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Glasgow pride parade bans drag queens for fear of hurting trans peoples' feelings

Emily Zanotti
Daily Wire
Fri, 13 Apr 2018 23:08 UTC
gay pride parade
Free Pride Glasgow, which bills itself as being a "non-commercial" and more open-minded alternative to the traditional Glasgow LGBT pride events, is taking drastic steps to prevent the oppression of marginalized peoples, banning drag queens from its annual parade.

After extensive consideration, the Free Pride Glasgow committee members decided that having men dressed as women giving stellar performances during the event would be offensive to transgender individuals, and that non-binary people within their ranks would be "uncomfortable with having drag performances."

They'll miss the feather boas and the glittery footwear, but "the needs of the most marginalised groups within our community come first," the group told the Independent.

Comment: So much for inclusivity. This whole gender nonsense is so confusing even the genderists don't know what to do.

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Eye 1

New revelation: This Is Your Digital Life app collected Facebook users' direct messages

Alex Hern and Carole Cadwalladr
The Guardian
Fri, 13 Apr 2018 22:54 UTC
Aleksandr Kogan
© University of California Berkely
Aleksandr Kogan’s app harvested data not only from the installer, but also from all their Facebook friends.
Aleksandr Kogan collected direct messages sent to and from Facebook users who installed his This Is Your Digital Life app, the Guardian can reveal. It follows Facebook's admission that the company "may" have handed over the direct messages of some users to the Cambridge Analytica contractor without their express permission. The revelation is the most severe breach of privacy yet in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The social network admitted to the transfer of data in its warning to users whose friends had installed the This Is Your Digital Life app, which harvested data from not only the installer, but also all their friends on the site.

"A small number of people who logged into This Is Your Digital Life also shared their own news feed, timeline, posts and messages, which may have included posts and messages from you," the company told affected users.

The statement appears to echo previously unreported claims made by Christopher Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower. Wylie told the Observer that he had seen a table, produced by Kogan, that included private messages. It remains unclear whether GSR, Kogan's company, or Cambridge Analytica ever used the messages to build any targeting models.
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Blackbox

Culture clash: What makes some societies strict and others more relaxed?

Laura Spinney
New Scientist
Wed, 04 Apr 2018 00:00 UTC
Crusaders
© Richard Baker/In Pictures Ltd/Corbis via Getty Images
Nations differ vastly in how much store they set by rules. Understanding why can help foster communication, cooperation and even change for the better

I'm British. Soon after moving to Switzerland, where I lived for six years, I threw a house-warming party and was taken aback when all 30 guests arrived exactly on time. Years later, having moved to France, I turned up at the appointed hour for a dinner, only to find that no other guest had arrived and my hostess was still in her bathrobe.

Every culture is riddled with unwritten rules, such as ones on punctuality. They are the invisible scaffold that frames the behaviour of individuals so that the collective can function in a frictionless and productive way. But the rigour of these rules and the exactitude with which they are enforced varies dramatically. Some nations tolerate singing in an elevator, swearing during an interview or entering a bank barefoot, for example, while others frown upon such behaviours. Perhaps these aren't mere quirks. Perhaps the best way to understand societies is to look at their social norms.
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Dollar

Improper payments from Medicaid skyrocket to over 36 BILLION dollars

Terence P. Jeffrey
CNS News
Thu, 12 Apr 2018 22:25 UTC
money stethescope
Improper payments made by the Medicaid program climbed from approximately $29,149,680,000 in fiscal 2015 to $36,731,130,000 in fiscal 2017, according to data published by the Department of Health and Human Services.

That is an increase of $7,581,450,000--or 26 percent.

"Despite efforts to reduce improper payments in the Medicaid program by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees the program, overall improper payments continue to increase-rising to about $37 billion in fiscal year 2017 compared to $29.1 billion in fiscal year 2015," GAO Health Care Director Carolyn Yocom told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today.

"The size and complexity of Medicaid make the program particularly vulnerable to improper payments-including payments made for people not eligible for Medicaid or made for services not actually provided," Yocom said in her written testimony.
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Cow

Justice for animal abusers? Horrific videos of cows being beaten and burned lead to light jail time for 2 dairy workers

David Fleshler
Sun Sentinel
Wed, 11 Apr 2018 18:05 UTC
A calf at Burnham Dairy Farm
© Animal Recovery Mission
A calf at Burnham Dairy Farm
Two dairy farm workers received 20-day jail sentences Wednesday in the first cases prosecuted after undercover videos showed cows being beaten, burned and kept in horrific conditions at dairy farms in Okeechobee County.

Fernando Lopez Cruz and Naul Dorantes-Garcia worked at McArthur Dairy, where they were among the workers videotaped abusing cows, in an undercover operation conducted by Animal Recovery Mission, a Miami Beach animal rights group that specializes in infiltrating suspected animal abusers.

Videos taken at the Burnham, Davie, Larson and McArthur dairy farms showed cows being punched, kicked, stabbed with pipes and burned alive. They showed calves kept in miserable conditions in tiny cages, exposed to sun and rain. The videos led to a national outcry and prompted Publix Super Markets to suspend deliveries of milk from the farms.

Comment: Rather than switch to an alternative milk that will do damage to your body, maybe source dairy products from farmers that treat their animals with the respect they deserve as living beings. Same should be said for all animal products. It's better for you and your conscience.

See also:

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War Whore

Oh what a lovely war! British media is breathless and exuberant at the thought of UK striking Syria

Simon Rite
RT
Fri, 13 Apr 2018 13:05 UTC
British Navy
© Woody Paschall / U.S. Navy / Reuters
"War, what is it good for?" Edwin Starr asked to the backing of an old school funk soundtrack. Well, the answer is: the British press, their columnists and above all their graphics departments.

The growing risk that an alleged gas attack on the Syrian town of Douma could see the UK join US-led strikes against Syria has galvanized the more war-thirsty parts of the media. Brimstone and Tomahawk missiles, Typhoon fighter jets and Paveway bombs - it's all just too much for a slightly perspiring news editor.

The idea of conflict is scary enough in the imagination, but in case people aren't concerned enough, the press in Britain just can't wait to show you how it's going to happen, and the tools that will be used to achieve it.

There's a strange shift in Britain's reporting on the military when the chances of conflict loom. In peaceful times the press is full of stories about how the military is the smallest it's been since the days of Napoleon and couldn't deploy enough troops to rescue a cat stuck up a tree.

Comment: Underlying these news items is the pernicious lie of 'might makes right' that the Briitsh media hope to inculcate among its readers. Remember, these are the same blokes that would have you believe that Russia is responsible for the Skripal poisonings, Assad used chemical weapons on his people, Saddam Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction, etc. etc.

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Chess

Tech billionaire gets enough signatures to force vote on splitting up California into 3 states

Ariel Zilber
Daily Mail
Wed, 11 Apr 2018 20:49 UTC
Tim Draper
A tech billionaire has successfully gathered enough signatures to enable the voters of California to decide whether to break up the Golden State into three.

Tim Draper, the venture capitalist who made his fortune as an early investor in Skype and Hotmail, says he has amassed more than 600,000 signatures to enable his plan to be put before voters in November.

The minimum threshold of signatures needed to put a proposal on the ballot is 365,880 registered voters - or 5 percent of the total votes cast for governor in the last election in 2014.

Draper, 59, launched the CAL 3 initiative in October.
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Family

Economy in decline: 64 million Americans live in multigenerational households


Stock Board Asset
Thu, 12 Apr 2018 06:09 UTC
Multigenerational household
© David Sacks/Digital Vision/Thinkstock
The old America we knew, where living standards more than doubled each generation, has ceased to exist as new evidence suggests the percentage of Americans living in multigenerational households is at its highest since the post-World War II economic expansion.

Heavily indebted Americans are readjusting to a deterioration in living standards. Many of society's lower-income consumers have already reshaped their lifestyles - towards living in a home with at least two adult generations. In other words, more Americans than ever in the last half-century are returning to their parents' basement.

According to a new Pew Research Center report of census data, a record 64 million Americans, accounting for some 20 percent of the total U.S. population, lived in multigenerational family households in 2016, representing a three-decade continuous progression in this type of household formation - despite government propaganda that indicates economic improvements since the Great Recession.
Multigenerational household1
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Attention

Anti-GMO mosquito activist delivering petition to EPA found floating dead in DC hotel pool

Jay Syrmopoulos
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 12 Apr 2018 00:01 UTC
gmo mosquito activist
© thefreethoughtproject.com

An anti-GMO mosquito activist was in Washington DC to deliver a petition to the EPA when she was found dead, floating in the pool of her hotel. Police are refusing to release details surrounding the case.

An environmental activist, Milagro de Mier, known as Mila, who had traveled from Key-West, Florida to Washington D.C. to drop off an anti-GMO mosquito petition with nearly 200,000 signatures to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was found dead in her hotel pool on Tuesday morning. Authorities arrived at the Cambria Hotel & Suites Washington, D.C. Convention Center on Tuesday morning after a witness found an unconscious woman floating face down inside the rooftop pool and called 911, according to Fox 5.

Comment: By now it should be obvious to everyone that Big Biotech is criminally insane. To release genetically modified mosquitoes into the environment, without extensive third party risk evaluation, is a threat to humanity on par with nukes. And the suspicious death of one of the main activist opponents leaves little doubt the depths they will go to to achieve their goal. This is like something out of a science fiction movie.

See also:

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Stormtrooper

Border patrol supervisor arrested for allegedly murdering mother and infant son

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Projecct
Thu, 12 Apr 2018 19:20 UTC
border patrol
A decorated 9-year veteran of the US border Patrol-who'd recently been promoted-was arrested on two counts of capital murder this week after a woman and her one-year-old son were found dead.

On Monday, Officer Ronald Anthony Burgos Aviles, who is now in custody, called 911 claiming to have found the bodies of 27-year-old Grizelda Hernandez and Dominick Alexander Hernandez near a park along the border with Mexico.

According to Express News, Aviles called 911 around 11:30 a.m. Monday to report he had found a woman's body near the riverbanks in northwest Laredo. Officers who responded to the scene near Father Charles McNaboe Park said they found the body of a child in addition to the woman's body. The bodies had not been there long, police said.

However, when police began investigating the scene, they quickly identified Aviles as a person of interest in the case, according to Laredo police spokesman Joe Baeza.
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