Tradecraft: Top 20 Places to Hide Your Survival Water Stockpile

(SurvivalSullivan) – All preppers should strive to be more like squirrels. Hiding your preps away from view, especially your most vital prep of all…water, is a necessity. Even if you have a big pond and/or a creek that runs through your property, never take the seemingly ample supply of water for granted. A drought or some type of contamination (accidental, environmental, or intentional) could decrease or deplete your pond or creek, and leave your family with no means of quenching their thirst after the SHTF. Collecting rainwater in barrels should…

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Perspectives | Putin’s Reelection Won’t Fix Poverty and Pensions

(EAN) – Russians are growing frustrated with poor healthcare, underfunded schools, and increasing poverty, a recent poll shows. As President Vladimir Putin prepares for his fourth term, he is making promises and boosting pensions. But he has a mixed record delivering enduring social goods. And in the past, benefits like pensions were often reversed soon after the vote. The newspaper Vedomosti highlighted common complaints in a widely shared article last year: “10 unfulfilled promises of Putin and Medvedev.” For example, the number of Russians living in poverty since Putin’s last…

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Pastor’s Reduced Sentence for ‘Sex With Minors’ Cast a Cloud Over International Women’s Day in Jamaica

Jamaica (GV) – Jamaicans celebrated International Women’s Day in style this year, with numerous celebratory events and greetings flooding social media — but online celebrations took a pause around midday, when news broke that a former pastor in the Moravian Church, Rupert Clarke, was sentenced to eight years in prison for two counts of “having sex with a minor”. In November 2017, Clarke pled guilty to having sex with two sisters, who were both under 16 at the time. Netizens expressed their disapproval at what they saw as a very…

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Warning Shots Give a Sense of How Large the Black Market for Pot Remains

California (VOSD) – California pot regulators have stepped up their enforcement efforts. In recent weeks, they sent more than 1,240 cease-and-desist letters to unlicensed operators, according to the state’s Bureau of Cannabis Control, and the number is rising by the day. So far, about 375 of those warning shots have been fired at San Diego-based operators. Image source; Pixabay Across California, about 2,500 entities are permitted to either grow, manufacture, distribute, test or sell marijuana. In San Diego, there are currently 12 licensed dispensaries selling medical and recreational products, nine distributors…

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Cakes, Guns, Discrimination, and Freedom of Association

(Garrison) – In the wake of the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, a number of businesses have moved to distance themselves from scary-looking weapons like the AR-15, from younger purchasers of weapons in general, and from organizations that don’t support laws violating the Second Amendment to the US Constitution. Whether these moves are from sincere conviction or mere concern for bottom lines, they’re provoking backlash. Retailers like Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods face multiple discrimination lawsuits from 18- to 21-year-olds over their corporate decisions to stop…

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There She Goes Again: Clinton’s Blame Game, Mumbai Edition

(Garrison) – It’s  been James Comey. It’s been Them Russians. It’s been Barack Obama. It’s been misogyny. It’s been WikiLeaks. It’s been social media.  Hillary Clinton has tons of reasons why she lost the 2016 presidential election. And, oddly, none of those reasons are herself or her campaign. This week, the excuse is that millions of whipped women just did as they were told. Clinton dropped that one on a conference in Mumbai:  “We do not do well with white men and we don’t do well with married, white women …. …

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A Struggle for Dignity: Women’s Rights in Afghanistan

Afghanistan (GV) – As the #MeToo movement triggered heated debates about sexual harassment around the world, feminists in Afghanistan were largely confined to watching its impact from the sidelines. Gains for women’s rights in the country in recent years have been incremental and accompanied by regular setbacks. As such, an indigenous #MeToo-type moment looks a long way off in a republic where deeply ingrained social conservatism and political power act to reinforce each other. Towards the end of last year, for the first time, three women won seats at the Maidan…

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Trump Nominees’ Troubling History on Torture

(HRW) – In response to President Donald Trump’s nomination of Mike Pompeo to be Secretary of State and Gina Haspel as CIA Director please find the following response from Sarah Margon, Washington Director at Human Rights Watch: “US President Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Mike Pompeo to be Secretary of State and Gina Haspel to succeed him as CIA Director is deeply troubling because of their past endorsements of torture. “During his CIA confirmation hearing on January 12, 2017, Pompeo failed to unequivocally disavow the US government’s use of torture…

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Violence against women crossing the border

(Journalist’s Resource) – Every year, hundreds of thousands attempt to cross the southwestern border into the United States. These migrants, who largely come from Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala, face a journey fraught with violence and danger, especially for women. But those women who attempt to leave their native countries often face certain violence at home. The promise of the migrant trail beckons, even with its perils: Border crossing guides — otherwise known as coyotes — might make their help conditional on sexual favors. Women generally are outnumbered by men…

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US Army Launches Video Game to Help Combat Sexual Harassment

United States (Sputnik) –  The Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) recently launched new training software in support of the US Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) program. The software is designed to help train the US Army’s command teams in how to respond to and prevent sexual harassment and assault in the military. The newly-released software was developed by the ICT alongside the US Army Research Laboratory. It is part of the Emergent Leader Immersive Training Environment Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Command Team Trainer, or ELITE SHARP CTT. It will be used by the…

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