Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that the Turkish Army entered Syria to end the rule of President Bashar Assad, whom he accused of terrorism and causing the deaths of thousands. “We entered [Syria] to end the rule of the tyrant al-Assad who terrorizes with state terror. [We didn’t enter] for any other reason,” the Turkish president said at the first Inter-Parliamentary Jerusalem Platform Symposium in Istanbul, as quoted by Hurriyet daily.
I am somewhat surprised that the world media, you know, that reliable ‘mainstream’ crowd that says everything online is fake, isn’t paying attention to the words of the Turkish president. This situation is heating up.. this is getting close to .. well .. warfare..
Don’t forget.Turkey is in NATO. And so are many other nations.. there is a pact within NATO that if one nation is attacked or at war, all of NATO could theoretically be involved. And …. Russia is also in Syria.. and Russia has been pushing against NATO expansion in eastern Europe. And Turkey is pushing into Syria, which is allied to Russia.. and Donald Trump will become president in 50 days..
And….see the pattern? This is heading in the wrong direction for those who want world peace in our time. This is heading to .. a war? I do not want to predict it and if I did say World War III was about to occur I would want to be dead wrong in my tracks.
But … we need to start listening to the words of the Erdogan….who says he is entering the conflict to remove Bashir.
…this story has been developing for several days. Clyde Lewis even did a show on the topic last night.. there seems to be additional evidence that the trending UFO over Turkey hashtag on Twitter was removed for some strange reason…
There are also claims from some UFO ‘experts,’ whoever they are, that the UFO flap is a purposely hoax. ..
Nothing to see here..
But the story has gone viral.. the images look somewhat like the late 90s’ Phoenix lights incident..
And with all of the OTHER news coming from Turkey lately, this just adds to the bizarre mix of other-worldly and paranormal with warfare..
WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE 16 AND RETWEETED BY THE PRESIDENT-ELECT (A READOUT OF THE TIME WE DMed WITH A TEENAGER) - Monday evening, as President-elect Trump was tirading against CNN, 16-year-old California high school student Seth Morton tweeted at the network’s Jeff Zeleny, “Pathetic - you have no sufficient evidence that Donald Trump did not suffer from voter fraud, shame! @realDonaldTrump.” As sometimes happens when a teenager demands someone on Twitter prove a negative, the President-elect retweeted it. Morton tells us that it was an “incredible experience” and that when he arrived at school the next day, he was swarmed by classmates. “Before I could say anything, my classmates, along with students that I didn’t know, all congratulated me.” His teachers were somewhat skeptical, many of whom “didn’t believe my classmates until surprisingly discovering it on the internet.” Them and us both, Seth!
The result has been described as ‘unexpected’ and 'exciting’ because most prostate cancer therapies work by depriving tumours of testosterone, because cancer uses it as a fuel.
Other seriously ill men taking part in the same trial showed responses that astounded scientists, with tumours shrinking and the progress of their disease halted.
Roadside America is a quaint little place in eastern Pennsylvania that plays God Bless America every 20 minutes.. their roof is leaking and need some help on a Go Fund Me page
A charter plane carrying 81 people, including players from a rising Brazilian soccer team headed for a championship match, crashed en route to Medellín’s airport in Colombia Monday night, according to authorities. At least five passengers survived and the rest were killed, Colombia’s aviation authority confirmed Tuesday morning. It was uncertain whether that was a final count, however, as the figures had fluctuated during the night.
General José Acevedo, commander of Medellín police, told a Colombian radio station that 75 people had been killed at the site of the crash and six others had been injured and rescued from the scene. One of the rescued passengers died on the way to the hospital, Acevedo said. A local television station, Telemedellín, reported that a sixth survivor was rescued from the crash at about 5 a.m. Tuesday morning.
A horrific and developing story..
A reminder, if you needed one, that game and fortune never matters and sooner or later God’s gonna cut you down..
Nine people were injured when a man ran into pedestrians with his car on the Ohio State University campus, then exited the vehicle with a butcher knife and started cutting victims.
Less than a minute after the attack, an OSU police officer shot and killed the suspect. Despite rumors of a second suspect, police and campus officials say there was one person involved in the attack.
The attack happened outside of Watts Hall at W. 19th St. west of College Road. Earlier in the morning, the building had been evacuated because of a report of a gas leak. It’s unclear if that was related to the attack or if that’s why people were outside at the time of the attack.
OSU President Michael Drake, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, Columbus police Chief Kim Jacobs, the medical director from Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center and the OSU police Chief Craig Stone spoke this afternoon outside the OSU hospital. Officials said nine people were taken to area hospitals.
Wexner Medical Center treated five patients: two were stabbed, two were hit by the car and one who hid after the attack and just arrived. The last victim’s injuries were being assessed.
Two victims with lacerations were taken to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center. Two victims who were struck by the car were taken to OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital.
The attack happened at 9:52 a.m. An “active shooter” alert was sent at 9:55 to the campus community urging people to hid in place.
At 11:30 a.m., the university said the scene is secure and that all classes are canceled on campus. The shelter-in-place order was lifted at 11:14 a.m., but more than a dozen buildings remain closed.
Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Jefferson Township, who had spoken to OSU president Michael Drake, reported that a car drove into a crowd and most of those affected appeared to have stab wounds.
“The university appear to be secure now, the students appear to be safe,” said. “What we don’t know is what was the motive,” she said.
Columbus Police, Ohio State police and deputies with the Franklin County sheriff’s deputies rushed to the scene. Students took to social media to find information, and posted video and pictures to Twitter of the scene.
Police were searching the area, and there was intense police and SWAT activity at a garage at W. Lane Avenue and Tuttle Park Place on campus, just east of St. John Arena. Officers with long guns and two armored vehicles were seen there before the threat was lifted.
Thanksgiving weekend in Chicago dust clearing: 8 dead and 58 injured.. the city’s homicide rate at a 10 year high.. this is a crisis of horrid proportions that few in the major media ever even talk about .. That many deaths and injuries, you would think if not for the racism among media elite, would be top story status..
Speaking of MOANA, it was a holiday hit: Box offices for the Disney film was $81.1 mil while ALLIED and BAD SANTA 2 struggled in the family friendly atmosphere.. MORE.. Moana topped the extended holiday box office with the second largest five-day Thanksgiving opening of all-time and the third largest three-day Thanksgiving opening of all-time, leading a top twelve that grossed a combined $173 million. Moana was, however, the only real success story..
Scientists claim: West Antarctic ice shelf is breaking up from the inside out.. // It’s generally accepted that it’s no longer a question of whether the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will melt, it’s a question of when,” said study leader Ian Howat, associate professor of earth sciences at Ohio State. “This kind of rifting behavior provides another mechanism for rapid retreat of these glaciers, adding to the probability that we may see significant collapse of West Antarctica in our lifetimes.”
Study claims that, yes, time travel IS POSSIBLE.. Dr Michael Hall and Professor Howard Wiseman from the Center say that parallel universes are not science fiction. They explain that if multiple, interacting universes exist, time travelers then could visit Earth… BUT… detractors abound: Other physics experts are divided on the theory. Dr Lawrence Kraus from the Arizona State University is skeptical of the hypothesis. Huffington Post cites a Czech Republic physicist who says the theory is “a hopeless enterprise and a huge waste of time.”
This has been the pattern for years.. My little experience allowed me to surprise this result.. my wife and son and I stopped by a Walmart Thanksgiving night after a family dinner. It was empty.. We had to go get, of all things, groceries on Friday.. and still nobody.. NADA.. Empty.
The facts speak for themselves..
Internet sales rose in the double digits on both days, surpassing $3 billion for the first time on Black Friday, according to data released on Saturday.
Data from analytics firm RetailNext showed net sales at brick-and-mortar stores fell 5.0 percent over the two days, while the number of transactions fell 7.9 percent.
Thousands of people gathered in an Austrian town Saturday for a scary tradition.
Scores of people dressed as the evil companion of Santa Claus, known as Krampus, charged through the town’s streets after dark.
The event known as the “Krampus Run” is based in Germanic folklore.
Krampus punishes bad kids by beating them and putting them into a woven wicker basket on his back.
Over 120 Krampus impersonators charged through the town’s market square.
Some jumped the barricades to cane several of the six-thousand people in attendance.
Little bruises are an accepted side effect of the caning attacks.
But young children usually get away with getting their caps taken away.
Groups from all over Austria and some neighboring countries participated in the event.
This may be one of the highest things to do on my bucket list .. I would so LOVE to be at the Krampus run..
I have written about Krampus plenty of times on here, just search the archives for that information.. The idea of Krampus has been with me since my childhood thanks to Russian and eastern European nuns who taught me in grade school.
My son also knows of Krampus, but we have shielded him from the worst of it all..
Jolly ole Saint Nick needs a rival. Each year, around this time, Krampus rears his head to be the rival who Santa deserves.
Krampus in Austria! I am jealous of anyone who went
This whole ‘fake news’ scandal is starting to bug me.. People are still falling for 'fake news’ just as easily as they did a year ago. Nothing in that avenue has changed..
The concerning part is this newfound approach to dealing with media.. the INTERCEPT is one of my favorite sites, and they back up some of my fears: The shady “McCarthyism” approach to website shaming, by claiming that places like the Drudge Report are Russian-fake news sites.
I get it.. some are alt-right, wherever that term arose from this year I don’t quite yet know.. But there are also some very average ho-hum websites on there.. And suddenly, they are literally blacklisted
On the free web! On the information superhighway.. On a place where I thought everyone had and SHOULD HAVE a voice!?
Yes indeed.. this crackdown on 'fake news’ is going well beyond click bait.
Both sides are trying to brandish the other as fake. Information, in the mean time, is suffering.
The Drudge Report is as perfectly fine as the Raw Story or Buzzflash–I visit all three sites on a regular basis. And in no way do I want them 'banned.’
This rise of newfound 1984-style media shaming is going to become an Orweilian nightmare.
The US Army Corps of Engineers announced it will close the portion of federal land on which water protectors are camping in North Dakota by December 5, to protect the public amid violent confrontations between protesters and law enforcement. The Army Corps of Engineers said it is “closing the portion of the Corps-managed federal property north of the Cannonball River to all public use and access effective December 5, 2016,” according to a statement tweeted by the Young Turks’ Jordan Chariton.
No other Third World leader prompted so much U.S. hostility for so long. Castro brought the planet to the brink of nuclear war in 1962, sent tens of thousands of troops to aid leftist governments in Africa and nurtured guerrilla movements that fought U.S.-backed governments across Latin America. He endured a crippling U.S. embargo and outlasted 10 U.S. presidents — all of them preaching regime change in Cuba — finally resigning 11 months before Barack Obama moved into the White House, not from U.S. pressure but because of serious illness.
After Castro transferred power to his brother Raul, first temporarily in 2006 and then permanently on Feb. 19, 2008, he survived another eight years in quiet retirement before finally dying on Friday. By hanging on in the shadows, he helped his followers avoid political unrest and ease the island into a communist future without the only leader most Cubans had ever known.
His legacy in Cuba and elsewhere has been a mixed record of social progress and abject poverty, of racial equality and political persecution, of medical advances and a degree of misery comparable to the conditions that existed in Cuba when he entered Havana as a victorious guerrilla commander in 1959.
If you believe in an afterlife, then you believe Fidel has now gone somewhere else. …to an eternal damnation? Or did he find forgiveness with God and do enough decent things amidst the mire of dictatorship on earth? Only he knows that now.
Apparently PR folks in big stores are claiming victory for Thanksgiving sales and Black Friday profits.. we will see. Similar projections were made last year and it ended up being a less than stellar brick and mirror weekend and better online by cyber Monday..
If it happens… it’s back to the 20th century feeling..
Aaron Orbey actually summarized why since my own childhood I also took more to horror movies than other genres.. And I agree with him, the goriest movies actually were not the scariest, instead the deem and dreadfully painfully accurate horror movies are among those that I can only watch one time..
The money quote from his very well written article in NEW YORKER:
We say of most tragedies that enough time will distance us. As the years have elapsed, I’ve continued searching for the worst I can witness onscreen, testing myself with images of agony that seem crueller than my own, worlds in which the unthinkable is valid. I’ve never gotten around to seeing “Forrest Gump,” but I’ve savored “The Forest,” in which an American woman tracks her troubled twin sister to the haunted woods of Aokigahara. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” is still on my list of films to see, but I rather liked “Dead Snow,” in which Nazi zombies terrorize seven Norwegian vacationers on the slopes of Øksfjord. No carnage can startle me these days, but smaller sights—a toddler asleep, slanted on his dad’s chest—might bring me to tears. When I Google my father, the Turkish word for murder auto-fills after his name.
The worst pain still takes me to theatres, where I sit alone—no snacks—always by the exit, in case of emergency. Since the mass shooting in a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado, I have begun watching for gunmen, turning around as each latecomer sneaks in during previews. The most frightening movies, I’ve found, are rarely the goriest. In “The Babadook,” a black-hatted monster torments a grieving woman who struggles to raise a son after the sudden death of her husband. In the film’s final scenes, the widow locks the Babadook in the basement, where she must retreat, daily, to bring it something to eat. Like most haunting spirits, hers doesn’t ever vanish. She has to keep seeing it, keep feeding it, in order to leave it behind.
RIP to Florence Henderson .. she has been around for decades, so much so that just about every generation knew her in some capacity for some different reason.
The short video – a take on the Mannequin Challenge – was created by the Revolutionary Forces of Syria (RFS), an opposition media group, to draw attention to the crisis amid a renewed aerial assault on the besieged city. More than 300 people have been killed in Aleppo’s rebel-held eastern districts since the Syrian regime resumed heavy bombardment last Tuesday following a three-week lull.
The full video for your own discernment and judgement..
This has been a dreadful story–anyone with parents and even those without are affected.. Children dying in a bus accident right before Thanksgiving.
I have purposely kept a self-imposed news blackout going on this story, knowing only headlines but not subjecting myself to reading anything but that.
Until today – I have to report this information..
According to one report, as the bus driver sped around a turn before the accident, he apparently asked the children if they were ready to die..Michael Walsh at Yahoo News reporting:
The driver, Johnthony Walker, 24, was arrested and charged with five counts of vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment and reckless driving for the crash on the winding road.
As the city mourns, chilling reports have emerged alleging that Walker asked the students, “Are y’all ready to die?” before swerving off the road into a tree.
Jasmine Mateen, the mother of three children aboard the bus, lost her 6-year-old daughter in the crash. She told CBS News what one of her other children had to say about the driver.
“My daughter said right before the bus flipped that he was speeding around the curve and asked them ‘Are y’all ready to die?’” Mateen said to CBS correspondent Mark Strassmann.
And more..
She also said she had complained about Walker’s behavior many times since August, but nothing had been done to redress her grievances. The private bus company involved has had 36 crashes with injuries in Tennessee alone since 2014, the Tennessean newspaper reported.
Authorities have not confirmed Mateen’s statements.
Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher said at a press conference late Monday that the type of accident to which his department and others were responding is “every public safety professional’s worst nightmare.”
The information is obviously under investigation.. as are all of the other circumstances of this bus crash. But it’s troubling to see this.. it’s horrendous to imagine what these families are going through. I cannot fathom it.. I am sending my love and prayers, my virtual hugs and every bit of joy and love I can conjure in my mind for those who perished in this accident and the remaining families members now attempting to cope with the heartbreak..
Gobble until you wobble.. Eat until defeat.. avoid the political talk and the Donald Trump heat..It has been a while since I did a news run down . . no better time than a holiday to get that running. For your viewing displeasure or regurgitation, the latest goings-on across the world on this Thanksgiving..
Retailers yet again are putting hopes in brick and mortar.. one of these years it will be for the last time. My local mall this year may have its last rush if it even gets one. The idea of black Friday has changed considerably… perhaps it’s time to give off for ‘cyber Monday’ instead of the traditional.. Nonetheless, here are the 5 things you should expect from Black Friday if you’re a shopper.. But here is a strange trend to grapple with mentally; Of all of the people who are more inclined to stand in line on Black Friday, the millennials once again take the prize. . they are much more likely than baby boomers to do it. Perhaps there is hope for brick and mortar after all!?
Always recall this when discovering history: Ignorance is usually bliss.. On this Thanksgiving, it’s easier to devour a pumpkin pie with TURKEY NOT knowing this: Abraham Lincoln declared in 1863 that Thanksgiving Day would be a national holiday on the last Thursday in November. He also ordered troops to march against Sioux Indian..
Lecturer in Chief: Donald Trump tells Tim Cook directly that he wants Apple products made in the United States and gives word of heavy tax incentives to do so.. It is interesting.. the president and Congress may not really have power to force private companies to do anything, but Trump of all people could surely do public shaming and go on nationwide TV and call out CEOs by name for not, according to his logic, making America Great Again..
Beebs gone wild: Bieber accused of punching a fan.. But .. for the first time perhaps ever, I am going to rush to Justin’s defense.. A group of screaming fans are greeting the car containing Bieber when a man sticks his hand in the window and appears to touch the singer. Bieber’s hand can then be seen making contact with the man’s face. Perhaps deservedly so.. Kanye West gone wild: According to the normally reliable TMZ, the situation is worse than sleep and water problems for the star.. A well-connected Kanye source tells us Kanye’s psychological problems are significant enough so that his insurance policy – which covers lost profits and financial obligations for cancelled concerts due to illness – will almost certainly cover the losses for the 21 concerts he’s cancelled … But it still seems very strange that the moment West began slamming JAY-Z and publicly supporting Donald Trump, the white coats took him away 'ha ha, ha ha’.. (pause for appreciation on the old song reference)
Miley Cyrus desperate for attention on Instagram.. MOANA is heading for a very large $88 million or more Thanksgiving weekend opening.. My wife and I already took our son to see the film.. It may have been (being honest here) one of the best animated Disney movies in a very long time. The music was amazing, the message was great.. the film was not boring during any point. It is the perfect movie for a long Thanksgiving weekend. So good, maybe my son will even want to see it again. I recommend MOANA for anyone who needs an escape from family and friends and .. reality..
On the other hand, the movie TROLLS was less than desirable. I had hoped for more. And on a final note about movies.. I realized recently that since having a child, the chances of me going to see a sci-fi, horror, or action movie have diminished considerably, going instead to children’s flicks. But you know what? I think I’m actually quite okay with that..
Three are critical and 9 in intensive care in Australia after rare thunderstorm asthma.. Doctors were amazed there were not more fatalities given the numbers of people who suffered cardiac arrests and struggled to breathe when a wild thunderstorm struck Melbourne on Monday night, Victoria state Health Minister Jill Hennessy said.The storm caused rain-sodden ryegrass pollen to explode and disperse over the city, with ruptured particles penetrating deep into lungs. Almost one third of patients who suffered asthma attacks on Monday reported never having asthma before..
Speaking of boilo, here is a recipe for those not aware of the ancient coal region tradition during holiday time:
Boilo recipe #1: Crock pot style 2 oranges (med-large size) 2 lemons 1 small box raisins (about 1 ½ ounces) 8 oz honey 12 oz whiskey (or more, to taste). Use Four Roses, or Seagrams 7, or something similar. At least 80 proof (40% alcohol). ½ to 1 teaspoon each of any or all of these spices: Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Cloves, Caraway seed, Anise seed
Make this in a crock pot. It’s easier than cooking on the stove and much less likely to overcook or scorch. For the quantities shown here, a small (1.5 quart) crock pot will do.
Peel the oranges and lemons. Cut up the fruit and squeeze them into the crock pot. A garlic press works, or you can use some kind of juicer or fruit squeezer if you have one. Put the remaining fruit pulp into the crock pot as well. Add the raisins, honey, and spices. Stir. NOTE: do not add whiskey yet!
Start the crock pot and let the mixture cook for about 2-4 hours. Stir occasionally. It’s done when the fruit pulp gets “cooked-down”. Strain into a pitcher. Mash down the fruit in the strainer to get all the liquid. NOW add the whiskey to the pitcher and stir. If you cook the whiskey, even for a short time, the alcohol will start to evaporate (and who wants that to happen??). Taste, and add more whiskey to your liking.
Serve hot in shot glasses, espresso cups, or coffee mugs. After the first round, each individual serving can be heated in the microwave.
This recipe makes about 12 ounces of “virgin” boilo. Add 12 ounces of whiskey to this and you get 24 ounces of coal region nectar, enough for 12-18 servings.
“Just because someone is wearing lingerie doesn’t mean you can touch them,” said Ellen Robin, the consent guardian at a risqué party held last Thursday in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
Her face covered in sequins, Ms. Robin, 28, a set designer from Williamsburg, stood on the sidewalk outside Lot 45, a large event space on Troutman Street. She had a clipboard full of release forms. “This is a sexy party, not a sex party,” she cautioned.
After patrons signed the releases, they were patted down by a gruff security officer and led into a cavernous room drenched in red light and velvet. Bodies were in various stages of dishabille and discipline.
A man with a gray ponytail rhythmically flogged a mostly nude woman draped over a small picnic table. Surrounding them, diners reclined on pillows, sultan style, around nine human “tables,” naked but for flesh-tone underwear and high heels. Dinner, consisting of North African comfort food prepared by a former “Chopped” contestant named Samia Behaya, was artfully arranged atop them.
“I would recommend not using your hands,” said one comely female platter, covered in raw sliced root vegetables. A man obligingly knelt beside her and plucked a radish from her torso with his teeth. “Vegetables are sexy,” cooed a nearby woman in a bustier bodysuit.
The most risqué on the dinner table for my family today: A sugar free apple pie that we picked up quickly last night at a local CrackerBarrel. I guess … we are missing out..
THIS IS IT! The big day.. the first Thanksgiving since we were told the world ended when Donald Trump won the November election.. and forgive me for speaking politically in another post, but let’s face it: This election and reaction has been visceral..
As I write this in a dark room during what we have always been told is the ‘biggest party night of the year,’ I have a light beer cracked open and Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis in playing the background.. I am perusing the online world of 'news’ article and realized that there are hundreds posted online from news sources across the nation all about how Thanksgiving dinner will be hit with politics.. and how to avoid it.
Every year I post this image online. I have had a website since the year 2000, and around 2001, this was a shot taken by an AP photographer and it was posted online .. it was the first Thanksgiving that America had to live through since 9/11 .. that first Thanksgiving was difficult. It was intense.. The feeling of unity, however, was strong. There were American flags and pumpkin pies in every town and on every table. The photo of this man, on the eve of Thanksgiving, struck me.. it was someone who seemingly was racing through life, and with the events of that year racing around his head and our collective spirit, the whirlwind of time finally seemed to hit him as he raced for his subway.. and since 01, I posted this photo somewhere..
This year, time has moved on.. today the LA TIMES posted this photograph of people on the Left Coast struck in snail’s pace traffic jams..
Some are racing home.. some are pacing themselves.
We have come a long way since 9/11.. we have are now going into a term of a third president since the terror attack took place. And ….united we stood then.. Divided we stand now.
x x x
I question whether we are really as divided as media sources would tell us.. I have divergent opinions in my own family and undoubtedly, as we always do, we will discuss politics at the dinner table. We never had that 'dinner is too sacred’ attitude to not talk about it.. I can also, however, acknowledge that this year there may be reasons to avoid talk. Hillary…Trump.. it’s been a long and hateful year.
x x x
President Obama pardoned his final turkey today.
This has always been one of my favorite moments of any year.. it’s the time when you realize the holidays have begun. The famed presidential pardon. I assume Donald Trump will continue the tradition.. but he will surely look strange doing it.
You can easily get used to seeing someone in the White House. When Bush left the keys to Obama, it took time to get used to a new face. Just as much as it took when Clinton handed over the White House to Junior. And when Trump takes the reigns? Well that will be the weirdest sight of all.
We are going on the second week since Trump’s victory and it still feels like the same election fight from prior to November 8 is taking place. Tonight, CNN’s headline is showcasing Hillary Clinton’s popular vote victory of 2million as their main headline.. ….something perhaps only reinvigorating the debate that may take place at tomorrow’s dinner table.
x x x
I think political talk at tables is fine.. There was always politics discussed in my family’s house when I grew up. There were battles, too! Oh my were there battles. Anger.. hostility.. The Iraq war was the same, as I can recall. As will, probably, be tomorrow. And any other holiday.
I think it is healthy, in this nation, to have a good old fashioned debate or chat over turkey and yams .. anything goes.
Instead of avoiding political talk, just have it! Don’t be afraid!
Just.. be calm. Careful. And kind. Those traits go well with opinionated Thanksgiving dinner talk.
Strangely, every astronaut since the first Apollo 11 Moon landings in 1969 has reported seeing the mysterious flashes - whether their eyes are open or not.
Vanity Fair has a good description of the strange new world of watching the elevator at the Trump tower for tea leaves of the future..
The whole spectacle was very updated, digital counterpart to the Cold War days when Western analysts actually studied wall posters in what was then Peking, now Beijing. They looked for signs of who was up, who was down in the government.“It’s like a modern (and less entertaining) version of Grand Hotel,” says Jon Maas, a Hollywood writer-producer: “Always the same. People come. People go. Nothing ever happens.”
“You guys just wait all day?,” you could hear a disembodied voice ask, probably a pool cameraman or one of the nearby producers and reporters, all seeking morsels. And, this being the age of video, there were the tourists taking photos of the pool camera itself, in one case blurting out, “Say cheese, everyone!”
Suddenly a divided election is leading to a period of hope and change in the coming year... Americans are optimistic in challenging times. It’s one of the best qualities about this nation..
Incidentally, I will start keeping track of the number of positive stories CNN now that Trump has initiated very tense meetings with media officials that he, to their faces, calls liars..
Scientists have raised hopes for a radical new therapy for phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with a procedure that can dampen down fears linked to painful memories.
The advance holds particular promise for patients because in early tests, researchers found they could reduce anxieties triggered by specific memories without asking people to think about them consciously.
Very interesting article .. shock therapy .. be afraid and even more afraid and then be calm..
A traffic jam is seen as people evacuate after tsunami advisories were issued following an earthquake, in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo November 22, 2016. Kyodo/via REUTERS
The cooling system of the third reactor at the Fukushima nuclear power plant has stopped circulating water following a powerful 7.3 offshore earthquake.
TEPCO said it managed to restart the system some 90 minutes after the failure.
Trump kept saying, ‘We’re in a room of liars, the deceitful dishonest media who got it all wrong. He addressed everyone in the room calling the media dishonest, deceitful liars. He called out Jeff Zucker by name and said everyone at CNN was a liar, and CNN was network of liars.
“Trump didn’t say Katy Tur by name, but talked about an NBC female correspondent who got it wrong, then he referred to a horrible network correspondent who cried when Hillary lost who hosted a debate – which was Martha Raddatz who was also in the room.
This is wild .. by the way Kellyanne Conway said the meeting went well..
I think it’s a harbinger of the next four years of the press relationship with Donald Trump..
REUTERS REPORTING: There were no immediate reports of damage or injury, which struck at 5:59 a.m. (3.59 p.m. ET). Tokyo Electric Power Co was checking its nuclear plants in Fukushima for damage, public broadcaster NHK said. The utility could not immediately be reached by Reuters.
Tohoku Electric Power Co said there was no damage to its Onagawa nuclear plant.
Television footage showed ships moving out to sea from Fukushima harbors, as the meteorological agency warned of a tsunami of 3 meters (10 feet) for Fukushima, where Tepco’s Daiichi nuclear plant was devastated in a March 2011 quake and tsunami.
And I believe it. We are getting winded by the steady stream of 24/7 junk. This election had consequences, too.. we just delved deeper into a pile of excrement on a daily basis of politics..
Real friendships aren’t online. Real friendships can be aided by social media.. but just quicky skimming through a feed and casually liking things and forgetting ten seconds later what you saw is the most repugnant form of friendship one can find.. and it’s very ‘BLACK MIRROR'ish to be perfectly honest..
I went back to my 2015 year in review and 2016 predictions. I actually am going to toot a horn. One prediction was that social media would wane, and that we would all find real ways to connect to people again. I sense that is happening.
I think the quicker it happens, the better it will be..
It was just a normal day for Melissa Kurtz, 48, who was driving on a highway in the Maitland area of Florida, near Orlando, to take her 13-year-old daughter, Harper, to a beauty pageant. Harper wasn’t wearing a seat belt, which was normal for her, and taking selfies to pass the time.
Kurtz decided to do some research on the road they were driving on that day and discovered that there had been an accident on that same road and the day her and Harper were driving on it happened to be the anniversary of the death that occurred because of it
This comes from the same person that has also said to have had a number of paranormal events happen to her and her family.. in situations like this, when you decide what is real, take into consideration between someone who wants attention vs someone who received ghostly attention.
I love this show.. I have avidly watched it since the program’s inception onto NETFLIX.. The pigs.. The tech… The lessons of morality and the consequences of people’s dirty deeds online. The future is now. Evident in this program: The cautionary tales of horror that can happen when tech goes wrong and the virtue of an honest life..
The newest season of Black Mirror was loaded onto Netflix around Halloween. Due to a lack of time, I have yet to watch about 1 and a half more episodes. But the pure joy I have in doing so makes me actually want to take it slow.
I recall quickly moving through the entire series of STRANGER THINGS. By the time it was done, I wanted to go back and start from the beginning.
Black Mirror is a bit different. Each program makes you ponder more than the next.. Each show has twists and turns that throw your mind into a loop of madness. Each program makes you feel like it’s real and, equally so, feel a sense of dread for our collective Internet-driven future.
It takes into account a dwindling bee population and how our society may delve into tech to save the planet, and terrorism, hacking , assassination, murder, and espionage. Along with a lot of fun grammatical uses of the F and C word for emphasis. The show was pure joy.. It was over an hour long and could have easily been a successful box office hit. But thankfully because of Black Mirror and Netflix, we can have the show beamed right to our electronic devices.
In Hated in the Nation, a technology company invents a high tech drone bee to pollinate the planet. During a hack attack, someone gets the chance to control the bee population to use it for murder. A 'hash tag’ battle begins on social media. And the person most hated in the nation becomes a victim. That is just the beginning. It weaves itself into a moral play and a final act of redemption during the post-modem and Mortem.
You just have to watch it to understand what I am talking about.. It has quickly become of the best shows/movies/things I have ever watched.
I have grown to despise so many vast portions of social media while… Of course… Using it as well. Hashtags and red flags abound … I just can’t stomach seeing the 'trending’ words of the day. I hate myself for often looking.. But it’s how we get news. Opinions. Statements. Hell, it’s how we picked a president in 2016!
Social media. And antisocial disorder. They go together so well.
Black Mirror’s HATED IN THE NATION is a must watch for those nervous about social media’s power, or for those who think they can act on devices without consequence. There are consequences. Perhaps in the future, the consequences will be fatal and final.
For people lacking a connection to the world over the past week, take note: There has been consternation, division, anger.. regret.. vitriolic rage. The election of 2016 has left charred corpses along the political battle lines. Whether it’s the purge of Chris Christie confidants within the transition team or the rioting on several city blocks across America, things have been tense. The other night, Donald Trump had the nerve and gumption to ditch the press and go for a steak dinner with family alone. You’d think world war three was declared with the reaction.
All of this political fervor, hopefully, will subside by the time the cold months of winter hit. But there will be a longer and more far reaching event…
The media world has been up in arms over the Trump victory. Though their actions most likely led to increased coverage and potentially aided in a Trump primary victory during the early onset of this year, the made a choice mid-way through 2016 to take on the Republican nominee more ferociously than Hillary Clinton. As a result, alt-right sites and other ‘media’ blogs started popping up on Facebook and Twitter. By the time the election had come in November, I had enough of all of it. I turned away from Facebook and other social media sites because it all became mentally too much to handle. It was an overload of information . But sadly so often that information lacked one important thing: Truth.
Since the election, collective soul searching has apparently forced Google and Facebook, including Twitter, to react. And now, a 1984 style removal process seemingly has begun. The ‘fake news’ sites have been getting deleted, or Google ads have been taken from them, or Facebook has been actively working on having users report sites for misleading information.
….and this is where some of my own fears begin. Let me first say this: One of the most offensive social media sins—common on Facebook mostly—is the clickbait nonsense of fakery and eye-grabbing headlines that don’t amount to anything except false information and websites packed with ads just to make pennies on a dollar off of your click. It’s a cheap and tacky thing, to link such sites, on your own newsfeed. You need to proceed with caution. If your information is true, you can lead yourself into hateful debate. If your information is false, someone will “Snopes” you and you will forever look like a fool who fell for it. That said, there is also a certain amount of first amendment fear in my heart. Yes, fake news is out there. But what fake news? Who determines that?
The problems of a polarized nation are constantly multiplying.
This year, after Trump won the election, a fan of his commented to me that, “maybe now he could do something about the media.” I asked pressing questions of the person about this. What resulted with some inane banter about how Trump should ban the New York Times and other media outlets from reporting ‘lies.’
While that opinion is frightening in itself, the mainstream media may argue that press freedom and constitutional rights should not apply to ‘bloggers’ and other non-media people. But who determines that?
Alex Jones and Matt Drudge may have been the two most important people in the year 2016. If TIME magazine was honest, they would name the alternative media as the person of the year.
And that has created a backlash from the mainstream. The Donald Trump press-less steak dinner episode is just the beginning of a tumultuous relationship.
Private companies have the right to do as they please when it comes to private affairs of business. So if Google blocks ads on pages, there may be no legal issue—unless of course the situation devolves into class action or civil litigation. But there is a long term problem taking place, and the crackdown on ‘fake news’ may highlight that.
Over the past 15 or so years, the populace has dumbed down faster than a dial up internet connection. We have gone from reading newspaper reports written at a 7th grade level to only reading headlines written on a 1st grade level. We click on the bait and then we replicate. We don’t know much of anything except what some misleading headline told us. Social media has also given us an excuse to actually be dumb! We can pick our news feed. We want to be comfortable and calm when we read.. we don’t want alternative viewpoints. If we are liberal, we will Raw Story it up. If we are conservative, we only check World Net Daily. Living in a comfort zone is the cruelest thing we can do to our brains…
And sadly, the mainstream media has become more biased.. it is no lie to say FOX has a conservative bent and that MSNBC cries when it uses the words “Trump” and “President-Elect” in the same sentence. CNN has just become horrid, filled with nonsense in between Wolf Blitzer screaming out states and numbers.
Earthquakes persist… war zones are intolerable.. people across the world are having real issues. And American has plunged into a red-vs-blue disgusting array of garbage. Nothing we argue about is real. Nothing we ponder and conjure means anything in the final analysis. We fell for it. Congratulations.
Sadly, this crackdown on fake news will end up hurting people who actually tell us real news.
This morning, the INTERCEPT broke a REAL news story about a building in New York City with 29 floors being the home of ‘Project X.’ The INCERCEPT reports that this building, also with an AT&T office, is the location for a very important national security surveillance site. The NSA uses the location to tap into phone calls, faxes and the internet. I can easily picture a future where someone will chime in that ‘fake news’ includes anything that compromises national security. That fake news is anything which…well…is real. The next few years are going to be very trying for people with common sense. And sadly, some will fall by the wayside… The debate over nonsensical political events and purposely contrived news stories will be the front and center topic on nightly news. And dinner tables.
Recall during the Iraq war 2 when the Pentagon got into the business of news reporting. It was propaganda purporting to be reporting. And hell if I know how, but it worked. I can envision the same thing… Donald Trump is a master of media manipulation. At the same time, clickbait headlines are creating constant false narratives. The conflict is there.. New media vs old media is one thing. But real news vs fake is another.
The only judge and jury, and decider of what is real and fake is the consumer. And consumption of fake news is high.
…..and we create the next 1984. Someone needs to start writing “2084” now.. Will the next George Orwell please stand up…
7news in Denver was among the stations covering the weird event.. The flight path was an oval over Denver .. The plane then apparently left the city limits and flew to Oklahoma City..
From the report:
When contacting the military, including both U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM), neither organization could confirm the identity of the plane, or even locate it.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) also investigated the flight, however they couldn’t locate the flight or confirm its existence. When asked if the flight might have been a high-profile person, officials said the only high-profile flights in the air were in New York and Indiana.
I was always told to ‘think before you ink.’ All the more important given the many awful chemical components that you can find in the ink being carved into your body..
I hate click bait. I hate fake news sites.. But we need to be careful about what we say is fake.. and we also need to frame this debate in an honest way as we step down into the removal of ads from ‘fake sites’..
For prime example, the question to Google “who won the popular vote” has brought people to a site called 70news.wordpress.com, which reported that Trump won the popular vote.. despite losing by 700,000. Their argument was if you discount about three million votes cast by 'illegals’ then Trump clinched it.. False representation of the truth. Of course. But to say it would be right for Google to pulls its ads from 70news.wordpress.com is also not true—GOOGLE does not permit ads on free Wordpress sites to begin with. And 70news when I visited actually has no ads and 521 likes on Facebook.
There are two possible reactions about to occur.. 1) We are going to finally rid social media of nonsense fakery. Or 2) The mainstream is going to use this chance to think big and attack its competitors: Independent publishers and reporters.
We have to think 'bigly’ about this .. and actually do the intellectually honest thing instead of just going with an emotion…
Nakedness quickly becoming the apt way to protest the Trump presidency.. 
7-year-old Tweets (his Twitter run by his mother) showcases the horror of Aleppo and lives of children during wartime.. 
Scientists claim: West Antarctic ice shelf is breaking up from the inside out.. // It’s generally accepted that it’s no longer a question of whether the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will melt, it’s a question of when,” said study leader Ian Howat, associate professor of earth sciences at Ohio State. “This kind of rifting behavior provides another mechanism for rapid retreat of these glaciers, adding to the probability that we may see significant collapse of West Antarctica in our lifetimes.”
All of the quakes and now this: Volcano erupts and fires three miles into the sky .. and triggers a quake in Mexico.. 
Celebrating the best female graffiti artists across the world .. a new film called GIRL POWER.. 
