Freerepublic.com Story on Paid Russian Internet Trolls…..
Hey PJ: Any chance Russian President Putin is paying some of your regular posters to chime in with poorly digested pieces of statist propaganda? Check this out (from FreeRepublic.com today):
Russia uses an army of trolls on social media
While Russia’s president Vladimir Putin maintains an iron grip on the state-run media, the internet remains a big problem for Putin, as he’s had little ability to control Twitter and other social media.
Putin has responded to this problem in a bizarre way. According to documents examined by an analyst firm, since April a Russian firm called the Internet Research Agency, with a 2014 budget of $10 million, has been hiring hundreds of “internet trolls” to challenge any online article critical of Russia.
Each troll is expected to post comments on blogs and news sites 50 times per day. The comments range from lies and disinformation to abuse and profanity. Each blogger is to maintain six Facebook accounts, posting three times a day in each. On Twitter, they’re expected to manage 10 accounts and tweet 50 times a day. The Atlanticand BuzzFeed
Islamic State Beheads a Second American Journalist, Warns of More Executions
Kelsey Harkness / @kelseyjharkness / September 02, 2014
The Islamic State terrorist group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, claims to have beheaded a second American journalist, Steven Joel Sotloff.
A video of the execution was made public by jihadist monitoring organization SITE Intel Group. ISIS also threatened the execution of
British hostage David Cawthorne Haines, sending a tweet today that read:
James Carafano, vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at The Heritage Foundation, called the Sotloff beheading “despicable and beyond the pale.”
He told The Daily Signal:
ISIS has committed countless atrocities since the invasion of Iraq began. Every one of them, including this act, is despicable and beyond the pale.Carafano added, “The president was wrong to characterize this as a humanitarian mission — this is a war against a regime every bit as brutal as any that has ever appeared on the face of the earth.”
Sotloff, a freelance journalist who worked for Time magazine and other publications and also spoke fluent Arabic, was abducted a year ago in Syria. Last week, his mother sent a message to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, asking him to “please release my child.”
The video released by the Islamic State, titled “A Second Message to America,” closely resembles the footage of American photojournalist James Foley’s beheading last month.
Sotloff is seen in an orange jumpsuit while his executioner threatens President Obama with future attacks: “…just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.”
The executioner adds:
We take this opportunity to warn those governments that enter this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State to back off and leave our people alone.
Carafano said this will not be the last atrocity committed by ISIS against America and its allies. He told The Daily Signal:
In this part of the world honor is power, and ISIS will do everything possible to show it can strike back even as it loses ground. There already has been an uptick of terrorist attacks in Baghdad and other key cities.
Carafano warned that “time is not on our side” in the war against the Islamic State and said the best way to bring justice, peace and security to the region is to help the Iraqi people take back their country as quickly as possible.
“That has to be job No. 1,” he said.
U.S officials have not yet confirmed the authenticity of the video. Sotloff’s family has been made aware of the situation and is requesting time to grieve.
Ridgewood Art Institute: Reminder to Pick Up Summer Show Paintings September 2, 2014 7:13 PM (19 hours ago)
Ridgewood NJ, With the ongoing construction, reduced storage and another show soon to take place, it would be very much appreciated if Summer Show exhibiting artists would retrieve all of their work during the scheduled pick up dates. Summer Show Pickup: September 2nd-5th
Reader says 12 pm and still no agenda posted on the website. Transparency !
The agenda was just posted 12:18pm . why so late? Maybe because of what is going to be discussed in closed sessions ?
Legal 1. RIC Development ( Big Al’s attorney friend trying to get the right of way at the sewage plant to help him build hosing) Dave Rutford c. Contract negotiations 1. Employee Parking 2. Lot 12 – The Gap Parking Lot 3. Fire Contract Negotiations
09/02/147:30PMPlanning Board Public 09/03/147:30PMVillage Council Special Public Meeting 09/03/147:30PMVillage Council Public Work Session 09/09/147:30PMBoard of Adjustment Regular Public Meeting 09/10/148:00PMVillage Council Public Meeting 09/16/147:30PMPlanning Board Public Meeting 09/17/147:30PMVillage Council Public Work Session 09/23/147:30PMBoard of Adjustment Regular Public Meeting 10/01/147:30PMVillage Council Public Work Session 10/07/147:30PMPlanning Board Public Meeting
to Honor the Memory of Roger Wiegand – September 5th – Village Hall Court Room
On Friday, September 5th at 5:30pm a plaque honoring Roger Wiegand will be installed on the Village Council podium in the Village Hall Court Room. This plaque honors Roger’s memory and is a tribute to his passion for providing information to “the public”. All are invited to attend and celebrate Roger and his contribution to the Ridgewood community. A reception will follow.
School Crossing Guard Positions Available – Contact Ridgewood Police Dept.
The Ridgewood Police Department is accepting applications for School Crossing Guard Positions. Applications are Available at the Police Desk located at 131 North Maple Avenue Ridgewood NJ. P/T position, 10 hours per week (2 hours per day) starting at $17.49/hr. Send application to Police Chief John Ward, Ridgewood Police Dept, 131 N. Maple Ave., Ridgewood, NJ 07450 or return the application to the Police Records Room. The Village of Ridgewood is an EOE and civil service community. 201/652-3900
Apple offers full suite of Common Core apps sure to indoctrinate
September 2, 2014
LOS ANGELES — Expanding from its previous partnership with Pearson Education to provide fact and quality deficient curriculum resources, Apple now offers even more — a full range of Common Core aligned curriculum and assessment tools for iPad.
A recent document published by Apple outlining several “amazing curriculum products for iPad” reveals that Apple is not concerned with providing quality education material to America’s students and teachers, but rather with competing for a share of the pot of gold at the end of the nationally leveraged Common Core rainbow.
Although Apple has offered iBook textbooks from Pearson, McGraw Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and DK Publishing since 2012, it recently upgraded its current offerings and added new products specifically aligned with Common Core, some of which are unique to iPad.
Aiming to be a one-stop-shop for all things Common Core, the iPad suite offers core curriculum content in English, Math, Science, and Social Studies, as well as assessments, learning systems, and teacher tools.
In addition to Pearson Education, who employs progressive indoctrinators to lead its Common Core Initiative, Apple’s menu of core curriculum apps includes lessons from other equally skewed publishers/providers like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw Hill, Discovery Education, and The Choices Program.
By: Diane Weaver | March, 2013 | 11,282 views | No Comments | Posted in: Common Core State Standards, Technology in the Classroom
Digital literacy is integral component to the Common Core Standards. The skill of critically navigating, consuming, and producing digital text and media has increasingly significant influence on a student’s success as an adult. In fact, it is even mentioned in the Standard’s portrait of students who are college and career ready, which states,
“Students employ technology thoughtfully to enhance their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language use. They tailor their searches online to acquire useful information efficiently, and they integrate what they learn using technology with what they learn offline. They are familiar with the strengths and limitations of various technological tools and mediums and can select and use those best suited to their communication goals.”
Sen. Mike Lee: ‘Common Core standards will be the ObamaCare of education’
September 2, 2014
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Mike Lee and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal have a message for Big Government: stop meddling in local education decisions.
“As a U.S. Senator, I’ve seen the federal government make a mess of everything it touches,” Lee, a Republican from Utah, wrote in a recent email sent to supporters through the free market group FreedomWorks.
“And if they’re allowed to stay, Common Core standards will be the ObamaCare of education,” Lee wrote, according toNewsmax. “Common Core is the DC takeover of our school system. It will dumb down standards and cheapen the education our children receive.”
Newsmax reports Lee’s comments come just days after Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal filed a lawsuit last week alleging the Obama administration “is using grant money and regulations to manipulate states into adopting the federal education standards.”
Obama, through his Race to the Top education initiative, convinced most states to adopt Common Core standards as a means of competing for billions in additional federal grant funding for education, though very few states actually received the funds.
The competitive Race to the Top grants, however, are only one of several ways the federal government is incentivizing states to implement the national learning standards. The U.S. Education Department has also awarded states a waiver from former president George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind education standards – and the penalties for not making the grade – if they agree to move forward with Common Core.
Concerns on Common Core presented to Ridgewood school board
SEPTEMBER 2, 2014 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2014, 11:09 AM BY BY JODI WEINBERGER STAFF WRITER
An apple core that has become the sign for the opposition to new state standards for school curriculum was featured prominently on buttons of many of the two dozen parents who came to speak at the Ridgewood Board of Education (BOE) meeting Aug. 25.
The public outcry against the Common Core and standardized testing is growing in Ridgewood with the help of a group named Ridgewood Cares About Schools, which has formed online on Facebook and drawn many to in-person meetings this summer.
The parents (and many grandparents) raised issues of concern during the public comment portion of the meeting, including that the testing is done on computers, the lack of transparency of where and what test data is shared, and that there are too many instructional hours devoted to testing. They also said that the Common Core standards for math and other subjects are confusing and urged the BOE to reject them in fear that the standards and focus on test preparation will create bad curricula.
Anne Burton Walsh, one of the founders of Ridgewood Cares About Schools, said the increase in the use of technology in the younger grades is “unnecessarily expensive and potentially harmful.” Ridgewood is currently implementing its one-to-one initiative with Google Chromebooks at the high school and plans to give one to every student in Grades K-8 in the coming years, with one reason being that the students must take the new standardized tests on computers.
Nicholas Piotti seen in the Ridgewood High School 2008 yearbook.
Seemingly close Ho-Ho-Kus family torn apart by slaying
SEPTEMBER 2, 2014, 10:06 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2014, 6:19 AM BY CHRISTOPHER MAAG, ABBOTT KOLOFF AND CHRIS HARRIS STAFF WRITERS THE RECORD
His mother doted on him when he was a child and they remained close while he attended college, according to friends. They said he seemed to have everything going for him and a comfortable life — a job as a TV stagehand while he pursued a career in music, a backyard pool at his parents’ house in wealthy Ho-Ho-Kus, even Giants season tickets.
Nicholas Piotti, 24, a onetime lacrosse standout at Ridgewood High School, remained in a psychiatric hospital Tuesday, authorities said, one day after police said he beat and stabbed his mother, 63-year-old Karen, to death in their Ho-Ho-Kus home.
Police found her body inside the family’s Timberline Road home with stab wounds and “beating trauma” early Monday after responding to an aborted 911 call, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said. He said he did not know who made the call and that Karen Piotti’s husband, James, was not at home at the time of the killing, which happened after midnight Monday. Molinelli did not respond Tuesday to requests for further information.
CDC Director: Ebola Outbreak ‘Is Spiraling Out Of Control’
September 2, 2014 12:04 PM
ATLANTA (CBS Atlanta/AP) — The director for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention says that the Ebola outbreak is going to get worse.
Speaking to “CBS This Morning” following his trip to the West African countries dealing with the outbreak, Dr. Tom Frieden explained that they have to act now to try to get Ebola under control.
“It is the world’s first Ebola epidemic and it is spiraling out of control. It’s bad now and it’s going to get worse in the very near future,” Frieden told CBS News. “There is still a window of opportunity to tamp it down, but that window is closing. We really have to act now.”
Frieden, who visited Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, will tell Washington tomorrow that the Ebola outbreak is “spiraling upward.” The CDC director explained that these countries still need help to deal with the deadly outbreak.
Hackers may have stolen credit data from Home Depot Javier E. David | @TeflonGeek
Home Depot may be the latest retailer to have suffered a massive credit card breach, the company confirmed on Tuesday, after a website reported that a large cache of stolen data had appeared on black market sites.
According to information first reported by Krebs on Security, the breach may have extended as far back as the spring of this year. If so, the fallout may end up being far larger than Target’s incident late last year, when information pertaining to tens of millions of customers was compromised.
Home Depot is working with investigators to determine the origin of “unusual activity,” a spokeswoman told CNBC in a statement
Society Cafe Concert – Nikki Armstrong with Rave Tesar
Society Cafe Concert Series presents Nikki Armstrong with Rave Tesar on piano Saturday, September 6th The Society Café Concert Series offers a series of acoustic singer/songwriter concerts at the Unitarian Society of Ridgewood. Wine, dessert and coffee, all provided by local vendors, are available before the shows and during intermission.
We proudly announce the opening concert of our fourth season: Nikki Armstrong in her “Lady Sings the Blues” Show, featuring Rave Tesar on piano. Nikki Armstrong has been compared to a wide variety of singers such as Anita O’Day, Tina Turner, Gladys Knight, Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin. Noted for her soulful interpretations of material from standards to rock, she strives to perform every song “in the now and never the same way twice!” She was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in Chicago in 2012. Rave Tesar’s musical background is deep and wide ranging. As a result, his style is a rich blending of classical, jazz and pop music, displaying a strong technique and an adventurous sense of improvisation. “The Rave Tesar Trio’s You Decide is one of the best albums of 2007.” –
Walter Kolosky, All About Jazz Music starts at 8. We start serving wine and dessert at 7 when doors open. Advance tickets are $20 and can be purchased via PayPal on the Society Café website, www.societycafeconcertseries.com. Tickets are $25 the night of the concert.
Report: These Five States Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Hawaii Have Highest Liability Per Taxpayer
Josh Siegel / @JoshDailySignal / August 31, 2014
Taxpayers in Alaska who enjoy keeping their money will be happy to see a new report that claims the country’s 49th state is best able to fund its obligations.
Residents of Connecticut may not feel as good.
The Truth in Accounting report ranks the states by “taxpayer burden,” a measure that represents the amount each taxpayer would have to pay his or her state’s treasury to fill its financial hole.
Truth in Accounting, a Chicago-based nonprofit, determined that the states with the highest taxpayer burden — deemed “Sinkhole States” — are, in descending order, Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Hawaii.
The “Sinkhole States”
The states with the largest “taxpayer surplus” — called “Sunshine States” based on having assets available to pay their bills — are, from the top: Alaska, North Dakota, Wyoming, Utah and South Dakota.
The “Sunshine States”
Taxpayer burden is calculated by determining each taxpayer’s share of state debt after setting aside capital-related debt and assets. Remaining debt is primarily unpaid pension and retirement health promises.
In its fifth annual report, released this month, Truth in Accounting says states that have unfunded pension liabilities put a burden on future taxpayers, even though “they will not receive any services” from the retired employees who earn those pensions.
States with taxpayer surplus, on the other hand, fund pension costs during the year employees earn the benefits, and the money is set aside for that year.
Connecticut, which the report considers to be in the worst financial shape, has an overall budget shortfall of $61.4 billion, which breaks down to $48,100 per taxpayer.
Truth in Accounting reports that most of Connecticut’s retirement benefits have been promised but not funded.
A Connecticut law requires the legislature to pass a balanced budget. This likely explains why the state chose not to report its entire retirement benefit liability. The report says:
One of the reasons Connecticut is in this precarious financial position is state officials use antiquated budgeting and accounting rules to report Connecticut’s financial condition. Since employee retirement benefits are not immediately payable in cash, the related compensation costs have been ignored when calculating balanced budgets.
Alaska, reported to be in the best financial shape, has an overall budget surplus of $13.5 billion, which breaks down to $46,900 per taxpayer. The report says Alaska has enough money to pay state employees’ retirement benefits and other outstanding bills:
Alaska is in good financial shape because the legislators and governors have only promised citizens and employees what they can afford to deliver.
See how your fared state by reading the Truth in Accounting report.
Scott Garrett Leads Letter to IRS Commissioner on Religious Freedom
Aug 25, 2014
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Chairman of the Congressional Constitution Caucus, along with eight of his colleagues sent a letter to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen today. The letter outlines the deep concerns the Members have about news of the recent IRS dismissal agreement with the Freedom from Religion Foundation. Additionally, the Members request answers to the following questions:
Provide a copy of any agreement between the IRS and the Freedom from Religion Foundation.
Provide any communications between the IRS and the Freedom from Religion Foundation regarding dismissal of the case.
Why did the IRS agree to dismiss this case without prejudice when it recently won a nearly identical case, and who was the highest ranking official to sign off on the settlement?
How have the IRS regulations in this area changed since the 2009 ruling in U.S. v Living Word Christian Ctr., which deemed them unlawful?
How is the IRS going to enforce the Johnson Amendment without impinging on the First Amendment freedoms of religious leaders?
Other than self-referral by leaders opposed to the Johnson Amendment, how did the IRS find the 99 religious organizations currently under investigation by the “Political Activities Referral Committee,” and how did they decide these organizations merited the use of precious investigative resources?
How much money has been spent by the Political Activities Referral Committee in each of the last fiscal years since 2009?
How much has been spent in total investigating the 99 organizations currently under investigation?
What safeguards are in place to make sure that the IRS does not stifle protected First Amendment speech?
