Hurry!
Blog
It was the memes…
Biden signs bill eliminating civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse victims
President Biden on Friday signed a bill that will eliminate the statute of limitations for people who were sexually abused as minors to file civil claims.
The Eliminating Limits to Justice for Child Sex Abuse Victims Act was passed by the House by voice vote on Tuesday after passing the Senate by unanimous consent in March.
The bill eliminates time constraints for survivors to file civil claims related to sex abuse crimes against minors, including forced labor, sex trafficking, sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children.
Previously, minors who survived such abuse were able to file federal claims until they reached the age of 28 or until a decade after the violation or injury was discovered.
No federal statute of limitations was in place for criminal claims regarding child sex abuse.
Terence McKenna on the War on (some) Drugs…
CNBC Anchor Proud of Orwellian Nightmare He Created for Gun Owners
As part of his appearance on NBC’s Today show on Friday, CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin bragged that his Orwellian idea to monitor gun owners through their credit card purchases at gun stores was becoming a reality.
Leading into the segment, NBC anchor Craig Melvin touted how “major credit card companies are going to start using a new code to keep track of sales at gun stores” by using what are called “merchant category codes, or MCCs.” Although, he did note that, “when it comes to firearms, critics fear a loss of privacy.”
It wasn’t until the very end of the segment that Sorkin admitted that he was an early proponent of this Orwellian scheme to track those who purchased stuff at gun stores:
And I should say in full disclosure, I wrote columns about this in 2018 after Parkland. I started – as a business correspondent – to thinking about the connection between business and Wall Street and these shootings and how to prevent them. And this was one of the ideas that I present inside a column then, that now, four years later, is being implemented.
Sorkin’s main argument for tracking law-abiding gun owners is some vague “pattern” that banks would be looking out for to spot potential mass shooters.
Never-before-seen Diamond Crystal Structure Found Inside A Meteorite
New research indicates that a rare form of diamond may originate in the burbling cores of distant worlds, arriving on Earth thanks to violent cosmic collisions.
According to a team of scientists in Australia, the mineral lonsdaleite—a type of diamond with a hexagonal crystal structure—can be found in meteorites that were likely created when an asteroid collided with a dwarf planet billions of years ago. They investigated 18 ureilite fragments using advanced electron microscopy, to better understand how the lonsdaleite within the space rocks formed. Their research is published today in PNAS.
“This study proves categorically that lonsdaleite exists in nature,” said study co-author Dougal McCulloch, director of the Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility at RMIT in Australia, in a university release.
Lonsdaleite has previously been found in meteorites, including the Diablo Canyon meteorite, a fragment found in Arizona’s famous Meteor Crater. The mineral has also been created in lab settings, but otherwise is vanishingly rare on Earth. The mineral differs from usual diamonds in its crystal structure, which is hexagonal (ordinary diamonds have a cubic crystal structure.) Separate research earlier this year indicated that lonsdaleite’s structure makes it harder than other diamonds.
Oops: NBC Deletes Tweet Where Martha’s Vineyard Migrants Were Likened to ‘Trash’
Whether you agree with it or not, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s decision to send two planes carrying nearly 50 migrants on Wednesday to Martha’s Vineyard, the tony island playground of the rich off the south shore of Massachusetts, has thrust the issue of illegal immigration into the national spotlight – in a big way.
Needless to say, debate over the move dominated the airwaves, where opinions fell mostly along party lines.
Liberal elites, who support the politicians responsible for our open southern border both at the ballot box and through large political donations, have remained largely insulated from the crisis it has created — until now.
NBC News reported on Friday that DeSantis’ political stunt has divided Venezuelan Americans. The network spoke to advertising executive Max Lefeld, a Venezuelan American and a founding member of the Casa Venezuela Dallas foundation, an organization that provides assistance to asylum-seekers.
“It’s like me taking my trash out and just driving to different areas where I live and just throwing my trash there,” Lefeld said.
NBC used Lefeld’s comparison of asylum seekers to “trash” as the caption on a Twitter post that included the article.
Conservatives were quick to point out how much Lefeld’s comment revealed about the left’s true feelings about migrants.
White House Announces Massive $10 Billion Aid Package for Jordan
The Joe Biden administration rolled out a new assistance agreement with Jordan. Washington will send Amman $10.15 billion over the next seven years. The new deal will make Jordan the third largest recipient of American aid, following only Ukraine and Israel.
The White House signed the new memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Friday. The Biden administration first discussed the new agreement with Jordan on the sidelines of the Jeddah summit in July. The MOU is the largest aid package the US has ever signed with Amman.
Jordanian officials celebrated the aid, and claimed it was essential. “It’s an extremely important MOU. It speaks to the strong friendship the two countries have,” foreign minister Ayman Safadi said. He added, “The US has gone above and beyond for Jordan.”
The State Department stressed Amman’s strategic importance to America’s foreign policy goals in the Middle East. “The MOU represents a major commitment to Jordan’s stability and the durability of the strategic partnership,” the press release said.
While the US sees Jordan as an important partner in the Middle East, Washington and Amman do not see eye-to-eye on Syria policy. Jordan recently endorsed the Russian presence in Syria as “stabilizing.” Some of the aid will help Amman manage the 1.3 million Syrian refugees. The reconstruction of Syria is currently being stifled by American sanctions.
Hong Kong man jailed for “sedition” for criticizing government online
53-year-old Raymond Chen has been sentenced for four months for violating Hong Kong’s “sedition” law. He had shared 23 posts online, criticizing Beijing and the Hong Kong government. Some of the posts called for the independence of Hong Kong.
Chen pleaded guilty to sharing posts criticizing the government. He shared the posts on his Telegram Channel between July 2020 and June 2022.
The Telegram Channel, called “HK’s upcoming War of Independence,” had over 500 users. Some of the posts had the slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times.” The slogan was the used for the 2019 pro-democracy protests.
Other posts claimed that the police and MTR Corporation were working with the triads. Others had images of a national emblem that had been desecrated. And other posts blamed the government for the Covid-19 pandemic and sparking the anti-government protests in 2019.
The Mayan Calendar Is Strikingly Like the Chinese Zodiac; Could This Be Ancient Cross-Cultural Exchange?
Ancient Mayan and Chinese calendar systems share so many similarities, it is unlikely they developed independently, according to the late David H. Kelley, whose paper on the subject was published posthumously in August 2016.
Kelley was a Harvard-educated archaeologist and epigrapher at the University of Calgary in Canada. He earned fame in the 1960s for major contributions toward deciphering the Mayan script. His article, titled “Asian Components in the Invention of the Mayan Calendar,” was written 30 years ago, but was only recently unearthed and published for the first time in the journal Pre-Columbiana.
In 1980, a major science journal had solicited the article, said Pre-Columbiana’s editor Dr. Stephen Jett. But, Jett said, “the editors rejected it as being overly documented for the journal’s spare format; understandably for so revolutionary an effort, Dave did not wish to weaken the documentation, and he never published the piece elsewhere.” Jett obtained Kelley’s permission to publish it before he died.
The hypothesis Kelley presented is controversial. He said that the calendars indicate contact between Eurasia and Mesoamerica more than 1,000 years ago, contradicting mainstream archaeology’s understanding that such contact occurred for the first time only a few hundred years ago.
Kelley supported the controversial theory of early transoceanic contact in general. It is a theory that has many other academic proponents and that Pre-Columbiana specializes in exploring. The similarities in the calendar systems is only part of a growing body of evidence for early contact.
You must be logged in to post a comment.