How Real Mind Control Works

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

When people are confronted with the idea of “mind control” they often think of something out of television or film media; a lone prisoner tortured, chemically dazed and conditioned into a hollow zombie as his captors squeeze information from him or use him to complete a task he would not normally do or morally accept. And while there is actually some truth to this kind of Hollywood depiction, as is evidenced in the exposure of government programs like MK Ultra, the most insidious forms of mind control are far more subtle.

Governments and the elitists behind them do not necessarily need to physically cage, drug and brutalize people in order to influence how they behave. All they need to do is manage their perceptions, expectation and assumptions. This can be accomplished with large portions of the public, rather than one person at a time.

The elites have always been fascinated with the idea of mass hypnotism. In the 18th century Franz Mesmer was famous for entertaining European royalty with displays of what he called “animal magnetism”, which included what we now know as hypnosis of individuals and groups. Mesmerism has since become synonymous with the attempt to befuddle people and dictate their actions while in a kind of trance. Hypnotism is still a very active subject in psychiatric circles and the US government took avid interest in hypnotism as a weapon during their MK Ultra experiments in the 1950’s.

People involved in the field of hypnotism are quick to point out that a hypnotized person cannot be made to do something that goes against their code of ethics, but this is not exactly the whole story. A hypnotist makes suggestions that the subject chooses to follow (or refuses to follow) while in a trance state, however, what if they can be convinced (or fooled) through hypnosis into believing that a particular action is in their best interest in spite of their moral code or sense of self preservation?

This type of control over a subject can and has been accomplished in hypnotic therapy, and examples of “covert” hypnotherapy are also on record, including the example of an Ohio divorce attorney that used covert hypnotism against multiple female clients and is suspected of using it against some court employees to disarm their psyches and then rape them without memory of the incident.

About two thirds of any given population are capable of being hypnotized to varying degrees. Stanford University has been avidly searching for a brain pattern that acts as a fingerprint for those that are more prone to hypnotic influence, and they believe they have found certain factors involving areas of the brain that handle heightened focus and attention. Reduced peripheral awareness also helps to increase the subject’s vulnerability to hypnosis and vastly increases suggestibility.

These conditions can in fact be encouraged in large crowds of people. Consider this for a moment – What daily activity is the average person involved in that hyperfocuses their attention on a single point in space for long periods of time and removes almost all of their peripheral awareness? If you said “cell phone use” then you win a chicken dinner. Beyond creating an artificial and constant low dose of dopamine in the human brain leading to addiction, cell phones and other small electronic devices actually create the perfect conditions for a person to be hypnotized as they rip them away from all peripheral awareness and make them highly suggestible to those who know how to use covert methods.

To reiterate, a hypnotic state can be induced in large groups of people for extended periods of time with the correct long term stimulus. Watch here as mentalist Darren Brown hypnotizes or “brainwashes” an entire shopping mall of people into raising their hands exactly when he wants them to without them being aware of why they are doing it. Notice that around two thirds of the crowd complies.

Hypnotic suggestions last as long as the subjects continue to believe that the suggestions are correct. Hypnotism is essentially an agreement between the hypnotist and the persons being hypnotized that a particular belief is true (even if it is not). In the case of a victim of an attack, the person may want to believe that the traumatic event did not happen, and thus they can be convinced through hypnosis to forget it. In the case of a group of people, the hypnotist would have to identify an idea or fear that they all share and WANT to believe is real, and then exploit it.

I think some of the political applications of this are obvious.

The false left/right paradigm is a perfect petri dish for obtaining or manufacturing the consent of the masses to be hypnotized. They WANT to believe that their team, which they have willingly joined, is the correct team and that the leadership of that team has their best interests at heart. They want to believe that the actions of their party, through legislation or direct means, are always rational and morally sound. And, even when the leaders of their party do things which are completely contrary to the beliefs and morals of the people who make up the party, those people still want to believe that there must be some logical reason behind these decisions that they do not yet grasp.

Beyond this, the threat of the “other party” or team is an ever constant stimulus in the form of fear.  We watch the scripted battles of these two fabricated teams play out in elaborate forms of Kabuki theater, yet nothing ever really changes except that the global elites grow more powerful.  Still, many people actually believe these battles to be real, and invest immense amounts of energy and focus into them as if the fate of the world is being decided within the antics of a political soap opera.

When people are afraid or hyperfocused on an outside threat, they once again become more suggestible. This is why mainstream political discussions focus less on understanding of the threat (the “How” and the “Why”) and more on perpetuating the threat.  With understanding of the enemy (or false enemy), the threat can be assessed and fear is reduced, even if the threat is real. Without understanding, fear only increases. Political powers seek to constantly remind us that threats exist without allowing us the benefit of context.  They do not want us to have an in-depth knowledge of the mechanics behind the threats.

We are told that our system works in a particular way that seems logical, but it only makes sense to us so long as we want to believe that the system functions as we were taught.  We have to have blind faith that what we were initially told was absolutely true.  The question is, why should we?  Isn’t it better to remain skeptical of most things and to study what is handed to us?  If we’re given a strange elixir by an utter stranger and we’re told to “drink up!”, would we not question what’s in the frothing brew and what it does?  Would we not investigate?

In the case of information and proclamations some people would not investigate, because it is more comfortable to believe the lies, or perhaps because they will be rewarded for going along with the status quo.  Only when we become willing to sacrifice comfort, when we stop wanting to accept everything we are told at face value and start questioning the reality that is handed to us, only then will the mass hypnosis we were once influenced by lose its power.

The hypnosis of the elites requires ever increasing forms of distraction and stimulation in order to keep the public entranced. The creation of fear and confusion is vital to the execution of mass mind control, and this is a factor that many people absolutely refuse to recognize or take into consideration. The idea that the elites would build a system only to then deliberately destroy it is just too much for many to fathom. But again, what better way to hyperfocus an entire population and make them malleable to suggestions that they would not normally consider otherwise?

In past articles I have outlined the incredible array of similarities between global elitist groups and the behaviors and character traits of narcissistic sociopaths (also known as narcopaths or psychopaths).  I have even theorized that globalists are actually a highly organized group of narcopaths who recruit other narcopaths into the fold. Many high level narcopaths are intuitively knowledgeable on the dynamics of suggestibility and the human psyche. I would call this their primary survival trait.

Narcopaths are well known for creating confusion around them in order to gain control of the people in their lives or the people in a room. They are also known for being willing to build up certain routines and acclimating people around them to a particular environment, only to suddenly disrupt it all as a means to stun their victims and create subservience. It is important to realize that these people do NOT necessarily care about stability. In fact, they often will actively sabotage stability to obtain something they care about more – control.

The strategies that individual narcopaths exhibit on a small scale are simply magnified thousands of times when we talk about the behaviors of the global elitists. People who consider themselves rational are hard pressed to comprehend this kind of behavior, but there is a devious tactical logic to it. Mind control of others can be achieved by keeping those people infinitely off-balance. Conjuring moments of tenuous peace, and then striking with cycles of unpredictable crisis. Before we know it, many years of instability have gone by and the organized narcopaths in power have gained even more control.  We wonder where all that time went, and why we were not able to change things? It is because we have been hypnotized into inaction, or the wrong actions in the name of meaningless political stagecraft.

Real mind control and mass hypnosis requires, as already mentioned, our consent, but it is consent that is conned out of us. It is conned out of us by fake leaders with intentions and actions that do not match their promises. It is conned out of us by a system that breeds conformity of thought and tells us that those who think outside the widely accepted norm are aberrant and “crazy”. It is conned out of us by our own weaknesses – our desire to go along to get along, our fear of confronting the crowd and telling them they are wrong, our fear of losing what we think is stability, or our fear of being on our own.

Real mind control is not about torture and force, it is about quietly induced acceptance. We can remove our consent from the hypnotists anytime we wish, but we have to be willing to stop ignoring certain realities. We have to be willing to feel the pain that comes when we recognize we have been conned and controlled in the past, and we have to revel in our ability to refuse to conform. It must become a part of who we are – the people who do not take what we are told at face value. The people that question almost everything. The people who cannot be mesmerized.

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Biden to America: Massive Amounts of Executive Power Is Just Fine So Long as Trump Isn’t President

In night two of the second Democratic debate, former Vice President Joe Biden argued that the chief problem with our immigration system is who the president is, not the powers he or she has.

“When people cross the border illegally, it is illegal to do it unless they’re seeking asylum. People should have to get in line,” said Biden in a testy exchange, pushing back on some other candidates’ proposals to decriminalize all border crossings. “That’s the problem. And the only reason this particular part of the law is being abused is because of Donald Trump. We should defeat Donald Trump and end this practice.”

In short, Biden was arguing that the powers the government has to arrest and detain migrants are fine; they’ve just been entrusted to someone who has used them to punish the wrong people.

His campaign thought it such a profound point that they quickly retweeted a version of his remarks.

The argument being made is central to the former vice president’s campaign, which has sought to portray Trump as a unique evil that only Biden will be able to excise. It’s a pitch that treats the current powers of the president as essentially benign; it’s the person that matters.

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Biden to America: Massive Amounts of Executive Power Is Just Fine So Long as Trump Isn’t President

In night two of the second Democratic debate, former Vice President Joe Biden argued that the chief problem with our immigration system is who the president is, not the powers he or she has.

“When people cross the border illegally, it is illegal to do it unless they’re seeking asylum. People should have to get in line,” said Biden in a testy exchange, pushing back on some other candidates’ proposals to decriminalize all border crossings. “That’s the problem. And the only reason this particular part of the law is being abused is because of Donald Trump. We should defeat Donald Trump and end this practice.”

In short, Biden was arguing that the powers the government has to arrest and detain migrants are fine; they’ve just been entrusted to someone who has used them to punish the wrong people.

His campaign thought it such a profound point that they quickly retweeted a version of his remarks.

The argument being made is central to the former vice president’s campaign, which has sought to portray Trump as a unique evil that only Biden will be able to excise. It’s a pitch that treats the current powers of the president as essentially benign; it’s the person that matters.

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China Accuses US Of Orchestrating Hong Kong Protests

Around the same time that the White House hinted that a military conflict may be imminent in Hong Kong after it said it was monitoring what a senior administration official called a “congregation of Chinese forces” on Hong Kong’s border, China’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday claimed the recent protests in Hong Kong are “the work of the U.S.,” adding that the United States owes the world an explanation.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “thinks that the recent violence in Hong Kong is reasonable because everyone knows that this is the work of the U.S.,” spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular press briefing, referring to when Pompeo said China should “do the right thing” in dealing with protests in Hong Kong, in an interview with Bloomberg Television last week.

Hua Chunying

According to Kyodo, as evidence Hua provided examples of recent U.S. “interference” in which, she claims U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton and Pompeo met with opposition figures multiple times throughout the weeks-long protests over a controversial extradition bill. And while some may be quick to dismiss her allegations, it was similar “interference” by the US state department that was observed in Ukraine just days before the fateful Maidan protests that brought down the president and thanks to Victoria “Fuck the EU” Nuland, set the world on its current path of cold war-era confrontation between the US and Russia, which in turn has virtually assured another global military conflict in the future.

“There have been many American faces in the violent parade in Hong Kong, and even some American flags,” Hua said.

In urging the United States to “let go” of the Hong Kong issue, Hua warned, “Those who play with fire only get themselves burned.”

China’s remarks came just hours before the ministerial-level trade talks between the two nations in Shanghai collapsed without even a glimmer of progress after just a few hours of discussions, with the future of trade negotiations in limbo.

Which brings up the remarkable observation from David Rosenberg, who noted that Trump’s hidden “genius” consists in the interplay of the US-China and White House-Fed conflicts, as follows:

“Maybe Trump is a genius, after all. What if he finally gets the steep Fed rate cuts he has been demanding?

After that, he ends the trade wars, tariffs go to zero, and the stock market surges to new highs — just in time for the 2020 election!”

This, as one reader summarized today, can not be amended as follows:

  1. Trump aborted China trade talks as soon as they begin…
  2. … and stoked unrest in HK to piss Chinese off…
  3. … in order to force the Fed to cut rates…
  4. … and then get a trade deal with China this fall or winter to send stocks soaring into the 2020 elections …
  5. Profit get re-elected.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2YgxNMz Tyler Durden

Walter Williams: Being A Racist Is Easy Today

Authored by Walter Williams, op-ed via Townhall.com,

Years ago, it was hard to be a racist. You had to be fitted for and spend money on a white gown and don a pointy hat. You celebrated racism by getting some burlap, wrapping it around a cross, setting it ablaze and dancing around it carrying torches. Sometimes, as did Lester Maddox, you had to buy axe handles for yourself and your supporters to wield to forcibly turn away black customers from your restaurant. Or, as in the case of Theophilus “Bull” Connor, you had to learn to direct fire hoses and vicious police attack dogs against civil rights demonstrators.

Younger racists, along with their parents, had to memorize poems for whenever a black student showed up for admission to their high school or college. For example, “Two, four, six, eight, we don’t want to integrate!” Of course, there were a host of racial slurs and epithets that could be hurled, with impunity, at any black person in your presence. In earlier times, you didn’t have to be sophisticated, but it took a bit of work, to be a racist.

Today, all that has changed.

To be a racist today takes little effort.

For example, one can sit back in his easy chair and declare that he’s for across-the-board tax cuts. That makes you a racist. If you don’t believe me, think back to 1994 when the Republican-led Congress pushed for a tax-cut measure. Former U.S. House of Representatives member Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., denouncing the Republicans’ plan before a Manhattan audience as a form of modern-day racism said: “It’s not ‘spic’ or ‘n—–‘ anymore. (Instead,) they say, ‘Let’s cut taxes.'” A few months later, he compared the GOP’s “Contract with America” to measures in Nazi Germany saying, “Hitler wasn’t even talking about doing these things.”

One can be labeled a racist through a set of “microaggressions” listed in “Diversity in the Classroom, UCLA Diversity & Faculty Development” from 2014.

Here are a few statements one should avoid: “You are a credit to your race.” “Wow! How did you become so good in math?” “There is only one race, the human race.” “I’m not racist. I have several Black friends.” “As a woman, I know what you go through as a racial minority.”

But most instances of microaggressions are less overt. There are college microaggressions such as a male student rolling his eyes when a female student speaks, or people not wanting to be in study groups with those of different races.

Perhaps the easiest way to be labeled a racist is to suggest that a wall be built on our border with Mexico in order to keep people from Mexico and points south from entering our nation illegally.

Also, a slam-dunk charge of racism is to say that the standard practice of separating children from parents is Nazi-like. But imagine you are stopped with your child in the car and charged with a DUI in any of our 50 states. You’re going to be arrested and your child taken to protective child services. The identical practice on our southern border becomes racism.

As veteran journalist Brit Hume said about the uproar over President Donald Trump’s latest bomb-throwing:

Trump’s ‘go back’ comments were nativist, xenophobic, counterfactual and politically stupid. But they simply do not meet the standard definition of racist, a word so recklessly flung around these days that its actual meaning is being lost.”

The president cleaned up his remarks a few days later saying:

“These are people that hate our country. If you’re not happy in the U.S., if you’re complaining all the time, very simply, you can leave.”

By the way, leaving isn’t Trump’s idea. Many leftists pledged to flee America altogether if Trump were elected president.

The bottom line is that when leftists have no other winning argument, they falsely accuse others of racism. Republicans cower at the charge and often give the leftists what they want.

Black Americans who are octogenarians, or nearly so, need to explain what true racism is, not to correct white liberals but to inform young black people.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2STLHOA Tyler Durden

This 350 Square Feet Apartment In NYC Costs $645k

A newly renovated 350 square feet apartment in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood has been listed for a whopping $645,000.

The cost per square foot for the micro-apartment is about $1,843, while the average for the neighborhood is $1,417, according to Zillow.

Business Insider points out that the typical American home is about 2,687 square feet and costs around $228,000, which makes the cost per square foot around $85.

Eco-conscious architect and entrepreneur Graham Hill designed the micro-apartment several years ago.

Hill said in a 2016 interview with Dwell magazine. “I believe we intuitively desire simpler lives filled with high-quality experiences, relationships, and possessions.”

The 350 square feet micro-apartment is the second Hill renovated at 150 Sullivan Street. The other unit, which has about 100 square feet more, comes in at 450 square feet, is a bit more spacious with seating for ten dinner guest, host two quests and has a home office. It sold for $790,000 in 2014.

Americans are using three times as much living space today as they did in the 1950s. Even with all this space, we’re supporting a 22-billion-dollar personal storage industry. I see a home like this as a compelling alternative to the status quo,” Hill told Dwell magazine in 2012.

According to 6sqft, Hill listed the 350 square feet apartment last year for $750,000. Fast forward one year later with a real estate bust underway in Manhattan, and the property is now going for $645,000, a 13% discount over last year’s price.

We have warned that a nationwide housing slowdown is underway, data from the second quarter show that Manhattan real estate has entered a vulnerability period. The market plateaued from 2016 through May 2018, the combination of higher mortgage rates, declining foreign buyers, and a cap on the SALT deduction caused the Manhattan Zillow Home Value Index to slide 14% in one year.

Supply of homes is also another big issue for SoHo, the average days on Zillow almost doubled, from 111 days in May 2018 to 209 days in May 2019, hitting 2013 levels.

With an overall deteriorating real estate market in Manhattan, it’s likely the 350 square feet micro-apartment will have trouble selling and continue to see drastic reductions in its list price.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2GCwXyQ Tyler Durden

We Just Witnessed 3 Major Developments That Could Easily Lead To Global War

Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

It has been a seemingly quiet summer in America so far, but meanwhile we are witnessing major developments on the other side of the globe that could change everything.  We are so close to war, and yet most people have absolutely no idea what is happening.  In fact, if you showed most Americans a blank map of the world, they couldn’t even pick out Iran, Hong Kong or North Korea. 

There is so much apathy in our society today, and so little knowledge about foreign affairs, and so most people simply do not grasp the importance of the drama that is playing out right in front of our eyes.  But if a major war does erupt, none of our lives are ever going to be the same again.  So I am going to keep writing about these things, because I believe that we have reached an absolutely critical juncture in our history.

Let’s start with a stunning new development in the Middle East.

Even though most Americans do not realize it, Israel and Iran are already shooting at each other.  Israel has been striking Iranian military targets inside Syria for months, but now the rules of engagement have apparently changed, because in recent days the IDF has started conducting airstrikes against Iranian targets inside Iraq

In an unprecedented move, Israel has expanded its attacks on Iranian targets, with two bombing strikes on Iran-run bases in Iraq in the space of ten days. The Israeli Air Force carried out the military strikes with F-35 jets, according to Asharq Al-Awsat, an Arabic-language newspaper published in London. News of the attacks comes just a day after the US and Israel tested a missile defence system which used targets “similar to Iranian nuclear missiles”.

The reason this is being called “an unprecedented move” is because this is the very first time since 1981 that we have seen Israeli airstrikes inside Iraq.

Needless to say, these latest airstrikes have absolutely enraged the Iranians.  It looks like the Israeli government has determined that any Iranian military targets outside of Iran itself are fair game, and it is probably only a matter of time before Iran strikes back in a major way.

And if Iran ultimately decides that one of the best ways to strike back is to start hitting targets inside of Israel, that could be the spark that sets off a major war in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, it appears that something major is brewing in China.

The political protests that have made global headlines in Hong Kong in recent weeks have greatly angered the Chinese government.  They were probably hoping that the protests would quickly subside and soon be forgotten, but that hasn’t happened.

So now China is faced with a decision.  If such protests were happening elsewhere in China, they would be brutally crushed, but Hong Kong is a special case.

If the Chinese are too harsh with the protesters in Hong Kong, that could turn world opinion against them, but if they do nothing that could encourage protests to start happening in other area of the country.

In the end, the Chinese will probably do what they always do, and that means crushing the opposition.  And Zero Hedge is reporting that Chinese forces are currently gathering “on Hong Kong’s border”

Massive anti-Beijing protests which have gripped Hong Kong over the past month, and have become increasingly violent as both an overwhelmed local police force and counter-protesters have hit back with force, are threatening to escalate on a larger geopolitical scale after the White House weighed in this week.

With China fast losing patience, there are new reports of a significant build-up of Chinese security forces on Hong Kong’s border, as Bloomberg reports:

The White House is monitoring what a senior administration official called a congregation of Chinese forces on Hong Kong’s border.

Technically, Hong Kong is considered to be part of China, but it has always been allowed wide latitude to govern itself ever since it was handed over to the Chinese.

But now things could be about to change dramatically, and some are even using the word “invade” to describe what is about to happen.  For example, just consider this tweet from Kyle Bass

“The White House is monitoring a buildup of chinese forces on Hong Kong’s border, a senior administration official said.” Here we go..the moment the pla army marches from Shenzhen, it’s over. china’s army is going to invade HK. It’s inevitable. #hk #china

If Chinese forces start pouring into Hong Kong, the Trump administration is going to throw a fit.  Relations between our two nations are already the worst that they have been since the end of the Korean War, and the situation in Hong Kong could potentially push things over the edge.

In fact, the Chinese have already been placing the blame for the protests in Hong Kong squarely on the U.S. government

“It’s clear that Mr. Pompeo has put himself in the wrong position and still regards himself as the head of the CIA,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a news briefing“He might think that violent activities in Hong Kong are reasonable because after all, this is the creation of the U.S.”

China’s position has been to recently declare the protests going “far beyond” what’s legal and “peaceful” amid clashes with police.

We shall see what happens, but this certainly has the potential to push the United States and China much, much closer to conflict.

On top of everything else, North Korea just fired two more missiles into the ocean

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles early on Wednesday, the South Korean military said, only days after it launched two other missiles intended to pressure South Korea and the United States to stop upcoming military drills.

The latest launches were from the Hodo peninsula on North Korea’s east coast, the same area from where last week’s were conducted, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement. It said it was monitoring in case of additional launches.

The North Koreans are greatly alarmed by the joint military drills that the U.S. and South Korea will soon be conducting, and whenever they get greatly upset about something they seem to express that displeasure by firing off more missiles.

Yes, President Trump and Kim Jong-Un have been talking, but things remain extremely tense and it wouldn’t take very much at all for a major conflict to erupt on the Korean peninsula.

Without a doubt, we live at a time of “wars and rumors of wars”, and those with discerning eyes can see what is happening.

The chess pieces are slowly being moved into place, and the combatants are almost ready.

Any number of things could ultimately spark World War 3, and once it begins it is going to be nearly impossible to stop.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2LTRuD0 Tyler Durden

NY Fire Commissioners Demand New 9/11 Probe, Citing “Overwhelming Evidence of Pre-Planted Explosives”

New York area fire commissioners have called for a new investigation into 9/11, claiming that “overwhelming evidence” of “pre-planted explosives…caused the destruction of the three World Trade Center buildings.” The Franklin Square and Munson Fire District outside of Queens, New York made history by becoming the first legislative body in the country to support a new investigation into the events of 9/11, according to Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.

The resolution, read aloud and passed during a July 24, 2019 meeting and calling for the investigation was drafted by Commissioner Christopher Gioia and was unanimously approved by the five commissioners. 

According to Activist Post, Commissioner Christopher Gioia said: “We’re a tight-knit community and we never forget our fallen brothers and sisters. You better believe that when the entire fire service of New York State is on board, we will be an unstoppable force. We were the first fire district to pass this resolution. We won’t be the last.”

Franklin Square and Munson Fire District commissioners: Philip F. Malloy, Jr (left), Dennis G. Lyons (second from left): Joseph M. Torregrossa (center); Christopher L. Gioia (second from right); Les Saltzman (right).

According to the AE911 report:

The impact of 9/11 on the community extends well beyond the victims and their grieving families. On September 12, 2001, the Franklin Square Fire Department was called in to assist with the massive rescue and recovery effort that was just getting underway. Countless members of the department, including Gioia and Commissioner Philip Malloy (then rank-and-file firefighters), spent weeks on the pile searching in vain for civilians and fellow responders who might still be alive. Today, Malloy is one of thousands suffering chronic health effects.

The department also lost one of its own in Thomas J. Hetzel, affectionately referred to as “Tommy” by the commissioners. Hetzel was a full-time member of the New York Fire Department in addition to serving as a volunteer firefighter in Franklin Square. A touching memorial to Hetzel was on display during the meeting, and Hetzel’s widow, parents, and sister were all in attendance.

“The Hetzel and Evans families were very appreciative of the proceedings,” Gioia continued. “They know it’s an uphill struggle. But at least they have hope, which is something they haven’t had in a long time.”

Conversing with guests after the meeting, Commissioner Dennis Lyons said: “We have a memorial — a piece of steel from the World Trade Center with 28 holes where the nuts and bolts used to go. Every year on the 11th, we put a rose in each hole for the 24 Nassau County firefighters and four Franklin Square residents who died on 9/11.”

The department’s full resolution reads:

Whereas, the attacks of September 11, 2001, are inextricably and forever tied to the Franklin Square and Munson Fire Department;

Whereas, on September 11, 2001, while operating at the World Trade Center in New York City, firefighter Thomas J. Hetzel, badge #290 of Hook and Ladder Company #1, Franklin Square and Munson Fire Department of New York, was killed in performance of his duties, along with 2,976 other emergency responders and civilians;

Whereas, members of the Franklin Square and Munson Fire Department were called upon to assist in the subsequent rescue and recovery operations and cleanup of the World Trade Center site, afflicting many of them with life-threatening illnesses as a result of breathing the deadly toxins present at the site;

Whereas, the Board of Fire Commissioners of the Franklin Square and Munson Fire District recognizes the significant and compelling nature of the petition before the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York reporting un-prosecuted federal crimes at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and calling upon the United States Attorney to present that petition to a Special Grand Jury pursuant to the United States Constitution and 18 U.S.C. SS 3332(A);

Whereas, the overwhelming evidence presented in said petition demonstrates beyond any doubt that pre-planted explosives and/or incendiaries — not just airplanes and the ensuing fires — caused the destruction of the three World Trade Center buildings, killing the vast majority of the victims who perished that day;

Whereas, the victims of 9/11, their families, the people of New York City, and our nation deserve that every crime related to the attacks of September 11, 2001, be investigated to the fullest and that every person who was responsible face justice;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Board of Fire Commissioners of the Franklin Square and Munson Fire District fully supports a comprehensive federal grand jury investigation and prosecution of every crime related to the attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as any and all efforts by other government entities to investigate and uncover the full truth surrounding the events of that horrible day.

Richard Gage, AIA of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth appeared on the Quoth the Raven podcast last Friday to discuss why he, and his organization, believe a new investigation is warranted. 

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2YwdVjv Tyler Durden

Auer Deference Post-Kisor

Auer deference, under which courts are required to defer to reasonable agency interpretations of their own ambiguous regulations, has long been one of the more problematic doctrines within administrative law. This past term, in Kisor v. Wilkie, the Court was asked to overturn Auer, but only four justices were willing to take that step.

The Supreme Court may not have been willing to eliminate Auer deference in Kisor , but it certainly attempted to bring it to heel. Justice Kagan’s opinion for the Court claimed to uphold Auer v. Robbins, yet her opinion for the Court emphasized the limits on Auer deference, as it also “compile[d] and further develop[ed]” them. As reformulated in Kisor, Auer deference now requires a context-dependent, five-step analysis in order to determine whether a court must defer to an agency’s interpretation of its own regulation.

As Justice Kagan’s opinion for the Court makes explicit, Auer deference has a limited role to play in administrative law, and should only be applied in a limited set of circumstances. For starters, the question of Auer deference may only arise if the regulation at issue is truly ambiguous—not merely complicated or technical, but truly ambiguous. As Justice Kagan explained, “a court cannot wave the ambiguity flag just because it found the regulation impenetrable on first read.” The reviewing court must utilize all of the traditional tools of textual interpretation and can only even consider deference upon concluding the regulation at issue contains “genuine ambiguity” as to the question at hand.

But ambiguity is not enough. The agency’s interpretation must constitute a reasonable interpretation of the relevant text, represent the agency’s official and authoritative interpretation, be with within the agency’s expertise, and reflect the agency’s considered judgement with due regard for notice and reliance interests. Auer deference remains to be used “where it applies,” Justice Kagan explained, but “it often doesn’t.”

The upshot of Kisor is that reviewing courts should rely upon Auer deference to resolve cases less often than they have to date. Indeed, this was the result in Kisor itself, where every justice agreed the Federal Circuad been too quick to conclude the applicable VA regulation was ambiguous and that the VA’s interpretation merited deference.

The Supreme Court has given us a more “tame” and less “menacing” Auer doctrine.  The question is whether lower courts will get the message. For while Justice Kagan’s opinion is clear, the headline result is still that Auer v. Robbins was not overturned and Auer deference is still with us. Some courts make take this as a reason to continue on as before, particularly when the alternative is assuming responsibility for the heavy interpretative lifting.

One of the first courts to consider how Kisor modifies the application of Auer was the Oregon Supreme Court—and the justices split over the question. In Eastern Oregon Mining Association v. Department of Environmental Quality, the court considered the application of the Clean Water Act’s permitting requirements to suction dredge mining. A majority of the court concluded Kisor supported its conclusion that the state DEQ’s permit was valid under the CWA and applicable regulations.

The court was not unanimous. One justice dissented, arguing that Kisor required the court to look more closely before deferring to a federal agency’s interpretation of its own rules. Whether or not the majority reached the correct conclusion on the ultimate question, the dissent makes a persuasive case that the majority failed to heed Justice Kagan’s admonition not to rush to deference.

Perhaps the Oregon Supreme Court reached the right bottom line, and perhaps this is a one off. Kisor has scarcely been on the books for a month, so few courts have dug into it. Yet it will be interesting to see whether lower courts heed the message that Auer deference has a far more limited role to play in a post-Kisor world.

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Viva Maduro! The Chicago Teachers Union’s Solidarity Trip To Venezuela

Authored by Mark Glennon via WirePoints.org,

Surely this must be a parody, I thought when I first saw a story on it. A reader here sent me a link to something called FightBack!News. But I read it twice and plenty of other sources confirm it: The Chicago Teachers union has a delegation in Venezuela to show their solidarity with Nicolás Maduro’s socialist regime.

Source: FightBackNews.

Their goals are “to learn what they could from Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, exchange views on effective education and to show solidarity with the students, teachers and social movements of Venezuela,” says the story.

The CTU delegation with some Venezuelan electrical workers. Source: FightBackNews.

Delegation members are personally sharing their wonderment at Venezuelan socialism on a blog called “Radical Educator Collective.”  The communes they visited particularly impressed them.

They quoted a Venezuelan official saying communes make society less individualistic since groups of people are working together to decide their needs and how to work collectively towards solutions.

“This is why Venezuela became a threat to the USA,” wrote delegation member Sarah Chambers.

“The USA does not want people to realize that another world is possible with justice and love.”

Chambers also wrote on Twitter that the delegation hadn’t seen a single homeless person during their trip. No mention that housing might be plentiful because over three million people have fled – about 10% of the population.

Among the wisdom they’ve acquired, according to the article, is that 75% of Venezuela’s budget goes to social programs. “What country in the world does that?” asked delegate Valeria Vargas.

“In the USA, 50% of our budget goes to war.”

She’s a math teacher, the article says, but maybe we should give her a break because 50% kinda sounds like the real number, which is 15%.

What about Venezuela’s rampant hunger, disease, childhood mortality, crime and despair that have filled headlines in recent years? Well, yes, there are “issues,” says the blog, but they all stem from American sanctions and meddling.

“The mainstream news is right that there are some issues in Venezuela, but where they are wrong is who has created those issues,” it says.

What about how human rights organizations across the globe, from all political perspectives, have hammered the regime for its extrajudicial executions, attacks on journalists, harassment of human rights activists, horrible prisons, rampant corruption and more? No mention of that.

The CTU’s fondness for the Maduro regime clearly goes beyond the delegation members. This spring, the CTU Executive Board and House of Delegates each unanimously passed a resolutionopposing “the invasion of Venezuela” and criticizing the United States and its allies for harassing the regime.

That delegate mentioned earlier, Sarah Chambers, is a CTU Executive Board Member. In 2017, the school district fired her for, as reported by WTTW,

“leaving her own classroom to barge into classrooms of other teachers and issue her own instructions to students, interfering with statewide tests, and participating in a scheme to remove and transport students without any chaperone who had cleared criminal background checks, without alerting school officials which students would be missing from class and which students were unaccounted for….”

However, she claimed she was fired in retaliation for other matters and the CTU got her reinstated, the union says.

Wouldn’t you like to see the comps for teachers in Venezuela?

Illinoisans outside of Chicago may laugh at all this, but they should know they’re helping pay for it. State taxpayers contributed $239 million to the Chicago teachers pension last year under the bailout legislation passed a couple years ago.

They’re in contract negotiations now, demanding more and threatening to strike.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if the delegates asked their teacher counterparts in Venezuela how their salaries and pensions compare to theirs in America? In Chicago, their average final salary is $98,000 and average annual pension after 30 years of service is $70,000. Not bad for about 165 days of work per year in a district that pays even the employee’s pension contribution.

The irony here is that the CTU’s extreme politics are matched by the extreme simplicity of how Illinois could not only bury the CTU but solve all the school district’s financial and pension problems. Just reconstitute it, which we’ve explained before. Start a new school district, take only the good teachers and assets from the old. Go forward with a new retirement plan that’s affordable, giving the district a fresh start, and keep CTU types the hell away from the kids.

But that would require legislation from Springfield where, as with so much else, there’s no political will to fix anything.

More of the delegation with Venezuelan locals. Source: FightBackNews.

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