1559: COBALT

Whats wrong with this picture?

You and John helped me through Covid by giving the truth on the vaccines not stopping people from catching Covid, etc. In so many ways, you are great.

But always the social issues... it's like b-r-r-r-r-r-t! A scratched record which pulls me out of the song. Legalizing pot. Supporting abortion. And now saying that De Santis is wrong to focus on woke.

The national sales numbers for Bud Light show that this is a PERFECT time to run against woke. For too long, Republicans have ignored social issues, and handed America over to the lunies on the left. From coast to coast, we are focusing on social issues again and WINNING.

Read the room, guys. You made other points about DeSantis that were good. Such as DeSantis being backed by hedgefund traders and the establishment. Okay, that's objectively true and worth considering. But his fight against woke-ism is VERY cool and VERY timely.

I want the next president to run against WOKE more than I want the next president to run against the Democrat.

Thanks,

Linda

Meta has been contacting talent agencies and celebrities to gauge their interest in trying an early version of the app, which will be integrated with Instagram, said Alex Heath, reporter at the Verge, in a newsletter.

"The decentralized app is built on the back of Instagram but will be compatible with some other apps like Mastodon," according to a newsletter by Lia Haberman, who teaches social and influencer marketing at UCLA in California.

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I don’t want my name read on air but I thought I would share my experience with Zoloft. About eleven years ago I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. I was having a hard time coming to terms with this and tried talking with a G.P. about what I was feeling. He prescribed Zoloft. I used it for about two months. My family, roommates, and even strangers would comment on how angry I always was while on it. I concluded that always being angry wasn’t better that being sad. I never used any other drugs for depression, and my outlook on life has improved over time. Talking with people who have had similar experiences and can empathize was much more helpful in this regard.

Hi Adam,

Hope you are doing well today! I have had this email building on the back burner for a long time. Lately Testosterone is getting a bad rep in the show due to the trans women (into men) who turn into psycho killers. But I think testosterone is being framed here!

I am on testosterone now for about 7 years, being from holland makes this complex because NO DOCTOR KNOWS JACK SHIT ABOUT HORMONES. Having used steroids when I was in my late teens think I have damaged my own hormone production and by the age of 35 this was becoming noticeable. Feeling depressed weak hard time sleeping etc etc. A lot of psychological issues, and only a few physical ones. I know it was the testosterone because I was testing for that since my late 20s out of interest. It took a nose dive and I felt like shit all the time. That quickly went away when I started the testosterone.

Now about the testosterone replacement (TRT) and what happens when a woman does that (most people using TRT in the states are women, due to menopause issues!!). Testosterone is a base hormone derived from cholesterol (so quit lowering that people!!), and in the body it is transformed in to other hormones such as estrogen. Estrogen is the problem!! in high levels it leads to moods etc (PMS in women is high estrogen times). With the body trying to get back to homeostasis after the testosterone injections in trans people this leads to huge levels of estrogen. That is why AI's nee to be taken (aromatase inhibitor) so the test is not transformed into estrogen. But this is trial and error and needs to be closely monitored!!

I think that's the caveat here. Why? Because testosterone is cheap and a wonder drug that is being discovered for diabetes and cancer treatment and loads more ailments that ensue with age...... There is no patents on testosterone and it is being produced everywhere. big pharma is not making money here!

thats my 5 cents adam, please keep me anonymous due to the stigma on trt in holland.

Met vriendelijke groet,

Rob

Autogynephilia is defined as a male's propensity to be sexually aroused by the thought of himself as a female. It is the paraphilia that is theorized to underlie transvestism and some forms of male-to-female (MtF) transsexualism. Autogynephilia encompasses sexual arousal with cross-dressing and cross-gender expression that does not involve women's clothing per se. The concept of autogynephilia defines a typology of MtF transsexualism and offers a theory of motivation for one type of MtF transsexualism. Autogynephilia resembles a sexual orientation in that it involves elements of idealization and attachment as well as erotic desire. Nearly 3% of men in Western countries may experience autogynephilia; its most severe manifestation, MtF transsexualism, is rare but increasing in prevalence.

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Afternoon Adam,

It's working! Attached is the manpower schedule for the Memorial Day weekend. Once again NO LINES ARE RUNNING!

This is unheard of. I've spoken with employees here at the brewery that have 30+ years at this facility and they have NEVER....NEVER seen this happen before.

Tell everyone to keep pressing.........they are making a difference!

All the best this holiday weekend.

Hi!

I wrote in several weeks ago about how brands (and my employer's marketing budget) are moving to TikTok. Since I have some standing on a couple of topics you were discussing in Thursday's show, I wanted to share a bit more about what I'm seeing.

Thank you both for your courage!

George Floyd full autopsy released. Says “no life threatening injuries identified” and reveals high levels of multiple additional toxic drugs on top of the Fentanyl that was initially reported.

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Hey Adam,

I am thankful that I was able to donate to the show. Didn’t realize I only had 250 characters but wanted to make sure I call our my neighbor Eddie, who hit me in the mouth early in ‘22, but don’t believe he’s donated yet…douche. Great job with the pronunciation of my name, although the emphasis is on the “OR” in my name lee-Or 🙂 The last name, whatever.

Appreciate all you do and happy to chat at any time!

Be well,

Lior, Keeper of the bees

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Archived Version

Sun, 28 May 2023 17:22

When any given new technology finally reaches the point of commercial availability, it becomes only a matter of time until said invention ends up being abused by the powers that be to suppress communication '' and the machine-learning craze that is commonly referred to as 'AI' has officially become the latest tool to go down this road.

Cortana (Jen Taylor) begins to succumb to rampancy in Halo 4 (2012), Microsoft Studios

RELATED: Calls For The Resignation Of Xbox Head Phil Spencer Arise As 'Redfall' Is Slayed By Critics And Gamers

On May 23rd, Microsoft publicly unveiled their new Azure AI Content Safety tool, a new multi-language service which employs ''cutting edge AI models, it can detect hateful, violent, sexual, and self-harm content in images and text, and assign severity scores, allowing businesses to limit and prioritize what content moderators need to review.''

''Azure Content Safety classifies harmful content into four categories: sexual, violent, self-harm, hate,'' briefly explained the Xbox parent company of the new product's functionality.

''It returns with a severity level for each unsafe content category on a scale from 1 '' 6,'' they continued. ''Our AI-powered content moderation solution [also] uses natural language processing techniques to address the meaning and context of language, closely mirroring human intelligence. It can analyze text in both short form and long form.''

Cortana (Jen Taylor) stumbles upon a firewall in Halo 4 (2012), Microsoft Studios

According to Microsoft's own promotional material, there are two key industries that the company believes can benefit from their new tool: Social media and gaming.

''Social media moves fast, and it's essential that content moderation tools can act in real time,'' wrote the tech giant in regards to the tool's potential applications for social media. ''Azure AI Content Safety can monitor content in posts, threads, and chats to help keep online social communities protected from harmful content.''

Turning to video games, Microsoft boasted that while ''content moderation for gaming is challenging due to visual and text-based elements, live chat, and at times violent content, Azure AI Content Safety's advanced computer vision tools help monitor avatars, usernames, images, and chat, making platforms safer and supporting human moderators.''

Further, said material also note that the company has already begun ''leveraging Azure AI Content Safety in Microsoft products such as Azure OpenAI, Azure ML, GitHub Copilot, Bing, and more to help detect potentially harmful content.''

Cortana (Jen Taylor) duplicates herself in order to stop the Ur-Didact (Keith Szarabajka) from killing Master Chief (Steve Downes) in Halo 4 (2012), Microsoft Studios

RELATED: Xbox Head Phil Spencer Is Well Aware That ''It's Been Too Long'' Since Microsoft Released A Major First Party Title: ''In General, We've Been A Little Light''

In a statement provided to TechCrunch, a Microsoft spokesperson recalled, ''Microsoft has been working on solutions in response to the challenge of harmful content appearing in online communities for over two years. We recognized that existing systems weren't effectively taking into account context or able to work in multiple languages.''

''New [AI] models are able to understand content and cultural context so much better,'' they explained of the company's decision to invest in Azure. ''They are multilingual from the start '... and they provide clear and understandable explanations, allowing users to understand why content was flagged or removed.''

Cortana (Jen Taylor) thanks Master Chief (Steve Downes) for taking a chance on her in Halo 4 (2012), Microsoft Studios

A separate spokesperson further explained, ''We have a team of linguistic and fairness experts that worked to define the guidelines taking into account cultural, language and context.''

''We then trained the AI models to reflect these guidelines,'' they said, before offering the caveat-slash-advice that ''AI will always make some mistakes, so for applications that require errors to be nearly non-existent we recommend using a human-in-the-loop to verify results.''

Per the tech news outlet, Azure's subscription-based pricing plans start ''at $1.50 per 1,000 images and $0.75 per 1,000 text records.''

Cortana (Jen Taylor) bids farewell to Master Chief (Steve Downes) in Halo 4 (2012), Microsoft Studios

NEXT: Minecraft Java Update Introduces Player Chat Reporting, Grants Microsoft Ability To Ban Players From Private Servers

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Archived Version

Sun, 28 May 2023 16:17

Will waxing Yin and waning Yang end America with a bang? It's a fitting question as the feminization of the American armed forces continues apace, with Joe Biden talking about ''maternity flight suits'' and changing ''the culture and habits that cause women to leave the military.'' Meanwhile, our chief geopolitical adversary, China, is choosing a very different route:

It's embracing a program designed to enhance the masculinity of its adolescent boys.

This story became an issue after Fox News host Tucker Carlson highlighted feminism-driven armed-services changes being advocated by Joe Biden and accused the Bidenites of making ''a mockery of the US military.''

''While China's military becomes more masculine as it has assembled the world's largest navy, our military, as Joe Biden says, needs to become more feminine,'' Carlson stated on his show's Tuesday edition.

At issue are comments Biden made on International Women's Day emphasizing the goal of making the military more accommodating for females. ''We're making good progress designing body armor that fits women properly, tailoring combat uniforms for women, creating maternity flight suits, updating requirements for their hairstyles,'' said a seemingly semi-catatonic Biden. ''And some of it's going to take an intensity of purpose and mission to really change the culture and habits that cause women to leave the military'' (video below).

Unsaid: One of those ''habits'' causing women's departure is called hanky-panky, with thousands of female sailors on navy vessels becoming pregnant every year. In fact, women are up to 50 percent more likely than men to leave their positions aboard ships and return to land duty '-- at great expense to the military. There are even stories of women purposely getting pregnant to avoid deployment.

Carlson's statements on the matter '-- such as sarcastically saying ''Pregnant women are going to fight our wars'' '-- evoked criticism from military brass. ''Several Army generals, as well as the Sergeant Major of the Army, the service's top enlisted member, have called out Carlson, arguing that he 'couldn't be more wrong' about women in the military,'' reports Business Insider.

But methinks they doth protest too much. I get the feeling here that Carlson struck a nerve, that he's the guy who said the emperor has no clothes and that the empire is striking back.

Speaking of which, since when do military brass enter the political fray and attack a civilian TV commentator? Some have labeled this a violation of military code, and, for sure, it's troubling when the armed services pick sides in partisan battles.

Also telling is that while a Pentagon spokesman said that they won't ''take personnel advice from a talk-show host,'' they do take advice from bigotry-stoking, diversity-dealing social-engineers. In fact, this is a longstanding problem.

As the Washington Times reported in 2015, ''Two years ago, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the nation's top military officer, laid down an edict on the Obama administration's plan to open direct land combat jobs to women: If women cannot meet a standard, senior commanders better have a good reason why it should not be lowered.'' Talk about getting things backward.

In fact, they surely would be lowered, said retired Army officer and author Robert Maginnis. Politically correct Pentagon appointees would ''force the services to accept degraded standards'' like it or not, the Times also informed.

Then, Tucker Carlson reported on December 21:

Last week, Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, announced that the U.S. military will be changing its standards from top to bottom. This is not to create a more effective fighting force to save your children from China or other foreign domination. No, it's in order to conform to policies formulated by the Pentagon's so-called Diversity and Inclusion Board. You can imagine what those policies are. Strict affirmative action, hiring and promoting by appearance, the elimination of objective standards. According to Miller, who should be ashamed of himself, these extremist left-wing social engineering projects are ''moral imperatives'' in the armed forces, though he did not explain why.

As late radio giant Rush Limbaugh would famously say, ''The military's job is to kill people and break things.'' Its purpose is not to create employment or ''opportunities'' for women (or any other demographic); it's not a vocational school, jobs program, social-experimentation laboratory, or a vehicle through which to advance ''equity.''

And as soon as the military prioritizes accommodating women or making them feel more comfortable, it has strayed from its purpose. In fact, if the average woman could ever be too comfortable in the military, it's a red flag.

Meanwhile, China has adopted a policy called ''Proposal on Preventing the Feminization of Male Adolescents''; it's designed to cultivate masculinity in teen boys, who are described by a top Chinese political adviser as now being ''delicate, cowardly and effeminate.''

Of course, at least China can still identify who the boys are. Too many of us are confused about that and whether ''boy'' is a real classification or just a personal-identity choice on a sex-status continuum.

So, sadly, we've become ''a silly people,'' as liberal comedian-cum-commentator Bill Maher put it Friday, warning that China was ''eating our lunch.'' ''Do you know who doesn't care that there's a stereotype of a Chinese man in a Dr. Seuss book? China,'' Maher stated '-- ''because they're not a silly people. If anything, they are as serious as a prison fight.''

And we're as unserious as a pillow fight. But we'll get serious, one would hope the easy way. If it's the hard way, well, as philosopher C.S. Lewis put it, pain is God's ''megaphone to rouse a deaf world.''

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Archived Version

Sun, 28 May 2023 16:16

Tallness has become a mate-selection criterion for young men and women in China, and an entry criterion for some occupations. Chinese parents' anxiety about their children's height has led to the misuse of synthetic human growth hormone in China, experts warn, citing the short and long-term side effects of administering the hormones to normal, healthy children.

'Height Boosting Shots': A Summer TrendAccording to Chinese media reports, since the beginning of summer vacation in early July, consultations at the endocrinology specialist clinic at Beijing Children's Hospital nearly doubled. More than 90 percent of them are parents who come to consult about their children's height. Some parents explicitly ask doctors to give their children ''height boosting shots,'' that is, injections of human growth hormone to make their children grow taller.

Over the past few summers, a similar thing happened in other parts of China, as ''height boosting shots'' became popular. A report in Beijing Evening News said that prescription growth hormones appear to be abused. The report said that influenced by parents' demands and high rebates from pharmaceutical companies, some hospitals overprescribe growth hormones. Many parents of healthy children who cannot obtain growth hormone prescriptions from large public hospitals, turn to private hospitals, or even buy it through other channels to inject themselves.

''Parents are too anxious about their children's height,'' the report quoted Dr. Lin Ming of Wuhan Union Hospitals' Pediatric Endocrinology Department as saying. Only a very small number of people really need to use growth hormone therapy; most children only need a nutritious and balanced diet, enough sleep, and proper exercise, and do not need growth hormones to increase their height.

High Prices Are Not a DeterrentHowever, undeterred by high drug prices, the use of human growth hormone continues to grow.

According to Chinese media reports in June 2019, citing drug bidding information, the annual treatment cost of growth hormone powder injections is nearly 19,000 yuan ($2,800), the annualized cost of liquid injections is about 42,000 yuan ($6,200), and the annual cost of long-acting injections is about 196,000 yuan ($29,000). Treatment generally takes 2''5 years.

Huang Ke, deputy director of Endocrinology at Zhejiang University Children's Hospital, related how the mother of one of his patients spent 480,000 yuan ($71,000) in order to make her son grow taller. Nonetheless, the child has only grown by 1 cm. Other parents said that they have used growth hormone to treat their child for two and a half years, costing a total of more than 500,000 yuan ($74,000).

With an increase in social demand in recent years, the use of human growth hormone has increased and the market has developed rapidly. China's leading growth hormone company, GeneScience Pharmaceuticals (GeneSci), saw its annual revenue grow more than four times from 2016 to 2020, with more than 90 percent of its revenue coming from growth hormone-related products, according to state-run Xinhua News.

Serious Side Effects if Used ImproperlyThe human growth hormone currently available can produce bone growth and development similar to that caused by naturally occurring human growth hormone. Growth hormone therapy is suitable for children with growth hormone deficiency whose growth plates have not fused. It is also suitable for children with pathological causes of short stature, such as Turner syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, short bowel syndrome, or other underlying systemic diseases.

However, will children with heights within the normal range grow more quickly and taller with growth hormone? Pan Hui, chief of endocrinology at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, said although this is theoretically possible, its use in healthy children is not recommended. According to a knowledge guide released by Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital in April, growth hormone therapy does not necessarily help children grow; even if it does, they will grow 4 to 6 centimeters maximum.

Li Sujie, director of pediatrics at Tianjin's 4th Central Hospital, said that as a prescription drug, human growth hormone has a strict scope of application. If used improperly, it can bring greater risks to children. Susie said that children without applicable symptoms should not be given growth hormones. Because current studies on the safety of growth hormones mainly focus on children with pathological or idiopathic short stature, there is a lack of safety data on children who are short, but within normal range.

Experts at Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital said the risk of adverse reactions is low when a patient has applicable symptoms and the right amount of medication is used. However, if the dose is too high, it may accelerate pubertal development and growth plate fusion in children with idiopathic short stature. Further, high doses in children without applicable symptoms can cause serious side effects, including edema, cardiomyopathy, insulin resistance, stroke, increased eye pressure, arthritis, idiopathic increased intracranial pressure, and gynecomastia.

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Archived Version

Sun, 28 May 2023 16:15

Some parents are concerned that their children will be left behind by society if they are seen as shortAmerica's Food and Drug Administration also approved the use of human growth hormones for children Published: 2:00pm, 20 Aug, 2021

Updated: 9:59pm, 21 Aug, 2021

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Archived Version

Sun, 28 May 2023 15:14

Emily Bridges, a transgender cyclist, accused British Cycling of ''genocide'' in an astonishing attack after riders born male were banned from racing against women in British competitive events.

The governing body's ruling effectively ends the chances of Bridges competing at the Olympic Games Paris next year as she will now have to race in an ''open'' category alongside men riders.

''Fairness is absolutely a driving factor,'' British Cycling's chief executive, Jon Dutton, said of the policy affecting only events deemed competitive by the governing body.

In contrast with complaints from Bridges, who has claimed she has no advantage over other women racers, some grass-roots riders protested that protections for women's sport did not go far enough. Dutton had admitted non-competitive levels would continue to prioritise ''inclusivity'' over fairness.

However, the most outspoken attack came from the most prominent trans athlete in British sport. In a 651-word statement on her Instagram page, Bridges said British Cycling was guilty of a ''violent act'' and said it was a ''failed organisation''.

She wrote: ''Does it surprise me that the same organisation funded directly by a state that ships vulnerable refugees to Rwanda violently clamps down on any political dissent that they disapprove of, or starves their people? No, of course it doesn't.

''The same organisation with actively homophobic coaches, who encouraged eating disorders and did nothing about any bullying between its riders. The same organisation where elite riders influence their policy when it doesn't fit their entitled and narrow world view, with no ability for nuance or any desire to question the view that they've been told since birth.''

Despite her outburst, pressure will now intensify on the International Cycling Union (UCI) to follow suit with global rules. The conclusion of an international review into transgender athletes is expected in August.

Sharron Davies and other campaigners for better women's sport said the domestic governing body deserved credit at elite level for adopting a similar policy to British Triathlon, which last year became the first British sport to confirm firmer protections.

However, Davies and grass-roots riders said the policy should have been extended to all levels. Any club event that is not deemed a registered race by British Cycling will continue to allow trans women to cycle alongside females. Included in this category are the community-based British Cycling-sponsored Breeze women-only bike rides.

These rides were specifically set up as a sanctuary for women and Tessa McInnes, a lawyer and Breeze cyclist based in the West Midlands, expressed dismay that her event was not included. ''A lot of women are looking for Breeze rides because they have confidence issues and there can be a very macho culture in cycling,'' she explained. ''Then they turn up and find that there's a biological male on the ride. The idea was, 'If you dare say anything, you are transphobic'.''

'It's impossible to find a genuinely female-only amateur competitive cycling event'Maria Blower, who represented Great Britain when women cyclists were first permitted in the Olympics in 1984, said some volunteers for the event were now resigning over the policy. ''We still want to regain the grass roots,'' she said.

McInnes also attacked the lack of provision at grass-roots level. ''It is impossible to find a genuinely female-only amateur competitive cycling event in the UK at the moment,'' she said. ''Breeze champions are put in the impossible position of policing this policy.''

Davies, Britain's 1980 Olympic swimming silver medallist and a leading voice for protecting female categories in all sports, added that local women athletes were ''as worthy as elite athletes to fair sport''.

Efforts were made overnight by British Cycling to contact Bridges and an estimated 10 transgender or non-binary UK athletes who would be affected by the rules.

''We appreciate this has been an incredibly difficult period,'' Dutton told a press conference. ''It's caused anxiety, uncertainty and distress for many riders so we have a duty of care to support those people. But in making a decision, we want to give clarity and direction but also ensure that anyone that wants to take part in cycling has the ability to do so.''

The rules internationally allow trans women to compete in women's categories if they have had reduced testosterone levels of 2.5 nanomoles per litre for the previous two years. However, last summer, British Cycling stopped transgender women competing at elite female events while it conducted a review of its existing testosterone-based policy.

Elite men's category will be consolidated into the 'open' category''It's an incredibly emotive and at times divisive subject area,'' Dutton said as he announced plans for a permanent ban. ''We have taken many months to look at probably three areas '' first of all, consultation with athletes affected and the wider cycling community; second, the medical research that is available at this point in time; and third, a legal viewpoint in terms of the association with the Equality Act. We've made a decision on the balance of all three to give clarity, to give direction and a clear way forward for any athletes.

''The key drivers for the two policies are '' on the competitive policy, fairness is absolutely a driving factor. On the noncompetitive policy, inclusivity is absolutely the driving factor.''

British Cycling expects to have implemented both policies '' for competitive and non-competitive events '' by the end of this year. At elite levels, the implementation of an ''open'' category alongside a ''female'' category means the existing men's category will be consolidated into the ''open'' category.

Policies in cycling, swimming and rowing in recent years have concerned campaigners most. Austin Killips's first prize for women at the Tour of the Gila in New Mexico prompted calls for a rethink on international rules drafted last year.

Since the UCI's previous trans policy based on testosterone levels was announced last year, swimming and athletics have effectively banned from women's elite competition any athletes who have gone through male puberty.

Last year, the Government told the heads of UK sporting bodies that ''elite and competitive women's sport must be reserved for people born of the female sex''.

Bridges, who set a national junior men's record over 25 miles in 2018, was blocked from participating in the women's British National Omnium Championship last year after the UCI ruled she was ineligible.

She had been due to compete against Laura Kenny, but the UCI ruled that the 21-year-old, who began hormone therapy last year to reduce her testosterone levels, was not compliant.

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Archived Version

Sun, 28 May 2023 15:03

A meme shared on Twitter parodying the 2006 film Failure to Launch shared on Twitter shows Elon Musk in Sarah Jessica Parker's role and Ron DeSantis in Matthew McConaughey's. Programming note : Platformer will be off Monday for Memorial Day.

At around 5PM PT on Wednesday, Elon Musk and David Sacks joined a call with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' campaign manager, Generra Peck. Their task: to explain what the hell had just happened.

Their high-profile event on Twitter Spaces, where DeSantis had just announced his run for president, had been plagued by technical glitches . The first audio livestream cut out before DeSantis could get his news out. The second one fared little better, drawing roughly 700,000 listeners at its peak. For context, Fox News claimed it drew 7.7 million viewers for Trump's Tulsa rally in 2020.

Musk attempted to put a positive spin on the day's events. He gave Peck ''behind the scenes details from Twitter as they handled the nearly 1 million people trying to get into the Spaces room,'' Peck tweeted .

The rest of her tweet fell short on details, though. So, for those who didn't get a call from Musk yesterday, here's what sources told Platformer about what was happening behind the scenes.

Perhaps the most important thing to know about Spaces' technical problems: over the past several months Musk cut the Spaces team, which once numbered as many as 100 employees, down to roughly three people.

For months now, the Spaces team has been operating without most of the institutional knowledge it accumulated since Twitter added live audio conversations in 2021 to compete with then-hot Clubhouse.

''Practically no one remaining knows the current architecture in depth,'' one person lamented on the pseudonymous employee forum Blind.

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Archived Version

Sun, 28 May 2023 15:02

FROM London to Los Angeles, an increasing number of young men are retreating from society, isolating themselves for extended periods.

When asked about their feelings of loneliness, men are more likely to report feeling socially isolated than women.

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Testosterone levels are plummeting in young men across the world, according to studies (stock photo) Credit: Getty 2

Studies have shown that some young men are uncomfortable with how masculinity is being reimagined (stock photo) Credit: GettySome have suggested that changing norms and expectations are to blame.

Others have suggested that some young men are uncomfortable with how masculinity is being reimagined, reshaped, and redefined.

This discomfort, they argue, has created a profound sense of uncertainty and unease.

But are plummeting testosterone levels playing a role in young men's desire to separate themselves from society?

On both sides of the Atlantic, young men's testosterone levels are tanking, according to studies conducted in 2006, 2007, and 2013.

Contrary to popular belief, testosterone, a hormone produced by the gonads and adrenal glands, does much more than merely regulate sexual desire.

Low testosterone levels are intimately associated with reduced body and facial hair, loss of muscle mass and bone density, and, in dire cases, even infertility.

Medical research also demonstrates a strong association between low testosterone levels and dips in mood, and increased levels of social anxiety.

Moreover, research carried out last year by scientists at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, highlighted the many ways in which testosterone helps foster prosocial behavior in males.

In short, testosterone influences the hypothalamus, a structure deep within the brain responsible for creating the so-called cuddle chemical, oxytocin.

This hormone mediates the risk of social isolation and rises in tandem with testosterone.

Obese males are more likely to have lower testosterone levels than their slimmer counterparts.

It works the other way as well, men with low testosterone levels are at an increased risk of becoming overweight or obese.

In the US, 73 percent of adults are either overweight or obese. The United Kingdom shows similar figures, with 68 percent of men reported as either overweight or obese.

As Dr. Matthew Hoffman wrote earlier this year, fat cells ''metabolize testosterone to estrogen,'' thereby ''lowering testosterone levels.''

Additionally, ''obesity reduces levels of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), a protein that carries testosterone in the blood.''

Overweight and obese adults tend to report low physical activity levels.

In the United States, 25 percent of adults are perpetually inactive.

And in the United Kingdom, one in three men and one in two women don't exercise at all.

Forget 10,000 steps daily; they barely take 10,000 steps in a year.

Instead of exercising, many instead dedicate their time to playing video games.

Extensive gaming is strongly associated with hyperprolactinemia, a condition that involves higher-than-normal levels of prolactin, the hormone best known for its role in breast tissue growth and milk production, in the bloodstream.

Also, video gaming is, contrary to popular belief, quite stressful. Video game anxiety is a real problem.

Anxiety causes stress. In males, stress increases prolactin production.

Too much prolactin interferes with testosterone production and affects a man's ability to maintain an erection.

Similarly, excessive consumption of pornography is associated with lower reproductive hormone levels in men.

Moreover, excessive video gaming and porn use can destroy an individual's sleep cycle.

Impaired sleep is also strongly associated with low testosterone.

Over one-third of Americans are sleep-deprived, with the average American getting only five hours of shuteye each night.

According to a 2011 study by two biomedical students at the University of Chicago, sleeping five hours per night for just one week causes a 10-15 percent drop in testosterone levels for otherwise healthy men.

The United Kingdom is one of the most sleep-deprived nations in the Western world, with millions of Brits regularly surviving on five hours of sleep per night.

Not surprisingly, a poor diet also affects testosterone production.

A study in the journal Nutrients linked a diet high in bread and pastries to decreased muscle mass, increased body fat, and lower total testosterone levels in men.

In the United Kingdom, men eat bread far more frequently than women.

According to the Flour Advisory Bureau (FAB), ''44 percent of men eat bread twice a day compared with 25 percent of women,'' and white bread ''accounts for 76 percent of the bread sold in the UK.''

It's even worse in the United States.

The average American consumes over 6,000 slices of pizza in their lifetime.

On average, an American adult consumes about 53 pounds of bread each year.

To reverse falling testosterone levels, there is always the option of androgen replacement therapy, otherwise known as testosterone replacement therapy.

But such therapy is not without significant risks, and one should always consult a medical professional before seeking it out.

Thankfully, there are many more natural ways to boost testosterone levels.

Even better, they are either free or relatively inexpensive.

Improving sleep is perhaps the quickest and most effective way of boosting testosterone.

An increased sleep duration of up to 9.9 hours was associated with increased testosterone levels, according to a 2015 study published by the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association by researchers in Hong Kong.

But, it's essential to add sleeping more than 9.9 hours appears to lower testosterone levels.

Too little sleep is detrimental to health. The same goes for too much sleep. Try to get between seven and nine hours of quality sleep each night.

Another natural way of boosting testosterone involves sunlight.

Approximately 20 percent of the British population has a vitamin D deficiency. Meanwhile, 35 percent of adults in the United States suffer from the deficiency.

Exposure to ultraviolet light from the sun has been shown to increase total testosterone levels in men.

Thirty minutes of sunlight two to three times a week has been shown to raise testosterone significantly.

If sunlight is in short supply where you live, take vitamin D supplements and consider purchasing a sunlamp.

On the topic of supplements, omega-3 fish fatty acids have been shown to raise both the levels of free testosterone and fertility in young men.

Most Americans consume nowhere near enough omega-3 fatty acids. The same goes for the British.

Low levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the blood can shorten one's life as much as smoking, according to this 2021 study.

Finally, exercise - more specifically, strength training - helps promote the production of testosterone.

The most effective workouts for increasing testosterone involve large muscle groups.

Think squats or deadlifts, for example, both of which engage a large number of muscles.

Overall, cleaning up your diet, lifting some weights, and improving your sleeping habits will go a long way to boosting your testosterone.

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Archived Version

Sun, 28 May 2023 14:35

Staff and customers at several Target locations were evacuated on Friday after bomb threats were made at select stores across the country as controversy continues to grow over the company's LGBTQ+ merchandise.

CBS News affiliate WOIO in Cleveland, Ohio, received an email at 12:26 p.m. Friday warning of bombs that had been placed in five different Target locations near the city. According to a screenshot of the email, which was published by the outlet, the threat was made in response to Target's decision to remove its LGBTQ+ pride collection from its shelves earlier this week.

"Target is full of...cowards who turned their back on the LGBT community and decided to cater to the homophobic right wing redneck bigots who protested and vandalized their store," read the email. "We won't stand idly by as the far right continues to hunt us down."

The Target logo is displayed on shopping carts outside of a Target store on January 15, 2020, in San Francisco, California. Several Target locations were evacuated on Friday after bomb threats were made in response to the controversy surrounding the company's LGBTQ+ collection. Justin Sullivan/GettyWOIO's staff contacted local police departments as well as the Cleveland FBI regarding the threatening letter. According to a release from the Jackson Township Police Department, police dispatch received calls around 12:40 p.m. from both WOIO and WEWS, an ABC News affiliate based in Cleveland, regarding a potential bomb threat at a Target in their county.

Jackson Township officers evacuated and searched the store along with a bomb-sniffing dog from the Stark Country Sheriff's office, read the release. According to a report from The Repository in Canton, Ohio, no bombs were found at the location and store operations resumed around 3:15 p.m.

WOIO reported that threats were also made at four other Target locations in Boardman, Ohio, Niles, Ohio, and Monaca, Pennsylvania.

Separate threats were made to several Target locations in Utah as well, reported CBS News affiliate KUTV, including stores in Layton, Salt Lake, Taylorsville and Provo. According to Layton Police Sergeant John Ottesen, who was cited in KUTV's report, officers began investigations after two local news stations received emails alerting them about the bomb threats.

Ottesen said that the threatening email, which was three sentences long, referenced Target's pride collection and was reportedly sent from a "bogus email address."

"The safety of our team members and guests is our top priority," a Target spokesperson told Newsweek on Friday when asked about the recent bomb threats. "Law enforcement investigated these claims and determined our stores are safe. Our stores are currently open and operating regular hours."

Target made the decision to remove its pride merchandise from its storefronts after the company received widespread backlash and calls for boycotts. A release from the company on Wednesday said that choice was made after it "experienced threats impacting our team members' sense of safety and well-being while at work."

The company is one of several that have been recently targeted by conservative groups for supporting the LGBTQ+ community. The first widespread boycott calls came after Anhesuer-Busch sent a commemorative can to transgender influence Dylan Mulvaney in April.

Earlier this week, conservative Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert also called for a boycott against North Face over its ad campaign featuring a drag queen. Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has also joined calls to boycott the company.

Update 5/26/23 7:22 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional comment from Target.

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Sun, 28 May 2023 14:26

Digital Banking The new tool integrates account owner verification and identity insights into one API.

Image source: Mastercard.Mastercard is launching a digital account opening tool using open banking to streamline verification and identify insights.

The new service will verify a customer's account ownership and identity in real-time, prefilling account and routing data to minimise errors.

With digital transaction volumes projected to reach almost $15 trillion by 2027, and an estimated 93 per cent of consumers set to make digital payments this year, Mastercard will partner with fintech innovators to help them expand their customers' choices.

''Digital account opening is central to onboarding new customers and growing a business,'' Mastercard EVP of global open banking and API Jess Turner said.

''Mastercard is uniquely positioned to help fintechs and banks onboard customers safely and seamlessly to accelerate growth while protecting themselves and consumers from the risks of fraud and false declines.''

According to Mastercard, it will help both fintechs and banks know their customers and their accounts to promote secure digital account opening for digital wallets, new bank and/or investment accounts, distributions and account-based payments.

''Our digital identity and open banking networks instil confidence on both sides of an interaction,'' Mastercard EVP of identity solutions Chris Reid said.

''By securing our online ecosystem, we are delivering on our promise to bring more people and businesses into the digital economy.''

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Archived Version

Sun, 28 May 2023 13:59

Jellyfish blooms can swamp entire ecosystems, but there's growing interest in their culinary potential. But could this really solve the ocean's problems?

It has been difficult to predict exactly how jellyfish will behave in a warmer climate, because there is not a lot of historical data on them, explains Monty Graham, director of the Florida Institute of Oceanography in St. Petersburg. "A few decades ago, no-one was really paying attention to jellyfish," he says. "But jellyfish are very sensitive to climate cycles. And so by extension they'll be very sensitive to long-term climate changes as well."

Historically, jellyfish have historically been kept in check by marine predators, such as seabirds, sea turtles, fish and whales. However, their predator populations have been dwindling, thanks to a combination of factors including overfishing, climate change, pollution, and habitat loss.

Across the globe, jellyfish outbreaks have been wreaking havoc on fish populations, and the fishing and tourism industries, to name a few. In 2007, the entire Irish salmon industry was wiped out by a plague of millions of jellyfish covering 10 square miles (26 sq km) and 35 ft (10.7m) deep. They swarmed the cages of farmed salmon, killing more than 100,000 fish.

In Japan, fishermen have seen extraordinary blooms of Nomura's jellyfish annually since 2002. The species grow up to 6.5ft (2m) in diameter and weigh as much as 485 lbs (220kg). They have devastated coastal livelihoods, costing the Japanese fishing industry billions of yen. "Some areas are going to experience more jellyfish populations, higher numbers, and prolonged blooms, especially if we continue to push down on the fisheries that are in the ecosystem," Graham says.

Just eat them

The sea provides a significant proportion of the protein humanity consumes. In 2020, fisheries captured around 112 million tonnes of aquatic organisms according to the US Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). As global demand for food rises, serious questions remain about our food supplies.

Some scientists, such as Piraino, believe one solution is broadening our palates. He suggests that since the world is in urgent need of sustainable food resources, one way to achieve this is to attempt to integrate new foods into traditional recipes and local cuisine. "Maybe the time has come to add a new item to our own menu: jellyfish," says Piraino.

Jellyfish is already eaten across Asia, but it is still a rarity to find it in a Western restaurant. In China, jellyfish have been eaten for more than 1,000 years, with jellyfish salad a popular delicacy. Not only are they high in protein, but the microalgae inside the cells of some jellyfish are rich in fatty acids. The practice has not quite caught on in the Western world, but some restaurants are pushing their diners to embrace the unknown.

The chef's pass at Benu, San Francisco, is like most others in the city: a calm anticipation as the crescendo builds towards the impending chaos of service, while the chatter of diners wafts into the kitchen. But unlike most other fine dining establishments, there's something special on the menu '' and that's jellyfish.

On one show-stopping dish, the jellyfish graces the plate delicately wrapped around a single shrimp, sporting a caviar and horseradish coat. It's a "very approachable way" to enjoy jellyfish, says Corey Lee, founder of Benu. Lee, who hails from South Korea, grew up eating jellyfish. He says it was something he wanted to share with his diners that was "delicious and underappreciated". It's been served in various forms since Lee opened the three-Michelin-star restaurant in 2010. Another appearance is live and fresh in a beef consomm(C). "The oceany flavour provides a sharp contrast and salinity to the rich and gelatinous soup, while its wobbly texture evokes the texture of long-cooked beef tendon," Lee explains.

However, despite their appeal to adventurous Western diners, jellyfish are not a viable straight substitution for fish, or other sources of protein, when considering what is best for the environment. It's true that expanding our palates to include alternative sources of protein is vital in helping mitigate climate change, but jellyfish may not be the answer.

For one thing, jellyfish are 95% water, with the remaining 5% containing the nutritious essentials. Their nutrition to mass proportions means they're a fairly inefficient source of protein. "They're very high effort to eat," says Graham. "There's a lot of energy expended in the process just because they're so watery. They're also not all great to eat."

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Sat, 27 May 2023 21:41

A lawyer representing a man who sued an airline relied on artificial intelligence to help prepare a court filing. It did not go well.

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As an Avianca flight approached Kennedy International Airport in New York, a serving cart collision began a legal saga, prompting the question: Is artificial intelligence so smart? Credit... Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto, via Getty Images May 27, 2023, 10:12 a.m. ET

The lawsuit began like so many others: A man named Roberto Mata sued the airline Avianca, saying he was injured when a metal serving cart struck his knee during a flight to Kennedy International Airport in New York.

When Avianca asked a Manhattan federal judge to toss out the case, Mr. Mata's lawyers vehemently objected, submitting a 10-page brief that cited more than half a dozen relevant court decisions. There was Martinez v. Delta Air Lines, Zicherman v. Korean Air Lines and, of course, Varghese v. China Southern Airlines, with its learned discussion of federal law and ''the tolling effect of the automatic stay on a statute of limitations.''

There was just one hitch: No one '-- not the airline's lawyers, not even the judge himself '-- could find the decisions or the quotations cited and summarized in the brief.

That was because ChatGPT had invented everything.

The lawyer who created the brief, Steven A. Schwartz of the firm Levidow, Levidow & Oberman, threw himself on the mercy of the court on Thursday, saying in an affidavit that he had used the artificial intelligence program to do his legal research '-- ''a source that has revealed itself to be unreliable.''

Mr. Schwartz, who has practiced law in New York for three decades, told Judge P. Kevin Castel that he had no intent to deceive the court or the airline. Mr. Schwartz said that he had never used ChatGPT, and ''therefore was unaware of the possibility that its content could be false.''

He had, he told Judge Castel, even asked the program to verify that the cases were real.

It had said yes.

Mr. Schwartz said he ''greatly regrets'' relying on ChatGPT ''and will never do so in the future without absolute verification of its authenticity.''

Judge Castel said in an order that he had been presented with ''an unprecedented circumstance,'' a legal submission replete with ''bogus judicial decisions, with bogus quotes and bogus internal citations.'' He ordered a hearing for June 8 to discuss potential sanctions.

As artificial intelligence sweeps the online world, it has conjured dystopian visions of computers replacing not only human interaction, but also human labor. The fear has been especially intense for knowledge workers, many of whom worry that their daily activities may not be as rarefied as the world thinks '-- but for which the world pays billable hours.

Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics professor at New York University School of Law, said the issue was particularly acute among lawyers, who have been debating the value and the dangers of A.I. software like ChatGPT, as well as the need to verify whatever information it provides.

''The discussion now among the bar is how to avoid exactly what this case describes,'' Mr. Gillers said. ''You cannot just take the output and cut and paste it into your court filings.''

The real-life case of Roberto Mata v. Avianca Inc. shows that white-collar professions may have at least a little time left before the robots take over.

It began when Mr. Mata was a passenger on Avianca Flight 670 from El Salvador to New York on Aug. 27, 2019, when an airline employee bonked him with the serving cart, according to the lawsuit. After Mr. Mata sued, the airline filed papers asking that the case be dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired.

In a brief filed in March, Mr. Mata's lawyers said the lawsuit should continue, bolstering their argument with references and quotes from the many court decisions that have since been debunked.

Soon, Avianca's lawyers wrote to Judge Castel, saying they were unable to find the cases that were cited in the brief.

When it came to Varghese v. China Southern Airlines, they said they had ''not been able to locate this case by caption or citation, nor any case bearing any resemblance to it.''

They pointed to a lengthy quote from the purported Varghese decision contained in the brief. ''The undersigned has not been able to locate this quotation, nor anything like it in any case,'' Avianca's lawyers wrote.

Indeed, the lawyers added, the quotation, which came from Varghese itself, cited something called Zicherman v. Korean Air Lines Co. Ltd., an opinion purportedly handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in 2008. They said they could not find that, either.

Judge Castel ordered Mr. Mata's attorneys to provide copies of the opinions referred to in their brief. The lawyers submitted a compendium of eight; in most cases, they listed the court and judges who issued them, the docket numbers and dates.

The copy of the supposed Varghese decision, for example, is six pages long and says it was written by a member of a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit. But Avianca's lawyers told the judge that they could not find that opinion, or the others, on court dockets or legal databases.

Bart Banino, a lawyer for Avianca, said that his firm, Condon & Forsyth, specialized in aviation law and that its lawyers could tell the cases in the brief were not real. He added that they had an inkling a chatbot might have been involved.

Mr. Schwartz did not respond to a message seeking comment, nor did Peter LoDuca, another lawyer at the firm, whose name appeared on the brief.

Mr. LoDuca said in an affidavit this week that he did not conduct any of the research in question, and that he had ''no reason to doubt the sincerity'' of Mr. Schwartz's work or the authenticity of the opinions.

ChatGPT generates realistic responses by making guesses about which fragments of text should follow other sequences, based on a statistical model that has ingested billions of examples of text pulled from all over the internet. In Mr. Mata's case, the program appears to have discerned the labyrinthine framework of a written legal argument, but has populated it with names and facts from a bouillabaisse of existing cases.

Judge Castel, in his order calling for a hearing, suggested that he had made his own inquiry. He wrote that the clerk of the 11th Circuit had confirmed that the docket number printed on the purported Varghese opinion was connected to an entirely different case.

Calling the opinion ''bogus,'' Judge Castel noted that it contained internal citations and quotes that, in turn, were nonexistent. He said that five of the other decisions submitted by Mr. Mata's lawyers also appeared to be fake.

On Thursday, Mr. Mata's lawyers offered affidavits containing their version of what had happened.

Mr. Schwartz wrote that he had originally filed Mr. Mata's lawsuit in state court, but after the airline had it transferred to Manhattan's federal court, where Mr. Schwartz is not admitted to practice, one of his colleagues, Mr. LoDuca, became the attorney of record. Mr. Schwartz said he had continued to do the legal research, in which Mr. LoDuca had no role.

Mr. Schwartz said that he had consulted ChatGPT ''to supplement'' his own work and that, ''in consultation'' with it, found and cited the half-dozen nonexistent cases. He said ChatGPT had provided reassurances.

''Is varghese a real case,'' he typed, according to a copy of the exchange that he submitted to the judge.

''Yes,'' the chatbot replied, offering a citation and adding that it ''is a real case.''

Mr. Schwartz dug deeper.

''What is your source,'' he wrote, according to the filing.

''I apologize for the confusion earlier,'' ChatGPT responded, offering a legal citation.

''Are the other cases you provided fake,'' Mr. Schwartz asked.

ChatGPT responded, ''No, the other cases I provided are real and can be found in reputable legal databases.''

But, alas, they could not be.

Sheelagh McNeil contributed research.

Benjamin Weiser is a reporter covering the Manhattan federal courts. He has long covered criminal justice, both as a beat and investigative reporter. Before joining The Times in 1997, he worked at The Washington Post. @ BenWeiserNYT

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Sat, 27 May 2023 21:29

Review

doi: 10.1159/000328921. Epub 2011 Oct 10. Affiliations

Affiliation 1 Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alta., Canada. alawrence@mindspring.com PMID: 22005209 DOI: 10.1159/000328921 Item in Clipboard

Review

Anne A Lawrence . Adv Psychosom Med . 2011 .

doi: 10.1159/000328921. Epub 2011 Oct 10. Affiliation 1 Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alta., Canada. alawrence@mindspring.com PMID: 22005209 DOI: 10.1159/000328921 Item in Clipboard

Abstract Autogynephilia is defined as a male's propensity to be sexually aroused by the thought of himself as a female. It is the paraphilia that is theorized to underlie transvestism and some forms of male-to-female (MtF) transsexualism. Autogynephilia encompasses sexual arousal with cross-dressing and cross-gender expression that does not involve women's clothing per se. The concept of autogynephilia defines a typology of MtF transsexualism and offers a theory of motivation for one type of MtF transsexualism. Autogynephilia resembles a sexual orientation in that it involves elements of idealization and attachment as well as erotic desire. Nearly 3% of men in Western countries may experience autogynephilia; its most severe manifestation, MtF transsexualism, is rare but increasing in prevalence. Some theorists and clinicians reject the transsexual typology and theory of motivation derived from autogynephilia; their objections suggest a need for additional research. The concept of autogynephilia can assist clinicians in understanding some otherwise puzzling manifestations of nonhomosexual MtF transsexualism. Autogynephilia exemplifies an unusual paraphilic category called 'erotic target identity inversions', in which men desire to impersonate or turn their bodies into facsimiles of the persons or things to which they are sexually attracted.

Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Similar articles Becoming what we love: autogynephilic transsexualism conceptualized as an expression of romantic love. Lawrence AA. Lawrence AA. Perspect Biol Med. 2007 Autumn;50(4):506-20. doi: 10.1353/pbm.2007.0050. Perspect Biol Med. 2007. PMID: 17951885

Clinical observations and systematic studies of autogynephilia. Blanchard R. Blanchard R. J Sex Marital Ther. 1991 Winter;17(4):235-51. doi: 10.1080/00926239108404348. J Sex Marital Ther. 1991. PMID: 1815090

The she-male phenomenon and the concept of partial autogynephilia. Blanchard R. Blanchard R. J Sex Marital Ther. 1993 Spring;19(1):69-76. doi: 10.1080/00926239308404889. J Sex Marital Ther. 1993. PMID: 8468711

Clinical and theoretical parallels between desire for limb amputation and gender identity disorder. Lawrence AA. Lawrence AA. Arch Sex Behav. 2006 Jun;35(3):263-78. doi: 10.1007/s10508-006-9026-6. Epub 2006 Jun 24. Arch Sex Behav. 2006. PMID: 16799838 Review.

Erotic target location errors: an underappreciated paraphilic dimension. Lawrence AA. Lawrence AA. J Sex Res. 2009 Mar-Jun;46(2-3):194-215. doi: 10.1080/00224490902747727. J Sex Res. 2009. PMID: 19308843 Review.

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Sat, 27 May 2023 21:10

T here's an ancient fable that Glenn Morrison, a pony-tailed, 75-year-old who lives in the California desert, likes to tell to prove a point. As the lesson goes, one industrious ant readies for winter by stocking up on food and supplies, while an aimless grasshopper wastes time and doesn't plan ahead. When the cold weather finally arrives, the ant is ''fat and happy'', but the grasshopper starves.

In this telling, Morrison is the ant, and those who don't brace themselves for future emergencies '' they're the grasshoppers.

Morrison is in the business of being prepared. He's the president of the Desert Rats (or the Radio Amateur Transmitting Society), a club based in Palm Springs that's dedicated to everything ham radio.

The old-school technology has been around for more than a century. In lieu of smartphones and laptops, ham radio operators use handheld or larger ''base station'' radios to communicate over radio frequencies. The retro devices can range from the size of a walkie-talkie to the heft of a boxy, 20th-century VCR.

Generations after its invention, one of ham radio's biggest draws for hobbyists is its usefulness in an emergency '' think wildfires, earthquakes or another pandemic. If disaster strikes and internet or cellular networks fail, radio operators could spring into action and help with emergency response communications, and be able to keep in contact with their own networks.

Left: Glenn Morrison standing with a U-band vertical antenna in his backyard. Right: Morrison's main 'rig' in his home radio room. Photograph: Adam Amengual/The GuardianAnd the historically fringe world of ham radio is having a moment. In California, there are now nearly 100,000 licensed amateur radio operators, often simply called ''hams'', and more than 760,000 across the country. That total greatly surpasses the number of hams from 40 years ago, even as newer technology has left radio in the dust.

In an era of climate crisis with more intense storms and more frequent wildfires, and other disasters such as global pandemics, ham radio is becoming a tool for some who want to regain a modicum of control.

''Ham radio,'' Morrison said, ''is like the original social media.''

''People aren't prepared. And they keep thinking, 'Well, that's not going to happen in my lifetime.' And it may not, but you never know.''

'I've always wanted to be ready for what's next'On a balmy Saturday morning in Palm Springs, the thermostat already creeping its way towards 80F (27C), a few dozen people trickled into a local gymnasium, finding seats at folding tables set up below the basketball hoops. Volunteers with the Desert Rats, who had organized the makeshift radio testing day for new hams, handed out a stack of exams. If the hams passed the 35-question test, they could become licensed as entry-level amateur operators by the Federal Communications Commission.

'Ham radio is like the original social media,' Morrison says. Photograph: Adam Amengual/The GuardianOne prospective ham was a high school student, a 17-year-old in a gray sweatshirt named Boaz, who took the course with his dad. Boaz first got into amateur radio through YouTube videos, he said, a year before the pandemic started.

''I've always wanted to be ready for what's next,'' he said. ''If something happens and there's no cell service, how am I going to talk to people?'' Getting his driver's license, his dad added, is Boaz's next major goal.

Another newly christened ham, a college professor named Skip Fredricks who sported a black bandanna, tinted aviator sunglasses and a Star Wars T-shirt, said he was hoping to use amateur radio in the classes he teaches about drones. In disaster areas, where drones are sometimes used for search and rescue missions, the radios could help drone pilots communicate better, he said.

Skip Fredricks, a college professor, recently obtained his radio certificate. Photograph: Amanda Ulrich''In very remote areas, communication is a problem,'' he said. ''The ham radio support is better than just walkie-talkies '' and cellphones are useless in the mountains.''

Fredricks held up his new radio certificate, proving he had passed the exam, printed on a bright yellow sheet of paper. ''Pretty cool, huh?'' he said, looking it over. ''My students will probably be impressed.''

Ham radio and 'the big one'Since the early 1900s, ham radio has been used as a lifeline during storms, disasters, wars and other emergencies.

Hams, a term thought to have originally been a smear targeting unskilled amateur operators, were deployed to the Caribbean in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. Shortwave radio also became a way for Ukrainian citizens to get news after Russia attacked communication towers last year, and Taiwanese ham radio enthusiasts have used it to prepare for potential war with China. Astronauts have even used ham radio to chat with people back on Earth.

The astronaut Mamoru Mohri, wearing a headset to communicate with students and other ham operators during a mission in 1992. Photograph: Space Frontiers/Getty ImagesThe radios have even cropped up in disaster movies and TV shows '' most recently in scenes from HBO's The Last of Us that show a clandestine radio operator sending messages across a zombie-ravaged country.

Living in southern California and considering the region's web of fault lines, Morrison, the club president, often thinks about earthquakes.

''If 'the big one' hits, we're not going anywhere,'' he said. ''You have to be self-reliant. You're going to need food supplies and all that stuff. But also if you want Aunt Marge in Portland to know that you're OK, then we can send her a radio gram.''

More specifically, if organizations such as hospitals, fire stations and emergency command centers call for communications assistance, qualified amateur operators can mobilize to help; many hams have ''go kits'' for just that purpose, with supplies including handheld radios and portable antennas.

One such emergency response took place this year, as winter storms pummeled California. In Big Bear, a remote, mountainous community that saw an onslaught of heavy snow over the past few months, amateur radio operators frequently went on the air to broadcast road closures and other local news to their networks. ''I knew the roof on one market had collapsed before it was on the news because I heard it on the radio first,'' Morrison said.

As an informal slogan for the American Radio Relay League, a national association for amateur radio, promises, ham radio is the ultimate backstop for ''when all else fails''.

Left: Dorothy Strauber, member of the Young Ladies Radio League of Long Island, uses earphones to listen to her ham radio receiver in 1954. Right: Early radio ham operators circa 1919. Photograph: Tom Maguire/Newsday RM/Bettmann Archive/GettyRichard Norton, director of the league's south-western division, first got hooked on ham radio in high school because he was drawn to the hobby's technical side. Decades later, he's seen newer hams' interest shift to emergency preparedness. In the little town of Topanga outside Los Angeles, where Norton lives, many residents have thought about what they would do during an earthquake or wildfire if cell signal was lost, he said.

One answer? Get a ham radio.

''Even when cellphone systems go down, our ham systems generally are working and we can communicate,'' he said.

'Working the world'From a hushed neighborhood tucked into the base of desert mountains, about 10 miles down the road from downtown Palm Springs, Morrison took a seat at his desk and ''worked the world''. Spinning a large black dial on the face of a bulky base station radio, he tuned into a realm of static and distant, garbled voices. He strained to listen, parsing faint words, then pulled forward a gold microphone.

Morrison listening for contacts at his home. Photograph: Adam Amengual/The Guardian''Uh, Whiskey, Bravo, six, Romeo, Lima, Charlie,'' Morrison said into the static, adopting the upbeat lilt of a radio DJ. The illogical string of words represents WB6RLC, his call sign, or the unique signature assigned to each ham that inevitably becomes as important as a name. Morrison's sign was printed in bold letters on his hat, and the back of his T-shirt proudly displayed the Desert Rats club logo: a grinning rodent, its tail wrapped around a radio antenna.

Still spinning the radio dial, Morrison stumbled into a perfunctory conversation between someone around the general Nevada and Utah ''call area'' (the designation for where a radio license was issued) and a man in Barcelona.

''That's how you just tune around and find somebody,'' Morrison said happily. ''And oh, look, he's in Barcelona.''

On a computer monitor connected to his radio, Morrison pulled up a comprehensive list of 215 countries, territories and other areas he's ''worked'', or contacted, from this small town in southern California: Argentina. Australia. Algeria. American Samoa. ''And those are just the A's,'' he said.

Around Morrison's one-story home, everything revolves around radio. Desert Rats sketches and maps adorn the walls. A tangle of antennas sprouts from the corner of his roof. The camper van parked in his driveway is equipped with a ''mobile station'' radio for any necessary on-the-go calls. There are radios in every room of his house, save for the guest bathroom.

And Morrison's main radio room, where he overheard the Barcelona conversation, is the crown jewel. The small space attached to his garage has a command center-style feel, with an entire wall devoted to dozens of vintage radios, some over a hundred years old, that Morrison sources from flea markets and friends.

''Sometimes they just find me,'' he added.

Morse code keyers and cables in Morrison's home. Photograph: Adam Amengual/The GuardianBeyond using the radios for emergency communications, hams find meaning in the hobby for its own sake, and in the almost-instant network it provides. Every Monday night, the Desert Rats host a radio ''net'', similar to a public conference call, where amateur operators check in and go through a simple verbal roll call of names and call signs. That type of basic welfare check was particularly important three years ago, during the very first isolating, stay-at-home phase of the pandemic.

''It gave me something to do,'' Morrison said. ''I'd go to my radio shack in the garage, flip on the radio and find somebody, God knows where, to talk to.''

More than an 'old guys' club'Back in the Palm Springs gymnasium, volunteers with the Desert Rats graded exams, their own handheld radios holstered at the hip. Annie Larson, head of membership for the club, buzzed around the room's periphery, glancing at some of the complex test questions about signal frequencies and the properties of radio waves. ''I don't know if I would pass today,'' she joked.

Larson, who recently turned 80, has been a licensed ham for more than a decade, but she doesn't think of herself as a ''tech-y'' person. ''I'm just interested in being able to take care of myself in an emergency,'' she said.

Larson grew up in Idyllwild, a small town lodged in the mountains that loom above Palm Springs. The community, heavily wooded and right on the doorstep of Mount San Jacinto state park, is often threatened by wildfires. A few years ago, as one blaze moved closer and closer to the town, Larson ignored local evacuation warnings and stayed behind with a few park rangers. Having her radio with her was a great reassurance.

Annie Larson has been a licensed ham for more than a decade. Photograph: Adam Amengual/The Guardian''I could listen to it at night and just leave it on,'' she said, instead of needing to constantly check her phone. ''If something came up, I was available.''

While amateur radio used to be something of a boys' club (and ''it still is a little bit'', she added), Larson said she sees more female operators today; about a quarter of those at the Palm Springs testing day were women. And with the wide-ranging impacts of the climate crisis, Larson thinks the hobby is relevant for all.

''People used to think it was like this old guys' club, guys just putzing around,'' she said. ''But it really is important, because the population is increasing and there are many more disasters.''

Fortunately, within the Desert Rats club, hams remain a tight-knit bunch. As the latest batch of radio operators received their certificates after the testing day, some were emotional as they walked out into the desert heat. Morrison stood by the exit, congratulating and shaking hands with each person.

''We'll catch you on the air,'' he called behind them.

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Archived Version

Sat, 27 May 2023 20:39

Argument that posits human beings bet with their lives that God either exists or does not

Pascal's wager is a philosophical argument presented by the seventeenth-century French mathematician, philosopher, physicist and theologian Blaise Pascal (1623''1662).[1] It posits that human beings wager with their lives that God either exists or does not.

Pascal argues that a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God. If God does not exist, such a person will have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.), whereas if God does exist, they stand to receive infinite gains (as represented by eternity in Heaven) and avoid infinite losses (an eternity in Hell).[2]

The original wager was set out in Pascal's posthumously published Pens(C)es ("Thoughts"), an assembly of previously unpublished notes.[3] Pascal's wager marked the first formal use of decision theory, existentialism, pragmatism, and voluntarism.[4]

The wager is commonly criticized with counterarguments such as the failure to prove the existence of God, the argument from inconsistent revelations, and the argument from inauthentic belief.

The wager [ edit ] The wager uses the following logic (excerpts from Pens(C)es, part III, §233):

God is, or God is not. Reason cannot decide between the two alternativesA Game is being played... where heads or tails will turn upYou must wager (it is not optional)Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothingWager, then, without hesitation that He is. (...) There is here an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain, a chance of gain against a finite number of chances of loss, and what you stake is finite. And so our proposition is of infinite force when there is the finite to stake in a game where there are equal risks of gain and of loss, and the infinite to gain.But some cannot believe. They should then 'at least learn your inability to believe...' and 'Endeavour then to convince' themselves.Pascal asks the reader to analyze humankind's position, where our actions can be enormously consequential, but our understanding of those consequences is flawed. While we can discern a great deal through reason, we are ultimately forced to gamble. Pascal cites a number of distinct areas of uncertainty in human life:

CategoryQuotation(s)Uncertainty in allThis is what I see, and what troubles me. I look on all sides, and everywhere I see nothing but obscurity. Nature offers me nothing that is not a matter of doubt and disquiet.[5]Uncertainty in man's purposeFor after all what is man in nature? A nothing in relation to infinity, all in relation to nothing, a central point between nothing and all and infinitely far from understanding either.[5]Uncertainty in reasonThere is nothing so conformable to reason as this disavowal of reason.[5]Uncertainty in scienceThere is no doubt that natural laws exist, but once this fine reason of ours was corrupted, it corrupted everything.[5]Uncertainty in religionIf I saw no signs of a divinity, I would fix myself in denial. If I saw everywhere the marks of a Creator, I would repose peacefully in faith. But seeing too much to deny Him, and too little to assure me, I am in a pitiful state, and I would wish a hundred times that if a god sustains nature it would reveal Him without ambiguity.[5]We understand nothing of the works of God unless we take it as a principle that He wishes to blind some and to enlighten others.[5]

Uncertainty in skepticismIt is not certain that everything is uncertain.[5]Pascal describes humanity as a finite being trapped within an incomprehensible infinity, briefly thrust into being from non-being, with no explanation of "Why?" or "What?" or "How?" On Pascal's view, human finitude constrains our ability to achieve truth reliably.

Given that reason alone cannot determine whether God exists, Pascal concludes that this question functions as a coin toss. However, even if we do not know the outcome of this coin toss, we must base our actions on some expectation about the consequence. We must decide whether to live as though God exists, or whether to live as though God does not exist, even though we may be mistaken in either case.

In Pascal's assessment, participation in this wager is not optional. Merely by existing in a state of uncertainty, we are forced to choose between the available courses of action for practical purposes.

Pascal's description of the wager [ edit ] The Pens(C)es passage on Pascal's wager is as follows:

If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since, having neither parts nor limits, He has no affinity to us. We are then incapable of knowing either what He is or if He is....

..."God is, or He is not." But to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide nothing here. There is infinite chaos that separated us. A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up. What will you wager? According to reason, you can do neither the one thing nor the other; according to reason, you can defend neither of the propositions.

Do not, then, reprove for error those who have made a choice; for you know nothing about it. "No, but I blame them for having made, not this choice, but a choice; for again both he who chooses heads and he who chooses tails are equally at fault, they are both in the wrong. The true course is not to wager at all."

Yes; but you must wager. It is not optional. You are embarked. Which will you choose then? Let us see. Since you must choose, let us see which interests you least. You have two things to lose, the true and the good; and two things to stake, your reason and your will, your knowledge and your happiness; and your nature has two things to shun, error and misery. Your reason is no more shocked in choosing one rather than the other since you must of necessity choose. This is one point settled. But your happiness? Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.

"That is very fine. Yes, I must wager; but I may perhaps wager too much." Let us see. Since there is an equal risk of gain and of loss, if you had only to gain two lives, instead of one, you might still wager. But if there were three lives to gain, you would have to play (since you are under the necessity of playing), and you would be imprudent, when you are forced to play, not to change your life to gain three at a game where there is an equal risk of loss and gain. But there is an eternity of life and happiness. And this being so, if there were an infinity of chances, of which one only would be for you, you would still be right in wagering one to win two, and you would act stupidly, being obliged to play, by refusing to stake one life against three at a game in which out of an infinity of chances there is one for you if there were an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain. But there is here an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain, a chance of gain against a finite number of chances of loss, and what you stake is finite.[6]

Pascal begins by painting a situation where both the existence and non-existence of God are impossible to prove by human reason. So, supposing that reason cannot determine the truth between the two options, one must "wager" by weighing the possible consequences. Pascal's assumption is that, when it comes to making the decision, no one can refuse to participate; withholding assent is impossible because we are already "embarked", effectively living out the choice.

We only have two things to stake, our "reason" and our "happiness". Pascal considers that if there is "equal risk of loss and gain" (i.e. a coin toss), then human reason is powerless to address the question of whether God exists. That being the case, then human reason can only decide the question according to possible resulting happiness of the decision, weighing the gain and loss in believing that God exists and likewise in believing that God does not exist.

He points out that if a wager were between the equal chance of gaining two lifetimes of happiness and gaining nothing, then a person would be a fool to bet on the latter. The same would go if it were three lifetimes of happiness versus nothing. He then argues that it is simply unconscionable by comparison to betting against an eternal life of happiness for the possibility of gaining nothing. The wise decision is to wager that God exists, since "If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing", meaning one can gain eternal life if God exists, but if not, one will be no worse off in death than if one had not believed. On the other hand, if you bet against God, win or lose, you either gain nothing or lose everything. You are either unavoidably annihilated (in which case, nothing matters one way or the other) or miss the opportunity of eternal happiness. In note 194, speaking about those who live apathetically betting against God, he sums up by remarking, "It is to the glory of religion to have for enemies men so unreasonable..."

Inability to believe [ edit ] Pascal addressed the difficulty that 'reason' and 'rationality' pose to genuine belief by proposing that "acting as if [one] believed" could "cure [one] of unbelief":

But at least learn your inability to believe, since reason brings you to this, and yet you cannot believe. Endeavor then to convince yourself, not by increase of proofs of God, but by the abatement of your passions. You would like to attain faith, and do not know the way; you would like to cure yourself of unbelief and ask the remedy for it. Learn of those who have been bound like you, and who now stake all their possessions. These are people who know the way which you would follow, and who are cured of an ill of which you would be cured. Follow the way by which they began; by acting as if they believed, taking the holy water, having masses said, etc. Even this will naturally make you believe, and deaden your acuteness.[7]

Analysis with decision theory [ edit ] The possibilities defined by Pascal's wager can be thought of as a decision under uncertainty with the values of the following decision matrix.

God exists (G)God does not exist (¬G)Belief (B)+'ž (infinite gain)''c (finite loss)Disbelief (¬B)'''ž (infinite loss)+c (finite gain)Given these values, the option of living as if God exists (B) dominates the option of living as if God does not exist (¬B), as long as one assumes a positive probability that God exists. In other words, the expected value gained by choosing B is greater than or equal to that of choosing ¬B.

In fact, according to decision theory, the only value that matters in the above matrix is the +'ž (infinitely positive). Any matrix of the following type (where f1, f2, and f3 are all negative or finite positive numbers) results in (B) as being the only rational decision.[4]

God exists (G)God does not exist (¬G)Belief (B)+'žf1Disbelief (¬B)f2f3Misunderstanding of the wager [ edit ] Pascal's intent was not to provide an argument to convince atheists to believe, but (a) to show the fallacy of attempting to use logical arguments to prove or disprove God, and (b) to persuade atheists to sinlessness, as an aid to attaining faith ("it is this which will lessen the passions, which are your stumbling-blocks"). As Laurent Thirouin writes (note that the numbering of the items in the Pensees is not standardized; Thirouin's 418 is this article's 233):

The celebrity of fragment 418 has been established at the price of mutilation. By titling this text "the wager", readers have been fixated only on one part of Pascal's reasoning. It doesn't conclude with a QED at the end of the mathematical part. The unbeliever who had provoked this long analysis to counter his previous objection ("Maybe I bet too much") is still not ready to join the apologist on the side of faith. He put forward two new objections, undermining the foundations of the wager: the impossibility to know, and the obligation of playing.[8]

To be put at the beginning of Pascal's planned book, the wager was meant to show that logical reasoning cannot support faith or lack thereof:

We have to accept reality and accept the reaction of the libertine when he rejects arguments he is unable to counter. The conclusion is evident: if men believe or refuse to believe, it is not how some believers sometimes say and most unbelievers claim because their own reason justifies the position they have adopted. Belief in God doesn't depend upon rational evidence, no matter which position.[9]

Pascal's intended book was precisely to find other ways to establish the value of faith, a justification for the Christian faith.

Criticism [ edit ] Criticism of Pascal's wager began in his own day, and came from atheists, who questioned the "benefits" of a deity whose "realm" is beyond reason and the religiously orthodox, who primarily took issue with the wager's deistic and agnostic language. It is criticized for not proving God's existence, the encouragement of false belief, and the problem of which religion and which God should be worshipped.[10][11]

Laplace [ edit ] The probabilist mathematician Pierre Simon de Laplace ridiculed the use of probability in theology. Even following Pascal's reasoning, it is not worth making a bet, for the hope of profit '' equal to the product of the value of the testimonies (infinitely small) and the value of the happiness they promise (which is significant but finite) '' must necessarily be infinitely small.[12]

Failure to prove the existence of God [ edit ] Voltaire (another prominent French writer of the Enlightenment), a generation after Pascal, regarded the idea of the wager as a "proof of God" as "indecent and childish", adding, "the interest I have to believe a thing is no proof that such a thing exists".[13] Pascal, however, did not advance the wager as a proof of God's existence but rather as a necessary pragmatic decision which is "impossible to avoid" for any living person.[14] He argued that abstaining from making a wager is not an option and that "reason is incapable of divining the truth"; thus, a decision of whether to believe in the existence of God must be made by "considering the consequences of each possibility".

Voltaire's critique concerns not the nature of the Pascalian wager as proof of God's existence, but the contention that the very belief Pascal tried to promote is not convincing. Voltaire hints at the fact that Pascal, as a Jansenist, believed that only a small, and already predestined, portion of humanity would eventually be saved by God.

Voltaire explained that no matter how far someone is tempted with rewards to believe in Christian salvation, the result will be at best a faint belief.[15] Pascal, in his Pens(C)es, agrees with this, not stating that people can choose to believe (and therefore make a safe wager), but rather that some cannot believe.

As ‰tienne Souriau explained, in order to accept Pascal's argument, the bettor needs to be certain that God seriously intends to honour the bet; he says that the wager assumes that God also accepts the bet, which is not proved; Pascal's bettor is here like the fool who seeing a leaf floating on a river's waters and quivering at some point, for a few seconds, between the two sides of a stone, says: "I bet a million with Rothschild that it takes finally the left path." And, effectively, the leaf passed on the left side of the stone, but unfortunately for the fool Rothschild never said "I [will take that] bet".[16]

Argument from inconsistent revelations [ edit ] Since there have been many religions throughout history, and therefore many conceptions of God (or gods), some assert that all of them need to be factored into the wager, in an argumentation known as the argument from inconsistent revelations. This, its proponents argue, would lead to a high probability of believing in "the wrong god", which, they claim, eliminates the mathematical advantage Pascal claimed with his wager.[10] Denis Diderot, a contemporary of Voltaire, concisely expressed this opinion when asked about the wager, saying "an Imam could reason the same way".[17] J. L. Mackie notes that "the church within which alone salvation is to be found is not necessarily the Church of Rome, but perhaps that of the Anabaptists or the Mormons or the Muslim Sunnis or the worshipers of Kali or of Odin."[18]

Pascal considers this type of objection briefly in the notes compiled into the Pens(C)es, and dismisses it:[19]

What say [the unbelievers] then? "Do we not see," say they, "that the brutes live and die like men, and Turks like Christians? They have their ceremonies, their prophets, their doctors, their saints, their monks, like us," etc. If you care but little to know the truth, that is enough to leave you in repose. But if you desire with all your heart to know it, it is not enough; look at it in detail. That would be sufficient for a question in philosophy; but not here, where everything is at stake. And yet, after a superficial reflection of this kind, we go to amuse ourselves, etc. Let us inquire of this same religion whether it does not give a reason for this obscurity; perhaps it will teach it to us.[20]

Pascal says that the skepticism of unbelievers who rest content with the many-religions objection has seduced them into a fatal "repose". If they were really bent on knowing the truth, they would be persuaded to examine "in detail" whether Christianity is like any other religion, but they just cannot be bothered.[21] Their objection might be sufficient were the subject concerned merely some "question in philosophy", but not "here, where everything is at stake". In "a matter where they themselves, their eternity, their all are concerned",[5] they can manage no better than "a superficial reflection" ("une reflexion l(C)g¨re") and, thinking they have scored a point by asking a leading question, they go off to amuse themselves.[22]

As Pascal scholars observe, Pascal regarded the many-religions objection as a rhetorical ploy, a "trap" that he had no intention of falling into.[23]

David Wetsel notes that Pascal's treatment of the pagan religions is brisk: "As far as Pascal is concerned, the demise of the pagan religions of antiquity speaks for itself. Those pagan religions which still exist in the New World, in India, and in Africa are not even worth a second glance. They are obviously the work of superstition and ignorance and have nothing in them which might interest 'les gens habiles' ('clever men')[5]".[24] Islam warrants more attention, being distinguished from paganism (which for Pascal presumably includes all the other non-Christian religions) by its claim to be a revealed religion. Nevertheless, Pascal concludes that the religion founded by Mohammed can on several counts be shown to be devoid of divine authority, and that therefore, as a path to the knowledge of God, it is as much a dead end as paganism."[25] Judaism, in view of its close links to Christianity, he deals with elsewhere.[26]

The many-religions objection is taken more seriously by some later apologists of the wager, who argue that of the rival options only those awarding infinite happiness affect the wager's dominance. In the opinion of these apologists "finite, semi-blissful promises such as Kali's or Odin's" therefore drop out of consideration.[4] Also, the infinite bliss that the rival conception of God offers has to be mutually exclusive. If Christ's promise of bliss can be attained concurrently with Jehovah's and Allah's (all three being identified as the God of Abraham), there is no conflict in the decision matrix in the case where the cost of believing in the wrong conception of God is neutral (limbo/purgatory/spiritual death), although this would be countered with an infinite cost in the case where not believing in the correct conception of God results in punishment (hell).[27]

Ecumenical interpretations of the wager[28] argues that it could even be suggested that believing in a generic God, or a god by the wrong name, is acceptable so long as that conception of God has similar essential characteristics of the conception of God considered in Pascal's wager (perhaps the God of Aristotle). Proponents of this line of reasoning suggest that either all of the conceptions of God or gods throughout history truly boil down to just a small set of "genuine options", or that if Pascal's wager can simply bring a person to believe in "generic theism", it has done its job.[27]

Pascal argues implicitly for the uniqueness of Christianity in the wager itself, writing: "If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible...Who then can blame the Christians for not being able to give reasons for their beliefs, professing as they do a religion which they cannot explain by reason?"[29]

Argument from inauthentic belief [ edit ] Some critics argue that Pascal's wager, for those who cannot believe, suggests feigning belief to gain eternal reward. Richard Dawkins argues that this would be dishonest and immoral and that, in addition to this, it is absurd to think that God, being just and omniscient, would not see through this deceptive strategy on the part of the "believer", thus nullifying the benefits of the wager.[11]

Since these criticisms are concerned not with the validity of the wager itself, but with its possible aftermath'--namely that a person who has been convinced of the overwhelming odds in favor of belief might still find himself unable to sincerely believe'--they are tangential to the thrust of the wager. What such critics are objecting to is Pascal's subsequent advice to an unbeliever who, having concluded that the only rational way to wager is in favor of God's existence, points out, reasonably enough, that this by no means makes him a believer. This hypothetical unbeliever complains, "I am so made that I cannot believe. What would you have me do?"[5] Pascal, far from suggesting that God can be deceived by outward show, says that God does not regard it at all: "God looks only at what is inward."[5] For a person who is already convinced of the odds of the wager but cannot seem to put his heart into the belief, he offers practical advice.

Explicitly addressing the question of inability to believe, Pascal argues that if the wager is valid, the inability to believe is irrational, and therefore must be caused by feelings: "your inability to believe, because reason compels you to [believe] and yet you cannot, [comes] from your passions." This inability, therefore, can be overcome by diminishing these irrational sentiments: "Learn from those who were bound like you. . . . Follow the way by which they began; by acting as if they believed, taking the holy water, having masses said, etc. Even this will naturally make you believe, and deaden your acuteness.'--'But this is what I am afraid of.''--And why? What have you to lose?"[30]

An uncontroversial doctrine in both Roman Catholic and Protestant theology is that mere belief in God is insufficient to attain salvation, the standard cite being James 2:19 (KJV): "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." Salvation requires "faith" not just in the sense of belief, but of trust and obedience. Pascal and his sister, a nun, were among the leaders of Roman Catholicism's Jansenist school of thought whose doctrine of salvation was close to Protestantism in emphasizing faith over works. Both Jansenists and Protestants followed St. Augustine in this emphasis (Martin Luther belonged to the Augustinian Order of monks). Augustine wrote

So our faith has to be distinguished from the faith of the demons. Our faith, you see, purifies the heart, their faith makes them guilty. They act wickedly, and so they say to the Lord, "What have you to do with us?" When you hear the demons saying this, do you imagine they don't recognize him? "We know who you are," they say. "You are the Son of God" (Lk 4:34). Peter says this and he is praised for it; 14 the demon says it, and is condemned. Why's that, if not because the words may be the same, but the heart is very different? So let us distinguish our faith, and see that believing is not enough. That's not the sort of faith that purifies the heart.[31]

Since Pascal's position was that "saving" belief in God required more than logical assent, accepting the wager could only be a first step. Hence his advice on what steps one could take to arrive at belief.

Some other critics[who? ] have objected to Pascal's wager on the grounds that he wrongly assumes what type of epistemic character God would likely value in his rational creatures if he existed.

Variations and other wager arguments [ edit ] The sophist Protagoras had an agnostic position regarding the gods, but he nevertheless continued to worship the gods. This could be considered as an early version of the Wager.[32]In the famous tragedy of Euripides Bacchae, Kadmos states an early version of Pascal's wager. It is noteworthy that at the end of the tragedy Dionysos, the god to whom Kadmos referred, appears and punishes him for thinking in this way. Euripides, quite clearly, considered and dismissed the wager in this tragedy.[33]The stoic philosopher and Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius expressed a similar sentiment in the second book of Meditations, saying "Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly. But to go away from among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve thee in evil; but if indeed they do not exist, or if they have no concern about human affairs, what is it to me to live in a universe devoid of gods or devoid of Providence?"[34]The early Buddhist texts contain passages which defend a Buddhist wager argument for believing in an afterlife.[35]In the Sanskrit classic Sārasamuccaya, Vararuci makes a similar argument to Pascal's wager.[36]Muslim Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq is recorded to have postulated variations of the wager on several occasions in different forms, including his famed 'Tradition of the Myrobalan Fruit.'[37] In the Shi'i hadith book al-Kafi, al-Sadiq declares to an atheist "If what you say is correct '' and it is not '' then we will both succeed. But if what I say is correct '' and it is '' then I will succeed, and you will be destroyed."[38]An instantiation of this argument, within the Islamic kalam tradition, was discussed by Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni (d. 478/1085) in his Kitab al-irshad ila-qawati al-adilla fi usul al-i'tiqad, or A Guide to the Conclusive Proofs for the Principles of Belief.[39]The Christian apologist Arnobius of Sicca (d. 330) stated an early version of the argument in his book Against the Pagans, arguing "is it not more rational, of two things uncertain and hanging in doubtful suspense, rather to believe that which carries with it some hopes, than that which brings none at all?"[40][41]A close parallel just before Pascal's time occurred in the Jesuit Antoine Sirmond's On the Immortality of the Soul (1635), which explicitly compared the choice of religion to playing dice and argued "However long and happy the space of this life may be, while ever you place it in the other pan of the balance against a blessed and flourishing eternity, surely it will seem to you ... that the pan will rise on high."[40]:'Š30'Š The Atheist's Wager, popularised by the philosopher Michael Martin and published in his 1990 book Atheism: A Philosophical Justification, is an atheistic wager argument in response to Pascal's wager.[42]A 2008 philosophy book, How to Make Good Decisions and Be Right All the Time, presents a secular revision of Pascal's wager: "What does it hurt to pursue value and virtue? If there is value, then we have everything to gain, but if there is none, then we haven't lost anything.... Thus, we should seek value."[43]Pascal's Mugging, a dialogue written by philosopher Nick Bostrom, shows that a rational victim can be made to give up his wallet in exchange for a weakly credible promise of astronomical repayment.[44] As in Pascal's Wager, a small but certain downside is outweighed by a large but unlikely upside.Roko's basilisk is a hypothetical future superintelligence that punishes everyone who failed to help bring it into existence.[45]In a 2014 article, philosopher Justin McBrayer argued we ought to remain agnostic about the existence of God but nonetheless believe because of the good that comes in the present life from believing in God. "The gist of the renewed wager is that theists do better than non-theists regardless of whether or not God exists."[46]Climate change [ edit ] Since at least 1992, some scholars have analogized Pascal's wager to decisions about catastrophic climate change.[47] Two differences from Pascal's wager are posited regarding climate change: first, climate change is more likely than Pascal's God to exist, as there is scientific evidence for one but not the other.[48] Secondly, the calculated penalty for unchecked climate catastrophe would be large, but is not generally considered to be infinite.[49] Magnate Warren Buffett has written that climate change "bears a similarity to Pascal's Wager on the Existence of God. Pascal, it may be recalled, argued that if there were only a tiny probability that God truly existed, it made sense to behave as if He did because the rewards could be infinite whereas the lack of belief risked eternal misery. Likewise, if there is only a 1% chance the planet is heading toward a truly major disaster and delay means passing a point of no return, inaction now is foolhardy."[50][51]

History [ edit ] Abu Al-Ala' Al-Ma'ari formulated this idea six centuries earlier in a poetic form:[52]

The astrologer and the doctor, both of them said: bodies are not put together. I said take it from me:If what you say is true, then I am not a loser, or if what I say is true, then the loss is upon you both.

See also [ edit ] Notes [ edit ] ^ Connor, James A. (2006). Pascal's wager: the man who played dice with God . San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco. pp. 180''1. ISBN 9780060766917. ^ "Blaise Pascal", Columbia History of Western Philosophy, page 353. ^ Clarke, Desmond (June 22, 2015). "Blaise Pascal". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2015 ed.). ^ a b c Hjek, Alan (November 6, 2012). "Pascal's Wager". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . Retrieved April 21, 2016 . ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "The Project Gutenberg eBook of Pascal's Pens(C)es, by Blaise Pascal". www.gutenberg.org. ^ Pens(C)es, Section III, 233. ^ Pens(C)es Section III note 233, Translation by W. F. Trotter ^ Laurent Thirouin, Le hasard et les r¨gles, le mod¨le du jeu dans la pens(C)e de Pascal, Vrin, Paris 1991, p.170 ^ Laurent Thirouin, Le hasard et les r¨gles, le mod¨le du jeu dans la pens(C)e de Pascal, Vrin, Paris 1991, p.176 ^ a b Podgorski, Daniel (December 18, 2015). "A Logical Infinite: The Constrained Probabilistic Definitions of Chance and Infinity in Blaise Pascal's Famous Wager". The Gemsbok . Retrieved April 21, 2016 . ^ a b Dawkins, Richard (May 21, 2007). "Chapter 3: Arguments for God's existence". The God Delusion. Black Swan. pp. 130''132. ISBN 9780552773317. ^ Jacques Attali (2004), Pascal, Warszawa, p. 368 ^ Voltaire (1728). "Remarques (Premi(C)res) sur les Pens(C)es de Pascal". Oeuvres Compl(C)tes de Voltaire. M(C)langes I (in French). Archived from the original on April 18, 2012 . Retrieved April 24, 2016 . ^ Durant, Will and Ariel (1965). The Age of Voltaire . Tapei. pp. 370. ^ Vous me promettez l'empire du monde si je crois que vous avez raison: je souhaite alors, de tout mon coeur, que vous ayez raison; mais jusqu' ce que vous me l'ayez prouv(C), je ne puis vous croire. ['...] J'ai int(C)rªt, sans doute, qu'il y ait un Dieu; mais si dans votre syst¨me Dieu n'est venu que pour si peu de personnes; si le petit nombre des (C)lus est si effrayant; si je ne puis rien du tout par moi-mªme, dites-moi, je vous prie, quel int(C)rªt j'ai vous croire? N'ai-je pas un int(C)rªt visible ªtre persuad(C) du contraire? De quel front osez-vous me montrer un bonheur infini, auquel d'un million d'hommes un seul peine a droit d'aspirer? ^ vrai dire le c(C)l¨bre pari de Pascal, ou plut´t le pari que Pascal propose au libertin n'est pas une option d(C)sint(C)ress(C)e mais un pari de joueur. Si le libertin joue croix>>, parie que Dieu existe, il gagne (si Dieu existe) la vie (C)ternelle et la b(C)atitude infinie, et risque seulement de perdre les mis(C)rables plaisirs de sa vie actuelle. Cette mise ne compte pas au regard du gain possible qui est infini. Seulement, l'argument suppose que Dieu accepte le pari, que Dieu dit je tiens>>. Sans quoi, nous dit Souriau, le libertin est comme ce fou : il voit une feuille au fil de l'eau, h(C)siter entre deux c´t(C)s d'un caillou. Il dit : je parie un million avec Rothschild qu'elle passera droite>>. La feuille passe droite et le fou dit : j'ai gagn(C) un million>>. O¹ est sa folie? Ce n'est pas que le million n'existe pas, c'est que Rothschild n'a pas dit : je tiens>>. >>. (Cf. l'admirable analyse du pari de Pascal in Souriau, L'ombre de Dieu, p. 47 sq.) '' La Philosophie, Tome 2 (La Connaissance), Denis Huisman, Andr(C) Vergez, Marabout 1994, pp. 462''63 ^ Diderot, Denis (1875''77) [1746]. J. Ass(C)zar (ed.). Pens(C)es philosophiques, LIX, Volume 1 (in French). p. 167. ^ Mackie, J. L. (1982). The Miracle of Theism, Oxford, pg. 203 ^ Wetsel, David (1994). Pascal and Disbelief: Catechesis and Conversion in the Pens(C)es. Washington, D. C.: The Catholic University of America Press, p. 117. ISBN 0-8132-1328-2 ^ Pens(C)e #226 ^ Wetsel, Pascal and Disbelief, p. 370. ^ Wetsel, Pascal and Disbelief, p. 238. ^ Wetsel, Pascal and Disbelief, pp. 118 (quotation from Jean Mesnard), 236. ^ Wetsel, Pascal and Disbelief, p. 181. ^ Wetsel, Pascal and Disbelief, p. 182. ^ Wetsel, Pascal and Disbelief, p. 180. ^ a b Saka, Paul. "Pascal's Wager about God". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy . Retrieved April 21, 2016 . ^ For example: Jeff Jordan, Gambling on God: Essays on Pascal's Wager, 1994, Rowman & Littlefield. ^ Pascal, Blaise (1932). "Pascal's Wager: 343 [6-233]" (PDF) . Pens(C)es. Translated by Warrington, John. Everyman's Library No. 874. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 13, 2019 '' via ucla.edu. ^ Pens(C)e #233. G(C)rard Ferreyrolles, ed. Paris: Librairie G(C)n(C)rale Fran§aise, 2000. ^ DTK, "A Person is Justified by Works - (James 2:14-26)", Puritanboard.com, https://www.puritanboard.com/threads/a-person-is-justified-by-works-james-2-14-26.13531/, (May 2, 2006) viewed January 21, 2021, citing John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., ed.,WSA, Sermons, Part 3, Vol. 3, trans. Edmund Hill, O.P., "Sermon 53.11" (Brooklyn: New City Press, 1991), p. 71. DTK collects several other Augustine quotes on the topic, with similarly precise citations. ^ Boyarin, Daniel (2009). Socrates & the fat rabbis . University of Chicago Press. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-226-06916-6. ^ Weaver, John B. (2004). Plots of epiphany: prison-escape in Acts of the Apostles. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 453''454, 595. ISBN 978-3-11-018266-8. ^ "The Internet Classics Archive | The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius". classics.mit.edu . Retrieved 2019-01-27 . ^ Jayatilleke, K N (2013-10-16). Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge. doi:10.4324/9781315888347. ISBN 9781134542871. ^ Ostler, Nicholas (2005). Empires of the Word. HarperCollins. ^ "The Hadith". Tradition of the Myrobalan Fruit. Al-Islam.org. 2017. ^ al-KulainÄ, M. (1982). al- KāfÄ. Tehran: Group of Muslim Brothers. ^ al-Juwayni A Guide to Conclusive Proofs for the Principles of Belief, 6 ^ a b Franklin, James (2001). "Pascal's wager and the origins of decision theory: decision-making by real decision-makers" (PDF) . In Bartha, P.; Pasternack, L. (eds.). Classic Philosophical Arguments: Pascal's Wager. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 27''44. ISBN 978-1107181434. ^ Aleksandrovich FlorenskiÄ­, Pavel (1997). The pillar and ground of the truth (1914). Princeton University Press. p. 37. ISBN 0-691-03243-2. ^ Martin, Michael (1990). "9". Atheism: A Philosophical Justification. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 9780877226420. ^ "24 and Philosophy". July 16, 2014. ^ Bostrom, Nick (July 2009). "Pascal's mugging" (PDF) . Future of Humanity Institute . Retrieved 25 May 2022 . {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) ^ Paul-Choudhury, Sumit. "Tomorrow's Gods: What is the future of religion?". BBC . Retrieved 28 August 2020 . ^ McBrayer, Justin P. (23 September 2014). "The Wager Renewed: Believing in God is Good for You" (PDF) . Science, Religion and Culture. 1 (3): 130''140 . Retrieved 29 September 2019 . ^ Orr, D. W. (1992). "Pascals wager and economics in a hotter time". Ecological Economics. 6 (1): 1''6. doi:10.1016/0921-8009(92)90035-q. ^ Nathan, Green (July 3, 2012). "How to bet on climate change". The Guardian . Retrieved May 25, 2020 . ^ van der Ploeg, Frederick; Rezai, Armon (January 2019). "The agnostic's response to climate deniers: Price carbon!". European Economic Review. 111: 70''84. doi:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2018.08.010. S2CID 158123994. ^ Buffet, W. (February 27, 2016). "To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc" (PDF) . Berkshire Hathaway, Inc . Retrieved May 25, 2020 . ^ Oyedele, Akin (2019). "Warren Buffett on global warming: 'This issue bears a similarity to Pascal's Wager on the Existence of God.' ". Business Insider . Retrieved 25 February 2020 . ^ "قا٠اÙمنجم ÙاÙطبيب كÙاهما - أب٠اÙعÙØ§Ø Ø§Ùمعري". References [ edit ] al-Juwayni, Imam al-Haramayn (2000). Walker, Dr. Paul E. (ed.). A Guide to Conclusive Proofs for the Principles of Belief. Reading, UK: Garnet Publishing. pp. 6''7. ISBN 1-85964-157-1. Armour, Leslie. Infini Rien: Pascal's Wager and the Human Paradox. The Journal of the History of Philosophy Monograph Series. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1993.Cargile, James. "Pascal's Wager". Contemporary Perspectives on Religious Epistemology. R. Douglas Geivett and Brendan Sweetman, eds. Oxford University Press, 1992.Dawkins, Richard. "Pascal's Wager". The God Delusion. Black Swan, 2007 (ISBN 978-0-552-77429-1).Holowecky, Elizabeth. "Taxes and God". KPMG Press, 2008. (Phone interview)Jordan, Jeff, ed. Gambling on God. Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1994. (A collection of recent articles on the Wager with a bibliography.)Jordan, Jeff. Pascal's Wager: Pragmatic Arguments and Belief in God. Oxford University Press, 2007.Lycan, William G. and George N. Schlesinger, "You Bet Your Life: Pascal's Wager Defended". Contemporary Perspectives on Religious Epistemology. R. Douglas Geivett and Brendan Sweetman, eds. Oxford University Press, 1992.Martin, Michael. Atheism. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990. (Pp. 229''238 presents the argument about a god who punishes believers.)Morris, Thomas V. "Pascalian Wagering". Contemporary Perspectives on Religious Epistemology. R. Douglas Geivett and Brendan Sweetman, eds. Oxford University Press, 1992.Rescher, Nicholas. Pascal's Wager: A Study of Practical Reasoning in Philosophical Theology. University of Notre Dame Press, 1985. (The first book-length treatment of the Wager in English.)Whyte, Jamie. Crimes against Logic. McGraw-Hill, 2004. (Section with argument about Wager)External links [ edit ] Pascal's Pensees Part III '-- "The Necessity of the Wager" (Trotter translation), at Classical Library (Wager found at #233)Section III of Blaise Pascal's Pens(C)es, Translated by W. F. Trotter (with foreword by T. S. Eliot), at Project Gutenburg (Wager found at #233)Pascal's Wager in the Internet Encyclopedia of PhilosophyPascal's Wager in the Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyPascal's Wager: Pragmatic Arguments and Belief in God (2006) by Jeff Jordan, University of Delaware, 2006Ambiguity, Pessimism, and Rational Religious Choice (2010) by Tigran Melkonyan and Mark Pingle, Theory and Decision, 2010, Volume 69, Number 3, Pages 417''438The Rejection of Pascal's Wager by Paul TobinPascal's Mugging by Nick BostromTheistic Belief and Religious Uncertainty by Jeffrey Jordan

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Sat, 27 May 2023 18:36

On Friday afternoon, a bomb threat to multiple locations prompted the evacuation of a Target store in Utah.

The incident unfolded at a Target store located at 810 West 2000 North in Layton, Utah. Law enforcement, including a bomb squad and K9 unit, immediately responded to the scene around 1 pm, according to local news outlet KUTV 2.

All customers and staff were directed to the parking lot as a precautionary measure.

The threats extended beyond the Layton location, with stores in Salt Lake, Taylorsville, and Provo also targeted.

In addition to the incidents in Utah, five Target stores located in Northeast Ohio and Pennsylvania were also threatened.

According to reports, authorities were alerted to the threats after local news stations received emails from trans terrorists threatening to bomb Target for removing Satanic groomer merchandise.

Update:

Yesterday it was reported that Target stores in Ohio received multiple bomb threats. Initially, it was suspected the threats came from someone upset about the Pride display, but new details show it was actually an LGBTQ+ ally who said the bomb threats would continue'... pic.twitter.com/N8kv8v7R0s

'-- 🇺🇸Travis🇺🇸 (@Travis_in_Flint) May 27, 2023

''Target is full of [redacted] cowards who turned their back on the LGBT community and decided to cater to homophobic right wing, redneck, bigots, who protested and vandalized their store,' according to the email sent to Cleveland 9 per Daily Mail. ''We won't stand idly by as the far right continues to hunt us down.''

''We are sending you a message, we placed a bomb in the following Targets,' the email continued. 'We will continue to bomb your Targets until you stop cowering and bring back your LBGT merchandise. We will not be erased, we won't go quietly.'''

Layton Police Sergeant John Ottesen informed KUTV that the threats made in Utah originated from a ''bogus email address,'' indicating that law enforcement agencies are actively working to trace the source of the threats.

Salt Lake City Police said in a statement to KUTV 2 that there's no credible threat.

''Officers have worked with the Target Corporation throughout the morning and have determined there is no credible threat to the Target stores in Salt Lake City,'' the statement said.

''Officers will continue neighborhood patrols around the Target locations in Salt Lake City out of an abundance of caution. We encourage anyone who sees anything suspicious to immediately call 911.''

Threats of boycotts and massive backlash across the country prompted Target to scale back during an emergency meeting with the Target Asset Protect & Corporate Security team.

Target was forced to remove some LGBTQ+ merchandise from its Pride Month collection.

The items now being removed include ''gender fluid'' mugs, ''queer all year'' calendars and books for children aged 2-9 titled ''Bye Bye, Binary,'' ''Pride 1,2,3,'' ''I'm not a girl'' and all products created by the satanic Abprallen brand.

Target also partnered with GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network), a group that advocates policies that keep parents unaware of their child's in-school gender transition, providing sexually explicit books to schools, and pushing gender ideology throughout public school curricula.

Target has lost over $9 BILLION in value this past week from conservative boycotts.

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Sat, 27 May 2023 16:34

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Archived Version

Sat, 27 May 2023 16:14

The far-left Associated Press (AP) spread conspiracy theories about Target customers behaving violently, and after it was called out for spreading this misinformation, the disgraced outlet secretly deleted its lies without noting an update or correction.

''The Associated Press has removed uncredited claims, without telling readers,'' reports Just the News, ''that Target yanked or relocated LGBTQ merchandise featured prominently in Pride Month displays in response to 'threats to workers' and 'violent confrontations' between customers and employees.''

As many are aware, Target has joined companies like Disney in the grooming of small children by prematurely exposing them to adult sexuality, homosexuality, transvestites, transsexuals, and drag queens.

Any individual or corporation that launches a campaign to prematurely sexualize children is guilty of child abuse, is a threat to children, and is undoubtedly grooming them for abuse.

June is now Pride Month in America, an unconscionably stupid and disgusting celebration of what two percent of the population do with their sex organs. As if that is not bad enough, corporations like Disney and Target use Pride Month as an excuse to groom children.

Target is so dedicated to this degeneracy; it partnered with a Satanist.

Obviously, decent and normal people believe it is wrong to have sex with children and are upset over Target's (literal) satanic grooming. This has resulted in well-deserved backlash.

But.

Because the AP is firmly on the side of groomers, it spreads lies that would make the literal Satanists at Target look like the victims here. Here is the AP's published conspiracy theory:

''Target removes some LGBTQ merchandise from stores ahead of June Pride month after threats to workers,'' reads the fake headline. The story opens with these lies:

Target is removing certain items from its stores and making other changes to its LGBTQ merchandise nationwide ahead of Pride month, after an intense backlash from some customers including violent confrontations with its workers.

The following day, the liars at the AP changed the story. Naturally, the story is still filled with unsupported allegations, but the AP's conspiracy theories about threats and violence have been removed. But because the AP is a fake news outlet, no editor's note explains the correction. The far-left hoaxsters are choosing to pretend it never happened.

The new headline reads, ''Target becomes latest company to suffer backlash for LGBTQ+ support, pulls some Pride month clothing''.

Here is how the opening paragraph is stealthily rewritten:

Since introducing this year's collection, we've experienced threats impacting our team members' sense of safety and well-being while at work,'' Target said in a statement Tuesday. ''Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.''

''As AP continued to report out the story, we were able to provide more specific examples of the incidents that took place and we updated the story accordingly,'' Vice President of Corporate Communications Lauren Easton told Just the News.

However, when asked why no editor's note explained the correction, the AP refused to respond to two Just the News inquiries.

Here is how the disgraced AP describes one piece of that icky Pride Month merchandise:

'...''tuck friendly'' women's swimsuits that allow trans women who have not had gender-affirming operations to conceal their private parts.

Here is the English translation: this apparel is designed for male transvestites who like to parade around as women and tuck their johnson between their legs like Buffalo Bill.

In other words, in front of the whole world, including children, Target sells and displays fetish merchandise.

Target is doing business with Satanists to pervert your children into easily exploitable targets of sexual abuse. It is as simple as that.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.

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Archived Version

Sat, 27 May 2023 16:10

Share on Pinterest While taking drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy can help people shed pounds quickly, rapid weight loss can also cause saggy skin and a 'deflated' appearance in curvy areas of your body. Luis Alvarez/Getty Images'Ozempic Butt,' characterized by sagging skin on the butt, is gaining traction as a reported side effect of the weight loss drug semaglutide, better known by the popular brand names Ozempic and Wegovy.Experts say rapid, extreme weight loss can contribute to looser skin, particularly in curvier areas of the body.Taking a slower, more sustainable approach to weight loss can lower your risk of developing 'Ozempic Butt.'Regular exercise as well as surgical and non-surgical treatments can improve the appearance of 'Ozempic butt.'Rumored to be used by many celebrities, semaglutide, sold under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy, has become a popular weight loss tool.

The drug acts as an appetite suppressant and can trigger extreme weight loss. But as the pounds melt away, some people are noticing a loss of volume and a decrease in skin elasticity in the curvier parts of their bodies.

In fact, you may have heard of 'Ozempic Face,' a side effect associated with extreme weight loss while taking these medications which is characterized by saggy drawn skin after weight loss.

Now, a similar side effect is gaining traction, which has been dubbed 'Ozempic Butt.'

''While the term 'Ozempic Butt' may be new, the concept of being left with sagging skin after rapidly losing a large amount of weight is not,'' says Jana Abelovska, superintendent pharmacist at Click Pharmacy.

Abelovska isn't' surprised that many people are experiencing this side effect when using Ozempic and Wegovy injections, as the drug can cause rapid weight loss, particularly, she says, if you've just started using it.

To understand why this happens, Abelovska says you need to understand how the drug works.

''On the surface, Ozempic may appear to be an appetite suppressant, as semaglutide tricks the brain into thinking the stomach is full when it isn't,'' she explains.

However, there is more to it than that. While a decrease in appetite is partially responsible for rapid weight loss, Semaglutide also changes the way in which the body processes hunger.

''It actually alters your body's metabolism, and prevents your brain from sending out hunger signals that make you feel hungry, and thus want to eat,'' Abelovska points out.

When used for weight loss, Abelovska says you're likely to see results very quickly as your hunger responses are being blocked. However, our bodies take a little while to catch up.

''When we gain weight, this is done gradually which gives our skin the time to expand and stretch to accommodate the extra weight,'' she explains.

''Our skin is actually surprisingly elasticated, thanks to its elastin and collagen makeup, which is what makes it able to revert back to normal after stretching to accommodate a pregnancy, for example.''

''But if you lose weight too quickly, your skin will remain at its looser state, rather than instantly returning to its pre-weight gain state, particularly if you have been overweight for several years,'' Abelovska added.

This is why, after significant weight loss, you might experience saggy skin in certain areas of your body.

Abelovska says curvier regions, like the abdomen, butt, thighs, and cheeks, are the most prone to this side effect.

Not everyone will experience saggy skin on their butt, or indeed any other part of their body, after losing a significant amount of weight.

In fact, the likelihood of saggy skin is dependent on several factors, like your age, how much you weighed before you began to gain weight, and how long you've been living with obesity or overweight.

Generally speaking, how active you are won't play a role in how likely you are to experience sagging skin. However, Abelovska says it can certainly play a role in reducing the sagginess after the weight has been lost.

''As mentioned before, our skin is very elasticated '' however, this natural elasticity does decrease with age, meaning that our skin doesn't retain its shape quite as well when we get older. That's why if you're using Wegovy or Ozempic in your younger years you're less likely to see significant loose skin in comparison to someone who uses it in their older years,'' she points out.

Add to that, the more weight you have gained, the more your skin will have stretched, and therefore, the more likely you are to be left with loose skin after weight loss.

''Similarly, a patient's skin may struggle to return to its normal state if they have been overweight for a significant period of time,'' Abelovska adds.

''If someone is using semaglutide and they have only been overweight for a short period of time, it's likely that their skin will be able to bounce back more quickly as it hasn't been held in a stretched state for as long as someone that has been overweight for a long time.''

So, if you have sagging skin after weight loss, what can you do to treat it?

According to Dr. Grace Hula, aesthetic doctor and founder of G&M Healthcare, there are lots of ways to rectify the problem.

She recommends skin tightening treatments like LPG Endermologie which should ideally be used as soon as you start losing weight.

''Other possible treatment solutions are having a Brazilian butt lift with dermal fillers,'' she adds. However, Hula advises giving your body some time to adjust after weight loss before considering treatment.

''In some cases, saggy skin can correct itself if patients maintain their new weight over a long period of time, for example, a year or more,'' she points out.

Abelovska says your doctor may recommend a skin removal surgery to take some of the skin away if there is an excessive amount of loose skin. However, she says this will only be advised if absolutely necessary after other methods have been used.''

Surgical and non-surgical options aside, there are many ways to address sagging skin at home as well.

''Exercising is one of the best ways to help your skin return to normal after losing weight. In particular, patients should regularly use exercises such as weight-lifting and resistance training,'' says Abelovska.

This, she explains, not only builds muscle that will fill some of the space left behind after losing weight, but it can also promote more elasticity in the skin which will aid it in bouncing back.

In addition, Abelovska says staying hydrated can keep the skin looking plump, while eating a diet that is high in Vitamins A, C and E can increase collagen and elastin, giving your skin more 'bounce'.

Ultimately, we're still learning about the side effects of these medications as a weight loss tool. Aside from 'Ozempic Butt,' known side effects of these drugs can include:

stomach crampsnauseabloatingLosing weight too quickly can also be dangerous.

Abelovska notes that rapid weight loss is associated with an increased risk of gallstones, dehydration, malnutrition, and electrolyte imbalance.

If you're looking for a way to lose weight, it's best to consider the pros and cons before choosing medications.

''If you're hoping to use Ozempic or Wegovy, you should make yourself aware of all of the potential side effects to avoid feeling disappointed about 'Ozempic butt' or other similar instances after you've lost weight,'' Abelovska advises.

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Sat, 27 May 2023 15:09

Producing The Great Awakening has been a true adventure, and I can hardly believe the premiere is in less than a month. Scroll down to view a new clip from the upcoming documentary.

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Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 27 May 2023 15:01

May 19 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms' (META.O) Instagram is planning to release a text-based app that will compete with Twitter and may debut as soon as June, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Facebook parent is testing the product with influencers and some creators, according to the report.

The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Meta has been contacting talent agencies and celebrities to gauge their interest in trying an early version of the app, which will be integrated with Instagram, said Alex Heath, reporter at the Verge, in a newsletter.

"The decentralized app is built on the back of Instagram but will be compatible with some other apps like Mastodon," according to a newsletter by Lia Haberman, who teaches social and influencer marketing at UCLA in California.

Reporting by Jahnavi Nidumolu in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Archived Version

Sat, 27 May 2023 14:54

Everything I have ever written about Jack's Magic Coffee Shop is true, even if it takes a little longer for the more complex details about the data processing, govt subsidies and the DHS financial side of the operation to surface. The DHS, ODNI and FBI control elements were proven in the Twitter Files before the lawyers shut down the pertinent line of inquiry. That horse left the barn as everyone stood jaw-agape. The second aspect, the financial side of the operation, remains more elusive '' but slowly even the biggest tech detractors are coming around to the realization.

Into this foray came the question of whether or not Musk knew about it. A debate on these pages took place. In the background, unbeknownst to the general public, the tech insiders within the rebel alliance had formulated a thesis about the takeover. The key part of their overlaid thesis was a timeline of sorts, showing the rise of Truth Social '' and the partnerships therein (Rumble) '' contrast against the entry of Musk into the coffee shop and the official DHS position about TikTok, '' another competitor.

Was the Musk intervention timed to coincide with a rise in strategic competition against the interests of DHS? Go back and look at the timeline and decide for yourself. It is certainly suspicious when contrast against the 'new features' being advanced within the coffee shop business model.

Regardless, if you overlay the recent Musk decisions, and then overlay the deployed alignment of the Musk enterprise and DeSantis presidential launch, you can make a solid argument the Trillions at Stake group, the collaboration between govt, billionaire multinationals and Big Tech, have a multi-faceted approach to control public information in advance of the 2024 election. Subtle like a brick through a window:

Fingers placed. Scales tipped. Interests aligned.

[SOURCE]You are going to hear me continue repeating this, and you might get sick of it, but always 'Trust Your Instincts'. If you are grounded in the truthful world, the pretending doesn't work against you.

May 25, 2023 '' Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Thursday providing additional liability protections for public and private space companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. Presidential hopeful DeSantis signed the bill one day after announcing his candidacy on a Twitter Spaces session hosted by Musk.

DeSantis approved CS/SB 1318 '-- Spaceflight Entity Liability and 27 other bills Thursday. The law provides liability immunity to a spaceflight entity ''for an injury or death of spaceflight participant or crew resulting from a spaceflight activity,'' under certain circumstances. The bill requires space companies provide a warning statement for crew members to sign. (more)

We are about to see exactly how the billionaire corporate funders control the Red State operations and manufacture the 'illusion of choice'. The difference between now and the Romney era of 2012 '' through the Bush era of 2016, is that the American electorate are eyes-wide-open. We are watching the assembly in real time, and once again at CTH we have no financial affiliation to influence our sunlight. The gang might be getting back together, but The Truth Has No Agenda.

Remember, GOPe politics is all about money, not ideology. The ideological framework of Republican politics is a false front. 'Social issues' are used as the illusion inside the theater keeping the audience entertained and distracted, while the directors who create the performances take loot out the back door.

Once you understand the real baseline of corporation run party politics inside the USA, all of the moves '' past and present '' make sense, and the 'ah-ha' moments just keep flooding in. {GO DEEP}

The boardroom of the Democrat private corporation (DNC) wants power. The boardroom of the Republican private corporation (RNC) wants money. The Democrats use money to get power, ultimately control over people; the Republicans use power to get money, whatever happens to the people is irrelevant.

The DNC wants fundamental change; the RNC wants to be paid and control wealth while it happens.

The core issue to understand Republican politics is to look at how the people in control, the billionaires and multinational corporations, position for wealth. This is why/how the DNC can weaponize voting systems (outcomes), while the RNC accept it and position to be paid off while voting fraud takes place.

The person with the greatest opportunity to defeat the schemes of the corrupt political elite, is the person you see in the mirror every day when you brush your teeth. There are more of us, than them '' united we cannot be defeated.

There is a great MAGA insurgency taking place at the state level, and that is also visible in the endorsements. However, the systems '' not people, systems '' which operate the business end of Republican politics at a state and federal level, are still under the control of the RNC as a private corporation. Don't look for MAGA support from the institutions until we have MAGA people in charge of them.

Once you see the strings on the marionettes, you can never go back to that moment in the performance when you did not see them. While we have awakened many people to the 'illusion of choice' system by predicting the moves in advance, the enemy is cunning, and they know how to weaponize the feeling of desperation.

We are in an abusive relationship with our government, and that cycle of abuse is truly created by the background financial institutions who control our government.

[We Shall Keep Watching]

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Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 27 May 2023 14:02

Lockdown measures could be imposed on Britain by the World Health Organisation (WHO) during future pandemics under new powers, MPs fear.

Member states would have to follow instructions by the agency when responding to pandemics which could see the introduction of vaccine passports, border closures and quarantine measures under a draft update to its regulations.

The new ''pandemic treaty'' proposals mean Britain would be required to spend five per cent of its health budget on preparing for another virus outbreak.

MPs have fears over plans to increase the WHO's powers which would see countries required to hand over the recipe of vaccines, regardless of intellectual property rights, and to counter misinformation.

The new 'pandemic treaty' proposals mean Britain would be required to spend five per cent of its health budget on preparing for another virus outbreak

PA

Conservative MPs have written to ministers to warn of an ''ambition evident'...for the WHO to transition from an advisory organisation to a controlling international authority''.

In their letter they urge the Foreign Office to block powers that ''appear to intrude materially into the UK's ability to make its own rules and control its own budgets''.

The rule changes have been proposed as part of plans to update the WHO's International Health Regulations (IHRs) following the Coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking on GB News, Christopher Chope, MP for Christchurch and East Dorset said: "My principal concern is there's a move of foot within the WHO to transform it from being an advisory body to a one which is able to compel members to behave in a particular way and that will completely change the character of the organisation."

In response, he said: "We've only got one organisation that leads on maintaining the planetary health. The WHO is the only body we have from the United Nations and if you wish to recreate a WHO, it may be a lot worse than what we've already got.

"When a pandemic of this ilk, like we've just had, strikes we've got to be prepared and we've got to be prepared internationally. We've had international care regulations.

"However those international regulations were never properly followed and what is proposed is a better corporation between the states so that we respond better and support each other."

The treaty was first proposed by world leaders during the pandemic and was initially designed to improve alert systems, data-sharing and the production of vaccines to ''foster an all of government and all of society approach''.

The treaty was first proposed by world leaders during the pandemic and was initially designed to improve alert systems, data-sharing and the production of vaccines

PA

Six conservative MPs led by GB News presenter Esther McVey have written to Mitchell to call for a Commons vote on the draft treaty.

''There is, rightly, growing concern about the WHO's Pandemic Treaty and International Health Regulations," she told the Telegraph.

''The plans represent a significant shift for the organisation, from a member-led advisory body to a health authority with powers of compulsion.

''This is particularly worrying when you consider the WHO's poor track record on providing consistent, clear and scientifically sound advice for managing international disease outbreaks.''

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Archived Version

Sat, 27 May 2023 04:25

The FBI misused controversial surveillance powers more than 278,000 times between 2020 and early 2021 to conduct warrantless searches on George Floyd protesters, January 6 rioters who stormed the Capitol, and donors to a Congressional campaign, according to a newly unclassified court opinion.

On Friday, the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court made public a heavily redacted April 2022 opinion [PDF] that details hundreds of thousands of violations of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) '-- the legislative instrument that allows warrantless snooping.

The Feds were found to have abused the spy law in a "persistent and widespread" manner, according to the court, repeatedly failing to adequately justify the need to go through US citizens' communications using a law aimed at foreigners.

Section 702 is supposed to permit the federal government to spy on communications belonging to foreign individuals outside of America, theoretically to prevent criminal and terrorist acts. Those communications can sweep up phone calls, texts and emails with US persons, however, and are stored in massive databases. The FBI, CIA and NSA can search these communications without a warrant.

In the doublespeak world of American intelligence, such information isn't technically stored; it's only considered so if it's actually used by analysts. And while foreign communications are fair game, the Feds can search about three levels down in data - ie, who the suspect talked to, and who their contact spoke to, and the next line in the communications link - so think Kevin Bacon levels of contacts.

Although the law is not supposed to be used to surveil American citizens, the government has historically used this data to monitor activists, journalists, and others without obtaining a warrant. These communications can then be used to prosecute people for crimes, and have been.

The police power is set to expire at the end of the year unless Congress renews it. With this looming deadline, the now-unclassified court documents add fuel to Section 702 opponents' arguments that the government routinely abuses these warrantless searches.

"These abuses have been going on for years and despite recent changes in FBI practices, these systematic violations of Americans' privacy require congressional action," US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) said in a statement. "If Section 702 is to be reauthorized, there must be statutory reforms to ensure that the checks and balances are in place to put an end to these abuses."

The court opinion details FBI queries run on thousands of individuals between 2020 and early 2021. This includes 133 people arrested during the George Floyd protests and more than 19,000 donors to a congressional campaign.

In the latter, "the analyst who ran the query advised that the campaign was a target of foreign influence, but NSD determined that only eight identifiers used in the query had sufficient ties to foreign influence activities to comply with the querying standard," the opinion says, referring to the Justice Department's National Security Division (NSD). In other words, there wasn't a strong enough foreign link to fully justify the communications search.

For the Black Lives Matter protests, the division determined that the FBI queries "were not reasonably likely to retrieve foreign intelligence information or evidence of a crime." Again, an overreach of foreign surveillance powers.

Feds rethink warrantless search stats and '' oh look, a huge drop in numbersSupreme Court not interested in hearing about NSA's super-snoop schemesChina has 50 hackers for every FBI cyber agent, says Bureau bossUK's GDPR replacement could wipe out oversight of live facial recognitionAdditional "significant violations of the querying standard" occurred in searched related to the January 6, 2021 breach of the US Capitol, domestic drug and gang investigations, and domestic terrorism probes, according to the court. It's said that more than 23,000 queries were run on people suspected of storming the Capitol.

While the FBI has said it has implemented several changes to prevent Section 702 abuse, including better query training and stricter approval requirements for some "sensitive" searches, like those involving American elected officials and journalists, Section 702 opponents argue that the spying on US citizens won't stop unless Congress enacts FISA report.

"Even with the long history of FBI misuse of FISA 702, these latest revelations should set off alarm bells across Congress," Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology's Security and Surveillance Project, said in a statement.

"The systemic misuse of this warrantless surveillance tool has made FISA 702 as toxic as COINTELPRO and the FBI abuses of the Hoover years," he added. "Absent a full overhaul of Section 702 and related surveillance powers, Congress should not allow the law to be extended past this year." ®

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Archived Version

Fri, 26 May 2023 22:22

FIRST ON FOX: The Biden administration is doling out taxpayer money through an anti-terrorism grant initiative to a university program that has explicitly lumped the Republican Party, as well as Christian and conservative groups, into the same category as Nazis, according to documents shared exclusively with Fox News Digital.

The Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, obtained documents through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests showing a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program meant to fight terrorism is funding a group whose work has explicitly targeted the American political right. The MRC outlined its findings in a report, arguing what the group found warrants criminal prosecution.

"This terrorism task force is engaged in an active effort to demonize and eliminate Christian, conservative, and Republican organizations using federal taxpayer dollars," said Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center. "What we have uncovered calls for criminal prosecution. The American people need to know those who are abusing their positions in the federal government will be held accountable for their criminal behavior."

DHS funded a university program that has explicitly lumped in Republican and conservative groups with Nazis. (Getty Images/AP)

DHS's Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program (TVTP) provides funds to various public, private, and non-profit institutions '-- such as universities and county governments '-- "to establish or enhance capabilities to prevent targeted violence and terrorism." Grant applicants must be based in the U.S. and implement a U.S.-based program.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaks during the United States Conference of Mayors 91st Winter Meeting January 19, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

DHS WARNS OF 'HEIGHTENED THREAT ENVIRONMENT' IN US AMID 'POLITICAL TENSIONS'

The Biden administration has awarded 80 grants through the TVTP totaling just under $40 million. The lowest grant was for $85,000, the highest was over $1.1 million, and the median was about $442,000. TVTP grant recipients are prohibited from engaging in viewpoint discrimination, according to DHS.

Started by the Obama administration under a different name, the TVTP was broadened and revamped by the Biden administration with a new focus on violent extremism and white supremacy. DHS named one of its TVTP goals as "media literacy and online critical thinking initiatives," which many grantees listed as the mission of their projects.

One such grantee was the University of Dayton for its PREVENTS-OH program, which DHS awarded $352,109 to "draw on the expertise of the University of Dayton faculty" to fight "domestic violence extremism and hate movements."

The university's grant application submitted to DHS linked in a footnote to a controversial Dayton conference where an academic researcher presented a chart titled the "Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization."

The "Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization," as presented at the University of Dayton's "Extremism, Rhetoric, and Democratic Precarity" seminar in 2021. (Screeshot from University of Dayton YouTube channel)

Among the organizations and movements displayed on the pyramid were the Republican Party, the Heritage Foundation, the American Conservative Union, Fox News, Breitbart News, the National Rifle Association, PragerUniversity, Tea Party Patriots, the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, the pro-police Blue Lives Matter movement, and the Christian Broadcasting Network.

The pyramid also included hate groups like The Base, a neo-Nazi paramilitary group, and the Daily Stormer, a pro-Nazi publication, seemingly comparing them to mainstream organizations such as the GOP.

In 2021, the University of Dayton held a seminar called "Extremism, Rhetoric, and Democratic Precarity" featuring several experts on extremism who compared mainstream conservatives to genocidal extremists.

The university's grant application to DHS linked to video of the conference, describing it as indicative of the university's work "to assess regional needs and capacities for violent extremism prevention" and directing government evaluators to view it for more information.

The University of Dayton pointed readers to video of a 2021 conference where the "Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization" was presented. See the highlighted parts. (Screenshot of University of Dayton grant proposal)

One speaker at the conference, University of Cincinnati researcher Michael Loadenthal, presented the "Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization," portraying it as an accurate depiction of the "modern far-right" and extremism in America.

According to Loadenthal, the MRC is "misinterpreting and misrepresenting" the diagram as well as his role with it. He sent Fox News Digital a full copy of the image, which included text underneath the pyramid describing the bottom tier with the GOP, the NRA, and the Heritage Foundation as "mainstream conservatism."

"The chart is meant to show that what is termed 'the right' is not monolithic and that some individuals travel to a path of radicalization, beginning with more mainstream sources," said Loadenthal. "This point is not controversial nor is it deterministic; it is NOT meant to imply that engaging with level 1 inherently leads to level 4. That would obviously be false."

When the pyramid was presented at the seminar, the text at the bottom was not visible. However, Loadenthal's notes visible on the screen of the slideshow to the right of the image provide an abbreviated version of the text.

"So today we're talking about the modern far-right, which depending on who you ask, can include things as mundane as the Heritage Foundation, all the way up to underground cells of militants," the on-screen text reads. "I like the use of this 4-part taxonomy, although I disagree with some of the groups' placements."

Loadenthal also noted that he did not create the pyramid, telling Fox News Digital that he believes it was authored around 2018 '-- the upper left corner attributes the image to two scholars, McCauley and Moslalenko. "I found it a helpful conceptual scaffolding and used it," he said.

Full, original image of the "Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization." (Image provided by Michael Loadenthal)

The MRC report noted that at the same seminar, another speaker, Alexander Hinton, a member of the Rutgers University faculty who specializes in genocide, compared the Trump administration to the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge of Pol Pot's regime in Cambodia killed an estimated 1.5 million-2 million people from 1975-79.

A third speaker '-- Nicole Widdersheim, deputy Washington director for Human Rights Watch and former senior policy adviser to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Center '-- compared Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis proposing a volunteer civilian military force to assist the National Guard in emergencies such as hurricanes to the Nazis' Holocaust during World War II.

A DHS official '-- Joseph Masztalics, a regional prevention coordinator at the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, of which TVTP is a part '-- was another speaker and appeared virtually in his official capacity at the event to deliver a short presentation about the center's mission and resources.

According to DHS, the University of Dayton was not a TVTP grantee at the time of the seminar and received a grant the following year '-- when the department was already aware of what was presented at the event. A DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the award was unrelated to the seminar and rejected the notion that it supports any form of discrimination.

"This seminar was not funded, organized, or hosted by the Department of Homeland Security," the spokesperson said. "Similarly, the presented chart was not developed, presented, or endorsed by the Department of Homeland Security, and was not part of any successful grant application to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS does not profile, target, or discriminate against any individual for exercising their constitutional rights protected by the First Amendment."

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

BIDEN'S WAR ON 'DISINFORMATION' RAMPS UP AS GOP ACCUSES OFFICIALS OF PLAYING POLITICS WITH THE TRUTH

The University of Dayton similarly described the seminar as being separate from the PREVENTS-OH program.

"The speakers at the programs referred to in the Media Research Center's report are from the University of Dayton Human Rights Center's Social Practice of Human Rights Conference in the fall of 2021, which had no affiliation with and predates PREVENTS-OH," the university told Fox News Digital in a statement. "The University of Dayton Human Rights Center received its PREVENTS-OH grant in the fall of 2022 and, to date, its community awareness events and dialogues have focused on all forms of domestic terrorism, targeted violence, and extremism. As we stated when awarded the grant, 'We look forward to partnering with Ohioans throughout the Miami Valley across all political and social affiliations and sectors of the community.'"

The school did not note its inclusion of the seminar in its grant application.

"Extremism, Rhetoric, and Democratic Precarity" wasn't the only controversial conference conducted by the University of Dayton. Indeed, at a separate seminar titled "White Natioanlism Workshop," Loadenthal also spoke and explained how "antifascists" could "pressure" financial services, retailers, service providers, and various platforms to "kick people off," promoting the "de-platforming" of alleged fascists who he compared to the mainstream political right.

"A lot of things we're doing are illegal," he said. "A lot of it involves breaking the law."

Loadenthal also described hate speech as an act of war, calling it the "strategic deployment of organizational energy and power," and called for shutting down forces deemed extremist.

"To deny people that, to shut down their websites, to close their meetings, [and] to physically prevent them from assembling in public '-- this is the belief," he said, also displaying an infographic of how "antifascists" can "infiltrate," "surveil," and "disrupt" far-right forces.

Infographic presented by University of Cincinnati researcher Michael Loadenthal at University of Dayton seminar titled "White Nationalism Workshop." (Screenshot from University of Dayton's YouTube channel)

Loadenthal additionally noted that in his "younger years," he engaged in "direct confrontation" with alleged white supremacists, seemingly describing himself as a member of Antifa.

"We organized largely through networks '-- today people would call Antifa, at the time it was known as anti-racist action '-- to follow white supremacists where they go, to outnumber them, and then to physically confront them and deny them the space to physically meet in public," he said. "This is the idea of de-platforming. I worked in that realm for a long time."

Loadenthal, who added that at the time he was also a medical worker who provided "abortion services," has frequently retweeted Antifa accounts and appeared to defend left-wing violence on social media.

At the same event, University of Dayton Professor Paul Becker displayed images of anti-COVID lockdown and anti-vaccine mandate protesters, suggesting they were infiltrated by hate groups.

In order to promote its work to the city of Dayton, PREVENTS-OH sent the city an image, named Anti-Rights Movements and Democratic Regression, featuring a caricature of a Second Amendment supporter above the words "Why do we have a radicalized society."

The MRC described its findings in a new letter sent to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of both the House Judiciary Committee and the newly established Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. The letter from Bozell called for an investigation and "criminal prosecution" while asking to meet with Jordan to discuss the DHS documents.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, presides over a hearing of the Weaponization of the Federal Government Subcommittee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on Feb. 9, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

"The Media Research Center has uncovered disturbing documentation that proves that the government is colluding with left-wing activists, academics, and state and local officials in an active effort to target some of the most prestigious conservatives and prominent political, religious, and media groups in the country, linking them directly to Nazis and terrorists," the letter states. "The American people need to know that those who are abusing their positions in the federal government will be held accountable for this criminal behavior."

The first version of the TVTP was created by the Obama administration, which in 2011 unveiled a plan titled "Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States" to give taxpayer-funded grants to local groups '-- including police departments, universities, and non-profits '-- to prevent domestic "violent extremism." The first grants weren't rolled out until 2016 in the "Countering Violent Extremism Grant Program."

The Trump administration halted the program for three years before DHS resurrected it in 2019 through the newly launched Office of Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention. DHS officials had reportedly circumvented the White House to seek congressional funds for the program.

In August 2020, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden vowed to "end the Trump administration's Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Program" and replace it with his own. Once in office, Biden and his secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, replaced the Office for Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention with the new Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3), of which TVTP is a part. According to a DHS press release from the time, "the creation of CP3 [is] '... [among] the latest actions DHS is taking under Secretary Mayorkas' leadership to comprehensively combat domestic violent extremism, including violent white supremacy."

The majority of TVTP grants, 52%, have gone to public institutions like universities and county governments, while 48% have gone to private organizations, such as the University of Dayton and the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Out Boulder County.

President Joe Biden in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Oct. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

DIVIDER IN CHIEF? BIDEN CONTINUES REPEATED ATTACKS AGAINST POLITICAL OPPONENTS WHILE CALLING FOR UNITY

According to the MRC, DHS has resisted producing documents pursuant to its FOIA requests to date, but the watchdog has acquired numerous documents directly from DHS grant recipients and other related organizations.

TVTP was very much on the radar of DHS leadership. Indeed, Mayorkas called the program a "high priority" in a document obtained by the MRC.

"Secretary Mayorkas thanked the grantees for their work, and he reassured all in attendance that this program is a priority for the department and that the work being done is of the highest importance," the Maryland Department of Emergency Management wrote in its notes and documentation of the 2022 TVTP Grantee Symposium, which Mayorkas hosted.

The MRC report comes amid calls for Mayorkas to resign due to his handling of the ongoing crisis at the country's southern border. Several Republican lawmakers have pushed the idea of impeaching him for allegedly neglecting his duties.

The report also comes amid outcry over the findings of Special Counsel John Durham, who had been investigating the FBI's original Trump-Russia probe '-- another instance of critics accusing a federal government agency of mobilizing against a political opponent.

"On the heels of the Durham report, we now have evidence that the Biden administration is ratcheting up its anti-American targeting of Christians, conservatives and Republicans. This is abhorrent and criminal," said MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider. "We call on federal prosecutors to hold violators accountable under our civil rights laws, 18 USC Section 241 and 18 USC Section 242 accountable."

Last week, Special Counsel John Durham released a final report on his investigation into the original probe concerning whether former President Donald Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Durham found that there was never any information to justify opening the FBI's investigation and that the bureau and the Department of Justice "failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law."

MRC founder and president Brent Bozell (Media Research Center)

MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT GAINS STEAM AMONG REPUBLICANS IN PURPLE DISTRICTS AS BORDER CHAOS CONTINUES

The MRC argued in its report that TVTP grants are just the latest example of the Biden administration using taxpayer dollars to attack political opponents, citing DHS's now-defunct and much-maligned Disinformation Governance Board and the FBI reportedly targeting parents with anti-terrorism tools.

To conclude its report, the Media Research Center noted it obtained documents for several other TVTP grantees allegedly showing DHS funding efforts to targe and demonize political opponents of the Biden administration.

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"This report only scratches the surface of the Biden DHS's nefarious TVTP grant program," the document states. "MRC Free Speech America has obtained more documents from other DHS grantees and other organizations through our concentrated FOIA initiative and will be presenting further evidence of the Biden administration's efforts to target conservatives, Christians, and the Republican Party going forward."

Aaron Kliegman is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 26 May 2023 22:01

UK defence firm Qinetiq says that surging demand for electric tanks will drive a boost in sales, as armed forces rush to build next-generation fighting vehicles.

The appetite for electric drivetrains for the tanks, cyber security products and a range of sophisticated practice targets, used to train military personnel to learn how to shoot down aircraft, will also grow, said Steve Wadey, the company's chief executive.

He added that armed forces around the world were spending more to keep their skills sharp in the wake of Russia's attack on Ukraine.

Qinetiq is working alongside US defence firm Oshkosh and BAE Systems in the UK to provide components for the next generation of electric armoured transports.

''We're leveraging our electrification technology from the UK into that US programme. We expect that to be a significant contributor going forward,'' Mr Wadey said.

The contractor also expects militaries around the world to buy more of its targets, which mimic warplanes and ships so that troops, sailors, and air crews can hone their skills in taking them down.

''You actually present them with these targets as different ways of simulating a real threat. And therefore, government customers are our customers for that, because they need to train, they need to test and be ready operationally,'' Mr Wadey added.

Qinetiq said it remained on the lookout for rivals it can buy to bolster its six main businesses of experimentation and technology, robotics and autonomous systems, engineering services and support, test and evaluation, cyber and information, and training and mission rehearsal.

In the UK it has most of these well covered, suggesting it is likely to make more purchases in its other main markets of the US and Australia.

A UK defence contractor acquiring foreign competitors would buck a recent trend after many British arms makers have been snapped up, largely by American buyers who have taken advantage of a weak pound.

Submarine systems developer Ultra and aircraft parts maker Meggitt have recently been sold to overseas companies.

Qinetiq said orders for the financial year increased 41pc to £1.7bn and sales rose 20pc to £1.58bn. Profit after tax rose to £153m from £118m.

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Fri, 26 May 2023 21:39

Recent statistics from China's central bank show that home buyers' enthusiasm has fallen drastically. Despite price cuts and incentives, the world's largest housing market continues to slump, and China's banking sector is taking a hit on two fronts, as both defaults and prepayments rise. Meanwhile, China's developers are starting to show the strain, with real estate giant Wanda Group making headlines this week as the value of its dollar bonds plunged.

In early 2023, the Chinese real estate market had a short-lived rebound as local governments across the country issued policies to bail out the failing real estate sector, according to the China Index Academy, a real estate research institute. By the end of April, the mortgage rate for first-home buyers in more than 40 cities had been lowered to below 4 percent.

However, after an optimistic outlook in March, April's sales failed to live up to analysts' expectations.

According to the April 2023 Financial Statistics Report released by China's central bank on May 11, mortgages decreased by 241.1 billion yuan ($33.8 billion) in April. Among those, medium- and long-term household loans, mostly mortgages, decreased by 115.6 billion yuan ($16.2 billion), while short-term mortgages decreased by 125.5 billion yuan ($17.6 billion).

Public statistics show that sales of previously owned homes in China's largest cities all showed double-digit declines in April. Among them, Beijing fell 37.3 percent; Hangzhou fell 32.7 percent; Shanghai fell 26.71 percent; and Nanjing fell 13 percent. The worst decline was in Hefei, which plunged by 40 percent.

CCP Puts the Brakes on Price CutsThe weak housing market forced developers to cut prices. However, two real estate developers in Kunshan, China were penalized by Chinese regulators for cutting prices by a large margin, so much so, according to regulators, that they ''disrupted the normal order of the real estate market and caused social instability.''

Japan-based current affairs commentator Qu Kai told The Epoch Times on May 13: ''The reason why the [Chinese] regime won't let real estate developers lower prices is very simple. The chain reaction caused by price cuts will instantly burst the bubble of China's property market, causing a series of economic crises that would be difficult for the CCP to manage.''

Qu believes that the current real estate crisis will sooner or later affect banks and eventually will impact the regime as a whole, as the CCP will be unable to maintain its revenue through the property market.

On the BrinkChina is the world's largest housing market. According to estimates from prominent economist Ren Zeping's ''China Housing Market Value Report 2021,'' the country's housing market value was $62.6 trillion in 2020, compared to $33.6 trillion in the United States, $10.8 trillion in Japan, and $31.5 trillion in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany combined. Ren is a former economist at China's Development Research Center.

According to Ren's ''China Wealth Report 2022,'' the market value of China's housing market reached 476 trillion yuan (about $73.8 trillion) in 2021. This represents a 17.9 percent increase in total market value compared to 2020.

When considering the ratio of housing market value to GDP, China's housing market value in 2020 was already 414 percent, higher than Japan's 391 percent before its housing bubble burst in the 1990s.

As China's economy weakens and the housing market shrinks, the number of foreclosed homes in China climbed to 606,000 in 2022, an increase of 35.7 percent year-over-year. At the same time, many cities have seen a huge increase in the number of second-handed real estate listings for sale.

Risk Will Be Passed to Banks''The consequences of real estate declines and residential mortgage defaults will eventually be passed on to the banks,'' Fang Qi, a veteran Chinese finance professional living in the UK, explained to The Epoch Times on May 13.

Fang said that for banks, there are two risk associated with residential mortgages. Both situations incur losses and directly weaken banks' assets.

The first situation arises when homeowners default on mortgage payments. Among the reasons for rising defaults in China is an ongoing mortgage boycott, with many homeowners refusing to make payments on unfinished homes. An August 2022 New York Times article estimates that the boycott may affect as many as 4 percent of outstanding mortgages.

The second is when homeowners pay off their mortgages early, as many Chinese homeowners'--saddled with higher rates'--are doing. Mortgage holders are tapping their personal savings or taking out cheap loans under stimulus programs intended for big-ticket consumer purchases or for starting new businesses.

Analysts estimate that nearly $700 billion of mortgages'--close to one-eighth China's outstanding total'--had been prepaid since early 2022 when banks started to lower borrowing rates.

Under normal conditions, this would free up cash for banks to finance other loans. However, given the current situation in which consumers are being very cautious about spending, it's actually bad news for banks. Not only are they losing money on existing mortgages, there is a dearth of new loans to finance.

The result is tightened financing for real estate companies, Fang warned: ''The banks' tightening of finance to the real estate sector will further plunge them into chaos, thus causing a vicious cycle that will affect the banks' asset quality and profitability. If the risk spreads to a certain extent, banks will incur a large number of bad debts, leading to bankruptcy.''

Real Estate Developers Feel the StrainAmid China's housing market downturn, many real estate developers are in turmoil. Chinese real estate giant KWG Property released an announcement (pdf) on April 28 saying it had failed to pay 212 million yuan ($31 million) of principal due on that date. The delinquency triggered another 31.2 billion yuan of debt (about $4.36 billion) becoming payable on demand. Two weeks later, the developer defaulted (pdf) on a $119 million redemption payment.

Even Wanda Group, one of China's oldest and largest real estate giants, is rumored to be at risk for a debt meltdown. Yields on two U.S. dollar bonds sold by its subsidiary Wanda Properties Global rose above 35 percent in April. Market analysts called the surge a sign that borrowers were having trouble raising new funds, exacerbating the risk of debt crisis and default.

In late April, Fitch Ratings placed Wanda Commercial and Wanda Commercial Properties (Hong Kong) on its negative watch list.

Wanda Commercial made headlines with more troubling news on Tuesday as a $400 million dollar bond due for repayment in July fell to about 70 cents, ''on the brink of distressed territory,'' Bloomberg reported, under the headline ''Real Estate Distress Deepens Again as China Woes Spread.''

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Fri, 26 May 2023 19:04

This project wraps Helipad for StartOS. Helipad shows boosts and boostagram messages coming in to your Lightning node from your listeners who are using Podcasting 2.0 apps.

Dependenciesdockerdocker-buildxyqappmgrmakeCloningClone the project locally. Note the submodule link to the original project(s).

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Fri, 26 May 2023 16:29

Google Reader user? Say goodbye. Google has announced the service is closing on July 1.

The news came today in a ''Spring Cleaning'' blog post from Google, where the company said:

We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader.

Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.

On the Google Reader blog, Google said similar words, with a more personal ''we're sad too'' addition:

We have just announced on the Official Google Blog that we will soon retire Google Reader (the actual date is July 1, 2013). We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We're sad too.

There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we're pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience.

Google Reader also has a new help area about the closure.

Overall, I was pretty amazed to read this. While much news reading behavior has moved to social networks these days, I know plenty of dedicated Google Reader users. It was also pretty much the last of the major news reading services standing.

Postscript: Need alternatives? See our 12 Google Reader Alternatives and Need A Google Reader Alternative? Meet Newsblur stories. Also see: Digg: We're Building A Google Reader Replacement.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.

About the author

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Fri, 26 May 2023 14:07

So, Elon Musk sure shook things up the other day with his interview on CNBC where he dared to break the Fourth Wall of media when he took a shot at George Soros comparing him to Magneto from Marvel's X-Men.

It's a brutally funny exchange as Musk carefully measures his response, takes his time and then goes into full pop culture legend mode invoking Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride.

That CNBC flak wasn't confused by this, he's doing his job. He's enforcing narrative control.

The choice of Magneto is an astute one, since it implies Soros' childhood activities during World War II.

And while I appreciate Musk stepping on that third rail of media conformity, George Soros the philanthropist, I still maintain he's closer to Sheev Palpatine than Erik Lehnsherr.

But what Musk really did was to question why media companies should always bow to the whims of their advertisers.

Musk has been subjected to advertiser boycotts since the day he walked in with the sink. Twitter's business model needs to change. Advertising isn't it. It's only a part of it. Musk understands it needs to evolve because Twitter isn't like legacy media companies.

Not one bit.

WEF BloodlettingMusk did this after taking real flak from the internet for hiring World Economic Forum member and top-tier advertising executive Linda Vaccarino as the new CEO for Twitter.

Now, Vaccarino is a troubling hire but with Musk positioning himself as Mr. Free Speech in the common square, it may not be as bad as, ''See Mother WEFfer, expect evil to follow,'' as the initial Twitter outrage mob suggested.

I've told you for more than a year (November 2021, to be precise) that we are past Peak Davos, meaning Peak WEF. The WEF is now an easy bogeyman to tar someone with the broadest of guilt-by-association brushes.

The reality, however, is that viewed dispassionately, this year's World Economic Forum was a mess, a bunch of globalist ghouls and their retinue of sycophants whistling past their own graveyards wondering where the next big score was coming from.

Top Ghoul Wrangler Soros himself didn't even show up, preferring instead to suck the blood of the attendees of this year's Munich Security Conference to ensure the trains to World War III would run on time.

Clubs like the WEF are only as strong as the talent they can keep. Is Vaccarino evidence of brain drain from the WEF? It's not ludicrous. In fact, it's more likely than she's some wide-eyed ideologue.

I'm not saying it's true, I'm saying it's possible. So, distrust, but verify is your guide here.

The incentives line up nicely.

Musk needs to shore up Twitter's relationships with advertisers to keep Twitter afloat.

Vaccarino brings instant credibility to the company.

If Musk is thinking in terms of a different kind of ad model, Vaccarino's hire makes sense.

Talk to the HandThe corporate orthodoxy imposed on media companies comes not just from retards like Reed Hastings at Netflix but also through the corruption of their boards by Davos generals like Blackrock and Vanguard.

Their real profit comes from exercising power. Sacrificing a quarter or two of profitability to put the vein tap in deep across the C-Suites of the S&P 500 and EuroStoxx 50 is hard to quantify on the balance sheet.

But Musk can say what he wants in public because that itself is a form of advertising for Twitter and/or Tesla that can't be yanked by some ninny like Larry Fink or Alex Soros making a phone call.

He's on their level and the company is private.

When your business model depends on advertising you're their bitch. Musk knows this so you make the calculated move to attack Soros, becoming a hero to a vast audience spurned by Twitter when Soros, Fink and the rest of the WEF ran the place

One of the first blogs I wrote here in 2016 was called ''The Authenticity Gap.'' In handicapping that election correctly, that Trump would win, I made the point that despite his obvious deficits, he was far more authentic than Hillary.

Being comfortable being yourself is what drove Trump's victory. The country was desperate for it and the swing voters were Millennials.

Well, guess what? Musk is shoring up his AQ '' Authenticity Quotient '' with not only his Millennial fanbois who buy Teslas, but even jaded Gen-X curmudgeons like me, even if I still spend most of my day in Distrust, But Verify mode.

Pied Piper or not, he has the platform to drive the conversation where it was never allowed to go before. We can take it from here, folks.

No, I Said, ''Tucker!''And this brings me to Tucker Carlson, who announced to great fanfare that he's bringing his erstwhile news show to Twitter, self-produced.

His two short videos since Fox canceled his show, putting him in contract limbo, have generated ratings that even his record cable ratings couldn't match.

Advertiser boycotts hit Fox multiple times over things Carlson said on air. They don't want the media to speak the truth, they want it, as Carlson pointed out in his last video, to tell you only the part of the truth that supports their agenda.

Musk has been subject to this since the day he walked into Twitter with a kitchen sink in his hand.

Every globalist tit-sucker and wannabe-brownshirt, but I repeat myself, threatened Musk with extinction. The EU threatened to ban Twitter. The Biden administration began official investigations.

It was all so breathlessly repeated in the compliant media one would have thought going long smelling salts would have been good investment advice for every case of the fucking vapors these people had.

Think back to the so-called ''Discord Leaks'' and the ruinous press conference with Dept. of Defense Spokesman John Kirby. We had 'reporters' openly asking how they could help the DoD suppress information about the war in Ukraine.

As I argued in my blog about this issue, the media was openly simping for the regime, torching what remained of its credibility to announce to the world they have joined that team against us.

Neither the content of these leaks nor the media's response was revelatory to anyone with a passing acquaintance with the current state of politics. No, the noteworthy thing was that they were so willing to take off the mask so we could all stop pretending they were journalists.

When the media openly asks how they can help '... we have crossed into new territory. Why?

Because it's never been that way before. Yes, we knew the media were court stenographers, people like myself and Kit {Knightly at Off Guardian} have known this for more than a decade. But to openly torch what's left of their credibility to support disinformation to keep the administration's secrets is something very very new.

This wasn't some double-secret 12-D chess maneuver by hyper-competent game players. This was far more what it looked like on the surface, a sphincter-clenching moment of raw panic from people whose lies were outed in pure damage control mode.

So, about that power of the advertisers, again? How do they have any when their platforms and networks have zero credibility?

Who does the CNBC flak dumbstruck by Musk's Inigo Montoya impression thinks is really in charge here?

And Then the Lights Came On'...It was like that moment in the Pixar classic, UP, where Doug becomes Alpha:

The media is so used to bullying people into submission they don't know what to do when it doesn't work. But, why would you do that? Lose Money? It's unthinkable.

Take a step back and see the reversal here. Do you really think Musk is scared of these quislings when I own the single biggest, and by far, most powerful communications platform in history?

The answer would be no.

And that reason is simple. Musk's real heresy wasn't returning something closer to free speech to Twitter. It was proving that the company could operate on 20% of its old budget and one-quarter of its staff.

That 80% cost reduction didn't just equate to stabilizing the company, it freed it from the tyranny of the advertiser.

Musk doesn't need advertising on Twitter the way Twitter needed advertising before him. The company wasn't being run as a profit center measured in dollars.

Twitter was a loss leader for tyrants. The legacy media conglomerates are their policy makers and the ad executives their thought policemen.

Carlson can now self-produce a loss-leader for free speech while his lawyers roast Fox's chesnuts and he, Musk and Trump can:

'... build another Mar-a-Lago in their heads living TV-ad free for months with ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?'' the only choice on the in-house cable feed.

https://tomluongo.me/2016/10/06/hillary-authenticity-gapMusk is now turning the entire cost structure of news media on its head. It was always going to happen, he just ripped the last band-aid off exposing the rot underneath.

The media companies and their advertising control model worked so well for so long because it costs billions to run a broadcast network. The on-air talent, the producers, the studio, cameras, travel, etc. are expensive folks. FOX's makeup budget alone is more than my annual operating costs.

No wonder they just fired Laura Ingraham, too.

Have you seen the 25-54 demo ratings?

The media companies had to depend on the kindness of strangers to even stay in business.

Today most of the distribution has been decentralized, i.e. Twitter and personal ISP fees. Physical production tools are cheap. Bandwidth is cheaper. The overhead of running a small broadcast company with a private subscription model is a far lower percentage of top-line revenue than any big network.

The legacy media can neither buy your loyalty nor coerce your conformity.

Now shit-posters cum 'investigative journalists' like Brian Krassenstein whose tone deaf defense of Soros is what prompted all of this have to work that much harder to protect him.

And thanks to Twitter and things like it, the world is your research department. Now, the best voices, the best talent, spend their time curating what they see. More time for enjoying life, less time wasted sucking up to Sith Lords.

That was Tucker Carlson's real power when he was at Fox. He's now free of all of those constraints.

If you want to see where Carlson is headed once he's doing a free show on Twitter, just look to Megyn Kelly.

That's where the editorial bias is now, not in the corporate boardrooms.

You are the ultimate arbiter of what you deem valid. Your eyeballs are all that matters. Your consent.

These are only some of the reasons why Musk owns the most powerful media company in the world.

Does he need to pay Tucker Carlson $20+ million to be on his network? No. Carlson pays Musk.

Does Musk need to hire Carlson a production team? No.

A research team? No.

A legal team to fact check everything? No.

The reason why Musk can't be bought is because Musk doesn't need the advertisers.

The advertisers need Musk.

Musk knows it. Carlson knows it. The paid influencers know it. Soros knows it.

What Twitter now does, if its algorithm is set to neutrality, is assist everyone in finding whatever audience they want to attract. The media companies can't maintain the purity of the signal or enforce the groupthink, because they don't own the means of production anymore.

All they can do is flood the zone with low quality bots.

And the thing that scares them more than anything else is the day when Musk rolls out the real revenue maker for Twitter. The one where they can't bribe us with money or power because neither of those things buys dignity.

Join my Patreon if you want your father back, you sonofabitch!

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Fri, 26 May 2023 13:08

Amid a culture-war storm that has hit several American companies in recent weeks, including Bud Light and Target, LGBTQ+ rights advocates and anti-trans activists are now focusing on Walmart's approach to the debate and putting the company's marketing strategy under increased scrutiny.

After calls to boycott Target over its trans-friendly products'--part of its Pride season's collection'--the American retailer announced on Tuesday that it was removing some items in its Pride collection.

The decision was seen as a small victory by anti-trans activists, which have appeared galvanized by the retailer's move and eager to put another company that sells Pride-related merchandise'--Walmart'--under the same amount of scrutiny.

Customers shop at a Walmart store on May 18, 2023, in Chicago, Illinois. Amid a culture-war storm that has hit several American companies in recent weeks, LGBTQ+ rights advocates and anti-trans activists are now focusing on Walmart's approach to the debate. Scott Olson/Getty Images"We've backed #Target into a corner for selling #Pride merch in the children's section. Now we go for #Walmart. These woke companies need to know that enough is enough. Not ONE MORE F****** DAY. They're NOT GETTING our kids," tweeted one user on Wednesday.

"TARGET and WALMART are selling this PRIDE book. I cancelled my Walmart+ membership and removed the Target App. Book targets 4-8 year olds. Walmart, the top U.S. retailer and the third largest in the world," wrote another.

TARGET 🎯 and WALMART are selling this PRIDE book. I cancelled my Walmart+ membership and removed the Target App. Book targets 4-8 year olds. pic.twitter.com/ldF9WXGTFT

'-- America First (@LivePdPups) May 24, 2023"It is EVERYWHERE. Walmart," tweeted another user sharing a picture of a Pride-friendly product for pets.

But Walmart is also now being looked at by trans rights and LGBTQ+ activists as one of the companies worthy of being supported for not having yet caved to the pressure exerted by the culture wars.

"@Walmart hasn't stopped selling #Pride merchandise. Go to Walmart. If you give in to magats, you don't get my business. We need to defend ourselves and others. We need to defend democracy. Silence is complicity. #AllyToAll," tweeted one user calling for a boycott of Target.

"I can't believe Target is out here making Walmart look woke. Do better, @Target!" tweeted another user.

Target has not removed all of its Pride-themed merchandise but has not yet said which specific items it will stop selling on its website and in its stores as they are still under review. The satanic-themed products were immediately removed, according to Reuters.

In recent months, several major brands'--including Adidas and Nike'--have been hit by backlash after featuring trans models and influencers in their promotional campaigns.

Bud Light, which offered a paid sponsorship deal to trans activist and social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney in early April, was the subject of a major boycott last month called by conservative customers who felt the company had betrayed its core values.

Similar threats were made to Target, whose trans-friendly swimsuits'--part of its Pride month's clothing collection'--became the object of massive controversy online. The anger of anti-trans activists'--including conservatives, feminists and some gay rights groups'--focused on a few items in the collection, including genderfluid and "tuck-friendly" swimsuits and a satanic-themed queer-friendly T-shirt. "Tuck-friendly" items allow for trans women who have not had gender-affirming surgery to conceal their private parts.

Despite the backlash, some customers were supportive of Target's initiative, praising the retailer's Pride collection for getting "better every year," as one wrote on Twitter.

Newsweek has reached out to Walmart's media team through their website for comment.

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Fri, 26 May 2023 13:03

The Supreme Court on Thursday slashed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) regulatory control over water bodies in a win for conservative critics who argued the agency wielded too much power.

The court ruled that the 1972 Clean Water Act, which allows the EPA to regulate wetlands, only applies to wetlands that are obviously connected to larger regulated water bodies.

The case arose from a situation of an Idaho couple, Michael and Chantell Sackett, who wanted to build a home on land that the EPA considered a protected wetland.

The EPA argued the ''wetlands'' on the Sacketts' property should be classified as ''waters of the United States'' because they were near a ditch that fed into a creek, which fed into Priest Lake, according to court documents.

In the court's opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that a protected wetland must have a ''continuous surface connection'' to a larger body of water. An underground connection that is not obvious does not give the EPA regulatory power, the court ruled.

''In sum, we hold that the [Clean Water Act] extends to only those 'wetlands with a continuous surface connection to bodies that are 'waters of the United States' in their own right,' so that they are 'indistinguishable' from those waters,'' Alito wrote.

The Clean Water Act is meant to allow the EPA to regulate pollution in ''waters of the United States,'' but it does not define ''waters of the United States,'' which allowed the EPA leeway on the definition.

The previous standard was determined by former Justice Anthony Kennedy, who ruled that wetlands had to have a ''significant nexus'' to a nearby regulated body of water.

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Thursday's ruling overturns a federal appeals court ruling, which ruled in favor of the EPA in 2021.

Justice Elena Kagan, considered to be one of the court's more liberal justices, concurred with the judgment, but criticized the court for appointing ''itself as the national decision-maker on environmental policy.''

''Because that is not how I think our Government should work '-- more, because it is not how the Constitution thinks our Government should work '-- I respectfully concur in the judgment only,'' she wrote in a concurring opinion.

In 2017, Rep. John Duarte (R-CA) paid $1.1 million in civil penalties for plowing 22 acres of his farm that the government deemed wetlands near the Sacramento River.

''They're going after us because we didn't get a permit to plow, even though the Clean Water Act says no permit is needed and indeed no permit has ever been required or issued to a wheat farmer ever before; and we didn't avoid some small wet spots in our field, even though they're similar to many others commonly farmed through by farmers all over the US (and those seasonal wetlands are still present on our property, as they were before our plowing),'' Duarte wrote in an op-ed at the time.

''It will destroy an important California family business and many jobs,'' he said of the financial penalties. ''It will also give the federal government unlimited power to extract wealth from family farms and rural communities nationwide.''

Duarte's farming business, Duarte Nursery, Inc., employed 500 people at the time.

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Fri, 26 May 2023 13:02

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., slammed the Supreme Court's ruling Thursday that limited the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate bodies of water, calling it a "MAGA" court even though the decision was 9-0.

On Thursday, the high court issued an opinion that narrowed the EPA's broad definition of Waters of the United States (WOTUS). The court said the federal government must define WOTUS as a water source with a "continuous surface connection" to major bodies of water.

The decision upended an attempt by the Biden administration to regulate wetlands, lakes, ponds, streams and other "relatively permanent" waterways, which had relied on a broad reading of the EPA's authority under the Clean Water Act (CWA).

"This MAGA Supreme Court is continuing to erode our country's environmental laws," Schumer tweeted after the opinion was released. "Make no mistake '' this ruling will mean more polluted water, and more destruction of wetlands."

SUPREME COURT DELIVERS BLOW TO KEY BIDEN ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY IN UNANIMOUS RULING

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer walks to a portrait unveiling for former House Speaker Paul Ryan at the U.S. Capitol on May 17, 2023. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

The ruling came down 9-0 in favor of plaintiffs Michael and Chantell Sackett, two Idaho residents whom the EPA prohibited from building a home near a wetland years ago.

"The EPA ordered the Sacketts to restore the site, threatening penalties of over $40,000 per day," Alito's majority opinion stated. "The EPA classified the wetlands on the Sacketts' lot as 'waters of the United States' because they were near a ditch that fed into a creek, which fed into Priest Lake, a navigable, intrastate lake. The Sacketts sued, alleging that their property was not 'waters of the United States.'"

However, the court split 5-4 in its analysis of how the federal government should define a water source under the Clean Water Act.

"Understanding the CWA to apply to wetlands that are distinguishable from otherwise covered 'waters of the United States' would substantially broaden [existing statute] to define 'navigable waters' as 'waters of the United States and adjacent wetlands,'" Alito wrote.

FARMERS SLAM BIDEN OVER LATEST ECO REGULATION TARGETING BUSINESSES: 'FEDERAL OVERREACH'

President Biden, right, talks to EPA Administrator Michael Regan after signing an executive order to create the White House Office of Environmental Justice. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Republicans and industry groups embraced the decision as a blow against what they view as federal overreach and excessive regulation.

"Big win today at the US Supreme Court," said West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, whose office led 26 states in filing an amicus brief supporting the Sacketts.

"Earlier this year, in a separate case, we obtained a preliminary injunction of the new Biden Administration WOTUS policy," Morrisey said. "I will never hold back against federal overreach as we always step up to defend West Virginia jobs, our values, our freedoms, and our Constitution."

However, the White House said the court's decision "aims to take our country backwards."

NEARLY 200 GOP LAWMAKERS BLAST BIDEN'S EPA FOR TARGETING FARMERS, RANCHERS: 'EGREGIOUS FEDERAL OVERREACH'

The Supreme Court on Thursday limited the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate waters of the U.S. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

"It will jeopardize the sources of clean drinking water for farmers, businesses and millions of Americans," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at Thursday's press briefing in reaction to the decision.

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"President Biden will use every legal authority available to him to ensure Americans in every state have clean water," she added.

Fox News' Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report.

Chris Pandolfo is a writer for Fox News Digital. Send tips to chris.pandolfo@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @ChrisCPandolfo.

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Fri, 26 May 2023 13:00

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hauled in $8.2 million in the first 24 hours of his 2024 presidential campaign despite a lackluster launch on Twitter.

The impressive sum dwarfs the $6.3 million raised by Joe Biden in his first 24 hours as a presidential candidate back in 2019.

The donations started to roll in despite audio and server issues during DeSantis' much-anticipated presidential launch on Twitter Spaces event with Elon Musk.

The issues delayed DeSantis' long-anticipated announcement by about 30 minutes.

But after the hour-long conversation between DeSantis, Musk, and entrepreneur David Sacks, the Florida governor urged supporters to flood his campaign with contributions.

''I'm running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback. We announced that on Twitter Spaces earlier tonight and it broke the internet, because so many people were excited about being on that Twitter Space. Now let's see if we can break WinRed,'' DeSantis said in a video message, referencing the Republican Party fundraising platform.

DeSantis raised more money than Joe Biden did in the first 24 hours after announcing his White House bid. APBryan Griffin, a spokesman for the DeSantis presidential campaign, declared on Wednesday that $1 million was raised online within an hour of the announcement.

''There was so much enthusiasm for Governor DeSantis' vision for our Great American Comeback that he literally busted up the internet. Washington is next,'' Griffin wrote in a tweet.

Trump, who leads DeSantis by double digits in most 2024 GOP presidential primary polls, mocked the Florida governors presidential campaign announcement. ZUMAPRESS.comDeSantis' fresh $8.2 million bankroll includes both online contributions and donations secured by volunteers at the Four Seasons in Miami on Wednesday, who gathered in the hotel's ballroom to make calls soliciting donations.

The Trump-supporting super PAC Make America Great Again Inc., responded to reports of DeSantis' first-day haul dismissively.

''After a three month shadow campaign, including a legislative session that clearly leveraged Florida taxpayer money to elevate his fundraising efforts, DeSantis was still not able to raise enough money to make up for his botched campaign launch. His record of targeting senior benefits, wanting to raise taxes, and withholding funding for the border wall makes this campaign dead on arrival. No amount of money will change that,'' Alex Pfeiffer, spokesman for Make America Great Again Inc., wrote in a statement.

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Fri, 26 May 2023 13:00

The House on Thursday passed legislation that would permanently classify fentanyl-related substances (FRS) as Schedule I drugs that are subject to the toughest federal prison terms and penalties, over the objection of most Democrats.

Lawmakers approved the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act in an 289-133 vote that saw 132 Democrats oppose the bill even though the White House signaled support for it. In the final vote, 74 Democrats supported the bill and only one Republican voted against it.

Supporters of the bill have argued that there are thousands of fentanyl analogues that cannot be analyzed quickly enough to understand which are harmful and which are not, which is why all fentanyl-related substances need to be classified in Schedule I. FRS has been temporarily classified that way on an emergency basis since 2018, and the House bill would make that permanent.

"The HALT Fentanyl Act would permanently schedule all fentanyl-related substances (FRS) not otherwise scheduled into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act as a class and expedite research into fentanyl-related substances, which the Administration has long supported," the White House said this week.

IOWA STATE TROOPERS CLAIM FENTANYL IS CHANGING STATE FROM DRIVE-THROUGH TO DRUG DISTRIBUTION CENTER

Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., seen here with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, voted along with dozens of other Democrats on Thursday to permanently classify fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

But during floor debate on the bill, several Democrats argued against the bill by saying the penalties it imposes for producing and selling fentanyl analogues would fall unfairly on minorities. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., said the bill is a repeat of the "war on drugs" from the 1980s that will result in jail time for "Black and Brown" people.

"Did we learn nothing from the war on drugs? I guess not," she said.

"Back then we enacted ineffective and punitive laws that only worked to expand mass incarceration, mostly of Black and Brown folks," she said. "This legislation will enact ineffective and punitive drug laws that only work to expand mass incarceration."

Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said Democrats support permanently classifying FRS on Schedule I, but only if the bill is "carefully designed to avoid exacerbating inequities in our criminal justice system."

MORE FENTANYL BEING TRAFFICKED TO THE NORTHWEST ON INTERSTATE 5: 'WE ARE SEEING A TREND'

He and other Democrats have argued for the last few months that the bill should have included language that only allowed for mandatory minimum sentences if the fentanyl analogue in question resulted in "serious bodily injury or death."

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said "community-based" solutions are needed to deal with fentanyl and FRS. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Pallone added that the Biden administration also supports policies aimed at making sure tougher drug sentencing rules don't "exacerbate existing inequities," and helping people cope with drug addiction.

"We simply cannot incarcerate our way out of a public health crisis," he said. "The HALT Fentanyl Act does not provide any resources for research, prevention, treatment, recovery, or harm reduction."

"We need to be tough on inequality, but for true, systemic change, we have to be willing to consider different roads," added Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif. "We have to be willing to consider community-based, trauma-informed, and harm-reducing policies. We must resist the urge to hearken back to tough-on-crime rhetoric."

CASES OF MARIJUANA LACED WITH FENTANYL INCREASING, SAYS WASHINGTON DOCTOR

Republicans dismissed these worries and said tough penalties against FRS need to be made permanent because tens of thousands of Americans are dying every year due to fentanyl or FRS overdoses. Report language on the bill said more than 71,000 Americans died this way in 2021.

"If you are selling fentanyl to our kids, you deserve to be incarcerated," Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., said in response to Democrats' arguments. "We don't apologize for that."

Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., said tough prison terms are needed for people who sell fentanyl to kids. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

"Fentanyl is the top cause of death for Americans 18 to 49 years old," Guthrie added. "In my home state of Kentucky, illicit fentanyl overdoses represented 70 percent of all overdoses in 2020 and 2021."

"The fentanyl crisis is one of the foremost problems that the American public faces and has been made worse by the crisis at our southern border," he said. "Illicit fentanyl is turning virtually every community into a border community, with these poisons flooding streets across America and taking innocent lives, including the lives of our kids."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

House passage sends the bill to the Senate, where it is likely to stall despite White House support given broad opposition in the House among Democrats.

Pete Kasperowicz is a politics editor at Fox News Digital.

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Sun, 28 May 2023 02:50

🧃Sebastiaan : Warmonger Senator Lindsey Graham: "De Russen sterven ... het is het beste geld dat we ooit hebben uitgegeven." hoe'... https://t.co/aX5bUcjOw7

Sat May 27 22:18:52 +0000 2023

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XRoads : @WappieSebastian Als je nog niet overtuigd bent van de ziekelijkheid van deze neocon idioten, dan zou dit toch de doorslag moeten geven.

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J Wouters, Anneke : @WappieSebastian en dat wordt de valkuil en dan is het afgelopen

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J Wouters, Anneke : @WappieSebastian Hebben geen contact meer met de realiteit

Sat May 27 22:20:34 +0000 2023

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Sat, 27 May 2023 21:27

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Sat, 27 May 2023 21:14

BBC Politics : ''[We haven't] started yet to act very seriously''#BBCLauraK speaks to Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin, w'... https://t.co/sMZKwuDLZz

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FellaRaver🌱ðŸ'‚''‚¸ðŸ‡ºðŸ‡...🇪🇺🇬🇧🇺ðŸ‡...ðŸ´ó §ó ó ·ó ¬ó "ó  : @BBCPolitics @BBCOne Close the Russian embassy and send toad head home

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Langtang Man : @BBCPolitics @BBCOne An interview with someone who knows for certain Russia is losing 🥴!Claim to have brought dow'... https://t.co/lNg9C6wZp6

Sat May 27 20:19:43 +0000 2023

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Sat, 27 May 2023 18:33

LAYTON, Utah (KUTV) '-- A Target in Layton was evacuated after officials said they were informed of a bomb threat to multiple Utah locations.

An employee of the Panda Express located next to the Target at 815 West 2000 North confirmed that multiple officers were on scene with a K-9 team by 1 p.m. on Friday.

They said all of the stores occupants '--staff and customers '-- appeared to have been evacuated to the parking lot.

MORE: Target on the defensive after removing some products aimed at LGBTQ+

Sgt. John Ottesen with Layton Police said bomb threats were made to Target stores in Layton, Salt Lake, Taylorsville and Provo.

Officers began the investigation after two local new stations received emails alerting them about the threats.

RELATED: Target making changes after backlash over LGBT-themed children's clothes

They said Target's Pride merchandise displays were referenced in the emails.

The threat was three sentences long and came from a ''bogus email address," according to Sgt. Ottesen.

He said prosecutors may seek subpoenas to find the source.

The event comes just days after Target was slammed on social media for its LGBTQ+ children's merchandise being sold in several stores, which has since been taken off shelves.

MORE: Lawsuit filed by Southern Utah Drag Stars, ACLU against St. George over denied permit

KUTV has reached out to Target representatives for more details on this incident.

The Salt Lake City Police Department shared the following statement regarding the threat:

"Officers have worked with the Target Corporation throughout the morning and have determined there is no credible threat to the Target stores in Salt Lake City. Officers will continue neighborhood patrols around the Target locations in Salt Lake City out of an abundance of caution. We encourage anyone who sees anything suspicious to immediately call 911."

Equality Utah provided 2News with the following statement:

"Efforts to threaten, bully or frighten LGBTQ Americans and our allies will never prevail. We will not be intimidated back into the closet. In a pluralistic society we must find non-violent means to settle our political disagreements. We call on Americans from all walks of life to speak out against extremism and violence. We can and must live together in peace."

The Utah Pride Center also shared a statement:

"The Utah Pride Center condemns all acts of violence, and our hearts go out to the staff and patrons at Layton's Target today.

"Part of the mission of our organization is to celebrate and empower the LGBTQ+ community. We strive to build not only a society without attacks on freedom of expression, but also a society that celebrates the freedom to be our full authentic selves. Pride merchandise is a fabulous way for our community and allies to express their identity and celebrate freedom from oppression.

"We are lucky to live in a society where everyone is free to wear the clothes they love most, and we won't let terror threats stop that. We urge everyone in our state and in our country to find kindness and support in their hearts both for themselves and others, as well as to challenge the biases that surround and shape our perspectives, both collectively and individually."

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Sat, 27 May 2023 16:38

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Our Creative Services, Video Production, Content Delivery, Media Buying and Broadcast Studio teams have been delivering impactful messaging to multi-screen, multi-cultural and multi-platform audiences for over 15 years.

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Sat, 27 May 2023 16:36

China hit with new Covid wave months after easing restrictions 02:27

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Sat, 27 May 2023 15:15

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Fri, 26 May 2023 22:14

Townhall.com : The chair of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance speaks at a ceremony with NYC Mayor Eric Adams who'... https://t.co/VlMthTs2RE

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Thursday afternoon, the founders of the Juneteenth GVL event have posted an apology on Facebook regarding the downtown Greenville banners.This is an update to a story WYFF News 4 covered on Wednesday.The national holiday commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. Video above: Previous coverageJuneteenth GVL said a series of 50 banners have been set up around downtown Greenville for the event next month. According to the Facebook post, the apology came from the words of the founder and the director of the Juneteenth GVL event.In the post, officials offer an apology for the banners posted in downtown Greenville and say that they will correct the error quickly.(Read full apology below)The banners feature many ethnicities, including Black, Hispanic and white. Some members of the community emailed concerns and posted questions about the banners on social media. Wednesday, WYFF News 4 reached out to Rueben Hays, who is the founder and executive director of the event, as well as the cofounders.Hays previously said he and his cofounders want many ethnicities represented. "The act of putting these banners up and representing them the way that we wanted them represented was really a decision made by Juneteenth GVL," Hays said. "It was approved by myself, as well as my co-founders. And we feel like they bring the right type of messaging of unity, freedom and love.""They were the brainchild of our marketing team. The thought of bringing together a cohesive, unified group of art," Hays said.Hays tells WYFF News 4 the decision on the banner was made a couple of months ago."The city of Greenville was extremely helpful in supporting with the direction and the positioning of our choosing. They had no input on any artwork or anything creatively that we've done for Juneteenth," Hays said."The images on the flag were very intentional," Pete Lee, Co-Founder of Juneteenth GVL, said. "No matter what you believe, it takes everybody to come together and support and push any vision forward. We have been for so long asking for a seat at the table. We have been knocking at the door for so long to include us. Now that we have a seat at the table, the last thing we want to do is what's been done for years is to exclude." "When we talk about the Emancipation Proclamation, and freeing of our enslaved people, it was also an opportunity for our enslaved people to be enlisted in our military. Fighting for our freedom, fighting for our independence and fighting for diversity which we're still doing today," co-founder Van David Vernon said."Some people are having a hard time connecting themselves to Juneteenth though it is a national holiday now. Putting together art that's more reflective of our Neapolitan community is for the good," Hays said."You've got BMW ProAm and March Madness. For the first time, this has been done for the African American community for Juneteenth. It's all about celebration, and that's what the banners represent," Lee said.The Juneteenth GVL event is June 10-17. For a list of Juneteenth GVL events, including the Royal Gala, the Poker Run Freedom Ride and the scholarship opportunities, click here.

GREENVILLE, S.C. '--Thursday afternoon, the founders of the Juneteenth GVL event have posted an apology on Facebook regarding the downtown Greenville banners.

This is an update to a story WYFF News 4 covered on Wednesday.

The national holiday commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.

Video above: Previous coverage

Juneteenth GVL said a series of 50 banners have been set up around downtown Greenville for the event next month.

This content is imported from Facebook.You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

According to the Facebook post, the apology came from the words of the founder and the director of the Juneteenth GVL event.

In the post, officials offer an apology for the banners posted in downtown Greenville and say that they will correct the error quickly.

(Read full apology below)

The banners feature many ethnicities, including Black, Hispanic and white.

Some members of the community emailed concerns and posted questions about the banners on social media.

Wednesday, WYFF News 4 reached out to Rueben Hays, who is the founder and executive director of the event, as well as the cofounders.

Hays previously said he and his cofounders want many ethnicities represented.

"The act of putting these banners up and representing them the way that we wanted them represented was really a decision made by Juneteenth GVL," Hays said. "It was approved by myself, as well as my co-founders. And we feel like they bring the right type of messaging of unity, freedom and love."

"They were the brainchild of our marketing team. The thought of bringing together a cohesive, unified group of art," Hays said.

Hays tells WYFF News 4 the decision on the banner was made a couple of months ago.

"The city of Greenville was extremely helpful in supporting with the direction and the positioning of our choosing. They had no input on any artwork or anything creatively that we've done for Juneteenth," Hays said.

"The images on the flag were very intentional," Pete Lee, Co-Founder of Juneteenth GVL, said. "No matter what you believe, it takes everybody to come together and support and push any vision forward. We have been for so long asking for a seat at the table. We have been knocking at the door for so long to include us. Now that we have a seat at the table, the last thing we want to do is what's been done for years is to exclude."

"When we talk about the Emancipation Proclamation, and freeing of our enslaved people, it was also an opportunity for our enslaved people to be enlisted in our military. Fighting for our freedom, fighting for our independence and fighting for diversity which we're still doing today," co-founder Van David Vernon said.

"Some people are having a hard time connecting themselves to Juneteenth though it is a national holiday now. Putting together art that's more reflective of our Neapolitan community is for the good," Hays said.

"You've got BMW ProAm and March Madness. For the first time, this has been done for the African American community for Juneteenth. It's all about celebration, and that's what the banners represent," Lee said.

The Juneteenth GVL event is June 10-17.

For a list of Juneteenth GVL events, including the Royal Gala, the Poker Run Freedom Ride and the scholarship opportunities, click here.

This content is imported from Facebook.You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

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Fri, 26 May 2023 13:05

Authored by Monica Showalter via AmericanThinker.com,

From the annals of "What was she thinking?," here's San Francisco's mayor, London Breed.

According to the New York Post:

San Francisco Mayor London Breed and the city's board of supervisors were forced to retreat inside after a meeting they attempted to hold in a notorious open-air drug market was disrupted by jeers, shouting and a woman who hurled a brick into the crowd, according to a report.

On Tuesday, city leaders decided to hold the meeting outdoors in United Nations Plaza to highlight problems plaguing the area '-- including surging fentanyl overdoses '-- and to discuss potential solutions, KRON4 reported.

Breed and Supervisor Aaron Peskin took to the podium and proclaimed the city has been tolerating "illegal, out-of-control behavior for far too long."

"Many San Franciscans do not feel safe," Peskin said.

"Brazen drug dealing and deteriorating street conditions have exacerbated a humanitarian crisis on our streets."

But less than 10 minutes after the meeting began, it was cut short as the crowd hurled insults at the mayor and supervisors until they just walked away from the podium, according to KRON.

Suffice to say, it didn't end well.

Breed's city has been turned into a crime- and homeless-infested hellhole on her watch. A feces-strewn open-air drug market in many quarters, where junkies, addicts, criminals, vagrants, and bums all gather together for their drug deals, panhandling, and shoplifting projects. This particular hellhole, at United Nations Plaza, has always been a center of mayhem '-- I remember it as a trash-strewn, urine-soaked junkie redoubt when I lived in the city 30 years ago.

It hasn't changed any, except that an infusion of city money to NGOs to "help" the homeless has made it a lot nastier. Anyone who's ever lived in that city would know that that's not the place you go for a well heeled press conference announcing all the new government money you are going to be spending to end crime in the city.

You don't go into a tiger's lair to talk about how you'll be taming the tigers. You don't go into a terrorist den and denounce terrorism if you have anything resembling a brain. And you especially don't go into an open-air drug market, full of dealers and their customers, to talk about how you'll be ending the fentanyl crisis, putting junkies in compelled treatment, and shutting the scene down because "everyone" opposes this activity.

Actually, what should be news to Breed is that some people are for it '-- the dealers, their addicted clients, and the NGOs that thrive on "serving" and perpetuating the situation for the sake of winning more government funding.

This is their home. This is their habitat. This is the place they made, and they don't want any changes, other than more money coming in. Like everyone else, they have "interests."

Bad people exist, and in some places, they are all bad people.

A smart mayor would send in the cops and maybe the bulldozers with no warning.

Not Breed.

She was last seen insisting that "this is a safe city," kid you not.

She just learned the hard way it's not, but don't expect her to make that connection.

What this shows is how remarkably na¯ve Breed is about the problems plaguing her city, even just blocks from San Francisco's City Hall.

Don't count on any of her proposed "solutions" to make so much as a dent in that city's problem.

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Fri, 26 May 2023 13:04

First Lady Jill Biden suffered a Jeb Bush ''please clap'' moment on Thursday when her applause line fell utterly flat during an event in Washington.

''I've visited red states and blue states and I've found that the common values that unite us are deeper than our divisions,'' Biden told an audience at the Reagan Institute Summit on Education in Washington, DC.

After saying the line, the first lady paused for a moment before reacting with surprise at the spectators' non-reaction.

''And, um, I thought you might clap for that,'' said Biden, drawing laughs and applause.

The first lady's plea for plaudits was reminiscent of former Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush's viral moment of desperation on the campaign trail in 2016.

The former Florida governor asked an audience in New Hampshire with a mixture of politeness and exasperation to ''please clap'' after delivering a line from his stump speech that was meant to rouse the crowd '-- but didn't.

Biden spoke to an audience at the Reagan Institute Summit on Education in Washington, DC. @texan_maga/TwitterThe first lady suffered a similarly awkward moment back in 2019 while campaigning for her husband.

She told a small audience in Iowa that if Joe Biden were elected president, Americans would say to themselves: ''Finally someone is standing up to the NRA and keeping our children and our schools safe.''

The remark only drew a response after a shocked Jill Biden exclaimed, ''That's my applause line, come on!''

Jill Biden suffered a similarly awkward moment back in 2019 while campaigning for her husband. AFP via Getty ImagesThe RISE conference ''hosts education leaders from across the country,'' according to the Ronald Reagan Foundation and Institute.

The first lady holds a faculty position at Northern Virginia Community College, where she teaches English.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson '-- a 2024 GOP presidential candidate '-- and Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore were among the other speakers at the annual event.

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Fri, 26 May 2023 04:13

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