The government has already prepared some scripts to use on the terrified public should the United States ever be attacked with a nuclear weapon. The US government prepares for all sorts of threats, but none match the pomp and circumstance they’ll display in the event of a nuclear explosion.

Here’s an example of what the government will tell people to try to prevent widespread panic:

“Lives have been lost, people have been injured, and homes and businesses have been destroyed. All levels of government are coordinating their efforts to do everything possible to help the people affected by this emergency. As lifesaving activities continue, follow the instructions from emergency responders… The instructions are based on the best information we have right now; the instructions will be updated as more information becomes available.”

It was supposed to be a joyous occasion, marking the commencement of a new and better phase in the life of nearly 1000 graduates. Instead, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told the 984 new lieutenants who are graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy to prepare for the worst: war.

On Wednesday night, Mattis spoke at the graduation ceremony on the campus outside Colorado Springs and told the 2018 graduates they must be ready to fight and win. The Pentagon chief also told the 60th class to graduate from the academy that they must maintain U.S. military superiority in the air, and urged them to make the Air Force better.

As the ceremony ended, the newly commissioned officers threw their white hats into the sky as the Air Force Thunderbirds roared overhead, a longstanding tradition. Of the nearly 1000 graduates, more than 400 are headed to pilot training, and 69 will be trained to operate drones.

The common theme here is that Trump's sanctions against Russia - with which he is supposedly colluding - not only work, but are very effective in achieving their goal. And they do so though the biggest weapon the US has: access to the world's reserve currency, because with one phone call to SWIFT, Trump can lock out an entire nation.

So what alternatives is Russia planning, aside of course from increasingly closer trade, financial and monetary ties to China, which renminbi many speculate is only a matter of time before it replaces the USD as the world's reserve currency?

Addressing precisely this issue, Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that settlements in US currency could be dropped by Russia in favor of the euro. That said, Russia would only engage in such an unprecedented transition under one condition: if the EU takes a stand against the latest US sanctions on Moscow.

That was the disturbing message that a Portland family received just weeks after installing the Amazon listening devices throughout their home.

As KIRO7 reports, Danielle, who did not want us to use her last name, contacted Amazon to investigate after they say a private conversation in their home was recorded by Amazon's Alexa, and that the recorded audio was sent to the phone of a random person in Seattle, who was in the family’s contact list.

"My husband and I would joke and say I'd bet these devices are listening to what we're saying," said Danielle.

After receiving the call above from one of her husband's employees - who was in the family’s contact list - Danielle says she unplugged all the devices, and she repeatedly called Amazon. She says an Alexa engineer investigated.

Two weeks ago, President Trump terminated the United States' participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), more commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo started his speech at the Heritage Foundation on Monday.

"President Trump withdrew from the deal for a simple reason," he continued. "It failed to guarantee the safety of the American people from the risks created by the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Thus Pompeo began a talk grounded more in fantasy than strategy.

He spoke repeatedly of an Iranian "march across the Middle East," painting Tehran as the mastermind of regional instability which poses an active, existential threat to U.S. friends and allies.

The "path forward," as Pompeo described it, is for Iran to submit to onerous new U.S. sanctions and concede to a long list of demands.

To be in Israel during a historic massacre, as I was on Monday, is a special experience, and one whose meaning will sink in for a while. I wonder what I will remember in five years’ time, or ten.

This is what I can tell you two days later. All that afternoon in the gathering and protests in the hot sun near the new embassy in South Jerusalem, the latest casualty figures were coming over the phones. “Did you hear, there’s a sea of blood at the border,” a friend had called to inform me at 4, and subsequent texts brought the numbers. 25. “37 dead so far. This country is irredeemable,” wrote my friend. It seemed impossible that the number would grow and yet it did. It was over 50 by the time the protests wound down.

One of the 12 demands issued by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was a complete pullout from Syria of all pro-Iranian forces. Iran hasn’t really had a chance to respond, but Syria has already chimed in, rejecting the idea.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad said the matter isn’t even up for discussion, noting that the decision “concerns the sovereignty of Syria.” He added Syria’s government is grateful for the help of Iranian military advisers, as well as Russian troops.

Mikdad further faulted the US for its continued intervention in Syria, and its “support of terrorists in Syria and elsewhere.” The US has troops within Syria, but those troops were not invited by the Syrian government.

All 31 active bishops in Chile offered to resign Friday, following a meeting that Pope Francis called to examine the Chilean clergy's failure to protect children from pedophiles.

The bishops started the conference by thanking the pope for his "brotherly correction" and the victims of sexual abuse for their bravery and perseverance in coming forward. Their statement was read aloud to the press in Spanish and Italian.

"We want to ask forgiveness for the pain we caused victims, the pope, the people of God and our country for the grave errors and omissions that we committed," they said.

"We want to announce that all bishops present in Rome, in writing, have placed our positions in the Holy Father's hands so that he may freely decide regarding each one of us."

It was not immediately clear whether the Pope had accepted the bishops' resignations. He could delay, accept or reject their offer, and the bishops will stay in their jobs until he acts.

In his first statement since Pompeo's Wednesday speech, Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei set 7 conditions for the European nations if they want Tehran to remain in the agreement.

Khamenei laid out the full list on Twitter on Trump's favorite social media network, remainder of continued on twitter where in a brief tweetstorm, he unveiled the following demands of Europe:

Over the course of 2 years, US violated #JCPOA, several times, while the Europeans remained silent. These 3 European countries should prove that they won’t be as dishonest & untrustworthy as they were during nuclear talks in 2004-2005. Europe needs to compensate for it:
The US has violated Resolution 2231. Europe must issue a resolution against US’s violation [of it].
Europe must guarantee it will not raise the issue of the Islamic Republic's missiles and regional affairs.

An airstrike launched by the Israeli military has hit a boat that was moored in Gaza City. The vessel was preparing to meet other boats that were trying to sail through Israel's naval blockade of Gaza, locals say.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they hit "military targets belonging to the Hamas terror organization's naval force," as well as "underground terror infrastructure." On its official Twitter account, the IDF said it was done in response to a group of people breaking through the Israel-Gaza border and setting a military post on fire.

Gaza residents cited by Reuters said the boat that was set on fire by the Israeli attack was due to sail to meet a flotilla on its way to Gaza. A number of aid flotillas have attempted to breach the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza in recent years, but the vessels have been stopped, seized or turned back. In the most notorious case in 2010, Israeli commandos killed nine activists on board the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara.

It is the second time Mueller tried to delay the trial. Judge Dabney L. Friedrich, a Trump appointee, rejected the earlier request without comment and ordered the case to go forward. (RELATED: Mueller Wants To Flood Russian Collusion Case With 2 Terabytes Of Russian Social Media Content Without Translation)

One of the Russian companies — Concord Management and Consulting — entered the U.S., hired American lawyers, and demanded a speedy trial. The Speedy Trial Act is a 44-year old federal law that dictates that a federal criminal case must begin within 70 days from the date of the indictment.

The “complexity” of the case warrants excluding the speedy trial law and delaying the trial, Mueller argued in Tuesday’s court filing.

A “district court can, on its own motion or at the request of a party, grant an excludable continuance if ‘the ends of justice served by taking such action outweigh the best interest of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial,'” Mueller wrote.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that the U.S. military stands "ready if necessary" following his cancellation of a planned summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, ramping up already tense rhetoric exchanged between Washington and Pyongyang.

The president, throwing aside his conciliatory rhetoric, called the meeting's cancellation a "great setback for the world." Touting a "greatly enhanced" American military and the power of U.S. allies, Trump warned Kim against taking "foolish or reckless" action.

"I have spoken to South Korea and Japan and they are not only ready should foolish or reckless acts be taken by North Korea, but they are willing to shoulder much of the cost of any financial burden — any of the costs associated by the United States in operations, if such an unfortunate situation is forced upon us," he said during an event at which he signed a bill rolling back bank regulations.

Canadians subjected to CIA brainwashing experiments at McGill University's Allan Memorial Institute are taking legal action against the federal government, demanding a public apology and compensation.

The Survivors Allied Against Government Abuse(SAAGA) group met in Montreal, Canada, on May 20. "The government should offer an apology and there should be recognition of the injustice that was done," said Gina Blasbalg, a patient at the institute in 1960.

Dr. Ewen Cameron, who co-founded the World Psychiatric Association, served as director of the Allan Memorial Institute psychiatric hospital between 1943 and 1964.

Cameron oversaw 'depatterning' and 'psychic driving' experiments which attempted to erase a patient's memories and reprogram them with new thoughts, according to CBC News.

Unknown hackers have reportedly infected at least 500,000 routers and other network devices all over the world with sophisticated and potentially destructive malware—and the Ukrainian government believes Russian hackers may use this botnet in an attack ahead of the Champions League soccer final this week in Kiev.

On Wednesday, Cisco’s subsidiary Talos warned of this new malware campaign, dubbing it “VPNFilter” because that’s the name of the folder where the malware creates and installs itself on the infected devices. Talos researchers wrote that VPNFilter’s most dangerous feature is that it can make the devices it lives on completely unusable thanks to a “kill” command.

“If it suited their goals, this command could be executed on a broad scale, potentially rendering hundreds of thousands of devices unusable, disabling internet access for hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide or in a focused region where it suited the actor's purposes,” the Talos report read.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is an old-school law and order man. He wants asset forfeiture returned to its former glory -- no longer questioned by all and sundry for its ability to enrich law enforcement agencies without making much of a dent in criminal activity. He wants drug sellers jailed for as long as possible, suggesting the last time he read a policy paper was sometime during the mid-1980s. And he thinks people questioning law enforcement efforts should be ashamed of themselves, what with the dangers faced occasionally by officers whose workplace can't even crack the Top 10 Deadliest Jobs in America list.

Sessions goes where he's wanted when he speaks, ensuring he'll receive applause and accolades, rather than a bunch of "wtfs?" when he delivers bullshit like this:

I believe one of my highest duties is to call attention to your successes, and to encourage our fellow citizens to support you in your difficult and dangerous work.

A California judge has issued his final judgment in favor of a Christian baker who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex “wedding,” ruling that cakes celebrating events are a form of speech.

Last August, Mireya and Eileen Rodriguez-Del Rio sought a wedding cake from Tastries Bakery owner Cathy Miller, who declined on the grounds that affirming a homosexual union would violate her Christian beliefs, Bakersfield.com reports. The couple filed a complaint with California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), arguing that the state’s Unruh Civil Rights Act forbids businesses from refusing to provide services on the basis of sexual orientation (among other grounds).

The CIA’s record of torture is front and center in the media again. This time because President Donald Trump’s new CIA Director, Gina Haspel, played a key role in the agency’s program of “enhanced interrogation” (i.e., torture). Haspel was head of station in at least one of the CIA’s black sites in Thailand where torture took place, and also held multiple senior roles at the CIA Counterterrorism Center, which oversaw the torture program.

She was also involved in the destruction of the video recordings of the torture sessions and was less than forthcoming recently with members of Congress who asked about her role in that action.

Nevertheless, the Senate confirmed her. The fact that Haspel, who played a key role in the CIA torture program, made it through the confirmation process fairly easily, signals, at the very least, that the agency should have no problem continuing to shield itself from any outside scrutiny of its treatment of terror suspects in the years after 9/11.

The U.S. economy is not doing nearly as well as the mainstream media would have you believe. A few days ago I wrote about a new study that discovered that nearly 51 million U.S. households “can’t afford basics like rent and food”, and just yesterday I discussed the fact that we are on pace for the worst year for retail store closings ever. Now we have just gotten new numbers from the Federal Reserve which are absolutely staggering. According to the Fed’s latest study, more than 4 out of every 10 Americans do not even have enough money to cover an unexpected $400 expense without borrowing the funds or selling something. In essence, nearly half the country has no significant financial cushion whatsoever. So what are all of those people going to do when the next economic crisis hits?

Sadly, living on the edge has become a daily reality for tens of millions of Americans. The following is from a CNN article about the Fed’s new report…

Can you cover an unexpected $400 expense?

After a season that saw ratings declines, advertiser abandonment, and political/racial divides flare on and off the field, ESPN reports that NFL owners have unanimously approved a new national anthem policy that requires players to stand if they are on the field during the performance.

The new policy, announced this morning, gives players/staff the option to remain in the locker room if they prefer, but as ESPN notes, subjects teams to a fine if a player or any other team personnel do not show appropriate respect for the anthem. That includes any attempt to sit or kneel, as dozens of players have done during the past two seasons. Those teams will also have the option to fine any team personnel, including players, for the infraction.

In less than a month, a Michigan state law will take effect and ban any state or local government from aiding the National Security Agency’s controversial program that gathers data on Americans in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The beleaguered Tesla Model 3 has already faced a production crisis and a 123 percent price surge. Now it has another major problem – a report says the car brakes slower than a pick-up truck.

The problem was pointed out by the US magazine Consumer Reports, which exposed the alleged braking issue with the Model 3 sedan.“The Tesla’s stopping distance of 152ft from 60mph was far worse than any contemporary car we’ve tested and about 7ft longer than the stopping distance of a Ford F-150 full-sized pickup,” it wrote.

Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk launched another Twitter tirade on Wednesday, this time aimed at the media's coverage of his electric car company, Tesla.

Musk took 'big media companies' to task in a series of tweets, saying the public doesn't respect them anymore because of their 'holier-than-thou hypocrisy' and because they 'claim to the truth, but publish only enough to sugarcoat the lie'.

After a reporter from the Verge retorted by calling him a 'media-bating Trump figure,' Musk sharply replied by saying President Donald Trump was elected because no one believes the media anymore.

Starbucks' controversial decision to enable every Tom, Dick, and non-paying Harry to use their restrooms has sparked equal parts criticism and praise, mirroring the nation's increasingly extreme partisan perspective on every- and any-thing...

“It sounds like Starbucks is turning their stores into homeless shelters. Their coffee is strong but their management is weak,” said Ron Raduechel, a 64-year-old retired supply chain executive from Waukesha, Wis., who said he would no longer go to Starbucks.

...

“I believe Starbucks is doing what’s right in their hearts whether its outcome sparks negativity or not,” said Johnny Varela, a 31-year-old carpenter in Orlando, Fla.

“I think Starbucks is very humanitarian.”