"The Global Consciousness Project, also known as the EGG Project, is an international multidisciplinary collaboration of scientists, engineers, artists and others continuously collecting data from a global network of physical random number generators located in 65 host sites worldwide. The archive contains over 10 years of random data in parallel sequences of synchronized 200-bit trials every second."
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, November 18, 2022
There’s been a significant amount of handwringing over remarks made by so-called “free speech” advocates who assert that anyone can say anything online “because it’s ‘free’ speech,” and ostensibly protected by the First Amendment.
I demur.
Facebook, Instagram (owned by FB), and Twitter, which are the “Big Three” online Social Media (SoMe) corporate megaliths (that is, if Twitter survives Elon Musk, if not, then TikTok may take Twitter’s place), have increasingly come under fire in the past several years — justifiably so — for turning a blind eye to bad behavior, “speech” in particular (as writing and/or video, both mediums posted on the services), thereby, in essence, becoming purveyors of lies, complicit by their inactions, in aiding and abetting actions of bad actors, consequently harming our nation — a significant portion of which continues originating in nations hostile to American national interests.
“Russian Information Warfare content on social media attempts to subvert Western democracies in five ways:
1.) Undermine public confidence in democratic government;
2.) Exacerbate internal political divisions;
3.) Erode trust in government;
4.) Push the Russian agenda in foreign populations, and;
5.) Create confusion and distrust by blurring fact and fiction.
Russian propaganda on social media can be divided into four themes:
1.) Political messages intended to foster distrust in government (e.g. allegations of voter fraud, corruption); 2.) Financial propaganda (i.e. create distrust in Western financial institutions); 3.) Social issues (e.g. ethnic tensions, police brutality), and; 4.) Doomsday-style conspiracy theories.
“Information warfare content is generated and disseminated through channels that fall into three attribution categories:
1.) White (overt); 2.) Grey (less-overt), and; 3.) Black (covert) channels.
They propagate a blend of authentic, manipulated, and fake stories and they feed off of and reinforce each other.”
“Russia views cyber very differently than its western counterparts, from the way Russian theorists define cyberwarfare to how the Kremlin employs its cyber capabilities.” Part of that difference is that the Russians “conceptualize cyber operations within the broader framework of information warfare, a holistic concept that includes computer network operations, electronic warfare, psychological operations, and information operations.”
And as part of their overall operations in that realm, not only does Russia “employ cyber as a conventional force enabler,” they integrate cybercriminals, hacktivists, and other nefariously malign non-state actors into their overall operations scheme, a practice also undertaken by “China, Iran, North Korea, and other cyber adversaries.”
That information is further borne out by the writings of Professor Dr. Mark Galeotti, PhD, who in June 2022 was recently banned from travel to Russia, wrote an OpEd in the independent news journal The Moscow Times, published December 22, 2017, that, “It is hard to sustain a serious claim that NATO tanks are about to surge eastwards – though some of the Kremlin’s more fanciful propagandists do try – but the virtues of the “secret battlefield” of intelligence work is that it is precisely covert.”
Dr. Galeotti is an internationally-recognized expert in security politics, intelligence services and criminality of modern Russia, is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow of the Institute of International Relations Prague, an Associate Fellow at the Council on Geostrategy, Honorary Professor at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, Honorary Professor at University College London, and Executive Director and principal in Mayak Intelligence, a London-based consultancy specializing in, and primarily focusing upon understanding organized and transnational crime, war, politics and history in Russia. Dr. Galieotti is also a contributing member of the Network of Experts of the independent civil-society organization Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
The root cause of such problems, wrote David J. Smith in “How Russia Harnesses Cyber Warfare,” published in Defense Dossier, American Foreign Policy Council (August 2012: Issue 4), 9,” is inherently based in, and the natural outcome of, Read the rest of this entry »
NONE of that mass-produced, factory-farmed, Made-in-China, Made-for-China gobbledygook.
This does NOT need refrigeration!
And, these pieces are also cooked, of course.
Oh! And you KNOW, that since 2013, Smithfield Foods, in Smithfield, VA, a formerly-American-based company, has been OWNED BY THE COMMUNIST CHINESE “Shuanghui Group” (now known as “WH Group” because it sounds more “American,” you know) because Smithfield’s Wall$teet corporate owners sold their American birthright for a paltry bowl of porridge — a mere US$4.72B.
You DO recall that China is a Communist nation, don’t you?
WH Group’s “global headquarters is strategically located in Hong Kong, with regional headquarters in China and the U.S.,” while the “Headquarters Shuanghui Development in Luohe, Henan Province,” China, and WH Group’s U.S. Headquarters of their Smithfield Foods division is in Smithfield, Virginia.
WH Group is also one of the LARGEST FOREIGN OWNERS of American farmland, with 146,000 acres, and that separate sale (as part of Smithfield’s holdings) was worth US$500M, according to the USDA.
Put another way, 146,000 acres is 228.1252 square miles… that’s nearly 20% (18.79% exactly) of the entire state of Read the rest of this entry »
WH Group’s “global headquarters is strategically located in Hong Kong, with regional headquarters in China and the U.S.,” while the “Headquarters Shuanghui Development in Luohe, Henan Province,” China, and WH Group’s U.S. Headquarters of their Smithfield Foods division is in Smithfield, Virginia.
WH Group is also one of the LARGEST FOREIGN OWNERS of American farmland, with 146,000 acres and that separate sale was worth US$500M, according to the USDA.
Put another way, 146,000 acres is 228.1252 square miles… that’s nearly 20% (18.79% exactly) of the entire state of Rhode Island, which has 1214 square miles.
Unbridled greed in the extreme, aka AVARICE, is to blame. And Americans laws DO NOT FORBID, nor punish, such BAD BEHAVIOR. In fact, it’s REWARDED & ENCOURAGED.
Blame Congress — which has been bought & paid-for by Corporate lobbyists — for their FAILURE TO PROTECT AMERICAN DOMESTIC INTERESTS. THAT is a matter of NATIONAL SECURITY.
But let’s do something else. Let’s examine HOW MUCH U.S. land is owned, or controlled by, foreign interests.
Using a 1978 law — the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act, which requires foreign entities to report farmland transactions to the USDA’s Farm Service Agency — the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting examined USDA & other Federal data to determine how much land is owned/controlled by foreign interests.
They found that in 2016, foreign investors that year acquired at least 1.6M acres of U.S. farmland. And USDA data shows that either through direct ownership, or long-term leases, foreign investors control at least Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, June 4, 2021
Make no mistake, I openly advocate for the wholesale legalization, taxation, and regulation of cannabis similarly as is done for beverage alcohol — though I have not always. And yet, as a licensed healthcare professional, I am under no misguided notion that there are genuine scientific considerations to be had.
Like many others, this is not a simple matter, per se — it is as complex as we human beings, with myriad matters which “Just Say ‘NO!’” has never, nor will ever, satisfy. Science and understanding is not advanced by the word “NO!”
Similarly as well, there is practically no disagreement that historic American jurisprudence on the matter not only had its genesis with deep roots in racism – which remains to this day – but has almost single-handedly created the global criminal cabal of narcotrafficking enterprises that have now become international terrorist organizations. It has now become a matter of national security, and not just for the United States. Global security is predicated upon addressing these concerns.
Jesus Malverde is a mythical figure, allegedly born as Jesús Juárez Mazo on December 24, 1870, just outside Culiacán, the state capital of Sinaloa, whom is said to be the “patron saint” of “narcotraficantes” (drug traffickers), and is known by his devotees as “el ángel de los pobres” (the angel of the poor). According to legend, he was a lifetime resident of Sinaloa, an historically poverty-stricken area which is now recognized as the de facto headquarters location for a bloodthirsty global narcotrafficking cartel bearing the state’s name, which is infamous for their nefarious misdeeds, cold-blooded murders, and other heinous acts. The legends, which vary widely, typically assert that Malverde was a “Robinhood” type character, who stole from the wealthy and distributed to the poor. In reality, narco-money has significantly revitalized Sinaloa, and to a large extent, reinforced ancient customs, including the veneration of folk saints as Jesus Malverde.
It is, in fact, fueling the civil sociopolitical upheaval in Central American nations such as Read the rest of this entry »
Steven Simon, an International Relations Professor at Colby College, served on the National Security Council during the Clinton and Obama administrations, including as Senior Director for Counterterrorism.
Jonathan Stevenson, a Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and Managing Editor of Survival, served on the National Security Council as Director for Political-Military Affairs, Middle East and North Africa, from 2011 to 2013.
For all the tragic mass shooting headlines this year, the American gun control debate seems permanently stuck. Last week, nine people were killed by AR-15 fire in Indianapolis; before that, 10 died in Boulder, and eight in Atlanta. Despite the anguish over the past month — and despite a push by President Joe Biden — Congress looks unlikely to take any immediate action.
We share Biden’s view that the level of U.S. gun violence is a “national embarrassment.” But as National Security Council veterans who have specialized in counterterrorism — with direct experience involving far-right American terrorism, burgeoning jihadism, and Northern Irish extremism in the 1990s — we also see a new threat rising, one that has the potential to change the urgency of the debate: the growing, and heavily armed, American militia movement, which made a show of force on January 6.
Armed demonstrators protest outside of the Michigan State Capitol on January 17, 2021 in Lansing. – Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
Increasingly, as militias acquire and stockpile weapons, they’re turning guns from a public-health concern into a threat to national security. And it’s possible that if proponents of reform — including advocacy groups, congressional leaders and Biden — began addressing it that way, they’d have a chance of energizing the debate against the National Rifle Association and its allies. Indeed, the shock of the insurrection has increased the political burdens of an NRA in internal disarray and offered a new perspective on the need for significant gun control legislation.
As America learned on January 6, anti-government militia groups are more than willing to jump walls, break doors and disrupt the underpinnings of our democracy. These groups, with transnational ties, also enjoy easy access to high-power, high-capacity, small-caliber semiautomatic weapons—many of which can be converted to fully automatic. The concern isn’t that these weapons will somehow enable militias to challenge the U.S. military on the battlefield, which they certainly will not. It is that they make mass casualty attacks against political or cultural adversaries both easy to carry out, and easy to frame as inspirational events of the kind that mobilize insurrection.
The executive orders Biden issued earlier this month imposing restrictions on gun kits and devices that turn pistols into rifles are marginal safeguards and rather thin gruel overall. But his call for reviving the federal ban on assault weapons is more promising and an acknowledgment that serious action is required. An important additional measure would be more rigorous required background checks. At least one key Republican senator, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, has expressed openness to working with Biden on a gun bill.
Generating bipartisan consensus for an effective crackdown on firearms will always be difficult. While gun control is now unlikely to lose existing supporters, it is also unlikely to win many new ones. But reframing the issue as a national security imperative could galvanize passive backers now focused by the assault on the Capitol on maintaining political stability in the United States. A plausible objective would be to Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, December 18, 2020
The President’s ongoing failure to secure America’s national security secrets – which are of significantly greater importance than illegal immigration – has cost untold lives, not only in the military service, but in the clandestine services as well. And precisely because these matters are TOP SECRET, they do NOT make front page news, nightly news, Faux newz, nor any other news gathering and reporting agency, such as the Associated Press.
This failure – which is by no means new, for it happened first in 2018, and can be traced back to 2016 as Russian election interference – can ALL be laid at the feet of the one-term Banana Republican POS45 Loser in Chief also known as “Donald J. Trump.”
There was a reason why the Russians wanted Trump elected.
Romney: “Stunning” That Trump Unresponsive To Russian Cyberattack
Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney said on Thursday that it was “stunning” for the White House to not issue a response regarding multiple Russian cyber attacks upon U.S. government resources.
“I think the White House needs to say something aggressive about what happened. This is almost as if you had a Russian bomber flying undetected over the country, including over the nation’s capital, and not to respond in a setting like that is really stunning,” Romney said to Olivier Knox, SiriusXM’s Chief Washington Correspondent.
Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney 12-17-20 Tweet on Russian cyber hack in US
The senator tweeted an abbreviated version of the statement he told SiriusXM’s Chief Washington Correspondent Olivier Knox in a prerecorded interview, noting the recent reports of Russian hacks into government agencies showed “alarming U.S. vulnerability” and “apparent cyber warfare weakness.”
On Sunday, reports emerged showing that the U.S. Treasury Department and a Commerce Department agency had been breached by a Russian military intelligence unit known as “Cozy Bear,” which is responsible for past hacks into government agencies.
The Republican senator’s comments come one day after Democratic Illinois Senator Dick Durbin voiced similar thoughts about the recent alleged Russian hacks, calling it “virtually a declaration of war by Russia on the United States and we should take that seriously.”
President Trump has not addressed the latest hacks reported by Reuters on Sunday, and CNBC reported that White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said Tuesday the administration is “taking a hard look into this.”
The White House had no response when asked about the matter by The Hill.
President-elect Joe Biden continues being outspoken regarding the latest suspected Russian hacking, and said his incoming national security team has been briefed by officials privy to the matter.
The President-elect said in part that, “My administration will make cybersecurity a top priority at every level of government — and we will make dealing with this breach a top priority from the moment we take office.Our adversaries should know that, as president, I will not stand idly by in the face of cyber assaults on our nation.”
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) told congressional staffers this week the perpetrator behind the alleged cyberattack is “highly sophisticated.”
CISA officials said further that “it will take weeks, if not months, to determine the total number of agencies affected by the attack and the extent to which sensitive data and information may have been compromised.”
The hack is so serious it led to a National Security Council meeting at the White House on Saturday, said one of the people familiar with the matter. U.S. officials have not said much publicly beyond the Commerce Department confirming there was a breach at one of its agencies and that they asked the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI to investigate.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, November 27, 2020
Congress will soon do something phenomenally noteworthy, and the outgoing President has said nothing about it. It could be because his predecessor had a hand in its initiation by co-sponsoring it in 2008, and because it had not yet become law by the time Obama left the White House, the soon-outgoing President could claim some degree of ostensible “plausible deniability,” for it will undoubtedly affect him, his clan, and numerous other very wealthy individuals.
The prospective legislation does not appear anywhere in the Congress.gov website, because it is set to be a “rider” on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which is one of the final bills that this Congress will pass this year.
The legislation is remarkable for several reasons, not the least of which is that it was the result of collaboration among progressive Democrats, conservative Republicans and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin – groups not particularly known for their cooperation.
Because the bill significantly touches upon matters involving National Security, it will be an addition to the NDAA, and will require millions of anonymous business entities aka “shell corporations” to reveal their owners/beneficiaries to the United States Government in an effort to deter money laundering by hostile governments, global narcotraffickers, and other wealthy individuals who would elude American anti-money laundering laws.
Surprisingly little discussion about this momentous matter has been made by news reporting outlets, and yet, as Clark Gascoigne, Senior Policy Adviser for the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition said,
“It is certainly the most significant anti-money laundering reform in 20 years
– and probably the most significant anti-corruption reform as well.”
U.S. based shell companies have allowed drug traffickers, terrorists and America’s foreign enemies to operate freely.
The so-called “Panama Papers” – sometimes also called the “Mossack Fonseca papers” for the name of the obscure Panamanian law firm from which they were obtained – is a collection of well over 11.5 million documents identifying 214,488 entities and shell corporations, their owners, lawyers and the often-illegal network established to manage them, which were made public in 2016. Shell corporations are the anonymizing tools which the world’s wealthy individuals – business titans, celebrities, politicians, and narcotraffickers – use to hide their wealth.
Kelly Loeffler, Georgia’s Appointed Senator who is worth an estimated $500 million apart from her husband Jeffrey Sprecher, aged 65, who is Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange – the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange – also owns a significant portion of the NYSE, and together, they are worth an estimated $800 million to $1 billion dollars.
Their house in the wealthy Atlanta suburb of Buckhead is owned by a shell corporation – Descante.
Loeffler’s financial disclosures list several versions of Descante Capital LLC companies, which serve as holding companies for her primary residence, “Descante,” an extravagant 15,000 square foot $10.5 million Atlanta mansion. However, those disclosures do not list a company called Descante Capital Holdings.
A Federal Aviation Administration lookup for a mandatory two-year regulatory test shows that the jet’s operator is not listed as an individual, but as a company, Descante Capital Holdings.
Kelly Loeffler dodges taxes by placing ostensible ownership of her many assets into various shell companies, which are run/operated by accountants and/or lawyers for her benefit, though “on paper” it appears as if she has nothing to do with them… and yet, she is the DIRECT beneficiary of them ALL.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, September 24, 2020
I hate to admit this, but I am practically at the point of saying, when it comes to so-called “anti-maskers” (who are most often Trump supporters and GOP types), and others who proudly flout and steadfastly refuse to wear any type of face mask thereby endangering the lives of others, and who deny that COVID-19 is a pernicious health threat to our nation’s people, and by extension to our national security, I am just about ready to say to them all – FUCK YOU. I hope you get it, and die. It would serve you right.
Their maliciously malignant behavior is not merely stupid, it is cruel, and inhumane.
Michael L. Parson is the 57th Governor of Missouri.
Yet, there comes a time when good will is exhausted, and there is nothing remaining for those who would otherwise need it the most. The dregs having been long drained from the bottom of the barrel of the milk of human kindness, it has become bone dry, and utterly bereft of anything but empty space – a yawning void, a catastrophic chasm of unimaginable vacuousness. Yet it was them who gleefully rejected all sound advice, and threw caution to the wind.
That’s how utterly FED UP I am with the ignorance-promoting, anti-science nut jobs who loudly bray their ignorance like a donkey does its presence. Perhaps even more so.
And just yesterday, when I read the news that Missouri’s Republican Governor Mike Parson, a virulent anti-masker, along with his wife Teresa, tested POSITIVE for COVID-19, I thought that it serves him right. There is poetic justice in this world, and it’s often tragically ironic.
However, I hasten to add this:
The sowing of confusion and chaos in this matter is the work of America’s enemies, most notably, Russia.
And sadly, the American president (yes, like it, or not, he’s America’s President), has long played friendly with totalitarian regimes, again, most notably, Russia, long before he became the Misleader of the Free World, and Liar in Chief.
SIOUX FALLS, SD – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Smithfield Packaged Meats Corp. in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for failing to protect employees from exposure to the coronavirus. OSHA proposed a penalty of $13,494, the maximum allowed by law.
Agency: Occupational Safety & Health Administration Date: September 10, 2020 Release Number: 20-1684-NAT
With a paltry, even laughable, mere $13,494 on the line, it’s not even a good slap on the wrist. They make that in a fraction of a second of business operations.
Remember: Smithfield Foods has NOT BEEN an American company since selling out to the Chinese in 2013. Good old fashioned Corporate American Wall $treet greed sold out America and Smithfield to China.
Wan Long, RIGHT, Chairman and CEO of WH Group, formerly called Shuanghui International, shakes hands with Charles Larry Pope, President and CEO of Smithfield Foods, at a press conference of WH Group in Hong Kong, China, 14 April 2014. Two subsidiaries of Henan Shuanghui Investment and Development Co have gained access to the Russian market, after its parent company — WH Group Ltd, the world’s largest pork producer— acquired US pork producer Smithfield Foods Inc and bought a stake in Campofrio Food Group SA of Spain, the largest pan-European packaged meat products company, last year. The two Heilongjiang-based companies — Wangkui Shuanghui Beidahuang Food Co and Heilongjiang Baoquanling Shuanghui Food Industry Co — got the official nod after their production facilities and products were examined and assessed by officials from Russia’s meat products watchdog, the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, in August, Shuanghui Development said on its website. To widen its import market for meat, the Russian government agreed to import meat products from five Chinese suppliers by the end of August, indicating the nation has taken a flexible strategy to balance the supply and demand relationship, while the US and its European allies are trying to squeeze the country’s trade space in the world market.
And the corporate masters are STILL selling out the people. Just read their laughable response later down. They’re actually protesting the poor token of a penalty.
Seriously. They are!
Even the right-tilting tabloid New York Daily News owned by Rupert Murdoch, has written about the fractional pittance which has been assessed upon the corporation by the OSHA.
By Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, September 12, 2020 at 10:12 PM
And Congress has the power to act. However, with Moscow Mitch misleading the Senate, there’ll nothing be done about anything the House sends to that traitorous rich bastard.
WH Group, formerly known as Shuanghui International, bought the venerable American company known for their hams since its 1936 inception in Smithfield, Virginia, for $4.7 billion in 2013. In fact, it was the region’s Native Americans who taught the Paleface settlers to the area the unique curing process they’d created well over 500 years ago, and which increased in popularity as time went on.
More than anything, it looks like the Loser in Chief is in cahoots with the Chinese.
I mean, after all, if he’s as big and bad on them as he claims to be, this fine would be 100x time amount to start with.
Yes, that’d be USD$1,349,400.
It’s HIGH TIME for a 75/25 rule of law!
Simply put, it goes like this:
75% of any businesses’ ownership MUST be American to enjoy a 25% corporate tax rate.
Presently, the Federal Corporate Tax Tate is set at 21%. Before the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the so-called “Trump tax cuts” which, true to course, benefited only the wealthy), the tax rate was 35%. I have little doubt that the law will be repealed, thus increasing the corporate tax rate.
There MUST be a punishment exacted, and penalty paid for corporations which despitefully exploit their domestic American existence!
What’s more, Congress could, and should, also enact a 60/40 rule of law, which, again, simply stated, is that for companies which are employee-owned, they must be at least 60% owned by employees – either direct, indirect (trust), or hybrid – in order to enjoy certain additional tax benefits not available to other corporate-owned businesses. By so doing, it would encourage employee ownership of businesses.
Corporate alienation and isolation from the day-to-day lives of their employees and the Average American is highly problematic, and such a rule would go a long way toward readjusting in a positive manner the lopsided and skewed income and wealth gap in the United States.
“Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), one of the most conservative members of Congress, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), one of the most liberal, have both introduced sweeping proposals to broaden employee ownership in the U.S. That surprising fact testifies to just how practical—and urgent—this idea is.”
Mr. Rosen also pointed to 2019 research by Rutgers University which found in part, that “employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) enable families to significantly increase their assets, shrinking—though not eliminating—gender and racial wealth gaps,” and wrote that “ESOP companies helped employees gain a better understanding not just of corporate financial issues—most ESOPs have some form of open book management—but also personal financial planning. Many companies offered employees an increased voice in how their work was organized, providing a level of personal agency lacking in most jobs.”
OSHA fines Smithfield Foods $13,494 for not protecting South Dakota workers from COVID-19, faces backlash from company and workers – Agweek
Written By: Jeremy Fugleberg
Sep 10th 2020 – 1pm.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined Smithfield Foods $13,494 for failing to protect employees at its Sioux Falls meatpacking plant from exposure to COVID-19, OSHA announced Thursday, Sept. 10, and both the company and the union that represents plant works are objecting to the decision.
The workplace safety agency said the Smithfield fine was the maximum allowed by law for the single violation it found at the plant, which for a time was one of the largest COVID-19 hotspots in the nation. OSHA cited the company for one violation of failing to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards that can cause death or serious harm.
A COVID-19 outbreak at the plant in March and April sickened 1,294 employees and killed four, OSHA said. It also sickened hundreds of family members and other close contacts to workers.
“Employers must quickly implement appropriate measures to protect their workers’ safety and health,” OSHA Sioux Falls Area Director Sheila Stanley said in a news release. “Employers must meet their obligations and take the necessary actions to prevent the spread of coronavirus at their worksite.”
The OSHA fine is “wholly without merit” and Smithfield Foods will contest it, said Keira Lombardo, the Virginia-based company’s executive vice president of corporate affairs and compliance. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, May 10, 2020
Even our spooks see it.
Why?
It’s a matter of National Security.
Period.
End of conversation.
“Long-term problems for the US include stagnation of wages for lower-income families, inadequate investment in deteriorating infrastructure, rapidly rising medical and pension costs of an aging population, energy shortages, and sizable current account and budget deficits.”
“But the globalization of trade, and especially the rise of low-wage producers such as China, has put additional downward pressure on wages and upward pressure on the return to capital. Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households. Since 1996, dividends and capital gains have grown faster than wages or any other category of after-tax income.”
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, March 12, 2020
Trump’s hated of “everything Obama” has already harmed America.
Now, it’s harming Public Health.
That man is a genuine threat to the security of the United States. He simply has NO understanding of the complexity of the matters placed before him on the platter of the Presidency. He is utterly out of his league.
Consider this sampling of inane things he’s said about coronavirus (COVID-19):
First, it was, “We have it all under control.”
Followed closely by, “It’s very small problem in this country.”
And on its heels was, “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.”
Which was later accompanied by, “We have it totally under control. It’s going to be fine.”
As things progressed, and it because clear that it was only a matter of time before Americans were affected, he said in Davos, Switzerland that, “We do have a plan, and we think it’s going to be handled very well.”
Now that the fecal matter has started to hit the fan, he decided to make a rare, live, emergency telecast to address the nation, and said that, “I have decided to take several strong but necessary actions to protect the health and well-being of all Americans.”
In the same breath, he said, “To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days.”
Just last year, he:
• Cut the budgets of the Centers for Disease Control, and other Public Health-related budgets,
• Firing the government’s entire pandemic response chain of command, including those of the
––National Security Agency,
––National Security Council,
––Health and Human Services,
––Department of Homeland Security,
• Gutting the entire management infrastructure of the White House, and
• Killing the Complex Crises Fund
…DESPITE all that budget bloodshed like Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, he had the unmitigated gall and audacity to say that, “We are at a critical time in the fight against the virus.”
And sadly, it’s highly doubtful that anyone truly believes him when he said, “I will always put the well-being of America first.”
It’s not as if anyone believes him now, anyway. Members of the Cabinet are in fear of him, that they’ll lose their jobs being fired by Tweet, so they simply turn into jelly, and keep their ideas to themselves… since he knows how to run everything, anyway. So what difference does it truly make?
The next thing is to GET HIM OUT OF OFFICE!
But, moreover, this article goes in-depth to show and explain the things he’s done which have had a horrific effect upon Public Health -and- National Security.
That is NOT how to “Make America Great Again.”
Come November, you know what to do.
VOTE HIM OUT!!!
Trump Has Sabotaged America’s Coronavirus Response
When Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), declared the Wuhan coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern on Thursday, he praised China for taking “unprecedented” steps to control the deadly virus. “I have never seen for myself this kind of mobilization,” he noted. “China is actually setting a new standard for outbreak response.”
The epidemic control efforts unfolding today in China—including placing some 100 million citizens on lockdown, shutting down a national holiday, building enormous quarantine hospitals in days’ time, and ramping up 24-hour manufacturing of medical equipment—are indeed gargantuan. It’s impossible to watch them without wondering, “What would we do? How would my government respond if this virus spread across my country?”
For the United States, the answers are especially worrying because the government has intentionally rendered itself incapable. In 2018, the Trump administration fired the government’s entire pandemic response chain of command, including the White House management infrastructure. In numerous phone calls and emails with key agencies across the U.S. government, the only consistent response I encountered was distressed confusion. If the United States still has a clear chain of command for pandemic response, the White House urgently needs to clarify what it is
If the United States still has a clear chain of command for pandemic response,
the White House urgently needs to clarify what it is – not just for the public but for the government itself,
which largely finds itself in the dark.
When Ebola broke out in West Africa in 2014, President Barack Obama recognized that responding to the outbreak overseas, while also protecting Americans at home, involved multiple U.S. government departments and agencies, Read the rest of this entry »
If it had been Hillary Clinton, I would’ve been against it.
But it wasn’t.
But the thing is, is that, the Russians have achieved what they wanted to do – and that is to get the President elected. And when you acknowledge that fact, you have to come to the conclusion that, for that reason, he is an illegitimate President regardless of how many Electoral College votes he got. And the Electoral College should be abolished. Because it was designed for a country 250 years ago.
And the problem with that – not bashing the Constitution – but the idea is, “it’s time for a change,” because right now, when you can communicate with someone on the opposite side of the globe, when you can talk to someone in Hong Kong, when you can talk to someone in London, England, when you can talk to someone in Sydney, Australia, when you can talk with someone in Banff, Canada, when you can talk with someone in Switzerland, and in Mumbai, India, SIMULTANEOUSLY, and have a conference call, you KNOW that worldwide global instant communications has revolutionized the way that we are able to think about things. That is a transformation of UNPARALLELED proportion! When one person can have a voice and speak around the world – globally, in an instant – our forefathers never dreamed of anything like that. They certainly didn’t dream of an automobile. And they could not have dreamt of satellites. They certainly couldn’t have dreamt of rockets. They didn’t even have electricity, for heaven’s sake! And they came up with this idea of the Electoral College.
Why?
Because communications was not instant n 1776, or in 1787 when the Constitutional Convention was established. They had to wait WEEKS, or even MONTHS, before people could be able to hear about what was going on. And now, we can have it in an instant. You have it on your cell phone.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, December 8, 2019
Well… duh!
CNN is reporting that “President Donald Trump has continued to use his personal cell phone to make calls, despite repeated warnings from his staff that the practice could leave him vulnerable to foreign surveillance.
“The Democratic impeachment inquiry has resurrected concerns about the security and potential vulnerability of the President’s communications. Witness testimony revealed some top officials repeatedly failed to follow protocol intended to prevent sensitive phone conversations, including those involving the President, from being intercepted by foreign intelligence services.
“Several former US officials have told CNN it is highly likely that US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland’s cell phone call to Trump from a restaurant in Ukraine over the summer was picked up by intelligence agencies from numerous foreign countries, including Russia.
“CNN previously reported that Trump has given his personal number to foreign leaders on multiple occasions, outright ignoring security protocols. According to The Washington Post, Trump handing out his personal line led to one-on-one calls that even top White House aides did not know about.
“The New York Times reported last year that Chinese and Russian spies have listened in on Trump’s calls on his personal cell phone and the President’s aides have told him that Russian spies were listening in on a regular basis.
“Senior officials view moving Trump away from unsecure lines as a lost cause at this point, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Hurricane Dorian will be the “perfect storm” to end President Donald Trump’s autocratic regime.
His administration has mishandled the events in Puerto Rico with Hurricane Maria. Those American citizens STILL haven’t recovered, and his anemic administration has kept the FEMA from doing their job.
Maybe it’s because they’re one of his so-called “shithole countries.”
Imagine that. Puerto Ricans are American. But again, his racism is also equally well known.
But he did toss them some paper towels. That’s been a BIGLY HUGE help. Maybe this time, he’ll airdrop a planeload of them from Air Force One to affected areas.
He has wasted the summer break by not campaigning, and all polls show his approval ratings are well under water. With the storm surge predicted from Hurricane Dorian, it’ll be the end of the USS Trumpanzee in Chief.
There’s great irony in the fact that hurricanes come from Africa. And Hurricane Dorian is Read the rest of this entry »
Frankly, he’s a genuinely serious threat to National Security.
Think of him as a domestic enemy. Seriously.
FBI Director Christopher Wray (left to right), CIA Director Gina Haspel, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, prepare to testify before the Senate intelligence committee on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, 1/29/2019.
On Wednesday, 30 January 2019, POS45 rejected the sworn testimony of our nation’s top intelligence leaders that Iran is still complying with the nuclear agreement from which POS45 withdrew our United States. In other words, he’s practicing hypocrisy.
His lies, bull-in-a-china-shop and my-way-or-the-highway authoritarian, heavy-handed approach to governing has not worked, and will not ever work. America doesn’t want a dictator, anymore than we want a king. Our government is comprised of people willing to get in, roll their sleeves up, and do the work TOGETHER that needs to be done, and has been done, and continues to be done to make America great and even greater.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, October 6, 2012
Mitt Romney, during the first Presidential Debate of 2012, said, “I’m sorry, Jim. I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m going to stop other things. I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you too. But I’m not going to — I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it. That’s number one.”
In a separate post in a different forum, in a thread in response to the topic of cutting PBS, someone wrote that no one (agency) wanted to take a cut, and that Mr. Romney had a valid point about borrowing from China.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, September 7, 2012
Here’s an item from our “Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Climate Change“ file.
While there continues to be much frothing about the mouth from conservative and libertarian types about climate change, there remains no doubt of its existence.
Some – mostly Republican & Libertarians – continue to assert that climate change is as much a hoax as the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny or Great Pumpkin. However, to be certain, there is no doubt that change has occurred, and continues to occur. The reason(s) why, and causes of the same are subjects of valid scientific debate and research. But there is no disagreement that change has, and is occurring.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, November 9, 2009
I’m proud to have served my nation in the uniform armed services, having done so voluntarily. I think every young American should do similarly. And, I believe our nation should provide significant benefit to those whom so choose.
Some years ago, I envisioned what I called a “234 Plan,” which would:
Double pay grade for two years up to pay grade E-3 for initial enlistees;
Require a minimum of Four Years of service;
Pay for four years of higher education, up to and including Ph.D., with the ability to transfer benefits to first-degree relatives;
and perhaps most importantly,
4. Provide such income as federally Tax-Free, forever.
At current pay rates, that would be slightly under $76,000 for a period of two years at pay grade E-3 – not a bad nest egg. And then, there’s the 30 days paid vacation, head-to-toe health care, incentive/bonus pay for skills, BAH (basic allowance for housing), and a host of other remunerations and fiduciary potential – all of which are added to Basic Pay, thereby increasing take-home pay. Potentially, managing money wisely, a young enlistee could emerge from a four year commitment with very nearly $125,000 in pocket, VA health benefits, GI Bill benefits, and more.
The money could be used wisely, or squandered. But the principle would forever be federally tax-free – and I think it should be at the state level, as well. It’s well known that young enlistees have high levels of “disposable” income. But WISE fiscal management could yield significant benefits to them individually, and by extension, to our nation.
Part three of the plan I envisioned – higher education – was implemented when President Obama signed the Post 9/1 G.I. Bill, providing the most comprehensive expansion and provision of educational benefits our troops have received since F.D.R.’s presidency.
I recollect a report entitled “Young Virginians: Ready, Willing, and Unable to Serve,” having read and saved it September 2, this year. It was authored and advised by an impressive cadre of Generals, Admirals, field-grade officers, and senior executive NCOs, from all branches of the service, and “supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, and Pre-K Now, campaign of the Pew center on the States.”
The problems the report addresses are from a thorough examination of Virginia, though it’s findings can be extrapolated to the United States at large.
According to the report, the three greatest problems disqualifying American youth from service to our nation include:
1.) Criminality – felony and serious misdemeanor offense;
2.) Education – failure to graduate high school, and low achievement in reading & math, 30% unable to pass the Armed Forces Qualification Test; and
3.) Health – specifically obesity, although asthma, eyesight, hearing, mental health, ADHD and additional health problems factor in, thereby disqualifying over half of all young adults.
Additional disqualifiers include single custodial parenthood, and drug or alcohol abuse.
These are all social ills.
“Mission: Readiness – Military Leaders for Kids is a bipartisan, nonprofit, national security organization of more than 80 retired generals and admirals,” whom “accept no funds from federal, state, or local governments,” and “call on all policymakers to ensure America’s security and prosperity by supporting interventions proven to help America’s youth succeed academically, stay physically fit, and abide by the law. Pre-K Now collaborates with organizations and policy makers to lead a movement toward high-quality, voluntary pre-kindergarten for all 3- and 4-year-olds.”
In recent political history, social programs have been an “easy target” for many of the Republican stripe whom have seriously reduced or eliminated such programs’ funding, effectively or outright killing the very programs that could have done much to have prevented these anathemas.
Ironically, prison construction and maintenance is a capital expenditure. And of all the world’s nations, ours has more incarcerations per capita than any other, having exploded (doubling 2.5 times) since 1980 (though incarcerations remained relatively stable since 1920, according to the U.S. Department of Justice).
How’s that THAT for the so-called “Reagan Revolution?” It sounds more like a “Contract on America” rather than “with America,” to me.
Wonder why no more.
Governance is much more than infrastructure expenditures, and military readiness includes a strong social component.
Our Constitution calls it providing “for the common defense,” by promoting “the general welfare,” to “secure the blessings of liberty.”
Healthcare is an integral and unequivocal part of that equation… as we can now painfully, and plainly see.
I suppose it would be apropos and germane – though perhaps trite – to conclude with a line from advertising: “You can pay me now… or, pay me later.”
counterparts, from the way Russian theorists define cyberwarfare to how the Kremlin employs its cyber capabilities.” Part of that difference is that the Russians “conceptualize cyber operations within the broader framework of information warfare, a holistic concept that includes computer network operations, electronic warfare, psychological operations, and information operations.”
THIS! is honest-to-goodness COUNTRY🥓BACON!!😋
Warm Southern Breeze 