Chicago Businesses Boarding Up Ahead of Democratic National Convention for Fear of Mass Riots
by Warner Todd Huston, Breitbart:
Chicago businesses are already boarding up their storefronts downtown ahead of Monday’s opening of the Democratic National Convention in anticipation of mass rioting and violence.
Plywood shielding first began showing up Thursday morning as the city’s shopping district opened for business.
“As we know, this city has a poor track record when it comes to protecting businesses,” Scott Shapiro, owner of Syd Jerome, told Chicago’s WLS-TV.
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“We felt it was more prudent to board up, since our customers and their employers have told them to stay home throughout the convention for their own safety,” Shapiro added.
It makes perfect sense for Shapiro to take precautions. His store was one of those destroyed during the riots in 2020.
The retailer added that he does not fear peaceful protesters, but is wary of “the people that embed themselves and take advantage of those protests for their own agenda.”
Shapiro is right to worry. News outlets have reported that violent protest groups are organizing. Some expect domestic terror organization Antifa as well as violence-prone pro-Hamas groups to target the Windy City and many worry that members are being bused into the city from outside.
He is far from the only one to board up his business. Plywood barriers are going up all across the Loop area and the rest of Chicago’s downtown retail sector.
Matthew Perdie/Breitbart News
One boarding company told the media that they have had 40 calls this week alone to begin boarding up the city’s retail businesses.
Meanwhile, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) is warning protesters that violence and property damage will not be tolerated.
CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling warned that the First Amendment does not act as cover for “criminal acts.”
ABC7 reported that Snelling told CNN:
There is a distinct difference between the riot and a peaceful protest, or people who are simply actually exercising their first amendment rights. The first amendment for tat [sic] actions does not include rioting, it doesn’t include criminal acts … It doesn’t include breaking the law. It doesn’t include violence, vandalism, those things that we are not going to tolerate in our city. But if people are showing up here to exercise their first amendment rights, they’re doing it peacefully lawfully, we’re going to protect their rights to do that.”
“The minute that starts, we have to put an end to it,” Snelling said of violence and rioting, according to Chicago’s WBEZ radio. “When people become comfortable committing acts of violence and vandalism, that’s when it turns into a riot.”
Originally Posted at https://www.sgtreport.com
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New York Times’ ‘Distorted’ Coverage Of CCP Abuses Likely Cost Lives, Report Says
Authored by Petr Svab via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
At critical moments over the past 25 years, the New York Times has aided the interests of a power faction within the Chinese Communist Party responsible for atrocities against practitioners of the spiritual discipline Falun Gong.
On top of implicating itself ethically, the paper has also, as a result, distorted its China coverage and misled its readers, as revealed by an analysis of The New York Times’ China coverage as well as interviews with half a dozen experts on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politics and geopolitics.
Due to the paper’s disproportionate influence on policy, its skewed coverage has likely led to a loss of life and treasure that is difficult to quantify, some experts said.
The New York Times has for decades positioned itself as a global newspaper, insisting on a necessity of access to China, according to former staffers. That meant convincing the communist regime that the paper’s presence would benefit it.
The paper has never explained what price it has paid for access to the country.
“There’s always the issue of, if you want to be a global newspaper, what do you have to do to keep China happy and stay in business there?” Tom Kuntz, a former editor at the paper, told The Epoch Times.
“There’s always been tensions, and I know they’ve, like a lot of companies, tried to maintain access to China.”
Bradley Thayer, a former senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy, expert on strategic assessment of China, and a contributor to The Epoch Times, was more blunt.
“If they don’t cover the regime the way the regime wants to be covered, they’re going to be blackballed. They’re not going to be able to return,” he told The Epoch Times.
“So all of these individuals have a vested interest, if you will, in toeing the Party line.”
Covering Chinese politics, The New York Times has ascribed sincerity where deception is expected and glossed over where it should have dug deeper, all in a pattern of affinity with the interests of a CCP clique aligned with former Party leader Jiang Zemin, multiple experts affirmed.
Jiang’s influence has waned since 2012, when incoming CCP leader Xi Jinping exhibited an unexpected dexterity in eliminating his opponents. Only a minority of Jiang’s acolytes have maintained influence since his death in 2022. Despite the shift in power, however, The New York Times has maintained the pro-Jiang pattern.
The New York Times did not respond to a detailed list of emailed questions for this article.
Privileged Position
The paper developed a special connection with Jiang in 2001, when its then-publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., and several editors and reporters were granted a rare audience with the dictator.
The paper ran a flattering interview headlined “In Jiang’s Words: ‘I Hope the Western World Can Understand China Better.’”
Within days, the CCP unblocked access to The New York Times’ website in China.
A month later, the CCP unblocked several other Western news sites, including those of The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the BBC. The sites were blocked again within a week.
The New York Times, on the other hand, remained accessible. Users then reported that content on the site was being blocked selectively, giving the paper a chance to benefit from access to the Chinese market to the degree that it kept within bounds acceptable to the CCP.
The interview came at a sensitive time for Jiang. He had only a little more than a year left before he was supposed to hand over Party control to Hu Jintao, fulfilling the succession line stipulated by Deng Xiaoping, his predecessor.
But things weren’t going well for Jiang. His persecution of the spiritual practice Falun Gong, a political campaign that was supposed to whip the Party and the nation into conformity under his control, was failing to reach its goals. Even worse, foreign media, including The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, were taking apart the CCP’s anti-Falun Gong propaganda and highlighting accounts of wrongful detention and torture.
The New York Times, by contrast, appeared most helpful to Jiang’s campaign. By the time of the 2001 interview, the paper ran several dozen articles on Falun Gong, almost all of them profusely parroting the propaganda portraying the practice as a “cult” or a “sect.”
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline consisting of slow-moving exercises and teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It was introduced to the public in China in 1992, and by the end of the decade, an estimated 70 million to 100 million people were practicing it.
When in January 2001 CCP state media claimed that several people who set themselves on fire on Tiananmen Square in Beijing were Falun Gong practitioners, The Washington Post dispatched a reporter to fact-check the story. The New York Times, on the other hand, immediately took the CCP line as fact.
If the paper employed its much-touted investigative acumen, it would have discovered, as others have, that the incident was staged. After the first man allegedly set himself alight in the middle of the square, four policemen somehow managed to obtain several fire extinguishers, rush to the scene, and put out the fire, all in less than one minute.
Given the distances involved on the giant square, that wouldn’t have been physically possible—unless the officers already had the fire extinguishers ready and knew in advance where on the square they would be needed that day, several independent investigations concluded, pointing out dozens of other inconsistencies.
Even without any investigation, the incident made little sense. The victims supposedly followed a belief that burning themselves alive would bring them to heaven. But Falun Gong includes no such belief. In fact, its literature treats suicide as killing a human life, which it explicitly prohibits.
The New York Times didn’t even find it strange that since Falun Gong’s public introduction in 1992, of the tens of millions of people practicing it, none of them had publicly set themselves on fire until that day, and none had done so since.
Even after The Washington Post investigation traced several of the alleged victims back to their hometown and found that none had ever been seen practicing Falun Gong, The New York Times continued to parrot the CCP’s propaganda.
Jiang was apparently pleased with The New York Times, calling it during the 2001 interview “a very good paper.”
Getting in Jiang’s good graces on the Falun Gong issue would have been particularly critical, as it struck at the heart of a core principle of CCP politics, several experts affirmed.
Partners in Crime
One of the bedrocks of the CCP’s internal politics is ensuring one’s own safety, particularly upon retirement. Cadres are well aware of the pitiful fate of many high-ranking comrades. Infamously, Liu Shaoqi, once No. 2 to the CCP’s first leader, Mao Zedong, was purged during the Cultural Revolution, arrested, and tortured to death.
When Mao’s successor, Deng Xiaoping, looked for somebody to helm the CCP after him in 1989, he picked Jiang Zemin, the Shanghai Party secretary who supported the CCP’s deployment of military to crush the 1989 student protests.
“Because Jiang was implicated in the repression of the students, Deng could trust Jiang to be his successor. Jiang could not in the future use the massacre against Deng without implicating himself,” explained Matthew Little, a senior editor of The Epoch Times, in a 2012 analysis.
The persecution of Falun Gong played much the same role for Jiang, who encouraged his cronies to build “political capital” by backing the campaign. Some did so with fervor, escalating the persecution to a point of unspeakable barbarity, particularly in encouraging torture to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their faith, The Epoch Times previously reported.
These officials, tied by shared complicity in the atrocities, were at the core of Jiang’s power faction, sometimes called the “Shanghai gang.”
In exchange for their support, Jiang let the gang abuse their offices and plunder state-owned assets, setting the tone for a nationwide culture of corruption.
That culture served a dual purpose for Jiang. On one hand, it allowed him to buy supporters, especially in the 1990s, when he struggled to form a power base among CCP cadres, who generally saw him as incompetent, according to an unofficial biography of Jiang published by The Epoch Times.
On the other hand, he could eliminate his rivals in the name of “anti-corruption.”
But the sword of anti-corruption cuts both ways. As Xi later demonstrated, it could be applied selectively against the Jiang faction, too.
The bond through culpability in the Falun Gong repression was more solid. The crimes became so extensive that none of the culprits would have risked their revelation, some China experts said.
There was a problem, though: Jiang’s designated replacement, Hu Jintao, showed little enthusiasm for the Falun Gong campaign.
“Jiang tried to push Hu to persecute Falun Gong and found he was quite reluctant,” said Li Linyi, a China commentator, expert on CCP internal politics, and Epoch Times contributor.
“Their relationship started to deteriorate after that. Jiang just felt more and more concerned about Hu.”
Just as the CCP under Deng redressed some victims of the Cultural Revolution, Hu could, at least theoretically, redress Falun Gong, blame Jiang, and purge his faction.
In reality, this was unlikely to happen, Li said.
“There was a huge price for redressing the Cultural Revolution,” he said. “Not only did some top CCP leaders get purged, but the CCP admitted they made a big mistake. That is not good for them in order to hold power in China in the long term. The CCP is still criticized for what they did during the Cultural Revolution.”
CCP leaders would only backtrack on Falun Gong as a last resort, if they felt it would save the regime, he said.
That didn’t mean, however, that Hu and his supporters couldn’t use the Falun Gong issue to endanger Jiang and his faction in other ways. Indeed, there’s evidence that they have.
“All [Jiang’s] policies could have continued to be carried out by Hu Jintao, except this one. … The only thing Jiang Zemin worried about was the policy of persecuting Falun Gong,” said Heng He, a veteran China commentator with NTD, a sister outlet of The Epoch Times.
Jiang was thus extremely motivated to constrain Hu and prop up his own image, several experts confirmed.
The New York Times proved helpful in this pursuit.
Shoring Up a Dictator’s Legacy
By 2002, The New York Times was in pro-Jiang mode. Parroting the Party propaganda, the paper declared that Falun Gong had been successfully “crushed.”
Citing CCP sources, it suggested that Falun Gong was already passé and that it only ever had 2 million practitioners. It went as far as claiming that the figure cited by Falun Gong sources, 70 million, was baseless.
Yet a few years earlier, before the persecution began, multiple Western and Chinese media, including The Associated Press and The New York Times, provided figures of 70 million or 100 million, generally attributing them to estimates by the Chinese State Sports Administration, which had the best insight due to a massive survey of Falun Gong practitioners it conducted in the late 1990s.
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Originally Posted at; https://www.zerohedge.com//
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Tropical Storm Ernesto Forecast Discussion
757 WTNT45 KNHC 180238 TCDAT5 Tropical Storm Ernesto Discussion Number 26 NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL AL052024 1100 PM AST Sat Aug 17 2024 Satellite imagery and radar data from Bermuda continue to show limited convection associated with Ernesto, with the strongest convection in a poorly-defined eyewall in the northern semicircle. This is likely due to a tongue of dry air wrapping around the system from the northwest into the central core. The various subjective and objective satellite intensity estimates have decreased a little more since the last advisory, and based on this the initial intensity is lowered to 60 kt. The initial motion is 030/7 kt. This slow motion should continue for the next 6-12 h as a mid-latitude shortwave ridge passes to the north of Ernesto. After that, southwesterly flow on the east side of a mid-latitude trough moving through the eastern United States should cause the cyclone to accelerate to the north-northeast, northeast, and eventually east-northeast. This motion should bring the center just southeast of Newfoundland late Monday and Monday night, with the system moving into the open north Atlantic thereafter. The track guidance remains tightly clustered, and the new forecast track has only minor changes from the previous track. Little change in strength is expected tonight while Ernesto tries to mix out the dry air tongue. After that, upper-level divergence is forecast to increase while the cyclone is still over relatively warm water. This could allow some modest re-intensification as show by the dynamical models, and this remains reflected in the intensity forecast. After 36 h, the cyclone should weaken as it moves over colder water and begins extratropical transition. Transition should be complete by 60 h, and and the post-tropical low is expected to degenerate to a trough over the northeastern Atlantic between 72-96 h. Key Messages: 1. Ernesto is still moving slowly, and its impacts on Bermuda are not quite over. Strong winds, heavy rainfall, coastal flooding, and battering waves should continue for a few more hours. The heavy rains will likely result in considerable life-threatening flash flooding, especially in low-lying areas on the island. 2. Even though Ernesto is forecast to remain well offshore the U.S. East Coast, swells generated by the hurricane are expected to affect the area through early next week. Beach goers should be aware that there is a significant risk of life-threatening surf and rip currents, and should stay out of the water if advised by lifeguards. Surf and rip currents are also possible on the Bahamas, Bermuda, and Atlantic Canada during the next few days. 3. Ernesto could bring wind, wave, and rain impacts to portions of southeastern Newfoundland late Monday and Monday night. FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS INIT 18/0300Z 33.9N 63.3W 60 KT 70 MPH 12H 18/1200Z 35.3N 62.9W 60 KT 70 MPH 24H 19/0000Z 37.9N 61.6W 65 KT 75 MPH 36H 19/1200Z 41.3N 58.8W 70 KT 80 MPH 48H 20/0000Z 44.7N 53.8W 65 KT 75 MPH 60H 20/1200Z 47.7N 46.2W 50 KT 60 MPH...POST-TROP/EXTRATROP 72H 21/0000Z 50.4N 36.9W 40 KT 45 MPH...POST-TROP/EXTRATROP 96H 22/0000Z...DISSIPATED $$ Forecaster Beven
Originally Posted at:
NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER and CENTRAL PACIFIC HURRICANE CENTER
At The NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION
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Tropical Storm Ernesto Forecast Advisory
000 WTNT25 KNHC 180237 TCMAT5 TROPICAL STORM ERNESTO FORECAST/ADVISORY NUMBER 26 NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL052024 0300 UTC SUN AUG 18 2024 TROPICAL STORM CENTER LOCATED NEAR 33.9N 63.3W AT 18/0300Z POSITION ACCURATE WITHIN 20 NM PRESENT MOVEMENT TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHEAST OR 30 DEGREES AT 7 KT ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE 978 MB MAX SUSTAINED WINDS 60 KT WITH GUSTS TO 75 KT. 50 KT.......100NE 100SE 80SW 120NW. 34 KT.......200NE 200SE 120SW 170NW. 12 FT SEAS..330NE 300SE 270SW 300NW. WINDS AND SEAS VARY GREATLY IN EACH QUADRANT. RADII IN NAUTICAL MILES ARE THE LARGEST RADII EXPECTED ANYWHERE IN THAT QUADRANT. REPEAT...CENTER LOCATED NEAR 33.9N 63.3W AT 18/0300Z AT 18/0000Z CENTER WAS LOCATED NEAR 33.5N 63.6W FORECAST VALID 18/1200Z 35.3N 62.9W MAX WIND 60 KT...GUSTS 75 KT. 50 KT... 80NE 80SE 50SW 70NW. 34 KT...170NE 170SE 120SW 130NW. FORECAST VALID 19/0000Z 37.9N 61.6W MAX WIND 65 KT...GUSTS 80 KT. 64 KT... 40NE 40SE 30SW 0NW. 50 KT... 70NE 80SE 50SW 60NW. 34 KT...150NE 170SE 120SW 110NW. FORECAST VALID 19/1200Z 41.3N 58.8W MAX WIND 70 KT...GUSTS 85 KT. 64 KT... 30NE 40SE 20SW 0NW. 50 KT... 70NE 80SE 50SW 50NW. 34 KT...150NE 170SE 130SW 100NW. FORECAST VALID 20/0000Z 44.7N 53.8W MAX WIND 65 KT...GUSTS 80 KT. 64 KT... 0NE 40SE 0SW 0NW. 50 KT... 70NE 80SE 50SW 30NW. 34 KT...150NE 180SE 150SW 80NW. FORECAST VALID 20/1200Z 47.7N 46.2W...POST-TROP/EXTRATROP MAX WIND 50 KT...GUSTS 60 KT. 50 KT... 40NE 50SE 50SW 0NW. 34 KT...130NE 180SE 170SW 30NW. FORECAST VALID 21/0000Z 50.4N 36.9W...POST-TROP/EXTRATROP MAX WIND 40 KT...GUSTS 50 KT. 34 KT...110NE 190SE 170SW 0NW. EXTENDED OUTLOOK. NOTE...ERRORS FOR TRACK HAVE AVERAGED NEAR 125 NM ON DAY 4 AND 175 NM ON DAY 5...AND FOR INTENSITY NEAR 15 KT EACH DAY OUTLOOK VALID 22/0000Z...DISSIPATED REQUEST FOR 3 HOURLY SHIP REPORTS WITHIN 300 MILES OF 33.9N 63.3W INTERMEDIATE PUBLIC ADVISORY...WTNT35 KNHC/MIATCPAT5...AT 18/0600Z NEXT ADVISORY AT 18/0900Z $$ FORECASTER BEVEN
Originally Posted at:
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At The NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION
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Tropical Storm Ernesto Public Advisory
000 WTNT35 KNHC 180237 TCPAT5 BULLETIN Tropical Storm Ernesto Advisory Number 26 NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL AL052024 1100 PM AST Sat Aug 17 2024 ...ERNESTO MOVING AWAY FROM BERMUDA BUT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS EXPECTED FOR A FEW MORE HOURS... ...DANGEROUS BEACH CONDITIONS EXPECTED ALONG THE U.S. EAST COAST THROUGH EARLY NEXT WEEK... SUMMARY OF 1100 PM AST...0300 UTC...INFORMATION ----------------------------------------------- LOCATION...33.9N 63.3W ABOUT 140 MI...225 KM NE OF BERMUDA ABOUT 1030 MI...1660 KM SW OF CAPE RACE NEWFOUNDLAND MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...70 MPH...110 KM/H PRESENT MOVEMENT...NNE OR 30 DEGREES AT 8 MPH...13 KM/H MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...978 MB...28.88 INCHES WATCHES AND WARNINGS -------------------- CHANGES WITH THIS ADVISORY: None. SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT: A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for... * Bermuda A Tropical Storm Warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area. Interests in southeastern Newfoundland should monitor the progress of Ernesto. A watch may be required for a portion of this area on Sunday. For storm information specific to your area, please monitor products issued by your national meteorological service. DISCUSSION AND OUTLOOK ---------------------- At 1100 PM AST (0300 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Ernesto was located near latitude 33.9 North, longitude 63.3 West. Ernesto is moving toward the north-northeast near 8 mph (13 km/h), and this general motion is expected to continue through tonight. An acceleration toward the north-northeast is forecast to begin on Sunday, with a turn toward the northeast and east-northeast occurring on Monday and Tuesday. On the forecast track, the center of Ernesto will move away from Bermuda tonight and pass near southeastern Newfoundland late Monday and Monday night. Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 70 mph (110 km/h) with higher gusts. Little change in strength is expected tonight. Some intensification is possible Sunday and Sunday night, and Ernesto could regain hurricane status. The cyclone will likely become post-tropical near southeastern Newfoundland by Monday night or Tuesday morning. Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 230 miles (370 km) from the center. The estimated minimum central pressure is 978 mb (28.88 inches). HAZARDS AFFECTING LAND ---------------------- Key messages for Ernesto can be found in the Tropical Cyclone Discussion under AWIPS header MIATCDAT5 and WMO header WTNT45 KNHC and on the web at hurricanes.gov/text/MIATCDAT5.shtml. WIND: Tropical storm conditions are likely to continue on Bermuda for the next few hours. STORM SURGE: Coastal flooding is still possible on Bermuda in areas of onshore winds. Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves. RAINFALL: Ernesto is expected to produce an additional 1 to 2 inches or 25 to 50 mm of rainfall through Saturday night across Bermuda, with storm total amounts of 7 to 9 inches (175 to 225 mm). This rainfall will likely result in considerable life-threatening flash flooding to the island. SURF: Swells generated by Ernesto are affecting portions of the Bahamas, Bermuda, the east coast of the United States, and Atlantic Canada today. Life-threatening surf and rip current conditions are likely in these areas during the next couple of days. Please consult products from your local weather office, and stay out of the water if advised by lifeguards. NEXT ADVISORY ------------- Next intermediate advisory at 200 AM AST. Next complete advisory at 500 AM AST. $$ Forecaster Beven
Originally Posted at:
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At The NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION
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U.S. Hypocrisy On Supposed Iranian Meddling In The U.S. Election
by Matt Agorist, The Free Thought Project:
(The Future of Freedom Foundation) The FBI is warning Iran not to meddle in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. That’s rich given that it was the U.S. government’s meddling in an Iranian election that is the root cause of the perpetual, ongoing, never-ending animosity between the two regimes today.
While U.S. officials and U.S. interventionists love to point to the 1979 Iranian revolution as the start of the adverse relationship between Iran and the United States, that’s only because they are loathe to recognize wrongdoing on the part of their own government — and especially the part that consists of the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA — that is, the national-security state part, which they look upon as their god.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
The 1979 revolution in Iran was a direct consequence of U.S. meddling in the electoral process some twenty-six years before. Perhaps “meddle” is too soft a word though. Maybe a better word is “destroy.” In 1953, the U.S. national-security establishment destroyed Iran’s democratic process and laid the foundation for the 1979 Iranian revolution, which then led to the forever war of hostility by the U.S. regime toward the Iranian regime, a hostility that still goes on today.
In 1951, the Iranian parliament elected Mohammad Mossadegh to be prime minister of the country. Widely respected not only in Iran and in other parts of the world, Mossadegh was named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year.”
British officials, however, were not so impressed. That’s because Mossadegh nationalized British oil interests in Iran. To protect against British intervention to recover its oil interests, Mossadegh threw British officials out of the country.
Unable to recover their oil interests, the Brits turned to the U.S. government for help. In 1953, the CIA orchestrated a coup in Iran that resulted in 300 people being killed. The coup succeeded in ousting the democratically elected Mossadegh and restoring to power the unelected Shah of Iran, who proceeded to exercise brutal, omnipotent, dictatorial powers to maintain his iron grip on power. To support him in this endeavor, the CIA helped to train the Shah’s brutal national police force called the SAVAK, which was a combination CIA, FBI, Pentagon, and NSA. The SAVAK specialized in such dark arts as arbitrary arrests, indefinite incarceration without trial, torture, and extrajudicial execution.
Read More @ TheFreeThoughtProject.com
Originally Posted at https://www.sgtreport.com
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3 Ways to Store a LOT of Water in Smaller Spaces
by Daisy Luther, The Organic Prepper:
One of the most common questions I get from folks who don’t live on a large property in a rural area is how to store a lot of water for a long-term emergency. First, let me give you a harsh reality check. If the crisis goes on long enough you will run out of stored water. So this is only a portion of your water preparedness plan. You also need to know how to acquire and filter more water. But that’s beyond the purview of this article.
Let’s talk about how to store a lot of water in a smaller space and how much water you need.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
How much water do you need for emergencies?
There’s a “rule” that preppers often quote that suggests you need one gallon of water per person and pet per day in the event of emergencies. That is a decent basic guideline but there are other variables to consider too. Some pets, for example, certainly aren’t going to require an entire gallon of water while larger livestock will need more than a gallon on hot days.
This amount doesn’t take into consideration things like the climate, whether people will be doing strenuous work, or if certain health conditions are in play. It also doesn’t cover the water you’d need for personal hygiene, sanitation, or your garden. The best way to calculate how much water you truly need is to go without running water for a weekend and jot down every drop you use from your stash.
For more information on calculating how much water you’ll need for emergencies, check out this article and this one.
How to store a lot of water
Below, find some options for storing a significant amount of water.
Water Barrels
I live in an apartment building as of the writing of this article, and there isn’t a whole lot of extra space for water storage. I purchased a 65-gallon food-safe barrel for $15 from a lady on Facebook Marketplace. The barrel had initially held pickles long ago but she’d used it in her garden to collect rainwater for quite some time, so by the time it got to me, any residual pickle-y smell was long gone.
I keep it on my patio and opted for a color that blends in with the brick of my building. Nobody has paid any attention to it in the year and a half I’ve had it. The bonus to something like this is that I have a second top for it with a screen that I could use for water collection if things went really sideways.
To wash a barrel like this, if you don’t have a hose, visit a DIY car wash and bring your own dish soap. To fill it, I simply filled a 3-gallon container in my kitchen and walked it out until the barrel was full.
Mine doesn’t have any bells and whistles. I’d need to dip water out with a clean ladle if it came to using this for consumption. But if you have the money to do so, you can get “upcycled” water barrels on Amazon that have spigots and water catchment conversion kits delivered to your door within a couple of days. You can also pick up rain barrels at many local hardware stores. Just make sure it comes with a solid lid you can put on for storage and you’ll be all set.
Please note that water weighs 8.3 pounds per gallon. That means that my filled barrel weighs almost 540 pounds, not including the weight of the barrel. Be sure that the place you plan to keep your barrel can withstand the weight.
Bathtub water bladders
Another place you can store water in a smaller space is the bathtub. I suggest a Water Bob (100 gallons) or an Aqua Pod (65 gallons) for this. These are BPA-free plastic bladders that attach to the faucet of your tub to fill with water. Once the bladder is full, then you detach it from the faucet and put on the cap. This closed container keeps your water safe and free from contamination.
Obviously, you need to know the emergency is about to happen to use a bathtub water container. These are great if a storm is blowing up or some other type of crisis is imminent.
IBC Totes
Another option, if you have the space and an area that can hold around 2500 pounds, is a food-grade IBC Tote. These are large, 275-gallon plastic cubes that come in a metal cage for added support. They’re not cheap but you can sometimes find a reconditioned one. I kept a couple of these when I lived in California. The unit itself weighs around 150 pounds.
Read More @ TheOrganicPrepper.ca
Originally Posted at https://www.sgtreport.com
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Minnesota National Guard: Walz’s Rank Was Reduced a Day Before He Retired
The Minnesota National Guard revealed earlier this week that Gov. Tim Walz, the 2024 Democrat vice presidential candidate, had his rank reduced to master sergeant a day before he retired, which means that he never retired as a command sergeant major as he has claimed numerous times in political ads and in political settings. Minnesota National Guard Director of Manpower & Personnel Army Col. Ryan Cochran said in a statement sent out to journalists on August 13, 2024 (emphasis added):
Governor Tim Walz received his notification of eligibility for retirement on August 3, 2002. He was promoted to sergeant major (E-9) on September 17, 2004, and immediately began serving as the command sergeant major for the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery while his packet was submitted to the National Guard Bureau to appoint him to command sergeant major (E-9). Once approved by NGB, he was laterally appointed to command sergeant major (E-9) on April 1, 2005. He retired from the Minnesota National Guard on May 16, 2005. Our records do not indicate when he made his request to retire. Leadership reviews and approves all requests to retire. He was administratively reduced to master sergeant (E-8) on May 15, 2005, because he did not complete all required U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy coursework.
The statement said Walz’s rank was reduced to master sergeant (E-8) on May 15, 2005, and he retired on May 16, 2005. According to a publicly available Army National Guard document, Walz had his military record corrected on September 10, 2005.
Despite retiring as a master sergeant on May 15, 2005, Walz spent his entire congressional career claiming he was a retired command sergeant major — despite not being a retired command sergeant major. And despite serving in a command sergeant major role provisionally and having that rank rescinded, he put the rank on coins he handed out as a congressman, and on his then-Twitter bio. However, Walz claimed he was a retired command sergeant major (E-9) in his first political ad for U.S. Congress in 2006, and continued doing so throughout his time as a congressman.
Tim Walz is guilty of stolen valor
From Walz’ 1st Congressional campaign in 2006 – present day as Minnesota Governor…
🚨Updated: Watch @Tim_Walz falsely claim the retired rank of Command Sergeant Major… 20 different times! pic.twitter.com/5L1l3n0Zgf
— NOVA Campaigns (@NoVA_Campaigns) August 15, 2024
He even put the higher, unearned rank of command sergeant major on challenge coins to hand out to people, and put it on his then-Twitter account bio. The Harris-Walz campaign has never addressed why Walz falsely claimed to be a retired command sergeant major, although the campaign quietly updated his campaign biography to reflect he was not a retired command sergeant major but just served as one, according to Politico.
He has also not addressed allegations that he retired to avoid deploying to Iraq, made by multiple men who served with him, including his commander at the time, Retired Army Command Sergeant Major Doug Julin. Julin said in an interview with CNN that Walz had assured him he would lead his battalion into war in Iraq, but then went around him to get approval to retire early.
The campaign has only said Walz “misspoke,” after it circulated a video of Walz in 2018 saying he carried weapons “in war,” despite never being in combat or deploying to a war zone in his 24 year military reservist career.
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Originally Posted At www.breitbart.com
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Planned Parenthood to Offer Free Vasectomies, Abortions During DNC
A Planned Parenthood clinic will be offering people free vasectomies and abortions during the Democratic National Convention (DNC), which is set to be held next week in Chicago.
Planned Parenthood Great Rivers (PPGR), the Chicago Abortion Fund, and The Wieners Circle will be “providing FREE vasectomies & medication abortion” at Planned Parenthood Great Rivers’ mobile health clinic, PPGR announced in a post on X.
According to the New York Times, the mobile health clinic will be set up “blocks away” from the DNC.
PPGR, which is part of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, is described as being “the leading provider, educator, and protector of sexual and reproductive health care in the St. Louis region, Missouri Ozarks, and beyond,” according to the website for Planned Parenthood Great Rivers.
“Here we come, Chicago! Our mobile health clinic will be in the West Loop with @ChiAbortionFund & @TheWienerCircle Aug 19-20, providing FREE vasectomies & medication abortion. EC will also be available for free without an appointment.”
Here we come, Chicago! Ὡ Our mobile health clinic will be in the West Loop with @ChiAbortionFund & @TheWienerCircle Aug 19-20, providing FREE vasectomies & medication abortion. EC will also be available for free without an appointment.
Reserve your spot: https://t.co/AVCDTg2FAj pic.twitter.com/6C5oFuXacU
— Planned Parenthood Great Rivers (@ppgreatrivers) August 14, 2024
The Wieners Circle, which features items on its menu such as a, “Char Burger,” and hot dogs, wrote that “all patients at the mobile health clinic will get a free hot dog coupon” on them.
“We’re happy to support all reproductive health decisions, it’s up to you – NOT the government,” The Wieners Circle wrote in their post. “All patients at the mobile health clinic will get a free hot dog coupon on us.”
We’re happy to support all reproductive health decisions, it’s up to you – NOT the government. All patients at the mobile health clinic will get a free hot dog coupon on us 🌭 https://t.co/4WDjwqXkBz
— The Wieners Circle (@TheWienerCircle) August 15, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democrats have been advocating for abortion access for women since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, returning the issue to the states.
In Harris’s first campaign advertisement for president, she highlighted things like abortion rights and transgender pride.
Harris has also previously visited several states, such as Nevada and Florida, as she has advocated for abortions.
Democrats such as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden have claimed that if elected president, former President Donald Trump would institute a national abortion ban.
In April, Trump clarified in a video on Truth Social that the issue of abortion was about “the will of the people,” which should be left up to the states to decide, “Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks, or some will have more conservative than others and that’s what they will be. At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people. You must follow your heart, or in many cases, your religion or your faith.”
Originally Posted At www.breitbart.com
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Growing and Preparing Dried Beans – Part 1
by AF, Survival Blog:
Do you remember your first assigned chore from childhood? Starting at age four, I was tasked with walking up the ridge to my grandparent’s home every Monday around five o’clock to bring home our portion of the week’s pinto beans. To my knowledge, my grandmother fixed pintos every Monday from the late 1940s through the late 1990s. On Sunday evening she would spill out the dry beans on her kitchen table, then “look them” for stones or debris then sweep them into a large bowl to soak overnight.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
On Monday morning the beans were rinsed, moved into a large pot, covered with water and set on the wood cook stove in preparation to feed the family and whomever might stop by. A little bit of salt, pepper and a piece of cured streaked meat were the seasonings and as surely as night follows day, the beans were served along with stewed potatoes and cornbread. Given that leftovers were heated on the stove top, any beans not eaten early in the week would be approaching refried consistency by Thursdays. When my mother took over fixing the beans, the recipe stayed the same and the beans were tasty but the low and slow wood stove imparted flavor couldn’t be duplicated.
Several years ago, a friend of my wife’s mentioned that she and her husband had begun growing their own pinto beans and bragged on how much better they tasted than store-bought dried beans. Having said the same thing to others myself about home-grown carrots, tomato, broccoli and umpteen other vegetables, I had to stop and ask “Really?” After all, we are talking about a dried bean – how could the flavor be much different between store-bought and homegrown? Shortly thereafter the proverbial gauntlet was thrown when we had a pair of dishes ruined when store-bought dried beans failed to hydrate and soften. Thus, the challenge of growing our own dried beans was accepted. Spoiler alert: my wife’s friend was right.
At the time we had a couple of years’ experience growing field peas and research indicated that we could grow drying beans in the same manner. Our growing process begins with driving five-foot-tall T-posts about every eight to ten feet apart to mark out forty-foot-long rows. We then run 14-gauge galvanized fencing wire at roughly 10 inches and 48 inches above ground level. The wire is wrapped around the two end T-posts and short pieces of wire are used to fasten the intermediate posts and wire together.
Early on, we wrapped the primary lengths of wire around the intermediate posts but found that we damaged the wire and shortened its service life as well as had no ability to easily tension the trellis throughout the growing season if needed. We install drip tape along the length of each row on the up-hill side of our trellis posts. Next, we weave jute twine between the parallel trellis wires and secure the twine after every third wrap using a square knot. The intermittent knots prevent the twine from falling away in long spans should it decay or break during the growing season prior to the bean vines reaching the top trellis wire.
To prepare the soil for planting, I run a small Mantis tiller along each side of the drip tape then create a furrow on each side using the corner of a garden hoe. We have found that double rows work well for drying beans and field peas as long as drip irrigation is available. Next, we sprinkle about one and a half cups of a general purpose fertilize (10/10/10 or triple 17 are the most available options here) to each furrow. The furrows are back-dragged to slightly bury the fertilizer, and then the bean or pea seeds are planted. Up until this year, we hand-planted all of our seeds.
To make the process easier on aging backs, we would wear a cloth carpenters’ apron to hold the seed and carry a three-foot-long piece of ¾ inch PVC pipe that we dropped the seed through to keep from bending so much and still control the placement of the seeds within the rows. This year we invested in a garden seeder from Agri Supply Co. and after a slight learning curve, the addition cut our bean and corn planting time by a lot.
Depending on the weather and variety, we have had sprouts break the ground in as few as three days although some varieties have taken close to two weeks. Thus far in our experience, most drying style beans are bush type and common wisdom is that the trellis is not necessary. What we have found though is given our dense planting style with the double rows and the prevalent North wind here, the trellis keeps the beans upright through drying and we lose far less to ground spoilage with the trellis than we did prior to using them. Around the midpoint of the growing season, we will use the drip irrigation to apply liquid fertilizer. This year we also installed three-foot-wide geotextile between the rows to minimize the need to weed. This has really helped thus far and I anticipate we will have less ground loss as the beans begin drying out this fall. By treating the fabric carefully during the season then shaking it off and rolling it up for winter storage, we have been able to get five or more years of use out of it in other areas of the garden before having to buy replacement.
Originally Posted at https://www.sgtreport.com
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