More than 400 people in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi over the past three days, health officials said on Tuesday, as they set up emergency medical camps in the streets.
The heat wave coincides with major power cuts, leading to harsh criticism of the provincial government and K-electric , the company that supplies electricity to Karachi, the country's richest city and home to 20 million people.
One of Karachi's biggest public hospitals said all its beds were full, with more than 200 people dying there of dehydration or heat exhaustion.
"Some were brought in dead, while others died during treatment," said Dr Seemin Jamali, joint director at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.
Temperatures have touched 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit) in the steamy port city in recent days, up from a normal summer temperature of 37 C (99 F). But rain is due.
Ten days ago it seemed as if America's corporatism would finally be slowed in its tracks after the House unexpectedly killed the fast-tracking of Obamatrade, aka the fast-tracking of the Trade Promotion Authority. Alas, it was not to last, and moments ago, in a "nailbiting" 60-37 vote, the Senate advanced Obama's fast-track tarde bill.
The Senate on Tuesday voted to advance President Obama’s trade agenda, approving a measure to end debate on fast-track authority.
The 60-37 motion sets up a vote on final passage on Wednesday. If the Senate approves fast-track or trade promotion authority (TPA), it would then be sent to Obama’s desk to become law. Fast-track authority would allow Obama to send trade deals to Congress for up-or-down votes. The White House wants the authority to conclude negotiations on a sweeping trans-Pacific trade deal.
Thirteen Democrats backed fast-track in Tuesday’s vote, handing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) a major legislative victory.
They did so even though the trade package did not include a workers assistance program for people displaced by increased trade. The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program was a part of the last fast-track package approved by the Senate in May, but became a key part of opposition to the package among Democrats in the House.
To move fast-track forward, the White House and GOP leaders in both chambers decided to break TAA away from fast-track, and to try to approve both in separate votes.
After the Senate votes Wednesday on final passage for fast-track, it will take a procedural vote on a package that includes TAA and trade preferences for African countries known as the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
McConnell has promised both bills, as well as a customs and enforcement bill favored by Democrats, will reach Obama’s desk by the end of the week.
“If we all keep working together and trusting each other, then by the end of the week the President will have TPA, TAA, and AGOA and Preferences on his desk — with Customs in the process of heading his way too,” he said on the floor.
And since the House has already passed fast-track, and now must only vote on the package including TAA, which faces token opposition from conservatives, expect the TPA and shortly thereafter, the TPP, to be enacted despite yet another round of dramatic theater by the best representatives US corporations can bribe.
Today brings Round 2 in "the most transparent administration ever"'s attempt to pass the incredibly opaque Fast-Track Authority enabling Obama to negotiate the Trans-Pacific-Partnershipcorporate coup d'etat (and all the other trade deals currently floating around) without fear of irritation from any outsiders. However, it won't be easy-sledding as The Hill reports, labor groups led by the AFL-CIO are furiously lobbying Democrats to oppose fast-track authoritywhen the Senate votes on a procedural motion Tuesday. Union leaders warn enabling Fast-Track prematurely would "compound its expected negative impacts, leaving U.S. workers in the lurch and depriving the U.S. manufacturing sector of vital tools necessary to combat unfair trade."
But once again - after more drama - the corporations win!
The measure would help Obama negotiate the largest trade deal in history with 11 other countries along the Pacific Rim by limiting interference from Congress.
Obama’s trade bill needs 60 votes, and he can afford no more than two Democratic defections who previously backed fast-track. As of Monday evening, he had not yet secured public promises from all the Democrats he needs.
Backers of fast-track likely need a dozen Democratic votes because five of the Senate’s Republicans voted against the trade package last month and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is indicating in an op-ed on Breitbart News that he will change his vote from yes to no. Cruz, who is running for president, says he is wary of backroom negotiations, expressing concern that the Export-Import Bank reauthorization will be included in the horsetrading.
...
The Senate’s vote Tuesday to end debate on fast-track — if it gets 60 backers — will set up a final roll call on the measure later in the day or Wednesday.
The chamber would then vote on a package of trade preferences combined with the African Growth and Opportunity Act and TAA. That measure is expected to clear Wednesday or Thursday.
Senate Democratic leaders are not whipping against fast-track, leaving it to unions to do the heavy lifting to defeat it.
The AFL-CIO urged Democrats Monday to vote against fast-track and warned they had no guarantee that TAA will pass the House, where many Republicans oppose it.
“Without assurances that TAA will pass the House, or that the customs bill will ever see the president’s desk,considering Fast Track prematurely could compound its expected negative impacts, leaving U.S. workers in the lurch and depriving the U.S. manufacturing sector of vital tools necessary to combat unfair trade,” William Samuel, the union’s director of government affairs, wrote in a letter to senators.
...
Heritage Action for America urged Republican senators to vote against fast-track Tuesday.
The conservative advocacy group argued that passing fast-track would pave the way for later passage of what it called the “ineffective” TAA program, which is paid for with tax penalties.
“The new pay for — included in H.R. 1295 which the Senate will also consider this week — increases revenue by raising certain tax penalties. New spending should not be offset by new revenues,” the group wrote in a legislative alert Monday.
But there are supporters, toe-ing Obama's tyrannical line...
“The trade package currently before the Senate is a blueprint for trade done right,” Wyden said in a statement. “It will make our country stronger by opening new markets to American products and creating new opportunities for good-paying American jobs.”
Supporters of fast-track argue that trade supports more than 4.7 million jobs in California.
But we leave it to Ellen Brown to sum up just what this "sentence first, verdict afterwards" bill is really all about... a corporate coup d'etat...
`Let the jury consider their verdict,’ the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.
`No, no!’ said the Queen. `Sentence first–verdict afterwards.’
`Stuff and nonsense!’ said Alice loudly. `The idea of having the sentence first!’
`Hold your tongue!’ said the Queen, turning purple.
`I won’t!’ said Alice.
`Off with her head!’ the Queen shouted at the top of her voice.
— Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”
Fast-track authority is being sought in the Senate this week for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), along with the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) and any other such trade agreements coming down the pike in the next six years. The terms of the TPP and the TiSA are so secret that drafts of the negotiations are to remain classified for four yearsor five years, respectively, after the deals have been passed into law. How can laws be enforced against people and governments who are not allowed to know what was negotiated?
The TPP, TiSA and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (or TTIP, which covers Europe) will collectively encompass three-fourths of the world’s GDP; and they ultimately seek to encompass nearly 90 percent of GDP. Despite this enormous global impact, fast-track authority would allow the President to sign the deals before their terms have been made public, and send implementing legislation to Congress that cannot be amended or filibustered and is not subject to the constitutional requirement of a two-thirds treaty vote.
While the deals are being negotiated, lawmakers can see their terms only under the strictest secrecy, and they can be subjected to criminal prosecution for revealing those terms. What we know of them comes only through WikiLeaks. The agreements are being treated as if they were a matter of grave national security, yet they are not about troop movements or military strategy. Something else is obviously going on.
This corporate coup includes the privatization and offshoring of the judicial function delegated to the US court system in the Constitution, through Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions that strengthen existing ISDS procedures.
As explained in The Economist, ISDS gives foreign firms a special right to apply to a secretive tribunal of highly paid corporate lawyers for compensation whenever the government passes a law to do things that hurt corporate profits — such things as discouraging smoking, protecting the environment or preventing a nuclear catastrophe. Arbitrators are paid $600-700 an hour, giving them little incentive to dismiss cases. The secretive nature of the arbitration process and the lack of any requirement to consider precedent give wide scope for creative judgments – the sort of arbitrary edicts satirized by Lewis Carroll in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
To date, the highest ISDS award has been for $2.3 billion to Occidental Oil Company against the government of Ecuador over its termination of an oil-concession contract, although the termination was apparently legal. Under the TPP, however, even larger and more unpredictable judgments can be anticipated, since the sort of “investment” it protects includes not just “the commitment of capital or other resources” but “the expectation of gain or profit.” That means the rights of corporations extend not merely to their factories and other “capital” but to the profits they expect to receive. Just the threat of a massive damage award for impairing “expected corporate profits” could be enough to discourage prospective legislation by lawmakers.
The Trade in Services Agreement adds additional barriers to proposed legislation. TiSA involves 51 countries, including every advanced economy except the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). The deal would liberalize global trade in services covering close to 80% of the US economy, including financial services, healthcare, education, engineering, telecommunications, and many more. It would restrict how governments can manage their public laws, and it could dismantle and privatize state-owned enterprises, turning those services over to the private sector. It would also block the emerging trend to return privatized services to the public sector, by limiting or prohibiting governments from creating or reestablishing public utilities and other “uncompetitive” forms of service delivery.
It seems that the TPP, TTIP and TiSA are not about the sort of “free trade” that would free local businesses to sell abroad. They are about freeing international corporations from the government regulation necessary to protect the economy, the people, and the environment. They are about preserving privatized monopolies and preventing competition from the public sector. And they are about moving litigation offshore into private arbitrary tribunals – the sort of tribunal that might have lost Alice her head, if she had not awakened from her bizarre dream.
On Monday we noted that Europe has moved to extend economic sanctions on Russia for another six months in response to Moscow’s alleged role in fueling the violence that now plagues Eastern Ukraine. This marks the latest escalation in the ongoing standoff between the Kremlin and the West and underscores the pace at which the situation is deteriorating. Here’s a recap of recent events:
Ukraine has seen its worst outbreak of violence since February’s ‘ceasefire’ this month, with both sides blaming the other for the intensification of hostilities. Meanwhile, the US has dusted off the Cold War playbook (although, ironically, Defense Secretary Ash Carter claims Washington’s stepped up “containment” efforts are part of a new, more modern strategy designed to help America avoid being pulled back into the Cold War), suggesting heavy weapons may be stored in Eastern Europe to ensure NATO forces can deploy quickly in the face of Russian “aggression.” Last week, Belgium, Austria, and France froze Russian state assets in an attempt to enforce an effectively unenforceable ECHR decision stemming from the long-running Yukos debacle, while Germany, Norway, The Czech Republic, and The Netherlands rehearsed a Ukraine siege in Poland.
Now, just a few days after NATO’s latest proxy war dress rehearsal, and just 24 hours after Ash Carteraccused Russia of "nuclear saber rattling", we havemore details on the Pentagon’s plan to deploy heavy weapons in Eastern Europe. Speaking at a joint press conference, the Defense Secretary outlined the scope of US weapons deployment:
“We will temporarily stage one armoured brigade combat team's vehicles and associated equipment in countries in central and eastern Europe. This pre-positioned European activity set includes tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, artillery. [Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland have] agreed to host company- to battalion-sized elements of this equipment.”
(Carter looking particularly pleased on Monday)
In other words, here's what working towards de-escalation and peaceful coexistence looks like to Washington: "250 tanks, Bradleys, and self-propelled howitzers, and associated armoured brigade combat team equipment [stationed] in Baltic and Central European countries."
Meanwhile, Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law (yes, someone actually has that job title in Russia) has accused the US of sabatoging a bilateral agreement aimed at the pursuit of "common national interests" by adopting a "teacher-pupil" mentality. Here'sTASS:
Russia is ready to conduct an equal dialogue with the United States and is against the US lecturing on democracy building principles, Russian Foreign Ministry’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law Konstantin Dolgov told TASS on Tuesday.
"The Russian-American presidential commission included the civil society group, and there were plans to continue its work," Dolgov said. "But then we got the general answer that the United States was ‘so concerned’ about human rights in Russia that decided to freeze this group among the first — that’s the alogism."
"We’ve never shed and don’t shed any tears over this," the diplomat said. "By the way, the Russian and US civil societies are communicating."
He said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has recently commented on the general situation in relations with the United States. "We’ve received signals from the United States that they are willing to resume dialogue with us one way or another," the Russian Foreign Ministry commissioner said. "We are fully ready for such a dialogue."
The diplomat said Russia had very many problems with Washington in the human rights sphere, in particular, the situation with arrests of Russians in third countries at American requests, the situation with Russian children adopted by US families.
"Dialogue is always a two-way street. The ‘teacher-pupil’ formula will not work anymore," he said. "It will be only an equal dialogue and we are ready to conduct this kind of dialogue."
"And if they want to lecture us on democracy building ways, let them lecture students at some American university," Dolgov said.
The reference here is to the 2009 U.S.-Russian Bilateral Presidential Commission. In April of last year, the US "temporarily suspended several projects and meetings planned under the auspices of the Commission" due to what Washington calls "Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity." After cancelling the projects, the US proceeded to channel the associated funds straight to Ukraine:
"Funding for these activities has instead been used to contribute to a package of U.S. assistance to Ukraine, which is supporting economic reform and addressing other pressing needs."
Fortunately for Dolgov, it doesn't appear as though he, or any other Russian diplomats for that matter, will be forced to endure a "lecture" on democracy from the US anytime soon because as the positioning of 250 Bradleys and self-propelled howitzers, and associated armoured brigade combat team equipment" in Eastern Europe makes clear, the time for dialogue of any kind has long since passed.
Yesterday, one of my listeners sent me the following short video made by Alex Jones. In the video, Alex is wondering out loud why he has not left the country because his insider sources say that all hell is going to break loose by October.
I have said, a hundred times, in a hundred different ways to myself, the same exact words as Alex says here in the video. I have written these words a dozen times. But it is one thing to intellectually understand what is happening to our country, and it quite another to feel it in your heart, your gut and your soul all at the same time. After I watched the video the first time, I turned the sound off and watched it again as I observed Alex’s body language. I have never, ever seen him like this. His facial expressions said “this is zero hour and I cannot believe it is really hear”. There was sheer terror reflected in his face. At that moment, Alex’s entire life flashed before his eyes as he spoke of his children and the realization that their future was about to be destroyed.
For the 12 minutes I spent watching the video, Alex Jones and Dave Hodges became the same person. After watching the video, I sat in abject horror for what must have been about 30 minutes with the realization that everything that I have been writing and talking about is arriving at our collective doorsteps and the coming events could soon spin out of control.
Certainly, a major part of my being was feeling what Alex said when I wrote an article, two days ago, advising some people to leave the country as soon as possible.
Also, in the video, as you heard, Alex spoke about the numbers of elite and people in the know who have left America or somehow have gone into hiding. I have been writing about this development for over 30 months. In that time, I have five articles about leaving the United States. This is different, this where heart, the mind, the body and the soul all coalesce.
What am I going to do? What are you going to do? What are any of us going to do?
The Elite Actually Began to Run for Cover In Late 2012
Ex-intel going into hiding.
Something big is about to happen. So many say of us that we can feel it in their bones. These persons would be correct. How do I know? Some of my very best contacts told me, almost three years ago, that it is time to stop warning the people, because it is now time to start hiding from the wrong people and some very bad events coming our way. My initial reaction was to not believe them, but there are too many well-placed sources that tell us that we are living in very dangerous times which will bring great upheaval and grave danger. For example, a migration to underground hideouts began two plus years ago in earnest for members of the alphabet soup agency retirees. I knew one of these “refugees” personally and he pointed to 2015 as the time when he anticipated that “all hell was going to break loose”. I previously wrote an article, in December of 2012, about the defection of my friend and former FEMA contact, his family as well as several like-minded individuals from FEMA and DHS, during the holiday season of 2012. I have former friends in hiding, or who have relocated, and I still continued on my path thinking I had a lot of time to keep exposing the globalists. I, like Alex Jones, fear that we may be about out of time unless there is a dramatic shift in events.
The Coming Attractions
For the past three years I have been repeating the mantra that Alex spoke of in his video release on June 20, 2015. I have repeatedly stated that we would see the destruction of America coming in three waves:
A series of False Flag attacks on American soil.
The extraction of Red List dissidents.
Resulting martial law coupled with foreign troop occupation. Once the country is subjugated, we would be thrown into World War III.
The Rubber Meets the Road
With the advent of Jade Helm, and with Russia and China preparing to attack the United States as well as the subsequent discussion of Walmarts and FEMA camps, the revelations made by Pastor Walter Mansfield, in a personal conversation I have with him, have again taken center stage. For many the following is what could lie ahead if one is not able to be out of harm’s way when when Jade Helm related events begin to unfold. I agree with Alex, the time to have left America was years ago. There may not be the time you need to get your money, possessions and family safely out of the country.
If You Stay, You Do So At Great Risk
Many people in the independent media have reported that an estimated 28,000 pastors were recruited by FEMA/DHS, as part of the Clergy Response Team, and that their initial and primary training was to tell their flock to obey the DHS version of Romans 13. Romans 13, in the King James version of the Bible, begins:
“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” Romans 13:1
Many of us have been quick to point that this bastardization of the Romans 13 is designed to force compliance to government edicts who might not otherwise comply.
Certainly all governments are not established by God. Were the governments of Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, all ordained by God? What about George the III? Most people in the independent media think that this is the extent of the threat posed by the existence of the Clergy Response Teams.
Romans 13 Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
Why do I bring up Romans 13? Because it is symbolic of the complete servitude that the remaining people in America will soon face and the Christian church is at the tip of the speer with regard to moving America into an unprecedented level of tyranny.
Clergy Response Teams
I have discovered that the Clergy Response Teams are taking on much more nefarious duties and it can be accurately stated that the pastors associated with the DHS/FEMA/Clergy Response Teams are going to be doing a whole lot more than encouraging their flock to obey the government.
Several months ago, I conducted a telephonic interview with Pastor Walt Mansfield. Pastor Mansfield was among the first of the pastors recruited to become a part of the Clergy Response Team. The revelations he conveyed to me about this program had pastors doing a whole lot more than preaching Romans 13. But before going to the disturbing contents of the interview, let’s take a look at relevant legislation which helps to legitimize Pastor Mansfield’s outrageous claims.
Background Legislation
Both Alex’s and my fears have an historical basis in undeniable fact.
On December 31, 2011, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law which in addition to allocating $662 billion to the Pentagon also contains a measure which allows U.S. citizens to be taken into custody and held indefinitely without ever being charged with a crime.
Not only can any citizen deemed a threat to “national security interests of the United States,” be held forever without receiving a trial, but the military will be the ones arresting those citizens.
NDAA Section 1022, subsection c allows “(1) Detention under the law of war without trial until the end of the hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force.”
The National Emergency Centers Act or HR 645 mandates the establishment of “national emergency centers” to be located on military installations for the purpose of to providing “temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster,” according to the bill.
The legislation also states that the camps will be used to “provide centralized locations to improve the coordination of preparedness, response, and recovery efforts of government, private, and not-for-profit entities and faith-based organizations”.
The bill also provides that the camps can be used to “meet other appropriate needs”, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security. This a Carte Blanche mandate that many fear could mean the forced detention of American citizens in the event of widespread rioting following a national emergency or a total economic collapse. An economic collapse is what Alex spoke of in the video.
Pastor Mansfield’s “Insider” Revelations
Pastor Mansfield was recruited to become a member of the Clergy Response Team which would operate under the control of NOVAD and DHS. Mansfield’s revelations about his experiences are stunning and concerning at the same time.
Pastor Mansfield attended several briefings and he could barely believe his ears. He learned of the government’s plan to enact martial law as well as to implement forced population relocations. Mansfield emphasized that when martial law is enacted, the enforcement would be immediate. In other words, family members will be separated from each other and part of the training that the clergy received was how to comfort separated family members.
Pastor Mansfield emphasized that the FEMA/DHS drills were predicated on bioterrorism. This is exactly what my relocated FEMA source told me before he and his family left. The pastors were trained to go to homes were people refused to be relocated by the authorities and their immediate job was to convince the reluctant to willingly go to the relocation camps. Ostensibly, this was to be done in lieu of sending in the SWAT teams.
I asked Mansfield if FEMA camps were real and he stated that much of the clergy training focused around this scenario of pastors operating within the forced relocation centers. The main goal of a pastor assigned to a FEMA was to bring order and encourage compliance with DHS requests, hence, the emphasis on Romans 13.
The pastors were forced to sign non-disclosure. Interesting, the pastors were told not to quote Scripture.The DHS document which was prepared for the pastors clearly stated that Scripture had been used to “oppress” people in the past and the presenters strongly discouraged the its use. Please see the following excerpt from one of the DHS training manuals:
Healing Scripture and Prayer In the Pastoral Crisis Intervention
“During a time of crisis people do go through a “crisis of faith.”
Sometime quick mention of God and scripture may not be helpful. As we all know the Scripture has been used to oppress, dominate and at the same time used for healing and reconciliation- renewing of relationship with God and people. If the pastor senses it is appropriate to use the scripture and prayer, it must carefully be done for healing of victims not to uphold pastoral authority.” (Page 14)
In other words, all legitimate pastoral authority was abrogated by the pastors who participated in the roundup of American citizens.
Also on page 14 of the same training document, pastors were admonished to avoid“Unhealthy God talk….” Specifically pastors are ordered to avoid using references to God when helping people cope with the loss of a loved one:
“4. God must have needed him/her more than you.”
“5. God never gives more than we can handle.“
Pastor Mansfield also revealed that pastors will be issued badges under the Clergy Response Team program. Any pastor not displaying the badge, indicating that they have been trained under these guidelines, will not be permitted into the established and designated “DHS safety zones”. This reminds me of the banishment of religious figures from Plymouth Colony who, in good conscience, refused to go along with some of the extremism of that day. Along these lines, the Clergy Response Team is also a “Kool-Aid drinking program”. Pastors are absolutely forbidden to publicly to speak about any aspect of the program. If you were to ask your pastor if they are a FEMA trained pastor, they will not likely tell you.
Disturbingly, Pastor Mansfield reiterated several times that the number one job of these pastors is to calm down people and encourage their compliance within the people’s new surroundings.
Pastor Mansfield also stated that pastors will be utilized as informants. This violates the legal privilege of confidentiality between pastor and church-goer, that is currently recognized by law. All church-goers can no longer trust the sanctity of personal confessions and revelations made to pastors, priests or rabbis’. This one illegal act by DHS completely undermines the Christian Church in America!
Walmarts
I am not sure that even Pastor Mansfield could have anticipated what is going on inside of the closed Walmarts in preparation of welcoming new company.
From the Midland, TX. Walmart where they are hauling away the old to make way for the new. Who are they making room for?
Summary
What pastor could, in good conscience, participate in this heinous program? Mansfield told me that there are an estimated 28,000 FEMA trained pastors. The pastors in America are being coerced to participate because when an emergency is declared, no pastor, who does not have the “FEMA-trained government badge” will be allowed to be in a declared “emergency” area. Pastor Mansfield felt strongly this was the government’s way of removing Jesus from America’s landscape and set the stage for the ushering in of a new-age religion.
It is mindboggling to fathom how so many reporters and media types deny the existence of FEMA camps under these circumstances. It is also disturbing that any pastor would agree to participate in a program in which Jesus and the Bible end up on the cutting room floor. The most disturbing thing is that these threats to our lives are now here and are waiting to manifest. Jade Helm is the manifestation.
Since interviewing Pastor Mansfield, I have been contemplating the potential wisdom of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in which made the following quote:
Solzhenitsyn once said that “We should have resisted the KGB at the front door. If the KGB thought that they might not go home that night, the Russian people might have had a different fate”.
Alex Jones has strongly insinuated that the prudent move is to leave. I just think it is important for all to realize that staying behind could come at a very steep cost.
