Sabotage at Nogales station puts focus on threats to grid

Sabotage at Nogales station puts focus on threats to grid:
".....The Wall Street Journal publicized a detailed account of the assault in February describing how saboteurs cut telephone lines into the plant. 
Then they "surgically knocked out 17 giant transformers" by shooting at them with sniper rifles for 19 minutes, the Journal reported.
It took 27 days to return the substation to normal, and the attack was described by Jon Wellinghoff, then-chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, as "the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred."
In March, Arizona Corporation Commission Chairman Bob Stump and Commissioner Bob Burns sent a letter to Arizona utilities asking about security changes they were making in the wake of the San Jose attack.
"The incident in Nogales is a troubling development that highlights the pressing need to focus our state and nation's attention and resources to increasing utility security at all levels," Stump said Thursday.
"Physical attacks against critical facilities will, I fear, become a staple of domestic and foreign terrorist attacks over the coming years.
The potential of shutting down an entire city or even the entire Eastern Seaboard will be enticing to our enemies.""

Nearly Every Mass Shooting In The Last 20 Years Shares One Thing In Common, And It Isn’t Weapons

Nearly Every Mass Shooting In The Last 20 Years Shares One Thing In Common, And It Isn’t Weapons | World Truth.TV:
Nearly every mass shooting incident in the last twenty years, and multiple other instances of suicide and isolated shootings all share one thing in common, and its not the weapons used.
The overwhelming evidence suggests the single largest common factor in all of these incidents is that all of the perpetrators were either actively taking powerful psychotropic drugs or had been at some point in the immediate past before they committed their crimes.

1. Eric Harris age 17 (first on Zoloft then Luvox) and Dylan Klebold aged 18 (Columbine school shooting in Littleton, Colorado), killed 12 students and 1 teacher, and wounded 23 others, before killing themselves. Klebold’s medical records have never been made available to the public.
2. Jeff Weise, age 16, had been prescribed 60 mg/day of Prozac (three times the average starting dose for adults!) when he shot his grandfather, his grandfather’s girlfriend and many fellow students at Red Lake, Minnesota. He then shot himself. 10 dead, 12 wounded
3. Cory Baadsgaard, age 16, Wahluke (Washington state) High School, was on Paxil (which caused him to have hallucinations) when he took a rifle to his high school and held 23 classmates hostage. He has no memory of the event.
4. Chris Fetters, age 13, killed his favorite aunt while taking Prozac.

This is a LONG list of forcefully drugged young murderers. Read it.

Obama's Balloon: Federal Student Loan Debt Up 517% in 5 Years

Obama's Balloon: Federal Student Loan Debt Up 517% in 5 Years | CNS News

This Proposed Amendment Would Violate Your Right to Free Speech (But Not the Media's)

This Proposed Amendment Would Violate Your Right to Free Speech (But Not the Media's):
"Imagine if Congress passed and the president signed a law making it a crime to utter “false, scandalous and malicious” statements “against the government.” Do you think that would violate your right to free speech?
Of course it would. "

If these people made cars, half would be recalled every year------One in Five Pittsburgh Teachers Chronically Absent, Report Says

One in Five Pittsburgh Teachers Chronically Absent, Report Says | Heartlander Magazine:

PHILADELPHIA — Teachers in Pittsburgh are absent way too often, finds a new report.
Eighteen percent of teachers were “chronically absent” in 2012-13, missing more than 18 days of work, and no obvious system of consequences exists, says a report released last week by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.
“If the district was able to reduce the number of days chronically absent teachers miss down to the current district average of 12 days, it could realize almost half a million dollars in substitute cost savings while keeping teachers of record in the classroom with their students,” the report concludes.

The unions lied. Your children's financial future died.-------A growing crisis: Public pension funds running out of money

A growing crisis: Public pension funds running out of money | Communities Digital News:
".....Roger Lowenstein, an outside director of the Sequoia Fund and author of “While America Aged,” points out that, “For years, localities and states have been skimping on what they owe.
Public pension funds are now so massively short of money to pay future claims, depending on how their liabilities are valued, the deficit ranges from $1 trillion to $3 trillion. 
Pension funds subsist on three revenue streams: contributions from the employer; contributions from the employees; and investment earnings.
But public employees have often contributed less than the actuarially determined share, in effect borrowing against retirement plans to avoid having to cut budgets or raise taxes.”
Pension funds, Lowenstein notes, also assumed that they could count on high annual returns, typically 8 per cent, on their investments: 
“In the past, many funds did earn that much, but not lately.
Thanks to high assumed returns, governments projected that they could afford to both ratchet up benefits and minimize contributions.
Except, of course, returns were not guaranteed.
Optimistic benchmarks actually heightened the risk because they forced fund managers to over-reach.”

History for June 17

History for June 17 - On-This-Day.com:

100th birth anniversary of author John Hersey (1914-93).

Birth anniversary of composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971).

Birth anniversary of John Wesley (1703-1791), cofounder of Methodism.

Happy Birthday! Tommy R. Franks, Newt Gingrich,  Barry Manilow

1775 - The British took Bunker Hill outside of Boston. 


1837 - Charles Goodyear received his first patent. The patent was for a process that made rubber easier to work with. 


1856 - The Republican Party opened its first national convention in Philadelphia. 


1876 - General George Crook’s command was attacked and defeated on the Rosebud River by 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne under the leadership of Crazy Horse. 


1885 - The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City aboard the French ship Isere. 


1924 - The Fascist militia marched into Rome. 


1928 - Amelia Earhart began the flight that made her the first woman to successfully fly across the Atlantic Ocean. 


1930 - The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill became law. It placed the highest tariff on imports to the U.S. 


1940 - France asked Germany for terms of surrender in World War II. 


1950 - Dr. Richard H. Lawler performed the first kidney transplant in a 45-minute operation in Chicago, IL. 


1969 - Boris Spasky became chess champion of the world after checkmating former champion Tigran Petrosian in Moscow. 

Veterans Administration Docs: If We Speak Up, We Become A Target | CNS News

Veterans Administration Docs: If We Speak Up, We Become A Target | CNS News:
"Dr. Rafael Montecino, a surgeon with the VA in eastern Kansas, complained that “when you try to make things more efficient, the system is working against you. They say that you are creating a hostile environment.”
And “when you complain, or you say like ‘You know, this is not the right thing,’ then you become a target and they gang together to get you out of there,” Dr. Montecino added."

A Jihadist’s Parting Words: ‘I’ll See You Guys in New York’ | TheBlaze.com

A Jihadist’s Parting Words: ‘I’ll See You Guys in New York’ | TheBlaze.com:
"King said the fact that Al-Baghdadi was released is a source of personal frustration.
“We spent how many missions and how many soldiers were put at risk when we caught this guy (in 2005) and we just released him,” he said."

The Punishment this Student Faced for Twirling a Pencil is Outrageous!

The Punishment this Student Faced for Twirling a Pencil is Outrageous!:

"Ethan Chaplin, a Glen Meadow Middle School student, told News 12 last week that while he was twirling a pencil with a pen cap on in math class, a student who bullied him earlier in the day yelled “He’s making gun motions, send him to juvie.”
He was suspended for two days and then underwent five hours of a physical and mental exam at Riverview Medical Center’s crisis unit, his father told NJ.com.
Maranzano told the New Jersey Herald decisions are made on a case-to-case basis on how long it takes before a student returns. Once an evaluation is done, a student could potentially return the next day, he said. "

18 baby goats headed for slaughter after urban farming idea rejected in Detroit

18 baby goats headed for slaughter after urban farming idea rejected in Detroit | MLive.com:

DETROIT, MI -- Idyll Farms hoped to start a goat farm in Detroit but officials rejected the idea, calling it an illegal violation of zoning laws.

Eighteen goats from the company's herd in Northport arrived in Detroit June 6. They were removed the following day at the demand of city officials.

Idyll Farms planned to fatten the goats by feeding them the plentiful unmowed grass on abandoned lots in Detroit's Brightmoor neighborhood throughout the summer before butchering them and selling the meet to raise money to sustain ongoing urban farming initiatives.

Since the city rejected the idea, Idyll farms says the baby goats will meet a premature demise and be butchered earlier than planned.

"The goats are currently grazing somewhere else, and will be gradually processed," a representative for Idyll Farms told MLive Detroit in an email. "They cannot return to Idyll Farms because the goats there are in a closed herd and the herders never introduce animals from the outside (or even back into) the herd."

400 Illegal Children Sneak In Every Day, Ted Cruz Cites it as a ‘Direct Consequence of Obama’s Lawlessness’

400 Illegal Children Sneak In Every Day, Ted Cruz Cites it as a ‘Direct Consequence of Obama’s Lawlessness’: “We need a president who is willing to uphold the law,” Cruz said. “On issue after issue the Obama Administration has openly ignored, defied, and unilaterally tried to change the law. With respect to securing the border, the Obama Administration has handcuffed the courageous men and women who serve in Border Patrol. Morale in ICE is at an all-time low because the political operatives leading this Administration are preventing them from doing their job and upholding the law.”
 He continued, “Just a few months before the last election the president illegally and unconstitutionally granted amnesty to some 800,000 people illegally. "

If we vote it, they will spend--------Another tuition increase at Muskegon Community College, other fee hikes proposed

Another tuition increase at Muskegon Community College, other fee hikes proposed | MLive.com: "MUSKEGON, MI -- Tuition at Muskegon Community College would increase by 7.26 percent for local students, and by much greater amounts for non-local students, and numerous class fees would increase under budget proposals the board of trustees will discuss on Monday, June 16.
The administration is proposing a 5 percent increase in adjunct instructors' salaries, which had been increased by 5 percent this year.
A 2 percent wage increase is proposed for support employees' salaries.
...The 2014-15 tuition increase would be on top of a 5 percent increase implemented this year. Administrators say the increase is needed to offset declines in enrollment and other revenue and increases in operating costs.
The administration also is seeking a $3 per contract hour increase, to $20, in the technology fee students must pay. 
That fee was increased last year from $10 to $17. 
In addition, separate course fees would increase, some of them significantly."

Detroit goats-----Grazed and Confused

Grazed and Confused [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
This shows up prominently once again in its recent treatment of a group of goats brought into the Brightmoor neighborhood to clear up weeds and unwanted vegetation.
It took only one day for officials to evict the animals with nary an explanation.
This isn't surprising.
Detroit has more rules, regulations, mandates and delays preventing people from living their lives than anywhere else in Michigan.
It isn't so much this specific ordinance that is the problem. 
Detroit joins many municipalities around the state in banning farm animals within the city limits.
It is the fact that an insolvent city at the top of several national crime statistics that cannot keep the lights on is spending time and effort focusing on regulatory rules that seemingly result in no harm to anyone.
Detroit has licensing rules well beyond that of other cities.
Its permit and inspection costs make it extremely difficult to run a profitable (legal) business.
And the infamous "Operation Compliance" where the city looks to shut down 20 companies a week that don't comply with all of these specific rules.
Statements from city officials show these are largely a short-term revenue grab.

President Hillary? No Way! She Should Be Done

President Hillary? No Way! She Should Be Done:
"This statement alone should disqualify a Hillary Clinton presidency from ever seeing the light of day. There are only two reasons that she would make such an absurd statement; both are pretty scary coming from the possible leader of the free world."

First they came for our phones........Agency Aims to Regulate Map Aids in Vehicles

Agency Aims to Regulate Map Aids in Vehicles - NYTimes.com:
Getting directions on the road from Google Maps and other smartphone apps is a popular alternative to the expensive navigation aids included in some cars.
The apps are also a gray area when it comes to laws banning the use of cellphones or texting while driving.
The Transportation Department wants to enter the argument.
The department is intensifying its battle against distracted driving by seeking explicit authority from Congress to regulate navigation aids of all types, including apps on smartphones.
The measure, included in the Obama administration’s proposed transportation bill, would specify that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has the authority to set restrictions on the apps and later order changes if they are deemed dangerous, much the way it currently regulates mechanical features of cars.
The measure has the support of automakers, which already mostly comply with voluntary guidelines for built-in navigation systems, but it has run into stiff opposition from technology companies, which say that any such law would be impractical and impossible to enforce.
It’s another example, they say, of federal regulators trying vainly to keep up with a rapidly changing industry.

Ummm. Personal protection......ummmmm----------Hand cannons: The world's most powerful handguns

Hand cannons: The world's most powerful handguns - Photos - Washington Times:
"Delivering maximum velocity for handgun hunters, Smith & Wesson engineered the 460XVR Revolver to deliver the highest muzzle velocity of any production revolver on earth.
This X-treme Velocity Revolver (XVR) produces velocities over 2,300 feet per second with a gain-twist rifled barrel for superb long range accuracy past 200 yards!
Interchangeable compensators help the 460XVR fire .460 Mag"

Let Them Kill Each Other

Refreshing!
Read it all.
Articles: Let Them Kill Each Other
I know, I know, the recent ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant) gains have everyone scared.
No doubt, the Islamophilic administration will want to step in, and save Islam from itself once again.
Let me advocate a course of action that will make sense to all sides in America; the left and right; from militarists to pacifists:
Let the Muslims kill each other.
After the administration blundered on Benghazi, on the Arab Spring, and Syria, Heaven itself has afforded it one last chance to set itself right.
It is almost impossible for the administration to screw it up.
All it has to do is nothing.
Yes, Nothing!
ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant) is presently a large group of thugs with guns.  
They have no navy, no air force, except for a few captured helicopters, which they will soon break. The only ones they can threaten are their fellow Muslims.  
If they take over Iraq, who cares?  
They will soon reduce the Levant to the seventh century.
And this is a problem to us? 
OK, oil prices may spike for a while, but they are going to need to sell their oil because they’ve got nothing else to produce for export and can’t produce any of the fruits of modern industry. 
Meanwhile, the high prices will encourage domestic drilling and production of our nearly boundless reserves held in shale deposits, to the point where we will become a major oil exporter ourselves.
These mujahadeen are incapable of maintaining the weapons they already have.
Weapons need upkeep.
Weapons have to be oiled, cleaned, and upgraded.
Upkeep interferes with raping, pillaging, and chopping off heads.
Within two years, they will be slaughtering each other with scimitars and rusty AK-47s.
Iraq's president, Maliki has asked for US assistance.
Oh really?
Iraq insisted on setting up its country with an Islamic constitution; against our advice, and now he wants American help.
For what?
So Iraq's Shia can continue to run arms to Syria and Hezb'allah in Lebanon?
If our State Department had men and women with intelligence instead of a love of the Qur’an, they would tell Maliki that our help would be predicated on four conditions:
1) Get rid of the Islamic constitution, and set up a secular state
2) Recognize Israel
3) Naturalize the Palestinians in your state
4) Break off ties with Iran
If Maliki says no, we say “Fine, have your Islamic state.
We are not going to decide which flavor.”
He has no choice.
No matter what he decides, the West wins.
Should ISIS take over, Iran will be cut off from land routes to Syria's Assad, and Lebanon's Hezb'allah.
How does this hurt the West?
Sure!
Iraq may go down.
The Sunni officers in the Iraqi army will not fight for a Shia majority Iraqi state.
In fact, many Sunni officers are already joining ISIS.
The Shia, who are mere foot soldiers, are not prepared to fight the better trained Sunni.
So what?

Chart Of The Day: All The President's Golf Games

Chart Of The Day: All The President's Golf Games | Zero Hedge

Why Are College Tuition Costs Rising So Much?

Why Are College Tuition Costs Rising So Much?:
Quick quiz: 
What two industries have seen the steepest rate of inflation in the economy over the past decade? 
If you said energy or housing, you’re wrong.
 The correct answer is education and health care.
The first of these isn’t too surprising to anyone with a son or daughter enrolled in college.
One of my sons goes to Northwestern University, and the cost is stratospheric: $62,000 a year.
Can the college degree he will be handed soon really be worth nearly $250,000?
Across the country, tuition costs have basically tripled in 20 years.
The same is true in public grade schools and high schools. 
Per-student spending has roughly doubled in just the past 15 years. 
Yet test scores have been flat or have drifted down.

Obama ignored general's pleas to keep American forces in Iraq

Obama ignored general's pleas to keep American forces in Iraq - Washington Times
The last American commander in Iraq recommended to the Obama administration that 23,000 U.S. troops remain to cement the victory, but no deal was ever reached with Baghdad, and all combat forces went home.
That stalemate has come back to haunt the country as al Qaeda-linked extremists, who had been defeated by 2011, have returned to Iraq in a terrorist campaign to capture huge swaths of territory in northern and western areas.
...Retired ArmyGen. John M. Keane, who advised commanders in Iraq and helped devise the 2007 troop surge, remembers how the U.S. achieved victory by working hand in hand with Iraq’s military to conduct pinpoint strikes.
The effort was so effective that the enemy, al Qaeda in Iraq, stopped sending killers into Iraq because they would be exterminated quickly.
......“As we pulled out of Iraq in 2011, just think of this: 
We had all our intelligence capability there. 
We knew where the enemy was. We were flying drones. 
We’re tracking them. 
We have signals intelligence pouring in, eavesdropping on phone conversations and the rest of it. 
We’re using our counterterrorism forces to bang against these guys. 
We’re passing that information to the Iraqis so their commandos can do the same,” the general said.
After several years of reduced violence in Iraq, the Americans left.

Texas Congressman Refuses to Be Kept Away From Border Patrol Facility and Has a Message for Obama | TheBlaze.com

Texas Congressman Refuses to Be Kept Away From Border Patrol Facility and Has a Message for Obama | TheBlaze.com:
"The constant flow of human trafficking is straining law enforcement resources all across the roughly 2,000-mile southwest border and it’s not predicted to slow down: An estimated 60,000 illegal immigrant children are expected to enter the United States this year, a number that will increase to more than 130,000 by 2015, according to Border Patrol agents who spoke with TheBlaze and to administration estimates.
Many Border Patrol agents who spoke with TheBlaze also blamed the immigrant surge on failed immigration policies and on unspoken policies they said prohibit them from doing their jobs."

Feel good story of the day------Felon killed the same day a jury accidentally set him free

Felon killed the same day a jury accidentally set him free | www.ajc.com
Just hours after he was released from prison because of a California jury's error, an accused burglar was killed in a violent fight.
"Thirty-seven-year-old Bobby Lee Pearson was accidentally released when a jury in Fresno, California, filled out a not guilty form instead of telling a judge they were deadlocked." ​(Via Fox News)
"Police say that Willie Gray, the boyfriend of Pearson's sister, killed him during a dispute when he returned home." (Via KGPE)
KFSN reports Pearson had at least five felony convictions for domestic violence, being a felon in possession of a gun and other crimes.
On his latest burglary charge, the case was dismissed — but it wasn't because the jury thought he was innocent.
According to The Fresno Bee, the jury meant to tell the judge they were deadlocked because all 12 jurors couldn't reach a unanimous verdict.
But they said they were confused by the verdict forms and accidentally signed a not guilty form.
After the court realized the mistake, the paper quotes the judge as saying, "I can't believe it. ... I can't change it because double jeopardy has already attached. 
This has never happened to me in more than 100 jury trials that I have done." (Via The Fresno Bee)

Guest Post: The Great Separation

Guest Post: The Great Separation | Zero Hedge:
What do Scottish independence, UKIP, self-employment, cryptocurrencies and the black economy have in common?

The neo-liberal establishment wont fix itself, so for those fed up with banging their heads against policy brickwalls, there’s only one direction. 
Separate.

...If the vested interests of the establishment represent an enormous inertia for any meaningful societal or economic change, there is one even more important barrier. 
The nature of monetary dysfunction is becoming more apparent, though its position as the ‘lynchpin’ of the various interconnected systemic malfunctions is perhaps not yet as clear as its should be.

....Finally, what of the black economy.
Traditionally, good citizens have seen ethical value in paying their taxes.
This fellow-feeling solidarity is based on a fundamental gut feel appreciation of fairness.
Orthodox economics has progressively hollowed out this sentiment, and replaced it with ‘enlightened self interest’, in the process legitimising selfish behaviour.
At the same time corporations globalise their operations to avoid paying any tax; and citizens are increasingly critical of the misallocation of their tax dollars.
We are dangerously close to seeing the taxation rationale completely dismantled. 
It is not uncommon to hear baby boomers who have willingly paid taxes throughout their lives express deep disaffection and an inclination to evade.
Why should a median income worker in Ireland pay 52% marginal rate tax, while Apple pays 2%?
A generation ago the Black Economy was the habitat of choice for criminals; unless some progress is made with regards to inequality, fairness and inclusion, it may well be the habitat of choice for all of us in the future.