4570-ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? | View Thread

ABORTION CLINICS EXPERIENCING SURGE IN DEATH THREATS, HARASSMENT UNDER TRUMP, STUDY FINDS

BY MARIE SOLIS ON 5/9/18 AT 12:09 PM

Before Laura Laursen drives to work at a women’s health clinic in southern Illinois, where she provides abortions about once a month when she isn’t performing them as an OBGYN on the University of Chicago’s campus, she first must do some mental preparation. She knows that when she drives up to the clinic, she’ll be met with anywhere between two and two dozen anti-abortion protesters. Some of them will be holding signs with blown-up photos of fetuses, while others may be silently praying, letting it be known that they think Laursen, who’s been an abortion provider for the last two years, will go to hell.

Either way, Laursen knows what to do: She avoids the physicians-only parking spaces and makes sure she pulls into a spot different from the one where she parked last time, just in case.

“I’ve gotten used to it by now,” Laursen, a fellow at the pro-choice organization Physicians for Reproductive Health, told Newsweek on Tuesday. “But if I were any other kind of physician, this kind of violence and harassment wouldn’t be part of my daily job of providing patients with medical care.”

Anti-abortion harassment has become more pronounced under the Trump presidency, according to new findings from the National Abortion Federation. In 2017, abortion providers reported 62 death threats or threats of harm, a number that has nearly doubled since 2016. Instances of trespassing more than tripled in 2017, while incidents of obstruction—protesters blocking providers and patients from entering a clinic—rose from 580 to more than 1,700 in the space of 12 months.

Last year also brought the first attempted bombing of an abortion clinic in years, when local police found an “incendiary device” at an Illinois practice in November. (In March, an Illinois attorneycharged three men who were also suspected of a Minnesota mosque bombing of the attempted clinic bombing.)

“The protesters are feeling emboldened by the political environment and seeing what they could get away with,” Vicki Saporta, the federation’s president, told the Associated Press. “They want to make it more difficult to provide care, without going to very extreme forms of violence.”

Over the past year, Laursen has noticed the escalation in violence. A few months ago, she said she checked her office mailbox to find a letter directly addressed to her calling her a “baby killer”—the first time she’s received direct harassment from anti-abortion activists.

“I was really taken aback,” Laursen said. “There wasn’t anything violent in the letter, but it was very nerve-wracking to realize that people know I’m an abortion provider and can reach me if they want.”

There were 287 more instances of hate mail, like the letter Laursen received, and harassing calls in 2017, according to NAF’s report.

Anti-abortion protesters watched President Donald Trump speak from the White House Rose Garden via video screen at January's annual March for Life.EVA HAMBACH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Laursen and NAF’s president don’t see it as a coincidence that anti-abortion activism is on the rise amid a pro-life presidency.

“We know that hostile rhetoric, including rhetoric from anti-abortion elected officials, can incite some to take the law into their own hands by threatening abortion providers and committing acts of violence,” Saporta said in a statement.

During his 2016 campaign, Trump pledged to appoint pro-life Supreme Court justices who wouldoverturn Roe v. Wade, and raised the specter of third-trimester abortions—which are typically performed only in the case of a medical emergency—to argue that repealing the landmark abortion rights decision was a moral imperative.

“In the ninth month, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby,” Trump said at the time.

Since taking office, Trump has continued to portray abortion as outright murder, most recently when he became the first sitting president to speak at the annual March for Life in January. “Right now, in a number of states, the laws allow a baby to be born [torn] from his or her mother’s womb in the ninth month,” he told the crowd via video screen from the White House Rose Garden. “It is wrong; it has to change.”

Vice President Mike Pence, who has dubbed Trump the most “ pro-life president in American history,” has fueled the anti-abortion rhetoric in his own right. At a luncheon for anti-abortion groups in February, Pence said he believes Americans could see an end to abortion rights “in our time.”

“Anti-choice people and especially anti-choice extremists are feeling more supported by the president and vice president,” Laursen said. “This continued hostile rhetoric from anti-abortion politicians and officials is really emboldening people and taking autonomy away from patients trying to access health care.”

(newsweek)

It’s well-understood at this point that the Trump Administration is no friend to science-based governance. But there’s one federal agency bucking that trend.

The Bureau of Reclamation, a division of the Department of Interior, raised fresh alarm in a press release this week about the dire drought in the Southwest.

“We need action and we need it now,” said Trump appointee Brenda Burman, who runs the bureau, in the release. “We can’t afford to wait for a crisis before we implement drought contingency plans.”

Looking at the data that Burman’s agency supplied, though, it’s clear that the crisis is already here. Runoff from the Rocky Mountains into the Colorado River is expected to be just 42 percent of normal this year, which would continue a 19-year dry spell that ranks as the driest on record for the region. Such clear-eyed focus on the urgency of climate action has been almost unheard of for a Trump-era official.

“Dating back to 2000, this current period is one of the worst drought cycles over the past 1,200 plus years,” the bureau’s statement said.

It’s worth emphasizing that last point: There’s a megadrought happening right now in the United States. Over the past decade, according to the bureau’s latest numbers, the risk of reservoirs falling below critical levels has approximately tripled. And there’s “no indication the current low runoff and drought conditions will end anytime soon,” according to the agency. With this winter’s dry weather, the chances of the first official shortage on the Colorado River in U.S. history have risen to 52 percent in 2020.

The Bureau of Reclamation has responsibility for managing much of the water of the western United States, and, so far, it looks like it’s taking that responsibility seriously — using weather and climate forecasts as a primary guide.

As Grist recently reported, tensions are rising along the Colorado River as water levels plummet. The river supplies 40 million people with drinking water, and also nurtures millions of acres of some of the most productive farmland in the country. With booming populations and climate change already strangling water supply, the outlook is increasingly dire.

The way the laws governing the Colorado River are structured, Arizona is first in line for significant cuts should conservation efforts fall short. The state’s water allotment from the Colorado River would be cut by 20 percent starting in 2020, jeopardizing its economic growth. Understandably, folks there are watching what Burman has to say very closely.

The need for quickly coming to consensus on conservation is “vitally important to Arizonans,” said Thomas Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, in the bureau’s statement.

While Burman didn’t actually utter the words climate change in her comments this week, her insistence on the urgent need to ramp up conservation is in line with the overwhelming scientific consensus of how climate change is expected to worsen droughts in the Southwest in coming decades.

The Israeli government maintains that it attacked dozens of "Iranian military sites" in Syria late Wednesday night in response to the alleged firing of 20 rockets by Iran at Israeli military bases in the Golan Heights. There is, however, no evidence that Iran or anyone else in Syria launched any "rockets" at Israeli targets in the Golan, although that claim served as a useful justification for the Israeli attack on Syrian air defense positions, which did occur.

According to the IDF, "50 Iranian targets" in Syria were hit. Five Syrian SA-22 (Pantsir S1) systems were also struck due to the fact that these systems targeted the Israeli planes, or so the IDF stated. This claim is, however, dubious given that the SA-22 is chiefly designed to target low flying aircraft and, more specifically, cruise and other missiles that fly at extremely low altitude. It was these systems, in conjunction with older Soviet-era Syrian air defense systems - updated in recent years by the Russian military - that shot down about 70% of the cruise missiles fired at Syria last month by the US, UK and French militaries.

Learning from a previous attack that resulted in at least one Israeli jet being shot down, last night's attack involved the use of mostly air-to-surface missiles fired from high altitude, well beyond the range of the SA-22 and other Syrian systems. So it's unlikely that Israeli jets fired on these positions in response to any 'barrage' from Syria. It is much more likely that these targets were pre-defined by Israel, largely via satellite imagery.

An IDF graphic showing the "Iranian" targets allegedly struck by the Israeli attack on Syria.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Israeli forces bombed the Syrian territory for two hours between 1:45am and 3:45am local time on Thursday, using 28 Israeli F-15 and F-16 planes that fired around 60 air-to-surface missiles. Both Iranian military targets and Syrian air defenses were targeted. The IDF released footage from a camera mounted on one of the Israeli missiles as it approached what appears to be a Syrian SA-22 (Pantsir S1) air defense system.

Israeli Air Force@IAFsite
Watch: An IAF attack on a Syrian SA-22 battery after it attempted firing at IAF aircraft
12:05 PM - May 10, 2018
1,499
978 people are talking about this

Notice in the video above that one individual runs towards the SA 22 and appears to enter it while several others stand to the left, suggesting that the system was not 'active' at the time. Compared to last month's 100+ cruise missile attack by the US, UK and France which was clearly signaled days in advance, Thursday night's attack by Israel was a relative surprise and for that reason, likely met with more success than the cruise missile attack. Nevertheless, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, "Syrian air-defense systems shot down more than half of the rockets".

Syrian/Russian air defense missiles rise into the sky to counter Israeli missiles

Regardless of the true successful hit-rate of the Israeli air-to-surface missiles, it seems clear that the attack was an attempt by the Israeli military - sanctioned by and in partnership with the US military - to take out the Russian-supplied/upgraded Syrian air defense systems that rendered Trump's nice, new and smart cruise missiles largely ineffective last month.

Israel's plausible 'moral' justification to attack "Iranian military targets" in Syria is a useful ruse to attempt to achieve the real goal: the defeat of the Syrian army and removal of Assad, which also remains (at least in some 'deeper' departments of the US establishment) the primary goal of US foreign policy in Syria.

It is a testimony to the complexity (not to mention the distastefulness) of the 'great game' of global geopolitical 'chess' being played out across the globe by the 'great powers' that, one day before Israel attacked Russian/Syrian air defenses in Syria, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was President Putin's VIP visitor at the Russian Victory Day parades.

'Is that an Iranian plane?' Israeli PM Netanyahu during his attendance at the Victory Day parade in Moscow

Trump Nixes the 'Iran Deal'

Even before he was president, Trump made it clear that he thought the Iran deal was "bad". Being a businessman and focused on "making America great again", it seems reasonable to conclude that his viewpoint was from a business perspective. The Iran deal eased sanctions on Iran for non US companies and citizens only. As a result, most of the increase in trade in the almost 3 years since the deal was signed has been between Iran and European, Chinese and Russian businesses. European imports and exports with Iran are almost back to pre-sanction levels and there is a lot of investment potential there.

Trump sees the Iran deal as having squandered America's potential influence over Iran, which is why he wants to "renegotiate it". The plan involves reimposing the extremely punitive sanctions - including against anyone doing business with Iran - that were previously in place, as supposed leverage on Iran. The problem is that this plan involves the US sanctioning America's allies, particularly those in Europe, which in turn implies a significant break in the 70-year-long 'special relationship' between Europe and the US, where Europe played a definite second fiddle to America's bullhorn.

But that's not the whole story. Obviously there is significant Israeli influence on Trump, as there has been on US presidents going back a long time, and Israel is very concerned about growing Iranian influence in Syria because it poses a direct threat to Israel's disproportionately powerful position in the Middle East. The same goes for Saudi Arabia. These problems have everything to do with Russian intervention in Syria in October 2015. The Iran deal was signed in July 2015, at a time when the Syrian government was expected to fall, dealing a significant blow to the so-called "Shia crescent" from Lebanon to Iran and therefore Iran's ability to expand its influence. But since the Russian intervention, that situation has been completely turned around, Iran has been empowered in the region, not to mention the powerful role Russia is now playing there.

So what we seem to be looking at here is an alignment of Trump's "show me the money!" foreign policy model and Israel's policy of 'containing' Iran at all costs. The fact that John Bolton - an inveterate war hawk and believer in American exceptionalism and the US' manifest destiny - has just become Trump's national security advisor merely adds fuel to the fire.

But despite the continuing "WW3!" scaremongering from the mainstream media and, I'm sorry to say, much of the 'alternative press', it's unlikely that events will escalate into a major military conflict between nuclear-armed nations. There will likely be more Israeli strikes on Syria as both the US and Israel (and Saudi Arabia) pursue their regime change goals in Syria by other means, butthe new emerging powers in the Middle East need only respond by protecting their vital interests and judiciously allowing that new reality to emerge naturally.

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 5/11/2018 4:02:07 PM
	ABORTION CLINICS EXPERIENCING SURGE IN DEATH THREATS, HARASSMENT UNDER TRUMP, STUDY FINDS BY MARIE SOLIS ON 5/9/18 AT 12:09 PM Before Laura Laursen drives to work at a women’s health clinic in southern Illinois, where she provides abortions about once a month when she isn’t performing them as an OBGYN on the University of Chicago’s campus, she first must do some mental preparation. She knows that when she drives up to the clinic, she’ll be met with anywhere between two and two dozen anti-abortion protesters. Some of them will be holding signs with blown-up photos of fetuses, while others may be silently praying, letting it be known that they think Laursen, who’s been an abortion provider for the last two years, will go to hell. Either way, Laursen knows what to do: She avoids the physicians-only parking spaces and makes sure she pulls into a spot different from the one where she parked last time, just in case. “I’ve gotten used to it by now,” Laursen, a fellow at the pro-choice organization Physicians for Reproductive Health, told Newsweek on Tuesday. “But if I were any other kind of physician, this kind of violence and harassment wouldn’t be part of my daily job of providing patients with medical care.” Anti-abortion harassment has become more pronounced under the Trump presidency, according to new findings from the National Abortion Federation. In 2017, abortion providers reported 62 death threats or threats of harm, a number that has nearly doubled since 2016. Instances of trespassing more than tripled in 2017, while incidents of obstruction—protesters blocking providers and patients from entering a clinic—rose from 580 to more than 1,700 in the space of 12 months. Last year also brought the first attempted bombing of an abortion clinic in years, when local police found an “incendiary device” at an Illinois practice in November. (In March, an Illinois attorneycharged three men who were also suspected of a Minnesota mosque bombing of the attempted clinic bombing.) “The protesters are feeling emboldened by the political environment and seeing what they could get away with,” Vicki Saporta, the federation’s president, told the Associated Press. “They want to make it more difficult to provide care, without going to very extreme forms of violence.” Over the past year, Laursen has noticed the escalation in violence. A few months ago, she said she checked her office mailbox to find a letter directly addressed to her calling her a “baby killer”—the first time she’s received direct harassment from anti-abortion activists. “I was really taken aback,” Laursen said. “There wasn’t anything violent in the letter, but it was very nerve-wracking to realize that people know I’m an abortion provider and can reach me if they want.” There were 287 more instances of hate mail, like the letter Laursen received, and harassing calls in 2017, according to NAF’s report. Anti-abortion protesters watched President Donald Trump speak from the White House Rose Garden via video screen at January's annual March for Life.EVA HAMBACH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES Laursen and NAF’s president don’t see it as a coincidence that anti-abortion activism is on the rise amid a pro-life presidency. “We know that hostile rhetoric, including rhetoric from anti-abortion elected officials, can incite some to take the law into their own hands by threatening abortion providers and committing acts of violence,” Saporta said in a statement. During his 2016 campaign, Trump pledged to appoint pro-life Supreme Court justices who wouldoverturn Roe v. Wade, and raised the specter of third-trimester abortions—which are typically performed only in the case of a medical emergency—to argue that repealing the landmark abortion rights decision was a moral imperative. “In the ninth month, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby,” Trump said at the time. Since taking office, Trump has continued to portray abortion as outright murder, most recently when he became the first sitting president to speak at the annual March for Life in January. “Right now, in a number of states, the laws allow a baby to be born [torn] from his or her mother’s womb in the ninth month,” he told the crowd via video screen from the White House Rose Garden. “It is wrong; it has to change.” Vice President Mike Pence, who has dubbed Trump the most “ pro-life president in American history,” has fueled the anti-abortion rhetoric in his own right. At a luncheon for anti-abortion groups in February, Pence said he believes Americans could see an end to abortion rights “in our time.” “Anti-choice people and especially anti-choice extremists are feeling more supported by the president and vice president,” Laursen said. “This continued hostile rhetoric from anti-abortion politicians and officials is really emboldening people and taking autonomy away from patients trying to access health care.” (newsweek)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 5/11/2018 4:29:10 PM
	Evan Lang/Getty Images WHO SAID THAT? Look! A federal agency is pushing for urgent climate action. By Eric Holthaus on May 10, 2018 It’s well-understood at this point that the Trump Administration is no friend to science-based governance. But there’s one federal agency bucking that trend. The Bureau of Reclamation, a division of the Department of Interior, raised fresh alarm in a press release this week about the dire drought in the Southwest. “We need action and we need it now,” said Trump appointee Brenda Burman, who runs the bureau, in the release. “We can’t afford to wait for a crisis before we implement drought contingency plans.” Looking at the data that Burman’s agency supplied, though, it’s clear that the crisis is already here. Runoff from the Rocky Mountains into the Colorado River is expected to be just 42 percent of normal this year, which would continue a 19-year dry spell that ranks as the driest on record for the region. Such clear-eyed focus on the urgency of climate action has been almost unheard of for a Trump-era official. “Dating back to 2000, this current period is one of the worst drought cycles over the past 1,200 plus years,” the bureau’s statement said. It’s worth emphasizing that last point: There’s a megadrought happening right now in the United States. Over the past decade, according to the bureau’s latest numbers, the risk of reservoirs falling below critical levels has approximately tripled. And there’s “no indication the current low runoff and drought conditions will end anytime soon,” according to the agency. With this winter’s dry weather, the chances of the first official shortage on the Colorado River in U.S. history have risen to 52 percent in 2020. The Bureau of Reclamation has responsibility for managing much of the water of the western United States, and, so far, it looks like it’s taking that responsibility seriously — using weather and climate forecasts as a primary guide. As Grist recently reported, tensions are rising along the Colorado River as water levels plummet. The river supplies 40 million people with drinking water, and also nurtures millions of acres of some of the most productive farmland in the country. With booming populations and climate change already strangling water supply, the outlook is increasingly dire. The way the laws governing the Colorado River are structured, Arizona is first in line for significant cuts should conservation efforts fall short. The state’s water allotment from the Colorado River would be cut by 20 percent starting in 2020, jeopardizing its economic growth. Understandably, folks there are watching what Burman has to say very closely. The need for quickly coming to consensus on conservation is “vitally important to Arizonans,” said Thomas Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, in the bureau’s statement. While Burman didn’t actually utter the words climate change in her comments this week, her insistence on the urgent need to ramp up conservation is in line with the overwhelming scientific consensus of how climate change is expected to worsen droughts in the Southwest in coming decades. In her confirmation hearings last year, she said, “I believe that climate change is not a hoax,” which is about as good as can be expected from anyone tied to the Trump administration these days. (GRIST)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 5/12/2018 9:24:27 AM
	Lightning attack: 29 people die from lightning in last 24 hours – already 112 in first 10 days of May 2018 in Bangladesh By Strange Sounds - May 10, 2018 Dozens of Bangladeshis were killed by lightnings on Thursday as pre-monsoon thunderstorms wreaked havoc across the South Asian country. In the last 24 hours, 29 people have died from lightning in 12 districts. Almost all of them are farmers. More than 112 people had been killed in strikes in the first 10 days of May. Unprecedented! Map showing worldwide lightning strikes. via NASA Scores of people die every year after being struck by lightning during Bangladesh’s wet season, which runs from April to October, but officials say the numbers are exceptionally high this year. More than 112 people – mostly farmers who harvest rice during this time of the year – had been killed in strikes in the first 10 days of May. This means that every day, 10-12 people are dying from lightning strikes. Experts say deaths are rising as Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest nations, witnesses the increased deforestation of rural areas. Farmers are known to chop down trees to free up space to grow more rice. Disaster management officials are trying to reduce the high death toll by planting five million palm trees to provide better shelter. Authorities declared lightning a natural disaster after 82 people were killed in a single day in May 2016. Independent monitors estimated that some 349 Bangladeshis died from lightning that year. This year is on track to beat this record! (strangesounds.org)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 5/12/2018 9:42:10 AM
	Mystery as washed up human FOOT found on beach – for FOURTEENTH time since 2007 POLICE have launched an investigation after a human foot was found washed-up on the shores of a beach in British Columbia, Canada. By TOM PARFITT PUBLISHED: 21:30, Thu, May 10, 2018 \| UPDATED: 21:36, Thu, May 10, 2018 WIKIPEDIA The grisly discovery was made on a beach in beach on Gabriola Island, British Columbia The grisly discovery was found on Sunday by a man walking along a beach on Gabriola Island at around noon local time (8pm UK time). It is the 14th foot to have washed up on British Columbia's coastline since 2007, leaving locals and police puzzled. Even more strangely, all of the feet have been found in either running shoes or hiking boots. Some locals believe a serial killer is behind the mystery, while others suggest plane or boat accidents at sea are to blame. Feet easily come apart at the joints, and they are easily washed ashore Gail Anderson The provincial coroner's office has said all the feet belong to people who either killed themselves or died accidentally. The coroner also ruled out foul play in most of the previous cases, saying none of the feet showed signs of trauma. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said it was working with forensic experts to identify the remains of the latest discovery. Gail Anderson, a forensic expert at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, explained the reason behind the growing number of cases. She said: "Feet easily come apart at the joints, and when they are attached to a flotation device such as a running shoe, they are easily washed ashore. "Notice there are no feet washing ashore in stiletto heels or flip flops. Also, today's running shoes are much more buoyant than in the past." HANDOUT The local coroner's office released this chart of similar cases since 2007 Before Sunday's case, the last trainer-clad foot was found in December 2017 along the southern coast of Vancouver Island. It was later found to have belonged a 79-year-old man from Washington state who had gone missing and was later found dead. The police investigation into his death is ongoing. At the time, RCMP spokeswoman Annie Linteau said: "It is unusual, it is something we've never really had before and people find it interesting. "We've mostly received speculations, obviously surprise, lots of theories." (express.co.uk)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

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ABORTION CLINICS EXPERIENCING SURGE IN DEATH THREATS, HARASSMENT UNDER TRUMP, STUDY FINDS

Look! A federal agency is pushing for urgent climate action.

The Real Story Behind Israel's Attack on "Iranian" Targets in Syria and Trump's Abandonment of the Iran Deal

Lightning attack: 29 people die from lightning in last 24 hours – already 112 in first 10 days of May 2018 in Bangladesh

POLICE have launched an investigation after a human foot was found washed-up on the shores of a beach in British Columbia, Canada.

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