History for February 11

History for February 11 - On-This-Day.com:
Thomas Alva Edison 1847 - Inventor and businessman. His inventions included the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb, Leslie Nielson 1926 - Actor, 
Burt Reynolds 1936 - Actor ("Smokey and the Bandit") 


Jeb Bush 1953 - Governor of Florida, brother of U.S. President George W. Bush, Sarah Palin 1964 - Governor of Alaska, Jennifer Aniston 1969 - Actress ("Friends") 


1808 - Judge Jesse Fell experimented by burning anthracite coal to keep his house warm. He successfully showed how clean the coal burned and how cheaply it could be used as a heating fuel. 


1812 - The term "gerrymandering" had its beginning when the governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, signed a redistricting law that favored his party. 


1858 - A French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary near Lourdes. 


1943 - General Dwight David Eisenhower was selected to command the allied armies in Europe. 


1945 - During World War II, the Yalta Agreement was signed by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin. (Today in World War II History) 


1975 - Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to head a major party in Britain when she was elected leader of the Conservative Party. 


1979 - Nine days after the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran (after 15 years in exile) power was seized by his followers. 

1982 - ABC-TV’s presentation of "The Winds of War" concluded. The 18-hour miniseries cost $40 million to produce and was the most-watched television program in history at the time. 

LIBERTY REVIEW

LIBERTY REVIEW:

http://www.libertyreview76.blogspot.com/2016/02/epiphanies-while-driving-by-tammy.html

Epiphanies While Driving

By Tammy Derouin

An American president visited a mosque which has been identified as supporting radical Islam.  An American president is flooding our country with illegal aliens, many of whom could be potential terrorists.  An American president is giving orders for our border patrol to stand down, to stop protecting our borders.

I don’t know about you, but these actions alone are well beyond eyebrow raising.  They are far beyond questioning the loyalty of the executive.  It is, after all, very plain to see that he will side with anyone or any regime over the American people.  Let’s put aside, for a moment, all of the other scandalous activity which has taken place throughout this administration.  His term in office is full of examples.

 

Let’s push aside Fast and Furious, the IRS targeting political opponents, Obamacare, Common Core, siding with criminals before facts surface and then continuing to side with criminals, Benghazi, intentionally running up the debt, pushing climate change, shutting down coal plants to increase the price of electricity, stopping the Keystone Pipeline, making nuclear deals with our enemy and bowing to their every demand, bowing to our enemies, intentionally weakening our military, disgracing our military, releasing terrorist prisoners from Gitmo, exchanging prisoners for a highly questionable soldier whose loyalties are also highly questionable, and creating a dictatorship by way of his pen.

The scandals of this administration are too numerous to mention.  I’m sure there are many more which have yet to surface.  It’s so unfortunate that the mainstream media is no longer capable of telling the truth.  More Americans would be aware of the crimes taking place against them if a free press still existed.  Sadly, they are all warm and cozy in his pocket.  They are called upon to perform on demand. 

How do we get the attention of those who are blind to such criminal behavior against the American people? A private individual could rent billboards but just imagine how many that would take?  Such an individual would also become a political target as freedom of speech is slowly fading into darkness.  Can you imagine the traffic accidents that would result from epiphanies while driving? 

This is the same administration which is also accused of giving stand down orders to our troops who wanted to assist Americans in Benghazi....

Canada to build Muslim refugee camps on military bases complete with mosques, Korans, prayer mats | Creeping Sharia

Canada to build Muslim refugee camps on military bases complete with mosques, Korans, prayer mats | Creeping Sharia:
Canada to build Muslim refugee camps on military bases complete with mosques, Korans, prayer mats

Posted on February 9, 2016 by creeping

via: Liberals to build refugee camps on Canadian military bases — taxpayers will fund mosques, Korans – The Rebel

The Canadian military has been ordered by Justin Trudeau’s Liberals to draft plans to house more than 6,000 Muslim migrants on a long-term basis at military bases, according to documents obtained exclusively by The Rebel (see below.)

Included in the Department of National Defence budgets are hundreds of thousands of dollars set aside for “religious support,” including the purchase of Muslim Korans, prayer mats and foot-washing towels.

The plans also call for the construction of mosques or “worship centres,” using taxpayers dollars.

The planning documents, in English and French, were released in response to a Rebel “Access to Information” request about religious expenditures by the Department of National Defence.

But the detailed Quebec budget plans also shed light on the sheer scale of the Trudeau government’s plans to set up refugee camp-style accommodations on seven Canadian Forces Bases across Quebec and Ontario.

The budget for Quebec alone totals more than $46 million for the first six months.

For a typical migrant family, that’s a $200,000/year subsidy — not including medicare or welfare.

It’s shocking that Canadian Armed Forces personnel will be ordered to abandon the coalition battle against ISIS and return to Canada to become waiters, chauffeurs and social workers for Muslim migrants, and that Canadian Forces Bases will be turned into squalid refugee camps.

It’s a disgrace that Canadian military personnel have been sent eviction notices to make way for foreign migrants.

But for the DND’s budget to be diverted away from military purposes and towards buying Korans and building mosques for foreign migrants, is especially outrageous.

RELATED: “A national embarrassment: U.S. Senate demands answers about Trudeau’s reckless refugee plan”

---

More: Canada: PM Trudeau Promises 50,000 Muslim Refugees in 2016!

Poisoning their minds-----'White guilt' video shown to high school students irks community

'White guilt' video shown to high school students irks community | Fox News:
An animated film designed as a lesson in “racial discourse” for students at a Virginia high school has led to backlash from community members who’ve taken issue with not-so subtle references to so-called white privilege throughout the video.
“They are sitting there watching a video that is dividing them up from a racial standpoint. 

It's a White guilt kind of video,” Don Blake, whose granddaughter attended the assembly where the video was shown, told told WWBT. 

“I think somebody should be held accountable for this.”
Officials at Glen Allen High School in Henrico said in a statement that the video, “The Unequal Opportunity Race,” was a presentation involving “American history and racial discourse.”
...As the video begins, four athletes take their marks at the start of a race. 

While two white athletes immediately take off at the sound of the starting gun, two non-white athletes must remain in the starting block while a red light blocks their path. 

The non-white athletes are bombarded with words such as “slavery,” “broken treaties,” “genocide” and “segregation.” 

The white athletes continually run around the track, getting older as their batons – marked with a money symbol – grow larger and larger.

Eventually they hand the baton off to a younger white athlete running beside them.

More than a minute into the animated video, the non-white athletes finally get to start the race. 

But as soon as they begin running, the pair is beset by rocks, potholes, sharks and rain clouds symbolizing “standardized tests,” “discrimination” and the “school to prison pipeline.” 

The white male athlete, holding a water bottle marked “Yale,” eventually wins the race without even having to run – he takes his place on a fast-moving conveyor belt as the word “privilege” follows him. 

He crosses the finish line just ahead of the white female.
As the four-minute film ends a message flashes across the screen: “Affirmative action helps level the playing field.”...

Obama Budget Chief: Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants Key to Stabilizing Social Security | TheBlaze.com

Obama Budget Chief: Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants Key to Stabilizing Social Security | TheBlaze.com:

"On Tuesday, President Barack Obama submitted to Congress the final annual budget of his presidency. That same day, his budget director dismissed any notion that Social Security is a fiscal concern, though he did add that granting legal status for illegal immigrants would pump more revenue into the program.

Obama’s final budget proposal is partially predicated on deficit reduction it projects would result from Congress passing the comprehensive immigration reform this year, a controversial piece of legislation languishing in Congress since 2013 with almost no chance of passing in a divisive election year."

Someone Is Shot In Chicago Every 2.8 Hours

Someone Is Shot In Chicago Every 2.8 Hours | The Daily Caller
Someone in Chicago has been shot every 2.84 hours this year for a total of 2,349 shootings during the period of January 1, 2015 to October 6, 2015, according to crime stats published by the Chicago Tribune.
This year, Chicago is expected to eclipse the 2014 milestone of a shooting every 3.38 hours in 2014 with a total victim count of 2,587.
Chicago ranks as one of the most regulated cities in the nation for gun control.
Concealed carry is almost nonexistent.
To purchase a gun or ammunition requires a Firearm Owners Identification card in the entire state of Illinois, and additionally, a Chicago Firearm Permit – which is required to possess a firearm in Chicago.
Not only are the people heavily regulated in Chicago, but guns are also heavily regulated. 
Any long gun with a grip protruding from the stock or a firearm with a telescoping stock is prohibited and classified as an “assault weapon.”
Even a spring-powered pellet gun with a muzzle velocity of 700 feet-per-second is classified as a “firearm,” although it does not use gun powder, the component that puts the “fire” in “firearm.”
A stun-gun — a non-lethal device with no projectile — is considered a deadly weapon and cannot be carried for self-defense.
Chicago, for all intents and purposes, is a “gun-free zone...”

Glenn Reynolds: Washington's culture of corruption rots on

Glenn Reynolds: Washington's culture of corruption rots on:
When bureaucrats are above the law, ordinary Americans may want to follow suit.
Last week saw the passage of a grim milestone in government corruption: Pepperdine University Law Professor Paul Caron’s TaxProf blog marked the 1000th day of the scandal involving the IRS’s deliberate political targeting of conservative “Tea Party” groups. 
There are some lessons in this, and they’re mostly bad news.
The first sad lesson is that the notion of an impartial, professional civil service is a fiction.
The big government designs of Democrats and the federal bureaucracy are aligned, and the bureaucracy often deploys its powers in ways calculated to frustrate Republican presidents and to protect Democratic ones.
This is an open secret in Washington, leading Bloomberg View writer Megan McArdle to comment that even if elected, a President Trump wouldn’t change much because the bureaucracy wouldn’t go along:
“Anything that gets done by Washington must be done by the civil service. 
These folks are lifers. 
You can’t fire them. 
Because of the abovementioned legislative compromises required, you also can’t push a bill through that will let you fire them. 
And they — not the president, and not the cabinet secretaries — are the folks who do most of what government does. 
The president can wave his hands like Jean-Luc Picard and say, ‘Make it so.’ 
But if they don’t wanna, they ain’t gonna.”
This should be infuriating to anyone who actually believes in democratic governance, but on the other hand, since most political ideas are half-baked, anything that slows them down is probably a good idea.
But what happened in the IRS scandal wasn’t a case of bureaucrats slow-walking ideas they think are dumb. 
It was, instead, a case of bureaucrats targeting people because of their political views.
Ohio Tea Party activist Justin Binik-Thomas noticed in 2012 that the IRS was asking Tea Party organizations if they knew him.
The IRS denied that it was targeting people based on their political views, then admitted that it was doing so but blamed low-level employees in the Cincinnati office.
Then it turned out that, as the Treasury Inspector General found, there was much more going on.
The next day, the acting IRS commissioner resigned..."
Read on and get angry!

Lunch video-----George Carlin on Global Warming

Noon-toon

In Surprising Blow to Administration, Supreme Court Halts Obama’s Carbon Emissions Plan | TheBlaze.com

In Surprising Blow to Administration, Supreme Court Halts Obama’s Carbon Emissions Plan | TheBlaze.com:

"WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to halt enforcement of President Barack Obama’s sweeping plan to address climate change until after legal challenges are resolved.

The surprising move is a blow to the administration and a victory for the coalition of 27 mostly Republican-led states and industry opponents that call the regulations “an unprecedented power grab.”

Chicago Cop Seeks $10M from Family of Teen He Killed, Claims He's 'Traumatized'

Chicago Cop Seeks $10M from Family of Teen He Killed, Claims He's 'Traumatized' | The Daily Sheeple:
A Chicago police officer is suing the family of a teenager he shot in December, claiming his psyche was “traumatized” by the fatal incident.
On Friday, white police officer Robert Rialmo, 27, filed a suit against the LeGrier family, whose son he killed less than two months ago, seeking $10 million in damages.
The officer claims the black 19-year-old college student attempted to hit him with a baseball bat, swinging it close to the officer’s head.
This forced him to open fire, killing two and people and wounding one other.
Early on the morning of December 26, Northern Illinois University student Quintonio LeGrier called 911 asking police officers to come to a home on Chicago’s West Side. The young man, who was reportedly mentally ill, did not give his name or many details as to why he wanted a police presence. He only said he was being threatened and that an emergency was taking place.

LeGrier and a neighbor, Bettie Jones, 55, were fatally shot by Chicago Police Officer Robert Rialmo minutes later. The teen’s father Antonio LeGrier was shot in the chest. but survived.

Officer Rialmo’s attorney said his client, who shot Quintonio LeGrier six times, wants to send an important message that police are “not targets for assaults” and “suffer damage like anybody else.”

“Ever since the McDonald payoff, people are treating officer-involved confrontations like a lottery ticket and they’re waiting to cash it in,” Rialmo’s attorney, Joel Brodsky, told the Tribune, referring to a recent high-profile compensation case in Chicago.
The lawsuit claims that causing death to two people will “continue to cause…extreme emotional trauma” to police officer.
LeGrier family, which filed a wrongful death lawsuit days after the shooting took place, sees the situation from a different angle.
“That’s a new low even for the Chicago Police Department,” said family attorney Basileios Foutris. “First you shoot them, then you sue them.”
“After this coward shot a teenager in the back … he has the temerity to sue him?” Foutris told the Chicago Tribune.

The March of Trump, and the Feel of Bern

The March of Trump, and the Feel of Bern :: SteynOnline
"...But a nightmare for the GOP's Donor-Industrial Complex: Trump has the populist lane, Cruz the conservative, and both are reviled by the so-called "establishment". 
All New Hampshire had to do was sort out the so-called "moderate" lane by anointing Rubio, and, in a three-way race, he'd eliminate the Trump-Cruz problem. 
That was the theory.

Instead, Chris Christie's kamikaze mission took out Rubio, and killed his Iowa Rubementum stone dead. 
As a result, Kasich had a solid second-place finish and Jeb had a marginally less worse than expected fourth-place finish that will keep him and his SuperPac in the game a few states longer. 
And, until the mod squad consolidates behind one of these guys, the GOP establishment will be stuck with a frontrunner it despises, and a runner-up it despises even more.

Incidentally, Trump's performance was consistent across all demographics and all regions - 38 per cent in the poor, rural north of Coos County, 38 per cent in the prosperous, suburban south-eastern seacoast of Rockingham County. 
His support was also broad ideologically - conservative, moderate, independent, evangelical. It's hard to see a RINO squish voting for Cruz or a hardcore conservative voting for Kasich, but not difficult to see either of them supporting Trump, as long as they're not repelled by his personality, which seems to be his only ceiling. 

...Everyone says, "Oh, that's only because the Granite State is Bernie's backyard." 
That's rubbish. 
No one in south-eastern New Hampshire, which is where the population is, follows Vermont politics. 
Only ten per cent of the state can pick up Vermont TV stations, and only the Connecticut River Valley towns have any sort of bi-state orientation. 
Bernie didn't win because he lives next door. 
He won because for a big chunk of the Democrat base - not just utopian millennials and their college professors, but a lot of the same kind of demoralized blue-collar whites Trump appeals to - for a big chunk of that base the Obama-Hillary left isn't left enough..."

Pro-Palestine Hackers Leak Personal Info Of 30,000 FBI & DHS Employees

Pro-Palestine Hackers Leak Personal Info Of 30,000 FBI & DHS Employees | American Military News:
"A team of hackers has leaked the personal information, including phone numbers and addresses of close to 30,000 employees at the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.
The hack was first reported by the online publication, Motherboard, on Sunday.
They also were able to connect with the hackers who gave insight into their operation.
According to them, the hack was simple – using a compromised email address to download 200GB of data out of a supposed 1TB, which included the contact info as well as some credit card and other information about some members of the military.
This relatively unsophisticated hack, along with the amount of data collected shows just how insecure some of our nations secrets are. 
The sheer size of the data hacked could lead one to believe there is more still left to be leaked.
The leaked information includes pro-palestinian slogans and this additional national security breach is a devastating hack that once again shows the government can’t protect data"

BREAKING: 26 States Make Huge Move to Strip Obama's Power Inside Their Borders

BREAKING: 26 States Make Huge Move to Strip Obama's Power Inside Their Borders:

"More than half the states have requested relief from an Environmental Protection Agency order requiring them to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent.

The states have asked the Supreme Court to stay the requirement pending the outcome of a lawsuit against it, saying that it would do “irreparable harm” to them."

Sports Stadium Deals Consistently Strike Out

Sports Stadium Deals Consistently Strike Out [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill has proposed legislation that would force sports teams who relocate to a new city to pay back public subsidies received from their former state or town. 
This legislation is likely influenced by the St. Louis Rams’ recent decision to move to Los Angeles (Sen. McCaskill hails from Missouri).
This is a solid idea, especially given what the economic research says about stadium subsidies and given the inability of cities to protect taxpayers from being left in the lurch on these stadium deals.
The Rams were lured from Los Angeles to St. Louis in 1995 by a new, publicly financed stadium, the Edward Jones Dome.
The city borrowed nearly $500 million (inflation-adjusted) to construct the stadium and still owes approximately $100 million.
This debt service will cost city taxpayers $5 million per year until 2021.
The Rams also get to keep the revenue from the naming rights for the stadium, which is worth just under $4 million per year.
Sen. McCaskill’s proposal would require the Rams to pay back the $100 million the city still owes.
But what’s lost in this debate is that it shouldn’t require federal law to prevent pro sports teams from abusing their publicly financed stadium deals. 
Unfortunately, most of the time, cities negotiate terrible agreements with franchises, leaving taxpayers in a vulnerable position.
For instance, St. Louis agreed to a “state-of-the-art” clause in the Ram’s lease with the city.
This required the Edward Jones Dome to be in the top 25 percent of NFL stadiums as measured by various stadium characteristics.
If the Dome fell out of the top 25 percent, the Rams were free to break the lease and move. 
Given the large amount of new stadium construction in the NFL, the Edward Jones Dome quickly fell out of the top 25 percent, and the team claimed that the stadium would need $700 million in renovations to make it a top-tier stadium again.
The city didn’t have $700 million to spare (which city does?) and, as a consequence, arbitrators in 2013 ruled that the city was in violation of the lease and the Rams were free to move.
But St. Louis is not alone..."

AM Fruitcake

History for February 10

History for February 10 - On-This-Day.com:
Jimmy Durante 1893, Lon Chaney, Jr. 1905, Robert Wagner 1930 - Actor ("Hart to Hart") 


Roberta Flack 1939 - Singer, Mark Spitz 1950 - Olympic gold-medal swimmer, Laura Dern 1967 - Actress 


1763 - The Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War. In the treaty France ceded Canada to England. 


1846 - Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began their exodus to the west from Illinois. 


1863 - In New York City, two of the world’s most famous midgets, General Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren were married. 


1863 - The fire extinguisher was patented by Alanson Crane. 


1897 - "The New York Times" began printing "All the news that's fit to print" on their front page. 


1925 - The first waterless gas storage tank was placed in service in Michigan City, IN. 


1962 - The Soviet Union exchanged capture American U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for the Soviet spy Rudolph Ivanovich Abel being held by the U.S. 


1992 - Mike Tyson was convicted in Indianapolis of raping Desiree Washington, Miss Black American contestant. 

Photo shows American flags crumpled up on Hillary HQ floor | The American Mirror

Photo shows American flags crumpled up on Hillary HQ floor | The American Mirror
The Washington Post tweeted a disturbing photo that may show what some Hillary Clinton staffers really think about the American flag.

“With many hours to go, Clinton’s staff has flags ready for their election night party,” the paper tweeted.

The campaign appears to be violating basic flag etiquette.

According to Military.com, “Don’t let the flag touch the ground.”

Giuliani Blasts Beyonce’s Super Bowl Halftime Performance: ‘Really Outrageous!’ | Video | TheBlaze.com

Giuliani Blasts Beyonce’s Super Bowl Halftime Performance: ‘Really Outrageous!’ | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani wasn’t too fond of Beyonce’s Super Bowl halftime performance on Sunday night, saying that it was “really outrageous” that the singer used the opportunity to “attack police officers.”

“I thought it was really outrageous that she used it as a platform to attack police officers, who are the people who protect her and protect us and keep us alive,” Giuliani said during a “Fox & Friends” segment on Monday morning."

This New Tank Drone Could Spell the End for Human Freedom

This New Tank Drone Could Spell the End for Human Freedom | The Daily Sheeple:
After 15 years of fighting the War on Terror, Americans have become thoroughly acquainted with automated warfare.
Drones are no longer a novelty, especially after Obama took office and started deploying them like there was no tomorrow.
However, there is no reason to think that these machines are the end point of automated warfare.
If anything, they are just the beginning.
As technology advances, we can expect to see more robots show up in every active and supporting role the military has to offer.
That of course, will include land based drones.
Despite spending two decades developing land based drones, it’s not the US who is going to break ground in this field, but a Russian state-owned corporation known as Rosoboronexport. 
They’ve just developed the very first tank drone, and they are expected to sell it on the international market in the very near future.
...Make no mistake however, this has far greater implications than airborne drones ever did.
This isn’t just going to be a ground based version of a reaper drone.
It’s going to change the game for warfare, and for human society.
And even if it doesn’t do this right away, it is a first step towards radically changing society, and not for the better.
Here’s why:
The history of human warfare has always been just that. Human warfare. 
There has always been a person somewhere in the loop.
Specifically, there has always been some guy with a gun or a sword or a spear, who is doing the dirty work of someone more powerful than him.
He is the lowest common denominator of any military.
He is intrinsic.
Even more so than naval or air power.
The infantryman is ultimately the most important contributor to any war, because every tank, plane, missile, and ship is deployed with the intent of helping him gain and hold ground.
The buck always stops with an armed human being.
If we begin to automate land warfare, and start replacing these grunts with machines, it’s going to irrevocably change society.
For most of human history, the rulers have always had to find some way to convince other people to fight in their name.
They’ve done this either by compensation with money, loot, and slaves, or with some kind of ideology.
But what happens when machines take the role of the grunt? 
What happens if the elites no longer have to convince people to fight for them?..."

'The Hunting Ground' director compares due-process advocates to 'climate change deniers'

'The Hunting Ground' director compares due-process advocates to 'climate change deniers' - The College Fix:
"The campus sexual-assault documentary The Hunting Ground has been under sustained attack by left-of-center law professors and journalists going back at least 11 months, when The Harvard Crimson fact-checked its claims about Harvard.
The criticism has flummoxed the makers of the film, who recently tried to convince Harvard Law students to file Title IX complaints against their own professors because they called the film a hit job on one of their accused students (Brandon Winston beat the allegations against him).
Now the film’s director is pulling out the big guns, ThinkProgress reports:
“This falsely accused thing drives me nuts,” Kirby Dick, who wrote and directed The Hunting Ground, told ThinkProgress. “The criminal justice system resoundingly resides in favor of the perpetrator.” [Tell that to Steven Avery.]
“There’s a real parallel between climate change deniers and rape deniers in terms of how they operate,” Dick added. “And there is going to be a similar parallel in terms of the impact on this culture… It’s taken 20 years for us to crawl out of that hole. We can’t just assume there are two sides and those two sides are equally weighted.”
Having failed to shame progressive advocates – led by nonwhite and feminist legal scholars like Jeannie Suk and Nancy Gertner – into renouncing their fealty to due process, rape hustlers like Kirby Dick resort to calling them the worst names they can think of (“creationist” can’t be far behind)."

The Legal Language That Might Stop the Obama Administration From Using ‘Genocide’ to Describe the Islamic State’s Actions | TheBlaze.com

The Legal Language That Might Stop the Obama Administration From Using ‘Genocide’ to Describe the Islamic State’s Actions | TheBlaze.com:

"The Obama administration continues pondering whether to classify as genocide the Islamic State’s targeting of Christians and religious minorities, even as European allies have opted for the term.

While some experts argue that it’s clearly a case of genocide, others contend the case might rest on the wording, “in whole or in part,” contained in the genocide treaty that the United States is a part of."

There's been a boom in driver's licenses issued to immigrants here illegally

There's been a boom in driver's licenses issued to immigrants here illegally - LA Times:
"...An estimated 605,000 licenses were issued under the law last year, accounting for nearly half of all new licenses, according to the California DMV.
Nearly 400,000 of the licenses were issued during the first six months.
"We believe that this new law increases safety on California roads by putting licensed drivers behind the steering wheel," spokesman Artemio Armenta said.
...Brown in August signed a trio of immigration-related measures, which included elimination of the word "alien" within California's labor code to describe immigrants in the country illegally.
The new laws also included allowing noncitizen high school students to serve as election poll workers and protecting immigrant minors in civil lawsuits..."

Laura Hillier died of leukemia while waiting for hospital bed despite having a donor

Laura Hillier died of leukemia while waiting for hospital bed despite having a donor | Daily Mail Online:
Friends of girl, 18, with leukemia sign her casket with loving messages in a final goodbye after she died waiting for a hospital bed during a shortage in Canada

1. Laura Hillier, 18, died after waiting for a bone marrow transplant during a hospital bed shortage in Canada, despite having willing donors available
2. An Ontario hospital said it could only do five transplants a month and there were about 30 people who were waiting to have the procedure done
3. At her funeral, friends and family signed her casket with loving messages
4. The Hillier family is now fighting in Laura's memory to end 'deadly' wait times for hospital beds in Canada

Lunch video-----Congratulations North Korea!

Noon-toon

Obamas’ expensive vacations spark lawsuit; ‘kingly entourage’ abuse of taxpayers’ money | BizPac Review

Obamas’ expensive vacations spark lawsuit; ‘kingly entourage’ abuse of taxpayers’ money | BizPac Review:

"Contending that the bill for Obama’s travel costs exceeds $74 million, but being stonewalled in trying to access the actual totals, Judicial Watch sued the Department of Homeland Security for ignoring Freedom of Information Act requests, according to a press release issued this week by the conservative watchdog group.

(The Secret Service is under the authority of Homeland Security.)

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said taxpayers are being “abused” by the president’s “kingly entourage.”

“Now that we’ve sued, the Secret Service has stopped ignoring our requests for details on more of the costs of Barack Obama’s luxury vacations,” Fitton said in the statement. "

Global warming might be causing dogs to become depressed, say pet behaviourists

Global warming might be causing dogs to become depressed, say pet behaviourists | Environment | The Independent:
A boredom epidemic is sweeping through Britain’s dog population – and global warming could be to blame.
Across the country, there are reports of down-in-the-mouth mutts, and under-the-weather canines.
Leading pet behaviourists told The Independent that the number of depressed and unsettled dogs they have seen in recent months is unprecedented.
And they suggested that the spate of wet winters could be at the root of the problem, as owners cut down on the daily walks that are crucial to keeping dogs’ spirits up.
...“I’ve been working with dogs for more than 20 years and I can’t remember a time when they’ve been this bored.
I tend to see boredom in bursts but I’m seeing it chronically this winter,” said Carolyn Menteith, a dog behaviourist who was named Britain’s Instructor of the Year in 2015.
Ms Menteith spends much of her time outside walking dogs and has noticed a significant change in the weather in the past five years or so – as cold, crisp winters gradually give way to “constant wet dreariness”.
She – like many scientists and meteorologists – puts this down to climate change and expects to see more bored dogs in the future as global warming unleashes increasingly frequent and intense bouts of winter rainfall..."

World War III inches closer as Turkey says it may enter Syrian conflict

L. TODD WOOD: World War III inches closer as Turkey says it may enter Syrian conflict - Washington Times:
The reason Russia is possibly building a new airbase on the Turkish border inside Syria became clearer today as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted Turkey could enter the war on the side of the anti-Assad forces who Russia has been primarily targeting. 
The Syrian government made major gains against the Sunni opposition in recent weeks as the Syrian city of Aleppo looked to fall from the opposition’s control.
Turkey has repeatedly urged the American-led coalition against ISIS to do more to help the anti-Assad forces.
“We don’t want to fall into the same mistake in Syria as in Iraq,” Mr. Erdogan said, recounting how Turkey’s parliament denied a U.S. request to use its territory for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
“It’s important to see the horizon.
What’s going on in Syria can only go on for so long.
At some point it has to change,” he told journalists on the return flight from a tour of Latin America, reported Bloomberg News.
When asked if Turkey could enter the Syrian conflict, Mr. Erdogan said, “You don’t talk about these things. 
When necessary, you do what’s needed. 
Right now our security forces are prepared for all possibilities...”

Iowa Dem Party fixes errors, but refuses to release raw vote

Iowa Dem Party fixes errors, but refuses to release raw vote - UPI.com:
"DES MOINES, Iowa, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton remains the winner of the Iowa caucuses after the Iowa Democratic corrected errors in several precincts.
The Des Moines Register quoted Iowa Democratic Party officials as saying on Sunday that Clinton won with 700.47 state delegate equivalents, or 49.84 percent, while Bernie Sanders finished in second with 696.92 state delegate equivalents, or 49.59 percent.
The review of the count in select precincts came amid calls for an audit following reported discrepancies in the caucus results last week.
In one precinct, a single delegate showed up to vote for Sanders but was erroneously marked as voting for Clinton.
In all, party officials reviewed 14 precincts and found errors in five.
...The mistakes have also led to calls for the Iowa Democratic Party to change its process, which differs from the Republican Party's method of conducting a simple, secret straw poll.
The Democrats use complex math formulas, coin tosses and past voter turnout to calculate numbers from a series of headcounts..."

Obama DHS scrubs records of hundreds of Muslim terrorists

Obama DHS scrubs records of hundreds of Muslim terrorists:

"These new shocking revelations come fresh on the heels of whistleblower testimony in the wake of the San Bernardino jihad slaughter, revealing that the Obama administration shut down investigations into jihadists in America (and quite possible the San Bernardino shooters) at the request of the Department of State and the DHS’ own Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Division. Haney noted: “They claimed that since the Islamist groups in question were not Specially Designated Terrorist Organizations (SDTOs) tracking individuals related to these groups was a violation of the travelers’ civil liberties. These were almost exclusively foreign nationals: When were they granted the civil rights and liberties of American citizens?”

How is this not impeachable? When did foreign terrorists get civil rights?"

Dark green conifers across Europe have stoked Global Warming: French Research

Dark green conifers across Europe have stoked Global Warming: French Research | Maine News Online:
Planting more trees than what can be harvested has been recognized by activists as a key strategy in the fight against climate change.
But a new study published in the journal Science has found the claim to be false.
As per the researchers, more than 250 years of forest management in Europe has actually added to climate change rather than helping to stop it.
 In the study, the researchers have assessed the land-use history of Europe from 1750 to till date.
The researchers have included factors including deforestation and forestation and management changes and changes in types of trees planted and the amount of wood harvested.
They have also used models to assess the effects of the changes on the climate..."

AM Fruitcake