History for July 14

History for July 14 - On-This-Day.com:
Emmeline Pankhurst 1858, William Leefe Robinson 1895, Irving Stone 1903


Woody Guthrie 1912, Gerald Rudolph Ford (U.S.) 1913, Ingmar Bergman 1918


1789 - French Revolution began with Parisians stormed the Bastille prison and released the seven prisoners inside.


1798 - The U.S. Congress passed the Sedition Act. The act made it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the U.S. government.


1868 - Alvin J. Fellows patented the tape measure.


1914 - Robert H. Goddard patented liquid rocket-fuel.


1933 - All German political parties except the Nazi Party were outlawed.

1945 - American battleships and cruisers bombarded the Japanese home islands for the first time.


1951 - The George Washington Carver National Monument in Joplin, MO, became the first national park to honor an African American.


1958 - The army of Iraq overthrew the monarchy.

LIBERTY REVIEW

LIBERTY REVIEW:

http://libertyreview76.blogspot.com/2016/07/descending-into-darkness-by-tammy_29.html

Descending Into Darkness

By Tammy Derouin

We have reached a low which is only acquired by hitting rock bottom and then finding a way to dig even deeper.  The abuse of power by the current administration along with the support and cooperation of puppet government agencies is beyond comprehension. They blatantly give a wink and a hand shake, creating a free pass, allowing the ruling party to operate above the law.  

As an American, I expected the rule of law to apply equally among all Americans, regardless of position or rank.  But then again, I also expected our elected servants to follow the law of the land, the U.S. Constitution.  A system of checks and balances was created to prevent tyranny from resurfacing.  If one branch attempted a hostile over reach of power, the other two branches were supposed to push back, ending the encroachment.  Furthermore, I expected our government officials to faithfully uphold their oath of office and to defend and protect our Constitution.  Our Constitution alone cannot act and enforce the laws and ideals of freedom and independence.  It is up to the people to maintain the integrity of such a sacred document.

I expected more because the United States was an exceptional nation. The American people were once free and had a system of government based on law, not man.  The American people demanded truth and justice and didn’t take too kindly to those who lied and attempted to deceive them.  Evil was our enemy and the enemy, if not destroyed, was kept a world away. 

A dark cloud, a fundamental transformation, began to overshadow our nation.  It chipped away at our foundation, eroding our basic human freedoms, our God given rights. Never before had the rights of man been declared so eloquently and fought for so fiercely.  So why did a strong and independent people begin to believe they were no longer exceptional?  Why did we turn on ourselves? Dependency replaced independence.   Fairy tales replaced truth.  Death replaced life.  We are descending into darkness.......

Robin Smith: America's (Subsidized) Fruited Plain

Robin Smith: America's (Subsidized) Fruited Plain — The Patriot Post
"...America the Beautiful was based on the soaring words to a poem written in the 1890s.

...Yet those waves of grain and the fruited plain exist today largely through corporate agribusiness that has prices guaranteed through the massive subsidies of corn and soybeans. 

And in an exhibit of the usual market distortions wrought by government interference, these two staples are used primarily in cattle feed and processed foods — not the fruits and vegetables that we know to be healthy for Americans when made available from farm to fork.

...The original intent of the farm bill — which has been renewed every five years since the 1930s — was to protect farmers whose entire financial health could be destroyed by pestilence of insects, floods, droughts or other natural disasters or events outside the control of the growers. 

Today, however, subsidies and federal “crop insurance” not only essentially remove all risk from farming, if one qualifies, but these massive outlays of taxpayer dollars typically go to corporate crop-growers.

Around $20 billion in farm subsidies are paid annually with taxes collected from American workers' wages. The largesse goes disproportionately to corn farmers, who in 2010 produced over 32% of all the corn in the world, generating almost $64 billion in revenue. 

Yet most of that subsidized corn is processed into feed for animals or, far worse, ethanol to meet the government standards regarding gasoline mixture.

...The “Family Farm Report, 2014 Edition” documented that 31% of all of the small family or Residence Farms received subsidy payments; by contrast, 80% of midsize and large-scale commercial farms received payments.

Since 1995, 75% of federal subsidies have gone to 10% of farms, the larger agribusinesses. 

In addition to subsidies, federal crop insurance is supplied with the government (you the taxpayer) paying 65% of the premiums totaling about $89.8 billion over a decade.

...Another fun fact about the farm bill is that most might believe the bulk of the spending would be for the purpose of providing a safety net in the case of potential financial disaster. 

But 80% of the entire cost of the farm bill is attributed to food stamps, which creates an interesting relationship.

...In other words, those who eat the foods sweetened with corn-derived fructose and soy-fed animals used in processed meats are more likely to have blood sugar and cholesterol problems, and, thus, heart problems..."

Read it all!

The world certainly needs one now-----Bonnie Tyler - I Need a Hero

Darrell Issa Grills Loretta Lynch in House Hearing on Clinton Emails | Video | TheBlaze.com

Darrell Issa Grills Loretta Lynch in House Hearing on Clinton Emails | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"The Justice Department closed its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email use without any criminal charges, Lynch announced last week.

At the House hearing regarding the Justice Department’s decision, Issa pressed Lynch to explain the agency’s conclusion.

“What do I say to the tens of thousands of people that live and work in my district that work for the federal government, including more than 47,000 Marines?” he asked. “What do I say [to them] when, in fact, saying something that isn’t true — and handling classified information in an extremely careless way — has no criminal ramifications? "

Why Iran Might WANT To Get Nuked After Nuking Israel

Why Iran Might WANT To Get Nuked After Nuking Israel | PJ Media
"In all the controversy about the Iranian nuclear deal and Iran’s nuclear aspirations, it has been little noted that the leaders of the Islamic Republic may have reasons of their own actually to want to nuke Israel.
And their motivation is not in spite of the fact that Iran would almost certainly be nuked in retaliation … but because of it.
Sounds crazy?
Of course.
But once you enter into the wild and weird world of Shi’ite Muslim eschatology, it all begins to make sense.
As I show in my new book The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran, there are specific conditions in Shi’ite tradition for the return to earth of their messiah-like figure -- the Twelfth Imam.
Jafar al-Sadiq, the sixth Imam and central figure of Shia jurisprudence, prophesied that the Twelfth Imam would not return “till you are severely tested.” Jafar added:
At that time you shall be severely examined and you shall be differentiated and sieved. There will be famines. 
A person will become a ruler in the morning and put to death in the evening.
The return of the Twelfth Imam, Jafar went on, would come at a time when the Shi’ites were experiencing persecution to a terrible, unprecedented degree:
That which you look forward to will not be until you are tested … That which you look forward to will not be until you are sieved … That, which you look forward to, will not be until you are sifted. That which you look forward to will not be except after despair.
How severe would this test be?
Jafar said that the Twelfth Imam’s return “will not occur till two-third population of the world is not destroyed.”
Presumably, then the Twelfth Imam will return when one-third of the world’s population has been destroyed.
...The Iranian leader Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was President of Iran from 1989 to 1997 and remains influential in the Iranian government, said in December 2001:
“If a day comes when the world of Islam is duly equipped with the arms Israel has in possession, the strategy of colonialism would face a stalemate because application of an atomic bomb would not leave any thing [sic] in Israel but the same thing would just produce damages in the Muslim world.”
It could also, with millions of Muslim dead, bring back the Twelfth Imam..."

Election polling at a crossroads? Why polling may be on the cusp of big changes

Election polling at a crossroads? Why polling may be on the cusp of big changes - Fox 5 NY | WNYW
"...But like the campaigns that bad poll numbers throw in to turmoil - some say political polling itself is at a crossroads.
..But the rise of cell phones has made traditional scientific polling much tougher to do.
A 1991 law called the Telephone Consumer Protection Act made it illegal for pollsters to use automatic dialers to call people on their cell phones.
...“It's gotten maybe 3 or 4 times as expensive as it used to be just two elections ago,” Zukin said.
...And because of that, many companies are working to define what the future of election polling will look like.
“Almost all polling will be done on the internet four years from now,” Zukin said.
“The problem with doing internet polling right now is twofold.

• First, it's right now not everybody is online, and this is especially true of older people who are most likely to be voters.”
• “The second is that there's no good way yet to do a probability sample where everybody has a known chance of being included in the sample of web based users. 

...And once online polling finally hits its stride, some experts say there's really no limit to the kind of information it can provide.
...“Instead of being an episodic thing like it is now when it comes out, it will just be there as a data stream.
And we'll probably get there by 2020. 
Certainly by 2024,...”

Lunch video-----The Fall of Rome and Modern Parallels

Noon-toon

Baton Rouge Police: Three Arrested in Plot to Kill Officers | Video | TheBlaze.com

Baton Rouge Police: Three Arrested in Plot to Kill Officers | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie said Tuesday that officers arrested three people whom they believe were plotting to murder police officers just days after five officers were fatally shot in Dallas.

Law enforcement officials, who spoke during a press conference Tuesday, said they believed the threat to be both credible and substantial."

Brexit Disrupts Nonchalant European Union Meddling

Brexit Disrupts Nonchalant European Union Meddling

• In respect of the Palestinian problem, the European political elites have only the means to destabilize the status quo without installing an alternative. But Israel's leaders can take heart. Any declarations made at French President François Hollande's conference will be unenforceable, because the EU on its own lacks the means and because its energies must now focus on stopping its own disintegration.
• The underlying reasons for Brexit and for EU disintegration in general have still not been widely understood. 
• Brexit was not merely a vote of no confidence in the EU but also in the UK establishment. 
• Similar gaps between establishment and electorate now exist in several other major European states. 
• In some cases, however, governments are united with their electorates in detesting the EU dictatorship in Brussels.

The June 23 vote by the United Kingdom electorate to leave the European Union should be seen in the context of two other recent European events.

• Three days earlier, on June 20, the EU's Foreign Ministers Council decided to solve the Palestinian problem by Christmas with its endorsement of French President François Hollande's "peace initiative." Three days after the vote, on June 26, the second election in Spain within a few months failed once again to produce a viable majority for any government. 
• Worse still, the steadily rising popularity of nationalist parties in France, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands suggests that political paralysis in other EU countries is on the way.

In short, the ambitions of the ruling political cliques of Europe to solve the problems of the world are being undermined by their own neglected electorates, which are increasingly furious at the failure of those cliques to solve the problems of Europe itself..."

Interesting-----So-called Top Tier gasoline really is better for your car, according to AAA

So-called Top Tier gasoline really is better for your car, according to AAA - Roadshow:
"Top Tier gasoline is often dismissed as a marketing exercise, but a new AAA study says the benefits are real and car owners should be paying attention.
The American Automobile Association's Fuel Quality Research study has examined Top Tier gasoline's effectiveness.
AAA relied on an independent testing lab to dig into both Top Tier and non-Top Tier gasoline.
Top Tier refers to gas with special detergent additives that promise to improve engine performance compared to other gas blends.
It was created as a response to the EPA's mandate for a minimum level of gasoline detergent -- some automakers didn't think the minimum was enough to keep engines clean, and thus Top Tier was born.
After some 4,000 miles of simulated driving, testers found that non-Top Tier gas caused 19 times the carbon deposits in engines.
This can have deleterious effects on engine performance, fuel economy and emissions.
"As advertised, tested Top Tier gasolines kept engines remarkably cleaner than other fuels we tested," said John Nielsen, AAA's director of engineering and repair.
"By selecting a quality gasoline, drivers can minimize engine deposits, increase vehicle performance and improve fuel economy.""
Link to list of retailers: http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers/

Bill Clinton's charities spent more than $50m on travel expenses in the past decade even though he regularly uses a billionaire pal's private jet

Bill Clinton's charities spent more than $50m on travel expenses in the past decade even though he regularly uses a billionaire pal's private jet | Daily Mail Online:

• Former President Bill Clinton runs a number of charities under his name that are focused on eradicating world health problems
• An internal audit showed that the charities spent more than $50m on travel expenses since 2003, including $12.1m in 2011 alone
• Rooting out inefficiencies in time for Hillary to decide whether she is going to run for office in 2016
• Former President Bill Clinton's foundations spent a total of $50million on travel over the past decade, $12.1million of which was spent in just one year.

An internal investigation into spending at the various charities that the former President runs found that the funds used for travel costs have gone up in recent years.
The audit comes as new reports have revealed that the Clinton Foundation has been 'in the red' for years even though the charity has raised hundreds of millions of dollars each year, showing the high cost of running the worldwide charity.

Attorney General Lynch Repeatedly Dodges Lawmakers’ Questions on Clinton Email Investigation | Video | TheBlaze.com

Attorney General Lynch Repeatedly Dodges Lawmakers’ Questions on Clinton Email Investigation | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) — Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Tuesday repeatedly deflected lawmakers’ questions about the conclusion of the Justice Department’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

Despite repeated prodding from Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee, Lynch said that as attorney general it would be inappropriate for her to comment on specifics of the investigation.

She also referred questions to FBI Director James Comey, who last week recommended against prosecution for Clinton and her aides in laying out the findings of federal investigators."

Shinola hires Rahm Emanuel's top aide for Chicago job

Shinola hires Rahm Emanuel's top aide for Chicago job - Crain's Detroit Business:
"Mike Faulman, a longtime aide to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, has joined watch and luxury goods maker Shinola/Detroit LLC as the company prepares to launch eyewear manufacturing in the Windy City.
...The job title and details of what Faulman will do for Shinola in Chicago haven't been disclosed.
"I can confirm that Mike will be joining our brand team this fall and assisting with initiatives that we have planned for that region," a Shinola spokeswoman said via email Monday afternoon.
...Shinola has 530 total employees, with 397 in Detroit..."

AM Fruitcake

History for July 13

History for July 13 - On-This-Day.com:
Edward J. Flanagan 1886 - Founder of Boys Town in Nebraska, Sam Hanks 1914, Jack Kemp 1935


Patrick Stewart 1940 - Actor, Harrison Ford 1942 - Actor ("Star Wars" movie series, "The Fugitive"), Erno Rubik 1944 - Creator of Rubik's Cube puzzle


1099 - The Crusaders launched their final assault on Muslims in Jerusalem.


1585 - A group of 108 English colonists, led by Sir Richard Grenville, reached Roanoke Island, NC.


1643 - In England, the Roundheads, led by Sir William Waller, were defeated by royalist troops under Lord Wilmot in the Battle of Roundway Down.


1754 - At the beginning of the French and Indian War, George Washington surrendered the small, circular Fort Necessity in southwestern Pennsylvania to the French.


1787 - The U.S. Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, enacted the Northwest Ordinance, which established the rules for governing the Northwest Territory, for admitting new states to the Union and limiting the expansion of slavery.



1863 - Opponents of the Civil War draft began three days of rioting in New York City, which resulted in more than 1,000 casualties.


1978 - Lee Iacocca was fired as president of Ford Motor Co. by chairman Henry Ford II.


1984 - In Arkansas, Terry Wallis was injured in a car accident and was left comatose. He came out of the coma in June of 2003.

Police Officer Suffers Broken Spine After Protestor Threw A Concrete Block On His Head - Christine Rousselle

Police Officer Suffers Broken Spine After Protestor Threw A Concrete Block On His Head - Christine Rousselle:

"Over the weekend, Black Lives Matter protestors shut down I-94 in St. Paul for about five hours to protest the death of Philando Castile, who was shot by a police officer. During the protest, 27 cops were injured after people threw molotov cocktails, fireworks, and rocks at the officers. One officer suffered a spinal fracture after a concrete block landed on his head."

Harvard Study Debunks Shooting Myth

Harvard Study Debunks Shooting Myth | commentary
"What if the popular narrative about police racism that’s being pushed by Black Lives Matter and others in the wake of last week’s fatal shootings is based on unfounded assumptions? 
That’s the question we are forced to confront today after the publication of a new study conducted by Harvard University’s Rolando G. Fryer Jr. that shows there is no evidence that blacks are more likely than whites to be shot by cops.
Fryer, an African-American economics professor, characterized the results as “the most surprising result of my career.” 
While FBI director James Comey is quoted in a New York Times Upshot piece about the study saying that reliable statistics about interactions between African-Americans and police have been lacking, Fryer’s effort — which was published under the rubric of the National Bureau of Economic Research — seems to fill in the gap.
As the Times notes, Fryer began this undertaking because of his anger about the controversial shootings in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore that put the wind in Black Lives Matter’s sails.
But what he discovered doesn’t back up the notion that trigger-happy white cops have declared open season on blacks.
Fryer studied more than 1,332 police shootings involving ten major American police departments in Texas, Florida, and California between 2000 and 2015.
While he found that blacks were more likely to be touched or handcuffed by police during the course of investigations or confrontations, they were not more likely to be shot. 
To the contrary:
In officer-involved shootings in these 10 cities, officers were more likely to fire their weapons without having first been attacked when the suspects were white. 
Black and white civilians involved in police shootings were equally likely to have been carrying a weapon. 
Both of these results undercut the idea that the police wield lethal force with racial bias...."

Following Minimum Wage Increases, Unemployment Spikes among Black Male Teens

Following Minimum Wage Increases, Unemployment Spikes among Black Male Teens | Foundation for Economic Education:
"Perhaps one of the more interesting data points from last week's Employment Report is displayed in the graph above, which shows that the jobless rate for black male teens (aged 16-19 years) increased to 40.1% in June from 28.1% in May.
Except for a slightly higher increase of 12.2 percentage points during the aftermath of the Great Recession, the 12 percentage point increase in June was the highest monthly increase in history... "

House Republicans Request Investigation Into Whether Clinton Committed Perjury Before Congress | TheBlaze.com

House Republicans Request Investigation Into Whether Clinton Committed Perjury Before Congress | TheBlaze.com:

"House Republicans are calling on the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to launch an investigation into whether Hillary Clinton lied to Congress.

Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, formally requested the probe Monday, claiming in a letter that FBI evidence “appears to directly contradict” statements made by the presumptive Democratic nominee."