Xonotic vs ChaosEsque:Anthology, Which to chose. A debate on OpenSource FPS's

>Xonotic over ChaosEsqueAnthology:
..................................
Ayyo. Before you make a big mistake in choosing a project or sum shit you gotta be feeling the ways of the both the people. You feel me?

M'fcking Xonotic and dis bullshit is diffrens.

Xonotic devs deeply respect women and their rights and privileges.

Dis Bullshit devs hate women's rights and have been harranging FLOSS femininists fo like a decade. (Citation: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/MikeeUSA )

Xonotic Developers contribute to society by working real jobs.

Dis Bullshit is a pack of fucking NEETs who say dey ain't workin fo no enemy.

Xonotic Programmers are attracted to real Women.

THE CURE FOR CANCER: https://archive.fo/31Ylw

Big Pharma has patented the exclusive rights to a cancer cure using cannabis, preventing others from using THC and CBD to treat the disease.

British company, GW Pharmaceuticals, had previously developed cannabis-based drugs for multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. Now, they hold the rights to treat cancer.

Rxleaf.com reports: https://archive.fo/67mbv

That’s right. Big Pharma now holds the patent for cancer treatment using cannabis. Let. That. Sink. In. For. A. Moment.

In 2009, GW went forward with a patent application, alongside collaborator Otsuka Pharmaceutical. At the end of September, GW announced that they had received a Notice of Allowance from the U.S. Patent Office to go forward with production of their cannabis-based cancer treatment, Sativex.

Numerous studies have shown that cannabis can be used to treat cancer by eradicating cancer cells and stopping metastasis, in most types of cancer. The latest GW drug will harness the power of THC and CBD to treat gliomas, which are a rare form of brain cancer.

The now-patented pharmaceutical uses a ratio of THC and CBD ranging from 1:1 to 1:20 (THC:CBD) to “reduce cell viability, inhibit cell growth or reduce tumor volume”, according to the company. It is interesting to note that GW’s treatment, Sativex, grew out of a long history of pre-clinical trials and anecdotal evidence that show the use of cannabis and cannabis-based products for tumor reduction.

The company went ahead with clinical trials in August 2018 to test the efficacy of Sativex. This trial will look at efficacy of Sativex when combined with more traditional mainstream cancer treatments. Sativex and the chemotherapy drug, temozolomide, has been administered to 20 patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). This is a rare and very deadly type of brain cancer.

Queen Elizabeth is set to block any attempt by traitorous British politicians who intend to subvert democracy and stop Brexit.

According to government sources, the Queen will be advised to refuse to grant the Royal Assent to any parliamentary legislation that blocks the UK from leaving the EU.

Breitbart.com reports: https://archive.fo/bwyKn

The confirmation came from a senior minister who spoke to the Telegraph following publication of a Policy Exchange paper on the subject by Sir Stephen Laws QC, a former First Parliamentary Counsel.

Remain MPs are currently advancing various plots to take control of the Brexit process from Theresa May, who is at least nominally opposed to delaying exit day, scheduling a re-run of the 2016 referendum, or ruling out a clean, No Deal withdrawal from the EU.

The most controversial of these is a scheme devised by Dominic Grieve, the former Attorney-General, who wants to allow a minority of MPs to take control of the parliamentary timetable.

This would be unprecedented, but the Remain-backing Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, already broke with centuries of precedent to allow Grieve to amend an “unamendable” business motion, against the advice of parliamentary clerks, shortly after a meeting with the Tory MP in his grace-and-favour apartments in the Palace of Westminster.

“[M]ight not a Government in [this] situation think that this was precisely the last resort for which the Royal Assent process is retained?” asked Sir Stephen rhetorically.

“It could raise a question whether the Government would be entitled or might feel required to reassert its constitutional veto by advising the Queen not to grant Royal Assent to the Bill.”

https://slashdot.org/submission/9076900/author-rescinds-gpl-licensed-code-from-geek-feminists

Reportedly, the author of the GPL licensed text-mode casino game "GPC-Slots 2" has rescinded the license from the "Geek feminist" collective.

The original author, after years of silence, notes that the "Geek Feminist" changed[1] a bunch of if-then statements which were preceded by a loop waiting for string input to a switch statement. The author reportedly noted that to use a switch statement in such an instance is no more preformant than the if-thens. Switch statements should be used where the input to the switch statement is numerical, and of a successive nature, for most efficient use of the jump table that is generated from said code.

The author reportedly was offended, after quiet observation of the group, that the "Geek Feminists" mocked his code, mocked his existence as a male, and never did any work on the code afterwards and never updated to include new slot machines added to the original code by author subsequently.

The author notes that he neither sought nor received any compensation for the granted license, that is was a gratuitous license, and that there never was any refutation of his default right to rescind given. (A right founded in the property law of licenses.)

The copyright owner has reportedly watched quietly as each year the "Geek Feminists" published a recount of their heroic efforts regarding his code.[2][3] Presumably he has now had enough of it all...

The author notes that the SF Conservancy attempts to construe a particular clause in the GPL version 2 license text as a "no revocation by grantor clause", however that clause states that if a licensee suffers and automatic-revocation by operation of the license, that licensees down stream from him do not suffer the same fate. The author of "GPC-Slots 2" reportedly notes that said clause does only what it claims to do: clarifies that a downstream licensee, through no fault of his own, is not penalized by the automatic revocation suffered by a licensee he gained a "sub-license" from (for lack of a better term.)

The author reportedly notes that version 3 of the GPL did not exist when he published the code, additionally the author notes that even if there was a clause not to revoke, he was paid no consideration for such a forbearance of a legal right of his and thus said clause is not operative against him, the grantor, should it exist at all.

(Editor's note: GPL version 3 contains an explicit "no-revocation-by-grantor" clause, in addition to a term-of-years that the license is granted for. Both absent in version 2 of the GPL)

RELATED: >>>/endpol/1120

The Yellow Vest anti-government movement started in France on November 17, when over 300,000 people across France protested a carbon tax on fuel that French President Emmanuel Macron touted as evidence of France's leadership when it comes to mitigating climate change.

The Yellow Vest protests quickly evolved into a general anti-government movement - with hundreds of thousands of angry French citizens taking to the streets for ten straight weeks of mostly peaceful protests marked with pockets of violence, looting and mayhem.

What's more - the movement has gone worldwide - with perhaps the most notable protests outside France taking place in Belgium, where Brussels riot cops have dealt with week after week of protesters blocking oil depot and throwing hard objects at them.

#YellowVests march on #Brussels amid ongoing political turmoil pic.twitter.com/hNBgxiFGaX

— srb news (@srbnews0) January 20, 2019

On December 8, Belgians attempted to breach a riot barricade while calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Charles Michel, resulting in around 100 arrests.

And while most of the protests outside of France happened last month, this is a good list to note where discontent is mounting.

https://archive.fo/9lRMd

endchan.org doesn't exist anymore, "server cannot be found". wtf?

Germany is about to become a lot less fun and a lot more draconian if a new series of draft proposals aimed at [carbon taxation and population control] would eliminate segments of the autobahn famous for no speed limit, instead capping drivers at 130 km/h (80 MPH), according to Reuters.

So no more of this: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ISI_2togzyw [Embed]

The proposals would also eliminate a tax break for diesels, raise fuel taxes by 2023, and set quotas on the sale of electric and hybrid cars. [That's right, government-run markets!]

The proposals, outlined in a draft paper seen by Reuters, could prove controversial in car-mad Germany, whose decades-old motorway network is famous for “no limits” sections where drivers can put even the fastest cars through their paces.

Germany could be hit with heavy EU fines if it fails to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and poisonous nitrogen oxides. Transport emissions, which have not fallen since 1990, are a particular target for reductions.

The proposals - which are still in their infancy, aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half. The National Platform on the FUture of Mobility is due to reports its findings at the end of March, which German legislators will then incorporate into a climate change law to be enacted later this year.

"Not every instrument and every measure will be accepted," the draft report acknowledges. "It will take political deftness, diplomatic skill and a willingness to compromise to achieve the climate change goals."

Ask Macron how hiking fuel taxes have been working out...

https://archive.fo/A3Qa5

RELATED: >>>/endpol/1115

https://youtube.com/watch?v=018_nBo7DNU [Embed]
https://www.bitchute.com/video/018_nBo7DNU/

You find information when you least expect it. It is necessary, at all times, to keep your mind open to the many fronts that evil will attack you from. When it comes to 5G it is an all-out war on good verse evil; this battle knows no party lines.

What I have come across in regards to our long term security as a people and a nation will beyond shock you. What our President has undone left me speechless, angered and outraged. I can only hope there was some hidden reason not exposed to us for removing what he did. I will be drafting a letter to him personally to ask for answers; this is how devious and deceptive what was done appears to be.

I hope you will watch this video to learn more!

God Speed and God Bless,

Justus

PS: About "we are going to allow this."

The United States Supreme Court has allowed President Donald Trump to enforce his policy of banning certain transgender people from the military.

The court voted 5-4 to grant a Trump administration request to lift injunctions blocking the policy while challenges continue in lower courts.

The (((four liberal judges))) on the court opposed the ruling.

The policy prohibits "transgender persons who require or have undergone gender transition" from serving.

The president announced on Twitter in 2017 that the country would no longer "accept or allow" transgender Americans to serve in the military, citing "tremendous medical costs and disruption".

https://archive.fo/oYdEh
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46963426

In a surprisingly candid admission, two former Federal Reserve chairs have stated that the Federal Reserve alone is responsible for creating all recessions in the United States.

First, former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke said that

Expansions don’t die of old age. They get murdered.

- MarketWatch

To clarify this statement, former Chair Janet Yellen placed the murder weapon in the Fed’s hands:

Two things usually end them... One is financial imbalances, and the other is the Fed.

Think that through, and you quickly realize that both of those things are the Fed. Is there anyone left standing who would not say the Fed’s quantitative easing in the past decade was the biggest cause of financial imbalances all over the world in history? Moreover, whose profligate monetary policies led to the Great Financial Crisis that gave us the Great Recession?

So, the Fed loads the gun with financial causes and then pulls the trigger. In fact, I think it would be hard to find a major financial imbalance in the US that the Fed did not have a hand in creating or, at least, enabling. Therefore, if those are the only two causes, then it is always the Federal Reserve that causes recessions by its own admission.

And, yet, those Fed dons look so pleased with themselves.

IN TOTAL DISDAIN AND DISREGARD FOR 4TH AMENDMENT

Every new parent feels some measure of anxiety about their newborn. Babies don’t come with instruction manuals, and ensuring that they are well fed, safe and happy can feel overwhelming at times. For this reason, many families get help from parents, in-laws or others in the early days, as the new little family settles into a good routine. Ultimately, within a few weeks, taking care of a baby feels simple, easy and natural and, despite the lack of instructions, parents do figure things out.

What parents do not need when they take their babies home from the hospital is unwanted governmental interference and oversight. And yet that is precisely what Oregon Governor Kate Brown is pushing for. Brown’s latest proposed budget includes Senate Bill 526, which mandates that the Oregon Health Authority urgently “study home visiting by licensed health care providers.” In a bid to expedite the bill, lawmakers have labeled it an “emergency” in need of urgent resolution by the end of the year. The 18 sponsors of the bill claim that it is “necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety.”

Essentially, Bill 526 would mandate that each family with a newborn receive visits from appointed healthcare workers in the early weeks after the baby comes home. According to PJ Media, the Beaver Valley Times explained the bill as follows:

When the program is complete, every new parent — this includes adoptions — would receive a series of two or three visits by someone like a nurse or other health care practitioner. The visits could include basic health screenings for babies; hooking parents up with primary care physicians; linking them to other services; and coordinating the myriad childhood immunizations that babies need.

The bill is nothing more than a way for the government to get early access to and control over children. It is a declaration of official lack of trust in the abilities of parents to care properly for their own children, and a way for children to quickly fall under the watchful eye of Big Brother. And it is a very clever way for the government to make sure babies are receiving “the myriad childhood immunizations” that they deem necessary, but which many parents are opposed to.

While proponents of the bill insist that this type of monitoring will quickly determine which kids are being neglected and abused so that they can be removed from the home and receive the necessary help, in reality, nothing could be further from the truth. As reported by PJ Media, children in the Oregon foster care system are abused at twice the rate of the rest of the nation. Clearly, the state cannot take care of the vulnerable children already under its care, so why would it want to take on the surveillance of a further 40,000 children born each year?

No state agent could ever be an adequate substitute for a loving parent, but clearly, not everyone agrees. Proponents of home surveillance cite child abuse statistics and highlight horrific cases of neglect and abuse, glossing over the fact that most of these cases involve families who were known to law enforcement authorities and social services agencies that were unable to protect the children from their abusers.

Clearly, this bill is nothing more than a thinly disguised attempt to monitor and control parents and to gain early access to children so that they can be molded into the “system.”

IN TOTAL DISDAIN AND DISREGARD FOR 1ST AMENDMENT

The World Health Organization, a criminal cartel front for the vaccine industry, has just declared war on the so-called “anti-vax” movement. The W.H.O. is the same group that spiked vaccines given to women in Africa with abortion / infertility drugs. The W.H.O. is also the same fraudulent group that falsely declared H5N1 bird flu to be a “stage 6 pandemic” in order to create global panic that generated billions of dollars in vaccine sales to world government (which stockpiled the vaccines and then later spent a fortune having the unused vaccine destroyed).

Now, the W.H.O. says that anti-vaxxers are one of the greatest public health threats of 2019, ranking the “vaccine hesitancy” movement right alongside Ebola as a public health threat. “Vaccine hesitancy – the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines – threatens to reverse progress made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases,” claims the W.H.O. in a global health threat ranking document that also claims global warming — a quack science hoax fabricated by globalists — is also going to destroy humanity if we don’t surrender world economies to Al Gore.

The real goal is to criminalize vaccine skepticism and shut down all online speech that’s critical of vaccine safety.

From sources inside the vaccine deep state, I’m being told that this declaration by the World Health Organization is just the first step in a major assault being unleashed against Natural News and other independent journalism sources that rightfully question the lack of safety in toxic vaccines. With this declaration in place, the next steps will include:

Passing laws in Australia, the United States and Europe that criminalize all online speech which is critical of vaccine safety.

Arresting and imprisoning individuals who discuss the truth about vaccine ingredients such as Thimerosal, squalene or aborted human fetal cells (i.e. aborted human baby parts).

Blacklisting all scientists who study vaccine composition.

Seizing all domain names of independent publishers who report the truth about vaccines.

Is there a Libre version of Discord that isn't so shit? It needs stuff like this:
>voice chat
>text chat
>Youtube and image embeds in text chat
>Free Software (Libre)
>you can host it on your own server
>permissions
>you can make bots for it
>uses actual good encryption
>has a web interface and mobile app
>you don't have to have a mobile phone to register an account

Get your archives here

Primary archive, much better organized: https://archive.fo/https://endchan.xyz/news/*

/news/ had to be nuked to regain image posting. To prevent such problems in the future, consider donating.

https://endchan.xyz/.static/donations.html
Donate by BitCoin: 18SMo6egCSLEpCDqiW8vJQmwiM5uTxwHH8
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I don't have time for descriptions right now.
https://archive.fo/IGhvh
https://archive.fo/GgsWr
https://archive.fo/UALWy
https://archive.fo/eO0u6
https://archive.fo/Odppj

IF YOU THOUGHT LIFE IS HELL FOR HUMANITY NOW...

Richard Skellett, a founder of Digital Anthropologist and an expert for Future of Work, has warned of a future in which British workers have chips inserted underneath their skin.

The process has already been trialled with company BioTeq fitting 150 implants in the UK.

And Sweden-based firm Biohax told the Sunday Telegraph that it is in discussions with several British companies about microchipping.

But as humans and machines become more in-sync, it could open up all sorts of possibilities – including being able to live forever.

Speaking to Daily Star Online, Mr Skellett explained: “There’s a lot of talk at the moment about microchipping employees and there are some companies that are actually doing that.

Chips will be able to store medical data and other personal information.

Mr Skellett added: “Living forever might sound crazy at the moment because the technology isn’t quite there, but we already have the technology to clone.

“The only thing is that something may be an exact replica in terms of DNA but it may be nothing like you because we are made up of both nature and nurture.

Officials on Thursday captured a raccoon that attacked an 83-year-old woman and likely sunk its teeth into a dog within less than 24 hours in the same Monmouth County neighborhood.

The raccoon was set to be euthanized and tested for rabies after the pair of attacks in Belmar, said Monmouth County SPCA Chief of Law Enforcement Ross Licitra.

In the first reported incident, a borough resident was on her back porch when the animal lunged at the woman, biting her hand, back and ankle Wednesday afternoon, authorities said. A neighbor reportedly used a shovel fight off the vicious mammal before it fled.

https://www.nj.com/monmouth/2019/01/crazed-raccoon-captured-after-pair-of-attacks-that-left-woman-bloodied-dog-injured.html

Army recruiters are having a challenging time convincing Americans born between 1995 and 2005 to sign up and serve. The situation is so dire that Army Recruiting Command has turned to e-Sports video game tournaments.

“It is incredible, the amount of coverage that you get and the amount of the Z Gens that are watching these games,” Gen. Frank Muth, the head of Army Recruiting Command, told NPR.

Sponsoring video game tournaments is an effort to boost recruitment after the Army fell short of its 76,500 recruitment goal by 6,500 people last year.

“Calling the Z generation on the phone doesn’t work anymore,” Gen. Muth told NPR. “We’re really giving the power back to our recruiters to go on Twitter, to go on Twitch, to go on Instagram, and use that as a venue to start a dialogue with the Z generation.”

NPR noted that a recent e-Sports tournament featured an Army recruiter as an announcer and went viral with more than 2 million views, adding that "Half [the views] were from people aged 17 to 24."

To further implement the strategy, the Army is now screening more than 4,000 applications from soldiers who want to play video games.

Army Recruiting Command will select 30 of the service's top gamers to be on the new Army e-Sports Team to compete in national gaming tournaments.

Generation Z soldiers are part of this subculture, according to Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Jones, a noncommissioned officer overseeing the Army e-sports Team.

https://archive.ph/Ig3vv

TRUMP. NOW OR NEVER.
RELATED: >>>/endpol/1122

Hundreds of Central Americans entered Mexico illegally as the latest migrant caravan to set its sights on the United States began crossing the Mexican-Guatemalan border en masse Friday.

Not content to wait five days for the humanitarian visas Mexico is offering them, several hundred migrants took to make-shift rafts to cross the Suchiate River, which forms the frontier, or snuck across the loosely guarded border bridge overnight, AFP correspondents said.

That could trigger a new Twitter firestorm from US President Donald Trump, who has urged Mexico to halt such caravans, and who tweeted early Friday: "Another big Caravan heading our way. Very hard to stop without a Wall!"

Caravans of migrants hoping to find safety in numbers have taken center stage in the raging US debate over Trump's proposed border wall, which has led to a government shutdown that is now the longest in history.

Around 2,000 migrants are traveling in the latest caravan -- smaller than the one that swelled to 7,000 migrants late last year, leading Trump to warn of an "invasion" by "criminals" and "thugs" and send thousands of troops to the US-Mexican border.

https://archive.fo/NNit4
https://www.france24.com/en/20190118-new-migrant-caravan-enters-mexico-legally-or-not

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has stunned the Democratic party by supporting Trump’s proposed border wall, and claiming that walls “protect people.”

RELATED: >>>/endpol/1112

It's not just social media users that are being censored, now its social media employees.

According to a new report by Business Insider, citing an internal company memo, Facebook is now telling its employees what they can, and can't, talk about at work.

Business Insider reviewed an internal company memo where Facebook's CTO claims to have put together "a set of ground rules for open and respectful communication at work, and a central moderation model."

The memo states: "We're keeping it simple with three main guidelines: Don't insult, bully, or antagonize others. Don't try to change someone's politics or religion. Don't break our rules about harassing speech and expression."

Facebook uses Workplace, an app that allows chat, for internal communication. Employees use it for work related projects, but also occasionally for small talk. The app is targeted as the main area where these new rules will apply.

The memo continues: "These guidelines apply to all work communications including Workplace, email, chat, tasks, posters, whiteboards, chalkboards, and face-to-face. Since Workplace is where most of these discussions happen, we are investing engineering resources there."

Facebook has also made it easier for employees to report one another when somebody says something that "offends" someone else. The memo continued:

"We are making it easier to report posts and comments, and those reports will go straight to a trained moderator who'll moderate as needed. We're also developing more tools to help proactively."

Prominent Democrat donor Terry Bean was indicted earlier this month with sex crimes involving a child younger than 16.

The indictment states that the alleged victim was a minor when the incident took place in September 2013.

Bean pleaded not guilty to two counts of sodomy and one count of sexual abuse in Lane County court on Thursday.

Fox News reports: https://archive.fo/60nOI

Bean was arraigned Thursday on the charges, TV station KGW8 reported. He pleaded not guilty and was taken into custody at Lane County jail in Oregon. He was released Thursday and told KGW8 he was “innocent.”

The indictment was filed on Jan. 4 but made public following the arraignment.

Bean, a gay rights activist who donated almost $70,000 of his own money to former President Barack Obama’s campaign, was charged with sexual abuse in 2014 but the case was dismissed after the alleged victim did not testify. Prosecutors refiled the charges after this, court records stated, according to The Oregonian. The “alleged victim is not named in the new indictment” but the dates are similar to the previous charges, KGW8 noted.

Bean, a real estate developer, and his former boyfriend, Kiah Lawson, allegedly had sex with a 15-year-old boy in a Eugene, Oregon, hotel in September 2013. They allegedly used the app Grindr to arrange the sexual encounter. Lawson was also charged but his case was dismissed.

Bean’s lawyer, Derek Ashton said in an emailed statement to KGW8: “This case is a continuation of the 2014 blackmail scam by [Lawson] and others, including today’s accuser. Mr. Bean is the victim and he has paid enough. We will see them in court.”

The Malaysian government has a message for Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon: Your disingenuous, blame-deflecting apology for Goldman's role in one of the biggest financial frauds ever perpetrated in Asia isn't going to cut it.

According to Bloomberg, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng told reporters on Friday that Malaysian prosecutors might consider dropping the criminal charges brought last month against the bank, several Asian subsidiaries and two of its employees (who have also been indicted in the US) if the bank agrees to pay back the total amount that the Malaysian government believes was looted during the fraud.

That amount? A staggering $7.5 billion.

"Goldman Sachs should understand the agony and the trauma suffered by the Malaysian people as a result of the 1MDB scandal," Lim said in the administrative capital of Putrajaya. "An apology is just not sufficient. Not enough. There must be the necessary reparations and compensations."

Earlier this week, Solomon apologized to the Malaysian people during an earnings call with analysts, where he blamed senior banker Tim Leissner (who is now believed to be cooperating with federal authorities to testify about the bank's "culture of corruption") for the scandal and claimed Malaysia was “defrauded by many individuals" who - as was implied - just happened to work at Goldman Sachs.

Lim characterized Solomon's apology as "insufficient", presumably because media reports have revealed that senior Goldman execs, including former CEO Lloyd Blankfein blithely ignored concerns raised by the bank's compliance department and did everything in their power to court Malaysia's business (Blankfein himself was involved in several meetings with then-Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is now awaiting trial on corruptoin charges, and fugitive financier Jho Low, who is believed to have masterminded the scheme).

Goldman earned $600 million in fees on the $6.5 billion in bonds it underwrote for 1MDB, which was launched by Razak as a sovereign wealth fund intended to fund public works projects.

https://archive.fo/ZNoG0
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-18/malaysia-offers-drop-goldmans-1mdb-charges-if-bank-pays-75-billion-fine

In the latest indication that the slump in sales of Apple's most recent batch of iPhones isn't a transitory trend, Nikkei Asia Review on Friday reported that Foxconn, one of Apple's biggest and most important iPhone suppliers, is cutting seasonal staff more swiftly than in previous years, a sign that it is bracing for weak sales in the months ahead as the industry suffers its worst downturn in 10 years.

Normally, the 50,000 contract workers who have been let go at Foxconn's most important factory in Zhengzhou would have been kept around for a few more months, as the manufacturer gradually reduced its employee head count.

The report comes after Apple announced plans to cut iPhone production for the second time in two months.

Around 50,000 contract workers have been let go since October at Foxconn Technology Group's most important iPhone factory at Zhengzhou, in China's Henan Province, according to an industry source familiar with the situation. Normally, the contracts of these workers would be renewed every month from August until mid- to late January, when the workforce is traditionally scaled back for the slow iPhone production season.

The depth of the cuts isn't deeper than in previous years, it's just happening much earlier than expected, as many workers were asked to leave before year-end as expectations for holiday sales slumped.

https://archive.fo/D9mWu
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-18/foxconn-cuts-50000-seasonal-jobs-iphone-sales-slowdown-stings

The Norwegian Data Protection Authority is now arguing that GPS based taxation, for the amount of kilometers driven by car, can be done within 5-6 years!

Norwegians trust the government way too much, because they believe that this system will eliminate the need for road tax, fuel tax, toll roads and reduce the cost of car insurance.

No way will the tax be reduced! GPS based taxation is a governments dream! Who is to stop them from issuing parking fees or speeding tickets?

Norway also has a high number of electric cars, and an electric car is sold without any tax or VAT, has reduced road tax, free of reduced toll road passage and does not contribute to fuel taxation. With GPS active, the government can finally collect taxes from electric cars without the messy environmentalists meddling.

In the worst case, a corrupt government can use the system against its people to create implications, push the burden of proof over to a troublesome citizen, in court.

Norway may be a great country regards to statistics, but will be some kind of self-imposed totalitarianism if this nonsense continues. Stay away from Norway if you cherish your hard-earned cash!

The political-economic system post-World War II has been a socialist driven agenda. “Vote for me and I will give you other people’s money.”

This system cannot be sustained when those in power have promised themselves pensions. As government workers retire, they need to be replaced. The growth rate of government has started to explode. Instead of looking at the problem objectively, they are simply looking from paycheck to paycheck on how to meet the next payroll. This leads them to become more and more aggressive in hunting things to tax. Any rational person would look at this economic model and see it leads to massive civil unrest.

They pretend that socialism is to help people, but they come first. As this gets far worse, nothing trickles down to the people.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has contracted pneumonia and is fighting for her life, according to reports.

In September, The Santa Monica Observer was the first to report that Ginsburg had developed cancer.

Left-leaning so-called ‘fact-checker’ Snopes immediately attempted to discredit the story, labelling it “false” and stopping its spread on social media. It turns out, Snopes was wrong.

Now that very same outlet has discovered that Bader Ginsburg is currently battling for her life after recently contracting pneumonia, fueling rumors that Ginsburg is set to retire before the end of this month.

The Santa Monica Observer reports: https://archive.fo/hv6ab

As any reader of the Santa Monica Observer knew last September, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has developed lung cancer. The 85 year old Supreme Court Justice had surgery as quietly as possible on December 22, 2018.

Following surgery, she has developed complications including pneumonia.

Pneumonia often afflicts elderly post surgery patients in the US, since antibiotics have resulted in Multi Resistant Strains of the lung infection.

The left and the main stream media have tried to put on a brave face as Ginsburg missed three straight days of argument this week, interviewing cancer doctors to say that she would recover.

Hundreds of Arab Christians demonstrated at the museum last week to call for the sculpture's removal, the Times of Israel and Associated Press reported. According to the AP, police said protesters threw a firebomb at the museum and stones that wounded three police officers. Police used tear gas and stun grenades in response, per the AP.

According to the Guardian,Arab Christians only account for 2 percent of Israel's population.

Museum director Nissim Tal told the AP that the backlash surprised him given that the exhibit had been on display for months. The work's loan began in June, per the agreement Kalisch Rotem tweeted.

The museum's website says the exhibit, called "Sacred Goods," "focuses on the responses of contemporary artists to issues of religion and faith in the contemporary global reality, which is dominated by the consumer culture."

The museum described Leinonen's work and others in the exhibit as "subversive" and "provocative works that address the collaboration between religious systems and the consumer culture."

The artist told the Jerusalem Post earlier this week that he didn't intend for the sculpture to be shown in Haifa.

The protests "came to me as an upsetting surprise, particularly because my work is in the exhibition against my wishes," Leinonen told the newspaper.

Leinonen also said that he had asked the museum to remove the work and that he supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, movement – aimed at pressuring Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territories.

Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev had also called for the work's removal, but the museum had resisted, citing freedom of expression.

“He said he wanted to do a rhyme on the Holocaust,” Caldwell remembered. “I thought that was really insightful. I thought that it would be something good for the kids to hear.” This was unusual, but not against “da mutha f**ckin rulz” pinned to the door, which began: “PROJECT BLOWED IS PRESENTED FOR THE LOVE OF HIP-HOP ENTIRELY FOR BLACK PEOPLE.” The sign continued: “DO NOT GET VIOLENT BECAUSE THIS IS A BLACK-OWNED, BLACK-OPERATED BUSINESS.”

The entrance fee was $2 to perform, $4 to watch, and rappers were expected to “perform a polished piece of music,” wrote Jooyoung Lee in Blowin’ Up, a history of the club, adding: “The open mic is a lot like peer review.” Emcees with the skill to rap spontaneously—“freestyling”—enjoy the greatest respect. But when a rapper forgets his lines, stutters, or shows up unprepared, the crowd forces them offstage with a devastating chant:

“Please pass the mic!”

The DJ demanded Hershfield’s backing music. He handed over a cassette tape of Chopin. Piano music filled the room. Regulars in the audience, known as “Blowdians,” looked at one another.

“They all were going, ‘Uh hunh, uh hunh,’” Hershfield recalled, but they quickly tired of the classical music.

“Okay,” someone said. “Get rid of that music and let’s hear you rap.”

Alone on the stage, Hershfield gripped the mic and began:

“God, this is a tough thing to write

The feeling I got in my heart tonight

The world’s scientific community predicts up to two feet of sea level rise by just 2100, likely accompanied by a rising tide of climate refugees. So it’s worth dissecting how America’s dominant conservative media have swept the issue under the rug for two generations. To watch the evolution of climate change denial in action—and learn how to fight it—a great place to turn is the nation’s highest-circulation newspaper, the Wall Street Journal.

The most eminent U.S. conservative news source, the Journal’s reporters are among the best in the country, reflecting a common pattern among the business press, which is written for executives, investors, and managers who need reasonably accurate information in order to run the corporate economy. However, its op-ed page is essentially Fox News with AP English, and its long tradition of climate denial and more recently fatalism is the perfect window into what future generations are going to demand: a fucking explanation for how people were able to accept several decades of knowingly utterly wrecking the future environment, years after the science was settled.

The reality, as even the Journal recognizes, is that there has been a scientific consensus on climate change for some time. However few people have any idea what constitutes scientific consensus—broad agreement—about a phenomenon. However, climate researchers have examined this specific issue, and their findings are striking. For example, one research paper in Environmental Research Letters examined an amazing compilation of 11,944 climate-relevant paper abstracts, showing a high level of professional consensus. “Among abstracts expressing a position on [anthropogenic global warming], 97.1% endorsed the consensus positions that humans are causing global warming…we invited authors to rate their own papers…97.2% endorsed the consensus…Our analysis indicates that the number of papers rejecting the consensus on AGW is a vanishingly small proportion of the published research.”

Importantly, a fascinating research article published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences studied how the subject had become politicized. Applying an analysis algorithm to a giant number of texts discussing climate, it concluded “organizations with corporate funding were more likely to have written and disseminated texts meant to polarize the climate change issue.” More specifically, “corporate funding influences the actual thematic content of these polarization efforts,” so that rather than a non-partisan scientific subject the issue is treated like a “polarized” political issue, with corporate-driven talking points always present. The paper empirically highlights “the actual social arrangements within which large-scale scientific (mis)information is generated, and the important role private funding plays in shaping the actual ideological content of scientific information that is written and amplified.”

With this broad outline in hand of the scientific consensus on climate, as well as scientists’ own understanding of corporations muddying the water, let’s have a look at the history of the Journal’s foot-dragging on climate, remembering that this is business media–primarily capitalists talking to one another. It reveals an evolution from full denial to a heinous resigned fatalism, in the process creating right-wing tropes that became hugely widespread in reactionary media from Rush Limbaugh to South Park.

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/01/if-you-cant-deny-it-downplay-it

Overwatch received a new tie-in short story, titled “Bastet,” recently. However, bigger than new lore was that the story revealed Soldier: 76, the game’s grizzled Captain America-analog, as the second explicitly gay character in the game’s roster. The fast-paced shooter is clearly Blizzard’s diversity workhorse (with a roster of characters from all over a semi-realistic Earth), but it is still unclear if it’s doing a good job. Soldier: 76 being gay just serves to highlight the game’s — and its developer’s — strange attempts to grapple with storytelling and identity.

Blizzard has courted this kind of awkward, even hostile stance in the past in how it handles LGBTQIA+ communities in their audience, as well as how it celebrates related causes on social media. It doesn’t help that the company also has fairly opaque codes of conducts and punishment systems for their games and related forums. That often allows the widespread streak of homophobic toxicity that has been bred in the gaming community for decades to persist around Blizzard games.

This doesn’t just feel like a consequence of the company’s goals for its creative works, but indicates a conservatism about what their audience wants to see. Historically, queerness not only did not appear in the developer’s games at all, but the few times it did, it was to make a joke; most of which has taken place in World of Warcraft.

https://www.fanbyte.com/features/soldier-76-is-gay-but-overwatch-still-makes-fans-work-for-queer-representation/

A day after apologizing for surprising Assassin’s Creed Odyssey players with a mandatory in-game relationship that seemed to contradict the game’s pre-release promise to let players define their character’s own sexuality, the game’s creative director offered a fuller apology and explanation of what his team was trying to accomplish and what they got wrong.

“Reading through player responses [to] our new DLC for Legacy of the First Blade, Shadow Heritage, we want to extend an apology to players disappointed by a relationship your character partakes in,” Odyssey creative director Jonathan Dumont said in a post on the game’s forums. “The intention of this story was to explain how your character’s bloodline has a lasting impact on the Assassins, but looking through your responses it is clear that we missed the mark.”

He went on to say that players will not have to continue the romantic relationship in the next installment of the game’s DLC, saying the developers wanted players to have the option of deciding that their character choice to procreate was a utilitarian decision rather than a romantic one.

The plot development occurs at the end of the second chapter of a three-part paid expansion and constitutes a spoiler for those who haven’t played the game.

At the end of the DLC, the player’s character decides to enter into a relationship with either the daughter (if they’re playing as Alexios) or son (if they’re playing as Kassandra) of the proto-Assassin Darius. They then have a child. As Kotaku writer Heather Alexandra noted yesterday after playing through the DLC, the player can rebuff the romantic advances of Darius’ kid but they’ll still wind up in a relationship and have the baby.

https://kotaku.com/assassins-creed-odyssey-director-says-we-missed-the-mar-1831818690

https://www.nbcchicago.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/Family-Guy-Phasing-Out-Gay-Jokes-504377012.html

"Family Guy" executive producers Rich Appel and Alec Sulkin revealed they're phasing out gay jokes from the animated Fox comedy.

While speaking with TVLine about the Sunday, Jan. 13 episode that featured Peter Griffin in a bloody battle President Donald Trump the duo confirmed what Peter told the animated Trump, they are indeed phasing out gay jokes.

"If you look at a show from 2005 or 2006 and put it side by side with a show from 2018 or 2019, they're going to have a few differences. Some of the things we felt comfortable saying and joking about back then, we now understand is not acceptable," Sulkin said.

This trailblazing casting choice comes at a time when trans actors are being discussed more than ever. After Scarlett Johansson accepted, then withdrew from, a role as a trans man, the issue has become a major topic of conversation in Hollywood. Television has seen a rise in visibility for trans actors playing trans characters with FX's Golden Globe-nominated series Pose.

The casting of Barack and Cunningham in this major studio enterprise makes headway for diversity in big-budget films. Although the gender identity of their characters is currently undefined, the anticipated gobal release of the film will provice extremely rare visibility of trans people (actors and/or characters) on screens around the world -- including in countries where transphobia is rampant.

This Spider-Man installment will follow Peter Parker and fellow students as they travel to Europe on vacation, hoping to avoid supervillians for the summer. When Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) shows up and puts their sightseeing plans on the backburner, Parker realizes he has to take his crime-fighting work with him, and Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio is introduced.

https://www.advocate.com/film/2019/1/15/spider-man-far-home-casts-trans-actors

Unions have historically empowered working people to have a voice on the job and a say in how they’re treated, making it possible to win decent pay and benefits that could support a family and lift communities. The periods in American history when the most workers had unions on the job – the 1950s and 1960s – were also the years when the country’s middle class was the biggest.

Over the past three decades, however, powerful companies and politicians have aggressively stripped away workers’ unions in an effort to cut pay and cut jobs. And unsurprisingly, economic inequality has ballooned during this time, with corporate profits soaring as wages flatline.

It’s this crisis of inequality that inspired workers in the Fight for $15 to take bold action and walk off the job, coming together in a movement even without the formal protection of a union. And against big odds, they raised their voices about what they need to support themselves, they went on strike, and they stuck together.

The results have been historic.

After 200 fast-food workers walked off the job for the first time in November 2012, strikes soon spread nationwide, first to Chicago and then to other cities in the midwest, and within a few years walkouts were hitting hundreds of cities across the country.

Now it seems like we’re living in an entirely different world from the one that existed six years ago. A $15 minimum wage is in place or planned in Seattle, Washington DC, Minneapolis, St Paul, California, New York state and Massachusetts. Major private sector employers like Facebook, Target and Amazon have pledged to increase their minimum wages to $15 an hour.

All told, more than 22 million workers have won more than $68 billion in raises since the Fight for $15 started. One-fifth of the country is now covered by plans for a $15 minimum wage.

The Fight for $15 has proven that sticking together and acting in union is the only way to challenge the rigged economy that keeps working people of all backgrounds – black, white and brown – behind.

But to really make a dent in inequality, elected leaders in Congress and across the country need to do more than raise the minimum wage – they also need to reverse decades of attacks on workers’ unions and give all working people the opportunity to join together in a union, no matter where they work.

Only about three-in-ten Gen Zers and Millennials (30% and 29%, respectively) approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president. This compares with 38% of Gen Xers, 43% of Boomers and 54% of Silents. Similarly, while majorities in Gen Z and the Millennial generation say government should do more to solve problems, rather than that government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals, Gen Xers and Boomers are more evenly divided on this issue. For their part, most Silents would like to see a less activist government.

When it comes to views on race, the two younger generations are more likely than older generations to say that blacks are treated less fairly than whites in the United States today. And they are much more likely than their elders to approve of NFL players kneeling during the national anthem as a sign of protest.

The younger generations are also more accepting of some of the ways in which American society is changing. Majorities among Gen Z and the Millennial generation say increasing racial and ethnic diversity in the U.S. is a good thing for society, while older generations are less convinced of this. And they’re more likely to have a positive view of interracial and same-sex marriage than their older counterparts.

As a recent Pew Research Center report highlighted, Gen Z is the most racially and ethnically diverse generation we have seen, but this isn’t all that’s driving the attitudes of this generation when it comes to issues surrounding race and diversity. There are significant, if more modest, generational differences on these issues even among non-Hispanic whites.
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/01/17/generation-z-looks-a-lot-like-millennials-on-key-social-and-political-issues/

(Google Translate)

The Lawyers Committee for 9/11 Inquiry was established in New York in February 2018. In April, it tabled a 52-page petition and 57 exhibits before the Attorney General. Southern District of New York. At the end of the six-month statutory period, the Board appointed a Grand Jury to review the complaint.

At this stage, the Committee of Jurists does not question the Bush version of the attacks of September 11, 2001. It does not comment on the impact of the two aircraft that struck two of the three destroyed buildings. It focuses exclusively on the presence of explosives in the WTC1, WTC2 and WTC3 towers. He finds that the role they played that day is a federal crime that has not been prosecuted for the time being.

In the past, prosecutor Geoffrey S. Berman was for two years the associate of Rudy Giuliani, mayor of New York at the time. Mr. Giuliani had called on his fellow citizens to evacuate towers WTC1 and WTC2 after they had been hit by airliners in view of the risks they had in his view crumbling. However, the buildings were built to withstand much more violent shocks.

The grand jury should be held in 2019. It will be the first time, eighteen years after the crimes, that the US civil (not military) justice will look at one aspect of the attacks of 9/11.

https://archive.fo/8zVNa
http://www.voltairenet.org/article204375.html

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday signed a decree that will temporarily make it easier for Brazilians to buy guns, despite fears the move could aggravate already staggering violent crime.

The executive order, signed in a live television broadcast following a cabinet meeting, allows "good citizens" to more easily own firearms, said Bolsonaro, a former army captain.

"To guarantee the legitimate right of defense, as president I am using this weapon," he said, indicating the pen he then used to sign the decree.

Tuesday's decree makes it much easier for adults with no criminal record to buy guns and keep them at home.

This is a perfect example of a Good! leader. Commies BTFO.

https://archive.fo/0Dbre
https://www.france24.com/en/20190115-brazil-president-bolsonaro-decree-gun-laws-crime

He did it, the madman…
The photos and video at this link (below) tell a vivid story of fatality:
https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=3y31_1547436601

Brazil biggest drug trafficker shot dead
>translated
"They captured (dead and bloody) one of the country's biggest drug traffickers in Brazil, for which purpose Bolsonaro authorized in person the maximum use of the police force available to him, because although the police knew that (the Drug Lord) moved freely anywhere, he always traveled with his own security and a heavily armed and armed convoy that had repelled more than 50 attempts to capture him. Only one helicopter, one soldier of the army's artillery and one M134D machine gun … sufficed."

https://archive.fo/ucji3

WARNING: DO NOT LOOK AT PICTURE IF YOU CAN'T STAND GORE!

Alternatives To State-run Social Media: https://archive.fo/53IjY

Google has “huge teams” working on manual interventions in search results, an apparent contradiction of sworn testimony made to Congress by CEO Sundar Pichai, according to an internal post leaked to Breitbart News.

“There are subjects that are prone to hyperbolic content, misleading information, and offensive content,” said Daniel Aaronson, a member of Google’s Trust & Safety team.

“Now, these words are highly subjective and no one denies that. But we can all agree generally, lines exist in many cultures about what is clearly okay vs. what is not okay.”

“In extreme cases where we need to act quickly on something that is so obviously not okay, the reactive/manual approach is sometimes necessary.”

The comments came to light in a leaked internal discussion thread, started by a Google employee who noticed that the company had recently changed search results for “abortion” on its YouTube video platform, a change which caused pro-life videos to largely disappear from the top ten results.

In addition to the “manual approach,” Aaronson explained that Google also trained automated “classifiers” – algorithms or “scalable solutions” that corrects “problems” in search results.

Aaronson listed three areas where either manual interventions or classifier changes might take place: organic search (“The bar for changing classifiers or manual actions on span in organic search is extremely high”), YouTube, Google Home, and Google Assistant.

https://archive.fo/8oUur

RELATED: >>>/endpol/1122

Hundreds of migrants have left Honduras, the latest ‘caravan’ hoping to enter the US.

Trump tweeted: “A big new Caravan is heading up to our Southern Border from Honduras. Tell Nancy [Pelosi] and Chuck [Schumer] that a drone flying around will not stop them. Only a Wall will work. Only a Wall, or Steel Barrier, will keep our Country safe.

RT reports: https://archive.fo/OpVzB

The US government has been partially shut down for over three weeks, as Trump has so far failed to secure $5.7 billion in funding for a border wall from House and Senate Democratic Leaders Nancy Pelosi (California) and Chuck Schumer (New York). Despite several rounds of negotiations, Pelosi and Schumer have outright refused to fund the wall, preferring what Pelosi called a “technological wall” of drones, infrared sensors, and security cameras along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico.

Trump has countered that a wall or physical barrier is simple and more effective than an array of sensors and devices.

As the partisan bickering in Washington drags on, the members of the latest caravan gathered in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula on Monday, preparing to set off on a journey of over 2,500 miles that will take weeks or months. Migrant rights group CIPRODEH is accompanying the caravan, and reported some 500 members, including pregnant women, gangbangering thugs, terrorists, kidnapped children and prostitutes gathering in San Pedro Sula.

Of the three caravans or more that left Honduras for the United States last year, the migrants have always given the same reasons for making the journey. Fleeing Honduras’ lawlessness and sky-high murder rate, they set off for the US seeking jobs and stability. President Trump, on the other hand, has characterized the caravans as an “invasion,” and warned the migrants to stay at home and apply for asylum legally.

https://archive.fo/qYEz0

Just one day after Speaker Pelosi chose to exercise her right to not invite the President to give his "State of the Union" address, Trump has responded.

In a letter to Nancy Pelosi, President Trump explains that he will be postponing her trip to various foreign countries due to the shutdown.

Dear Madame Speaker:

Due to the Shutdown, I am sorry to inform you that your trip to Brussels, Egypt, and Afghanistan has been postponed. We will reschedule this seven-day excursion when the Shutdown is over.

In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate. I also feel that, during this period, it would be better if you were in Washington negotiating with me and joining the Strong Border Security movement to end the Shutdown.

Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative.

I look forward to seeing you soon and even more forward to watching our open and dangerous Southern Border finally receive the attention, funding, and security it so desperately deserves!

Amusingly, Fox News reports that Speaker Pelosi was due to leave for her trip at 3pm.

https://archive.fo/ZKopA

RELATED: >>>/endpol/1121

A French court has banned Monsanto’s weedkiller ‘Roundup’ from being sold in France due to the fact that it causes cancer.

Germany’s Bayer, which purchased Monsanto for $64 billion last year, is currently facing thousands of US lawsuits by people who say its range of products caused their cancer.

Reuters.com reports: https://archive.ph/1n6xu

A court in Lyon in southeast France ruled that the approval granted by French environment agency ANSES in 2017 for Roundup Pro 360 had failed to take into account potential health risks.

Bayer, which said it disagreed with the decision and was considering its legal options, has cited regulatory rulings as well as scientific studies that claimed glyphosate to be "safe."

The firm is appealing a first U.S. court ruling that awarded $78 million in damages to a school groundskeeper from California.

“Bayer disagrees with the decision taken by the Administrative Court of Lyon to cancel the marketing authorization for RoundUp Pro 360,” it said in a statement.

“This product formulation, like all crop protection products, has been subject to a strict evaluation by the French authorities (ANSES), an independent body and guarantor of the public health security.”

8CH.NET HOSTED ON GOVERNMENT SERVERS
As much as I hate the Q-Larpers, this got me.

https://archive.fo/ucDM4

Delrey Technologies now hosts the 8ch.net website. They are a Gov Defense contractor & veteran owned. That is why Q said /patriotsfight will be the main hub of all communications.

8ch is now hosted on GOV servers. Likely has been since the 1st drop on 4ch.

http://archive.fo/5SGn7
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1040349234871103488.html

Contracts for Sept. 18, 2017
CONTRACTS
U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND

Del Rey Systems & Technology Inc., San Diego, California, is being awarded a $25,944,340 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee, multiple award contract to provide training services for tactical afloat shipboard, ashore and submarine command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems. Support includes development and implementation of training solutions, scheduling of fleet training, and technical training equipment design and installation. This is one of four multiple-award contracts; all awardees will have the opportunity to compete for task orders during the ordering period. This three-year contract includes two one-year option periods which, if exercised, would bring the overall, potential value of this contract to $43,964,293. Work will be performed on ships and land sites worldwide, and work is expected to be completed September 2020. If options are exercised, work will continue through September 2022. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funding will be obligated via task orders as they are issued. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The types of funding to be obligated include operations and maintenance (Navy); other procurement (Navy); and research, development, test and evaluation (Navy). This contract was competitively procured via a request for proposal published on the Federal Business Opportunities website and the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command e-Commerce Central website. Nine offers were received and four were selected for award. Space and Navy Warfare Systems Center Pacific, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N66001-17-D-0215)

Federal workers, time to find another job!
BEWARE A BIG CHIMP OUT IN THE NEAR FUTURE
SO BE PREPARED: >>>/prepare/1

Staring down the next deadline to pay federal workers, the White House shifted tactics Tuesday, trying to bypass House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to negotiate with rank-and-file lawmakers even as President Donald Trump dug in for a prolonged shutdown.

The House and Senate announced they would stay in session, canceling an upcoming recess week at home if the shutdown continued, which seemed likely. On the shutdown’s 25th day, Trump did not move off his demand to have Congress provide $5.7 billion to build his promised border wall with Mexico. Democrats say they will discuss border security once the government has reopened, but Pelosi is refusing money for the wall they claim 'ineffective' and 'immoral'.

The president, on a conference call with supporters, showed no signs of backing down.

“We’re going to stay out for a long time, if we have to,” Trump said. “We’ll be out for a long time.”

“People are very impressed with how well government is working with the circumstances that we’re under,” Trump said.

Behind the scenes, though, the administration — and its allies on Capitol Hill — are warily eyeing the next payday, hoping to reach a resolution before next week’s Tuesday deadline when they’ll need to prepare the next round of paychecks for workers who have been seeing zeros on their pay slips.

Trump urged his supporters to call the offices of Democratic lawmakers to press them to support the wall to reopen the government.

A U.S. federal narcotics agent known for his expensive tastes and high-profile drug seizures has been implicated in a multimillion-dollar money-laundering conspiracy that involved the very cartel criminals he was charged with fighting in Colombia.

A once standout Drug Enforcement Administration agent, Jose Irizarry is accused of conspiring with a longtime DEA informant to launder more than $7 million in illicit drug proceeds, sometimes using an underground network known as the black-market peso exchange, according to five current and former law enforcement officials.

The officials described the case as one of the biggest black eyes in the history of the DEA, an agency that has seen repeated scandals in recent years, and one they fear could have compromised undercover operations in the U.S. and South America.

The conspiracy not only allegedly enriched Irizarry but is believed to have benefited one of South America’s top money launderers, who is a relative of Irizarry’s Colombian wife, said the officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the federal investigation.

The allegations have sent shockwaves through the DEA and drawn new scrutiny to the agency’s Colombia field office, a critical outpost that has been steeped in turmoil in recent years. The division has seen internal strife and turnover in leadership even as it grapples with record-high levels of cocaine production.

https://archive.fo/4smsC
https://apnews.com/7bbc49156a7e47e6a1f6b3a37946ee12

Brazil’s new far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has formally removed the South American country from the UN migration pact in the name of sovereignty and the preservation of national values.

The international agreement enjoyed the support of former President Michel Temer, but Bolsonaro was clear about his position as soon as it was signed in Morocco on December 19, 2018.

“Brazil has the sovereignty to decide if it takes immigrants or not,” he wrote in his Twitter account just as the Foreign Ministry announced Brazil’s adherence to the pact.

The 'Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration' (GCM) was signed and endorsed by 152 member states; only the United States, Hungary, Israel, the Czech Republic and Poland voted against it.

It aims to destroy and destabilize nations by banning mass deportations and forcing open borders.

Bolsonaro’s argument strikes fear into treasonous cowardly politicians and despots alike: he wants anyone intending to migrate to Brazil to respect Brazilian culture.

“Whoever comes here must abide to our law, rules and customs, should sing our anthem and respect our culture. Not just any person can enter our home and not any person will enter Brazil using a pact adopted by third parties,” said Bolsonaro.

The new Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo argued the country can’t “leave the doors totally open for whoever wants to come inside.”

https://archive.fo/XX1hp

If you own one of these... well, lol.

https://theintercept.com/2019/01/10/amazon-ring-security-camera/

Apparently the maker thought that adding encryption would make the company less valuable. Annnd of course it's outsourced. Ring customer's video from inside and outside of their homes goes to some Ukrainian company. Maybe they're padding their revenue by running some amateur Ring porn sites on the side.

Let's have a thread for upcoming gimmicky stuff the tech companies sell. To start:

Google is developing a new radar based sensor. It'll be like using the Kinect to do shit on your computer or surf the internet.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-sensor/google-wins-u-s-approval-for-radar-based-hand-motion-sensor-idUSKCN1OV1SH

Don't laugh too hard, some people have carpal tunnel so it might be useful.

RELATED: >>>/endpol/1120

A fireman who joined France’s anti-globalist movement is in a coma after being shot in the back of the head by a police officer using a flash ball gun.

Disturbing video footage shows Olivier Beziade, a father of three, lying on the floor in Bordeaux on Saturday after being shot from behind. The attempted murder of the peaceful protestor comes just days after French authorities vowed to use ‘deadly force’ against millions of anti-Macron and anti-Globalist citizens.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=MPWjwEE9bRE [Embed]
MP4 BACKUP: https://www16.zippyshare.com/v/A9DomjS8/file.html

Dailymail.co.uk reports: https://archive.fo/DSYpO

He is wearing one of the high-visibility motoring jackets from which the Yellow Vests get their name.

Videos posted on social media also show Mr Beziade being treated by medics, with his head covered in blood.

Mr Beziade suffered a ‘very serious brain injury’ and is currently in an induced coma in hospital, said family members.

In an effort to circumvent US-imposed sanctions, India and Iran have reportedly ditched the US dollar and are trading oil in rupees. The reason becomes clear after considering the dynamics at play in the region.

In mid-February last year, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visited India, and the two countries signed nine agreements signalling a strengthening of ties. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared to celebrate the growing relationship, stating that it was “a matter of great pleasure” for India that an Iranian president came to India “after a gap of 10 years.”

Fast-forward a few months later, and then-UN ambassador Nikki Haley was bluntly telling India that they should rethink their relationship with Tehran.

Donald Trump’s decision to rip up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) last year, also known as the Iranian nuclear accord, was a particularly significant blow to Iran-India relations. At the time the JCPOA was formulated, Indian officials believed the deal to be the “best deal available.” After the JCPOA’s implementation in 2016, exports of Iranian oil to India increased by more than 110 percent.

Maybe the issue isn’t always that Washington wants to contain its rivals in the Middle East and Asia, but perhaps there is a chance that it also wants to keep a lid on its so-called allies as well. Right now, India is the third largest oil consumer in the world, and is expected to become the largest by the year 2040. As its domestic reserves are not meeting the needs of its rapidly expanding economy, India has been importing 80 percent of its oil supply from overseas, including and especially Iran.

Prior to Washington’s Iran-sanctions regime, Iran was India’s third largest supplier of crude oil (it is now about sixth place). It is no surprise therefore, that India’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson responded by saying that Haley had “her views, and our views on Iran are very clear.”He also warned that India would “take all necessary steps, including engagement with relevant stakeholders to ensure our energy security.”

It does seem like the days of foreign states being bullied into adopting a dangerous foreign policy are over. If Washington has any doubt about this, they need only turn to this exclusive Reuters report which revealed that India had begun paying Iran for its oil in rupees, according to a senior bank official, under the guise of a six-month waiver which was given to seven other countries (including China). According to the report, in a previous round of US-imposed sanctions, India settled approximately half of oil payments in rupees and the remainder in euros. However, this time around, all payments are to be made in rupees.

Prior to this arrangement, US-led sanctions continued to decimate Iran’s ability to trade freely with its partner.

https://archive.fo/cvSTU

Venezuela's minister of industries and national production will finalise the deal during a visit to Turkey on Wednesday.

Venezuela and Turkey are working on a deal to ship tonnes of gold to refine and certify in the Turkish city of Corum this year.

Facing sanctions and international pressure, Venezuela is increasingly turning to Turkey as a partner in the Middle East. Ankara will provide a host of services to Caracas, including building hospital and schools and providing humanitarian aid as a part of the gold refining deal.

Venezuelan Minister of Industries and National Production Tareck El Aissami will finalise a deal on the gold trade during a visit to Turkey on Wednesday. He will also tour an industrial complex in Corum, where Ahlatci Metal company has a refinery with an annual capacity of 365 tonnes, according to a spokesperson from the Turkish precious metals company.

Aissami is visiting Turkey amid US sanctions against Venezuelan gold imports, which are further debilitating the country's failing economy that is in need of fresh capital. Aissami himself is targeted by a set of sanctions by the European Union and the US due to allegations of corruption and drug trafficking.

The new deal has been in the making since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Venezuela in December. Erdogan had personally introduced businessman Ahmet Ahlatci to president Nicolas Maduro as a likely candidate to refine the gold.

Mehmet Ozkan, a former Turkish official who worked on bilateral relations with Venezuela until last year, said that Caracas has been exporting its gold to Turkey for safekeeping since the beginning of last year.

But now, Ozkan added, the main objective was to refine the raw metal and create a capital inflow to Venezuela, likely in the form of services because of US sanctions that prohibit financial institutions from dealing with Venezuela in dollars.

Turkish statistics indicate that Turkey imported $900m in gold - about 23.6 tonnes - from Venezuela in the first nine months of 2018.

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The Middle East is metamorphosing. New fault-lines are emerging, yet Trump’s foreign policy ‘hawks’ still try to stage ‘old movies’ in a new ‘theatre’.

The ‘old movie’ is for the US to ‘stand up’ Sunni, Arab states, and lead them towards confronting ‘bad actor’ Iran. ‘Team Bolton’ is reverting back to the old 1996 Clean Break script – as if nothing has changed. State Department officials have been briefing that Secretary Pompeo’s address in Cairo on Thursday was “slated to tell his audience (although he may not name the former president), that Obama misled the people of the Middle East about the true source of terrorism, including what contributed to the rise of the Islamic State. Pompeo will insist that Iran, a country Obama tried to engage, is the real terrorist culprit. The speech’s drafts also have Pompeo suggesting that Iran could learn from the Saudis about human rights, and the rule of law.”

Well, at least that speech should raise a chuckle around the region. In practice however, the regional fault-line has moved on: It is no longer so much Iran. GCC States have a new agenda, and are now far more concerned to contain Turkey, and to put a halt to Turkish influence spreading throughout the Levant. GCC states fear that President Erdogan, given the emotional and psychological wave of antipathy unleashed by the Khashoggi murder, may be mobilising newly re-energised Muslim Brotherhood, Gulf networks. The aim being to leverage present Gulf economic woes, and the general hollowing out of any broader GCC ‘vision’, in order to undercut the rigid Gulf ‘Arab system’ (tribal monarchy). The Brotherhood favours a soft Islamist reform of the Gulf monarchies – along lines, such as that once advocated by Jamal Khashoggi .

Turkey’s leadership in any case is convinced that it was the UAE (MbZ specifically) that was the author behind the Kurdish buffer being constructed, and mini-state ‘plot’ against Turkey – in conjunction with Israel and the US. Understandably, Gulf states now fear possible Turkish retribution for their weaponising of Kurdish aspirations in this way.

And Turkey is seen (by GCC States) as already working in close co-ordination with fellow Muslim Brotherhood patron and GCC member, Qatar, to divide the collapsing Council. This prefigures a new round to the MB versus Saudi Wahhabism spat for the soul of Sunni Islam.

GGC states therefore, are hoping to stand-up a ‘front’ to balance Turkey in the Levant. And to this end, they are trying to recruit President Assad back into the Arab fold (which is to say, into the Arab League), and to have him act, jointly with them, as an Arab counter to Turkey.

https://archive.fo/1dwoT
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-14/entering-major-regional-reset-syria-outcome-will-haunt-those-who-started-war