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Russian businessman Kerimov detained by French police in Nice: prosecutor's office | PARIS (Reuters) - Senior Russian lawmaker and businessman Suleiman Kerimov was arrested by French police at Nice airport on Monday night in connection with a tax evasion case, an official at a French prosecutor s office said on Tuesday. He is being held for questioning in a case related to laundering of tax fraud proceeds, an official at the prosecutor s office said. Kerimov is ranked by Forbes magazine as Russia s 21st wealthiest businessman, with a net worth of $6.3 billion. | 0fake |
FBI Arrest Cliven Bundy at Portland Airport – Charged with Federal Conspiracy | Patrick Henningsen 21st Century WireCliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher at the center of the federal standoff in Bunkerville in 2014, was arrested by FBI agents at around 10pm Wednesday evening as he touched down at Portland International Airport. Bundy, 74 yrs old, of Bunkerville, Nevada, was taken to Oregon s Multnomah County detention center and charged with conspiracy to interfere with a federal officer the same federal felony charge made two weeks ago against of his two sons, Ammon and Ryan Bundy.According to Oregon Live, Cliven Bundy, also faces weapons charges, dating back to the original standoff in April 2014.READ THE FULL FEDERAL COMPLAINT AGAINST CLIVEN BUNDY HERE. Police Mug Shot: Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy was arrested in Portland last night.Bundy s dramatic arrest came as he was planning to meet up with staunch Bundy supporter, Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, for a Q & A press conference in Portland scheduled for early Thursday morning, presumably to advocate for the Bundy sons and others currently under federal incarceration, and to help mediate a peaceful resolution for the remaining 4 occupiers still held-up at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge outside of Burns, Oregon.The timeline of these events is particularly interesting. Before Cliven Bundy touched down in Portland, Fiore (photo, left) had already arrived in town, but was immediately confronted with a breaking situation on Wednesday afternoon, where reports indicate that there were likely dozens of heavily armed federal tactical and state SWAT members positioned at various points around the perimeter of the occupied federal refuge office building. On Wednesday evening, law enforcement appeared to have decided to make their move to end the occupation by re-taking the protest site and remove its occupants. Fiore then headed to Burns while engaged in a 4 hour-long phone call with the protesters live-streamed on YouTube with nearly 60,000 listeners on the call.Clearly, the FBI had plenty of foreknowledge of Cliven Bundy and Michele Fiore s potentially explosive media spectacle scheduled for this morning. FBI agents appear to have preempted this national (and global) press event by Bundy and Fiore, quickly moving on the protest, and then taking Cliven Bundy out of the equation, or off the street , as it were. This chain of events over the last 24 hours indicates that the federal government had made decisive moves at key moments in order to temporarily control the media and political narratives, and by extension, the course of events which have followed. That reality was echoed by Portland attorney, Mike Arnold, currently representing Ammon Bundy, who said earlier today: It s terribly unfortunate the timing of his arrest, given all the progress Assemblywoman Fiore made this evening. In addition to Fiore and Cliven Bundy arriving in Oregon this week, Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, posted on Facebook that he had been talking with the four holdouts for a week, at their request and at the request of the FBI , and was said to be heading for Burns to witness a peaceful resolution. Early on Thursday, Graham stated the following: I am on my way there Please keep them, law enforcement officials, and all involved in your prayers, that everyone will be safe. Presently, federal forces are still at the gates of the refuge, with occupiers still inside. According to the Oregonian, the remaining occupiers are 27-year-old David Fry, the man running the refuge protest YouTube livestream, along with married couple Sean and Sandy Anderson, and one other man known by the name of Jeff Banta. It s not completely clear if all the occupants are armed, and there have been some mixed messages over the last two weeks as to what their exact intentions were, and what concessions were possible through negotiations.UPDATE: 4 holdouts all in FBI custody as occupation endsIn an overwhelming show of force, the FBI have surrounded the small one story detached Malheur office building with MRAP armored vehicles and other assets, including multiple surveillance drones positioned overhead. It s not known exactly how many federal agents are in position at the refuge and the surrounding area, but based on similar events, the number could be at least 300, not including state and other law enforcement agents.At the end of January, a team of federal and state agents shot and killed the protest s spokesman, Arizona rancher, Robert Lavoy Finicum, in what can only be described as a well-organize, federal and state ambush, involving dozens of vehicles and armed agents (including snipers) positioned along an isolated rural stretch of Oregon highway 395. The mainstream media are still disingenuously referring to the event as a traffic stop incident in what appears to be a well-coordinated PR effort to minimize any accusations of over-reach on the part of the federal agencies.The left-wing arm of the media, and a virtual army of anti-Bundy activists online will certainly be celebrating this latest development as a government victory .With the iconic face of the public lands issue, Cliven Bundy, now in custody, this will either stir the burgeoning Constitutionalist movement, or it will further demoralize it.Cliven Bundy is expected to appear in a Portland federal court this afternoon.Watch this space.READ MORE OREGON STANDOFF NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Oregon Files | 1real |
These Blast Points on Hillary's Campaign... Only The Deep State Is So Precise | These Blast Points on Hillary's Campaign... Only The Deep State Is So Precise Charles Hugh Smith
The Deep State's most prescient elements must derail Hillary's campaign to clear a path to Trump's executive team.
Back in August, I asked Could the Deep State Be Sabotaging Hillary? I think we now have a definitive answer: "These blast points on Hillary's campaign... too accurate for the Mainstream Media. Only the forces of the Imperial Deep State are so precise."
The Mainstream Media is presenting the FBI investigation as a "lose-lose" situation for embattled FBI Director Comey. If Comey remained quiet until after the election, he would be accused of colluding with the Clinton campaign and its allies in the Department of Justice (sic).
But in going public, he stands accused by Democrats of "intervening in an election," i.e. raising doubts about Hillary's judgement and veracity days before Americans go to the polls.
Another narrative has Comey's hand forced by the threat of disgusted FBI agents leaking information that would show the FBI caved into political pressure from the Democratic Party and Clinton campaign to keep relevant material out of the public eye until after the election.
I submit another much more powerful dynamic is in play: the upper ranks of the Deep State now view Hillary as an unacceptable liability. The word came down to Comey to act whether he wanted to or not, i.e. take one for the good of the nation/Deep State/Imperial Project.
As a refresher: the Deep State is the unelected government (also called the invisible or shadow government) that is not as monolithic as generally assumed.
The neo-conservative globalists who want Hillary to continue pushing their agenda are the more visible camp, but another less visible but highly motivated camp realizes Hillary and her neo-con agenda would severely damage the nation's security and its global influence. It is this camp that is arranging for Hillary to lose.
The consensus view seems to be that the Establishment and the Deep State see Trump as a loose cannon who might upset the neo-con apple cart by refusing to toe the neo-con line.
This view overlooks the reality that significant segments of the Deep State view the neo-con strategy as an irredeemable failure. To these elements of the Deep State, Hillary is a threat precisely because she embraces the failed neo-con strategy and those who cling to it. From this point of view, Hillary as president would be an unmitigated disaster for the Deep State and the nation/Imperial Project it governs.
Whatever else emerges from the emails being leaked or officially released, one conclusion is inescapable: Hillary's judgement is hopelessly flawed. Combine her lack of judgement with her 24 years of accumulated baggage and her potential to push the neo-con agenda to the point of global disaster, and you get a potent need for the Deep State's most prescient elements to derail her campaign and clear a path to Trump's executive team.
Once this path is clear, the management of Trump's executive team can begin in earnest, a management process aimed at disengaging the nation and its global Empire from neo-con overreach.
If you think this scenario is "impossible," let's see how the election plays out before deciding what's "impossible" and what's inevitable. | 1real |
White House aides told to preserve materials in Russia probe: source | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House counsel’s office has sent a memo instructing President Donald Trump’s aides to preserve materials that could be connected to suspected Russian interference in the 2016 election and related issues, an administration official said on Wednesday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed an Associated Press report on the memo. AP, citing administration officials, said the memo was sent on Tuesday. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia sought to influence the presidential election to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. Congressional committees are investigating Russia’s role in hacking Democratic Party computers and releasing the information publicly. Federal investigators have been looking into possible contacts between Trump advisers and Russia. Senate Democrats last week asked the White House and law enforcement agencies to keep all materials involving contacts between Trump’s team and Russian officials, AP said. The Senate Intelligence Committee made a similar request, the AP said. | 0fake |
#BoycottPenzeys: HATEFUL, DIVISIVE Penzeys Spice Co. Owner Threatens Trump Supporters…Brags About Increased Sales Since Calling All Trump Supporters “Racists” | Bill Penzey, the owner of Penzeys Spices, wrote two separate letters on the Penzeys Spices Facebook page, accusing all Trump s voters of openly embracing racism. Isn t it funny how liberals think they can use the most hateful and divisive language against fellow Americans, then excuse their open hate as an act of love or unity? We re asking Trump supporters and anyone who disagrees with a company owner calling half of America racists to BOYCOTT Penzeys Spices. (List of states where Penzeys Spice stores are located can be found below)Here is an excerpt from his first letter:Please give us a moment to share something we hope you will find very valuable.Our customers come from all walks of life. The kindness of cooks knows no borders or divides. In the aftermath of the election, seeing the intentional damage inflicted on so many outside the white heterosexual male world, we raised our voice. We felt we had to. We did this because we are Penzeys. The Spice business is so intertwined with history that it s not really possible to have one without the other. It became clear to us that we are now in a moment history will long have its eyes upon. For the sake of our customers, and for the sake of future generations, we felt the time had come to stand on the right side of history.And while the reasons for why we took a stand might be specific to our unique outlook, what we learned actually applies to all commerce in the United States. What we learned is that President-elect Donald Trump has no real support. Voters, sure, but no constituency. Running a campaign on that horrible-terrible-woman who should be locked up, while at the same time working to raise fear of minorities among white voters with limited access to education, clearly achieved its goal. But none of it left Americans with any sense of connection to the candidate they actually voted for.Willing to take a hit for what is right, we did what we did. In the two weeks since, online sales are up 59.9%, gift box sales up 135%. And we didn t have a catalog arrive in this window this year, while last year we had 1.1 million! Yes, maybe for the moment we have lost 3% of our customers because of the so-called right wing firestorm. And, yes, they send emails of rage, and ALL CAPS, and bad language with the hope of creating the perception that they are bigger than they really are. But what we learned is that, in terms of retail spending, Donald Trump simply has no one supporting his views for America. He has no constituency.In this moment there is finally the real chance to unite our nation in our shared rejection of sexism, homophobia, and racism. This is your chance to stand up for America s values and make January a tent pole in your company s history. Opportunities to do the right thing at the time when doing the right thing makes all the difference come once in a lifetime. Make your history proud.For entire letter, see Facebook post below: | 1real |
U.S. to withdraw from U.N.'s cultural agency in December | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is withdrawing from UNESCO, the United Nation s cultural and educational agency, effective Dec. 31, the U.S. State Department said in a statement on Thursday. This decision was not taken lightly, and reflects U.S. concerns with mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO, the department said, adding that the United States would seek to remain engaged ...as a non-member observer state in order to contribute U.S. views, perspectives and expertise. | 0fake |
Bill Black: Wall Street’s Apologist-in-Chief Mansplains Regulation to Senator Warren | by Yves Smith
Yves here. Even by the normal, as in low, standards of New York Times defenses of Wall Street, the Roger Lowenstein piece that Black shellacks is particularly inept.
By Bill Black, the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One and an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Originally published at New Economic Perspectives
When last I wrote of Roger Lowenstein he was complaining that the Wall Street felons were being criticized – not jailed – criticized. Lowenstein is Wall Street’s self-appointed apologist-in-chief. Naturally, he despises Senator Warren, the most effective elected official in exposing Wall Street’s elite frauds. The New York Times granted him an op ed in which he sought to mansplain financial regulation to Senator Warren.
Lowenstein does not like women that he considers too loud, gratuitously complaining that Senator Warren is “high-decibel” supporter of regulation. Coming from someone who has spent his journalistic career shilling for Wall Street, this sexist trope is painfully embarrassing. Wall Street is infamous for raging males who believe that screaming at subordinates who can’t fight back proves their virility.
Lowenstein was piling on to the recent sexist attack of Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer, an ultra-right wing Missouri Republican, on Senator Warren. Congressman Luetkemeyer , a senior member of House Financial Services, was speaking to the American Bankers Association when he labeled Senator Warren the “Darth Vader of the financial services world” and pleaded with the bankers to work with the Trump Republicans to “neuter her.” The Kansas City Star coverage of this Trumpian assault on women notes that Congressman Luetkemeyer “led multiple congressional efforts to protect the payday loan industry, according to fortune.com.”
Senator Warren, who is decidedly not a screamer, is the target of Lowenstein and Luetkemeyer’s wrath because Wall Street’s greatest fear is the return of effective regulators who would end the elite frauds and make the criminal referrals that would imprison thousands of Wall Street’s elite criminals. Wall Street knows that Senators Warren, Sanders and Brown are working tirelessly to ensure that the next president appoints regulatory leaders that would restore the rule of law to Wall Street. Lowenstein and Congressman Luetkemeyer are desperate to defeat that effort.
Lowenstein wrote that his article was prompted by Senator Warren’s recommendation that President Obama fire Mary Jo White as the chair of the SEC. Because Senator Warren understands federal regulation, she made no such recommendation. Senator Warren requested President Obama to designate another SEC commissioner as the Chair. The President does have that power.
Ms. White has been an exceptionally weak leader of the SEC. I witnessed Ms. White’s presentation at the annual law professors meeting years ago giving her ode to “good earnings management.” “Earnings management” is one of many euphemisms for a form of accounting securities fraud that reduces the value of corporation in order to “hit the number” and maximize the officers’ bonuses. The revolving door perverted someone who once was a moderately effective prosecutor into a very well paid apologist for elite frauds. President Obama is notorious for appointing weak law enforcement officials at the Department of Justice and the financial regulatory agencies. Senator Warren is correct to call on President Obama to transfer the chair to a more capable SEC commissioner.
Senator Warren knows that there is no chance that President Obama will request Ms. White’s resignation or no longer designate her as the SEC Chair. Senator Warren is establishing her consistency and serving notice on the next president that the democratic-wing of the Democratic Party will push for appointees in the next administration that will be dedicated to restoring the rule of law to Wall Street. Lowenstein has no expertise in regulation. Senator Warren is one of the Nation’s experts in financial regulation. As one would predict, his pretense of mansplaining financial regulation to Senator Warren went hilariously wrong. Lowenstein begins with a fundamental error that betrays the fact that he does not understand even the basics of federal regulation.
Last time I checked, the S.E.C. was a regulatory agency of the executive branch….
The SEC is an independent regulatory agency, as was the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) when I worked for it — and unlike the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) when I worked for it. The OTS was “a regulatory agency of the executive branch.” The normal view under U.S. jurisprudence is that the independent regulatory agencies such as the SEC are “creatures of Congress.” The problem is not that the SEC became an independent regulatory agency since the “last time [Lowenstein] checked.” The SEC was created as an independent regulatory agency in 1934 and has remained one for its entire existence.
Lowenstein never understood the SEC’s legal nature because he never “checked” on the SEC’s legal nature. Had he checked, he would have found statements such as this by the SEC :
[A]s an independent regulatory agency the SEC is not obligated to follow the guidelines for regulatory economic analysis by executive agencies….
Building on this initial error, Lowenstein imagines President Obama’s response to Senator Warren’s call for President Obama to ask Ms. White to resign as Chair of the SEC:
“Hey, firing agency heads is my job.”
Well, no. The President cannot “fire” the heads of independent regulatory agencies such as the SEC, precisely because they are not “executive branch” agencies. The SEC Commissioners do not serve “at the pleasure of the president.”
I am delighted that progressives such as Senators Sanders and Warren blocked Larry Summers’ appointment to chair the Federal Reserve, which led to the well-deserved appointment of Janet Yellen to Chair the Fed. Progressives were enthused that progressives such as Senators Sanders and Warren blocked Antonio Weiss — whose only ostensible qualification for the Treasury slot was that he was an investment banker who contributed to the crisis rather than warning about it and trying to prevent it. Contrary to Lowenstein’s assertion, Weiss had to be pushed by Senators Sanders and Warren to even begin to respond to Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy.
The thing that the Street will never forgive Senator Warren for is the thing they claim they value as their preeminent virtue — she succeeds. Indeed, she succeeds despite their intense opposition and their rage against her. They try to go head-to-head with her and she hands them their heads. CEOs like Wells Fargo’s John Stumpf are so used to being surrounded by sycophants that tell them how brilliant they are that they approach prepping for Senator Warren’s questions with contempt and immense over-confidence. Then she tears into them and they look like a deer frozen in place by headlights while being eviscerated by a wolverine. The best that Lowenstein can muster in his attempted takedown of Senator Warren is that “there is no good evidence” that Stumpf resigned because of Senator Warren’s evisceration of him. Senator Warren has never claimed that Stumpf resigned due to her questioning. Prior to the Senate hearings the commentators were virtually unanimous that he would not resign. After the hearings, he was doomed.
Wall Streeters’ belief that they are far smarter than anyone else (because they pay themselves more than almost everyone) and should run the economy and the government by divine right is a form of arrogance so central to their self-definition that they are frequently clueless about the most basic facts of finance, e.g., a “flight to quality” will produce highly correlated changes in interest rates among a wide range of securities. Lowenstein propagated this Wall Street “genius” myth in his best-known book ( When Genius Failed ). The “geniuses” he profiles in the book were unable to understand that a “flight to quality” would render their investing strategy suicidal.
Lowenstein’s ode to the revolving door rests on his assertions about the supposed Wall Street giants of federal regulation. His assertions will strike most readers, correctly, as bizarre. He asserts that “many of the best” financial regulators came from Wall Street, giving three supposed examples including Henry M. Paulson Jr., a Treasury Secretary under the second President Bush. Unsurprisingly, Robert Rubin, President Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary wrote a glowing review in the NYT’s of Lowenstein’s most recent book. Rubin and Paulson share a number of characteristics. They both were the leaders of Goldman Sachs before being appointed as Treasury Secretary. They both presided over the three “de’s” – deregulation, desupervision, and de facto decriminalization of finance. They both are immensely culpable for creating the criminogenic environment that produced the three most damaging epidemics of accounting control fraud in history. Those fraud epidemics hyper-inflated the bubble and drove the financial crisis. The fact that Lowenstein cites Paulson as one of the greatest financial regulators in history and the fact that Rubin wrote such an over-the-top review of the supposed brilliance of Lowenstein demolish Lowenstein’s credibility and his claim that the revolving door that leads Wall Street. His modern hero was one of the important contributors to the catastrophe.
Lowenstein’s second proposed Wall Street hero is Arthur Levitt, who worked for a series of Wall Street firms before being appointed as Chairman of the SEC. After he left the SEC he worked for Goldman Sachs. Levitt did try to make some reforms as Chairman of the SEC. Mr. Levitt, however, was ultimately critically flawed – and those flaws came from the dogmas he absorbed from his many years on Wall Street. I discuss one of those flaws below.
Lowenstein fails to even mention this Nation’s most effective financial regulator, Edwin Gray, Chairman of the FHLBB. This is unsurprising because Gray was successful largely because he had no Wall Street ties. Gray’s most virulent foe in the government was Donald Regan, the former head of Merrill Lynch, and the fiercest proponent of the deregulation that made the savings and loan industry so criminogenic that George Akerlof and Paul Romer concluded it was “bound” to produce widespread “ looting .” Gray enraged Mr. Regan by seeking to regulate against deposit brokers. Merrill Lynch was the Nation’s largest deposit broker. Gray’s top supervisors who proved so brilliantly successful in countering the raging fraud epidemics in Texas and California that drove the savings and loan debacle, Joe Selby and Michael Patriarca, were long-time government employees who had never worked for Wall Street. None of regulatory leaders who distinguished themselves in containing the debacle came from Wall Street.
Lowenstein fails to mention the sole federal regulatory leader of the last 20 years who sought to emulate Gray and serve as a vigorous financial reregulator – Brooksley Born – who attempted to regulate financial derivatives. Ms. Born’s efforts were destroyed by a bipartisan coalition of Wall Street officials and alums holding key government positions that exemplify the dangers of the revolving door. That coalition included Bill Clinton (as President of the U.S., soon to be made wealthy by Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms for speeches with obscene payoffs), Treasury Secretary Rubin (former CEO of Goldman Sachs and soon-to-be be made even wealthier as a top officer of Citigroup where he had no real job duties), Mr. Greenspan (Chairman of the Fed; Wall Streeter before and after), Eugene Ludwig (Comptroller of the Currency; soon to leave to be made wealthy by Bankers Trust/Deutsche Bank, the giant serially criminal enterprise that is Germany’s largest bank), Senator Gramm (Chairman of Senate Banking; later made wealthy by UBS, the giant, serially criminal enterprise that is one of Switzerland’s largest banks) – as well as both of Lowenstein’s purported modern financial regulatory heroes – Mr. Paulson (while he was running Goldman Sachs, before being named by the second President Bush as his Treasury Secretary) and Mr. Levitt (when he was SEC Chairman, before he would take the revolving door to Goldman Sachs). Note that Mr. Paulson was only one of the infamous “13 Bankers” (the CEOs of the largest banks) who met with Treasury Secretary Rubin to (successfully) demand that Ms. Born’s be forbidden to regulate huge classes of financial derivatives, including credit default swaps(CDS).
You can see why Lowenstein left out of his column any discussion of these Wall Streeters racing through the revolving door to enrich themselves and other Wall Street officers at the expense of our Nation and people all over the world by bringing together this assemblage of naked political and economic power to crush Ms. Born’s efforts to fulfill her statutory duties as Chair of the CFTC. I agree that Mr. Levitt was the least bad regulator of this corrupt coalition. Mr. Levitt has conceded that his attacks on Ms. Born were disgraceful and erroneous.
As best I can tell, Senator Warren takes a position about the revolving door that is very similar to mine. We do not oppose any appointment of people of Wall Street to government. We oppose the continued domination of the regulatory agencies and executive agencies by Wall Street personnel. That domination has produced a pathetic track record of intentional failure due not simply to conflicts of interest and self-interest, but even more to the anti-regulatory dogmas that are endemic on Wall Street. Neither our economy nor our democracy can afford the terrible cost of this continued, corrupt domination. The domination has perverted the U.S. into a system of crony capitalism. As one of my fellow co-founders of Bank Whistleblowers United (BWU), Gary Aguirre (formerly an SEC enforcement attorney before he blew the whistle of the SEC leadership) stresses, the SEC routinely waives for former senior SEC officials the existing revolving door restrictions. BWU has called on the SEC to end this indefensible practice.
Lowenstein then makes another dishonest claim about the SEC.
When the S.E.C. has landed in trouble, it has usually been because it has wandered from its charter and ignored its bread-and-butter responsibility (see Madoff, Bernie).
That statement is carefully crafted to mislead the reader. The SEC failed with regard to Bernie Madoff by refusing to act on clear evidence of fraud provided by multiple whistleblowers. Madoff was an example of a variant of the revolving door. Mr. Madoff was a Wall Streeter who became for years the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the NASD, a self-regulatory association that functions under aegis of the SEC. The SEC generally treats the NASD as a quasi-public ally. The SEC was reluctant to believe warnings about Mr. Madoff because of his former role as the NASD’s leader.
The SEC did not get in “trouble” with Madoff because it “ignored” its core responsibilities to divert large of resources in order to take on some exotic, tangential function. Lowenstein simply invented that fiction. The SEC got in trouble in large part because of the combination of the revolving door and Congressional Republicans’ war on the SEC budget. The Republicans want the SEC to be ineffective as a regulator because the Wall Street’s leaders who are criminals fear a vigorous SEC.
Lowenstein knows that this Republican war is a critical threat to the Nation, but asserts a policy implication of this war that is nonsensical to anyone but Wall Street’s apologist-in-chief.
[T]he S.E.C. faces continual pressure on its budget from a skeptical and unappreciative Congress. The last thing it needs is political grandstanding from Ms. Warren.
Note that Lowenstein dishonestly uses the term “Congress” instead of “Congressional Republicans.” The Congressional Republicans are not “skeptical and unappreciative” of the SEC – they are virulently hostile to effective securities (and financial derivatives) regulation. This exceptional hostility has been a constant feature preventing the SEC and CFTC from having adequate resources to fulfill their statutory duties since the early 1990s. Criminologists call this the deliberate creation of “systems incapacity.” Senators Sanders, Brown, and Warren are the strongest supporters of the SEC and the CFTC receiving the substantial increases in budget required for these agencies to perform their statutory missions. Logically, Lowenstein should be criticizing virtually every Republican member of Congress and praising Senator Warren and her progressive allies. Instead he refuses to identify the Republicans as the source of problem and attacks only Senator Warren – implying dishonestly that if she would stop pushing for the SEC to restore the rule of law to Wall Street the Republicans would cease their actions on behalf of criminal Wall Street elites designed to gut the SEC’s ability to counter the elite Wall Street frauds. 0 0 0 0 0 0 | 1real |
As Reproductive Rights Hang In The Balance, Debate Moderators Drop The Ball | WASHINGTON -- Forty-three years after the Supreme Court established the right to a safe and legal abortion in Roe v. Wade, the stakes have never been higher for those on both sides of the abortion debate. States have enacted 288 new abortion restrictions in the past five years that have shut down a slew of clinics across the country, and the next president could nominate Supreme Court justices who will determine the fate of legal abortion for decades to come.
But even as abortion access for millions of women hangs in the balance, the issue has somehow been neglected by presidential debate moderators, causing the issue of reproductive rights to fade from the 2016 race. The Democratic candidates haven't been asked about reproductive rights at all in any of their four debates, and the Republicans have only been asked about abortion and funding for Planned Parenthood in the first two of the six debates they've participated in so far.
Advocates working for and against abortion rights are baffled by the silence.
“There are real and important differences between candidates here, and it's a loss for American women that they haven't been explored,” said Jess McIntosh, a spokeswoman for EMILY’s List, a group that helps elect pro-choice women to office.
NBC moderators did not ask how Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) new health plan, released just two hours before the Democratic debate the network hosted Sunday, would handle public funding for abortion, and did not press Hillary Clinton on her view that federal restrictions on Medicaid funding for abortion should be repealed. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) haven't been asked in the past four GOP debates about their opposition to allowing victims of rape or incest to get abortions, a position that is significantly more conservative than those held by prior Republican presidential nominees.
The only abortion-related question GOP frontrunner Donald Trump has fielded during a debate was back in August, when Fox's Megyn Kelly asked him about his 1999 comment that he was "very pro-choice." His stance on abortion is much murkier these days, but no other moderators have chosen to ask him about it.
Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion group, wants candidates on both sides to explain whether they support public funding for abortion or the kinds of clinic regulations that conservative states have passed to make it difficult for abortion providers to stay open.
“Pro-life Americans would love to know whether candidates support health and safety standards for women who are exposed to great risks in abortion clinics,” said Kristi Hamrick, a spokeswoman for AUL. | 0fake |
DONALD TRUMP JR Slams Kathy Griffin for Playing the Victim [Video] | Donald Trump Jr slammed Kathy Griffin for playing the victim after the huge backlash to her beheading Trump photo. saying she deserves whatever she gets. To run and claim victimhood, she deserves everything that s coming to her, Donald Trump, Jr., said Tuesday on ABC s Good Morning America. Griffin initially apologized for posing with the disturbing image, and CNN dropped her from her annual New Year s Eve special alongside Anderson Cooper.However, she reversed course with a Friday press conference alongside civil rights attorney Lisa Bloom, where she tearfully said the Trump family was bullying her and broke her. Griffin s erratic demeanor was widely panned; USA Today said it was a D-list showing, and Salon called it mad and looping. | 1real |
40+ Photos That Will Make You Question Your Relationship With Your Phone | Posted on November 6, 2016 It seems the more 'connected' people become via technology, the more isolated they become in real life. Credit: Jean Jullien
There is no shortage of artwork depicting the influence technology has had on people and their relationships. The main takeaway from all collections is that while technology is great for numerous reasons, it does have its downsides. Tools, such as the internet, might connect groups of like-minded people, but overused, it may also result in individuals cutting themselves off from real life and, in effect, feeling lonely and isolated.
It’s this reality artist French illustrator Jean Jullien seeks to highlight with his witty illustrations. Best known for creating the “Peace for Paris” symbol which has become a worldwide sign of solidarity with France after the frightful attacks which took place earlier this year, the artist is also well-known for mocking peoples’ obsession with technology .
One only need review the thought-provoking illustrations below to get a sense of what Jullien hopes to convey. While technology is great, nothing can beat genuine, face-to-face interaction with others. After all, life isn’t meant to be lived from behind a phone or a computer screen. #1 Weirdo On The Subway Credit: Jean Jullien | 1real |
Elton John denies he will play at Trump inauguration | (Reuters) - Britain’s Sir Elton John will not perform at the inauguration of Donald Trump in Washington as U.S. president, the singer-songwriter’s spokeswoman said on Wednesday. Anthony Scaramucci, an economic adviser to Trump’s campaign, said John would be performing in a BBC radio interview during which Scaramucci also said the Republican president-elect had a pro-gay rights stance. “Elton John is going to be doing our concert on the Mall for the inauguration,” Scaramucci added in the interview for “HARDtalk,” broadcast on Wednesday. “Elton will not be performing at Trump’s inaugural,” the singer’s publicist, Fran Curtis, responded. John, a prominent gay rights activist, performed at fundraisers for Democrat Hillary Clinton during the U.S. presidential election campaign. He also objected when Trump played his “Rocket Man” and “Tiny Dancer” songs without permission during rallies and campaign appearances earlier this year, saying that any use of his music “should not be seen as an endorsement of Donald Trump.” A spokesman for the Trump inauguration committee did not respond to a request for comment on Scaramucci’s claim. | 0fake |
BILL O’REILLY RELEASES Never Before Seen Pictures Of Obama In Muslim Dress…Says They Prove “Deep Emotional Ties To Islam” [VIDEO] | Barack Hussein Obama has not exactly done a stellar job convincing America he s a Christian. He spent his entire career as Christian in a church that preached hate against America and the white man. His own preacher, the racist Reverend Wright admitted that Obama only became a Christian to help himself become better integrated with the people who he was trying to embed himself with as a Community Organizer. Even the casual observer couldn t help but notice that while Obama s been in office, he s done everything but backflips to defend the Islamic faith, while bashing Christianity. Bill O Reilly shared photos of Barack Obama in traditional Islamic dress on his program Wednesday night claiming they were from his half-brother Malik s wedding.The Fox News host said it was very difficult to verify the exact location of the photographs a similar set of which were first released back in 2004 by Malik and previously published on DailyMail.com but claimed they were taken in Maryland in the early 1990s. According to his half-sister, Barack Obama attended his half-brother s wedding in the early 1990s. Malik Obama was a Muslim, said O Reilly. The Factor has obtained pictures allegedly from that wedding, which we believe was held in Maryland. Malik was married in 1981 for the first time and President Obama was his best man at that ceremony. He now has multiple wives.O Reilly used the photos in a monologue alleging the President s deep emotional ties to Islam have stopped him effectively combating ISIS while also saying he believes the photos prove that President Obama is not a devout Christian. He did this while attacking President Obama hours after he revealed he would not be withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, saying: President Obama, as we all know, will not even use the words Islamic terrorism. Again today when telling the nation that America will maintain eight-thousand troops in Afghanistan, the president did not accurately describe the situation there, putting forth that it was more about politics than Islamic terror. O Reilly claims the President Obama s failure to identify the terrorist threat facing America has allowed ISIS to run amok in the Middle East, a mistake he claims the Commander-in-chief will not acknowledge. There is no question the Obama administration s greatest failure is allowing the Islamic terror group ISIS to run wild, murdering thousands of innocent people all over the world, including many Muslims, said O Reilly. Mr. Obama has never, never acknowledged that mistake, nor does he define the ISIS threat accurately. That group is killing innocent people in order to impose a radical version of Islam on the world. The jihad is solely based on theology, perverted as it may be. Obama s refusal to use the phrase Islamic terrorism , preferring instead to say militants or simply terrorists has long been a sore spot for his Republican detractors, including Donald Trump.O Reilly also said of Obama after sharing the photos: I believe he s a Christian. I m not one of these guys who says he s a Muslim. But I don t think he s a devout Christian. He went on to say during the program: I base my analysis on the fact that in my opinion and I could be wrong, but I m not President Obama s sympathetic treatment of Muslims put the country in danger because he has not elevated the risks that we have to the level it should be. And he allowed ISIS to be created because of his foolish decision to withdraw troops in Iraq and to pretty much run wild for five years. So another president, angry about the jihad, would not have done that. O Reilly s guest, Obama: From Promise to Power author David Mendell, jumped in at that point to say: I think President Obama is very sympathetic to all cultures, all religions. He grew up in a multiplicity The host cut him off though to ask: Is that good for a commander in chief to be very sympathetic to all cultures and all beliefs when thousands of people are being murdered? O Reilly then closed out the segment by stating: He s the commander in chief of the United States, and his main charge is to protect us. It s not main charge as to be touchy-feely to all different cultures. Via: Daily Mail | 1real |
What Does Washington ‘Plan B’ in Syria Really Mean? | Syrian War Report – October 28, 2016: Militants Make Do-Or-Die Attempt to Break Aleppo Siege ‹ › South Front Analysis & Intelligence is a public analytical project maintained by an independent team of experts from the four corners of the Earth focusing on international relations issues and crises. They focus on analysis and intelligence of the ongoing crises and the biggest stories from around the world: Ukraine, the war in Middle East, Central Asia issues, protest movements in the Balkans, migration crises, and others. In addition, they provide military operations analysis, the military posture of major world powers, and other important data influencing the growth of tensions between countries and nations. We try to dig out the truth on issues which are barely covered by governments and mainstream media. What Does Washington ‘Plan B’ in Syria Really Mean? By South Front on October 29, 2016 …from SouthFront
In October a series of reports appeared in The Washington Post and other US media about expected supplies of various modern weapon systems to the so-called ‘moderate opposition’ in Syria. The reports argued that Washington was considering the new plan for Syria that included massive supplies of weapons that had to allow the oppositioneers to defend themselves from the Russian and Syrian air power and artillery. This fact was described as an indication of Washnigton’s skepticism about the prospects of so-called ‘peaceful solution’ in the country. Nonetheless, it was neither approved nor denied, according to the media.
The secret CIA program of training and arming ‘moderate terrorists’ has been the core of American strategy, aiming to overthrow Assad and set a puppet government in Syria, since the start of the war. Nonetheless, the Obama administration is likely set to postponed the resumption and expansion of this program and to pass the need to make a decision to next president. The US leadership is not ready to make the decision now because the recent military developments have shown that despite all money spending, supplies and CIA efforts, Washington still cannot rely on the moderate terrorists as a clearly pro-US force on the ground. Every US attempt to separate secular militant groups from jihadi factions, at least for PR needs, have failed. And the recently created New Syrian Army (NSyA) has shown an impotence in clashes with ISIS. The US propaganda campaign to discredit Russian-Syrian-Iranian operations to liberate Aleppo faced a significant problem – massive civilian casualties during the Mosul offensive, supported by the US-led coalition.
In this case, open and massive supplies of arms and munitions to the terrorist groups in Syria could lead to significant loses for Washington in political and PR terms and will hardly lead to strengthening of the US influence on the Syrian conflict. If the US administration avoids to do this, Moscow, Damascus and Tehran will fully take the initiative in the war that would also lead to negative effects to the US influence in the Middle East.
So, most likely, Washington will make a compromise decision to allow its regional allies – Saudi Arabia or Qatar – to supply limited numbers of man-portable air-defense systems to the so-called ‘opposition’, even if this opposition is al-Nusra Front. At the same time, the US-controlled media and diplomats will continue to put pressure on Syria, Russia and Iran over alleged civilian casualties in Aleppo city and ignore the humanitarian situation in Iraq. It will not allow the terrorists to re-take the initiative in the war but will buy time until the new US president comes into the office and start to impellent own strategy in the region. Related Posts: No Related Posts The views expressed herein are the views of the author exclusively and not necessarily the views of VT, VT authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, technicians, or the Veterans Today Network and its assigns. LEGAL NOTICE - COMMENT POLICY Posted by South Front on October 29, 2016, With 248 Reads Filed under World . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 . You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. FaceBook Comments
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5 Reasons to Try Acupuncture for Baby Eczema | Keywords: Acupuncture , baby eczema , cure baby eczema , eczema cure , eczema treatment , heal eczema
There was a time when my son’s eczema became so severe I was willing to try any natural healing method. My baby was 5 months old when he developed eczema. We tried the usual dose of steroids and over-the-counter creams from our family doctor. It got so bad that his scars were not healing. He wasn’t sleeping. And I wasn’t sleeping. As a child, my mother took me to an Acupuncturist for migraines. And the migraines stopped after a handful of visits. I remember it being a pretty relaxing experience with the smell of incense and herbs and the quietness of the room. So, I took a leap of faith and booked us for an appointment with a Traditional Chinese Doctor who specialized in skin disorders, allergies, and asthma. Why Try Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine? Reason 1: Acupuncture has been practiced for almost 4000 years in China.
With that much history, it’s worth a try. It is a method of relieving pain or curing an illness by placing needles in the patient’s body at precise points along the 12 meridians in the body. Meridians are energy pathways that are associated with different organs within the body. The World Health Organization lists 300 ailments that are treatable by Chinese Medicine & Acupuncture. Reason 2: Acupuncture has helped children with eczema
In a study of 37 children who were treated with Chinese Medicinal herbs, the treatment reduced eczema symptoms by 90% in 18 of the children (see Sources). Although it was a small study size, the benefits seem to far outweigh the risks. When my son was a baby, even a 10% improvement in his symptoms would have been amazing for us. Reason 3: Acupuncture does not hurt babies
Many people worry about the needles hurting. But the needles that Acupuncturists use are about 1/100 th of a syringe needle. My son was a baby when we started the treatments, and he never cried out when getting the needles in him. Reason 4: Acupuncture relieved my baby’s eczema by 80%
Acupuncture healed the eczema to the point where we could figure out his triggers. Our doctor stabilized the eczema. Best of all, flare-ups only occurred when my baby was teething. His skin was softer than it had been in months. Acupuncture needs to be done on babies for a minimum of 3 months in order to see an improvement. This is because the treatment is trying to alter the immune response, which is a long process. But sometimes babies will respond quicker than that. We used a topical herb powder given to us by the doctor, and applied it to his skin. This topical mix had a similar effect as hydro-cortisone cream if I applied it 3-5 times per day with a cotton ball. Reason 5: Acupuncture is affordable
This is true especially if you go to a student clinic. You can pay the affordable price and yet the students are supervised by very experienced doctors. For child and baby treatments, it is even more affordable. It cost us about $15-$30 per visit on average (we tried a few different clinics). Some health plans will cover Acupuncture, so check with your health plan to see if yours covers it. To keep it affordable, I suggest trying to find a specialist in Acupuncture & TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), not a practitioner who does many different types of treatments. Tips for Helping Your Child While Getting Acupuncture
Bring a favorite stuffed animal, a book, or some toys. Try nursing your baby while they are receiving acupuncture. A baby only needs the needle in the acupressure point for a second and then they are pulled out. Adults typically have needles in for 45+ minutes for each treatment, because our bodies do not respond as quickly as babies’ bodies do. Check out my YouTube video for more tips! Find an Experienced & Accredited Acupuncturist
Make sure to look for an Accredited Acupuncturist or TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) Doctor. Be sure the Acupuncturist has some experience in your condition. Chat with the people in the waiting room. And see if they’ve had success with your doctor. I met a few moms in the waiting room that swore by the Chinese Doctor we were going to see. That made me feel more comfortable.
Find a TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) Doctor who offers Certified Organic Chinese herbs. “Certified Organic” means the herbs were never sprayed with toxic pesticides and herbicides. As well, there have been some reports of heavy metals residue in Chinese herbs. Herbs are just as powerful as prescription medications and can have adverse effects if used improperly. Make sure to ask about the testing done on the herbs that you or your baby are prescribed. Every Condition Has Different Treatment Needs
Check with your family doctor to be sure you don’t have any conditions that would prevent you from using Acupuncture or Chinese Medicine. All the information in this article is provided for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical counseling.
Rosemary Hansen is a published author and devoted Mama. She is passionate about healing eczema naturally. Rosemary is a self-taught organic, whole foods chef. Her lifelong dream is to have a flock of pet dairy goats. Get a copy of her free e-book: “10 Natural Remedies for Soft Skin” at www.NaturalEczemaMama.com.
Sources: | 1real |
NPR Journalist and Translator Killed by Taliban in Afghanistan - The New York Times | KABUL, Afghanistan — An American journalist for NPR was killed on Sunday afternoon along with his Afghan translator in a Taliban ambush in southern Afghanistan, the Afghan military confirmed. NPR also confirmed their deaths on Sunday. The victims were identified as David Gilkey, a photographer and videographer who was part of a NPR team embedded with Afghan Special Forces in Helmand Province, and his translator, Zabihullah Tamanna. The other two American journalists on the team were unhurt. Mr. Gilkey was the first civilian American journalist killed during the Afghan conflict since 1992, at least 27 journalists have been killed in Afghanistan, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. In 2010, James P. Hunter, a staff sergeant and journalist with the 101st Airborne Division, was killed by an improvised explosive device. The journalists were in a special forces convoy driving on the main road from Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, to Marja when Taliban insurgents fired at the convoy with heavy weapons, said Shakil Ahmad, the spokesman for the Afghan National Army’s 215th Corps in Helmand. The vehicle carrying Mr. Gilkey and Mr. Tamanna was destroyed, Mr. Ahmad said. It was not immediately clear where the other two NPR journalists were at the time of the attack. After a heavy firefight, the Afghan government forces recovered the victims’ bodies and retreated to a nearby Afghan police base, Mr. Ahmad said. The bodies were then flown to Camp Bastion, the corps headquarters, which was once the major American and British base in Helmand, late Sunday. Mr. Gilkey was an journalist who had extensive experience covering conflicts in Gaza, South Africa, Iraq, the Balkans and Afghanistan. After he covered the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Mr. Gilkey talked about his profession in a video. “It’s not just reporting. It’s not just taking pictures,” he said. “It’s do those visuals, do the stories, do they change somebody’s mind enough to take action?” The NPR team’s most recent report, Thursday on the network’s “Morning Edition” program, described American Army Special Forces troops working with their Afghan counterparts and using drones to hunt Taliban insurgents. Mr. Gilkey’s photographs accompanied an online version of the report. The last foreign journalist killed in Afghanistan was Anja Niedringhaus, a German citizen and an Associated Press photographer, who was shot by a rogue policeman when she was covering the Afghan presidential election in 2014. The NPR team also included Monika Evstatieva, the director of the “All Things Considered” program, and Tom Bowman, NPR’s Pentagon correspondent. | 0fake |
Two Cases of Active TB ’Suspected’ in Houston Area High Schools | Two “suspected” cases of active tuberculosis (TB) were reported in Houston area high schools in February. More than a month later, public health officials are not disclosing whether those “suspected” cases have been confirmed as active TB. [Parents at Clements High School in Sugar Land, Texas, a suburb of Houston, learned of “a suspected case of tuberculosis” on February 9. “Parents of students at El Campo High School were also informed of a student with a possible case of the illness,” KPRC Click2Houston. com reported in February. School officials have not responded to requests for the current status of those two “suspected” cases of TB. Breitbart News has asked officials at both schools if the two individuals suspected of having TB were removed from school campuses and have remained away but has received no response. “This individual is undergoing treatment and is not contagious,” a spokesperson for the Fort Bend County Department of Health and Human Services tells Breitbart News about the individual who was “a suspected case of tuberculosis” at Clements High School in Sugar Land. “I’m not allowed to say what kind of treatment they are getting,” the spokesperson adds. “I cannot tell you what they were diagnosed with,” the spokesperson says when pressed further by Breitbart News. Public health and school officials were sufficiently concerned about the “suspected” cases of TB at both schools that they asked a number of students and staff members to be tested for the disease. School officials have not responded to requests for the current status of those two “suspected” cases of TB. Breitbart News has asked officials at both schools if the two individuals suspected of having TB were removed from school campuses and have remained away but has received no response. El Campo is a city of about 11, 000 in Wharton County, located forty miles southwest of Sugar Land. News of the two cases of TB at Houston area high schools comes on the heels of other recent disturbing reports of TB at high schools in Nebraska, Minnesota, and California, as well as a middle school in South Carolina. “We have met with the Texas Department of State Health Services pertaining to a suspected case of TB,” El Campo High School principal Rich DuBroc said in a statement posted on the school’s website on February 7: TB is a disease spread through prolonged, close exposure to someone who has the germ in lungs. Exposure is most likely to occur when a person with TB is actively coughing. TB can usually be prevented and treated effectively with appropriate medications. As part of their ongoing investigation, DSHS will conduct a screening on Thursday, February 9, and Friday, February 10, for those individuals at El Campo High School who have been identified as having close exposure. Further information and consent forms will be shared tomorrow. “Fort Bend Clinical Health Services has notified Clements High School about a suspected case of tuberculosis (TB),” Clements High School principal David Yaffie wrote in a letter sent to parents on February 9: Tuberculosis is a bacterial illness acquired through breathing in infected droplets from the cough or sneeze of a person with active TB. Tuberculosis is not easily transmitted. It is spread when a person inhales airborne germs over a long period of time in a confined area from someone with the disease who coughs or sneezes. Confidentiality laws prohibit us from releasing the individual’s name. However, I can assure you the school is working actively with Fort Bend County Health Human Services and taking all necessary steps in order to ensure the health and safety of all our students and staff. Because significant exposure to TB is required in order to develop an infection, and based on the level of interaction with the individual, the health department has identified a small group of students and staff who will require testing. They have received separate notification from the school and the health department. If you have not been contacted, there is no reason for your child to be tested at this time. However, if you would like, you may have your child tested by your private provider. “The results came back negative for the adults and students who were tested,” the spokesperson for the Fort Bend County Department of Health and Human Services tells Breitbart News about the results of these tests at Clements High School. Breitbart News posed the following questions about the case to Mr. Yaffie but has not received a response: 1. Has the Fort Bend Public Health Department advised whether this individual suspected of having TB was subsequently diagnosed with TB? 2. Was this individual a student, a teacher, or another staff member? 3. Was this individual an American citizen? 4. Was this individual a refugee or of other immigrant status? 5. Was this individual removed from the school and are they still removed from the school? 6. How many students at Clements High are currently enrolled in English Language Learner programs? Clements High School is part of the Fort Bend Independent School District. El Campo High School is part of the much smaller El Campo Independent School District. Breitbart News contacted El Campo Independent School District Superintendent of Schools Mary Waters for comment but has not received a response. On February 22, El Campo High School principal Dubroc sent this email: I am sending this to all addresses in the ECHS system, but it applies only to those who tested for Tuberculosis with us at ECHS. Earlier this month DSHS conducted Round 1 Tuberculosis testing due to a suspect case at El Campo High School. To ensure notification of results is sent to the correct address, please complete the attached address authorization consent form. … A test — Round 2 Tuberculosis testing — will be offered the week of April 10, 2017. A negative test at that time would indicate that your child has not been infected with the germ that causes Tuberculosis. Clements High School, as part of the Fort Bend Independent School District, offers “ESL (English as a Second Language) for parents” free of charge. “FBISD’s family literacy program helps families build the foundation for life long learning,” according to the Fort Bend Independent School District website: The comprehensive program includes: ESL (English as a Second Language) for parentsHomework assistance, tutoring, or early childhood education, while parents attend classParent education classes: GED, citizenship, computer activities for parents and childrenLatino Family Literacy ProjectAll services are FREE! As Breitbart News has reported extensively, 66 percent of all cases of active TB diagnosed in the United States in 2015 were . | 0fake |
OBAMA’S RADICAL DHS Chief Vows To “Protect” Muslims From Americans During Speech At DC Mosque | The Muslims faith must be protected at all costs it s the Obama way During a news briefing delivered at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society mosque in Washington, D.C., following the San Bernardino shooting, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson vowed to protect Muslims from the same sort of fear, suspicions and prejudice that haunted suspected communists during the era of McCarthyism.And in making this vow, Johnson specifically pointed to his grandfather, reported the government watchdog group Judicial Watch, whose members managed to observe the briefing despite the mosque s leaders attempting to kick them out. In 1949, during the McCarthy era, my own grandfather was called upon to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, to deny he was a member of the Communist Party and defend the patriotism of African-Americans, Johnson said. Today his grandson is responsible for the homeland security of this entire nation. Johnson sees a connection between the actions of deceased Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who used unsubstantiated accusations of communism to target anyone who dared criticize either him or the federal government, and the burgeoning movement to clamp down on radical Islamic terrorism. As Muslim terrorism hits closer and closer to home, our Homeland Security chief views the war on Islamic terrorism as a another Red scare, where Muslim terrorist suspects are Red-baited like his grandfather, the editorial board for Investor s Business Daily wrote regarding this revelation. No wonder this administration isn t interested in monitoring radical Muslims for terrorist connections. The irony seems thick, given that the only ones behaving like McCarthy have been President Barack Obama and his cronies, including Johnson, all of whom use disingenuous labels like Islamophobe and bigot to shut down anyone who dares speak critically about Islam or point out its obvious ties to radical terrorism. Via: CT | 1real |
House Republicans to take up disaster funding Thursday | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday the House will take up supplemental disaster funding to help areas hit by hurricanes and wildfires on Thursday. “We think it’s critical that we pass this legislation this week to give the people in California the support that they need to fight these fires, to help the victims, and also to help the communities still recovering and dealing with humanitarian problems with the hurricanes,” Ryan said at a news briefing on Wednesday, citing Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. | 0fake |
Hilarious Video Shows The Moment Bernie Discovered He’s Related To His SNL Impersonator | The 2016 election cycle was rife with hilarious and often spot on impersonations of the most talked about candidates. One such candidate was, of course, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) who was competing for the Democratic Party s presidential nomination. On the iconic sketch show Saturday Night Live, Bernie was prominently portrayed by comedian Larry David. The impression was uncannily accurate if we didn t know better, Larry David could easily have been mistaken for Bernie Sanders. From looks, to mannerisms, to general speech patterns and demeanor, David s Bernie impression was spot on. Well, there might be a reason for that: It turns out that Bernie Sanders and Larry David are actually related.The best part of all of this is that the two men did not know that they were related until quite recently, and their reactions to the news have been caught on video. They found out via Finding Your Roots, a PBS program that helps people find their ancestry and relatives they perhaps did not know about. It turns out that Sanders and David are cousins.When he found out, David simply said, What the hell. That is really funny. That is amazing Alright, cousin Bernie. Bernie says: You re kidding. That is unbelievable. People say to me, they talk about Larry David, and I say he does a better Bernie Sanders than I do. Well, now we know why Larry David does such a good Bernie impression.At any rate, we could all use a laugh right about now, so enjoy! (Editor s note: Right-click or ctrl+click to unmute)Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
Massachusetts sheriff offers prison inmates to build Trump's wall | BOSTON (Reuters) - A Massachusetts county sheriff has proposed sending prison inmates from around the United States to build the proposed wall along the Mexican border that is one of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s most prominent campaign promises. “I can think of no other project that would have such a positive impact on our inmates and our country than building this wall,” Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson said at his swearing-in ceremony for a fourth term in office late Wednesday. “Aside from learning and perfecting construction skills, the symbolism of these inmates building a wall to prevent crime in communities around the country, and to preserve jobs and work opportunities for them and other Americans upon release, can be very powerful,” he said. Hodgson, who like Trump is a Republican, said inmates from around the country could build the proposed wall, described by Trump as a powerful deterrent to illegal immigration. Trump, who will be sworn in on Jan. 20, insisted during his campaign that he would convince the Mexican government to pay for the wall, though Mexican officials have repeatedly said they would not do so. Officials in the Trump transition office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The United States has a long history of prison labor, with advocates of the idea saying that putting inmates to work can help them learn skills that prepare them for their return to society after completing their sentences. Opponents contend that inmates are not fairly compensated. The federal prisons system operates some 53 factories around the United States that produced about $500 million worth of clothing, electronics, furniture and other goods in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, according to its financial statements. Still, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union in Massachusetts said Hodgson’s proposal could violate prisoners’ rights. “The proposal is perverse, it’s inhumane and very likely unconstitutional,” ACLU staff counsel Laura Rotolo said in a phone interview. “It certainly has nothing to do with helping prisoners in Massachusetts or their families. It’s about politics.” In response to a request by the Trump transition office, the Department of Homeland Security last month identified more than 400 miles (644 km) along the U.S.-Mexico border where new fencing could be erected, according to a document seen by Reuters. The document contained an estimate that building that section of fence would cost more than $11 billion. | 0fake |
National Review magazine tells conservatives to shun Trump | DES MOINES (Reuters) - An influential conservative magazine published an editorial on Thursday urging Republicans to rally against front-running presidential candidate Donald Trump, with Iowa poised to begin the search for a 2016 nominee in 10 days. National Review, a New York-based magazine founded in 1955 by famed conservative thinker William F. Buckley Jr., drew heavy scorn from Trump on Twitter and at a Las Vegas news conference for its issue entitled: “Against Trump.” “Trump is a philosophically unmoored political opportunist who would trash the broad conservative ideological consensus within the GOP (Republican Party) in favor of a free-floating populism with strong-man overtones,” National Review said. The magazine’s argument is one that has been made by several of Trump’s rivals for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, most notably by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. But nothing has stopped Trump from seizing control of the race and putting him in position to win not only Iowa’s caucuses, but also New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary on Feb. 9. A CNN/ORC poll on Thursday said Trump had taken a solid lead over Texas Senator Ted Cruz in Iowa, with 37 percent to 26 percent for Cruz. Cruz has led other polls in Iowa. National Review said Trump, a New York billionaire real estate developer and former reality TV star, had in the past supported abortion, gun control and higher taxes on the wealthy, all positions that conservatives oppose. The issue’s cover read “Cage Match - The GOP’s Internal Fight” and portrayed a bare-chested, double-chinned Trump, with a necklace of dollar signs tattooed across his torso, flanked by four less-muscular rivals for the Republican crown. Trump waved off the attack in characteristic fashion. “The late, great, William F. Buckley would be ashamed of what had happened to his prize, the dying National Review!” he tweeted. “Against Trump” began trending on Twitter in the United States by Friday morning. Most of the response on the social media site was negative toward “National Review,” with several Twitter users expressing dismay over the conservative publication’s decision to criticize the Republican presidential front-runner for the November election. “National Review is leading a coalition against Trump,” wrote Jeff Fogle (@jefffogle342). “We the people will get him in office if we push hard. Stick together! We can do it!!!” “Without any sense of self awareness @nro [National Review] ignores ]its] attacks on conservatives last 2 cycles,” tweeted Madlaw (@madlaw1071). Jack Fowler, the publisher of the “National Review,” said in a post published late Thursday night that the publication was being “disinvited” from its partnership with the GOP debates. “Tonight, a top official with the RNC [Republican National Committee] called me to say that “National Review” was being disinvited,” Fowler wrote. “The reason: Our ‘Against Trump’ editorial and symposium. We expected this was coming. Small price to pay for speaking the truth about The Donald.” At a Las Vegas news conference, Trump said he would bring Republicans together if nominated. “Honestly the party has to be healed, has to be brought together and I think the party can be brought together,” he said. (Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Dan Grebler) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency. | 0fake |
The Dark Agenda Behind Globalism And Open Borders | The Dark Agenda Behind Globalism And Open Borders By Brandon Smith
When people unfamiliar with the liberty movement stumble onto the undeniable fact of the “conspiracy” of globalism they tend to look for easy answers to understand what it is and why it exists. Most people today have been conditioned to perceive events from a misinterpreted standpoint of “Occam’s Razor”— they wrongly assume that the simplest explanation is probably the right one.
In fact, this is not what Occam’s Razor states. Instead, to summarize, it states that the simplest explanation GIVEN THE EVIDENCE at hand is probably the right explanation.
It has been well known and documented for decades that the push for globalism is a deliberate and focused effort on the part of a select “elite;” international financiers, central bankers, political leaders and the numerous members of exclusive think tanks. They often openly admit their goals for total globalization in their own publications, perhaps believing that the uneducated commoners would never read them anyway. Carroll Quigley, mentor to Bill Clinton and member of the Council on Foreign Relations, is often quoted with open admissions to the general scheme:
The powers of financial capitalism had (a) far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland; a private bank owned and controlled by the world’s central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank… sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world. – Carroll Quigley, Tragedy And Hope
The people behind the effort to enforce globalism are tied together by a particular ideology, perhaps even a cult-like religion, in which they envision a world order as described in Plato’s Republic . They believe that they are “chosen” either by fate, destiny or genetics to rule as philosopher kings over the rest of us. They believe that they are the wisest and most capable that humanity has to offer, and that through evolutionary means, they can create chaos and order out of thin air and mold society at will.
This mentality is evident in the systems that they build and exploit. For example, central banking in general is nothing more than a mechanism for driving nations into debt, currency devaluation, and ultimately, enslavement through widespread economic extortion. The end game for central banks is, I believe, the triggering of historic financial crisis, which can then be used by the elites as leverage to promote complete global centralization as the only viable solution.
This process of destabilizing economies and societies is not directed by the heads of the various central banks. Instead, it is directed by even more central global institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the Bank for International Settlements, as outlined in revealing mainstream articles like “ Ruling The World Of Money “published by Harper’s Magazine .
We also find through the words of globalists that the campaign for a “new world order” is not meant to be voluntary.
… When the struggle seems to be drifting definitely towards a world social democracy, there may still be very great delays and disappointments before it becomes an efficient and beneficent world system. Countless people … will hate the new world order … and will die protesting against it. When we attempt to evaluate its promise, we have to bear in mind the distress of a generation or so of malcontents, many of them quite gallant and graceful-looking people. – HG Welles, Fabian Socialist and author of The New World Order
In short, the ‘house of world order’ will have to be built from the bottom up rather than f rom the top down. It will look like a great ‘booming, buzzing confusion,’ to use William James’ famous description of reality, but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault. – Richard Gardner, member of the Trilateral Commission, published in the April, 1974 issue of Foreign Affairs
The New World Order cannot happen without U.S. participation, as we are the single most significant component. Yes, there will be a New World Order, and it will force the United States to change its perceptions. – Henry Kissinger, World Action Council, April 19, 1994
I could quote globalists all day long, but I think you get the general idea. While some people see globalism as a “natural offshoot” of free markets or the inevitable outcome of economic progress, the reality is that the simplest explanation (given the evidence at hand) is that globalism is an outright war waged against the ideal of sovereign peoples and nations. It is a guerrilla war, or fourth generation warfare, waged by a small group of elites against the rest of us.
A significant element of this war concerns the nature of borders. Borders of nations, states and even towns and villages, are not just lines on a map or invisible barriers in the dirt. This is what the elites and the mainstream media would like us to believe. Instead, borders when applied correctly represent principles; or at least, that is supposed to be their function.
Human beings are natural community builders; we are constantly seeking out others of like-mind and like-purpose because we understand subconsciously that groups of individuals working together can (often but not always) accomplish more. That said, human beings also have a natural tendency to value individual freedom and the right to voluntary association. We do not like to be forced to associate with people or groups that do not hold similar values.
Cultures erect borders because, frankly, people have the right to vet those who wish to join and participate in their endeavors. People also have a right to discriminate against anyone who does not share their core values; or, in other words, we have the right to refuse association with other groups and ideologies that are destructive to our own.
Interestingly, globalists and their mouthpieces will argue that by refusing to associate with those who might undermine our values, it is WE who are violating THEIR rights. See how that works?
Globalists exploit the word “isolationism” to shame sovereignty champions in the eyes of the public, but there is no shame in isolation when such principles as freedom of speech and expression or the right to self defense are on the line. There is also nothing wrong with isolating a prosperous economic model from unsuccessful economic models. Forcing a decentralized free market economy to adopt feudal administration through central banking and government will eventually destroy that model. Forcing a free market economy into fiscal interdependency with socialist economies will also most likely undermine that culture. Just as importing millions of people with differing values to feed on a nation after it has had socialism thrust upon it is a recipe for collapse.
The point is, some values and social structures are mutually exclusive; no matter how hard you try, certain cultures can never be homogenized with other cultures. You can only eliminate one culture to make room for the other in a border-less world. This is what globalists seek to achieve. It is the greater purpose behind open border policies and globalization – to annihilate ideological competition so that humanity thinks it has no other option but the elitist religion. The ultimate end game of globalists is not to control governments (governments are nothing more than a tool). Rather, their end game is to obtain total psychological influence and eventually consent from the masses.
Variety and choice have to be removed from our environment in order for globalism to work, which is a nice way to say that many people will have to die and many principles will have to be erased from the public consciousness. The elites assert that their concept of a single world culture is the pinnacle principle of mankind, and that there is no longer any need for borders because no other principle is superior to theirs. As long as borders as a concept continue to exist there is always the chance of separate and different ideals rising to compete with the globalist philosophy. This is unacceptable to the elites.
This has led not so subtle propaganda meme that cultures that value sovereignty over globalism are somehow seething cauldrons of potential evil. Today, with the rising tide of anti-globalist movements, the argument in the mainstream is that “populists” (conservatives) are of a lower and uneducated class and are a dangerous element set to topple the “peace and prosperity” afforded by globalist hands. In other words, we are treated like children scrawling with our finger paints across a finely crafted Mona Lisa. Once again, Carroll Quigley promotes (or predicts) this propaganda decades in advance when he discusses the need for “working within the system” for change instead of fighting against it:
For example, I’ve talked about the lower middle class as the backbone of fascism in the future. I think this may happen. The party members of the Nazi Party in Germany were consistently lower middle class. I think that the right-wing movements in this country are pretty generally in this group. – Carroll Quigley, from Dissent: Do We Need It?
The problem is that these people refuse to confront the fruits of globalization that can be observed so far. Globalists have had free rein over most of the world’s governments for at least a century, if not longer. As a consequence of their influences, we have had two World Wars, the Great Depression, the Great Recession which is still ongoing, too many regional conflicts and genocides to count and the systematic oppression of free agent entrepreneurs, inventors and ideas to the point that we are now suffering from social and financial stagnation.
The globalists have long been in power, yet, the existence of borders is blamed for the storm of crises we have endured for the past hundred years? Liberty champions are called “deplorable” populists and fascists while globalists dodge blame like slimy slithering eels?
This is the best card the globalists have up their sleeve, and it is the reason why I continue to argue that they plan to allow conservative movements to gain a measure of political power in the next year, only to pull the plug on international fiscal life support and blame us for the resulting tragedy.
There is no modicum of evidence to support the notion that globalization, interdependency and centralization actually work. One need only examine the economic and immigration nightmare present in the EU to understand this. So, the globalists will now argue that the world is actually not centralized ENOUGH. That’s right; they will claim we need more globalization, not less, to solve the world’s ailments.
In the meantime, principles of sovereignty have to be historically demonized — the concept of separate cultures built on separate beliefs has to be psychologically equated with evil by future generations. Otherwise, the globalists will never be able to successfully establish a global system without borders.
Imagine, for a moment, an era not far away in which the principle of sovereignty is considered so abhorrent, so racist, so violent and poisonous that any individual would be shamed or even punished by the collective for entertaining the notion. Imagine a world in which sovereignty and conservatism are held up to the next generation as the new “original sins;” dangerous ideas that almost brought about the extinction of man.
This mental prison is where globalists want to take us. We can break free, but this would require a complete reversal of the way in which we participate in society. Meaning, we need a rebellion of voluntary associations. A push for decentralization instead of globalization. Thousands upon thousands of voluntary groups focusing on localization, self reliance and true production. We must act to build a system that is based on redundancy instead of fragile interdependency . We need to go back to an age of many borders, not less borders, until every individual is himself free to participate in whatever social group or endeavor he believes is best for him, as well as free to defend against people that seek to sabotage him; a voluntary tribal society devoid of forced associations.
Of course, this effort would require unimaginable sacrifice and a fight that would probably last a generation. To suggest otherwise would be a lie. I can’t possibly convince anyone that a potential future based on a hypothetical model is worth that sacrifice. I have no idea whether it is or is not. I can only point out that the globalist dominated world we live in today is clearly doomed. We can argue about what comes next after we have removed our heads from the guillotine.
You can read more from Brandon Smith at his site Alt-Market.com . If you would like to support the publishing of articles like the one you have just read, visit our donations page here . We greatly appreciate your patronage. Share This Article... | 1real |
Стоит ли ожидать конца войны в Сирии? | Новое восточное обозрение | Страна: Сирия В своей новой статье постоянный обозреватель НВО Тони Карталучи отмечает, что многие до сих пор связывают надежды на окончание конфликта в Сирии с фигурой Дональда Трампа. Автор напоминает, что агрессия против Дамаска является лишь частью более грандиозного плана по уничтожению Ирана, который был запущен в действие Джорджем Бушем и затем подхвачен администрацией Барака Обамы. И поскольку среди ближайших советников Трампа внимательный наблюдатель может заметить немало неоконов, единственная надежда сирийского народа на мир продолжает таиться где-то на поле боя. С полной версией статьи вы можете ознакомиться здесь . Популярные статьи | 1real |
THE WIKILEAKS LIST: At Least 65 Mainstrea Media Reporters Were Meeting with and/or Coordinating Offline with Top Hillary Advisors | November 2015 Ads THE WIKILEAKS LIST: At Least 65 Mainstrea Media Reporters Were Meeting with and/or Coordinating Offline with Top Hillary Advisors
A few of the “journalists” meeting offline with Hillary advisers
Thanks to Wikileaks we now know that at least 65 mainstream reporters were working closely with the Clinton campaign this election year. They were invited to top elitist dinners with Hillary Campaign Chairman John Podesta or Chief Campaign strategist Joel Benenson.
NO FOX NEWS REPORTERS MADE THE LIST!
These 65 mainstream reporters CAN NEVER BE TRUSTED:
As previously reported — At least 38 top national reporters attended a different dinner at John Podesta’s house in April 2015.
The Clinton campaign sent out invites to New York reporters in April 2015 on their off-the-record meeting on how to sell Hillary Clinton to the public
FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE CLICK LINK | 1real |
Virgil: Making America Great Again—Or Not: The Establishment Targets Trump’s Top Strategist | Part Three of a series … In Part One we saw how the gospel of globalism inspires its believers to disdain, even despise, nationalists — that is, the people who voted for Donald Trump. And in Part Two we saw how the Deep State, one of the many weapons in the globalist arsenal, is now targeting Trump and his agenda for America. Here in Part Three, we will focus on how one Trump opponent is seeking to pick off a key member of the new presidential staff. 1. Fake News: “Bannon vs. Trump” Attacks on Stephen K. Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart, slated to become the top strategist in the Trump White House, are nothing new. Just since the election, Mother Jones magazine has called him “worse . . . than a racist,” Joy Behar labeled him “a fascist,” and former Vermont governor Howard Dean insisted, against all evidence, that he is “a Nazi. ” You get the idea. Okay, these assaults haven’t gotten very far they were tried, too, during the 2016 campaign, and Bannon’s standing within Trump world has never wavered. And yet, of course, the assaults keep coming. And so to help keep track of them all, perhaps we should assign them into categories. For example, in an earlier article, not part of this series, Virgil cited the ways in which “argument from authority” — argumentum ad verecundiam — can be used and, more often these days, misused. So now we can add a second, slyer, category of media falsehood. We can call this one the “assertion of a false conflict,” declaratio contra falsum. This one is a version of the familiar attempt to stir the pot, whipping up hard feelings between people: Hey, did you hear what he said about you? And here’s Brooks’ description of the gist of Bannon’s speech: Humane capitalism has been replaced by the savage capitalism that brought us the financial crisis. National democracy has been replaced by a network of global elites. Traditional virtue has been replaced by abortion and gay marriage. Sovereign are being replaced by hapless multilateral organizations like the E. U. Decadent and enervated, the West lies vulnerable in the face of a confident and convicted Islamofascism, which is the cosmic threat of our time. So that’s how Brooks characterizes Bannon’s beliefs. And Brooks is just warming up. He then goes on to compare Trump to Vladimir Putin, and Bannon to a conservative Russian political figure in Putin’s orbit, Alexander Dugin. Yet after making these dark comparisons, Brooks offers his readers a ray of light: The dark he predicts, will fail. Why? Because, Brooks chortles, Trump is such a lazy, egocentric, lightweight that he will lose interest in these Bannonite topics and so will drift over to the side of the globalists. A question leaps immediately to mind: Did Brooks get some scoop as to Trump’s thinking? Some revelatory interview? The answer, Brooks indicates, is “no. ” It’s just his hunch: I’m personally betting the foreign policy apparatus, including the secretaries of state and defense, will grind down the populists around Trump. David Brooks has enjoyed a good career in the MSM. Born in 1961, he’s nominally a conservative, having worked variously at National Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, and, since 2003, as a opinion columnist for The New York Times. And along the way, he has expressed some interesting ideas for example, in 2006, he opined that Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman should form their own third party, based mostly on their shared neoconservatism and globalism. Needless to say, nothing ever came of Brooks’ suggestion. Over his career, Brook has been notable for three things: first, a book published in 2000 that celebrated the luxe lifestyle second, a fervent advocacy of the 2003 Iraq War and third, his journalstic love affair with Barack Obama. In other words, he’s the perfect sort of housebroken “conservative” for Washington, DC, just the sort of fellow who gets that gig on the PBS NewsHour. Okay, so let’s consider Brooks’ track record on Donald Trump. We can sum it up with two points: First, he hates Trump and second, he is not a good forecaster. In March of last year, the headline of his column was “No, Not Trump, Not Ever. ” In that piece he harumphed, “Donald Trump is epically unprepared to be president. He has no realistic policies, no advisers, no capacity to learn. ” Then Brooks really got going: Trump is perhaps the most dishonest person to run for high office in our lifetimes. All politicians stretch the truth, but Trump has a steady obliviousness to accuracy. And since Trump was so terrible in Brooks’ mind, it was hard for him to imagine that anyone else could like him. Thus in June 2016, he predicted that in the November election to come, Hillary Clinton would beat Trump. As he put it, “People will be sick of Donald Trump, and they will go for her. ” To cap it off, in a column published on November 4, four days before the 2016 general election, Brooks doubled down on his endorsement of Clinton, describing her as “the bigger change agent. ” Then he went on to describe Trump as “solipsistic, impatient, combative, unsubtle and ignorant,” all the while insisting that Clinton was “better suited to getting things done. ” Amusingly, among the things Clinton would get done, Brooks told his readers, was developing a plan to “secure the border. ” Perfectly expressing the Times’ view of the world, Brooks added, “Any sensible person can distinguish between an effective operating officer [Clinton] and a whirling disaster who is only about himself [Trump]. ” Okay, so Brooks, along with 99. 9 percent of the rest of the Times, liked Clinton and didn’t like Trump. We get that. Yet further details of that column are revealing — revealing, that is, about Brooks. Here’s how the piece starts: A few weeks ago I met a guy in Idaho who was absolutely certain that Donald Trump would win this election. He was wearing tattered, soiled overalls, missing a bunch of teeth and was unnaturally skinny. He was probably about 50, but his haggard face looked 70. He was getting by aimlessly as a handyman. We might linger over some of those snobby word choices: “tattered, soiled overalls . . . missing a bunch of teeth. ” Virgil might pause to ask: Since the 1972 movie Deliverance, has has there ever been a more profoundly perfect stereotype of how a posh Easterner looks down his nose at the rubes in the rest of the country? In the piece, Brooks, himself blissfully confident that Hillary was going to prevail, then goes on recount how he tried patiently to explain to the man that he was wrong in his thinking. And yet, Brooks writes with a sigh, “It was like telling him a sea gull could play billiards. ” One might think that the actual election results, four days later, would have humbled Brooks a bit, but they haven’t — not at all. Since the election, he’s been as strongly as ever. And, amazingly, he’s still in the game of making predictions for Times readers, “The guy will probably resign or be impeached within a year. ” As for Steve Bannon, he has views that can only be described as Trumpian, and he has held them for a long time. So of course the globalists hate him, too. Since Bannon only rarely gives interviews, some might be curious to know more about his thinking — that is, looking beyond the nasty canards hurled at him by the likes of Mother Jones, Behar, and Dean. In fact, Bannon has been articulating his vision for a long time since 2004, he has produced no fewer than 16 documentaries. Yet a more direct and personal window into Bannon’s thinking can be found in his 2014 speech to the Vatican that’s the one that Brooks ripped in his January 10 column. So, without Brooks’ “help,” let’s take a closer look: Bannon begins by saying that he believes, strongly, that there’s “a crisis” in our time — that is, “a crisis of our faith, a crisis of the West, a crisis of capitalism. ” And so he begins with the spiritual question yes, many today are well off, but the question they should be asking themselves is deeper than money: What is the purpose of whatever I’m doing with this wealth? What is the purpose of what I’m doing with the ability that God has given us, that divine providence has given us to actually be a creator of jobs and a creator of wealth? He continues in this vein: It really behooves all of us to really take a hard look and make sure that we are reinvesting that back into positive things. Yes, we should invest in positive things, things of faith and belief, which money can’t buy. Thus the “crisis of faith. ” So now we come to Bannon’s “crisis of the West. ” Here, we need only look to Angela Merkel’s Germany it’s the richest country in Europe, and yet it is now in deadly danger of demographic dissolution — and threatens to take the whole continent down with it. Indeed, Bannon’s words from 2014, before Merkel foolishly chose to open her borders while subsidizing permanent dependence, now look prescient. He warned then that the threat from jihadi Islam is “going to come to Europe . . . it’s going to come to the United Kingdom. ” Moreover, in his talk he took note of a tweet that very day from ISIS, promising to turn the United States into a “river of blood. ” Yes, a crisis of the West, indeed. Hawkins summarized Bannon’s Vatican speech, in which Bannon argued that in recent decades, capitalism seems to have come mostly in two forms, both at least somewhat pernicious: First, there’s the “crony capitalism” that we saw in the scandalous 2008 bailouts and second, there’s the “Ayn Rand influenced . . . libertarian capitalism, which he sees as commoditizing people into mere producers and products. ” This latter kind, Hawkins continued, weakens “our collective moral strength. ” The answer, Hawkins concluded, is “enlightened capitalism” — that is, the capitalism in which capitalists think about the fate of their country, not just their bank account. As Hawkins put it: It was this enlightened capitalism that gave the — through wide asset ownership — strong middle class and an aspirant and affluent working class which provided the moral and economic foundations for the West to defeat Nazism in 1945 and support Ronald Reagan in to and defeating the Soviet Union during the Cold War. And now this has been corrupted and in turn weakened the West itself and Bannon believes the West now faces losing everything it has gained across more than 2000 years. [emphasis added] Hawkins ended his essay with these hopeful words: With Bannon, Trump and “Trumpism” the US and the West has an opportunity for economic, moral and political renewal — a new enlightenment. Okay, so Hawkins ably describes the problem, and outlines the ultimate desired outcome. And yet we might ask: How, exactly, does America get there? How do we get from the crisis of 2017 to a better place — as soon as possible? For the answer, we might return to Bannon’s 2014 talk, in which he called for aggressively building “a populist movement,” the heart of which should be: . . . the middle class, the working men and women in the world who are just tired of being dictated to by what we call the party of Davos. Interestingly, that seems to have happened in the last three years! We can also pause to note that “Davos,” of course, is shorthand for the World Economic Forum, a conclave of billionaire globalists and their courtiers, meeting every year in Davos, Switzerland. And so Bannon’s reference to “the party of Davos” speaks to the reality that global high finance seems to have conquered most of the politics, and most of the parties, of most of the world — and as a result, the America middle class, now sinking in the globalist broth, has been made worse off. It might be worth noting that the next Davos meeting is just a few days away, on January 17 to 20. And since this is the first session since the November election, there’s going to be some — and a lot more attempted . And yet Davos Men, and Davos Women will not be giving up so easily. For instance, one of the scheduled “chats” at Davos will be between Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook and Meg Whitman of HP together they will offer their audience their thoughts on shaping “a positive narrative for the global community. ” That is, a “global community” that’s safely profitable for Facebook and HP, wherever in the world they might choose to operate. Will these efforts at spinning globalism succeed? Will the globalists be permitted to keep inflating their financial bubbles — and keep getting bailed out when they pop? The Davosians surely hope so, but it’s possible, after Trump (and before Trump, Brexit) that the jig is up. But wait! There’s still hope for the globalists. The new American president might not think much of Davos, but the president of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, thinks differently. Indeed, he is scheduled to speak at Davos in a few days it will the appearance by a Chinese head of state. We can assume, of course, that Xi, picking up the torch from, say, Barack Obama, will offer a defense of globalism after all, globalism has been very, very good for his country. 4. Trump’s Moment, In the meantime, the eyes of the world are on the 45th president. As noted in Part One, Trump’s energetic economic activism is already making itself felt: And the good news has continues to pour forth: Just on January 12, Amazon announced that it would commit to creating 100, 000 new jobs in the US. Moreover, on January 13, Lockheed, which had earlier been chastised by Trump for announced that it would pledge not only lower costs for its fighter, but also an additional 1800 jobs in Texas. As Virgil also noted earlier, it’s astonishing that past presidents didn’t engage in this sort of economic patriotism perhaps they didn’t know how, or perhaps they didn’t care. In any case, Trump does know how, and he does care. And the American people are noticing. According to a January 10 Quinnipiac Poll, 47 percent of Americans believe that Trump’s economic policies will help the economy, while only 31 percent say they will hurt. In other words, Trump has already built for himself a advantage on that question. And his presidency has not yet even begun. To be sure, in the next few years, Trump, and his team, will be tested again and again. And while it’s impossible to predict the future, it would be foolish to bet against them. | 0fake |
After Orlando Shooting, Talk Show Hosts Suggest Talk Is Not Enough - The New York Times | Talk show hosts talk. After a mass murder, the pattern goes, they take a moment to talk more seriously. They talk about grief, love and hope. And then — this being their job — they move on to talk about something else. Monday night, as shows aired their first episodes after the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. there was a recurring theme: Talk is not enough anymore. From more freewheeling cable shows to the mainstream broadcasters, the prevailing message was that hosts had been here so many times, after so many mass murders, the sad comic’s display of apolitical grief response had become shtick. “You realize that you know what to say,” Stephen Colbert said on CBS, “because it’s been said too many times before. ” Samantha Bee, the host of “Full Frontal” on TBS, said that she was too angry to deliver some “ words about how we will get through this together, how love wins, how love conquers hate. ” She continued: “Love does not win unless we start loving each other enough to fix our [expletive] problems” — starting, she argued, with restricting access to guns like the semiautomatic that Omar Mateen used to kill dozens of clubgoers. Ms. Bee’s political comedy has been blistering from the second “Full Frontal” began in February, and taking sides is her mission, much as it was on her alma mater, “The Daily Show. ” (In his own commentary on the terrorist attack, Trevor Noah declared, “America needs to make it a lot harder for people who shouldn’t have guns to get guns. ”) What was new was the quaver in Ms. Bee’s voice — the barest suggestion that it was all she could do to keep it together even as she lashed the National Rifle Association and politicians who oppose gun regulations. Ms. Bee has been a punk band of rage, sarcasm and urgency Monday’s show added an acoustic note of heartbreak. Ms. Bee’s Conan O’Brien, made a bigger departure. Never a particularly political host, he told his audience, “I have really tried very hard over the years not to bore you with what I think. ” But on this night, he said, “I simply do not understand why anybody in this country is allowed to purchase and own a semiautomatic assault rifle. ” Hosts evolve over the years — David Letterman became more political in his later seasons — and Mr. O’Brien has been at this since 1993. But he also now has the latitude afforded by a smaller cable audience. It’s questionable whether, were he still hosting “The Tonight Show,” he would have been able to speak out the same way. Compare the emotional but conventional plea for peace and understanding offered by the current host of “The Tonight Show,” Jimmy Fallon: “Maybe there’s a lesson from all this, a lesson in tolerance. We need to support each other’s differences and worry less about our own opinions. ” On CBS’s “Late Show,” Mr. Colbert’s reaction captured his delicate effort over the past year to find a middle ground between the sharp point of view of “The Colbert Report” and the more typical neutrality of late night. His monologue wasn’t as prescriptive as Ms. Bee’s or Mr. O’Brien’s, but it tiptoed up to the edge of … something. Opening behind his desk — a departure for his show — Mr. Colbert talked about love fighting despair, but with the suggestion that feeling, in itself, wasn’t enough. “Love the families and the victims and the people of Orlando, but let’s remember that love is a verb. And to love means to do something. ” Mr. Colbert was saying not that love is itself an action, but that love requires acts to mean anything. It was an idea that wouldn’t be out of place in a church group, and indeed, the former Sunday school teacher seemed to be trying to bring that experience to late night. Not to punt on the moral question or preach about it, but to think through a problem with his congregation. He continued that approach with his first guest, Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly, who had been scheduled before the attack. The conservative host was more eager to talk about the angle of the killings, whereas it became clear that for Mr. Colbert, “do something” meant, in part, getting powerful guns off the streets. Conservatives will notice, correctly, that late night was not exactly an N. R. A. zone. In his “A Closer Look” segment, Seth Meyers touted a Harvard study that linked more gun availability to more gun deaths. “Which should be obvious,” Mr. Meyers continued. “That’s like saying, where there’s more white people, there’s more brunch. ” But the “Late Show” exchange was strikingly civil. Mr. O’Reilly signaled openness to restrict some guns Mr. Colbert gently shushed his less conservative audience when it grumbled at his guest: “Listen to what he has to say, please. ” Trying to come to some mutual understanding about guns and terrorism at any time, let alone in an election year, seems quaint and quixotic. And it symbolizes the tough job Mr. Colbert has had in synthesizing the Comedy Central and CBS audiences on his new show. He might be too political for the car crowd, too accommodating for partisans who want viral clips of their enemies being “totally destroyed. ” Whether he succeeds or not, there was a growing, exhausted sense Monday that the usual approach wasn’t cutting it. As Mr. O’Brien put it: “It’s time to grow up. ” | 0fake |
China Observes Ramadan by Praising Itself for ’Religious Freedom’ in Muslim Xinjiang | The government of China is ringing in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan with a report praising itself for its commitment to human rights in Xinjiang, the westernmost province in which communist officials have taken large strides to strip public life of Islamic customs. [Xinjiang is home to most of the nation’s Muslim Uighur minority and borders both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Authorities in Beijing have expressed concern that Muslim separatist groups in the region are feeding the population of Islamic State jihadists in the group’s Middle Eastern strongholds in Syria and Iraq. The Islamic State recently released a video featuring Uighur terrorists who vowed to return home to conduct terrorist attacks there. China’s media ran the full report from the State Council Information Office on Thursday, which applauds the Chinese government for taking “effective measures to develop the economy, improve people’s living standards, enhance the of the public, promote ethnic unity and progress, and safeguard the basic rights of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang. ” “Normal religious needs of local people have been satisfied,” China’s Global Times asserts, citing the report. The text of the report asserts that “the people of all Xinjiang’s ethnic groups enjoy the same status and the same rights, and must fulfill the same obligations in accordance with the law. Their political rights as citizens are fully protected. ” The report spends much of its energy on “environmental” rights, health care, and economic equality. On health care, for example, the report condemns the free government preceding the communist People’s Republic of China, claiming Xinjiang’s population suffered “a shortage of doctors and medicines, and epidemics of diseases, such as the plague, smallpox, and cholera. ” It then goes on to claim that the Chinese government has successfully curbed radical Islamic terror in Xinjiang: Since the 1990s, violent terrorists, nationalist separatists, and religious extremists have plotted and committed a series of violent terrorist crimes, causing loss of life to and damaging the property of people of all ethnic groups … The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has taken a series of measures designed to strike against violent terrorist crimes, strengthen social protection and control, modernize the governance system and capacity, and safeguard the lives and property of all the people of Xinjiang, whatever their ethnic group. These measures include the promulgation and implementation of the Measures of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Enforcement of the Law of the People’s Republic of China. The report then asserts that China has protected freedom of religion in Xinjiang by expanding the government’s power to control religious practices by implementing “Regulations on of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region” and working to “strengthen management of religious affairs in accordance with the law. ” The claims in the report echo those of a similar publication released almost exactly one year ago, titled “Freedom of Religious Belief in Xinjiang,” which asserted that “Normal religious activities in Xinjiang are protected by law, and religious organizations are responsible for coordinating internal religious affairs and the government should not interfere. ” This year, the Chinese government white paper did not claim that the government had minimized its interference in religion, instead claiming its interference aided the “normal” practice of religion. The new report also emphasizes the government’s push to replace the Uighur language with “Putonghua,” or “common tongue” (Mandarin). “The Constitution stipulates that the state promotes the nationwide use of Putonghua in accordance with the law,” the report notes but asserts that the common use of Uighur in public is a sign the government protects the Uighur language. In reality, the Chinese government announced a nationwide campaign to eradicate languages in January, which corresponded with the development of a plan to promote intermarriage between Uighurs and the Han minority and the imposition of a variety of ordinances that prohibit overly Islamic activity in public. Among the activities prohibited in public in Xinjiang is the wearing of burqas in the capital city of Urumqi, the use of public transportation while wearing any Islamic garb, and the observance of the Ramadan fast by Communist Party officials. “If we think that someone may be fasting, we will invite them to the village office to ‘drink tea’ with us to see if they are fasting or not,” Alim Abdurahman, a Xinjiang official, told Radio Free Asia last year. The Chinese government also forces Muslim shops to carry a variety of alcohol and cigarette brands to encourage the violation of Quranic laws against the consumption of these products. Beijing has also banned Muslim parents in Xinjiang from giving their children overly religious names like “Islam,” “Jihad,” or “Muhammad. ” | 0fake |
PARENT FURIOUS AFTER 4TH GRADE CLASS JOINS HATEFUL PROTESTORS AND TEACHER IN CHANT ON CAPITOL STEPS: “[Governor] Walker Sucks!” | The children were greeted at the Capitol steps in the communist state of Wisconsin by protestors singing hate songs with signs that read: Republicans and Walker rape or molest women and girls.APPLETON, Wis. I don t frequent the Capitol building in Madison so I just assumed the Capitol Singers, a group protesting Governor Scott Walker in song had faded away.I learned recently however that they are, as a line censored out of the sitcom Last Man Standing said of the Clintons, They re like shingles; just when you think they are gone, they pop back up. I received an email recently from a listener to my radio show who chaperoned a field trip his daughter s 4th grade class at Horizons Elementary School in Appleton took to the State Capitol in late May. The story he shared was simply stunning:Everyone on the field trip to the capitol was eating lunch on the capitol steps. At the same time there was a group of people protesting Walker and Act 10 singing hate songs and holding up signs saying that Republicans and Walker rape or molest women and girls.Another parent pointed out to me that my daughter s teacher was down there singing with them. I thought that I needed to find out what was actually being sung down there because a bunch of students were down there listening and recording on their cell phones what was happening. That is when I realized that they were singing terrible hate songs against Walker and what the signs said.By the way, her teacher was holding a piece of paper with the words they were singing on it. When the kids were on their way back up they started chanting Walker sucks and some other mean things. That s when I stopped them and asked why they were doing that and they didn t know what to say. I asked three times and one of the boys spoke up and said that Mr. Niquette was just doing it also. That is my daughter s teacher.Feeling it inappropriate to confront the teacher in front of children, the parent contacted the school to see if such behavior violated school policy. He ended up in an email exchange with the teacher, Scott Niquette:Scott, my issue is you going down there and singing with those people on the field trip.Did you see the signs they were holding? I m guessing that you saw the words you were reading off the sheet you were holding. Do you understand what the children were doing after they saw you down there singing? Scott there is video of you singing that hate Walker song.When the kids were walking back up the hill they were chanting hate speech toward Walker until I stopped them and asked them why. The answer was obvious. Someone with influence in their lives was doing the same thing. You have influence on these children and they trust that you will lead them. For crying out loud Scott those signs were way inappropriate. Talking about molesting children and raping women.In a show of Olympian chutzpah, Niquette pleaded ignorance in his response:With respect to the Capitol Singers, I joined them during my lunch break simply because I enjoy singing. I am currently an active member in our church s choir I honestly did not see or notice any signs regarding molesting children or raping women when I entered the circle of singers. If I had, I can assure you that a most certainly would have immediately left. Again, I joined them simply because I enjoy singing. With respect to my teaching, I also take that very seriously and take great offense to accusations that I do not You have visited my classroom on numerous occasions and sat in on a few lessons. What did you see and hear I stick to the objectives and leave the politics out.He couldn t resist joining a group of Scott Walker haters in public but we re supposed to trust he keeps politics out of the classroom? He didn t see what the signs said? He was unclear of the lyrics he was singing off a sheet?I reached out to Horizons principal Karen Brice. Initially she told me she hadn t heard of the incident and frankly found it hard to believe. But she told me she would look into it. A few days later she called me back, saying only that school officials were investigating to determine whether district policy had been violated.Then there is this classic line from Niquette in his email response to the parent:In retrospect, however, I do think I will save singing with the Capitol Singers for a time when I am at the capitol of my own accord to better reduce any opportunities of misunderstanding.Via: EAG News | 1real |
[WATCH] FBI Re-Opens Hillary Investigation, Trump Immediately Does THIS | 0 comments
Just 11 days before the election, the FBI has re-opened its investigation into Hillary Clinton. According to The Political Insider , the news broke just as Donald Trump took the stage in New Hampshire, and it was the first thing he mentioned.
Watch: BREAKING: Trump begins New Hampshire rally by reacting to FBI saying it's probing new Clinton emails: âPerhaps finally justice will be doneâ pic.twitter.com/iiCU5PeF4d
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) October 28, 2016
Here is Trump’s full statement:
I need to open with a very critical breaking news announcement. The FBI has just sent a letter to Congress informing them that they have discovered new emails pertaining to the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s investigation. And they are re-opening the case into her criminal and illegal conduct that threatens the security of the United Staes of America.
Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before. We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office. I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the Department of Justice are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made. This was a grave miscarriage of justice that the American people fully understood and it is everybody’s hope that it is about to be corrected.
So that is a big announcement that I heard ten minutes ago, and I guess obviously most of you folks have heard about. And in all fairness, for all of the people that have suffered for doing so much less, including just recently 4-Star General James Cartwright, General Petraeus, and many others. Perhaps finally justice will be done.
With that being said, the rest of my speech is going to be so boring. Should I even make the speech? We will talk about borders, right? We will talk about trade. We’ll bring back our jobs, we’ll strengthen our military…
Twitter reacted accordingly. Trump, at Manchester, N.H. rally, says FBI decision to reopen Clinton email case suggests "the system might not be so rigged"
— Gabby Morrongiello (@gabriellahope_) October 28, 2016 The crowd at this Trump rally is literally going insane.
— Andrew Clark đ (@AndrewHClark) October 28, 2016 On HRC Trump said at a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire. "We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office." @BillKristol
— Robert Fischl (@robtdfischl) October 28, 2016 Unlike Trump, Clinton did not address FBI letter at start of her rally. She said she's glad to be back in Iowa, talked about recent flooding
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) October 28, 2016 Trump calls Clinton's email investigation 'bigger Than Watergate' https://t.co/nuHKoqtZDS
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 28, 2016
SHARE this news if you are glad that the FBI is finally doing its job by investigating Hillary Clinton! | 1real |
“MY HOMETOWN IS GONE” A Shocking First-Hand Account of the Islamization of an American Small Town | Did you know that over 15 thousand so-called Muslim refugees have been admitted to the US since inauguration day?WHERE DID THEY GO? 15,726 Mostly Muslim Refugees Admitted Since Inauguration DayAmericans have got to wake up and see what s happening to us!Loretta Brady has written the best ever first-hand account of the damage the refugee resettlement program is doing to America s small towns. It s truly a must-read! Please share!I gave a talk at a luncheon a few months ago that was basically relating my story of how my hometown has been Islamized by refugee resettlement. So it makes sense to do a blog post.I m from the Utica, NY area. Utica is the city nicknamed by the UN the city that loves refugees! Soon every American city will be a city that loves refugees! Get ready! So I would like to tell you what it is like living in an area where the major city is about 25% (or more) refugee, mainly MuslimI was born in Utica, a faded industrial town along the Mohawk River/Erie Canal corridor, and lived there until I was 8-years-old when my family moved to a nearby small college town. I loved living in Utica because there were lots of families on my block, big Catholic families with lots of kids. You could yard-hop, checking out who was available for play. You could bike around the neighborhood. There were block parties in the summer. My grandmother lived up the street. Life was good.My father and his father were born and lived in Utica, NY. My father was a judge in Utica, like his father before him. The Catholic school my father attended is now a community center for refugees. After I moved back to the Utica area as an adult I used to recite Full fathom five to the children as we drove by my father s former Catholic school. (Nothing of him that doth fade,/But doth suffer a sea change/Into something rich and strange.)When I had my first child I was living in New York City. Her father and I divorced when she was a baby, and when she was two-years-old, I beat a hasty retreat back home to Upstate NY. There I met my husband. We got married, we had babies (in that order, ahem), and we settled down outside of Utica.When I moved back home one of the first things I noticed was that an old Methodist church was being converted into a bright shiny white new mosque. The local paper touted this as immense progress and featured a local woman who had attended the church as a child and was positively brimming with joy it was being turned into a mosque. If that is the general sentiment, then it s odd that my county went for Trump, right? There are at least two mosques in the city now. They just built another.Where do I start? Utica had always been the city that loves refugees but under Obama things accelerated. Muslim immigrants were suddenly in these local bureaucratic positions where they had power over you. This, in what is probably one of the most corrupt states in the union, where the power of the state is everything.The social worker at my daughter s school was a Muslim immigrant. I looked for her profile on the school website, I googled her, I could not find information on her background, resume, qualifications, or educational attainments.When I began to homeschool my daughter the administrator to whom I had to submit paperwork was a Muslim immigrant. To homeschool in New York State you must submit detailed quarterly reports to an administrator at your local school district. I googled the administrator. He also worked at the local Board of Cooperative Educational Services, but I could not find any other information on his background, resume, qualifications, or educational attainments.I was friends with the wife of the Orthodox priest at our church, and she told me that this administrator found some problems with her paperwork and challenged her. It turned out she was right about the issue, and he backed down. Comfy little situation, right?Right before we moved I went to the ER. The nurse practitioner was a Muslim immigrant (Bosnia), and the doctor she worked under was a Muslim immigrant (Pakistan). I remember how during the visit I suddenly became very aware of the cross I always wear around my neck.In 2012 on the way home from my daughter s piano lesson, I left my children in the car, ran into the supermarket for ten minutes, and came out to find a man outside my car who informed me he had called the police. I called my husband and my parents and together we waited for the police officer who eventually arrived and arrested me. Lenore Skenazy wrote an account of the incident in the Wall Street Journal. It is pretty accurate except that it wasn t a suburb, it was a village of less than 2,000 people.It was a terrible thing to do, but it was not hot (we re about two hours from the Canadian border), it was the small safe village where I grew up (I think I was the only arrest that week), and I spent half my childhood hanging out in the car with my brother while my mother did errands. My friend sent me a Salon article (I don t read Salon) about a mom who did the same thing, and she like me was in her hometown where she grew up, and so automatically just living by the rules she grew up with. My mother never got arrested. It didn t occur to me I would be arrested. That s my only arrest. So far. But anyway, the point of this story is I was then investigated (and cleared which I hope should be obvious) by CPS.The CPS worker who investigated me was Muslim.So let me just summarize: the social worker at the school is Muslim, the administrator who ok s homeschooling is Muslim, the CPS worker is Muslim, the nurse practitioner at the ER is Muslim, the doctor at the ER is Muslim. These are positions of authority that wield a lot of power.Are you starting to get the picture?The spring before we moved Utica made national news because of a federal grant to the local community college (two million dollars) for a (Muslim immigrant) professor to teach teenage (Muslim) refugees how to build drones. The grant didn t mention explicitly that the drones would be equipped with bombs or anything, so it was all aboveboard. This was going on like down the road from us. My husband assured me he could shoot any drone out of the sky, and I m sure he could, but curiously enough that didn t assuage my anxiety, but only exacerbated it. The last thing I needed was my husband getting arrested on federal charges for taking down a drone.I looked up the Muslim immigrant professor on Linked In. It was an odd career trajectory. It looked like he had been a soccer coach a few years before. It wasn t exactly clear to me how he had landed his present job where he was getting federal money to train Muslims to build drones, but, hey, that s the Obama era for you.In 2015, a 26-year-old Bosnian refugee in Utica was arrested for supporting ISIS. The local paper reported that in his spare time when he wasn t supporting ISIS, he enjoyed mixed martial arts fighting at the local gym. Local law enforcement complained they hadn t been informed of the investigation. You know and I know that if anything happens, local law enforcement are the first responders.I went to a couple Trump rallies and meetings in Upstate NY before we moved. When I mentioned the arrest of this ISIS supporter to a local businessman at one of the meetings, he got a very serious look and said Utica was full of ISIS and the local police were really worried. The Trump meetings were emotional. The organizer picked a donut shop whose owner was friendly to the Trump platform so we could talk. Everyone went around the table and introduced themselves. Two of the women cried. New York State is not doing well.Don t believe the Start-Up NY commercials. Potemkin Village.My husband lost two jobs in three years in Upstate NY. Not by any fault of his own- he is a very skilled, dedicated, experienced, hard worker- but because his bosses went out of business. His first boss moved to North Carolina. His second boss had to close up shop, which seemed linked to a downturn in the stock market. A lot of the middle class in Upstate NY are boomer retirees, and when the stock market goes down, they get nervous and cut back on renovation and building. My husband is a carpenter.The Upstate New York economy is one of the worst in the country. That s why it s a good place to resettle refugees.After the second time my husband lost his job, I applied for food stamps for the family. When I moved back home I had tried to find a job as a lawyer, I could not. I finally found a job processing letters of credit for an investment bank. My salary was $27,000 a year. I actually got paid an extra $2,000 higher than starting salary for my translation skills. After I had my second child, most of my pay after taxes would have gone to childcare. The New York State tax system penalizes low-income people who work. So I stayed home. My parents helped us with bills.So my husband was unemployed, I was unemployed, we have four children, we certainly qualified for food stamps, and I felt stupid and irresponsible for not applying when we qualified for them, so I applied. The local Department of Social Services does not answer their phone. You can go there and wait in line. It is a very very long line, and a very uncomfortable place to be. By tacit agreement, the white people stick together in the waiting area. The Department of Social Services rejected my application several times without reason. I knew we qualified, so it became for me this bureaucratic challenge that I had to vanquish. It took a lot of wrangling and some certified sign-for-delivery mailings which were expensive. I managed to get us a month of food stamps. It was about $50 a week, I think, for a family of six. I don t know if that s average or not.Want to know why my application was rejected several times even though we qualified? Want to know why it was so difficult to get food stamps? The Department of Social Services in my area is swamped because of the refugees. 25% of the city are refugees. Virtually all of the refugees are on welfare. And when they apply for welfare, they don t do so as an independent entity, as I did. They go through their refugee resettlement agency who deals with the Department of Social Services for them. So basically Americans get the short shrift, and refugees get taken care of. And that s America. This is why so many Democrats voted for Trump. Americans are getting squeezed out by non-Americans at multiple levels.What else to tell you?New York State sued our local school districhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/nyregion/new-york-state-accuses-utica-school-district-of-bias-against-refugees.html?_r=1t for trying to separate teenage refugees from the rest of the students. I went to a CLE where I sat next to a lawyer for the school district, and she was freaking out over this lawsuit. She was like, The state is coming after us, and we don t have any money. My county is a Democrat county, and Trump won my county. Issues like this are why. Americans can see that they are being forced to accommodate non-Americans to their own detriment and expense.There is TB in Utica. I m sure there is more than reported. Obama stopped screening foreigners for TB, which America has been doing since before the days of Ellis Island, and the refugees are from places where TB is endemic. Whenever I was in a hospital- when I gave birth or when I went to the ER- I would be very aware of my surroundings.The local Walmart is full of headscarves and burkas. I cried when I went into my first Walmart in North Carolina and all I saw were Americans.The nice lady who asked me to give a talk a couple months ago on my hometown asked me if there were any refugees who were an asset to the community . I replied that they do not consider themselves part of your community, so if they are going to be an asset to any community, it is not going to be yours.I hope I ve presented an idea of why I m so opposed to refugee resettlement. I couldn t write this blog post where I m from. I d be scared that someone would target my house. I d be scared of the authorities. I had to wait to get to higher ground to speak more openly.North Carolina is like Heaven. People are so much happier here. I thank God every day we got here. I consider it a free zone , and I want it to stay free.Please also check out my other blog post on Utica, NY. I wrote it after my husband and I drove into the city on a random Sunday and saw about a dozen refugees (all women, and you know there had to be men as well, who just weren t present at the time) moving into renovated housing. This is in an area where low-income Americans, white and black, languish in subpar housing. A lot went on under the Obama Administration. And I doubt a lot of it was on the books. | 1real |
Year of protests and crisis in volatile Venezuela | CARACAS (Reuters) - Even by the volatile and violent standards of recent times in Venezuela, 2017 was an exceptional year, a perfect storm of political and economic crisis. Going into a fourth year of crippling recession, Venezuela s 30 million people found themselves skipping meals, suffering shortages of basic foods and medicines, jostling in lines for ever-scarcer subsidized goods, unable to keep up with dizzying inflation rates, and emigrating in ever larger numbers. In unprecedented scenes for the once-prosperous OPEC nation, some citizens survived only by scavenging through garbage. Not surprisingly in that context, President Nicolas Maduro s ruling Socialists the inheritors of Hugo Chavez s 21st century revolution - - lost popularity on the street, and the opposition coalition sensed a chance to unseat them. The tipping point came in March when the pro-Maduro Supreme Court essentially took over functions of the opposition-led National Assembly. Though the controversial ruling was later modified, it was a trigger and rallying cry for the opposition, which began a campaign of street protests that ran from April to July. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets across Venezuela, decrying economic hardship, demanding a presidential election, urging a foreign humanitarian aid corridor, and seeking freedom for scores of jailed activists. Slogans that read Maduro, murderer! and Maduro, dictator! began appearing on roads and walls around the country. Though the majority of protesters were peaceful, youths wearing masks and brandishing homemade Viking-style shields started turning up at the front of rallies to taunt security forces. When police and National Guard soldiers blocked marches, youths threw Molotov cocktails and stones. The security forces quickly escalated tactics, routinely turning water-cannons on the protesters and firing teargas into crowds. Guns appeared on the streets, and on several occasions security officials were caught on camera firing directly at demonstrators. Police were targeted with homemade explosives. Opposition supporters burned one man alive. The deaths, injuries and arrests mounted. Over the chaotic months, at least 125 people died, thousands were injured and thousands were jailed. Global opinion hardened against Maduro. Amid the extraordinary daily events, gangs burst into the National Assembly and beat up opposition lawmakers. The nation s best-known jailed opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, was released from prison and placed on home arrest to the joy of his supporters, then taken back to jail, then allowed home again, all in a matter of days. Venezuelans grew accustomed to navigating around barricades and burning streets as they tried to get to school and work. Some days, the country virtually shut down. By the end of July, many opposition supporters feared for their lives and protest numbers dwindled. Maduro said he was defeating a U.S.-backed coup attempt and authorities held an election, which the opposition boycotted, for an all-powerful Constituent Assembly charged with imposing order on the country. Having failed to block the Constituent Assembly, the protests fizzled out, leaving opposition supporters nursing their wounds and planning their next moves. They decided to tackle Maduro at the ballot-box in regional elections in October, but that backfired badly when they lost most of the governorships despite polls showing they would win. The opposition alleged fraud, but their complaints did not get traction and Maduro cemented his authority. In November, Venezuela said it planned to renegotiate its entire foreign debt, adding another dimension to the deepening national crisis. (See reut.rs/2AdRQ0Q for related photo essay) | 0fake |
THEY KNEW! Federal Government Knew Flint, MI Water Was POISONED, Kept It Hidden…10 Have Already Died | This story is for anyone who believes the government is capable of basic addition. Even though this news is out there for everyone to see, the Left continues to use this crisis as an opportunity to try to pin the gross negligence of the EPA on the Republican Governor of Michigan. Flint, MI is a Democrat ruled, crime ridden, poverty stricken hell-hole. Stay tuned for the environmental injustice narrative Obama will soon be pushing. He s just waiting for the right time to demand federal funds be funneled into Democrat ruled, failing cities across America you know, to prevent further environmental crises. We all know #BlackLivesMatter would have already been there if someone was able to pin this on the rich, white Republican Governor of MI The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency s top Midwest official said her department knew as early as April about the lack of corrosion controls in Flint s water supply a situation that likely put residents at risk for lead contamination but said her hands were tied in bringing the information to the public.Starting with inquiries made in February, the federal agency battled Michigan s Department of Environmental Quality behind the scenes for at least six months over whether Flint needed to use chemical treatments to keep lead lines and plumbing connections from leaching into drinking water. The EPA did not publicize its concern that Flint residents health was jeopardized by the state s insistence that such controls were not required by law.Instead of moving quickly to verify the concerns or take preventative measures, federal officials opted to prod the DEQ to act, EPA Region 5 Administrator Susan Hedman told The Detroit News this week. Hedman said she sought a legal opinion on whether the EPA could force action, but it wasn t completed until November.The state didn t agree to apply corrosion controls until late July and didn t publicly concede until October that it erroneously applied the federal Lead and Copper Rule overseeing water quality.An EPA water expert, Miguel Del Toral, identified potential problems with Flint s drinking water in February, confirmed the suspicions in April and summarized the looming problem in a June internal memo. The state decided in October to change Flint s drinking water source from the corrosive Flint River back to the Detroit water system.Critics have charged Hedman with attempting to keep the memo s information in-house and downplaying its significance.As soon as the lack of corrosion controls became apparent, state and federal officials should have acted to protect the public, said Virginia Tech researcher Marc Edwards, whose water analysis in 2015 helped uncover Flint s lead contamination. At that point, you do not just have smoke, you have a three-alarm fire and should respond immediately, said Edwards, who, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, has obtained dozens of key documents related to Flint s crisis through public record requests. There was no sense of urgency at any of the relevant agencies, with the obvious exception of Miguel Del Toral, and he was silenced and discredited. About five months after being alerted to the lack of corrosion controls, a researcher at Hurley Medical Center in Flint began in August detecting high levels of lead in the bloodwork of city children. Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities and, at high levels, may lead to seizures, coma and death, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Hedman defended her agency s handling of the Flint water situation, saying her water quality staff repeatedly worked to convince the DEQ that corrosion controls were needed to no avail. Let s be clear, the recommendation to DEQ (regarding the need for corrosion controls) occurred at higher and higher levels during this time period, Hedman said in a Detroit News interview. And the answer kept coming back from DEQ that no, we are not going to make a decision until after we see more testing results. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder announced yesterday that 10 people have died from Legionnaire s disease in Flint, Mich. Eighty-seven cases of Legionnaire s disease have been found in and around Flint in the past 18 months.Flint s long-running water problems with drinking water have shaken Michigan s government, leading to last month s resignation of DEQ Director Dan Wyant and last week s state declaration of an emergency in the city. An independent task force appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder to review the situation placed the bulk of the blame for Flint s crisis on the DEQ.The federal government s actions are worth exploring, said Chris Kolb, co-chairman of the task force. We have made a request to speak with a number of EPA employees, said Kolb, president of the Michigan Environmental Council and a former Democratic state representative.Flint s water crisis gained a national profile in the past week, as President Barack Obama s chief of staff said Sunday the White House is very concerned and is monitoring the situation very closely. Former Obama Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a Democratic presidential hopeful, called on the administration Tuesday to step up with assistance for Flint as well as do an expedited review of the city s water infrastructure.DEQ-EPA battleDEQ and EPA staffers were at loggerheads over dueling interpretations of the Lead and Copper Rule a 25-year-old regulation designed to protect drinking water from metals contamination. The interpretation of the rule proved to be crucial after the city under Snyder-appointed emergency managers switched from Lake Huron water provided by the Detroit system to Flint River water as a cost-saving move in the spring of 2014.Following the switch, DEQ officials argued water testing, including two six-month periods of sampling, needed to be completed before making a decision on the need for corrosion controls. EPA officials, according to Hedman, wanted the controls implemented immediately out of concern for public health.If they knew Flint s lack of corrosion measures would likely result in lead reaching the drinking water by June, testing would show it had why didn t EPA officials inform the public when the DEQ failed to act?Hedman said federal law clearly lays out the state and federal responsibilities in overseeing safe drinking water. The EPA s role is to establish treatment standards and monitoring techniques, and provide technical assistance, she said. The state acts as the primary regulator of water operations. It is important to understand the clear roles here, Hedman said. Communication about lead in drinking water and the health impacts associated with that, that s the role of DHHS, the county health department and the drinking water utility. In addition, EPA officials argue that there wasn t sufficient early evidence for any sweeping steps to be taken.Hedman said the EPA talked with its legal counsel about its authority to compel action a question that wouldn t be straightened out for months. In the interim, she said her agency urged Michigan to have its Department of Health and Human Services provide information on precautions for residents.EPA s lack of urgencyBut critics such as Edwards contend Hedman acted with no urgency, even behind the scenes. A week after the June 24 memo was circulated, an email exchange between Hedman and then-Flint Mayor Dayne Walling showed no sense of alarm over the threat to public health and more concern about procedure. The preliminary draft report should not have been released outside the agency, Hedman wrote in the July 1 email. When the report has been revised and fully vetted by EPA management, the findings and recommendations will be shared with the city and DEQ will be responsible for following up with the city. The revised and vetted memo was released four months later in November. Edwards has described Del Toral s original memo as 100 percent accurate in its assessment of the looming problem.Flint s drinking water ills led to the resignations last month of both Wyant and DEQ spokesman Brad Wurfel. It also caused the October reassignment of Liane Shekter Smith, then chief of DEQ s Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance. The crisis prompted Snyder to switch Flint back over to the Detroit water system in mid-October until a new regional water authority using Lake Huron as its source is completed later this year.Despite all of the moves, officials warn that unfiltered Flint water is still not safe to drink.There has been no fallout for federal environmental officials. There s been a failure at all levels to accurately assess the scale of the public health crisis in Flint, and that problem is ongoing, said state Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint. However, the EPA s Miguel Del Toral did excellent work in trying to expose this disaster. Anyone who read his memo and failed to act should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Congressman Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township, stressed that the lion s share of responsibility for Flint s situation lies with the state DEQ.Yet he has questions about how the Lead and Copper Rule ostensibly a safeguard for the public may have contributed to EPA s response. If changes are necessary, he wants them made. There is a legitimate concern about EPA s performance in terms of alerting the public, Kildee said. And frankly, as a member of Congress, I want to know when there s the potential of a health crisis in my district. Via: The Detroit News | 1real |
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Women Employees Line Up To Kiss Chinese Boss | Edmondo Burr in Weird // 0 Comments A male Chinese boss has come under fire for ordering his female workers to perform a daily kissing ritual.
The female workers of a Beijing company are forced to line up every morning and give their boss a kiss.
The creepy Chinese boss forces his female employees to kiss him every morning, claiming that it fosters good relationships among colleagues.
Daily Trends reports:
Women working at a company that sells home brewery machinery, in Tongzhou District, Beijing, are required to line up between 9:00 and 9:30 each morning to kiss their boss. And we’re not talking about a little, innocent smooch on the cheek, although that would be pretty weird as well, but a kiss on the lips. China Press reports that while the women were initially reluctant to accept the bizarre daily ritual, they eventually gave in to the boss’ demands in order to keep their jobs. Only two of the company’s female workers refused to kiss their boss on the mouth and chose to resign instead. According to Chinese media reports, over half the unnamed company’s staff members are women.
Facing increasing pressure from both the media and the general public, the boss explained that he picked up the idea for the daily morning kiss while visiting a company in the United States, and claimed that the disgusting daily ceremony helps “foster good relationships among colleagues”, allowing him and his female staff to get along “like fish and water”. Not only that, but he says that some of his women worker genuinely miss him when he is away, and send him messages on WeChat.
Needless to say that the boss’ explanation didn’t really satisfy the millions of social media users outraged by the viral video of him kissing his female staff.
“How can these female workers accept this? Do their boyfriends or husbands know?” one person commented on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. “I want to ask these female workers: Do you have no money? Would you starve if you changed jobs?” another added.
And while all of them condemned the man for his sleazy rule, some said that the women carried some of the blame as well, just for putting up with the situation. “The boss is a perv, but the workers are foolish,” someone wrote. | 1real |
Analysis Shows Hillary Clinton’s Plans Would Create Over 10 Million Jobs | As the Democratic National Convention wrapped up its final night, with Hillary Clinton delivering a speech that blew Donald Trump out of the water, an independent analysis from Moody s Analytics shows Clinton s plans will create over 10.4 million new jobs over the span of 4 years one full term as president.The analysis, when redone, showed a growth of 3.2 million more jobs than expected. Not only would the nation gain millions of new jobs (on top of the 15 million plus gained under President Obama), the GDP rate would accelerate, up-ticking from the 2.3 percent today to 2.7 percent by the end of Clinton s presidency.The analysis also pinpointed the exact proposals that would continue economic growth immigration reform, infrastructure spending, and paid family leave.When we treat immigrants with respect, when we put people back to work on our roads and bridges, and when we allow parents time to take care of their children without losing their jobs, America will succeed.The positive analysis and prediction is due, in almost all part, thanks to a healthy and growing economy under President Obama, assuming it continues well into a possible Clinton presidency, or even if the world turns to hell again:The upshot of our analysis is that Secretary Clinton s economic policies when taken together will result in a stronger U.S. economy under almost any scenario.In other words: if the economy tanked in the last few months of Obama s presidency (like it did with President Bush), Clinton s plans would result in a rebound (just like Obama s presidency).Any way you look at it, good or bad, Clinton and her plans will be good for the economy.Last month, Moody s released their analysis about Trump s plans, and found his economic policies would cost the United States over 3.5 million jobs, and usher in an economic downturn worse (and longer) than the Great Recession. The massive job loss would cause the unemployment rate to jump to over 7 percent.America has their choice: the strongest economy since the 1940s or another Great Recession.Choose wisely. The numbers are out there.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 1real |
ANGRY BERNIE REFUSES To Respond When TV Host Asks About Collapse Of Socialist Latin American Countries [VIDEO] | #FeelTheBernOfSocialismUnivision host Leon Krauze asked avowed Socialist Bernie Sanders about the collapse of several Latin American countries due to their failed socialist policies. Angry Bernie responded with well, anger.WATCH: | 1real |
HYSTERICAL…THE DEMOCRAT CONVENTION Schedule Is Revealed | LOL! You ll want to share this with everyone Democrat Convention ScheduleMonday, 25 July 2016 11:30 AM Free lunch, medical marijuana, and bus ride to the Convention. Forms distributed for Food Stamp enrollment.2:30 PM Group Voter Registration for Undocumented Immigrants.5:00 PM Opening Flag Burning Ceremony Sponsored by CNNTuesday, 26 July 2016 9:00 AM Address on Being the Real You Rachel Dolezal, former Head of the Seattle NAACP10:30 PM How to Bank $200 Million as a public Servant and claim to be broke Hillary Clinton2:00 PM How to have a successful career without ever having a job, and still avoid paying taxes! A Seminar Moderated by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson5:00 PM Medals of Freedom presentation to Army deserter Bo Berghdal Baltimore Looters Wednesday, 27 July 2016 8:30 AM Invitation-only Autograph Session Souvenir photographs of Hillary and Chelsea dodging Sniper Fire in Bosnia9:00 AM Tribute to All of the 57 States Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi9:30 AM General vote on praising Baltimore rioters, and on using the terminology Alternative Shoppers instead of Looters 11:00 AM The White House Semantics Committee Meeting General vote on re-branding Muslim Terrorism as Random Acts of Islamic Over-Exuberance 1:00 PM Liberal Bias in Media How we can make it work for you Tutorial sponsored by CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, PBS, the Washington Post and the New York Times with Guest Speaker, Brian Williams3:00 PM Tribute Film to the Brave Freedom Fighters still incarcerated at GITMO Michael Moore5:00 PM Personal Finance Seminar Businesses Don t Create Jobs Hillary ClintonThursday, 28 July 2016 9:00 AM Group Condemnation of Bitter Gun Owners.9:30 AM Ceremonial We Surrender Waving of the White Flag to Afghanistan, Russia, and ISIS.10:00 AM Short film, Setting Up Your Own Illegal Email Server While Serving in A Cabinet Post and How to Pretend It s No Big Deal Hosted by Hillary Clinton11:00 AM Announcement of VP Nominee Chris Stevens, with a quick rebuttal and withdrawal when Hillary realizes he s someone she got killed in Benghazi11:30 AM Official Nomination of Hillary Bill Maher and Chris Matthews | 1real |
Teenager to stand trial in March over London bomb attack | LONDON (Reuters) - A teenager who moved to Britain after his parents were killed in Iraq will go on trial in March over a bomb attack on a packed commuter train that injured 30 people in London in September. Ahmed Hassan, 18, is accused of intent to kill and cause serious injury by planting a home-made bomb at Parsons Green station in London. The bomb shot flames through a carriage but failed to fully explode. Hassan appeared via video link at London s Central Criminal Court on Friday where a judge said a two week trial would start on March 5. He is set to appear in court next on Jan. 19. | 0fake |
RINO SENATOR From “Red State” Tells Illegal Aliens: “You Have Done Nothing Wrong”…Joins Dems To Push DREAM ACT Legislation Only Hours After Trump Rescinds DACA [VIDEO] | Here are a few facts explaining who the DACA recipients really are. The National UnDACAmented Research Project was compiled by Harvard University researcher Roberto G. Gonzales and published by the Center For Immigration Studies (CIS):In April 2016, the Washington Times reported that a massive anti-deportation infrastructure had emerged to try to protect illegal immigrants from President Trump s crackdown, with advocacy groups coaching potential deportees on how to massage encounters with police, and lawyers and judges working to shield them from charges that would make them priorities for deportation.A video released Monday by a coalition of advocates instructs illegal immigrants not to open the door to federal agents, what proof to demand if they are being arrested and what to say if accosted outside their homes.Meanwhile, attorneys are working to lower charges from some illegal immigrant criminals, hoping to blunt their crimes so they don t show up as high-priority deportation targets.The Washington Times reported on a recent case in California, where an immigrant from India was accused of abusing his wife. The Santa Clara prosecutor told The Daily Beast that he reduced a felony assault charge to a felony accessory after the fact charge in order to spare the man a sentence that would have made him a deportation risk.IJR- The same day that President Donald Trump rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) held a joint press conference in which they reintroduced legislation that would see Congress tackling many of the issues that DACA comprises. What Senator Graham and I want to deliver is the message today, is that we need to do our job right here in the United States Senate, Durbin said. We need to pass, in this month of September, a DREAM Act, a permanent law in this country, that says that these young people will have their chance to become part of America s future. The DREAM Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act has been circling Congress for more than a decade, having first been introduced by Durbin and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) in 2001. The legislation has failed to pass each time it has been introduced.Durbin then took a moment to speak directly to the DREAMers, saying, Do not give up hope. If you are one of those DREAMers, Durbin continued, one of those protected by DACA, you need to be part of America in its future. We made a promise to you that if you gave this information to our government about you and your family, it wouldn t be used against you. I don t want that to ever happen. Durbin then turned over the podium to Graham, who said right out of the gate, speaking to the DACA participants, you have done nothing wrong. You ve demonstrated your ability to be beneficial to the country now and in the future, Graham said. The only thing that stands between you and certainty in your life is the Congress. That cannot be that reassuring. Congress is going to have to up its game, Graham opined. | 1real |
Tina Fey And Rachel Maddow Go Head To Head On ‘The Tonight Show’ (VIDEO) | Rachel Maddow has a well-earned reputation as one of the smartest people on cable news. Tina Fey has a well-earned reputation as one of the smartest comedians in the country. So what happens when you put them against each other to see who s the biggest Know It All? To answer that very question, Jimmy Fallon, host of The Tonight Show, had both Fey and Maddow on to compete in a fast-paced trivia game. I literally had no idea who was going to win (although I was rooting for Maddow). You ll have to see the outcome for yourself:Nooooooooo! Rachel got trumped (pun intended) by goat cheese! Well played, Ms. Fey well played. The only thing missing was a mic to drop.Honestly, the part I loved about this the most was watching two smart people put their brains on display. That s something we don t see as often as we used to. These days, being too smart will make people mad at you. They ll denounce you as a know it all as if knowing stuff is a bad thing! But it wasn t always like that. As The Newsroom s Will McAvoy said, We aspired to intelligence, we didn t belittle it. It didn t makes us feel inferior. Reality TV used to be quiz shows with some of the smartest people in the country held up as idols. Now we idolize the vapid and obnoxious on The Real Housewives of Who The Hell Cares and Honey Boo Boo. We used to aspire to be better than ourselves, now we just aspire to better than someone else. But with a little luck and more strong and smart role models like Fey and Maddow, maybe we can inspire a new generation to better themselves instead of tearing others down.Featured image via screencap. | 1real |
What Exactly Are Poll Watchers? Here's The Cliff Notes Version (VIDEO) | What Exactly Are Poll Watchers? Here’s The Cliff Notes Version (VIDEO) By Natalie Dailey on October 29, 2016 Subscribe
For months, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been whining that the election is rigged against him.
He urges people to go to the polls and look out for voter fraud. Watching for fraud is not illegal by itself. If you actually try to force someone to vote a certain way, that is illegal. Sending out false information about the election is also illegal in Ohio. In most states, intimidating voters like that is illegal. According to 18 U.S. Code § 594 : “Whoever intimidates, threatens, coerces, or attempts to intimidate, threaten, or coerce, any other person for the purpose of interfering with the right of such other person to vote or to vote as he may choose.”
The states are allowed to regulate election procedures, so the rules vary widely. Some states allow poll watchers to help out by simply being in the room. They watch for any specific suspicious behavior. What Are Poll Watchers?
For example, in Florida, each candidate is allowed to have one poll watcher at each polling place. They have to be approved by the state beforehand.
The poll watcher’s job is to make sure that the votes are counted correctly and to make sure there aren’t any weird voting schemes going on.
Also in Florida, the poll watchers are allowed to challenge someone’s identity if they find a problem with the person’s identification or if the voter doesn’t show up on local voter rolls. If the issue isn’t resolved on-site, then the person can fill out a “provisional” ballot.
This ballot won’t get counted until the problem with the voter’s identity is cleared up, and only if the vote numbers are close enough for provisional ballots to make a difference. Unfortunately, they often don’t get counted at all and if they do, not until after the vote would’ve been useful. Who Are The Poll Workers?
The poll workers are usually a combination of state employees, temporary contractors, or volunteers. They are trained to answer your questions, and they handle disputes with the poll watchers.
You are allowed to ask who poll workers are and who they represent. If you have a problem while voting, you’ll report it to the poll workers.
Poll watchers and poll workers are not allowed to intimidate voters or suppress voting based on race, gender, national origin, or religion. They also can’t question you, and they can’t film you without your approval.
Stay safe on election day, November 8!
Donald Trump has gotten himself in some hot water for calling for poll watchers:
Featured image via YouTube screenshot . About Natalie Dailey
Hi, I'm from Huntsville, AL. I'm a Liberal living in the Bible Belt, which can be quite challenging at times. I'm passionate about many issues including mental health, women's rights, gay rights, and many others. Check out my blog abravealabamaatheist.com. Check out my other blog weneedtotalkaboutmentalhealth.com Connect | 1real |
Dem Challenger To Paul Ryan Has Raised A Massive Amount Of Money In The Last 24 hours | Randy Bryce, known as @IronStache on Twitter, launched a campaign to oust Paul Ryan from Wisconsin s 1st District. Bryce is a union ironworker who has been campaigning for all of one day, and he s already raised $100,000. That is a lot for a new face who s a Democrat living in Republican-land and running in a district that s gone to Paul Ryan every two years since 1999.Bryce isn t just a union ironworker in Republican-land, Wisconsin, though. He s an Army veteran who enlisted right after high school, and then worked his way up to being an ironworker through apprenticeship. His mother suffers from multiple sclerosis, his father is in an assisted living facility, and Randy himself is a cancer survivor. He s campaigning primarily on healthcare right now, and he says on his website: What Paul Ryan and the Republicans are doing to take health care away from millions of us, to make it cost more and cover less, and to allow the protections we ve gained to be stripped away it s just unacceptable. Bryce has an uphill battle to fight. Ryan is very well-connected both in the 1st District and across America. However, Bryce will work to tie Ryan to Donald Trump as much as possible, working off Democrats hopes that the Trump effect will help flip Congress next year.But it may not be that terrible a climg. Paul Ryan is already wildly unpopular around the country, with an approval rating below 30 percent. That could very well pull down his popularity in his own district. He s also starting to get a reputation for making every excuse in the book for Trump. Regarding obstruction of justice, Ryan lamely claimed that Trump is new and doesn t know what s appropriate and what s not when it comes to interacting with various agency heads, particularly those in the law enforcement and intelligence communities. Ryan gave him a pass as though he s a little child navigating his way through the world for the first time.He s also confident that Trump will approve of the massively unpopular GOP healthcare bill whatever form that ends up taking and once again blasted the ACA while claiming that their bill is ever so much better.Ryan is almost inextricably linked to Trump right now, and as Trump s base shrinks, so will Ryan s. What Bryce is doing and clearly, what many are hoping he can do is taking advantage of the possibility that a hole will open up in the 1st District because of Trump.Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images | 1real |
Re: Why Donald Trump Must Shut Down The Federal Reserve And Start Issuing Debt-Free Money | Why Donald Trump Must Shut Down The Federal Reserve And Start Issuing Debt-Free Money By 16th, 2016
If Donald Trump truly wants to fix the economy, he must shut down the Federal Reserve. If he just tries to patch up our current system, he will fail, because it has been fundamentally flawed from the very beginning. A little over a century ago, very powerful forces on Wall Street convinced Congress to completely restructure our financial system. An immensely powerful central bank known as the Federal Reserve was created, and the goal was to transform the U.S. dollar into a debt-based currency that would continuously be inflated and to create an endless debt spiral from which could never possibly escape. Sadly, they were successful on both counts. Since the creation of the Federal Reserve, the value of the U.S. dollar has declined by approximately 98 percent and our national debt has gotten more than 5000 times larger .
Americans tend to give most of the credit or most of the blame for the performance of the U.S. economy to our presidents, but the truth is that an unelected, unaccountable group of central bankers has far more power over our economy than anyone else does. The Federal Reserve has become known as “ the fourth branch of government “, but unlike the other branches of government we are told that the Fed’s decisions are “above politics” because they are “too important”. Fed officials fiercely guard their “independence”, and they fiercely resist any “interference” from Congress, the President, or the American people.
Donald Trump can try to lower taxes and reduce regulations, but what he will be able to do to influence the economy pales in comparison to the immensely powerful tools that the Fed wields. The Fed controls interest rates, the Fed controls the money supply, and the Fed regulates the banks.
To give you an idea of how enormously powerful the Fed is, I want you to pull out a dollar bill.
As you look at that dollar bill, I want you to notice that it says “Federal Reserve Note” right at the top.
In the financial world, a “note” is an instrument of debt, and the truth is that our system was designed to create as much debt as possible.
So why are we using debt-based “Federal Reserve Notes” in the first place? Shouldn’t Congress have control over our currency?
According to Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution , it is Congress that has the authority to “coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures”.
So how did the Fed get involved?
Well, it is a very long and convoluted story, and if you are interested in the history behind it I would commend to you an excellent book by C. Edward Griffin entitled “ The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve “. Basically, big money interests on Wall Street got their hooks into the White House and Congress, and they rushed through legislation right before Christmas in 1913 that created this insidious central banking system that was designed to slowly but surely take wealth from the American people and put it into their hands.
Sadly, most Americans don’t even realize that we have a debt-based currency, nor do they understand where our money comes from. In a previous article , I discussed how money is normally created by the Federal Reserve under our current system…
When the U.S. government decides that it wants to spend another billion dollars that it does not have, it does not print up a billion dollars.
Rather, the U.S. government creates a bunch of U.S. Treasury bonds (debt) and takes them over to the Federal Reserve.
The Federal Reserve creates a billion dollars out of thin air and exchanges them for the U.S. Treasury bonds.
The Federal Reserve takes the U.S. Treasury bonds that it receives in exchange for the “Federal Reserve Notes” that it gave to the government and it auctions off those bonds to the highest bidder . But of course this process always creates more debt than it does money…
The U.S. Treasury bonds that the Federal Reserve receives in exchange for the money it has created out of nothing are auctioned off through the Federal Reserve system.
But wait.
There is a problem.
Because the U.S. government must pay interest on the Treasury bonds, the amount of debt that has been created by this transaction is greater than the amount of money that has been created.
So where will the U.S. government get the money to pay that debt?
Well, the theory is that we can get money to circulate through the economy really, really fast and tax it at a high enough rate that the government will be able to collect enough taxes to pay the debt.
But that never actually happens, does it?
And the creators of the Federal Reserve understood this as well. They understood that the U.S. government would not have enough money to both run the government and service the national debt. They knew that the U.S. government would have to keep borrowing even more money in an attempt to keep up with the game.
So our debt just keeps going up and up and up. While Barack Obama has been in the White House our national debt has risen by more than 9 trillion dollars, and at this moment it is sitting just under the 20 trillion dollar mark .
But we shouldn’t be surprised by this, because this is precisely what the Federal Reserve system was designed to do to us.
Many conservatives still hold to the mistaken illusion that we could somehow pay all of this debt back someday, but as I have shown in a previous article, this is mathematically impossible to do .
If the government went out today and grabbed every single dollar in existence we could not pay back the national debt, and of course we have of household debt, of corporate debt and of state and local government debt that we need to pay back as well.
Under the current system our only hope is to keep the wheel spinning by continuing to devalue the dollar and by continuing to go into even greater amounts of debt.
And of course it isn’t just the United States that is in this predicament. At this point, almost every single nation on the entire planet has a central bank.
Even though there are extremely sharp disagreements among nations on virtually everything else, somehow central banking has achieved nearly universal adoption.
As you read this article, well over 99.9% of the population of the globe lives in a country that has a central bank.
Do you think that is just a coincidence?
Of course there are still a few very small countries such as the Federated States of Micronesia that do not have a central bank, but the only big nation not to have one is North Korea.
And you would literally have to be insane to want to live in North Korea.
But now we have an opportunity to get free from this insidious system. The truth is that we don’t have to have a central bank. In fact, the greatest period of economic growth in U.S. history was when there was no central bank .
We don’t need central planners to set our interest rates and to manipulate our money supply. They will never admit this, but the reality of the matter is that their interference in the economy often creates tremendous economic busts.
Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, there have been 18 distinct recessions or depressions : 1918, 1920, 1923, 1926, 1929, 1937, 1945, 1949, 1953, 1958, 1960, 1969, 1973, 1980, 1981, 1990, 2001, 2008.
Considering their track record, isn’t it time for a change?
And we don’t have to have a debt-based currency. In fact, not too long ago we had a president that decided to start issuing debt-free “United States Notes”.
Back in 1963, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 11110 which authorized the U.S. Treasury to issue debt-free “United States Notes” which were directly created by the U.S. government.
He was assassinated shortly thereafter.
Most Americans don’t realize this, but many of the debt-free United States Notes that were issued under President Kennedy are still in circulation today , and President Trump could do something similar.
But will he?
It has been said that the borrower is the servant of the lender, and the Federal Reserve system has turned all of us into debt slaves.
Debt is a form of social control, and the global elite use all of this debt to dominate the planet. The total amount of debt in the world just hit of 152 trillion dollars , and the longer we allow the central banks to control the system the bigger this debt bubble will become.
here in the United States that starts with shutting issuing debt-free currency. It would take someone very bold to make a move like this, and so let us hope that the man that we just elected is up to the task. | 1real |
We Can’t Afford To Feed The Poor But We’re Spending $700 Billion Per Year To Kill People | The military s budget is being massively expanded this year, and nobody is really sure why. The answer seems to be because we can. Republicans in the Senate have decided that the Pentagon should receive even more money than Trump s hawkish White House wanted, and is giving the military things it never requested and does not need. The 2018 National Defense Authorization Act approves a budget of $696 billion, an annual increase of $80 billion. Meanwhile, Republicans are out to gut aid programs for low-income Americans.So why aren t deficit hawks like Paul Ryan questioning where this money will come from? We re ballooning the deficit to kill people, and for what, exactly? The Pentagon does not need the money. For example, the budget has allowed for 94 new F-35 Lightning fighter jets. Via Bloomberg:The measure would authorize 94 F-35 jets made by Lockheed Martin Corp., 24 more than requested by the president and seven more than the House agreed to in its version of the bill.Oh, by the way, the budget is also illegal. Why is that? Well, a law passed in 2011 only allows $549 billion in base-related expenses. The United States has 800 military bases and hundreds of thousands of soldiers occupying nations around the globe. The budget as it stands recommends $640 billion:Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said during floor debate that his panel ignored the budget constraints set in law because responding to national security challenges requires more resources. The threats to our national security have not been more complex, severe, or daunting at any time in the past seven decades and our job is to ensure we have a military capable of meeting those threats, McCain said. For too long, we have locked ourselves into making strategic decisions based on budget realities. It is time to start making budget decisions based on strategic realities. That s right. Republicans think we should make budget decisions based on strategic realities, completely ignoring military-related deficits, in order to pay for jets (and other stuff) the military never asked for and does not need.Or, maybe, the massive lobbying arm of the defense industry has more to do with it. They ve already spent tens of millions in 2017 alone to buy politicians and influence, and there s no slowing down.these two things are unrelated pic.twitter.com/3PGzZzrLj9 Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) September 19, 2017What else could that money pay for? Great question. Common Dreams has a great perspective on the true cost of needless military spending:Put another way, with a $700 billion military budget, the U.S. would be spending more than three times as much as China on its military, and 10 times as much as Russia. According to [the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute], the U.S. already accounts for more than a third of all military spending.Yes, in the entire world. The United States, with about 1/25 of the world s population, is responsible for over 1/3 of the military spending worldwide. Who are we preparing to fight, exactly?Or with $80 billion a year, you could make public colleges and universities in the U.S. tuition-free. In fact, Sanders s proposal was only estimated to cost the federal government $47 billion per year.If the additional military spending over the next 10 years instead went to pay off student debt, it could come close to wiping it out entirely.Yet those kind of ideas, or universal healthcare coverage, are dismissed out-of-hand by Republicans. Maybe that s because the everyday people who would benefit most don t pay as well as insurance and military lobbyists. Maybe that s because most politicians, but especially Republicans, are more invested in personal careers and success than they are in their country.Eight members of the Senate voted against the bill: Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Bob Corker (R-TN), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Mike Lee (R-UT), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images | 1real |
U.N. experts on women and children's rights decry Myanmar atrocities | GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. committees for women s and children s rights called on Myanmar s authorities on Wednesday to immediately stop violence in northern Rakhine state, which hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled in the past six weeks. We are particularly worried about the fate of Rohingya women and children subject to serious violations of their human rights, including killings, rape and forced displacement, the committees on the elimination of discrimination against women and on the rights of the child said in a statement. Such violations may amount to crimes against humanity and we are deeply concerned at the state s failure to put an end to these shocking human rights violations being committed at the behest of the military and other security forces. | 0fake |
Today I Rise: This Beautiful Short Film Is Like a Love Poem For Your Heart and Soul | Today I Rise: This Beautiful Short Film Is Like a Love Poem For Your Heart and Soul Nov 10, 2016 2 0
This beautiful short film will have you warm, fuzzy, and inspired. Here’s “Today I Rise”.
“The world is missing what I am ready to give: My Wisdom, My Sweetness, My Love and My hunger for Peace.”
“Where are you? Where are you, little girl with broken wings but full of hope? Where are you, wise women covered in wounds? Where are you?”
h/t Films for Action , Image: Banksy Vote Up | 1real |
Jordanian Airline Tells Trump To F*ck Himself With Discount Airfare To New York (TWEETS) | The Royal Jordanian airline is celebrating Donald Trump s recent humiliation in style. Since a federal judge recently lifted The Donald s travel ban, Royal Jordanian wants to make sure as many people visit the United States as possible. Royal Jordanian received new instructions from the US Customs and Border Protection to temporarily halt ban on travel of seven previously-barred nationals to enter the USA. The countries are: Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Iran and Somalia, the airline said on its website, noting that as always, travelers need a valid visa or Green Card.To celebrate Trump s despair, Royal Jordanian is slashing prices while the ban is lifted. On Sunday, they tweeted an ad featuring the word Ban with the a converted to an o and the word Voyage written in. Fly to the US with RJ now that you re allowed to, it reads, with heavily slashed prices to Chicago, Detroit, and Trump s home state of New York. ?? #DonaldTrump #MuslimBan pic.twitter.com/rptY3dS3Xh Royal Jordanian (@RoyalJordanian) February 5, 2017This isn t the first time RJ has hit Trump over the ban. On Election Day, the airline encouraged travelers to travel to the US while you re still allowed to you know, just in case he wins. ? #USElections pic.twitter.com/yBDVO2w3gb Royal Jordanian (@RoyalJordanian) November 8, 2016The lift of so-called President Trump s ban by a so-called judge has sent the Orange Menace into a fanatical rage as of late with Trump lashing out on Twitter, blaming the judge who denied him his success in keeping people who practice a religion he hates out of the country for any an all terrorist attacks that might or might not occur in the future.Trump should be thanking Judge Robert. As President, it is in his best interest to learn as much about our government as possible and it s clear that The Donald has never heard of checks and balances before this.If you live in one of the seven previously-banned countries, be sure to fly to New York at a discount and visit Trump Tower. We re sure he d love that.featured image via Getty Images (Pool)/screengrab | 1real |
SCOTUS Throws Cold Water Early on Obama’s Partisan Gerrymandering Project | The U. S. Supreme Court made headlines Monday with its acceptance of a case that argues whether legislative maps can be ruled unconstitutional simply due to the partisan advantages that may be gained from their designs. Some election law experts contend the matter is a means to an end in transferring redistricting powers — commonly held in legislative branches — to commissions not directly answerable to the electorate. [Picking up the case after a panel ruled that Wisconsin Republicans legislative boundaries in 2010 with the intent to dilute opposition voting strength, the Supreme Court paused the lower court’s immediate remedy that maps be reconfigured in time for the 2018 Election prior to the 2021 revamp. Court watchers of all varieties, including proponents of the lawsuit, took the halt as an early indicator that some groups’ hopes for a new weapon against largely Republican legislatures may not be handed down any time soon. Redistricting litigation is by no means a rarity, regardless of how far removed a case may be from the last decennial census or even if the boundaries are actually enforced at the time. Conventional scenarios allege that particular political jurisdictions are drawn presenting risks or evidence of racial discrimination, violating the U. S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act. Gill v. Whitford, however, offers a different framework that the Supreme Court has demonstrated great difficulty in tackling in the recent past. Rather than making a detailed, case that specific boundaries were drawn to harm minority voters, Whitford makes a broad argument against Wisconsin’s legislative boundaries statewide, arguing that Republicans are impermissibly tipping the scales at the expense of Democrat voters. Some critics of such maps also admit that a racial undercurrent can exist with a partisan gerrymandering complaint. In response, Wisconsin has pushed hard against the allegations and seeks a landmark ruling that partisan gerrymandering claims are not justiciable. The Supreme Court has been here before in 2004 thanks to a Pennsylvania case. The Court fractured on whether it should hear a partisan claim: Rehnquist, O’Connor, Scalia, and Thomas found the case was governed by the doctrine and lacked proper jurisdiction while Stevens, Ginsberg, Souter, and Breyer opted to proceed. Anthony Kennedy voted with the conservative bloc on the question of the Pennsylvania case’s hearing, but would not foreclose future challenges. Typically a niche area even among the most dedicated politicos, redistricting has demonstrated improving potential, especially as the Democrat Party continues to dedicate assets and architecture to chart a path out of the political wilderness. The Washington Post reported shortly after the court announcement Monday that former President Barack Obama would dedicate energy toward improving the party’s chances in the next mapping cycle. In addition, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, chaired by former Attorney General Eric Holder and Clinton campaign alum Marc Elias promises “a comprehensive, Democratic Party redistricting strategy over the next 5 years and beyond. ” Instead of fighting for the civil rights of all voters like previously advertised in ID campaigns, the Democrats make clear their intentions: [T]he NDRC was created in 2016 to build a targeted, strategy that ensures Democrats can produce fairer maps in the 2021 redistricting process. With fairer maps, Democrats can rebuild the party from the state level, and secure a stable federal majority for the decade to come. Looking beyond Whitford, some election law experts note that reform efforts are coalescing around the concept that removes legislators — and their constituents by extension — further from the redistricting process favoring of a commission approach like seen in a dozen states. Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington currently utilize such systems. The makeup of the bodies can range in size and placement mechanism — commonly relying on executive or legislative leadership to select participants. Iowa utilizes a hybrid format while Ohio is slated to join the cohort in the next mapping cycle. Critics argue that a disconnect from the full wrath of the electorate is harmful. “ independent commissions remove accountability — commissioners are not accountable to voters for what they do, unlike legislators,” says Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow for the Heritage Foundation. “Commissioners just move the politics of redistricting behind closed doors. ” Experts commonly note that the electoral yields of a map are not neatly predetermined by the political affiliation of its architect. Both the 2006 “Thumping” and 2010 “Shellacking” Elections occurred on largely the same body of legislative maps. Real redistricting reform, some argue, happens in the ballot box. “If you don’t like the partisan results in a redistricting plan passed by a legislature, go out and win more seats,” Public Interest Legal Foundation President J. Christian Adams explains. “The people should have the power to form their own legislative system and that should not be delegated to bureaucrats and commissions just because we don’t like the outcome. ” The Supreme Court recently waded into the redistricting wars in 2016 with a Texas case, Evenwel v. Abbott. Though not regarding any specific political boundaries, Evenwel sought a ruling that would prevent jurisdictions be drawn based on the total population of residents opting instead for lines based on citizenship data or registered voters. Plaintiffs argued that current practices gave densely populated areas a political subsidy of added representation thanks to the counting of noncitizens and others not eligible to vote. The court ruled unanimously against the plaintiffs, though Justice Clarence Thomas noted in a concurring opinion that it was not the Court’s place to weigh in on such matters — a sentiment that might be repeated in Whitford soon. Logan Churchwell is a founding editor of the Breitbart Texas team. You can follow him on Twitter @LCChurchwell. He also serves as the communications director for the Public Interest Legal Foundation. | 0fake |
U.S. says Sudan commits to severing North Korea ties | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sudan committed on Thursday to severing all trade and military ties with North Korea, the U.S. State Department said, as Washington seeks to isolate Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs. The United States welcomes the Government of Sudan s pledge and will continue engagement on this issue to ensure that this commitment is fully implemented, the State Department said in a statement, adding that the Sudanese foreign ministry made the announcement following meetings with a visiting U.S. diplomat in Khartoum. | 0fake |
Trump calls on President Obama to resign in wake of Orlando shooting | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called on President Barack Obama to resign from office because he did not say the words “radical Islam,” in a statement in response to the Orlando massacre where 50 people were killed. “Because our leaders are weak, I said this was going to happen – and it is only going to get worse,” Trump said in a statement. “I am trying to save lives and prevent the next terrorist attack. We can’t afford to be politically correct anymore.” Trump’s campaign said he will address the attacks in a speech he already had scheduled to deliver on Monday addressing national security and responding to criticism from Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. | 0fake |
Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein interviewed over FBI ex-director's firing: WSJ | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office has interviewed U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein about President Donald Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Citing unnamed people familiar with the investigation, the Journal said the interview occurred in June or July. Mueller is looking into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, and whether Trump may have obstructed justice by firing Comey in May. Mueller, himself a former FBI director, ultimately reports to Rosenstein because Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from the probe. The Journal said the handling of the interview “could be a sign that Mr. Mueller’s team doesn’t view Mr. Rosenstein as a central witness in its probe, as the deputy attorney general hasn’t withdrawn himself from overseeing it since that interview.” The paper quoted Ian Prior, a Justice Department spokesman, as saying: “As the deputy attorney general has said numerous times, if there comes a time when he needs to recuse, he will. However, nothing has changed.” A Justice Department spokeswoman and a representative for the special counsel both declined to comment to Reuters. The Russian government denies any attempt to influence the election, and the Republican president has repeatedly denied any collusion, calling the investigations a “witch hunt.” | 0fake |
BREAKING: LIBERAL HEADS WILL EXPLODE When They Find Out Which Cabinet Position Trump Just Offered This Badass Former TX Governor | Trump s choice of pro-oil, pro-fracking, anti-big government, outspoken conservative and former Texas Governor Rick Perry for secretary of energy is sure to ruffle the feathers of leftists environmentalists not just in America, but around the world Rick Perry, President-elect Donald Trump s choice for Energy secretary, has close ties to the Texas oil industry and has corporate roles in two petroleum companies pushing to get government approval for the proposed 1,200-mile crude oil pipeline that has stoked mass protests in North Dakota.Perry s current roles as board director at Energy Transfer Partners LP and also at Sunoco Logistics Partners LP, which jointly developed the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline project, is a strong indicator of the pro-oil industry sentiment that will likely take root at the Energy Department under his oversight. Perry is close to Texas energy industry executives, and his political campaigns, including two aborted presidential campaigns, benefited substantially from their donations.Trump announced his choice of Perry in an early morning release Wednesday from Trump Tower in New York.He called Perry one of the most successful governors in modern history, having led Texas through a sustained period of economic growth and prosperity by developing the state s energy resources and infrastructure, and making low-cost energy available to companies and families. It is a tremendous honor to be selected to serve as Secretary of Energy by President-elect Trump, Perry said. I am deeply humbled by his trust in me. Perry s close relations with energy executives and his long-time dependence on them for political contributions signal an abrupt change of course at the Energy Department. Perry is expected to welcome the four-state pipeline and similar projects, set an open-door policy for oil industry interests and possibly tear down the department altogether. FOX 5As he said farewell to the Texas Legislature in January 2015, Rick Perry couldn t help but reflect on how energy technology and policy had transformed the state s landscape and fueled its economy during his record 14 years as governor. Today, horizontal slant drilling is tapping oil and gas fields unreachable just a few years ago, he said, going on to scold New York for banning hydraulic fracturing. In Texas, we have chosen jobs. We have chosen energy security, and we will one day end America s dependence on hostile sources of foreign energy. Although Texas longest-serving governor was, perhaps unsurprisingly, pro-oil and gas during his tenure, he didn t simply nod to those iconic, staple fuels: You can be proud that Texas produces more energy from wind turbines than all but five countries, he said.Indeed, Perry, left a nuanced energy legacy including overseeing booms in fossil fuels and renewables during his time in Austin. (Texas is now the No. 1 U.S. producer of both natural gas and wind energy.) Now, he is poised to take his experience to Washington, where President-elect Donald Trump has chosen him as U.S. secretary of energy. The appointment would mark a full repair in Perry s relationship with Trump, whom he called a cancer on conservatism last year while the two men were in a crowded field for the Republican presidential nomination.If confirmed, Perry would become the third Texan to land that job, which involves overseeing energy research and policy with ramifications on the economy, environment and national security. And he would certainly bring different perspective and background to the role than his two predecessors nuclear physicist Ernest Moniz and Physics Nobel laureate Steven Chu.Environmentalists and others question Perry s qualifications to lead the massive federal agency, particularly because he called for its elimination during his first unsuccessful presidential bid five years ago. While they concede that he championed renewables during his tenure, they also describe a more fervent support for traditional fossil fuels. TX Tribune | 1real |
Aldi Goes Fully Organic, Bans Pesticides And Rivals Whole Foods As Healthiest Grocery Store | Imidacloprid Sulfoxaflor Aldi has made a name for itself in recent years for being strict about removing certain pesticides and chemicals from its products, and they are going even further in their quest for quality. They are expanding their organic food brands, removing some artificial ingredients from products and adding more gluten-free items. They have removed certified synthetic colors, partially hydrogenated oils, and MSG from their private-label products (which make up 90% of sales). They have expanded their sales of fresh and organic meat and produce, including the “Never Any!” brand of meats that contain no added antibiotics, hormones, animal by-products or other additives. The chain will also expand the SimplyNature line (which is free of more than 125 artificial ingredients) and their gluten-free liveGfree brand. Their milk was free of artificial growth hormones, but now its yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese, and other dairy products will be as well. They have begun to offer more high-end foods like artisan cheeses, smoked salmon, quinoa, and coconut oil. There are currently 1,500 Aldi stores in the U.S and the plan to open 500 more by 2018. With such a strong focus on health, they are set to become the leader in health supermarkets. Business Insider said: The grocery chain is expanding organic-food brands, removing some artificial ingredients from its products, and adding more gluten-free items in hopes of attracting more health-conscious shoppers. Neonics are systemic pesticides and they are one of the newest types of insecticide, used mostly in the last 20 years to control a variety of pests, especially sap-feeding insects, such as aphids on cereals, and root-feeding grubs. Related: | 1real |
Exclusive - Trump border 'wall' to cost $21.6 billion, take 3.5 years to build: internal report | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s “wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border would be a series of fences and walls that would cost as much as $21.6 billion, and take more than three years to construct, based on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security internal report seen by Reuters on Thursday. The report’s estimated price-tag is much higher than a $12-billion figure cited by Trump in his campaign and estimates as high as $15 billion from Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. MORE TOP NEWS: Twitter numbers paint grim profitability picture Trump changes tack, backs 'one China' policy in call with Xi The report is expected to be presented to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly in coming days, although the administration will not necessarily take actions it recommends. The plan lays out what it would take to seal the border in three phases of construction of fences and walls covering just over 1,250 miles (2,000 km) by the end of 2020. With 654 miles (1,046 km) of the border already fortified, the new construction would extend almost the length of the entire border. Many cost estimates and timelines have been floated since Trump campaigned on the promise of building a wall. The report seen by Reuters is the work of a group commissioned by Kelly as a final step before moving forward with requesting U.S. taxpayer funds from Congress and getting started on construction. A DHS spokeswoman said the department does “not comment on or confirm the potential existence of pre-decisional, deliberative documents.” A White House spokeswoman said it would be “premature” to comment on a report that has not officially been presented to the president. DON’T MISS: Japan's love of tiny cars sore spot as for Trump Exclusive: In call with Putin, Trump denounced Obama-era nuclear arms treaty The report said the first phase would be the smallest, targeting sections covering 26 miles (42 km) near San Diego, California; El Paso, Texas; and in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley. The report assumes DHS would get funding from Congress by April or May, giving the department sufficient time to secure contractors and begin construction by September. Trump has said Congress should fund the wall upfront, but that Mexico will reimburse U.S. taxpayers. Mexico has said it will not pay. Several U.S. congressional delegations are visiting the border this month to assess funding needs, according to several people familiar with the travel plans. The report shows the U.S. government has begun seeking waivers to address environmental laws on building in some areas. It also shows the government has begun working with existing contractors and planning steel purchases for the project. Trump told law enforcement officials on Wednesday, “The wall is getting designed right now.” The report accounted for the time and cost of acquiring private land, one reason for its steep price increase compared to estimates from Trump and members of Congress. Bernstein Research, an investment research group that tracks material costs, has said that uncertainties around the project could drive its cost up to as much as $25 billion. The second phase of construction proposed in the report would cover 151 miles (242 km) of border in and around the Rio Grande Valley; Laredo, Texas; Tucson, Arizona; El Paso, Texas and Big Bend, Texas. The third phase would cover an unspecified 1,080 miles (1,728 km), essentially sealing off the entire U.S.-Mexico border. The report lays out costs to cover the border with barriers, but funding constraints and legal battles are likely to place limits on those plans. It also does not account for major physical barriers, like mountains, in areas where it would not be feasible to build. A source familiar with the plans said DHS may have to go to court to seek eminent domain in order to acquire some of the private land needed to cover the final and most ambitious phase. The first phase, estimated to cost only $360 million, could be a relatively easy way for Trump to satisfy supporters eager to see him make good on his campaign promises to limit illegal migration. But the rest of the construction will be markedly more expensive, covering a much larger stretch of land, much of it privately owned or inaccessible by road. In addition to seeking eminent domain and environmental waivers, the U.S. government would also have to meet the requirements of the International Boundary and Water Commission, a U.S.-Mexico pact over shared waters. The report estimated that agreement alone could bring the cost from $11 million per mile to $15 million per mile in one area. | 0fake |
Vietnam news agency apologizes over false report on prosecutions | HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam s state-run news agency apologized on Saturday for issuing what it said was a false report that two more officials of state energy firm PetroVietnam were to be prosecuted over financial losses. The original report had also been carried on the government s official website. Vietnam News Agency said in a statement that it had apologized to Phung Dinh Thuc and Do Van Hau over the false report. It also apologized to their families and to police. The news agency said it had failed to verify its information carefully enough before publication. PetroVietnam is at the heart of a sweeping high-level corruption crackdown in the communist state. Former PetroVietnam chairman Dinh La Thang, 56, was arrested on Friday. The former member of Vietnam s politburo is the most senior executive arrested so far. Thang s brother, Dinh Manh Thang, former chairman of a PetroVietnam unit, was also arrested on allegations of violating state regulations on economic management. Government critics have voiced suspicions that the corruption crackdown is politically motivated, at least in part, and aimed against those close to former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who lost out in an internal power struggle in 2016. The corruption crackdown made global headlines in August when Germany accused Vietnam of kidnapping former executive Trinh Xuan Thanh in Berlin to face trial over a separate case. | 0fake |
Cyber attacks on Islamic State use tools others also have: U.S. defense chief | SANTA CLARA (Reuters) - Cyber attack techniques used by the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State could also be used by other countries, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said on Wednesday. Speaking in California, Carter told reporters that the U.S.-led coalition used electronic techniques to disrupt and degrade the jihadist force’s ability to organize and said an unspecified number of other countries could do the same in other conflicts. “These are not capabilities that only we have,” Carter said at a news conference at the Santa Clara headquarters of Intel Corp’s security wing. “That is why good, strong cyber defenses are essential for us.” The remarks add more detail to a campaign that has only recently been acknowledged. The conference was also attended by the U.S. Secretaries of Homeland Security and Commerce. The cabinet secretaries had gathered for a day-long presidential security advisory board meeting that was the first to be held in Silicon Valley since the group’s inception more than 35 years ago. The officials used their remarks at the event to call for greater cooperation between the government and private sector, especially to confront rising cyber security threats. Carter said he was expanding the Pentagon’s technology innovation unit by adding an office in Boston and hiring a recruiter to attract tech company leaders to temporary military jobs. The so-called Defense Innovation Unit Experimental was formed to help get ideas and products from Silicon Valley into the Defense Department quickly. National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers told the group that the government’s largest intelligence workforce had moved from almost exclusively defending Pentagon networks to protecting the civilian government five years ago and was increasingly assisting the Department of Homeland Security in efforts to help safeguard private companies. “The part that frustrates me is, why are we coming in after the fact,” as with the destructive hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a unit of Sony Corp, instead of acting earlier on information gathered about attacks in the works, Rogers said. Tensions between U.S. technology companies and the government continue to flare over President Barack Obama’s call for encryption that can be pierced at the government’s request. The three cabinet secretaries stood behind the call for flexible encryption during the press conference. The National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee did not address the subject during its public sessions at Intel on Wednesday. Tech and security company officials and prominent venture capitalists said at the meeting they hoped the government would continue to hasten the adoption of private-sector innovation in such areas as robotics and machine learning and the officials said that they would. White House cyber security policy coordinator Michael Daniel said cooperation was critical to avoid the massive economic, social and intelligence benefit of the Internet for the West becoming a liability. | 0fake |
Announcement by the Saker Community about the German Saker blog | The Vineyard of the Saker | 1212 Views November 07, 2016 5 Comments Blog, Community News and Announcements The Saker
It is with great sadness that we, the Saker Community, have decided to sever our ties with the German Saker blog. For many years the German Saker blog has been one of the most successful and dedicated blogs of our community and we want to sincerely thank Dagmar Henn for the superb job she did as the person in charge of this blog. Recently, however, the German Saker blog has taken a very different tone and has made a number of accusations and statements which have convinced us that we need to part ways. We do that with great sadness. We reserve the right to start another “community approved” German Saker blog in the future with a different domain name and we express the hope that the current administrators of the so-called “saker.de 2.0″ will agree to stop using the word “saker” in their domain and blog name. Any future use of that word by the “saker.de 2.0″ would be morally illegitimate and misleading.
Signed: French Saker blog, Italian Saker blog, Latin American Saker blog, Oceania Saker blog, Russian Saker blog, Serbian Saker blog, The Saker The Essential Saker: from the trenches of the emerging multipolar world $27.95 | 1real |
Something Strange Happened After Bombing In Iraq – Fake, Staged, Hoax | Behind the headlines - conspiracies, cover-ups, ancient mysteries and more. Real news and perspectives that you won't find in the mainstream media. Browse: Home / Something Strange Happened After Bombing In Iraq – Fake, Staged, Hoax Essential Reading Holocaust, Hate Speech & Were the Germans so Stupid? – Updated By wmw_admin on March 23, 2011
The brilliant examination of the ‘Holocaust’ by Anthony Lawson has since been censored on the basis of a false Copyright infrigment. But as Lawson explains, this just another attempt to stiffle freedom of expression The Origins of Modern Banking By wmw_admin on January 2, 2004
It was Thomas Jefferson who said, “banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies”. And as Kieron McFadden reveals, he was not being alarmist Soros/CIA Plan to Destabilize Europe By Wayne Madsen on September 28, 2015
The same forces that orchestrated the various ‘colour revolutions’ and the ‘Arab Spring’ are behind Europe’s migrant crisis. Wayne Madsen explains America Before Columbus By Rixon Stewart on September 1, 2006
Could it be that certain powers have a vested interest in keeping our real history under wraps? Because a great deal has been unearthed which is completely at odds with conventional notions regarding the origins of what we know today as America “WIPED OFF THE MAP”– The Rumor of the Century By wmw_admin on January 21, 2008
How President Ahmadinejad’s words were mistranslated and deliberately distorted. So that the term “wiped off the map” has now become synonymous with the Iranian leader’s attitude to Israel – even though he never uttered those words Does God Play Dice with the Universe? By Rixon Stewart on December 1, 2003
Research into particle physics is revealing a world full of almost magical qualities. Could it be that this mysterious, puzzling world is in fact the world of the spirit – the spiritual world that saints and mystics throughout history have sought to explo Who Are The Illuminati? By wmw_admin on April 24, 2004
Conspiracy theory is now an accepted turn of phrase but sometimes one hears the expression, sometimes whispered rather than spoken. “The Illuminati”. David Cole at Auschwitz By wmw_admin on October 7, 2006
Now directly linked, a must see video. Watch as a young Jew demolishes the standard notion of the Holocaust, highlighting its contradictions and flaws with logic and clarity. An hour long video of absolutely essential viewing Coming Clean By wmw_admin on April 29, 2004
Chemtrails are not the product of some ‘Conspiracy Theory’. They are real. We get the low down from an aircraft mechanic who has done his own investigating Who’s That Man? By Rixon Stewart on January 21, 2008
It’s Saddam Hussein of course. Or so western media and Coalition authorities would have us believe. But was the man sentenced and supposedly executed in Baghdad really Saddam Hussein? | 1real |
Senate plan delays corporate tax cut, won't repeal Obamacare mandate: senator | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans’ version of a tax cut bill will delay corporate rate cuts by one year to take effect in 2019, and will not include a repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate, Republican Senate Finance Committee member Bill Cassidy said. “It’ll be in the initial proposal,” Cassidy, referring to the tax rate delay, told reporters ahead of the plan’s release later on Thursday. | 0fake |
Feds warn NYC officials about possible al Qaeda attack | Feds warn NYC officials about possible al Qaeda attack 11/04/2016
NEW YORK POST
New York City law enforcement authorities are on high alert after receiving a warning by the feds about a possible attack by al Qaeda on the eve of Election Day, sources said.
US intelligence officials alerted joint terrorism task forces of the threat, which also included Texas and Virginia — though specific sites targeted for Monday in the three states were not mentioned, a federal source told The Post.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday he had learned of the threat several days ago during classified briefings.
“We are still very much assessing the credibility. It is not at all clear how credible this is,” de Blasio told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer on his weekly radio show. “We’re certainly in a vigilant position.”
Hizzoner said the NYPD is planning an “extraordinary” police presence for Tuesday, when Americans go to the polls.
“For the first time in memory there will be two presidential campaigns having their victory celebrations in New York City on Tuesday night,” he said, quickly correcting himself that only one candidate will be celebrating.
Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, will be at the New York Hilton Midtown on Sixth Avenue, while Hillary Clinton, his Democratic counterpart, will be at the Javits Convention Center across town on 11th Avenue.
Police also will be heavily deployed for the New York City Marathon on Sunday, de Blasio said.
Meanwhile, Gov. Andrew Cuomo declined to confirm the threat Friday but also noted the high state of alert for Election Day.
“We have more state police, more National Guard, more soldiers on duty than ever before,” he said. “So the bad news is New York is often a threat. The good news is we’ve been dealing with this now for over a decade and we have prepared for it.”
The NYPD and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said they had been alerted to the possible attacks.
“We are aware of the information. We have been working with the FBI through the Joint Terrorism Task Force and our Counterterrorism and Intelligence Bureaus,” the NYPD said in a statement.
“We continue to encourage anyone with any information that could be relevant to the safety of our city to contact law enforcement,” the department said.
The Port Authority — which operates airports, tunnels and bridges in and around the Big Apple — said it too was prepared.
“We are continuing the high level of security we have had in place at all of our facilities for many months,” spokesman Steve Coleman told The Post.
The FBI did not comment specifically about the threat against the three states, but said counterterrorism and Homeland Security authorities “remain vigilant and well-postured” to handle attacks.
“The FBI, working with our federal, state and local counterparts, shares and assesses intelligence on a daily basis and will continue to work closely with law enforcement and intelligence community partners to identify and disrupt any potential threat to public safety,” an FBI official said.
Friday’s threat followed a report by NBC News that the US government believes hackers from Russia or other countries may try to unleash cyberattacks to wreak havoc ahead of Election Day.
An effort coordinated by the White House and the Department of Homeland Security — and including the CIA, the National Security Agency and other elements of the Department of Defense — is being conducted to avert attacks, NBC News reported. | 1real |
Inspired by the U.S., West Africans Wield Smartphones to Fight Police Abuse - The New York Times | DAKAR, Senegal — The YouTube video shows a grim scene from Ivory Coast: An unarmed man lies on a street with his arms up. A police officer fires a shot that appears to strike him. The man, a theft suspect, squirms on the road as the officer kicks and hovers over him, firing his weapon several times near his head, bullets hitting the ground just inches away. The officer then aims directly at the man’s forehead and pulls the trigger, killing him. The video, recorded by an onlooker using a cellphone camera, spread widely across social media this summer, attracting comments like “What is this horror. ” “Isn’t this what’s happening in the USA right now?” writes one viewer. “We’re killing innocent people. ” Inspired by the videos that have captured police killings and defined the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, West Africans are increasingly deploying social media in nations where corruption and abuse by security forces sometimes occur with few repercussions. In America, videos of white police officers shooting unarmed black men have caused a social uprising, exposing what many people see as a deadly national bias in law enforcement. Here in West Africa, where cellphone and internet use has exploded in recent years and social media websites are hugely popular, race is rarely a factor in the videos being shared online. But wealth and power are. So, just as in the United States and other places where social media has enabled protest, citizens who feel marginalized are using the videos to seek justice when law enforcement officers abuse their authority. “There is a general sense that law officials can do pretty much whatever they want,” said Vincent Foucher, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, who has worked extensively in West Africa. “Images are a very powerful way to bring up these issues. ” In Nigeria, capturing law enforcement abuse is so popular that people send in videos and photos taken from scenes of military brutality, bribery by public officials and other misconduct to one of the nation’s biggest television stations, which shows them in a segment called “Eye Reports” during its main news program. “They are now part of the reporting of the good, the bad and the ugly of the country’s social life,” says Lanre Arogundade, the coordinator of the International Press Center in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital. Human rights workers say that the practice of sharing videos in West Africa is a natural extension of longstanding frustrations with abuse of power in the region. But even with today’s ability to capture and broadcast evidence immediately, the videos have not always produced tangible results. Often the clips are hard to verify, and few prosecutions have followed, experts say. Scenes of police officers seeking checkpoint bribes or beating civilians sometimes amount to no more than a handful of Facebook comments expressing indignation. But little by little, many of the videos shared on social media are chipping away at impunity and in some cases drawing widespread attention to problems that the authorities are finding hard to ignore. “These have led to, if not prosecutions, at least more awareness and discussion of violations, and that is really important,” said Sabrina Mahtani, West Africa researcher for Amnesty International. In areas where law and order is scant, videos are sometimes shared online by supporters of the police — as a cautionary tale of what happens to wrongdoers who are rightly, if violently, punished for doing bad things. But once they make their way across social media, they are sometimes cited as evidence of abuse by security forces, evoking outrage and injustice. In the video of the officer shooting the man in Ivory Coast, for instance, one onlooker can be heard saying, “Again, do it again!” after the officer shoots the man the first time. Others in the crowd appear to egg on the officer, and at the end of the clip, another person off camera can be heard saying, “Don’t film him, don’t film him,” adding, “You are going to get that police officer in trouble. ” But as the video made its way across the internet, it prompted an uproar in Abidjan, the nation’s economic capital, where the officer was arrested and an official investigation was opened. In a statement widely reported by the local news media, the chief of the Ivorian national police force said it “will not tolerate behavior from its officers that is contrary to the ethics of human rights. ” In July, Sheriff Shittu, who is not a law enforcement officer, was stuck on a highway in Lagos watching a scene he felt deserved the collective outrage of the internet. A soldier was beating a bus conductor, waving a gun and threatening to shoot the man. Other soldiers joined in, shouting, “We’re going to kill him. ” “That was when I took out my phone and started recording,” said Mr. Shittu, who posted the video on YouTube. “It’s a deterrent to abuse and power. This guy didn’t do anything wrong. ” Mr. Shittu said he was inspired by the success of American videos in drawing attention to violence by law enforcement officers and had seen videos of similar episodes shared online that resulted in soldiers being disciplined in Nigeria. “In the past nothing would happen,” he said. “That’s changing now. ” In Conakry, Guinea, a video that was circulated on the internet several months ago showed an armed robbery suspect with his hands and feet tied to an iron bar. Uniformed national police officers paraded him around, suspending him from the bar like an animal carcass, in an attempt to get a confession. “You’re breaking my hands!” the suspect shouts. One of the officers at the scene that day posted the video on his Facebook page, apparently for bragging rights. But it was shared across social media, prompting denunciations from Guinean human rights organizations. The Guinean government, which passed measures in 2011 aimed at cracking down on forced confessions, suspended 13 officers over the episode and opened an investigation into using torture to extract confessions. citizens certainly have not put a halt to abuses of authority. In Nigeria, the military has been accused of killing countless civilians in recent years. And in some nations, government opposition forces and protesters have been threatened, beaten, jailed or sometimes killed without consequence, even when the abuse was captured on video. But police abuse is not the only issue the videos help address. This spring in Cameroon, onlookers captured a horrific scene outside a hospital, leading to a national outcry about the state of the health care system. Monique Koumate, who was pregnant with twins, arrived at a hospital in distress and died before she entered. En route to the morgue, her relatives noticed that the fetuses, apparently still alive, were moving inside Ms. Koumate’s body. They rushed back to the hospital but were unable to summon help. Desperate to save the babies, one relative placed Ms. Koumate’s corpse on the sidewalk and sliced open her stomach, pulling out the babies and resting them on her stomach. It was too late. They were dead. The gruesome scene went viral online. A Twitter hashtag #MoniqueKoumate was created, and accusations were aired that the hospital had turned away Ms. Koumate because she could not pay for care. The public outrage prompted the hospital to investigate and led to a report by the National Order of Doctors of Cameroon citing deficiencies and calling for better maternal health care. But police abuse is still the focus of many people, with numerous Facebook and WhatsApp groups in the region dedicated to sharing videos on the topic. In Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, were already recording when Yasmine Bilkis Ibrahim pulled out her phone to film an officer screaming and waving his gun at a terrified unarmed man after an apparent traffic altercation. “I will kill you,” the officer yelled at the man. “And nothing will come of it. ” Ms. Ibrahim, 24, made an immediate link to what is happening in the United States. “If people can use such videos in America to demand justice, I believe we can also demand justice using the same method,” she said. Brima Kamara, a spokesman for the Sierra Leone police, said he belongs to a WhatsApp group, called “Talk With the Police,” made up of police officers, politicians and regular citizens. People often submit video clips to the group, alleging police misbehavior. One recent submission showed two officers fighting. The men were suspended and sent back to the police academy for more training, Mr. Kamara said. He said the videos help improve the police force in a nation still recovering from a brutal civil war that ended 14 years ago. “We often advise officers to be careful of their actions in public because at this age they can’t get away with crimes or actions,” Mr. Kamara said. “Now with the involvement of social media and the smartphones, everything goes public in just a minute. ” | 0fake |
Hillary Supporters Explained In 6 BRUTAL Photos | Hysterical With all the evidence available to American voters about Hillary, do you ever find yourself wondering, Who in the world is still supporting her? We think we ve unlocked the secret to Hillary s success.Behold..the Hillary voter explained:Ever wish you had a hunnit and Fiddy dollars? If Hillary had her way, this daddy would be voting for her from behind bars.You can t get a burger when you re out of meet! We be right there!Here s a typical campaign contribution to Hillary:This lady has some strong advice for American voters. She is clearly a Bernie supporter | 1real |
Obama on Trump victory: we are now all rooting for his success | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama pledged on Wednesday to work for a smooth transition of power with president-elect Donald Trump, the Republican winner of Tuesday’s election, who has promised to undo Obama’s top domestic and foreign policy initiatives. In brief remarks to reporters in the White House Rose Garden, Obama urged fellow Democrats to put aside their disappointment and tried to strike a positive tone after a devastating electoral defeat. “It is no secret that the president-elect and I have some pretty significant differences,” Obama said with a smile about Trump, who had long questioned whether Obama had been born in the United States and his eligibility for office. “We are now all rooting for his success in uniting and leading the country,” Obama said. Obama and his wife, Michelle, campaigned hard for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to defeat Trump, acknowledging that the president’s legacy on healthcare, climate change and financial reforms were on the line. But Obama kept his remarks on Wednesday focused on ensuring a successful transition for Trump, noting that his Republican predecessor, former President George W. Bush, had done the same for him eight years ago. “Everybody is sad when their side loses an election, but the day after we have to remember that we’re actually all on one team,” Obama said. “I want to make sure that handoff is well executed because ultimately we’re all on the same team,” Obama said. | 0fake |
Merkel's Bavarian allies insist on conservative unity before coalition talks | BERLIN (Reuters) - The Bavarian sister party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has said her conservative bloc must agree policies on immigration, pensions and healthcare before opening coalition negotiations with two other parties. Leaders of Bavaria s Christian Social Union (CSU) - stung by a drop in support of more than 10 percent in the Sept. 24 election - have redoubled their push for a 200,000 per year cap on immigration, a demand that Merkel has rejected, complicating her efforts to form a new government. Merkel s bloc of the CDU and CSU, which have worked as partners for decades, hung onto their position as the largest group in parliament after a Sept. 24 vote, despite seeing their combined support fall to its lowest since 1949. They must find coalition partners to build a government, with the most likely path toward a majority being an alliance with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens. CSU leader Horst Seehofer said the conservative allies could not begin negotiating with the other parties until they resolved their own position on major issues, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported on Monday. It quoted the Bavarian premier, who is fending off calls for his own resignation, as saying the two parties faced their biggest challenge since 1976 - when his predecessor Franz-Josef Strauss threatened for weeks to break up the alliance. Seehofer, whose biggest challenger is Bavarian finance minister Markus Soeder, a hardliner on immigration, will meet Merkel and other top officials on Sunday, with top officials in Merkel s CDU split on the need for a rightward shift. The conflict inside the conservative camp is straining Merkel s already difficult task of bringing together parties with big differences on energy, Europe, migration and taxes. Armin Laschet, premier of Germany s most populous region, North Rhine-Westphalia, told the Handelsblatt newspaper that the migrant cap sought by CSU leaders was unacceptable. But he suggested a compromise could be found that included some ballpark figures. Laschet also said the Greens would have to step back from some of their hardline environmentalist demands. The CDU s leader in the eastern state of Thuringia on Monday argued against the rightward shift demanded by the CSU and the conservative premiers of two states - Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt - where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party made big gains in Sunday s national elections. Our job is to fence ourselves off against the left and the right, Mike Mohring told Reuters. Manfred Weber, deputy leader of the CSU and head of the center-right group in the EU Parliament, told Deutschlandfunk radio it was important to avoid setting red lines before the coalition talks, given the urgent need to win back AfD voters. Weber said he expected all mainstream parties to focus on preventing the anti-immigrant AfD from gaining a permanent foothold in the German parliament. He said a three-way coalition among conservatives, Greens and the FDP, dubbed a Jamaica coalition since the parties colors match those of the Black, Green and Yellow Jamaican flag, offered a chance to build consensus on other issues such as energy and agriculture. Jamaica offers us a chance ... to embark on a new start, he said. The CSU is ready to do that. Merkel has sought to keep the door open for a renewal of her grand coalition with the Social Democrats that has ruled for the past four years, but the SPD is determined to stay in opposition after suffering its worst result since 1933. We got 20.5 percent of the vote. That is not a mandate to govern, SPD Secretary General Hubertus Heil told broadcaster ARD on Monday. He accused the other parties of stalling coalition talks until after a state election due on Oct. 15 in Lower Saxony. They want to govern, now they should govern, he said. A new poll by the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper showed the CDU and SPD nearly tied in Lower Saxony, with 33.1 percent and 32.8 percent, respectively. | 0fake |
There’s an infection hospitals can nearly always prevent. Why don’t they? | There’s an infection hospitals can nearly always prevent. Why don’t they?
By one estimate, 210,000 deaths every year are associated with preventable harm caused by hospitals. Our multimedia feature "Do no harm" explores how different attitudes toward patient harm can make a difference between life and death for a patient. Vox reporter Sarah Kliff invited me along to document the reporting, which resulted in the following video. | 0fake |
Tiger Woods Withdraws from Two Tournaments: ‘Don’t Think I’ll Ever Feel Great Again’ - Breitbart | “I feel good, not great,” Tiger Woods told chief executive of the RA, Peter Dawson. “I don’t think I’ll ever feel great again because it’s been three back surgeries and four knee operations. ”[That somewhat pessimistic characterization of his own health condition puts a dark shadow over Tiger Woods’ prospects of ever surpassing Jack Nicklaus’ 18 major championships. Woods owns 14 majors and is second to The Golden Bear on the major winners’ list. Moreover, with the field of impressive and fit young talent on the PGA tour, the question becomes whether a “good” Tiger can ever walk off the 18th hole on a Sunday afternoon resting alone at the top of the leaderboard. A back spasm last week at the Dubai Desert Classic forced Woods to pull himself from the tournament after stumbling to a 77 in the first round. The who once dominated the sport and ranked #1 in the world for over a decade, now must lower the expectations bar as he faces the reality of a failing body. “I’m always going to be a little bit sore. As long as I can function, I’m fine with that,” Tiger spoke. “It was a tough, tough road,” the beleaguered golf icon told CNN when referring to his protracted layoff to recover from his last two back surgeries. “There was a lot of dark times where I couldn’t get out of bed, couldn’t move, the pain was too great. “Anyone who’s ever had nerve pain in their back, they certainly understand what that feels like. I honestly didn’t know this time last year, I didn’t know if I’d ever play golf again. Just because of the fact that it’s nerve pain. ” Woods started his comeback in December playing at his own tournament, the Hero World Challenge, where he showed some glimpses of his old self. He fired a 65 on his Friday round and led the field with most birdies over the tournament, despite finishing 15th in a field of 18. Woods teed it up for his first tournament since his layoff, the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, two weeks ago. That ended poorly for the winner of 79 PGA tournaments, as he failed to make the cut to play on the weekend. The positive takeaway, however, was he felt strong and swung well. Unfortunately, the flat stick failed him during his Thursday and Friday rounds, where he misread greens and lipped out several putts. Woods previously won at Torrey Pines 8 times, including the US Open in 2008. Friday Woods announced on his own website “that due to ongoing back spasms, similar to what he experienced in Dubai, he will be unable to compete in the Genesis Open and The Honda Classic. ” “My doctors have advised me not to play the next two weeks, to continue my treatment and to let my back calm down,” Woods explains. “This is not what I was hoping for or expecting. I am extremely disappointed to miss the Genesis Open, a tournament that benefits my foundation, and The Honda Classic, my hometown event. I would like to thank Genesis for their support, and I know we will have an outstanding week. ” Tiger was scheduled to play both of those tournaments as key stepping stones to sharpening his game for his return to the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club in April. Woods’ chance to add another major victory to his distinguished career appears to be fading away once again. | 0fake |
Highlights of Reuters interview with Trump | (Reuters) - Here are some of the highlights of the Reuters interview with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday. ON HIS DECEMBER TWEET SAYING THE UNITED STATES SHOULD EXPAND ITS NUCLEAR CAPABILITY “We’ve fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity. And I am the first one that would like to see ... nobody have nukes, but we’re never going to fall behind any country even if it’s a friendly country, we’re never going to fall behind on nuclear power. And I did tweet that. It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack.” “It’s a one-sided deal like all other deals we make. It’s a one-sided deal. It gave them things that we should have never allowed. ... Just another bad deal that the country made, whether it’s START, whether it’s the Iran deal, which is one of the bad deals ever made. Our country only made bad deals, we don’t make good deals. So we’re going to start making good deals.” ON RUSSIA’S DEPLOYMENT OF A CRUISE MISSILE IN VIOLATION OF ARMS CONTROL TREATY “To me, it’s a big deal ... If I meet (Putin), if and when we meet, I would bring it up. It’s a big deal. Because it’s a violation of an agreement that we have.” “I know exactly what’s going on between China and North Korea and everybody else. But I don’t like talking about military strategy in newspapers ... I’m not liking it. This didn’t take place under the Trump administration, this took place under the Obama administration. Many things took place that should not have been allowed. One of them is the building of a massive, you know, massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea. And don’t forget I’ve only been here for four weeks. This is something that took place and has been started three years ago and you were in a much better negotiating position three years ago. I am not happy about it.” “I think they’re grand champions at manipulation of currency. So I haven’t held back. We’ll see what happens.” “Well, we appreciate that. You know, I have a very, very good, I’ve had very good phone calls with the president, President Xi, and I’ve had very, very good talks with him, and the call is a start. But we have a very big problem and a very dangerous problem for the world with North Korea. ... I think China has tremendous control over North Korea. Whether they say so or not is up to them, but they have tremendous control over North Korea. I think they could solve the problem very easily if they want to.” “It’s very dangerous and something should have been done about it years ago. It’s very dangerous and very unacceptable. ... And very unfair to Japan.” ON TALK OF ACCELERATING MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM FOR JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA “There’s talks of a lot more than that. We’ll see what happens. But it’s a very dangerous situation, and China can end it very quickly in my opinion. ... It’s one of many things that can be done. Missile defense is one of many things that can be done.” ON WHETHER MEETING WITH KOREAN LEADER KIM JONG UN IS A POSSIBILITY “I guess ... I would never say no. It may be very late. It’s very late in the picture right now. ... We’re very angry at what he’s done, and frankly this should have been taken care of during the Obama administration.” ON THE BORDER ADJUSTMENT TAX PROMOTED BY REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS “It could lead to a lot more jobs in the United States. ... I certainly support a form of tax on the border because everybody else does. We’re the only country, we’re one of the very few countries, possibly the only country, that has no border tax. And that’s not a tax to the consumer, because that’s going to be a tax to companies and it’s going to be a tax to other countries much more so than it is to the consumer. That’s a tax to other countries. And what will happen is, don’t forget there is no tax if we make our product in the United States. So I don’t consider it a tax. That’s a tax if companies are buying their product outside of the United States. But ... if they make their product in the United States, there is no tax. So what is going to happen is companies are going to come back here, they’re going to build their factories and they’re going to create a lot of jobs and there’s no tax.” “We’re going to have a corporate tax cut ... anywhere from 15 to 20 percent (as a target for the corporate tax rate). ... We’re going to have other things that are very good and we’re going to have a tremendous regulatory cut because the regulations are piled up on top of each other and you’ll have many regulations for the same thing within different industries and it’s out of control. The regulations in this country are out of control. And it makes it hard for businesses to even open in the United States. We’re going to get rid of a lot of the unnecessary regulations.” “We’re going to submit legislation. We’re going to be working with Congress to do legislation, yes. .... We’re mandated to do the healthcare first. We have to. And that’s for budgetary reasons. So the healthcare will come first. It’s moving along really well. I would say before the middle of March. ... We have a very, very good healthcare plan which will give great healthcare to great numbers of people. We have to also remember, Obamacare is a disaster. It doesn’t work. It just doesn’t work. So we have a plan that will be a far better plan which will cost people less money, which will cost our country less money also ‘cause Obamacare is very expensive for the country. And we will be submitting sometime during the month of March. ... It’d be repeal and replace. ... The tax reform comes immediately thereafter.” “The economy, we have close to 100 million people that are not working. We’re going to get the economy revving again through meetings like I had today with the biggest companies in the world and the biggest manufacturers in the world, through tax reform, and through regulatory reform, and it will take a little period of time, but yeah, we’re going to have, I mean, we had massive deficits under Obama, under President Obama, massive deficits, and until it gets kicked in, there’ll be some deficits but something which we can very easily handle.” “We have a $70 billion trade deficit with Mexico, which is unacceptable. Unacceptable. On top of the $70 billion, many of our jobs and companies have fled to Mexico, and that, and they sell their product back in the United States. It’s just not acceptable. So, hopefully, we’ll be able to work something out with Mexico, we’ll see. Maybe we will, maybe we won’t. ... We have the right to do a lot of things that I haven’t done yet. We have a lot of rights that people don’t know about and they never did know about until I came along.” ON THE TWO-STATE SOLUTION IN ISRAEL “I like the concept of the two-state solution. People have been talking about it for so many years now, it so far hasn’t worked. But I am satisfied with whatever makes both parties happy.” “I do, sure. I have very good relations with the EU. But I thought that the UK would pull out of Brexit and I was right. ... But the EU, I’m totally in favor of it. I think it’s wonderful, if they’re happy. If they’re happy – I’m in favor of it.” “Remember the first time I talked about NATO, I said they all owe money? The first time anyone ever asked me a question about NATO ... I said two things: It’s obsolete because it doesn’t cover terrorism. They have now opened up a division to cover terrorism, solely because of me. And experts on NATO that do nothing but study it said, ‘You know, Trump is right.’ And I knew nothing about NATO, I mean, I knew very little about NATO. ... But you watch what’s going to happen. They’re paying. They’re paying big league. ... They owe a lot of money. Many countries owe a lot money. Number one, 2 percent is a low number, and number two, only five countries are paid up.” | 0fake |
On trip abroad, Trump stays on script, but will it last? | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - He still has a chance for missteps, but so far on his maiden international trip, Donald Trump has managed to avoid major stumbles and has stuck to the script in a way his advisers have wanted him to do for months. The U.S. president’s rare display of discipline is in part a result of a desperate need for some smooth sailing. He began the trip in scandal mode, accused of impeding justice by firing former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey for not stopping a federal probe into his campaign’s Russia ties. Whether it will hold is unclear. He is in a portion of his nine-day trip, in Brussels for a NATO summit and later in Sicily for a Group of Seven conclave, where he will meet with European leaders who are at sharp odds with him on many issues. Trump’s change comes after increasingly loud alarm bells sounded from Republican congressional leaders, who say he must tamp down the tirades and tantrums that have contributed to a dismal public approval rating of about 38 percent. Just in the past month alone, Trump used Twitter to issue a veiled threat to Comey, warning that he “better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” And when he fired Comey, White House aides said the move was based on a Justice Department recommendation that said Comey had mishandled the investigation into Democrat Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information last year. Trump blew up that reason the next day, saying he had already decided to fire Comey when the Justice recommendation came in because the FBI man was a “showboat.” Trump’s advisers planned the overseas journey trip in such a way as to keep the president busy with back-to-back meetings and appearances. This has given him little time for tweet storms and cable news watching. It sometimes has left him fatigued, as manifested when he canceled an evening forum with young people in Riyadh. As they normally do when he travels, staff members have managed to provide him with some creature comforts, like keeping bags of potato chips at easy reach. The president has limited his interactions with reporters, taking few questions. As a result, the Russia issue came up only once – during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Initial plans for an end-of-the-trip news conference in Sicily have been set aside, meaning there are fewer chances for him to veer off script, but less opportunity to promote his achievements. When Trump has talked to the news media, his responses to questions have been fairly brief and non-substantive. Asked about his meeting with Pope Francis on Wednesday at the Vatican, Trump kept it simple despite the differences between him and Francis on issues like climate change. “Great...We had a fantastic meeting...We are liking Italy very much, and it was an honor to meet with the pope,” Trump said. He has also reined in some of his hyperbole. After boasting earlier this year that finding a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians should not be all that hard, Trump acknowledged that maybe it would be hard after all. “I’ve heard it’s one of the toughest deals of all,” he said. “But I have a feeling we’re going to get there eventually. I hope.” Aides said most every word spoken was written carefully with some thought of the message that would be sent. Most speeches were performed with a Teleprompter to keep Trump from drifting off into his own ad libs. “He understands that even the slightest phrasing can have big implications,” said a senior White House official. “He’s worked really hard on being directly involved in the preparation.” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters that behind the scenes, Trump has been calibrating his style to fit the leader who he is meeting and the urgency of the issue he is discussing. “He tends to dial the urgency up and therefore the style dials up,” Tillerson, noting that when talking to Israeli and Palestinian leaders, “He was very energized because he does feel there’s a certain sense of urgency for these parties to finally get on with it.” Trump has been on script before only to lapse. Privately, aides realize this could happen again. “He is who he is,” one aide said. “He’s definitely someone who speaks his mind.” Trump has found himself on this trip increasingly reliant on a core group of his inner circle: Son-in-law Jared Kushner, a top White House adviser; daughter Ivanka, who is Kushner’s wife; Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; economic adviser Gary Cohn; national security adviser H.R. McMaster and deputy national security adviser for strategy, Dina Powell. The more disciplined Trump was a victory for Kushner, who organized the trip around some specific objectives, such as a $110 billion arms deal for Saudi Arabia and Trump’s visit to holy sites in Israel, including his visit to the Western Wall, a first for a U.S. president. “We’re very focused on the substance of the actions and then ultimately on delivering results,” said a senior administration official. | 0fake |
China tells Japan not to abandon dialogue over North Korea | BEIJING (Reuters) - Japan talking only about sanctions on North Korea rather than dialogue will be seen as going against United Nations resolutions, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Japanese counterpart. Tensions have continued to rise since North Korea carried out its sixth nuclear test on Sept. 3, prompting a new round of U.N. sanctions. Wang told Japan Foreign Minister Taro Kono on the sidelines of a United Nations meeting in New York that the situation on the Korean peninsula was getting increasingly serious and all sides needed to remain calm. Resuming peace talks was just as much a part of the U.N. resolutions as enforcing sanctions, Wang said, according to a statement issued by China s Foreign Ministry late on Friday. If the Japanese side only talks about sanctions and does not bring up talks, or even goes against talks, it will be seen as contravening Security Council resolutions, the ministry cited Wang as saying. China hoped that Japan talked and acted cautiously and played a constructive role on the nuclear issue, he said. Beijing has repeatedly expressed concern about the rise of tensions over North Korea and, while it too has signed up for the increasingly tough U.N. sanctions, it has also urged a return to talks and for all parties to exercise restraint. On Friday, Russia urged hot heads to calm down as the United States admitted it felt challenged by North Korea s warning that it could test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific. Trump called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a madman on Friday, a day after Kim dubbed him a mentally deranged U.S. dotard who would face the highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history in retaliation for Trump saying the U.S. would totally destroy North Korea if it threatened the United States or its allies. | 0fake |
U.S. officials will not label treatment of Rohingya as 'ethnic cleansing' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. government officials declined on Tuesday to characterize the treatment of Myanmar s Rohingya Muslims as ethnic cleansing, but listed new measures including targeted sanctions Washington is considering to address the crisis. I m not in a position ... to characterize it today, but to me this very closely resembles some of the worst kind of atrocities that I ve seen during a long career, Mark Storella Deputy Assistant Secretary of State from the Bureau Of Population, Refugees and Migration said at a Senate hearing, when pressed to say whether he viewed the situation as ethnic cleansing. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar s Rakhine state since security forces responded to Rohingya militants attacks on Aug. 25 by launching a crackdown the United Nations has denounced as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar, also known as Burma, rejects that accusation, insisting action was needed to combat terrorists who killed civilians. But it has left the world community counting the cost as international organizations and the government of Bangladesh, which has taken in the vast majority of the refugees, race to provide food, water and medical care. Many U.S. lawmakers have clamored for a strong U.S. response to the crisis and criticized government leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate once hugely popular in Washington, for failing to do more. She s an impressive person, but she s not taking on the challenge, said Senator Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Cardin said he considered the treatment of the Rohingya genocide. The State Department said on Monday that Washington is taking steps and considering a range of further actions over Myanmar s treatment of the Rohingya, including targeted sanctions under its Global Magnitsky law. [L2N1MZ01T] At the foreign relations committee hearing, Patrick Murphy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian And Pacific Affairs, said broader sanctions were also being considered, but cautioned that doing so could lessen the U.S. government s ability to influence the Myanmar government to change. | 0fake |
JUST IN: White House Responds To Russian Election Hack; Trump Will Be PISSED (VIDEO) | After the CIA came forward that they have intelligence showing Russia s direct involvement in the election to help Donald Trump win, many people are asking for further information, especially before the Electoral College votes on December 19.Now, the White House is using language that they most certainly believe Donald Trump s victory was definitely the reason Russia got involved in the election.White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said: You didn t need a security clearance to figure out who benefited from malicious Russian cyberactivity. The President-elect didn t call it into question, he called on Russia to hack his opponent. He called on Russia to hack Secretary Clinton. So he certainly had a pretty good sense of whose side this cyberactivity was coming down on. The last several week so the election were focused on a discussion of emails that had been hacked and leaked by the Russians. These were emails from the (Democratic National Committee) and John Podesta, not from the (Republican National Committee) and Stephen Bannon. It was the President-elect who over the course of the campaign indicated that he thought that President Putin was a strong leader. The President-elect s team, his campaign, did not make any effort to obscure this. The President-elect has said one thing on Twitter. The 17 intelligence agencies have come forward with unanimous assessment about Russia s malicious cyberactivity. I ll let you and the American people judge who s in a better position to defend their argument. Earnest then suggested that Congress needs to move forward and investigate Russian ties to the election. We simply cannot allow a foreign power to decide President of the United States. That is absolutely terrifying.Watch White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest issue the White House s response here:The White House on Russian hacking: Trump had a pretty good sense of whose side this activity was coming down on https://t.co/uxa8ksiRGs CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) December 12, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
Want to See ‘Hamilton’ in a City Near You? Buy a Subscription and Wait Two Years - The New York Times | “Hamilton” is about to hit the road. And, more than a year before it arrives in many cities, theaters around the country are trying to convert the hunger for tickets into subscriptions and memberships. In many cities, theaters are encouraging potential patrons to subscribe to their seasons, even though “Hamilton” won’t arrive until the following season, with the promise that those who subscribe now — and then renew — will be guaranteed “Hamilton” tickets and can lock in their chosen subscription seats. The strategy is because the theaters acknowledge that some tickets will ultimately be available for sale to nonsubscribers. Given the widespread publicity over the scarcity of tickets to the Broadway production of “Hamilton,” though, many theatergoers appear unwilling to risk facing a show in their hometowns. “In my 38 years of being involved with selling tickets for various activities, I don’t believe there has ever been this kind of ‘but how do I get ’ conversation,” said Deborah F. Rutter, the president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. “Hamilton” is scheduled to be at the Kennedy Center for 14 weeks in the summer of 2018 on Wednesday, the center started selling tickets for its season, with the promise that anyone who subscribes that season, and renews next, will be guaranteed tickets. The effort to goad people into subscribing for two years to get tickets to the show prompted criticism in The Washington Post from a blogger, who called it a “quite high entrance fee,” and from a letter writer, who criticized what she called “extortionist prices. ” Ms. Rutter said there would be tickets available for purchase to nonsubscribers, but that it only made sense to reach out to try to bolster subscriptions first. “People have accused us of gouging, but it’s not gouging — if you want to be first in line, the best way to do that is to be a subscriber,” Ms. Rutter said. The strategy is already proving a significant boon to theaters where “Hamilton” will be staged — some are nonprofits, and some are commercial enterprises, but all depend on subscriptions or memberships as important elements of their budgets. Many arts groups have hard times sustaining subscription bases as consumers gravitate toward more à la carte and planning for their cultural activities. “We live and breathe by the subscription model,” said Lauren Reid, chief executive of the theater unit at Key Brand Entertainment, which brings shows to 40 stages in North America through its Broadway Across America subsidiary. Ms. Reid said she had never seen as high a level of consumer awareness about a new show as for “Hamilton” consequently, she added, every theater expecting “Hamilton” is “teasing” it early to promote subscriptions. “The bottom line is ‘Hamilton’ is really good for our industry,” she said. “It’s an event, and it’s a cultural moment, and it’s unusual that we have an opportunity like this to highlight something special. ” The tactic is working. In Chicago, the first city outside New York where “Hamilton” will be seen (starting on Sept. 27) Broadway in Chicago has sold out its fall subscription package for the first time, according to Lou Raizin, the organization’s president. The company has not yet started selling tickets to nonsubscribers — and there will be many such tickets available, because the show plans to stay in Chicago as long as sales are healthy. But, Mr. Raizin said: “We believe there will be very strong demand. You’d have to be hiding under a rock not to have that opinion. ” In San Francisco, where “Hamilton” is expected to run at the SHN Orpheum Theater for 21 weeks, starting next March, SHN, which operates two locations in the city, expects to have 40, 000 members enroll for its season, up from the usual 20, 000 to 23, 000. “‘Hamilton’ has been an incredible driver for membership sales,” said Greg Holland, SHN’s chief executive. Also noteworthy, Mr. Holland said, was that 80 percent of the new membership buyers were visitors to the company’s website. In Iowa, Des Moines Performing Arts has said that “Hamilton” will come for an unspecified length of time at unspecified dates during the season, but that has been enough to cause a spike in subscriptions to the coming season. “We’ve more than doubled the number of new season tickets purchased compared to a year ago, and our renewal rate is shooting up to the levels we always aspire to,” said Jeff Chelesvig, the center’s president and chief executive. “Our goal is 11, 000 subscribers, and I have no doubt we’ll plow through that. ” The lead producer of “Hamilton,” Jeffrey Seller, said he was aware that theaters were using the promise of a future production of the show to market subscriptions. “I’m O. K. with it — it’s good for the theater in general,” he said. “The only thing I don’t want anyone to say is that if you don’t buy a subscription, you won’t be able to get a ticket, because there will be single tickets. They won’t sell out through subscriptions. ” The Broadway production of “Hamilton,” which has been essentially sold out since it opened last August, is expected to continue to run for years. The show is planning to visit other cities through two additional productions: the one that will open in Chicago this fall and stay there indefinitely, and the one that will begin in San Francisco next March and then tour. Thus far, tour stops, often without specific dates or duration, have been announced for Atlanta Boston Costa Mesa, Calif. Des Moines Houston Las Vegas Los Angeles Portland, Ore. Seattle Tempe, Ariz. and Washington. “Hamilton” is also planning a fourth production, in London, but that has not yet been officially announced. | 0fake |
Report Exposes Inner Workings of Facebook and How Clinton Loyalists Control Your Newsfeed | posted by Eddie Censorship by Facebook has become a thorn in the side of nearly anyone with an opinion differing from the narrative touted by the corporate press — for instance, sentiments not praising Hillary Clinton — and now, through both a new report from Reuters and emails published by Wikileaks, we have insight into why certain posts are targeted. Facebook relies on a combination of artificial intelligence and human judgment to remove posts deemed offensive, violent, or otherwise unacceptable to its community standards — but precisely how the ultimate call to take down posts, pages, and groups are made remains unknown. And Facebook takedowns, no matter the improvements to the process the social media behemoth claims to make, have been no less controversial or questionable — and those whose posts are censored have little if any recourse to argue their case. Recent examples of head-scratchers which led to an international uproar, include Facebook’s removal of the iconic Vietnam War photograph of Phan Thị Kim Phúc — who, at just 9-years-old, was captured on film by an Associated Press photographer fleeing the aftermath of an errant napalm attack near a Buddhist pagoda in the village of Trang Bang. That photograph helped cement in the collective American mind the horrors of the war, and ultimately fueled the success of the anti-war effort — but Facebook arbitrarily pulled the image for nudity — and proceeded even to ban the page of the Conservative prime minister of Norway for also posting the image. Ultimately, the social media company reversed course in that case — but not before also taking down the equally iconic image of civil rights leader Rosa Park’s arrest. But taking down of the image of Kim Phúc might not have been simply an error of AI, since it had been used as a specific example in training the teams responsible for content removal, two unnamed former Facebook employees told Reuters . “Trainers told content-monitoring staffers that the photo violated Facebook policy, despite its historical significance, because it depicted a naked child, in distress, photographed without her consent, the employees told Reuters.” In the final decision to reverse that censorship, Facebook head of the community operations division, Justin Osofsky, admitted it had been a “mistake.” According to Reuters , to whom many current and former Facebook employees spoke on condition of anonymity, the process of judging which posts deserve to be remove and which should be allowed will, in certain instances, be left to the discretion of a small cadre of the company’s elite executives. In addition to Osofsky, Global Policy Chief Monika Bickert; government relations chief, Joel Kaplan; vice president for public policy and communications, Elliot Schrage; and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg make the final call on censorship and appeals. “All five studied at Harvard, and four of them have both undergraduate and graduate degrees from the elite institution. All but Sandberg hold law degrees. Three of the executives have longstanding personal ties to Sandberg,” the outlet notes. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg also occasionally offers guidance in difficult decisions. But there are others. Company spokeswoman Christine Chen explained, “Facebook has a broad, diverse and global network involved in content policy and enforcement, with different managers and senior executives being pulled in depending on the region and the issue at hand.” For those on the receiving end of what could only be described as lopsided and inexplicable censorship, recourse is generally limited and can be nearly impossible to come by. Often, the nature of posts and pages removed insinuates political motivations on the part of the censors. Indeed, and once again flaring international controversy, Facebook disabled , among others, the accounts of editors of Quds and Shehab New Agency — prominent Palestinian media organizations — without explanation or even a specific example given for justification. Although three of four Palestinian-focused accounts were restored, Facebook refused to comment to either Reuters or the accounts’ owners why the decision was reversed, except to say it had been an ‘error.’ In fact, although Chen and other Facebook insiders spoke with Reuters directly about contentious content removal policies and procedures, many details of the processes remain covert and sorely intransparent to the public who is so often forced to cope with the consequences. Earlier this year, an exposé by Gizmodo showing Facebook’s suppression of conservative outlets via its “Trending Topics” section appeared to evidence extreme bias in favor of liberal and corporate media mainstays. Alternative media, too, which provides reports counter to the mainstream political and foreign policy paradigm, has often been the subject of controversial take-downs, censorship, and suppressive tactics — either directly by Facebook, or through convoluted algorithms and artificial intelligence bots. However, considering Sheryl Sandberg and her loyalists populate the top-level group deciding the fate for content removal complaints, it would appear Wikileaks could provide answers for both post censorship and suppression of outlets not vowing complete fealty to the preferred, left-leaning narrative. In a June 4, 2015, email to Clinton campaign chair John Podesta — an enormous cache of whose emails are still being published on a daily basis by Wikileaks — penned by Sandberg in response to condolences on the death of her husband, states , in part, “And I still want HRC to win badly. I am still here to help as I can. She came over and was magical with my kids.” After a wave of post removals and temporary page bans, it appears Facebook has begun to come to its senses for what actually violates community standards — and what might have political worth contrary to the views of its executives. Senior members of Facebook’s policy team recently posted about the laxing of rules governing community standards, which — though welcome — might only provide temporary relief. Quoted by the Wall Street Journal , they wrote : “In the weeks ahead, we’re going to begin allowing more items that people find newsworthy, significant, or important to the public interest—even if they might otherwise violate our standards.” While the social media giant deems itself a technology, and not news, platform, Facebook is still the bouncing off point for issues of interest for an overwhelming percentage of its users. Although it perhaps has some responsibility in regard to the removal of certain content, putting censorship in the hands of only a few individuals in certain instances is a chilling reminder of the fragility — and grave importance — of free speech. source: | 1real |
Meet Judith Clark, the Domestic Terrorist Granted Clemency by Gov. Andrew Cuomo - Breitbart | “Were you on drugs?” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo asked convicted murderer Judith Clark before commuting part of her sentence. “No,” she explained. “I was on politics. ”[Clark’s addiction long predated her participation in the October 20, 1981 robbery of an armored car that left a guard and two cops dead. “There’s no question I was a red diaper baby,” she wrote in an autobiographical sketch. “I was still in diapers when my mother, Ruth, journeyed across two oceans with my brother and me to the Soviet Union to join my father in a sojourn. My father, Joe, was a CP organizer from the age fourteen. In 1949, when I was born, he was a Party leader and writer for the Daily Worker. My mother, like many Party women, was a mass organizer, working with settlement houses on the Lower East Side and on the congressional election campaigns of progressive politicians such as Vito Marcantonio. ” Like Brink’s robbery Kathy Boudin, Greenwich Village townhouse casualty Ted Gold, and Weatherman comrade Eleanor Raskin, Judy Clark grew up Old Left only to find political expression in the New Left. “Some of them were trying to repudiate their past,” former Weatherman Mark Rudd tells Breitbart News of the babies. “Some of them were trying to better their parents. ” As Clark herself explained during a 2003 appeal, “My choice of social activism and even the vehemence of my beliefs were, in some ways, consistent with my parents’ values and history. But my insistence on the need for violence represented a real break from their values. This was part of its attraction for me. While I was driven to take up their abandoned mission of transforming society, I also felt I had to atone for their failure to sustain their commitment. ” Whereas her parents displayed contempt for America by migrating to Stalin’s Russia, Judy Clark did so by taking the fight to the streets of America. Chicago cops arrested Clark at the Days of Rage, the 1969 orgy of violence that resulted in one of Mayor Richard J. Daley’s confidantes becoming a quadriparetic. Late that year at the Wargasm in Flint, where the Weathermen iconized Charles Manson, Clark created, along with future Brinks Kathy Boudin and Diana Oughton, a massive poster spelling out murdered actress Sharon Tate’s name in bullets. When the FBI caught up to Clark outside of a Manhattan movie house in late 1970, the federal fugitive ate pieces of paper while fleeing before kicking, swearing, and spitting on the arresting agents. A decade later, she greeted law enforcement similarly. Becoming the only Weatherman fugitive apprehended by authorities during the group’s heyday proved disastrous for Clark — and law enforcement. “The people aboveground tended to be pretty hardcore,” Rudd, who evaded arrest until turning himself in to the authorities in 1977, notes. Whereas members of the Weather Underground focused on staying underground, Clark and others aboveground fixated on revolution. “People found each other,” Rudd tells Breitbart News. “Somehow or another Judy must have found people aboveground, many of whom I’ve never met, who thought like she did. ” Clark ventured forth, with several Weathermen including Boudin and Dave Gilbert, in something called the May 19 Communist Movement. The group embarked on a series of bombings, helped break Assata Shakur free from a New Jersey prison, and pursued “expropriations” that resulted in numerous casualties, including, ultimately, its own members, who wasted away in prison. Clark’s group of white revolutionaries joined forces with the Puerto Rican FALN and the Black Liberation Army. On October 20, 1981, an amalgam of the BLA and May 19 calling itself The Family, robbed a Brink’s truck outside of a mall in Nanuet, New York. Earlier that year, the group robbed a Brink’s truck in the Bronx of more than a quarter of a million dollars. Tyrone Rison, who swore to Clark’s participation in the Bronx job, confessed to killing a guard in that operation. Despite understanding the risks to innocent life, Clark participated in the robbery in Nanuet that resulted in the murder of a Brink’s guard and two Nyack, New York, cops. “Shamefully,” Clark later noted of the action, “I contemplated the irony that in the name of Black Liberation, a respected black police officer, Waverly Brown, had been murdered. ” “She was armed,” Kenneth Maxwell, the FBI’s case agent on the Nanuet Brink’s robbery, points out. “The way the Family operated, every single one of them was armed going out to the scene. She was much more than a getaway driver and a lookout. She was not, as certain media and government voices purport her to be, a peripheral player. She was a leader of the May 19 Communist movement that benefitted from these robberies. ” In addition to driving the muscle to the robbery, Clark carried a gun. Maxwell notes that upon arrest, cops discovered shattered glass on her person that came from the UHaul hiding the gunmen and from a police cruiser. Rather than a momentary lapse of reason, Clark’s behavior that day fit a pattern. On June 2 of that year, a gunman alleges she played a similar role in an assault on a Brink’s truck in the Bronx that left one guard dead and another wounded, netting $250, 000 for the group’s revolutionary delusions and cocaine addictions. Two years earlier, the May 19 Communist Movement helped break Assata Shakur from prison. The indictments in that case named Clark as an uncharged . Because it looked certain that the remainder of Clark’s days would transpire behind bars, the authorities did not bother to charge her in the deadly Bronx robbery or the prison break. Her behavior in custody in 1981 mirrored her behavior after the 1970 arrest, when she spat, kicked and swore at FBI agents. “I had heard that story,” former special agent Maxwell tells Breitbart News of the resistance that earned a place in FBI lore. “It predated my entry into the FBI. It certainly was validated by her demeanor that she exhibited after she was captured fleeing the scene in Nyack in 1981. When they took her into custody — extremely uncooperative. ” No mellowing took place in Clark in the 11 or so years that transpired. “When the court ordered a lineup, here’s what she did,” Maxwell explains. “She repeatedly resisted any attempts to go into the lineup to the point where she kicked, scratched, bit, and spit in the faces of folks, hissing and screaming in a demonic way. Jim Stewart, lieutenant detective in the Rockland County district attorney’s office, said she reminded him of the character in the movie The Exorcist. That’s how Judy Clark acted. ” Her unruly conduct resulted in law enforcement placing her in a straitjacket. Her strange behavior continued in the courtroom. “I am an freedom fighter,” Clark announced at her 1983 murder trial. “I don’t recognize the legitimacy of this Court. ” The court reciprocated by not recognizing the legitimacy of the counsel’s arguments. At her 1983 trial, Clark demanded status, the right to wear armbands in solidarity with the New African Freedom Fighters, and a change of venue to another nation. She compared herself to George Washington and asked potential jurors, “Do your children play cowboys and Indians?” and “Are you a member of the Ku Klux Klan?” She refused to remain in the court upon the reading of her sentence. “The D. A. calls what happened on October 20, 1981, a robbery and murder,” Clark explained to a befuddled courtroom. “We say it was an attempted expropriation because revolutionary forces must take from the powers that be to build their capabilities to struggle against this system. ” Something got lost in translation from sixties rhetoric to eighties reality. The Hiroo Onoda of the ’t received a sentence of . She received an additional sentence of two years in solitary confinement in 1985 after evidence implicated her in an escape plot. Until Governor Cuomo cut that mandatory minimum by more than half in late December, she looked forward to a parole date past her 100th birthday. Now she could gain release this year. Like so many of her comrades from the 1960s, Judith Clark traveled on a long, strange trip. That journey, from Stalin’s Russia to the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, ended perhaps more predictably than the trips of others. | 0fake |
Tom Cotton Voted No on Omnibus: Bill Increases Unskilled Worker Visas 120% - Breitbart | Sen. Tom Cotton ( ) took to the Senate floor on Thursday ahead of the vote on the spending bill to fund the federal government through September, citing as the main reason he voted against it the flood of unskilled workers that could be admitted to the United States under the legislation. [“I want to hone in on one particular provision that shows just how bad this process is,” Cotton said, noting the bill is almost 1, 700 pages in length. “They don’t hide the good things in the bill, they only hide the bad things,” Cotton said. “So look to page 735, section you will find an increase in visas of almost 79, 000. “A 120 percent increase over the normal annual cap of a seasonal visa program for temporary workers that can take up to nine or ten months,” Cotton said. “It’s not necessary. It has nothing to do with funding the government, nothing. ” Cotton criticized the process and noted it is unclear how the visa section got into a spending bill. “But this is what it does: it takes jobs away from American workers and abuses the immigrants that come into this country,” Cotton said, noting that according to the Department of Labor thousands of guest workers have been abused by American employers, including sexual abuse. “It is a form of indentured servitude,” Cotton said. Breitbart News reported ahead of the spending bill vote that the it allows the Department of Homeland Security to import at least 20, 000 extra foreign workers for seasonal jobs in the United States, instead of requiring companies to recruit, train, and pay marginalized Americans. The program currently allows companies that do seasonal work to import up to 66, 000 foreign workers each year instead of recruiting and hiring Americans. The program is supported by Democrats and Republicans eager to aid local business groups, which are competing against each other for American workers, and which face competition from the companies that employ roughly eight million illegal immigrants. The program means companies don’t have to pay a premium to hire Americans for seasonal overtime work that leaves them unemployed in winter, and it also reduces pressure on the companies to recruit and train youths and marginalized Americans, including millions of Americans who have fallen out of the workforce. The imported workers are also paid at rates that are lower than needed to attract Americans to those jobs — which also means that the companies can pay lower wages to their American workers. Cotton said the spending bill reinforces the false narrative about American workers and what jobs they are willing to take. “A lot of the arguments for this kind of program boil down to this: No American worker will do that job,” Cotton said. “That is a lie. It is a lie. ” “There is no job that Americans will not do,” Cotton said. “There is no industry in America where a majority of workers are not American citizens or lawful immigrants — not landscapers, not construction workers, not ski instructors, not lifeguards, not resort workers, not crab men, not a single one. ” “If the wage is decent and the employer obeys the law, Americans will do the job,” Cotton said. “And if it’s not, they should pay higher wages. To say anything else is an insult to the work ethic of the American people who make this country run. ” | 0fake |
THE GEORGE COSTANZA OF CNN Destroyed On His Own Show: “We have a one-party system, and the media as the other party.” [Video] | CNN Host Brian Stelter was destroyed by former NY Observer Editor Ken Kurson today on Stelter s own show! This was truly epic! Stelter calmly laid out a damning indictment of the mainstream media in the age of Trump Beautiful!Host Stelter pushed back trying to make the claim that the attacks on Trump are just harmless opinion We all know and have watched the BRUTAL and BITTER editorializing from CNN and MSNBC. It s clearly more than that.HERE S A BIT OF THE TRANSCRIPT FROM THE KURSON/STELTER EXCHANGE:KEN KURSON: So the idea here is that the media has become the opposition to Trump. Just listening to the intro to this show, listening to Fareed s show before it, it s no longer that the Republican point of view holds forth, and the Democrats hold them accountable, and the media covers it. It s that the president and the White House put forth their point of view, the media argues with them, and the Democrats have become totally irrelevant to that discussion. It s a stunning thing to watch unfold during this presidency.BRIAN STELTER: About the irrelevancy of the Democratic party?KURSON: Totally! And the way the press has assigned itself the chore of undoing the results of this election, which they simply don t accept. And I think the shame of it is, we no longer have even a two-party system, which many think is too few. We have a one-party system, and the media as the other party.KURSON: During these breaks, when I watch you go on Twitter. The way journalists reward each other for stabbing and needling there s a new system of reward that is out there for journalists that has very little to do with policy and very little to do with advancing this country.STELTER: Where do you go from that to, the media is the opposition.KURSON: Because when I look at the tone, and the way these attacks are launched, and I ve cited a couple of examples for you, or the way that whenever there s a need for the appearance of balance, NPR will hire some conservative who hates the president. Or the New York Times will go get Bret Stephens, whose main contribution is that he hates the president.Whenever there s the need for the appearance of fairness, there s no real effort to where are the pro-Trump journalists in the mainstream media? They don t exist! Because the entire mainstream media is against Trump. And that I think is not just bad for American policy. I think it s bad for journalism.STELTER: I think a lot of journalists are against lying, are against deceit. That s where we are right now.KURSON: I m against lying and deceit. I think the function of the journalist to hold the administration accountable is a critical function enshrined in our Bill of Rights. But when you have a system where the most outrageous attack is what s rewarded with likes on Facebook and followings on Twitter, you re setting yourself up.STELTER: Those are opinion columns! Those are opinion columns!KURSON: No, they re not just opinion columns. It s reporters. And they audition for each other, and they audition for popularity.Kurson couldn t be more right! Have you noticed that since the daily White House press briefings are not televised that the questions and tone from reporters has gotten so much calmer and less dramatic? Playing for the cameras to get that gotcha moment has disappeared so the reporters are focused and civil.Wouldn t it be great if the news would return to the facts?Read more: Legal Insurrection | 1real |
Takeaways from the GOP town hall | (CNN) The ironclad commitment each Republican presidential candidate gave to support the party's nominee -- no matter who that may be -- is no more.
Hillary Clinton launched her presidential bid on April 12 through a video message on social media. The former first lady, senator and secretary of state is considered the front-runner among possible Democratic candidates."Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion -- so you can do more than just get by -- you can get ahead. And stay ahead," she said in her announcement video. "Because when families are strong, America is strong. So I'm hitting the road to earn your vote, because it's your time. And I hope you'll join me on this journey."
Ohio Gov. John Kasich joined the Republican field July 21 as he formally announced his White House bid. "I am here to ask you for your prayers, for your support ... because I have decided to run for president of the United States," Kasich told his kickoff rally at the Ohio State University.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich joined the Republican field July 21 as he formally announced his White House bid. "I am here to ask you for your prayers, for your support ... because I have decided to run for president of the United States," Kasich told his kickoff rally at the Ohio State University.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has made a name for himself in the Senate, solidifying his brand as a conservative firebrand willing to take on the GOP's establishment. He announced he was seeking the Republican presidential nomination in a speech on March 23."These are all of our stories," Cruz told the audience at Liberty University in Virginia. "These are who we are as Americans. And yet for so many Americans, the promise of America seems more and more distant."
Businessman Donald Trump announced June 16 at his Trump Tower in New York City that he is seeking the Republican presidential nomination. This ends more than two decades of flirting with the idea of running for the White House."So, ladies and gentlemen, I am officially running for president of the United States, and we are going to make our country great again," Trump told the crowd at his announcement.
Here are six takeaways from the town hall, which aired on CNN and was moderated by Anderson Cooper:
Backing away from the pledge
Initially designed to stymie the threat of a Trump independent run, the real-estate mogul's Republican foes have been hamstrung by the signed pledge they all gave to the Republican National Committee in September to back the winner of the party's nominating contest for months.
"I'm not in the habit of supporting someone who attacked my wife and attacked my family. I think that is going beyond the line," he said. "I'm not an easy person to tick off, but when you go after my wife, when you go after my daughters, that does it."
Cruz, however, didn't explicitly say he would oppose Trump's nomination.
So Trump let him off the hook.
He said Cruz looked "tormented" trying to answer Cooper's "very simple question."
"I don't want his support. I don't need his support. I want him to be comfortable," Trump said.
Kasich, too, backed off his pledge -- saying he shouldn't have raised his hand when the entire Republican field was asked at the first debate last year whether they'd back the eventual nominee. "Probably shouldn't have even answered that question, but it was the first debate, and what the heck," he said.
He said he's been "disturbed by some of the things I have seen," without placing blame on any candidate by name.
"If the nominee is somebody that I think is really hurting the country and dividing the country, I can't stand behind them," Kasich said.
Asked whether Trump fit the bill as someone who is hurting the country, Kasich said that's up to voters, and wouldn't answer for himself. "That's too much below the belt," he said.
He came prepared for questions.
In his pocket, he carried print-outs of Fields' initial description. She'd said Lewandowski "grabbed me tightly by the arm and yanked me down. I almost fell to the ground, but was able to maintain my balance."
He mocked Fields' description, saying Lewandowski had really just brushed past her and that she didn't come anywhere close to stumbling to the ground. "She says, 'Ohh, look at my arm,'" Trump said.
Trump said Fields had grabbed his arm, as well, in an effort to get his attention and ask a question after his news conference had already ended.
Asked if he'd press charges against her, Trump said: "I don't know. Maybe I should, right? Cause you know what, she was grabbing me."
Each time he defended Lewandowski -- saying he wouldn't fire his campaign manager -- Trump also pivoted to a theme: Loyalty.
"I'm a loyal person. I'm going to be loyal for the country. I'm going to be loyal for Wisconsin," Trump said.
Trump also refused to back down from a fight when Cooper asked him about the fight with Cruz that involves both of their wives.
"No it's not," Trump responded. "Exactly that thinking is the problem of this country. I didn't start this."
For that, Trump blamed Cruz. On Twitter, he warned Cruz to "be careful" or he'd "spill the beans" on his wife. Then, Trump retweeted an unflattering image of Heidi Cruz, alongside a more flattering photo of Melania Trump.
There's no evidence the super PAC, headed by Republican strategist Liz Mair, coordinated with Cruz. Doing so would have been illegal. But Trump said the two were in cahoots all the same, saying that he "would be willing to bet" Cruz wrote the ad.
So Trump had to respond in kind.
"I don't let things go so easily," Trump said.
All eyes were on Kasich heading into the town hall to see whether he would go after Cruz.
Kasich's top strategist, John Weaver, had hit back hard on Twitter, saying: "Cruz -- with 0 friends, 0 record, 0 vision, 0 chance -- decides to lie about @johnkasich. Desperate? Trump right on 1 thing: 'lying Ted.'"
But when Kasich got on the debate stage, his typical easygoing demeanor was on display. In contrast to Trump's performance earlier in the night, Kasich didn't hesitate to criticize his staff's hardball tactics.
Of Weaver's tweet, he said: "Sometimes, he gets a little tweet-happy, and I don't like that, OK? And I will have a word with him about it."
As for the criticism from Cruz, Kasich said, "That's OK, I can take it."
In a moment that got one of the loudest cheers from the audience all night, Kasich argued that the campaign's bitter, personal moments have set a bad example for children.
"If name-calling, bringing in spouses, ripping each other below the belt and wrestling in the mud is the new politics, we all need to stand against it. Our children are watching. This is America," he said. "I'm not going to go down there. ... I could screw up, but I hope not."
Cruz's go-to option to win over women: his mother.
"I have grown up surrounded by strong women. My mom is someone that I admire immensely," he said when a questioner asked what he was going to do to convince women to support him.
It was a rare, revealing personal moment for a candidate who focuses more on demonstrating his rock-ribbed conservatism and policy prowess.
He said his mother's father "was a drunk, and he didn't think women should be educated." Nonetheless, she made her way to Rice University and worked for Shell -- on the way, refusing to learn how to type so that she wouldn't have "some man stop her and say, 'Sweetheart, would you type this for me?'"
He said she wanted to be able to answer with a clean conscience: "Look, I would love to help you out, but I don't know how to type. I guess you're going to have to use me as a computer programmer, instead."
Cruz also pointed to his wife, Heidi, a Goldman Sachs executive, and said he's been surrounded by strong women his entire life, and that he believes "every issue is a women's issue."
The Texas senator wrapped up his answer by pointing to his two daughters.
"I want to make sure that they have a world that they can live in where they have the opportunity to do anything," he said.
It took Trump some time to answer when he was asked about the last time he apologized for anything.
"Oh, wow," he said, as the audience laughed.
He finally came up with a response: "I apologized to my mother years ago for using foul language. I apologize to my wife for not being presidential on occasion. She's always saying, 'Darling, be more presidential.'"
Trump joked about the constant controversies surrounding his decisions to amplify the remarks of his supporters. Dismissing the Cruz remark, he said that "it was just a repeat, but that didn't work out too well."
"My biggest problems are repeats and retweets. I don't get in a problem with what I say -- it's when I repeat something. I think I'm gonna be careful," he said.
Cooper suggested that Trump could "learn from behavior and not retweet things."
Laughing, Trump said, "I know. That I agree. That I agree." | 0fake |
Tillerson cites Russian inaction as helping to fuel Syrian poison gas attack | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday blamed Russia’s inaction for helping fuel a deadly poison gas attack against Syrian civilians last week, saying Moscow failed to carry out a 2013 agreement to secure and destroy chemical weapons in Syria. “I think the real failure here has been Russia’s failure to live up to its commitments under the chemical weapons agreements that were entered into in 2013,” Tillerson said on ABC’s “This Week.” “The failure related to the recent strike and the recent terrible chemical weapons attack in large measure is a failure on Russia’s part to achieve its commitment to the international community,” he added. Tillerson is expected in Moscow this week for talks with Russian officials. He stopped short of accusing Russia of being directly involved in the planning or execution of the attack, saying he had not seen “any hard evidence” to suggest the nation was an accomplice to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But he said the United States expected Russia to take a tougher stance against Syria by rethinking its alliance with al-Assad because “every time one of these horrific attacks occurs, it draws Russia closer into some level of responsibility.” Other than that, he added, “there is no change to our military posture” toward Syria. Tillerson’s comments came just a few days after the United States fired dozens of cruise missiles at the Syrian airbase that was allegedly used in the chemical attack. U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the strikes after he blamed Assad for this week’s chemical attack, which killed at least 70 people, many of them children, in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun. The Syrian government has denied it was behind the attack. Video depicted limp bodies and children choking while rescuers tried to wash off the poison gas. Russian state television blamed rebels and did not show footage of victims. The move immediately prompted a backlash from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said it would damage U.S.-Russian relations. | 0fake |
Fox News’ Latest Eye-Rolling Tweet Might Be The Funniest Thing On The Internet (TWEET) | There s nothing quite like hypocrisy on the grandest scale imaginable. So large, in fact, that all you can do is sit there and laugh at how absolutely ridiculous something is. This is what just happened on Twitter when they decided to call out media bias.Yes, you read that correctly, Fox News whined about media bias allegedly coming from other news organizations.Not only that, they hashtagged it with #BiasAlert to really add an extra layer of nauseating frosting on to the hypocrisy cake.They tweeted out:#BiasAlert: Candidates refer to NYC blast as bomb but #Trump takes brunt of media criticism https://t.co/KEYMx7ddRk pic.twitter.com/u2MkvGVoOp Fox News (@FoxNews) September 18, 2016Let s just talk about this for a moment. In a tweet that blames other media outlets for correctly going after Trump s irresponsible reaction to a blast in New York City, they are saying that there s media bias.This tweet is the EPITOME of media bias. It is so ridiculous, in fact, that all other tweets with media bias can now be measured against this one in the future to see how biased something actually is. Not only do they display their own bias towards Trump, but they have the audacity to say Bias Alert. That right there is hilarious and kinda sad.Fox News can, without a doubt, be called the media outlet for the Republican party. They so unapologetically swing to defend all things Republican and conservative that they are blind to their own reality.Featured image via Wikimedia Commons | 1real |
Indo-Pacific? Not from where China is sitting... | BEIJING/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - As U.S. President Donald Trump and some of America s democratic allies talk up a vision of Indo-Pacific cooperation, China is determined to ensure that the future belongs to Asia . The increasing use of the phrase Indo-Pacific by Trump and his team during their marathon Asian jaunt this week, instead of the Asia-Pacific term that has long been common in business and diplomacy, is being greeted with thinly-veiled sneers in Beijing. Trump choosing to use the term and actually making it happen are two totally different things, Diao Daming, an American studies expert at Renmin University in Beijing, told a forum on Friday. The region is leading global development and Trump wants America to be first, so he could not ignore its existence. He had to say something to the region, so we have Indo-Pacific . But as yet it s just a concept and we don t know what it means. Beyond the wordplay lies both concern and scepticism in Beijing at U.S. attempts to complicate China s strategic domain, particularly by encouraging rival power India to work more closely militarily with Japan. Tokyo recently backed New Delhi during India s border stand-off with China. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying did not dignify Indo-Pacific by name in a statement this week, but noted that this concept has been mentioned many times . We hope that the Asia-Pacific region can become a stable, prosperous and orderly region....where we are capable of managing differences and have the wisdom to resolve the disputes, she said. Indo-Pacific has grown in usage across diplomatic and security circles in Australia, India and Japan in recent years, shorthand for a broader and democratic-led region in place of the Asia-Pacific , which to some places an authoritarian China too firmly at the center. Trump and his team have given it fresh currency in recent days, starting in Seoul and Tokyo, building on the rhetoric of his secretary of state Rex Tillerson, who last month talked of the need to support a free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific . Describing the Indian and Pacific Oceans as a single strategic arena , Tillerson went further as he described India and the United States as bookends within that region. In concrete terms, it will lead to great co-ordination between the Indian, Japanese and American militaries including maritime domain awareness, anti-submarine warfare, amphibious warfare, and humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and search and rescue, he said. Not all allies are convinced, however. When Trump s White House issued a statement after the U.S.-South Korea summit on Wednesday describing the alliance as a linchpin for stability, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific , South Korea s presidential Blue House issued a note of caution. While the phrase Indo-Pacific matched some of South Korea s policies aimed at diversification, we felt there was more discussion necessary to see whether it is an appropriate term to be used in our efforts toward...joint strategic goals , the Blue House statement said. Welcoming the trend is Indian navy Captain Gurpreet Khurana, who was among the first to coin the Indo-Pacific concept in an academic paper back in 2007. The rise of India as an economic power following its free market reforms and then its gradual military build-up was itself a key factor in the increasing significance of the Indian Ocean, he said. India could no longer be excluded from any over-arching reckoning in the Asia-Pacific, be it economic or security related, said Khurana, of the military-funded National Maritime Foundation. Chinese officials and experts have long bristled at any perceived attempt to contain a rising China. But Trump s Indo-Pacific policy should not be underestimated by China, because India, Japan and Australia are united by being on the wrong side of China s development strategy for the region, according to Jia Wenshan, an expert on China s foreign policy at the Beijing-based Center for China and Globalization. China needs to as soon as possible deal with the Indo-Pacific alliance, as it is absolutely in conflict with Belt and Road, Jia said, referring to the Chinese president s signature initiative to re-establish trade and infrastructure ties between China and nations throughout Central and Southeast Asia. Behind Indo-Pacific you have Japan s economic support, India s development speed and Australia s fears of China, these are all strategic realities. | 0fake |
Trump Busted For Plagiarizing His Orlando Mass Shooting Tweet | By nearly all accounts, Donald Trump s response to the worst mass shooting in American history has been very, very bad. Never one to let a tragedy get in the way of self-glorification, Trump has come across as cold-hearted, moronic, and narcissistic often all at the same time. Now he can add fake to the list as well.In the early moments after the attack, Trump began by sending out a vague reaction to the attack claiming he was thinking of the victims, only to follow it up with a random, unrelated smear directed at Hillary Clinton. Since then, he s released a torrent of anti-Muslim bigotry. He s congratulated himself for being right about Muslims. He never once mentioned the heartbreaking fact that the attack was in an iconic gay night club and most of the victims were LGBTQ. Nor has he mentioned that this appears to be as much an anti-gay hate crime as an Islamic terror attack.Oh and he also stole a reporter s tweet and passed it off as his own so as to not have to share the spotlight with someone else even for one second.CNN s Brian Stelter caught him red handed.It looks like Trump flagrantly copy & pasted @SebGorka's unsourced 2:03pm tweet, tweaked it, and posted at 2:52pm pic.twitter.com/aAHWUHvvnH Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 12, 2016As is immediately clear, Trump flagrantly copy and pasted reporter Sebastian Gorka s tweet and made it his own. Why didn t he just retweet Gorka if he wanted to pass along the information? Because then he wouldn t get the retweets and likes that he so desperately craves.Throughout the day, Trump has put on a master class in how not to handle a national tragedy. He s made the event exclusively about himself. To contrast Trump s ego, both President Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton have released statements that honor the victims, condemn the attacks, and demonstrate a sensitivity to the startling acts of terror. In particular, Obama took pains to not lose sight of the victims and their identity something Trump has yet to even mention.This is an especially heartbreaking day for all of our friends, our fellow Americans, who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The shooter targeted a night club where people came together to be with friends, to dance and to sing, and to live. The place where they were attacked is more than a night club, it is a place of solidarity and empowerment, where people have come together to raise awareness, to speak their minds, and to advocate for their civil rights. So this is a sobering reminder that attacks on any American, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation, is an attack on all of us, and on the fundamental values of equality and dignity that define us as as country.Compare that to how President Trump would react:Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don't want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2016 Pathetic doesn t even begin to describe that.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1real |
RELIGION OF PROGRESSIVISM: Meet Obama’s NEW Transgender Leader For FAITH-BASED Neighborhood Partnerships | The religion of Progressivism is working overtime to erase and replace Christianity in the lives of Americans. God is nothing more than a nuisance. He only gets in the way of a more accepting religion the Left has been cultivating for decades, where the rules are morals are determined by a select group of people in our government and in specially appointed positions within our government. You know kinda like Communism The Obama administration has appointed a transgender individual to the President s Advisory Council on Faith-based Neighborhood Partnerships, selecting Barbara Satin for a post along with two representatives of minority faiths.Satin, who was born a man but identifies as a woman, is an Air Force veteran, a member of the United Church of Christ and currently works with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, according to CBN News. Given the current political climate, I believe it s important that a voice of faith representing the transgender and gender non-conforming community as well as a person of my years, nearly 82 be present and heard in these vital conversations, Satin said in a statement published through the United Church of Christ. The Blazeh/t Weasel Zippers | 1real |
Denmark no longer to automatically accept U.N. refugee resettlement quota | COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark will no longer automatically accept a quota of refugees under a U.N. resettlement program after passing a law on Wednesday that enables the government to determine how many can enter each year. Since 1989, Denmark has agreed to take 500 refugees a year selected by the United Nations under a program to ease the burden on countries that neighbor war zones. But after the European migration crisis in 2015 brought almost 20,000 claims for asylum, Denmark has refused to take any U.N. quota refugees. Under the new law, the immigration minister will decide how many refugees will be allowed under the U.N. program, with 500 now the maximum except in an exceptional situation . It s hard to predict how many refugees and migrants will show up at the border to seek asylum, and we know it may be hard to integrate those who arrive here, Immigration and Integration Minister Inger Stojberg said last month when her ministry proposed the law. The opposition Social-Liberal Party said opting out of the U.N. program would increase pressure on countries already accommodating large numbers of refugees, and the move could encourage other countries to follow suit. Last year, more than 6,000 people claimed asylum in Denmark. Between January and November this year just over 3,000 people did. (Corrects throughout to show new law only applies to U.N. resettlement quota, not other refugee applications.) | 0fake |
Trump Fans Threaten Jewelers Who Donated Ivanka Money To Hillary: ‘Karma’s A B*tch!’ | Jewelry designers Jill Martinelli and Sabine Le Guyader of Lady Grey in Brooklyn left Ivanka Trump a note with her recent purchase. Let s just say the two designers aren t fans of her father s. In the note, the two thanked her for her order but added that they were donating the proceeds to the American Immigration Council, the Everytown for Gun Safety organization and the Hillary Clinton campaign.The handwritten note was signed, Best, Jill + Sabine, with the Instagram photo of the letter captioned, Dear @ivankatrump, #thanksbutnothanks #payitFORWARD. While we were flattered to receive an order from Ivanka Trump, our social and political views couldn t be further from those of the Trump campaign, Marinelli told The Cut. When we received her order, we instantly felt compelled to take the money and donate it to a few organizations that were more aligned with our ideals. That was too much for Trump fans to handle so they besieged Lady Grey s Instagram and Facebook pages.One commenter went there, stating, Your company is f*cked!! Loooooosers ! Say buh bye to your company, wrote ilianaruizjcj on Instagram.Duke7045 wrote (in Conservative caps), DISGUSTING ASSHOLES!!! HOPE YOU GO BANKRUPT SOON!!! WAIT TILL TRUMP BECOMES PRESIDENT. Brag it up!! Very poor business choice! Your company is fucked!!, fearss33 wrote.From there, things got worse: Disgusting! Keep your political views to yourself. Run your business with class. Hope you loose [sic] lots of money from being so ignorant, added valleygrrrl, with another commenter chiming in, I m utterly in shock of your display of professionalism. I hate to, no actually ladies I m not afraid to say but karma is a b*tch and I know it will come back to hurt you. A really chill guy on Facebook, JJ Lars, wrote, F*cking worthless c*ck suckers! Laura Fleckenstein wrote, I just sent them about 100 emails. Block up there [sic] business. Susan Phipps went all caps and typos on Lady Grey, writing: EVERYONE BOYCOTT LADY GREY..WE HAVE NEVER OF HEARD OF THIS CHEAP UGLY JEWELRY.. BUT WHAT FEW CUSTOMERS THEY DO HAVE NEED TO BOYCOTT..RUDE..DISREPECTFUL UNGRATEFUL BUSINESS..AND REALLY UGLY JEWELRY! IT MUST BE HARD FOR THOSE WHO WROTE THIS LETTER TO BE SO JEALOUS OF A RICH..SUCCESSFUL..BEAUTIFULWOMAN LIKE IVANKA WHO IS LOVED BY MILLIONS! #boycottladygrey Sky Roxy wrote, What a bunch of fucking idiots I hope your business goes down . Disrespectful distasteful bitches you guys are. Marina Farra Swiatek-Barnett wrote, Karma is a Bitch. The note from Lady Grey on Instagram: Dear @ivankatrump, #thanksbutnothanks #payitFORWARD A photo posted by Lady Grey Jewelry (@ladygreyjewelry) on Aug 16, 2016 at 12:15pm PDTThe audacity of these two women to donate money to worthy causes as well as their choice for president. As of now, there are over 5,500 comments on Facebook, most of them from Trump supporters.Photo by Joe Raedle via Getty. | 1real |
Trump’s Twitter Access Revoked - The Onion - America's Finest News Source | Nation Puts 2016 Election Into Perspective By Reminding Itself Some Species Of Sea Turtles Get Eaten By Birds Just Seconds After They Hatch WASHINGTON—Saying they felt anxious and overwhelmed just days before heading to the polls to decide a historically fraught presidential race, Americans throughout the country reportedly took a moment Thursday to put the 2016 election into perspective by reminding themselves that some species of sea turtles are eaten by birds just seconds after they hatch. Cleveland Indians Worried Team Cursed After Building Franchise On Old Native American Stereotype CLEVELAND—Having watched in horror as their team crumbled after a 3-1 World Series lead, members of the Cleveland Indians expressed concern Thursday that the organization has been cursed for building their franchise on an incredibly old Native American stereotype. Report: Election Day Most Americans’ Only Time In 2016 Being In Same Room With Person Supporting Other Candidate WASHINGTON—According to a report released Thursday by the Pew Research Center, Election Day 2016 will, for the majority of Americans, mark the only time this year they will occupy the same room as a person who supports a different presidential candidate. Nurse Reminds Elderly Man She’s Just Down The Hall If He Starts To Die DES PLAINES, IL—Assuring him that she’d be at his side in a jiffy, local nurse Wendy Kaufman reminded an elderly resident at the Briarwood Assisted Living Community that she was just down the hall if he started to die, sources reported Tuesday. | 1real |
The very idea of a President Trump scares some, bolsters others in Asia | SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s “isolationist” foreign policy pronouncements are feeding insecurity in some Asian nations fearful of China’s growing power, and risk emboldening nationalists and authoritarians in the region. The real estate developer, who is very close to securing the Republican nomination for November’s presidential election, has with undiplomatic abandon challenged much of the status quo in U.S.-Asia relations. Overall, his comments have sounded like a death knell for the “pivot to Asia” strategy adopted by President Barack Obama five years ago. Trump has said U.S. allies like Japan and South Korea should pay more toward their defense, warned he could withdraw U.S. troops from bases in Japan, and mulled whether Japan and South Korea should have their own nuclear arms. This week he told Reuters he is willing to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which would represent a major shift in U.S. policy. In a television interview on Friday, Trump told MSNBC that while he was open to talks, he “would never go to North Korea.” Trump has also threatened to rein in China’s big trade surplus with the United States, saying he will threaten to impose heavy duties on Chinese goods. And Trump says he will rip up and then renegotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact agreed to by the U.S., Japan, and 10 other countries in February. Furthermore, Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States risks undermining moderate leaders in Muslim countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh. “If he becomes president and adopts his own version of foreign policy, the U.S. will cease to be a Pacific power. That’s the end result,” said Kunihiko Miyake, a former Japanese diplomat, who served in both Beijing and Baghdad. “It’s not that we would adopt ‘Japan First,’ but if the U.S. leaves, there will be a vacuum and … China will try to fill it,” said Miyake, research director at the Canon Institute for Global Studies. “It’s a survival issue for all allies of the United States.” Trump could, of course, lose the election to the likely Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, who is well known by many Asia policymakers. And if he is elected he could act much differently in office. But Asian diplomats and policy advisers say that initial impressions count. Trump’s idea of making Japan and South Korea pay up rather than enjoy a cheaper ride under the U.S. security umbrella sent shudders through Tokyo and Seoul. Trump reiterated his stance on Friday. “They have a lot of money, both of those nations,” he told MSNBC, pointing to Japan’s auto sales and South Korea’s electronics industry. “We have to get reimbursed.” In addition, his comments about the possibility of a local nuclear deterrent fanned fears among Asian diplomats that the world could become an even more dangerous place. “It is here that Trump is most scary,” Lalit Mansingh, a former Indian ambassador to Washington, told Reuters in New Delhi, though he also noted it may be “just election rhetoric.. Japan’s nationalist-led government has already boosted defence spending and has reinterpreted its pacifist constitution to allow its military to come to the aid of allies under attack even if Japan itself if not attacked, a major shift in Japan’s post-war security stance. “His position is causing anxiety, especially in East Asia,” said a senior lawmaker in Japan’s ruling coalition. “It is really hard to comprehend because conservatives have supported a stronger military presence and more engagement.” Mansingh said he expects China to test the foreign policy resolve of whoever occupies the White House next, and the South China Sea looms as one of the most likely flashpoints. Tensions over China’s land-building and installations on islets in the disputed waters flared on Tuesday, when two Chinese warplanes carried out what the Pentagon called an “unsafe” intercept of a U.S. military reconnaissance aircraft. “They’re building a massive fortress in the South China Sea. They’re not supposed to be doing that,” Trump told Reuters, without saying what he would do about it. At least, according to Mansingh, China’s leaders and Trump shared the mentality of dealmakers, which could help settle diplomatic wrangles before they get out of hand. Jia Qingguo, an adviser to China’s government on foreign affairs, said Trump sounds like an “isolationist” who doesn’t want the United States to become too active internationally. “So, he doesn’t sound that aggressive,” said Jia, the dean of the School of International Relations at China’s elite Peking University. “Chinese tend to think that too much so-called internationalism on the part of the U.S. is not that good.” A senior Japanese government official said Washington could lose influence in Asia if there was any perception it was softening its stance on issues like the South China Sea. “And it would be very difficult to get it back,” he warned. Mansingh says those fears are overblown as the United States’ self-interest lay in protecting access to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. “What would American withdrawal mean? Does it want to hand over the affairs of the world to China? Would that serve anybody’s interest? I don’t think so.” There are also fears that the TPP could unravel, or become worth a lot less to Asian partners, should Trump renegotiate the pact, as he has said he wants to do. The deal has yet to be ratified by the U.S. Congress, but Obama has warned that delay could allow China to steal a march through its own proposed regional trade deal with 15 other nations. “I think it’s hard to imagine that TPP would survive a Trump presidency,” said a top trade official in a major country in the region, who declined to be more closely identified. “‘Less intervention’ would be a small benefit compared to the massive damage to the world from a USA that becomes more isolationist and more crassly commercial under Trump,” he said. The lack of priority Trump appears to give to issues that don’t serve his “America first” agenda could mean he’ll soft-pedal on human rights and democratic values, some critics said. That would come at a time when generals are running Thailand, a ‘strong man’ has just been elected as president of the Philippines, and Malaysia’s prime minister has silenced independent media. “Let’s hope that someone on his team realizes that respect for human rights must be a core U.S. foreign policy value and not just a reality show line,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director for Human Rights Watch’s Asia division. On the other hand, Panitan Wattanayagorn, an adviser to Thailand’s defence minister, Prawit Wongsuwon, expressed confidence that Trump wouldn’t apply pressure to countries like his. “All in all, if Trump arrives, the chances of stronger ties will be good because he would want allies,” said Panitan. | 0fake |
Robert Reich: ’The Democratic Party Has Not Been in This Bad Shape Since the 1920’s’ - Breitbart | Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” former Clinton administration Secretary of Labor Robert Reich said, “the Democratic Party has not been in this bad shape since the 1920’s. ” Reich said, “Right now, there is a disconnect, George, between a rather sclerotic Democratic apparatus which is in complete disarray. I mean the Democratic Party has not been in this bad shape since the 1920’s and a huge uprising at the grassroots, mostly against Trump. How can Tom Perez, can he actually utilize that, turn the Democratic Party from a vast machine into a movement?” “Hasn’t been done before very easily. you remember in the Vietnam war days, we had a huge uprising. but the Democratic Party had nothing to do with that. The thing that worries me most of all, if you look at the problems inside the Democratic Party, they have a lot to do with the same sort of populist uprising we’re seeing across the country, including the Donald Trump campaign. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
At Home With the Macabre - The New York Times | On the way to show an apartment in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, the real estate agent turned to the prospective renters and said something unnecessary. “Before we get here, I should tell you that the guy who lived here before committed suicide. ” The renters, Julia Dahl and her boyfriend, Joel Bukiewicz, shared an uneasy glance but decided to view the rental anyway. Besides, in 2007, it was a steal: a in a prewar for $1, 250 on the southern lip of Prospect Park. Despite the broker’s disclosure, and the portentousness of their date, the couple signed the lease and settled in that Halloween. A short while later, neighbors introduced themselves, made the couple feel welcome, and talked about the former tenant, who had killed himself in the apartment a few weeks before it came on the market. “They did a good job cleaning it up,” one neighbor told the couple. Ms. Dahl, 39, who writes crime fiction, and her Mr. Bukiewicz, lived in the cozy apartment for four years. Their situation was unusual, not because someone had died in the space, but because their broker had alerted them to it. Ms. Dahl and her husband might never have discovered the apartment’s grisly history had someone not told them about it. Throughout the city and state, buildings are often more than a century old in homes especially, someone likely has died there. But in recent years, brokers say, an apartment touched by death is less of a deterrent, as the real estate market has become more competitive and good deals ever more elusive. People are also less likely to be fazed by spooky things, thanks to an overall cultural shift toward death acceptance — as evidenced by the opening of museums dedicated to mortality, exhibits for morbid curiosities and even the advent of living funerals. And prospective buyers and renters often come to the negotiating table already knowing everything about an apartment or home, brokers say, having conducted their own internet searches and reviewed public records online. Brokers call these homes stigmatized properties, but in New York State, disclosure is required only for material defects: leaky pipes, termite damage, lead paint, bedbug infestations. They do not have to reveal if a property was the site of a death — suicide or homicide — or of a crime. Of course, death has not always been a cause for real estate stigma. In fact, dying did not move out of family homes and into hospitals until the early 20th century. But today, “We’re removed from death,” said Karen S. Sonn, a real estate lawyer and founder of Sonn Associates in Manhattan. Some people, however, might be more averse to the idea of living with the dead because of religious or cultural beliefs, Ms. Sonn said. But she added that clients are coming to her more prepared because, in the age of information, an apartment’s history is easy to discover. “I have young, smart people who ask me everything,” she said. “They Google names. Everything’s available. When they come to me, they’re so they know what they’re buying. ” Are utilities included? Is there a lien on the property? Are pets allowed? These are the questions commonly asked by renters and buyers and expected by brokers. But some questions — Has anyone died in this apartment? Were felonious crimes committed here? — often go unasked, so unanswered. Disclosing a property’s macabre past may seem like the ethical thing to do, and buyers or renters are likely to discover it on their own anyway, but some argue that when marketing a home, brokers should keep certain things secret. “I think most Realtors actually think they have to disclose,” said Neil B. Garfinkel, a brokerage counsel for the Real Estate Board of New York who fields questions for its legal help line. “They can’t, they’re not supposed to at all,” he said. “The point is to make sure that the property is not stigmatized. It’s to protect the property. ” Randall Bell, an economist and an author of “Real Estate Damages” who has consulted on the appraisals of notorious properties, like the homes of O. J. Simpson and JonBenet Ramsey, said that a stigma can erase up to 25 percent of the value. He added, though, that as time passes and memories fade, the value eventually returns. “My advice for brokers is to tell the truth,” said Mr. Bell. “I generally advise to get the properties occupied. Don’t let them sit empty. ” Media reports — especially on a story covered nationally — can draw unwanted attention to a property. And simple pedestrian traffic generated by curiosity seekers can cut into home value. If a residence becomes a public showcase — like the house on Long Island that inspired the “The Amityville Horror” book and movies chronicling murders that happened there in 1974 — privacy concerns might drive away potential owners and cause the property value to plummet. “The gawking question impacts both and cases, but it is more pronounced in the situations,” Mr. Bell said. His advice: “Just let it happen. Just let people get it out of their systems. ” In other cases, the buildings are destroyed: The house where Adam Lanza murdered his mother before killing 20 children and six adults at a school in Newtown, Conn. was acquired by the town and razed. The Hartford Courant quoted a resident as saying the home had become “a constant reminder of the evil that resided there. ” Taking an apartment regardless of its history is a notable shift from renters’ mentality before the recession and the burst housing bubble in 2008, according to brokers. New York’s latest scramble for affordable housing has softened expectations, even as rents have increased. “When the market is very tight, these sort of things get overlooked,” said Jonathan J. Miller, the president of the real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel. Most renters or buyers won’t think twice if they stumble onto a deal besides, death and whatever stigma surrounds an apartment wane with time. “In a couple of years, it goes away, in terms of the stigma,” Mr. Miller said. “Especially if it’s an apartment that hasn’t been touched in 30, 40 years they’re going to gut it no matter what. ” Emma Grady, a writer living in Brooklyn, moved to New York in November 2008 after college. After living in a “ room” in Chelsea, she decided to move into what seemed like a typical Bank Street apartment in Greenwich Village. “I didn’t know much about the neighborhood or its reputation,” Ms. Grady said. “I was completely new to New York. ” The rental she moved into was 63 Bank Street, Apartment 2C, where the musician John Ritchie, also known as Sid Vicious, had overdosed. Ms. Grady later learned of the apartment’s history when a neighbor shared the building’s lore with her. She didn’t think much of it at the time. For one, she did not know who Sid Vicious was. Second, she knew that it had happened more than 20 years before, and other people had lived in that space without issue. “The apartment was renovated, so it didn’t feel like it was the same apartment it had been years before,” Ms. Grady said. During the six months she lived there in her early 20s, Ms. Grady, now 30, changed the room where she slept a couple of times. Each time, she recalled the death and wondered whether she was then sleeping in the place where the performer had died. “But I never felt like the apartment was haunted,” she said. “There are plenty of people living in New York apartments that someone passed away in, they just don’t know it. ” She added, “I also think you have to accept a bit of the unusual on a daily basis to live in New York, so perhaps that’s why it didn’t surprise me. ” Things that go bump in the night and the prospect of hauntings are probably a fundamental part of living in the city, said Nikolai Fedak, the founder of New York YIMBY, a real estate website. “If I was an uninformed person, I’d think it was the spirits talking to me — but it’s just the building,” he said. “ ‘Ghosts’ are probably just noise pollution. And history is based on people’s collective misconception. “Just because there’s history,” Mr. Fedak said, “doesn’t mean it’s haunted. ” Though Ms. Dahl and her husband have since moved to the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn and started a family, she credits her success as a writer to that Windsor Terrace apartment tainted by suicide. Had it not been for that, she never would have delved into Hasidism, which the former tenant had practiced, and which continues to figure prominently in her novels. Ms. Dahl felt her apartment in Windsor Terrace would have been a surefire place to meet a ghost, if ghosts were real. She did relish the hunt for spirits whenever the opportunity presented itself: when the cat was acting weird, or she was alone in a darkened apartment and found herself standing in front of her bathroom mirror. But nothing happened, and life moved on. “I never saw anything abnormal at all,” she said. “If he was a ghost, he was a friendly ghost. ” | 0fake |
Trump Ally Curt Schilling Blasts ‘Horrifying’ Recovery Efforts In Puerto Rico (VIDEO) | Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, the host of a daily show on Breitbart, and a strong Trump supporter, just bashed the former reality show star over recovery efforts in Puerto Rico after the island was ravaged by Hurricane Maria. Schilling traveled to Puerto Rico to assist with relief efforts, and said the destruction looks like looks like an atom bomb that didn t take the bodies. These are Americans, Schilling said on Fox & Friends Sunday. If this were Houston, Texas there d be 55,000 soldiers on this island right now. All have said that the president did everything in a pace that they ve never seen before as far as him releasing money and releasing assets into these theaters, Schilling said. The execution on the ground has been horrifying in some cases. I m a student of military history. I ve never seen anything like this, he said, adding that the southeast side of the island is totally destroyed. There are towns that are gone. I ve seen the best and the worst of humanity in the last 48 to 72 hours, and it s terrifying, Schilling continued.Watch: If this was Texas there d be 55,000 soldiers in PR the execution has been horrifying. Curt Schilling, on Fox pic.twitter.com/8rKOWeWH1Z justin kanew (@Kanew) October 1, 2017Trump and the First Lady will travel to Puerto Rico on Tuesday, two weeks after the U.S. territory was destroyed, leaving American citizens without food, water, medical care, and electricity. Trump is on his second golfing vacation since disaster struck the island.The former MLB pitcher was such a strong supporter of Trump s that in 2016 during the campaign, he held a Trump rally but hardly anyone showed up. To be on the generous side, maybe about 12 people attended his event.Still yet, somehow Trump got into power as America elected its abusive boyfriend to lead the most powerful country on Earth, so here we are with the biggest bully on the Internet holding the highest seat in the land as he lashes out at the devastated island, and the mayor of San Juan, all while he s playing golf at his luxury golf club.Image via screen capture. | 1real |
MIZZOU Cry-Babies Complain Paris Terror Tragedy Is Stealing Spotlight From Their “Struggles” | Never mind that almost every single aspect of the phony Mizzou controversy has been proven to be a hoax. For these entitled trophy kids, they will never have enough Campus activists in America showed their true faces during an international tragedy last night: they are the selfish, spoiled children we always knew they were.Black Lives Matter and Mizzou protesters responded to the murder of scores of people in Paris at the hands of Islamic extremists by complaining about losing the spotlight and saying their struggles were being erased. Their struggles, remember, consist of a poop swastika of unknown provenance and unsubstantiated claims of racially-charged remarks somewhere near Missouri s campus.So debased has the language on American campuses become that these incidents, which many observers believe to be hoaxes, just like previous campus scandals celebrated by progressive media, are being referred to as terrorism and a tragedy by moronic 20-year-olds who have never been told, No. Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
America’s Ruling Elite Has Failed and Deserves to Be Fired | Posted on November 7, 2016 by Charles Hugh Smith
America’s Ruling Elite is freaking out because a significant percentage of the American public is trying to fire them. The Ruling Elite has failed and deserves to be fired, and deep down, they know it–and this awareness of their self-serving failure fuels their panic and their loathing of the non-elite Americans who are trying to fire them.
If you think this chart of soaring student loan debt is a sign of “success,” you are 1) delusional 2) protected from the dire consequences of this failure 3) getting your paycheck from this failed system. That in a nutshell is the state of the nation: those who are protected from the consequences of failure are loyal to the Establishment, as are the millions drawing a paycheck from systems they know are irredeemable failures.
Let’s review the central institutions of the nation:
1. Healthcare: a failed system doomed to bankrupt the nation.
2. Defense: a failed system of cartels and Pentagon fiefdoms that have saddled the nation with enormously costly failed weapons systems like the F-35 and the LCS.
3. Higher Education: a bloated, failed system that is bankrupting an entire generation while mis-educating them for productive roles in the emerging economy. (I cover this in depth in The Nearly Free University and the Emerging Economy and Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy .)
4. Foreign policy: Iraq: a disaster. Afghanistan: a disaster. Libya: a disaster. Syria: a disaster. Need I go on?
5. Political governance: a corrupt system of self-serving elites, lobbyists, pay-to-play, corporate puppet-masters, and sociopaths who see themselves as above the law.
In Why Our Status Quo Failed and Is Beyond Reform , I explain why the only possible output of these systems is failure .
The sole output of America’s Establishment/Ruling Elite is self-serving hubris.
In the open market, failed leadership has consequences. Customers vanish and the enterprise goes bankrupt, or shareholders and employees rally to fire the failed leadership.
In our state-cartel system, failed leadership only tightens its grip on the nation’s throat. The Deep State can’t be fired, nor does it ever stand for election. The two political parties are interchangeable, as are the politicos who race from fund-raiser to fund-raiser.
It’s tempting to blame the individuals who inhale the wealth and power of our failed system, but it’s the system, not the individuals , though a more corrupt, craven, self-serving lot cannot easily be assembled.
In broad brush, the Establishment and its Ruling Elite are still fighting World War II. The solution to the Great Depression and fascism was to cede complete control of the economy, the media and the social order to the central state.
Tens of millions of people were aggregated into vast industrial corporations or the Armed Forces. Everyone heard the same “news” and had the same limited choices of work and consumption.
It was easier for the federal government to control a handful of cartel-corporations and unions, and this cemented the state-cartel system that remains dominant today.
But the world and the economy changed, and this model was no longer efficient or effective. Sprawling corporations with captive domestic markets started facing global competition, and networks of interchangeable suppliers were much more efficient than vertically organized corporations.
Adding layers of government bureaucracy to manage increasing complexity was no longer effective or affordable as labor costs rose and the efficiencies of networks outpaced cumbersome hierarchies.
People lost faith in their government and their cartel-corporations because the truth broke through the state-managed propaganda. Industrial corporations were revealed as greedy polluters; auto manufacturers churned out vehicles with scant care for safety, and the federal government lied to the citizens about the war in Vietnam, and much else.
The Internet was the stake through the heart of this inefficient, ineffective state-cartel hierarchy. The Internet enabled a level of transparency that was impossible in the old state-cartel model in which everyone watched the same three TV networks and read the same managed “news.”
Consumers could now access the experience of other consumers directly, bypassing the filtering mechanisms of a complicit state and the corporate PR/marketing machinery.
Governments were pressured to (very reluctantly) make public all sorts of material that was safely private in the good old days of backroom dealing and sweetheart contracts with pals.
The central state’s resistance to transparency only reinforced the public’s loss of trust. The more money and power the state grabbed, the greater the level of corruption and self-serving insider dealing. The more the state managed the private cartels of banking, Big Pharma, higher education, the military-industrial complex, healthcare insurers, etc., the more costs soared while the quality of the output plummeted.
The current self-serving Ruling Elite deserves to be fired for its abject failure of leadership. The nation desperately needs leaders who understand the economy and nation are in the midst of a new industrial/digital revolution that favors networks over hierarchy and transparency over state-cartel corruption.
Unfortunately, as I explain in Resistance, Revolution, Liberation: A Model for Positive Change , the central state has no mechanisms for devolving power to decentralized networks, or surrendering either power or budgets. The central state only knows how to aggregate more power and skim more money from the private economy.
The last failed remnants of the state-cartel hierarchies left over from World War II must implode before we can move forward. Healthcare, defense, pharmaceuticals, higher education, the mainstream media and the systems of governance must all decay to the point that no one can be protected from the destructive consequences of their failure, and no paychecks can be issued by these failed systems.
Only then can we face the reality that failure has consequences. | 1real |
The Rich and Us | Who's really to blame for the corrupting influence of money in Washington, DC? November 3, 2016 Walter Williams
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, having a net worth of $81.8 billion, and Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, having a net worth of $70.4 billion, are the nation's two richest men. They are at the top of the Forbes 400 list of America's superrich individuals, people who have net worths of billions of dollars. Many see the rich as a danger. New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote, "It doesn't really matter what ordinary people want. The wealthy call the tune, and the politicians dance." His colleague Paul Krugman wrote, "On paper, we're a one-person-one-vote nation; in reality, we're more than a bit of an oligarchy, in which a handful of wealthy people dominate." It's sentiments like these that have led me to wish there were a humane way to get rid of the rich. For without having the rich around to be whipping boys and distract our attention, we might be able to concentrate on what's best for the 99.9 percent of the rest of us.
Let's look at the power of the rich. With all the money that Gates, Bezos and other superrich people have, what can they force you or me to do? Can they condemn our houses to create space so that another individual can build an auto dealership or a casino parking lot? Can they force us to pay money into the government-run — and doomed — Obamacare program? Can they force us to bus our children to schools out of our neighborhood in the name of diversity? Can they force us to buy our sugar from a high-cost domestic producer rather than from a low-cost Caribbean producer? The answer to all of these questions is a big fat no.
You say, "Williams, I don't understand." Let me be more explicit. Bill Gates cannot order you to enroll your child in another school in order to promote racial diversity. He has no power to condemn your house to make way for a casino parking lot. Unless our elected public officials grant them the power to rip us off, rich people have little power to force us to do anything. A lowly municipal clerk earning $50,000 a year has far more life-and-death power over us. It is that type of person to whom we must turn for permission to build a house, ply a trade, open a restaurant and do myriad other activities. It's government people, not rich people, who have the power to coerce us and rip us off. They have the power to make our lives miserable if we disobey. This coercive power goes a long way toward explaining legalized political corruption.
Take just one of thousands of examples. The Fanjuls are among the biggest sugar cane growers, and they co-own the world's largest refining company, American Sugar Refining, which markets its product under the brand names Domino, C&H, Redpath, Tate & Lyle and Florida Crystals. During the 2014 election cycle, Florida Crystals contributed more than $860,000 to candidates and political spending groups. It spent more than $1 million lobbying Congress, the U.S. departments of Agriculture and Commerce, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Here's my question to you: Do you think it forked over all that money to help our elected representatives uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution? Nonsense. The Fanjuls and other sugar producers want Congress to use tariffs to keep foreign-produced sugar out of our country so they can reap the financial benefits from being able to charge Americans two to three times the world price of sugar.
So here's the ultimate question: If some rich people can line the pockets of politicians to do their bidding at the expense of the rest of us, who's to blame? I think it's we, the people, who are to blame for not using our votes to run such politicians out of town — and that's most of them. But that might be deceitful of us, for we also ask politicians to enable us to live at the expense of others. | 1real |
UK PM May could have more to say on Brexit money at EU summit: spokeswoman | LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May could have more to say on the Brexit financial settlement at next week s European Union summit, her spokeswoman said on Friday. Brexit talks are deadlocked over money, the EU s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said on Thursday. He ruled out discussions on future trade being launched by EU leaders next week but spoke of possible progress by December. On financial settlement in general, the prime minister has been clear all along that we need to reach a settlement and we will honor our commitments, May s spokeswoman told reporters. The prime minister will be in Brussels next week where she will be talking to European leaders at the European Council so I am sure that there will be more to say there. May s spokeswoman said that the detail of the financial settlement was for the negotiation and that the issue could only be resolved as part of the settlement of all of the issues that she spoke about in Florence . | 0fake |
Comment on Breaking: CDC Blocks Testimony of Their Senior Scientist Who Blew The Whistle on Severe Medical Malpractice by CDC Accused of Blocking Testimony from Senior Scientist — New York Malpractice & Injury Lawyer Blog | Have you heard of Dr. William Thompson? If you haven’t, you’re not alone. His story was completely ignored by mainstream media outlets, the same way that they recently ignored the fact that the Pentagon paid a PR firm half a billon dollars to make fake terrorist/news videos. Dr. William Thompson is a longtime senior CDC scientist. He has published some of the most commonly cited pro-vaccine studies — studies which purport to show absolutely no link between the MMR vaccine and autism, for example. Two studies he and his co-author published in 2004 and 2007 (CDC studies) were the most commonly cited studies used by the scientific community to debunk the controversy surrounding the MMR vaccine/autism link. ( Thompson, et al. 2007, Price, et al. 2010 , Destefano, et al. 2004 ) The study concluded that “the evidence is now convincing that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine does not cause autism or any particular subtypes of autism spectrum disorder.” ( source ) A decade later, Dr. Thompson came out publicly admitting that that it was “the lowest point ” in his career when he “went along with that paper.” He went on to say that he and the other authors “didn’t report significant findings” and that he is “completely ashamed” of what he did, that he was “complicit and went along with this,” and regrets that he has “been a part of the problem.” ( source )( source )( source ) A study with revised information and no data omission was published by Dr. Brian Hooker (a contact of Dr. Thompson) in the peer reviewed journal Translational Neurodegeneration, and it found a 340% increased risk of autism in African American boys receiving the Measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine on time. The study has since been retracted during the same time of this controversy. You can read the full study HERE , although, unsurprisingly, it has since been retracted. Thompson’s attorneys, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Bryan Smith of Morgan & Morgan, also released a statement from Dr. Thompson, which mentioned Hooker: “ I have had many discussions with Dr. Brian Hooker over the last 10 months regarding studies the CDC has carried out regarding vaccines and neurodevelopmental outcomes including autism spectrum disorders. I share his belief that CDC decision-making and analyses should be transparent.” ( source ) Even pro-vaccine politicians were contacted, as these documents were sent to Congress. One of them reads as followed, as illustrated by congressman Bill Posey : “The [CDC] co-authors scheduled a meeting to destroy documents related to the [MMR vaccine] study. The remaining four co-authors all met and brought a big garbage can into the meeting room and reviewed and went through all the hard copy documents that we had thought we should discard and put them in a huge garbage can.” CDC Blocking Testimony Disconcertingly, Thomas Frieden (see picture above), the Director of the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), has blocked Dr. Thompson’s attempt to testify on scientific fraud and the destruction of evidence by senior CDC officials. Attorneys Smith and Kennedy have been seeking to have Thompson testify on medical malpractice, specifically with regard to fraud in a series of studies that found no link between vaccines and autism, which are cited earlier in the article. Mr. Kennedy writes that, according to Thompson, “for the past decade his superiors have pressured him and his fellow scientists to lie and manipulate data about the safety of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal to conceal its causative link to a suite of brain injuries, including autism.” Ecowatch , Dr. Frieden said that “Dr. William Thompson’s deposition testimony would not substantially promote the objectives of CDC or HHS [Health and Human Services].” Despite the fact that Thompson revealed a casual link between vaccines and autism, or autistic features, Frieden stated that “Dr William Thompson’s deposition testimony would not substantially promote the objectives of CDC or HHD.” The case seeking the testimony of Dr. Thompson is from the family of 16-year-old Yates Hazlehurst. A lawsuit is currently underway implying that Yates is autistic as a result of vaccine administration that occurred in 2001. Related CE Article With More Information
The Top 6 Reasons Why More Parents Are Choosing To Not Vaccinate Their Children Some Quotes That Really Make You Think “The medical profession is being bought by the pharmaceutical industry, not only in terms of the practice of medicine, but also in terms of teaching and research. The academic institutions of this country are allowing themselves to be the paid agents of the pharmaceutical industry. I think it’s disgraceful.” – ( source )( source ) Arnold Seymour Relman (1923-2014), Harvard Professor of Medicine and Former Editor-in-Chief of the New England Medical Journal “It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of the New England Journal of Medicine” Dr. Marcia Angell, a physician and longtime Editor in Chief of the New England Medical Journal ( source ) “The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness.” Dr. Richard Horton, the current editor-in-chief of the Lancet ( source ) | 1real |
Kidnapped Saudi released in Lebanon: Lebanese news agency | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Kidnappers in Lebanon have released a Saudi Arabian man whose abduction was announced by Riyadh last week, Lebanon s National News Agency reported on Wednesday. The case comes during a diplomatic crisis between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. The kidnapped Saudi ... was released. He was handed over to the Lebanese army intelligence, the agency reported. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have advised their citizens against traveling to Lebanon and urged those already there to leave as tensions have risen. Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Wednesday accused Saudi Arabia of holding hostage Saad al-Hariri, who resigned as Lebanon s prime minister on Nov. 4 in a televised statement broadcast from Riyadh, where he had traveled on Nov. 3. Saudi Arabia and Hariri both deny that he is being held by the kingdom. When Saudi Arabia said last week that one of its nationals had been abducted, Lebanese Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk said the safety of Saudi residents and visitors was a priority for the Lebanese authorities. | 0fake |
Got bank? Election could create flood of marijuana cash with no place to go | October 31 (Reuters) - Although the sale of marijuana is a federal crime, the number of U.S. banks working with pot businesses, now sanctioned in many states, is growing, up 45 percent in the last year alone. Still, marijuana merchants say there are not nearly enough banks willing to take their cash. So many dispensaries resort to stashing cash in storage units, back offices and armored vans. Proponents believe the Nov. 8 election could tip the balance in favor of liberalizing federal marijuana laws, a move seen as key to getting risk-averse banks off the sidelines. Measures on ballots in California, Florida and seven other states would bring to 34 the number of states sanctioning pot for medical or recreational use, or both. That could push annual sales, by one estimate, to $23 billion. The prospect for a market of such scale is adding urgency to calls for a national approach to marijuana that expands banking options. Law enforcement and Federal Reserve officials have expressed concern about the fraud and crime associated with un-bankable cash. Nearly 600 dispensary robberies have been reported in Denver since recreational pot was legalized in Colorado three years ago. “There’s not a single human being who thinks there is any benefit at all in forcing marijuana business to be conducted on an all-cash basis,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Oregon who has called for the decriminalization of marijuana since coming to Congress in 1996. The U.S. Justice Department said in 2014 it would not prosecute banks for serving state-sanctioned marijuana businesses. At the same time, the Treasury Department requires banks to report suspected drug crimes. At last count, 301 banks were serving marijuana businesses, according to the Treasury Department. Many more have avoided the sector out of fear that making the wrong call could put them at risk, said Robert Rowe, a vice president at the American Bankers Association. The National Cannabis Association is pressing Congress for a law that would hold banks harmless for handling pot cash, said Michael Correia, a lobbyist for the trade group. If California legalizes recreational use next week, the nation’s biggest Congressional delegation will have a big stake in the issue. In lieu of federal action, some states have tried their own fixes. Colorado created a credit union system for state-sanctioned marijuana businesses. But it fell apart when the Kansas City Federal Reserve denied a Colorado pot credit union access to the national payments system, which distributes currency and clears checks and electronic payments. California has no such plans, said Tom Dresslar, spokesman for the state’s Department of Business Oversight. “This was a problem created by federal law,” Dresslar said, “and it needs a federal solution.” In northern California, where growers serve state-sanctioned medical dispensaries as well as the black market, the Community Credit Union of Southern Humboldt stopped opening pot business accounts because of the red tape and uncertainty, said senior vice president Janet Sanchez. “We’re not being asked to go over to the gun dealer and ask them if they’re making appropriate background checks,” she said. Dispensary operators unable to find willing banks tell tales of subterfuge, recordkeeping nightmares and armies of security guards. Many open bank accounts and submit credit card charges in ways that obscure their true enterprise, such as “spa services.” Susana de la Rionda has run a Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensary for 12 years and has had to find a new bank about once a year and submit to tax audits twice as often. “I feel like a gangster,” she said. Denver Relief dispensary founder Ean Seeb said operators always are trying workarounds to get cash into banks, including washing bills in fabric softener to hide the odor of pot. For a time, he said, one automated teller machine near a Denver mall drew lines every night of marijuana merchants, each depositing the maximum $500 in cash. Partner Colorado Credit Union began working with state-sanctioned dispensaries two years ago and has developed elaborate protocols to minimize risk, including an initial vetting that can take three weeks. It uses armored trucks to take cash deposits directly from dispensaries to the Denver branch of the Federal Reserve Bank. When the credit union spots a red flag, Chief Executive Sundie Seefried dispatches employees to pay the dispensary a visit, and she has closed two accounts for compliance problems. Seefried encourages operators to visit by keeping fine cigars in her office, and she stays in touch with regulators. “Our program is designed with eyes on the business, eyes on the owner, eyes on the money,” she said. With 95 dispensary members, Seefried said the credit union is at capacity, and she hopes more bankers will get involved. She fields calls for advice, speaks to industry groups and, earlier this year, shared what she’s learned in a book. Despite the safeguards, Seefried said she takes nothing for granted. Every few months, she said she drills her staff to make sure they know what to do in the event of her arrest. “What calls are you going to make?” she said she asks them. “If you don’t have a little fear going into this because of the illegality at the federal level, you’re probably not the person to do this job,” she said. | 0fake |
White Man Arrested Unscathed After Pointing Shotgun At Cars And Shooting At A Cop (VIDEO) | This week, black men died at the hands of police in two unjustified and high profile scenarios. The murders of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, have once again reminded us that there is an unequal system of justice in America. If you re white, you re arrested and charged. If you re not, something as simple as jaywalking can be a death sentence.Video of the Sterling shooting shows officer pinning the 37-year-old man to the ground before he was shot multiple times in the back and chest. As for Castile, well, we saw him die live on Facebook after his girlfriend turned on her camera following the shooting. They had been pulled over for a busted tail light, and the 32-year-old was shot as he was reaching for his ID and wallet as police requested. Castile had a gun on him he licensed to carry a concealed weapon but this incident serves as more evidence that the Second Amendment is a whites-only thing.Both of these men, like Michael Brown and Eric Garner, John Crawford and the numerous black men gunned down by racist police, clearly did not deserve to die. It s not like they drew a weapon and fired at police. Who would do that, anyway? Oh, right.Ray, 62, was arrested peacefully by police after he innocently stood on the roadside in Wake County, North Carolina, as he pointed his shotgun at passing cars. You know, exercising his Second Amendment rights and all that. When Sheriff s Deputy D.R. Farmerstopped to question him, Ray became belligerent and pointed the shotgun at the officer. This alone would give Farmer reason to, at minimum, draw his weapon. But it gets worse. The deputy luckily grabbed the barrel and pushed him back, Sheriff Donnie Harrison said. The man says, I got something for you and reached in his pocket and came back with a pistol. Farer pushed the .22-caliber handgun aside, but not before Ray was able to fire off a shot. Luckily, nobody got hurt. That s the good thing. God was looking out for us, Harrison said. (Ray) was very fortunate that he didn t get shot, very fortunate that anybody didn t get shot. Why didn t he get shot? What could possibly be the difference between this man and those who were so recently outright murdered by police?Ray s defense attorney and neighbor says mental health is the issue, but police point out that alcohol was a factor as well. Ray was drunk at the time of the incident. After his arrest, Ray continued to be uncooperative with police, snatching cameras off the wall of an interrogation room.He has been charged with two counts of assault on a law enforcement officer with a firearm and one count of injury to personal property because of the camera incident.At no point was he beaten, shot, deprived of food and water, or denied medical care. It s almost as though he s considered a human being with rights which is treatment above and beyond what many African-Americans receive from police across the nation. Even if they are lucky enough to live long enough to see the inside of a jail cell, as we noticed with Sandra Bland, death is always lurking around the corner and it s usually wearing a badge.Watch a report on the arrest below:Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
WATCH: Creepy Young Ted Cruz Says He Wants To ‘Be In A Teen T*t Film, Rule Everything’ | 2016 Ted Cruz is a moralizing, holier than thou insufferable prick on a mission from Jesus to save America from liberals and Muslims and brown people. 1988 Ted Cruz, on the other hand, was an insufferable prick that wanted to be rich and powerful, rule the world and .be in a teen tit flick:Via Politico:The new clip was posted on YouTube under the name Young Ted Cruz. The operator of the account told POLITICO the video had been provided by a high school classmate of Cruz s who wished to remain anonymous. The video comes less than 10 days before the Iowa caucuses, where polls show Cruz at or near the lead.You might be saying that it s unfair to slam Cruz for being 18, but let s be honest here, if a video surfaced of an 18 year old Hillary Clinton doing anything even slightly embarrassing, we would never hear the end of it.For most people, this would just be an isolated incident from their past. Not so much for Ted Cruz. His college roommate, his classmates and pretty much everyone that s ever spent more than a few minutes with him have said pretty much the same thing: Ted Cruz is a smug, arrogant and thoroughly awful person with a reputation of creepy behavior around women. His time in Congress has been marked with an obsession with accumulating power at the expense of everyone around him.In this context, Cruz s aspirations as a teen seem less like a joke and more like an honest assessment, including his desire to be in a teen tit film. I have to agree with his father s attitude; when asked if Ted would one day rule the world, he simply says, I hope not! So say we all.Featured image via screencap. | 1real |
How Putin Derailed the West | shorty BY MIKE WHITNEY “Nation state as a fundamental unit of man’s organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force: International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation-state.” — Zbigniew Brzezinski, “Between Two Ages: The Technetronic Era”, 1971 “I’m going to continue to push for a no-fly zone and safe havens within Syria….not only to help protect the Syrians and prevent the constant outflow of refugees, but to gain some leverage on both the Syrian government and the Russians.” — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Third Presidential Debate W hy is Hillary Clinton so eager to intensify US involvement in Syria when US interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya have all gone so terribly wrong? The answer to this question is simple. It’s because Clinton doesn’t think that these interventions went wrong. And neither do any of the other members of the US foreign policy establishment. (aka–The Borg). In fact, in their eyes these wars have been a rousing success. Sure, a few have been critical of the public relations backlash from the nonexistent WMD in Iraq, (or the logistical errors, like disbanding the Iraqi Army) but–for the most part– the foreign policy establishment is satisfied with its efforts to destabilize the region and remove leaders that refuse to follow Washington’s diktats. This is hard for ordinary people to understand. They can’t grasp why elite powerbrokers would want to transform functioning, stable countries into uninhabitable wastelands overrun by armed extremists, sectarian death squads and foreign-born terrorists. Nor can they understand what has been gained by Washington’s 15 year-long rampage across the Middle East and Central Asia that has turned a vast swathe of strategic territory into a terrorist breeding grounds? What is the purpose of all this? First, we have to acknowledge that the decimation and de facto balkanization of these countries is part of a plan. If it wasn’t part of a plan, than the decision-makers would change the policy. But they haven’t changed the policy. The policy is the same. The fact that the US is using foreign-born jihadists to pursue regime change in Syria as opposed to US troops in Iraq, is not a fundamental change in the policy. The ultimate goal is still the decimation of the state and the elimination of the existing government. This same rule applies to Libya and Afghanistan both of which have been plunged into chaos by Washington’s actions. But why? What is gained by destroying these countries and generating so much suffering and death? Here’s what I think: I think Washington is involved in a grand project to remake the world in a way that better meets the needs of its elite constituents, the international banks and multinational corporations. Brzezinski not only refers to this in the opening quote, he also explains what is taking place: The nation-state is being jettisoned as the foundation upon which the global order rests. Instead, Washington is erasing borders, liquidating states, and removing strong, secular leaders that can mount resistance to its machinations in order to impose an entirely new model on the region, a new world order. The people who run these elite institutions want to create an interconnected-global free trade zone overseen by the proconsuls of Big Capital, in other words, a global Eurozone that precludes the required state institutions (like a centralized treasury, mutual debt, federal transfers) that would allow the borderless entity to function properly. Deep state powerbrokers who set policy behind the smokescreen of our bought-and-paid-for congress think that one world government is an achievable goal provided they control the world’s energy supplies, the world’s reserve currency and become the dominant player in this century’s most populous and prosperous region, Asia. This is essentially what Hillary’s “pivot” to Asia is all about. The basic problem with Washington’s NWO plan is that a growing number of powerful countries are still attached to the old world order and are now prepared to defend it. This is what’s really going on in Syria, the improbable alliance of Russia, Syria, Iran and Hezbollah have stopped the US military juggernaut dead in its tracks. The unstoppable force has hit the immovable object and the immovable object has prevailed…so far. Naturally, the foreign policy establishment is upset about these new developments, and for good reason. The US has run the world for quite a while now, so the rolling back of US policy in Syria is as much a surprise as it is a threat. The Russian Airforce deployed to Syria a full year ago in September, but only recently has Washington shown that it’s prepared to respond by increasing its support of its jihadists agents on the ground and by mounting an attack on ISIS in the eastern part of the country, Raqqa. But the real escalation is expected to take place when Hillary Clinton becomes president in 2017. That’s when the US will directly engage Russia militarily, assuming that their tit-for-tat encounters will be contained within Syria’s borders. It’s a risky plan, but it’s the next logical step in this bloody fiasco. Neither party wants a nuclear war, but Washington believes that doing nothing is tantamount to backing down, therefore, Hillary and her neocon advisors can be counted on to up the ante. “No-fly zone”, anyone? The assumption is that eventually, and with enough pressure, Putin will throw in the towel. But this is another miscalculation. Putin is not in Syria because he wants to be nor is he there because he values his friendship with Syrian President Bashar al Assad. That’s not it at all. Putin is in Syria because he has no choice. Russia’s national security is at stake. If Washington’s strategy of deploying terrorists to topple Assad succeeds, then the same ploy will be attempted in Iran and Russia. Putin knows this, just like he knows that the scourge of foreign-backed terrorism can decimate entire regions like Chechnya. He knows that it’s better for him to kill these extremists in Aleppo than it will be in Moscow. So he can’t back down, that’s not an option. But, by the same token, he can compromise, in other words, his goals and the goals of Assad do not perfectly coincide. For example, he could very well make territorial concessions to the US for the sake of peace that Assad might not support. But why would he do that? Why wouldn’t he continue to fight until every inch of Syria’s sovereign territory is recovered? Because it’s not in Russia’s national interest to do so, that’s why. Putin has never tried to conceal the fact that he’s in Syria to protect Russia’s national security. That’s his main objective. But he’s not an idealist, he’s a pragmatist who’ll do whatever he has to to end the war ASAP. That means compromise. This doesn’t matter to the Washington warlords….yet. But it will eventually. Eventually there will be an accommodation of some sort. No one is going to get everything they want, that much is certain. For example, it’s impossible to imagine that Putin would launch a war on Turkey to recover the territory that Turkish troops now occupy in N Syria. In fact, Putin may have already conceded as much to Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan in their recent meetings. But that doesn’t mean that Putin doesn’t have his red lines. He does. Aleppo is a red line. Turkish troops will not be allowed to enter Aleppo. The western corridor, the industrial and population centers are all red lines. On these, there will be no compromise. Putin will help Assad remain in power and keep the country largely intact. But will Turkey control sections in the north, and will the US control sections in the east? Probably. This will have to be worked out in negotiations, but its unlikely that the country’s borders will be the same as they were before the war broke out. Putin will undoubtedly settle for a halfloaf provided the fighting ends and security is restored. In any event, he’s not going to hang around until the last dog is hung. Unfortunately, we’re a long way from any settlement in Syria, mainly because Washington is nowhere near accepting the fact that its project to rule the world has been derailed. That’s the crux of the matter, isn’t it? The bigshots who run the country are still in denial. It hasn’t sunk in yet that the war is lost and that their nutty jihadist-militia plan has failed. It’s going to take a long time before Washington gets the message that the world is no longer its oyster. The sooner they figure it out, the better it’ll be for everyone. NOTE: ALL IMAGE CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES AND COMMENTARY BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS PLEASE COMMENT AND DEBATE DIRECTLY ON OUR FACEBOOK GROUP CLICK HERE ABOUT THE AUTHOR MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition . He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com . 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