Chinese Fighters Shadow US and Japanese Warplanes in Disputed Air Defence Identification Zone

By Peter Symonds

Global Research, November 30, 2013

World Socialist Web Site

Region: Asia

Theme: US NATO War Agenda

The Chinese air force yesterday scrambled Su-30 and J-11 fighter jets after a dozen American and Japanese military aircraft entered the air defence identification zone (ADIZ) proclaimed by Beijing last weekend in the East China Sea. The incident is the first direct Chinese reaction to a US or Japanese incursion and heightens the danger of a miscalculation leading to a clash and conflict.
Having declared the ADIZ, which overlaps with Japan’s own ADIZ and provocatively includes the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, the Chinese government has come under pressure from hawkish sections of the ruling elite not to back away. The Obama administration immediately challenged the ADIZ by flying nuclear-capable B-52 bombers into the area on Tuesday without abiding by Chinese rules to provide flight plans, identification and maintain radio contact. Japan and South Korea followed suit on Wednesday, sending military aircraft to the zone.
According to the Chinese Defence Ministry, the Chinese fighters identified two US reconnaissance planes and 10 Japanese military aircraft, including early warning, reconnaissance and fighter aircraft. The statement explained that the Chinese aircraft monitored their American and Japanese counterparts throughout their flights in the ADIZ.
Asked about the Chinese statement, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren acknowledged the US flights but provided no details. “The US will continue to partner our allies and will operate in the area as normal,” he said. Japan’s Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera also played down the incident, saying: “We are simply conducting our ordinary warning and surveillance activity like before.”
Far from operating “normally,” the US and Japan have seized upon the Chinese ADIZ to justify their closer military collaboration and build-up in areas adjacent to the Chinese mainland. An American defence official told Bloomberg.com yesterday that the US military was conducting daily flights through the zone without notifying Chinese authorities in advance.
The US and Japanese navies are conducting a major joint exercise, AnnualEx 2013, in waters off Okinawa in Japan’s southern island chain near the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands. The war games involve the aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington, as well as dozens of American and Japanese warships, submarines and aircraft.
US 7th fleet commander, Vice Admiral Robert Thomas, reaffirmed that American warplanes would ignore Chinese rules for its ADIZ. “So for us it’s ‘steady as you go.’ Our operations in the East China Sea will continue as they always have.” US air force activities, which include regular reconnaissance flights off the Chinese coast, have in the past led to dangerous incidents, including a mid-air collision near China’s Hainan Island in 2001 that resulted in the downing of a Chinese aircraft and the death of the pilot.
Tensions in the East China Sea have greatly heightened as a result of the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia” over the past four years. The US has encouraged Japan to remilitarise and take a more aggressive stance in its Senkaku/Diaoyu islands dispute with China.
Japan’s military build-up has accelerated since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a rightwing nationalist, came to power last December. The Abe government has increased defence spending for the first time in a decade and proclaimed its determination to change the constitution to allow Japan to collaborate more closely with the US military and conduct “pre-emptive” actions.
The latest navy exercises near Okinawa are part of Japan’s strategic shift from the defence of the country’s north against the former Soviet Union, to boosting military forces in the southern island chain—opposite China. Abe has made clear his government’s intention of enforcing Japan’s own ADIZ around the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, threatening to order the shooting down of unmanned Chinese surveillance drones. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan plans to station E-2C early warning aircraft at the Naha base in the Okinawa region and deploy long-range Global Hawk drones to monitor the area.
Abe has exploited the standoff over the China’s air defence zone to ram through legislation this week to establish a US-style National Security Council and controversial new secrecy laws. The National Security Council, which will concentrate foreign and defence policy under the prime minister, is slated to begin operations as early as next week. The secrecy laws, which have passed the lower house, give the state bureaucracy sweeping powers to proclaim “state secrets” and impose harsh penalties on whistleblowers and the media. (See: “Japan’s new state secrecy law”)
The new Chinese leadership of President Xi Jinping has been under internal pressure to respond to Abe’s more aggressive stance, especially over the disputed islets. Like the Japanese government, the Chinese regime is whipping up nationalism, which is particularly directed against its neighbour across the East China Sea, to divert mounting social tensions at home.
In declaring China’s ADIZ, the Xi leadership apparently counted on being able to put pressure on the US-Japan alliance and isolate Japan. An editorial in the hawkish state-run Global Times on Thursday urged the government to pursue this strategy and make Japan the “prime target” of Chinese pressure. The newspaper dismissed criticisms from South Korea and Australia, and opined: “Washington is expected to refrain from confronting Beijing directly in the East China Sea, at least for now.”
In fact, the real driving force behind the confrontation in the East China Sea is Washington, not Tokyo. The Obama administration’s “pivot” or “rebalance” has sought to consolidate a network of alliances, strategic partnerships and military bases throughout Asia, stretching from South Korea and Japan to South East Asia and Australia, and on to South and Central Asia.
Far from driving a wedge between Japan and the US, Washington has leapt on the Chinese ADIZ to forge closer military ties with Japan and ratchet up the pressure on Beijing. South Korea, which China was courting, has swung sharply against Beijing and opposed the Chinese ADIZ, which includes a submerged rock (known as Ieodo in Korea and Suyan in China) claimed by Seoul.
South East Asian countries have largely been silent over the East China Sea dispute, but there are concerns that China will proclaim a similar ADIZ over the South China Sea, where it has territorial disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia. In a TV interview on Thursday, Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto del Rosario warned: “There’s this threat that China will control the air space [in the South China Sea].”
The danger is that political miscalculations and misjudgments by one or more governments can rapidly lead to an escalating confrontation, in which an apparently minor incident can trigger a wider conflict.

Why state budget deficits are self-inflicted delusions: Here's how any U.S. state could become a wellspring of riches almost overnight

naturalnews.com

Originally published November 28 2012

Why state budget deficits are self-inflicted delusions: Here's how any U.S. state could become a wellspring of riches almost overnight

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) State budget deficits are self-inflicted delusions. Any state in the USA could almost instantly eliminate all budget deficits and start rolling in billions of dollars in state revenues by embracing freedom for farmers, holistic health practitioners and other groups (see below).

All that's needed to unleash this economic Golden Age is for a state to be willing to nullify outmoded, ridiculous federal restrictions on things like growing industrial hemp. The federal government has no jurisdiction within a state's borders. This is openly described in the U.S. Constitution. Predictably, the federal government pretends it has jurisdiction over all economic activity by invoking the so-called "Commerce Clause," but the government's actions are a gross (intentional) misinterpretation of that clause. In reality, any state that stood its ground on commercial production and trade within its own borders could very easily nullify the federal government by invoking the Tenth Amendment which reads:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

As the federal government was never delegated the power to regulate industrial hemp, medical marijuana, nutritional supplements, medicinal herbs, firearms or any other item imaginable, it has no actual power to regulate the commerce of such items within a state.

This provides a remarkable opportunity for any state willing to stand up against the federal government's economic insanity and unleash a new Golden Age within its own borders by invoking one or more of the following five suggestions.

Here are the five ways in which any U.S. state could unleash an economic Golden Age almost immediately:

#1) Decriminalize industrial hemp farming

There is no logical reason why industrial hemp farming should remain illegal in America. It's legal in China, Canada, and most of Central and South America. America imports hundreds of millions of dollars worth of hemp products each year, enriching the farmers of other nations while punishing U.S. farmers through a truly insane police of agricultural prohibition.

Why can't America's farmers grow a product that we already import and consume in huge quantities?

Any state that legalized hemp farming would unleash an agricultural revolution of such magnitude that it would be rolling in excess tax revenues which could be used to invest in anything it wanted: Schools, roads, even preventive health care services.

#2) Decriminalize, tax and regulate medicinal marijuana

Beyond hemp farming, the next step for any state with the courage to move forward is the decriminalization and regulation of medical marijuana, both in terms of its production and its sale. Regulate it, tax it and control it, and you unleash a massive new source of wealth for your state while also driving drug gangs OUT of your state (because there's no more profit in selling the stuff when it's legal and regulated).

With millions of people already using marijuana to treat pain and help alleviate medical symptoms, the market on this is obviously huge... billions of dollars a year in California alone. All that's required to make this work is to license growers, then tax and regulate marijuana until your state's budget is running in the green. Americans are already smoking marijuana at will, so why not have their purchase dollars go to the state instead of the criminal drug gangs?

Ending prohibition on medical marijuana is a win for everyone involved, and it sucks the profit out of the criminal drug trade, thereby vastly reducing state expenditures on law enforcement and prisons.

#3) Decriminalize holistic healing and natural medicine

Holistic healing is illegal almost everywhere. No natural practitioner can claim to treat, prevent or cure any disease without being subjected to arrest and imprisonment.

This position is absurd. Holistic healing, the healing arts and even nutritional therapies are in fact far more powerful than conventional medicine when it comes to preventing disease and improving the quality of life. If true health freedom were legalized in a U.S. state, it would unleash an economic boom across the holistic health community, and practitioners would flock to the state, quickly followed by an explosion in medical tourism from all across the country.

As a quick example, consider this. Conventional cancer treatments fail 98% of the time. (They only work on about 2% of cancers.) Mammography is a medical hoax that sucks women into a false diagnosis which benefits cancer clinics but harms and even physically maims women. The conventional cancer industry is an utter failure that destroys lives and drains the economy. There's got to be a better solution for cancer, right?

There is! Alternative cancer treatments have a far better outcome, reversing cancer in 50% or more of typical patients. Any state that legalized CAM cancer treatments (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) would instantly become a medical tourism destination for the nation, attracting billions of dollars in revenue to the state each year in the form of natural medicine services and CAM cancer treatments.

To accomplish this, the state doesn't even have to endorse alternative medicine; it only needs to create the freedom of a level playing field where patients have the choice of what kind of health practitioner they want to see. Decriminalize holistic healing and alternative medicine and you unleash an economic boom that simultaneously improves the long-term health of your state's population!

#4) Decriminalize truthful health claims on nutritional supplements

Thanks to oppressive federal laws, nutritional supplements must currently censor the scientific truth about how they can help prevent, treat or cure disease. This FDA-enforced censorship is designed solely to protect the profit interests of the pharmaceutical industry.

If a U.S. state nullified the FDA's censorship of nutritional supplements and allowed truthful, scientifically-validated health claims to be printed on labels of products sold within the state, it would experience a huge influx of not just in-state sales of such products, but even visitors from bordering states who would flood into the state to purchase products.

The most likely candidate state for what I call "health product LABELING freedom" is of course Utah. If Utah simply passed a law allowing supplement makers to tell the truth on product labels, it would see an explosion in sales of its products not just to Utah citizens, but also visitors from neighboring states. This, in turn, would generate more sales taxes, jobs and economic growth for the state of Utah.

#5) Legalize banking privacy

Today's banks operate a spy centers for the U.S. government, turning over all details of personal banking, including deposits, withdrawals, and wire transfers to the federal government. This is all done in the name of "security" but it's really just an excuse to have the federal government conduct financial surveillance on the entire population.

What if a state launched a state-run bank that offered truly anonymous banking by refusing to turn over data to the feds? No names, no social security numbers and no personal details. Whoever holds the bank book has access to the account, and that's it. It's a physical token of security, and you can privately pay money to someone by simply handing them the bank book.

Such a system would attract masses of financial capital into the state, which the state could then use to make loans to its citizens for creating small businesses and new jobs. The state could even levy a 1% transaction fee on all transactions through the private banking system, raking in massive profits by, in effect, "soaking the rich" without levying a single new tax. The 1% fee is simply a trade for banking privacy, and there are countless wealthy individuals who would gladly pay that 1% to protect the privacy of their financial transactions.

But wait, I hear you say: Wouldn't criminal operations use the bank to launder their drug money? The simple answer to that is: The global banks ARE the criminal operations! Providing a state-run private bank would offer a new alternative for customers that allows them to avoid enriching the criminal banks that report all transactions to the federal government.

Besides, the Constitution gave the power to coin money to Congress, not to a private banking cartel known as the "Federal Reserve." Isn't it time the states (and the People) took back the power to at least run their own banks?

Five pathways to instant economic abundance

So there ya have it: Five ways any U.S. state could end its deficits, unleash freedom for its people, stand up against federal tyranny and set off an economic Golden Age within its borders.

All that is really necessary for this to happen is for one U.S. state to find the courage to defend the interests of its citizens rather than worship the tyranny and oppression of the federal government.

Is there such a state in the USA? We may soon find out. Two states -- Colorado and Washington -- have already passed marijuana decriminalization laws that directly contradict federal drug enforcement policy, and Texas is in the process of nullifying the TSA with a new law that would make it a crime for TSA goons to sexually molest air passengers as a condition of allowing them to travel. (And yes, isn't it insane that I even have to print such a sentence in our modern world?)

The bottom line is that as U.S. states before more frustrated with the bankruptcy, oppression and meddling of our corrupt, criminally-operated federal government, they will seek new ways to declare their own sovereignty on issues like economic activity within their own borders.

The incentive is that the first state to legalize these things will benefit the most from the economic windfall.

We can end the delusion of endless state budget deficits NOW

In summary, state budget deficits are self-inflicted delusions. They only exist because states refuse to declare their own economic independence on issues like agricultural hemp, medical marijuana, health freedom, nutritional supplements, private banking and more.

By bowing down to the corrupt, tyrannical federal government on these issues, states doom themselves to financial destitution while ignoring a multitude of phenomenal ideas for creating massive budget surpluses almost overnight.

Keep reading Natural News for more updates and daily news on economic liberty and state sovereignty.

---

All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml

Full List of Obamacare Tax Hikes

Issues: Health

Full List of Obamacare Tax Hikes: Listed by Size of Tax Hike

Complied by Americans for Tax Reform
WASHINGTON, DC -- Obamacare contains 20 new or higher taxes on American families and small businesses. Arranged by their respective sizes according to CBO scores, below is the total list of all $500 billion-plus in tax hikes (over the next ten years) in Obamacare, their effective dates, and where to find them in the bill.
$123 Billion: Surtax on Investment Income (Takes effect Jan. 2013): A new, 3.8 percent surtax on investment income earned in households making at least $250,000 ($200,000 single). This would result in the following top tax rates on investment income:

	Capital Gains	Dividends	Other*
2012	15%	15%	35%
2013+	23.8%	43.4%	43.4%

 

*Other unearned income includes (for surtax purposes) gross income from interest, annuities, royalties, net rents, and passive income in partnerships and Subchapter-S corporations.  It does not include municipal bond interest or life insurance proceeds, since those do not add to gross income.  It does not include active trade or business income, fair market value sales of ownership in pass-through entities, or distributions from retirement plans.  The 3.8% surtax does not apply to non-resident aliens. (Bill: Reconciliation Act; Page: 87-93)
$86 Billion: Hike in Medicare Payroll Tax (Takes effect Jan. 2013): Current law and changes:

	First $200,000 ($250,000 Married) Employer/Employee	All Remaining Wages Employer/Employee
Current Law	1.45%/1.45% 2.9% self-employed	1.45%/1.45% 2.9% self-employed
Obamacare Tax Hike	1.45%/1.45% 2.9% self-employed	1.45%/2.35% 3.8% self-employed

 

Bill: PPACA, Reconciliation Act; Page: 2000-2003; 87-93

 

$65 Billion: Individual Mandate Excise Tax and Employer Mandate Tax (Both taxes take effect Jan. 2014):
Individual: Anyone not buying “qualifying” health insurance as defined by Obama-appointed HHS bureaucrats must pay an income surtax according to the higher of the following

	1 Adult	2 Adults	3+ Adults
2014	1% AGI/$95	1% AGI/$190	1% AGI/$285
2015	2% AGI/$325	2% AGI/$650	2% AGI/$975
2016 +	2.5% AGI/$695	2.5% AGI/$1390	2.5% AGI/$2085

 

Exemptions for religious objectors, undocumented immigrants, prisoners, those earning less than the poverty line, members of Indian tribes, and hardship cases (determined by HHS). Bill: PPACA; Page: 317-337

 

Employer: If an employer does not offer health coverage, and at least one employee qualifies for a health tax credit, the employer must pay an additional non-deductible tax of $2000 for all full-time employees.  Applies to all employers with 50 or more employees. If any employee actually receives coverage through the exchange, the penalty on the employer for that employee rises to $3000. If the employer requires a waiting period to enroll in coverage of 30-60 days, there is a $400 tax per employee ($600 if the period is 60 days or longer). Bill: PPACA; Page: 345-346

(Combined score of individual and employer mandate tax penalty: $65 billion)

$60.1 Billion: Tax on Health Insurers (Takes effect Jan. 2014): Annual tax on the industry imposed relative to health insurance premiums collected that year.  Phases in gradually until 2018.  Fully-imposed on firms with $50 million in profits. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,986-1,993
$32 Billion: Excise Tax on Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans (Takes effect Jan. 2018): Starting in 2018, new 40 percent excise tax on “Cadillac” health insurance plans ($10,200 single/$27,500 family).  Higher threshold ($11,500 single/$29,450 family) for early retirees and high-risk professions.  CPI +1 percentage point indexed. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,941-1,956
$23.6 Billion: “Black liquor” tax hike (Took effect in 2010) This is a tax increase on a type of bio-fuel. Bill: Reconciliation Act; Page: 105
$22.2 Billion: Tax on Innovator Drug Companies (Took effect in 2010): $2.3 billion annual tax on the industry imposed relative to share of sales made that year. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,971-1,980
$20 Billion: Tax on Medical Device Manufacturers (Takes effect Jan. 2013): Medical device manufacturers employ 360,000 people in 6000 plants across the country. This law imposes a new 2.3% excise tax.  Exempts items retailing for <$100. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,980-1,986
$15.2 Billion: High Medical Bills Tax (Takes effect Jan 1. 2013): Currently, those facing high medical expenses are allowed a deduction for medical expenses to the extent that those expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI).  The new provision imposes a threshold of 10 percent of AGI. Waived for 65+ taxpayers in 2013-2016 only. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,994-1,995
$13.2 Billion: Flexible Spending Account Cap – aka “Special Needs Kids Tax” (Takes effect Jan. 2013): Imposes cap on FSAs of $2500 (now unlimited).  Indexed to inflation after 2013. There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children.  There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education.  Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education. Bill: PPACA; Page: 2,388-2,389
$5 Billion: Medicine Cabinet Tax (Took effect Jan. 2011): Americans no longer able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin). Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,957-1,959
$4.5 Billion: Elimination of tax deduction for employer-provided retirement Rx drug coverage in coordination with Medicare Part D (Takes effect Jan. 2013) Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,994
$4.5 Billion: Codification of the “economic substance doctrine” (Took effect in 2010): This provision allows the IRS to disallow completely-legal tax deductions and other legal tax-minimizing plans just because the IRS deems that the action lacks “substance” and is merely intended to reduce taxes owed. Bill: Reconciliation Act; Page: 108-113
$2.7 Billion: Tax on Indoor Tanning Services (Took effect July 1, 2010): New 10 percent excise tax on Americans using indoor tanning salons. Bill: PPACA; Page: 2,397-2,399
$1.4 Billion: HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike (Took effect Jan. 2011): Increases additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,959
$0.6 Billion: $500,000 Annual Executive Compensation Limit for Health Insurance Executives (Takes effect Jan. 2013): Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,995-2,000                                                                                                                
$0.4 Billion: Blue Cross/Blue Shield Tax Hike (Took effect in 2010): The special tax deduction in current law for Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies would only be allowed if 85 percent or more of premium revenues are spent on clinical services. Bill: PPACA; Page: 2,004
$ Negligible: Excise Tax on Charitable Hospitals (Took effect in 2010): $50,000 per hospital if they fail to meet new "community health assessment needs," "financial assistance," and "billing and collection" rules set by HHS. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,961-1,971
$ Negligible: Employer Reporting of Insurance on W-2 (Took effect in Jan. 2012): Preamble to taxing health benefits on individual tax returns. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,957

Read more: http://www.atr.org/full-list-obamacare-tax-hikes-listed-a7010#ixzz1zTXuZUYl

Natural News Exclusive: Amazon.com (AMZN) sells fake, counterfeit nutritional products to unsuspecting consumers

naturalnews.com

Natural News Exclusive: Amazon.com (AMZN) sells fake, counterfeit nutritional products to unsuspecting consumers

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) A Natural News investigation has confirmed that Amazon.com (AMZN) is functioning as a retail "front" for a rapidly-expanding list of dietary supplement counterfeiters who profit by exploiting the Amazon.com trust factor to sell fake products to unsuspecting Amazon customers. This counterfeit operation does not appear to be the intention of Amazon.com itself, which is a widely-celebrated online retailer, but rather a result of Amazon's inability to adequately police the tens of thousands of third-party sellers who sell products through the site.

Natural News, a consumer advocacy whistleblower news organization, has learned and confirmed that:

• Counterfeit dietary supplement companies are very easily able to repeatedly and successfully sell a multitude of counterfeit nutritional products through Amazon.com.

• Amazon.com is unable to adequately police these sellers.

• Amazon.com is currently unable to distinguish between legitimate (original) manufacturers of a product vs. a counterfeit manufacturer of a fake product.

• Amazon.com actually lends counterfeit products a high "trust factor" by assigning high star ratings to products which are wholly counterfeit (see explanation below).

• Amazon.com has allowed counterfeit companies to "hijack" its anti-counterfeiting policy, resulting in counterfeiters getting original manufacturers banned from Amazon as if they were counterfeiters.

Do not buy nutritional products from third-party sellers on Amazon.com

To be clear, Amazon.com is an impressive company in many ways, and Amazon.com remains my favorite online retailer. Amazon excels at inventory logistics, a positive online shopping experience and an impressive IT backbone that keeps the company humming along. I shop at Amazon more than any other single store, and this website maintains thousands of links to Amazon.com books and other products.

But I no longer buy nutritional products sold on Amazon.com by third-party resellers. If I'm shopping for a supplement on Amazon.com and it's being offered by a name I don't recognize -- like "MyDiscountShopper" or whatever -- I simply don't trust it.

The risk of buying a counterfeit product through Amazon.com right now is simply too high.

Counterfeit Natural Attitude Turmeric was sold by Amazon.com

Among the cases we have confirmed, here at Natural News we have personally experienced our own products being counterfeited and sold on Amazon.com.

Several months ago, a company we had never sold product to was suddenly offering our Turmeric product as well as our "Clean Chlorella" product on Amazon. We conducted an in-house investigation and were able to conclusively determine that we had never sold these products to this company, and they had not sourced them from our resellers, either.

We filed a counterfeit complaint with Amazon.com, using their counterfeit filing email address. They responded in the affirmative and banned that particular reseller. Not everyone has this same success with Amazon.com counterfeit products, however.

On this page, Amazon.com states, "The sale of counterfeit products, including any products that have been illegally replicated, reproduced, or manufactured, is strictly prohibited... If you sell counterfeit goods, we may immediately suspend or terminate your selling privileges and destroy inventory in our fulfillment centers without reimbursement."

This is the kind of anti-counterfeiting policy you would expect from the e-commerce leader in America. Unfortunately, though, this very policy is being used by counterfeiters as a weapon to get legitimate, original manufacturers banned from Amazon.com.

Original manufacturer's account banned from Amazon.com after counterfeiter posts complaint

Natural News has received testimony from a highly-respected nutritional product manufacturer who has been the victim of Amazon.com's anti-counterfeiting policy. We have confirmed the identity and authenticity of this source.

They tell Natural News, "...an unknown seller reported us to Amazon for selling [our own] counterfeit products... and Amazon banned us."

Even worse, Amazon.com apparently upheld the ban even after this original manufacturer provided exhaustive documentation proving they were the manufacturer of the product:

"This began a conversation with Amazon in which we provided almost every conceivable piece of documentation to prove our identity as the true manufacturer of the products. It should have been a very open and shut case, but it wasn't -- Amazon upheld the ban."

This grave error on the part of Amazon.com resulted in a direct loss of reputation for this supplement manufacturer. As they explained to Natural News:

"Our customer service team started to receive complaints that our products had decreased in quality and had inconsistent packaging and labeling. This was very puzzling because we hadn't made any production changes. But, we discovered that the customers making complaints had purchased the products off Amazon. After we made a test purchase from Amazon, we realized that our products and other nutritional products being sold through Amazon.com were being counterfeited and sold by unauthorized sellers."

Amazon.com counterfeiters use a network of ever-changing account names

Counterfeiters are able to exploit the Amazon.com e-commerce infrastructure by shifting from one seller name to another in chameleon-like fashion. If they get shut down under one account name, they have several others to fall back on, and they're constantly adding new "throwaway" accounts to make sure they always have visibility on Amazon.com.

The fact that counterfeiters use fake ingredients to manufacture counterfeit products also means they have a much higher profit margin than the original manufacturers. This allows counterfeiters to often attain low-price leadership positions on Amazon.com, where resellers are recommended based on price sorting (low to high). Customers actually think they're getting a bargain, even when they're buying counterfeit nutritional products that Amazon.com has actually placed in the No. 1 position on these comparative lists.

Amazon.com star rating system can assign five stars to a counterfeit product

The Amazon.com star rating system can also grossly mislead consumers into thinking a counterfeit product has received a high user rating. This happens because Amazon assigns a star rating to ALL the products that it believes are identical, regardless of which seller is offering them. Thus, if Amazon.com can be tricked by a counterfeit seller into categorizing a counterfeit product as being identical to the original, genuine product, the counterfeit product will enjoy the high-star rating that users have actually assigned to the original product.

In this way, the counterfeit product in essence "hijacks" the high star rating advertised by Amazon.com.

One original product manufacturer told Natural News, "Amazon is allowing and supporting these acts of deception."

Amazon does, after all, earn money on each and every sale regardless of whether the product is genuine or counterfeit. The fact that most nutritional supplements do not generate near-instant noticeable effects (like pharmaceuticals do) further plays into the ability of counterfeit manufacturers to exploit the Amazon.com e-commerce infrastructure for dishonest gains that can go unnoticed by customers for months or years.

Bottom line: Until Amazon.com clamps down on counterfeit products, do not buy nutritional products through Amazon

Until Amazon.com finds a way to effectively police this problem of counterfeit products, I am advising all Natural News readers to avoid purchasing nutritional products through Amazon.com sellers. The risk of obtaining a counterfeit product -- which may actually be dangerous to your health -- is simply too high. Instead, purchase nutritional products directly from companies and names you trust.

Natural News hopes that Amazon.com takes this issue seriously and initiates the necessary steps to radically tighten up the use of its e-commerce platform by third-party sellers. Until Amazon can say it is more aggressively and comprehensively policing the authenticity of the products it displays and describes as authentic, it will experience a rapid erosion of customer trust.

On a personal note, my hope is to see Amazon take the steps necessary to resolve this issue once and for all. Amazon.com is a wonderful place to shop, and I like the company. It is staffed by some very smart people who seem deeply committed to providing customers a superior shopping and product fulfillment experience.

The fact that counterfeit products are slipping through the cracks at Amazon.com is potentially an enormous threat to the company's credibility, legal exposure, regulatory compliance and stock price. If a customer is harmed by a counterfeit product purchased on Amazon.com, Amazon may find itself legally liable for at least part of the damages due to "misrepresentation" and even "fraud" that it has negligently allowed to be carried out on its own website.

---

All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml

9/11 Truth and JFK Truth: “Rethinking 9/11″ with Richard Gage, David Long and Michael Ruppert

Global Research News Hour Episode 45

By Michael Welch, Richard Gage, David Long, and Michael C. Ruppert

Global Research, December 01, 2013

Region: Canada, USA

Theme: 9/11 & 'War on Terrorism', GLOBAL RESEARCH NEWS HOUR

LISTEN TO THE SHOW

Length (59:10)
Click to download the audio (MP3 format)
Since the beginning of September, select cities across North America have been subjected to a carefully led advertizing campaign by the Rethink 9/11 movement promoting the idea that a new investigation of 9/11 is warranted.
Through the use of billboards, posters on buses and taxi top ads, the RETHINK 911 campaign has exposed millions of Americans and Canadians to the call through a simple question: “Did you know a 3rd tower fell on 9/11?”
Outside of alternative media, and the internet, it has been difficult to communicate the anomalies and flaws in the official story of this incident. This mass messaging campaign is the first of its kind to get around mainstream media and the ghettoizing of 9/11 skepticism as “conspiracy theory.”
The campaign did ruffle a few feathers in Ottawa as a single complaint about this message on an Ottawa Transit bus caused civic authorities to rethink their advertizing policy. The thinking was that the message was somehow an insult to 9/11 victims’ families.
In late November, 9/11 activists, including a technical expert, gave a professional presentation at the Ottawa Transit Commission. The presentation included footage of World Trade Centre 7 coming down at the speed of free fall.
Twelve years after 9/11, and almost a decade after the Keane Commission closed the books on the incident, it has become more acceptable to challenge the official story of 9/11.
These incidents coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy Assassination. As with 9/11, a substantial sector of the American public has serious doubts about that crime, and suspect a cover-up, if not full complicity on the part of the US State. Yet, there seems to be very little hope that a renewed investigation of the JFK assassination will happen anytime soon.
This begs the question, how likely is it that a re-opening of the investigation into 9/11 is a realistic outcome?
Richard Gage, AIA is one of those who are hopeful that a new investigation can be brought about. His experience with building design spans a quarter of a century and includes the design of fireproofed steel-framed buildings such as the trade center towers. Having been alerted to the problems with the official story of 9/11, Gage founded Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. His site, ae911truth.org, boasts a petition with the names of over 2000 architects and engineers from around the world, calling for a new criminal investigation into the 9/11 attacks, citing flaws in the official explanation of the collapses of the World Trade Center towers.
Gage appears in the first half hour to explain his optimism that justice for 9/11 is on the horizon. He shares his time with David Long, himself a 9/11 survivor and one of the 9/11 activists who presented at the Ottawa Transit Commission hearing on November 20.
Michael C. Ruppert on the other hand is intensely skeptical that 9/11 will ever be revisited. Ruppert, a former Los Angeles Police Detective turned investigative journalist turned radio broadcaster comes from a family with an intelligence background. He exposed CIA trafficking of drugs in the 1990s, as well as the role of laundered drug money in inflating the world economy. He was also one of the first people in the world to expose publicly the ‘inside job’ theory of 9/11.
Ruppert believes that relying on physical evidence as the lever by which a new investigation can be invoked is a Sisyphean task, and that it is far too late now to do anything about 9/11.
Ruppert digs into his own research and experience to explain how these sorts of State Crimes against Democracy can be successfully concealed and covered up, and how activists can otherwise be frustrated in their efforts to bring about justice. He also puts forth his thoughts about where activist energies would be better directed given current global realities.
Michael C Ruppert is the author of Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, and is the host of The Lifeboat Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW

Length (59:10)
Click to download the audio (MP3 format)
The Global Research News Hour, hosted by Michael Welch, airs on CKUW 95.9FM in Winnipeg Fridays at 1pm CDT. The programme is also broadcast weekly (Monday, 5-6pm ET) by the Progressive Radio Network in the US, and is available for download on the Global Research website.
Community Radio Stations carrying the Global Research News Hour:
CHLY 101.7fm in Nanaimo, B.C – Thursdays at 1pm PT
Port Perry Radio in Port Perry, Ontario – Thursdays at 1pm ET

The Debt Matrix: Consumption and Modern-Day Slavery

By Timothy Alexander Guzman

Global Research, December 01, 2013

Silent Crow News and Global Research

“Home life ceases to be free and beautiful as soon as it is founded on borrowing and debt” Henrik Ibsen

 According to Oxford Dictionary the term Slave is defined as “a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them” as in the case of the United States during the 18^th and 19^th centuries where slavery was a legalized institution.  Oxford dictionary also defines slavery as “a person who works very hard without proper remuneration or appreciation” as in today’s world of a person working for a company or corporation where their efforts are usually under appreciated.  It also describes a slave as “a person who is excessively dependent upon or controlled by something” or “a device, or part of one, directly controlled by another”.  Debt can be an instrument used to control an individual or a nation for that matter.  In this case, an individual is dependent upon “Credit” to buy products. 
Then the credit becomes a debt that has to be repaid.  It becomes a “control mechanism” as the creditor becomes the “Slave Owner” and the debtor becomes the “Slave”.  What is the point?   In today’s world of unlimited credit, consumers become modern-day slaves to their creditors.  What is the difference between slavery in 18^th century America with imported African slaves and the America of 2013?  There is no difference besides the physical abuse of the African slaves by their owners.  In America, consumers suffer psychological abuse by its creditors.  As long as an individual remains in debt bondage, that person will have to repay that debt until the day that person literally dies in most cases.
Black Friday is the day that starts the most important holiday for big name retailers and Wall Street speculators and that is Christmas.  It is the shopping season that investors, economists and corporations pay close attention to as they measure consumer confidence and the profits they reap from consumer spending.  Major retailers and corporations such as Wal-Mart expect to make profits.  Wall Street expects consumers to spend on Black Friday through the Christmas holidays following the Federal Reserve’s continued policies of Quantitative Easing (QE).  Economists across the spectrum predict that the new Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen will continue to buy US bonds indefinitely continuing Ben Bernanke’s current policies.
All the while consumers continue to accumulate debt.  Black Friday was marked with chaos followed by violence as mobs of consumers’ raided shopping centers and malls for discounts and sales on numerous products including flat screen televisions, toys, clothing and other goods they most likely don’t need.  Regardless of the economic situation, consumers will continue to buy.  Granted, Christmas is about giving your loved ones gifts in a traditional sense.  It is also about spending time with the family.  It is supposed to be a joyous holiday for families, but the American population is mired in debt ranging from credit cards, mortgages, student loans and auto loans.  Earlier this month Bloomberg reported that U.S. households increased their debt levels by continuing to borrow at unprecedented levels:

Consumer indebtedness rose $127 billion to $11.28 trillion, the biggest increase since the first quarter of 2008, according to a quarterly report on household debt and credit released today by the Fed district bank. Mortgage balances climbed $56 billion, student loans increased $33 billion, auto loans were up $31 billion and credit-card debt rose by $4 billion.
“We observed an increase of household balances across essentially all types of debt,” Donghoon Lee, senior research economist at the New York Fed, said in a statement. “With non-housing debt consistently increasing and the factors pushing down mortgage balances waning, it appears that households have crossed a turning point in the deleveraging cycle.”

Consumerism has taking hold in America.  The population continues to stampede at malls and in some cases injuring and even killing individuals.  In 2008, a Wal-Mart worker was trampled to death in Long Island, New York by a stampede of hungry consumers looking for bargains.  There were also several people injured during the incident.  This Black Friday proved to be more of the same as shoppers filled shopping malls.  Some malls experienced violent crowds pushing and fighting with each other over items that were on sale.  It is absolutely mind boggling to see average people become violent over products sold at major retail stores.  Morality is in decline in America.
Regardless of debt the American public faces, it seems that shopping is the only thing that matters.  As debt increases it becomes harder for them to repay.  Can the American people ever awaken from their dystopian nightmare of mass consumption of products they don’t need?  They are accumulating large amounts of debt thanks to the Federal Reserve Bank’s printing of unlimited cheap money with incredibly zero to low interest rates.  Although, many do buy their basic necessities such as food and clothing, buying the latest products that includes video games and other computer gadgets are turning consumers into life-long debt slaves that will continue to pay their credit card companies with “interest” until the debt is paid.  That can take a long period of time since interest rates are tied to credit cards and other revolving loan payments.  According to the Federal Reserve Bank (who continues endless money printing) and other government institutions, the average US household owes between $7,000 and $15,112 on credit cards.  The average mortgage debt is at $146,215 and student loans’ reaching the $1 trillion mark is at $31,240.  The total amount of debt the United States owes to its creditors namely China is at $17 Trillion and steadily increasing as the Federal Reserve Bank continues to buy its own US bonds.
Debt Slavery is the new modern-day slavery as millions continue to buy products on credit becoming perpetual servants of mega corporations and international banks.  How?  As you buy with credit cards or loans, the “interest rates” attached to the purchases made is the bond that ties you and the corporate interests or bankers for eternity.  The debt people get into is difficult to escape as interest rates accumulate over time it becomes extremely difficult to repay since it keeps adding up.  In the 2009 film called ‘The International’ with Clive Owen and Naomi Watts which was actually inspired by the BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International) scandal in real life had an interesting scene involving an Italian politician named Umberto Calvini, who is a weapons manufacturer who explains to Eleanor Whitman (Watts) and Louis Salinger (Owens) that IBBC was interested in buying a missile guiding system that his factory produces then later assassinated.  He explained that the true value was not conflicts but the debt it produces:

Calvini: “No, this is not about making profit from weapon sales.  It’s about control.”
Eleanor: “Control the flow of weapons, control the conflict?”

Calvini: “No. No No. The IBBC is a bank. Their objective isn’t to control the conflict, it’s to control the debt that the conflict produces. You see, the real value of a conflict – the true value – is in the debt that it creates. You control the debt, you control everything.  You find this upsetting, yes?  But this is the very essence of the banking industry, to make us all, whether we be nations or individuals, slaves to debt.”

It was an interesting scene coming out of Hollywood, which by every standard is a propaganda machine.  Debt is serious business especially for banks and corporations.
With all of the problems the American public faces with the prospect of a future war on Iran will impact the world’s economy.  With 100 million people out of work in the United States and a reduction in food stamps and inflation hitting food prices, there is much concern.  Celebrities’ personal lives still dominate headlines in the main stream media.  The ‘War on Terror’ has taken away civil liberties and the ‘War on Drugs’ has increased the prison population.  High-crime rates in major cities remain problematic. With the rollout of 7000 drones in 2015, endless wars, a looming dollar collapse, and endless Pharmaceutical commercials that keep people heavily drugged are serious problems for the American public.  Yet, shopping on Black Friday resulting in violence and chaos among uneasy crowds seems to be the norm.
The media and corporate advertisements have turned the American population into a “Slave” state of mind. Many people in the United States are accumulating debt at levels never seen in its 237 years of its existence.  It is a lesson to the world in what NOT to do.  An economy that is consumer based with credit is a disaster in the making because that debt only becomes unmanageable in the long run, especially when the people have no means to repay its debt obligations.  An economy based on consumerism leads to moral decay.
When people become ingrained in consumption disregarding the debt they inherit, they become immune to the realities around them.  When the situation becomes intense with a coming dollar collapse and a possible war in the Middle East, reality will sink in.  Then when the necessities such as food and shelter become scarce the people will begin to panic and lose control over their own lives.  Who knows what people in America will be capable of, but then again as you saw what happened on Black Friday, it is a reminder of how people react when products they don’t really need are on sale.  Imagine how they will react in times of economic despair.

millions of you's so~called christ~ain'ts  in this country !  ya know every "holiday" "wedding" "birth" "funeral" pretend like yer "pray~in" 2 someone ...you know when yer dick or tit IS in the ringer & ya NEED help  ..ya call & "ask" Him fer it ,beg fer it ..just this once help me get out~ta this ,that  ?    & when you see yer fellows out in the REAL   WAR !    .....where r ALL you's fakes ,phony  ..short arms at ?  let me ask you 's some~thin ..How long do ya think a Loving  God ...Our Creator  ...put up wit a bunch of pansies ass pussy's .......who look out,take care of ,think only of ...themselves  ...just food fer thought       & i don't give a flying fuck what relig or no relig        u r or aren't .....we so far gone that we wont help ...anyone for anything ...out  ...storm coming folks     & let it come

Church Group Kicked Out Of Public Park For Handing Out Thanksgiving Dinners To Homeless

by Mikael Thalen
November 29th, 2013
Updated 11/29/2013

A church group in Lake Worth, FL was kicked out of a public park Thursday afternoon after a park ranger spotted them feeding homeless residents.

Church Group Kicked Out Of Park For Feeding Homeless

Members from the Acts 2 Worship Center, who headed to Palm Beach County’s John Prince Park to feed the homeless, intended to teach their children a valuable lesson about the true meaning of Thanksgiving.
“We brought our kids out here so they could see what it’s really like for people that are struggling,” Acts 2 member Brian Oakes told CBS 12.
The park’s growing homeless population, many who have been hit hard by the weakening economy, were more than thankful for the warm meal.
“We’re grateful you know. They hand out, we meet the guys and stuff. They give us a prayer and everything,” homeless resident Kevin Rudd said.
Unfortunately, a Palm Beach County park ranger “just following orders” soon approached the group and demanded they leave for violating an alleged city ordinance.
“It’s very disappointing. We didn’t intend for this today,” said Brian. “ We just wanted to give the food and be able to bless people.”
Despite being told to leave, the church group sided with humanity, defying the orders as they finished handing out the rest of their meals.
After being confronted by CBS 12 reporter Israel Balderas, the park ranger declined to comment, admitting he was given “strict orders” not to discuss the matter with anyone.
“I can’t talk to you. my bosses don’t want me to talk,” the park ranger said.
According to the park ranger, who had to radio supervisors to learn the ordinance he was enforcing, feeding the homeless was not permitted by a “large group.”
Sadly, the situation in Florida is an eye-opening representation of the country’s current state, where hordes of shoppers violently fighting over fake deals are praised, and those actually engaging in thanksgiving are defied.

Read more: http://www.storyleak.com/church-group-kicked-public-park-handing-thanksgiving-dinners-homeless/#ixzz2mEGC8ugc

Random House Wants to Censor Homepage of Kim Dotcom’s Mega

• Ernesto
• December 1, 2013
• DMCA,
  Mega

Random House, the largest trade book publisher in the world, doesn’t appear to be a fan of Kim Dotcom’s cloud hosting service Mega. In one of its recent takedown requests the company asked Google to remove Mega’s homepage from its search results, marking it as infringing. Luckily for Kim Dotcom, Google disagreed with the publisher and refused to comply with the request.
A short while ago we reported that Google has already received takedown requests for more than 200 million URLs this year.
While most of the submitted URLs do indeed link to infringing content, not all takedown notices Google receives are correct.
Some copyright holders target legitimate content by mistake, sometimes even their own work. Others abuse the system to censor competitors or stifle critics.
A recent takedown notice that Random House sent to Google is most likely an example of the former.
As the largest trade book publisher in the world, Random House sends out thousands of takedown requests every week, and one of the most recent notices includes the URL of Kim Dotcom’s cloud hosting service, mega.co.nz. While Mega probably hosts several Random House books, these are definitely not listed on the homepage.
According to the publisher, however, mega.co.nz infringes the copyrights of Stephen King’s novel Carrie.

Random House targeting Mega

Luckily for Dotcom, Google caught the error and refused to remove the Mega homepage so it remains available in its search results today. However, these kind of mistakes are certainly not an isolated incident, nor are they limited to Google.
For example, before Kim Dotcom’s Megaupload was shutdown early 2012 the site received many erroneous takedown notices.
“During the Megaupload days over 20% of all takedown notices were bogus,” Dotcom told us previously.
“We analysed big samples of notices and most were automated keyword based takedowns that affected a lot of legitimate files. The abuse of the takedown system is so severe that no service provider can rely on takedown notices for a fair repeat infringer policy.”
Random House’s recent mistake shows once again how much can go wrong with automated DMCA notices. Google doesn’t have a repeat infringer policy but the errors can cause trouble in the long run since Google down-ranks sites based on the number of DMCA notices it receives for them.
Perhaps it’s also an idea do de-prioritize DMCA requests from copyright holders who continues to make easily avoidable mistakes?