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Will Julian Assange Die in Prison? Is that why a "dead man" data dump just took place?
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
12 13:48 Skidmark [] 
2 07:20 Airandee [2] 
12 17:30 trailing wife [3] 
10 16:10 Seeking Cure For Ignorance [2] 
12 19:27 Mercutio [3] 
3 11:00 Silentbrick [] 
3 16:05 Lex [1] 
1 13:46 swksvolFF [] 
8 19:36 Ospas Dhahran 49 [1] 
2 12:41 swksvolFF [] 
17 18:00 Lex [1] 
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Page 6: Politix
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3 09:33 Lex []
3 17:04 Seeking Cure For Ignorance []
1 02:06 Glenmore [1]
6 11:59 Bobby [1]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Megyn Kelly Releases Interview with Fired Staffer at Center of ABC's Epstein Cover-Up [Video]
[PJ] At NewsBusters, Curtis Houck writes, "On Friday afternoon, Megyn Kelly continued her return to the news business in a bombshell interview with Ashley Bianco, the former ABC News producer who was fired after only four days at CBS News for allegedly being behind the tape of ABC’s Amy Robach admitting that the network quashed her reporting about alleged serial pedophile Jeffrey Epstein."

After Kelly recapped what's transpired thus far in the media's handling of the Epstein case and his alleged suicide, Kelly introduced Bianco by asking if she was the person who leaked the tape.

Bianco repeatedly denied being the person who shared the Robach tape and, later in the interview, added that she had never even heard of the James O’Keefe-led group until this week:

KELLY: Did you leak the tape?

BIANCO: I did not.

KELLY: Not to anyone?

Bianco explained that, on August 19, she watched Robach’s comments live from her desk and that, according to a colleague, Robach knew her comments were not only broadcasted in-house, but also to "all the affiliates," so there could be any number of possible suspects.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/09/2019 02:47 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All of this Jeffrey Epstein chatter really should be suspended until the official file unsealing and 2047 release date.

[sarc]
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/09/2019 2:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Beyond appalling. Infuriating.

If our media are involved in this nightmare, then ABC, NBC etc execs need to go to prison.

Release those g------ video tapes.
Is Bill Clinton shown on those tapes screwing children? Who else?
Posted by: Lex || 11/09/2019 8:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Former prosecutor Acosta was quoted as being asked during discussions of the lenient sentence in the first Epstein trial that he was told to go lightly because there was an intelligence connection to Epstein. Ours or a friends? Whomever it was, it might explain the obvious murder coverup.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 11/09/2019 11:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Ref #3: Former prosecutor Acosta was quoted as being asked during discussions of the lenient sentence in the first Epstein trial that he was told to go lightly because there was an intelligence connection to Epstein.

Oh really? Who could have imagined ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/09/2019 11:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Epstein was a man of several takents, having mastered the arts of:

1) persuading (with the help of Ghislaine La Procuress) cash-strapped, powerless young girls on both sides of the Atlantic to do tricks for treats;

2) persuading wealthy and powerful men on both sides of the Atlantic to give him many millions of dollars to "manage";

3) moving the funds accrued via Talent #2 around multiple offshore shell companies, bank accounts, and other legal-but-shady vehicles across, again, both sides of the Atlantic.

See a theme? The intelligence connection is likely a transatlantic one.

A reasonable surmise is that MI6 was running this guy, with help from a few Deep Staters in Langley.
Posted by: Lex || 11/09/2019 11:45 Comments || Top||

#6  A reasonable surmise is that MI6 was running this guy, with help from a few Deep Staters in Langley.

The seemingly vaporized Ghislaine Maxwell is the giveaway. Her 'green' non-for-profit money laundering firm in Salisbury (conveniently located near a couple of sensitive MoD facilities), shuttered the day Epstein was found dead.

I believe the correct term is 'bilateral intelligence arrangement.'

Posted by: Besoeker || 11/09/2019 11:50 Comments || Top||

#7  Bingo.

Sickening to contemplate.
Posted by: Lex || 11/09/2019 11:58 Comments || Top||

#8  'Contemplate' this sitting under the gold dome in the graphic.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/09/2019 12:19 Comments || Top||

#9  So that golden domed pleasure palace with the cute blue and white stripes on Little St. James Island was really a honey pot? Sounds like the makings of a great James Bond movie. I can't wait for it to come to a theater near me.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/09/2019 12:38 Comments || Top||

#10  I believe Ashley Bianco did not. More like ABC pressured CBS to fire her because she refused to sleep with the upper management.
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 11/09/2019 16:10 Comments || Top||


Mexican Ambassador Blames Drug Cartel Violence On Addicted Gringos
[Federalist] The Mexican ambassador to the United States responded to Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s call to sanction Mexico for the recent escalation of violence from the nation’s ruling drug cartels by blaming the American public’s demand for black-market drugs.

"My government categorically rejects your recent mischaracterization on Mexico not actively combating transnational organized crime and suggesting to impose sanctions on Mexican officials," Ambassador Martha Barcena wrote to Hawley, adding in a handwritten note at the end of the letter that she hopes to address the matter with the senator personally to discuss how to "reduce drug demand in the U.S."

The letter from the Mexican government insinuating American demand for illicit substances is a key driver for cartel violence comes a day after Hawley called on Congress to impose sanctions on Mexico following an ambush that killed nine Americans on Monday.

"With Mexico, enough is enough," Hawley declared. "US government should impose sanctions on Mexican officials, including freezing assets, who won’t confront cartels. Cartels are flooding MO w/ meth, trafficking children, & openly slaughtering American citizens. And Mexico looks the other way."

Earlier this week, an ambush launched by a Mexican drug cartel killed six children and three women with ties to Utah living in the La Mora Mormon community in the Sonora state located in northern Mexico. According to reports, several victims burned to death, including a pair of infant twins, when one of the cars exploded at the scene.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/09/2019 02:28 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's the Mexican ambassador. Look at those eyes. That's the look of a dishonest, crooked, black-souled piranha. I'll bet she's part of the trade.

Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/09/2019 3:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Fine, total closure of the border, any attempted crossing taken under immediate interdiction fire. No cash transfers allowed to mexico at all and we will stop selling their government weapons. Any mexican national in this country gets 6 months to leave, after that, summary execution. No US support for their oil industry which will collapse fast. In 5 years, we offer the northern states of mexico the chance to be US territories and eventually states. Eat it once piece at a time.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 11/09/2019 10:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Aah... summary execution. Oh, that governments could see the magical value in that.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/09/2019 11:10 Comments || Top||

#4  The Obama-Holder gun running operation was not reached to comment.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/09/2019 11:26 Comments || Top||

#5  What Silentbrick said.
Get started.
Posted by: Lex || 11/09/2019 11:34 Comments || Top||

#6  how to "reduce drug demand in the U.S."?

Do what Silentbrick said. That'd reduce it right quick.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/09/2019 12:50 Comments || Top||

#7  Look at those eyes. That's the look of a dishonest, crooked, black-souled piranha

Reptilian.
Posted by: Lex || 11/09/2019 12:57 Comments || Top||

#8  I subscribe to the early Roman method of expansion. Make it clear being part of Rome is better than not. Make them Romans. Then you don't need to oppress people.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 11/09/2019 13:45 Comments || Top||

#9  There is no supply without demand.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/09/2019 15:40 Comments || Top||

#10  Yes but when you kill the suppliers and flog the users in the public square, demand won't be so great. Oh and require drug testing for EVERY profession, constantly:) I have to get tested for my job, I see no reason why other people shouldn't as well.

But every stage of drug production, transportation and selling should carry a death sentence. End users get the whip and public shaming. If we are going to have a 'war on drugs' lets have an actual war.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 11/09/2019 16:11 Comments || Top||

#11  You guys are delusional. People will always demand drugs, food, and sex. The people of the USA have through their representatives decided that exchanging money for many drugs and most sex is illegal.

So all that stuff is going to be supplied by Mexico or Canada. For example, we pushed all the meth manufacturing out of the US to Mexico by limiting the availability of sudafed. That choice is preventing American first responders from having to deal with chemical burns. Which is good. Yet we complain that the Mexicans build big meth factories and ship the stuff in to the USA.

If we bombed all their factories and secured the border, then we would get domestic meth production again and put our first responders back into hazard.

We need to think carefully about how we manage supply and demand here. We could test all the sanitary sewers for drugs, find the users and kill them. Or we could decriminalize drug use and production. Or some intermediate approach. But please take a moment to think about the second order effects. These second order effects are what repealed prohibition; so, be more thoughtful about this very real problem.
Posted by: rammer || 11/09/2019 19:05 Comments || Top||

#12  Re #1 & #7: I must respectfully disagree... the correct description is ophidian
Posted by: Mercutio || 11/09/2019 19:27 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Will Julian Assange Die in Prison? Is that why a "dead man" data dump just took place?
[THEAMERICANCONSERVATIVE] Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is suffering significant “psychological torture” and abuse in the London prison where he is being held, and his life is now “at risk,” according to an independent UN rights expert. A senior member of his legal team believes Assange may not live until the end of the extradition process.

Assange mumbled, stuttered, and struggled to say his own name and date of birth when he appeared in court on October 21. The Wikileaks founder is being subjected to long drawn-out “psychological torture” as he battles to prevent his extradition to the United States where he faces a slew of espionage charges, warns Nils Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.

“Unless the UK urgently changes course and alleviates his inhumane situation, Mr. Assange’s continued exposure to arbitrariness and abuse may soon end up costing his life,” Melzer said in a statement on Friday.

“His physical appearance was not as shocking as his mental deterioration,” writes former British ambassador Craig Murray, who was present at the October hearing. “When asked to give his name and date of birth, he struggled visibly over several seconds to recall both… his difficulty in making it was very evident; it was a real struggle for him to articulate the words and focus his train of thought… Until yesterday I had always been quietly skeptical of those who claimed that Julian’s treatment amounted to torture… and skeptical of those who suggested he may be subject to debilitating drug treatments. But having attended the trials in Uzbekistan of several victims of extreme torture, and having worked with survivors from Sierra Leone and elsewhere, I can tell you that … Julian exhibited exactly the symptoms of a torture victim brought blinking into the light, particularly in terms of disorientation, confusion, and the real struggle to assert free will through the fog of learned helplessness.”

“One of the greatest journalists and most important dissidents of our times is being tortured to death by the state, before our eyes. To see my friend, the most articulate man, the fastest thinker, I have ever known, reduced to that shambling and incoherent wreck, was unbearable,” writes Murray.
Situations like this are why we very properly have two separate criminal justice tracks. Run-of-the-mill knuckle dragger criminals can be tossed into the clink and left to rot for a few years with no harm done. Sensitive, articulate members of the non-short bus Special Class shouldn't be imprisoned longer than overnight because of the Loss to the World® when their delicate psyches are damaged.

WikiLeaks just dropped their databomb
[Dropbox] Wikileaks Dead Man data dump here

Posted by: Fred || 11/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I guess he found out he was about to be found to
have strangled himself to death with his bedsheet in his solitary cell with broken cameras and sleeping guards.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/09/2019 1:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Someone doesn't know what a dead man switch is.

Assange has to periodically reset the timer. If he's not around to do so, the information will be automatically released. Has nothing to do with him dying in prison.

Which he will certainly do. If he survives British prison he's going to get a kangaroo court trial and then ADX Florence Supermax, where the US government keeps its personal enemies.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 11/09/2019 2:14 Comments || Top||

#3  I was hoping Trump would have him freed, and make some sort of deal with him. Through indirect means of course. What we, the right, need is a network of unconnected but cause-oriented high net worth individuals and lawfare financiers. Even if the Trump wants, he can't give him assist in this time of scrutiny.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/09/2019 3:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Okay. All very well. Where"s Epstein's long=fuse IED?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 11/09/2019 7:07 Comments || Top||

#5  The drop was a fake BTW.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/09/2019 8:23 Comments || Top||

#6  If he's as gaga as the article claims, maybe he just forgot to reset the deadman switch.
Posted by: Mercutio || 11/09/2019 8:27 Comments || Top||

#7  How do you reset the deadman switch when you're in prison? That's what a deadman switch IS.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 11/09/2019 8:42 Comments || Top||

#8  What we, the right, need is a network of unconnected but cause-oriented high net worth individuals and lawfare financiers

Start with Peter Thiel and Robert Mercer. Maybe Ron Unz.
Posted by: Lex || 11/09/2019 9:00 Comments || Top||

#9  Deadman Switches, eh?
Compare and contrast the 'Old Man of the Mountains', the head of the Assassins and Julian Assange. Both use illegal means to get what they want and hardly care who gets trampled in the process. Let. Him. Rot.
Posted by: magpie || 11/09/2019 11:27 Comments || Top||

#10  How do you reset the deadman switch when you're in prison? That's what a deadman switch IS.

That would explain the cable running from his cell to the wiring closet down the hall.

Tune in next week when we discuss what a metaphor is.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/09/2019 11:45 Comments || Top||

#11  ^ Heh
Posted by: Frank G || 11/09/2019 12:30 Comments || Top||

#12  Snark o' the Day
Posted by: Lex || 11/09/2019 12:49 Comments || Top||

#13  Most of the docs look like nothing and the file count is nowhere near the numbers claimed.
If its a faked dump that is fine.
If its a real dump it is lame.
Posted by: 3dc || 11/09/2019 13:23 Comments || Top||

#14  Harsh words for a man whose only crime was telling us the truth of how corrupt and criminal our own government was.

Remember Clapper swearing before Congress that the NSA wasn't spying on Americans illegally? You know how we know he was lying? We were told the truth.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 11/09/2019 14:21 Comments || Top||

#15  It's a rare occurrence, but I agree completely with Herb. Julian Assange's "crimes" amount to exposing the bad behavior of the governments and elites all around the Western world, and their connections with many shady organizations. I don't care if he broke laws that protect the government and criminalize informing citizens of what their governments were up to. Those laws carry no moral weight.

Also, the Old Man on the Mountain metaphor is ridiculous. Assange hasn't killed anybody, much less wracked up the extremely impressive kill count of the Assassins. The closest one could come to making such a claim is that he might have recklessly endangered his sources. Which indicates little more than the evil he was working against.
Posted by: Vernal Hatrick || 11/09/2019 16:26 Comments || Top||

#16  Have y’all forgotten the Afghan war documents dump in July 2010? Wikileaks did not black out the names and contact info of local Afghans, nor of American troops. People were murdered over ther, families were threatened at home... and the release to major news organizations was arranged to do the most harm possible. Not the actions of merely mischievous chaotic-good sprites.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/09/2019 17:15 Comments || Top||

#17  ^ Assange is not our (or anyone's) friend
Snowden is not a(n American) patriot
Gabbard is not wise or intelligent
Posted by: Lex || 11/09/2019 18:00 Comments || Top||


Britain
Christopher Steele: Russians cultivating Tories and Boris Johnson for . . . five years.
[The Guardian via Rolling Stone] Fresh evidence has also emerged of attempts by the Kremlin to infiltrate the Conservatives by a senior Russian diplomat suspected of espionage, who spent five years in London cultivating leading Tories including Johnson himself....

The committee’s report is based on analysis from Britain’s intelligence agencies, as well as third-party experts such as the former MI6 officer Christopher Steele....

Christopher Steele became famous in the United States as the author of a "dossier" that claimed Russians had been "cultivating, supporting, and assisting" Donald Trump "for at least 5 years."

Now Steele is back, claiming that the Russians have been cultivating the Tories and Boris Johnson for . . . five years.

You can’t make this stuff up. The only thing comparable would be Iraqi defector Ahmed Chalabi lobbying for a sequel invasion after the WMD hunt came up empty, and having the same humiliated media figures and politicians reach for pompoms all over again.

Steele first appeared in connection with the Trump story as a "well-placed Western intelligence source" in a 2016 Yahoo News article by Michael Isikoff. The piece claimed a Trump aide named Carter Page was discussing the lifting of sanctions with Igor Sechin, chief of the major Russian oil company Rosneft.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/09/2019 03:39 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't know why States are so hesitant to just kill off major troublemakers and opportunists like these. It doesn't matter to anyone living in the following week anyway, news of their passing becomes another 'what if' for the tabloids. I think Steele just avoided the polonium tea with this. The UK gummint will go to any length to protect him now.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/09/2019 4:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Serve your Deep State well, and you will live.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/09/2019 6:21 Comments || Top||

#3  One trick pony?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/09/2019 6:58 Comments || Top||

#4 
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 11/09/2019 8:21 Comments || Top||

#5  Go away, clown.
Haven't your lies and general idiocy caused enough damage?
Posted by: Lex || 11/09/2019 8:51 Comments || Top||

#6  Ref #5: Little chance of that. He owns a thriving international disinformation business.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/09/2019 8:59 Comments || Top||

#7  He could be right, he could be full of crap, but like the boy who cried wolf, he will never be listened to again...
Posted by: 49 Pan || 11/09/2019 9:01 Comments || Top||

#8  #6 In that case, an Epstein treatment's required.
Posted by: Lex || 11/09/2019 9:31 Comments || Top||

#9  Only five years? The Russians have been cultivating Labour since the 1930s, almost a century earlier, and the same for the Democrats. In Barack Obama’s circle, for instance, the question is whether it was your parents or your grandparents who were the first to meet at a Communist Party meeting.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/09/2019 10:41 Comments || Top||

#10  Yes, tw, red diaper doper babies.

Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/09/2019 13:06 Comments || Top||

#11  "Maybe if we built a giant wooden badger....."
Posted by: Silentbrick || 11/09/2019 14:06 Comments || Top||

#12  The committee’s report is based on analysis from Britain’s intelligence agencies, as well as third-party experts such as the former MI6 officer Christopher Steele

Seriously? Anyone who quotes Mr. Steele throws away all credibility. Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, after all.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/09/2019 17:30 Comments || Top||


Economy
Retiring Baby Boomers Won't Destroy the Stock Market
[Reuters] Will retiring baby boomers bring down the stock market? Why do some investors view the baby boomer generation’s retirement plans as a potential negative for stocks? Can the stock market or capitalism itself be pulled down by a large generational shift? Some fear that this large group, born in the post-WWII baby boom between 1946 and 1964, will all retire around the same time, and therefore pull all of their money out of the stock market to invest in bonds or hold as cash. And not only will they yank a load of money out of the stock market, but subsequent generations’ Social Security contributions will not be able to support such a large group’s payouts‐leading to the downfall of the entire program.

How valid is this fear? It is true many baby boomers are recently retired or soon to retire. It is also true there are a lot of baby boomers‐about 72.5 million![i] However, you shouldn’t be overly worried about how their retirement will affect markets. Markets are efficient at pricing in widely known information. This means massive surprises can certainly impact the market, but well-known events, especially those known years in advance, don’t typically drive price movement. The market has long known baby boomers exist and will eventually retire. There is no secret cabal of baby boomers coordinating their efforts to sell out of stocks and take down the markets on one surprise, specific unknown day. Folks have been worried about baby boomers’ retirement for some time, and will continue to worry about it. This doesn’t mean demographic shifts don’t have importance or potential financial consequences. Markets care more about what is not known rather than what is already known.

But is there any validity to fearing what will happen if the baby boomers, or any other generation, withdraw large amounts from stock investments to put into cash or bonds around the same time? Couldn’t that have an impact on the stock market? First, consider that baby boomers aren’t all the exact same age, and even the same-aged boomers don’t all have the exact same plans. Not every 65-year old will choose to retire at the same time. Some will retire early, some late, and some may not even retire at all. Some boomers have younger spouses or children to support, some boomers will invest to leave a charitable legacy and some boomers aren’t even invested in the stock market at all! Don’t overlook another critical factor‐longevity. Lifespans are generally increasing. Many people retiring today can look forward to a 20- or 30-year long retirement‐or longer! To support that longer investment time horizon, many investors will need to have some growth in their portfolios, meaning that they’re unlikely to dump all of their stocks at once.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/09/2019 06:26 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh NOES! What a load of crap. Bonds aren't paying and investing in muni bonds (when they are floating them to pay for unfunded pensions vs infrastructure) is just stoopid
Posted by: Frank G || 11/09/2019 6:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Here is the basic math that will destroy the stock market: economy is ~20 trillion. It grows about 2% per year or 400 billion per year. Our yearly deficit the last 10 years is~1 trillion a year. Even with record low interest rates and record unemployment borrowing a trillion to get 400 billion eventually will breakdown..... not sure when but eventually it will blow up.
Posted by: Airandee || 11/09/2019 7:20 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Suicide Hotline volunteer shocked when Hillary Clinton tried to ‘place an order'
[Genesius Times - Satire, Herb] A volunteer for the New York Metro Suicide Hotline service was shocked when she received a call from former Secretary Hillary Clinton. She was even more shocked when Clinton tried to order a suicide from the service like a pizza.

"She was very cordial," the volunteer who declined to be identified said. "She said, ‘I'd like to order a suicide.'

"I told her, ‘That's not how it works, ma'am,' but she refused to take a no for an answer. She kept saying, ‘Do you know who I am? I'm Hillary f**king Clinton. I'm the President of the United States. Are you trying to tell me that you're going to deny me my Constitutional right of accommodation?'"

The volunteer was highly skeptical but she took down Clinton's "order" and delivered it to the NYPD.

Rumors have circulated about the Clintons having something to do with the suicide of Jeffrey Epstein, but those have been debunked since Epstein confessed to killing himself on August 10 in a New York jail.
Posted by: Frank G || 11/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good one.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/09/2019 13:46 Comments || Top||


The End of Betomania
[NATIONALREVIEW] If one were searching for a moment that best captured Beto O’Rourke’s ill-fated bid for the White House, it might have been his March campaign stop at Penn State University. O’Rourke appeared on stage surrounded by a mostly friendly crowd of twentysomethings who appeared eager to hear the young, allegedly impressive, candidate from Texas speak. In his grating and pretentious cadence, Beto rattled off a series of slogans to the audience:

“This campaign cannot be about tearing people down!”

“At the end of the day, we’re all on the same team.”
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 11/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All that Soros Stuffing just oozed out.
Posted by: Bobby || 11/09/2019 8:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Hell yeah I'm gonna take my wife's money for my fetish hobbies.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/09/2019 12:41 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Is Emotional Intelligence (AQ) more important than intelligence?
[BBC] Once, if you wanted to assess how well someone might do climbing the career ladder, you might have considered asking them to take an IQ test. For years, it was thought that the intelligence quotient (IQ) test ‐ which measures memory, analytical thinking and mathematical ability ‐ was one of the best ways to predict our future job prospects.

More recently, there has been increased attention on emotional intelligence (EQ), broadly characterised as a set of interpersonal, self-regulation and communication skills. EQ is now widely seen as a tool kit that plays an important role in helping us succeed in multiple aspects of life.

Both IQ and EQ are considered important to our career success. But today, as technology redefines how we work, the skills we need to thrive in the job market are evolving too. Enter adaptability quotient, or AQ, a subjective set of qualities loosely defined as the ability to pivot and flourish in an environment of fast and frequent change.

"IQ is the minimum you need to get a job, but AQ is how you will be successful over time," says Natalie Fratto, a New York-based vice-president at Goldman Sachs who became interested in AQ when she was investing in tech start-ups. She has subsequently presented a popular TED talk on the subject.

Fratto says AQ is not just the capacity to absorb new information,but the ability to work out what is relevant, to unlearn obsolete knowledge, overcome challenges, and to make a conscious effort to change. AQ involves flexibility, curiosity, courage, resilience and problem-solving skills too.

As society changes, could AQ be more crucial to career success than IQ? If so, how do you identify it ‐ and is there a way to hone AQ to future-proof your career?
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/09/2019 06:38 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's how cultures collapse - "collegiality" & "group adjustment" replace ability.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/09/2019 6:56 Comments || Top||

#2  I used to have an old Pepper... & Salt cartoon from WSJ at my desk. Two guys in suits walking down the street. The caption: "I don't want to learn to manage my anger, I want to franchise it."

I couldn't get away with that today.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/09/2019 7:12 Comments || Top||

#3  ...that appears to be the motto of the Donks Socialists.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/09/2019 7:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Is Emotional Intelligence (AQ) more important than intelligence?

No. Next (dumb) question?
Posted by: Raj || 11/09/2019 7:57 Comments || Top||

#5  If your cat is your owner then probably yes, but for the people who actually built civilisation...

It's a solid NO!
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/09/2019 8:15 Comments || Top||

#6  Nolo Contendere
Posted by: Mercutio || 11/09/2019 8:20 Comments || Top||

#7  No. Next question.
Posted by: Lex || 11/09/2019 9:02 Comments || Top||

#8  One reason that we have such a shitty political and media exec class is that our elite colleges in the affirmative action era have elevated "personal" characteristics to the top of their admissions criteria. This ranking of traits like "warmth," "sparkle," and other BS made-up attributes allow Harvard, Yale, etc to admit brown-nosing, academically-inferior characters over truly brilliant, academically-superior kids.

This is how we end up with shallow, smarmy self-promoting masters of perception management like Zero, Cory Booker, KamalHo, and their shitty white counterparts such as the Clintons and all the Pajama Boys and Girlz shitting around Washington, the media & entertainment industry corporate suites, left-wing big-city governments and Silicon Valley.

You can see the gory details of this wretched bargain -- it's a kind of political reputation-laundering by the Ivy Keagues' admissions process-- in the ludicrous and incompetent judicial opinion handed down in the Asian Americans ("Students for Fair Admission") v. Harvard discrimination case.

Heather Macdonald, writing not in City-Journal but in The New Criterion, has a fabulous point-by-point takedown of this judicial Shitshow's lies and BS.
Posted by: Lex || 11/09/2019 9:18 Comments || Top||

#9  Misleading or ill-researched article by the BBC. AQ is actually 'Adversity Quotient' and has been a favorite of anti-white psychologists and diversity lobbyists, for some time now.

Modern psychiatry invented a theory for employers to accommodate non-tech, arts and humanities people into all sorts of roles. Because those classified with more 'EQ' gained increasing traction in HR departments, advertising and PR, they helped others from academic fields and humanities gain employment with companies.

The dissection of the psyche into several 'types of intelligence' was done in the late 90s. Basic, Social, Emotional, etc. The one thing that everyone overlooked before applying systems theory to the human mind, is that intelligence cannot be divided like a machine.

The classical psychologists were right in defining 'quotients' for how the subject fares in different kinds of interactions. There's intellectual, emotional, spiritual, physical, creative, and adversity quotients. The Emotional Quotient was just a measure of the emotional aspect of intelligence. Now, an EQ score is said to reflect the emotional intelligence divorced from actual intelligence. In the late 90s and especially through the Obama era, lickspittle academics greatly stressed on the Adversity Quotient (AQ). This is not the EQ, or the IQ. It is the individual's ability to adapt and make use of adverse situations and overcome difficulties to solve problems. When classifying a subject as well adjusted and capable, modern shrinks began to take the AQ into the formulae to determine intelligence.

This is erroneous. It is what I call devious typification and ends up classifying individuals like; 'this one's emotionally intelligent but not with much basic IQ' - the EQ raises his score. In that sense, you may have a retard or an idiot savant with a greater EQ or AQ score than an IQ. Or a psychopath with a high AQ working in a school and spreading falsehoods true only to her.

Which is what most universities must have in their admins to have the kind of mess you have today. It's how gainfully employed people can turn out to be Antifa or anti-nationalist diversity lovers and opinionated weed smokers out to hit people.

What the article purposely leaves out is the theory calls for a suitable SQ, or spiritual quotient - to keep the intelligence grounded in purposes adhering to morality, empathy and a sense of good and evil. It is regarded to be the most important quotient of intelligence, without which the psyche is usually aberrant and ill-adjusted. While it may be colored by an individual's own culture or religion, it is an essential part of the intelligence. Modern shrinks however have carefully extricated themselves from questions of morality and believe this adjustment can apply to all.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/09/2019 10:49 Comments || Top||

#10  Very well said, Dron.

Funny how, before our top university admissions committees began applying this AQ/EQ nonsense, those universities not only attracted the preppie spawn but also turned out brilliant grads like TS Eliot, EO Wilson, James Watson, Richard Feynman (though even Columbia denied admission to Feynman precisely because he wasn't "well-adjusted" or "nice" i.e. sufficiently preppie-goy).

None of these individuals was "collegial." None of them spouted PC nonsense-- in fact, Eliot was an anti-Semite, Watson a chauvinist skirt-chaser, Feynman a rebel, and all of them in one way or another publicly scorned, even shat upon, "diversity" nonsense.

Unlikely that even one of these brilliant men would have been admitted to any top university that practices "holistic admissions" today.

It's no wonder our culture is so barren of brilliance and replete with shit.
Posted by: Lex || 11/09/2019 11:28 Comments || Top||

#11  It's a good thing that China are also mentally crippling their academics in the name of a different kind of correctness. The papers coming out of there while numerous are not of very good quality. They lack the intellectual heft that you see in a work done by a mind with untrammeled momentum. It's mostly copy and paste and replace words with synonyms, and modern statistical cooking these days. They're beating their heads over there to produce an original work.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/09/2019 11:42 Comments || Top||

#12  Guess if one must ask, then the answer will be yes because the other is unachievable.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/09/2019 13:48 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Fox News guest triggers Harris Faulkner over 'men and women' pronoun
[Right Scoop] This is dumb. Lars Larson was scolded today by Fox News host Harris Faulkner for something he didn’t even do, and this was after he said the name of the whistleblower which Fox News forbids:

The topic is Senator Kennedy calling Nancy Pelosi dumb, which Leslie Marshall called sexist.

In defense of Kennedy, Larson said "It’s not sexist. I know dumb men and I know dumb women. And I will probably meet some dumb people with pronoun names too. It’s not a sexist term." Lars then went on to name the ’whistleblower’ in commentary about Pelosi.

The good thing is he didn’t get scolded for mentioning the whistleblower’s name. Faulkner just ignore that. But what she did scold him for was this: "So this conversation devolved too. We don’t put down people who use different pronouns on this network and on this show especially."

Seriously? Lars didn’t put down anyone with or without pronouns. He was just pointing out that ’dumb’ isn’t a sexist term and was covering his bases with "all" genders.

Fox News is much more annoying than the used to be with this nonsense.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/09/2019 02:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ask Ms. Faulkner what is her pronoun.
Posted by: Thamble Omins9157 || 11/09/2019 3:06 Comments || Top||

#2  My pronouns are 'Your Grace', if you need refer to me in the third person, 'His Grace', and the utilitarian 'Magnifico' is suitable in all situations.
Posted by: Cesare || 11/09/2019 10:21 Comments || Top||

#3  My pronoun is "Your Imperial Majesty, EVIL Overlord of the Universe, I am unworthy to exist in your presence as I am vermin." Failure to use this will result in beheading by dull spoon.

Fair is fair after all.

/sarc for those who cannot tell.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 11/09/2019 11:00 Comments || Top||


Blackouts, Fires, High Gas Prices: Who Wants to Live in California Today?
[WSJ] UKIAH, Calif.‐On the fourth morning without power, Carolyn Summers lay as still as possible in bed, trying to delay the moment when she ran out of oxygen.

Her power generator, which she had hoped would run her oxygen compressor, wouldn’t start. The local hospital said it couldn’t give her an extra tank.

"I guess if you run out, you just die?" Ms. Summers wrote on Facebook. Then the 62-year-old lay still again, conserving energy and hoping for a miracle.

Rampant wildfires‐and the precautionary blackouts that utilities including PG&E Corp. have instituted to try to prevent them‐are reshaping life across the Golden State and transforming the state’s reputation.

Long known as the home of easy living, with its beaches and year-round sunshine, California is increasingly seen as a difficult place, where the government and corporate institutions can’t reliably offer basic services. Some residents are questioning whether they should leave as a result.

California has the highest gas prices in the country. Housing prices are the second-highest in the nation, triggering a statewide lack of affordable housing.

Homelessness is surging in the state’s major cities, despite billions spent by state and local governments to combat the problem. A drought, which gripped the state for more than seven years, left some towns without clean water.

Now, more than two million people have lost their power in Northern and Southern California in the past month and hundreds of thousands have evacuated their homes to avoid fire danger, a number likely to grow before the year ends.

Many of those hardest hit live in poorer rural and exurban areas like Ukiah that haven’t benefited as much from the economic boom as cities like San Francisco that, due to denser housing, are also safer from wildfires. Ukiah’s median household income is about $43,000 a year.

"It’s like living in a third-world country," said Marilyn Dalton, 78, a resident of Potter Valley, near Ukiah.

A city of 16,000 located two hours north of San Francisco, Ukiah exemplifies the new reality facing millions of Californians this autumn’s fire season and, experts predict, for many to come.

Although Ukiah escaped the first of PG&E’s intentional blackouts, the second and third ones rolled into each other here, with no break in between. Wildfires have come dangerously close, forcing residents just outside town to evacuate. Cell signals have faded; gas lines have been hourslong; and heat has cut out on freezing nights.

Two years ago, Ms. Dalton and thousands of others were forced to flee as a wildfire swept through Mendocino County, killing nine people. Last year, school was closed here for a week because of smoke from a fire 150 miles away. During the blackout last week, Ms. Dalton’s toilet, which runs on electricity, stopped flushing.

"If I wasn’t as old as I am, I would pack up and get the hell out," she said.

Posted by: Besoeker || 11/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I recall millions who pulled up stakes in Europe and headed the hell out of Dodge (circa 1500-1900). Sometimes you just got to hit the road.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/09/2019 7:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Latin Americans?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/09/2019 15:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Mexifornia.
As VDH and many others described it--decades ago.
Or: SHITSHOW, WEST
Posted by: Lex || 11/09/2019 16:05 Comments || Top||


Multiculturalism Elbows Anglo-Americans Out
[UNZ] America is "a society that is and always has been multiethnic and polyglot," burbled David Frum, in a 2016 exposition. It's a refrain repeated by centrists like Frum and French (also David), by all lefties and by well-trained faux rightists.

Such dissembling about America having always been multicultural are no more than post hoc justifications for turning the country into a veritable Tower of Babel.

Early America's colonies were founded by Englishmen in periwigs, speaking different English dialects. They were joined by Irish, Scottish, French, Dutch, German and Swedish Christians, who quickly adopted English as lingua franca.

Not even the woke Wikipedia denies that, "Nearly all colonies and, later, states in the United States, were settled by migration from" one colony to another, with "foreign immigration" generally playing "a minor role after the first initial settlements."

In other words, population growth was organic, a result of the settlers themselves multiplying and being fruitful, not of a flood of immigrants.

This so-called "multiethnic" dispensation saw early Americans publicly debate and come to a broad agreement on some highly complex, abstract matters of political philosophy, an impossibility today. The colonial community had to be pretty tight to arrive at the Articles of Confederation, followed by the Constitution.

Try as he might, not even the sainted Barack Obama got away with claiming, as he did, that, "Islam had been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding."

Beyond their heavy involvement in the slave trade and in the Barbary wars‐and contrary to Obama's modern myth-making‐Muslims were most certainly not enmeshed in America from its inception.

Moreover, and almost to a man, the learned Founding Father, as chronicled by Laura Rubenfeld of PJ Media, held a dismal view of Islam and its vampiric prophet.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Monoculturalism is the answer to most of the world's current troubles. Economies of different cultures must compete, collaborate and trade. Tolerance should be respected, but the territory you are in must dictate your practices.

Multiculturalism, diversity, etc are all terms insinuated into polspeak mainly to accommodate a wildly hostile and dangerous cult of islam - salafism, in otherwise secular and liberal democracies. While islam itself is militantly monocultural. No State is morally obligated nor should they feel so, to gratify this element in the name of tolerance or freedom of religion. Islam may be given a sequestered place with periodic inspection of literature and scrutiny of doctrines, entrenched spies and reportage; but to give it the same pedestal as a conventional religion is not just cultural suicide. It is literal as well.

One of the basic tenets of the fucking thing is to supplant, deceive and enslave the host country ! Anyone who advocates for its inclusion into a list of common religions is either an idiot unfit for legislative responsibility, or an agent of the enemies of a state. And since there are more idiots and assholes in the world than smart people, we have today a list of religions in which islam is the second from top. If humanity is to have a future, that list shall have to change drastically in just a few decades.

Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/09/2019 3:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Notice how the same people who promote 'multiculturalism' also envy Scandinavian socialism, ignoring the fact that they're 98 percent white with an inherit Lutheran culture.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/09/2019 7:08 Comments || Top||

#3  After the Colonials left, things began to improve almost immediately.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/09/2019 7:21 Comments || Top||

#4  What P2K said.

"Tolerance" is at best a negative attribute. You cannot build a strong, self-confident culture on the basis of the multi-culti worship of "tolerance."
Posted by: Lex || 11/09/2019 9:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Islam is an ideology created using the level of logic prevalent under Nomadic culture. In other words its structure, constraints in internal logic was created using the value and norms of human behavior dictated by pre-agrarian, pre-industrial and pre-information age interpretations of how the world operates. These ages are different because human interpretations were different. Differences between eras were not because of what happened in those ages, but how the human mind was different.

Where today’s interpretation fails lies in knowing what the DIFFERENCE is between Nomadic values were and the three major ages/cultures that followed. Knowing what constitutes nomadic culture is not sufficient in understanding Islam and WHY its unsuitable and incompatible with the other three cultures that followed. So....what are the differences in Nomadic culture and why is Islam nomadic age based?

Nomadic culture existed far longer than agrarian, industrial and information ages. Each subsequent age lasted for a shorter period than the previous ages. Change not only changes, it accelerates when it changes. Today we say ist due to technology, but it isn’t. IT due to how the human mind understand and reacts to its environment. Technology is inert. It doesn’t have self determination.

Nomadic culture of following animals around for sustenance, procreation and power existed for 50 thousand years, give or take. Agrarian culture for 10,000, Industrial for 500 years and todays information for less than 100 years.

Nomadic culture emphasizes the use of FORCE over other forms of life rather than the use of logical arguments to change another’s mind. Hit the animal to make it do your bidding. One doesn’t discuss matter with the animal. Whether that be the sheep, goat or wife or child. Muscular strength is the key to success, hence the male is placed at the top of the pyramid, human females are secondary due to the ability to procreate another human male, followed by lactating domesticated animals (sheep, goats, camels, cows, etc) third. All other life forms allocated far lower. Not surprising that dogs in Islam are relegated a very low stature as they impose a direct threat to a man’s ownership of sheep or goats that provide food and stature. Only when we discovered agrarian processes did the dog change from enemy to being man’s best friend. Why.....will be explained later.

Islam is inherently wildly intolerant because it is the lowest form of how a human comes to terms with something that is different or outside of one’s understanding. It is instinctually based. It is the actionable form of “fight or flight”. DNA based not reasoned. You either kill something that appears to be a threat or you run away from it. Nomadic culture doesn’t even know about “understanding” something that is “other”. Explanation doesn’t form a part of how a nomadic culture functions. Hence the totally zero tolerance and omnipresent violent reactions to drawing an image of Mohammed. It’s baked into the logic. Hence the prevalent use of violence to resolve issues. In fact its the go to method for relating to most issues whatever they be. Notice the prevalent inability to logically debate Islamic issues in public forums, the commonly seen raging mad male Muslims in public squares, and the unyielding claim that the Koran is infallible and therefore can’t even be questioned.

More to be disclosed in subsequent posts........
Posted by: Ospas Dhahran 49 || 11/09/2019 17:48 Comments || Top||

#6  ^ Ospan - sounds logical, but how did the Arabs get beyond their nomadic faith and attain such a high standard of abstract reasoning, scientific and math excellence and culture generally in the period after 900?

Not an Islamiphile or multi-culti softie; an just genuinely curious to hear how you reconcile this historical aberration with your thesis.
Posted by: Lex || 11/09/2019 18:09 Comments || Top||

#7  ....cultural appropriation of the conquered.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/09/2019 18:54 Comments || Top||

#8  Islamic culture only provided the repository for Western ideas stored on paper. Yes it is true that there was some additional advancement on these ideas that came from the “Arab” locations. Essentially the Levant and Mesopotamia regions. Not all territorial regions added to these ideas. Think....the Alexandria library.

The sudden advancement today’s westerner sees occurring in the Islamic world is not a product of their modifications to western technologies, but simply the purchase of article of western production. The facade of wealth is not an indication of the ability for generating future wealth. Think of the sudden wealth syndrome of a person winning the lottery. A person of poverty can suddenly move in next door to the partner of the hedge fund. Both families appearing to have the same wealth on paper. But which would you invest in for future growth of your funds? The Hedge fund manager or the newbie lottery winner.

Don’t be fooled by oil wealth. It only appeared in the Islamic world due to geological formation located within specific geographical territory. Notice how even then some tribes do better than others. Coastal cultures like the UAE handle wealth better than the more nomadic cultures like Saudi.

Again apparent wealth is not a leading indicator of how well that Islamic culture will be able to handle future income. How well a particular culture responded to change using its logic and reasoning ability s a better indicator as to how well it will adjust to future income streams.

I have to go now. Glad to respond to these questions. Please disregard my spelling mistakes.
Posted by: Ospas Dhahran 49 || 11/09/2019 19:36 Comments || Top||



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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2019-11-09
  Will Julian Assange Die in Prison? Is that why a "dead man" data dump just took place?
Fri 2019-11-08
  WikiLeaks just dropped their databomb
Thu 2019-11-07
  Extremist outfit Allahr Dal banned in Bangladesh
Wed 2019-11-06
  Mexico Deploys Forces to Northern State After Nine US Mormons Killed
Tue 2019-11-05
  Three American Mormon mothers and six of their children are EXECUTED
Mon 2019-11-04
  Report: Turkey-backed militia attacks American troops in Syria
Sun 2019-11-03
  Three people detained in connection with Swedish explosion
Sat 2019-11-02
  Iraqis pour into streets for biggest protest day since Saddam
Fri 2019-11-01
  Iraqi President Salih says PM Abdul-Mahdi willing to resign, vows early polls
Thu 2019-10-31
  Confirmed: The Emir is dead! Long live the new Emir!
Wed 2019-10-30
  Islamic State Promises Big Announcement
Tue 2019-10-29
  Trump: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s number one replacement has been terminated by American troops.
Mon 2019-10-28
  Baghdadi's aide was key to his capture - Iraqi intelligence sources
Sun 2019-10-27
   ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Killed
Sat 2019-10-26
  Pentagon chief: US troops, armored vehicles going to Syria oil fields

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