Category: Uncategorized

The northeastern state of Tripura does not have a history of inter-religious clashes. That’s changing under Modi’s BJP.

[This article was first posted on GR in September 2019.]

The United States and Russia have quite the bumpy relationship. Talk of war between the two powerful countries isn’t anything new, and anyone who is paying attention knows that such a war would be devastating for much of the world.

Two recent research projects show just how bad things would be if the US and Russia unleashed their nuclear arsenals on each other.

A war between the US and Russia would cause a global nuclear winter.

Several months ago, researchers from Rutgers University, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research ran a simulation to see what a nuclear war between the US and Russia would do, and the findings were not pretty: Such a war would plunge the planet into a nuclear winter, with clouds of soot and smoke covering the planet. The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, found that the nuclear detonations would inject about 147 million tons of soot into the atmosphere. That soot would then spread around the stratosphere, blanketing the Earth in darkness:

Current nuclear arsenals used in a war between the United States and Russia could inject 150 Tg of soot from fires ignited by nuclear explosions into the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. We simulate the climate response using the Community Earth System Model‐Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model version 4 (WACCM4), run at 2° horizontal resolution with 66 layers from the surface to 140 km, with full stratospheric chemistry and with aerosols from the Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmospheres allowing for particle growth.

We compare the results to an older simulation conducted in 2007 with the Goddard Institute for Space Studies ModelE run at 4° × 5° horizontal resolution with 23 levels up to 80 km and constant specified aerosol properties and ozone. These are the only two comprehensive climate model simulations of this scenario. Despite having different features and capabilities, both models produce similar results. Nuclear winter, with below freezing temperatures over much of the Northern Hemisphere during summer, occurs because of a reduction of surface solar radiation due to smoke lofted into the stratosphere. WACCM4’s more sophisticated aerosol representation removes smoke more quickly, but the magnitude of the climate response is not reduced. In fact, the higher‐resolution WACCM4 simulates larger temperature and precipitation reductions than ModelE in the first few years following a 150‐Tg soot injection. A strengthening of the northern polar vortex occurs during winter in both simulations in the first year, contributing to above normal, but still below freezing, temperatures in the Arctic and northern Eurasia.

Read full article from Wiley Online Library here.

Not only would explosions, fires, and radiation exposure kill millions in targeted cities, but the resulting nuclear winter – which could last many years- would drastically alter the Earth’s climate. The growing season would be slashed by nearly 90 percent in some areas, and death by famine would threaten nearly all of the Earth’s 7.7 billion people.

According to the model, the soot would not visibly clear for around seven years. Temperatures would drop by an average of 9 degrees Celsius (16 degrees Fahrenheit) across the globe, the researchers wrote, and it would take around three years for surface light to return to 40 percent of its pre-attack level.

Read More – Shocking Video Simulation Shows the Devastation Nuclear War Would Cause

Why are so many freedom loving, privacy aware people using a military contractor’s satellite service, and turning a blind eye to the surveillance grid he is co-creating with the U.S. military and intelligence?

On Monday, former Texas Congressman Dr. Ron Paul told his audience on Twitter/X that due to an “internet outage in our area” he would not broadcast his daily live broadcast, The Ron Paul Liberty Report.

Elon Musk, the executive chairman and chief technology officer of Twitter, responded to Paul, stating, “You should get Starlink”. Finally, Paul asked, “That sounds like a great idea! How much does it cost?”

Starlink is what is known as a satellite internet constellation which is operated by Starlink Services, an international telecommunications company that is wholly owned by Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX. Starlink satellites were first launched by SpaceX in 2019, and now reportedly provide internet access to people in more than 100 countries. They have become increasingly popular because of their ease of setup and relatively low cost.

The most recent numbers on Starlink satellites say the satellite constellation consists of more than 7,000 small satellites in low Earth orbit. SpaceX has plans for 12,000 satellites over the coming years. Starlink is said to have more than 4 million worldwide subscribers.

Ron Paul obviously knew what Starlink was, and he might even be aware that Starlink has been a vital part of SpaceX’s success. However, what Ron Paul and most of the general public might not know is that SpaceX has become a key partner of the U.S. military and intelligence apparatus, and is helping them build a massive surveillance grid.

SpaceX, Starshield, and the Military-Industrial-CompleX

In September 2023, Bloomberg reported that SpaceX had received its first contract from the US Space Force to “provide customized satellite communications for the military” under SpaceX’s new “Starshield” program. The move, Bloomberg noted, would “extend” Elon Musk’s role as a “defense contractor”.

Starshield will offer service to the military for one year using SpaceX’s existing Starlink satellites. Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told Bloomberg that the contract “provides for Starshield end-to-end service via the Starlink constellation, user terminals, ancillary equipment, network management and other related services.”

That is to say, the U.S. military and intelligence will be piggybacking off the Starlink satellites which are being sold to the average person as a convenient and fast way to access the internet.

The pursuit of military contracts is not a new feature of SpaceX’s business model. In 2002 it was reported that SpaceX had contracted with an undisclosed U.S. intelligence customer. More recently, Musk’s Starlink contracted with the U.S. Department of Defense for an undisclosed amount to provide Starlink communication to the Ukrainian military.

The official website for Starshield says the program is aimed at providing satellites to customers for processing encrypted communications, as well as capturing data about the Earth. Starshield also offers “satellites buses” for the “most demanding customer payload missions”.

While little else was known about the Starshield program at the time of its announcement, the public has learned more details about the program.

In February 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported on the existence of yet another contract between SpaceX and the U.S. government. The previously unknown 2021 contract was worth a whopping $1.8 billion, and related to the secretive Starshield satellite constellation. The U.S. government agency contracting with SpaceX was unlisted in the documents viewed by the WSJ.

“The size and secrecy of the agreement illustrate a growing interdependence between SpaceX—a dominant force in the space industry—and the national-security establishment,” the WSJ noted.

The WSJ also reported that Gwynne Shotwell, President and COO of SpaceX, acknowledged there was “very good collaboration between the intelligence community and SpaceX”.

In March, Reuters spoke to five sources with inside knowledge of a classified contract between SpaceX and an undisclosed U.S. intelligence agency. According to these sources, SpaceX is building a network of spy satellites with the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) as part of the previously reported $1.8 billion contract.

These same sources told Reuters that if the program is successful it would “significantly advance” the U.S. government and military ability to rapidly find targets “almost anywhere” on the planet.

Read More – ‘You Can’t Hide’: Elon Musk & SpaceX Are Helping US Intelligence Build the World’s Largest Spy Satellite Network

 

Trump’s fabricated claim in The Art of the Deal that his grandfather was Swedish, not German, set the tone for a lifetime of manipulation. It’s clear that deception runs deep in his family history.

Trump grew up in Jamaica Estates, Queens, a heavily Jewish enclave. He attended… https://t.co/LIo6bwg8xi pic.twitter.com/KHxOhAxtGD

— Sir Escanor (Hopium Slayer) (@EscanorReloaded) December 5, 2024

WHY ARE #EPSTEIN SURVIVORS BEING BLOCKED ON X
ELON SAID HE WILL RELEASE THE LIST
– NOT BLOCK VICTIMS pic.twitter.com/zDtsahL5tr

— EPSTEIN SURVIVOR – JULIETTE ROSE BRYANT (@JulietteBryant) December 6, 2024

By John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead

He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake
He knows when you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness’ sake!
—“Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”

You’d better watch out—you’d better not pout—you’d better not cry—‘cos I’m telling you why: this Christmas, it’s the Surveillance State that’s making a list and checking it twice, and it won’t matter whether you’ve been bad or good.

You’ll be on this list whether you like it or not.

Mass surveillance is the Deep State’s version of a “gift” that keeps on giving…back to the Deep State.

Sir Keir Starmer has told @BBCBreakfast it is not his ‘plan’ to have any more tax rises before the next general election – but said he could not rule them out in the event of ‘unforeseen’ circumstances.

The PM was speaking after setting out six ‘milestones’ including a promise… pic.twitter.com/WblWAb8mtQ

— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) December 6, 2024

Federal law enforcement has been manipulating the Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) system to gain access to Americans’ financial information without warrants or probable cause, the House Judiciary Committee said Friday.

The panel and its Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released its interim report, first obtained by Fox News Digital, which details its findings.

FEDS CONDUCTED ‘BROAD’ AND ‘UNJUSTIFIED’ SURVEILLANCE OF AMERICANS’ PRIVATE FINANCIAL DATA: HOUSE JUDICIARY

The committee said in the report that the FBI “has manipulated” the SAR’s filing process to treat financial institutions “as de facto arms of law enforcement, issuing ‘requests’ without legal process, that amount to demands for information related to certain persons or activities it considers ‘suspicious.’”

“With narrow exception, federal law does not permit law enforcement to inquire into financial institutions’ customer information without some form of legal process,” the report states. “The FBI circumvents this process by tipping off financial institutions to ‘suspicious’ individuals and encouraging these institutions to file a SAR — which does not require any legal process — and thereby provide federal law enforcement with access to confidential and highly sensitive information.”

The committee said that, in doing so, the FBI “gets around the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act,” which specifies that it is a bank’s responsibility to file a SAR whenever it identifies a “suspicious transaction relevant to a possible violation of law or regulation.”

The committee acknowledged that “at least one financial institution requested legal process from the FBI for information it was seeking,” but noted that “all too often the FBI appeared to receive no pushback.”

“In sum, by providing financial institutions with lists of people that it views as generally ‘suspicious’ on the front end, the FBI has turned this framework on its head and contravened the Fourth Amendment’s requirements of particularity and probable cause,” the report states.

The committee added that their oversight of “financial surveillance” had shed “new light on the decaying state of Americans’ financial privacy and the federal government’s widespread, warrantless surveillance programs.”

The committee began their investigation into government-led financial surveillance earlier this year, after a whistleblower disclosed that following the events of Jan. 6, 2021, Bank of America “voluntarily and without legal process” provided the FBI with a list of names of all individuals who used a Bank of America credit or debit card in the Washington, D.C., region around that time.

Fox News Digital first reported in March that federal investigators had asked banks to search and filter customer transactions by using terms like “MAGA” and “Trump” as part of an investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, warning that purchases of “religious texts” could indicate “extremism.”

Read More: Feds using banks to surveil Americans’ financial data without warrants, House Judiciary says

Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, fell fatally ill after she stopped taking insulin for type 1 diabetes during Hongchi Xiao’s retreat

An alternative healer who promoted a “slapping therapy” taken up by millions of people across the world has been jailed for the gross negligence manslaughter of a British woman who died at one of his workshops in Wiltshire.

Hongchi Xiao was sentenced to 15 years after a jury found him guilty of the manslaughter of Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, who had type 1 diabetes and fell fatally ill after she stopped taking her insulin and fasted during one of his paida lajin therapy retreats.

The prosecution argued Xiao, who is addressed as “master” by his followers, had a duty of care towards Carr-Gomm and failed to take reasonable steps to encourage her to take insulin and to summon medical help when it was clearly required.

When she became seriously ill at the workshop in a country house in 2016, crying in pain and weakening, Xiao blamed her decline on a “healing crisis

The prosecution said Xiao should have been aware of the danger Carr-Gomm was in because the year before her death, a six-year-old boy with type 1 diabetes died at a workshop he ran in Australia after Xiao told his mother to stop giving him insulin. Xiao was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter over the boy’s death.

During his trial at Winchester crown court, Xiao described how he had learned paida lajin from kung fu masters and hermits in the mountains of China and had spread the forgotten method to millions of people around the world.

Xiao, who was born in China, said he had quit a lucrative career in finance to focus on paida lajin and was not in it to make money. He said the technique, which involves slapping and stretching, was easy to learn, helped tackle every disease known to humans, and reduced the need for patients to take “western” medicine with “poisonous” side-effects.

After Carr-Gomm’s death, Xiao was arrested. He was then taken to Australia, convicted of manslaughter for the 2015 death of the six-year-old boy and jailed. The judge in Australia concluded Xiao had told the boy’s mother to stop injecting him. He was subsequently brought back to the UK to face trial over Carr-Gomm’s death.

Describing Xiao as the “inventor of paida lajin”, the judge, Mr Justice Bright, said he was not convinced that he acted only out of altruism but believed he “actively” enjoyed being the founder of a global movement.

Bright said Xiao still believed in paida lajin and continued to practise and promote it. He said Xiao also continued to believe western medicine was toxic and ideally avoided.

The judge said he was “certain” Xiao would continue to practise in prison and on his release, and may actively or tacitly encourage followers to reduce their medications.

Bright said Xiao’s “undiminished belief” made him certain that “history may repeat itself”, leading to the conclusion that he was dangerous.

Charles Row KC, defending, said Xiao still believed in paida lajin but he recognised weaknesses in how he had practised it.

Read More: ‘Slapping therapy’ healer jailed for gross negligence manslaughter of woman

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s former defence minister, visited the Chabad headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on Sunday, marking his first trip to the U.S. since his dismissal. Not only that, Gallant’s visit comes only two weeks after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Despite this, Gallant’s U.S. trip has continued without any legal consequences. According to reports, Gallant is set to travel to Washington, D.C., next, where he is expected to meet with senior U.S. officials at the State Department and the White House.

Yoav Gallant visits New York City despite ICC arrest warrant

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s former defence minister, visited the Chabad headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on Sunday, marking his first trip to the U.S. since his dismissal.

Not only that, Gallant’s visit comes only… pic.twitter.com/NSBedq6Gnj

— MintPress News (@MintPressNews) December 6, 2024