NOW YOU SEE'EM AND NOW YOU DON'T ... AND THANKS TO FOIA AND JUDICIAL WATCH NOW YOU SEE'EM

These Are The Emails Hillary Clinton Didn't Want You To See

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said that many of these emails contained classified information about the Middle East and is further evidence of the crimes of Hillary Clinton in violation of national security laws.

This week, a government watchdog group released nearly 300 pages of newly uncovered emails of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from the US State Department sent and received over Hillary Clinton's illegal and unsecure email server that were said to be non-existent.

On Wednesday, Judicial Watch released 281 pages of emails from 2010 to 2013 from Clinton's email server that contained classified information and documents collusion between the Clinton State Department and the Clinton Foundation.

The emails were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit after the State Department failed to reply by the first week in March.

Ten emails contain classified information redacted “in the interest of national defense or foreign policy,” including confidential sources, and concern Israel and the Middle East. Most of the emails include exchanges with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The emails show Hillary Clinton conducted classified and sensitive negotiations about the Israel-Arab conflict on her unsecure, non-governmental server.

• A document labeled “plan” was completely redacted as classified.
• A November 2012 email chain discusses the “Mid East” and includes then-Deputy Chief of Staff Jake Sullivan, Blair as “aclb” and Clinton.
• Another November 2012 email chain discusses the “Mid East” and includes Sullivan, Clinton’s office manager Claire Coleman, Blair and Clinton.
• A November 2012 email chain fully redacted is titled “Mid East Peace” and includes Blair, Clinton, Obama’s Special Envoy to the Middle East David Hale as “haledm2@state.gov,” Sullivan and Blair’s Chief of Staff and former Downing Street aide Catherine Rimmer.
• In an April 2011 email exchange between Blair, Clinton and Sullivan concerning “Israel,” Blair says he “had another long session with BB [Netanyahu].”
• A May 2011 exchange concerns “Israel” and includes Blair, Clinton and Sullivan.
• A May 2011 email concerns “Palestinians” and includes Blair, Clinton and Sullivan. Blair says, “I’ve also sent you a paper.”
• A June 2011 email regarding “Israel” includes Blair, Sullivan and Clinton. Blair says, “Saw Israeli PM. Put the concept of a Q statement. He was receptive. Palestinians interested too. I know there are discussions also you guys are having. And the French initiative….”
• In a July 2011 email – with several national security redactions – written by Blair to Clinton and Sullivan, Blair says, “I saw BB….. Molcho [chief negotiator in the Israeli negotiating team with the Palestinians] will speak to David Hale. I can see Cameron and Sarkozy with David…. I saw Egyptians….”
• A September 2010 email exchange is titled “Info for you,” and includes Sullivan, Blair and Clinton. Blair writes that he just spent three hours with Netanyahu, and Sullivan, using his Sprint BlackBerry, he writes “We have pitched this to [redacted].”

These new classified and other emails appear to be among those that Clinton had attempted to delete or had otherwise failed to disclose. The documents are part of the November 2017 accelerated schedule of production ordered by U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg. The State Department must now complete processing the remaining documents by September 28, 2018. There were 72,000 pages recovered by the FBI in its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s illicit email server. The State Department’s original production rate would have put the completion date into 2020.

Many of the emails referenced Clinton's deputy chief adviser Huma Abedin, while others demonstrate the mingling of the Clinton State Department with the Clinton Foundation.  Several of those emails suggest the Clinton pay-to-play scheme that seemed to run rampant during her time as head of the State Department.

“It is shameful that Hillary Clinton attempted to delete or hide classified information and that Obama appointees James Comey and Loretta Lynch refused to prosecute her,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “It is clear that the Clintons were using the State Department to run an extensive influence peddling scheme. Americans should be concerned that while untold resources are devoted to the abusive Mueller special counsel investigation of President Trump, this Justice Department seems uninterested in prosecuting the Clintons.”

Fitton appeared on Fox News' "Hannity" on Wednesday to discuss the emails.

"These are the emails that Hillary Clinton and her lawyers didn't want anyone to see," said Fitton.

Fitton said that many of these emails contained classified information about the Middle East and is further evidence of the crimes of Hillary Clinton in violation of national security laws.

Remember, some 33,000 emails are still unaccounted for from the illegal Clinton server.

Thank God, there are people like those at Judicial Watch who stay at gathering this information for the American people.  Now, it is up to us to press our representatives to do something about the crimes committed against us by Hillary Clinton and those who were under her direction at the State Department.  She has escaped justice for far too long.

REALLY, WHY IS ANYONE SURPRISED?

Amazon fixes Alexa bug that let Echo keep listening ... what, speak up can't hear you!
 
Amazon Echo speakers - Bloomberg

Amazon's Echo speakers featured a bug that meant the speaker continued to listen to its surroundings.

Security researchers found a way to make the device continue listening long after it should have switched off. Amazon said this would not allow the recordings to be passed to hackers but would have stayed with Amazon itself.

Amazon Echo speakers listen out for the word "Alexa", the name of its voice assistant, before completing a command, like "Alexa, read tell me today's news". Any interaction with Alexa is recorded to improve the service, but once the command is finished, Alexa stops recording.

But security researchers from Checkmarx developed an Alexa Skill that would keep Alexa listening long after it should have switched itself off and automatically transcribe what it hears for an attacker.

When an Alexa skill completes its task it is supposed to stop listening. However, sometimes Alexa doesn't hear a command correctly, which will lead the Echo to ask for the user to repeat it. This "re-prompt" feature could be exploited, the researchers found, and be programmed to carry on listening, while muting Alexa's responses. 

THE REAL ALEXA

The only sign the Echo was still on was a blue light ring, which normally lights up when Alexa receives a command.

"For the Echo... listening is key," Checkmarx said. "However, with this device's rise in popularity, one of today's biggest fears in connection to such devices is privacy. Especially when it comes to a user's fear of being unknowingly recorded."

Amazon Alexa | Everything you need to know

Amazon has since addressed the flaw to better detect Skills which appear to be built for listening to users and automatically detecting long listening sessions by an Echo. Manipulating the Echo didn't actually require any attacks on the Echo itself, only a Skill coded to exploit its current features.

"We have put mitigations in place for detecting this type of Skill behavior and reject or suppress those Skills when we do," Amazon said.

It's not the first flaw found on Amazon's Echo. Last year it was revealed second-hand Echo devices could be tampered with to be turned into listening devices.

Technology intelligence - newsletter promo - EOA

MANY THANKS TO DONALD TRUMP AND XI JINPING

HOWEVER, THESE TWO MEN SHOULD SHARE THE NOBLE PEACE PRIZE

ROCK, SISSORS, AND PAPER ... PLUS A GYPSY WITH TAROT CARDS

Howard Sherman, Democrat candidate for Senate in Mississippi, registered as Republican in California

JACKSON, Miss. — More questions are being raised about the party loyalties of Howard Sherman, who is running as a Democrat for the Mississippi U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Roger Wicker.

Jackson lawyer Sam Begley on Tuesday provided The Associated Press with a California voter registration document showing Sherman registered as a Republican there and voted in the 2012 and 2016 Republican presidential primaries.

Sherman campaign manager Giles Perkins said Sherman was registered as a Republican because the California Democratic Party wasn’t a good ideological fit for a businessman like Sherman.

“He’s a good Mississippi Democrat,” Perkins said Wednesday. “Shouldn’t we be focused on what makes Mississippi better instead of on this other group running him out of the race because they don’t have any ideas of their own?”

Sherman, the husband of actress Sela Ward, now lists a Meridian address.

Begley last week petitioned the Mississippi Democratic Party to disqualify Sherman because Sherman donated $5,000 to Wicker last year. That petition was denied as being filed too late after qualifying. Begley, who supports Democratic state Rep. David Baria’s candidacy, said the California document is more proof Sherman isn’t a true Democrat.

“They’re another political party,” Begley said. “He’s seeking the nomination of the Democratic Party in Mississippi and he has no history of affiliation with the Democratic Party in Mississippi. In fact, he was a Republican in California.”

Baria, Sherman, state Rep. Omeria Scott of Laurel, Jensen Bohren of Benton, Jerone Garland of Kosciusko and Victor Maurice of Pass Christian will face off in the Democratic Senate primary on June 5. Wicker, in the Senate since late 2007, faces political newcomer Richard Boyanton of Diamondhead on the same day. If no Democrat wins a majority, the top two vote-getters advance to a June 26 runoff, with the general election set for Nov. 6.

The document, which Los Angeles County officials confirmed as authentic to the AP on Wednesday, shows Sherman voting in California 10 times between 2000 and the 2016 presidential primary. Perkins said he didn’t know who Sherman had voted for in the 2012 Republican presidential primary, which was won by eventual GOP nominee Mitt Romney, or in the 2016 primary, won by eventual presidential winner Donald Trump. He didn’t immediately respond to a request for Sherman to say for whom he voted.

The Lauderdale County Circuit Clerk’s office said Wednesday that records show Sherman had never voted in the Mississippi jurisdiction. He registered in 2009 and deleted his Mississippi registration in 2010, and then re-registered in Lauderdale County in September 2016.

Democratic Party Chairman Bobby Moak said he’s not worried about Sherman’s political past.

“Voters can make up their own minds on that,” Moak said.

Begley said he feared an expensive Democratic primary could damage Baria. Sherman wrote his own campaign a $500,000 check on March 30, Federal Election Commission records show.

Baria had raised $120,000 by March 31, while Bohren had raised less than $2,000. There were no records of filings by Scott, Garland or Maurice.

• Associated Press writer Michael Blood in Los Angeles contributed to this report.


Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC.



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THE TAIL THAT WAGS THE DOG ... OR THE TALE OF TWO WALLS

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Refugee Camp (AP) -- Hundreds of Palestinians converged on the Gaza Strip's border fence with Israel on Friday, trying to rip through it before drawing heavy Israeli fire in one of the most violent incidents yet in five weeks of protests. Three Palestinians were killed and dozens were reported wounded.
The violence came shortly after a top U.N. official urged Israel to refrain from using excessive force against the protesters.

At least 38 protesters have been killed by Israeli live fire and more than 1,600 wounded in the weekly protests since they began March 30. Israel has rejected the international criticism, saying it is defending its sovereign border and accusing Gaza's Hamas leaders, who are organizing the protests, of using the crowds as cover to carry out attacks.
In Friday's unrest, a large crowd gathered a few hundred meters (yards) from the border, with some throwing stones and setting tires on fire in what has become a weekly occurrence.

Vacation in Gaza City Rentals

Late in the afternoon, dozens of young men broke away from the larger protest, moving south about 200 meters (yards) and approaching the fence. The crowd then tried to break through the fence with hooks and wire cutters when Israeli forces opened fire. Witnesses said three protesters briefly crossed into Israel and turned around.

Hundreds of additional protesters ran to the scene, and the numbers quickly grew to several thousand. Israeli armored vehicles sped to the site and fired barrages of tear gas. As gunfire erupted, the crowd dispersed. A dozen Palestinian ambulances jammed a dirt road lining up to evacuate the wounded. Some in the crowd shouted, "shahid," or "martyr" as bodies were taken away on stretchers.

Palestinian health officials reported three people killed and 611 wounded, including 138 hit by live fire in incidents along the border throughout the day.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it had "thwarted" an attempted infiltration by Palestinian protesters.

Don't Fence me in

It said "hundreds of rioters" tried to burn the fence and enter Israel. It said the crowd threw explosives, firebombs, and rocks, and that troops opened fire "in accordance with the rules of engagement" and halted the crowd. It released a video showing a young Palestinian man placing a burning tire along the fence in an apparent attempt to set it on fire. In another, a small group lobs stones at an Israeli military vehicle on the other side of the fence.

In other incidents, the military said Palestinian crowds rolled burning tires, hurled rocks and flew kites with flaming objects attached with the goal of damaging the fence and other Israeli targets. It also released a photo appearing to show a group of youths tugging at barbed wire along the fence.

The marches, aimed in part at trying to break a decade-old border blockade, have been organized by Gaza's militant Hamas rulers but have also been driven by widespread despair in the coastal territory of 2 million people.

Gaza organizers say the marches are also pressing for the "right of return" of refugees and their descendants to what is now Israel. Two-thirds of Gaza residents are descendants of refugees who fled or were expelled from properties during the war surrounding Israel's creation in 1948. The protests are to culminate on May 15, the anniversary of Israel's creation. Hamas organizers have made conflicting statements about whether they plan a mass border breach at some point.

Hamas' supreme leader, Ismail Haniyeh, visited a protest camp in the southern town of Rafah, vowing larger protests in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and among Palestinian refugees in other countries on May 15. "Our people will not slow down the protests until they get their rights," he said.

The Israeli military has repeatedly said it will not allow Gazans to burst across the border. Israeli communities are located just a few hundred meters away.

However, Israel has come under heavy international criticism for allegedly using excessive force.

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said Israeli troops have not heeded warnings by the United Nations and others, repeatedly using lethal force against unarmed protesters in the past month.

Gaza health officials say that four minors, including a 14-year-old boy, have been among the dead.

"The loss of life is deplorable, and the staggering number of injuries caused by live ammunition only confirms the sense that excessive force has been used against demonstrators - not once, not twice, but repeatedly," the commissioner said.

Israel's U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, said Israel is "diligently defending its sovereignty" and accused Zeid of encouraging Hamas' "exploitation of civilians." He said the commissioner is "not focused on human rights, but only with obsessively criticizing Israel."

Thousands have taken part in the Friday demonstrations from five protest tent camps, each set up several hundred meters (yards) from the border fence. Small groups usually move toward the fence, setting tires ablaze to hamper the vision of the security forces while others throw stones or firebombs.

Israeli soldiers, including snipers taking cover behind sand berms, have responded by firing tear gas, rubber-coated steel pellets, and live rounds.

Israel's military has said troops are under orders to target "instigators," but has also warned that anyone approaching or trying to damage the fence risks his life.

Rights groups have said such open-fire rules are unlawful because they allow soldiers to use potentially lethal force in situations where their lives are not in danger.

Israeli officials have said that some of the protesters in recent weeks tried to damage the border fence or plant explosives along it. Others have tried to set Israeli fields on fire on the other side of the fence by hurling improvised explosives or firebombs or flying the flaming kites.

A group of Palestinian activists calling themselves "the tires unit" arrived Friday on a truck laden with old tires. A van mounted with loudspeakers followed the truck with chants and applause. Tires were set ablaze, filling the air with thick smoke. With hooks and a long rope, the activists pulled at parts of the barbed wire adjacent to the fence.

Israel and Egypt imposed the Gaza blockade in 2007, in response to a violent takeover of the territory by Hamas, which had won Palestinian parliament elections a year earlier. The blockade has gutted Gaza's economy, driving up unemployment and leaving two-thirds of young people without jobs.

Hamas' Interior Ministry announced that Egypt had agreed to open the Rafah border crossing for three days, beginning Saturday. The temporary opening is the second this month.

THE BORG - RESISTANCE IS FUTILE ... OR IS THE DEEP STATE MERELY RUN AWAY SELF-CONCEIT

SOME LIGHT READING AND THINKING ... from Jung.  The passage fits the Deep State and its impact on those that are not the deplorables.

A collective attitude naturally presupposes this same collective psyche in others. but that means a ruthless disregard not only of individual differences but also of differences of a more general kind within the collective psyche itself, as for example differences of race. This disregard for individuality obviously means the suffocation of the single individual as a consequence of which the element of differentiation is obliterated from the community. The element of differentiation is the individual. All the highest achievements of virtue, as well as the blackest villainies, are individual.  The larger a community is, and the more the sum total of collective factors peculiar to every large community rests on conservative prejudices detrimental to individuality, the more will the individual be morally and spiritually crushed, and, as a result, the one source of moral and spiritual progress for society is choked up. Naturally the only thing that can thrive in such an atmosphere is sociality and whatever is collective in the individual. Everything individual in him goes under, i.e., is doomed to repression.  The individual elements lapse into the unconscious, where, by the law of necessity, they are transformed into something essentially baleful, destructive, and anarchical. Socially, this evil principle shows itself in the spectacular crimes — regicide and the like — perpetrated by certain prophetically-inclined individuals; but in the great mass of the community it remains in the background, and only manifests itself indirectly in the inexorable moral degeneration of society.  It is a notorious fact that the morality of society as a whole is in inverse ratio to its size; for the greater the aggregation of individuals, the more the individual factors are blotted out, and with them morality, which rests entirely on the moral sense of the individual and the freedom necessary for this. Hence every man is, in a certain sense, unconsciously a worse man when he is in society than when acting alone; for he is carried by society and to that extent relieved of his individual responsibility.  Any large company composed of wholly admirable persons has the morality and intelligence of an unwieldy, stupid, and violent animal. The bigger the organization, the more unavoidable is its immorality and blind stupidity (senatus bestia, senators boni viri). Society, by automatically stressing all the collective qualities in its individual representative, put a premium on mediocrity, on everything that settles down to vegetate in an easy, irresponsible way. Individuality will inevitably be driven to the wall.  This process begins in school, continues at the university, and rules all departments in which the State has a hand. In a small social body, the individuality of its members is better safeguarded, and greater is their relative freedom and the possibility of conscious responsibility.  Without freedom there can be no morality. Our admiration for great organizations dwindles when once we become aware of the other side of the wonder: the tremendous piling up and accentuation of all that is primitive in man, and the unavoidable destruction of his individuality in the interests of the monstrosity that every great organization in fact is.  The man of today, who resembles more or less the collective ideal, has made his heart into a den of murderers, as can easily be proved by the analysis of his unconscious, even though he himself is not in the least disturbed by it.  And in so far as he is normally “adapted” to his environment, it is true that the greatest infamy on the part of his group will not disturb him, so long as the majority of his fellows steadfastly believe in the exalted morality of their social organization.

YOUTUBE CENSORSHIP ... WATCH THIS VIDEO

CLICK HERE -->Pat Condell's censorship by YouTube ...

TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND LET YOUR MIND WANDER ... A HYDROGEN ECONOMY ... WIRELESS ELECTRICITY

Graphene Shakes Things up for Fuel Cells - The Graphene Council

Graphene Shakes Things up for Fuel Cells

The promise for nanomaterials in fuel cells has been a bit lackluster, until the latest discoveries of graphene’s potential

There are two main issues that have hampered the prospects of fuel cells for the powering of automobiles: the costs of isolating hydrogen and building an infrastructure that would deliver that hydrogen to the automobiles.

In what may be one of the most significant contributions of nanomaterials to the potential of the so-called hydrogen economy, researchers at the University of Manchester, led by Nobel Laureate Andre Geim, have shown that the one-atom-thick materials graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), once thought to be impermeable, allow protons to pass through them.

Ultimately, the impact of this discovery is that it may become significantly easier to isolate hydrogen and you won’t need to build an infrastructure for delivering hydrogen to the automobiles—the fuel cells in combination with some external energy source will be able to produce their own hydrogen.

Geim and his colleagues at Manchester discovered, in research that was published in the journal Nature, monolayers of graphene and hBN are highly permeable to thermal protons under ambient conditions. So hydrogen atoms stripped of their electrons could pass right through the one-atom-thick materials.

This ability of these materials to allow protons to pass through them came as quite a surprise to the researchers. The discovery stands in contradiction to what was thought to be the absolute impermeability of these two materials. So impermeable had graphene been considered that it was estimated it would take the lifetime of the universe (some 14 billion years) for a hydrogen atom to pass through it.

However, with this new understanding, the Manchester researchers claim that a graphene-based membrane could be used for proton-conducting membranes (also known as proton exchange membranes), which are critical to the functioning of fuel cells by conducting protons through it while being impermeable to gases. It is this particular design of fuel cells—so-called polymer exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC)—that the US Department of Energy has targeted as the most likely candidate for use in automobiles.

Up until now, the proton-conducting membranes of these fuel cells had been made from polymers that suffered from fuel crossover, which limited their efficiency and durability. The Manchester research suggest that graphene and hBN could be used to create a thinner membrane that would be more efficient while reducing fuel crossover and cell poisoning.

This application would be significant, but it is merely replacing one material with a 2D material to do essentially the same thing that is being done now. What may be the truly remarkable implication of this research is that the graphene membrane could be used to extract hydrogen out of humid air. The researchers believe that the membrane could be used in hydrogen production by extracting hydrogen from humid air to create a kind of mobile hydrogen generator.

“When you know how it should work, it is a very simple setup,” said Marcelo Lozada-Hidalgo, a Ph.D. student and corresponding author of this paper, in a press release. “You put a hydrogen-containing gas on one side, apply a small electric current, and collect pure hydrogen on the other side. This hydrogen can then be burned in a fuel cell.”

Lozada-Hidalgo added: “We worked with small membranes, and the achieved flow of hydrogen is, of course, tiny so far. But this is the initial stage of discovery, and the paper is to make experts aware of the existing prospects. To build up and test hydrogen harvesters will require much further effort."

According to Lozada-Hidalgo’s explanation, it would seem the hydrogen-containing gas would be the humid air in the atmosphere. However, it’s not clear where the electrical charge that would split the hydrogen and oxygen would come from. Observers have noted that the amount of energy needed to separate hydrogen from water would exceed the energy you would get from combining them again in the fuel cell. So, presumably, the electrical current would need to come from another source, possibly a photovoltaic cell or a battery.

Of course, nanomaterials have been pursued as a way to mimic photosynthesis for splitting water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen for some time from branched nanowire arrays to man-made viruses and companies like HyperSolar having even announced commercial projects. In these efforts, the sun is used as the source of energy that splits the water molecules.

If the potential of this discovery can be exploited as suggested by the researchers, in hindsight we should be pleased that Nobel Laureate Geim decided to forego the career path of pursuing the commercialization of graphene and instead remained focus on fundamental research. He may have just landed upon the “killer app” for graphene.

Graphene and Quantum Dots Vie to Dislodge Platinum as Catalysts in Fuel Cells

Researchers at Rice University have discovered that graphene-based quantum dots are able to serve as better catalysts to the oxygen reduction reactions in fuel cells better than the more costly platinum variety.

Quantum dots are nanocrystals that possess quantum mechanical properties that make them useful for a wide range of applications, including LCD displays where they already provide richer colors and improved energy efficiency in products available today.

The Rice team used their recently developed process of producing graphene-based quantum dots from coal and discovered that the new material actually outperforms platinum-based catalysts for fuel cell reactions.

“You don’t need to apply as high a voltage as platinum to get the oxygen reduction reaction to occur,” said James Tour, a Rice chemistry professor. “We also get about 70 percent higher current than what platinum would offer.”

The other clear benefit beyond performance is cost. Platinum is one of the most costly and precious metals. Whether the replacement of the catalyst for fuel cells will be the factor that reduces the cost of fuel cells from a cost of $55 per kilowatt (kW) today down to the $30 per kW the US Department of Energy estimated is needed to make fuel cells more price-competitive remains to be seen.

However, Rice in interviews conceded that the real obstacle for adopting hydrogen-based systems is the problem of creating an infrastructure for supplying the hydrogen.

Once again, if the work out of Manchester can live up to its promise of providing an easier way of isolating hydrogen and supplying it to vehicles, it could tip the balance for fuel cells.

A GRIPPING STORY ... WHAT''S THE WEATHER LIKE ON ELLSBERG'S PLANET

Pentagon Papers whistleblower urges Mattis to protect the world from Trump


A picture dating from 2013 of Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg at a demonstration at Fort Meade in Maryland. (AFP Photo/NICHOLAS KAMM)

COULD IT BE THAT THE LIBS BELIEVE "THEY" HAVE PUSHED TRUMP SO FAR THAT THEY TRULY BELIEVE THAT TRUMP IS UNSTABLE AND CAPABLE OF ANYTHING ... 

Geneva (AFP) - Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg called Friday on the Pentagon chief to "protect us" from President Donald Trump by resisting orders to launch military actions or use nuclear weapons.

"The situation is closer to the possible use of nuclear weapons since any time I would say in 50 years," Ellsberg, a former military analyst, and nuclear war planner turned world-famous whistleblower, told AFP in a telephone interview.

He spoke shortly before the news broke on Saturday that the United States, Britain, and France -- three nuclear powers -- were carrying out a wave of punitive strikes against Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria over an alleged chemical weapons attack.

"It is a very dangerous time," Ellsberg said, pointing out that Trump's war of words with North Korea was the first time since the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 that a US president has threatened military action against another nuclear-armed state.

International actions in Syria, involving four nuclear-armed states, coupled with the political pressures on Trump at home could easily spell disaster, Ellsberg warned.

"The president I'm afraid has a very strong temptation to start a war as cover for his firing the special prosecutor," he said, referring to Robert Mueller, who is investigating links between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election.

- Resist 'reckless' orders -

Ellsberg famously leaked thousands of documents nearly half a century ago revealing that successive US administrations had lied to the public about the Vietnam war.

He insisted that now Defense Secretary Jim Mattis should be prepared to resist "impulsive and reckless" orders from Trump to go to war.

The 87-year-old pointed out that under President Richard Nixon, then-Defense Secretary James Schlesinger had secretly insisted that no orders from the president to launch military action or use nuclear weapons should be obeyed unless it had his stamp of approval.

"Now that is an unconstitutional order, and it would be unconstitutional for James Mattis to make such a directive right now," Ellsberg said.

"Nevertheless, he ought to do it... We are depending on 'Mad dog Mattis' to protect us from a president."

Ellsberg said there was a desperate need for high-level people to be willing "to put their careers on the line" to do the right thing and help avert catastrophe.

"I think Mattis in particular, and (top US general Joe) Dunford, are cooling the president down from his threats of a catastrophic action in North Korea and even in Syria," he said.

He insisted that without a declaration of war by Congress or a UN Security Council directive, any order to go to war "would be a criminal order and they should not obey it".

But, he cautioned, "that doesn't mean that they will do what they should and resist him or disobey him if he insisted over time."

"They are slowing him down and that gives a chance for Congress to take action, but Congress seems to show no willingness to do that... So the situation is very dire at this point," he said.

- 'The Doomsday Machine' -

Ellsberg is a staunch anti-nuclear weapons campaigner who recently published a massive tome about the nuclear threat seen from the inside, titled "The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner".

He told AFP he was currently in Washington lobbying members of Congress about the dangers of reckless war plans and ever more powerful nuclear arsenals on hair-trigger alerts.

He said he hoped to drum up support for a study on the consequences of nuclear war in terms of "nuclear winter" -- a situation where smoke blocks out the sun, dooming harvests and leaving basically anyone not killed in the blast or by radiation to starve to death.

He said his comments had been met with a lot of interest.

"I think people really are worried about Trump being the person who has his finger on what he calls his very big nuclear button. It doesn't reassure anybody," he said.

Ellsberg acknowledged that Trump's threatening and volatile rhetoric towards nuclear-armed North Korea, which has drawn comparisons with Nixon's "madman theory" of diplomacy, could potentially scare adversaries into backing away from conflict.

"It can work, but it does that at the price of the risk of maintaining a doomsday machine in the world which is capable of reacting to a false alarm and ending most human life on earth," he said.


"That price is absolutely unconscionable and outrageous."
 

One of the world's most famous whistleblowers, Ellsberg said there was currently a desperate need for more people willing to reveal the true dangers lurking behind the curtain.

He admitted that the risks to whistleblowers "are very high".
 

"But the chances I would say of averting a war on North Korea or in Syria, Iran or elsewhere, would be well worth the personal costs of life in prison or even death," he said.

IF THERE WAS A RUSSIAN WHATEVER, THEN I'M SURE IT WOULD BUBBLE TO THE SURFACE NOW

Madcow: "Perception" Trump Ordered Syria Strikes To "Distract From A Catastrophic Domestic Scandal"

NOTE: If there was a Russian component to the Trump election, I'm sure it would come to the surface after Trump's missile attack on Syria.

On Friday, Rachel Maddow said President Trump's decision to strike Syria will make people think he wanted to "distract" from a "catastrophic domestic scandal" blowing up at home. Maddow, using a form of the phrase 'wag the dog,' implied the bombing of Damascus was a diversion from such crises. 

"It will affect those other countries' view of this strike. It will affect their reaction to it," she said.

"It will, therefore, affect the utility of this military strike if the president of the United States is believed to have issued the order to launch this strike tonight, even in part because people think he wanted to distract from a catastrophic domestic scandal that is blowing up at home at the same time," the MSNBC host declared.

"The perception that the president may have ordered these strikes in part because of scandal will affect the impact and the effectiveness of these military strikes. Unavoidably. Even if the tail is not wagging the dog," Maddow added.

JACK & JILL WENT UP THE HILL, THEY EACH HAD A QUARTER ... JILL CAME DOWN WITH FIFTY CENTS ... A LOAN?

Sex Ed Sit Out on April 23 to protest 'graphic, gender-bending' sexual education - Washington Times
 

THEY PUT MUELLER ON THE CASE ... 

Parents are pulling their children out of public schools for a day to protest sex education that they say has become graphic, hedonistic and ideological under the influence of pro-choice and gay rights groups. 

The Sex Ed Sit Out started with parents in Charlotte, North Carolina, and has spread to nearly a dozen other cities in three countries. The April 23 protest is a grass-roots effort spearheaded by mothers who said they are disturbed by the “pornographic” content that has made its way into the classroom.

AND IF YOUR PART OF THE LGBT WHAT'S ON THE MENU?

Elizabeth Johnston, a social conservative activist who blogs under the name Activist Mommy, is one of the protest’s organizers. She said most parents wouldn’t “stand for the kind of graphic, gender-bending sex ed” that schools are teaching.

“Most parents do not know this is taking place in schools,” Ms. Johnston said. “The wool is completely being pulled over their eyes, and sometimes when parents catch on and start inquiring, bureaucrats are using deceptive means of not informing them what is being taught.”

She said the movement will continue to grow as parents become more aware.

In addition to the demonstration in Charlotte, protests are planned in Sacramento, California; Bloomington, Indiana; Austin and San Antonio, Texas; Spokane, Washington; and Martinsburg, West Virginia. Rallies also are scheduled in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Mulgrave, Australia.

On the day of the protest, parents will send the same letter to principals explaining the absence.

“Pornographic sex ed is being implemented across our globe in an attempt to indoctrinate our children with ‘sexual rights,’” the letter reads. “This is unacceptable and [I am] joining others both nationally and globally in taking a stand to say ‘enough!’”

The Sex Ed Sit Out has partnered with several socially conservative groups including the Family Research Council, the American Life League and the Liberty Counsel.

A CitizenGo.org petition calling for an end to “graphic, immoral sex education” has garnered more than 20,000 signatures in less than a week.

The U.S. has no federal standard for sex education. All 50 states are involved in some way in public school sex education, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia require that public schools teach sex ed.

Some schools and districts partner with groups such as Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, and the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights organization, to determine what sex education should cover.

Planned Parenthood developed a “comprehensive” curriculum called Get Real that school boards across the country have considered adopting.

The program teaches sex education staples such as female and male anatomy, puberty and sexually transmitted diseases, but also offers lessons on “sexual identity” and “gender, sex and shared responsibility.”

Hundreds of North Carolina parents complained when Cumberland County Schools implemented Get Real in 2016. In response to the parental backlash, the county’s curriculum committee voted to end the program in February.

Spokane Public Schools will vote this month on whether to adopt a curriculum that incorporates some elements of Get Real and a variety of other resources.

Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho came out against the proposed curriculum last month. In its evaluation, Planned Parenthood said the program lacked LGBTQ inclusivity and was too focused on heterosexuality as the norm. The curriculum also used language that could be interpreted as shaming, the abortion giant said.

“The majority of voices in our community support an evidence-based approach to sexual health education,” Planned Parenthood said in a statement. “While the proposed patchwork sexual health program is better than the current sexual health education materials, our students deserve a program that has been evaluated and proven to be effective.”

The Human Rights Campaign advocates inclusion in elementary education through a program called Welcoming Schools. Among other things, the guide provides educators with ready-made answers when children ask challenging questions — “Can girls marry each other?” — and recommends books that help develop “LGBTQ-inclusive elementary schools.”

One of the books recommended by Welcoming Schools, “I am Jazz” by transgender reality-TV star Jazz Jennings, was read to kindergartners last year at Rocklin Academy Gateway, a charter school in Rocklin, California.

The Sex Ed Sit Out follows national school walkouts to protest gun violence. Ms. Johnston said the sit-out was in the planning stages in November, months before walkouts became a trend.

“We almost pulled the plug on the sit-out idea because we were concerned that the idea had become tainted in the public’s view,” Ms. Johnston said. “But people kept saying, ‘Stay the course; what you’re doing is right.’ This is a sit-out that everyone can and should be able to get behind.”

DEFINITIVE DEFINITION OF AN EDUCATIONAL ASSHOLE

Millcreek Township School District arms teachers with miniature baseball bats

A Pennsylvania school district has decided to arm its teachers — with miniature baseball bats.

According to NBC News, the Millcreek Township School District was training about 500 teachers on what to do during a school shooting and handed out the 16-inch bats — about half the size of a regulation bat and unswingable in the usual way.

District Superintendent William Hall told WCIU, the NBC affiliate in Erie, that the bats are primarily “symbolic” but still defended them as usable weapons in a school shooting situation. NOTE: so is education ... primarily symbolic!

“It is the last resort,” he said. “But, it is an option and something we want people to be aware of.”

A district elsewhere in Pennsylvania said in March that it would arm teachers with river rocks.
 

Jo Ellen Barish, president of Milcreek’s Parent Teacher Association, wasn’t impressed by her district’s miniature-bat plan either.

“It’s not going to make some shooter stop and say, ‘Hey, I probably shouldn’t go in and do this,’” she told NBC.

Pennsylvania PTA board member Bonnie Fagan was equally skeptical.

“Am I going to get out my bat that’s in a locked cabinet or my bucket of rocks or slide something under the door to lock it to stop someone?” she said. “How effective is any of this?”

Pennsylvania law makes it illegal to possess a gun on school grounds.

The miniature bats cost the Millcreek district $1,800.

BAN THIS INSULTING WEAPON ... REALLY, IT HELP FREE US FROM ENGLAND

FAKEBOOK, GOOGLE, SNAP CHAT, ETC. HEADING TO THE WECHAT TYPE APP

MAGA ... DO I HAVE TO EXPAND IT!?

DUH ... HOW POORLY RUN IS THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

THIS IS NOT A SURPRISE ... 

JUST LOOK AT WASHINGTON, D.C. TODAY ... ITS THEATER PURE KABUKI!  THE COUNTRY IS IN A DEATH SPIRAL!!!

DEMS STARTING TO FURNISH THEIR SAFE PLACES ... WHAT IF'S

WHERE THERE'S SMOKE ...

So ... the headline of the article reads:

Israel blamed for missile strike in Syria; 14 reported dead --
the real headline should be some along the lines of: "Chemical weapons used once again on the civilian population ... but how could that be since Russia brokered the deal and the UN reported that 100% of the chemical weapons were removed --- NOT!"  OR PERHAPS: 

Syria chemical attack: Scores killed in Douma, rescuers say

Government forces accused of dropping poisonous chemicals on last rebel stronghold in Eastern Ghouta.

BEIRUT (AP) — Russia and the Syrian military blamed Israel for a pre-dawn missile attack Monday on a major air base in central Syria that reportedly killed 14 people, including Iranians, while international condemnation grew over a suspected poison gas attack over the weekend that was blamed on the Syrian government.

Opposition activists said 40 people died in the chemical attack, blaming Syrian government forces. The U.N. Security Council planned to hold an emergency meeting Monday to discuss the chemical attack.

RUSSIAN MISSILE DEFENSE INADEQUATE

Russia's Defense Ministry said two Israeli aircraft targeted the T4 air base in Homs province, firing eight missiles. It said Syria shot down five of them while the other three landed in the western part of the base. Syrian state TV quoted an unnamed military official as saying that Israeli F-15 warplanes fired several missiles at T4. It gave no further details.

Israel's foreign ministry had no comment when asked about reports of the airstrikes, which did not appear to be related to Saturday night's alleged chemical weapons attack.

Since 2012, Israel has struck inside Syria more than 100 times, mostly targeting suspected weapons' convoys destined for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has been fighting alongside Syrian government forces.


A Syrian monitoring group says a missile strike on a Syrian air base killed 14 people including Iranians early Monday. Syrian state-run media says the missiles were likely American. The Pentagon denies launching airstrikes on Syria. (April 9)
 

TRUMP IS RIGHT FOR CALLING ASSAD AN ANIMAL

Most recently, Israel hit the same T4 base in February, after it said an Iranian drone that had violated Israeli airspace took off from the base. The base, which was used as a launching pad for counter-offensive attacks against Islamic State militants who were at one point stationed close by, is near the Shayrat air base, which was targeted by U.S. missiles last year in response to a chemical weapons attack. NOTE: the Shayrat airbase is less than 100 miles from Israeli border.

Monday's missile attack came hours after President Donald Trump warned there would be a "big price to pay" after Saturday's suspected poison gas attack on the last remaining foothold for Syrian rebels in the eastern suburbs of Damascus. At least 40 people were killed in that assault, including families found in their homes and shelters, opposition activists and local rescuers said. NOTE: Damascus is less than 35 miles from the Israeli border.

Syria's state news agency SANA initially said the attack on the T4 air base was likely "an American aggression," but Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood quickly denied the United States was behind the strike and the agency then dropped the accusation, blaming Israel instead.

SANA said the missile attack resulted in a number of casualties but provided no specific figures.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war through a network of activists on the ground, said 14 died, including Iranians and also three Syrian officers.

Rami Abdurrahman, the Observatory's chief, said the assault targeted a mobile air defense unit and some buildings inside the air base. He added that it also hit posts outside the base used by the Iranians and Iran-backed fighters.

Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, told reporters on Monday that Israel had not spoken to the president ahead of the airstrike even though there may have been Russian military advisers at the base, which he described as "a cause for concern for us."

The U.S. launched several dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase last year, after a chemical attack in the northern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun killed dozens of people.

Saturday's suspected poison gas attack on the besieged town of Douma came almost exactly a year after the U.S. missile attack prompted by the Khan Sheikhoun deaths.

In response to the reports, Trump on Sunday blamed Syrian government forces for what he called a "mindless CHEMICAL attack." In a series of tweets, Trump held Russia and Iran, Syrian President Bashar Assad's chief sponsors, responsible.

Trump was to meet with his senior military leadership on Monday, the same day his new national security adviser, John Bolton, assumes his post. Bolton has previously advocated significant airstrikes against Syria. The European Union also laid the blame squarely on Assad's government.

The Syrian government denied the chemical weapons allegations, calling them fabrications. The Russian military said its officers visited the hospital in Douma and talked to the staff, and said they did not confirm reports of the assault.

First responders entering apartments in Douma late Saturday said they found bodies collapsed on floors, some foaming at the mouth. The opposition's Syrian Civil Defense rescue organization said the victims appeared to have suffocated.

The organization, also known as the White Helmets, and the Syrian American Medical Society, a medical relief organization, did not identify the substance used but said survivors treated at clinics smelled strongly of chlorine.

Those reports could not be independently verified because of a government blockade around the town.

WHY WOULD THE ARMY OF ISLAM AGREE TO SURRENDER THE TOWN AND EVACUATE THEIR FIGHTERS TO NORTHERN SYRIA?

Hours after the attack, the Army of Islam rebel group agreed to surrender the town and evacuate their fighters to rebel-held northern Syria, Syrian state media reported. The group also agreed to give up its prisoners, a key government demand.

More than 100 buses entered the town on Sunday night to take the fighters and their families to Jarablus, a town under the shared control of rebels and Turkey, said Syrian state-affiliated al-Ikhbariya TV.

Syrian state TV said two buses left early Monday and that 11 more buses were getting ready to move.

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

Syrian state media said dozens of civilians who had been held for years by the rebels were set free. The SANA news agency said the people were freed around midnight on Sunday, adding that they had been held by the Army of Islam group since 2013.

The evacuations follow a pattern of departures around the capital, Damascus, and other major Syrian cities as the government reasserts its control after seven years of war.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ...

In his tweets Sunday, Trump called Assad an "animal" and delivered a rare personal criticism of Putin for supporting him. Trump has declared his intent to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria in the coming months, despite resistance from many of his advisers.

Syrian rescuers from the White Helmets documented 42 fatalities in Saturday's reported chemical attack but were impeded from searching further by strong odors that caused breathing difficulties, said Siraj Mahmoud, a spokesman for the group.

More than 500 people, mostly women and children, were brought to medical centers complaining of difficulties breathing, foaming at the mouth and burning sensations in the eyes. Some had bluish skin, a sign of oxygen deprivation, according to a statement, symptoms consistent with chemical exposure.

The Observatory gave a higher death toll, saying at least 80 people were killed in Douma, including around 40 who died from suffocation. But it said the suffocations were the result of shelters collapsing on people inside them.

In denying the chemical weapons allegations, a government statement said "the army, which is advancing rapidly and with determination, does not need to use any kind of chemical agents."

Russia denied any involvement in the attack. Maj. Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko was quoted by Russian news agencies Sunday as saying Russia was prepared to send specialists to Douma to "confirm the fabricated nature" of the reports.

In recent weeks, government forces have recaptured villages and towns in the eastern Ghouta suburbs of the capital. Douma was the only town left holding out.

A 2013 chemical attack in eastern Ghouta that killed hundreds of people was widely blamed on government forces. The U.S. threatened military action but later backed down.

Syria denies ever using chemical weapons during the war and says it eliminated its chemical arsenal under a 2013 agreement brokered by the U.S. and Russia.