[New York Post] A Florida woman whose husband said he was leaving her soon dealt him an even bigger shock ‐ tasing him several times as they fought, according to cops.
Pamela Jane Carr, 68, blew a fuse Sunday morning at her Clearwater home when hubby Thomas Burke, 73, asked for a separation after nine years of marriage, according to an arrest affidavit.
As they fought, the furious wife "pulled out a Taser and dry stunned him several times," the document states.
Carr "admitted to Tasing her husband," the document says, stressing that she "claims it was in self-defense."
It was not clear if the husband was injured or needed treatment.
Carr was charged with aggravated domestic battery, a felony, and was released from the county jail Sunday night after posting $1,000 bond, records show.
She was barred from contacting her husband or possessing firearms and ammunition.
She will be allowed one visit with a law enforcement escort to retrieve her belongings from their mobile home community.
[Hollywood Reporter] The actor starred in such films as 'Champion,' 'The Bad and the Beautiful,' 'Lust for Life,' 'Gunfight at the O.K. Corral' and 'Spartacus,' to name just a few. He was Spartacus, not Corey Booker.
Kirk Douglas, the son of a ragman who channeled a deep, personal anger through a chiseled jaw and steely blue eyes to forge one of the most indelible and indefatigable careers in Hollywood history, has died. He was 103.
"It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103," his son Michael Douglas said in a statement obtained by People magazine. "To the world, he was a legend, an actor from the golden age of movies who lived well into his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set a standard for all of us to aspire to."
Douglas walked away from a helicopter crash in 1991 and suffered a severe stroke in 1996 but, ever the battler, he refused to give in. With a passionate will to survive, he was the last man standing of all the great stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Nominated three times for best actor by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ‐ for Champion (1949), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and Lust for Life (1956) ‐ Douglas was the recipient of an honorary Oscar in 1996. Arguably the top male star of the post-World War II era, he acted in more than 80 movies before retiring from films in 2004.
#2
An immigrant: Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch (Yiddish: איסר דניאלאָוויטש; Belarusian: Ісур Данілавіч) in Amsterdam, New York, the son of Bryna "Bertha" (née Sanglel; 1884–1958) and Herschel "Harry" Danielovitch (c. 1884–1950; citations regarding his exact year of birth differ).[4][5][6] His parents were Jewish immigrants from Chavusy, Mogilev Region, in the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus),[7][8][9][10][11][12] and the family spoke Yiddish at home.[13][14][15]
His father's brother, who immigrated earlier, used the surname Demsky, which Douglas's family adopted in the United States.[16]:2 Douglas grew up as Izzy Demsky and legally changed his name to Kirk Douglas before entering the United States Navy during World War II.[17][a]
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/06/2020 7:25 Comments ||
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#3
The Kirk Douglas film I remember first is Paths of Glory(1957).
#6
Belarus! What a sluice of, um... grace!
It must be a wonderful place
To produce such a font
Of the folks it don't want,
Thus enriching the whole human race!
Dr Li Wenliang dies in Wuhan, state media says, as UK confirms third case and 10 more people on cruise ship off Japan are diagnosed with virus
Third person in UK confirmed as having coronavirus
Deaths reach 563, with fresh cases on stricken cruise ship off Japan
Hong Kong faces ‘double devastation’ of coronavirus and civil unrest
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/06/2020 12:08 Comments ||
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[Mil.com] The Pentagon says it will use yet another U.S. military base to host up to 75 people in need of quarantine and possible treatment for the new coronavirus from China.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts agreed this week that Camp Ashland, a Nebraska National Guard base roughly 30 miles from Omaha, will house the latest evacuees at the request of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Defense Department said Wednesday.
Officials told local news affiliates in Nebraska that the evacuees would arrive at Eppley Airfield in Omaha, where they will be ushered to a remote and isolated aircraft parking area before being brought to the base.
Roughly 1,000 evacuees are being taken to four other bases -- Travis Air Force Base and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California; Fort Carson in Colorado; and Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.
Those bases are in addition to March Air Reserve Base in California, where nearly 200 evacuees arrived last week.
[Washington Examiner] Ten more people have contracted coronavirus on a cruise ship in Japan with 3,700, including hundreds of Americans, quarantined aboard.
The Japanese Health Ministry said that an additional 10 people on Carnival’s Diamond Princess have been infected with coronavirus after 10 others were initially confirmed to have the illness. The total number of coronavirus victims in Japan has grown to 45 as the contagion continues to spread.
The Diamond Princess, which is docked in Yokohama, is carrying 428 Americans. Passengers on the ship are facing at least a two-week quarantine.
One American passenger on the ship told Reuters that food delivery to rooms on the vessel was slow.
"It’s surprising how the ship that was turning out 5,000 gourmet meals three times a day has found it difficult to deliver sandwiches and one hot meal. Where did they put the escargot and sushi?" Gay Courter, 75, said. "Of course, our biggest worry is that we have been infected at some point."
"We are hopeful that the U.S. government will be sending transport for the Americans on board. It’s better for us to travel while healthy and, also, if we get sick, to be treated in American hospitals," she added.
The death toll from the outbreak increased by 73 to a total of 563 on Wednesday, its largest single-day jump. China’s Health Commission said an additional 3,694 people were infected by the illness on Wednesday. The total number of those affected is now more than 28,000.
The World Health Organization said that the virus is now a global public health emergency.
#7
Lex: Never heard of him. But I'll give it a whack. Several totally stumped minutes later... This was painful and ugly, like Mohammed giving birth to a stonefish or something...
"On Carnival, lining the rails,
See primordial creatures with scales,
Things that leave slimy trails
From their morphodite tails..."
"Bouillabaisse?" "In a cup."
Maid: "I come to mop up."
Harpo honks. "Make that three hard-boiled snails."
#13
Watch your aviation stocks? My older brother and sister-in-law cancelled plans to travel cross-country to a friend's wedding. Too much ice n' snow for someone living in Florida and ... no way no how they were going to breath recycled germs in a plane.
Posted by: Barbara ||
02/06/2020 19:56 Comments ||
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#5
... (maybe) because wombs and tombs have always had a long and close, and disturbing, relationship for England's greatest poets - Donne, Marvell, Shakespeare, Blake, Wordsworth et al.
[Aljazeera] The number of anti-Jewish incidents logged in the United Kingdom last year hit record levels yet again amid accusations the opposition Labour Party had failed to tackle the issue within its ranks, a Jewish advisory body has said.
The Community Security Trust (CST), which advises the UK's estimated 280,000 Jews on security matters, said on Thursday there had been 1,805 incidents in 2019, a rise of 7 percent and the fourth consecutive year the figure had reached a new high.
He'd be a hero in the Democrat party
[NY Post] Scotland’s finance minister has resigned, hours before he was due to deliver his annual budget, after he reportedly sent hundreds of messages to a 16-year-old boy on social media. Here's hoping you get the splintery caber Derek.
Derek Mackay quit Thursday, saying he had "behaved foolishly."
The Scottish Sun newspaper reported that 42-year-old Mackay sent the teen more than 270 messages on Facebook and Instagram, telling the boy he was "cute" and offering to take him to a rugby match and to dinner. Mackay is not accused of breaking the law.
"Serving in government has been a huge privilege and I am sorry to have let colleagues and supporters down," Mackay said in a statement.
Mackay was a rising star in the Scottish National Party, which runs Scotland’s semi-autonomous Edinburgh-based administration.
He had been seen as a potential successor to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the SNP, which advocates independence from the United Kingdom for the nation of 5.5 million
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/06/2020 06:44 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11131 views]
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Elections have consequences, as they say. Especially for organizations that planted their flag firmly on the wrong side.
[AlAhram] The consultation comes at a particularly challenging time for the BBC
The British government on Wednesday announced plans to stop prosecuting people who do not pay the BBC's compulsory subscription fee, sparking concerns about the broadcaster's future funding.
Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan said that in an era of streaming services such as Netflix, all public service broadcasters "must adapt".
And she said it was "an anachronism" that anyone refusing to pay the licence fee -- an annual levy on everyone watching BBC television -- could face a fine or even jail.
But the proposal to decriminalise non-payment sparked alarm, against a backdrop of tensions between the BBC and Prime Minister Boris Johnson ...pro-Brexit British prime minister, succeeding no-Brexit Theresa May. BoJo is noted as much for his sparkling personality and his hair as for his Conservative policies.... 's Conservative Party.
The Tories have accused the broadcaster of political bias -- a charge it denies.
Johnson refused to take part in a major BBC interview in December's election, while ministers are now boycotting the flagship BBC news show, Radio 4's "Today".
Currently set at £154.50 (183 euros, $202) a year, the licence fee generated £3.69 billion for the BBC last year, allowing it to operate free from commercial constraints.
In a speech in London, Morgan admitted that removing the threat of prosecution would "almost certainly" see a funding cut.
The BBC previously said it would cost around £200 million.
But Morgan denied the proposed change was "any kind of attack on the BBC", which she said was an "incredibly important organization".
The corporation's latest annual report found that 91 percent of UK adults use BBC television, radio or online each week, for an average of 18 hours -- both down slightly on previous years.
'UNDERMINING THE BBC'
The consultation, for changes due to come into effect in April 2022, comes just five years after a review into licence fee enforcement recommended no change.
"There is a question about what issue this repeat consultation is trying to solve," a BBC spokeswoman said.
Philippa Childs, head of the broadcasting trade union Bectu, said it "makes no sense".
"It appears it is wholly motivated by the current government's apparent obsession with undermining the BBC at every opportunity," she said in a statement.
Morgan noted that in 2015, a licence fee was not required to watch BBC content online. Since then, the BBC has also decided to scrap free licences for people aged over 75.
But Tracy Brabin, culture spokeswoman for the main opposition Labour party, warned: "The future of the BBC is under serious threat from this Conservative government.
"Decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee will leave the corporation without a predictable income and potentially hundreds of millions of pounds short.
"The BBC as a public broadcaster is highly valued and something we should fight to protect."
The consultation comes at a particularly challenging time for the BBC.
Its director-general, Tony Hall, is stepping down later this year and it recently announced plans to cut 450 newsroom jobs.
The licence fee model is guaranteed until 2027 but the government has indicated it is looking at different ways to do this in future.
In 2018, more than 121,000 people were convicted of evading the licence fee and fined an average of £176, the government said.
The BBC said only five people in England and Wales were placed in durance vile Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! for non payment of such fines.
#3
Do the same here for PBS and NPR - remove taxpayer funding
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/06/2020 5:36 Comments ||
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#4
The BBC doesn't represent the British people. End of story. Like the rest of the media it despises the British people.
Why people should be forced to pay for a service that mocks and ridicules them is beyond me.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/06/2020 6:55 Comments ||
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#5
If one substitutes BBC for NYT, CNN, MSNBC, you can again a much clearer understanding. It's simply a tool of the British Deep State. We are after all, cousins.
#13
I'm out in the boonies and the only source of high speed internet is Comcast which requires I take basic cable TV. Well, that includes the local tv stations that enjoy a tax on the cable because they obviously don't make enough money from commercial open broadcast under FCC licensing, so they got the Congresscritters to endow them with a new revenue stream even if those so taxed don't watch. Beeb indeed.
Don't start no shit you can't finish, Nick
[Ay-Peee] Six American oil executives under house arrest in Venezuela were rounded up by police hours after President Donald Trump met Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s chief opponent at the White House, according to family members of the men.
Alirio Zambrano said early Friday that the executives of Houston-based Citgo were abruptly taken from their homes last night by the SEBIN intelligence police. Zambrano, the brother of two of the six detained men, said their current whereabouts are unknown.
"We demand to know they are safe but more importantly their freedom!" Zambrano said on social media, adding that he was very worried about the detainees.
The State Department and Maduro’s government have yet to comment.
But the move comes two months after the men were granted house arrest and just hours after Trump welcomed opposition leader Juan Guaidó to the White House in a show of support for his flagging, year-old campaign to oust Maduro.
The embattled leader condemned Trump's embrace of Guaidó while socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello, who is widely seen as the second most powerful person in the government, vowed to retaliate for the meeting.
"Every time they do something, we're going to turn harder to the left and see who squeals," Cabello said Wednesday night in his weekly TV program.
The six men were hauled away by masked security agents while at a meeting in Caracas just before Thanksgiving in 2017. They had been lured to Venezuela in order to attend a meeting at the headquarters of Citgo's parent, state-run oil giant PDVSA.
The group flew out on a corporate jet. They included Tomeu Vadell, vice president of refining; Gustavo Cardenas, head of strategic shareholder relations as well as government and public affairs; Jorge Toledo, vice president of supply and marketing; Alirio Zambrano, vice president and general manager of Citgo's Corpus Christi refinery; Jose Luis Zambrano, vice president of shared services; and Jose Angel Pereira, the president of Citgo.
In recent weeks, speculation has swirled that Maduro's government may release the men in a bid to mend ties with the Trump administration, which has been aggressively pushing for his removal.
The men are awaiting trial on corruption charges stemming from a never executed plan to refinance some $4 billion in Citgo bonds by offering a 50% stake in the company as collateral.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/06/2020 11:22 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
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[AP] Asian stock markets surged Thursday after President Donald Trump was acquitted in an impeachment trial and China announced a tariff cut on U.S. imports and aid to businesses reeling from a virus outbreak.
Market benchmarks in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul all rose more than 2%. Shanghai, Sydney and India also advanced.
Markets also were boosted by strong U.S. corporate earnings. That helped to dampen fears about the impact of sweeping Chinese efforts to contain a viral disease as the death toll rose.
"The markets are not only holding up, but they’re going up!" said Stephen Innes of AxiCorp in a report. "To suggest risk appetite continues to ’creep’ back in favor might be the biggest understatement of the week."
Trump was acquitted after a rare trial before the U.S. Senate on charges of abuse of office following accusations he pressured Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, a potential rival in this year’s presidential election.
China announced tariff cuts on $75 billion of U.S. imports including auto parts in response to similar American reductions in a trade truce. That followed the signing of the "Phase 1" agreement in their fight over Beijing’s technology ambitions and trade surplus.
[Jpost] Anti-Nazi and anti-fascist ...anybody you disagree with, damn them... groups also evicted same pro-PFLP, Marxist party
The German city Bochum branch of the student ecology movement Fridays for Future formed by the Swedish teenage environmental activist Greta Thungberg and an organization devoted to fighting Nazism kicked the pro-BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) Marxist-Leninist Party in Germany out of their alliances due to the party's misconduct, including allegedly tearing down a placard against antisemitism.
Continued on Page 49
[Aljazeera] Four years ago, Mohamed Ali, a volunteer with the Bernie Sanders campaign, said it was hard getting those in his community to take part in caucuses in the US state of Iowa.
"They just didn't have the confidence" or they felt uncomfortable, Ali, who is a Palestinian-American real estate agent in the Des Moines area, told Al Jazeera by phone. Others, he said, didn't want to be involved in politics for fear of being targeted or discriminated against.
But this year participation of the Arab-Muslim community "has been huge ... it's been really amazing", he said.
#1
It's a place of worship! It's a weapons depot and ammo dump! It's a campaign headquarters! The Mosque - is there anything it can't do? Visit your local mosque today!
* this message brought to you by the Committee to Force Sharia Law Down Everyone's Throat
[Washington Examiner] A prominent evangelical political organization will announce a $50 million nationwide ad buy aimed at persuading 22 million conservative faith voters to reelect President Trump.
Led by Trump ally Ralph Reed, the Faith and Freedom Coalition expects to work extensively on digital outreach during the 2020 election cycle with emails, text messages, and social media campaigns across battlegrounds such as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arizona, according to CBN News. The group intends to target four million voters in the next five days.
The campaign will highlight Trump's campaign promises to evangelical voters, among them moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, and protection of religious liberty, which were echoed in his remarks at the March for Life last week.
Reed is one of several prominent evangelical leaders to have shared vocal support for the president.
Fungi was found sprouting up the walls of abandoned gamma-flooded reactor
Fungi absorbs harmful radiation and converts it into potentially useful energy
Scientists believe it could be used like radiation 'sun block' if turned to drug form
A strand of fungi which spawned inside the Chernobyl nuclear reactor and eats radiation could allow humans to insulate against deadly rays.
In 1991, five years after the disaster which rocked Ukraine, the black fungi was found sprouting up the walls of the abandoned reactor which had been flooded with gamma.
Baffled how it managed to survive the extreme conditions, scientists examined the microorganism - and were even more excited with their findings.
In addition to not perishing, they discovered that the fungi actually grows towards the radiation, as if attracted to it.
In the same way in which plants convert carbon dioxide and chlorophyll into oxygen and glucose via photosynthesis, the fungi sapped up deadly rays which allowed it to produce energy.
This process - hailed radiosynthesis - has captured the attention of scientists because of its potentially revolutionary implications.
Kasthuri Venkateswaran, a research scientist at NASA who is leading the experiments on the Cryptococcus neoformans fungi, believes that by extracting its radiation-absorbing power and manufacturing it in drug form, it could be used as a 'sun block' against toxic rays.
#6
The particular fungus species has probably been around doing its thing for a very long time, just not in quantities that any human or dinosaur noticed.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/06/2020 8:15 Comments ||
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#7
Radiation killing all of the competition and keeping the surface toasty warm for the fungus seems more likely...
[Hot Air] Out in Los Angeles, they’re not only dealing with a homelessness crisis but a significant lack of affordable housing for those who aren’t very wealthy. As usual, the local Democrats have been working hard to come up with a plan to combat that problem as well. One "issue" that’s come to the attention of the City Council is the Hillside Villa Apartments. For three decades, the complex has offered a number of units at rates well below market value, providing a great deal for those lucky enough to get one. This arrangement was part of deal worked out with the city when the building was first acquired by the present owner, Tom Botz. We were hoping for a fixer-upper, something in midtown, near the bars and restaurants. And now THIS !
But that deal expired last summer, meaning that the rent on those units should have gone up to the same rate being charged for the other apartments. This has made the tenants, along with some members of the City Council unhappy, so they’re working on a plan to remedy the situation. How? Simple. By seizing Mr. Botz’s property and running it themselves. (Reason)
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.
[New York Post] A Florida woman whose husband said he was leaving her soon dealt him an even bigger shock ‐ tasing him several times as they fought, according to cops.
[Aljazeera] The number of anti-Jewish incidents logged in the United Kingdom last year hit record levels yet again amid accusations the opposition Labour Party had failed to tackle the issue within its ranks, a Jewish advisory body has said.
...pro-Brexit British prime minister, succeeding no-Brexit Theresa May. BoJo is noted as much for his sparkling personality and his hair as for his Conservative policies....
If one substitutes BBC for NYT, CNN, MSNBC, you can again a much clearer understanding. It's simply a tool of the British Deep State. We are after all, cousins. 
[AP] Asian stock markets surged Thursday after President Donald Trump was acquitted in an impeachment trial and China announced a tariff cut on U.S. imports and aid to businesses reeling from a virus outbreak.
[Jpost] Anti-Nazi and anti-
[Hot Air] Out in Los Angeles, they’re not only dealing with a homelessness crisis but a significant lack of affordable housing for those who aren’t very wealthy. As usual, the local Democrats have been working hard to come up with a plan to combat that problem as well. One "issue" that’s come to the attention of the City Council is the Hillside Villa Apartments. For three decades, the complex has offered a number of units at rates well below market value, providing a great deal for those lucky enough to get one. This arrangement was part of deal worked out with the city when the building was first acquired by the present owner, Tom Botz.
[KhaamaPress] 
