The United States Secret Service’s (USSS) acting director has said that the local police in Pennsylvania had warned them about a man on the roof before Donald Trump’s assassination attempt, but the message did not reach USSS agents on time.

Thanks to open borders and criminals pouring into the city, drug overdoses in New York are on the rise. More than 3,000 deaths were reported last year alone, with 89% of them linked to the synthetic drug fentanyl. Now, we have a new ultra-deadly synthetic drug that’s hitting the streets: carfentanil. Carfentanil is a synthetic […] The post China Drug Carfentanil Hits NYC: 100X Worse Than Fentanyl appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Have you ever been minding your own business and suddenly stopped in your tracks by the sound of beautiful music? Hearing someone play an instrument with heart and passion is good for the soul. Archie Gould is a painter by trade, but when he saw a lonely piano at a worksite, he knew exactly what to do. A coworker caught a video of Archie tickling the ivories on a baby grand, and the sounds are simply incredible. Archie’s coworker originally posted the video to their Instagram, @mudbug07_amr, to share his talent. They were working at the Stanley Milner Library in Edmonton, Alberta when he sat down and began to play Lou Ni’s arrangement of Bach’s Prelude No. 2 in G Minor. He had no sheet music, no help, just raw talent. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dust-to-Digital (@dusttodigital) Archie Didn’t Look Like a Concert Pianist That Day He was dressed for work on a construction site, not a concert hall, but that didn’t matter. His ability to play beautiful music had nothing to do with his clothing. The video was shared by @duesttodigital on Instagram where it quickly went viral. People loved Archie’s music. One person wrote, “My wish for the player…may you always have a piano available when you want, and may you always leave work safely with no injuries to your hands, fingers, arms or anywhere else on your body or in your mind. Thank you for sharing your passion and hard work for all those years at the keys. Hearing your performance today was a joy.” “I love when musicians just bust it out! What a treat for the guy in the beanie playing it cool in the background,” this person agreed. One supporter reminded us that looks can be deceiving and Archie is a perfect example and there are plenty of people just like him. “I work plumbing and remodeling homes and am also a classically trained cellist and composer. Never judge a book by its cover.” You can find the source of this story’s featured image here. The post Canadian Painter Finds Fame After A Video Of Him Playing Piano On His Lunch Break Goes Viral appeared first on InspireMore.

Renowned Pollster Says Donald Trump Can End Kamala’s Campaign With One ‘Ten-Word Question’

Do you remember the summer of 1979? For some, it may seem like another lifetime. It pretty much was. I graduated high school in June 1979, so for me, that summer was filled with questions about where life was headed. But you never forget the songs from summers like that, and this article takes a look at 10 songs that we think will bring you back to the last summer of the ’70s. It was an interesting one for so many reasons. Starting out in June, McDonald’s introduced the Happy Meal. That’s something you probably never would have remembered. Also The post 10 Songs To Bring You Back To The Summer Of 1979 appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The more things change, the more they remain the same, at least in the UK; after many years of Tory governments’ vigorous efforts to extend mass surveillance indiscriminately targeting citizens and enact stringent anti-free speech laws, the new Labour government seems to be picking up right where the previous one left off. The wake of the Southport riots has elicited the usual medley of reactions: moves to address societal issues with more surveillance, strengthen the police state, blame “misinformation” and unproven, but always handy to bring up, “foreign meddling.” But the real malady seems to be squarely at home: in fact, in the prime minister’s office. Keir Starmer happens to be sitting there now, but the policy hardly ever changes: he, too, wants more mass surveillance based on facial recognition, and more pressure on social media to ramp up censorship. If anything does change it is the intensity of these demands that have long since been rejected as “Orwellian” by rights groups like Big Brother Watch. Here, Starmer told a news conference called after the events branded as far-right riots, that participants in the protests (whom he called “thugs” and compared with football hooligans) are “mobile” and for that reason, police forces will, going forward, be a part of a network of sorts. The prime minister added that there will be intelligence and data sharing, as well as “wider deployment of facial recognition technology, and preventative action, criminal behavior orders to restrict their movements before they can even board a train, in just the same way that we do with football hooligans.” Movement restrictions are said to apply only to those with previous convictions, and those who have committed “violence at protests.” But here things get complicated because even those who were charged with relatively minor offenses like disorderly conduct could end up having their movements surveilled and restricted. Starmer isn’t in favor of enacting new laws; he seems satisfied that all this can be achieved within the existing legislation and announced a “coordinated response” within the police across the country and law enforcement taking advantage of those laws more than before. But he does want more police officers, and it seems that increasing their numbers will be one election campaign promise that will be kept. Starmer is announcing these measures as a way to deal not with protests – he insists this is about “violent disorder.” And, he blames online platforms for being the places where that is being “whipped up.” Meaning, that when the authorities decide some online speech can be considered as incitement to violence, that is, in Starmer’s words, “not a matter of free speech. It is a criminal offense.” But what will the authorities consider incitement to violence? This is particularly important since a number of lawmakers – such as Labour MP Patrick Hurley, Former MI6 chief Richard Dearlove, and former Security Minister Stephen McPartland – blamed “misinformation” and “disinformation” as well as “speculation” regarding the identity of the Southport stabbing attacker. Therefore if speculation can be considered misinformation, and misinformation incitement to violence – this opens the door wide to censor views expressed online that basically ask questions about something – i.e., “speculate”. Regarding online platforms, the prime minister suggested that his approach to the police during a meeting that preceded the news conference (namely, “get the relevant people around the table, and fix the problems and meet the challenges that we have as a country”) will apply to internet platforms as well. It remains to be seen what “work(ing) together to address the challenges” will look like once Starmer gets online platforms and government representatives at the same table. Meanwhile, the idea of ushering in even more facial recognition-based mass surveillance is seen as terrible by groups like Big Brother Watch, who have campaigned for years against this type of policing. The group’s director, Silkie Carlo, said in a statement that the pledge regarding facial recognition as response to public disorder was “alarming.” According to her, democracy is threatened, not protected with this approach, while the type of mass surveillance pushed by Starmer (and previous governments) “turns members of the public into walking ID cards.” Carlo made a point of the live facial recognition technology being “dangerously inaccurate,” “common” in Russia and China, supported by no clear legal basis in the UK, and, banned elsewhere in Europe In her opinion, Starmer did not address the causes of the Southport attack (when three girls were murdered), or the reasons for what Carlo calls “violent, racist thuggery” that followed. Instead, the prime minister promised more AI surveillance. And that, according to Carlo, is “tone deaf in these circumstances.” “(It) will give the public absolutely no confidence that this government has the competence or conviction to get tough on the causes of these crimes and protect the public,” she concluded. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post UK PM Keir Starmer Uses Riots To Call For Mass Surveillance and Social Media Censorship appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

More Than Half Say the First Amendment 'Goes Too Far'

Despite being associated with a famous wrestler, a Vin Diesel movie and hardcore pornography, the sign-off ‘xxx’ at the end of a message is ubiquitously and unambiguously used to symbolize a wholesome trio of kisses. In Spanish, however, the letter X is shorthand for ‘por’, meaning ‘for’ or ‘by’, so the link between this versatile character and kissing is clearly not inherent.Like many cultural oddities, the origins of the use of X’s as kisses are difficult to pin down. According to Dr Laura Wright from the Faculty of English at Cambridge University, the tradition may have something to do with the fact that the Greek letter X is pronounced ‘ks’, which obviously sounds a lot like ‘kiss’.Yet other researchers favor a different explanation, also beginning with the Greek alphabet. Supposedly, because the Greek word for Christ - Χριστς - begins with an X, the letter itself was previously used to symbolize the Christian faith - hence the continued use of ‘Xmas’ as shorthand for Christmas.In the Middle Ages, when many people were illiterate, the letter X was often used in lieu of a signature on messages and official documents, signifying a person’s devotion to Christianity. Supposedly, it was also popular to physically kiss the mark once it was made, out of love and loyalty to one’s religion.Sealing a message (signed X) with a kiss thus became common, cementing the connection between the letter and physical displays of affection. Over time, as the religious connotation faded, the character came to exclusively represent kissing, although exactly when this transition occurred is the subject of debate.The Oxford English Dictionary, for instance, attributes the first known use of X’s as kisses to a 1763 letter penned by British naturalist Gilbert White, who signed off: “I am, with many a xxxxxxx and many a Pater noster and Ave Maria, Gil White.”However, given the religious language accompanying the outrageous seven kisses, some scholars have argued that White’s x’s are more likely to have represented holy blessings than smooches.It’s therefore pretty difficult to say who first ended a communication with kisses, although it seems the slang had become well and truly established by the time Winston Churchill wrote a letter to his mom in 1894, ending with: “Please excuse bad writing as I am in an awful hurry. (Many kisses.) xxx WSC.”