Lawmaker: Michigan no-fault insurance hike is 'a farce' - Story | WJBK

Lawmaker: Michigan no-fault insurance hike is 'a farce' - Story | WJBK

"(WJBK) - To say State Rep. Pete Lucido (R-Shelby Township) is upset about the latest insurance rate hike, would be an understatement.

On Thursday the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association announced starting July 1st - you will pay $22 more a year -- bringing the total to $192 a year for each insured vehicle.

Lucido wants to know why since the catastrophic claims fund currently has $21 billion.

"This is a farce, this is un-American and uncivilized in today's society," Lucido said. "We shouldn't be paying for this; we need to have them under oath. We need to have those books open. We need to know how much people are making and where that money goes."

Lucido says the only people who do know is the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association because years ago it became a private fund.

The organization claims the mandatory fee to cover unlimited medical benefits for injured drivers are going up because of higher than expected claims..."
Read on!

Facebook Eyes the Midterms | Power Line

Facebook Eyes the Midterms | Power Line:
"...I think it remarkable that Facebook intends to take on “false narratives,” i.e., “intentionally divisive headlines and language.” 
Is it surprising that people disagree about “what an appropriate narrative is”? 
How Facebook intends to referee competing narratives, I can’t imagine. 
Well, no, actually I can.

How about “false facts”? 
Here, Facebook must rely on fact-checkers:

Today, I want to talk about one part of our strategy: our partnership with third-party fact-checking organizations. We’re seeing progress in our ability to limit the spread of articles rated false by fact-checkers, and we’re scaling our efforts.

Here’s how it works:

* We use signals, including feedback from people on Facebook, to predict potentially false stories for fact-checkers to review.

* When fact-checkers rate a story as false, we significantly reduce its distribution in News Feed — dropping future views on average by more than 80%.

* We notify people who’ve shared the story in the past and warn people who try to share it going forward.

* For those who still come across the story in their News Feed, we show more information from fact-checkers in a Related Articles unit.

* We use the information from fact-checkers to train our machine learning model, so that we can catch more potentially false news stories and do so faster.

So it all comes down to, who are the fact-checkers? 

A Facebook employee stated at the press conference that approved fact checkers will be those who have signed on to Poynter’s international fact checking network principles. 

You can see the list of signatories at the link; the only one that I recognize as more or less conservative is the Weekly Standard. 

Facebook has already said that it will use Politifact and Snopes, both left-leaning, as fact checkers. 

At the press conference, it got even worse:

In the US, we recently announced a partnership with The Associated Press to use their reporters in all 50 states to identify and debunk false and misleading stories related to the federal, state and local US midterm elections.

The Associated Press is the number one source of left-wing bias in the American press. 

Its “fact checks” are directed almost exclusively against President Trump and his administration, rarely against Democrats. 

I have written about them a number of times. 

In my judgment, the AP’s anti-Trump “fact checks” are wrong as often as they are right. 

Most often, they just assert Democratic Party talking points. 

If the AP is to be Facebook’s principal fact-checker for the midterm elections, Facebook may as well outsource the function to the Democratic National Committee..."

Read all!

Lunch video-----Dana Loesch: Left Using Parkland Kids to Silence Pro-Gun Americans

Noon-toon

Studio CEO: 'Very Powerful People' Pressured Us Not To Release 'Chappaquiddick' | Daily Wire

Studio CEO: 'Very Powerful People' Pressured Us Not To Release 'Chappaquiddick' | Daily Wire:

"Finally, Americans will be given the full truth and nothing but the truth about what happened the night Sen. Ted Kennedy left an innocent woman to drown in a car as he fled from the scene of an accident.
The film "Chappaquiddick," starring Jason Clarke as the Kennedy golden boy and Kate Mara as his fateful victim, comes out next weekend, but according to the film's executive producer, powerful players have tried to prevent that from happening."

GE tests a new engine on a 747 and boy does it look weird - CNET

GE tests a new engine on a 747 and boy does it look weird - CNET:
"Commentary: When GE tests a new engine, it mounts it on an old plane. The GE9X is a lot bigger than a 747's existing engines.
...Here, for example, is a video of a Boeing 747-400 taking off.
But something doesn't look quite right. 
One engine looks far bigger than the others.
Is this someone's idea of humor?
Not at all.
For one, the video was released two weeks ago...
Instead, this celebrates GE Aviation's March 13 maiden test of its new GE9X engine, one that is set to power Boeing's new 777X planes.

#1 Movie this week 2005-----Guess Who - Trailer

Coffee cancer warning: What science says about cancer risk, coffee and acrylamide - CBS News

Coffee cancer warning: What science says about c
"...The California law
Since 1986, businesses have been required to post warnings about chemicals known to cause cancer or other health risks - more than 900 substances are on the state's list today - but what's a "significant" risk is arguable.
Coffee sellers and other defendants in the lawsuit that spurred Thursday's ruling have a couple weeks to challenge it or appeal.
The law "has potential to do much more harm than good to public health," by confusing people into thinking risks from something like coffee are similar to those from smoking, Giovannucci said.
The International Food Information Council and Foundation, an organization funded mostly by the food and beverage industry, says the law is confusing the public because it doesn't note levels of risk, and adds that U.S. dietary guidelines say up to five cups of coffee a day can be part of a healthy diet..."
Read all!

#1 This day in 1982-----Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - I Love Rock N Roll

Social media firms like Facebook want us addicted to popularity & status

Social media firms like Facebook want us addicted to popularity & status:
"...When humans evolved in small bands of 20 to 100 people, standing within the tribe was vitally important.
Your reproductive success, access to resources, and even your children’s future, depended a lot on your popularity.
It’s not surprising, then, that people who experienced a rush of pleasure when they received social validation — a “dopamine hit,” in today’s popular language of neurochemistry — were more likely to survive, leaving a strong evolutionary bias toward people with a desire to receive social approval. (And a fear of social disapproval, which is why speaking in public is one of the greatest phobias.)
Social media companies know this, and take advantage of it.
There’s even a company called Dopamine Labs that specializes in making apps more addictive.
(And “more addictive” is a fair way of putting it, given that “dopamine hits” in the brain are also a key mechanism for addictions to alcohol, drugs, gambling and the like.)
...Regulation is a blunt instrument, and I don’t like it.
But if the tech industry is seen as being in the business of addiction, regulation is likely to take place."

You ought to know!

3 Out of 4 Convicted Terrorists Came to U.S. Legally Via Current Immigration System - Judicial Watch

3 Out of 4 Convicted Terrorists Came to U.S. Legally Via Current Immigration System - Judicial Watch:

"Illustrating the national security threats created by the nation’s immigration system, the overwhelming majority of individuals convicted of terrorism are foreigners who entered the United States legally through various federal programs. Three out of every four convicted terrorists between September 11, 2001 and December 31, 2016 are foreign born and came to the United States through our immigration system, according to a new report issued jointly by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
At least 549 individuals were convicted of terrorism-related charges in American federal courts since 2001 and 402 of them—approximately 73%–were foreign-born, the report says."

Chinese Tiangong-1 space station burns up over Pacific Ocean - CNET

Chinese Tiangong-1 space station burns up over Pacific Ocean - CNET:
"China's out-of-control Tiangong-1 space station is no more, or at least it is no longer what it once was. Whatever bits of the spacecraft didn't burn up on its long descent through the atmosphere are now likely headed to their final resting place on the floor of the south Pacific.
The Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California reports that Tiangong-1 re-entered Earth's atmosphere over the ocean near Tahiti at approximately 5:16 p.m. PT on Sunday..."

AM Fruitcake

AM Fruitcake

History for April 2

History for April 2 - On-This-Day.com
Hans Christian Andersen 1805 - Author ("The Ugly Duckling"), Frederic Bartholdi 1834, Emile Zola 1840 - Novelist


Walter Chrysler 1875 - Auto manufacturer (Chrysler Corporation), Buddy Ebsen 1908 - Actor ("The Beverly Hillbillies," "Barnaby Jones"), Sir Alec Guinness (Alec Guinness de Cuffe) 1914 - Actor ("Bridge Over River Kwai," "A Passage to India," "Star Wars")


1513 - Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida. The next day he went ashore.


1889 - Charles Hall patented aluminum.


1902 - The first motion picture theatre opened in Los Angeles with the name Electric Theatre.


1910 - Karl Harris perfected the process for the artificial synthesis of rubber.


1935 - Sir Watson-Watt was granted a patent for RADAR.


1972 - Burt Reynolds appeared nude in "Cosmopolitan" magazine.

1982 - Argentina invaded the British-owned Falkland Islands. The following June Britain took the islands back.

Hollywood, Nancy Pelosi, George Soros gang up on Devin Nunes - Washington Times

Hollywood, Nancy Pelosi, George Soros gang up on Devin Nunes - Washington Times:

"Rep. Devin Nunes, whose investigation revealed that the Democratic Party funded the Christopher Steele dossier and that the FBI used the unverified charges to spy on a Trump volunteer, says Hollywood and George Soros are combining to try to take his congressional seat in November.
His work to reveal a competing narrative in the Trump-Russia saga has put a bull’s-eye on his back.
“Now, their attacks against me are growing stronger — extreme liberals in Hollywood, Washington D.C. and across the country have set their sights on me and may seat in Congress,” Mr. Nunes says in a new fundraising letter. “They will say and do anything to support their far-left candidate against me ….. Nancy Pelosi, George Soros and their assembly of deep-pocketed, far-left insiders are willing to spend whatever they have in order to defeat me.”"

The way we were-----Billy Joel - Uptown Girl

Boob-tube-----Suspense - Suspicion (1949) TV drama anthology

25 great reasons for never letting newspapers die

25 great reasons for never letting newspapers die

Gun-Control Assignment – Georgia Middle School | National Review

Gun-Control Assignment – Georgia Middle School | National Review
"In Georgia, propaganda in the classroom
Students at Hampton Middle School in Hampton, Ga., were given a homework assignment that required them to write a letter asking lawmakers for stricter gun-control laws.
The seventh-grade social-studies assignment, a copy of which was obtained by Blue Lives Matter, stated:
“For this assignment, you are writing a letter to the lawmakers of the United States. 
The purpose of this letter is to pressure lawmakers to have stricter gun laws in the United States. 
Your letter should contain at least five complete sentences. 
Make sure that you use proper grammatical skills when writing your letter,” read the assignment given out by social studies teacher Corey Sanders to his students at Hampton Middle School.
A parent of one of the students, William Lee, told Blue Lives that his son came home from school “and said he had to write a paper on gun control.”...
Read on!

Dick Morris: Is This Finally the End of Mueller?

Dick Morris: Is This Finally the End of Mueller?:

"In a huge breakthough, attorneys for Paul Manafort have filed a motion to dismiss his indictment based on a possibly fatal flaw in the authority of special prosecutor Bob Mueller to bring the charges.
Mueller, they point out, derives his authority from his appointment by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosensetein. Rosenstein, in turn derives his from the recusal by Attorney General Jeff Sessions from “any existing or future investigations of any matters related in any way to the campaigns for President of the United States.”
But, Manafort’s lawyers point out, Sessions’ recusal applies only to matters relating to the campaign. As Mueller’s probe has ranged far and wide quite apart from anything that happened during the campaign, he is exceeding the authority Rosenstein was able to confer on the prosecutor."