#HeadlineTherapy Alaska governor orders probe into Democratic campaign’s alleged links to same-name candidate

Thanks to James Fitzgerald and Kayla Epstein and BBC Online News for the Headline.

Alaska should think itself lucky that the didn’t have Count Binface on the election ballot or indeed a candidate from the Official Monster Raving Loony Party like we have in the UK.

Instead they had a respectable retired teacher who lives in a remote fishing village called Dan J Sullivan who happens to have a name very similar to the incumbent Republican Senator Dan S Sullivan.

The Alaskan Republican Governor has ordered a probe into whether Dan J Sullivan was encouraged by the Democrats to stand in a deliberate attempt to dilute the Republican vote.

However, there is no Law against this even in they did, anyone can stand persuaded or not.

The result is close and hasn’t been announced yet as far as I know. Though I read the Democrats wanted details on rejected absentee votes which they have been refused as the details are confidential.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.πŸ™

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#HeadlineTherapy French mayor bans foie gras from Christmas Market

Thanks to Kyriaki Topalidou and Connexion Online for the Headline.

The Mayor of FrΓ©jus in Ver, North West France has banned the sale of foie gras at his commune Christmas Market and encouraged vendors instead to sell Happy Foie which is an alternative to the traditional product and is made without force-feeding.

The Mayor has taken this stance to prevent animal cruelty and indeed has stated that some traditions need to change to acknowledge the importance of animal welfare.

For that reason he is proposing to ban hunting on municipal land and is refusing to host circuses with animals and not holding bullfights in the commune’s arena.

The Mayor quotes a National Poll within France where 79% of people consider it unjustified to make animals suffer for the sake of tradition.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.πŸ™

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#HeadlineTherapy MI5 will not face contempt of court charges despite admitting its evidence was a lie

Thanks to Daniel de Simone and BBC Online News for the Headline.

Three top judges have decided that despite evidence showing contempt was shown to judicial proceedings by MI5 operatives in three different Courts , that the case was too complex for the Courts to deal with and as such it would not be in the Public interest for the case to proceed.

The route now to be followed will be left to the Police who can now investigate whether the crime of misconduct in Public Office was committed. Although this depends on whether the Home Office want the Police to follow through on this.

Spying , as George Smiley knew is a dirty business, he would have understood the renowned Judges throwing their hands up in the air with dismay and saying ” Too complex, by far!”, while the inevitable internal investigation and disciplinary proceedings drag on.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.πŸ™

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#HeadlineTherapy Banned for Life:Dublin Marathon Acts Against Men Running With Women’s Numbers

Thanks to Phil Knox of Run Republic for the Headline

Apparently the Dublin Marathon has realised that swapping numbers has been a little too prevalent and have introduced a fixed window where the entry can be transferred to another person if you are unable to compete for whatever reason, fitness, sickness or reluctance.

What you must not do if you are a man is swap a number with a woman, otherwise you are likely to receive a lifetime ban. I’m not sure if they take it quite so seriously if you are a woman swapping a number with a man.

The main concern is messing with finishing times, so that a perfectly fit woman runner will fall lower down the results as the men who have swapped with valid registered women’s numbers possibly( but not definitely) have skewed the results by running faster times.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.πŸ™

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Attention

What is the One Thing you can’t live without.

I watch Celebrities on the telly,

My knees begin to feel like jelly,

Into the kitchen I go to make a cup of tea,

Perhaps it will make me watch their performance with glee,

Laugh at their efforts to amuse,

When in reality I just want a snooze,

The tea will wake me up I’m sure,

Of boredom it will be my cure,

Why do they need all this attention?

To interest the licence payer is their intention ,

Without the figures they won’t return,

Perhaps their career is on the downturn,

Still I can relax in my chair and pet the cat,

That’s where my attention is really at.

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#HeadlineTherapy Why Spain is taking 188,000 tonnes of olive oil off the market.

Thanks to Rafael Salido and Euro News for the Headline.

It’s not only the oil that powers our cars and supplies us with energy that has it’s prices controlled on the basis of Supply and Demand. However, the simplicity of the Olive Oil Model shows how the Powers that be make the decision to control the output.

For the first time Spain, one of the World’s biggest suppliers of Olive Oil is holding back 12% of its output from November to stop producer prices falling further.

The Olive Oil producing mills are being asked to store the excess oil, until 30th September 2027 which is the end of the growing season and will stop the current market being flooded and cause prices to fall.

Olive Oil was hit by poor growing conditions a few years ago but has recovered well now and the opening stocks and forecast output together are at least 20% above the average for the last six previous seasons. This enables the Spanish Government to take action.

Is this price protection and stability a good idea with the market controlled to protect producers and consumers . It certainly runs against the idea of a “free market” economy. However, with out the controls the markets would be flooded.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.πŸ™

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Ice Cream Trauma

What’s a small moment from your past that you still think about years later?

Children can be annoying, stubborn and persistent,

Their parents patience pushed passed the point of resistance,

One such moment I won’t forget,

Yes I still think of it yet,

We were on a car journey going somewhere,

I think I kept asking “when will we get there?”,

We stopped and decided on an ice cream break,

I was too young to say “Oh for Heaven’s sake”,

But I may have mumbled I wanted a flake,

This tipped my mum over the top,

She screamed at me and said “Don’t you ever stop!”,

The cone and ice cream were pushed on my nose,

My sisters and brothers fell in laughter throes,

I didn’t really understand,

But licked the ice-cream off my hand,

Took the cone off my face,

And actually showed amazing grace.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.πŸ™

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Knowing what isn’t success.

How do you define success in life?

Success in life is knowing what false success is,

It’s not how much you earn or if you are a success in business,

At the end of the day life is a giant task,

Some only get by when they know someone to ask,

Others have talents we look at in awe,

Others think that all they have to do is jaw,

Being yourself and doing what you can,

I think that is success and part of the plan.

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#HeadlineTherapy Head of DOJ Civil Rights Division resigns after GOP midterms loss.

Thanks to Ryan. J.Reilly and Gary Grumbach and NBC News Online for the Headline.

It’s been quite interesting trying to understand the role of the Department of Justice in the United States, with various high profile cases including ICE and the debacle of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

It doesn’t seem very long ago that President Trump was pillorying Jeanine Pirro over her decision about the pool when she finally decided that with further investigation it was in fact bad workmanship by contractors that had caused the problems and not vandalism.

In the background though the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dhillon was leading some of the Trump’s administrations most controversial legal manoeuveres including lawsuits against Top Universities for discrimination , as well as not opening a “use of force ” investigation into the ICE officer whos shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota earlier this year.

In addition Dhillon used her position to file Lawsuits against 30 states in an effort to obtain voter registration lists months before the mid term elections.

Now she has resigned her post as Defender of Civil Rights , and will move onto fresh pastures. The mid term results were not to her liking , and perhaps she feels she can no longer achieve her goals as a supporter of the Trump administration. Perhaps things would be too difficult with the Democrats now controlling the Senate and Congress or perhaps she feared facing a legal challenge herself if she stayed in the role.

Whatever the reason, she has resigned, which I think is odd, as Trump’s administration still has two years to go.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.πŸ™

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#HeadlineTherapy Abdul El-Sayed’s response to me felt like a misstep after a stressful contest

Thanks to James Matthews and Sky Online News for the Headline.

I was intrigued by the glee with which this Sky Journalist felt he had a scoop by the fact that a video of him randomly(so he says) meeting one of the Democratic Candidates Abdul El-Sayed inside a Detroit Polling Station was viewed at least 8million times and counting.

It became viral because it was an exchange of views where they both talked over each other and the Electoral Candidate made a point to the journalist, James Matthews from UK Sky News that as the result wasn’t final yet that he wanted to talk to voters who could make a difference to the result; not to Sky News who really do not have much of a following in the US.

It came out in the discussion that Matthews had been pursuing the Democratic Candidate relentlessly for an interview and he seems to have been concerned that El-Sayed, on becoming the first Muslim Senator, (which he has) wanted to serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee and seeing as the United States was a powerful player in the World it was important that El-Sayed be willing to speak to the whole World.

Now I actually thought , well the guy hasn’t even been elected yet, yes he might have ideas that he wants to put forward in a Committee setting, but he still needs to get elected and he’s had Matthews turn up asking him to speak about his ideas on World Affairs , while there are Detroit voters that he wants to make sure know what he stands for on their concerns, which are important too and probably more to do with the cost of living.

The viral video was an absolute disgrace and not good journalism at all, it was an attempt to derail a candidate even before he was elected. Which is I think why the candidate really felt Sky’s pursuit to talk to him was annoying to put it mildly.

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