Breakfast For The Brain Weekend Edition

Hey Deplorables! The weekend’s FINALLY here, enjoy it because you’ve earned it.

The Ruling Class and an Undeclared Civil War

Via The American Thinker

Over the past 73 years, devoid of any meaningful national misfortune, the American social order has undergone a major transformation. Historically, societies tend to stratify themselves along economic or pre-ordained class lines. The United States has long prided itself on the belief that class distinctions were no longer a part of a unique American culture. However, the current social structure has evolved into a near impregnable three-tier categorization in which the ruling class, that sits astride the social order, has revealed, thanks to the election of Donald Trump, open and unabashed disdain for the two lower classes and the unleashing of a radicalized army of malcontents.

The eight years of the Obama administration rudely awakened a sleeping populace. Many of whom, also benefiting from the overwhelming economic growth and absence of national adversity over the past half-century, had consciously chosen to ignore what was happening to the culture and future well-being of the country. Thus, the election of Donald Trump was in essence the revenge of the lower classes for not only the overbearing and condescending attitude of the elites but their ongoing success in transforming American society and culture.

Faced with the exposure of their agenda and the real prospect of losing their status and influence, the disdain toward the lower classes, which had always bubbled beneath the surface, burst forth in a volcanic eruption of uncontrolled vitriol, anger and absurdity.

The denizens of the ruling class unleashed their out of control foot soldiers on the citizenry, employing the tactics and weapons previously aimed at their political enemies. Today vast swaths of the American populace, whether they voted for Trump or not, are indiscriminately accused of being racists, misogynists, white supremacists, ignoramuses, religious zealots, xenophobes and malcontents.

Intimidation and threats of violence are no longer condemned so long as it is directed at those identified as a threat to the hegemony of the elites. Various social media platforms are being hijacked and weaponized by the mindless and radicalized brain-dead army of elite wannabes, the ruling class chooses not to restrain, in order to terrorize and permanently cower those in the second tier of society — the citizens who provide the primary labor and resources for the economic engine of the country.

Read the entire article HERE.

One Of The Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Secretly Sharing Data With The FBI

Via Zero Hedge

Just one week ago, we warned that the government — helped by Congress (which adopted legislation allowing police to collect and test DNA immediately following arrests), President Trump (who signed the Rapid DNA Act into law), the courts (which have ruled that police can routinely take DNA samples from people who are arrested but not yet convicted of a crime), and local police agencies (which are chomping at the bit to acquire this new crime-fighting gadget) — was embarking on a diabolical campaign to create a nation of suspects predicated on a massive national DNA database.

As it turns out we were right, but we forgot one key spoke of the government’s campaign to collect genetic information from as many individuals as possible: “innocent”, commercial companies, who not only collect DNA from willing clients, but are also paid for it.

FamilyTreeDNA, one of the pioneers of the growing market for “at home”, consumer genetic testing, confirmed a report from BuzzFeed that it has quietly granted the Federal Bureau of Investigation access to its vast trove of nearly 2 million genetic profiles.

While concerns about unrestricted access to genetic information gathered by testing companies had swelled since April, when police used a genealogy website to ensnare a suspect in the decades-old case of the Golden State Killer, that site, GEDmatch, was open-source, meaning police were able to upload crime-scene DNA data to the site without permission. However, the latest arrangement marks the first time a commercial testing company has voluntarily given law enforcement access to user data.

Worse, it did so secretly, without obtaining prior permission from its users.

The move is of significant concern to much more than just privacy-minded FamilyTreeDNA customers. As Bloomberg notes, one person sharing genetic information also exposes those to whom they are closely related. That’s how police caught the alleged Golden State Killer. And here is a stunning statistics – according to a 2018 study, only 2% of the population needs to have done a DNA test for virtually everyone’s genetic information to be represented in that data.

Thanks to its millions of customers, FamilyTreeDNA’s “cooperation” with the FBI more than doubles the amount of genetic data law enforcement already had access to through GEDmatch. According to BuzzFeed, and as confirmed by the company, on a case-by-case basis the company has agreed to test DNA samples for the FBI and upload profiles to its database, allowing law enforcement to see familial matches to crime-scene samples.

There is one caveat: FamilyTreeDNA said law enforcement may not freely browse genetic data but rather has access only to the same information any user might. Which of course, is ridiculous when the FBI has the same access as every single user.

Read the entire article HERE.

The Party of Death, Out in the Open

Via American Greatness

Safe, legal, and rare was a lie.

President Bill Clinton in 1996 told Americans abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” That was then. Now the cult of death, pro-abortion movement has taken over the Democratic Party whole-cloth, and the result is the infanticidal law passed in New York on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Now the party line has shifted to abortion on demand, paid for by taxpayers, at any time, even up until moments before birth: witness what just took place in New York state. The Empire State no more; New York is now the Abortion State.

The laws just signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo are as vile as they are expansive. New Yorkers are now legally able to end the life of their unborn child up until the moment of birth. In cases which threaten the health (even the mental health) of the mother or when the unborn child isn’t considered “viable,” a woman now has the right to have lethal injection performed on the child, ending its life just moments before it would enter the world.

And you don’t even need a doctor to conduct this abortion; New Yorkers can have physician assistants and even midwives perform some abortions. New York’s new abortion laws put it in the same class as China, Vietnam, and North Korea, where abortion is available at most any point.

Read the entire article HERE.

Massive Fentanyl Bust Proves It’s Time For Lawmakers To Grow Up

Via The Federalist

etanyl is behind nearly half of all opioid overdose deaths, which totaled 72,000 in 2017 alone. The drug has killed everyone from a 10-month-old baby who accidentally ingested her parents’ stash to A-list celebrities the likes of Prince.

The increase in production and popularity of the drug, which is 80 to 100 times more powerful than heroin, should ramp up border security concerns for every American––and push politicians arguing over budget concerns to find a compromise quickly. On both sides, we see people more concerned with scoring political points against each other than severing fatal drug ties linked to the deaths of tens of thousands each year in our country.

This week, countless lives were spared––at least for now––with the largest seizure of Fentanyl in U.S. history at the Arizona-Mexico border. $3.5 million worth of the drug and $1.1 million worth of meth were discovered by U.S. Customs and Borders (CBP) after they’d been loaded under the floor bed of a truck attempting to cross the border in Arizona. Thanks to the keen instincts of border agents, the tractor-trailer transporting produce was stopped on suspicion.

Read the entire article HERE.

Western Anti-Russia Paranoia Reaches Fever-Pitch

Via Strategic Culture

Western corporate news media have got to be one of the most irresponsible and toxic entities. In particular, their contribution to distorting international relations with Russia and stoking tensions is bordering on incitement.

It is astounding and atrocious that such paranoid thinking is displayed on a massive scale. Western establishment news media, without a hint of irony, proclaim to be independent, critical, free-thinking and defenders of democracy. How delusional. They are increasingly serving up war propaganda like ministries of disinformation in a truly Orwellian scenario. And yet Western media have the arrogant hypocrisy to vilify Russia for malign intent.

German media recently accused Russian news channels of “propaganda” and demanded their shutdown. British media, including supposedly “quality” brands, run sensational reports about Russian warships “menacing” Britain and Europe because those vessels sailed through proximate international waters. Alleged Russian cyberattacks are aiming to destroy civil society and infrastructure. And so on.

Read the entire article HERE.

The Democrats Lose Their Minds

Via The Washington Free Beacon

I’m not a Democrat—in case you haven’t noticed—but Howard Schultz is. And Schultz isn’t one of those Blue Dog, Southern or Midwestern, conservative Democrats either. He’s from Seattle, holds liberal positions on, as far as I can tell, every issue, and has donated gobs of money to the Democratic Party and to the last two Democratic presidents. But Schultz is also a democratic capitalist who attributes his phenomenal success—his fortune from Starbucks is around $3 billion—at least in part to America’s culture of entrepreneurial risk-taking, minimal government interference in commerce, individual responsibility, and rule of law. He worries that the Democratic Party, radicalized by the presidency of Donald Trump, is in the process of abandoning support for the very aspects of American life that made his life possible. “Both parties are consistently not doing what’s necessary on behalf of the American people and are engaged, every single day, in revenge politics,” Schultz told 60 Minutes last Sunday. The Democrats then began proving his point for him.

Read the entire article HERE.

Christian university denies approving ‘F*** Donald Trump’ theme of convocation

Via The College Fix

A Christian university passed the buck late Wednesday after students sat through a vulgar, partisan, expletive-filled presentation by a visiting music professor.

The name on Belmont University’s advertised lecture, which included hip-hop music that contained the lyrics “Fuck Donald Trump,” was “Popular Music and Presidential Politics.”

After a student shared photos and video of the presentation by Middle Tennessee State University’s Joseph Morgan, including a slide on the “Impending Tyranny of Donald Trump,” the administration said it contained content that was “different from what had been approved.”

The contact for the “convocation,” School of Music program coordinator Caroline Scism, told The College Fix in a phone call that she wouldn’t comment beyond the university’s written apology. She didn’t answer further questions before hanging up.

The historically Baptist Nashville university made clear in the event listing that Morgan’s lecture would discuss “musical resistances to Donald Trump’s campaign for President” across forms of music “including hip-hop, rock, country and Tejano.”

Read the entire article HERE.

NewsGuard and Microsoft Team Up To Destroy Independent Media Ahead Of 2020 Elections; Linked To Several Think Tanks, Government Officials

Via The Activist Post

The service NewsGuard, an establishment attempt to silence alternative media and independent media sites, has teamed up with Microsoft to help its effort to destroy free press. Meanwhile, the mysterious firm connected to intelligence agencies and former government officials on their advisory board has also just been linked to Saudi Arabia through Publicis Groupe, an investor in NewsGuard.

NewsGuard is now automatically included in Microsoft’s Edge browser on iOS, Android and Microsoft phones. Microsoft’s press release regarding the partnership states that NewsGuard “will empower voters by providing them with high-quality information about the integrity and transparency of online news sites.” Just one problem, who is providing transparency about the news rating agency?

When a user decides to search the Web, the extension tells the user whether or not a story is credible or not credible with 5 indicators and an information box judging the website.

  • Green icon — Sites that follow “basic standards of accuracy and accountability” based on nine criteria,which include full disclosure of possible conflicts of interest, financing, and “notable ideological or political positions held by those with significant financial interests in the site.”
  • Red icon — Sites that do not fulfill NewsGuard’s criteria for credibility and transparency.
  • Orange icon — Satire and humor sites that mimic real news.
  • Blue icon — Sites that primarily host user-generated content.
  • Gray icon —Unrated sites.

There is just one problem: the plugin is only blacklisting certain sites and does not actually have fact checkers looking into the story in question. So, in fact, the service is censoring alternative and independent media. But, let’s be honest, that’s exactly what its founders, creators, funders, and advisors want.

About that transparency … the list of advisors for NewsGuard includes Tom Ridge, the former secretary of Homeland Security, Richard Stengel, former editor of Time magazine and Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy (Obama administration), (Ret.) General Michael Hayden, former Director of the CIA, former Director of the National Security Agency and former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence (George W. Bush administration), Don Baer, chairman of Burson, Cohn & Wolfe and former White House Communications Director (Clinton administration), Elise Jordan, political analyst, NBC, and former speechwriter for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Oh and then there are the journalists (traitors of free speech) like John Battelle, co-founding editor of Wired and founding chief executive of Industry Standard and Jessica Lessin, founder, and editor-in-chief of The Information.

Read the entire article HERE.

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