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George Lucas Gives Verdict on New Star Wars Spin-off ‘Rogue One’ | Jack Shepherd The IndependentDespite George Lucas selling the rights to Star Wars to Disney years ago, the creator remains integrally linked to the series.According to Rogue One director Gareth Edwards, Lucas has now seen the upcoming spin-off and, much to everyone s relief, thoroughly enjoyed the film.Speaking to an audience of journalists, Edwards told of how Lucas s opinion was the most important one, and his reaction meant he could die a happy man .According to Sunday World, Edwards said: Two days ago we got to show George the more, and we all had a phone call and I got to speak with him yesterday, and I don t want to put words into his mouth, but I can honestly say that I can die happy now Continue this story at The IndependentREAD MORE HOLLYWOOD NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Hollywood Files | 1real |
SCARS & STRIFE: ‘The Purge Election Year’ Agitprop, Change Agents & False Left–Right Statecraft | Your government thanks you for your participation. PSA from The Purge: Election Year Shawn Helton 21st Century Wire A hyper-real vision of America serves as a stark backdrop for Hollywood s social science fiction horror film, The Purge: Election Year.The Purge: Election Year (2016) is the third installment of the Purge film franchise, arriving on screen just in time for the hotly contested 2016 presidential election between presumptive nominees Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.The film s recent release also hit theaters prior to a wave of bizarre shootings and street protests now gripping the nation, something which we ll discuss in greater detail later on in this article.The timing of this film s release in relation to current events cannot be overstated, and readers would not be amiss in questioning whether this is merely a coincidence, or if there is a deeper social engineering agenda at play here. DIVIDE & RULE Gangs and counter gangs take center stage in The Purge: Election Year. Election Year s action picks up in 2028, on the eve of the 25th sanctioned purge , where from dusk til dawn (for one day a year on March 21st 22nd), America purges itself suspending state emergency response and police protection as all crime is legalized including murder.The 12 hour civic duty instituted by the cloaked governmental cabal known as the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) is an event enacted after the country plunged into economic ruin and soaring round-the-clock crime rates. The purge is a type of pressure release valve and the NFFA s answer to America s growing desire for class warfare and social decay.Though a more complete background about the true origins of NFFA are scant, there s no doubt the group represents a right-wing political faction on the surface (think neoconservatives on steroids). However, as we ll discover in this often strongly violent, sometimes campy, if not revelatory creation, not everything is entirely as it seems in the powder-keg of this seemingly alternate reality set in a not-too-distant future.Over the course of this analysis, we ll touch on key political aspects observed in the film, while also examining the violent fiction that often bleeds over into reality NIGHT OF RAGE A subliminal purging of American history. Understanding The Purge: Election YearThe Purge: Election Year, was written and directed by James DeMonaco, and is full of contradictions.On one hand, the film artificially critiques the violent world cast by NFFA head Caleb Warren (played by actor Raymond J. Barry), while at the same time overlooking the mayhem caused by anti-purge revolutionaries seeking social change.In essence, Election Year creates a duplicitous platform which carefully presents only two sides, or choices, for the audience fascist savagery which is not excused, and social justice savagery which is excusable.This is where Election Year seems to subtly direct the viewer to believe that the activist violence depicted in the film is a necessary evil in the pursuit of social justice, when in reality the anti-purge resistance group of leftist radicals (resembling Black Lives Matter and the Black Panthers) led by Dante Bishop (Edwin Hodge), in many ways functions similarly to that of the far-right NFFA using brute force to carry out its own political and social reform agenda.It should also be noted here that both opposing sides of this political divide will happily deploy (cynically of otherwise) their own violent street mobs to enforce their particular political agenda.Within the framework of this story s rigid political dialectic, and with irreconcilable polar opposite sides at odds, the film appears to be making another point: that civil war is not only inevitable, it s necessary in order for the political and social evolution to take place. ANTI-PURGE-PANTHERS A pivotal scene where anti-purge leader Dante Bishop seeks to assassinate NFFA rulers. Although the film appears to reflect some emerging aspects of today s real politik, there is an underlying political perspective that isn t often discussed present in the film. Think of the merging neoliberal and neoconservative factions in real-life politics, where many fascist views and radical ideologies have become blurred, with the popular 20th century left-wing ideology rooted in its connection to Leon Trotsky s theory of Marxism called Trotskyism a theory where world-wide socialism is achieved only through ongoing revolution.Going back to Election Year, we know that the NFFA s evolution/revolution overthrew the United States government as an answer to many social ills and in a similar way anti-purge rebels are seeking to disband the NFFA in favor of their own system of social justice.Although not addressed by the film s writers, acknowledging political reality should leave viewers with another fundamental question: how long before the anti-purge rebels take the place of the NFFA as the next Junta?Let s rewind for a moment, and briefly review Election Year s plot, before returning to the political analysis CASTING: Blonde, middle aged Charlie Roan is running for president in The Purge.Election Year s main plot sees the return of Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo) from The Purge: Anarchy, and this time he s heading security for fictional woman (with more than a passing resemblance to US presidential Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), who is running for president against NFFA rival Minister Edwidge Owen (Kyle Secor). We learn the Roan herself was once a victim of a purge eighteen years earlier, resulting in the death of her family. The Purge itself, was the impetus for Roan s political evolution.Flash forward to the presidential primaries, as Roan lays out a plan to eradicate America s new brutal pastime, much to the chagrin of the filmmaker s preferred villains, the NFFA. This then caused the NFFA to lift a purge ban on targeting politicians, putting Roan on the NFFA s proxy hit-list.Roan attempts to wait out the 25th purge under a 12 hour watch at home. Barnes quickly realizes that the Senator has been betrayed by her staff and an assassination attempt is carried out by the NFFA directed Neo-Nazi mercenaries led by Earl Danzinger (Terry Serpico) who is seen with a Confederate flag patch, while also sporting nazi symbols.The mercenaries in the film immediately remind one of the 2014 Odessa clashes and subsequent Massacre there which was exacerbated by US-backed paramilitary Neo-Nazi thugs who were also used in Kiev s color revolution coup d etat centered in Maidan Square. It was later revealed that the political turmoil was being run by Hillary Clinton s Asst. Secretary of State Victoria Nuland who effectively engineered regime change in the Ukraine. RADICAL REWRITE Hellish images of murdering tourists dressed like original Founding Fathers comes across as heavy-handed politics. After surviving the attempt on their lives, Barnes and Roan escape the coup and take to the streets in a quasi eugenics-themed survival of the fittest chase-filled scene, where the heroes are fighting off murdering tourists who ve traveled to America for a murder vacation, along with fascist mercenary contractors, and also dealing with a pack of devilishly dolled up teenagers. GLITTER & DEATH A teenage brigade of banshees target a shop owner on purge night after not being able to steal from him.While Barnes and Roan race through the streets of downtown DC they get help from a spirited deli shop owner Joe Dixon (Mykelti Williamson) who has been forced to protect what he owns because his insurance coverage was dropped (a nod to Obamacare?), alongside his shop assistant Marcos (Joseph Julian Soria) who immigrated to America. AMERICAN TERROR : Bill Ayers was the brain-child of 1960 s domestic radical group the Weather Underground. (Image Source: 21WIRE)Agitprop & Government ControlHollywood often twists real world chaos into a muddled cocktail for audiences to consume.As Election Year pits a leftist radical activist group against the neocon-like NFFA (along with their fascist paramilitary thugs) we see perhaps the film s true intentions, as it presents a false left-right paradigm from which to choose from.When Election Year progresses, issues over race and immigration weave their way into the film s character development. This, along with other indicators mentioned previously, reveals a communitarian ethos as part of the film s core narrative.Although subtle, the film s most shocking mission seems to be a rather preposterous attempt to present a rigid dialectic, where ultra-violence is used to implement the anti-violent political narrative dispensed by Senator Roan and her supporters. The implied conclusion: violence is not only inevitable, it s necessary in order to achieve political and social evolution, also referred to as change. Incredulously, Roan and those closest to her, later employ the notorious CRIPs street gang to fend off the NFFA s fascist Gladio-like operators to survive the final hours of Election Year s purge.The film s use of known street gangs in this story brings up some interesting points. Historically speaking, the CRIPs were spawned in 1969, a few years after the militant black rights group the Black Panthers Party (BBP) was built up and steered into armed militancy by the FBI through the use of a confidential informant Richard Aoki. In this way, the FBI, aided by the media, helped to stir-up racial tension in America. It is also widely known that the FBI created the counter-intelligence program (COINTELPRO) to influence and disrupt political factions from the inside out. Between 1956 and 1971 (including the Socialist Workers party in 1973), the FBI s controversial program infiltrated and radicalized hundreds of left-wing and right-wing groups to control and neutralize political dissidents across America. Moreover, during the Days of Rage in 1969, the FBI was said to have been tracking specific members of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). The SDS was heavily connected to 60 s political agitators turned domestic terrorists, The Weather Underground . Many concluded that the group s leader, Bill Ayers, was also an interloper looking for new recruits who could be easily manipulated into hostile action.Election Year s use of the CRIPs gang seems ironic, considering how police are on record as having also infiltrated gangs like the CRIPs, as well as likely having had direct influence on the group since the 1960 s. So what appears to be a street gang rising up against a group of paramilitary mercenaries in the film in reality would really be a form of controlled opposition directed and steered by government infiltrators on either side. This is a reality which is routinely omitted from most TV and film narratives pretending to depict real world gangs and terrorist organizations.Similarly, the anti-purge rebels, led by Bishop, resemble an amalgam of the George Soros funded Black Lives Matter movement , as well as other 1960 s radical militant organizations.Operation CHAOSAlso during the 1960 s and the 1970 s the CIA s Operation CHAOS collected substantial amounts of information on domestic dissidents from 1967 to 1973, as admitted by the CIA.Over 40 years ago, a horrific crime spree took place sometime between 1972 -1974 that was dubbed the Zebra Murders. It was a shocking crime spree that shook the San Francisco area to the core.The murders were supposedly refered to as Zebra, because the radio communications channel that police talked over was channel Z. Reportedly, four Black Muslim men calling themselves the Death Angels were spawned from a known cointelpro hangout, Nation of Islam.The Death Angels were said to have shot future Mayor of San Francisco Art Angos. Some researchers on the subject have suggested that the Death Angels were trained counter-intelligence assassins tasked with fomenting a race war in America.Predictive Programming & Agent ProvocateursThere are many overlapping political memes present in The Purge: Election Year you have the idea of a political assassination, disenfranchised militant groups, a faux anti-violent message masked as gun control, and fascist overlords. So while Election Year, comes across as a sometimes silly socio-political horror action film, its purpose may be to condition the public in accepting certain ideas and perhaps even certain political outcomes domestically in the US something which already seems to be happening.Election Year echoes the apparent strategy of tension we are seeing today during America s present 2016 presidential election campaign. Earlier this year, we outlined how certain political game changers were targeting the Trump campaign, as the George Soros-funded Democrat Party-oriented advocacy group MoveOn.org and host of other splinter groups associated with Black Lives Matter, played a large role in the Chicago University student-organized shutdown at a Trump campaign rally. Since then, numerous protests and violent confrontations have been organized, serving as a disruptive force in what would normally be normal US election cycle. Left-wing critics routinely cite Donald Trump as the reason for the all the high-profile confrontations, trying to rationalize how he is somehow attracting the flash mob when in reality the flash mobs are being organized via a few foundation-funded community organizing portals like MoveOn.org. BLACK BLOC Black bloc provocateurs, have violently escalated protest movements since the 1980 s, including 2011 s Occupy Wall Street Movement (Image Source: examiner)The echoes have still been felt from the partly Soros-funded protests in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, and the Baltimore Riots of 2015, something which immediately recalls the misguided machinations of The Occupy Movement (aka OWS) in 2011, an event that turned out to be a think-tank-spun divide and conquer stratagem designed to push naive participants into violent action. CHICAGO CHAOS Bernie Sanders supporters join Black Lives Matter linked groups to shutdown Trump rally (Image Source: twitter)The Dallas AgendaJust days after the release of Election Year, two controversial officer involved shootings in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and also in St. Paul, Minnesota, led to a highly coordinated protest march in downtown Dallas that erupted into chaos after a sniper ambush targeted police.Shortly after the attacks, The Daily Star first reported a group claiming responsibility, A group named Black Power Political Organization BPPO posted to its Facebook page this morning claiming there would be more attacks in the coming days, but this narrative quickly shifted after the report connected the Black Men Entrepreneurship Foundation as being linked to BPPO through the same number, as reporters reached an unidentified Jamaican, When asked if he was directly involved in the attack, he responded saying: maybe. The overtly conspiracy-tinged aspect witnessed in mainstream media is one that conjures many Hollywood or government tales of murder, deception and intrigue throughout history. The introduction of any new hate group on the scene only enhances the drive by media voyeurism and fear seen after many Daily Shooter events. MEDIA MISDIRECTION Is BPPO a real entity or a social media invention to stir the masses? (Image Source: rt)According to Dallas officials, 5 police officers were shot and killed with another 7 wounded (injured only two civilians). Initially, it believed that 3 or 4 other armed militants were involved but in less than 24 hours, authorities stated it was a lone gunman, Micah Xavier Johnson.Here at 21WIRE, we ve outlined many of the main anomalies supporters concerning the recent Dallas Sniper shooting, while also examining the Gladio-style aspects of the event and so far, it appears that the heavily choreographed and emotionally driven incident has left another problem, reaction, solution in its wake.Notice the Dallas Police Department tweet (left side) where members of the DPD are seen smiling beside a No justice, No Peace, supporter, just hours before the sniper ambush.Here s an interesting analysis from YouTube Redsilverj, who makes many historical comparisons while breaking down the so-called Dallas sniper shooting Recently, 21WIRE s Patrick Henningsen outlined the political fallout seen after The Dallas Deception. Something which perpetuates the established narrative concerning socio-political concerns: The Dallas Shooting is significant on a number of levels.Firstly, Dallas will further accentuate the artificial divide between what Americans perceive as the Left or liberal wing of political society, and the what is sold as America s Right or conservative wing. In this dialectic, Democrat is set against Republican, young against old, black is pitted against white, wealthy against poor, upper class against middle class, and even middle class against lower class. In the run-up to the Presidential election in November, this division will be important in order to polarize America along a prefabricated dialectical line and thus keeping the national discourse down at a base, or emotional level and through this binary process avoid any real examination of America s fundamental issues, policy flaws and the federal government s unsustainable bloated borrow & spend habit effectively kicking the can down the road another 4 years (which seems to be the norm). Ultimately, this serves the state, its bureaucratic stakeholders and the power structure as a whole. Gangs, Counter Gangs & DupesIt should also be noted again that the FBI have a long record of inventing terror plots which are then used by western media outlets to promote the public terror theater, including but not limited to would be suicide bomber on his way to Washington DC, a plot to bomb synagogues in New Jersey, a stinger missile-airliner plot, and a toy drone explosives plot against the Pentagon all contrived through FBI cointel pro operations in the US. Said one expert: all these dramas were facilitated by the F.B.I., whose undercover agents and informers posed as terrorists offering a dummy missile, fake C-4 explosives, a disarmed suicide vest and rudimentary training. Suspects na vely played their parts until they were arrested. (see full report here)In a 2007 article by Nafeez Ahmed, entitled The Strategy of Tension, we discover the existence of many stay-behind operations under the Gladio umbrella setup by the CIA and other Western intelligence agencies: The existence of this secret operation exploded into public controversy when in August 1990 upon the admissions in parliament by Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, the existence of Gladio was exposed as a secret sub-section of Italian military-intelligence services, responsible for domestic bombings blamed on Italian Communists. Jay Dyer of Jay s analysis (21WIRE contributor) delves into the Gladio phenomena in the passage below: Like Operation Gladio where from the 50s to the 80s, left-wing radicals were blamed for Euro-terror completely engineered and staged by a covert branch of NATO intelligence and P-2 affiliated masonry lodge, similar patterns are seen in today s terror cells and lone wolf shooters. Continuing, Dyer states: Indeed, it is the same pattern mentioned above domestically, with the FBI-hatched terror plots. Terror in these instances functions to exacerbate a strategy of tension to smear opposition, promote undue fear, and cajole the populace into accepting more surveillance and security theater. Dallas saw a similarly implausible story last year of conspiracy theorist James Boulware, a lone wolf shooter who purportedly shot at police after incoherent online ramblings (which are quite clearly manufactured), and now we are told Micah X has a manifesto a must have for your daily shooter starter pack. Here s another look at an engaging and insightful interview with author Daniele Ganser, who has painstakingly documented the terror activities of security services through operation GLADIO in his book, NATO s Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe. Watch Ganser examine the historical evidence of stay-behind armies that appear to mirror much of the terror atrocities occurring today In the propaganda war, the government has certain objectives including movement and maneuver, utilizing intelligence and firing against an enemy which is the new Inform and Influence Activities (IIA). As their manual states, IIA is critical to understanding, visualizing, describing, directing, assessing, and leading operations toward attaining the desired end state. It is important to note that psyops are designed to proffer widespread disappointment and fatigue by design, to deliberately cause apathy. They can also be used in other more nefarious ways. Gabriel Over the White House An 1933 American film that also blends fascism and socialism.The Purge s Social ProblemThough Election Year s darkly satirical content is largely geared for a base emotional reaction, it cannot be denied that certain political groups represented in the film appear to reference much of what we ve outlined above, including a NATO-like stay-behind-army, as discussed in Daniele Ganser s research.Election Year s climatic scene depicts a devout group of NFFA faithful within a church, all of the congregation appear to be white caucasian supporters decked out in a Egyptian winged sun emblem that reminds one of the Freemasons square and compass symbol. Here, the NFFA attempt to kill Senator Roan in a ritual sacrifice but anti-purge rebels intervene, storming the church, killing nearly everyone except Roan s political rival Minister Edwidge Owen who she wants spared for their election match-up. The scene is obviously over-the-top, conjuring the tragic and suspicious shooting in Charleston last summer through racially and emotionally charged imagery. Interestingly, what appears to be absent from Election Year, is the existence of black-on-black crime in America it s as if every death is meant to polarize the viewer over race.Months after the 25th purge, the sound of fictional news reports are heard declaring mass riots across the nation following Roan s victory as president.Election Year, like other ghoulish Hollywood imaginings, emerges to distort public perception over race, guns, immigration and other socio-political concerns while tapping into the cultural zeitgeist of America.Is this a case of Hollywood playing the role of socio-political provocateur in a real American election year?READ MORE ALTERNATIVE HOLLYWOOD NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Hollywood FilesSupport our work by subscribing and becoming a member @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Obama’s Photographer Releases White House’s Most Captivating Moments Of 2015 (IMAGES) | Having stayed close to the Obama family for both of President Barack Obama s terms, White House photographer Pete Souza has shared a variety of moments with our president and his family. Souza has gotten to witness both light-hearted and challenging moments for America s first African American president, and has had the privilege of capturing many of them on camera.As January marks the beginning of a new year, it also represents the last year that Barack Obama will lead the country. On Wednesday, Souza released his annual Year in Photographs list, revealing over 100 of the most memorable public and intimate moments of the Obama s life inside and outside of the White House. Souza explained: Editing photographs, especially for a project like this, is both subjective and personal. I not only found key historic moments from the year, but also chose moments that give people a more personal look at the lives of the President and First Lady. I ve also included many photographs that rely more on their graphic qualities, including light and composition. In Souza s collection, monumental wins such as the White House being lit with rainbow colors after the nationwide legalization of gay marriage are portrayed alongside heartbreaking losses such as the funeral of Vice President Joe Biden s son, Beau. There are also everyday family moments of the president interacting with staffer s children and his own family. These photos give an inside glimpse into the character of the man who has shaped America over the last several years. You can view the entire collection here, but we ve picked our favorites below:February 23, 2015:Malia, Obama s oldest daughter, stopped by the Oval office to visit her dad. While they were catching up, she wiped something off his face.March 7, 2015:On the 50th anniversary of Selma, the President and his family marched with many others to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.March 7, 2015:President Obama and the First Lady were captured holding hands as they listen to Rep. John Lewis speak at an event to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches.March 27, 2015Michelle Obama snuggled with her husband during a taping for the 2015 World Expo in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House.April 9, 2015Obama waved as he departed from Kingston, Jamaica, his arm aligning with a rainbow.June 6, 2015:Obama hugged Vice President Joe Biden after giving a eulogy for Joe s son, Beau Biden.June 26, 2015:The White House celebrated the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage with rainbow lights. October 30, 2015Barack and Michelle Obama laughed at a child s Pope costume and mini popemobile at a Halloween event held at the White House.October 30, 2015:Obama held Ella Rhodes, daughter of Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, in her elephant Halloween costume.November 21, 2015: As Donald Trump and the Republican party vowed to prevent Syrian refugees from coming to America, Obama spoke to a young refugee at a Dignity for Children Foundation classroom in Malaysia. November 30, 2015Obama made an unannounced stop at the memorial in front of le Bataclan, where the Paris terrorist attack had taken place. He is pictured with French President Fran ois Hollande and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.December 22, 2015Souza and Obama hiked up the 1,048 wooden steps of the Koko Head Crater Trail. Of the experience, Souza said, I ll admit that I was huffing and puffing up the trail, but to my friends, this photograph is proof that I indeed made it to the top with my boss. Featured image via Pete Souza | 1real |
South Africa's ANC says party officials barred by courts will not vote at conference | JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s African National Congress said on Saturday its executive committee had decided that ANC officials barred by courts from attending its leadership conference this weekend would not take part in voting. We had a special (committee meeting), which was urgent, to deal with the three court cases that were given yesterday. All the structures that were nullified will not be voting delegates at conference, ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe told reporters. We don t want to contaminate the conference... They will not vote on any matter. Courts ruled that senior officials in two provinces seen as backing Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for party leader had been illegally elected and therefore could not attend, sparking a rally in the rand with investors betting that the decision favored her rival, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. | 0fake |
VA program to provide private care stumbling out of the gate | A year after explosive accusations that patients had died waiting for appointments at the VA Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, the administration’s path to making health care more accessible for America’s veterans remains on shaky ground.
Critics say a program rolled out to give certain veterans the option of government-funded private care is experiencing serious bumps: according to reports, only 27,000 vets have taken advantage of the Choice Card program since it was launched in November.
Technically, to be eligible to see a non-VA doctor, a veteran must be at least 40 miles away from the nearest VA hospital, or have waited at least 30 days for an appointment.
But veterans groups say confusion about eligibility remains the big problem – not everyone qualifies, but some vets who thought they would reported they were turned away. Some say the process isn’t clear, and bureaucratic red tape has led to conflicting messages to veterans about whether or not they can access the system. Others have just gotten responses that weren't very helpful.
Air Force veteran Pat Baughman, for example, told Fox News he lives about 50 miles away from the nearest VA hospital in Bay Springs, Miss. -- approximately a one-hour drive. But when Baughman called the Choice Card phone number last November, he was told to drive more than three hours away to a hospital in Natchez, Miss.
“It didn’t make sense at all. I told them that’s longer than what I’m driving now. So they said they’d get back with me,” Baughman said, adding he received a call the next day and was told to drive to another location instead -- two hours away.
Baughman told FoxNews.com he finally gave up on the program and is using Medicare to pay his medical bills at a local doctor.
He's not alone in his frustration. According to a survey conducted by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) in February, 80 percent of the 1,068 respondents who believed they were eligible to see a private doctor in lieu of VA care found out they were not. It's unclear whether this is due mostly to misperceptions about the program by veterans, or missteps by VA officials.
“Here we are in March and there is a lot of confusion,” said Garry Augustine, executive director of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), which is advocating with other major veterans organizations for some clarity in the legislation. “I think when you rush into a new program you are going to have growing pains.”
President Obama made his first visit on Friday to the scandal-scarred Phoenix center and referenced Choice Card -- praising the program, while acknowledging there was more to do in restoring trust in VA programs overall. Congress passed that Choice Card legislation last July, after an inspector general report on mismanagement and manipulation of wait-time data fueled calls for VA reform. The scandal also resulted in the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki in May.
Cards went out to eligible vets first, and then to all 9 million vets who currently receive VA care as of Aug. 1 -- in case they, too, meet the eligibility standards. It is up to the card holder to call the VA to see if they qualify and if so, they are then sent to a third-party administrator for a list of participating doctors.
One area of confusion is that according to the rules, a veteran must be 40 miles away from the nearest VA -- “as the crow flies.” But this can lead to unequal treatment, since residents in areas with winding roads, or simply crowded roads, could face a longer drive than others.
Augustine said about 500,000 should be eligible under the distance requirements, but the "as the crow flies" standard is throwing everything off. He and others are behind legislation that would clarify the rule to accommodate a 40-mile driving distance.
"The VA is construing the eligibility criteria as it relates to the 40-mile rule so narrowly that it is excluding too many who are far away from the care that they need,” wrote a group of senators to VA Secretary Robert McDonald on Feb. 25, urging him to not only consider tweaking the distance requirement, but to look at reports that veterans who need specialty care should be able to access that, even if there is a VA clinic that does not provide specialists within the 40-mile spectrum.
This was a problem for Minnesota veteran Paul Walker, who has cancer. He told local KARE-11 that he was turned down for private care for cancer treatment because there was a VA clinic within 20 miles of his home -- but the closest VA hospital which offers the treatment he needs reportedly is more than 50 miles away.
"I tried using it and I got flatly turned down," said Walker, who told the network that at the clinic, "all they do is dental work there and eye work and some basic kinds of different minor things... but I have cancer stage 4."
So, he said, "I don't get a choice. I get to die. So, to me that's not a choice."
Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., has 63 counties and no VA hospital in his district. He also is joining members in moving legislation that could help people like Walker. He told McDonald in a recent hearing that he has been fielding complaints from veterans on this issue, too.
“I got an email by a veteran who drives 340 miles one way for cardiology,” he said. “If the VA choice program can’t provide something closer for him then we have to re-look how we are implementing” the program.
The Choice Card program was allocated $10 billion and is supposed to be temporary until the system gets up to speed with taking care of veterans in house, which would mean getting through the backlogs plaguing the nation’s VA hospitals. Aside from the Choice Card, there are other separate options for veterans to access private care, but veterans have to be referred by the VA directly, said Augustine.
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who was one of the senators on the recent letter to McDonald, is sponsoring a bill to clarify the 40-mile rule. He says he doesn’t feel the VA’s heart is into providing private care.
Here is a link to the bill introduction if you want to put it in there:
“The concern I have is that the VA has a mentality against outside care, even in the circumstances of (when veterans) can’t get care within 30 days or within 40 miles,” Moran said in a statement.
For his part, McDonald has said he, too, is not satisfied with the low number of veterans accessing the new program and has agreed the complaints are valid.
“We’re talking about how we can do a better way of marketing it,” he said in the February hearing at the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Further addressing the distance issue in relation to specialty care, he said, “distance from the place where you can’t get the service seems like a relatively weak measure." As for the “crow flies” issue, “we can look at the 40 miles, change the interpretation ... so we can make the program more robust. I am for whatever it takes to satisfy veterans.”
A representative with the VA did not return a request for comment on Friday.
Augustine says that consistency and communication and anything they can do to end the confusion – whether it is on the VA’s end or the veteran’s – would be helpful. | 0fake |
Cognition and True Islam - A Book Review | 1 Shares
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Book Review – Dr. Rafiq Islam, Emertec R&D Ltd; Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Book title: True Islam, Jihad, and Terrorism: The Science of Islamic Foreign Policy – Jaan S. Islam
Publisher: New York: Nova Science Publishers
ISBN 978-1-63485-542-6.
At a time of politics of fear, Jaan Islam counters fear with knowledge in his masterpiece, True Islam, Jihad and Terrorism (Nova Science Publishers, New York, 2016). During the 2016 US election, it has become clear world peace and security is connected to the state of Islam and how it is understood in today’s context. This is a very timely book that fills a gap in the western society about Islamic history, philosophy, and political science. This book presents the Islamic political philosophy as represented in the writings of great Muslim thinkers and scholars such as Ibn Khaldun. Jaan Islam uses the so-called ‘Islamic cognition technique’ and starts the book with a chapter dedicated to Islamic cognition. This chapter on cognition itself is a paradigm shift in the modern research scholarship and can be considered for advancing knowledge in other fields. Such an extension was first pointed by Islam, Zatzman and Islam (2013) in their ground-breaking work on educational curriculum.
MORE... Stop using millenary religions as a scapegoat for the crimes of Modern Imperialism Another Ramadan for Muslims amid sufferings A conversation on equality, integration and Islam as a religious marker An open letter to young Muslims everywhere: The seed of triumph in every adversity Following the tradition of early Islamic scholars, Jaan Islam presented all theories in the book with evidence from the primary Islamic sources, Qur'an and authenticated traditions of the prophet . These sources were completely ignored in the in the Orientalist (now it has morphed into neo-Orientalism) writings, which led to the inundation of the post 9/11 world with disinformation and agenda-driven ‘research’ about Islamic history. The distinction between this book and these agenda-driven ones gives the book a special value.
Although the book explains the Islamic foundations of political science and governance, it should not be looked at as a book of theology. It is a dogma-free approach that has been characterized as truly scientific elsewhere . Quite appropriately, the author starts off with a brilliant narration of Islamic cognition. It has been all but forgotten in the west that Islam is the religion that started the tradition of dogma-free, truly scientific cognition. The west does recognize Averröes, the famous Islamic scholar as the father of secular philosophy, whereas brands Islam as just another religion, similar to Christianity, infected with doctrinal philosophy. It is no surprise that with that starting point, Islam remains the most misunderstood religion in the west.
Chapter 3 of the book deals with fundamental philosophies of three major philosophers, namely Hobbes, Locke and Ibn Khaldun. In this chapter, the author debunks another myth, that is Ibn Khaldun’s political theory is somehow similar to those of Hobbes and Locke. Ibn Khaldun, the father of social science, indeed had a very different starting point in his cognition. The author points out how Ibn Khaldun’s first premise was Shahadah that formed the basis of the cognition axis by using Qur’an as the origin and prophet Muhammad’s life (through the book of Hadith) as the pivotal point. One the other hand, Locke had placed himself as the pivotal point, whereas Hobbes eliminated any cognition point. The author makes it clear that both Hobbes’ and Locke’s cognition tools are just as illogical as dogmatic cognition. In my researched opinion, this accurate distinction has not been made by any other author on the topic. It is because the eastern authors do not know about Hobbes and Locke and the western authors do not know about Islamic cognition that was obviously alive and well with Ibn Khaldun.
In Chapter 4, the author uses the case laws of the prophet and his four rightly guided caliphs (known as Rashedun Caliphs). Clearly, the author’s intention is to understand how the prophet and his closest followers went to war or which verses of the Qur’an they were enacting. For the first time anyone took this approach and not surprisingly, the author comes up with four rigid criteria from the Qur’an. No other author to the best of my knowledge connected them to specific wars that the prophet and his companions engaged in. This finding helps the author establish jus ad bellum that can explain every war that shaped the foundation of the young Islamic state of the time.
Similar to Chapter 4, the author discovers jus ad bello in Islamic jurisprudence in Chapter 5. Once again, the case laws are presented and analyzed in such a manner, one can take any new example and evaluate it to call it permissible or not. The theoretical basis for critiquing any modern warfare is set in this chapter.
In Chapter 6, the author addresses a difficult topic. When is it allowed or even mandatory to rebel against a head of state? It is often stated that Islam is a complete code of life. The author makes it clear that Islam didn’t leave anything to imagination and has left a strict criterion and modus operandi for any imaginable crisis that can occur at any time. The important question arises as to when a head of state that once claimed to have divine authority can be removed or when a head of state can be declared unfit and it becomes mandatory for the citizens to remove him or wage war if necessary. This is not an easy topic to cover even in today’s world. The author covers it with dexterity from an epoch he considers as exemplary. The history is not pretty and there is room for controversy as often the history is written by the victor and clearly after the demise of the rightly guided Caliphate, the victors were no longer rightly guided. The author weaves through this difficult process and makes it clear for the readership. This chapter can be an eye opener even for a student of Islam that has spent lifetime on the topic.
Often when Islamic criteria are discussed, eyes roll and eye brows furrow in disbelief. If it is all that simple, why don’t Islamic scholars have consensus? The author handles this topic like a pro. In Chapter 7, he analyzes current Islamic scholars and deconstructs their thought process. He has kind words for some but has nothing but scorn for the self-righteous, apologist ‘scholars’ that have done great disservice to Islam and/or scientific cognition process. One doesn’t have to be personal, but the writing is so clear, one can hardly afford to not get angry at certain genre of scholars. To anyone’s surprise, this list is not made out of anti-Islamic non-Muslim scholars.
Chapter 8 is where proof of the pudding appears. The author analyzes every major event of today’s political arena and analyzes it with the Islamic criteria of both jus ad bello and jus ad bellum. The author comes up with an index to rank various countries and groups. Most interesting is the discussion on current US allies, such as Saudi Arabia, and how they rank among the biggest offenders of Islam and Islamic laws. This is not a topic for the faint of heart but the author did an excellent job making it easily readable, punctuated with numerous riveting arguments.
Chapter 9 is the conclusion and recommendation. I have studied Islam for some 30 years and yet I found these conclusions novel and entirely logical. I doubt anyone would agree with the conclusions unless of course that person reads the entire book prior to reading the conclusion. It is important to read the book in sequence.
Chapter 10 lists the bibliography and references. It is many pages long and is quite comprehensive.
Chapter 11 is the Appendix that lists the letters of the prophet. It is a great idea to give the letters in original Arabic, so there is no room for misinterpretation, let alone disinformation.
Anyone with knowledge of Islam knows that Jihad is in the core of Islam and this book shows it is so and there needs to be no apology. Quite interestingly, the author even depicts Jihad as the roof of Islam. Without the roof, the Fort of Islam has no protection whatsoever. This depiction captures the essence of protection, security, as well as integrity and puts away the notion of Jihad being a weapon for Crusade like aggression.
This book belongs to the desk of any researcher interested in knowing about Islam or what Islam can do to bring about peace on earth in order to live out the true meaning of the word, Islam that means peace through submission to the creator. This book is equally useful for anyone interested in pursuit of peace and harmony that is truly elusive in today’s world. In this sense, this book is a manual for world governance in peace. | 1real |
Losses in Australia Election Could Threaten Governing Coalition - The New York Times | SYDNEY, Australia — Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of Australia and his conservative Liberal National coalition could lose more than 10 seats in Parliament, according to early election returns on Saturday, which might leave it unable to form a majority government. Neither Mr. Turnbull nor the opposition Labor leader, Bill Shorten, had conceded defeat late Saturday, with about 70 percent of the votes counted in the elections to select Australia’s House of Representatives. The party or coalition that wins a majority of the seats in the House forms a government. A sharp reduction in the 90 seats Mr. Turnbull’s government held before the election could damage his leadership prospects. Mr. Turnbull’s decision to call an early election and run a long campaign now seems to have been a poor gamble. Australia’s election campaigns typically run about four weeks. This one was about two months. According to official projections late Saturday from the Australian Electoral Commission, the governing coalition, which includes the Liberal and National Parties, was on track to win at least 68 seats, and the Australian Labor Party at least 70. Australia’s third major party, the Greens, had won one seat, and independent candidates had won four seats. The contests for as many as seven seats were still undecided when counting was suspended for the day. Analysts said absentee votes submitted by mail and votes cast early at polling places could affect the outcome. About 30 percent of Australia’s 15. 6 million voters cast their ballots in these ways. Mr. Turnbull spoke just after midnight to a rowdy gathering of Liberal Party members at Sydney’s Wentworth Hotel. “Tonight, my friends,” he said, “I can report that based on the advice I have from the party officials, we can have every confidence that we will form a coalition majority government. ” But the final result, in terms of seats, may not be known until Tuesday, Mr. Turnbull said. Speaking to Labor Party supporters gathered at the Moonee Valley Racing Club in Melbourne, Mr. Shorten said: “We will not know the outcome of this election tonight. Indeed, we may not know it for some days to come. But there is one thing for sure: The Labor Party is back. ” “And Mr. Turnbull’s economic program, such as it was, has been rejected by the people of Australia,” he added. “Whatever happens next week, Mr. Turnbull will never be able to claim that the people of Australia have adopted his ideological agenda. ” The federal treasurer, Scott Morrison, a Liberal Party member, speaking on ABC television, rejected criticism of Mr. Turnbull’s leadership. He said he expected the coalition to form a government once all votes were counted. Mr. Turnbull unseated Tony Abbott, who was in his first term as prime minister, just 10 months ago, but now he is facing an erosion of support. Political analysts said that if the Liberal National coalition failed to win 76 seats in the House, it would be forced to form an alliance with some of the minor parties or independents, only two of whom are likely to side with the conservative coalition. Mr. Turnbull is also likely to face a more fractious Senate. Vote counting for the Senate races had not been completed. Analysts said minor parties would win more seats there, making it harder for the government to pass its legislation. The governing coalition held 33 seats in the Senate before Saturday’s election and needed six more to hold a majority. Australia’s Senate, which checks the power of the House of Representatives by having the final say over all legislation, is made up of 12 senators from each state, plus two each from the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, the location of the capital, Canberra. Typically, minor parties find it easier to win those seats, and so they are able to wield a disproportionate degree of power in relation to their level of support. In May, Mr. Turnbull called for a election, in which all Senate seats are thrown open for a vote instead of the usual half. This followed changes in March to Senate rules that Mr. Turnbull hoped would result in a less fractious upper house by making it harder for dissenting senators to retain their seats. Early results showed that One Nation, an party based in the state of Queensland and led by Pauline Hanson, was likely to win at least one Senate seat. | 0fake |
[Video] DUMB AND DUMBER Star BASHES TRUMP…Use Worst Examples Of Female Leaders To PROMOTE Hillary | Jeff Daniels channels his role as ACN s Will McAvoy from HBO s The Newsroom to respond to question about Trump vs Hillary. The only problem with Daniels answer is, he s using two embarrassingly incompetent female leaders in current times to support his belief that America is ready for a woman (Hillary) President.In the video, actor Jeff Daniels mentions German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Germany has lost their patience with open borders Merkel, as she continues to put citizens of Germany at risk by allowing over 1 million mostly male, Muslim refugees to flood the nation of Germany. A poll published on Tuesday shows that just under two-thirds of Germans do not want Merkel to run for office again in elections next year. He also references Brazil s female President Dilma Rousseff as a success story that America should look at when considering electing a female President. Here s the latest breaking story on Brazil s female President: Brazil s once-lauded model of leftist government appeared to come to an abrupt end Thursday, when lawmakers suspended President Dilma Rousseff in an extraordinary repudiation of her administration and the Workers Party that has ruled the country for 13 years.Vice President Michel Temer quickly assumed control of Latin America s largest country, signaling that he will take Brazil in a more free-market-friendly direction in an attempt to shore up its sagging economy and win over a skeptical public. A member of the centrist PMDB party, Temer introduced a conservative-leaning, all-male cabinet Thursday that swings Brazil toward the right.Hey Jeff, thanks for proving to your fans that you re really not acting in your Dumb and Dumber movies:For anyone who thinks Jeff Daniels is just acting in the video above, watch Daniels share his views on our Second Amendment with over-the-top gun-control advocate Piers Morgan here: | 1real |
There Are A Lot Of Born-Again Women Who Are Closet Hillary Supporters (TWEETS) | There Are A Lot Of Born-Again Women Who Are Closet Hillary Supporters (TWEETS) By Darrell Lucus Hillary Clinton at the 2014 United Methodist Women Conference ( image courtesy United Methodist Women, available under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license)
For much of the campaign, there was talk that Donald Trump’s support was a lot greater than it seemed because of a large number of closet Trump supporters–a bloc of support for the Donald that isn’t showing up in most polls. That seems hard to believe. After all, you would have thought that those secret Trump backers would have come out of hiding during Hillary Clinton’s bad week in September. Even then, Hillary never dropped below 54 percent in the FiveThirtyEight average –and Nate Silver’s model responds fairly strongly to sharp changes in good polls.
A much more plausible scenario comes from Lyz Lenz, a freelance writer who is also one of the embedded liberals at her evangelical church in her small Iowa town. In a revealing piece for Marie Claire, Lenz tells us that there are a considerable number of born-again women who are backing Hillary–but just keeping quiet about it.
It’s not hard to see why. Hillary has been one of the religious right’s pet hates for almost three decades. This was true long before Bill Clinton was ensnared in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, for which many born-agains still haven’t forgiven him. Additionally, in much of the evangelical world, women are expected to follow their husband’s lead in virtually all matters–including politics.
Add it up, and it’s no wonder that a number of evangelical Hillary supporters feel they have to stay in the closet–and even feign support for Trump. This is particularly true in red-tinted small towns across America. Lenz describes this as the “spiral of silence”–fear of being shunned when you voice an unpopular opinion.
Lenz saw this first-hand. When she went to caucus for Hillary, she was surprised to see her friend “Melody,” the former head of a Christian non-profit and one of the most respected leaders in her town’s evangelical circle, was also heading for the Hillary section. Over the next few months, she’s met several other women in her town who are secretly backing Hillary.
One of them, “Jennifer,” works at a faith-based non-profit that helps women in need. The prevailing mentality there is that the GOP is “the only acceptable choice” on election day. For that reason, she has to bite her tongue even when one of her coworkers shares nasty anti-Hillary memes on Facebook. Most of the time, she lets her colleagues believe she’s supporting Trump as well, since most evangelicals assume that “others are like them.” My girlfriend can attest to this; she once told me that when she went to her precinct at the time–a church–she mused about how everyone in line would react if they knew she was voting for Obama.
Even in households where both spouses back Hillary, the prospect of getting bombarded with twenty questions is enough for some women to keep their support for Hillary secret. One of them, “Susan,” has gotten in a number of knock-down, drag-out arguments with friends, co-workers, and family members who can’t understand how her husband can support Hillary. As a result, she feels she doesn’t have “the energy to go there” and reveal she supports Hillary as well.
Fortunately, these closet Hillary voters aren’t alone. A number of private “Secret Hillary Clubs” have mushroomed on Facebook, and offer support and encouragement for Hillary supporters in fire-engine red areas. One woman in this club, “Amy,” remembers how her parents frequently called Hillary a “liar” or a “bitch” when she appeared on TV. Since she still lives near them in Ohio, she finds it “very difficult to openly support Hillary.”
However, the release of the “Access Hollywood” tapes seems to have prompted more evangelical women to speak out against Trump. For instance, one of the first evangelical leaders to blast Trump’s debauchery was author and speaker Beth Moore. She made her feelings loud and clear in an epic tweetstorm on October 9. Wake up, Sleepers, to what women have dealt with all along in environments of gross entitlement & power. Are we sickened? Yes. Surprised? NO
— Beth Moore (@BethMooreLPM) October 9, 2016 Try to absorb how acceptable the disesteem and objectifying of women has been when some Christian leaders don't think it's that big a deal.
— Beth Moore (@BethMooreLPM) October 9, 2016 I'm one among many women sexually abused, misused, stared down, heckled, talked naughty to. Like we liked it. We didn't. We're tired of it.
— Beth Moore (@BethMooreLPM) October 9, 2016 "Keep your mouth shut or something worse will happen." Yes. I'm familiar with the concept. Sometimes it's terrifyingly true. Still, we speak
— Beth Moore (@BethMooreLPM) October 9, 2016
Russell Moore (no relation to Beth), the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and a prominent member of the “Never Trump” crowd,” told The Daily Beast that a number of evangelical women have privately told him that they were “horrified” and disgusted how so many Christian leaders continued to rally behind Trump. Many of them, Russell Moore said, have spent years teaching girls to “find their identity in Christ and not in an American culture that sexualizes and objectifies them,” and are disgusted that their male counterparts are still backing a man who seems to be doing both.
In some circles, however, the opening began long before 2016. My low-key charismatic church in Charlotte, for instance, is split almost down the middle politically; the sizable klatch of liberals there–including yours truly–don’t feel pressured to keep our views in the closet. I started dating my current girlfriend during the primaries, and she was a Bernie Sanders supporter. When I first brought her to my church, no one raised an eyebrow at her Bernie bumper sticker–or my Hillary sticker. Hopefully this is a sign that evangelical women who are leaning toward the Democrats can finally come out of the shadows. About Darrell Lucus
Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC . Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook . Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello. Connect | 1real |
Alabama begins issuing marriage licenses to gay couples | Alabama began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples Monday, despite an 11th-hour attempt from the state's chief justice -- an outspoken opponent -- to block the weddings.
The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday morning that it wouldn't stop the marriages from beginning in the state, and shortly after, Jefferson County probate judge Alan King issued several licenses.
He did so despite Chief Justice Roy Moore's Sunday night order to all probate judges, directing them to refuse to issue the licenses.
One of the licenses went to Dee and Laura Bush, who have been together for seven years and have five kids between them.
"It is great that we were able to be part of history," said Dee Bush. After receiving her license, she and Laura walked outside to a park where a minister was performing wedding ceremonies to cheers from crowds.
By issuing licenses, King says he was abiding by the federal court order from January that determined Alabama's statutory and constitutional bans on gay marriage were unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Callie Granade had put her order on hold until Monday to let the state prepare for the change. The state attorney general has requested that the hold be extended, but the U.S. Supreme Court refused to do so.
Moore's order to probate judges was a dramatic return to defiance for the chief justice. He was removed from the post in 2003 for refusing to obey a federal court order to remove a washing machine-sized Ten Commandments from the state judicial building. Critics lashed out that Moore had no authority to tell county probate judges to enforce a law that a federal judge already ruled unconstitutional. He's been one of the state's most outspoken critics of gay marriage; in 2002 he called homosexuality an "evil" in a custody ruling.
"This is a pathetic, last-ditch attempt at judicial fiat by an Alabama Supreme Court justice--a man who should respect the rule of law rather than advance his personal beliefs," said Sarah Warbelow, legal director of the Human Rights Campaign. | 0fake |
Manafort spent millions on homes, rugs, clothes: court filing | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Paul Manafort, the indicted former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, spent almost $1 million on eight rugs in two years and more than $1.3 million on clothes from shops in Beverly Hills, California, and New York City. His lavish lifestyle - with homes in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Hamptons, Arlington, Virginia and elsewhere - were detailed in an indictment filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that was revealed on Monday. The indictment filed by Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller said Manafort “used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States.” Prosecutors said they found payments by Manafort for four Range Rovers and a Mercedes-Benz among transactions that they alleged came illegally from overseas to avoid paying U.S. income taxes, according to the 31-page court filing. Prosecutors said they found evidence he bought a condo in a restored red-brick building in New York’s upscale Soho neighborhood for $2.85 million, also from overseas money, most often from Cyprus. Manafort and associate Rick Gates pleaded not guilty on Monday to money laundering and other charges filed in a probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Manafort and Gates both appeared stoic throughout a court hearing on Monday. Greg Andres, a federal prosecutor on Mueller’s team, said his office had a “difficult time” trying to pin down Manafort’s and Gates’ net worths, making it hard to set appropriate bail arrangements. Andres said Manafort listed a wide range of net asset values on loans and other financial documents, from as low as $20 million to as high as $100 million. Gates, meanwhile, listed assets as low as $2 million and as high as $30 million. A federal judge ordered house arrest for both men, and set a $10 million unsecured bond for Manafort and a $5 million unsecured bond for Gates. Manafort’s attorney Kevin Downing said on Monday there was no evidence that his client colluded with the Russian government while working for the Trump campaign. Neither Trump nor his campaign was mentioned in the indictment. Manafort ran the Trump campaign from June to August of 2016 before resigning amid reports he might have received millions of dollars in illegal payments from a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. The indictment said both Manafort and Gates generated tens of millions of dollars of income from Ukraine work and laundered money through scores of U.S. and foreign entities to hide payments from American authorities. The indictment said he spent $849,215 in a men’s clothing store in New York and $520,440 at one in Beverly Hills. He spent $5,434,793 on a house in Water Mill, New York, in Long Island’s Hamptons, shelling out $820,240 for landscaping. Aerial photos of the place show gardens, a pool, a tennis court, a basketball court and a putting green and sand trap on 2.37 acres (0.96 hectare). A seven-bedroom Brooklyn brownstone, which he bought for $3 million, was described in a real estate agent’s listing as “dripping with detail - perfectly intact crown moldings and medallions, gold leafed carved window detail, 5 marble mantels, and original Lincrusta paper wall covering.” | 0fake |
Like a ‘Concentration Camp’ Police Mark DAPL Protesters with Numbers & Lock Them in Dog Kennels | Posted on October 30, 2016 by Claire Bernish
Cannon Ball, N.D. — On Thursday, police from no less than five states sporting full riot gear and armed with heavy lethal and nonlethal weaponry, pepper spray, mace, a number of ATVs, five tanks, two helicopters, and military-equipped humvees showed up to tear down an encampment of Standing Rock Sioux water protectors and supporters armed with … nothing.
Under orders from the now-notorious Morton County Sheriff’s Office, this ridiculously heavy-handed standing army came better prepared to do battle than some actual military units fighting overseas.
But the target of their operation — a group of slightly more than 200 Native American water protectors and supporters opposing construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline — never intended to do battle with the armed, taxpayer-funded, corporate-backed, state-sponsored aggressors.
Reports vary, but no less than 141 people were arrested Thursday, and — according to witnesses — police marked numbers on arrestees’ arms and housed them in cement-floored dog kennels , without any padding, before they were transported as far away as Fargo.
“It goes back to concentration camp days,” asserted Oceti-Sakowin coordinator Mekasi Camp-Horinek, who, along with his mother, was marked and detained in a mesh kennel, reports the Los Angeles Times .
Although Thursday’s incident remained relatively peaceful for some time, with only shouts, chants, and occasional attempts by water protectors to convince this standing army to examine its motives and reconsider, clashes nonetheless broke out — solely because of gratuitous police aggression.
After facing off for a couple hours, these militant cops began closing in on the water protectors to shut down the Treaty of 1851 camp — in reference to the Fort Laramie Treaty of that year, which established a large parcel of land designated exclusively Native American territory not to be disturbed by the U.S. government. Prior to his arrest, Camp-Horinek had established the camp, stating, as cited by Indigenous Rising :
“Today, the Oceti Sakowin has enacted eminent domain on DAPL lands, claiming 1851 treaty rights. This is unceded land. Highway 1806 as of this point is blockaded. We will be occupying this land and staying here until this pipeline is permanently stopped. We need bodies and we need people who are trained in non-violent direct action. We are still staying non-violent and we are still staying peaceful.”
Despite the water protectors’ commitment to nonviolence, the militarized police response went as would be expected — horribly awry.
“A prayer circle of elders, including several women, was interrupted and all were arrested for standing peacefully on the public road,” stated a press release from Indigenous Environment Network. “A tipi was erected in the road and was recklessly dismantled, despite law enforcement statements that they would merely mark the tipi with a yellow ribbon and ask its owners to retrieve it. A group of water protectors was also dragged out of a sweat lodge ceremony erected in the path of the pipeline, thrown to the ground, and arrested.”
Claims to the contrary by Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier aside, Native American and Indigenous water protectors and supporters have refrained from violent acts on the whole, preferring instead peaceful prayer vigils and acts of civil disobedience.
No matter how peacefully the opposition acts, armed defenders of Big Oil interests seem determined to brutalize , disrespect, and generally incite and inflict violence against those who desire unsullied water for generations to come.
In fact, at the beginning of September, a private security firm hired by Energy Transfer Partners, the company responsible for pipeline construction, indiscriminately unleashed vicious attack dogs on water protectors, press, and supporters — for reasons as yet unknown.
During the savage attack, a pregnant woman, young girl, and many others suffered serious dog bites thanks to the ineptitude of the dogs’ handlers. Afterward, a warrant for inciting a riot was issued Democracy Now! journalist Amy Goodman — for doing her job, filming events as they happened — though charges were subsequently thrown out.
Although ETP and some law enforcement officers defended the barbarous actions of the private security mercenaries, the Guardian now reports that — because the guards lacked proper licensing — they could now face criminal charges. On Wednesday, the Morton County Sheriff’s Office made the determination that “dog handlers were not properly licensed to do security work in the state of North Dakota.”
Bob Frost, owner of Ohio-based Frost Kennels, told the Guardian , “All the proper protocols … were already done. I pulled my guys out the next day because we weren’t there to go to war with these protesters.”
Frost insisted he had cooperated with authorities investigating the incident — but the sheriff’s department disagrees. Seven handlers and dogs were deployed to the scene in early September, allegedly in response to reports of trespassers; but, according to the Guardian , police have only managed to identify two people.
The sheriff’s department claims Frost has not provided necessary information, and unnamed security officials cited in the report said that “there were no intentions of using the dogs or handlers for security work. … However, because of the protest events, the dogs were deployed as a method of trying to keep the protesters under control.”
In a statement cited by the Guardian , Morton County Captain Jay Gruebele said, “Although lists of security employees have been provided, there is no way of confirming whether the list is accurate or if names have been purposely withheld.”
Water protectors, in the meantime, are left to deal with absurdly disproportionate state violence — and the altogether unacceptable, disrespectful, and demeaning insult of being relegated to dog kennels after being arrested for exercising their rights.
As Lakota Country Times editor Brandon Ecoffey wrote in an editorial Thursday,
“Over the course of the last several months the abuse of detainees by Morton County Law Enforcement has overstepped every boundary guaranteed by the American constitution. Water protectors have been seen being bound and hooded by police. People are being stripped searched and abused within their jail for misdemeanor crimes. And police have employed the use of mass surveillance through drones on the protector camps. This isn’t a war zone this is North Dakota.” Don't forget to follow the D.C. Clothesline on Facebook and Twitter. PLEASE help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks. Share this: | 1real |
Allowing nuclear weapons in Japan could defuse North Korean threat, say some policy makers | TOKYO (Reuters) - As Japan looks for a quick, resolute response to North Korea s growing missile threat, some defense policy makers in Tokyo say it may be time to reconsider non-nuclear pledges and invite U.S. nuclear weapons on to its soil. Japan, the only country to suffer nuclear attack, upholds three non-nuclear principles that commit it not to possess, manufacture or allow nuclear weapons on to its territory that were adopted five decades ago. Perhaps it s time for our three principles to become two, a senior defense policy maker told Reuters, suggesting nuclear weapons be allowed into Japan. He asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. North Korea, pursuing its weapons programs in defiance of international condemnation, fired an intermediate ballistic missile over Japan last week, prompting authorities to sound sirens and advise residents to take cover. On Sunday, North Korea tested a nuclear device that had a yield estimated at ten times that of the atom bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima in 1945. Inviting U.S. nuclear weapons would be an attempt by Japan jolt China, North Korea s sole major ally, to do more to rein in its neighbor by showing there are consequences to North Korean provocations that threaten its neighbors and destabilize the region, the policy maker said. A simple way to do this could be for a nuclear-armed U.S. submarine to operate from one of the U.S. Navy bases in Japan, he said, a move bound to infuriate China. Former Japanese defense minister Shigeru Ishiba stoked controversy on Wednesday by questioning whether Japan can expect protection under the U.S. nuclear umbrella while maintaining its non-nuclear principles. Is it right that we don t discuss this? Ishiba asked in a television interview. In his election campaign last year, Donald Trump chided Japan and South Korea for not contributing enough to their defenses. On Tuesday, the president said he was ready to sell Seoul billions of dollars in weapons and scrap a limit on the size of warheads the Washington would supply. We don t have any plan to begin discussing the three non-nuclear principles, Japan Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters when asked to respond to Ishiba s comment. Yet, the growing North Korean threat could stifle some of the opposition, experts say. Just by raising this issue of nuclear principles, Japan will push the United States and China to act, and it is something that Beijing is not going to like, said Takashi Kawakami, a security expert at Japan s Takushoku University. It s the medicine that China needs to make it act against North Korea. Allowing the U.S. military to deploy nuclear weapons on Japanese territory would pose a grave political risk for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, particularly amid an influence-peddling scandal that has hit his popularity ratings. Any move toward relaxing the non-nuclear principles, however, is unlikely to lead to a home-made atomic bomb, despite Japan s technical abilities, say experts. Tokyo has the civilian nuclear program, fissile materials and the weaponization technology necessary. It could probably develop a small arsenal of nuclear devices within a year if there was motivation to do so, said Emily Chorley, a nuclear weapons expert at IHS Janes. But doing so would force Japan to renege on its non-proliferation commitments and could severely damage Washington s alliances and position of strength in Asia. This would signal that the Japanese no longer have confidence in U.S. extended deterrence, said a former senior U.S. military commander who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to talk to the media. That would essentially mean that they no longer have confidence in the alliance. | 0fake |
Pentagon to seek budget change to boost Islamic State fight | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis has directed the Pentagon to seek an increase in overall spending to address shortfalls and “new requirements” needed to accelerate the campaign against Islamic State, according to a memo released on Wednesday. In addition to the proposed 2017 fiscal year budget amendment request, Mattis also asked for a broader budget and strategy review looking ahead to future years but did not offer estimates in his guidance to the Department of Defense, the Pentagon memo said. | 0fake |
HUFFPOLLSTER: Trump And Clinton Lead, But Iowa Polling Remains Volatile With A Week To Go | Donald Trump has regained the lead in Iowa but things can still change. On the Democratic side, young voters could tip the caucus toward Bernie Sanders, but only if they turn out. And many people who say they’re independents are just embarrassed partisans. This is HuffPollster for Monday, January 25, 2016. TRUMP PULLING AHEAD AGAIN IN IOWA - The last four GOP polls from Iowa show businessman Donald Trump with substantial leads of 5-11 percentage points over Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. The HuffPost Pollster average has shifted to showing a more than four-point lead for Trump again, after the two were essentially tied just a few days ago. [CNN, Emerson College, CBS/YouGov, Fox News]
Expect more upheaval in Iowa GOP polls over the next week. - Philip Bump: "Earlier this month, Fox News released a poll showing Ted Cruz leading Donald Trump by four points. The two had a sizable lead over everyone else in the state, and the poll was confirming what others were showing: Cruz had an advantage. On Sunday, Fox released another Iowa poll, with substantially different results. Now, Trump is up by 11 points, a 15-point swing in the two weeks between surveys. This poll, too, mirrors the recent trend: Trump has regained the advantage. It's still a surprising development. Trump's gained a lot, across the board, while most of his competitors have slipped. So what's going on? This is the same polling firm and the same methodology….The story of this new poll is that Iowa has changed. And over the next eight days, it will change more." [WashPost] HUGE AGE GAP AMONG DEMOCRATS IN IOWA - A new CBS/YouGov poll shows Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders up by 1 percentage point over Hillary Clinton, mirroring the very tight race the HuffPost Pollster average shows. But unlike many other polls, YouGov released vote preference by age, revealing an enormous gap between younger and older voters.
There’s more evidence for a wide age gap. - Most primary polls have small sample sizes, making it difficult to break the results down by age group and find additional support for YouGov’s numbers. But the latest NBC/WSJ/Marist poll reported vote preferences among those under and over 45 years old. In the younger cohort, 62 percent support Sanders, while in the older group, 60 percent support Clinton. [NBC/WSJ/Marist] Why the age gap matters in Iowa: In general,people below the age of thirty are less likely to turn out to vote in elections. They have especially low voter turnout in the Iowa caucus. With the exception of 2008, in the last five presidential elections, only 3-4 percent of eligible caucus goers under the age of 29 voted in the Iowa caucus, making up between 9-17 percent of the overall caucus goers. But sometimes younger voters do show up to vote, as was evident in 2008 when 13 percent of eligible caucus goers under 29 turned out to vote. [CIRCLE] DES MOINES REGISTER ENDORSEMENT OF CLINTON AND RUBIO UNLIKELY TO CHANGE THE RACE MUCH - Harry Enten: "Let’s look at how past candidates were doing in the polls before getting the Iowa paper’s endorsement and how they did once all the votes were counted….Seven of the nine candidates [since 1988] did, in fact, do better than we expected them to do before getting the paper’s endorsement….The paper’s endorsement is credited for greatly improving the fortunes of 2004 Iowa runner-up John Edwards, but most of these candidates haven’t gotten anything like the Edwards bounce. The average post-endorsement bump has been a statistically insignificant 3 percentage points." [538] A RACE FOR SECOND IN THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GOP PRIMARY - Trump remains firmly at the top of the New Hampshire GOP polls, but Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are battling for second. Rubio and Cruz are basically tied in the HuffPost Pollster average, with a little more than 12 percent support each. Kasich isn’t far behind.
NEW HAMPSHIRE DEMOCRATS HOLD STEADY - Bernie Sanders still has a solid lead in the New Hampshire polls. The new CBS/YouGov poll shows him with a massive 19-point lead, while Suffolk shows a more moderate 9 point lead. [HuffPost] MORE AMERICANS ‘INDEPENDENT’ THAN EVER, BUT WITH A CAVEAT -- Samara Klar and Yanna Krupnikov: “[W]hat distinguishes independents from partisans is not their political positions. In fact, most independents aren’t independent at all. They hold clear partisan preferences, but they utterly refuse to identify with their preferred party….We find that many Americans are largely ashamed of the dysfunction in Washington. Rather than associate with candidates and politicians who are portrayed by media as stubborn and aggressive, a plurality of Americans would rather present an image of calm, cool independence. Not only are Americans likely to present themselves as independent but they also prefer that others do the same.” [Vox] That limits a third-party or independent candidate’s chances. - More from Klar and Krupnikov: “In order for political independents to rise up and elect a third-party candidate, two things would have to occur. First, people who say they are independent would have to truly believe that neither of the two parties can effectively represent them. Second, the group of people who report that they are independent would have to have sufficiently coherent interests so as to coalesce around the same candidate. Both of these criteria suggest it is unlikely that people who call themselves independents will move America toward a third party.” [Vox] OBAMA FINISHES UP FINAL TERM WITH MIXED PUBLIC FEELINGS ON HIS LEGACY - Pew Report: "Overall views of Obama’s legacy – like his job approval ratings – fall roughly between those of George W. Bush’s and Bill Clinton’s. About as many say, in the long run, Obama will be a successful president (37%) as say he will be unsuccessful (34%), while 26% think it is too early to tell....In general, Democrats view Obama’s legacy in similar terms as they saw Clinton’s in 1999. Nearly two-thirds (65%) say Obama will be a successful president….But Republicans are much more critical of Obama’s legacy today than they were of Clinton’s then. And in their assessments of whether Obama’s accomplishments will surpass his failures, Republicans express even more negative views today than Democrats did about Bush in 2007." [Pew] HORSE RACE POLLING HAS A LIMITED LIFE SPAN - Kirby Goidel and Keith Gaddie: "Surveys of public opinion typically take place over two or three days; then the results can start to age. If the immediacy of information is unimportant, the aging of a poll is not of great concern. This is especially the case if the information sought is unlikely to change due to outside events. During political campaigns, however, the information environment is dynamic, so poll results tend to age quickly. Depending on the information of interest to the reader, an aging poll might still be useful. But, if you are following the horse race (who is leading an election in a hypothetical matchup) and want to know the support for candidates or issues in a dynamic environment, a poll grows less valuable as it ages. In some elections where voters have limited information about the issues and don't know the candidates very well, horserace polling may be useless within a day or two of being completed." [HuffPost] HUFFPOLLSTER VIA EMAIL! - You can receive this daily update every weekday morning via email! Just click here, enter your email address, and click "sign up." That's all there is to it (and you can unsubscribe anytime). MONDAY'S 'OUTLIERS' - Links to the best of news at the intersection of polling, politics and political data: -Donald Trump regains a double digit lead in Iowa and remains strong in New Hampshire. [Fox News] -Donald Trump leads in four out of five key primary states. [YouGov] -Bernie Sanders continues to duke it out with Hillary Clinton in Iowa, widens his lead in New Hampshire and gains in South Carolina. [YouGov] -Americans are less satisfied with the field of 2016 presidential candidates than they were in 2000 and 2008. [Gallup] -Alex Seitz-Wald explains how geography might rule in favor of Hillary Clinton in Iowa. [MSNBC] -Not sure how the Iowa caucuses work? Here’s a primer. [PBS] -Karlyn Bowman of the American Enterprise Institute argues abortion isn’t going to be a deciding issue in the 2016 elections. [Forbes] -The Monkey Cage is holding a contest to forecast the 2016 election. [WashPost] -Sarah Palin’s endorsement could help Trump gain support among Tea Party supporters. [Monkey Cage] -Frank Bruni says the media is addicted to polls at a time when polls are least reliable. [NYT] | 0fake |
Forscher entdecken abgelegenen Regenwaldstamm, der noch immer iPhone 4s verwendet | Sonntag, 13. November 2016 Forscher entdecken abgelegenen Regenwaldstamm, der noch immer iPhone 4s verwendet São Paulo (Archiv) - Von der Außenwelt isoliert: Ein internationales Forscherteam hat in Brasilien einen Indio-Stamm entdeckt, dessen Mitglieder so rückständig sind, dass sie noch immer das iPhone 4s benutzen. Wo genau der Amazonas-Stamm siedelt, will die brasilianische Regierung nicht bekanntgeben, um die Indios vor den schädlichen Einflüssen der modernen Zivilisation zu schützen. Laut den Wissenschaftlern seien die Geräte der Ureinwohner zwar entfernte Verwandte unserer modernen Smartphones, die Anwendungen darauf "laufen aber gefühlt bis zu einhundert Mal langsamer als in der Zivilisation". Primitives Werkzeug der Ureinwohner Schon beim Überflug über die Siedlung waren die veralteten Telefone des Amazonas-Stamms, der aus mehreren hundert Mitgliedern besteht, klar zu erkennen. Viele der Indios benutzen außerdem "auf uns befremdlich wirkenden Handy-Schmuck und eine Art Köcher für ihre Geräte". "Eine Kontaktaufnahme mit den Indianern war beinahe unmöglich, weil auf ihren Geräten zum Teil nicht einmal WhatsApp läuft", erinnert sich Teamleiter Kenneth Wyne an die Begegnung am Riesenfluss. "Sie zeigten uns Funktionen und Apps, die wir nur noch aus Erzählungen kannten. Auch das 'Pinch-to-Zoom' lief längst nicht so flüssig wie das unserer Telefone." Laut eigener Aussage hatten die Ureinwohner noch nie Kontakt zu modernen Menschen, Gerüchte über einen Nachfolger des iPhone 4s kursieren allenfalls als Legende. Das erfolgsverwöhnte Forscherteam ist derzeit auf der Suche nach einem peruanischen, noch stärker von der Zivilisation abgeschotteten Indio-Stamm. Legenden zufolge benutzen die Stammesmitglieder dort neben Pfeil und Bogen noch immer die Nokia 3310 -Handys ihrer Vorväter. fed, ssi; Foto oben [M]: Valter Campanato/ABr. , CC BY 3.0 BR , Foto rechts: William Hook , CC BY-SA 2.0 ; Hinweis: Erstmals erschienen am 13.8.14, iPhone von 3GS auf 4s aktualisiert Artikel teilen: | 1real |
CONSERVATIVE LEADER Sends Stern Message To Mitt Romney: Go Home And Be Quiet! [Video] | Matt Schlapp, the leader of the American Conservative Union, slammed Mitt Romney for his continued attacks on GOP nominee Donald Trump. | 1real |
MALE PAKISTANI IMMIGRANT Dresses As Woman In Burqa…Lures 11 Yr Old Boy From Mosque…Rapes, Strangles Him To Death | A man disguised himself in a burka in order to lure an 11-year-old boy whom he then raped and strangled to death, according to police in Abu Dhabi.The accused was aware that the boy would not accompany him if he knew he was a man, the Gulf News reported.The suspect, a Pakistani immigrant to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, is said to be known to the family of the victim, whose father is Pakistani and mother is Russian.He is accused of raping the boy and strangling him to death with a rope after picking him up from Ramadan prayers at a mosque.Azan Majid Janjua was reported missing last week after failing to come home from the mosque.He was later found by air-conditioning technicians on the roof of the building where he lived.He was reportedly found partially unclothed with his Quran lying beside him.The suspect was arrested within 48 hours of the discovery of the body, police said, after forensic evidence linked him to the crime.They declined to give any further details about the suspect or the evidence incriminating him.The murdered boy s father, Dr Majid Janjua, 38, told the local news site that his son was not in the habit of going off with strangers. He never went outside without our permission, said Dr Janjua. It is fate; Allah s decision. We have to accept it. The boy s mother is understood not to live in the Gulf state but was visiting at the time of the incident, which took place in the first week of the Islamic holy month Ramadan.For entire story: Daily Mail | 1real |
America’s looming freak show: How GOP control in 2015 will terrorize a nation – with no political repercussion | Bill Scher made the argument from the left as well as anyone could, while this piece by the Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib, coming from the center-right, was more predictable and vexing. (Paul Waldman took a shot at it back in August, here.) The Washington Post’s Phillip Bump followed and endorsed Seib’s argument. But those takes rely at least in part on the notion that if Republicans gain the Senate, they’ll either have an incentive to help “govern” – or they’ll shame themselves in the eyes of the American public if they don’t. Unfortunately, neither premise is true.
In fact, I’m concerned that worsening political dysfunction perpetuates itself by convincing more Americans that politics is futile. The Obama coalition in particular – younger, less white, less well off than even prior coalitions of Democrats – has gotten so little that’s tangible from its history-making turnout in 2012 (and yes I’ve read that Krugman piece and I mostly agree.) The prospect of its coalescing to become a permanent force in American politics has been at least postponed, if not thwarted entirely, by the deliberate GOP sabotage of the political process.
For me, the backdrop to this depressing midterm election is not merely ISIS and Ebola, but continued unrest in Ferguson, Mo., where it seems unlikely Officer Darren Wilson will face consequences for shooting Michael Brown. From New York to Los Angeles, the issue of police violence just gets worse. There’s increasing activism on the issue, which is great to see – the crowds that turned out for “Ferguson October” over the weekend, and into Monday, were inspiring.
Yet little of the activism is tied to voting, at least partly because the electoral system has done so little to solve the problem, even in cities with liberal mayors. New York alone has paid a half billion out to the victims of police abuse just since 2009. I’m excited by the new young leadership on police issues even as I’m worried about this election – and maybe that combination makes me uniquely unable to deal with the notion that Democrats losing the Senate next month could have a silver lining.
Bill Scher reprised his Politico argument on MSNBC’s “Up with Steve” on Saturday, continuing to press the case that Republicans will suffer politically “if they look like a completely dysfunctional party incapable of governing.” (Scher, unlike Seib, holds out no false hope that the GOP will get its act together and compromise with Obama if it wins back the Senate.)
But Republicans already look like a completely dysfunctional party incapable of governing, and they’re on the verge of another great midterm win. A year after the government shutdown, it’s shocking even to me how little it ultimately cost the party politically. Everyone knew that October 2013 polls weren’t as important as October 2014, and that the GOP would have a year to recover – but even I didn’t believe that they would, so completely.
The shutdown cost the economy $24 billion in growth. It showed the nation the incompetence of House GOP leadership. It exposed the civil war in the Senate. The country saw that the party was craven, dysfunctional, agenda-free and not merely incapable of governing, but uninterested in it. After the shutdown, the share of voters identifying themselves as Republican dropped to 25 percent in Gallup polling, the lowest level in 25 years, and polls showed Democrats might have a shot at taking back the House.
But a year later, Republicans are in no danger of losing the House and have a better than even chance to take back the Senate. Even at the time, it was clear that a feckless, frenetic media — which immediately went on to treat Obamacare web site glitches as just as catastrophic as the GOP’s shutdown debacle — would let the party off the hook. Yet so have voters. The Republican base is more than content to have its leaders do nothing but block and sabotage Obama. And the Democratic base still disproportionately sits out the midterms, which lets the obstructionists dominate the agenda. Seib holds out hope that a GOP Senate might be able to deliver on immigration reform. Continued Beltway optimism about that prospect is delusional. Given that the Senate already passed a (slightly bipartisan) bill, GOP control won’t change anything. Sadly, even the president fell for the fiction that the House would eventually take up the issue for far too long, postponing executive action on deferring deportations so that he couldn’t do it before the midterms – and now there’s worry about depressed Latino 2014 turnout as a result. Let’s hope nobody in the White House falls for that again. Scher takes special comfort from the fact that 2016 looms, giving the GOP “the opportunity to work out its dysfunctional family issues under the white-hot spotlight of a presidential campaign.” There’s no doubt 2016 will be much better for Democrats. The base turns out for presidential elections, and the Senate map that year will be as tough on Republicans as it is in 2014 on Democrats, forcing the GOP to defend more seats and offering their rivals more pickups. All of that is a given. But even a 2016 rout is unlikely to force Republicans to focus on a policy agenda and commit to governing again. All they have to do is thwart the plans of President Hillary Clinton, or whomever, and reap the rewards two years later. Until the Democrats’ structural disadvantage in voter turnout is corrected, American politics is an endless feedback loop of futility: little or no policy change leads to a discouraged electorate, which ensures little or no policy change, which guarantees more voter apathy. Democrats may yet keep the Senate, and if they do it will come down to greater grassroots and national emphasis on turning out unmarried women voters (more on that later this week). But if they don’t, there will be no silver lining. Sure, it will be entertaining to watch de facto House Speaker Ted Cruz make life even more miserable for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. It’s a given that the 2016 Republican primary race will be as big a freak show as 2012 (and maybe even with Mitt Romney again too!) But this optimist no longer believes the GOP will pay any lasting price for more cartoonish dysfunction. But the rest of us will, for a long time. | 0fake |
Cosmology/ Love & the Afterlife | Cosmology/ Love & the Afterlife Cosmology/ Love & the Afterlife Date Tuesday - November 22, leading astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium, Neil deGrasse Tyson discussed the latest discoveries and research in astrophysics, and cosmology. Dark matter and dark energy continue to mystify the science and physics community. 85% of the gravity in the universe has no known source, and is attributed to unmeasurable dark matter, while dark energy is a mysterious pressure in the vacuum of space, making the expansion of the universe accelerate, he explained. Regarding the threat of asteroids hitting the Earth, he suggested working on ways to deflect any incoming bodies, rather than mitigating the aftereffects of a disastrous collision.
Our early solar system was a turbulent place that may have had around 30 planets initially, with some colliding into each other. Such a collision was how our moon was formed, when a planet sideswiped Earth, he detailed. Other bodies may have become "vagabond planets" and left our solar system entirely. Interestingly, he noted that such runaway planets zooming through interstellar space could be more common than planets orbiting a star. He also touched on such topics as the Big Bang, the anomalous Tabby's Star, and the evolution of his documentary TV series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey , which revived the brand originally presented by Carl Sagan. | 1real |
Mattis says North Korea missile test meant to provoke | RIYADH (Reuters) - The failed North Korean missile test over the weekend was an attempt by the reclusive country to “provoke something,” U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday, pledging that the United States will work with China to reduce tensions. U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a hard line with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has rebuffed admonitions from China and proceeded with nuclear and missile programmes seen by Washington and others as a direct threat. On Saturday North Korea carried out a missile launch which the Pentagon said failed, blowing up almost immediately . Speaking with reporters on his way to the Middle East, Mattis said the most recent test was not an intercontinental ballistic missile but still a reckless move. “It shows why we are working so closely right now with the Chinese... to try to get this under control and aim for the denuclearized Korean peninsula,” Mattis said. Trump acknowledged on Sunday that the softer line he had taken on China’s management of its currency was linked to its help on North Korea. The United States, its allies and China are working on a range of responses to North Korea’s missile test, U.S. officials have said. China itself has spoken out against the North’s weapons tests and has supported U.N. sanctions. It banned imports of North Korean coal on Feb. 26, cutting off its most important export and Chinese media has raised the possibility of restricting oil shipments to North Korea if it unleashed more provocations. On Monday U.S. Vice President Mike Pence put North Korea on notice, warning that recent U.S. strikes in Syria and Afghanistan showed that the Trump administration’s resolve should not be tested. The Trump administration is focusing its strategy on tougher economic sanctions, possibly including an oil embargo, a global ban on its airline, intercepting cargo ships and punishing Chinese banks doing business with Pyongyang. The North has warned of a nuclear strike against the United States if provoked. It has said it has developed and would launch a missile that can strike the mainland United States but officials and experts believe it is some time away from mastering the necessary technology, including miniaturizing a nuclear warhead. | 0fake |
HUD OFFICIAL Spends $366,000 in Fed Funds on Booze, Makeup, Clothes and Homes…You Won’t Believe Her Punishment! | WHY IS THIS CRIMINAL ALLOWED TO JUST SKATE BY WITH SUCH A SHORT AMOUNT OF JAIL TIME?We know that this woman is working on a plea bargain but FIVE YEARS??? The two things that are so outrageous about this entire case are that there was NO OVERSIGHT and that this WENT ON FOR 8 YEARS!!!USING THE FEDS AS YOUR OWN PERSONAL PIGGY BANK:Lorena Loren s job was to help poor people find housing Instead, prosecutors say, she was stealing from the poor to buy booze, makeup, clothes and homes for her relatives.But after years of scheming, authorities say, the government caught on. IT TOOK 8 YEARS!In a public corruption case that surfaced in federal court today, Loren, the former executive director of the St. Clair Housing Commission, was charged with embezzling more than $300,000 in low-income housing funds and spending the money on herself and family.According to a charging document filed in U.S. District Court, Loren s scheme ran between 2008-2016 and benefited many family members, including her husband, son and son-in-law.Prosecutors say Loren s criminal activity started in 2008 five years after she was appointed executive director of the St. Clair Housing Commission, which administers federally funded low-income housing programs in St. Clair County.According to court records, Loren used her job in many nefarious ways, including: She fraudulently used the housing commission s two credit cards to buy personal items for herself and relatives, including nearly $135,000 in online purchases from Amazon.com; $14,364 in purchases from Sam s Club in Port Huron, and $16,460 in purchases from various Walmart stores. The purchases included, among other things, adult and infant clothing, furniture, food, beauty supplies, medications and alcoholic beverages. Her unauthorized Amazon.com purchases included $60,000 worth of bedroom furniture, mattresses, appliances and other household items for family members. The items were shipped to Loren s relatives in Georgia and Florida. She embezzled $24,600 in commission funds to pay for her son s rental unit. She lied on four government housing contracts by claiming that her son-in-law was the landlord of a rental property for low-income residents in Michigan, when it was really her home in Port Austin. She falsified lease agreements and stole public housing money that was supposed to help poor people to rent a home for her son. She directed members of her family to establish bank accounts so that federal rental subsidy payments could be deposited into those accounts. The relatives then used the money for their own personal use, including rent for their Florida residences.Loren is charged in what is known as an information, which typically means she is working on a deal with the government. She is charged with conspiracy to commit federal program fraud. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison.Loren home Lorena Loren bought this $325,000 home in Georgia after federal prosecutors say she embezzled more than $336,000 from the St. Clair Housing Commission.JUDICIAL WATCH: HUD s inspector general has testified before Congress about the severe mismanagement at offshoots functioning independently yet federally funded in states across the country that have fleeced taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars. He testified that his office discovered more than $200 million in questionable spending at local public housing agencies (PHAs) since 2012. PHAs are created by states, operate at the city or county level and administer the federal program known as Section 8 to provide low-income people with affordable housing. Many of these local public housing agencies are run by people with troubled backgrounds that somehow manage to remain in high-ranking positions at the agencies, the watchdog told lawmakers back in 2014.DR BEN CARSON NEEDS TO CLEAN THIS UP STAT!READ MORE: DFP | 1real |
Roads Melt As Record-Shattering Temperatures Hit India (VIDEO) | This week temperatures in the town of Phalodi, located in the state of Rajasthan, India, reached 123.8 degrees F. It was the highest temperature ever recorded in the country.As CNN reports here, the brutal heat is taking a massive toll on the people and the economy. At least 400 people have died from heat-related causes over the past four weeks.Photos published by CNN here show devastated crops, dead livestock and melting roads in New Delhi, where temperatures reached 109 degrees F.A video posted to YouTube reportedly shows a road in Shaheed Chowk, Silvassa, Gujrat, which is melting due to scorching heat. The country s current deadly heat wave comes on the heels of a devastating summer heat wave which claimed the lives of more than 2,500 people in 2015. Last year s deadly wave of heat in India was the fifth deadliest in recorded history.Think Progress reports:According to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, India is getting hotter as humans continue to pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. With these increases in heat, the report produced by 1,250 international experts and approved by every major government in the world said with high confidence that the risk of heat-related mortality would rise due to climate change and population increases, along with greater risk of drought-related water and food shortages.Today there are 330 million people in India who do not have access to enough water to fulfill their daily needs.The country has reported higher than average temperatures throughout 2016.As Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, explained to Think Progress, the unprecedented heat waves sweeping across India are happening with current global warming levels of just 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit. If we continue down this same path, scientists say global temperatures will rise seven to nine degrees by the end of the century.Climate change denying republicans in Congress should be required to spend some quality time in India. Maybe walking on melting roadways and baking in a slow oven, set to 124 degrees F, would help them come to grips with reality.Image credit: video screen capture via World Wide Viral on YouTube | 1real |
"America has a simple ideology": how one of Russia's top US experts explains America | The United States comes up constantly when you talk to Russians about their country's place in the world. But the conversations tend to go a lot differently than many Americans might expect.
In the US, the common view is that Russians feel aggrieved by the loss of the Soviet Union and all the respect that came with being a global superpower. Russia's acts of aggression in Europe, in this telling, are all about challenging the American-led order as a way to prove Russia's might and importance. This aggression is wildly popular among Russians, many Americans believe, because it makes them feel patriotic and powerful to bully the West, and particularly the US, which they blame for Russia's problems.
"Russia took off its ideological blinders in 1991, but America still seems to have them on"
There is certainly truth to this, but it's just a piece of the truth. Rather, when you speak to influential people across institutions and the political spectrum in Russia, as Amanda Taub and I did during a recent reporting trip there, the story you hear over and over is one of Russia's fundamental weakness. And you hear a preoccupation with the United States that goes far beyond what even many Americans, who are famously narcissistic about our country, would expect.
In this telling, Moscow capitulated at the end of the Cold War, and even tried to make itself a friend to the far more powerful United States. But an irrationally aggressive America has instead sought repeatedly to weaken, control, or even destroy Russia. Their country, in this view, is insecure against an overwhelmingly powerful West. Its actions that we see as aggressive are actually defensive. And Moscow is kept safe only by careful vigilance and by the nuclear arsenal that you hear Russians cite over and over.
This is the version of history you hear in Russia from detached foreign policy pragmatists, from pro-Putin ideologues and anti-Putin ideologues, even from members of the pro-Western political opposition who support what they believe be to a Western agenda of weakening Russia.
There's a quote that speaks perfectly to this Russian worldview — and how Americans misunderstand it — in the most recent issue of Russia in Global Affairs, a Russian foreign policy journal that is widely considered to reflect the views of Russia's foreign policy establishment. The quote is from a Q&A with Vladimir Lukin, a prominent Russian diplomat and liberal politician who previously served as ambassador to the US:
Interviewer: In his 1994 book "Diplomacy," Henry Kissinger writes that "integrating Russia into the international system is a key task" for the United States. But as he was saying this, the Americans were actually pushing Moscow away with their policy. Why? Vladimir Lukin: It is in the genes. America has a simple ideology – that there is only one truth in the world, that truth is held by God, and God created the United States to be an embodiment of that truth. So the Americans strive to bring this truth to the rest of the world and to make it happy. Only after that will everything be well. This ideology has a strong influence on their policy. A wise traditionalist and a geopolitical expert, Kissinger had good reason to call such politicians "Trotskyites" for advocating a world revolution, albeit in their own way, but always in the front and in shining armor. This is a tempting ideology and has been professed by different countries at different times, not only the United States.
Lukin is hardly seen as an anti-American hard-liner in Russia — rather, he's considered to be an objective expert on the United States and a highly professional diplomat. He is a founding member of the liberal opposition party Yabloko. That he would get the United States so obviously wrong — what Americans would call defending democracy and human rights, he sees as a far more radical and explicitly religious agenda of "advocating a world revolution" — is troubling. But his view is a common one, and that tells you a great deal.
The interviewer's response is similarly telling: "So Russia took off its ideological blinders in 1991, but America still seems to have them on. The Soviet Union is gone, but the policy against it is not."
This narrative of an inherently aggressive America is one we heard over and over in Moscow, not just from people who support Russian President Vladimir Putin and his aggressive, anti-American policies but even from those who oppose them. In this view, American politics and policies are bent on, and in many ways driven by, a hatred of Russia and desire to destroy or at least control it. Russia has had no choice but to meet American aggression with defensive actions such as putting nuclear-capable missiles in Europe or arming eastern Ukrainian militias at threat of genocidal extermination by American-backed fascists, if only to deter the US from further actions that could lead to all-out war.
It's not hard to poke holes in this Russian worldview. As Stephen Sestanovich, a longtime senior State Department official who helped engineer the Clinton administration's Russia policies, wrote in a recent article for the American Interest, even the "pragmatic" Russian case for annexing Crimea in March 2014 makes little strategic sense:
Yet this was the worldview we heard even from professionals and politicians in Russia who oppose anti-Western policies. One foreign policy expert who wished for rapprochement with the West sighed to us that it would be impossible because Hillary Clinton, whom he said was widely viewed as irrationally anti-Russian, would soon take office. At another meeting, a political opposition leader remarked offhand that he hoped the US would be successful in its efforts to engineer regime change in Moscow.
As Sestanovich writes in his essay, "The idea that the United States aims at a 'color revolution' in Moscow is the single most frequently repeated theme of official Russian rhetoric." This is more than paranoia or government propaganda; it is the accepted worldview: that Russia is under constant threat from a hostile and irrational United States.
Lukin, at another point in his Q&A, lamented that the US had rejected Moscow's gestures at cooperation in the 1990s and instead sought to surround Russia with a hostile NATO alliance, thus forcing Russia into a defensive crouch and creating today's tensions. "It was the biggest mistake the West made," he said, "and gradually led to the current situation."
These fears about America are likely to worsen in Russia if Hillary Clinton becomes president; many people told us she is seen by many Russians, especially Russian policymakers, as unbendingly hostile to Moscow and bent on the Putin government's destruction.
"Hillary is the worst option of any president," Fyodor Lukyanov, an influential Russian foreign policy expert who edits a leading foreign affairs journal and heads a foreign policy think tank, told us.
"Many people here believe that [she and her team] will try to come back to the line of the 1990s to encourage Russia into an internal transformation," Lukyanov added. "Not by force, of course, but to encourage some kind of social development that will upend the current system and will promote a new one."
WATCH: What most people miss about the war in the Ukraine | 0fake |
Lebanon detains Uber driver suspected of murdering British embassy worker: security official | BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Lebanese taxi driver with a previous arrest for drug use has confessed to killing a British woman who worked at the British Embassy in Beirut, a senior Lebanese security official said on Monday. A second security source said preliminary investigations into the murder of Rebecca Dykes showed the motive was purely criminal, not political. The suspect, who worked for the Uber [UBER.UL] taxi service, had immediately confessed to the crime, which took place early on Saturday, the source said. The senior security official said the suspect was 41 years old and had been arrested on drug-related charges in the period 2015-17, which the official said might not show up on his judicial record. The second security source said the suspect had a criminal record but gave no details. Lebanon s state news agency NNA identified the suspect by the first name Tariq and the initial H, and said he had picked Dykes up in his taxi in Beirut s Gemmayzeh district on Friday evening before assaulting and killing her. Uber declined to confirm the suspect s name or how long he had been driving for the service. The incident was the latest to highlight the issue of safety at Uber in various countries around the world. We are horrified by this senseless act of violence. Our hearts are with the victim and her family, said Uber spokesman Harry Porter. We are working with authorities to assist their investigation in any way we can. Porter said the company uses commercially licensed taxi drivers in Lebanon, and the government carries out background checks and grants licenses. Only drivers that have clean background checks and clean judicial records are licensed, he said. The suspect s background check did not show any convictions, or he would not have been licensed, Porter said. Police traced the suspect s car through highway surveillance cameras, they said. Police only said they had arrested a suspect and that it was not a political crime. Dykes, who was strangled, was found by a main highway outside Beirut, a security source said on Sunday. She worked at the British Embassy for the Department for International Development. The whole embassy is deeply shocked, saddened by this news, Britain s ambassador to Lebanon, Hugo Shorter, said on Sunday. We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Rebecca, Dykes family said in a statement. We are doing all we can to understand what happened. In September, San Francisco-based Uber was stripped of its operating license in London over concerns about its approach to reporting serious criminal offences and background checks on drivers. In India, the company was sued twice by a woman who was raped in 2014 by an Uber driver, first for failing to maintain basic safety procedures and again alleging executives improperly obtained her medical records. The Uber driver was convicted of the rape and sentenced in 2015 to life in prison. Uber settled the first lawsuit and has agreed to settle the second. In Brazil, a company policy of accepting cash payments for rides made drivers the target of robbery and murder. Following a Reuters investigation, Uber in February rolled out new safety requirements, including requiring new cash users to register with a social security number. And in Houston, Texas, a 2016 city investigation found that Uber s background checks were so insufficient the company cleared drivers with criminal histories including murder, assault and 17 other crimes. Uber is facing a host of problems, including allegations of sexual harassment, data privacy violations and a lawsuit and criminal investigation over alleged trade-secrets theft. New Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi, who replaced co-founder Travis Kalanick in August, has been critical of past practices and vowed a new era of compliance. The company is in the midst of a stock sale in which Softbank Group will take a stake in the company ahead of an anticipated 2019 initial public offering. | 0fake |
Chelsea Manning criticizes Obama, draws Trump's ire | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning on Thursday questioned Barack Obama’s legacy after the former Democratic president commuted her sentence last week, and she called for “an unapologetic progressive leader” to fight for minorities’ rights. While not mentioning U.S. President Donald Trump by name, Manning wrote in Britain’s the Guardian that “after eight years of attempted compromise and relentless disrespect in return, we are moving into darker times” and urged Democrats not to compromise. Trump responded in a tweet, calling her a traitor and criticizing the decision to release her. “Ungrateful TRAITOR Chelsea Manning, who should never have been released from prison, is now calling President Obama a weak leader. Terrible!” Trump wrote. Manning had been sentenced to 35 years in prison after committing the biggest breach of classified information in American history in 2010 by handing over U.S. government secrets to anti-secrecy group Wikileaks. In one of his final actions before leaving office last week, Obama commuted Manning’s sentence to about seven years, allowing it to end on May 17. Republicans, including Trump’s spokesman, criticized the commutation as a dangerous precedent for leakers. Obama has defended the move, saying Manning had served a tough sentence and that justice had been served. He also said it was unrelated to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s pledge to accept extradition to the United States, where there is an open criminal investigation into the group’s activities, if Manning was freed. Wikileaks, in its own tweet on Thursday, rejected Trump’s assertion as “wrong,” noting that Manning was found not guilty of the most serious charge, aiding the enemy. Manning, formerly known as U.S. Army Private First Class Bradley Manning, was born male but revealed after being convicted of espionage that she identifies as a woman. She has struggled to cope as a transgender woman in a men’s military prison and last year twice tried to kill herself. In her Guardian piece, she did not directly acknowledge Obama’s commutation. Instead, Manning said the former president compromised too much and left a “vulnerable legacy” with “very few permanent accomplishments.” She raised concerns about worsening healthcare, increased criminalization of racial minorities and “queer and trans people,” and she urged political progressives to prepare to dig in and push for “change at every level.” “The one simple lesson to draw from President Obama’s legacy: Do not start off with a compromise. They won’t meet you in the middle. Instead, what we need is an unapologetic progressive leader.” | 0fake |
FEMALE SAILOR FACES DISCIPLINE By US Navy For Posting Video Of Herself Sitting In Protest Of National Anthem…Because…”It’s Racist” | ***WARNING***If you watch this video, you will encounter strong language and even stronger stupidity A female sailor who posted a video of herself sitting through morning colors in protest of supposed racism in the national anthem is being disciplined by the U.S. Navy.Disciplinary actions toward the female sailor are ongoing, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy told Military Times. We are always doing training to make sure that sailors know the pros and cons of using social media, and they must always observe appropriate conduct, and they re always subject to the UCMJ at all times, she added.The national anthem basically says land of the free, home of the brave, except for hirelings and slaves and I just can t support anything like that, the female sailor said in the video she posted on Facebook. She continues I think Colin had a really good point when he said we had bodies in the streets. | 1real |
Dr. Jim Willie: ‘The Western central bank franchise system is totally broken, totally insolvent, and totally corrupt’… Bloomberg: ‘If debt continues to increase at twice the rate of GDP, financial engineering can only smooth things over for so long.’ | Dr. Jim Willie: ‘The Western central bank franchise system is totally broken, totally insolvent, and totally corrupt’… Bloomberg: ‘If debt continues to increase at twice the rate of GDP, financial engineering can only smooth things over for so long.’ by IWB · October 27, 2016 Tweet Schaeuble says monetary policy has reached its limits There is a growing international consensus that monetary policy has reached the limits of its possibilities, German Finance Wolfgang Schaeuble told a group of government officials in Berlin on Tuesday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-schaeuble-liquidity-idUSKCN12P2EN China Gets Desperate About Debt
With its debts surging and growth sluggish, China has hit on a new strategy to revitalize its ailing economy. It’s the same as the old strategy. Only this time, it won’t work.
Earlier this month, China’s State Council released guidelines for a new swap program, in which companies can exchange troubled debt with banks in return for equity. The government hopes this will give the firms a chance to restructure on favorable terms, and avoid the prospect of “zombie companies” propped up indefinitely by state-owned lenders.
Optimists point to a similar program that China executed, with some success, a little more than a decade ago. But they’re overlooking the primary reason that the previous swap seemed to work — which doesn’t portend success this time around.
In the late 1990s, responding to a similar bout of excessive borrowing, China’s government created state-owned asset-management companies to help banks clean up their balance sheets. Firms such as China Cinda Asset Management Co. and China Huarong Asset Management Co. grew out of this program. These “bad banks” purchased a wide variety of assets and held them for extended periods with minimal return, thus helping the banks to continue lending.
The extent to which this solved any problems, as opposed to papering them over, is debatable. But even the limited success of that program won’t be repeated this time around.
…
In this light, China doesn’t need a new debt-for-equity swap program. It needs to cut credit growth. If debt continues to increase at twice the rate of GDP, financial engineering can only smooth things over for so long. The government also needs to recapitalize the banking system. That will be expensive: By most estimates, it will cost upward of $500 billion . But if banks simply shuffle bad debt between themselves, as is happening so far, there will be no net change to the health of the system.
Unfortunately for China, there’s no cheap or easy way out of this problem. Someday, the debt always comes due.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-10-26/china-gets-desperate-about-debt
Europe could be on eve of banking Armageddon which will dwarf Credit Crunch, says expert
GERMANY, Italy, Switzerland, Britain and France are facing the catastrophic consequences of ‘over leveraging’ as Europe’s biggest banks prepare to release their latest results over the next two days.
And analysts say the potential for a cataclysmic failure could spread like a wild-fire hitting the continent and beyond as the true extent of deep troubles in the international banking sector are revealed.
The IMF and German governments have refused to step in to prop-up struggling banks but risk analysts are warning Deutsche Bank, RBS, Lloyds, Unicredit, Intesa SanPaolo, and BMPS could all need a state bail out.
And it’s going to be a wake up call for the whole of Europe say experts who fear the reports are not going to be good for anyone.
With alarming simliarities to the 2008 global financial crash, the latest results could spell disaster not only for the wealthy bankers paid to operate the system but for ordinary savers.
New York based David Hendler of Viola Risk Advisors says the next two days could have serious ramifications for the entire globe.
He said: “Like autumn leaves falling from the mighty oaks, the incredible yellows, oranges, and reds, will turn and rot into the ugly browns and black detritus, leading to smelly and then crumbled leaves.
Dr. Jim Willie Writes:
The Western central bank franchise system is totally broken, totally insolvent, and totally corrupt. It invites the Gold Standard return. The entire financial system is built upon a debt-based monetary system. The debt saturation process has run its full course. The central bank heads have been covering the sovereign debt for the last five years, having rendered their balance sheets as ruined. Debt is at obscene levels, like $19.7 trillion for the USGovt. No debt limits are in place anymore, a signal that most likely it has already defaulted. A hidden game is underway, with control lost to the creditors, even as they attempt to salvage their debt holdings. The major central banks continue to manage badly the great game, where money is fake phony and a farce. A titanic battle is underway, where the Eastern nations are discarding their USTreasury Bonds, and doing so in tremendous volume while they set up the many platforms and pieces to the Gold Standard. | 1real |
WATCH Protesters At DNC: “I’ll Take Trump Over Hillary Any Day…She Won’t Win If It Comes To Black Votes” CROWD SHOUTS: “Don’t Vote For Hillary, She’s Killing Black People” | Inside, on the DNC stage, Hillary is pandering to moms of dead thugs and family members who lost someone they loved because they either tried to take a weapon from an officer or attempted to use their own weapon against an officer. But outside the DNC walls, Black protesters are hammering Hillary. Blacks have a message for Hillary, and it appears they re telling her she s wasting her time that she ll never get their votes.In the end, all of Hillary s pandering to Blacks and special interest hate groups may have been a colossal waste of Hillary s time.Black protesters at the DNC are making their voices heard, and the one thing that is clear, is that Crooked Hillary is NOT getting their vote. Funny thing is, their saying they ll vote for Donald Trump. He didn t have to make a spectacle of Black Lives Matter members, he simply had to promise that he d make it a priority to find jobs for Americans and to Make America Great Again Watch: | 1real |
The Sudden Rise of Lil Yachty - The New York Times | After 18 years of trying to get noticed, the rapper and teenage eccentric Lil Yachty has been forced recently to practice blending in. It’s mostly the hair. On a recent Saturday, following a dayslong spate of promotional appearances and photo shoots, the internet supernova, who found fame online and beyond this year with a series of catchy mixtapes and goofy viral moments, hoped to do a little shopping in the heart of Brooklyn. But before he could peacefully enter Kith, the streetwear store that specializes in sneakers and sugary cereal, Lil Yachty needed to hide his trademark accessory: his skinny braids adorned with clear plastic beads. As his chauffeured S. U. V. approached the buzzing shop, the Atlanta rapper grabbed a knit cap from the head of a friend, who assented without a word, seemingly familiar with the routine. It worked. Locks tucked atop his head, Lil Yachty, whose face is usually obscured by the clacking tentacles, proved unrecognizable even to those who may have binged on his whimsical music videos or Instagram account. Like a millennial Clark Kent, he went unbothered in the maw of his target demographic, drawing stares only as he stacked five pairs of shoes and two art books (“Pharrell,” “KAWS”) by the register. As with the spree, there was still some thrill in needing to go undercover. “At the beginning of this year, I used to walk through the local mall and say, ‘One day, I’m not going to be able to walk through this mall,’” Lil Yachty said later in the privacy of a Caribbean restaurant, his hair since released. “No way I could walk through the mall now. Unless I’m hiding. ” Last winter, the teenager born Miles McCollum, who had recently dropped out of college and had been arrested in a Florida mall for credit card fraud, was hoping to shake his anonymity. Rapping was a relatively new pastime (it still is) though striving for fame came naturally to a diligent student of social networks. “I always knew I was going to be something,” he said. “I didn’t know what. ” Now, at the end of a 2016, Lil Yachty seems more certain. “I’m not a rapper, I’m an artist,” he said. “And I’m more than an artist. I’m a brand. ” The stats back him up. In addition to releasing the popular “Lil Boat” and “Summer Songs 2” mixtapes, filled with his taffylike digital wails and cartoon melodies, and reaching No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 with his guest verse on D. R. A. M.’s “Broccoli,” Lil Yachty has modeled Kanye West’s Yeezy line at Madison Square Garden, starred in a Sprite commercial with LeBron James and teamed up with Nautica on a capsule collection for Urban Outfitters. An official debut album with Capitol Records is planned for early 2017. Yet even among the bevy of singular voices in the new Atlanta scene, where male rappers can wear dresses and carry designer bags, moan about their feelings and dance with their hips, Lil Yachty is demonstrably odd, flaunting his indifference to rap traditionalism and aiming to remain somewhat wholesome: more schoolyard than trap house. “Rappers don’t have endorsements because of their images,” he said. “Endorsement money is huge. And I care about my character. ” He added: “I don’t rap about drinking or smoking, ever, because I don’t do it. I don’t rap about anything I don’t do. ” Instead, Lil Yachty preaches an positivity fueled by timeless adolescent ambitions: chasing girls, looking cool and hanging out with friends. (Lil Yachty’s crew is known as the Sailing Team: “If you’re a fan of me, then you know my friends, because I push them just as hard. ”) His most menacing raps can feel playful, his sexuality disarmingly juvenile and his boasts betray his age: “Parents mad at my ass ’cause their kids sing my song in class,” he taunts while proclaiming himself the King of the Teens. “We are the youth!” goes another battle cry. As with his breakout viral hits “1 Night” and “Minnesota,” Lil Yachty’s music relies less on technical rapping than on simple melodies that invoke warped nursery rhymes, with bright, bubbly production and an affecting falsetto smoothed with . Along with Kanye West and Kid Cudi, both of whom count as elder statesmen to someone born in 1997, his most direct influences include the outre internet rappers Lil B and Soulja Boy, along with pop acts like Coldplay, Daft Punk and Fall Out Boy. While modeling for Nautica last month to his own personal playlist, Lil Yachty mimed air guitar to “Paradise City” by Guns N’ Roses and boogied to Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets” when he wasn’t belting Chris Martin ballads. Between looks, he dined on his preferred menu of Domino’s pepperoni pizza, candy and cookies, head buried in his two Louis iPhones. (One had a message: “LETS BE RICH FOREVER. ”) At the same time, Lil Yachty’s stated indifference toward the catalogs of Tupac and the Notorious B. I. G. has made him a punching bag for rap purists, the poster child for a new school dismissively dubbed “mumble rap. ” He’s leaned into that mantle, so online schadenfreude bubbles up every time Lil Yachty, say, bombs a freestyle over ’90s beats or fails miserably at dunking a basketball. “I ask myself all the time, ‘How do I always go viral? ’” Lil Yachty said with a grin. “I’m the face of the youth, the new sound. Nobody likes my truth. ” Except the youth, that is. “They relate to me because I’m so like them,” he said, “but on a global scale. ” Music, it turns out, was something of an afterthought, despite his deep roots in Southern rap. Though he was raised mostly by his mother in the Atlanta suburb Austell, his father, Shannon McCollum, lived in the city and worked as a photographer with local acts such as Outkast, Goodie Mob and Lil Jon. But hanging around stars as a child bolstered Lil Yachty’s sense of style and business acumen more than his sense of history. “I would let him help direct photo shoots, and I would always show him my invoices so he could see what I made,” Mr. McCollum, 46, said. “I used to photograph Miles every week. By 3 or 4, he was so comfortable in front of a camera. ” An obsession with fashion followed. “Once, when he was about 7, we were picking up his friend, and Miles had on a pink polo shirt,” his father recalled. “The little boy got in the back seat and started laughing uncontrollably at Miles, calling him a girl. Miles just said, ‘You don’t know nothing about this, man. ’” In high school, influenced by the bright colors favored by Pharrell Williams and Tyler, the Creator, Lil Yachty would spend the money he earned working at McDonald’s or as an assistant to his father at thrift stores. “ cents, 50 cents, I just knew how to put it together,” he said. His mother even taught him to sew. His confidence and originality helped to win over his eventual manager, Coach K, an Atlanta stalwart who has worked with Young Jeezy, Gucci Mane and Migos. “It was like your first meeting with Marilyn Manson,” Coach K said of encountering Lil Yachty. “You’ve got this freakish look, but he’s not scared of who he is. He’s wearing it with pride. Instantly I said, ‘This is it. ’” Lil Yachty had already determined that packaging a mystique was his strong suit. After graduating from high school, he traveled repeatedly to New York and Los Angeles — his father’s day job at Delta gave him access to free flights — where he slept on couches and worked to ingratiate himself with tastemakers like Ian Connor and Luka Sabbat. “I was simply trying to get people who had an audience to hang out with me, so that I could get that audience,” Lil Yachty said. “I was making music, but I wasn’t really pushing it yet. I knew exactly how it worked. ” He corrected himself. “I know exactly how it works. ” Still, even he has been surprised by the speed of his ascent. “It just feels like a dream,” he said, recalling that in January, he couldn’t make it past the door of Kanye’s studio. “I sat in the hallway for hours while ASAP Rocky was in there. They wouldn’t let me in. By August, I was working with him. ” Nautica, too, came calling only after a year of Lil Yachty’s attempting to get the maritime brand’s attention via social media. It was backstage among the V. I. P.s at Jay Z’s Made in America festival in September that Lil Yachty’s new reality started to sink in. “Obama’s daughters knew who I was,” he said. “They were huge fans. Jay Z said my name to me before I introduced myself. ” And yet, persona aside, a teenager can only be a teenager. At an Urban Outfitters in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, among decidedly less dazzling guests, the rapper hid once again behind his hair and phone as overeager young fans offered him anything they could find to autograph: $5 bills, laptops, water bottles, purses, coats and, yes, eventually breasts. Not yet immune to such attention at close range, Lil Yachty could only giggle to himself, shaking his head as he mouthed the words to his own music. | 0fake |
Billionaire Saudi prince Alwaleed detained in probe: official | DUBAI, - Billionaire Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who owns investment firm Kingdom Holding 4280.SE, is among people detained and under investigation by a new anti-corruption body, a senior Saudi official told Reuters on Sunday. Also detained and under investigation is former Saudi finance minister Ibrahim al-Assaf, said the official, who declined to be identified under briefing rules. Neither man could be reached immediately for comment. King Salman announced late on Saturday the creation of a new anti-corruption committee chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said had detained 11 princes, four current ministers and tens of former ministers. | 0fake |
Nason, former Treasury official, being vetted for Fed role: sources | WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - David Nason, a General Electric executive and former Treasury Department official, is the front runner to become the Federal Reserve’s top Wall Street regulator under President-elect Donald Trump, sources familiar with the screening said on Thursday. Nason leads GE’s Energy Financial Services division, which funds worldwide energy development, mostly from thermal and renewable sources. In 2008, Nason was a deputy to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson as U.S. regulators tried to stabilize Wall Street and prevent an economic meltdown after the housing market collapsed. Trump will have a chance to nominate the Fed’s vice chair for supervision - a role conceived in the wake of the financial collapse to watchdog Wall Street. If Nason is tapped for the role, he would be the most senior rule-writer for Wall Street with a large say in how leading banks are supervised day to day. In recent weeks, other names have been floated as vice chair candidates who can boast support from Wall Street. Representative French Hill, an Arkansas Republican and former banker, has been favored by some in the banking industry while some Washington lobbyists have favored Paul Atkins, a former commissioner with the Securities and Exchange Commission. While no final decision has been made on who should fill the job, Nason has Paulson’s backing and has become the front runner in recent weeks, the sources said. In the last several weeks, Nason has met with Trump’s senior economic advisers Gary Cohn and Steve Mnuchin, according to one source familiar with the meetings. A Trump spokesperson declined to comment. Trump has named Cohn as head of the White House National Economic Council and nominated Mnuchin as Treasury secretary. Both Cohn and Mnuchin held senior roles at Goldman Sachs, and they have heard directly from Paulson, the company’s former chief executive, that Nason is a solid pick, according to another source familiar with the screening. Nason did not immediately respond to a call for comment. A spokesman for Paulson declined to comment. In Paulson’s memoir, “On the Brink,” the former cabinet secretary singles Nason out for praise during the financial crisis. | 0fake |
SUPREME COURT AGREES TO TAKE ON Obama’s Un-American Plan To Shield Millions Of Illegals From Deportation | So far, the Supreme Court has not prevented one single unconstitutional act committed by Obama. Is there any reason to believe they will stop the invasion of illegals to save America and the American worker?The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to review President Obama s plan to shield up to 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation, after lower courts blocked the president s sweeping executive actions from taking effect.The decision sets up an election-year clash over the controversial plan that many Republicans have likened to amnesty. The justices said Tuesday they will consider undoing lower court rulings that blocked the plan from taking effect. The Obama administration had appealed to the Supreme Court last fall.The decision to review the case may be welcome on both sides of the aisle. Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, of Utah, issued a statement praising the court for taking it on and urging the justices to rule against the administration. President Obama s executive action is an affront to our system of republican self-government, Hatch said. The Constitution vests legislative authority in Congress, not the President. With his actions, President Obama has attempted to bypass the constitutionally ordained legislative process and rewrite the law unilaterally. The case probably will be argued in April and decided by late June, about a month before both parties presidential nominating conventions. The issue of illegal immigration has taken a center-stage role in the Republican primary battle, as Donald Trump calls for a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and candidates spar over who is toughest on the issue.The immigrants who would benefit from the Obama administration s plan are mainly the parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.But more than two-dozen mostly Republican-led states challenged Obama s executive actions after they were rolled out in 2014, and the plan has been tied up in litigation ever since.Critics say the plan is unconstitutional. Shortly before the administration took the case to the Supreme Court, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the states in early November.Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. later said in a court filing that allowing those rulings to stand would force millions of people to continue to work off the books, without the option of lawful employment to provide for their families. At issue is the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program, which Obama said would allow people who have been in the United States more than five years and who have children who are in the country legally to come out of the shadows and get right with the law. Via: Fox News | 1real |
Obama Finally Weighs In On His Vote For President With Explicit Message For Democrats | If you ve been on the email list for President Obama, as well as the Democratic National Committee, then you probably woke up to an email this morning from the president. For the most part, he s kept quiet in regards to who he would like as the person to come after him as commander-in-chief. There s been speculation, but nothing definitive, and to be honest that s really best. Whoever wins should win on their own merits.However, in the email sent out, President Obama told it like it is. He gets directly to the point and lets us know that we cannot, no matter what, allow a Republican to win the White House. Their divisive and hateful rhetoric is absolutely un-American. Yet, more to the point, the president points out that the Democrats have two fantastic choices, and that no matter what their differences may be, they actually share more in ideology than they disagree.Here s the president s message:In a few months, I ll be heading into the voting booth to cast my vote for the next President of the United States. And, like so many of you, I ve spent this primary observing the candidates and the parties, and what they represent.And I have to say, this has been a difficult period for the Republicans. They re trying to figure out what they re standing for whether they will be the party of building walls and surveilling neighborhoods, whether they will be the party that enshrines discrimination in our laws.But the good news for Democrats is that we know what we believe. We believe that climate change is real and that we must do something about it. We believe in raising the minimum wage, and that women should be paid the same as men for doing the same job. We believe that our laws should reflect our heritage as a nation of immigrants. We believe that all people should be treated with dignity and respect, no matter their race or religion, gender or sexual orientation.We have two fine Democratic candidates who, no matter their differences, share this same set of core beliefs that defines our party. And in November, we re going to make sure that one of them becomes our next president.Thanks,Barack ObamaHe then asks us to pledge to vote for a Democrat this November and say you re in. And while there will definitely be folks who disagree, because they wanted their candidate to win the primary, the bigger picture is what everyone needs to keep in mind.We simply cannot allow a Republican back into the Oval Office. The last time we did (or rather the Supreme Court did), we ended up with two-unfunded wars, one of which was based on lies, and a recession that brought us to the brink of utter collapse. We ve come too far to turn back now.We need to pull together for the good of the nation. Let s listen to President Obama and follow his lead, and come November, vote blue no matter who.Featured Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 1real |
U.S. to give Philippines eye in sky to track South China Sea activity | MANILA (Reuters) - The United States will transfer an observation blimp to the Philippines to help it track maritime activity and guard its borders amid rising tensions in the South China Sea, a U.S. diplomat said on Monday. Philip Goldberg, U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, said Washington would give Manila, its oldest Asia-Pacific security ally, $42 million worth of sensors, radar and communications equipment. “We will add to its capability to put sensors on ships and put an aerostat blimp in the air to see into the maritime space,” Goldberg said in an interview with CNN Philippines, The blimp is a balloon-borne radar to collect information and detect movements in the South China Sea, a Philippine military official said. China claims almost the entire South China Sea, believed to have huge deposits of oil and gas. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to parts of the waters, through which about $5 trillion in trade is shipped every year. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter visited the Philippines last week to reaffirm Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to defend Manila under a 1951 security treaty. China has been expanding its presence on its seven artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago and on Monday landed a military plane for the first time on one of them, Fiery Cross Reef. It comes ahead of a planned U.S. freedom of navigation patrol this month near the Spratlys. Carter’s visit also signals the start of U.S. military deployment in the Philippines, with 75 soldiers to be rotated in and out of an air base north of Manila. Goldberg said the two allies had agreed to set up a system for “secure and classified communications” as part of a five-year, $425 million security initiative by Washington in Southeast Asia. Manila will receive some $120 million in U.S. military aid this year, the largest sum since 2000 when the American military returned to the Philippines for training and exercises after an eight-year hiatus. They signed a new deal in 2013 allowing increased U.S. military presence on a rotational basis and storage of supplies and equipment for maritime security and humanitarian missions. | 0fake |
Tesla, ‘World’s Safest Car,’ Explodes Like a Bomb | Tesla, ‘World’s Safest Car,’ Explodes Like a Bomb By DailyBellStaff - November 05, 2016
Fiery Tesla Crash Sends Flaming Batteries Shooting Like Projectiles, Killing Two In World’s Safest Car … When a Tesla Model S collided with a tree in downtown Indianapolis Thursday, an inferno erupted. The crash, which killed the driver and her one passenger, sent battery cells “firing off almost like projectiles around rescuers,” fire department officials told local NBC affiliate WTHR. “It hit that tree and it bounced around and all of a sudden it just exploded,” Al Finnell, an eyewitness, told the station. -IBD
The world’s safest car just blew up like a bomb but that message seems to be getting lost amidst the larger coverage about Tesla.
For years and years, Tesla has never made a nickel despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars. But the company is beloved by the predictable monetary elites that seek more and more control over the rest of us.
Founder Elon Musk offers that potential control. Every day, he works as hard as he can to ensure that sooner or later government will take away your ability to drive where you want when you want.
Here at DB, we’ve written several articles about Tesla ( here and here , most recently). We don’t like the car and much more than that, we don’t like the implications behind it.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is fairly clear about his goals. He wants to create an electric, self-driving car. And he has Tesla fans throughout the US and the world.
Extend the logic and you come the inevitable conclusion that larger entities will have to support Tesla’s vision. These entities will surely be linked to some sort of government control.
Don’t pay your ticket? Have a confrontation of some sort outside of the home? Or simply fall afoul of one of a plethora of rules and regulations that increasingly hem-in behavior … and you will pay the consequences in terms of your driving life.
You will get up in the morning and your car won’t start because someone has flagged your behavior. If you do manage to get your car started, it won’t go anywhere because its driving mechanisms have been disabled.
You’ll have to go to court. You’ll have to pay a fine. Then you’ll be able to drive again. Or maybe not. Think driving is a “privilege”? Just wait.
We could extend this logic beyond government. It’s perfectly possible that large private entities could have relationships with government that generate similar consequences.
Why Musk has managed to attract fans for his cars given the inevitable results of his technology is a mystery to us. His ability to continue to fund his endless automotive depredations are a mystery as well.
It is most probable that his access to funds has a lot to do with the maturation of his technology and the increasing governmental control it offers.
We live in a time when technology is being celebrated as an enabler of freedom but it the kinds of technology that Musk is perfecting has little to do with freedom. No doubt it could, but not in the current climate.
There are other issues as well. Musk is running a vast corporation with other people’s money. But if you look elsewhere you will see other titanic entities are throwing their resources behind the development of technology, especially robots.
It would be one thing if these technological innovations were being developed by entrepreneurs. But one of the biggest developer of robot technology – deadly technology at that – is the Pentagon.
Since we’ve already seen movies about deadly robots, we’re not shocked by the idea of what the Pentagon is doing. But that doesn’t make it much better.
How many people wake up in the morning and decide they’re going to build a robot that will kill people automatically?
But that’s what is going on. This technology is being developed by huge corporations with virtually unlimited funds. These corporations wouldn’t exist without monopoly central banking and a variety of rules and regulations to support them and ensure they have little or no competition.
The world today is technocratic and fascist. It is run by gigantic corporations that would not exist without laws and judicial decisions that guarantee their viability no matter how incompetently they operate.
These corporations work hand-in-glove with governments around the world. Both the corporations and governments are run secretly by the same banking cabal that runs central banking via the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland.
In other words, the technological progress that we are supposed to celebrate is actually being organized for nefarious purposes. It wouldn’t exist in the form it does without vast entities that have turned their energies toward perfecting technology that is intended to create additional control, not freedom.
A normal entrepreneurial society in which individuals and groups applied technology with an eye toward marketplace acceptance might end up with completely different kinds of technology.
Many people might reject self-driving cars and killer robots – at least without proper safeguards.
But we don’t have normal societies in the world, for the most part. Instead we have people like Elon Musk who builds “the world’s safest car,” albeit one that explodes like a bomb at high impact.
More:
The impact knocked the wheels off of the car before the batteries caught fire and exploded. Speckman died at the scene while her passenger, 44-year-old Kevin McCarthy, died at the hospital.
What else do we learn? “’Lithium-ion battery cell fires are tough to put out,’ Indiana Fire Trucks Battalion Chief Kevin Jones said.”
The Tesla Model S is “known” for being fabulously safe. As the article informs us, it achieved the highest National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rating of any car ever tested.
Conclusion: Except when it explodes. | 1real |
Poll: With 2016 approaching, Clinton maintains advantages | Washington (CNN) Hillary Clinton continues to be a dominant force heading into the 2016 presidential election, according to a new CNN/ORC poll . The former secretary of state maintains a broad lead over the field of potential Democratic challengers she could face in a nomination contest and sizable advantages over the leading contenders from the Republican side in general election match-ups.
But none of the top candidates in this field gets within 10 points of Hillary Clinton in a series of hypothetical general election matchups.
Rand Paul comes closest, with 43% saying they'd be more likely to back him while 54% choose Clinton. The two candidates who currently top the GOP field, Bush and Walker, match up equally against Clinton, with each carrying 40% to her 55%. Huckabee gets 41% to Clinton's 55% and Carson has 40% to Clinton's 56%.
Should Warren decide not to get into the race, Clinton stands to benefit more than others, gaining 5 points and holding a 67% to 16% advantage over Biden when Warren's backers are re-allocated to their second-choice candidate. Notably, with Warren out of the race, Clinton surges from 67% support to 74% among Democratic women.
And Democrats broadly believe the party's chances to hold the White House in 2016 are strongest with Clinton; 68% say so, while 30% say the party would have a better shot with someone else leading the ticket.
Though Clinton's favorability rating has taken a hit recently, her prospects in 2016 appear largely unchanged compared to polls conducted before news broke about her use of a personal email address and home-based server while serving as secretary of state.
On the Republican side, Bush leads the pack with 16%, Walker follows at 13%, Paul nearly matches him at 12% and Huckabee holds 10% support. Huckabee's backing has dipped significantly since February, from 16% to 10%, while the others near the top have generally held steady. In single digits, Carson holds 9%, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has 7%, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has 7%. The rest of the field lands below 5%, including 2012 candidates Rick Santorum at 1% and Rick Perry at 4%.
Some interesting demographic trends emerge in the GOP numbers: There is something of a gender gap in preferences, with both Walker (17% among men, 9% among women) and Paul (16% among men, 7% among women) doing significantly better with men than women. Younger Republicans are more likely to back Paul than older ones (he has 17% support among Republicans under 50, just 7% among older Republicans).
Bush's backing generally holds steady across demographic divides, but he fares better among self-identified Republicans (22%) than independents who lean toward the party (10%), while Paul outperforms among independents (17% compared with 7% among self-identified Republicans).
Yet many of the GOP's strongest contenders remain largely unknown. Majorities of Americans haven't yet formed opinions about Scott Walker (58%) or Ben Carson (64%), and about half haven't heard of or don't know about Marco Rubio (48%).
Even the best known Republican contender, Jeb Bush, prompts nearly a quarter of Americans to say they're not sure how they feel about him (23%). Republicans themselves have heard a bit more about their party's top potential candidates, but only one merits a majority favorable rating among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents: Mike Huckabee at 57% favorable.
The CNN/ORC International poll was conducted by telephone March 13-15 and included interviews with 1,009 adult Americans. For results among the full sample, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. For results among the 450 Republicans or Republican-leaning independents, or among the 466 Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents, it is 4.5 points. | 0fake |
White House accuses Russia of Syria chemical attack 'cover up' | WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s administration accused Russia on Tuesday of trying to shield Syria’s government from blame for a deadly gas attack, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson brought a Western message to Moscow condemning its support for President Bashar al-Assad. Trump, who has faced criticism for lacking a broader strategy to deal with the Syria crisis, insisted he has no plans to “go into” the war-torn country. Senior White House officials, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said Assad’s government carried out the April 4 sarin nerve gas attack on civilians in Syria’s Idlib province that killed 87 people, including many children, to put pressure on rebels making advances in the area. Russia has defended the Syrian leader against U.S. allegations that his forces carried out the attack, saying there was no evidence. Russia has blamed Syrian rebels. * COMMENTARY: Why Assad used chemical weapons reut.rs/2o5FMEV * COMMENTARY: The worrying lessons of the Syria chemical attack reut.rs/2o6r55r “It’s clear that the Russians are trying to cover up what happened there,” one White House official said. White House spokesman Sean Spicer later told reporters that the facts backed up the U.S. version of events. “Russia is on an island when it comes to its support of Syria or its lack of, frankly, acknowledgment of what happened,” he told reporters. However, at the same briefing, Spicer drew criticism after he sought to underscore the ghastliness of the gas attack by saying: “You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.” Nazi Germany used gas chambers to kill millions of Jews during the Holocaust. Spicer later apologized and said he should not have made the comparison. “It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have done it and I won’t do it again,” Spicer told CNN in an interview. “It was inappropriate and insensitive.” The White House officials said Russia has frequently offered multiple, conflicting accounts of Syrian government aggression including the incident in the village of Khan Sheikhoun to sow doubt within the international community. The United States launched 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield on Thursday to retaliate after the attack. The strikes thrust Trump, who came to power in January calling for warmer ties with Russia, and his administration into confrontation with Moscow. Chinese President Xi Jinping told Trump in a telephone call on Wednesday that “any use of chemical weapons is unacceptable” and urged a political solution for Syria, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said of the telephone exchange. “(We) must persevere with moving towards a political solution for the Syria issue. It is very important that the United Nations Security Council maintains unity on the Syria issue. (I) hope the Security Council can speak with a single voice,” CCTV cited Xi as saying. Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said on Tuesday she thought Russia knew about the chemical attack in advance. “They didn’t look shocked. They didn’t look surprised. They were so quick to defend. And then the evidence comes out, and we see exactly what it is and we know exactly what the environment was. Then you realize,” she said on CNN. U.S. intelligence indicates that the chemical agent in the attack was delivered by Syrian Su-22 aircraft that took off from the Shayrat airfield, according to a White House report given to reporters. In a four-page document, the White House sought to rebut many of Moscow’s claims about the circumstances of the attack. It said the Syrian planes were in the vicinity of Khan Sheikhoun about 20 minutes before the attack and left shortly afterward. “Additionally, our information indicates personnel historically associated with Syria’s chemical weapons program were at Shayrat airfield in late March making preparations for an upcoming attack in northern Syria, and they were present at the airfield on the day of the attack,” the report said. Washington wants Russia to stop supporting Assad, who has been fighting a six-year-long civil war against mostly Sunni Muslim rebels, also with the backing of Shi’ite Muslim Iran. Tillerson carried a message from world powers to Moscow denouncing Russian support for Assad, as the Trump administration took on America’s traditional mantle as leader of a unified West. Tillerson earlier met foreign ministers from the Group of Seven advanced economies and Middle Eastern allies in Italy. They endorsed a joint call for Russia to abandon Assad. “It is clear to us the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end,” Tillerson told reporters in Italy. “We hope that the Russian government concludes that they have aligned themselves with an unreliable partner in Bashar al-Assad.” He said Russia had failed in its role as sponsor of a 2013 deal in which Assad promised to give up chemical weapons. Russia says the chemicals that killed civilians last week belonged to rebels, not Assad’s government, and accused the United States of an illegal aggression on a false pretext. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday he believed Washington planned more missile strikes, and that rebels were planning to stage chemical weapons attacks to provoke them. “We have information that a similar provocation is being prepared ... in other parts of Syria including in the southern Damascus suburbs where they are planning to again plant some substance and accuse the Syrian authorities of using” chemical weapons, Putin said. Trump denied further plans in Syria. “We’re not going into Syria,” he said in an interview with the New York Post. “Our policy is the same; it hasn’t changed. We’re not going into Syria.” A senior Trump administration official called Putin’s remarks part of a Russian “disinformation campaign.” The United States, Britain and France have proposed a revised draft resolution to the 15-member U.N. Security Council similar to a text they circulated last week pushing Syria’s government to cooperate with investigators. The secretary of state’s role as messenger for a united G7 position is a turning point for Trump, who in the past alarmed allies by voicing skepticism about the value of U.S. support for traditional friends, while calling for closer ties with Moscow. Tillerson is a former chairman of oil company Exxon Mobil Corp, which has gigantic projects in Russia. Putin awarded him Russia’s “Order of Friendship” in 2013. He is due to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday. The Kremlin has said Tillerson has no meeting scheduled with Putin this trip, although some Russian media have reported such a meeting could take place. Western countries have been calling for Assad’s departure since 2011, the start of a civil war that has killed at least 400,000 people and created the world’s worst refugee crisis. Assad’s position on the battlefield became far stronger after Russia joined the war to support him in 2015. The United States and its allies are conducting air strikes in Syria against Islamic State, but until last week Washington had avoided targeting forces of Assad’s government directly. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday the United States’ military policy in Syria had not changed and remains focused on defeating Islamic State. | 0fake |
Former Border Patrol officials question Trump plan to add agents | NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. Department of Homeland Security plan to add more than 5,000 border enforcement agents will present logistical challenges and might be unnecessary, according to former government officials familiar with earlier pushes to accelerate border hiring. Three former top officials at U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) told Reuters in interviews that ramping up hiring at the agency, as outlined in a directive on Tuesday, would be expensive, while rapid expansion poses the risk of corruption if screening protocols for recruits are relaxed. The officials said the agency should get what it needs to secure the border, but they questioned whether such a major staff expansion was necessary, noting that apprehensions at the border have dropped. “Congress is going to be looking at this very carefully and looking for justification for this kind of money to make sure they don’t write a check that is not necessary,” said W. Ralph Basham who headed U.S. Customs and Border Protection during the George W. Bush administration. “The question will be do we need more agents or do we need money for technology and infrastructure,” he said. Additional enforcement officers are central to President Donald Trump’s sweeping plan to crack down on illegal immigration, outlined in Jan. 25 executive orders on border security and interior enforcement. Tuesday’s Homeland Security guidance for implementing those orders called for adding more than 5,000 border patrol agents and 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, officers, who enforce immigration laws in the country’s interior, among other duties. The White House and Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a question about the rationale behind the number of personnel requested. “At the end of the day, the goal is to get control of the border and enhance the security of the country,” said White House assistant press secretary Michael Short in an email. The proposed hiring surge would be the largest since the Bush administration, when Congress funded an expansion of border enforcement following the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. That effort doubled the number of border patrol agents from nearly 10,000 in 2001 to nearly 20,000 by 2008, according to CBP. The agency was required to meet tight time requirements for hiring, said Basham who was appointed commissioner in 2006 The laser focus on quick hiring, and its cost, ended up “sucking all the air” out of other parts of the department, Basham recalled, leaving gaps for other spending needs. Basham said he supports CBP getting adequate resources and was encouraged that the new Department of Homeland Security guidelines did not mandate a deadline to complete the hiring. But he questioned the need for a renewed expansion of the force. More than 1.6 million migrants were apprehended trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in 2000 compared to 400,000 last year, according to CBP statistics. “Currently the flow is not really anywhere near where it was,” Basham said. Jim Wong, who was Deputy Assistant Commissioner of CBP’s Office of Internal Affairs from 2009 to 2011, said money might be better spent on other department needs. “Throwing more human resources at the issue is not necessarily the best way to approach it,” he said. The union representing border patrol agents, which backed Trump in the presidential election, has long supported adding personnel, saying more manpower is needed to secure the border, said union spokesman Shawn Moran. Homeland Security spokespeople declined to estimate how much the increased hiring would cost. The 2017 fiscal year budget request for staffing at current levels of more than 21,000 border patrol agents was about $3.8 billion for salary, overtime and benefits, or about $180,000 per officer on average, although officers with different levels of seniority earn different wages. Additional costs could include housing for agents working in remote areas, equipment and support staff, former officials said. In the last budget cycle, the agency requested funding for 300 fewer officers than the year before to instead invest in replacing aging radios and vehicles. CBP said the request reflected “realistic agent hiring expectations.” Gil Kerlikowske, who headed CBP for three years under President Barack Obama, said one risk of rapid hiring is quality control. “When you speed up the process and don’t take the requisite time you pay a price later in things like corruption,” Kerlikowske said. During the Bush-era hiring surge, the Border Patrol had problems screening candidates, and internal corruption cases soon spiked, according to congressional testimony and government documents. Congress then passed the Anti-Border Corruption Act in 2010, which made polygraph testing mandatory for all border patrol agents. Since then, tests have revealed candidates who were compromised by drug cartels or were heavy drug users themselves. But the polygraph test and other controls have also slowed the hiring process. A 2012 GAO report found that between 2008 and 2012, only 40 percent of applicants passed their polygraph exams. In addition to polygraph tests, applicants now undergo a rigorous hiring process, including a cognitive exam, fingerprinting, financial disclosure, fitness tests, medical examinations and background checks, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Kerlikowske said when he left the agency at the time of Trump’s inauguration there were 1,200 authorized but unfilled openings for border patrol agents due to the difficulty of finding and vetting enough qualified candidates. | 0fake |
China upset by U.S. Republican platform on South China Sea, Tibet | BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday urged the U.S. Republican Party to stop making “groundless accusations” against China in its party platform, which says China practices cultural genocide in Tibet and has ludicrous claims in the South China Sea. China’s government has generally avoided making direct comments about the election, wary of being seen to interfere, though in April Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei called Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump an “irrational type” due to his tariffs proposal on imported Chinese goods. In an English-language statement issued via the official Xinhua news agency on Thursday, the ministry said the Republican platform contained “accusations about China on issues related to Taiwan, Tibet, trade and the South China Sea” and are an interference in China’s internal affairs. “All political parties in the United States should view China’s development in an objective and rational manner and correctly understand the issues that emerge in bilateral ties,” the ministry said. “We hope relevant parties stop their groundless accusations against China and interference in China’s domestic affairs and contribute more to bilateral trust and cooperation,” it added. The platform, adopted on Monday, says China has been asserting “preposterous” claims to the South China Sea to distract its people from economic problems, practices “cultural genocide” in Tibet and Xinjiang, and reaffirms a commitment to sell weapons to self-ruled Taiwan. China’s foreign ministry said promoting stable growth in relations serves the interests of both countries and the peace and development of the Asia-Pacific region and the world, and “both sides should adhere to this right direction”. Chinese officials admit to knowing little about Trump compared with his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, who had extensive dealings with China when she was secretary of state. | 0fake |
O’Reilly on Reports of Strife in the WH: ’Fake’ News, ’Crisis Is Being Manufactured’ - Breitbart | Thursday on his “No Spin News” podcast, Bill O’Reilly weighed in on CNN reporting that there was a crisis within the members of the White House. According to O’Reilly, the supposed crisis is “fake” and is being “manufactured” by mainstream media to hurt President Donald Trump’s ability to govern. Partial transcript as follows: So in the midst of this big story, terror story, in England and the president speaking to the Pope and then going to NATO in Belgium, what do I see on CNN? White House in crisis. This is what they’re doing. This is what their lead was last night. I mean, I’m saying to myself, am I not living in the real world anymore? White House in crisis. What crisis? What crisis? There is an investigation going on on whether Russians were able to compromise people like General Michael Flynn, and Paul Manafort, who worked for Trump briefly in his campaign. Were they able, the Russians, to compromise those people in some way? That’s the investigation. OK, that’s where we are right now. That’s a White House in crisis? See this is all fake. It is fake. The crisis is being manufactured. Now that being said, it could down the road lead to something more. It’s possible. I want to know. Mueller is investigating now, the FBI is investigating, and two congressional committees are investigating. That’s four. So I assume we’re going to get to the bottom of it. But in the meantime, the media is going to gin it up every single crisis, crisis, crisis. And what does that do? It hurts the president’s ability to govern because he’s always on the defensive. ( RCP Video) Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 0fake |
Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Federal Reserve: Your Friday Evening Briefing - The New York Times | (Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. A decision made by General Motors years ago to save a few dollars per airbag may have led to the widespread use of the faulty Takata technology that has been blamed in the deaths of 14 people and become the subject of the auto industry’s largest recall. A Times investigation revealed that the automaker switched its supplier to Takata despite signs that ammonium nitrate, a compound used in its devices, was unsafe. Takata continues to manufacture airbags with the compound — and automakers continue to buy them. ______ 2. Hillary Clinton’s speech on Thursday found an unusual audience cheering it on: the “ ” crowd that she denounced in her remarks. Though Donald J. Trump has publicly kept his distance from the her attack on him for fanning the flames of racism embraced by the community was celebrated by its leaders, who did their best to capitalize on the moment. And in Youngstown, Ohio, above, — a Midwestern stronghold — residents are wrestling with whether a Manhattan billionaire can revitalize a struggling Rust Belt town. ______ 3. One of our most read stories examines the ultraconservative strain of Islam known as Wahhabism that is taught in Saudi Arabia, and its effect on Muslim communities around the world. The wealthy nation has spent lavishly on religious outreach for half a century, spreading a view of Islam that many believe has helped to fuel global extremism. Yet Saudi leaders seek good relations with the West and see jihadist violence as a menace. “I’d be careful about blaming the Saudis,” said a former U. S. ambassador to Syria and Algeria. ______ 4. France’s highest administrative court has overturned a town’s ban on burkinis, the swimwear used by some Muslim women. The ruling applies only to above, a seaside resort of about 14, 000, but means that bans enacted by other municipalities — there are at least 30 of them — could be similarly struck down if challenged in court. ______ 5. The U. S. Open begins Monday in New York, and much attention will be focused on whether the era of the Big Four in the men’s game is over. Roger Federer won’t be playing, Rafael Nadal is often coping with injuries and Novak Djokovic lost at Wimbledon. That leaves Andy Murray as the last of the establishment vanguard. One of our contributors lists some picks to keep an eye on in both the men’s and women’s fields. ______ 6. It’s likely that the Federal Reserve will raise its benchmark interest rate in the coming months, Janet L. Yellen, above, the Fed chairwoman, said during an annual policy conference. Gains in the job market and the economic outlook have strengthened the case for a rate increase, she said, but analysts think an increase won’t happen before December. ______ 7. America’s new pharmaceutical villain is defending herself and her company from scrutiny over a sharp price increase on the lifesaving EpiPen. “I am running a business. I am a business. I am not hiding from that,” said Heather Bresch, whose total compensation at Mylan has gone from about $2. 5 million to nearly $19 million during the same time the EpiPen’s price has risen fourfold. But Ms. Bresch moved quickly to reduce the cost to patients after a public furor over the price increase, though the list price remains at about $600. ______ 8. Frank Ocean’s album release last weekend is delighting fans but also highlighting the tension between artists, record companies and streaming services. Mr. Ocean, above, apparently was able to cut his record company out of the profits for one of the year’s albums by releasing “Blonde” a day after fulfilling his contractual agreement to the company with a separate “visual album. ” And Kanye West also made waves in the music world with the opening night of his “Saint Pablo” tour, performing the entire show on Thursday from floating platforms instead of a formal stage. ______ 9. Like others before them, they moved to the United States from Italy and made a life for themselves in New York City. And now, many appear to be moving to the suburbs. But these residents are different: They are lizards. A biologist is studying the Italian wall lizard, above, to learn how it’s adapted to a colder and more crowded environment. They appear to be following conventional routes out of the city: the train tracks. ______ Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 0fake |
Japan PM Abe's ratings regain 50 percent amid North Korea security jitters | TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe s support ratings have recovered to the 50 percent level, a poll released on Tuesday showed, helped by public jitters over North Korea s missile and nuclear tests and by disarray in the main opposition party. A September 8-10 survey by the Yomiuri newspaper put support for Abe s administration at 50 percent, up 8 points from the previous month. Abe s support had sunk below 30 percent in some polls in July, battered by suspected cronyism scandals and perceptions among voters that he had become arrogant after more than four years in office. His ratings improved slightly cabinet reshuffle in early August. Since then, news has been dominated by rising regional tensions over North Korea s ballistic missile tests, including one that flew over northern Japan. Abe has spoken to U.S. President Donald Trump by phone numerous times, seeking to demonstrate the U.S.-Japan alliance is firm. Pyongyang last week carried out its sixth and biggest nuclear test and Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera warned more provocations could be in store after the U.N. Security Council stepped up sanctions, imposing a ban on the North s textile exports and capping crude oil imports. Japan also wants to take leadership to change North Korea s policies while coordinating closely with other countries, Abe told reporters on Tuesday. With parliament in recess, Abe was able to use the crisis in North Korea to monopolize the spotlight by getting the media to portray him as a strong leader, said Koichi Nakano, a political science professor at Sophia University. Japan s opposition Democratic Party, meanwhile, failed to improve its ratings after the election last month of a new leader, former foreign minister Seiji Maehara. The Democrats also face likely defections to an embryonic party that allies of popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, an ex-ruling party lawmaker, are trying to form. Sixty percent of voters did not hold hopes for Maehara s leadership compared to 33 percent who did. Support for his party languished at 5 percent versus 40 percent for Abe s Liberal Democratic Party, the Yomiuri said. Reflecting Koike s popularity, the yet-to-be-launched Japan First party, fared better, with 41 percent expressing hopes for the new group. Whether Abe can maintain the gains in popularity remains to be seen. The scandals have not gone away and in a couple of weeks, Abe will have to convene the Diet ... so the recovery in support levels may well turn out to be temporary, Nakano said. | 0fake |
null | In obamaland... | 1real |
Clinton’s Server Employee On Hillary’s E-mails: ‘It’s covering up some shady sh*t’ | As Hillary does her best to deflect and stonewall the release of her e-mails, we find out that even an employee of Clinton s server company knew something shady was going on. Hillary wants all of this to just go away and is spinning the e-mail scandal like it s just another right wing conspiracy . The e-mails from the server employee prove otherwise An employee of the computer company that maintained Hillary Rodham Clinton s email server was questioned if he was part of a coverup, according to documents released Tuesday. This whole thing really is covering up some shady s t, the employee said in an Aug. 19 company email obtained by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The concerns by the Colorado-based Platte River Networks employee were aired after the Clinton camp ordered a reduction in the data stored during each server backup. The limits were ordered after the State Department contacted the former secretary of state in summer 2014 to inquire about her private email records. In October, the department sent a formal request to turn over documents. The employee was so suspicious that he sent an email to a colleague asking for a copy of the email from Clinton Executive Service Corp. to document their directive to limit the number of emails stored.Via: NYP | 1real |
NFL’s NEWEST ATTENTION SEEKER Takes Place of Unemployed Kaepernick…Calls Anyone Who Disagrees With Him “RACIST” | Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch sat during the national anthem over the weekend, ahead of a Saturday preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals, the AP reports.The NFL player was photographed on top of an orange cooler with a banana in Glendale, Ariz.Last year, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat and kneeled during the national anthem and protested police brutality.Lynch previously backed Kaepernick, telling comedian Conan O Brien in September 2016, I d rather see him take a knee than stand up, put his hands up and get murdered. If you re really not racist then you won t see what he done, what he s doing, as a threat to America, but just addressing a problem that we have, Lynch said at the time.Raiders coach Jack Del Rio says he didn t know about Lynch s plans ahead of the game, according to NFL.com. On Marshawn, talked to Marshawn trying to make sure we re on the same page, the coach said. He said, This is something I ve done for 11 years. It s not a form of anything other than me being myself. I said, So you understand how I feel, I very strongly believe in standing for the national anthem. But I m going to respect you as a man, you do your thing. We ll do ours. It s a non-issue for me. Via: Fox News | 1real |
WILL AND GRACE Writers Explain How Their HATE For PRESIDENT TRUMP Inspired Them To Bring Show Back After 11 Years [VIDEO] | When Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick reunited the stars of the NBC comedy in fall 2016, more than 10 years after its finale, a reboot was not on their minds. There was not one word about, Let s figure out a way to do this again! insists Kohan, 53. The pair were so sure that the project a video in support of then-candidate Hillary Clinton would be their last with the gang that they hired a film crew as a way to memorialize the event for our daughters, explains Mutchnick, 51.But NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt had other plans. Less than two weeks later, the creators were back at the NBC commissary discussing a revival. The multicam returns Thursday, Sept. 28, for season nine, with a tenth season already greenlighted.Picking up 11 years later, as the season premiere title suggests, the new episodes will largely ignore the events of the series finale, in which Will (Eric McCormack) and Grace (Debra Messing) both married, had kids and went their separate ways. Instead, the two are single and living together, still, with Jack (Sean Hayes) across the hall and Karen (Megan Mullally) just as rich and outrageous as ever.The other big change since the foursome last graced the small screen? The new president in the White House despite Kohan and Mutchnick s best efforts on Clinton s behalf. There s a lot of tension in the air, so there s a lot of things to write and there are a lot of reasons to make an audience laugh, Mutchnick says. THR3 weeks before the election, Will and Grace s writers produced a video using the cast the show s former cast to beg liberal viewers to vote for Hillary. The entire 9 minute and 37-second video was created for the sole purpose of trashing then-candidate President Trump. David Kohan From Bob Greenblatt were so inspired by the number of Trump-hating liberals who viewed their video received, that they decided to start the series back up again.The video includes classy lines from Will about then-candidate Trump being a dick . When Grace reminds Will that the election is all going to come down to undecided Pennsylvania s voters anyway, to which Will replies: Right, the unemployed, uneducated, angry white man. And there you have it, the arrogance of the liberal Hollywood writer, who expects Americans to sit down once a week and watch themselves be mocked and berated, as the writers refer to middle-America as UNEDUCATED, UNEMPLOYED, ANGRY WHITE MEN Watch the video that inspired the writers to bring back the angry new Trump-bashing sitcom: | 1real |
Trump says will not approve AT&T-Time Warner deal if elected U.S. president | (Reuters) - Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s candidate in the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election, said on Saturday he would not approve a proposed deal for AT&T Inc to buy Time Warner Inc if he is elected. AT&T has agreed in principle to buy Time Warner for about $85 billion, it was reported on Friday. | 0fake |
UK says has constructive relationship with Ireland, will focus on Brexit progress | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has a constructive relationship with Ireland and will focus on making progress on Brexit negotiations, Prime Minister Theresa May s spokesman said on Friday. An Irish election appeared likely after opposition party Fianna Fail submitted a motion of no confidence in the deputy prime minister, which the ruling party considers a breach of a three-year agreement to support prime minister Leo Varadkar s government. We feel that we have a constructive relationship with Ireland, and we will continue to talk with them regularly, as we do with the other EU27, and we will continue to focus on making progress in the negotiation, May s spokesman said, when asked about the political uncertainty in Dublin. | 0fake |
Justice Department significantly reducing number of federal observers stationed inside polling places | The Justice Department is significantly reducing the number of federal observers stationed inside polling places in next month’s election at the same time that voters will face strict new election laws in more than a dozen states.
These laws, including requirements to present certain kinds of photo identification, are expected to lead to disputes at the polls. Adding to the potential for confusion, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has called for his supporters to police the polls themselves for fraud.
For the past five decades, the Justice Department has sent hundreds of observers and poll monitors across the country to ensure that voters are not intimidated or discriminated against when they cast their ballots. But U.S. officials say that a 2013 Supreme Court decision now limits the federal government’s role inside polling places on Election Day.
“In the past, we have . . . relied heavily on election observers, specially trained individuals who are authorized to enter polling locations and monitor the process to ensure that it lives up to its legal obligations,” Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch told a Latino civil rights group over the summer. “Our ability to deploy them has been severely curtailed.”
In recent months, the Justice Department and civil rights groups have successfully sued to block a number of states, such as North Carolina, that have put in place new voter restrictions that critics say target minority voters. But advocates are worried that these courtroom victories might not be enough to protect voters if the federal government is not able to enforce the law on Election Day.
[Find out what you need to know to vote in your state]
In the 2012 presidential election, the last before the court ruling, the Justice Department sent more than 780 observers and other personnel to polling places in 51 jurisdictions in 23 states to watch for unlawful activity and write up reports about possible civil rights violations. The observers were specially trained by the Office of Personnel Management and were required to be inside polling places.
Justice Department officials say this year they are sending observers to fewer than five states — and to those locations only because the oversight has been ordered by judges in specific cases. Five weeks out from the election, officials said they would not specify the exact number of observers.
There are 14 states where poll workers are being asked to implement new laws, including voter ID requirements, for the first time in a presidential election. Federal observers will not be sent inside polling places in those states.
“It’s a game-changer,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “Historically, the federal observer program has been a valuable and necessary tool to help prevent intimidation and harassment of minority voters.”
“Without those protections, we’re bracing for the worst,” Clarke said. “All of this unfolds at a moment when we have a presidential candidate who has called for law enforcement and untrained individuals to monitor activity at the polls.”
Trump is encouraging his supporters to sign up on his website to be a “Trump election observer.” He has told supporters in Pennsylvania to be vigilant for voter fraud at the polls, saying that “cheating” is the only thing that will stop him from defeating Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in that battleground state.
“You’ve got to get every one of your friends. You’ve got to get every one of your family. You’ve got to get everybody to go out and watch and go out and vote,” Trump said in August at a rally in Ohio. “And when I say ‘watch,’ you know what I’m talking about. Right? You know what I’m talking about. I think you’ve got to go out and you’ve got to watch.”
Justice Department officials said they had no choice but to cut the number of observers. The Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County v. Holder ruling on the Voting Rights Act “curtailed our ability to deploy observers” to states that used to need federal approval before making changes to election or voting laws, said Vanita Gupta, head of the department’s civil rights division.
The Supreme Court’s ruling immediately opened the door for laws with new voting restrictions. Less well known was the effect it had on the Justice Department’s efforts to monitor elections. The government had relied on a key section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that was invalidated by the Supreme Court for its authority to send observers to states with a history of discrimination.
The court said Congress has to come up with a new formula based on current data to determine which states should be subject to federal oversight. Congress has not yet acted.
“Shelby County significantly impacted the department’s ability to watch for problems while elections are taking place,” according to a Justice Department fact sheet.
The Justice Department in the past has sent two types of lawyers to the polls: observers and monitors. Observers work inside polling places. Monitors, by contrast, are not allowed to go inside polling places unless state officials give them permission.
Despite the court ruling, officials say they can send monitors across the country.
“We will still be able to send out a robust team of monitors this November,” Gupta said.
But J. Gerald Hebert, the executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, said it is critical to have federal observers who can actually go inside the polling places in the same way that candidates and political parties in most states can designate someone to be inside as a poll watcher.
“You have to distinguish between sending a lawyer to a state who sits down at the U.S. attorney’s office and waits for people to call in,” said Hebert, an official in the Justice Department’s voting section for 20 years who went to several states on Election Day to monitor elections. “They’re not in the polling place, and they’re not even at the polling places,” Hebert said of the monitors. “They’re usually downtown at a hotel or a U.S. attorney’s office. That’s a lot different by a long shot than federal observers inside the polling place, because discrimination at the polls doesn’t take place outside.”
Without federal observers, “there’s nobody watching the [other poll] watchers” who can intimidate or challenge voters or slow down the process and, for example, contribute to long lines at lunchtime when voters have limited time to vote and get back to work, Hebert said.
The Justice Department said it will release a phone number and email address for voters to contact if they experience intimidation or harassment.
“We watch carefully, meticulously documenting the voting process with an eye for potential violations of federal statutes that protect the right to vote,” Gupta said. “And we often find that the simple fact of our presence in the jurisdiction helps defuse tension and avoid problems.”
Some voting rights advocates say that the Justice Department did not need to reduce its election observers, because the Supreme Court’s ruling did not specifically mention federal observers. Regardless, advocates have questioned why Lynch revealed over the summer the department’s plans to cut the observers when she spoke to a civil rights group.
“There was no need to announce that it’s open season on voters at the polls because there won’t be any federal observers there inside,” Hebert said.
Getting a photo ID to vote is easy. Unless you’re poor, black, Latino or elderly.
More than 30 states offer online voting, but experts warn it isn’t secure
Inside the Republican creation of the N.C. voting bill dubbed the ‘monster’ law | 0fake |
Venezuelan anti-Maduro governor sacked, opposition in chaos | MARACAIBO/CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - The newly elected opposition governor of Venezuela s western Zulia state was dismissed on Thursday by the pro-government local state legislature, adding to disarray among foes of the ruling socialists. The sacking of Juan Pablo Guanipa, one of five opposition governors in Venezuela s 23 states, came after he refused to swear loyalty to an all-powerful national legislative superbody aligned with President Nicolas Maduro s ruling socialists. They held a secret, express session to remove him, Guanipa s spokeswoman Erika Gutierrez told Reuters of the morning meeting of Zulia s state legislature. Venezuela s opposition Democratic Unity coalition, which groups several dozen anti-Maduro parties, has been in crisis since a surprise defeat at this month s state elections. Despite polls showing it would win a comfortable majority due to widespread public anger over Venezuela s brutal economic crisis, the opposition only took five states compared to 18 for Maduro s Socialist Party candidates. Opposition leaders blamed dirty tricks by the government, including the last-minute moving of many vote centers in opposition areas, along with abstention by supporters disillusioned at the failure of protests earlier this year. Driving home its advantage, the government said only governors who recognize the supremacy of the pro-Maduro Constituent Assembly could take office. Four opposition governors did that this week, sparking recriminations and bickering within the coalition, but Guanipa said he would never kneel before the dictatorship. This is an assault on the will of the people, he tweeted after his removal on Thursday, denouncing a coup in the oil-rich state on the border with Colombia. OPPOSITION IN-FIGHTING Prior to this week, the opposition, along with various major foreign nations including the United States, had refused to recognize the Constituent Assembly. Elected in July after four months of anti-Maduro protests, the body has overridden the opposition-run national congress. One major opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, said he would no longer participate in the coalition while Henry Ramos, leader of the Democratic Action party whose four governors swore themselves in before the assembly, was a member. Capriles Justice First party, and the Popular Will party of detained opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, have called for a complete reformulation of the opposition grouping. Officials from Maduro down have been rubbing their hands in glee at the opposition implosion, and cheekily urging the controversial Ramos - a polarizing figure unpopular among young opposition militants - to stand for president in 2018. Backstabbing has broken out in the opposition, all against all, crowed Maduro earlier this week. The Constituent Assembly also announced on Thursday local mayoral elections would be held in December, giving the opposition a short time-frame to develop strategy. Popular Will has already said it plans to boycott that vote. Young protesters, who saw hundreds of their fellow demonstrators jailed, injured or even killed in anti-Maduro street protests earlier this year, are disgusted by what for them is now a bleak political scenario. More than 125 people, including supporters of both sides plus security officials and bystanders, died in four months of unrest that Maduro said amounted to a U.S.-backed coup attempt. Let the people continue speaking loud and clear in defense of peace, sovereignty and the sacred right to self-determination, Constituent Assembly head Delcy Rodriguez said, announcing the December municipal vote that the socialists now expect to win handily given the opposition s disillusionment. | 0fake |
Iraqis in Mosul Find US Missiles at Captured Islamic State Base | By Kurt Nimmo, Blacklisted News The Iraqis found missiles at an Islamic State base in Mosul stamped with USA and DOD. The discovery did not... | 1real |
Russia, Already Reinserting Itself in Middle East, Enters Israeli-Palestinian Fray - The New York Times | JERUSALEM — With the United States pulling back after years of frustrated efforts to break the intractable impasse between Israelis and Palestinians, Russia is stepping forward with its own drive to bring peace to a fractured land. A special envoy has been shuttling through the region, Israeli and Palestinian leaders are jockeying for position, and Russia keeps hinting that a Moscow summit meeting may be in the offing. Never mind that nearly everyone involved here agrees that the effort will almost certainly not lead to a settlement of the dispute. Russia’s newfound Middle East peace push, part of President Vladimir V. Putin’s reinsertion of Moscow into the region in a profound way after years of retreat, seems to be about everything but finding peace in the Middle East. Instead, it is about Moscow’s ambitions and competition with Washington, exemplified by its intervention in Syria. Mr. Putin’s military campaign in support of President Bashar of Syria has transformed the dynamics of that conflict and made Russia a leading player in the area’s geopolitics, thwarting Washington’s diplomatic efforts. Alongside its deep engagement in Syria, Russia’s recent rapprochement with Turkey and alliance with Iran have made Russia a major actor in the region in a way it has not been since the Cold War. The Kremlin’s diplomatic endeavor in Jerusalem has become something of a geopolitical billiards game in which each side is counting on a bank shot to leave itself in a better position. Israel is determined to deflect what it considers more threatening interventions by the French or even the Americans. The Palestinian leadership, facing internal challenges and plummeting support on the street, is trying to shore up its standing at home and abroad by showing it is willing to do something. Almost beside the point is whether a meeting actually takes place, much less yields tangible progress toward reconciliation between two hostile populations. “I don’t think even the Russians have much hope that they are going to make magic,” said Zakaria a professor of national security studies at Al Quds University in East Jerusalem. While Russia has always been fitfully involved in peace efforts over the years, Mr. Putin now seems intent on taking the lead, both as a poke at Washington amid continuing tension over Syria and Ukraine and as a show of Russian significance. Mr. Putin has made a point of developing a relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel even as Mr. Netanyahu has feuded with President Obama. “They’re eager to become an important player, a big shot in the Middle East,” said Zvi Magen, a former Israeli ambassador to Russia who is now a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. “The idea is not to reach any specific results, but it’s good for Russia. They don’t need results. They need the process itself. ” So far, all they have is the process. After Mr. Putin’s special envoy met with Mr. Netanyahu and officials of the Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas, in recent days, Moscow declared that the two had agreed “in principle” to meet. But no date was set, and neither side openly confirmed an agreement to sit down. Until now, Mr. Abbas insisted that before any meeting Israel must freeze its construction of settlements in the West Bank and release prisoners. Mr. Netanyahu had insisted that he would meet only if there were no preconditions. It remained unclear whether Mr. Abbas had dropped his conditions, but even if he had, his team held out little hope for a meeting in the near term. A senior Palestinian official, who insisted on anonymity because of the shifting nature of the diplomacy, said his side had agreed to a meeting in principle, but there was no date and he did not expect that there would be soon. The official refused to specify whether Mr. Abbas was demanding any terms for the meeting, saying only that there had been “no change in the Palestinian position” regarding settlement construction. He reiterated the Palestinian assertion that the demand for a settlement freeze is not a precondition, but an obligation under international law. The Palestinians argued that Mr. Netanyahu was the one who did not really want a meeting brokered by the Russians. But his office maintained that he would go anywhere, anytime to meet as long as no terms were required to sit down. “If the Palestinian Authority can say with one voice that they are willing to meet without preconditions, then Prime Minister Netanyahu will meet President Abbas,” said David Keyes, a spokesman for the Israeli leader. Always a crafty tactician, Mr. Netanyahu seems to be gambling that the Palestinians will never drop their terms while he gets to contend that he is open to negotiations. In reality, analysts said, he wants to undercut a French effort to broker talks and is especially worried that Mr. Obama, his nemesis, might go to the United Nations after the American election in November to seek a resolution outlining terms of a possible peace deal. If there is even the appearance of progress in Moscow, Mr. Netanyahu hopes it may discourage Mr. Obama from acting for fear of appearing to be interfering, some scholars said. “It’s good to show the United States that he’s a relatively good player at this game,” said Mr. Magen, the former Israeli ambassador. Mr. Netanyahu may also have a domestic interest in playing along with the appearance of progress if he is serious about broadening his governing coalition by luring in Isaac Herzog, the current opposition leader, and at least part of his Zionist Union party. In another indication of the toxic atmosphere that does not seem conducive to peace talks, Mr. Netanyahu released a video on Friday accusing the Palestinian leadership of demanding a Palestinian state with “no Jews” in it. “There’s a phrase for that,” he said. “It’s called ethnic cleansing. ” The Palestinians have protested this charge that has cropped up of late, saying there is a difference between what Mr. Netanyahu is claiming and their refusal to legitimize the settlements. The Palestinians view the Moscow peace bid as a way to keep their cause on the international radar screen. For Mr. Abbas, who faces internal dissent, it is also a way of keeping power. “The Palestinians want to give the impression that their issue is still high in the sky and everybody is losing sleep because of the Palestinian question,” Professor Qaq said. “But I think this is an illusion. ” Mr. Abbas prefers the effort led by the French, who have traditionally been more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, and he must maneuver carefully to keep the Russians from pointing at him as the obstacle to peace, analysts said. Not that the Russian effort has much chance either way. “It’s all nonsense,” Ziad Abu Zayyad, a journalist and former Palestinian Authority minister, said on Israeli radio. “I don’t see any point in a meeting between Abu Mazen and Netanyahu,” he added, using Mr. Abbas’s nickname. “There were already tens of meetings like this, and they bore no fruit. ” | 0fake |
Trump blasts states for refusing to hand over voter data | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump lashed out on Saturday at the growing number of states refusing to give voters’ names, addresses and sensitive personal information to a commission he created to investigate alleged voter fraud. “Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL,” he wrote on Twitter. “What are they trying to hide?” More than 20 states, including Virginia, Kentucky, California, New York and Massachusetts, have declined to provide some or all of the information, saying it was unnecessary and violated privacy. “This commission was formed to try to find basis for the lie that President Trump put forward that has no foundation,” Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes told Reuters previously in an interview. The Republican president has made unsubstantiated claims that millions of people voted illegally for his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, in last November’s election. Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, created in May, sent a letter to 50 states asking them to turn over voter information including names, the last four digits of Social Security numbers, addresses, birth dates, political affiliations, felony convictions and voting histories. The request from commission Vice Chairman Kris Kobach has caused a backlash from state election officials. Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson said in a statement on Friday that while certain voter information is available to the public, the media, and any other person who requests the information, “the information is restricted to name, address and congressional district assignment.” Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann had said in a statement that he did not see the letter but would rebuff the commission. “They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico, and Mississippi is a great state to launch from,” he said. Trump won the White House through victory in the Electoral College, which tallies wins in states, but he lost the popular vote to Clinton by some 3 million votes. He has claimed he would have won the popular vote had it not been for voter fraud. Civil rights activists say the commission will encourage voter suppression by justifying new barriers to voting, such as requiring identity cards to vote. | 0fake |
Former DEA Prescription Head Drops a BombShell — Congress Protects Big Pharma & Fuels Opioid Crisis | Former DEA Prescription Head Drops a BombShell — Congress Protects Big Pharma & Fuels Opioid Crisis Source: Claire Bernish Congress would rather protect the profits of pharmaceutical companies than the health of those addicted to dangerous opioid drugs, says a former head of the DEA responsible for preventing abuse of medications.
Joseph Rannazzisi, former Deputy Assistant Administrator at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, asserts Big Pharma and its lobbyists have a “stranglehold” on legislators in Congress and have engineered the protection of a $9 billion per year industry over the health of American citizens, according to a report from the Guardian .
“Congress would rather listen to people who had a profit motive rather than a public health and safety motive,” he said, according to the outlet. “As long as the industry has this stranglehold through lobbyists, nothing’s going to change.”
Rannazzisi explained lobbyists have spent millions thwarting legislative and policy efforts to provide guidelines for reducing the prescribing of opioid medications closely related to heroin — and helped limit the DEA’s powers to discipline those who dispense unusually high dosages of the same.
A pharmacist himself, Rannazzisi severely criticized lawmakers he claims hold a double standard — publicly vowing to combat the opioid epidemic, while essentially working on behalf of pharmaceutical companies to ensure the industry’s profits.
“These congressmen and senators who are using this because they are up for re-election, it’s a sham,” he told the Guardian . “The congressmen and senators who are championing this fight, the ones who really believe in what they’re doing, their voices are drowned out because the industry has too much influence.”
With the unique insight of having been an insider, Rannazzisi excoriated the duplicity evidenced between legislators’ public lamentation of addiction and deaths from the opioid crisis during election years, and private efforts to protect drugmakers from liability.
And he would know. According to Rannazzisi’s LinkedIn profile, as Chief of Diversion, he had been tasked with “oversight and control of all regulatory compliance inspections and civil and criminal investigations of approximately 1.6 million DEA registrants”— but if the standards are lowered by Congress to allow greater leeway in prescribing opioids, the threshold of criminality is raised.
As the Guardian points out, legislation to fight the opioid epidemic, Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act , did, in fact, pass in July — but partisan controversy erupted when Republicans failed to provide funding to give the law sharp teeth. Democrats then issued a report titled “ Dying Waiting for Treatment ” in response, which “likened the Republican response to the opioid crisis to ‘using a piece of chewing gum to patch a cracked dam.’”
Indeed the report sharply criticized the bill, equating its policies to ‘empty promises’ for the lack of financial follow-through.
As the Washington Post detailed in a report earlier this month, the DEA launched an aggressive campaign to rein in distribution of opioids by pharmaceutical manufacturers to illegal ‘pill mills’ and corrupt pharmacies, who cared little whether the drugs wound up on the streets.
Headed by Rannazzisi, the Office of Diversion Control sent investigators into the field, and began issuing hefty fines and filing lawsuits against the distributors responsible for the proliferation of opioids on the streets.
But the disproportionately powerful pharmaceutical industry — fearing a potential significant loss in profits — fought back. Hard.
According to the Post , the deputy attorney general summoned Rannazzisi to a meeting in 2012, concerning the cases of two unnamed major drug companies.
“That meeting was to chastise me for going after industry, and that’s all that meeting was about,” the now-retired DEA official told the Post .
Then, in 2014, came what constituted a hand out to the pharmaceutical industry by the Department of Justice and congressional legislators: the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act — legislation initiated by the Healthcare Distribution Management Association — the industry group representing distributors at the heart of the controversy.
An analysis of lobbying records by the Post found “the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, spent $13 million lobbying House and Senate members and their staffs on the legislation and other issues between 2014 and 2016.”
Rannazzisi argued his case to congressional staffers in a phone conference in July 2014, and recalled telling them, “This bill passes the way it’s written we won’t be able to get immediate suspension orders, we won’t be able to stop the hemorrhaging of these drugs out of these bad pharmacies and these bad corporations.”
Stunned at the massive — and ultimately successful — effort to take the bite out of DEA attempts to hold distributors and drugmakers responsible for their role in an epidemic estimated to take 19,000 lives every year, Rannazzisi likened the legislation to a “free pass” for legal drug pushers.
“This doesn’t ensure patient access and it doesn’t help drug enforcement at all,” he told the Guardian. “What this bill does has nothing to do with the medical process. What this bill does is take away DEA’s ability to go after a pharmacist, a wholesaler, manufacturer or distributor.”
“This was a gift. A gift to the industry,” he added.
After heading the diversion office for a decade, Rannazzisi retired in 2015 — likely disgusted over legislators’ dedication to the legal drug industry, rather than the people whose interests they’re ostensibly obligated to protect.
“The bill passed because ‘Big Pharma’ wanted it to pass,” he told the Guardian in no uncertain terms. “The DEA is both an enforcement agency and a regulatory agency. When I was in charge what I tried to do was explain to my investigators and my agents that our job was to regulate the industry and they’re not going to like being regulated.”
Big Pharma relies overwhelmingly on lobbyists filling the coffers of politicians to ensure they ignore the crisis gripping the nation. As the Center for Public Integrity found , the Guardian noted, Purdue Pharma — at the heart of the epidemic for its highly-addictive drug introduced in the late 1990s, OxyContin — spent a breathtaking $740 million in the last ten years on congressional lobbying efforts.
However, Big Pharma’s power to influence policy and legislation extends far beyond simple but effective lobbying — the government-run Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC) has been accused by Sen. Ron Wyden of being a tool to “weaken” CDC guidelines for limiting overprescribing of opioids.
Wyden wrote to Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell of his concerns the IPRCC had been staffed with ‘experts’ with conflicts of interest for their close ties to Big Pharma, including a scientist with a $1.5 million endowment from Purdue, reported the Guardian .
“You’ve got a panel that’s certainly got a fair number of people that have a vested interest in this problem of overprescribing. That’s something you’ve got to root out,” Wyden asserted . “The role of the pharmaceutical companies on these advisory panels troubles me greatly. Science is getting short shrift compared to the political clout of these influential interests.”
Families of countless addicts and victims of the opioid industry would undoubtedly find the direct influence of Big Pharma’s pro-opioid cash appalling — yet it continues to this day. Policies and legislation have not yet been given the appropriate funding needed to effectively combat the problem, which swirls out of control while politicians and drugmakers reap blood-tainted profits.
“Corporations have no conscience,” Rannazzisi flatly told the Guardian . “Unfortunately, with my job, I was the guy who had to go out and talk to families that lost kids. If one of those CEOs went out there and talked to anybody, or if one of those CEOs happened to lose a kid to this horrible, horrible domestic tragedy we have, I’d bet you they’d change their mind.
“When you sit with a parent who can’t understand why there’s so many pharmaceuticals out in the illicit marketplace, and why isn’t the government doing anything, well the DEA was doing something. Unfortunately what we’re trying to do is thwarted by people who are writing laws. Share This Article... | 1real |
Election Day: Painful Choices | Email
Let's talk sense about the election. Nothing is to be gained by refusing to face the hard facts. What are those facts?
First of all, neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump has the qualifications, the track record or the personal character to be President of the United States.
Most of us could probably think of a number of people who would be better in the White House. But here, as elsewhere in life, we can only make our choices among the alternatives actually available.
Those of us who have been disgusted by some of the things that Donald Trump has said and done need to face the fact that he is not running against Mother Teresa. His sins have been matched and exceeded by Hillary Clinton and her husband.
As for accomplishments, Trump has none in politics, and business accomplishments do not automatically transfer into government.
Hillary Clinton has been in politics for decades. But does she have even a single serious accomplishment to show for it? In the Senate, she accomplished nothing, and as Secretary of State far worse than nothing.
Secretary Clinton carried out the foreign policy that destroyed two governments of countries which posed no threat whatever to America or to American interests in the Middle East. Each country is now moving in the direction of one of our two most dangerous enemies, Iran and Russia.
Egypt is now planning joint military exercises with Russian forces. Libya has already seen the rise of Islamic terrorists who killed the American ambassador whom the Clinton State Department refused to provide the security he asked for repeatedly.
So much for track records. As for personal character, would you want either of them living next door to your family?
Donald Trump seems to think that it is OK for the government to seize someone else's home and turn the property over to him, so that he can build something — without having to pay what it would cost him to buy the home. We can't even discuss what he has said about women in a family newspaper. Add an almost childish egomania and you have a 70-year-old adolescent.
Hillary Clinton is fundamentally very similar. But, having spent decades in the political limelight, she is far more experienced at concealing her ruthless and cunning contempt for anything and anybody that gets in the way of her personal enrichment and power. That includes contempt for the law.
Long before her e-mails became an issue, Mrs. Clinton was evading subpoenas for records she had somehow "lost" in the White House when she was first lady. Both she and her husband perfected the tactic of stalling and stalling, until enough time had passed that they could say that an issue was now "old news" and that it was time to "move on."
The issue before the voters, however, is not which of the two is the worse person. The issue is which is more dangerous to the future of America. Nor is this just a question of what will happen in the next four years.
Whoever becomes President of the United States can appoint Supreme Court justices able to destroy the Constitution by "interpreting" its protections of freedom out of existence — not just for the next four years, but thereafter.
Hillary Clinton is already on record as wanting a Supreme Court that will overturn recent decisions protecting free speech and upholding the right to bear arms. Everything in her past shows a contempt for law that makes her a very credible threat to dismantle the Constitution, whenever it gets in the way of her agenda.
All it takes is a Senate controlled by fellow Democrats to let a President Clinton's judicial nominees be confirmed automatically, no matter how little regard for the Constitution those nominees have demonstrated.
Donald Trump shows no such ideological agenda and has no such automatic support from Congressional Republicans as to have them rubber stamp either his judicial nominees or whatever other agenda he has. More than that, Trump can be impeached if he oversteps the bounds, without either the Republicans or the media screaming loud protests.
Trump seems to pose much less danger — which, unfortunately, is the most we can expect this particular election year.
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com. To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com .
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THEY KNEW! Federal Government Knew Flint, MI Water Was POISONED, Kept It Hidden…10 Have Already Died | This story is for anyone who believes the government is capable of basic addition. Even though this news is out there for everyone to see, the Left continues to use this crisis as an opportunity to try to pin the gross negligence of the EPA on the Republican Governor of Michigan. Flint, MI is a Democrat ruled, crime ridden, poverty stricken hell-hole. Stay tuned for the environmental injustice narrative Obama will soon be pushing. He s just waiting for the right time to demand federal funds be funneled into Democrat ruled, failing cities across America you know, to prevent further environmental crises. We all know #BlackLivesMatter would have already been there if someone was able to pin this on the rich, white Republican Governor of MI The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency s top Midwest official said her department knew as early as April about the lack of corrosion controls in Flint s water supply a situation that likely put residents at risk for lead contamination but said her hands were tied in bringing the information to the public.Starting with inquiries made in February, the federal agency battled Michigan s Department of Environmental Quality behind the scenes for at least six months over whether Flint needed to use chemical treatments to keep lead lines and plumbing connections from leaching into drinking water. The EPA did not publicize its concern that Flint residents health was jeopardized by the state s insistence that such controls were not required by law.Instead of moving quickly to verify the concerns or take preventative measures, federal officials opted to prod the DEQ to act, EPA Region 5 Administrator Susan Hedman told The Detroit News this week. Hedman said she sought a legal opinion on whether the EPA could force action, but it wasn t completed until November.The state didn t agree to apply corrosion controls until late July and didn t publicly concede until October that it erroneously applied the federal Lead and Copper Rule overseeing water quality.An EPA water expert, Miguel Del Toral, identified potential problems with Flint s drinking water in February, confirmed the suspicions in April and summarized the looming problem in a June internal memo. The state decided in October to change Flint s drinking water source from the corrosive Flint River back to the Detroit water system.Critics have charged Hedman with attempting to keep the memo s information in-house and downplaying its significance.As soon as the lack of corrosion controls became apparent, state and federal officials should have acted to protect the public, said Virginia Tech researcher Marc Edwards, whose water analysis in 2015 helped uncover Flint s lead contamination. At that point, you do not just have smoke, you have a three-alarm fire and should respond immediately, said Edwards, who, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, has obtained dozens of key documents related to Flint s crisis through public record requests. There was no sense of urgency at any of the relevant agencies, with the obvious exception of Miguel Del Toral, and he was silenced and discredited. About five months after being alerted to the lack of corrosion controls, a researcher at Hurley Medical Center in Flint began in August detecting high levels of lead in the bloodwork of city children. Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities and, at high levels, may lead to seizures, coma and death, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Hedman defended her agency s handling of the Flint water situation, saying her water quality staff repeatedly worked to convince the DEQ that corrosion controls were needed to no avail. Let s be clear, the recommendation to DEQ (regarding the need for corrosion controls) occurred at higher and higher levels during this time period, Hedman said in a Detroit News interview. And the answer kept coming back from DEQ that no, we are not going to make a decision until after we see more testing results. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder announced yesterday that 10 people have died from Legionnaire s disease in Flint, Mich. Eighty-seven cases of Legionnaire s disease have been found in and around Flint in the past 18 months.Flint s long-running water problems with drinking water have shaken Michigan s government, leading to last month s resignation of DEQ Director Dan Wyant and last week s state declaration of an emergency in the city. An independent task force appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder to review the situation placed the bulk of the blame for Flint s crisis on the DEQ.The federal government s actions are worth exploring, said Chris Kolb, co-chairman of the task force. We have made a request to speak with a number of EPA employees, said Kolb, president of the Michigan Environmental Council and a former Democratic state representative.Flint s water crisis gained a national profile in the past week, as President Barack Obama s chief of staff said Sunday the White House is very concerned and is monitoring the situation very closely. Former Obama Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a Democratic presidential hopeful, called on the administration Tuesday to step up with assistance for Flint as well as do an expedited review of the city s water infrastructure.DEQ-EPA battleDEQ and EPA staffers were at loggerheads over dueling interpretations of the Lead and Copper Rule a 25-year-old regulation designed to protect drinking water from metals contamination. The interpretation of the rule proved to be crucial after the city under Snyder-appointed emergency managers switched from Lake Huron water provided by the Detroit system to Flint River water as a cost-saving move in the spring of 2014.Following the switch, DEQ officials argued water testing, including two six-month periods of sampling, needed to be completed before making a decision on the need for corrosion controls. EPA officials, according to Hedman, wanted the controls implemented immediately out of concern for public health.If they knew Flint s lack of corrosion measures would likely result in lead reaching the drinking water by June, testing would show it had why didn t EPA officials inform the public when the DEQ failed to act?Hedman said federal law clearly lays out the state and federal responsibilities in overseeing safe drinking water. The EPA s role is to establish treatment standards and monitoring techniques, and provide technical assistance, she said. The state acts as the primary regulator of water operations. It is important to understand the clear roles here, Hedman said. Communication about lead in drinking water and the health impacts associated with that, that s the role of DHHS, the county health department and the drinking water utility. In addition, EPA officials argue that there wasn t sufficient early evidence for any sweeping steps to be taken.Hedman said the EPA talked with its legal counsel about its authority to compel action a question that wouldn t be straightened out for months. In the interim, she said her agency urged Michigan to have its Department of Health and Human Services provide information on precautions for residents.EPA s lack of urgencyBut critics such as Edwards contend Hedman acted with no urgency, even behind the scenes. A week after the June 24 memo was circulated, an email exchange between Hedman and then-Flint Mayor Dayne Walling showed no sense of alarm over the threat to public health and more concern about procedure. The preliminary draft report should not have been released outside the agency, Hedman wrote in the July 1 email. When the report has been revised and fully vetted by EPA management, the findings and recommendations will be shared with the city and DEQ will be responsible for following up with the city. The revised and vetted memo was released four months later in November. Edwards has described Del Toral s original memo as 100 percent accurate in its assessment of the looming problem.Flint s drinking water ills led to the resignations last month of both Wyant and DEQ spokesman Brad Wurfel. It also caused the October reassignment of Liane Shekter Smith, then chief of DEQ s Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance. The crisis prompted Snyder to switch Flint back over to the Detroit water system in mid-October until a new regional water authority using Lake Huron as its source is completed later this year.Despite all of the moves, officials warn that unfiltered Flint water is still not safe to drink.There has been no fallout for federal environmental officials. There s been a failure at all levels to accurately assess the scale of the public health crisis in Flint, and that problem is ongoing, said state Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint. However, the EPA s Miguel Del Toral did excellent work in trying to expose this disaster. Anyone who read his memo and failed to act should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Congressman Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township, stressed that the lion s share of responsibility for Flint s situation lies with the state DEQ.Yet he has questions about how the Lead and Copper Rule ostensibly a safeguard for the public may have contributed to EPA s response. If changes are necessary, he wants them made. There is a legitimate concern about EPA s performance in terms of alerting the public, Kildee said. And frankly, as a member of Congress, I want to know when there s the potential of a health crisis in my district. Via: The Detroit News | 1real |
IS GOP ESTABLISHMENT Responsible For Pro-Amnesty Spanish Version Of Nikki Haley’s GOP Response To Obama’s SOTU? [Video] | This is a very big development. We all knew the GOP establishment has been pandering to pro-amnesty corporations and the Chamber of Commerce, but this is a new low, even for the GOP establishment There is a bigger controversy about to break wide-open that s potentially far more significant than Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell approving Nikki Haley s non-subtle attack on GOP frontrunner Donald Trump. That bigger controversy is the Spanish version of the GOP State of the Union rebuttal containing an amnesty pledge .As this is written, Governor Nikki Haley is trying to get out ahead of the building expose . Haley just gave a DC press conference claiming she does not support amnesty ; however, against her earlier admission of Speaker Ryan and Leader McConnell approving her script the Spanish version must have held similar approvals.Governor Haley gave the English version, Miami Representative and party-insider Mario Diaz-Barlat delivered it in Spanish.ENGLISH:SPANISH:Here s a (paragraph by paragraph) comparison as translated by the Miami Herald (emphasis mine): English (Via Haley): No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws, and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country.Spanish (Via Diaz-Barlat): No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws, and love the United States should ever feel unwelcome in this country. It s not who we are. English: At the same time, that does not mean we just flat out open our borders. We can t do that. We cannot continue to allow immigrants to come here illegally. And in this age of terrorism, we must not let in refugees whose intentions cannot be determined.Spanish: At the same time, it s obvious that our immigration system needs to be reformed. The current system puts our national security at risk and is an obstacle for our economy. English: We must fix our broken immigration system. That means stopping illegal immigration. And it means welcoming properly vetted legal immigrants, regardless of their race or religion. Just like we have for centuries.Spanish: It s essential that we find a legislative solution to protect our nation, defend our borders, offer a permanent and human solution to those who live in the shadows, respect the rule of law, modernize the visa system and push the economy forward. English: I have no doubt that if we act with proper focus, we can protect our borders, our sovereignty and our citizens, all while remaining true to America s noblest legacies.Spanish: I have no doubt that if we work together, we can achieve this and continue to be faithful to the noblest legacies of the United States.It is important to remember the backdrop to this current dual narrative (one the GOPe leadership want to say publicly and one they wish to keep hidden).Back in June 2014 Speaker John Boehner was only two days away from calling up the vote on the Senate gang-of-eight amnesty bill, when House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was defeated in the Virginia Primary.Mario Diaz Balart along with Paul Ryan and Luis V. Gutierrez were in secret negotiations throughout the spring/summer of 2014 planning the pathway for comprehensive immigration reform. John Boehner asked Kevin McCarthy to whip the house and identify if they had votes for passage:[ ] On Tuesday June 10th Speaker Boehner, Eric Cantor (Majority Leader) and Kevin McCarthy (Majority Whip) had lunch together discussing timing the vote Thursday night or Friday Morning.However, later that same night the results from the 2014 Virginia primary showed an unknown conservative outsider, Dave Brat, had defeated (primaried) Eric Cantor. At 7:00pm Tuesday night the first word went out that Cantor had lost.~ Full Back StorySo this hidden narrative within the 2016 Republican State of the Union Rebuttal should come as no surprise. Comprehensive Immigration Reform is the GOPe agenda they continue to hide from the electorate.Via: Conservative Treehouse | 1real |
Woman Who Worked For Trump Warns “He HAS To Be Stopped” (VIDEO) | Barbara Res worked for seven years as the head of construction for Donald Trump s company and she just told MSNBC s Chris Hayes he has to be stopped. Barbara Res on her former boss, Donald Trump: "He has to be stopped" #inners https://t.co/gLOKoF3NzK All In w/Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) May 19, 2016Res, who oversaw the construction of Trump Tower and now supports Hillary Clinton, explained to Hayes that Trump will put our country back thirty years and will be bad for our country. She added, I don t think he has the experience to be president, or the political knowledge to be president. Res also said Trump s policies are very backward, very anti-woman, very anti-woman and very anti-progress. She served as an executive vice-president with the Trump Organization from 1984-1991, and wrote a book a few years ago about her experiences, All Alone on the 68th Floor: How One Woman Changed the Face of Construction.She also recently spoke to the New York Times about the danger she sees in Trump s candidacy. I couldn t imagine him ever doing a job where he would be beholden not to one person but 300 million, Barbara Res said in an interview with The New York Times. I think he thinks he s going to be king. Res, who supports Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, said Trump seems to think he can just decree things that a president can t, noting there are three branches of government that work together. I don t see him getting away with all these things that he says he s going to do, she said.Over his campaign, Trump has promised to do several different projects that would need Congressional support and spending to execute like building a wall on the southern border or banning Muslim travel to the United States, but has never bothered to explain how he would practically get them done, or even explain if they would be legal. During the Republican primary, those promises weren t a problem for Trump, but the general election is unlikely to be as forgiving.Featured image via Twitter | 1real |
Clinton Aide Says Future WikiLeaks Releases Are ‘Probably Fake’ | Videos Clinton Aide Says Future WikiLeaks Releases Are ‘Probably Fake’ "Friends, please remember that if you see a whopper of a Wikileaks in next two days - it's probably a fake." | November 7, 2016 Be Sociable, Share! Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton waves as she takes the stage to speak at a fundraiser at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, Friday, Oct. 14, 2016.
Months of embarrassing leaks released by WikiLeaks and other sources related to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic leadership have time and again proven to be true , while allegations of Russia being behind the effort have not been substantiated with any evidence. Still, that’s the talking point the campaign continues to go with.
And indeed Clinton aide Jennifer Palmieri today warned against believing any new things released by WikiLeaks that are embarrassing to the Clinton campaign, even though the other releases were spot on, insisting that anything else they release is “ probably fake .” Friends, please remember that if you see a whopper of a Wikileaks in next two days – it's probably a fake.
— Jennifer Palmieri (@jmpalmieri) November 6, 2016
This isn’t a brand new claim, either, with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D – CA) making claims as far back as August that any future mass leaks would probably include “ Russian lies ” designed to embarrass Clinton and the Democrats.
These preemptive warnings appear to recognize the reality that more embarrassing information is likely to come out, and aiming to get out in front of the next batch by preemptively declaring them “probably” not true, whatever it turns out to be. | 1real |
Trump Fans Rally Across the Nation to Support the President - The New York Times | DENVER — As Americans poured into airport terminals, public squares and congressional town meetings over the past month to vent their anger over President Trump’s policies, Debbie Dooley started hearing from fellow conservatives. “Phone call after phone call from people: ‘Why aren’t we out supporting President Trump? ’” said Ms. Dooley, a Tea Party activist in Georgia. So on Monday, conservatives around the country got out the Make America Great Again hats, unfurled American flags and held rallies at state capitols and on courthouse steps, seeking to rekindle the populist fervor that helped vault Mr. Trump to the White House and stick up for a president whose approval ratings have taken a beating during five weeks in office. But the modest crowds that showed up for the noontime rallies from New Jersey to Georgia to Colorado offered a reminder of what liberal groups learned eight years ago in the face of Tea Party anger at President Barack Obama: Stoking energy is often easier for the outraged resistance than for the party pulling the levers in Washington. “I’m getting a lot of comments from the leftists about, ‘Your crowd’s not going to be as big as our crowd,’” said Betty Blanco, a retired teacher from La Junta, Colo. on the state’s conservative eastern plains, who organized a rally on the steps of the State Capitol. “I didn’t know it was a contest. ” About 150 Trump supporters turned out for Monday’s rally in Denver, held just across the street from a park that had swelled with tens of thousands of protesters as part of the Women’s March on Jan. 21. Organizers said Monday’s rallies, held a day before the president addresses a joint session of Congress, bubbled up organically from Trump supporters who felt he was being treated unfairly by Democrats and the news media. Some people said the ferocity of that criticism had actually nudged them closer to Mr. Trump. “I was mad at Trump for a while, absolutely,” said Steve Foose, a bus driver in Middletown, N. J. and former Democrat who joined about 200 people waving signs and flags along the curb of a crossroads. “I just grew to like him, and I would lay down my life for him. ” Monday’s rallies were filled with prayer, choruses of “God Bless America” and speeches about cutting taxes and regulations. People applauded the president and veterans, and urged one another to stay positive. But there were also chants of “Lock her up!” every so often, and a few shouting matches when Trump critics wandered by and yelled at the crowds. People praised Mr. Trump for actions that have provoked protests and lawsuits from the left. In interviews at five rallies on Monday, his supporters said that he was breaking the china in Washington, cracking down on immigration and supporting American businesses, and that they were getting frustrated that more people did not seem to see it that way. In Atlanta, Jermane Enoch, 57, a project manager from Powder Springs, Ga. was among the few in a largely white crowd of 200 who rallied on the president’s behalf at Liberty Plaza, in the shadow of the State Capitol. Wearing a red Trump hat, a patriotic bow tie and a Trump Mr. Enoch said that good businesspeople would understand why Monday’s rallies across the country were needed, given what he said was the “negative messaging” from protesters and the news media. “It’s necessary to have a show of continuous support, just like it’s necessary for businesses to show continuous improvement,” he said. Mr. Enoch argued that the president had been mischaracterized and misunderstood. The idea that Mr. Trump is a racist, as some critics contend, struck him as balderdash. In a turn at the microphone, Mr. Enoch said his support for Mr. Trump superseded race, and he urged a return to conservative values. Mr. Enoch brandished a pocket Constitution, to much applause. And he took a cue from Isaiah as he said Mr. Trump’s supporters should not be cowed by counterprotest: “I am not afraid!” he said. “No weapon that is formed against us shall prosper!” RICHARD FAUSSET In Mandeville, a city in one of Louisiana’s most conservative parishes, there was some question as to how many Trump supporters would materialize, this being the usually quiet eve of Mardi Gras. But there was little doubt that those who showed up — 150 or so bikers, retirees, police officers and others — would be in their support for a president who won the parish by roughly three to one. A home remodeler and disc jockey who uses the name Bobby Blaze made the most entrance, wearing a suit over his leather “Brotherhood of Bikers” vest, a bright red tie with a gold clip and, to top it all off, a Trump wig. He said that his father, a World War II veteran who died two years ago, would have loved Mr. Trump: “‘The country needs John Wayne,’ that’s what he used to say. ” And after aiding its allies around the globe for decades, Mr. Blaze suggested, the United States had finally gotten such a leader at a time when it needed him most. “We can’t help the world,” he said, “till we can help ourselves first. ” CAMPBELL ROBERTSON In Cabarrus County, N. C. which Mr. Trump easily carried, more than 150 of his supporters met up outside the courthouse in Concord, many of them unfurling last year’s Trump campaign flags, lawn signs and red caps — though a surprising number said they had never attended a Trump rally during the presidential race. Bill Cagle, a retiree, decided to attend on Monday after seeing a deluge of news coverage of demonstrations in the streets and at congressional town halls. “I said, ‘Well, we’ve been silent long enough, and we’ve really got to say what’s in the heart,’ when I saw all of this vitriol the last six weeks,” Mr. Cagle said. An operations manager for a company that builds towers for lines, Mr. Cagle said he was a registered Democrat but had not voted for the party’s presidential ticket in decades. He said he maintained his registration only to vote against what he considered the worst option in a primary race. “What he’s done in a little bit of time, I think is great,” he said of Mr. Trump, noting in particular his efforts to roll back regulations. “I’ve been in business, and by golly, if they can get rid of some of that, it’s great. ” TRIP GABRIEL On the edges of the Denver crowd, two men exemplified the devotion and the dread that the president inspires. Ron Kamstra, a retired civil engineer and Christian who said he deeply supported Mr. Trump’s stances on terrorism and immigration, handed out photocopied passages of the Quran that he said encouraged violence. Mohamed Mashkooke, an accountant born in Somalia, wandered up to Mr. Kamstra and said he was growing increasingly worried about becoming the target of racist attacks — like the shooting last week of two Indian men in Kansas. Cordially at first, but then increasingly tensely, the men argued about religion, immigration, faith and the validity of Mr. Obama’s birth certificate. (Despite all of the facts, Mr. Kamstra is still dubious.) “I don’t hate Trump,” Mr. Mashkooke said finally, walking away, “but I think he’s crazy. ” “O. K. good,” Mr. Kamstra replied, and turned back to the speeches. JACK HEALY | 0fake |
British foreign minister to visit Iran, lobby for jailed aid worker | LONDON (Reuters) - British foreign minister Boris Johnson will travel to Iran on Saturday to lobby counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif for the release of jailed Iranian-British aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. The trip will be only the third by a British foreign minister to Iran in the last 14 years, and takes place against a complex backdrop of historical, regional and bilateral tensions. Johnson has vowed to leave no stone unturned in Britain s efforts to free Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, who was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted by an Iranian court of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. She denies the charges. The Foreign Secretary will urge the Iranians to release dual nationals where there are humanitarian grounds to do so, a foreign office spokesman said. Zaghari-Ratcliffe is not the only dual national being held in Iran, but has become the most high profile after Johnson said she had been teaching people journalism before her arrest in April 2016, in remarks critics said could have prompted Iran to extend her sentence. The Thomson Reuters Foundation, a charity organization that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News, said Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been on holiday and had not been teaching journalism in Iran. Johnson has since apologized for his comments. There were calls for his resignation - something which threatened to destabilize Prime Minister Theresa May s minority government at a crucial point in Britain s Brexit negotiations. Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been told she will appear in court on Dec. 10, her husband Richard has said. The visit will be sandwiched between meetings in Oman and the United Arab Emirates as Johnson - a key proponent of Britain s exit from the European Union - takes advantage of a gap in a domestic parliamentary calendar dominated by Brexit. Johnson was a surprise choice for Britain s top diplomat when he was appointed by May in 2016. He has a record of political gaffes and use of florid and sometimes undiplomatic language. The visit will test his ability to navigate a political landscape littered with potential pitfalls. Iran s 1979 Islamic Revolution turned it into a pariah state for most of the West and many Middle Eastern neighbors. International sanctions have only recently been lifted as part of a multilateral nuclear deal to curb Iran s disputed uranium enrichment program. That deal is under threat after U.S. President Donald Trump decided to decertify Iran s compliance with the terms of the agreement. Britain has voiced its continued support for the nuclear deal but is one of a number of Western powers voicing concerns about Tehran s destabilizing influence in the region. This visit comes at a crucial time for the Gulf region and provides an opportunity to discuss a peaceful solution to the conflict in Yemen, the future of the Iran nuclear deal and the current volatility in the Middle East, the spokesman said. | 0fake |
White House says Tillerson to remain as secretary of state | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rex Tillerson will remain as U.S. secretary of state, the White House spokeswoman said on Thursday, amid reports Tillerson will be removed in favor of Mike Pompeo, who is currently CIA director. “When the president loses confidence in someone, they will no longer serve here,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said when asked about reports of a staff shake up. | 0fake |
Wow! DOJ in Bed With the Clinton Cartel | The expose into just how bought and paid for our government in just never stops! Where’s the outrage!?!?!?
Watch on YouTube
Source: Kadzik (DOJ Official Leading Probe in FBI’s Case Re-Opening) Gave “Heads up” to Clinton Campaign on Email Investigation
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‘Lunatic’: Huge Backlash From Lawmakers After Trump’s ‘Wiretap’ Accusations | Reality show star turned so-called president Donald Trump alleged in a tweetstorm this morning that former President Barack Obama had Trump Tower s wires tapped before the election. The only place Trump could have gotten that disinformation is from fake news site Breitbart.com. Trump has some splainin to do over that conspiratorial tweet. Like, for example, what the f*ck he s talking about. For sure, former President Barack Obama has no idea what Trump what Trump is referring to.Trump called Obama bad or sick during his tweet frenzy, all while offering no proof to back up his jaw-dropping claims.Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, which is also probing the scope of Russia s influence on the US election, said in a statement Saturday afternoon in regards to one of Trump s tweets this morning, If there is something bad or sick going on, it is the willingness of the nation s chief executive to make the most outlandish and destructive claims without providing a scintilla of evidence to support them. No matter how much we hope and pray that this President will grow into one who respects and understands the Constitution, separation of powers, role of a free press, responsibilities as the leader of the free world, or demonstrates even the most basic regard for the truth, we must now accept that President Trump will never become that man, Schiff said.Trump s baseless accusations backfired. Now Democrats want an investigation.Don't be distracted by Trump & his lunatic rants. We need an independent investigation into #Trumprussia now. https://t.co/tyIErE8GcP Brendan Boyle (@RepBrendanBoyle) March 4, 2017Trump is in deep shit. Mr. President: If there was a wiretap at Trump Tower, that means a fed judge found probable cause of crime which means you are in deep shit. https://t.co/i7dUMtHXmo Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 4, 2017The info apparently came from President Steve Bannon s man-cave, Breitbart.com.POTUS cited no evidence though he has access to intel reports to confirm, it appears to have come from Breitbart: https://t.co/WVFXOYo9K2 https://t.co/TXmGxT2Lrv Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) March 4, 2017 What is he hiding? Trump has been caught in lie after lie. Do not be distracted. Trump's campaign/associates did communicate w/ Russia. What is he hiding? pic.twitter.com/KesTEkL9Te Maxine Waters (@MaxineWaters) March 4, 2017Dear @realDonaldTrump,Turn off the TV & do your job. You're the president of the United States. Start acting like it.Sincerely,America https://t.co/Zgfp758DUf Jim McGovern (@RepMcGovern) March 4, 2017You're not credible. https://t.co/L5wHDvJ7rQ Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) March 4, 2017Trump is now considered a joke.Aaaaaaaand, we're back! https://t.co/me5r4e8HeJ Jim Himes (@jahimes) March 4, 2017Lawmakers are finding themselves in a position to tell Trump how to president.1/ The President can't "order" a wiretap. They are ordered by a judge if there is 1) possible crime, or 2) possible foreign agent involved. Jim Himes (@jahimes) March 4, 20172/ So @realDonaldTrump is either lying, or he declassifed a judicial warrant possibly targeting him. I think we need to know which it is. Jim Himes (@jahimes) March 4, 2017It s not just Democrats. GOP Sen. Ben Sasse said on Saturday that Trump owes the public a further explanation of his bizarre allegation against Obama. The president today made some very serious allegations, and the informed citizens that a republic requires deserve more information, Sasse said, according to Politico. If without [an authorization], the President should explain what sort of wiretap it was and how he knows this. It is possible that he was illegally tapped. But Sasse added that there are legalities to a wiretap. If it was with a legal FISA court order, then an application for surveillance exists that the court found credible. The president should ask that this full application regarding surveillance of foreign operatives or operations be made available, ideally to the full public, and at a bare minimum to the U.S. Senate, Sasse said.Maybe if Trump released his tax returns, we could learn more. IDK Photo by Isaac Brekken/Getty Images with added tweets. | 1real |
France says it wants Pence to clarify Trump's stance on EU | MUNICH (Reuters) - France said on Saturday that U.S. Vice President Mike Pence would need to clarify his administration’s stance toward the European Union when he meets officials in Brussels next week, given President Donald Trump’s previous support for Britain’s exit. Pence is due in the Belgian capital on Monday. “I don’t want to prejudge Vice President Pence’s intentions ... I hope that we will have a clear response, because Donald Trump has said he was overjoyed by Brexit and that there would be others. So we are waiting clarifications.” | 0fake |
RACHEL MADDOW Tries To Embarrass Trump By Exposing 2005 Tax Returns…BACKFIRES Big-Time..Gets DESTROYED On Twitter! | Here s Maddow s tweet announcing her bombshell revelation on her show:BREAKING: We've got Trump tax returns. Tonight, 9pm ET. MSNBC.(Seriously). Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) March 14, 2017Just last week, the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff urged IRS employees Sunday to break the law, and leak Donald Trump s tax returns to his publication: If you re in IRS and have a certain president s tax return that you d like to leak, my address is: NYT, 620 Eighth Ave, NY NY 10018, Nicholas Kristof wrote on Twitter.But if you're in IRS and have a certain president's tax return that you'd like to leak, my address is: NYT, 620 Eighth Ave, NY NY 10018. https://t.co/ujYe100Tn9 Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) March 6, 2017As the Hill reminds us, the release of an individual s unauthorized tax returns is a felony. While reporters who publish illegally obtained information that they did not solicit are traditionally not prosecuted recall that in September 2016 the NYT released an old Trump tax return without legal consequences- the legal picture becomes less clear if the reporters are involved in the leaking of the information. Zero HedgeHere s what Kristof of the New York Times had to say about the release of Trump s 2005 tax returns:So Trump apparently paid 25% income tax rate overall in federal taxes in 2005. Low, but higher than Romney or many finance tycoons. Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) March 15, 2017Here s what the rest of America (including Donald Trump Jr.) had to say about Rachel Maddow s ridiculous attempt to embarrass President Trump.This awesome tweet was from Joe Walsh of Walsh Freedom:Rachel Maddow revealed that Trump paid more taxes in '05 than most people will pay in their entire lives.What ground-breaking journalism. Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) March 15, 2017Former Governor Mike Huckabee was having a blast on Twitter tonight:Tomorrow night Rachel Maddow solves the Kennedy Assassinaton. Will name Oswald as assassin. Don't miss REAL JOURNALISM! Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) March 15, 2017https://twitter.com/TEN_GOP/status/841826865169887232There was even a tweet from the President s son Donald Jr, thanking Maddow for proving to her Trump hating followers how successful Donald Trump is and that he paid $40 million in taxes! Thank you Rachel Maddow for proving to your #Trump hating followers how successful @realDonaldTrump is & that he paid $40mm in taxes! #Taxes Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 15, 2017From Trump s Director of Social Media Dan Scavino:Thank you Rachel @Maddow! While you embarrassed yourself tonight (FACT) please note, @POTUS @realDonaldTrump will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!! pic.twitter.com/r9Dl1hbJ0M Dan Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) March 15, 2017Jeremy Nolt thanks Maddow for the reminder that Hillary lied to the American people when she said Trump didn t pay his taxes:Rachel Maddow just proved that Hillary lied to the American people when she said Trump didn't pay his taxes. #ThankYouMaddow #TrumpTaxReturn Jeremy Nolt (@RealJeremyNolt) March 15, 2017Another reminder of the felony Maddow committed:https://twitter.com/TEN_GOP/status/841838822581141504And from the always hilarious conservative Cloyd Rivers:Effective tax rates in 2005:Trump: 25%Obama: 19.5%Sanders: 13.5%Thanks Rachel Maddow for commitin' a felony for this info. Merica. Cloyd Rivers (@CloydRivers) March 15, 2017A reminder of the hypocrisy and the idiocy of Bernie Sanders remarks about Trump s tax returns:President Trump 2005 Tax Rate: 25%Bernie Sanders 2014 Tax Rate: 13.5% pic.twitter.com/b2mRepMc0h Brittany Pettibone (@BrittPettibone) March 15, 2017Rachel Maddow single-handedly gave every Hillary lover in America hope, then Trump smashed it by releasing his 2005 taxes.#TrumpTaxReturn #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) March 15, 2017And then finally, Conservative Thinker thanks Maddow for helping Trump to get re-elected in 2020. #MAGA!Rachel Maddow just revealed that #TrumpsTaxReturns show he paid $38,000,000 taxes in 2005. She just got Mr. Trump re-elected in 2020! #MAGA Conservative Thinker (@Conservative_OK) March 15, 2017 | 1real |
Turkey PM confirms Iraqi government in control of main land border | ANKARA (Reuters) - Iraq s central government has taken over control of the main land crossing into Turkey from the autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Tuesday. Yildirim also said that Turkey had agreed to open another border gate with Iraq, as part of a route that would lead to the city of Tal Afar, some 40 kilometres west of Mosul and home to a predominantly ethnic Turkmen population. Habur border gate has been handed over to the central government as of this morning, Yildirim told members of his ruling AK Party in parliament. The current route, heading down to Kirkuk will continue. We will start to put into action another border gate through Tal Afar in the short term, in agreement with the Iraqi government. | 0fake |
Possible Putin-Trump meeting in Vietnam still under discussion: Kremlin | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Thursday that a possible meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump in Vietnam this week was still under discussion, but that nothing had yet been agreed. Russian news agencies cited Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov earlier on Thursday as saying that the two leaders would meet on Friday at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters that the time, place and format of such a meeting was still being discussed and that a Friday meeting was only a possibility. As for the content of the meeting, there is no agreed agenda, said Peskov. Given that both Trump and Putin will attend the APEC summit, Peskov said that their paths would cross one way or another. | 0fake |
NY Times Op-Ed: Deport Americans, Invite Migrants - Breitbart | America belongs to immigrants because immigrants make the nation more powerful, says a former Wall Street Journal writer who is now working for the New York Times. [Immigrants produce more babies, work harder, create more jobs, and have more ideas, claims the revealing column by Bret Stephens: I speak of Americans whose families have been in this country for a few generations. Complacent, entitled and often shockingly ignorant on basic points of American law and history, they are the stagnant pool in which our national prospects risk drowning … Bottom line: real Americans are screwing up America. Maybe they should leave, so that we can replace them with new and better ones: newcomers who are more appreciative of what the United States has to offer, more ambitious for themselves and their children, and more willing to sacrifice for the future. In other words, just the kind of people we used to be — when “we” had just come off the boat … Stephens’ article includes several statistical flubs, plus grotesque generalizations, and regurgitated agitprop. For example, Stephens says the United States “is a country of immigrants” even though roughly 84 percent of people living in the United States were born in the United States — despite the huge influx of immigrants over the last few decades. Similarly, Stephens treats immigrants as a uniform mass, as if he believes that migrating gang members are as beneficial as are inventors. But the article’s main feature is the progressive view that people — Americans, foreigners, whatever — should be selected by the State to serve the State’s progressive leadership class in D. C. and Wall Street. That view is shared by former President Barack Obama, who told supporters in November 2014 that: Sometimes we get attached to our particular tribe, our particular race, our particular religion, and then we start treating other folks differently. And that, sometimes, has been a bottleneck to how we think about immigration. If you look at the history of immigration in this country, each successive wave, there have been periods where the folks who were already here suddenly say, ‘Well, I don’t want those folks’ — even though the only people who have the right to say that are some Native Americans. That view allows Stephens to ignore the Declaration of Independence which declared that people’s rights came from a higher source than government: “We hold these truths to be that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. ” The elitist view also allows Stephens to welcome mass immigration because — not despite, but because — it hugely distorts the nation’s economy in favor of elite business leaders and major cities. Mass immigration spikes profits and stock values by cutting salaries for manual and skilled labor offered by and employees, drives up real estate prices, reduces investment, increases state and local tax burdens, and sidelines marginalized Americans and their families. Mass immigration also imposes the social “diversity” which helps Stephens and his allies as they claim a Darwinian right to fragment, divide and rule Americans without any rude interference by the voters on November 8, 2016. In contrast, President Donald Trump won his 2016 campaign on a promise to put Americans first. He told his inauguration listeners that he would hold to a policy of “Buy American, Hire American,” he has started enforcing immigration laws and is pushing for a “ ” immigration plan that would raise the productivity and wealth of Americans. Read the New York Times column here. Follow Neil Munro on Twitter @NeilMunroDC or email the author at NMunro@Breitbart. com, | 0fake |
WATCH: SNL Mocks Trump For Pretending To Be His Own Publicist In Hilarious Cold Open | In a comedy skit in its own right, Donald Trump is now the presumptive nominee for the presidency of the United States, and it all happened despite the fact that the billionaire businessman has said some of the worst things ever about minorities and women. However, his antics and demeanor are certainly comical and the material he s provided has been a dream come true for late night talk shows and especially the people at Saturday Night Live. The recent discovery that Donald Trump once posed as his own publicist created yet more material for SNL.In the latest skit, Darrell Hammond s Donald Trump is on the phone with a reporter who didn t believe that he was Trump s publicist Joe Pepperoni. No, I am not Donald Trump in disguise, he said. This is just what classy people sound like, OK? Watch video here:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T_6Xa6KOlw]Then Bobby Moynihan s Chris Christie showed up to help the billionaire businessman and Republican nightmare pick his running mate. When Jebb Bush was suggested, both went into uncontrollable laughter. After everyone from Carly Fiorina to Bruce Springsteen were rejected by Trump, he wondered why no major Republican wanted to be his vice president. Christie immediately saw an opportunity. He said: If I may be so bold. Sir, anyone who didn t want to be your VP would be a damn fool. You are such a special candidate. And maybe, just maybe the person you have been looking for the whole time is standing in this room right now. Trump replied, You are so right, Ben Carson, want to be vice president? Let s hope when all is said and done in November, America can look back at Trump and see him as a funny distant memory.Featured image via video screenshot. | 1real |
Kenyan opposition says a strategist arrested, no reason given | NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya s opposition National Super Alliance said on Sunday that one of its key strategists had been arrested in Kwale, in the country s coastal region, and that his whereabouts were unknown. The Alliance said economist David Ndii had been taken away from the Diani area late on Sunday. The family was told that he had been taken to the Diani beach police station, but when they went there they were told he was not there nor did they know where he was. No reason was given for his arrest, Salim Lone, an adviser for Raila Odinga, the coalition s leader, said in a statement. NASA lawyers from Nairobi and the coast are trying to locate where he is being held, he said, referring to the coalition by its acronyms. Charles Owino, a police spokesman, said he was unaware of Ndii s arrest, as were police in Kwale. Police have confirmed they have David Ndii at Diani Police Station. But they want to go back to his Leopard Beach Hotel in Kwale and pick the computer and laptop for the information they need, Dennis Onyango, Odinga s spokesman, said on Twitter. President Uhuru Kenyatta defeated Odinga in August, but Odinga challenged the election and a court voided the results, citing procedural irregularities, and ordered a fresh vote. The court s decision was the first of its kind in Africa. Odinga boycotted the October repeat poll, saying the country s election commission had failed to carry out sufficient reforms. Kenyatta won with 98 percent of the vote. Last week, Odinga said he planned to have a people s assembly swear him in on Dec. 12 - the country s independence day - raising the prospect for confrontation with security forces. Lone said that Ndii had been appointed chairman of a steering committee for the steering committee organizing for Odinga s planned swearing in. Why has @DavidNdii been arrested and where is he being held? Is he being permitted to speak to his lawyer? Is the rule of law and due process being respected? Isaac Okero, the president of Law Society of Kenya, said on Twitter. Kenya is a regional hub for trade, diplomacy and security. The prolonged election season disrupted its economy as investors waited to see the outcome. | 0fake |
Japan PM Abe: Confident of building relationship of trust with Trump | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday he was confident of building a relationship based on trust with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Abe said the two talked about various issues but refrained from disclosing the contents of the meeting with Trump because the talks were unofficial. He made the comments in New York after a meeting that was intended to smooth relations following Trump’s campaign rhetoric that cast doubt on long-standing U.S. alliances. | 0fake |
BREAKING: DEATH FOR WELFARE LEECH AND BOSTON JIHADIST… Jury Gives Muslim Terrorist First Class Ticket To Hell… | No mercy for welfare leech and America hater, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev This is nothing to celebrate. This is justice, said first-responder Michael Ward. He wanted to go to hell and he s going to get there early. A jury s ruling today to sentence marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death is justice and a warning Boston will not tolerate terrorism, survivors and police said after the verdict. This is nothing to celebrate. This is justice, said first-responder Michael Ward. He wanted to go to hell and he s going to get there early. The verdict against Tsarnaev, who ll turn 22 in July, was announced by U.S. District Court Judge George A. O Toole Jr. s courtroom clerk Paul Lyness. Tsarnaev showed no emotion as the verdict was read.Marathon bombing survivor Adrianne Haslet-Davis, who lost a third of her left leg in the bombing, told the Herald she s happy with the verdict. My heart goes out to everyone in the survivor community and to the victims families, she added. It s still a lot to process right now. Only three of the 12 jurors bought into the defense argument that Tsarnaev was influenced by his older brother Tamerlan. The jurors unanimously agreed that Tsarnaev showed no remorse for the marathon attack and its aftermath that killed four young people, maimed 17 and injured hundreds.The jurors unanimously voted to put him to death for the week of terror. You re not going to blow up our marathon. You re not going to blow up our city, said Boston police Commissioner William Evans. We will not tolerate terrorism. Tsarnaev will be formally sentenced by O Toole this summer after survivors and loved ones of the victims have the opportunity to present impact statements.Tsarnaev will also be afforded the chance to speak. He chose not to take the stand in his own defense during the trial a factor jurors were not allowed to consider or even discuss amongst themselves, per O Toole s orders.Tsarnaev is expected to remain incarcerated locally until after the sentencing, when he will be delivered to the USP Terre Haute prison in Indiana, where he will be the youngest person on federal death row.U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said today in a statement that Tsarnaev coldly and callously perpetrated a terrorist attack in Boston. We know all too well that no verdict can heal the souls of those who lost loved ones, nor the minds and bodies of those who suffered life-changing injuries from this cowardly attack, Lynch said. But the ultimate penalty is a fitting punishment for this horrific crime and we hope that the completion of this prosecution will bring some measure of closure to the victims and their families. We thank the jurors for their service, the people of Boston for their vigilance, resilience and support and the law enforcement community in Boston and throughout the country for their important work. The seven women and five men, who reached their verdict after 14 hours of deliberations, convicted the former University of Massachusetts Dartmouth sophomore on April 8 of a 30-count indictment that included the April 15, 2013, bombing murders of marathon spectators Martin Richard, 8, of Dorchester, Lingzi Lu, 23, a Boston University graduate statistics student from China, and restaurant manager Krystle Marie Campbell, 29, a Medford native.Tsarnaev was also held responsible for the shooting death of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier, 27, three days after the marathon massacre, when the FBI went public with photos of Tsarnaev and his late older brother Tamerlan, 26, as their terror suspects.Via: Bostonherald.com | 1real |
Chuck Todd on VA Shooting: ‘We Are All to Blame’ for the ‘Toxic Stew’ of Political Discourse - Breitbart | Wednesday on MSNBC’s “MTP Daily,” host Chuck Todd reacted to the shooting at a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, VA, saying that we were “all to blame. ” Todd said, “Folks, some want to blame the left or the right or us in the media. But here’s who it seems too many folks don’t want to blame themselves. We are all to blame. This toxic stew that passes for political discourse seems beyond repair in the current moment. Just look at social media. ” “For too long, our collective politics has demonized the other side for caustic behavior while rationalizing that same behavior when it comes from someone who shares their politics,” he continued. “Maybe we ought to borrow another phrase that we’re all asked to do, when you see something, say something. And for political leaders, when you see caustic behavior, no matter if that person agrees with you, why don’t you say something to them?” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
OBAMA’S LAWLESS AMERICA: CA Police Tell Violent Anti-Trump Protesters “Leave Now Or You Will Be Arrested”…Protesters Shout Back “WE DON’T FOLLOW THE LAW” | Barack Obama s legacy will be a divided, lawless, mooching, disrespectful America. Obama has been very clear about his open alliance with Black Lives Matter terrorists and professional race baiters for hire. Ever since the death of thug Trayvon Martin, when Obama began his first strategy meetings with Al Sharpton and his former AG, racist Eric Holder, he s been shamelessly holding closed-door meetings at our White House. His meetings have been met with criticism by many Americans for hosting unsavory characters, like the guy wearing a tracking device on his ankle for kidnapping and rappers who threaten to harm fellow Americans if the election doesn t go their way at our White House. All the while, Obama has been subtly encouraging the masses to keep up the fight against law enforcement and to not let up on the oppressive white man. These violent protests are NOT spontaneous. They are happening as a result of a well planned, highly strategized and well-funded group of hard core leftists, who will stop at nothing to ensure their radical agenda is not upended by the shocking rise of the unafraid Donald Trump.YThis anti-Trump mob began their organized disruptions last night in San Jose, CA. It all started with the typical union chant (union influence can be found in every anti-Trump rally) that has been adopted by every leftist group in America. Here, you can see most of the protesters are Hispanic (likely illegal aliens):Officers form line btw protesters and supporters walking to rally. Protesters now chanting against Trump and police. pic.twitter.com/fjC8Xsnajh Jacob Rascon (@Jacobnbc) June 3, 2016Protesters, probably several hundred, move away from police and onto main road, blocking traffic. Don't see any officers. Jacob Rascon (@Jacobnbc) June 3, 2016Protesters march through downtown San Jose for an hour, targeting Trump supporters and evading officers. pic.twitter.com/Q4hKFELkIw Jacob Rascon (@Jacobnbc) June 3, 2016Police use megaphone to tell crowd to "leave now or you will be arrested." Protester shouts back, "we don't follow the law!" Jacob Rascon (@Jacobnbc) June 3, 2016 | 1real |
FLASHBACK: TRUMP PLANS STRATEGY Against North Korea In ’99 Interview [Video] | There is no debating the fact that tensions between the United States and North Korea have reached a boiling point. But what s still being continuously debated is how to handle these tensions.President Trump threatened to use fire and fury against North Korea after it was revealed that North Korea successfully created a miniaturized nuclear weapon designed to fit inside its missiles. In an interview with NBC s Tim Russert in 1999, then businessman Donald Trump voiced his support for a pre-emptive military strike against North Korea.Trump told Russert that if he was President, a Trump administration would negotiate like crazy to get the best deal possible. If a deal was not possible, Trump said he would order a pre-emptive strike. He went on to successfully predict that that they re [North Korea] are going to have those weapons pointed all over the world and specifically at the United States. He goes further by saying that it only does the U.S. minimal good to discuss the economy and Social Security without addressing the biggest problem: nuclear proliferation. He also calls out previous politicians including Jimmy Carter for not facing this situation head on and negotiating properly.Following President Trump s warning North Korea over further provocations, the Hermit Kingdom has announced it is considering striking Guam. The North Korean military warned it may carry out a preemptive operation once the US shows signs of provocation , and that it is seriously considering a strategy to strike Guam with mid-to-long range missiles. As Trump moves forward, this interview serves as evidence that his strategy will hold up against North Korea.Read more: The Gateway Pundit | 1real |
Pelosi calls for outside commission to probe Russian meddling in U.S. election | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi called on Thursday for the creation of an outside, independent commission to investigate what she said was “cold, hard evidence” that President Donald Trump’s family intended to collude with Russians to influence the election. “This week we saw cold hard evidence of the Trump campaign, indeed the Trump family, eagerly intending to collude, possibly, with Russia, a hostile foreign power, to influence American elections,” Pelosi said, referring to emails released this week by Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr. | 0fake |
Why Putin praised Trump (Opinion) | Christian Whiton is a former deputy special envoy for human rights in North Korea for the George W. Bush administration. He is president of the Hamilton Foundation; a principal with DC Advisory, which is a public policy consultancy; and the author of "Smart Power: Between Diplomacy and War." The views expressed are his own.
(CNN) Vladimir Putin has his man in the U.S. presidential race: Donald Trump. On Thursday, the Russian president reportedly declared Trump to be the "absolute leader" of the race.
Putin -- a natural if brawny showman who has posed fishing shirtless, shooting shirtless and horseback riding shirtless -- also said of Trump: "He's a very lively man, talented without doubt."
Thus did the man who embodies the parody of homoeroticism from the 1970s endorse one who embodies the parody of a blow-hard executive from the 1980s. But while Moscow has long been interested in American politics, what inspired the man who has essentially run Russia since 2000 to take the unusual step of commenting on the election process of an adversary?
Whether he knows it or not, Putin practices a key tenet of statecraft identified by Mel Brooks. His darkly comical musical "The Producers" features the number "Heil Myself!" (also known as "Springtime for Hitler"), in which a campy rendition of the German dictator sings, "It ain't no mystery, if it's politics or history, the thing you gotta know is, everything is showbiz."
The line could be the leitmotif of the reality show that is Trump's campaign.
The Donald's approach to politics likely reminds Putin of himself and he empathizes. Not only do the two men share a love for spectacle and an appreciation of its ability to move low-information voters, but Putin also sees Trump's self-reference as something Moscow can exploit.
Putin famously began his career as an intelligence officer. One thing the young Putin would have been taught by his employers at the KGB's First Chief Directorate, the agency's center for foreign intelligence collection, is to look for character flaws that can be used to enlist a target as an agent or, short of that, an unwitting helper. It's a fancied-up version of a con man looking for his mark.
Recent American presidents have been easy prey for Putin. George W. Bush, who thought he got a "sense of Putin's soul," mistook the Russian strongman for a friend. Barack Obama believed that a change in diplomatic tone would alter Putin's calculation of his nation's interests. Putin of course encouraged both vanities. The invaded people of Georgia and Ukraine can attest to who sized up whom better.
The cherry on the cake would be a President Trump. Putin has no doubt observed that flattery works well on The Donald: from his tweets to TV appearances to debate performances, Trump is a lion to those who are critical and a lamb to those who suffer his repetitive imprecisions silently.
Putin's giddiness over Trump's personal flaws shifts to outright desire when the candidate starts talking about U.S. policy toward Russia. In September, Trump said of the Russian leader : "I will tell you in terms of leadership he is getting an 'A'..." As Putin put warplanes and a base in Syria -- Moscow's biggest push into the Middle East and Mediterranean rim since the Cold War -- Trump said: "Putin is now taking over what we started, and he's going into Syria, and he frankly wants to fight ISIS, and I think that's a wonderful thing."
This means that yet another U.S. political figure has mistakenly believed Russian interests will converge with America's. In reality, Putin has forces in Syria to shore up the dictator, Bashar al-Assad, and primarily fight Assad's non-ISIS opponents. And the "A" in leadership The Donald awarded Putin was earned by ruthlessly suppressing domestic dissent, playing to the most base instincts of the Russian public and launching foreign wars of aggression.
Putin will happily pocket Trump's naivete. The Russian President said of the candidate: "He's saying he wants to go to another level of relations -- closer, deeper relations with Russia. How can we not welcome that? Of course we welcome that."
When Putin sees Trump's unique combination of self-reference and self-delusion about Moscow's desire to assert itself at the expense of the West, he sees gold. Furthermore, he is assured that he could continue to expand Russia's sphere of influence -- perhaps even beyond the countries he has already invaded -- all the while saying he is doing nothing of the sort.
The mendacity brings to mind that other Mel Brooks tour de force on statecraft: the movie "To Be Or Not To Be." In the film, another parody Hitler sings: "I don't want war! All I want is peace ... peace ... peace ... A little piece of Poland, a little piece of France, a little piece of Austria ..." | 0fake |
(VIDEO) ALAN DERSHOWITZ – SAD DAY FOR JUSTICE – BALTIMORE PROSECUTOR OVERCHARGED AND IDENTIFIED WITH PROTESTERS | You re At Forefront Of This Cause And As Young People, Our Time Is Now PROSECUTER MALTBY | 1real |
HYSTERICAL! Jimmy Kimmel Reads “WINNERS AREN’T LOSERS” To Donald Trump [VIDEO] | This is hysterical!Here s the entire interview: | 1real |
Hamilton DISTRACTION: Trump Gets Away With Lying About His INSANE Debt To This Nation (DETAILS) | We have really got to stop allowing Donald Trump to control the conversation. Every time anything negative about him comes out in the media, he somehow, in someway, usually via Twitter, is able to pivot even the most expert journalist away from what we should actually be focusing on.Trump did this throughout his entire election, and he continues to do this now.For instance, right after the Trump University settlement came out, where Trump seemingly admitted to fraud by paying out $25 million, he quickly went crazy on Twitter attacking the Broadway hit musical Hamilton and Saturday Night Live to shift the focus to that instead. He knows he s going to be scrutinized, so he s masterfully figured out how to control what is scrutinized.Some people, however, are figuring this all out. Albeit, a little too late, because Trump already manipulated himself into the White House.For example, Adam Khan just tweeted out:Hey journalists distracted by Trump's Hamilton shenanigans!He lied to Federal Election Commission-underreported his debt to Bank of China https://t.co/iFHvDjwhPY Adam Khan (@Khanoisseur) November 20, 2016Then explaining it further:New: Trump owes $650 million to Bank of China, Goldman Sachs -more than TWICE the amount he has publicly claimed pic.twitter.com/z8N1HCYwmH Adam Khan (@Khanoisseur) August 20, 2016Now, under normal circumstances, that alone would have disqualified Mr. Trump from running for office, yet this year was anything but normal.While Hillary Clinton was treated by the media like the spawn of Satan for having a private server at home like many, many people and businesses do for security purposes, Trump was able to get away with admitting to sexual assault, not showing his taxes, having a fraud case going to court, insulting the disabled and prisoners of war, being as racist and misogynistic as his heart desired, and he was still untouchable.Until the media stops allowing themselves to be manipulated by Trump, nothing is going to change. He s a smarmy businessman who conned his way into the White House, and the media played his game which helped pave the way.We need to wake up, call him out, do our due diligence, and hold that man accountable for his actions.Featured Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
EU's Juncker says approves of Austria's pro-European coalition deal | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Tuesday he approved of Austria s coalition agreement, saying he would judge the government of Christian Democrats and the far-right Freedom Party by its deeds. As is the case with all governments, we will assess the Austrian government by its deeds, Juncker told a news conference in Brussels, after meeting with Austria s new Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Juncker said he believed the coalition agreement showed Austria was on a pro-European path. | 0fake |
Limbaugh: Sessions-Russia Story Is About Obama, Democrats ’Attempting to Sabotage the Trump Presidency’ - Breitbart | Thursday on his nationally syndicated radio show, conservative talker Rush Limbaugh dismissed the saga first reported by The Washington Post late Wednesday evening suggesting that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had failed to disclose meeting with Russian officials during his confirmation hearings earlier this year. Partial transcript as follows (courtesy of RushLimbaugh. com): It appears, ladies and gentlemen, that the people on our side still haven’t learned a single lesson about how to deal with the Democrat Party and the media, the American left — of course, that’s all the same group of people. It’s patently obvious. It’s really frustrating to me. All of this should have been anticipated. All of this was easily predictable. I think somebody I know pretty well did. And the way this is all being handled today — and people have the best intentions. The heartfelt desire to defend Jeff Sessions by pointing out the Democrat hypocrisy, when are we gonna learn that Democrat hypocrisy doesn’t exist? There is no such thing as Democrat hypocrisy in the media. You’re never gonna beat these people back by pointing out how they’ve done the same thing that they’re accusing us of doing. It’s never gonna work! This story is not about Jeff Sessions. By the way, greetings and welcome. Great to have you. Rush Limbaugh, . This story is not about Jeff Sessions. This story is not about illegal talks between Trump and his campaign people and the Russians. This story is about Barack Obama and the Democrat Party attempting to sabotage the Trump presidency and do everything they can to either render it meaningless and ineffective or to get him impeached or force him to resign. That’s what the story is. And that is what has to be attacked, not defended. We have no reason to be on defense all the time. We won the election. These people are barely hanging on. This is all they’ve got. And there’s no evidence, despite a year and a half of allegations of illegal contact between Trump, his campaign, and the Russians. There is no evidence. Limbaugh urged his listeners not to concede anything wrong was done by suggesting there was hypocrisy and cited Republican disfavor with the media as the reason. You know what Sessions ought to do? “Yeah, yeah, I talked to the Russian ambassador about our grandchildren. You know, he’s got some grandchildren, I got some grandchildren, that’s what we were talking about. ” Well, that’s what Loretta Lynch and Clinton said they were talking about on the airplane one week before a decision was coming down from Comey on whatever was gonna happen with the Clinton investigation into her emails and stuff. I can point that out and you go, “Yeah, yeah, right. ” And you know what it’s gonna get us? Nothing! Even in the court of opinion it’s gonna get us nothing because it accepts the premise that Sessions did something wrong and therefore we can mitigate that by pointing out, “Well, look what the Clintons did. ” It doesn’t work that way. We should learn after 30 years, it doesn’t work that way. The Democrats are never held accountable for hypocrisy. There is no such thing where they are concerned in the eyes of the media and others who hold them accountable or don’t. I know the desire to defend Sessions. He’s a great man. He’s a decent man. He’s a good man. Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 0fake |
E3 Hands-On with ’LawBreakers’: Tons of Style, Little Substance - Breitbart | LawBreakers is the next big release from Unreal and Gears of War developer Cliff Bleszinski, but does it live up to the hype?[ Cliff Bleszinski (formerly known as CliffyB) is best known for his work on the Unreal and Gears of War franchises, both of which went on to spawn multiple sequels and are considered classics among both fans and critics. Bleszinski’s latest project, released under his own company Boss Key Productions, is a shooter with an twist that I got to get time with at E3. LawBreakers lets players choose one of nine different classes spread across 18 characters to fight to the death in a team shooter. The classes feature many character types that players of team shooters will be familiar with there are heavy shooters that utilize rocket launchers and grenades to decimate large groups of opponents, while also characters that rely on blades and speed boosts to slice their way through the competition at close range. LawBreakers focuses heavily on the futuristic elements of the game, both in promotional material and gameplay itself. is a huge feature that is utilized throughout the game, with players moving between regular gravity and zones constantly, forcing them to adapt their playstyle and utilize movement abilities in order to keep up with the nature of the game. While the elements provide a slightly new playstyle, overall LawBreakers suffers from a lack of originality. To the experienced FPS fan, LawBreakers comes across as an attempt to innovate in ways that aren’t as new and groundbreaking as LawBreakers presents them as being. Many of the mechanics we see in LawBreakers such as are similar to the movement systems of shooters like Call of Duty: Black Ops III and the Titanfall franchise, while special character abilities are quite similar to the abilities in other hero shooters like Overwatch. While the game introduces some interesting design elements and in many cases attempts to rely on their futuristic style, the visuals can often be quite lackluster. Textures in many areas look bland and recycled, while many character designs are hit and miss. The LawBreakers team does seem to have chosen to appeal to the eSports market with much of their branding however which may be the games best chance at success. Overall my time with LawBreakers left me with the impression of a fun shooter to kill some time with but unlikely to win any awards for groundbreaking innovation. Hopefully, the full release of LawBreakers will reveal a bit more depth by its August 8 release date. Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com | 0fake |
CodeSOD: Just In Case | Remy Porter Remy escaped the enterprise world and now works as a consultant. Editor-in-Chief for TDWTF.
Brandon ’s company had a lot of work to do, and not enough staff to do it, so they hired on some freelancers. They were careful about it, and felt like they’d hired some good people. One developer, in particular, was the kind of developer who not only understands the low-level Windows API, but actually knows how to use some of the undocumented corners of it to get things done.
Most of the module was pretty good, but when Brandon double checked on the method for escaping disallowed characters from a URL, he found some problems.
The function went character by character through the string, which was bad enough, but when it wanted to know if a certain character needed to be escaped or not, it called this function: bool NeedEscape ( wchar_t c ) { switch ( c ) { case L'0': case L'1': case L'2': case L'3': case L'4': case L'5': case L'6': case L'7': case L'8': case L'9': case L'a': case L'b': case L'c': case L'd': case L'e': case L'f': case L'g': case L'h': case L'i': case L'j': case L'k': case L'l': case L'm': case L'n': case L'o': case L'p': case L'q': case L'r': case L's': case L't': case L'u': case L'v': case L'w': case L'x': case L'y': case L'z': case L'A': case L'B': case L'C': case L'D': case L'E': case L'F': case L'G': case L'H': case L'I': case L'J': case L'K': case L'L': case L'M': case L'N': case L'O': case L'P': case L'Q': case L'R': case L'S': case L'T': case L'U': case L'V': case L'W': case L'X': case L'Y': case L'Z': case L'-': case L'.': case L'_': case L'~': return false; default: return true; break; } }
While this freelancer may have been an expert on the undocumented Windows APIs, they didn’t quite know their way around the documented ones . [Advertisement] Otter allows you to easily create and configure 1,000's of servers, all while maintaining ease-of-use, and granular visibility down to a single server. Find out more and download today! | 1real |
E.T. Williams Explains Why Millennials are in Meltdown Over Trump Win | 21st Century Wire says Donald Trump s victory has sparked flash mob protests on Wednesday, with students staging walkouts, as well as some burning and looting in Dallas and Oakland, California, and with marches in New York, Portland, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia.E.T. Williams aka The Doctor of Common Sense explains why pockets of anxious college Hillary supporters across the America are asking for classes to be canceled because Trump beat Clinton in Tuesday s presidential election. Watch: SUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Katy Perry, Cher Join Anti-Trump Women’s March on Washington | Singers Katy Perry and Cher will be among the thousands of women expected to travel to the nation’s capital for the Women’s March on Washington to protest Donald Trump’s inauguration this month. [Ugly Betty actress America Ferrera, chair of the organization’s “artist table,” said the march is about standing up to the incoming administration. “Since the election, so many fear that their voices will go unheard,” Ferrera said in a statement. “As artists, women, and most importantly dedicated Americans, it is critical that we stand together in solidarity for the protection, dignity, and rights of our communities. Immigrant rights, worker rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQIA rights, racial justice and environmental rights are not special interests, they affect us all and should be every American’s concern. ” Actresses Scarlett Johansson, Zendaya, Debra Messing, and Julianne Moore and talk show host Chelsea Handler are also expected to participate in the January 21 event. Comedian Amy Schumer — who initially vowed to move to Spain if Trump won, and later said the statement was a joke — took to Instagram last month to encourage her five million followers to join her at the march. “January 21 I’ll be there,” the Trainwreck star wrote. “Who’s coming with me? The group wants the event to “send a bold message to our new administration on their first day in office, and to the world that women’s rights are human rights. ” “The rhetoric of the past election cycle has insulted, demonized, and threatened many of us — immigrants of all statuses, Muslims and those of diverse religious faiths, people who identify as LGBTQIA, Native people, Black and Brown people, people with disabilities, survivors of sexual assault — and our communities are hurting and scared,” the organization says. Handler, who wrote a essay shaming “white female” Trump supporters, is expected to host a separate march in Park City, Utah during the Sundance Film Festival. “I’m honored to join the Women’s March on Washington Artist Table,” Handler said. “By hosting a sister march in Park City, our Women’s March on Main will help send a message to the incoming administration that attacks on Planned Parenthood and our fundamental human rights are unacceptable and if we have to for rights we have already fought for and won, we will do it louder and stronger, with men by our side. ” Actress Scarlett Johansson said: “The new administration may be very vague about specifics, but one thing has been made very clear their intentions of reducing the availability of Women’s Healthcare and attacking her reproductive rights. I am marching on Washington to let our next president know that we, men and women alike, will not stand down or be silenced and will fight to protect our bodies and our choices. ” The Women’s March on Washington has not been without controversy. As the New York Times reports, some organizers of sister protests across the country and volunteers for the Washington D. C. march believe that the “march for all women” has, in manny cases, turned “into a march for black women. ” Between committed supporters and online RSVPs, the event organizers are expecting over a million marchers in the nation’s capital and across the country to support their efforts. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 0fake |
Trump vs. the REAL Nuts—the GOP/ “Uniparty” Establishment | => Credit: VDare.com.
A couple of remarks in Professor Susan McWillams’ recent Modern Age piece celebrating the 25th anniversary of Christopher Lasch’s 1991 book The True and Only Heaven , which analyzed the cult of progress in its American manifestation, have stuck in my mind. Here’s the first one:
In the most recent American National Election Studies survey, only 19 percent of Americans agreed with the idea that the government, “is run for the benefit of all the people.” [ The True and Only Lasch: On The True and Only Heaven, 25 Years Later , Fall 2016]
McWilliams adds a footnote to that: The 19 percent figure is from 2012, she says. Then she tells us that in 1964, 64 percent of Americans agreed with the same statement.
Wow. You have to think that those two numbers, from 64 percent down to 19 percent in two generations, tell us something important and disturbing about our political life.
Second McWilliams quote:
In 2016 if you type the words “Democrats and Republicans” or “Republicans and Democrats” into Google, the algorithms predict your next words will be “are the same”.
I just tried this, and she’s right.
These guesses are of course based on the frequency with which complete sentences show up all over the internet.
An awful lot of people out there think we live in a one-party state—that we’re ruled by what is coming to be called the “Uniparty.”
There is a dawning realization, ever more widespread among ordinary Americans, that our national politics is not Left versus Right or Republican versus Democrat; it’s we the people versus the politicians.
Which leads me to a different lady commentator: Peggy Noonan, in her October 20th Wall Street Journal column.
The title of Peggy’s piece was: Imagine a Sane Donald Trump . [ Alternate link ]Its gravamen: Donald Trump has shown up the Republican Party Establishment as totally out of touch with their base, which is good; but that he’s bat-poop crazy, which is bad. If a sane Donald Trump had done the good thing, the showing-up, we’d be on course to a major beneficial correction in our national politics.
It’s a good clever piece. A couple of months ago on Radio Derb I offered up one and a half cheers for Peggy, who gets a lot right in spite of being a longtime Establishment Insider. So it was here. Sample of what she got right last week:
Mr. Trump’s great historical role was to reveal to the Republican Party what half of its own base really thinks about the big issues. The party’s leaders didn’t know! They were shocked, so much that they indulged in sheer denial and made believe it wasn’t happening.
The party’s leaders accept more or less open borders and like big trade deals. Half the base does not! It is longtime GOP doctrine to cut entitlement spending. Half the base doesn’t want to, not right now! Republican leaders have what might be called assertive foreign-policy impulses. When Mr. Trump insulted George W. Bush and nation-building and said he’d opposed the Iraq invasion, the crowds, taking him at his word, cheered. He was, as they say, declaring that he didn’t want to invade the world and invite the world. Not only did half the base cheer him, at least half the remaining half joined in when the primaries ended. ORDER IT NOW
I’ll just pause to note Peggy’s use of Steve Sailer’ s great encapsulation of Bush-style NeoConnery: “Invade the world, invite the world.” Either Peggy’s been reading Steve on the sly, or she’s read my book We Are Doomed , which borrows that phrase. I credited Steve with it, though, so in either case she knows its provenance, and should likewise have credited Steve.
End of pause. OK, so Peggy got some things right there. She got a lot wrong, though
Start with the notion that Trump is crazy. He’s a nut, she says, five times. His brain is “a TV funhouse.”
Well, Trump has some colorful quirks of personality, to be sure, as we all do. But he’s no nut. A nut can’t be as successful in business as Trump has been.
I spent 32 years as an employee or contractor, mostly in private businesses but for two years in a government department. Private businesses are intensely rational, as human affairs go—much more rational than government departments. The price of irrationality in business is immediate and plainly financial. Sanity-wise, Trump is a better bet than most people in high government positions.
Sure, politicians talk a good rational game. They present as sober and thoughtful on the Sunday morning shows.
Look at the stuff they believe, though. Was it rational to respond to the collapse of the U.S.S.R. by moving NATO right up to Russia’s borders? Was it rational to expect that post-Saddam Iraq would turn into a constitutional democracy? Was it rational to order insurance companies to sell healthcare policies to people who are already sick? Was the Vietnam War a rational enterprise? Was it rational to respond to the 9/11 attacks by massively increasing Muslim immigration?
Make your own list.
Donald Trump displays good healthy patriotic instincts. I’ll take that, with the personality quirks and all, over some earnest, careful, sober-sided guy whose head contains fantasies of putting the world to rights, or flooding our country with unassimilable foreigners.
I’d add the point, made by many commentators, that belongs under the general heading: “You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps.” If Donald Trump was not so very different from run-of-the-mill politicians—which I suspect is a big part of what Peggy means by calling him a nut—would he have entered into the political adventure he’s on?
Thor Heyerdahl sailed across the Pacific on a hand-built wooden raft to prove a point, which is not the kind of thing your average ethnographer would do. Was he crazy? No, he wasn’t. It was only that some feature of his personality drove him to use that way to prove the point he hoped to prove.
And then there is Peggy’s assertion that the Republican Party’s leaders didn’t know that half the party’s base were at odds with them.
Did they really not? Didn’t they get a clue when the GOP lost in 2012, mainly because millions of Republican voters didn’t turn out for Mitt Romney? Didn’t they, come to think of it, get the glimmering of a clue back in 1996, when Pat Buchanan won the New Hampshire primary?
Pat Buchanan is in fact a living counter-argument to Peggy’s thesis—the “sane Donald Trump” that she claims would win the hearts of GOP managers. Pat is Trump without the personality quirks. How has the Republican Party treated him ? ORDER IT NOW
Our own Brad Griffin , here at VDARE.com on October 24th, offered a couple more “sane Donald Trumps”: Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee. How did they fare with the GOP Establishment?
Donald Trump is no nut. If he were a nut, he would not have amassed the fortune he has, nor nurtured the capable and affectionate family he has.
Probably he’s less well-informed about the world than the average pol. I doubt he could tell you what the capital of Burkina Faso is.
That’s secondary, though. A President has people to look up that stuff for him.
The question that’s been asked more than any other about Donald Trump is not, pace Peggy Noonan, “Is he nuts?” but, “ Is he conservative? ”
I’m sure he is. But my definition of “conservative” is temperamental, not political. My touchstone here is the sketch of the conservative temperament given to us by the English political philosopher Michael Oakeshott :
To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss.
Rationalism in Politics and other essays (1962)
That fits Trump better than it fits any liberal you can think of—better also than many senior Republicans. For example, it was one of George W. Bush’s senior associates—probably Karl Rove—who scoffed at opponents of Bush’s delusional foreign policy as “the reality-based community.” It would be hard to think of a more un -Oakeshottian turn of phrase.
Trump has all the right instincts. And he’s had the guts and courage—and, just as important, the money —to do a thing that has badly needed doing for twenty years: to smash the power of the real nuts in the GOP Establishment.
I thank him for that, and look forward to his Presidency. (Reprinted from VDare.com | 1real |
Top NFL Draft Prospect Caleb Brantley Charged With Punching a Woman in the Face - Breitbart | Projected as a selection in the upcoming 2017 NFL draft, Caleb Brantley now may be overlooked after legal authorities charged him with misdemeanor assault for punching a woman in the face. [The Florida defensive tackle struck a woman who stands and weighs 120 pounds, with what police described as “the intensity of force far exceeding what was reasonable or necessary. ” The malicious act, according to The Big Lead, occurred after the woman pushed Brantley for making “crude” remarks to her. Considered by some to be an instant starter in the NFL, Brantley reacted to the push by hitting her so hard she fell unconscious and “sustained dental injuries that displaced a tooth and will require a root canal. ” Some might label Brantley as a good fit for the NFL, but this same kind of cowardly thug behavior prompted the NFL to permanently suspend Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice after a 2014 tape showed Rice knocking his unconscious in an elevator and dragging her out into the hallway. In 2014, Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy was arrested for allegedly assaulting his former girlfriend and threatening to kill her, both misdemeanors. In the same year, San Francisco 49ers defensive end Ray McDonald was arrested on an accusation of felony domestic violence. In 2015 there were 31 NFL players arrested for a variety of offenses including domestic violence, DUIs, guns and weapons charges, and animal abuse. | 0fake |
Economic growth to partially offset deficit impact of U.S. tax plan: JCT | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican tax bill would generate a net $407 billion in new revenue from economic growth, reducing the amount that the legislation would add to the federal deficit, the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation said on Thursday. | 0fake |
Why Ted Cruz Winning The Iowa Caucus Could Doom The GOP | Texas Senator Ted Cruz has won the 2016 Republican presidential caucus in Iowa. Cruz won with 99% of Iowa precincts reporting in. He earned 28% of the vote, with about 46,400 Republicans casting their vote for the social conservative.Cruz beat out Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, beating out the result of the highly respected Des Moines Register poll, that had put Trump ahead of Cruz by 5%.Many observers believe that Cruz was able to overcome Trump s constant media appearances and a campaign that sucked up a lot of the oxygen in the political world.While Cruz has won the caucus, history has not been kind to recent winners. The last two winners, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee, received a bump in support after winning the caucus, but were not able to martial the religious right on to success in other states like South Carolina and New Hampshire.Cruz also faces headwinds from Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), who did better than expected in a third place finish. It can be expected that money from the Republican establishment will flow to Rubio, continuing the stampede away from Jeb Bush who only managed a single digit in Iowa and is not expected to be a strong contender in New Hampshire.In a strange turn of events, Trump could act as a spoiler candidate, wedged between Cruz and Rubio but without being beholden to big ticket donors or the party elite.For the general election, many Democrats are probably salivating over a candidate like Cruz. He is anti-choice, a darling of the extremist right, and a candidate who has based his entire run on turning out far right voters instead of even remotely attempting to appeal to moderate, swing voters. Trump may have scared the party so much that Cruz now appears acceptable to them, but not to America.Featured image via Flickr | 1real |
The power of Trump’s call to free America from political correctness (+video) | Donald Trump voters praise him for 'telling it like it is.' But the appeal of his plain-speaking runs much deeper.
How SNL's 'the bubble' sketch about polarization is all too true
Ron Herndon needs more than 10 fingers to count the ways Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump rubs him the wrong way, not least the billionaire’s quest for personal aggrandizement via the White House.
So why is the small-town barbecue shack owner, a registered Democrat, likely voting for Mr. Trump if he wins the GOP nomination?
“America is at the point where she needs someone who speaks the truth, to say what we all think but won’t say around strangers,” says Mr. Herndon. “Sometimes the truth makes you smile – and sometimes it hurts.”
Herndon’s view is that America needs a straight-talking president to tackle real-life problems long ignored by Washington. It has become a common refrain.
The views of this African-American pit master suggest that many Americans are curious about Trump not just because he brazenly breaks the rules of political rhetoric but also because the key to tackling America’s problems, they say, requires people to stop taking offense at the drop of a hat.
In that way, Trump is the symbol of a broader cultural tension. As many Millennials, in particular, become more militant in their desire to make public discourse inclusive, they are coming up against those tired of “wars against Christmas” or tentative talk about Islamic extremism.
For Millennials, who have grown up in the language of political correctness, speech is a weapon, and curtailing words that can be seen as offensive or hateful is a new civil-rights frontier. But Trump’s unfiltered speech encapsulates a potent backlash, with many conservative Americans trying to draw the line on how cautious and careful public conversation becomes.
“The big difference with Trump is, his language is not coded,” says Henry Giroux, a political scientist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and author of the upcoming book “America At War With Itself,” which largely focuses on the rise of Trump.
Trump’s words “tap into is a nation that really has been suffering, particularly since 9/11, from a kind of national insecurity state, mobilized by a massive sense of fear,” he adds. But Millennials see in such language a “darkness lurking beneath the surface.”
On Super Tuesday, Trump continued his trend of underperforming among voters age 18 to 29. But he did well among New England suburbanites, Southern Evangelicals, small businessmen, and blue-collar workers, among others.
At least partly behind Trump’s success is the perception that political correctness has morphed into “soft totalitarianism,” wrote James Kalb wrote in Chronicles Magazine late last year.
“The domination of public life by PC elites has … made it impossible for ordinary people to assert their complaints publicly in an acceptable way, so their objections can easily be shrugged off as the outbursts of ignorant bigots who will, in any event, soon become demographically irrelevant.”
Antipathy toward political correctness spans a wide spectrum of Americans, many whom use the phrase as a pejorative.
Seventy-one percent of Americans say political correctness is a problem in the United States, up 10 percentage points from 2014, according to an August 2015 report by Rasmussen Reports.
At the Pawn Depot, situated on a lonely stretch of US 278 in Lithonia, Ga., that concern is front-of-mind.
Elizabeth Langbecker, the owner, is a Trump fan because he “refuses to tip-toe” around immigration, the economy, and terrorism.
“We need someone who is not afraid to step up to the plate and say what a lot of us want to say,” she adds.
She weighs the Obama administration's efforts to downplay the phrase "Islamic extremism” against the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings last year, where a Muslim couple killed 14 people and injured 22 others. “How can we deal with all these problems if we can’t even have an honest conversation about the root cause,” she says.
In the 2016 race, political correctness has played out in a number of ways. On one hand, Hillary Clinton apologized for using the term “illegal immigrant” as opposed to “undocumented migrant.” But there have been examples on the right, too. Republican orthodoxy has long held that candidates should not criticize past Republican presidents.
Trump has torn that to shreds.
“Yes, it’s true that on college campuses there’s a lot of silliness about not wanting to offend someone,” says Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta. “But it’s also on the conservative side – which Trump has also been violating – where you couldn’t say the Iraq War was a mistake or … that Romney was going to lose” the 2012 election.
Now those things are being said loudly. One difference is a sense of desperation in many rural, red-state areas.
“Populism needs to be a loud message, and political incorrectness is high volume,” says Dave “Mudcat” Saunders of Roanoke, Va. The backdrop “is not just anger, but survival – we’re in survival mode out here where 93 percent of counties are still in recession. A hungry dog will bite your [rear], I can tell you that.”
That desperation has matched the militancy of Millennials looking to reshape the national conversation with the militancy of conservatives pushing back against it. The answer, says The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf, is to prune political correctness back to its original essence.
“Citizens who oppose Trumpism are going to have to take a careful look at everything that falls under the rubric of political correctness; study the real harm done by its excesses; identify the many parts that are worth defending; and persuade more Americans to adopt those norms voluntarily, for substantive reasons, not under duress of social shaming or other coercion,” he writes.
Working on the set of the vampire series “The Originals” in downtown Conyers, Ga., last week, 20-something Michael Sanders says, to him, political correctness is a “force from on high” – the media, government, and academia – that has pervaded his life.
“Me and everyone I grew up with have always used the language of political correctness,” he says. “When we talk about phrases like ‘illegal immigrant,’ my dad says, ‘That’s just the way people used to talk.’ ”
On one hand, it enforces common courtesy. But there is an appeal, he adds, to someone who comes out and baldly talks from the standpoint of the worldview that used to be dominant.
“I think many Americans like to hear the language of someone not only willing to complain about the end of white dominant culture, but someone who says he can do something about it. That’s when [political correctness] goes out the window.” | 0fake |
(VIDEO) TED CRUZ PROTESTERS GET ALL WET WHEN RESTAURANT OWNER HAS HAD ENOUGH | Disrupting people when they re trying to have dinner came to an end when Ted Cruz protesters got all wet. Can we do that to the Black Lives Matter folks?An Arkansas restauranteur thought some Ted Cruz protesters were all wet then he made sure of it!The Texas senator and Republican presidential hopeful was enjoying a meal with Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson in Little Rock last week when the loud group of protesters arrived. We wanted to make sure that [Cruz] heard from us, protester Robert Nunn told ABC affiliate KATV.They made sure a lot of people heard them. Including a guy who dumped a bucket of water right down on them. KATV Breaking News, Weather and Razorback Sports I looked up and I saw, it was clearly one of the employees, he had a white jacket on and he had a bucket and I was like, Hmm, what s going on with that? Nunn told reporters. And before I knew what happened, he had dumped it. Via: BPR | 1real |
REVEALED: HOW BARACK OBAMA IS FUNDING The “Resistance” Movement Against President Trump | Wall Street might be shocked to learn it is helping bankroll the anti-Trump resistance movement that s aggressively fighting policies it favors including corporate tax cuts and the repeal of Obama-era banking and health-care regulations.The payola is potentially earmarked for third-party interest groups approved by the Justice Department and HUD without requiring any proof of how the funds will be spent. Many of the recipients so far are radical leftist organizations who solicited the settlement cash from the administration even though they were not parties to the lawsuits, records show. During the Obama administration, groups committed to revolutionary social change sent proposals and met with high-level HUD and Justice Department officials to try to get their pieces of the settlement pie, Cause of Action Institute vice president Julie Smith told The Post.Some of the chosen beneficiaries are now actively militating against the Trump administration and its policies, including:The Hispanic-rights group strenuously protested the Republican-led skinny repeal of the Affordable Care Act after receiving at least $1.5 million from the Obama regime s bank settlement funds, congressional researchers say.La Raza works closely with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and has teamed up with the anti-Trump resistance group, Indivisible, which was co-founded by La Raza alumnus Angel Padilla. Indivisible is working with La Raza and its affiliates to make sure any bill that punishes sanctuary cities never goes to Trump s desk to become law. They are encouraging activists to send postcards with pre-printed messages on immigration and health care to moderate GOP senators.NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUEAfter receiving at least $1.2 million from the bank-settlement slush fund, the African-American advocacy group solicited its supporters to oppose efforts to repeal ObamaCare by signing a letter to senators arguing African-Americans stand to be disproportionately impacted. It claimed more than 5 million black people would lose coverage under repeal legislation.NATIONAL COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT COALITIONSince hauling in at least $2.6 million in funds under settlement in the Obama-era mortgage suits, the liberal housing-rights group has slammed tax-reform proposals by the Trump administration as unfair, while trying to block efforts to privatize mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, claiming doing so would deepen the racial wealth gap. NCRC is also actively lobbying against regulatory repeal of many provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.The Washington-based group boasts more than 600 member organizations who lobby lawmakers through list-serves, mailings, sign-on letters and conference calls. Though it s assumed that funds distributed to such qualified organizations will be used for housing assistance, the bank-settlement agreements do not enforce how the funds are spent. It stands to reason that some of the settlement funds have helped bankroll the resistance bent on stopping the Trump agenda for America, Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow John Berlau said.It s not clear how much money, in all, has been diverted from settlement funds to these and other left-wing organizations. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered a full audit of the funds while discontinuing the practice of funneling Justice Department settlements to third-party groups. Any settlement funds should go first to the victims and then to the American people [through the US Treasury] not to bankroll third-party special interest groups or the political friends of whoever is in power, Sessions said in a recent statement.Still, The Post has learned that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau continues to force financial institutions it prosecutes to donate to third-party community organizers. More, penalties in such cases are deposited into the Bureau s now-$170 million-plus Civil Penalty Fund, which has, in turn, channeled almost $30 million to consumer advocacy groups.For entire story: NYP | 1real |
British jihadi 'White Widow' killed by U.S. drone: Sun report | LONDON (Reuters) - Sally Jones, a British jihadi who recruited online for the Islamic State group, has been killed in Syria by a U.S. drone along with her 12-year-old son, The Sun newspaper reported on Thursday. A convert to Islam from southern England, Jones was nicknamed the White Widow by the British press after her jihadi husband Junaid Hussain, also an IS militant, was killed by a drone in 2015. Quoting a British intelligence source who had been briefed by U.S. counterparts, The Sun reported that Jones and her son had been killed in June close to Syria s border with Iraq, as she was attempting to flee the IS stronghold of Raqqa. U.S. intelligence chiefs were quoted as saying they could not be 100 percent certain that Jones had been killed as there was no way of recovering any DNA from the ground, but they were confident she was dead. Her son JoJo was presumed to be dead too, although his presence with her was not known at the time of the drone strike and he was not an intended target, according to The Sun. British Prime Minister Theresa May s spokesman declined to comment directly on the report, as did Defence Secretary Michael Fallon. If you are a British national in Iraq or Syria, and if you have chosen to fight for Daesh, an illegal organization that is preparing and inspiring terror attacks on our streets, then you ve made yourself a legitimate target, Fallon told reporters in London. And you run the risk every hour of every day of being on the wrong end of an RAF or a United States missile, he said. One Western security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Jones had not been heard of since earlier this year so the assumption was that she was dead, although the source refused to confirm the details of the Sun report. Other IS militants have been reported dead only to reappear. A Central Intelligence Agency spokeswoman declined to comment. Jones, who before her jihadi days was once a singer in a punk band, has been the subject of years of fascination by the British press. She was believed to have left her home in Chatham, in the southern county of Kent, in 2013 to travel to Syria, where she married Hussain whom she had met online. She was active as an online recruiter and sometimes posted propaganda messages on social media, including a striking photograph of herself dressed as a nun pointing a gun toward the camera. | 0fake |
Trump Can’t Find One Latino For His Cabinet; Here’s Why | While it s certainly not true that Donald Trump will have the least diverse cabinet in history. Hell, before a generation or so ago, it was rare to see women or People of Color in positions of authority, but it s 2016. The culture is changing and skin color and gender (and religion and sexual orientation) shouldn t matter at all.Judging by the looks of his cabinet nominees so far, Trump s administration will be the least diverse since Bush George H.W. Bush.Trump, or more likely, someone working for Trump, knows that he needs to offer at least some diversity, especially with the enemies he s made in the Latino community with his wall rhetoric in the campaign. The problem is, though, he can t find any in a country with about 57 million Latinos and Hispanics. I can tell you now I have spoken to numerous folks on the transition, and they say that he s absolutely looking for qualified Latinos for a Cabinet post, said Mario Rodriguez, head of the Latino PAC Hispanic 100. Rodriguez, who sits on Trump s Hispanic advisory committee, said transition officials have asked him for recommendations and they gave him positive feedback about Trump s prior meetings with Hispanic candidates. I think some appointments are going to be pretty quick. President-elect Trump was very impressed by the candidates. He wants to put a Latino in the Cabinet, he s not doing it just for show. Source: PoliticoTrump is trying to fill the position of Agriculture Secretary with a Latino and he s receiving a lot of backlash from his farmer supporters. According to Politico, the farmers don t want it to be a political pick. Of course, they are Trump supporters, so there s a better than even chance they don t like the idea of someone with brown skin determining farm policy, especially after Trump said he wants to deport Latinos.Part of the problem is that Trump is looking for a qualified Latino to take the position. There s no doubt there are plenty, but few who likely share his political beliefs. Still, it s weird that he should look for qualified now. His current picks are some of the least qualified to ever serve office (remember, Rick Perry, who has just a Bachelor s Degree and nearly flunked a class called meats, is slated to be Energy Secretary and Ben Carson, who is a doctor, a medical doctor, will serve as Director of Housing and Urban Development) just as he is among the least qualified who will ever serve in the Office of the Presidency.Even if Trump is able to hire a Latino even a qualified one, it might not matter.Many Hispanic leaders say they are less concerned about having a Cabinet pick than what Trump s policies could mean, particularly with deportation and a wall along the Mexican border. These people say picking a Hispanic Cabinet member for agriculture could be seen as a token with little real value and liken Trump naming his only black Cabinet member to lead Housing and Urban Development.In other words, Trump could have the most diverse cabinet ever and still be the worst president for diversity in history. What Latino (or really anyone) in their right mind would want history to remember them in that way?Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images. | 1real |
China says one step forwards, two steps back no good for Japan ties | BEIJING (Reuters) - China s foreign minister on Thursday said that ties with Japan should not take two steps back for every step forward, after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a rare appearance at an anniversary event for the normalization of diplomatic relations. Speaking on the eve of the 45th anniversary of the resumption of ties between Beijing and Tokyo, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Japan s ambassador to China, Yutaka Yokoi, that he hoped for greater improvement in relations. We hope that the Japanese government can pursue a more positive policy towards China... and not take one step back for each step forward, even two steps back for each step forward, Wang said, according to a statement released on the ministry website on Friday. Relations have been complicated for decades by the legacy of Japan s wartime aggression, as well as by a festering territorial dispute in the East China Sea. Abe on Thursday evening made an appearance at a Chinese embassy event in Tokyo that jointly celebrated the anniversary as well as China s Oct 1 National Day. Wang called the appearance good news and added: We hope for more good news in China-Japan relations and not for bad news to follow shortly after good news. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Abe also exchanged congratulatory messages on Friday, in which Li said that the two countries should properly manage and control their contradictions and differences , China s official Xinhua news agency reported. Japan s cabinet on Thursday announced Oct. 22 as the date of a snap election where Abe, a conservative who returned to power in 2012, hopes a recent boost in voter support will help his Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition maintain a simple majority. It now holds a two-thirds super majority. | 0fake |
DEFIANT NFL PLAYERS All Over The Place With Protests…Raise Fists, Kneel and Lock Arms After Trump Tweet To Respect Anthem [Video] | NFL players were pretty much all over the place with what they decided to do to protest today (SEE LIST BELOW). Some players gave the black power salute, while others decided to continue kneeling. Many teams decided to kneel BEFORE the anthem and then lock arms while standing during the anthem.The fewest players raised a fist with the black power salute They stood out like a sore thumb:The kneeling is still ridiculous even though it s now mostly before the anthem:Daily Mail reported:The entire New Orleans Saints roster briefly took a collective knee prior to the anthem in what quarterback Drew Brees had called a way to show respect to all . The team then stood and many linked arms.A handful of Buffalo Bills players could be seen kneeling for the anthem ahead of their game against the Atlanta Falcons.Two Detroit Lions players also took to one knee for the anthem before the game against the Minnesota Vikings in Minneapolis. Roughly half the San Francisco 49ers took a knee prior to their game against the Arizona Cardinals.IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK? Is it too much to ask for these players to just stand with hand over heart for our national anthem? Do they even have a clue about how this idiotic protest began? Kaepernick knelt in support of domestic terror group Black Lives Matter and against our law enforcement. It has now morphed into a salute to eternal victimhood and a protest against President Trump. Of course, the Democrats have jumped on the bandwagon to interpret Trump calling ALL the players sons of bitches into a racist word. It s sickening to see that an out of work mediocre football quarterback has caused such a stink for the sinking NFL. Too bad fans are dropping like flies Kaepernick was seen wearing a t-shirt that perfectly describes his effort to be a victim like he wants all blacks to be Me against the world LOL!Here is a list of players and teams that protested during the national anthem:Saints vs. DolphinsThe entire New Orleans Saints team took a knee in solidarity before the national anthem played at Wembley Stadium in London. The players stood in unison for the playing of the anthem.Kenny Stills, Michael Thomas and Julius Thomas of the Miami Dolphins took a knee during the performance.Steelers vs. RavensThe Ravens took a knee before the national anthem and were booed by fans. No Steelers or Ravens players took a knee during the anthem.Titans vs. TexansTexans players linked arms during the national anthem but all stood together.Rishard Matthews of the Titans remained in the locker room rather than stand with his teammates during the anthem.Panthers vs. PatriotsThe Patriots stood at the sideline at attention several minutes before the national anthem and then put their hands over their hearts and each other.Lions vs. VikingsJalen Reeves-Maybin and Steve Longa kneeled during the national anthem. All other Detroit players locked arms.Jaguars vs. JetsThe Jets locked arms for the national anthem. No player kneeled. Every Jaguars player took a knee before the playing of the national anthem but stood during the song.Bills vs. FalconsKaelin Clay, Cedric Thornton, Mike Tolbert, Shareece Wright, Taiwan Jones and Jerel Worthy were the Bills players who knelt during the national anthem. The rest of the players stood with their arms locked.Last week, Grady Jarrett and Dontari Poe took a knee during the national anthem but stood during this week. No Falcons players were kneeling during the national anthem. Most of them on the sidelines linked arms.Rams vs. CowboysAll Rams and Cowboys players stood during the national anthem. Dallas remains one of six teams not to kneel, sit or raise a fist during the national anthem. Rams outside linebacker Robert Quinn raised his fist. Cowboys defensive end Damontre Moore raised his fist as the anthem ended.49ers vs. CardinalsHalf of the 49ers team kneeled with general manager John Lynch and CEO Jed York during the national anthem. The team issued the following statement after the demonstration:READ MORE: SI | 1real |
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