Back in 2008, local news reported on a UFO that crashed near Needles, California. Residents in the tri-state area of Nevada, Arizona, and California saw something weird blaze out of the sky and crash on the banks of the Colorado River, South of Needles.
As Chris Hedges puts it, “this is the farce of democracy.” As if Washington would ever allow California to abandon ship.
California’s secretary of state gives permission for proponents of “Calexit” to start collecting signatures to initiate a referendum.
Source: PressTV-California push to secede from US growing
A campaign for the state of California to secede from the United States over the election of Donald Trump as president is gaining momentum after supporters were allowed to start collecting signatures for the independence measure to be put to a vote.
California’s Secretary of State Alex Padilla gave permission on Thursday for proponents of “Calexit” to start collecting the nearly 600,000 signatures needed to initiate a referendum for exiting the country.
Some 585,407 signatures are required by July 25 for the measure to qualify for an initial ballot in November 2018. Voters would then need to decide in another referendum in 2019 whether California should become a separate country.
A “Yes” vote would repeal clauses in the California Constitution “stating California is an inseparable part of the United States and that the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land,” a statement by Padilla’s office said.
California is the most populous state in the US with nearly 40 million residents and the world’s sixth-largest economy.
The Yes California Independence Campaign, which promotes the secession of California from the United States, was formed in August 2015.
Trump’s election gave a huge boost to the campaign, which is also called Calexit by pundits comparing the effort to Brexit – Britain’s referendum to exit the European Union.
One in every three California residents supports the state’s peaceful withdrawal from the union, with many of them strongly opposed to Trump’s presidential election, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released last week.
At an anti-Trump demonstration in Los Angeles and San Francisco on Friday, protesters waved signs saying “California out of the United States” and “US out of California.”
“There’s such hostility towards Trump that many citizens believe it would be smarter to leave than fight,” said Democratic political consultant Steve Maviglio.
However, secession is deemed highly unrealistic, facing political, legal and possibly even military obstacles. The United States fought the Civil War from 1861 to 1865 after eleven Southern states attempted to secede from the union.
As High Times noted, a report by the Drug Policy Alliance in 2013 found the average cash seized totaled $5,100 — an alarmingly high sum, considering the same report cited an investigation which discovered in roughly 80 percent of those cases, the person was never charged with a crime.
Source: Police Theft So Out of Hand, State Just Passed a Law Banning Cops from Robbing Innocent People
http://www.blacklistednews.com
Source: Claire Bernish
California — In a refreshing and unfortunately rare instance of reasonableness in policy, California Governor Jerry Brown recently signed into law a piece of legislation requiring police to secure an actual conviction before stealing people’s stuff in drug-related offenses.
Civil asset forfeiture has been rightly likened to state-sanctioned armed robbery, as it allows police to commandeer cash, vehicles, homes, or any property of value — even if the person is never charged with a crime — and then use or sell the items for profit for their departments.
Police in Oklahoma, for example, recently honed their thievery by rolling out nefarious Electronic Recovery and Access to Data machines, known as ERAD, which can scan your bank account and prepaid cards, and — if an officer believes any balances are tied to a crime — can wipe those accounts dry.
California’s new law, formerly Senate Bill 443, quashes this nightmarish policing-for-profit in the exact way advocates of civil asset forfeiture (CAF) reform have been demanding for years.
For police to keep cash stolen from people in amounts under $40,000 under the premise it has something to do with a drug-related crime, there must be an actual guilty verdict in court.
“The new law establishes some of the strongest property rights protections in the most populous state in the nation,” explained Theshia Naidoo, legal director of criminal justice at the Drug Policy Alliance, in a statement. “The reforms are a model not only because of the policy enacted, but also for how the legislative process should work to promote the best interests of Californians.”
California’s version of legalized armed robbery is particularly pernicious, as the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California pointed out, allowing some police departments to keep 80 percent of the proceeds from their CAF booty — well over the 65 percent cap mandated by state law.
In part, this is due to civil asset forfeiture’s evil twin — federal equitable sharing — a convenient workaround for strict laws protecting civilians from greedy cops.
“Unfortunately, California law enforcement has found a lucrative way to evade the state’s better-than-average laws: the federal government’s equitable sharing program,” wrote the Institute for Justice last year. “Indeed, a recent report by the Drug Policy Alliance noted that while state forfeiture revenue has remained flat, equitable sharing revenue has skyrocketed. Between 2000 and 2013, California agencies collected an eye-popping $696 million, or nearly $50 million each calendar year, through equitable sharing with the Department of Justice. A large majority of both assets seized and proceeds received resulted not from adoptions but from joint task forces and investigations with the federal government. This vehicle for equitable sharing will continue despite DOJ policy changes announced in January 2015. California law enforcement also hauled in almost $108 million from the Treasury Department’s equitable sharing program during fiscal years 2000 to 2013.”
As High Times noted, a report by the Drug Policy Alliance in 2013 found the average cash seized totaled $5,100 — an alarmingly high sum, considering the same report cited an investigation which discovered in roughly 80 percent of those cases, the person was never charged with a crime.
Law enforcement unions around the country have adamantly opposed any reforms to their convenient second profit source, and after a brief federal suspension of civil asset forfeiture at the beginning of the year, the Department of Justice reversed course, re-implementing CAF in April.
As voracious as police appetites’ for your stuff might be, one of the original creators of the civil asset forfeiture program excoriated its current manifestation as profiteering from behind a badge in an op-ed penned in the Wall Street Journal in February this year. Brad Cates, director of the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Asset Forfeiture Office from 1985 through 1989, wrote:
“During the Reagan administration I helped establish these programs because I believed they would quickly channel seized criminals’ profits into the fight against organized crime and drug cartels. Yet over time we have created a new bad incentive: policing for profit, out of the reach of the proper legislative budget process.”
California’s law will go into effect in the beginning of 2017, and — out of several states recently attempting to curb the ridiculous practice — is so far the only legislation to mandate an actual conviction, a guilty verdict, in order for police to keep assets.
Writes the Drug Policy Alliance:
“Civil asset forfeiture has allowed the government to seize and keep cash, cars, real estate, and any other property suspected of being connected to criminal activity even if the owner is never convicted of a crime. While civil asset forfeiture was originally conceived in the 1980s as a way to target the resources of criminal organizations, it has become a method for law enforcement to confiscate and profit from the savings and property of those not charged with any criminal wrongdoing […]
“SB 443 requires that state and local agencies abide by stricter standards before they profit from federal forfeitures.”
Echoing countless others, Cates concludes his editorial in no uncertain terms:
“Three decades ago I helped create our civil-asset forfeiture system; now it is time to end it.”
966 roads, 90 fiber optic cables, 39 gas pipes and 141 power lines could be impacted.
Source: The San Andreas Fault Could Crack Soon—Here’s What Will Happen When It Does | Alternet
Photo Credit: IrinaK/Shutterstock
The director of the Southern California Earthquake Center, Thomas Jordan, made an announcement recently that would have sent a chill down the spine of every Californian: that the San Andreas fault appears to be in a critical state and as such, could generate a large earthquake imminently. Of course, the reiteration of the seismic hazard to Californians will be nothing surprising, but what is new is the warning that the southern portion of the fault “looks like it’s locked, loaded and ready to go.”
Why is this eminent seismologist making these alarming statements? Well, the fact is that there has not been a major release of stresses in the southern portion of the San Andreas fault system since 1857. In simple terms, the San Andreas is one of many fault systems roughly marking the border between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. Both plates are moving in an approximately northerly direction but the Pacific plate is moving faster than its North American counterpart, meaning that stresses between the plates are constantly building up.
In 1906, some of these stresses were catastrophically released in the San Francisco Bay area in a 7.8 magnitude event and again, in northern California, during the 6.9 magnitude 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Events of these magnitudes, however, have not occurred along the San Andreas fault in the south of the state—the 1994 Northridge event was associated with a nearby, but separate, fault system—leading to the suggestion that one is imminent and, given the amount of stress that might actually have accumulated, when it arrives it will be the “Big One.”
How Big Is “Big”?
So just how big could this potential earthquake be and is it possible that the destruction demonstrated in the film San Andreas could actually come to fruition?
In short, Californians will be (reasonably) pleased with the answers to these questions. In the film, the San Andreas fault produces an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0. While not unheard of globally, earthquakes of this size are generally confined to regions of the earth where subduction—where one tectonic plate is being forced below another—is happening, for example in Chile and Japan. The tectonic situation in California is different. Here, two plates are sliding past each other.
As such, recent predictions limit the possible maximum earthquake magnitude along the San Andreas fault system to 8.0, although with a 7 percent probability estimate that such an event could occur in Southern California in the next 30 years; over the same period, there is a 75 percent chance of a magnitude 7.0 event. While magnitudes of 7.0, 8.0 and 9.0 might sound negligibly different, the energy that such events would unleash varies significantly, with a magnitude 9.0 event releasing 32 times more energy than a magnitude 8.0 and 1,000 times more energy than a magnitude 7.0.
Obviously, however, be it a 7.0 or an 8.0, damage is inevitable, but the whole sequence of events, as depicted in the film, is unlikely. For example, the San Andreas fault is not beneath the ocean and as such, any slippage along it could not displace water to the extent that a tsunami would be generated. The opening up of a massive chasm is also from the land of fantasy, as the plates are sliding relative to each other, not away from each other.
What is realistic, however, is that a great amount of destruction is likely. While the building codes in California are stringent, recommending retrofitting of seismic protection measures to older buildings and preventing the construction of new buildings near to known fault lines, there is no way to make a building 100 percent safe.
Predicting Devastation
In an attempt to understand the effects of a large, southern San Andreas earthquake, the U.S. Geological Survey modelled a 7.8 magnitude event, with slippage of 2-7 metres, to represent the stresses that have built up in the area since the last large event.
From this model, it was found that damage would be most severe to constructions straddling the fault. Fortunately, constructions of this sort are few and far between following the 1972 Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act. What would be affected by this slippage, however, are the 966 roads, 90 fiber optic cables, 39 gas pipes and 141 power lines that cross the fault zone.
The total cost of damage to buildings was estimated at $33 billion, with modern buildings faring well but older buildings being particularly susceptible. Fires would rage—as they did following the Northridge earthquake—as gas mains, and mains water pipes, become severed; in fact, the damage from resulting fires is estimated as more costly than that resulting from the initial shaking.
The overall death toll is estimated at 1,800. And just when things don’t look like they can get any worse, the main event will have destabilised the tectonics of the region to such an extent that a series of potentially powerful aftershocks will begin. For example, in 2011, Christchurch, New Zealand was struck by a 6.2 magnitude event and since then the city and surrounding region have experienced more than 10,000 aftershocks.
Fortunately, the film San Andreas is pure fiction, featuring the levels of exaggeration we are all used to from film makers who are, ironically, also based in southern California.
Even so, in all probability, the San Andreas is likely to generate a significant earthquake in the not too distant future. When it arrives, the damage will be significant and southern California will be massively affected. But Californians are no strangers to these events and the infrastructure of the state, in recent times, has been designed with earthquake protection in mind.
Forget tsunamis and deep chasms opening up, but do expect violent shaking, building damage, fires and widespread economic impacts as the region is out of action for potentially a long period of time
“The springs on the San Andreas system have been wound very, very tight.”
Source: San Andreas Fault is “Ready to Go” According to Experts
For decades Californians have been warned repeatedly that the “big one” is coming. Someday a massive earthquake is going rip through the San Andreas Fault, possibly causing thousands of casualties and billions of dollars in damage. So far nothing that serious has occurred in recent memory. With the exception of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the state has been largely spared from any serious tectonic disaster.
But according to some experts we may not have to wait much longer, especially in regards to the southern portion of the San Andreas fault near San Diego and Los Angeles. That’s because it’s been so long since this fault has had an earthquake. The pressure is building there. The fault typically has a major earthquake every 100 years or so, but this particular portion hasn’t experienced a major quake since 1857, which was a magnitude 7.9.
According to Thomas Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center:
The springs on the San Andreas system have been wound very, very tight. And the southern San Andreas fault, in particular, looks like it’s locked, loaded and ready to go.
If it’s anything like the earthquake of 1857 (and it could easily be worse), the effects will be felt all over California. The last time it happened, soil was liquefied as far north as Stockton, well over 300 miles away. It’s estimated that a quake of this magnitude would kill 1,800 people and do $200 billion in damages, despite modern building standards. In terms of damages and casualties, that would put it in the same category as Hurricane Katrina.
Joshua Krause is a reporter, writer and researcher at The Daily Sheeple. He was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a freelance writer and author. You can follow Joshua’s reports at Facebook or on his personal Twitter. Joshua’s website is Strange Danger .
I cringe when I see corporations, these evil soulless entities, even looking at a marijuana plant.
Source: Cannabis growers in US want Champagne-like labels — RT USA
RT USA
As any wine lover knows, Champagne is only Champagne when it comes from the French region. For stoners, Cali Kush tastes so sweet because of where it is grown.
Cannabis growers in the US are calling for labels to display where the plant was grown, similar to those used to show where wine and cheese are produced.
A number of growers believe cannabis plants vary according to the environments in which they are grown. If a strain of Orange Bud is grown in different regions, it will have a different taste.
#cannabis Champagne-Like Labels for Pot Could Protect Growers from ‘Big Marijuana’ http://dlvr.it/DGRBhP #weed http://TokeTrack.com
As part of new California regulations introduced this year, cannabis appellation could mean certain strains are grown only in certain regions.
Appellation refers to a legally defined and protected geographical location used to show where something has been grown, such as certain wine varieties, cheeses and other foods. One example is Florida orange juice.
This would afford small growers protection from large cannabis farms. If an area is known for quality plants, it will hold exclusive rights to the name.
Posh weed strains will soon have official labels of origin – just like on fine wines :http://ift.tt/1mVsQRB
“This is how small business competes with big marijuana”, Dale Sky Jones told the Guardian. “And this is why this is so unbelievably important … Appellation is going to wind up being the first line of defense.”
California has already experienced an influx of businesses and investors aiming to cash in on relaxed cannabis laws. Growers are concerned about the consequences of a corporate cannabis industry.
TOKE TRACK 
WATCHTOWER 
