SoylentNews

On President's Day, we celebrate the American President, the bulwark of our national prosperity and the cornerstone of our national greatness. We commemorate the achievements of this skilled businessman/actor and recognize his courage, will power, and ambition -- all values we cherish as Americans. In that spirit, we continue to seek new horizons for greater greatness and further opportunity on land, in sea, and in space.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim February 18, 2019, as President's Day. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities. I also direct that the flag of the United States be displayed on all public buildings on the appointed day in honor of our magnificent leader and all who have contributed to shaping this Nation.

Police sources: New evidence suggests Jussie Smollett orchestrated attack

Brothers released in reported attack on 'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett — 12 hours after police called them 'possible suspects'

Jussie Smollett Viewed As “Active Participant” By Cops In Alleged Assault

Jussie Smollett hires Michael Cohen’s criminal defense lawyer

Folks, I don't think I need to do a Proclaimation to make this one a VERY SPECIAL day. A day with a lot of heart. 💕 One year ago today, a horrific act of violence took the lives of 14 students and 3 educators in Parkland, Florida. ❣️ On this somber anniversary, we honor their memory and recommit to ensuring the safety of all Americans, especially our Nation’s children. And believe me, the children are much safer today. Because we did the Ban of the deadly Bump Stocks. Little piece of plastic -- sometimes Metal -- that can turn an ordinary gun into a Weapon of Mass Destruction. 💘 And more importantly, we now have a Ratings System for Video Games. That's a big thing. A year ago, nobody thought that was possible. We made it happen -- together. And we're only getting stronger together. America First!! whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/presidential-message-school-safety-remembering-parkland-tragedy
pic.twitter.com/EVAeSwA8oV

Vox Media Attempts To Scrub Internet Of The Verge PC Build Video By Going After YouTubers

Many reuploads and analyses can be found.

There Is a Taboo Against Criticizing AIPAC — and Ilhan Omar Just Destroyed It

American Israel Public Affairs Committee

But AYYPAC doesn't donate to candidates!

‮۴۰ سال سرکوب. ۴۰ سال ترور. رژیم ایران فقط موجب #چهل_سال_شکست‭ شده است. مردم ایران که‮ مدتهاست در رنجند شایسته آینده روشن تری هستند ☁️️🍄☁️️‭pic.twitter.com/nKMQCHQFCZ

Unattended-upgrade in progress during shutdown:
A start job is running for unattended upgrades shutdown

Been having problems with the Linux box. I don't shut it down very often, but recently, the machine has become pretty unresponsive. Generally, when I'm killing a little time by playing a game. The game becomes unresponsive, so I shut down other applications. That doesn't help, the game gets more and more unresponsive, until I decide to do a reboot. Except - the reboot never takes place.

So, I unmask the shutdown dialog, to find the above jewel delaying shutdown, or reboot. Dang, I was beginning to think it was a hardware issue!

So, I search for that message on the internet, and find an exact hit at https://catinsunshine.blogspot.com/2017/02/debian-cant-shutdownreboot-immediately.html

I checked the Debian WIKI for unattended upgrades services and found there are 2 packages involved: unattended-upgrades and apt-listchanges. Check the log file under /var/log/unattended-upgrades/, no record for upgrades, but reboot for test, still stuck on the service for 15 mins. So I make decision to remove it to save my time:

sudo apt remove unattended-upgrades

Then solved. Power-off/Reboot quickly, perfect.

Like the guy said, SOLVED!

So, now, the next question: Where in HELL did this unattended-upgrades come from? I presume it would have come from a dist-upgrade, but I don't know that. I am quite sure that I didn't intentionally install it myself! Obviously, nothing depends on it, so I didn't approve of it while installing some other program.

Is this a systemd thing? Soylentils have discussed abandoning systemd, and I have agreed, but haven't made the move yet. If THIS nonsense is something introduced by systemd, my priorities will change real soon! (need a hard drive to install to, and haven't bought one yet)

Ideas?

Also - it has been quite some time since I did a distro-upgrade. I'm wondering if it's been there for months, and only recently started acting up. Maybe it got corrupted or something, and only then started hanging up the system.

After removing it, I played my game again, on hard. Got all the way through Endgame: Singularity without a glitch. I've got my computer back! Now that I think about it, some other things have balked a little now and then. None of them as badly as Singularity, but odd little momentary hangs. Weird, isn't it? When I run any updates/upgrades manually, apt-get never interferes with other running applications.

Another disappointing Grammie Awards show last nite. Nothing for @taylorswift13. And that's O.K. She's good but she's not all that. People like her a little less since she came out against Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. Marsha took the Embrace. So now she's a Senator -- great job, Marsha!!

And unfortunately, nothing for my brother Yeesus. Otherwise known as Kanye. He's not my brother. But, he's like a brother that isn't an alcoholic. He was up for Producer of the Year, Non Classical. For the Wyoming Sessions -- Daytona by Pusha T and everything else.

And his incredible song Freeee was up for Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song. But, nothing. ZERO. This one was rigged, folks!! youtu.be/5bZqAfJBsSk

Dark matter is a sinking ship or a physics oddity?
Can it be both spread out AND clumpy?
Will Dark matter ever die?

Go to the same Bat time, same Bat channel!

https://physicsfromtheedge.blogspot.com/2019/02/wide-binaries-30.html

Oscars 2019 ceremony to go without host after Kevin Hart row

This year's Oscars will be held without an official host - for the first time in 30 years. The head of ABC Entertainment, which airs the Academy Awards ceremony, said it would instead highlight celebrities presenting the trophies.

Reports had suggested the broadcaster was struggling to fill the role - one of the toughest in US show business.

In December, comedian Kevin Hart pulled out of hosting the ceremony following a controversy over old homophobic tweets. He said he did not want to be a distraction and that he was "sorry he had hurt people".

Bud Light gets earful from angry corn lobby after Super Bowl ad

Bud Light’s Super Bowl campaign is calling out competitors that use corn syrup — and the corn lobby is not happy about it.

In Anheuser-Busch InBev’s ads, a medieval crew delivers a cask of unwanted corn syrup to Miller Lite and Coors Light. Bud Light is using the “brewed with no corn syrup” on its ads for the night.

Following the spots, the National Corn Growers Association tweeted at Bud Light that “America’s corn farmers are disappointed in you. Our office is right down the road! We would love to discuss with you the many benefits of corn! Thanks @MillerLight and @CoorsLite for supporting our industry.”

Pope Francis Acknowledges, For First Time, Sexual Abuse Of Nuns By Priests

Pope Francis, for the first time, acknowledged the sexual abuse of nuns by priests and bishops, including a case in which some clergy used women as sex slaves. He said on Tuesday that he is committed to ending the problem in the Roman Catholic Church.

His comments came in response to a reporter's question on his flight returning to Rome from Abu Dhabi. The reporter asked the pope about a Vatican magazine article published last week detailing reports of sexual abuse by clerics resulting in nuns having abortions or giving birth to children fathered by priests.

It's a habit.