Archived threads in /news/ - Current News - 151. page

>The complaint claims Depp spent:

> Over $75 million on 14 residences, including a 45-acre chateau in the South of France, a chain of islands in the Bahamas, multiple houses in Hollywood, several penthouse lofts in downtown Los Angeles and a horse farm in Kentucky.

> $18 million to “acquire and renovate a 150 foot luxury yacht.”

> Millions more buying and maintaining 45 luxury vehicles.

> $30,000 per month on expensive wines flown from all over the world.

> $3 million to blast the ashes of Hunter S. Thompson out of a custom-made cannon in Aspen, Colorado.

> Tens of millions on “a massive and extremely expensive art collection,” including “world class jewelry,” about 70 collectible guitars and over 200 works by artists such as Warhol, Klimt, Basquiat, and Modigliani.

> Millions on collectibles and memorabilia involving icons such as Marilyn Monroe, John Dillinger and Marlon Brando. The collection is so extensive it fills “12 storage facilities” and cost over $1 million just to archive.

> $300,000 per month on 40 full-time employees.

> $150,000 per month on full-time security guards that protect him and his family “24/7, 365 days a year” wherever they go.

> $200,000 per month on private planes.

> $10 million over the years on supporting various friends and family, including $4 million invested into a failed music label run by a friend.
...

>However, Depp’s lawsuit claims TMG paid itself over $28 million in fees without his consent and failed to pay his taxes on time, resulting in $5.6 million in fees and penalties. Depp also claims the company loaned money to people without Depp’s authorization.

>“In essence, TMG treated Mr. Depp’s income as their own, available to either TMG or third parties to draw upon as desired,” reads Depp’s complaint.

>In its counter-complaint, TMG says it “filed each and every tax return timely” and “always maintained state-of-the-art accounting records.”

>While Depp’s lawsuit claims TMG kept him in the dark about his financial woes, his former managers claim in the court papers that they “and Depp’s other advisors repeatedly warned Depp about his precarious financial situation and often begged Depp to curb his spending and sell assets.”

>When he was warned about his overspending, the lawsuit claims, he “often engaged in profanity-laced tirades where he abused the professionals surrounding him and claimed that he would work harder to afford whatever new item he wanted to purchase.”

>TMG’s lawsuit claims that when Depp announced his plans to marry Heard, “his advisors — TMG, Jake Bloom, Depp’s family lawyer and [his sister, Christi] Dembrowski — all warned Depp to get a pre-nup. After initially agreeing to do so, however, Depp dropped it and announced he was getting married anyway without a pre-nup.”

>TMG also said in its lawsuit that it has filed a separate and ongoing non-judicial foreclosure pertaining to an alleged $5 million loan to Depp “made to him in 2012 when the actor was facing public financial ruin.” Repeated attempts to recoup the loan failed, according to TMG, and with Depp still owing $4.2 million, TMG began foreclosure proceedings against some of Depp’s properties in October 2016. Depp’s complaint, according to TMG, is a “transparent attempt to derail” the foreclosure efforts.
...

>In his complaint, Depp asked for a temporary restraining order and permanent injunction preventing TMG from foreclosing on his home. He also claims the loan was a result of the firm’s self-dealing.

>In a statement, TMG maintains that “Johnny Depp alone was solely responsible for his extravagant spending. Over 17 years, The Management Group (TMG) did everything possible to protect the actor from himself.”

>This video shows the interaction between the locked-out constituents and the police, which was calm and civil, including this exchange:

> HPD Officer #1: Right now, y’all are being asked to leave the property right now. The building owner doesn’t want you in the property. It is private property, so if you refuse to leave, you can be arrested for trespassing.

> Constituent: OK, but, there’s plenty of room in the senator’s office for us …

> HPD Officer #1: Right now, you’re being asked to leave the property. If you do not leave the property, you will be arrested for trespassing.

> Constituent: So, will you escort us out.

> HPD Officer #2: Yeah, we can do that.

> HPD Officer #1: OK, let’s go.

https://youtu.be/xG9AqZMUV8o
...

>>103616
>By 1 pm, more constituents had arrived at the office, only to learn that the staff was gone, the office locked, and building security on alert to refuse them admission to the building without an appointment. Which they could get—you guessed it—if they would just call first.

>Denied access even to the building, a crowd of approximately 60 assembled peacefully, if boisterously, on the sidewalk. Unable to speak to staffers or schedule meetings, those who stayed switched tactics, staging an ad hoc demonstration.

>One concerned citizen, disappointed at being unable to reach Senator Cruz, forwarded the video below. It was sent along with this comment from Indivisible Houston:

>What we saw today was the exercise of democracy and the First Amendment for a better, healthier republic. No matter what side of the aisle you are on, we all believe in representation. It’s what this country is founded on. We peacefully protested, holding up our own end as citizens. It’s too bad Ted Cruz thinks he is too elite to speak to us.

>Ted Cruz’s office should commit to staying open during the hours it says it will, and find some way to talk to more than a few of the many constituents knocking on his door because of the White House’s unqualified donor class nominees and the Republican plan to Make America Sick Again.

>We’re here to talk. Does he work for us, or does he work for Trump?
...

>The constitution, a document Ted Cruz knows intimately, is fairly clear about who senators represent. His constituents are encouraged to continue phoning Senator Cruz’s offices to share their concerns about Trump’s cabinet appointees. His website lists all of his office phone numbers, including district offices in Texas and the D.C. office.

>Be polite, but be persistent.

>The constituents who were unable to schedule a meeting today adjourned to a FedEx office, where they sent the letters they hoped to deliver by hand via overnight mail instead. It is unclear whether staffers will be present or the office unlocked to sign for the delivery.

>If you are so fortunate as to get a meeting scheduled, make sure you are prepared. The League of Women Voters is one of many organizations that provides helpful guidance online to prepare you for a meeting with your elected representatives.

>Editor’s update: There was a similar visit to Cruz’s Austin office today as well. 122 people were told that they had to wait outside the Federal Building to meet with a staff member. They were not allowed in the building. Indivisible Austin organized this action and posted a great video on their blog. Local press, including The Austin American Statesman has covered this encounter. So far, The Houston Chronicle has yet to publish anything about the lock out in Houston. Rather, they’re publishing Cruz’s Twitter back and forth with Deadspin about his weekly Republican baseball game.

>This isn't the first time that Zuckerberg has taken steps to fortify his Kauai property. Last year he angered neighbors by constructing a rock wall that blocked their views of the ocean.

So I guess he's zukerburging people.

I hate this fucking retard...sorry.

This is still a thing?

This is why people dont trust science anymore.

>Those include a rise in strident nationalism worldwide

oh no people want to put their own country first its the end of the world guys the nazis are coming

Better get your ass to Madagascar while you can.

Would you like to know more?

>>99702
Yis

>>107075
If he had only shouted ALLAH AKBAR! before he did it, then this would be national news right now.

>>107127
Or killed a melanin enriched gentleman.

We employed a meticulous and methodological approach to identify the best suited region for gene insertion, which we show has no detectable off target effects on the bovine genome".

The researchers inserted the NRAMP1 gene into the genome of bovine foetal fibroblasts—a cell derived from female dairy cows—using the CRISPR/Cas9n technology. These cells were then used as donor cells in a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer, where the nucleus of a donor cell carrying the new gene is inserted into an egg cell, known as an ovum, from a female cow. Ova were nurtured in the lab into embryos before being transferred into mother cows for a normal pregnancy cycle. The experiments were also conducted using the standard CRISPR/Cas9 technology as a comparison.

total of 11 calves with new genes inserted using CRISPR were able to be assessed for resistance to tuberculosis and any off target genetic effects. Genetic analysis of the calves revealed that NRAMP1 had successfully integrated into the genetic code at the targeted region in all of the calves. None of the calves that had the gene inserted using the new CRISPR/Cas9n technology had any detectable off target effects whereas all of the calves with the gene inserted with previously used techniques for CRISPR/Cas9 did.

When the calves were exposed to M. bovis, the bacterium that causes bovine tuberculosis, the researchers found that transgenic animals showed an increased resistance to the bacteria measured by standard markers of infection in a blood sample. They also found that white blood cells taken from the calves were much more resistant to M. bovis exposure in laboratory tests.

Dr Zhang said: "Our study is the first demonstrating that the CRISP/Cas9n system can be used to create transgenic livestock with no detectable off target effects. Our work has led to the discovery of a useful position in the bovine genome that can be targeted with this gene editing technology to successfully insert new genes that benefit agricultural livestock."

>>106993

tldr: GMO cows.

Think what you will about GMOs (I don't mind them except herbicide-proofs like RoundUp-Ready), but one scary effect is that this is a step toward GMO people by the same method.

Before you laugh that idea off, imagine if we find a cancer-resistant gene that's on the order of 50%+ reduction in rates for early-onset. How many parents, especially cancer survivors themselves, would want to give that to their kids if they could? And all it would take is a simple splice during IVF.

The first fertilized human egg splice could be just a decade away.

>Under previous administrations, if someone thought another person or directorate had a stake in the issue at hand or expertise in a subject area, he or she was free to share the papers as long as the recipient had proper clearance.

>With that standard in mind, when some officials saw Trump’s draft executive orders, they felt they had broad impact and shared them more widely for staffing and comments.

>That did not sit well with Bannon or his staff, according to the official. More stringent guidelines for handling and routing were then instituted, and the National Security Council staff was largely cut out of the process.

>By the end of the week, they weren’t the only ones left in the dark. Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, the secretary of homeland security, was being briefed on the executive order, which called for immediately shutting the borders to nationals from seven largely Muslim countries and all refugees, while Trump was in the midst of signing the measure, the New York Times reported.

>The White House did not respond in time to a request for comment.

>The lack of a paper trail documenting the decision-making process is also troubling, the intelligence official said. For example, under previous administrations, after a principals or deputies meeting of the National Security Council, the discussion, the final agreement, and the recommendations would be written up in what’s called a “summary of conclusions” — or SOC in government-speak.

>“Under [President George W. Bush], the National Security Council was quite strict about recording SOCs,” said Matthew Waxman, a law professor at Columbia University who served on Bush’s National Security Council. “There was often a high level of generality, and there may have been some exceptions, but they were carefully crafted.”

>These summaries also provided a record to refer back to, especially important if a debate over an issue came up again, including among agencies that needed to implement the conclusions reached.

>If someone thought the discussion was mischaracterized, he or she would call for a correction to be issued to set the record straight, said Loren DeJonge Schulman, who previously served in former President Barack Obama’s administration as a senior advisor to National Security Advisor Susan Rice. Schulman is now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

>“People took the document seriously,” she said.

>During the first week of the Trump administration, there were no SOCs, the intelligence official said. In fact, according to him, there is surprisingly very little paper being generated, and whatever paper there is, the NSC staff is not privy to it. He sees this as a deterioration of transparency and accountability.

>“It would worry me if written records of these meeting were eliminated, because they contribute to good governance,” Waxman said.

>It is equally important that NSC staff be the ones drafting the issue papers going into meetings, too, said Schulman. “The idea is to share with everyone a fair and balanced take on the issue, with the range of viewpoints captured in that document,” she said.

>If those papers are now being generated by political staff, she added, it corrupts the whole process.

>It could also contribute to Bannon’s centralization of power.

>“He who has the pen has the authority to shape outcomes,” the intelligence official said.

>Now Bannon’s role in the shadows is being formalized thanks to an executive order signed Saturday by Trump that formally gives Bannon a seat on the National Security Council’s principals committee. The same executive order removed from that group the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the director of national intelligence, and the secretary of energy. Their new diminished role is not unprecedented, but some still find it a troubling piece of this larger picture.

>For example, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates — who served under both Bush and Obama — told ABC News this weekend that sidelining the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the director of national intelligence was a “big mistake.” Every president can benefit from their “perspective, judgment, and experience,” Gates said.

>Meanwhile, Bannon’s new role is unprecedented. Under Obama, it wasn’t unheard of for his chief political advisors, John Podesta and David Axelrod, to attend NSC meetings, but they were never guaranteed a seat at the table. Under Bush, the line between national security and domestic political considerations was even clearer. Top aides have said they never saw Karl Rove or “anyone from his shop” in NSC meetings, and that’s because Bush told him explicitly not to attend.

>The signal Bush “especially wanted to send to the military is that, ‘The decisions I’m making that involve life and death for the people in uniform will not be tainted by any political decisions,’” former White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten said last September.

>Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called Bannon’s appointment to the council as a permanent member a “radical departure” from how the decision-making body was organized in the past, adding that he found the change “concerning.”

>>106271
what kind of /pol/ack conspiracy shit is this now

>>106344
>/pol/ack conspiracy
It looks more like liberal whining.

get this blogshit outta here

>elect billionaire for president
>get suprised when he's corrupt from the start
lol you guys didn't really think he was going to be fair and altruistic as a leader did you? He's a businessman. He would throw his wife under a bus if it meant his investments would rake in profits

>>105132
>>get suprised when he's corrupt from the start
How exastly is stopping filthy, dumb, muslim scum from entering your country bad?

are americans the most cucked nation alive?

they LITERALLY THOUGHT electing a self-serving billionaire would HELP them.

BTFO
T
F
O

>There is no question that this ban promotes hate and intolerance," she said. "This ban will have a disastrous effect for thousands of innocent travellers and refugees."

>Calling it "absolutely shocking," Kwan said the Trump travel ban will have huge negative impact on the economy, as well as cultural and academic development.

>While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent a positive message with a weekend tweet underscoring Canada's commitment to welcoming refugees, Kwan said his words are not enough.

>Concrete actions needed

>"A tweet is very good; it sends a clear message about where we should be. But following that we need concrete actions to go with it," she said.

>Trudeau's tweet, which went viral, read, "To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada."

>Trump touched off global outrage and a wave of protests with an executive order to impose a temporary travel ban on refugees and nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries.

>On Monday, House Speaker Geoff Regan granted the request for an emergency debate from Kwan, who said the executive order imposed by Trump on Friday will have implications for travellers around the world, including those fleeing persecution, conflict and war.

>"Canadians are staunch defenders of human rights, and they reject a ban based on race, religion or country of birth implemented by our closest ally and neighbour," she said, noting the matter needs the "immediate attention" of the House.

>The debate will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET tonight. January 31st

Lame move in the short term, horrible move in the long term. Removing restrictions on immigration, especially by refugees, only ever leads to higher levels of anti-immigration sentiment.

But I guess that's the next guy's problem, right?

If Canada keeps this up they're going to have to pay for a wall.

Mr. Trump has picked Mike Flynn, a retired lieutenant general, to lead the NSC. Mr. Flynn feuded with the then-head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence while leading the Defense Intelligence Agency before being removed from the post in 2014. He has also had disagreements with some of Mr. Trump’s cabinet picks and raised concerns within various agencies that he’d consolidate power and decision-making in the council. In addition, Mr. Flynn has raised eyebrows by staffing the NSC with a number of officials with military backgrounds.

>>105445
Mr. Trump criticized U.S. intelligence agencies on the campaign trail and during his transition to the White House. He concluded that the ODNI, which was formed after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and coordinates work between the government’s 16 intelligence agencies, has become bloated and politicized, The Wall Street Journal reported in early January. Mr. Trump has selected former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats to head the agency

>>105446
Mr. Bannon, the architect of Mr. Trump’s campaign strategy, is a former media and financial executive.

The NSC is a principal advisory group to the president on national security and foreign affairs and is typically charged with coordinating activity in other departments represented on the council.

“The overall view was that some of the agencies would send people not at the appropriate level and/or people who are neither empowered to make decisions nor represent their departments; that there was too much discussion with too few decisions,” a White House official said.

An administration official said the changes to the NSC would make the operation “more adaptive to the modern threats that we face

"The mineralogical composition, the heterogeneous and concentric microstructure of the stones and their density, much lower than that found in rocks, absolutely confirm a biogenic origin," Lara Maritan, at Padova University's Department of Geosciences, told Seeker.

To rule out the ovoid objects were kidney stones or gallstones, the researchers carried out a range of analyses.

"Pathological stones have differential mineralogical compositions," Usai and colleagues wrote.

Scanning electron microscope showed a peculiar structure made from calcium apatite crystals and whitlockite — an unusual form of calcium phosphate — which clearly pointed to the prostate as the stones' origin.

In addition, the researchers found bacterial imprints within the stones. This could indicate that active inflammation was present in the individual during his life.

The tall men and women who made up the pre-Mesolithic population of Al Khiday were rather healthy. Anthropological investigation revealed they did not suffer from chronic disease, apart from bad teeth, which was revealed by a high frequency of cavities found among the dental remains.

Overall, no significant disease, apart from the prostate stones, was found.

Demonstrating that prostate stones did exist more than 10,000 years ago is an extraordinary finding, according to bioarchaeologist Michaela Binder, a research associate at the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Vienna who is not involved in the study.

"Finding such a disease in association with a skeleton from an archaeological site opens a new window into health and living conditions in the past," Binder told Seeker.

Although it might be difficult to reconstruct how people in the past would have experienced or perceived pain, it's likely that the prehistoric man spent his last days in excruciating pain.

Prostate stones are usually very small, asymptomatic and rather common in adults. But the large size of those found in the burial suggests a mechanical obstruction to the urinary tract. This would have made the man's life miserable.

"In modern clinical cases there is often lower back pain or leg pain, difficulties and pain when urinating. Given the size of the stones obstruction of the urinary tractus would have certainly been a problem and in times very uncomfortable and painful," Binder said.

According to the researchers, the localized symptoms may have advanced to more systemic ones, "causing pelvic dilatation, cystitis, renal scarring and kidney failure, potentially leading to the death of the affected individual," they wrote.

The prostate stones are the oldest found so far in the archaeological record. Previously, an 8,500-year-old bladder stone was found in the pelvis of an adult female buried in cave-tomb on the coast of Sicily.

"Our finding confirms this disease can no longer be considered a disease of the modern era. It also affected prehistoric people, whose lifestyle and diet were significantly different from ours," Usai said.

>>106919
are you just posting the article in the thread? nobody is gonna take this seriously.

where are the sources of the article? fuck, where is the article? fag

>According to a report from The Huffington Post, an HHS official said the pulled ad buy was worth around $5 million.

>The push to sign up young people was important to try to correct course, but it appears the move by Trump's administration could hamstring that effort.

>Thus with fewer young people in the exchanges this year, the problems that GOP lawmakers have predicted would happen might come to pass.

>It is unclear just how much the scaling back as impacted the law so far because the HHS under Trump has also scaled back on any communication about Obamacare.

>The HHS Twitter account has not referenced the ACA deadline — after tweeting about it multiple times a day — since a tweet on January 19, the day before Trump's inauguration.

>It is unclear how many Americans have signed up for care since the department has halted communications and not issued their typically bi-weekly enrollment update since the Trump administration took office. The last update on January 10 pegged enrollments through the ACA's provisions at 11.54 million.

>Former director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Andy Slavitt, whose department of the HHS oversaw the ACA exchanges, tweeted his displeasure with the move, saying it was "misguided actions which purposely hurt ACA consumers."

>Trump has long been opposed to the ACA, calling it a "disaster" and promising to repeal and replace it.

>Republican lawmakers kicked off the repeal of the law by advancing a budget resolution through the House and Senate that directs committees to draft a replacement bill using the budget reconciliation process.

>So far, there has not been a concrete proposal for a replacement from Republican leadership, but a few GOP senators have introduced plans that are significantly different.

>Trump isn't advertising the thing that he said he's getting rid of.
Next you'll tell me he isn't funding tourism advertisement for Mexico and Iraq.

>>105979
we, the taxpayers (aka not Trump) already paid for it; the people who need it might as well get some benefit out of it.

>After the Trump administration suffered its first defeat in federal court over the weekend, staying some aspects of the executive order, Ms Yates issued her denouncement of the action. The President fired her shortly afterwards.

>The White House said in a statement that Ms Yates had "betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States."

>He immediately named longtime federal prosecutor Dana Boente, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, as Yates' replacement.

>Mr Boente was sworn in privately, the White House said.

>He promptly order Justice Department lawyers to "do our sworn duty and to defend the lawful orders of our President."

>He said: “I am honoured to serve President Trump in this role.... I will defend and enforce the laws of our country to ensure that our people and our nation are protected."

>Senator Jeff Sessions, Mr Trump's pick for attorney general, will almost certainly defend the policy once he's sworn in.

>He's expected to be confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee and could be approved within days by the full Senate.

>Ms Yates, a Democrat who was appointed by the Obama administration had earlier order lawyers not to defend Mr Trump's order.

>"I am responsible for ensuring that the positions we take in court remain consistent with the institution's solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what's right," she said.

>"At the present, I am not convinced that the defence of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities, nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful."

>The former Acting Attorney General was the first person to be fired on principle by the Trump administration.

>Ms Yates, the highest ranked Senate-approved Justice Department lawyer was the only person with the authority to approve international surveillance warrants.

>Press Secretary Sean Spicer had earlier challenged government employees to leave their posts when questioned about US diplomats who issued a dissent memo draft condemning Mr Trump's executive order.

>"Any government official who doesn’t understand the President’s goals in this and exactly what it was,” he told reporters, “they should either get with the programme, or they can go."

>Former President Barack Obama has also defied custom and spoken out against Mr Trump's order – referred to by civil rights advocates as the "Muslim Exclusion Order". The former president said he was "heartened" to see such civic engagement as Americans take to the streets to denounce the new President.

>"Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble, organise and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake," a statement from Mr Obama’s spokesperson said.

>"With regard to comparisons to President Obama’s foreign policy decisions, as we’ve heard before," the statement added. "The President fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith."

>Meanwhile, the state of Washington his filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for the refugee ban.

>"We are a country based on the rule of law, and in a courtroom it is not the loudest voice that prevails, it's the Constitution," the state's Attorney General Bob Ferguson said at a news conference.

>"At the end of the day, either you're abiding by the Constitution or you are not. And in our view, the President is not adhering to the Constitution when it comes to this executive action."