Donald Trump's Inauguration Speech as 45th President of the United States of America

Transcript

Virgin Birth: Zebra Shark Has Babies Without Mating

Credit: Tourism & Events Queensland

...Leonie had been living apart from males for the past few years, so her keepers were surprised when she laid eggs that produced three baby sharks in April 2016. Leonie could be the first shark ever observed to make the switch from sexual to asexual reproduction.

"We thought she could be storing sperm; but when we tested the pups and the possible parent sharks using DNA fingerprinting, we found they only had cells from Leonie," said University of Queensland biologist Christine Dudgeon, who described the case in the journal Scientific Reports Monday (Jan. 16).

Leonie's case marks the first time scientists have seen this type of asexual reproduction —known as parthenogenesis—in the zebra shark (Stegostoma fasciatum).

Parthenogenesis occurs when embryos develop and mature without fertilization by a male's sperm. Rather, an egg progenitor cell that usually gets absorbed by the female's body acts as a surrogate sperm to "fertilize" her egg. This reproduction strategy is more common in plants and invertebrate organisms. However, scientists have been documenting an increasing number of vertebrate species that can have virgin births even when their species normally reproduces sexually. For example, Komodo dragons, the world's largest lizards, have given birth by parthenogenesis. So have wild pit vipers, blacktip sharks, chickens and turkeys...

4 Recent Examples Show Why No One (with any analytical ability) Trusts Media Coverage Of Trump

One may have hoped that the media would respond to their 2016 failures and resulting lack of credibility by reforming. Instead, it seems that many in political media are quadrupling down on the mistakes that served them and their readers and viewers so poorly in the lead-up to Donald Trump’s surprise victory in November.

It’s impossible to track all the ways in which the media are leaning into their bias, their unnecessary hostility, and their abandonment of journalistic principles. So let’s just look at a few examples from the last few hours.

Many members of the media would like to imagine themselves as brave heroes who will valiantly fight the excesses of the Trump administration. These examples show why people do not trust the media to tell the truth, much less hold anyone accountable for anything...

read the rest at The Federalist  

Scott Adams asks: Could a Climate Science Expert Change Your Opinion?

...Here’s a thought experiment:

Let’s say you are new to the debate about climate change and I put you in a room with the most well-informed climate scientist in the world. The scientist spends as much time with you as you want, answering every question and making her case that climate change is a human-caused disaster in the making. Let’s say this scientists is also the best communicator in the world, unlike most scientists. So now you have the best information, from the most knowledgeable person in the world on this topic, communicated in the best possible way, and answering all of your questions. Would you be persuaded by all of that credibility and good communication?

We know that a die-hard climate change skeptic would not be persuaded by this excellent source of information because humans rarely change their minds about important things. Instead we hallucinate reasons for why we were right all along. But in my thought experiment I said you are new to the climate change debate. So let’s assume you came to it without bias. Would you be convinced by the scientist?

Probably yes. If your first introduction to a topic involved a clear and detailed explanation from the top expert in the world, you would probably be persuaded because there is nothing stopping that persuasion from happening. You have no bias to overcome and the scientist is both credible and clear in her message.

The unbiased mind is likely to be totally convinced in this thought experiment. And that mind would also think it had engaged in rational behavior. After all, what could be more rational than getting the best information on a topic, from the best expert in the world, communicated in the clearest possible way?

But your new certainty about climate change would be a fraud that you perpetrated on yourself. If you don’t yet see in my thought experiment why the best information from the best source is still unreliable, even when clearly communicated, you probably don’t understand enough about the world to participate in decision-making.

I’ll simplify this even further so you can test your hallucination. Here’s the summary of the situation. Tell me why you should not automatically trust the scientist in this thought experiment. Assume the following three things ARE true. What’s missing?

Best expert in the world on Climate Science.

Currently works in the field.

Great communicator, answers all of your questions.

See what’s missing yet?

The thing that is missing is that you can’t know what the expert didn’t tell you...

Syrian oppositionist says Palestinians are ‘living in paradise’

Credit: Reuvan Ramaz, Truman Institute

A rare public meeting between Israelis and Syrians in Jerusalem on Tuesday was interrupted by Palestinian protesters who expressed outrage that Syrians would work with Israelis. The protesters met with a furious response from the Syrians, who accused them of failing to understand what true oppression involves.

“You are living in a paradise compared to Syria,” Issam Zeitoun, a liaison for the Free Syrian Army with the international community, told the protesters as they refused to stop shouting and allow the event to continue. “You should be ashamed.”...

In a full turnaround, Pride Toronto, which began as a plea for tolerance, is now a platform for hateful extremists

When Toronto's Pride festival was in its infancy, I was there attending and usually try to make the festival. I went to Jarvis Collegiate, around the corner from the Church Street 'Gay Ghetto,' and as high school kids, our hangouts were along Church where we mingled with the gay proprietors, staff and customers of local establishments and everyone got along great.

Pride started as a a reaction to police raids on Toronto bathhouses and a call for understanding and tolerance, but to be honest, I was fairly oblivious to the politics back then. I was interested in supporting the gay community, but there was also some self-interest. When Pride started out, it was small, friendly, and the bars and restaurants along the strip were anxious to promote the event, so they would sell beer at really cheap prices. A win-win.

Pride has been no stranger to controversy from its outset. At one point, a debate occurred as to whether the pedophile group the North American Man-Boy Love Association should be banned from Pride. Eventually that group was banned from Pride as their participation became too discreditting for the growing gay rights movement. However, as the gay rights movement grew, so did Pride, and radical extremists saw an opportunity to advance their agendas through it.

It's a common radical activist tactic, to parasitically attach itself to an organization, and then eventually try to control it and steer it in a direction completely different than its original purpose. That is how the odious anti-semitic group "Queers Against Israeli Apartheid" became such a force in Pride. For the overwhelming majority of North American gay (or straight) people, middle east politics is no more relevant than Mongolian politics, If anything, the gay community mostly sympathizes and empathizes with Israel, which is one of the most tolerant countries in the world insofar as gay rights are concerned and is home to one of the world's top gay tourist destinations in Tel Aviv, which has its own huge annual Pride festival.

But radical neo-Marxist extremists who despise Israel and western capitalist culture in general infiltrated Pride and pushed the antisemitc agenda. The result almost derailed Toronto's Pride festival, when sponsors started withdrawing support and the City of Toronto threatened to withhold funds so as not to have any association with the anti-Israel fanatics.

The same type of extremists have now gained control of Toronto's Pride through the fanatical Black Lives Matter group. Racial equality and the elimination of racism are important goals. Those goals are not what Black Lives Matter stands for. It's an extremist, racist, anti-western organization which exploits the stupidity of virtue-signalling "social justice warriors," who are afraid to be seen as opposing what they mistakenly believe to be a group that strives for equality and tolerance.

Much has changed since Toronto's Pride festival began in 1981. Police are now supportive of and eager participants in Toronto's Pride festival and have been for the last two decades. That will now change, thanks to the Black Lives Matter extremists. Pride has capitulated to Black Lives Matters' demand to exclude Toronto Police entirely from Pride. Well, not entirely. They still expect Toronto Police to provide free security to the festival and parade.

It's standard Marxist inanity: "We hate you, you're an oppressor. Oh, and give us free stuff that we've done nothing to deserve."

The City of Toronto should withdraw all support from Pride until the despicable decision to exclude police from the festival is reversed. But perhaps, better still, the City should start an alternative Gay festival that is the symbol of inclusiveness and tolerance that Pride was meant to be, and leave the fanatics and hatemongers who dominate Toronto's Pride organization to have a tiny, masturbatory gathering of their own, which they can pay for with their own resources.

The self-affirming Hollywood bubble

The self-affirming Hollywood bubble in a nutshell.  People in near total agreement  are considered "a mix of voices." https://t.co/udtBCx7hxE

— Richard Klagsbrun (@KlagsbrunTO) January 17, 2017

Back In The Saddle

Martin Luther King Day

A typical day on the West Bank

Are US Intelligence agencies about to go to war with their own Commander-In-Chief?

If this report is true, then it bodes terribly for the state of affairs among certain quarters of some US intelligence agencies. It is a sign of a serious problem either way, since it translates to a either security risk or a terrible politicization of US Intelligence. 

...American intelligence officials expressed despair at the election of Trump during a recent meeting with their Israeli counterparts, Bergman reported. They said that they believed that Putin had “leverages of pressure” over Trump, though they did not elaborate. The American media reported on Wednesday that Russia has embarrassing intelligence about the president-elect.

According to Bergman, the American intelligence officials implied that Israel should “be careful” when transferring intelligence information to the White House and the National Security Council (NSC) following Trump's inauguration – at least until it is clear that Trump does not have inappropriate connections with Russia.

Cooperation between the Israeli and U.S. intelligence communities has intensified over the past two decades, with most of the joint operations directed, according to reports, against Iran. Hezbollah and Hamas were also intelligence targets. An official agreement in 2008 for comprehensive cooperation, including the exposure of sources and methods of action, reportedly led to impressive results, including the disruption of the Iranian nuclear program.

President Barack Obama put an end to offensive activity against Iran in 2013, at the start of secret talks between the U.S, and Iran over a nuclear agreement...

When the country that spawned the evil of Nazism teams up with Islamofascism

A German regional court in the city of Wuppertal affirmed a lower court decision last Friday stating that a violent attempt to burn the city's synagogue by three men in 2014 was a justified expression of criticism of Israel’s policies.

Johannes Pinnel, a spokesman for the regional court in Wuppertal, outlined the court’s decision in a statement.

Three German Palestinians sought to torch the Wuppertal synagogue with Molotov cocktails in July, 2014.  The local Wuppertal court panel said in its 2015 decision that the three men wanted to draw “attention to the Gaza conflict” with Israel. The court deemed the attack not to be motivated by antisemitism...

Obama's farewell speech heightened divisions rather than healed them

White voters in America aren't mostly underemployed, middle aged people who feel left behind, African-Americans aren't all oppressed, underprivileged victims who are the daily targets of racists, or angry activists blocking public thoroughfares, and Latino-Americans aren't mostly first generation immigrants, most of whom are in the country illegally.

The average white Trump voter makes substantially more than the US median income, most African-Americans are solidly entrenched in the middle class, and most Latinos have been in America for generations, immigrated legally and a substantial number of them voted for Donald Trump.

You'd never realize that from Barack Obama's farewell speech Tuesday night.

The growth and entrenchment of Identity Politics has been the most divisive element of western culture in the last eight years and Barack Obama has made the issue worse by reinforcing rather than debunking many stereotypes.

President Obama is one of the great political orators of his generation, and there was much good in his farewell speech. His telling Americans that they need to get out of their self-affirming bubbles is one of the most crucial things that needs to be heard at this juncture.

But Obama also reiterated the patchwork of distinct, boilerplate categories of cliched racial, religious and ethnic divisions that would be described as racist generalizations if anyone other than the 'post-racial' President uttered them.

The inculcation of those divisions has, during Obama's presidency, taken firmer root in education and government policy. It's destructive and divisive.

When Americans are encouraged to be Americans, and we see pigmentation and ethnicity as another facet that separates people from each other no more than hair color or taste in music, then thge nation will grow stronger.  The Book of Proverbs predicts what the sort of divisions Obama's America may reap: "He who troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind."

With an new presidency on the horizon, let's hope Americans can repudiate that prediction.

Vampire Bats In Brazil Now Start To Feed On Human Blood

Wild vampire bats in Brazil that are believed to exclusively feed on bird blood have started to feed on human blood by night.

Better Adapted At Processing Bird Blood

The hairy-legged vampire bat, Diphylla ecaudata, which lives in northeast Brazil typically targets large birds to feed on at night time.

The bats primarily feed on birds because they have evolved to be better at processing bird blood, which is characterized by high levels of fat, than at digesting the thicker and high-protein blood of mammals. The nocturnal animals would suck a spoonful of blood from one animal as meal.

Earlier experiments have shown that many of the bats would opt to fast and starve to death when only pig and goat blood was available.

Enrico Bernard, from the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil, and colleagues, however, have found evidence suggesting that the bats have started to eat something that is outside of their traditional diet.

Traces Of Human Blood In Fecal Samples

Bernard and colleagues analyzed fecal samples from a colony of the hairy-legged vampires that live in Catimbau National Park in northeast Brazil. The researchers found that of the 15 samples that they managed to get DNA from, three had traces of blood from humans, suggesting that the animals have started to suck on human blood...

Cruz, Graham 'Safeguard Israel Act' aims to slay Obama's abandonment of Israel

Senators Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are set to introduce legislation Thursday to cut off U.S. funding to the United Nations until the anti-American organization rescinds its recently passed, vehemently anti-Israel resolution.

U.S. contributions to the body’s regular and peacekeeping budgets stand at roughly $3 billion a year — about a quarter of the respective budgets.

The senators’ Safeguard Israel Act of 2017 seeks to “prohibit voluntary or assessed contributions to the United Nations until the President certifies to Congress that United Nations Security Resolution 2334 has been repealed,” an advance copy of the draft bill obtained by Conservative Review states...

Terence Corcoran: Chavez’s Canadian fan club is awfully quiet about Venezuela’s utter meltdown

It’s time for a break from the great media/Hollywood fixation on the imminent malfeasance of Donald Trump as president of the United States. Better, for sanity and perspective, to reflect on a former media/Hollywood fixation: The ideologically sainted Hugo Chavez, a national leader whose wondrous achievements as socialist president of Venezuela were hailed and celebrated for almost two decades.

With Venezuela currently slipping deeper into financial and economic ruin, not much has been heard from the dead dictator’s legion of supporters, including those Canadian media celebrities who joined hands with Hollywood types such as Michael Moore, Oliver Stone and Sean Penn to support Chavez as a great South American democrat.

One such Canadian, Naomi Klein, retweeted approvingly on the 2013 death of Chavez: “Yes, the Venezuelan president could be a strongman. But he leaves behind what might be called the most democratic country in the Western Hemisphere.”

The Western Hemisphere?! More democratic than, say, Canada? I suppose Venezuela might be called that, but not with a straight face. What Chavez actually left behind is one of the most horrifically destitute countries in the world. In December, Transparency International listed Venezuela as the only country in the Americas among the world’s 10 most corrupt governments...

Against and For: Senators Al Franken (D) and Ted Cruz (R) question Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump's nominee for Attorney General at confirmation hearings

Jeremy Corbyn backs "idiotic" cap on earnings to reduce inequality

Jeremy Corbyn has backed a cap on high earnings as a way to reduce income inequality, as the Labour leader makes a fresh pitch to UK voters.

Mr Corbyn told the BBC on Tuesday: “I would like there to be some kind of high earnings cap, quite honestly.” 

The Labour leader described the UK as a bargain basement economy on the shores of Europe. “We have the worst level of income disparity of most of the OECD countries,” he said. “It’s getting worse and corporate taxation is a part of it. If we want to live in a more egalitarian society and fund our public services we cannot go on creating worse levels of inequality.” 

 However, Mr Corbyn was reluctant to be drawn on details of an earnings cap: “I can’t put a figure on it and I don’t want to.”...

Imam who issued fatwa against Indian PM Modi now threatens Tarek Fatah with beheading

Recently, the Shahi Imam of (India's) Kolkata’s Tipu Sultan Mosque, Maulana Noorur Rahman Barkati was in the news for issuing a fatwa against Narendra Modi. The Imam had declared an award of Rupees 25 lakhs for shaving the head and beard of the Prime Minister. He was speaking at a joint conference by the All India Majlis-e-Sura and All India Minority Forum, in a promotional campaign for Mamata Banerjee.

Now it appears the Imam has gone quite a few steps ahead. The Imam was invited to a panel discussion on Zee News, to debate his controversial fatwa. Among the panelists, was Canadian columnist and staunch critic of radical Islam, Tarek Fatah.

In a shocking incident of gross “intolerance”, out of nowhere, the Imam declared during the debate that Fatah “would be beheaded”...

Piers Morgan: Sorry, Meryl but that hypocritical anti-Trump rant was easily the worst performance of your career (apart from that time you gave a child rapist a standing ovation)

...Really, Meryl?

For starters, the incident to which she referred didn’t happen last year, it happened in 2015. There’s even been another Golden Globes in between then and now, at which it was never mentioned.

Second, Trump has always furiously denied – and has again today on Twitter - he was mocking the reporter’s disability and a Conservative website produced video evidence of numerous other instances where he made the exact same gesture to fully able-bodied people when attacking them. (See here and decide for yourself)

Third, the reporter is hardly a powerless individual with ‘no capacity to fight back’; he’s a long-time Pulitzer-prize winning investigative journalist at the New York Times, a paper that’s trashed Trump for decades.

But putting all that to one side for a moment – and if Trump WAS mocking a man’s disability then I agree it was disgraceful - let’s move to what Streep said next: ‘Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.’

At this point, I laughed out loud with incredulity.

Not at the words themselves, which are laudable.

No, it was at the hypocrisy.

You’d be hard-pushed to find an industry that encourages more disrespect and violence than Hollywood...