You’ll never guess what CA’s bullet train will cost — or when it will finish

That may sound like a clickbaity headline, but it’s proving to be literally true. Apparently, no one can guess it, least of all the California High-Speed Rail Authority that is running the bullet-train project. Their latest projection shows total predicted cost has jumped 20% to $77 billion, with a completion date moved out four years to 2033.

For now, anyway. Be sure to check back next week in the Boondoggle Lotto!

The price of the California bullet train project jumped sharply Friday when the state rail authority announced that the cost of connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco would be $77.3 billion and could rise as high as $98.1 billion — an uptick of at least $13 billion from estimates two years ago.

The rail authority also said the earliest trains could operate on a partial system between San Francisco and Bakersfield would be 2029 — four years later than the previous projection. The full system would not begin operating until 2033.

The disclosures are contained in a 114-page business plan that was issued in draft form Friday by the rail authority before public hearings and formal submission to the Legislature in about 60 days.

The new estimates will force California’s leadership to double down on its political and financial commitments if it wants to see the system completed, against a backdrop of rising costs, years of delays, strident litigation and backlashes in communities where homes, businesses, farms and environmental preserves will have to give up land to the rail’s right-of-way.

Where did this project’s cost estimates start? In 2008, California voters approved $10 billion in bonds for the project after being told that it had “estimated costs over $33 billion.” The Mercury News pegged it at a more precise $33.6 billion. The CHRSA claim has turned out to be more accurate, in a sense; it’s how much over $33 billion it will take. Right now, CHSRA estimates that it will take $44 billion over $33 billion, which seems like something more than a rounding error. (The CHSRA website link no longer works for this document; I retrieved it from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and uploaded it to our own server.)

What about the schedule? According to their initial plan, the train would begin operating on its initial segment “eight to 11 years” after the project got funded. We are now coming up to year ten, and there isn’t a train schedule in sight even for the Bakersfield-Fresno segment that will respond to the overwhelming commute demands between those two cities. CHSRA now estimates that they won’t connect San Francisco to the Central Valley until 2029. And despite having run this project for a decade, they’re still not sure how to connect them, either:

The ultimate goal is to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles — and eventually Sacramento and San Diego — but the immediate focus is opening track between San Francisco and the Central Valley, an agriculturally dominant, less-populated portion of inland California.

Rail proponents say linking the two areas would be an economic boon, as housing costs are exploding in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley is in need of jobs.

That portion of track is now set to be finished by 2029, also marking a four-year delay, and significant challenges remain.

One is how to cross a section of mountains — a critical segment to link Silicon Valley to the Central Valley. Right now, the agency doesn’t have a detailed plan or enough money to do that. The state is looking to build from San Francisco to the west edge of the mountains and from Bakersfield to the east edge of the mountains by 2027 before connecting the two.

The Mercury News also noted something else in yesterday’s reports:

In a departure from previous reports, the authority gave a range of project costs, up to as high as $98 billion.

And, it acknowledged many unknowns about the most risky segments of the project, including the creation of some 45 to 50 miles of tunnels that are both complicated and costly to engineer, as well uncertainty over whether the authority will secure enough funding to extend the first Central Valley segment into Southern California.

Critics of the program first raised the possibility of the $98 billion price tag years ago, which the state of California rejected as unrealistic. At the pace of a 20% jump in just two years, it will only take three years for the median cost estimate to land on the $98 billion mark. If you keep playing Boondoggle Lotto without a payoff, the prize just keeps growing larger.

Republicans in California have tried stopping this project for years, and they took the opportunity for a well-deserved I Told You So yesterday:

Several Republicans, long critical of the project and earlier reports showing the potential for skyrocketing costs, used the release of the authority’s updated business plan to blast the agency, calling the current proposal a “rump railroad.” Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, called the document a “going out of business plan.”

“The fundamental problem is they don’t have any money,” he said. “They cannot do what they are charged to do (under Prop 1A), and this document admits it.”

When the original project got approved with a $33.6 billion price tag, ticket prices were supposed to be pegged at 50% of airline prices, or about $55. The very next year, CHSRA raised its estimate to 83% of airline prices when cost estimates rose to $42 billion. Those have almost doubled since, so either CHRSA will have to double ticket prices — or more likely, the state will have to massively subsidize rail prices in order to compensate, even more than originally thought. High-speed rail will not just be a sinkhole of costs during its construction phase, but a continuing and massive drain on public funds for as long as it remains in operation.

It’s absolutely a going out of business plan … for the state of California and for its taxpayers. It’s long past time to shut this down and to stop trying to apply 19th-century fixed-track solutions to 21st-century transportation issues.

Update: Just to put a percentage on it, projected costs for this project have risen 129% from the original proposal in 2008, on which the bond referendum was based. That should be scandalous and disqualifying, but … not in California government, I’d bet.

The post You’ll never guess what CA’s bullet train will cost — or when it will finish appeared first on Hot Air.

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FACTS: This Angel Might STILL BE ALIVE If It Weren’t For Jerry Brown And Those Like Him!

They have blood on their hands! …………………………………… …………………………………………………….

…………………………… ………………………………………………. ……………………………….

Featured up top is Grace, the six-year-old daughter of Hispanic parents Angela and Jesus Aguilar. Described by Los Angeles station KNBC as a child who “loved people, nature and God,” Grace lost her life on Feb. 17 because of the actions of a man named Maximino Delgado Lagunas, according to RedState:

On a typically gorgeous Southern California Saturday afternoon Grace and her cousin were playing in the front yard of her family’s Fullerton home when Maximino Delgado Lagunas drunkenly drove his 1990 Toyota 4-Runner onto the sidewalk, plowing into Grace as her cousin stood nearby. Lagunas then kept driving, attempting to get away, before crashing into another car.

But Lagunas is more than just your everyday scumbag — he’s one of the millions of illegal immigrants in California whose lives Gov. Jerry Brown and other state legislators & officials clearly value over that of bonafide Americans such as Grace.

KNBC notes that Lagunas, whose blood alcohol level had been three times the legal limit at the time of his arrest, is a twice-deported illegal immigrant who should have been deported again in 2015 but was instead illegally granted clemency by local authorities.

“Court records show that in 2015 he was arrested for another DUI. Immigration officials say that back then Buena Park police did not detain Lagunas for the required 48 hours for pickup by immigration officials, instead placing him on informal probation and releasing him to the streets,” the station reported.

Had local authorities turned Lagunas over to immigration officials in 2015, he would have been deported again. And while it’s true he may have eventually made it back into the United States, there’s a possibility he may not have, especially given the enhanced border security we’ve seen since President Donald Trump stepped into office.

This brings us back to Brown, who last October transformed California into a so-called “sanctuary state” by signing into law a bill “limit[ed] state and local cops’ ability to help federal agents enforce immigration laws.”

He did so to protect illegal immigrants who are otherwise crime-free (FYI, all illegal immigrants are criminals, period), but as noted by George Skelton of the Los Angeles Times, the problem is that the bill “also help[s] convicted criminals, who are here illegally, avoid U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.”

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens echoed this concern a month before Brown signed the bill, noting that it “does not allow for notification to federal authorities, at their request, of the pending release of certain wanted, undocumented criminals — including repeat drunken drivers, misdemeanor hit-and-run drivers and those who assault peace officers.”

In response, Angela Chan, the policy director and senior staff attorney of the bullshit Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus, said this:

“If they are merely arrested for the charges … and there is no conviction, they cannot be turned over to ICE. The reason is a shared value by Californians that everyone deserves due process.”

Except illegal immigrants like murderer Maximino Delgado Lagunas AREN’T AMERICANS, you piece of shit! They should therefore be arrested, shipped off to ICE and then deported, no matter how trivial the crime.

Why? Because THIS is what the hell happens when you fail to enforce the law:

Congratulations Jerry Brown, Angela Chan, Kamala Harris and every other radical leftist California politician or official who keeps pushing for more and more “rights” for illegals — ya’ll have blood on your hands!

via Downtrend.com

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Report: Cuban Communist Propaganda Using Celebrity Photos Bombards Twitter

A Cuban-American human rights group has documented dozens of Twitter accounts, allegedly belonging to young Cubans on the island, posting pro-communist propaganda and using photos of actors and models as their photos.

The Miami-based group, Directorio Democrático Cuba, says it has reason to believe the Cuban government is creating the spam accounts to make itself appear more popular among young Cubans than it really is. In stealing the identity of models and actors to make the pages more appealing, the accounts violate Twitter rules.

Since Directorio went public with its accusations, Twitter has suspended the accounts the group identified, though the Directorio team fears there are “hundreds” of such accounts that could easily resurface, especially if they are part of an organized state propaganda effort.

The accounts used a variety of stock model photos as well as those of Italian dancer Robert Bolle, French model Arnaud Francois, Colombian actress Paola Rey, American actress Hayden Panetierre, Canadian fitness model Amanda Lee, Greek singer Sakis Rouvas, and Argentine actor Pablo Heredia. In some instances, the profile photos appear to be lifted off of the defunct social media pages of private citizens.

The account @magela_ortega, for example — currently suspended — used a photo lifted from an idle MySpace account.

That profile’s description read much like many of the other accounts, a poetic declaration of Cuban patriotism: “I am young and simple, identified with justice and liberty. I like listening to music and admiring the landscapes of my beautiful Cuba. If you would like to meet me, follow me.”

In a screenshot provided by Directorio, the account can be seen sharing a photo of Fidel Castro with a quote attributed to the dictator reading, “Over the shoulders of the youth we can place great tasks.”

The account using the photo of Canadian fitness model Amanda Lee featured a photo of Fidel Castro as its header and identified itself as the account of “Isel Verdad.” Its description read: “I am a revolutionary Cuba, I like truth and hate injustice. Mixed Havanese.” It also posted images of Fidel Castro — in this one with Cuban founding father José Martí in the background, reading, “#Fidel, just as #Marti did, stood on the shoulders of his peers, observed the horizon and told us where to go, now all we need to do is keep going down that path.”

The profile using Rouvas’ photo — a two-time Eurovision contestant, former Eurovision program host, and the premier act in Greek popular music for the past two decades — identified itself as René Barrios García and promoted Cuba’s allegedly upcoming national election, in which the Castro regime has prohibited all opposition candidates from participating.

“Let the chips fall where they may, let whoever dies die, the Cuban Revolution will not disappear, that is why my vote is #ForCuba,” the account published.

“Cubanito Cubano,” one of the more active accounts in this community, used a stock photo that appears on Google images if one searches “haircut for oval face men.” This account promoted not just the Castro regime, but the socialist tyranny in Venezuela. Its profile read: “Never give up on your dreams. Just try to see the signs that lead you to them. I am #Venezuela #ChavezLives.”

The account also posted anti-American content. This post reads: “The Summit of the Peoples, called as a parallel event to the Summit of the Americas in April, is convened to confront the onslaught of the United States and the continental right who want to use the event for their own means.” Nicolás Maduro, the dictator of Venezuela, was dramatically disinvited from the Summit of the Americas for his government’s human rights abuses.

This account also boasted of its significant social media presence.

According to Directorio, the accounts were all engaging with each other — liking and retweeting each other’s content.

In remarks to the local ABC Affiliate WPLG 10, Directorio spokesman Orlando Gutiérrez stated he is “absolutely convinced the Castro regime is behind it, whether there are others helping them, it’s their strategy, it’s them leading it.”

“We have tracked dozens of accounts like this, but we believe there are hundreds,” he added.

The implications of the Cuban government potentially creating hundreds of bots to spread propaganda not only aiding itself, but the Venezuelan rogue regime for Twitter could be of major significance. Twitter, as well as Facebook and other large social media outlets, already face significant scrutiny over concerns that the Russian government used similar tactics to influence the 2016 presidential race.

In November, the outlet Politico reported that attorneys representing both media outlets confirmed that they have reason to believe “Russian-linked agents on their social networks following election day in November 2016 attempted to undermine President Trump’s victory” by “fomenting discord about the validity of [Trump’s] election.” The revelation conflicted with the ongoing claims by those on the left that the Russian agents were aiding Trump’s campaign, not hurting it.

Twitter has responded to the criticism by deleting millions of accounts, including a significant number of politically vocal accounts that belong to individuals unaffiliated with governments. The removal of such accounts has disproportionately affected right-wing voices, while multiple accounts belonging to left-wing groups that advocate violence remain active.

A Project Veritas investigation published in January revealed that Twitter engineers use right-wing code words like “Trump” or “America” to find alleged “bot” accounts and mass delete them. In the investigation, direct messaging engineer Pranay Singh lamented that there were “hundreds of thousands” of accounts using such terminology, “so you’ve got to, like, write algorithms that do it for you.”

Singh also described content that alerted him to a potential bot account: “Just go to a random [Trump] tweet and just look at the followers. They’ll all be like, guns, God, ‘Merica, and with the American flag and the cross. Like, who says that? Who talks like that? It’s for sure a bot.”

Prior to Directorio’s report on the pro-Castro accounts becoming public, the suspect pro-Castro accounts remained active. They appear to have been suspended between Thursday night and Friday afternoon.

In response to a Breitbart News inquiry on the account, a Twitter spokesperson said, “We have taken action on a number of accounts that violated our policies on spam and automation. As noted in our blog, since June 2017, we’ve removed more than 220,000 applications in violation of our rules, collectively responsible for more than 2.2 billion low-quality Tweets.”

Gutiérrez applauded the suspension of the pro-Castro accounts.

“We welcome Twitter’s strong initiative on totalitarian manipulation of social media,” he told Breitbart News. “The defense of the freedom of social media is essential to the sanctity of individual expression. With this corrective action against systematic manipulation of social media, Twitter has stepped up for the freedom of Cubans.”

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Liberals start anti-Trump dating website as ‘safe space’ for couples united in ‘social justice’

Liberals have started a dating website for people who oppose President Donald Trump.

The NeverTrump.Dating site describes itself as “A Safe Space Where All Liberals Are Welcome.” It was founded by the American Liberal Council.

What is the site’s target audience?

In a press release, the ALC said the website was “made with progressives, independents, disillusioned Republicans, and the LGBT community in mind.”

“Unlike the political opposition, we’re keeping our doors open,” a statement on the website reads. “No matter what your sexual orientation, race, or creed might be, there’s a place for you on NeverTrump.Dating. The far right can try their hardest to put us in a box, and strip away our rights, but they’ll lose in the end, and our victory starts with couples that are united in social justice. Let’s make the world a better place, two liberals at a time.”

Ted Brown, the founder of ALC, said in a statement that NeverTrump allows like-minded individuals to join together against “the corrupt, morally-bankrupt administration in power.”

“Our Democracy can still be saved,” Brown said. “But in order to do so, we must join together those with like-minded beliefs and stand for tolerance and justice for all. We need allies who will never back down to the corrupt, morally-bankrupt administration in power — and we can do that right here.”

Is there a pro-Trump dating website?

The website launched shortly after trump.dating, a website created to pair together people who support the president.

“We’re wrecking the dating game and giving like-minded Americans a chance to meet without the awkwardness that comes with the first conversation about politics,” the trump.dating website states. “Wouldn’t it be refreshing to already know that your date roots for the same team?”

CNN criticized the pro-Trump dating website for only allowing straight men and straight women to register.

What companies are behind the websites?

Both websites are part of Friends Worldwide, Inc., which runs a network of dating websites and claims to have the fastest growing database of new members online. The two websites have similar layouts and many of the same features.

Friends Worldwide is linked to WhiteBox, which allows people to create their own niche dating websites. The company provides the template and technical support. The sites charge $24.99 for a month-to-month membership or $101.94 for six months.

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Family Who Housed Accused Parkland Shooter Reveals Chilling Texts Received Moments Before Massacre

Lawyers for the family with whom accused shooter Nikolas Cruz had been living released text messages they received from the shooter moments before the massacre occurred, and they paint a chilling picture of what happened that fateful Valentine’s Day.

Attorney Jim Lewis represents the Snead family, in whose home the shooter was living at the time of the Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.

Lewis passed the documents to The Palm Beach Post on Wednesday, the same day that a grand jury indicted the shooter on 34 counts, 17 counts of premeditated first-degree murder for those who were killed and 17 counts of premeditated first-degree attempted murder for those he allegedly wounded.

According to The Post, the texts began at about 2 p.m., when the shooter “texted the Sneads’ teenage son, who was in class at Douglas, around 2 p.m., about 20 minutes before the shooting began.

“Cruz asked what class the son was in and who the teacher was. The son said the teacher was one of the coaches. Cruz texted the son to ask the coach if he remembered Cruz. The coach was not one of the people Cruz shot.”

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“Minutes later, Cruz texted to say he was going to a movie. Lewis said he then ‘made some kind of comment that, ‘I’ve got something big to tell you.” When the son pressed him, Cruz texted, ‘no big deal. Nothing bad.’

“Lewis said the texting stopped at 2:18 p.m. The last text was a single word: ‘Yo.’ The Snead teen texted back several times without a response. Then, the shooting started.”

“There was nothing to give any clue that this was about to happen,” Lewis said.

“No bad feelings about anybody’s school. No bad feelings about Douglas in general.”

Do you think the Parkland shooting could have been prevented?

However, more details began to emerge that again looked an awful lot like red flags. The accused shooter and his brother were left orphaned after their adopted mother died last November of pneumonia.

The two moved in with family friend Roxanne Deschamps, who kicked Cruz out when he refused to get rid of his guns. That’s why he eventually moved in with the Sneads.

Lewis also revealed that James Snead had asked the school, which had expelled Cruz, whether he could re-enroll. The school said no.

However, the chilling takeaway from the tweets is just how blasé that Cruz was before he allegedly perpetrated one of the most heinous crimes of recent years.

RELATED: Father of Parkland Victim Unleashes Brutal Attack on Mainstream Media: “Today It’s Not About Guns”

Yet, this all didn’t have to happen. If law enforcement had done its job — either at the federal or at the local level — this shooting could have been stopped or mitigated.

We’ll likely find out more in the coming days, weeks and months, but there’s almost nothing that could change that fact, that none of this had to happen if people would have just done their job.

Please like and share on Facebook and Twitter if you agree.

What are your thoughts on these texts? Scroll down to comment below!

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Monica Lewinsky Breaks Silence, Reveals the Horrific Thing Bill Clinton Really Did to Her

Democrats trying to ride the #MeToo movement to a blue wave in November just hit a major snag.

After a failed presidential candidate ran on an “I’m with her” slogan, and amid nationwide revulsion over seemingly endless revelations of sexual misconduct by powerful men (overwhelmingly liberals) against women, the setup for a Democrat midterm campaign aimed at turning out liberal women in huge numbers seemed set.

But now comes the most infamous White House intern in history to remind America how badly that “I’m with her” candidate treated a woman who’d been preyed on – and how the Democratic Party really feels about women who come between the party and political power.

In a 3,500-word essay for Vanity Fair this month, former White House intern/Bill Clinton paramour Monica Lewinsky offered a new take on her side of the scandal that convulsed the country and nearly drove the 42nd president from office.

And even for conservatives who remember the late 1990s, it’s a reminder of the horrific treatment Lewinsky received at Bill Clinton’s hands. Lewinsky called her affair with Bill Clinton a “gross abuse of power” and alluded to the way Hillary Clinton and fellow Democrats tried to smear her as an “unstable stalker.” She noted that the road to the affair was “littered with inappropriate abuse of authority, station, and privilege. (Full stop.)”

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“Now, at 44, I’m beginning (just beginning) to consider the implications of the power differentials that were so vast between a president and a White House intern,” she wrote. “I’m beginning to entertain the notion that in such a circumstance the idea of consent might well be rendered moot.”

And every one of those words shows that Democrats are lying when they claim to be the party that protects women.

For liberals — even for the ones too young to remember the 1990s personally — the Clinton years are what the party aspires to be. And the Clinton machine — the one that rigged the 2016 primary to ensure Hillary’s victory — won’t have it any other way.

Hillary was supposed to have been the one who stood up for women’s rights, particularly when she delivered a famous speech in China (The New York Times called it a hint of Clinton’s future presidential run).

Will the #MeToo movement help Democrats in the midterms?

She built her campaign around the whole “first woman president” idea, making much of her ability to break the “glass ceiling” of being the first woman to win the nomination of a major party for president. (Former Republican presidential contender Carly Fiorina took that claim apart in an interview just as the 2016 Democratic National Convention was getting started.)

And in 2018, Democrats are planning to use the women’s issue again in midterm elections to try to cripple the presidency of Donald Trump.

But Lewinsky’s essay is going to be a reminder of just what the Democratic Party was willing to do on Bill Clinton’s behalf in the 1990s, when he looked America in the eye on television and talked about a young White House intern like she was a two-dollar streetwalker in Little Rock.

“I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky,” Clinton said in televised address in January 1998, wagging his finger for emphasis.

RELATED: Kathy Griffin Posts Delusional ‘International Women’s Day’ Photo That Backfires Big Time

Well, “that woman” remembered it differently. And she was in the unfortunate position to know. (One of her dresses was in an unfortunate position too, as it turned out.)

But Democrats locked arms to protect Clinton then, and Hillary famously branded the young Lewinsky a “narcissistic loony toon.”

Lewinsky was a threat to their political power then, and Clinton-machine Democrats are ruthless when it comes to threats to their power — as Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones and Kathleen Wiley can all confirm.

Lewinsky’s essay is a reminder of just how badly Democrats treat women who get in the way of their agenda.

All the posturing in the world isn’t going to change that — and let’s hope the 2018 midterms prove it.

Like and share this article on Facebook and Twitter if you agree that the Clintons should pay the price for what they allegedly did to Monica Lewinsky.

What do you think Lewisnky’s essay will remind Americans of? Scroll down to comment below!

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“No Precedent In US Political History”: “Extraordinary Number” Of Ex-CIA Operatives Are Running For Congress As Democrats

At no time in U.S. political history have more ex-CIA operatives sought the Democratic nomination for Congress, reports Patrick Martin of the World Socialist Web Site

WSWS reports:

An extraordinary number of former intelligence and military operatives from the CIA, Pentagon, National Security Council and State Department are seeking nomination as Democratic candidates for Congress in the 2018 midterm elections. The potential influx of military-intelligence personnel into the legislature has no precedent in US political history.

If the Democrats capture a majority in the House of Representatives on November 6, as widely predicted, candidates drawn from the military-intelligence apparatus will comprise as many as half of the new Democratic members of Congress. They will hold the balance of power in the lower chamber of Congress. […]

One quarter of all the Democratic challengers in competitive House districts have military-intelligence, State Department or NSC backgrounds. This is by far the largest subcategory of Democratic candidates. National security operatives (57) outnumber state and local government officials (45), lawyers (35), corporate executives, businessmen and wealthy individuals (30) and other professionals (19) among the candidates for Democratic congressional nominations.

Of the 102 primary elections to choose the Democratic nominees in these competitive districts, 44 involve candidates with a military-intelligence or State Department background, with 11 districts having two such candidates, and one district having three. In the majority of contests, the military-intelligence candidates seem likely to win the Democratic nomination, and, if the Democrats win in the general election, would enter Congress as new members of the House of Representatives.

Yet, where does this new development tie in with the Deep State’s war on President Trump?

Since the billionaire real estate tycoon announced his candidacy for President, intelligence officers both past and present supported his rival, Hillary Clinton.

“The Deep State no longer wants to rely on unreliable puppets. They want to run politics directly now,” Kim Dotcom tweeted in response to Martin’s report Saturday.

Intelligence operatives failed to keep Trump out of the White House. Now, they will try to stop him by electing officials to serve inside the government.

But Trump’s no fool.

 

As reported by The Intercept, the Trump administration is still considering proposals developed by Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a retired CIA officer in an effort to provide CIA Director Mike Pompeo and the White House with a global, private spy network that would go around the U.S.’s official SWAMP-INFESTED intelligence agencies.

Reportedly, the proposals would see an army of spies with no official cover in numerous countries that are “denied areas” for current American intelligence personnel – like North Korea and Iran. Included in the proposals are the consideration of creating a new global rendition unit with the goal of capturing terrorist suspects around the world. A propaganda campaign in the Middle East and Europe to combat Islamic extremism was considered in the proposals as well.

The post “No Precedent In US Political History”: “Extraordinary Number” Of Ex-CIA Operatives Are Running For Congress As Democrats appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Toddler Locks Mom’s iPhone for 47 Years

Toddler Locks Mom’s iPhone for 47 Years

The child was supposed to be watching educational videos, but wound up at the iPhone’s lock screen and, naturally, entered the wrong password over and over.

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Bad things can happen when you leave a toddler unsupervised with an iPhone. Take it from one mother in Shanghai.

According to a report from the South China Morning Post, the mom left her two-year-old son with her Apple handset, and he managed to accidentally lock it for more than 25 million minutes, or around 47 years. The child was supposed to be watching educational videos, but wound up at the iPhone’s lock screen and, naturally, entered the wrong password over and over.

“Each time the wrong keys were pressed the phone was disabled for a period of time,” the report notes. “The mother returned home one day and when she checked the phone found it had been disabled for 25 million minutes.”

The mom reportedly brought the phone to an Apple store, where a technician told her she would have to factory reset the device, which deletes all your data and settings, or wait 47 years to unlock it. She chose the former option.

“I couldn’t really wait for 47 years and tell my grandchild it was your father’s mistake,” the mom reportedly said.

Meanwhile, this isn’t the first such incident. Back in 2014, someone managed to disable a jailbroken iPhone for more than 23 million minutes – or about 45 years – after entering the wrong passcode just five times.

On non-jailbroken iPhones, if you enter the wrong passcode six times in a row, the device will be disabled for one minute. If you ever forget your iPhone password or get locked out for an extended period of time, head here for instructions on how to regain control of your device.


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Justice Department moves to officially ban bump stocks, classifies them as ‘machine guns’

It looks like bump stocks will now be a thing of the past.

The Department of Justice on Saturday submitted regulation to formally ban the devices, which modify semi-automatic rifles to fire like a fully-automatic rifle. The devices were used in the Las Vegas massacre last October, which left nearly five dozen dead and more than 800 others injured.

What happened?

The DOJ announced Saturday it had submitted its proposed regulation to the Office of Management and Budget, which must approve the regulation before it is enforced, according to Reuters.

The proposed regulation defines bump stocks as “machine guns” and seeks to have them outlawed under the National Firearms Act and Gun Control Act. If the regulation is approved, bump stocks will be illegal to buy, sell, possess and manufacture.

The regulation does not need congressional approval and was expected after President Donald Trump directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to ban the devices last month.

However, it reverses a 2010 decision by the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that found bump stocks did not fall under the National Firearm Act’s definition of a “machine gun” and therefore could only be regulated if Congress amended the NFAGCA’s definition of “machine gun.”

What did Sessions say?

He said in a statement:

President Trump is absolutely committed to ensuring the safety and security of every American and he has directed us to propose a regulation addressing bump stocks. To that end, the Department of Justice has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget a notice of a proposed regulation to clarify that the National Firearms and Gun Control Act defines “machinegun” to include bump stock type devices.

What happens next?

As previously stated, the DOJ has sent the regulation to the OBM for review, which must approve it. Meanwhile, the ATF also has to submit “an analysis and evaluate public comments on regulating the devices,” according to The Hill.

The process to completely outlaw bump stocks will likely take months.

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Sarah Sanders: Nearly 3 Million U.S. Jobs Added Since Donald Trump Elected President

Sarah Sanders: Nearly 3 Million U.S. Jobs Added Since Donald Trump Elected President



White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders opened Friday’s press conference by contrasting massive manufacturing jobs losses under Obama to the nearly three million U.S. jobs added since Donald Trump was elected President.

Sanders pointed to Obama-era manufacturing job losses of 1,000 each month, but said that since President Donald Trump was elected the U.S. had added 275,000 manufacturing jobs.

February jobs numbers released earlier in the day revealed a much higher than anticipated job creation total of 313,000. Before the numbers came out, estimates sat at around 200,000 for non-farm job increases.

She then credited Trump-era tax cuts and deregulation for acting as a driver to the nearly three million new jobs added.

“The federal government is getting out of the way and the American people are innovating, building, and creating jobs,” said Sanders.

Industries leading in jobs increases were construction, retail and business services, manufacturing, finance, healthcare, and mining. Jobs total reports for December and January were also revised upward.

The February jobs numbers represented the highest gain in a year and a half, according to MarketWatch.

The news comes the same week that Trump made tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum official. The decision brought both praise and criticism. Canada and Mexico have been temporarily exempted from the tariffs pending NAFTA negotiations. Other countries have been extended the opportunity to request relief if they can provide alternative remedy for national defense concerns.

Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana 

via Breitbart News

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