Disney World’s “Hall of Presidents” in Orlando, FL reopened today after the Imagineers at the Magic Kingdom spent a year conjuring up an animatronic Donald Trump. The robo-Prez is flanked by his 43 predecessors as he delivers a speech that’s incredibly creepy if only for its lack of characteristic Trump mannerisms familiar to anyone who’s watched him speak. To Disney’s credit, however, it’s all very patriotic.
The Trump-bot was already delayed around 6 months beyond Obama’s, which Disney says is because Trump wouldn’t record his fucking lines, but this here’s the kicker…
It really looks like Disney Imagineers were so depressed after the election they just half-ass sex changed their Hillary bot into a Trump bot.
The CEO of cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, George Kurtz, says North Korea is “absolutely” accumulating a giant pile of bitcoin to fund cyberattacks.
“They’re building a cache of bitcoin, if you think about it. It’s an anonymous currency, it can easily bypass any sort of sanctions because there are none on bitcoin, and the value has increased dramatically,” Kurtz told CNBC’s “Squawk Alley.” “It’s the perfect currency for North Korea to be hoarding.” –CNBC
The opinion comes on the heels of an op-ed in the WSJ by Homeland Security advisor Tom Bossert, who says North Korea was behind the WannaCry ransomware hack earlier this year, which demanded ransom in bitcoin.
The U.S. government has assessed with a “very high level of confidence” that a hacking entity known as Lazarus Group, which works on behalf of the North Korean government, carried out the WannaCry attack, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the government’s investigation. –CNBC
The WannaCry hack is said to have cost billions, crippling hospitals, banks and companies around the world – and “highlights the capabilities that North Korea has in cyber,” according to Kurtz.
Crowdstrike is the firm which analyzed the DNC servers and determined that Russia hacked them – however the Irvine, CA company came under fire in late 2016 when they had to retract a botched report on Russian hacking of Ukrainian artillery using the same “fancy bear” malware they also say the Kremlin used on the DNC servers.
The government of Ukraine issued a statement after the artillery report came out, calling it Fake News:
In connection with the emergence in some media reports which stated that the alleged “80% howitzer D-30 Armed Forces of Ukraine removed through scrapping Russian Ukrainian hackers software gunners,” Land Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine informs that the said information is incorrect.
Ministry of Defence of Ukraine asks journalists to publish only verified information received from the competent official sources. Spreading false information leads to increased social tension in society and undermines public confidence in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. –mil.gov.ua (translated) (1.6.2017)
So DHS’s Tom Bossert drops an op-ed on a North Korean hacking operation which only takes Bitcoin, and the CEO of Crowdstrike follows up with a stark warning on Bitcoin hoarding by Pyongyang.
Mayors from seven major French cities overwhelmed by the flow of migrants, have written a joint letter to Paris published in LeMondeon Saturday,begging the government to step in and help.
According to the letter, the cities of Lille, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Grenoble, Rennes, Toulousa and Nantes are taking in “several thousand” refugees per month, which the mayors say is causing a social emergency as they are “backed up against a wall” and “completely saturated” by a seemingly endless flood of asylum seekers.
The year 2017 ends with a massive rise in the demand for asylum and the arrival of newcomers puts extreme tension – particularly with the onset of the cold wave – of the classic public and institutional policies. In a proportion never before known, the mechanisms allocated to housing asylum seekers, led by the State, often with the support of our communities, are indeed completely saturated, despite the steady increase the number of places … The evidence is there, before our eyes, in our streets, in homes and shelters: there is urgency.
Every month, several thousand people arrive in our cities. Integrating those recognized as refugees and helping those who have lost their right of asylum who still remain in our territory is a major issue. –Le Monde (translated)
The mayors point to a lack of shelters, and call on Paris to establish a “solidarity network” between the cities of France dedicated to addressing the flow of migrants, as well as an “enlarged meeting with the state at the highest level,” which the mayors say must act quickly by assuming its sovereign powers to “finance these developed actions and propose a clarified framework of work with the communities for a real plan of reception of the migrants.”
In other words – Paris needs to step up and dedicate more money and housing towards the migrant crisis.
In response to the letter, the French Interior Ministry proposed a resettlement scheme which would result in the relocation of some 20,000 housing units, “broken down regionally” to ensure “distribution balanced” refugees and mobilization of donors. reports AFP.
in addition, the authorities asked the prefects to establish “mobile teams” responsible for the identification of migrants in emergency accommodation, much to the chagrin of the associations. (Midecins du Monde, Emmaus, …) who denounce a logic of “census, labeling and triage”. –AFP (translated)
As anyone who listened to the French Presidential debates gathered, France knows it’s got a massive problem with migrants. In October, after a 29 year old undocumented Tunisian man stabbed two women to death in the Southern city of Marseille, French President Emmanuel Macron revealed a new policy whereby illegal immigrants who commit crimes in France will face deportation.
Even without new legislation”we can take tougher measures” and expel illegal immigrants if they commit a crime, “whatever it may be,” Macron said.
France has been heavily affected by the migrant crisis. After an October 2016 relocation of some 6,000 migrants from the Calais “Jungle” camp across Europe, new asylum seekers continue to pour into the country and set up makeshift camps. Many migrants are sleeping on the streets of Paris, begging for money and angering local residents and sparking sanitary concerns. Last week, a group of Parisian protesters threatened to go on a hunger strike if police didn’t relocate approximately 100 Syrian and Afghan migrants from a northern Paris neighborhood.
Luna DNA’s founding team Bob Kain, David Lewis, Dan Lin and Michael Witz in San Diego, California
A group of scientists and engineers headed by former officials from genetic research firm Illumina think they have a novel approach to getting people to send in their DNA tests for research purposes: pay them in cryptocurrency!
Starting in the first quarter of 2018, people who buy DNA tests will be able to send their information to startup company Luna DNA in exchange for a “Luna” coin.
The idea is that people whose DNA information is sold to pharmaceutical companies for R&D should be compensated. DNA testing companies such as 23andMe already offer users the ability to share their information, but doesn’t pay them. 23andMe then sells user information to companies such as Genentech.
“We view that as an asset and want everybody to realize the value of that asset,” said Michael Witz, a Luna Coin co-founder and the project’s cryptocurrency expert.
Luna Coin is a product of Luna DNA. The company’s CEO and CIO are both veterans of genetic research firm Illumina: CEO Bob Cain was Illumina’s chief engineering officer, and CIO Scott Kahn comes from the CIO role at Illumina. The rest of the team includes crypto developers, people from the health and gaming worlds and life sciences investor David Lewis.
There are plenty of potential stumbling blocks on the way to making Luna Coin a success. For one, the project is planning a token sale in the first quarter of next year and will have to contend with an unclear set of regulations.
Witz didn’t say how much Luna Coin plans on raising by selling tokens, but he said that comparable offerings have brought in $40 million to $50 million.
Luna isn’t the first company in the space to offer people the ability to share medical data in what is known as the “biorights” movement, however Luna DNA will be the first to offer cryptocurrency as payment.
Perhaps Luna will be able to overcome the fact that only around 4 percent of genomic samples are from people of African and Latin American descent – leading to a huge lack of diversity among companies building health databases, according to Nature.
Feminist activist and Women’s March organizer, Linda Sarsour, has been accused of enabling the sexual assault of a female employee who worked for her in 2009 at the Arab American Association, two sources “directly familiar” with the matter tell the Daily Caller.
Linda Sarsour
According to Sarsour’s accuser Asmi Fathelbab, a 37 year old New York native and devout Muslim – a man named Majed Seif who lived in the same building as the Arab American Association began stalking Fathelbab. Asmi tells the Daily Caller that one of Seif’s favorite activities was “sneaking up on her with a full erection.”
“He would sneak up on me during times when no one was around, he would touch me, you could hear me scream at the top of my lungs. He would pin me against the wall and rub his crotch on me.”
“depending on what floor I was on, you could hear me scream at the top of my lungs.“
“It was disgusting,” Fathelbab told the Caller. “I ran the youth program in the building and with that comes bending down and talking to small children. You have no idea what it was like to stand up and feel that behind you. I couldn’t scream because I didn’t want to scare the child in front of me. It left me shaking.”
When Fathelbab went to Linda Sarsour to report the sexual assaults, she was dismissed and shamed. “She [Sarsour] called me a liar because ‘Something like this didn’t happen to women who looked like me,’” Asmi says. “How dare I interrupt her TV news interview in the other room with my ‘lies.’”
Fathelbab says Sarsour “regularly body-shamed her” and enabled the sexual assaults, and Sarsour threatened to legal and professional damage if she went public with the sexual assault claims. “She told me he had the right to sue me for false claims,” said Asmi, adding that her abuser “had the right to be anywhere in the building he wanted.”
“I cannot stand by any longer and watch everyone praise a woman that claims to be for women’s rights and someone that fights for women when she herself allowed for abuse to occur to women,” wrote Fathelbab.
When Fathelbab went to the president of the Arab American Association’s board of directors, Ahmed Jaber, he too shut her down.
“Jaber told me my stalker was a ‘God-fearing man’ who was ‘always at the Mosque,’ so he wouldn’t do something like that,” Fathelbab claims. “He wanted to make it loud and clear this guy was a good Muslim and I was a bad Muslim for “complaining.” –Daily Caller
In response to these claims, Sarsour attacked Fathelbab – telling her that if she continued to report sexual assaults by Jajed Seif, her allegations would result in disciplinary action. Fathelbab told the Daily Caller that she was once forced to talk to a dectective from the community liaison division about the consequences of making false claims to the authorities.
Two sources who knew Fathelbab while she was employed with the Arab American Association told the Daily Caller that Asmi would return from work “emotionally distressed and in a panic,” describing it as an “unsafe” work environment. Another source who has worked with the Arab American Association for 12 years and spoke on the condition of anonymity said that Sarsour was “militant against other women,” and that they remember witnessing Fathelbab being harassed in the building.
“They made it about her weight, saying she was not attractive enough to be harassed and then swept it under the rug,” the source said. “It was Linda Sarsour, Ahmad Jaber and Habib Joudeh who took care of it.” Habib Joudeh is the vice president of the Arab American Association of New York. –DC
Fathelbab says that she’s now unemployable as a result of going public with her claims.
Linda Sarsour with supporters at Women’s March
Sarsour – a self-proclaimed “racial justice & civil rights activist,” made headlines during the Women’s March for attacking Ayyan Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim who was forced to suffer female genital mutilation. After the 9/11 attacks, Hirsi Ali renounced Islam and ran for Dutch parliament in 2003, winning. In 2006, she rallied against Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, and in 2015, she railed against the Islamic State.
In a now-deleted tweet from 2011, Sarsour – who posed with an alleged Hamas financier in January, said of Hirsi Ali: “I wish I could take their vaginas away – they don’t deserve to be women.”
In July, Sarsour called for a Jihad against the Trump administration “fascists reigning in the White House” at the Islamic Society of North America Convention.
“I hope that we when we stand up to those who oppress our communities that Allah accepts from us that as a form of jihad. That we are struggling against tyrants and rulers not only abroad in the Middle East or in the other side of the world, but here in these United States of America where you have fascists and white supremacists and Islamophobes reigning in the White House,” Sarsour said.
“Our number one and top priority is to protect and defend our community, it is not to assimilate and please any other people and authority,” she said. “Our obligation is to our young people, is to our women, to make sure our women are protected in our community.”
“Our top priority and even higher than all those other priorities is to please Allah and only Allah,” Sarsour declared.
Watch here:
The Daily Caller received no response from Sarsour in regards to Asmi Fathelbab’s allegations.
As the NFL copes with a ratings slump and ESPN slashes $80 million in salaries after losing 15,000 subscribers a day in October, another major issue facing the league continued to play out in week 15 – terrible attendance.
While many blame the kneeing epidemic of unpatriotic players refusing to stand for the National Anthem – which started in the summer 2016 pre-season by former San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick, others point to a boring season, cord cutters and broke millennials staying home.
Either way, it’s ugly. Since most NFL attendance figures are based on “tickets distributed” as opposed to actual turnstile count, and most NFL ticket sales are to season-ticket holders, it’s nearly impossible to tell how many people are simply choosing not to attend games for which they’ve already bought tickets. Except, pictures don’t lie…
MetLife Stadium was a ghost town at the end of the first quarter, and “1/2 full” as the Philadelphia Eagles and NY Giants headed into the 4th quarter:
Nearly two decades ago, MSNBC paid a settlement to a staffer after she accused Hardball host Chris Matthews of sexual harassment, reports the Daily Caller. Matthews received a formal reprimand at the time.
Two sources familiar with the situation told The Daily Caller that Matthews paid $40,000 to settle with an assistant producer on his show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, in 1999 after she accused him of harassment. An MSNBC spokesperson contested that claim to the Caller, saying the company instead paid significantly less as part of a severance package.
The woman complained to CNBC executives about Matthews making inappropriate comments and jokes about her while in the company of others.
The MSNBC spokesman said that they thoroughly reviewed the situation at the time and that Matthews received a formal reprimand. Based on people who were involved in matter, the network concluded that the comments were inappropriate and juvenile but were not intended to be taken as propositions.
Matthews, who has has hosted Hardball since 1997, oogled Melania Trump in a hot-mic moment during the election. He’s the latest in a growing list of influential media figures to be accused of sexual misconduct, and the third high-profile case for NBC.
Mark Halperin, Matt Lauer
In late November, NBC fired Today host Matt Lauer, who was the highest paid personality in TV news at the time – after the network received a “detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.” Several other women followed suit, telling Variety that NBC ignored several complaints to executives. Lauer was found to have kept a bunch of sex toys in his office, and reportedly had a button under his desk that allowed him to lock his door from the inside. Creepy.
The network also cut ties with veteran political journalist and “Game Change” author Mark Halperin, who was accused groping, sexual assault and other forms of sexual harassment by a dozen women he worked with during his time with ABC news. “We find the story and the allegations very troubling,” MSNBC said in a statement to CNN, which broke the story, adding “Mark Halperin is leaving his role as a contributor until the questions around his past conduct are fully understood.”
Last but not least for the network, NBC fired Senior VP Matt Zimmerman for failing to report relationships he had with women who worked for him.
Other men in media accused of sexual harassment or worse include; Bill O’Reilly, Charlie Rose and NYT political reporter Glenn Thrush.
The Daily Caller’sLuke Rosiak says that within 72 hours, “The House Is Going To Be Rocked” with a new bombshell which he says “will see the resignation of more than a dozen House members over harassment and secret settlements, and soon.”
Rosiak, who has earned a large following as one of the leading journalists cataloging the Awan brothers scandal, does not typically engage in hyperbole – so when he posted the following tweets, people took notice:
Congress' human resources scandal is just getting started. I anticipate we will see the resignation of more than a dozen House members over harassment and secret settlements, and soon.
Rosiak’s last “Tick Tock” on December 4th telling people to “Stay tuned for news of another secret House settlement, related to an allegation of sexual assault” was followed up with a revelation about a settlement brokered by Rep. Gregory Meels in 2006 over allegations that he fired a staffer in retaliation for a claim she made against a campaign contributor.
Andrea Payne, then a congressional aide in Meeks’ Queens office, filed a complaint with the Office of Compliance, and Meeks fired her weeks later. He admitted that the cause of her termination did not have to do with the quality of Payne’s work.
“This is an action to recover for damages sustained by plaintiff when Representative Meeks violated her Constitutional rights by retaliating against her, and ultimately terminating her employment, because of her sexual assault lawsuit,” Payne’s attorneys wrote.
The attorney for disgraced Rep. John Conyers’ hinted that there are “a lot” of potential claims out there, he wrote prior to Conyers’ resignation:
“If people were required to resign over allegations, a lot of people would be out of work in this country including many members of the House, Senate and even the president.”
The former Secretary of State was spotted wearing a black surgical boot during a Vancouver stop along her book tour, two months after she says she took a tumble down some stairs in high heels while holding a cup of coffee.
Clinton ambled onto the stage in some sort of black outfit to promote her book What Happened – which details why her election loss is everyone’s fault but hers, when onlookers were confronted with the orthopedic device she’s worn since October.
While recounting her harrowing incident, Clinton said ‘I was running down the stairs in heels with a cup of coffee in hand, I was talking over my shoulder and my heel caught and I fell backwards. ‘I tried to get up and it really hurt. I’ve broken my toe.”
Toe fractures generally take four to six weeks to heal:
“If your toe is crooked after the injury, the bone may be out of place… …It can take 4 to 6 weeks for complete healing,” according to medlineplus.gov.
Yet, two months later to the day Clinton definitely fell and broke her toe, her foot still seems to be bothering her. It’s possible that if the toe required surgery to reset, it could have extended the healing process.
Clinton’s toe is the latest in a long line of health issues. While her physician Lisa Bardack said Clinton was “fit as a fiddle” during the 2016 election, however her spastic head bobbing, required assistance up stairs, mysterious (epi)’pen’ shadow doctor, special glasses, and fainting spell on September 11th, 2016 before being hoisted into a van like a side of beef suggest otherwise.
And what was that weird metal thing that fell down Hillary’s pant leg while she was passing out?
Whatever’s going on with Hillary’s toe, requiring a boot to Position her foot as she travels around the Globe to keep her recovery Tracking along is absolutely sad!
Shares of Israeli generic drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical ($TEVA) spiked over 18% in early morning trade on news that they are eliminating 25% of global workforce, suspending their dividend, and warned of “downward pressure on the top line.” The stock is currently up around 13%.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. will relocate or shut down most of its manufacturing operations in Israel, according to a document reviewed by Calcalist and people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. The company’s plans in Israel are part of the wider global restructuring strategy announced by the company late November. The company intends to implement the plan in the next few months, in the hope of presenting significant cost cuts in its earnings report for the first quarter of 2018, according to the document.
Following a late-night board meeting, the company has decided to let go over half of its Israeli workforce, cutting 3,300 jobs out of 6,430 in the country. The company intends to do away with most of its domestic manufacturing activities, shutting and selling entire sites, and drastically reducing the size of operations in remaining sites.
The move, according to the WSJ, is meant to significantly cut costs so they can pay down debt.
The world’s largest seller of generic drugs has been under intense pressure from other drugmakers for their blockbuster multiple-sclerosis drug, leading to competitive price declines and sagging sales. The company’s restructuring will take two years and aims to cut $3 billion in costs by the end of 2019, according to the Thursday announcement.
Teva CEO Kåre Schultz
CEO Kåre Schultz, who has been in the role since November 1, said that there is no other option in a memo to employees:
“Making workforce reductions of this magnitude is difficult,” Mr. Schultz wrote in a memo to employees.
“However, there is no alternative to these drastic steps in the current situation.”
A photoshopped image of new Teva CEO Kåre Schultz has been making the rounds of Mr. Schultz is dressed as a “White Walker,” an undead ice creature from HBO’s popular fantasy series Game of Thrones, with the caption “Winter is coming.”
