Iraq’s government has told the United States that it will not permit Russian military forces to conduct air and missile strikes inside the country. But Baghdad is allowing Russian military aircraft to overfly its territory to resupply its forces, despite a request from the United States to deny the flights.
Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, disclosed during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday that the U.S. government asked the governments of Bulgaria and Iraq to close their airspace to Russian aircraft several weeks before Moscow’s Syria military intervention.
Mr. Cotton suggested that Bulgaria agreed to deny the overflights but that Baghdad rejected the U.S. request. Both Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Marine Corps. Gen. Joseph Dunford didn’t dispute that the diplomatic requests to deny Russian military supply flights were made, but he declined to detail the specifics.
“I would say it’s problematic for Russia to be resupplying its forces in Syria by flying through Iraq,” Mr. Cotton said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday. “We should renew our request that they exclude Russian aircraft from their airspace. And our military should be ready to assist them in excluding Russian aircraft from their airspace.”
Gen. Dunford confirmed that Russian supply flights have passed through Iraq but said it was “not at the understanding of the Iraqi government.” (Read more from “Inside the Ring: Russian Military Flights Over Iraq Questioned” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-29 03:05:532016-04-11 10:56:48Inside the Ring: Russian Military Flights Over Iraq Questioned
By Nick Gass. Several campaigns had threatened to bail on the debate during negotiations unless CNBC limited the event to 2 hours including commercial breaks, a chief concern of Donald Trump and Ben Carson, who sent a joint letter to the network complaining about the format.
“I could stand up here all night. Nobody wants to watch three and a half or three hours. And I have to hand it to Ben,” Trump said during his closing statement, motioning to Carson.
“They lost a lot of money. Everybody said it couldn’t be done,” Trump continued. “And in about two minutes, I renegotiated it to two hours, so we can get the hell out of here,” he said, to cheers. (Read more from “Trump Boasts About Limiting the Debate” HERE)
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Bozell: CNBC Debate Was an ‘Encyclopedic Example of Liberal Media Bias’
By News Busters Staff. MRC president Brent Bozell issued a statement Wednesday night criticizing the overall tilt and tone of the CNBC Republican debate in Boulder:
“The CNBC moderators acted less like journalists and more like Clinton campaign operatives. What was supposed to be a serious debate about the many issues plaguing our economy was given up for one Democratic talking point after another served up by the so-call ‘moderators.’ They clearly war-gamed this thinking that a relentless series of personal attacks on the candidates would somehow drive their ratings and help Hillary Clinton.
(Read more from “Bozell: CNBC Debate Was an ‘Encyclopedic Example of Liberal Media Bias'” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-29 03:03:532016-04-11 10:56:49Trump Boasts About Limiting the Debate
Yesterday, the GOP-led House passed a budget bill and debt ceiling increase that countermands every principle they campaigned on when pursuing majority control of that chamber in 2010. The policy and political outcomes of this vote will be far reaching and gravely consequential.
How ironic that on the final day of Boehner’s tenure, he passes a wretched bill that represents everything his leadership embodied, which engendered the coup against him in the first place. How ironic that this bill only garnered support of 79 Republicans, yet 200 of 247 Republicans voted to replace its sponsor with Paul Ryan – the man who supported this very budget deal.
1. INCREASES DEBT CEILING UNCONDITIONALLY
This bill suspends the debt ceiling through March 2017, granting this president another $1.5 trillion in debt authority after already amassing $7.5 trillion in debt. This, at a time when revenue is at record highs. There are now no external constraints on the amount of debt this president can accumulate in his final year.
2. BUDGET CONTROL ACT PERMANENTLY TERMINATED
The bill increases spending by $112 billion, thereby permanently overturning the only meaningful spending victory secured by conservatives over the past five years. There will be little leverage to preserve these cuts in the future. Spending was already slated to increase by $250 billion for the new year (from $3.677 trillion to $3.928 trillion); this bill will bump that increase to over $310 billion for 2016 alone. This is why Republicans have never cut spending. Despite record projected revenue of $3.5 trillion for 2016, they can’t balance the budget and will spend $4 trillion annually for the first time ever. In the era of “austerity,” the federal government is now growing by 8.4% despite the fact that the private economy is averaging 2.5% growth.
3. RUBBER STAMPS OBAMA’S BACKWARDS FOREIGN POLICY
Included in the increased spending is an extra $32 billion in war spending on top of existing appropriations. This comes on the heels of reports that Obama is commencing ground operations involving our military in the Islamic civil war in both Iraq and Syria. It is cowardly of Congress to not issue a declaration of war with specific policy demands from Obama dictating our strategic goals. Nobody can identify the mission – who we are fighting and with whom we are allying? Yet, this is Congress’ backdoor means of greenlighting this tepid and aimless effort without taking responsibility for supporting it or blocking it. As we’ve noted before, much of the money we send to the Middle East has wound up in the hands of Al-Nusra in Syria and Iranian-backed Shiite forces in Iraq. This budget allows Obama to invest more in failure, and worse – our enemies – because much of the OCO funds go to the State Department.
4. PAVES THE WAY FOR MORE SPENDING WITH ENRON STYLE ACCOUNTING
It would have been better had Congress not deceived the public with Enron-style accounting gimmicks to “offset” the cost of the bill. As Congressional Quarterly noted today, “Budget Deal Pay-Fors May Provide Template for Future Accords.” The political class thinks that a hodgepodge of notional and intangible offsets spread out 10 years from now are so clever. They will be emboldened to use the same gimmicks to bust even more spending caps, even in areas of the budget they’ve been cautious to do so until now.
5. WE ARE AT THE MERCY OF OBAMA WITH NO LEVERAGE
The most under-reported aspect of this deal is that it completely “clears the decks” of any budget bill for the remainder of Obama’s presidency, thereby taking the power of the purse off the table. As bad as the increased spending is for our fiscal solvency, the Obama policies are worse. There will be no budget to leverage against Obama’s growing amnesty, EPA overreach, foreign policy disasters, prison break, and dangerous clemencies. For example, Obama released 66,000 criminal aliens in 2013-2014, who had accrued a total of 166,000 convictions: 30k DUIs, 414 kidnappings, 11,000 sex assaults, and 395 homicides. They went on to commit at least 121 murders after being released. Who knows how high those numbers will go now that Obama has completely suspended deportations. Yet, conservatives will not have an opportunity to leverage DHS and Justice Department funding against his amnesty, which will likely grow more dangerous and lawless in his final year.
6. PAUL RYAN OWNS THIS BUDGET
Even if one buys into Ryan’s defense that he had nothing to do with the budget, a dubious assertion in itself, he clearly owns this deal for two reasons.
First, the notion that the Speaker-elect cannot speak out against this travesty and demand it be halted is like saying that a newly elected fire chief is powerless against ordering his men to put out the flames of an arson that began the day before. Even if we accept that the debt ceiling deadline was sprung on him and cannot be stopped, there is no reason for him to agree to the budget deal, which does not come due for another six weeks. He certainly doesn’t have to agree to take the debt ceiling AND budget off the table for the rest of Obama’s presidency; he could have opted for a shorter-term bill so that he can show us the magic of his budget work and his amazing messaging skills. Now he will have no leverage to enact all of the fiscal reforms he will so eruditely articulate in the coming months.
Second, Paul Ryan forged the original Ryan-Murray bill in 2013, which established the precedent that breaking the budget caps is a “must-pass” initiative. Until that point, Republicans had held firm. In that sense, this deal is merely the grandchild of Ryan’s original betrayal.
The fact that Ryan supported this excrement sandwich shows that he has no desire to actually force important conservative changes. He relishes the opportunity to “clear the barn” of any meaningful leverage so that he can discuss policy reforms in the abstract without having to fight for them in any significant way.
7. THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS DEAD
Republicans have checked out from the fight against the consequential societal transformational issues for years: marriage, religious liberty, immigration, law and order, etc. They have made it clear now they will never fight for fiscal conservatism. Unless a true conservative is elected as president, the party is done. (For more from the author of “Budget Deal Passes, Republican Party Is Dead” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-29 03:01:422016-04-11 10:56:49Budget Deal Passes House, Republican Party Is Dead
How scary are your jack-o’-lanterns? Scarier than you think, according to the Energy Department, which claims the holiday squash is responsible for unleashing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Most of the 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins produced in the U.S. end up in the trash, says the Energy Department’s website, becoming part of the “more than 254 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) produced in the United States every year.”
Municipal solid waste decomposes into methane, “a harmful greenhouse gas that plays a part in climate change, with more than 20 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide,” Energy says . . .
Municipal solid waste can be used to harness bioenergy, the Energy Department says, which can help the U.S. become less dependent on carbon-based fuels while limiting stress on landfills by reducing waste. The agency has partnered with industry to develop and test two integrated biorefineries — “facilities capable of efficiently converting plant and waste material into affordable biofuels, biopower and other products.” (Read more from “Pumpkins Cause Climate Change?” HERE)
“Thank God for the Saudis and Prince Bandar,” Senator John McCain has publicly stated numerous times. He is not alone. Many American elected officials regularly praise Saudi Arabia as one of its “greatest Gulf-State allies,” also referencing America’s “Qatari friends.”
However, these “friends” are among the world’s worst human rights offenders. Under Shari’a law, Saudi women are prohibited from:
Going out unaccompanied in public. Women must be accompanied by a male guardian (a mahram) once they leave their home. Imagine “being allowed” to shop, run errands, or see a doctor– only with an “approved” chaperone. If violated, women face strict punishment. As The Guardian explains, “freedom of movement” causes women to become “vulnerable to sin.”
Opening a bank account. Wives must first receive their husband’s permission. Daughters, their father’s permission.
Driving. If women drove automobiles their presence would “undermine social values.” Amnesty International reports that women who supported the recent “Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the prohibition on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities, who warned that women drivers would face arrest. Some were arrested but released after a short period.”
Dressing “indecently.” When going out, women are required to always wear an abaya, a long, black cloak, and a head scarf. According to Arab News, the Shoura Council (the king’s advisory body) recently ruled that the women should wear “modest” clothes and should not “show off their beauty;” meaning, not wear any makeup.
Interacting with men in public. Women and men enter public buildings through separate entrances. Public transportation, parks, gyms, pools, and beaches are all segregated by two genders only: male and female. If women and men do interact, they are charged and punished for committing a crime with varying penalties.
Competing as athletes. Unless a female athlete receives the required permission to compete in a competition, and are accompanied by a male guardian, they must also wear “Sharia-compliant” uniforms and cover their hair. Despite this, however, Saudi clerics still call women athletes “prostitutes.”
Trying on clothes/undressing in store dressing rooms. To do so even behind closed doors in public is scandalous.
Reading uncensored fashion magazines.
Entering a cemetery.
Purchasing a Barbie doll. Unless it’s a Fullah.
If America’s Gulf-state friends are as praiseworthy as U.S. senators suggest, why not send their mothers, wives, and daughters to live there? Why not suggest that American women also benefit from the way in which Saudi women are treated?
Why not prohibit American women from driving, having bank accounts, shopping, reading fashion magazines, burying their dead, and wearing make-up?
In addition to these restrictions, Amnesty International’s 2014-2015 Report on Human Rights Violations states that the Saudi government has:
“Severely restricted freedoms of expression, association and assembly, and cracked down on dissent, arresting and imprisoning critics, including human rights defenders. Many received unfair trials before courts that failed to respect due process.
“New legislation effectively equated criticism of the government and other peaceful activities with terrorism. Authorities clamped down on online activism and intimidated activists and family members who reported human rights violations.
“Torture of detainees was reportedly common; courts convicted defendants on the basis of torture-tainted ‘confessions’ and sentenced others to flogging. Women faced discrimination in law and practice, and were inadequately protected against sexual and other violence.
“Authorities [also] made extensive use of the death penalty and carried out dozens of public executions.”
Saudi women and girls are systematically legally and culturally discriminated against. Under Shari’a law, women have subordinate legal status to men, as defined in the Qur’an Surah IV (Women), which establishes guidelines for marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance. Saudi women are rarely protected from sexual and other violence. Amnesty International reports that domestic violence is endemic to Saudi culture.
Yet, Americans are to “thank God for the Saudis.” (For more from the author of “Women’s Rights According to America’s Greatest Gulf State Ally” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-29 02:58:192016-04-11 10:56:49Women’s Rights According to Islam (and America’s Greatest Gulf State Ally)
The “Trumpkin” has become a novelty hit for front porch decorating this Halloween season, with the largest known one sitting outside the home of an Ohio woman.
Jeanette Paras, of Dublin, Ohio, is a pumpkin artist who tries to come up with a clever pop culture idea to use every Halloween. She has “pumpkinized” singer Miley Cyrus, Phil Robertson of “Duck Dynasty” fame, Lady Gaga and Monica Lewinsky. Last year, she painted the face of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on a pumpkin.
She’s also painted the faces of politicians, including Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, on pumpkins for her display at various times in the past. This year, Paras opted to paint the face of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Paras went huge for the project and used a 374-pound pumpkin, according to WJW in Cleveland. It was a tedious job, with Paras describing how she first sketched the design on paper and then transferred it to the pumpkin. The famous Trump hairstyle wasn’t easy to achieve either, she said.
“He required six, 38-inch blond wings,” Paras said. (Read more from “Look: The Bizarre Image of ‘Donald Trump’ That’s Taking the Internet by Storm” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-29 02:57:012016-04-11 10:56:49Look: The Bizarre Image of ‘Donald Trump’ That’s Taking the Internet by Storm
X-ray vision is a staple of sci-fi films and comic books and now researchers have turned this concept into a reality.
Using a wireless transmitter fitted behind a wall, computer scientists have developed a device that can map a nearby room in 3D while scanning for human bodies.
Using the signals that bounce and reflect off these people, the device creates an accurate silhouette and can even use this silhouette to identify who that person is.
The device is called RF Capture and it was developed by researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL).
It has long been thought that wireless signals, such as Wi-Fi, can be used to see things that are invisible to the naked eye. (Read more from “Forget X-Rays, Now You Can See Through Walls Using WI-FI: Device Captures Silhouettes and Can Even Identify People When They’re Stood Behind CONCRETE” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-29 02:55:512016-04-11 10:56:50Forget X-Rays, Now You Can See Through Walls Using WI-FI: Device Captures Silhouettes and Can Even Identify People When They’re Stood Behind CONCRETE
Next week, Dr Tom Insel leaves his post as head of the US National Institute of Mental Health, a job that made him America’s top mental health doctor. Dr Insel is a neuroscientist and a psychiatrist and a leading authority on both the medicine and public policies needed to deal with problems of the mind. He’s 64 but he’s not retiring. He’s going to work for Google.
More precisely, he’s going to work for Google Life Sciences, one of the more exotic provinces of the online empire. He’s going to investigate how technology can help diagnose and treat mental health conditions. Google doesn’t just want to read your mind, it wants to fix it too.
It’s not alone. Apple, IBM and Intel are among technology companies exploring the same field. IBM this year carried out research with Columbia University that suggested computer analysis of speech patterns can more accurately predict the onset of psychosis than conventional tests involving blood samples or brain scans. Other researchers theorise that a person’s internet search history or even shopping habits (so handily recorded by your innocuous loyalty card) can identify the first signs of mental illness. Computers can now tell when something is about to go terribly wrong in someone’s mind.
That development is striking enough in itself, but the way in which researchers like Dr Insel want to use this new technological power raises even more questions.
Wearable technology has been a hot topic in medical innovation for several years now. A growing number of people choose to track their own physical condition using FitBits, Jawbones and other activity trackers, tiny wearable devices that monitor your movements, pulse rate, sleep patterns and more. Once the preserve of obsessive fitness fanatics, “self-monitoring” has the scope to transform healthcare. The ever-increasing number of people with chronic conditions can track and electronically report their symptoms, reducing the number of routine (and expensive) consultations they need with medical staff and ensuring a quicker response to changes that do require direct professional attention. (Read more from “Google Wants to Monitor Your Mental Health” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-29 02:55:212016-04-11 10:56:50Google Wants to Monitor Your Mental Health
Nearly seven in 10 people under age 50 – more than 3.7 billion teens and adults worldwide – are infected with herpes simplex virus type 1, a highly infectious and incurable disease, the World Health Organization announced Wednesday.
More than 1 billion people are infected with HSV-1 in the Western Pacific region, while Southeast Asia has nearly 1 billion cases, according to WHO’s first global estimates, published Wednesday in an article in the journal PLOS ONE.
More than 700 million people are infected in Africa, nearly 400 million in Europe and 320 million in North and South America.
Known as “oral herpes” and typically spread through kissing, oral sex and the use of shared objects like eating utensils, HSV-1 typically causes cold sores around the mouth. But it can also cause genital herpes, which leads to painful blisters and ulcers in the anal and genital areas.
Although most cases of genital herpes are caused by herpes simplex virus type 2, which is transmitted almost entirely through sexual activity, “we know that increasingly HSV-1 is showing up in genital infections, and that’s sort of a trend that public health folks are watching,” said Fred Wyand, communications director at the American Sexual Health Association in Research Triangle Park, N.C. (Read more from “Globally, Two out of Three Under 50 Have Oral Herpes Virus” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-29 02:54:492016-04-11 10:56:50Globally, Two out of Three Under 50 Have Oral Herpes Virus
By Randy DeSoto. For the first time in many months, the GOP has a new front-runner in the presidential primary race: Dr. Ben Carson.
The latest New York Times/CBS poll has Carson taking the lead from Donald Trump garnering 26 percent to 22 percent of registered Republican voters. The lead falls within the margin of error of 6 percent.
The results are a reversal from last month in the Times/CBS poll, which had Trump at 27 percent and Carson at 23.
No other candidate registers in double digits in the new poll. The next three after the two leaders are Sen. Marco Rubio at 8 percent, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina each at 7 percent.
The poll also finds that a majority of Republican primary voters have not made up their minds regarding who they will support. Seven in 10 indicated it was too early to say for certain who they would vote for, with just 28 percent reporting their minds were made up.
“Carson has made gains across many key Republican groups. In a reversal from earlier this month, he is now ahead of Trump among women and is running neck and neck with him among men. Carson’s support among evangelicals has risen and he now leads Trump by more than 20 points with this group,” according to CBS News. (Read more from “Major Shakeup at Very Top of GOP Field That’ll Send Shock Waves Through the Race” HERE)
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Ben Carson Edges Trump in National GOP Race
By Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto, and Fred Backus. Ben Carson has surpassed Donald Trump and now narrowly leads the Republican field in the race for the nomination in the latest national CBS News/New York Times Poll.
Twenty-six percent of Republican primary voters back Carson, giving him a four-point edge over Trump (22 percent). Support for Carson has quadrupled since August.
The rest of the Republican presidential candidates lag far behind in single digits. Marco Rubio is now in third place (eight percent), followed by Jeb Bush (seven percent) and Carly Fiorina (seven percent). All other candidates are at four percent or lower.
Carson has made gains across many key Republican groups. In a reversal from earlier this month, he is now ahead of Trump among women and is running neck and neck with him among men. Carson’s support among evangelicals has risen and he now leads Trump by more than 20 points with this group.
Carson performs well among conservative Republicans and those who identify as Tea partiers. Trump does well with moderates and leads Carson among those without a college degree – although Trump had a larger advantage with non-college graduates earlier this month. (Read more from “Ben Carson Edges Trump in National GOP Race” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-28 00:08:102016-04-11 10:56:50Major Shakeup at Very Top of GOP Field That’ll Send Shock Waves Through the Race
