Signs

They were promised Heaven before being shown the the reality of Hell.

Our Lady always prepares the way ----

 

Score one for the good guys.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna874216

George Soros' foundation said Tuesday it would close its office in Budapest and move to Berlin, leaving what it called "an increasingly repressive political and legal environment" in Hungary.

The pro-democracy group said it was pulling out after the country’s government announced restrictions on non-profit organizations under a law dubbed the "Stop Soros" bill.


Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who won a landslide election victory last month, has repeatedly accused the Hungarian-American billionaire and his organization of encouraging migrants and undermining the national culture.

Soros' Open Society Foundations (OSF) organization said it would continue to support human rights work in Hungary as well as projects linked to arts, media freedom, transparency, education and health care.

But it would move its Budapest-based international operations and staff to Germany.

"The government of Hungary has denigrated and misrepresented our work and repressed civil society for the sake of political gain, using tactics unprecedented in the history of the European Union," OSF president Patrick Gaspard said in a statement.

Opposition and rights groups have long said that a departure of the OSF would mark a milestone in a slide towards authoritarian rule in Hungary and go against the principles of the European Union — a charge dismissed by the government.

Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs declined to comment.

Orban has increased his control over the media and put allies in control of formerly independent institutions, while his stand on refusing to accept large numbers of migrants in Hungary has also put him in conflict with the E.U.


Related
Far-right mayor hails success of Hungary-Serbia border fence
Orban and Soros have clashed over the 2015 European migration crisis. Orban says Soros is out to undermine Europe's cultural identity while the billionaire has accused him of running a mafia state.

Before the election, Orban's political campaign vilified Soros, and his activity supporting civil society, on billboards nationwide.

Open Society said the campaign had "invoked anti-Semitic imagery from World War II." The government has repeatedly denied this.

The legislation is expected to be one of the first laws passed by the new parliament. It would allow the interior minister to ban any non-profits deemed to pose a "national security risk." It would also impose a 25-percent tax on foreign donations to non-profits that back migration.

 

Don, It sounds like it's a step in the right direction. Maybe more nations will do the same as Hungary.

Here is another article about this and the last paragraph of the article might relate to prophecy,

George Soros' foundation is leaving Hungary after a campaign against him 'unprecedented in the history of the European Union'

Michael Selby-Green May 15, 2018 http://www.businessinsider.com/george-soros-foundation-out-of-hungary-repressive-environment-2018-5

George Soros. Reuters/Jorge Silva

• George Soros' Open Society Foundation (OSF) is closing its Hungarian office, citing a "repressive political and legal environment."
• Hungary recently passed a law dubbed the "Stop Soros Act" that gives the interior minister the power to expel NGOs.
• The recently re-elected right-wing Hungarian government ran a poster campaign against the billionaire, accusing him of meddling in countries' affairs.
• The OSF president said: "The government of Hungary has denigrated and misrepresented our work and repressed civil society for the sake of political gain, using tactics unprecedented in the history of the European Union."

George Soros' Open Society Foundation (OSF) is pulling out of Hungary after the introduction of tighter restrictions on non-governmental organisations in the country that have been dubbed the 'Stop Soros Act.'

The OSF announced the move on Tuesday, blaming "an increasingly repressive political and legal environment." The foundation, which is funded by Soros and supports civil society groups around the world, said it will continue to support its work in Hungary and channel funding to projects from it's office in Berlin.

"The government of Hungary has denigrated and misrepresented our work and repressed civil society for the sake of political gain, using tactics unprecedented in the history of the European Union," OSF president Patrick Gaspard said in a statement.

View attachment 7885
A government billboard is seen in Budapest

The retreat for OSF follows a landslide election victory for the right-wing Hungarian government led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Orban has been an outspoken critic of Soros and the activities of his foundation. The Prime Minister has accused him of meddling in the international affairs of countries and trying to flood the EU and Hungary with migrants. The government ran a poster campaign against Soros and sent a questionnaire about the billionaire to 8 million Hungarians.

Speaking after his election victory, Orban said: "I know they [the OSF] won't accept the result of the election, they will organize all sorts of things, they have unlimited financial resources."

The attacks on OSF, which the NGO says are unfounded, were a core element of Orban and his Fidez parties' political campaign which saw them re-elected for a third term with almost 48% of votes.

Orban has increased his power over the media and put allies in control of institutions that were previously independent. He fell out with both Soros and the EU over the 2015 financial crisis and his stance on restricting immigration.

The Fidez party initiated the "Stop Soros Act" in February. It enables the interior minister to ban NGO's working on immigration citing possible "national security risks." It requires foreign-funded NGO's, like OSF to pay 25 % tax.

Soros, born in Hungary and a Jewish survivor of World War II, is worth around $25 billion and is best known in the UK as "The Man who broke the Bank of England" after he bet big against the pound in 1992 and made more than $1 billion.

The Hungarian billionaire has faced attacks in recent months from populists and nationalists who denounce his support for liberal causes.

Soros attacked his critics in a January interview with the Financial Times, saying that the dominant ideology in the world now is nationalism. He added that he believed Putin was behind many of the attacks on him.

"It's déjà vu all over again with one big change — the dominant ideology in the world now is nationalism," said Soros. "It's the EU that's the institution that's on the verge of a breakdown. And Russia is now the resurgent power, based on nationalism."

 

I hope so Carol, those steps need to be firmly planted in the direction of recognizing the divine rights of Christ across nations. Anything less is a half measure.

 

George Soros: billionaire and bete noire of nationalists
15 May 2018 https://www.afp.com/en/news/721/george-soros-billionaire-and-bete-noire-nationalists-doc-14z0r51


POOL/AFP/File / OLIVIER HOSLET The anti-Soros rhetoric is far from being limited to just Hungary

The announcement Tuesday that a foundation run by US-Hungarian liberal billionaire George Soros will quit Hungary puts the spotlight once again on the favourite whipping boy of Western nationalists.

Over three decades since it began, Soros's Open Society Foundations (OSF) threw in the towel, citing Hungary's "increasingly repressive political and legal environment".

The organisation's departure will be poignant for the 87-year-old financier-cum-philanthropist who emigrated from Hungary after World War II.

In recent years Hungary's fiercely anti-immigration Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who himself received a Soros scholarship to study at Oxford, has accused Soros of orchestrating Europe’s migration crisis.

But the anti-Soros rhetoric is far from being limited to just Hungary.

Soros, listed by Forbes magazine as one of the world’s richest men, is accused by nationalists around the globe not just of stoking immigration but also of backing coups, sponsoring protests, and seeking to push a liberal, multicultural agenda.

Soros "makes an excellent scapegoat for increasingly authoritarian regimes as someone who's invested a lot of money into philanthropy and represents capitalism", German political analyst Ulf Brunnbauer recently told AFP.

- 'Gift to my enemies' -

Born in the Hungarian capital in 1930, Soros survived both the Nazi and Soviet occupation before eventually moving to the US where he made his fortune from hedge funds.

His dealings were not without controversy.

In 1992, the Wall Street trader became known as "the man who broke the bank of England" when his aggressive speculation against the sterling sent it crashing out of the European exchange mechanism.

He also has a 2002 conviction of insider trading in France, a verdict he described as a "gift to my enemies".

Marked by his experience of totalitarian regimes — "I have seen the damage done when societies succumb to the fear of the 'other'," he wrote in the New York Times last year — Soros created his foundation in 1984 to help countries move from communism toward democracy.

Since then he has poured billions of euros into ex-Soviet satellite states for programmes ranging from finance, health and justice reforms, to promoting the rights of minority groups and keeping tabs on government corruption.

He also backed pro-democracy groups in the colour revolutions in central and eastern Europe, and vowed to spend $1 billion in Ukraine to help save it from "Russian aggression".

Moscow’s "concept of government is irreconcilable with that of open society," Soros said recently.

- Call for 'de-Sorosisation' -

This kind of "interference" has earned him powerful enemies.

The Kremlin has accused Soros of fomenting violent uprisings and banned the OSF in 2015 as part of a massive NGO clampdown.

Europe’s migration crisis, which erupted that same year, has also deepened the rift between the pro-refugee rights OSF and anti-immigration nationalists.

Macedonia last year saw the emergence of a "Stop Operation Soros" movement and calls for the country's "de-Sorosisation".

The head of Poland's governing right-wing party Jaroslaw Kaczynski said Soros wanted to create "societies without an identity," while Romania's ruling party leader alleged the tycoon had "financed evil" by sponsoring mass protests.

Soros "interferes in elections and referendums all over the world," said leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage in February.

Italian anti-immigration leader - and possible member of the next government - Matteo Salvini has flayed the billionaire as "dangerous" for allegedly wanting to turn Italy into a "half-breed" country.

Meanwhile, leaders of Austria's far-right Freedom Party - now in government - have also begun to echo Orban's criticisms of Soros, while a right-wing magazine in France caused outrage with a recent front cover accusing Soros of "scheming against France".

And on the other side of the Atlantic, the far-right news website Breitbart — whose co-founding member Steve Bannon is a former aide to US President Donald Trump — runs almost daily anti-Soros stories.

*****
The following article which is over a year old is still interesting nonetheless (NGO - non-governmental organization),

After Trump Win, Anti-Soros Forces Are Emboldened in Eastern Europe
Rick Lyman March 1, 2017 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/...-forces-are-emboldened-in-eastern-europe.html

BUDAPEST — Emboldened by encouraging signals from the Trump administration, populist leaders across Central and Eastern Europe are mounting simultaneous crackdowns on nongovernmental organizations, once protected by Washington, that promote open government, aid refugees and often serve as checks on authoritarian governments.

In Hungary, where the movement has reached a fever pitch, supporters of Prime Minister Viktor Orban are vilifying “foreign-funded” N.G.O.s — especially those succored by George Soros, the liberal American billionaire — and accusing the groups of wanting to flood Europe with Muslim refugees and transform “Christian” nations into multicultural stews of left-wing globalism. Earlier this week, Zoltan Kovacs, Mr. Orban’s chief international spokesman, described the organizations as “foreign agents financed by foreign money.”

Macedonia’s former autocratic prime minister, Nikola Gruevski, has called for a “de-Sorosization” of society, labeling opponents “Soros-oids” and inspiring a “Stop Operation Soros” movement in January. Poland’s governing party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, says Soros-funded groups want “societies without identity,” and backs fresh efforts to regulate them. In Romania, where hundreds of thousands of anticorruption protesters took to the streets in recent weeks, the leader of the governing party charged that Mr. Soros “financed evil” and has vowed to defeat him. Similar efforts have begun or accelerated in Serbia, Slovakia and Bulgaria since Mr. Trump’s victory.

“These organizations must be pushed back with all available tools,” Szilard Nemeth, vice chairman of Hungary’s governing Fidesz party, told journalists. “I think they must be swept out, and now I believe the international conditions are right for this with the election of a new president.”

For more than a half-century, as Europe first struggled from the ashes of World War II and then shrugged off its Soviet shackles, American-backed nongovernmental organizations have been active across Europe, often called upon to explain the West’s style of democratic capitalism to people who have known neither. Their presence often annoyed the Continent’s more authoritarian-minded leaders, who regard many of the groups to be irritants at best, and threats at worst.

Traditionally, United States administrations of both parties have promoted the spread of democracy and stubbornly defended these advocacy groups. But Mr. Trump has said he will not press America’s political system on other countries and has embraced some of Europe’s far-right leaders. He also has criticized the European Union and made disparaging remarks about some democratic principles — including his frequent criticism of the news media.

For populist leaders like Mr. Orban, who has steadily steered Hungary toward so-called illiberal democracy, this new tone from the White House is regarded as a major opportunity.

“They see it as a historical moment,” said Jozsef Peter Martin, executive director of Transparency International’s Hungary branch. “The geopolitical situation has changed.”

For years, populist and authoritarian governments have been targeting “foreign-funded” organizations in many parts of the world, from China to India, and especially in Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia. Similar talk was common in Central and Eastern Europe, but now governments in Hungary and elsewhere are pushing beyond political speeches to propose legislation.

“Orban has talked about the Trump era being a new international opportunity for Hungary,” said Marta Pardavi, co-founder of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, which gets about 30 percent of its funding from Soros-backed foundations. “He said it was a gift to us.”

Gergely Gulyas, a vice president of Hungary’s governing party, agreed that Mr. Trump’s victory had created a geopolitical climate more attractive to Hungary’s current leaders, but he cautioned against seeing that as the decisive reason for the crackdown.

“I think we would have done this even if Hillary Clinton had won,” he said.

He and other supporters of the Hungarian government say the outcry by civil society is a vast overreaction to what is simply a common-sense attempt to force the organizations to be more “transparent” — effectively turning the language of the advocacy groups against them.

continued...

 

continued from above...

In Hungary, governing party officials first began criticizing foreign-funded N.G.O.s in 2013. The following year, state investigators targeted organizations that received money from the Norway Grants, which the Scandinavian nation uses to promote social and economic equality in the formerly communist East. Agents raided the Budapest offices of three organizations and demanded documentation from dozens of others. But the investigators’ final report, released last fall, found no serious infringements of Hungarian law, and no charges were leveled.

But shortly after Mr. Trump’s election, Fidesz leaders immediately renewed their attacks on “foreign-funded” N.G.O.s, as the new villains were groups sponsored by Mr. Soros, while also proposing new legislative restrictions. Fidesz officials have not unveiled their proposals but say they intend to create a registry of such organizations and force them to disclose their financial details. Some officials have proposed forcing local N.G.O. leaders to disclose their personal finances.

“It is only about transparency,” Mr. Gulyas said. “This is a debate that is taking place around the world. An important debate about the future of democracy.”

But advocacy groups say it is more about harassment and intimidation. Stefania Kapronczay, executive director of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, which gets over half its funding from Soros-backed organizations, said Hungarian officials were “testing the waters” to see “what they can get away with.” New restrictions would have a “chilling effect,” she said.

“Some small N.G.O.s just quit,” she said. “The willingness of people to cooperate with us decreases.”

Born in Budapest in 1930, Mr. Soros and his Jewish family survived the Nazi occupation with false identity papers. He eventually became a Wall Street financier and ultimately made billions through his own hedge fund, Soros Fund Management. He established the Open Society Foundations as an umbrella group for his philanthropy and has given more than $12 billion to date. His philanthropic work promotes democracy, government accountability and freedom of expression — and, he has said, is driven by his memories of life under the Nazis.

“You couldn’t come up with a better enemy figure today,” said Jan Orlovsky, director of the Slovak branch of the Open Society Foundations. “George Soros brings up all of the stereotypes we have lived with all our lives — about Jews, bankers and, in Slovakia, also about Hungarians.”

Chris Stone, the president of the Open Society Foundations, described the governmental crackdowns as “a campaign by government leaders who are impatient with the institutions of democracy.”

Macedonia, struggling to form a new government in the debris of a two-year political crisis, has taken perhaps the most forceful anti-Soros stance. The Stop Operation Soros campaign pushes the idea that international pressure — from N.G.O.s and Western governments — forced the recent fall of the right-wing government of Mr. Gruevski, who hopes to return to power.

“We believe that, in these murky times, it is really important to take away the mask of the so-called civic organizations and to clearly reveal their political goals and actions, as well as their financing,” said Nenad Mirchevski, a founder of the movement.

In Poland, against a flare-up of anti-Soros statements, Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said her government intended to create a new body to coordinate state funding for all nongovernmental organizations. In Slovakia, a far-right-wing party proposed forcing “foreign-funded” N.G.O.s to register with the government. That effort did not succeed, but that did little to slow the tide of anti-Soros speech.

“Demonic forces of evil, represented by Soros, the Clintons, the Bush family and others, have not come to terms with losing the election, so they keep attacking Trump and want to get rid of him,” said a recent article in Hlavne Spravy, a right-wing Slovak daily.

From the moment Romania’s nominally socialist party was returned to power in December, its populist leader, Liviu Dragnea, has pressed for more control over N.G.O.s. “I have something against Mr. Soros,” Mr. Dragnea said in a late January interview. In Bulgaria, both Mr. Soros and organizations that defend human rights have come under attack. A local newspaper, shortly after Mr. Trump’s victory, described Mr. Soros as a “liberal terrorist.” In Serbia, local right-wing and pro-Russian publications have linked Mr. Soros to the Rothschilds, highlighted his Jewishness and described his efforts as an “anti-Trump radical movement.”

“And we are only at the start of the story,” said Laszlo Majtenyi, director of the Eotvos Karoly Institute in Budapest, a Soros-founded organization, and a left-wing coalition candidate for president in April. Once the government has stigmatized the groups as “foreign-funded,” he said, future crackdowns will be easier.

And there is always the chance that authoritarian governments will feel emboldened enough to simply toss out the offending organizations.

“This is where European democratic values will be defended,” said Goran Buldioski, director of the Open Society Initiative for Europe. “In Hungary and Poland, not in Western Europe. Democracy is more than just the ballot box, and it is more than something that happens every four years.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/...-forces-are-emboldened-in-eastern-europe.html

 

I like this quote originated with Mahatma Ghandi: 'First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”.
Caroll55 I wouldn't worry too much. Almight God is above all of that 'who is over all'...

 

These are the two seminarians that were removed from Maynooth a while back and sent to Rome when all the gay sex allegations became public. One more instance of the church authorities dealing with perverts by simply moving them somewhere else. Will they ever change...

 

Satan, he will do only as much as God allows him. 'Who is like God?' (Quis ut Deus?)

 

Now here's some news that will make for sweet dreams! And if Mr. Putin desires to share this new advantage technology with the likes of Iran where he's already leant his expertise in their current nuke development his venture into the Middle East for positioning there will be complete.....not so great though for those "Satans", big and little! This type of development in warfare technology is what makes one look more towards the years of the early 2020's for such expected times of worldwide tribulation rather than anything more immediate.

US intelligence reports: Russia's new hypersonic weapon will likely be ready for war by 2020

• Russia has successfully tested a hypersonic weapon the United States is currently unable to defend against, according to sources with direct knowledge of U.S. intelligence reports.
• The Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle is expected to enter Russia's arsenal by 2020.
• The weapon could be outfitted with a nuclear warhead but would be able to create destruction even without explosives.

.......
The latest revelations come more than two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin touted his nation's growing hypersonic arsenal as "invincible."


The hypersonic glide vehicle, dubbed Avangard, is designed to sit atop an intercontinental ballistic missile. Once launched, it uses aerodynamic forces to sail on top of the atmosphere.

One U.S. intelligence report, according to a source, noted that the hypersonic glide vehicles were mounted to Russian-made SS-19 intercontinental ballistic missiles — and one test featured a mock warhead.

Devastation even without explosives

While it is unclear whether Avangard will be outfitted with explosives, the precision and speed of the weapon is believed to pack enough force to obliterate targets.

The weapon, which Moscow has been developing for three decades, can travel at least five times the speed of sound, or about one mile per second.

"These kinds of boost glide vehicles attack the gaps in our missile defense system," Thomas Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNBC.

......
Sources familiar with the U.S. intelligence reports assess that the Russian hypersonic glide vehicles are equipped with onboard countermeasures that are able to defeat even the most advanced missile-defense systems. The weapons are also highly maneuverable and, therefore, unpredictable, which makes them difficult to track.

The intelligence reports, which were curated this spring, calculate that Russia's hypersonic glide vehicles are likely to achieve initial operational capability by 2020, a significant step that would enable the Kremlin to surpass the U.S. and China in this regard.

......

Putin claimed Avangard was capable of reaching targets at a speed of 20 times the speed of sound and strikes "like a fireball."

........

"We don't have any defense that could deny the employment of such a weapon against us," Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Both Russia and China are aggressively pursuing hypersonic capabilities," he added, noting that the U.S. has "watched them test those capabilities."

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/15/russia-hypersonic-weapon-likely-ready-for-war-by-2020-us-intel.html

 

It might appear that all this friendly posturing by NK with claims of destroying its nuke testing over night is due more to the collapse of its current testing infrastructure which prevents it from continuing that particular mode of testing anyway than any change in attitude. In fact it may just be using this momentary failure to play for time in order to begin again. Also I doubt if China wants any further earthquakes on its own border due to this NK testing.


SEOUL (Reuters) - Satellite imagery shows North Korea dismantling facilities at its nuclear test site, but experts say the images can’t reveal whether it is the first step toward full denuclearization, or an attempt to cloak nuclear capabilities from outside observers.

.......
“North Korea might seem like they’re being generous in holding this event, but this is the actual testing ground we’re talking about here - The smoking gun,” said Suh Kune-yull, professor of nuclear energy system engineering at Seoul National University. “It seems like they’re trying to erase any evidence of the nuclear capabilities they have.”

.......
LaFoy said North Korea’s actions so far are “not necessarily nefarious,” but that it does raise some “red flags” about complete permanent denuclearization.


“That imagery tells us the site appears to be in the process of decommissioning,” he said. “But we can’t yet tell if it is going to be closed for years or something that can ultimately be reversed in a few weeks or months.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-its-arsenal-or-hiding-evidence-idUSKCN1IH0OQ

 

Just in case you have not seen these images...

PHOTOS: Golfers brave erupting volcano in Hawaii to sneak in a round


People play golf as an ash plume rises in the distance from the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island on May 15, 2018 in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii.
Mario Tama/Getty Images

By Kevin Cunningham Wednesday, May 16, 2018 http://www.golf.com/tour-news/2018/...ve-erupting-volcano-hawaii-sneak-round-photos

Since May 3, residents of Hawaii's Big Island have been struggling with the fallout from the recent and ongoing eruption of the Kilauea volcano. But that didn't stop a group of golfers from playing a few holes on Tuesday.

Photographer Mario Tama captured images of two men playing golf in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park with the massive ash plumes from Kilauea rising behind them, which you can see below.



A man drives a golf cart at a golf course as an ash plume rises in the distance from the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island on May 15, 2018 in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii. Mario Tama/Getty Images


The U.S. Geological Survey said a recent lowering of the lava lake at the volcano's Halemaumau crater 'has raised the potential for explosive eruptions' at the volcano. Mario Tama/Getty Images

People watch at a golf course as an ash plume rises in the distance from the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island on May 15, 2018 in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Some evacuations of residents in the path of the volcano have already been enforced, and on Tuesday "the US Geological Survey issued a red alert Tuesday, which means a major eruption is imminent or underway and ash could affect air traffic," according to CNN.

Related story: Volcano Golf & Country Club narrowly avoids lava flow on Hawaii's Big Island

Given that Hawaii is a popular golf vacation destination, it is yet to be seen how many courses will be damaged once the eruption is complete.
***
View attachment 7903 Aircraft warning issued as Hawaii volcano spews 'vog,' ash thousands of feet into the air
"An ash plume from within Kilauea volcano's summit crater rose as high as 12,000 feet above sea level, prompting geologists to issue a "red" warning for pilots and air traffic controllers as the ash could disrupt flights."
The Patriot-News May 16, 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHTxNv-3frg

 

And this already happening....also involves Youtube.....and then separately the complaints of censoring taking place on Facebook, Twitter et al. People are already being formed in the image and likeness of these few empowered/$$$ controllers and just go along like the proverbial boiling frogs. Some of the more recent messages to Luz de Maria emphasize this kind of control and surrender for convenience sake:

Masters of the Universe: Leaked Video Shows Google’s Vision of ‘Total Data Collection’

“It imagines a future of total data collection, where Google helps nudge users into alignment with their goals, custom-prints personalized devices to collect more data, and even guides the behavior of entire populations to solve global problems like poverty and disease,” declared the Verge, who reported that “the middle section of the video presents a conceptual Resolutions by Google system, in which Google prompts users to select a life goal and then guides them toward it in every interaction they have with their phone.”

“The examples, which would ‘reflect Google’s values as an organization,’ include urging you to try a more environmentally friendly option when hailing an Uber or directing you to buy locally grown produce from Safeway,” they explained, adding that, “The system would be able to ‘plug gaps in its knowledge and refine its model of human behavior’ — not just your particular behavior or mine, but that of the entire human species.”

After the Verge reached out to Google’s X team for comment, a spokesman responded, “We understand if this is disturbing — it is designed to be. This is a thought-experiment by the Design team from years ago that uses a technique known as ‘speculative design’ to explore uncomfortable ideas and concepts in order to provoke discussion and debate. It’s not related to any current or future products.”

http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/...hows-googles-vision-of-total-data-collection/

 

etoa, Your story reminded of the following story which I heard yesterday. Alphabet is Google's parent company, I think 20,800 shares amounts to about $22.5 million,

05.16.18 https://www.fastcompany.com/4057341...s-just-stocked-up-on-tesla-amazon-and-netflix
“Big Tech” foe George Soros just stocked up on Tesla, Amazon, and Netflix

[Photo: Niccolò Caranti/Wikimedia Commons]
By Melissa Locker

George Soros just gave Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos some of his hard-earned cash.

Well, sort of: The Soros Fund Management bought $35 million worth of Tesla’s convertible notes, a.k.a. bonds that can be converted into a specified number of common stock in March 2019, per CNBC. Tesla isn’t the only stock that Soros added to his shopping cart, according to an SEC filing released on Tuesday. The Soros Fund Management bought 51,200 shares of Amazon, worth $74.1 million, in a three-month period that ended March 31. It was an interesting pickup, because Soros dumped all of his Amazon stock in late 2017.

Soros’s fund also loaded up on 20,800 Alphabet shares (even after denouncing Google) and Netflix, adding another 148,500 shares in the first quarter of this year to its already substantial Netflix holdings. To make space for all its shiny new holdings, Soros cleared out some clutter—he dumped 34,100 shares of Twitter.

That’s a lot of tech stocks for a man who denounced Facebook and Google as a “menace” to society whose “days are numbered” and whose Open Society Institute is “examining new ways” to tackle the growing power of tech giants.

 

Facebook Partners with Globalist Atlantic Council to Interfere in Elections Around the World

Facebook has partnered with the Atlantic Council, whose members include arch-globalists like Henry Kissinger and Dina Powell, to “protect free and fair elections around the world.”
Facebook announced earlier today that the Atlantic Council will provide it with “real-time insights and updates on emerging threats and disinformation campaigns from around the world.”

In other words, Facebook will trust a globalist think-tank to distinguish “disinformation” from the spin and sloganeering that characterize virtually all democratic elections.

Facebook says it will also rely on monitoring teams from the Atlantic Council during elections:

Facebook will also use the Atlantic Council’s Digital Research Unit Monitoring Missions during elections and other highly sensitive moments. This will allow us to focus on a particular geographic area — monitoring for misinformation and foreign interference and also working to help educate citizens as well as civil society.

The thought that a globalist think tank might be biased against certain politicians around the world, and that this might affect their opinion of what counts as “misinformation,” does not seem to have occurred to Facebook.

To cite just one example, the Atlantic Council has branded Hungary’s anti-globalist Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, as a “far-right autocrat” who runs a “quasi-authoritarian regime that bears little semblance to the democracy that allowed its accession to the EU and NATO”.

The Council described Orbán’s recent landslide victory in the Hungarian elections as a “rallying cry for action” for “western democracies” to “protect and defend … democratic values.”

Authoritarians who cozy up to the globalist agenda don’t get as harsh a treatment. The same Atlantic Council that condemned Orbán’s victory hosted Turkey’s President Erdoğan, whose government recently invaded and occupied an independent Kurdish region in Syria, at their international summit in Istanbul last year.

This is the group that Facebook will rely on as it pokes its nose into elections around the world. What could possibly go wrong?

http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/...l-to-interfere-in-elections-around-the-world/

 

More prayers being requested...

8 to 10 people killed in shooting at Texas high school;
suspected gunman arrested and 'possible explosive devices' found
May 18, 2018 Michelle Mark http://www.businessinsider.com/santa-fe-high-school-shooting-texas-2018-5

In this image taken from video, law-enforcement officers respond to a high school near Houston after a shooter was reported on campus, Friday, May 18, 2018, in Santa Fe, Texas.
KTRK-TV ABC13 via Associated Press

• At least eight people were killed in a high-school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, on Friday, authorities said.
• A suspected gunman was arrested and a second person was detained, authorities said.
• "Possible explosive devices" were found at the school and off campus, the school district said.
• Witnesses said the gunman entered an art class Friday morning and opened fire with what appeared to be a shotgun.

Between eight and 10 people — most of them students — were killed after a shooting at a high school Friday morning in Santa Fe, Texas, authorities said.

One suspect was arrested and a second "person of interest" was detained, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at a news conference Friday morning. He said both were students at the Santa Fe High School.

The school district said in a statement that "possible explosive devices" were also located both at the school and off-campus, and authorities were "in the process of rendering them safe."

One witness said a gunman walked into an art class between 7:30 and 7:45 a.m. and opened fire with what appeared to be a shotgun, she told Houston television station KTRK.

The witness said she saw one girl with blood on her leg as she fled the classroom.

Another student told the station that a teacher had pulled the fire alarm in an effort to get students out of the building. The student said he heard at least 16 or 17 gunshots in total.

"We smelled the gunpowder and you could hear the shots," he said. "We knew it was the real deal."


First responders following a shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, May 18, 2018.
Harris County Sheriff's Office via Reuters

Another student, Tyler Hunter, said the school usually has several armed school-resource officers on campus.

Local and federal authorities rushed to the scene, including the Harris County Sheriff's Office, the Galveston County Sheriff's Office, the Santa Fe Police Department, the FBI, and officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Television footage also showed several Life Flight air-ambulance helicopters touching down in the high school's parking lot as well as clusters of students huddled around school buses.

A spokesman for the University of Texas Medical Branch, Raul Reyes, told reporters that the facility had so far received three patients with gunshot wounds — two adults and one person under the age of 18.

One of the adult patients, a middle-aged male, was in critical condition, Reyes said. The others were a juvenile and a female adult, both in good condition and with gunshot wounds to the legs.

One man prompted further controversy outside the school on Friday morning, where he arrived carrying an American flag and a holstered gun on his hip. He told reporters he was there to offer "support."

"Get to the school, make America great again," he said, referring to President Donald Trump's popular slogan.

Trump himself told media on Friday that his administration was "closely monitoring the situation," and that the epidemic of mass shootings "has been going on too long in our country.

"We grieve for the terrible loss of life and send our love and support to everyone affected by this absolutely horrific attack," he added. "We're with you in this tragic hour and we'll be with you forever."

Trump also drew some criticism for tweeting earlier, "School shooting in Texas. Early reports not looking good. God bless all!"

The shooting comes amid an ongoing national discourse over gun control and mass shootings. A similar high-school shooting occurred in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, killing 17 people.

Santa Fe is a city just southeast of Houston that has a population of 13,200, according to the US Census Bureau.

 

Thank you for getting this posted.

 

This is the group that the libs promote and allegedly supported by such as Soros. These groups that have been known already to bloody Trump supporters wearing red hats and destroying property....isn't it time to put a watch on them and react immediately to their gatherings? It always seems that excuses are made for individual members UNTIL something like this occurs.

BREAKING: Santa Fe High School Killer Wore ANTIFA Hammer-and-Sickle Terrorist Logo

......Dimitrios had a Facebook page but it is already deleted.

Dimitrios Pagourtzis was wearing a jacket with the ANTIFA terrorist hammer-and-sickle emblem.




They sell these Antifa stars on Amazon.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/201...wore-antifa-hammer-and-sickle-terrorist-logo/

 

Will tech giants sway Ireland’s abortion referendum?
by Jon Anderson posted Thursday, 17 May 2018 http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/

A pro-life ‘No’ poster in Dublin. The Irish press overwhelmingly backs ‘Yes’ to the repeal (CNS)

By restricting online advertising, tech giants could tip the balance in this month's abortion referendum

As the referendum on May 25 to liberalise Ireland’s strict abortion laws approaches, Google and Facebook have intervened to restrict online advertising aimed at Irish voters. Facebook has moved against non-Irish advertisers, mostly from the US, posting on Irish social media. Google has gone further and banned all online ads relating to the referendum.

Although this may seem a neutral move, it is thought that this will benefit the campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment, which bans abortion in most circumstances. The No campaign (against repeal), which has largely been shut out of the Irish press, has relied heavily on social media to organise.

Ailbhe Smyth, a leader of the pro-repeal campaign, commented that Google’s move “creates a level playing field between all sides, specifically in relation to YouTube and Google searches”. However, Laoise Ní Dhubhrosa, of London Irish United for Life, told the Catholic Herald: “This is a very worrying development. Our experience has been that traditional media in Ireland is extremely biased against the pro-life position; most of the Irish newspapers have an editorial stance in favour of repealing the Eighth Amendment. In that context, pro-life groups have to rely on new media, including online ads, to get their message out there. The referendum requires an open democratic debate, not one in which content is censored and shut down on dubious grounds.”

Despite enjoying the support of almost the entire Irish establishment, including most politicians, media and celebrities such as Bono and Liam Neeson, the Yes campaign has become jittery as its poll lead has narrowed during the campaign. Before the referendum was called, the Yes side outnumbered No in the polls by at least two to one, though a large proportion of voters said they had not yet decided which way to vote. The most recent poll had Yes at 45 per cent with No at 34 per cent.

Campaigners on both sides are also aware that, while Irish pollsters have a good track record in general elections, they are not very good at predicting referendum results. Whether because of a lack of popular enthusiasm for their proposals or because Irish voters tell pollsters what they want to hear, recent Irish governments have frequently lost votes that the polls said they were sure to win. So the result may be much closer than the polls suggest, and even if the restriction in online advertising only has a minor effect, that could be decisive.

A major background influence to the online ban has been the fallout from recent political events such as the Brexit vote and, more importantly, President Trump’s election. The unexpected Trump victory caused a breach in the alliance between the Democratic Party and Silicon Valley that was forged by Bill Clinton in the 1990s. A large part of the Democratic base, rather than accepting that they had an uninspiring candidate or a poorly organised campaign, blamed their defeat on “fake news” and in particular on Russian disinformation efforts. So far, though, the evidence of Russian trolls influencing voters to support Trump or Brexit has been very thin.

Since the shocks of 2016, social media giants have been eager to prove that their platforms are resistant to trolls and disinformation, but in the polarised atmosphere of current American politics this has only led them deeper into claims of bias. Facebook has hired fact-checkers to supposedly ensure impartiality, but has been accused of targeting conservative news outlets. The company recently drew fire for threatening to penalise the Babylon Bee, a popular Christian satirical site, for publishing “fake news”.

With US mid-term elections taking place in November, social media is likely to come in for close scrutiny. The Irish referendum move is billed as a dry run for tech companies’ ability to manage online political activity on the bigger American stage. But it also leads the companies into the minefield of foreign involvement in Irish votes, something that is both legally restricted and politically controversial in Ireland.

In fact, the Yes campaign has had the bigger legal problem with foreign involvement. Last December, the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) ordered the Irish section of Amnesty International to return a €137,000 donation from the billionaire financier George Soros, specifically to assist its campaigns for liberalising abortion laws in Ireland and internationally.

Under the Electoral Act (1997), any organisation receiving €100 or more in donations for campaigning must register as a third party, and may not receive donations from any person outside Ireland who is not an Irish citizen – thus ruling out the Hungarian-American Soros. Amnesty has refused to return the donation and is challenging the ruling, arguing that SIPO’s strict interpretation of the law is inconsistent with the Irish government’s own practice in supporting human rights causes abroad.

Two figures at opposite ends of the debate are David Quinn, founder of the Iona Institute, which promotes marriage and religion in society, and Colm O’Gorman, executive director of Amnesty International Ireland.

At the time of the ruling, Quinn said: “I will join Colm in campaigning to change the Electoral Act. I am happy to see [it] changed, but in the meantime, you’ve got to obey it and not hold yourself above it; and also there can’t be double standards in how organisations are treated as to how they go about trying to raise money.” SIPO’s argument has been that the aim is to protect the Irish electoral process from foreign interference.

There are two things that make this procedural issue so sensitive in Ireland. One is the issue of money. Since a Supreme Court judgment in 1995 prohibited the government from spending taxpayers’ money on propaganda for one side in referendum campaigns, only privately raised money can be spent. This can eliminate the disadvantage for those campaigning against state proposals, but it still means the scramble to raise as much money as your opponents is half of the battle.

More importantly, Irish voters can be resistant to attempts from foreign countries – especially Britain – to influence Ireland’s internal affairs. On the abortion issue, which has attracted most foreign attention, the argument cuts both ways. Irish liberals have been keen to scare their voters with the involvement of American fundamentalists who may have little in common with Irish Catholics apart from opposition to abortion. On the other side, conservatives point to pressure on Ireland from UN and EU bodies to bring the country’s laws closer to international norms. And George Soros’s funding of political causes around the world, including his long-running war with Viktor Orbán’s Hungarian government, provokes controversy everywhere.

All of these claims of influence are exaggerated, but they do contain a grain of truth. Despite its rapid evolution into a post-Catholic society, Ireland retains one of the most restrictive abortion regimes in the world, and under the constitution the law can only be changed with the consent of the voters in a referendum. So the Irish result will be a huge prize to those around the world who are passionate about either side of the argument. It is no surprise that campaigners outside Ireland want to have their say.

But in the end, it is the Irish voters who will decide. Outside efforts may tip the balance if the result is extremely close. But more important factors will be the campaign on the ground, whether there is an enthusiasm gap between the two sides, and how much Catholic sentiment remains in a country where decades of scandal have demolished the Church’s institutional power.

Jon Anderson is a freelance writer
This article first appeared in the May 18th 2018 issue of the Catholic Herald. To read the magazine in full, from anywhere in the world, go here