Supreme Court: We Must ‘Expressly Invoke’ Our Rights to Have Them Upheld

In order to have your rights upheld in this country, do you now have to officially announce them out loud?Melissa Melton

Earlier this month, the same Supreme Court who found thatAmericans can be strip searched during an arrest for any offense also found that a person’s silence can, in fact, be used against him if he does not officially announce that he is invoking his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.

The Atlantic Wire reported:

Basically, if you’re ever in any trouble with police (no, we don’t condone breaking laws) and want to keep your mouth shut, you will need to announce that you’re invoking your Fifth Amendment right instead of, you know, just keeping your mouth shut. ‘Petitioner’s Fifth Amendment claim fails because he did not expressly invoke the privilege against self-incrimination in response to the officer’s question,’ reads the opinion from Justice Samuel Alito, which Justice Kennedy and Chief Justice John Roberts backed. Justices Thomas and Scalia had a concurring opinion while the remaining four Supremes dissented. [emphasis added]

(Notice Justice Alito referred to our Fifth Amendment right as a “privilege” — Isn’t it wonderful that these people are appointed to their positions for life?)

Obama Pledges Billions to Boost Africa's Infrastructure

More like "AfriCON"

Joe Wright

Obama's 100 million dollar trip to Africa is controversial enough, as the U.S. taxpayer has been further burdened during worsening economic conditions at home. To add insult to injury, Obama has pledged a minimum of $7 billion dollars to boost access to electricity across parts of Africa. As highlighted in the video below, "Power Africa" will add better capacity to 20 million homes and commercial entities in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Tanzania over the next 5 years. Naturally this is being couched in presumed economic benefits for America, as summarized by CNN: “The trip aims to bolster U.S. investment opportunities, address development issues such as food security and health, and promote democracy.” Obama also couldn't resist adding a note about the environment and climate change:

The $16 billion public-private partnership is mandated to focus on “villages and farms” as well as urban centers and is designed to “support clean energy to protect the environment and prevent climate change,” Obama said. (Source)

Meanwhile at home, as noted by Daisy Luther, one "large western US power company recently announced that they did not foresee the ability to keep up with electrical demand this summer, and may institute rolling blackouts to cope with it." The general weakness of the U.S. electric grid costs the U.S. economy an estimated 80 billion dollars a year.

Beyond this, the state of American infrastructure in general is dismal and is heading toward third world status. States are on the verge of bankruptcy, cities are going dark, asphalt roads are returning to the stone age, and nationwide budget cuts are leaving students without teachers, supplies, or a full-time education.  Here are 21 Facts About America's Decaying Infrastructure That Will Blow Your Mind and 40 Statistics About The Fall Of The U.S. Economy That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe.

Nevertheless, Africa has been targeted by big business and the military-industrial complex as a muli-level resource.

More Than A Million Protesters Pack Tahrir Square Demanding President Morsi Step Down

Youtube

Vermont Decriminalizes Marijuana Starting Monday

Phillip Smith

As of Monday, Vermont will be the 17th state to decriminalize marijuana possession. A bill passed earlier this year goes into effect then.

The measure, House Bill 200, was sponsored by Rep. Christopher Pearson (P-Burlington), with a tripartisan group of 38 cosponsors. It ends criminal penalties for the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana or five grams of hashish and replaces them with fines of $200 for a first offense, $300 for a second offense, and $500 for subsequent offenses. Possession of more than an ounce remains a criminal offense, as does cultivation of any number of plants.

People under 21 caught with decriminalized amounts of marijuana or hash will have to undergo substance abuse screening.

USDA Was Storing Monsanto’s Unapproved GM Wheat in Seed Vault

How did genetically modified wheat escape and taint the fields of American farmers? The unsettling case remains unexplained, but traces back to a USDA seed vault.Aaron Dykes and Melissa Melton

According a recent article in the Denver Post, the unapproved strain of genetically modified (GM) wheat that tainted fields in Oregon and prompted a lawsuit from farmers was, in fact, being stored in a government seed bank in Fort Collins, Colorado.

This location is the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation (NGCRP), operated by the USDA on the Colorado State University campus and formerly known as the National Seed Storage Laboratory (NSSL). It sits nearby the USDA’s Crop Research Laboratory. The NGCRP serves a seed bank and “a repository for animal genetic resources in the form of semen and plant genetic resources in the form of graftable buds or in vitro plantlets.”

This facility began storing Monsanto’s GM wheat strains starting in 2004, but it claims to have destroyed them as of January of 2012. Did this USDA facility play a role in the escape of unapproved GM wheat?

36 Hard Questions About The U.S. Economy That The Mainstream Media Should Be Asking

image source

Michael Snyder

If the economy is improving, then why aren't things getting better for most average Americans?  They tell us that the unemployment rate is going down, but the percentage of Americans that are actually working is exactly the same it was three years ago. They tell us that American families are in better financial shape now, but real disposable income is falling rapidly. They tell us that inflation is low, but every time we go shopping at the grocery store the prices just seem to keep going up. They tell us that the economic crisis is over, and yet poverty and government dependence continue to explode to unprecedented heights. There seems to be a disconnect between what the government and the media are telling us and what is actually true.

With each passing day the debt of the federal government grows larger, the financial world become even more unstable and more American families fall out of the middle class.  The same long-term economic trends that have been eating away at our economy like cancer for decades continue to ruthlessly attack the foundations of our economic system.

We are rapidly speeding toward an economic cataclysm, and yet the government and most of the media make it sound like happy days are here again.  The American people deserve better than this.  The American people deserve the truth.  The following are 36 hard questions about the U.S. economy that the mainstream media should be asking...

7 Future Methods of Mind Control

image source

Nicholas West

The mission of a small "elite" group to control the masses is nothing new. It has always been a tool implemented in the form of propaganda used to alter perception and thus steer the direction of large populations. The modern methods of mind control are in many ways merely higher-tech extensions of what always has been predictably successful: religion, sports, politics, education, etc.

With the advent of television, a whole new world was opened up for would-be controllers, as news media was easily corporatized and made uniform enough to translate core messages, while encouraging passivity, and also presenting the illusion of choice. Simultaneously, choice has been reduced in fundamental areas such as finance, education and health with reams of legislation and "incentives" to ensure compliance.

Today, however, we have entered a perilous phase where mind control has taken on a physical, scientific dimension that includes a sophisticated full-spectrum assault on the mind in the form of chemicals in the food, air, and water, as well as electromagnetic interference and the ubiquitous Big Pharma cocktail that not only pollutes the user directly, but runs off into the rest of the unknowing population. Combined with control over education and media, it's no wonder why true rebellion struggles to take hold. 

Nevertheless, despite the above assaults, people are rebelling -- globally. This indicates a tentative awakening that is troubling if you are in the vast minority of those who knowingly attempt to enslave the planet. So what does tomorrow bring?