Another one of our thousand cuts that needs to go away. Yesterday.
[WSJ] SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands‐This U.S. territory in the western Pacific is known for its epic World War II battle, white-sand beaches and the enduring culture of its indigenous Chamorro people.
But for a certain class of Chinese parents, Saipan has become known as the latest hot spot for birth tourism, a place where women can give birth to babies who will automatically acquire U.S. citizenship.
The Northern Marianas, an island chain that includes Saipan, is the only U.S. soil that Chinese can visit without a visa, after a change in immigration policy in 2009 allowed Chinese and Russian tourists visa-free entry for up to 45 days.
"It’s just like if God opened a window for you," said a Chinese father who works as a translator here after coming a few years ago to ensure his child would be born American.
The Northern Marianas pressed for the visa waiver to support an economy reliant on tourism, notably to Saipan’s casinos and gambling parlors. The number of Chinese visitors has risen substantially since 2009 and now represents 36% of tourists to the island, which is four to five hours’ flight from Shanghai and Guangzhou. Tourism accounts for 72% of Saipan’s economy.
The number of American babies born here to Chinese women who entered as tourists also climbed‐to 472 last year from eight in 2009‐according to the Northern Marianas government. Last year, for the first time, more Chinese tourists gave birth here than Americans.
"As long as you have birthright citizenship, it’s true this is something that can be exploited," said Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute. "This is the first I’ve heard of Saipan," she said. "That’s actually quite clever."
U.S. authorities don’t have a tally of how many people come to the U.S. each year to gain birthright citizenship. An association of Chinese birth-tour operators estimated that 10,000 Chinese birth tourists came to the U.S. in 2012.
Chinese travel businesses offer competing packages to help Chinese mothers reach U.S. soil and provide them with lodging, hospital care and domestic help.
There is nothing illegal about birth tourism, provided the visitor has the funds to pay for required medical procedures and doesn’t intend to overstay, said Jaime Ruiz, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
In 2015, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided nearly 40 locations tied to birth-tourism operations in Southern California, the search warrants cited suspected visa fraud, tax evasion and harboring illegal immigrants, among other charges. The related cases are ongoing, ICE said.
The translator in Saipan said immigration enforcement on the U.S. mainland had led more Chinese parents to consider Saipan. While birth-tourism packages to Los Angeles included guidance on how to qualify for a tourist visa, Chinese travelers to Saipan needn’t clear that hurdle.
American obstetrician Claire Grove said that when she came to work at a clinic on Saipan last year, she was surprised at how many Chinese women had come to the island to give birth.
She soon had a unique perspective on birth tourism.
Dr. Grove learned that Sen Sun, a translator, was running a business to help Chinese mothers deliver on Saipan. Concerned about what she believed to be Mr. Sun’s exploitation of illegal Chinese workers, Dr. Grove went to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
As a result of an FBI probe, the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Northern Marianas prosecuted Mr. Sun, leading to his Dec. 8 guilty plea of harboring illegal aliens in relation to his hiring of Chinese maids to care for birth tourists.
"They feel trapped without U.S. citizenship," Dr. Grove said of the maids. "They have no means to complain about not being paid or anything."
In his plea deal, Mr. Sun said he operated "an unregistered and therefore illegal business operation arranging travel, medical, and other services to pregnant foreign citizens," in which he charged women more than $15,000 each, before hospital bills. Sentencing is set for March.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the case against Mr. Sun, whose lawyer declined to comment on the case and on Dr. Grove’s accusation that Mr. Sun exploited his staff.
In China, websites advertising birth-tourism packages abound, with names such as GlobalBaby8.com, promising luxurious birth vacations to Saipan. The Chinese translator whose wife gave birth on Saipan said total costs can exceed $50,000.
"Everyone is feeling unsafe in China," the father said, citing among other things the political crackdown under President Xi Jinping. "We will do anything for our kids." The father still lives on Saipan with his wife and children, and fears they will be deported.
Recently in the obstetrics unit at Saipan’s main hospital, a pregnant Chinese woman walked down a hall in a hospital gown and pink slippers, trailed by her translator, past a painting of Chamorro warriors dueling in loincloths.
Doctors and administrators said the surge in the number of Chinese mothers is overwhelming health facilities. "It’s a strain for the community," said Esther Muna, CEO of government health provider Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation, which runs the hospital.
Ms. Muna said Chinese women in late stages of pregnancy presented difficulties when doctors didn’t know their medical history. In October, a Chinese mother died in childbirth on the island.
Saipan is leaving it to federal authorities to chase down immigration violators. The Justice Department in April said it was cracking down on immigration violations in the Northern Marianas, after the conviction of a Taiwan national for harboring a Chinese birth tourist who had overstayed.
"Federal and local authorities should know where birth tourists are being housed and should be able to identify overstayers," said Gregorio Sablan, the Northern Marianas’ congressional representative. "Cutting off visa-free travel to the Marianas for hundreds of thousands of visitors from China in order to prevent a few hundred birth tourists makes no sense from a business point of view."
#1
Guess where their loyalties will be when they grow up and are given jobs in our industry and government? The bigger question. By then will there be anything left to steal?
Ah. Another President Barack Obama initiative. Was this another phone&pen jobbie that Prsident Trump can as simply reverse, or was this something that Democratic congress did betweenh sessions devising the ACA?
#3
Guess where their loyalties will be when they grow up and are given jobs in our industry and government? The bigger question. By then will there be anything left to steal?
Taking the long view, nothing like an endless supply of Chinese resident agents with US citizenship and Passports.
Soetoro and team were really thinking ahead on this one.
It's a great time to be studying to be pilot. Just ask Madison Wolf who has only a year of training left at the Metro State University of Denver.
"I've seen even just in the few years that I've been at it they've been offering more and more money," Wolf said. "They're just trying to get as many people as they can."
That's because a shortage of pilots is already hitting some sectors of the industry, mostly small regional airlines and ultra-low cost carriers.
Aviation analyst Mike Boyd says the major airlines are only just beginning to feel the pinch.
"There are restrictions, if you will, on how many pilots there are but it hasn't really hit home yet," Boyd said. "The real hit's going to be in the next three to five years."
The Boeing Pilot Outlook predicts a need for 117,000 new pilots between 2017 and 2036 in North America alone. Worldwide, the demand for new pilots will be an astounding 637,000 during the same period.
"I see the pilot shortage myself," Wolf said. "We're so short on instructors sometimes. Every few months the regional airlines kind of come through and sweep out all the qualified instructors." Sounds like we're eating our seed corn. The aviation schools need to compensate the instructors better than whatever the airlines might offer. Students will pay more because the goal will still be worth it.
MSU's Kevin Kuhlmann, associate chair of the Aviation and Aerospace Science Department, said airlines are going to aviation schools for new hires because they have few other choices.
"The regional carriers have started to enter into agreements with Collegiate Aviation Programs and entice students to come on board during their academic career," Kuhlmann said. "These kind of opportunities were not available five or more years ago."
Kuhlmann said the major airlines have plans to do the same ‐ recruit directly from universities instead of hiring from regional airlines or the military, both of which are trying to keep their own pilots from leaving.
Scott Frank just graduated from MSU and has already been tapped for an opportunity with a major airline.
"I do have the United internship that's due to start in the spring. I can pretty much skip that regional area and just go straight to United," he said.
Many, like Boyd, blame Washington for the dearth of qualified pilots. They cite the 2009 crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 near Buffalo, which the National Transportation Safety Board blamed, in part, on pilot error.
Congress then upped the flying hours pilots needed to qualify to fly commercially from 250 to 1,500.
"That sounds good," Boyd admits. "Politicians love it and they get all upset if you try to change it. But the fact is that wouldn't have prevented that crash because both the pilots (on the Colgan flight) had more than that."
The Air Line Pilots Association, International says the 1,500-hour rule must stay.
"We shouldn't be addressing a safety regulation to mitigate a commercial market problem," according to the association’s president, Capt. Tim Canoll.
ALPA also denies there is a shortage of qualified pilots to begin with, citing Federal Aviation Administration statistics that show 9,520 new pilots received their Airline Transport Certificates in 2016, qualifying them to fly large aircrafts used by major airlines.
The union compares that number to another from Future & Active Pilot Advisors, which shows the major airlines hired only 4,113 new pilots in 2016.
"There are twice as many pilots as there are jobs," Canoll said. "Those having trouble attracting that pilot to the job are the ones who aren't providing a living wage, a good work-life balance, a career progression and a good balance in benefits."
#1
So, American workers are winning while corporations have to pay more.
Tell me why they aren't importing H1Bs for this like they do every technical position? A vast influx of poorly qualified immigrants will be the solution to this problem, as it is to all labor problems.
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 ||
12/21/2017 9:57 Comments ||
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#2
and which countries do you want the H1B pilots to come from?
"Allahu Akhbar!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2017 10:36 Comments ||
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#4
As I recall, commercial pilots are FORCED to retire at age 60, no matter how fit they are. Extending this by even a few years would help alleviate the shortage.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/21/2017 11:13 Comments ||
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#5
Seems the over-60 folks would have the most experience and would be the best to pass it to the next generation of pilots.
#6
Both time and landing space are finite not including fudges like good weather. You'd think that someone would have calculated the 'safe' maximum you can staff to fit those limitations.
The Boeing Pilot Outlook predicts a need for 117,000 new pilots between 2017 and 2036 in North America alone.
Not anticipating any disruption for the next civil war.
[FOXNEWS] A spate of a sea lion attacks prompted authorities to close part of the Socialist paradise of San Francisco ...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964... Bay to swimmers this week.
The Telegraph reports that three swimmers were attacked by sea lions in the space of a week around the same area in San Francisco Bay. The attacks prompted officials to close the Aquatic Park Cove, a popular spot for swimming near Fisherman’s Wharf, last week. The Cove re-opened on Wednesday.
Aquatic Park Cove is part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, which is run by the National Park Service.
The attacks prompted the closure of Aquatic Park Cove to swimmers on Dec. 15. The Cove was initially scheduled to re-open on Monday Dec. 18. However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... on Monday, officials announced that the site would be closed to swimmers until Wednesday.
On Thursday Dec. 14, San Francisco Fire Department reported that a swimmer was bitten on the arm by a sea lion in the waters off Aquatic Park Cove.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
On Thursday Dec. 14, San Francisco Fire Department reported that a swimmer was bitten on the arm by a sea lion in the waters off Aquatic Park Cove.
Could it have been the result of an unwanted advance ?
#2
Water is a little cold for swimming. Temperatures vary from about 50 F in January to about 61 F in September. Maybe the sea lions thought that the swimmers were polar bears. [Sorry. I will go to my room now]
Posted by: S. Sleater9697 ||
12/21/2017 9:42 Comments ||
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[USNI.ORG] Long forgotten flags captured by U.S. forces during an obscure 19th-century military action in Korea were uncovered during restoration work at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis last week. The well-preserved flags were rediscovered in the academy’s Mahan Hall when British ensigns seized as trophies during the War of 1812 were removed from their display cases.
When the display cases were opened for the first time since 1920, staff from the Naval Academy Museum found several dozen flags hidden behind the framework including the Korean standards that are still vivid.
Museum officials told USNI News the flags probably were stashed behind other trophies on display because there was a shortage of storage space. Over the years the location of the flags faded from memory. Current museum staff suspected the flags may be somewhere on the academy yard because they were listed in documents but no one was certain where they were.
The flags had been taken during a U.S.-Korean conflict linked to North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un according to Pyongyang.
In 1866, the American merchant ship USS General Sherman sailed to Pyongyang in attempt to open Korea for trade. The Koreans suspected that the true mission of the General Sherman was to loot their temples so they set the ship on fire and massacred the crew. The incident is still celebrated in North Korea as a strike against American imperialism with the claim that Kim Ung-u, a direct ancestor of Kim Jong Un, planned and led the attack though there is no historical evidence of his involvement.
In 1871, a U.S. expedition of five warships approached the Korean coast to establish diplomatic relations and inquire about the fate of the General Sherman. After the Koreans fired on the ships, the Americans launched an assault in which U.S Marines captured several coastal forts and removed the flags.
The trophies were sent to Annapolis in accordance to an order issued by President James K. Polk in 1849 stating that all enemy flags, standards, and colors were taken by the Navy be deposited at the academy. They were listed with their provenance along with other flags taken from actions against Great Britain, Mexico, the Confederacy and even pirates in the Catalogue of the Flags in the Naval Institute Hall, U.S. Naval Academy published in 1888.
The collection of flags was first placed into storage in 1901 when the Naval Institute Hall was demolished. A major preservation effort took place in 1911 to save many of the flags in that were starting to deteriorate. They were then placed on the ceiling of the auditorium in Mahan Hall before it was decided that they needed to be moved into cases to better protect them. Photographs of the Korean flags on display appear in a 1913 catalog that was updated to include the trophies taken during the 1898 Spanish-American War. Plans to construct more cases to keep all the flags on exhibit never came to fruition, resulting in many flags like the Korean standards being pushed to the back of cases and covered as other flags were put on permanent display.
In the years that followed, all but one of the Korean flags were forgotten. The approximately 15-foot square flag belonging to General Uh Je-yeon who was killed during the 1871 conflict remained on display at the academy until 2007 when it was sent to Seoul on long-term loan at the request of South Korean officials.
Prior to the loan arrangement, U.S. Senator Wayne Allard had proposed trading the general’s flag for USS Pueblo that had been captured by North Korea in 1968 and exhibited near the site of General Sherman incident. The State Department rejected the proposal as being unworkable due to the many complications pertaining to U.S.-North Korean relations. Additionally, the government still maintains that the Pueblo is illegally seized U.S. property and should be returned without barter.
All the flags found in the display cases at the Naval Academy have been removed and are awaiting preservation. The only flags now missing from those listed in the 1888 catalog are the standards captured during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) which were returned to Mexico as a goodwill gesture during the Truman administration.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
12/21/2017 09:27 ||
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#1
...Um, yeah, no.
In Best Korea, everything up to and including the Creation Itself is linked to the Kims.
Give 'em back to the ROK.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/21/2017 19:38 Comments ||
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[Blue Lives Matter] Columbia, SC - A Columbia police officer was recorded fighting a suspect who was much larger than her, and had just assaulted a female and threatened others with a knife.
The incident happened at around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the BP S-Mart in the 1000 block of Elmwood Avenue, according to The State.
Donald Songster Brown, 39, punched a female in the face and threatened people with a knife while not allowing them to leave the store.
Brown then left the store and was confronted by a lone police officer.
At the start of the video, Brown ignored the officer's commands, and she responded by deploying her Taser. The Taser failed, and Brown tried to walk away.
The officer wasn't about to let him get away, and she charged after him, grabbed him by the back of his neck and tried to take him down. Brown was able to slip his jacket and escape the officer's grip. Good Samaritan black fellow comes to the officer's rescue as gutless white onlookers do nothing.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] New distressing reports have emerged regarding the violence against a child bride in Afghanistan sending shocking across the country as violence against women remain a critical issue in various remote parts of Afghanistan.
The child bride, Gul Hazar, who is now believed to be only 12-years-old now has disclosed the miseries she has faced since she got married.
Gul Hazar says she has faced various types of tortures from her in-laws family members who have on certain occassions attempted to murder her.
According to Gul Hazar, she was sent to the mountains by her father-in-law to collect fire wood and in return she was receiving the remaining foods of the dog of the family.
She disclosed the miseries she faced after she was brought to Feroz Koh city, the placid provincial capital of Ghor province.
The signs of brutal torture can clearly be seen on the body parts of Gul Hazar including her hands with her close relatives saying up to 150 torture signs can be seen on her body.
A relative of the child Sakhidad says the in-laws of Gul Hazar have even tortured the girl sexually and on some occassions the father-in-law and mother-in-law of the girl have inserted sticks in her vagina.
The doctors in Feroz Koh city have confirmed the girl has suffered tremendously from tortures which cannot be described in words.
In the meantime, the security officials in Ghor province are saying that the husband, father-in-law, and mtoher-in-law of the girl have been tossed in the calaboose Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! The acting police chief of Dolina district Bismiallah Sediqi confirmed that the in-laws of the child have been arested an investigation is underway from the detainees who have been shifted to Feroz Koh city.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2017 00:00 ||
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You've got to applaud this young Gul from Ghor province, who stood up and ultimately got her husband and in-laws imprisoned for torture.
[AlAhram] Italian oil and gas company Eni said on Wednesday that it had begun producing gas from Egypt's giant offshore gas field Zohr, the Mediterranean's largest ever gas discovery.
The mammoth gas field began production in record time, less than two-and-a-half years since its discovery in 2015, with potential gas reserves of 850bn m3, the company said on its website.
Once Zohr has reached full production, it will transform Egypt from a net importer to a net exporter of natural gas, helping the country achieve its aim of becoming a regional energy hub.
Experimental production from Zohr began last Saturday at an initial 350 million cubic feet per day (mcf/d), with gas transported from the field to the refinery in Port Said.
Zohr is a deepwater offshore gas field located in the 3,752km² Shorouk block in the Mediterranean Sea, 150km from the north coast of Egypt. It was discovered by Eni in August 2015. In February of the following year, the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) granted Eni approval for the Zohr Development Lease.
In February 2017, BP acquired a 10 percent stake in Zohr from Eni subisidary IEOC Production for $375 million. Eni now holds a 60 percent stake in the Shorouk offshore concession, BP 10 percent, and Rosneft 30 percent, an acquisition the latter signed in October.
Zohr is being developed and operated by Belayim Petroleum Company (Petrobel), a joint venture between Eni subsidiary IEOC and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC).
The first phase of the project is set to be completed by mid-2018, by which time production will have gradually increased to 1 bcf/d. It is set to reach 2.7 bcf/d by the end of 2019.
Investments in the field are estimated to be at least $12 billion in the first and second stages, petroleum ministry spokesperson Hamdy Abdel-Aziz told Ahram Online.
[All Africa] The country's porous borders, the national electricity grid and a commitment to open Zimbabwe to investors is what President Emmerson Mnangagwa has so far tackled in his maiden State of the Nation address.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2017 00:00 ||
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SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean guards fired warning shots across the heavily militarized border with North Korea on Thursday as a soldier from the North defected, officials said, complicating efforts to ease tensions over the Pyongyang’s weapons programs.
A South Korean defense ministry official said up to 20 warning shots were fired at North Korean troops who approached too closely to the "military demarcation line", apparently in search of the missing soldier.
Thursday’s defection came about five weeks after another North Korean soldier suffered critical gunshot wounds during a defection dash across the border on Nov. 13.
[IsraelTimes] Some of the 7,000 hackers trained by Pyongyang pose as beautiful women on Facebook, strike online conversations and then send malicious ransomware files.
The messages are alluring, the pictures are attractive. But the women seeking to beguile South Korean Bitcoin executives could actually be hackers from Pyongyang in disguise, experts warn.
In the face of sanctions over its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programs, the cash-strapped North is deploying an army of well-trained hackers with an eye on a lucrative new source of hard currency, they say.
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[National Review] Comcast-NBC Universal and Wells Fargo have joined with several other businesses to announce plans to use money saved by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for investments and bonuses. Comcast will award $1,000 bonuses to over 100 thousand employees and invest $50 billion over the next five years in infrastructure, due not only to the passage of the GOP tax-reform bill but also the repeal of net neutrality. Wells-Fargo will match Fifth-Third’s $15 minimum wage hike and intends to reach up to $400 million in philanthropic donations.
Earlier today, AT&T, Boeing, and Fifth-Third Bancorp announced separate plans to invest in the U.S. and pay workers bonuses with the money saved thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. If President Donald Trump signs the bill, which passed both houses of Congress today, it will reduce the corporate tax rate by 14 percent, leading to a significant economic windfall for AT&T, Boeing, and other U.S. businesses. Fifth-Third will raise its hourly wage to $15 and pay over 13,000 employees a one-time bonus of $1,000 upon Trump’s signature. AT&T’s plan includes a $1,000 bonus awarded to 200,000 U.S. employees and a $1 billion investment in the United States.
President Trump reacted positively to the AT&T news, saying, "That’s pretty good, that’s pretty good," after reading the plan at a White House event. According to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing will invest $300 million in "employee-related and charitable investment." Split into three $100 million chunks, the investment will support corporate charitable giving, workforce development, and infrastructure enhancements for Boeing employees.
#2
If I may:
Higher wages + bonuses = higher costs = lower profit margins = cost-cutting = layoffs + replace by robots.
This is a bunch of PR bullshit by banks to say 'thanks' to Trump for his corporate tax cuts. As a strong believer in small government, I love the idea of tax cuts. However, I'm rather dubious that corporations will pass this $ down to their workers in a sustainable way. Will there be fits and starts - like $1,000 bonuses from AT&T? Probably. Higher CEO salaries? Definitely. Wage increases? Maybe among the higher-value employees, but only temporarily among lower-wage workers who will be replaced by robots.
If there's a silver lining, it's that Bitcoin et al may eventually displace banks altogether. Screw bankers.
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday won the top Democratic spot on the powerful House Judiciary Committee, beating back a challenge from Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) to fill the seat held by former Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) for almost a quarter century.
The House Democratic Caucus voted 118 to 72 in favor of Nadler, a 13-term Manhattanite known for his constitutional expertise.
The vote marks a victory for the seniority system that could have outsized implications if the Democrats win back the House in 2018 and the investigations into Russia’s election meddling turn up any damning evidence against the Trump administration.
Among the host of hot-button issues under the Judiciary panel’s jurisdiction is that of impeachment ‐ a factor highlighted by Nadler in pitching his colleagues in the weeks leading up to Wednesday’s vote.
After his victory, Nadler characterized the political moment as "a critical time" in the country’s history ‐ one he thinks he’s uniquely qualified to confront.
"Our efforts to hold the administration and those wishing to turn back history’s long arc towards justice accountable are central to the defense of progress and democracy," Nadler said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2017 00:00 ||
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I thought they'd spend the money on lowering my bill.
#2
That is the question that they have to wrestle with now. Do they give the extra money to (1) customers in the form of lower prices, (2) employees in bonuses or higher wages, or (3) shareholders in the form of higher profits and dividends? Or, more realistically, what combination of the three? Interesting times for senior management, assuming they have the brains to make rational and economic decisions.
Posted by: Tom ||
12/21/2017 16:02 Comments ||
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[The Hill via Right Scoop] The Trump administration on Wednesday approved the sale of lethal arms to Ukraine’s government as the country battles pro-Russian separatists in its eastern provinces.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the administration approved the sale of Model M107A1 Sniper Systems and associated equipment to the country at a value of $41.5 million. The administration has not yet moved to approve heavier arms requested by Ukraine’s government, including Javelin anti-tank missiles.
AND it’s also a tiny-thumb to the eye of Obama, whose former agents are now accusing Trump of appeasing Putin!
The move from the White House is a departure from the Obama administration, which frequently condemned Russian aggression in the Ukraine but refused to approve the sale of arms to the country’s western-aligned government.
[Al Jazeera] The European Commission, the executive body of the EU, has begun the process of enacting Article 7 of the EU Treaty against Poland, citing "a clear risk" of "a serious breach" in the rule of law due to perceived threats against an independent judiciary.
Over the past two years, "Polish authorities have adopted more than 13 laws affecting the entire structure of the justice system in Poland," the EC said in a statement on Wednesday.
The EC's concerns over the ruling, rightwing populist and nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party's policies have grown over the past two years, since the party won an outright majority in 2015 - the first party to do so since the transition from communism to democracy.
The EC says the PiS government's judiciary reforms stack the courts with friendly judges, by giving the president much discretionary power to extend the mandate of Supreme Court judges, and imposing a younger retirement age on already-serving magistrates, among other reasons.
These moves contribute to a "lack of an independent and legitimate constitutional review and judicial independence", the EC claimed.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2017 00:00 ||
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Germans tend to forget that, whenever they push Poland, it allies with Russia.
#8
I'm getting tired of this temper tantrum that most of those countries pulled on us. Lets just pull our military out of those countries and let them fend for themselves using their own money.
Exception of course would be those countries that voted aith the US and maybe some leeway given to those countries that abstained from the vote (mostly because they wanted to but they had to appease their local citizens.)
the countries that abstained were: Antigua-Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, the Bahamas, Benin, Bhutan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Haiti, Hungary, Jamaica, Kiribati, Latvia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda and Vanuatu.
[DAILYCALLER] Left-wing billionaire donor George Soros ...either Ernst Stavro Blofeld or Auric Goldfinger come true... is illegally bankrolling a campaign to repeal the Eight Amendment of Ireland’s constitution, which protects "the right to life of the unborn," according to an independent government watchdog.
Ireland’s Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO), has ordered left-wing organization Amnesia Amnesty International to return a donation of more than $162,000 from Soros’ Open Society Foundations (OSF). The donation is in violation of the 1997 Electoral Act, which bars foreign organizations from giving donations of more than $100 for "political purposes," according to SIPO.
Amnesty has refused to return the donation, a defiant decision that OSF is supporting, British newspaper The Times reported on Wednesday. Amnesty has claimed that the law is unfair.
An OSF front man told The Times the group is "proud to be one of the sources of support for local advocacy efforts to bring Ireland’s abortion law in line with its commitments under international human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. law."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2017 00:00 ||
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Bad move George, better watch out for "the lads". They will come after anyone who tries to screw with their independance. After all, that fight is still a living memory in Ireland
[FamilySecurityMatters] President Donald Trump on Monday (December 18, 2017) in what may well be remembered as an historic speech describing his new "America First" National Security Strategy, broke new ground by promising to protect U.S. critical infrastructures from "cyber, physical, and electromagnetic attacks."
After 8 years of the Obama Administration ignoring the existential threat posed by electromagnetic pulse (EMP), President Trump deserves the gratitude of his nation for being the first president to include EMP in his National Security Strategy.
In so doing, President Trump is keeping a promise made in the 2016 Republican Party Platform on which he ran and was elected:
Protection Against an Electromagnetic Pulse: A single nuclear weapon detonated at high altitude over this country would collapse our electrical grid and other critical infrastructures and endanger the lives of millions. With North Korea in possession of nuclear missiles and Iran close to having them, an EMP is no longer a theoretical concern - it is a real threat. Moreover, China and Russia include sabotage as part of their warfare planning. Nonetheless, hundreds of electrical utilities in the United States have not acted to protect themselves from EMP, and they cannot be expected to do so voluntarily since homeland security is a government responsibility. The President, the Congress, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the States, the utilities, and the private sector should work together on an urgent basis to... protect the national grid and encourage states to take the initiative to protect their own grids expeditiously.
The new National Security Strategy acknowledges the importance of protecting U.S. critical infrastructures from "cyber, physical, and electromagnetic attacks":
Critical infrastructure keeps our food fresh, our houses warm, our trade flowing, and our citizens productive and safe. The vulnerability of U.S. critical infrastructure to cyber, physical, and electromagnetic attacks means that adversaries could disrupt military command and control, banking and financial operations, the electrical grid, and means of communication.
Presidential recognition of the EMP threat hopefully will mobilize the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense to give EMP protection of military forces and civilian critical infrastructures high priority. That protection should include not only hardening key assets against EMP effects-but more robust and layered missile defenses.
President Trump's new National Security Strategy-reversing the Obama Administration's long neglect and weakening of National Missile Defense-promises to: Continues @ link.
#1
Our satellites could detect an inbound PME powerful enough to cause another Carrington Event and there would be little we could do. So, yes, hardening the power system would be a good idea.
#6
hardening the power system would be a good idea
Yup. Most of the very new systems control equipment is Mil Spec and RAD hardened. Lots of older stuff out there, though.
The really old controls from the 50's-60's or earlier mostly wouldn't be affected. Kind of like your old 'apocalypse truck' with points and carburetor vs. your kid's Acadia with HEI and fuel injection.
EMP burst(s) shouldn't physically affect the 'stupid' stuff like overhead lines, substation/distribution transformers and 'mechanical' switching components. It will be the monitoring and control systems for those that are susceptible.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/21/2017 8:31 Comments ||
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#8
Gorb - Only if it's a pre-1975 Magnavox or similar ilk with a Cathode Ray Tube. But I share your concern. Where would I watch all the old Hogan's Heroes reruns on MeTV?
#10
At some point we'll see them sell Faraday panelling like wood panelling. Put it between the studs on your walls and place drywall over it so that nobody knows, and you'll be protected against all but really close EMP blasts.
#11
Put it between the studs on your walls and place drywall over it so that nobody knows, and you'll be protected against all but really close EMP blasts.
#14
Atsome point we'll see them sell Faraday panelling like wood panelling. Put it between the studs on your walls and place drywall over it so that nobody knows, and you'll be protected against all but really close EMP blasts.
In accordance with Murphy's law. the installers will forget to connect all the ground wires...
#15
and how's that Wi-Fi working in the farther rooms?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2017 21:15 Comments ||
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#16
Gorb,
Place a surge protector between your AC outlet and your TV. A battery-backed UPS should do it.
As for your car, a jumper cable connected to the car frame or (metal) bumper and a conducting ground spike should protect it. Unless fatboy has a super-EMP weapon the main pathway to your electronics will be through your AC outlet.
Posted by: S. Sleater9697 ||
12/21/2017 21:18 Comments ||
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#17
and how's that Wi-Fi working in the farther rooms?
WiFi inside the Faraday Cage is GREAT. Walls, floor and ceiling get it bouncing around everywhere into all of the corners. That's why old SCIF rats all get cancer. Pick your poison.
[DAWN] Dera Ghazi Khan police on Wednesday booked a man for allegedly cutting off his wife's nose after the two failed to reconcile over a conflict, police said.
Rashid Hussain, a resident of Faridabad, had been engaged in a domestic dispute with his wife, Sameena, for three or four months, police said, as a result of which, Sameena had gone to live with her parents.
Hussain went to his in-law's house to reconcile with his wife, but when she refused to return home with him, he allegedly cut off the tip of her nose with a sharp knife, District Police Officer (DPO) Ahmed Nawaz Cheema told Dawn.
Hussain expeditiously departed at a goodly pace after cutting off his wife's nose, the DPO said.
Rescue 1122 officials rushed Sameena to a trauma centre for medical treatment. She is currently in stable, pH balanced condition, doctors have said.
Police started the paperwork but haven't done much else against Hussain at the Choti Zaireen cop shoppe under Section 334 of the Pakistain Penal Code, after which at least one raid team was formed to search for the suspect, DPO Cheema said.
He added that he was hopeful Hussain would be nabbed You have the right to remain silent... soon.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Hopefully the NFL will denounce white Amish violence.
[DAWN] Two women were killed apparently in the name of honour in separate incidents, sources said on Tuesday.
A man shot his married sister dead in Thaneel Fatohi village located in the Saddar police area.
According to the villagers and police, the woman eloped with a man of Thaneel Fatohi village a few years ago and they had three children.
But the women and her family reached reconciliation recently.
"After the reconciliation she phoned her brother and asked him to visit her and her children," a village elder told Dawn.
He added that the brother of the woman came to her house and spent a night there.
"In the morning he opened fire on his sister killing her on the spot," the villager added.
The husband of the woman is already in jail in murder case.
The second incident occurred in Laiti village located in the area of Tamman cop shoppe where two brothers allegedly throttled their niece to death for the sake of honour.
According to investigating officer Khalid Mehmood, the 18-year-old girl bravely ran away with a boy a few weeks ago and her family members traced her and brought her back.
"The girl’s father was not present at his home as he worked out of Chakwal. At his behest his two brothers strangled the girl as they were angry on her elopement and they also feared that she might elope again," the IO told Dawn.
"We have jugged Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! the father of the girl and are trying our best to trace the other accused," the IO maintained.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2017 00:00 ||
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[Newsweek] Cooking with canola oil is extremely common, but a new study might make you think before subbing it in for the ever-popular olive. Researchers from Temple University found that canola decreased learning ability, inhibited memory and led to weight gain for mice with Alzheimer’s disease.
WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ The Environmental Protection Agency says an internal task force appointed to revamp how the nation’s most polluted sites are cleaned up generated no record of its deliberations.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in May announced the creation of a Superfund Task Force that he said would reprioritize and streamline procedures for remediating more than 1,300 sites. Pruitt, the former attorney general of Oklahoma, appointed a political supporter from his home state with no experience in pollution cleanups to lead the group.
The task force in June issued a nearly three dozen-page report containing 42 detailed recommendations, all of which Pruitt immediately adopted. The advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, known as PEER, quickly filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking a long list of documents related to the development of Pruitt’s plan.
After EPA didn’t immediately release any records, PEER sued in federal court in Washington.
Now, nearly six months after the task force released its report, a lawyer for EPA has written PEER to say that the task force had no agenda for its meetings, kept no minutes and used no reference materials other than Pruitt’s memo appointing them.
#8
Pruitt, the former attorney general of Oklahoma, appointed a political supporter from his home state with no experience in pollution cleanups to lead the group.
I wonder how many times that bolded phrase was used in stories about Federal political appointments between early 2009 and early 2017?
[Daily Caller] A former Planned Parenthood manager called the abortion organization "demonic" in a Wednesday interview, explaining why she left the abortion business.
"I knew what I was doing was wrong," Former Planned Parenthood Manager Ramona Trevino told TheDCNF in an exclusive interview. Trevino worked as the manager of a Planned Parenthood abortion-referral facility in Sherman, Texas, for three years before leaving in 2011.
"I am involved and it took a few years after working at Planned Parenthood to recognize my part in abortion even through referrals. I was still involved in a demonic organization," she said. "There’s no other word you can use for what takes place."
Trevino justified working at the Planned Parenthood because it was a non-abortion facility, realizing only after an extended period of time that she was still culpable for what goes on at other facilities. "They are being groomed as future abortion patients because Planned Parenthood promotes a promiscuous lifestyle," she said. "We’re not discouraging them from having sex at a young age. We have monthly quotas to meet. They’re just numbers," she said.
[Breitbart] Will Smith delved into politics at a press event for his latest film Bright this week, calling the country’s current political environment a "natural reaction" to what he described as the more favorable years of Barack Obama’s presidency.
The 49-year-old actor ‐ who has previously teased a future run for public office himself ‐ did not mention President Donald Trump by name but speculated about the country’s future during Wednesday’s event in Beverly Hills for Netflix’s Bright, a dystopian police thriller directed by David Ayer that reportedly cost the streaming service $90 million.
"This is the purge, right?" Smith said, according to Indiewire. "This is the cleanse, this is what happens. This is the natural reaction to the amount of light that came into the world when Barack Obama was the president."
"We had to expect that [the pendulum] was going to go the other way," he added. "As a cleanse ‐ this is the darkness before the dawn."
[ZACentral] A federal judge has declared a mistrial in the case against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, saying U.S. prosecutors willfully withheld critical and "potentially exculpatory" evidence from the defense.
Judge Gloria Navarro
...a President Obama appointee in 2010...
dismissed jurors Wednesday, several weeks after the trial began against Bundy, his sons Ammon and Ryan Bundy, and militia member Ryan Payne, who were accused of leading an armed standoff with federal land agents in 2014.
Navarro cited five key pieces of information that prosecutors did not disclose: records about surveillance and snipers at the Bundy Ranch; unredacted FBI logs about activity at the ranch in the days around the standoff; threat assessments about the Bundys dating to 2012; and internal affairs reports about the BLM.
Withheld evidence at issue
Navarro methodically laid out her reasoning for about an hour, citing legal standards and case law, before delivering her ruling.
She said the evidence that was withheld could have been favorable to the accused and could have affected the outcome of the case.
Navarro stopped short of dismissing charges against the four men. It is unclear whether the case will be retried because Navarro did not rule whether the mistrial was with or without prejudice.
#4
The feds offered a deal to Bundy to let him out of jail and make this all go away.
He refused and stayed in jail.
This whole case is a complete embarrassment to the government and wouldn't be surprised if they sabotaged their own case just to keep it from going to trial.
[Huffpoo] A woman was thrown out of a Starbucks in Walnut Creek, California, earlier this month after she berated two Asian customers with racist insults.
The patron verbally attacked Annie An, a Korean international college student, after she heard An conversing in Korean with her tutor Sean Lee. An caught some video of the incident on her phone and shared it on Facebook.
In her post, An said that before she began recording, the woman told her, "This is America. Use English only." Later the woman allegedly added, "I don’t want to hear foreign language."
"... Oriental. I hate it," the woman can be heard saying in the video.
"I’m sorry, but they’re allowed to speak their language here," a Starbucks employee is heard responding.
"President Obama said that everyone in here in America ... should speak English," the woman says
"They’re completely allowed to use their own language," the employee reiterates.
At one point, the woman types on her laptop keyboard and declares, "You’re going to be in trouble when I get this letter out" ― before another customer notes, "You’re pressing numbers over and over again."
The Starbucks worker repeatedly asks the woman to leave and threatens to call the police.
Eventually police officers arrived ― An wrote that they were called by Starbucks ― and escorted the woman out of the establishment.
#3
I was once told to speak German in Germany. People get touchy when they can’t understand what you’re saying — they suspect you are talking about them.
To be fair, the time the trailing daughters and I were speaking in German in the Cincinnati grocery store checkout line, we were indeed talking about the lady behind us... who as it turned out also spoke German. I was mortified.
#4
I have a friend who was standing in line at the grocery store with her daughter, and they were speaking about the good looking guy ahead of them. In Hebrew. They were up to talking about how nice they thought his butt looked when he finished paying for his stuff. He picked it up and turned to them and said "Toda rabah" and left with a smile on his face. I guess sexual harassment wasn't a bad thing then. :-)
#5
To be fair, the time the trailing daughters and I were speaking in German in the Cincinnati grocery store checkout line, we were indeed talking about the lady behind us...
Reminds me of when myself and a buddy were riding a bus in Rio, the bus was packed! And these babes got on right behind us. One of the girls that was very well endowed was smashed right up against me. I was looking down her shirt and I said to my buddy: "This girl has a set of boobs that would put a Holstein cow to shame."
So this girl looks at me and smiles, looks at my buddy and says: "Wow, how many Americans are on this bus?" In perfect mid-western accented English. I know what mortification feels like.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[FOXNEWS] A spate of a sea lion attacks prompted authorities to close part of 
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] New distressing reports have emerged regarding the violence against a child bride in Afghanistan sending shocking across the country as violence against women remain a critical issue in various remote parts of Afghanistan.
[National Review] Comcast-NBC Universal and Wells Fargo have joined with several other businesses to announce plans to use money saved by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for investments and bonuses. Comcast will award $1,000 bonuses to over 100 thousand employees and invest $50 billion over the next five years in infrastructure, due not only to the passage of the GOP tax-reform bill but also the repeal of net neutrality. Wells-Fargo will match Fifth-Third’s $15 minimum wage hike and intends to reach up to $400 million in philanthropic donations. 
either Ernst Stavro Blofeld or Auric Goldfinger come true...
[DAWN] Dera Ghazi Khan police on Wednesday booked a man for allegedly cutting off his wife's nose after the two failed to reconcile over a conflict, police said.
[DAWN] Two women were killed apparently in the name of honour in separate incidents, sources said on Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ The Environmental Protection Agency says an internal task force appointed to revamp how the nation’s most polluted sites are cleaned up generated no record of its deliberations.
[Daily Caller] A former Planned Parenthood manager called the abortion organization "demonic" in a Wednesday interview, explaining why she left the abortion business.
[ZACentral] A federal judge has declared a mistrial in the case against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, saying U.S. prosecutors willfully withheld critical and "potentially exculpatory" evidence from the defense.
