Category Archives: Citizens Duty

Biden Secretly Altered U.S. Nuclear Strategy

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Note there is no mention of Iran and it’s advance toward a viable delivery of the weapon. Just a couple of weeks ago –>

CNN — 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said that Iran’s breakout time – the amount of time needed to produce enough weapons grade material for a nuclear weapon – “is now probably one or two weeks” as Tehran has continued to develop its nuclear program.

The assessment marks the shortest breakout time that US officials have ever referenced and comes as Iran has taken steps in recent months to boost its production of fissile material.

“Where we are now is not in a good place,” the top US diplomat said at the Aspen Security Forum Friday.

“Iran, because the nuclear agreement was thrown out, instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that,” he said.

“They haven’t produced a weapon itself, but that’s something of course that we track very, very carefully,” Blinken added.

Blinken said the policy of the US is to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and that the administration would prefer to stop that from happening through diplomacy.

Over a year ago a top US Defense Department official said that Iran could now produce “one bomb’s worth of fissile material” in “about 12 days.”

The Biden administration engaged in more than a year of indirect negotiations with Iran aimed at reviving the Iran nuclear deal, from which the US withdrew in 2018 under the Trump administration.

Those efforts collapsed in late 2022, as the US accused Iran of making “unreasonable” demands related to a probe by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a UN nuclear watchdog, into unexplained traces of uranium found at undisclosed Iranian sites. In the months that followed, the administration maintained that the Iran nuclear deal was “not on the agenda.”

President Biden has reportedly altered the U.S. strategic nuclear plans toward opposing China’s burgeoning nuclear arsenal and preparing for possible nuclear coordination between China, Russia and North Korea.

According to a report Tuesday evening in The New York Times, the highly classified “Nuclear Employment Guidance” was altered in March without any public announcement.

“The document, updated every four years or so, is so highly classified that there are no electronic copies, only a small number of hard copies distributed to a few national security officials and Pentagon commanders,” the Times reported.

Congress is expected to be notified of the changes in unclassified form before Mr. Biden’s term in the White House ends in January.

But, The Times reported, two separate top officials have received permission to refer to the changes in public speeches, albeit only in “carefully constrained, single sentences.”

“The president recently issued updated nuclear-weapons employment guidance to account for multiple nuclear-armed adversaries,” said Vipin Narang, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology nuclear strategist who served in the Pentagon.

“In particular,” he added, the guidance reacted to “the significant increase in the size and diversity” of China’s nuclear arsenal.

Pranay Vaddi, the National Security Council’s senior director for arms control and nonproliferation, referred to the document in June, saying it emphasizes “the need to deter Russia, the PRC and North Korea simultaneously,” using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.

Pentagon officials have warned for years about a nuclear-arsenal breakout from China.

Although Beijing has had nuclear weapons since the 1960s, for decades it had only a minimal deterrent force that barely measured up to the arsenals of Britain and France, much less those of the U.S. or the Soviet Union/Russia.

But the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton, testified to Congress in February that the size and rapid pace of Beijing’s nuclear buildup is “breathtaking.”

Current Chinese strategic stockpiles are estimated to be around 500 warheads and will increase to as many as 1,500 by 2030, with the most dramatic move being the building of more than 300 intercontinental ballistic missile silos in western China.

The war in Ukraine has Added to the Food Crisis/Inflation in the U.S.

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It is well known that Russia had been stealing Ukrainian cargo ships loaded with wheat and other food commodities and then reselling as their own. When it comes to the supply chain related to food, transportation and inflation, neither Biden nor Harris have bothered to report this crisis much less punish Russia for such actions.

But let us understand what Ukraine supplies to not only Africa but to the global inventory and supply in the first place…adding to the shortages in total.

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How could the war in Ukraine impact global food supplies?

Both Ukraine and Russia are some of the world’s largest food exporters. How could global food be impacted?

By: Hannah Ritchie
March 24, 2022

Ukraine has been one of the world’s largest contributors to the World Food Programme – the UN agency that provides food aid to countries in crisis. The Head of the WFP – David Beasley estimates that it provides 40% of its wheat.

The war has now reversed this flow: the WFP is now working to provide Ukrainians with the supplies they need in this crisis.

The war in Ukraine could have profound impacts on global food supplies, with far-reaching consequences for hunger and food security across the world. But it doesn’t have to – there is time to react and to contain a larger crisis.

In this article, I present the data we need to understand the scale of their contribution, and which countries are most reliant on Ukraine for their food supplies.

Ukraine and Russia are among the world’s largest exporters of cereal crops and oils

Ukraine and Russia both play a major role in global food markets. They are net exporters of several of the leading cereal crops: wheat, maize (corn), and barley. Both are also dominant exporters of sunflower oil, one of the world’s dominant vegetable oils. Some countries – such as India – rely heavily on imports of sunflower oil for domestic food supplies.

In the charts I show their contribution to global food exports (how much is traded between countries); and global food production.

The charts show that in 2019 around one-quarter of global wheat exports come from Ukraine and Russia. One-fifth of global maize, and barley too. They are the source of nearly two-thirds of traded sunflower oil, with Ukraine alone accounting for almost half of global exports.

Which countries are most reliant on food imports from Ukraine and Russia?

The potential impacts of reduced food outputs from Ukraine and Russia will not be felt equally everywhere. Some of the most vulnerable are countries that import directly from these countries.

But it will not be contained to these direct importers. Food prices are rising, which means that all countries that are net importers of these commodities could feel significant impacts.

To identify the countries that are most vulnerable – and might need assistance in the months ahead – I have brought together country-by-country import data from these key crops. In the data explorer below you can see the global situation for a range of commodities and metrics.

You can see which countries import the most wheat, maize, barley or sunflower oil; which countries import from Ukraine and/or Russia; and how dependent they were on imports for the domestic supply.

We can see, for example, that many countries across the Middle East and North Africa rely heavily on wheat imports from Ukraine and Russia; they supply more than two-thirds of imports in Egypt, Libya and Lebanon. For maize, the reliance on Ukraine and Russia has a larger geographical reach with countries across East Asia and Europe also importing a large share from them.

To maintain consistency between production, domestic supply and import metrics I have sourced all of the underlying data for these calculations from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. It is all based on physical units i.e. tonnes of crops.

Joe’s Most Jobs Added is Officially Declared a Fraud

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Even former President Obama in his speech at the DNC declared that same thing….millions of jobs created. Ehhhh not so much. When Joe Biden was in fact running for a second term, he often declared he created more jobs than any other president in history. What about Kamala….did she ever question the numbers as she has an under graduate degree in political science and economics. Nah…so the truth is the numbers are a fraud, a lie. Add this lie, a big lie to the many others we have been told and as such, likely more lies to come.

In just one year by the way…

source

From MarketWatch:

The U.S. added 818,000 fewer jobs than previously reported from the spring of 2023 to the spring of 2024, indicating the labor market began to cool off earlier and faster than it appeared at the time.

The government’s revised estimate of employment growth showed the economy gained about 2.1 million jobs from April 2023 to March 2024. Originally the increase in employment during that span was put at 2.9 million.

The updated employment figures mean the economy created an average of 173,000 jobs a month during the period in question instead of 242,000 under the old estimates.

The lower number of new job created gives further impetus for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates in September as widely expected. The central bank is required under the law to keep inflation low and employment high.

With inflation gradually slowing toward the Fed’s 2% target, the bank has put greater weight on the health of the labor market in considering when to reduce high U.S. interest rates.

The Fed jacked up a key short-term rate to a 23-year peak in 2022 and 2023 to quell the highest inflation in 40 years.

***

In part from the New York Times:

The U.S. economy added far fewer jobs in 2023 and early 2024 than previously reported, a sign that cracks in the labor market are more severe — and began forming earlier — than initially believed.

On Wednesday, the Labor Department said that monthly payroll figures overstated job growth by roughly 818,000 in the 12 months that ended in March. That suggests employers added about 174,000 jobs per month during that period, down from the previously reported pace of about 242,000 jobs — a downward revision of about 28 percent.

The revisions, which are preliminary, are part of an annual process in which monthly estimates, based on surveys, are reconciled with more accurate but less timely records from state unemployment offices. The new figures, once finalized, will be incorporated into official government employment statistics early next year.

The updated numbers are the latest sign of vulnerability in the job market, which until recently had appeared rock solid despite months of high interest rates and economists’ warnings of an impending recession. More recent data, which wasn’t affected by the revisions, suggest job growth slowed further in the spring and summer, and the unemployment rate, though still relatively low at 4.3 percent, has been gradually rising.

A little bit more About that Harris Joy Campaign

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In her recent campaign speech in Arizona, VP Kamala said there is hard work to do and WE ARE GOING TO DO IT WITH JOY. A joyful campaign…a peculiar description.

It has been reported and righty so that Kamala has complete disdain for Prime Minister Netanyahu and is clearly on the side the the Palestinians. Associated Press revealed that Kamala and her team have met often secretly with ‘uncommitted’ voters especially in Michigan. Only in the last few days did she meet with the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, Abdullah Hammoud who applauded the October 7 attack on Israel…How is that for JOY?

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud announces $30 million investment in the ...

While the DNC hosted in Chicago is full of protestors including anti-capitalists and pro-Hamas, Palestinians and even communists….check this out….about JOY.

Now, exactly where did this ‘joy’ thing originate? well let us go back to 1933 in Germany shall we? Well upon a little digging….check this out.

In part:

Nazi leaders hoped that the athletic and cultural programs of “Strength through Joy” would improve the health and productivity of the German workforce while easing class tensions within the so-called “national community” (“Volksgemeinschaft”). Providing organized alternatives to unstructured leisure time, the first “Strength through Joy” programs focused on filling workers’ evening and weekend time with classes, concerts, theatrical performances, art exhibitions, and sporting events.2 The program also began providing cheap vacation packages to German workers in 1934, but ambitious plans to expand German mass tourism further were abandoned in 1939 with the beginning of World War II.3

The featured photograph shows a “Strength through Joy” event held on the outskirts of Berlin on April 24, 1937. A large group of adults and children are gathered on the popular public beach at Strandbad Wannsee to perform exercises led by a “Strength through Joy” representative holding a bullhorn.4 The public beach facilities shown in this photograph were first constructed during the Weimar Republic (1918–1933) as part of a growing movement toward outdoor recreational activities that would greatly influence Nazi-era public health policies.5

Within months of the establishment of the Nazi regime in early 1933, local officials and business owners began banning Jews from public swimming pools.6 Strandbad Wannsee barred Jews from its beach and its public programs later that summer. As the first Nazi-era acts to exclude all Jewish Germans from public spaces, these prohibitions became a precedent for the increasing marginalization and segregation of Jews from German public life. 

Although Jews were barred from visiting Strandbad Wannsee under the Nazi regime, the beach continued to be a popular getaway for Berlin’s “Aryan” citizens—even during the last years of World War II. In fact, Strandbad Wannsee has remained a popular destination for generations of Berliners ever since the years of the Weimar Republic. The sun decks and walkways on the upper level of the buildings in the featured photograph have fallen into disrepair over the decades, but these very same facilities at Strandbad Wannsee continue to offer public recreation courses to Berlin-area beachgoers.

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Where would some of this creepy stuff come from…what is the basis? Well have you met Phil Gordon, her national security advisor?Phil Gordon, le plus europhile du clan de Kamala Harris - Le Temps

US Vice President Kamala Harris is stonewalling a congressional inquiry into her national security adviser Phil Gordon’s ties to an Iranian government influence network in the US, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

The network known as the Iran Experts Initiative was exposed in a joint investigation by Iran International and Semafor last September.

Last month, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) initiated an investigation into Gordon’s ties. The inquiry focuses on Gordon’s longstanding association with Pentagon official Ariane Tabatabai, a senior Department of Defense official involved in an Iranian government operation to expand Tehran’s influence in the United States.

Harris did not respond to an August 9 deadline from Cotton and Stefani to explain Gordon’s ties to Tabatabai and the pro-Tehran network.

“You failed to respond by my deadline or to appropriately address this threat to national security emanating from your staff,” Cotton wrote in a letter to Harris on Thursday.

“The presence of such an obvious security risk in your inner circle should have elicited your utmost attention. It raises the question of whether you’ve been aware of Mr. Gordon’s possible links to the Iranian regime and simply find your policies aligned enough with Tehran’s interests that ties to that regime don’t concern you.”

Earlier this month, top lawmakers overseeing US foreign policy threatened to subpoena the State Department following the agency’s failure to provide information about suspended Iran envoy Robert Malley.

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul expressed deep frustration with the State Department’s lack of transparency regarding the suspension of Robert Malley’s security clearance.

Malley was appointed by President Joe Biden in early 2021 to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, advocating for sanctions relief in exchange for nuclear restrictions. Despite efforts, the deal has not been reinstated since Trump’s 2018 withdrawal. In April 2023, Malley was placed on leave and had his security clearance suspended. Iran International first reported the incident two months later, but the State Department blocked all attempts to find more information about Malley’s case. source

*** Where is the joy now? C’mon readers…we all have work to do.

Head and Neck Cancers High Risk due to Daily use of Cannabis

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NEW YORK — Using marijuana daily for years may raise the overall risk of head and neck cancers three- to five-fold, according to a new study that analyzed millions of medical records.

“Our research shows that people who use cannabis, particularly those with a cannabis use disorder, are significantly more likely to develop head and neck cancers compared to those who do not use cannabis,” said senior study author Dr. Niels Kokot, a professor of clinical otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Cannabis use disorder is diagnosed when a person has two or more of such symptoms as craving weed, becoming tolerant to its effects, using more than intended, using marijuana even though it causes problems in life, using it in high-risk situations, experiencing withdrawal and being unable to quit, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“While our study did not differentiate between methods of cannabis consumption, cannabis is most commonly consumed by smoking,” Kokot said in an email. “The association we found likely pertains mainly to smoked cannabis.”

Some 69% of people with a diagnosis of oral or throat cancer will survive five years or longer after their diagnosis, according to the National Cancer Institute. If the cancer metastasizes, however, that rate drops to 14%. About 61% of people diagnosed with cancer of the larynx will be alive five years later – a rate that drops to 16% if the cancer spreads.Take Your Cannabis Daily for Good Health - Weedist

The study used insurance data to look at the association of cannabis use disorder with head and neck cancers, said Dr. Joseph Califano, the Iris and Matthew Strauss Chancellor’s Endowed Chair in Head and Neck Surgery at the University of California, San Diego. He was not involved in the study.

“The researchers used a huge, huge dataset, which is really extraordinary, and there is enormous power in looking at numbers this large when we typically only see small studies,” said Califano, who is also the director of UC San Diego’s Hanna and Mark Gleiberman Head and Neck Cancer Center.

“On average, people with cannabis use disorder smoke about a joint a day and do so for at least a couple years, if not longer,” said Califano, who coauthored an editorial published Thursday in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery in conjunction with the new study.

However, he added, the study does not find an association between “the occasional recreational use of marijuana and head and neck cancer.”

Causes of head and neck cancers

In the United States, head and neck cancers make up 4% of all cancers, with more than 71,000 new cases and more than 16,000 deaths expected in 2024, according to the National Foundation for Cancer Research.

Tobacco use, which includes smoking cigarettes, cigars, pipes and smokeless tobacco, and the use of alcohol are the two most common causes of head and neck cancers, experts say. Other risk factors include poor oral hygiene; gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD; a weakened immune system; and a diet low in fruits and vegetables. Occupational risk factors include exposure to asbestos and wood dust.

A growing number of head and neck cancers are due to infection with the human papillomavirus or HPV, or the Epstein-Barr virus, or EBV, which are DNA viruses that affect genes, making them susceptible to malignancies.

Epstein-Barr virus is linked to infectious mononucleosis, also called the “kissing disease,” as well as various cancers. Researchers estimate that 90% of the world’s population is infected with EBV. A vaccine is available for HPV, which is linked to a high risk of developing cervical cancer and some non-Hodgkin lymphomas.

It’s possible to be infected with both viruses at once, and that combination is responsible for 38% of all virus-associated cancers, according to research.

How might cannabis cause cancers?

The study, published Thursday in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, analyzed a database of 4 million electronic health records and found more than 116,000 diagnoses of cannabis use disorder among people with head and neck cancers. Those men and women, whose average age was 46, were then matched with people who also had head and neck cancers but were not diagnosed with cannabis use disorder.

The analysis showed that people with cannabis use disorder were about 2.5 times more likely to develop an oral cancer; nearly five times more likely to develop oropharyngeal cancer, which is cancer of the soft palate, tonsils and back of the throat; and over eight times more likely to develop cancer of the larynx. The findings held true for all age groups, according to the study.

Associated reading/study from 2019