University Studies Conjuring Demons, ‘Fairies’

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Researchers at the University of Exeter in the U.K. are studying the casting of spells from collections of literature from the 15th to 17th centuries to summon demons and “fairies” to uncover their secrets.

This period, starting in the late medieval times, saw the writing of many books giving instructions on how to perform sorcery and necromancy, and fairies played an important role.

Ph.D. candidate Samuel Gillis Hogan, 26, will begin trawling through ancient manuscripts in many of England’s libraries to find evidence and records of how people thought they could harness the power of “fairies” over the 300-year period, and what influence this had on people’s lives and culture. . .

“It shows much about beliefs at the time,” Hogan added. “By fully understanding these practices, we can often reconstruct how it was perfectly rational given contemporary beliefs. It’s easy to look down our noses at past or present cultures and dismiss them as ‘backwards’ or ‘primitive’, but intimately understanding these very different worldviews emphasizes that our own is simply one among many.”

Among the common theories about “fairies,” says Hogan, are that they were demoted angels, spirits of the dead, prehistoric human precursors and minor deities in pagan beliefs. He emphasizes that they were not always considered as virtuous, particularly as Puritanism grew after the Reformation in the 16th century. The spell books that will be studied to conjure fairies, demons and other spirits were used, he says, for both for noble and nefarious purposes. (Read more from “University Studies Conjuring Demons, ‘Fairies'” HERE)

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Smaller Guy Sees Giant Robbing Store, Lays Him out With Single Punch

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A man being described as a “good Samaritan” was able to stop a massive “giant” of a man robbing groceries from a store with one, well-placed punch, KCAL-TV reported.

According to police, Jose Prado was followed from a Stater Bros. supermarket in Santa Ana, California, with a cartload of items he hadn’t paid for. . .

Video shows Prado, who weighs close to 400 pounds, threatening the employees as he loaded the groceries from the cart into his Toyota pickup in the parking lot. . .

After he seemed to grab one employee and pin him against the car, a much smaller onlooker was able to stop Prado with a hit to the face.

The good Samaritan ran off as Prado fell to the ground — no doubt stunned that he had just been felled by someone so much smaller. However, he was eventually able to recover enough to get into the truck and escape along with a female suspect. (Read more from “Smaller Guy Sees Giant Robbing Store, Lays Him out With Single Punch” HERE)

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Strange Disappearance of Wikileaks Consultant

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The internet transparency entity WikiLeaks tweeted on Sunday about Arjen Kamphuis’ “strange disappearance,” saying he has been missing since August 20, when he left his hotel in the northern Norwegian town of Bodo.

WikiLeaks said that Kamphuis, an associate of founder Julian Assange, had a ticket for a flight departing on August 22 from Trondheim, which is over 700 kilometers (435 miles) south of Bodo. . .

A website set up to gather information on the missing person says: “He is 47 years old, 1.78 meters tall and has a normal posture. He was usually dressed in black and carrying his black backpack. He is an avid hiker.” . . .

Norwegian police can’t legally access his cellphone movement data until Kamphuis is officially reported missing in the Netherlands, according to the Norwegian Verdens Gang tabloid newspaper.

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was aware of his disappearance after Kamphuis’ friend and privacy activist Ancilla van de Leest tweeted about his disappearance. (Read more from “Strange Disappearance of Wikileaks Consultant” HERE)

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Immigrants Jump off Government Assistance, After Trump Admin Threatens to Cut Green Card

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Significant numbers of immigrants, in the United States legally and illegally, are reportedly leaving federal assistance programs out of fear it could hurt their chances of obtaining permanent legal status.

Politico reports that 18 states have noticed a decline of up to 20 percent in the number of people applying for the WIC federal nutritional program for pregnant women and infants.

The decline has been attributed not just to an improving economy, but a rumored federal rule change by the Trump administration regarding eligibility to obtain a green card based on prior use of government assistance programs.

“Under a provision known as public charge, U.S. immigration law has for more than a century allowed officials to reject admission to the country on the grounds that potential immigrants or visitors might become overly reliant on the government,” according to Politico. “But until now, officials have looked narrowly at whether someone would need cash benefits such as welfare or long-term institutional care.”

The news outlet claimed there is a move within the Trump administration to include a larger array of services such as programs like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or commonly known as food stamps), Head Start, Medicaid and WIC.

WIC, first launched in 1974, has traditionally been for the most part immigration status-blind regarding eligibility.

When Trump took office, there were 7.4 million women and children enrolled in WIC. As of May, the most recent data available, the number had dropped to 6.8 million.

Similarly, there were 42.7 million enrolled in SNAP in Jan. 2017, which has declined to 39.3 million as of May, or a difference of 3.4 million.

The evidence the Politico piece offers that part of the decline is due to the possible Trump administration rule change is anecdotal. Any change to federal regulation regarding the programs would have to go through a public comment period before being adopted, and would likely be challenged in court before taking effect, meaning a final determination could take several months or years.

“It’s a stealth regulation,” said Kathleen Campbell Walker, an immigration attorney at Dickinson Wright in El Paso, Texas regarding the possible change to WIC. “It doesn’t really exist, but it’s being applied subliminally.”

Jennifer Mejias-Martinez, who works with the WIC program in Topeka, Kansas, recalled receiving a panicked call from an immigrant family wanting to unenroll after hearing a report on Univision that receiving government benefits could hurt their chances in immigration proceedings.

“They were very, very scared,” Mejias-Martinez said. She tried to assure them that the policy had not changed, but they dropped from WIC anyway.

It made me very sad, and quite frankly upset,” she said.

A WIC administering agency in Longview, Texas reported losing an estimated 75 to 90 participants per month to public charge fears, according to Politico.

The Trump administration has argued that it is not trying to alter immigration law, but clarify and enforce existing statutes.

“The goal is not to reduce immigration or in some diabolical fashion shut the door on people, family-based immigration, anything like that,” said Francis Cissna, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, at the National Press Club earlier this month.

The Department of Agriculture, which oversees WIC, is conducting multiple studies looking into why eligible families are not participating in, or choosing to drop their enrollment from, the program.

“The USDA is committed to the health and well-being of all WIC eligible mothers, infants and children and supports families seeking assistance,” the agency said. (For more from the author of “Immigrants Jump off Government Assistance, After Trump Admin Threatens to Cut Green Card” HERE)

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Trump Responds to Possible 2020 John Kerry Run

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By The Hill. President Trump on Monday tweeted that he would be “so lucky” if former Secretary of State John Kerry launched a White House bid to challenge Trump in 2020.

“I see that John Kerry, the father of the now terminated Iran deal, is thinking of running for President. I should only be so lucky – although the field that is currently assembling looks really good – FOR ME!” Trump tweeted.

Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, did not rule out a potential 2020 White House bid during an interview on Sunday. He said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that talking about the 2020 race is a “distraction.”

“Talking about 2020 right now is a total distraction and waste of time,” Kerry said. “What we need to do is focus on 2018. We need to win back the confidence of the country to move in a better direction and to do it in sensible ways. We are in a moment of crisis for our country. The world is in a moment of crisis.” (Read more from “Trump Responds to Possible 2020 John Kerry Run” HERE)

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Trump Slams John Kerry as ‘Father’ of Iran Deal Amid 2020 Speculation

By Fox News. President Trump slammed John Kerry on Monday, labeling the former Massachusetts senator and secretary of state the “father” of the Iran nuclear deal amid speculation that Kerry could challenge Trump in the 2020 election. . .

In January, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that Kerry, during a visit to the Middle East, told Palestinian officials he was considering running for president in 2020.

Trump has been critical not only of the Iran deal but also of Kerry’s role in negotiating the now-defunct agreement. The president repeatedly has called Kerry the “worst negotiator I’ve ever seen.”

Kerry also criticized former President Barack Obama in his CBS interview, arguing that Obama should have followed through on his infamous “red line” warning to Syria, and that the United States “paid a price” as a result of Obama’s inaction. (Read more from “Trump Slams John Kerry as ‘Father’ of Iran Deal Amid 2020 Speculation” HERE)

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Watch Ridiculous 1973 Doomsday Prediction

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Another “doomsday date” is looming – this one largely forgotten since an Australian television network broadcast globalist predictions of over-population, pollution, hunger and poverty. . .

It’s all based on a computer program developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology circa 1973 by pioneer Jay Forrester who was commissioned by the Club of Rome to determine how sustainable global mega-trends were at the time. . .

The Club of Rome is an organization comprised of thinkers, former world heads of states, scientists, and U.N. bureaucrats with the mission to “promote understanding of the global challenges facing humanity and to propose solutions through scientific analysis, communication, and advocacy.”

Dug up from the TV vaults, the program predicts things are going to get extremely bad in 2020 – just about the time, coincidentally, Donald Trump is seeking re-election as president of the United States. That’s when the quality of life goes down to zero. Pollution becomes so serious it will start to kill people, which in turn will cause the population to diminish, lower than it was in the 1900s.

The Club of Rome predicted some nations, like the U.S., would have to cut back on their appetites for gobbling up the world’s resources. It hoped that in the future world, prestige would stem from “low consumption” (the term “carbon footprint,” had not yet been devised). (Read more from “Watch Ridiculous 1973 Doomsday Prediction” HERE)

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Trump ‘Is Mentally Ill,’ Doctor and Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean Says

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By Newsweek. Dr. Howard Dean, a physician who previously served as the governor of Vermont, told MSNBC on Sunday that Donald Trump suffers from mental illness and he is unfit to be president.

“I’ve long believed the president is mentally ill,” Dean said as part of a panel discussion hosted by Alex Witt, Raw Story reported. “And I believe narcissism overcomes his ability to know, A, what’s good for the country, and B, what’s good for him.”

Dean’s remarks came in the context of Trump’s response to the death of Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona. The president repeatedly attacked McCain for opposing his policies and was reportedly not invited to the senator’s funeral.

“Trump has been an outlier since he’s been president and he’s not a particularly well respected person,” Dean explained. “He wasn’t very well respected when he was in business in New York and he’s not very well respected now.” . . .

Numerous others have previously raised concerns about the president’s mental fitness. In 2017, a group of psychiatrists and psychologists released a book analyzing the president’s mental health, which became an instant bestseller.

(Read more from “Trump ‘Is Mentally Ill,’ Doctor and Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean Says” HERE)

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[Editor’s note – here’s what the left is saying about the President]:

President Trump’s Description of What’s ‘Fake’ Is Expanding

By NPR. President Trump was bombarded with negative news cycles last month, so he turned to Twitter, venting frustrations and dismissing an increasingly wide variety of things he doesn’t like as “fake” or “phony.” Presidential tweets about “fake news” aren’t new, but August was unique in the sheer frequency of such presidential declarations on Twitter. There were more tweets in August about things Trump labels fake and phony than in any other month of his presidency.

This is part of a trend: as Trump’s presidency has gone on, these kinds of tweets have increased over time, with peaks coming in months with particularly bad headlines for the president.

The range of things Trump is declaring fake is growing too. Last month he tweeted about “fake books,” “the fake dossier,” “fake CNN,” and he added a new claim – that Google search results are “RIGGED” to mostly show only negative stories about him. He also accused NBC News’ Lester Holt of “fudging” the tape of his May 2017 interview conducted shortly after Trump fired FBI director James Comey. (Read more from “President Trump’s Description of What’s ‘Fake’ Is Expanding” HERE)

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California Legislators Prohibit Schools From Starting Before 8:30am. the Reason Will Have Parents Groan.

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By Townhall. Lawmakers in the Golden State on Friday voted to prohibit middle and high schools from starting before 8:30a.m., one of the final bills the legislature was able to pass during its last day in session, Fox News reported.

The bill, SB328, was extremely controversial. Proponents of the bill say teenagers are facing sleep deprivation when their natural sleep cycle keeps them up late but school forces them to get up early, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), roughly 80 percent of California’s middle and high schools start before 8:30a.m., something proponents believe needs to change.

“Research shows teens do better in school, have lower rates of depression and anxiety and fewer car accidents when school start times start later,” the Chronicle reported.

The bill goes into effect in 2021, should Gov. Jerry Brown (D) sign it. The exceptions to the start time would be made for rural schools or extra periods that begin before the normal school period. (Read more from “California Legislators Prohibit Schools From Starting Before 8:30am. the Reason Will Have Parents Groan.” HERE)

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California Votes to Bar Schools From Starting Before 8:30am to Help Give Students More Sleep

By AP. California lawmakers voted Friday to bar middle and high schools from starting before 8:30 a.m., one of dozens of proposals debated in the Legislature on the final day of its legislative session. . .

Lawmakers also announced they were shelving several high profile bills, including one that would have declared gay conversion therapy a fraudulent business practice.

Nearly 80 percent of California middle and high schools started earlier than 8:30 a.m. in 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Read more from “California Votes to Bar Schools From Starting Before 8:30am to Help Give Students More Sleep” HERE)

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Actor Uses Disturbing Child Rape Case to Push for Border Wall Construction

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Conservative actor James Woods is generally a commenter on the news, but a Woods tweet over the weekend is making news of its own.

In the Twitter post, Woods drew his 1.68 million followers’ attention to a case out of New York City that features a suspected MS-13 member’s alleged rape of an 11-year-old girl.

And Woods’ readers responded with revulsion.

According to Fox News, the arrest involved Julio Ayala, 18, a native of El Salvador.

Fox reported that Ayala was arrested Saturday after a manhunt that started Wednesday night, when he allegedly “climbed into the girl’s bedroom in Brooklyn through the second-floor window about 11:30 p.m. and raped her.”

According to the New York Post, Ayala carried a federal Permanent Resident Card, known as a “green card,” which would mean he was in the country legally.

But given the suspect’s purported membership in the notorious MS-13 gang, which has well-known ties to illegal alien networks – and crime — it was a reminder of what is at stake in the illegal immigration debate.

And Woods made his support for one of President Donald Trump’s proposed solutions to the illegal alien problem quite clear: #BuildTheWall.

The rape of a child is horrific, but it’s a crime that would likely pass under the national radar if it weren’t picked up by a conservative with the kind of recognition and Twitter following that Woods has built.

Considering that, the Ayala case might get more recognition than it would have without Woods’ publicizing it — and the price the country pays as a whole for an immigration system that permits criminal gangs like MS-13 might become more apparent.

According to the New York Post, Ayala has been charged with “sexually motivated burglary and first-degree rape.”

As he was led away, according to the Post, neighbors cheered.

“That makes me feel unsafe in my own home,” one woman, a 42-year-old resident of the Brooklyn neighborhood, told the Post.

Woods, and many of his followers, could relate. As the midterms approach, more tweets like this might have an impact on what happens at the ballot box in November. (For more from the author of “Actor Uses Disturbing Child Rape Case to Push for Border Wall Construction” please click HERE)

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Monica Lewinsky Ditches Interview After Question About Bill Clinton Apology

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Monica Lewinsky abruptly ended a live interview and walked off stage at a Jerusalem event Monday after she was asked whether former President Bill Clinton owed her a personal apology.

Lewinsky had just finished speaking to a crowd at the Jerusalem Convention Center about the cyberbullying she had experienced after her sexual relationship with Clinton was made public in the late 1990s and sat down to take one-on-one questions from NewsChannel 2 anchor Levi Yonit.

“Recently in an interview on NBC News, former President Clinton was rather irate when he was asked if he’d apologized to you personally and he said, ‘I apologized publicly.’ Do you still expect that apology? A personal apology?” Yonit asked.

In her speech, Lewinsky said she didn’t believe she would have been as abandoned as she felt in 1998 if the affair had instead taken place in 2018, when the accusations against her would have been labeled “cyberbullying, online harassment, and slut shaming.” (Read more from “Monica Lewinsky Ditches Interview After Question About Bill Clinton Apology” HERE)

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