Not Just Election Hacking – Russia Banned From the Olympics

Lot of dirty going on in Putin’s Russia. Looks like Putin’s home team took a huge hit.

No problem…They can compete under the Trump flag, since they own it.

Russia’s Olympic Team Barred From 2018 Winter Games For Doping

A new report confirmed “the systemic manipulation of the anti-doping rules and system in Russia.”

Russia’s Olympic team will not be allowed to compete in the 2018 Winter Games following the discovery that the country executed an elaborate program allowing athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs, including during the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) made the decision to suspend the Russian Olympic Committee Tuesday.

An IOC report confirmed “the systemic manipulation of the anti-doping rules and system in Russia,” the organization said in a statement. The decision follows a 17-month investigation led by former president of Switzerland Samuel Schmid.

Official record books for the Olympics ― which will take place in Pyeongchang, South Korea, next year ― will permanently show that Russia did not win any medals. However, individual Russian athletes will be able to compete wearing a neutral uniform, The New York Times reports.

Russian athletes who qualify will have to meet “strict conditions,” the IOC said in a release, that include drug testing that could go beyond normal Olympic standards. But the Russian flag will not fly, and the Russian anthem won’t play at the games.

Two top Russian officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko, have been banned from Olympic involvement for life, while Russian Olympic Committee President Alexander Zhukov’s IOC membership has been suspended.

The lawyer of Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of Russia’s anti-doping laboratory who peeled back the layers of Russia’s state-run doping program in a 2016 New York Times report, said in a statement Tuesday that the IOC’s decision sent a “powerful message.” Rodchenkov’s story is further explored in the Netflix documentary “Icarus”released earlier this year.

“As the world has seen, Dr. Rodchenkov provided credible and irrefutable evidence of the Russian state-sponsored doping system, which was ultimately supervised and financed by then-Minister of Sports Vitaly Mutko and other high-level government officials,” lawyer Jim Walden said in a statement. “The decision to bar Russia’s official participation in the Winter Olympics makes abundantly clear to Russia, and all countries, that there are serious consequences for flouting the rules of the international community.”

A livestream taken by Russia Today showed Russia’s Olympic skiing team hearing the news firsthand. Video showed the athletes looking dejected…

 

Racist Lions Fan Loses Season Tickets

First off – the report on what the Chumph clown did –

Reaction from the Lions???

Detroit Lions ban racist fan for calling anthem protesters ‘ignorant n**gers’

The Detroit Lions fan who posted an angry racist rant on SnapChat has given up his season tickets after being banned from Ford Field, the Lions’ home stadium, said Detroit’s Fox 2 TV.

The Lions organization announced on Thursday that David Doptis — owner of a restaurant supply company in Pontiac, MI — has been banned from Lions games after calling two black protesters who sat during the U.S. national anthem “ignorant n**gers” and saying that if they don’t love the U.S. then they should leave.

Doptis has denied that he posted the photo and its offensive caption to SnapChat, telling Channel 2, “I didn’t post any pictures, any collages anything… I don’t know where that even came from.”

His business was closed early this week as the controversy mushroomed and went viral.

Stacey Graham — the woman in Doptis’ photo — told WXYZ-TV that she was sitting out the anthem because she objects to the references the lyrics make in verse three that some historians say glorifies the killing emancipated slaves, “No refuge could save the hireling and slave/From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.”

“Everybody has an opinion,” said Graham to WJBK. “He probably could’ve stuck with, ‘he wishes we would’ve stood,’ and I would’ve been like ‘okay’, but to write that under our picture — no words.”

 

AirBnB Dumps White Supremacist Accounts

 

Airbnb boots white nationalists headed to ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville

After a series of raw-throated public confrontations earlier this year, Charlottesville is bracing for an influx of white nationalists from across the country to Saturday’s “Unite the Right” rally.

But visitors might have a problem nailing down accommodations. As city leaders worked overtime Monday trying to defuse an increasingly tense situation, the room-sharing company Airbnb quietly booted users planning to use the service to find housing.

The company confirmed they had taken action in a statement to NBC29: “When through out background check processes or from input of our community we identify and determine that there are those who would be pursuing behavior on the platform that would be antithetical to the Airbnb Community Commitment, we seek to take appropriate action including, as in this case, removing them from the platform.”

That stance didn’t sit well with the rally’s organizer, Jason Kessler.

“This is outrageous and should be grounds for a lawsuit,” Kessler told The Washington Post in an email Monday night. “It’s the racial targeting of white people for their ethnic advocacy.” Kessler added the rally “is opposed to the historical and demographic displacement of white people. Would Airbnb cancel the service of black nationalists or Black Lives Matter activists for their social media activity? Of course not!”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors “hate groups and other extremists,” warns that the rally could be “the largest hate-gathering of its kind in decades in the United States.”

The location for the rally, Emancipation Park, is no accident. Until February, the 45,435-square-foot green space was originally known as Robert E. Lee Park. When renaming the public park, the Charlottesville City Council also voted to remove the statue of the Confederate general, but it remains in place because of a court injunction that halted its removal, The Washington Post has reported. Another hearing on the matter is slated for later this month.

In recent years the park has become a hot spot for controversy. Municipalities across the South have moved to scrub Confederate symbolism from civic life following the 2015 racially motivated killing of nine black church members in Charleston, S.C.

In July, a Ku Klux Klan group held a rally at Emancipation Park in support of the statue. Charlottesville law enforcement spent nearly $33,000 keeping the 30 or so Klansmen separated from the 1,000 counterprotesters who arrived to challenge the group’s presence. Following the rally, police used gas canisters to move counterprotesters from the area. Twenty-two arrests were made.

“Unite the Right” is a further escalation of the culture war street theater that city leaders worry may be drawing more notice and participants.

“This is an event which seeks to unify the right against a totalitarian Communist crackdown,” the rally’s Facebook page noted, “to speak out against displacement level immigration policies in the United States and Europe and to affirm the right of Southerners and white people to organize for their interests just like any other group is able to do, free of persecution.”

The event’s speakers list is full of free speech provocateurs such as white nationalist Richard Spencer and Augustus Invictus, the self-professed “most dangerous Libertarian in America.” High-ranking members from the National Socialist Movement, the Traditionalist Workers Party and the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer have also indicated they will attend.

 

Georgia Black Republican Learns the Hard Way

What part of Trump is a racist doesn’t penetrate the pickle-headed ninnies brains?

Winning the first BTx3 “Dumbest Negro of the Week” award.

Black Georgia GOP official booted from Atlanta Trump event with no explanation

A rising star with the Georgia Republican Party was barred from a meet and greet with presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump at the candidate’s rally in Atlanta on June 15.

According to BuzzFeed’s Darren Sands, Michael McNeely was proceeding with other high-ranking Georgia Republicans to meet with the real estate tycoon backstage when he was intercepted by the Secret Service and hustled out of theater.

Multiple witnesses saw Trump’s Georgia campaign director Brandon Phillips stop McNeely and tell him there was “no more room for you” backstage with Mr. Trump. A Georgia GOP official reported the incident to BuzzFeed but asked that their name not be used since they are not authorized to speak on behalf of the party.

When Sands attempted to reach McNeely for comment, McNeely hastily said, “I’ll have to get back to you,” then never returned calls or issued a statement.

The Trump campaign, the Georgia Republican Party and Phillips have all declined to address the incident.

McNeely — a former chair of the Georgia Black Republican Council — was chosen by the GOP to act as an at-large delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention.

It’s unclear, BuzzFeed said, why McNeely was ejected from the event.

Bruce LeVell, the executive director of the National Diversity Coalition For Trump said that he was not aware of any official reason why McNeely wouldn’t be allowed to meet with the candidate, but that campaign staff sometimes act proactively to prevent problems.

“Anyone that goes to a Trump rally, I don’t give a damn who you are, if anyone even if looks at you and [the campaign] points their finger, you’re out of there,” he said. “They’re real strict about [acting] if something doesn’t look right. They just make a judgment call.”

In March, a group of 30 black students were removed from a Trump rally at Valdosta State University in Valdosta, GA. The students were reportedly standing silently in the bleachers, but were asked to leave.

“We didn’t plan to do anything,” said Tahjila Davis, a 19-year-old mass media major. “They said, ‘This is Trump’s property; it’s a private event.’ But I paid my tuition to be here.”

 

 

The Less Than Spartan Olympics

Summer Olympics is supposed to happen in Rio this year. It may not.

Issues include an unstable and volatile political situation, with the current President having been impeached, pollution issues making the events dangerous for competitors, the Zika virus running rampant, and whether the event facilities will actually be ready. In other words, it’s a rolling disaster.

Add to that as significant portion of the Russian Olympic team will be banned for use of steroids, and at least 31 athletes have been banned for illegal substance use so far…

And things are looking a lot less than “Golden”.

Olympics now digging into past winners, issuing bans

The IOC issued a stern statement on Tuesday promising to step up the fight against sports doping after a series of damning reports exposed systematic and mass cheating by Russian athletes.

The Olympics organizers said 31 athletes in six sports have tested positive inreanalysis of their doping samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee said it has opened disciplinary proceedings against the unidentified athletes from 12 countries.

The samples had been stored at the IOC laboratory in Lausanne. They were retested using enhanced methods on athletes who were expecting to compete at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August.

The IOC said “all those athletes infringing anti-doping rules will be banned from competing” in Rio.

The committee said the results of 250 retests from the 2012 London Olympics will “come shortly.” There will also undertake a “wider retesting” of medalists from Beijing and London.

“The re-tests from Beijing and London and the measures we are taking following the worrying allegations against the Laboratory in Sochi are another major step to protect the clean athletes irrespective of any sport or any nation. We keep samples for ten years so that the cheats know that they can never rest,” IOC President Thomas Bach said in the statement.

Over the weekend, Russia’s sports minister said his country has a “problem” with doping and is “very sorry” that its cheating athletes were not caught sooner.

“Serious mistakes have been made by the federation management, along with athletes and coaches who have broken anti-doping rules and neglected the principle of fair play,” said Vitaly Mutko, writing in British newspaper The Sunday Times. “Let us be clear. We are ashamed of them.”

Russia will discover on June 17 whether its athletics federation has met the reform criteria to return to competition in time for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Russia was plunged into another doping scandal last week after a series of exposes by “60 Minutes,” The New York Times, and others.

A former Russian anti-doping official allowed “60 Minutes” to listen to 15 hours of conversations he secretly recorded with a prominent doctor involved in the country’s testing regime.

Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov shared details of a systematic cover-up in Sochi during Skype conversations with Vitaly Stepanov, a former Russian anti-doping official turned key whistleblower. The doping program reportedly involved at least 15 Russian medal winners.

“He had the ability to help to get the necessary results,” Stepanov told CBS News — referring to gold medals.

In the recordings, Rodchenkov named Russian gold medalists in three sports — bobsled, skeleton and cross country skiing — whose dirty drugs tests he helped cover up.

It was all part, he said, of an elaborate scheme to protect Russia’s Olympic medal winners, with the help of his country’s intelligence service, known as the FSB.

“FSB tried to control every single step of the anti-doping process in Sochi,” Stepanov said Rodchenkov told him.

The FSB figured out a way to open bottles considered to be tamper-proof containing urine from drug-tainted athletes. Then they filled the bottles with clean urine collected from athletes before they started doping.

Former Olympic Cycling Champion Tammy Thomas before and after stopping steroid use

 

 

Georgia Parents Ban Yoga “Religion”

Apparently sitting on a Yoga mat and going Ommmmmm is the newest threat to christianity in the South. Must be that if you go down that path to self discovery then the last place you will ever want to be is in one of those ultra-evangelical control freak churches.

Yoga – Learning the ability to balance on one foot while simultaneously chewing gum could destroy the lowercase versions of christianity!

Ga. parents offended by the ‘Far East religion’ of yoga, get ‘Namaste’ banned from school

“We need to direct our attention inward and connect to the breath,” yoga instructor Rachel Brathen writes in her New York Times best-selling bookabout the practice. “Focusing on our breath keeps us present, calms the mind, and allows us to develop the awareness of the body we need to practice with care and compassion.”

Since the ancient discipline with roots in Hinduism and Buddhism became a popular exercise in the West, yogis have inundated popular culture with their pursuit of that elusive “calm” in a rapidly spinning world.

“Mindfulness,” the meditative state associated with yoga, has likewise been adopted as a way to clear the mind.

So when administrators at Bullard Elementary School in Kennesaw, Ga., implemented yoga and other mindfulness practices in the classroom to reduce students’ stress, they likely envisioned peace and relaxation in their future.

Instead, they received a flurry of complaints — from parents who felt yoga represented the encroachment of non-Christian beliefs.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bullard principal Patrice Moore sent parents an email last week announcing changes to its yoga program.

“I am truly sorry that the mindfulness/ de-stressing practices here at Bullard caused many misconceptions that in turn created a distraction in our school and community,” Moore wrote. “While we have been practicing de-stressing techniques in many classrooms for years, there have been some recent practices associated with mindfulness that are offensive to some.”

Among the elements of the program that will be eliminated: the Sanskrit greeting “Namaste,” placing hands “to heart center” and coloring pages with the symbol of the Mandala (a spiritual symbol in Indian religions representing the cosmos).

Moore noted that a rumor had also spread about using or teaching “about crystals having healing powers.”

“We will ensure that nothing resembling this will be done in the future,” she said.

 

US Bans Hoverboard Imports – Hoverboards Banned

And not because of them catching fire!

The U.S. Just Banned Hoverboard Imports

And it has nothing to do with their fiery explosions.

The International Trade Commission announced Wednesday that the United States is banning imports of so-called hoverboards.

But while some brands of the auto-balancing scooters are known to spontaneously combust, the U.S.’s decision had nothing to do with safety and everything to do with a request from Segway, the hoverboard’s nerdy uncle.

Hoverboards are often described in media reports as Segways without handlebars, or a cooler Segway. But it turns out the new scooters have more in common with their Paul Blart-endorsed predecessor than meets the eye.

Segway filed a complaint with the ITC in 2014, claiming that hoverboards, the vast majority of which are manufactured in China, infringed on some of their patents and copyrights. The particular patents they listed mostly have to do with technologies that allow Segways to self-balance and read user inputs.

“In recent years, there has been an influx of low quality two-wheel personal transporters built on the intellectual property developed by DEKA and Segway,” the company, which licenses the technology from research firm DEKA, said at the time. “If this influx is allowed to continue, this iconic American product and the U.S. jobs dependent on it will be threatened.”

While Segway is based in New Hampshire and continues to manufacture its products there, it was bought last April by Ninebot, a Chinese company that Segway actually listed as a respondent in its 2014 complaint.

The ITC’s ruling goes on to name several brands that are no longer allowed to be imported into the country, including UPTECH, U.P. Technology, U.P. Robotics, FreeGo China, Ecoboomer and Roboscooters.

Segway said it would work with both U.S. customs and the ITC to help implement the ban, although demand for these products is likely at a new low. Just last month, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced voluntary safety standards for all manufacturers, importers and retailers of self-balancing scooters due to their pesky tendency to catch on fire. Online retailer Amazon even agreed to refund all hoverboard purchases.

All of which means there might be a gaping new hole in the self-balancing scooter market. One that Segway could be poised to fill if it would only get cracking on asmaller, cooler-looking model.

The last isn’t going to happen. Segway will continue to sell vastly overpriced product now that there is no competition.

 

British Parliament Debates Banning Trump From UK

What a brilliant idea! Apparently in the UK, their Congress (AKA Parliament) can be petitioned to debate changes in the laws by Citizen Petition. Ergo when a petition reached s over 100,000 signatures it has to be taken up by Parliament for consideration.

Sadly that won’t work in this country – as you have to have an intelligent, educated populace, who minimally is aware of civics, knows something about how the government works, the bill of rights, and is committed to the success of he country – meaning the Sarah Palinites, and Don Trumpskies who pride themselves on ignorance, not being educated, and living in a fantasy world apart form know reality, and knowledgeable of nothing but the Second Amendment f^&()ed that one up for the rest of us as well.

The Dumpster as an illegal alien.

Why British Parliament Will Debate Banning Donald Trump From The U.K.

The British Parliament will now debate whether to ban Donald Trump from entering the country after a petition to keep him out rapidly gained over almost 200,000 signatures Wednesday.

The British Parliament debates petitions once they surpass 100,000 signatures.

“The U.K. has banned entry to many individuals for hate speech,” the petition’s description says.

Scottish resident and longtime Trump critic Suzanne Kelly started the petition, which 30,000 people signed in less than an hour Wednesday morning. Kelly condemned Trump for “unrepentant hate speech and unacceptable behavior” that “foments racial, religious and nationalistic intolerance which should not be welcome in the U.K.”

Britain’s Chancellor George Osborne recommended Wednesday engaging in “robust and democratic debate” instead of banning him from entry.

Yet several British politicians are on board. Labour Party lawmaker Jack Dromey warned that the “dangerous fool” should not come “within 1,000 miles of our shores.” The Muslim Council of Britain echoed the call and recommended that Parliament apply the same standards to Trump as they would to others who “espouse hatred.” Sarah Wollaston, a Member of Parliament for the ruling Conservative Party, recommended a “serious discussion.” Labor MP Tulip Siddiq, a Muslim, said, “If you’re not going to welcome people like me into your country, thenwe don’t want to welcome you.”

Trump caused an uproar when he proclaimed Monday that the U.S. should enact a “complete shutdown” of Muslim immigration. He also alleged that certain neighborhoods of Paris and London were so radicalized that “police are afraid for their own lives.”

London Metropolitan Police rebuked Trump’s claim, saying he “could not be more wrong.” London Mayor Boris Johnson slammed the comments as “complete and utter nonsense.”

 

Military Flamethrowers for Sale to Public!

Several “companies” have entered the consumer market with either recycled or modern variations of the Military Flamethrower.

Seems to me, any wannabe terrorist with a bit of funding could create some real havoc with these things…

This one is a recayale Military version…

Flamethrowers were gruesome weapons of war and so controversial that the U.S. military stopped using them after Vietnam.

Once a weapon of war, flamethrowers are now available for sale to the public.

A Cleveland startup called Throwflame is selling some for about $1,600. The flamethrowers can shoot fire for 50 feet.

If $1,600 sounds a little too high, The ION Productions Team in Detroit is selling $900 flamethrowers that can shoot fire for 25 feet.

The flamethrowers, which were given up by the military, are not being marketed as weapons but as fun devices.

Both companies say their flamethrowers have not caused injuries and safety is a priority.

The two companies also said the flamethrowers do have practical uses by farmers and firefighters.

They used to call guys who carried these things in WWII in Europe “Ronsons”, after the famous Cigarette Lighter of the time. Not because of their effect…But because what usually happened to the operator when the tanks were struck by a bullet or shrapnel.

Just what everyone wants their confederate flag waving whack job carrying into a crowded mall or stadium.

Why exactly now, aren’t these things banned?

 

California Drops Grand Juries in the Case of Police Shootings

Progress!

After a string of questionable decision by Grand Juries leading to non-indictments of Policemen being tried for Murder, at least one state has said “Enough” to a corrupt system which illegitimately favors the Police over finding truth.

The Ferguson Grand Jury leading to the release of Officer Wilson even drew the ire of Arch-conservative Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia.

The System needs to be re-evaluated for accountability…And in at leat one State that has happened.

Former Patrolman 1st Class Michael T. Slager shooting a fleeing Walter L. Scott in he back

 

California Bans Use Of Grand Juries In Police Shooting Cases

California will no longer use grand juries in cases involving police shootings of civilians after Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a bill Tuesday banning the secret deliberations.

SB 227, authored by state Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), makes California the first state to ban the use of grand juries to decide whether law enforcement should face criminal charges in use-of-force cases. The ban, which will go into effect next year, comes after grand juries failed to indict police officers who killed unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York, last year, heightening scrutiny of the process.

Mitchell argues that the grand jury process, during which evidence is presented to a panel of civilians in secret, fosters a lack of trust in the system.

“One doesn’t have to be a lawyer to understand why SB227 makes sense,”  Mitchell said in a statement, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “The use of the criminal grand jury process, and the refusal to indict as occurred in Ferguson and other communities of color, has fostered an atmosphere of suspicion that threatens to compromise our justice system.”

Under the new rules, prosecutors must decide whether police officers should face criminal charges for killing someone in the line of duty.

Brown also signed the Right to Record Act Tuesday, which clarifies civilians’ right to record police officers.

 

 

St. Kitt and Nevis Athlete Kicked Out of Olympics… For spending Night With Wife

Dang! It appears in St Kitt and Nevis your wife is on the list of “banned substances!

Not going to get any of that “Sexual Healing” and still run…

London 2012: Kim Collins axed from 100m by St Kitts for meeting wife

Lane four stood empty during the final heat of the men’s 100m in the Olympic Stadium on Saturday, after the former world champion Kim Collins was dropped by St Kitts and Nevis for spending the night in a hotel with his wife.

A furious Collins announced via Twitter that he would not be competing for his country again, claiming that his appearance at the Pan American Games in Mexico last year would be his last. “For those who saw me run in Mexico. That’s the last time I represent my country,” he said.

A spokesman for his home Olympic committee said Collins, who was competing at his fifth Olympic Games, would not participate in the 100m as a disciplinary measure after he flouted team rules by leaving the athletes’ village without permission.

The spokesman said Collins had not been in the camp for “the last couple of days” and is believed to have been staying with his wife in a hotel.

Earlier Collins had posted a message on Twitter, reading: “My fans. I won’t lie. Won’t be running later tonight.” Another message read: “Even men in prison get their wives to visit.”

The 2003 world champion, who is 36, carried his country’s flag at the Olympic opening ceremony just over a week ago. Collins finished seventh in the 2000 Olympic 100m final and sixth in Athens in 2004. He won bronze in the 100m at last year’s world championships in Daegu,South Korea, but with a season’s best time of 10.05sec would have found it difficult to earn a place in Sunday’s final.

Collins remains as an entrant in the 200m and 4x100m but team officials said they were unable to confirm whether he would compete.

Collins is the second of an original seven-athlete Olympics team from St Kitts and Nevis to be disciplined.

The sprinter Tameka Williams, the only woman on the team, was sent home last weekend for a potential drug violation despite not testing positive for a banned drug.

The St Kitts and Nevis Olympic Committee said Williams had acknowledged using a substance which was “clearly outside the medical code”.