History for December 17

History for December 17 - On-This-Day.com
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807, Erskine Caldwell 1903, William Safire 1929


George Lindsey 1935 - Actor, Eugene Levy 1946, Sean Patrick Thomas 1970 - Actor


1777 - France recognized American independence.


1895 - George L. Brownell received a patent for his paper-twine machine.


1903 - The first successful gasoline-powered airplane flight took place near Kitty Hawk, NC. Orville Wright made the flight.


1939 - The German pocket battleship Graf Spee was scuttled by its crew, bringing the World War II Battle of the Rio de la Plata off Uruguay to an end.


1944 - The U.S. Army announced the end of its policy of excluding Japanese-Americans from the West Coast which ensured that Japanese-Americans were released from detention camps.


1957 - The United States successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.


1959 - The film "On the Beach" premiered in New York City and in 17 other cities. It was the first motion picture to debut simultaneously in major cities around the world.


1969 - The U.S. Air Force closed its Project "Blue Book" by concluding that there was no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings.


1969 - Television history was made when Tiny Tim and Miss Vicki Budinger were married on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson.


1986 - Wayne "Danke Schoen" Newton won a $19.2 million suit against NBC News. NBC had aired reports claiming a link between Newton and mob figures. The reports were proven to be false.

Judge Napolitano Discusses Supreme Court Vacancy With Trump | Fox Business

Judge Napolitano Discusses Supreme Court Vacancy With Trump | Fox Business:

"President-elect Donald Trump has been busy since Election Day carefully choosing members who will fill his cabinet.  But in the midst of the rush to staff his administration, Trump took time for advice from Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano. The judge outlined desirable qualities for a potential nominee who could fill an empty Supreme Court seat vacated by Justice Antonin Scalia who died in February."

RIGGED: Michigan’s electoral integrity problems weren’t in Trump country.

Instapundit » Blog Archive » RIGGED: Michigan’s electoral integrity problems weren’t in Trump country.
RIGGED: Michigan’s electoral integrity problems weren’t in Trump country. 
“Detailed reports from the office of Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett show optical scanners at 248 of the city’s 662 precincts, or 37 percent, tabulated more ballots than the number of voters tallied by workers in the poll books. Voting irregularities in Detroit have spurred plans for an audit by Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s office, Elections Director Chris Thomas said Monday.”

Related: Election Fraud in Detroit Looks ‘Organized, and Government Involved.’

Plus: “Last week it was also discovered (thanks to Jill Stein’s recount effort) that over 18,000 voters in Michigan cast ballots without identification last month, prompting the state House of Representatives to pass a voter ID bill during its lame duck session.”

It would be nice if one side effect of this election was stronger anti-fraud laws both with regard to voting, and vote-counting.

Plus: Electors are being harassed, threatened in bid to stop Trump.

‘Luxury’ living: Senate report finds IRS workers racked up huge travel tab | Fox News

‘Luxury’ living: Senate report finds IRS workers racked up huge travel tab | Fox News:

"The Senate Finance Committee report, obtained by FoxNews.com, found that while federal guidelines say employees must exercise the same care in incurring expenses as a “prudent person” traveling on personal business, IRS employees who traveled 125 business days or more racked up an average cost of over $52,000 a year.

The committee found more than half of the long-term travel time was spent in the Washington D.C., area."

Facebook will fact-check, label fake news in News Feed

Facebook will fact-check, label fake news in News Feed - Business Insider
"Facebook is going to start fact-checking, labeling, and burying fake news and hoaxes in its News Feed, the company said Thursday.

The decision comes after Facebook received heated criticism for its role in spreading a deluge of political misinformation during the US presidential election, like one story that falsely said the Pope had endorsed Donald Trump.

To combat fake news, Facebook has teamed up with a shortlist of media organizations, including Snopes and ABC News, that are part of an international fact-checking network led by Poynter, a nonprofit school for journalism in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Starting as a test with a small percentage of its users in the US, Facebook will make it easier to report news stories that are fake or misleading. Once third-party fact-checkers have confirmed that the story is fake, it will be labeled as such and demoted in the News Feed.

...Facebook has given its four initial fact-checking partners access to a tool that will let them label stories in the News Feed as fake, a Facebook spokesperson said. The person said Facebook is not paying the organizations to fact-check.

Cracking down on ads for fake news

Facebook users will be able to report stories they think are fake news..."

The Lavish Life of Overcompensated Bureaucrats | International Liberty

The Lavish Life of Overcompensated Bureaucrats | International Liberty
"... a terrible sign that the DC area was packed with overpaid bureaucrats, oleaginous rent seekers, and government cronies, all of whom were enjoying undeserved wealth financed by hard-working taxpayers from the rest of America.

Well, now for the “good news.”

Terry Jeffrey has a column for CNS News about the current concentration of wealth in the national capital area.

The four richest counties in the United States, when measured by median household income, are all suburbs of Washington, D.C., according to newly released data from the Census Bureau. …Of the Top 20 richest counties in the nation, nine are suburbs of the city that serves as the seat of a federal government that in fiscal 2016 taxed away $3,266,774,000,000 from the American people, spent $3,854,100,000,000, and ran a $587,326,000,000 deficit.

The reason this awful data is good news (relatively speaking) is that the DC region is now home to “only” nine out of the 20-richest counties rather than 10 out of the 15-richest counties.

Here’s Terry’s list, which I’ve augmented by highlighting the jurisdictions that are home to many of the bureaucrats, lobbyists, and other insiders that are living on Easy Street thanks to the federal leviathan.

Lunch video-----10 banned Funniest Commercials Of All Time That Shocked The World

Noon-toon

Surprise: Vote Count Discrepancies Discovered in 37 Percent of Detroit County Precints - Guy Benson

Surprise: Vote Count Discrepancies Discovered in 37 Percent of Detroit County Precints - Guy Benson:

"Voting machines in more than one-third of all Detroit precincts registered more votes than they should have during last month’s presidential election, according to Wayne County records prepared at the request of The Detroit News. "

Global Temperatures Plunge. Icy Silence from Climate Alarmists

Global Temperatures Plunge. Icy Silence from Climate Alarmists
"Global land temperatures have plummeted by one degree Celsius since the middle of this year – the biggest and steepest fall on record.
But the news has been greeted with an eerie silence by the world’s alarmist community. 
You’d almost imagine that when temperatures shoot up it’s catastrophic climate change which requires dramatic headlines across the mainstream media and demands for urgent action.
But that when they fall even more precipitously it’s just a case of “nothing to see here”.
...It has now been replaced by a La Nina event – when the water in the same Pacific region turns colder than normal.
This also has worldwide impacts, driving temperatures down rather than up.
...This means it is possible that by some yardsticks, 2016 will be declared as hot as 2015 or even slightly hotter – because El Nino did not vanish until the middle of the year.
But it is almost certain that next year, large falls will also be measured over the oceans, and by weather station thermometers on the surface of the planet – exactly as happened after the end of the last very strong El Nino in 1998.
...The last three years may eventually come to be seen as the final death rattle of the global warming scare. 
Thanks what’s now recognised as an unusually strong El Nino, global temperatures were driven to sufficiently high levels to revive the alarmist narrative – after an unhelpful pause period of nearly 20 years – that the world had got hotter than ever before.
It resulted in a slew of “Hottest Year Evah” stories from the usual suspects. 
As I patiently explained at the time – here, here, and here – this wasn’t science but propaganda. 
If you’re a reader of Breitbart or one of the sceptical websites this will hardly have come as news to you.
But, of course, across much of the mainstream media – and, of course, on all the left-leaning websites – these “Hottest Year Evah” stories were relayed as fact.
And, inevitably, were often cited by a host of experts on Twitter as proof that evil deniers are, like, anti-science and totally evil and really should be thrown in prison for sacrificing the future of the world’s children by promoting Big-Oil-funded denialism.
This is why there is such an ideological divide regarding climate change between those on the left and those on the right. 
The lefties get their climate information from unreliable fake news sites like Buzzfeed..."

Algorithms are making us small-minded

BBC - Capital - Algorithms are making us small-minded:
"...The digital revolution is enabling us to live happily in our own worlds, and in the process closing down opportunities for originality
And there’s the rub.
The ubiquity of incredibly powerful algorithms designed to reinforce our interests also ensures that we see little of what’s new, different and unfamiliar.
The very things that are at the heart of learning, understanding and innovation.
Rather than taking us out of our comfort zone, the digital revolution is enabling each of us to live happily in our own worlds, and in the process closing down opportunities for originality, spontaneity and learning.
The best part of all: we love it this way.
How do I know?
Because we flock to Amazon to buy what their algorithms say we should buy.
Because we read news that reinforces what we already believe.
And because we even rely on dating sites that specifically seek to match us with similar people.
Online retailers like Amazon offer us products based on our previous browsing habits – but that can add to the echo chamber
The consequences of living in our algorithm-enabled straightjackets are not trivial.
Intellectually and socially, we are paying a price.
Different Americans are living in different versions of the same country
Take, for example, the recent presidential election in the US. 
The stark political polarisations became arguably more entrenched and increasingly evident here as the tendency of people to seek out confirmatory evidence to support their inherent beliefs or intuition became a self-reinforcing cycle. 
Different Americans are living in different versions of the same country. 
By limiting ourselves to certain news organisations and certain pundits, our curated analyses of current events begin to look spectacularly different to those of others with different outlooks and life experiences..."
More!

Justice Department Sues City Over Mosque Zoning Permit Denial

Justice Department Sues City Over Mosque Zoning Permit Denial:
"WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department says that a Michigan city practiced religious discrimination in turning down an Islamic center's request for zoning approval to build a mosque.
The government lawsuit announced today comes after the American Islamic Community Center sued the city in August over the denial.
...The American Islamic Community Center originally submitted the application in 2015, and said in their lawsuit that they met requirements but "with a vociferous and racist member of the planning commission leading the charge, the planning commission voted to reject the site plan."
According to the Detroit News, a former city planner urged rejection of the project because the spires in the construction plan, which spanned five adjoining parcels, were 27 feet taller than the maximum height allowed by the city and the 65-foot dome would “far exceed the height of other structures” nearby, making the scale and height "not harmonious with existing buildings."..."
Read on!

White House chief of staff claims Obama is the ‘most Catholic’ of American presidents – TheBlaze

White House chief of staff claims Obama is the ‘most Catholic’ of American presidents – TheBlaze:

"White House chief of staff Denis McDonough stated Wednesday that President Barack Obama is the “most Catholic” of American presidents.

The claim came during a discussion with David Axelrod on his podcast “The Axe Files.” Axelrod, Obama’s former senior adviser, said that the president often describes being raised in a “spiritual tradition” rather than a “religious tradition.”

McDonough concurred that Obama is spiritual. “Look, I say to him, Axe, and I think I’ve said this to him in your presence, and I’ve said this publicly before, I think this is our most Catholic of presidents,” he said. “And I mean that by capital ‘C’ Catholic in what I see and what he does everyday.”"

13 Times Russian Hackers Sabotaged Clinton's Campaign

13 Times Russian Hackers Sabotaged Clinton's Campaign | The Daily Caller:
"Many conservatives and Trump supporters have been dismissive of the possibility that interference by Russian hackers changed the outcome of the 2016 election. 
But they would do well to rethink things. 
Even a cursory look at the events of the past few years reveals Russian meddling was absolutely decisive in denying Clinton her rightful position as president-elect.

Here’s a quick rundown of 13 major moments where Clinton’s seemingly invincible presidential campaign was brought down thanks Russian hacking efforts:

1996: Russian Spetsnaz special forces pepper Clinton with sniper rifle fire as she lands in Sarajevo after the Bosnian War. Shortly after, Russian hackers destroy all video footage of this event, replacing it with fake news accounts that Clinton’s visit was peaceful. Clinton’s unbelievable bravery in Bosnia is subsequently disbelieved.

Jan. 28, 2009: Russia-financed black hat hackers in Donetsk, Ukraine, hack Clinton’s personal Blackberry and modify the emails she sends. An email demanding that Clinton follow all Department of State email rules is quietly deleted, and replaced with a spoof email demanding the creation of a private email server stored at her personal home in New York.

May 2013: A Russian hack of Clinton’s teleprompter modifies her speech to Banco Itau, altering her speech to say that her dream is “open borders” with the entire Western Hemisphere, instead of her original dream of “safe, well-regulated borders.”

February 2015: Chinese hackers in the employ of Moscow penetrate the Clinton Foundation and alter its payroll to pay men far more than women, causing the Clinton campaign embarrassment when this big imbalance is brought up, undermining their efforts to run a campaign on closing the pay gap..."
Read on!
Them Rooskies is smort!

AM Fruitcake

History for December 16

History for December 16 - On-This-Day.com
Ludwig Van Beethoven 1770 - Composer, Jane Austen 1775, George Santayana 1863


Arthur C. Clarke 1917 - Author, Philip K. Dick 1928 - Author, Benny Andersson 1946 - Singer, keyboards, synthesizers (ABBA)


1773 - Nearly 350 chests of tea were dumped into Boston Harbor off of British ships by Colonial patriots. The patriots were disguised as Indians. The act was to protest taxation without representation and the monopoly the government granted to the East India Company.


1901 - "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," by Beatrix Potter, was printed for the first time.


1944 - During World War II, the Battle of the Bulge began in Belgium. It was the final major German counteroffensive in the war.


1950 - U.S. President Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency in order to fight "Communist imperialism."


1951 - NBC-TV debuted "Dragnet" in a special preview on "Chesterfield Sound Off Time". The show began officially on January 3, 1952.


1973 - O.J. Simpson broke Jim Brown’s single-season rushing record in the NFL. Brown had rushed for 1,863 yards, while Simpson attained 2,003 yards.


1998 - Eric Michelman filed the earliest patent for a scroll wheel for a computer mouse.


2000 - U.S. President-elect George W. Bush selected Colin Powell to be the first African-American secretary of state. Powell was sworn in January 20, 2001.

LIBERTY REVIEW

LIBERTY REVIEW:

https://libertyreview76.blogspot.com/2016/12/december-14-2016-extraction-process-by.html

The Extraction Process

By Tammy Derouin

I will be so glad when we can put all of this anti-American and general negativity behind us as a nation.  The apology tour should be coming to an end.  Although, Hollywood and other lime light personalities will probably attempt to keep the propaganda machine churning. I would have never imagined a time in our history where so many could have been swayed by so few, into thinking and believing that the United States of America is not the best country in the world.

The United States suffered a massive internal attack, but we survived.  We have a lot of damage to repair.  Our freedoms and liberties have been under attack for far too many years.  Sadly, the attacks came from inside our very own government.  The American spirit will never die.  The desire to live free and independent with as little government interference as possible will never end.  Evil has been identified and the extraction process has begun. 

There is a tremendous amount of rebuilding and repair ahead of us.  With so much conditioning that the government “must do” for the people, anything which is moved out of the hands of government control and back to the people, will be seen as some sort of attack; an attack on imaginary rights.  Our rights are clearly stated in the U.S. Constitution.  We are blessed to live in a land where restraining the government was so important to the founders that the words “shall not” appear several times in the U.S. Constitution.......  

Detroit Voting Machines Registered More Votes than Voters – State Officials Request Audit… | The Last Refuge

Detroit Voting Machines Registered More Votes than Voters – State Officials Request Audit… | The Last Refuge:

"Anyone who watched the election on November 8th knows exactly what was going on. When it became clear Michigan was leaning toward Donald Trump, Wayne County (Detroit) was late reporting, everyone was watching."

Are You "Living In A Death Spiral"? These 6 States Will Collapse During The Next Recession

Are You "Living In A Death Spiral"? These 6 States Will Collapse During The Next Recession | Zero Hedge:
"In the next phase of the financial crisis, the debt supercycle will become the most defining feature of the big hurt that will fall on nearly everyone.

That’s the dire warning that Goldman Sachs issued about what they termed the Third Wave of the global collapse. But it hasn’t come, at least not yet:

This wave is characterised by rock-bottom commodities prices, stalling growth in China and other emerging-markets economies, and low global inflation, Goldman Sachs analysts led by Peter Oppenheimer said in a big-picture note.

This triple whammy has its roots in the response to the first two waves of crisis — the banking collapse and European sovereign-debt crisis — and it is all part of the so-called debt supercycle of the past few decades.

Unfunded liabilities for pensions and other state benefits are threatening the security and future of an entire generation of retiring, hardworking Americans.

The debt will be shifted for as long as possible… but eventually, someone will have to come to terms with it. The black hole totals up to huge sums of money; no one can pay; and the system is bankrupted, or services rendered become inadequate and farcical.

Forbes contributor William Baldwin describes the acute problem of “death spiral states,” which could actually be as bad as it sounds. It affects dozens of cities and municipalities as well.

Does your state have more takers than makers? Check it out....

These states are at risk of going into a downward spiral in the next recession. The burdens will remain but too many of the providers—employers in the private sector—might shrink or decamp.

Right now, the biggest risks for a bankruptcy or collapse is in the these states, based upon the ratio between what Baldwin terms “makers” and “takers.” Basically, the socialist state is enveloping all prosperity:

• New Mexico – 148 dependents per 100 private sector workers

• West Virginia – 116 dependents per 100 private sector workers

• California – 114 dependents per 100 private sector workers

• Mississippi – 111 dependents per 100 private sector workers

• New York – 108 dependents per 100 private sector workers

• Arkansas – 103 dependents per 100 private sector workers

Detroit and Chicago top the lists of cities who wouldn’t be healthy in the ratio of makers/takers either, and would crumble in a debt crunch.

You can check on your state via this interactive map, though it is dated slightly to 2015..."

NOT!-----Harvard Professor Says He's Rallied Nearly Enough GOP Electors To Block Trump

Harvard Professor Says He's Rallied Nearly Enough GOP Electors To Block Trump | Zero Hedge
"...At this point, the effort appears to be more about undermining Trump, complicating his ability to govern and following personal convictions — and less about actually winning the Electoral College for another candidate.

*  *  *

As we detailed earlier, Donald Trump could have the election legally stolen from him on either December 19th when the Electoral College casts their votes or on January 6th when a joint session of Congress gathers to count those votes. 
As The Economic Collapse blog's Michael Snyder notes, the establishment is in full-blown panic mode at this point, and they seem to have settled on "Russian interference in the election" as the angle that they will use to unleash this 'soft coup' as today, the Hill reports more Democratic electors are joining the call for an intelligence briefing before they cast their votes for president on Monday.

Twenty-nine electors now are pressuring Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to disclose more information about the CIA’s conclusion that Russian interference helped sway the election in President-elect Donald Trump’s favor.

...Twenty-eight Democrats and one Republican have now signed the letter.

On Monday, the Clinton campaign voiced support for the effort.

“Each day that month, our campaign decried the interference of Russia in our campaign and its evident goal of hurting our campaign to aid Donald Trump,” said John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, in a statement.

“Despite our protestations, this matter did not receive the attention it deserved by the media in the campaign. We now know that the CIA has determined Russia's interference in our elections was for the purpose of electing Donald Trump. This should distress every American.”

But ultimately, as The Economic Collapse blog's Michael Snyder warns, this is not about Russian interference in our election.

Rather, this is all about the elite doing whatever is necessary to stop Donald Trump.  
The elite are going to fight against him every step of the way, and they are never, ever going to give up.  
This is a point that I made during an interview with Alex Jones on Monday…

The next key date that we need to be watching for is December 19th..."

Read on!

List of Countries That Interfered In The Election For Hillary Clinton | The Federalist Papers

List of Countries That Interfered In The Election For Hillary Clinton | The Federalist Papers:

"Hillary Clinton’s campaign has now inserted itself into the calls to investigate the election based on the Russian boogeyman scenario they and the left put forward — with no evidence — during the election. In response to this move, Tim Young tweeted a list of all the countries that “interfered” in the election for Clinton via the family slush fund.

Take a look at the list below"

Study identifies why some people can smell asparagus in urine

Study identifies why some people can smell asparagus in urine:
"In The BMJ's Christmas edition this week, a study identifies the genetic origin of the ability to smell the strong, characteristic odor in human urine produced after eating asparagus.
A team of U.S. and European researchers found hundreds of variants in the DNA sequence across multiple genes involved in sense of smell that are strongly associated with the ability to detect asparagus metabolites in urine.
...Asparagus is considered a delicacy, but it's also known to produce a distinctive odor in urine.
Not everyone can detect the odour of metabolites (methanethiol and S-methyl thioesters) produced by consumption of asparagus.
...Findings show that 40% (2,748/6,909) of participants agreed that they could smell a distinct odor in their urine after eating asparagus, and 60% (4,161/6,909) said they could not and were labelled as 'asparagus anosmic'.
The researchers linked information from genome wide association studies on over 9 million genetic variants with the asparagus anosmia trait.
They discovered 871 particular variations in DNA sequence, known as single nucleotide polymorphisms, on chromosome 1 which were associated with being asparagus anosmic. These genetic variants were found in several different genes responsible for sense of smell.
They also found that a higher proportion of women reported they were unable to detect the odor, compared to men, despite women being known to more accurately and consistently identify smells..."

Anti-Trump Elector Chris Suprun Paid For Ashley Madison While Bankrupt And Married With 3 Kids

Anti-Trump Elector Chris Suprun Paid For Ashley Madison While Bankrupt And Married With 3 Kids | Zero Hedge:

"Anti-Trump Texas faithless elector Stephen Christopher “Chris” Suprun, who wrote a widely-shared op-ed in The New York Times about his decision, in which"

• he claimed ideological superiority over Trump, which would prevent him from voting for the President-elect on December 19 as he is required, 
• joined and paid for cheating website Ashley Madison in 2012, using the same address registered to his 9/11 charity, 
• while bankrupt, likely unemployed, and married with three young kids, 
• after he and his working wife owed over $200,000 to multiple creditors — and that’s just the start of it.

GotNews’ research into Suprun’s bizarre and unexplained flip-flop against President-elect Donald J. Trump turned up Ashley Madison data, damning bankruptcy records, and a series of P.O. boxes and what appears to be an association with a payday loan scam site.

Since turning against the decision of the people of Texas to elect Trump, Suprun also became a client of a “social justice media strategy” PR firm run by left-wing CNN commentator Van Jones.

What is going on here?

There’s a lot to go through, so bear with us and keep reading..."

Lunch video-----The Abnormalization of Dissent

Noon-toon

US Energy Department balks at Trump request for names on climate change - AOL News

US Energy Department balks at Trump request for names on climate change - AOL News:

"WASHINGTON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. Energy Department said on Tuesday it will not comply with a request from President-elect Donald Trump's Energy Department transition team for the names of people who have worked on climate change and the professional society memberships of lab workers.

The response from the Energy Department could signal a rocky transition for the president-elect's energy team and potential friction between the new leadership and the staffers who remain in place."