wakingtimes--2020-02-12--WATCH: Missing Coronavirus Journalist’s Call for National Revolution Against Communism

Is China using the Coronavirus situation to mercilessly stamp out a national revolution ?
Is it merely a coincidence that the streets of Hong Kong are now empty when the Chinese government couldn ’ t shut down massive months-long protests just weeks ago ?
No one outside of China knows the truth about what is happening right now inside the world ’ s largest communist nation , but videos and citizen journalist reports that have made it beyond the great firewall of China show , if nothing else , how a totalitarian and authoritarian regime maintains brutal control by terrorizing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being dragged out of their home and forced into vans and hauled away because they were supposedly infected with the coronavirus only tell part of the story .
Other reports indicate that a massive crackdown on information , social media , and censorship campaign is also underway .
The Chinese Communist Party ( CCP ) is engaged in a national campaign of terror and censorship .
But why ?
READ : CORONAVIRUS CRISIS EXPOSES THE BRUTAL , INHUMANE AND ORWELLIAN TRUTH ABOUT COMMUNISM Among the many citizen journalists supplying reports to world , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ went public with one of the first videos inside a Wuhan hospital showing a great number of body bags and dead people , thereby defying the official communist party ’ s propaganda that the situation is not that serious and that everything is under control .
History has shown again and agin how totalitarian regimes cruelly squash dissent .
They lock down cities under threat of official violence or arrest , and then go door-to-door dragging dissidents from their homes and interning them in death camps .
If the Chinese people were emboldened @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the CCP would be facing a major crisis of control , which could have spread throughout the entire country .
The coronavirus outbreak appears to be offering the perfect cover for a purge of dissidents and of those who would dare voice information and opinions contrarian to the official party propaganda .
We outside of China won ’ t know the truth for sometime , but if we pay attention to one of the last self-made videos of Fang Bin , this would appear to be the case .
In it he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rise up against the communist/Marxist government which has all Chinese people perpetually living in fear and insecurity .
Fang Bin recently went missing , reportedly arrested by the CCP , while a handful of other truth tellers have recently seen the same fate .
Do the people of China deserve to keep on living under the medieval totalitarianism of communism ?
Isaac Davis is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com .
He is an outspoken advocate of liberty and of a voluntary society .
He is an avid reader of history and passionate about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ control matrix .
Follow him on Facebook , here .
This article ( WATCH : Missing Coronavirus Journalist ’ s Call for National Revolution Against Communism ) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Isaac Davis and WakingTimes.com .
It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution , author bio , and this copyright statement .

WATCH: Missing Coronavirus Journalist’s Call for National Revolution Against Communism
Isaac Davis, Staff Writer
Waking Times
Is China using the Coronavirus situation to mercilessly stamp out a national revolution? Is it merely a coincidence that the streets of Hong Kong are now empty when the Chinese government couldn’t shut down massive months-long protests just weeks ago?
No one outside of China knows the truth about what is happening right now inside the world’s largest communist nation, but videos and citizen journalist reports that have made it beyond the great firewall of China show, if nothing else, how a totalitarian and authoritarian regime maintains brutal control by terrorizing its own people.
Videos showing people being dragged out of their home and forced into vans and hauled away because they were supposedly infected with the coronavirus only tell part of the story. Other reports indicate that a massive crackdown on information, social media, and censorship campaign is also underway. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is engaged in a national campaign of terror and censorship. But why?
Among the many citizen journalists supplying reports to world, Fang Bin made international headlines when he went public with one of the first videos inside a Wuhan hospital showing a great number of body bags and dead people, thereby defying the official communist party’s propaganda that the situation is not that serious and that everything is under control.
History has shown again and agin how totalitarian regimes cruelly squash dissent. They lock down cities under threat of official violence or arrest, and then go door-to-door dragging dissidents from their homes and interning them in death camps.
If the Chinese people were emboldened to stand up against such generational repression, the CCP would be facing a major crisis of control, which could have spread throughout the entire country. The coronavirus outbreak appears to be offering the perfect cover for a purge of dissidents and of those who would dare voice information and opinions contrarian to the official party propaganda.
We outside of China won’t know the truth for sometime, but if we pay attention to one of the last self-made videos of Fang Bin, this would appear to be the case. In it he pleads for the people of China to rise up against the communist/Marxist government which has all Chinese people perpetually living in fear and insecurity.
The last video of Bin Fang who exposed the truth of #coronavirus, before he was captured by the Chinese Communist Party.
The western and US,please save Bin from CCP’s persecution
retweet and let more people know. pic.twitter.com/QrLQFRASqk — Himalaya Global (@HimalayaGlobal) February 12, 2020
Fang Bin recently went missing, reportedly arrested by the CCP, while a handful of other truth tellers have recently seen the same fate. Do the people of China deserve to keep on living under the medieval totalitarianism of communism?
Read more articles from Isaac Davis .
About the Author
Isaac Davis is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com. He is an outspoken advocate of liberty and of a voluntary society. He is an avid reader of history and passionate about becoming self-sufficient to break free of the control matrix. Follow him on Facebook, here.
This article (WATCH: Missing Coronavirus Journalist’s Call for National Revolution Against Communism) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Isaac Davis and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.


wakingtimes--2020-02-12--We’re All in This Together: A Case for Not Giving Up on the American Dream

Listen : we don ’ t have to agree about everything .
We don ’ t even have to agree about most things .
We don ’ t have to love each other .
We don ’ t even have to like each other .
And we certainly don ’ t need to think alike or dress alike or worship alike or vote alike or love alike .
But if this experiment in freedom is to succeed—and there are some days the outlook is decidedly grim—then we ’ ve got to find some way of relating to one another that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or so self-righteous that we ’ re doomed to failure before we even start .
America has been a warring nation—a military empire intent on occupation and conquest—for so long that perhaps we , the citizens of this warring nation , have forgotten what it means to live in peace , with the world and one another .
We ’ d better get back to the fundamentals of what it means to be human beings who can get along if we want to have any hope of restoring some semblance of sanity , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being turned into a foul-mouthed , hot-headed free-for-all bar fight by politicians for whom this is all one big , elaborate game designed to increase their powers and fatten their bank accounts .
Maybe Robert Fulghum , author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten , was right : maybe all we really need to know about “ how to live and what to do and how to be ” is as simple as remembering the basic life lessons we were taught as children .
What were those lessons @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Play fair .
Don ’ t hit people .
Put things back where you found them .
Clean up your own mess .
Don ’ t take things that aren ’ t yours .
Say you ’ re sorry when you hurt somebody… .
When you go out into the world , watch out for traffic , hold hands , and stick together… .
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup—they all die .
So do we .
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books @ @ @ @ @ @ @ word of all—LOOK .
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere .
The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation .
Ecology and politics and equality and sane living .
Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm .
Think what a better world it would be if we all—the whole world—had cookies and milk about three o ’ clock every afternoon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for a nap .
Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess .
And it is still true , no matter how old you are—when you go out into the world , it is best to hold hands and stick together .
The powers-that-be want us to forget these basic lessons in how to get along .
They want us to fume and rage and be so consumed with fighting the so-called enemies in our midst @ @ @ @ @ @ @ closing in around us .
No matter what happens in the next presidential election , no matter how many ways the powers-that-be attempt to sow division and distrust among the populace , no matter how many shouting commentators perpetuate the belief that there is only one “ right ” view and one “ wrong ” view in politics , the only “ us vs. them ” that will matter is whether “ we the people ” care enough to stand united in our commitment to the principles on which this nation was founded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for all .
The rest is just noise intended to distract us from the fact that life in America has become a gut-wrenching , soul-sucking , misery-drenched , demoralizing existence , and it ’ s the government that is responsible .
Even so , here ’ s why I ’ m not giving up on the American dream of freedom , and—despite all the reasons to the contrary—why you shouldn ’ t either : because this is still our country .
I ’ m outraged at what has been done to our freedoms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , too .
We have been subjected to crackdowns , clampdowns , shutdowns , showdowns , shootdowns , standdowns , knockdowns , putdowns , breakdowns , lockdowns , takedowns , slowdowns , meltdowns , and never-ending letdowns .
We ’ ve been held up , stripped down , faked out , photographed , frisked , fracked , hacked , tracked , cracked , intercepted , accessed , spied on , zapped , mapped , searched , shot at , tasered , tortured , tackled , trussed up , tricked , lied to , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shoved aside , saddled with debt not of our own making , sold a bill of goods about national security , tuned out by those representing us , tossed aside , and taken to the cleaners .
We ’ ve had our freedoms turned inside out , our democratic structure flipped upside down , and our house of cards left in a shambles .
We ’ ve had our children burned by flashbang grenades , our dogs shot , and our old folks hospitalized after “ accidental ” encounters with marauding SWAT teams @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as citizens we have no rights within 100 miles of our own border , now considered “ Constitution-free zones.
” We ’ ve had our faces filed in government databases , our biometrics crosschecked against criminal databanks , and our consumerist tendencies catalogued for future marketing overtures .
We ’ ve seen the police transformed from community peacekeepers to point guards for the militarized corporate state .
The police continue to push , prod , poke , probe , scan , shoot and intimidate the very individuals—we the taxpayers—whose rights they were hired @ @ @ @ @ @ @ centers , police have surreptitiously spied on our activities and snooped on our communications , using hi-tech devices provided by the Department of Homeland Security .
We ’ ve been deemed suspicious for engaging in such dubious activities as talking too long on a cell phone and stretching too long before jogging , dubbed extremists and terrorists for criticizing the government and suggesting it is tyrannical or oppressive , and subjected to forced colonoscopies and anal probes for allegedly rolling through a stop sign .
We ’ ve been arrested for all manner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be considered criminal , let alone uncommon or unlawful , behavior : letting our kids walk to the playground alone giving loose change to a homeless man , feeding the hungry , and living off the grid .
We ’ ve been sodomized , victimized , jeopardized , demoralized , traumatized , stigmatized , vandalized , demonized , polarized and terrorized , often without having done anything to justify such treatment .
Blame it on a government mindset that renders us guilty before we ’ ve even been charged , let alone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this way , law-abiding individuals have had their homes mistakenly raided by SWAT teams that got the address wrong .
One accountant found himself at the center of a misguided ( armed ) police standoff after surveillance devices confused his license plate with that of a drug felon .
We ’ ve been railroaded into believing that our votes count , that we live in a republic or a democracy , that elections make a difference , that it matters whether we vote Republican or Democrat , and that our elected officials are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Truth be told , we live in an oligarchy , politicians represent only the profit motives of the corporate state , whose leaders know all too well that there is no discernible difference between red and blue politics , because there is only one color that matters in politics : green .
We ’ ve gone from having privacy in our inner sanctums to having nowhere to hide , with smart pills that monitor the conditions of our bodies , homes that spy on us ( with smart meters that monitor our electric @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can be controlled remotely ) and cars that listen to our conversations , track our whereabouts and report them to the police .
Even our cities have become wall-to-wall electronic concentration camps , with police now able to record hi-def video of everything that takes place within city limits .
We ’ ve had our schools locked down and turned into prisons , our students handcuffed , shackled and arrested for engaging in childish behavior such as food fights , our children ’ s biometrics stored , their school IDs chipped , their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , sold and bartered for profit by government contractors , all the while they are treated like criminals and taught to march in lockstep with the police state .
We ’ ve been rendered enemy combatants in our own country , denied basic due process rights , held against our will without access to an attorney or being charged with a crime , and left to waste away in jail until such a time as the government is willing to let us go or allow us to defend ourselves .
We ’ ve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with our hard-earned tax dollars used against us , from unpiloted , weaponized drones tracking our movements on the nation ’ s highways and byways and armored vehicles , assault rifles , sound cannons and grenade launchers in towns with little to no crime to an arsenal of military-grade weapons and equipment given free of charge to schools and universities .
We ’ ve been silenced , censored and forced to conform , shut up in free speech zones , gagged by hate crime laws , stifled by political correctness , muzzled by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for taking part in peaceful protests .
We ’ ve been shot by police for reaching for a license during a traffic stop , reaching for a baby during a drug bust , carrying a toy sword down a public street , and wearing headphones that hamper our ability to hear .
We ’ ve had our tax dollars spent on $ 30,000 worth of Starbucks for Department of Homeland Security employees , $ 630,000 in advertising to increase Facebook “ likes ” for the State Department , and close to $ 25 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ silly to the unnecessary , such as laughing classes for college students and programs teaching monkeys to play video games and gamble .
We ’ ve been treated like guinea pigs , targeted by the government and social media for psychological experiments on how to manipulate the masses .
We ’ ve been tasered for talking back to police , tackled for taking pictures of police abuses , and threatened with jail time for invoking our rights .
We ’ ve even been arrested by undercover cops stationed in public bathrooms who interpret @ @ @ @ @ @ @ motions after urinating to be acts of lewdness .
We ’ ve had our possessions seized and stolen by law enforcement agencies looking to cash in on asset forfeiture schemes , our jails privatized and used as a source of cheap labor for megacorporations , our gardens smashed by police seeking out suspicious-looking plants that could be marijuana , and our buying habits turned into suspicious behavior by a government readily inclined to view its citizens as terrorists .
We ’ ve had our cities used for military training drills , with Black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Shield exercises overtaking our streets , and active shooter drills wreaking havoc on unsuspecting bystanders in our schools , shopping malls and other “ soft target ” locations .
We ’ ve been told that national security is more important than civil liberties , that police dogs ’ noses are sufficient cause to carry out warrantless searches , that the best way not to get raped by police is to “ follow the law , ” that what a police officer says in court will be given preference over what video footage shows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are sufficient reasons for a cop to suspect you of wrongdoing , that police can stop and search a driver based solely on an anonymous tip , and that police officers have every right to shoot first and ask questions later if they feel threatened .
Are you outraged yet ?
You should be .
So what are you waiting for ?
Get out there and right these wrongs .
Stop waiting patiently for change to happen , stop waiting for some politician to rescue you , and take responsibility for your freedoms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ broken in your lives , in your communities , and in this country .
Get mad , get outraged , get off your duff and get out of your house , get in the streets , get in people ’ s faces , get down to your local city council , get over to your local school board , get your thoughts down on paper , get your objections plastered on protest signs , get your neighbors , friends and family to join their voices to yours , get your representatives to pay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kids to know their rights , get your local police to march in lockstep with the Constitution , get your media to act as watchdogs for the people and not lapdogs for the corporate state , get your act together , and get your house in order .
Appearances to the contrary , this country does not belong exclusively to the corporations or the special interest groups or the oligarchs or the war profiteers or any particular religious , racial or economic demographic .
This country belongs to all of us : each @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the people ” —but most especially , this country belongs to those of us who love freedom enough to stand and fight for it .
As I point out in my book Battlefield America : The War on the American People , we are fast approaching the point at which we will have nothing left to lose .
Don ’ t wait for things to get that bad before you find your voice and your conscience .
By then , it will be too late .
As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ’ s character reflects @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stand now—using every nonviolent means at your disposal—while you still can .
Don ’ t wait to reflect back on missed opportunities to push back against tyranny .
Don ’ t wait until you ’ re the last one standing .
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute , where this article ( We ’ re All in This Together : A Case for Not Giving Up on the American Dream ) was originally published .
He is the author of A Government of Wolves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Change Manifesto .

We’re All in This Together: A Case for Not Giving Up on the American Dream
John W. Whitehead, Rutherford
Waking Times
“We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”—Benjamin Franklin
Listen: we don’t have to agree about everything.
We don’t even have to agree about most things.
We don’t have to love each other. We don’t even have to like each other. And we certainly don’t need to think alike or dress alike or worship alike or vote alike or love alike. But if this experiment in freedom is to succeed—and there are some days the outlook is decidedly grim—then we’ve got to find some way of relating to one another that is not toxic or partisan or hateful or so self-righteous that we’re doomed to failure before we even start.
America has been a warring nation—a military empire intent on occupation and conquest—for so long that perhaps we, the citizens of this warring nation, have forgotten what it means to live in peace, with the world and one another.
We’d better get back to the fundamentals of what it means to be human beings who can get along if we want to have any hope of restoring some semblance of sanity, civility and decency to what is progressively being turned into a foul-mouthed, hot-headed free-for-all bar fight by politicians for whom this is all one big, elaborate game designed to increase their powers and fatten their bank accounts.
Maybe Robert Fulghum, author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, was right: maybe all we really need to know about “how to live and what to do and how to be” is as simple as remembering the basic life lessons we were taught as children.
What were those lessons? Fulghum reminds us:
Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody…. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together…. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup—they all die. So do we. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned—the biggest word of all—LOOK. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living. Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all—the whole world—had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess. And it is still true, no matter how old you are—when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
The powers-that-be want us to forget these basic lessons in how to get along. They want us to fume and rage and be so consumed with fighting the so-called enemies in our midst that we never notice the prison walls closing in around us.
Don’t be distracted.
No matter what happens in the next presidential election, no matter how many ways the powers-that-be attempt to sow division and distrust among the populace, no matter how many shouting commentators perpetuate the belief that there is only one “right” view and one “wrong” view in politics, the only “us vs. them” that will matter is whether “we the people” care enough to stand united in our commitment to the principles on which this nation was founded: freedom, justice, and equality for all.
The rest is just noise intended to distract us from the fact that life in America has become a gut-wrenching, soul-sucking, misery-drenched, demoralizing existence, and it’s the government that is responsible.
Even so, here’s why I’m not giving up on the American dream of freedom, and—despite all the reasons to the contrary—why you shouldn’t either: because this is still our country.
I’m outraged at what has been done to our freedoms and our country. You should be, too.
We have been subjected to crackdowns, clampdowns, shutdowns, showdowns, shootdowns, standdowns, knockdowns, putdowns, breakdowns, lockdowns, takedowns, slowdowns, meltdowns, and never-ending letdowns.
We’ve been held up, stripped down, faked out, photographed, frisked, fracked, hacked, tracked, cracked, intercepted, accessed, spied on, zapped, mapped, searched, shot at, tasered, tortured, tackled, trussed up, tricked, lied to, labeled, libeled, leered at, shoved aside, saddled with debt not of our own making, sold a bill of goods about national security, tuned out by those representing us, tossed aside, and taken to the cleaners.
We’ve had our freedoms turned inside out, our democratic structure flipped upside down, and our house of cards left in a shambles.
We’ve had our children burned by flashbang grenades, our dogs shot, and our old folks hospitalized after “accidental” encounters with marauding SWAT teams.
We’ve been told that as citizens we have no rights within 100 miles of our own border, now considered “Constitution-free zones.”
We’ve had our faces filed in government databases, our biometrics crosschecked against criminal databanks, and our consumerist tendencies catalogued for future marketing overtures.
We’ve seen the police transformed from community peacekeepers to point guards for the militarized corporate state. The police continue to push, prod, poke, probe, scan, shoot and intimidate the very individuals—we the taxpayers—whose rights they were hired to safeguard. Networked together through fusion centers, police have surreptitiously spied on our activities and snooped on our communications, using hi-tech devices provided by the Department of Homeland Security.
We’ve been deemed suspicious for engaging in such dubious activities as talking too long on a cell phone and stretching too long before jogging, dubbed extremists and terrorists for criticizing the government and suggesting it is tyrannical or oppressive, and subjected to forced colonoscopies and anal probes for allegedly rolling through a stop sign.
We’ve been arrested for all manner of “crimes” that never used to be considered criminal, let alone uncommon or unlawful, behavior: letting our kids walk to the playground alone , giving loose change to a homeless man, feeding the hungry, and living off the grid.
We’ve been sodomized, victimized, jeopardized, demoralized, traumatized, stigmatized, vandalized, demonized, polarized and terrorized, often without having done anything to justify such treatment. Blame it on a government mindset that renders us guilty before we’ve even been charged, let alone convicted, of any wrongdoing. In this way, law-abiding individuals have had their homes mistakenly raided by SWAT teams that got the address wrong. One accountant found himself at the center of a misguided (armed) police standoff after surveillance devices confused his license plate with that of a drug felon.
We’ve been railroaded into believing that our votes count, that we live in a republic or a democracy, that elections make a difference, that it matters whether we vote Republican or Democrat, and that our elected officials are looking out for our best interests. Truth be told, we live in an oligarchy, politicians represent only the profit motives of the corporate state, whose leaders know all too well that there is no discernible difference between red and blue politics, because there is only one color that matters in politics: green.
We’ve gone from having privacy in our inner sanctums to having nowhere to hide, with smart pills that monitor the conditions of our bodies, homes that spy on us (with smart meters that monitor our electric usage and thermostats and light switches that can be controlled remotely) and cars that listen to our conversations, track our whereabouts and report them to the police. Even our cities have become wall-to-wall electronic concentration camps, with police now able to record hi-def video of everything that takes place within city limits.
We’ve had our schools locked down and turned into prisons, our students handcuffed, shackled and arrested for engaging in childish behavior such as food fights, our children’s biometrics stored, their school IDs chipped, their movements tracked, and their data bought, sold and bartered for profit by government contractors, all the while they are treated like criminals and taught to march in lockstep with the police state.
We’ve been rendered enemy combatants in our own country, denied basic due process rights, held against our will without access to an attorney or being charged with a crime, and left to waste away in jail until such a time as the government is willing to let us go or allow us to defend ourselves.
We’ve had the very military weapons we funded with our hard-earned tax dollars used against us, from unpiloted, weaponized drones tracking our movements on the nation’s highways and byways and armored vehicles, assault rifles, sound cannons and grenade launchers in towns with little to no crime to an arsenal of military-grade weapons and equipment given free of charge to schools and universities.
We’ve been silenced, censored and forced to conform, shut up in free speech zones, gagged by hate crime laws, stifled by political correctness, muzzled by misguided anti-bullying statutes, and pepper sprayed for taking part in peaceful protests.
We’ve been shot by police for reaching for a license during a traffic stop, reaching for a baby during a drug bust, carrying a toy sword down a public street, and wearing headphones that hamper our ability to hear.
We’ve had our tax dollars spent on $30,000 worth of Starbucks for Department of Homeland Security employees, $630,000 in advertising to increase Facebook “likes” for the State Department, and close to $25 billion to fund projects ranging from the silly to the unnecessary, such as laughing classes for college students and programs teaching monkeys to play video games and gamble.
We’ve been treated like guinea pigs, targeted by the government and social media for psychological experiments on how to manipulate the masses. We’ve been tasered for talking back to police, tackled for taking pictures of police abuses, and threatened with jail time for invoking our rights. We’ve even been arrested by undercover cops stationed in public bathrooms who interpret men’s “shaking off” motions after urinating to be acts of lewdness.
We’ve had our possessions seized and stolen by law enforcement agencies looking to cash in on asset forfeiture schemes, our jails privatized and used as a source of cheap labor for megacorporations, our gardens smashed by police seeking out suspicious-looking plants that could be marijuana, and our buying habits turned into suspicious behavior by a government readily inclined to view its citizens as terrorists.
We’ve had our cities used for military training drills, with Black Hawk helicopters buzzing the skies, Urban Shield exercises overtaking our streets, and active shooter drills wreaking havoc on unsuspecting bystanders in our schools, shopping malls and other “soft target” locations.
We’ve been told that national security is more important than civil liberties, that police dogs’ noses are sufficient cause to carry out warrantless searches, that the best way not to get raped by police is to “follow the law,” that what a police officer says in court will be given preference over what video footage shows, that an upright posture and acne are sufficient reasons for a cop to suspect you of wrongdoing, that police can stop and search a driver based solely on an anonymous tip, and that police officers have every right to shoot first and ask questions later if they feel threatened.
Are you outraged yet?
You should be. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and right these wrongs.
Stop waiting patiently for change to happen, stop waiting for some politician to rescue you, and take responsibility for your freedoms: start by fixing what’s broken in your lives, in your communities, and in this country.
Get mad, get outraged, get off your duff and get out of your house, get in the streets, get in people’s faces, get down to your local city council, get over to your local school board, get your thoughts down on paper, get your objections plastered on protest signs, get your neighbors, friends and family to join their voices to yours, get your representatives to pay attention to your grievances, get your kids to know their rights, get your local police to march in lockstep with the Constitution, get your media to act as watchdogs for the people and not lapdogs for the corporate state, get your act together, and get your house in order.
Appearances to the contrary, this country does not belong exclusively to the corporations or the special interest groups or the oligarchs or the war profiteers or any particular religious, racial or economic demographic.
This country belongs to all of us: each and every one of us—“we the people”—but most especially, this country belongs to those of us who love freedom enough to stand and fight for it.
As I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, we are fast approaching the point at which we will have nothing left to lose.
Don’t wait for things to get that bad before you find your voice and your conscience. By then, it will be too late.
As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s character reflects in The Gulag Archipelago:
How we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if … during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?… The cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.
Take your stand now—using every nonviolent means at your disposal—while you still can.
Don’t wait to reflect back on missed opportunities to push back against tyranny.
Don’t wait until you’re the last one standing.
Time is running out.
About the Author
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute, where this article (We’re All in This Together: A Case for Not Giving Up on the American Dream) was originally published. He is the author of A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State and The Change Manifesto.


wakingtimes--2020-02-12--Trump’s Border Wall Construction Is Blasting Native American Burial Sites

Native American graves are being blasted to clear the way for President Donald Trump ‘ s border wall .
Construction crews began “ controlled blasting ” of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona last week , CBS News reported Friday .
And Congressman Raúl Grijalva of Arizona , who represents the area , says they did so without consulting the Tohono O ’ odham Nation which considers parts of it sacred .
Specifically , contractors began blasting in an area called Monument Hill , which includes important Native American burial sites , The Washington Post explained .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Monument Hill and for two-mile buffer zones to be set up around certain sites , including Quitobaquito Springs , an archaeological site and the only natural water source for miles , according to USA Today .
Customs and Border Protection ( CBP ) confirmed that work was being done on the site .
CBP further told USA Today that it would “ continue to have an environmental monitor present ” during its activities , but Native American groups and environmental advocates are worried about what the wall could do to both sacred sites @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Organ Pipe was designated as an International Biosphere Reserve by the UN in 1976 , which called it “ a pristine example of an intact Sonoran Desert ecosystem , ” according to BBC News .
Environmentalists are worried construction could harm an underground aquifer , as well as migrating wildlife .
Laiken Jordahl of the Center for Biological Diversity told The Washington Post that construction had “ butchered ” Monument Hill .
Jordahl said construction was also destroying 200-year-old saguaro cacti .
Grijalva sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Tohono O ’ odham Nation about construction , but did not hear back .
The Trump administration is able to blast through sacred sites and threaten endangered wildlife on federal land because of the 2005 REAL ID Act , which permits the government to waive laws that interfere with national security , BBC News explained .
Grijalva said he would convene a hearing in the coming weeks to begin the process of repealing the act .

Trump’s Border Wall Construction Is Blasting Native American Burial Sites
Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch
Waking Times
Native American graves are being blasted to clear the way for President Donald Trump‘s border wall.
Construction crews began “controlled blasting” of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona last week, CBS News reported Friday. And Congressman Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, who represents the area, says they did so without consulting the Tohono O’odham Nation which considers parts of it sacred.
“This administration is basically trampling on the tribe’s history — and to put it poignantly, it’s ancestry,” Grijalva told CBS News.
Specifically, contractors began blasting in an area called Monument Hill, which includes important Native American burial sites, The Washington Post explained.
“Where they were blasting the other day on Monument Hill is the resting place for primarily Apache warriors that had been involved in battle with the O’odham. And then the O’odham people in a respectful way laid them to rest on Monument Hill,” Grijalva said in a video posted on social media Sunday.
I just got back from the border. This week, Trump blew up a sacred Native American hill on public land to build his racist wall. Watch my new update and join the growing movement to stop the wall. #NoBorderWall pic.twitter.com/YgmS94vAwO — Raul M. Grijalva (@RepRaulGrijalva) February 9, 2020
The Nation wants all construction to stop on Monument Hill and for two-mile buffer zones to be set up around certain sites, including Quitobaquito Springs, an archaeological site and the only natural water source for miles, according to USA Today.
“They’re our ancestors. They’re our remnants of who we are as a people, throughout this whole area. And it’s our obligation, it’s our duty to do what is necessary to protect that,” Tribal chairman Ned Norris Jr told the Arizona Republic, as BBC News reported.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed that work was being done on the site.
“The construction contractor has begun controlled blasting, in preparation for new border wall system construction within the Roosevelt Reservation at Monument Mountain,” A CBP spokesperson said in a statement reported by The Washington Post. “The controlled blasting is targeted and will continue intermittently for the rest of the month.”
CBP further told USA Today that it would “continue to have an environmental monitor present” during its activities, but Native American groups and environmental advocates are worried about what the wall could do to both sacred sites and the monument’s unique ecosystem.
Organ Pipe was designated as an International Biosphere Reserve by the UN in 1976, which called it “a pristine example of an intact Sonoran Desert ecosystem,” according to BBC News. Environmentalists are worried construction could harm an underground aquifer, as well as migrating wildlife.
Laiken Jordahl of the Center for Biological Diversity told The Washington Post that construction had “butchered” Monument Hill.
“It’s completely different from what it’s been before — there’s a swath of land gone from right in the middle,” he said.
Jordahl said construction was also destroying 200-year-old saguaro cacti.
“They are also sacred to the O’odham,” he explained to The Washington Post. “They see them as the embodiment of their ancestors. So to see them turned into mulch — it’s deeply upsetting.”
This is the top of "Monument Hill," a sacred site to multiple tribes, that @DHSgov is dynamiting right now to build the #borderwall. It's part of the historic homeland of the O'odham. Apache are buried here. Trump waived the Native American Graves Protection Act to allow this. pic.twitter.com/NsFeLZTaMH — Russ McSpadden (@PeccaryNotPig) February 9, 2020
Grijalva sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security in January asking it to consult with the Tohono O’odham Nation about construction, but did not hear back.
The Trump administration is able to blast through sacred sites and threaten endangered wildlife on federal land because of the 2005 REAL ID Act, which permits the government to waive laws that interfere with national security, BBC News explained.
Grijalva said he would convene a hearing in the coming weeks to begin the process of repealing the act.
About the Author
Olivia is a freelance reporter for EcoWatch.


wakingtimes--2020-02-12--Save the Insects, Save Ourselves: Researchers Sound Alarm on Bugpocalypse

Global conservation scientists drew renewed attention to the “ insect apocalypse ” underway with two companion papers published Sunday underscoring how the fate of human beings and that of insects is intertwined .
Building on the warning to humanity issued in 2017 by over 15,000 scientists—itself an updated warning from 25 years prior from the Union of Concerned Scientists—the researchers outlined what ’ s driving the insect extinctions .
Those activities take on various forms and can act “ synergistically.
” They include habitat loss , degradation , and fragmentation ; pollution from sources including pesticides , fertilizers , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ climate crisis ; overexploitation that can happen from activities including harvesting insects as pets or food sources ; and co-extinction that threatens insects that are co-dependent on vertebrates facing extinction .
At risk with these losses is not just the insects ’ “ innate value ” —though that should not be discounted , said the researchers .
Much more is at stake .
From the paper : Indeed , human reliance on these creatures is immense given the roles they have in seed dispersal , pollination , and soil formation , as well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ value including nature tourism and medical treatments .
And yet , noted the scientists , “ there is little knowledge on the functional roles that insects play in many ecosystems , with their values likely greatly underestimated.
” “ It is surprising how little we know about biodiversity at a global level , when only about 10 to 20 percent of insect and other invertebrate species have been described and named .
And of those with a name , we know little more than a brief morphological description , maybe a part of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where it was seen some time ago , ” noted co-author Pedro Cardoso from the Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus , University of Helsinki , Finland .
“ Conservation efforts have largely been focused on charismatic megafauna , especially birds and mammals , with little thought on ecosystem connectivity , ” the researchers wrote .
But “ knowledge gaps can be mitigated , ” they added , and in fact must be “ to conserve insect diversity for our own survival.
” Avenues for helping to fill the data gaps can come @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , online databases , museums , and citizen science projects .
According to the researchers , the “ current extinction crisis is deeply worrisome , ” and the time for action is now .
The second paper focused on those possible solutions .
For tropic forests , key measures include instituting formal protection of large areas of intact primary forest , connecting high-quality fragmented areas , and restoration of now-degraded ares .
Solutions for low-growth systems—such as savannas , deserts , and heathlands—include creating large-scale conservation corridors and practicing deliberate and careful management @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place as well , which can be achieved by boosting natural vegetation and heterogeneity .
Another change is to shift away from conventional agricultural practices to agro-ecological approaches that include wildflower strips and integrated pest management .
Urban and suburban areas are also key to helping curb insect declines , with increased insect-friendly green spaces such as railway embankments , allotments , and public parks .
An essential part of the strategy must be to convey the message to the public that insect conservation is key to our own future survival .
Andrea @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dreams , where this article ( Trump Administration Reauthorizes ‘ Cyanide Bombs ’ to Kill US Wildlife ) was originally published .

Save the Insects, Save Ourselves: Researchers Sound Alarm on Bugpocalypse
Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams
Waking Times
Global conservation scientists drew renewed attention to the “insect apocalypse” underway with two companion papers published Sunday underscoring how the fate of human beings and that of insects is intertwined.
Building on the warning to humanity issued in 2017 by over 15,000 scientists—itself an updated warning from 25 years prior from the Union of Concerned Scientists—the researchers outlined what’s driving the insect extinctions.
The root of the problem is clear, said the researchers: “human activity is responsible for almost all current insect population declines and extinctions.”
Those activities take on various forms and can act “synergistically.” They include habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation; pollution from sources including pesticides, fertilizers, and noise; invasive alien species; the climate crisis; overexploitation that can happen from activities including harvesting insects as pets or food sources; and co-extinction that threatens insects that are co-dependent on vertebrates facing extinction.
At risk with these losses is not just the insects’ “innate value”—though that should not be discounted, said the researchers. Much more is at stake. From the paper:
Each species contributes a unique piece to a complex living tapestry that changes in space and time. Each species represents an unrepeatable part of the history of life. In turn, each species also interacts with others and their environment in distinctive ways, weaving a complex network that sustains other species, including us.
Indeed, human reliance on these creatures is immense given the roles they have in seed dispersal, pollination, and soil formation, as well as other roles with a clear monetary value including nature tourism and medical treatments.
And yet, noted the scientists, “there is little knowledge on the functional roles that insects play in many ecosystems, with their values likely greatly underestimated.” “It is surprising how little we know about biodiversity at a global level, when only about 10 to 20 percent of insect and other invertebrate species have been described and named. And of those with a name, we know little more than a brief morphological description, maybe a part of the genetic code and a single site where it was seen some time ago,” noted co-author Pedro Cardoso from the Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus, University of Helsinki, Finland. “Conservation efforts have largely been focused on charismatic megafauna, especially birds and mammals, with little thought on ecosystem connectivity,” the researchers wrote. But “knowledge gaps can be mitigated,” they added, and in fact must be “to conserve insect diversity for our own survival.”
Avenues for helping to fill the data gaps can come from existing published data from scientific papers, online databases, museums, and citizen science projects.
According to the researchers, the “current extinction crisis is deeply worrisome,” and the time for action is now.
“Many solutions are now available to support insect populations at sustainable levels, especially through preserving and recovering natural habitats, eliminating deleterious agricultural practices including harmful pesticides, implementing measures for avoiding or eliminating the negative impacts of invasive species, taking aggressive steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and curbing the deleterious effects of overexploitation of many taxa,” the researchers added.
The second paper focused on those possible solutions.
For tropic forests, key measures include instituting formal protection of large areas of intact primary forest, connecting high-quality fragmented areas, and restoration of now-degraded ares.
Solutions for low-growth systems—such as savannas, deserts, and heathlands—include creating large-scale conservation corridors and practicing deliberate and careful management.
Conservation of freshwater systems must take place as well, which can be achieved by boosting natural vegetation and heterogeneity. Another change is to shift away from conventional agricultural practices to agro-ecological approaches that include wildflower strips and integrated pest management.
Urban and suburban areas are also key to helping curb insect declines, with increased insect-friendly green spaces such as railway embankments, allotments, and public parks.
Major obstacles remain, noted the researchers, who pointed to global fragmentation of landscapes—a problem worsened by the climate crisis—as well as “the current lack of sufficient collective political will and concerted effort, as with climate change mitigation.”
An essential part of the strategy must be to convey the message to the public that insect conservation is key to our own future survival.
“While small groups of people can impact insect conservation locally, collective consciousness and a globally coordinated effort for species inventorying, monitoring, and conservation is required for large-scale recovery,” said Michael Samways, distinguished professor at Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
About the Autor
Andrea Germanos is a staff writer for Common Dreams, where this article (Trump Administration Reauthorizes ‘Cyanide Bombs’ to Kill US Wildlife) was originally published.


wakingtimes--2020-02-12--Will Google’s Social Credit System Determine Your Future?

You may have heard about China ’ s social credit system — a dystopian monitoring scheme focused on the moral dimension of human life and behavior — which was conceived in 2014 and rolled out in in earnest in 2018 .
As reported by Business Insider in October that year : “ Like private credit scores , a person ’ s social score can move up and down depending on their behavior .
The exact methodology is a secret — but examples of infractions include bad driving , smoking in non-smoking zones , buying too many video games and posting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ started punishing people by restricting their travel .
Nine million people with low scores have been blocked from buying tickets for domestic flights … They can also clamp down on luxury options — three million people are barred from getting business-class train tickets .
The eventual system will punish bad passengers specifically .
Potential misdeeds include trying to ride with no ticket , loitering in front of boarding gates , or smoking in no-smoking areas.
” Aside from impeding your ability to travel , an individual ’ s punishment for “ bad behavior @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also result in slower internet speed , being banned from attending certain schools or getting a higher education , being barred from certain types of employment , confiscation of pets and , of course , public shaming .
In the bitchute video above , Truthstream Media details how this kind of public “ trustworthiness ” scoring can alter the way people behave — indeed their view of reality itself , and the vast data mining required for the system to work .
As noted in the video : Google , of course , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Orwellian surveillance scheme .
It is , by far , the largest monopoly the world has ever seen , and its data-siphoning tentacles reach deep into our everyday lives , collecting data on every move you make and conversation you have , whether online or in the real world .
Google actually tracks your movements online , even when you don ’ t think you are using their products .
Most websites you visit use the ‘ free ’ Google Analytics program to track everything you do on a website .
Google @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and by giving it away were able to integrate this important surveillance tool into most of the internet .
Google Analytics integrates with Google ’ s ad network monopoly , as well as the largest email service Gmail .
These systems are not free , they are a tightly integrated package of surveillance tools – selling your data , selling ads served to you , and manipulating content to direct your behavior .
These tools collect data along with other Google products like the Android ‘ smart ’ phones , the Nest home @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Home Assistant .
You can expect these surveillance products to become free over time as the absolute goal is to exploit every bit of data they can collect from you .
As highlighted in a January 27 , 2020 , article by The Intercept , smart camera networks equipped with facial recognition and video analytic software will advance global surveillance even further , and should be banned to prevent an inevitable slide into invisible yet all-encompassing authoritarianism .
According to Fast Company , China ’ s social credit system is not entirely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ developing in the United States , in part as the result of Silicon Valley and technology-industry user policies , and in part by surveillance of social media activity by private companies , ” Fast Company writes .
For example , life insurance companies can now use content shared in social media posts to determine your premium .
“ That Instagram pic showing you teasing a grizzly bear at Yellowstone with a martini in one hand , a bucket of cheese fries in the other , and a cigarette in your mouth , could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
PatronScan is another example .
These devices are used by restaurants to identify fake IDs and undesirable customers — people previously removed from an establishment for causing a fight , committing sexual assault , stealing or doing drugs .
The list is shared among PatronScan customers , so getting banned in one bar or restaurant effectively bans you from all bars and restaurants in the U.S. , Canada and U.K. for up to one year .
For additional examples , see the original Fast Company article .
Many TV ’ s now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to record your emotions while watching presidential debates or the evening news .
The Intercept article cited earlier goes on to detail the rise and expansion of video surveillance , starting with Axis Communications ’ internet-enabled surveillance camera , launched in the late ’ 90s , to more modern video management systems that organize all this visual data into databases .
By the end of 2021 , the marketing firm IHS Markit predicts 1 billion cameras will be watching public movements across the globe .
As if that ’ s not enough , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to plug their private surveillance cameras into their police network , which expands the system even further .
According to The Intercept , Detroit , Chicago , New Orleans , New York City and Atlanta have all deployed these types of “ plug-in surveillance networks , ” and many others are considering it as well .
To actually make sense of all this footage , video analytic software and artificial intelligence ( AI ) are used .
Video analytic capabilities include “ fight detection , motion recognition , fall detection , loitering , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evasion and even lie detection , ” The Intercept reports .
Object recognition and “ anomalous or unusual behavior detection ” are also used to flag particular incidents that are then reviewed by human eyes .
The Intercept recounts how this information can be used by law enforcement to identify potential crime situations : Companies are also working on searchable databases that can access and make sense of visual data from a range of different platforms , which will “ supercharge the ability to search and surveil public spaces , ” The Intercept @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there are now proposals suggesting all of this data , in combination with AI-enabled analytics systems , could be used for “ predictive policing ” as illustrated in the 2002 movie “ Minority Report , ” where suspected perpetrators are arrested before actually committing the crime .
Sound too crazy to be true ?
The Intercept cites a 2018 document by the data storage firm Western Digital and the consulting company Accenture , “ Value of Data : Seeing What Matters — A New Paradigm for Public Safety Powered by Responsible AI , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be deployed “ across three tiers of maturity.
” The first tier is where we ’ re at now , where law enforcement use CCTV networks to investigate crimes after they ’ ve already occurred .
At the second tier level , predicted to be in place by 2025 , municipalities will be transformed into fully connected “ smart cities , ” where the cameras of businesses and public institutions are all plugged into a government-run AI-enabled analytics system .
The third tier , predicted by 2035 , will have predictive capabilities .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s monopoly goes well beyond web search .
It also has a potentially dangerous monopoly on online advertising .
In 2007 , Google bought DoubleClick , which already dominated the digital advertising market .
As reported by InfoWorld : To learn more of Google ’ s surveillance of you and those you love , please view my comprehensive interview with Robert Epstein below .
Epstein , former editor-in-chief at Psychology Today , is now a senior research psychologist for the American Institute of Behavioral Research and Technology , where for the last @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s manipulative and deceptive practices .
Google Goes After Your Health Data More recently , it ’ s also become apparent Google is going after everyone ’ s health data .
Fitbit , which was recently purchased by Google , will provide them with all your physiological information and activity levels , in addition to everything else that Google already has on you .
As discussed in “ How Google Is Stealing Your Personal Health Data , ” Google , Amazon and Microsoft also collect data entered into health and diagnostic sites , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ third parties — and this data is not anonymized , meaning it ’ s tied specifically to you , without your knowledge or consent .
In other words , DoubleClick , Google ’ s ad service , will know which prescriptions you ’ ve searched for on Drugs.com , for example , thus providing you with personalized drug ads .
“ There is a whole system that will seek to take advantage of you because you ’ re in a compromised state , ” Tim Libert , a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ various tech startups have even been investigating the possibility of assessing mental health problems using a combination of electronic medical records and tracking your internet and social media use .
Undisclosed data mining is also occurring in hospitals .
A whistleblower recently revealed Google amassed health data from millions of Americans in 21 states through its Project Nightingale , and patients have not been informed of this data mining .
As reported by The Guardian : According to Google and Ascension , the data being shared will be used to build a search @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out diagnostic recommendations and suggestions for medications that health professionals can then use to guide them in their treatment .
Google claims only a limited number of individuals will have access to the data , but just how trustworthy is Google these days ?
Since the data includes full personal details , sooner or later , they ’ re likely to find a way to use it .
Your credit card data , which at first glance would appear completely separate from Google , is also being used by the internet giant to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ August 31 , 2018 , four unnamed insiders , three of whom claim to have been directly involved in the negotiations , claim Google and Mastercard brokered a business alliance that gives Google access to Mastercard users ’ retail spending .
The two companies never made the agreement public , though .
Christine Bannan , counsel with the advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center ( EPIC ) told Bloomberg : According to Google , Mastercard users can opt out of ad tracking using Google ’ s online Web & App Activity console .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ know to do that when they were never told such tracking was occurring in the first place ?
Google ’ s Store Sales Measurement service also suggests it ’ s not just Mastercard users that are being tracked .
As noted by Bloomberg , when Google announced the new sales measurement service in 2017 , it claimed it had access to about 70 % of U.S. credit and debit card sales .
To have any chance of protecting your privacy , you simply must avoid Google products , as they account for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
To that end , Mercola.com is now Google-free .
We do not use Google Analytics , Google ads or Google search for internal searches .
To boycott Google , be sure to ditch or replace : •Gmail , as every email you write is permanently stored .
It becomes part of your profile and is used to build digital models of you , which allows them to make predictions about your line of thinking and every want and desire .
Many other older email systems such as AOL and Yahoo are also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same way as Gmail .
ProtonMail.com , which uses end-to-end encryption , is a great alternative and the basic account is free .
•Google ’ s Chrome browser , as everything you do on there is surveilled , including keystrokes and every webpage you ’ ve ever visited .
Brave is a great alternative that takes privacy seriously .
Brave is also faster than Chrome , and suppresses ads .
It ’ s based on Chromium , the same software code that Chrome is based on , so you can easily transfer your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ search engine , or any extension of Google , such as Bing or Yahoo , both of which draw search results from Google .
The same goes for the iPhone ’ s personal assistant Siri , which draws all of its answers from Google .
Alternative search engines include SwissCows and Qwant .
Avoid StartPage , as it was recently bought by an aggressive online marketing company , which , like Google , depends on surveillance .
•Android cellphones , which run on a Google-owned operating system , can track you even when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ internet , whether you have geo tracking enabled or not .
Blackberry is more secure than Android phones or the iPhone .
Blackberry ’ s upcoming model , the Key3 , may be one of the most secure cellphones in the world .
•Google Home devices , as they record everything that occurs in your home or office , both speech and sounds such as brushing your teeth and boiling water , even when they appear to be inactive , and send that information back to Google .
Android phones are also always @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s home thermostat Nest , and Amazon ’ s Alexa .
In my recent interview ( above ) with Epstein , he also offered the following guidance for those seeking to protect their online privacy : •Use a virtual private network ( VPN ) such as Nord , which is only about $ 3 per month and can be used on up to six devices .
In my view , this is a must if you seek to preserve your privacy .
Epstein explains : “ When you use your mobile phone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way , your identity is very easy for Google and other companies to see .
They can see it via your IP address , but more and more , there are much more sophisticated ways now that they know it ’ s you .
One is called browser fingerprinting .
This is something that is so disturbing .
Basically , the kind of browser you have and the way you use your browser is like a fingerprint .
You use your browser in a unique way , and just by the way you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ identify you .
Brave has some protection against a browser fingerprinting , but you really need to be using a VPN .
What a VPN does is it routes whatever you ’ re doing through some other computer somewhere else .
It can be anywhere in the world , and there are hundreds of companies offering VPN services .
The one I like the best right now is called Nord VPN .
You download the software , install it , just like you install any software .
It ’ s incredibly easy to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be a techie to use Nord , and it shows you a map of the world and you basically just click on a country .
The VPN basically makes it appear as though your computer is not your computer .
It basically creates a kind of fake identity for you , and that ’ s a good thing .
Now , very often I will go through Nord ’ s computers in the United States .
Sometimes you have to do that , or you can ’ t get certain things done .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ be in a foreign country for example.
” Nord , when used on your cellphone , will also mask your identity when using apps like Google Maps .
•Clear your cache and cookies — As Epstein explains in his article : •Don ’ t use Fitbit , as it was recently purchased by Google and will provide them with all your physiological information and activity levels , in addition to everything else that Google already has on you .

Will Google’s Social Credit System Determine Your Future?
Dr. Mercola, Guest
Waking Times
You may have heard about China’s social credit system — a dystopian monitoring scheme focused on the moral dimension of human life and behavior — which was conceived in 2014 and rolled out in in earnest in 2018. As reported by Business Insider in October that year:
“Like private credit scores, a person’s social score can move up and down depending on their behavior. The exact methodology is a secret — but examples of infractions include bad driving, smoking in non-smoking zones, buying too many video games and posting fake news online. China has already started punishing people by restricting their travel. Nine million people with low scores have been blocked from buying tickets for domestic flights … They can also clamp down on luxury options — three million people are barred from getting business-class train tickets. The eventual system will punish bad passengers specifically. Potential misdeeds include trying to ride with no ticket, loitering in front of boarding gates, or smoking in no-smoking areas.”
Aside from impeding your ability to travel, an individual’s punishment for “bad behavior” per the social credit system can also result in slower internet speed, being banned from attending certain schools or getting a higher education, being barred from certain types of employment, confiscation of pets and, of course, public shaming.
Google Makes Orwellian Surveillance Easy
In the bitchute video above, Truthstream Media details how this kind of public “trustworthiness” scoring can alter the way people behave — indeed their view of reality itself, and the vast data mining required for the system to work. As noted in the video:
“Social credit scores award or remove points based on behavior. It’s Big Data meets Big Brother. This will be a world with no more personal experiences, only transactions for the social credit system. This [the system] knows every person, every bike, every car, every bus. That’s because it essentially turns every public interaction into a transaction where points can be earned or lost.”
Google, of course, is a perfect fit for this kind of Orwellian surveillance scheme. It is, by far, the largest monopoly the world has ever seen, and its data-siphoning tentacles reach deep into our everyday lives, collecting data on every move you make and conversation you have, whether online or in the real world.
Google actually tracks your movements online, even when you don’t think you are using their products. Most websites you visit use the ‘free’ Google Analytics program to track everything you do on a website. Google purchased Urchin Software back in 2005, and by giving it away were able to integrate this important surveillance tool into most of the internet.
Google Analytics integrates with Google’s ad network monopoly, as well as the largest email service Gmail. These systems are not free, they are a tightly integrated package of surveillance tools – selling your data, selling ads served to you, and manipulating content to direct your behavior.
These tools collect data along with other Google products like the Android ‘smart’ phones, the Nest home security system, and even Google’s Home Assistant. You can expect these surveillance products to become free over time as the absolute goal is to exploit every bit of data they can collect from you.
A 2015 Wired article revealed some of the details of how Google’s online empire is built, noting “One of the company’s cluster switches provides about 40 terabits per second of bandwidth — the equivalent of 40 million home internet connections,” and “Google now sends more information between its data centers than it trades with the internet as a whole.”
As highlighted in a January 27, 2020, article by The Intercept, smart camera networks equipped with facial recognition and video analytic software will advance global surveillance even further, and should be banned to prevent an inevitable slide into invisible yet all-encompassing authoritarianism.
“The rise of all-seeing smart camera networks is an alarming development that threatens civil rights and liberties throughout the world. Law enforcement agencies have a long history of using surveillance against marginalized communities, and studies show surveillance chills freedom of expression — ill effects that could spread as camera networks grow larger and more sophisticated,” The Intercept notes.
Silicon Valley Is Building America’s Social Credit System
According to Fast Company, China’s social credit system is not entirely unique. “A parallel system is developing in the United States, in part as the result of Silicon Valley and technology-industry user policies, and in part by surveillance of social media activity by private companies,” Fast Company writes.
For example, life insurance companies can now use content shared in social media posts to determine your premium. “That Instagram pic showing you teasing a grizzly bear at Yellowstone with a martini in one hand, a bucket of cheese fries in the other, and a cigarette in your mouth, could cost you,” Fast Company notes.
PatronScan is another example. These devices are used by restaurants to identify fake IDs and undesirable customers — people previously removed from an establishment for causing a fight, committing sexual assault, stealing or doing drugs.
The list is shared among PatronScan customers, so getting banned in one bar or restaurant effectively bans you from all bars and restaurants in the U.S., Canada and U.K. for up to one year. For additional examples, see the original Fast Company article.
The Expansion of Public Video Surveillance
Many TV’s now have a camera and can be used to record your emotions while watching presidential debates or the evening news. The Intercept article cited earlier goes on to detail the rise and expansion of video surveillance, starting with Axis Communications’ internet-enabled surveillance camera, launched in the late ’90s, to more modern video management systems that organize all this visual data into databases.
By the end of 2021, the marketing firm IHS Markit predicts 1 billion cameras will be watching public movements across the globe. As if that’s not enough, cities are also inviting residents and businesses to plug their private surveillance cameras into their police network, which expands the system even further.
According to The Intercept, Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans, New York City and Atlanta have all deployed these types of “plug-in surveillance networks,” and many others are considering it as well. To actually make sense of all this footage, video analytic software and artificial intelligence (AI) are used.
Video analytic capabilities include “fight detection, motion recognition, fall detection, loitering, dog walking, jaywalking, toll fare evasion and even lie detection,” The Intercept reports.
Object recognition and “anomalous or unusual behavior detection” are also used to flag particular incidents that are then reviewed by human eyes. The Intercept recounts how this information can be used by law enforcement to identify potential crime situations:
“In Connecticut, police have used video analytics to identify or monitor known or suspected drug dealers. Sergeant Johnmichael O’Hare, former Director of the Hartford Real-Time Crime Center, recently demonstrated how BriefCam helped Hartford police reveal ‘where people go the most’ in the space of 24 hours by viewing footage condensed and summarized in just nine minutes. Using a feature called ‘pathways,’ he discovered hundreds of people visiting just two houses on the street and secured a search warrant to verify that they were drug houses.”
Is a ‘Pre-Crime’ Department Next?
Companies are also working on searchable databases that can access and make sense of visual data from a range of different platforms, which will “supercharge the ability to search and surveil public spaces,” The Intercept says.
What’s more, there are now proposals suggesting all of this data, in combination with AI-enabled analytics systems, could be used for “predictive policing” as illustrated in the 2002 movie “Minority Report,” where suspected perpetrators are arrested before actually committing the crime.
Sound too crazy to be true? The Intercept cites a 2018 document by the data storage firm Western Digital and the consulting company Accenture, “Value of Data: Seeing What Matters — A New Paradigm for Public Safety Powered by Responsible AI,” which predicts smart surveillance networks may be deployed “across three tiers of maturity.”
The first tier is where we’re at now, where law enforcement use CCTV networks to investigate crimes after they’ve already occurred.
At the second tier level, predicted to be in place by 2025, municipalities will be transformed into fully connected “smart cities,” where the cameras of businesses and public institutions are all plugged into a government-run AI-enabled analytics system. The third tier, predicted by 2035, will have predictive capabilities. As reported by The Intercept:
“A ‘public safety ecosystem’ will centralize data ‘pulled from disparate databases such as social media, driver’s licenses, police databases, and dark data.’ An AI-enabled analytics unit will let police assess ‘anomalies in real time and interrupt a crime before it is committed.’ That is to say, to catch pre-crime.”
Google’s Ad Network Monopoly
Google’s monopoly goes well beyond web search. It also has a potentially dangerous monopoly on online advertising. In 2007, Google bought DoubleClick, which already dominated the digital advertising market. As reported by InfoWorld:
“Here’s the danger: Google already knows a tremendous amount about the traffic it sends to individual Web sites — where it comes from, what people are looking for, even some basic demographics. With DoubleClick in the fold, they will also know what ads are being served on any given page. That gives Google unprecedented insight into publishers’ business. And remember, those publishers may be partners, but they are also competitors, often trying to woo the same advertisers as Google. Web sites live and die based upon ad revenue and on charging advertisers a certain rate based upon the number of pages served and the quality of their readership/user base. I could imagine a not-entirely-paranoid fantasy in which Google can run the numbers, turn around, and offer better rates to advertisers for a similar audience.”
To learn more of Google’s surveillance of you and those you love, please view my comprehensive interview with Robert Epstein below. Epstein, former editor-in-chief at Psychology Today, is now a senior research psychologist for the American Institute of Behavioral Research and Technology, where for the last decade he has helped expose Google’s manipulative and deceptive practices.
Google Goes After Your Health Data
More recently, it’s also become apparent Google is going after everyone’s health data. Fitbit, which was recently purchased by Google, will provide them with all your physiological information and activity levels, in addition to everything else that Google already has on you.
As discussed in “How Google Is Stealing Your Personal Health Data,” Google, Amazon and Microsoft also collect data entered into health and diagnostic sites, which is then shared with hundreds of third parties — and this data is not anonymized, meaning it’s tied specifically to you, without your knowledge or consent.
In other words, DoubleClick, Google’s ad service, will know which prescriptions you’ve searched for on Drugs.com, for example, thus providing you with personalized drug ads. “There is a whole system that will seek to take advantage of you because you’re in a compromised state,” Tim Libert, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University told Financial Times.
Google and various tech startups have even been investigating the possibility of assessing mental health problems using a combination of electronic medical records and tracking your internet and social media use.
Undisclosed data mining is also occurring in hospitals. A whistleblower recently revealed Google amassed health data from millions of Americans in 21 states through its Project Nightingale, and patients have not been informed of this data mining. As reported by The Guardian:
“The secret scheme … involves the transfer to Google of healthcare data held by Ascension, the second-largest healthcare provider in the U.S. The data is being transferred with full personal details including name and medical history and can be accessed by Google staff. Unlike other similar efforts it has not been made anonymous though a process of removing personal information known as de-identification …“
According to Google and Ascension, the data being shared will be used to build a search tool with machine-learning algorithms that will spit out diagnostic recommendations and suggestions for medications that health professionals can then use to guide them in their treatment.
Google claims only a limited number of individuals will have access to the data, but just how trustworthy is Google these days? Since the data includes full personal details, sooner or later, they’re likely to find a way to use it.
Google and Mastercard Track Your Purchasing Habits
Your credit card data, which at first glance would appear completely separate from Google, is also being used by the internet giant to customize ads. As reported by Bloomberg August 31, 2018, four unnamed insiders, three of whom claim to have been directly involved in the negotiations, claim Google and Mastercard brokered a business alliance that gives Google access to Mastercard users’ retail spending.
The two companies never made the agreement public, though. Christine Bannan, counsel with the advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) told Bloomberg:
“People don’t expect what they buy physically in a store to be linked to what they are buying online. There’s just far too much burden that companies place on consumers and not enough responsibility being taken by companies to inform users what they’re doing and what rights they have.”
According to Google, Mastercard users can opt out of ad tracking using Google’s online Web & App Activity console. The question is, how would users know to do that when they were never told such tracking was occurring in the first place?
Google’s Store Sales Measurement service also suggests it’s not just Mastercard users that are being tracked. As noted by Bloomberg, when Google announced the new sales measurement service in 2017, it claimed it had access to about 70% of U.S. credit and debit card sales.
Goodbye Google
To have any chance of protecting your privacy, you simply must avoid Google products, as they account for the greatest personal data leaks in your life. To that end, Mercola.com is now Google-free. We do not use Google Analytics, Google ads or Google search for internal searches. To boycott Google, be sure to ditch or replace:
•Gmail, as every email you write is permanently stored. It becomes part of your profile and is used to build digital models of you, which allows them to make predictions about your line of thinking and every want and desire.
Many other older email systems such as AOL and Yahoo are also being used as surveillance platforms in the same way as Gmail. ProtonMail.com, which uses end-to-end encryption, is a great alternative and the basic account is free.
•Google’s Chrome browser, as everything you do on there is surveilled, including keystrokes and every webpage you’ve ever visited. Brave is a great alternative that takes privacy seriously.
Brave is also faster than Chrome, and suppresses ads. It’s based on Chromium, the same software code that Chrome is based on, so you can easily transfer your extensions, favorites and bookmarks.
•Google search engine, or any extension of Google, such as Bing or Yahoo, both of which draw search results from Google. The same goes for the iPhone’s personal assistant Siri, which draws all of its answers from Google.
Alternative search engines include SwissCows and Qwant. Avoid StartPage, as it was recently bought by an aggressive online marketing company, which, like Google, depends on surveillance.
•Android cellphones, which run on a Google-owned operating system, can track you even when you’re not connected to the internet, whether you have geo tracking enabled or not. Blackberry is more secure than Android phones or the iPhone. Blackberry’s upcoming model, the Key3, may be one of the most secure cellphones in the world.
•Google Home devices, as they record everything that occurs in your home or office, both speech and sounds such as brushing your teeth and boiling water, even when they appear to be inactive, and send that information back to Google. Android phones are also always listening and recording, as are Google’s home thermostat Nest, and Amazon’s Alexa.
Additional Privacy Tips
In my recent interview (above) with Epstein, he also offered the following guidance for those seeking to protect their online privacy:
•Use a virtual private network (VPN) such as Nord, which is only about $3 per month and can be used on up to six devices. In my view, this is a must if you seek to preserve your privacy. Epstein explains:
“When you use your mobile phone, laptop or desktop in the usual way, your identity is very easy for Google and other companies to see. They can see it via your IP address, but more and more, there are much more sophisticated ways now that they know it’s you. One is called browser fingerprinting. This is something that is so disturbing. Basically, the kind of browser you have and the way you use your browser is like a fingerprint. You use your browser in a unique way, and just by the way you type, these companies now can instantly identify you. Brave has some protection against a browser fingerprinting, but you really need to be using a VPN. What a VPN does is it routes whatever you’re doing through some other computer somewhere else. It can be anywhere in the world, and there are hundreds of companies offering VPN services. The one I like the best right now is called Nord VPN. You download the software, install it, just like you install any software. It’s incredibly easy to use. You do not have to be a techie to use Nord, and it shows you a map of the world and you basically just click on a country. The VPN basically makes it appear as though your computer is not your computer. It basically creates a kind of fake identity for you, and that’s a good thing. Now, very often I will go through Nord’s computers in the United States. Sometimes you have to do that, or you can’t get certain things done. PayPal doesn’t like you to be in a foreign country for example.”
Nord, when used on your cellphone, will also mask your identity when using apps like Google Maps.
•Clear your cache and cookies — As Epstein explains in his article:
“Companies and hackers of all sorts are constantly installing invasive computer code on your computers and mobile devices, mainly to keep an eye on you but sometimes for more nefarious purposes. On a mobile device, you can clear out most of this garbage by going to the settings menu of your browser, selecting the ‘privacy and security’ option and then clicking on the icon that clears your cache and cookies. With most laptop and desktop browsers, holding down three keys simultaneously — CTRL, SHIFT and DEL — takes you directly to the relevant menu; I use this technique multiple times a day without even thinking about it. You can also configure the Brave and Firefox browsers to erase your cache and cookies automatically every time you close your browser.”
•Don’t use Fitbit, as it was recently purchased by Google and will provide them with all your physiological information and activity levels, in addition to everything else that Google already has on you.


wakingtimes--2020-02-13--Move Over, Marijuana: Psychedelic Drugs Could Be the Next Big Thing

Several companies that are developing medical treatments from psychedelic drugs like LSD , ketamine , and psilocybin—the active ingredient in magic mushrooms—are getting ready to list on Canadian stock exchanges .
One of those companies , Mind Medicine Inc. , has been involved in clinical trials of psychedelic-based drugs and aims to list on Toronto ’ s NEO Exchange by the first week of March , JR Rahn , the company ’ s co-founder and co-chief executive officer , told Bloomberg .
And Mind Med Inc. isn ’ t the only company reaching into the deep waters of developing psychedelic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of companies that are conducting or beginning to administer clinical trials of psychedelic treatments for things like depression to post-traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ) .
Some trials have even received the blessing of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration .
In late 2018 , the FDA stated that psilocybin was a “ breakthrough therapy ” via a drug developed by London-based Compass Pathways Ltd. for clinical depression .
Mind Med Inc. is preparing for a second clinical trial into the use of a non-hallucinogenic drug based on a psychedelic called ibogaine to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conducted in New York and overseen by the FDA , according to a report .
A third company , Field Trip Psychedelics Inc. , is also involved with researching psilocybin at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica .
Last year TMU reported that psilocybin , the substance found in 200+ species of magic mushrooms , may be the next health and legalization trend following cannabis .
Unlike research into the use of cannabis , which is still federally illegal in the U.S. , the work that psychedelic companies are doing is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t have to jump through legal barriers to research the effects and benefits of these drugs .
TMU has previously reported on the benefits of psychedelics used in the form of medication , often in conjunction with therapy .
For example , studies in recent years have shown that psychedelic compounds can be used for a variety of different things including reviving someone from a vegetative state , reducing violence , reducing the chance of losing brain functions later in life , reseting the brains of those diagnosed with depression , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Another study TMU previously reported on found that psychedelic use doesn ’ t have a link to mental health problems or suicidal behavior , unlike alcoholic beverages .
Benny Shanon , professor of cognitive philosophy at Hebrew University , believes the theory that Mosses was high on psychedelics when he spoke to god .
There exists a similar theory about the seer Michel de Nostredame .
While these things can not be proven , studies have shown that psilocybin increases creativity .

Move Over, Marijuana: Psychedelic Drugs Could Be the Next Big Thing
Aaron Kesel, The Mind Unleashed
Waking Times
Several companies that are developing medical treatments from psychedelic drugs like LSD, ketamine, and psilocybin—the active ingredient in magic mushrooms—are getting ready to list on Canadian stock exchanges.
One of those companies, Mind Medicine Inc., has been involved in clinical trials of psychedelic-based drugs and aims to list on Toronto’s NEO Exchange by the first week of March, JR Rahn, the company’s co-founder and co-chief executive officer, told Bloomberg.
“Our ambition is to be one of the first publicly listed neuro-pharmaceutical companies developing psychedelic medicines,” Rahn said in an interview.
And Mind Med Inc. isn’t the only company reaching into the deep waters of developing psychedelic medicines. There are a growing number of companies that are conducting or beginning to administer clinical trials of psychedelic treatments for things like depression to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Some trials have even received the blessing of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In late 2018, the FDA stated that psilocybin was a “breakthrough therapy” via a drug developed by London-based Compass Pathways Ltd. for clinical depression.
Mind Med Inc. is preparing for a second clinical trial into the use of a non-hallucinogenic drug based on a psychedelic called ibogaine to treat opioid addiction, which will be conducted in New York and overseen by the FDA, according to a report.
A third company, Field Trip Psychedelics Inc., is also involved with researching psilocybin at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica.
Last year TMU reported that psilocybin, the substance found in 200+ species of magic mushrooms, may be the next health and legalization trend following cannabis. Unlike research into the use of cannabis, which is still federally illegal in the U.S., the work that psychedelic companies are doing is entirely legal. This means that companies don’t have to jump through legal barriers to research the effects and benefits of these drugs.
TMU has previously reported on the benefits of psychedelics used in the form of medication, often in conjunction with therapy. For example, studies in recent years have shown that psychedelic compounds can be used for a variety of different things including reviving someone from a vegetative state, reducing violence, reducing the chance of losing brain functions later in life, reseting the brains of those diagnosed with depression, and improving one’s mental health.
Another study TMU previously reported on found that psychedelic use doesn’t have a link to mental health problems or suicidal behavior, unlike alcoholic beverages.
Benny Shanon, professor of cognitive philosophy at Hebrew University, believes the theory that Mosses was high on psychedelics when he spoke to god. There exists a similar theory about the seer Michel de Nostredame. While these things cannot be proven, studies have shown that psilocybin increases creativity.
By Aaron Kesel | Creative Commons | TheMindUnleashed.com


wakingtimes--2020-02-13--‘Surprised, No. Disgusted, Yes’: Study Shows Deepwater Horizon Oil Spread Much Further Than Previous

Ten years after BP ’ s Deepwater Horizon disaster sent hundreds of millions of gallons of oil across the Gulf of Mexico , researchers say the reach of the damage was far more significant than previously thought .
In a study published Wednesday in Science , Claire Paris-Limouzy and Igal Berenshtein of the University of Miami revealed that a significant amount of oil was never picked up in satellite images or captured by barriers that were meant to stop the spread .
The “ invisible oil ” spread across an area roughly 30 % larger than the 92,500 square miles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the study says .
“ I think it kind of changes the way you think about oil spills , ” Berenshtein told the Washington Post .
“ People have to change the way they see this so that they know there ’ s this invisible and toxic component of oil that changes marine life.
” The ocean protection group Blue Frontier Campaign expressed “ disgust ” at the revelation—but not surprise .
Since the 2010 blowout and platform explosion , which killed 11 people , scientists have estimated that the disaster spewed 210 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of five months , with oil reaching Florida and Texas .
Much of the spilled oil that Berenshtein and Paris-Limouzy detected in their research , using a model that allowed them to trace oil in the Gulf from its source , spread below the water ’ s surface and became toxic enough over time to destroy 50 % of the marine life it came across .
Experts vastly underestimated the extent to which marine life was harmed , the researchers said .
The research was released as the Trump administration prepares to open @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pacific Oceans to oil and gas leases and to expand leasing in the Gulf .

‘Surprised, No. Disgusted, Yes’: Study Shows Deepwater Horizon Oil Spread Much Further Than Previously Known
Julia Conley, Common Dreams
Waking Times
Ten years after BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster sent hundreds of millions of gallons of oil across the Gulf of Mexico, researchers say the reach of the damage was far more significant than previously thought.
In a study published Wednesday in Science, Claire Paris-Limouzy and Igal Berenshtein of the University of Miami revealed that a significant amount of oil was never picked up in satellite images or captured by barriers that were meant to stop the spread.
“Our results change established perceptions about the consequences of oil spills by showing that toxic and invisible oil can extend beyond the satellite footprint at potentially lethal and sub-lethal concentrations to a wide range of wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Paris-Limouzy.
The “invisible oil” spread across an area roughly 30% larger than the 92,500 square miles experts previously believed it had reached, the study says.
"Researchers dubbed it 'invisible oil,' concentrated below the water’s surface and toxic enough to destroy 50 percent of the marine life it encountered." https://t.co/NlXYNsDiq2 — Wallace McKelvey (@wjmckelvey) February 12, 2020
“I think it kind of changes the way you think about oil spills,” Berenshtein told the Washington Post. “People have to change the way they see this so that they know there’s this invisible and toxic component of oil that changes marine life.”
The ocean protection group Blue Frontier Campaign expressed “disgust” at the revelation—but not surprise.
Are we surprised, no. disgusted, yes. Time to get off fossil fuel and on to renewables. Sea Party 2020!https://t.co/mdjYVchv6t — Blue Frontier Campaign (@Blue_Frontier) February 12, 2020
Since the 2010 blowout and platform explosion, which killed 11 people, scientists have estimated that the disaster spewed 210 million gallons of oil over the course of five months, with oil reaching Florida and Texas.
Much of the spilled oil that Berenshtein and Paris-Limouzy detected in their research, using a model that allowed them to trace oil in the Gulf from its source, spread below the water’s surface and became toxic enough over time to destroy 50% of the marine life it came across.
“When you have oil combined with ultraviolent sunlight it becomes two times more toxic than oil alone,” Paris-Limouzy told the Post. “Oil becomes toxic at very low concentrations.”
Experts vastly underestimated the extent to which marine life was harmed, the researchers said.
The research was released as the Trump administration prepares to open up the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans to oil and gas leases and to expand leasing in the Gulf.
“Time to get off fossil fuel and on to renewables,” wrote the Blue Frontier Campaign.
About the Author
Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams.