August, 2019

A$AP Rocky released from prison and on his way home to the United States from Sweden. It was a Rocky Week, get home ASAP A$AP!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2019

Under the program, if you said, "Hey Siri, what's the weather today?" someone at Apple could listen to a recording of that question. Apple says it doesn't listen to all conversations, just a small fraction. The company also says the recordings are anonymous. Apple calls the practice "grading." Google and Amazon do the same thing with their voice assistants, and all three companies say it's to improve speech recognition... Apple says Siri grading is anonymous, and the data sent back to Apple is encrypted and randomized, which means it would be hard to identify a person unless specific things were mentioned in a recording, like an address or a name...

"User voice recordings are saved for a six-month period so that the recognition system can utilize them to better understand the user's voice," according to an Apple white paper. "After six months, another copy is saved, without its identifier, for use by Apple in improving and developing Siri for up to two years"... Apple does not let you review the questions you've asked Siri and has not yet rolled out a feature that lets you opt out of the possibility that your voice recordings will reviewed by employees. It says the latter is coming.

Soros has so far put $5.1 million into the PAC, according to paperwork filed with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday. His $5.1 million contribution was the single biggest check any megadonor has cut so far during the 2020 election cycle. Soros' move to open the new PAC hints that the billionaire financier may be poised to spend heavily in the 2020 elections. The $5.1 million that Soros put in the PAC more than doubles the $2.1 million he had donated to political causes at this point in the 2016 elections.

A detailed itinerary for the Trumps' two-day state visit, on September 2-3, has yet to be announced. The White House's website simply states that in Denmark, "the President will participate in a series of bilateral meetings and meet with business leaders." In a statement, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen hinted that he was interested in shoring up the countries' defense alliance. "The U.S. is Denmark’s most important and strongest ally in NATO," Frederiksen said, per Reuters. "Our soldiers stand shoulder by shoulder at the world’s hotspots and in the defense of Europe’s safety."

R. Kelly pleaded not guilty Friday to charges he sexually exploited young women and girls who attended his concerts, appearing in a federal courtroom in Brooklyn packed with his supporters. For a second time, he was denied bail, according to the Associated Press... The hearing was briefly delayed Friday after his lawyer in the New York case, Douglas Anton, said he was unable to meet with him after he arrived from Chicago on Thursday. Anton complained in a letter to a federal magistrate late Thursday that he couldn't find him. Anton said federal Bureau of Prison officials, who flew Kelly into a New Jersey airport on Thursday afternoon, were unhelpful in explaining where he was so that he could meet with his client before the hearing, according to the New York Post and NBC News.

An unusual pool of water has appeared in the Halema'uma'u crater of Hawaii's Kīlauea volcano, scientists have announced. The water was first spotted at the end of July, with an aerial image showing a "green pond" at the bottom of the crater that was estimated to be about the size of a pickup truck... The pond sits in an extremely inaccessible spot deep inside the volcano and it cannot be seen from most of the rim. Scientists with the HVO are now attempting to get more observations and to install a camera to monitor the new pond. Swanson said the next question will be to work out the source of the water. "Until we better understand where the water is coming from, it's impossible to understand its significance," he wrote.

• US employers added 164,000 jobs.
• Average hourly earnings increased 3.2%.
• Labor Force Participation Rate Rises to 63%.
• Prime-Age Participation 82%.
• Hispanic women unemployment rate falls to 3.8%.
• Unemployment rate for high-school dropouts ticked down slightly to 5.1%, near its post-recession low.
• The median spell of unemployment lasted 8.9 weeks, down from 9.6 weeks a year ago.
• Broadest measure of unemployment, which includes people who've stopped searching for work as well as part-time workers who want full-time work, fell to 7.0% last month. The lowest level since late 2000 and a sign that the strong labor market continues to pull more workers off the sidelines.

"China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to this," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular press briefing.

"If the US implements the tariff measures, China will have to take necessary counter-measures to resolutely defend the core interests of the country and its people," Hua said, adding that Beijing did not want a trade war "but is not afraid to fight one if necessary."

She did not specify what kind of measures China would take, but in the past Beijing has hinted that it could restrict exports of rare earths that are vital to the US technology industry, and it is also drawing up a blacklist of "unreliable" foreign companies...

According to a search warrant affidavit unsealed in U.S. District Court in Seattle and reviewed by The Associated Press, two storefront businesses posing as pawnshops bought the goods from shoplifters, then had the items shipped to Amazon warehouses, where they were stored until sold online. Entities associated with the alleged ringleader did at least $10 million in sales on Amazon since 2013, FBI agent Ariana Kroshinsky wrote in her affidavit...

Among those who provided stolen items to the pawnshops were two contract Amazon drivers, Kroshinsky said. Their job was to travel to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, pick up items being returned to the company and then bring them to an Amazon warehouse south of Seattle, and to deliver items to post offices for shipping. Instead, they routinely stole the goods and sold them to the pawnshops, she wrote.

Just between us, and the readers of this magazine—there’s zero chance. There are so many ways to improve this country and build a better world, and I keep doing plenty of them, from working with young people to helping families lead healthier lives. But sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office will never be one of them. It’s just not for me.

Two weeks after former Chicago Mayor and Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her "snot-nosed punk" chief-of-staff Saikat Chakrabarti are destroying the Democratic party, Chakrabarti and AOC's communications director Corbin Trent have abruptly resigned from the Congresswoman's office, according to The Intercept.

"Saikat has decided to leave the office of Rep. Ocasio-Cortez to work with New Consensus to further develop plans for a Green New Deal," according to Trent, who added "We are extraordinarily grateful for his service to advance a bold agenda and improve the lives of the people in NY-14. From his co-founding of Justice Democrats to his work on the Ocasio-Cortez campaign and in the official office, Saikat’s goal has always been to do whatever he can to help the larger progressive movement, and we look forward to continuing working with him to do just that"

They might distancing themselves from directly working for AOC and going to work with New Consensus, but this organization is still part of the Neo-Progressive Machine that is funded by George Soros, and staffed with Obama stooges.

Puerto Rico was gripped with uncertainty Friday afternoon about who would succeed Gov. Ricardo Rosselló just hours before his planned resignation at 5 p.m. His appointed replacement, Pedro Pierluisi, hasn’t been confirmed by lawmakers to the secretary of state position, which would put him next in the line of succession. Party officials haven’t coalesced around Mr. Pierluisi or any other successor in days of backroom negotiations, and it isn’t clear he can assume the governorship without a confirmation vote in his favor. The political tumult is affecting Puerto Rico’s access to the federal dollars it needs to rebuild the damage from Hurricane Maria and extricate itself from a court-supervised bankruptcy. U.S. authorities have tightened their grip on Medicaid funding and Federal Emergency Management Agency dollars, pressuring the next governor to repair Puerto Rico’s standing in Washington.

Although Berman tossed aside Stone’s requests to have the case thrown out, she did rule that Stone should be allowed to look at most of the parts of Mueller’s report currently blacked out due to “harm to ongoing matter” where he’s named or referenced, including portions of a couple pages from Mueller’s executive summary in the sections on Wikileaks and Trump associates lying to investigators.

The judge also said that Stone should get access to unredacted selected parts of another fifteen or so pages covering topics like contacts with Wikileaks and the GRU’s Guccifer 2.0 and DC Leaks, the dissemination of Wikileaks emails, communications and reactions of the Trump campaign related to these topics, and a number of names from the report’s appendix. The judge made it clear that Stone “shall not distribute this information… to anyone outside the defense team or use it for any purpose outside of Mr. Stone’s defense in this matter.”

The IBD/TIPP Presidential Leadership Index rose 3.7% in July, erasing June's 3.2% decline after May's solid 5.4% rise... In July's poll, President Trump's job approval rose rose 2.4% to 43% saying they approve of the job he's doing, up one point from June. However, 49% say they disapprove, down from 52% in June... The Direction of the Country Index jumped 6.9% in July... The Quality of Life Index also edged up 0.8% in July after falling 5.1% in June... The Standing in the World Index rose 0.7% to 46 in July, after declining 4.4% to 45.7 in June.

Kim Jong Un and North Korea tested 3 short range missiles over the last number of days. These missiles tests are not a violation of our signed Singapore agreement, nor was there discussion of short range missiles when we shook hands. There may be a United Nations violation, but..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2019

....Chariman Kim has a great and beautiful vision for his country, and only the United States, with me as President, can make that vision come true. He will do the right thing because he is far too smart not to, and he does not want to disappoint his friend, President Trump!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2019

Boleskine House in the Scottish Highlands was once the home of Aleister Crowley, who reportedly practised black magic there between 1899 and 1933. The property was also owned by Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page from 1970 to 1992. The derelict house was put on the market in April this year for £510,000. Police were called in after fires were spotted around 3.30pm yesterday at two buildings at the deserted site, including the derelict main house and at an external outbuilding. The estate's main house has had its interior destroyed by the fire and police believe the fires were deliberately started by arsonists.

The Pensacola woman accused of throwing a drink at U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz after a town hall in June changed her plea Thursday afternoon and pleaded guilty in federal court to the charge of assaulting a U.S. congressman. Amanda Kondrat'yev, 35, dabbed away tears as she entered her plea in front of a federal judge. She faces up to a year in prison, a $100,000 fine or five years of probation... Gaetz wrote in a text message to the News Journal that he was grateful to police and prosecutors for taking the matter seriously.

The changes in the law also grant women permission to register the birth of a child, a marriage, a divorce, or a death. This too was previously only possible for men.