Ex-U.S. soldier 'Rambo' gets 20 years in prison in murder-for-hire case

A former U.S. Army sergeant nicknamed "Rambo" who prosecutors say supervised an international band of hit men and mercenaries was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Tuesday for conspiring to kill a federal drug agent and an informant.

U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan said Joseph Hunter, 51, deserved a lengthy sentence given the "grave and serious" crimes he committed and his guilty plea to charges including that he conspired to murder a law enforcement officer.

"The crimes you committed are serious, and the sentence you received today reflects that," Swain said.

Hunter, a former Army sergeant with over 20 years of military experience, apologized in court, saying he would still be with his family "if I only asked myself what God would have wanted me to do."

The case stemmed from a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation that followed the arrest in Liberia in 2012 of Hunter's boss, Paul Le Roux, the Zimbabwe-born head of a multinational criminal organization.

Le Roux subsequently agreed to cooperate with authorities, admitting to his involvement in shipping drugs and weapons around the world and to having ordered various murders, according to court records.

Le Roux also helped authorities pursue cases against others, including Hunter, who prosecutors said had performed and overseen contract killings and other violent crimes for him.

During a sting operation, Hunter, at Le Roux's request, assembled a team of former soldiers to provide security to DEA informants posing as Colombian drug traffickers, according to court papers.

Hunter's mercenary squad used Thailand as its base and performed several tasks in 2013, including assisting a purported 300-kilogram cocaine transaction in the Bahamas, prosecutors said.

For $800,000, Hunter and two ex-soldiers, Dennis Gogel of Germany and former U.S. Army Sergeant Timothy Vamvakias, also agreed to assassinate a DEA agent and an agency source in Liberia, prosecutors said.

No murders occurred, though prosecutors said Hunter previously had organized seven murders-for-hire, including of a Philippines woman whose death is the subject of a related case.

Hunter was arrested in Thailand in 2013, and authorities also arrested Gogel, Vamvakias and two other members of Hunter's team, Slawomir Soborski of Poland and Michael Filter of Germany.

The defendants later pleaded guilty. Vamvakias and Gogel were sentenced to 20 years in prison, while Filter received an eight-year term. Soborski's sentencing is set for June 10.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Tom Brown)

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/ex-us-soldier-rambo-gets-20-years-in-prison-in-murder-for-hire-case/ar-BBtHYAL?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=spartandhp

Police Investigating Boys' Parents in Case of Harambe the Gorilla - Breitbart

This is nuts! It appears people would be happier if the Zoo had let the gorilla tear the child asunder. But then people would be expecting the Zoo to throw someone in with the gorillas every week, eh? Otherwise all the apes do is sit around and eat and scratch themselves. Not much to see.

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CINCINNATI (AP) — Police said Tuesday they are investigating the parents of the 3-year-old boy who fell into a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo and had to be rescued by a team that shot the 400-pound animal to death.

Authorities said the investigation will look at the parents’ actions leading up to the incident – not the operation of the zoo, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Police will then confer with prosecutors over whether charges should be filed, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said.

The incident has triggered a furor online, with some saying the boy’s mother should be charged with child endangering, while others want the zoo held responsible for the animal’s death.

Separately, USDA said it will investigate Saturday’s incident for any violations of the Animal Welfare Act.

Zoo authorities said the unidentified boy climbed over a 3-foot-high railing, walked through bushes and plunged about 15 feet into a shallow moat. The zoo’s dangerous-animal response team killed the gorilla as it dragged the boy through the water, authorities said. The boy had only minor scrapes on his head and knee, according to police.

Ohio State University criminal law professor Ric Simmons said he doubts a charge of child endangering could be proved in this instance, since the offense typically involves leaving a youngster unattended for an extended time, not a case of a child momentarily wandering off.

“The mother was standing next to a zoo exhibit and lost track of her child for perhaps a minute or so,” Simons said in an email. “That has happened to almost every parent in the world in a public place.”

The boy’s family said he is “doing just fine” at home, and it had no further comment.

A federal inspection by USDA less than two months ago found no problems with the Gorilla World exhibit, but earlier zoo inspections detailed an incident in March in which polar bears escaped through an open den door into a behind-the-scenes hallway. No one was hurt, but an inspector warned that the public could have been “at great risk for injury, harm or death.”

Zoo director Thane Maynard said that using tranquilizers on the gorilla would not have knocked the animal out right away, leaving the boy in danger. Maynard said 17-year-old Harambe was agitated by the commotion from the crowd and was extremely powerful, capable of crushing a coconut in one hand.

He said the zoo remains safe for its 1.6 million annual visitors, but a review is underway to determine whether any improvements can be made.

Donald Trump weighed in Tuesday, saying the zoo had little choice but to kill the gorilla. Trump said it was “a very tough call,” but the child’s life was at stake.

The executive director of a Cincinnati-based animal rights organization is calling on the USDA to fine the zoo.

“The barrier obviously isn’t sufficient to keep the public out,” said Michael Budkie of Stop Animal Exploitation NOW. “Otherwise, Harambe wouldn’t be dead.”

Jack Hanna, host of “Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild,” said the zoo made the right call by shooting the gorilla, telling WBNS-TV: “I’ll bet my life on this, that child would not be here today.”

In an interview with Boston TV station WFXT, conservationist and television host Jeff Corwin suggested that the boy’s family should shoulder some of the blame, saying: “Zoos aren’t your baby sitter.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/05/31/police-investigating-boys-parents-in-case-of-harambe-the-gorilla/

SLATE Is Right; Libertarians Are Loons

Yeah the problem with party Libertarians is that they attach themselves to crackpot positions. Which is why the party will go nowhere as a viable third party. Ever.  ‘L’ Liberations don’t get that being for open borders is a suicide pact since they will be inviting in people who will not support their small government / laissez faire point of view.

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In the broken-clock-is-right-twice-a-day department, Slate.com reminds us today of the big reason libertarians go nowhere in presidential elections, and why the party will never be a viable political alternative to the Democrats and Republicans: They’re nuts.

Listen to part of the description of their convention and possible candidates for president:

Consider: [Anti-virus tycoon John] McAfee — who fled his own Central American residential compound while under suspicion by the Belizean government for the murder of his neighbor; who openly admits that said compound featured a harem of teenage Belizean sex workers; who likes to talk about the time a 16-year-old Belizean prostitute tried to shoot him in the head at point blank range; who bounced around the hotel halls wearing a three-piece suit and a pair of Nikes like some kind of Mad Hatter on meth — had regularly polled in third place for the nomination in the lead-up to the convention and even seemed to have a puncher’s chance to win. Further consider: He was barely the weirdest candidate on the scene.

Polling second coming into the convention, just ahead of McAfee, was a guy named Austin Petersen. Petersen’s 35 and looks 14, but question if he’s seasoned enough and he’ll yelp, “Tell that to the Marquis de Lafayette.” His go-to applause line: “I want gay couples to defend their marijuana fields with fully automatic weapons.” Polling fourth, one slot behind McAfee, was a fellow named Darryl W. Perry, who accepts campaign donations only in the form of precious metals and cryptocurrency and who opted to have his nominating speech delivered by an “erotic services provider” who goes by the moniker “Starchild.” Perry’s most animated moment in the debate came when he slammed his fist against his lectern, forehead veins a-popping, as he insisted that 5-year-old children should have the legal right to inject heroin without adult supervision. [Libertarians Are Loons, By Seth Stevenson, May 31, 2016]

Yes, they want to abolish the income tax and Social Security and the rest. But they also want to abolish driver’s licenses and competency licensing for doctors and plumbers, which is self-evidently crazy. (I’d like to see the libertarian who goes to a neurosurgeon who is not board certified and licensed by the state to practice medicine).

Of course, they favor open borders, a flatly self-defeating position, given that 99 percent of the people coming into the country will vote for statist Democrats and hate libertarian political ideas. Libertarians loathe the very idea of nationhood.

Slate’s description of the event shows that every libertarian convention is a gathering of crackpots. One of them is “Vermin Supreme,” a “longtime campaign performance artist who was wearing a rubber boot on his head” who held up “pieces of toast with his face on them.”

The Libertarians’ candidate for president is Gary Johnson, the former governor who “has invested in a cannabis company, and he freely admits he’s consumed marijuana in the past month.” The crowd booed Johnson when he said driver’s licenses were probably a good idea.

All that said, sex and drugs have always been the top policy concerns of libertarians, which is why, in many a libertarian candidate, you won’t have to look hard to find some connection to drugs, weirdo sex or both.

http://www.vdare.com/posts/slate-is-right-libertarians-are-loons

Katie Couric gun control film entangled in #Gungate and a question of ethics

When even the far left Guardian shows you as being deceptive and unethical about one of their favorite left-wing causes... you are done. - Dean Weingarten, Gun Watch

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Under the Gun’s ‘balanced look’ at issue draws increased skepticism from media and documentary’s subjects with accusations of editing ‘manipulation’

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/28/katie-couric-under-the-gun-documentary-criticism

50% Say Clinton Should Keep Running Even If Indicted - Rasmussen Reports™

Like they say, not all Democrats are horse thieves , but all horse thieves are Democrats.

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Rasmussen Reports - The best place to look for polls that are spot on

Most continue to believe likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is a lawbreaker, but half of all voters also say a felony indictment shouldn’t stop her campaign for the presidency.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 43% of Likely U.S. Voters think Clinton should immediately stop campaigning if she is charged with a felony in connection with her use of a private e-mail server while secretary of State. Fifty percent (50%), however, think she should continue running until a court determines her guilt or innocence. (To see survey question wording, click here.) 

Voters were evenly divided on this question in January, but at that time we didn’t include the name of any candidate. 

Among Democratic voters, 71% believe Clinton should keep running, a view shared by only 30% of Republicans and 46% of voters not affiliated with either major party.

Forty percent (40%) of all voters say they are less likely to vote for Clinton because of the e-mail issue, while nearly half (48%) say it will have no impact on their vote. Just eight percent (8%) say the issue makes them more likely to vote for the former first lady.

Sixty-five percent (65%) consider it likely that Clinton broke the law by sending and receiving e-mails containing classified information through a private e-mail server while serving as secretary of State. This includes 47% who say it’s Very Likely. These findings are unchanged from January. Thirty percent (30%) still say Clinton is unlikely to have broken the law with the e-mail arrangement, with 16% who say it’s Not At All Likely.

(Want a free daily email update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook. 

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on May 29-30, 2016 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology. 

Last August, 46% of all voters - and 24% of Democrats - said Clinton should suspend her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination until all of the legal questions about her use of the private e-mail server are resolved. But just 25% think it is even somewhat likely that Clinton will be indicted.

In a report released last week, the State Department’s inspector general, an Obama appointee, concluded that Clinton knowingly broke department rules by using the private e-mail server for official business including top secret discussions. This contradicts her claims that the arrangement had been officially approved.

Just 30% give Clinton good or excellent marks for her handling of questions about her use of the private e-mail server while secretary of State. Forty-nine percent (49%) rate her performance as poor. This is little changed from voter perceptions last September. 

Democrats are happier with Clinton’s answers than Republicans and unaffiliated voters are. But then 73% of GOP voters and 53% of unaffiliateds say it is Very Likely that Clinton broke the law with her use of the private e-mail server during her years as secretary of State. Only 18% of Democrats agree.

Women are slightly less critical of Clinton's handling of the situation than men are and are more supportive of her staying in the race if indicted. 

Those under 40 are less convinced than their elders are that Clinton broke the law and are more supportive of her staying in the race even if indicted. But roughly 40% of voters of all ages are less likely to vote for Clinton because of the e-mail issue.

Black voters are much less likely than white and other minority voters to think Clinton broke the law and feel much more strongly that she should keep running if indicted.

Ninety-two percent (92%) of Democrats believe Clinton is likely to be their party’s presidential nominee, with 62% who say it’s Very Likely. 

Clinton is essentially tied with presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump in Rasmussen Reports’ latest weekly White House Watch survey. We will update those numbers Thursday morning.

Voters tend to think Hillary Clinton will work better with the United States’ allies if elected president but are evenly divided over whether she or Trump will be tougher with this nation's enemies. 

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/may_2016/50_say_clinton_should_keep_running_even_if_indicted

Prosecutor: Officer-involved shooting during Cincinnati bank robbery was justified

.380 has a maximum diameter of .374.  A .38 Special has a case diameter of .380.  Thus a .380 does not have a way to head space in a .38 Special chamber.  For the uninformed, a box of ammunition labeled .380 may appear to be correct for a firearm labeled .38 Special.  – Dean Weingarten, Gun Watch.

FYI: a .38 Special cartridge has a rim which holds it in place in the chamber of revolver cylinder. A .380 ACP cartridge case is rimless, as well as being much shorter in length than the .38 Special cartridge. Therefore it would drop deep into the chamber of a revolver cylinder such that the firing pin would fail to hit the cartridge’s primer igniting the powder charge in the cartridge.  This is why the robber’s .38 Special revolver failed to fire when loaded with .380 ACP cartridges. Doah!

The .380 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) cartridge was designed by John M. Browning in 1903 for use in the semi-automatic pistol he designed for Colt. The .380 ACP continues to be very popular today because it works very well in small pocket-sized semi-automatic handguns and still gives some punch by dint of its larger bore diameter compared to smaller “mouse gun” cartridges like the .22, .25 and .32. Cartridges for semi-automatic handguns are typically shorter than revolver cartridges since they were designed to use fast burning smokeless powders which require less volume to achieve higher velocities. Many revolver cartridges were originally designed to use black powder which requires extra volume but still gives lower muzzle velocities than comparable smokeless powder cartridges. However, to add to the confusion, Taurus currently manufactures a “snub-nosed” revolver (the Ultra Lite) that is chambered for the .380 cartridge to take advantage of the plethora of .380 ACP cartridges being marketed today and for those customer who prefer the reliability and ease of use of revolvers. Some unique design changes are required for a revolver to be able to chamber and extract a "rimless” cartridge designed to work in a semi-automatic gun. Typically “half-moon” or “full-moon” cartridge clips are used to facilitate the loading and extraction of rimless cartridges in a revolver.

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See video…

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said the fatal officer-involved shooting at a Fifth Third Bank will not even be taken to a grand jury. Deters said the incident "was as clean a police-involved shooting that I've ever seen."

Deters, Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac and Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco released the May 25 surveillance video from inside the Madisonville bank. Terry Frost, 20, was killed.

Deters says it took just two seconds for Frost to enter the Madison Road bank and vault over the teller's desk. He went straight to a teller who was counting $90,000 from an ATM. Deters says "it would be hard to believe he didn't know that money was sitting there."

Officer Kevin Hankerson was off-duty and working a security detail at the bank. He quickly raised his gun toward Frost, who was pointing a grocery bag-covered hand toward the teller. Hankerson pushed another bank employee out of the way and fired two shots at Frost, as Frost was trying to make his escape.

"Officer Hankerson committed a great act of bravery in his actions and he should be commended for what he did," said Deters.

Sammarco says he was shot in the back with an exit wound in his chest. It didn't hit an aorta, which is how Frost was able to run off. He was found dead in a wooded area on Ebersole.

If Terry Frost did try to fire his gun, he was unsuccessful because he had the wrong type of ammunition in his gun. Police confirmed to FOX 45 sister station Local 12 in Cincinnati that Frost was carrying a .38 Special but had loaded .380 ammo.

Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac said there had been an attempt to fire the gun but they can't be sure it was during that robbery at the Fifth Third Bank on Madison Road.

Frost's father said Thursday that he knew his son made a bad choice but doesn't believe he should have died. "The 20-year-old man committed a senseless and violent act," said Deters, "but he's still somebody's kid. I think the chief will agree with me, it's still a very sad time for his family."

http://abc22now.com/news/local/prosecutor-officer-involved-shooting-during-cincinnati-bank-robbery-was-justified

An American Defense Worker Describes His Youth In Hispanic-Occupied Albuquerque, Where They Rioted Against Trump

Re: Allan Wall’s post Rioters Prove Mexicans “Not Criminals” By Committing Criminal Acts; Prove Their Loyalty To The U.S. By Brandishing The Mexican Flag–Brilliant Strategy!

From: An American Defense Worker [Email him]

I’m not entirely surprised that violent protests against The Donald erupted in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Albuquerque is far from being a quaint town with Indian Jewelry gift stores and confusing intersections where Bugs Bunny should have turned one direction or the other. Instead, it is a microcosm of America’s future should the immigration disaster continue and not be reversed.

I lived in Albuquerque through my childhood, and if the child makes the man, my experience there has made me a fanatic VDARE.com reader and donor to the best of my ability. The town is heavily Hispanic, with a large proportion of Pueblo Indians. As a result the racial tensions are quite severe. It is really no different than a place like Sarajevo or Belfast.

In Albuquerque one can really see the difference between the Siesta culture south of the border and the more dynamic Anglo culture. This is exacerbated in that the Anglos in the state have normally been brought in as part of the Federal Government’s various military and military-industrial projects.

The Anglos there are thus fit, highly intelligent, highly disciplined, and highly motivated. This contrasts with the Hispanic culture a great deal. The vast cultural differences are best seen rather than described, but I’ll attempt to give a feel of what it is like in such an environment. Albuquerque is the only city that I’ve lived in where one’s sweaty gym clothes and used deodorant sticks were a target for thieves in the school locker room.

It wasn’t until I moved to a nearly all white part of America that I realized just how low-class the thieving was in New Mexico. In the school’s hallways, fights broke out all the time. Again, I didn’t see so many violent educational distractions in the Mid-West. Even Little League Baseball is corrupt. My fellow Anglo 5th graders played against Hispanic teams that must have been filled with 18 year old “children.” Now of course, I seriously question the system that fostered such a society, but as a child it seemed normal.

There is no way around it, Albuquerque is a mean town—of course it isn’t the “town” that’s mean any more than it is “schools” that are “…bad.”

See previous letters from the same reader.

http://www.vdare.com/letters/an-american-defense-worker-describes-his-youth-in-hispanic-dominated-albuquerque-where-they-rioted-against-trump

Vox Popoli: What can have changed?

The US infrastructure is decaying and local, state, and federal governments all lack the wherewithal to effectively replace it. I wonder what could possibly explain this loss of capability?

Guess what blatant reactionary wrote the following words: “It seems plausible to wonder if government can build a nation abroad, fight social decay, run schools, mandate the design of cars, run health insurance exchanges, or set proper sexual harassment policies on college campuses, if it can’t even fix a 232-foot bridge competently.”

Stumped? The answer is Lawrence Summers, secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton administration, presidential senior economic adviser in the Obama administration and, in between, president of Harvard, writing in the Washington Post. For more on the fiasco of the rebuilding of the Larz Anderson Bridge, between Cambridge and Boston’s Allston neighborhood, see another opinion article by Summers in the Boston Globe.

As it happens, I wrote a column myself back in 2010 on how long it was taking to fix the Humpback Bridge, a portion of George Washington Parkway which rises about 30 feet above an inlet of the Potomac. From the top of that bridge you can see the Pentagon, still the world’s largest office building, which was built in 18 months. I’ve had occasion also to write columns on how excellent books by Philip K. Howard, Peter Schuck and John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge which illustrate that, as I put it, “gummit don’t work good.” And I’ve written more recently on the tragic deterioration of the Metro, Washington’s “Great Society Subway.”

So even as we hear from Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton how government is going to painlessly provide us with free healthcare, free college and free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (uh, just kidding about the last one), we see all around us how government is unable to do things it could easily do 50, 100 and (think Flint water) 150 years ago. What makes anyone think it can take on additional tasks and perform them satisfactorily? Apparently Summers, lifelong Democrat and frequent advocate of more government spending on infrastructure, is having his doubts.

Interesting. "We see all around us how government is unable to do things it could easily do 50, 100 and 150 years ago." I wonder what changed 50 years ago? When would that have been, 1966, right?

Now, what happened in 1965?

This is the result of losing a mere 4-5 IQ points on average. Imagine what the USA is going to look like when the idiocratic average declines another 5 points.

Labels: decline and fall

https://voxday.blogspot.com/2016/05/what-can-have-changed.html

VIDEO: Americans Have No Idea What Memorial Day Is

  Mark Dice’s “man of the street” interviews are pretty funny, especially given how hilariously uninformed the people he approaches are. However, we should keep in mind where he is conducting his interview (i.e. the Boardwalk in San Diego, CA) and thus who he is selecting as his interviewees before we make sweeping judgments about the state of the union based on their responses. Judging by their lack of focus many of these people are quite obliviously “baked” on California’s potent “weed”.

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Memorial Day is about paying respect to those who fought and died while serving their country to protect the freedoms that Americans enjoy.

It’s not about remembering Neil Armstrong, celebrating LGBT issues, the first flight of the Wright brothers, or the freeing of the slaves.

When Mark Dice asked San Diegans what they thought the military holiday was all about, the response was demoralizing.

Dice first asks a young woman, “What’s the purpose of Memorial Day?”, to which she refuses to even come up with an answer, asking, “Do I have to do this?”

Another African-American man is then told that Memorial Day is about celebrating the repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ and the “inclusiveness of the LGBT community.”

“I love the LGBT community, I’m all about it,” he responds.

“What is the purpose of Memorial Day?” Dice asks another man. “No clue, that’s my answer,” he bluntly replies.

Another man tells Dice that he would need to sit down and think about it before he could specifically say what Memorial Day was.

Failing to challenge Dice’s assertion that Memorial Day is about “the freeing of the slaves and the end of the civil war,” another man says he will commemorate the occasion by “doing some drinking.”

A man wearing a red shirt and hat then agrees that it was right for the government to cancel NASA’s annual Memorial Day celebration of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.

A woman then relates what Memorial Day means to her, “a day off of work on Monday,” before another woman who says she has never took part in any Memorial Day activities agrees that the government is right to cancel Memorial Day, “if it’s in the best interests of the country.”

Told that Memorial Day is to commemorate “the first flight of the Wright brothers,” another man says he will recognize it by “partying” before admitting that he doesn’t know what Memorial Day is.

The video illustrates why Memorial Day observations are in decline, with less than 5 per cent of Americans typically attending a parade or visiting grave sites.

According to a 2000 Gallup poll, two thirds of Americans knew exactly what Memorial Day was about, although a 2011 survey found that 80 per cent of Americans had confessed to having “little” or only “some” knowledge of the military holiday.

http://www.infowars.com/video-americans-have-no-idea-what-memorial-day-is/

Vox Popoli: The Post-Americans

The Post-Americans

Do tell us again how more American than American these immigrants are:

And yet, they somehow always seem to find the time to "honor" obscure third-world trivialities of whom few have ever heard and about whom even less care. Strange, how that works.

Labels: immigration, technology

https://voxday.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-post-americans.html

Automation: Former Restaurant Executive Declares a Robot Arm Is Cheaper Than $15/hour Humans

A one-time CEO of McDonald’s, Ed Rensi, recently appeared on a Fox Business show and explained the financial facts about automation in the fast-food industry: “If the $15 minimum wage goes across the country, you’re going to see job loss like you can’t believe. I was at the National Restaurant Show yesterday and if you look at the robotic devices that are coming into the restaurant industry — it’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient making $15 an hour bagging French fries — it’s nonsense and it’s very destructive and it’s inflationary and it’s going to cause a job loss across this country like you’re not going to believe.”

McDonald’s workers can’t be the sharpest knives in the drawer, otherwise they would see the negative outcome of their noisy demands for $15 per hour — that automation technology would be brought in to replace them more rapidly. Some fast-food restaurants have already installed computerized kiosks or tablets on tables for non-human ordering.

The union bosses who are pushing the worker demonstrations surely know about the automation juggernaut, but must think that the publicity provides some relevance for the fading union movement. To them, the inevitable job loss for thousands of poor people apparently counts for little. The transition to automation was coming anyway in the fast-food business where labor costs are a big part of expenses, but the Fight for $15 movement is accelerating layoffs.

Meanwhile, the current CEO of McDonald’s Steve Easterbrook responded to Rensi with nonsensical remarks at a shareholder meeting (McDonald’s CEO says $15 hourly wage, robots won’t kill jobs, Reuters May 26):

“I don’t see it being a risk to job elimination,” Easterbrook said when asked about the wage/robot theory. “Ultimately we’re in the service business. We will always have an important human element.”

McD’s customer base is pretty similar to its workforce, so Easterbrook probably didn’t want to look unfriendly to the general community, hence the illogical blather. In the real world, if robots replace workers, then there will be fewer job slots available for humans.

All in all, automation is shrinking job opportunities across the working spectrum, from highly skilled legal research to lower-skilled factory and food service jobs. Therefore, America doesn’t need to import immigrant workers to do jobs that will no longer exist for humans.

In fact,

Automation makes immigration obsolete.

Here’s the aforementioned Ed Rensi, discussing the automation revolution happening in the fast-food business:

http://www.vdare.com/posts/former-restaurant-executive-declares-a-robot-arm-is-cheaper-than-15hour-humans

Canada's Trudeau defends assisted suicide bill as deadline nears

Another option for the “nevertrump people.

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By Rod Nickel

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - A bill legalizing medically-assisted suicide in Canada strikes the right balance between defending fundamental freedoms and protecting against abuses, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday, predicting confusion if it is not approved.

The draft legislation, introduced by Trudeau's Liberal government in April, would allow people with incurable illnesses or disabilities to end their lives with a medical professional's help, but stopped short of extending the right to minors and the mentally ill.

"There are people who think we should have gone further with this bill, there are people who think we already went too far," Trudeau told reporters at a Liberal convention in Winnipeg.

"Making this first step a responsible, prudent one that gets the balance right between protecting vulnerable Canadians and defending rights and freedoms is what we have focused on and I'm confident that we got that balance right."

The Supreme Court of Canada overturned a ban on medical-assisted suicide last year and gave the new government until June 6 to come up with a law, adding Canada to the handful of Western countries that allow the practice.

Trudeau said he expected Parliament to meet that deadline. He added, however, that failing to do so could lead to uneven access to assisted dying across Canada. If new legislation is not in place by June 6, last year's Supreme Court ruling comes into effect, allowing assisted dying for those with a "grievous and irremediable" medical condition.

Some Canadians who should have access to medically-assisted death may not get it if doctors conclude there isn't legal protection for them, while others may gain access to it when they should not, he said.

Trudeau's Liberals hold a majority of seats in Canada's House of Commons, but not in the Senate. Bills must pass both chambers on their way to becoming law.

(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Paul Simao)

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/canadas-trudeau-defends-assisted-suicide-bill-deadline-nears-212218173.html

Guess How Many Americans Over 55 Don't Have Any Retirement Savings

Hint: It's kind of scary.

You've probably heard that most Americans aren't saving nearly as much as they should for retirement. But it's not just carefree 20-somethings putting retirement savings on the back burner. According to a recent survey by GoBankingRates, about 30% of those 55 and over admit to having no retirement savings whatsoever.

Meanwhile, 26% report having balances of less than $50,000, which is far behind where the average person in that age group should be. And while the study confirms that Americans on the whole are failing to save adequately, it's older Americans without Without independent savings, many older Americans will be forced to rely solely on Social Security income during retirement. The problem there is that Social Security is only designed to replace 40% of the average American's pre-retirement income. Most of us will need anywhere from 70% to 80% of our pre-retirement income once we retire, and some of us might need even more -- especially those with medical conditions requiring costly care. Failing to save for retirement now means running the risk of not having enough money to live on once you're no longer working. And that's a very scary prospect.

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http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/guess-how-many-americans-over-55-dont-have-any-retirement-savings/ar-BBtB9A4?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=spartandhp