Hollywood Crumbles as Oscar-Winning Director Suggests Cover-Up of Widespread Pedophilia

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Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis takes Hollywood to task over claims of widespread pedophilia and their immense ability to cover it up.

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Boston Marathon Bomber’s Aunt Says FBI Set Up Her Nephew And She Has PROOF

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On April 15, 2013, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, alongside his brother Dzhokhar, would become the infamous murderers in the Boston Marathon Bombings. According to the official reports, the duo blew up two homemade pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line at the marathon.

The attack killed and injured nearly 300 people. The subsequent manhunt led authorities to the Tsarnaev brothers, who went on the run after learning the authorities were on their trail. Tamerlan was shot 9 times by police and then finished off by his brother after he panicked and ran him over with his car. Dzhokhar was later shot and captured while hiding inside a boat.

Now, in a bombshell revelation, the Russian aunt of Dzhokhar has filed a motion in his death penalty appeal case that reveals new details on the meetings her nephew’s attorneys had in Russia with his parents and makes a bizarre allegation that the FBI said the bomber had a “heavy-laden black backpack,” not the white one he can be seen carrying in video taken before the deadly blasts, according to Newsweek.

In the court filings, Maret Tsarnaeva, an attorney, and sister of the Tsarnaev family asks to join the appeal defense team to plead with the courts to overturn the death penalty.

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Why Americans Support Perpetual Wars

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By Chris Kanthan

“With great power, comes great responsibility” – a quote from the movie, Superman. However, the superpower known as America can’t stop waging incessant, futile wars. With the tectonic changes in geopolitics, the callous American attitude can result in devastating global wars. Although one can justifiably blame the elites for this debacle, equally culpable are the American people who loudly cheer or silently bless the perpetual wars. Selling a war in the U.S. is like giving out candies on Halloween...

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Absurd State Law Mandates High School Diploma to Put Shoes on Horses

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There's nothing in the curriculum of California high schools—or any other high schools, for that matter—regarding the centuries-old practice of making horseshoes and putting them on horses.

That's why Bob Smith, owner of the Pacific Coast Horsehoeing School, used to train students to be farriers—the technical term for someone who makes and fits horseshoes—regardless of how much formal schooling they had. It's a good-paying job, one that comes with flexibility and independence. There are no licensing laws restricting who can be a farrier or mandating a certain level of training. If you can find someone to teach you the skill and find someone to pay you to practice it, you're all set.

At least that's what Smith thought, until the California Bureau for Private and Postsecondary Education sent him a letter last year. During an inspection of Smith's records, bureau officials discovered that he had been teaching students who lacked a high school diploma or GED certificate.

The letter informed him by a 2010 state law Smith could face fines or have his school shut down by the state if he accepted students who lacked a high school education.

"You don't have to know algebra to shoe a horse," Smith says. "You don't have to know how to read a novel to shoe a horse. Horses don't do math and horses don't speak English."

For that matter, the practice of making horseshoes and shoeing horses has been around a whole lot longer than the idea of secondary education. It's even been around longer than the First Amendment, which Smith says the state of California is violating by threatening to stop him from teaching certain students. With the help of the Institute for Justice, a libertarian law firm, Smith is suing the state in federal court.

"Just like publishing a how-to book or uploading an instructional video to YouTube is protected by the First Amendment, so is teaching," said Keith Diggs, an attorney for IJ, in a statement. "By limiting who Bob is allowed to teach and what Esteban is allowed to learn, California has not only harmed the students most in need of an education, but also violated their First Amendment rights."

The California Department of Commerce and the Bureau for Private and Postsecondary Education, the two defendants in the case, did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday.

Under that 2010 state law, students entering a private trade or vocational school must have a high school diploma or GED. The law was part of an effort to crack down on colleges and other postsecondary schools that functioned like "diploma mills," handing out bogus credentials to underqualified students while charging them high prices and offering the promise of high-paying jobs.

A similar federal law applies only to schools that accept student loans—passed as a way to curb supposed abuses of the student loan system by for-profit colleges and trade schools—but the California law applies to all postsecondary schools. Even those, like Smith's horseshoeing school, that do not accept student loans.

Smith's school is hardly a diploma mill. He's forgotten more about horseshoeing than any bureaucrat in Sacramento. He's been running his school since 1974, and has trained more than 2,000 graduates. In 2010, he was inducted into the International Horseshoeing Hall of Fame—a real thing that really exists!

Smith is not the only one hurt by this absurd law.

Becoming a trained farrier can provide a nice living for people without much formal schooling. People like Esteban Narez, who applied to Smith's school earlier this year. Raised by a single mother, Narez attended public school through his freshman year of high school, when he injured himself playing football and was forced to take time off from school to recover. He never went back. Now, at age 26, he's too old to do so under California law.

Narez has worked a variety of jobs but discovered a passion for working with horses while doing part-time work at Monterey Bay Horsemanship & Therapeutic Center. There, he met a trained farrier who suggested he take classes from Smith.

Smith rejected Narez' application because lacked a high school diploma. Narez is now a co-plantiff in Smith's lawsuit .

Had Smith accepted Narez he could have faced criminal "infractions" carrying fines of up to $5,000, $500 less than Smith's charge for eight-week course. Infractions in California law do not carry jail penalties, but in addition to the criminal violation, Smith could potentially face injunctions, have his school placed into receivership, or have it shutdown by the state.

And for what purpose? The law punishes people like Narez who have failed to obtain an arbitrary and ultimately unnecessary level of formal education before deciding to become a farrier. Why not require a college degree, one might wonder, or tell potential trade school applicants that they have to come back with a master's degree. Ridiculous, yes, but no less so than California's requirement.

"For students with limited education, this law is this biggest obstacle to their success," says Smith. "This law dictates that someone with limited formal education is not allowed to invest in themselves."

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The Connection Between Mercury & Autism Explained: Here’s How It Get’s Into Children’s Brains

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In nature, toxic metals generally are bound with other elements rather than being present in their pure form. However, with the advent of large-scale industrial processes to extract metals from naturally occurring compounds, humans let the genie out of the bottle, contributing significantly to the distribution of mercury, aluminum and other heavy metals in the environment. When released from nature’s semi-protective hold, these “invariably toxic” metals wreak havoc on living systems, including humans, animals and plants alike.

Modern-day scientists have been amassing evidence of mercury’s toxicity for decades, with a growing focus in recent years on the metal’s association with neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A new review article in the multidisciplinary journal Environmental Research pulls together a wide body of literature with the aim of summing up current research and emerging trends in mercury toxicology. Geir Bjørklund, the study’s lead author, is the founder of Norway’s non-profit Council for Nutritional and Environmental Medicine and has published prolifically on topics related to heavy metals, autoimmune disorders and ASD.

Multiple avenues of exposure

Exposure to mercurial compounds remains widespread, despite feeble attempts to ban some uses. Bjørklund et al.’s review covers all three categories of mercury: elemental, organic and inorganic. Exposure to volatile elemental mercury can come about as a result of occupational contact or vapor from dental amalgam fillings. Organic mercury—the most frequent form of exposure, according to Bjørklund and colleagues—exists as methylmercury (in fish) and ethylmercury (in the vaccine preservative thimerosal). Coal-fired power plants send inorganic mercury into the environment, where the toxic metal works its way up the marine food chain.

Because mercury plays no constructive metabolic role whatsoever, humans have not evolved effective mechanisms to excrete it. Children with ASD have a particularly hard time detoxifying and excretingmercury.

Interconversion between various forms of mercury also occurs. For example, elemental and organic mercury can cross the blood-brain barrier and bioaccumulate in the form of inorganic mercury. Studies also have described “mixed exposure” in the brain to both organic and inorganic mercury compounds. Because mercury plays no constructive metabolic role whatsoever, humans have not evolved effective mechanisms to excrete it. Children with ASD have a particularly hard time detoxifying and excreting mercury.

Multiple mechanisms of toxicity

Mercury exerts toxicity through a number of different mechanisms and has effects at both the molecular and cellular levels. For their purposes, Bjørklund and coauthors zero in on eight interrelated mechanisms, although there are others. Every single one of the toxic mechanisms that they describe has a documented association with ASD.

• Sulfur: A key and widely recognized fact about mercury is that it is “thiophilic,” meaning that it has an affinity for biochemically important sulfur compounds called thiols. Mercury binds to the sulfur-containing amino acid cysteine (which contains a thiol group); this allows mercury to piggy-back into brain cells and other target cells through a phenomenon known as molecular mimicry (meaning that the problematic mercury-cysteine entity “mimics” the useful amino acid methionine). According to leading toxicologists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), mercury then “blocks or attenuates [the] protein molecule’s range of availability for normal metabolic function.” Mercury also reduces sulfate absorption. Individuals with ASD frequently have low levels of sulfate.
• Immune activation and autoimmunity: Bjørklund et al. outline numerous mercury-related immune system effects, including “immunostimulation, immunosuppression, immunomodulation, delayed-type hypersensitivity…, and autoimmunity.” These effects occur largely due to mercury’s influence on immune cytokines—proteins that are important in helping cells communicate. Chronic elevation of inflammatory cytokines and other immune abnormalities such as activation of microglia (immune cells in the brain) are hallmarks of both mercury exposure and ASD.
• Protein synthesis: Researchers have reported since the late 1960s that mercury inhibits protein synthesis (a fundamental cell process that involves both DNA and RNA), interfering with cells’ ability to build new proteins. Bjørklund and coauthors report that inorganic mercury is particularly disruptive in this regard. Investigators have postulated that dysregulated protein synthesis, which disrupts the balance between excitation and inhibition in brain cells, plays a causal role in ASD.
• Brain microtubules: Neuropsychiatrist Jon Lieff describes microtubules as “the brains of the cell” and suggests that cerebral microtubules may be “the seat of consciousness.” Microtubules form the scaffolding required by axons (nerve fibers that transmit neuronal signals). Mercury preferentially targets axonal microtubules, leading to their “depolymerization and derangement,” according to the Environmental Research Moreover, mercury is unique among toxic metals in having these microtubule effects. Axonal disturbances and the altered brain connectivity that these disturbances promote are widely documented features of ASD.
• Membrane transport: Cell membrane transport refers to the process whereby molecules (such as amino acids) pass into or out of a cell. Mercury can disturb amino acid transport and also “penetrate” across biological membranes. The authors note the need for “approaches to inhibit [mercury’s] transfer both at the placental border and at the blood-brain barrier.” An international research group recently described the relationship between ASD and impaired amino acid transport at the blood-brain barrier.
• Glutathione: Numerous researchers have described how organic mercury, in particular, impairs glutathione activity, thereby lessening protection from oxidative stress and weakening the body’s detoxification capacity. The relationship is bidirectional, according to Bjørklund and coauthors, because when brain glutathione levels drop, the uptake of mercury in brain tissue increases substantially. Lowered glutathione levels, elevated oxidative stress and a higher body burden of mercuryhave been repeatedly documented as core characteristics of ASD.
• Metallothioneins: Metallothioneins (MTs), a family of proteins, are antioxidants and metal chelators that work to maintain metal homeostasis. MTs also play an important role in neuroprotection and regeneration. Although MTs are present to “protect the brain and gastrointestinal tract against overload by toxic metals,” Bjørklund and coauthors cite evidence showing that common genetic mutations and variations in MTs may increase some individuals’ susceptibility to mercury-induced neurotoxicity, including individuals with ASD. Studies have identified “a significant increase in both metal content and metallothionein expression” in autistic children.
• Zinc and copper: Appropriate metabolism of zinc and copper is important for healthy neurological functioning. When mercury binds to metallothioneins, it can substitute for zinc and copper, “interact with [zinc] and [copper] availability” and thereby disturb the normal zinc-copper ratio. In a previous publication, Bjørklund described mercury’s role in disturbing zinc and copper metabolism and the typically low zinc-copper ratio in autistic children. Other researchers have measured the zinc-copper ratio in plasma as a biomarker for mercury toxicity in ASD children.

Reducing mercury toxicity

Bjørklund and coauthors also devote several paragraphs to a discussion of the essential trace element selenium, which plays an important antioxidant role, among other functions. The authors note that mercury is highly “selenophilic,” binding to selenium “with an extraordinarily high affinity…when compared with the affinity for sulfur.” The welcome implication spelled out by the authors—which has been known to researchers for nearly half a century—is that selenium has a “high capability…to reduce the toxicity of [mercury] compounds.” The authors list several mechanisms whereby selenium can minimize mercury-induced toxicity, such as by improving mercury’s excretion or sequestration and strengthening antioxidative activity. Autism researchers have identified “a significant elevation of [mercury]…together with a significant decrease in the [selenium] levels in [red blood cells] of patients with ASD when compared to…healthy controls.” These researchers agree that selenium has an important role to play in reducing mercury toxicity in ASD patients. 

Translating research into action

It has been over a decade and a half since a seminal publication in Medical Hypothesesdescribed autism as “a novel form of mercury poisoning” and showed how “every major characteristic of autism has been exhibited in…cases of documented mercury poisoning.” Ten years later, Kern and colleagues published a detailed consideration of “parallels between mercury intoxication and the brain pathology in autism” in Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis. A 2017 publication in Molecular Neurobiology by autism expert Dr. Richard Frye and others reviews “associations between mercury exposure and ASD subtypes,” even “at doses well below the current reference levels considered to be safe.” Thus, Bjørklund and coauthors are far from alone in synthesizing the evidence base and drawing attention to the global public health epidemics of mercury toxicity and autism.

The CDC authors concluded that there are “many commonalities [and] similarities in the mechanisms of toxic action of methylmercury and ethylmercury,” particularly regarding their association with neurotoxicity and neurodevelopmental disorders such as ASD.

Last year, CDC toxicologists published a comprehensive review that specifically focused on the two forms of organic mercury. The CDC authors concluded that there are “many commonalities [and] similarities in the mechanisms of toxic action of methylmercury and ethylmercury,” particularly regarding their association with neurotoxicity and neurodevelopmental disorders such as ASD. Both forms of organic mercury cause DNA damage (or impair DNA synthesis), affect cell division, decrease glutathione activity and increase oxidative stress, among other similar effects. These findings are particularly noteworthy in light of Bjørklund and coauthors’ observation that “co-exposure with [ethylmercury] and [methylmercury] might induce more adverse neurotoxic effects than each agent alone.” Bjørklund’s team calls on researchers to actively investigate these additive toxicological effects.

At the end of the day, as noted by mercury expert Philippe Grandjean, there is a need to move beyond simply generating “endless replications” in the form of “thousands of toxicology publications every year” on mercury and other well-understood toxic metals. The Bjørklund team’s broad review of over 200 studies—including recent findings as well as articles dating back several decades—shows that we already know more than enough about mercury’s hazards to take decisive action.

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You Asked For Our Stance On Trump, So Here It Is

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When Trump was elected as president of the United States in November 2016 the world pretty well shit their pants to say the least. How was it possible that this guy won the election? But what many in the world never considered is just how fed up people are with the same old same old. There isn’t much trust in government or corrupt politicians these days, and people were ready to try anything new.

After the election a slurry of stories began to hit the media about who Trump really was, how Hillary could have lost and of course, fake news was to blame for everything. Oh, and months later Russia was to blame for everything. Even though there was no evidence of either. We saw a massive media slandering that was essentially the childish outcry of a Deep State upset about how things didn’t go its way.

As we covered the many stories related to the election, Trump, Hillary, Wikileaks and so forth here at CE, our readership often asked who we truly support; Hillary or Trump? Of course, we support neither and have stated this numerous times, yet this was something that was difficult for many to understand because the belief is you must support one or the other, and if you don’t support one you automatically support the other. This is understandable of course.

The amount of anger, emotions, and frustration people have had about Trump being president is incredible. While I believe this shows how much we collectively need to shift our perspectives on things in general, I also believe that in many ways our emotional outcries are where things start. We have to observe our emotions and what they telling us about our beliefs and perspectives in order to see how we can move beyond them. We are massively limiting our world and reality by holding on so rigidly to what we believe. To be clear, we cannot change things from a state of anger or aggression, we must first move past this. This is a lesson humanity is learning big time right now.

Before we go on, politics are an emotional subject for many of us because we believe so strongly in one side or another, this is perhaps the biggest challenge we face. But that said, it most serving at this point to set emotions aside as we go through this. This won’t lift up nor bash Trump but will simply state things for what they are. But emotions will need to be set aside to see that more clearly.

The Truth About Trump

I’m going to break this down into a political section and then a more big picture ‘consciousness’ section on how Trump makes us reflect on our shadows and societal issues. To note off the top, this won’t be your typical political perspective holding to the illusory world of politics many in the mainstream subscribe to that is completely a dog and pony show. We’re looking beyond the veil.

First up, let’s look at some of what happened during the election, whether you believe these things to be true or not yet doesn’t mean they are false which is an important piece here.

During this recent election it was the first time mainstream media began talking about a shadow government and deep state. Essentially, unelected individuals who ACTUALLY run the country, not the people you vote for.

A massive pedophile ring involving politicians, the music and film industry and more began being exposed. In fact, many people, including Corey Feldman had warned everyone about this many years ago, but it was passed off as conspiracy.

WikiLeaks revealed corruption inside the DNC that illustrated how Hillary’s campaign fixed the election to push out Bernie Sanders. Essentially proving democracy isn’t a real thing in the US.

A massive shift in the way we view politics needs to happen. In fact, this is part of a massive shift in consciousness that is taking place in general. We must begin to realize that regardless of who is elected, so long as we have a Deep State or shadow government in place, what changes in the world is typically not based on what a president does or can do. Now perhaps that is changing slightly given that Trump, and yes I’m going to say this, is not part of the same Deep State that many past presidents have been, including what Hillary Clinton is part of had she won. How do we know this? It’s a long story, but if you follow alternative news and truth politics enough you will see this. But for the purposes of this article, I’ve been told by a number of whistleblowers with connections to people on the inside of the US security agencies that Trump is in fact a threat to the Deep State in a number of ways.

On top of that, long time researcher Richard Dolan has said on a number of occasions that Trump comes in “as an outsider.” Likewise, former CIA office Robert David Steele has stated that Trump is not Deep State.

But this is precisely where it gets tricky, does this mean Trump is a saviour? NO! And this is where many of us are getting confused. All this means is that he’s here to shake things up. We must stop trying to view things as a one size fits all or as if a saviour will come in to change everything. It’s a process we’re going through and it will happen in many stages.

Just because a president is not part of the Deep State does not mean they fully know and will act on what many seeking truth and a better world want. It only means they won’t act entirely in favour of what the Deep State’s plan would have been. This is a huge distinction as I’ve watched many people flip flop confused about how he could do one thing opposing the Deep State but then do something in favor of it.

I’ve waited quite a while to write this because I was wanted the right events to take place that would really allow us to see what I’m referring to more clearly. Although I think many obvious things have happened in the past that could shed light on the somewhat complicated dynamic, I knew it would simply be time that would allow us to see what Trump’s presidency is really about and how it is serving humanity from a bigger picture perspective.

JFK Files & What That Means

A few days ago Trump stated via Twitter that he would unlock and bring forth the long classified JFK files.

Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2017

If you have played in the realm of declassified files long enough, you know this could mean that the files may come out completely blacked out, essentially making the release of these files useless. On the other hand, these files could come out and reveal incredible truths that could shatter the way the general public views its country. Most importantly, this subject is brought into the public eye in a way that no other president would have done and this is crucial in helping us think outside the box. It almost seems as if there could even be a build up to exploring the truth about 9/11 which obviously would send the US into a massive unrest of questions about who truly runs their country, why they run it the way they do, which ultimately is what the entire gnosis of what our current times are revealing to us.

This is a very important point so I will make it again, politically, with all that is happening since the beginning of the election up until now, what we are seeing is an unveiling of WHO TRULY runs the United States. Think of what came out via WikiLeaks, Snowden and so forth, this is massive stuff and it’s part of a journey of unveiling the truth about what’s really going on. From a conscious evolutionary perspective, this is why the election went the way it did, it’s the bigger reason why Trump is president.

It’s Wake Up Time

It’s time for humanity to wake up, and many things coming along with Trump’s presidency is helping to do that. This includes having Trump be the very shadow he needs to be in order to show us the social issues we also need to move beyond.

This leads into the next important section. Interestingly, Trump doesn’t try and hide who he truly is. As awkward and absurd as some of the things he says are, he doesn’t hide it. He states how he feels even when what he says will offend 3/4’s of the population! To reiterate, it’s not that what he says is always good, but it’s playing a role. He is not lying or providing lip service like most other politicians. He’s instead baring all so humanity sees the light and the dark within him and thus within ourselves. Again this does not make Trump a saint or a saviour, it simply allows us to look at what’s truly going on and what role he truly plays.

Racism, sexism, inequality etc, all of these things are coming to the surface on a mass level as part of the way he conducts himself. Not only that but Trump is also slowly breaking down the Deep State little by little. And while it can be argued that his administration has been infiltrated at this point by aspects of the deep state, there are still aspects that are coming out to help shake things up.

Our stance on Trump is that he is here to allow us to see many aspects of our collective unconscious and at the same time shed more light on the Deep State, who they are, and why we need to take our power back from them because we have simply given it up through blind faith and unawareness of their existence. He is not going to suddenly change the entire world and raise mass consciousness to the point where everything is saved, but he is also not going to be one that simply pushes forward the Deep State’s agenda in the way Hillary Clinton would have.

He is, in essence, the next logical step in a series of events taking place on the planet to help awaken humanity as opposed to helping to keep humanity asleep.

I highly recommend checking out this article as it also encompasses the gnosis of our position on Trump: A Completely Different Perspective On Trump’s Presidency. This Will Make You Think

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US Now Admits Syrian "Rebels" Have Used Chemical Weapons

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From the first moment chemical weapons were used on the Syrian battlefield, the American public was led to believe that only one side could possibly be responsible. The constant refrain in the echo chamber of US government officials and the mainstream media was that only the Assad government possessed chemical stockpiles and the technological capability of deploying such heinous weapons, therefore blame for each and every chemical attack from Ghouta to Khan Sheikhoun was laid at the feet of Assad and the Syrian military.

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Germany: Full Censorship Now Official

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Authored by Judith Bergmann via The Gatestone Institute,

• Germany has made no secret of its desire to see its new law copied by the rest of the EU.
• When employees of social media companies are appointed as the state's private thought police and given the power to shape the form of current political and cultural discourse by deciding who shall be allowed to speak and what to say, and who shall be shut down, free speech becomes nothing more than a fairy tale. Or is that perhaps the point?
• Perhaps fighting "Islamophobia" is now a higher priority than fighting terrorism?

A new German law introducing state censorship on social media platforms came into effect on October 1, 2017. The new law requires social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, to censor their users on behalf of the German state. Social media companies are obliged to delete or block any online "criminal offenses" such as libel, slander, defamation or incitement, within 24 hours of receipt of a user complaint -- regardless of whether or the content is accurate or not. Social media companies receive seven days for more complicated cases. If they fail to do so, the German government can fine them up to 50 million euros for failing to comply with the law.

This state censorship makes free speech subject to the arbitrary decisions of corporate entities that are likely to censor more than absolutely necessary, rather than risk a crushing fine. When employees of social media companies are appointed as the state's private thought police and given the power to shape the form of current political and cultural discourse by deciding who shall be allowed to speak and what to say, and who shall be shut down, free speech becomes nothing more than a fairy tale. Or is that perhaps the point?

Meanwhile, the district court in Munich recently sentenced a German journalist, Michael Stürzenberger, to six months in jail for posting on his Facebook page a historical photo of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, shaking the hand of a senior Nazi official in Berlin in 1941. The prosecution accused Stürzenberger of "inciting hatred towards Islam" and "denigrating Islam" by publishing the photograph. The court found Stürzenberger guilty of "disseminating the propaganda of anti-constitutional organizations". While the mutual admiration that once existed between al-Husseini and German Nazis is an undisputed historical fact, now evidently history is being rewritten by German courts. Stürzenberger has appealed the verdict.

A German court recently sentenced journalist Michael Stürzenberger (pictured) to six months in jail for posting on his Facebook page a historical photo of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, shaking the hand of a Nazi official in Berlin, in 1941. The prosecution accused Stürzenberger of "inciting hatred towards Islam" and "denigrating Islam" by publishing the photograph. (Image Source: PI News video screenshot)

Germany has made no secret of its desire to see its new law copied by the rest of the EU, which already has a similar code of conduct for social media giants. The EU Justice Commissioner, Vera Jourova, recently said she might be willing to legislate in the future if the voluntary code of conduct does not produce the desired results. She said, however, that the voluntary code was working "relatively" well, with Facebook removing 66.5% of the material they had been notified was "hateful" between December and May this year. Twitter removed 37.4%, and YouTube took action on 66% of the notifications from users.

While purportedly concerned about online "hate speech," one EU organization, the EU Parliament, had no qualms about letting its premises be used to host a convicted Arab terrorist, Leila Khaled, from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) at a conference about "The Role of Women in the Palestinian Popular Struggle" in September. (The EU, the US, Canada, and Australia, have all designated the PFLP a terrorist organization). The conference was organized by, among others, the Spanish delegation of Izquierda Unida (United Left) as part of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left bloc in the European Parliament.

In the UK, Prime Minister Theresa May also said that she will tell internet firms to tackle extremist content:

"Industry needs to go further and faster in automating the detection and removal of terrorist content online... ultimately it is not just the terrorists themselves who we need to defeat. It is the extremist ideologies that fuel them. It is the ideologies that preach hatred, sow division and undermine our common humanity. We must be far more robust in identifying these ideologies and defeating them -- across all parts of our societies."

Prime Minister May keeps insisting that "these ideologies" are spread "across all parts of our societies" when in reality, virtually all terrorism is Islamic. Meanwhile, her own Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, has refused to ban the political wing of Hezbollah. Hezbollah's hate speech, apparently, is perfectly acceptable to the British authorities. So is that of South African Muslim cleric and hate preacher Ebrahim Bham, who was once an interpreter to the Taliban's head legal advisor. He was allowed to enter the UK to speak in the Queen Elizabeth II Centre, a government building, at the "Palestine Expo" a large Jew-hate event in London in July. Bham is known for quoting Nazi Propaganda Minister Goebbels and saying that all Jews and Christians are "agents of Satan". Meanwhile, a scholar such as Robert Spencer is banned from entering the UK, supposedly on the grounds that what he reports -- accurately -- is "Islamophobic".

The British Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) also recently stated that online "hate crimes" will be prosecuted "with the same robust and proactive approach used with offline offending". The decision to treat online offenses in the same way as offline offenses is expected to increase hate crime prosecutions, already at the highest recorded level ever. Prosecutors completed 15,442 hate crime cases in 2015-16.

Jews in Britain, who have experienced a dramatic increase in anti-Semitism over the past three years, are frequently on the receiving end of hate crimes. Nevertheless, their cases constitute less than a fraction of the statistics. In 2016/17, the CPS prosecuted 14,480 hate crimes. According to the Campaign Against Antisemitism:

"we have yet to see a single year in which more than a couple of dozen anti-Semitic hate crimes were prosecuted. So far in 2017, we are aware of... 21 prosecutions, in 2016 there were 20, and in 2015 there were just 12. So serious are the failures by the CPS to take action that we have had to privately prosecute alleged anti-Semites ourselves and challenge the CPS through judicial review, the first of which we won in March. Last year only 1.9% of hate crime against Jews was prosecuted, signaling to police forces that their effort in investigating hate crimes against Jews might be wasted, and sending the strong message to anti-Semites that they need not fear the law... Each year since 2014 has been a record-breaking year for anti-Semitic crime: between 2014 and 2016, anti-Semitic crime surged by 45%".

Almost one in three British Jews have apparently considered leaving Britain due to anti-Semitism in the past two years.

British authorities seem far more concerned with "Islamophobia" than with the increase in hate crimes against Jews. In fact, the police has teamed up with Transport for London authorities to encourage people to report hate crimes during "National Hate Crime Awareness Week", which runs from October 14-21. Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police will hold more than 200 community events to "reassure communities that London's public transport system is safe for everyone". The events are specifically targeted at Muslims; officers have visited the East London Mosque to encourage reporting hate crimes.

Last year, London mayor Sadiq Khan's Office for Policing and Crime (Mopac) announced it was spending £1,730,726 of taxpayer money policing speech online after applying for a grant from the Home Office. Meanwhile, Khan said that he does not have the funds to monitor the 200 jihadists estimated to be in London, out of the 400 jihadists who have so far returned to the capital from Syria and Iraq. (He also implicitly admitted that he does not know the whereabouts of the jihadists who have returned). When asked by the journalist Piers Morgan why the mayor could not have them monitored, Khan answered:

"Because the Met Police budget, roughly speaking, 15 percent, 20 percent is funded by me, the mayor. The rest comes from central government. If the Met Police is being shrunk and reduced, they've got to prioritize and use their resources in a sensible, savvy way."

When Morgan asked what could possibly be a bigger priority than, "people coming back from a Syrian battlefield with intent to harm British citizens", Khan did not answer. Perhaps because it is hard to admit in public that fighting "Islamophobia" is now a higher priority than fighting terrorism?

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Former NPR CEO opens up about liberal media bias

http://nypost.com/2017/10/21/the-other-half-of-america-that-the-liberal-media-doesnt-cover/

Opioid Lobbyist Left a Digital Fingerprint on a Campaign by “Patient Advocates”

ORIGINAL LINK

In the wake of the 60 Minutes/Washington Post story on the drug industry using its political influence to pass a law to undercut Drug Enforcement Administration’s ability to police pill mill suppliers, the sponsors of the bill have lashed back, claiming they were simply acting in the interest of patients.

“Leave the conspiracy theories to Netflix,” wrote Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. In a column responding to the story, Hatch said the piece falsely depicted lawmakers as “in the pocket of the drug industry.”

Hatch wrote that he was concerned about reasonable access to drugs, and “with the support of patient advocates and others,” negotiated a version of the bill to introduce in the Senate.

Not only does the story provide robust evidence that pharmaceutical supply companies were involved in every step of the legislative process — with a drug lobbyist even ghostwriting the original bill — the patients rights’ organizations supporting the effort have extensive ties to the drug industry.

One of the primary letters to lawmakers in support of the legislation was signed by several self-described “patient advocacy and health professional” organizations, including Patient Access Alliance, a group that receives support from drug companies involved in the opioid industry.

The metadata of the letter, dated three days after the bill was introduced, shows a name unrelated to the patient groups that signed it. The document properties show that the letter was created by Kristen L. Freitas, the vice president for federal affairs of the Healthcare Distributors Alliance. HDA is the trade group that represents McKesson, Cardinal Health, and Amerisourcebergen, the principal suppliers of pharmaceutical opioids in the country. Freitas, filings show, was one of the drug industry lobbyists working to influence lawmakers in support of the bill.

Freitas did not respond to a request for comment; neither did the patient organization that sponsored the letter.

An investigation last year by the Charleston Gazette-Mail revealed that major distributors had disregarded rules to report suspicious orders to the DEA while flooding West Virginia with over 480 million pain pills over a five year period. The unusually large shipments, from firms such as McKesson and Cardinal, have been directly linked to the skyrocketing opioid addiction problem in the region.

In 2016, there were 14,400 overdose deaths caused by prescription opioids such as Percocet and Oxycontin. Many of the addicts that use increasingly popular street opioids, such as heroin and black market fentanyl, gained their addiction first through pain pills prescribed by a physician. A recent analysis found that over the next decade, opioid deaths could claim the lives of as many as 500,000 Americans.

In 2012, the DEA moved to temporarily revoke the license of a Cardinal Health distribution center in Florida after the firm was found violating its own internal safeguards and providing increasingly massive opioid shipments to several CVS pharmacies in the state.

The Cardinal incident provoked the industry to push back against the DEA. Cardinal hired former Department of Justice officials, including former Clinton administration Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, to pressure the Obama administration against enforcement actions. D. Linden Barber, a former DEA official-turned industry lobbyist, drafted legislation that was given to Rep. Tom Marino, R-Penn., to curtail the DEA’s ability to revoke distributors’ licenses. After initially hitting a roadblock in 2014, the bill passed the following year. In July of this year, Linden secured a job working directly for Cardinal as the company’s chief regulatory counsel.

Campaign finance records show that the drug industry provided hefty donations to the legislators spearheading the legislation. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., two of the other sponsors of the legislation, received $5,000 each from the the Healthcare Distribution Alliance PAC. Scott Gottlieb, now serving as President Donald Trump’s Food and Drug Administration chief, published a column sharply criticizing DEA action to revoke the Cardinal license, and, as we reported, later received speaking fees from the Healthcare Distribution Alliance and opioid manufacturers.

Backlash from the story has been swift. Several lawmakers have expressed an interest in repealing the law in question.

On Tuesday, in response to the story, Marino removed himself from consideration as the next federal drug czar, a position he had been nominated to by President Trump.

The post Opioid Lobbyist Left a Digital Fingerprint on a Campaign by “Patient Advocates” appeared first on The Intercept.

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