PG&E Monopoly Controlled by the 1%: A perfect storm of environmental destruction and the transfer of public utility wealth from California’s 99% to the Global Rich

The foundation of a public utility is public trust. Public utilities by definition include responsibilities and expectations implied in that trust. Public utilities are essentially government approved monopolies. They were originally guided by the expectation that the monopoly would operate as a benefit to, and protector of, its’ customers. The purpose of this paper is to show how the current Board of Directors and operational structure of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) allows for enormous profits and bonuses at the expense of safe, reliable delivery of electricity to the public. This paper also offers a solution!

The core individuals of the richest Global 1% function as a non-governmental network of similarly educated, wealthy people with common interests of managing, and protecting concentrated global wealth and insuring its continued growth. The Global 1% comprise over 36 million millionaires, and 2,400 billionaires who employ their excess capital with investment management firms like BlackRock and Vanguard Group. The top 17 of these trillion-dollar investment management firms controlled $41.1 trillion dollars in 2017. These firms are all directly invested in each other and managed by only 199 people who are the decision makers on how and where global capital will be invested. Their biggest problem is they have more capital than there are safe investment opportunities, which leads to risky speculative investments, increased war spending, and the privatization of the public commons.1 “The gap between the richest and the poorest U.S. households is now the largest it’s been in the past 50 years.”2

https://www.projectcensored.org/pge/

U.S. Air Force takes next step toward newest F-15EX fighter jet

Task & Purpose reported on Tuesday, cited post of Steve Trimble, that a pair of twin pre-solicitation notices posted to the U.S. government’s contract opportunities hub announced the Air Force’s intent to procure both upgraded Boeing-made F-15EX fighters and fresh General Electric F110 jet engines associated with the new aircraft.

“The United States Air Force Life Cycle Management Center intends to award a sole source indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract to The Boeing Company for a refresh to the F-15C/D fleet and augment the F-15E fleet,” according to a Federal Business Opportunities notice published last week.

The F-15EX, commonly known as Strike Eagle on Steroids, is the latest version of the world famous F-15 Eagle fighter jet. The new fighter would be equipped with better avionics and radars and would carry more than two dozen air-to-air missiles.

The improved version of F-15 will can carry the full array of air-to-air, air-to-ground and maritime strike weapons. The aircraft can engage a multitude of targets on any given mission.

Reuters previously reported that the FY2020 Department of Defense funding bill includes $694.9 billion, an increase of $20.5 billion above the FY2019 enacted level. The recommendation also includes the endorsement of the Air Force’s plan to buy the new F-15EX Advanced Eagle fighter jets from U.S. aerospace giant Boeing.

https://www.militaryq.com/2020/01/29/u-s-air-force-takes-next-step-toward-newest-f-15ex-fighter-jet/

CA mayor unilaterally ends Pledge of Allegiance over ‘disdain for Trump’

San Anselmo Mayor Ford Greene doesn’t care for President Trump, so he made the unilateral decision to ditch the Pledge of Allegiance before city council meetings as a demonstration of defiance.

Greene didn’t tell any fellow council members about the change, and it was about five minutes into the first meeting of 2020 before anyone noticed there was no pledge.

“Did we not pledge allegiance to the flag tonight?” Councilman Brian Colbert asked Greene at the Jan. 14 meeting, according to the Marin Independent Journal.

“No we didn’t,” Greene said. “As mayor I made the decision not to proceed with the saying of the Pledge of Allegiance. That was a decision I made.”

https://www.theamericanmirror.com/ca-mayor-unilaterally-ends-pledge-of-allegiance-over-disdain-for-trump/

Border Patrol arrests U.S. citizen with 222 pounds of liquid meth in gas tank

A 36-year-old U.S. citizen got caught trying to sneak 222 pounds of liquid methamphetamine across the border in the gas tank of his 2004 Chevrolet Silverado last week, according to a press release from Customs and Border Protection.

CBP says that the man and his drugs were crossing the U.S./Mexico border into Calexico on Tuesday night when he was referred for an in-depth inspection. A K-9 team sniffed down the truck and alerted officers toward the gas tank area. Officers then removed and searched the tank, finding “an unusual liquid substance that began to crystalize.” They tested the substance, and it came back positive for the properties of meth.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2020/01/border-patrol-arrests-u-s-citizen-with-222-pounds-of-liquid-meth-in-gas-tank/

Lara Trump: 175,000 Trump Rally Tickets Requested in Deep Blue New Jersey

President Donald Trump is reaching people that many believed could never be reached by a Republican president or presidential candidate.

The evidence of that is plentiful in the deep blue state of New Jersey, where Trump is going to spend his Tuesday night.

The president will be on hand for a rally in the Garden State, a state most experts believe is a lost cause for the GOP.

But that has not always been the case. New Jersey voted for a Republican president in 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984 and 1988, according to 270towin.

https://www.westernjournal.com/lara-trump-175000-trump-rally-tickets-requested-deep-blue-new-jersey/

Don Lemon Tries To Explain Video Mocking Trump Supporters, Instead Makes It Worse

CNN’s Don Lemon might not be the “dumbest man on television,” but he sure must think viewers are stupid.

Faced with an outpouring of outrage over a video that showed him doubled over his desk with laughter as two guests on his show mocked the intelligence of President Donald Trump supporters, the Trump-hating host tried to backpedal Tuesday night, but only ended up making things worse.

Not only did his explanation lack even the semblance of an apology, Lemon actually tried to plead ignorance about what was said clearly on his own television show.

Lemon has embarrassed himself before on TV before (public drunkenness isn’t even the worst of it) but this was close to a new bottom.

https://www.westernjournal.com/don-lemon-tries-explain-video-mocking-trump-supporters-instead-makes-worse/

Biden Says There’s a Good Chance He Would Die in Office, Says His VP Must Be Ready

When he opens his mouth, nobody knows what is going to come out — least of all Biden.

The human gaffe machine known as Joe Biden lived up to his nickname at a campaign stop in Clinton, Iowa. Biden explained that he wants to make sure his running mate is prepared to take over as president. His reason? “I’m an old guy.” Translation, “I could die in office at any time.” While his honesty and ability to grasp reality is refreshing, it cannot play well with voters.

https://thegreggjarrett.com/biden-says-theres-a-good-chance-he-would-die-in-office-says-his-vp-must-be-ready/

Intoxicate your brain with what I'm saying

If not you'll lie in knee deep trouble

Prostitute yourself he says

Castrate your human pride oooh

Sacrifice your leisure days

Let me squeeze you 'till you've dried

Don't look back don't look back

It's a rip off

Queen - Tenement Funster + Flick Of The Wrist + Lily Of the Valley (subtituladas)

Iran’s regime is fast running out of options

Iran, January 28, 2020—On January 5, the Iranian regime declared it is taking the fifth and final step in reducing its commitments to the 2015 international nuclear deal (JCPOA). The regime officially stated that it would not have any obligations stipulated in the JCPOA. The regime’s goal in reducing its commitments was to press the EU to comply with the regime’s demands. The regime is in dire need of economic aid to save its economy from complete collapse and to fund its proxies and militias in the region. But rather than making the EU comply with the regime’s demands, the regime tightened the noose around its own neck.

On January 20, Zarif also threatened the West that the regime would exit from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) altogether if Europe does not meet its obligations.

In his interview with DER SPEIGEL on January 24, the Iranian regime’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stated, “The Europeans can’t buckle to Trump and then try to act like the strong man against Iran.” He also stipulated that Tehran won’t rule out negotiations with Washington, even after Qasem Soleimani’s death. Zarif had previously stated that he would never perform any major policy without the permission of the Iranian regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

https://english.mojahedin.org/i/iran-jcpoa-npt-zarif-qasem-soleimani-speigel-negotiation-20200128

Frequent Blows to the Iranian Regime

Iran, January 28, 2020—As Iran’s crises unprecedentedly escalate, the mullahs are pushed into much more isolation on the international front. Given the recent developments, the Iranian regime is experiencing its toughest era. The elimination of the chief of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force (IRGC-QF) Qassem Soleimani and the downing of the Ukrainian passenger airliner with the IRGC anti-aircraft system placed the mullahs in a dangerous condition both in the region or across the globe.

Despite international calls for an investigation over the airliner crash, which disastrously resulted in the death of 176 passengers abroad, the Iranian regime still refuses to send the black box to the manufacturing company.

On January 25, the deputy Prime Minister of Canada Chrystia Freeland announced that her country “will not stop” until it has answers on the crash of the Ukraine international airlines flight PS752 by the Iranian regime. She said that Canada wants a “real, independent” analysis of the airplane’s black box, along with transparency on what exactly happened. “I am confident we will get those answers because Canada is relentlessly focused on getting them and we will not stop until we get them,” Freeland added.

https://english.mojahedin.org/i/iran-qasem-soleimani-zarif-negotiations-20200128

>>7955221

KEK@ Lose the country..did you see Trumps rally yesterday…Don't be so gullible kek

Lara Trump: 175,000 Trump Rally Tickets Requested in Deep Blue New Jersey

New 'CacheOut' Attack Leaks Data from Intel CPUs, VMs and SGX Enclave

Another month, another speculative execution vulnerability found in Intel processors.

If your computer is running any modern Intel CPU built before October 2018, it's likely vulnerable to a newly discovered hardware issue that could allow attackers to leak sensitive data from the OS kernel, co-resident virtual machines, and even from Intel's secured SGX enclave.

Dubbed CacheOut a.k.a. L1 Data Eviction Sampling (L1DES) and assigned CVE-2020-0549, the new microarchitectural attack allows an attacker to choose which data to leak from the CPU's L1 Cache, unlike previously demonstrated MDS attacks where attackers need to wait for the targeted data to be available.

According to a team of academic researchers, the newly-discovered speculative execution attacks can leak information across multiple security boundaries, including those between hyper-threads, virtual machines, and processes, and between user space and the operating system kernel, and from SGX enclaves.

https://thehackernews.com/2020/01/new-cacheout-attack-leaks-data-from.html

The Israeli–Palestinian Peace Plan Is a Much-Needed Dose of Reality

Trump’s plan may be no likelier to lead to a deal than its predecessors, but it dispels with poisonous fictions that have held back negotiations for decades.

It’s worth noting that some of the harshest critics of Donald Trump’s new Israeli–Palestinian peace plan — many of them Middle East “experts” who’ve worked in the Clinton and Obama administrations — are the same people behind catastrophic efforts that resulted in more hopelessness, intifadas, and extremism. These professional peace-processors have managed to harden the Israeli public against even the most abstract negotiations because, inevitably, all of them end in violence.

As with the plans that came before it, it’s unlikely that Trump’s plan will succeed. But it is the best of any recent offerings because it doesn’t make any false promises. “Trump Outlines Mideast Peace Plan That Strongly Favors Israel,” read the New York Times headline, reflecting the general tone of media coverage. That’s wrong. The plan favors reality, laying out the only plausible path to a new Palestinian state.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/trump-israeli-palestinian-peace-plan-much-needed-dose-of-reality/

Republicans keep Texas district targeted by Democrats in special election

Jan. 29 (UPI) – Republicans have kept control of a Texas House seat after a special runoff election fight that was considered by many a bellwether for Democratic hopes of flipping the chamber in November.

Republican businessman Gary Gates defeated Democratic educator Eliz Markowitz Tuesday night in the race to serve the rest of retiring Republican John Zerwas' term. Gates won with 52 percent of the vote for the seat representing a portion of suburban Houston. Markowitz won 42 percent in the vote for the traditionally GOP seat.

That 10-point margin of victory was roughly twice that which Zerwas received in 2018. Gates will now serve as representative of Texas House District 28 until November's regular election, keeping the seat under Republican control in spite of a nationally watched effort by Democrats to take it.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/01/29/Republicans-keep-Texas-district-targeted-by-Democrats-in-special-election/3791580312279/?sl=2

Old article but I think still relevant

OCTOBER 23, 2019

Big brother is watching you: the world’s top 100 most surveilled cities

Mainland China is home to eight of the world’s 10 most heavily monitored cities, according to a recent study by Comparitech*. And the use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras is increasing throughout the world.

Authorities argue cameras reduce crime and increase public safety, but some civil liberty groups say such systems are open to abuse and can be used to monitor political critics. It is increasingly difficult for citizens to protect their privacy in public spaces. This has led San Francisco to become the first American city to ban the police and other law enforcement agencies from using facial recognition technology software.

https://multimedia.scmp.com/infographics/news/world/article/3034080/most-surveilled-cities/index.html

Hong Kong protests: petrol bombs thrown at Kwai Chung Police Station

It was the second such attack of the day, after four people launched similar assault at Tin Shui Wai Police Station in early hours of the morning

Video footage showed three people lighting the bombs while hiding behind flower beds outside Kwai Fong Plaza

Three petrol bombs were thrown at Kwai Chung Police Station on Wednesday night – the second such attack of the day.

Video footage from a security camera overlooking Kwai Foo Road showed three people in black clothes with their faces covered appearing outside Kwai Fong Plaza and hiding behind a flower bed before igniting and throwing three bombs at the police station at about 8pm.

The bombs all landed and exploded on the road outside the entrance of the station’s car park, with the attackers immediately fleeing

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3048133/hong-kong-protests-petrol-bombs-thrown-kwai-chung

Brussels bids the UK farewell/au revoir/auf Wiedersehen after rubber stamping British exit from the EU

Lawmakers in the European Parliament have officially sealed the UK’s exit from the EU, after voting through the withdrawal agreement, in a final act that sees the bloc terminate Britain’s 47-year long membership.

MEPs in Brussels ratified the terms of the UK’s exit from the EU on Wednesday evening. It comes after a rather tortuous, and at times fractious, process between the two sides, more than three-and-a-half-years since Britain voted to leave the EU.

Key Brexit moments

In January 2019, May’s Brexit deal is overwhelmingly defeated in the UK Parliament by 432 votes to 202. It’s rejected for a second and third time in March 2019. A beleaguered May steps down as prime minister in June the same year having failed to get the backing of UK MPs for her Brexit deal.

After being elected as the new Tory PM, Boris Johnson defies all the odds to get the critical changes on the withdrawal agreement from Brussels, such as the contentious Irish ‘backstop,’ paving the way for a UK parliamentary majority on the deal.

In December 2019, Johnson calls a snap general election to guarantee the smooth process of his Brexit deal through the various stages in parliament. It pays off, and his Tory Party secures a landslide 80 seat majority victory.

Despite seeing his withdrawal agreement sail through the lower and upper chambers, Johnson is now seeking to unify a heavily divided country with Brexiteers and EU remainers showing no signs of halting the hostility to one another.

https://www.rt.com/uk/479495-eu-parliament-brussels-brexit-vote/

>>7955482

Exactly ..no need to worry about being hacked the when the computer is giving out info for free… Wouldn't surprise me 1 bit if all the computer built is China .have built in backdoors….Or as Q says back channels …FKers