🐱 Interesting clickbait, op-eds, fluff pieces and other smaller stories
- Thread starter CatParty
- Start date
CatParty
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2019
With taxidermist's help, Alberta man preserves bones of his amputated arm
Taxidermist had to check: 'You don't want someone bringing you a random arm'
The bones of Mark's Holmgren's amputated arm have been bleached and glued back together. (Legends Taxidermy and Skull Cleaning)
When Mark Holmgren had his arm amputated this spring, he couldn't stand the thought of his severed limb ending up in the trash.
Instead, he had his arm bones cleaned, mounted and preserved for posterity.
"If I was going to get rid of it, I wanted to do something cool with it," Holmgren said in an interview Tuesday with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM.
"I thought about it for years, you know. I always see those Halloween decorations with a hand holding an ashtray or something like that. That's where I got the idea from."
Holmgren was 17 when he wiped out on his brother's motorbike, severely damaging the nerves in his right arm and shoulder.
The limb hung immobile and numb at his side for years before he finally decided to have it amputated and contacted doctors at the University of Alberta Hospital.
'Sign a piece of paper'
After meeting with his surgeon, Holmgren sheepishly asked that he be allowed to keep his severed arm after surgery.
"I was even worried about asking the doctor, like, will they think I'm crazy or something? But I asked, and they just said I had to sign a piece of paper and I could have it."
A few weeks after his operation, Holmgren brought his arm home from the hospital in a garbage bag and kept it on ice in his freezer as he tried to find a willing taxidermist for the job.
It proved difficult to find one willing to handle human flesh.
"They all pretty much shut me down right quick," he said.
Holmgren brings home his severed arm in a garbage bag. (Mark Holmgren/Facebook)
'Putting that puzzle together'
Holmgren said he was rejected five times before a hunter friend put him in touch with Danielle Swift, who — along with her husband David — operates Legends Taxidermy and Skull Cleaning in Drayton Valley, Alta.
"I thought he was joking. I don't think I'll ever get a phone call like that in my life. I think I hesitated for maybe 10 seconds," Swift said.
"I thought, whoa, that's weird but, whoa, that's cool.
"When I told my husband about it he was, like, 'No way.' But I said, 'It's too late, he's already on his way.' "
Swift said she gets many "weird requests." She often rejects customers who want their dead pets stuffed, but she wasn't squeamish about working on Holmgren's arm.
"I get the feeling of not wanting to lose a part of yourself," she said. "It was done to honour his arm."
"Mark brought his arm here, but I had to make sure he actually only had one arm attached to his body, because you don't want someone bringing you a random arm."
Swift met with Holmgren before setting the bones inside a tank of flesh-eating beetles.
The colony of bugs picked the bones clean.
"It's human, it's not something that's scary. But when I actually took it out of the bag and I held it, that's when I was like, whoa, this is a little creepy. But at the same time, I thought, I saw the man, he is alive. I will get over it."
After they were cleaned and bleached, Swift enlisted the help of a physiotherapist friend to reassemble the complicated network of bones.
"That project took some time, that's for sure," she said. "There was just no way I was putting that puzzle together by myself.
"I think this is going to be in the top five requests I've had in my life."
Holmgren, 38, has put his arm on display in his home and couldn't be more pleased with the final product.
"I'll probably put a nail in the wall and hang it up like a picture," he said. "Right now it's behind my sink. There is a little shelf behind there with some flowers and plants and stuff.
"It's exactly what I wanted. It's all glued back together and it looks good. To me, it looks great."
This is pretty cool! I wonder why the taxidermist won't stuff pets?
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2019
Because they won't look exactly like the pet, it's just stuffed skin/fur.
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2019
So sort of a doomed-to-fail-expectations sorta thing? Anyone who wants to stuff their pet is probably pretty nutters anyways
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2017
Did you know that if you're Jewish and have an amputation, your limb has to go through a burial process. When you finally die, you either join the limb at that gravesite, or they will dig it up and bury you and the limb in the new one?With taxidermist's help, Alberta man preserves bones of his amputated arm
Taxidermist had to check: 'You don't want someone bringing you a random arm'
The bones of Mark's Holmgren's amputated arm have been bleached and glued back together. (Legends Taxidermy and Skull Cleaning)
When Mark Holmgren had his arm amputated this spring, he couldn't stand the thought of his severed limb ending up in the trash.
Instead, he had his arm bones cleaned, mounted and preserved for posterity.
"If I was going to get rid of it, I wanted to do something cool with it," Holmgren said in an interview Tuesday with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM.
"I thought about it for years, you know. I always see those Halloween decorations with a hand holding an ashtray or something like that. That's where I got the idea from."
Holmgren was 17 when he wiped out on his brother's motorbike, severely damaging the nerves in his right arm and shoulder.
The limb hung immobile and numb at his side for years before he finally decided to have it amputated and contacted doctors at the University of Alberta Hospital.
'Sign a piece of paper'
After meeting with his surgeon, Holmgren sheepishly asked that he be allowed to keep his severed arm after surgery.
"I was even worried about asking the doctor, like, will they think I'm crazy or something? But I asked, and they just said I had to sign a piece of paper and I could have it."
A few weeks after his operation, Holmgren brought his arm home from the hospital in a garbage bag and kept it on ice in his freezer as he tried to find a willing taxidermist for the job.
It proved difficult to find one willing to handle human flesh.
"They all pretty much shut me down right quick," he said.
Holmgren brings home his severed arm in a garbage bag. (Mark Holmgren/Facebook)
'Putting that puzzle together'
Holmgren said he was rejected five times before a hunter friend put him in touch with Danielle Swift, who — along with her husband David — operates Legends Taxidermy and Skull Cleaning in Drayton Valley, Alta.
"I thought he was joking. I don't think I'll ever get a phone call like that in my life. I think I hesitated for maybe 10 seconds," Swift said.
"I thought, whoa, that's weird but, whoa, that's cool.
"When I told my husband about it he was, like, 'No way.' But I said, 'It's too late, he's already on his way.' "
Swift said she gets many "weird requests." She often rejects customers who want their dead pets stuffed, but she wasn't squeamish about working on Holmgren's arm.
"I get the feeling of not wanting to lose a part of yourself," she said. "It was done to honour his arm."
"Mark brought his arm here, but I had to make sure he actually only had one arm attached to his body, because you don't want someone bringing you a random arm."
Swift met with Holmgren before setting the bones inside a tank of flesh-eating beetles.
The colony of bugs picked the bones clean.
"It's human, it's not something that's scary. But when I actually took it out of the bag and I held it, that's when I was like, whoa, this is a little creepy. But at the same time, I thought, I saw the man, he is alive. I will get over it."
After they were cleaned and bleached, Swift enlisted the help of a physiotherapist friend to reassemble the complicated network of bones.
"That project took some time, that's for sure," she said. "There was just no way I was putting that puzzle together by myself.
"I think this is going to be in the top five requests I've had in my life."
Holmgren, 38, has put his arm on display in his home and couldn't be more pleased with the final product.
"I'll probably put a nail in the wall and hang it up like a picture," he said. "Right now it's behind my sink. There is a little shelf behind there with some flowers and plants and stuff.
"It's exactly what I wanted. It's all glued back together and it looks good. To me, it looks great."
I have absolutely no idea where I learnt that little bit of information, but I think it's kinda cool.
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2013
Shit, I'd ask if they could have flexible joints installed where each bone comes together. I'd have that shit on hand for selfies where I can give people the finger with my skelly arm.With taxidermist's help, Alberta man preserves bones of his amputated arm
Taxidermist had to check: 'You don't want someone bringing you a random arm'
The bones of Mark's Holmgren's amputated arm have been bleached and glued back together. (Legends Taxidermy and Skull Cleaning)
When Mark Holmgren had his arm amputated this spring, he couldn't stand the thought of his severed limb ending up in the trash.
Instead, he had his arm bones cleaned, mounted and preserved for posterity.
"If I was going to get rid of it, I wanted to do something cool with it," Holmgren said in an interview Tuesday with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM.
"I thought about it for years, you know. I always see those Halloween decorations with a hand holding an ashtray or something like that. That's where I got the idea from."
Holmgren was 17 when he wiped out on his brother's motorbike, severely damaging the nerves in his right arm and shoulder.
The limb hung immobile and numb at his side for years before he finally decided to have it amputated and contacted doctors at the University of Alberta Hospital.
'Sign a piece of paper'
After meeting with his surgeon, Holmgren sheepishly asked that he be allowed to keep his severed arm after surgery.
"I was even worried about asking the doctor, like, will they think I'm crazy or something? But I asked, and they just said I had to sign a piece of paper and I could have it."
A few weeks after his operation, Holmgren brought his arm home from the hospital in a garbage bag and kept it on ice in his freezer as he tried to find a willing taxidermist for the job.
It proved difficult to find one willing to handle human flesh.
"They all pretty much shut me down right quick," he said.
Holmgren brings home his severed arm in a garbage bag. (Mark Holmgren/Facebook)
'Putting that puzzle together'
Holmgren said he was rejected five times before a hunter friend put him in touch with Danielle Swift, who — along with her husband David — operates Legends Taxidermy and Skull Cleaning in Drayton Valley, Alta.
"I thought he was joking. I don't think I'll ever get a phone call like that in my life. I think I hesitated for maybe 10 seconds," Swift said.
"I thought, whoa, that's weird but, whoa, that's cool.
"When I told my husband about it he was, like, 'No way.' But I said, 'It's too late, he's already on his way.' "
Swift said she gets many "weird requests." She often rejects customers who want their dead pets stuffed, but she wasn't squeamish about working on Holmgren's arm.
"I get the feeling of not wanting to lose a part of yourself," she said. "It was done to honour his arm."
"Mark brought his arm here, but I had to make sure he actually only had one arm attached to his body, because you don't want someone bringing you a random arm."
Swift met with Holmgren before setting the bones inside a tank of flesh-eating beetles.
The colony of bugs picked the bones clean.
"It's human, it's not something that's scary. But when I actually took it out of the bag and I held it, that's when I was like, whoa, this is a little creepy. But at the same time, I thought, I saw the man, he is alive. I will get over it."
After they were cleaned and bleached, Swift enlisted the help of a physiotherapist friend to reassemble the complicated network of bones.
"That project took some time, that's for sure," she said. "There was just no way I was putting that puzzle together by myself.
"I think this is going to be in the top five requests I've had in my life."
Holmgren, 38, has put his arm on display in his home and couldn't be more pleased with the final product.
"I'll probably put a nail in the wall and hang it up like a picture," he said. "Right now it's behind my sink. There is a little shelf behind there with some flowers and plants and stuff.
"It's exactly what I wanted. It's all glued back together and it looks good. To me, it looks great."
- Joined
- May 2, 2017
Carjacker on meth abducts a man and his pet goat from a Carthage Adult shop - Newstalk KZRG
A man was arrested in Oklahoma after carjacking a truck from outside an adult store in Missouri — with a man and his pet goat inside. Two men stopped at an adult video store in Carthage early Wednesday and the driver of the pickup truck went inside the store while the passenger — and his …
newstalkkzrg.com
Carjacker on meth abducts a man and his pet goat from a Carthage Adult shop
A man was arrested in Oklahoma after carjacking a truck from outside an adult store in Missouri — with a man and his pet goat inside.
Two men stopped at an adult video store in Carthage early Wednesday and the driver of the pickup truck went inside the store while the passenger — and his pet goat — remained in the truck, and took a nap.
That’s when 40-year-old Brandon Kirby jumped into the truck and took off. Kirby took meth as he drove the passenger through parts of Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, occasionally pistol-whipping the victim.
The victim told police Kirby eventually let him and the goat go, dropping them off on the side of the road in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. He called 911 and reported the truck missing to OnStar.
OnStar representatives were able to slow the car’s speed to 15 mph and a low-speed chase ensued until “stop sticks,” ended the chase.
Police say Kirby jumped out of the car and ran off, dropping a mask and a gun before a deputy found him hiding in tall grass near Highway 412.
Kirby was arrested and charged with kidnapping, pointing firearms and felony possession of a firearm, according to jail records.
Kirby was also wanted on a burglary charge out of Osage County and has a number of felony convictions including assault and burglary.
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2013
Even the firefighters have given up on Detroit.
www.bbc.co.uk
US firefighters probed for burning house selfie
Detroit's fire chief said it was "inappropriate" for the crew to pose for a snap as a building burned.
www.bbc.co.uk
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2014
Even the firefighters have given up on Detroit.
US firefighters probed for burning house selfie
Detroit's fire chief said it was "inappropriate" for the crew to pose for a snap as a building burned.
It might have been one of the many Detroit buildings with a marking on it telling fire departments to stay out if it catches fire and limit the response to protecting adjoining property and extinguishing it from the outside.
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2018
Four Aces of Trump’s New Deal for Americans
www.amgreatness.com
Four Aces of Trump’s New Deal for Americans
Curtis Ellis 12/312019 AMERICAN GREATNESS
Tax reform, trade reform, regulatory reform, and energy reform offer winning hand for all Americans.
President Trump’s populist economic program continues to stump the band of economists who pass themselves off as experts.
Remember Harry Truman’s definition of an expert: “a fella who was afraid to learn anything new because then he wouldn’t be an expert anymore.” President Trump’s booming economy in 2019 proved Truman’s dictum in spades.
Like Pharaoh’s priests, the experts refuse to learn anything new. But President Trump’s tetrad of populist economic nationalism has proven superior to the court magicians of the economic pharaohs.
The Trump four-fold formula, conceived in the campaign and delivered as promised in his administration, combines tax reform, trade reform, regulatory reform, and energy reform to supercharge national economic growth.
Its power comes from the combination of the four elements: together, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Together, they work synergistically to make the United States the best place on earth to invest and do business—and to live, work, and raise a family.
And that is exactly what we’re seeing. While the economies of Germany and China stagnate, while economic riots grip France, Colombia, Chile, Tehran, Beirut, and Baghdad, the American economy goes from strength to strength.
Unemployment is at a 50-year low, the latest jobs report blew the doors off, the stock market hit record highs, and so did holiday sales.
Democrats tell us the Trump economic program would only benefit the rich and superrich. But the data proved them wrong.
Wages for everyone are rising, and workers at the bottom end of the pay scale are seeing bigger gains than those at the top.
Despite predictions “those jobs are never coming back,” America added over a half million manufacturing jobs since President Trump was sworn in, including some 76,000 factory jobs in 2019 alone.
Tax Reform Was the Spark
How did the four-fold formula produce this economic miracle?
America had one of the highest corporate tax rates in the industrialized world. Essentially, we were penalizing businesses for investing here.
The Tax Cut and Jobs Act changed all that. Rates that were once the highest are now the lowest, and companies that had been fleeing our shores are moving back.
President Trump’s trade reform adds incentives to invest in America. He recognized that Communist China and other countries use predatory trade practices including export subsidies, currency manipulation, wage suppression, and government-engineered theft of trade secrets to drive American businesses into bankruptcy.
Previous administrations placed their faith in failed utopian economic theories and failed international institutions such as the World Trade Organization.
President Trump unilaterally imposed tariffs on wrongdoers rather than waiting for the gutless bureaucrats in Geneva who the record shows could be counted on to do too little, too late.
Of course, the high priests of Davos went into full freakout mode over the tariffs. They predicted inflation would ravage the land like a California wildfire.
But again, the data proved them wrong. Consumer and producer prices remained flat. That’s not what the experts were taught was supposed to happen, so they couldn’t see it even as it was happening.
The Experts Were Proved Wrong Again on Trade
The experts also told us no trading partner would tolerate an America First trade policy. They were used to giving away the store to buy America’s “friends” around the world. We were told Communist China would become a freedom-loving ally of the United States if we gave them our capital, our technology, and our jobs. They were disastrously wrong.
President Trump leveraged America’s consumer market, the largest in the world, for better deals. Threatened with punishing tariffs, Mexico not only sealed its border to stop illegal immigrants, it signed a new trade deal, USMCA promised to replace the disastrous North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA. Another campaign promise fulfilled.
Red China came to the negotiating table, South Korea renegotiated its trade agreement with the United States and Great Britain is eager to strike a deal with us.
President Trump also took a machete to the kudzu springing up from the administrative state.
He promised to scrap two regulations for each new one issued. But he exceeded even his own goals, achieving a 22-to-1 reduction.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute found the Federal Register, the bureaucracy’s bible of government rules, has shrunk by a third under President Trump. It took President Reagan years to reach that benchmark.
To understand the impact of deregulation on business activity, consider theAmerican Action Forum tallied $560 million in savings from regulatory cuts in just the first eight months of the Trump administration.
Businesses held their breath—and their cash—in anticipation of another costly regulatory assault from Obama bureaucrats. Now they can finally exhale, and that breathed new life into the economy.
The final element in the four-fold formula for revitalizing America is energy reform, and it is intrinsically linked to the other elements.
Energy reform recognizes that America’s vast energy reserves give us an advantage over global competitors.
The price of natural gas in America is a fraction of what it costs in Asia. Cheap abundant energy—essential for an industrial economy—offsets the cheap labor of East Asia.
So there you have the four aces—tax reform, trade reform, regulatory reform and energy reform—a new deal and a winning hand for all Americans.
Given a choice between placing their money in the clutches of confiscatory regimes abroad and facing punitive tariffs on one hand, or investing in a robust continent-wide consumer market with low taxes and respect for property rights on the other, investors are placing their bets on America first.
Here’s a prediction: President Trump’s populist economics will continue to prove the experts wrong in 2020.
Happy New Year!
Julian Castro slithers away from the 2020 Dem Presidential race...not that many people knew he was running anyway. Fuck him, and his brother, too.
US election 2020: Julian Castro ends White House campaign
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Democratic presidential hopeful Julian Castro has announced he is ending his campaign for the White House.
Barack Obama's ex-housing secretary, who was the only Latino in the race, said in a tweet: "I've determined that it simply isn't our time."
"I'm not done fighting," the 45 year old added. His exit leaves 14 Democrats campaigning for this year's presidential election.
The White House race begins in earnest next month with the Iowa caucuses.
The remaining Democrats will battle it out in a series of state-by-state votes nationwide before the eventual winner is crowned at the party convention in July. He or she is expected to face President Donald Trump, a Republican, in November's presidential election.
The grandson of a Mexican immigrant, Mr Castro had struggled to raise money for what was seen as a long-shot bid.
He ran as a proud and passionate liberal, advocating for the decriminalisation of border crossings by undocumented migrants into the United States.
In September, he was accused of tossing an ageist gibe at Democratic front-runner Joe Biden during a televised debate in Texas when he accused the 77-year-old former US vice-president of being forgetful.
Mr Castro's former Democratic rivals tweeted magnanimous messages for him on Thursday, including Mr Biden. He praised the "grace and heart" of his onetime antagonist's campaign.
Skip Twitter post by @JulianCastro
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End of Twitter post by @JulianCastro
Another rising star eclipsed
A decade ago Julian Castro was a rising Democratic star. A recently elected mayor of San Antonio, he would go on to be a cabinet secretary and seemed destined to be a leader reflecting the party's growing Hispanic base.
He never quite lived up to that potential. His public appearances tended to be dull, and his tenure in the Obama administration was unremarkable. By the time he threw his hat into the 2020 presidential ring, he was considered an afterthought, eclipsed by new "rising stars" like fellow Texan Beto O'Rourke.
Over the course of his campaign, however, Mr Castro turned a few heads. During the debates, he was sharp, even getting the better of Mr O'Rourke in an early exchange on immigration. He may have hurt his chances by suggesting former Vice-President Joe Biden's memory was failing, but his willingness to attack helped dispel his image as a milquetoast politician.
None of this translated into actual support in the opinion polls, of course. But while other candidates may have damaged their reputations by underperforming, Mr Castro has put his name back in the mix - as a vice-presidential choice or, at least, a sharp-elbowed ally for whoever wins the Democratic nomination.
Most of the Democratic candidates are male and white, which is provoking online criticism for a party that prides itself on diversity.
Asian-American Andrew Yang was the only minority candidate to appear beside six others in the most recent TV debate last month.
Two other remaining candidates are African-American - Cory Booker and Deval Patrick - though they are polling near the bottom of the field.
Mr Castro's exit comes on the day that leading Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders' campaign announced it had raised $34.5m (£26.2m) since he suffered a heart attack in October.
The haul surpasses Mr Sanders' previous quarterly totals and was the highest of any Democrat in this election cycle.
But the Vermont senator and self-described democratic socialist's war chest was eclipsed by Mr Trump, whose campaign said it drew in $46m, smashing its previous 2020 quarterly fundraising record.
In addition to the latest totals, the Sanders campaign announced on Thursday that more than five million individual people had donated.
His best month was December when 1.8m donations were made, with an average amount of $18.53.
Mr Biden and another Democratic front-runner, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, have not yet reported their fundraising totals, which is usually not a promising sign.
But the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg, who has soared from relative anonymity to become one of the party's brightest stars, pulled in $24.7m in the last quarter.
Mr Yang - a quirky entrepreneur who has never held political office - raised an impressive $16.5m in the past three months.
Four Aces of Trump’s New Deal for Americans
President Trump’s populist economic program continues to stump the band of economists who pass themselves off as experts. Remember Harry Truman’s definition of an expert: “a fella who was afraid to learn anything new because then he wouldn't be an expert anymore.” President Trump’s booming...
www.amgreatness.com
Four Aces of Trump’s New Deal for Americans
Curtis Ellis 12/312019 AMERICAN GREATNESS
Tax reform, trade reform, regulatory reform, and energy reform offer winning hand for all Americans.
President Trump’s populist economic program continues to stump the band of economists who pass themselves off as experts.
Remember Harry Truman’s definition of an expert: “a fella who was afraid to learn anything new because then he wouldn’t be an expert anymore.” President Trump’s booming economy in 2019 proved Truman’s dictum in spades.
Like Pharaoh’s priests, the experts refuse to learn anything new. But President Trump’s tetrad of populist economic nationalism has proven superior to the court magicians of the economic pharaohs.
The Trump four-fold formula, conceived in the campaign and delivered as promised in his administration, combines tax reform, trade reform, regulatory reform, and energy reform to supercharge national economic growth.
Its power comes from the combination of the four elements: together, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Together, they work synergistically to make the United States the best place on earth to invest and do business—and to live, work, and raise a family.
And that is exactly what we’re seeing. While the economies of Germany and China stagnate, while economic riots grip France, Colombia, Chile, Tehran, Beirut, and Baghdad, the American economy goes from strength to strength.
Unemployment is at a 50-year low, the latest jobs report blew the doors off, the stock market hit record highs, and so did holiday sales.
Democrats tell us the Trump economic program would only benefit the rich and superrich. But the data proved them wrong.
Wages for everyone are rising, and workers at the bottom end of the pay scale are seeing bigger gains than those at the top.
Despite predictions “those jobs are never coming back,” America added over a half million manufacturing jobs since President Trump was sworn in, including some 76,000 factory jobs in 2019 alone.
Tax Reform Was the Spark
How did the four-fold formula produce this economic miracle?
America had one of the highest corporate tax rates in the industrialized world. Essentially, we were penalizing businesses for investing here.
The Tax Cut and Jobs Act changed all that. Rates that were once the highest are now the lowest, and companies that had been fleeing our shores are moving back.
President Trump’s trade reform adds incentives to invest in America. He recognized that Communist China and other countries use predatory trade practices including export subsidies, currency manipulation, wage suppression, and government-engineered theft of trade secrets to drive American businesses into bankruptcy.
Previous administrations placed their faith in failed utopian economic theories and failed international institutions such as the World Trade Organization.
President Trump unilaterally imposed tariffs on wrongdoers rather than waiting for the gutless bureaucrats in Geneva who the record shows could be counted on to do too little, too late.
Of course, the high priests of Davos went into full freakout mode over the tariffs. They predicted inflation would ravage the land like a California wildfire.
But again, the data proved them wrong. Consumer and producer prices remained flat. That’s not what the experts were taught was supposed to happen, so they couldn’t see it even as it was happening.
The Experts Were Proved Wrong Again on Trade
The experts also told us no trading partner would tolerate an America First trade policy. They were used to giving away the store to buy America’s “friends” around the world. We were told Communist China would become a freedom-loving ally of the United States if we gave them our capital, our technology, and our jobs. They were disastrously wrong.
President Trump leveraged America’s consumer market, the largest in the world, for better deals. Threatened with punishing tariffs, Mexico not only sealed its border to stop illegal immigrants, it signed a new trade deal, USMCA promised to replace the disastrous North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA. Another campaign promise fulfilled.
Red China came to the negotiating table, South Korea renegotiated its trade agreement with the United States and Great Britain is eager to strike a deal with us.
President Trump also took a machete to the kudzu springing up from the administrative state.
He promised to scrap two regulations for each new one issued. But he exceeded even his own goals, achieving a 22-to-1 reduction.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute found the Federal Register, the bureaucracy’s bible of government rules, has shrunk by a third under President Trump. It took President Reagan years to reach that benchmark.
To understand the impact of deregulation on business activity, consider theAmerican Action Forum tallied $560 million in savings from regulatory cuts in just the first eight months of the Trump administration.
Businesses held their breath—and their cash—in anticipation of another costly regulatory assault from Obama bureaucrats. Now they can finally exhale, and that breathed new life into the economy.
The final element in the four-fold formula for revitalizing America is energy reform, and it is intrinsically linked to the other elements.
Energy reform recognizes that America’s vast energy reserves give us an advantage over global competitors.
The price of natural gas in America is a fraction of what it costs in Asia. Cheap abundant energy—essential for an industrial economy—offsets the cheap labor of East Asia.
So there you have the four aces—tax reform, trade reform, regulatory reform and energy reform—a new deal and a winning hand for all Americans.
Given a choice between placing their money in the clutches of confiscatory regimes abroad and facing punitive tariffs on one hand, or investing in a robust continent-wide consumer market with low taxes and respect for property rights on the other, investors are placing their bets on America first.
Here’s a prediction: President Trump’s populist economics will continue to prove the experts wrong in 2020.
Happy New Year!
Julian Castro slithers away from the 2020 Dem Presidential race...not that many people knew he was running anyway. Fuck him, and his brother, too.
US election 2020: Julian Castro ends White House campaign
The former Obama housing secretary says in a tweet: "I've determined it simply isn't our time."
www.bbc.com
US election 2020: Julian Castro ends White House campaign
Democratic presidential hopeful Julian Castro has announced he is ending his campaign for the White House.
Barack Obama's ex-housing secretary, who was the only Latino in the race, said in a tweet: "I've determined that it simply isn't our time."
"I'm not done fighting," the 45 year old added. His exit leaves 14 Democrats campaigning for this year's presidential election.
The White House race begins in earnest next month with the Iowa caucuses.
The remaining Democrats will battle it out in a series of state-by-state votes nationwide before the eventual winner is crowned at the party convention in July. He or she is expected to face President Donald Trump, a Republican, in November's presidential election.
The grandson of a Mexican immigrant, Mr Castro had struggled to raise money for what was seen as a long-shot bid.
He ran as a proud and passionate liberal, advocating for the decriminalisation of border crossings by undocumented migrants into the United States.
In September, he was accused of tossing an ageist gibe at Democratic front-runner Joe Biden during a televised debate in Texas when he accused the 77-year-old former US vice-president of being forgetful.
Mr Castro's former Democratic rivals tweeted magnanimous messages for him on Thursday, including Mr Biden. He praised the "grace and heart" of his onetime antagonist's campaign.
Skip Twitter post by @JulianCastro
Julián Castro
✔@JulianCastro
https://twitter.com/JulianCastro/status/1212738343588511747
It’s with profound gratitude to all of our supporters that I suspend my campaign for president today.
I’m so proud of everything we’ve accomplished together. I’m going to keep fighting for an America where everyone counts—I hope you’ll join me in that fight.
61.4K
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End of Twitter post by @JulianCastro
Another rising star eclipsed
A decade ago Julian Castro was a rising Democratic star. A recently elected mayor of San Antonio, he would go on to be a cabinet secretary and seemed destined to be a leader reflecting the party's growing Hispanic base.
He never quite lived up to that potential. His public appearances tended to be dull, and his tenure in the Obama administration was unremarkable. By the time he threw his hat into the 2020 presidential ring, he was considered an afterthought, eclipsed by new "rising stars" like fellow Texan Beto O'Rourke.
Over the course of his campaign, however, Mr Castro turned a few heads. During the debates, he was sharp, even getting the better of Mr O'Rourke in an early exchange on immigration. He may have hurt his chances by suggesting former Vice-President Joe Biden's memory was failing, but his willingness to attack helped dispel his image as a milquetoast politician.
None of this translated into actual support in the opinion polls, of course. But while other candidates may have damaged their reputations by underperforming, Mr Castro has put his name back in the mix - as a vice-presidential choice or, at least, a sharp-elbowed ally for whoever wins the Democratic nomination.
Most of the Democratic candidates are male and white, which is provoking online criticism for a party that prides itself on diversity.
Asian-American Andrew Yang was the only minority candidate to appear beside six others in the most recent TV debate last month.
Two other remaining candidates are African-American - Cory Booker and Deval Patrick - though they are polling near the bottom of the field.
Mr Castro's exit comes on the day that leading Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders' campaign announced it had raised $34.5m (£26.2m) since he suffered a heart attack in October.
The haul surpasses Mr Sanders' previous quarterly totals and was the highest of any Democrat in this election cycle.
But the Vermont senator and self-described democratic socialist's war chest was eclipsed by Mr Trump, whose campaign said it drew in $46m, smashing its previous 2020 quarterly fundraising record.
In addition to the latest totals, the Sanders campaign announced on Thursday that more than five million individual people had donated.
His best month was December when 1.8m donations were made, with an average amount of $18.53.
Mr Biden and another Democratic front-runner, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, have not yet reported their fundraising totals, which is usually not a promising sign.
But the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg, who has soared from relative anonymity to become one of the party's brightest stars, pulled in $24.7m in the last quarter.
Mr Yang - a quirky entrepreneur who has never held political office - raised an impressive $16.5m in the past three months.
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2014
It's all over when they burn down the cell phone towers.Even the firefighters have given up on Detroit.
US firefighters probed for burning house selfie
Detroit's fire chief said it was "inappropriate" for the crew to pose for a snap as a building burned.
Cat Menagerie
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2018
BETHANY, Okla. (KFOR) - A concerned father is speaking out, taking a stand after he said his son spotted a KKK flyer at a Bethany gas station.
"He saw it and it stood out to him and brought it home," said Nickle Ranck.
Ranck runs a woodworking business called The Wooden Nickle, but his main job is being a devoted father, and as a father, the flyer was alarming.
"I know they exist, I know they’re around but to have them actively recruiting in Bethany was surprising for me," he said.
Ranck posted the photo and his concern to Facebook, condemning the flyer as actively recruiting for a hate group.
"I feel like if you ignore it, they win," Ranck said, "so I want to be actively opposing it, I want them to know that there’s people that don’t believe what they do."
According to Rose State political science professor James Davenport, there is evidence of an uptick in white supremacy groups, and that could be for a number of reasons, including a backlash towards changing social trends, and rhetoric by politicians that may have made people with radical perspectives more comfortable talking about them.
"For a long time, guys like me, white males, had it pretty good, and we didn’t have to compete with women, we didn’t have to compete with racial minorities for jobs, and things were going quite well," Davenport said. "Now we have to compete with people that we didn’t have to compete with for jobs, for positions or getting accepted in college and things like this. That creates some frustration, in a certain group of people who liked having that preferential treatment and now they don’t get it. And so this type of group is certainly going to attract those types of people."
However, he also pointed out that white supremacists represent a small percentage of the population and the fact that generally when people do see a flyer or something like this one, it evokes more outrage than interest.
In this case, Davenport said he's not entirely convinced the flyer is an effort to recruit because hate groups have found more sophisticated ways of getting people on board.
It could be someone who again was just having a backlash against political correctness, I’m going to show that I’m not going to be controlled by people who want to tell me how I can say things and whatnot in public, and I’m going to stick a fist to them in this way. It could be someone who is just looking for attention in which case we’re giving them exactly what they wanted," Davenport said. "It could be someone who knows this will be a hot flash type of topic, it will get people talking, they want to do something that causes a stir and this is a simple way of doing that, or it could be someone genuinely who believes in this perspective and maybe doesn’t know there are better ways to recruit."
But to Ranck, the message was loud and clear.
He said his post has gotten some criticism for possibly stirring the pot and giving the flyer attention, but he wanted to set an example by standing up for something he strongly believes.
"This is actively recruiting. They’re not looking for media attention with this, they were looking for members and I feel like I have to actively opposing that," Ranck said. "It’s not a matter of politics, it's not parties, it’s a matter of good and evil. It’s a matter of education and ignorance, and I don’t want to be on the wrong side of that, and I don’t want my kids to be on the wrong side of that."
"He saw it and it stood out to him and brought it home," said Nickle Ranck.
Ranck runs a woodworking business called The Wooden Nickle, but his main job is being a devoted father, and as a father, the flyer was alarming.
"I know they exist, I know they’re around but to have them actively recruiting in Bethany was surprising for me," he said.
Ranck posted the photo and his concern to Facebook, condemning the flyer as actively recruiting for a hate group.
"I feel like if you ignore it, they win," Ranck said, "so I want to be actively opposing it, I want them to know that there’s people that don’t believe what they do."
According to Rose State political science professor James Davenport, there is evidence of an uptick in white supremacy groups, and that could be for a number of reasons, including a backlash towards changing social trends, and rhetoric by politicians that may have made people with radical perspectives more comfortable talking about them.
"For a long time, guys like me, white males, had it pretty good, and we didn’t have to compete with women, we didn’t have to compete with racial minorities for jobs, and things were going quite well," Davenport said. "Now we have to compete with people that we didn’t have to compete with for jobs, for positions or getting accepted in college and things like this. That creates some frustration, in a certain group of people who liked having that preferential treatment and now they don’t get it. And so this type of group is certainly going to attract those types of people."
However, he also pointed out that white supremacists represent a small percentage of the population and the fact that generally when people do see a flyer or something like this one, it evokes more outrage than interest.
In this case, Davenport said he's not entirely convinced the flyer is an effort to recruit because hate groups have found more sophisticated ways of getting people on board.
It could be someone who again was just having a backlash against political correctness, I’m going to show that I’m not going to be controlled by people who want to tell me how I can say things and whatnot in public, and I’m going to stick a fist to them in this way. It could be someone who is just looking for attention in which case we’re giving them exactly what they wanted," Davenport said. "It could be someone who knows this will be a hot flash type of topic, it will get people talking, they want to do something that causes a stir and this is a simple way of doing that, or it could be someone genuinely who believes in this perspective and maybe doesn’t know there are better ways to recruit."
But to Ranck, the message was loud and clear.
He said his post has gotten some criticism for possibly stirring the pot and giving the flyer attention, but he wanted to set an example by standing up for something he strongly believes.
"This is actively recruiting. They’re not looking for media attention with this, they were looking for members and I feel like I have to actively opposing that," Ranck said. "It’s not a matter of politics, it's not parties, it’s a matter of good and evil. It’s a matter of education and ignorance, and I don’t want to be on the wrong side of that, and I don’t want my kids to be on the wrong side of that."
KKK flyer spotted in Bethany evoking outrage on social media
BETHANY, Okla. (KFOR) - A concerned father is speaking out, taking a stand after he said his son spotted a KKK flyer at a Bethany gas station. "He saw it and it stood out to him and brought it home," said Nickle Ranck. Ranck runs a woodworking business called The Wooden Nickle, but his main...
kfor.com
Gotta hand it to the poli science professor, I think he nailed it.
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2019
BETHANY, Okla. (KFOR) - A concerned father is speaking out, taking a stand after he said his son spotted a KKK flyer at a Bethany gas station.
"He saw it and it stood out to him and brought it home," said Nickle Ranck.
Ranck runs a woodworking business called The Wooden Nickle, but his main job is being a devoted father, and as a father, the flyer was alarming.
"I know they exist, I know they’re around but to have them actively recruiting in Bethany was surprising for me," he said.
Ranck posted the photo and his concern to Facebook, condemning the flyer as actively recruiting for a hate group.
"I feel like if you ignore it, they win," Ranck said, "so I want to be actively opposing it, I want them to know that there’s people that don’t believe what they do."
According to Rose State political science professor James Davenport, there is evidence of an uptick in white supremacy groups, and that could be for a number of reasons, including a backlash towards changing social trends, and rhetoric by politicians that may have made people with radical perspectives more comfortable talking about them.
"For a long time, guys like me, white males, had it pretty good, and we didn’t have to compete with women, we didn’t have to compete with racial minorities for jobs, and things were going quite well," Davenport said. "Now we have to compete with people that we didn’t have to compete with for jobs, for positions or getting accepted in college and things like this. That creates some frustration, in a certain group of people who liked having that preferential treatment and now they don’t get it. And so this type of group is certainly going to attract those types of people."
However, he also pointed out that white supremacists represent a small percentage of the population and the fact that generally when people do see a flyer or something like this one, it evokes more outrage than interest.
In this case, Davenport said he's not entirely convinced the flyer is an effort to recruit because hate groups have found more sophisticated ways of getting people on board.
It could be someone who again was just having a backlash against political correctness, I’m going to show that I’m not going to be controlled by people who want to tell me how I can say things and whatnot in public, and I’m going to stick a fist to them in this way. It could be someone who is just looking for attention in which case we’re giving them exactly what they wanted," Davenport said. "It could be someone who knows this will be a hot flash type of topic, it will get people talking, they want to do something that causes a stir and this is a simple way of doing that, or it could be someone genuinely who believes in this perspective and maybe doesn’t know there are better ways to recruit."
But to Ranck, the message was loud and clear.
He said his post has gotten some criticism for possibly stirring the pot and giving the flyer attention, but he wanted to set an example by standing up for something he strongly believes.
"This is actively recruiting. They’re not looking for media attention with this, they were looking for members and I feel like I have to actively opposing that," Ranck said. "It’s not a matter of politics, it's not parties, it’s a matter of good and evil. It’s a matter of education and ignorance, and I don’t want to be on the wrong side of that, and I don’t want my kids to be on the wrong side of that."
KKK flyer spotted in Bethany evoking outrage on social media
BETHANY, Okla. (KFOR) - A concerned father is speaking out, taking a stand after he said his son spotted a KKK flyer at a Bethany gas station. "He saw it and it stood out to him and brought it home," said Nickle Ranck. Ranck runs a woodworking business called The Wooden Nickle, but his main...
Gotta hand it to the poli science professor, I think he nailed it.
the horror! people i don't know who aren't talking to me want to talk with like-minded individuals but they didn't even ask for my permission, bunch of nazis
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2018
Victor Davis Hanson, right on the money again.
spectator.us
When the results of the Durham investigation are released in late spring or early summer, the wrath that VDH describes may significantly increase.
Why Trump will win again in 2020
There is a growing wrath in the country, either ignored, suppressed or undetected by the partisan media
Victor Davis Hanson January 2, 2020
My reasons for thinking Trump was going to be elected in 2016 were entirely unscientific. One of my Hoover Institution colleagues recently reminded me of my data-free, amateurish and bothersome predictions. I teach for three weeks at Hillsdale College every September during my vacation from the Hoover Institution. Each morning I try to ride a bike 15-18 miles out into the Michigan countryside. I have been doing that since 2004. Over the previous 12 years even this conservative rural Michigan county had showed no real excitement over George W. Bush, John McCain or Mitt Romney. But in 2016, Trump signs — both professionally made and hand-painted — had sprouted everywhere, on barns, lawns and sheds. Whatever Trumpism was, lots of southern Michiganders seemed ready for it. Six weeks ago, I rode the identical rural Michigan routes. Sometimes I stopped and talked to a few people. The script was almost predictable. After the requisite throat-clearing — ‘Trump should cut back on the tweeting,’ they said — they were even more eager to vote for him this time than last.
In my hometown near my central California farm, I spent autumn 2016 talking to mostly Mexican American friends with whom I went to grammar or high school. I had presumed then that they must hate Trump. Remember the speech in 2015 announcing he was going to stand, when he bashed illegal immigration, or his snide quip about the ‘Mexican judge’ in the Trump University lawsuit, or his expulsion of an interrupting Univision anchor, Jorge Ramos, from one of his campaign press conferences? But I heard no such thing. Most said they ‘liked’ Trump’s style, whether or not they were voting for him. They were tired of gangs in their neighborhoods and of swamped government services — especially the nearby Department of Motor Vehicles — becoming almost dysfunctional. I remember thinking that Trump of all people might get a third of the Latino vote: of no importance in blue California, but maybe transformative in Midwest swing states?
During the last two weeks I made the same rounds — a high-school football game at my alma mater, talks with Mexican American professionals, some rural farm events. Were those impressions three years ago hallucinations? Hardly. Trump support has, if anything, increased — and not just because of record low unemployment and an economy that has turned even my once-ossified rural community into a bustle of shopping, office-construction and home-building, with ‘Now Hiring’ signs commonplace. This time I noticed that my same friends always mentioned Trump in contrast to their damnation of California — the nearby ‘stupid’ high-speed rail to nowhere, the staged power shutoffs, the drought-stricken dead trees left untouched in flammable forests, the tens of thousands of homeless even in San Jose, Fresno and Sacramento, the sky-high gas prices, the deadly decrepit roads, the latest illegal-alien felon shielded from ICE. Whatever Trump was, my friends saw him as the opposite of where California is now headed. His combativeness was again not a liability but a plus — especially when it was at the expense of snooty white liberals. ‘He drives them crazy,’ Steve, my friend from second grade, offered.
One academic colleague used to caricature my observations in 2016 that Trump’s rallies were huge and rowdy, while Hillary’s seemed staged and somnolent — and that this disconnect might presage election-day turnouts. ‘Anecdotes!’ I was told. ‘Crowd size means as little as yard signs.’ If anything, Trump’s rallies now are larger, the lines longer. Maybe the successive progressive efforts to abort his presidency by means of the Electoral College, the emoluments clause, the 25th Amendment, the Mueller investigation and now Ukraine only made him stronger by virtue of not finishing him off.
When I talked to a Central Valley Rotary Club in November 2016, I assumed on arrival that such doctrinaire Republicans would be establishment Never Trumpers. But few were then. When I returned this week to speak again, I found that none are now. These businesspeople, lawyers, accountants and educators talked of the money-making economy. But I sensed, as with my hometown friends, that same something else. There was an edge in their voices, an amplification of earlier fury at Hillary’s condescension and put-down of deplorables. ‘Anything he dishes out, they deserve,’ one man in a tailored suit remarked, channeling my grade-school friend Steve. I take it by that he meant he and his friends are frequently embarrassed by Trump’s crudity — but not nearly so much as they are enraged by the sanctimoniousness of an Adam Schiff or the smug ‘bombshell’ monotony of media anchors.
It is easy to say that 2020 seems to be replaying 2016, complete with the identical insularity of progressives, as if what should never have happened then certainly cannot now. But this time around there is an even greater sense of anger and need for retribution especially among the most unlikely Trump supporters. It reflects a fed-up payback for three years of nonstop efforts to overthrow an elected president, anger at anti-Trump hysteria and weariness at being lectured. A year is a proverbial long time. The economy could tank. The president might find himself trading missiles with Iran. At 73, a sleep-deprived, hamburger-munching Trump might discover his legendary stamina finally giving out. Still, there is a growing wrath in the country, either ignored, suppressed or undetected by the partisan media. It is a desire for a reckoning with ‘them’. For lots of quiet, ordinary people, 2020 is shaping up as the get-even election — in ways that transcend even Trump himself.
Why Trump will win again in 2020 | Spectator USA
For lots of quiet, ordinary people, 2020 is shaping up as the get-even election — in ways that transcend even Trump himself
spectator.us
When the results of the Durham investigation are released in late spring or early summer, the wrath that VDH describes may significantly increase.
Why Trump will win again in 2020
There is a growing wrath in the country, either ignored, suppressed or undetected by the partisan media
Victor Davis Hanson January 2, 2020
My reasons for thinking Trump was going to be elected in 2016 were entirely unscientific. One of my Hoover Institution colleagues recently reminded me of my data-free, amateurish and bothersome predictions. I teach for three weeks at Hillsdale College every September during my vacation from the Hoover Institution. Each morning I try to ride a bike 15-18 miles out into the Michigan countryside. I have been doing that since 2004. Over the previous 12 years even this conservative rural Michigan county had showed no real excitement over George W. Bush, John McCain or Mitt Romney. But in 2016, Trump signs — both professionally made and hand-painted — had sprouted everywhere, on barns, lawns and sheds. Whatever Trumpism was, lots of southern Michiganders seemed ready for it. Six weeks ago, I rode the identical rural Michigan routes. Sometimes I stopped and talked to a few people. The script was almost predictable. After the requisite throat-clearing — ‘Trump should cut back on the tweeting,’ they said — they were even more eager to vote for him this time than last.
In my hometown near my central California farm, I spent autumn 2016 talking to mostly Mexican American friends with whom I went to grammar or high school. I had presumed then that they must hate Trump. Remember the speech in 2015 announcing he was going to stand, when he bashed illegal immigration, or his snide quip about the ‘Mexican judge’ in the Trump University lawsuit, or his expulsion of an interrupting Univision anchor, Jorge Ramos, from one of his campaign press conferences? But I heard no such thing. Most said they ‘liked’ Trump’s style, whether or not they were voting for him. They were tired of gangs in their neighborhoods and of swamped government services — especially the nearby Department of Motor Vehicles — becoming almost dysfunctional. I remember thinking that Trump of all people might get a third of the Latino vote: of no importance in blue California, but maybe transformative in Midwest swing states?
During the last two weeks I made the same rounds — a high-school football game at my alma mater, talks with Mexican American professionals, some rural farm events. Were those impressions three years ago hallucinations? Hardly. Trump support has, if anything, increased — and not just because of record low unemployment and an economy that has turned even my once-ossified rural community into a bustle of shopping, office-construction and home-building, with ‘Now Hiring’ signs commonplace. This time I noticed that my same friends always mentioned Trump in contrast to their damnation of California — the nearby ‘stupid’ high-speed rail to nowhere, the staged power shutoffs, the drought-stricken dead trees left untouched in flammable forests, the tens of thousands of homeless even in San Jose, Fresno and Sacramento, the sky-high gas prices, the deadly decrepit roads, the latest illegal-alien felon shielded from ICE. Whatever Trump was, my friends saw him as the opposite of where California is now headed. His combativeness was again not a liability but a plus — especially when it was at the expense of snooty white liberals. ‘He drives them crazy,’ Steve, my friend from second grade, offered.
One academic colleague used to caricature my observations in 2016 that Trump’s rallies were huge and rowdy, while Hillary’s seemed staged and somnolent — and that this disconnect might presage election-day turnouts. ‘Anecdotes!’ I was told. ‘Crowd size means as little as yard signs.’ If anything, Trump’s rallies now are larger, the lines longer. Maybe the successive progressive efforts to abort his presidency by means of the Electoral College, the emoluments clause, the 25th Amendment, the Mueller investigation and now Ukraine only made him stronger by virtue of not finishing him off.
When I talked to a Central Valley Rotary Club in November 2016, I assumed on arrival that such doctrinaire Republicans would be establishment Never Trumpers. But few were then. When I returned this week to speak again, I found that none are now. These businesspeople, lawyers, accountants and educators talked of the money-making economy. But I sensed, as with my hometown friends, that same something else. There was an edge in their voices, an amplification of earlier fury at Hillary’s condescension and put-down of deplorables. ‘Anything he dishes out, they deserve,’ one man in a tailored suit remarked, channeling my grade-school friend Steve. I take it by that he meant he and his friends are frequently embarrassed by Trump’s crudity — but not nearly so much as they are enraged by the sanctimoniousness of an Adam Schiff or the smug ‘bombshell’ monotony of media anchors.
It is easy to say that 2020 seems to be replaying 2016, complete with the identical insularity of progressives, as if what should never have happened then certainly cannot now. But this time around there is an even greater sense of anger and need for retribution especially among the most unlikely Trump supporters. It reflects a fed-up payback for three years of nonstop efforts to overthrow an elected president, anger at anti-Trump hysteria and weariness at being lectured. A year is a proverbial long time. The economy could tank. The president might find himself trading missiles with Iran. At 73, a sleep-deprived, hamburger-munching Trump might discover his legendary stamina finally giving out. Still, there is a growing wrath in the country, either ignored, suppressed or undetected by the partisan media. It is a desire for a reckoning with ‘them’. For lots of quiet, ordinary people, 2020 is shaping up as the get-even election — in ways that transcend even Trump himself.
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2020
Let’s talk about this.
Sainsbury’s were within their rights to remove and refuse this person access to their facility because pet dogs are against their policy. This dog is not an auxiliary aid as it only provides emotional support and not mitigating the persons disability. This woman’s dog has been dragged into stores sniffing products, pulling on its ill fit harness ( this dog has apparently attacked another dog ) if this dog is in stores on an ill fit harness god knows what will happen if it gets free whilst in the presence of an actual assistance/guide dog mitigating it’s handlers disability.
Is this dog an auxiliary aid ? No.
An auxiliary aid or service is anything which provides additional support or
assistance to a disabled person.
So what can the dog do and what additional support is it providing its handler? Nothing, it can't even heel let alone mitigate its handlers disability. The dog sniffs products and seeks attention of staff, so this dog isn't even paying attention to its handler.
The Act states that where the absence of an auxiliary aid service places a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage, so what disadvantage dose Rebecca have? Not having her doggy make her feel better?
What makes it even worse is Rebecca has gone to multiple big news companies and sold her story to them.
https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/30/disa...s-staff-said-support-dog-wasnt-real-11974770/
https://www.basingstokegazette.co.u...ice-dog-isnt-real-refused-access-supermarket/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...rt-dog-disabled-owner-thrown-supermarket.html
Dog sniffing products
Rebecca lets staff members touch and mess with the " auxiliary aid" how can the dog mitigate her disability if its messing around with staff members?
Dog's ears are pinned back and licking ( indication of stress)
An assistance dog handler claims the dog has gone for her dog multiples times even in a store.
Smells like a bit of an attention seeker.
Sainsbury’s were within their rights to remove and refuse this person access to their facility because pet dogs are against their policy. This dog is not an auxiliary aid as it only provides emotional support and not mitigating the persons disability. This woman’s dog has been dragged into stores sniffing products, pulling on its ill fit harness ( this dog has apparently attacked another dog ) if this dog is in stores on an ill fit harness god knows what will happen if it gets free whilst in the presence of an actual assistance/guide dog mitigating it’s handlers disability.
Is this dog an auxiliary aid ? No.
An auxiliary aid or service is anything which provides additional support or
assistance to a disabled person.
So what can the dog do and what additional support is it providing its handler? Nothing, it can't even heel let alone mitigate its handlers disability. The dog sniffs products and seeks attention of staff, so this dog isn't even paying attention to its handler.
The Act states that where the absence of an auxiliary aid service places a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage, so what disadvantage dose Rebecca have? Not having her doggy make her feel better?
What makes it even worse is Rebecca has gone to multiple big news companies and sold her story to them.
https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/30/disa...s-staff-said-support-dog-wasnt-real-11974770/
https://www.basingstokegazette.co.u...ice-dog-isnt-real-refused-access-supermarket/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...rt-dog-disabled-owner-thrown-supermarket.html
Dog sniffing products
Rebecca lets staff members touch and mess with the " auxiliary aid" how can the dog mitigate her disability if its messing around with staff members?
Dog's ears are pinned back and licking ( indication of stress)
An assistance dog handler claims the dog has gone for her dog multiples times even in a store.
Smells like a bit of an attention seeker.
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2017
this doesn't belong here, maybe here. and if you move it embed your images or use spoilers. Welcome to the Farms.
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2019
Should also add that she changes what the dog is constantly.
She's labelled it as a Service Dog, which in the uk is a police and military dog.
Therapy dog, which is a dog that goes into hospitals and nursing homes etc to provide care for those in the facilities.
Assistance dog, a dog trained to mitigate someones disability.
Emotional support dog, not even recognised in the UK and is an american thing where the dogs only rights are in non pet friendly housing and planes.
The dog is none of these and just a reactive, aggressive untrained pet dog.
She's labelled it as a Service Dog, which in the uk is a police and military dog.
Therapy dog, which is a dog that goes into hospitals and nursing homes etc to provide care for those in the facilities.
Assistance dog, a dog trained to mitigate someones disability.
Emotional support dog, not even recognised in the UK and is an american thing where the dogs only rights are in non pet friendly housing and planes.
The dog is none of these and just a reactive, aggressive untrained pet dog.
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2018
Victor Davis Hanson makes a bunch of good points. All the apologists for this general should read the op-ed. Maybe the lights will come on in their heads. ANYONE who is an apologist for this guy is no better than he was. Had the blood of many Americans on his hands. Was behind the attack on the embassy. Then he had the audacity to come to Baghdad and plan even more attacks, secure, he thought, that the Americans would do nothing. Fuck got the final surprise of his life. Needed to be done years ago but the powers that be feared the Iranian response. Just let more Americans die. Trump wasn't and isn't afraid of the Iranians. The Iranians would do well to let that sink in.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/iranian-analytics/
Iranian Analytics
By Victor Davis Hanson January 3, 2020
For all the current furor over the death of Qasem Soleimani, it is Iran, not the U.S. and the Trump administration, that is in a dilemma. Given the death and destruction wrought by Soleimani, and his agendas to come, he will not be missed.
Tehran has misjudged the U.S. administration’s doctrine of strategic realism rather than vice versa. The theocracy apparently calculated that prior U.S. patience and restraint in the face of its aggression was proof of an unwillingness or inability to respond. More likely, the administration was earlier prepping for a possible more dramatic, deadly, and politically justifiable response when and if Iran soon overreached.
To retain domestic and foreign credibility, Iran would now like to escalate in hopes of creating some sort of U.S. quagmire comparable to Afghanistan, or, more germanely, to a long Serbian-like bombing campaign mess, or the ennui that eventually overtook the endless no-fly zones over Iraq, or the creepy misadventure in Libya, or even something like an enervating 1979-80 hostage situation. The history of the strategies of our Middle East opponents has always been to lure us into situations that have no strategic endgame, do not play to U.S. strengths in firepower, are costly without a time limit, and create Vietnam War–like tensions at home.
But those wished-for landscapes are not what Iran has got itself into. Trump, after showing patience and restraint to prior Iranian escalations, can respond to Iranian tit-for-tat without getting near Iran, without commitments to any formal campaign, and without seeming to be a provocateur itching for war, but in theory doing a lot more damage to an already damaged Iranian economy either through drones, missiles, and bombing, or even more sanctions and boycotts to come. If Iran turns to terrorism and cyber-attacks, it would likely only lose more political support and risk airborne responses to its infrastructure at home.
Iran deeply erred in thinking that Trump’s restraint was permanent, that his impeachment meant he had lost political viability, that he would go dormant in an election year, that the stature of his left-wing opponents would surge in such tensions, and that his base would abandon him if he dared to use military force.
There are several Iranian choices, but they are apparently deemed unattractive by the regime.
In a logical world, Iran could agree to revisit non-proliferation talks. But that for now would be too humiliating for the regime, a huge letdown after its prior bonanza of the Iran Deal. Any future negotiations would require snap inspections over the entire country, 100 percent transparency, and provisions about missiles and terrorism that would not lead to a deliverable Iranian bomb and therefore would seem an intolerable regression after the American giveaway of 2015.
Iran might go quiet for a while, and then revert to its past less-dramatic provocations. But the clock was already ticking from the sanctions. Tehran at least felt that the status quo was synonymous with its eventual disintegration and so in desperation hoped to trigger something or other that could lead to Trump’s political emasculation and a political reprieve.
We are now in an election year. Iran yearns for a return of the U.S. foreign policy of John Kerry, Ben Rhodes, Susan Rice, and Samantha Power, the naïveté that had proved so lucrative and advantageous to Iran prior to 2017.
Yet it is hard to see how Trump, if he is careful and selective in his responses to future Iranian escalations, will be damaged politically. His base, of course, and all Americans, quite rightly do not want another war even remotely resembling endless Middle East conflicts perceived as fought for great game dramas. But disproportionate one-off air responses in response to Iran’s future attacks would not require U.S. ground troops or likely not risk a general Middle East war. And they would do Iran’s assets real damage.
The current exchange is surreal in that it may be the first Middle East crisis in modern history in which neither oil nor the fury of the Arab world at U.S. military action is at least for now an overriding strategic consideration. The world has adjusted to Iran’s oil being off-market. The U.S. is nearing energy independence. Our rivals like China are the most concerned over tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. If Hezbollah strikes Israel, the counter-response would be overwhelming — and quietly also quite welcome in most Arab capitals.
There are no more neoconservatives of influence in Washington. Despite claims otherwise, they have zero influence over Trump.
Most are now fervent and bitter anti-Trump partisans. This past year, they could not decide whether Trump was a “Twitter tiger” appeaser or a provocative and dangerous bull in the Middle East china shop.
We are told his unpredictability creates “confusion,” but confusion and unpredictability are not always a disadvantage. In this case, both North Korea and China are both carefully calibrating U.S. reactions and are not quite sure what’s next.
Trump’s base is nationalist-populist and Jacksonian, not merely doctrinaire isolationist. “Don’t tread on me” translated into 2020 terms means something like “live and let live — or else.” If Iran hits the U.S. first, then the U.S. would shrug and hit Iran back harder — without any grand notions of preemption, ideological nation-building, regime-change agendas, ground wars, or larger policing commitments to international or allied interests. After the recent furor over Turkey in Syria, Trump’s base accepts that he is backing out of the Middle East firing, not firing to get in. How strange that his progressive opponents damned Trump for not exercising preemptive choices in Turkey to protect third parties, and damned him more for taking reactive action in Iraq to protect Americans.
In sum, a weaker Iran foolishly positioned itself into the role of aggressor, at a time of a shot economy, eroding military strength, waning terrorist appendages abroad, and little political leverage or wider support. China and Russia are confined to hoping the U.S. is somehow, somewhere bogged down. Europe will still lecture on the fallout from canceling the Iran Deal, but quietly welcomes the fact that Iran is weaker than in 2015 and weaker for them is far better. China wants access to Middle East oil. Russia has never objected to a major producer having its oil taken off the world market. Moscow’s Iranian policies are reductionist anti-American more than pro-Iranian.
The current Iranian crisis is complex and dangerous. And by all means retaliation must be designed to prevent more Iranian violence and aggression rather than aimed at a grandiose agenda of regime change or national liberation. But so far the Iranians, not the U.S., are making all the blunders.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/iranian-analytics/
Iranian Analytics
By Victor Davis Hanson January 3, 2020
For all the current furor over the death of Qasem Soleimani, it is Iran, not the U.S. and the Trump administration, that is in a dilemma. Given the death and destruction wrought by Soleimani, and his agendas to come, he will not be missed.
Tehran has misjudged the U.S. administration’s doctrine of strategic realism rather than vice versa. The theocracy apparently calculated that prior U.S. patience and restraint in the face of its aggression was proof of an unwillingness or inability to respond. More likely, the administration was earlier prepping for a possible more dramatic, deadly, and politically justifiable response when and if Iran soon overreached.
To retain domestic and foreign credibility, Iran would now like to escalate in hopes of creating some sort of U.S. quagmire comparable to Afghanistan, or, more germanely, to a long Serbian-like bombing campaign mess, or the ennui that eventually overtook the endless no-fly zones over Iraq, or the creepy misadventure in Libya, or even something like an enervating 1979-80 hostage situation. The history of the strategies of our Middle East opponents has always been to lure us into situations that have no strategic endgame, do not play to U.S. strengths in firepower, are costly without a time limit, and create Vietnam War–like tensions at home.
But those wished-for landscapes are not what Iran has got itself into. Trump, after showing patience and restraint to prior Iranian escalations, can respond to Iranian tit-for-tat without getting near Iran, without commitments to any formal campaign, and without seeming to be a provocateur itching for war, but in theory doing a lot more damage to an already damaged Iranian economy either through drones, missiles, and bombing, or even more sanctions and boycotts to come. If Iran turns to terrorism and cyber-attacks, it would likely only lose more political support and risk airborne responses to its infrastructure at home.
Iran deeply erred in thinking that Trump’s restraint was permanent, that his impeachment meant he had lost political viability, that he would go dormant in an election year, that the stature of his left-wing opponents would surge in such tensions, and that his base would abandon him if he dared to use military force.
There are several Iranian choices, but they are apparently deemed unattractive by the regime.
In a logical world, Iran could agree to revisit non-proliferation talks. But that for now would be too humiliating for the regime, a huge letdown after its prior bonanza of the Iran Deal. Any future negotiations would require snap inspections over the entire country, 100 percent transparency, and provisions about missiles and terrorism that would not lead to a deliverable Iranian bomb and therefore would seem an intolerable regression after the American giveaway of 2015.
Iran might go quiet for a while, and then revert to its past less-dramatic provocations. But the clock was already ticking from the sanctions. Tehran at least felt that the status quo was synonymous with its eventual disintegration and so in desperation hoped to trigger something or other that could lead to Trump’s political emasculation and a political reprieve.
We are now in an election year. Iran yearns for a return of the U.S. foreign policy of John Kerry, Ben Rhodes, Susan Rice, and Samantha Power, the naïveté that had proved so lucrative and advantageous to Iran prior to 2017.
Yet it is hard to see how Trump, if he is careful and selective in his responses to future Iranian escalations, will be damaged politically. His base, of course, and all Americans, quite rightly do not want another war even remotely resembling endless Middle East conflicts perceived as fought for great game dramas. But disproportionate one-off air responses in response to Iran’s future attacks would not require U.S. ground troops or likely not risk a general Middle East war. And they would do Iran’s assets real damage.
The current exchange is surreal in that it may be the first Middle East crisis in modern history in which neither oil nor the fury of the Arab world at U.S. military action is at least for now an overriding strategic consideration. The world has adjusted to Iran’s oil being off-market. The U.S. is nearing energy independence. Our rivals like China are the most concerned over tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. If Hezbollah strikes Israel, the counter-response would be overwhelming — and quietly also quite welcome in most Arab capitals.
There are no more neoconservatives of influence in Washington. Despite claims otherwise, they have zero influence over Trump.
Most are now fervent and bitter anti-Trump partisans. This past year, they could not decide whether Trump was a “Twitter tiger” appeaser or a provocative and dangerous bull in the Middle East china shop.
We are told his unpredictability creates “confusion,” but confusion and unpredictability are not always a disadvantage. In this case, both North Korea and China are both carefully calibrating U.S. reactions and are not quite sure what’s next.
Trump’s base is nationalist-populist and Jacksonian, not merely doctrinaire isolationist. “Don’t tread on me” translated into 2020 terms means something like “live and let live — or else.” If Iran hits the U.S. first, then the U.S. would shrug and hit Iran back harder — without any grand notions of preemption, ideological nation-building, regime-change agendas, ground wars, or larger policing commitments to international or allied interests. After the recent furor over Turkey in Syria, Trump’s base accepts that he is backing out of the Middle East firing, not firing to get in. How strange that his progressive opponents damned Trump for not exercising preemptive choices in Turkey to protect third parties, and damned him more for taking reactive action in Iraq to protect Americans.
In sum, a weaker Iran foolishly positioned itself into the role of aggressor, at a time of a shot economy, eroding military strength, waning terrorist appendages abroad, and little political leverage or wider support. China and Russia are confined to hoping the U.S. is somehow, somewhere bogged down. Europe will still lecture on the fallout from canceling the Iran Deal, but quietly welcomes the fact that Iran is weaker than in 2015 and weaker for them is far better. China wants access to Middle East oil. Russia has never objected to a major producer having its oil taken off the world market. Moscow’s Iranian policies are reductionist anti-American more than pro-Iranian.
The current Iranian crisis is complex and dangerous. And by all means retaliation must be designed to prevent more Iranian violence and aggression rather than aimed at a grandiose agenda of regime change or national liberation. But so far the Iranians, not the U.S., are making all the blunders.
Honka Honka Burning Love
In Clown World, the only god is the one who Honks.
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2019
a couple of years back I had a blind date and the chick brought a dog like this into the restaurant. People who own emotional support animals should be taken out into an alleyway and beat to death with a crow bar, it is only ever used an excuse for Female Incels to bring their mutt into places they shouldn't be allowed to.
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2019
NFL Targets VPN Sites that 'Promote' Illegal Streaming * TorrentFreak
Several takedown notices, reportedly sent on behalf of the NFL, are asking Google to remove VPN-related URLs. According to a recent request, these sites promote the use of VPN services "to illegally stream NFL games." While many of the pages show how VPNs can bypass geographical restrictions...
torrentfreak.com
NFL Targets VPN Sites that 'Promote' Illegal Streaming - TorrentFreak
archived 4 Jan 2020 12:34:58 UTC
The NFL has discovered that a "Vee Pee Enn" can break their precious blackouts and is having a sad. Their answer to make them happy again? Using the DMCA to remove mention of the NFL on VPN websites from Google's database.
NFL Targets VPN Sites that ‘Promote’ Illegal Streaming
today by Ernesto
Several takedown notices, reportedly sent on behalf of the NFL, are asking Google to remove VPN-related URLs. According to a recent request, these sites promote the use of VPN services "to illegally stream NFL games." While many of the pages show how VPNs can bypass geographical restrictions, Google has left most URLs in its search results.
VPN services are the go-to tools for people who are looking for some extra privacy and security on the Internet.
However, there are other use cases for these services as well. Bypassing geographical restrictions is a widely advertised feature, with VPNs enabling people to access content that’s not available in their own country.
As a result, people using VPNs can access the American Netflix library in another country, or catch up on the BBC iPlayer while abroad. While this wasn’t much of a problem years ago, today more and more content providers are actively banning VPN users to block these ‘unauthorized’ viewers.
The American football league NFL is not a fan of this type of VPN use either, it appears. However, its enforcement strategy goes further than those displayed by other companies.
This week we stumbled upon a DMCA takedown notice that was sent to Google on behalf of the NFL. The complaint in question didn’t list any pirated copies of NFL games but instead requested the removal of several VPN-related URLs.
According to the notice, the VPN sites “promote the use of their software to illegally stream NFL games.”
Looking at the targeted URLs they do indeed mention the NFL. More specifically, most describe how people can use a VPN to access NFL content through official and authorized channels.
A VPN can provide access to a broader range of content in some cases, as it looks like the user is coming from another country. As a result, VPNs ‘bypass’ the NFL’s technical protection measures, which are used to enforce its licenses. That will likely violate its terms of service, even if people have a legitimate subscription.
The targeted URLs include VPN service ExpressVPN, as well as several dedicated VPN review sites and tech publications such as bestvpn.org, vpnspblog.com, vpnmentor.com, vpnfan.com, tomsguide.com, howtogeek.com, and technadu.com.
Whether DMCA takedown notices are the right instrument to deal with this issue is up for debate. It appears that Google is not yet convinced, as it has decided not to remove the vast majority of the links.
The only three pages that were deleted from Google’s search results are from thevpn.guru and flashrouters.com. It’s not immediately clear to us why these are different from the rest.
We were only able to spot a few VPN oriented notices from the NFL, so it could be that this is just incidental. Also, with an increasing number of imposters sending takedown requests we can never be 100% sure that the NFL is indeed behind these notices.
We reached out to the listed anti-piracy partner for more information, but at the time of writing we have yet to hear back
Looking through other NFL notices sent by the same outfit we do see more that target NFL-related sites and URLs. In addition to the VPN complaints, these also target a long list of domains that claim to offer cheap or free NFL access, including nfltvpro.com and nflgptv.com.
At a previous place of employment we had the fun combination of one guest bringing her fucking rabid-ass, yipping to hell and back mutant dog in -- this was at a place you spend several hours at. At the same time, we had a guest lose his goddamned mind because him and his wife were deathly allergic to dogs.
Not sure of the legalities of it. The staff that handled that sort of customer confrontation told us to stay the hell out of it and avoid the area until they could figure out what they were legally allowed to do.
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2019
Typically when you want to pet a dog in a vest like that you ask first. Depending on the person they might say yes or no. But the signs point to pet. It's not only unfair to people who do have service animals that cost thousands to train, but it's not fair to the dog. That dog is clearly uncomfortable. If you love your dog, make him stay home.