January, 2019

The judge agreed with Facebook’s request to keep some of the records sealed, saying certain records contained information that would cause the social media giant harm, outweighing the public benefit.

WTF?

Just how bad was this info? Well, we can only guess, but maybe these 2 articles linked here will give you an idea:
Facebook Tinkers With Users’ Emotions in News Feed Experiment, Stirring Outcry
Facebook told advertisers it can identify teens feeling 'insecure' and 'worthless'
Look at the dates on these two stories/leaks. Put two and two together and you will know what was so damaging that Facebook asked the court to not disclose it.

Intentionally manipulating kids to have emotional problems so you can have more vulnerable consumers for your advertisers to better micro target. That would be pretty damaging. Like parents of children who have committed suicide shooting up Facebook HQ kinda damaging.

Basically, Facebook has done research in the past to manipulate the emotions of people using it. Facebook has the ability to determine when people are experiencing certain emotions as they are using it, and can use this info for advertising.

Border Patrol Agents seized more than 700 pounds of cocaine along the US-Mexico border this week; confirming federal law enforcement found the “bundles of narcotics” along the banks of the Rio Grande river.

“Customs and Border Protection said the suspects were seen loading ‘bundles of narcotics’ into an off-road-style utility vehicle outside of Garciasville, a city in Texas up against the river. The suspects, apparently aware they had been seen, were able to ‘abruptly’ drive the vehicle into the river and escape into Mexico,”

...he told Alisyn Camerota that he has "not personally" seen the evidence he cited in the report. But, he said, “the folks we have talked to — two officials we have spoken to are fully, 100 percent read into that aspect of the Special Counsel’s investigation.”

From AmericanThinker.com:

She is far from alone in changing her views on redefining marriage and other issues. But it is clear to me from her sad appearance in the apology video posted yesterday that she realizes that this is a mortal issue for her national political aspirations, so she needs to go with a full-throated endorsement of positions her religious teachings condemn.

Ranchers and farmers near the U.S.-Mexico border have been finding prayer rugs on their properties in recent months, according to one rancher who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation by cartels who move the individuals.

The mats are pieces of carpet that those of the Muslim faith kneel on as they worship
[...]
Border Patrol and its parent agency, Customs and Border Protection, did not respond to multiple interview requests. But CBP's Arizona region issued a statement on Twitter Wednesday that said agents had arrested people from across the world over the past five days.

Defined as being born after 1996, more than half of Generation Z Republicans believe government should play a more active role in solving problems, the Pew Research Center found in a study released on Thursday. Researchers, however, cautioned that Generation Z's views could change.

The Generation Z figure can be compared to more than one-third of millennial Republicans, born between 1981 and 1996; almost three-in-10 of Gen X Republicans, born between 1965 and 1980; less than a quarter of baby boomer Republicans, born between 1946 to 1964; and only a handful of silent generation Republicans, born between 1928 and 1945.

Why would Nancy Pelosi leave the Country with other Democrats on a seven day excursion when 800,000 great people are not getting paid. Also, could somebody please explain to Nancy & her “big donors” in wine country that people working on farms (grapes) will have easy access in!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2019

In case you don't know, since many are asking about it on Reddit too, by Trump saying "...will have access in", he's probably implying that she shouldn't worry about her conflict of interest (of having cheap, illegal labor) because there's a provision for seasonal migrant farm labor.

If you didn't know about Pelosi and her vineyard, the LA Times explains it in one of their pieces titled: Nancy Pelosi's vineyard makes her fourth-richest Californian in Congress.

"“Especially when the House minority leader and her husband open up their bucolic Northern California estate and vineyard on the banks of the Napa River to the likes of Google's Eric Schmidt, wealthy environmental activist Tom Steyer and Gov. Jerry Brown”"

Interesting thing about Pelosi's vineyard(s) is that Nancy (and even institutions like Harvard) own vineyards in California simply for the future access to the water underneath them. Not surprising if true.

This latest example of a government restricting Internet access to control its citizenry had unintended consequences.

This is HUGE.

To put $1 Trillion in perspective, the US GDP is 20 Trillion, and China's is 13 Trillion.

$1 Trillion is 5% of the total value the US produces in a single year.

God bless America, the free market wins again. Do our bidding.

I will be making a major announcement concerning the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border, and the Shutdown, tomorrow afternoon at 3 P.M., live from the @WhiteHouse.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2019

Output at U.S. factories grew 1.1 percent last month, the Federal Reserve said Friday. Economists had expected industrial production to be flat to barely rising. Compared with a year ago, industrial production rose 4 percent in December.
[...]
The December industrial production numbers indicate that earlier anecdotal reports and surveys that suggested a manufacturing slowdown were offbase.

Big Blue’s IBM Q System One is an integrated quantum computing system that the company says is optimized for commercial clients to access the burgeoning technology.
[...]
The Q System, IBM says, is "designed to one day tackle problems that are currently seen as too complex and exponential in nature for classical systems to handle.”

On Thursday, the Travis County District Court ruled that the City of Austin, Texas, violated the law by barring handguns in City Hall and assessed a nine million dollar penalty against the city for the violation.

This is uplifting.

American Steve Bannon , a former campaign strategist for US President Donald Trump , met Thursday night with philosopher Olavo de Carvalho . The meeting took place at the home of the Brazilian, who lives in the State of Virginia, in the United States, and lasted about three hours.
[...]
One of Carvalho's books was on Bolsonaro's desk in the broadcast after the electoral victory in October. Besides the president and his sons have admiration for the philosopher, at least two ministers of the current government were nominated by the writer...
[...]
He also left carrying a copy of a book with the debate between Olavo de Carvalho and the Russian Alexandre Duguin.

You might be asking what the significance of this meeting is. Mr Olavo de Carvalho is a philosopher that's highly influential in Brazil's new government and with parallel ideas about the threats to western civilization. As you know Bannon is really responsible for setting up most - if not all - successfully, populist governments around the world that are currently making head-way. He's the Thomas Paine of our generation, but on a global scale. If anyone is interested, please see the video we are hosting on our YouTube channel. Lots of information regarding behind-the-scenes strategies is revealed by Bannon there. A must see.

The largest single group of asylum seekers ever to cross into the U.S. tunneled beneath the border wall near San Luis, Arizona, on Monday, voluntarily turning themselves into Customs and Border Protection, according to the agency.

Migrants can be seen marching toward Border Patrol agents by the hundreds, according to video obtained by ABC News. Smugglers dug a series of seven holes, only a few feet long beneath the steel border fence, with hundreds going beneath the wall and a smaller number clambering over it, according to CBP.
[...]
The agency says 179 of the record 376 people who crossed were children, including over 30 unaccompanied minors -- children under 18 traveling on their own.

‘Dilbert’ creator Scott Adams said Americans can thank House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if President Trump delivers one of the most entertaining State of the Union speeches of all time — at a venue of his choosing.
[...]
“They just allowed him to be free,” Mr. Adams said. “They just released the Kraken. He’s the most entertaining person in the world who is only stopped in his entertainment value by the context of the State of the Union — and now he’s free. … They freed the president to make this an entertaining event.”

It's called "Project Alias" - a new user-driven project aimed at helping prevent our virtual assistants from hearing everything we say. The team behind it refers to "Alias" as a teachable parasite, because of the way it sits on top of the speaker section of your virtual assistant, like Google Home or Amazon Echo, and lets you be in control of more than just what it can hear.

For now, "Alias" is a home-grown product. You build the device yourself, then 3-D print the case so it sits perfectly over the speaker of your virtual assistant. "Alias" is open source, meaning easy-to-follow directions for both the device and the case are available online now for free. Once the device is on the speaker, it plays white noise, so the virtual assistant can't hear you...

A New Jersey woman has sued T-Mobile in state court last week for sexual harassment, invasion of privacy, and other counts. She claims that, when she went to trade in her iPhone 7 at a store, two male employees rifled through her photos without her consent.
The men allegedly quickly found a private naked video of the woman, referred to in the complaint as "N.E.," and played it for themselves. The woman was mortified.