Happy New Year! 2018 might be a disaster

Happy New Year! 2018 might be a disaster: 
"Well, we did think that things couldn’t get crazier after 2016, and yet I’m pretty sure almost everyone would agree that 2017 beat it in spades.
So what’s up for 2018? 
...So here are a few potential wild cards for 2018, along with the hope that my end-of-year column next year says that none of them happened.

• Electrical breakdown. Earlier this year we saw what experts called a ”game-changing” cyberattack on critical infrastructure. “The malware was most likely designed to cause physical damage inside the unnamed site ... It worked by targeting a safety instrumented system, which the targeted facility and many other critical infrastructure sites use to prevent unsafe conditions from arising." We have lots of important stuff, not just in the electrical world, but in all utilities, that’s connected to the Internet. This turns out to be a bad idea. Sooner or later, someone is going to figure out how to bring large sectors of the American grid down — or, I should say, someone who already knows how is going to decide that they want to do so. 2018 just might be the year....

• The Bitcoin bubble bursts: Bitcoin has been skyrocketing, and I confess that I wish I’d put, say, a thousand bucks into it a few years back, when my crypto-enthusiast friends were encouraging me to. But many people think it’s in a bubble, and all bubbles burst.  Perhaps they’re wrong, but if they’re right, many people — especially in Asia, where millions of investors are driving up the price according to the Wall Street Journal — will wind up losing their shirts and angry. Asia doesn’t need destabilizing right now, with North Korea and China rattling sabers. (And for added fun, North Korea is hacking Bitcoin exchanges.)...

• Some sort of pandemic:  We’ve had scares with SARS, bird flu, Ebola, etc., but so far none of these really broke through into a global threat. Sooner or later, something will, and the public health community’s response to these earlier outbreaks wasn’t entirely confidence-building. Over a decade ago, then-Senator Bill Frist was calling for a crash program to vastly speed up vaccine development and production. It’s still a good idea."..."

Read it all!

You ought to know!

BOMBSHELL: The Shocking Edits To FBI Director Comey’s Statement On Hillary Clinton Probe Detailed | Daily Wire

BOMBSHELL: The Shocking Edits To FBI Director Comey’s Statement On Hillary Clinton Probe Detailed | Daily Wire:

"A side by side comparison of what FBI Director James Comey said when he cleared Hillary Clinton without criminal charges — and what he planned to say, according to a draft of his statement — is absolutely shocking.

Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, obtained the the draft document in which Comey set out the bureau's argument for clearing Clinton and her aides. In a spectacular letter on Thursday, the Wisconsin Republican went point by point through the draft, comparing the planned words with what Comey actually said."

Must read of the decade!!-----The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook – POLITICO

The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook – POLITICO
"PART I
A GLOBAL THREAT EMERGES

"How Hezbollah turned to trafficking cocaine and laundering money through used cars to finance its expansion.
In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation.
The campaign, dubbed Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle East-focused military and political organization into an international crime syndicate that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities....
But as Project Cassandra reached higher into the hierarchy of the conspiracy, Obama administration officials threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in its way, according to interviews with dozens of participants who in many cases spoke for the first time about events shrouded in secrecy, and a review of government documents and court records. 
When Project Cassandra leaders sought approval for some significant investigations, prosecutions, arrests and financial sanctions, officials at the Justice and Treasury departments delayed, hindered or rejected their requests..."
Read it all!
Important!!

YouTube's most viral video of 2017 was a singing oyster - CNET

YouTube's most viral video of 2017 was a singing oyster - CNET
"The time has come for your annual reminder that you're out of touch with global cultural phenomena.

It's YouTube's roundup of the top trending videos of the year, and in 2017 a non-US video hit No. 1 on the chart. 

The honor goes to a clip from a Thai singing competition, showing a man dressed in a full-body oyster suit crooning and rapping a song with a title that loosely translates to "Love you until the world turns into dust."... Read on!

AM Fruitcake

History for December 19

History for December 19 - On-This-Day.com:
William Parry 1790, Leonid Brezhnev (Russia) 1906, Edith Piaf 1915


David Susskind 1920, Cicely Tyson 1933, Al Kaline 1934


1732 - Benjamin Franklin began publishing "Poor Richard's Almanac."


1843 - Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" was first published in England.


1973 - Johnny Carson started a fake toilet-paper scare on the "Tonight Show."


1989 - U.S. troops invaded Panama to overthrow the regime of General Noriega.


1996 - The school board of Oakland, CA, voted to recognize Black English, also known as "ebonics." The board later reversed its stance.


1997 - "Titanic" opened in American movie theaters.


1998 - U.S. President Bill Clinton was impeached on two charges of perjury and obstruction of justice by the U.S. House of Representatives.


2008 - U.S. President George W. Bush signed a $17.4 billion rescue package of loans for ailing auto makers General Motors and Chrysler.

LIVE COVERAGE: The GOP Tax Cut Plan Is Out and Here's What's In It - Breitbart

LIVE COVERAGE: The GOP Tax Cut Plan Is Out and Here's What's In It - Breitbart:

"The Republicans came together Friday to craft a tax cut bill that appears to have the backing of all 52 GOP Senators and nearly all GOP House members, virtually guaranteeing the measure will pass when put to a vote early next week."

The way we were-----The Toys - Lovers Concerto - HQ

Boob-tube-----Top 10 Best Super Bowl 50 Commercials (2016 Funniest Ads)

UPS Loses Family's $850,000 Inheritance, Offers To Refund $32 Delivery Fee | Zero Hedge

UPS Loses Family's $850,000 Inheritance, Offers To Refund $32 Delivery Fee | Zero Hedge
"One Canadian man says he’s broke because one of the country’s largest banks has refused to refund a $850,000 bank draft that was lost by UPS during a routine delivery.

However, UPS, which claims it conducted an exhaustive search for the lost package but still turned up empty-handed, has at least offered to refund the $32 delivery fee...
Taylor’s brother, Louis Paul Herbert, said they were finalizing the details of her father’s will last February and sent to a local UPSstore near Cornwall, Ontario, where he was expecting a package from his sister containing his share of the inheritance in a bank draft.
But, according to Newsweek, the package never arrived.
Taylor sent the money through UPS from her lawyer about 270 miles away in Georgetown, Ontario, so Herbert wouldn’t have to worry about picking up the money. 
She obtained the bank draft in February after she said the bank advised it as the safest way to  send the money...

UPS has apologized for losing the package. But, at the same time, mistakes happen, it said.

“While UPS’s service is excellent in our industry, we are unfortunately not perfect. Occasionally, the loss of a package does occur,” ...

According to Newsweek, the bank is refusing to refund the money unless Taylor signed an agreement to pay them back if someone cashes in the lost draft. 
She signed the agreement, but says the bank “never paid anyone a dime.” ..
Read on!

Atlanta Airport Blackout Sends Message to Terrorists: America Is Unprepared

Atlanta Airport Blackout Sends Message to Terrorists: America Is Unprepared:
"A single-point failure makes the world’s busiest airport go dark for hours and traps thousands of passengers. 
It’s what phase one of an attack could look like.
If a terrorist wanted to find the most vulnerable point in America’s airport network they could not have hoped for a better guide than what just happened at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson.
Just after 1 p.m. Sunday the whole airport, the world’s busiest, went dark. 
Thousands of flights were disrupted. 
For many hours nobody in authority attempted to explain—or even seemed able to explain—what had happened.
Just imagine this is a classic plan for phase one of a terrorist attack: 

• Render the target blind. 
• None of the defenses are operational. 
• Thousands of people are trapped in restricted space without directions about how they can find an exit.
• As chaos spreads nobody knows who turn to for information. 
• The communications blackout is as complete as the power blackout.

Given this situation a small band of suicide bombers could roam freely and commit mayhem and massacre on an unprecedented scale..."
Read on!

Pirro: Members of FBI, DOJ 'Did Everything They Could' to Exonerate Hillary, Incriminate Trump With 'Non-Existent Crime' - Breitbart

Pirro: Members of FBI, DOJ 'Did Everything They Could' to Exonerate Hillary, Incriminate Trump With 'Non-Existent Crime' - Breitbart:

"She later added, “Members of the FBI and the Department of Justice, some of whom actually ended up on Bob Mueller’s team to prosecute Donald J. Trump, did everything they could to exonerate Hillary Clinton for her crimes and incriminate Donald Trump with a non-existent crime.”"

Wealthy benefit most from Michigan’s energy savings plans, study finds | Bridge Magazine

Wealthy benefit most from Michigan’s energy savings plans, study finds | Bridge Magazine
"Michigan utilities spend tens of millions of dollars each year on rebates, energy audits and other programs to help customers cut their energy bills.
Most of that spending isn’t helping the customers who could use the savings the most, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Michigan.
The study from the school’s Urban Energy Justice Lab found energy efficiency programs at Michigan’s two largest utilities disproportionately benefit wealthier ratepayers.
About 35 percent of Michigan utility customers qualify as low-income, but only about 12 percent and 17 percent of electric efficiency investments by Consumers Energy and DTE Energy, respectively, went into programs aimed at low-income households..."
Gimme a break!
Read on if you can stomach it.

Bitcoin Is Now Worth More Than Wal-Mart (The Entire Company)

Bitcoin Is Now Worth More Than Wal-Mart (The Entire Company)
"Would you rather own 100% of Wal-Mart or every Bitcoin in existence?  
At one point such a question would have been completely absurd, but now things have changed.  
As I write this article, Wal-Mart has a market cap of 287.68 billion dollars.  
Wal-Mart is the king of the retail industry in America, and nobody else is even close.  
Bitcoin, on the other hand, is an entirely digital creation that did not even exist until 2009.  
No government or central bank in the entire world recognizes it as a legitimate currency, and there are very, very few retail establishments that are willing to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment.  
And yet at this moment, Bitcoin has a market cap of 310 billion dollars..."
Read on!

Lunch video-----"The elite is totally committed to the Islamic takeover of our nations b...

Noon-toon

Sweden Forced to Raise Retirement Age To Pay For Mass Immigration Policy

Sweden Forced to Raise Retirement Age To Pay For Mass Immigration Policy:

"While migrants are increasing the cost of the Swedish welfare state in terms of added infrastructure and cost for services, many are unemployed and directly on welfare. A recent report showed that while the native Swedish unemployment rate was around 3.9 percent, it stood at 21.8 percent for Swedish residents from foreign backgrounds."

CNN Does Visual Demonstration of Trump's Reported 12 Diet Cokes a Day

CNN Does Visual Demonstration of Trump's Reported 12 Diet Cokes a Day
"Near the close of Brooke Baldwin's CNN program Monday afternoon, she invited on a board-certified gastroenterologist to assess the effect on President Donald Trump's health of his massive Diet Coke intake.
The discussion came with a visual aide of a dozen Diet Coke cans, representing the 12 Trump knocks back per day in the White House, according to a recent New York Times report..."
What passes for "news" on Hate-TV.

#1 Movie this week 1961-----El Cid Trailer

Explosive Texts Point To FBI, Not Russian, Meddling In 2016 Election | Stock News & Stock Market Analysis - IBD

Explosive Texts Point To FBI, Not Russian, Meddling In 2016 Election | Stock News & Stock Market Analysis - IBD:
"Scandal: For 18 months, the FBI has been fixated on determining whether President Trump worked with Russia to influence the 2016 election.
But explosive text exchanges between top FBI agents suggest it should be looking in the mirror.
The text messages sent between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, which became public on Wednesday, provide a rare and illuminating window into just how rabidly partisan putatively nonpartisan law enforcement officials can be.
...When not berating Trump, they were praising Hillary Clinton.
In one text, Strzok said: "God Hillary should win 100,000,000-0." In another, he said that "a lot of people are holding their breath hoping" about Clinton.
...But Strzok and Page weren't just a couple of bureaucrats crunching numbers in a windowless office at the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Strzok was a key player in the FBI's investigation into whether Clinton had broken the law by using a private, unsecured email server to handle highly classified documents. He interviewed several of the people involved, including Clinton herself.
He was also the person who watered down the language in the statement used by Comey to exonerate Clinton, changing it from "gross negligence" to "extremely careless," which as we noted in this space was critical to Comey's claim that Clinton didn't break any laws.
Remember, too, that when Strzok was busy airbrushing Clinton's email crimes, he would have known that, had the FBI done the right thing and indicted her for putting national security at risk, it would have crushed her campaign, and helped elect the man Strzok clearly felt should never be president.
In other words, Strzok had motive, means and opportunity to sabotage that investigation..."
Read on!

#1 This day 1979-----Rupert Holmes - (Escape) The Pina Colada Song (Lyrics)