US Army Retired

US Army Retired

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Lots and Lots of News and Interesting Things for December 11, 2018

A Stooge Leaves Congress: Paul Ryan’s Career in Perspective
Probably the most worthless GOP Speaker of all time!
Ryan has done such a poor job that it has become impossible for even the paid sycophants of Conservative Inc. to whitewash his record. As House Speaker, Ryan failed to fund the border wall, repeal or replace Obamacare, de-fund Planned Parenthood, or even curb porous immigration policies at all. While Trump has used his bully pulpit and executive power unlike any Republican in history to advance his agenda, backup support from the House hasn’t been there. Ryan’s lack of will has even made Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell look meritorious by comparison.
And of everything he was responsible for, it was to do everything he could to ensure the GOP maintained control of the House. He was either too lazy or simply didn’t know what he was supposed to do and how to do it.
Good riddance.
Seems our Wisconsin blogger doesn’t have a very high esteem for our soon-to-be ex-Speaker.

‘He Likes an Honest, Rigorous Debate’
Of course the president does? Any executive worth his or her salt wants all sides of a subject in order to make an informed decision.Kelley served an mportant purpose in trying to clean the Deep State out of the White House. [I’ve read there are still hold overs there from the Reagan/Ford administrations.]
We see all sorts of “anonymous sources” spouting off but nobody knows who the president will ask to take the job beside the president.

NANCY? Pelosi slurs words, praises ‘President Butch,’ claims there are ‘three coasts’
And this is going to be our next Speaker of the House of Representatives, 3rd in line to the presidency? God help us.
“We have a responsibility, all of us, to secure our borders, North, South, and coming in by plane on our coasts, three coasts–North, South and West–and that’s the responsibility we honor. But we do so by honoring our values as well,” she bizarrely claimed.

‘Dirty game’ or business as usual: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez takes on DC lobbyists
She goes to DC and is shocked to learn that one day of Congressional orientation is a privately-funded tidal waves of lobbyinsts. Can you believe that?
Ocasio-Cortez sounded the alarm, shocked at the number of corporate leaders present, and lack of union bosses, activists, and “frontline community leaders.”
Our “bipartisan” Congressional orientation is cohosted by a corporate lobbyist group. Other members have quietly expressed to me their concern that this wasn’t told to us in advance.
Lobbyists are here. Goldman Sachs is here. Where‘s labor? Activists?Frontline community leaders?
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) December 6, 2018
Wait until she learns that party leader expect her to shell out $$$$ to support their PACs if she wants to get seats on important committees. This is gonna be fun.

51,856 Apprehended on Mexican Border in November
Do you understand that figure? 7 or 8 times more illegals crossed the border in November than all the the Honduran caravan members combined!
Where the hell is the outrage over that?
Half of those who illegally entered — 25,172 — were families. That figure is nearly four times more than the 7,000 families apprehended just one year earlier.
An additional 10,600 people who cited a credible fear of returning to their home countries were deemed unfit for applying for asylum and were turned away at official border crossings.
A grand total of 62,456 people were encountered in November, according to Customs and Border Protection.
Half were families! Someone is telling these people that they have a better chance of getting in with kids. Want to guess who?
However, U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar issued a restraining order on the policy's implementation following a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.
"Unfortunately, individual district court judges in separate immigration rulings have given another free pass to illegal aliens to violate our laws. This has consequences," Waldman said. "Bad decisions from the 9th Circuit are directly responsible for the more than 25,000 family units who violated our national sovereignty and are effectively immune to consequences for their illegal actions."
Something has to be done!


US Just Became Net Oil Exporter for First Time in 75 Years
And the Interior Department just announced a discovery in the Texas area show enough oil and natural gas is there to provide for all energy consumption in the USA for the next 7 years. Trillions of barrels.
The shale revolution has transformed oil wildcatters into billionaires and the U.S. into the world’s largest petroleum producer, surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia. The power of OPEC has been diminished, undercutting one of the major geopolitical forces of the last half century. The cartel and its allies are meeting in Vienna this week, trying to make a tough choice to cut output and support prices, risking the loss of more market share to the U.S.
The U.S. sold overseas last week a net 211,000 barrels a day of crude and refined products such as gasoline and diesel, compared to net imports of about 3 million barrels a day on average so far in 2018, and an annual peak of more than 12 million barrels a day in 2005, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.


Solar Panel Waste: A Disposal Problem
We all know that those massive bird-killing wind turbines now are built to only last 20 years.
Solar photovoltaic panels, whose operating life is 20 to 30 years, lose productivity over time.
And here’s a real eye-opener:
Solar panels create 300 times more toxic waste per unit of energy than do nuclear power plants. If solar and nuclear produce the same amount of electricity over the next 25 years that nuclear produced in 2016, and the wastes are stacked on football fields, the nuclear waste would reach the height of the Leaning Tower of Pisa (53 meters), while the solar waste would reach the height of two Mt. Everests (16 km). 2
But the eco-freaks really don’t care. All they’re concerned with is their insane agenda of doing away with proven energy sources for “alternatives” that will create more harm to the ecology.
Conclusion- Solar photovoltaic energy is not as environmentally conscious a choice as many think it is. Besides being an intermittent source of energy and more expensive than traditional technologies, it has serious waste disposal issues that few countries are tackling. The hazardous materials used in their construction are not easy to recycle and can contaminate drinking water.4


The Shocking Conditions in Canada’s 'Third World’
Our northern neighbors have horrors they would prefer the remainder of the world not be aware of.
They brag about their concern for the Indigenous peoples and how they even have their own territory. But, they continually hide the horrible conditions under which those people live – and die. Miserable health care. Substandard educational facilities. Poor to nonexistant police presence. And powerless political representation.
First Peoples living in terrible remote-settlement slums are mostly uneducated, unskilled and all but unemployable. Their communities have the world’s highest male youth suicide rate, and violent crime and arson are endemic. The scourge of sexual predation leads girls as young as nine to kill themselves. Absent support systems that work, things are hardly better for urban First Peoples. The burgeoning underclass, not exclusively First Peoples, is doubling every twenty years.


Humans are one step closer to receiving animal organs
after baboon is given a pig's heart and lives for six months in 'landmark' breakthrough
A baboon was given a pig's heart and it kept the animal alive for 195 days
Giving organ from an animal to another species is known as xenotransplantation
Pigs were genetically modified to have a suppressed immune response
It could cure people of terminal heart conditions if done in humans
There’s some gruesome pictures here but the overall message is that scientists are coming closer to the days when donors no longer need to wait forever to find a replacement organ.


These 11 Companies Control Everything You Buy
Think you have choices when you go to the store? Think again.
Do Americans Know Which Major Companies Own Which Brands?
To get a better sense of whether Americans understand how the products they buy are influenced by big business, we surveyed 3,000 people about the different brands and their owners.
Major takeaways include:
Americans can’t correctly identify the owners of major brands. The majority of Americans were unable to choose the correct owner for each brand in every instance.
Half of Americans are influenced by organic-sounding companies. Nearly half of respondents believed that Annie’s Homegrown and Kashi were owned by companies with organic/health-focused names.
54% of Americans think Honest Tea is owned by a tea company. A combined 54% of respondents chose Nestle or Lipton as the owner of Honest Tea, a Coca-Cola beverage.
And the biggest question is; who owns the major brands?
Lets look @ Nestle with a 2017 revenue o0f $89.79 BILLION! A huge, international conglomerate based in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland.

Kosovo’s new army to be ‘modest contributor to creating world peace’ – PM
Of course we’ve got US Army troops right in the middle of this! Been there for almost 10 years now and the media ignores them.
The prime minister of Kosovo sees the army the country expects to have soon as “a modest contributor to creating world peace.” Ramush Haradinaj said Monday that the transformation would make Kosovo a provider and not only a beneficiary of peace, AP reports. Kosovo’s lawmakers are set to vote on Friday on three laws that would transform the national security force into a regular army. The measures are expected to pass the 120-parliament easily. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move Belgrade doesn’t recognize. Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic has warned that the new army in Kosovo could jeopardize regional stability and peace.
And Military.com reports:
International Supervision of Kosovo Ends
But, in reality, very little will be different for the Balkan nation after the parliamentary ceremony celebrating the change. NATO-led peacekeepers will stay in charge of security and an EU mission will still have a final say in legal matters. Tensions with Serbia and ethnic Serbs living in the tense north will persist and so will the hardship of Kosovo's army of jobless people who are still waiting to see the bright future they were promised.

After March, there will no longer be any place for white people in South Africa:
Do you think the American Lame Street Media will give this any coverage?
The country’s National Assembly approved a proposal to change the constitution to make the so-called reforms legal in a vote of 183 to 77. This paves the way for land to be taken from farmers without giving any kind of compensation.
And now lawmakers have agreed to set up a committee that will write and introduce a new bill for land expropriations. A deadline of the end of March next year for the committee to present its first report to parliament has also been agreed.
Economic Freedom Fighters MP Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi argued land grabs must go ahead as she declared: “Your time is up, white people”.
A number of countries have offered South African whites incentives for coming there and using their skills to farm. Russia is one, offering generous land and equipment grants in some of the hugely under-developed areas.

5 hacker-proof tactics for travelers
I’m not about to do any travelling in the near future and sure wouldn’t be taking anything but our cell phone if I did. So, this is for all you techies who can’t go anywhere without all your goodies.
You have to be smarter than the hackers. Let’s start with your money. Tap or click here for five critical settings so hackers can’t access your bank accounts.
Hackers are also getting very innovative about how they steal cars. Before you leave your car in the driveway to thwart off the burglars, think like a hacker. Tap or click here for seven clever ways hackers are stealing cars right from under their owner’s nose.
To protect yourself from these clandestine attacks, take a few extra precautions this holiday season.
1. Use the right type of connection
2. Just assume you’re being watched
3. Don’t charge up at any outlet you see
4. Disable what you don’t need
5. Watch where you leave data behind
And finally, similar to what was mentioned above, be careful connecting to a Wi-Fi network or USB port you’re unsure about even once you reach your destination. That includes hotels where you may be staying, Airbnbs or other similar rental properties.

Twenty-Five Useful Thinking Tools
Found this on Pocket this morning. No, I’m not going to list all five – just a few highlights.
4. Entrepreneur: Do a Lot of Things; See What Works
6. Journalist: Just the Facts
[I almost choked on this one.]
10. Architect: Envisioning the Future
12. Soldier: Routine and Discipline Prevent Deadly Mistakes
21. Politician: What Will People Believe?
22. Novelist: Does Your Story Make Sense?
Creative Work Requires Diverse Thinking Tools
A classic experiment shows the need for tools like these. Subjects were asked to use a box of tacks to affix a candle to the wall. The solution was to use the box as a base—trying to apply tacks directly to the candle only made a mess. This is hard because we think of the box as a container for the tools, not a tool in and of itself.
Similarly, many of these tools may allow for creative solutions to problems you might not have considered. For instance:
If you’re an entrepreneur, what would your business look like if you approached it like an artist, or a teacher, or a novelist?
If you’re a programmer, how would your code improve if you took the tools of a salesperson or accountant?
If you’re a journalist, what would change about your pieces if acted like a scientist, economist or plumber?
Not every combination will be useful, but many might just give you the solution that will lead to a breakthrough.

9 ways to handle holiday food when you have diabetes
As a diabetic, I’d guess the smartest thing to do is avoid all that sugar-laced stuff. And don’t overdo anything. But, who am I to know? I’m not a high-falutin’ dietician.
1. Plan ahead
2. Keep your immune system healthy
3. Budget your sweets
4. Check your blood sugar frequently
5. Add non-starchy vegetables to your recipes
6. Put avocados to work
7. Go easy on alcohol
8. Maintain your schedule
9. Pack a cooler if you're traveling

How Alaska fixed its earthquake-shattered roads in just days
The picture of the repaired road is amazing @ https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/8/18128983/alaska-earthquake-roads-fixed-anchorage-damage is amazing. Shame I can’t paste and copy it here.
A small sample of it.
Working 24/7, they cleared away the broken asphalt, saving it to be melted down at a later date. Then, crews with heavy equipment began digging out water-saturated sediments that slipped or sunk during the quake. They trucked in or gathered fresh material and compacted it, creating a sturdy earthwork base. Atop that, they placed large rocks, finer gravel, and finally, asphalt.
“Our asphalt plants were all shut down for the winter,” McCarthy says. Thick and tarry, asphalt needs to be heated up from a solid form before it can be spread out in a thick layer to make a road. But Alaska in late fall is bitterly cold, and frozen asphalt can take a week or longer to melt into a sticky, pliable material. Soon after the earthquake struck, owners of asphalt plants switched on their heaters. “We were fortunate that they did that.” McCarthy says. “By the time we’d finished the earthworks, the asphalt plants were ready to go.”
Isn’t it amazing what can be done when one is prepared for it?

Weak 14: Empty Seats Outnumber Fans in Many NFL Stadiums
This is NOT a pregame photo – you can see players on the sideline. And, for those who aren’t squeamish, this article has dozens of Tweets that show lots of empty seats and a lot of different games.

The Buffalo Bills said they had 59,119 spectators at New Era Field on Sunday (capacity 71,870 seat maximum) when the New York Jets came to town. Some thought that estimate seemed high when looking at the empty seats.

Announced crowd of 59,119 for #NYJvsBUF. (https://t.co/Wgr5odyt5A + https://t.co/nYyLcEg2UY) pic.twitter.com/gJZEyiVvQ8
— Empty Seats Galore (@EmptySeatsPics) December 9, 2018
The Cleveland Browns also announced their crowd size — 59,392 at FirstEnergy Stadium (capacity 67,895) — as the Browns bested the Carolina Panthers in a 26-20 final. But some photos seemed to show a lot of empty seats:
"@DonkeyBoner44: @[me] can I get a shot from CLEVELAND? Corners look pretty barren." (https://t.co/0YIikCMKzV + https://t.co/f0wH2x0oUP) pic.twitter.com/2y1eNzNZ2n
— Empty Seats Galore (@EmptySeatsPics) December 9, 2018
Watching the Panthers at Browns. There’s at least 20,000 empty seats there. Is the NFL going under??
— Geoff Doucette (@geoffdoucette) December 9, 2018

Two compounds in coffee may team up to fight Parkinson's
Caffeine plus another compound in coffee beans' waxy coating may protect against brain degeneration
There’s no way I can ever pass up an article about coffee; 7:30pm as I’m writing this and a very large 7-11 mug filled with hot coffee is near at hand. I’ll have at least three of those every day.
Rutgers scientists have found a compound in coffee that may team up with caffeine to fight Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia -- two progressive and currently incurable diseases associated with brain degeneration.
The discovery, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests these two compounds combined may become a therapeutic option to slow brain degeneration.



Posted by Dale Day at 9:31 AM

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