By Neena Bhandari

SYDNEY, Mar 9 2012 (IPS) – The 11th round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) talks concluded in Melbourne Friday, with member states suggesting the negotiations had made significant progress but civil society groups reiterating concerns that the United States’ corporate demands could undermine social, economic and environmental policies.

“We do know that global corporations are pushing hard for the inclusion of provisions that benefit companies, but not necessarily workers and communities,” Gerardine Kearney, President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), told IPS.

“This can be seen, for example, in the negotiations on intellectual property and the risk that it (poses) to pharmaceutical companies’ rights to charge higher prices for medicines. We are seeing it in the investment negotiations, where (corporate success) will undermine the right of governments to regulate in the public interest and will provide companies the right to sue governments for damages,” Kearney said.

The TPPA is currently being negotiated between the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Chile and Peru with the goal of developing a comprehensive “21st century” regional trade agreement by the year-end.

Australia’s lead negotiator Hamish McCormick told reporters in Melbourne, “We have made further strong headway. We are looking to conclude this year but we want to have a high quality agreement.”

Businesses say that diversifying trade flows across the Pacific would be beneficial, but civil society groups, calling for strong labour rights and environmental protections in the trade deal, have raised concerns over investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions, amongst others.

ISDS provisions allow foreign corporations to sue a government for regulatory actions. The Australian Labor Government has made it clear that it does not support the inclusion of ISDS clauses despite immense pressure from corporations and the U.S. government.

“ISDS provisions can constrain the ability of governments to introduce legislation on social, environmental and economic matters; confer greater legal rights for foreign businesses than those available to domestic businesses by providing an avenue to take legal action for alleged breaches of the investment chapter of the trade agreement; and ISDS arbitration is lengthy and costly,” Kearney said.

http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/03/trans-pacific-trade-pact-reveals-usrsquos-unbridled-corporate-agenda/

May 16, 2011

Paul Joseph Watson Infowars

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Vice-Chairman of the Russian State Duma and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), caused shock waves in a recent television interview when he warned that Russia could deploy an arsenal of new technology to “destroy any part of the planet” and kill over a hundred million people using secret weather weapons if the United States, the UN or Georgia tried to stop Russia’s entry into the WTO.

Saying that the American government in Washington DC had “no future” and would “collapse,” Zhirinovsky cited Russia’s supremacy in space and stated that the country had, “Lots of money, resources, and new weapons that no one knows about.”

“With them we will destroy any part of the planet within 15 minutes,” he sensationally warned.

“Not an explosion, not a ray burst, not some kind of laser, not lightning, but a quiet and peaceful weapon,” added Zhirinovsky, warning that “whole continents will be put to sleep forever” and that “120 million will die” if anyone interfered with Russia’s claim on the Kuril Islands, which are the subject of a territorial dispute with Japan.

Zhirinovsky made reference to the recent tsunami in Japan, suggesting that the “new weapons” which he refers are related to weather control technology, which has been intensely studied by both the U.S. and Russia since the 1950′s and is commonly used today.

Threatening to annex Georgia completely, Zhirinovsky warned, “And then there will be another tsunami, on the other side of the planet, in the Caucasus. Zhirinovsky’s reference to the Kuril Islands in connection with the devastating tsunami that hit Japan in March.

Zhirinovsky also warned of a coming “third world war” emerging from the current turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa that would lead to the collapse of current global institutions like the EU and the WTO and the rise of a new international order led by Russia.

Learn more:http://www.activistpost.com/2011/05/secret-weather-weapons-can-kill.html

April 17, 2011

Michael Edwards Activist Post

On a secluded estate in England, a small group from the elite UK think-tank, The Royal Society, are openly discussing control over the planet’s weather. The Orwellian nature of the discussion is stunning, as this select group seemingly wrings their hands over how to delegate the proper authority to research such godlike power. They begin by asking a rhetorical question, “Who decides?”

In a candid AP story, the entire agenda is laid bare as we are treated to a session that is “generally off the record.” This is the grand rollout to be sure: from research to implementation, they announce much of what is already provably in the works, as well as the road toward a future of unthinkable control by an inner circle of ideologues with the task to “save the planet.”

History is full of these great “experts” who have taken on the burden of saving the rest of us. Elites throughout the ages have insisted that the common man or woman is simply not up to the task . . . if left to our own devices, we might just destroy the place. So, let’s first recap how these elite thinkers have done so far based on the key indicators of human prosperity.

Read the full story:

http://www.activistpost.com/2011/04/masters-of-world-meet-to-play-god-with.html

September 15, 2012

Max Velocity, Contributor Activist Post

I wanted to put a few thoughts out there about the realities of your survival location. To read what is out there in terms of opinion and advice, it appears that to survive any coming apocalypse you need to be in a fortified self-sustaining retreat somewhere out in the boonies, with three years of food in the basement and the ability to grow food plus animals.

Good stuff; you will be really well positioned if that is where you are with your preparations. The reality for many is that they simply do not have that. For whatever reason, they may be in an urban or suburban environment. They may have nowhere else to realistically ‘bug out’ to. They may have a goal to achieve the retreat, but are not there yet, or have bug out land that is fairly basic and requires them to move to it following a collapse.

Let me first say that this post is not so concerned with the kind of short-term natural disaster that would involve you bugging out with little choice — perhaps a wildfire or earthquake or similar. What I am really concerned about here is a collapse of society, the veritable TEOTWAWKI, where it all goes to chaos, the SHTF, and we are all in a big mess surviving together.

For most of us who are not ‘super-preppers’, we will be left to survive where we are, in our suburban homes or whatever applies to you. Now, it is true that some will be better set up than others. Reasons include location, such as inner city, one-bedroom apartment versus big house on several acres in a sub-division. Or amount of preps that you have, food supplies etc.

Everything depends on the situation and the threat that emerges, including your own personal and family situation and preparations. One key thing is not to make assumptions now, but to remain flexible. My advice is not to ‘head for the hills’ by reflex, because unless you have somewhere to go you will be out there with the rest of the refugees in the chaos. If you even have a minimal amount of preparations at home you should shelter in place and make do the best you can. This should be a low-profile shelter in a place where you set yourself up to draw minimum attention to yourself as the waves of chaos pass. You may be sheltering in a basement with your family, for example.

Of course, if the threat changes, then you will need to adapt to it. An organized gang of well-armed marauders going house to house in your neighborhood would be an example of when to make the decision to bug out. Be flexible and don’t go the opposite of the ‘head for the hills’ mentality and die in your basement simply because you did not want to pack up and go. However, I think that it is a given that for anyone sheltering with supplies in this way there will at some point come one or more challenges such as home invasion from outside groups. This will also probably apply to those in rural retreats at some point as the horde fans out looking to survive. Be ready to defend yourself against these challenges as necessary. Think of how it will likely be after the event, not how things are right now. Those in the rural retreats will probably have a rude awakening when they realize that the horde has reached them and the demographics have changed!

I think that there are two main things that you have to achieve, phases if you like, in order to survive in the long term:

1) Have enough stores, firearms, tactical ability and numbers if possible, as well as a covert location in order to survive the event and the initial chaos and disorder. This is a short- to medium-term goal.

2) Long term, you will need to be able to live in a protected sustainable community. All prepper stores will run out in the end, and the only solution to survive and thrive is to be able to produce food and protect your people and your resources.

So, unless you started in a sustainable protected retreat, you will have to survive where you are until such time arrives when you can safely get to one. Remember that in a full TEOTWAWKI scenario there will be mass panic and chaos as people try to find food and survive. There will be a huge population die-off, and there will likely be a delay of a year or two before food can be produced.

You have to survive from the one to the other. Even after the die-off there will still be good and bad guys out there. Good guys probably living in those sustainable retreats or locations, bad guys marauding and living off what they can loot and pillage. There may be other complicating factors, such as civil war or foreign invasion. I use the TV series Jericho as an example of this.

So, if you survived the event and were not already in that ideal retreat, you then have to move. Did you hide and protect your bug out vehicle with a supply of stored gas? Are you going to have to walk, or use other modes of transport? The key thing is that your group will have to make it to somewhere where they can be accepted by a current sustainable community, or move onto land where they can create one. This will involve travel of some sort and also the ability to defend yourselves while moving from point A to B. If it is true TEOTWAWKI, then it could go on for years and you may have to travel to establish a farm somewhere. If you are going to be taken in by a community or small town that is sustaining itself, then you have to show your worth in some way. So, regardless of your level of preparation, it is never too late to learn the skills necessary for a post-collapse world.

http://www.activistpost.com/2012/09/the-post-collapse-realities-of-your.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

September 10, 2012 by: Jon Rappoport

Time and time again, as an investigative reporter, I’ve had the job of informing readers that their most basic assumptions are wrong.
In the medical arena, this is compounded by public acceptance of lies that seem to be absolute science. However, the “science” turns out to be manufactured delusion. The subject of this article is another such case. It flies in the face of massive propaganda that medical authorities have launched to literally brainwash the population.
The flu season is approaching, and of course we will see the Centers for Disease Control urge all parents to act like good little robots and have the whole family jabbed with flu shots.
The usual warnings and predictions will be trumpeted by the CDC and their compliant media.
The one persistent fact that will be shoved across is: every year in the US, 36,000 people die of the flu. We’ve all read and heard that figure, over and over.
It’s a “necessary” statistic for the CDC. They need to promote it. They need to convince the population that seasonal flu is dangerous.
The American people don’t understand that it’s a lie, a grossly manufactured delusion that bears no resemblance to reality.
In December of 2005, the British Medical Journal (online) published a shocking report by Peter Doshi, which spelled out the delusion and created tremors throughout the halls of the CDC.

Here is a quote from Doshi’s report:
“[According to CDC statistics], ‘influenza and pneumonia’ took 62,034 lives in 2001—61,777 of which were attributable to pneumonia and 257 to flu, and in only 18 cases was the flu virus positively identified.”
You see, the CDC had created one category that combined flu and pneumonia deaths. Why did they do this? Because they assumed that the pneumonia deaths were complications stemming from the flu.
This is an absurd assumption. Pneumonia has a number of causes. But even worse, in all the flu and pneumonia deaths, only 18 were traced directly to a flu virus.
Therefore, the CDC could not say, with assurance, that more than 18 people died of the flu in 2001.

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/037129_influenza_death_statistics_CDC