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Student loan 'expert' Drew Cloud revealed as fake persona created by student-loan refinancing company

Dan Bauman and Chris Quintana
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 00:00 UTC
Drew Cloud, studen-loan debt

The fictional founder sprang from this website, which shares news about student loans.
Drew Cloud is everywhere. The self-described journalist who specializes in student-loan debt has been quoted in major news outlets, including The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and CNBC, and is a fixture in the smaller, specialized blogosphere of student debt.

He's always got the new data, featuring irresistible twists:

One in five students use extra money from their student loans to buy digital currencies.

Nearly 8 percent of students would move to North Korea to free themselves of their debt.

Twenty-seven percent would contract the Zika virus to live debt-free.

All of those surveys came from Cloud's website, The Student Loan Report.

Drew Cloud's story was simple: He founded the website, an "independent, authoritative news outlet" covering all things student loans, "after he had difficulty finding the most recent student loan news and information all in one place."

He became ubiquitous on that topic. But he's a fiction, the invention of a student-loan refinancing company.
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Vader

As if Iraq wasn't enough, now the West is lying about Syria to push a new war

Yonden Lhatoo
South China Morning Post
Sat, 21 Apr 2018 15:40 UTC
syria bombing destruction
© Agence France-Presse
We’re being lied to about the need to bomb what’s left of that war-ravaged country, just like we were hoodwinked over Iraq 15 years ago.
The US and its allies have not only learned nothing from their disastrous invasion of Iraq, they're using the same kind of lies to justify the same mistakes they're making all over again, this time in Syria

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," the old and oft-repeated aphorism goes.

Well, in this age of unreason, we remember the past all right, but we're completely cavalier about repeating the mistakes of history. Learning lessons is for wimps in the new world order.

A textbook case of this is what's happening right now in Syria. We're being lied to about the need to bomb what's left of that war-ravaged country, just like we were hoodwinked over Iraq 15 years ago.

Last week self-appointed global sheriff the United States and deputy dawgs Britain and France showered more than 100 missiles upon Syria, telling the world they were making our planet safer by punishing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for gassing his own people with chemical weapons.
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USA

Double-standards: Judge rules NYC bar can refuse service to Trump supporters


Fox News
Wed, 25 Apr 2018 15:33 UTC
maga hat
© Reuters
A Manhattan judge ruled Wednesday that kicking a Trump supporter out of a bar does not violate the law - because the law does not protect against political discrimination.

Greg Piatek of Philadelphia claims he was refused service and eventually removed from a New York City bar in January 2017 for wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat, in a lawsuit against the establishment.

"Anyone who supports Trump - or believes in what you believe - is not welcome here! And you need to leave right now because we won't serve you!" Piatek claims the staff of The Happiest Hour told him.

Piatek claimed the incident "offended his sense of being an American," The New York Post reported.

The lawyer representing The Happiest Hour, Elizabeth Conway, argued that he was not discriminated against because only religious, not political, beliefs are protected under state and city discrimination law.


Comment: So we suppose NYC would have no problem with a Christian bakery refusing to bake cakes for gay weddings...


"Supporting Trump is not a religion," Conway argued.
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Megaphone

Mass protests continue to grip Armenian capital despite PM Sargsyan's resignation


RT
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 13:22 UTC
rally Yerevan, Armenia
© Gleb Garanich / Reuters
A rally in Yerevan, Armenia, April 25, 2018
Massive opposition rallies continue to grip the Armenian capital of Yerevan despite Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, who was president for several consecutive years, giving in to protesters' demands and stepping down this week.

The protests continued into the second week in Yerevan, with smaller rallies taking place in Gyumri, the country's second-largest city. On Wednesday, multiple demonstrators flooded downtown Yerevan and disrupted traffic around the government quarters.

Protesters directed their anger at Serzh Sargsyan, who already served as the prime minister of Armenia twice and was the third president of Armenia. He was again elected as prime minister in April 2018. The opposition accused him of a "power grab" and demanded that he step down.

Comment: Further reading:

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Network

Media declares 'end of internet as we know it' after net-neutrality regulations repealed

Mairead McArdle
National Review
Mon, 23 Apr 2018 18:11 UTC
Ajit Varadaraj Pai net neutrality FCC
© Reuters/Aaron P. Bernstein
Chairman Ajit Pai speaks ahead of the vote on the repeal of so called net neutrality rules at the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, U.S., December 14, 2017.
Media outlets have raised the alarm about the repeal of net neutrality, which took effect on Monday.

Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai initially introduced the Restoring Internet Freedom Order, which repeals the Obama-era Open Internet Order net-neutrality rules. It was passed by a vote of the FCC in December.

The "internet as we know it may not exist," CNET said on Monday as the repeal took effect.

"Net neutrality is officially dead today, but the fight to revive it lives on, " TechCrunch declared.

The "end of the Internet as we know it," read the main headline on CNN.com after December's vote.

Comment: Free speech could become very expensive, if smaller or more contentious websites are placed in slower data streams and customers charged more to access them. Censorship by any other name is still censorship.

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Bizarro Earth

Danish immigration minister Stojberg hits out at migrants - they 'cheat, lie and abuse trust'


RT
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 15:25 UTC
denmark refugees
© Claus Fisker / Agence France-Presse
Denmark's immigration minister, known for her hardline stance on migration, has drawn ire from people on social media after she said that in order to pass language tests, asylum seekers cheat and abuse the trust of authorities.

Minister Inger Stojberg of the ruling center-right Venstre party, cited a Facebook group that provides answers to Danish language and culture tests, which all migrants have to take in the Nordic country. "A significant group" of refugees who have come to Denmark "cheats, lies and abuses our trust," she wrote in an editorial in BT, a Danish tabloid newspaper.

Another problem that Stojberg highlighted is the age of so-called minors among migrants, many of whom are believed to be grown men posing as adolescents. "We also see young people under the age of 18 who cheat their way into getting better treatment and more benefits," she stated, stressing that an unaccompanied minor costs over 500,000 kroner ($80,000) per year for the state. "In fact, two thirds of those whom we later age-tested proved to be older than they originally stated," she added.

Comment: The minister may have a point.

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Star of David

Medics: Gaza protesters' gunshot injuries at hands of Israeli troops 'unusally severe'


RT
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 15:28 UTC
injured palestinian
© Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters
A demonstrator is evacuated after inhaling tear gas during clashes in the southern Gaza Strip, April 13, 2018
The injuries sustained by Gaza protesters at the hands of Israeli troops during the ongoing Great March of Return are unusually severe, doctors say, adding they have seen nothing similar since the Israeli campaign of 2014.

"Half of the more than 500 patients we have admitted in our clinics have injuries where the bullet has literally destroyed tissue after having pulverized the bone," Marie-Elisabeth Ingres, head of mission of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Palestine, said in a report released last week.

The international medical group stressed that its doctors treated a number of patients with "devastating injuries of an unusual severity" who will have to undergo "complex surgical operations." The majority of the victims will have serious and long-term physical disabilities, according to the report. "Some patients may yet need amputation if not provided with sufficient care in Gaza," the statement added. The medics said that large exit wounds "can be the size of a fist."

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), a British charity that operates in the West Bank and Gaza, also expressed concern. "The bullets used are causing injuries local medics say they have not seen since 2014. The entrance wound is small. The exit wound is devastating, causing gross comminution of bone and destruction of soft tissue," the London-based group said, citing one of the surgeons in its report last week. Israel's 2014 Operation Protective Edge in Gaza resulted in over 2,000 deaths.
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Eye 2

Sweden: Afghan teenager rapes woman who campaigns against deportation of migrants - gets only 15 months in jail

Joe Roberts
Metro
Wed, 25 Apr 2018 15:24 UTC
Sweden refugees accommodation
© Google
She was raped at the teenager’s accommodation for unaccompanied minor refugees


A Swedish woman was raped by an Afghan teenager while another masturbated and groped her breasts, a court heard.

The victim reportedly campaigns against the deportation of migrants from Sweden and met the 18-year-olds outside a hotel bar on Boxing Day last year.

Anwar Hassani and Fardi Hesari asked the woman, aged in her 40s, if she wanted to go back to their room, which is provided for unaccompanied minor refugees, in Ljungby, southern Sweden, just before 3.30am.

Back at their room, she tripped and hit her head, the MailOnline reports.

She felt dizzy and lay down on a mattress on the floor, when Hassani started touching her body.

She pushed him away saying 'I don't want to' but Hassani reportedly told her to 'be quiet' and raped her.

Comment: Why was Hesari allowed to walk away without seeing the inside of a jail?? Why was Hassani sentenced to only 15 months??

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Eye 1

China assigns each citizen a 'social credit score' based on behavior to determine trustworthiness


CBS New York
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 15:01 UTC
Camera China
© Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images
A worker adjusts security cameras on the edge of Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Sept. 30, 2014.


Country Determines Your Standing Through Use Of Surveillance Video, Plans To Have 600 Million Cameras By 2020

China is rolling out a high-tech plan to give all of its 1.4 billion citizens a personal score, based on how they behave.

But there are consequences if a score gets too low, and for some that's cause for concern, CBS2's Ben Tracy reported Tuesday.

When Liu Hu recently tried to book a flight, he was told he was banned from flying because he was on the list of untrustworthy people. Liu is a journalist who was ordered by a court to apologize for a series of tweets he wrote and was then told his apology was insincere.

"I can't buy property. My child can't go to a private school," he said. "You feel you're being controlled by the list all the time."

And the list is now getting longer as every Chinese citizen is being assigned a social credit score - a fluctuating rating based on a range of behaviors. It's believed that community service and buying Chinese-made products can raise your score. Fraud, tax evasion and smoking in non-smoking areas can drop it.

Comment: Watch Ben Tracy's video report here.

Three years ago, the Corbett Report posted this video on the implications of China's 'social credit score':



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Evil Rays

US general complains American warplanes regularly targeted by electronic warfare in Syrian skies


Sputnik
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 15:12 UTC
AC-130 gunship
© AFP 2018 / US AIR FORCE
In a speech at the US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation's 2018 GEOINT Symposium, the head of the US Special Operations Command, Gen. Raymond Thomas, said that the American Air Force had faced challenges in Syria - its AC-130 gunships and communication links had been disrupted due to electronic warfare (EW) attacks.

"Right now in Syria, we're in the most aggressive EW environment on the planet from our adversaries. They're testing us every day, knocking our communications down, disabling our AC-130s, etcetera," Thomas said, as cited by The Drive.

Even though Thomas did not specify the opponents, the news website suggested that it was "almost certainly Russian or Russian-support forces" that perpetrated the non-kinetic attacks on American military activities in the region.

The Drive attempted to explain to its readers the perils EW may bear: an adversary "jamming" AC-130 crews' communications systems or links could jeopardize US special operators and conventional forces, as well as innocent civilians passing by, as the gunships are dependent on those systems, which help them identify targets and coordinate attacks.

Earlier this month, the NBC channel reported, citing unnamed US officials that Russia had started blocking American drones after a "series of alleged chemical attacks on civilians in Eastern Ghouta." The Russian military allegedly was concerned that the US army would retaliate for the chemical incidents and began jamming the GPS systems of the unmanned aerial vehicles in the area.
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