Protester disrupts VW at motor show to remind of scandal

A protester, who was identified by The Telegraph as comedian Simon Brodkin, crashed VW’s press conference at the Geneva Motor Show to remind everyone that the automaker installed illegal software in its turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engines to meet U.S. standards during regulatory testing.

Brodkin, dressed in VW-branded coveralls, interrupted VW passenger car board member Juergen Stackmann as he presented the company’s electric Up! city car. Brodkin walked onto stage holding a box emblazoned with the words “cheat box” on it. “Excuse me, I have the new cheat box,” he says. Turning to the audience, Brodkin theatrically walks over to VW’s Up! vehicle on stage and says “No one’s going to find out about this one.”

“It doesn’t need a repair, it’s a perfect car,” Stackmann says in response. As the security guards roll onto the stage (rather casually) the comedian refers to the VW CEO and says, “Mr. Müller says it’s okay as long as no one finds out.” As he’s being escorted off stage, he once more turns to the crowd and says, “Just keep it quiet this time and it will be okay.” He then turns to Stackmann, and says, “Did you not get the memo?”

http://fortune.com/2016/03/01/protester-volkswagen-geneva/

it looks as of now like it will be Hilary vs trump

it still blows my mind that this fascist is garnering so much support.

altho I am no fan of hilary, I hope that if this is the line-up- that people will vote dem in such numbers as to crush trump --
altho I am not very optimistic.
but that is my hope.

somebody tell me pls - about the Secret Service ejecting people from trump rallies

I heard on Democracy Now just now TWO incidents where the Secret Service at the request of d.dumptrump., ejected people. Including a group of young Black people who were standing silently.
Aren't the Secret Service employees of the Federal Govt?
how do they become goons for trump?

Hillary Clinton’s Top Financial Supporter Now Controls “The Onion”

Many news outlets covered Univision Communications’ purchase last week of a stake in The Onion, the world’s leading news publication. According to NPR, Univision bought a 40 percent controlling interest in the company, and also acquired the option to buy the remainder of The Onion in the future.

But what’s gotten no attention at all is that Haim Saban, Hillary Clinton’s biggest fan and financial supporter, is Univision’s co-owner and chairman. Saban and his wife, Cheryl, are Hillary Clinton’s top financial backers, having given $2,046,600 to support her political campaigns and at least $10 million more to the Clinton Foundation, on whose board Cheryl Saban sits. The Sabans are also generous supporters of the overall Democratic Party infrastructure, donating, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a total of $16.1 million since 1989 to Democratic and liberal candidates, party committees, leadership PACs, and federally focused 527s.

Evidence mounts for interbreeding bonanza in ancient human species

The discovery of yet another period of interbreeding between early humans and Neanderthals is adding to the growing sense that sexual encounters among different ancient human species were commonplace throughout their history.


Neanderthals had outsize effect on human biology
“As more early modern humans and archaic humans are found and sequenced, we’re going to see many more instances of interbreeding,” says Sergi Castellano, a population geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. His team discovered the latest example, which they believe occurred around 100,000 years ago, by analysing traces of Homo sapiens DNA in a Neanderthal genome extracted from a toe bone found in a cave in Siberia.

http://www.nature.com/news/evidence-mounts-for-interbreeding-bonanza-in-ancient-human-species-1.19394

Anyone have or know of a credit card company/bank which does NOT outsource its customer service?

I am not suggesting people in other countries are ruder than Americans, but I do suggest that the working conditions of the outsourced customer service operations plus the sometimes less than perfect use of English, has made my experience with outsourced customer service COMPLETELY awful.

I have been hung up on, - after being on hold for 10 minutes - bec. I very politely asked someone to repeat what they said bec. I couldn't understand them.

It is also my experience that companies that keep their operations here instead of outsourcing them, have more of a commitment to customer service.

I just went thru a terrible experience with the outsourced customer service of a vitamin company.
Now I have to deal with my bank to make sure that the company is not paid for something that was put on my credit card, but was never received.
OOF- my bank's customer service is also outsourced! and I dread going thru this.

So does anyone have a credit card issued by a company that keeps jobs in this country?
Or any idea how I could find one?

thank you.

any "Black Poets" fans here?

I'm trying to remember a line which went something like
"22% prefer Skippy (peanut butter)"

can't find it.
thanks.

I think it was the Black Poets. Now that I think about it could have been Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (H Rap Brown).

but no- I hear the rythym in my head, it must be the Poets.

Need some love: DU friend had 2 strokes.

a friend went into hospital for knee replacement, and had 2 strokes.
(she is a member here, but since I don't have her permission will not mention her name)
I actually met her thru this forum just one year ago, and we have been emailing since - every day, sometimes more than once a day.
She lives in another state, I have never met her in person, but we do talk on the phone.

so since the strokes, she can talk, I talk to her in the hospital every day.
She says the docs have said there will be no permanent effect.
Good news.
but it is strange talking to her, one moment she will be completely lucid, the next, she says things, words, that make no sense. And she cannot make sentences sometimes - she just stops.
So I tell her it is ok, not to worry.

then, on Tuesday, same day I found out about this friend -^, I was sitting in the lobby of the Senior building where I live, and there is an ambulance outside.
(a very common occurance)
and who do they bring thru on a stretcher but someone I know who we have just begun creating a friendship!
She is young, Not even 50 I would say. Very vital, active person. Interesting.

She was laying face up in the stretcher, her eyes open- staring up. I called her name. She did not respond.
I asked around the building, staff and friends, and no one has any info.
I left a msg on her cell, which not surprisingly she hasn't yet responded to.

first thing, I'm going to do when she gets out and recovers from whatever it is- is get the name of someone close to, that I can call in case of a situation like this.

it is awful to not know. I feel helpless, I want to ask her if she needs anything, I don't even know what hospital she is in,
and even if I did they won't tell me anything.

i'm 68 years old, and healthy (as far as I know). I'm active, I'm engaged in and with the world.

I feel like people around me are dropping left and right.
I know - at this age - it normal and common to feel this way.
But I don't like it!

thanks for listening to my lament

Black Lives Matter activist kills himself on steps of Ohio Statehouse

Source: AP

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A Black Lives Matter activist killed himself on the steps of the Ohio Statehouse Monday night, authorities said.

MarShawn McCarrel, 23, of Franklin Township, a Columbus suburb, shot himself in front of the Statehouse Monday evening, Lt. Craig Cvetan of the State Highway Patrol told the Columbus Dispatch.

Cvetan told The Associated Press it's unclear why McCarrel killed himself. Authorities say nobody saw the shooting, but McCarrel was seen on Statehouse grounds just before the gunshot. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

"My demons won today. I'm sorry," the activist posted on his Facebook page about 3 p.m. Monday, just hours before his body was found near the Statehouse.

Read more: Link to sourcehttp://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/02/black_lives_matter_activist_ki.html

Is anyone here familiar with NVC- Non-violent Communication? a method

developed by Marshall Rosenberg that is sup'd to help people communicate better.

It may be an excellent method, but someone is using it on me, and I wonder...
if she has the right idea bec. I do not find it enhances communication.

would be interested to hear from anyone who is familiar with this.

thanks.