Need to Know Basis: You Only Know What the TV Wants You to Know

For people who consider themselves “awake” to the nonsensical idiocy being parroted in the 24/7 mainstream mind-melting cycle, almost nothing that happens these days seems to fit the definition of “real” or “believable.” Everything needs to be double-checked. Trust but verify.

That’s not the mind of a paranoid conspiracy theorist as the talking heads in charge might claim. No, that’s called critical thinking, a skill that I like to fantasize was once prized and even encouraged in this society back in some magical day.

It means a person makes reasoned judgements based on taking a factual assessment of any given situation before deciding to allow their brain cells to accept what they are told simply because someone with a suit, a fancy backdrop and a practiced intonation said it on a screen.

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Operation Christmas CHEER Reaches Out To Seniors

For the past 27 years, the CHEER Nutrition Program has sponsored Operation Christmas CHEER. Since the first year, the project has grown by leaps and bounds. This past Christmas day, a team of more than 80 volunteers distributed more than 260 meals to home-bound senior citizens throughout Sussex County.

But that's not all. Thanks to the collaborative effort of many Sussex organizations, volunteers also distributed food boxes, Christmas gifts and cards, flowers, pet goody bags and lap quilts.

Based at the Georgetown CHEER Center in the Thurman Adams State Service Center, volunteers start arriving around 10 a.m. Christmas morning. The cooks have been busy for more than five hours by that point.

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'Cheer mom' Iris Gibney arrested having sex with 17-year-old in her car

A 42-year-old Pennsylvania mom is facing multiple charges for allegedly having sex with a boy she met at a high school football game, where she was volunteering as a 'cheer mom'.

Suburban housewife Iris Gibney, of Pottstown, is accused of having sex with the 17-year-old in her car after being sprung by police.

The two were illegally parked at Hollenbach Park on November 15 about 10.30pm, after the park was closed.

A passing officer stopped and approached the car, only to find the two naked inside, according to NBC Philadelphia.

Gibney was allegedly performing a sex act when the officer got to the car.

The two put their clothes on and got out of the car, with the officer noticing Gibney was significantly older than the male.

The student later admitted to police he met Gibney at a Pottsgrove High School football game earlier this year.

Gibney's daughter is on the cheer squad and she volunteers as a 'cheer mom', who go to games to support the squad and often carpool.

Gibney and the student - who attends Pottsgrove High School - would communicate on Twitter and in chat rooms, police say.

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Worldwide Bail-Ins Are Coming

In case you missed the announcement, Cyprus-style bail-ins are coming to a bank near you.

On November 16, leaders of the G20 Group of Nations – the 20 largest economies – made an important decision. The world’s megabanks now have official permission to pledge depositor accounts as collateral to make leveraged derivative bets. And if they lose a bet, the counterparty to the contract has first dibs on your money.

The governments of these 20 countries are now supposed to put these arrangements into law. Most, including the US, have already done so.

You could be forgiven for not paying much attention to the G20 meeting, because it was mostly “more of the same” – the latest plan to have central banks inject trillions more dollars into the global economy.

But the G20 also endorsed a proposal with a mind-numbingly tedious title: Adequacy of Loss-Absorbing Capacity of Global Systemically Important Banks in Resolution. Not exactly a page-turner. Your average American is more likely to watch Chicago Fire than to delve into the minutiae of the global financial system.

But this proposal profoundly changes the rules for banking globally, and not in a good way. Deposits in banks that are “too big to fail” will be “promptly recapitalized” with their “unsecured debt.” This avoids those nasty taxpayer-funded bailouts that proved so politically unpopular during the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

And the largest chunk of unsecured debt is your bank deposits. Insolvent banks will recapitalize themselves by converting your deposits – checking accounts, but also money market accounts and CDs – into stock.

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Baltimore City Police Department Sued By Former Detective

Former Baltimore police detective Joseph Crystal has sued the department, his former supervisor and the police commissioner, accusing them of retaliating against him for being a whistle blower.

Crystal said that after he reported an unjustified 2011 beating of a drug suspect to the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office, fellow officers began harassing and threatening him in October 2012, with one telling him: "If you're the star witness you may as well just resign," and "You need to watch your back," according to the lawsuit.

Crystal's lawsuit says the harassment got so bad, he found a dead rat on his desk one day and that the department failed to provide backup officers to him in potentially dangerous situations, including the arrest of suspects on drug charges.

In his lawsuit, Crystal said he began working in the department in 2008 and was promoted to detective in 2010. He was working in the Violent Crime Impact Section on Baltimore's east side when he said he witnessed a beating by fellow officers of a drug suspect named Antoine Green.

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Judge OKs firing of Phoenix VA director-but not because veterans died

A judge has ruled that the Department of Veterans Affairs was justified in firing the former director of its Phoenix, Arizona, office, but not because of delays in care and secret waiting lists that consumed the agency this year.

Instead, the VA had the grounds to fire Sharon Helman over 'inappropriate gifts' she received from a health care consulting organization, including a trip to Disneyland 'in excess of $11,000,' tickets to a Beyonce concert and entry for the Mississippi Blues marathon, Chief Administrative Law Judge Stephen C. Mish said.

Helman was removed from her job after the Phoenix VA became the epicenter of a national scandal over the quality of care for veterans amid allegations that patients were dying while waiting to see a doctor. She appealed her firing on several grounds, and the court ruled against her this week.

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Love thy neighbor, but don’t give him Internet access

Earlier this year, Comcast began rolling out the Xfinity WiFi network, essentially creating its own system to compete with cellular service. The difference, however is that instead of the hand-held device receiving the broadcast signal, equipment inside the homes of cable Internet subscribers is broadcasting the signal.

Neighbors, friends or even passersby can access this signal via the public “Service Set Identifier” “xfinity wifi” and browse to their heart’s content. The devices using the networks should, according to Comcast, be issued their own IP addresses that tie their usage to their device, thus insulating the homeowner from the consequences of someone else’s use.

Comcast said the signal is on a different band from the homeowner’s, adding another level of isolation and protection from the public usage. Several security experts report this is generally true, but weaknesses may eventually be found by the people who spend a lot of time looking for weaknesses in software.

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IRS Mistakenly Penalizes Christine O’Donnell Again, Empties Accounts

Adding to the long-running saga of IRS dealings with conservatives, former Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell says the tax agency punished her mistakenly for the second time in five years by imposing an erroneous levy on her bank accounts.

Ms. O’Donnell told The Washington Times that she discovered the levy when she couldn’t access her checking account as she was preparing to visit relatives over Thanksgiving.

“The day before I was heading out of town for the Thanksgiving weekend, my bank told me the IRS had frozen my accounts. They didn’t give me a reason why, just a phone number to call,” Ms. O’Donnell said in an interview this week.

She said she called the Internal Revenue Service and was told the agency had concluded she owed $30,000 in taxes from a 2008 house transaction, which was long ago accounted for on her federal returns. She said she implored the agency to check her tax records and eventually was told the levy was generated in error and her accounts would be freed up.

Although IRS officials removed the levy, they first withdrew all the funds from her account. They said that, too, was in error and the funds would be returned to her. The funds have not been replaced, Ms. O’Donnell said.

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Salisbury University Student Housing - MEDCO - Indebted 27.8 million dollars - Operational Losses for past 3 years

MEDCO - Salisbury University Student Housing

Look at bottom of page 5, MEDCO's debt is not backed by the full faith and credit of the State of Maryland. Also - MEDCO - (page 4 of Balance sheet) - shows huge operational losses for the last three years - 2012 - 3.3 million, 2013 - 4.16 million, 2014 - 4.3 million.

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Harbor seals: OK to look, but not too closely

They may be cute and they may be cuddly but they are wild animals, are susceptible to a host of diseases, including rabies and herpes, will bite and can carry fines of up to $500 for “harassment,” which is basically any interaction that might change the animals’ behavior.

They’re seals and they’re back in Ocean City.

Now leave them alone.

A young harbor seal was spotted on Dec. 7, the first seal of the season. Sandi Smith of the Maryland Coastal Bays Program said in a release the first “social haul out” in Ocean City was in 2008.

Smith said hauling out is a normal behavior of pinnipeds, otherwise known as seals, sea lions and walruses. The animals take a necessary break from foraging for mating, giving birth, escaping predators, social activity and rest – activities that are coupled with an inherent degree of agitation.

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Putin: It Is Time to Play Your Ace in the Hole

You've got to know when to hold 'em

Know when to fold 'em

Know when to walk away

And know when to run

You never count your money

When you're sittin' at the table

There'll be time enough for countin'

When the dealin's done.

"The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers

The entire world is watching Putin play poker with the Western politicians lead by Obama and followed by Washington quislings in London, Brussels and Berlin. America's goal since the end of the Cold War has been to weaken by financial, economic and, if necessary, military means any real competition to its global financial and resource domination through the petrodollar and dollar world reserve currency status.

The current trade and economic sanctions against Russia and Iran follow this time-tested action that is never successful on its own, as we know from the 50-plus-year blockade of Cuba. But this strategy can lead to opposition nations retaliating by military means, often their only alternative to end blockades etc., which are an act of war and allow the US and other democracies to bring their ultimate superior military power to bare against the offending sovereign state. This worked for Lincoln against the Confederate States of America, by Woodrow Wilson against the Central Powers before World War One, against the Japanese Empire before World War Two, Iraq, Libya – the list is endless.

Recently the US has created the oil price collapse, working closely with its client state Saudi Arabia, in order to weaken the economic power of both Iran and Russia, the two main nations opposing US hegemony, foreign policy and petrodollar policy. Yes, this will play havoc with the US shale oil industry as well as London's North Sea oil industry but oil profits pale in comparison to the importance of maintaining Western power over Russia and China.

I hope Putin realizes the US is not playing games here, as this is a financial and strategic game to the death for Washington and it's Western allies that have foolishly followed the Goldman Sachs/central banking cartel's deadly sovereign debt recipe and for growth and prosperity. The time is up; the debts can never be repaid and sooner or later must be repudiated one way or the other.

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HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER 12-27-14

The Christmas Tree

         

A long-held practice has been to put up a Christmas tree at this time of the year. Over the years, there have been many different ways to accomplish this. People used to go out and cut down their tree. This was fine if you knew who owned the land where you were getting the tree. Or, you could just go out and hunt the public lands for that most perfect of trees. Either way, it was always a good adventure for the father and the kids to spend a Saturday at this time of the year. It sort of added to the excitement that children always had. Sometimes, the children would pick one out that was somewhat less than perfect. It didn’t matter to them, it was their tree, and the decorations would more than make up for any defects nature had bestowed upon it.

         

Following this practice was the advent of the Christmas tree lot. These were usually trees that had been cut as early as September, and it was only a knowledgeable father that could tell if the tree would fall apart as soon as it was brought inside. Making sure the needles were firm was of the utmost importance. If they weren’t, you might have a very scraggly-looking tree within a few days of putting it up. Cutting the bottom few inches from the base was very important as that is where the tree would absorb water. Watering the tree was a daily ritual and one that was usually assigned to a child because of their small stature making it easier to get under the lower branches.

         

The old-fashioned decorations are not seen much anymore, and that is a shame. Strings of popcorn took a lot of time but provided activity for the children. There were also the strings made out of construction paper. Strips about one inch wide were cut from different-colored sheets of construction paper and then glued together to make a long string that would then be hung on the tree.

         

Electric lights replaced candles many years ago and they were always the job of the father. Along with the standard bulb-shaped bulbs, there was the occasional bubbling candle light. I can remember we had only one of them and, when it heated up and started to bubble, we were properly amazed. In the old days, when a light burned out, you just replaced it. The new strings all go out when any other light burns out.

         

The next-to-last accoutrement of the tree was the tinsel. The tinsel of the 1950’s was made of aluminum, and my mother always saved it from year to year. It was quite a job to take off all that tinsel and store it properly, but it was aluminum and that was something like gold is now. I, myself, am particularly fond of tinsel. One year, I put on 11,000 strands of tinsel when my boys were small. When the lights were off, it looked like a large silver tree in our living room. But when evening came and the lights were on, it was the most magnificent tree ever. Pictures and memories of that tree are all I have left now.

         

The absolute last ornament to go on the tree was the Christmas angel on the top of the tree. When that was proudly resting on the topmost branch, the tree was ready for the season.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Maryland's minimum wage to rise to $8 per hour, Jan. 1

On January 1, approximately 77,000 Maryland workers will get a raise as the minimum wage in the state rises 75 cents to eight dollars per hour. An additional 94,000 workers will be indirectly affected as higher wages at the bottom of pay scale will push up salaries for those who earn slightly more than the minimum. January’s raise affects 6.5 percent of Maryland’s workforce, creating $84 million in increased wages for the state’s lowest paid workers and will boost consumer spending by $55 million according to research from the Economic Policy Institute. Workers will get an additional 25 cents per hour on July 1, 2015 as the state’s minimum wage eventually rises to $10.10 per hour by 2018.

“Workers, families and businesses across the state will immediately benefit from the raise in the minimum wage. That’s a win for all of us,” said Charly Carter, executive director of Maryland Working Families, the organization behind the successful Raise Maryland campaign, which lobbied for two years for the higher wage. “At the same time, we recognize that affected workers will not earn the full $10.10 until more than three years from now and that tipped workers will not benefit from this increase because legislators froze their wages at $3.63 per hour. That’s why our legislative agenda for the coming session includes measures like establishing paid sick days and other proposals that will make families more economically secure and able to flourish.”

In addition to Maryland, 19 others states and the District of Columbia will raise their minimum wages, lifting the pay of over 4.4 million workers throughout the country. In Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, and Washington, wages will rise as a result of legislation that indexes the minimum wage to inflation so that each year the minimum is automatically increased to account for rising prices. Increases in the other 11 states, plus the District, are the result of changes to minimum wage laws—either legislation passed by state lawmakers or referenda passed directly by voters at the ballot box. Later in the year, another 500,000 workers in Delaware and Minnesota will also get a raise as legislated increases take effect there. In total, these increases will provide workers with $2.5 billion in additional wages over the course of the year.

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Thomas Sowell: Who's Responsible?

The cold-blooded murder of two New York City policemen as they sat in their car is not only an outrage but also a wake-up call. It shows, in the most painful way, the high cost of having demagogues, politicians, mobs and the media constantly taking cheap shots at the police.

Those cheap shots are in fact very expensive shots, not only to the police themselves but to the whole society. Someone once said that civilization is a thin crust over a volcano. The police are part of that thin crust. We have seen before our own eyes, first in Ferguson, Missouri and then in other communities, what happens when there is just a small crack in that crust, and barbarism and arson burst out.

That can happen anywhere. So can what happened in New York. "Send not to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee."

It is a painful irony that, on the eve of the murders of these two police officers in New York, some of the city's police were already saying that, in the event of their deaths, they did not want Mayor Bill de Blasio to attend their funerals.

We can only hope that Mayor de Blasio has some residual decency, so that he will not defile these two officers' memorial services with his presence. No politician in the country has done more to play the race card against the police and spread the notion that cops are the big problem in minority communities.

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Howard County $200K loan to Victoria's Gastro Pub owners for first farm brewery

Howard County entrepreneurs Randy and Mary Marriner aren't afraid to try something different or take a risk, and starting the county's first on-farm microbrewery certainly qualifies.

But thanks to the county's Economic Development Authority and County Executive Allan Kittleman, the couple, who own Columbia's Victoria's Gastro Pub, won't have to do it alone.

The Marriners have received a $200,000 loan from the county to help launch the new business, which Randy said he hopes to have operational in March. The brewery is being constructed inside a 7,200-square-foot barn at Manor Hill Farms in Ellicott City, a small 54-acre working farm owned by the Marriners, who also live on the property.

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Obama motorcade volunteer driver, 24, admits she had no training

There are between 20 and 30 cars that make up the official motorcade of the President of the United States - a security procession that travels, usually at high speeds and with green-light corridors, with the commander-in-chief everywhere he goes.

A 24-year-old California student has now revealed how she was selected as one of many volunteer drivers to be part of that chain of vehicles, 'following Obama all over San Francisco' for a day - despite having no experience, no training and, in what experts have called the most troubling, no idea what to do in an emergency.

Natalie Tyson even read a college textbook while waiting for the convoy to get back on the road, and posted pictures to her Facebook of the October experience, one of which was captioned: 'Me, wondering why anyone would trust me with a 15-passenger van full of reporters.'

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Eric Garner’s daughter posts address of cop at his death

One of Eric Garner’s daughters marked Christmas Day by spreading personal information about an NYPD cop who was present during the chokehold death of her father — outraging officers still reeling from last weekend’s execution-style slayings of two policemen in Brooklyn.

Erica Garner tweeted that cop Justin D’Amico was “another officer that helped killed [sic] my dad,” and directed her 5,000-plus Twitter followers to a Web page that lists ­addresses for D’Amico and five possible relatives.

The information was viewed about 500 times before Garner’s stunning tweet was deleted following inquiries by The Post.

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Opposition to de Blasio reaches new heights

The opposition to Mayor de Blasio reached new heights Friday – with a plane flying a banner reading “De Blasio, Our Backs Have Turned To You” over the Hudson River.

Ashley Chalmers, owner of Jersey Shore Aerial Advertising, the company that flew the banner, declined to reveal from the airborne plane who hired him for the flight.

John Cardillo, a blogger and former NYPD cop, tweeted that he was contacted by a “coalition of NYPD cops, Detectives, and supervisors” and asked to release their statement:

“As a large and unified group of current and retired NYC Police Officers, Detectives, & Supervisors, we are outraged by the mayor’s incendiary rhetoric, and for facilitating the current hostile climate towards the NYPD. We understand that the department and even our own unions can only go so far in their public condemnation of the mayor as to not irreparably damage the working relationship with the city, or future contract negotiations.

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Arsonist sets Swedish mosque on fire, injuring 5

Five people were injured Christmas day after an arsonist set fire to a Swedish mosque, police said.

As many as 20 people were in the mosque at the time of the attack in the town of Eskilstuna, close to the capital Stockholm, reports the Independent.

Local media showed images of smoke and flames billowing out of the building.

"A witness saw somebody throw an object through the window of the building, which serves as a mosque, after which a violent fire began," police spokesman Lars Franzell said.

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Obama uses Christmas address to note the end of Afghanistan war

President Barack Obama marked the end of more than a decade of combat in Afghanistan by paying tribute to America's military, telling troops on Christmas Day that their sacrifices have allowed for a more peaceful, prosperous world to emerge out of the ashes of 9/11.

At an oceanfront Marine Corps base in Hawaii, Obama told troops that while tough challenges remain for the U.S. military in hotspots like Iraq and West Africa, the world as a whole is better off because American troops put country first and served with distinction. He said Americans and their president could not be more thankful.

'Because of the extraordinary service of the men and women in the American armed forces, Afghanistan has a chance to rebuild its own country,' Obama said to applause from Marines and their families. 'We are safer. It's not going to be a source of terrorist attacks again.'

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