Based upon an article by Daniel Greenfield and illustrated by Biff Spackle.
You can read the entire article here and follow @BiffSpackle on Twitter. You can see more of Biff’s political graphic stories here.
(For more from the author of “ESCAPE FROM CHICAGO: An Illustrated Tale” please click HERE)
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Why does this keep happening to America? Since the month of September, the United States has been absolutely pummeled by a devastating series of disasters, and this most recent one may be the worst of all. Right now, communities all along the Mississippi, Missouri and Arkansas rivers are dealing with “historic” flooding. In Missouri, it is being said that nobody “that is living has ever seen anything like this“, and it is being projected that rivers could reach levels not seen since “the Great Flood” of 1993. Portions of Interstate 44 have been totally shut down, and thousands of people have either already been evacuated from their homes or are preparing to evacuate. It would be difficult to overstate the utter devastation that we are witnessing. Personally, I have some very good friends in southern Missouri, and I will definitely be keeping them in my prayers.
The governor of Missouri, Jay Nixon, is warning people to be very careful. Thirteen people have already been killed by the flooding, and Nixon says that the waters are going “places they’ve never been before”…
Thirteen people in Missouri have died in floods caused by severe storms over the weekend, and although the rain has moved on, swollen rivers are still rising and won’t crest for days, Gov. Jay Nixon said.
“It’s very clear that Missouri is in the midst of a very historic and dangerous flooding event,” Nixon told reporters Tuesday. “The amount of rain we’ve received, in some places in excess of a foot, has caused river levels to not only rise rapidly, but to go to places they’ve never been before.”
A state of emergency was declared in Missouri on Monday, and yesterday Governor Nixon activated the National Guard. But the river is still rising, and the worst is yet to come.
At this point, some communities have already been totally wiped out. This includes the little town of Rockaway Beach, which is not too far away from Branson. The following comes from USA Today…
In Missouri, some areas have already been hit hard by the first wave of rising water. Rockaway Beach, located near Branson in southwest Missouri, was swamped by waters from the swollen White River.
The tourist town of 800 “has just been demolished,” Mayor Don Smith told KYTV. “It’s devastating, and we are all so exhausted.”
It is being reported that the Mississippi River is now a mile wide is some places, and there are debris piles that are up to two stories tall. Authorities are projecting that the flooding along some areas of the river will match or break all-time records that were set back in 1993…
In some parts of the Missouri, rivers are expected to crest as high as they did during devastating flooding in 1993, which is known as the “great flood,” Nixon said.
The National Weather Service predicted that the Mississippi River at Chester, Illinois, would crest at 49.7 feet Friday, matching the 1993 record, the governor’s office said. The Mississippi at Thebes was expected to crest Saturday at a record-breaking 47.5 feet.
The Mississippi River is expected to reach nearly 15 feet above flood stage on Thursday at St. Louis, which would be the second-worst flood on record, behind only the devastating 1993 flood.
What is happening in the center of the country right now is just the continuation of a trend that has been building for months. Just check out this list of flooding events that we have seen in the U.S. since the end of the summer…
-Moisture from Hurricane Joaquin caused the worst flooding in the history of the state of South Carolina.
-Flash flooding caused “rivers of mud” to cover highways in southern California.
-The remnants of Hurricane Patricia caused tremendous flooding in many parts of Texas.
-One of the strongest El Ninos ever recorded has sent an endless stream of storms barreling into coastal areas of Oregon and Washington. This has caused horrible flooding in some areas.
Meanwhile, we continue to witness a rise in earthquake activity as well.
Oklahoma, which had already shattered an all-time state record for earthquakes in 2015, was hit by a 4.3 magnitude earthquake yesterday.
And just within the last 24 hours, a 4.4 magnitude earthquake hit near San Bernardino, California, and a 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook northwestern Washington and Vancouver Island.
Also, let’s not forget all of the wildfires that have been happening. On Christmas Day, a massive 1,200 acre blaze erupted near Ventura, California, and that topped off a year during which wildfires burned more acres in America than ever before.
Of course I could also mention the extremely rare EF-4 tornado that ripped through Garland, Texas just a few days ago and the ongoing multi-year drought that is still plaguing most of the state of California.
On top of everything else, a huge solar storm is going to hit our planet on New Year’s Eve. Fortunately, authorities do not expect that it will do that much damage.
Nobody can deny that our weather is getting really, really crazy.
So precisely why is this happening?
There is certainly a lot of debate about this. It is almost as if someone flipped a switch in September and turned on a disaster machine, because since that time there has been an endless parade of major events.
Do you have a theory that can explain what we are witnessing? (For more from the author of “Missouri Ravaged by Historic Flooding as Disaster After Disaster Continues to Hit America” please click HERE)
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Scientists in Italy have rediscovered a type of snake that the ancient Greeks used to hurl at their enemies to create panic and confusion during sea battles.
The Javelin Sand Boa had not been officially recorded in Italy for 80 years, but sightings by locals suggested that it might still survive in a region of Sicily.
Snake experts decided to investigate and found the species, officially known as Eryx jaculus, living in an area of sand dunes and woodland around the resort town of Licata, on the island’s south coast.
They believe the snake may well have been introduced to Sicily in ancient times, when the island was colonised by the Greeks.
The area where it was found is close to the sites of two ancient battles, one in the fifth century BC and the other in the fourth century AD. (Read more from “Scientists in Italy Rediscover Snake That Was Used by Ancient Greeks as a Weapon of War” HERE)
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Like Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, psychopaths can be intelligent and charming, while hiding a lack of empathy . . .
The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) is used as a diagnostic tool to determine where someone lies on the psychopathy spectrum, as not all psychopaths display all the traits.
There are 20 items on the checklist, which score between zero and two points depending on whether someone matches a trait, to give a score out of 40.
In the UK, users are deemed psychopathic if they score above 25, but in the US it is 30.
Psychopaths display different traits depending on their disorder, but common signs include superficial charm, a grandiose notion of self-worth, the need for stimulation and impulsiveness, pathological lying, the ability to manipulate others and a lack of remorse and empathy. (Read more from “How to Spot a Psychopath: Expert Reveals the Traits to Look out for in Others and How to Tell If YOU Have the Personality Disorder” HERE)
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Congress just passed, and President Barack Obama has signed, a bill that bans an environmentally harmful product ingredient included in many personal care products, an ingredient that is so common that nearly every American has it in their homes.
Congress has passed the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015, which puts a ban on “microbeads,” contained in many bodywashes, toothpastes and soaps.
Microbeads are tiny plastic balls that cleaning product makers say serve as skin exfoliants. But the problem with these little devices is that they never break down as they wash down the drain.
Scientists say the tiny beads flow through our sewer systems but are so small that they aren’t screened out before being dumped into our waterways. Worse, once in our lakes, streams and rivers, microbeads get eaten by fish and other wildlife. The beads cannot be digested and often end up killing the wildlife.
“In New York state alone, 19 tons of microbeads are washed down the drain each year,” Business Insider reports.
“Microbeads are highly damaging to the natural environment and the wildlife that live there,” a press release from the Wildlife Conservation Society says. “Because natural alternatives already exist, a ban on their use in personal care products makes perfect sense.” (Read more from “Obama Just Banned Products Containing THIS Common Ingredient – You Probably Own One of Them…” HERE)
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Reconstructive surgery on the human nose isn’t uncommon, but until now, doctors in the United States haven’t been able to replicate and restore the body part to its full functionality. Dallan Jennet, a 14-year-old boy from the Marshall Islands, a country that lies near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, is the first patient in the U.S. to undergo a procedure that does just that.
Jennet’s face became disfigured when he fell onto a live power line at age 9. Earlier this year he flew to New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, in New York City, to undergo multiple surgeries that would restore his sense of smell and taste.
“The procedure is akin to a ‘nose transplant’ in that we were able to replace the nose with a functional implant,” lead physician Tal Dagan, associate adjunct surgeon, said in a Mount Sinai blog post. “This procedure may be a breakthrough in facial reconstruction because the patient will never have to deal with the standard issues of transplantation, such as tissue rejection or a lifetime of immunosuppressive therapies . . .
Benicia, Calif.-based nonprofit Canvasback Missions Inc., an organization that provides health care and health education to the Pacific Islands, funded Jennet and his mother’s travel and medical expenses to New York. To carry out the subsequent surgeries, Dagan and Dr. Grigoriy Mashkevich, assistant professor of Otolaryngology, Division of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Mount Sinai, collaborated with Oxford Performance Materials Inc., a Windsor, Connecticut-based 3-D printing company. (Read more from “14-Year-Old Receives First 3-D Printed Nose in US” HERE)
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The world’s most human-like robot has begun work as a university receptionist as scientists predict the new technology will eventually provide childcare and offer friendship to lonely elderly people.
With her soft skin and flowing brunette hair, Nadine does not only meet and greet visitors, smile, make eye contact and shake hands, but she can even recognise past guests and spark up conversation based on previous chats.
Unlike conventional robots, Nadine has her own personality, mood and emotions. She can be happy or sad, depending on the topic.
Powered by intelligent software similar to Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s Cortana, she is the brainchild of scientists at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and is based on her creator Prof Nadia Thalmann.
Prof Thalmann, the director of the Institute for Media Innovation who led the development of said robots such as Nadine are poised to become more visible in offices and homes in future. (Read more from “Meet Nadine, the World’s Most Human-Like Robot” HERE)
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Many Wall Street strategists are dusting off their 2015 targets for the S&P 500 index and trimming them for 2016.
Crashing-oil prices and fears of a global recession threw cold water on the index’s performance in 2015, causing it to fall short of the average expected gain of about 10%. With a handful of trading days left in the year and the S&P 500 SPX, -0.22% closing at 2,061 on Thursday (for a 0.1% gain year to date), only a handful of the more bearish analysts can hope to meet their 2015 targets — and only if a Santa Claus rally plays out.
(Read more from “Wall Street’s Forecast for 2016” HERE)
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Donald Trump and Pope Francis are tied for second in a new survey that asks Americans to name their most admired man in the world.
The only guy in front of them is President Obama, who received 17 percent of the mentions in the annual Gallup survey, while Trump and his Holiness each received a 5 percent share.
Topping the women’s list will be Trump’s Democratic rival, if each frontrunner wins their party’s primary contest, with Hillary Clinton receiving 13 percent of all mentions.
Gallup has asked this question of Americans since 1946 for men and 1948 for women and Trump has finished in the top 10 four times before . . .
Clinton has also appeared on the list before, in fact, she holds the record for the most times a woman has been No. 1. (Read more from “This Is Where Trump Placed in Poll for Most Admired Man in the World – the Surprise Is Who He Tied with” HERE)
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Emergency responders were at Sunset Cliffs in San Diego, California, on Friday after a man fell over, local media reported.
Bill Bender with San Diego Lifeguards at Sunset Cliffs told NBC San Diego: ‘Witnesses stated seeing someone distracted by an electronic device and he just fell over the edge . . .
NBC San Diego reported the victim was in his thirties and plummeted 60 feet.
Bender told the NBC affiliate station, referring to three people who tried to assist: ‘They acted quickly, they found a way to get down the cliff.
‘They put themselves at jeopardy… They administered CPR to the person in attempt to save a life.’ (Read more from “Man’s Cellphone Causes Unfortunate Death on Christmas Day” HERE)
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