Herschel Walker’s Bizarre Admission About Having Even More Estranged Kids

There is yet another child Herschel Walker has been hiding from the public, estranged from his father for roughly a decade. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks.

Read more HERE: https://www.mediaite.com/news/just-in…

“Just one day after the news came out about Herschel Walker’s “secret son,” the Georgia Republican Senate nominee confirmed he has at least two more previously unknown children.

The Daily Beast broke the story that Walker had a 10-year-old son who he has virtually no contact with — unlike his other 22-year-old son, Christian, who Walker was actively involved in raising.

The story was shocking to political observers, given that Walker has made a point of blaming African American issues on fatherless households; and yet, the mother of Walker’s 10-year-old son born out of wedlock had to sue him about a decade ago for child support and a declaration of his paternity.

The Beast followed up by reporting they received a statement from Walker wherein he confirms that he has a 13-year-old son born to a woman living in Texas, plus an adult daughter who he had while he was in college. Walker’s campaign took umbrage with the notion that these children were being kept secret — citing a form he filled out in 2018 in order to join President Donald Trump’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition.

The form reportedly bears the names and ages of Walker’s kids.”

They just walked by without looking or seeming to care

Hello all great people. It is 2 PM and I am finally getting to sit at the computer and share my thoughts and answer comments. Let me start by saying to ended up having to go to bed really early yesterday afternoon and stayed there until 7 this morning. So little got done yesterday.

This morning after coffee and doing some online bill paying, we decided to go to a local store and get me new sneakers. I have not had new ones in 3 or four 4 years and the sole on one of them was separating from the rest of the shoe like they were of two different political parties. So we went, I found a pair of shoes I like, was stunned at the price of nearly $100 dollars and Ron found a new shirt he liked that was sunscreen rated. Then on the way home we stopped at one of the local grocery stores so Ron could go in and get a few things. As I sat in the car, I noticed a man in a wheelchair pushing his cart up to his car. I had not noticed him before so have no idea of how long it took him or how hard the struggle but I can image it was a very hard thing trying to move your chair while pushing a full sized shopping cart. I watched him sit in his chair and reach over the top of the cart as far as he could, remove an item or small bag and turn sideways to put it in his trunk.

I watched 5 people going in each direction just walk by this man. I was stunned. These people seemed in no hurry, the ones going in had no reason not to stop or help, but they ignored him. As I started to get out of my car I noticed a car pull in next to him and a young man get out, so I thought surely a young guy will help but instead he took a nearby cart which he gave to an older man who got out of the passenger seat. They started to walk by the man in the wheelchair. I figure sure the young guy would offer to help but he never even glanced at the disabled man. I was furious.

So I got out of my car, grabbed my cane and walked over to ask the man if he would like some help. He beamed at me. He told me no one offers to help. They just walk by. He had only one leg. After we were done he thanked me and not thinking I walked back to my car. I sat down rather happy with myself and angry at other people, as I watched the man roll over to the driver’s door, open it, roll back to passenger door and open it. I thought maybe he forgot something. Then using the car door and the roof of the car he stood up, and with one hand he pushed the chair up against his leg and folded it. Then I realized what I forgot. He still had to get into the car. Shit. I watched him pick up the folded chair and push it in the back seat, then close the door and hop on one leg to the front door and ease down in the car. I never thought to ask him if he needed more help. I just took his thanks and left thinking job done. I should know better as a disabled person myself.

I am lucky I have both Ron and James to help me and we all take care of each other. I often offer to help people in stores riding the scooters get stuff, but I never asked how do they get the scooter before they enter the store? Only one local store has baggers that offer to take everyone’s cart or accompany people using scooters to their cars, all for free. I admit I watch abled bodied people take advantage with mixed feelings; I only take them up on it when I really am struggling. They refuse any tip, it is part of the service the store offers, they take the cart out and load the groceries in your car for you, rain or shine. It is Publix and I love the store. Unfortunately, they tend to have higher prices. Ron uses Publix, Winne Dixie, and Walmart. Sometimes if he gets a sale catalog, he goes to places like Save a Lot or Aldis. Ron watches the prices at each store and gets the best buys he can and so he doesn’t use Publix as much as I do as he complains about their prices. Still you cannot argue that cheerful people offering to help you with your groceries when you struggle to walk, it is a great service.

We really need to find a way to get people to see each other and have empathy again. I don’t know how to do it. But I watched able people of all ages walk right by the man in a wheelchair and not even look at him. It made me angry then, now it breaks my heart. Hugs

Spanish Politicians Try to Outlaw Consensual Sex Work, Including Porn

https://www.xbiz.com/news/266829/spanish-politicians-try-to-outlaw-consensual-sex-work-including-porn

What is it that some people have against sex and especially they are against other people having sex in a way that they don’t like? I don’t get it. I have lived in countries where prostitution was legal and regulated, which made it safe and available for everyone. I live in the US now where sex is repressively regulated making prostitution illegal which translates to it being unsafe for both the sex workers and the clients. By making sex illegal it introduces a criminal element into it, sex workers cannot report misuse / abuse to authorities as they are subject to punishment themselves. Also it leads to an extremely frustrated segment of the population who resort to calling themselves incels. I really don’t understand the motive of these anti-sex people. What is wrong with consensual sex between adults? Really the idea is it feels great and builds bonds. And if a certain way of having sex is icky or yucky to you, don’t do that type of sex. But why do these people feel they have the right to tell everyone else what sex to have, when, and with who? I really don’t understand. But I do notice again these anti-sex people have to fall back on tropes to make their proposals seem more reasonable than dictatorial. We have to protect the vulnerable, we have to protect the kids, we have to stop trafficking, we have to stop pimping … and so on. But they never mention the truth is that legalized sex work lowers crime in sex work, gives the vulnerable an economic way to advance themselves, gives the workers freedom to report abuses against them, removes the profit for illegal activities. A progressive attitude about sex leads to a healthier people and country. Anyway. Give it a read and let me know how you feel about consensual sex.

MADRID — Spanish sex workers and adult industry figures are sounding the alarm about a proposed new law, supported by politicians from both the ruling and opposition parties, aiming to outlaw all forms of paid sex work — including commercial pornography.

Last week, the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, known as PSOE, introduced a proposal for an “abolitionist law against sexual exploitation,” something that had been included in the party’s platform.

But the draft includes a new section, 187, which explicitly outlaws audiovisual productions, magazines or internet content deemed “pornographic,” the El Español newspaper reported yesterday.

Prominent politicians within PSOE, which took power in 2019 after several years of conservative rule under the Partido Popular, have taken up the abolition of sex work as their personal cause. These include the party’s General Vice-Secretary Adriana Lastra, who last month took to the press to promote a change in the Spanish penal code to mandate up to three years of jail time for anyone paying for sex.

Lastra framed the effort as an attempt to reach out to the right, saying she hoped both the conservative PP and the left-wing minority alliance, Unidas Podemos, would vote for it.

The proposed legislation would revive the crimes of “proxenetism,” meaning pimping or pandering, and “tercería locativa” or brothel keeping. Both were removed from the penal code in 1995 by a previous Socialist administration.

The language used by the PSOE exclusively uses the Spanish feminine “prostituta,” which is both stigmatizing and criminalizing, and also essentializes sex work as a female occupation.

The law also conflates legal minors with the much vaguer “persons in situation of vulnerability,” which could be deployed by authorities to apply to whomever they wish.

A Left-Right Alliance to Re-Criminalize Consensual Sex Work

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has actively campaigned for “the abolition of prostitution,” including during the most recent PSOE convention, in Valencia last October.

Last month, PSOE attempted to sneak the new criminalization provision into a popular “Sólo Sí Es Sí” (“Only Yes Means Yes”) sexual consent law. A last-minute amendment outlawing sex work was requested by the conservative PP and Sánchez negotiated to slap it onto that much less controversial law, behind the backs of the minority parties that are part of his legislative alliance.

However, those parties — Unidas Podemos, ERC and Bildu — threatened to “vote against the entire ‘Sólo Sí Es Sí’ law if it included the PP-driven anti-sex-work amendment,” government sources leaked to the press.

PSOE decided to remove the amendment and reintroduce the abolitionist reform on its own. The ruling party also has shown a strange desire to rush the process “as soon as possible,” government sources confirmed to El Español.

Lastra told the press that Spain “must be a dignified country” and cannot continue “turning a blind eye to this grave violation of human rights.”

According to the PSOE, anyone who opposes to the party’s extreme Nordic Model reform is on the side of the “exploitation of women” and against “human rights.”

Noted Industry Voices Erika Lust, Paulita Pappel Speak Out Against the Law

Noted Swedish-Spanish adult filmmaker, producer and studio owner Erika Lust took to Twitter today to sound the alarm about the impending government attempt to ban all sex work, including adult performance.

“This International Sex Workers Day, I want to take the opportunity to express my unconditional support to all sex performers currently based in Spain, where the government is once again threatening their safety with prohibitionist bills that claim to ‘protect their rights,’” Lust tweeted.

Noting that the PSOE’s proposed reform “calls for the abolition of all forms of making a profit from the prostitution of others, including porn production,” Lust warned that “it would not matter whether the practice is carried out under exploitation — banned under current law — or if it is independent labor, with consent from all parties involved, following ethical production standards.

“What is presented as an effort to stop exploitation and violence in defense of human rights, in particular women’s rights, ends up being the main source of violence, precariousness and lack of protection for all sex workers — who are already vulnerable as it is,” the Barcelona-based feminist filmmaker continued.

Lust added that “if the government really cares about women’s rights, they should ask how women are treated in the porn industry. Are these women entirely in charge of their own careers? How can we guarantee the basic labor rights of sex workers?”

She quoted fellow pornographer and FSC Europe activist, Spanish-born Paulita Pappel, in noting that “sex work is only safe when it is decriminalized, and pornography is artistic expression and thus a right under freedom of speech.”

By condemning the porn industry “without taking all of these aspects into account, this bill only reinforces the stigma on sex workers and confuses sex work with sex trafficking,” Lust concluded.

Pappel herself issued an impassioned video through her social media explaining the background of the government’s attack on consensual sex work and urging support for the voices of actual sex workers and adult industry stakeholders.

Main Image: Spain’s self-described ‘prostitution abolitionist’ Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez

Japan Is Dropping a Gargantuan Turbine Into The Ocean to Harness ‘Limitless’ Energy

https://www.sciencealert.com/japan-s-dropping-a-kaiju-sized-turbine-into-the-ocean-to-fish-for-limitless-energy

This is fantastic. It shows again that we do not need fossil fuels. We need to go to a sustainable reginal power generating system. Hugs

MIKE MCRAE

10 JUNE 2022

Deep beneath the waves there’s a source of power quite unlike any other. To tap into it, Japanese engineers have constructed a true leviathan, a beast capable of withstanding the strongest of ocean currents to transform its flow into a virtually limitless supply of electricity.

Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries – now known simply as IHI Corporation – has been tinkering with the technology for over a decade now, partnering with New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) in 2017 to put their designs to the test.

In February, the project passed a major milestone with the completion of a successful three-and-a-half year field test in the waters off Japan’s southwestern coast.

The 330-ton prototype is called Kairyu, a word that translates more or less into ‘ocean current’. Its structure consists of a 20 meter (66 foot) long fuselage flanked by a pair of similar-sized cylinders, each housing a power generation system attached to an 11 meter long turbine blade.

(IHI Corp./NEDO)

When tethered to the ocean floor by an anchor line and power cables, the device can orient itself to find the most efficient position to generate power from the push of a deep-water current, and channel it into a grid.

Japan is a country heavily reliant on importing fossil fuels to generate a significant amount of its power. With public sentiment towards nuclear power souring in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan is motivated to use its technological prowess to take advantage of renewable energy sources.

Unfortunately, the mountainous Japanese archipelago provides little scope for vast forests of wind turbines or fields of solar panels. With a location far from neighboring countries, there’s also less opportunity to balance the fluctuations in renewables through energy trade.

One thing the nation does have is vast stretches of coastal water. To the east, the ocean swirls under the might of the North Pacific gyre.

Where the gyre meets Japan, it’s channeled into a relatively strong flow called the Kuroshio current.

IHI estimates that if the energy present in the current could be harnessed, it could feasibly generate around 205 gigawatts of electricity, an amount it claims is in the same ballpark as the country’s current power generation.

That enormous amount of potential in the ocean’s tumultuous movements is also what makes it so hard to use as a power source. The fastest-flowing waters are near the surface, which also happens to be where typhoons can easily destroy power stations.

Kairyu was designed to hover roughly 50 meters below the waves – as it floats towards the surface, the drag created provides the necessary torque on the turbines. Each of the blades rotates in an opposing direction as well, keeping the device relatively stable.

In a flow of two to four knots (around one to two meters per second), Kairyu was found to be capable of churning out a total of 100 kilowatts of power.

Compared with an average offshore wind turbine’s 3.6 megawatts, it might seem like small sparks. But with demonstrated success at withstanding what nature can throw at it, Kairyu could soon have a monster sibling swinging 20-meter-long turbines to generate a more respectable 2 megawatts.

If all goes to plan, we might see a farm of power generators feeding electricity into the grid some time next decade. Whether Kairyu can indeed scale up is left to be seen.

In spite of huge interest in this relatively under-utilized reserve of renewable energy, attempts to wring watts out of the tides, waves, and currents of the open ocean typically end in failure. High engineering costs, environmental limitations, proximity of coastal areas to the grid … all manner of challenges need to be overcome to see projects like this through.

If IHI Corp. can overcome them, there are kaiju-sized benefits to reap, with ocean power potentially providing anywhere from 40 to 70 percent of Japan’s energy needs.

With advances in materials science and a better understanding of the marine environment, somebody is bound to overcome the litany of problems to harness the ocean’s vast supply of energy.

Brexit ‘largely to blame’ for £31bn loss to UK economy, study finds

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/brexit-e2-80-98largely-to-blame-e2-80-99-for-c2-a331bn-loss-to-uk-economy-study-finds/ar-AAYiM1u

Brexit is “largely to blame” for billions being lost in trade and tax revenues in recent years, according to a new study by top economists.

The Centre for European Reform (CEF) said that by the end of last year, Britain’s economy was 5.2 per cent – or £31bn – smaller than it would have been without Brexit and the Covid pandemic.

“We can’t blame Brexit for all of the 5.2 per cent GDP shortfall … but it’s apparent that Brexit is largely to blame,” said John Springford, author of the CEF study.

The CER modelled the performance of a “doppelganger” UK – if the nation had remained inside the EU’s single market – using data from other advanced economies similar to the UK.

Mr Springford said “disentangling” the economic effects of Brexit and Covid in recent years was “difficult” – but said it was clear that the bigger negative impact had come from Brexit.

The economist argues that a huge gap between the current UK and his “doppelganger” economy had opened up before the pandemic struck in the spring of 2020.

Mr Springford said the sluggish economic performance after the end of lockdowns in 2021 also showed that the “sizeable” shortfall was “mostly Brexit and not Covid”.

“The UK ended Covid restrictions sooner than many of its peers, thanks in part to starting its vaccination campaign early in 2021,” he said. “That should have made its recovery from Covid faster than other countries, not slower.”

The report added: “British politicians may find it difficult to ignore the central role of Brexit in the UK’s economic problems for much longer.”

It comes as British firms point to the post-Brexit red tape which is continuing to create costly hold-ups in trade with the EU.

One seafood firm in Northumberland spoke out about the “ridiculous” paperwork which almost caused a £50,000 delivery to be destroyed, since a form signed 43 times did not include a printed name.

The Coquet Island Shellfish Company told the BBC the issue cost the firm up to £15,000 to sort out after several delays. “There have been no discernible benefits of Brexit. Everything takes longer and costs more,” said sales director Jane Pedersen.

An influential committee of MPs recently warned that it was uncertain whether the post-Brexit free trade agreements negotiated by Boris Johnson’s government will provide any “actual economic benefits”.

No 10 confirmed on Friday that controversial new Brexit legislation – designed to take unilateral action to stop checks agreed with the EU as part of the withdrawal deal – will be published in the Commons on Monday.

Conservative party grandee Ken Clarke said the “vast majority” of peers will back attempts to block the bill and “hold it up for a considerable time”.

Meanwhile, Tory peer David Frost, the former Brexit negotiator, has said he is “thinking” about standing as an MP. “We’ll see if the opportunity arises and it might and it might not, we’ll see,” he told LBC. “I am thinking about it.”

New study shows welfare prevents crime, quite dramatically

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/954451

This has been well known for a century, maybe longer. People who have nothing, who are hungry, cold, hopeless will do whatever they can to get what they need, even crime. Let’s give them another way, we can easily afford it in this country if we stop robbing the public to funnel the money to the wealthy. Hugs

A new paper in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that removing cash welfare from children when they reach age 18 greatly increases the chances that they will face criminal justice charges in subsequent years.

Supplemental Security Income is a United States program that provides payments to people with disabilities who have low incomes. Children qualify for the program based on their disability status and their parents’ low income and assets. Until 1996 children automatically continued to qualify for the adult program when they reached 18 years old unless their incomes increased.

As part of changes made to US social welfare programs in 1996 the US Social Security Administration began to reevaluate children receiving SSI when they turned 18 using different, adult, medical eligibility criteria. The Social Security Administration began removing about 40% of children receiving benefits when they turned 18. This process disproportionately removes children with mental and behavioral conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Using data from the Social Security Administration and the Criminal Justice Administrative Records System researchers estimated the effect of losing Supplemental Security Income benefits at age 18 on criminal justice and employment outcomes over the next two decades. By comparing records of children with an 18th birthday after the date of welfare reform enactment on August 22, 1996, and those born earlier (who were allowed onto the adult program without review) the researchers were able to estimate the effect of losing benefits on the lives of the affected youth.

They found that terminating the cash welfare benefits of these young adults increased the number of criminal charges by 20% over the next two decades. The increase was concentrated in what the authors call “income-generating crimes,” like theft, burglary, fraud/forgery, and prostitution. As a result of the increase in criminal charges, the annual likelihood of incarceration increased by 60%. The effect of this income removal on criminal justice involvement persisted more than two decades later.

The researchers found that the impact of the change was heterogeneous. While some people removed from the income support program at age 18 responded by working more in the formal labor market, a much larger fraction responded by engaging in crime to replace the lost income. In response to losing benefits, youth were twice as likely to be charged with an illicit income-generating offense than they were to maintain steady employment.

While each person removed from the program in 1996 saved the government some spending on SSI and Medicaid over the next two decades, each removal also created additional police, court, and incarceration costs. Based on the authors’ calculations, the administrative costs of crime alone almost eliminated the cost savings of removing young adults from the program.

“Traditionally, economists talk about the income effects of welfare programs in the context of the formal labor market—that welfare discourages work,” said the paper’s authors, Manasi Deshpande and Michael Mueller-Smith. “What we find is that the income effect of welfare benefits can also manifest as reductions in criminal activity. In fact, in the SSI context, cash welfare has a much larger discouragement effect on criminal activity than it does on formal work.”

The paper “Does Welfare prevent crime? The criminal justice outcomes of youth removed from SSI” is available (at midnight on June 7^th) at: https://academic.oup.com/qje/advance-article/doi/10.1093/qje/qjac017/6581195.

Direct correspondence to:
Manasi Deshpande
University of Chicago Department of Economics
Saieh Hall for Economics 347
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637 mdeshpande@uchicago.edu

To request a copy of the study, please contact:
Daniel Luzer
daniel.luzer@oup.com

About 5 percent of young adults identify as transgender or nonbinary, U.S. survey finds

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/5-percent-young-adults-identify-transgender-nonbinary-us-survey-finds-rcna32315

Adults younger than 30 are more likely than older adults to say their gender differs from their sex assigned at birth, a new Pew Research Center report found.

The 45th annual Seattle Pride Parade on June 30, 2019. Genna Martin / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images file

June 7, 2022, 12:10 PM EDT

By Zachary Schermele

Approximately 5 percent of young adults in the U.S. identify as transgender or nonbinary, and an increasing number say they know someone who is trans, according to data released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center.

Adults younger than 30 are more likely than older Americans to say their gender differs from their sex assigned at birth. The findings estimate that the total number of adults who identify as transgender or nonbinary (meaning they identify as neither exclusively male nor female) in the U.S. is 1.6 percent.

The new data, which was weighted to be representative of the entire U.S. adult population, comes from an online survey panel from mid-May of 10,188 randomly sampled people. The findings are part of a broader survey that will be released some point this summer about the general public’s “attitudes about gender identity and issues related to people who are transgender or nonbinary,” the report states.

Since 2017, the number of adults who say they know a trans person has been on a slight but steady increase, rising from 37 percent that year to 42 percent in 2021, and 44 percent this year. Although that number decreases as adults get older, a third of those 65 and older in the survey still said they know a transgender person.

More people know transgender people as friends than as co-workers or family members, according to the findings. A little over a quarter of adults said they have a friend who is trans, with roughly 1 in 10 having a trans co-worker or family member.

The survey also found 1 in 5 U.S. adults said they personally know a nonbinary person. A similar Pew survey from last year found an increase — from 18 percent in 2018 to 26 percent in 2021 — in the number of Americans who said they knew someone who preferred using gender-neutral pronouns.

The survey’s estimate of the percentage of trans and nonbinary people in the U.S. is notable because that figure has been historically difficult to gauge, as the Census Bureau has dragged its feet on updating its questions to be more inclusive. In 2016, research sponsored by the Department of Labor uncovered obstacles to the feasibility of adding questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to the current population survey, though the Census Bureau took the historic step last year of adding those questions to its household pulse survey, which measures the impact of the pandemic on families.

A 2021 estimate from UCLA Law’s Williams Institute estimated the number of nonbinary adults in the U.S. to be 1.2 million, and a 2016 report from the institute placed the number of transgender adults in the U.S. at 1.4 million.

Results from an Ipsos global survey released last year, which drew on data from 19,000 people in 27 countries, found 4 percent of young adult respondents identified as transgender, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, gender-fluid or “in another way.”

The new Pew results found that while it is more likely for a Democrat than a Republican to know a trans person (48 percent vs. 42 percent), the split has narrowed since last year.

In addition, the Pew researchers conducted six focus groups in March with 27 trans and nonbinary people of different ages and racial identities to discuss a range of topics, from access to gender-affirming care to social policy. Those discussions, which were not intended to be statistically representative of the entire population in the U.S., showed that historic challenges — including employment discrimination, bias and violence — appear to persist.

Some participants said deciding whether to reveal their gender identities to other people can be a “constant calculation.” Many participants talked about hesitation in discussing their trans or nonbinary identities in work settings, for some because of a perceived lack of professionalism.

They also discussed financial barriers to medical treatments such as hormone therapy and surgery, with some leaning on “underground networks” for help. Some also described feeling a lack of connection with the larger LGBTQ community, while others felt more accepted.

The findings come amid a record surge in anti-LGBTQ legislation, particularly targeting the rights of trans people at the state level, with the Human Rights Campaign estimating that more than 320 anti-LGBTQ bills have been proposed in state legislatures so far this year.

Many of the participants said they did not become more certain of their gender identities until “well into adulthood.” A middle-aged trans man described not knowing “what trans was” until getting to college — “that was when I had a word for myself for the first time,” the participant said.

Many participants cited young people as a reason for optimism.

“They understand almost intrinsically so much more about these things than I feel like my generation did,” a nonbinary participant in their mid-30s said. “They give me so much hope for the future.”