[Daily Caller] Hansjorg Wyss, a billionaire Swiss citizen and multi-million dollar Clinton Foundation donor, gave 30 contributions to American political campaigns over a nine-year period, according to an investigation by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Federal law has imposed a strict, across-the-board ban since 1966 on foreign nationals giving to U.S. political campaigns. The ban was later included in the 1974 Federal Election Campaign Act. The only exception is for foreign nationals who possess a green card. The ban applies to all levels of political campaigns.
Wyss donated $41,000 to seven congressional candidates and to four national political action committees from 1998 to 2003, according to Federal Election Commission records under the name of Hansjorg Wyss.
Colorado campaign finance records also report that Wyss gave $50,000 to Coloradans for Responsible Growth in March 2000, a statewide environmental political action committee that closed its doors only two years later, in part because it reportedly never filed the required financial statements.
#1
Federal law has imposed a strict, across-the-board ban since 1966 on foreign nationals giving to U.S. political campaigns. The ban was later included in the 1974 Federal Election Campaign Act. The only exception is for foreign nationals who possess a green card. The ban applies to all levels of political campaigns.
Expect that 'if' Trump gets the nomination, that will be enforced like the rest of the laws governing illegal immigration.
#2
Colorado campaign finance records also report that Wyss gave $50,000 to Coloradans for Responsible Growth in March 2000, a statewide environmental political action committee that closed its doors only two years later, in part because it reportedly never filed the required financial statements.
So no one knows where the money ACTUALLY ended up. The follow-up IRS investigation will surely shed some light.
I see a potential movie right there in the title...
[Dhaka Tribune] The government plans to release genetically modified (GM) potato, reportedly capable of resisting late blight disease, during the upcoming season. Our story opens in the laboratory of the famous scientist, Doctor Rafiqul Islam...
"We are planning to apply for the approval for releasing one variety of GM potato at the end of this year," said Rafiqul Islam Mondol, director general of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI). "There's really nothing to worry about. Not much, anyway. We've spliced in genes from the sperm whale give a larger yield, and the pit bull to make the potato less likely to succumb to disease..."
BARI has developed GM potatoes by inserting pest and weather-resistant gene in two local potato varieties -- Cardinal and Diamond. "We had to rearrange a bit of DNA, but we got everything to fit..."
"Of the two, we are planning to release only the Diamond variety at the field level this year as we are satisfied with the results," said Rafiqul. "We still have a few concerns about the Cardinal variety."
Late blight is one of the major diseases that damages potato plants and also its production. A resistance gene named Solanum bulbocastanum found in a wild potato variety in Latin American has been used to develop the genetically modified potato varieties in Bangladesh. "What kind of concerns, Doctor?"
"Well, chiefly its size."
"How big is it?"
"One's thirty-two stories tall. The other is a little bigger."
"That's a lot of French fries!"
BARI has cultivated the varieties at its six research centres in Rangpur, Gazipur, Jessore, Bogra, Comilla and Hathazari. "The Cardinal variety was being tested at the Bogra facility, but we don't know how the tests came out."
"Why's that?"
"We haven't been able to contact the facility for the past two weeks."
Rafiqul said: "We will send the necessary documents seeking the approval within the next two to three months to the National Bio-safety Committee under the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The variety will be released to the farmers." "Really, nothing could go wrong. Not much, anyway..."
The government has been trying to develop GM potato varieties since 2006 from American potato variety transgenic Katahdin SP 951 developed by Colonel University. "Try and hold it!... [THRASH! THRASH!]... It's getting away! Shoot, for the love of Allen! Shoot it!"
"Where are a potato's vitals?"
"I don't know! Aim for the eyes!"
Initially, more than 300 clones of Cardinal and Diamond varieties were developed in an Indonesian laboratory, and confined trials have been being run for the last three seasons. "My Gawd, doctor! The whole herd has broken out!"
Of them, only six clones were selected for the final trial. "Yes! The others got away! Call out the air force!"
Posted by: Fred ||
02/29/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Excellent inline commentary! This one would be a natural "Best Picture"
Nope. Almost nobody has. Or a wild type tomato. Or corn. Or a wild boar. Or cattle (aurochs went extinct in the 1600's, I believe). Or a jungle fowl vs a chicken.
It's a measure of how poorly educated a lot of college grads are that they don't know that almost every type of domesticated food plant is genetically modified.
It's called hybridization.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/29/2016 6:05 Comments ||
Top||
#5
These sexual lovers of science
Insist that we place our reliance
On hissy splenetics
Instead of genetics
Or presence of giant appliance.
#6
I was going to ask if it had served its full sentence or been released early for good behavior, but the provided snark was better.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
02/29/2016 7:33 Comments ||
Top||
#7
There was an old Dilbert bit about this kind of thing. Scott Adams didn't like the way it turned out so the vegetables were offed by Dogbert with a Salad Shooter that turned them all into cole slaw.
[ELUNIVERSAL] Power rationing is not new for Venezuelans. Over the past fifteen years there have been some crises, such as that of 2009-2010, that have forced Venezuelans to adapt their lifestyle to power outages. What is new, however, is the seriousness of the current situation which, according to some experts, is expected to get worse over the next two months if the necessary measures are not taken immediately.
To major general Luis Alfredo Motta Domínguez, the Minister of Electricity and President of the National Electricity Corporation (Corpoelec) - a state-owned holding company created in 2007 to consolidate the power sector - the current crisis is a one-off problem due to the extensive drought associated with the recurring weather phenomenon commonly known as El Niño, which has caused water levels in the Central Hidroeléctrica Simón Bolívar (aka the Guri Dam) to drop to record-low levels.
It is worth noting that that the Guri Dam (with an installed capacity of 10,000 MW), located in Bolivar state, is the largest reservoir in Venezuela. Some 60% of all electrical power generated in Venezuela originates in the Guri dam and the other hydroelectric plants built across the Lower Caroní River, namely: Caruachi (2,200 MW) and Macagua (2,200 MW).
Posted by: Fred ||
02/29/2016 00:00 ||
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[11124 views]
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#1
So we should be seeing cracks, shifts and settling of the ground surrounding the water basin due to the 'drought'?
#2
Um, how many turbines are down due to laka maintence? El Niño, again? No, wait, the empire is stealing our 'lecktricty! They come at night to Puerto Cabello and load it from secret wires they placed for just this eventuality during the despicable reign of the ogliarchs during the 4th Republic.
China expects to lay off 1.8 million workers in the coal and steel sectors as part of its efforts to reduce industrial overcapacity, an official at the human resources and social security ministry said on Monday.
Yin Weimin, minister of human resources and social security, said capacity cuts will lead to some layoffs in 2016, but added that he was confident of keeping employment stable this year despite downward pressure on the economy.
No timeframe was given for the 1.8 million figure cited.
China aims to remove around 500 million tonnes of coal production capacity within the next three to five years and halt approvals of all new projects.
#3
They should build 24 Iowas and put triple plates of armour on them. And heavy weight photon torpedoes and be fitted for, if not with, rods from gawd. Make it submusivul too, with hovering capability.
#4
I think they opted for building just plain islands to fit out with all the bobbles and tweaks their spies and hackers can pick up from American defense contractors (not to be confused with tech they get the White House just to turn over).
[Biznews.com] Two days after Nenegate, we reported that the UK’s largest retail bank Barclays Plc had decided to offload its R120bn South African subsidiary Absa. That marked a significant reversal in a strategy which has seen SA’s largest retail bank progressively change its image -- with the Absa red and name progressively giving way to Barclays blue -- including the listed company whose name was changed to Barclays Africa. But according to the Financial Times of London, the new Barclays management team has gone through the motions over the past three months and is set to confirm the biggest disinvestment in South Africa since the spate that hit the country during the mid 1980s. Sceptics are concerned that the Barclays sale will spark a similar exodus.
[Breitbart] Mark "Oz" Geist and John "TIG" Tiegen, two members of the security team that helped rescue dozens of Americans during the Benghazi terror attacks, have endorsed Donald Trump for president.
[An Nahar] A group of Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... supporters erupted into the streets late on Saturday, burning tires and blocking roads around Beirut and east Leb to protest a short comedy TV program impersonating the party chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... .
On Saturday evening, a group of young men gathered in Msharrafieh in Beirut's southern suburbs and moves escalated afterward to burning tires and blocking roads in several areas including al-Saadiyat, Choueifat , Airport road, Spears, Bekaa, Baalbek, Brital and Douris.
They protested a short comedy sketch that was broadcast on a Saudi-owned TV station, MBC, which impersonated their leader.
The army issued a statement late on Saturday, reassuring that the situation was controlled and that it had set up checkpoints and deployed troops to several areas around Beirut to contain the protests.
On Sunday, several roads were also blocked in various regions before being reopened by security forces.
During the day, protesters blocked the Taalbaya-Chtaura road in the Bekaa and the Choueifat-Kfarshima and Choueifat-Khalde roads outside the capital. And in the evening they blocked the Mar Mikhail Church-Shiyyah-Hazmieh road in Beirut's suburbs and security forces were trying to reopen it.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/29/2016 00:00 ||
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[11125 views]
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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.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Biznews.com] Two days after Nenegate, we reported that the UK’s largest retail bank Barclays Plc had decided to offload its R120bn South African subsidiary Absa. That marked a significant reversal in a strategy which has seen SA’s largest retail bank progressively change its image -- with the Absa red and name progressively giving way to Barclays blue -- including the listed company whose name was changed to Barclays Africa. But according to the Financial Times of London, the new Barclays management team has gone through the motions over the past three months and is set to confirm the biggest disinvestment in South Africa since the spate that hit the country during the mid 1980s. Sceptics are concerned that the Barclays sale will spark a similar exodus.
