History for August 20 - On-This-Day.com Benjamin Harrison (U.S.) 1833, Edgar Guest 1881, Jacqueline Susann 1921 - Author Don King 1931, Ron Paul 1935, Al Roker 1954 - Telvision personality 1882 - Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuted in Moscow. 1923 - The first American dirigible, the "Shenandoah," was launched in Lakehurst, NJ. The ship began its maiden voyage from the same location on September 4. 1940 - France fell to the Germans during World War II. 1964 - A $1 billion anti-poverty measure was signed by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. 1967 - The New York Times reported about a noise reduction system for album and tape recording developed by technicians R. and D.W. Dolby. Elektra Record's subsidiary, Checkmate Records became the first label to use the new Dolby process in its recordings. 1997 - Britain began voluntary evacuation of its Caribbean island of Montserrat due to the volcanic activity of the Soufriere Hills.
In a motion filed in federal court on Thursday, CNN and several other media outlets requested that the court release the names and home addresses of all jurors in the Paul Manafort fraud case. Jurors have not yet rendered a verdict on any of the 18 charges against Manafort, who briefly served as President Donald Trump's campaign manager in 2016.
An American couple decided to bicycle around the world in an attempt to prove evil does not exist. They chose to bicycle through ISIS territory and ISIS killed them...
In one post, Austin – who is a vegan – said he worked for the Department of Housing and Urban Development during Obama's presidency explained how he and his girlfriend were planning to bike around the world with hopes to meet "generous" and approachable people.
He did acknowledge that biking makes one more "vulnerable." ...
In another post, right before entering the ISIS hotbed recruiting grounds of Tajikistan, Austin waxed about how "evil" does not exist in the world. ...
"I don't buy it. Evil is a make-believe concept we've invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own—it's easier to dismiss an opinion as abhorrent than strive to understand it. Badness exists, sure, but even that's quite rare. By and large, humans are kind. Self-interested sometimes, myopic sometimes, but kind. Generous and wonderful and kind. No greater revelation has come from our journey than this."
It is a lovely fantasy, to be sure. It's the same mentality that attaches a bumper sticker reading, "Mean people suck" to a Volvo.
Image from simplycycling.org via the Daily Caller.
To U.N. watchers it’s a familiar critique, but Mr. Rhodes, 69, applies it far more broadly.
In his recent book, “The Debasement of Human Rights: How Politics Sabotage the Ideal of Freedom,” he argues that virtually the entire human-rights enterprise has been corrupted by a philosophical error enshrined in the U.N.’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights—and that this explains the travesty of the Human Rights Council.
That error is the conflation of “natural law” with “positive law.” Mr. Rhodes explains the difference: “Natural law is a kind of constraint on positive law.”
Think of America’s Bill of Rights, whose opening clause is “Congress shall make no law.”
The idea is “that laws have to answer to a higher law,” he says.
“This is a vision of law that is very deeply embedded in Western civilization,” finding premodern expression in the ideas of the Greek Stoics and the Roman statesman Cicero, as well as in biblical canon law.
Natural law is universal—or at least claims to be.
“Positive law,” Mr. Rhodes continues, “is the law of states and governments.”
A statute like the Social Security Act of 1935 creates “positive rights”—government-conferred benefits to which citizens have a legal entitlement..."
A review of publicly available information causes a reasonable person to wonder whether Bruce Ohr broke the law by promoting his wife’s anti-Trump research to the FBI when he was working at the Justice Department.
A recent academic journal article speculated that "biases in the exam itself" may be the reason that women pass the field's licensing exam at a lower rate than men, but professional engineers find the allegation "hard to believe."...
Professional engineers are expressing befuddlement over unsubstantiated scholarly accusations that the field’s licensure exam is biased against women..." Read on.
Journalist probing child-trafficking allegations against Bill Clinton found dead in her room at the Radisson Country Inn & Suites in Washington D.C. on Monday. She had been investigating claims of alleged involvement of former President William J. Clinton in sex trafficking. Four weeks before her death, Moore had provided information from interviews with the alleged victim to the Department of Homeland Security and allegations against Clinton. Records show that she contacted DHS from July 6 through July 9. True Pundit reported that she contacted the FBI one week later with identical information gleaned from the alleged victim..." Read on.
The complaint goes to the heart of Facebook’s business model, which depends on being able to offer advertisers micro-targeting.
“Facebook mines extensive user data and classifies its users based on protected characteristics. Facebook’s ad targeting tools then invite advertisers to express unlawful preferences by suggesting discriminatory options,” the Housing and Urban Development Department said in the complaint.
Fourth instance of mob violence this year shuts down Chicago’s fanciest shopping district "Business interests and police are doing their best to minimize attention to the slide into mob rule of the streets in Chicago’s nicest, most famous neighborhood. But shoppers, tourists, and ordinary working Joes and Janes can no longer take for granted the freedom to walk around Chicago’s upscale shopping district along North Michigan Avenue near the famous Water Tower. Four times this year, mobs of “urban youths” have taken to “wilding” and attacking random pedestrians while looting stores.
The latest instance happened on Tuesday. CBS Chicago reports:
A brawl involving dozens of teenagers broke out near Chicago’s Water Tower Place Tuesday night, prompting a flurry of 911 calls as the mob spread to Chicago Avenue and State Street.
The disturbance grew so large at one point that some businesses in Chicago’s busiest tourist district were forced to shut down
One person who witnessed the fight asked to stay anonymous, but told CBS that a group of about seven teenagers jumped a person walking down Chicago Avenue between Wabash Avenue and Rush Street.
1) It is never fun to tackle fact checkers, but this one is a case study in that modern art of omitting details, stating unsupportable assertions as fact, slipping things in, manipulating a narrative.
2)"Ohr exists in a netherworld — a subject of fascination in right-leaning media". Right, though piece fails to note that is because mainstream media is more "fascinated" by Omarosa than it is the news that a high ranking DOJ official--
3)--whose wife worked for Clinton oppo-research group Fusion GPS--was feeding said oppo research to the FBI. And that the FBI was taking it even after having officially terminated Fusion employee Christopher Steele as a source, for breaking FBI rules.
4)"Ohr is less of a central player."The guy was among highest ranking DOJ officials. And anybody who works for one central player in this drama (DOJ) and has dozens of contacts with all the other central players (Fusion, FBI, Steele) is by definition pretty central..."
More than 76 people were transported to hospitals this week in Connecticut
Social workers and mental health professionals responded to the New Haven Green, where most of the overdoses happened Wednesday
Police said that the illnesses were blamed on a batch of synthetic marijuana
Officials said 76 people overdosed Wednesday and 17 more fell ill Thursday
It's unclear whether Thursday's overdoses involved the same batch of 'K2'
Some of the New Haven victims tested positive for the powerful opioid fentanyl
No deaths were reported and most brought to hospitals have been discharged
Police swarmed a Connecticut park near Yale University and searched people's homes for drugs Thursday in an effort to prevent more overdoses from a batch of synthetic marijuana blamed for sending more than 70 people to the hospital..." Read all.
Sen. Richard Burr, who leads the Senate Selective Committee on Intelligence, issued a sharp rebuke of former CIA Director John Brennan, saying that if he has evidence of Russian collusion he should have presented it to his panel.
The North Carolina Republican’s statement was remarkable in that he has adhered to a strict nonpartisan approach as the committee pursues a more than yearlong investigation into Russia’s hacking Democratic Party computers and other interference.
