Wednesday, April 12, 2017

MIT Publishes Uplifting ‘Communism for Kids’ Book

Via Billy

 

The prestigious MIT Press has published a book aimed at children titled Communism for Kids that portrays communism in a positive way that brings happiness to everyone.

The publishing house, MIT Press — which is affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology —  normally publishes books in the fields of scientific thought, arts and architecture, philosophy, computer science and other “hard science”, The Washington Times reported. Communism for Kids, however, has become one of its first attempts at children’s publishing.

The book description on Amazon reads, “once upon a time, people yearned to be free of the misery of capitalism. How could their dreams come true? This little book proposes a different kind of communism, one that is true to its ideals and free from authoritarianism.”

“Each attempt [at creating communist utopia] fails, since true communism is not so easy after all. But it’s also not that hard,” the description continued. “At last, the people take everything into their own hands and decide for themselves how to continue. Happy ending? Only the future will tell."

More @ Heat Street

"Who brought you up? Who taught you manners?" Russian FM scolds US journalist for shouting out during Rex Tillerson meeting.

Via Billy


Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov scolded a US reporter after she shouted out a question at Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Lavrov asked the reporter, Who is giving you your manners?”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov scolded a US reporter for shouting out a question just before the start of a protocol meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Moscow, Wednesday.

More with video @ The Gateway Pundit

‘Unmasking’ of Trump aides reveals Susan Rice at center of multifarious controversies

Via Billy

National Security Adviser Susan Rice talks with President Barack Obama before the afternoon plenary session of the Nuclear Security Summit, Friday, April 1, 2016, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) **FILE**

Inside the classical limestone State Department headquarters, America’s diplomats learn statecraft, etiquette and strategy — and generally are discouraged from use of the middle finger as a negotiating tool.

Roughly two decades ago, Susan E. Rice, the youngest assistant secretary of state in history, used hers in a meeting with veteran U.S. diplomat and architect of the 1995 Bosnia peace accords Richard C. Holbrooke. According to various accounts, the dispute was a classic territorial battle between two volatile personalities.

The overachieving Ms. Rice regarded Mr. Holbrooke as a meddling elder. Mr. Holbrooke, then the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, reportedly didn’t flinch at the gesture and dismissed Ms. Rice as an upstart who lacked respect for her colleagues and the institution she served.

As history would have it, Ms. Rice went on to play a Zelig-like role in every Obama administration foreign policy controversy, including Benghazi, the Iran nuclear arms deal, the Bowe Bergdahl-Taliban prisoner trade and the deal to disarm Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal. Now, once again, Ms. Rice finds herself front and center in America’s latest international crisis: allegations that Russia meddled in the presidential election campaign last year and the Obama White House leaked what it knew about the Trump campaign’s ties to the Kremlin.

Trump: Hillary Clinton 'would be going to trial' if Comey wasn't 'very, very good' to her

Via Billy

Image result for Trump: Hillary Clinton 'would be going to trial' if Comey wasn't 'very, very good' to her 

"Don't forget when Jim Comey came out, he saved Hillary Clinton," Trump said. "People don't realize that. He saved her life. Because I call it 'Comey 1.' And I joke about it a little bit. When he was reading those charges, she was guilty of every charge. And then he said she was essentially OK."

NHRA Banned: 2018 Dodge Demon: Most-powerful muscle car ever @ 840/770: 0-60 2.3 & 1/4 9.65 @ 140


Blue Highway ~ He Walked All The Way Home

Re-post

Freedom of the Press #13 Sojourn to Sacramento

 http://outpost-of-freedom.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/wristband-modified.jpg

Introduction

This past Friday, April 7, I returned home from a week long visit the Sacramento County Jail.  I was in jail based upon a Warrant for my arrest for failing to appear at a show cause hearing on March 10.  The Warrant and what led up to it will be the subject of a future article.

I am writing this article to explain a system that, quite frankly, ignores our rights, especially when only accused of a crime.  It will give a little insight into life behind bars, at least those of the Sacramento County Jail.  I can’t say that this compares to the treatment that those currently held in jail in Oregon (Jason Patrick) or Nevada (many still innocent people) are receiving, but, perhaps it will help to understand that they are being treated similarly, or worse.

It will also explain what I have gone through.  Now, when I go to Court in Portland, next month, I will be entering the courtroom on the terms that I had to establish.  Fortunately, though without a plan going in, the final result is that I achieved a bit more than I could have expected, thanks to Judge Anna Brown.

The Arrest

Around noon on March 30, 2017, a nice, sunny, warm day, here in Los Molinos, California, I received a phone call from FBI Special Agent Catalano.  This was the fourth call he had made to me, since back in January when he first provided me a copy from the US Shyster demanding that I cease and desist publishing information obtained from the United States v. Ammon Bundy, et al, discovery evidence.  He began by saying, I am here in Los Molinos with the US Marshals, and I suppose you know what this is about.”  About that time, my wife buzzed me and told me that lunch was ready.

Tolerating the South’s Past

 

The Age of Enlightenment represented the Middle Ages as a Gothic night—an interlude of ignorance and superstition when men were enveloped in a cowl, oblivious to the wonders of knowledge, and concerned only with escape from the miseries of this world and of hell. Voltaire said that Dante was considered a great poet because no one read him, that a Gothic cathedral was a monument to the stupidity of its builders. The humility of holy men and the faith of the Catholic offended the egotism, skepticism, and common sense of the leaders of the Enlightenment.

Confederate Monuments

 

The latest Crusade of the Progressives and other Politically Correct to remove all Confederate monuments from the face of the earth reminds me of a recent article by one Patricia Sullivan from the Washington Post concerning the Confederate statue in Alexandria, Virginia, and the Alexandria City Council’s unanimous vote to relocate it. The article also noted that others spoke with passion about the need for Alexandria to own up to its past. One assumes they were referring to Southern slavery.

No one denies that fact, for which the South is being eternally castigated and is never allowed to forget. What more is there for the South to do? Roll in the dust? Rend her garments? Wear sackcloth and ashes? Sit upon stools of everlasting repentance? Beg forgiveness from the Black Caucus and the New England Pharisees?

Islamic State now controls less than seven percent of Iraq, military says

Via Billy

A member of the Iraqi Federal Police observes IS positions from an area controlled by Iraqi forces in western Mosul on Tuesday 

The Islamic State (IS) group now controls less than seven percent of Iraq, down from the 40 percent it held nearly three years ago, a military spokesman said Tuesday.

Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes and other support are now battling IS inside the second city of Mosul, after retaking much of the other territory the militants had seized.

"Daesh controlled 40 percent of Iraqi land" in 2014, Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told reporters, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

"As of March 31 [this year], they only held 6.8 percent of Iraqi territory," said Rasool, the spokesman of the Joint Operations Command coordinating the anti-militant effort.

Wisconsin manhunt: Police aware suspect may try suicide-by-cop

Via Billy


Wisconsin police told Fox News on Tuesday they were fully aware they could be engaged in a suicide-by-cop showdown if they encounter manhunt suspect Joseph Jakubowski, wanted for stealing guns and mailing a 161-page manifesto to President Trump.

"I'm confident that if that were the case, we are going to do everything we can to keep our community safe and keep our officers safe," Rock County Sheriff Richard Spoden said on "America's News HQ." "We haven't had anyone get hurt and we certainly don't want him to get hurt."

More @ Fox

Trump Refuses To Sign G7 Statement Endorsing Paris Climate Agreement

Via Billy

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 9:  U.S. President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn after returning to the White House in April 9, 2017 in Washington, DC.  (Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)

The U.S. refused to sign onto a statement with other G7 countries to commit to the implementation of the Paris climate agreement, which President Donald Trump promised to withdraw from on the campaign trail.

Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said the U.S. “is in the process of reviewing many of its policies and reserves its position on this issue, which will be communicated at a future date,” Italy’s industry and energy minister Carlo Calenda said in a statement.

Calenda said other G7 members “reaffirmed their commitment towards the implementation of the Paris Agreement to effectively limit the increase in global temperature well below 2°C above pre-industrial level.”

Analysis of 2013 rocket used in Syria chemical attack undercuts U.S. claims

Via Frank

This image provided by Shaam News Network on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013,  has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting. It purports to show bodies of victims of an attack on Ghouta, Syria

A series of revelations about the rocket believed to have delivered poison sarin gas to a Damascus suburb last summer are challenging American intelligence assumptions about that attack and suggest that the case U.S. officials initially made for retaliatory military action was flawed.

A team of security and arms experts, meeting this week in Washington to discuss the matter, has concluded that the range of the rocket that delivered sarin in the largest attack that night was too short for the device to have been fired from the Syrian government positions where the Obama administration insists they originated.

Separately, international weapons experts are puzzling over why the rocket in question – an improvised 330mm to 350mm rocket equipped with a large receptacle on its nose to hold chemicals – reportedly did not appear in the Syrian government’s declaration of its arsenal to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and apparently was not uncovered by OPCW inspectors who believe they’ve destroyed Syria’s ability to deliver a chemical attack.

More @ McClatchy

Former DIA Colonel: “US strikes on Syria based on a lie”

 
“In the coming days the American people will learn that the [US]Intelligence Community knew that Syria did not drop a military chemical weapon on innocent civilians in Idlib.”

Patrick Lang — a former DIA Colonel — does not mince words about the US attacks on Syria. Lang claims that Donald Trump’s decision to launch cruise missile strikes on a Syrian Air Force Base was based on a lie.

Patrick Lang is truly a top expert on the Middle-East. The former DIA Colonel is highly respected for his deep knowledge and absolute honesty.

[NOTE: Many years ago, Lang helped me to understand a very ‘murky’ dossier regarding Libya. I trust his analysis 100%. Last week — knowing full well that ‘the shit was going to hit the fan’ — I asked him permission to reproduce his posts on my blog. Colonel Lang kindly agreed.]

 ANALYSIS by retired Col.  Patrick LANG

Donald Trump’s decision to launch cruise missile strikes on a Syrian Air Force Base was based on a lie.  In the coming days the American people will learn that the Intelligence Community knew that Syria did not drop a military chemical weapon on innocent civilians in Idlib. Here is what happened.

How Algorithms and Authoritarianism Created a Corporate Nightmare at United

My Photo

"I was only following corporate algorithms"

Testimony given at a future war crimes trial (riff on the Nuremberg defense)

United Airlines forcibly removed a man from an "overbooked" flight.  The incident was captured on video by other passengers and the story went viral on the social networks.  United flubbed its response to incident, adding fuel to the anger.  The story went global overnight, sparking massive outrage (hundreds of millions of views in China, an important market for United).  The next day, United stock gets hammered, losing ~$1.4 billion off its stock price by midday.   What happened?

 This incident is a pretty good example of how rigid algorithmic and authoritarian decision making can create corporate disasters in an age dominated by social networking.

Algorithms

Here's how the algorithmic decision making created the incident on United.

Texas judge rules for a second time voter ID discriminates against minorities

Via Billy

Image result for U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos

A federal judge in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Monday ruled for a second time that a state voter ID law was written with the intention of discriminating against minorities, according to a report published Monday evening.

U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos had been asked to re-examine her 2015 conclusion by an appeals court.

Two years ago, Gonzales Ramos had concluded the election rules amount to a "poll tax" that was intended to keep minority voters from turning out. Texas voters are required to present one of seven forms of identification when voting.

Psychologist who helped asylum seekers from being deported is Stockholm victim & Swedish PM: Will Never Go Back To Mass Migration

Via Billy

Maïlys Dereymaeker, 31, was waiting for friends from work when the terrorist struck

A Belgian psychologist and mother-of-one who worked with asylum seekers facing deportation has been named as the latest victim of Friday’s jihadi atrocity in Stockholm.

Maïlys Dereymaeker, 31, was waiting for friends from work on the corner of Drottninggatan and Olof Palmes gata when the terrorist struck.

She was the first victim to be hit by the speeding lorry and died instantly at the scene. 

It took forensic experts two days to identify her mangled body from DNA samples.

More @ Daily Mail

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Judge Napolitano: Trey Gowdy Could Trap Susan Rice Into Misleading Congress and She Could End Up in Jail

Via Billy

 

Judge Napolitano appeared on Fox News to give us his expert opinion on what we may see play out with the Susan Rice unmasking scandal. 

Judge Nap said:
“I think the Trump administration is so furious, they will lay a trap for her and see in she will fall into it.”
“If you are under oath, as you will be, then there’s two potential crimes. Lying under oath and misleading,” he continued. “She has a track record of misleading. Serious, public misleading.”
More with video @ The Gateway Pundit

Trump's border wall will get its start in San Diego County

Via Billy

 Image result for Trump's border wall will get its start in San Diego County

The community is home to one of two border crossings in San Diego and will be the site where 20 chosen bidders will erect prototypes of the envisioned wall. Winners will be selected around June 1, the agency said.

While funding for the massive infrastructure project is still not set, up to 450 companies submitted designs last week. The agency’s bid said roughly 20 companies will be selected to build the prototypes — 30 feet long and up to 30 feet high.

Sessions: Illegal Aliens Who Illegally Re-Enter The U.S. Will Be Charged With a Felony

Via Billy

BREAKING: Sessions Announces Illegal Aliens Who Illegally Re-Enter The U.S. Will Be Charged With a Felony

Speaking from the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Arizona Tuesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced major changes to Justice Department protocol when it comes to charging and prosecuting illegal aliens.

"For those that continue to seek improper and illegal entry into this country, be forewarned:  This is a new era.  This is the Trump era.  The lawlessness, the abdication of the duty to enforce our immigration laws and the catch and release practices of old are over," Sessions said.

Here are the details (bolding is mine):

More @ Townhall

Trump: ‘We’re not going into Syria’ (Subject to change at the drop of a hat)

Via Billy

 Image result for Trump: ‘We’re not going into Syria’

Amid complaints that his aides are saying different things about Syria (For days) and his policy is confusing, President Trump emphatically cleared the air.

“We’re not going into Syria,” he told me yesterday in an exclusive interview. “Our policy is the same — it hasn’t changed. We’re not going into Syria.”

The president, speaking by phone Tuesday, called Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a “butcher” and a “barbarian” for using sarin gas on his own people, but said last week’s successful missile strike was not the start of a campaign to oust the dictator.

Putin Turns Tillerson Away in Moscow

Via Billy


Secretary of State Rex Tillerson flew to Moscow today for meetings with Russian leaders.
President Putin announced before Tillerson landed that he would not meet with the US Secretary of State.

Rex Tillerson had met with Vladimir Putin several times as CEO of Exxon Corporation.

Sean Spicer mocked the ‘Russia conspiracy nuts’ after Putin turned away Tillerson today.