All posts by Joe Scarborough

News

Protesters in Hong Kong Sing Hallelujah to the Lord

A simple hymn sung in Hong Kong’s churches has become the anthem of the protesters across the city. The protests are about new extradition laws that China want to impose on Hong Kong.

At first the Christian protestors hoped the hymn would release tensions with the police. For Christians the protests are not only political but also religious. They can see the new laws being used to limit religious freedoms they enjoy, but are not shared by the church in mainland China. Many Christians in Hong Kong have smuggled Bibles to the mainland, and the new laws could see them arrested and sent their to face trial. Hong Kong is also a safe haven for Chinese believers who have fled the persecution of the mainland.

However, the hymn has quickly been taken up by all the protestors, not only those of faith. The Hong Kong authorities have said have suspended the bill, however protestors say they will continue until the bill is scrapped entirely.

Read More: BBC

News

Sen Hawley Introduces Legislation to Protect University Research Being Stolen

Missouri’s Sen. Hawley has introduced legislation to protect university research being stolen by nations like China, Russia, and Iran. He has said that Universities have been long targeted by these nations in a bid to steal intellectual property and spy on research that has national security implications.

The legislation would require students to undergo screening before being allowed to participate in sensitive research.

Read More: The Daily Caller

Science And Technology

Google and Other Tech Giants Move Business Out of China

Google and other tech giants are making moves to move their business out of China in order to avoid the 25% tariffs being introduced.

Google is reportedly moving the production of servers and motherboards out of the nation.

Wistron Corp, a Taiwanese firm which produces hardware for tech giants like Facebook and Microsoft are also looking to move operations out of China, and perhaps to the U.S.

Read More: The Daily Caller

News

Dems Lawsuit Over Trump’s Use of Emergency Military Funds Thrown Out by Judge

Washington D.C. district judge Judge Trevor McFadden has thrown out a lawsuit by democrats over the reallocation of military funding towards emergency border wall funding. In February the President declared a humanitarian crisis at the southern border.

The judge said the dispute was a political one, and that trying to use the courts to solve the problem was trying to circumvent the political process.

Read More: Fox News

Connecting The Dots, Conspiracy Theory, Education

Globalists to meet in Montreux, Switzerland

BILDERBERG 2019: FULL AGENDA AND PARTICIPANTS LIST

67th Bilderberg Meeting to take place 30 May – 2 June 2019 in Montreux, Switzerland
MONTREUX, 28 MAY 2019 – The 67th Bilderberg Meeting will take place from 30 May – 2 June 2019 in Montreux, Switzerland. About 130 participants from 23 countries have confirmed their attendance. As ever, a diverse group of political leaders and experts from industry, finance, academia, labour and the media has been invited.
The key topics for discussion this year are:
1. A Stable Strategic Order
2. What Next for Europe?
3. Climate Change and Sustainability
4. China
5. Russia
6. The Future of Capitalism
7. Brexit
8. The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
9. The Weaponisation of Social Media
10. The Importance of Space
11. Cyber Threats

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS 2019
BOARD
Castries, Henri de (FRA), Chairman, Steering Committee; Chairman, Institut Montaigne
Kravis, Marie-Josée (USA), President, American Friends of Bilderberg Inc.; Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
Halberstadt, Victor (NLD), Chairman Foundation Bilderberg Meetings; Professor of Economics, Leiden University
Achleitner, Paul M. (DEU), Treasurer Foundation Bilderberg Meetings; Chairman Supervisory Board, Deutsche Bank AG

PARTICIPANTS
Abrams, Stacey (USA), Founder and Chair, Fair Fight
Adonis, Andrew (GBR), Member, House of Lords
Albers, Isabel (BEL), Editorial Director, De Tijd / L’Echo
Altman, Roger C. (USA), Founder and Senior Chairman, Evercore
Arbour, Louise (CAN), Senior Counsel, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
Arrimadas, Inés (ESP), Party Leader, Ciudadanos
Azoulay, Audrey (INT), Director-General, UNESCO
Baker, James H. (USA), Director, Office of Net Assessment, Office of the Secretary of Defense
Balta, Evren (TUR), Associate Professor of Political Science, Özyegin University
Barbizet, Patricia (FRA), Chairwoman and CEO, Temaris & Associés
Barbot, Estela (PRT), Member of the Board and Audit Committee, REN (Redes Energéticas Nacionais)
Barroso, José Manuel (PRT), Chairman, Goldman Sachs International; Former President, European Commission
Barton, Dominic (CAN), Senior Partner and former Global Managing Partner, McKinsey & Company
Beaune, Clément (FRA), Adviser Europe and G20, Office of the President of the Republic of France
Boos, Hans-Christian (DEU), CEO and Founder, Arago GmbH
Bostrom, Nick (UK), Director, Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University
Botín, Ana P. (ESP), Group Executive Chair, Banco Santander
Brandtzæg, Svein Richard (NOR), Chairman, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Brende, Børge (NOR), President, World Economic Forum
Buberl, Thomas (FRA), CEO, AXA
Buitenweg, Kathalijne (NLD), MP, Green Party
Caine, Patrice (FRA), Chairman and CEO, Thales Group
Carney, Mark J. (GBR), Governor, Bank of England
Casado, Pablo (ESP), President, Partido Popular
Ceviköz, Ahmet Ünal (TUR), MP, Republican People’s Party (CHP)
Champagne, François Philippe (CAN), Minister of Infrastructure and Communities
Cohen, Jared (USA), Founder and CEO, Jigsaw, Alphabet Inc.
Croiset van Uchelen, Arnold (NLD), Partner, Allen & Overy LLP
Daniels, Matthew (USA), New space and technology projects, Office of the Secretary of Defense
Davignon, Etienne (BEL), Minister of State
Demiralp, Selva (TUR), Professor of Economics, Koç University
Donohoe, Paschal (IRL), Minister for Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform
Döpfner, Mathias (DEU), Chairman and CEO, Axel Springer SE
Ellis, James O. (USA), Chairman, Users’ Advisory Group, National Space Council
Feltri, Stefano (ITA), Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Il Fatto Quotidiano
Ferguson, Niall (USA), Milbank Family Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Findsen, Lars (DNK), Director, Danish Defence Intelligence Service
Fleming, Jeremy (GBR), Director, British Government Communications Headquarters
Garton Ash, Timothy (GBR), Professor of European Studies, Oxford University
Gnodde, Richard J. (IRL), CEO, Goldman Sachs International
Godement, François (FRA), Senior Adviser for Asia, Institut Montaigne
Grant, Adam M. (USA), Saul P. Steinberg Professor of Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Gruber, Lilli (ITA), Editor-in-Chief and Anchor “Otto e mezzo”, La7 TV
Hanappi-Egger, Edeltraud (AUT), Rector, Vienna University of Economics and Business
Hedegaard, Connie (DNK), Chair, KR Foundation; Former European Commissioner
Henry, Mary Kay (USA), International President, Service Employees International Union
Hirayama, Martina (CHE), State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation
Hobson, Mellody (USA), President, Ariel Investments LLC
Hoffman, Reid (USA), Co-Founder, LinkedIn; Partner, Greylock Partners
Hoffmann, André (CHE), Vice-Chairman, Roche Holding Ltd.
Jordan, Jr., Vernon E. (USA), Senior Managing Director, Lazard Frères & Co. LLC
Jost, Sonja (DEU), CEO, DexLeChem
Kaag, Sigrid (NLD), Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation
Karp, Alex (USA), CEO, Palantir Technologies
Kerameus, Niki K. (GRC), MP; Partner, Kerameus & Partners
Kissinger, Henry A. (USA), Chairman, Kissinger Associates Inc.
Koç, Ömer (TUR), Chairman, Koç Holding A.S.
Kotkin, Stephen (USA), Professor in History and International Affairs, Princeton
University
Kramp-Karrenbauer, Annegret (DEU), Leader, CDU
Krastev, Ivan (BUL), Chairman, Centre for Liberal Strategies
Kravis, Henry R. (USA), Co-Chairman and Co-CEO, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Kristersson, Ulf (SWE), Leader of the Moderate Party
Kudelski, André (CHE), Chairman and CEO, Kudelski Group
Kushner, Jared (USA), Senior Advisor to the President, The White House
Le Maire, Bruno (FRA), Minister of Finance
Leyen, Ursula von der (DEU), Federal Minster of Defence
Leysen, Thomas (BEL), Chairman, KBC Group and Umicore
Liikanen, Erkki (FIN), Chairman, IFRS Trustees; Helsinki Graduate School of Economics
Lund, Helge (GBR), Chairman, BP plc; Chairman, Novo Nordisk AS
Maurer, Ueli (CHE), President of the Swiss Federation and Federal Councillor of Finance
Mazur, Sara (SWE), Director, Investor AB
McArdle, Megan (USA), Columnist, The Washington Post
McCaskill, Claire (USA), Former Senator; Analyst, NBC News
Medina, Fernando (PRT), Mayor of Lisbon
Micklethwait, John (USA), Editor-in-Chief, Bloomberg LP
Minton Beddoes, Zanny (GBR), Editor-in-Chief, The Economist
Monzón, Javier (ESP), Chairman, PRISA
Mundie, Craig J. (USA), President, Mundie & Associates
Nadella, Satya (USA), CEO, Microsoft
Netherlands, His Majesty the King of the (NLD)
Nora, Dominique (FRA), Managing Editor, L’Obs
O’Leary, Michael (IRL), CEO, Ryanair D.A.C.
Pagoulatos, George (GRC), Vice-President of ELIAMEP, Professor; Athens University of Economics
Papalexopoulos, Dimitri (GRC), CEO, TITAN Cement Company S.A.
Petraeus, David H. (USA), Chairman, KKR Global Institute
Pienkowska, Jolanta (POL), Anchor woman, journalist
Pottinger, Matthew (USA), Senior Director, National Security Council
Pouyanné, Patrick (FRA), Chairman and CEO, Total S.A.
Ratas, Jüri (EST), Prime Minister
Renzi, Matteo (ITA), Former Prime Minister; Senator, Senate of the Italian Republic
Rockström, Johan (SWE), Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Rubin, Robert E. (USA), Co-Chairman Emeritus, Council on Foreign Relations; Former Treasury Secretary
Rutte, Mark (NLD), Prime Minister
Sabia, Michael (CAN), President and CEO, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec
Sanger, David E. (USA), National Security Correspondent, The New York Times
Sarts, Janis (INT), Director, NATO StratCom Centre of Excellence
Sawers, John (GBR), Executive Chairman, Newbridge Advisory
Schadlow, Nadia (USA), Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
Schmidt, Eric E. (USA), Technical Advisor, Alphabet Inc.
Scholten, Rudolf (AUT), President, Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue
Seres, Silvija (NOR), Independent Investor
Shafik, Minouche (GBR), Director, The London School of Economics and Political Science
Sikorski, Radoslaw (POL), MP, European Parliament
Singer, Peter Warren (USA), Strategist, New America
Sitti, Metin (TUR), Professor, Koç University; Director, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems
Snyder, Timothy (USA), Richard C. Levin Professor of History, Yale University
Solhjell, Bård Vegar (NOR), CEO, WWF – Norway
Stoltenberg, Jens (INT), Secretary General, NATO
Suleyman, Mustafa (GBR), Co-Founder, Deepmind
Supino, Pietro (CHE), Publisher and Chairman, Tamedia Group
Teuteberg, Linda (DEU), General Secretary, Free Democratic Party
Thiam, Tidjane (CHE), CEO, Credit Suisse Group AG
Thiel, Peter (USA), President, Thiel Capital
Trzaskowski, Rafal (POL), Mayor of Warsaw
Tucker, Mark (GBR), Group Chairman, HSBC Holding plc
Tugendhat, Tom (GBR), MP, Conservative Party
Turpin, Matthew (USA), Director for China, National Security Council
Uhl, Jessica (NLD), CFO and Financial Director, Royal Dutch Shell plc
Vestergaard Knudsen, Ulrik (DNK), Deputy Secretary-General, OECD
Walker, Darren (USA), President, Ford Foundation
Wallenberg, Marcus (SWE), Chairman, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB
Wolf, Martin H. (GBR), Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times
Zeiler, Gerhard (AUT), Chief Revenue Officer, WarnerMedia
Zetsche, Dieter (DEU), Former Chairman, Daimler AG

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News

RADICAL: Democrat Bill Would Block States From Passing Pro-Life Laws, Upend Laws On The Books

On Thursday, Congressional Democrats held a press conference flanked by Planned Parenthood president Leana Wen boasting of new legislation intended to cripple states from enacting pro-life legislation and remove pro-life laws already on the books.

CLICK FOR VIDEO

The legislation has a predictably euphemistic name, the “Women’s Health Protection Act” (WHPA), and is sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA).

The proposed bill would block and upend vital pro-life legislation, such as so-called “heartbeat bills” — which protect unborn babies with a detectable heartbeat from abortion — waiting periods, and mandates on ultrasounds, among other abortion restrictions.

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Education

More US States to Mandate LGBTQ History in Public Schools

There are a growing number of States who are mandating the teaching of LGBTQ history in schools. California was the first state to bring such curriculum into law in 2011 , New Jersey followed suit in January of this year, however limiting the curriculum to Middle and High Schoolers.

Colorado is likely to be the next to bring the new curriculum for K-12 into law in the coming weeks. As the first openly gay governor of the State, Jared Polis, will review the legislation and decide whether or not to sign off on it.

Read More: Reuters

News

The True Scale of American Debt: $220,000 for Every Man, Woman, and Child

The 22 trillion dollar debt of the federal government receives a lot of  media attention. But this is only part of the picture. The true figure is an additional 50 trillion dollars.

When discussing America’s debt problem we have to also consider: corporate debt, which has doubled since the last financial crisis; consumer debt, accounting for $13 trillion; and state and local government debt, growing at an alarming rate.

So that is $72,000,000,000,000 and works out at $220,000 for every man, woman and child in the US.

Read More: Zero hedge

Connecting The Dots, Education

Chilling World War III ‘wargames’ show US forces crushed by Russia and China

RAND Senior Defense Analyst David Ochmanek discussed the simulations at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) in Washington D.C. last week. “In our games, where we fight China or Russia … blue gets its a** handed to it, not to put too fine a point on it,” he said, during a panel discussion. Blue denotes U.S. forces in the simulations.

Russia and China have amassed large inventories of precision-guided cruise missiles and ballistic missiles that can reach hundreds of miles and strike military targets, the researcher said. Set against this backdrop, U.S. military outposts and aircraft carriers in the contested regions could face a potential devastating barrage of missiles.

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News

‘They’re in our heads’: TV series tackles big-tech nightmare

Cannes (France) (AFP) – Channing Powell, the creator of the hit horror television series “The Walking Dead”, is not someone who is easily spooked.

But Powell is scared, “terrified actually” of what big tech might be up to.

And critics were too after watching her spine-chilling new series, “The Feed”, premiere in Cannes this week.

The Amazon show is set in the near future when we can share emotions, thoughts and what we see with our eyes on a social network embedded in our brains.

If that sounds as far fetched as the post-apocalyptic zombies of “The Walking Dead”, Powell has news for you.

“Elon Musk and Facebook are already trying to develop the technology portrayed in the show,” she told AFP at the Canneseries festival in the French Riviera resort.

The Tesla boss and sometime Twitter warrior “is developing a neuro lace (computer) that covers the entire brain that you would control with thought,” Powell said.

“Facebook has been working on something similar in some place called ‘Building 8’ where it has all its secret projects.”

Both are very quiet about what precisely they are doing, said Powell.

– Chips controlled by thought –

However, “people at MIT have already created something you can attach to your ear that is controlled by thought.

“It can tell you the time and how much groceries are when you walk through the aisles of a supermarket,” she added.

“The Feed” — which will screen later this year — is based on Nick Clark Windo’s 2018 novel of the same name.

Told from inside the fabulously wealthy family who invented “The Feed” and now effectively control the world, the story doesn’t end well.

Given what we have learned about the harvesting and misuse of personal data from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and how Google can seem to predict our needs before we search for it on our smartphone, that should not be too surprising.

“We have seen dystopian shows before but never like this,” Powell insisted, who cast British actor David Thewlis as the tech guru patriarch of the seemingly well-meaning clan.

“It was a very realistic portrayal of what happens when we let technology control us — and we are heading in that direction.

“We cannot let go of our iPhones, we need to check Instagram every hour or minute. The notion that you would put something inside your head is really frightening to me,” the 39-year-old said.

– ‘Terrifying’ –

But it is where tech companies are going, she insisted, the next logical step from Google’s smart glasses.

Powell said workers in some companies in Belgium and Sweden already have chips implanted in their bodies.

“What is happening around us right now is so scary. When somebody like Elon Musk (a radical libertarian) — who is inside this — is telling the government, ‘You need to regulate us, and stop us from doing what we are doing’, that is terrifying. Because he knows way more than we know,” she said.

Paranoia about new technology is nothing new, Powell admitted, dating back beyond the Industrial Revolution.

But what we are living through now, and with little or no regulation to hold tech companies back, is of a different order, she argued.

“Technology has brought us so much…. but there are also these negative undertones to it. Facebook is watching you and selling your information. They own Instagram and WhatsApp, and (Amazon’s) Alexa is in every room of your house. Siri can pop up on your phone when you didn’t even call her. You cannot ignore that side of it.”

Set in England, “The Feed” has British actor Guy Burnet play Thewlis’ psychologist son and Nina Toussaint-White his daughter-in-law.

Burnet told AFP that the series’ vision of the near future “was far from crazy… and it is amazing it hasn’t been done before” when you see Beijing’s plans for its social credit system.

From next year all Chinese citizens will be ranked and either punished or rewarded according to their “social credit” score.

“I think we’re not on the precipice, we may have already passed it,” the actor warned.

In “The Feed”, a handful of people control the code on which the world relies, and it is they, said Powell, who get to decide what the public need to know.

“Which is effectively where we are now” in the real world too, the writer warned.

Original Article

News

New York’s new budget is all about bleeding the public

Link

New York woke Sunday to learn that state lawmakers had agreed to a budget that aims to spend a whopping $175 billion in the next fiscal year, while imposing a boatload of new taxes and fees in the name of funding the MTA.

More hits to your pocket, and more spending, are still to come: The budget also sets up “independent” commissions to settle the details of both public funding of state political campaigns and “congestion” tolls in Manhattan. Plus, lawmakers this year may yet legalize online sports betting and the sale of pot, each of which will come with a hefty cut of the profits for state government.

The only good news: Lawmakers agreed to make permanent the law capping property-tax hikes (which doesn’t apply in the city). It will no longer be linked to renewal of the rent-control laws.
But the rent laws are being tightened, and some city real-estate taxes are headed up: The budget adds new “mansion” taxes on the sale of multimillion-dollar homes — while reserving the revenue for state priorities, even though property taxes traditionally fund local government.

Mansion-tax supporters usually point to billionaire hedge-funder Ken Griffin’s $238 million January purchase of a penthouse off Central Park, the most expensive home in America, as evidence of excess that deserves special taxation — especially since Griffin’s Citadel fund is Chicago-based. What they don’t mention is that Citadel was expanding operations in the city, and even considering a move to the Big Apple — which would have added lots of high-paying (and so big-tax-generating) jobs to the local economy.

Except that Griffin publicly called off those plans more recently, citing New York politicians’ clear intent to “soak the rich” no matter how many jobs it destroys.

‘Congestion pricing” is another state grab of fees generated in New York City, from a city resource (its roads). Yes, the funds are supposed to go to the MTA, but suburban lawmakers have won guarantees that some of the windfall will go to the commuter railroads rather than the subways and buses. And, significantly, the money will count as part of the state’s share of MTA funding, with the city forced to cough up still more cash for its contribution. (Mayor de Blasio, his eyes on his future job prospects rather than the city’s interests, went along happily with this naked cash grab.)

The same gimmick applies to revenue raised from “improved” (that is, harder-hitting) taxes on Internet sales: Money raised from the city will go toward the state’s share of MTA funding. In the rest of the state, that cash goes to the local government — though the budget also cuts other state payments to local government on the grounds that Internet taxes will replace it.

Gov. Cuomo claims that the congestion, Internet and “mansion” revenue will fund up to $25 billion in MTA capital spending. But that means bonding out the income for 30 or 40 years — and leaves the MTA at risk of having to make bond payments if the revenue streams prove less lucrative than expected. So this gimmick adds new risks of even steeper fare hikes down the line, even as it means the state will have to look at yet new income sources (most likely, yet more tax hikes) to fund future five-year MTA capital plans.

SEE ALSO

Even New York’s millionaires are fleeing to less expensive cities

Meanwhile, the budget’s supposed MTA reforms are thin gruel (other than a sensible requirement for outside vetting of major-project proposals, which might prevent future white elephants like the East Side Access project). Nearly all the “reforms” are to start in future years, and are left to the MTA itself to accomplish.

Utterly absent is any effort to reform the agency’s labor relations, even though pay and benefits are by far the largest, and fastest-rising, part of the MTA budget.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie calls this “a budget where we were scrimping and saving, trying to find pennies in the couch.” In truth, all the ingenuity went into picking the pockets of the public, and of local governments, to spend nearly $9,000 for every man, woman and child in the state.

All this, without setting aside anything like a prudent amount of rainy-day funds. Which means Cuomo, Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins also just laid the groundwork for far broader tax hikes when a recession inevitably hits.

And possibly even without a recession: Ken Griffin’s decision not to bring his business here follows Amazon’s abandonment of its NYC expansion plan, which the company likewise blamed on New York politicians’ greed and hostility to business.

In the long run, bleeding the golden goose can only lead to doom.

Original article link

Connecting The Dots, Corruption, Education, Perversion

Democrats Introduce Equality Act to Cement a Perverse world view and Ideology into Federal Law and your children and future generations

House Democrats introduced the Equality Act last week, a measure that would ensure gender ideology — i.e., transgender bathrooms, forced preferred pronoun use, and biological men playing women’s sports, etc. — is cemented into federal law.

H.R. 5, which was introduced with 239 co-sponsors, states its purpose is to “prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation, and for other purposes.”

…In fact, the measure would likely force American women throughout the country to relinquish their rights to privacy, safety, and the ability to compete in sports “equally.”

…“it actually would promote inequality by elevating the ideologies of special-interest groups to the level of protected groups in civil rights law.”

…“if the Equality Act passes, gender identity ideology will be taught via the law, and its punitive power will ensure your compliance”:

The Equality Act has the support of at least 161 major corporations, all of which are listed on the website of Hands Across the Aisle.

Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted his support for the Equality Act:

Hands Across the Aisle responded the Equality Act is a “direct attack on women and girls”:

In the era of #MeToo, it’s hard to understand why these companies are willing to endanger women and girls by acting so deliberately to undermine the nation’s indecent exposure and voyeurism restrictions, in what are supposed to be single-sex accommodations. Is it any wonder that many of them have recently faced significant sexual harassment allegations, or had large bias or sexual harassment claims brought against them?

…a forced gender ideology at the federal level would be a nightmare for American women, many who, at this point in time, now take for granted the equal educational opportunities they regularly enjoy.

“If gender-identity ideology becomes the law of the land, women in all walks of life will suffer the consequences of the blatantly sexist notion that a man who adopts stereotypical feminine roles, behaviors or clothing must be treated in all respects as a woman,” Waggoner warned in an op-ed at the Hill. “Contrary to the gender identity advocates who are pushing the act, being female is not about wearing dresses, adopting other feminine stereotypes, or ‘feeling female.’”

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