The Surprising
Benefits of Talking to Strangers
Posted By: GustoGrabber, 8/5/2021 5:54:29 AM
Nic spent most of her childhood avoiding people. She was raised by a volatile father and a mother who transferred much of the trauma she’d experienced onto her daughter. The combination left Nic fearful and isolated. “My primitive brain was programmed to be afraid of everybody, because everybody’s evil and they’re gonna hurt you,” she told me. (Nic asked to be referred to by only her first name to protect her privacy.) Nic’s fear isn’t uncommon in a country where valid lessons about “stranger danger” can cast all people you don’t know as threats to be feared, but she recognized it was unhealthy
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THOUSANDS of Marines and sailors are taking part in the US Navy's largest war games in 40 years as Washington "prepares" for a future world war amid rising tensions with Russia and China. Fleets began the Large Scale Exercise on Tuesday and the drills across 17 time zones will continue until August 16. Forces will participate in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the exercises are designed to show the US' "readiness" for a potential global conflict. Marines’ ability to conduct operations in difficult environments will be tested during the drills, according to Military.com.
Nic spent most of her childhood avoiding people. She was raised by a volatile father and a mother who transferred much of the trauma she’d experienced onto her daughter. The combination left Nic fearful and isolated. “My primitive brain was programmed to be afraid of everybody, because everybody’s evil and they’re gonna hurt you,” she told me. (Nic asked to be referred to by only her first name to protect her privacy.)
Nic’s fear isn’t uncommon in a country where valid lessons about “stranger danger” can cast all people you don’t know as threats to be feared, but she recognized it was unhealthy
U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, on Wednesday called a bipartisan infrastructure bill a “historic investment” that will “help Utah rebuild its roads, mitigate drought conditions, fulfill critical water needs, and prepare for and respond to wildfires.”
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is a nearly $1 trillion investment bill. The Senate voted 67-32 on Wednesday to take the first proceeding step toward debating the bill, which is supported by President Joe Biden.
According to Reuters, the bill is supported by 48 Democrats, two independents and 17 Republicans, including Romney.
Irish Ice Hockey Star Resigns
in Protest Over Vaccine Passports,
'Total Government Control' 13 replies
in Protest Over Vaccine Passports,
'Total Government Control' 13 replies
Irish ice hockey star Niall McEvoy announced to his coaches and teammates that he was resigning, explaining he could no longer represent a country that requires vaccine passports.
The Irish government passed a bill in the last two days that will require proof of vaccination if customers want to dine in restaurants, pubs and cafes indoors.
A "vaccine passport," either paper documentation or an EU digital COVID-19 certificate, will very soon be required for people to enter all indoor establishments in Ireland, according to BBC.
Herd Immunity to Herd Mentality
17 replies
When my family and I contracted COVID last November and December, we sighed that at least we wouldn’t need to get vaccinated. We need not worry about investigating which of the experimental vaccines we might reluctantly consider injecting into our bodies, especially the non-conventional mRNA-based vaccines (i.e., Pfizer and Moderna), which are quite new and quite concerning. But hey, at least we were contributing to the herd immunity that the nation and world were eagerly racing toward. (Yes, you can thank us for our suffering.)
Trump Winds and Biden Whirlwinds
9 replies
Victimizers quickly becoming victims is a recurrent theme of Thucydides’ history. In his commentary on the so-called stasis at Corcyra, he offers his most explicit warning about the long-term dangers of destroying legal institutions, customs, and traditions that serve the common good for short-term gain.
The historian notes that in the inevitable yin and yang of politics, the destroyers inevitably will seek, but do so in vain, refuge in what they have destroyed.
There is no “party in the back” on Kim Jong-un’s watch.
The North Korean dictator has outlawed mullets and skinny jeans in an attempt to cut off “decadent” western-style fashion trends, according to a report.
The tubby tyrant has approved only 15 official “non-socialist” haircuts — and the long-in-the-back look isn’t up to snuff, according to The Daily Express.
He also ordered a bizarre crackdown on ripped jeans, sloganed T-shirts and nose and lip piercings, according to the outlet, which cited North Korea’s The Rondong Sinmun newspaper.
The superintendent of schools in Cherokee County issued the latest volley against a perceived threat that has drawn the attention of the state’s Republican leadership, saying an academic construct known as “critical race theory” will not be taught in classrooms.
In a meeting that drew hundreds, with hundreds left outside after the school board meeting room reached capacity, Superintendent Brian Hightower addressed a local debate of an issue that has flared up across the country. The school board voted 4-1, with two abstentions, to approve a resolution to prohibit implementation of critical race theory and the 1619 Project, a New York Times project that put slavery and Black contributions
The Deep Roots of Radicalism
4 replies
In 2016, John Brennan, Obama’s CIA director, acknowledged that he had once voted for Gus Hall, the Communist Party’s candidate. Brennan feared that his vote for Hall in 1976 threatened to doom his chances of entering the CIA. But it didn’t, Brennan happily noted to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation: “So if back in 1980, John Brennan was allowed to say, ‘I voted for the Communist Party with Gus Hall’ … and still got through, rest assured that your rights and your expressions and your freedom of speech as Americans is something that’s not going to be disqualifying of you as you pursue a career in government.
Van Morrison (“Brown-Eyed Girl,” “Gloria,” “Domino”) is 75 now, but he is more anti-establishment than ever. However, instead of posturing about being marginalized while enjoying elite status like so many on the left today, who like to pretend that we still live in Eisenhower’s gray-flannel, button-down America of leftist myth, Van the Man is bucking the real establishment: the authoritarian woke nanny state that is the idiot stepchild of the hippie culture for which he was once a foremost voice.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is safe in his job despite repeated attack from former President Trump, Republican aides and strategists say.
At the same time, GOP sources say that McConnell’s long-term future atop the Senate GOP may depend on what happens in the 2022 and 2024 elections and whether Trump, who is strongly considering another presidential campaign, expands his power in the party.
The key difference between McConnell and Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), the third-ranking House GOP leader whose ouster is a foregone conclusion this week, is that McConnell’s focus is not on firing away at Trump.
Some summer fun limited
to COVID-19 ‘Vax Pass’ holders? ‘Vaccination
is going to be your ticket.’ 17 replies
to COVID-19 ‘Vax Pass’ holders? ‘Vaccination
is going to be your ticket.’ 17 replies
Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady on Tuesday said the city will launch a COVID-19 vaccination passport program next month for admission to select concerts geared toward young people, in another effort to “incentivize” residents to get their shots.
For now, the city is working with club organizers on setting up shows and other events with “a youth flavor,” Arwady said, but the “Vax Pass” concept could end up applying to other venues, too.
“As we build vaccine confidence and convenience, we’re interested in thinking about ways to incentivize people to get the vaccine,” Arwady said.
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Former President Barack Obama’s 60th birthday party in Martha’s Vineyard on Saturday will reportedly feature a meatless menu.The party is set to deliver coveted endorsements to plant-based food brands like Impossible Foods Inc. and Eat Just Inc., reported Bloomberg News, which viewed menu plans for the celebration.The menu was curated by musician Questlove, who promotes and invests in meat-free foods.The menu will offer dishes such as Spam Musubi, which includes faux-beef and faux-pork from Impossible Foods as well as plant-based eggs from Eat Just.
A few days ago it was reported that former President Barack Obama is creating a “nightmare” by trying to get nearly 700 people to his 60th birthday bash in Martha’s Vineyard — as news of the lavish party drew fire amid a national surge of the COVID Delta variant and new restrictions.
George Clooney, Steven Spielberg, and Oprah Winfrey are among the 475 guests expected to attend alongside about 200 hired hands.
Seen from the sky, these exclusive pictures and video show the sprawling set-up of Barrack Obama’s 60th birthday celebrations
MINNEAPOLIS - The Minneapolis Greek Festival says its 2021 Taste of Greece event won't go on next month as officials cite unrest in Uptown. In a message on the festival's website, officials say: "Due to the recent unrest in the Uptown district and the realization that we would be unable to find a successful solution to ensure the safety and security of our Festival guests, volunteers, and grounds, we have made the difficult decision to cancel this year’s Festival. We have every intent of holding our Festival next year." The 2021 festival was scheduled to run from Friday, September 10
Former President Barack Obama has allegedly scaled back his big 60th birthday party after most of his supporters questioned the wisdom of holding an event for hundreds of people during a resurgent pandemic.
Plans for the Saturday bash at his multimillion-dollar home on Martha’s Vineyard had been going on for months—but the spike in virus case numbers has forced a rethink.
“Due to the new spread of the Delta variant over the past week, the President and Mrs. Obama have decided to significantly scale back the event to include only family and close friends,” Hannah Hankins, an Obama spokeswoman, said early Wednesday.
More than 60 cases of the new Delta-plus variant have been detected in the San Francisco-Bay area as coronavirus cases continue to rise throughout the country. According to the Santa Clara Public Health Department, there were 64 reported cases of the new COVID strain detected in the county as of August 5. The new strain, an off-shoot of the highly-transmissible Delta variant, is thought to be more contagious than its predecessor, but is still not the most common variant in the area—with more than 700 cases of the alpha variant reported.(Snip)'We believe that its at least as bad as Delta,'
Progressive Democratic Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri is expressing her outrage after the governor pardoned the couple who brandished firearms at Black Lives Matter protesters marching past their St. Louis home during last summer’s riots — calling the move “absolutely unbelievable.”
“It was absolutely unbelievable,” Bush, who was among the marchers, told CNN on Wednesday, a day after Republican Gov. Mike Parson announced that he pardoned Mark and Patricia McCloskey.
Mark had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor fourth-degree assault and Patricia pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment. The couple had been initially indicted on felony charges.
Nearly two dozen Texas House Democrats who fled the state last month have sued Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican officials, alleging that GOP efforts to bring them back to the state Capitol for a special legislative session infringed on their constitutional rights. The 22 plaintiffs have been "deprived of liberty for substantial periods of time, suffered much anxiety and distress over separation from their families, and much discomfort and embarrassment," the complaint filed late Friday alleges. [snip] The lawsuit also alleges that some of the Democrats were targeted due to race, but did not provide evidence, the Texas Tribune reported.
This is not just scientific madness, it appears to be very intentional and purposeful.
The Moderna and Pfizer vaccine tests were conducted, as customary, with a control group; a group within the trial who were given a placebo and not the test vaccine. However, during the trial -and after the untested vaccines were given emergency use authorization- the vaccine companies conducting the trial decided to break protocol and notify the control group they were not vaccinated. Almost all the control group were then given the vaccine.
Purposefully dissolving the placebo group violates the scientific purpose to test whether the vaccine has any efficacy; any actual benefit and/or safety issues.
Washington—The Senate moved closer to passing a $1 trillion infrastructure package Saturday after lawmakers from both parties came together and voted to clear a key procedural hurdle, but the action soon stalled out as opponents tried to slow the rush to approve one of President Joe Biden’s top priorities.The measure would provide a massive injection of federal money for a range of public works programs, from roads and bridges to broadband internet access, drinking water and more. In a rare stroke of bipartisanship, Republicans joined the Democrats to overcome the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the measure toward final votes. The vote was 67-27, a robust tally. If approved,
Stars descended on Martha’s Vineyard Friday ahead of former President Barack Obama’s 60th birthday party, after his spokeswoman claimed the Saturday bash would be scaled back to include “only family and close friends” amid COVID-19 concerns.
Celebrity couples such as John Legend and Chrissy Teigen and Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union were spotted arriving on the Massachusetts island in pictures obtained by The Post.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a group of foreign ministers on Friday that he is deeply concerned about the rapid growth of China nuclear arsenal.
Blinken made the remarks during a virtual meeting with the regional forum by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, (Snip). He called on China to stop its “provocative” behavior in the South China sea and raised concerns about human rights abuses in Tibet, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang, (Snip)
“The Secretary also noted deep concern with the rapid growth of the [People’s Republic of China]’s nuclear arsenal which highlights how Beijing has sharply deviated from its decades-old nuclear strategy based on minimum deterrence,”
Hagerty Holds Up the Senate—For Good
Reason 21 replies
Reason 21 replies
An article in the Washington Times this morning—“GOP Sen. Hagerty blocks Democrats from expediting $1.2T infrastructure bill in late-night session”—made this bald guy’s hair stand on end this morning.
“Sen. Bill Hagerty blocked Democrats from ramming through President Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill late Thursday, only hours after the package was found to be not fully paid for as promised.
“Mr. Hagerty, a first-term Republican from Tennessee, refused to sign off on a deal between Democratic and GOP lawmakers to expedite passage of the legislation. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer had worked out an agreement with Republicans to pass a series of amendments to the infrastructure package en masse.