According to a brand new study that was just released by Pew Charitable Trusts, household spending increased by 14 percent between 2004 and 2014, but median household income decreased by 13 percent during that same time period. Both of those figures were adjusted for inflation. What this means is that the cost of living has steadily gone up, but our incomes have gone down.

In fact, approximately one-third of all Americans don’t even make enough money to pay for the basic necessities at this point. The middle class is being squeezed like never before, and very few of our leaders seem to care.

It isn’t because we are buying a lot of luxuries that our expenses are going up. According to Pew, US families are now spending a larger percentage of their budgets on the basics such as housing, food, health care and transportation than they were a decade ago. In fact, it has gotten to the point where approximately one-third of all Americans don’t bring home enough money to cover the core necessities.

A decade ago, US households in the bottom third of the income scale still had an average of $1,500 left over each year after paying for the basic necessities of life. But today, those same households are $2,300 in the red after paying for the basic necessities of life. Perhaps this is one reason why credit card debt in this country has hit a new all-time high.

According to Israel National News, Rafat Alian, the Jerusalem spokesperson of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Fatah party, headed by Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, quoted Ban directly when praising the murder of Israeli border policewoman Hadar Cohen last Wednesday. Cohen, 19, was killed and a fellow officer critically wounded by three Arabs outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate while on duty. The two officers noticed and approached the suspicious-looking trio, who then pulled out weapons, shooting and stabbing the Israelis.

Alian said the “occupation” of the “Palestinian nation” demands a “natural response”, using the exact same words which landed Ban in hot water late last month, when he delivered a speech seeming to condone Palestinian terror, arguing, “It is human nature to react to occupation.” Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon responded in a strongly-worded letter to Ban, demanding he retract his statements. He pointed out the impact of his words, citing Alian’s words.

“Palestinian terror is using your words as justification for its actions,” he wrote. “Your words have created two categories of terror – against Israel and against the rest of the world.” Danon also pointed out that Cohen’s quick actions likely saved many more lives, as the terrorists were later found to be holding explosives in addition to knives and automatic weapons.

“Since when is it the UN’s role to find justifications for terror? Since when does the UN create two categories for terror and victims? I call on you to take back your statements and say clearly that there is no justification for the bloodshed of Israeli victims,” he added.

Earlier this month Ban used the word “occupation” to describe Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem in 1968, when it took over the holy city from its occupier, Jordan. “His use of the word was not planned, nor was it deliberate, it was a spontaneous, personal reaction. We regret the misunderstandings and consequences that this personal expression of solicitude provoked,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

Ban said the word during a visit to refugee camps in Judea and Samaria where Arabs who claim to own eastern Jerusalem reside. Israel then ordered the United Nations to pull out dozens of civilian staffers and close a military liaison office for the UN peacekeeping mission. It said its decision was irreversible.

“Nothing [Ban] said or did in the course of that trip was meant to offend or express hostility toward the Jewish State, which is a valued member of the United Nations,” Dujarric said. Israel has accused Ban of dropping the United Nations’ neutral stance on the Jerusalem dispute. “The position of the United Nations has not changed,” Dujarric said. “He has not and will not take sides on the issue of Jerusalem.”

Two other students reported the plot to school staff, according to a letter to parents from Winterberry Charter School Principal Shanna Mall. No children were harmed. The students and their parents were both spoken to by administrators and school district psychologists. No charges were filed, but the students were suspended.

"It is important for parents to talk with their children about speaking up when they learn of something that could potentially harm others," Anchorage police said in a statement. "We are thankful for the student that said something to a trusted authority when they learned of the potentially harmful situation to another student."

The alliance is asking its European allies to prepare as a deterrence against a possible conflict, even though the preparation itself might be construed as an aggressive posture by the Russians, looking at it from the other side of the fence, that could lead to war. NATO is planning its biggest build-up in eastern Europe since the Cold War to counter what the alliance consider to be a more aggressive Russia.

Thinking about war, leads to talking about war, leads to preparing for war which leads eventually to violence and war, which neither side wants, unless they are crazy or fanatical. Thinking about peace, leads to talking about it, which might not bring about peace, but prepares the ground, hopefully indefinitely, where crazies and fanatics will have a slippery job justifying their war like violent aggression by pointing away from themselves to the big powers and the bigger bullies.

“War is a racket,” Butler famously said, and Wilkerson — who has also turned critical of US imperialist policy — agrees with and admires the esteemed Marine. Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to former secretary of state, Colin Powell, has grown tired of “the corporate interests that we go abroad to slay monsters for.”

Of the profiteering scheme that wars have come to embody, Wilkerson quoted Butler: “Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

Noting Butler’s brief but accurate characterization of what Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex, Wilkerson added that today’s war machine “is more pernicious than Eisenhower ever thought it would be. We now dwarf the Russians or anyone else who sells weapons in the world,” Wilkerson noted. “We are the death merchant of the world.” Now, Wilkerson worried, “We’ve privatized the ultimate public function: war.”

“We are not passive observers, we consistently take all the military measures we consider necessary in order to counterbalance this reinforced presence that is not justified by anything,” Moscow’s permanent representative at the alliance, Aleksandr Grushko, said in an interview with TV channel Russia-24 on Wednesday. “Certainly, we’ll respond totally asymmetrically.”

Grushko did not elaborate on his statement, but said Russia’s actions would correspond to its “understanding of the extent of the military threat, would not be extremely expensive, but it would also be highly effective.” “As of today, assessing as a whole what the US and NATO are doing, the point at issue is a substantial change for the worse in the security situation,” he said.

At the same time, he said that bridges have not been burned between Russia and NATO, leaving the door open for restored cooperation - although he stressed that the alliance should end its policy of confrontation.

“Cooperation will be possible only when NATO countries start realizing that the policy of confrontation contradicts their own national interests,” Grushko said. “There are no technological barriers to this cooperation.

We hope that sooner or later all the ties which we used to have, and which used to be effective, will be re-established and our cooperation will continue.”

The strain responsible, vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1 or cVDPV… is a rare, mutated form of the virus that comes from the vaccine itself. Oral polio vaccines contain a weakened form of the virus that activates an immune response in the body so that it builds up antibodies to protect itself.

But it takes some time for this to happen, and meanwhile the virus replicates in the intestines and can be excreted by the person immunized and can spread to others in the community. The vaccine-virus can circulate for a long time, 12 months or longer, and genetically change into a more virulent form that can paralyze.

What should be particularly alarming – and upsetting – and telling – is that oral polio vaccines were discontinued in the West more than 15 years ago for the very reason that the WHO and other authorities KNEW it was causing vaccine-derived polio paralysis cases!

He recently made an appearance on RT news to share these facts:

“I’ve been a journalist for about 25 years, and I was educated to lie, to betray, and not to tell the truth to the public. But seeing right now within the last months how the German and American media try to bring war to the people in Europe, to bring war to Russia — this is a point of no return and I’m going to stand up and say it is not right what I have done in the past, to manipulate people, to make propaganda against Russia, and it is not right what my colleagues do and have done in the past because they are bribed to betray the people, not only in Germany, all over Europe.”

It’s important to keep in mind that Dr Ulfkotte is not the only person making these claims; multiple reporters have done the same and this kind of truthfulness is something the world needs more of. One (out of many) great examples of a whistleblowing reporter is investigative journalist and former CBC News reporter Sharyl Attkisson. She delivered a hard-hitting TEDx talk showing how fake grassroots movements funded by political, corporate, or other special interests very effectively manipulate and distort media messages.

Another great example is Amber Lyon, a three-time Emmy award winning journalist at CC, who said that they are routinely paid by the US government and foreign governments to selectively report and even distort information on certain events. She has also indicated that the government has editorial control over content.

Ever since Operation Mockingbird, a CIA-based initiative to control mainstream media, more and more people are expressing their concern that what we see in the media is nothing short of brainwashing. This is also evident by blatant lies that continue to spam the TV screen, especially when it comes to topics such as health, food, war (‘terrorism‘), poverty, and more.

The list of lies goes on and on. It’s time to turn off your TV and do your own research if you are curious about what is happening on our planet.

It’s time to wake up.

The registry will include men who have a clear patriarchal heritage from the priestly class (descendants of Aaron), were born and raised in Israel, and have observed the laws of purity incumbent upon priests. This includes not coming into proximity with the dead, so priests, or kohanim, who were born in hospitals, have visited hospitals, or have entered cemeteries are not eligible.

Once the Temple Institute has compiled a list of candidates with verified eligibility, it will begin to train them in the complex preparation of the ashes of the red heifer. The training will take place at the Nezer Hakodesh, an institute established three years ago to educate priests in the details of the Temple service.

The project has implications not just for kohanim, but for anyone interested in taking part in the Temple service. Anyone going up to the Temple needs to be on a high level of ritual purity. Most types of impurity can be removed through immersion in a mikveh (a ritual bath). For ritual impurity imparted through contact or proximity to a dead person, the purification process requires a priest to sprinkle water mixed with the ashes of a red heifer.

Today, after thousands of years without a Temple, all people are considered to be on this level of impurity, making the reinstituting of the red heifer ashes an essential part of the return of the Temple service.

“This is a huge jump for the Temple Institute and a huge leap for the Jewish people. For the first time in 2,000 years, after miraculously returning to the Land of Israel, we are beginning the process of reinstating the Biblical purity of the Jewish priesthood,” Rabbi Richman told JNI. Perhaps its most amazing achievement to date has been the red heifer. After decades of research in how to practically restore the Temple, Temple Institute scholars realized that the first step in the seemingly impossible task was raising a red heifer. Frozen embryos of red angus cattle were implanted in Israeli cattle, introducing the breed to Israel.

Palestinian incitement related to the al-Aqsa mosque has significantly increased in the weeks leading up to Passover, which begins on April 22, in an attempt to raise tensions and cause disturbances and acts of terror. Every year, there is an uptick in Palestinian incitement leading up to the High Holidays and Passover.

This is what happened before last Rosh Hashanah – and this led to violent confrontations at the Temple Mount, followed by an escalation of violence in the West Bank. The videos and messages released in recent weeks point to a gradual resumption of Palestinian incitement, after a time in which it has subsided in recent months. This incitement is calculated to arouse tensions with the goal of reaching a peak next month during Passover.

Hamas issued an official statement titled "al-Aqsa will remain the primary source of inspiration for the young avengers of the Jerusalem intifada". The Hamas statement called for all Palestinians and Israeli Arabs to "rally around the al-Aqsa Mosque and protect it from the mass invasion".

The entire world is watching fascinated as politicians spar with unimaginable verbal – and also physical – violence, making us almost nostalgic of the “politically correct” spirit which once prevailed in the American political debate. Of course, George W Bush’s neo-conservative era had already brought a new language into Washington’s civilized corridors in early 2000. But that time was discreetly obliterated by the great moral victory of having managed to elect a black president to lead the country, a Pyrrhic victory for which Americans are about to pay dearly.

The Americans are breaking through all that has infringed upon their public debate for the past 60 years, and when taboos are lifted, damage is terrible. Now everything seems to be allowed: racism, insults, obscenities, calls for sedition, anti-Semitism, and even – supreme horror – socialism…

In reality, we see that the straightjacket of the American politically correct and bipartisan democracy is no longer enough to stifle the American public debate, but that it still weighs too heavily to let anything but the angriest voices come out. The result is this highly polarized campaign, stirring up hatred between public opinion camps and running great risks for what’s left of the country’s social cohesion…

Hit by falling prices, high costs and cheap Chinese competition, Tata said its financial performance in Britain had worsened sharply in recent months and it would exit as soon as it could. The move could have an impact on Britain's closely fought June 23 vote over whether to stay in the European Union. Britain's anti-EU media have blamed Brussels for preventing London from taking greater steps to protect the industry, although supporters of membership say EU policy is not responsible for the industry's plight.

The British government and the Welsh authorities said they were looking at all options to protect the steel industry, which has already shed thousands of jobs in just the last year. "We are, and have, and continue to look at all options, and I mean all options," Anna Soubry, a minister for business, told BBC radio, adding that she would not rule out the government buying the plants until a new owner could be found.

Tata employs about 15,000 people in Britain at sites including the giant Port Talbot plant in Wales, which is losing around 1 million pounds a day according to the BBC. Steelmakers in Britain pay some of the highest energy costs and green taxes in the world, which, along with cheap Chinese steel imports mean it could be hard to find a buyer.