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TEXAS: Christian pastor saves parishioners from armed Muslim man who entered the church intending to “kill infidels”

<img alt="Aziz-in-handcuffs-640x478" class="attachment-large wp-post-image" height="478" src="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Aziz-in-handcuffs-640x478.jpg" width="640" />
<p style="float: right; margin: 0 0 10px 15px; width:240px; height: auto;"><img src="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Aziz-in-handcuffs-640x478.jpg" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;" width="240" /></p>
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<p>By BI: Corinth Missionary Baptist Church pastor, Rev. John D. Johnson III, was confronted Sunday morning by an armed Muslim man who told him Allah had authorized him to kill people, <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.tylerpaper.com/TP-News+Local/224124/pastor-calms-man-during-church-threat#.VfltBI5kSOE.twitter" target="_blank">according to</a></span> the <em>Tyler Morning Telegraph</em>. Johnson used his training from earlier in his life to defuse the situation and get his parishioners to safety.</p>
<p><a href="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Aziz-in-handcuffs-640x478.jpg"><img alt="Aziz-in-handcuffs-640x478" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-85471" height="478" src="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Aziz-in-handcuffs-640x478.jpg" width="640" /></a></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/09/16/texas-christian-pastor-averts-tragedy-armed-islamic-man/">Breitbart</a></span>  Rasheed Abdul Aziz (photo above), a resident of Jacksonville, Texas, approached the church on Sunday wearing camouflaged pants, a helmet, combat boots, a black T-shirt, and a tactical vest. A canteen hung from the 782 gear. The church is located on the edge of the town of Bullard, Texas, on the east side of Lake Palestine.</p>
<p>Aziz asked a church deacon who greeted him outside the church if he could see the pastor for prayer. The deacon took him in to meet Johnson who immediately sensed something amiss. “Every hair on my neck just stood up,” Johnson told the <em>Morning Telegraph</em> on Monday. “It was almost like you could just like feel the presence of just negative energy.”</p>
<p>Before becoming a pastor, Johnson served as a parole officer and had received training on verbal de-escalation and dealing with mentally ill offenders. He currently works full-time student services intervention specialist, dealing with troubled youth at Tyler Independent School District.</p>
<p>He calmly asked Aziz to calm down and have a seat. At that point he noticed the pistol carried by Aziz. He saw the outline of the gun in his pocket.</p>
<p><a href="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Aziz-Pistol-and-Ammo.jpg"><img alt="Aziz-Pistol-and-Ammo" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-85472" height="480" src="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Aziz-Pistol-and-Ammo.jpg" width="640" /></a></p>
<p>He told Johnson God authorized him to take lives. He said it was okay for him to kill any Christian or Jew who conflicted with what Islam said. Johnson said Aziz used the term “infidels.”</p>
<p>After calming Aziz a bit, he told the potential jihadist he needed to check on the children for a moment. He then stepped into the hallway and signaled his wife and another member to get everyone out of the church.</p>
<p>He said Aziz came out and watched the church members leaving and then flashed a “peace sign.” Aziz jumped in his car and quickly fled the scene.</p>
<div id="attachment_85473" style="width: 650px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Aziz-Tactical-Gear.jpg"><img alt="Combat helmet and tactical vest worn by Aziz to church in Texas. " class="size-full wp-image-85473" height="480" src="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Aziz-Tactical-Gear.jpg" width="640" /></a>
<p class="wp-caption-text"><strong>Combat helmet and tactical vest worn by Aziz to church in Texas</strong></p>
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<p>Aziz apparently came back to the church later in the day, this time leaving a note thanking the church and pastor for their kindness. The note was found on Monday.</p>
<p>The note read (<a href="http://www.kltv.com/story/30025910/suspects-letter-found-at-cherokee-county-church-after-alleged-threats" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">reported b</span>y</a> KLTV):</p>
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<p>My Name is Rasheed [phone number] you helped me at a time oF need This house is blessed by God & all Faiths muslim, Jew & the Christian shall all gather here in Peace & Justice for God as a whole For the betterment of mand kind as a whole I thank you. my title is special Ranger harbinger Aziz I be aronnd to Kneel & Pray with you.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A background check by law enforcement revealed Aziz to be a felon, previously convicted for marijuana possession and aggravated robbery. The deputies arrested him for being a felon in possession of a firearm.</p>
<p><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='640' height='390' src='http://www.youtube.com/embed/-JjnH1ED_K0?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='true'></iframe></span></p>
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anonymous armageddon isis islam war TEXAS: Christian pastor saves parishioners from armed Muslim man who entered the church intending to “kill infidels”

By BI: Corinth Missionary Baptist Church pastor, Rev. John D. Johnson III, was confronted Sunday morning by an armed Muslim man who told ...

Archbishop of Canterbury: UK plan to take 20,000 Syrians discriminates against Christian refugees

<img alt="Another Christian leader gets it! Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby: US and UK Syrian refugee policy discriminates against Christian Syrians!" class="attachment-large wp-post-image" height="299" src="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/welby.jpg" width="224" />
<p style="float: right; margin: 0 0 10px 15px; width:240px; height: auto;"><img src="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/welby.jpg" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;" width="240" /></p>
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<p>Source Ann Corcoran web blog <a href="https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2015/09/13/archbishop-of-canterbury-uk-plan-to-take-20000-syrians-discriminates-against-christian-refugees/">Refugee Resettlement Watch</a></p>
<div id="attachment_85467" style="width: 234px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/welby.jpg"><img alt="Another Christian leader gets it! Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby: US and UK Syrian refugee policy discriminates against Christian Syrians!" class="size-full wp-image-85467" height="299" src="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/welby.jpg" width="224" /></a>
<p class="wp-caption-text">Another Christian leader gets it! Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby: US and UK Syrian refugee policy discriminates against Christian Syrians!</p>
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<p>And, that is because, as we have told readers before, the United Nations refugee camps are housing Muslim Syrians and NOT Christians. The US and now, according to UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Great Britain, are only taking the UN-chosen refugees from UN camps!</p>
<p>WElby<br />
Another Christian leader gets it! Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby: US and UK Syrian refugee policy discriminates against Christian Syrians!<br />
Why aren’t the Christians in the camps? Because the Muslims “attack and target” the Christians in the camps run by the UNHCR.</p>
<p>If, during Sunday worship today, you hear from your pastor or priest about Syrian refugees (remember the Leftwing campaign we told you about yesterday), you must ask what the plan is for truly persecuted Christians and let your fellow congregants know that the US State Department has almost exclusively brought in Sunni Muslims so far!</p>
<p>From The Telegraph (emphasis is mine):</p>
<p><strong>The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned David Cameron that his Government’s refugee policy is discriminating against Christians facing oppression in Syria.<br /></strong><br />
The Most Rev Justin Welby is understood to have met the prime minister last week amid growing concerns that Christians in Syria will be largely excluded from the 20,000 refugees due to come to the UK over the next five years.</p>
<p>Archbishop Welby raised the issue with Mr Cameron at a private meeting last week, according to a well placed source, over concerns that Christians in Syria will not be given the opportunity to come to the UK.</p>
<p><strong>The Government, in line with European Union policy, is committed to taking in refugees from UN camps in Syria and neighbouring countries. It cannot discriminate in favour of any one religious group.</strong></p>
<p><strong>But the Archbishop has raised concerns that Christians have avoided refugee camps because of fears of persecution from rogue Islamist groups operating inside refugee camps.</strong></p>
<p>In a speech in the House of Lords last Monday, Archbishop Welby said that “within the camps there is significant intimidation and radicalisation, and many particularly of the Christian population who have been forced to flee are unable to be in the camps.”</p>
[….]
<p><strong>“Christians are not to be found in the UN camps, because they have been attacked and targeted by Islamists and driven from them. They are seeking refuge in private homes, church buildings and with neighbours and family.”</strong></p>
<p><strong>A coalition of faith groups from 14 organisations has issued a statement accusing the US and UK governments of ignoring the plight of Christians and other ethnic minority groups by effectively failing to discriminate positively in their favour.</strong></p>
[….]
<p><strong>The coalition of groups said; “Many governments, including the US and UK, have proved unwilling to make provision for endangered religious minorities to be evacuated, despite private individuals, charities and churches offering to cover the costs of the resettlement.</strong></p>
<p>“Government plans, including those of the UK, to accept refugees from UN camps in Syria will not address the problem, because Christians, and other minorities do not dare to live in those camps.”</p>
<p>There is more to <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/11860902/Archbishop-warns-Cameron-over-Syrian-refugees.html">read here</a></p>
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anonymous armageddon isis islam war Archbishop of Canterbury: UK plan to take 20,000 Syrians discriminates against Christian refugees

Source Ann Corcoran web blog Refugee Resettlement Watch Another Christian leader gets it! Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby: US and...

The Ferguson Commission Won't Bring Social Change – Black Lives Matter Will

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<h2>The Ferguson Commission Won't Bring Social Change – Black Lives Matter Will</h2>
<span>The Ferguson Commission Won't Bring Social Change – Black Lives Matter Will</span>
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<div>This article originally appeared on <span><a href="http://www.guardiannews.com/" rel="nofollow">The Guardian</a></span></div>
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<p>It’s going to get a lot harder to pretend that the suffering in Ferguson, Michael Brown’s death and the explosive reaction after his shooting weren’t all about race now that the Ferguson Commission has bluntly written: “make no mistake: this is about race.”</p>
<p>The commission, which on Monday released its nearly 200 page report <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2413166/fergusoncommissionreport-091415.pdf" rel="nofollow">Forward Through Ferguson: A Path Towards Racial Equity</a>, can’t easily be written off. It was organized by Governor Jay Nixon, who was widely criticized for his handling of Ferguson in the summer and fall of 2014. It includes high profile voices from the Black Lives Matter movement, such as Brittany Packnett, as well as clergy, academics and even Sergeant Kevin Ahlbrand, president of the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police.</p>
<p>The commission’s assessments about structural racism in and around St. Louis are direct and to the point. The commission acknowledged its own limitations, writing: “we do not know for certain if these calls to action are the answer. We can’t.” They wrote that, historically, commissions after riots have focused on “economic revitalization to the exclusion of social issues, such as racial tension, segregation and discrimination”; this whitewashed over racism in an expedient, cowardly way.</p>
<p>Citing political scientist Lindsey Lupo, the Ferguson Commission scolds previous commissions for "arguing that our society has moved beyond race, thus the problems must be purely economic. But race remains at the root of the violence, as evidenced by its very inception with every riot studied here being the result of white law enforcement harming a black civilian.”</p>
<p>It doesn’t get more blunt than that: no “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter.” No pretending cops’ lives have been more in danger this past year when, in fact, police deaths are unusually low.</p>
<p>The report drives home that St. Louis has “not moved beyond race,” that “racial inequity in our region is not the same as individual racism,” that “in the St. Louis region, life expectancy differs by nearly 40 years depending on zip code.” (White folks in the whitest suburbs live to an average age of about 91, while the black folks in the blackest suburbs closer to the city center live to about 56.)</p>
<p>This is a document of a government-convened commission acknowledging that no one need “act racist” in order for racism to do its thing. As President Obama put it earlier this year, racism is “not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public.”</p>
<p>This is a report which says: “institutions or existing systems” need not “intend to be racist” in order to lead us into, as Ruth Gilmore Wilson puts it, the land of “state-sanctioned or extralegal production and exploitation of group-differentiated vulnerability to premature death.”</p>
<p>The reason why black folks die younger in Ferguson is not just because of cops like Darren Wilson, but because of a systematic, interlocking network of economic violence and environmental poisoning; quite effectively, this network makes sure that those with darker skin spend less time on this earth.</p>
<p>We Americans like to focus on American individualism, and the mythology that everyone begins life with a blank slate with which they can make of themselves what they choose. It’s a lie, but calling out the lie is hard. In plain language, this report calls out the lie. “St. Louis is the fifth most racially segregated of 50 large metro areas in the United States,” the report says, but it isn’t unusual – especially in how it says that the “law says all citizens are equal,” while “the data says not everyone is treated that way.”</p>
<p>It is rare for any text coming from any even quasi-governmental body to say this aloud. But will it lead to any actual change?</p>
<p>The report’s weakest aspects are that, despite its clear-eyed nature, it still promotes “positive change” with catchy, optimistic phrases and a happy hashtag (<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23stlfwdthru" rel="nofollow">#STLFwdThru</a>). Like its predecessors, it might just be used as a pressure valve to contain further eruptions of chaos, which might more radically foment social change.</p>
<p>But culture precedes policy, not the other way around, as I’ve been discussing a lot lately with writer Jeff Chang and artist Favianna Rodriguez. A commission is much more likely to ride out the tail of a social change wave, not lead it.</p>
<p>And perhaps, if we’re lucky, that is what we are seeing here: clearer language about racism because the commission itself has been shaped by a cultural shift. Black Lives Matter wasn’t started by a government commission. It’s not a working group of the Democratic Party. Black Lives Matter is having a cultural moment, infecting art and music and, yes, even infiltrating the stodgy fields of presidential politics and gubernatorial commissions.</p>
<p>The Ferguson Commission should not be put on a pedestal with an unrealistic expectation that it alone will instigate change. But, if read as evidence of social change that is already taking place, then what it is saying is indeed the marker of something big occurring.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/15/the-ferguson-commission-wont-bring-social-change-black-lives-matter-will" rel="nofollow">Originally published by The Guardian</a></p>
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<p>It just got a lot harder to pretend the suffering in Ferguson, Michael Brown’s death and the explosive reaction after his shooting weren’t all about race now.</p>
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<p>In addition to calling for a bank probe into a scheme that wiped out $1.5 billion from three national banks, protesters are demanding the resignation of the president as anger over corruption in the impoverished country hits a boiling point.</p>
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<p>Defense contractors have historically played an outsized role shaping the national security debate through think tank funding – as was the case in the large donations Lockheed Martin gave Heritage, which lobbied intensely for its F-22 fighter jets.</p>
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<p>This week, Margaret Flowers thinks it's about fucking time we got some more activists into the halls of the mighty – from occupying the streets to occupying Congress.</p>
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<p>The U.K. government this week is once again inviting tyrants and human rights abusers to buy weapons and torture equipment – and facing a loud coalition of activists.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 13 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>If it wasn’t clear before, it seems quite evident that the tide is turning: big biotech companies are losing influence by the day, and the addition of two more European countries banning GMOs is evidence of that.</p>
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<div><span><em>5 days 13 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Jeremy Corbyn’s fairer rent price policy, which puts controls on the cost of rent to prevent small businesses being priced out of the soaring market, is one of many incentives for entrepreneurs and small business owners to back him and his party.</p>
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<div><span><em>5 days 13 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<div><span><em>5 days 13 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>If it wasn’t clear before, it seems quite evident that the tide is turning: big biotech companies are losing influence by the day, and the addition of two more European countries banning GMOs is evidence of that.</p>
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<p>Braving cancelled trains, police truncheons and torrential rain, record numbers of refugees continued to struggle through Europe as the continent remained bitterly divided over how to respond to its biggest migration crisis since the second world war.</p>
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<p>The U.K. government this week is once again inviting tyrants and human rights abusers to buy weapons and torture equipment – and facing a loud coalition of activists.</p>
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<p>Set to deliver record-breaking global temperatures in 2015 and 2016, the world’s climate has reached a major turning point according to a new report from the U.K. Met Office.</p>
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armageddon news revolution The Ferguson Commission Won't Bring Social Change – Black Lives Matter Will

Read › The Ferguson Commission Won't Bring Social Change – Black Lives Matter Will The Ferguson Commission Won't Bring So...

Tent City Overtakes Moldovan Capital As 20,000 Protest Bank Fraud and Corruption

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<h2>Tent City Overtakes Moldovan Capital As 20,000 Protest Bank Fraud and Corruption</h2>
<span>Tent City Overtakes Moldovan Capital As 20,000 Protest Bank Fraud and Corruption</span>
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<div>This article originally appeared on <span>International Business Times</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/field/image/protestai-moldovoje-55ed21972ba22.jpg?itok=y47MCVUl" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/styles/slide_narrow/public/field/image/protestai-moldovoje-55ed21972ba22.jpg?itok=y47MCVUl" /></a>
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<p>An estimated 20,000 protesters gathered in Moldova’s capital of Chisinau for the eighth consecutive day Sunday to rally for an investigation into a fraud scheme that wiped $1.5 billion from three national banks.</p>
<p>Protesters say the scandal, which amounted to around one-eighth of the country’s gross domestic product, has damaged living standards.</p>
<p>Hundreds of demonstrators have remained camped out in Chisinau’s central plaza since the protests organized by civic group Dignity and Truth began on Sept. 6. Many say they will stay until their demands are met.</p>
<p>In addition to a bank probe, protesters are calling for the resignation of President Nicolae Timofti and early parliamentary elections in March as anger over endemic corruption in the impoverished former Soviet country hits its boiling point.</p>
<p>The alleged scam came to light in November as the National Bank of Moldova took three banks – the Savings Bank, Social Bank and Unibank – under special administration to cover the massive losses.</p>
<p>A May audit by financial investigation firm Kroll reported that a chain of complex transactions by a network of companies and individuals tied to Ilan Shor, a 28-year-old businessman, contributed to the financial hemorrhage. Shor said he was not involved in any wrongdoing.</p>
<p>The bank fraud scheme has led prices to rise in Moldova, one of the poorest countries in Europe where families make an average of around $300 a month. Residents have seen electricity rates jump by some 35 percent, reported Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.</p>
<p>The most recent wave of protests brought around 35,000 protesters to Chisinau last week, marking an even larger turnout than the 2009 demonstrations that led to the fall of the Communist government.</p>
<p>Members of Dignity and Truth met with Prime Minister Valeriu Strelet Sept. 10 to discuss their demands. Strelet said he was willing to negotiate the electricity rate hikes and an investigation into the bank fraud scheme, but dismissed their request for a dissolution of the government, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/moldova-protests-stretch-eighth-day-bring-20000-streets-over-massive-bank-fraud-2094415" rel="nofollow">Originally published by International Business Times</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/6100196f-7be8-4208-a5ab-e3cc1e8aa38b_mw1024_s_n.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="Chisinau protests, Dignity and Truth, Moldavan corruption" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/6100196f-7be8-4208-a5ab-e3cc1e8aa38b_mw1024_s_n.jpg" title="Chisinau protests, Dignity and Truth, Moldavan corruption" /></a></p>
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<p>It just got a lot harder to pretend the suffering in Ferguson, Michael Brown’s death and the explosive reaction after his shooting weren’t all about race now.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p>In addition to calling for a bank probe into a scheme that wiped out $1.5 billion from three national banks, protesters are demanding the resignation of the president as anger over corruption in the impoverished country hits a boiling point.</p>
</div>
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<p>Defense contractors have historically played an outsized role shaping the national security debate through think tank funding – as was the case in the large donations Lockheed Martin gave Heritage, which lobbied intensely for its F-22 fighter jets.</p>
</div>
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<p>This week, Margaret Flowers thinks it's about fucking time we got some more activists into the halls of the mighty – from occupying the streets to occupying Congress.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<p>The U.K. government this week is once again inviting tyrants and human rights abusers to buy weapons and torture equipment – and facing a loud coalition of activists.</p>
</div>
<div><span><em>6 days 13 hours</em> ago</span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p>If it wasn’t clear before, it seems quite evident that the tide is turning: big biotech companies are losing influence by the day, and the addition of two more European countries banning GMOs is evidence of that.</p>
</div>
<div><span><em>6 days 10 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>The UC system has sold off its endowment and pension fund holdings in coal and oil sands companies, a $200-million move that officials said Wednesday was in response to both environmental concerns and rising financial risk in those industries.</p>
</div>
<div><span><em>5 days 12 hours</em> ago</span></div>
</div>
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<p>Jeremy Corbyn’s fairer rent price policy, which puts controls on the cost of rent to prevent small businesses being priced out of the soaring market, is one of many incentives for entrepreneurs and small business owners to back him and his party.</p>
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<div><span><em>5 days 12 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Seeking to boost the minimum wage, bolster environmental protections and strengthen tenants' rights, it may be the first time that the anti-fossil fuel and workers’ rights movements have allied behind a concrete political platform.</p>
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<div><span><em>5 days 12 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>This week, grab your bicycle and give cars a well-deserved middle finger in a worldwide initiative to cut emissions, get outside, move your ass and interact with your city and people.</p>
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<p>Creative policies and innovative financing are helping cities overcome barriers to climate action – with huge returns on low-carbon investments already evident from Johannesburg to Copenhagen to Singapore.</p>
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<p>Unions are spreading like wildfire through the tech capital's low-wage workforce.</p>
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<p>Known as HB 40, the rule pushed by oil and gas companies declares the state of Texas can preempt any health or safety regulations written by local governments if the industry doesn't deem them “commercially reasonable.”</p>
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armageddon news revolution Tent City Overtakes Moldovan Capital As 20,000 Protest Bank Fraud and Corruption

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Leaked Emails Reveal Close Ties Between Heritage Foundation and Lockheed Martin

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<h2>Leaked Emails Reveal Close Ties Between Heritage Foundation and Lockheed Martin</h2>
<span>Leaked Emails Reveal Close Ties Between Heritage Foundation and Lockheed Martin</span>
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<div>This article originally appeared on <span>The Intercept</span></div>
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<p>When the Pentagon decided in 2009 to cut funding for Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor fighter jet — a weapons system with cost overruns in the billions of dollars that has rarely seen combat — the Heritage Foundation fought tooth and nail to restore taxpayer money for the planes.</p>
<p>Heritage depicted its support for the F-22 as a matter of vital national security. But what the public didn’t know is that Lockheed Martin, a corporate donor to the conservative think tank, met with Heritage officials on nearly a monthly basis to discuss the F-22 and other defense industry priorities.</p>
<p>Internal emails leaked online show at least 15 meetings in 2008 and 2009 between officials at Heritage and Lockheed Martin, including one with Bill Inglee, who at the time served as a senior lobbyist at Lockheed Martin.</p>
<p>The emails also suggest that Heritage continued courting Lockheed Martin for donations, listing the company repeatedly in Excel spreadsheets used to collect pledges from past donors. Lockheed Martin gave $40,000 to Heritage in 2008, bringing its total contribution to $341,000, according to those documents.</p>
<p>Heritage provides limited information about its donors to the public. But many were revealed in a cache of Heritage fundraising emails and attachments from 2008 and 2009 that somehow ended up getting posted online early last month. The documents detail how the group raises cash and builds relationships with its extensive donor network. Heritage carefully cultivated wealthy donors and corporate benefactors, maintaining extensive call sheets recording contributor demands and interests.</p>
<p>The F-22, which is optimized for air-to-air combat, had long been criticized for its hefty price tag and for lacking combat use. The plane was projected to take nine years and $12 billion to develop — at a cost of $149 million per plane. But as the Los Angeles Times reported, it actually took 19 years to produce at a cost of $26.3 billion — with an average cost per plane of $412 million. The jet has also faced numerous safety problems, including two fatal crashes and a faulty oxygen supply system.</p>
<p>In 2009, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates and then-Air Force Secretary Michael Donley forcefully requested that Congress end production of the F-22, capping the program at 187 planes, a shift designed to save the military $13 billion. Military officials called for F-22 money to be diverted to weapons that could be deployed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.</p>
<p>The Pentagon request touched off a fierce, though ultimately fruitless, lobbying battle. Lockheed Martin directed its registered lobbyists to fight back against the cuts in Congress and took out full-page advertisements in D.C. publications. And the Heritage Foundation produced a flurry of reports and media outreach efforts to encourage Congress to overturn the Pentagon’s decision.</p>
<p>Emails show that the Heritage Foundation’s fundraising staff worked closely with Mackenzie Eaglen, a researcher at the think tank who authored several reports calling for restoring F-22 funding. According to Heritage’s internal weekly calendar, Eaglen was scheduled to participate in “a Lockheed Martin think tank delegation to visit their fifth-generation fighter production facilities in Fort Worth, TX” in April 2009.</p>
<p>“I had a very interesting 20 minute conversation this morning with Mackenzie Eaglen about the F-22 and defense spending in general. She gave me the sad update of defense spending on the hill, which provided good context for me to understand our activities during Protect America month,” wrote Jeffrey Trimbath, the assistant director of major gift planning at Heritage.</p>
<p>Trimbath’s notes show that Eaglen said that Heritage had attempted to “convince the Congress to fund an Allied Variant of the F-22 so that the production lines stay open while retaining a critical aerospace industrial base,” but that the combined opposition of Secretary Gates and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., made the request difficult.</p>
<p>James Jay Carafano, the vice president of Heritage’s Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, met several times with Lockheed Martin executives, even traveling to Marietta, Georgia, where the F-22 is produced, to participate in a “Lockheed Martin Tour of F-22 Programs.”</p>
<p>Some of the meeting documents list their topics, including one titled “Lockheed Martin Briefing on the Saudi Eastern Fleet Modernization Program.” But the documents do not go into detail about what was discussed at the meetings.</p>
<p>“We have no comment,” said Katherine Trinidad, Lockheed Martin’s director of worldwide media relations, when asked about the company’s relationship with Heritage. Officials at the Heritage Foundation did not respond to a request for comment. Eaglen, who now serves as a fellow with the American Enterprise Institute covering defense policy, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>Heritage furiously opposed any effort to end production of the F-22. “The ability of America’s Air Force to dominate the skies is under attack from a different kind of enemy: a long-standing and widening fighter aircraft gap, which President Obama’s fiscal year (FY) 2010 defense budget fails to remedy,” claimed one Heritage report that called for restoring funding to the F-22. Another report from Heritage that year asked Congress to purchase 20 additional F-22 planes and to modify the planes for sale to Japan, Australia and “possibly South Korea.”</p>
<p>“Obama Just Made Us More Vulnerable…Again,” <a href="http://dailysignal.com/2009/07/22/morning-bell-obama-just-made-us-more-vulnerable-again/" rel="nofollow">blared a headline</a> from Heritage’s blog, citing the end of F-22 production — one of several posts that year arguing that the Pentagon decision would threaten national security.</p>
<p>William Hartung, director of the Arms & Security Project at the Center for International Policy, said the documents provide “damning evidence of how hawkish think tanks do the bidding of powerful weapons contractors while posturing as objective national security analysts.”</p>
<p>Trimbath’s fundraising notes mention Heritage’s Protect America Month, an initiative calling for increased defense spending. Fundraising documents show that Northrop Grumman, another major defense contractor, had pledged money to support the initiative.</p>
<p>The fundraising documents list other programs at Heritage that got direct corporate support. IBM and Bayer both pledged money for Heritage’s Index of Freedom, an effort to rank the relative “freedom” of countries based solely on economic policy factors. Protection Life Corp, an Alabama-based insurance company, pledged $10,000 for Heritage’s Health Care Initiative.</p>
<p>Press accounts suggest Google Inc.’s donations to Heritage began in 2010, but the fundraising documents show that the search engine company contributed money in 2009 as well. Heritage would eventually warn regulators not to press the Mountain View, California-based company on alleged antitrust violations.</p>
<p>Corporations frequently donate to think tanks that share their policy agenda. Corinthian Colleges, a chronically underperforming for-profit college that relied on $1.4 billion in yearly loans backed by the federal government, funded Beltway think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute that helped oppose regulations on the company and other failing proprietary colleges. Alpha Natural Resources, a coal mining company, financed think tanks and political operatives working to counter the belief in man-made global warming. Donations from both companies were made public this year only after the firms declared bankruptcy.</p>
<p>Defense contractors are no different, and have historically played an outsized role in shaping the national security debate through think tank funding. Lockheed Martin in particular funds an array of other policy institutes and think tanks. The nexus of defense contracting money and think tanks is poorly understand, however, largely because detailed think tank financial disclosures are voluntary.</p>
<p>“Heritage and other think tanks that press for higher Pentagon budgets should come clean and give the full details of their contributions from weapons contractors,” said Hartung. “Otherwise their positions on what weapons to buy and what defense postures to adopt should be taken with a large grain of salt.”</p>
<p><a href="https://theintercept.com/2015/09/15/heritage-foundation/" rel="nofollow">Originally published by The Intercept</a></p>
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<p>It just got a lot harder to pretend the suffering in Ferguson, Michael Brown’s death and the explosive reaction after his shooting weren’t all about race now.</p>
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<p>In addition to calling for a bank probe into a scheme that wiped out $1.5 billion from three national banks, protesters are demanding the resignation of the president as anger over corruption in the impoverished country hits a boiling point.</p>
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<p>Defense contractors have historically played an outsized role shaping the national security debate through think tank funding – as was the case in the large donations Lockheed Martin gave Heritage, which lobbied intensely for its F-22 fighter jets.</p>
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<p>This week, Margaret Flowers thinks it's about fucking time we got some more activists into the halls of the mighty – from occupying the streets to occupying Congress.</p>
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<p>The U.K. government this week is once again inviting tyrants and human rights abusers to buy weapons and torture equipment – and facing a loud coalition of activists.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 13 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>If it wasn’t clear before, it seems quite evident that the tide is turning: big biotech companies are losing influence by the day, and the addition of two more European countries banning GMOs is evidence of that.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 10 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>The UC system has sold off its endowment and pension fund holdings in coal and oil sands companies, a $200-million move that officials said Wednesday was in response to both environmental concerns and rising financial risk in those industries.</p>
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<div><span><em>5 days 12 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Jeremy Corbyn’s fairer rent price policy, which puts controls on the cost of rent to prevent small businesses being priced out of the soaring market, is one of many incentives for entrepreneurs and small business owners to back him and his party.</p>
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<div><span><em>5 days 12 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Seeking to boost the minimum wage, bolster environmental protections and strengthen tenants' rights, it may be the first time that the anti-fossil fuel and workers’ rights movements have allied behind a concrete political platform.</p>
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<div><span><em>5 days 12 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>If it wasn’t clear before, it seems quite evident that the tide is turning: big biotech companies are losing influence by the day, and the addition of two more European countries banning GMOs is evidence of that.</p>
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<p>An indigenous community called the Ka'apor in northern Brazil is fighting to achieve what the government has long failed to do: halt illegal logging in their corner of the Amazon.</p>
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<p>This is not merely a crisis of Greece, or a crisis of debt — it's a crisis in the structure of the eurozone itself, where national governments can't implement monetary policy to support their fiscal policies.</p>
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<p>This week, grab your bicycle and give cars a well-deserved middle finger in a worldwide initiative to cut emissions, get outside, move your ass and interact with your city and people.</p>
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armageddon news revolution Leaked Emails Reveal Close Ties Between Heritage Foundation and Lockheed Martin

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California State Assembly Passes Digital Privacy Bill Limiting Government Surveillance

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<h2>California State Assembly Passes Digital Privacy Bill Limiting Government Surveillance</h2>
<span>California State Assembly Passes Digital Privacy Bill Limiting Government Surveillance</span> <a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/field/image/2013-06-10_prism.png?itok=Wb4YeJ8N" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/styles/slide_narrow/public/field/image/2013-06-10_prism.png?itok=Wb4YeJ8N" /></a>
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<p>While the U.S. federal government says all public digital communications can be obtained by agencies like the FBI, the California State Assembly believes otherwise. In a move late last week aimed at giving citizens more privacy over their electronic communications, lawmakers passed a digital privacy bill that will prevent government access without a proper warrant from a judge.</p>
<p>The legislation "would prohibit a government entity from compelling the production of or access to electronic communication information or electronic device information, as defined, without a search warrant, wiretap order, order for electronic reader records, or subpoena issued pursuant under specified conditions, except for emergency situations, as defined," according to the <a href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB178" rel="nofollow">version of the bill</a> passed by the assembly.</p>
<p>The California Electronic Privacy Act (CalECPA) SB 178 is co-sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, California Newspaper Publishers Association and tech companies such as Apple, Facebook, Google (Alphabet) and Twitter.</p>
<p>The bill now heads to the California State Senate for concurrence before making its way to Governor Jerry Brown's desk to become law. However, uncertainty still remains over whether the governor will ultimately approve the bill. Brown's office told Occupy.com that due to its responsibility passing a number of bills in the first 10 days of September, it could take a little time before the digital privacy legislation becomes law.</p>
<p>Brown is no stranger to vetoing digital privacy bills. Three previous bills introduced between 2011 and 2013 were scuttled by the governor. Since those vetoes, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Riley v. California that law enforcement <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/13-132_8l9c.pdf" rel="nofollow">must obtain a warrant</a> before accessing data on a person's mobile phone after an arrest. But the co-author of SB 178, Assemblyman Mark Leno, believes privacy should be paramount for California and its residents.</p>
<p>Leno told Occupy.com that "current laws are behind the times and do not represent the advances that have been made in technology. This is the right step for California, our residents and the privacy they deserve on a daily basis."</p>
<p>Leno said what's crucial is to ensure that "the personal information of Californians is adequately protected and law enforcement have the tools to fight crime in the digital age." He added that he hopes the bill will create "the right balance to protect privacy, spur innovation and safeguard public safety."</p>
<p>Digital security has become a hot topic in California, like most places in recent years since revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the massive surveillance program conducted by the National Security Agency against American citizens. Despite the information that was released to the public, Leno and others in the state say more work remains to be done to safeguard residents from government eavesdropping in the future.</p>
<p>SB 178 will permit government agencies to obtain electronic information in emergency situations "involving danger of death or serious physical injury to a person." But in order to gain electronic information on individuals in the case of standard investigations, agencies will be required to file an application for a warrant with a court or obtain a motion seeking approval for such actions. If the application is not approved, the court can order the information obtained to be destroyed.</p>
<p>“Senator Leno and I bridge the gap between progressives and conservatives to put Californians first and reinforce our constitutional protections,” State Senator Joel Anderson, co-author of SB 178, said in a statement. “Our bipartisan bill protects Californians’ basic civil liberties as the Fourth Amendment and the California Constitution intended.”</p>
<p>The bill comes as tech companies have reported an increase in the number of government requests for information, leading to Silicon Valley's overwhelming support for the legislation with a number of companies calling on the governor to sign it into law.</p>
<p>Google has seen a 180 percent jump in law enforcement demands for consumer data in the past five years. Last year, AT&T received 64,000 demands – a 70 percent increase in a single year. Verizon reports that only one-third of its requests had a warrant, and last year Twitter and Tumblr received more demands from California than any other state.</p>
<p>"California has led the nation in technological innovation for decades," said Lee Tien, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Now it’s time for our laws to catch up. Californians deserve warrant protection for their digital records."</p>
<p>Support for the legislation is strong across the state, with 82 percent of voters saying government should be required to present a warrant prior to gaining access to citizens' emails or other Internet activity. Similarly, close to 79 percent support a warrant requirement for tracking cell phones, and 77 percent support warrants for accessing text messaging records.</p>
<p>“The California Newspaper Publishers Association urges support of SB 178, which safeguards a newspaper's ability to gather and report news by protecting journalists and their sources from unwarranted surveillance,” said Nikki Moore, staff attorney with CNPA.</p>
<p>If the bill is signed by the governor, California will join Maine, Texas, Virginia and Utah introducing stricter electronic communication privacy laws.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/11826794843_acf78cb0e5_b.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="digital privacy, surveillance programs, California Electronic Privacy Act, digital security, civil liberty protections" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/11826794843_acf78cb0e5_b.jpg" title="digital privacy, surveillance programs, California Electronic Privacy Act, digital security, civil liberty protections" /></a></p>
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<p>It just got a lot harder to pretend the suffering in Ferguson, Michael Brown’s death and the explosive reaction after his shooting weren’t all about race now.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p>In addition to calling for a bank probe into a scheme that wiped out $1.5 billion from three national banks, protesters are demanding the resignation of the president as anger over corruption in the impoverished country hits a boiling point.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p>Defense contractors have historically played an outsized role shaping the national security debate through think tank funding – as was the case in the large donations Lockheed Martin gave Heritage, which lobbied intensely for its F-22 fighter jets.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p>This week, Margaret Flowers thinks it's about fucking time we got some more activists into the halls of the mighty – from occupying the streets to occupying Congress.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<p>The U.K. government this week is once again inviting tyrants and human rights abusers to buy weapons and torture equipment – and facing a loud coalition of activists.</p>
</div>
<div><span><em>6 days 13 hours</em> ago</span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p>If it wasn’t clear before, it seems quite evident that the tide is turning: big biotech companies are losing influence by the day, and the addition of two more European countries banning GMOs is evidence of that.</p>
</div>
<div><span><em>6 days 10 hours</em> ago</span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p>The UC system has sold off its endowment and pension fund holdings in coal and oil sands companies, a $200-million move that officials said Wednesday was in response to both environmental concerns and rising financial risk in those industries.</p>
</div>
<div><span><em>5 days 12 hours</em> ago</span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p>Jeremy Corbyn’s fairer rent price policy, which puts controls on the cost of rent to prevent small businesses being priced out of the soaring market, is one of many incentives for entrepreneurs and small business owners to back him and his party.</p>
</div>
<div><span><em>5 days 12 hours</em> ago</span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p>Seeking to boost the minimum wage, bolster environmental protections and strengthen tenants' rights, it may be the first time that the anti-fossil fuel and workers’ rights movements have allied behind a concrete political platform.</p>
</div>
<div><span><em>5 days 12 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Braving cancelled trains, police truncheons and torrential rain, record numbers of refugees continued to struggle through Europe as the continent remained bitterly divided over how to respond to its biggest migration crisis since the second world war.</p>
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<p>The UC system has sold off its endowment and pension fund holdings in coal and oil sands companies, a $200-million move that officials said Wednesday was in response to both environmental concerns and rising financial risk in those industries.</p>
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<p>Unions are spreading like wildfire through the tech capital's low-wage workforce.</p>
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<p>The financial transaction tax would limit the large-scale trades that economists say are now occurring far too quickly and creating the volatility that's again on display with the recent market plunge.</p>
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armageddon news revolution California State Assembly Passes Digital Privacy Bill Limiting Government Surveillance

Read › California State Assembly Passes Digital Privacy Bill Limiting Government Surveillance California State Assembly Passes Di...