[Politico] The nation’s conspiracy-theorist-in-chief is facing a momentous decision. Will President Donald Trump allow the public to see a trove of thousands of long-secret government files about the event that, more than any other in modern American history, has fueled conspiracy theories ‐ the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy?
The answer must come within months. And, according to a new timeline offered by the National Archives, it could come within weeks.
Under the deadline set by a 1992 law, Trump has six months left to decide whether he will block the release of an estimated 3,600 files related to the assassination that are still under seal at the Archives. From what is known of the JFK documents, most come from the CIA and FBI, and a number may help resolve lingering questions about whether those agencies missed evidence of a conspiracy in Kennedy’s death. As with every earlier release of JFK assassination documents in the 53 years since shots rang out in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, it is virtually certain that some of the files will be seized on to support popular conspiracy theories about Kennedy’s murder; other documents are likely to undermine them.
#1
...I'm going to bet that sometime within the next few weeks, a bill will go through Congress making sure that stuff stays sealed well unto the seventh generation or so. The Kennedy family ain't what it used to be, but it still has an enormous amount of clout.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/28/2017 4:52 Comments ||
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#2
Clearly wasn't money. Must have been whores or Russians. Unless of course, the pattern as we now know it was broken.
#3
He's in a tough spot. Release it and if it doesn't blame the Rooshuns, it's because he and his minions are puppets of Putin
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/28/2017 8:53 Comments ||
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#4
The Warren hearing was a whitewash. Why not release all these files for historians to pore over. It would be interesting to know what the Feds have in this trove.
#7
Probably will show an embarrassment of the CIA/FBI...LHO was likely recruited by the Klingons and then the crazy man killed Kennedy. Incompetency not a conspiracy on CIAs part.
#8
One theory was Gov. Connelly dissed Oswald, (I ferget the 'offense') and he was aiming for the Gov.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/28/2017 13:40 Comments ||
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#9
I continue to hold out for the Cuban's, perhaps with some backchannel help from Russians still pissed about the Missile back down by K. They did try and kill Fidel repeatedly. I have never understood when LHO took the rifle to the book depository? Was it on the basis of a published parade route in the local papers, or did it predate that?
#10
Probably will show an embarrassment of th />e Probably will show an embarrassment of the CIA/FBI...LHO was likely recruited by the Klingons and then the crazy man killed Kennedy. Incompetency not a conspiracy on CIAs part.
Posted by: Tennessee
[IsraelTimes] The parents of the JCC bomb hoaxer accused of a vast, relentless two-year campaign of vicious threats and internet crime do their best to explain the inexplicable.
#4
Forgiving is one thing. Making sure he doesn't do it again is another.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/28/2017 13:45 Comments ||
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#5
And some people are sociopaths* that are proven dangerous so they need to be locked up. (*IMNAP: I am not a Pysch-specialist so cut me some slack here)
Spooks were praised for their 'pioneering work' creating robo-cats in declassified docs
CIA spooks tried to spy on Soviet Russia using CATS implanted with microphones under their skin.
Declassified docs show how spy chiefs praised "pioneering" scientists for slitting open moggies and stitching in electronic hardware to uncover their enemies’ secrets.
Dubbed "Project Acoustic Kitty", the grim £10 million programme was developed over five years in the 1960s as a novel but gruesome new eavesdropping method.
A cat’s tail was used as an antenna and a wire travelled all the way up its spine connecting to a microphone in its ear, while a battery was housed in its chest.
But on its first test, its CIA handlers watched on in horror as their robo-kitty was run over and killed just seconds into the mission.
CIA insider Victor Maarcheti told The Atlantic: "There they were, sitting in the van and the cat was dead."
The robo-cat scheme -- which was never deployed to the field -- resurfaced after Wikileaks this week tweeted a link to the archive CIA memos, which were first unveiled in 2001.
Marchetti, a former CIA officer, told The Telegraph that year of the gruesome creation.
He said: "They slit the cat open, put batteries in him, wired him up."
"They made a monstrosity. They tested him and tested him", he added.
But the memo hails the "remarkable scientific achievement" reached by the American spy agency.
"The work done on this problem over the years reflects great credit on the personnel who guided it", the document concludes.
Wikileaks has been carrying out a series of staggered releases of hacked info revealing the CIA’s inner workings.
The Vault 7 project, slammed by the agency as giving ammo to terrorists, earlier unearthed what Wikileaks said was evidence the CIA could hack smart TVs to spy on targets.
#1
"We just got a lot of Dr. Evil George Soros stuff"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/28/2017 14:58 Comments ||
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#2
In the 1960s they wouldn't have anticipated cute cat vids would be the most popular thing online.
And at the time cats were popular in vision research, which mostly involved sticking electrodes in their brains. So this was not so bizzare in that context.
Imagine you told someone you were an accountant or an attorney as a way to explain that you had relevant expertise to a discussion, then got fined $500 for it. You'd probably be pretty livid. Especially if you went to law school or graduated with a degree in accounting. So in Oregon if you don't have a license you can't even talk about a subject? The next step is a license to talk.
Yet that's what happened to Mats Järlström of Beaverton, Oregon, when he reached out to the state to talk about how the yellow lights at traffic signals weren't on for long enough and represented a risk to public safety. Public safety be hanged! We have to protect our phony-baloney jobs!
This email resulted not with a meeting, but with a threat. The Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying responded with this dystopian message:
"ORS 672.020(1) prohibits the practice of engineering in Oregon without registration ... at a minimum, your use of the title 'electronics engineer' and the statement 'I'm an engineer' ... create violations." I'm a Martian. Sue me.
In January of this year, Järlström was officially fined $500 by the state for the crime of "practicing engineering without being registered." You need a license for that opinion! Off with his head!
Now, to be clear, Järlström wasn't seeking pay for his efforts. All of his research has been on his own time and he was simply presenting the information as a private citizen. We don't take input from mere citizens, you must bring us a shrubbery!
However, he's been fined. "Gimme yer dough!"
"Is this a holdup?"
"No, it's a fine!"
Occupational licensing laws exist, in theory, to protect the public from improperly trained individuals putting the public at risk. It's how we make sure doctors and structural engineers actually know what they're doing so people don't die. That Latin phrase you're probably looking for is "ad absurdum."
Unfortunately, here it's being applied to a man who was trained as an electronics engineer, which means he's not presenting himself as anything other than what he is. Since he's not trying to seek monetary gain from his efforts--in other words, he's not trying to use engineering as an occupation--an occupational license is beyond ridiculous. That's what I just said.
Järlström is now filing a lawsuit over the situation. As well he should.
And yet, the engineering board in Oregon says he should not be free to publish or present his ideas. Tuesday, Järlström and the Institute for Justice sued the engineering board in federal court for Violating his First Amendment rights. An organ grinder without a license is not an organ grinder, whether his monkey dances or not.
"Mats has a clear First Amendment right to talk about anything from taxes to traffic rights," Sam Gedge, an attorney for the Institute for Justice, told me. "It's an instance of a licensing board trying to suppress speech." A farmer without a license couldn't sell his crop. I'm not even sure he could weed.
Järlström, for his part, said he never expected anything like this to happen when he moved to the United States from Sweden 20 years ago. "Ya, shure, t'ings is gøøfy in Swëden, but here dere're different gøøfy."
I'm sure he didn't. However, here's hoping the courts step up and remind the engineering board that free speech is still free.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/28/2017 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11126 views]
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#1
A farmer without a license couldn't sell his crop. I'm not even sure he could weed.
I'm certain some weed was killed, injured or abused in this series of events.
#2
There's no PE license available in Oregon for electronics engineer, just Electrical Engineer or Computer Engineer, so I'm not sure he's actually even legally misrepresenting himself. That said, we licensed PE's (mine's Civil) take misrepresenting or insinuating pretty seriously, even if it's not for financial gain. I think the Board here is off-target and should back off before the serious ridicule sets in
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/28/2017 9:05 Comments ||
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#3
He wouldn't be misrepresenting himself if his statement was that he 'was trained as an electronics engineer'. We don't know how the initial dialog went as they didn't publish his original communication, but it does not seem that he described himself appropriately or correctly.
I agree Frank, calling himself an 'engineer', 'electrical engineer', or 'electronics engineer' without the above 'trained as' caveat, would indeed be improper and/or illegal, depending on the jurisdiction.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/28/2017 9:40 Comments ||
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#4
A quick google reveals that only about 20% of engineers bother to get the Professional Engineer license, and the number is only that high because about 60% of civil engineers and those in related fields do so. The rest are no less engineers, and no less entitled to describe themselves so. They just cannot call themselves PEs, just like all those perfectly valid working accountants who are not CPAs. Likewise, while anyone can write a legally binding contract or will without a law degree, or represent himself in court -- going to law school merely increases the odds of not making dangerous mistakes -- but without passing the law exam he cannot call himself a lawyer.
#5
It may seem to be, TW. The issue that many licensed engineers have with the non-licensees is the accountability.
We (in this part of the woods anyway) are required to carry personal 'Errors and Omissions' coverage, or have overall corporate coverage if considered an 'Engineering Firm', for our designs as part of the licensing criteria. Many (if not most) unlicensed folks around here don't carry it as it isn't cheap.
If you produce a bad design, you own it. There's little recourse by the affected parties and/or governing bodies for remediation and/or loss restitution other than civil forfeiture proceedings, which can be very costly and time consuming on the plaintiff's part.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/28/2017 12:03 Comments ||
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#6
Coming from Oregon, that when the state's name is translated, means: " We are too stupid to pump our own gas."
[WAPO] A federal judge’s ruling this week that allows a predominantly white Alabama city to separate from its more diverse school district is stoking new debate about the fate of desegregation initiatives after decades of efforts to promote racial balance in public education.
Judge Madeline Haikala of the U.S. District Court in Birmingham ruled that the city of Gardendale’s effort to break away was motivated by race and sent messages of racial inferiority and exclusion that "assail the dignity of black schoolchildren."
She also found that Gardendale failed to meet its legal burden to prove that its separation would not hinder desegregation in Jefferson County, which has been struggling to integrate its schools since black parents first sued for an equal education for their children in the 1960s.
Still, Haikala ruled Monday that Gardendale may move forward with the secession, basing her decision in part on sympathy for some parents who want local control over schools and in part on concern for black students caught in the middle. The judge wrote that she feared they would bear the blame if she blocked the city’s bid.
U.W. Clemon, who represents black plaintiffs in the case, said the ruling undermines more than half a century of integration efforts. "If this decision stands, it will have a tremendous adverse impact," Clemon said.
#2
A federal judge’s ruling this week that allows a predominantly white Alabama city to separate from its more diverse school district is stoking new debate about the fate of desegregation initiatives after decades of efforts to promote racial balance in public education.
[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] Young supporters of Kim Jong Il are preparing to 'wipe out' the US and Korea with five million nuclear bombs, the head of the republic's youth league has said.
The chilling message from the Central Committee of the Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist Youth League warns that 'the Earth will break' if it launches an attack.
It promised to destroy the US and its South Korean neighbours if either shows 'a slight provocation,' as international tension reaches breaking point.
The warning came as South Korea announced on a high-altitude rocket system to be built on its own soil, giving allies the US powerful weaponry on the peninsula.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11135 views]
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#9
Considering their latest missile test, and they've eaten all the tactical delivery donkeys, this may be the best remaining option.
Either that or their covert delivery company, 'Fled-Rex'.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/28/2017 19:52 Comments ||
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#10
My money is on delivery via X-15 Cruise Bassalopes:
[WASHINGTONPOST] A North Korean propaganda outlet Thursday released a video clip showing a simulated attack on the White House and declaring that "the enemy to be destroyed is in our sights."
The video comes at a particularly tense time in relations between North Korea and the United States, with the Trump administration sending warships to the region in a show of force against Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... ’s regime.
This week, North Korea conducted large-scale artillery drills, showing off conventional weaponry that can easily reach the South Korean capital, Seoul, the center of a metropolitan region that is home to about 25 million people.
President Trump, who has been urging China to apply pressure to North Korea and has warned that his administration will act if Beijing doesn’t, convened congressional politicians Wednesday to brief them on the "very grave threat" posed by Pyongyang.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
Gee, an internet video starting riots...where have we seen this before?
#2
It is one thing to have an aircraft carrier or two. It is quite another to develop the doctrine and skills to use them effectively. The US has 80 years experience doing that. True, the Chinese can study our lessons learned. However, putting them into practice will be long and painful.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/28/2017 13:19 Comments ||
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#3
Sea battles from Midway to Leyte Gulf and onward demonstrate that without combined fleet defense coverage, even with control of the air, aircraft carriers frequently live up to the name "bomb magnet".
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/28/2017 19:46 Comments ||
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[Reuters] Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O) retail and cloud-computing sales rose in the first quarter, inching above Wall Street's expectations and sending the company's shares to an all-time high in extended trading.
The world's largest online retailer said on Thursday net sales rose 23 percent to $35.7 billion, just beating analysts' average estimate of $35.3 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
More fees from Amazon's Prime shopping club and media streaming services, along with growing advertising revenue, also boosted results.
Profit, which has traditionally been fleeting at a company that focused on growth, was also ahead of expectations. Net income rose 41 percent to $724 million, or $1.48 per share, marking the eighth straight quarter that the company posted a net profit. Analysts on average were expecting $1.12 per share.
Amazon's revenue has soared in recent years as shopping has moved online and businesses have moved their computing operations to the cloud, where Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the biggest player. AWS accounts for a majority of Amazon's operating profit.
Some investors worried that mounting competition from rival cloud providers like Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and price cuts at AWS would slow the company's momentum. Many also expected Amazon's staggering array of investments - from new warehouses, TV and movie production to research on artificial intelligence - to weigh on profits.
#3
...well, they do have a real distribution system so that when the man says 'we don't have it, but if come back tomorrow we will' you can believe him. There are somethings you still want a touchy feely examination.
#4
After selling me several cartons of first class toilet tissue, arriving in three or four days, the last shipment was forecast to take 4-5 weeks to deliver, then cancelled two weeks after that.
That's a loooong time to go without TeePee, so we hadda resort to Kroger.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/28/2017 13:43 Comments ||
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More on this story from yesterday. Pappy had commented, "Locale is known for heavy and somewhat free-for-all marine traffic, fog, and poor visibility as a result. Wonder if the Russians decided not to use their marine-band radio..." and except for radio use, we now know the answer.
[ArabNews] ISTANBUL: A Russian naval spy ship on Thursday sank in the Black Sea off Turkey’s coast after hitting a Togo-flagged vessel packed with livestock but all of its 78 crew were rescued by Turkish coast guards.
The Russian military said the Liman — a former research ship re-fitted as an intelligence vessel — had a hole ripped out of its hull in the early afternoon incident.
The collision took place in fog outside the northwestern entrance to the Bosphorus Strait, one of the world’s biggest shipping thoroughfares that passes through Istanbul into the Sea of Marmara.
The Turkish coast guard said in a statement that the collision involved the Togo-flagged vessel Youzarsif H which was carrying a cargo of livestock.
It said that of 78 Russian personnel on board the ship, 63 were rescued by the Turkish coast guard and the other 15 by the Youzarsif H itself.
They were then transferred to a Turkish military ship, it said, without giving further details. “All the personnel were evacuated,” it said.
Turkish media said the Youzarsif suffered minor damage and went on its way after the incident.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the ship had gone down and said the crew were safe and would be taken from a Turkish vessel back onto a Russian ship.
Turkish news agency Dogan said the area where the ships collided was shrouded in thick fog at the time, suggesting that the incident was accidental.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim spoke to his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev by phone over the incident, describing it as an accident and expressing his sadness, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
It was not known where the Liman was sailing from or its destination.
The ship was built as a hydrography research vessel in 1970 but turned into a spy ship in 1989 and armed with an Igla missile launcher, according to public records.
Russian warships have traveled frequently through the Bosphorus Strait to and from the Syrian coast, where a navy presence has been deployed to bolster Russia’s air campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
In February, military sources told Russian media that the Liman would be observing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) Sea Shield exercise in the Black Sea.
Cem Devrim Yaylali, an Istanbul-based Turkish naval expert and editor of the Bosphorus Naval News website, said the Liman had previously been to the Syrian coast but it was not clear where it was headed on this occasion.
“A collision is not something that happens very frequently,” he told AFP.
He said the incident was an embarrassment for the Russian authorities as the Liman was likely carrying sensitive surveillance equipment that Moscow would want returned.
“I imagine there will be a salvage effort to raise the ship before anyone else sees it,” he said.
“If the ship cannot be salvaged then Russia surely will try to take away the sensitive equipment from on board by divers.”
Relations between Russia and Turkey hit their worst state since the Cold War in November 2015 when Turkish war planes shot down a Russian jet over the Syrian border.
[Telegraph] People who have had their brains cryogenically frozen could be 'woken up' within three years, a pioneering Italian surgeon has claimed.
Professor Sergio Canavero, Director of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group, is aiming to carry out the first human head transplant within 10 months and then wants to begin trials on brain transplants.
If the procedures are successful, he believes that frozen brains could be thawed and inserted into a donor body.
Hundreds of people who are dying or paralysed have had their bodies or brains cryogenically preserved in the hope that medical science will be able to bring them back to life and cure their conditions.
Although many experts are sceptical that huge organs like the brain can be thawed without damage, Prof Canavero said he believes the first frozen head could soon be resurrected.
[Science Alert] At almost 91 years old and still going strong, Sir David Attenborough is everything the rest of us hope to be at near-centenarian age.
He's recently finished travelling the globe to film Planet Earth II - the most-watched nature documentary in history - but after more than six decades of broadcasting, Attenborough has revealed that filming wasn't as easy this time around.
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.
Probably will show an embarrassment of th />e Probably will show an embarrassment of the CIA/FBI...LHO was likely recruited by the Klingons and then the crazy man killed Kennedy. Incompetency not a conspiracy on CIAs part.
Spooks were praised for their 'pioneering work' creating robo-cats in declassified docs
Imagine you told someone you were an accountant or an attorney as a way to explain that you had relevant expertise to a discussion, then got fined $500 for it. You'd probably be pretty livid. Especially if you went to law school or graduated with a degree in accounting.
[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] Young supporters of Kim Jong Il are preparing to 'wipe out' the US and Korea with five million nuclear bombs, the head of the republic's youth league has said. 
North Korea
[ArabNews] ISTANBUL: A Russian naval spy ship on Thursday sank in the Black Sea off Turkey’s coast after hitting a Togo-flagged vessel packed with livestock but all of its 78 crew were rescued by Turkish coast guards.
