FINANCE MINISTER RESIGNS AFTER DECISIVE ‘NO’ BAILOUT VOTE
BY ELENA BECATOROS AND DEMETRIS NELLAS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis resigned Monday, saying he was told shortly after Greece’s decisive referendum result that some other eurozone finance ministers and the country’s other creditors would appreciate his not attending the ministers’ meetings.
Varoufakis said Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had judged that his resignation “might help achieve a deal” and that he was leaving the finance ministry for that reason.
“I shall wear the creditors’ loathing with pride,” Varoufakis said in his announcement.
Greeks voted overwhelmingly to reject creditors’ proposal of more austerity measures in return for rescue loans, in the country’s first referendum in 41 years Sunday.
The referendum “will stay in history as a unique moment when a small European nation rose up against debt-bondage,” Varoufakis said.
With his brash style and fondness for frequent media appearances at the start of his tenure at the ministry when the new government was formed in January, Varoufakis had visibly annoyed many of the eurozone’s finance ministers during Greece’s debt negotiations.
There was no immediate announcement of his replacement.
New Jersey is the only state which Americans tend to have an unfavorable opinion of
As America prepares to celebrate its 239th birthday this Saturday, YouGov compiled a ‘State of the States’, asking Americans how they feel about each and every state that forms our country.
This research shows that New Jersey is the only state in the country which people tend to have a negative opinion of. 40% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of New Jersey while 30% have a favorable opinion of the state, giving the state a net favorability rating of -10%. In contrast, Alabama, the second least popular state in the country, has a net favorability rating of +8%, as 39% of Americans have a favorable view of Alabama and 31% have an unfavorable opinion. After Alabama the least popular states are Illinois (+9%), Mississippi (+9%) and Indiana (+12%).
Hawaii is the most popular state in the union with a net favorability rating of +56%, with 67% of Americans having a favorable view of the state and only 11% having an unfavorable opinion. Hawaii is followed by Montana (+43%), Wyoming (+42%), Alaska (+42%) and Maine (+42%).
Published: 11:43AM Saturday July 04, 2015 Source: Sunday
A visiting American research scientist says he is close to discovering a ‘cure’ for ageing, that he could have a drug ready for testing by the end of next year.
Molecular Biologist Dr Bill Andrews told TV ONE’s SUNDAY programme that humans shouldn’t have to suffer from the ravages of ageing. He says that ageing is a disease that should, and could be cured.
His research centres around Telomeres – small caps at the end of our chromosomes that become shorter every time our cells divide.
When they become critically short, we age and eventually die.
The man arrested in connection with the seemingly random killing of a woman who was out for a stroll with her father along the San Francisco waterfront is an illegal immigrant who previously had been deported five times, federal immigration officials say.
Further, Immigration and Customs Enforcement says San Francisco had him in their custody earlier this year but failed to notify ICE when he was released.
“DHS records indicate ICE lodged an immigration detainer on the subject at that time, requesting notification prior to his release so ICE officers could make arrangements to take custody. The detainer was not honored,” ICE said in a statement Friday afternoon.
Kathryn Steinle was killed Wednesday evening at Pier 14 — one of the busiest tourist destinations in the city.
Police said Thursday they arrested Francisco Sanchez in the shooting an hour after it occurred.
On Friday, ICE revealed their records indicate the individual has been previously deported five times, most recently in 2009, and is from Mexico.
file photo by Boyd Loving
BY EDDIE SCARRY | JULY 3, 2015 | 11:34 AM
Nearly three quarters of Americans believe the news media reports with an intentional bias, according to a new survey.
The 2015 State of the First Amendment Survey, conducted by the First Amendment Center and USA Today, was released Friday. It shows that only 24 percent of American adults agree with the statement that “overall, the news media tries to report the news without bias,” while 70 percent disagree.
When the question was asked last year, 41 percent agreed, a 17-point difference.
“These are discouraging results for those of us who have spent our careers in journalism,” Ken Paulson, president of the First Amendment Center, wrote in an op-ed for USA Today on Thursday. “In 23 years in newsrooms, I saw consistent and concerted efforts to get stories right. Clearly, the public’s not convinced.”
The low-carb craze is going strong. Bread is out. Pasta is overrated. And dieters are experimenting with how low their carb intake can go. But grains are anything but all the same. So whether you are cutting out refined grains, whole grains or carbs in general, the effects can vary widely. Here’s a look at the wide array of things that happen when you ditch the bread bags:
You lose water weight
When you reduce your carb intake, the first thing you notice is how quickly, even magically, the weight falls off. But it’s not fat you’re losing. It’s water. “When carbs are stored in the body in the form of glycogen, each gram of carbohydrate stores three to four times its weight in water,” says dietitian and strength coach Marie Spano, RD, CSCS. So as soon as you cut carbs and start using your glycogen stores, you’ll lose a good amount of water weight.
MAYOR’S OFFICE HOURS FOR RESIDENTS -Saturday, July 11
Mayor Paul Aronsohn holds office hours for Ridgewood residents on Saturday’s every month. Mayor Aronsohn will meet with residents on Saturday, June 11 from 9AM to Noon in the Council Chambers (Sydney V. Stoldt, Jr. Court Room) on the fourth floor of Ridgewood Village Hall.
For an appointment to meet with the Mayor, please call the Village Clerk’s Office at 201-670-5500 ext. 206. You may come to the Mayor’s office hours without an appointment, but those with appointments will be given priority.
In accordance with the provisions of the “Open Public Meetings Act,” please be advised that the Planning Board will hold a special public meeting on Tuesday, July 7, 2015, in the Village Hall Court Room, 131 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ. The purpose of the meeting is to hold the Annual Reorganization Meeting beginning at 7:30 p.m. A regular business meeting will follow.
All meetings of the Ridgewood Planning Board (i.e., official public meetings, work session meetings, pre-meeting assemblies and special meetings) are public meetings which are always open to members of the general public.
JULY 3, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JULY 3, 2015, 8:56 AM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Print
Housing projects would increase school enrollment
To the Editor:
It was hard to read the report in The Ridgewood News of July 26 (“Parents question increase in class sizes,” page A1) of classes with 24 children and the inability of the school board to guarantee that children will be placed in schools close to their homes, without marveling at the recent arrogance of the Ridgewood Planning Board in totally disregarding the concerns and testimony of taxpayers in this regard by passing the high-density zoning for which developers clamored.
These issues go hand in hand. The notion that school-age children will not cascade into these developments is ludicrous. Board of Education President Sheila Brogan is quoted in the article as saying, “Unlike surrounding towns, Ridgewood tends to support more students in our school districts.” Yet, as a proponent of the development on Broad Street, this obvious fact was nowhere in evidence.
The town can only hope that the full council is more attuned to the tremendous costs in traffic, taxes and school crowding that high-density projects will engender. Save the Village. Do not adopt this disastrous recommendation.
JULY 4, 2015, 10:59 PM LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2015, 11:25 PM
BY SHAWN BOBURG
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
At the Port Authority, even the lawyers are getting lawyers.
More than 15 officials — including three in-house attorneys — have lawyered up amid an escalating investigation into the Port Authority’s decision to redirect $1.8 billion in toll money from its Hudson River crossings to fix roads in New Jersey.
The development signals that the 15-month-old joint investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has entered a more serious phase. And the focus on at least three of the agency’s top staff attorneys suggests prosecutors and federal regulators are closely examining the legal justification for shifting toll dollars to New Jersey-owned roads.
The investigation is focused on whether the Port Authority misled investors and bondholders in 2011 when it agreed to use toll money to rebuild the 3.5-mile Pulaski Skyway and three other major New Jersey state roads at the behest of the Christie administration. Laws limit the bi-state agency’s spending to projects associated with its own facilities.
The Port Authority quietly justified the spending by labeling the highways as access roads to the agency’s Lincoln Tunnel — even though they are miles from the tunnel, do not connect to it directly and do not generate any revenues for the Port Authority. Agency lawyers described the repairs in bond documents as “access infrastructure improvements” to the Lincoln Tunnel.
The Greek people are in danger of having their personal accounts raided by the government. The rumor planted by The Financial Times could be true or it could be a ploy to swing the upcoming elections which will determine if they stay in the EU, but what is definitely true is that leftist policies of redistribution and social justice are at the bottom of the problem. Greece’s path is the path we now follow.
How did the Greeks get to this place?
To start, a quarter of government spending goes to paying government employees. They are top heavy with over-paid and underutilized bureaucrats. Government has overtaken the innovative private sector and all sectors for that matter.
Greece has a 25.6% unemployment rate and youth unemployment is at about 49.9%.
They owe billions and their debt to GDP is at 175%. Under Obama, we’re at 102.6%. Our debt is over $18 trillion. Donald Trump has said that when we reach about $24 trillion, we will be Greece.
“According to the economists — who I’m not big believers in, but, nevertheless, this is what they’re saying — that $24 trillion — we’re very close — that’s the point of no return. $24 trillion. We will be there soon. That’s when we become Greece. That’s when we become a country that’s unsalvageable. And we’re gonna be there very soon. We’re gonna be there very soon.”
Once an economy accumulates a mountain of debt equal to its entire, national, economic output; that economy no longer has sufficient financial/economic mass to (responsibly) “service” this mountain of debt. Every year we pass the point of no-return, we are incurring incredible harm to the economy. It’s hard to know what that point of no-return is but we should be taking steps to prevent it.
The banks, the rich, and Capitalism are easy targets when people look around for others to blame. Who, however, is forcing any of these politicians to borrow on so-called future earnings or to subsidize not knowing where the money is coming from? The constant giving in to union demands and building up of unsustainable benefits and pensions is not orchestrated by banks.
The banks are evil for loaning money and expecting it back according to the left.
Politicians run up debt to get re-elected on the promise of a pie-in-the-sky Utopia of public sector employees, few private enterprises, and lots of freebies for the “oppressed” which ends up being most people along the way. All want in on the action.
The bureaucracy in Greece grew faster than all other sectors. Once unionized, people can’t be fired and dead weight overwhelms agencies. Competition and innovation wither away.
Daniel Greenfield in his Front Page Magazine article, “Social Justice is the Root of All Debt,” compared the current crisis in Greece to Detroit and many of our big cities:
“Detroit had 55 residents per government employee. Half the city’s residents didn’t pay property taxeswhich were the highest of any major city. The employment rate wasn’t pretty. The third largest “industry” was education and health care, both mostly government subsidized, the fifth biggest industry was government. Fourth was manufacturing, which in Detroit has hovered around being state-owned.”
The left beats down opposition with class warfare and populist promises. Radical socialist Bernie Sanders has promised a “political revolution” to combat income inequality, curb climate change and drastically reform the campaign finance system. He also promises a top-tier tax rate of 90%, redistribution, climate extremism, and unlimited union financing of campaigns.
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/02/2015 21:15 -0400
Submitted by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,
Have you ever come across someone on the Internet that you suspected was a paid government troll? Well, there is a very good chance that you were not imagining things. Thanks to Edward Snowden, we now have solid proof that paid government trolls are using “psychology-based influence techniques” on social media websites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Documents leaked by Snowden also reveal that government agents have been conducting denial-of-service attacks, flooding social media websites with thinly veiled propaganda and have been purposely attempting to warp public discourse online. If we do not stand up and object to this kind of Orwellian behavior, it is only going to get worse and worse.
In the UK, the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) is a specialized unit within the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). If it wasn’t for Edward Snowden, we probably still would never have heard of them. This particular specialized unit is engaged in some very “questionable” online activities. The following is an excerpt from a recent piece by Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Fishman…
Though its existence was secret until last year, JTRIG quickly developed a distinctive profile in the public understanding, after documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealedthat the unit had engaged in “dirty tricks” like deploying sexual “honey traps” designed to discredit targets, launching denial-of-service attacks to shut down Internet chat rooms, pushing veiled propaganda onto social networks and generally warping discourse online.
We are told that JTRIG only uses these techniques to go after the “bad guys”.
But precisely who are the “bad guys”?
It turns out that their definition of who the “bad guys” are is quite broad. Here is more from Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Fishman…
JTRIG’s domestic and law enforcement operations are made clear. The report states that the controversial unit “currently collaborates with other agencies” including the Metropolitan police, Security Service (MI5), Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), Border Agency, Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and National Public Order and Intelligence Unit (NPOIU). The document highlights that key JTRIG objectives include “providing intelligence for judicial outcomes”; monitoring “domestic extremist groups such as the English Defence League by conducting online HUMINT”; “denying, deterring or dissuading” criminals and “hacktivists”; and “deterring, disrupting or degrading online consumerism of stolen data or child porn.”
Particularly disturbing to me is the phrase “domestic extremist groups”. What does someone have to say or do to be considered an “extremist”? For example, the English Defence League is a non-violent street protest movement in the UK that is strongly against the spread of radical Islam and sharia law in the UK. So if they are “extremists”, how many millions upon millions of ordinary citizens in the United States would fit that definition?
When conducting operations against “extremists”, psychology-based influence techniques are among the tools that JTRIG uses to combat them online. The following comes from one of the documents that was posted by Greenwald and Fishman…
