Saturday, November 30, 2013

Hunger in America

let me ask ! are we so far gone ,have we sunk so low , as an People ? OUR Country has more resources ,$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ ,man power ,think power ....at 1 time WILL POWER  than ANY fucking Nation in the History of Our Time !!!   ..at 1 time in Our Nation .... NO  1    & i fucking mean NO fucking body  ...was so far gone  ..THAT somebody wouldn't put their hand out &  say come on we can make it . we'll beat this thing   you & i together ..we'll make                    do ya think    ..God is looking down on  US   & feeling real proud                                 folks  we can do better (um talking bout us citz's NOT the ass pipes & "their" ass pipe "elites"  ...HEY World hows "their" 3000  yrs +/-  "rule" working out fer us ALL .huh ! hows that going ?? )     we ALL r better than this     .... aren't ya just getting fucking tired of "their" parasitic bullshit ...isn't it TIME we clean the "pipes"      ...out                   .....lets try that option fer once ,huh     

Hunger in America


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It’s hard giving thanks when you’re hungry. It’s harder living in the world’s richest country. It’s harder still knowing government officials don’t care. It’s hardest of all wondering how you’ll get by.
More below on growing hunger and deprivation. It’s increasing in America at a time trillions of dollars go for warmaking, corporate handouts, and other benefits for rich elites.
Giving thanks predated the republic. In 1621, Plymouth Pilgrims did so. They had nothing to do with originating the idea.
Native Americans did. They gave thanks for annual fall harvests. They did it centuries before settlers arrived.
On November 26, 1789, George Washington proclaimed the first national thanksgiving day.
He called it “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God.”
In 1863, Lincoln used the occasion to boost Union Army morale and patriotic fervor.
He “invite(d) (his) fellow citizens to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”
He “fervently implore(d) the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of he nation and to restore it to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.”
He didn’t live long enough to see it. Government officials today exploit Thanksgiving. They promote the illusion of US exceptionalism, moral and cultural superiority.
Social inequality, moral degeneration, and police state lawlessness reflect today’s reality. Constitutional rights don’t matter.
War on humanity persists. Corporate crooks go unpunished. Democracy is a convenient illusion. Powerful monied interests run things.
Ordinary people are hugely deprived. Growing needs go unaddressed. Government officials able to make a difference don’t care.
Thanksgiving has many disturbing ironies. Presidents annually issue a “pardon.” It spares a preselected turkey’s life. It does so by proclamation. This year two were spared.
It’s unclear precisely when the tradition began. Lincoln did so. Thanksgiving day 1963 was November 28. Kennedy was assassinated six days earlier. Before his death, he let one turkey live. “We’ll just let this one grow,” he said.
Nixon began sending turkeys to a petting farm near Washington. He did so after a White House photo-op ceremony. No formal pardon was given.
GHW Bush was the first president to do it. On November 14, 1989, he said a preselected turkey was “granted a presidential pardon as of right now.”
Obama issued annual presidential pardons. On Wednesday, he spared two turkeys.
“The office of the presidency, the most powerful position in the world, brings with it many awesome and solemn responsibilities,” he said. “This is not one of them.”
“Tomorrow, as we gather with our own friends and family, we’ll count ourselves lucky that there’s more to be thankful for than we can ever say and more to be hopeful for than we can ever imagine.”
A November 27 White House press release said in part:
“On Wednesday, November 27, 2013, President Obama will pardon the National Thanksgiving Turkey in a ceremony on the North Portico.”
“The President will celebrate the 66th anniversary of the National Thanksgiving Turkey presentation, reflect upon the time-honored traditions of Thanksgiving, and wish American families a warm, safe, and healthy holiday.”
“After the pardoning, the turkeys will be driven to George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens.”
“The National Thanksgiving Turkey will be on display for visitors during ‘Christmas at Mount Vernon,’ a traditional program through January 6.”
“The turkeys will then travel to their permanent home at Morven Park’s Turkey Hill, the historic turkey farm located at the home of former Virginia Governor Westmoreland Davis (1918-1922) in Leesburg, Virginia.”
Jaindl’s Turkey Farm in Orefield, Pennsylvania, gave President Obama’s family two dressed turkeys that will be donated to a local area food bank.”
They need much more than that nationwide. Hunger in America is real. Millions are affected.
Official numbers understate a growing crisis. Congress ignores it. Food stamps were cut when they’re most needed. Further cuts are planned.
On December 31, millions will lose extended unemployment benefits unless Congress renews them. Both parties show little inclination to do so. Bipartisan complicity reflects indifference.
On July 28, AP headlined ”Exclusive: Signs of Declining Economic Security,” saying:
“Four out of 5 US adults struggle with joblessness, near poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives.”
It’s a disturbing “sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.”
“Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized US economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.”
Government data fall short of explaining things. Conditions are much worse than official reports.
Most Americans struggle to get by. Impoverishment or close to it affect them. So do millions experiencing hunger.
Franklin Roosevelt instituted the first Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). It began in May 1939. In 1941, he pledged freedom from want.
On January 11, 1944, he delivered his last State of the Union address. He proposed a second bill of rights.
“This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights,” he said.
“They were our rights to life and liberty.”
“As our nation has grown in size and stature, however – as our industrial economy expanded – these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.”
His solution was “economic bill of rights.” He wanted one guaranteeing:
  • employment with a living wage;
  • freedom from unfair competition and monopolies;
  • housing;
  • medical care;
  • education; and
  • social security.
Imagine if he’d lived long enough to implement it. Imagine this type America today. Hunger, homelessness, unemployment and poverty wouldn’t be major problems.
State-sponsored class war exacerbates them. Growing millions need help. They face increasing hardships.
Force-fed austerity harms America’s most disadvantaged. Their numbers are far greater than most people think.
Half of US households are impoverished or bordering it. Growing millions struggle to get by. They haven’t enough to live on.
Most households with one or more workers live from paycheck to paycheck. They have little or no savings.
They’re one missed pay day away from being unable to handle daily expenses. They risk hunger, homelessness and deep poverty.
They live in the world’s richest country. It spurns its most disadvantaged. Doing so swells their numbers. They suffer out of sight and mind.
Banks, other corporate favorites and super-rich elites are disproportionately favored. America was never beautiful. It’s less so than ever today. It’s dark side reflects reality.
Obama is no Roosevelt. He’s polar opposite. Anti-populism defines his agenda. Transferring America’s wealth to its most well-off is official policy.
He wants vital New Deal/Great Society programs eliminated. He wants them privatized en route to doing so.
Throughout his tenure, he instituted numerous social benefit cuts. He’s got more in mind. He’s heading America toward third world status. He lies claiming otherwise.
Hungry Americans don’t matter. Half or more are children. Many attending schools with hot breakfasts or lunches may get their only decent daily meal.
Most households receiving food stamps have at least one employed member. According to the Food Journal, they “typically include a child, elderly person or a disable person, and a gross income of $744 a month.”
Average rents nationwide exceed $1,200 monthly. A tiny upscale Kansas City, MO 800 square-foot one bedroom apartment costs about $1,000 a month.
Median rents in America’s least expensive cities range from $623 to $730 on average. It’s a far cry from much cheaper earlier times.
Households earning $700+ a month struggle from day to day to get by. They need help doing so. Washington provides increasingly less during hard times.
Republicans and Democrats don’t give a damn. Today’s America is a let ‘em eat cake society.
Growing millions are on their own sink or swim. Protracted Main Street Depression era conditions persist. Things are getting worse, not better.
Thanksgiving is no time for celebration. Not when hunger reflects daily reality for millions. It’s been this way for years. Major media editors largely ignore it.
On November 25, 2009, a New York Times editorial headlined, ”A Thanksgiving Toast,” saying:
“Sitting down with friends and family today, there will be thanks for the steady currents, flowing out of the past, that have brought us to this table….And there will be prayerful thanks for the future.”
In November 2010, dismissive Washington Post editors headlined ”Thanksgiving’s unchanging appeal,” saying:
We’re “fortunate to be alive and fed and sheltered, and the proper response to our good fortune is not self-satisfaction but gratitude.”
Fact check
Poverty, homelessness and hunger are at Depression era levels. Feeding America (FA) is Chicago-based. It calls itself the nation’s “leading domestic hunger-relief charity.”
It serves the needy “through a nationwide network of member food banks.”
In February 2010, it issued a report titled “Hunger in America 2010.” In 2014, it plans updating it. Conditions now are much worse.
They were bad enough then. About 5.7 million Americans needed emergency food aid. It was over one-fourth more than in 2005.
It said one in eight Americans are food insecure. Around 14 million children were affected. It’s about 16 million now. They don’t get enough food to eat.
FA calls food insecurity “a complex, multifaceted phenomenon that varies along a continuum of successive stages as it becomes more severe.”
Food secure households lets them “access…enough food for an active, health life.”
“(T)he existence of so many people without secure access to adequate nutritious food represents a serious national concern.”
“More than one in three client households are experiencing very low food security – or hunger – a 54 percent increase” compared to data FA compiled in a 2006 report.
At the time, former FA CEO Vicki Escarra said:
“Clearly, the economic recession, resulting in dramatically increasing unemployment nationwide, has driven unprecedented, sharp increases in the need for emergency food assistance and enrollment in federal nutrition programs.”
“Hunger in America 2010 exposes the absolutely tragic reality of just how many people in our nation don’t have enough to eat.”
“Millions of our clients are families with children finding themselves in need of food assistance for the very first time.”
“It’s morally reprehensible that we live in the wealthiest nation in the world where one in six people are struggling to make choices between food and other basic services.”
On November 27, FA’s CEO Bob Aiken said in part:
“With the holiday season here and with many of us sitting down to a table full of food this Thanksgiving, it’s hard not to reflect on the 49 million people in our country who struggle with hunger.”
“And it’s especially hard not to think of those families who earlier this month saw their SNAP benefits cut, further straining their food budgets.”
“We’ve seen throughout our network of food banks the impact that these cuts are already beginning to have – with longer lines and an anticipated growth in need.”
“Our food banks are stretched and charity alone can’t make up for this cut to federal assistance.”
“And with the possibility of further cuts to the program via the farm bill, there is real concern that the need for food will not be met.”
“(W)e know hunger isn’t seasonal – it’s a year-round problem. It’s our job to make sure that we shine a light on this issue all year, not just around the holidays.”
In 2012, FA said 49 million Americans were food insecure. It affected 17.6 million households.
About seven million households experienced “very low food security.” Households with children reported “a significantly higher rate than those without children, 20 percent compared to 11.0 percent.”
Food insecurity persists across America. It’s in every county. It ranges from 2.4% in Slope County, ND to 35.2% in Holmes County, MS.
America’s national average is 14.7%. Ten states are significantly higher:
Mississippi: 20.9%
Arkansas: 19.7%
Texas: 18.4%
Alabama: 17.9%
North Carolina: 17%
Georgia: 16.9%
Missouri: 16.7%
Nevada: 16.6%
Ohio: 16.1%
California: 15.6%
Hunger in the world’s richest country is intolerable. It’s unconscionable. It persists. It’s worsening. It’s the shame of an uncaring nation.
Families without enough to eat aren’t celebrating. They’re struggling to find enough food to survive. Bipartisan complicity ignores them.
Anti-populism is official policy. Harder than ever hard times persist. Failure to address it reflects America’s dark side.
Equity and justice aren’t in its vocabulary. It bears repeating. Today’s America is a let ‘em eat cake society. Hard times keep getting harder.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net
His new book is titled “Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. 
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
http://www.dailycensored.com/hunger-america/

Black Friday: A Shameful Orgy Of Materialism For A Morally Bankrupt Nation

                       -Back in 1985, our trade deficit with China was approximately 6 million dollars (million with a little "m") for the entire year.  In 2012, our trade deficit with China was 315 billion dollars.  That was the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world.                           you know that "sucking sound" that lil feller wit the big ears ..told you would B cum~in  ?       ( & ya know u made fun of Him )    NOT ONLY did it suck  & NOW we r ALL getting fucked up the ass  !!       & we 's got you kooky nattery fucked in the heads ( ah um by the way NOW  Our asses )           dummycocks   & you's  republipubes   2 thank  ......   ohhhhhhh lookkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk  X~Box 1 just went down  13 %       ......push that bitch out~ta WAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!                 

Black Friday: A Shameful Orgy Of Materialism For A Morally Bankrupt Nation

Black Friday It has been called "America's most disturbing holiday".  Black Friday is the day when millions of average Americans wait outside retail stores in the middle of the night in the freezing cold to spend more money that they do not have for more cheap Chinese-made products that they do not need.  It is a day when the rest of the world makes fun of Americans for behaving like "rabid animals" and "zombies" as we indulge in a tsunami of greed.  It truly is a shameful orgy of materialism for a morally bankrupt nation.  It is being projected that approximately 140 million Americans will participate in this disgusting national ritual this year.  Sadly, most of them have absolutely no idea that they are actively participating in the destruction of the economic infrastructure of the United States.  If you don't understand why this is true, please be sure to read this entire article all the way to the end.
The amount of merchandise that is purchased on Black Friday is absolutely staggering.  For example, just consider how much stuff is sold at Wal-Mart alone...
Wal-Mart said it recorded more than 10 million register transactions between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Thursday in its stores and nearly 400 million page views that day on walmart.com. It sold 2.8 million towels, 2 million televisions, 1.4 million tablets, 300,000 bicycles and 1.9 million dolls. Big-ticket electronics like big-screen TVs and new videogame consoles were among the top sellers.
But each and every year, Black Friday also seems to bring out the worst in many people, and this year was certainly no exception.  The following are just a few of the national headlines about the rioting and the violence that we witnessed...
-"Holiday shopping season kicks off with fights, arrests"
-"Violence flares as shoppers slug it out for best Black Friday deals"
-"Watch Screaming Mobs Fight Over Televisions At Wal-Mart"
-"Two Arrested After Stabbing Over Parking Space At Wal-Mart"
-"Rialto Walmart Thanksgiving brawl sends one police officer to hospital"
-"Walmart Ejects Customer For Filming Violent ‘Black Thursday’ Mobs"
-"Cops: Shoplifting suspect shot after dragging officer"
And sometimes the violence extends out into the parking lots and into the surrounding neighborhoods.  In Las Vegas, a man that was carrying a big-screen television home from Target was shot in the leg...
According to police, a man purchased a big-screen television from the Target store near Flamingo Rd. and Maryland Pkwy. While he was walking to a nearby apartment complex, a man approached and fired a warning shot, causing the victim to drop the television, police said.
Officers tell 8 News NOW the gunman then took the television to a nearby car that was waiting, where a second man helped the gunman load the TV into the car.
The victim approached the two men and tried to get the television back. That prompted the gunman to fire several more rounds, shooting the victim in the leg.
Every year I go over to YouTube to check out the madness that breaks out on Black Friday night all over the nation.  Posted below is the best compilation video from Black Friday that I could find.  In particular, I love how this video compares American shoppers to zombies...
And there is one more video that I wanted to share with you.  In this video, activist Mark Dice dresses up like Santa Claus and mocks Black Friday shoppers for being "parasites" and for ruining Thanksgiving...
Meanwhile, as retail stores all over America actively encourage this zombie-like behavior, police are actually cracking down on other groups of Americans that are actively trying to make this country a better place.  For example, a Christian group in Lake Worth, Florida was kicked out of a public park for trying to feed the homeless on Thanksgiving.  Of course this kind of thing happens all the time.  In fact, dozens of major cities all over the country have now passed laws that make it illegal to feed the homeless.  For much more on this, please see my previous article entitled "One Lawmaker Is Literally Smashing The Belongings Of The Homeless With A Sledgehammer".
At the beginning of this article, I stated that those who go shopping on Black Friday "are actively participating in the destruction of the economic infrastructure of the United States".
How could that possibly be?
Aren't they helping the economy by spending their money?
Actually, it isn't that simple.
Just think about it for a moment.  Where are most of the "advertised specials" that people go crazy over on Black Friday actually made?
If you guessed "China", you would be correct.  In fact, it is very difficult to find any "Black Friday specials" that are actually made in the United States.
When you buy stuff made in China, you support workers and businesses in China.  As I mentioned in a recent article, the U.S. economy loses approximately 9,000 jobs for every 1 billion dollars of goods that are imported from overseas.
Overall, the U.S. has run a total trade deficit with the rest of the world of more than 8 trillion dollars since 1975.
So when you look around and see lots of unemployed people, it should not be a surprise to you.
Right now, the labor force participation rate is at a 35-year-low and more than 102 million working age Americans do not have a job.  That number has increased by 27 million just since the year 2000.
Because the American people are not supporting American businesses, our formerly great manufacturing cities are being transformed into rotting, festering hellholes.  Just take a look at Detroit.  At one time Detroit had the highest per capita income in the entire nation, but now it is a dying, bankrupt ghost town.
And of course this is happening to manufacturing cities all over the nation.  Since 2001, more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities in the U.S. have permanently shut down and we have lost millions upon millions of good paying manufacturing jobs.
Back in the 1980s, more than 20 percent of the jobs in the United States were manufacturing jobs.  Today, only about 9 percent of the jobs in the United States are manufacturing jobs.
Good job America.  And the following are some more facts from one of my previous articles about how our massively bloated trade deficit is absolutely killing our economy...
-There are less Americans working in manufacturing today than there was in 1950 even though the population of the country has more than doubled since then.
-Back in 1950, more than 80 percent of all men in the United States had jobs.  Today, less than 65 percent of all men in the United States have jobs.
-When NAFTA was pushed through Congress in 1993, the United States had a trade surplus with Mexico of 1.6 billion dollars.  By 2010, we had a trade deficit with Mexico of 61.6 billion dollars.
-Back in 1985, our trade deficit with China was approximately 6 million dollars (million with a little "m") for the entire year.  In 2012, our trade deficit with China was 315 billion dollars.  That was the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world.
-According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing half a million jobs to China every single year.
-According to Professor Alan Blinder of Princeton University, 40 million more U.S. jobs could be sent offshore over the next two decades if current trends continue.
Unfortunately, most Americans never stop to think about what happens when we buy stuff from China.
When we buy stuff from them, our money goes over there.
At this point, they are sitting on trillions of our dollars and they have purchased more than a trillion dollars of our debt.
Up until now, Chinese demand for our dollars has helped keep the value of the U.S. dollar artificially high.  This is one of the reasons why Wal-Mart can sell you those Chinese imports so inexpensively.
And up until now, Chinese demand for our debt has helped keep long-term interest rates artificially low.  So the U.S. government has been able to borrow money at ridiculously low interest rates and U.S. home buyers have been able to get mortgage rates that are well below the real rate of inflation.
But no irrational state of affairs ever lasts indefinitely, and the Chinese recently announced that they are going to quit stockpiling U.S. dollars.  Many analysts believe that this means that the Chinese will soon stop stockpiling U.S. debt as well.
So enjoy those super cheap "Black Friday specials" while they last.  That era is rapidly coming to an end.
Now that the Chinese have stolen tens of thousands of our businesses, millions of our jobs and trillions of our dollars, perhaps they feel that there is not much more looting to be done.  Our economic infrastructure has been essentially gutted at this point.  Moving forward, China can afford to let the value of the U.S. dollar fall and the value of their own currency rise because even Barack Obama admits that "those jobs are never coming back".
And every single American that went shopping on Black Friday and bought Chinese-made goods actively participated in the ongoing destruction of the U.S. economy.
Good job America.  You are a nation that is utterly consumed by materialism and greed, and you don't even realize that you are destroying yourself with your own foolishness.

The National Security Agency (NSA): The Only Part of the Government that Really Listens to What You Have to Say

Region:
Theme:
Spying phone
The New York Times (November 2) ran a long article based on NSA documents released by Edward Snowden. One of the lines that most caught my attention concerned “Sigint” – Signals intelligence, the term used for electronic intercepts. The document stated:
“Sigint professionals must hold the moral high ground, even as terrorists or dictators seek to exploit our freedoms. Some of our adversaries will say or do anything to advance their cause; we will not.”
What, I wondered, might that mean? What would the National Security Agency – on moral principle – refuse to say or do?
I have on occasion asked people who reject or rationalize any and all criticism of US foreign policy: “What would the United States have to do in its foreign policy to lose your support? What, for you, would be too much?” I’ve yet to get a suitable answer to that question. I suspect it’s because the person is afraid that whatever they say I’ll point out that the United States has already done it.
The United Nations vote on the Cuba embargo – 22 years in a row
For years American political leaders and media were fond of labeling Cuba an “international pariah”. We haven’t heard that for a very long time. Perhaps one reason is the annual vote in the United Nations General Assembly on the resolution which reads: “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba”. This is how the vote has gone (not including abstentions):
Year Votes (Yes-No) No Votes
1992 59-2 US, Israel
1993 88-4 US, Israel, Albania, Paraguay
1994 101-2 US, Israel
1995 117-3 US, Israel, Uzbekistan
1996 138-3 US, Israel, Uzbekistan
1997 143-3 US, Israel, Uzbekistan
1998 157-2 US, Israel
1999 155-2 US, Israel
2000 167-3 US, Israel, Marshall Islands
2001 167-3 US, Israel, Marshall Islands
2002 173-3 US, Israel, Marshall Islands
2003 179-3 US, Israel, Marshall Islands
2004 179-4 US, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau
2005 182-4 US, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau
2006 183-4 US, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau
2007 184-4 US, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau
2008 185-3 US, Israel, Palau
2009 187-3 US, Israel, Palau
2010 187-2 US, Israel
2011 186-2 US, Israel
2012 188-3 US, Israel, Palau
2013 188-2 US, Israel
Each fall the UN vote is a welcome reminder that the world has not completely lost its senses and that the American empire does not completely control the opinion of other governments.
Speaking before the General Assembly, October 29, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez declared: “The economic damages accumulated after half a century as a result of the implementation of the blockade amount to $1.126 trillion.” He added that the blockade “has been further tightened under President Obama’s administration”, some 30 US and foreign entities being hit with $2.446 billion in fines due to their interaction with Cuba.
However, the American envoy, Ronald Godard, in an appeal to other countries to oppose the resolution, said:
“The international community … cannot in good conscience ignore the ease and frequency with which the Cuban regime silences critics, disrupts peaceful assembly, impedes independent journalism and, despite positive reforms, continues to prevent some Cubans from leaving or returning to the island. The Cuban government continues its tactics of politically motivated detentions, harassment and police violence against Cuban citizens.” 1
So there you have it. That is why Cuba must be punished. One can only guess what Mr. Godard would respond if told that more than 7,000 people were arrested in the United States during the Occupy Movement’s first 8 months of protest 2 ; that their encampments were violently smashed up; that many of them were physically abused by the police.
Does Mr. Godard ever read a newspaper or the Internet, or watch television? Hardly a day passes in America without a police officer shooting to death an unarmed person?
As to “independent journalism” – what would happen if Cuba announced that from now on anyone in the country could own any kind of media? How long would it be before CIA money – secret and unlimited CIA money financing all kinds of fronts in Cuba – would own or control most of the media worth owning or controlling?
The real reason for Washington’s eternal hostility toward Cuba? The fear of a good example of an alternative to the capitalist model; a fear that has been validated repeatedly over the years as Third World countries have expressed their adulation of Cuba.
How the embargo began: On April 6, 1960, Lester D. Mallory, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, wrote in an internal memorandum: “The majority of Cubans support Castro … The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship. … every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba.” Mallory proposed “a line of action which … makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.” 3 Later that year, the Eisenhower administration instituted the suffocating embargo against its everlasting enemy.
The Cold War Revisited
I’ve written the Introduction to a new book recently published in Russia that is sort of an updating of my book Killing Hope4 Here is a short excerpt:
The Cold War had not been a struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. It had been a struggle between the United States and the Third World, which, in the decade following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, continued in Haiti, Somalia, Iraq, Yugoslavia and elsewhere.
The Cold War had not been a worldwide crusade by America to halt Soviet expansion, real or imaginary. It had been a worldwide crusade by America to block political and social changes in the Third World, changes opposed by the American power elite.
The Cold War had not been a glorious and noble movement of freedom and democracy against Communist totalitarianism. It had typically been a movement by the United States in support of dictatorships, authoritarian regimes and corrupt oligarchies which were willing to follow Washington’s party line on the Left, US corporations, Israel, oil, military bases, et al. and who protected American political and economic interests in their countries in exchange for the American military and CIA keeping them in power against the wishes of their own people.
In other words, whatever the diplomats at the time thought they were doing, the Cold War revisionists have been vindicated. American policy had been about imperialism and military expansion.
Apropos the countless other myths we were all taught about the Soviet Union is this letter I recently received from one of my readers, a Russian woman, age 49, who moved to the United States eight years ago and now lives in Northern Virginia:
I can’t imagine why anybody is surprised to hear when I say I miss life in the Soviet Union: what is bad about free healthcare and education, guaranteed employment, guaranteed free housing? No rent or mortgage of any kind, only utilities, but they were subsidized too, so it was really pennies. Now, to be honest, there was a waiting list to get those apartments, so some people got them quicker, some people had to wait for years, it all depended on where you worked. And there were no homeless people, and crime was way lower. As a first grader I was taking the public transportation to go to school, which was about 1 hour away by bus (it was a big city, about the size of Washington DC, we lived on the outskirts, and my school was downtown), and it was fine, all other kids were doing it. Can you even imagine this being done now? I am not saying everything was perfect, but overall, it is a more stable and socially just system, fair to everybody, nobody was left behind. This is what I miss: peace and stability, and not being afraid of the future.
Problem is, nobody believes it, they will say that I am a brainwashed “tovarish” [comrade]. I’ve tried to argue with Americans about this before, but just gave up now. They just refuse to believe anything that contradicts what CNN has been telling them for all their lives. One lady once told me: “You just don’t know what was going on there, because you did not have freedom of speech, but we, Americans, knew everything, because we could read about all of this in our media.” I told her “I was right there! I did not need to read about this in the media, I lived that life!”, but she still was unconvinced! You will not believe what she said: “Yes, maybe, but we have more stuff!”. Seriously, having 50 kinds of cereal available in the store, and walmarts full of plastic junk is more valuable to Americans than a stable and secure life, and social justice for everybody?
Of course there are people who lived in the Soviet Union who disagree with me, and I talked to them too, but I find their reasons just as silly. I heard one Russian lady whose argument was that Stalin killed “30, no 40 million people”. First of all it’s not true (I don’t in any way defend Stalin, but I do think that lying and exaggerating about him is as wrong)*, and second of all what does this have to do with the 70s, when I was a kid? By then life was completely different. I heard other arguments, like food shortages (again, not true, it’s not like there was no food at all, there were shortages of this or that specific product, like you wouldn’t find mayo or bologna in the store some days, but everything else was there!). So, you would come back next day, or in 2-3 days, and you would find them there. Really, this is such a big deal? Or you would have to stay in line to buy some other product, (ravioli for example). But how badly do you want that ravioli really that day, can’t you have anything else instead? Just buy something else, like potatoes, where there was no line.
Was this annoying, yes, and at the time I was annoyed too, but only now I realized that I would much prefer this nuisance to my present life now, when I am constantly under stress for the fear that I can possibly lose my job (as my husband already did), and as a result, lose everything else – my house? You couldn’t possibly lose your house in Soviet Union, it was yours for life, mortgage free. Only now, living here in the US, I realized that all those soviet nuisances combined were not as important as the benefits we had – housing, education, healthcare, employment, safe streets, all sort of free after school activities (music, sports, arts, anything you want) for kids, so parents never had to worry about what we do all day till they come home in the evening.
We’ve all heard the figures many times … 10 million … 20 million … 40 million … 60 million … died under Stalin. But what does the number mean, whichever number you choose? Of course many people died under Stalin, many people died under Roosevelt, and many people are still dying under Bush. Dying appears to be a natural phenomenon in every country. The question is how did those people die under Stalin? Did they die from the famines that plagued the USSR in the 1920s and 30s? Did the Bolsheviks deliberately create those famines? How? Why? More people certainly died in India in the 20th century from famines than in the Soviet Union, but no one accuses India of the mass murder of its own citizens. Did the millions die from disease in an age before antibiotics? In prison? From what causes? People die in prison in the United States on a regular basis. Were millions actually murdered in cold blood? If so, how? How many were criminals executed for non-political crimes? The logistics of murdering tens of millions of people is daunting.5
Hillary: Defending the Bush regime all the way
Let’s not repeat the Barack mistake with Hillary
Not that it really matters who the Democrats nominate for the presidency in 2016. Whoever that politically regressive and morally bankrupt party chooses will be at best an uninspired and uninspiring centrist; in European terms a center-rightist; who believes that the American Empire – despite the admittedly occasional excessive behavior – is mankind’s last great hope. The only reason I bother to comment on this question so far in advance of the election is that the forces behind Clinton have clearly already begun their campaign and I’d like to use the opportunity to try to educate the many progressives who fell in love with Obama and may be poised now to embrace Clinton. Here’s what I wrote in July 2007 during the very early days of the 2008 campaign:
Who do you think said this on June 20? a) Rudy Giuliani; b) Hillary Clinton; c) George Bush; d) Mitt Romney; or e) Barack Obama?
“The American military has done its job. Look what they accomplished. They got rid of Saddam Hussein. They gave the Iraqis a chance for free and fair elections. They gave the Iraqi government the chance to begin to demonstrate that it understood its responsibilities to make the hard political decisions necessary to give the people of Iraq a better future. So the American military has succeeded. It is the Iraqi government which has failed to make the tough decisions which are important for their own people.” 6
Right, it was the woman who wants to be president because … because she wants to be president … because she thinks it would be nice to be president … no other reason, no burning cause, no heartfelt desire for basic change in American society or to make a better world … she just thinks it would be nice, even great, to be president. And keep the American Empire in business, its routine generating of horror and misery being no problem; she wouldn’t want to be known as the president that hastened the decline of the empire.
And she spoke the above words at the “Take Back America” conference; she was speaking to liberals, committed liberal Democrats and others further left. She didn’t have to cater to them with any flag-waving pro-war rhetoric; they wanted to hear anti-war rhetoric (and she of course gave them a bit of that as well out of the other side of her mouth), so we can assume that this is how she really feels, if indeed the woman feels anything. The audience, it should be noted, booed her, for the second year in a row.
Think of why you are opposed to the war. Is it not largely because of all the unspeakable suffering brought down upon the heads and souls of the poor people of Iraq by the American military? Hillary Clinton couldn’t care less about that, literally. She thinks the American military has “succeeded”. Has she ever unequivocally labeled the war “illegal” or “immoral”? I used to think that Tony Blair was a member of the right wing or conservative wing of the British Labour Party. I finally realized one day that that was an incorrect description of his ideology. Blair is a conservative, a bloody Tory. How he wound up in the Labour Party is a matter I haven’t studied. Hillary Clinton, however, I’ve long known is a conservative; going back to at least the 1980s, while the wife of the Arkansas governor, she strongly supported the death-squad torturers known as the Contras, who were the empire’s proxy army in Nicaragua. 7
Now we hear from America’s venerable conservative magazine, William Buckley’sNational Review, an editorial by Bruce Bartlett, policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan; treasury official under President George H.W. Bush; a fellow at two of the leading conservative think-tanks, the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute – You get the picture? Bartlett tells his readers that it’s almost certain that the Democrats will win the White House in 2008. So what to do? Support the most conservative Democrat. He writes: “To right-wingers willing to look beneath what probably sounds to them like the same identical views of the Democratic candidates, it is pretty clear that Hillary Clinton is the most conservative.” 8
We also hear from America’s premier magazine for the corporate wealthy, Fortune, whose recent cover features a picture of Clinton and the headline: “Business Loves Hillary”. 9
Back to 2013: In October, the office of billionaire George Soros announced that “George Soros is delighted to join more than one million Americans in supporting Ready for Hillary.” 10
There’s much more evidence of Hillary Clinton’s conservative leanings, but if you need more, you’re probably still in love with Obama, who in a new book is quoted telling his aides during a comment on drone strikes that he’s “really good at killing people”. 11Can we look forward to Hillary winning the much-discredited Nobel Peace Prize?
I’m sorry if I take away all your fun.
Notes
  1. Democracy Now!, “U.N. General Assembly Votes Overwhelmingly Against U.S. Embargo of Cuba”, October 30, 2013 
  2. Huffington Post, May 3, 2012 
  3. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958-1960, Volume VI, Cuba (1991), p.885 
  4. Copies can be purchased by emailing kuchkovopole@mail.ru 
  5. From William Blum, Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire(2005), p.194 
  6. Speaking at the “Take Back America” conference, organized by the Campaign for America’s Future, June 20, 2007, Washington, DC; this excerpt can be heard on Democracy Now!’s website 
  7. Roger Morris, former member of the National Security Council, Partners in Power (1996), p.415 
  8. National Review Online, May 1, 2007 
  9. Fortune magazine, July 9, 2007 
  10. Washington Post, October 25, 2013 
  11. Washington Post, November 1, 2013, review of “Double Down: Game Change 2012” 

Taking too many photos of your kids is a BAD thing, warn experts

think it is to LATE !!!     we got generations of me,me Me ME,ME <ME  !!! just look at ass~book   ..here's me waking up .here's me looking left ..... right ,up ,down  over here ,over there ,look at the soda i just bought ..i just ate this ,that or looky,looky at what i just made :O  ....look at the pic i just took of an old Lady falling down .......what y didn't i try & help her ?  WTF    my ..pic  .....here's my brat being born looky ,looky ...here IT is  at 1 min 2 sec old     ....look it closed it's eyes for the very 1 st time  oh oh ah it's turning it's head to the left for the 1 st time  look .look it moved it's right leg ...for the 1 st time  & "these" fucking" kooks are gonna "post" this shit ....forever lol    this "generation"   wont EVEN fucking do ANYTHING ..until the cam's ...setup  ..... these shallow fucks hug you wit one arm & the other hand has a cam in it .....so "they" can say looky ,looky at ME ...hugging  ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh    ohhhhhhhhhhh  um so genu~ain't    ..just get an x~Box   & ask billy if he'll play back EVERY~thin   that's goes on in your living room ,bed room ,kitchen  out house lol       .....    ah oh yea "iT"  only cums on if you say x~box  on   LMMFAO (laughing my motherfucking ass off )  &  the NSA "only"  spy's on yer phone,cell.text.email ,fax etc.etc,etc.   when you "use"   it  ?     we wont even mention the street cam's ,biz cam's ,store cam's ...lol fucking drones . "spy" sat's  :o     fuck me!  um confused which is the God that ..."spy's "   & which 1  is the 1  of Love  :o   let's "ask" billy  ...he's doing gods work  lol           here wait let me take a pic of this ..so i can "post" it      

Taking too many photos of your kids is a BAD thing, warn experts

  • Experts warn parents against snapping too many moments of their children being cute
  • Kids might feel like they're 'in the center of the universe' making them feel 'overly important'
  • It could also make them feel less important and self-critical
By Daily Mail Reporter
|
Parents taking too many pictures of their children are being warned that it can be detrimental to their development as it might make them feel ‘overly important’.
As the holiday season cranks into gear, experts are saying that snapping too many moments to create those cherished long-lasting memories can be too much of a good thing.
Some toddlers are known to grab their parents’ smartphones and snap their own ‘selfies’, while other children give creative direction and ask their parents to take pictures of them ‘being cute’.
Snapshot: Every parent loves taking pictures of their children, but experts say they should try to do it less as they otherwise become too self-conscious and aware
Snapshot: Every parent loves taking pictures of their children, but experts say they should try to do it less as they otherwise become too self-conscious and aware
‘We need to keep track of what values we are communicating by taking the picture and posting and distributing the picture,’ says Judith Myers-Walls, a professor emeritus of human development and family studies at Purdue University.
‘Are you taking a picture of the child and not as a family as a whole? They might think they are the center of the universe,’ she tells Today Moms.
 

People should not stop taking photos of their children, as long as it is done mindfully, she said.
Myers-Walls says parents should encourage their children to use cameras to record images they think illustrate the family or the holidays, instead of letting them take pictures of only themselves.

Taking pictures: Experts warn parents against snapping too many moments of their children and say they should instead take pictures of the whole family to show the importance of unity
Taking pictures: Experts warn parents against snapping too many moments of their children and say they should instead take pictures of the whole family to show the importance of unity


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alain
Warning to parents: Judith Myers-Walls, left, a professor emeritus of human development and family studies at Purdue University, says parents taking too many photos of their children can make them feel overly important. Alain Morin, right, an associate psychology professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, says it could also make children feel more self-conscious and unnecessarily critical of their looks, and who they are

This allows the children to turn the focus away from themselves and onto the family.
‘I think it’s important to decide when taking the photo: what’s the purpose? Is this to help my memory of something; is this to play around and be silly; is this to communicate? What I am communicating to whom?’
She also recommends parents consider hiring a professional photographer to take family photos, which highlight that each family member plays an important role.
Alain Morin, an associate psychology professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, says research finds that taking too many photos creates other problems.
The use of ¿self-focusing stimuli¿, such as a mirror, picture or camera, could make the children feel more self-conscious about their looks
The use of ¿self-focusing stimuli¿, such as a mirror, picture or camera, could make the children feel more self-conscious about their looks

He says the use of ‘self-focusing stimuli’, such as a mirror, picture or camera, could make the children feel more self-conscious about their looks.
‘And, you think about your shortcomings,’ he tells Today Moms.
'When people are exceedingly self-focused, they self-critique a lot and feel bad a lot.'
But a lot of photos isn’t always a bad thing, according to Morin, as they can help create stronger memories and give people a better sense of who they are. 

Please Do Not Hug the Sharks

Swimmer in Bora Bora Bear Hugs Shark and Goes For a Ride
Swimmer in Bora Bora hugs a shark and goes for a ride. Please don't do this.
Photo via Shark Attack News/Facebook
If you scan through social media sites looking for shark videos, you will come across countless videos of people diving with sharks, fishing for sharks, and even saving sharks. But you may also notice a new trend starting to emerge in the shark world: More and more people having hands-on encounters with sharks. And within this group, we are noticing an increase in the number of videos showing people engaging in the practice of shark riding—grabbing a shark by its dorsal fin and allowing it to pull you through the water. This activity has become so prevalent that we recently added the tag “riding a shark” to our blog index at Shark Attack News.
So how did this trend start? The early shark riding videos were primarily released by conservationists who were trying to drive home the message that sharks are not mindless killers that continually roam the oceans seeking out humans for their next meal.
Ocean Ramsey, Kimi Werner, and Lesley Rochat are three of the better-known conservationists who have been depicted riding large tiger and great white sharks. Whether you agree with their tactics or not, the sight of these petite women holding onto the dorsal fins of large apex predators, often two to three times their own size, are absolutely extraordinary and thought-provoking.
These interactions are calculated. These conservationists have many years of experience dealing with sharks, and they have a level of comfort around sharks that most people do not. They did not engage in this activity without preparation, and they acknowledge that there are risks involved.
So what is driving this new surge involving ordinary folks riding sharks? My best guess is either alcohol or an unfounded sense that sharks are one step away from being pets. Either way, it’s a dangerous game that will most certainly end badly for some unfortunate soul down the road. And since many of these interactions are videotaped, I’m guessing we’ll have a new gruesome video making the rounds and sharks will once again be vilified.
The latest shark-riding video (below) emerged on Wednesday via YouTube. We see several vacationers in Bora Bora swimming at the surface while several lemon sharks swim below.
At the 22-second mark, one man swims down and grabs the dorsal fin of the lemon shark. After riding it for several seconds, he does something truly shocking. He swings around to the bottom of the shark, gives it a bear hug and hangs on belly to belly. His head is precariously located just below the shark's mouth and he hangs on for several seconds before finally letting it go.
According to Grant Murdock, who posted the video, he too rode one of the sharks but his encounter wasn’t recorded.
Grant wrote in his description of the video that the sharks “were gentle and accepting of our advances.”
“They didn't seem to mind at all that we were riding for free. It was as close to an out of body experience that I have ever felt.”
After posting the video on our Facebook page, the number of negative responses far outweighed the positive. Several people were rather succinct in their assessment of the swimmer and left the following one word comments: idiot, crazy, deplorable, and dumb.
Many expressed concern that the shark would get a bad rap if it bit the person. Samantha R. summed up the feeling quite well: “Sharks are unpredictable no matter what you think. And then when some stupid tourist does this & gets bitten, fatally or not, the shark gets the blame when it was only doing what the nature of it tells it to.”
So when will the next “shark rider” video surface? And more importantly, how will it end? I do believe that it is inevitable that we will see a shark rider video making the Darwin Awards list.

Can You Hack It?

Everything electronic you own—iPhone to subway card to power strip—can be hacked. So how to defend yourself?

Wherever you’re sitting right now, take a moment to note the connected devices around you. In your pocket or handbag, you probably have an electronic key fob and perhaps a rechargeable subway card embedded with RFID. You likely have a smartphone, which is connected to a Wi-Fi network and also has voice-mail service. You might be wearing a Nike FuelBand, or a Fitbit, or possibly even a new pair of Google Glass. Maybe you can spot a traffic light or an orange highway sign out of your window. A power strip is likely not too far away.
All of these devices share one thing in common: They can be hacked.
As we herald the coming Internet of Things, it’s easy to forget that our ever expanding tech playground is mostly unsupervised. There is no playground teacher to blow a whistle when another kid takes control of your Bluetooth headset. There is no Norton antivirus software for your garage door opener.
If you can plug it in or connect it to a network, your device—no matter what it is—can be harnessed by someone else. And that someone doesn’t have to be a Chinese superhacker to do some serious damage with it, either on purpose or by accident. It can be your Uncle Roger, who doesn’t have his new iPhone figured out and is cluelessly turning your lights on and off via your Belkin WeMo.
I’m a hobbyist. Because I study emerging technlogy and the future of media, I’m often tinkering, breaking things, and putting them back together. Once, I wanted to see if I could break into the protected Wi-Fi network we set up for my daughter at home. Less than an hour later, I’d failed to penetrate her network but managed to shut down the main network for our house. Which I knew, because of my husband’s sudden yelling upstairs: “Why is the IRS website redirecting to Sesame Street?!”
Part of what makes new technology so exciting is that, unlike the old days, it works right out of the box. You no longer need to know how to build a computer, connect a modem, run a terminal emulator, and install bulletin board stystem, or BBS, software in order to send a racy message to a co-worker. Now any tech idiot can download Snapchat and accidentally send a racy photo to his sister-in-law. The tech playground is more accessible and, as a result, increasingly problematic.
Just after the annual Black Hat Internet security convention a few months ago in Las Vegas, I asked a group of my friends—a Navy engineer, a professional hacker, and a hobbyist—to help me come up with a quick list of devices that will be vulnerable during the next few years as the Internet of Things becomes widespread. Here’s our (incomplete) list. (Entries with a * are those we’ve tried hacking at home, for fun.):
Obvious
smartwatches*
smartphones*
computers*
tablets and phablets*
home computer locks*
the cloud (services, storage, software)
ATMs at banks
printers
GPS devices*
Wi-Fi routers*
webcams*
thumb and portable USB drives
hotel and gym safes (they tend to use a single default passcode)
cable box or DVR
voice mail (especially those with a global call-in number that doesn’t lock out after successive failed attempts—we saw this with the News of the World scandal)
Less Obvious
power strips (can be infected with malware)
power cords for your devices (code can be implanted)
luggage trackers (such as the Trakdot)
connected glasses (Google Glass, Oculus Rift. As of now, Google’s QR barcodes for Wi-Fi store the full access point name and password as plain text)
gaming consoles: PS3, Kinect, Nintendo*
refrigerators (such as Samsung)
cars with computer operating systems
smart pens (like the Livescribe)
gesture control devices (such as the Leap)*
SD cards
cameras
smart alarm clocks*
coffee makers
key fobs
light switches*
moisture sensors*
kitchen and pantry trackers (such as Egg Minder)
insurance driving monitors, such as Progressive’s Snapshot device
traffic lights (MIRT transmitters can change lights to green in two to three seconds)
highway signs that spell out text
And we didn’t even get into medical devices, which are frighteningly exposed to mischief.
The proliferation of all this technology creates a constant need to keep devices updated and secure. Perhaps the most vulnerable object in any American house is the cable box, because it is so rarely updated.
If what I’m saying makes you uneasy, you’re not alone. There are plenty of new products exploiting the fears of techno-theft, promising to keep you locked down and safe, such as this neck security wallet from REI, which says it’ll block criminals from scanning the RFID chip in your passport. I travel to a lot of different countries every year for work. I’ve had zero attacks on my passport. On the other hand, I’ve had two laptops and an iPhone compromised.
So how should we think about our constant vulnerablitly? I make a daily assumption that everything I do is hackable, but almost nothing I do is worth hacking. I have an awareness of potential vulnerabilities, and I’m trying to develop an evolving set of street smarts. You should, too.
For example, since I do a lot of work on the road while I travel, I now carry my own Wi-Fi hotspot. I can use a secure virtual private network to send and receive email and to access content that I have stored in the cloud. (To be sure, that network can be hacked, too, but at least I can watch the logs of what’s coming and going and attempt to fight off intruders.)
I also keep this network cloaked, meaning that I haven’t named it “Amy Webb’s Hotspot.” I routinely look at networks, just for fun, and I’m astonished at how many people use their own names or the names of their companies. Instead, I’ve changed the names of all of my devices to my mobile phone number. That way, if my laptop is lost or stolen, someone will see a phone number rather than my name, which I hope means there will be less of an incentive to poke around my machine to see what’s there.
My passwords are easy to remember but difficult to crack. According to my hacker friend, you’re best off with a long phrase that also includes numbers and at least one capital letter. Something like “Iwant99pizzasand12beersfordinnertonight” is actually more secure than “Gx1U2y,” because the algorithms that are used to crack passwords have to process many more computations the longer a password is, and as of now they’re mostly not using natural language processing. Speaking of passwords, I change them weekly. It should go without saying that each one of your networks and devices should have a different password. When was the last time you changed yours? Because I know you’re wondering: There is no workaround for this and no way to game the management of your own passwords.
Another good rule is to turn off your peripherals when they’re not in use. Don’t leave your nanny cam on all day long. Same goes for nonessentials on your network, such as additional computers, game consoles, and the like. The more things you have plugged in, the more opportunities there are for penetration. Be cognizant of who’s plugging what into your network and connected devices. An innocent-looking thumb drive can destroy your computer within seconds. I’m not preaching abstinence here, but I am saying that computer viruses can be as menacing as sexually transmitted diseases: invisible to the naked eye, but most of the time totally preventable with the right precautions taken in advance.
More importantly, I’d argue that all this hacking isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A lack of rules is actually helpful for our burgeoning Internet of Things. I’d much rather that we all come to a good understanding of how our machines work than to start imposing regulations and restricting access. Sometimes, a collaborative hacking effort yields beneficial results for all. For example, the city of Philadelphia launched a contest and invited hackers to create apps and widgets to help citizens receive updates on emergencies and city news and to contact city administration. During Superstorm Sandy, Philly311 was the 33rd most-downloaded app in the country. The city since partnered with Random Hacks of Kindness and Code for America to bring local hackers together with residents, share knowledge, and build more resources.
The tech playground is open to all, offering a fantastic opportunity to teach kids how to use and control the many devices that are inextricably tied to their futures. The more they break, the more they’ll learn how to collaborate, fix, and innovate. Organizations like SparkFun Electronics are using next-generation open-source code to show everyone how to build and hack our Internet of Things.
Open networks are vital to innovation, even if they aren’t totally secure. Personally, I’m looking forward to 50 years from now when I think the wrong sequence while looking at the light fixture in my grandchild’s house and accidentally cause a blackout.

The Best Obama Cartoon Michael Ramirez Has Done To Date

hehe you can put ANY ass pipe in D.C. (degenerate city) & an "elite" in ???       

The Best Obama Cartoon Michael Ramirez Has Done To Date

Saturday, November 30, 2013





Source: http://www.americanfreedombybarbara.com/2013/11/the-best-obama-cartoon-michael-ramirez.html

Where Are Obama’s Daughters’ Baby Pics & Birth Records?

Friday, November 29, 2013

I got an email this morning from FOTM reader Dave McMullen, asking why there aren’t baby pictures of Obama’s two daughters, Malia and Sasha.
Wikipedia says “Barack and Michelle Obama have two daughters: Malia Ann, born on July 4, 1998, and Natasha (known as Sasha), born on June 10, 2001.“
So I did a Google Image search for Obama’s daughters. I couldn’t find any baby pics of Malia or Sasha; neither could Dave.
The youngest-looking pic of the girls I found (see below) was in an article extolling Michelle Obama, dated August 20, 2007, on the website Afrobella. The pic is undated. If we go by the date of the Afrobella article, Malia would be 9 years old and Sasha would be 6 years old.
Afrobella pic of O family
In contrast, Dave found a website with a pic of Laura Bush, wife of President George W. Bush, holding their two-month-old twins, Jenna and Barbara.
Laura Bush with babies
I have seen pics of Barack and Michelle’s wedding, like this one below, but none of Michelle pregnant with child.
obama_Wedding
Then I went on the website Ancestry.com, and searched for birth records of Malia Obama, b. 1998, and Natasha Obama, b. 2001. These are the results:
Malia Obama 3
Natasha Obama3
In other words, Ancestry.com has no birth records for Malia or Natasha Obama.
Then I paid $9.95 for a trial membership in GenealogyBank.com so that I can search that website for the Obama girls’ birth records.
Below is a screenshot I took from genealogybank.com of the result of my search for Malia Obama. I’ve circled in read the date and time when I accessed the website. Click the image below to enlarge.
Malia Obama1
As you can see in above, the only thing genealogybank.com has in its newspaper archives on Malia Obama is an article by Sen. Obama titled “Progress on campaign finance reform,” in the Chicago newspaper Hyde Park Herald of August 26, 1998, in which Obama (presumably) mentioned Malia. Here’s the newspaper clip (the words are rather blurry):
Malia Obama2
Below is a screenshot I took from genealogybank.com of the result of my search for Natasha Obama. I’ve circled in read the date and time when I accessed the website. Click the image below to enlarge.
Natasha Obama1
The only thing genealogybank.com has on Natasha Obama is an article in CHyde Park Herald of  July 4, 2001, again by Sen. Obama titled “Tallying wins and losses in Springfield Springfield report,” in which he wrote “The newest edition to the Obama family — Natasha — was born on June 10th, and Michelle and I have been busy changing diapers.” Click image below to enlarge.
Natasha Obama2
In other words, I couldn’t find any birth records of either Malia Obama or Natasha Obama on either ancestry.com or genealogybank.com.
The same Wikipedia entry I had referenced at the beginning of this post states that Malia and Natasha Obama were both delivered by their parents’ friend Dr. Anita Blanchard at University of Chicago Medical Center.”
Wikipedia’s source of that assertion is an article of Jodi Kantor titled “Obama’s Friends Form Strategy to Stay Close,” in The New York Times of December 13, 2008. The article is about a group of Obama’s closest friends in Chicago, among whom are Valerie Jarrett (now Obama’s senior White House adviser) and a black man named Martin Nesbitt who is now a real estate estate. Nesbitt’s wife is Dr. Anita Blanchard.
O's Chicago friends - Martin Nesbitt, Valerie Jarrett, Dr. Eric Whitakerl to r: Martin Nesbitt, Valerie Jarrett, BHO, Dr. Eric Whitaker
Alas, the NYT article does NOT say that Dr. Blanchard had delivered Obama’s daughters. Instead, what the article says is “Mr. Nesbitt’s wife, Dr. Anita Blanchard, delivered nearly all the children [of the group of Obama's close friends in Chicago], and the adults became their godparents.”
If anyone can find baby pictures and birth records of Malia Obama and/or Natasha Obama, please let me know!
H/t FOTM’s Dave McMullen
~Eowyn

Source: http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2013/11/29/where-are-obamas-daughters-baby-pics-and-birth-records/