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‘First large group’ from AFRICA wades across Rio Grande into US

Posted by M. C. on June 3, 2019

There is typhoid in LA. Is Ebola next?

http://www.theamericanmirror.com/video-first-large-group-from-africa-wades-across-rio-grande-into-us/

By Kyle Olson

A group of illegals from Angola, Cameroon and Congo waded across the Rio Grande River and into the United States, video from Customs and Border Protection shows.

The video shows male and female adults walking through the water and into Texas, several with children on their shoulders.

The attempted invasion occurred on Thursday, according to the agency.

The river — or “natural barrier” — was so shallow, the surface didn’t reach the adults’ waists.

The White House tweeted additional video:

According to CBP, it’s the first large group from Africa to try to breach the U.S. border via Mexico…

Be seeing you

sheeple

 

 

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EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Solving the Homeless Situation in American Cities

Posted by M. C. on June 3, 2019

https://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2019/06/solving-homeless-situation-in-american.html

…

Hi Bob,

I don’t know how long you’ve lived in San Francisco, but what do you think is at the root of this seemingly increasing homeless problem? I mean, in the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s & 2000’s, I don’t think there was such a drastic  prevalence of homeless people living in tents everywhere on freeway offramps, parks, etc, & shitting all over the streets in SanFran, Los Angeles, Portland, Salt Lake City, etc.?  Is it the economy? Mental illness? Laziness? Does govt have a role in causing this?

In Portland  Oregon yesterday, there were really a lot of homeless, vagrants & transients, tents huddled everywhere. Almost like some weird Will Smith movie. (Pic attached.) Look at this guy he’s actually sitting like he’s in his living room, on the grass of a freeway offramp.

RW response:

It is a serious problem, however, in the end, you can pretty much see government failure and crony operators at every turn.

Many of the homeless have obvious serious mental health issues or are just low functional. The problem is that the wacky left keeps on taking city governments to court to prevent the governments from doing anything about these people. I have always thought of public areas controlled by the government as no man’s land and the wacky left has done everything it can to make the sidewalks of many American cities a surreal version of a no man’s land. It has become a business model for a kind-of crony left.

There is no question that there are wacky left organizations that want to see homeless on the streets so that it can raise money from the guilt-ridden rich in the same cities “to help”. They raise money on the theme of protecting the “right” of the homeless to sleep on the streets and in the parks.

This is the growth sector of the homeless. Gunslinging lawyers using laws to prevent anything from being done about the homeless.

Beyond the seriously mentally deficient and low functional, you also see a lot of druggies on the streets. Certainly, the elimination of laws prohibiting the sale of drugs would make it easier for these people to survive. The cost of drugs would collapse.

There are also many who just don’t know how to survive at a higher level in the current society but it is an odd cultural thing. The groups that seem to be closest to being dependent on government have the most homeless.

In San Francisco, it is not impossible but you rarely see Asian or Hispanic homeless. They, of course, tend to have very tight non-governmental cultures.

You see many more blacks on the streets followed by Caucasians—and the blacks are American blacks not blacks who have recently migrated to the US.

These people never had a chance. They were likely brought up in inner-city government schools and in homes that, thanks to government distorted incentives, did not have fathers in the homes, coupled with minimum wage laws that made it impossible for them to get their first jobs. Government crushed the chance for these (mostly) men to ever a suceed.

The short- and long- term solutions are not complex.

The first thing you do is eliminate government “charity.” With government handouts gone, there will be more willingness of decent people to give to charity to help those in need. But it should be true private sector charity where there is competition on how the needy are offered help—with no government interference.

Then it is simple, tell the homeless they can’t live or sleep on the sidewalks, parks, etc. and give them the option of choosing a charity organization and location where they will be transported.

I would make it a 6-month program. Announce that all homeless will be cleared from the streets in 6-months and that charities should get ready for the incoming–that will raise money for the charities and fast.

I would also eliminate minimum wage laws so that the low functional amongst the homeless who have the potential to get a job which matches their low hourly marginal revenue product can do so.

And as previously mentioned, the prohibition on the sale of drugs should be eliminated.

Also, I would eliminate all types of government handouts to families and individuals since this only results in dependence on government–which has its own crony agenda and can never really help the needy. We need private sector competition in charity.

Finally, I would eliminate government schools, which in the inner cities does nothing but destroy minds and spirit–and distorts the thinking of youth in all other non-inner city schools.

I am, more and more, beginning to think that government schools are the most dangerous institutions in America. I would end government-funded “education” of all kinds, including for all public schools and for all voucher programs.

–RW

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This is why America is persecuting Julian Assange, by Patrick Cockburn – The Unz Review

Posted by M. C. on June 3, 2019

Yemeni experts on the conflict say that Houthi arms acquisition today has likewise little to do with Iran. Yemen has always had a flourishing arms black market in which weapons, large and small, can be obtained in almost any quantity if the money is right. Anti-Houthi forces, copiously supplied by Saudi Arabia and UAE, are happy to profit by selling on weapons to the Houthis or anybody else.

http://www.unz.com/pcockburn/this-is-why-america-is-persecuting-julian-assange/

…

However, it was the friendly US official and I who were being naive, forgetting that the real purpose of state secrecy is to enable governments to establish their own self-interested and often mendacious version of the truth by the careful selection of “facts” to be passed on to the public. They feel enraged by any revelation of what they really know, or by any alternative source of information. Such threats to their control of the news agenda must be suppressed where possible and, where not, those responsible must be pursued and punished.

We have had two good examples of the lengths to which a government – in this case that of the US – will go to protect its own tainted version of events. The first is the charging of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange under the Espionage Act for leaking 750,000 confidential military and diplomatic documents in 2010.

The second example has happened in the last few days. The international media may not have always covered itself in glory in the war in Yemen, but there are brave journalists and news organisations who have done just that. One of them is Yemeni reporter Maad al-Zikry who, along with Maggie Michael and Nariman El-Mofty, is part of an Associated Press (AP) team that won the international reporting Pulitzer prize this year for superb on the ground coverage of the war in Yemen. Their stories included revelations about the US drone strikes in Yemen and about the prisons maintained there by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The US government clearly did not like this type of critical journalism. When the Pulitzer was awarded last Tuesday in New York Zikry was not there because he had been denied a visa to enter the US. There is no longer a US embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, but two months ago he made his way to the US embassy in Cairo where his visa application, though fully supported by AP and many other prestigious institutions, was rejected.

After AP had exerted further pressure, Zikry made a second application for a visa and this time he was seen by a Counsellor at the embassy. He reports himself as asking: “Does the US embassy think that a Yemeni investigative journalist doing reporting for AP is a terrorist? Are you saying I am a terrorist?”

The Counsellor said that they would “work” on his visa or, in other words, ask the powers-that-be in Washington what to do. “So, I waited and waited – and waited,” he says. “And, until now I heard nothing from them.”

Of course, Washington is fully capable of waiving any prohibition on the granting of a visa to a Yemeni in a case like this, but it chose not to.

Can what Assange and Wikileaks did in 2010 be compared with what Zikry and AP did in 2019? Some commentators, to their shame, claim that the pursuit of Assange, and his current imprisonment pending possible extradition to the US or Sweden, has nothing to with freedom of expression.

In fact, he was doing what every journalist ought to do and doing it very successfully...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says that Iran has provided the Houthis “with the missile system, the hardware, the military capability” that they have acquired.

National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Wednesday that Iran risked a “very strong response” from the US for, among other things, drone attacks by the Houthis on Saudi Arabia for which he holds the Iranians responsible.

These accusations by the US, Saudi Arabia and whoever is their Yemeni ally of the day that the Houthis are stooges of Iran armed with Iranian-supplied weapons has a long history. But what do we know about what Washington really thinks of these allegations which have not changed much over the years?

This where Wikileaks comes to the rescue. Read the rest of this entry »

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‘Collapse of a City That’s Lost Control’ – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on June 3, 2019

You know what “they” say – all the national trends start on the left West coast.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/06/no_author/collapse-of-a-city-thats-lost-control/

By Lauren Fruen For Dailymail.com and Associated Press

‘Collapse of a city that’s lost control’: Shocking new pictures from downtown LA capture the huge problem it faces with trash and rats amid fear of typhoid fever outbreak among LAPD

  • A decision to not cap property that homeless people can keep on Skid Row was announced last Wednesday
  • It sparked fury among some who say it will ‘only perpetuate the public health crisis that already exists’ there 
  • Images from the downtown area show trash piling up as workers struggle to keep the area sanitized 
  • Rows and rows of tents line the sidewalks of Skid Row in the sprawling 50-block area, home to around 4,200
  • On Thursday it was revealed a Los Angeles police detective has been diagnosed with typhoid fever 
  • At least five other officers are also showing symptoms and their division polices downtown LA
  • Dustin DeRollo, a union spokesman, said cops who patrol Skid Row ‘walk through the feces, urine and trash’ 
  • In an op ed for The LA Times reporter Steve Lopez called it ‘the collapse of a city that’s lost control’ 

These shocking pictures from downtown Los Angeles capture the growing problem it faces with trash and rodents in a desperate city also trying to contain a typhoid fever outbreak linked to worsening sanitary conditions.

A decision to not cap the total amount of property that homeless people can keep on Skid Row was announced last Wednesday and it sparked fury among some officials who say it will ‘only perpetuate the public health crisis that already exists’ there.

That, coupled with the news a Los Angeles police detective has been diagnosed with typhoid fever, has sparked concern among LA’s residents.

The city has now said it will dispose of sofas, refrigerators and other large items in the 50-block area of downtown.

But councilmen Joe Buscaino slammed the decision, saying: ‘The settlement will only perpetuate the public health crisis that already exists in Skid Row and will set a precedent for the rest of the city that will normalize encampments.

‘The city is sending a clear signal that we are turning the sidewalks in Skid Row into free, unlimited public storage, doing a disservice to the residents of Los Angeles, especially to those living on the streets.’

Images from the downtown area show trash piling up as workers struggle to keep the area sanitized. They are pictured wearing face masks among the dirt and grime.

Rows and rows of tents line the sidewalks of Skid Row in the sprawling 50-block area, home to around 4,200 homeless people, many in tents and shantytowns.

Some lay passed out in the street, seemingly from the effects of drugs as others are pictured lugging their property around, in search of the next spot to set up.

Belongings of the homeless crowd a downtown Los Angeles sidewalk in Skid Row. The city of Los Angeles on May 29 agreed to allow homeless people there to keep their property and not have it seized, providing the items are not bulky or hazardous

Belongings of the homeless crowd a downtown Los Angeles sidewalk in Skid Row. The city of Los Angeles on May 29 agreed to allow homeless people there to keep their property and not have it seized, providing the items are not bulky or hazardous

Read the rest of this entry »

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BBC, Sky News Have Hidden Their Interviews With UN Expert On The Torture Of Assange – Caitlin Johnstone

Posted by M. C. on June 3, 2019

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/06/02/bbc-sky-news-have-hidden-their-interviews-with-un-expert-on-the-torture-of-assange/

UN Special Rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer has said that on the 31st of May he gave video interviews with both Sky News and the BBC on his findings that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is the victim of psychological torture. As of this writing, footage of those interviews is nowhere to be found.

In response to a smear by virulent empire propagandist Idrees Ahmad about his conducting an interview with RT, Melzer tweeted that he has given interviews to both Sky News and BBC World, but that they seem not to have been aired.

“So the UN rapporteur actually appeared on the Kremlin’s premier propaganda network—yes, the propaganda network of the state that shoots journalists in the face—to discuss Julian Assange’s ‘torture’,” tweeted Ahmad, pretending to be under the illusion that UN experts are meant to remain exclusively loyal to a specific group of nations.

“For the record: On 31 May, I have also given similar exclusive TV interviews to both Sky News and BBC World on Julian Assange, but it seems they decided not to broadcast them,” Melzer responded.

Indeed, there is as of this writing no video footage to be found anywhere of Melzer’s interviews with either of these outlets. If you search for online video footage of Nils Melzer conducting interviews on this subject, you’ll find videos from RT and Ruptly, you’ll find his excellent interview on Democracy Now which we discussed recently, but you won’t find videos from BBC World or Sky News, nor any record of any video interviews ever having been aired.

So appears that these interviews were never aired at all, or, if they were aired, have had any record of them hidden from easy online visibility. In any case, this is a big deal. The BBC published one print article that contains a few small excerpts from a discussion with Melzer, but in terms of impact and quantity of information this comes nowhere close to a televised interview and online video footage.

The idea that anyone from the UN should only be giving interviews to western media outlets is of course ridiculous, and it’s made even more ridiculous by the fact that Melzer has been wide open to speaking with any platform that’s willing to circulate his findings, including my own.

“I stand ready to respond to uncomfortable questions, but then media must also stand ready to publish uncomfortable truths,” Melzer told me via Twitter when asked about the missing footage. He said the interviews were conducted with BBC World and Sky News via Skype, and lasted about five minutes each.

We may be sure that “uncomfortable truths” were indeed what came out in Melzer’s interview. Watch any existing video interview that Melzer has done on this subject and you’ll see how much damning information he packs into each minute of footage. You may also get a pretty strong suspicion of why establishment narrative management firms like the BBC and Sky News may not have wanted to publicize that footage.

“UK’s BBC News and Sky News censored exclusive interviews with UN Torture expert Nils Melzer showing overwhelming evidence that Assange has been deliberately exposed to progressively severe forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” tweeted the Defend Assange campaign in response to Melzer’s post.

“So the BBC and Sky kept the UN’s expert on torture off air, and viewers were denied the chance to hear that, in his expert opinion, the UK state has subjected Julian Assange to torture. I’m struggling to understand how that decision could be justified by any normal news values,” said British journalist Jonathan Cook.

Pressure must be put on these outlets to explain why they didn’t air these exclusive interviews, and they must be forced to give a response. Yes, any response we might get will be mealy-mouthed, they’ll make some huffy noises about limited air time etcetera, but they need to know that people aren’t just watching what they are airing with skepticism, they’re watching what they’re ignoring. When it comes to propaganda, lies by omission are even more pernicious than outright lies because they are difficult to confront.

Don’t let them fool you, this story is big. In terms of newsworthiness, it meets all the criteria and then some. Nils Melzer is great “talent” as they say; he is well spoken and interesting, and he has hugely important things to say about a hugely important situation. There is no reason to bin these interviews other than backroom politics. Demand to know what went on behind closed doors.

Julian Assange has been tortured. His health has been declining dangerously. The US, UK, Sweden, Ecuador and Australia are responsible for this. They did this to him because he published inconvenient facts about the powerful. These are truths. They are uncomfortable truths, but they are truths we all must ingest, process, and respond to.

UPDATE: Melzer reports that Sky News may have aired his interview on television, though it remains hidden online.

________________________

Everyone has my unconditional permission to republish or use any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, throwing some money into my hat on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my new book Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone, or my previous book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my website, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here.

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Edward Snowden: With Technology, Institutions Have Made ‘Most Effective Means of Social Control in the History of Our Species’ | Common Dreams News

Posted by M. C. on June 3, 2019

“How many of you who have a Facebook account actually read the terms of service?” Snowden asked. “Everything has hundreds and hundreds of pages of legal jargon that we’re not qualified to read and assess—and yet they’re considered to be binding upon us.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/31/edward-snowden-technology-institutions-have-made-most-effective-means-social-control

NSA whistleblower says “new platforms and algorithms” can have direct effect on human behavior

Edward Snowden speaking via livestream on May 30, 2019 at Dalhousi University in Halifax

Edward Snowden speaking via livestream on May 30, 2019 at Dalhousi University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. (Screengrab/Vimeo)

 

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said Thursday that people in systems of power have exploited the human desire to connect in order to create systems of mass surveillance.

Snowden appeared at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia via livestream from Moscow to give a keynote address for the Canadian university’s Open Dialogue Series.

Right now, he said, humanity is in a sort of “atomic moment” in the field of computer science.

“We’re in the midst of the greatest redistribution of power since the Industrial Revolution, and this is happening because technology has provided a new capability,” Snowden said.

“It’s related to influence that reaches everyone in every place,” he said. “It has no regard for borders. Its reach is unlimited, if you will, but its safeguards are not.”

Without such defenses, technology is able to affect human behavior.

Institutions can “monitor and record private activities of people on a scale that’s broad enough that we can say it’s close to all-powerful,” said Snowden. They do this through “new platforms and algorithms,” through which “they’re able to shift our behavior. In some cases they’re able to predict our decisions—and also nudge them—to different outcomes. And they do this by exploiting the human need for belonging.”

“We don’t sign up for this,” he added, dismissing the notion that people know exactly what they are getting into with social media platforms like Facebook.

“How many of you who have a Facebook account actually read the terms of service?” Snowden asked. “Everything has hundreds and hundreds of pages of legal jargon that we’re not qualified to read and assess—and yet they’re considered to be binding upon us.”

“It is through this sort of unholy connection of technology and sort of an unusual interpretation of contract law,” he continued, “that these institutions have been able to transform this greatest virtue of humanity—which is this desire to interact and to connect and to cooperate and to share—to transform all of that into a weakness.”

“And now,” he added, “these institutions, which are both commercial and governmental, have built upon that and… have structuralized that and entrenched it to where it has become now the most effective means of social control in the history of our species.”

“Maybe you’ve heard about it,” Snowden said. “This is mass surveillance.”

Listen to Snowden’s full remarks below. (He begins speaking around the 25-minute mark.)

Proceeds from the event went to the Montreal-based organization For the Refugees, which is working to obtain refugee status in Canada for the three families who sheltered Snowden in Hong Kong when he fled the U.S. to avoid being charged with violations under the Espionage Act.

Two of Snowden’s “guardian angels” arrived in Canada in March. The other five are still stuck in Hong Kong, the organization says, where they face the threat of deportation to their home countries of Sri Lanka and the Philippines, where they could face continued threats of persecution, torture, and possible death.

Snowden, in his remarks Thursday, said, “I owe them a debt that I’ll never be able to repay.”

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Trump Will Be Impeached. The Stupid Party Says, ‘Bring It On!’ — Strategic Culture

Posted by M. C. on June 3, 2019

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/06/01/trump-will-be-impeached-stupid-party-says-bring-on/

James George Jatras

 

In the wake of Robert Mueller’s calculated handoff of the “Get Trump” portfolio to the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, two things are evident.

First, President Donald J. Trump is virtually certain to be impeached. That’s manifest despite doddering House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s playing cute for now, seeking to ensure first that “we do want to make such a compelling case, such an ironclad case that even the Republican Senate, which at the time seems to be not an objective jury, will be convinced.” Translation: We don’t have the goods yet, but we expect to.

Second, like generals proverbially fighting the last war – namely, Republicans’ failed 1998 effort to oust Bill Clinton – many in the GOP have convinced themselves that a Trump impeachment will be unsuccessful and will only hurt the Democrats. Put another way, the Stupid Party once again rises to the occasion. Cue Karl Rove:

‘Knowing what they know today, if House Democrats move forward on the impeachment of President Trump, five things will happen.

‘First, swing voters will conclude the Democrats are conducting a highly partisan exercise.

‘Second, impeachment talk will largely or completely obscure anything else House Democrats will do legislatively. Voters could decide the Democrats are a do-nothing bunch.

‘Third, impeachment will play a much larger role in the Democratic presidential primary. The issue of impeachment will obscure the other messages of the Democratic presidential hopefuls and raise the prospect of a backlash against candidates like former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who have yet to embrace impeachment.

‘Fourth, the Republican Senate will quickly dismiss any impeachment resolution passed by the House, killing the issue.

‘And finally, any of the dozens of vulnerable House Democrats in Republican-leaning districts who back impeachment will have given their GOP opponents a big issue.’ [Emphasis added]

Make no mistake, while the Democrats hope to wound Trump even if the attempt to remove him fails, they are deadly serious that they have a realistic shot at finishing him off. Moreover, they know that removing him by impeachment is a better prospect than beating him at the polls.

The Democrats are not at all sure about winning in 2020, not least because of the pathetic gaggle of so-called candidates they’ve got to offer. Thus their main goal in pursuing impeachment will not be to weaken Trump for 2020, it is – still – to get him out of the White House.

That’s because, as was the case in 2016, Trump’s the only GOP candidate who has a shot at winning. The Democrats want a sure thing. Having underestimated him in 2016 they don’t want to roll the dice again. Even though Trump has not turned out to be the transformative president that many of his supporters might have hoped for, he certainly will be the lesser of evils compared to whoever ends up the Democratic nominee. (Spoiler alert: it won’t be Tulsi Gabbard.) Worse from their point of view, he remains a toxic avatar of the old America they thought well and truly laid to rest once and for all. They can’t breathe easy while he remains in office lest he, however unlikely in view of his failures of performance, serve as a catalyst for revival of the historic American nation facing extinction at the hands of certified victim classes…

Finally, let’s note what was the most important substantive message from Mueller’s swan song: Russia! Russia! Russia! Mueller both began and ended his ramble with a denunciation of Russia’s supposed attack on the United States in 2016. Citing Mueller, Ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence [sic] Committee Mark Warner has called for redoubled efforts to pass “legislation that enhances election security, increases social media transparency”: a dog-whistle for the real threat to honest elections: using “Russian bots” and “hate speech” as justification for tech companies’ clampdown on dissent. Whatever happens to Trump, our dangerous enmity with Russia is permanent – and possibly passing the point of no return – while erosion of Americans’ freedoms will continue apace.

Be seeing you

offended

Citizen: “What are you protesting against” Johnny: “What have you got?” The Wild One

 

 

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Did The Government Just Test The Internet Kill Switch?

Posted by M. C. on June 2, 2019

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-02/did-government-just-test-internet-kill-switch

by Tyler Durden

“‘I felt a great disturbance in the farce, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.”

At 3pmET, it appears that Google Cloud (affecting Gmail, YouTube, SnapChat, Instagram, and Facebook among others) mysteriously (and almost unprecedently) went offline.

Google Cloud Status Dashboard

This page provides status information on the services that are part of Google Cloud Platform. Check back here to view the current status of the services listed below. If you are experiencing an issue not listed here, please contact Support. Learn more about what’s posted on the dashboard in this FAQ. For additional information on these services, please visit cloud.google.com.

Google Compute Engine Incident #19003 We are experiencing a multi-region issue with Google Compute Engine

Incident began at 2019-06-02 12:25 (all times are US/Pacific).

Jun 02, 20 12:25 We are investigating an issue with Google Compute Engine. We will provide more information by Sunday, 2019-06-02 12:45 US/Pacific.

One Google insider explains (via YCombinator):

I work on Google Cloud (but disclaimer, I’m on vacation and so not much use to you!).

We’re having what appears to be a serious networking outage. It’s disrupting everything, including unfortunately the tooling we usually use to communicate across the company about outages.

There are backup plans, of course, but I wanted to at least come here to say: you’re not crazy, nothing is lost (to those concerns downthread), but there is serious packet loss at the least. You’ll have to wait for someone actually involved in the incident to say more.

So far, no one has blamed Russia…yet!

Europe is also affected…

Ironically…

Twitter is beside itself…

Did the government just test-fire its Internet kill-switch?

Be seeing you

hut-hut-hut-300x212

 

 

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Booker has no tolerance for pro-life Democrats

Posted by M. C. on June 2, 2019

Considering his party is the party of diversity and inclusion, Mr. Booker appears not the most tolerant.

https://www.thedailysheeple.com/booker-has-no-tolerance-for-pro-life-democrats/

Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker said there is no room in the Democrat Party for pro-lifers and pro-life policies.

“At a time when Republicans across the country are mounting a coordinated, all-out attack on women’s reproductive freedoms, it’s unconscionable that someone in our own party would contribute,” Booker tweeted.

“Democratic leadership should reflect Democratic values,” the New Jersey Senator added.

Booker’s comments were in response to Louisiana Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards’ decision to sign into law legislation which prohibits abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected.

Edwards is a pro-life Democrat who previously and routinely champions for the life of the unborn, something Louisiana voters are well aware.

The governor had a personal run-in with the idea of abortion as his wife was advised to have an abortion because their unborn daughter had Spina Bifida, a spinal defect.

Delivered by The Daily Sheeple

Be seeing you

antifa

The ISIS head chopper look. Cultural appropriation!

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Why the UK Suddenly Is Suffering from a Physician Shortage

Posted by M. C. on June 2, 2019

Doctors respond to these perverse incentives the same way many rational actors would: by closing up shop.

Imagine Sanders and Occasional-Cortex having their wish come true and running US healthcare.

https://fee.org/articles/why-the-uk-suddenly-is-suffering-from-a-physician-shortage/

A UK tax policy intended to soak the rich has caused highly specialized physicians and surgeons to retire early, depriving more than a million citizens of their services. A new report details the extent to which progressive taxation has harmed British patients.

The NHS is in a state of perpetual crisis characterized by doctor shortages, long wait times, and rationing. The UK lost 441 general practitioners last year and had 11,576 unfilled vacancies for doctors as of last June.

Closing up Shop

But in the last six years, 585 surgical practices have closed down, affecting 1.9 million patients. Last year alone, 138 surgery facilities closed their doors, up from 18 in 2013.

What changed during that time? The Daily Mail explains:

The [British Medical Association] has warned that growing numbers of GPs and consultants are taking early retirement or cutting back on work to avoid hefty pensions taxes which make it uneconomic to continue practising. Retiring GPs often create a domino effect by leaving remaining colleagues with more work, who in turn become demoralised and quit.

The problem has been compounded by the fact that more doctors are now working part-time.

Some members of UK society dismiss anything published in the Daily Mail. However, more socially prestigious outlets confirmed that analysis:

An investigation [in March] by the Financial Times found widespread evidence of consultants refusing to take on extra work to clear patient backlogs fearing extra pay would bust tax allowances on their pensions contributions, triggering five-figure tax bills. …

[T]he Department of Health conceded that around 3,500 consultants and GPs had retired early over the past three years due to pension tax charges.

The Consequences of Manipulating the Market

The NHS pension system is a Byzantine labyrinth of rules and regulations impossible for most people to navigate. These two videos (see below) explain the problem.

In brief: NHS doctors have no choice about whether, or how much, to contribute to their public pension. Physicians must contribute up to 14.5 percent of procedures deemed “pensionable pay.”

Citizens may also have a private pension plan. But since deposits are tax-deferred, the government slashed the annual limit on contributions from £255,000 in 2010-2011 to £40,000 in 2014-2015. There is also a lifetime pension limit of £1,055,000.

To further complicate matters, a penalty kicks in on anyone earning an “adjusted income” of £150,000 annually—but that amount includes earnings and any growth in the pension plan (which is impossible to foresee).

That can cause doctors to exceed government-mandated caps and see their income taxed at 40 to 45 percent. In some cases, they end up paying the NHS to work…

Be seeing you

tax crime

Change that to ANY TAX.

 

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