History for February 18

History for February 18 - On-This-Day.com:
Mary Tudor 1516 - The Queen of England known as "Bloody Mary", Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta 1745, Louis Comfort Tiffany 1848 - Glass maker and interior designer


Enzo Ferrari 1898, Gahan Wilson 1930, John Travolta 1954 - Actor ("Pulp Fiction")



1564 - The artist Michelanglelo died in Rome.


1841 - The first continuous filibuster in the U.S. Senate began. It lasted until March 11th.


1885 - Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was published in the U.S. for the first time.


1930 - Elm Farm Ollie became the first cow to fly in an airplane.


1930 - The planet Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. The discovery was made as a result of photographs taken in January 1930.


1977 - The space shuttle Enterprise went on its maiden "flight" sitting on top of a Boeing 747.


2001 - NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Sr., was killed in a crash during the Daytona 500 race.


2006 - American Shani Davis won the men's 1,000-meter speedskating in Turin. He was the first black athlete to win an individual gold medal in Winter Olympic history.

Prison time predicted in Dems’ national-security scandal

Prison time predicted in Dems’ national-security scandal:

"Investigators, including Capitol Police, have been looking into whether classified or other sensitive information has been hacked by former information technology, or IT, staffers employed by Democrats in Congress.

Now, a source has confirmed to WND that the problem is so big, it is being handled as a criminal matter. And the source says suspects will likely receive prison sentences."

Hundreds of UK Muslims Protest the West, Vow to 'Conquer' America. Media Silent... » Louder With Crowder

Hundreds of UK Muslims Protest the West, Vow to 'Conquer' America. Media Silent... » Louder With Crowder:

"in the UK a bunch of Muslims got together to do some things. Host a kabob cook off, do some prayer chants, vow to destroy America. The usual stuff (see DOCUMENTARY: Innocent Afghan Woman Publicly Beaten to Death by Hundreds of Muslims…). Coincidentally also stuff that never gets mentioned by the left because of course. Tolerance, anti-Islamophobia, you know the drill.

Behold, the religion of peace…"

How algorithms (secretly) run the world

How algorithms (secretly) run the world:
"Washington (AFP) - When you browse online for a new pair of shoes, pick a movie to stream on Netflix or apply for a car loan, an algorithm likely has its word to say on the outcome.

The complex mathematical formulas are playing a growing role in all walks of life: from detecting skin cancers to suggesting new Facebook friends, deciding who gets a job, how police resources are deployed, who gets insurance at what cost, or who is on a "no fly" list.

Algorithms are being used -- experimentally -- to write news articles from raw data, while Donald Trump's presidential campaign was helped by behavioral marketers who used an algorithm to locate the highest concentrations of "persuadable voters."

But while such automated tools can inject a measure of objectivity into erstwhile subjective decisions, fears are rising over the lack of transparency algorithms can entail, with pressure growing to apply standards of ethics or "accountability."may discriminate against minorities by taking into account "risk" factors such as their neighborhoods and friend or family links to crime..."

Who Pays Taxes

Who Pays Taxes:
HIGH-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS EARN A DISPROPORTIONATE SHARE OF PRE-TAX INCOME AND PAY AN EVEN LARGER SHARE OF TOTAL FEDERAL TAXES

Jonathan Brown Slavery Lecture: Islamic Sharia Protects Slaves | National Review

Jonathan Brown Slavery Lecture: Islamic Sharia Protects Slaves | National Review:

"Brown also defended sex slavery. Questioning the validity of consent as the standard for morally correct sexual activity, he said:

For most of human history, human beings have not thought of consent "

Allen West: While everyone melts down over Flynn, I believe there’s a much BIGGER PLOT in the works - Allen West Republic

Allen West: While everyone melts down over Flynn, I believe there’s a much BIGGER PLOT in the works - Allen West Republic:

"Now, there you have the truth, and I submit, ladies and gents, this is no longer about “obstructionism” but is about a deliberate undermining of the peaceful transition of power in the United States. This is about the liberal progressive socialist left seeking to undermine our Constitutional Republic.

Why? It’s simple, they lost. They’ll never accept the directive given to conservatives and the GOP to get over it and that elections have consequences. If they can’t have their way, they’ll destroy it. And that means the physical destruction of property, along with the destruction of this nation…because they do not get to “fundamentally transform” our America."

This Indiana Town Wants to Fine a Community Out of Existence on Behalf of Private Developers

This Indiana Town Wants to Fine a Community Out of Existence on Behalf of Private Developers - Hit & Run : Reason.com:
"Members of a small, low-income community in Indiana are discovering that state-level protections that make it hard for cities to seize their property may not be enough.
When city leaders decide to get into bed with private developers, there are all sorts of ways for cronyism to threaten the property rights of owners.
When we imagine how a city or town seizes private property from citizens in order to hand it over to developers for special projects, we often think about eminent domain.
Governments can force citizens to sell them their property (often for much less than it's worth on the market).
While eminent domain was supposed to be used solely for public works projects (roads, schools, et cetera), the infamous Kelo v. City of New London Supreme Court decision set a legal precedent allowing governments to use it to hand over property to private developers for big projects.
Some states that objected to that decision passed new laws to restrict how eminent domain may be used within their borders.
Indiana was one of them.
So property rights-minded citizens might be surprised to hear that the mayor and city officials of Charlestown, Indiana, a rural community with a population of less than 8,000, are trying to arrange to hand over hundreds of homes to a private developer.
He's not using eminent domain to do so.
Instead, the city stands accused of deliberately finding excuses to burden the community's residents with thousands of dollars of fines that will be waived if they sell their properties to the private developer..."
Read on!

Lunch video-----Why I Left the Left

Noon-toon

NSA ups the ante on domestic spying

NSA ups the ante on domestic spying:

"This story, from the Jan. 12, 2017, edition of the New York Times, was little-remarked upon at the time, but suddenly has taken on far greater significance in light of current events:

In its final days, the Obama administration has expanded the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying privacy protections."

This is fascism

This is fascism – Medium:
"It is probably futile now to argue for the proper use of the word fascism. 
To rail against the transformation of ‘fascist’ into a casual insult. 
To insist that fascism doesn’t mean ‘evil’ or ‘illiberal’ or even ‘demagogic’, but rather has a more specific meaning, and a more profound one. 
The f-word has been destroyed through overuse, its original sense and power diluted by a million op-eds branding unpleasant politicians ‘fascists’ and by radical marchers hollering ‘fascist scum’ at anyone who pisses them off: Trump, Nigel Farage, the cops. 
On the right, too, the accusation of fascism has become a Tourette’s-style cry. It’s the left who are the real fascists, they say. 
Ugly alt-right barbs like ‘feminazi’ and ‘eco-fascist’ confirm that right-wingers are now as likely to scream ‘fascist’ as they are to have it screamed at them.
The wise thing to do would be to accept that the term fascist is beyond repair. 
It’s a dead word. 
It now means bastard. 
It’s an emotional insult, expressing a sense of powerlessness on the part of the person making it, whose belief that he faces a fascist threat grows in direct proportion to his own inability to make sense of political developments. 
The insult of ‘fascist’ speaks far more to the insulter’s own sensation of impotence than it does to the insulted’s actual power, or ideology, or ambition. 
And yet, let’s have one more try..."
Read on!

Will a Test for Brain Trauma Protect NFL Players—or End the NFL?

Will a Test for Brain Trauma Protect NFL Players—or End the NFL? - Bloomberg:
"In November, Kevin Hrusovsky paid a visit to the NFL’s headquarters on Park Avenue in New York. Hrusovsky (pronounced ruh-sov-skee) is chairman and chief executive officer of Quanterix, a life sciences startup that makes machines for measuring proteins and other biomarkers in the blood.
He had the NFL’s attention because researchers have been using his company’s machines to hunt for markers of concussions and neurodegenerative disease. 
In an open letter NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell published in September about the league’s commitment to player safety, he wrote that Quanterix was developing “a blood test to reveal a concussion diagnosis.” 
It would be, Goodell said, “a major breakthrough.”
The league, through a partnership with General Electric, has awarded Quanterix $800,000 in grants in the past three years.
Hrusovsky was hoping to persuade the NFL to invest directly.
...Researchers have also begun using Quanterix tests to search for signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the neurodegenerative disease that’s been found in the brains of at least 90 dead former NFL players..."
Read on!

This Is One Of The Big Reasons Why So Many Families Are Feeling Extreme Financial Stress

This Is One Of The Big Reasons Why So Many Families Are Feeling Extreme Financial Stress
"When the cost of living rises faster than paychecks do year after year, eventually that becomes a very big problem.  
For quite some time I have been writing about the shrinking middle class, and one of the biggest culprits is inflation.  
Every month, tens of millions of American families struggle to pay the bills, and most of them don’t even understand the economic forces that are putting so much pressure on them.  
The United States never had a persistent, ongoing problem with inflation until the debt-based Federal Reserve system was introduced in 1913.  
Since that time, we have had non-stop inflation and the U.S. dollar has lost more than 98 percent of its value.  
If our paychecks were increasing faster than inflation this wouldn’t be a problem, but in recent years this has definitely not been the case for most Americans.

And unfortunately inflation is starting to accelerate once again. 
In fact, it is being reported that inflation rose at the fastest pace in four years in January…

The prices Americans pay for goods and services surged in January by the largest amount in four years, mostly reflecting a rebound in the cost of gasoline that’s taking a bigger chunk out of household incomes.

The consumer price index, or cost of living, rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in January, the government said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, our incomes have been incredibly stagnant.  
In fact, we just learned that median household income did not go up at all during 2016..."
Much here, read on!

EXCLUSIVE - NSA Whistleblower: Agency 'Absolutely' Tapping Trump’s Calls

EXCLUSIVE - NSA Whistleblower: Agency 'Absolutely' Tapping Trump’s Calls:

"William Binney, a former highly placed NSA official turned whistleblower, contended in an exclusive interview today that the National Security Agency (NSA) is “absolutely” monitoring the phone calls of President Donald Trump.
Binney was an architect of the NSA’s surveillance program. He became a famed whistleblower when he resigned on October 31, 2001 after spending more than 30 years with the agency.

Asked whether he believes the NSA is tapping Trump, Binney replied: “Absolutely. How did they get the phone call between the president and the president of Australia? Or the one that he made with Mexico? Those are not targeted foreigners.”"