Today's News: December 05, 2019

World News

France hit by nationwide strike as workers protest over pension reforms
CNBC – France is experiencing one of its biggest strikes in decades as public sector workers protest against changes to the pension system.
The main impact of the strike is being felt on the transport networks and schools. The French national rail company, SNCF, canceled 90% of its trains on Thursday; the Parisian metro closed 11 out of its 16 lines; and the Eurostar is operating with a reduced timetable. France’s education ministry expects 55% of its teaching staff to go on strike nationwide.
There are also about 250 official demonstrations scheduled across the country. According to the French newspaper, Le Monde, more than 180 000 people are taking to the streets in 30 different parts of France.
Many of the main train stations, which usually see big crowds early morning, were empty. Workers either decided to stay at home or use alternative ways of transport. The Eiffel Tower and the Orsay Museum — two of the biggest Parisian landmarks — were shut because of staff shortages, according to the French agency AFP.
Putin: ‘In Some Countries the Word “Mother” is Being Replaced’
“I hope we never have that in Russia.” – President Vladimir Putin remarked at a recent Kremlin meeting that some countries are replacing the word “mother” out of concerns for political correctness, something he hoped would never happen in Russia.
Putin was referring to a law passed in France earlier this year which mandates that schools refrain from using ‘father’ and ‘mother’ and instead use ‘parent 1’ and ‘parent 2’.
According to government MP Valérie Petit, the change was necessary because using ‘father’ and ‘mother’ is “old fashioned” and doesn’t meet the needs of “social equality.”
Don’t expect to see Russia following suit.
During a meeting of the Council for Interethnic Relations, a Kremlin advisory group, Putin told delegates, “You said the word mother ‘can’t be replaced.’ It turns out, perhaps, it can, in some countries, they now have ‘parent number one’ and ‘parent number two.’ I hope we never have that (in Russia).”
Officials attending the conference laughed, but for many in the west, who are told to accept such absurdities in silence lest they be punished for a myriad of potential thought crimes, it’s not that funny.
“That good-natured response masked the looming uneasiness that yet another crazy train has departed the Western station and is on a collision course with Russia, as well as the rest of the world,” writes Robert Bridge.
“Will Russia be able to holdout forever against the globalists’ ultra-liberal agenda now threatening the planet?” he asks.
US military completes pullback from NE Syria – Esper
RT – The United States has completed its military pullback in northeastern Syria, settling into a more stable posture of about 600 troops in the rest of the country after repositioning and reducing forces, Defense Secretary Mark Esper has told Reuters.
The remarks could signal the end of a period of turbulence and uncertainty surrounding the US military presence in Syria after President Donald Trump’s initial withdrawal order in October. Since then, troop levels in Syria have fallen about 40 percent from around 1,000.
Esper said he retained the ability to move in and out smaller numbers of forces as needed into Syria. But he suggested the number of troops will fluctuate around the 600-level for the foreseeable future.
The secretary also didn’t rule out being able to reduce US troop levels further if European allies contributed to the Syria mission.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Pelosi announces full speed ahead with articles of impeachment against Trump
The speaker’s comments come a day after the House Judiciary Committee held its first hearing.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced Thursday that she was asking the House Judiciary Committee and chairmen of other committees to proceed with drafting articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, saying “the president leaves us no choice but to act.”
“Sadly, but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders and our heart full of love for America, today, I am asking our chairmen to proceed with articles of impeachment,” Pelosi said in a brief televised statement from the Capitol, speaking directly to the American people.
The facts of Trump’s alleged wrongdoing involving Ukraine, she said, “are uncontested.”
“The president abused his power for his own personal, political benefit at the expense of our national security by withholding military aid and crucial Oval Office meeting in exchange for an announcement of an investigation into his political rival,” Pelosi said, adding that his actions “seriously violated the Constitution.”
“Our democracy is what’s at stake,” Pelosi continued. “The president leaves us no choice but to act because he is trying to corrupt, once again, the election for his own benefit.”
Pelosi began her statement citing deliberations by the Founding Fathers with regard to impeachment, saying in particular that “they feared the prospect of a king-president corrupted by foreign influence.”
‘This Lady Needs A Shrink!’ Tucker Mocks Prof Karlan’s Unhinged Impeachment Testimony
Information Liberation – The Democrats’ impeachment inquiry on Wednesday was a dumpster fire.
As Tucker Carlson highlighted on his show Wednesday night, the star of the hearing was Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan, who likes to describe herself as a “snarky, bisexual, Jewish” woman.
Carlson mocked her testimony and found some old footage of her pushing the lie of “white male privilege” all the way back in 2006.
“We have to seize back the high ground on patriotism and love of our country because we have more reason than they do to love America,” Karlan says in the clip. “The rich, pampered prodigal sanctimonious incurious white, straight sons of the powerful do pretty well everywhere in the world and they always have.”
“This lady needs a shrink,” Carlson joked. “‘The sons of the powerful?’ Really? You are a law professor at Stanford and you are lecturing other people how they are powerful? Right.”
During her testimony, Karlan also regurgitated old neocon talking points insisting we need to arm the Ukrainians “so we can fight the Russians there and we don’t have to fight them here.”
“And I think in the Intelligence Committee you heard testimony that it isn’t just our national interest in protecting our national elections, it isn’t just our national interest to make sure that the Ukraine remains strong and on the front lines so we can fight the Russians there and we don’t have to fight them here,” Karlan said.
Karlan also made a very stupid joke about Barron Trump, got scolded by Melania Trump and chose to come out and apologize.
How Dumb Have We Become? Chinese Students Are 4 Grade Levels Ahead Of U.S. Students In Math
Michael Snyder – How in the world is America supposed to remain “the greatest country on Earth” when other nations are absolutely running circles around us when it comes to education? As you will see below, one survey found that 15-year-old students in China are almost four full grade levels ahead of 15-year-old students in the United States in mathematics. This is one of the most damning indictments of our education system that I have ever come across, and it is yet another clear indication that what we are doing is simply not working. Our children are not being given the tools that they need to compete in our modern society, and we have only ourselves to blame.
Perhaps you are thinking that the survey must be flawed somehow.
Well, this wasn’t some fluky survey that was only given to a handful of students. Every three years, the Program for International Student Assessment evaluates 15-year-old students all over the world in a variety of subject areas, and in 2018 approximately 32 million students participated…
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a survey given to 15-year-old students around the world every three years, which tests the core subjects of reading, mathematics, and science. In 2018, 79 countries and economies participated, representing about 32 million 15-year-olds.
When your sample size is 32 million students, I think that it is safe to say that the results of the survey should be taken seriously.
And what the survey discovered is that U.S. students continue to fall behind in math. In particular, we have fallen way, way behind the Chinese. The following comes from Psychology Today…
There is no excuse for the US when students in Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang (B-S-J-Z) performed near four grade levels ahead of US students in mathematics.
In addition, the survey also discovered that the “most disadvantaged” students in China actually performed on par with the average U.S. student…
“The 10% most disadvantaged students in Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang (B-S-J-Z) or in Macao or Estonia… those students actually do as well or better than the average student in the US. So clearly some countries do better with their disadvantaged students, where you see less variability with students from the most privileged backgrounds,” said Andreas Schleicher.
The Average Person Will Watch Over 78,000 Hours Of Television “Programming” Over The Course Of A Lifetime
Michael Snyder – If you want to waste your life, a great way to do that is to spend tens of thousands of hours watching television. Today, it is so difficult to get people to leave their homes and get active in their communities, because most of us are absolutely glued to one screen or another. After a long day at school or a hard day at work, most of us understandably want to relax, and from a very early age most of us have been trained to turn to the television as our main source of relaxation. But of course there is great danger in allowing anyone to pump thousands upon thousands of hours of “programming” into our minds. More than 90 percent of the “programming” that we consume is controlled by just a handful of exceedingly powerful corporations, and those corporations are owned by the elite of the world. So when you endlessly consume their “programming”, you are willingly being bombarded by news and entertainment that reflects their beliefs, their values and their agendas. They openly admit that they are trying to shape the future of society, and up to this point they have been extremely successful.
Unfortunately, we live at a time when most people need television or some other insidious addiction to take their minds off of the gnawing emptiness that they feel deep inside of them. As I was doing some research the other day, a comment that someone posted on an Internet message board really struck a chord with me…
As a kid life seems so amazing and you can dream of big things and have faith. The older you get it seems the world tries to take away your faith. I have had 8 jobs in my life starting in high school and I’m just sick of this ****. I’m lucky to make 100 a day . I know that’s poverty level. But I manage. But thinking ahead I have to do this every day for the next 30 years . How the hell do you guys and gals cope with reality.
I’m on empty.
I want out.
In just a few sentences, this individual summed up what millions upon millions of Americans are feeling.
Virginia Beach Residents Pack City Hall, Demand to Become a Second Amendment Sanctuary
Information Liberation – From 13 News Now, “Virginia Beach City Hall overflows with crowd supporting Second Amendment Sanctuary”:
There was nothing official on Virginia Beach City Council’s agenda about Second Amendment Sanctuaries Tuesday night, but that didn’t keep a crowd of supporters from showing up.
In fact, so many people showed up, the fire marshal’s office had to ask dozens upon dozens of people to step outside of the building, and they did. That left a sea of supporters outside Virginia Beach City Hall.
All of this took place as the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors prepared to vote on a Second Amendment Sanctuary resolution, a resolution which the board passed unanimously Tuesday. The county joined other municipalities in Virginia that adopted similar resolutions.
If leftist cities can declare themselves to be sanctuaries for illegal aliens in defiance of federal law, right-minded cities can declare themselves sanctuaries for the Second Amendment to uphold the Bill of Rights in defiance of leftist gun grabbers.
This is going to be one of the biggest issues in the very near future as states like Texas, Georgia and Florida follow Virginia in turning blue due to mass immigration.
EXCLUSIVE: Bill Clinton was Jeffrey Epstein’s closest ‘celebrity mate’ and a frequent guest at his New Mexico ranch with wife Hillary, staying at the pedophile’s cowboy-themed village, say estate workers
Daily Mail – Bill and Hillary Clinton stayed at Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious ‘baby-making ranch’ almost every year after they left the White House, according to the disgraced financier’s estate manager.
The former president was Epstein’s closest ‘celebrity mate’ and the Clintons, along with daughter Chelsea, visited Zorro Ranch ‘a whole bunch of times’, a former contractor who ran the IT system at the property told DailyMailTV in an exclusive interview.
The family visited the 10,000-acre estate in the New Mexico desert often, but never stayed in the main house.
Instead, the Clinton family bunked down in a special cowboy-themed village created by Epstein, which is a mile south of his own luxury mountaintop villa. They’d use one of the two guest houses, which look like they’re straight out of the 19th century.
Seen in exclusive DailyMailTV images, the guest homes are next to other traditional Wild West-style buildings such as an old schoolhouse and saloon bar. An American flag is raised high above the village, which is next door to Epstein’s private airstrip, where he arrived on his private planes, including his infamous ‘Lolita Express’.
This is all according to security expert Jared Kellogg, who was brought in by long-standing ranch manager Brice Gordon to improve security and set up a camera system at the main house and ‘cowboy village’.
When contacted by DailyMail.com for comment, Bill Clinton’s press office referred us to a statement released over the summer. The statement denied he had ever visited any of Epstein’s residences, apart from once at Epstein’s home in New York City. DailyMail.com reached out to Hillary Clinton’s office for comment as well.
Kellogg said that at the time of his site walk of Epstein’s property, he had barely any knowledge of Epstein’s reputation but he said Gordon spent most of the time boasting about the Clintons’ frequent appearance at the estate.
The ranch is one of several Epstein’s homes where underage girls were flown in from all around the world.
The New York Times claimed the convicted pedophile confided in scientists that he planned to impregnate up to 20 women at a time at the ranch to improve the human race with his genes.
Kellogg said: ‘My contact was Brice, their main concern was that there was no video surveillance on the property at all. I thought this was a simple request, as they wanted surveillance to protect their investment. It’s a huge site.
‘But what was weird was that the whole time I was on site, Brice would be bragging about how the Clintons would visit, the whole family. Not just Bill, but Bill, his wife, their kid, and they would stay on the ranch itself.
‘He had built this Western replica village with a saloon, barn houses, old school house and when you’re walking through it, it feels like you’re walking through the 1800s.
‘His biggest concern was monitoring and covering that area, so my main focus was mounting cameras on poles to cover the driveways, walkways, the ins and outs of each house and facilities.
‘It was like Westworld, it’s like they built a functioning movie set, they put a lot of thought and detail into it, the flooring and facilities in there.
‘I was saying how cool the replica houses were, they’re pretty neat like the 1800s. He said: ”Yeah, they’re built for guests, we get a lot of visitors. It’s really cool the Clintons come out and hang out [with Epstein].”
‘It sounded like a normal summer vacation.’
Epstein and Bill were once friends, and in August DailyMail.com revealed the convicted pedophile even had a bizarre portrait of Bill wearing a dress hanging on the wall of his New York mansion.
The picture depicted the former president apparently lounging on a chair in the Oval Office, wearing red heels and posing suggestively in a blue dress redolent of Monica Lewinsky and was in a room off the stairway of Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse, estimated to be worth $56 million.
The dress is also strikingly similar to one worn by Hillary Clinton at the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors.
Florida Police Using FINDER System to Create Lists of Gun Owners
Ammoland – Earlier this month AmmoLand brought its reader a story of an alleged illegal gun list compiled by the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Department using the FINDER system in Florida.
Pawnbrokers are required to enter information on firearms transactions into the FINDER system. The system transmits the serial number of the firearm along with the make and model to the local sheriffs’ department to make sure that the person pawning the gun, did not steal it. A bug in the system also transmitted the names and addresses of the transfers to local law enforcement. The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Department used the information to create a list of gun owners.
In Florida, it is a felony for law enforcement agencies to keep a list of gun owners under Florida Statute 790.335. The Charlotte County State’s Attorney’s Office determined that the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Department did not violate any laws in compiling the list. After the results of the investigation, Florida Carry asked the Attorney General’s Office of the state to carry out an independent investigation.
AmmoLand has discovered with the help of reporter Andrew Sheets that abuse of the FINDER system appears to extend past Charlotte County into surrounding jurisdictions. It isn’t clear how far the abuses extend across the state.
Emails obtained by Mr. Sheets and AmmoLand shows that the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Department shared their list with other departments. One of the other law enforcement agencies that the Sheriff shared their list with is the North Port Police department.
The Sarasota Sheriff’s Office has also been compiling a list using the FINDER system. More disturbing is that the Sheriff provided an unredacted list of pawn transactions via email to Mr. Sheets. The file contains not only information about the firearm, but also the names of the person pawning the gun, putting them at risk of robbery and violating their privacy rights.
The 10 most important revelations to expect from the Russia probe FISA report
John Solomon Reports – ext week Americans will finally get their most complete accounting to date of what the FBI did right and wrong in the Russia collusion investigation that probed President Trump’s campaign with a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant at the end of the 2016 election.
Predicted to span more than 500 pages and 100 witness interviews, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report Monday will provide a comprehensive catalog of what offenses, mistakes and oversights the FBI committed during one of the most politically polarizing investigations in recent history.
As such, it will serve as a non-partisan roadmap for a much longer process of holding the investigators to account, a process that now includes a criminal probe being led by U.S. Attorney John Durham and investigative hearings by Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham.
In the evitable political bitterness that grips Washington, each political party will seek to score points by cherry-picking their favorite Horowitz findings. But there is a far weightier question than electoral politics to be resolved: Can the FBI be trusted going forward to adequately, fairly and honestly protect civil liberties of Americans while conducting counterintelligence, counterterrorism and criminal investigations.
With that bigger question in mind, here are the 10 revelations I believe will be most important in the Horowitz report:

The scope of failure and misconduct
Exculpatory evidence withheld
Derogatory information about informant Christopher Steele
News leaks as evidence
Verification under the Woods Procedures
Steele dossier heartburn
What investigators learned from Steele
Bias, intent and incompetence
Criminal referrals and disciplinary actions
Lessons Learned

Economy & Business

Perfect Storm: Trump Admin To Cut 750,000 From Food Stamps Ahead Of Recession
ZeroHedge – In a bid to end the massive welfare state, the Trump administration is expected to announce new measures Wednesday that would end food stamp benefits for nearly 750,000 low-income folks. The new rules will make it difficult for “states to gain waivers from a requirement that beneficiaries work or participate in a vocational training program,” according to Bloomberg sources.
Republicans have long attempted to abolish the welfare state, claiming that the redistribution of wealth for poor people keeps them in a state of perpetual poverty. They also claim the welfare state is a system of command and control and has been used by Democrats for decades as a political weapon against conservatives, hence why most inner cities vote Democrat.
House Republicans tried to cut parts of the federal food assistance program last year, but it was quickly rejected in the Senate.
The new requirements by the Trump administration would only target “able-bodied” recipients who aren’t caring for children under six.
Sources said the measure would be one of three enacted by the Trump administration to wind down the massive federal food assistance program.
The measures are expected to boot nearly 3.7 million recipients from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Though it comes at a time when employment is in a downturn, manufacturing has stumbled into a recession, and the US economy could be entering a mild recession in the year ahead.

Energy & Environment

IB City Council passes resolution calling for federal aid in sewage crisis
Fox – The City of Imperial Beach on Wednesday took yet another step toward calling on the federal government to help manage the cross-border sewage crisis in the Tijuana River Valley.
The City Council passed the resolution unanimously, calling for more funding to complete projects in the Tijuana River Valley and authorizing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to work with the International Boundary and Water Commission to continue to look for ways to clean the water and keep it clean.
“It’s my understanding that President Trump, his No. 1 environmental priority at the White House is the Tijuana River, they want to fix this,” said Mayor Serge Dedina at Wednesday’s meeting.
It was an easy vote for council members, but there were a select few people at the meeting who weren’t sure about every detail of the resolution and any fixes for the sewage that may come down the line.

Science & Technology

Cyborg super soldiers: US Army report reveals vision for deadly ‘machine humans’
Daily Mail – Future armies could be made up of half-human half-machine cyborgs with infrared sight, ultrasonic hearing and super strength, equipped with mind-controlled weapons.
In a US Army report, experts from Devcom – the Combat Capabilities Development Command – outlined a number of possible future technologies that could be used to enhance soldiers on the battlefield by 2050.
These include enhanced limbs for increased strength, an eye that provides infrared and ultraviolet vision, and an audio device that provides ultra- and subsonic hearing.

Health

Samoa measles outbreak: families fly red flags to request vaccinations
The Guardian – Samoa’s main streets were eerily quiet on Thursday as the government stepped up efforts to curb a measles epidemic that has killed 62 people.
The government told most public and private workers to stay home for two days and shut down roads to nonessential vehicles as teams began going door-to-door to administer vaccines.
Families in the Pacific island nation were asked to hang red flags from their houses if they needed to be vaccinated.
Most of those who have died from the virus are young, with 54 deaths among children aged four or younger.
Medical team from Hawaii reaches Samoa; begins giving measles vaccines
Hawaii News Now – A two day shutdown of all businesses across Samoa started this morning as the country grapples to deal with a deadly measles outbreak.
The roads were also off limits to the general public — as first responders began an unprecedented mass vaccination campaign.
Red flags could be seen flying in front of hundreds of homes across the island nation. Those are meant to alert health officials that the people who live there need vaccines.
Over the next 48 hours, nearly 100 teams of vaccinators will be going door to door to provide people with immunizations and screen for live cases of the virus.
A medical caravan made up of health care providers from Oahu and Samoa snaked slowly down a dirt road in the village of Malie on Thursday.
They stopped at homes and often people desperate for help would point the way.
Your air freshener may be harmful to your health
Your sweet-smelling home may be upping your risk of serious health issues, including cancer.
Considerable – Whether you want your house to smell like clean laundry or a meadow at dawn, rest assured—there’s an air freshener for that. But did you know that your sweet-smelling home may be damaging your health?
Over the past decade, scientists have been studying the effects of common chemicals found in your kitchen and elsewhere in your home. What they found: Many common household air fresheners may have harmful side effects.
According to Anne Steinemann, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Melbourne who has extensively studied the health impacts of fragranced household products, one-quarter of the ingredients in air fresheners are classified as toxic or hazardous.
“Ultimately your risk depends on exposure,” she says. “You don’t have to have symptoms. Just because it doesn’t kill you, it doesn’t mean it’s not harming you. Some effects are not immediately obvious.”
Hair Dye Linked to Cancer
Newsmax – Could permanent hair dyes and chemical straighteners raise a woman’s risk of breast cancer? A new study suggests they could.
Researchers analyzed data from nearly 47,000 U.S. women, followed for an average of more than eight years as part of the federally funded Sisters Study. All of the women had a sister who’d been diagnosed with breast cancer, but they didn’t have breast cancer themselves at the start of the study.
Although it wasn’t able to prove cause and effect, the study found that women who regularly used permanent hair dye in the year prior to enrolling in the study were 9% more likely to develop breast cancer than those who didn’t use hair dye.
Babies In New Study Cried 50% Less After Taking This Supplement
Mind Body Green – It is estimated that 40% of infants go through colic at some point, which basically means an otherwise healthy baby cries for more than three hours a day, at least three days per week, for more than three weeks.
And if that sounds like your absolute worst nightmare, we’ve got good news. A new study found probiotics to be an effective and promising means of treating colic.
The effects of probiotics on infant colic.
Researchers at the University of Naples Federico II, in Italy, originally hypothesized that gut bacteria played a role in infant colic and set out to determine whether administering probiotics would help.
The study was made up of 80 infants, and over the course of four weeks, one group of 40 received a specific probiotic strain, while the other 40 received a placebo. And the results would indicate researchers were on to something when they considered gut health.
Of the 40 infants who took the probiotic, 80% of them saw at least a 50% decrease in crying episodes after the four weeks were up. And what’s more, none of them “relapsed,” or regressed to excessive crying after that.
Additionally, researchers found the infants who’d taken the probiotics were sleeping longer (a win-win for baby and parents!), and they were pooping more frequently and consistently (another win, because, of course, constipation is going to upset a baby).