It appears that out of control and loudmouth Village
President David DeGroot is not only having his way, but is being allowed by
former environmental champion City of Racine Mayor Cory Mason, Special Needs
Governor Scott Walker and State Rep “Boss” Robin Vos to force an environmental
and financial disaster down the throats of Residents of SE Wisconsin!
Please join Cindy and I is JUST SAYING NO to allowing Governor Scott
Walker, Representatives Robin Vos, Cory Mason & MTP President David
DeGroot to violate the Wisconsin Constitution (and their Oath of Office)
by granting special rights to Corporate interests, stealing people’s
property, destroying multi-generational Farms alongside an entire long
established Community, loosening environmental protections, permitting
heavy metals water pollution, instituting slave labor wages, providing
taxpayer subsidies to multi-billionaire Corporations, and politician
overreach.
Brevard County Deputy Nicholas Worthy was fired from his job and arrested Thursday after police searched his home.
(FOX35)
A former U.S. Army Ranger who won the Florida
Sheriffs Association’s 2016 “Law Enforcement Officer of the Year” award
has been fired from his job as a deputy after authorities found feces,
guns, drugs and assorted garbage strewn about his “absolutely
disgusting” home.
Bevard County Deputy Nicholas Worthy
and his live-in girlfriend, Rachel Trexler, were arrested Thursday after
police searched the Rockledge property where they lived with their
2-year-old child and three dogs.
"The house was in complete disarray. There was dog
feces all over the house, there were firearms, ammunition, other types
of trash and food," said Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey. "Also found
was a small amount of drugs that was inside the home and inside a
vehicle."
Worthy – who has since been fired -- and Trexler are
both facing charges of child neglect and possession of cocaine,
marijuana and drug paraphernalia, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Worthy left Brevard County Jail after posting a $5,000 bond on
Thursday, according to FOX35. The status of Trexler, who was also taken
to Brevard County Jail, wasn't immediately clear Friday.
The child was taken by the Florida Department of
Children and Families and the trio of dogs are now being looked after by
Brevard County Animal Services.
Ivey said officials were called to the home Wednesday
night after a neighbor reported hearing gunshots. Police failed to make
contact with the officer and returned the next morning with a search
warrant.
After they forcibly entered the home, police found the
conditions inside “absolutely disgusting” and “deplorable,” Ivey said,
according to FOX35. He added evidence was found consistent with the gunshots that were reported.
"I can't tell you how absolutely disgusted I am over
someone who worked for our agency that would live in those conditions
and would certainly subject the child to those conditions," Ivey said.
"There are 1,500 members of this agency that get it done right every
day, out protecting our community and representing our agency, and to
have somebody do this is unacceptable to me, and quite frankly,
unacceptable to our profession.”
The arrest and charges are a stunning fall from grace
for Worthy, a native of the area who joined the Brevard County Sheriff’s
Office in 2012 following a tour in Afghanistan two years earlier. He
was awarded the Bronze Star Medal of Valor for his actions overseas, the
Florida Sheriffs Association said.
The organization gave him their “Law
Enforcement Officer of the Year” award in 2016 for his response to two
incidents the year before.
In February 2015, they said he and two other deputies
broke a bedroom window at a burning home in Cocoa and carried a resident
to safety.
“After a full inspection, it was found that the fire was arson set with the intentions of trapping the occupant inside,” the Florida Sheriffs Association said. “Without the heroic actions of Worthy and his colleagues, the victim certainly would not have survived.”
A month later, Worthy responded to the same area and
took out an “individual who was shooting into houses, randomly going
through a neighborhood and shooting into houses,” Ivey said.
“As he arrived on scene, the individual turned on him,
started firing on him,” FOX35 quoted Ivey as saying at the time. “He was
forced to use lethal return fire to eliminate the threat.”
“It is clear to tell that whether serving Brevard
County or our Nation at large, Nicholas Worthy is one of the few who are
willing to run toward danger instead of away,” the Florida Sheriffs
Association said when Worthy was given the honor.
As
gunman Nikolas Cruz went on a rampage at Stoneman Douglas High School
on February 14, firing on students and teachers until his semiautomatic
AR-15 jammed, Broward Deputy Scot Peterson cowered outside behind the
safety of cover, "pointing his gun at nothing."
Peterson publicly stated that he thought gunfire was happening
outside on campus, not inside the building - perhaps to justify not
going in to stop the shooting which claimed 17 lives.
He lied.
Internal radio dispatches released by the Broward County Sheriff's Office Thursday reveal Peterson immediately focused on Building 12 and radioed that gunfire was happening "inside."
What's more - Peterson warned his fellow officer to stay away -
despite wounded students and staff inside who required assistance.
Broward Sheriff's Office (BSO) policy requires deputies to engage an
active shooter and eliminate the threat.
“Do not approach the 12 or 1300 building, stay at least 500 feet
away,” shouted a panicked Peterson as people screamed in the
background.
The timeline of events and audio recording of police radio chatter shed new light on the response by the BSO.
The records appear to support Broward Sheriff Scott Israel’s
contention that Peterson, a longtime school resource officer, should
have entered Building 12 to engage Cruz and try to prevent deaths. They also appear to show that other deputies may have refrained from rushing into the school at the direction of Peterson and a Parkland captain.
The response by the agency has been the subject of national scrutiny,
and is currently under review by the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement. -Miami Herald
BSO police union president Jeff Bell welcomed the release of the audio and timeline of events.
“It certainly backs up that he never went into the school,” Bell said
of Scot Peterson. “At one point he says to keep back 500 feet. Why
would he say that?” Timeline of events via the Miami Herald
Cruz was dropped off at the school by an Uber at 2:19 p.m. Two
minutes later, he entered Building 12. He began firing within 15
seconds. Peterson, at the time, was near the administration building.
At 2:22 p.m. the fire alarm was triggered, blaring throughout the
entire campus. The first 911 call also went out, via Coral Springs
emergency dispatch center.
“Be advised we have possible, could be firecrackers. I think we have
shots fired, possible shots fired —1200 building,” Peterson radioed at
2:23 p.m.
At that moment, according to the video, Peterson arrived at the
southeast corner of Building 12, where he appeared to remain “for the
duration of the incident.” “We’re talking about the 1200 building, it’s
going to be the building off Holmberg Road,” Peterson said frantically
seconds later.
“Get the school locked down, gentlemen!” he shouted.
As the shots intensified, other deputies began racing to the scene,
radioing in. One believed he heard shots by the football field,
something Peterson mentioned in a statement released last month by his
attorney, arguing that the school resource deputy thought shots were
coming from outside the 1200 building.
“BSO trains its officers that in the event of outdoor gunfire one is
to seek cover and assess the situation in order to communicate what one
observes with other law enforcement,” Peterson’s attorney said.
But Peterson, according to the timeline and radio dispatches reviewed by the Miami Herald, remained focused on Building 12.
“All right... We also heard it’s by, inside the 1200,” Peterson said at 2:25 p.m.
Joseph DiRuzzo, Peterson’s attorney, did not respond to an email and a
call to his office. Peterson resigned eight days after the shooting
rather than be suspended without pay pending an internal affairs
investigation.
As the shooting progressed, calls began “blowing up” the 911 call
centers. Students were spilling out of the campus. Peterson radioed to
make sure “no one comes inside the school.”
At 2:27 p.m., six minutes after Cruz went into Building 12, the
shooting stopped. Cruz ditched his AR-15 in the third-floor stairwell
and left.
Five seconds later, Peterson radioed for officers to “stay at least
500 feet away at this point.” A dispatcher repeated, “Stay away from 12
and 1300 building.”
Coral Springs officer Tim Burton had just arrived at Douglas High. At
2:28 p.m., he radioed out the first description of Cruz: “White male
with ROTC Uniform Burgundy Shirt” — exactly what the shooter was wearing
when he was arrested later. How Burton obtained the information was
unclear from the timeline.
At 2:29 p.m., as officers began encountering wounded students, Burton met with Peterson outside Building 12.
The chaos continued. Deputies tried getting into Building 13 next
door, but it was locked. A fleeing student appeared to be stuck in a
fence; a deputy asked for bolt cutters. One deputy called for a command
post to be set up.
“We need to get units in here so we can try to find this guy,” a deputy radioed.
At 2:31 p.m., BSO Capt. Jan Jordan, whose supervision of the response
has also been scrutinized amid questions about whether she slowed
police response by ordering a perimeter, speaks for the first time: “Do
we have a perimeter set up right now and everyone cleared out of the
school?”
“That’s negative,” a dispatcher responds.
It was at 2:32 — 11 minutes after the shooting began — that four
Coral Springs officers and two BSO deputies made the first police
entrance into the building, helping to “extract a victim.”
Jordan is back on the radio one minute later: “I want to make sure
that we have a perimeter set up (unintelligible), all the kids are
getting out, but we need to shut down around this school.”
By 2:35 p.m., officers were seen transporting a victim on a golf
cart. One minute after that, 10 officers burst into Building 12 through
an east-side entrance.
Down the street, Cruz had entered a Walmart and bought a drink at the
Subway inside. At 3:40 p.m., a Coconut Creek officer saw Cruz and
arrested him without incident. Cruz was indicted Wednesday on 17 counts
of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office released the timeline Thursday following
weeks of mounting pressure to make the details of its police response
public. The Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and CNN sued the
agency last month to force it to release surveillance video outside of
the 1200 building, and their lawyers argued in court Thursday that it
was in the public interest to release the footage.
Also Thursday, the sheriff’s office released 911 calls received by
dispatchers and police documents related to its handling of calls to
Cruz’s various addresses detailing his family’s troubled domestic life.
The sheriff’s office tweeted about the case Thursday evening.
“BSO agreed in court today with the media that surveillance video
from outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High should be released publicly.
Legal exemptions block the release unless a judge approves. The judge
took it under advisement and we hope for a ruling shortly.”
How long before the rivalry between the privately financed
brewery vs. the taxpayer funded Flynn’s brewery causes them to go
*BUST*! Not to mention the lack of regular customers in Downtown
Racine? In addition to the ever increasing criminal charges related to
drunk driving?
Good Faith trumps 4th Amendment Rights in WI – I thought I already
presented this…. Poor ol’ George Meyers – insisting on his
Constitutional Rights! He is OLD, FRAIL, and CONFUSED. Next time he does
that, insisting on Rights, Probable Cause, Victim, Complainant, Due
Process, etc. etc. – he might get shot by the Cop he
questioned/asserted because the Cop was annoyed – and justifiably so.
Assertion of any so-called "Rights" - especially those found in the
Governments Constitution, is dangerous and subject to Judicial
interpretation, usually in favor of the Government !
Meanwhile… The City of Racine is building Foxconn’s water supply and
sewer systems, along with contracting – at taxpayer expense – WITHOUT
APPROVAL! Just like an exploited Third World Nation!
“A question was asked about why a water pipeline is in the process of
being built despite the DNR not granting Racine’s application.
“I don’t have an answer to that question,” Pfeiffer said. “They are
not allowed to serve water unless they have a diversion application or
would be in violation of state statutes. They’re not allowed to serve
water even if those facilities are being built.
”
At least 125 people — including some
high school students — have contracted HIV, syphilis or both in one of
the largest sexually transmitted infection “clusters” discovered in
Milwaukee, health care advocates confirmed to the Journal Sentinel.
Three local babies were also born with syphilis last year, health officials said.
“This
is an epidemic people are not talking about enough, and it leads to
people taking unnecessary risks,” said Melissa Ugland, a public health
consultant who works with a number of local nonprofit organizations that
focus on public health.
There has been no announcement to the general public from the Milwaukee Health Department as of Tuesday.
Fewer
than 10% of the 125 people who tested positive are Milwaukee Public
Schools students, but health care experts anticipate that the numbers
could increase as more people come forward.
A
cluster is an aggregation of disease closely grouped in time and place.
This cluster was identified as such because the people in it could all
be connected, and were in contact with each other during a 12-month,
identifiable period, Ugland said.
"In this lesson of history, philosopher and bestselling author Vox Day chronicles the migration of the Visigoths and the decision that faced the Roman Emperor. When should a nation refuse passage to a people in dire straits?"
WILLIAMS BAY — After
more than a century of scientific exploration on the shores of Geneva
Lake, the renowned Yerkes Observatory is ceasing operations.
The
University of Chicago, which owns Yerkes, announced today that it is
closing the facility effective Oct. 1 and shifting all programs and
services to Chicago.
"Unfortunately operating Yerkes no longer
makes sense for the university from a programmatic or cost standpoint,"
David Fithian, the university's executive vice president, said in
announcing the closure.
Opened in 1897, the Williams Bay observatory,
with its giant telescopes, became the home of groundbreaking
astronomical research. Famed scientists such as Edwin Hubble worked
there, and Albert Einstein visited the observatory in 1921.
Yerkes was home to the University of Chicago's astronomy and astrophysics department until the 1960s.
In
recent years, the Chicago university has invested in telescopes and
observatories elsewhere, and Yerkes has played a diminishing role in the
school's scientific research mission.
"It is an important part of the history of the
university," Edward Kolb, the school's dean of sciences, said in today's
announcement. "And we hope it will become, in some form, a valuable
resource to the surrounding community and visitors to the Lake Geneva
area."
The university said it would continue operations at Yerkes
through the summer season, and it would honor existing commitments for
programs there.
After the closure Oct. 1, officials said, they
have no specific plans for the property. According to today's
announcement, the university intends to engage civic leaders in Williams
Bay and the surrounding area in a dialogue on future possibilities for
the lakefront site.
"Drawing to a close our operations there,"
Fithian said, "is the first step in a collaborative process to determine
the ultimate disposition of the buildings and property."
As the 2018 Winter Olympics got underway—and athletes from Russia
were forced to compete under the Olympic flag and be designated as
“Olympic Athletes from Russia” (OAR) as punishment for systemic doping
at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi—bobsledder Nadezhda Sergeeva
proudly wore a t-shirt that read “I Don’t Do Doping.” But, on Friday,
Feb. 23, Sergeeva became the second Russian athlete to fail a doping
test (curler Alexander Krushelnitsky also failed a drug test). Sergeeva
had been a vocal critic of the Olympic policy toward Russian athletes,
telling Yahoo Sports: “If we are here, and we are clean, we should be
able to walk under our flag.”
Here Comes the Judge!
District Judge Joseph Boeckmann, 72, took a personal interest in the
young men who came through his courtrooms from 2009 to 2015 in Cross and
St. Francis counties (Arkansas) with traffic citations or misdemeanor
criminal charges. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that
Judge Boeckmann routinely dismissed those charges pending completion of
“community service”—which the judge would arrange through private phone
calls with the men. The “service” amounted to providing sexual favors or
allowing Judge Boeckmann to take pictures of them in “embarrassing
positions; positions that he found sexually gratifying,” a court
document revealed. Boeckmann, of Wynne, Ark., admitted to the charges in
October and was sentenced Feb. 21 to five years in prison. Prosecutors
had agreed to a lesser sentence in light of Boeckmann’s age, but U.S.
District Judge Kristine Baker ordered the maximum sentence, saying,
“(H)e acted corruptly while serving as a judge. That sets his crime
apart.”
Compelling Explanations
On Friday, Feb. 9, the Texas Third Court of Appeals upheld the
four-year prison sentence Ralph Friesenhahn, 65, of San Antonio received
after his fourth DWI conviction in 2016, rejecting arguments from his
lawyer, Gina Jones, that the state’s legal limit for alcohol
concentration discriminates against alcoholics, who have a higher
tolerance for liquor. “You’re not being punished for being an
alcoholic,” Sammy McCrary, chief of the felony division for the Comal
County criminal district attorney’s office, told the Austin American-Statesman. “It’s the driving that’s the problem.”
Special Delivery
At the beginning of February, several residents along a block in
Marina, Calif., were hit by mail thieves. But the criminals probably
didn’t know what hit them when they stole Rosalinda Vizina’s package.
SFGate.com reported that Vizina, an entomologist, had ordered 500 live
cockroaches for a study she’s working on. “I feel a little bad for the
roaches in case they got smushed or tossed or something like that,”
Vizina told KSBW. “For the thieves, I hope they went everywhere,” she
added.
Mullet Mania Down Under
The mining town of Kurri Kurri, Australia, cut loose on Saturday,
Feb. 24, with a new festival to draw visitors: Mullet Fest, a
celebration of the infamous hairstyle and those who wear it. Local
hairdresser Laura Johnson came up with the idea, which included contests
(Junior Mullet and Ladies’ Mullet categories, etc.) and bands like The
Stunned Mullets. Winner of the junior division prize, Alex Keavy, 12,
told The Guardian: “It’s not a hairstyle, it’s a lifestyle.” He
pledged to use his $50 prize to buy his girlfriend a pie. More than 180
contestants competed for Best Mullet of Them All. Meryl Swanson, the
local Labor MP and a contest judge, said she was “looking for pride,
people embracing the mullet, finding self-worth in it.”
Wichita Windfall
Christina Ochoa of Wichita, Kan., and her mom, Christy, explained to The Wichita Eagle
that more than 50 $5 withdrawals Christina made from a Central National
Bank ATM during a five-day period in mid-January were for a “money
cake” she was making as a gift for someone. But the bank says the faulty
ATM was dispensing $100 bills instead of $5 bills, and that Christina
received $14,120 instead of $1,485. In a lawsuit filed on Monday, Jan.
22, the bank sought $11,607.36 (plus interest) it says is owed by
Christina. The bank is also trying to seize two cars she bought during
the same period—claiming that the $3,000 down payment for one of them
was made up entirely of $100 bills.
For Christmas, I would like You to punch the person in the face who cut me off in traffic yesterday. I'm still very pissed off. And he had a baby in the car without a child seat.
Humph!
Love,
Madame Zoltar
*********************
My own yells of pain awoke me this morning. I've had this moving pain in my left shoulder area for months. Christ, I wonder what the neighbors think."Listen dear. That crabby old man is finally getting some."
I hate getting older, although my primary care physician said I'm tolerating it well. It becomes the catch-all phrase for any and every thing he can't figure out. I remember him blowing smoke up my mother's ass. Now it's my turn.
There's a new breed of weather robots that "learn" your patterns and then figures out the best way to negate such feelings. It never ends.
Bah, humbug!
Stop waiting around for your Prince Charming to appear. He's come and gone thousands of times. They say the "plain Janes" are the best catches, People who are not gorgeous still have needs.
Mr. OrbsCorbs is probably catching up on a few facelifts. Done with a stiletto.
We'll call this a day so we can get back to helping rebuild the center.
I’m Art Kumbalek and man oh man manischewitz what a
world, ain’a? For starters, I’m having a hard time believing another
month of March is upon us like your live-action news team on a flake of
snow. The month that’s supposed to come on like a lion and go out like a
lamb, or, show up like a lamb and then tear ass like a lion upon
retreat; or is it go in like a lamb and come out like lamb chops? Fock
if I can remember.
Anyways, you may perhaps rejoice to learn that I’m cutting this essay
off at the knees this week on account of the Daylight Saving Time
crock-of-clock sneaking up this weekend to steal an hour from me. And
let me tell you, at my age I don’t have a spare hour to pony up with no
guaranteed payback. If I go deader than a doornail before October, I’m
screwed out of 60 minutes, Jack, and I’m not going to let that happen.
Yes sir, a portion of that lost hour was planned for whipping out a
full-blown comprehensive essay and any time left over was to be devoted
to finishing off the book-novel Finnegans Wake by the Irish guy
what’s his-name. I started it some years ago but got sidetracked. I
still got about a 600 pages to go, so please, no one tell me how it
turns out, OK?
But before I go, I ought to mention I heard that our President
Trumpel-thinskin fired off a couple, three pretty good jokes the other
day at the Gridiron Club dinner the other day, what the fock—the
Gridiron Club, you may recall, being the longtime D.C. outfit for media
types and assorted hangers-on.
So I put on my thinking cap and thought of two that the orange circus
peanut could use the next time he gets an invite to chow down with the
enemy, or perhaps to regale his fellow cellmates when he finally winds
up where he belongs:
The police arrived and found a woman dead on her living room floor with a golf club next to her body. They asked the husband—who had just returned from a really truly wonderful outing at one of my fabulous Trump golf courses—“Is this your wife?”
And the husband says, “Yes, that’s her all right.” The cops asked
the husband if he had killed her, and the husband says, “I believe that
I did.” Then the cops say, “It looks like you struck her eight times
with this 3-iron. Is that correct?” And the husband says, “That’s
technically true, but how ’bout you put me down for a five.” Ba-ding!
Okey-dokey, abuse of women and cheating at golf. Our leader could sure deliver that story, ain’a?
And this one:
So I’m lying in bed with Melania and I say, “I am going to make
you the happiest woman in the world.” And she says, “Oh, that’s nice.
I’ll miss you.” Ba-ding!
And now, the big finish: When you slide out of bed come Sunday
morning and you realize you’ve been heisted of an hour, please remember
the words of Sir Groucho Marx: “Time flies like the wind. Fruit flies
like bananas.” Focking-A, ’cause I’m Art Kumbalek and I told you so.
That 78 up there represents the number of comments. Must be quite a battle. It was 46 this morning. I've stayed out of it. Haven't even peaked. It's just the same ol' same ol'.
You
got this idea to make a lot of $$$ on the Internet - now finance it
with a $250,000 small business loan - and pay yourself, costs &
expenses - then take a loan from your nonprofit charity and don't pay it
back.
When S.C. Johnson scion Curt Johnson was
first charged with repeatedly sexually assaulting his young stepdaughter
back in 2011, it looked like he might spend 40 years behind bars.
Three years and a lengthy court case later, the 59-year-old heir to
"the family company," as the cleaning product empire is known, is out of
jail after just three months.
As the Racine Journal Times in S.C. Johnson's company town of Racine, Wisc. first reported, Johnson was released on Sunday. He served three months of his four month sentence, which was reduced thanks to time served.
RACINE — Imogene “Gene” Powers
Johnson, wife of the late Sam Johnson and one of the Racine community’s
major benefactors, has died.
Johnson,
who died Saturday at age 87 at Ascension All Saints Hospital, was
memorialized by her family in a written statement they released Sunday
titled, “Our Loving Mother.”
Last
week, Russia's state-run gas giant and quasi-monopolist when it comes
to European natgas supplies, Gazprom, announced it would not restart
shipments of natural gas to Ukraine's Naftogaz starting March 1 after
the two sides failed to reach an agreement, Gazprom deputy chairman,
Alexander Medvedev, told journalists.
Russian gas deliveries to Ukraine were supposed to restart on
Thursday following a foreign court ruling aimed at ending years of
disputes between Kiev and Moscow, including two halts to Russian gas
supplies to Europe through Ukraine. But Gazprom unexpectedly refused to
resume deliveries, returning the prepayment for supplies made by Kiev,
claiming amendments to a contract had not been completed.
The decision came as the sides reportedly failed to extend a supplemental agreement to the current gas contract, RT reported.
“So far, the supplemental agreement to the operating contract with
Naftogaz has not been approved, and that is a compulsory condition for
launching the shipments,” Medvedev said. "So, we have to recover the amount paid by the company in full. And it is obvious that the shipments in March won’t start."
In response, Ukraine's state monopoly said that Gazprom had failed to
deliver prepaid gas. Naftogaz is reportedly planning to claim damages
for supply failure from the Russian energy major.
And while the long-running dispute may, but likely won't, be resolved
in court, Ukraine has suddenly found itself without heat and on Friday
urged schools to close and factories to cut production, while residents
shivered as the country strained to save on gas supplies.
The decision coincided with freezing temperatures all over Ukraine,
and the government called on Friday for measures to reduce consumption.
"Starting today, we recommended ... to stop the work of kindergartens, schools and universities," Ukraine energy minister Igor Nasalyk told lawmakers,
while urging Ukrainian companies to adjust their operations to save
gas, while power companies were ordered to switch to fuel oil where
possible.
Nasalyk said these savings measures would be in effect until Tuesday, when temperatures are expected to rise.
* * *
Meanwhile, on Friday, Gazprom director Alexei Miller said that the
company would immediately turn to the Stockholm arbitration court to
break its contract with the Ukrainian operator Naftogaz, Russian news
agencies reported. A ruling by the same court last year was meant to
halt disputes over gas prices and shipments, which had often been a
proxy for political disputes between Moscow and Kiev. The court set a
price and ordered Kiev to resume purchases it had cancelled following
the breakout in "proxy" violence between the two nations in 2014.
Also on Friday, Naftogaz said that Gazprom had not only refused to
resume deliveries meant for it, but lowered the pressure in gas
pipelines by 20 percent and minimized sales to other customers. In a
statement, Naftogaz said that Gazprom was trying to portray
Ukraine in a negative light and suggest that it was willing either to
let its own population freeze or make it out to be "an unreliable
transit company that takes the gas away" from European countries.
In response, Reuters reported today that Gazprom said there had so far been no impact on supplies through its pipelines to Europe, despite the sharp escalation in tensions with the key transit nation.
Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak told European Commission
Vice President Maros Sefcofic in a phone conversation that gas transit
would not be at risk until Gazprom and Naftogaz fully terminated their
agreement.
“Minister Novak assured that the gas transit from Russia to Europe is
under no threat. The transit remains as reliable as in the past,” the
ministry said.
* * *
Kiev and Moscow have a history of clashing over prices and
obligations under contracts for the delivery of Russian gas to Ukraine
as well as transit to Europe. The standoff in the winter of 2006
triggered supply disruptions, with Russia accusing Ukraine of stealing
gas intended for the European market.
The gas giants are currently involved in a long-standing litigation
over the terms of the current delivery contract. Ukraine’s lawyers are
struggling for annulment of the so-called take-or-pay provision that
obliges Kiev to purchase a minimum annual quantity of gas. Earlier this
week, Naftogaz claimed it had won a $2.56 billion victory in another
round of its legal battle with Gazprom.
It is now time to sound the alarm bells on the economic prospects for the Millennial Generation in the Western world,
but more importantly, in the United Kingdom. This generation of
citizens aged 18 to 36, is the first in modern developed economies on
course to have a lower standard of living than their parents. Housing affordability and a decaying job environment are some of the most pressing issues affecting Millennials. The
future is bleak for this avocado and toast generation, as Western world
economies have likely plateaued regarding economic growth. Surging debt
and rising government bond yields are producing an environment that
could lead to more hardships for this lost generation. Landlords in the United Kingdom have taken full advantage of
broke Millennials by offering “adult arrangements” for a roof over their
heads. Yes, you heard this correctly, Millennials are trading sex for a place to sleep — unearthed in a new documentary by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which provides a chilling insight into just how bad the Millennial generation has it. BBC reporter Ellie Flynn went undercover to expose the scale of the ‘Rent For Sex’ issue in the United Kingdom, in which landlords on Craigslist are advertising “free” accommodation in exchange for sexual acts.
Ellie portrayed herself as a broke, 24-year-old nursing student with
very little alternatives. She confronted one man in a Newcastle cafe who
defended his actions and told cameras: “I’m not doing anything wrong… it’s not just about sex, it’s about companionship.”
“BBC Three’s Ellie Undercover: Rent For Sex also met up with a
landlord who had built a log cabin in his garden where tenants could
sleep if the agreed to have sex in return for a ‘physical arrangement
once a week,” the Daily Mail reported.
“The man offers to show Ellie around after saying: ‘That’s where you sleep, it’s a log cabin, alright,” the Daily Mail reported. He later denied knowing the practice of asking for sex in
exchange for housing is a serious offense in the United Kingdom,
saying: “I don’t know, I can’t truthfully answer that .”
One landlord put Ellie in touch with a former tenant who told of “how
he tried touching her while she was staying rent-free with him,” said
the Daily Mail.
“I would just feel almost paralyzed every time he tried to touch me but he didn’t force himself on me,” said the unnamed woman.
The woman added: “The idea of consent gets mashed up
because a woman thinks this is the exchange I have to give this man in
order for me to have a roof over my head.”
In fact, the number of listings on Craigslist and social media
websites offering rent for sex is exploding. Latest figures from the
Housing Charity Shelter are absolutely mind-numbing, more than 250,000 women over the last five years have been asked for “adult arrangements” in exchange for housing.
UK Millennials lack a living wage, therefore, this generation sees
nothing wrong in offering their bodies to landlords for a roof over
their heads. Apparently, the smartest generation to ever step
foot on planet earth is the first generation since the 1950s to fail to
do better than their parents, as this chart shows:
The homeownership rate for UK Millennials is so low that these levels have not been seen since World War I:
According to the Office for National Statistics, millennials have
largely been priced out of the real estate market as prices soar above
2008 levels.
Over the same period of rising real estate prices, UK Millennials have dealt with stagnating wages:
Real estate price increases and low personal savings rate for U.K.
Millennials have been mostly fueled by low-interest rates, set by the
Bank of England (BoE). Some ten years ago, the BoE decided to juice the
economy by suppressing UK lending rates to a zero lower bound with cheap
money after the 2008 crisis:
“In our society, it seems acceptable for people to wield
their power over the vulnerable in order to get what they want, no
questions asked,” explains Ellen Moran of Acorn, a tenants union and anti-poverty group.
“That power is entrenched and such actions are ignored by law enforcers. Sometimes,
though, this happens because people are alienated in their society to
such an extent that they crave physical affection without knowing
considerate ways to get it. Sometimes it is a mixture of those two things,” she added.
Unfortunately, the ‘Rent For Sex’ issue in the United Kingdom will
only get worse as the economic prospects continue to deteriorate for the
Millennial generation. There is no end in sight for this
madness, and it will only be a matter of time before this trend washes
up on the shores of the United States. It seems as failed Central Bank policy has given landlords one new perk to owning real estate: sex with millennials.
From The Shepherd Express:
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