Sunday, January 17, 2021
WORKERS OF THE WORLD DEMAND THE BOSS PAY YOUR TAXES
Employers fear they will have to pay staff tax bills
Employers fear they will have to pay staff tax bills
'Sources said there was growing concern among employers that the unpaid tax will fall to them.'
Fearghal O'Connor, INDEPENDENT.IE
January 17 2021
Concern is growing among employers that they will come under pressure to help staff with the tax bills they have been landed with in recent days, according to taxation experts.
Thousands of workers who were placed on the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme by their employers - or who availed of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment - now face tax bills, potentially of thousands of euro.
Employers seeking to pay tax back on behalf of workers who they had placed on a Government Covid subsidy during the summer have been told by Revenue that benefit-in-kind rules will not apply to the extra payment.
Sources said there was growing concern among employers that the unpaid tax will fall to them.
Marian Ryan, consumer tax manager with Taxback.com said that while some larger employers had agreed to pay the bill on behalf of employees others were now under pressure to do so.
"The weight of the issue is likely to weigh even heavier on their shoulders as the preliminary statements are made available by Revenue and their employees receive notification of the tax owing," she said.
Employers want to " help their employees in any way they can, but the vast majority are not in the financial position to be able to cover the liability for the employee".
Fearghal O'Connor, INDEPENDENT.IE
January 17 2021
Concern is growing among employers that they will come under pressure to help staff with the tax bills they have been landed with in recent days, according to taxation experts.
Thousands of workers who were placed on the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme by their employers - or who availed of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment - now face tax bills, potentially of thousands of euro.
Employers seeking to pay tax back on behalf of workers who they had placed on a Government Covid subsidy during the summer have been told by Revenue that benefit-in-kind rules will not apply to the extra payment.
Sources said there was growing concern among employers that the unpaid tax will fall to them.
Marian Ryan, consumer tax manager with Taxback.com said that while some larger employers had agreed to pay the bill on behalf of employees others were now under pressure to do so.
"The weight of the issue is likely to weigh even heavier on their shoulders as the preliminary statements are made available by Revenue and their employees receive notification of the tax owing," she said.
Employers want to " help their employees in any way they can, but the vast majority are not in the financial position to be able to cover the liability for the employee".
After US Capitol attack, some Republican Party officials are adopting war talk long used by far-right extremists, white supremacists
BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — Warlike imagery has begun spreading in Republican circles after the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters, with some elected officials and party leaders rejecting pleas to tone down rhetoric calling for a second civil war.
In northwestern Wisconsin, the chairman of the St. Croix County Republican Party was forced to resign Friday after refusing for a week after the siege to remove an online post urging followers to “prepare for war.” The incoming chairwoman of the Michigan GOP and her husband, a state lawmaker, have joined a conservative social media site created after the Capitol riot where the possibility of civil war is a topic.
Phil Reynolds, a member of the GOP central committee in California’s Santa Clara County, appeared to urge on insurrectionists on social media during the Jan. 6 attack, declaring on Facebook: “The war has begun. Citizens take arms! Drumroll please….. Civil War or No Civil War?”
The heightened rhetoric mimics language far-right extremists and white supremacists have used for years, and it follows a year of civil unrest over the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer and its links to systemic racism. Some leftists have used similar language, which Republicans have likened to advocating a new civil war.
The post-Floyd demonstrations prompted governments and corporations alike to reevaluate, leading to the removal of Confederate symbols across the South and the retirement of racially insensitive brands.
Then on Jan. 6, demonstrators stoked by Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election brought symbols of the Old South to the siege of the Capitol, carrying Confederate flags inside and even erecting a wooden gallows with a noose outside the building.
Democrats say the uptick in war talk isn’t accidental. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said Trump began putting his supporters in the frame of mind to make the opening charge years ago and is “capable of starting a civil war.”
“Since his first day in office, this president has spent four years abusing his power, lying, embracing authoritarianism (and) radicalizing his supporters against democracy,” she said in arguing for impeachment. “This corruption poisoned the minds of his supporters, inciting them to willingly join with white supremacists, neo-Nazis and paramilitary extremists in a siege of the United State Capitol building, the very seat of American democracy.”
There are parallels between now and the run-up to the Civil War, including a fractious national election that ended with presidents — Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and Joe Biden in 2020 — who millions rejected as illegitimate victors, said Nina Silber, co-president of the Society of Civil War Historians.
Lincoln won the Electoral College but came away with only a plurality of the popular vote in a four-way race. Biden won the popular vote by 7 million over Trump and defeated him decisively in the Electoral College, 306 to 232. Dozens of lawsuits by Trump and his allies seeking to overturn the results failed, some of them turned away by federal judges Trump himself nominated. Then-Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department could find no evidence of widespread fraud that would have changed the election’s outcome.
[The latest] Are Republicans headed for a pro-Trump, anti-Trump civil war? ‘Hell yes, we are,’ says Illinois’ Adam Kinzinger. »
While the same geographic split doesn’t exist today as when the Civil War started in 1861 and there is no mass preparation for all-out conflict, Silber said white anger and resentment fueled both eras.
Just as happened generations ago, partisans are using strident words and images to define the other side — not just for policies with which they disagree but as evil, said George Rable, a retired historian at the University of Alabama.
“I think both then and now, we need to worry about the unanticipated consequences of overheated rhetoric and emotions,” he said. “Secessionists then hardly anticipated such a bloody civil war, and their opponents often underestimated the depth of secessionist sentiment in a number of states.”
State Rep. Tim Butler, a Springfield Republican who represents the same area as Lincoln did in the state legislature, condemned the attack on the Capitol during a speech on the Illinois House floor and urged more Republicans to speak up.
[The latest] Trump’s Senate trial pending, Mitch McConnell tells Republican senators it’s a ‘vote of conscience’ »
“If you’re not stepping up and denouncing this, no matter where you fall on the political spectrum, I don’t have a place for you ...,” Butler said. “The favorite son of this city was murdered because of a civil war as he was president. I’m not going to see a civil war on my watch, I can tell you that.”
The question is whether those stoking the war talk can be controlled by the more moderate elements within the party, or whether they will become the dominant voice.
Randy Voepel, a state Assemblyman in California, backtracked after referencing an earlier war — the American Revolution — in a Jan. 9 San Diego Union-Tribune article: “This is Lexington and Concord. First shots fired against tyranny. Tyranny will follow in the aftermath of the Biden swear in on January 20th.”
More than three dozen veterans and officials have called for Voepel to be expelled from office. He has since revised his war-like rhetoric with a condemnation of the “violence and lawlessness” at the Capitol and a call for healing.
The other California Republican, Reynolds, said he has no plans to step down from his local party position. He told the San Francisco Chronicle that he wasn’t trying to incite violence with his “war has begun” rhetoric, but simply reporting what he saw on television: “My statement was that this can’t happen. I was condemning it with my words. It was taken out of context,” he said.
[The latest] Vice President Mike Pence calls Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to congratulate her, offer assistance »
Democratic state Assemblyman Evan Low isn’t buying it. He called for Reynolds’ resignation, telling the Chronicle that the man he has known for two decades was “a genuine and warm human being” but was radicalized by Trump’s “poison and lies.”
In Missouri, state GOP Chairwoman Jean Evans had enough of the war talk. She resigned after she was barraged by calls from Trump supporters, some of whom demanded a military coup to keep Trump in office “no matter what it takes.”
“There’s a lot of good Republicans right now who totally disagree with what’s going on,” she told KMOX. “It’s been very scary and frightening and un-American from my perspective, and definitely not part of the conservative party I embrace.”
Andrew Hitt, the Republican chairman in Wisconsin, faced off against the St. Croix County party without initial success, describing the call to war as an “ill chosen phrase” and urging its removal.
Despite his plea and those of Democrats and a Republican sheriff, the post remained defiantly in place until a week after the Capitol attack. The website went dark Wednesday without explanation, and the county GOP chairman, John Kraft, resigned on Friday. He did not return a call seeking comment.
By JAY REEVES and JULIE CARR SMYTH
ASSOCIATED PRESS |
JAN 16, 2021
Supporters listen as President Donald Trump speaks as a
ASSOCIATED PRESS |
JAN 16, 2021
Supporters listen as President Donald Trump speaks as a
Confederate-themed and other flags flutter in the wind
during a rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Evan Vucci/AP)
THE TREASONOUS FLAG OF THE CONFEDERACY GOT TO THE CAPITOL
THANKS TO TRUMP IT IS SAID THAT LINCOLN WEPT
BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — Warlike imagery has begun spreading in Republican circles after the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters, with some elected officials and party leaders rejecting pleas to tone down rhetoric calling for a second civil war.
In northwestern Wisconsin, the chairman of the St. Croix County Republican Party was forced to resign Friday after refusing for a week after the siege to remove an online post urging followers to “prepare for war.” The incoming chairwoman of the Michigan GOP and her husband, a state lawmaker, have joined a conservative social media site created after the Capitol riot where the possibility of civil war is a topic.
Phil Reynolds, a member of the GOP central committee in California’s Santa Clara County, appeared to urge on insurrectionists on social media during the Jan. 6 attack, declaring on Facebook: “The war has begun. Citizens take arms! Drumroll please….. Civil War or No Civil War?”
The heightened rhetoric mimics language far-right extremists and white supremacists have used for years, and it follows a year of civil unrest over the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer and its links to systemic racism. Some leftists have used similar language, which Republicans have likened to advocating a new civil war.
The post-Floyd demonstrations prompted governments and corporations alike to reevaluate, leading to the removal of Confederate symbols across the South and the retirement of racially insensitive brands.
Then on Jan. 6, demonstrators stoked by Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election brought symbols of the Old South to the siege of the Capitol, carrying Confederate flags inside and even erecting a wooden gallows with a noose outside the building.
Democrats say the uptick in war talk isn’t accidental. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said Trump began putting his supporters in the frame of mind to make the opening charge years ago and is “capable of starting a civil war.”
“Since his first day in office, this president has spent four years abusing his power, lying, embracing authoritarianism (and) radicalizing his supporters against democracy,” she said in arguing for impeachment. “This corruption poisoned the minds of his supporters, inciting them to willingly join with white supremacists, neo-Nazis and paramilitary extremists in a siege of the United State Capitol building, the very seat of American democracy.”
There are parallels between now and the run-up to the Civil War, including a fractious national election that ended with presidents — Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and Joe Biden in 2020 — who millions rejected as illegitimate victors, said Nina Silber, co-president of the Society of Civil War Historians.
Lincoln won the Electoral College but came away with only a plurality of the popular vote in a four-way race. Biden won the popular vote by 7 million over Trump and defeated him decisively in the Electoral College, 306 to 232. Dozens of lawsuits by Trump and his allies seeking to overturn the results failed, some of them turned away by federal judges Trump himself nominated. Then-Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department could find no evidence of widespread fraud that would have changed the election’s outcome.
[The latest] Are Republicans headed for a pro-Trump, anti-Trump civil war? ‘Hell yes, we are,’ says Illinois’ Adam Kinzinger. »
While the same geographic split doesn’t exist today as when the Civil War started in 1861 and there is no mass preparation for all-out conflict, Silber said white anger and resentment fueled both eras.
“At the time of the Civil War, this took the form of Southern white men angry at the idea that the federal government would interfere with their right to own Black slaves. Today, I think this takes the form of white people who believe that Black and brown people are making gains, or getting special treatment, at their expense,” Silber, who teaches at Boston University, said in an email interview.
Just as happened generations ago, partisans are using strident words and images to define the other side — not just for policies with which they disagree but as evil, said George Rable, a retired historian at the University of Alabama.
“I think both then and now, we need to worry about the unanticipated consequences of overheated rhetoric and emotions,” he said. “Secessionists then hardly anticipated such a bloody civil war, and their opponents often underestimated the depth of secessionist sentiment in a number of states.”
State Rep. Tim Butler, a Springfield Republican who represents the same area as Lincoln did in the state legislature, condemned the attack on the Capitol during a speech on the Illinois House floor and urged more Republicans to speak up.
[The latest] Trump’s Senate trial pending, Mitch McConnell tells Republican senators it’s a ‘vote of conscience’ »
“If you’re not stepping up and denouncing this, no matter where you fall on the political spectrum, I don’t have a place for you ...,” Butler said. “The favorite son of this city was murdered because of a civil war as he was president. I’m not going to see a civil war on my watch, I can tell you that.”
The question is whether those stoking the war talk can be controlled by the more moderate elements within the party, or whether they will become the dominant voice.
Randy Voepel, a state Assemblyman in California, backtracked after referencing an earlier war — the American Revolution — in a Jan. 9 San Diego Union-Tribune article: “This is Lexington and Concord. First shots fired against tyranny. Tyranny will follow in the aftermath of the Biden swear in on January 20th.”
More than three dozen veterans and officials have called for Voepel to be expelled from office. He has since revised his war-like rhetoric with a condemnation of the “violence and lawlessness” at the Capitol and a call for healing.
The other California Republican, Reynolds, said he has no plans to step down from his local party position. He told the San Francisco Chronicle that he wasn’t trying to incite violence with his “war has begun” rhetoric, but simply reporting what he saw on television: “My statement was that this can’t happen. I was condemning it with my words. It was taken out of context,” he said.
[The latest] Vice President Mike Pence calls Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to congratulate her, offer assistance »
Democratic state Assemblyman Evan Low isn’t buying it. He called for Reynolds’ resignation, telling the Chronicle that the man he has known for two decades was “a genuine and warm human being” but was radicalized by Trump’s “poison and lies.”
In Missouri, state GOP Chairwoman Jean Evans had enough of the war talk. She resigned after she was barraged by calls from Trump supporters, some of whom demanded a military coup to keep Trump in office “no matter what it takes.”
“There’s a lot of good Republicans right now who totally disagree with what’s going on,” she told KMOX. “It’s been very scary and frightening and un-American from my perspective, and definitely not part of the conservative party I embrace.”
Andrew Hitt, the Republican chairman in Wisconsin, faced off against the St. Croix County party without initial success, describing the call to war as an “ill chosen phrase” and urging its removal.
Despite his plea and those of Democrats and a Republican sheriff, the post remained defiantly in place until a week after the Capitol attack. The website went dark Wednesday without explanation, and the county GOP chairman, John Kraft, resigned on Friday. He did not return a call seeking comment.
Silber, the Civil War historian, said she is worried the attack on the Capitol wasn’t the last stand for enraged Trump supporters.
“I think we can see how well-organized right-wing militia groups have become and how well armed they are, and that makes for an extremely explosive situation,” she said. “I don’t know if that would be ‘war’ in the technical sense, but there could be an extended period of violent attacks.”
Carr Smyth reported from Columbus, Ohio. Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis.; David Eggert in Lansing, Mich.; John O’Connor in Springfield, Ill.; and Don Thompson in Sacramento, Calif., contributed to this report.
“I think we can see how well-organized right-wing militia groups have become and how well armed they are, and that makes for an extremely explosive situation,” she said. “I don’t know if that would be ‘war’ in the technical sense, but there could be an extended period of violent attacks.”
Carr Smyth reported from Columbus, Ohio. Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis.; David Eggert in Lansing, Mich.; John O’Connor in Springfield, Ill.; and Don Thompson in Sacramento, Calif., contributed to this report.
DO NOT SNORT SHROOMS EITHER
Magic mushrooms grew in man’s blood after he injected them as a tea
A U.S. man was hospitalized with organ failure after he injected himself with a tea made from psychedelic mushrooms, which later started growing in his veins.
© Joe Amon/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images This file photo shows Mazatec psilocybin mushrooms ready for harvest in their growing tubs on May 19, 2019 in Denver, Colorado.
The unusual and dangerous episode is described in a case report published in the Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. The unidentified patient, 30, ultimately survived.
Doctors say the patient had tried to use the so-called "magic" mushrooms as an alternative treatment for his bipolar disorder, after skipping his usual course of medications.
Psychedelic mushrooms contain psilocybin, a drug that causes intense hallucinations when ingested through food or drink.
According to the case report, the unidentified man made a tea out of some mushrooms, then ran it through a filter and injected it into his body. He fell ill a few days later, and showed symptoms of jaundice, diarrhea, fatigue and nausea. He also vomited blood.
The unusual and dangerous episode is described in a case report published in the Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. The unidentified patient, 30, ultimately survived.
Doctors say the patient had tried to use the so-called "magic" mushrooms as an alternative treatment for his bipolar disorder, after skipping his usual course of medications.
Psychedelic mushrooms contain psilocybin, a drug that causes intense hallucinations when ingested through food or drink.
According to the case report, the unidentified man made a tea out of some mushrooms, then ran it through a filter and injected it into his body. He fell ill a few days later, and showed symptoms of jaundice, diarrhea, fatigue and nausea. He also vomited blood.
The man's family rushed him to a Nebraska hospital, but he was too confused to answer doctors' questions about his health.
Doctors ran a battery of tests and found that his liver was damaged, his kidneys weren't functioning properly and he was on the verge of organ failure.
They also conducted a blood test and were shocked by what they found: the pulverized mushrooms had begun sprouting in the darkness of the man's bloodstream.
Doctors put the man on a ventilator to keep him breathing and gave him antibiotics and antifungals to stamp out the spores. He ultimately spent 22 days in hospital and will remain on the antifungals and antibiotics over the long term, doctors say.
Researchers have been investigating psilocybin as a treatment for anxiety and depression for years, but the research does not recommend injecting mushroom tea — or any hallucinogenic drug, for that matter — straight into your veins.
The authors of the case study say it shows that more public education is needed around the drug.
They also injected a bad pun into the title of their case report, calling it "A 'trip' to the ICU."
Doctors ran a battery of tests and found that his liver was damaged, his kidneys weren't functioning properly and he was on the verge of organ failure.
They also conducted a blood test and were shocked by what they found: the pulverized mushrooms had begun sprouting in the darkness of the man's bloodstream.
Doctors put the man on a ventilator to keep him breathing and gave him antibiotics and antifungals to stamp out the spores. He ultimately spent 22 days in hospital and will remain on the antifungals and antibiotics over the long term, doctors say.
Researchers have been investigating psilocybin as a treatment for anxiety and depression for years, but the research does not recommend injecting mushroom tea — or any hallucinogenic drug, for that matter — straight into your veins.
The authors of the case study say it shows that more public education is needed around the drug.
They also injected a bad pun into the title of their case report, calling it "A 'trip' to the ICU."
The CIA released thousands of UFO documents online. Here’s how to read them
The CIA has declassified a massive, long-awaited trove of documents related to UFO sightings over the last 70 years, stoking excitement among those who want to believe in aliens — and frustration among those who want to actually find the proof.
The CIA has declassified a massive, long-awaited trove of documents related to UFO sightings over the last 70 years, stoking excitement among those who want to believe in aliens — and frustration among those who want to actually find the proof.
© TTSA/YouTube An unidentified aerial phenomenon is shown on a U.S. navy jet's infrared sensors in this still image from video obtained by TTSA.
Now the truth is (perhaps) out there in a .ZIP file, though it might take some dedicated digging to find it. The documents deal primarily with UFOs, which by definition remain a mystery
Read more: Pentagon officially releases three leaked ‘UFO’ videos
The Black Vault, a UFO enthusiast site and clearing house for related government files, recently published approximately 2,700 pages of the declassified documents provided by the CIA. The new disclosure amounts to over 2,700 pages of scanned documents involving Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), which is the U.S. government's term for UFOs.
The CIA told the Black Vault that the disclosure includes its "entire" collection of UAP documents, though there's no way to know for sure.
Site founder John Greenewald, Jr. spent decades trying to get his hands on the documents through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) laws, and he finally succeeded last year. The CIA dumped the files onto a CD-ROM, so Greenewald uploaded everything to his website on Jan. 7.
The full archive is available for download through the Black Vault site. It consists of 713 PDF files with sequentially numbered titles. Specific cases are impossible to find without opening each document, and some of the documents are decades-old scans that are hard to read.
Nevertheless, the Black Vault has done its best to make each document searchable.
"Many of these documents are poorly photocopied, so the computer can only 'see' so much to convert for searching," Greenewald writes on his website. He also suggested that the CIA had deliberately made the documents hard to parse, perhaps to slow people down.
Greenewald and other eager ET hunters have already started combing through the documents and posting their suspicions online.
Now the truth is (perhaps) out there in a .ZIP file, though it might take some dedicated digging to find it. The documents deal primarily with UFOs, which by definition remain a mystery
Read more: Pentagon officially releases three leaked ‘UFO’ videos
The Black Vault, a UFO enthusiast site and clearing house for related government files, recently published approximately 2,700 pages of the declassified documents provided by the CIA. The new disclosure amounts to over 2,700 pages of scanned documents involving Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), which is the U.S. government's term for UFOs.
The CIA told the Black Vault that the disclosure includes its "entire" collection of UAP documents, though there's no way to know for sure.
Site founder John Greenewald, Jr. spent decades trying to get his hands on the documents through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) laws, and he finally succeeded last year. The CIA dumped the files onto a CD-ROM, so Greenewald uploaded everything to his website on Jan. 7.
The full archive is available for download through the Black Vault site. It consists of 713 PDF files with sequentially numbered titles. Specific cases are impossible to find without opening each document, and some of the documents are decades-old scans that are hard to read.
Nevertheless, the Black Vault has done its best to make each document searchable.
"Many of these documents are poorly photocopied, so the computer can only 'see' so much to convert for searching," Greenewald writes on his website. He also suggested that the CIA had deliberately made the documents hard to parse, perhaps to slow people down.
Greenewald and other eager ET hunters have already started combing through the documents and posting their suspicions online.
The Black Vault hosts more than 2.2 million pages of government documents obtained through approximately 10,000 FOIA requests, Greenewald says.
The site also has a history of obtaining high-profile disclosures. In 2019, for example, a U.S. navy spokesperson confirmed that three leaked government videos of UFOs were legitimate.
Read more: U.S. navy confirms UFO videos from Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge are real
The Pentagon declassified the videos and released them to the public last year, citing the need for pilots to feel comfortable reporting such phenomena.
The disclosure stoked new excitement about the possibility that alien life might have visited Earth, though there remains no definitive proof of such claims.
Speculation flared up again late last year after Israel's former head of space security claimed there was a "Galactic Federation" of aliens who didn't want humans in their club. He also claimed that the heads of the U.S. and Israel were in touch with the aliens, and that the extraterrestrials had helped set up human bases on Mars.
He did not provide evidence to support his claims.
Read more: Aliens and ‘Galactic Federation’ exist, ex-Israeli space chief claims
Congress demanded last December that the Pentagon release some of its classified UAP-related documents within 180 days, as part of a bizarre add-on to the United States' latest COVID-19 relief bill.
The Pentagon is due to brief Congress on the matter in the coming months.
As of this writing, the CIA has not commented on the Black Vault release.
Are we on the cusp of another UFO craze?
By LISA SMITH MOLINARI | Special to Stars and Stripes | Published: January 15, 2021
I dug my slippered heels into our shag carpet and bore deeper into my lime-green vinyl bean bag chair, thoroughly terrified but unable to avert my widened eyes from our console television. The riveting hypnosis scene from the 1975 television movie “The UFO Incident” starring James Earl Jones was imprinting itself permanently into my impressionable 11-year-old brain.
The memory still gives me the willies, 43 years later.
The movie depicted the real-life story of Betty and Barney Hill, an average New Hampshire couple who, while driving home from a holiday in Niagara Falls on a dark, lonely road, claimed to have been briefly abducted, then medically examined, by aliens. In the hypnosis scene, Barney (played by Jones) cries out as he recalls horrifying details buried by traumatic amnesia.
Some researchers hypothesize that stories of alien abductions like Betty and Barney Hill’s gained traction in the 1980s due to media coverage of new reproductive technologies and controversial human experimentation. Others believe that reports of UFO sightings and alien encounters, which began in the 1950s, were simply “cultural mass hysteria” brought on by fear of Cold War nuclear destruction.
Like others of my generation, I remember conspiracy theories about UFOs crashing in Roswell, New Mexico and alien autopsies at Area 51. At the movie theater, I saw “Star Wars,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Alien” and “E.T. the Extraterrestrial.” I said “Nanu-nanu” like Robin William’s alien character in “Mork and Mindy.” I watched “The Jetsons” after school, and giggled when little green Gazoo appeared on “The Flintstones.” I nibbled Pillsbury Space Food Sticks and slurped Tang because that’s what astronauts did.
When you consider our cultural influences, it’s no wonder we were alien-obsessed back then. But, will recent developments in science and technology reconstitute media attention and public suspicions about intelligent life beyond Earth? Are we on the cusp of another UFO craze?
This month, Harvard’s longtime Astronomy Department Chair, Avi Loeb, publishes his new book “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth,” in which he hypothesizes that an interstellar object named Oumuamua which passed through our solar system in 2017 was actually a hunk of alien equipment.
Last month, it was reported that astronomers from the Breakthrough Listen Project, which attempts to detect stray or intentional alien broadcasts, discovered a narrow beam of intriguing radio waves (BLC1) coming from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun. The transmission, which was picked up by the Parkes Telescope in Australia, is the first beam NOT believed to have originated from human-made interference or natural sources. In other words, astronomers believe it may have come from intelligent life.
To complicate matters, new technologies will put more flying objects that could be confused as UFOs into the sky. The United States military currently operates more than 11,000 Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS, or “drones”) in support of domestic training events and overseas contingency missions. Military drones — performing secret surveillance/reconnaissance, situational awareness, weapons delivery and battle damage assessment — range in size from the handheld RQ-11B Raven to the 32,000-pound RQ/MQ-4 Global Hawk/Triton, and fly training missions in specially designated U.S. airspace.
Also, the commercial drone industry has limited approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to develop drone fleets to expedite deliveries of small packages to consumers. Commercial drones fly between 200-400 feet overhead and are equipped with anti-collision lights at night. This rapidly growing industry currently has 1.7 million registered drones and 203,000 FAA-certified remote pilots.
With so many flying objects in our airspace and new scientific evidence supporting intelligent life beyond Earth, how are average citizens supposed to know whether the lights they see in the sky are aliens coming to abduct them, or just a flying package of K-cups from Amazon?
As for me, I won’t be looking for flying saucers, because I’ll be too busy bingeing the next alien-themed television series on Netflix, making trips to the nearest Planetarium and rereading Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time.” Who knows? Maybe Pillsbury will bring back Space Food Sticks.
Dare to dream.
Read more at themeatandpotatoesoflife.com, and in Lisa’s book, “The Meat and Potatoes of Life: My True Lit Com.” Email: meatandpotatoesoflife@gmail.com
By LISA SMITH MOLINARI | Special to Stars and Stripes | Published: January 15, 2021
I dug my slippered heels into our shag carpet and bore deeper into my lime-green vinyl bean bag chair, thoroughly terrified but unable to avert my widened eyes from our console television. The riveting hypnosis scene from the 1975 television movie “The UFO Incident” starring James Earl Jones was imprinting itself permanently into my impressionable 11-year-old brain.
The memory still gives me the willies, 43 years later.
The movie depicted the real-life story of Betty and Barney Hill, an average New Hampshire couple who, while driving home from a holiday in Niagara Falls on a dark, lonely road, claimed to have been briefly abducted, then medically examined, by aliens. In the hypnosis scene, Barney (played by Jones) cries out as he recalls horrifying details buried by traumatic amnesia.
Some researchers hypothesize that stories of alien abductions like Betty and Barney Hill’s gained traction in the 1980s due to media coverage of new reproductive technologies and controversial human experimentation. Others believe that reports of UFO sightings and alien encounters, which began in the 1950s, were simply “cultural mass hysteria” brought on by fear of Cold War nuclear destruction.
Like others of my generation, I remember conspiracy theories about UFOs crashing in Roswell, New Mexico and alien autopsies at Area 51. At the movie theater, I saw “Star Wars,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Alien” and “E.T. the Extraterrestrial.” I said “Nanu-nanu” like Robin William’s alien character in “Mork and Mindy.” I watched “The Jetsons” after school, and giggled when little green Gazoo appeared on “The Flintstones.” I nibbled Pillsbury Space Food Sticks and slurped Tang because that’s what astronauts did.
When you consider our cultural influences, it’s no wonder we were alien-obsessed back then. But, will recent developments in science and technology reconstitute media attention and public suspicions about intelligent life beyond Earth? Are we on the cusp of another UFO craze?
This month, Harvard’s longtime Astronomy Department Chair, Avi Loeb, publishes his new book “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth,” in which he hypothesizes that an interstellar object named Oumuamua which passed through our solar system in 2017 was actually a hunk of alien equipment.
Last month, it was reported that astronomers from the Breakthrough Listen Project, which attempts to detect stray or intentional alien broadcasts, discovered a narrow beam of intriguing radio waves (BLC1) coming from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun. The transmission, which was picked up by the Parkes Telescope in Australia, is the first beam NOT believed to have originated from human-made interference or natural sources. In other words, astronomers believe it may have come from intelligent life.
To complicate matters, new technologies will put more flying objects that could be confused as UFOs into the sky. The United States military currently operates more than 11,000 Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS, or “drones”) in support of domestic training events and overseas contingency missions. Military drones — performing secret surveillance/reconnaissance, situational awareness, weapons delivery and battle damage assessment — range in size from the handheld RQ-11B Raven to the 32,000-pound RQ/MQ-4 Global Hawk/Triton, and fly training missions in specially designated U.S. airspace.
Also, the commercial drone industry has limited approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to develop drone fleets to expedite deliveries of small packages to consumers. Commercial drones fly between 200-400 feet overhead and are equipped with anti-collision lights at night. This rapidly growing industry currently has 1.7 million registered drones and 203,000 FAA-certified remote pilots.
With so many flying objects in our airspace and new scientific evidence supporting intelligent life beyond Earth, how are average citizens supposed to know whether the lights they see in the sky are aliens coming to abduct them, or just a flying package of K-cups from Amazon?
As for me, I won’t be looking for flying saucers, because I’ll be too busy bingeing the next alien-themed television series on Netflix, making trips to the nearest Planetarium and rereading Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time.” Who knows? Maybe Pillsbury will bring back Space Food Sticks.
Dare to dream.
Read more at themeatandpotatoesoflife.com, and in Lisa’s book, “The Meat and Potatoes of Life: My True Lit Com.” Email: meatandpotatoesoflife@gmail.com
Massive blackouts have hit Iran.
The government is blaming bitcoin
mining
By MIRIAM BERGER | The Washington Post | Published: January 16, 2021
Massive blackouts and smog have hit cities across Iran. It's a toxic mix as the country, already under economic duress and suffocating U.S. sanctions, simultaneously battles the region's worst coronavirus outbreak.
Blackouts are not new in Iran, where an aging and subsidized electricity sector is plagued by alleged mismanagement.
Only this time, government officials say that bitcoin mining at so-called cryptocurrency farms - the energy-intensive business of using large collections of computers to verify digital coin transactions - is partly to blame.
On Thursday, Iran's state-owned electricity firm Tanavir announced it shut down a large Chinese-Iranian run cybercurrency center in the southeast Kerman province because of its heavy energy consumption. The company reportedly was licensed to operate under a process the government put in place in 2019 to regulate the industry.
Alongside pointing a figure at legal operations, Iranian officials have specifically singled out illegal cryptocurrency miners as a strain on the electricity grid spurring outages, Mostafa Rajabi Mashhad, a spokesperson for the electricity industry at Iran's energy ministry, told the IRNA state run news agency. On Wednesday, Ali Vaezi, a spokesperson for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the government would be investigating cases of unlicensed cryptocurrency farms.
But Iranians in the bitcoin industry reject the government's accusations, saying the industry was being blamed for a broader problem.
"The miners have nothing to do with the blackouts," Ziya Sadr, a cryptocurrency researcher in Tehran, told The Washington Post. "Mining is a very small percentage of the overall electricity capacity in Iran."
He added, "It is a known fact that the mismanagement and the very terrible situation of the electricity grid in Iran and the outdated equipment of power plants in Iran can't support the grid."
The government itself has pointed to cheap electricity rates, enabled by government subsidies, as another major cause of the blackouts. A member of the board of the Iranian Blockchain Association told IRNA that the electricity used by cybercurrency miners in Iran was estimated to be about equal to the electricity lost by the network during distribution.
The standoff underscores the rocky road ahead for cryptocurrencies that, in theory, could thrive in an economically embattled country like Iran, where some have welcomed the alternative banking system as a possible way to bypass U.S. sanctions.
And in the meantime, electricity problems persist. In recent days, overstretched power plants have shut down as demand for natural gas to heat homes has soared. Others have reportedly turned to low-grade fuel to keep the strained electricity grid powered. Pollution levels in the capital, Tehran, have hit "very dangerous" levels.
When the lights are working, Iran's combination of cheap electricity and high inflation has made it an ideal destination for the energy intensive process of creating, or mining, digital currencies like bitcoin, said crypto expert Ali Beikverdi.
Decentralized cryptocurrencies rely on high-powered computers to verify that transactions are legitimate by solving complicated mathematical problems. Mining units of digital coins is a potentially lucrative business that's taken off in recent years in Iran, as firms in countries like China and Russia have partnered with Iranian entrepreneurs to create so-called bitcoin farms of specialized computers.
"Any country that has cheap electricity and a vast area would be a perfect place for bitcoin mining," said Beikverdi, who is from Iran and now lives in Seoul, in an interview with The Post. "In Korea, it wouldn't be profitable because I would have to spend a lot of money on electricity."
Bitcoin mining had already illegally taken off in Iran by the time the government took notice a few years back. Initially it cracked down on miners, who used computers and other equipment smuggled in from places like China, said Sadr.
Then in 2019 it passed legislation to regulate the burgeoning under-the-table industry: Miners of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were required apply for a license to operate and import computers and related equipment. Registration enabled the government to provide farms with electricity at a higher rate than the general public.
Sadr said the new legislation disadvantaged those who had already established themselves in the industry as there was no path to legalize operations running on illegal equipment.
By the time of these latest blackouts, the government had licensed 24 cryptocurrency mining centers with a capacity of more than 310 megawatts, Mashhadi told IRNA.
He said officials have also identified 1,620 unauthorized centers with a capacity of nearly 250 megawatts. Of those, the government has located over 500 of them, according to Mashhadi. Iranians have reportedly set up bitcoin mining shops in everything from mosques to actual farms to make use of the cheaper electricity rate. The government has offered a reward of 10 million toman ($430) for information on the locations of illegal operations.
Still, the official rates of energy consumption by both legal and illegal bitcoin mining farms remain just a fraction of the estimated 40,000 megawatts the energy ministry said has been consumed in Iran at peak hours in recent days.
Iran's government has sought to extend control over the industry in other ways, as well. Lawmakers recently passed legislation that would limit cryptocurrencies to be used to finance imports and exports with Iran's central bank as an intermediary. The law, however, hasn't been applied in practice as there's no system in place for doing so, said Sadr. The government had announced plans to develop its own cryptocurrency, though no significant progress has resulted.
Caught in a free-fall, Iran's local currency reached another all-time low in October. The government has in turn faced increasing financial pressure: Last November it issued a late-night cut in fuel subsidies, which sparked massive, nationwide protests that authorities violently suppressed.
Beikverdi said the allure of cryptocurrencies remained strong for many in a politically and economically embattled country like Iran. The digital trade "has been empowering individuals," he said. "It kind of helps people do things financially in a broader scale without relying on countries or governments."
But both Beikverdi and Sadr said cryptocurrencies alone were no match for the U.S. economic sanctions that under the Trump administration became the most stringent yet, cutting off Iran from all kinds of global trade and international banking systems. Since 2018, the U.S. Treasury has sanctioned several Iranians for violating sanctions using cryptocurrencies.
"Bitcoin is not a solution for this [U.S. sanctions]," Sadr said. "Bitcoin is just a tool. The sanctions problem is a much more bigger problem. It's a much more bigger block for people."
President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to remove many of these economic sanctions and return to the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump withdrew from in 2018, if he and his counterparts in Tehran can agree on the terms.
Still, Sadr said it would be a long time before any measurable level of international trade could be carried out with Iran using bitcoins, as businesses currently were either not interested or unequipped to work with digital coins.
"If there's no market for it, no participants for people who want to do imports and exports with people in Iran . . . then bitcoin cant help with that," he said. "Let's say they know you're an Iranian, that your business is from Iran, then they won't work with you."
Laurent Bachelier Identified As Man Who Allegedly Sent $500K To Far-Right Activists Organizing Capitol Protest
Nathan Francis
January 15, 2021
A French computer programmer named Laurent Bachelier allegedly transferred more than $500,000 worth of Bitcoin to far-right activists — funding that was used to send some groups to the protest at the U.S. Capitol last week that ended with an attack on the building — before dying in a suspected suicide.
As the Associated Press reported, a firm called Chainalysis that investigates Bitcoin transactions found that a majority of 22 transactions from the 35-year-old French man went to Nick Fuentes, a far-right online activist who was among those to attend the Capitol protest last week. As the report noted, Fuentes denied being part of the group that stormed the building, surrounded it, and broke in through doors and windows.
It was not clear if Bachelier actually intended for the money to be used to send people to the Capitol for the violent protest that was promoted heavily by the far-right and sought to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election. However, the analysis firm noted that it showed how many in the alt-right have connections to significant funding streams
“The donation, as well as reports of the planning that went into the Capitol raid on alt-right communication channels, also suggests that domestic extremist groups may be better organized and funded than previously thought,” the researchers wrote.
The analysis firm did not reveal the identity of the computer programmer who allegedly sent the Bitcoin, but a reporter from the Associated Press was able to find his identity and online presence. Bachelier reportedly left behind a blog and suicide note, which revealed that he was suffering from a chronic illness and wanted his wealth to go to causes he believed in.
The Daily Mail identified the man as Bachelier, noting an obituary published in his name and confirmation from family members that he died on the day the transactions were made.
JON CHERRY / GETTY IMAGE
Nathan Francis
January 15, 2021
A French computer programmer named Laurent Bachelier allegedly transferred more than $500,000 worth of Bitcoin to far-right activists — funding that was used to send some groups to the protest at the U.S. Capitol last week that ended with an attack on the building — before dying in a suspected suicide.
As the Associated Press reported, a firm called Chainalysis that investigates Bitcoin transactions found that a majority of 22 transactions from the 35-year-old French man went to Nick Fuentes, a far-right online activist who was among those to attend the Capitol protest last week. As the report noted, Fuentes denied being part of the group that stormed the building, surrounded it, and broke in through doors and windows.
It was not clear if Bachelier actually intended for the money to be used to send people to the Capitol for the violent protest that was promoted heavily by the far-right and sought to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election. However, the analysis firm noted that it showed how many in the alt-right have connections to significant funding streams
“The donation, as well as reports of the planning that went into the Capitol raid on alt-right communication channels, also suggests that domestic extremist groups may be better organized and funded than previously thought,” the researchers wrote.
The analysis firm did not reveal the identity of the computer programmer who allegedly sent the Bitcoin, but a reporter from the Associated Press was able to find his identity and online presence. Bachelier reportedly left behind a blog and suicide note, which revealed that he was suffering from a chronic illness and wanted his wealth to go to causes he believed in.
The Daily Mail identified the man as Bachelier, noting an obituary published in his name and confirmation from family members that he died on the day the transactions were made.
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
As CNN reported, investigators have already charged close to 100 people in connection to the attack, with 275 criminal cases already opened. Federal officials said they are focusing on finding the most violent offenders in what they called an “unprecedented” investigation into the matter.
“Our office organized a strike force of very senior national security prosecutors and public corruption prosecutors. Their only marching orders from me are to build seditious and conspiracy charges related to the most heinous acts that occurred in the Capitol,” Michael Sherwin, acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said on Friday.
As CNN reported, investigators have already charged close to 100 people in connection to the attack, with 275 criminal cases already opened. Federal officials said they are focusing on finding the most violent offenders in what they called an “unprecedented” investigation into the matter.
“Our office organized a strike force of very senior national security prosecutors and public corruption prosecutors. Their only marching orders from me are to build seditious and conspiracy charges related to the most heinous acts that occurred in the Capitol,” Michael Sherwin, acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said on Friday.
TROTSKYIST LIBERTARIAN COUNTER CURRENCY
BLOCKCHAIN DEFI ETHEREUM
What Is DeFi? – A Beginner’s Guide To Decentralized Finance
Posted On January 16, 2021
The characteristics of DeFi protocols are trustlessness, resistance to censorship, decentralization, ability to verify on-chain, low barriers of entry, decentralization, unhindered transaction execution and interconnectivity- the so called lego-like composability. Unlike traditional finance, DeFi is accessible to anyone with an internet connection and a basic computer or smartphone.
Even though, DeFi protocols can be developed on any smart contracts supporting blockchain, it mostly exists on Ethereum because of the first mover advantage, subsequent network effect, community principles and large numbers of developers. As a result, most economic activity takes place on the Ethereum blockchain and it’s fees revenue eclipses any other platform.
Eight Core DeFi Services
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has eight core services, which have composability and largely operate in tandem. From basic protocols providing the core functionalities strictly, DeFi has evolved on to more complex protocols, combining multiple core services.
Stablecoins – The stablecoins are tokens pairing 1:1 with a FIAT currency, mostly the United States Dollars (USD) itself. The DeFi based stablecoins are issued by taking other crypto-assets as collateral and are largely over-collaterized – the underlying assets are more than the issued token.
Borrowing And Lending – They allow users the ability to provide assets for yield and for others to borrow while providing collateral. All financial services rely heavily on credit systems and DeFi is no different.
Exchanges – They provide the ability to swap and trade assets in a decentralized manner, without taking custody of funds and without any insolvency risk.
Derivatives – A derivative is a contract whose value is derived from another underlying asset such as crypto-assets, stocks, commodities, currencies, indexes, bonds etc.
Fund Management – The decentralized fund management services for crypto-assets offering active and passive strategies to generate profits on one’s assets.
Lottery – A money pooling services, where all contribute to determine a winner randomly. DeFi enables further gamified, auditable and truly random form of lotteries. It’s even possible to play no-loss lottery with the base capital returning to all participants and interest on pooled money going to the winner.
Payments– These enable rapid and trustless transfer of value between two parties, to facilitate trade and commerce.
Insurance – The decentralized insurance protects against smart contract and market risk, it provides protection against asset loss or loss in the value itself.
What Is DeFi? – A Beginner’s Guide To Decentralized Finance
Posted On January 16, 2021
Taha Zafar
What is DeFi? An alternative to the traditional finance, Decentralized Finance is an emerging blockchain based field, based on the central idea of providing financial services without the presence of third party or intermediaries. Instead, the self-executing complex logic smart contracts are used, which operate without any intervention. It’s an attempt to go “bankless” – meaning developing the ability and means to override the current financial institutions and banks for a more free inclusive and less restricted system.
What is DeFi? An alternative to the traditional finance, Decentralized Finance is an emerging blockchain based field, based on the central idea of providing financial services without the presence of third party or intermediaries. Instead, the self-executing complex logic smart contracts are used, which operate without any intervention. It’s an attempt to go “bankless” – meaning developing the ability and means to override the current financial institutions and banks for a more free inclusive and less restricted system.
The characteristics of DeFi protocols are trustlessness, resistance to censorship, decentralization, ability to verify on-chain, low barriers of entry, decentralization, unhindered transaction execution and interconnectivity- the so called lego-like composability. Unlike traditional finance, DeFi is accessible to anyone with an internet connection and a basic computer or smartphone.
Even though, DeFi protocols can be developed on any smart contracts supporting blockchain, it mostly exists on Ethereum because of the first mover advantage, subsequent network effect, community principles and large numbers of developers. As a result, most economic activity takes place on the Ethereum blockchain and it’s fees revenue eclipses any other platform.
Eight Core DeFi Services
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has eight core services, which have composability and largely operate in tandem. From basic protocols providing the core functionalities strictly, DeFi has evolved on to more complex protocols, combining multiple core services.
Stablecoins – The stablecoins are tokens pairing 1:1 with a FIAT currency, mostly the United States Dollars (USD) itself. The DeFi based stablecoins are issued by taking other crypto-assets as collateral and are largely over-collaterized – the underlying assets are more than the issued token.
Borrowing And Lending – They allow users the ability to provide assets for yield and for others to borrow while providing collateral. All financial services rely heavily on credit systems and DeFi is no different.
Exchanges – They provide the ability to swap and trade assets in a decentralized manner, without taking custody of funds and without any insolvency risk.
Derivatives – A derivative is a contract whose value is derived from another underlying asset such as crypto-assets, stocks, commodities, currencies, indexes, bonds etc.
Fund Management – The decentralized fund management services for crypto-assets offering active and passive strategies to generate profits on one’s assets.
Lottery – A money pooling services, where all contribute to determine a winner randomly. DeFi enables further gamified, auditable and truly random form of lotteries. It’s even possible to play no-loss lottery with the base capital returning to all participants and interest on pooled money going to the winner.
Payments– These enable rapid and trustless transfer of value between two parties, to facilitate trade and commerce.
Insurance – The decentralized insurance protects against smart contract and market risk, it provides protection against asset loss or loss in the value itself.
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