Activist Post

 Activist Post

Planned Civil Unrest Of America Perfectly On Schedule – Here’s The Shocking Truth - By Bernie Suarez Look around you. People everywhere in America are sure of what they believe; at least for some emotionally sure. For those hooked on TV, Hollywood and mainstream media propaganda they’re getting emotionally charged ideas fed to them every day by politicians, gatekeepers and celebrities constantly telling them what they should be angry about. This constant feeding of information to their brains gives the issues a feeling of authenticity, importance and reality which would not be there otherwise. Millions of Americans have chosen the path of emotion and have taken positions on issues that “feel” good. This, my friends, is mass mind control we are observing in real-time and we’re about to see how dangerous it can get real soon. On the other hand, those basing their beliefs and convictions on things other than emotionally charged celebrity and politician rhetoric, like natural law, self-evident commonly accepted truths, religious or cultural values, convictions and beliefs, they are about to have their convictions, beliefs and values challenged in a historic way. These are the so called truthers, truth seekers, “conspiracy theorists,” the “alt right,” independent thinkers or whatever names you want to use. It also includes people who follow certain religious and cultural beliefs their entire life and live by certain principles not controlled or determined by government. These are the people driven to action by their belief in the principles that are ultimately grounded on truth, freedom and natural law (truthers, critical thinkers, alt-right, etc.), the principles of a higher power above man and government (religions) and the principles of respect for common ancient knowledge and patterns of behavior (culture). These 3 groups as I see it are brought together today only by the unique challenge we face at the hands of the ruling elite who thirst for absolute power over humanity. Back on the other side of the fence we have a growing group which I call the children of the new world order. They are exactly the class of people envisioned by Aldous Huxley (author of book Brave New World). A people with a technocratic vision of the future where we let go all of our previous human traits and values and embrace a (literally) brave new world with new rules, new habits and new expectations from the species. To the children of the new world order everything is subjective, everything is subject to change, everything is debatable, everything said is just another point of view or just another biased “opinion.” In this anti-humanity paradigm nothing is absolute and everything is subject to questioning and ridicule; and all rules, values, traditions and morals are subject to being labeled obsolete at any given moment. Step back and try to see how this broad difference between these two mindsets or paradigms alone have the makings of a very serious and potentially calamitous civil war not only here in America but around the world. At this point all the signs are in place for something very divisive to happen in America and here’s why. One group (those who care about America, family and core traditional American values) doesn’t care about the “feelings” of the other group (Liberal Left), while the other group (the Liberal Left) doesn’t care about the values and principles of the other. The problem is that this country was built on principles and values not feelings. When a segment of society has been mind-controlled into abandoning the founding principles of its very nation, this is the makings of a civil war. Some would argue that for this reason people like George Soros and others like Hillary Clinton and many influential Hollywood celebrities should be charged with treason. The important thing to realize is that those actually protesting do in fact have the right to do so. This is what freedom is all about. Those deliberately spreading lies, propaganda and engineering chaos and division however should be held responsible for their treasonous actions. For the first time in American history a large mass is “activated” and motivated to act against those holding onto core American values, religious beliefs and cultural values. Let that sink in. In many ways we are already at war. How this conflict will end, I believe, is anyone’s guess but if there was ever a time to stand for the core values of natural law, freedom, truth and accountability it is now. If you agree please share this message. Bernie is a revolutionary writer with a background in medicine, psychology, and information technology. He is the author of The Art of Overcoming the New World Order and has written numerous articles over the years about freedom, government corruption and conspiracies, and solutions. Bernie is also the creator of the Truth and Art TV project where he shares articles and videos about issues that raise our consciousness and offer solutions to our current problems. As a musician and artist his efforts are designed to appeal to intellectuals, working class and artists alike and to encourage others to fearlessly and joyfully stand for truth. His goal is to expose government tactics of propaganda fear and deception and to address the psychology of dealing with the rising new world order. He is also a former U.S. Marine who believes it is our duty to stand for and defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. He believes information and awareness is the first step toward being free from the control system which now threatens humanity. He believes love conquers all fear and it is up to each and every one of us to manifest the solutions and the change that you want to see in this world because doing this is what will ensure victory and restoration of the human race and offer hope to future generations.15:45

How This Magician Escaped the Matrix - By Adam Kokesh Street magician Michael Freeman joins Adam Kokesh to rant eloquently about working hard to pull the sleeping masses out of their trance. He also reveals how he stays centered among the noise. Adam Kokesh is a liberty activist and author of FREEDOM. Subscribe to his YouTube channel. Visit his website and support Adam on Patreon.14:18

CDC “Spider” Scientists Attack The CDC, Blow The Lid Off - By Jon Rappoport They write a letter to the CDC chief of staff … And I write a letter to them There is a group of anonymous scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control—they call themselves the Spider Group—Scientists Preserving Integrity, Diligence and Ethics in Research. They have penned a letter to the CDC’s chief of staff, Carmen S. Villar: Here is the explosive accusation they make: “We are a group of scientists at CDC that are very concerned about the current state of ethics at our agency. It appears that our mission is being influenced and shaped by outside parties and rogue interests. It seems that our mission and Congressional intent for our agency is being circumvented by some of our leaders. What concerns us most, is that it is becoming the norm and not the rare exception.” “Some senior management officials at CDC are clearly aware and even condone these behaviors. Others see it and turn the other way. Some staff are intimidated and pressed to do things they know are not right.” “We have representatives from across the agency that witness this unacceptable behavior. It occurs at all levels and in all of our respective units. These questionable and unethical practices threaten to undermine our credibility and reputation as a trusted leader in public health.” I have written at length about another whistleblower at the CDC, William Thompson, a long-time researcher who, in August of 2014, confessed in writing to massive fraud (archive here). He admitted that, in a study on the safety of the MMR vaccine, he and his colleagues literally threw vital sheets of data into a garbage can. The study then gave a free pass to the vaccine, claiming it had no connection to autism—when in fact it did. Thompson is the subject of the film, Vaxxed (trailer). Now with this letter, we see that other scientists at the CDC are blowing the lid off internal corruption at their Agency. If, in fact, President-elect Trump gives the green light for an independent investigation of the CDC, as press outlets are now reporting, and if he appoints Robert Kennedy Jr. to head up that panel, as Kennedy claims, we are going to see a large number of hidden facts emerge from the secretive halls of the CDC. Because this Spider Group is anonymous, I wanted to make sure their letter is real. I contacted reporter Carey Gillam (twitter), who has been covering the story. I received this reply: “I was able to authenticate the letter by contacting CDC’s public affairs office and asking them directly about it after I received it from internal CDC sources.” You can read the full Spider Group’s letter here at US Right To Know. (More on the letter by Carey Gillam here.) And now I write a letter to them, so they can deepen their investigation. Dear Spider Group: I commend you on making an important start. You’re on the right road. As a reporter who has covered the CDC for many years, I offer you three suggestions. This short list is by no means exhaustive. I’m just pointing to a few areas where your own research will yield very rich and fertile results. ONE: SWINE FLU FRAUD. Let me take you back to the late summer of 2009, and the Swine Flu epidemic, which was hyped to the sky by the CDC. The Agency was calling for all Americans to take the Swine Flu vaccine. Remember? The problem was, the CDC was concealing a scandal. At the time, star CBS investigative reporter, Sharyl Attkisson, was working on a Swine Flu story. She discovered that the CDC had secretly stopped counting cases of the illness—while, of course, continuing to warn Americans about its unchecked spread. The CDC’s main job is counting cases and reporting the numbers. What was the Agency up to? Here is an excerpt from my 2014 interview with Sharyl Attkisson: Rappoport: In 2009, you spearheaded coverage of the so-called Swine Flu pandemic. You discovered that, in the summer of 2009, the Centers for Disease Control, ignoring their federal mandate, [secretly] stopped counting Swine Flu cases in America. Yet they continued to stir up fear about the “pandemic,” without having any real measure of its impact. Wasn’t that another investigation of yours that was shut down? Wasn’t there more to find out? Attkisson: The implications of the story were even worse than that. We discovered through our FOI efforts that before the CDC mysteriously stopped counting Swine Flu cases, they had learned that almost none of the cases they had counted as Swine Flu was, in fact, Swine Flu or any sort of flu at all! The interest in the story from one [CBS] executive was very enthusiastic. He said it was “the most original story” he’d seen on the whole Swine Flu epidemic. But others pushed to stop it and, in the end, no broadcast wanted to touch it. We aired numerous stories pumping up the idea of an epidemic, but not the one that would shed original, new light on all the hype. It was fair, accurate, legally approved and a heck of a story. With the CDC keeping the true Swine Flu stats secret, it meant that many in the public took and gave their children an experimental vaccine that may not have been necessary. —end of interview excerpt— It was routine for doctors all over America to send blood samples from patients they’d diagnosed with Swine Flu, or the “most likely” Swine Flu patients, to labs for testing. And overwhelmingly, those samples were coming back with the result: not Swine Flu, not any kind of flu. That was the big secret. That’s what the CDC was hiding. That’s why they stopped reporting Swine Flu case numbers. That’s what Attkisson had discovered. That’s why she was shut down. But it gets even worse. Because about three weeks after Attkisson’s findings were published on the CBS News website, the CDC, obviously in a panic, decided to double down. If one lie is exposed, tell an even bigger one. A much bigger one. Here, from a November 12, 2009, WebMD article is the CDC’s response: “Shockingly, 14 million to 34 million U.S. residents — the CDC’s best guess is 22 million — came down with H1N1 swine flu by Oct. 17 [2009].” (“22 million cases of Swine Flu in US,” by Daniel J. DeNoon). Are your eyeballs popping? They should be. In the summer of 2009, the CDC secretly stops counting Swine Flu cases in America, because the overwhelming percentage of lab tests from likely Swine Flu patients shows no sign of Swine Flu or any other kind of flu. There is no Swine Flu epidemic. Then, the CDC estimates there are 22 MILLION cases of Swine Flu in the US. TWO: THE CDC BUYS MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF VACCINES AND, AT THE SAME TIME, HEADS UP RESEARCH ON THE SAFETY OF VACCINES. EXPLOSIVE STRUCTURAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST. If you wanted to buy a product, and the main source of research on the product was the company selling it, would you automatically assume the product was safe and effective? But you see, that’s the just the beginning of the problem. Suppose the company’s research was cited thousands of times in the press, as the authoritative standard of proof—and anyone who disputed that research was labeled a conspiracy theorist and a quack and a danger to the community and an anti-science lunatic. Would you begin to suspect the company had some awesome media connections? Would you suspect some very powerful people were backing the company? This is exactly the situation that exists at the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Read these two quotes: “The government’s Vaccine for Children Program (a CDC organization) purchases vaccines for about 50 percent of children in the U.S.” (The Atlantic, February 10, 2015) “The CDC currently spends over $4 billion purchasing vaccines [annually] from drug makers…” (Health Impact News, October 24, 2016) However, the CDC is also the gold standard for research on the safety and efficacy of vaccines. It turns out an unending stream of studies on these subjects. And the results of those studies are dutifully reported in the mainstream press. Do you think, under any circumstances, the CDC would publish data showing vaccines are ineffective and dangerous? They’d be cutting their own throats. “Well, we spend $4 billion a year buying vaccines from drug companies, but guess what? These vaccines are often dangerous…” Every time you read about a CDC study on vaccines, keep this obvious (and clearly illegal) conflict of interest in mind. THREE: MASSIVE OVERESTIMATE OF FLU DEATHS IN THE US, IN ORDER TO PUSH THE FLU VACCINE. In December of 2005, the British Medical Journal (online) published a shocking report by Peter Doshi, which created tremors through the halls of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), where “the experts” used to tell the press that 36,000 people in the US die every year from the flu. Here is a quote from Doshi’s report, “Are US flu death figures more PR than science?” (BMJ 2005; 331:1412): “[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.” Boom. You see, the CDC has created one overall category that combines both flu and pneumonia deaths. Why do they do this? Because they disingenuously assume that the pneumonia deaths are 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 revealed the presence of an influenza virus. Therefore, the CDC could not say, with assurance, that more than 18 people died of influenza in 2001. Not 36,000 deaths. 18 deaths. Doshi continued his assessment of published CDC flu-death statistics: “Between 1979 and 2001, [CDC] data show an average of 1348 [flu] deaths per year (range 257 to 3006).” These figures refer to flu separated out from pneumonia. This death toll is obviously far lower than the parroted 36,000 figure. However, when you add the sensible condition that lab tests have to actually find the flu virus in patients, the numbers of flu deaths plummet even further. In other words, it’s all promotion and hype. “Well, uh, we say that 36,000 people die from the flu every year in the US. But actually, it’s closer to 20. However, we can’t admit that, because if we did, we’d be exposing our gigantic psyop. The whole campaign to scare people into getting a flu shot would have about the same effect as warning people to carry iron umbrellas, in case toasters fall out of upper-story windows…and, by the way, we’d be put in prison for fraud.” The CDC must turn out a steady stream of outrageous lies about the need for vaccines. If they didn’t, they’d have no way to justify the billions of dollars they spend every year buying the vaccines from drug companies. So, Spider Group, don’t stop now. Deepen your probe. Become true heroes for honest research, expose the deep roots of corruption in your Agency, and do the right thing for the American people you’re sworn to serve. The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at NoMoreFakeNews.com or OutsideTheRealityMachine.14:06

Los Angeles To Use Drones For Extreme Threats, NOT Public Surveillance, Sheriff Claims - By Nicholas West Since the first known deployment of a domestic drone to aid in police work made headline news in 2011, civil liberties advocates have been warning of the slippery slope upon which we’ve descended. In that North Dakota case, drone surveillance led to the arrest of three suspected cattle thieves; police used the justification of an armed standoff and even a potential bomb threat to call in a Predator B drone. Naturally, once this precedent was established, at least two dozen more drone surveillance flights were documented in the subsequent months. To be sure, the debate about the use of police drones has become more commonplace, but the fact remains that dozens of police forces around the country have either shown interest, or have taken the next stop to prepare the framework for the release of drones on a variety of missions, even including drones equipped with tasers and other “non-lethal” weapons. Of course the “slippery slope theory” can’t be invoked without a slick starting place, which makes the latest news from Los Angeles, California troubling despite some pointed restrictions stated by Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell. During a recent news conference, the sheriff unveiled a $10,000 per-unit unmanned vehicle that he claims is a necessary tool for the most extreme situations that pose a risk to police (see video here). Based upon a specific certificate of authorization with the FAA, parameters will be set, as recounted by Capt. Jack Ewell and reported by the Los Angeles Times, with my emphasis added: Under the agreement, sheriff’s officials have to notify the FAA anytime the drone is airborne, and provide information about where it will be flying and for what purpose, Ewell said. The Sheriff’s Department had to submit a list of tasks the drone would be used for, and that list does not include surveillance, according to Ewell. “The [unmanned aircraft system] will not be used to spy on the public,” McDonnell said, repeating the promise several times. “Our policy forbids using [it] for random surveillance.” However, it turns out that the reassuring statement does not factor into the actual agreement; it is merely a promise made by the police themselves, and not subject to FAA oversight. Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the FAA, said any agreement between his agency and the Sheriff’s Department would not actually govern how police use the device. “We don’t prohibit the type of flight activity that a law enforcement agency conducts,” he said via e-mail. “We do have limitations on the conditions under which a drone can fly.” The general concern over police spying has been addressed vigorously by the Los Angeles public for several years. In 2014, an organization called Stop LAPD Spying Coalition was formed specifically to document their resistance to secret drone surveillance. Late last year, the group condemned the police commission as “an affront to the principles of democracy,” after the commission closed a session to the public and refused to allow comment on police proposals. However, the LAPD has thus far appeared to address the overwhelming concern of citizens by not employing two Draganflyer X6 drones that they already obtained from the Seattle PD in 2014. At the time, the LAPD stated in no uncertain terms that the public must be in agreement with their use: “If we do deploy these, not sure we ever will, it’ll be based on a strict set of written guidelines approved by the police commission,” said Cmdr. Andy Smith. “Absent approval from the police commission and public acceptance, we’re not going to use them. Chief Beck said if it compromises public trust, we won’t use them.” (Source) RFID Scan Blockers – Available for Free (Ad) Public trust indeed had been compromised, as the LA Times also reported, so one has to hope that this is what they have been trying to rectify. In 2012, a single-engine aircraft spent nine days circling Compton, recording low-resolution images of the city. Compton officials were not notified of the surveillance, and when the program came to light in 2014, several residents, including Mayor Aja Brown, expressed dismay. Nevertheless, broken trust is very difficult to repair. It doesn’t appear that the anti-spying coalition has responded yet to the latest announcement of police drone use but, according to their website, they do have meetings scheduled over the next couple of weeks where perhaps this issue will be addressed. In the meantime, it is a reminder to citizens across the United States to engage their local police in order to begin a dialogue about the growth of drone surveillance technology. Raise your concerns and demand the restrictions you deem necessary, now, before those decisions are made for you. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has put together a list of drone questions for your local police department and a convenient method for reporting your findings to the Foundation. Once submitted they can help guide you through the proper channels of government in order to formally protest any plans to use drone surveillance in your area. Nicholas West writes for ActivistPost.com. This article can be freely republished in part or in full with author attribution and source link.11:13

Last Minute Change in Security at Inauguration Reminiscent of JFK in Dealey Plaza - By Aaron Dykes Without explanation and just a week before inauguration, President Obama has suddenly announced he is removing the Major General in charge of the DC National Guard who helped plan and was set to oversee event security that day, effective right in the middle of the ceremony the very minute after Donald Trump is sworn in as president. The termination is unprecedented and out of decorum with such a high state function taking place, raising serious concerns about the vulnerabilities and gaps in security on such an important day. Not saying that anything is going to happen, but it’s hard not to notice and raise questions when the scenario is being made plausible. Aaron & Melissa Dykes are the founders of TruthstreamMedia.com, Subscribe to them on YouTube, Like on Facebook, Follow on Twitter. Watch their mini-documentary Obsolete here.09:31

Artist Creates Fabric That Can Fool Facial Recognition Tech - By Derrick Broze A German artist has revealed a new technology that he hopes will make it easier for individuals to avoid the growing Surveillance State. Adam Harvey is an artist and “technologist” based in Berlin, Germany who is well known for using his artistic prowess to create art and fashion that could potentially disrupt the capability of facial recognition technology. Harvey has been profiled in the past for his elaborate ideas on styling hair and makeup in a way that prevents faces from being recognized by surveillance cameras outfitted with facial recognition software. He is now working on a new project called Hyperface. Harvey is working with international interaction studio Hyphen-Labs and plans to release full details later this month. The Guardian reports: The Hyperface project involves printing patterns on to clothing or textiles, which then appear to have eyes, mouths and other features that a computer can interpret as a face. Speaking at the Chaos Communications Congress hacking conference in Hamburg, Harvey said: ‘As I’ve looked at in an earlier project, you can change the way you appear, but, in camouflage you can think of the figure and the ground relationship. There’s also an opportunity to modify the ‘ground’, the things that appear next to you, around you, and that can also modify the computer vision confidence score.’ According to Harvey, the Hyperface project will work by “overloading an algorithm with what it wants, oversaturating an area with faces to divert the gaze of the computer vision algorithm.” To do this he is working with Hyphen-Labs to create patterns that can be worn or wrapped over an object or person. “It can be used to modify the environment around you, whether it’s someone next to you, whether you’re wearing it, maybe around your head or in a new way,” Harvey told The Guardian. Harvey also discussed how certain researchers are studying facial characteristics and movements in order to identify potential criminals or the age, gender, and mood of a person. Interestingly, Harvey related the attempt to use facial recognition software to study the human species in such a detailed way is reminiscent of the American Eugenics movement of the early 20th century. The Eugenics movement in the United States would go on to be an important inspiration to Adolf Hitler’s philosophy. “A lot of other researchers are looking at how to take that very small data and turn it into insights that can be used for marketing,” Harvey said. “What all this reminds me of is Francis Galton and eugenics. The real criminal, in these cases, are people who are perpetrating this idea, not the people who are being looked at.” Harvey’s last project focused on hair and makeup to deflect the watchful eyes of Big Brother and Sister. The belief was that the odd patterns and colors would work in the same fashion Harvey hopes his new cloth patterns will. Harvey’s website CV Dazzle explained the process: OpenCV is one of the most widely used face detectors. This algorithm performs best for frontal face imagery and excels at computational speed. It’s ideal for real-time face detection and is used widely in mobile phone apps, web apps, robotics, and for scientific research.  OpenCV is based on the the Viola-Jones algorithm. This video shows the process used by the Viola Jones algorithm, a cascading set of features that scans across an image at increasing sizes. By understanding how the algorithm detects a face, the process of designing an “anti-face” becomes more intuitive. Derrick Broze is an investigative journalist and liberty activist. He is the Lead Investigative Reporter for ActivistPost.com and the founder of the TheConsciousResistance.com. Follow him on Twitter. Derrick is the author of three books: The Conscious Resistance: Reflections on Anarchy and Spirituality and Finding Freedom in an Age of Confusion, Vol. 1 and Finding Freedom in an Age of Confusion, Vol. 2 Derrick is available for interviews. Please contact Derrick@activistpost.com This article may be freely reposted in part or in full with author attribution and source link. Image Credit: Kaspersky14 Jan

After Leaking Radiation In New York For DECADES, Indian Point “Ticking Time Bomb” to Finally Close - By Claire Bernish Buchanan, NY — Intensely controversial Indian Point nuclear power plant will completely cease operations by 2021, but the move to shutter operations on the facility — located just 25 miles north of New York City — has itself stirred contention. Legal and environmental battles have raged for years over Indian Point, which supplies nearly one-third of the energy generation for the metropolis and has — in recent times, at least, officially — one of the best track records of any nuclear plant in the U.S. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has for years fought to shut down Indian Point — which he has called a “ticking time bomb” — both for its proximity to a sprawling urban populace and for the plant’s disputable safety record. Announcing the coming closure, Cuomo stated this week, For 15 years, I have been deeply concerned by the continuing safety violations at Indian Point, especially given its location in the largest and most densely populated metropolitan region in the country. I am proud to have secured this agreement with Entergy to responsibly close the facility 14 years ahead of schedule to protect the safety of all New Yorkers. This administration has been aggressively pursuing and incentivizing the development of clean, reliable energy, and the state is fully prepared to replace the power generated by the plant at a negligible cost to ratepayers. Wind power will be the governor’s primary focus, but that sufficient clean energy infrastructure to replace the two gigawatts of power produced at Indian Point isn’t yet in place has brought the eminent shuttering of the nuclear facility into question by both the industry and, surprisingly, even some environmental advocates. Entergy, which operates Indian Point, will now be able to renew expired licenses to keep the plant functioning until the two remaining reactors — the original Unit 1 ceased operation in 1974 — go offline for good. Indian Point Unit 2 is slated to shut down as early as April 2020 and Unit 3, April 2021 — but Entergy plans to seek license renewals through 2024 and 2025, respectively, in case the electrical grid operator feels the system can’t handle the loss that soon. In a press release concerning its agreement to shutter the facility, Entergy stated: The two operating units at the Indian Point Energy Center will close in 2020-2021 after powering New York for more than four decades with clean, safe, and reliable electricity. The early and orderly shutdown is part of a settlement under which New York State has agreed to drop legal challenges and support renewal of the operating licenses for Indian Point, located in the Village of Buchanan in northern Westchester County. The shutdown will complete Entergy’s exit from its merchant power business because of sustained low wholesale energy prices. Indian Point, despite claims the plant has one of the best operating records in the U.S., has had its share of mishaps and close calls — rattling the nerves of residents nearby and in the New York metroplex. In early February 2016, a spike in radioactivity in three monitoring wells — one measuring 65,000 percent above normal — induced a small panic, as Cuomo released a statement asserting, “radioactive tritium-contaminated water leaked into groundwater.” Then, the following month, Unit 3 shut down because of excessive bird poop — seriously. In 2015, the plant stopped operations after a balloon became entangled in electrical wires. Though both shutdowns occurred precisely as designed, for area residents, in particular, they evince the tenuous nature of nuclear power. But the spike in radioactivity in the wells and the seemingly humorous nature of those shutdowns add to, as Anti-Media reported, a list of many issues over the years — in 1979, alone, there were 14 ‘incidents’ at Indian Point 2, and nine at Indian Point 3. But even cursory research reveals numerous leaks at the plant, including a ‘serious’ 100,000 gallon leak in 1980, an 8,000 gallon leak in 1981, and a leak of an unspecified amount in 1995. Tritium-and nickel-63-tainted water leached into the groundwater supply in 2006. In 1982, Indian Point was the target of the first hearing in history by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to determine whether a nuclear plant should simply be closed down due to its safety record. On the banks of the Hudson River in Buchanan, Indian Point Unit 1 was the first nuclear plant designated for civilian use upon construction in 1962 — but that location, itself, has stoked fears in the past few years. While not as storied as the notorious San Andreas fault in California, the long-dormant Ramapo Fault Zone — comprising the region where the plant is located — has begun to stir once again, earning the attention of geologists and scientists concerned for New York City and the proximity of Indian Point. “A study by a group of prominent seismologists suggests that a pattern of active but subtle faults makes the risk of earthquakes to the New York City area substantially greater than formerly believed,” Columbia University’s Earth Institute found in 2008. “Among other things, they say the controversial Indian Point nuclear power plants, 24 miles north of the city, sit astride the previously unidentified intersection of two active seismic zones.” Then in 2011, the NRC studied and rated the nation’s nuclear plants on the potential for core damage in relation to seismic risk — Indian Point Unit 3 landed conspicuously at the top, its risk having risen 72 percent over previous evaluations. “The chance of an earthquake causing core damage at Indian Point 3 is estimated at 1 in 10,000 each year,” investigative reporter Bill Dedman explained. “Under NRC guidelines, that’s right on the verge of requiring ‘immediate concern requiring adequate protection’ of the public … The odds take into consideration two main factors: the chance for serious quake, and the strength of design of the plant.” Victor Gilinsky — an energy consultant and former member of the NRC — penned an op-ed for the New York Times in December 2011, with the telling title, “Indian Point: The Next Fukushima?” which stated, A severe accident at Indian Point, whose two reactors [that remain in operation] opened in 1974 and 1976, is a remote but real possibility. We’ve had two severe accidents with large releases of radioactivity in the past. The Chernobyl accident was dismissed by Western countries on the grounds that it was the product of Soviet sloppiness and ‘couldn’t happen here.’ But the Fukushima accident involved reactors built to American designs. “The essential characteristic of this technology is that the reactor’s uranium fuel — about 100 tons in a typical plant — melts quickly without cooling water. The containment structures surrounding the reactors — even the formidable-looking domes at Indian Point — were not designed to hold melted fuel because safety regulators 40 years ago considered a meltdown impossible. “They were wrong, and now we know that radioactive material in the melted fuel can escape and contaminate a very large area for decades or more. It doesn’t make sense to allow such a threat to persist a half-hour’s drive from our nation’s largest city.” Now, fortunately for millions in what would be the fallout zone if catastrophe struck, Indian Point nuclear plant has a shut down date in sight. However, closing a nuclear facility is anything but instantaneous — decommissioning can take years, and involves the delicate task of dismantling reactors’ cores, removing spent fuel, storage, and then transporting to a designated safe containment cask. Material from the unit shuttered in 1974 remains on the premises to this day. Entergy stated it would assist the nearly 1,000 full-time Indian Point workers in finding gainful employment. Around 190 will stay after the final shutdown to assist in the decommissioning process. Claire Bernish writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared.14 Jan

5 Signs Something Might Be Going Down On Inauguration Day -