Truth and Hammer

Author: Truth & Hammer

These Are The World’s Most Expensive Cities To Live

Not the high-rise metropolis of New York, nor the celebrity-soaked Los Angeles or even the cultural crossroads of London. No, the most expensive city in the world for expatriates is Hong Kong, according to Mercer’s Cost of Living Survey, released on June 26.

Hong Kong’s dominance of Mercer’s annual ranking for the second year running is all the more surprising given the protests that have rocked the special administrative region over the past few months.

But this makes it all the more expensive for expatriates to live in according to Mercer, which measures each city by the cost of a “basket of goods” such as sliced white bread and men’s blue jeans.

Previous entries in the top 10 have hardly been havens of calm. They include N’Djamena in Chad, Luanda in Angola and Ashgabat in Turkmenistan, which ranks seventh this year.

source

June 26, 2019
US Bishops Support Priest Assembly Calling for Women’s Ordination

The Association of U.S. Catholic Priests (AUSCP), which claims a priestly membership of just over 1,300 priests, issued a white paper on May 8 titled “AUSCP Declaration on the Status of Women.” This white paper calls for the priestly ordination of women and utilizes condemned modernist reasoning to reach its conclusions. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, AUSCP members will be asked to affirm this declaration at the ongoing AUSCP 2019 Assembly in St. Louis.

The Lepanto Institute has written extensively on the AUSCP’s promotion of homosexuality, priestless parishes, female deacons and more:

This year, Cardinal Blase Cupich is giving the AUSCP’s keynote address, and Abp. Robert Carlson of St. Louis, Missouri, is celebrating the AUSCP’s Mass on Wednesday. Currently, Abp. John Wester serves as the AUSCP’s episcopal moderator to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bp. John Stowe is an active member and Abp. Wilton Gregory, Bp. Gregory Hartmeyer and Bp. Robert McElroy have all participated in AUSCP events.

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Given what we are about to reveal, these prelates must immediately condemn the AUSCP in order to avoid being actively involved in what is clearly a declaration of heresy.

In the introduction of the white paper, the AUSCP makes abundantly clear that its call for the priestly ordination of women is an adopted and formal position of the AUSCP leadership team. It also encourages AUSCP priests to spread and promote this ideology to vulnerable members of their parishes.

It says: “On May 28, 2019, the Leadership Team of the Association of US Catholic Priests (AUSCP) approved a Declaration on the Status of Women in the Church. We invite you to read the document and discuss it in your parish or community.”

This 23-page screed goes to great lengths to discard 2,000 years of Catholic orthodoxy in order to make way for the conclusion that the priestly ordination of women is even possible. But once concluded that it is possible to ordain women, it then makes the incredible leap that not ordaining women is an act of injustice that must be rectified.

Read the rest at The Lepanto Institute.

This content was originally published here.

June 25, 2019
The 100-year-old Franciscan who knew 6 saints in person — Aleteia

Throughout the 10 decades of his journey through this world, Fr. Giuseppe got to know no fewer than six saints in person, and shared his memories of them with Fr. Mario Conte, one of his confréres, who wrote about it in 2016 (although another saint has been added to the list since then, with the canonization of Paul VI).

Of the saints he met, three were popes. He met St. John XXIII while he was still the Patriarch of Venice, where Fr. Giuseppe had been assigned to work at the Frari Basilica. He spoke of the saintly pope in an interview in the St. Anthony Messenger: “We knew each other well. He often came to lunch at our convent in Venice.” St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II both visited the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua, where Fr. Giuseppe lived for nearly 50 years.

He also met three great Franciscan saints:

St. Leopold Mandic is a Capuchin saint from Croatia, famous as a particularly kind and gentle confessor, and described by Fr. Giuseppe as “a man of great humility, sensitivity towards others, and great wisdom.” Fr. Giuseppe was impressed by the time they spent together: “He used to come to the Basilica every Wednesday. He would first pay his respects to St. Antony at the Tomb, and then head straight for the confessional, where he used to administer the sacrament for hours on end.”

St. Maximilian Kolbe is a well-known martyr of Nazi Germany, killed in the concentration camp in Auschwitz. Since he was also a Franciscan, Fr. Giuseppe and he crossed paths on various occasions. Fr. Giuseppe described one of those encounters: “He had just returned from Japan, and was very sad because of a humiliation he had experienced there. Despite this he still had great faith and a great love for Our Lady. It was Maximilian who encouraged me to make a vow to Our Lady: that of giving up smoking, and from that day I quit forever.”

Perhaps the most famous of the Franciscan saints that Fr. Giuseppe met is St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. Fr. Giuseppe met him during World War II, while serving as the pastor of a church in Sabaudia in central Italy. He developed a personal relationship with the saint, to whom he went for confession. Fr. Giuseppe said, “I remember that I once took his hands and kissed them, asking if the stigmata were painful, and he replied, ‘Well, God didn’t give them to me as an enjoyment!’”

Might Fr. Giuseppe end up being recognized as a saint as well?

He certainly worked hard enough; at the age of 99, he continued to wake up every day at 3:30 a.m. for prayer and adoration, followed by celebrating Mass and then visiting families in need of spiritual or human assistance, including former convicts. In the words of the saint, “Every man and woman has their own dignity. And it must be defended. And in every person, Jesus is present.”

The mayor of Padua described Fr. Giuseppe in the following terms during the ceremony awarding the friar the seal of the city:

“I was fascinated by him when I met him. During this time when we are all in difficulty humanly speaking, he reminds us that each one of us can be a missionary in his own land; that to do good, we don’t have to rule the world, and that here around us there are so many people who need our help. He tells us that we can do good discreetly and humbly, not because poverty should be hidden like something offensive, but because above all we must respect the dignity of those who experience poverty in their own skin.”

The gentle and devout Franciscan friar left this life on May 22, 2019, five days before celebrating his 100th birthday, but nearly nine months after celebrating 100 years of life, time in the womb included. May he be granted eternity in heaven, where he can intercede for us and inspire us to recognize both the saints around us and those who need us to become saints!

This content was originally published here.

June 25, 2019
How Dangerous Is The LA Homeless Problem? This Dangerous

A new video report by KOMO News on the homeless crisis in Los Angeles highlights what addiction specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky describes as conditions not seen since the Middle Ages. The number of homeless has exploded in the area, up 16% in one year, now topping 36,000 in L.A. and 59,000 in L.A. County. The result has been a humanitarian crisis and the proliferation of serious diseases, as the city fails to take action to protect residents.

“Tuberculosis is exploding, nontuberculous mycobacteria, and then the rat-borne illnesses, plague and typhus. We had typhoid fever last week,” Pinsky says in exasperation, explaining that means that we have “oral and fecal contamination, so that’s going to mean parasites and cholera” (video below).

The bubonic plague, responsible for over 25 million deaths over a five-year span in the 1300s, is likely already present in these homeless encampments, Dr. Drew warns. “Everything you found in your history books, we’ve got it, it’s coming,” he says.

That plague can be rapidly spread by the million or so rats that have now exploded in the area. That “army of rats,” KOMO News reports, have infested City Hall and the LAPD station in downtown L.A., which was recently fined for rodent infestation, while two employees were infected with typhus. Officers have been diagnosed with typhoid fever, hepatitis-A, and staph.

Skid Row, where thousands of homeless line the streets, “has been in L.A. for a long time, but not like this,” KOMO News reports. “Never like this.”

“People get beaten, women get raped. It’s just a brutal environment,” says Andy Bales, CEO of the Union Rescue Mission, which is dedicated to helping the homeless in the area. Bales notes that there’s 1,000 sex offenders currently on the streets.

“This is like a petri dish for disease,” he says. While providing water to the homeless, Bales contracted staph, E. coli and strep, losing his leg in the process.

The disastrous situation has devolved despite the city throwing $620 million at the problem.

President of the Coalition to Preserve L.A. Jill Stewart blasts city officials for paying lip service to the problem but failing to act. Her group, she warns, is about to begin issuing press releases every day calling out the incompetence of the mayor and city council.

In one particularly eye-opening moment, KOMO News illustrates that the problem all comes down to the law. On one side of an underpass that falls under Culver City, which bans homeless from camping out on the sidewalk, is pristine, while the other side, overseen by Los Angeles, is packed with homeless tents and trash.

Watch the report below:

This content was originally published here.

June 25, 2019
Positive Things to Say to Your Child | POPSUGAR Family

In a world where saying “no” is usually a lot easier than saying “yes,” it is important to bring up children who don’t feel that negativity has a higher value than positivity. Encouraging words can have a truly lasting effect on your kiddos years and years after you’ve said them, so we should choose to use phrases that will make them feel good about themselves inside and out, things that will stick with them as words that got them through tough times.

Whether you want to tell them how great they were at their soccer game, or how much you love spending time with them, here are 66 positive and encouraging things to say to your child on a daily basis.

This content was originally published here.

June 25, 2019
Google pulls videos accusing it of election manipulation from YouTube… which it owns — RT USA News

The online behemoth found itself in the crosshairs of Project Veritas, a conservative action group that purports to expose pro-liberal biases at various American organizations through sting operations and by publishing leaked material. Its report on Monday claimed that Google deliberately tweaks its search algorithms to promote liberal agendas that it favors, and that this is intended to help “prevent the next Trump situation” in the upcoming elections.

YouTube, the world’s most popular video sharing platform, which is owned by Google, soon took down the videos that were uploaded by Project Veritas, its head James O’Keefe reported. The footage was removed “due to a privacy claim by a third party,” a message now tells anyone trying to view it.

🚨DEVELOPING: We have received two YouTube privacy complaints for undercover interviews in today’s video (https://t.co/seGC0VcRzz) which exposed a Google exec saying prevent next Trump situation,” another engineer confirming “ML Fairness.” Now is time to download video and SHARE. pic.twitter.com/MKO4dkBy27

— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII)

BREAKING: YOUTUBE/GOOGLE HAS REMOVED OUR GOOGLE INVESTIGATION as it was approaching 50K likes and a million views. IMPORTANT: Please download it on @bitchute and repost it. https://t.co/chDsGF0QCk

— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII)

The third party is probably Jen Genai, Google’s head of ‘Responsible Innovation,’ who was featured in the report, discussing the company’s policies in a secretly filmed interview with Project Veritas agents. She also addressed the expose in a blog post, saying that the people she met “lied about their true identities, filmed me without my consent, selectively edited and spliced the video to distort my words and the actions of my employer, and published it widely online.”

Genai said Project Veritas ambushed her to get “juicy soundbites” for their report, and insisted that she is not some powerful executive with influence on Google politics. The claim that Google was going to influence the 2020 presidential election “is absolute, unadulterated nonsense, of course,” she said. Whatever Google does with its search algorithms and rankings is meant to prevent “foreign interference” and not to tip the scales in domestic debates, she added, which presumably makes the company’s gatekeeping techniques all fine.

Project Veritas previously had its videos taken down by YouTube. Just this month, its report on alleged suppression of conservative voices on Pinterest was removed from Google’s platform, which again cited privacy violation as the reason for the move.

This month, YouTube also banned or demonetized a number of creators after a complaint by Vox journalist Carlos Maza. The crackdown was done under the platform’s new rules on content, which are meant to fight online harassment and hate speech. Critics say in effect they stifle political debate by allowing left-wing commentators to paint their critics as harassers and have YouTube take punitive action.

If you like this story, share it with a friend!

This content was originally published here.

June 25, 2019
Elizabeth Warren jumps out to a big lead in MoveOn poll

MIAMI — Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders top a new straw poll from the progressive group MoveOn.org, illuminating how the packed field of candidates is coming into focus for more left-leaning Democratic voters just before the first debate of the 2020 cycle.

The poll, released Tuesday and first reported by NBC News, shows Warren is the top choice of 38 percent of MoveOn’s members nationwide — and the top choice of voters surveyed in the early-voting states of California, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Warren gains lead in progressive poll ahead of first primary debate

Sanders comes in second nationwide — 17 percent say he’s their first choice — trailing Warren by more than 20 points. Former Vice President Joe Biden (15 percent) and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana (12 percent), are the only other candidates to earn double-digit support; Sen. Kamala Harris of California comes in with 7 percent.

That Sanders, the Vermont independent, would do well in the progressive group’s poll is no surprise: MoveOn backed him over then-rival Hillary Clinton in 2016’s Democratic primary, and a majority of MoveOn members at the time said they preferred him to the former secretary of state. But that progressives are gravitating toward like-minded policy wonk Warren could be another sign of trouble for Sanders, who has been overtaken by the Massachusetts senator in some recent polls.

MoveOn’s first straw poll of the 2020 contest found a mostly wide-open field, with almost 3 in 10 respondents unsure of whom they would support. At the time, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke edged out Biden for the top spot with 15.6 percent, and Sanders came in third with 13.1 percent. Warren netted only 6.4 percent of the respondents.

This latest poll, though, shows a massive shift. Now, only 2 percent of voters say they’re undecided on their first choice. In 2018, almost 30 percent of the respondents deemed themselves undecided on whom to support or wanting someone else not listed among the 30-plus potential choices.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the first Democratic debate

The poll was online, emailed to MoveOn members and conducted June 17 to 21.

The field’s top 20 candidates are set to face off for the first time in Miami on Wednesday and Thursday for the debate hosted by NBC News, MSNBC and Telemundo.

This content was originally published here.

June 25, 2019
A Giant Floating Machine is About to Begin Cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

(TMU) — In the latest attempt to cope with the spiraling crisis of plastic waste blighting the world’s oceans, a giant floating machine meant to capture plastic waste is being deployed for a second time. The machine’s operators hope to put a dent in the swelling Great Pacific Garbage Patch floating between California and Hawaii.

According to Boyan Slat, a creator of The Ocean Cleanup Project, the 2,000-foot long floating boom will be redeployed in the area of the island of trash on Tuesday.

After only four months of design, procurement, and assembly, the crew is now on their way to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with the upgraded System 001/B. Time to put it to the test. pic.twitter.com/wbUUvrihbh

— The Ocean Cleanup (@TheOceanCleanup) June 21, 2019

The machine was shipped out to the patch last September to capture some of the floating trash. Unfortunately, due to rough weather conditions, the boom was unable to retain the plastic that was caught during its four months at sea and ultimately broke apart, according to Associated Press.

In a tweet, Slat said:

“Hopefully nature doesn’t have too many surprises in store for us this time.

Either way, we’re set to learn a lot from this campaign.”

The machine has a plastic barrier with a tapered 10-foot-deep screen that simulates a coastline in order to trap some of the 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic debris estimated to be swirling around in the patch.

The high-tech system is fitted with a variety of devices such as solar-powered lights, sensors, cameras, and satellite antennae that allow The Ocean Cleanup Project to keep tabs on it via GPS while also using a dedicated support vessel to collect the trapped plastic every few months before bringing it back to dry land.

Ocean life is able to safely swim around the gigantic boom and, according to the marine biologists who accompanied its first run from the support vessel, no adverse environmental impact has resulted from the system’s deployment.

Slat hopes that if the system proves useful, 60 such devices will one day be deployed to skim garbage from the ocean’s surface.

In recent years, experts and conservationists have sounded the alarm over the plastics and microplastics that are inundating the world’s oceans and water supplies, leaching carcinogenic toxins and chemicals into the marine environment. In the meantime, plastic drink containers and trash used by fishers are trapping, confining, and ultimately killing marine wildlife such as birds and fish.

The plastic pollution has reached such massive proportions that an estimated 100 million tons of it can now be found in the world’s oceans, according to the UN. Between 80 and 90 percent of it comes from land-based sources. And according to a report prepared for the 2016 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, by 2050 it is estimated that plastic waste in the ocean will outweigh all fish.

In 1997, ocean researcher Charles Moore discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Years later, he told CBS News that plastics are a leading cause of environmental devastation across the world, adding:

“Humanity’s plastic footprint is probably more dangerous than its carbon footprint.”

Featured image credit: Ocean Cleanup Project

By Elias Marat | Creative Commons | TheMindUnleashed.com

This content was originally published here.

June 25, 2019
Jenelle Evans and David Eason Visit Kids and See the Judge in Custody Case | TMZ.com

Jenelle Evans and David Eason are back in court, hoping to regain custody of their kids … but most likely just getting an opportunity to see them face to face.

The troubled couple walked quietly into the courthouse Tuesday morning in Whiteville, North Carolina, where there’s been no shortage of tense moments in recent weeks. As you know, all of Jenelle’s kids — 9-year-old Jace, 4-year-old Kaiser and 2-year-old Ensley — were removed after a judge decided the couple’s issues — especially David killing the family dog — put the kids at risk.

While Jenelle has said she’s sticking with David no matter what … they’ve agreed to attend counseling in hopes of getting back their children. Still, the drama’s continued even at these court-monitored visits with the kids.

You’ll recall, Jenelle got into a nasty little exchange with her mom, Barbara, earlier this month outside the courthouse. Jenelle said her own mom has blocked her number. Barbara insinuated the only reason Jenelle was hugging her daughter, Ensley, was for the cameras.

Then, there’s Jenelle’s ex, Nathan Griffith. You might recall Jenelle and David confronted Nathan, who was talking to our guy. David flipped them off. Nathan tried to make things right with them but to no avail.

Today’s hearing comes a few days after Jenelle and David were in Washington, D.C. … scootin’ around town between her business meetings.

This content was originally published here.

June 25, 2019
The 7 Best Gardening Apps for Android and iOS | Digital Trends

It doesn’t matter whether you have a green thumb or are horticulturally hopeless, the best gardening apps can help you to create and maintain beautiful gardens, grow fresh garden-to-table food, or become a brilliant botanist. Even if you live in an apartment, there are plenty of great gadgets for indoor gardens available to those who have no way to grow a garden outdoors.

Here is a list of gardening apps that will help you identify plants, get expert advice, deal with pests, plan a brand new garden, and share your accomplishments with friends and neighbors. Check out even more great app suggestions in our comprehensive roundups of the best Android apps and best iPhone apps, along with our guide on how to grow herbs indoors.

This popular gardening app — great for design inspiration — is home to a large community of friendly gardeners who are quick to offer care advice, identification help, and handy tips. You can keep a photographic journal of your garden and get reminders about pruning, or advice on the best spots for growth. You can also search the encyclopedia, see what’s popular, and follow other gardeners when you find plants and gardens that you really like. Recent versions add plant recognition features to help you quickly identify plants. Just point GardenTags at a flower or leaf and select Identify and add plant, and the app will find the plant name. The app also updated how to manage privacy and communication settings and let you set up your gardening task schedule according to your climate. Premium users on monthly, annual, or six-month plans can now change the season or frequency of various plant care tasks.

Moon & Garden takes a unique lunar approach to planting and harvesting fruits, vegetables, and herbs in your organic garden. Using a biodynamic method, the app relies on the phases of the moon to advise you of actions you can take in caring for your garden for the following day. The app approaches gardening from a position that plants depend on lunar phases like full moon or new moon for successful sowing, repotting, transplanting, and harvesting, depending on the type of fruit, flower, or leaf you have. The app reveals not only the current phase of the moon and the zodiac sign, but also the weather forecast for determining optimal gardening conditions. The app lets you schedule your gardening tasks with its reminder feature and share your pictures with other Moon & Garden users via the Community feature. The app is free, but for 99 cents you can disable the ads.

GrowIt allows you to join an enthusiastic community of gardeners, helping you to find inspiration, gather information, and share your own cultivations with the world. This gardening app is good if you want to find out what plants will grow well in your local area. You’ll also find useful advice catalogued in projects or you can add your own. You can even ask the community to help you identify specific plants and rate other people’s gardens and check out the most beautiful ones out there if you seek more ideas. Recent upgrades let you zoom in on plant cards and images in questions for easier horticultural identification, share a plant card, navigate to another member’s profile, and get updated search results, improved mapping, and more.

With Garden Answers Plant Identifier, you can snap a photo of a plant you want to identify and submit it to the app’s experts to find out what it is. It can automatically recognize more than 20,000 plants and if it can’t identify the plant in question, you can pay $2 to get an expert identification from a botanist with additional information and advice on its care. This app also identifies pests and has a robust Q&A section that covers more than 200,000 of the most common gardening queries. Recent updates expand the community function by letting you share your questions with the app’s Garden Answers community, in addition to streamlined plant ID and onboarding features, ad-free service, the ability to access all your questions and answers within the app, and enhanced answers to questions. Thanks to new plant recognition technology, the app promises instant answers to your questions.

Gardenize helps you keep track of all the plants in your garden and offers information on how to care for them, including location, crop rotation, and yearly tracking of plants and crops. You can keep notes and photos of your plants in a single place. A dynamic news feed gives you perspective on how to keep your garden beautiful and healthy. Different sections of the app specialize in plants, types of flower beds or raised beds, and tasks such as watering, fertilizing, or harvesting. Document your plant development from seed to full grown plant, track the condition of the soil and duration of sunlight, and keep a running narrative of your garden with up-to-date photos. You can create a public or private account so friends can follow you and you can track gardens worldwide. The most recent version lets you use the app to drop in on your friends’ gardens as well as public gardens. The app is free, however if you want to export or download your information, you can choose to pay for up to 30 exports as PDFs, spreadsheets, or photo galleries.

This app, previously called PlantSnapp, is targeted to both gardeners general plant owners. It features an huge plant library, but the real attraction is the ability to snap and upload a picture of a plant — or pest — and have an expert gardener identify it for you. It also allows you to add your plants to the app and generate a care calendar, which will send you notifications and remind you of what you need to do each month to order to keep your plants healthy. Connecting with plant experts is a premium feature, but you do get free stuff both when you download the app and every month, so you can connect to the experts even without a monthly, quarterly, or annual premium account. SmartPlant has teamed up with several commercial vendors so that if you scan plant barcodes at retail partners, you get all kinds of goodies like monthly care, or a free premium membership trial, and more.

Gardenate ($1)

If you’re looking for a simple calendar for planting garden vegetables, accompanied by an assortment of practical hints and tips, then have a look at Gardenate. Using this app, you can plan your garden, set a schedule, access detailed information on different vegetables, and use the Planting Now tab to see what to plant each month. The app offers details for growing nearly 100 popular garden vegetables, with specific planting information for the U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the U.K. All the information is on your phone so there’s is no need for an internet connection while using the app. It’s minimalist and straightforward, making it a refreshing and simple alternative to many of the social media-style gardening apps out there. The Share your Garden feature can sync your information and notes with your other phones and tablets, if you wish.

This content was originally published here.

June 25, 2019