American Cops’ Killing Spree in 2015: By the Numbers. Categorized by the FBI as “Justified Homicides”

By Richard Becker

Global Research, January 14, 2016

Liberation News 12 January 2016

Region: USA

Theme: Police State & Civil Rights

In 2015, police in the United States continued to kill at a rate far higher than every other country in the world for which statistics are currently available. That year, U.S. cops killed at least 1,200 people, more than three per day on average, according to the research of the website www.killedbypolice.net.
The exact number is not known. There is no federal agency that keeps track. The FBI compiles annual statistics for “justified homicides” by police—but participation in the program by the approximately 18,000 police agencies in the country is completely voluntary, and only about 800 actually provide reports. Most departments, including the notoriously racist and murderous New York Police Department, do not participate at all.
The FBI reported 444 killings by police in 2014, the latest report available. The FBI’s amazingly broad definition of “justifiable homicide” by police is: “The killing of a felon by a law enforcement officer in the line of duty.” The FBI classified every one of the 444 killings as “justified.”
“The Counted,” a project of the U.K.-based Guardian newspaper, documented the deaths of 1,136 people killed by U.S. police in 2015. Its extensively researched database confirmed the racist and class dimensions of police violence.
African Americans were killed at a rate of 7.15 per million (301 deaths); Latinos – 3.48 per million (193 deaths); Native Americans – 3.4 per million (13 deaths); whites – 2.92 per million (578 deaths); and Asian/Pacific Islanders – 1.34 per million (24 deaths). No corporate criminals are in the list.
No ‘war on police’ in 2015
And while the FBI makes no effort to create a comprehensive database of annual police killings, the agency has very exact numbers of police officers “killed in the line of duty.” This data comes from the “Officer Down Memorial Project,” which receives funding from the federal Department of Justice.
The “Officer Down” project includes in its 2015 report six Air Force Special Agents killed in Afghanistan, and even lists all police dogs that die or are killed “in the line of duty.”
Contrary to the demagogic campaign rhetoric from a number of current candidates for U.S. president, there is no evidence whatsoever of a “war on police.” In fact, the number of police killed in 2015 declined significantly from the previous year. Police officers who died inside the United States or its territories (colonies) dropped from 133 in 2014 to 123 in 2015, the majority in both years due to illness or accidents.
Police officers killed by hostile actions—gunfire or assault—declined from 64 to 49. Given that there are more than 1.5 million police in the country, those numbers reveal that the claim of a “war on cops” is truly bogus.
U.S. cops kill at 100 times or more the rate of other countries
U.S. political leaders frequently promote the chauvinistic idea of “American exceptionalism,” the notion that the United States is the “one indispensable country,” superior to all others. It is dangerous propaganda employed to justify wars and interventions around the world.
But in the area of state violence, the United States is indeed “exceptional,” particularly as compared to other developed capitalist states.
In Britain, also a capitalist country with a long history of racism, police reportedly fired guns three times in all of 2013, with zero reported fatalities. Police do not generally carry guns on patrol. From 2010 through 2014, there were five fatal police shootings in Britain, which has a population of about 52 million. By contrast, Albuquerque, N.M., with a population 1 percent of Britain’s, had 26 fatal police shootings in that same time period!
In 2015, German police, who do carry guns, reportedly killed two people. Germany, another racist, imperialist country with large numbers of oppressed minorities, has a population about one quarter that of the United States.
While police killings in Canada, another multi-national state, have sharply increased in the past two years, U.S. cops were five times as likely to kill as their Canadian counterparts. Japan had no reported police killings in recent years.
Contrary to the myths propagated by politicians, mass media and schoolbooks, extreme racist, anti-worker and anti-poor violence has been a central feature of U.S. history since the country’s founding. U.S. capitalism was constructed on a foundation of genocidal extermination of Native people and the unpaid labor and murder of millions of enslaved Africans. The U.S. ruling class created whole agencies of armed thugs to shoot down and repress striking workers.
State violence has been an essential element of a system based on ruthless exploitation inside and outside the U.S. borders. It will only be eliminated when the system itself is.

The original source of this article is Liberation News

Copyright © Richard Becker, Liberation News, 2016

The Mysterious Suicide Forest of Japan

 

The Mysterious Suicide Forest of Japan

• http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2014/05/the-mysterious-suicide-forest-of-japan/
•  May 9, 2014
•  Brent Swancer

 

There are some places on this Earth that just seem to be cursed. For whatever reason, these insidious locations are infused with an almost palpable evil that pervades the landscape and creeps into the mind. Among these forsaken habitats of menace, we can find some that hide amongst some of the world’s most gorgeous landscapes; places of coiled evil waiting to pounce whilst shrouded in natural beauty.
At the foot of Japan’s iconic Mt. Fuji, lying sprawled amongst some of the most majestic scenery in Japan, is one such place. At the base of this picturesque mountain lies the haunted destination of broken souls known as Aokigahara, often referred to as the “Sea of Trees” and more infamously as the demon infested “Suicide Forest.”

Aokigahara Forest

Aokigahara Forest lies at the northwest base of Mt. Fuji, which looms overhead with its majestic peak.  It is a starkly beautiful landscape renowned for its breathtaking scenery and vistas. The forest itself is approximately 35 square km (14 square miles) in area and from a distance seems like an idyllic, pristine wilderness area. However, looks can be deceiving.
The moment one steps into Aokigahara, it quickly becomes apparent that something is slightly off about the place. The first thing one may notice is the disconcerting silence here. The density of of the closely packed trees blocks the sun and wind, producing a dark, eerie blanket of quiet, which is further compounded by the curious lack of wildlife in the area.  The sounds of birds and other wildlife that one might expect to hear chirping and chattering in abundance are oddly absent or subdued, as if they have shunned this place or are hiding from something. Some have described the quality of sounds here as somewhat muted, as if being heard through a thick veil or from another room.

One may also notice that compasses do not work properly here. The needle may jerk and jump about spasmodically, or conversely do slow, languid circuits around and around. It is said that this is caused by magnetic anomalies induced by the rich deposits of magnetic iron in the area’s volcanic soil, yet the disorienting effect of the forest goes beyond merely rendering compasses useless. Many hikers that venture into Aokigahara, even experienced ones, claim that it is oddly easy to get lost or confused in this dark and silent place. It is not uncommon to hear stories of hikers inexplicably traveling around in circles, or of being unable to navigate even short distances successfully. This bizarre effect has led to many visitors planting markers or plastic tape in order not to lose their way.
One may also become aware of the bizarre and creepy litter strewn about the forest floor. Pairs of shoes, both for children and adults, lined up upon moss covered, gnarled logs. A packet of entirely mundane photographs, song lyrics scrawled upon the envelope, lying forgotten and untouched amongst the underbrush. A child’s doll lying wide eyed atop the twisted roots of a tree, its vacant eyes staring up as if trying to peer through the crooked branches above that blot out the sky. One can find a plethora of such odd trinkets and abandoned items interspersed among the trees. These items seem jarring and out of place here on the forest floor of this otherwise pristine wilderness, and only serve to add to a growing sense of foreboding.

Regardless of such eery occurrences, many tourists still visit the area to see the magnificent scenery and the numerous rocky caverns scattered throughout the forest. Many of these caverns are dangerous to the unwary, and warning signs are a common sight interspersed amongst the thick trees, yet large numbers of visitors still brave the trek to see them every year.
Above and beyond the unsettling elements of the forest, there is an even darker side to Aokigahara. In addition to those brought here for the scenic beauty, caverns, and hiking, there are also the droves of poor, lost souls who come here every year to die.
Often referred to rather morbidly as “The perfect place to die,” Aokigahara is said to be the most popular place to go to commit suicide in Japan and the second in the world after The Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco. Since at least the 1950s, the forest has attracted ever growing numbers of people who come to the solitude here for their final breaths, with 2003 seeing a record number of 108 suicides. These are only the bodies that are found by monthly patrols and annual “body hunts,” in which police and volunteers scour the forest for victims.

It is said that this number is likely even higher due to the remoteness of some of the areas within the forest, the numerous caves, crevasses, and caverns, and the forest’s ability to quickly and thoroughly decompose remains. Some of the bodies of these victims are stumbled across by visitors to the area, who while hiking through the otherwise beautiful wilderness may happen across the horrific sight of a corpse hung from a tree or a skeleton with its legs poking out of the dense foliage on the forest floor. It is difficult for police and volunteers to locate all of the dead hidden away within this dark wood, or to accurately estimate how many have died. The only thing that seems to be known for sure is that every year the number of those who come to Aokigahara to die seems to be increasing.
Those looking to end their lives here have become so common that locals say they can easily spot the three types of visitors to the forest: hikers interested in seeing the stunning vistas of Mount Fuji, curious thrill seekers hoping for a glimpse of the macabre, and those who don’t plan on returning. In an effort to end the alarming trend of people coming to Aokigahara to end their lives, certain measures have been implemented such as putting up signs throughout the area urging those who have given up hope to reconsider their actions and turn back, as well as installing security cameras and sending out police patrols. Even with such measures, it is thought that at least a hundred people a year likely meet their doom here.

According to some, these lonely souls who are contemplating suicide are mysteriously and inexorably drawn to Aokigahara by supernatural forces within the forest that beckon them to come. Some survivors of suicide attempts in Aokigahara have told of having had the vague feeling of being somehow called to or pulled towards the forest, and of having the inexplicable compulsion to make the journey there.
Aokigahara is certainly not without its paranormal happenings. Even before records were kept on suicides within Aokigahara forest, the area had long been steeped in spooky lore and mythology. The dim forest was long thought to be the haunt of demons and ghosts who prowled the landscape and terrified travelers. It is also believed that it was once a popular place for the gruesome practice of ubasute, a custom in which a sick or elderly relative was allegedly abandoned in a desolate location such as a remote mountain or forest and left to die. In the case of Aokigahara, it was said that the victims of ubasate here became vengeful ghosts relentlessly prowling the twisted trees.

Many believe that the suicides committed in the forest have permeated the very trees in Aokigahara, generating paranormal activity, driving away wildlife, and preventing many who enter from ever escaping the forest’s grasp. These people say that the forlorn souls of those who committed suicide in Aokigahara are doomed to eternally inhabit its depths, trapped within the gnarled trees and forever beckoning others to join them.
The reasons for wanting to end one’s life are as varied as the people who come to Aokigahara to do so, yet one thing they all have in common is that something has brought them all from their far flung lives to this particular spot to do it. What quality is it that drives them to converge here in this shadowy, quiet wilderness to carry out their morbid business? Is it simply the tranquil beauty of the place, or the privacy afforded by the low probability of encountering anyone else in such a dense and vast forest? Or are they being beckoned by demons, ghosts, vengeful spirits, or some other inscrutable evil force?
Only those despairing, forgotten souls who spent their last moments in this dark quiet in the shadow of Mt. Fuji will ever know for sure.

HAARP: Harmless Research Facility, or the Weapon to End All Wars?

just think of the TECHNOLOGY "tree" here ,folks  what did they learn & move on 2 ???

• http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2014/02/haarp-harmless-research-facility-or-the-weapon-to-end-all-wars/
•  February 12, 2014
•  Darmon Richter

 

For those who haven’t heard of it, the HAARP facility represents a project in atmospheric research – or more specifically, ionospheric research. The acronym stands for “High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program,” and the project operates out of a sub-arctic facility in Alaska; where it is co-funded by the US Air Force, US Navy, the University of Alaska and the USA’s Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
The “ionosphere” with which HAARP concerns itself, is a layer of the Earth’s upper atmosphere ranging from roughly 85 – 600km in altitude. This portion of the sky includes elements known as the thermosphere, the mesosphere and the exosphere, which all share the common attribute of ionisation as a result of solar radiation. The ionosphere forms the inner edge of the Earth’s magnetosphere, and the highly charged, electric quality of this atmospheric layer means that it has a strong influence over processes such as radio propagation on the Earth’s surface.

The stated aim of the HAARP project is to enhance global communication methods. By analysing the ionosphere, the scientists at HAARP are setting out to develop “ionospheric enhancement technology” which would have major implications for radio communications; finding and strengthening new ways of propagating radio wave signals around the whole planet by making use of this highly ionised atmospheric level.
The University of Alaska have also be quite transparent in sharing their hopes of using ionospheric research in order to develop new and improved technology for global surveillance systems… but before you worry that we’re tumbling headlong into an Orwellian nightmare here, don’t panic – they only plan to use it on the terrorists, they say.
The HAARP project has more than its fair share of critics, however – and more and more voices from both the civilian and academic communities are beginning to reason that communications technology is just the tip of the iceberg, when it comes to HAARP’s potential.

A full battery of future-tech tools are being developed at HAARP’s Alaskan installation – including high-power radio frequency transmitters, ionospheric sounding devices and UHF radars. Increasingly, critics are raising concerns that such an arsenal of ionospheric augmentation devices might have a disturbing potential for weaponisation.
In the same way that HAARP is advertised as a tool for improving radio communications, there are fears that it could be used to disable such networks – targeting specific locations on the planet to bring down electronic communications systems. Meanwhile, Scientific American recently ran a story in which it was reasoned whether HAARP had been responsible for disabling a Russian probe.
Another common concern is that such equipment could be used to manipulate the weather. Needless to say, if one nation on this planet had the power to control storms and tides, it would grant them a huge advantage in any hypothetical global combat scenario. Looking at it on a more short-term and immediate level however, the rumoured side effects of even testing such a technology are positively frightening.

Sister Dr. Rosalie Bertell, a colourful character with notable contributions in the fields of physics, epidemiology and environmental activism, spoke out strongly against the HAARP project. Bertell, who was best known for her work on ionising radiation, warned: “HAARP is a gigantic heater that can cause major disruption in the ionosphere, creating not just holes, but long incisions in the protective layer that keeps deadly radiation from bombarding this planet.”
There seem to be notable critics of the HAARP project in some very well respected positions, which for many raises concern over future research conducted at the facility. Some of HAARP’s most passionate criticisms however, come from those who believe that the damage has already been started. The theories of HAARP’s more extreme critics are broad, with some linking the project to droughts, earthquakes, hurricanes and floods; to plane crashes, space disasters and even Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
One of the more notable theories links HAARP to the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia on 1 February 2003.

Flight STS-107 was a scientific data collection mission, the 113^th flight of the Space Shuttle program, and it would prove to be the final flight of the ill-fated Columbia. After 16 days in orbit, all seven members of the crew would lose their lives when an accident led to the Columbia orbiter disintegrating during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. An official investigation pinned the malfunction down to a damaged wing; a piece of foam that had broken off during launch, to play havoc with the shuttle’s thermal protection system components, which in turn led to localised overheating and systems failure during the all-important re-entry phase.
There are those however, who find the official explanation wholly unsatisfactory. Notably, the website Columbia’s Sacrifice has highlighted their doubts about the official enquiry, offering an alternative theory – that the Columbia was used as a kind of “target practice” for the HAARP project.
Their report describes HAARP as “a device that could possibly destroy the electronics of an aircraft, spacecraft or missile in the upper atmosphere.” While the site remains open to other explanations, it rejects the accuracy of the official story and posits that, “if any other source for such an EMP [electromagnetic pulse] effect exists it is currently unknown to this investigation.”
Adding further weight to the Columbia theory, the site relays information gathered by radio engineer Marshall Smith at The Brother Jonathan Gazette, an independent researcher and supposed expert on the technology employed at the HAARP facility.
Smith was monitoring the HAARP site on the day of the accident, and his log records, “that HAARP was operating in missile defence mode starting about 90 minutes before Columbia’s re-entry and then for about 90 minutes afterward.”

Of course, not all of the HAARP conspiracy theorists even attempt to offer a scientific basis for their ideas. At the more extreme end of the spectrum, there are even those who claim the project to be a tool of the antichrist, or a device intended for use in global mind control as a means towards laying the foundations for a New World Order.
While some of these ideas are more palatable than others, one thing is clear at least; the HAARP project is a tool the like of which this world has never seen before, and perhaps we are yet to understand the full extent of its power.

U.S. Ag. Secretary Vilsack to Hold “Secret Meeting” to Rewrite GMO Labeling Law                        ~ hehe MORE "trans~parency" from "our" 'elected'  ass~facials  , HUH  ... folks THESE

(elites)

fucks gotta gooooooooooooo !!! ,before "them" & their ass sock puppets (ass~facials) TURN this Planet in ta the moon! 
just ask ole adolf   er um err ummm ole billy

oh ah umm & before's u's dumb ass dummycocks (& thats u's regis~terd dems) vote ole ...hellery   IN    umm ...

ya know "it" takes a "village" ...crowd  jeez sus u's goofy fucks ... take it away ole 'the dumbell' er   errrr umm  ahhhh ah um  ,O
fuck me !  R 'they" alllll   fucking nazis ??? folks i've "changed   no     reallly i've changed       no shit really   ?????????????????  really  i'veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee   ...   hey i've NEVER ...inhaled :O   ... hey ! is THAT a pic of EEDY~ Imean on the wall  ???    LOL oh my OMFG ...who does that ???  shit wit all due respect ta the "gay' crowd ...but that's kinda ...gay ya know in an weird sick kinda ..way   ..no ? :0                                              ( OH FUCK ! here cums the 'pro~test~erds' )  oh here's the article ...

By Nick Meyer

Global Research, January 14, 2016

Alt Health Works 11 January 2016

Region: USA

Theme: Biotechnology and GMO

Image: Tom Vilsack, the former Biotechnology Governor of the Year in Iowa and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Photo via ilbioeconomista.com.
As President Barack Obama campaigned in 2008 prior to his election, he dazzled clean food activists by promising to label foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs), in accordance with the overwhelming majority of Americans (over 90% in most polls) who have been calling for it for years.
It wasn’t just what he said, it was how he said it: with a firm, hopeful and determined tone that conveyed the strong sense of frustration felt by millions of supporters, and made them want to believe.
Now, as Obama’s final term winds down, those same clean food advocates have not only been alienated by the administration, they’ve also been left to wrestle with the many pro-Monsanto and pro-Biotech forces that have taken over Washington, D.C.
Among them is Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor and ‘Biotech Governor of the Year’ who was appointed as Secretary of Agriculture, one of a long list of disappointing moves made by Obama not too long after he was elected.
In over 60 countries across the world, GMOs are subject to mandatory labeling, and a huge portion of Europe actually just banned their cultivation in 2015. But American activists have had to fight tooth-and-nail against political and corporate interests at every turn just for the right to a simple label.
And now, with the country’s first GMO labeling law finally set to take effect in Summer 2016 in Vermont, Vilsack and friends are threatening to undo years of hard work through secret meetings and backdoor maneuvering.
Vilsack Vows to “Fix” Democratically Passed GMO Labeling Bill
The humble state of Vermont is rarely ever in the spotlight (unless we’re talking about maple syrup I suppose), but all eyes in the clean food movement are focused on the The Green Mountain State as July 1, 2016 looms. That’s when the state’s democratically passed, mandatory GMO labeling bill is set to take effect.
But now Vilsack, one of the many pro-GMO forces on the inside, is threatening to overturn it by holding an invitation-only meeting with the goal of “fixing” Vermont’s law before it goes into effect.
“I’m going to challenge them to get this thing fixed. I would like to avoid making food more expensive,” Vilsack said to the Des Moines Register from his office overlooking the National Mall. Vilsack added that there is “urgency to reach a compromise” between both pro-GMO corporate interests and organic/non-GMO food advocates. But organizations like the Organic Consumers Association still haven’t been told when this “secret meeting” will be held, and haven’t received their invitation yet, either.
With the pro-Monsanto Vilsack calling the shots and sending out the invitations, it’s safe to say that the rights of Vermont citizens, who worked hard to enact the labeling bill, might not be fairly represented.
Monsanto, Lobby Group Spending Millions To Stop the Inevitable
Time and time again, a familiar script has played itself out in regards to GMO labeling in America: citizens voice their approval of mandatory labeling, polls back them up, and then Monsanto and its small army of lobbying and PR front groups start pulling out the checkbooks.
Aside from their shocking lawsuit against the state of Vermont for “freedom of speech violations” (over a simple label that would say which ingredients are genetically engineered), the groups have spent an exorbitant amount of cash trying to prevent us from exercising our democratic rights.

Image: Neil Young and Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin speak about the state’s first ever GMO labeling bill at a press conference. Photo via Terri Hollenback/Seven Days (Vermont)
Monsanto has spent over $24.2 million (at least) to prevent mandatory GMO labeling at the state level, and the GMA has spent over $13.2 million, including being involved in the biggest money laundering scandal in Washington state history. All while arguing that the labeling bills will be “too costly” for consumers despite independent evidence to the contrary.
The OCA had this to saw about the coming Vermont law, which still must fight off a lawsuit from Monsanto and the largest food lobby in the world, the Grocery Manufacturers Association:

Should the GMO labeling movement, which has fought so long and so hard to require food manufacturers to disclose this basic information about their products, settle for anything less than a mandatory labeling law like Vermont’s?
We don’t think so. Vermont’s GMO labeling law must be allowed to take effect July 1, 2016, as scheduled. Then we can talk about next steps, at the federal level.

With time ticking on the law taking effect, which could change everything and embolden initiatives in other states, Monsanto and their allies in Washington are getting desperate. Recent attempts to pass a bill designed to stop states from passing similar labeling laws has essentially failed, and a last-ditch attempt to include a state labeling ban in a $1.1 trillion, 2,000-plus page omnibus bill also failed.
Now Vilsack is planning to subvert the will of Vermont citizens by stopping their democratically passed labeling bill in its tracks.
“I intend to, after the first of the year, convene a meeting of folks who have been reaching out to me,” said Vilsack. “These are not necessarily Senators or members of Congress, but they are folks who are interested in the labeling issue.”
Just who exactly are these “folks who are interested in the labeling issue,” anyway?
As of right now, nobody knows (except Vilsack, perhaps).
But we do know that the people of Vermont have spoken, and like most Americans they want mandatory labeling, the same right afforded to citizens of the vast majority of modern nations across the world. It should be the minimum, really, in a country where GMOs were foisted upon the American people without their consent or knowledge in the first place. That’s how democracy is supposed to work.
You can send a message to Secretary Vilsack through the OCA website by clicking on this link.

The original source of this article is Alt Health Works

Copyright © Nick Meyer, Alt Health Works, 2016