Oversight...

Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to Democratic members of Congress announcing the House will introduce and vote on a "War Powers Resolution to limit the President's military actions regarding Iran" amid rising tension.

The resolution, "reasserts Congress's long-established oversight responsibilities by mandating that if no further Congressional action is taken, the Administration's military hostilities with regard to Iran cease within 30 days."

The letter comes as the US is deploying thousands of additional troops to the Middle East following the airstrike that killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani. 

Where was this letter in 2002 as we invaded Iraq?
Where was this letter on 2011, as we started the destruction of Syria?
and where was this letter as we invaded the Country of Libya and created a civil war?

Thank you Ms. Pelosi for resurrecting the congress power twenty years later.

Threatining...

Guests should "ensure their clothing and accessories are respectful to fellow guests," reads Carnival's website FAQ.

That means nothing worn during the cruise should "contain any message that may be considered offensive or contain nudity, profanity, sexual innuendo/suggestions. 

In addition, clothing/accessories should not promote negative ethnic or racial, commentary, or hatred or violence in any form."

While Carnival's crew isn't "the clothing or expression police," spokesman Vance Gulliksen says the change came after some reports in other travel sectors of customers wearing clothing with "very threatening messages."

So enjoy the cruise and please keep your thoughts/hate at land.  Just a thought.

Drop...

Researchers have reported the largest-ever single-year drop in cancer death rates in the United States.

The rate of deaths from cancer fell 2.2 percent from 2016 to 2017. That is the largest drop since record-keeping began in 1930.

The information comes from a new report by the American Cancer Society. The group announced the report’s findings Wednesday.

The Cancer Society says that overall death rates from cancer have fallen about 1.5 percent each year since 1991. Better treatments for lung cancer are part of the reason for the falling numbers, said Rebecca Siegel. She was the lead writer of the report.

“Lung cancer has been the most common cause of cancer death in the United States, and now…we have better therapies for our patients and … patients are living longer and better than ever before.”

Yup...

Bed bugs, usually thought of as an American nuisance, are driving Parisians crazy with their appearance in hotels.

The pests, known as punaises de lit in France, are causing financial losses upwards of millions of euros for business owners in the French capital.

One Paris hotel group conceded that even ritzy hotels are falling victim to the pests — and the problem is worsening.

 “The hotelier is a victim in this kind of case. It’s not that the hotel is dirty, but it has welcomed people who have brought the bedbugs with them.”

The number of reported bedbug cases in the nation has ballooned from 180,000 to 4000,000 in two short years.

Can't

Looking for a reason to fail.... 

Twice...

What started as a squabble over a he-said/she-said, or at least a he-said he-didn’t-say, has turned into a full-on feud complete with a rebuffed handshake and endless snake emojis. CNN reported that sources said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had told Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) that a woman couldn’t win the White House in 2020. Later, she confirmed the tale: “I thought a woman could win; he disagreed.”

Life is not always a choice between truth or lies, and the Democratic electorate doesn’t have to choose between a truth-teller and a liar. Yet we seem intent on cutting off our noses.

“I think you called me a liar on national TV,” Warren said to Sanders onstage after the debate, twice, in audio that a drama-mining CNN released. Let the dance begins. Mo money, mo money, mo...

Crooks

Cybercriminals reaping large sums is becoming more common in the wake of a wave of ransomware attacks in the U.S.

One of the most recent large hauls was from Sherwood, Ark.-based The Heritage Company, which had to temporarily shut down operations after making a ransom payment of “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to the criminals behind the attack.

Heritage's CEO Sandra Franecke "broke the news in a letter to her 300 employees that the 61-year-old firm would suspend activities,” Fox16 previously reported.

Heritage was eventually "forced to pay the crooks to get the ‘key’ just to get our systems back up and running," according to the letter, which also noted the company's IT department has been struggling to bring its systems back up.

“Paying a ransom and not receiving an effective decryptor key is one of the primary reasons why law enforcement and cyber security pros warn against giving in to a ransomware attacker’s demands.”

Services...

Mammals, pair bonds are very rare, one of the few exceptions being the red titi monkeys of South America. These relatively small tree dwellers live in pairs or small family groups and are characterized by the fact that the males take intensive care of their offspring. 

A team of researchers from the German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research has now investigated how pair relationships work in titi monkeys. Their results support the so-called “male-services hypothesis”: 

Males provide a useful service by taking more care of the offspring and defending the territory against intruders, while the females are more involved in relationship management and, for example, seek the proximity of their partner more often.

 “This behavior is in line with the ‘male-services hypothesis’, which states that females are mainly concerned with being close to their partner while the latter provides useful services, such as defense against intruders or rearing the young.”

Monkey see monkey do.   Just a thought 

Cyber...

Cybercriminals have scammed a Texas school district out of $2.3 million by using a phony email.

The Manor Independent School District lost the hefty sum as a result of a phishing email scam, the school district said in a statement last week. Details on how the scam was perpetrated are not clear at this time.

Phishing email typically tries to get the victim to click on a malicious link in order to execute an attack, but that may not even be necessary. Attacks
can also happen through a plain text email intended to fool the recipient to commit a wire transfer or send sensitive information.

There are all sorts of scam. They all after your money. 

As we approach the next presidential election, watch for your wallet.  Just a thought

Lilley...

The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from three women involved in the so-called Free the Nipple movement who were arrested for exposing their breasts in public.  

The women sought to challenge a city law in Laconia, N.H., that they argued amounted to unconstitutional discrimination on the basis of gender. 

"They were arrested and prosecuted as women for doing what any man may lawfully do."d

The activists were arrested in 2016 for being topless on a beach and last year lost in the New Hampshire Supreme Court, prompting their appeal to the justices.
Beaches are different than the subway system.

The case was Lilley v. New Hampshire.