Category Archives: Original

Banksters, Corporate Welfare, Geopolitics/War, Original

Trudeau nearly triples Harper’s climate corporate welfare commitment

10th December 2015 alternativefreepress

AlternativeFreePress.com

A couple weeks ago Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an additional five-year $2.65-billion contribution to help multinational corporations develop countries under the guise of fighting climate change. The $2.65-billion is in addition to the $1.5 billion of corporate welfare contributed by the previous Conservative government.

While Trudeau campaigned on a slogan of “real change”, so far it’s billions in handouts to corporations, as usual.

The climate change fund is a scam, positioned as channeling money “to poor countries to help them adapt to climate change”, it may sound nice, but typically this money is loaned to poor countries with significant strings…

In Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins describes how he would convince the government leaders of underdeveloped countries to accept huge loans they could never pay off. He explains how those countries were then pressured politically so much that they were effectively neutralized and their economies crippled. Perkins describes the role of an Economic Hit Man as “a highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.”

These international agreements seek to destroy nations sovereignty, they attempt to override laws of local, regional and national governments.

While we do need to take our impact on the planet seriously, we can’t allow ourselves to be manipulated… In 1990 The Club of Rome published The First Global Revolution, where they outlined how they would create or exaggerate environmental threats with the intention of manipulating the public into giving up their sovereignty to one world government:

The common enemy of humanity is man.
In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up
with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming,
water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these
dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.

This climate agreement is being presented under the guise of rich countries helping countries in need, but really it is countries already in debt, getting into more debt, in order to get other countries into debt.

The “rich” countries are not really rich when you consider their debt, every dollar of aid given is borrowed with interest owing and compounding. Increasing debt and devaluing the dollar.

The “developing” countries can certainly use help, but the strings attached to this type of help will leave them with more debt than they can handle. This will leave them vulnerable to exploitation and allow corporations to pillage resources.

This article borrowed heavily from our previous article:
Harper commits Canada to contribute corporate welfare

Written by Alternative Free Press

Trudeau nearly triples Harper’s climate corporate welfare commitment by AlternativeFreePress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Health/Environment, Original

Declassified Documents Show US Government Misled Public About Severity Of Fukushima Radiation

10th December 2015 alternativefreepress

AlternativeFreePress.com

Within a week of the Fukushima accident in 2011, U.S. authorities knew that parts of Fukushima had melted down completely, and instead of telling the public, they insisted radiation levels were safe and changed the “acceptable radiation levels”. (source)

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission wrote a report on March 18, 2011 (only one week after the tsunami hit Fukushima) which has now been declassified. (source) The report says:

The source term provided to NARAC was: (1) 25% of the total fuel in unit 2 released to the atmosphere, (2) 50% of the total spent fuel from unit 3 was released to the atmosphere, and (3) 100% of the total spent fuel was released to the atmosphere from unit 4.

Unit 4 released more cesium than if 800 nuclear bombs exploded above ground. (source)

Written by Alternative Free Press

Declassified Documents Show US Government Misled Public About Severity Of Fukushima Radiation by AlternativeFreePress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Alberta’s Carbon Tax Is Just More Corporate Welfare

23rd November 2015 alternativefreepress

AlternativeFreePress.com

Yesterday oil executives, First Nations, academics, and environmentalists stood with the provincial government to announce a carbon tax for Alberta… but where will the money go?

Trevor Tombe, an economist with the University of Calgary, is estimating a $2.8-billion subsidy to the largest emitters. That is almost half of the estimated $6 billion revenue.

According to the CBC and Michal Moore, an economist with the University of Calgary’s school of public policy, the plan for industry is a hybrid of a straightforward carbon tax and a cap-and-trade system that allows the buying and selling of carbon credits enabling large corporations to make money trading permits.

In other words…. Alberta’s carbon tax is just more corporate welfare.

Written by Alternative Free Press

Alberta’s Carbon Tax Is Just More Corporate Welfare by AlternativeFreePress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Sources: Alberta’s climate-change plan: Breaking down the numbers

Corporate Welfare, Drugs, Health/Environment, Original

Canada’s Corporate Cannabis Takeover Continues As Pharmacies Look Poised To Distribute

18th November 2015 alternativefreepress

AlternativeFreePress.com

The future of legalized Cannabis in Canada is bleak if the Liberals continue the Harper regime’s push to corporatize Cannabis. Based on the vague rhetoric promised by Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party platform, that is exactly what we should expect.

The Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA) is preparing for further corporatization by “reviewing its existing policies to ensure its policy position regarding pharmacist dispensing of medical marijuana reflects patient safety in this evolving area”.

The CPhA has no business distributing Cannabis. If Cannabis is removed from the Controlled Drugs & Substances Act (CDSA), there is no legal justification to restricting distribution to pharmacies. Cannabis is a benign plant with many uses, which gardeners and farmers should be allowed to grow and sell at farmer’s markets freely. Of course, it seems unlikely that Cannabis will be removed from the CDSA, the Liberal version of legalization sounds a lot like prohibition with increased penalties for unlicensed distribution.

Cannabis is medicine, it can be very expensive medicine, so calls for insurance coverage are understandable… but Cannabis is only expensive because of prohibition. Cannabis can be grown for less than $1/gram, but invested MMPR interests want to keep the cost high to cash in on the corporate welfare windfall of health insurance covering medical marijuana.

If Trudeau and the Liberals are serious about “real change” and evidence-based policy then they need to regulate Cannabis based on the potential harm caused by the plant. Cannabis is safer than coffee and energy drinks. Teens have died consuming energy drinks, but they are sold in convenience stores without age restrictions. Nobody has ever died from consuming Cannabis.

Dana Larsen details 7 key things needed before we can consider Cannabis prohibition to be truly over. (here is a brief summary:)

#7. Don’t increase penalties

In some of their campaign literature, the Liberals were promising to create “new, stronger laws, to punish more severely” people who sell cannabis to minors, or to anyone operating outside of their undefined new system.

Considering we already have Harper’s strict mandatory minimums for cannabis offences, we do not need to be punishing anyone “more severely” for anything related to cannabis.

#6. Allow personal growing

Any model of legalization must include the right to grow some cannabis for personal use. People with a doctor’s recommendation for cannabis should be allowed to grow whatever quantity they need for medical purposes. The Conservatives tried to shut down the current home-garden program for patients, but were stopped by a court injunction. That injunction needs to remain, and be expanded to make it easier for patients to grow their own when needed.

If home cultivation is not allowed, then cannabis is not truly legalized in Canada. Canadians must have at least as much right to grow their own cannabis as they do to brew their own beer and wine.

#5. Allow dispensaries

The Liberals need to recognize the important role that community-based dispensaries are playing, and to incorporate them into any legal access system.

Any system of legalization that tries to shut down the existing network of cannabis dispensaries will face strong opposition from Canada’s cannabis community.

#4. License more producers

Whatever the details of the system, it is important that there is equal access to the cannabis market, and that anyone who meets the quality standards can legally grow and sell cannabis.

Ultimately, the federal government should get out of licensing large-scale production and leave that to the provinces. But whoever the regulating and licensing authority is, the system needs to be fair and equal. Any attempt to limit production to a few major companies or create some kind of monopoly or cartel will be met with resistance, and will ultimately fail.

#3. Ditch the medical program

Cannabis is a wonderful medicine with a wide range of therapeutic benefits, but we don’t need a specialized medical cannabis system in Canada. Cannabis extracts should be available as non-prescription drugs for all Canadians to access.

When cannabis or a cannabis extracts is prescribed by a doctor then it should be exempt from GST, like other prescription drugs. But we don’t need the current complex system of restricted access for medical patients once all Canadians have access to legal cannabis.

Doctors should become more knowledgable about cannabis medicines, and legalization should mean that all sorts of new cannabis extracts are readily available for research and medicine. But since cannabis is generally safer than products like aspirin, most cannabis medicines should be sold over the counter, without a need for a prescription.

#2. Amnesty for past convictions

Legalization of cannabis must also include an amnesty for past cannabis convictions, so that those criminal records are erased from the system.

#1. Don’t overtax it

Legal cannabis needs to be cheaper and better than what is currently available, or else no-one is going to buy it. The only way to extinguish the black market is to substantially reduce the price of cannabis.

Any plan for legalization must not include extremely high or punitive taxes, as the result will be a thriving black market and no real change to the status quo.

If Trudeau’s Liberals stick to these 7 principles then legalization will be a success.

But if they try to legalize cannabis in the form of a highly taxed product grown only by big corporations, while banning home gardens and increasing penalties for underground dealers, then legalization will not succeed, and we will still have to keep fighting for a better system.

Jonathan Page is the co-founder of Anandia Labs and an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia. He co-led the Canadian team that reported the first sequence of the cannabis genome and his work has helped elucidate the biochemical pathway leading to the major cannabinoids. Mr Page wrote an article at Lift, here is a very brief summary of a few of his points:

Like Liberal governments before him, Justin Trudeau practiced Big Tent politics to obtain a majority. Similarly, legalization has to offer a Big Tent so that the disparate parts of the existing industry – Licensed Producers (LPs), dispensaries and MMAR growers – are included. Health Canada and the 25+ LPs can be justifiably proud they have created a system to grow and distribute pharmaceutical-grade cannabis. But the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR) are viewed as a failure by many for their inability to create a system that both serves patients and creates a viable industry. The Allard injunction, the proliferation of Vancouver dispensaries, the logjam of LP applicants and the slow patient growth for LPs are indicators of systemic problems.
It is possible to safely grow cannabis at many scales from small outdoor gardens to massive indoor factories.The 2013 Liberal Party draft marijuana policy paper (PDF) suggested that production encompass “very small farms to medium size and large-scale operations”. Jamie Shaw of the Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries (CAMCD) wrote a blog post proposing that the cannabis production could resemble Canada’s brewing industry where industrial behemoths like Molson Coors co-exist with craft breweries.

It is difficult to contemplate a system that allows purchase of cannabis but not personal growing. I favour six plants (in flowering stage) with a cap on total plants in a household. The judge’s decision on the Allard case, which revolves around the right of patients to grow their own medical cannabis, now has added importance as legalization is contemplated.

In my opinion cannabis sits somewhere between a controlled substance and an NHP in the regulatory landscape but I don’t think it is productive to treat cannabis as either. Nor is it useful for it to be lumped with alcohol or tobacco. It is simply and uniquely cannabis. Amending laws created for prohibition is not likely to work as they were created to demonize cannabis. Let’s give cannabis its own laws and regulations that allow it to exist simultaneously as a medicine and a social (recreational) drug. Is the solution a pragmatic federal Cannabis Act or even a Psychoactive Substances Act for a new, post-prohibition era?

Written by Alternative Free Press

Canada’s Corporate Cannabis Takeover Continues As Pharmacies Look Poised To Distribute by AlternativeFreePress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Health/Environment, Original

Fukushima Fallout? Whales are dying in Pacific Ocean

15th August 2015 alternativefreepress

Alternative Free Press

Mainstream media continues to ignore the possibility that radiation from Fukushima building up in the Pacific Ocean for four years could be what is killing whales in unprecedented numbers.

“Alaskan researchers report that at least nine fin whales have been found dead in the water in recent weeks. It’s rare for more than one such death to be discovered every year or so, they say, and they’re exhaustively searching for a possible cause. It’s possible that warming ocean temperatures could be partially to blame.” Washington Post (June 2015)

“In only one week, the corpses of four humpback whales have been found along Canada’s west coast, fueling questions of whether their deaths are connected to a recent uptick of whale and other marine animal deaths in Alaskan waters. So far scientists don’t know what’s causing the deaths, but some believe they could be connected to warmer than average ocean temperatures that have caused unusual and potentially poisonous algae blooms.” Vice (August 2015)

Most mainstream media has ignored Fukushima for years, downplaying the severity and failing to report on the ongoing problems, such as:

Radioactive isotope Strontium-90 spikes at Fukushima; highest reading ever(July 2015)

Japan delays nuclear fuel removal schedule for Fukushima plant(June 2015)

Fukushima: Record Levels of Radioactivity Detected in Seawater — Spiked “More than 200 Times” at Sampling Location(June 2015)

Fukushima’s “Caldrons of Hell”: More than 300 Tons of Highly Radioactive Water Generated Daily(May 2015)

TEPCO Admits Fukushima Is Leaking Again – Over 600x ‘Safe’ Radiation Levels(May 2015)

Fresh leak at Fukushima nuclear plant sees 70-fold radiation spike(February 2015)

These recent whale deaths are continuing a trend. Back in April we reported: Fukushima Fallout? Emergency closure of fishery along entire West Coast – “Catastrophic crash… Population decimated”

Compiled by Alternative Free Press

Fukushima Fallout? Whales are dying in Pacific Ocean by AlternativeFreePress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Health/Environment, Original

More Fukushima Radiation Leaking Into Pacific Ocean

18th July 2015 alternativefreepress

Alternative Free Press

An new leak has been found at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Radioactive water has overflowed from a drainage channel, spilling into the ocean. Apparently, the authorities are blaming heavy rain.

The new leak was reported by NHK World on July 16, 2015. It is unclear when the new leak was discovered and there have been no reports of it being stopped.

A screenshot from the original NHK World report says TEPCO “cannot stop the spill anytime soon”.

It appears the original report included more details that have since been scrubbed from the NKH World english website. Both ENEnews & WND quote NHK World as saying “samples taken from the channel about 2 hours later contained 830 becquerels per liter of radioactive cesium” but this information is not currently included on the NHK World website.

Sources:
NHK World
ENENews
WND

Compiled by Alternative Free Press

More Fukushima Radiation Leaking Into Pacific Ocean by AlternativeFreePress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Japan delays nuclear fuel removal schedule for Fukushima plant(June 2015)

Fukushima: Record Levels of Radioactivity Detected in Seawater — Spiked “More than 200 Times” at Sampling Location(June 2015)

Risk of hydrogen explosion from leaking containers at Fukushima plant(May 2015)

Fukushima’s “Caldrons of Hell”: More than 300 Tons of Highly Radioactive Water Generated Daily(May 2015)

TEPCO Admits Fukushima Is Leaking Again – Over 600x ‘Safe’ Radiation Levels(May 2015)

Fresh leak at Fukushima nuclear plant sees 70-fold radiation spike(February 2015)

Fukushima Didn’t Just Suffer 3 Meltdowns … It Also Suffered Melt-THROUGHS and Melt-OUTS(April 2014)

Fukushima boss admits radioactive water out of control(April 2014)

Fukushima Storage Crisis: Full Of Radioactive Water(March 2014)

Canadian Soil Tests Positive for Fukushima Radiation(March 2014)

Fukushima’s Radioactive Ocean Water Arrives At West Coast(February 2014)

Banksters, Drugs, Original

DEA asset “El Chapo” Guzman escapes from prison

12th July 2015 alternativefreepress

Alternative Free Press

Yesterday, Sinaloa Cartel drug-lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman escaped from prison in Mexico.

In 2014 it was reported that Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and other federal agents had forged a secret alliance with top level Sinaloa drug cartel members by permitting the narco gangsters to traffic drugs into the U.S., and in a reverse sting, the DEA is accused of allegedly allowing the dealers to ship U.S. made weapons into Mexico without facing prosecution.

Anabel Hernández has received numerous awards for her work, including the 2012 Golden Pen of Freedom Award from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. Last year she told Nick Alexandrov:

There is no “drug war.” I have been investigating the drug cartels for almost 10 years. I have access to a great deal of information—documents, court files, testimonies of members of the Mexican and US governments—and I can tell you that in Mexico there has never, never been a “war on drugs.” The government, from the mid-1970s until today, has been involved with the drug cartels.

Hernández says she has documents showing that prior to Guzman’s arrest, the authorities always knew where he was, and they consistently protected him. Considering that, it is reasonable to question whether Guzman was allowed to escape.

“I was an informant for U.S. Federal Agents, and the agents cut a deal with (me), and members of the Sinaloa Cartel that allowed us to traffic tons of narcotics into the U.S., and to traffic illegal guns across the Mexico-U.S. Border without fear of prosecution under an immunity agreement,” said Vicente Zambada-Niebla in a bombshell court filing in federal court in Chicago Illinois.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said in 2009 that he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were “the only liquid investment capital” available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.

Michael Ruppert exposed government drug-dealing in Los Angeles during the 1990s, he explains that “with 250 billion dollars a year in illegal drug money moved, laundered through the American economy, that money benefits Wall Street. That’s the point of having the prohibitive drug trade, which the CIA effectively manages for the benefit of Wall Street. So the purpose of the Agency being involved in the drug trade has been to generate illegal cash, fluid liquid capital, which gives those who can get their hands on it an unfair advantage in the marketplace…. The drug money is always going through Wall Street. Wall Street smells money and doesn’t care where the money comes from; they’ll go for the drug money.”

Compiled by Alternative Free Press

DEA asset “El Chapo” Guzman escapes from prison by AlternativeFreePress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Geopolitics/War, Original

Hypocrite Hillary preaches gun control after arming terrorists

10th July 2015 alternativefreepress

Alternative Free Press

Hypocrite Hillary has been speaking out against guns:

“I’m going to speak out against the uncontrollable use of guns in our country because I believe we can do better,”

Hillary Clinton

“We have to take on the gun lobby…. This is a controversial issue. I am well aware of that. But I think it is the height of irresponsibility not to talk about it.”

Hillary Clinton

Earlier this month it was reported that Mrs. Clinton provided material assistance to terrorists and lied to Congress. She authorized the sale of millions of dollars’ worth of arms to the government of Qatar, which then, at the request of American government officials, were sold, bartered or given to rebel groups in Libya and Syria.

Compiled by Alternative Free Press

Hypocrite Hillary preaches gun control after arming terrorists by AlternativeFreePress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Drugs, Health/Environment, Original

Vancouver’s Gangster Government Creates Legal Extortion Racket: Demands $30K From Each Pot Shop

24th June 2015 alternativefreepress

AlternativeFreePress.com

Today, The City of Vancouver Council voted in favor of new regulations for the growing number of medical Cannabis dispensaries in the city. The new bylaws demand $30,000 from each dispensary. The new rules also restrict the location such businesses may operate within, which means dozens are now already in violation.

Councillor Kerry Jang has threatened that the city and/or their police force will shut down dispensaries which do not pay or violate other rules.

City Council claims it is the asinine position of Canada’s Health Minister Rona Ambrose which is forcing the hand of Vancouver’s Councillors. While her portfolio includes legal responsibility for medical marijuana access in Canada, she ridiculously claims cannabis does not have medical value and has failed to provide Canadians with access to their medicine as dictated by the Supreme Court. Now, this blame of failing to provide access is valid, but it does not justify demanding $30,000 with the threat of a police raid. The city could and should regulate dispensaries similarly to other businesses, but $30,000 is ridiculous. That $30,000 cost will of course be passed on to patients who are already paying too much.

The City of Vancouver charges liquor-serving establishments from $858.00 to a maximum $4,637.00 to process their licenses, while alcohol is more dangerous, more addictive, and significantly more damaging to health than Cannabis. A $5000 licensing fee might be reasonable, but $30,000 to dispense medicine to sick people is essentially extortion.

Written by Alternative Free Press

Vancouver’s Gangster Government Creates Legal Extortion Racket: Demands 30K From Each Pot Shop by AlternativeFreePress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

SOURCES:
Vancouver.ca
CannabisCulture.com
CBC.ca

Drugs, Health/Environment, Original

Claims of marijuana psychosis in teens are asinine

6th June 2015 alternativefreepress

AlternativeFreePress.com

By now you may have seen a headline “Pot can pose psychosis risk for teens with developing brains: researchers” or “Marijuana research says psychosis in teens who smoke pot way up”. Notice that the headlines are careful to include words such as “can”, “researchers”, or “says” because it’s just 2 people giving their opinion, it’s not a proven fact. If these media outlets had published a headline which read “Pot poses psychosis risk for teens with developing brains” or “psychosis in teens who smoke pot way up” they would likely be sued by several medical marijuana corporations and forced to print retractions, because there is a lack of science to prove these claims.

We are told there is “a growing body of research” but are provided ZERO specific examples.

These two researchers just give their opinions and cite examples they claim to have witnessed… but appear to not even be questioning whether this “marijuana” was organic cannabis, or if it was sprayed with something or if it was a synthetic substitute. As long as cannabis is illegal and teens are buying their pot from illegal sources, we can’t know what they are smoking. Especially with the many new research chemicals being sold in response to prohibition, teens are often unknowingly consuming cocktails of dangerous chemicals. Without a legal source of organic cannabis, teens will continue to be at risk of consuming unknown chemicals causing unknown damage to their bodies.

One of these asinine articles cites a discredited study regarding IQ being affected by cannabis. The Washington Post can clear that up for us:

Then, a follow-up study published 6 months later in the same journal found that the Duke paper failed to account for a number of confounding factors: “Although it would be too strong to say that the results have been discredited, the methodology is flawed and the causal inference drawn from the results premature,” it concluded.

Now, a new study out from the University College of London provides even stronger evidence that the Duke findings were flawed. The study draws on a considerably larger sample of adolescents than the Duke research – 2,612 children born in the Bristol area of the U.K. in 1991 and 1992. Researchers examined children’s IQ scores at age 8 and again at age 15, and found “no relationship between cannabis use and lower IQ at age 15,” when confounding factors – alcohol use, cigarette use, maternal education, and others – were taken into account. Even heavy marijuana use wasn’t associated with IQ.

UPDATED June 15, 2015:
(This article was written hastily, and should have originally included a link to our previous related article) :
Study says alcohol can lead to psychosis, but not cannabis

The University of Calgary 4-year study entitled “Impact of substance use on conversion to psychosis in youth at clinical high risk of psychosis” determined that cannabis did not increase the likelihood of psychosis. On the other hand, the study suggests that alcohol use could increase the likelihood of psychosis. The Abstract reads: “Results revealed that low use of alcohol, but neither cannabis use nor tobacco use at baseline, contributed to the prediction of psychosis in the CHR sample.”

Written by Alternative Free Press

Claims pot causes “psychosis in teens” are asinine by AlternativeFreePress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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