US Blames Iran for Recent Attacks on Oil Tankers in Gulf of Oman

Thursday saw two oil tankers- one Norwegian, the other Japanese- attacked in the Gulf of Oman. Crew members rescued from the Japanese vessel said, “that the ship was attacked by a flying object”. These fresh attacks come after four vessels were targeted a month ago.

The US have blamed Iran for the attacks, claims the Iranians deny. It is thought the Iranians are seeking to disrupt international shipping in one of the world’s busiest shipping routes. US-Iranain relations have deteriorated recently. The US have sent an aircraft carrier in response to the heightened threat from Iran in the region.

Read More BBC

Google and Other Tech Giants Move Business Out of China

Google and other tech giants are making moves to move their business out of China in order to avoid the 25% tariffs being introduced.

Google is reportedly moving the production of servers and motherboards out of the nation.

Wistron Corp, a Taiwanese firm which produces hardware for tech giants like Facebook and Microsoft are also looking to move operations out of China, and perhaps to the U.S.

Read More: The Daily Caller

Tennessee Detective Gives Sermon Calling for LGBTQ People to be Executed

Tennessee deceptive Grayson Fritts gave a sermon at All Scripture Baptist Church, where he is also a pastor, in which he said law enforcement and local government should make moves to arrest, convict, and “speedily” execute members of the LGBTQ community. He also said that he did not call on members of the church to act violently towards gay people, but that it was the responsibility of the government to act.

Fritts requested a county buyout offer and is currently on a sick leave from his position in law enforcement, and the matter is being investigated.

Read More: Newsmax

HBO’s New Teen Drama “Euphoria” Causing Controversy for Explicit Content

HBOs new teen drama, “Euphoria”,  has caused controversy for it’s explicit sexual content, violence and depiction of extreme drug usage. In one episode there were no fewer than 30 penises on show. In the pilot episode there is the rape of a 17 year old trans girl, and a teen sex scene involving choking. The show is described as  the most unflinching  and explicit take on modern American adolescence to be seen on TV.

The show’s creator Sam Levinson, 34, son of director Barry Levinson, says the show is based on his own experiences growing up and dealing with drug addiction.

HBO has been trying to make a name for itself creating edgy content, that pushes back the barriers. However, for many parents this will be seen as a step too far as Parents Television Council president Tim Winter argues that the series “appears to be overtly, intentionally marketing extremely graphic adult content — sex, violence, profanity and drug use — to teens and preteens.”

Reportedly one actor, Brian “Astro” Bradley, 22, a former X-factor contestant, left during the filming, as he was reportedly unhappy with changes to the script in the pilot, which would see him in an intense sex scene. Furthermore it’s suggested he was unhappy with his character exploring homosexuality in future episodes.

Read More: Hollywood Reporter

Dem Lawmaker Sick of “Sex-Starved” Men Deciding Women’s Issues

During a heated debate on abortion funding Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA) said she was sick of “sex-starved” men voicing opinions on woman’s issues. Torres believes pro-life men should not have a voice in the abortion debate, as it is a solely a women issue. The outburst occurred during a debate on the spending bill relating to Title X funding.

Her remakes caused anger, and she was asked to withdraw them, which she agreed to do.

Read More: Breitbart

Dems Want to Make Gun Makers Liable for Gun Crime

Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday brought legislation to both the House and the Senate which would hold gun manufacturers liable for crimes committed with their products.

The Dems hope to repeal legislation introduced in 2005 which offered protection for the gun industry.

However,  Lawrence Keane, senior vice president of government affairs for the NSSF said,“It’s like blaming Ford or General Motors for the negligent use of their cars,”

Read More: The Daily Caller

Santa Barbara to See Largest Pot Farms in the World

The Santa Rita Hills of Santa Barbara County will soon see the largest cannabis farm in the world.  After heavy lobbying from the marijuana industry the county has opened its doors to big business pot farms.

However, not everyone is happy with the development. Residents and wine producers are concerned about the smell the plants produce. And avocado farmers are concerned they will be held liable if spraying their crops taints near by cannabis crops.

Some also have questions about the way the county has legislated the industry. After the marijuana companies and their lobbying groups won every significant measure the companies wanted. Including tax on the operations being decided on gross revenue instead of licensed square footage. So far revenues have been far less that consultants had predicted.

Read More: LA Times

The working witches of Los Angeles just want you to be your best self

The working witches of Los Angeles just want you to be your best self
Amanda Yates Garcia, also known as “The Oracle,” is a working witch. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

The Oracle of Los Angeles was feeling frazzled.

It was already 2 p.m. and she hadn’t had time to prepare lunch, much less wipe the ash from her altar. A tarot card client had just left her yellow Craftsman house in West Adams, evidenced by the smell of incense still lingering in the air. Within an hour, she was scheduled to meet with another client who was struggling to complete a PhD thesis.

In the meantime, she still had to prepare for her weekly podcast, create a purifying ceremony for a new business–and get her nails done for a reality TV appearance. Any downtime would be consumed with writing. The second draft of her memoir was due to her publisher in a week.

The Oracle, who also goes by Amanda Yates Garcia, is a former arts educator with a master of fine arts in writing, film and critical theory from California Institute of the Arts. For the past eight years she has made her living as a professional witch, performing “energetic healings,” “intuitive empowerment sessions” and the occasional exorcism, while also teaching workshops on the art of magic online and at her home, independent stores, and sites like the J. Paul Getty Museum.

The Oracle understands the value of marketing, so she also devotes several hours each week to outreach: writing newsletters, updating her website and sharing tips on social media on topics such as how to break a curse using the ”disruptive energy of a lunar eclipse.”

“If you think being a witch is just sitting around doing spells all the time, you think wrong,” she says. “Half my business is being on Instagram.”


What do you think of when you hear the word “witch”? Pointy black hats? The Salem witch trials? The free-spirited members of the pagan religion Wicca?

Today’s working witches, whose prominence is growing thanks to social media, primarily see themselves as healers. They help clients who are struggling to cope with life’s hurdles — heartache, aging, misogyny, work stress — and who find that more culturally accepted remedies, such as therapy and meditation, aren’t enough.

They want to help you be your best possible self, or as the Oracle puts it, “My contribution is to … cultivate beauty and love in my clients and help them thrive.”

There’s no official list of job duties for witches, no state licensing board that notes educational or training requirements (which means clients proceed at their own risk). Services run the gamut, from herbal workshops to love spells to communing with spirit guides; some witches charge up to $200 an hour for their time.

Sara Benincasa, a comedian and writer who started seeing the Oracle last August, says the sessions feel like “part therapy, part religious ritual.”

“I would say she’s doing spiritual coaching,” Benincasa says. “You can go to see her the way you might see a rabbi or pastor.”

(Yates Garcia is quick to note that “people should not use magic as a way of avoiding their problems,” adding: “Sometimes clinical help with a therapist, social worker, medical doctor, or financial adviser is really what they need.”)

If you think all this witch-talk is fringe thinking, it isn’t.

A 2017 survey from the Pew Research Center that examined New Age beliefs in America found that 40% of respondents believe in psychics and another 40% believe that inanimate objects like mountains and trees are imbued with spiritual energy.

It also found that 33% of Americans believe in reincarnation, 29% believe in astrology, and 60% say they hold at least one of these New Age beliefs.

Anecdotal evidence seems to indicate the number of people who call themselves witches is growing.

“Interest in witchcraft waxes and wanes, but it is waxing, again, particularly among young women,” says Helen Berger, a professor at Brandeis University who has been studying witches and pagans for 30 years.

At least half a dozen books on witchcraft have been released in the past six months alone. Museums and universities like LACMA, UCLA, UC Berkeley and Smith are inviting witches to lecture and lead workshops on their campuses.

And there are more places than ever to buy crystals, candles, incense and other tools of the witch trade — both online and in stores. Here in Southern California, the magical supply shop House of Intuition opened in Echo Park in 2010. In the last few years it has expanded into a full-fledged chain with storefronts in Pasadena, Long Beach, Santa Monica, Highland Park and West Hollywood.

Instagram has also helped spread the word. Search the hashtag #witchesofinstagram and you’ll find 2.6 million posts including spiritual affirmations, Gothic selfies, and a substantial sprinkling of cats.

“Instagram has been a huge way to make magic and mysticism accessible for everyone,” says Bri Luna, who goes by the name “Hoodwitch” and has 420,000 followers on the social media site. “Old witches try to dismiss it, but the internet has made it possible for black people, brown people and trans people to be part of this community and this movement, too.”

Sabina Magliocco, an anthropologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, says the growing interest in magic and witchcraft is a natural response to a cultural moment in which many people feel marginalized and silenced.

She says a loss of faith in institutions, particularly the government, and organized religion has led large swaths of the population to feel unmoored — like the world no longer makes sense.

“Studies have shown that people turn to magic and ritual in high-risk and high-stress situations,” Magliocco says. “And that describes the world for a lot of people right now. People are flipped out.”


The queer witch, or bruja, who goes by Loba Loca specializes in herbalism and traditional massage. However, much of Loba’s work involves simply talking with clients — “pure counseling.”

Loba Loca
“This is the only way I support myself,” says Loba Loca, whose work is often simply talking with clients. Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times

Loba, who uses the pronouns they/them, grew up in Peru and Chile, and now lives in a first-floor apartment near MacArthur Park with a sprawling garden in front. Inside their dimly lit living room, dozens of jars of dried flowers and leaves are stacked on metal shelves. Some of these go into the scrubs, moisturizers and facial sprays Loba sells on their website.

Loba learned their craft from peers, and on trips to Mexico and South America, talking to family members and healers. They see their work — teaching and supporting mostly queer people of color — as feminist, antimisogynist and political — all things they believe have long been associated with the practice of witchcraft.

“I do a whole workshop on how the people who were burned as so-called witches in Europe were actively participating in dismantling the government,” Loba says.

They try to keep prices low, charging $45 for an hourlong consultation on gardening or sexual health or $150 for traditional bodywork and massage.

“This is the only way I support myself,” Loba says. “When I first started, I was charging basically nothing because I was living in a garage and I didn’t have to pay much rent; but as I’ve grown up and had to spend more money on living, I’ve had to pump up my prices.”


For most of history, “witch” has been associated with malevolence — especially malevolent women. Witches are condemned in the Old Testament. Ancient Norse and Roman laws forbade magic for nefarious purposes.

The rise of Christianity prompted vigorous prohibitions against witchcraft (and many denominations continue to denounce it). Historians estimate that at least 50,000 people were tried and either imprisoned or executed for witchcraft in Western Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. Up to 80% of them were women.

Europeans who colonized the New World brought a fear of witches and witchcraft with them, a fear that culminated in colonial Massachusetts. In a span of about 15 months, starting in February 1692, 15 women and four men were hanged after accusations of witchcraft reached a frenzied pitch in the town of Salem.

Even today, witches can still inspire fear and anger.

“It makes people very nervous, the possibility that witches do have powers,” Berger says. “If witches have the power to heal you, do they also have the power to harm you?”

Top photo: Altar of Amanda Yates Garcia, also known as The Oracle. Bottom photos: Collection of herbs and tinctures from the bruja known as Loba Loca.

In recent years, people who brand themselves as witches have had an easier go of it — especially in Southern California — where they have joined a thriving community of empaths, energy workers and other healers. They’ve also encountered — and been influenced by — people who brought their belief in magic from other regions and cultures around the globe. In some cases this has prompted accusations of cultural appropriation.

In addition to being the targets of skeptics, cynics, atheists and certain religious denominations, people who promote themselves as magical practitioners sometimes attract the attention of law enforcement.

In January, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office released a warning about a blessing scam in which victims, many of them seniors in immigrant communities, were told that a terrible misfortune would befall their family unless a blessing ceremony was performed on their valuables.

One senior put more than $70,000 in cash and jewelry in a bag for a blessing. She was told not to open the bag for two days. When she finally did, all she had was a bag full of newspaper.

“There are always people who might be charlatans,” Berger says, “but in my experience most people who call themselves witches believe they are helping clients, and their clients believe they are being helped. Whether you think it’s ‘real’ or not, there’s nothing wrong with that.”


Aja Daashuur
Aja Daashuur has been a witch for five years. Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times

On a recent Wednesday, the witch and spirit medium Aja Daashuur was preparing her home for a magical workshop that would be attended by 10 women, including her assistant.

The candles were lit. Dozens of long-stemmed pink roses were arranged in a circle in the center of the room. Meditative music played softly in the background. Her final task? Sweep the negative energy out of her 100-year-old A-frame house high in the hills of northeast Los Angeles.

 As she pushed the broom an inch above the wooden floors, she murmured a prayer under her breath:

Only light and love may walk through this door.  

Protect it from negative energy, psychic attacks and lower vibrational energy.  

I ask the sun and the moon, as I am a daughter of both…  

Daashuur is a former musician and celebrity stylist who now earns her living channeling spirits and sharing their insights with her clients.

She calls herself the Spirit Guide Coach.

Over the past two years she has seen private clients several times a week in a small pyramid-shaped space on the grounds of her home. The 75-minute sessions cost $200.

Daashuur and her clients begin with an offering to the spirits — candles, flowers, sage, chocolate — and a meditation. Then, she says, she goes into a light trance and starts to communicate with the spirit guides.

“I kind of picture it like we’re all sitting around an old ’70s kitchen table,” she says. “We have a chat.”


The Oracle of Los Angeles likes to say that magic does not defy the laws of physics.

“It’s not like you wiggle your nose and your life is completely different,” she explains. “We work incrementally. If you want to win a Grammy, but you haven’t written a song yet, we have a lot of work to do.”

The Oracle
Amanda Yates Garcia, known as the Oracle, works with magic as a way to focus energy, not to defy laws of physics. Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times

She tells her clients that magic is a way of taking the stuff we all have swirling around in our minds and getting it out into the material world where we can see it and deal with it.

That might mean writing down a painful memory on a piece of paper and then burning it or throwing a piece of jewelry into the ocean to release the emotions associated with a difficult relationship.

Yates Garcia usually gives her clients “labors” that she expects them to do on their own time.

“If you want to build more confidence, then you will have tasks that you are going to do, like maybe taking a public speaking course,” she says.

This may sound more like practical advice than witchcraft, but Magliocco says that’s how magic traditionally works: “I think when people sneer at ‘magic’ it’s because they don’t understand how people are using it. It works on the parts of you that are nonverbal, that are pre-verbal, that respond to images, smells, metaphors and stories.”

Yates Garcia put it this way: “Magic and ritual is a way of focusing your energy.”

Then she looked at her phone. A client was supposed to arrive in a few minutes. Her memoirs needed work. The Instagram DMs were piling up.

The Oracle of Los Angeles had to get back to work.

Original

Working Witches in Los Angeles

Amanda Yates Garcia also known as the Oracle of LA has an impressive list of clients, including A list celebrities. She earns her living from her craft, and performs public rituals.

Garcia was the daughter of a witch, who has spent her early adulthood in Dance Theatre, before graduating in Writing and Film and Video from Cal Arts. She also spent some time working in the sex industry.

However, as her public rituals became more popular she was able to make a career for herself with her witchcraft.

Read More: LA Times

Pastor Arrested for Preaching Against Homosexuality

Rainbow flags wave in the wind at the Stonewall National Monument outside the Stonewall Inn.
Rainbow flags wave in the wind at the Stonewall National Monument outside the Stonewall Inn. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)

Pastor David Lynn of Christ Forgiveness Ministries was arrested on June 4, 2019, for preaching the gospel publicly in Toronto, Canada. The neighborhood he was preaching in was Church-Wellesley Village. This neighborhood is known to be a place where many of the LGBTQ community in Toronto reside. His ministry is currently on an outdoor preaching tour throughout the 22 districts of Toronto. June 4, happened to be the day they scheduled for that district.

It is not uncommon for someone to think “open-air preaching” and “LGBTQ neighborhood” and immediately jump to thoughts of preachers condemning homosexuals to hell. However, Pastor Lynn’s preaching was some of the most loving and gracious preaching I have ever seen and heard, which is why it is outrageous that he was arrested.

The entire time of preaching was livestreamed via Facebook and can be found on YouTube. Throughout the video, it is surprising to see the reaction of those who were listening to Lynn’s preaching. The more love he poured out, the more hate and resistance he received. As anyone can see if they view the video, Pastor Lynn was respectful and kind throughout all of his time preaching. As he shared the gospel, he also made statements like “We are here to tell you that we hate nobody.” He emphasized God’s love again and again.

He proceeded to ask those protesting him if they would be willing to tolerate him as a Christian. But those listening were unwilling to dialogue, and many asked him to leave the street corner.

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Throughout the encounter, he was very calm and collected, not entering into any disrespectful or condemnatory dialogue.

Canada does have hate-speech laws. However, there is no way Lynn’s preaching could be deemed as hate speech. He stated while preaching, “Everyone is accepted. … and that is what we preach as Christians.”

In order to not make anyone listening feel singled out, he said “Jesus died for the sinner. … Every heterosexual has sin. Every homosexual has sin. Sin is when we violate the laws of God.” He did not target any particular group of people or single out homosexuality.

Though he was very loving throughout the entire encounter, tensions escalated, and people began to form a mob of protest around him. As he tried to walk away from the most adamant protesters, they crowded in on him and would not let him move. Throughout the encounter, as he tried to walk away from them, they pressed in on him and blocked him. At times, they even pressed their bodies against him, which in technicality is assault.

When the police arrived, rather than dealing with those who were assaulting Pastor Lynn, the police blamed him for creating a disturbance of peace. Even upon his request to deal with those who had assaulted him, the police would not listen to him.

Pastor Lynn, preaches on a weekly basis all throughout Toronto with amplification and, according to his statements, he has never been in violation of the law by using amplification. In the video that captured the entirety of the event, the officers told him that he needed to preach without amplification. They said this despite him not being in any violation of the law. He then proceeded to preach without amplification, but not long after, the officers decided to arrest him.

Later that evening, in a statement to the media, he said, “Every community in Toronto should have the same laws, and everyone should be welcome.” He continued, “Everyone should have rights, dignity and respect, just like Christians should as well.”

He clarified that throughout his preaching, he was telling those listening, “God loves you. There is hope for you.” “Whatever community you are, God loves you. Jesus died for you.”

We must understand the importance of this event. It is a gross violation against free speech, and it shows any Christian a precursor of what persecution could look like in the future.

Here in North America, we are in a serious battle for rights that we have taken for granted. There are groups, organizations and individuals that want to make certain types of free speech illegal. Pastor Lynn’s arrest is nothing short of a violation of his right to free speech. He was not inciting anyone to violence, and neither was he being defamatory. He was preaching the gospel. He was preaching that Jesus Christ loves each person and died specifically for them. In spite of this, he received harsh protest which ended in his arrest. This should greatly concern any Christian.

Pastor David Lynn was arrested for a message of love, healing and hope. As Christians we need to take this as a wake-up call. Our rights and liberties are on the brink of being removed in the coming years. Now is the time to have a voice. We cannot afford to remain silent.

The growing trend in North America is that if anyone shares publicly on a topic that is deemed controversial, or that a particular group deems hateful, they must be silenced. What will happen the day that the simple gospel is considered hate speech? That is where things are headed if we as Christians do not take a stand today. We already seen certain people and topics being censored by Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. We cannot be idle. We must stand for liberty. The future of our right to free speech begins today. If we wait to deal with it, it will likely have already been taken away.

Ocasio-Cortez wants to lead the charge for magic mushrooms research

AOC is on a new trip: studying—and potentially legalizing – magic mushrooms and other psychedelic drugs for medicinal use.

“From the opioid crisis to psilocybin’s potential w/ PTSD, it’s well past time we take drug use out of criminal consideration + into medical consideration,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tweeted Saturday. “That begins with research.”

The progressive darling filed legislation Friday to encourage studies of ‘shrooms, ecstasy and other drugs that some believe could treat a range of ailments, from depression to headaches. Psilocybin is often referred to as magic mushrooms.

The measure, an amendment to a spending bill that would fund the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services, would allow federal funds to be spent on such research.

Last month, Denver became the first city in the country to decriminalize psilocybin. Oakland followed suit last week.

Original

‘It’s only a question of time’: California is overdue for a massive earthquake

San Francisco instantly became a hellscape of rubble and ruin 112 years ago today, thanks to a magnitude-7.9 earthquake and subsequent fire that killed thousands of people.

Seismologists have said California is due — and perhaps overdue — for the “big one,” another massive earthquake that would cause significant damage, but just when such a quake would strike is unpredictable.

“There is a 99.9% chance that there will be a damaging quake (magnitude greater than or equal to 6.7) somewhere in California in the next 30 years,” said Peggy Hellweg, a seismologist at the University of California, Berkeley. “We don’t have any idea exactly where and when such a quake can happen.”

John Vidale of the Southern California Earthquake Center, said California’s fears are legitimate.

A “big one” quake of a magnitude-8.0 near the San Andreas Fault would break several hundred miles along the faultline. Even more crippling, would be a smaller magnitude-7.0 placed in the heart of Los Angeles, he said.

“We have no real due date,” Vidale said.

Jen Andrews, a seismologist at the Caltech Seismo Lab, said when the infamous San Andreas fault is broken up into three sections — top, central and lower — it’s clear the section that’s gone the longest amount of time without a big quake is the southern portion.

In fact, the lower section hasn’t seen a large event for about 300 years.

“They don’t happen like clockwork, nor do they happen with the same frequency on different sections of the fault,” Andrews said. “However, the average time between quakes tends to be on the order of 100 to a few hundred years, and in several places it has been about that interval since the last large quake.”

That’s why seismologists talk about the southern part of the state being due, or even overdue, for another big earthquake, she said.

“It’s reasonable for California to be concerned about earthquake hazard and the ‘big one’ as it’s only a question of time. Earthquakes are unpredictable though, so the when and where are very difficult to say and we can only talk in terms of ‘likelihood.”

Andrews concluded: “Anniversaries of big events, as well as smaller felt earthquakes, are great reminders that we should take measures to be prepared for the next one.”

 

Original

Random Events, Free Will, Pre-destiny or Something Darker ?