History for January 4

History for January 4 - On-This-Day.com:
Sir Isaac Newton 1643 (N.S.) - Physicist, mathematician, Jakob Grimm 1785, Louis Braille 1809 - Inventor of a reading system for the blind.


Charles "Tom Thumb" Stratton 1838, Floyd Patterson 1935 - Heavyweight boxing champion, Barbara Ann Cochran 1951


1884 - The socialist Fabian Society was founded in London.


1885 - Dr. William Grant performed the first successful appendectomy. The patient was Mary Gartside.


1935 - Bob Hope was heard for the first time on network radio as part of "The Intimate Revue."


1944 - The attack on Monte Cassino was launched by the British Fifth Army in Italy.

1951 - During the Korean conflict, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces captured the city of Seoul.


1965 - The Fender Guitar Company was sold to CBS for $13 million.



1965 - In his State of the Union address, U.S. President Johnson proclaimed the building of the "Great Society."










1999 - Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura was sworn in as Minnesota's 37th governor.

Iran received $10 billion in cash and gold as sanctions relief — Obama admin. denies direct role – TheBlaze

Iran received $10 billion in cash and gold as sanctions relief — Obama admin. denies direct role – TheBlaze:

"The Obama administration reportedly signed legal waivers that allowed sanctions relief to the tune of $10 billion in cash and gold to be sent to Iran as part of the Iran deal. But the White House denies that they had any direct role in the payments.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the cash and gold were moved through third-party countries in the Middle East and Europe "

Pentagon Video Warns of “Unavoidable” Dystopian Future for World’s Biggest Cities

Pentagon Video Warns of “Unavoidable” Dystopian Future for World’s Biggest Cities:
"According to a startling Pentagon video obtained by The Intercept, the future of global cities will be an amalgam of the settings of “Escape from New York” and “Robocop” — with dashes of the “Warriors” and “Divergent” thrown in. 
It will be a world of Robert Kaplan-esque urban hellscapes — brutal and anarchic supercities filled with gangs of youth-gone-wild, a restive underclass, criminal syndicates, and bands of malicious hackers.

At least that’s the scenario outlined in “Megacities: Urban Future, the Emerging Complexity,” a five-minute video that has been used at the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations University. 
All that stands between the coming chaos and the good people of Lagos and Dhaka (or maybe even New York City) is the U.S. Army, according to the video, which The Intercept obtained via the Freedom of Information Act.

“Megacities: Urban Future, the Emerging Complexity,” a video created by the Army and used at the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations University.

The video is nothing if not an instant dystopian classic..."

Scientists Claim This Song Is Proven to Reduce Anxiety by 65 Percent – Listen

Scientists Claim This Song Is Proven to Reduce Anxiety by 65 Percent – Listen | The Daily Sheeple:
"Scientists discover that listening to the song “Weightless” by Marconi Union can results in a striking 65 percent reduction in a person’s overall anxiety, and a 35 percent reduction in their usual physiological resting rates....

Now, neuroimaging has proven that playing music can substantially reduce anxiety. Scientists in the UK have identified what can be called the most relaxing song on earth song. 
By playing the song “Weightless” by Manchester trio Marconi Union, these researchers reduced anxiety by 65 percent in individuals who participated in their clinical study. 
Have a listen:

...Sound therapist Lyz Cooper, founder of the British Academy of Sound Therapy, explains the process of how the song affects the body...

Top 10 Songs for Helping Reduce Anxiety

Here’s the full list of the top 10 relaxing songs discovered by Mindlab International during their research.

1.  “We Can Fly,” by Rue du Soleil (Café Del Mar)

2.  “Canzonetta Sull’aria,” by Mozart

3.  “Someone Like You,” by Adele

4.  “Pure Shores,” by All Saints

5.  “Please Don’t Go,” by Barcelona

6.  “Strawberry Swing,” by Coldplay

7.  “Watermark,” by Enya

8.  “Mellomaniac (Chill Out Mix),” by DJ Shah

9.  “Electra,” by Airstream

10. “Weightless,” by Marconi Union

Trump team invites Netanyahu to inauguration ceremony - US & Canada - News -

Trump team invites Netanyahu to inauguration ceremony - US & Canada - News -:

"The New York Post reported US President-elect Donald Trump's advisers invited Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to the inauguration ceremony on January 20."

Russians! Under my bed!

Russians! Under my bed!: Glenn Reynolds:
"John Podesta fell for a phishing scam. Let's not start another Cold War over that.
If there’s any single statement that Barack Obama probably wishes he could undo, it was his mockery of Mitt Romney during the 2012 presidential deb
ates.
Referring to Romney’s characterization of Russia as America’s greatest geopolitical foe, Obama said the 1980s are now calling, and they want their foreign policy back.
Now of course, Democrats are up in arms about the Russians, sounding like madcap John Birchers from the 1960s.
As Twitter wag IowaHawk noted,

• they didn’t get upset when Russia invaded Crimea, 
• they didn’t throw down when Russia shot down a civilian airliner over Ukraine, 
• but stealing John Podesta’s password via a phishing scam is apparently grounds for restarting the Cold War. 

Well, only one of these crimes constitutes a threat to Democrats’ political power..."
Read on!

Best video ever!-----Tears and shock at Hillary Clinton's election night party

Tears and shock at Hillary Clinton's election night party - CNNPolitics.com:
A day with Clinton fans: From jubilation to devastation 01:46
New York (CNN)At Hillary Clinton's election night party in Manhattan, her supporters grew tense. Before long, they were despondent.
As the returns trickled in on Tuesday, the thousands who were gathered at the Javits Convention Center to celebrate a historic victory started to realize that something was wrong.
Virginia was much too close.
Clinton was falling behind in Florida. Wisconsin -- a state that the Clinton campaign considered to be in the bag -- was too close to call.
Well before midnight and still hours before the 2016 presidential race would be called, Clinton supporters began to leave..."

Lunch video-----Debt Crisis of United States of America Explained in a Simplified Way

Noon-toon

Sheriff Clarke: For 8 Years Obama Has 'Rubbed White Peoples' Nose in the Stain of Slavery' -- He Can't Let Go

Sheriff Clarke: For 8 Years Obama Has 'Rubbed White Peoples' Nose in the Stain of Slavery' -- He Can't Let Go:

"In reference to the horrendous number of homicides in Chicago and President Barack Obama's pracice of dividing people by race, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke said Black Lives Matter never marches in Chicago and Obama, for eight years, has been rubbing "white people's nose in the stain of slavery" because he cannot let the issue go, and wants America to wallow in racial division."

When James Mattis Gave Away His Dinner

When James Mattis Gave Away His Dinner | The Weekly Standard:
"Character is often revealed in seemingly small gestures.
Amid all the speculation about how retired Marine general James Mattis will manage to lead the behemoth called the Department of Defense, one personal experience I had a decade ago as a young staffer in the office of the Secretary of Defense sticks in my mind as a demonstration of Mattis's natural leadership ability.
It was also an act of pure kindness I have never forgotten.
After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, as large numbers of wounded warriors started to come home to the United States to recuperate at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, my boss, Paul Wolfowitz, then deputy secretary of Defense, wanted the wounded service members and their families to know how much their sacrifices were appreciated.
...A small Army band played at the top of the stairs and my Army friend—who years later became my husband—helped his fellow officers bring service members no longer able to use their legs up the stairs.
It may sound like a surprisingly festive occasion for a group of people who had little to be thankful for—except that they were still alive. 
But it was indeed festive. 
Then-Lieutenant General Mattis—who, as a two-star, had commanded the First Marine Division during the invasion of Iraq— was there among the senior military leaders, incredibly gracious spending time with all the young men (there were no women yet among the wounded at that point) and kneeling down to hear their stories..."
Read the entire story!

38% of US Households Spend More Than Income

38% of US Households Spend More Than Income - Shnugi: 
"According to data from the 2015 Consumer Expenditures Survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 38.5% of US households spent more than they earned. 
Overall, 49.4 million out of 128 million US households are estimated to have had expenditures that exceeded their after tax income (table below). 
Another 21.1% (27.1 million) of US households saved less than $10,000 per year. 
One interesting fact is that 8.9% (11.3 million) US households are able to save at least $50,000 per year which is roughly equal to the median US household income."

2016’s Top News Stories Highlight The Dangers Of Diversity and Unwise Immigration

2016’s Top News Stories Highlight The Dangers Of Diversity and Unwise Immigration | VDARE - premier news outlet for patriotic immigration reform:
"...bad immigration ideas like open borders and unexamined diversity also took a beating as their results became clear in Europe.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel invited Syrians to her country beginning in 2015, and more than a million mostly muslim refugees came from around the world to occupy Europe in that year alone. Increased terror attacks followed.

The rancorous presidential election ranked as the most consequential 2016 event, where the nation-state candidate won, not the status-quo globalist.

 Immigration enforcement was a vital part of candidate Trump’s appeal to voters, one he made from the day of his announcement.
The #2 item, the BREXIT divorce of Britain from the European Union, was largely based upon the voters’ rejection of the open borders required by the EU.
In the #4 event, the Orlando nightclub murders were committed by the Omar Mateen, the son of Afghan muslims in another second-generation immigrant problem.
The #5 listing of worldwide terror attacks notes murders in the Middle East, along with horrific jihads in the Brussels airport and in Nice, France. 

The European attacks have been made possible by open borders welcoming historic enemies from the Islamic world.
So that’s four items out of 10 that are news headliners with permissive immigration as a central or important part. 

But the scribblers still haven’t figured out that not all diversity is equal.

AP Poll: US Election Voted Top News Story of 2016, ABC News, December 21, 2016

Read on!

The Reason Why Netanyahu Gave Obama The Book of Esther as a Gift, Will Open Your Eyes | JewFacts

The Reason Why Netanyahu Gave Obama The Book of Esther as a Gift, Will Open Your Eyes | JewFacts:

"When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave President Obama the Book of Esther as a gift, the message was only slightly less subtle than if he had constructed a massive neon billboard across the street from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with the message “Mr. President, please help me destroy Iran before they destroy us.”

The Book of Esther is from the Old Testament, and it’s a story that Jews across the world celebrate as the holiday of Purim. "

Nebraska Just Abolished Civil Forfeiture, Now Requires A Criminal Conviction To Take Property

Nebraska Just Abolished Civil Forfeiture, Now Requires A Criminal Conviction To Take Property:
"Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts signed a bill on Tuesday that eliminates civil forfeiture, which allows law enforcement to seize and keep property without filing charges or securing criminal convictions. The bill, LB 1106, passed the unicameral legislature last week by a vote of 38 to 8.
Civil forfeiture has ensnared a wide swath of victims in Nebraska. A Peruvian pastor once had $14,000 seized during a traffic stop.
Only after the local chapter of the ACLU intervened was he able to recover his cash.
Last year, a federal appellate court upheld forfeiting more than $63,000 in savings from a decorated Air Force veteran, even though he was never charged with a crime.
The newly signed law provides sweeping reforms.
First and foremost, Nebraska now requires a criminal conviction to forfeit property.
The accused must be convicted of an offense involving illegal drugs, child pornography or illegal gambling to lose their cash, vehicles, firearms or real estate.
Nebraska joins just nine other states that require a criminal conviction as a prerequisite for most or all forfeiture cases.
Following North Carolina and New Mexico, Nebraska is now the third state largely without civil forfeiture.
In addition to the criminal conviction requirement, LB 1106 also enacts new reporting requirements for seizures and forfeitures..."

AM Fruitcake

 

History for January 3

History for January 3 - On-This-Day.com
Marcus Tullius Cicero 106 B.C., Lucretia Mott 1793, Clement Attlee 1883


J.R.R. Tolkien 1892, Victor Borge 1909, Mel Gibson 1956 - Actor ("Braveheart," "Lethal Weapon" movies)


1833 - Britain seized control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. About 150 years later, Argentina seized the islands from the British, but Britain took them back after a 74-day war.


1871 - Henry W. Bradley patented oleomargarine.


1888 - The drinking straw was patented by Marvin C. Stone.


1924 - English explorer Howard Carter discovered the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt.


1925 - In Italy, Mussolini announced that he would take dictatorial powers.


1951 - NBC-TV debuted "Dragnet."


1961 - The U.S. severed diplomatic relations with Cuba.


1962 - Pope John XXIII excommunicated Cuban prime minister Fidel Castro.

Obama’s anti-Trump quest to crush America

Obama’s anti-Trump quest to crush America:

"With just three weeks left in his final term as president, Barack Hussein Obama is behaving like a maniac; his desperate actions to salvage his disastrous legacy are unnerving the American people and our closest allies.

Obama is doing all he can to sabotage President-elect Donald Trump to prevent him from successfully undoing the failed socialist policies of the last eight years. But he didn’t start this quest yesterday. This past year Obama covered a lot of ground in his bid to diminish and jeopardize America:"

Criminal!!-----Maryland College President Defends Lavish Expense Account

Maryland College President Defends Lavish Expense Account | The Daily Caller:
"Several students and staff of Montgomery College, Maryland’s biggest community college, are outraged over the college president’s high dollar spending on travel, meals and room service, according to a report by a local NBC affiliate.
...Dr. Pollard’s current contract shows that she receives a $281,000 salary with a possible five percent annual bonus. In addition, she has a $3,000 housing allowance each month for her home.
All of her work-related travel plus her wife’s travel costs are covered.
NBC reported on her questionable expense of spending $1,792 for a five-day hotel room at the Marriott Wardman in northwest D.C.
The hotel is only about 30 minutes from her house.
Records show that she averages 13 trips per year and has traveled to cities like Napa, California; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Honolulu, Hawaii; Austin, Texas and other cities.
Since 2013, she spent $70,000 in her travel expenses.
She spent more than $6,000 on upgrading plane seats for both herself and her wife.
In addition, they spent $3,700 for extra and overweight baggage. 
During the summer of 2015, she spent more than $3,400 on airfare and upgrades to Honolulu and Austin for conferences.
While in Honolulu, Dr. Pollard spent $2,776 for a hotel room.
While in Austin, she racked up $2,753 for her hotel plus spent $80 for breakfast and bought two dinners on the same night — one for $80 and another for $127..."
Read on!

Something About This Russia Story Stinks - Rolling Stone

Something About This Russia Story Stinks - Rolling Stone:
"In an extraordinary development Thursday, the Obama administration announced a series of sanctions against Russia.
Thirty-five Russian nationals will be expelled from the country.
President Obama issued a terse statement seeming to blame Russia for the hack of the Democratic National Committee emails...
This dramatic story puts the news media in a jackpot.
Absent independent verification, reporters will have to rely upon the secret assessments of intelligence agencies to cover the story at all.
Many reporters I know are quietly freaking out about having to go through that again.
We all remember the WMD fiasco.
"It's déjà vu all over again" is how one friend put it.
You can see awkwardness reflected in the headlines that flew around the Internet Thursday.
Some news agencies seemed split on whether to unequivocally declare that Russian hacking took place, or whether to hedge bets and put it all on the government to make that declaration, using "Obama says" formulations.
The New York Times was more aggressive, writing flatly, "Obama Strikes Back at Russia for Election Hacking."
It backed up its story with a link to a joint FBI/Homeland Security report that details how Russian civilian and military intelligence services (termed "RIS" in the report) twice breached the defenses of "a U.S. political party," presumably the Democrats.
This report is long on jargon but short on specifics. 
More than half of it is just a list of suggestions for preventive measures..."
Read on!!

John Kerry -- Secretary State Failure | National Review

John Kerry -- Secretary State Failure | National Review:

"Thus, it’s fitting that John Kerry’s last major act as secretary of state is a speech that offers up hot nonsense, a bitterly hostile address that called Israel’s government “the most right-wing in Israeli history, with an agenda driven by its most extreme elements.” (Mind you, the opposing side in this conflict elected Hamas, an actual terrorist group, to govern the Gaza Strip.)"

Slate both quotes me (a brilliant idea) and makes...

(1) Leon Drolet - Slate both quotes me (a brilliant idea) and makes...:
"Slate both quotes me (a brilliant idea) and makes self-defeating arguments against increased use of ride sharing services, like Lyft and Uber, as alternatives to traditional mass transit. 
Specifically:

1. The author laments that ride share services employ private citizens who charge less than expensive, unionized government employees - ignoring that transit should serve customers, not fatten government employee coffers.

2,. He points out that ride share services currently provide rides at less than true cost, while not caring that buses/subways use far more massive taxpayer subsidies. Example: he cites a bus route in Florida where riders pay only $2.25 of the $16 cost per ride, then criticizes the Uber/Lyft replacement of that route for using a $5 per ride subsidy - which saves taxpayers almost $9 per ride while (the author admits) providing better service. Yet, this is bad in his view.

3. He unfavorably compares Uber/Lyft's "fare box recovery" (the % that riders pay of overall costs) to selected subway fare box recovery while ignoring the fact that the vast majority of public mass transit are buses and light rail, which have FAR lower fare box recovery rates than Uber/Lyft or subways.

If this is the best critics of transit modernization can do, they will lose badly to advocates of privatization and modernization of mass transit.

Cities Are Cutting Public Transportation Because They Think Uber Will Fill the Gap. They’ll Regret It.

Over the past 12 months, bus and train riders on the peripheries of Philadelphia; Oakland, California; Tampa, Florida; and other cities have been treat ...

SLATE.COM

Absolutely Stunning – Leaked Audio of Secretary Kerry Reveals President Obama Intentionally Allowed Rise of ISIS… | The Last Refuge

Absolutely Stunning – Leaked Audio of Secretary Kerry Reveals President Obama Intentionally Allowed Rise of ISIS… | The Last Refuge:
"There are moments within investigative research when your jaw can stand agape as you recognize the scope of what you are reading or hearing.  A brutally down-played audio of Secretary John Kerry is just such an occasion.

♦ In August of 2014 President Obama (wearing a tan business suit) gave a press conference where he stated he “did not have a strategy” against ISIS. –Video Link–

♦ Two months later, in October of 2014, Josh Earnest gave a press conference where he stated:  “Our ISIS strategy is dependent on something that does not yet exist” –Video Link–

However, on September 30th 2016 the New York Times quietly released a leaked audio recording of Secretary John Kerry meeting with multiple factions associated within Syria.

When you listen to the audio recording (embed below) it becomes immediately obvious what was going on when both of those 2014 statements were made by the White House.  In addition, you discover why this jaw-dropping 2016 leak/story was buried by the U.S. media and how it connects to over 5 years of perplexing U.S. mid-east policy.

This evidence within this single story would/should forever remove any credibility toward the U.S. foreign policy under President Obama.  It also destroys the credibility of a large number of well known republicans.  What the recording reveals is substantive:

♦ First, only regime change, the removal of Bashir Assad, in Syria was the goal for President Obama. This is admitted and outlined by Secretary John Kerry.

♦ Secondly, in order to accomplish this primary goal, the White House was willing to watch the rise of ISIS by placing their bet that ISIS’s success would force Syrian President Bashir Assad to acquiesce toward Obama’s terms and step down.

♦ Thirdly, in order to facilitate the two objectives, Obama and Kerry intentionally gave arms to ISIS and even, arguably, attacked a Syrian government military convoy to stop a strategic attack upon the Islamic extremists killing 80 Syrian soldiers.

Pause for a moment and consider those three points carefully before continuing.  Because this audio (below), along with accompanying research now surfacing, not only exposes these three points as truth – but also provides the specific evidence toward them..."
Read on!

Lunch video-----So NOW You're Worried About Executive Power? | We the Internet TV