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Trump invites Covington students to White House as death threats force their school to close

Covington Catholic Student
President Donald Trump has invited to the White House the Covington Catholic High School students who became the most hated people in the nation this weekend, while their school has been forced to close as threats keep pouring in.

Students from Covington, who became viral super-villains when a clip of them appearing to surround and mock a Native American elder was widely shared, will meet with Trump "as early as tomorrow," Fox News host Laura Ingraham initially reported on Tuesday - only to qualify the statement a few hours later with a note that any such meeting would take place "after shutdown." White House press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed the invitation had been issued.

Meanwhile, students and parents at Covington were warned just hours before the start of classes on Tuesday to stay off campus for the day. The last-minute missive followed a letter to parents informing them that "the incident that took place at the March for Life in Washington, DC" was being investigated by an independent third party and advising them to contact the authorities in case of any threats.

Comment: Also see: Shocking video footage confirms Covington students were being viciously harassed by rabid Black Hebrew Israelites


Evil Rays

Mainstream media is literally making people sick by their propagation of "Trump anxiety disorder" a/k/a Trump derangement syndrome

Trump Anxiety Disorder
A new, updated data set is now available on a psychological phenomenon that has been labeled "Trump Anxiety Disorder" or "Trump Hypersensitive Unexplained Disorder," and it says that the phenomenon only got worse in 2018. The disorder is described as a specific type of anxiety in which symptoms "were specific to the election of Trump and the resultant unpredictable sociopolitical climate," and according to the 2018 surveys Americans are feeling significantly more stressed by the future of their country and the current political environment than they were last year.

Pacific Standard reports as follows:

As the possibility of a Hillary Clinton victory began to slip away-and the possibility of a Donald Trump presidency became more and more certain - the contours of the new age of American anxiety began to take shape. In a 2017 column, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank described this phenomenon as "Trump Hypertensive Unexplained Disorder":
Overeating. Headaches. Fainting. Irregular heartbeat. Chronic neck pain. Depression. Irritable bowel syndrome. Tightness in the chest. Shortness of breath. Teeth grinding. Stomach ulcer. Indigestion. Shingles. Eye twitching. Nausea. Irritability. High blood sugar. Tinnitus. Reduced immunity. Racing pulse. Shaking limbs. Hair loss. Acid reflux. Deteriorating vision. Stroke. Heart attack. It was a veritable organ recital.

Comment: Johnstone's analysis is spot on and confirmed by many stories!


Attention

Politics on the playground: 'Yellow vests vs. police' game hitting French schoolyards

Yellow vest protests kids
As France experiences its worst turmoil in decades, a new craze is sweeping French schoolyards. Alongside football, tag, and hopscotch, perceptive kids are taking sides in a new game at recess: Yellow Vests against the police.

"The Yellow Vests are the bad guys, they break the shop windows, so we fight between the bad guys and the policemen," explained 6-year-old Adam, a schoolboy in Paris' 8th District, to France's BFM TV. Admitting he preferred to play as a Yellow Vest because less running was involved, Adam said that he chooses not to shout anti-government slogans alongside his friends because he 'doesn't agree' with them.

No Entry

The many lies told by the NY Times in its "sympathetic" feature on Rouzan al-Najjar and The Great March of Return

Razan al-Najjar

Razan al-Najjar, photo shared by the al-Najjar family.
Much has been made of a recent New York Times piece since it came out on December 30, 2018 "A Day, a Life: When a Medic Was Killed in Gaza, Was It an Accident?" no doubt because some see it as breaking from the Times typically lopsided treatment of this issue. Here are my thoughts on why it isn't much of a departure at all.

The Times undermine their own reporting with a misleading headline. If you actually read the article (which many obviously won't), it's clear that there's no such ambiguity:
"The bullet that killed her, The Times found, was fired by an Israeli sniper into a crowd that included white-coated medics in plain view. A detailed reconstruction, stitched together from hundreds of crowd-sourced videos and photographs, shows that neither the medics nor anyone around them posed any apparent threat of violence to Israeli personnel. Though Israel later admitted her killing was unintentional, the shooting appears to have been reckless at best, and possibly a war crime, for which no one has yet been punished."

Question

Reports of drone disrupts flights at New Jersey airport, US

airport

Newark Liberty International Airport
Flights in and out of New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport were disrupted Tuesday night after reports of a drone flying near Teterboro Airport.

Initially, the Federal Aviation Administration said there were reports of two drones. Later, they said there were two reports of one drone.

The reports came from the flight crew of a Southwest flight and of a United flight. FAA spokesman Greg Martin told CNN that the agency stopped flights at the airport after the initial report over the smaller regional airport some 15 miles away.

Both airports serve the greater metro New York City area.The drone was reportedly flying at 3,500 feet and has since cleared the airspace over the airport, Martin said.

Comment: For an idea of just how numerous, confusing and conflicting these sightings of 'drones' at airports have been, check out: London airports order military-grade anti-drone equipment worth "several million"


Fire

Two ships on Kerch Strait catch fire, one apparently 'struck by a blast' - UPDATE

Kerch Strait ship fire
Two ships have caught fire while moving through the Kerch Strait separating Crimea from mainland Russia, Russian officials said. One of the vessels was apparently rocked by an explosion.

One vessel was "allegedly struck by a blast," which caused fire that then spilled over to another ship, an official with the Russian Maritime and River Transport Agency said.

Clouds of black smoke can be seen billowing over a vessel engulfed by a blaze on YouTube footage, which claims to show the scene of the incident. Another ship can be seen floating nearby, although it is unclear, if it caught on fire as well.

Comment: UPDATE: 23.01.2019 at 2:20

Sputnik provides more details on the blast:
Four Turkish Nationals Died, 8 Rescued in Kerch Strait Tanker Fire

As many as four Turkish nationals were killed, eight were rescued and four went missing after the fire broke out on board two tankers in the Kerch Strait, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

According to preliminary information, the fire broke out on Monday during the transfer of the liquefied natural gas from one vessel to another.

The Russian Federal Agency of Maritime and River Transportation (Rosmorrechflot) said 12 people were rescued, 10 died and 10 were reported missing.

"As a result of the fire on the two Tanzania-flagged ships, Maestro and Kandi, in the Kerch Strait, four out of 16 of our citizens who were crew members died, eight were saved, and the search of four missing is ongoing," the statement read.

Previously, Rosmorrechflot told Sputnik that there has been no oil spill or other environmental damage after the incident.
This is just the latest in a string of worldwide fuel related explosions, but this particular incident occurred in the Kerch strait, an area Ukraine has been using to antagonize Russia:


Attention

Syrian refugee, 16, suing FB for not taking action against Tommy Robinson's false claims saying the boy attacked English girls

Syrian refugee Jamal

Syrian refugee Jamal, 16, was 'waterboarded' by a school bully and is now set to take legal action against Facebook
The Syrian refugee who was allegedly 'waterboarded' by a school bully is taking legal action against Facebook over claims he attacked English girls.

Lawyers acting for 16-year-old Jamal are preparing to sue the internet giant for allowing English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson to peddle false accusations about him on its site.

In a highly unusual case, Facebook stands accused of allowing Robinson to make a series of poisonous rants about Jamal because the far-Right activist's popularity makes the company money. The boy's legal team says the social media company was 'fully aware of the reckless and pernicious nature' of Robinson's videos and has 'profited from defamation'.

Comment: Robinson states he was embarrassed at being 'had'. But that's not the only thing for him to be embarrassed about. He used his biases and influence to inflame outrage on the right against an already victimized boy. This is no different from what we see on left, most glaringly in the recent incident involving the 'MAGA' kids and Nathan Phillips, the Native American 'elder'. People on both the left and right are having their emotional strings pulled. It's not like this is a modern phenomenon either (although the effects are amplified through technology). We see this same act played throughout history: the Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, the lynchings of black people in America, and so on.

The awful reality is that there is something in the human nature of the masses that loves a good public stoning. Ideological possession allows for people to drop their inhibitions and engage their inner animal. It blinds people to the nuances of reality as well as our commonly shared humanity. Tough times are made worse by call-out culture and the vengeance it demands. The public will not develop a better society by 'naming and shaming' their neighbors. We get it namely through the hard work of assuming the small responsibilities in our own world and making productive contributions to others. That comes first. If we master those things, then we might begin to tackle more complicated tasks and build our competence.

Ideally, it would be competent people who are tasked with the responsibility of identifying social harm, as this remains a need. Unfortunately, there are not very many competent people in the media. Many people also give trust away too easily when it comes to accepting what is depicted in the news. This too can be a sign of ideological possession, but it is also an indication of lazy thinking that we all share as a fundamental operation in our minds (Daniel Kahneman describes the process as 'system one' in his book Thinking Fast and Slow). Perhaps some people will learn as these incidents continue and become increasingly more intense. Others, as we see, will continue to favor their fixed beliefs over reality. That's a rough road to travel.


Info

No kidding: University study shows three quarters of people dissatisfied with 'undemocratic', 'self-interested' & 'divided' political parties

UK parliament
Research by the University of Sheffield has revealed more than three quarters of people are dissatisfied with political parties and has identified the seven main qualities people want to see in parties today.

Gathering data through a survey administered by YouGov and three public workshops, research led by Dr Kate Dommett and Dr Luke Temple asked people about their attitudes towards parties, including how people believe parties are behaving now and how they would like to see parties work.

The top words used to describe political parties by workshop participants included 'unrepresentative', 'undemocratic', 'self-interested' and 'divided'. Seventy-seven per cent of those surveyed said they were fairly or very dissatisfied with parties.

Comment: What doesn't seem to be covered in this survey are questions showing the public's awareness (or lack thereof) of psychopaths in positions of power - being the main reason why most voters will likely remain grossly dissatisfied with party politics.




Pirates

The 'toxic masculinity' meme has poisoned society

gillette ad toxic masculinity
© Procter & Gamble Co.
Gillette’s ill-judged ‘toxic masculinity’ ad.
Over the weekend, a disturbing video of a group of boys from a Catholic School in Covington, Kentucky catapulted Twitter into one of its regular nervous breakdowns. The video appeared to show the boys surrounding and taunting a lone, elderly Native American man as he chanted and played a drum in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The Indian was a veteran; his demeanor was stoic and dignified. The boys were loud and rowdy, the kind adults routinely cross the street to avoid. They were also-with one or two exceptions-white. A few were wearing MAGA hats. They had just come from the annual anti-abortion March for Life.

In other words, the video could have been scripted by a gender-studies professor from Middlebury, staged by the director of Gillette's viral ad on toxic masculinity, and given an official seal of approval from the American Psychological Association, the august organization whose recently published guidelines elaborating on the evils of "traditional codes of masculinity" made waves a few weeks ago. There it was: toxic (white) masculinity, for all to see and deplore.

Whistle

Vulture journalist who wished death on Covington students and their parents gets fired

Erik Abriss

Erik Abriss
Digital company INE Entertainment has fired a journalist who publicly wished for the death of several Covington Catholic High School students and their parents in a pair of tweets over the weekend. Aside from his job as a post-production supervisor at INE, Erik Abriss is a contributor to New York Media's pop culture site Vulture.

"We were surprised and upset to see the inflammatory and offensive rhetoric used on Erik Abriss' Twitter account this weekend. He worked with the company in our post-production department and never as a writer," the company said in a statement to TheWrap on Monday.

"While we appreciated his work, it is clear that he is no longer aligned with our company's core values of respect and tolerance. Therefore, as of January 21, 2019, we have severed ties with Abriss."

Passions ran high on social media Saturday after video emerged of several students from Covington, many of whom were wearing "Make America Great Again" hats, surrounding a Native American elder who was in Washington, D.C. for the Indigenous Peoples' March. Many viewers believed the teens were attempting to taunt the elder, Nathan Phillips.