What goes through my my mind when I read the news with my morning coffee. …Or for the Simon's Rockers in the group, this is my response journal.
Senate hearing seeks to answer if the SEC breach held the potential for insider trading and how long the SEC knew about the security breach before disclosing it.
Congress questions SEC chairman on security of files after Equifax hacking – CSMonitor.com
hmmm
Beijing aims to control every aspect of cyberspace, bringing censorship to a personalized level.
The walls are closing in: China finds new ways to tighten Internet controls – The Washington Post
sigh…
One of the country’s up-and-coming leaders in the “alt-right” movement opened his playbook to KyCIR, offering a window into his recruitment tactics and to-do list. His grand plan to spread neo-Nazi beliefs across Appalachia starts in southern Indiana.
Good lord… Have those miscreants become inbred enough to die off like the dinosaurs they are yet?
More than 7,000 people have been moved to emergency shelters in Vanuatu as a volcano in the south Pacific Ocean archipelago threatens to erupt, government officials say.
Vanuatu, a cluster of more than 80 islands and 260,000 people, declared a state of emergency on Tuesday following signs the volcano – known as Monaro – is becoming increasingly active.
It is the second volcano to have caused an alert in the Asia-Pacific region at present.
More than 57,000 people have fled a volcano on the Indonesian island of Bali amid fears of an imminent eruption.
Thousands flee as Vanuatu volcano verges on eruption | Vanuatu News | Al Jazeera
Jeezus…
Support for the Philippines’ populist president starts to dwindle as his brutal war on drugs continue to take lives.
A day of rage against President Duterte | Philippines | Al Jazeera
hmmmm
The impoverished Colombian city that’s home to victims of Colombia’s conflict and thousands of Venezuela’s migrants.
The displaced and ‘forgotten’ in Colombia’s Soacha slum | Colombia | Al Jazeera
sighhhh….
Survey by top university says the average citizen has lost 9kg in the past year in what was once South America’s richest country.
…Venezuela’s prolonged and acute economic crisis – characterised by food shortages and hyperinflation – has seen infant mortality rise to almost 35 percent and maternal mortality to 65 percent in just the last year. Anemia is rampant.
The oil-rich country is now leading Latin America in what is called acute malnutrition, defined by experts as a rapid decline of nutrition that puts a child’s life at risk.
The Catholic Church and opposition leaders have called for the government to open a humanitarian corridor. But Constituent Assembly President Delsy Rodriguez flatly rejects such a plan.
Venezuelan families scavenge for food to survive hunger | Venezuela News | Al Jazeera
sigh….
Secret ballot seen as diplomatic win for Palestinian statehood, as Israel was actively seeking to postpone the vote.
Interpol approves Palestinian membership bid | Palestine News | Al Jazeera
hmmmm
U.S. Senate Democrats blasted President Donald Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity earlier this week in a 90-minute hearing focusing on voting rights.
…[Shaheen] noted commission vice chairman Kris Kobach’s allegation in a Brietbart opinion piece that out-of-state voters were probably responsible for Democrat Maggie Hassan being elected to the Senate in 2016 and for Hillary Clinton winning the state’s four electoral votes.
“He clearly did not understand our election laws,” Shaheen said.
She charged that the “real objective” of the Trump commission is “to lay the groundwork for voter suppression laws.”
NH Primary Source: Democratic committee hits Trump election panel
hmmmm
As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin successfully fought to include an amendment to the FY 2018 State Department appropriations legislation to prevent the elimination of two critical offices for ensuring LGBTI rights are a U.S. foreign policy priority.
…Senator Baldwin’s amendment to the Fiscal Year 2018 State Department funding bill prevented the elimination of the Office of the Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons within the State Department, which facilitates high-level, bilateral engagement on LGBTI rights, and the LGBTI Portfolio within USAID, which coordinates and leads USAID’s efforts to support inclusive, culturally-specific development efforts that respect and further the human rights of LGBTI people. Both programs have been restored to current funding levels.
hmmmm
The enormous break comes just 2 months after a piece of ice nearly the size of Delaware split from Antarctica.
Iceberg that broke off Antarctica was 4 times the size of Manhattan – CBS News
Agggghhhhh!
[Stone] proclaimed he had “answered all of the questions” the lawmakers asked him. But he hadn’t.
… “He refused the central question we had, which was who was he communicating with,” said one committee member who asked not to named.
….At around one in the morning on October 2, Stone tweeted: “Wednesday@HillaryClinton is done. #WikiLeaks.” Two days later, he tweeted: “I have total confidence that @wikileaks and my hero Julian Assange will educate the American people soon #LockHerUp.”
These tweets certainly suggest that Stone knew something was coming soon from WikiLeaks. In fact, on Thursday, October 6, the hacked emails of Clinton insider Capricia Marshall were posted on the DCLeaks site, and the true bomb hit the following day: WikiLeaks began posting the first group of 60,000 emails stolen from Podesta. These emails would be released by WikiLeaks in small batches almost daily over the next month, creating a drip-drip-drip crisis the Clinton campaign could not shake.
Stone’s tweets—especially the one on October 2—indicate prior knowledge of a major WikiLeaks action against Clinton.
…Outside the hearing room, Stone—a longtime conspiracy theorist (he wrote a book saying LBJ killed JFK), and now a regular contributor on Alex Jones’ Infowars site—took a confrontational stance. He boasted that he had matched committee Democrats point by point. He demanded that three committee Democrats—as well as Clinton—apologize to him. But if Democratic committee members are right, Stone’s time in the barrel may not yet be over.
The WikiLeaks Tweets Roger Stone Can’t Explain – Mother Jones
hnmm
“Plot twist,” says Edward Snowden, but some others aren’t convinced.
hmmmm
Starting in 1792, the Ohio Company of Associates made a deal with potential settlers: anyone willing to form a permanent homestead on the wilderness beyond Ohio’s first permanent settlement would be granted 100 acres of land. To prove their homesteads to be permanent, settlers were required to plant 50 apple trees and 20 peach trees in three years, since an average apple tree took roughly ten years to bear fruit.
Ever the savvy businessman, Chapman realized that if he could do the difficult work of planting these orchards, he could turn them around for profit to incoming frontiersmen. Wandering from Pennsylvania to Illinois, Chapman would advance just ahead of settlers, cultivating orchards that he would sell them when they arrived, and then head to more undeveloped land. Like the caricature that has survived to modern day, Chapman really did tote a bag full of apple seeds. As a member of the Swedenborgian Church, whose belief system explicitly forbade grafting (which they believed caused plants to suffer), Chapman planted all of his orchards from seed, meaning his apples were, for the most part, unfit for eating.
It wasn’t that Chapman—or the frontier settlers—didn’t have the knowledge necessary for grafting, but like New Englanders, they found that their effort was better spent planting apples for drinking, not for eating. Apple cider provided those on the frontier with a safe, stable source of drink, and in a time and place where water could be full of dangerous bacteria, cider could be imbibed without worry. Cider was a huge part of frontier life, which Howard Means, author of Johnny Appleseed: The Man, the Myth, the American Story, describes as being lived “through an alcoholic haze.”
…During Prohibition, apple trees that produced sour, bitter apples used for cider were often chopped down by FBI agents, effectively erasing cider, along with Chapman’s true history, from American life
hmmm
“She certainly had the right to criticize my nomination,” Sessions said.
Sessions: Senate shouldn’t have punished Warren over letter she ‘persisted’ in reading – POLITICO
No shit, Dick Tracy?
The HHS secretary sometimes combined official travel and meetings with friends and family.
Price’s private-jet travels included visits with colleagues, lunch with son – POLITICO
Hope he ends up disgraced and in jail.
A week after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, the US commonwealth’s residents are struggling to survive without basic necessities as federal officials say aid is still on the way.
Puerto Ricans still waiting for aid a week after Maria’s devastation – CNN
Where’s Kanye when we need his mouthy ass? Guess Trump hates Hispanics. Seems like he’s content to just let people die.
The Shinawatras had commanded huge support by courting rural voters, helping them to win every general election since 2001, but their foes accused them of corruption and nepotism.
They won the loyalty of the rural and urban poor with groundbreaking welfare schemes in a sharply unequal country. But their rise angered Bangkok’s army-allied elite, which repeatedly assailed their elected governments with coups or court rulings.
…Yingluck’s downfall revolved around a scheme that saw her government purchase rice from farmers at nearly twice the market price. It was wildly popular in the rural heartlands but slammed by critics as a costly and graft-riddled handout.
Former Thai PM Yingluck sentenced in absentia to 5 years’ jail for negligence – Channel NewsAsia
hmmmm
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said he’s “99 percent sure” Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn will be indicted.
Russia Probe: Manafort and Flynn Likely to Face Criminal Charges, Senator Says
hmmmm
A little gadget could make you look smart, rich, and tech-savvy—all without necessarily fulfilling its real function
Early Tech Adopters in Ancient Rome Had Portable Sundials | Innovation | Smithsonian
wild
Karim was paired with Mohamed Buxshe, an experienced servant who ran the household of a British general. Compared with Buxshe, Karim was woefully unprepared for his new duties. But before he departed for London, he received a crash course in palace etiquette and the English language, as well as a brand-new wardrobe.
Queen Victoria’s first impression of Karim was recorded in her diaries, where she deemed him “tall with a fine serious countenance.” After their jubilee duties concluded, Karim and Buxshe traveled with the queen to her summer home on the Isle of Wight. There, Karim distinguished himself by surprising the sovereign with one of his favorite recipes. Using spices he had brought from Agra, Karim cooked a chicken curry with dal and pilau.
…The queen was well aware of this animosity towards Karim, and did not tolerate it. Fritz Ponsonby, her assistant private secretary, articulated her unwavering stance in a letter. “The Queen insists on bringing the Munshi forward, and if it were not for our protest, I don’t know where she would stop,” he wrote. “But it is no use, for the Queen says it is ‘race prejudice’ and that we are jealous of the poor Munshi.” Victoria heaped gifts and titles upon Karim partially because she knew the court would not pay him the same respect once she was dead. But she made sure her friend would be comfortable and remembered.
While Karim already enjoyed homes at the royal residences of Windsor, Balmoral and Osborne, Victoria also secured a land grant for him back in Agra. She commissioned multiple portraits of him, and had him written up in the Court Circulars and local gazettes. In her final wishes, she was quite explicit: Karim would be one of the principal mourners at her funeral, an honor afforded only to the monarch’s closest friends and family. Victoria could not control what happened to the Munshi from beyond the grave, but she did everything in her power to mitigate the harsh treatment she presumed her family would inflict upon him.
The queen’s fears were justified. Upon her death on January 22, 1901, Victoria’s children worked swiftly to evict their mother’s favorite adviser. Edward VII sent guards into the cottage Karim shared with his wife, seizing all letters from the queen and burning them on the spot. They instructed Karim to return to India immediately, without fanfare or farewell.
The True Story of Victoria and Abdul | History | Smithsonian
hmmm
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