Army Private Bradley Edward Manning, now known as Chelsea Elizabeth Manning, was released from the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks in Leavenworth, Kansas on May 17 after serving only seven years of a 35-year sentence for releasing approximately 750,000 classified documents to Wikileaks. His sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama three days before he left office.
In April 2015 – while in prison – Manning started receiving hormone therapy to satisfy his desire to appear as a woman. This therapy was bought and paid for by the American taxpayer. A month earlier, the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Manning be referred to in either a gender neutral term or a feminine one going forward.
I won’t bore you with the creepy details, but Manning was a problem from day one in the Army and should have been discharged immediately. His image should be on a poster in every Army recruiter’s office… Continued at: Chelsea Manning May Be Free But He’s Still a Traitor – Steve Sheldon
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The Internet of Things That Can Be Hacked grows daily. Lightbulbs, trucks, and fridges all have computers inside them now, and all have been hacked by someone. But at least you don’t put those inside your body.
The makers of the We-Vibe don’t admit any wrongdoing. But they will pay $3.75 million after allegations that the app was collecting user’s “highly sensitive information.”
Two years ago, someone had the good idea to put a bluetooth connection inside a vibrator, and the We-Vibe 4 Plus was born. The vibrator can connect with a smartphone app that its makers say “allows couples to keep their flame ignited – together or apart”: that is, it can be controlled remotely, while, say, making a video call.
Other vibrator manufactures are also using the vulnerable app, but have yet to be targeted by legal actions. If you own any bluetooth connected device, beware!
At the Def Con hacking conference in Las Vegas, two independent hackers from New Zealand, who go by the handles goldfisk and follower, revealed that the way the vibrator speaks with its controlling app isn’t really secure at all – making it possible to remotely seize control of the vibrator and activate it at will.
In their talk, Hacking the Internet of Vibrating Things, Follower argued that despite titters at the back of the room, the security of a sex toy should be taken seriously. “The company that makes this vibrator, Standard Innovation: They have over 2 million people using their devices, so what’s at stake is 2 million people.”
“A lot of people in the past have said it’s not really a serious issue,” he added, “but if you come back to the fact that we’re talking about people, unwanted activation of a vibrator is potentially sexual assault.”
Potentially worse still, the pair discovered that the app itself was phoning home, letting the manufacturer discover some very intimate information about users.
And, oh boy, did they collect some sexy details, the Register reported — like what time and how intense you like it and the temperature of the device. They even found the vibration modes you prefer: With the We-Vibe 4 Plus, there are 10 modes, but you can also create your own custom vibe. Your personally blended mix of pulse, wave, wave, pulse, tide, bounce, cha-cha-cha could be in the hands of hackers.
The lawyers for the anonymous plaintiffs contended that the app, “incredibly,” collected users’ email addresses, allowing the company “to link the usage information to specific customer accounts.”
Customers’ email addresses and usage data were transmitted to the company’s Canadian servers, the lawsuit alleges. When a We-Vibe was remotely linked to a partner, the connection was described as “secure,” but some information was also routed through We-Connect and collected, the lawsuit says.
The unhappy users allege in their lawsuit that they never agreed to the collection of this data. Standard Innovations maintains that users “consented to the conduct alleged” — but instead of taking the case to court, the company agreed to settle.
An estimated 300,000 people bought the Bluetooth-enabled devices.
Under the terms of the settlement, anyone who bought an app-enabled vibrator can receive up to $199 dollars; anyone who actually connected it to the app can collect up to $10,000. The actual amount paid out will depend on how many people file claims; the company estimates people who bought the app will get around $40, and people who used the app around $500.
The high-end vibrators cost between $119 and $199, if purchased through the We-Vibe website.
Standard Innovation also agreed to stop collecting users’ email addresses and to update its privacy notice to be clearer about how data is collected.
In a statement, Standard Innovation called the settlement “fair and reasonable.”
Getting off while plugged in? You might want to make sure your hardware is protected.
Yes, that’s correct: what the news in the U.S. tells you about Denmark’s population being so happy truly is a load of crap, and the answers to fixing the broken U.S. social and financial system cannot be found there.
Many Danes don’t often see polls with the claims mentioned here. Just like us, they read news articles detailing national political infighting, pollution from pesticide runoff, and work-related stress, along with the small victories around the country; and mentioning polls about how happy Danes are elicits a rolling of eyes and comments about the ridiculousness of such claims.
Let’s just look at some random facts as we troll the web that most liberals, especially Bernie Sanders, ignore (by choice)…
From the official Denmark website:
The basic principle of the Danish welfare system (economy), often referred to as the Scandinavian welfare model, is that all citizens have equal rights to social security. Within the Danish welfare system, a number of services are available to citizens, free of charge. This means that for instance the Danish health and educational systems are free. The Danish welfare model is subsidised by the state, and as a result Denmark has one of the highest taxation levels in the world.
From a Danish blogger…
The Danish tax burden is one of the most heated areas of politics that you can discuss here and honestly writing about it is like trying to eat an elephant at one sitting. With income tax averaging from 58 to 72 percent, car taxes more than 180 percent and a stiff 25 VAT (value added tax) added to all purchases – it can be sometimes difficult to bring home any bacon.
Danes have to pay more for just about everything. Books are a luxury item. Their equivalent of the George Washington Bridge costs $45 to cross. Health care is free, which means you pay in time instead of money. Services are distributed only after endless stays in waiting rooms.
They’re also world leaders in alcohol and anti-depressant use.
Visitors say Danes are joyless to be around. Denmark suffers from high rates of alcoholism. In its use of antidepressants it ranks fourth in the world.
Denmark’s productivity is in decline, its workers put in only 28 hours a week, and everybody you meet seems to have a government job.
Oh, and as The Telegraph put it, it’s “the cancer capital of the world.”
Denmark’s suicide rate has been about twice as high as the United States over the past five decades.
According to the INTERPOL data, for murder, the rate in 2000 was 4.03 for Denmark, 1.10 for Japan, and 5.51 for USA.
So how happy can these drunk, depressed, lazy, tumor-ridden, pig-bonking bureaucrats really be?
What do they do with that free education?
Too many pursue “fulfilment” and too few the science and engineering degrees needed in well-paid growth sectors critical for the nation’s future.
Typical is 23-year-old Ali Badreldin, who is enrolled at the Royal Danish Academy of Music to become a saxophone player. “Music was always part of my life growing up so it was a natural choice,” he said.
His courses are free and he gets a monthly stipend of 5,839 DKK ($1,074 USD) in a system where class sizes are rarely limited.
The result has Denmark spending more proportionally on education than any other country in the OECD club of 34 advanced nations and getting less return..
Yet biotech firms like Novozymes say they cannot find enough engineers.
Engineering opportunities have soared in recent years in Denmark, but its youth have shunned the sector, with only one-third the OECD average contemplating an engineering career amid top-heavy enrolment in arts and humanities programmes.
With one of the highest tax rates in the world, big salaries mean mostly bigger taxes to sustain the welfare state. Many young Danes just don’t see the point of putting in years of effort into studying for a bigger salary eaten up by taxes
For example, “Lazy Robert”, or Robert Nielsen, an erstwhile student of social sciences, philosophy and Chinese, now 45, who shot to notoriety after proudly stating on TV that he prefers living off social benefits than taking a job he didn’t find “meaningful”
Unemployment Rate in Denmark remained unchanged at 4.50 percent in December from 4.50 percent in November of 2015, however official Denmark rates include those actively seeking employment, The more realistic rate is closer to 7.50 percent to 9.50 percent.
As opposed to all other forms of social security in Denmark, unemployment insurance is voluntary. This means you are not automatically insured against unemployment.
You can take out unemployment insurance with an unemployment insurance fund (a-kasse), which are private associations related to the trade unions and other professional organisations.
$20 Minimum Wage
Believe it or not, the minimum wage in Denmark really is $20 per hour. Many minimum wage increase opposers will say that it makes everything else more expensive. In a nutshell, yes, it can. However, it’s not always an immediate spark of inflation. Either way, it’s important to note that Denmark actually is an expensive country. In fact, Copenhagen is among the five most expensive cities in the world.
A meal at McDonalds in Denmark is around 65 DKK, which is $11.89 . In the United States, the same meal is $6.50.
The price of regular gasoline gallon/$USD as of today is $5.93 a new low due to the world market.
A Volkswagen Golf will run you $45,747.33! That will buy you a real car here.
Pair of Levi 501 jeans, or equivalent, $134.46.
Single parenting is common in Denmark. The country has the fourth highest divorce rate in Europe, far outstripping the UK, and the latest figures from Statistics Denmark show that 42.7 per cent of marriages ended in divorce. Like so many things in Denmark that is escalating, According to Statistics Denmark, the national divorce rate jumped by 23 percent last year when compared to the previous ten-year average.
Healthcare is becoming too expensive for even their extortionate tax rate to subsidize.
New rules are coming into effect which will apply to people who wish to use private hospitals versus the state run ones for certain operations. It has been a growing trend to use private hospitals for operations when the waiting times were too long at state run hospitals.
Instead of waiting up to a year for a hip operation, you could get it at a private hospital within a month. You paid the fee and got reimbursed the cost from the health service. Well that is changing.
Now many operations will not be paid for at private hospitals. There is talk of operations for knees, shoulder, eyebrows, back and weight problems. This list will probably grow as the government tries to reduce costs more and more.
Denmark’s low cancer survival rates of 50.9% are a double-edged sword, as the nation has the highest cancer rate in the world. According to the World Cancer Research Fund, Denmark has 338 cancer patients for every 100,000 residents.
Head of the Danish Cancer Society, Leif Vestergaard Pedersen, said “Some of the the most terrible stories are those about patients who have been to four or five hospitals before they come to a hospital that can make the diagnosis. By then an incredible amount of time has passed and the likelihood of effective treatment is reduced.”
So, why are they so happy there? I read it in a meme!
Those sky-high happiness surveys, it turns out, are mostly bunk. Asking people “Are you happy?” means different things in different cultures. In Japan, for instance, answering “Yes” seems like boasting, Booth points out. Whereas in Denmark, it’s considered “shameful to be unhappy,” newspaper editor Anne Knudsen says in the book.
Moreover, there is a group of people that believes the Danes are lying when they say they’re the happiest people on the planet. This group is known as “Danes.”
“Over the years I have asked many Danes about these happiness surveys — whether they really believe that they are the global happiness champions — and I have yet to meet a single one of them who seriously believes it’s true,” Booth writes. “They tend to approach the subject of their much-vaunted happiness like the victims of a practical joke waiting to discover who the perpetrator is.”
The glorious Denmark meme MAY have been somewhat true it the past, but it is rapidly declining in the current days. Partially due to the flaws inherant in the socialist dreamscape, but also now an added factor that the rest of the world has been facing.
Refugee immigration.
It’s off the charts and Demark is risking heading down the drain.
Some “experts” and pro-immigration politicians – like the UN chief of Migration (who is also chairman at Goldman-Sachs bank) claim that the influx of Syrian refugees and migrants from the Muslim world will benefit European economy. That is a very bold statement when you look at the statistics.
Muslim refugees (in this case from Lebanon) are the most criminal group of all. Syrians, whom the European elite wants us to believe is highly educated refugees eager to work and contribuite, is the group that is most unemployed.
Important research by the Danish state (Danish Statistics) on a very debated topic – feel free to translate and spread.
Translated from Altinget:
“Male immigrants and descendants from Lebanon have the highest crime rate of all ethnic groups in Denmark. According to the latest available figures (from 2013) the Lebanese male crime rate is index 254 – even when adjusted for age and socioeconomic status. If you do not adjust for this, the figure would be even higher. Danish men’s crime rate is index 98.
Lebanese also perform poorly on the labor market. The employment rate for 30-59-year-old Lebanese immigrants is 30.4 percent, while the employment rate for ethnic Danes is 82.3 percent.
The figures for the employment rate cover both men and women. In turn, their descendants are not included in these figures, but also when you look at the group of descendants of Lebanese immigrants, there is a significant under-employment.
Refugees and immigrants from Lebanon are a special group, since many are stateless Palestinians with growing up in refugee camps. This is not the case for the Iraqi immigrants, but the crime index for Iraqis is also high.
Among the Iraqi immigrants (and refugees), only 32.8 percent of 30-59-year-olds had a job in 2013. It is only marginally better than the Lebanese.
The crime index for male Iraqi immigrants and their descendants is as high as for the Lebanese, but with an index of 166, when adjusted for age and socio-economic conditions, the crime index for Iraqi refugees and migrants is still well above average.
What are they doing about it?
Danish lawmakers, this last session, passed a controversial bill aiming to make the Scandinavian country a less attractive destination for refugees and migrants.
Main points:
– New, more difficult citizenship requirements approved by the government earlier this week.
– Police will be able to search migrants’ luggage and seize cash exceeding 10,000 kroner (1,340 euros, $1,450), as well as any individual items valued at more than that amount. Wedding rings and other items of sentimental value will be exempt.
– Refugees granted a lower form of protection status under Danish law, meaning people fleeing indiscriminate violence rather than individual persecution, have to wait three years instead of one year before applying for family reunifications. Once the application has been filed, the process can take years.
– New family reunification rules that will include tougher restrictions for “foreigners who have poorer preconditions for becoming integrated into Danish society” and easier rules for “foreigners who are consider to be suitable for integration”.
– Tighter rules for obtaining permanent residency that will require foreigners to “meet a string of fixed conditions and some supplementary integration-relevant criteria” in order to obtain permanent residency. Additionally, the proposal calls for scrapping the “particularly easy access” to permanent residency for refugees.
– For permanent residency applications, Danish language requirements have been raised from Danish 1 to Danish 2, and the person must have been employed for 2.5 of the past three years rather than three out of five years.
– Tougher citizenship criteria for children who were born in Denmark to foreign parents. The proposal entails scrapping more lax requirements that were implemented by the previous government in 2014.
– More focus on a refugee’s ability “to contribute” when Denmark chooses its 500 UN quota refugees each year. These changes were introduced by Integration Minister Inger Støjberg in August.
– A proposal to apply the newly-created ‘integration benefit’, a sharp reduction in the benefits given to refugees, to even more foreigners.
– A proposal to implement recommendations from the Criminal Code Council (Straffelovrådet) to change Denmark’s current laws on treason so they can be applied to Danes or foreigners who engage in armed conflict abroad.
This has turned into a longer thought rant that I had anticipated, so if you want more information, Google it yourself, just avoid the “warm fuzzy” liberal sites and seek the truth.
A YouTube account called Young Ted Cruz popped up yesterday with a singular video of the Republican presidential candidate back when he was just 18.
Cruz is asked in this video about his life aspirations. He goes, “Aspirations? Is that like sweat on my butt?”
Ba-dum-tss.
Cruz goes on to say, “My aspiration is to, uh, oh I don’t know, be in a teen tit film like that guy who played Horatio. You know he was in Malibu Bikini Beach Shop.”
Aside from that, it appears Cruz had your standard teenager goals: “Take over the world, world domination, you know, rule everything, rich and powerful, that sort of stuff.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Some of the classified emails found on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s home server were more sensitive than top secret, according to an inspector general for the intelligence community.
Inspector General Charles I. McCullough sent a letter to lawmakers last Friday saying that several dozen additional classified emails have been found, including ones containing information from so-called “special access programs,” which have a classification higher than top secret.
Federal investigators are probing the Democratic presidential candidate’s email setup amid concerns that classified information may have passed through the system. Clinton, the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, provided the server to the FBI in August. She has said that she didn’t send or receive information that was classified at the time via her personal email account.
McCullough sent the letter in response to inquiries from congressional committees.
“To date, I have received two sworn declarations from one (intelligence community) element,” the letter said. “These declarations cover several dozen emails containing classified information determined by the IC element to be at the confidential, secret and top secret/sap levels.”
Intelligence officials say that special access programs are more classified than just top secret because they are about highly sensitive programs and could reveal sources of information.
The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The State Department is under court order to release the 55,000 emails that Clinton submitted to her former agency that were on her home-brew server and were not personal. Almost all have been released, with the last batch expected Jan. 29.
A Florida gun shop that was sued by CAIR (Council for American-Islamic Relations) for discriminating against Muslims seems to have won.Florida Gun Supply owner Andy Hallinan declared his business a ‘Muslim-Free Zone’ several months ago on a YouTube video. He also began offering FREE concealed carry classes and eliminated all fees to use his range.Hallinan stated, “I have a moral and legal responsibility to ensure the safety of all patriots in my community and so, effective immediately, I’m declaring Florida Gun Supply as a Muslim-free zone. I will not arm and train those who wish to do harm to my fellow patriots.”
Following that viral video, CAIR filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against Florida Gun Supply. However, that lawsuit has just been dismissed by U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom. She states in her 12 page ruling, “There are simply no facts grounding the assertion that Plaintiff (CAIR) and/or one of its constituents will be harmed.”
Hallinan explained, “I have never denied a Muslim the right to buy guns here because they’ve never tried to buy guns here. We laid out the facts. We laid out the evidence, and the evidence very clearly showed that I did not discriminate.”
Following Judge Bloom’s ruling, Hallinan doubled-down on his shops policy by releasing the above YouTube video. Florida Gun Supply will now be selling ‘Muslim Free Vehicle’ stickers as well as life-size Jihadi targets for the range.
President Barack Hussein Obama gets a bad wrap for all of his failures, but the fact is he has accomplished a lot while in office. In fact, there are hundreds of things he has done that no other president has ever done.
Just to illustrate the point, we have listed 37 amazing accomplishments that will likely never be accomplished ever again…
1) First President to be photographed smoking a joint.
2) First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.
3) First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in.
4) First President to preside over a cut to the credit-rating of the United States.
5) First President to violate the War Powers Act.
6) First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
7) First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party.
8) First President to spend a trillion dollars on “shovel-ready” jobs when there was no such thing as “shovel-ready” jobs.
9) First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.
10) First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat.
11) First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.
12) First President to tell a CEO of a major corporation (Chrysler) to resign.
13) First President to terminate America’s ability to put a man in space.
14) First President to cancel the National Day of Prayer and to say that America is no longer a Christian nation.
15) First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.
16) First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.
17) First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly spoke out on the reasons for their rate increases.
18) First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state it is allowed to locate a factory.
19) First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN).
20) First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.
21) First President to actively try to bankrupt an American industry (coal).
22) First President to fire an inspector general of AmeriCorps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.
23) First President to appoint 45 czars to replace elected officials in his office.
24) First President to surround himself with radical left wing anarchists.
25) First President to golf more than 150 separate times in his five years in office.
26) First President to hide his birth, medical, educational and travel records.
27) First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.
28) First President to go on multiple “global apology tours” and concurrent “insult our friends” tours.
29) First President to go on over 17 lavish vacations, in addition to date nights and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends paid for by the taxpayers.
30) First President to have personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.
31) First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000 a year at taxpayer expense.
32) First President to fly in a personal trainer from Chicago at least once a week at taxpayer expense.
33) First President to repeat the Quran and tell us the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.
34) First President to side with a foreign nation over one of the American 50 states (Mexico vs Arizona).
35) First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S., including those with criminal convictions.
36) First President to tell the military men and women that they should pay for their own private insurance because they “volunteered to go to war and knew the consequences.”
37) Then he was the First President to tell the members of the military that THEY were UNPATRIOTIC for balking at the last suggestion.
Sometimes when you feel you’re right, you just can’t let it go, even if you happen to be in the middle of a live news broadcast in one of America’s largest cities.
Two anchors from Chicago’s legendary WGN studios couldn’t agree over how well traffic was flowing – or not – through O’Hare International Airport.
Weatherman Demetrius Ivory said the storms that swept through much of the Midwest Wednesday were causing significant delays.
Tonya Francisco who was reporting from the airport looked around and disagreed.
“I’m just talking like I see it,” said Francisco. “You see, I’m outside. I see what’s going on. You are inside talking about some little weather maps.”
Much to the amusement of those in the studio who can be heard laughing, Francisco began to read the airport boards and even noted there was one early arrival.
With a little egg on his face, Ivory asked his coworker for a little support.
“There’s a delay somewhere,” Ivory responded. “The least you could do is just help me out.”
Instead, Francisco took a friendly dig even deeper. “At risk of being attacked brutally, and needlessly from Demetrius, it’s not raining out here! And there are NO cancellations!” she joked pointing at the boards.
Francisco also touted checking Facebook and claimed to be getting all the support for her side of the story.
That’s when Ivory had enough, and with a coy smile said, “I’m done with you.”
WGN is locally known for its often light-hearted and witty reporting. Clearly the station enjoyed the back-and-forth and posted it online for all to enjoy.
STORRS, Conn. (AP) — A University of Connecticut student has gotten into a confrontation with a campus food court manager who wouldn’t let him buy macaroni and cheese with bacon and jalapeno peppers and has been arrested.
An obscenity-laced video shows 19-year-old freshman Luke Gatti arguing with and shoving the manager on Sunday.
Gatti had been trying to buy the mac and cheese at the university’s student union in Storrs. Police and the manager say he was refused service because he had an open alcohol container.
The 9-minute video shows Gatti being tackled by another employee, being arrested by police and spitting at the manager before being led away.
Gatti is from Bayville, New York. He’s charged with breach of peace and criminal trespass. He’s due in court Oct. 13. He hasn’t returned a phone call seeking comment.
A Florida gun shop that was sued by CAIR (Council for American-Islamic Relations) for discriminating against Muslims seems to have won.Florida Gun Supply owner Andy Hallinan declared his business a ‘Muslim-Free Zone’ several months ago on a YouTube video. He also began offering FREE concealed carry classes and eliminated all fees to use his range.Hallinan stated, “I have a moral and legal responsibility to ensure the safety of all patriots in my community and so, effective immediately, I’m declaring Florida Gun Supply as a Muslim-free zone. I will not arm and train those who wish to do harm to my fellow patriots.”
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