January, 2019

Apparently, in the land of fruits and nuts, the California Department of Education believes it knows what is best for your children and wants to teach kindergartners that there are at least 15 different genders. Not only that, but the curriculum being looked at claims that it is an impossibility to know whether a baby is a boy or a girl or something else... forget that 6,000 years of history has taught us "boys have a penis, girls have a vagina."

President Trump and congressional Democrats arrived at an agreement Friday to support a short-term spending bill to re-open the government, temporarily ending the partial government shutdown that has dragged on for 35 days, in a move to separate the controversial issue of border security from funding of the government.

From the White House Rose Garden Friday, the president announced that the administration and Congressional Republicans and Democrats had “reached a deal to end the shutdown and reopen the federal government. Trump said the deal would keep the government open for three weeks until Feb. 15. The measure passed the Senate on Friday afternoon on a voice vote. It is expected to pass the House of Representatives later Friday, and Trump is expected to sign it by Friday evening.

Trump re-opens government - giving some of the good federal employees their money. Pelosi has no more reason to delay SOTU. No deal on wall. And in a couple of weeks, Trump has 4 options where he can get the money for the wall if negotiations fail. Mitch McConnell can use the Nuclear Option and get it done. If McConnell demurs, this leaves a second Trump card; Use of the budget reconciliation process that allows a simple Senate majority to enact legislation. Reconciliation allows for expedited consideration of certain tax, spending, and debt limit legislation. In the Senate, reconciliation bills aren't subject to filibuster and the scope of amendments is limited, giving this process real advantages for enacting controversial budget measures. If Congress fails to do this, he has a third Trump card; Unauthorized spending. And last bu not least, he can declare a National Emergency, which I highly doubt he'll do for other reasons. Looks to me like he's winning this and making the DEMs look bad. The DEMs have no leverage. They can't blame Trump if they decide to not negotiate and shutdown the government. Trump now has all the cards. Tell us again how all this is a bad thing for Trump? He seems to want to help even the haters and losers, yet people are crying about it? That's not MAGA, that's evil.

Republic Steel hopes to reopen its Lorain mill, which has been idled for three years, in the spring, the company says. The company, based in Canton, said in a news release that it “anticipates” starting production at its 9”-10” rolling mill in the second quarter of 2019 with more than 60 employees. About 200 worked at the plant when it was idled in 2016.
[...]
The company announced last June that it would reopen the mill in September in response to business generated by President Donald Trump’s steel tariff, which imposed a 25 percent tax on steel imports. Republic Steel then pushed the date of reopening back to last December.

Canadian police have made two arrests as part of a national security investigation that involves multiple police agencies including the FBI.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed the two arrests in Kingston, Ontario in a statement late Thursday. A senior government official said it is related to national security and there is no threat to public safety. A law enforcement official confirmed the FBI’s involvement. Both officials were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A judge signed off Friday on changes to the legal team representing Harvey Weinstein in his rape and sexual assault case, allowing the film producer to swap out his bulldog New York City defense attorney for a four-person team that’s full of courtroom star power.

The disgraced Hollywood mogul was in court in Manhattan —along with new lawyers Jose Baez, Ronald Sullivan and Duncan Levin, and former lawyer Benjamin Brafman — as Judge James Burke approved the switch.

Three Boston men were arrested Wednesday for allegedly pushing large amounts of fentanyl in a drug ring that spanned from Dorchester to Plymouth County, and apparent efforts to flush some of the contraband down the toilet failed miserably, according to authorities.

In a statement, Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz’s office identified the suspects as Delfin Daniel Mendez, 33, Jose Armando Reynoso, 21, and Omar Saldana, 27. It wasn’t immediately clear who was providing legal representation for the suspects. They were apprehended after a two-month probe.

Salazar Ortiz, a native of Mexico, was convicted of making a false statement on a passport application, unlawful voting by an undocumented immigrant and aggravated identity theft, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

The defendant used the name Jesse H. Vargas Jr. when voting in the 2016 election, a report said, although it was unclear how many other times he may have voted illegally. Authorities said a man with Vargas’ name and birth date had left the area as a teenager, when the now-57-year-old man's family moved to California. But despite that, someone has used Vargas’ ID to vote in local elections “since at least 1994,” Bexar County elections administrator Jacque Callanen told the Express-News.

The report, published Thursday, says roughly 36 million Americans hold jobs with “high exposure” to automation — meaning at least 70 percent of their tasks could soon be performed by machines using current technology. Among those most likely to be affected are cooks, waiters and others in food services; short-haul truck drivers; and clerical office workers.

“That population is going to need to upskill, reskill or change jobs fast,”

Highly skeptical that it's realistic to expect the average cook, waiter or driver to "upskill" to become a programmer or engineer or whatnot.

It's also highly skeptical that if somehow they did, there would be 36 million jobs waiting for them.

Amid a partial shutdown, DHS gives admins 10 business days to lock down their DNS.

The CEO of Procter & Gamble, the parent company of Gillette, addressed the razor maker’s controversial “The Best Men Can Be” ad Wednesday, saying it “started a conversation” among men for finding ways to combat “toxic masculinity” and “sexist behavior.”
[...]
“There is an issue with toxic masculinity,” the CEO continued. “And what we wanted to do was show that there are some things, whether it’s bullying or sexist behavior, that we can be better. And to me, men are stepping up. And we showed in the commercial very clear examples of that happening.”

Two Israelis have been arrested in Japan on suspicion of smuggling gold worth US$17 million into the country from Hong Kong.

Reuben Rosen, a 58-year-old Israeli living in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward, and David Cohen, 55, of Setagaya Ward, are accused of hiding gold ingots in consignments of vehicle parts flown to Narita International Airport.

Japanese authorities found 220kg of gold concealed in components for car suspension systems that arrived at the airport in November 2017. The gold had a value of ¥ 1.9 billion (US$17 million or HK$136 million) and the bust is thought to be the largest of its kind in Japan

At least one person was killed and another was injured in a series of explosions Friday afternoon in the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun, the local authorities said.

The police are tentatively treating the explosions as “a criminal case,” the propaganda office of the Changchun Municipal Communist Party Committee said in a statement posted online. The blasts began when a car burst into flames in an underground parking lot, followed by explosions from an apartment building at the Wanda Shopping Plaza, according to the statement.

Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime informal adviser to President Trump, was charged as part of the special counsel investigation over his communications with WikiLeaks... Mr. Stone was charged with seven counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, making false statements and witness tampering, according to the special counsel’s office.

Did not expect this. I wonder what the play here really is. Could they be pitting him up against Corsi? The other day Corsi was on TV sitting next to Carter Page exchanging laughs. Something about this doesn't smell right.

CNN was there in a heart beat. How did they know? The swamp is deep.

With the rising accessibility of drones, many of the most dangerous and high-paying jobs within the commercial sector are ripe for displacement by drone technology. The use cases for safe, cost-effective solutions range from data collection to delivery. And as autonomy and collision-avoidance technologies improve, so too will drones’ ability to perform increasingly complex tasks.

While China is not the only authoritarian state in the world, it is the most powerful and technologically advanced, Soros said. "This makes [Chinese president] Xi Jinping the most dangerous opponent of open societies," he said.