Author: Katie

Washington’s Blog

Governments from around the world admit they’ve used the bully’s trick … attack first, and then blame the victim:

• Japanese troops set off a small explosion on a train track in 1931, and falsely blamed it on China in order to justify an invasion of Manchuria. This is known as the “Mukden Incident” or the “Manchurian Incident”.   The Tokyo International Military Tribunal found:  “Several of the participators in the plan, including Hashimoto [a high-ranking Japanese army officer], have on various occasions admitted their part in the plot and have stated that the object of the “Incident” was to afford an excuse for the occupation of Manchuria by the Kwantung Army ….”    And see this

Continue reading “The First Question to Ask After Any Terror Attack: Was It a False Flag?”

The Hill – by Laura Barron-Lopez and Keith Laing

Record-low gas prices across the U.S. have given rise to fresh talk in Washington of raising the federal gas tax for the first time in over 20 years, with leading Republicans now saying a hike must not be ruled out.

The GOP has long resisted calls from business leaders and others to boost the 18.4 cent-per-gallon tax as a way to pay for upgrades to the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges.

Yet in recent days, senior Senate Republicans have said they want to keep options open and that “nothing is off the table” when weighing the best mechanisms to pay to finance infrastructure projects.   Continue reading “Momentum builds in Congress for raising the federal gas tax”

Politico – by ALLIE GRASGREEN

President Barack Obama on Friday will propose making two years of community college free for students.

In a White House video posted Thursday evening, Obama said he wanted to offer “a little preview” of his plans for the Jan. 20 State of the Union address.

“What I’d like to do is to see the first two years of community college free for everybody who’s willing to work for it,” Obama said. “It’s something we can accomplish, and it’s something that will train our workforce so that we can compete with anybody in the world.”   Continue reading “Obama to propose two free years of community college for students”

BBC News

Russia has listed transsexual and transgender people among those who will no longer qualify for driving licences.

Fetishism, exhibitionism and voyeurism are also included as “mental disorders” now barring people from driving.

The government says it is tightening medical controls for drivers because Russia has too many road accidents.   Continue reading “Russia says drivers must not have ‘sex disorders’”

Economy Watch

Workers on the U.S. west coast are experiencing serious challenges when it comes to landing a full-time job. This is forcing millions of Americans to languish in part-time positions, because there are no other options available. In the state of California alone, over 1.2 million people are underemployed. In total, that number equates to the same population of Oakland and San Francisco.

Some people wonder why you would live in a state that is so anti-business. This is what California has done to itself and they just raised taxes.   Continue reading “The Part-Time Economy Consuming America”

Senator Rand Paul

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., today introduced legislation that would allow American farmers to grow and profit from industrial hemp.

The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015 would remove federal restrictions on the domestic cultivation of industrial hemp. The bill would remove hemp from the Schedule I controlled substance list under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, and would define it as a non-drug so long as it contained less than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).   Continue reading “Senators Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Roll Back Hemp Restrictions”

CNN – by Aaron Smith

FBI background checks, the most reliable measure of gun sales, surged in December, capping a year that experienced strong growth in the last three months.

Background checks totaled more than 2.3 million in December, according to the FBI, compared to about 2 million in the same period in 2013.   Continue reading “Gun sales surged in December”

RT, November 23, 2014

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has warned it would be a “grave mistake” for the French parliament to follow the suit of several other European nations in recognizing a Palestinian state in a vote scheduled early December.

“Recognition of a Palestinian state by France would be a grave mistake,” Netanyahu told reporters in Jerusalem. “Do they have nothing better to do at a time of beheadings across the Middle East, including that of a French citizen?” apparently referring to Herve Gourdel executed by Algerian jihadists in September.   Continue reading “Flashback: Palestinian state recognition will be a ‘grave mistake’, Netanyahu warns France”

CS Monitor – by Mark Trumbull

WASHINGTON — For the first time since the Great Recession, polls are finding a majority of Americans with positive feelings about the economy.

The shift doesn’t mean the economy is moving into overdrive, nor does it alleviate the challenges that millions of Americans still feel – from stretched family budgets to unemployment.   Continue reading “Americans’ new mood about economy: It’s actually pretty good”

Washington’s Blog

Many Civilians Are Being Killed By Drones

Law school teacher Marjorie Cohn – president of the National Lawyers Guild – writes:

Obama has killed more people with drones than died on 9/11. Many of those killed were civilians, and only a tiny percentage of the dead were al-Qaeda or Taliban leaders.

Continue reading “Obama Has Killed More People with Drones than Died On 9/11”

Natural News – by Ethan A. Huff

Unless their parents opt for a medical or religious exemption, young school children in New York City will soon be required to get a flu shot in order to attend preschool or gain access to a child care facility.

As outlined by the New York City Health Department (NYCHD), children aged 6-59 months will be barred from attending classes or being around other children in an institutional setting if they don’t first get jabbed for the flu — this, despite warnings by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that this year’s flu shot doesn’t even work.   Continue reading “NYC mandates flu shots for toddlers even after CDC admits they don’t work”

War is a Crime – by David Swanson

A former Governor of Virginia is expected to be sentenced to a long stay in prison. The same fate has befallen governors in states across the United States, including in nearby Maryland, Tennessee, and West Virginia. A former governor of Illinois is in prison. Governors have been convicted of corruption in Rhode Island, Louisiana, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Connecticut, and (in a trumped-up partisan scam) in Alabama. The statewide trauma suffered by the people of states that have locked up their governors has been . . . well, nonexistent and unimaginable.   Continue reading “Presidents Are Gods”

Global Research – by Joanne Maria McNally

With the recent failed bid by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Arab League at the UN security council, to try and end Israelis’ occupation of Palestinian land and to create a Palestinian State within the 1967 borders, it seems an appropriate moment to review the situation for Palestinians since 1915.

What is the background to the demonization and brutalization of Palestinians? Most of all, why is the international community was assisting properly and why has it not assisted the Palestinians in protecting or restoring their inalienable rights over decades? Why is their situation so brutally upside-down almost a century after they were supposed to be independent and determining their own state affairs?   Continue reading “The Harvesting of Palestine. The Zionist Project Prevails?”

Continue reading ““Filtered sunshine today over South Texas””

The Economic Collapse – by Michael Snyder

There has only been one other time in history when the price of oil has crashed by more than 40 dollars in less than 6 months.  The last time this happened was during the second half of 2008, and the beginning of that oil price crash preceded the great financial collapse that happened later that year by several months.  Well, now it is happening again, but this time the stakes are even higher.  When the price of oil falls dramatically, that is a sign that economic activity is slowing down.  It can also have a tremendously destabilizing affect on financial markets.  As you will read about below, energy companies now account for approximately 20 percent of the junk bond market.  And a junk bond implosion is usually a signal that a major stock market crash is on the way.  So if you are looking for a “canary in the coal mine”, keep your eye on the performance of energy junk bonds.  If they begin to collapse, that is a sign that all hell is about to break loose on Wall Street.   Continue reading “Guess What Happened The Last Time The Price Of Oil Crashed Like This?…”