3925-ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? | View Thread

Are We Witnessing The Weirdest Moment In Economic History?

MARCH 11, 2017

It is an unfortunate reality that most people tend to be oblivious to massive sea changes in geopolitics and economics. You would think that these events would catch the immediate attention of everyone as they happen, but usually it is not until they realize that the microcosm of their personal lives is subject to the consequences of the macrocosm that they wake up and take notice.

There are, however, ways to train yourself to pick up on signals within the news cycle and within political and financial rhetoric; signals that indicate a great shift is perhaps on the way. Sometimes these initial signs are subtle, sometimes they are as subtle as a feminist slut-walk. I would point out that over the next few months there are dangerous correlations so numerous and blatant in the economic sphere that I would almost rather watch a marching gaggle of frumpy feminists wearing nothing but electrical tape than bear witness to the mayhem that is about to strike the unwitting public.

What am I talking about? Well, let’s go through the list…

Federal Reserve Meeting March 14-15^th

As my readers know well, I have been warning since before the election that the Fed would use a Trump presidency as an opportunity to pull the plug on near-zero interest rates and remove a primary pillar supporting stock markets — stock buybacks made possible by free overnight loans to numerous banks and corporations. Without QE and low interest rates the equities bubble will inevitably implode.

Corporate earnings certainly aren’t holding up stocks, neither is GDP or consumer spending. The Fed is the only determining factor of the ongoing bull market. Anyone who claims otherwise is probably a mainstream analyst or overzealous day trader with a vested interest in keeping the illusion going.

It is not surprising to me at all that the “rate hike odds” for March have been increased by mainstream analysts to 90% in the span of a week. I don’t know why anyone uses these arbitrary odds as an indicator of anything. I’ve been receiving emails all month asking me if I still believe the Fed will hike rates while the odds are “so low.” Look, the Fed does not make decisions at these meetings. They make decisions months in advance and the meetings are window dressing.

Too many people operate under the delusion that the central bank wants to continue propping up stocks, which is why they cannot grasp why the Fed would raise rates. In reality, the stage has been perfectly set to allow the bubble to implode. When the elites have a perfect scapegoat, they use it, and conservative movements represent that perfect scapegoat today.

The important thing to remember, though, is the timing of this particular meeting…

U.S. Debt-Ceiling Suspension Ends March 15^th

So, in case you weren’t tracking the economic situation two years ago, the U.S. government almost went bust (in a sense) in 2015. The debt ceiling sets limits on how much the government can borrow to fund itself, and that limit was hit hard under the Obama administration after he managed to nearly double the national debt during his tenure. Congress passed legislation to allow borrowing to continue until March 2017, and of course, much of that capital was “borrowed” from the Federal Reserve, which, of course, creates it out of thin air. With the return of the debt ceiling, the question is — will Congress be able to extend and delay again? With Trump running on a platform of fiscal responsibility, CAN they extend again? Do they even want to, or is this an engineered crisis event?

Once again, the timing of all this is a little odd. The Fed is raising rates into the first year of the Trump presidency leaving equities increasingly open to destabilization. In addition, the government might not be able to continue borrowing from them, or there will be a renewed extension but the costs of borrowing will run much higher. In either case, this month seems to pronounce the beginning of something; a considerable move away from the standard operating procedures that the elites have been using for the past several years. With such changes come consequences, always.

Formal Initiation Of Brexit On March 15^th

The skeptics have been telling me for months that even though I was right about the Brexit vote victory the elites “would never allow” the British to leave the EU. Well, it doesn’t look that way to me so far. Theresa May plans to formally notify the EU of British exit on March 15^thtriggering two years of negotiations which will undoubtedly send economic shock waves throughout the globe on a regular basis.

Of course the Brexit will move forward! Why not? Globalists need a continuing atmosphere of crisis to distract the masses from their great global reset, and they need multiple scapegoats for the economic disaster that their reset will cause. Enter conservative movements in Europe; once again the perfect target to pin a crisis on.

French Elections Start April 23^rd, End May 7^th

Yet another election in which the EU hangs in the balance. Recent polls indicate that Marine Le Pen, the designated “populist” candidate, is falling behind. I have to ask, though, have we not learned our lesson yet on the meaninglessness of political polls? I think most of us have.

I believe Le Pen will be one of the final two candidates to move on to the election in May, and though I am not as certain as I was on Brexit and Trump, I am going to go ahead and predict a Le Pen win. If there is any sizable terrorist event in the next couple of months in the EU, or expanded Muslim riots, she is a guaranteed win. This brings up the very real prospect of a “Frexit” in the near future, and analysts should expect that a Le Pen win will be met with some panic in the financial world.

Potential Italian Election Move On April 30^th

The Italian political process is a little confusing to me, but what I can tell you is that this spring or early summer you will probably be hearing a lot more about it. Former Italian prime minister and current Italian Democratic Party leader Matteo Renzi is set to decide on a the date for a leadership vote, which may come as early as April 30^th. The outcome of this vote will likely decide how soon the next official Italian election will take place.

The election is required to be held before May 2018, but there is increasing pressure to hold elections in 2017, perhaps even this coming summer. I would not be at all shocked to see a surprise announcement of an early Italian election after the leadership vote is held.

Why should anyone care? The consensus is that Renzi’s party will be overrun by anti-EU factions and that this may result in a kind of “Italiexit.” The outcome of Italy’s series of votes and political restructuring will have wide reaching effects on the psychology of the markets for many months to come.

German Federal Election Held September 24^th

Yes, even Germany is quaking this year in the wake of a potential “populist” tsunami. Angela Merkel is exceedingly unloved by her own people lately as her approval ratings collapse. Once-silent sovereignty champions in the country are becoming more and more vocal about Merkel’s rather insane open immigration policies which were the key element that drew millions of Muslims into the EU. It was the German government’s promise of endless entitlement programs that created the incentive for the mass migration in the first place, and now, finally, the German people are fed up with the complete lack of cultural assimilation and what many see as the destruction of Western values.

I do not think that Germany will abandon the supranational concept of the EU regardless of the outcome of the election, but the removal of Merkel would signal a less agreeable Germany, which would exacerbate the already tottering European Union. Meaning more economic uncertainty in 2017.

If You Thought 2016 Was Weird…

If you thought 2016 was weird, I suggest you get comfortable with the surreal because it is not going away anytime soon. 2017 is a veritable treasure trove of falling elevators, and I haven’t even covered half of the issues facing the economy this year. But what about the macro-analysis?

To summarize, it seems to me that many of these events, stacked so closely together, are not coincidental in their timing. As I have noted in articles such as “The Economic End Game Explained,” globalists have been openly planning for decades to set in motion a vast financial overhaul and the launch of a single global economy and currency (the seeds being planted starting in 2018). If this is still their timeline, then it would follow that they would need a series of fiscal earthquakes designed to shake up the “old world order” to make way for a “new world order.”

Perhaps each of these events will result in a “stable” outcome and there is nothing to be concerned about. That said, I don’t believe in chance. Most geopolitical outcomes are influenced by internationalist players, which makes the outcomes of these events predictable. This is what made the Brexit predictable, and it is what made Trump’s victory predictable. Everything about the confluence of political and economic events in 2017 suggests to me a festering crisis atmosphere.

As I have always said, economic collapse is a process, not a singular moment in time. This process lulls the masses into complacency. You can show them warning sign after warning sign, but most of them have no concept of what a collapse is. They are waiting for a cinematic moment of revelation, a financial explosion, when really, the whole disaster is happening in slow motion right under their noses. Economies do not explode, they drown as the water rises one inch at a time.

Image Credit: TheDailySheeple.com

(activistpost.com)

Two of Russia's Most Powerful Nuclear Submarines Fired Torpedoes At Each Other

Dave Majumdar

March 12, 2017

Recently, the Russian nuclear-power attack submarine Obninsk fired a torpedo against one of Moscow’s newest nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, Yuri Dolgoruky.

The massive Project 955 Borei missile boat in turn launched a torpedo back atObninsk, a smaller Project 671RTMK Schuka-class vessel more commonly known as a Victor III in NATO parlance. But unlike in the Tom Clancy’s classic novel The Hunt for Red October, Dolgoruky’s skipper was not planning to defect to the United States along with his crew; rather the torpedo duel was part of a Russian naval exercise.

"The crews of the strategic missile cruiser Yuri Dolgoruky and the multipurpose nuclear submarine Obninsk performed this exercise in a duel option," the Russian Northern Fleet’s press office told the TASS news agency.

According to TASS, the torpedo shootout was conducted using inert weapons with each vessel launching one weapon. The two torpedoes were later recovered after the exercise.

The present day Russian Navy, which is a shadow of the once mighty Soviet fleet, has focused most of its limited resources on its still powerful submarine fleet. Senior U.S. Navy commanders have said that in recent months, the Russian undersea force has been the most active it has been since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

“If you look across the design of the Russian Federation Navy, where they have put their resources and their research and development efforts has primarily been in the undersea domain and in the submarine force,” Vice Adm. James G. Foggo III,who at the time was simultaneously commander of the U.S. Navy’s 6th Fleet, Joint Force Maritime Component Commander Europe and NATO’s Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO, told The National Interest last year.

Alarik Fritz, a senior analyst with the Center for Naval Analyses who served as Foggo’s advisor, said at the time that Russian submarines are some of the most dangerous threats the U.S. Navy faces anywhere on Earth. “The submarine force that they have is essentially their capital ships,” Fitz said. “They’re a concern for us and they’re highly capable—and they’re a very agile tool of the Russian military.”

Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for The National Interest. You can follow him on Twitter: @davemajumdar.

Image Credit: Creative Commons.

(The National Interest)

VALLEJO, Calif. -- A brutal takedown by police caught on video is drawing criticism from witnesses who said the officer went too far.

The encounter occurred Friday afternoon when police responded to a 911 call claiming a man was acting “crazy” at a gas station in Vallejo, California, CBS San Francisco reports.

Witnesses said the first arriving officer chased the suspect for several minutes until the suspect finally gave up and sat down in the middle of the street.

The officer pushed the man to the ground and tried to place him in handcuffs, but the suspect appeared to struggle, according to witnesses.

“The kid surrendered,” said one witness who declined give his name. “The cop, on the other hand, came up right behind him and he was tired too. But he immediately dove on the kid and started wailing on him.”

In the video, the officer beats the suspect with his fists and his flashlight, as the suspect repeats, “I am God, I am God.” Off-camera, someone in the crowd that had gathered can be heard yelling “police brutality.” The officer later pulls a gun on the crowd, telling them to “get the f--- back.”

Police trainer Don Cameron told CBS San Francisco the officer used appropriate force to restrain the man, even if the video is hard to watch.

“Basically that’s what they’re trained to do,” Cameron said. “When we’re down on the ground, we want to get the person in custody as quickly as we can and we use personal weapons.”

The video was viewed over 1 million times within two hours of appearing online.

Former Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan agreed the initial contact was appropriate, but said he’s troubled that the use of force continued after another officer arrived. Jordan specifically called out the officer pulling his gun on the crowd.

“I understand the officer needed to try to keep the people from getting close to him,” said Jordan.”I don’t necessarily agree that’s the best use of force. I does look bad. It does appear inappropriate.”

Vallejo police said Internal Affairs is reviewing the video to investigate all aspects of the arrest including the officer’s use of profanity.

One officer was injured in the confrontation.

The suspect is in jail facing charges of being under the influence and resisting arrest.

ICELAND KNOWS HOW TO STOP TEEN SUBSTANCE ABUSE BUT THE REST OF THE WORLD ISN’T LISTENING

MARCH 9, 2017

I think it’s safe to say that most teenagers have tried and/or abused alcohol or illegal drugs, yet teen substance abuse rarely gets the attention it needs. Drugs and alcohol have a more detrimental effect on the underdeveloped brain, particularly since teens lack the ability to adequately assess risk, making them more likely to overindulge in substances. It’s this same lack that explains why people tend to be braver and more open to trying new experiences as teens than as adults. But this courage comes at a cost, as teens cannot adequately assess the risks of the substances they are taking. And schools aren’t doing nearly enough to educate them.

I remember seeing presentations from a program called DARE, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, when I was in school. Although we were taught to avoid drugs, the focus was more on avoiding criminal behaviour than protecting our bodies. There wasn’t much focus on long-term effects of drug use. They always maintained that abstinence from drug use was best and that marijuana was the gateway drug, though I believe it’s become pretty obvious that alcohol better serves that description. Alcohol is readily available and easy to obtain, be it from parents’ liquor cabinets or fridges, older siblings, or underage bars.

Teens are faced with tremendous pressure, from their parents, their teachers, and especially their peers — it’s no wonder it is so easy to reach out for that escape, to keep your mind off all of the stresses, but also to just be cool and to fit in.

So How Can We Tackle This Issue?

According to an Icelandic psychologist, Gudberg Jonsson, just twenty years ago Icelandic teens were among the heaviest drinking youths in all of Europe. Apparently you couldn’t even walk downtown in Reykjavik on a Friday night without being bothered by rowdy teenagers getting wasted. He says it felt unsafe. These days, Iceland has various after school classes in facilities that include heated swimming pools and clubs for music, dance, or art.

Iceland now tops the European table for the cleanest living teens. The percentage of 15- and 16-year-old teens who had been drunk in the previous month dropped from 42% in 1998 to 5% in 2016. The percentage of cannabis users has even dropped from 17% to 7%, and those smoking cigarettes every day fell from 23% to 3%.

This country has been able to achieve such a successful turnaround thanks to what might best be described as enforced common sense. “This is the most remarkably intense and profound study of stress in the lives of teenagers that I have ever seen,” says Milkman. “I’m just so impressed how well it’s working.”

Milkman believes that if this model were adopted in other countries it could benefit the physical as well as psychological well-being of millions of kids worldwide.

How Does This Become a Problem?

“Any college kid could say: why do they start? Well, there’s availability, they’re risk-takers, alienation, maybe some depression,” he says. “But why do they continue? So I got to the question about the threshold for abuse and the lights went on – that’s when I had my version of the ‘aha’ experience: they could be on the threshold for abuse before they even took the drug, because it was their style of coping that they were abusing.”

Milkman helped develop the idea that people were addicted to changes in the brain chemistry, rather than the drug itself. “People can get addicted to drink, cars, money, sex, calories, cocaine – whatever. The idea of behavioural addiction became our trademark,” he says.

This is what spawned another idea: “Why not orchestrate a social movement around natural highs: around people getting high on their own brain chemistry – because it seems obvious to me that people want to change their consciousness – without the deleterious effects of drugs?”

By 1992, Milkman’s team in Denver had been granted $1.2 million from the government to fund Project Self-Discovery, which offered teenagers natural high alternatives to drugs and various crimes.

“We didn’t say to them, you’re coming in for treatment. We said, we’ll teach you anything you want to learn: music, dance, hip hop, art, martial arts.” The idea was that these different classes catering to the interests of many teenagers could get the teens excited and provide alterations in their brain chemistry. It would keep them busy for one, but also it would keep them interested and in the learning phase. Being addicted to dance is obviously a much better alternative than being addicted to drugs or alcohol.

At the same time, teens also received life-skills training, which focused on having more positive thoughts about themselves, their lives, and how they were interacting with others. “The main principle was that drug education doesn’t work because nobody pays attention to it. What is needed are the life skills to act on that information,” Milkman says.

In 1991 Milkman was invited to Iceland to talk about the findings of his work. He then became a consultant to the first residential drug treatment center for teens in Iceland, in a town called Tindar. As Milkman said, “it was designed around giving kids better things to do.” Seems simple enough!

The mayor of Reykjavik was also interested in trying something new, and parents of the Icelandic children and teens felt the same. Using some survey data and insights from research that included some from Milkman, a new national plan called “Youth In Iceland” was gradually rolled out.

Part of this plan involved changing some laws. It became illegal to buy tobacco under the age of 18 and alcohol under the age of 20, and advertising for both were banned. The relationship between parents and the school councils were strengthened and parents were educated on the importance of spending a lot more time with their children. They were encouraged to talk to their children about their lives and know who their friends were. Parents were also encouraged to keep their children home in the evenings.

Iceland even issued a curfew — teens between the ages of 13 and 16 were not allowed to be outside past 10pm in the winter and midnight in the summer. This curfew is still in effect today.

Possibly the most important step to this plan was increasing state funding for organized sport, music, art, dance, and other clubs. This allowed kids more ways to be able to bond with their peers and feel good and have fun, without resorting to drugs and alcohol. Lower income families also received a bonus for each child so that they too, could participate in these activities.

What Was the Outcome?

Between 1997 and 2012, the percentage of kids aged 15 and 16 who reported always spending time with their parents nearly doubled, increasing from 23% to 43%. The percentage of teens who participated in organized sports at least four times a week increased from 23% to 42%. Use of cigarettes, cannabis, and alcohol, on the other hand, all plummeted.

“Although this cannot be shown in the form of a causal relationship – which is a good example of why primary prevention methods are sometimes hard to sell to scientists – the trend is very clear,” says Alfgeir Kristjansson, who worked on the data. “Protective factors have gone up, risk factors down, and substance use has gone down – and more consistently in Iceland than in any other European country.”

Much Love

Source

http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/iceland-teen-substance-abuse/8208214

(collective-evolution.com)

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 3/12/2017 5:28:55 PM
	Are We Witnessing The Weirdest Moment In Economic History? MARCH 11, 2017 By Brandon Smith It is an unfortunate reality that most people tend to be oblivious to massive sea changes in geopolitics and economics. You would think that these events would catch the immediate attention of everyone as they happen, but usually it is not until they realize that the microcosm of their personal lives is subject to the consequences of the macrocosm that they wake up and take notice. There are, however, ways to train yourself to pick up on signals within the news cycle and within political and financial rhetoric; signals that indicate a great shift is perhaps on the way. Sometimes these initial signs are subtle, sometimes they are as subtle as a feminist slut-walk. I would point out that over the next few months there are dangerous correlations so numerous and blatant in the economic sphere that I would almost rather watch a marching gaggle of frumpy feminists wearing nothing but electrical tape than bear witness to the mayhem that is about to strike the unwitting public. What am I talking about? Well, let’s go through the list… Federal Reserve Meeting March 14-15^th As my readers know well, I have been warning since before the election that the Fed would use a Trump presidency as an opportunity to pull the plug on near-zero interest rates and remove a primary pillar supporting stock markets — stock buybacks made possible by free overnight loans to numerous banks and corporations. Without QE and low interest rates the equities bubble will inevitably implode. Corporate earnings certainly aren’t holding up stocks, neither is GDP or consumer spending. The Fed is the only determining factor of the ongoing bull market. Anyone who claims otherwise is probably a mainstream analyst or overzealous day trader with a vested interest in keeping the illusion going. It is not surprising to me at all that the “rate hike odds” for March have been increased by mainstream analysts to 90% in the span of a week. I don’t know why anyone uses these arbitrary odds as an indicator of anything. I’ve been receiving emails all month asking me if I still believe the Fed will hike rates while the odds are “so low.” Look, the Fed does not make decisions at these meetings. They make decisions months in advance and the meetings are window dressing. Too many people operate under the delusion that the central bank wants to continue propping up stocks, which is why they cannot grasp why the Fed would raise rates. In reality, the stage has been perfectly set to allow the bubble to implode. When the elites have a perfect scapegoat, they use it, and conservative movements represent that perfect scapegoat today. The important thing to remember, though, is the timing of this particular meeting… U.S. Debt-Ceiling Suspension Ends March 15^th So, in case you weren’t tracking the economic situation two years ago, the U.S. government almost went bust (in a sense) in 2015. The debt ceiling sets limits on how much the government can borrow to fund itself, and that limit was hit hard under the Obama administration after he managed to nearly double the national debt during his tenure. Congress passed legislation to allow borrowing to continue until March 2017, and of course, much of that capital was “borrowed” from the Federal Reserve, which, of course, creates it out of thin air. With the return of the debt ceiling, the question is — will Congress be able to extend and delay again? With Trump running on a platform of fiscal responsibility, CAN they extend again? Do they even want to, or is this an engineered crisis event? Once again, the timing of all this is a little odd. The Fed is raising rates into the first year of the Trump presidency leaving equities increasingly open to destabilization. In addition, the government might not be able to continue borrowing from them, or there will be a renewed extension but the costs of borrowing will run much higher. In either case, this month seems to pronounce the beginning of something; a considerable move away from the standard operating procedures that the elites have been using for the past several years. With such changes come consequences, always. Formal Initiation Of Brexit On March 15^th The skeptics have been telling me for months that even though I was right about the Brexit vote victory the elites “would never allow” the British to leave the EU. Well, it doesn’t look that way to me so far. Theresa May plans to formally notify the EU of British exit on March 15^thtriggering two years of negotiations which will undoubtedly send economic shock waves throughout the globe on a regular basis. Of course the Brexit will move forward! Why not? Globalists need a continuing atmosphere of crisis to distract the masses from their great global reset, and they need multiple scapegoats for the economic disaster that their reset will cause. Enter conservative movements in Europe; once again the perfect target to pin a crisis on. French Elections Start April 23^rd, End May 7^th Yet another election in which the EU hangs in the balance. Recent polls indicate that Marine Le Pen, the designated “populist” candidate, is falling behind. I have to ask, though, have we not learned our lesson yet on the meaninglessness of political polls? I think most of us have. I believe Le Pen will be one of the final two candidates to move on to the election in May, and though I am not as certain as I was on Brexit and Trump, I am going to go ahead and predict a Le Pen win. If there is any sizable terrorist event in the next couple of months in the EU, or expanded Muslim riots, she is a guaranteed win. This brings up the very real prospect of a “Frexit” in the near future, and analysts should expect that a Le Pen win will be met with some panic in the financial world. Potential Italian Election Move On April 30^th The Italian political process is a little confusing to me, but what I can tell you is that this spring or early summer you will probably be hearing a lot more about it. Former Italian prime minister and current Italian Democratic Party leader Matteo Renzi is set to decide on a the date for a leadership vote, which may come as early as April 30^th. The outcome of this vote will likely decide how soon the next official Italian election will take place. The election is required to be held before May 2018, but there is increasing pressure to hold elections in 2017, perhaps even this coming summer. I would not be at all shocked to see a surprise announcement of an early Italian election after the leadership vote is held. Why should anyone care? The consensus is that Renzi’s party will be overrun by anti-EU factions and that this may result in a kind of “Italiexit.” The outcome of Italy’s series of votes and political restructuring will have wide reaching effects on the psychology of the markets for many months to come. German Federal Election Held September 24^th Yes, even Germany is quaking this year in the wake of a potential “populist” tsunami. Angela Merkel is exceedingly unloved by her own people lately as her approval ratings collapse. Once-silent sovereignty champions in the country are becoming more and more vocal about Merkel’s rather insane open immigration policies which were the key element that drew millions of Muslims into the EU. It was the German government’s promise of endless entitlement programs that created the incentive for the mass migration in the first place, and now, finally, the German people are fed up with the complete lack of cultural assimilation and what many see as the destruction of Western values. I do not think that Germany will abandon the supranational concept of the EU regardless of the outcome of the election, but the removal of Merkel would signal a less agreeable Germany, which would exacerbate the already tottering European Union. Meaning more economic uncertainty in 2017. If You Thought 2016 Was Weird… If you thought 2016 was weird, I suggest you get comfortable with the surreal because it is not going away anytime soon. 2017 is a veritable treasure trove of falling elevators, and I haven’t even covered half of the issues facing the economy this year. But what about the macro-analysis? To summarize, it seems to me that many of these events, stacked so closely together, are not coincidental in their timing. As I have noted in articles such as “The Economic End Game Explained,” globalists have been openly planning for decades to set in motion a vast financial overhaul and the launch of a single global economy and currency (the seeds being planted starting in 2018). If this is still their timeline, then it would follow that they would need a series of fiscal earthquakes designed to shake up the “old world order” to make way for a “new world order.” Perhaps each of these events will result in a “stable” outcome and there is nothing to be concerned about. That said, I don’t believe in chance. Most geopolitical outcomes are influenced by internationalist players, which makes the outcomes of these events predictable. This is what made the Brexit predictable, and it is what made Trump’s victory predictable. Everything about the confluence of political and economic events in 2017 suggests to me a festering crisis atmosphere. As I have always said, economic collapse is a process, not a singular moment in time. This process lulls the masses into complacency. You can show them warning sign after warning sign, but most of them have no concept of what a collapse is. They are waiting for a cinematic moment of revelation, a financial explosion, when really, the whole disaster is happening in slow motion right under their noses. Economies do not explode, they drown as the water rises one inch at a time. Image Credit: TheDailySheeple.com (activistpost.com)
	"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? 3/12/2017 11:56:13 PM
	March 12, 2017, 11:48 AM Violent police takedown caught on camera, sparking outrage A video of police subduing a man in Vallejo, California, is drawing criticism about the use of force / CBS SAN FRANCISCO VALLEJO, Calif. -- A brutal takedown by police caught on video is drawing criticism from witnesses who said the officer went too far. The encounter occurred Friday afternoon when police responded to a 911 call claiming a man was acting “crazy” at a gas station in Vallejo, California, CBS San Francisco reports. Witnesses said the first arriving officer chased the suspect for several minutes until the suspect finally gave up and sat down in the middle of the street. The officer pushed the man to the ground and tried to place him in handcuffs, but the suspect appeared to struggle, according to witnesses. “The kid surrendered,” said one witness who declined give his name. “The cop, on the other hand, came up right behind him and he was tired too. But he immediately dove on the kid and started wailing on him.” In the video, the officer beats the suspect with his fists and his flashlight, as the suspect repeats, “I am God, I am God.” Off-camera, someone in the crowd that had gathered can be heard yelling “police brutality.” The officer later pulls a gun on the crowd, telling them to “get the f--- back.” Police trainer Don Cameron told CBS San Francisco the officer used appropriate force to restrain the man, even if the video is hard to watch. “Basically that’s what they’re trained to do,” Cameron said. “When we’re down on the ground, we want to get the person in custody as quickly as we can and we use personal weapons.” The video was viewed over 1 million times within two hours of appearing online. Former Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan agreed the initial contact was appropriate, but said he’s troubled that the use of force continued after another officer arrived. Jordan specifically called out the officer pulling his gun on the crowd. “I understand the officer needed to try to keep the people from getting close to him,” said Jordan.”I don’t necessarily agree that’s the best use of force. I does look bad. It does appear inappropriate.” Vallejo police said Internal Affairs is reviewing the video to investigate all aspects of the arrest including the officer’s use of profanity. One officer was injured in the confrontation. The suspect is in jail facing charges of being under the influence and resisting arrest. © 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
	"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? 3/13/2017 9:24:09 AM
	ICELAND KNOWS HOW TO STOP TEEN SUBSTANCE ABUSE BUT THE REST OF THE WORLD ISN’T LISTENING ALANNA KETLERMARCH 9, 2017 I think it’s safe to say that most teenagers have tried and/or abused alcohol or illegal drugs, yet teen substance abuse rarely gets the attention it needs. Drugs and alcohol have a more detrimental effect on the underdeveloped brain, particularly since teens lack the ability to adequately assess risk, making them more likely to overindulge in substances. It’s this same lack that explains why people tend to be braver and more open to trying new experiences as teens than as adults. But this courage comes at a cost, as teens cannot adequately assess the risks of the substances they are taking. And schools aren’t doing nearly enough to educate them. I remember seeing presentations from a program called DARE, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, when I was in school. Although we were taught to avoid drugs, the focus was more on avoiding criminal behaviour than protecting our bodies. There wasn’t much focus on long-term effects of drug use. They always maintained that abstinence from drug use was best and that marijuana was the gateway drug, though I believe it’s become pretty obvious that alcohol better serves that description. Alcohol is readily available and easy to obtain, be it from parents’ liquor cabinets or fridges, older siblings, or underage bars. Teens are faced with tremendous pressure, from their parents, their teachers, and especially their peers — it’s no wonder it is so easy to reach out for that escape, to keep your mind off all of the stresses, but also to just be cool and to fit in. So How Can We Tackle This Issue? According to an Icelandic psychologist, Gudberg Jonsson, just twenty years ago Icelandic teens were among the heaviest drinking youths in all of Europe. Apparently you couldn’t even walk downtown in Reykjavik on a Friday night without being bothered by rowdy teenagers getting wasted. He says it felt unsafe. These days, Iceland has various after school classes in facilities that include heated swimming pools and clubs for music, dance, or art. Iceland now tops the European table for the cleanest living teens. The percentage of 15- and 16-year-old teens who had been drunk in the previous month dropped from 42% in 1998 to 5% in 2016. The percentage of cannabis users has even dropped from 17% to 7%, and those smoking cigarettes every day fell from 23% to 3%. This country has been able to achieve such a successful turnaround thanks to what might best be described as enforced common sense. “This is the most remarkably intense and profound study of stress in the lives of teenagers that I have ever seen,” says Milkman. “I’m just so impressed how well it’s working.” Milkman believes that if this model were adopted in other countries it could benefit the physical as well as psychological well-being of millions of kids worldwide. How Does This Become a Problem? “Any college kid could say: why do they start? Well, there’s availability, they’re risk-takers, alienation, maybe some depression,” he says. “But why do they continue? So I got to the question about the threshold for abuse and the lights went on – that’s when I had my version of the ‘aha’ experience: they could be on the threshold for abuse before they even took the drug, because it was their style of coping that they were abusing.” Milkman helped develop the idea that people were addicted to changes in the brain chemistry, rather than the drug itself. “People can get addicted to drink, cars, money, sex, calories, cocaine – whatever. The idea of behavioural addiction became our trademark,” he says. This is what spawned another idea: “Why not orchestrate a social movement around natural highs: around people getting high on their own brain chemistry – because it seems obvious to me that people want to change their consciousness – without the deleterious effects of drugs?” By 1992, Milkman’s team in Denver had been granted $1.2 million from the government to fund Project Self-Discovery, which offered teenagers natural high alternatives to drugs and various crimes. “We didn’t say to them, you’re coming in for treatment. We said, we’ll teach you anything you want to learn: music, dance, hip hop, art, martial arts.” The idea was that these different classes catering to the interests of many teenagers could get the teens excited and provide alterations in their brain chemistry. It would keep them busy for one, but also it would keep them interested and in the learning phase. Being addicted to dance is obviously a much better alternative than being addicted to drugs or alcohol. At the same time, teens also received life-skills training, which focused on having more positive thoughts about themselves, their lives, and how they were interacting with others. “The main principle was that drug education doesn’t work because nobody pays attention to it. What is needed are the life skills to act on that information,” Milkman says. In 1991 Milkman was invited to Iceland to talk about the findings of his work. He then became a consultant to the first residential drug treatment center for teens in Iceland, in a town called Tindar. As Milkman said, “it was designed around giving kids better things to do.” Seems simple enough! The mayor of Reykjavik was also interested in trying something new, and parents of the Icelandic children and teens felt the same. Using some survey data and insights from research that included some from Milkman, a new national plan called “Youth In Iceland” was gradually rolled out. Part of this plan involved changing some laws. It became illegal to buy tobacco under the age of 18 and alcohol under the age of 20, and advertising for both were banned. The relationship between parents and the school councils were strengthened and parents were educated on the importance of spending a lot more time with their children. They were encouraged to talk to their children about their lives and know who their friends were. Parents were also encouraged to keep their children home in the evenings. Iceland even issued a curfew — teens between the ages of 13 and 16 were not allowed to be outside past 10pm in the winter and midnight in the summer. This curfew is still in effect today. Possibly the most important step to this plan was increasing state funding for organized sport, music, art, dance, and other clubs. This allowed kids more ways to be able to bond with their peers and feel good and have fun, without resorting to drugs and alcohol. Lower income families also received a bonus for each child so that they too, could participate in these activities. What Was the Outcome? Between 1997 and 2012, the percentage of kids aged 15 and 16 who reported always spending time with their parents nearly doubled, increasing from 23% to 43%. The percentage of teens who participated in organized sports at least four times a week increased from 23% to 42%. Use of cigarettes, cannabis, and alcohol, on the other hand, all plummeted. “Although this cannot be shown in the form of a causal relationship – which is a good example of why primary prevention methods are sometimes hard to sell to scientists – the trend is very clear,” says Alfgeir Kristjansson, who worked on the data. “Protective factors have gone up, risk factors down, and substance use has gone down – and more consistently in Iceland than in any other European country.” Much Love Source http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/iceland-teen-substance-abuse/8208214 (collective-evolution.com)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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