The US Postal Service has seen record losses as traditional mail is replaced by electronic means. Without enough money to pay for years of employee benefits, the agency is calling for legislation to enable them to raise their prices.

On Thursday, the USPS reported losses of $2.1 billion in the third fiscal quarter of 2017, compared to a $1.6 billion loss in the same quarter last year.

Over the past 10 years, the USPS has incurred a net loss of $63.3 billion and they project future losses without legislative and regulatory changes.

China will prevent the US and South Korea from carrying out strikes on North Korea and trying to overthrow the leadership there, but will remain neutral if Pyongyang launches missiles at American targets first, the state-run Global Times said.

A 12-year-old rape victim was told by the headmaster of a Christian school "to turn the other cheek" and that "everything in God's kingdom happens for a reason", lawsuit files alledge.
The school is being accused of covering up repeated sexual assaults against the boy, downplaying the attacks and refusing to report a rape in a lawsuit that is seeking at least $30m (£23m) in damages.

As a Toronto police officer stood over him with a pointed gun, a Black teen who just minutes before was en route to an after-school mentorship program lay face down on the ground “very scared and shocked,” a police tribunal heard Thursday.

A top official with the Florida Highway Patrol has told troopers they aren't writing enough speeding tickets.
The Tampa Bay Times reports Maj. Mark Welch of Troop H in Tallahassee told troopers under his command via email that "the patrol wants to see two citations each hour" adding that it's not a quota. He said it's "what we are asking you to do to support this important initiative."

Ivanka Trump has reportedly been likened to a “half-wit” Saudi prince by an Indian diplomat after it was announced she would lead the US at a summit in southern India.
Donald Trump on Thursday announced that his daughter, who works for him as an official unpaid adviser, would head the country's delegation at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in November.

*hyperlinks/videos live at source*

“How do democracies get turned into dictatorships? The democracies aren’t overthrown; they’re given away... Star Wars was really about the Vietnam War.” - George Lucas, creator of Star Wars

“The (Star Wars) Empire is like America ten years from now.” - George Lucas, 1973

Adjusted for inflation, Star Wars is likely the most popular film series in history. Stories are popular because they communicate themes that resonate with the public. Creator George Lucas communicates that a powerful republic is overcome by false flag deception that devolves into the most evil dictatorial empire possible.

According to the story, 10,000 Jedi Knights were galactic guardians of virtue after a history of defeating evil. But these 10,000 super-powered beings became blind to the presence of evil, failed to recognize it at the leadership of their own government, and were defeated in orchestrated false flag ambush by just two evil actors.

DIET drinks and foods trick the brain into making you fatter and could even trigger diabetes, a study suggests. The body has evolved to burn more calories if something tastes sweet because in nature sweeter substances contain more energy.

China just said NO!

China will prevent the US and South Korea from carrying out strikes on North Korea and trying to overthrow the leadership there, but will remain neutral if Pyongyang launches missiles at American targets first, the state-run Global Times said.

Beijing should make it clear that “if North Korea launches missiles that threaten US soil first and the US retaliates, China will stay neutral,” the Global Times wrote.

But if the US and its ally South Korea take on Pyongyang and try to “overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so,” the paper stressed.

Fire and Fury: The Sinchon Massacre, one of the paintings on the walls of the Sinchon Museum of American War Atrocities in South Hwanghae Province, DPR Korea (so-called North Korea) is shown in the photograph illustrating this article. It depicts the torture and murder of civilians by mainly South Korean military personnel but also US soldiers, acting under the auspices of Washington. See below this paragraph. The main photo shows the habitual US terrorist strikes against civilian structures. The USA deployed 32,557 tons of chemical weapons on North Korean civilians...

“During the 20th century, governments allowed the creation of money to become the byproduct of the process of credit creation. Most money today is created by private sector institutions – banks. This is the most serious fault-line in the management of money in our societies today,” Mervyn King, former Bank of England governor – in his 2016 book, The Alchemy of Money..

There are roughly 235,000 refugees and migrants stranded on Libyan shores who are desperate to continue on to Italy by sea, the UN envoy to Libya said, warning of an imminent new influx to Europe.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees in Libya are ready to make the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean, UN envoy to Libya Martin Kobler said in an interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa on Thursday.

“We have on our lists 235,000 migrants who are just waiting for a good opportunity to depart for Italy, and they will do it,” Kobler said.

I'm done with YouTube....for now.

Political correctness is getting in the way of authorities investigating whether there is an underlying cultural cause behind child sex abuse, the shadow women’s minister says.

Political correctness is getting in the way of authorities investigating whether there is an underlying cultural cause behind child sex abuse, the shadow women’s minister says.

Spain could surpass Greece this year as a gateway for migrants entering Europe by sea, international monitors warned on Thursday, as the number of arrivals swells to treble that of 2016.

Amid a crackdown on migration through Libya, more than 8,000 people have turned to the so-called Western Mediterranean Route from Morocco into Spain this year, compared to 2,500 during the same period in 2016.

US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has confirmed the resignations of her chief of staff and communications director. The two men cited “family concerns” as reasons for leaving.

The assassination of President John F Kennedy in 1963 was a seminal event in modern American history. Yet 54 years on, the official US state continues covering up the shocking truth about the killing of one of its most popular leaders.

Forced prostitution “could be happening on your street,” the National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned, as it revealed modern slavery and human trafficking in the UK is far more prevalent than previously thought.

The NCA released figures on Thursday showing there are currently more than 300 live policing operations targeting modern slavery in the UK, with cases affecting “every large town and city in the country.”

Even though President Trump can't even get his cabinet staffed, according to the always hysterical "Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect" he's gearing up to carry out another Holocaust any minute now.

The US reportedly has a plan for a preemptive strike on North Korean missile sites with bombers stationed in Guam, should Donald Trump order it. It is apparently viewed as “the best of all bad options” amid mounting tensions between the states.

An attack by Rockwell B-1 Lancer supersonic heavy bombers from Andersen Air Force Base in the US territory of Guam makes up a major part of the plan, senior acting and retired military officials told NBC news. 

A police officer, a songwriter and a surgeon who were blocked on Twitter by Donald Trump after writing critical posts are among a group suing the President.

Prehistoric cannibals who once lived in a Somerset cave engraved human bones with zig-zag designs as part of a “complex” eating ritual, according to new research.
The bones, which had a number of deliberate cuts and human teeth marks, were discovered at Gough’s Cave in the Mendip Hills and are believed to be between 12,000 and 17,000 years old – when the cave was occupied by Ice Age Britons.

Britain’s homeless population has increased by a third since 2011, a year into the Conservative Party took over, a new study has found.

Nowadays, North Korea is viewed as a top threat to the world, and now more than ever, many Americans would supporting sending out U.S. soldiers to North Korea to safeguard South Korea.

Human fertility is in a downward spiral, scientists warn and modern life — with its technological and chemical “progress” — is likely to blame. Female infertility tends to get the most attention, but in this case, it’s male infertility that has made headlines, as recent research shows sperm concentration and quality has dramatically declined in recent decades.

The owners of a Subway sandwich shop are suing the Layton City Police Department in federal court for waiting too long to publicly disavow false allegations that an employee drugged a police officer’s lemonade last year.

A Subway sandwich shop in Layton, Utah, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the town and police department on Tuesday, alleging they wrongly accused an employee of drugging an officer’s drink last year.

all because he supposedly took away one of their mother’s food stamps. — Trump has only gone after fraud and abuse.

ACLU : The First Amendment (Literally) Banned in DC

Exclusive
Here’s the Memo That Blew Up the NSC

Russia is learning to live with Donald Trump. That is to say it's learning to ignore him, and the brouhaha around him. Reuters reports: The soap opera of White House personnel changes, intrigue and investigations has alarmed a part of the American public and shocked some foreign governments, yet Russian officials have found their own way of responding. With a shrug. Russia's elite celebrated when Donald Trump was elected president because it expected a thaw in relations, but expectations since then have plummeted so far that in Moscow, signs of dysfunction in the administration barely register. "Nobody pays any attention any more, or expects any improvements," said a person close to the Russian government, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss foreign policy issues.

Under its new so-called anti-fake-news program, Google algorithms have in the past few months moved socialist, anti-war, and progressive websites from previously prominent positions in Google searches to positions up to 50 search result pages from the first page, essentially removing them from the search results any searcher will see. Counterpunch, World Socialsit Website, Democracy Now, American Civil liberties Union, Wikileaks are just a few of the websites which have experienced severe reductions in their returns from Google searches. World Socialist Website, to cite just one example, has experienced a 67% drop in its returns from Google since the new policy was announced.

On Aug. 10, 1985 one year before the Chernobyl disaster, a reactor exploded at the Chazhma Bay submarine shipyard in Russia’s Far East. The reactor of the K-431 Echo-II submarine was hit by a strong wave created by a nearby torpedo boat that caused all the fuel rods to expel. Both this and human error lead to a chain reaction. An explosion caused a massive release of radioactivity in Chazma Bay. More than 290 people were exposed and the accident was kept secret for many years. The area was eventually used by the Soviet Navy as a nuclear waste dump.

James Damore, now a former Google employee, caused outrage when he circulated a manifesto on Friday, complaining about Google’s “ideological echo chamber” alleging women have lower tolerance for stress and that conservatives are more conscientious.

At least 12 people are feared dead in the escalating government offensive against Awamiya, the Shia city in Saudi Arabia’s governorate of Qatif in the Eastern Province, amid the destruction of whole districts of the city. It brings the total killed in the months-long siege to 24.

Armed groups in northern Syria are trying to get in touch with Russia to organize a meeting to outline the borders of the fourth Syria de-escalation zone, a commander of the Free Syrian Army in southern Aleppo province told Sputnik. “We are trying to get in touch with the Russian side via a mediator to reach an agreement on the de-escalation zone in Idlib and the southern suburb of Aleppo. Groups gave us authorization to speak on their behalf,”
the commander said.

An apparent miscommunication resulted in a mixup with a sign in a Walmart store. A showroom case of long guns was tagged with a sign above the display that read “Own the school year like a hero.”

The Duran hours ago reported that the United States has sent the USS John McCain (yes, you read that correctly) is being sent towards Korean waters in a further ramping up of militarisation of the conflict on the Korean peninsula. On its way, the USS McCain sailed through the South China Sea where it violated Chinese maritime sovereignty. China has responded furiously with Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang issuing a statement saying, “The US destroyer’s actions have violated Chinese and international laws, as well as severely harmed China’s sovereignty and security. China is very displeased with this and will bring up the issue with the US side”. China went on to blast the US for not asking nor receiving any authorisation from China to transverse the waters. China repeatedly critises the US for violating Chinese areas of the Sea under the US pretext of so-called ‘freedom of navigation’ which China deems invalid.

Tens of thousands take part in mally ifor UN sanctions rejection in North Korea.

The United States has imposed new sanctions on Venezuela following the oil-rich nation’s election of a new assembly tasked with rewriting the constitution.

The Department of the Treasury said on Wednesday the sanctions targeted several members of the Constituent Assembly who are linked to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

This comes as intelligence from within Israel as reported by al-Masdar say that high level officials in Tel Aviv are planning a full land invasion of Gaza. This would be the fourth such invasion of Gaza by Israeli forces since 2008. Israel fought protracted wars in Gaza in both 2012 and 2014. As I reported in The Duran last week, “Israel has declared plans to build an underground wall separating the Palestinian territory of Gaza from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, an area of Egyptian territory which was previously illegally occupied by Israel between 1967 and 1982. Israel’s current relationship with Sinai has become increasingly worrying due to the presence of ISIS renegade fighters in Sinai whom the Egyptian military and police frequently engage in combat. There is a grave worry that Israel might use the excuse of ISIS’ presence in Sinai to once again invade and occupy part of Egypt.

...what is clear is that the Chinese are becoming increasingly exasperated and angry about this escalation of the rhetoric coming from Washington. That this is so is confirmed by commentaries which have in China’s official media, notably the People’s Daily and Global Times. Turning first to Global Times, an editorial there makes the obvious point that the US can never win a shouting match with North Korea for the simple reason that whilst every threat North Korea makes is immediately transmitted to the people of the US, the North Korean government’s total control of information means that the North Korean people will only hear of US threats against their country if the North Korean governments wants them to... The People’s Daily then made crystal clear China’s total opposition to US military action against North Korea... In truth it is little short of incredible that the military option against North Korea – a country which is now a nuclear power – is even being discussed.

Is the organic bubble about to pop? When you find a good deal on organic foods, it may just be too good to be true if it comes from China or Turkey. While Turkey is suspected to deliberately falsify its “organic” soybeans flooding the U.S., China has a different problem. There is a concerted effort for…

The US Navy has launched construction of a maritime operations center in Ukraine which will serve as a “major planning and operation hub” during military exercises hosted by the country. “Seabees [US Naval Construction Battalions] held a groundbreaking ceremony for a maritime operations center on Ochakov Naval Base, Ukraine, July 25,” the US Navy said in a statement released on Monday. The Seabees have been in Ochakov since April to establish contracts, obtain construction permits, and perform other logistical tasks for the maritime operations center project, the Navy said. The maritime operations center is one of three projects that the Seabees will execute in Ochakov. “Beginning construction in Ukraine is a significant accomplishment,” Lt. j.g. (junior grade) Jason McGee, officer in charge of Det. Ukraine said.

Four of Britain's biggest supermarkets have been forced to withdraw thousands of products after it emerged 700,000 eggs from farms implicated in a contamination scare have been distributed to the UK.

Waitrose, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons are all being forced to withdraw sandwich fillings and other chilled foods after the Food Standards Agency made the announcement today - and revealed a far higher number of contaminated eggs than the previously estimated 21,000.

Today Dutch authorities arrested two men in an investigation into the use of pesticide in poultry farms.

While in some European countries eggs containing Fipronil residues have been sold as fresh eggs, in the UK this is not the case.

Much has been said about NATO reinforcements in the Baltic States and Poland perceived in Moscow as provocative actions undermining security in Europe, while very little has been said about gradual but steady militarization of Scandinavia. The theme does not hit headlines and it is not in focus of public discourse but one step is taken after another to turn the region into a springboard for staging offensive actions against Russia. Ørland in southern Norway is being expanded to become Norway’s main air force base hosting US-made F-35 Lightnings – the stealth aircraft to become the backbone of Norwegian air power. Norway has purchased 56 of such aircraft. F-35 is an offensive, not defensive, weapon. The nuclear capable platforms can strike deep into Russia’s territory. Providing training to Norwegian pilots operating the planes carrying nuclear weapons, such as B61-12 glider warheads, constitutes a violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968.

Russian authorities are now trying to bring back home other children stuck in Mosul. According to Samih Beno, a Jordanian politician of Chechen origin, 48 minors, presumably children of Russian citizens, are now being held in different Iraqi shelters. Beno, also the head of the Chechen Republic’s Friends Association in Jordan, helped begin the evacuation and serves as a mediator during talks between representatives of different countries and international public organizations. No concrete date as to when minors could be brought back home can be set at the moment, as the process of their return is full of legal complications. To bring the children back, it must be confirmed they are all Russian citizens, which is not easy as the minors lack documents proving their identity and can hardly tell the authorities anything about themselves or their family aside from a name. According to Beno, the kids will have to undergo a DNA test to prove they are relatives with people who claim so.

These days, James Corbett doesn’t mind calling himself an anarchist. “Only because it annoys so many people” he tells Vin Armani in this 51-minute interview about how he came to the ideas of liberty. And they also cover psychopaths in government, foreign policy, anarchism, and what you can do to change the world.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has opened a permanent mission of the Russian Federation under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta, Indonesia. "The opening of our permanent mission confirms once again the priority of cooperation with ASEAN within the framework of our foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region, confirms our intention to further deepen the dialogue partnership with ASEAN, our commitment to bring this partnership to a strategic level and to give it a strategic character"...
Indonesia Joins Russia in Fight Against ISIS http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/08/indonesia-joins-russia-in-fight-again...

The North Korean general said that Pyongyang plans to launch the “Hwasong 12” ballistic missile which will fly over Japan and hit the targets in the waters about 30 to 40 kilometers off the coast of the American-held territory of the island of Guam. “The Korean People's Army (KPA)'s action will be an effective way to curb the frantic movements of the United States in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and the surrounding areas”, Kim Rak Yom said. He also said the plan would end in mid-August and that the KPA would then wait for further orders from the “commander-in-chief of nuclear power” in North Korea.

Mueller working towards specific goal of taking down elected president

"Unlike US Vice President Michael Pence’s visit to Georgia, which took place against the backdrop of NATO’s joint military exercises in Georgia, which began last week and which pose a real threat to security and stability in the South Caucasus, the Russian president’s visit to Abkhazia was exclusively peaceful and productive creating additional guarantees for Abkhazia’s safe and steady development," the ministry stated. "The Republic of Abkhazia is an independent sovereign country, which builds relations with its partners on its own, despite all attempts by Georgia and its Western partners to deny the existing political realities in the South Caucasus remaining hostages of their own illusions and distorted ideas," the Abkhaz Foreign Ministry said. On August 8, Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a working visit to Abkhazia and held talks with President Raul Khajimba. Putin’s visit coincided with the ninth anniversary of Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia.

The Turkish security service has detained a Russian citizen who allegedly plotted an attack with a drone against one of US planes based at Incirlik, the Haberturk television channel said on Thursday. The channel identified the Russian as Renat Bakiyev. He is also suspected of involvement in the terrorist organization Islamic State (outlawed in Russia). The Russian embassy in Ankara is looking into the reported detention in Turkey of a Russian citizen on the suspicion of terrorism, the Russian embassy’s press-attache Irina Kasimova told TASS on Thursday. "Earlier on Thursday Turkish media said a Russian citizen identified as one R. Bakiyev had been detained in the country’s territory on what appears to be suspicion of terrorist activity. The Russian embassy is taking the necessary measures to look into the situation and clear up the affair," Kasimova said.

A Russian aerospace force plane on Wednesday performed an observation flight over central Washington and the suburbs of the US capital city, including Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency, the US Congress and the White House, CNN said later in the day citing two anonymous sources informed about this flight made under the Open Skies Treaty. A Russian Tu-154M plane flew over over the Joint Base Andrews in Maryland which is used to receive aircraft of foreign leavers arriving in the United States and organize flights of the US leader. After that, the Russian plane was to fly over Bedminster, New Jersey, where President Donald Trump is spending his vacations. And finally, the Tu-154M allegedly flew over the countryside residence of US leaders in Camp David, Maryland, near the Wright-Patterson air force base in Ohio and near the Mount Weather emergency operations center in Virginia.

As the political puppets are fond of reminding us, we are in an age of global terror. As they are fond of leaving out, however, that terror is usually generated by them. Today on The Corbett Report we examine a possible vector for the next false flag attack: an EMP pulse.

“Black Sky Event”: Feds Preparing For Widespread Power Outages Across U.S. https://www.prisonplanet.com/black-sky-event-feds-preparing-for-widesp...

Russia plans to sign a military cooperation deal with the Republic of Niger in West Africa, including interaction in the war on terror and measures to strengthen international security, according to a Russian government resolution published on the government’s legal information web portal on Thursday. Under the draft agreement, the sides will interact in the war on terror, exchange information on military and political issues and the issues of strengthening international security. Moscow and Niamey will also develop relations in the area of joint troop training, in the sphere of military education, military medicine and other fields. Russia and Niger intend to exchange the experience of peacekeeping missions and interaction in peacekeeping operations under the UN aegis.

Chairman of the German Socialist Party Martin Schulz has said he believes US President Donald Trump’s rhetoric against North Korea is dangerous. "We are concerned about the fact that the US president is descending to the level of North Korean dictator [Kim Jong-un]," the politician who is going to run for German Chancellor from his party at the upcoming Bundestag election told reporters on Wednesday. "We are in a situation when we need to tell the US government clearly that verbal sabre rattling leads to the exacerbation of the conflict." In his view, European politicians should make it clear to Washington that they do not share this approach. "We need to use all channels to achieve de-escalation, to get the message across to the US president that his rhetoric is dangerous," the German politician said. He noted that "the North Korean dictator’s irrational moves require a rational response"...

His recent "fire and fury" threat to North Korea was belligerent, foolhardy and dangerous. The president simply does not understand, or care, that his words matter. In this instance, financial markets around the world were rattled for a time. Moreover, Trump's biblical sounding threat came a day before the US dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki...

A solemn ceremony was held in the city of Sevastopol, the Crimea, on Aug. 9 to celebrate the arrival of the Krasnodar diesel-electric submarine. The submarine has arrived to join the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, TASS reports. Black Sea Fleet Commander Admiral Alexander Vitko told reporters that the arrival of the Krasnodar submarine - the fourth submarine in Sevastopol - completed the formation of the submarine group of the fleet. The Krasnodar set off for a mission to the Crimea four months ago. During this time, the submarine conducted two successful attacks on objects of the Islamic State terrorist organisation (banned in Russia)...

Over the past two weeks, amid growing tensions between Washington and Pyongyang, the sales of underground shelters have soared by 90 percent, representatives for the US-based company Rising S said. A representative of the company that makes underground shelters said in an interview with Fox News that the sales of their products soared in Japan as well amid the threat from the DPRK (North Korea). The price range for such shelters starts from $39,500. A customer will have to pay this amount to purchase a small bunker measuring 8 by 12 meters, consisting of one room combining a bedroom, a kitchen and a bathroom. The price for underground complexes goes over 8 million dollars. In the past 24 hours, the relations between the United States and the DPRK have worsened dramatically. The North Korean authorities threatened to strike the US army base on Guam. In return, US President Trump promised that the US would respond with "fire and fury," should North Korea attack US facilities.

Federal government agencies are preparing for the possibility of “widespread power outages” across the U.S. as a result of a “black sky” event that could “bring society to its knees”.

An exercise sponsored by FEMA and the U.S. Department of Energy set to take place on August 23 called EarthEX2017 will wargame responses to catastrophes such as mega earthquakes, cyber terrorism or high altitude electromagnetic pulse attacks.

Statements made by Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl during his five-year captivity by the Taliban will not be used in his court-martial trial, the US Army has said. Bergdahl is facing charges of desertion.

“The government doesn’t have the intention to introduce” the statements, Army prosecutor Major Justin Oshana said during a preliminary hearing Tuesday at Fort Bragg, according to the Fayetteville Observer.

America must decide what it wants to do about Syria. Does it want to get rid of Bashar al-Assad? Or is defeating ISIS its most important priority?

Morally, it should do neither. America’s first priority should be to stop the war so that Syrian people do not have to die anymore.