because they contain ractopamine, a leanness- and growth-promoting drug used widely in pork and beef production in the United States. Taiwan has a zero-tolerance policy for the drug.


Do you blame them? Read more...

THE DISAPPEARING MALE! Mommy! Where's Dad??

The Disappearing Male is about one of the most important, and least publicized, issues facing the human species: the toxic threat to the male reproductive system. The last few decades have seen steady and dramatic increases in the incidence of boys and young men suffering from genital deformities, low sperm count, sperm abnormalities and testicular cancer. At the same time, boys are now far more at risk of suffering from ADHD, autism, Tourette’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, and dyslexia.
     The Disappearing Male takes a close and disturbing look at what many doctors and researchers now suspect are responsible for many of these problems: a class of common chemicals that are ubiquitous in our world. Found in everything from shampoo, sunglasses, meat and dairy products, carpet, cosmetics and baby bottles, they are called “hormone mimicking” or “endocrine disrupting” chemicals and they may be starting to damage the most basic building blocks of human development.




Trouble, click here...

Education reform action needed now

November is nearing, and around the country candidates are courting voters. But, if they really want to connect with the men and women they hope to represent, they should start speaking up about a topic Americans care deeply about but which is being ignored.

A recent poll by the College Board showed more than two-thirds of voters call education an issue that is “extremely important” to them in the 2012 election. Only jobs and the economy are viewed with more urgency, and large majorities of voters see education and job creation as inextricably linked.

It’s not surprising voters care about this issue and want to hear more about it. What is surprising is that — across the country — candidates for federal office are barely taking note of that.

Let’s start at the top. One of President Obama’s most notable accomplishments has been creating a grant program — Race to the Top — that has helped spur innovation and improvements in states, particularly around developing great teachers and expanding public-school choices for families. During the campaign, both he and Mitt Romney have spoken to the importance of improving teacher quality. But considering how central the issue is to our nation’s future, it’s been a surprisingly peripheral discussion. Read more....

To fix student loans, respect education

The House Republican majority recently passed a budget that deeply slashes Pell Grants for nearly 10 million college students and allows student loan interest rates to double in July. While Democrats began working to prevent this interest rate increase, which would cost the average college student about $1,000 per year of school, one Republican member deemed it and rising college costs a “distraction” from our real problems.

What Republicans never seem to understand is that keeping college affordable for students and families is vital not just to the growth of our economy, but to the continued existence of the middle class. In this tough economy, people are turning to colleges and job training because they know that is the future for them, their families and the country.

According to the U.S. Census, the average college graduate makes almost $22,000 more a year than the average worker with a high-school degree. Over the course of a lifetime, that adds up to close to a million dollars in earnings. Meanwhile, about eight in 10 jobs in this economy are beyond the reach of workers who lack a post secondary credential like an industry certification, occupational credential or college degree. Read more.......

A glint of economic hope?

Calculated Risk — your one-stop shop for timely and comprehensive reporting on new economic data — points out something amusing and potentially important in the most recent survey of small business optimism conducted by the National Federation of Independent Businesses. In April “for the first time in years … ‘the single most important problem’” cited by small business owners was not “poor sales.” “Government red tape” edged out the longtime champion by the shadow of a hair. This is cause for celebration, because it means we’re getting back to normal.

In the best of times, small business owners complain about taxes and regulations, and that is starting to happen again.

As we scour the economic landscape for any data point, no matter how tiny, that will help us glean some sense of what the future holds, the fact that business owners might be seeing an uptick in consumer demand could be significant. This is especially true after the disappointing April jobs numbers released 10 days ago provoked a new round of mild panic about U.S. economic prospects. Read More.....

U.S. Army General: The Whole Northern Hemisphere is at Risk of Becoming Largely Uninhabitable

You may have entertained the idea of an improbable civilization ending events such as a ‘global killer’ asteroid, earth crust displacement or massive solar storms, but what if there existed a situation right now that was so serious that it literally threatened our very existence?

According to a host of scientists, nuclear experts and researchers, were are facing exactly such a scenario – and current efforts may not be able to stop it.

When the Fukushima nuclear plants sustained structural damage and a catastrophic failure of their spent fuel cooling systems in the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and Tsunami in 2011, it left the government of Japan, Tokyo Power and nuclear regulatory agencies around the world powerless to contain the release of deadly radiation. A year on, the battle for control of Fukushima continues to no avail.

It’s estimated that tens of thousands of people in Japan and the whole of North America have been affected, with reports indicating that children in Japan and the U.S. are already being born with birth defects, as well as thousands who have already succumbed to radiation related illness. As we initially followed the breaking news during the first thirty days of the accident, we suggested the Fukushima disaster would be worse than Chernobyl. Not even we could have imagined how much worse it would be. Read more....

IT'S ALL ABOUT MEasles...

Medical texts described measles as a benign self-limiting childhood disease, nothing to worry about. But then...(insert scary music) the measles vaccine came out — thus creating the Great Measles Misunderstanding.

Before the advent of the measles vaccine, a dozen or so cases of measles would have been considered, well, too measly to make the headlines. That is because we all got the measles when we were kids. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers anyone born before 1957 to be immune to the measles.

The Great Measles Misunderstanding

KILLSHOT: Solar Flares So Powerful They Will Cause the Death of Billions

If you want to challenge yourself to the possibility that our mind is capable of seeing things beyond our reality, then you may be interested to watch the following video documentary which predicts (via ‘remote viewing’) a solar ‘killshot’ that will end it all, for many of us. Whether or not you are willing to let notions of remote-viewing or ‘esp’ into your consciousness, the scenario predicted within the video is a scientific possibility, one which we can do nothing to prevent. But, maybe, just maybe, we could do something to prepare for.

Disclaimer: We have no affiliation or promotional motivations in any way with the person or information contained within or related to the video. Instead, I found it fascinating, and given the author’s credentials and apparent authority I thought some of you may appreciate it. Maybe it will motivate you to reinforce your preparedness plans, maybe it will simply start you to thinking about the ‘what if’, or maybe you will think it’s a bunch of hot air.

The video ‘The Killshot’ by ‘Remote Viewing Products’, is in the public domain and is free for the viewing at their website (and others), while their DVD can also be had for free from their website (thekillshot.com and learnrv.com) – which is why I believe it to be within our right to post it here while at the same time providing fair credit to the source. Read more......

WELL, APPARENTLY "GREEN SMOOTHIES" WILL NOW KILL YOU...

Hey, it's Marco! Green smoothies are made by blending large amounts of raw leafy green vegetables with fruit to soften and sweeten the taste.  Typical vegetables included in green smoothies are kale, spinach, swiss chard, collard greens, celery, broccoli, and parsley. Is the green smoothie fad a truly healthy habit over the long term or can consumption of these seemingly healthy drinks in fact contribute to serious health problems? "Nay Nay," I say... But who I am? I've been drinking green smoothies for breakfast for years without any health issues! Wait... I'm feeling a bit woozy...

How Green Smoothies Can Devastate Your Health

What a Crock!

Policing For Profit: “I Absolutely Would Not Believe That This Could Happen In America”

You may think your biggest threat when carrying any amount of cash over $1000 is a thief or armed robber, but you’d be wrong.

Your most immediate concern is not being robbed by a criminal, but rather, by the very people who are supposed to serve and protect the public.

As one New Jersey man found out when he was on his way to pay for a car he purchased on Ebay, a new heavy handed trend called “policing for profit” is empowering law enforcement officers to ignore fundamental Constitutional safeguards against warrant-less searches.

George Reby was driving down Interstate 40, heading west through Putnam County, when he was stopped for speeding.

A Monterey police officer wanted to know if he was carrying any large amounts of cash.

“I said, ‘Around $20,000,’” he recalled. “Then, at the point, he said, ‘Do you mind if I search your vehicle?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t mind.’ I certainly didn’t feel I was doing anything wrong. It was my money.”Read more.....

THE CURE FOR THE SEVEN DISEASES!

Again, All Are Attitudes...

1) The cure for self-centeredness
Empathy: Being understanding and considerate of the feelings of others - kindness, giving, service, generosity, unselfishness. Winning in life by helping others win.
2) The cure for boredom
O.Y.B.: Getting Off Your Butt. Seeing the possibilities and the opportunities that surround us every day. Do something new, learn something new, create something new, go somewhere new. Help someone. Feed your mind. "You are what you are because of what goes into your mind" - Zig Ziglar.
3) The cure for self-pity
Acceptance: Life is hard and not always fair. Accept the fact that bad things happen to good people and vice-versa. Suffering, pain, and loss are part of life. Deal with it. The world does not adjust to us; we adjust to it. In The Road Less Traveled, F. Scott Peck writes, "Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them or solve them?"
4) The cure for destructive thinking
Constructive thinking: Choosing thoughts that build up rather than tear down. Remember that the mind is like a garden - it has to be weeded (pulling out the negative thoughts) and nourished (stimulating growth through positive thoughts). Most of all, it means being thankful for all that you have.
5) The cure for dishonesty
Integrity: Being a complete person. With it comes a sense of fulfillment and inner peace. Honesty also earns the respect and trust of others. There's a direct relationship between the values you live out and the degree of happiness you find in your life.
6) The cure for resentment
Forgiveness: You first have to let go; leave old hurts in the past rather than allowing them to drag you down in the present. Forgiveness is a sign of strength, not one of weakness. "You practice forgiveness for two reasons. One is to let others know that you no longer wish to be in a state of hostility with that person; and two, to free yourself from the self-defeating energy of resentment" - Wayne Dyer.
7) The cure for discouragement
Perseverance: Determination, persistence. Learning from our mistakes; correcting course, moving on with life. "If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life, and when it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye, and say, 'I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me' " - Ann Landers.

THE SEVEN DISEASES! All Are Attitudes btw...

And a big "THANK YOU" to the great Hal Urban! 

1) Self-centeredness:
A "me first" attitude and approach to life. Thinking the world revolves around you. Always having to have your own way. Thinking the world should devote itself to meeting your needs. All the other diseases (attitudes) have this as their root.
2) Boredom:
Being dependent on others for making life interesting. Having "nothing" to do. Boredom comes from the inside, not the outside. Example: "Reading is boring." The boredom is in the person, not the reading material. Only boring people get bored.
3) Self-pity:
Feeling sorry for yourself (much different than genuine sorrow). Moping, complaining, whining, moaning, and groaning about the disappointments of life. Letting it become a cycle of self-defeating thinking and behavior.
4) Destructive thinking:
Choosing negative thoughts and then dwelling on them. Poisoning your own mind - and probably the atmosphere around you. Focusing on what's wrong in the world, in others, and in you. Negative thoughts almost always lead to negative and self-defeating behavior.
5) Dishonesty:
If you're being dishonest, you're not being real. When you're not real, you're not a complete or whole person. Being dishonest retards personal growth and prevents healthy self-esteem. It also ruins relationships and reputations. "When I lose mine honor I lose myself" - Shakespeare.
6) Resentment:
This is anger that's held on to too long. Carrying grudges is unhealthy. Psychologists call it carrying "excess baggage" - extra weight that serves no purpose. Resentment is also self-defeating. It's like choosing to poison yourself. Only the person carrying the grudge gets hurt.
7) Discouragement:
Quitting, and usually giving up, too soon. Literally, it means "lack of courage." Disappointment is normal, but discouragement is letting it get the best of you, letting it defeat you. It prevents you from moving forward.

Ready, set, borrow!

Short memory department: Americans are piling up debt like gangbusters, again

Consumer borrowing, reports Bloomberg, skyrocketed in March, leaping up by $21.4 billion, more than twice as high as the consensus estimate predicted. Much of the increase, according to Bloomberg, can be attributed to new financing for auto purchases and to students hoping to lock in low interest rates on student loans. (Unless Congress takes action, the interest rates on government-backed student loans will double on July 1.)

Generally speaking, we like to see evidence that the “animal spirits” of Americans are reviving. As Keynes has taught us, demand stokes the fires of a capitalist economy. In that regard, any sign that Americans are ready and willing to buy cars or plunk down their dollars for an education or pull out their credit cards is encouraging.

But only if we can actually afford it. Which brings us to a sobering quote in the middle of the Bloomberg story.

“Consumer confidence has rebounded and although jobs growth has slowed somewhat consumers are saying jobs are not as hard to get.” Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York, said in an e-mail before the report. “Consumers have largely deleveraged since the recession ended or at least their debt payments have come off substantially so they are willing and ready to make more purchases with their credit cards.” Read more......

New Legislation Targets FDA Raids: “We Have Too Many Armed Federal Agencies and We Need to Put an End to This”

The US Food and Drug Administration, charged with keeping America’s food supply safe for consumption, has gone from regulator to armed enforcer, with the most notable recent actions by the agency focusing on small farmers, retailers and individuals who engage in the illegal practice of … get this … drinking milk directly from the cow. But It’s not just dairy products. The FDA has also targeted fruit and vegetable producers, as well as providers of natural medicines that have been been used for generations to cure everything from constipation to serious medical illnesses.

The crimes are considered so serious that the FDA has deployed armed federal agents and local SWAT teams with complete impunity in an effort to curb the distribution of these dangerous products.

If it were up to the FDA, all naturally grown organic foods and food practices would be criminalized and we’d all be subject to consuming engineered genetically modified foods, synthetic vitamins, and cocktails of pharmaceutical drugs to control our moods and emotions.

As is the case with most federal agencies, the FDA and large mega corporations have an incestuous relationship that has led to extreme regulation of any foods or products that may pose a competitive risk to pharmaceutical companies and large scale food production conglomerates. At the behest of these billion dollar giants, the FDA has taken measures to effectively silence those who would pose a threat to their business model by shutting down businesses and imprisoning their operators. Read more.....

4 in 10 Democrats desert Obama in Arkansas, Kentucky primaries

Four in ten Democratic voters chose someone other than President Obama on Tuesday in primaries in Arkansas and Kentucky.

In Arkansas, John Wolfe — a perennial, long-shot candidate — took 41 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, with 71 percent of precincts reporting. Obama came in just under 60 percent. The Associated Press did not call the race for Obama until close to midnight.

And in Kentucky, 42 percent of Democrats chose "uncommitted" rather than cast a vote for the incumbent president. Obama took 58 percent, with 99 percent of precincts reporting.

With turnout low, Obama did get more total votes than presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who won his primary with almost 67 percent of the vote. Obama had more than 118,600 votes to about 117,100 for Romney. Read more......

Romney vows to lower unemployment rate to 6 percent by end of first term

Mitt Romney says his administration would lower the unemployment rate to 6 percent by the end of his first term.

“I can tell you that over a period of four years, by virtue of the policies that we’d put in place, we’d get the unemployment rate down to 6 percent, and perhaps a little lower,” Romney says in a Time magazine interview.

The 6 percent prediction is a bold claim that Romney will surely be held to by Democrats if he’s elected.

When Obama took office in January 2009, unemployment stood at 7.8 percent and rose throughout the year, peaking at 10 percent in October. It’s been slowly declining since, hitting 8.1 percent in April, although job growth has slowed in recent months.

“This is a President who spends his time blaming other people for the fact that he has been unsuccessful in turning around this economy,” Romney says in the Time interview. “And I think the reason you’re seeing across the country, people saying they’d like to try someone new, is because they believe this President, while he may be a nice guy, is simply not up to the task of helping guide an economy.” Read more.....

Senate Dems back increase in air travel fee to close funding shortfall at TSA

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday moved forward with legislation to increase airline passenger security fees, beating back a GOP attempt to keep them at current levels.

The 2013 Homeland Security appropriations bill would increase one-way fees for passengers from $2.50 to $5 in order to close a budget shortfall at the Transportation Security Administration.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said the $315 million in funding would otherwise come from taxpayers and argued it is better to stick passengers who rely on TSA with the bill.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) sponsored an amendment to strip out the fee increase and offset the loss of revenue with cuts to state and local grants, emergency food and shelter funding, and dropping $89 million in funding for a new highway interchange leading to the Homeland Security’s new headquarters in southeast Washington, D.C. Hutchison noted that the Senate had decided not to increase the fees in the recent Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill. Read more......

America’s drone exceptionalism

Always the world leader, our country has pioneered terrifyingly expansive new rules for drone warfare

Here’s the essence of it: you can trust America’s crème de la crème, the most elevated, responsible people, no matter what weapons, what powers, you put in their hands. No need to constantly look over their shoulders.

Placed in the hands of evildoers, those weapons and powers could create a living nightmare; controlled by the best of people, they lead to measured, thoughtful, precise decisions in which bad things are (with rare and understandable exceptions) done only to truly terrible types. In the process, you simply couldn’t be better protected.

And in case you were wondering, there is no question who among us are the best, most lawful, moral, ethical, considerate, and judicious people: the officials of our national security state. Trust them implicitly. They will never give you a bum steer. Read more......

Barack Obama: Shoestring president

Spending has grown more slowly under Obama than either Reagan or Bush. Will the media stop parroting the GOP?

Updated with video below.

With so many Republican lies about President Obama, it’s pretty hard to pick out the worst one. The most vicious stuff, of course, comes from the crazy birthers, who won’t go away. (Way to spend Arizona’s tax dollars, Sheriff Joe Arpaio!) Then there are the more mainstream slurs – Newt Gingrich calling him “the food stamp president,” or Obama’s “friend” Sen. Tom Coburn saying he favors government programs because “as an African American male,” he received “tremendous advantage from a lot of these programs.”

But if you measure the power of a lie by its utter truthlessness combined with the breadth of its reach, the notion that Obama has presided over a wild federal spending spree is probably the biggest whopper spread by the GOP, with the help of the right-wing noise machine and lazy mainstream media. Mitt Romney regularly rails against the “debt and spending inferno” the president supposedly ignited. Last month on Fox, Charles Krauthammer called Obama’s spending “radical, unprecedented,” and CBS Radio’s Mark Knoller reported that the “National debt has increased more under Obama than under Bush.” Read more.....

National Security Threat: Over 1 Million Counterfeit Chinese Parts Discovered In Defense Department Supply Chain

While America’s surveillance infrastructure turns inwards to identify domestic terror threats to the homeland such as those people who have guns, ammunition, food reserves or pay cash for their purchases, a shocking new report from Congress suggests that legitimate national security threats from foreign governments have been all but ignored by those agencies tasked with providing for the defense of the American people.

The year long investigation by the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services found that counterfeit parts from our nation’s largest financial benefactor are flooding into critical military defense systems that include everything from special operations helicopters and surveillance planes, to missile guidance and global positioning systems.

[The report] found a total number of suspect counterfeit parts involved in those 1,800 cases exceeding 1 million.

“Our report outlines how this flood of counterfeit parts, overwhelmingly from China, threatens national security, the safety of our troops and American jobs,” Levin said. “It underscores China’s failure to police the blatant market in counterfeit parts – a failure China should rectify.” Read more.....

America’s idiot rich

The 1 percent is complaining louder than ever. There can be no reasoning with people this irrational

Some unknown but alarming number of ultra-rich Americans are now basically totally delusional and completely divorced from reality. This is now an inescapable fact, confirmed by multiple media accounts of billionaire thought and an entire special issue of the New York Times Magazine.

Here’s a brief list of insane things that are apparently common knowledge among the billionaire class:

• That President Obama and the Democratic Party have treated wealthy finance industry titans maliciously and unfairly.
• That the fact that they are perversely wealthy and growing richer during a period of mass unemployment and staggering debt is a sign that the economy is functioning correctly.
• That poor people, and not the finance industry, are responsible for the financial crisis and subsequent recession.
• That the ultra-wealthy are wealthy because they are smarter and work harder than everybody else, and that they are resented for their success. Read more......
  

Ron Paul 2012 - The Shocking Truth About YOUR Money Revealed

Ron Paul 2012 - The Shocking Truth About YOUR Money Revealed

In this video
- Ron Paul the only Honest Politician
- Why Ron Paul has exposed the Bankers and Corporations
- What you can DO about the Giant Economic Collapse. Read more.....

Iraqi military to buy unmanned US drones to monitor oil fields

American military drones are returning to the skies above Iraq more than five months after U.S. troops withdrew from the country.

But this time, the drones will be operated by members of the Iraqi navy and will provide overwatch for the country's oil platforms off its southern coast, U.S. officials in Baghdad said Wednesday.

The deal being will cover the sale of roughly 12 of the U.S. Navy's Scan Eagle unmanned drones, a State Department official told The Hill on Monday.

The drones will be equipped with surveillance packages that will allow the aircraft to conduct day and night missions, the official said on the condition of anonymity.

The official ruled out any possibility of arming the Scan Eagles for offensive operations by the Iraqi military, noting it was "not even feasible" to arm the drone.

The Iraqi military already owns and operates a number of Scan Eagle drone to support its ongoing security operations. The biggest issue will be training Iraqi sailors to operate the aircraft on the open sea, the official said. Read more......

NEWBORNS ADDICTED TO PRESCRIPTION DRUGS? WHAT THA??

According to Time Magazine:

“Prescription drug misuse has risen in tandem with a sharp increase in legitimate prescriptions for pain medication, owing to a better recognition of the high prevalence of severe chronic pain. Both trends are likely to have affected painkiller use by pregnant women, but it is difficult to say exactly how many women use the drugs legitimately and how many do so without a prescription.”

     In one of the most startling news reports yet on the overuse of opioid drugs like Oxycontin in America, a new study found that newborns suffering from withdrawal symptoms due to their mothers’ use of prescription painkillers tripled between 2000 and 2009.
     An estimated 13,500 babies are now born with opioid withdrawal symptoms each year. Over the same time period the number of women using these drugs quintupled. Health-care costs to treat these drug addicted babies rose from $190 million to a whopping $720 million.

Read on...

Is Obama’s EPA deliberately destroying America’s economy?

“This administration seems to be taking steps that appear to be methodically and deliberately sabotaging certain parts of our nation’s economy.”

Who would accuse President Obama’s top bureaucrats of intentionally damaging the industrial strength of America? Quite a few people, if one can judge by the angry citizen grumbles roiling through today’s blogs and social media. But the quote above came from none other than Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety, on the Senate floor last week.

The senator was concerned by the thousands of pages of new rules that the Environmental Protection Agency has dumped on economic sectors that Obama simply doesn’t like — coal, for example. Worse, proposed blanket rules would expand federal authority over the largest possible area, such as storm water disposal rules for existing buildings, and Clean Water Act permits for ditches on family farms. Read more......

Romney created more jobs as governor than Obama did as president

Eric Fehrnstrom, the senior campaign adviser to the Mitt Romney presidential campaign, credited the former Massachusetts governor with creating “well in excess of 100,000” jobs as an executive at Bain Capital, and an additional “30,000 to 40,000” in his time as governor of Massachusetts.

“With respect to Mitt Romney’s period of time as the governor of Massachusetts — in that four years as governor he created between 30k and 40k jobs,” Fehrnstrom told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC on Monday. “That is more than President Obama has created for the entire nation. And at Bain Capital, of course the mission was to create value, that’s how the free enterprise system works, but when you create value, when you add value as they did in trying to improve companies, you also add employment, and a rough back-of-the-envelope estimate of how many jobs they created is well in excess of 100,000.”

Romney made a similar claim early in the Republican primary season, but seemed to walk the number down after it was challenged by his GOP presidential rivals. At later points during the cycle, Romney has said he created “tens of thousands” or “thousands” of jobs.

The Romney campaign has not detailed the method it's using to come to these estimates, but critics say Romney is taking credit for jobs created after his tenure, not subtracting out jobs that were eliminated after his tenure, or taking credit for business deals that he had little to do with. Read more......