Moments...

Happiness is a state of mind, an emotional state and a mental state. But how can we define a happy person? We can look at their emotions and the degree of pleasure or displeasure that they cause.

The happiest people are not those who experience pleasurable emotions more intensely. Instead, they are those who have positive emotions with moderate intensity on a frequent basis. High-intensity gratifying moments are unusual, even for the happiest people. So, happiness is linked to a feeling of inner fulfillment and psychological well-being.

Asking the people around us if they are really happy, they will mention specific events that have made them feel momentary ecstasy. For example, the birth of a child or a grandchild, the purchase of a new home or winning the lottery are events that are usually associated with moments of joy.

But these types of events do not happen often. Therefore, basing happiness on a hope for extraordinary events can end in unhappiness.

Looking for the sublime or the pleasant constantly leads us to error, even when we achieve desired results. People who seek  “maximum happiness or maximum pleasure” at all times tend to change partners or jobs repeatedly and compulsively. They do not engage in long-lasting friendship relationships.

There will always be something better. It is exactly this incessant search for excellence and that addiction to change that makes them desperate and bored.

List...

Cheering ...

The statement came hours after Emirati-backed separatists regained control of Aden - the Yemeni government's de facto capital - forcing government troops who entered the city a day early to withdraw.

In further violence in the port city, ISIS group claimed a suicide bombing.

Yemen's Ministry of Defence said more than 300 people were killed and wounded in the UAE's air raids.

Yemen's government urged Saudi Arabia to intervene and halt the UAE's air raids on its forces.

"The Saudis wants to ensure the Houthis are not a threat across the south.

The United Arab Emirates wants to  establish an independent southern state. 

And the United States of America is helping.

Baseless...

A new channel called the War Room, the name of Infowars’ afternoon program, surfaced for a few hours and started posting videos. Alex Jones, the founder of the outlet known for spreading conspiracy theories and baseless information, was banned from YouTube and numerous other sites in 2018 after policy violations including posting hate speech and violent content. He had multiple channels on the site.

“It sometimes means leaving up content that is outside the mainstream, controversial or even offensive,” wrote Wojcicki. “But I believe that hearing a broad range of perspectives ultimately makes us a stronger and more informed society, even if we disagree with some of those views.”

The relaunch of the channel coincided with a blog post earlier this week by YouTube’s chief executive, Susan Wojcicki. In the blog post, Wojcicki called for allowing some controversial content to remain on YouTube in the interest of fostering a more informed society.

“It sometimes means leaving up content that is outside the mainstream, controversial or even offensive,” wrote Wojcicki. “But I believe that hearing a broad range of perspectives ultimately makes us a stronger and more informed society, even if we disagree with some of those views.”

Lidar...

A former Google engineer spent months downloading Google’s secret files on self-driving cars before he abruptly quit the company in 2016 to run Uber's autonomous vehicle program, federal prosecutors alleged.  The engineer, Anthony Levandowski, has been charged with 33 counts of stealing trade secrets.

The files included critical engineering information, schematics and engineering drawings related to Google’s self-driving vehicle program, as well as documents revealing how Google developed lidar, the company's groundbreaking technology that allows self-driving cars to detect other vehicles in the vicinity using laser light.

The FBI will not tolerate the theft of trade secrets,” said FBI Special Agent. “These are the crown jewels of companies. 

Near...

Time...

Greta Thunberg, a teenage climate activist, arrived in Lower Manhattan today after sailing across the Atlantic.

The Swedish teenager caught the world’s attention after traveling across the Atlantic Ocean by boat for 15 days. She left England two weeks ago to embark on the nearly 3,000-mile voyage. 

Thunberg made the trip across the Atlantic to attend a United Nations climate summit taking place in September — and she did it without leaving a carbon footprint.

Crowds of people cheered on Thunberg as she completed her voyage into Manhattan, reports CBS2’s Tom Hanson.

Two weeks is a long time to cross the Atlantic now a days instead of six hours. That is the relationship that many call the climate issue as a hoax. In other word, you can't destroy life today, to save the earth 50 years down the road. Just a thought. 

Sarandon...

The Elizabeth Warren honeymoon may be coming to an end.

Warren’s weak fundraising and Native American controversy out of the gate gave her the look of a second-rate candidate.

Democrats are already opening up new lines of attack: calling her celebrated policy proposals a “fraud,” challenging her to say how she’d pay for a massive health care plan, highlighting a lack of diversity in her supporters and dropping reminders of Warren’s long span as a Republican.

The actress Susan Sarandon, while in Iowa supporting Bernie Sanders, threw shade at Warren last week. “[Sanders] is not someone who used to be Republican. He is not someone who used to take money, or still takes money, from Wall Street. He is the real deal,” she said.

Reckoning is coming on Warren’s menu of policy proposals soon.

House...

The American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War refers to the United States-led support of Syrian opposition and the Federation of Northern Syria during the course of the Syrian Civil War and active military involvement led by the United States and its allies — the militaries of the United Kingdom, France, Jordan ..

The CIA had been facilitating the flow of arms from Libya to Syria "for more than a year" beforehand in collaboration with "the UK, Saudi Arabia and Qatar"; "the operation was largely run out of a covert CIA annex in Benghazi."

U.S. military intelligence predicted "the fall of the Assad regime would lead to chaos and, potentially, to Syria's takeover by jihadi extremists, much as was then happening in Libya.   

The outcome is grim. 10 millions refugees and six hundred thousands death.

On a different story, Barack and Michelle Obama are close to buying a massive Martha’s Vineyard estate.    It was most recently on the market asking $14.85 million.

Gillibrand...

Kirsten Gillibrand is ending her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination after failing to qualify for the third debate.

“Today, I am ending my campaign for president,” she tweeted. “I think it’s important to know how you can best serve,” adding that her supporters should “go beat Donald Trump.”

Gillibrand launched her campaign with a focus on women’s issues. She rode the momentum of the #MeToo Movement that brought women to the polls in the 2018 midterms. But in a presidential field containing the most female candidates ever, her pitch didn’t catch on, and by the time she began embracing broader issues like campaign finance reform she had trouble finding her lane.

Hope many who have no chance to get out so the public would be served better by the few.

Gesture...

A Lancaster County man who made a “gun-like hand gesture” at his neighbor committed a crime.

“Kirchner argued on appeal that the gesture did not cause a hazardous or physically offensive condition, that he did not intend to cause public alarm, and that there essentially was no harm done to the victim or society,” a statement from the DA’s Office said. 

However, the high court found the gesture of imitating the firing and recoiling of a gun “risked an altercation” and supported the charge. The neighbor also reported feeling insecure, which is why the call to 911 was placed.

The DA’s Office said there was an ongoing history of confrontations between Kirchner, the neighbor. The DA’s Office said because of that contentious history, the neighbor had installed six video cameras and the gesture was recorded.

Kirchner was ordered to pay a $100 fine and court costs.

Wanabe...

A suspected serial rapist wanted for years has been nabbed in the Atlanta, Georgia, area, after police investigators in Clayton County discovered he was a police recruit at their own department.

Eight cases have been linked by DNA to suspect 24-year-old Kenneth Thomas Bowen III.
Most of his alleged assaults were within two miles of his house, said Clayton County Police Lt. Tom Reimers.

The chief explained that Bowen "was scheduled to attend academy training early on the morning in September, he failed to arrive on time as scheduled. When questioned …  he gave multiple statements that differed as to where he was and who he was with." His picture, and 911 various calls narrowed it to Police officer wanabe.

Had he not attempted to join the ranks of the Clayton County Police Department, it's questionable as to when we would have apprehended him.

Defamatory...

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell said Wednesday he made an "error in judgment" in reporting about supposed Russian ties to President Donald Trump's finances without verifying the story.

O'Donnell's admission came in a tweet Wednesday after a lawyer for Trump said the story was false and defamatory, and called on NBC News to apologize and retract it.

O'Donnell said in his tweet that the story, which led Tuesday night's broadcast, "didn't go through our vigorous verification and standards process. I shouldn't have reported it and I was wrong to discuss it on the air."

He said on the show that he'd been told that Deutsche Bank had documents showing that Russian oligarchs had co-signed loans for Trump. He said the report came from a single source, who he didn't identify. The documents also supposedly reveal that Trump paid little in taxes, he said.

Sleaze, just a thought.

Believe...

No Picnic...

The Justice Department inspector general is preparing to release a report on the conduct of fired FBI Director James Comey in the Trump-Russia investigation.

Comey's memos were, at the least, confidential FBI documents, and at most, in some cases, classified.

 Comey told Congress that he sent some of the memos to a friend for the purpose of being leaked to the New York Times. Comey hoped media reports would set off a firestorm that would result in a special counsel to investigate the Trump-Russia matter.

Comey was also part of the process, through which the FBI sought and received a secret court warrant to wiretap short-term Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. 

The FBI cited allegations from the now-discredited Steele dossier as part of its application for the warrant. 

Being on the receiver end is no Picnic.

Pain...

Attempts to understand the nature of illicit drug abuse and addiction can be traced back for centuries, however, the search has always been limited by the scientific theories and social attitudes available or dominant at any one time. 

Illicit drug use has been documented across the world however the quality of estimated prevalence of use is best in the developed countries of Europe, North America, and Australasia.

 We now can collect.  Just a thought.

Gossip...

Real journalism is different from the gossip, punditry, and clickbait that dominates today’s news. Real journalism, in the words of Joseph Pulitzer, is the painstaking reporting that will “fight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, [and] always fight demagogues.

Real journalism requires significant resources. One reason we do not have enough real journalism in America right now is because many outlets are being gutted by the same forces of greed that are pillaging our economy. 

For example, Facebook and Google—control 60 percent of the entire digital advertising market. They have used monopolistic control to siphon off advertising revenues from news organizations.  

Corporate conglomerates and hedge fund vultures have bought and consolidated beleaguered local newspapers and slashed their newsrooms. Just a thought.

Heartbreaking...

My visit to Syria has made it abundantly clear: Our counterproductive regime change war does not serve America’s interest, and it certainly isn’t in the interest of the Syrian people.

“As I visited with people from across the country, and heard heartbreaking stories of how this war has devastated their lives, I was asked, ‘Why is the United States and its allies helping al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups try to take over Syria? Syria did not attack the United States. Al-Qaeda did.’ I had no answer.

“I return to Washington, DC with even greater resolve to end our illegal war to overthrow the Syrian government. I call upon Congress and the new Administration to answer the pleas of the Syrian people immediately and support the Stop Arming Terrorists Act.

 
“From Iraq to Libya and now in Syria, the U.S. has waged wars of regime change, each resulting in unimaginable suffering, devastating loss of life, and the strengthening of groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS.  Just a Free Speech thought.

Fabricate...

A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy who reported being shot by a sniper, launching a manhunt for the shooter, “completely fabricated” the story, the sheriff’s department announced at a news conference Saturday night.

Sheriff's Deputy Angel Reinosa, a 21-year-old rookie with the department, had cut holes in his shirt to make it look like he had been shot and was treated for a “bruise” on his shoulder at a hospital following the allegedly made-up incident, Homicide Bureau Capt. Kent Wegener said.

Assistant Sheriff Robin Limon told reporters the department was “incredibly disappointed" by the case and that Reinosa had been relieved of his duties. The department is launching a criminal investigation into Reinosa's false report, Limon added.

Heavily armed deputies wearing tactical gear set up a perimeter and launched a massive search for a suspect in triple-digit temperatures but weren't able to find a suspect.