https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/oct/2/donald-trump-suspected-ricin-letter-intercepted-se/ The Secret Service intercepted an envelope suspected of containing ricin, a lethal poison, sent to President Trump, the service confirmed Tuesday. The letter was intercepted Monday, the same day ricin-laced mail was sent to the Pentagon. Another letter with suspicious white powder caused a scare at Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign headquarters in Houston, but the powder turned out not to be hazardous. The letter targeting Mr. Trump did not reach the White House, the Secret Service said in a statement. “The envelope was not received at the White House, nor did it ever enter the White House. As a matter of practice, the Secret Service does not comment regarding matters of protective intelligence,” the statement said.
And now this... A volcano has erupted on the Indonesian island hit by an earthquake and tsunami five days ago.
thanks, I just ordered it.....I loved Fr Elijah....read it in the 90's.....we are now living in those dispicable times outlined by Fr Elijah when he comes out of his Hermit life to visit Rome. So Prophetic. Except I fear this pope is not the good pope of Fr Elijah...
A realistic article about the Machiavellian ways of Mr. Bezos....don't be fooled! Bezos' Decision To Raise Wages Is Largely A Machiavellian Distraction For the many low wage Amazon workers - both full time and temporary - set to receive a raise thanks to the just announced boost in minimum pay to $15/hour, the news is certainly a big plus. It should also be noted that had Amazon not been subject to intense scrutiny and criticism from the likes of Bernie Sanders and others, Jeff Bezos never would have responded with such an aggressive move. That said, if you think a little beyond the surface level about why he’s doing this now and what his real motives are, it becomes clear nobody should take this move at face value. ....... 1. It’s nice to see Amazon workers get a raise today, and not just the regular hires, but the temps too. What led to this? Five things... 2. First, it’s a very tight labor market and Amazon needs a bunch of people in its warehouses right now for the 4th quarter. 3. Second, advocacy by @SenSanders & @RoKhanna, & groups like @jwjnational & @ilsr, compelled Amazon to act. Amazon almost never responds to critics. But Sanders and Khanna unnerved Amazon deeply, as I pointed out in an earlier thread: 4. Third, Amazon is run by the world’s richest man (net worth = $160 billion) and his recent attempt to make this unconscionable disparity seem okay with a $2B charity pledge just didn’t cut it. Bezos is the face of inequality. That’s still true after today. 5. Fourth, Amazon has another way to cut labor costs: automation. It needs fewer workers today to sell & ship $100M worth of stuff than it did just a few years ago. That trend is only accelerating. Some e-commerce warehouses in China have a staff of 4 people. They fix the robots. 6. Finally, and this is the big reason: Amazon fears an antitrust case to break it up. They’re right to be nervous. In the last week: @SenWarren called for it. The EU's @vestager opened an antitrust probe. A former Amazon exec said competition depended on splitting Amazon in two. 7. To keep its grip, Amazon is going to try to buy off constituencies, one by one. 8. Workers getting a raise is a good thing. But what we need is so much bigger. No company should have this much power. Inevitably, it means that Amazon gets to set the rules, economically & politically. And those rules will always privilege Amazon's interest over the public’s. Bezos is naturally attempting to portray this as a come to Jesus moment, but you shouldn’t buy his spin for a second. Based on what we know of his business practices, the guy’s built the behemoth that is Amazon by operating in a Machiavellian fashion (see my recent post: Amazon is Far More Dangerous and Powerful Than You Want to Admit). The real tell here is Bezos’ immediate emphasis on raising the national minimum wage to $15 an hour under the law. Pushing for a forced across the board wage hike everyone knows Amazon can cope with better than current or potential competition, makes his company look good while likely harming other business models in the process. This is how Bezos rolls, he’s willing to take short-term losses to dominate a market. What sacrifice is a wage hike if he assumes everyone else will have to do it as well? He knows Amazon’s got the resources and capability to automate in a way others simply can’t. Bezos see this as a win-win if he can also get everyone to pay $15 an hour. He gets to look like a leader, while also positioning Amazon for even greater market dominance in the long-run. You really think Bezos is advocating for a national minimum wage increase because he’s suddenly a Bernie Sanders populist? Don’t be stupid. Which brings us to the next point. While Bezos’ well documented piss poor treatment of low level employees is well documented, Amazon poses a much larger threat in other respects. It’s not just the company’s increased ties to the U.S. military and intelligence agencies, though that’s dangerous enough. The company’s largest threat resides in its desire to not just dominate the market, but to become the market itself. As Stacy Mitchell noted in her excellent 2017 article: To describe Amazon as a retailer is to misunderstand what the company actually is, and to miss the depth of the threat that it poses to our liberty and the very idea of an open, competitive market. It’s not just that Amazon does many things besides sell stuff—that it manufactures thousands of products, from dress shirts to baby wipes, produces hit movies and television shows, delivers restaurant orders, offers loans, and may soon dispense prescription drugs. Jeff Bezos is after something so much bigger than any of this. His vision is for Amazon to control the underlying infrastructure of the economy.Amazon’s website is already the dominant platform for digital commerce. Its Web Services division controls 44 percent of the world’s cloud computing capacity and is relied on by everyone from Netflix to the Central Intelligence Agency. And the company has recently built out a vast network of distribution infrastructure to handle package delivery for itself and others. Jeff Bezos is a highly intelligent and cutthroat individual. He’s able to see multiple steps ahead of most people, and this move to raise wages is a perfect example. He figures he can look like the good guy in the near-term, while solidifying market dominance and monopoly power in the big picture. Bezos plays the long game and he plays it really well. Don’t take your eye off the ball or believe the hype for a minute. Michael Kreiger tweets: Don't give Jeff Bezos any credit. He's Machiavellian. This isn't coming from a good place. You can think it's good Amazon employees are getting a wage increase and also understand Bezos is not coming from a good place. These two things are not mutually exclusive. 12:44 PM - Oct 2, 2018 https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018...raise-wages-largely-machiavellian-distraction
Looks like the Kavanaugh vote will take place on Friday, Oct 5, the feast day of the Apostle of Mercy, Faustina Kowalska.....interesting turn of events?
Good to keep an eye on such tactics now used by the powerful and $$$ed who wish to control all the means for supply, news, political control, etc., to enrich themselves alone and those who think as they do. Their other means via such methods is also population control. Amazon's corrupt minimum wage ploy Amazon is up to its old tricks again. Once again, the retail giant is seeking competitive advantage by calling on big government to smash its rivals. Once again, this massive corporation is portraying its regulatory robbery as good citizenship. Nobody should fall for this well-worn strategy of lobbying in order to raise competitors’ costs and drive them out of business. Amazon announced Tuesday it would raise all of its employees wages to $15 an hour. That’s great. Employers should pay workers whatever they want to pay workers. Rising wages reflect increased competitiveness in the labor market. Competition is great, and more competition over workers is always very good for workers. Aside from market pressures, higher pay for workers also improves morale and often improves output. In Amazon’s case, in particular, this raise may ward off the push for unionization. All that is fine. But there's a problem when Amazon goes to big government to demand that everyone follow suit. "We will be working to gain congressional support for an increase in the federal minimum wage,” said Amazon spokesman Jay Carney. Carney’s revolving-door pedigree—from straight-news reporter to Democratic flack/public servant to corporate flack—is the perfect flavor of corruption for Amazon’s little stunt here. Amazon believes it can afford to pay its workers $15 an hour because of its economies of scale and its cutting-edge automation. The smaller competitors that Amazon wants to drive out of business probably cannot afford that. Mom & Pop can’t replace the high school stock boy with robots when Congress outlaws his job. And that's why Amazon is doing this. Goliath is trying to outlaw David. Lobbying for barriers to entry is a well-worn tactic. Walmart in 2009 lobbied for the employer health-insurance mandate, knowing it would impose more of a cost on Target and every other competitor. Nobody is stopping Amazon from paying above-market wages. Nobody was stopping Walmart from paying above-market health benefits. But both of these mega-companies saw that Uncle Sam could help them out by erecting barriers to competition. .......Amazon has experience in this game. The company used to oppose efforts by states to collect sales tax on online sales. Then Amazon increased its network of distribution centers and courts ruled that a warehouse in a state constituted enough of a physical presence that it was valid for states to collect sales tax from Amazon. Once Amazon was paying the sales tax everywhere it had a physical presence, it flipped sides in the debate. Amazon came out in favor of federal legislation requiring all e-retailers, big and small, physical presence or no, to collect sales tax. In a free society and free markets, there is a distinction between what you decide is best for you, and what you think should be required of everyone else. In Amazon’s vision, there is no such distinction. If they’re going to pay a higher wage, they believe nobody else should be allowed to pay a lower one. It’s certainly not a noble position. You could call it shrewd if you want. We call it corrupt. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/amazons-corrupt-minimum-wage-ploy
Hmmmm...... Biblical end of days prophecy COMES TRUE as fish swim again in Dead Sea A BIBLICAL prophecy may be coming true after fish were spotted swimming in the Dead Sea – mirroring Prophet Ezekiel’s vision. Ezekiel is a key figure in the Bible and in his end-of-days prophecy, he foresees the Dead Sea flourishing into life – something that is considered to be impossible due to its high salt content. Israeli photojournalist Noam Bedein has reported sightings of marine life in small sinkholes around the Dead Sea, as well as vegetation growing. Photos released by the Dead Sea Revival Project show tiny fish swimming in water that is reportedly from the highly-salinated body of water. Mr Bedein, who works on the Dead Sea Revival Project, which works to preserve the Sea and other Israeli “water treasures”, said the fish prove the water is “anything but dead”. It is also reportedly evidence of a Biblical miracle coming true. The Bible states that after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the land was turned into a barren wasteland – the same area the Dead Sea is now. But it was prophesied that life would once again return to the land, with fish in abundance in the water. “Coming to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth, you see prophecy coming true,” Mr Bedein told Breaking News Israel. “A place that was once cursed in Biblical times, now you can come here to the Dead Sea, explore the sinkholes and see fish where the water has receded – fulfilling prophecies from Ezekiel who talked about the land flourishing and blooming when the Jews return.” He continued: “The curse is over, and this place and its minerals are now bringing life to people around the world.” Mr Bedein and his team has been documenting changes in the Dead Sea over the last two years. Due to environmental changes, around 600 Olympic pool’s worth of water are being lost from the sea every year – something being described as an “environmental catastrophe”. https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/we...rophecy-fish-dead-sea-israel-biblical-ezekiel
PAPAL ENVOY COMPARES MEDJUGORJE WITH LOURDES AND FATIMA!!!!!!! (Wasn't able to copy and paste the translation. Go to this link to read the whole report): https://www.total-croatia-news.com/lifestyle/31473-medjugorje-is-right-there-with-lourdes-and-fatima
AC not visible yet in the public square but already in charge of stuff like this: Increasingly human-like robots spark fascination and fear © AFP | A source of controversy due in part to fears for human employment, the presence of robots in our daily lives is nevertheless inevitable, engineers say MADRID (AFP) - Sporting a trendy brown bob, a humanoid robot named Erica chats to a man in front of stunned audience members in Madrid. She and others like her are a prime focus of robotic research, as their uncanny human form could be key to integrating such machines into our lives, said researchers gathered this week at the annual International Conference on Intelligent Robots. "You mentioned project management. Can you please tell me more?" Erica, who is playing the role of an employer, asks the man. She may not understand the conversation, but she's been trained to detect key words and respond to them. A source of controversy due in part to fears for human employment, the presence of robots in our daily lives is nevertheless inevitable, engineers at the conference said. The trick to making them more palatable, they added, is to make them look and act more human so that we accept them into our lives more easily. In ageing societies, "robots will coexist with humans sooner or later", said Hiroko Kamide, a Japanese psychologist who specialises in relations between humans and robots. Welcoming robots into households or workplaces involves developing "multipurpose machines that are capable of interacting" with humans without being dangerous, said Philippe Soueres, head of the robotics department at a laboratory belonging to France's CNRS scientific institute. - Human, but not too human - As such, robots must move around "in a supple way" despite their rigid mechanics and stop what they are doing in case of any unforeseen event, he added. That's why people are choosing "modular systems shaped like human bodies" which are meant to easily fit into real-world environments built for humans. For instance Atlas, a humanoid robot made by Boston Dynamics, can run on different types of surfaces. In Madrid, Marc Raibert, founder of the US firm, played a video showing Atlas doing a backflip. In a sign of fears over the potential future uses for these humanoids, Amnesty International has accused Atlas, financed by an agency of the US Department of Defense, of being a "killer robot" made for future warfare. Another example of humanoids presented in Madrid is Talos, a robot made by Spanish company Pal Robotics shown testing his stability on a balance board. While it may not be the only form used for those coming into contact with humans, "it's easier for people to accept the robots when they have human-like faces because people can expect how the robots will move, will react," said Kamide. That's comforting, but it also has its limits. Japanese researcher Masahiro Mori's "uncanny valley" theory, which he developed in the 1970s, states that we react positively to robots if they have physical features familiar to us but they disturb us if they start looking too much like us. "You can't ever make a perfect human face" and this imperfection provokes a feeling of "rejection" among humans, said Miguel Salichs, a professor at the robotics lab of Madrid's Carlos III University. As such, he chose to fashion his robot Mini Maggie into a small cartoon animal. - 'Understand humans' - In Japan, robots like Erica are already used as receptionists. But for one of their makers, Hiroshi Ishiguro, a professor at Osaka University, humanoids are above all "a very important tool to understand humans". Researchers have to think hard about the human form and how humans interact to develop robots that look like them. "We understand the humans by using robots, the importance for example of eye gazing," said Ishiguro, who has also made robots that look like dead celebrities, or "moving statues". He believes that humanoids are best to improve interactions between robots and humans. "The human brain that we have has many functions to recognise humans. The natural interface for the humans is the humans," said Ishiguro. For Jurgen Schmidhuber, president of artificial intelligence start-up NNAISENSE, robots -- be they humanoid or not -- will be part of our future. They won't just imitate humans but will solve problems by experimenting themselves thanks to artificial intelligence without "a human teacher," he believes. Sitting on her chair, Erica nods her head. https://www.france24.com/en/20181006-increasingly-human-like-robots-spark-fascination-fear
A friend of mine was recently saying that with robots potentially taking over so many jobs, it may be wise for the youth of today to look into robotic repair and maintenance as a future career.
Archbishop Hoser stated in the article that the shops are located outside the shrine and the Church has no jurisdiction over them. He said that pilgrims who visit need a place to sleep, eat, and wash. When I read this article I did not infer that Archbishop Hoser 'knocking' Lourdes.
