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Russian TV says U.S. missile strikes on Syria destroyed nine planes | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian state TV said on Friday that U.S. air strikes on a Syrian air base had destroyed nine planes, but had left the main runway relatively unscathed. The Rossiya 24 channel showed footage of the base after it was struck by U.S. cruise missiles. Craters, debris and rubble was visible, but the main runway looked largely intact. It was unclear whether the channel was showing all or just part of the base. | 0fake |
One Cookie, 2 Versions: Why Girl Scout S’mores Won’t All Be the Same - The New York Times | After 100 years of selling cookies, the Girl Scouts have come up with two new flavors. It may seem odd that it took a century when the inspiration was right under their noses: s’mores. The Girl Scouts first published a recipe for the quintessential campfire snack in 1927. The two newcomers share the same name, Girl Scout S’mores, but play separate variations on the theme of chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker. In a bit of hairsplitting worthy of a merit badge for marketing, one is billed as “crispy” and the other as “crunchy. ” The crispy cookie is a thick slab of graham cracker coated with a fine layer of sweet white frosting and a much thicker one of chocolate, produced by ABC Bakers, of Richmond, Va. The crunchy cookie is a graham sandwich filled with a layer of chocolate and another of marshmallowlike icing, produced by Little Brownie Bakers, of Louisville, Ky. Why two versions? The Girl Scouts need two manufacturers to meet the demand for two million boxes of cookies a year presented with the idea for S’mores, each bakery took its own approach. As connoisseurs know, there are regional variations in the popular Thin Mint cookies, and strong similarities between Samoas and Caramel deLites. Neither of the S’mores has been seared over embers under the stars, as prescribed in that 1927 recipe for “Some More. ” But early taste tests online, and among The New York Times’s Food staff, showed a slight preference for the sandwich cookie, for its balanced sweetness and tender, fudgelike center. Girl Scout cookie season typically opens in January and ends in April, though each local council has its own traditions, which means that a lone council in Michigan and one in Maryland were selling cookies last fall. Timing and availability of the new offerings will vary, since councils in different parts of the country have contracts with different manufacturers. Councils in Los Angeles and New York will sell the sandwich cookies, while those in Philadelphia and Orange County, Calif. will sell the grahams. This may not matter to Thin Mint purists, but not every council will have a S’mores cookie on the menu. In 1922, Florence E. Neil, a Girl Scout director in Chicago, published a recipe for sugar cookies flavored with vanilla, and many of the earliest Girl Scout cookies sold to raise funds for activities and community projects were baked in home kitchens, based on Ms. Neil’s recipe. But the first Girl Scout cookie sale took place even earlier, in 1917, in a high school cafeteria in Muskogee, Okla. Since then, this business has expanded to become a national phenomenon, with devoted fans buying cult flavors in bulk, or stashing extra boxes in the freezer to last until the next cookie season. This hoarding surely contributes to the average $800 million in cookie sales each season. Whether the cookies are for home delivery, or picked up at booths in parking lots, fairgrounds and grocery stores, every council handles the process its own way. Finding the cookies doesn’t have to be a matter of luck: Plug a ZIP code into the Girl Scout website (girlscouts. org) for a list of local sales booths. | 0fake |
In AMC’s Western ‘The Son,’ the Novelist Philipp Meyer Lassoes TV - The New York Times | DRIFTWOOD, Tex. — On a blistering day last August, the novelist Philipp Meyer was at a cattle ranch in the grassy Hill Country of Central Texas, standing in a field that had been turned into a replica of a Comanche camp. The makeshift village — with about 20 tepees, wooden racks holding strips of drying meat and buffalo hides spread on the ground — was the backdrop for a grueling scene from AMC’s adaptation of Mr. Meyer’s 2013 novel, “The Son,” an epic Western about a Texas ranching family. The series stars Pierce Brosnan as Eli McCullough, the family’s steely patriarch, who was captured by Comanches as a teenager in 1849 and later becomes a cattle rancher with a violent, vengeful streak. Mr. Meyer watched as makeup artists applied fake blood and ash to the prosthetic limbs of a white buffalo hunter who had been captured and tortured by the Comanches. “This is great!” he said. He studied the scene more closely, and then suggested making the charred ground around the actor’s limbs bigger. After all, he noted, the fires would have been burning for hours. It’s rare for novelists to wield this much influence over screen adaptations of their work. They may get an executive producer credit and an occasional ceremonial visit to the set, yet typically they just cash their checks and move on to their next novels. But Mr. Meyer is far from typical. Bald and muscular, with a square jaw and thick beard, he’s handy with pistols, rifles and hunting bows, and looks more at home on a working cattle ranch than most M. F. A. graduates. He wrote three of the episodes in the first season, and rewrote the rest. And he was a near constant presence on the set throughout the five months of filming, weighing in on casting, props, costumes and the choreography of battle scenes. “He was heavily involved in everything,” Mr. Brosnan, who spoke admiringly of Mr. Meyer’s “swagger,” said. “He’s a weapons nut, with his own arsenal, and he was very specific in the choice of weapons I would use. ” Mr. Meyer admits his obsession with historical details was “probably annoying” to the other writers and producers. But his scrupulous oversight of even minute aspects of the production was always part of the bargain. “He’s definitely put his fingerprints on the show,” said Joel Stillerman, the president of original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV. “It was clear that he was not comfortable just walking away, and he felt like he had something to contribute. ” [ Texas TV: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous ] “The Son” is the first big project from El Jefe, a production company that Mr. Meyer founded with the writers Brian McGreevy and Lee Shipman. The three men, who met at the University of Texas at Austin’s M. F. A. program, created the company in 2014, with the aim of giving authors, who are often sidelined in Hollywood’s creative hierarchy, greater control over the adaptations of their work. The company is developing TV shows based on Mr. Meyer’s debut novel, “American Rust,” Wil S. Hylton’s World War II book, “Vanished,” and “Fourth of July Creek,” a novel by Smith Henderson. (Mr. Meyer also plans to write and the adaptation of “American Rust. ”) “Novelists, who are the most qualified people when it comes to the world of the books they’ve written, are the first people to be benched in this process,” said Mr. McGreevy, who was a writer and executive producer on the Netflix adaptation of his horror novel, “Hemlock Grove. ” Television has become an increasingly attractive medium for novelists (like Richard Price, Tom Perrotta and Nic Pizzolatto) who see it as an ideal form for teasing out long story arcs and subtle character development. But it’s rare for them to have as much of a creative stake as Mr. Meyer does in “The Son,” and he’s feeling the pressure. Whether “The Son” succeeds, critically and commercially, could determine whether El Jefe becomes a big player in the already heated competition for literary properties, which have become a staple of prestige television. “There’s this sinking feeling of, ‘Oh, this is years of my life,’” he said, using an expletive. “It almost feels like writing a first novel. ” Mr. Meyer had been in development purgatory before, and was determined not to go through it again. His 2009 debut novel, “American Rust,” was optioned for a feature film, but the production never went anywhere. So when “The Son,” which became a critically acclaimed best seller that sold 300, 000 copies and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, caught the interest of several production companies, he agreed to Mr. McGreevy’s pitch. “I said, you can go with these heavy hitters who will back up dump trucks of money to your house but will likely marginalize you in the process, if the thing gets made at all,” Mr. McGreevy said, “or you can take the risk of us doing this together. ” Mr. Meyer chose the riskier option. In the spring of 2013, he and Mr. McGreevy and Mr. Shipman wrote a script for “The Son” and started shopping it to TV networks. Microsoft’s Xbox Entertainment Studios made on offer on the series but never followed through, and the fledgling studio later shut down. Even after AMC picked up “The Son” as a series in early 2016, with a role for Mr. Meyer as a series writer and executive producer, there were other hiccups. Last summer, the actor Sam Neill, who was playing Eli, dropped out for personal reasons, soon before shooting was scheduled to begin. Mr. Brosnan took his place, and had to prepare for the role on the fly. He read passages of the novel out loud to capture Eli’s cadences, and listened to speeches by famous Texans including Lyndon B. Johnson, Rick Perry and the Texas congressman Ted Poe. (In the first few episodes, Mr. Brosnan’s labored accent is never quite convincing. ). To make the multigenerational epic work dramatically, the source material underwent some major changes. In the show, one of the book’s major characters, Jeanne Anne, is Eli’s granddaughter, rather than his which compressed Mr. Meyer’s sprawling novel into two parallel narratives, in 1849 and 1915. (The original story spans more than 160 years.) “Philipp understood that anything we did to his book didn’t unwrite the book,” said Kevin Murphy, the showrunner and executive producer for “The Son. ” Still, Mr. Meyer wasn’t content to cede control. “Philipp has zero experience, zero television experience, but his ideas are taken, they are valuable,” Mr. Murphy said. Mr. Meyer takes a approach to writing. While researching the book, he went to extreme lengths to learn about Comanche customs and life in Texas. At a ranch in Southwest Texas, he shot a buffalo and drank a mug full of its blood, so that he could accurately describe the taste when young Eli eats a raw buffalo liver. He studied animal tracking, fire building and plant identification at a school, and learned enough Comanche to write dialogue. Mr. Meyer brought the same obsessive attention to detail to the show. He set up an archery program to teach the actors how to shoot a traditional Comanche bow, which is shorter than most other bows and designed to be used on horseback. And he brought in Juanita Pahdopony, a Comanche educator and artist, to advise the set designers on the tepees and costumes, and to help translate the dialogue and coach the actors on their pronunciation. “It’s taken me weeks to memorize,” said Zahn McClarnon, who plays Toshaway, a Comanche warrior who takes Eli under his wing. “We, as native actors, don’t get any credit for that. It’s like Tom Cruise learning Japanese. ” Occasionally, Mr. Meyer’s commitment to historical accuracy created uncomfortable moments. Some of the Native American actors expressed concern that the Comanches were portrayed as savages who relished rape and torture. Mr. Meyer and the other writers made some changes to the script, like cutting the depiction of a rape. “As native people, we have been portrayed in a certain way throughout the history of television, with stereotypes,” said Mr. McClarnon, who is of Lakota descent. “The producers were very open about changing things and listening to the cast and to the native advisers, and that’s the way it should be. ” Standing near the mangled body of the buffalo hunter on the set, Mr. Meyer said he was aiming to capture a bloody chapter in American history, from which no one emerged innocent. That day, they were filming some brutal scenes from an episode that takes place in the Comanche camp. The episode features Jacob Lofland as young Eli, who’s been living with the tribe and feels torn over the fate of another captive, a white buffalo hunter who is being tortured to death. “They were pretty inventive with torture stuff,” Mr. Meyer said. “The best political stance to take is honesty. White people did horrible things, Native Americans did horrible things. ” Working on a TV show has taken a bit of a toll on his fiction writing. Mr. Meyer said he’s been struggling to finish his next novel, which is overdue to his publisher. “The crazy thing is, now I have to make sure I have time to write novels,” he said. | 0fake |
Hundreds of Car Crashes, Thousands Without Power as Snow Pounds Large Swath of East Coast - Breitbart | DURHAM, N. C. (AP) — Snow and sleet pounded a large swath of the East Coast on Saturday, coating roads with ice and causing hundreds of crashes. Thousands of people lost power and forecasters warned of conditions from Virginia to parts of the Northeast. [advertisement | 0fake |
C.I.A. Developed Tools to Spy on Mac Computers, WikiLeaks Disclosure Shows - The New York Times | SAN FRANCISCO — The C. I. A. developed tools to spy on Mac computers by injecting software into the chips that control the computers’ fundamental operations, according to the latest cache of classified government documents published on Thursday by WikiLeaks. Apple said in a statement Thursday evening that its preliminary assessment of the leaked information indicated that the Mac vulnerabilities described in the disclosure were previously fixed in all Macs launched after 2013. However, the documents also indicated that the Central Intelligence Agency was developing a new version of one tool last year to work with current software. The leaked documents were the second batch recently released by WikiLeaks, which said it obtained a hoard of information on the agency’s cyberweapons programs from a former government worker or contractor. The first group of documents, published March 7, suggested that the C. I. A. had found ways to hack Apple iPhones and Android smartphones, Microsoft Windows computers, Cisco routers and Samsung smart televisions. Since the initial release of the C. I. A. documents, which the agency has not confirmed are authentic, major technology companies have been scrambling to assess whether the security holes exploited by the C. I. A. still exist and to patch them if they do. All of the surveillance tools that have been disclosed were designed to be installed on individual phones or computers. But the effects could be much wider. Cisco Systems, for example, warned customers this week that many of its popular routers, the backbone of computer networks, could be hacked using the C. I. A. ’s techniques. Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has offered to share the precise software code used by the C. I. A. ’s cyberweapons with the affected companies. But major tech companies have been reluctant to directly engage with him for fear of violating American laws governing the receipt of classified information. At a news conference Thursday, Mr. Assange criticized the government policies that restricted such communications but said that Apple had nonetheless been willing to work with representatives of his organization. Google and Microsoft, he said, had simply pointed WikiLeaks to its existing channels for anyone to report a security flaw. In its statement, Apple denied negotiating with WikiLeaks. “We have given them instructions to submit any information they wish through our normal process under our standard terms,” the company said. “Thus far, we have not received any information from them that isn’t in the public domain. We are tireless defenders of our users’ security and privacy, but we do not condone theft or coordinate with those that threaten to harm our users. ” The spy software described in the latest documents was designed to be injected into a Mac’s firmware, a type of software preloaded in the computer’s chips. It would then act as a “listening post,” broadcasting the user’s activities to the C. I. A. whenever the machine was connected to the internet. A similar tool called NightSkies was developed in 2009 to spy on iPhones, the documents said, with the agency figuring out how to install it undetected before a new phone was turned on for the first time. (Apple said that flaw affected only the iPhone 3G and was fixed in all later models.) Although most of the tools targeted outdated versions of the Apple devices’ software, the C. I. A. ’s general approach raises new security concerns for the industry, said Eric Ahlm, who studies cybersecurity at Gartner, a research firm. By rewriting the most basic software of a computer or a phone, tools that operate at the chip level can hide their existence and avoid being wiped out by routine software updates. Under an agreement struck during the Obama administration, intelligence agencies were supposed to share their knowledge of most security vulnerabilities with tech companies so they could be fixed. The C. I. A. documents suggest that some key vulnerabilities were kept secret for the government’s use. The C. I. A. declined to comment Thursday, pointing reporters to its earlier statement about the leaks, in which it defended its use of “innovative, ” techniques to protect the country from foreign threats and criticized WikiLeaks for sharing information that could help the country’s enemies. | 0fake |
HOW NEWSWEEK ACCUSES Melania and Ivanka Of Sending Sexual Signals Will Even Make Trump-Haters Laugh | The publication that just can t seem to get over Hillary s loss to President Trump has sunk to a new low. And yes, apparently that is possible Comparing our First Lady and our President s daughter to prostitutes? Really? Perhaps no one told Newsweek that both of these beautiful, and yes, feminine women, happened to be successful businesswomen long before Donald Trump ever decided to run for President Newsweek attacked President Donald Trump s female relatives for wearing high heels in public in a piece published Thursday, saying it showed they were subservient to men. Melania, Ivanka, and Ivana Trump Wear High Heels, a Symbol of Everything That Is Beautiful and Horrifying About Them, read the headline. The female consorts of the Leader of the Free World do not set foot in public without first molding their arches into the supranatural curve that Mattel toy designers once devised for Barbie s plastic feet, the author complained.Newsweek argued that high heels are designed primarily to attract men, not for the comfort of the women wearing them. So to deconstruct why Trump women wear high heels: They are just buying into traditional binary views of male and female, British psychologist Paul Morris opined. High heels thrust out the buttocks and arch the back into a natural mammalian courting, an American anthropologist agreed. Rats do it, sheep do it lions do it, dogs do it. It is a naturally sexy posture that men immediately see as sexual readiness. [Heels] are a come-hither signal. When women wear high heels at work, they send sexual signals that should be avoided if they want to be taken seriously, she said.Newsweek further noted that the first women to wear high heels were Italian prostitutes in the 17th century and that the high heel was a staple of Victorian porn. Stiletto pumps are the ultimate test of a certain type of femininity. They signal the taut combination of power and weakness that conservative women must cultivate in order to survive among ideologues who are crafting our tax-free Handmaid s Tale future, Newsweek concluded. WFB | 1real |
Democrats Chant Warning To GOP As Trumpcare Passes: Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye! (VIDEO) | Alleged president Donald Trump is throwing a party for House Republicans after passing the worst healthcare plan imaginable to replace Obamacare while sticking a knife in the back of the middle class. Republicans had eight years to come up with a viable alternative, but instead, the ACHA will raise pregnancy costs by 425 percent, and the top two percent will be gifted with a trillion dollar tax cut and that will be paid for by the bottom 40 percent. Fiscally conservative Republicans don t seem to care what Trumpcare will cost the taxpayers. They refused to wait for the CBO scores to find out.Twenty Republicans in total broke with their party and voted against the bill which will strip health care from 24 million Americans.Democrats had a message for House Republicans who voted to let this travesty of a health care plan pass. They taunted Republicans by chanting, Na na na na, Na na na na, Hey hey hey, Goodbye! Watch:Here's the video: House Dems singing "Na na na na, Na na na na, Hey hey hey, Goodbye to Repubs following the health care vote via @MSNBC pic.twitter.com/nnQ5kc8HEp Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 4, 2017Every single Republican who voted for Trumpcare will now have a well-deserved target on their backs.Trumpcare would cut Medicaid by $880 billion, or 25 percent, over 10 years and impose a per-capita cap on funding for certain groups of people, such as children and the elderly, according to the New York Times.People with pre-existing conditions will see their premiums explode. The elderly, people with cancer, diabetes, asthma, etc, will see a surge in their premiums. Having healthcare will no longer be affordable. Obamacare had issues but it was fixable and those with pre-existing conditions were covered.Trump supporters will be largely affected by the repeal of Obamacare and some of them are waking up to that inconvenient fact.I voted for Trump, dear god I wish I could take my vote back. To the entire world I apologize #VoteNoAHCA John Bush (@JohnJBush5) May 4, 2017Republican voters were warned that this would happen. Trump told them he would repeal Obamacare. Democrats warned them, too.Image via screen capture | 1real |
Damaged by War, Syria’s Cultural Sites Rise Anew in France - The New York Times | PARIS — When the Islamic State was about to be driven out of the ancient city of Palmyra in March, Yves Ubelmann got a call from Syria’s director of antiquities to come over in a hurry. An architect by training, Mr. Ubelmann, 36, had worked in Syria before the country was engulfed by war. But now there was special urgency for the kind of work his youthful team of architects, mathematicians and designers did from their cramped offices in Paris: producing digital copies of threatened historical sites. Palmyra, parts of it already destroyed by the Islamists who deemed these monuments idolatrous, was still rigged with explosives. So he and Houmam Saad, his Syrian colleague, spent four days flying a drone with a robot camera over the crumbled arches and temples. “Drones with four or six rotors can hover really close and register structural details, every crack and hole, and we can take very precise measurements,” said Mr. Ubelmann, who founded the company Iconem. “This is the stuff architects and archaeologists need. ” They need it in a new push for virtual preservation that scientists, archaeologists and others, like Mr. Ubelmann, are compiling on a large scale. The records could be used to create computer models that would show how monuments and endangered historical sites might one day be restored, repaired or reconstructed. Of special interest today are ancient sites in Syria, and also Iraq, that have suffered from war, looting and the Islamic State. “Palmyra was very difficult,” Mr. Ubelmann said. “The terrorists were uploading videos with them blowing up monuments and smashing statues to manipulate public opinion,” he said. “We felt the best response was to magnify the pictures of these places and show their splendor and their importance to the culture. It became a war of images. ” The latest front in that war is in the exhibition halls of the Grand Palais in Paris, where, through Jan. 9, many of the 40, 000 images he and his team took at Palmyra have become the basis for displays. Called “Eternal Sites: From Bamiyan to Palmyra,” the show aims to draw attention to the rising threats to global heritage. To underscore the exhibition’s political importance, it was opened several weeks ago by President François Hollande of France, who described it as “an act of resistance” against terror and intolerance. Showing the beauty of the Middle Eastern heritage, he said, “is the best answer to the Islamist propaganda of hate, destruction and death. ” Martinez, the director of the Louvre and the lead curator of the show, said the sites had been chosen because “all are under threat from pillaging, neglect or destruction and are not accessible to the public. ” He said it aimed to mobilize public opinion “in the face of the devastation of unique heritage. ” Besides images from Palmyra, the multimedia show projects enormous photographs and videos, immersing visitors in different eras, including the ancient Iraqi city of Khorsabad around 700 B. C. an mosque in Damascus and a medieval Christian citadel. Mr. Ubelmann dismissed any criticism of collaboration with the government of the Syrian president, Bashar . “We were working pro bono, not for any government, but to help the archaeologists,” he said. They shared their work with the Syrian archaeologists, he said, adding, “We also train our colleagues so they can later do this on their own. ” What is paramount is memory and potential restoration. In the last year, his team has flown drones over some 20 historic sites in Syria. Recently, it moved into zones in Iraq, close to the front line in the fight against the Islamic State. The team is now analyzing the war’s effects on the remains of once thriving cities dating back some 3, 000 years, including Nineveh, Khorsabad and the thrashed temple and palace of Nimrud, where the government drove out the jihadists in November. In 2015, Islamists sent out videos showing militants using sledgehammers to break reliefs of human figures and mythical winged bulls as part of their campaign. “Nimrud was probably the most splendid of the Assyrian cities,” Layla Abdulkarim, a Syrian architect, said as she analyzed aerial photographs. Using drones in archaeological work is not entirely new, specialists say, but at a recent gathering in Paris researchers from Europe and the Middle East said they were now having to practice “war archaeology,” that is, collecting reliable data from areas. The images from the drones in war zones had proved immensely valuable. But these were barely scratching the surface. Before the war, close to 150 archaeological projects were underway, just in Syria, researchers said. Experts from many countries are trying to assess the damage in Syria’s old cities but also in the area where the Islamic State held sway that is straddling Iraq and Syria, the region that is seen as central to human history and often called the birthplace of modern economics and writing. There is an outcry for data about the havoc wreaked in Yemen by Saudi bombing. “People are exchanging satellite images and data on blogs and other research platforms, but we have no real assessment yet because so many ancient sites are not accessible,” said Pascal Butterlin, a professor of archaeology at the Sorbonne in Paris. Time is of the essence, even in the case of ruins, Mr. Butterlin said. He has led expeditions for more than 20 years to Mari, near Syria’s border with Iraq. Before fleeing, the guards at Mari reported that looters had come from Iraq, he said. “We need to know what places need to be stabilized and how looters have altered the sites,” he said. “Important evidence, like clandestine pits, can disappear very quickly through sandstorms and erosion. ” Cheikhmous Ali, a Syrian archaeologist based in France, who founded the international group the Association for the Protection of Syrian Archaeology, said reports of organized pillaging continued. A first wave of looting began in 2012, Mr. Ali said, and looting has accelerated since 2014 with the arrival of the Islamic State. While jihadists were more motivated to destroy the artifacts, they had also allowed looters to operate in exchange for money. Mr. Ali said he kept an ever changing tally of museums bombed, objects carted off, safes stolen. The exhibition in Paris, which is drawing large crowds, coincides with “History Begins in Mesopotamia,” a show at the Louvre’s regional museum in Lens. Both exhibitions highlight the French government’s active concern about cultural damage in Syria, which was briefly controlled by France in the first half of the 20th century. Mr. Hollande has taken a strong interest, condemning the deliberate destruction of patrimony by all sides as “war crimes. ” This past month, France offered $30 million toward a proposed $100 million fund to protect sites as fighting abates, provide emergency storage for artifacts and eventually rehabilitate monuments. At the “Eternal Sites” opening at the Grand Palais, Mr. Hollande stressed that France was taking in more Syrian refugees trying to protect monuments of great historical and cultural importance did not mean ignoring the suffering of the population. “Should we be concerned about the patrimony?” he asked. “What is more important, saving lives or saving stones? In reality, these two are inseparable. ” | 0fake |
Zimbabwe opposition calls for peaceful return to democracy | HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) called for a peaceful return to constitutional democracy on Wednesday after an overnight military coup against 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe. The MDC, the main political challenger to Mugabe s ZANU-PF party for the last two decades, also said it hoped the military intervention would lead to the establishment of a stable, democratic and progressive nation state . | 0fake |
Trump: Cerberus CEO offered services, hopes he not needed for intel review | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he hopes he will not have to bring in an outside adviser to review the structure of U.S. intelligence agencies. “I hope that we’ll be able to straighten that out without using anybody else,” Trump said at a press conference. Trump said Stephen Feinberg, the chief executive of private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management [CBS.UL], had offered his services, but he did not think he would be needed. | 0fake |
Joint Strike Fighter plans stolen in Australia cyber attack | SYDNEY (Reuters) - A hacker stole non-classified information about Australia s Joint Strike Fighter program and other military hardware last year after breaching the network of a defense contractor, the defense industry minister said on Thursday. About 30 gigabytes of data was stolen in the cyber attack, including details of the Joint Strike Fighter warplane and P-8 Poseidon surveillance plane, according to a presentation on the hack by a government official. Fortunately the data that has been taken is commercial data, not military data ... it s not classified information, Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Radio. I don t know who did it. In a presentation to a conference in Sydney, an official from the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) intelligence agency said technical information on smart bombs, the Joint Strike Fighter, the Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and several naval vessels was stolen. The compromise was extensive and extreme, said the official, Mitchell Clarke, in an audio recording made by a ZDNet journalist and broadcast by the ABC. Clarke said the attacker accessed the small contractor s systems for five months in 2016, and the methodical, slow and deliberate, choice of target suggested a nation-state actor could be behind the raid. Australia has agreed to buy 72 Lockheed Martin Corp Joint Strike Fighter planes. A spokesman for the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), a government agency, said the government would not release further details about the cyber attack. The ACSC said in a report on Monday that it responded to 734 cyber attacks on systems of national interest for the year ended June 30, and the defense industry was a major target. The attack on the defense contractor was carried out by a malicious cyber adversary , it said. In 2016 the agency said it responded to 1,095 cyber attacks over an 18-month period, including an intrusion from a foreign intelligence service on the weather bureau. | 0fake |
Democrat Hassan wins New Hampshire Senate race | BOSTON (Reuters) - New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, has been elected to the U.S. Senate, ousting incumbent Republican Kelly Ayotte, the New Hampshire secretary of state confirmed on Wednesday. Hassan won by a narrow margin, recording 354,640 votes to Ayotte’s 353,617, according to a final tally posted online on Wednesday. “It will be my job in the U.S. Senate to make the best decisions for New Hampshire to work with President-elect Trump when it is in the best interest of New Hampshire and the country, and to stand up to him when it isn’t,” Hassan said. | 0fake |
Israel's right wing has grand plans for Trump era | JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s right wing has been eagerly awaiting Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House, hoping a Republican president will usher in a new era of support for Israeli settlement-building on land Palestinians want for a state. The far-right Jewish Home party, along with members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, is promoting legislation that would effectively annex one large settlement in the occupied West Bank to Israel and another bill that would legalize dozens of unauthorized outposts. But there could be a question mark over the issue, with Netanyahu possibly looking to curb settlement laws, wary of the dangers of the far right’s ambitions being too freely unleashed as he feels his way forward with the new U.S. administration. The Israeli leader’s spokesman declined to comment on Netanyahu’s position. In its final weeks, the Obama administration angered the Israeli government by withholding a traditional U.S. veto of an anti-settlement resolution at the United Nations Security Council, enabling the measure to pass. President Barack Obama on Wednesday said he was worried that the prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — the idea of Israel and Palestine living side-by-side in peace and security — were waning. Israeli right wingers contrast Obama’s warnings with what they see as positive signals from Trump that indicate Washington’s attitude towards settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in a 1967 war, is about to change. Trump’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, echoed his condemnation of the world body over its treatment of Israel at her Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Trump, who has said he wants to meet Netanyahu “at the first opportunity”, has pledged to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In his remarks on Wednesday, Obama cautioned against “sudden unilateral moves” that could be “explosive”. Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital but most of the world does not, seeing its final status as a matter for peace negotiations that have been frozen since 2014. In a move that has emboldened Israeli right wingers, the president-elect has already appointed a new U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who is considered far right on issues, including settlement building. Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home, hopes that under Trump’s administration the notion of establishing a Palestinian state will be abandoned. He wants to promote a bill extending Israeli sovereignty to Maale Adumim, a West Bank settlement of about 40,000 Israelis that lies just to the east of Jerusalem. That would in effect mean Israel annexing some of the land it has occupied for almost 50 years. “It’s either (Israeli) sovereignty or Palestine,” Bennett told Army Radio this month. “The question is not what will Trump do but what will Israel ask for. What will Israel present as its vision. We are in the money-time now for forming this vision.” But Professor Itamar Rabinovich, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, believes the right wing may be getting ahead of itself and its ambitions could backfire. “In reality, where the United States needs to live not just with us but also with the Arab and Muslim world, supporting extremist measures in Israel could turn out to be something the United States cannot live with,” Rabinovich said. Bennett ultimately advocates the annexation of most of the West Bank, leaving just the major Palestinian towns and cities in Palestinian hands. But first he is testing the water with the annexation bill, entitled “Sovereignty in Maale Adumim First”. It is due for a first discussion in a ministerial committee on Sunday, two of its drafters said. “I believe this is the gift that the people of Israel deserve in the run-up to Trump’s inauguration,” Bennett’s fellow party member, Betzalel Smotrich, told parliament on Tuesday. A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said annexation was a red line. “Any such Israeli decision will be considered a dangerous escalation that would end any possible hope for peace,” Nabil Abu Rdainah told Reuters. Late last year, a separate bill that would retroactively legalize settlement outposts built on privately-owned Palestinian land in the West Bank passed the first of three votes in parliament required to make it law. No dates have been set for final approval, and it has since disappeared from the agenda. Asked about the delay, a source in Netanyahu’s office said: “He wants to freeze the outpost bill.” Asked about the law, a legislative source said: “It’s stuck in committee. There will be attempts to bring it back on the agenda after Jan. 20, but I think it is pretty much buried at this point,” he said, referring to the date of the inauguration. The legislation had drawn anger from the Palestinians and international condemnation. Smotrich told Reuters that it will be brought to a second and third reading in February. “We were waiting for the end of the Obama age,” he said. A political source close to Netanyahu said that with regard to the proposed Maale Adumim annexation, the prime minister may say he wishes to hold off until after he meets Trump. Tzachi Hanegbi, a Likud minister and Netanyahu confidant, said Netanyahu understood that such steps would further isolate Israel. Most countries regard Israeli settlements as illegal, a view that Israel disputes. “He does not want to shake the entire world and put Israel at the center of contention, isolation and criticism,” Hanegbi told Army Radio. “I hope the government will not let itself be dragged after Jewish Home’s agenda.” At the same time, Netanyahu is competing with Jewish Home for right-wing, pro-settlement voters. He may disagree with the party’s approach, but he can’t ignore it. “If the (annexation) bill comes up, Likud ministers will support it. They can do nothing else,” the source said. | 0fake |
’Hot Mugshot Guy’ Is Now Super-Rich, Living in Mansion | Former outlaw Jeremy Meeks, whose mugshot went viral and landed him a modeling career, is now living the dream in a mansion in Los Angeles with his wife and three kids, and driving a luxury sports vehicle.[ Merry Christmas! #christmas2016 #meeksfamily #blessed #godisgood, A photo posted by JEREMY MEEKS (@jmeeksofficial) on Dec 25, 2016 at 7:44pm PST, Meeks, 32, was released from jail in March and began his modeling career with manager Jim Jordan of White Cross Management. He was arrested in Stockton, California on five weapons charges and one gang charge in the summer of 2014 as part of Operation Ceasefire, a multiagency mission involving the Stockton police gang unit, the FBI, and the U. S. Marshals Task Force. The operation was aimed at cracking down on a surge in shootings and robberies in the Weston Ranch area of Stockton. The San Francisco Chronicle points out that on his Instagram page, he posted an image of himself standing in front of a beautiful white California home, accompanied with the caption, “God is good. ” God is good, A photo posted by JEREMY MEEKS (@jmeeksofficial) on Sep 27, 2016 at 4:58pm PDT, Two months ago, a picture of him in his brand new Maserati appeared on his page for all of his fans to see: Good to be home, A photo posted by JEREMY MEEKS (@jmeeksofficial) on Nov 2, 2016 at 4:52pm PDT, Upon his release from jail, he posted a picture with Jordan expressing how thankful he was to his “family and everybody for all your love, support and prayers. ” He added, “I’m overwhelmed and grateful for what lies ahead. I’m ready. ” I want to thank my family and everybody for all your love, support and prayers. I’m overwhelmed and grateful for what lies ahead. I’m ready @jimjordanphotography and @whitecrossmanagement #jeremymeeks #jimjordan #whitecrossmanagement, A photo posted by JEREMY MEEKS (@jmeeksofficial) on Mar 9, 2016 at 4:43pm PST, At one point, Jordan said of Meeks, “The world responds to beautiful things. Jeremy is a beautiful thing. ” Meeks has nearly 700, 000 followers on his Instagram account. His Facebook page has approximately 485, 000 likes, and he has 10, 300 followers on Twitter. It appears his modeling career can’t come between his relationship with his wife of eight years. “Through thick and thin,” he wrote in the caption of a picture of him and his wife celebrating their anniversary at a vineyard, with a bottle of wine and her Chanel bag in tow. Celebrating our 8 year anniversary today and 50 more to go. Through thick and thin! #blessed #loved #aniversary #marriage, A photo posted by JEREMY MEEKS (@jmeeksofficial) on Dec 27, 2016 at 3:59pm PST, On one of his Instagram posts, Meeks wrote, “Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future. ” Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future, A photo posted by JEREMY MEEKS (@jmeeksofficial) on Sep 20, 2016 at 4:59pm PDT, Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter and Periscope @AdelleNaz | 0fake |
Gary Johnson Avoids Typical Third-Party Fade; Best Polling Since Perot in ‘92 | A couple of weeks ago in this space I pushed back against assertions by FiveThirtyEight number-cruncher Harry Enten that Gary Johnson's polls have been "trending downwards," indicating that "voters may be moving away from third-party options." Well, today Enten is back with an interesting piece headlined "Gary Johnson Isn't Fading."
While noting what we have been warning you about here for years—third-party candidates typically see their crest of polling support halved by Election Day, according to Gallup—Enten explains that Johnson's numbers have so far not followed this pattern. In fact, the Libertarian may have already weathered the most difficult part of the calendar: "Most third-party candidates didn't lose that much support between late summer and Election Day," Enten writes. "Besides John Anderson in 1980, no candidate ended up finishing more than 3 percentage points below where they were polling in late August. The average drop-off is about 2 percentage points."
So how does Johnson's 9 percent stack up at this point in the campaign against other third-party candidates since World War II? According to numbers compiled by Enten here, fourth place, behind Ross Perot in 1992 (20 percent then, finished at 19), George Wallace in '68 (17/14), and Anderson in '80 (14/7). He's just a tick above Perot in '96 (8/8), behind which nobody comes close (sorry, Libertarians!). Because of his staying power, FiveThirtyEight has adjusted its predictions for Johnson's final vote upward, to 7.1 percent.
But what about the debates, I hear you ask. Well, while #TeamGov and its supporters are touting this new Qunnipiac poll showing 62 percent of Americans think the Libertarian should be in next month's televised showdown, that and a glass of water will get you a drink. As Enten notes, Johnson may not be fading, but he's also not particularly rising, either, and there's a whole lotta real estate between 9 and the required 15 percent. The L.P. ticket did reach a new high this week in the Quinnipiac poll (10 percent, up from 8 percent in June), and tied previous highs in polls by NBC News/Survey Monkey (11 percent), Rasmussen Reports (9 percent), and Reuters/Ipsos (7 percent), but at this advanced date, ties go to the loser.
Looking for a glimmer of hope? Here's one intriguing gap in the numerical record. Of the Commission on Presidential Debates' determinative Big Five polls, in which Johnson has been averaging 10 percent instead of 9, none of them have produced results in the last three weeks. Beginning any minute now, we should have a much clearer idea whether the Libertarians are rising in the polls that actually matter. | 0fake |
Republican National Committee: Better A Pedophile Than A Democrat In The U.S. Senate | By now, the whole world knows that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore (R-Of Course) was banned from an Alabama mall and the YMCA for creeping on little girls. He has been accused of molesting young girls as young as age fourteen. Of course, when the allegations first came out and the uproar and backlash began, everyone, regardless of politics, reacted with outrage. However, the GOP s outrage was often much more muted. Further, it took awhile for the Republican National Committee to pull their support for Moore, despite the deeply disturbing allegations of his being a pedophile. Well, now that the rage has died down, the RNC is back with a new message regarding this Senate race: Better a pedophile than a Democrat.Under cover of night, the RNC reinstated their support for Roy Moore, and an RNC official confirmed to The Hill that, quote, We can confirm our involvement in the Alabama Senate race. So, there you have it, folks. They literally want a child molester in the United States Senate rather than a Democrat. There are only a few voices from the right who are being brave on this one and none of them are seeking re-election. Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney tweeted that the GOP must not tolerate Moore:Roy Moore in the US Senate would be a stain on the GOP and on the nation. Leigh Corfman and other victims are courageous heroes. No vote, no majority is worth losing our honor, our integrity. Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) December 4, 2017Outgoing Arizona GOP Senator Jeff Flake has actually said that he would vote for the Democratic candidate, Doug Jones, if he lived in Alabama, and former Jeb Bush adviser Tim Miller has actually endorsed and donated to Jones. Outgoing Pennsylvania moderate Republican Charlie Dent said he never supported Moore in the first place. Here s the video of Dent s takedown of Moore:There is also outspoken Trump critic and longtime GOP strategist Steve Schmidt, who went on national television and called Moore a pedophile:Other than that, though, it has been radio silence. After all, they need that vote. Besides, let s face it the GOP writ large showed America and the world what they stand for when they elected Donald Trump.Featured image via Scott Olson/Getty Images | 1real |
A breakfast in Harlem underscores key challenge for White House hopeful Sanders | MANCHESTER, N.H. (Reuters) - Bernie Sanders had breakfast with one of America’s most prominent civil rights activists, Al Sharpton, just hours after trouncing Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential nominating contest. The meeting marked a recognition by Sanders that his campaign must swiftly broaden its base of support if he has any chance of mounting a long-term challenge to Clinton, who consistently polls better among African American voters. They will play a crucial role in the Democratic race as it moves to South Carolina - where more than half of the Democratic primary voters in 2008 were African American - and other states more diverse than New Hampshire or Iowa, which held the first contest of the 2016 election. Sanders met Sharpton in the same Harlem restaurant where the activist met with Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign - an obvious bit of symbolism for the Vermont senator trying to connect with minority voters. “My concern is that in January of next year for the first time in American history a black family will be moving out of the White House. I do not want black concerns to be moved out with them,” Sharpton, a Baptist minister and television talk show host, told reporters afterwards. Sharpton discussed a recent spate of police shootings of black males and other issues with the senator. He said he would not endorse a candidate until he met with Clinton. Even before the exit polls showing that Sanders had won New Hampshire, Clinton’s campaign was already trying to highlight her double-digit lead over Sanders among African American and Latino voters. “It will be very difficult, if not impossible, for a Democrat to win the nomination without strong levels of support among African American and Hispanic voters,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said in a memo sent to reporters. He predicted the Democratic race would be won in March, when it quickly expands to 22 delegate-rich states with some of the largest minority and urban populations — and that Clinton would have the advantage. Clinton has a long history of support for civil rights, and she has benefited from her husband Bill Clinton’s popularity in the black community during his presidency, although that became strained during the fierce 2008 primary battle with Obama. Reuters/Ipsos polling nationally showed that in January, blacks backed Clinton by a margin of 3 to 1 over Sanders. Among Hispanics, 48 percent supported Clinton and 32 percent backed Sanders. But as black and Hispanic voters became more familiar with Sanders through televised presidential debates, they seemed to like him more, with his favorability ratings rising slightly among those groups over the last few months, the polling showed. So far Sanders’ strong performance has been due to the mostly young white voters who have embraced his populist anti-Wall Street message and call for income equality. But in the upcoming nominating contests, Sanders needs to carry that message to a broader group of voters, particularly minority voters, who will help determine the Democratic nominee. African Americans and Hispanics comprise 35 percent of the Democratic party, according to a 2013 Gallup poll. Sanders already has intensified his efforts to reach black voters with more campaign stops before African-American audiences and ads on black-oriented radio stations. Rapper Killer Mike sometimes introduces Sanders at rallies, and academic Cornel West has also campaigned for him. The senator also frequently condemns the disproportionate rate at which blacks are targeted by police and has called for increased police transparency and accountability. Sanders’ intensified effort to appeal to minority voters follows questions about whether he has broad enough support to take the White House. Clinton herself has raised the issue of Sanders’ electability on the campaign trail and in debates. Even some Sanders supporters have expressed fears that a vote for him could allow Republicans to win the election. But Sanders’ campaign shrugs off any worries about the road ahead. “We recognize we are moving to a bigger stage, but it’s another opportunity for him to spread his message. People have responded to his message when they hear it,” said Sanders campaign spokesman Michael Briggs. Sanders already has begun airing ads in Nevada and South Carolina, has hired staff in 15 states and is prepared for a national race, Briggs said. On Super Tuesday, Sanders will be looking to do well in several states, including his home state of Vermont, as well as Massachusetts, Colorado and Minnesota, where the grassroots enthusiasm of his supporters could be an advantage. Still Irene Matz, a retiree in Minneapolis, Minnesota, said she was worried about Sanders’ electability and had yet to make a decision on who to vote for. “Hillary has been hit with everything for years, we know what we are getting with her. Now Bernie will get his turn, and they won’t be kind to him,” Matz said. “I’ll vote for Hillary unless I feel Bernie has a good shot,” she said. (Additional reporting by Chris Kahn and Alana Wise, editing by Paul Thomasch and Ross Colvin) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters’ editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage. | 0fake |
Why Are Basketball Games So Squeaky? Consider the Spiny Lobster - The New York Times | It is the unofficial soundtrack of basketball, a noise consistently heard but rarely considered — shoes squeaking on the hardwood. Squeaks are the background rhythm to the game. But that sound is also one of the enduring mysteries of sports, and presents a question that gets scientists talking: Why do basketball shoes squeak? To understand, it may help to consider violins and the California spiny lobster. Sheila Patek, a biologist at Duke University, is an expert in spiny lobsters, among other oddities of the animal kingdom, and several years ago discovered that some species of the clawless crustaceans do something utterly unusual. To scare away predators, they rub a smooth, rubbery protrusion at the base of each antenna against the smooth, hard part of their heads. The result is an audible squawk. The spiny lobster became the first known example among animals of the phenomenon, a deeply studied principle of science and engineering. It is when two relatively smooth or flat surfaces become repeatedly stuck and unstuck by the forces of friction, creating a vibration that becomes a noise. It is why brakes and doors squeak on dirty hinges and why wipers chatter on dry windshields. It is why a finger sings on the rim of a wine glass or screeches on the outside of an inflated balloon. And it explains how the bow of a violin, sticking and slipping almost imperceptibly as it crosses the string, creates sound. “If you’ve ever played a violin, you have to push down and slide at just the right combination to get these two surfaces to stick and slip across each other,” Patek said. “And on each slip it makes a little burst of sound. And that’s the same thing for a spiny lobster. ” And, it now occurs to her, the same goes for something else, something more widely seen around Duke than a spiny lobster. “A basketball shoe!” she said with a laugh. In big arenas, like those of the N. B. A. the squeaking is mostly overpowered these days by the cacophonous, noise intended as entertainment and disguised as excitement. (The Knicks, deep into the experimental part of their losing season, recently played a first half against the Warriors with only ambient noise, telling fans to “enjoy the sounds of the game. ” Steve Kerr, the Warriors’ coach, said the atmosphere was “weird,” and a player, Draymond Green, called it “pathetic. ”) But the squeaks will be heard, loud and clear, during the early parts of the N. C. A. A. men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Some teams tip off on neutral courts far from home, where the crowds are reverent or unmoved. Pep bands play only during timeouts, and most sites do not add artificial noise during play. Perhaps unrealized at home, there are stretches when squeaking shoes and the occasional barking of coaches comprise most of the noise in the arena. Few stop to consider just what it is that they are hearing when shoes squeak. Even fewer have researched the topic. Martyn Shorten, who has a biomechanics consulting firm in Portland, Ore. and works mostly with athletic shoe manufacturers, is one of them. He presented his findings to the American Society of Biomechanics in 2006, and it remains a resource in the industry. “The herringbone structures of the shoe outsole are induced to vibrate at their natural frequencies by contact with the surface,” Shorten and his research partner Xia Xi concluded. Those vibrations become sound — quick, squeaks. To fans, they are noise. To players, they are necessities. “When we’ve tested shoes and they didn’t squeak, it comes up with our players and our testers,” Leo Chang, senior design director at Nike, said. “The squeak is reassurance to a lot of players. They listen for it. It gives them that audio sense of reassurance that they’re sticking. ” The squeak means that they are not just sticking, but sliding. It is a complex, wonky bit of science, deeply researched and best explained by a battery of experts — from shoe designers to rubber scientists, mechanical engineers to acoustic experts, even a biologist familiar with spiny lobsters. They agree that at the core of a basketball shoe’s squeak is the phenomenon — the same principle studied by engineers for its clattering effect on machinery and by seismologists for the way tectonic plates stick and slip to cause earthquakes. When you write on a blackboard and the chalk squeaks? . When you drive a car slowly around a corner in a parking garage and the tires squeal? . In basketball, Shorten said, it “tends to happen when the foot first contacts the ground and when the shoe is lightly loaded and moving quite quickly. ” On the foot’s way to stopping, or to twisting or springing to the next step, the sole’s intricate designs stick, then slip, then stick. It might feel like an instant stop, but the rubber sole is designed for flexibility. Too much grip in basketball is jarring on the body, Nike’s Chang said. Not enough traction is dangerous, too. “I see the squeak as the perfect signal that you’ve got the right amount of slip and grip,” Chang said. That makes sense to Judit Puskas, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Akron who recently won the Charles Goodyear Medal for her expertise in rubber. She described the “magic triangle” of rubber technology — rolling resistance (its ability to slip) traction (stick) and wear. Changing one can impact the others. The quest is to find balance, whether in designing tires or basketball shoes or anything else with rubber components. “The sole makes sure you can stop, but also move quickly, which are two competing requirements,” Puskas said. “You want the rubber to stick enough that you can stop, but you don’t want to stick too much that you can’t move. ” The chirp signals balance, but it does not explain how the sound is produced — usually when a player makes a quick stop or a sideways cut. Greg McDaniel is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Boston University, where he runs the sound and vibration laboratory. The basic rule for creating sound is compressing air, McDaniel said. “If you wave your hand through the air, you don’t hear it,” he said. “Why? Because you haven’t compressed air. The air sloshes around like water sloshes, and the air has enough time to get out of the way before you compress it. ” But in the tiny, vibrating spaces under and within a rubber sole, the air gets compressed. “That compressed air sucks in neighboring air, causing it to expand, and that expanding air compresses neighboring air, and you get this ” McDaniel said. “That’s an acoustic wave. The rubber’s moving, and as it moves it is compressing air. And it compresses air at the same frequency of the vibrations. ” Shorten’s experiment tested two basketball shoes with herringbone designs, and they measured between 5 and 6 kilohertz — a squeak at the high end of the spectrum for human hearing. The basketball hardwood creates not just the perfect frictional foil for rubber soles, but a surface that deflects sound so well that it can carry through an arena. The squeaks are such an ingrained part of basketball that Nike once created a commercial around them. But Nike has also designed shoes that barely made a sound. “It’s down to the geometry of the traction,” said Chang, who designs all the shoes for Kevin Durant, among others. “A lot of the herringbone and the more of geometry tend to give you a little more squeak, versus the more nub, of geometry, which tends not to. ” Midway through the N. B. A. finals last year, Cleveland’s LeBron James changed shoes to Nike’s Soldier 10. Its nubby sole design was virtually silent. Those discrepancies gave Patek, the Duke biologist, an idea. Could the squeaks be personalized, tuned so that each player had his or her own sound? McDaniel said that shoe sounds probably could be individualized (and probably already are, if unintentionally) but the frequency range of the squeaks is so narrow that they likely would sound the same to most listeners in the crowd. Until then, fans will just have to appreciate the squeaks for what they are: a persistent reminder that, for as much as the game evolves, there is one part of its tradition that will not be silenced. | 0fake |
Interview 1228 – Newsbud Roundtable on Elections vs. Reality | Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
via Newsbud.com : In this week’s edition of Newsbud’s Roundtable Spiro Skouras is Joined by Newsbud Founder Sibel Edmonds, Newsbud Sr. Producer Kurt Nimmo and James Corbett of Corbett Report to discuss potential candidates of the Trump Cabinet. We also discuss the indoctrination process of the youth in public schools and Sibel issues a call to action against the two-party system indoctrination.
SHOW NOTES: | 1real |
IF GOOGLE TRENDS Are Any Indication Of Who Will Win Election…Hillary Is In BIG Trouble! | Google trends can be very telling. These Google trends comparing users interest in Donald J. Trump vs. Hillary Clinton say a lot about who Americans are more interested in learning more about. While the results of these searches are likely not based on an oversampled group of Democrats, and there s no real way to know how many of the people searching Google are registered voters, it is a very good indication of which candidate running for office is more popular. Let s face it, if voters don t have any enthusiasm for a candidate, they won t be going to the polls on November 8th.In the past two hours, which candidate is the most searched on Google? To find out, hover over each state on map below and you ll mostly likely see Trump show up. This interactive map updated every 2 hours. trends.embed.renderWidget("US_cu_n5TKtVcBAAACoM_en", "fe_geo_color_chart_a76ecf6f-c9a6-4798-b038-568948d46bd0", {}); The graph below shows how frequently Trump (red line) and Hillary (blue line) are being searched on Google: trends.embed.renderWidget("US_cu_n5TKtVcBAAACoM_en", "fe_line_chart_4be39b1e-a0dc-4ac0-8c0e-a6be30463edd", {}); To see which state is most interested in searching issues related to the 2016 presidential election, hover over each state on image below. trends.embed.renderWidget("election2016", "fe_us_states_c4cd90ef-9673-4bc3-9cd5-bfdfd2ce862d", {}); | 1real |
The Real Effects of Architecture on the Mind, Body, and Spirit | By Tera Graham
We spend an overwhelming amount of time in and around buildings; most Americans never leave the comfort of cities, where sizeable structures abound. Yet, rarely do we consider the profound effects architecture has on our everyday experiences. Only standing at the feet of major architectural monuments — like the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Great Pyramids outside Cairo — do we stop and consider how magnificent mankind’s ability to build is.
However, more and more scientists are beginning to realize that architecture, like any art form, has the power to influence how we perceive the world. As we learn how architecture can impact our experience of life, we can better control our environments for maximum efficiency — and maximum pleasure.
The Science and Art of Perception Every second we are awake, our brains track variables like heat, light, odor, noise, and movement to ensure our bodies can continue living. Though we rarely realize it, our minds are always aware of the effects of various environments, and that subconscious perception can dramatically affect our experiences of different places. For example, loud, grating sounds usually make spaces less pleasant, while soft, natural light generally makes spaces more inviting.
Neuroscientists are increasingly discovering that the brain is constantly making associations, and oftentimes, these links employ metaphors that are grounded in the physical world we perceive. The intangible concept of “importance” is generally identified as large, though as an idea, it lacks any size or dimension whatsoever. Similar examples are common in language: Our endeavors are completed “step by step,” as though we are walking the concrete path of our tasks, and being “lost in one’s thoughts” likens deep concentration to exploring a dense forest. It is becoming clear to scientists and artists alike that what we perceive informs what we believe. Fortunately, architects are using this newfound knowledge for the better.
The Application of Metaphor Armed with the awareness that our brains are constantly making connections between the corporeal and the conceptual, today’s architects strive to generate certain unconscious effects with their buildings. One of the most pervasive trends in modern architecture is the metaphor of the tree.
Trees have always indicated shelter for humankind: They offer protection from harsh sunlight, from pouring rain, and from dangerous predators. Plus, as humans strive to right their historic environmental wrongs, the tree has become a symbol of sustainability, nature, and health.
Therefore, several architects are now drawing from trees to create healthful, ecological-seeming buildings. The Kanagawa Institute of Technology in Japan contains a “forest” of pillars that closely resemble white saplings. In Spain, the Metropol Parasol uses laminated timber to form a sinuous canopy over a popular plaza.
By integrating elements of trees ― trunks, branches, leaves ― the architects of these buildings have produced not only aesthetically breathtaking structures but also subtly comforting spaces suffused with nuances of nature. Yet, as neuroscience unlocks more of the cognitive impacts of architecture, all structures could have even more powerful metaphor built in.
The Future of Cognitive Architecture The cognitive revolution is just getting started, and we are only beginning to understand how our brains and bodies take in the world around us. Experts in neuroscience and architecture alike look forward to advancements that can have beneficial applications in all sorts of structures.
For example, nearly everyone has experienced a less-than-ideal working environment. Flickering fluorescent lights, freezing or sweltering temperatures, conflicting design elements, and more can dramatically increase stress amongst a workforce, depleting energy and preventing productivity. When these errors are remedied, the effects of an environment are immediately obvious.
In some industries, especially within the industrial sector, we already have sturdy, somewhat more sustainable, buildings that provide benefits workers need: fabric structures . However, in other fields, like health care or education, we eagerly await breakthroughs that demonstrate real impact. With evidence from cognitive science, we can construct hospitals that help patients heal with design and schools that encourage learning through materials and angles.
Though it happens constantly, perception is an intensely complex task. The spaces around us ― both the ones we create and the ones governed by nature ― inform how we live and how we think. Thus, it is imperative that when we construct, we be amply aware of the effects of our constructions: on the environment and on ourselves.
This article ( The Real Effects of Architecture on the Mind, Body, and Spirit ) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to and WakingTimes.com . It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.
Via: OmniThought
| 1real |
Deloitte cyber attack affected up to 350 clients: Guardian | (Reuters) - A hack at global accounting firm Deloitte [DLTE.UL] disclosed in September compromised a server with emails of some 350 clients, including U.S. government agencies and large corporations, the Guardian reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources. Deloitte disputed the story, saying very few clients were affected in a statement emailed to Reuters. We take any attack on our systems very seriously, the statement said. We are confident that we know what information was targeted and what the hacker actually did. | 0fake |
FACEBOOK Nazi Thought Police editors threaten to quit if Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t ban Donald Trump for hate speech | October 26, 2016 @ 9:37 pm
FaceBook has censored my posts on Donald Trump. Susan K October 26, 2016 @ 9:09 pm
It will not work. They can try and try and try again. Going around in circles. I must admit it is very pleasant to know how distressed some groups are because of Donald Trump. When Donald Trump is elected, and he will be, he should make it very clear he will not deal with any country persecuting freedom of speech. Az gal October 26, 2016 @ 8:32 pm
The Globalists are waging war on Donald Trump. Democracy is dead or dying. We are the soldiers for freedom. Our most important weapon is our vote! VOTE TRUMP! | 1real |
Thanks to Obama, the terrorist cancer is growing | We still do not know who or what is responsible for the crash of EgyptAir Flight 804, but we know this much for certain: The terrorist danger is growing, and it won’t be contained to the Mediterranean.
Responding to criticism of President Obama’s handling of terrorism, White House press secretary Josh Earnest boasted Thursday of all the setbacks the Islamic State has experienced in recent months, noting that in Iraq “45 percent of the populated area that ISIL previously controlled has been retaken from them. In Syria, that figure is now 20 percent.”
That’s like a patient who ignored a cancer diagnosis bragging that he finally reduced the tumor in his lung — glossing over the fact that he let it spread and metastasize to his other organs. If he had attacked the Islamic State cancer early, Obama could have stopped it from spreading in the first place. But instead, he dismissed the terrorist group as the “JV team” that was “engaged in various local power struggles and disputes” and did not have “the capacity and reach of a bin Laden” and did not pose “a direct threat to us.” He did nothing, while the cancer grew in Syria and then spread in Iraq.
Now the cancer has spread and metastasized across the world.
According to a recent CNN analysis, since declaring its caliphate in 2014, the Islamic State has carried out 90 attacks in 21 countries outside of Iraq and Syria that have killed 1,390 people and injured more than 2,000 others. The Islamic State has a presence in more than a dozen countries and has declared “provinces” in Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Post reported in 2015 that “since the withdrawal of most U.S. and international troops in December, the Islamic State has steadily made inroads in Afghanistan” where it has “poured pepper into the wounds of their enemies . . . seared their hands in vats of boiling oil . . . blindfolded, tortured and blown apart [villagers] with explosives buried underneath them.”
And while the Islamic State spreads and grows, al-Qaeda is making a comeback. Obama is touting the killing of Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour as “an important milestone,” but the truth is that the Taliban has made major military gains in Afghanistan — and that has opened the door to al-Qaeda. The Post reported in October that “American airstrikes targeted what was ‘probably the largest’ al-Qaeda training camp found in the 14-year Afghan war.” Sounds good except for one small problem: There were no major al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan when Obama took office. Now it is once again training terrorists in the land where it trained operatives for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Al-Qaeda has also regained lost ground in Yemen, the country where it trained and deployed the underwear bomber who nearly blew up a plane bound for Detroit in 2009. And as a recent report from the Institute for the Study of War and the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project notes, the “Syrian al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al Nusra poses one of the most significant long-term threats of any Salafi-jihadi group” and “is much more dangerous to the U.S. than the ISIS model in the long run.”
Overall, Gen. Jack Keane recently testified that al-Qaeda has “grown fourfold in the last five years.”
We’re lying to ourselves if we think that the violence we are witnessing is going to be confined to the Middle East . . . or South Asia . . . or North Africa . . . or Europe. It is only a matter of time before the Islamic State and al-Qaeda bring this violence here to our shores.
Indeed, in many ways we face a situation far more dangerous and complex than we did before Sept. 11, 2001. Before 9/11, we largely faced a danger from one terrorist network (al-Qaeda) with safe haven in one nation (Afghanistan). Today, we face danger from multiple terrorist networks with safe havens in a dozen or more countries.
Moreover, we face something we have never seen before: two terrorist networks — the Islamic State and al-Qaeda — competing with each other for the hearts of the jihadi faithful and the backing of jihadi financiers. The way to win that competition is to be the first to carry out a catastrophic attack here in the United States.
When it came to terrorist networks, the George W. Bush administration had a mantra: We’re going to fight them over there so that we do not have to face them here at home. Obama abandoned that mantra. And now the danger is getting closer to home with each passing day.
Read more from Marc Thiessen’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. | 0fake |
Trump to set new executive orders on environment, energy this week | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump this week will sign new executive orders before he completes his first 100 days in office, including two on energy and the environment, which would make it easier for the United States to develop energy on and offshore, a White House official said on Sunday. “This builds on previous executive actions that have cleared the way for job-creating pipelines, innovations in energy production, and reduced unnecessary burden on energy producers,” the official said on condition of anonymity. On Wednesday, Trump is expected to sign an executive order related to the 1906 Antiquities Act, which enables the president to designate federal areas of land and water as national monuments to protect them from drilling, mining and development, the source said. On Friday, Trump is expected to sign an order to review areas available for offshore oil and gas exploration, as well as rules governing offshore drilling. The new measures would build on a number of energy- and environment-related executive orders signed by Trump seeking to gut most of the climate change regulations put in place by predecessor President Barack Obama. A summary of the forthcoming orders, seen by Reuters, say past administrations “overused” the Antiquities Act, putting more federal areas under protection than necessary. Obama had used the Antiquities Act more than any other president, his White House said in December, when he designated over 1.6 million acres of land in Utah and Nevada as national monuments, protecting two areas rich in Native American artifacts from mining, oil and gas drilling. The summary also says previous administrations have been “overly restrictive” of offshore drilling. Late in Obama’s second term, he banned new drilling in federal waters in parts of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans using a 1950s-era law that environmental groups say would require a drawn out court challenge to reverse. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said during his January confirmation hearing that Trump could “amend” Obama’s monument designations but any move to rescind a designation would immediately be challenged. Last month, Trump signed an order calling for a review of Obama’s Clean Power Plan, and reversed a ban on coal leasing on federal lands. In addition to the energy-related orders, Trump is also expected this week to sign an order to create an office of accountability in the Veterans Affairs department. He is also expected to create a rural America interagency task force to recommend policies to address issues facing agricultural states. | 0fake |
BREAKING STORY! TRUE EVIL EXPOSED: [Video] PLANNED PARENTHOOD DIRECTOR Caught On Video Selling Aborted Baby Parts | B b but I thought they said they re just trying to provide quality health care for women .An undercover video recorded by the non-profit organization, Center for Medical Progress, shows Planned Parenthood Federation Senior Director of Medical Services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, discussing their fetal parts business.Nucatola is seen in the video having lunch with actors posing as buyers who are interested in purchasing the body parts of babies who have been aborted. The Planned Parenthood senior staffer notes how abortion procedures are modified to ensure that requested body parts can be collected. She says: We ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I m not gonna crush that part, I m gonna basically crush below, I m gonna crush above, and I m gonna see if I can get it all intact. Nucatola also describes how Planned Parenthood abortionists move the preborn child into a breech delivery position so that the body can be preserved. This account is an almost exact medical description of partial-birth abortions which are illegal in the United States. In the video, Nucatola describes the procedure: I d say a lot of people want liver. And for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance, so they ll know where they re putting their forceps. The kind of rate-limiting step of the procedure is calvarium. Calvarium the head is basically the biggest part. We ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I m not gonna crush that part, I m gonna basically crush below, I m gonna crush above, and I m gonna see if I can get it all intact. And with the calvarium, in general, some people will actually try to change the presentation so that it s not vertex. So if you do it starting from the breech presentation, there s dilation that happens as the case goes on, and often, the last step,you can evacuate an intact calvarium at the end. Planned Parenthood, though, appears to be concerned internally about the legality of their own behavior, as Nucatola notes how, At the national office, we have a Litigation and Law Department which just really doesn t want us to be the middle people for this issue right now. U.S. federal law states that, It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any human fetal tissue for valuable consideration if the transfer affects interstate commerce. Live Action President Lila Rose has been active for years in exposing wrongdoing at Planned Parenthood through undercover investigations. She responded to the disturbing investigative video, saying:This investigation by the Center for Medical Progress reveals the unimaginable horror that is Planned Parenthood. The exploitation of human life, the cover-up, and the black market profiteering by America s largest abortion chain is not only egregious and heartbreaking, but exposes how the abortion giant is corrupt to the core from the CEO, Cecile Richards, down to the local clinic. As Live Action has investigated through the years, Planned Parenthood s barbaric practices reveal their contempt for rule of law and human life. This latest expose of Planned Parenthood s trafficking of baby parts for profit should be the final nail in the coffin for the abortion giant. Congress must take immediate action to stop all taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood and end the bankrolling of this horrific human rights abuser.Via: LiveActionNews | 1real |
Illegals Voting in Maryland City Elections Just the Tip of the Iceberg in Trend of Illegal Alien Voting? | We ve been reporting on this unbelievable trend in non-citizen (green card holders AND illegal aliens) voting across Maryland since August. The city of College Park, Maryland is the latest to decide on non-citizen voting by a slim margin. Tucker Carlson is as outraged by this as we are:A city council in Maryland has voted in favor of allowing resident non-citizens such as illegal immigrants to participate in local elections. The charter amendment passed with its original wording with a vote of 4-3, with one abstention from District 1 Councilman Fazlul Kabir.The city council in College Park, home to the University of Maryland campus, has joined six other towns that allow green-card holders, illegal immigrants and other non-citizens to vote in local elections.In August, most of the residents voiced their opposition to the amendment letting all non-citizen residents to vote in local elections, but by Tuesday night, the majority wrote to the mayor in support of the proposal, Wojahn told the Post.The city hall meeting was packed and almost two-dozen people spoke against or for the motion expanding the voting privileges, Fox 5 DC reported. Local police were on hand due to previous threats and harassment over the motion.Both sides clashed verbally with one man allegedly being called a Nazi while waiting to voice his opinion against the motion.The College Park City Council meeting is about to begin @thedbk pic.twitter.com/09ZVCwv3WA Leah Brennan (@allhaeleah) September 12, 2017THIS IS SHOCKING! THE HISTORY OF ILLEGAL VOTING:The shocking thing is that Wikipedia says people who feel like they are citizens can vote Huh???The right of foreigners to vote in the United States has historically been a contentious issue. A foreigner, in this context, is an alien or a person who is not a citizen of the United States.Since 1996, a federal law has prohibited non-citizens from voting in federal elections, punishing them by fines, imprisonment, inadmissibility, and deportation. Exempt from punishment is any non-citizen who reasonably believed at the time of voting that he or she was a citizen of the United States, had a parent who is or was a citizen, and began permanently living in the United States before turning 16 years old. The federal law does not prohibit non-citizens from voting in state or local elections, but no state has allowed non-citizens to vote in state elections since Arkansas became the last state to outlaw non-citizen voting in 1926. 12 local governments, 11 of them in Maryland, allow non-citizens to vote in their local elections (Takoma Park, Barnesville, Martin s Additions, Somerset, Chevy Chase Sections 3 and 5, Glen Echo, Garrett Park, Hyattsville, College Park, and Mount Rainer). San Francisco allows noncitizens parents to vote in School Board elections (beginning in 2018).However, over 40 states or territories, including colonies before the Declaration of Independence, have at some time given at least some aliens voting rights in some or all elections. For example, in 1875, the Supreme Court in Minor v. Happersett noted that citizenship has not in all cases been made a condition precedent to the enjoyment of the right of suffrage. Thus, in Missouri, persons of foreign birth, who have declared their intention to become citizens of the United States, may under certain circumstances vote. By 1900, nearly half of the states and territories had some experience with voting by aliens, and for some the experience lasted more than half a century. At the turn of the twentieth century, anti-immigration feeling ran very high, and Alabama stopped allowing aliens to vote by way of a constitutional change in 1901; Colorado followed suit in 1902, Wisconsin in 1908, and Oregon in 1914. Just as the nationalism unleashed by the War of 1812 helped to reverse the alien suffrage policies inherited from the late eighteenth century, World War I caused a sweeping retreat from the progressive alien suffrage policies of the late nineteenth century. In 1918, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota all changed their constitutions to purge alien suffrage, and Texas ended the practice of non-citizen voting in primary elections by statute. Indiana and Texas joined the trend in 1921, followed by Mississippi in 1924 and, finally, Arkansas in 1926. In 1931, political scientist Leon Aylsworth noted: For the first time in over a hundred years, a national election was held in 1928 in which no alien in any state had the right to cast a vote for a candidate for any office national, state, or local. Read more: Fox News | 1real |
NEW BLACK PANTHER LEADER: Trump Is Right…Asks Blacks To “Re-examine The Relationship” With Democrat Party…”Democrats Pimp Us [Blacks] Like Prostitutes” [VIDEO] | Donald Trump has been crucified by the leftist mainstream media, GOP RINO s and Democrat leaders non-stop for his brash outspoken ways. But after 54 years of voting for Democrats, and getting absolutely nothing but a permanent ticket to their inner city plantation, his tough talk is starting to resonate with minorities who want to make a better life for themselves. They want to see a President who truly cares about seeing them succeed and isn t just in this race as the next step in his political career This is not going to set well with pandering Hillary Quanell X, leader of the New Black Panther Party in Houston, Texas, said this week on a local news program that black Americans should truly examine Donald Trump s outreach to the black community and reexamine the relationship that black voters have with the Democratic Party.America s in trouble. And I want to say to black and white people, only a fool fights in a burning house. This house is on fire.Read the transcript of Quanell X s remarks:Donald Trump last week went to Milwaukee because of the rioting behind the police shooting of a young African-American male by a black officer and the city was being burned down in certain parts of the black community by protesters so Donald Trump decided to go to Milwaukee and speak about the conditions of America and why he felt black people should vote for him. He even went on to lay out reasons why he felt we should.Let me say this to the brothers and sisters who listened and watched that speech. We may not like the vessel that said what he said, but I ask us to truly examine what he said, because it is a fact that for 54 years, we have been voting for the Democratic party like no other race in America. And they have not given us the same loyalty and love that we have given them. We as black people have to reexamine the relationship where we are being pimped like prostitutes, and they re the big pimps pimping us politically, promising us everything and we get nothing in return.We gotta step back now as black people and say, we ve gotta look at all the parties and vote our best interests.He spoke directly to black people. And I want to say and encourage the brothers and sisters. Barack Obama, our president, served two terms. The first black president ever. But did our condition get better? Did financially, politically, academically, with education in our community, did things get better? Are our young people working more than what is was before he came into office? The condition got worse. So now we as black people have to do and remember what the honorable Elijah Mohammed said. No politician can save the black community; we ve gotta do it ourselves.Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
Senior ex-CIA official: Putin made Trump 'an unwitting agent' of Russia | (Reuters) - A former top CIA official attacked Donald Trump on Friday as a danger to national security, saying President Vladimir Putin had made the Republican presidential candidate an “unwitting agent” of Russia. Putin had flattered Trump into supporting positions favorable to Russia, Michael Morell, a longtime CIA officer and former deputy director of the agency, said in an opinion piece in The New York Times. “In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation,” Morell said, in an article in which he endorsed Trump’s rival in the Nov. 8 election, Democrat Hillary Clinton. Morell did not provide evidence for his assertion, but he said Putin had used skills from his past as an intelligence officer to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in an individual. “That is exactly what he did early in the primaries. Mr. Putin played upon Mr. Trump’s vulnerabilities by complimenting him. He responded just as Mr. Putin had calculated,” Morell wrote. Trump’s campaign dismissed Morell’s criticism, linking the ex-CIA officer to the Obama administration’s public response after the September 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya. “Count how many reporters will tweet today that Michael Morell lied for #CrookedHillary to cover up Benghazi,” Trump’s campaign said in a Twitter message. The incident, in which the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed, occurred while Clinton was secretary of state, and Republicans have long criticized her handling of the attack and its aftermath. Critics say administration officials tried to play down the role of Islamist militants in the attacks. Morell approved talking points after the incident. U.S. officials have said any reference to militants taking part was initially dropped for classification reasons. Morell is currently affiliated with Beacon Global Strategies, a consulting firm with ties to senior Democrats with national security expertise, including former defense secretary and CIA director Leon Panetta and former top Clinton aide Philippe Reines. Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, on Friday dismissed Morell’s comments, saying that “standing up to Russian aggression is going to be really different under a Trump-Pence administration.” “These people are playing politics,” Pence said of Morell in an interview on NBC’s “Today” program. Morell’s article, in which he also said Trump had undermined U.S. security with his campaign proposal to combat terrorism by imposing a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country, added to questions raised by some national security experts about the New York businessman’s qualifications to be president. On Thursday, a bipartisan group of experts criticized Trump’s lukewarm support for the NATO alliance, comments about Russia’s annexation of Crimea and other matters as “disgraceful.” Trump has also drawn criticism for his praise for Putin as a strong leader, particularly after Moscow came under suspicion from U.S. officials as being behind recent hacking of Democratic Party groups. Moscow has denied the allegations. | 0fake |
Netanyahu pledges to promote 'responsible policies' at Trump meeting | JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would present “responsible policies” in talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, signaling to the Israeli far-right to curb its territorial demands in the occupied West Bank. Netanyahu leaves for Washington on Monday and will see Trump at the White House on Wednesday for their first meeting since the Republican’s inauguration last month, with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and policy toward Iran on the agenda. During his 2016 election campaign, Trump indicated his presidency would be a boon for Israel and tough on Palestinians, after an acrimonious relationship between his predecessor Barack Obama and Netanyahu that included clashes over settlement building and Iran’s nuclear program. Trump talked of moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, naming an ambassador who backs Israeli settlement on occupied land which Palestinians seek for a state and exerting no pressure on Israel for peace negotiations, which collapsed in 2014. But he has since toned down his pro-Israel bravado ahead of Netanyahu’s visit, a change that could help the prime minister keep in check ultra-nationalist coalition partners calling on him to push a more militant agenda. “To believe there are no restrictions now would be a mistake,” Israel Radio quoted Netanyahu as telling members of his Likud party with respect to settlement expansion now that Trump is in office. On the eve of Netanyahu’s departure for Washington, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the ultra-nationalist Jewish Home party, publicly cautioned him not to mention the words “two-state solution” in talks with Trump. Bennett’s party is also promoting the annexation of parts of the West Bank. Netanyahu has stopped short of endorsing those positions - steps that would put Israel at odds with long-standing U.S. and European policies - while speaking of building in major settlement blocs Israel intends to keep in any future peace deal. In public remarks to his cabinet on Sunday, he seemed to urge the far-right to tone down its expectations. “I understand there’s great excitement about this meeting (with Trump),” he said. “But ... my primary concern is Israel’s security (and) strengthening our solid alliance with the United States.” That, Netanyahu said, “requires responsible policies, policies that are given careful consideration - and that’s how I intend to act.” He did not elaborate. His comments appeared to echo remarks Trump made in an interview published on Friday in the pro-Netanyahu Israeli daily Israel Hayom. Calling on Israel “to be reasonable with respect to peace”, he said settlements “don’t help the process”. In recent weeks, Netanyahu approved the construction of some 6,000 settler homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, drawing Palestinian and international condemnation which the Trump administration did not join. However, Trump’s remarks in the Israeli newspaper interview appeared to take a tougher line toward Israeli settlement policy. | 0fake |
Life: 6 Things That No One Tells You About Living Alone | 6 Things That No One Tells You About Living Alone Posted today Email Time to move out and grow up.
1. You can tie your shoes with the door open: Your whole life, you’ve been used to closing and maybe even locking the door when you tie your shoes. No longer! You can do it with the door open, and don’t need to put on a fan to cover the shameful sound.
2. The newspaper doesn’t heat itself up: If you want some hot newspaper, you’re going to have to pop it in the microwave yourself. There’s no other way around it.
3. If you used to live with Manny Pacquiao, there are probably fewer punching bags around now: Get ready to have a bunch more floor space if you no longer live with boxer Manny Pacquiao, never mind not having to worry about a punching bag knocking you over after a solid strike from the world-class champ. Our tip? Set up a small little punching bag if you ever start to miss living with the legendary Filipino fighter-politician.
4. It’s a lot harder to get people to split your rent with you if they don’t live with you: This part of living alone is a pretty big bummer.
5. The toilet paper goes bad: You can’t finish a whole 12-pack of toilet paper before it expires. When you live alone, you have to buy the four-packs or even the single rolls.
6. No matter how loud you yell “Socks off!” no one is going to take them off for you: Ugh, seriously? Maybe living with roommates wasn’t so bad. | 1real |
Grief-stricken families of Japanese abducted by North Korea pin hopes on Trump | TOKYO (Reuters) - Takuya Yokota vividly remembers clutching a flashlight and running to the ocean with his mother and twin brother to look for his older sister in the dark, shouting her name. Megumi, then 13, had disappeared on her way home from school on a cold November day 40 years ago, kidnapped - it emerged decades later - by North Korean agents to help train spies. None of them has ever seen her again, one of scores Japan believes were snatched away in the 1970s and 80s. Our house was thrust into a bottomless darkness, Yokota, nine at the time, told Reuters. Every day after that was silent and hard. Now, as tensions rise after North Korean missile launches over Japan and nuclear tests, U.S. President Donald Trump has made Megumi s case part of his attacks on Pyongyang. He mentioned her in a September speech at the United Nations and during his Japan visit next week plans to meet her parents and other families whose loved ones were stolen. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made the abductions a keystone of his political career and said he won t rest until all 13 of those Pyongyang admits to kidnapping have returned and divulges information about the others Japan suspects were taken. Megumi Yokota has become the poster child for the cause. But progress has largely stalled since 2002, when five of the 13 returned home. Pyongyang said the other eight, including Megumi, were dead. Trump is the third U.S. president abductee families have met, following George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Yokota hopes the Trump meeting will give the issue new life. With Abe in charge, Megumi s return may be closer, although Yokota shows hints of impatience with Abe, in office since late 2012. I d like (Abe) to put his reputation and his government on the line and lead this issue to a resolution, he said. Toru Hasuike, the brother of abductee Kaoru Hasuike, one of those who returned to Japan, says the Trump meeting is merely a nod to Abe s conservative base. This is a performance, making political use of them, he told Reuters, referring to the Yokotas. Asking America for help is strange. It s our country, so the Japanese government should take responsibility to help them. Raising the issue will generate more awareness, but progress is unlikely, said Robert Boynton, a journalism professor at New York University and author of a 2016 book on the abductions. The sad thing is I think the North Koreans are playing a waiting game - waiting for people like the Yokotas to pass away, that the next generation won t be as exercised and the issue will just go away, Boynton said. Takuya Yokota hopes to once again meet the older sister who doted on her twin brothers. I think of her at work, I think of her before I sleep, he said. When it gets cold and the snow falls ... I wonder if she s warm enough. I think of this every day. | 0fake |
LeBron James Has Some CHOICE Words For Trump’s ‘Locker Room Talk’ And It’s BRUTAL (VIDEO) | Ever since the leaked tape of Donald Trump s hot mic before appearing on Access Hollywood revealing he has sexually assaulted women, many have been weighing in on what the candidate is calling locker room talk. Trump apparently thinks that it is perfectly fine to talk about being sexually aggressive towards women without their consent, and also apparently thinks that this is what men talk about in locker rooms.Well, one man who spends a lot of time in locker rooms is speaking up and calling out Trump, and that person is none other than the legendary NBA champ LeBron James.James told reporters what actually goes on in locker rooms, which usually has a lot to do with what happened during the game. He also said: That s not locker room talk. That s trash talk. Emphasizing the fact that he has many women in his life, as well as children, and wouldn t want that sort of talk around them, nor does he think it is okay.Good on James for speaking out against Trump and his crude and horrific talk. Hopefully, this becomes a trend, and more and more athletes take a stand against the reality television host.Trump shouldn t be allowed near women, let alone the Oval Office. Remember to vote BLUE this November 8th.Watch the video here:LeBron weighs in on Donald Trump: That s not locker room talk. That s trash talk. (via @H_Grove) pic.twitter.com/bXqXRewsNo Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 12, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
D.C. Area Planning ’Full Scale’ Terror Attack Drill Wednesday - Breitbart | Local governments in the Washington D. C. area will reportedly hold a “ ” terror attack drill Wednesday. [The drill is designed to prepare the area for an attack involving multiple locations and “teams of perpetrators” and will occur across six undisclosed locations in D. C. northern Virginia, and Maryland, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments announced in a press release. Hundreds of volunteer actors, emergency medical personnel, police, and fire officials will participate in the drill. “Law enforcement officials practice and exercise their skills on their own regularly because that’s the best way to ensure we are always ready to respond quickly and professionally,” Scott Boggs, the Council of Government’s Managing Director of Homeland Security and Public Safety, said in the release. “On April 26, we’ll go one step further and stage a very realistic emergency event involving multiple sites and actors posing as the casualties. However, there is no reason for residents to be alarmed because the exercise will occur in a controlled environment,” Boggs added. Officials say the drill will start at 7:30 a. m. Wednesday and go until afternoon. The drill has been planned for more than a year and was designed as a way to “address terror attacks such as what unfolded in 2015 in Paris” in restaurants, cafes, and concert halls, Newsweek reported. | 0fake |
Boiler Room EP #128 – “Free Speech… Not Without a War” | Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room tonight 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for bar fly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along side Andy Nowicki the Nameless One & the gang for the hundred and twenty eighth episode of BOILER ROOM. Turn it up, tune in and hang with the ACR Brain-Trust for this weeks boil downs and analysis and the usual gnashing of the teeth of the political animals in the social reject club.This week on the show the ACR Brain-Trust is back with another meeting of the Social Reject Club in the No Friends Left Zone and the gang is discussing the outcome of Free Speech Week at Berkeley, #KneeGate, a Jim Carrey follow up and much more.Direct Download Episode #128 Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved! Reference Links, for your consideration and research: | 1real |
Video: Mexican Cartel Forces Rivals to Clean in Lingerie Inside Prison | MONTERREY, Nuevo Leon — A leaked video that was allegedly taken inside a prison in this border state revealed how a group of cartel members dressed their rivals in lingerie and mocked them as they were forced to clean various cells. [The video shows a group of cartel members on their hands and knees wearing bras and other lingerie crawling on the floor while other kick them and shout various insults. The inmates are forced to clean one of the common areas inside the Apodaca state prison. Some of the insults shouted by the inmates point to the humiliated cartel members being members of the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) faction of the Zetas cartel. Breitbart Texas has reported in the past that the CDN has been fighting a territorial war with a rival faction of the Zetas called “Vieja Escuela Z” or Old School Z. It remains unclear if the inmates humiliating the CDN are rivals or members of the same faction who have switched sides. One of the men on the floor has been identified as Daniel Gustavo “El Muletas” Valencia Treviño. A regional leader within the CDN, he was named Muletas or “Crutches” due to the loss of his leg. Valencia Treviño was arrested in late February by Mexican authorities. It remains unclear when the video was taken, however Nuevo Leon authorities confirmed to Breitbart Texas that as soon as the video surfaced, they carried out a series of raids at the prisons in Apodaca and Topo Chico where they seized a cell phone, various shanks, and some small remnants of marijuana. Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “M. A. Navarro” from Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas and Tony Aranda from Monterrey, Nuevo León. | 0fake |
North Carolina Republicans Panic As Bathroom Law Makes Them Fear Their Political Doom | North Carolina Republicans should have listened when they were told there would be a backlash if they passed HB2. Now they are learning the consequences of being bigots.As soon as the anti-LGBT bill was jammed through the state legislature and signed by Governor Pat McCrory, outrage ensued.Corporations such as Paypal and Deusche Bank cancelled projects that would have meant new jobs. Entertainers cancelled concerts that would have boosted local economies. Conventions were cancelled.HB2 has become the last straw for many North Carolina voters. Ever since Republicans took control of the state government for the first time since 1896, they have let the power go to their heads by passing every wet dream piece of legislation conservatives have ever wanted.In just the last six years, Republicans have used their power to turn a state that had been traditionally moderate into one of the reddest states in the nation. The list is incredibly embarrassing, but it includes looser gun laws, highly restrictive and insulting anti-abortion laws, attempts to turn North Carolina into a declared Christian state, a war on food stamps, voter suppression laws, education funding cuts, and tax cuts for the wealthy.Perhaps no other state has been transformed as much or as fast as North Carolina, but that s exactly what happened once Republicans gained control. And North Carolina has paid a heavy price. The progress it has made since the Civil War and Jim Crow is being erased as conservatives take the state backwards.But voters are now fed up, especially since they are now facing terrible repercussions from a single law that demonstrates once and for all that Republicans are not the small government advocates they claim to be. Along with being ridiculed for trying to be the bedroom police, Republicans are now being slammed for trying to be the bathroom police.It also doesn t help that they passed this law on a lie by claiming that it was needed to protect women and children from being sexually assaulted in bathrooms. As it turns out, the only men who have gone into a women s restroom were actually sent in there by a conservative Christian group as a stunt in order to scare people when, in fact, there have been zero real instances of transgender people doing anything but using the facilities. In 17 states and over 200 cities that have transgender protections, there hasn t been a single instance of a person using the protections as a shield to excuse preying on women and children in bathrooms, a fact that even Governor McCrory was forced to acknowledge during an interview with Fox host Chris Wallace on Sunday.And now North Carolina faces the loss of billions of dollars in federal funding and perhaps more as tax dollars are spent by Republicans in their effort to defend their bigotry in court.All of this has put targets on the backs of every Republican in the state legislature and state Senate as well as Governor Pat McCrory. Voters are angry and if Republicans continue to defend HB2 they will be fired in November and replaced with lawmakers who are not insane bigots.Republicans are already beginning to panic over the prospect of losing power for another 120 years. The reality is that HB2 hurts, GOP state Rep. Charles Jeter told Politico. It doesn t matter that I m opposed to it or that I ve called for its repeal because the mailer to voters [in my race] is going to say that I was a part of the Republican majority that passed the most discriminatory bill in the state. HB2 is going to have reverberations for our party no matter what we do, in November and probably beyond that. A Republican strategist surmised that the GOP could very well lose in November over the passage of HB2. The question that will be answered in November is whether the Republicans in the General Assembly overplayed their hand, after feeling empowered by impressive gains in the last three election cycles. Republicans could lose their veto-proof majority in one or both [legislative] chambers, with a cloud of uncertainty surrounding the governor s race. And one Republican even compared what could happen to Republicans in November to the devastating 2010 midterm election when conservatives successfully vilified Democrats over the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. It s like Obamacare with Obama, which so defined everything about Democrats who were in office when it passed in 2009. And you saw what happened to them in 2010. I think you always have concerns if perception boils down to one thing equaling another. In short, political doom is looming over the heads of Republicans across North Carolina and let s hope voters keep the GOP from having power for at least another 120 years. After all, it could take that long to fix what Republicans broke.Featured Image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
GOP Calls In Thugs To Stop Clinton From Winning Key Swing State | Pennsylvania is always one of the most sought-after states in presidential elections, and even though it has been reliably Democratic, Republicans often believe that its 20 electoral votes are within reach. With that in mind, there s almost nothing the GOP won t do to get those votes, including busing in people from out of state in order to intimidate voters especially minority voters.And now Pennsylvania Republicans are going to court to do just that.The Pennsylvania Republican Party filed a complaint late Friday night asking a federal court to allow out-of-county poll watchers to monitor voting stations on Election Day.Filed on behalf of eight Keystone State voters, the suit alleges that state law restricting poll watchers to the county in which they re registered violates the First Amendment and denies them their right to equal protection under the law.Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been muttering for weeks that the election has been rigged a conspiracy theory that has coincided with him dropping in almost every national poll, from anywhere from 5 to 11 percent.As a result, many Republican voters have now convinced themselves that there is a massive national operation underway to steal the election from Trump. And Trump has told his backers that this effort is coming from cities in swing states, and those cities are largely the main source of votes from black and Latino voters, both of whom are overwhelmingly Democratic.Those voters are more motivated than usual to vote against Trump, because he launched his campaign by describing Mexicans as criminals and rapists and repeatedly making it seem as if black people only live in urban blight, forever under fire by drug gangs and enduring lives of complete desperation. Success and middle class livelihoods for ethnic minorities simply don t exist in Trump s view of the world.And his party doesn t want them voting.Featured image by Michael Candelori, CC BY 2.0 via Flickr | 1real |
Powerful hurricanes to fuel demands from island nations at climate talks | WASHINGTON/OSLO (Reuters) - Devastation from Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean will sharpen the demands from small island nations that top fossil-fuel consumers help them cope with damage attributable to climate change, according to representatives of some of those countries. That will put island nations on a collision course with the United States and other rich countries during United Nations climate talks in Bonn, Germany, in November. The United States, under President Donald Trump, has expressed doubts about global warming and has vowed to withdraw from a global pact to fight it, while other wealthy nations have long resisted calls to pay for climate-related loss and damage abroad. If ever there was a case for loss and damage, this is it, Ronny Jumeau, U.N. ambassador from Indian Ocean island nation the Seychelles, told Reuters, referring to Irma and other recent storms. The Seychelles is a member of the U.N. negotiating bloc Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). Hurricane Irma graphically shows the destructive power of climate change and underscores that loss and damage isn t some abstract concept, but the reality of life today for the people who contributed least to the problem, said Thoriq Ibrahim, Maldives environment minister who chairs AOSIS. Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, whose country will host the Bonn talks Nov. 6-17, has said the issue of who pays for loss and damage from climate-related disasters will be a key priority at the summit. Irma barreled into Florida on Sunday, sparking one of the largest evacuations in U.S. history, after leveling Caribbean islands St. Martin, Antigua and Barbuda. Gaston Browne, prime minister of Barbuda and Antigua, said Barbuda is barely inhabitable. Hurricane Harvey slammed into Texas on Aug. 25, triggering record flooding that killed around 60 people and caused billions of dollars in damage. Ministers from island nations will point to the back-to-back storms to pressure negotiators at Bonn to agree to details of a mechanism for addressing loss and damage from extreme weather as well as slower changes such as sea level rises and desertification. Climate scientists have said warmer air and water resulting from climate change may have contributed to the severity of the storms. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has disputed such claims as an attempt to politicize natural disasters. Loss and damage has been a contentious issue in climate negotiations for years, pitting rich countries against poor. Governments first approved a U.N. loss and damage mechanism in Warsaw in 2013 and reaffirmed it in the 2015 Paris Agreement. But it is unclear exactly what it would cover, who would pay, and how much it would cost. Under pressure from the rich nations, the preamble of the Paris Agreement says the loss and damage mechanism does not involve or provide a basis for any liability or compensation . Myles Allen, a professor of geosystem science at the University of Oxford in England, said developed nations don t want to open the door to legal liability. But he said there should be debate about whether major corporations, such as producers of coal and oil, or other parties could be held responsible. Researchers at the Berlin-based Heinrich B ll Foundation have said at least $300 billion a year by 2030 would be needed to help people who lose their land and culture or are forced to migrate as a result of extreme climate-related problems. Such spending would come on top of $100 billion a year in funding by 2020 that richer nations have promised poorer ones under the Paris Agreement to help them develop cleanly and adapt to climate change. Trump and the U.S. Congress have said the United States will no longer contribute to that goal. | 0fake |
Sectarian War Crimes Reported near Mosul; 283 Killed in Iraq | Share This Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi released an audio recording , the first in almost a year, and expressed his confidence in the group’s eventual victory. Amnesty International warned that is has received reports of revenge attacks on civilians in villages near the Tigris River . Victims are accusing the Sab’wai tribal militia, which is a Sunni group, of torture and false imprisonment. There are also reports that Shi’ite militiamen are interrogating civilians on the western Mosul front. In Mosul , civilians by the hundreds were able to escape the Samah neighborhood. Security forces liberated Min Gar and four other villages near Hammam al-Alil. Khafsan, Munita and Qutba were also reported freed . Also captured were Abbasiya, Ayn Shahlub, Bazzunnah, Kharar, Khubairat, Mankar, Qahira, Rahmaniyah, Shahlub, Tal Saif al Athari, Um Izzam, and Ayn al Jahsh factory. Shi’ite militiamen reported the capture of a highway linking Mosul with Raqqa , Syria. At least 283 people were killed and 84 were wounded in recent violence: In Mosul , militants killed 150 civilians as they retreated from Gogjiali . Airstrikes left 100 militants dead and 40 wounded . Eight militants were killed during house-to-house searches in Gogjiali . East of Mosul in the direction of Tal Afar , Shi’ite militias encountered many booby-traps in villages they recaptured. At least 15 militiamen were killed and 30 were wounded . | 1real |
U.S. consumer financial agency could be defanged under Trump | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, already in legal limbo after an October court decision, could find its powers scaled back by President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-led Congress, according to members of both political parties, lobbyists and lawyers. That may mean the end of many of the agency’s rule-making actions that have enraged critics, including a proposal to stop companies from blocking customers from class action lawsuits and another one to limit payday lending. Creation of the CFPB was authorized in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law enacted in the aftermath of the 2007-09 financial crisis. The agency began operations in 2011. An agency to protect consumers’ finances was the idea of liberal Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Its creation is considered one of Democratic President Barack Obama’s top domestic policy achievements. A Trump administration is expected to be hostile to the agency as it is currently formulated. “The election spells very bad news for the CFPB,” said Alan Kaplinsky, head of the Consumer Financial Services Group at law firm Ballard Spahr. Many Republicans opposed the agency’s creation. They now say they dislike its structure and believe it oversteps its authority in enforcement. “It’s a very fragile thing. It was birthed in controversy and is under constant attack,” said consumer attorney Deepak Gupta, who worked at the CFPB in its early days. “It may not survive the way we know it through this administration.” A single director leads both rule-making and enforcement, and can be dismissed only for cause. Furthermore, the agency is funded by the U.S. Federal Reserve system, which means it is not dependent on the typical congressional appropriations process. The Republican-led House of Representatives Financial Services Committee in September passed legislation without any Democratic votes that would change the name and structure of the agency and would create a five-member commission to govern it. Republicans also have pushed for the agency to receive funds from Congress to make it accountable to elected leaders. Both of those proposals would greatly weaken the power of Richard Cordray, the agency’s original and current director. Obama has blocked these Republican efforts with veto threats. Trump, though he has not directly addressed the CFPB, has said he wants to roll back parts of Dodd-Frank. Trump could, if he wanted to, fire Cordray on the first day of his presidency, especially following an October ruling by a three-judge federal appeals court panel that found the agency’s structure unconstitutional and that the president should be able to dismiss the director at will. That ruling was put on hold while the CFPB decides whether to petition the entire U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for a review or appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The agency has until Nov. 25 to decide. Trump’s administration could withdraw any appeal, letting the decision stand. Cordray, appointed in 2013, is halfway through his five-year term. Few in the banking industry think the entire agency will be eliminated. Democrats who support the agency will have a large presence in the Senate. Warren, who was Obama’s first choice to head the agency, has promised that Democrats will fight efforts to defang it. Even some bankers want to see it stay. Richard Hunt, president of the Consumer Bankers Association, said his group would fight to maintain the CFPB in some form because it consolidates consumer banking rules under one regulator. Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Cordray could be replaced early in 2017, said Mark Calabria, an economist at the libertarian Cato Institute think tank. Trump’s transition team is already looking into Cordray replacements, he said. The law allows for the president to terminate a director over inefficiency, malfeasance or neglect of duty, which leaves room for Trump to find cause regardless of what the appeals court decides, Calabria added. Cordray has set precedent with enforcement cases that Calabria and other critics have called backdoor rule-making. “Cordray has left the CFPB vulnerable to what his successor may want done because he didn’t hardwire rule-making,” Calabria said. If Cordray quits or is removed, statute calls for his deputy to step into the job temporarily. Acting Deputy Director David Silberman, also a strong consumer advocate, would likely continue to carry out the current agenda, said Quyen Truong, a partner at Washington law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. Truong was the assistant director and deputy general counsel for the CFPB until earlier this year. The CFPB did not respond to requests for comment on Cordray’s possible departure or the fate of current rule-making actions. | 0fake |
Why Hillary Clinton is Responsible for US Failures in Libya and Syria | Patrick Henningsen 21st Century Wire Hillary Clinton is the architect of US foreign policy failures in Libya and Syria. We ve heard that statement many times over the course of this US election cycle, but exactly how much truth is there to it? After researching this issue, one quickly learns that it s not only true, it s an understatement. She wasn t just an architect, she was a chief instigator. Clinton s main source of resume credibility is her tenure as US Secretary of State from January 21, 2009 to February 1, 2013. During that time, Clinton resided over the planning and conception of two devastating conflicts, Libya and Syria. These two disasters will ultimately define both the Obama and Clinton legacies, and not for the reasons one might think. I would like to stress that the case being made here is not a political one, it is a moral and ethical inquiry into the actions and conduct of a public official.Before we get into Libya, which itself is a detailed and grave tale of nation building gone wrong, let s look closely at Syria a conflict (not a Civil War) which has been dominating the international conversation for the last 4 years, but even more intensely in the last 18 months. Thus far, the results of US policy are abominable.What ownership does Clinton have over today s Syria? Today, the conflict is still being fuelled by tens of thousands of US and Gulf-backed militants, mostly of foreign origin, who comprise multiple Takfiri terrorist groups which the US insist calling rebels. This conclave includes the Islamic State (ISIS/Daesh), Al Nusra Front (al Qaeda in Syria), Arar al Sham, Nour al-din al-Zenki, Jaish al-Fatah (The Army of Conquest), along with many others. These armed groups are occupying strategic civilian areas throughout Syria, and it is a statement of fact that these terrorists are using civilian populations as human shields.A US-led Coalition is currently flying over Syria and Iraq, supposedly fighting ISIS, but is also coming dangerously close to conflict with both the Syrian and Russian militaries.Although this situation is now way beyond the pale, there was a time back in 2012 when a genuine diplomatic intervention could have helped to alter a fatal course of events.Hillary Clinton played a crucial role in initiating the current disaster.During a presidential primary debate in Milwaukee in February 2016, Clinton was quick to boast about her many achievements as Secretary of State, especially in Syria: You know, the Security Council finally got around to adopting a resolution. At the core of that resolution is an agreement I negotiated in June of 2012 in Geneva, which set forth a cease-fire and moving toward a political resolution, trying to bring the parties at stake in Syria together. It s a nice statement, but like so many of Clinton s policy eulogies, it has no basis in reality.Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development Solutions, sets Clinton straight explaining, In 2012, Clinton was the obstacle, not the solution, to a ceasefire being negotiated by UN Special Envoy Kofi Annan. It was US intransigence Clinton s intransigence that led to the failure of Annan s peace efforts in the spring of 2012, a point well-known among diplomats. Despite Clinton s insinuation in the Milwaukee debate, there was (of course) no 2012 ceasefire, only escalating carnage. Clinton bears heavy responsibility for that carnage, which has by now displaced more than 10 million Syrians and left more than 250,000 dead. Clinton s job, like most US diplomats, was to uphold the public facade that Washington is engaging in its usual list of honorable pursuits like cease fires, peace plans and protecting human rights while simultaneously helping to advance a covert agenda that achieves the exact opposite: destabilization, escalation of violence, flooding the region with weapons, and of course, working to overthrow the government of Syria. We want to pay special attention to the weapons trafficking part. Clinton was pivotal not only in coordinating with the Gulf states, but also giving political legitimacy to arming the moderate rebels (now commonly recognized as terrorists).Although the initial effort to fuel the armed insurgency in Syria was organized through Libya under the office of Secretary Clinton (which we ll demonstrate below), later efforts were formalized through a series of large weapons shipments out of NATO countries like Croatia, and then through other US-sanctioned covert smuggling projects like Operation Timber Sycamore, where the CIA, with the approval of President Obama, organized weapons shipments into Syria via Turkey and Jordan, but with Saudi Arabia footing the bill for that clandestine operation. The New York Times confirmed certain details of this in January 2016: American officials have not disclosed the amount of the Saudi contribution, which is by far the largest from another nation to the program to arm the rebels against President Bashar al-Assad s military. But estimates have put the total cost of the arming and training effort at several billion dollars. Perhaps the most important aspect of this story is this: it is absolutely illegal under International Law for foreign nations to conspire and trafficking arms into a country with the intent to overthrow the government of a nation-state.Now that might be a cause for concern for those wanting to recognize the international rule of law, but the United States, the Obama and Clinton regime has done this without any compunction at all. History shows however, that such overt flouting of international law places the entire basis of the Geneva Conventions and the United Nations at risk. Beyond this, it is also a running violation of US law in terms of providing material support (weapons, cash, supplies, intelligence and logistical support, and even political backing) to internationally recognized terrorist organizations. On those two points alone, Hillary Clinton should be not only disqualified for public office in the US, but should also face another criminal indictment for her role, along with every other US public official involved in sanctioning these operations, including Barack Obama, Senator John McCain, and a number of other US officials like Mike Rogers, former Republican Congressman from Michigan and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee when Timber Sycamore began. FRIENDS OF SYRIA : Secretary Clinton with Saudi and Qatari government officials in 2012, conspiring to destroy Syria.From 2011, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was effectively the public-facing CEO of the cynically titled, Friends of Syria. This was essentially a lobbying tour, bringing together NATO members, the Arab League and the Syrian Opposition all together to promote a policy of regime change for Syria. In reality, it was really a vehicle for raising money and planning for war. Here Clinton was flanked by her Saudi Arabian and Qatari donors to the Clinton Foundation, along with then UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, Turkey s prime minister, Recep Tayip Erdogan, a hand-picked puppet government-in-exile called the Syrian National Council, and other stakeholders all vying for a piece of Syria.Behind the pomp and circumstance, however, all parties were openly conspiring to arm militants for the purpose of upending the government in Damascus. Clinton effectively steered this process throughout her time in the cabinet a destructive process which has led to the bloodbath we see today. To any rational observer, the whole enterprise would be viewed as a failure; in terms of human loss, the refugee crisis, sectarian violence, and breeding terrorism for the next 30 or 40 years and yet, somehow Hillary Clinton is counting this as one of her achievements. Here, Sachs offers an accurate take on Clinton s abysmal legacy in Syria: .. she joined Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and right-wing Israelis to try to isolate, even defeat, Iran. In 2010, she supported secret negotiations between Israel and Syria to attempt to wrest Syria from Iran s influence. Those talks failed. Then the CIA and Clinton pressed successfully for Plan B: to overthrow Assad.When the unrest of the Arab Spring broke out in early 2011, the CIA and the anti-Iran front of Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey saw an opportunity to topple Assad quickly and thereby to gain a geopolitical victory. Clinton became the leading proponent of the CIA-led effort at Syrian regime change.In early 2011, Turkey and Saudi Arabia leveraged local protests against Assad to try to foment conditions for his ouster. By the spring of 2011, the CIA and the US allies were organizing an armed insurrection against the regime. On August 18, 2011, the US Government made public its position: Assad must go. Since then and until the recent fragile UN Security Council accord, the US has refused to agree to any ceasefire unless Assad is first deposed. The US policy under Clinton and until recently has been: regime change first, ceasefire after. After all, it s only Syrians who are dying. Annan s peace efforts were sunk by the United States unbending insistence that U.S.-led regime change must precede or at least accompany a ceasefire. As the Nation editors put it in August 2012:The US demand that Assad be removed and sanctions be imposed before negotiations could seriously begin, along with the refusal to include Iran in the process, doomed [Annan s] mission.Despite the billions spent on arming and training rebels , the millions of refugees and the hundreds of thousands dead Assad did not go as per the grand plan.Things continue to go septic. A recently released WikiLeaks email from a 2014 exchange between Clinton campaign chair, then White House advisor to President Obama, John Podesta, where the pair openly discuss common knowledge that the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar are funding ISIS terrorists. While this military/para-military operation is moving forward, we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region, Clinton wrote. This effort will be enhanced by the stepped up commitment in the [Kurdish Regional Government]. The Qataris and Saudis will be put in a position of balancing policy between their ongoing competition to dominate the Sunni world and the consequences of serious U.S. pressure. In his recent interview with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and filmmaker John Pilger, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange explains an unsettling criminal connection between Clinton and her family foundation: All serious analysts know, and even the US government has agreed, that some Saudi figures have been supporting ISIS and funding ISIS, but the dodge has always been that it is some rogue princes using their oil money to do whatever they like, but actually the government disapproves. But that email says that it is the government of Saudi Arabia, and the government of Qatar that have been funding ISIS. Aside from verifying what many already suspected, this proves that the Clinton Foundation knowingly accepted millions of dollars in charitable donations from the same Gulf states which both Secretary Clinton and President Obama knew were funding ISIS, Al Nusra Front (al Qaeda in Syria), and the rest.Taken as a whole, this represents a level of corruption that would preclude anyone from running for office, let alone the US Presidency and yet, this issue receives very little airtime in the US. The reason for this is simple: both Democrats and Republicans are up to their neck in Washington s Dirty War on Syria. Illegal Gun-running Out of Benghazi, LibyaWhen the initial Benghazi story broke in the US, the media and the Republican politicians focused almost exclusively on the US casualties during militant raids on a CIA annex and makeshift US embassy in Benghazi. Four men died on September 11th and 12th, 2012 U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens, U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, and CIA contractors Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty. Ten others were wounded in the fighting.During the aftermath, US media and GOP opposition made the story all about Hillary Clinton and the White House s failure to send reinforcements which they argue could have saved American lives. While this may have been true, it ignores the real story. This diversion was done in order to steer the narrative away from the bipartisan effort to traffic massive amounts of illegal weapons from Libya, and into the hands of US-NATO and Gulf-backed rebels in Syria.We now know that Clinton s diplomat Christopher Stevens was providing diplomatic cover for a CIA operation to transfer ex-Libyan military weapons stocks over to Syria. Many islamist fighters who fought with NATO to bring down Gaddafi in 2011 were later transferred from Libya to Syria to fight against the Syrian government.Still, despite all of this the collapse of Washington s puppet government the National Transitional Council (NTC), and Libya rapidly descending into a failed state, and the emergence of a new ISIS beach head there Clinton s inner circle remained clueless and only seem to be concerned with promoting HRC credentials in advance of her presidential run. Gateway Pundit adds: Hillary s team provides Clinton credit for her many actions that led to Qadhafi s toppling in Libya including, but not limited to: suspending the operations of the Libyan embassy in Washington; evacuating US embassy personnel in Tripoli and closing the embassy there; obtaining sanctions against Qadhafi and his family; working to suspend Libya from the Human Rights Council; appointing Special Envoy Chris Stevens to be the U.S. representative to Benghazi; engaging with UAE, Qatar, and Jordan to seek their participation in coalition operations; holding meetings with House Democrats and Senate Republicans to persuade them not to de-fund the Libya operation; and lastly, it was noted that Hillary worked to construct a $1.5 billion assets package to the National Transitional Council or NTC. Hillary saw this email sent to her from Cheryl Mills because as noted at WikiLeaks she asked for it to be printed in a subsequent email to a colleague. This email proves that Clinton s team created a list to show her responsibility for being the architect behind the overthrow of Qadhafi in Libya and the subsequent horror as a result. It is now known that the NTC in Libya is no longer in charge but it is unknown what happened to the $1.5 billion Hillary pushed to prop up this group. Here is the email via Scribd:NeoCon BedfellowsWith all the hysterical rhetoric by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party this year about Russia Hacking the US Elections, it should be pointed out that Clinton s State Department engineered a complete overthrow of a foreign government in Ukraine.There is also the case of the foul-mouthed Victoria Nuland (photo, left), Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs appointed by Clinton and charged with organizing Washington s 2014 coup d etat in Kiev.Clinton s appointee Nuland absolutely key in destabilizing the Ukraine, a move which effectively ruined US-Russian relations, leading us right up to the present geopolitical confrontation over Syria.During the m l e Nuland was also caught on tape with US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, discussing which hand-pick Washington-approved people would be filling which positions in their new unelected junta government, including the office of Prime Minister. Listen to this stunning call: Award-winning journalist Robert Parry adds, The fact is that Clinton has generally marched in lock step with the neocons as they have implemented an aggressive regime change strategy against governments and political movements that don t toe Washington s line or that deviate from Israel s goals in the Middle East. So she has backed coups, such as in Honduras (2009) and Ukraine (2014); invasions, such as Iraq (2003) and Libya (2011); and subversions such as Syria (from 2011 to the present) all with various degrees of disastrous results. The No Fly Zone FantasyAnother big problem is that Clinton sees her path to war in Syria through a No Fly Zone, to Save the poor children of Aleppo. Although it sounds good during a TV debate, it is very unrealistic in practical terms, and if implemented, it would place the US squarely at war with both Russia and Syria, and possible Iran by extension. Is that the best Clinton has to offer? Prof Michel Chossudovsky explains the fundamental flaw in Clinton s proclamation:At the third presidential debate, Hillary Clinton reasserted her commitment that if elected president, she would implement a no-fly-zone, intimating that the objective was to save lives : I think a no-fly zone could save lives and could hasten the end of the conflict. I am well aware of the really legitimate concerns you have expressed from both the president and the general, Clinton said in response to a question from Fox News debate moderator Chris Wallace. This would not be done just on the first day. This would take a lot of negotiation and would also take making it clear to the Russians and Syrians that our purpose here was to provide safe zones on the ground I think we could strike a deal and make it clear to the Russians and the Syrians that this was something that we believe was in the best interest of the people on the ground in Syria. (Fox News, emphasis added)At present, under the Obama administration, the joint chiefs of staff are opposed to the No Fly zone .The Joint Chiefs of Staff are appointed by the Secretary of Defense.Under a Clinton presidency, a new Secretary of Defense as well as a new Chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, firmly committed to A No fly Zone over Syria would be appointed.Mich le Angelique Flournoy, a former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy is Hillary s choice for the position of Secretary of Defense, who favors the No Fly Zone option. Most considerate and informed commentators now accept that a No Fly Zone is an act of war. Clinton of all people should know this after Libya.Loosening Legal Requirements for WarLast week, vice presidential running mate, Tim Kaine, said that if elected, Hillary Clinton would press lawmakers to rewrite the Sept. 14, 2001, Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) making it even easier to go to war without having the actually declare war with a Congressional vote. This bill has been a favorite of Obama who has used it as an open-ended executive path to multiple undeclared wars of aggression, and to make his war on ISIS appear legal, for now anyway.According to Kaine, Clinton believes that, it s time for us to take that now-outdated authorization, and really think about what we are confronting, and work together to reach some legislative-executive accord about what it is we re doing. Kaine told Axelrod. It s time for Congress to get back in the game and refine and revise that authorization. This is nothing more than another Washington lawyer s parlor trick to pass another AUMF bill to cover the old one. The script just keeps getting revised.This was reiterated by Clinton campaign spokesman Jesse Lehrich in July when he told Yahoo News that Clinton agrees with Senator Kaine that if we are serious about confronting ISIS, Congress ought to express its resolve to stand behind our military and win this fight by passing a new AUMF. The legislation reflected his national security aides desire that it not tie his hands. The document authorized airstrikes in Iraq and Syria in the following three years. It forbade the use of American ground troops in enduring offensive ground combat operations a term the White House described as deliberately vague. It also allowed strikes against individuals and organizations fighting for, on behalf of, or alongside ISIL anywhere in the world.Democrats have balked at supporting such a sweeping measure. Republicans have pointed to the three-year limit and the ground-combat language to argue that the AUMF improperly binds the hands of Obama s successor.The truth of the matter is that both sides see political peril in the president s proposal. Democrats recall how voting in favor of the Iraq War helped to doom Clinton s 2008 presidential ambitions. And Republicans, who could vote to remove the language they describe as objectionable, prefer to criticize Obama s handling of the conflict without taking any steps that might make them co-owners of the strategy. A lawyer s blueprint for a continuation of Washington s status quo: unconstitutional open-ended, undeclared wars of aggression, anywhere, any time.A Threat to World PeaceLike Obama, and Bush before him, and Bill Clinton before them, as president Hillary Clinton will be expected to expedite an establishment agenda written by transnational corporations and other nebulous international crime syndicates. The financial engine for this is the banking houses of Wall Street and the City of London. A basic review of the Clinton s intimate relationship with Goldman Sachs investment house should provide amble proof of Bill and Hillary s ties to that circle. This shows how, throughout their career, the Clintons have been owned and operated by these banking houses.SEE ALSO: PARTNERS IN CRIME: Goldman Sachs, The Clintons & Wall StreetSuffice to say, based on this and many other exhibits which we have left out here, Hillary Clinton is a clear and present threat to world peace.This is not to say the Donald Trump presidency will be a halcyon affair either, but we don t know that yet. This is another problem with this heavily politicized topic in the US. In order to derail any critique of Clinton s chequered past, many Clinton supporters and die-hard liberal Democrats will try to equate to words of private citizen Donald Trump with the actions of public official Hillary Clinton. If we are having a rational argument then that would simply be a false comparison.If Donald Trump were to assume the office of Presidency, then I would not hesitate to apply as harsh an analysis to his actions and policies.In terms of foreign policy and government corruption Trump is an unknown quantity, while Hillary Clinton is very well-known one, as we have demonstrated. We have already seen her handy work in both Libya and Syria. Likewise, we have seen the fruits of Bill Clinton s misadventures in Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo, not to mention his menacing economic sanctions in Iraq which killed upwards of 1 million Iraqi civilians over a ten-year period, and sowed the seeds for future wars.It should also be noted that Senator Hillary Clinton voted for the Iraq War in 2003 a war waged on a false pretense, although she now claims the war was a mistake. After a joint US-Terrorist operation that ended in the assassination and street lynching of Libya leader Mumaur Gaddafi near the town of Sirte in October 2011, during a CBS interview, a gloating Hillary Clinton made one of the most callous and disturbing remarks ever from a high-ranking diplomat when she said: We came, we saw, he died! and proceeded to laugh on camera.This clip really sums up the attitude and moral vacuum we might experience with a Clinton White House:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dmp3Jndj_o . The evidence really speaks for itself. SEE ALSO: Hillary s Russian Hack Hoax: The Biggest Lie of this Election SeasonREAD MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Qandeel Baloch, Pakistani Social Media Celebrity, Dead in Apparent Honor Killing - The New York Times | ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Qandeel Baloch, a Pakistani social media sensation, was strangled by her brother in central Pakistan, police officials said Saturday, in what appears to have been a honor killing. The police said Ms. Baloch was apparently attacked on Friday night while she was asleep in her parents’ house in Muzaffarabad, a town on the outskirts of Multan in the province of Punjab. Ms. Baloch’s brother, Waseem Ahmed Azeem, was arrested late Saturday night in connection with her death. Ms. Baloch, 26, a model, singer and social media celebrity, had gained notoriety in Pakistan recently because of provocative, seminude photographs of herself that she posted on social media sites, and appearances in music videos. Her bold persona defied the conventions of Pakistan, a deeply conservative society. She was reviled by some in the country for being crass and vulgar, and prone to stunts. But other Pakistanis admired her defiance and independence. She attracted more than 700, 000 followers on Facebook and at least 40, 000 on Twitter. “Qandeel was probably the first true female internet celebrity in Pakistan, in that her celebrity had nothing to do with any achievement beyond her provocative presence on social media,” said Hasan Zaidi, a Pakistani filmmaker and media critic. “It was unfathomable to a lot of Pakistanis that a real woman could be as brazen or shameless about her sexuality publicly, because her entire persona was built around flaunting her body, talking about sex and being in everyone’s face,” Mr. Zaidi said. Ms. Baloch’s latest appearance was in a video by an unknown singer, in which she danced provocatively to a song titled “Ban. ” The producers of the song anticipated that it could not be broadcast on mainstream entertainment channels and instead posted it on YouTube. Born to a poor family from the backwaters of Punjab, Ms. Baloch, whose real name was Fauzia Azeem, said she had run away from home to pursue her dream of becoming a star. She took to social media after unsuccessful efforts to enter the mainstream entertainment industry. In interviews, she acknowledged that she was pushing the traditional boundaries of socially acceptable behavior in Pakistan. “I know I exploited the freedom given to me by my parents,” she said in an interview with BBC. “But now, it is too late. ” In June, Ms. Baloch posted photographs of herself with a Muslim cleric, Mufti Abdul Qavi, which attracted much attention on social media. The pictures show Ms. Baloch pouting and wearing the cleric’s hat while he, seemingly bedazzled, stares into the camera. Many Pakistanis saw the photographs as scandalous, and Mr. Qavi was removed from his position on the country’s committee, which determines when Ramadan starts and ends in accordance with the Islamic lunar calendar. On Wednesday, she found herself in the spotlight again after local media outlets reported that a man identified as her former husband claimed that he had a son with her and that he had divorced her after he could not meet her demands to provide a house and a luxury car. In response, Ms. Baloch said she had been a victim of domestic abuse. Ms. Baloch was not shy about saying she wanted to be famous. In a Twitter post on Wednesday, Ms. Baloch wrote: “I will fight for it. I will not give up. I will reach my goal absolutely nothing will stop me. ” The news of her death prompted an immediate outcry on Twitter and Facebook in Pakistan, with many people condemning her killing and praising Ms. Baloch for her irreverent and uninhibited ways. “Qandeel Baloch was no role model,” Sherry Rehman, an opposition politician and a former Pakistani ambassador to Washington, posted on Twitter. “But she deserved a better life and death. Strongly condemn. ” The killing has put the spotlight back on honor killings in Pakistan. Each year, hundreds of Pakistani women are killed by relatives angered by behavior they believe has tarnished the family’s reputation, activists say. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has vowed to strengthen laws intended to prevent such killings, but critics say no concrete steps have been taken yet. In most cases, the honor killings take place within the family, said Syeda Sughra Imam, a former senator from Punjab who has pushed for legislation against the practice. “The accused and the complainant are from the same family and they forgive each other,” Ms Imam said. “No one is ever prosecuted. ” Ms. Imam’s proposed legislation calls for eliminating a “forgiveness clause” in Pakistani law that allows families to reach a financial settlement or to forgive the killer. “This killing with impunity has to stop,” Ms. Imam said. | 0fake |
WATCH: General BOMBARDS Trump For The ‘Most Anti-American Statement Ever Made By A President’ (DETAILS) | As you may already know, Trump recently shocked the nation when he went on Fox News and told Bill O Reilly that the United States is just as bad as Russia. He s been roundly denounced for what is impossible to characterize as anything other than an incredibly ignorant, asinine comment including by his own party.Retired General McCaffrey may have put it better than anyone in a recent interview with NBC s Hallie Jackson, however. You know, Hallie, I m actually incredulous that the president would make a statement like that, he said, One can argue that s the most anti-American statement ever made by the President of the United States to confuse American values with Putin, who s running a criminal oligarchy, who kills people abroad and at home, who imprisons journalists, and takes away business property, who shares it with his former KGB agents, who invades and seizes Crimea and eastern Ukraine this is an astonishing state of affairs. It s hard to know what to think about it. Here s the video: WATCH: Gen. McCaffrey: One can argue that s the most anti-American statement ever made by the president of the United States. pic.twitter.com/JFpdncvsVV NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) February 6, 2017Donald Trump s friendliness toward Russia has been a staple of his campaign, and since he entered office, his policies. With so much evidence that Russia is not our friend, it s pretty obvious he either has major business interests in Russia and money to be made, or the Kremlin has something over him. Perhaps both.Read more:Featured image via screenshot | 1real |
Turkey detains more than 160 Islamic State suspects in Ankara | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police have detained 165 people over suspected links to Islamic State in Ankara and have arrest warrants for a total of 245 suspects in the capital and surrounding province, state-run Anadolu news agency said on Thursday. It said 1,500 police officers took part in the operation across Ankara province, raiding 250 addresses. No further details were immediately available. Private broadcaster CNNTurk said police in the northwestern city of Bursa also detained 27 suspects including some Syrian nationals over alleged links to Islamic State. They confiscated documents and materials linked to the organization during raids at the addresses of some suspects, it said. | 0fake |
Macron's invitation to visit France not related to Kurdish referendum - Iraqi PM | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Saturday an invitation from French President Emmanuel Macron to visit Paris was not related to the Kurdish independence referendum. The invitation was delivered to Abadi on Aug. 26 by the French foreign and defense ministers during a visit to Baghdad, Abadi s office said in a statement, adding its purpose was to strengthen bilateral relations and concentrate efforts on fighting terrorism. A source in Macron s office said Abadi had accepted an invitation from Macron to visit Paris on Oct. 5 for talks on the Kurdish independence referendum. A phone call between Abadi and Macron, after Monday s referendum did not mention in any way the need to recognize the rights of the Kurdish people, said Abadi s statement. | 0fake |
Trump Fans Don’t Care If Melania Broke Immigration Laws Because She’s White (VIDEO) | Recently, reports have been circulating that Melania Trump may have been working illegally during her first five years in the United States, including while the GOP presidential nominee and his latest in a string of wives were dating a huge no-no to Donald Trump s idiot supporters. So Buzzfeed decided to get out there and ask Trump supporters what they thought about this new development.None of the Trump supporters Buzzfeed asked about the new information that Melania Trump s nude photographs from 1995 revealed she had actually been in the United States longer than the has previously claimed were informed about it, but few actually cared that she broke the law. After all, she isn t a Mexican rapist or a Muslim terrorist. I haven t heard about this before, but it s not true, one woman told the publication. But if, but if It doesn t matter anyway. Another explained that Hillary used to be a Republican and Trump used to be a Democrat, things change! He failed to explain how one s immigration status at a particular time can change. Another said that the media shouldn t pick on Trump s wife because Obama has gotten a pass on proving his citizenship, which is well-documented.Another man said we shouldn t pick on Trump s wife when Obama s gotten a pass on proving his citizenship. pic.twitter.com/xiwbX3bqWC Ema O Connor (@o_ema) August 4, 2016One supporter says she doesn t care about the issue. She just wants a wall and what is going on with Obama. Most of the Trump supporters I asked about Melania s questionable immigration story did not know and did not care. pic.twitter.com/aXgOv3liZX Ema O Connor (@o_ema) August 4, 2016One man decided to cut past the bullsh*t and simply explained that he and other supporters don t care if she worked here illegally because they re fine with Europeans coming here. He did not explain what he meant by that, but European-Americans is white supremacist slang for white people, so there s that.Some supporters said they wouldn t care of Melania worked illegally because they re fine w/ Europeans coming here pic.twitter.com/Mf3tWe05R6 Ema O Connor (@o_ema) August 4, 2016Trump fans love his immigration policies, but only so far as they would keep more brown people, Muslims, or others they consider undesirables from entering the country. Need evidence? Just listen to them.These people will be voting in November. Will you?Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
Angry Caller LOSES IT When Asked To Prove Media Lies About Trump – The End Is PRICELESS (VIDEO) | People who parrot and spread Trump s claims that the media lies absolutely cannot stand it when they re asked to provide examples. They try and deflect, just like Trump, except not all of them seem to be as skilled at twisting things around as Trump tries to be (and Trump himself becomes completely unhinged when someone in the media fact-checks him while talking to him). One caller into a British show ranted and raved about how the media has been twisting all these leaks coming from the White House, and the host, James O Brien, kept asking him for just one example of this.The caller became increasingly agitated at that, because apparently one shouldn t have to have evidence and examples to make a claim like that. O Brien first wanted to know how the leaks out of the White House could be real, but the news reporting the leaks was fake. The caller said: What he s trying to say to say is the media twist the leaks. If they ve just got one paragraph of the truth, they ll add another paragraph that s fake. When O Brien began pressing him harder for an example, he turned all Trumpian, saying he distrusts, and even hates, the media, but never answering O Brien s questions. The ending has quite the kicker, though, and the caller s last words are just laughable. Watch below:Featured image via screen capture from embedded video | 1real |
WOW! “N” Word Used On Walmart Website To Describe Color Of Wig | Walmart was apologizing on Monday after an appalling description of a product by a third-party vendor made its way onto the retail giant s website.The retailer was slammed early Monday after the color of a netting weave cap used as a protective layer between a person s hair and sewn-in hair extensions on its site was described as the color N Brown. Twitter user Kwani Luni tweeted a message about the wig color on WalMart s website, asking them @Walmart what are you doing? Hey @Walmart what are you doing? pic.twitter.com/ermxukU5BX Kwani Lunis (@KwaniALunis) July 17, 2017@Walmart replied to Kwani Lunis: pic.twitter.com/OL19g3Hmcq Kwani Lunis (@KwaniALunis) July 17, 2017 Shortly after the controversy erupted, Walmart removed the racial slur and replaced the Add To Cart button with a message stating that the item was no longer available.A Walmart spokeswoman later apologized for the listing in a statement to The Post. We are very sorry and appalled that this third party seller listed their item with this description on our online marketplace, spokeswoman Danit Marquardt wrote in a statement. It is a clear violation of our policy, and has been removed, and we are investigating the seller to determine how this could have happened. NYP | 1real |
Thailand’s economic future | Economic Divide People pay respects to late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej near the Grand Palace in Bangkok, October 28, 2016. (Photo by AFP)
The passing away of Thailand’s king has put the country into an uncertain state. The military junta, which has been in power after a coup, has announced one year of mourning. That will affect one of the largest industries in Thailand, namely tourism.
Thailand’s economy was sluggish to begin with. Ever since the coup, retail business activity has experienced a slump, the agriculture industry has been hit with falling commodity prices, and exports, which accounts for 70% of Thailand’s GDP, has dropped five percentage points.
It is interesting to note that the Thai stock exchange actually experienced growth after the coup, for the 20th consecutive month; yet, it then abruptly slowed down. Also of note: Thailand’s unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the world, at 1%. Loading ... | 1real |
AL SHARPTON USES PRINCE’S DEATH To Fill Seats At Race Baiting Rally For Another Thug Killed By Cops | Never let an opportunity go to waste. Its the Democrat mantra Whenever a black person dies, no matter what the circumstances, the first and most important question is: How can Al Sharpton turn this into dollars? With the death of funk/pop icon Prince yesterday, you re probably thinking there is no way the race-hustling Reverend can turn the tragedy into social justice (AKA cold hard cash) but you re underestimating his awesome powers of exploitation.The Amsterdam News reports that Al Sharpton will be holding a rally on Saturday at the National Action Network s House of Justice in New York. I m not kidding, he really has a place he calls the House of Justice. The original purpose of this rally was to protest the police shooting a black guy who pointed a gun at officers, but with Prince s untimely death, Sharpton has decided to combine faux outrage with a faux tribute.Here s the black guy who was wronged by a racist system:Tillman was fatally shot by NYPD officers on Sunday in Ozone Park, Queens. Reports indicate that he was allegedly holding an open alcohol container when officers approached him. Tillman had a gun on his waistband and allegedly ran as they approached him. Police say he reached for the weapon before officers opened fire shooting Tillman in the chest. He was pronounced dead at Jamaica Medical Center.Let s see if I have this correctly: A black guy was carrying an illegal firearm in NYC and violating the city s drinking in public law. When police tried to question him, he resisted arrest and took off. He then took out the illegal firearm and pointed it at officers and they responded by shooting him. In other words, police used appropriate force to deal with a violent life-threatening situation. How exactly is this a case of racial injustice? Oh, because the guy was black. I get it now.I guess it s getting harder and harder for Sharpton to find any real racism to rage against, so he has to work with what he s got.Just in case people have a hard time freaking out over a justified police shooting, Big Al is throwing in a tribute to Prince to get asses in the seats:As the aftermath of the death of singer Prince continues, Sharpton will conduct a special memorial in honor of the legendary entertainer and humanitarian.I wasn t aware there was aftermath from Prince s death, but it sure does seem like a shitty tribute to combine this with some bogus racial outrage over a guy who got shot for trying to kill some cops.Really the only question left is: how will Sharpton blame Prince s death on white supremacy? Was there a white conspiracy to kill the singer? Did he die because white EMTs responded slower than they would have if Prince were white? Did a white man give him the flu and force him to take opioids?Via: DownTrend | 1real |
Brexit Ruling Just Latest Tactic to Block Will of the People | Brexit Ruling Just Latest Tactic to Block Will of the People November 3, 2016 Daniel Greenfield
After the referendum made Brexit possible, I warned that the establishment would do everything possible to stop it. That should not come as a surprise to anyone. Brexit was very much a popular rebellion whose centers were well outside the centers of power. The establishment is culturally and politically hostile to it. And one of the most basic ways that the system has of sabotaging policies it doesn't like is to swamp them in procedural red tape and as much politicking as possible so as to make them unviable. Doing that to a Brexit is trickier, but it's still happening. The same old game plan is to just bog it down as much as possible until its motive energy runs down. It's worked in the past. It may not work this time. But that won't stop them from trying.
Rerun Brexit through Parliament and maximize the wrangling. The Court's ruling is certain to do that. Keep it going through the grinder long enough and maybe it'll go away. | 1real |
Alabama Lawyer Laughably Files Lawsuit Against Five SCOTUS Justices For Same-Sex Marriage Ruling | A bigoted conservative attorney in Alabama is suing the five Supreme Court Justices who voted to legalize same-sex marriage across the nation.The whining lawyer, named Austin Burdick, is after $6 million in damages because he says he can no longer do his job because the Constitution has been destroyed by Justices Anthony Kennedy, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kegan. Defendants goes beyond a manipulation, twist, strain, or unique perspective on the text and crosses over in to an abandonment of the Constitution, Burdick claims in the lawsuit. For centuries the Constitution has been the instrument of protection for the rights of citizens against government intrusion, specifically, since the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868, interpreted the plain language of the Constitution and that amendment to be a guarantee of freedom from government interference in individual liberty. Clearly, Burdick probably should not have been able to pass the bar, because his argument is ridiculous. The ruling made by the high court in Obergefell v. Hodges is the perfect demonstration of the Supreme Court ruling precisely because the Constitution protects the rights of citizens, which includes the rights of gay people. But Burdick claims the Justices rewrote the Constitution. The opinion in fact rewrites the 14th Amendment to read: Every state must make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States; further, each state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law under the guise of extending tax benefits or some other license; and any person within its jurisdiction may be deprived of the equal protection of the laws when it is fashionable to do so.' Seriously, how did this idiot get a law license?The fact is that the 14th Amendment guarantees every American citizen equal protection and due process, something that bigots like Burdick have been denying to LGBT people for decades. He is literally whining because he thinks the Constitution should allow him to discriminate against gay people.The Constitution was not rewritten and there is no reason why Burdick cannot continue to practice law, although there are reasons why he should not be allowed to do so. Suing the highest ranking judges in the nation is frivolous and a waste of the judiciary s time. The Supreme Court has the final say on what is constitutional and what is not. It says so right in the very Constitution Burdick claims has been destroyed.Burdick has apparently felt threatened by same-sex marriage since last May when he wrote on his website that all same-sex couples are after is benefits while claiming that same-sex couples haven t been denied anything at all.No same sex couple is prevented from proclaiming that they are committed to each other. No same sex couple is prevented from conducting a ceremony of their own choosing or design to add dignity to their relationship. No same sex couple is prevented from exchanging rings and vows. No same sex couple is prevented from endeavoring to live happily ever after. No same sex couple is prevented from referring to their partner as their spouse. Further, no same sex couple is prevented from announcing to the world that they are married. In fact, many of the same people who have rushed to the courthouse for a license state that they have been married for years.Make no mistake, this lawsuit is just another part of Burdick s temper tantrum. He claims same-sex couples already have the right the get married when in reality many states, including Alabama, banned same-sex couples from getting married before the Supreme Court ruling. In fact, Alabama is still trying to deny same-sex couples that right.Any self-respecting judge should laugh Burdick out of court since this is clearly just another desperate ploy by conservatives to keep their anti-gay hate alive. Featured image from Wikimedia | 1real |
Loser Donald Trump Ordered To Pay $300,000 By Judge In Florida Lawsuit | The only reality show Donald Trump should have ever been featured in is The Biggest Loser because he just got his ass handed to him in court.Two years ago, Trump National Doral Miami golf resort signed a contract worth $200,000 for a local business called The Paint Spot to provide paint used to renovate the golf course.Well, guess who tried to stiff The Paint Spot of the final $34,863 payment in the deal?Yeah, that would be Republican nominee Donald J. Trump.Trump and his company refused to honor the contract by not paying the final payment, saying that they ve paid enough for the paint. In other words, Trump negotiated a deal that ended up costing him more in the end, just like the kinds of deals he wants to negotiate for America with the rest of the world.Anyway, Paint Spot owner Juan Carlos Enriquez filed suit against Trump in court, and Judge Jorge Cueto just slapped Trump and his company with a $300,000 hit to cover The Paint Shop s attorney and court fees, nearly ten times more money than the $34,863 owed. And Trump STILL hasn t paid that debt, so how are we supposed to trust him to pay down the debt of en entire nation if he can t meet his own obligations? I m happy I have a judgment, Enriquez told the Miami Herald. But he [Trump] hasn t paid yet. You know how he says he ll surround himself with the greatest people if he is president? In this case, he might not be surrounded by the right people. This isn t even the first fine Trump has been ordered to pay this month.On the same day as his coronation as the Republican Party nominee last week, the National Labor Relations Board slapped Trump with an $11,200 fine for treating employees like shit because they tried to join a labor union.As it turns out, one employee was wrongfully fired and the other was retaliated against by denying them the promotion they had earned.For someone who claims to be the law and order candidate, Trump sure does break the law a lot.Featured Image: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images | 1real |
What Does It Take to Survive Where You Live? | License DMCA
How much does it take to get by where you live? A new report concludes that current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour doesn't come close, anywhere in the United States. It takes more than $15 per hour to earn a living wage in most states. When you throw in the rising cost of student debt, low-income Americans are even further underwater.
The report, " Waiting for the Payoff: How Low Wages and Student Debt Keep Prosperity Out of Reach (pdf)," was issued this week by the People's Action Institute. Among its findings:
* It takes more than $15 per hour to earn a living wage in 42 states and the District of Columbia. That figure is over $16 in more than half of the country, comes to nearly $20 per hour in California, and is more than $20 in New York state.
* New York State's minimum wage of $9 per hour provides only 44 percent of a living wage for a single adult and less than a quarter of the living wage for a single adult with two children."
* Arkansas had the lowest hourly rate of any state, but at $14.58 per hour it was barely below the $15 per hour minimum proposed by Fight for 15 . - Advertisement -
* The situation is even more dire for working parents. A single adult with two children needs more than $26 per hour to get by in South Carolina, more than $41 per hour in New York state, and nearly $44 per hour in Washington DC.
* 43 states and Washington, D.C. have a lower minimum wage for tipped workers. Half of tipped workers are 30 years old or older, and tipped workers are three times as likely as other workers to be impoverished.
What's the price of a dream? For people who saw college as the way to a better life, this country's student debt crisis offers a harsh answer. More than 43 million Americans now carry some level of student debt.
Student loan debt in this country now totals more than $1.3 trillion -- and it's getting worse. Common Dreams' Deirdre Fulton points to a new study from the Institute of College Access and Success which shows that the average undergraduate borrower now graduates with $30,100 in debt, a 4 percent increase from last year's figure.
Living wage figures rise even higher when the cost of student debt is factored in. The national median payment for student debt comes to $242 per month. Student debt cost increases the national average living wage from $17.28 to $18.67 per hour. - Advertisement -
College graduates typically earn higher wages, but the discrimination faced by women and people of color contributes to ongoing wage inadequacy. For example, African Americans are considerably more likely to take on student debt that white Americans, and are more likely to go to higher-cost private institutions. Women and people of color are more likely to work in tipped occupations, so the sub-minimum wage affects these groups disproportionately.
Wage discrimination is also a critical problem, both for student debt holders and low-wage workers as a whole. As the report notes:
"... Majors with a high proportion of white males, such as computer and information sciences, see starting salaries of $65,000. At the same time, English and Psychology, which see more women and people of color, have median starting salaries of $35,000 and $32,750 per year, respectively -- lower even than the traditional living wage for a single adult."
Discrimination in hiring and other systemic problems take a heavy toll. For each dollar paid to white male college graduates with degrees, black men are paid 78 cents; Latinos are paid 81 cents; black women are paid 72 cents; and Latinas are paid 69 cents. | 1real |
'Nowhere to hide': North Korean missiles spur anxiety in Japan fishing town | ERIMO, Japan (Reuters) - Ever since North Korea lobbed two missiles far above this windswept fishing town on Japan s northern island of Hokkaido, seaweed farmer Mitsuyo Kawamura says she s been on edge. Now when I hear a loud sound, I look outside, I look out at the ocean, 68-year-old Kawamura said from her seaside cottage in Erimo, where she lays out long dark strands of kombu seaweed on stones to dry in the sun. I feel anxious, like I never know when it will come again. As Japan prepares to vote in Sunday s national election, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called North Korea s escalating threats it also conducted a sixth nuclear test last month a national crisis that only he can lead Japan through. Yet the missiles that flew over Erimo on Aug. 29 and Sept. 15 created an eerie threat: No one saw or heard them. They streaked by several hundred kilometers above land, too high to see with the naked eye, before splashing into the Pacific more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) to the east. Warnings of the missiles spread through sirens and government-issued J-alerts on millions of cell phones throughout Japan, jolting some out of sleep. Kawamura has since stocked up on extra food and keeps the radio on to listen for more warnings. Like many residents here and across Japan she feels helpless, unsure of how to protect herself. When it s launched, it could land here just moments later, she said. There s nowhere to hide. Abe s rhetoric has grown harsher as North Korea has threatened to sink Japan and seems intent on developing nuclear warheads that can reach the U.S. mainland. He has repeatedly backed U.S. President Donald Trump s all-options-on-the-table stance and says now is not the time for dialogue. They promised in 1994 and again in 2005 that they would abandon their nuclear program. But they have broken their word and developed nuclear devices and missiles, Abe said at a campaign rally last week. We re not going to be deceived anymore. To protect itself, Japan has deployed 34 Patriot PAC-3 anti-missile batteries around the country, including one in Hokkaido, and Aegis defense systems on several destroyers. U.S. forces in Japan also have ballistic missile defense equipment that can if all goes well take out a missile in mid-flight. The rockets thrust tiny Erimo, population 4,850, into the global spotlight. Maps on TV broadcasts showed the missiles flight paths over nearby Cape Erimo, a jagged point that juts into the Pacific where seals frolic. At the town s docks, where fishermen sorted through the morning s haul of salmon, tossing them into vats of ice water, strong support for Abe was mixed with worries that he s too strident, putting Japan at risk. Right now, no one s better than Abe, said Satoru Narita, a 72-year-old fisherman. If anything, Japan has been too passive, said 23-year-old Ryosuke Kinoshita, who supports Abe s ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Next time they launch one, I d almost like to see us fire one back, he said. We can t live in peace and safety. But Haruki Suminoya, head of Erimo s fishing union, cautioned that being overly aggressive could provoke North Korea into lashing out. Abe s approach is too strong, too hardline, he said. A more restrained approach is better. The recent war of words between Trump and North Korea unsettled many residents, who pointed out they were a much closer target than the United States. While pressure was needed toward North Korea, being too tough could be disastrous, said Mayor Masaki Ohnishi. If North Korea does something serious, Japan is within shooting range. So far, it seems that Abe is winning over voters. Nationwide polls show the LDP is headed for a big win this weekend. Erimo residents were divided on Abe s signature policy of revising Japan s war-renouncing constitution to clarify the status of the country s military. Critics worry that it could lead to an expanded role for the armed forces overseas and entangle it in U.S.-led conflicts. But Shinto priest Hirotaka Tezuka, 39, said the constitution had grown outdated. We need a constitution that s better suited to the present era. Yoshihiro Naito, 77, opposed the idea. The commitment we ve made not to wage war has kept Japan safe. He plans to vote for an opposition party because he thinks Abe and the LDP have become too powerful. Town officials said they have not taken any particular precautionary steps following the recent missile launches, nor do they plan any duck and cover drills that have been held elsewhere. The town has loud speakers on 50 tall poles to broadcast warnings for tsunamis, typhoons and now missiles. In recent months, they have installed wireless units in 1,500 of the 2,200 homes so people can hear them when they are indoors. Erimo also has emergency stocks of food, water and other supplies, the mayor said. That s particularly important for Erimo because it is linked to the rest of Hokkaido by only one coast-hugging road, which gets closed several times a year due to heavy rains or massive waves. Local fishermen are nervous about North Korea s warning that it might conduct a hydrogen bomb test over the Pacific, which they worry would contaminate the water like the Fukushima nuclear disaster did in 2011. The radiation would make all the fish inedible, said Narita, the elderly fisherman. Like in Fukushima, we couldn t do our jobs. The town s dwindling fishing industry has already been hit hard by a plunge in the salmon catch as well as by a dearth of youngsters to take over the trade. When young people move away to cities such as Sapporo, Hokkaido s capital, sometimes their parents follow them, residents said. Erimo s population, which peaked above 9,000 in the 1960s, has fallen to nearly half that level. We re a fishing town, said Naito, so if we can t catch fish any more, we re finished. | 0fake |
EPA locks in 2025 fuel efficiency rules | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy on Friday finalized a determination that the landmark fuel efficiency rules instituted by President Barack Obama should be locked in through 2025, a bid to maintain a key part of his administration’s climate legacy. Major U.S. and foreign automakers have appealed to President-elect Donald Trump, who has been critical of Obama’s climate policies, to review the rules requiring them to nearly double fleet-wide fuel efficiency by 2025, saying they impose significant costs and are out of step with consumer preferences. As part of a 2012 regulation, EPA had to decide by April 2018 whether to modify the 2022-2025 model year vehicle emission rules requiring average fleet-wide efficiency of more than 50 miles per gallon. In November, the agency moved up the timetable for proposing that automakers can meet the 2025 standards. McCarthy said in a statement her determination, a legally binding decision to maintain the fuel efficiency rules, rests on an extensive technical record. McCarthy said in her determination the rules are “feasible, practical and appropriate” and in “the best interests of the auto industry.” She told automakers the EPA could consider adopting new rules “to provide additional incentives for very clean technologies or flexibilities that could assist manufacturers with longer term planning.” In 2011, Obama announced agreement with major automakers to raise fuel efficiency standards to 54.5 miles per gallon. This, the administration said, would save motorists $1.7 trillion in fuel costs over the life of the vehicles, but cost the auto industry about $200 billion over 13 years. In July, EPA said because Americans were buying fewer cars and more SUVs and trucks, it now estimated the fleet will average 50.8 mpg to 52.6 mpg in 2025. Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade association representing General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co, Toyota Motor Corp , Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) and others, criticized the decision. “Our fundamental priority remains striking the right balance to continue fuel economy gains and carbon reduction without compromising consumer affordability and vital auto-sector jobs,” she said. Automakers hope to work with regulators and California, Bergquist said, “to see whether we can find a prudent compromise path forward that avoids an unnecessary and counterproductive regulatory collision.” Environmental groups praised the decision. Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the standards were working. “Automakers have the technologies to continue their progress in a cost-effective way. It will keep us on track to reduce oil use by 2.4 million barrels a day, cut global warming emissions and keep American-made vehicles competitive in a rapidly-changing global market,” he said. Legal experts have said it will be more difficult for the Trump administration and Congress to undo the determination than to unwind other regulatory actions issued by the Obama administration during its final months in office. The 2025 determination is not a new regulation, so the EPA, under Trump, would likely have to go through an extensive process before withdrawing the determination, and could face lawsuits from environmental groups if they took that step. Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in a statement “a new administration is no reason to shift progress to reverse.” | 0fake |
Deutsche Bank asks for more time for U.S. query on Trump, Russia: source | FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany’s largest bank has asked for more time to respond to a request from Democrats on a U.S. House of Representatives panel for details about U.S. President Donald Trump’s possible ties to Russia, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday. Deutsche Bank’s (DBKGn.DE) external counsel sent a letter dated Friday June 2 to the Democrats saying it needed additional time, the source told Reuters. The person spoke on condition of anonymity and declined to specify how much more time the bank’s counsel needed. Several Democrats on the U.S. House Financial Services Committee sent a letter last month to John Cryan, chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank, seeking details that might show if Trump’s loans for his real estate business were backed by the Russian government. The letter asked for details of internal reviews of Trump’s transactions and gave the German bank until Friday to respond. Deutsche Bank has declined to comment about any business dealings with Trump. The Republican president is mired in controversy over FBI and congressional probes into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and potential collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign. Moscow has denied the allegations, and Trump has denied any collusion. Maxine Waters, Democrat representative for California and a member of the committee, was one of the original letter’s five signatories. She confirmed through a staff member on Monday that Deutsche did not provide “substantive responses to our requests”. “Congress remains in the dark on whether loans Deutsche Bank made to President Trump were guaranteed by the Russian government, or were in any way connected to Russia,” the Democrats wrote in their request to Deutsche Bank. “It is critical that you provide this committee with the information necessary to assess the scope, findings and conclusions of your internal reviews,” they said. The Democrats cannot compel Deutsche Bank to hand over the information. The House committee has the power to subpoena the documents, but Republican committee members - who make up the majority of the panel - would have to cooperate. No Republicans have signed the document request. The congressional inquiry is also seeking information about a Russian “mirror trading” scheme that allowed $10 billion to flow out of Russia. In January, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $630 million in fines for organizing the scheme that could have been used to launder money out of Russia. The trades involved, for example, buying Russian stocks in roubles for a client and selling the identical value of a security for U.S. dollars for a related customer. | 0fake |
Britain's Boris Johnson says completely loyal to PM May | MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said he was completely loyal to Prime Minister Theresa May on Sunday. When asked if he was completely loyal, he told Reuters: Yes. Yes of course. | 0fake |
HILLARY’S STATE DEPARTMENT DESTROYED 13 Of Her Mobile Devices With Hammers…WATCH Incredible 2015 Video: Hillary Tells Reporters She Only Used ONE Mobile Device [VIDEO] | I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails instead of two. Just the kind of person we need running our country a lying, corrupt and crooked woman; who feels she deserves the highest office in our nation because she comes equipped with the proper genitalia Any woman (or man) who supports this common criminal should be hanging their head in shame: | 1real |
Secret Service Rushes Donald Trump Offstage In Nevada As Paid Hillary Supporter With Gun Attacks | Secret Service Rushes Donald Trump Offstage In Nevada As Paid Hillary Supporter With Gun Attacks 'Nobody said it was going to be easy for us,' Trump declared. 'But we will never be stopped. Never, never be stopped.''I want to thank the Secret Service. These guys are fantastic. They don't get enough credit. They don't get enough credit. They're amazing people.' 5, 2016 Secret Service agents rushed Donald trump offstage on Saturday evening during a rally in Reno, Nevada after they determined a protester in the audience with a gun posed a threat to the Republican presidential candidate. ‘Go! Go!’ they shouted as they whisked him away and a combination of local police and private security wrestled the suspect to the ground. Thousands of people scattered like a sea of bodies, screams rang out and authorities dragged the man away as he kicked and strained. Trump returned to the stage just five minutes later. ‘Nobody said it was going to be easy for us,’ Trump declared. ‘But we will never be stopped. Never, never be stopped.’ ‘I want to thank the Secret Service. These guys are fantastic. They don’t get enough credit. They don’t get enough credit. They’re amazing people.’ Secret Service Swarms in to Protect Donald Trump After Scare in Reno Trump had spotted the protester and claimed he was a Hillary Clinton supporter before asking security to ‘take him out.’ As he returned to his speech, Trump thanked a group of fans near the stage who had stepped in to subdue his would-be attacker. ‘You were amazing, fellas,’ he said. ‘I saw what you were doing. That’s a tough group of people right that… Nobody messes with our people, right?’ Trump then returned to his regular speech. JUST NOW: Donald Trump was just rushed off stage during his Nevada campaign rally: https://t.co/7fTJ3N3MQN pic.twitter.com/Hm7CRdFDTU
— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 6, 2016 Federal agents and tactical officers from Reno Police removed the man and placed him in a bathroom near a secure entrance where Trump’s motorcade and the press vehicles were staged. Two audience members told DailyMail.com that they had seen the man holding a firearm. That has not been confirmed by law enforcement. As police and good Samaritans took him down, the crowd surged backward and strained against the press section. ‘CNN sucks!’ one man yelled. ‘You people caused this!’ Audience members at the front of the crowd reportedly said they saw the man raise up a sign before a scuffle ensued. Saturday’s incident marked the second time Secret Service had to intervene to get Trump out of harm’s way. In March a man leaped over a police barricade during a Trump rally at an airport hangar in Dayton, Ohio. The man,Thomas Dimassimo, was charged with disorderly conduct and inciting panic, but he never reached the stage. Secret Service tackled him when he was still several yards away from the candidate. ‘I was ready for him, but it’s much easier if the cops do it, don’t we agree?’ Trump said at the time. ‘And to think I had such an easy life! What do I need this for, right?’ At this time a motive is not clear. source | 1real |
SHOCKER! BRATTY KID WHO SAID “Screw Our President!” Is Drew Carey’s Son! [Video] | Immediately after this happened, Charles Krauthammer came on and destroyed the left!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9h_Jbxe5Cw | 1real |
Frank Gaffney: Trump Restores Reagan’s ‘Peace Through Strength’ Doctrine | Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney discussed the Trump administration’s opening moves with SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily. [Gaffney began with a story about one of his colleagues delivering copies of the Center for Security Policy’s book CAIR Is Hamas on Capitol Hill and discovering he couldn’t deliver a copy to noted opponent Sen. Pat Leahy ( ) without a government ID. LISTEN: “This individual could vote without that ID, of course, but he can’t give Senator Leahy a book about an internal threat to our country from Hamas. It’s just ridiculous,” Gaffney said. He pronounced himself pleased with President Trump’s first week, saluting “the signaling, and the executive orders, and the statements that the President has made thus far, and the statements for that matter that even people like Rex Tillerson and his confirmation hearing made about the nature of the challenges we’re facing internationally and the necessity of rebuilding our military to contend with them. ” Among those necessary measures he included constructing a missile defense system and eradicating radical Islamic terrorism from the face of the earth, as Trump has promised. “These are very encouraging signs,” Gaffney said. “It’s not so much an aggressive national security policy, Alex, with respect. It’s a policy that’s rooted in the principle that Ronald Reagan, my old boss, espoused and practiced called ‘Peace Through Strength.’ I think it’s very welcome, and long overdue, frankly. ” He noted that, with the exception of the invasion of Grenada, Reagan didn’t “actually have to use our military power,” but he rebuilt it and “created, as part of a larger strategy, conditions that brought down our principal enemy — without firing, as they say, a shot — the Soviet Union. ” “I think Donald Trump gets this. If you want to prevent wars, prepare to fight them,” he advised. “There are a lot of people around the world who witnessed Barack Obama take the opposite approach, weaken us, hollow out our military, signal a desire for appeasement at any price. And they became much more dangerous. ” “The prospect of a conflict with Communist China today, Alex, as you know, is vastly higher than it was a decade ago,” he pointed out. “And that’s partly because the Chinese have been rapidly building the military with which to attack us, and to dominate the South China Sea, and so on. But partly it’s also because they have perceived the opportunity for either getting what they want without conflict, their strategy of strength to obtain their objectives — or they think if they do have to have a conflict with us, they’ll prevail in it. ” “So this is a very dangerous approach. It’s been proven to fail time and time again, whereas I believe peace through strength has been proven to work rather consistently throughout the course of human history,” Gaffney asserted. Marlow asked Gaffney about the significance of President Trump’s plan to move the U. S. embassy for Israel to Jerusalem. Gaffney described the state of affairs as “bizarre,” noting that Israel is the only country he knows of where the U. S. embassy isn’t located in the national capital. “The signals that Donald Trump has sent, in terms of his commitment to restore the kind of strong partnership and strategic alliance that we have historically had with Israel, is a signal, a statement, of his break with his predecessor,” he said. “It’s important not just because it matters to our security whether Israel is secure, but it’s also important because it restores the sense that it’s also better to be a friend of the United States than an enemy. ” “Obama had that completely backwards, and as a result we had more enemies, and I think fewer friends,” he observed ruefully. Gaffney said moving the U. S. embassy was “important in a number of respects,” beginning with Jerusalem being “the rightful place for us to be represented. ” “Second of all, it sends a signal of our commitment to Israel, and the status of Jerusalem as the undivided eternal capital of the Jewish state,” he continued. “People talk a lot about, well, there will be violence, there will be the Palestinians and holy war and all the rest. I seriously doubt it, because I think the Arabs at this moment more generally, beyond the Palestinians — for whom, by the way, they don’t have a whole lot of use — have a view that this is a time to cultivate a relationship with Donald Trump, not precipitate conflict with him. I don’t think they’re going to have much truck with the Arab street blowing up. ” “Here’s the larger point: if Donald Trump, having made this commitment to Israel, backs away from it, that will be seen by the very radical Islamic terrorists that he has promised to eradicate from the face of the earth, as evidence that they can in fact extort him to submission. That’s exactly the wrong message to send,” Gaffney warned. “I think it’s time. I think that he can do it quite easily, actually. I believe the first order of business ought to be simply to change out the plaque in front of the consulate in Jerusalem. Call it an ‘embassy.’ It’s a done deal on Day One,” he advised. “I think there may be histrionics, but I think they’re eminently manageable. The symbolism is very important, both to Israel, and I think to potential adversaries. ” Marlow referred to the criticism Trump has taken for his “America first” policy, suggesting critics have willfully misinterpreted it to mean “America only,” and wondered if Trump would have difficulty sticking to such a dramatic change in U. S. policy outlook, or keeping his bold promise to “eradicate radical Islamic terrorism from the face of the earth. ” Gaffney said frankly that it would depend, in part, on “whether he remains committed to the sorts of principles and guiding philosophy that he’s laid out, not just in this particular context or in his inaugural address, but throughout the campaign. ” He pointed to the decisions Trump was scheduled to announce today about “restricting entry into this country against people who do not share our values, and who specifically may be trying to bring in this totalitarian sharia doctrine” as a demonstration of the President’s determination to stand by his campaign promises. “I think if he hews to all of those principles, he’s going to be fine. If he staffs his administration — this is the kicker — if he staffs his administration, not just at the Cabinet level, with people who hew to that line as well, he will be fine,” Gaffney predicted. “There is a concern, I have to tell you, among some of us that at lower levels, people who don’t seem to share that are being considered, or actually given, appointments, and people who do share those principles are not,” he added. “So this is very much a work in progress. I believe Donald Trump is very on this. I think that a number of the people around him — our mutual friend Steve Bannon among them, Michael Flynn of course, the National Security adviser, General Mattis at the Defense Department, Rex Tillerson in his statements before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — they seem to get it,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure that they’ve got people below them who support and will faithfully execute the President’s policy of protecting us against whatever you want to call it: radical Islamic terrorism, sharia supremacism, you pick your term. That’s the mortal threat of our time. And by the way, it is present here in the form of the Muslim Brotherhood. I hope one of the early actions — a defining action of this President — will be that he designates the Muslim Brotherhood as what it is, a terrorist organization,” said Gaffney. Marlow concluded by asking for Gaffney’s take on the Syria peace talks currently being held in Kazakhstan under the auspices of Russia, Turkey, and Iran, but pointedly excluding the U. S. and its coalition partners from a major role. “Well, we’ve seen this movie before,” Gaffney replied. “I’ll be very surprised if the has any duration to it at all. I think the truth of the matter is, what’s happening on the ground, Alex, is that the people who have been fighting this civil war to this point, primarily, against the government of Syria — the Sunni Arabs — are being displaced. They’re being replaced by Shiites from Iraq, in many cases, and elsewhere. ” “You’re going to see a population transfer that I think ultimately will cause this Syrian conflict to peter out — with the government of Assad still in power, the Russians in a stronger position, the Iranians of course in a much stronger position, having created what’s been called a ‘Shiite Crescent’ from their own country all the way to the Mediterranean,” he predicted. “They’re very important, and frankly very dangerous, strategic developments, but I think that’s where this is headed. ” Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. Listen to the audio of the full interview above. | 0fake |
Top Trump aide plans talks in Canada with Trudeau team: source | CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A top adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump plans to hold talks in Canada on Tuesday with members of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s team, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, will travel to Calgary, Alberta, where Trudeau and his cabinet are holding a two-day retreat focused largely on the new U.S. administration. | 0fake |
Russia, China call for restraint after Trump comment on North Korea | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and China called for restraint on North Korea on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump warned over the weekend that only one thing will work in dealing with Pyongyang, hinting that military action was on his mind. When asked what Russia made of Trump s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters: Moscow has called and continues to call on the parties involved in the conflict and on those who have anything to do with this issue to exercise restraint and to avoid any steps that would only worsen the situation. Commenting on a Trump statement that the United States might withdraw from a nuclear deal with Iran, Peskov said such a move would have negative consequences. Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying reiterated a call for all parties involved with the standoff in North Korea to exercise restraint, describing the situation as extremely complex and serious. China hopes all sides do nothing to irritate each other or worsen the problem and speak and act cautiously, she told a daily news briefing. In recent weeks, North Korea has launched two missiles over Japan and conducted its sixth nuclear test, all in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and may be fast advancing toward its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. Trump repeatedly has made clear his distaste for dialogue with North Korea. Last week, he dismissed the idea of talks as a waste of time, a day after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington was maintaining open lines of communication with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un s government. Our country has been unsuccessfully dealing with North Korea for 25 years, giving billions of dollars & getting nothing. Policy didn t work! the U.S. president said in a Twitter post on Monday. Trump s comments seemed to further suggest that military action was on his mind. On Saturday, Trump made a similar comment on Twitter about how negotiations have failed for 25 years and said only one thing will work with North Korea. | 0fake |
Equifax two top technology executives leave company 'effective immediately' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Equifax said on Friday that it made changes in its top management as part of its review of a massive data breach, with two technology and security executives leaving the company “effective immediately.” The credit-monitoring company announced the changes in a press release that gave its most detailed public response to date of the discovery of the data breach on July 29 and the actions it has since taken. The statement came on a day when Equifax’s share price continued to slide following a week of relentless criticism over its response to the data breach, Lawmakers, regulators and consumers have complained that Equifax’s response to the breach, which exposed sensitive data like Social Security numbers of up to 143 million people, had been slow, inadequate and confusing. Equifax on Friday said that Susan Mauldin, chief security officer, and David Webb, chief information officer, were retiring. The company named Mark Rohrwasser as interim chief information office and Russ Ayres as interim chief security officer, saying in its statement, “The personnel changes are effective immediately.” Rohrwasser has led the company’s international IT operations, and Ayres was a vice president in the IT organization. The company also confirmed that Mandiant, the threat intelligence arm of the cyber firm FireEye, has been brought on to help investigate the breach. It said Mandiant was brought in on Aug. 2 after Equifax’s security team initially observed “suspicious network traffic” on July 29. The company has hired public relations companies DJE Holdings and McGinn and Company to manage its response to the hack, PR Week reported. Equifax and the two PR firms declined to comment on the report. Equifax’s share prices has fallen by more than a third since the company disclosed the hack on Sept. 7. Shares shed 3.8 percent on Friday to close at $92.98. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has built a reputation as a fierce consumer champion, kicked off a new round of attacks on Equifax on Friday by introducing a bill along with 11 other senators to allow consumers to freeze their credit for free. A credit freeze prevents thieves from applying for a loan using another person’s information. Warren also signaled in a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency she helped create in the wake of the 2007-2009 financial crisis, that it may require extra powers to ensure closer federal oversight of credit reporting agencies. Warren also wrote letters to Equifax and rival credit monitoring agencies TransUnion and Experian, federal regulators and the Government Accountability Office to see if new federal legislation was needed to protect consumers. Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen and more than 30 others in a state group investigating the breach acknowledged that Equifax has agreed to give free credit monitoring to hack victims but pressed the company to stop collecting any money to monitor or freeze credit. “Selling a fee-based product that competes with Equifax’s own free offer of credit monitoring services to victims of Equifax’s own data breach is unfair,” Jepsen said. Also on Friday, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate subcommittee on Social Security urged Social Security Administration to consider nullifying its contract with Equifax and consider making the company ineligible for future government contracts. The two senators, Republican Bill Cassidy and Democrat Sherrod Brown, said they were concerned that personal information maintained by the Social Security Administration may also be at risk because the agency worked with Equifax to build its E-Authentication security platform. Equifax has reported that for 2016, state and federal governments accounted for 5 percent of its total revenue of $3.1 billion. Equifax, which disclosed the breach more than a month after it learned of it on July 29, said at the time that thieves may have stolen the personal information of 143 million Americans in one of the largest hacks ever. The problem is not restricted to the United States. Equifax said on Friday that data on up to 400,000 Britons was stolen in the hack because it was stored in the United States. The data included names, email addresses and telephone numbers but not street addresses or financial data, Equifax said. Canada’s privacy commissioner said on Friday that it has launched an investigation into the data breach. Equifax is still working to determine the number of Canadians affected, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada said in a statement. | 0fake |
Americans Are So Disconnected From Reality That “Insouciant” Has Become An Euphemism | Does The Russian Government Have A Reality Disconnect? — Paul Craig Roberts (10/25/2016) Dear friends and readers,
PCR's new book, THE NEOCONSERVATIVE THREAT TO WORLD ORDER, is now available: In Print and Digital Format by Clarity Press Quarterly Call to Donations
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Americans Are So Disconnected From Reality That “Insouciant” Has Become An Euphemism
While the idiot presstitutes and their brainwashed victims hyper-ventilate about Trump’s lewd talk about women, one consequence of the ignored nuclear arms race restarted by the neoconservatives, who have been in charge of US foreign policy in the 21st century, is the Russian Satan 2, which is reported to be capable of destroying the entirety of a land mass the size of Texas or France with one hit.
The neoconservative foreign policy that has produced this result is obviously a total failure and endangers all life on earth. Hillary Clinton is a representative of this disastrous foreign policy. If Americans and Europeans cannot put into office people who can get along with Russia, there is no future for anyone. Trump is the only one who says he sees no point in conflict with Russia. This is what is important, not lewd talk about women.
Hillary’s lewd talk about Putin –“the new Hitler”–will get us all killed.
http://newatlas.com/rs28-sarmat-satan-2-russian-icbm/46127/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=013c2812c9-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-013c2812c9-92498229 Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West , How America Was Lost , and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order . Newsletter Notifications Signup Form | 1real |
Trump Goes On Stunningly Bigoted Rant, Says He Will Not Allow Military Service Of Transgender Soldiers | We always knew that the Trump Administration was anti-LGBTQ. However, he just went full throttle on Twitter in an incredibly bigoted way. Despite his promises during the campaign, Trump is now insisting that transgender people should not be included in military service. Trump tweeted that transgender people would never serve in the military under his direction. Trump tweeted:Of course, this is a major reversal of Obama-era policies. President Obama ended the travesty that was Don t Ask, Don t Tell for lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members. Now, he is going after the policy that would provide healthcare for transgender soldier. Trump just effectively let the nation know that he has every intention of taking the nation back to a time when equality was simply not on the table for anyone not straight, white, Christian, and cisgender.Of course, this is red meat for Trump s bigoted base. Also, his rabidly anti-LGBTQ #2 Soldier in bigotry, Mike Pence, likely had a whole hell of a lot to do with this. Pence hates LGBTQ people, as was shown by the actions and statements he made first during his time in Congress, and then as Governor of Indiana.This is disgraceful. Trump made all kinds of promises he is refusing to keep. He promised he wouldn t go after LGBTQ people. He promised to be a president for all Americans. He has now officially proven that he never had any intention of doing any such thing.This is indeed a dark day for America.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1real |
Trump praises Ford, Fiat Chrysler for U.S. investments | DETROIT (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump praised Ford Motor Co (F.N) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCAU.N) on Monday for announcing new investments in the United States after he made U.S. auto production a key part of his campaign. Ford announced last week it would abandon plans to build a $1.6 billion plant in Mexico and would invest $700 million in a Michigan plant over four years, while Fiat Chrysler said Sunday it will invest $1 billion and add 2,000 jobs at plants in Ohio and Michigan to build new SUVs and pickup trucks. Both companies have said they made the decision for business reasons and not because of pressure from Trump, but praised the president-elect for seeking to improve the climate for businesses to operate in the United States. Fiat Chrysler chief executive Sergio Marchionne said at the Detroit auto show on Monday that the decision had been in the works for a long time and was “coincidental” to Trump’s tweet last week criticizing the company. “We didn’t twist ourselves into a pretzel (to make this decision)... It wasn’t a preemptive strike against a tweet,” Marchionne said during a roundtable discussion. Marchionne was asked about tariffs that Trump has threatened to impose on vehicles imported to the United States from Mexico and elsewhere and he said that Fiat Chrysler will live with any new rules. However, he added that it was “quite possible” that heavy tariffs on Mexican imports could force the company to close Mexican plants. Trump, a real estate developer who takes office on Jan. 20, has repeatedly singled out companies in the auto sector and other industries for not doing more to keep jobs in the United States. Trump, a Republican, also criticized Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) last week for shifting production of its Corolla from Canada to Mexico. The company has said there is no impact on U.S. employment as a result of the change. “It’s finally happening - Fiat Chrysler just announced plans to invest $1BILLION in Michigan and Ohio plants, adding 2000 jobs,” Trump said in a tweet on Monday. In a follow up tweet, he added: “Ford said last week that it will expand in Michigan and U.S. instead of building a BILLION dollar plant in Mexico. Thank you Ford & Fiat C(hrysler).” Ford announced on Monday it will build the Bronco SUV and Ranger pickup at its Wayne assembly plant but will shift production of its Ford Focus car. Because of low demand, it will shift the Focus to an existing Mexican factory, rather than to a new factory as was announced in April. | 0fake |
FOX News Just Admitted It Made Up Story About Hillary Being “Indicted” For Foundation | Comments
The alt-right and other Trump supporters were flush with excitement yesterday as their online echo chamber resounded with stories that Hillary Clinton was about to be indicted on the basis of the newly discovered emails on Anthony Weiner’s computer. Today, of course, we learned that this was nothing but a bold-faced lied. While many of the more obscure right -wing blogs named nothing but imaginary sources to support their outrageous claims , the most legitimate source of the false story was none other than Fox News.
On November 2 Fox News’ Bret Baier claimed that, according to two anonymous sources within the FBI, the agency’s investigation of Clinton would “continue to likely an indictment.” The very next day reality forced him to walk back those claims, which he called “inartful,” acknowledging that “that’s not the process.”
Nonetheless, Baier did not entirely disavow his ruse of an imminent Clinton indictment, maintaining that “there is confidence in the evidence.” Given that Clinton’s indictment has been impending for months in the right-wing universe one would think that these shameless schemers would have wised up to the fact that it’s not going to happen – and for good reason . Instead, every time there is the slightest mention of Clinton’s emails, no matter how vague and clearly inconsequential , the alt-right rumor mill kicks into overdrive on its vicious crusade to smear the potential first female president in any way possible.
In reality, there is absolutely nothing so far to suggest that there is anything incriminating in the most recent batch of Clinton emails, and it has become increasingly clear that FBI Director James Comey’s announcement of the renewed investigation was nothing but a cynical and hypocritical political ploy. In part the announcement was designed to fuel a new Republican storyline that Clinton is unfit for the presidency because she is under federal investigation. The demagogues making these claims conveniently ignore the fact that Trump is under investigation in no fewer than 75 cases , including the rape of a 13 year-old girl.
Another disconcerting storyline in yesterday’s firestorm of right-wing rumors is the political interference of Trump supporters in the FBI. If Baier’s so-called anonymous sources really were FBI agents, it would represent yet another recent example of meddling in the presidential election by Trump supporters at the supposedly impartial agency. In any case, the endless lies and distortions of the right-wing pseudo-media, from Fox News down to the lowliest blog, are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people. | 1real |
Democrats in disarray on eve of convention to nominate Clinton | PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The head of the Democratic Party resigned on Sunday amid a furor over embarrassing leaked emails, hoping to head off a growing rebellion by Bernie Sanders supporters on the eve of the convention to nominate Hillary Clinton for the White House. Lingering bitterness from the heated primary campaign between Clinton and Sanders erupted after more than 19,000 Democratic National Committee emails, leaked on Friday, confirmed Sanders’ frequent charge that the party played favorites in the race. In a statement, DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the best way for the party to accomplish its goal of putting Clinton in the White House was for her to step aside after the convention. Sanders had demanded earlier in the day that Wasserman Schultz resign. The furor was a blow to a party keen on projecting stability in contrast to the volatility of Republican candidate Donald Trump, who was formally nominated at a raucous convention in Cleveland last week. It also overshadowed preparations in Philadelphia for Clinton’s coronation as the nominee to face Trump in the Nov. 8 presidential election. She will be the first woman nominated for president by a major U.S. political party. The four-day Democratic convention will open on Monday. In some good news for Clinton, The New York Times reported that businessman and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will endorse her in a prime-time speech on Monday, saying she will be the best choice for moderate voters in 2016. The cache of emails leaked on Friday by the WikiLeaks website disclosed that DNC officials explored ways to undermine Sanders’ insurgent presidential campaign, including raising questions about whether Sanders, who is Jewish, was really an atheist. Sanders said Wasserman Schultz, a U.S. representative from Florida, had made the right decision for the future of the Democratic Party. “The party leadership must also always remain impartial in the presidential nominating process, something which did not occur in the 2016 race,” he said. The Clinton camp questioned whether Russians may have had a hand in the hack attack on the party’s emails and were interested in helping Trump, who has exchanged words of praise with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “What’s disturbing to us is that experts are telling us that Russian state actors broke into the DNC, stole these emails and other experts are now saying that Russians are releasing these emails for the purpose of helping Donald Trump,” Clinton campaign chairman Robby Mook said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort said the Clinton camp was trying to distract from its party discord ahead of the convention. “What’s in those emails show that it was a clearly rigged system, that Bernie Sanders ... never had a chance,” Manafort said on ABC. Clinton, 68, a former secretary of state, and Sanders, 74, an independent U.S. senator from Vermont who ran for president as a Democrat, waged a bruising months-long battle for the nomination. Branding himself a democratic socialist, Sanders galvanized young and liberal voters with his calls to rein in Wall Street and eradicate income inequality. But Sanders repeatedly voiced frustration with a DNC and party establishment he felt was stacked against him, and the resentment from Sanders and his supporters threatened to disrupt the convention. “I’m not shocked but I’m disappointed,” Sanders said of the emails earlier on Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” The emails showed DNC officials pondering various ways to undercut Sanders. Brad Marshall, the DNC’s chief financial officer, apologized on Facebook on Saturday for an email in which he discussed how some voters in upcoming nominating contests in Kentucky and West Virginia would reject an atheist. “He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage,” Marshall wrote in a May 5 email to three top DNC officials. No names were mentioned, but Sanders was the only Jewish candidate. “I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.” Clinton told CBS’s “60 Minutes” in an interview that aired on Sunday that she had not read any of the emails but it was “wrong and unacceptable” to bring religion into the political process. The emails angered many Sanders supporters who were already dismayed by Clinton’s choice on Friday of low-key U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her vice presidential running mate. Kaine, 58, who could appeal to independents and moderates, has never been aligned with party liberals. Sanders, who has endorsed Clinton and will speak on her behalf to the convention on Monday, said he would have preferred she pick U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a favorite of the party’s liberal wing, as her No. 2. “I have known Tim Kaine for a number of years. ... Tim is a very, very smart guy. He is a very nice guy,” Sanders said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “He is more conservative than I am. Would I have preferred to see somebody like an Elizabeth Warren selected by Secretary Clinton? Yes, I would have,” he said. Carrying pitchforks meant to portray Clinton as the devil, hundreds of Sanders supporters took to the streets of Philadelphia earlier on Sunday to say they felt betrayed by the DNC. “It just validated everything we thought, everything we believed to be true, that this was completely rigged right from the beginning, and that you know it was really about what they were doing everything to set it up so she would win,” Sanders supporter Gwen Sperling said. DNC Vice Chairwoman Donna Brazile will serve as interim chair through the election, the DNC said on Twitter. | 0fake |
Why isnt observer evidence like eyewitness accounts counted as evidence for UFOs? | Why isn't observer evidence like eyewitness accounts counted as evidence for UFO's? page: 1 link Eyewitness accounts have been used by Science for years. Newton used eyewtiness accounts in the Principia when talking about comets. He came up with a theory on comets based on recorded sighting throughout the world like a boy saw a comet and this is what he described. There wasn't any internet to even verify the credibility of these eyewitness accounts yet Newton used them to come up with a theory about comets which helped lead to his equations of Gravity. So if eyewitness accounts are so unreliable, how did Newton use them to come up with his theories? We also saw this with meteorites. This is from Wiki: Although meteors have been known since ancient times, they were not known to be an astronomical phenomenon until early in the 19th century. Prior to that, they were seen in the West as an atmospheric phenomenon, like lightning, and were not connected with strange stories of rocks falling from the sky. In 1807, Yale University chemistry professor Benjamin Silliman investigated a meteorite that fell in Weston, Connecticut.[27] Silliman believed the meteor had a cosmic origin, but meteors did not attract much attention from astronomers until the spectacular meteor storm of November 1833.[28] People all across the eastern United States saw thousands of meteors, radiating from a single point in the sky. Astute observers noticed that the radiant, as the point is now called, moved with the stars, staying in the constellation Leo.[29] ASTUTE OBSERVERS saw meteors radiating from a single point in the sky and to this day this is still called the radient. I thought Science never uses eyewitness accounts? Also, here's a list of published papers and studies on U.F.O.'s. This page offers a list of 100+ articles, papers and monographs about UFOs / UAPs published in professional journals and specialty publications. Two polls of professional & amateur astronomers respectively, on whether they see UFOs or not. Finally 60+ PhD dissertations and academic publications about UFOs. Very little peer-reviewed literature has been published in which academics have proposed, studied or supported non-prosaic explanations for UFOs. www.hyper.net... Why aren't there more non-prosaic explanations of U.F.O.'s? That alone lends support to the notion that extraterrestrial visitation has occurred. I have had 3 sightings myself. Two looked like probes. It was real windy one day and the wind was almost knocking me over, then this round orb passed in front of me going against the wind. It slowed down and then it sped back up. Where are all the Scientist explaining U.F.O.'s? Why are there still these unidentified objects in the sky? We have aeriel phenomena in the sky that can avoid radar, outrun our best planes and cause nuclear facilities to malfunction. After 60 or more years of these sightings why can't Scientist explain these things like Newton did with comets based on eyewitness accounts or what happened with metorites? Here's 565 eyewitness accounts | 1real |
Russian parliament speaker says hopes for better ties with U.S. | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament said on Wednesday Moscow hoped for more constructive dialogue with the United States now that a new president had been elected, the TASS news agency reported. Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, said parliament would welcome any steps in these directions. | 0fake |
Mike Ilitch, Little Caesars Founder and Detroit Sports Owner, Dies at 87 - The New York Times | Mike Ilitch, a son of immigrants who founded Little Caesars Pizza in a Detroit suburb and also owned baseball’s Tigers and hockey’s Red Wings, building a business, sports and entertainment empire that made him among America’s wealthiest men and helped change the face of his native city, died on Friday in Detroit. He was 87. His death was announced by his company, Ilitch Holdings. Mr. Ilitch and his wife, Marian, had a net worth of $6. 1 billion at his death, according to Forbes. Mr. Ilitch never went to college and failed in his bid to make it from the Tigers’ minor league chain, where he played shortstop, to the major leagues. He found his calling in the business world when he and his wife opened the first Little Caesars, in Garden City, a Detroit suburb, in 1959. It became the world’s largest carryout pizza chain, known for TV ads announcing “Pizza! Pizza!” deals. Turning to the sports world, Mr. Ilitch spent freely and eventually turned around franchises that experienced many lean years. His Tigers won two American League pennants, and his Red Wings of the National Hockey League won four Stanley Cup championships. He bought the Fox Theater in downtown Detroit in the late 1980s, refurbished it and created an entertainment hub for the city. He moved his corporate headquarters from suburban Farmington Hills into the building that contains the Fox. Mr. Ilitch broke into sports ownership in 1982, when he paid a reported $8 million to purchase the Red Wings from the Norris family. Once a powerhouse with names like Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay and Terry Sawchuk, the franchise was struggling. In August 1985, Mr. Ilitch, commenting on why his Red Wings were aggressive in pursuing free agents, said: “I hate to lose. I happen to be a fan with an owner’s pocketbook. ” His Wings won the Stanley Cup championship in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008, and he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003 and into the U. S. Hockey Hall of Fame a year later. Mr. Ilitch, who became known as Mr. I, bought the Tigers from the Domino’s pizza founder Tom Monaghan for $85 million in 1992. Starting in 1994, the Tigers had 12 consecutive losing seasons, but in 2000 they moved from the aging Tiger Stadium to Comerica Park. They won the 2006 American League pennant, then lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. They were in the World Series again in 2012, featuring the sluggers Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder and pitchers Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, but were swept by the San Francisco Giants. “I’m not afraid to go out and spend money,” Mr. Ilitch said. “It’s been very costly, but I’m not going to change my ways. ” Mike Ilitch was born on July 20, 1929, a son of Sotir Ilitch, a machinist, and Sultana Tasseff Ilitch, who had come to the United States from Macedonia in 1924. He was an athlete in baseball and track at Cooley High School, served four years in the Marines, then signed with the Tigers’ minor league system, but his career ended after a few seasons when he sustained a knee injury. He worked as a salesman until he and his wife opened the first Little Caesars on May 8, 1959. A food service distribution company soon followed to supply ingredients and other products for restaurants. Blue Line Foodservice grew into one of the largest food service distribution companies in the country. Mr. Ilitch’s charitable endeavors included the Little Caesars Love Kitchen, a restaurant on wheels to feed the hungry and help with food distribution following national disasters. The Ilitch organization has embarked on a $1. 2 billion District Detroit project, transforming dozens of largely vacant blocks in downtown Detroit into a neighborhood including office and residential spaces. All of Mr. Ilitch’s businesses have their headquarters in the Detroit metropolitan area. His son Christopher is president and chief executive officer of Ilitch Holdings. In addition to his wife and his son Christopher, Mr. Ilitch is survived by his sons Michael Jr. Atanas and Ron his daughters, Denise, Lisa and Carole 22 grandchildren and three . “Mike Ilitch was more than just a shrewd, successful businessman,” Detroit’s mayor, Mike Duggan, said in a statement. “He was a Detroiter through and through. Whether he was making pizza, building successful sports and entertainment franchises or supporting youth organizations in our city, Mr. I helped to bring thousands of jobs and opportunities to our city and attract millions of dollars of investment. ” | 0fake |
Trump Is Going To Kill A Coastline Program That Benefits Our Economy And Environment | If Donald Trump really cared about creating jobs and strengthening the economy he would not be trying to gut this small-but-critical program.It s been around since 1966, and it has greatly benefited coastal regions by generating tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars for the American economy every year while improving the safety and protection of our coastlines. And now it s being threatened by Trump.The Sea Grant program is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. The $73 million in funding helps 3,000 scientists around the country improve water quality, advise the fishing industry to keep it sustainable, and keep an eye on sea-level rise that could drown coastal cities.The program has been instrumental in the economic development of coastal regions. According to NOAA, the tiny program generated $575 million in economic development and more than 20,000 jobs in 2015 alone. In other words, this program has been a worthwhile investment for the government that has resulted in a huge return for the American people. If Trump intends to continue to try to run the government like a business, gutting this program would be a terrible business decision.Trump has repeatedly claimed that he will create jobs in America. But cutting this program would do the exact opposite. It would also endanger every person who works and lives on or near a coastline.Climate change has caused sea levels to rise in recent years and the Sea Grant program helps scientists predict which parts of our coastlines need to prepare to prevent disaster.Slashing the program would make that work more difficult.And Trump s reason for considering the elimination of the program is galling. He wants to cut it and use the money to pay for an even more bloated defense budget, which is already so big that even if we cut it in half American would still spend more on the military than any other nation on Earth.In reaction to Trump s plan, Sea Grant directors around the country expressed horror. My initial reaction was horror and disgust, California Sea Grant Director Jim Eckman said. I think we re facing a much graver crisis that we re going to have to deal with. I have to assume there are some wise people in our Congress who see the flaw, Maine Sea Grant Director Paul Anderson said of Trump s plan. Mr. Trump is setting up for a political battle. Indeed, the last time a Republican president targeted Sea Grant there was a strong backlash in Congress because the program does so much that benefits coastal economies and the environment. In 1981, Congress backed the Sea Grant program as Ronald Reagan sought to kill it. He backed down after an analysis showed that the 14 year, $270 million investment in the program by the government yielded a return of over $3 billion. As noted earlier, in 2015 the program created 20,000 jobs and over half a billion dollars in economic development. That s a single year of what this program has done. It s one of the most successful and beneficial government programs ever created and now Trump wants to kill it.Last time I checked, there are several conservative states that have coastlines and those states have also greatly benefited from the Sea Grant program. So Trump is not just hurting more liberal states by gutting this program. He is hurting people who voted for him and Republicans.Featured image via Jim Lo Pool/Getty Images | 1real |
Gingrich: ‘Hollywood Is So Enraged at Donald Trump That They Can’t Be Funny’ - Breitbart | On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” while discussing both Stephen Colbert‘s and Jimmy Kimmel’s political monologues, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich called Hollywood “enraged” and added “that they can’t be funny” because of it. Gingrich said, “The second one is part of the left’s whole mythology. If you show up at a hospital with a brand new baby and the brand new baby has a heart problem, the doctors at the hospital do everything they can to save the baby. They don’t say we will take care of the baby after you write a check, they try to save the baby’s life. That’s true across the board in this country. That is just part of the mythology of the left. The problem you have with humor in America today is that Hollywood is so enraged at Donald Trump that they can’t be funny. All they’ve got is pure anger. And that’s what’s coming out in this stuff. They think it must be funny because they’re called comedians, so they exhibit their anger, as almost a pathology, on television, and you are supposed to laugh because after all, they are comedians. They ain’t funny ’cause they’re too angry to be funny. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
Inside the invisible government: War, Propaganda, Clinton & Trump | By John Pilger on October 31, 2016 John Pilger — Russia Today Oct 28, 2016
The American journalist, Edward Bernays, is often described as the man who invented modern propaganda.
The nephew of Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psycho-analysis, it was Bernays who coined the term “public relations” as a euphemism for spin and its deceptions.
In 1929, he persuaded feminists to promote cigarettes for women by smoking in the New York Easter Parade – behavior then considered outlandish. One feminist, Ruth Booth, declared, “Women! Light another torch of freedom! Fight another sex taboo!”
Bernays’ influence extended far beyond advertising. His greatest success was his role in convincing the American public to join the slaughter of the First World War. The secret, he said, was “engineering the consent” of people in order to “control and regiment [them] according to our will without their knowing about it.”
He described this as “the true ruling power in our society” and called it an “invisible government.”
Today, the invisible government has never been more powerful and less understood. In my career as a journalist and film-maker, I have never known propaganda to insinuate our lives and as it does now and to go unchallenged. Imagine two cities.
Both are under siege by the forces of the government of that country. Both cities are occupied by fanatics, who commit terrible atrocities, such as beheading people.
But there is a vital difference. In one siege, the government soldiers are described as liberators by Western reporters embedded with them, who enthusiastically report their battles and air strikes. There are front page pictures of these heroic soldiers giving a V-sign for victory. There is scant mention of civilian casualties.
In the second city – in another country nearby – almost exactly the same is happening. Government forces are laying siege to a city controlled by the same breed of fanatics.
The difference is that these fanatics are supported, supplied and armed by “us” – by the United States and Britain. They even have a media center that is funded by Britain and America. 'US, UK sabotage any attempts at Syria settlement'– Political writer Dan Glazebrook https://t.co/diHrxk1wnG pic.twitter.com/ZXh3NAXFfg
— RT (@RT_com) October 27, 2016
Another difference is that the government soldiers laying siege to this city are the bad guys, condemned for assaulting and bombing the city – which is exactly what the good soldiers do in the first city.
Confusing? Not really. Such is the basic double standard that is the essence of propaganda. I am referring, of course, to the current siege of the city of Mosul by the government forces of Iraq, who are backed by the United States and Britain and to the siege of Aleppo by the government forces of Syria, backed by Russia. One is good; the other is bad.
What is seldom reported is that both cities would not be occupied by fanatics and ravaged by war if Britain and the United States had not invaded Iraq in 2003. That criminal enterprise was launched on lies strikingly similar to the propaganda that now distorts our understanding of the civil war in Syria.
Without this drumbeat of propaganda dressed up as news, the monstrous ISIS and Al-Qaeda and al-Nusra and the rest of the jihadist gang might not exist, and the people of Syria might not be fighting for their lives today BREAKING: 6 children killed, over a dozen injured in rebel shelling of #Aleppo school (EXCLUSIVE) https://t.co/aw0a3f9ydn
— RT (@RT_com) October 28, 2016
Some may remember in 2003 a succession of BBC reporters turning to the camera and telling us that Blair was “vindicated” for what turned out to be the crime of the century. The US television networks produced the same validation for George W. Bush. Fox News brought on Henry Kissinger to effuse over Colin Powell’s fabrications.
The same year, soon after the invasion, I filmed an interview in Washington with Charles Lewis, the renowned American investigative journalist. I asked him, “What would have happened if the freest media in the world had seriously challenged what turned out to be crude propaganda?”
He replied that if journalists had done their job, “ there is a very, very good chance we would not have gone to war in Iraq.”
It was a shocking statement, and one supported by other famous journalists to whom I put the same question – Dan Rather of CBS, David Rose of the Observer and journalists and producers in the BBC, who wished to remain anonymous.
— RT America (@RT_America) October 27, 2016
In other words, had journalists done their job, had they challenged and investigated the propaganda instead of amplifying it, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children would be alive today, and there would be no ISIS and no siege of Aleppo or Mosul.
There would have been no atrocity on the London Underground on 7th July 2005. There would have been no flight of millions of refugees; there would be no miserable camps.
When the terrorist atrocity happened in Paris last November, President Francoise Hollande immediately sent planes to bomb Syria – and more terrorism followed, predictably, the product of Hollande’s bombast about France being “at war” and “showing no mercy.” That state violence and jihadist violence feed off each other is the truth that no national leader has the courage to speak.
“When the truth is replaced by silence,” said the Soviet dissident Yevtushenko, “the silence is a lie.”
The attack on Iraq, the attack on Libya, the attack on Syria happened because the leader in each of these countries was not a puppet of the West. The human rights record of a Saddam or a Gaddafi was irrelevant. They did not obey orders and surrender control of their country. From ‘mad dog’ to ‘model’ and back: How West changed its mind on Gaddafi https://t.co/eAoKoxYdaW pic.twitter.com/IwaiToi8O3
— RT (@RT_com) October 20, 2016
The same fate awaited Slobodan Milosevic once he had refused to sign an “agreement” that demanded the occupation of Serbia and its conversion to a market economy. His people were bombed, and he was prosecuted in The Hague. Independence of this kind is intolerable.
As WikiLeaks has revealed, it was only when the Syrian leader Bashar Assad in 2009 rejected an oil pipeline, running through his country from Qatar to Europe, that he was attacked.
From that moment, the CIA planned to destroy the government of Syria with jihadist fanatics – the same fanatics currently holding the people of Mosul and eastern Aleppo hostage.
Why is this not news? The former British Foreign Office official Carne Ross, who was responsible for operating sanctions against Iraq, told me: “We would feed journalists factoids of sanitized intelligence, or we would freeze them out. That is how it worked.”
The West’s medieval client, Saudi Arabia – to which the US and Britain sell billions of dollars’ worth of arms – is at present destroying Yemen, a country so poor that in the best of times, half the children are malnourished.
Look on YouTube and you will see the kind of massive bombs – “our” bombs – that the Saudis use against dirt-poor villages, and against weddings, and funerals.
The explosions look like small atomic bombs. The bomb aimers in Saudi Arabia work side-by-side with British officers. This fact is not on the evening news.
Propaganda is most effective when our consent is engineered by those with a fine education – Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Columbia – and with careers on the BBC, the Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post.
These organizations are known as the liberal media. They present themselves as enlightened, progressive tribunes of the moral zeitgeist. They are anti-racist, pro-feminist and pro-LGBT. And they love war.
While they speak up for feminism, they support rapacious wars that deny the rights of countless women, including the right to life.
In 2011, Libya, then a modern state, was destroyed on the pretext that Muammar Gaddafi was about to commit genocide on his own people. That was the incessant news; and there was no evidence. It was a lie.
In fact, Britain, Europe and the United States wanted what they like to call “regime change” in Libya, the biggest oil producer in Africa. Gaddafi’s influence in the continent and, above all, his independence were intolerable.
So he was murdered with a knife in his rear by fanatics, backed by America, Britain and France. Hillary Clinton cheered his gruesome death for the camera, declaring, “We came, we saw, he died!” .
The destruction of Libya was a media triumph. As the war drums were beaten, Jonathan Freedland wrote in the Guardian: “Though the risks are very real, the case for intervention remains strong.”
Intervention – what a polite, benign, Guardian word, whose real meaning, for Libya, was death and destruction.
According to its own records, NATO launched 9,700 “strike sorties” against Libya, of which more than a third were aimed at civilian targets. They included missiles with uranium warheads. Look at the photographs of the rubble of Misrata and Sirte, and the mass graves identified by the Red Cross. The UNICEF report on the children killed says, “most [of them] under the age of ten.” As a direct consequence, Sirte became the capital of ISIS.
Ukraine is another media triumph. Respectable liberal newspapers such as the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Guardian, and mainstream broadcasters such as the BBC, NBC, CBS, CNN have played a critical role in conditioning their viewers to accept a new and dangerous cold war.
All have misrepresented events in Ukraine as a malign act by Russia when, in fact, the coup in Ukraine in 2014 was the work of the United States, aided by Germany and NATO.
This inversion of reality is so pervasive that Washington’s military intimidation of Russia is not news; it is suppressed behind a smear and scare campaign of the kind I grew up with during the first cold war. Once again, the ‘Ruskies’ are coming to get us, led by another Stalin, whom The Economist depicts as the devil. NATO’s ‘force projection’ on Russia’s doorstep undermines European security – Moscow https://t.co/7hjTJ0oIyv
— RT (@RT_com) October 28, 2016
The suppression of the truth about Ukraine is one of the most complete news blackouts I can remember. The fascists who engineered the coup in Kiev are the same breed that backed the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Of all the scares about the rise of fascist anti-Semitism in Europe, no leader ever mentions the fascists in Ukraine – except Vladimir Putin, but he does not count.
Many in the Western media have worked hard to present the ethnic Russian-speaking population of Ukraine as outsiders in their own country, as agents of Moscow, almost never as Ukrainians seeking a federation within Ukraine and as Ukrainian citizens resisting a foreign-orchestrated coup against their elected government.
There is almost the joie d’esprit of a class reunion of warmongers. The drum-beaters of the Washington Post inciting war with Russia are the very same editorial writers who published the lie that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
To most of us, the American presidential campaign is a media freak show, in which Donald Trump is the arch villain. But Trump is loathed by those with power in the United States for reasons that have little to do with his obnoxious behavior and opinions. To the invisible government in Washington, the unpredictable Trump is an obstacle to America’s design for the 21st century.
This is to maintain the dominance of the United States and to subjugate Russia, and, if possible, China.
To the militarists in Washington, the real problem with Trump is that, in his lucid moments, he seems not to want a war with Russia; he wants to talk with the Russian president, not fight him; he says he wants to talk with the president of China.
In the first debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump promised not to be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into a conflict. He said, “I would certainly not do first strike. Once the nuclear alternative happens, it’s over.” That was not news.
Did he really mean it? Who knows? He often contradicts himself. But what is clear is that Trump is considered a serious threat to the status quo maintained by the vast national security machine that runs the United States, regardless of who is in the White House.
The CIA wants him beaten. The Pentagon wants him beaten. The media wants him beaten. Even his own party wants him beaten. He is a threat to the rulers of the world – unlike Clinton who has left no doubt she is prepared to go to war with nuclear-armed Russia and China.
Clinton has the form, as she often boasts. Indeed, her record is proven. As a senator, she backed the bloodbath in Iraq. When she ran against Obama in 2008, she threatened to “totally obliterate” Iran. As Secretary of State, she colluded in the destruction of governments in Libya and Honduras and set in train the baiting of China.
She has now pledged to support a no-fly zone in Syria – a direct provocation for war with Russia. Clinton may well become the most dangerous president of the United States in my lifetime –a distinction for which the competition is fierce.
Without a shred of evidence, she has accused Russia of supporting Trump and hacking her emails. Released by WikiLeaks, these emails tell us that what Clinton says in private, in speeches to the rich and powerful, is the opposite of what she says in public.
That is why silencing and threatening Julian Assange is so important. As the editor of WikiLeaks, Assange knows the truth. And let me assure those who are concerned, he is well, and WikiLeaks is operating on all cylinders.
Today, the greatest build-up of American-led forces since World War Two is under way – in the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, on the border with Russia, and in Asia and the Pacific, where China is the target. ‘US succeeded only in creating chaos in Syria, Iraq’ – Middle East expert Marwa Osman https://t.co/HpWwbpHS9G
— RT (@RT_com) October 27, 2016
Keep that in mind when the presidential election circus reaches its finale on November 8th, if the winner is Clinton, a Greek chorus of witless commentators will celebrate her coronation as a great step forward for women. None will mention Clinton’s victims: the women of Syria, the women of Iraq, the women of Libya. None will mention the civil defense drills being conducted in Russia. None will recall Edward Bernays’ “torches of freedom”.
George Bush’s press spokesman once called the media “complicit enablers.” Coming from a senior official in an administration whose lies, enabled by the media, caused such suffering, that description is a warning from history.
In 1946, the Nuremberg Tribunal prosecutor said of the German media: “Before every major aggression, they initiated a press campaign calculated to weaken their victims and to prepare the German people psychologically for the attack. In the propaganda system, it was the daily press and the radio that were the most important weapons.” | 1real |
(VIDEO) KEY CLINTON STATE DEPT EMPLOYEE BLOCKED RELEASE OF POLITICALLY SENSITIVE DOCUMENTS | (VIDEO ABOVE)STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON HARF WON T COMMENT ON THE CHERYL MILLS BLOCK OF SENSITIVE DOCUMENTS ABOUT HILLARY CLINTONHillary s Chief of Staff could be part of the key to the truth of so much corruption. Cheryl Mills ran interference the night Benghazi broke. Hillary s claim that an anti-Islam video, created Benghazi, was promoted by Mills. Benghazi information was compromised by Ms. Mills but it would be asking too much to expect her to come clean on it. Truth just isn t in the cards for any of these lowlifes.WASHINGTON When Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, her staff scrutinized politically sensitive documents requested under public-records law and sometimes blocked their release, according to people with direct knowledge of the activities.In one instance, her chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, told State Department records specialists she wanted to see all documents requested on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, and later demanded that some be held back.In another case, Ms. Mills s staff negotiated with the records specialists over the release of documents about former President Bill Clinton s speaking engagements also holding some back.The records requests came under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, the public s main tool to get information from the government. Decisions on what to release belong with each agency s FOIA staff, say experts on the law, to guard against the withholding of documents for political or other inappropriate reasons.Questions about the transparency of Mrs. Clinton s State Department tenure have been bubbling ever since it was revealed that she exclusively used a private email account to conduct her work as secretary. The existence of that private system, which is being investigated by a House special committee probing the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, meant the department didn t have access to her emails when public requests to see them came in.Read more: WSJ | 1real |
ARROGANT DEMOCRAT BILLIONAIRE Whose Father Co-Founded Hyatt Hotels, Tells MEN To Use GIRLS Restrooms To Protest Trump | I wonder how many of J.B. Pritzker s children or grandchildren will be forced to share locker rooms or bathrooms at the country club with men or women of the opposite sex? This election has brought out a never-ending supply of elitist liberals with big mouths, who have all kinds of great ideas for the little people to implement A billionaire Democratic megadonor, who is exploring a run for governor, encouraged men to use women s bathrooms on Wednesday sparking criticism from transgender advocates and politicians.J.B. Pritzker, the billionaire heir whose father co-founded Hyatt hotels, floated the idea of switching bathrooms in the wake of President Donald Trump s executive order reversing an Obama policy that could have stripped federal funds from schools that maintain separate bathroom facilities based on sex. As a protest against Trump s rescinding protections for trans kids, everyone should use the other gender s bathroom today! he tweeted at 8:36 a.m.As a protest against Trump's rescinding protections for trans kids, everyone should use the other gender's bathroom today! #protecttranskids JB Pritzker (@JBPritzker) February 23, 2017Not everyone on Twitter agreed with Pritzker. Some on the right even used (gasp!) facts to bolster their argument. Like the fact that, a TINY .01% of the population are actually affected by a federal transgender bathroom law:Draconian federal regulation is unneeded. We're talking about a TINY .01% of population. Let schools deal with this directly! Nicole4Trump (@niteowlmom3) February 23, 2017The tweet immediately provoked criticism from liberals. Illinois State Rep. Will Guzzardi (D., Chicago), a supporter of the Obama rule, said that Pritzker s tweet was insensitive and mischaracterized the transgender bathroom and locker room debate. No disrespect @JBPritzker but it s actually about precisely *not* that. We just want to let kids use their own gender s bathroom, Guzzardi tweeted in response. Your idea suggests that we support ppl going into opposite-gender bathrooms, which plays right into transphobic rhetoric. Pritzker has been called the other mayor of Chicago for his political influence and massive campaign spending on behalf of Democratic candidates such as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel. He has close ties to the Clintons, having served as the national co-chair of Hillary Clinton s failed 2008 presidential bid, as well as the Obama administration. His sister, Penny Pritzker, served as Secretary of Commerce under President Obama from 2013 until he left office. J.B. Pritzker and his wife were two of the largest individual spenders in the 2016 election, shelling out more than $21 million to elect Clinton and other Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.Pritzker has now set his sights on the Illinois governor s mansion and is exploring the idea of self-funding a campaign. Rauner self-financed a $40 million campaign run in 2014, which helped him overcome steep Democratic advantages in the deep blue state.Other Democrats vying for the nomination were quick to criticize Pritzker s protest idea. Tom Elliot, communications director for Chicago Alderman Ameya Pawar s gubernatorial campaign, accused the billionaire of missing the point entirely Telling people to use the other gender s bathroom is missing the point entirely and a terrible idea. @JBPritzker #protecttranskids, Elliot replied. WFBTelling people to use the other gender's bathroom is missing the point entirely and a terrible idea. @JBPritzker #protecttranskids Tom Elliott (@trelliott) February 23, 2017 | 1real |
This Collage of Corrut Presstitutes Making Fools of Themselves Is a Keeper | This Collage of Corrupt Presstitutes Making Fools of Themselves Is a Keeper
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-12/martin-armstrong-exposes-real-clinton-conspiracy-which-backfired-dramatically
The financial media can equally wallow in its incompetence and dishonesty. Instead of collapsing as predicted, the stock market rose 800 points on Trump’s victory.
The post This Collage of Corrut Presstitutes Making Fools of Themselves Is a Keeper appeared first on PaulCraigRoberts.org . | 1real |
71-Year-Old Cher Dons See-Through Top and Nipple Pasties at Billboard Awards | Pop icon Cher left little to the imagination while performing some of her biggest hits at Sunday night’s Billboard Music Awards, the singer’s first awards show concert in 15 years. [The icon performed her smash hits “Believe” and “If I Could Turn Back Time” Sunday night before accepting the ceremony’s Icon Award for her career in the music industry. The and danced on stage wearing a silver diamante dress, with her chest covered up by nipple pasties. The sparkling dress, which consisted of multiple hanging diamond strips, barely covered the singers chest and groin area. She later returned to the stage in a black catsuit and a large wig, a throwback to her early 80s look. “So, I wanted to do what I do since I was 4 years old, and I’ve been doing it for 53 years,” Cher said in accepting the Icon Award. “That is not an applause thing, I’m 71 yesterday! And I can do a plank, okay? Just saying. ” The singer steered clear of politics in her acceptance speech, focusing instead on the advice she received when she was younger and on something her mother told her before she became famous, that she would never be the “smartest,” the “prettiest,” or the “most talented,” but she would be “special. ” “I think luck has so much to do with with my success,” she continued. “I think it was mostly luck and a little bit of something thrown in. ” Cher’s outfit drew plenty of commentary on social media and on television, including on Good Morning Britain, where host Piers Morgan said he was not a fan. “At what point do Cher’s outfits become inappropriate? She’s 70,” he said. “That one in particular, come on, Cher, for goodness’ sake, love. ” 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 |
Asuntos Internos investigará si la Policía es tonta | España Today Asuntos Internos investigará si la Policía es tonta "LA POLICÍA VE UNA COLILLA EN EL SUELO Y DICE 'EH, AQUÍ HAN FUMAO'", ASEGURA EL DIRECTOR GENERAL DE LA POLICÍA NACIONAL Unidad de Asuntos Internos
El Cuerpo Nacional de Policía ha anunciado hoy el inicio de una investigación por parte de la Unidad de Asuntos Internos con el fin de esclarecer si la policía es tonta o no. Los agentes elegidos para el caso, en colaboración con el Centro Nacional de Inteligencia, tratarán de esclarecer este hecho a base de realizar seguimientos, interrogatorios y pruebas psicológicas.
“Tal y como actúan determinados ciudadanos, parece que se creen que la Policía es tonta. Hay que despejar la duda”, argumentan desde Asuntos Internos.
“Que la Policía ve una colilla en el suelo y dice: ‘Eh, aquí han fumao'”, ha insistido Ignacio Cosidó, director general de la Policía, que está convencido de que la Policía Nacional “de tonta no tiene un pelo” pese a que no se opone a que el tema se investigue. “Quizá no todos los agentes, pero al menos el 40% de ellos sí son capaces de deducir este tipo de cosas si ven una colilla”, ha matizado.
“Tonto es el que hace tonterías y esta será la base de toda la operación”, ha asegurado un responsable de Asuntos Internos. “Estamos accediendo a numerosos certificados de nacimiento de policías para constatar que no hayan nacido ayer”, agrega. “Y también hacemos seguimientos para asegurarnos de que ningún agente se chupa el dedo”, promete el jefe de la unidad. | 1real |
Busted: Bill Recorded Telling Mistress To Deny That Clintons Helped Her Get A State Job | Email
Former President Bill Clinton can be heard telling his former mistress, Gennifer Flowers, to deny that he helped her get a state job in a series of recorded phone conversation from 1991.
“If they ever asked if you’d talked to me about it, you can say no,” Clinton is heard saying in the recording.
At the time, the media was making inquiries about Flowers’ alleged affair with Clinton, and she was concerned that they may question how she got a job as administrative assistant for the Arkansas Appeal Tribunal.
Clinton can also be heard telling Flowers how to handle a grievance filed by soemone else who applied for the same positioned and claimed she was more qualified than Flowers.
Flowers famously recorded a series of conversation she had with Clinton from December 1990 to December 1991, while he was still Governor of Arkansas. The audio segments about the state job were widely reported in the 1990’s, however, as other pay-for-play financial scandals have surfaced, the details may warrant revisiting.
Here is a transcript of part of the recording:
GF – But anyway, then Wednesday, there was a grievance filed in my office when I got the job by a girl who felt like she should have gotten it, a black girl named (deleted). And they called me as a witness. So I go in and uh, nothing big came of it. It’s just that they were questioning me about how I found out about the job. And I said, “Well, that personnel said it that it was a possibility there would be a position,” and then uh, “they told me that it would be advertised in the newspaper. And it was and I pursued it from there.
BC – Good for you.
GF: Yeah. We had a little bit of a scare recently because she had a spot on an X-ray. And she went and had it checked again and it wasn’t cancer. And it’s been almost, it’ll be two years in May that she’s now diagnosed cancer free. My stepfather has been through two angioplasties, but he’s doing good. And I am, I’m really, Bill what I’m afraid of is that if somebody in the press finds out that I’m working for the state.
BC – Yeah.
GF – They’re going to make a big deal of it.
BC – Yeah.
GF – Well the only thing that concerns me, where I’m, where I’m concerned at this point is the state job.
BC – Yeah. I never thought about that, but as long as you say you’ve just been looking for one, you’d uh, check on it. If they ever asked if you’d talked to me about it, you can say no. | 1real |
Anti-Trump ‘Jewish Rally for Refugees’ Organizer Funded by Obama | TEL AVIV — A Jewish group that organized a “Jewish Rally for Refugees” in New York on Sunday was massively funded by the federal government under the Obama administration to resettle refugees. [In attendance at the rally was Rep. Keith Ellison ( ) who used the platform to compare the Trump administration to the Third Reich. “Those same people who sent Jews back to the Third Reich never left,” stated Ellison. “We will stand up, we will stand together and we will say, refugees are welcome here. ” Those statements are instrumental coming from Ellison, a politician who in the 1980s and ’90s was reportedly associated with the Nation of Islam and defended the radical group’s controversial leader, Louis Farrakhan. Other speakers at Sunday’s rally included New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, New York City Public Advocate Letitia James, and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer. De Blasio also channeled the Holocaust at the event. The mayor stated: From the German pastor Martin Niemoller at the time of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust, he famously said: “First they came for the socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak up because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. And then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me. ” I bring that to you today because this is why we need solidarity. An attack on refugees is an attack on all of us. An attack on our Constitution hurts all of us. Any attempt to divide people by religion hurts all of us. And it leads us to someplace dangerous. And that’s why we stand up against President Trump’s executive order. The New York rally was organized by the nonprofit HIAS, which describes itself as standing “for a world in which refugees find welcome, safety, and freedom. ” Unmentioned in much of the news media coverage about the rally is that HIAS has taken in large sums of federal grants to help resettle refugees. Haaretz, for example, described HIAS as “the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees. ” The Jerusalem Post described the organization as a “global Jewish nonprofit organization that works to protect refugees. ” Local Fox 5 simply labeled HIAS as “the global Jewish nonprofit. ” HIAS is more than that, as this reporter previously documented. HIAS specializes in refugee resettlement and in 2015 received 65. 3 percent of its annual $25 million budget from government grants. Annual grants include funds from the State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Department of Health and Human Services. Another major donor is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In 2015, the State Department provided $17, 663, 704 and the Department of Health and Human Services gave another $2, 765, 195. The fiscal year 2014 saw a $16, 959, 850 State Department grant and $2, 546, 469 in funds from the Department of Health and Human Services. Guidestar documented that in 2013, HIAS received $16, 261, 661 from government and intergovernmental agencies and took in a total of $31, 218, 870 in revenue. In 2012, $14, 707, 399 in government grants was donated to HIAS and the organization produced $27, 677, 240 in revenue. In 2008, the Committee on Organizations, a division of the UN Economic and Social Council, officially accepted HIAS as an accredited NGO. HIAS openly states on its website that it is the “only Jewish organization designated by the federal government to undertake” refugee resettlement, which “lies at the heart of HIAS’ work. ” The group is partners with local Refugee Assistance Organizations around the country to “ensure successful integration. ” “Although this can be a long process requiring the participation of many actors, refugees bring the resilience and resourcefulness that saved their lives at home,” HIAS relates. HIAS was an acronym that previously stood for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and it originally worked to resettle Jewish emigrants from Russia. It dropped the full title and only goes by the acronym now. Mark Hetfield, HIAS president and CEO, told the Washington Jewish Week in December 2014 the word “Hebrew” was exclusionary and outdated, comparing it with the use of the word “colored” to refer to African Americans. Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. ” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook. With additional research by Brenda J. Elliott and Joshua Klein. | 0fake |
IRS Slams Trump Foundation For Breaking The Law | The Donald J. Trump Foundation just quietly paid an IRS fine for breaking the law. Trump paid the IRS a $2,500 fine after the Washington Post exposed that his foundation had broken the law by giving a political foundation to a group connected to Florida attorney general Pam Bondi.The improper donation, a $25,000 gift from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, was made in 2013. At the time, Attorney General Pam Bondi was considering whether to investigate fraud allegations against Trump University. She decided not to pursue the case.Bondi s decision to let Trump University skate despite allegations of wrongdoing after the Trump donation has caused considerable controversy, with some demanding an investigation into possible corruption by the Republican attorney general.The Washington Post found that Trump didn t notify the IRS about his donation and it was recorded as a donation to a completely different organization.In that year s tax filings, The Post reported, The Trump Foundation did not notify the IRS of this political donation. Instead, Trump s foundation listed a donation also for $25,000 to a Kansas charity with a name similar to that of Bondi s political group. In fact, Trump s foundation had not given the Kansas group any money at all.The prohibited gift was, in effect, replaced with an innocent-sounding but nonexistent donation.Trump claims that the misfiled donation was simply a mistake, but it fits into a pattern of Trump and his organization and so-called charities moving money around in a dubious fashion. An investigation by the same newspaper has tried to verify Trump s wild claims of charitable donations, but has so far been completely unable to do so.Earlier this year, Trump had failed to donate to veteran s charities, despite his promise to do so months ago. He only finally gave in and gave money to veterans after the news reports surfaced and politicians like Hillary Clinton attacked him for stiffing the organization.Featured image via Flickr | 1real |
Once Upon a Time, a Guard Nearly Shot Queen Elizabeth by Mistake - The New York Times | It was a close call for the queen. A walk around the grounds of Buckingham Palace in the very early morning hours nearly got Queen Elizabeth II shot by one of her guards, The Times of London reported on Wednesday. When she has a difficult time sleeping, the queen will put on a raincoat and walk around the palace grounds, The Times reported, quoting a former guardsman. He was on patrol inside the palace walls at 3 a. m. on an unspecified day several years ago when he saw a figure in the darkness, according to reports. Thinking he had spotted an intruder, The Times said, he called out, “Who’s that?” “To his surprise, it was the queen,” according to the account. “‘Bloody hell, Your Majesty, I nearly shot you,’ he blurted out. ” Realizing his remarks were inappropriate, the guard expected to be rebuked. Instead, The Times reported, Her Majesty replied: “That’s quite all right. Next time I’ll ring through beforehand so you don’t have to shoot me. ” | 0fake |
WATCH: Colbert HUMILIATES Trump With Scathing Takedown To Avenge Attack On John Dickerson | When you insult CBS, Stephen Colbert goes on the offensive. And Donald Trump is going to have a mental meltdown when he sees this.On Sunday, CBS host John Dickerson interviewed Donald Trump on Face The Nation.After being asked about his pathetic first 100 days, Trump whined about the fake media and then insulted Dickerson by saying that he refers to his show as Deface The Nation. It s always a challenge like life itself is a challenge, Trump said. It s very funny when the fake media goes out which we call the mainstream media, which sometimes, I must say is you. You mean, me personally? Dickerson asked. Your show, I love your show, Trump replied. I call it Deface the Nation , but your show is sometimes not exactly correct. Trump s insult went viral and was heavily criticized for being the kind of behavior that is beneath the presidency.But Trump created a bigger problem for himself than he thought because Dickerson s friend Stephen Colbert also works for CBS, and while Dickerson had to exercise professionalism and restraint, Colbert informed Trump that as a comedian he isn t held to same standard. Donald Trump, John Dickerson is a fair-minded journalist and one of the most competent people who will ever walk into your office, Colbert said. John Dickerson has way too much dignity to trade insults with the president of the United States to his face. But I, sir, am no John Dickerson. With the gauntlet thrown down, Colbert proceeded to tear Trump apart with a scathing round of insults that will turn Trump into a stuttering mess if he ever sees it. Mr. Trump, your presidency? I love your presidency, I call it Disgrace the Nation. Colbert said. You re not the POTUS, you re the BLOTUS. You re the glutton with a button. You re a regular Gorge Washington. You re the presi-dunce. But you re turning into a real prictator. You talk like a sign language gorilla who got hit in the head. You have more people marching against you than cancer. And then Colbert delivered the knockout blow. Sir, the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin s d*ck holster. Absolutely. Sick. Burn.Here s the video via YouTube.Featured Image: Shawn Thew Pool/Getty Images | 1real |
Boiler Room #64 – GLADIO! Come Out and Play! | Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 11 AM PST | 2 PM EST this Saturday July 9th. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Randy J and Patrick Henningsen of 21Wire and Branko Mali from Kali Tribune. Tonight the Boiler Gang discusses the Clinton FBI results, CA legislature s war against the people on behalf of a tyrannical government gone mad and whatever else floats into our air space during the show!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY! Reference Links: | 1real |
Iranians pour onto the streets to mourn soldier beheaded in Syria | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Thousands of people took to the streets of Tehran on Wednesday to bury a soldier whose beheading by Islamic State has come to symbolize the righteousness of Iran s military involvement in Syria. In what has become an iconic image on Iranian media, 25-year-old Revolutionary Guard Mohsen Hojaji is shown looking calmly into camera after his capture as he is led away by an insurgent with blood on his face, holding a knife. The photograph was posted by Islamic State. Even Iranians critical of their government s military intervention in Syria to help President Bashar al-Assad have taken to social media to express their admiration for Hojaji, who was killed last month. The Revolutionary Guards, Iran s most powerful military force who also oversee an economic empire worth billions of dollars, were initially quiet about their role in Syria. But in recent years, as casualties have mounted, they have been more outspoken about their engagement, framing it as an existential struggle against the Sunni Muslim extremists of Islamic State who see Shi ites, the majority of Iran s population, as apostates. Guards killed in Syria and Iraq are touted as protectors of Shi ite holy sites and labeled defenders of the shrine on websites linked to the Guards. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prayed over Hojaji s coffin and met with his family on Wednesday, state media reported. Large crowds carrying red flags, symbolizing martyrdom, and pictures of Hojaji processed to the funeral in Tehran, pictures on state TV showed. Parliament speaker Ali Larijani and former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were among the dignitaries who attended, state media said. Look at what a stir the martyrdom of this youth has created in the country, Khamenei said, according to his website. Hojaji s funeral comes only three days before Ashura, one of the most important religious events for Shi ites and a traditional period of mourning which commemorates the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. The Guards recovered Hojaji s body through a deal between Islamic State, the Syrian army and Lebanese Shi ite group Hezbollah. More than 300 IS fighters and about 300 family members were allowed to evacuate Syria s western border with Lebanon under the ceasefire agreement. On June 7, Islamic State claimed an attack on Tehran s parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, killing 18 people. The Revolutionary Guards fired missiles at Islamic State bases in Syria on June 18 in response. | 0fake |
U.S. attorney general calls threats against Jewish groups 'unacceptable' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions told reporters on Monday that recent bomb threats made against Jewish groups are “unacceptable” and a “very serious and destructive practice.” Several Jewish community centers and schools in at least 12 states received bomb threats on Monday, following the destruction of graves in a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia last week. | 0fake |
Trump Sets The Record Straight On Border Wall And Amnesty For Illegals [Video] | President Trump visited areas in Florida hurt by Hurricane Irma today and spoke out on building a wall at our southern border. People on both sides of the aisle went nuts over news reports of no wall and a deal on DACA. President Trump: Ultimately, we have to have the wall. If we don t have the wall, we re doing nothing, Ultimately, we have to have the wall. If we don t have the wall, we re doing nothing, Pres. Trump says https://t.co/QnXQnxARjk pic.twitter.com/N6HRyjlouD CBS News (@CBSNews) September 14, 2017He also chimed in on whether there was a deal on DACA amnesty as speculated by both sides of the aisle. Last night, there was some confusion on what had been agreed upon about the two issues after it was reported a deal had been made between President Trump and Democrat leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer There was no deal. They didn t say they had a deal. There was no deal. They didn t say they had a deal, Pres. Trump says of meeting with Nancy Pelosi & Chuck Schumer https://t.co/QnXQnxARjk pic.twitter.com/rN8ZvKZeYd CBS News (@CBSNews) September 14, 2017But then President Trump said this Huh? A work program without citizenship? Is this kind of a purgatory for illegals?"We're not looking at citizenship, we're not looking at amnesty. We're looking at allowing people to stay here," Pres. Trump says pic.twitter.com/6eOWjdcRQG CBS News (@CBSNews) September 14, 2017 But,but,but then Nancy Pelosi chimes in with this: Is everyone totally confused yet? I do believe there is an understanding that down the road, there is an eventual path to citizenship in the DREAM Act, Pelosi says pic.twitter.com/VrUN2XQRM1 CBS News (@CBSNews) September 14, 2017 | 1real |
RADICAL LEFTIST WHO DISMISSED CHARGES AGAINST MUSLIM TERRORIST SHOOTER IS POTENTIAL SUPREME COURT NOMINEE | We re not sure which of Judge Mary Murguia s qualifications for becoming a U.S. Supreme Court Justice would be more attractive to Obama. Could it be the fact that she, like Barack Obama can claim she is responsible for dismissing charges against a terrorist? Perhaps her it s her sister s connection as a leader of La Raza, a government funded, radical activist group fighting to defend amnesty in America. Knowing Barry, it s likely both.The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judge who previously dismissed terror charges against one of the Garland, Texas shooters has a connection to the controversial activist group, National Council of La Raza.Judge Mary Murguia, appointed by President Clinton and considered a potential nominee to the Supreme Court by President Obama, was the judge who dismissed government charges against Elton Simpson for suspected terrorism in 2011. On Sunday, Simpson attacked a free speech event in Garland, Texas depicting the Prophet Muhammad in cartoons.Daniel Greenfield cites evidence from the 2011 case:The FBI knew that Elton Simpson, one of the Garland Jihadists, was a threat and had attempted to lock him up after amassing evidence that he intended to go to Somalia as a terrorist. They had him on tape stating that Allah loves an individual who is out there fighting [non-Muslims] and If you get shot, or you get killed, it s [heaven] straight away. Mr. Simpson then said [Heaven] that s what we here for so why not take that route? Judge Murguia held then that the government was unable to prove Simpson mentioned violent jihad in his reasoning for traveling to Somalia. That phrase is one made up by the Government, likely because it is aware that jihad in the Muslim religion does not necessarily imply violence, she said, noted Greenfield.However, the LA Times previously noted that Judge Murguria s twin sister Janet Murguia leads a controversial group known as National Council of La Raza, which has been criticized as a racist hate group. It is the nation s largest Latino civil rights activist organization. La Raza is closely linked to the Obama Administration s amnesty efforts.Human Events, a conservative blog, previously reported that the mainstream media views La Raza no more than a Hispanic Rotary Club. But La Raza collected roughly $15.2 million in federal grants in 2005. Human Events also reported that undisclosed amounts of that money were used in get-out-the-vote efforts supporting La Raza political positions. La Raza has been added to congressional hearings and an anonymous senator even gave the Council of La Raza an extra $4 million in earmarked taxpayer money, supposedly for housing reform, according to Human Events. Moreover, Judge Murguria s brother, Carlos Murguria, helped coordinate the Immigration Amnesty Program prior to Clinton nominating him also for a judgeship, according to Front Page Magazine.Via: Bretibart News | 1real |
Trump’s Attorney General Pick Thinks Kids With Disabilities Are Dragging Public Schools Down | Yes, you read the title correctly. Trump s pick for attorney general has seriously said that children with disabilities attending public schools are the problem with America s education system.In May 2000, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), gave a speech about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act on the floor of the Senate. He argued that one of the main reasons public schools in America are failing miserably at educating our children is because kids with disabilities have been mainstreamed. We have created a complex system of federal regulations and laws that have created lawsuit after lawsuit, special treatment for certain children, and that are a big factor in accelerating the decline in civility and discipline in classrooms all over America. I say that very sincerely, Sessions said.Sessions insisted that he had received letters from teachers all over the country who said they weren t allowed to properly discipline troubled or disruptive students because of the Disabilities Education Act. We have children we cannot control because of this federal law, he said.As the Huffington Post explains: The law, which passed in 1975, was enacted to protect children with disabilities from the school administrators that Sessions cited. It required schools to grant students with disabilities an education in a general classroom when possible, and encouraged the parents of those children to be more intimately involved in their education. The legislation, which has been reformed various times since, is credited with providing millions of children with mainstream public school access and support. Sessions could care less that education advocates, even from his own state, have made it clear that the only way they have been abe to get fair treatment for disabled students is through federal regulations and the threat of lawsuits.According to Candace Aylor, a veteran parent advocate and appointee to Texas health commission s Behavioral Health Advisory Committee, Session s arguments are not only nauseating, they are heartless and misguided. If he doesn t recognize the need for schools to be required to provide a free and appropriate public education to all students regardless of disability what kind of society does he intend for us to live in? she said. What should we do? Should we put them in asylums again? How far back in history should we go? Are they not worthy? Are they defective in his mind? It isn t likely that Trump gives a hoot that his choice for attorney general thinks we should keep children with disabilities hidden in a back room and not waste our precious time educating them. After all, Trump himself thinks it is perfectly acceptable to mock people with disabilities.Featured image via Active For Life | 1real |
null | There were so many lies surrounding the creation and implementation of the ACA. It was sold by the Obama administration as healthcare reform when in reality it was forced adherence to an already corrupt, profit driven healthcare system. Even if the ACA fails, which is almost a certainty now, it will act as a poison pill, giving opponents of single payer or govt administered healthcare plenty of ammunition to claim govt has no place in health care. It has delayed, and will continue to delay, true reform for years. Obama should be ashamed for selling out. | 1real |
Battle For Mosul Not What It Seems | in: War Propaganda , World News (image credit: AP) The battle for Mosul is more about redeploying thousands of US-supported ISIS fighters to Syria, along with perhaps letting Turkish forces move in to control evacuated areas. Erdogan long coveted Mosul. He may think now’s his chance to seize the city and its lucrative oil reserves, claiming it’s a buffer zone against Kurdish fighters, similar to his northern Syria occupation. According to Syrian parliamentarian Hohammad Kheir Akam, “(t)he US has opened a southern side of Mosul (corridor) to the terrorists to” let thousands of its fighters enter Syria. US-led coalition warplanes easily spot their convoys. Yet they’re allowed to move freely – America supporting terrorists it claims to oppose. Iraqi Ansarullah al-Nujaba Movement spokesman Hashem al-Moussavi said “Washington is still continuing its military support for the terrorists in” his country, airdropping them weapons and other supplies. “Our forces have filmed US aircraft while dropping military aids for” ISIS terrorist fighters, he said. Iraq’s Hassan Abdel Hadi said government forces are concerned about US aerial attacks, impeding their advance to ISIS-controlled areas. “Unfortunately, there are still some people in Iraq who have been deceived by the US-led coalition, while Washington supports ISIL and is trying to compensate for the damage done” to their fighters by government forces, he explained. Last Friday, Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov said US-led coalition warplanes struck a funeral procession. “Dozens of Iraqi civilians died, including women and children,” he explained. “Russian reconnaissance pinpointed two jets conducting airstrikes on Daquq, located 30 kilometers to the south of Kirkuk, where, according to our data, there are no ISIS fighters,” – a willful war crime. They’re “almost a daily routine for the (US-led) international coalition. Too often weddings, funerals, hospitals, police stations, and humanitarian convoys are being hit by the coalition warplanes.” Russian General Sergey Rudskoy said “(w)e are closely monitoring the situation around Mosul. So far we see no substantial progress in liberating this city from…ISIS” since operations began on October 16 – because no effort is made to do it. Last week, a coalition airstrike targeted a mosque south of Kirkuk, killing over a dozen women and children. A southern Mosul girl’s school was struck. US-led coalition warplanes were operating in the area, clearly responsible for what happened. On October 25, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported over 60 civilians killed, over 200 others injured on airstrikes on residential areas in Mosul – locations where no ISIS fighters were present. So far, no fighting inside Mosul was reported. By the time, so-called liberating forces enter the city, ISIS fighters will be gone – redeployed to Syria to combat government troops and civilians. Moscow letting this happen without resistance so far makes the battle to liberate Syria harder. Is an offensive planned to rectify this blunder, compounded by failing to launch airstrikes against al-Nusra terrorists in eastern Aleppo since October 18? According to General Rudskoy, Russian Aerospace forces are monitoring the situation in the area of the Syrian-Iraqi border day and night with the help of unmanned aerial vehicles and other reconnaissance means.” “Russian planes are on patrol missions in the airspace and are ready to immediately deliver strikes against terrorists.” Aerial operations “in a 10-km zone around Aleppo” remain suspended. “The moratorium…will be extended.” The longer Russia delays full-scale aerial operations against US-supported terrorists infesting eastern Aleppo, the harder the struggle ahead to liberate the city and all key parts of Syria. Submit your review | 1real |
Wolf Richter: Layoffs at Alphabet Access to Hit 9%, Google Fiber to “Pause” Plans, CEO Leaves, as Alphabet Cracks Down on Costs | by Yves Smith
By Wolf Richter, a San Francisco based executive, entrepreneur, start up specialist, and author, with extensive international work experience. Originally published at Wolf Street
Five years ago, when Google announced that it would build a super-high-speed fiber-optic network in Kansas City, and then roll it out in other cities, it started an effort to own and control the data pipelines going into homes and businesses.
Given how frustrated consumers are with their ISPs, it seems people couldn’t wait for Google Fiber, now operated by Alphabet’s Access. Google then spent a fortune building out the network in select cities around the country. This could have been huge . At a huge cost.
“Amazing bet,” is what Craig Barratt, senior VP at Alphabet and CEO of Access, called Google Fiber in a blogpost yesterday. In the same breath, he also announced that they would “pause” the build-out of Google Fiber in cities where it had been planned, that there would be layoffs and reassignments, though he didn’t say how many, and that he’d “step aside” as CEO of Access.
His replacement has not been announced.
He’s the third CEO of an Alphabet division to part ways since June. He prefaced this whole debacle this way:
And thanks to the hard work of everyone on the Access team, our business is solid: our subscriber base and revenue are growing quickly, and we expect that growth to continue. I am extremely proud of what we’ve built together in five short years.
Google Fiber is one of two big entities in “Other Bets” of the Alphabet empire, whose CEO Larry Page and new-ish CFO Ruth Porat are trying to crack down on ballooning costs.
The other big entity in “Other Bets” is Nest Labs, which makes internet-connected thermostats and the like. In a brilliant move, Google had acquired it in 2014 for a breath-taking $3.2 billion. But by now, this move has become very unbrilliant.
In June, Tony Fadell, Nest co-founder and CEO, quit after internal disputes over this focus on spending. Some key Nest employees moved to Google’s new hardware division. And the entity is in turmoil.
In August, Bill Maris, CEO of Google’s venture capital arm, GV, also left.
Earlier this year, Alphabet got second thoughts about its ambitious robotics efforts and put Boston Dynamics up for sale. It had acquired the experimental robot maker in 2013 for $500 million. But tensions soon arose, and co-founder Andy Rubin bailed out in 2014. No deal yet.
Then there was, infamously, Google Glass….
So Google Fiber is in good company. It will cease efforts to install a fiber network in 10 cities where it had been planned but not fully committed, according to Ars Technica . In addition, San Francisco was supposed to get Google fiber for sure, but that has now been cancelled too.
The 11 cities where Google Fiber has been nixed: Chicago, Dallas, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Tampa.
In “this handful of cities” and also “in certain related areas of our supporting operations, we’ll be reducing our employee base,” Barratt wrote. Hence the layoffs.
Google Fiber has already been rolled out in Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Kansas City (Missouri and Kansas), Nashville, Provo (Utah), Salt Lake City, and The Triangle (North Carolina). And it’s still publicly committed to building the network – subject to change, I suppose – in Huntsville (Alabama), Irvine (California), San Antonio, and Louisville.
In June, Google Fiber announced that it would acquire Webpass, a 13-year-old company that provides high-speed wireless internet in Boston, Chicago, Miami, San Diego, Oakland, and San Francisco. A wireless network is a lot cheaper to install in urban areas with multi-family housing than fiber-to-the-home.
About 9% of the employees at Access will lose their jobs, though some people could be reassigned to entities of Alphabet, according to Ars Technica:
The source did not say exactly how many employees that percentage represents. Access includes more than just Google Fiber, so the percentage of Google Fiber employees being laid off or reassigned is probably a little higher.
Alphabet headcounts are hard to come by, but this Bloomberg report says Access has about 1,500 employees. The Information report indicates that Google Fiber had about 1,000 employees before the layoffs. If both of those numbers are accurate, then the percentage of Google Fiber employees being laid off or reassigned to other parts of Alphabet might be around 13.5 percent.
Google Fiber apparently has not hit its subscriber goals, and fiber construction is a costly endeavor. While the company isn’t giving up on fiber entirely, it may be able to deploy Internet service at a lower cost using wireless technology.
“It’s billions of dollars a year just to maintain this stuff, and Google doesn’t want to spend that kind of money on just being another player in that market,” Jan Dawson, an analyst with Jackdaw Research, told Bloomberg .
“I think the new CFO put an end to the experiment that wasn’t really going anywhere,” Chetan Sharma, an independent wireless industry analyst, told Bloomberg .
So serving up digital ads is still Alphabet’s main business, and flourishing. Controlling the high-speed pipeline to get these ads into homes and businesses, and grabbing whatever data can be grabbed by ISPs via deep-packet inspection and other methods still seems to be part of the plan, but now through cheaper and less glamorous wireless services and no longer through the holy grail of data pipelines, optical fiber. And so goes another huge dream to diversity away from advertising.
Even the absolute master of marketing, Apple, is running into trouble with its latest product. Read… Smartwatch is Dead, Market Implodes, Apple Watch Shipments Collapse 0 0 0 0 0 0 | 1real |
CHECK OUT TINY CROWD At Hillary Rally In MUST WIN State Of Ohio | My kids draw bigger crowds at their neighborhood lemonade stands! From GP: She [Hillary] will speak at Luke Easter Park at 1:00 PM ET.Hillary is speaking at the park in 25 minutes with her vice presidential running mate Tim Kaine.So far only a couple hundred supporters have turned out to see her.Crowd waiting for Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine at Luke Easter Park in Cleveland. pic.twitter.com/b8QMTGGCXN Tom Troy (@TomFTroy) September 5, 2016Hillary Clinton starts rally in Cleveland 80 minutes late, talks after coughing fit she attributes to allergies. pic.twitter.com/vW5GmvTfRX Tom Troy (@TomFTroy) September 5, 2016CLINTON IN CLEVELAND: Ted Strickland kicks off speeches at #Cleveland Labor Day festival. @WEWS pic.twitter.com/YnWLUtpsUx Tara Molina (@TaraMolinaTV) September 5, 2016Compare Hillary s lethargic, tiny crowd in Ohio today to Trump s massive and enthusiastic crowd in Canfield, Ohio on the same day:Thank you Ohio! #AmericaFirst pic.twitter.com/p68GAJdhwu Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2016 | 1real |
Italy calls confidence vote on contested electoral law | ROME (Reuters) - The Italian government called on Tuesday for confidence votes in the lower house of parliament to try to force through an electoral law that is likely to penalize the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement. The new voting law, which would be used in a national election due by next May, is backed by the ruling Democratic Party (PD), former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi s Forza Italia (Go Italy!) and the anti-migrant Northern League. Unlike the current rules, the new system, known as the Rosatellum, would allow the formation of broad coalitions before the ballot, a factor likely to hurt the maverick 5-Star, which refuses to join alliances. The party, which tops many opinion polls, says the Rosatellum could cost it up to 50 seats in parliament. It has called for protests on Wednesday, when the lower house is due to hold two confidence motions. A third vote is set for Thursday. This is a mortal blow to democracy, a violation of democratic laws, said Luigi Di Maio, the 5-Star s candidate for prime minister. The aim is to destroy us. Italy s political landscape is highly fragmented and successive governments have failed to reduce the nation s huge debt mountain and struggled to revive the economy. Investors fear political instability here could undermine the euro. President Sergio Mattarella, the only figure with the power to dissolve parliament, has demanded new voting rules be drawn up because at present there is too much divergence between the systems for electing members of the two houses of parliament. Previous efforts at reform have all ended in failure thanks to a matrix of conflicting interests. The latest version offers a mix of first-past-the-post and proportional representation, and gives party leaders a huge say over nominating candidates. Although the Rosatellum will likely hurt 5-Star, analysts say it looks unlikely to throw up a clear parliamentary majority, with opinion polls showing the center-left, center-right and 5-Star splitting the vote three ways. A government is obliged to resign if it loses a confidence vote so only deploys the motion if it thinks key legislation might get held up or radically altered without its intervention. In this case, the government motions will sweep away dozens of secret votes on various aspects of the law, which would have allowed disaffected parliamentarians from the traditional parties to sink the bill, as happened in June during a prior attempt to introduce new electoral rules. The ruling PD dismissed accusations that it was subverting democracy, saying there would still be one final secret vote on the whole package. In this secret vote we will see if the law is good or bad, said Ettore Rosato, the parliamentary party leader of the PD who has put his name to the reform. This is the last chance we have to put in place an electoral law and we want to avoid, just weeks ahead of the ballot, any traps, he told reporters. Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni hopes to get the bill through the lower house of parliament by the end of the week, after which it will go to the upper house Senate, where the government has no clearly defined majority. | 0fake |
Anti-Obama ESPN Host Cuts Off Singer As He Begins Passionate Speech On Universal Healthcare (VIDEO) | ESPN has a bit of a conservative bias problem. The network devoted to sports may have anchors of all political backgrounds, but the right-leaning ones keep managing to embarrass everyone else.Nowhere is that more clear than with Sage Steele, an ESPN reporter with an inexplicable seething hatred for President Obama and his landmark healthcare reform. How much does she hate the idea of universal healthcare? Watch her painfully ham-fisted attempt to stop Arcade Fire s Win Butler from endorsing the seemingly uncontroversial idea that everyone should have health insurance.Butler wanted to use the opportunity of playing in a Celebrity All-Star basketball game in Toronto to bring up the issue of healthcare. He starts to make a comparison between Canada s model of universal healthcare and America s rather lousy counterpart when Steele rudely interrupts him with this astoundingly dumb line: We re talking about celebrity stuff, not politics. Priorities!Heaven forbid celebrities talk about issues that matter (especially in the lead up to a very important presidential election) instead of what they re wearing, who they re dating, and how exciting it is to win an MVP trophy at a Celebrity All-Star game.But Steele isn t just shallow, she s tenaciously anti-Obamacare. She wasn t just trying to move the show along, she was trying to prevent Butler from putting pesky ideas like nobody deserves to go bankrupt when they get sick into the heads of the American public watching the show.And it s not just singers that Steele doesn t think should be allowed to talk about healthcare she also bashed the President of the United States for doing it.Comical hearing @BarackObama pimping his health care plan on @ESPN_Colin 's show It's ESPN!! Let's stick to his take on hoops!!! Sage Steele (@sagesteele) March 20, 2014While guest starring on The View in 2014, Steele was in the mood to discuss Obamacare but only to say that it would destroy America.So far ESPN has remained silent about one of its reporters so shamelessly censoring the liberal political opinions of someone on their show. Unfortunately, this lack of backbone isn t surprising. ESPN recently came under fire for suspending one of their reporters when he called out ESPN contributor Curt Schilling for being astoundingly ignorant of evolution following one of Schillings almost daily anti-science rants on Twitter. Schilling received no punishment.ESPN wants to be more than just a sports channel, but in order to do that it needs to start respecting the idea of the free exchange of ideas. The people who watch the network probably like watching celebrities play basketball, but they also want to be informed about the world. This kind of blatant censorship has no place, no matter how much Sage Steele might prefer it.Feature image from screen capture via YouTube | 1real |
UNREAL! OBAMA USING GOV’T GRANTS TO ROB AND REDISTRIBUTE TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO HIS CRONIES AND FELLOW “COMMUNITY AGITATORS” | THE USDA, EPA AND NOW THE DOJ Obama is using billions of taxpayer dollars to redistribute to his cronies and liberal agitators. Just Tuesday, the DOJ s Loretta Lynch unleashed millions to be given to community organizers to do who knows what with The Justice Department announced $163 million in grants to be distributed for the purpose of building trust with the community. As part of its effort to execute the recommendations of the president s task force, the Justice Department is looking for 10 localities to participate in a collaborative reform process to serve as a model for the rest of the country, emphasizing procedural justice and implicit bias training. A list of grants awarded by the Justice Department in 2013 indicate federal funding has been and will continue to be directed toward activist groups described by critics as racial agitators. For example, Community Policing Development Awards were given in 2013 to programs including Building Trust With Communities of Color from the Vera Institute of Justice, the Race and Social Justice Initiative at the Portland Police Department and Racial Reconciliation, Truth-Telling, and Police Legitimacy at John Jay College.Matthew Vadum, an expert in left-wing activist groups and the author of Subversion, Inc., warns such federal funding invariably finds its way into the hands of progressive activists who personally profit from increased community tensions. After attacking police as stupid, racist, vicious and thuggish almost non-stop throughout his presidency, now he suddenly cares about police officers and the communities they serve. Now he wants to throw millions of taxpayer dollars at ACORN-like groups and professional left-wing agitators whose calling in life is to generate civil unrest, he said. This means that people like the president s point man on race relations, riot organizer Al Sharpton, will get his hands on lots of government money. This money won t actually help anyone except for the often-violent Saul Alinsky-inspired community organizers who have been living high off the hog ever since one of their own took up residence in the White House. Wrong solutions to a problem he created Civil-rights activist Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, author of Scam: How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America, argues the Obama administration will use grants to reward political allies instead of fighting crime and helping the black community.Read more: WNDUSDA GOVERNMENT GRANT PROGRAMS DIRECTED AT THE POOR AND FOOD DESERTS -JUST ADD IT ALL UP: $80 BILLION IN SNAP PER YEAR PLUS $31.5 MILLION, $75 MILLION, $100 MILLION, $4.5 BILLION: Less than a year after spending tens of millions of dollars to provide the nation s food-stamp recipients with more fruits and vegetables, the Obama administration is generously throwing in another $31.5 million for the same cause, according to a recent announcement.It s the last thing Americans need to hear as the dreaded tax day approaches since, after all, they re bankrolling the healthy food campaign for low-income residents. Under President Obama the country s food-stamp program rebranded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to eliminate stigma associated with the welfare benefit has grown immensely, according to the government s own figures. A record number of people, around 47 million, get free groceries from Uncle Sam at an astounding cost of about $80 billion a year.It isn t enough to give tens of millions of people free food. The administration wants to assure the welfare recipients are eating healthy and nutritious items by providing government-subsidized produce, whole grains and low-fat milk in neighborhoods it has labeled food deserts. It s part of a broader effort spearheaded by Michelle Obama s $4.5 billion law to revolutionize the inner city diet by providing fruits, veggies and grilled lean meats as alternatives to greasy, fried foods that tend to be more popular in those areas presumably because they re cheaper.The money flows through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which has poured huge sums into the cause and this month dedicated the additional $31.5 million. Encouraging low income families to put more healthy food in their grocery baskets is part of USDA s ongoing commitment to improving the diet and health of all Americans, said Obama s Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. He referred to the costly program as creative community partnerships that will ultimately help SNAP participants better afford fruits and vegetables. Officially the funds for this particular initiative have been coined Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive grants.Judicial Watch has reported on this extensively in the last few years, exposing the enormous sums of taxpayer dollars that have been wasted on this ineffective experiment. In fact, last year JW wrote about an academic study that shows the First Lady s pricey initiative to eliminate food deserts is failing miserably. The study focused on a low-income neighborhood in Philadelphia that received generous grants from the government to build new markets and add healthy food options to convenience stores. Researchers found that dietary habits or obesity were not altered and it did not lead to changes in fruit and vegetable intake or body mass index.Before that JW reported that the administration wasted $75 million to study ways of better recognizing the nutritional needs of low-income communities and more than $100 million in Obamacare grants to reduce health disparities between minorities and whites by, among other things, eliminating food deserts. The administration even created a special internet mapping tool (Food Desert Locator) that identifies areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious foods. Less than a year ago the Obama administration announced that it was launching a special research center that will find ways to help food-stamp recipients make healthier and wiser food choices. It will be called the Center for Behavioral Economics and Healthy Food Choice and Americans will pay at least $1.9 million possibly more to create it. There seems to be no end to the madness, an obsession to control what private citizens consume and change the ingrained eating habits of an entire demographic.Read more: Judicial WatchEPA GRANTS AND FUNDS USED TO REDISTRIBUTE TAXDOLLARS AND BUY SUPPORT FOR PHONY AGENDASBut the American Lung Association backs up the White House and EPA claims vigorously promoting the phony pollution/asthma link. However, the EPA s $24.7 million in grants to the ALA over the past 15 years should raise questions about the association s credibility and integrity on climate and pollution.The EPA also channels vast sums to its independent Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, which likewise rubberstamps the agency s pollution claims and regulations: $180.8 million to 15 CASAC members since 2000. Imagine the outrage and credibility gap if Big Oil gave that kind of money to scientists who question the dangerous manmade climate change mantra.Read more: wj | 1real |
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