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WOW! FORD ASSEMBLY LINE Worker: In 20 Years, I Have Never Seen This Much Enthusiasm For A Republican Candidate | Our good friend Brian Pannebecker is a tireless advocate of right-to-work in America and was instrumental in the fight to pass the wildly unpopular law in our very blue state of Michigan. We ve always admired his courage to stand up to union thugs who have done everything in their power to shut down his opposition to the Leftist, Democrat supporting unions. Brian penned this awesome letter to the Detroit Free Press. We d like to share it with you here:As a blue-collar worker in a UAW-represented plant, I m seeing an enthusiasm for a Republican candidate that I have not seen in the 20 years that I have worked at Ford Motor Co. There s a lot of talk about who will win the labor vote this season. But we have to ask, just who does the term labor actually represent when it is used today?In the 21st Century, labor unions increasingly represent college educated workers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2015 nearly half of all union members worked for the government. Public sector workers (those paid with your tax dollars) are almost five times more likely to belong to a union than private sector workers. And while unionized workers in Michigan can now refuse to pay union dues, even while working under the terms of a negotiated contract thanks to Right to Work, many feel intimidated and are afraid to exercise that right due to veiled threats from union bosses and some coworkers.The support that Donald Trump has from union families and blue collar workers may be surprising to some. Two polls cited in the Free Press recently showed that 30% of those who said there is a union member in their household plan to vote for Trump. But you have to look beyond measures of union-represented workers. Today, many blue-collar workers, including some represented by unions that have endorsed Hillary Clinton, are looking to Donald Trump s candidacy to return the power to them, and bring jobs back to America that left after bad trade deals, including NAFTA.In an online poll conducted for Bloomberg News, 55% of whites with no more than a high school degree, said they support Trump. In my plant, there are a lot of people who are saying I m voting for Trump and I m not ashamed of it. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has supported NAFTA and the TPP in the past, while Donald Trump has promised to re-negotiate NAFTA and to oppose the TPP. Union members like that kind of talk, and that s why so many of them are breaking with their union bosses to support Donald Trump.Brian PannebeckerFORD Assembly Line Worker, MI | 1real |
Supreme Court Gives A Big ‘F You’ To GOP, Rejects Racist Gerrymandering | The Supreme Court did something amazing on Monday. They decided, with a unanimous conscience, that the principle of one person one vote was the way to go in a Democratic Republic like the United States.Still reeling from the disastrous decision that struck down the Voting Rights Act in 2013, Republicans sought to double down on their assaults on voting rights through racist gerrymandering.Today, the Supreme Court gave Republicans a well-deserved F-You when they rejected the GOP s appeal to a lower Virginia court ruling that overturned the redistricted map.Sending the case back to the lower court, the Supreme Court basically said they got it right, and see no reason to consider an appeal, thus giving Democrats (and the people of Virginia) the fairness they deserved and were robbed of in 2012.Two years ago, a federal court struck down Virginia s newly drawn congressional maps because the drawers packed tens of thousands of black voters into an already heavily black, heavily Democratic congressional district. The redrawing, which heavily favored Republicans, allowed the GOP to win 8 out of the state s 11 congressional districts, even though President Obama won the state by three points and the electorate was down ticket.While it won t capture a majority of the 8 seats held by Republicans, the decision will certainly be turning the 4th Congressional District blue. Currently represented by Randy Forbes, the district will go from having a 48 percent Democratic electorate to a rightful 60 percent.With Democrats aiming to take back the House and keep the swing state of Virginia blue in November, this decision has come at a very good time.Looks like another gerrymandering, redistricting ploy from the Republicans to steal the elections has gone down in flames. Last year, the Supreme Court smacked down Republicans in Arizona when they tried to pull the same shenanigans. With Arizona s booming Hispanic and Latino populations, GOP control is on the verge of collapsing.Republicans want to hold onto absolute power, and they are seeing it slip away from them. So they try to cheat to win. And sometimes the Supreme Court does he right thing and blocks them from doing just that.Since it wasn t picked up, that means at least 5 Justices (out of eight) or more said no. If Scalia was still alive, I wonder if the case would have been picked up. And had it been picked up, how would the Court have decided it?Maybe Republicans shouldn t be so quick to turn down a moderate Merrick Garland confirmation. Not that he outcome would have been any different in their favor.Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images | 1real |
“WHITE STUDENT UNION” Groups Spring Up World-Wide With A Message Obama And Friends Would Rather You Didn’t Hear | Individual people can be bullied into submission but as a group we can t be silenced If we are to really live in an environment where race is not a factor, we need to stop allowing the union of Obama-Holder-Sharpton-Soros-#BlackLivesMatter terrorists-Black Panther-Louis Farahkan-Black Liberation Theology-CAIR-liberal academia-Socialist Party-Democrat Party-Anarchists-Communist Party to stop making it an issue. White students are not a minority, but they are currently being treated worse than most minorities, if they break rank with the left-wing multicultural orthodoxy that is hellbent of persecuting expression of whiteness. White student unions are springing up at universities across Australia, as well as at universities and colleges across America.More than 30 White Student Union pages have recently sprung up over the last several days on Facebook, pages that affiliate themselves with various universities around the nation.The creation of an Illini White Student Union Facebook page that surfaced Nov. 18 in response to a Black Student Solidarity Rally at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign gained national attention, but apparently it s just the tip of the iceberg.Over the last week, at least 33 other White Student Union pages have appeared on Facebook, according to research conducted Sunday by The College Fix.Notably, White Student Union Facebook pages have been created for Stanford, Penn State, UCLA, UC Berkeley, the University of Missouri, and NYU, along with many others.These White Student Union pages currently exist only as social media creations, and it is not clear whether they are created by students at their respective universities. It is also unclear if these groups plan to become actual student organizations on campus, although a North Carolina university page states they plan on holding group meetings, info sessions, rallies, and protests on the UNC campus. White Student Unions say they are supporting and defending the interests of white students who they say are becoming marginalised from on-campus life and political debate.This video truly exposes the hypocrisy of the Left. From the Illinois White Student Union Facebook Page:At least seven unofficial unions have formed at rapid speed in the past week, claiming to represent students of European descent at the University of Queensland, the University of Southern Queensland, the University of Technology, Sydney, Macquarie University, Western Sydney University, the University of NSW and the University of Western Australia.However, there are allegations that the movement is in fact an elaborate attempt to troll universities and the media, by the likes users of online bulletin boards 4chan and 8chan.If it is a hoax, it is a pretty sophisticated one, with members reaching out to news.com.au to share their views on the need to advance our interests as white students .The proliferation of white student unions follows a similar trend in the US, where groups have built considerable support on social media and many intend to establish an on-campus presence in the new year. However, this has also been dismissed as a hoax.Australian universities have distanced themselves from these unofficial groups, which are copping backlash on social media by fellow students and others who accuse them of white supremacy and racism. Responses to the groups on social media have ranged from be proud of your heritage! to f*** off Nazis .Others have responded with utter incredulity: This page is satire, right? one person asked.But the students behind the unions deny white pride is akin to racism, and argue they have as legitimate a place in university life as any other student group. ALL WE WANT IS EQUALITY The White Students Union at the Western Sydney University, which formed over the weekend and is already into the double digits of members, is not out to antagonise anyone , according its spokesman.The spokesman, who approached news.com.au to write a story, said he was a 24-year-old journalism student and gave us his name, but we have chosen not to publish it because we could not verify it.He said the group, which will seek formal registration with the university in 2016 and already has a six-person committee, was designed to advance our interests as white students and promote a safe space where we can come together as a community and organise . We re a genuine group, we re not doing it to troll anyone, he told news.com.au. If you roll up to any university these days you ll have gay safe spaces, Muslim safe spaces: in the last four or five years it s become very politically correct. That s great. I m as PC as they come. We re staying within the narrative. All we want is equality. He said he was absolutely expecting a backlash, but wanted to test the boundaries of what they re willing to acknowledge . We just thought, why not? Everyone else is doing it, why can t we do it? Anecdotally we have a lot of support from the ethnic students, he said. Our main antagonists are actually the older, white academics. These people say they re all about equality. The academics try to build this narrative that nobody supports this stuff, but it s happening. We re just using that language ourselves. Despite the hoax claims, universities are taking the rise of these unions seriously.In a statement, a spokesman for Western Sydney University said the group was not an official or authorised student group, adding: The university prides itself on the diversity of its university community and condemns any action that seeks to undermine this. Has there been a SINGLE college or university who has made this sort of claim about a Black Lives Matter organization or protest? Why the double standard? The University of Technology, Sydney, and Macquarie University both said white student unions formed by their students were not official and did not reflect the views of the universities or the majority of their students.In the About section of the Facebook page for the UTS White Student Union, it says the group was advancing the rights for the people of European descent and anyone from any background can join .A spokeswoman for Macquarie University said it had publicly contacted the administrators of the page yesterday, requesting that they remove the campus image and refrain from referring to themselves as a student organisation at Macquarie University . We understand this page is likely to be part of a wider hoax, stemming from North America, nevertheless we are continuing our investigations into the origin of this page, the spokeswoman told news.com.au.The University of Queensland went so far as to condemn the University of Queensland White Student Union, which was formed last Tuesday, as a racist web hoax .On its Facebook page, which has 378 likes, the University of Queensland White Student Union group rails against university overcrowding and rich international students outbidding white Australian students for rental housing and casual work. We re forced to put up with an overcrowded campus that hosts thousands more students than it was ever designed for. Not enough parking, not enough toilets, not enough computers, not enough study spaces, a post dated November 24 reads. We re forced to do group work with internationals who can t speak English, we carry the load and do all the work while our marks are dragged down. We re forced to put up with the anti-social behaviour of a particular group of students who treat study spaces as social spaces and constantly attempt to reserve public resources such as computers. Enough is enough. The founders of the UQ group asked not to be identified but said they represented white students who ve had their voices silenced by political correctness . Individual people can be bullied into submission but as a group we can t be silenced, the group told news.com.au Political correctness and free speech are issues that are becoming more and more important. The group said existing student organisations were obsessed with catering to minorities and they planned to establish their own society on campus in 2016. We re very clear on our position that white people have every right to organise themselves and act collectively to further their mutual interests, they said. We don t think whites are inherently superior and definitely don t think they should rule over anybody else. We think the ideas and issues we re raising have become more relevant to students as a new strain of political correctness has swept across the Western word over the past few years promoting ideas like white privilege . There are all these nasty ideas around now that white people, particularly white men, are always privileged regardless of their background and personal circumstances and that if they suffer hardship they deserve it, and that white people are the cause of everything that s wrong in the world. News.com.au asked the spokesman to prove that he was a legitimate student at the university, but he said he thought it was in his best interests to maintain anonymity due to death threats the group had received.Third-year University of Western Australia student Michael (who did not wish to reveal his last name) said he founded the UWA White Student Association on the weekend.He said ensuring all students and staff spoke fluent English, making sure the full breadth of white, European holidays and festivities were celebrated on campus, getting racist attacks on white students recognised as racism, and having the recently dumped European studies major reinstated were among the issues his group intended to lobby for. Our basic aims are to represent the interests of white students on campus, as well as do our bit to reverse what we view as the rapid decline of Western civilisation, caused by mass immigration resulting in a clash of values, and the decline of family values, Michael told news.com.au.A spokesman for UWA said the university did not endorse behaviours and actions which are deemed to be racially and culturally intolerant or offensive . UWA has a strong track record on promoting cultural and religious diversity and the university is committed to produce graduates who are intellectually and emotionally comfortable with difference, the spokesman said. In response to accusations of racism, Michael says he and the group were not racists and we never will be . Supporting white students doesn t imply hatred of other races, it s not a logical accusation, he said. We would be happy to work with other ethnic clubs to fulfil mutual goals. (Groups that represent ethnic minority groups) are nothing new, and we don t have an issue with them. What is new is the increasing difficulty white students face in expressing their views, identity, or culture on campus without being shouted down and labelled. White students are not a minority, but they are currently being treated worse than most minorities, if they break rank with the left-wing multicultural orthodoxy that is hellbent of persecuting expression of whiteness. The emergence of white student unions at universities in the US, including Berkeley and Harvard, have been suggested to be a response to a wave of recent anti-racism protests. One such union at the University of Illinois sprung up hours after a black solidarity event was held on campus. Others, however, have been revealed as hoaxes. So where we may have a scholarship program for indigenous students, or we may have programs that seek to enhance the experience of international students on campus, and that s perceived at discrimination, it s very disappointing when people take that position. Dr Gale said it was also disappointing some people who were part of mainstream Australia didn t have an appreciation for the privileged position of being at university.For entire story: News com.au | 1real |
В наступлении на Мосул иракская армия взяла передышку | 0 комментариев 0 поделились Фото: AP
"Они сделали паузу в наступлении и проводят передислокацию, переукомплектование и зачистку позиций в тылу. Мы считаем, что это займет лишь пару дней, а после этого мы продолжим наступление в направлении Мосула. Это их план действий, и мы полагаем, что они будут его придерживаться", - заявил Дорриан.
Массированное наступление на Мосулведется с 17 октября иракскими военными и силами полиции, а также курдскими формированиями при поддержке авиации коалиции во главе с США.
Напомним, как сообщала Правда.Ру, президент Иракского Курдистана Масуд Барзани заявил, что при сохранении нынешних темпов наступления на Мосул на освобождение от боевиков ИГ (запрещена в РФ) может уйти три месяца.
"Мы смогли быстро отвоевать приступы к городу, неизвестно, насколько сильно ИГ будет обороняться в самом городе. Но мы видим, что у них есть сотни смертников, должно быть, там целые фабрики по производству взрывчатки. При штурме это создаст большую опасность. Если все и дальше пойдет хорошо, я рассчитываю, что город удастся освободить самое позднее через три месяца", - сказал Барзани в интервью таблоиду Bild .
Напомним, 17 октября премьер-министр Ирака Хайдер аль-Абади заявил о начале военной операции по освобождению Мосула от боевиков ИГ. США и их союзники с 2014 года проводят в Ираке и Сирии операцию против ИГ. Иракские военные и силы полиции, а также курдские формирования при поддержке авиации коалиции во главе с США начали массированное наступление на город.
Однако это наступление может обернуться катастрофой на Ближнем Востоке. Об этом заявил, к примеру, кандидат в президенты США Дональд Трамп. Или вот мнение отставного полковника США Дэниэла Дэвиса, которое он изложил в статье, опубликованной в The National Interest : Америке и силам коалиции стоит поторопиться с проведением операции в Мосуле, в противном случае террористы могут разорвать этот альянс Чем дольше продержится ИГ и чем больший урон нанесет коалиции, тем более вероятно, что религиозные и политические различия между освободительными силами будут проявляться все сильнее", - пишет Дэвис.
Прокомментировать ситуацию Pravda.Ru попросила военного эксперта Бориса Подопригору.
В последние несколько месяцев официального пребывания американского президента в Белом доме, им захотелось организовать такой политический спектакль на тему американской приверженности в борьбе с терроризмом. Я так это вижу.
Что из этого получится, мне сказать сложно. Самое плохое, что я ожидаю, это новое столкновение по линии сунниты-шииты. Вот в чем самая большая проблема.
Читайте последние новости Pravda. Ru на сегодня
Катастрофа в Мосуле: Запад имитирует борьбу с терроризмом Поделиться: | 1real |
Myanmar takes first step to ease Buddhist-Muslim tension | YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar on Tuesday launched its first bid to improve relations between Buddhists and Muslims since an eruption of deadly violence in August inflamed communal tension and triggered an exodus of some 520,000 Muslims to Bangladesh. Rohingya Muslims are still fleeing, more than six weeks after Rohingya insurgents attacked security forces in western Myanmar s Rakhine state. The United Nations has denounced a ferocious military crackdown in response to the attacks as ethnic cleansing aimed at driving out Rohingya. A new surge of refugees has entered Bangladesh in recent days, including about 11,000 on Monday. Some have told of increasing hunger in Rakhine as well as of more mob attacks on Muslim villagers. Despite growing international condemnation of the refugee crisis, the military campaign is popular in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where there is little sympathy for the Rohingya, and for Muslims in general, and where Buddhist nationalism has surged in recent years. The party of government leader Aung San Suu Kyi took the first step toward trying to ease animosity with inter-faith prayers at a stadium in the biggest city of Yangon, with Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Christians and others. Thousands of people packed the stands of the stadium, with Buddhist monks, Hindus, Christian nuns and Muslim men with beards and caps listening to religious leaders who took turns to appeal for friendship. Be free from killing one another, be free from torturing one another, be free from destroying or demolishing one another, the chief Buddhist monk of Yangon, Iddhibala, told the crowd. Stepping off the podium, he shook hands with Muslim leader Hafiz Mufti Ali. Citizens should collaborate in friendship and work for the country, Ali said, adding: Freedom of life, freedom of education, freedom of religion, it is absolutely necessary for the country to fulfill all these rights. The Rohingya had pinned hopes for change on Suu Kyi s party but it has been wary of Buddhist nationalist pressure. Her party did not field a single Muslim candidate in the 2015 election that it swept. Rohingya are not classified as an indigenous minority in Myanmar and so are denied citizenship under a law that links nationality to ethnicity. Regarded as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, they face restrictions and discrimination and are derided by ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in Rakhine, and by much of the wider population. The militants of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) who launched the Aug. 25 attacks that triggered the latest spasm of violence are demanding full citizenship rights and recognition as an indigenous community. A one-month ceasefire the insurgents called in September in order, they said, to ease aid deliveries to Rakhine, expired at midnight on Monday, but authorities said there was no sign of any new attacks. The government rebuffed the ceasefire, saying it did not negotiate with terrorists. Myanmar denies ethnic cleansing. It says more than 500 people have been killed in the violence since late August, most of them ARSA terrorists . Even before the government offensive, the small, lightly armed ARSA appeared only capable of hit-and-run raids and unable to mount any sort of sustained challenge to the army. The insurgents said on Saturday they were ready to respond to any peace move by the government, even though their ceasefire was ending. Reports of food shortages in Rakhine will add to the urgency of calls by aid agencies and the international community for unfettered humanitarian access to the conflict zone. Villagers said food was running out because rice crops were not ready for harvest and authorities had shut village markets and limited food transport, apparently to cut supplies to the militants. The government has cited worry about food as a main reason people have cited for leaving, but a senior state government official dismissed any suggestion of starvation. Among those fleeing were more than 30 people on a boat that capsized off Bangladesh on Sunday. Twenty-five people drowned, 13 of them children, police said. | 0fake |
WATCH: “We’re getting a glimpse of a world without America…and it’s scary as hell” | The Intellectual Froglegs videos by Joe Dan Gorman are truly a gift to conservatives in America. Joe Dan uses hard-hitting, brutally honest and absolutely hysterical commentary to deliver an important, eye-opening message to the masses. He has the ability to expose the Left and the idiocy of those who support their policies like no other.His videos are usually 15 minutes or longer, but the two most common remarks we receive from viewers who have watched his videos on our 100 Percent FED UP Facebook page are: Every American needs to see this video and It was worth watching every minute of this video. The lines have been drawn there is a segment of society that no matter what they hate Donald Trump, and the notion of him becoming president make them ill.. To them I dedicate this video. Heh, heh, heh.The number one, two and three issues are the border, the economy and immigration . all three inextricably connected. And America wants the damn wall that we ve been promised for 40 years. Trump will deliver.The haters continue to claim Trump is no conservative but his policies are conservative as hell which leads me to the following conclusion. Considering Trump s undeniably conservative policies in conjunction with his unparalleled business successes and add the fact that he has lived his life in a WILDLY liberal Manhattan, I conclude that Trump has always been a closet conservative.A businessman has to make friends to succeed.We d like to thank Intellectual Froglegs for the awesome mention in his latest video. We are honored to be associated with this hard working, smart and conservative voice for conservatives across America.Please go to the Intellectual Froglegs website to view more of Joe Dan s quality videos.Joe Dan Gorman is the creator and producer of Intellectual Frog Legs. When he is not creating and producing stuff, he is busy eating meat, playing guitar and defending the Constitution from liberal zombies. Joe Dan is only able to continue doing what he does when you share his videos. PLEASE HELP Joe Dan in his attempt to cure liberalism by donating to his production costs by clicking HERE. | 1real |
Internal Inquiry Sealed the Fate of Roger Ailes at Fox - The New York Times | Executives at 21st Century Fox decided to end the tenure of Roger Ailes after lawyers they hired to investigate an allegation of sexual harassment against him took statements from at least six other women who described inappropriate behavior from Mr. Ailes, two people briefed on the inquiry said Wednesday. One of the people said that the details of the allegations, while unverified, were troubling enough that they left 21st Century Fox little choice but to force an end to Mr. Ailes’s reign as chairman and chief executive of Fox News, given the potential liability they presented to the company both legally and in terms of its own corporate culture. The people with knowledge of the state of discussions over Mr. Ailes’s exit agreement said both sides were working toward an accommodation that would recognize Mr. Ailes’s service to the company as the founder and leader of Fox News, which sits atop the cable news ratings and is a major profit engine for 21st Century Fox. The agreement could also include a provision for him to continue with Fox as a consultant. But given the personalities and complications involved, the situation was fluid enough that no accommodation had been reached by Wednesday night. Fox News did not respond to requests for comment on the status of the discussions or on the investigation, which is being conducted by the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton Garrison. Lawyers for Mr. Ailes did not respond to requests for comment. Mr. Ailes has denied the allegations of sexual harassment and more than a dozen Fox News staff members, including some top stars, have publicly supported him. The people briefed on the investigation, who would not speak for attribution because of the sensitivity of the investigation, stressed that it was narrowly focused on the allegations against Mr. Ailes, and not the broader climate at the network. But Mr. Ailes’s departure will have much wider implications. Given Fox News’s place as a central hub for conservative opinion — not to mention as a primary outlet for the Republican nominee for president, Donald J. Trump — the shape of its operation goes beyond corporate intrigue at 21st Century Fox, and could have consequences for the national political dialogue. In the two weeks since Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox anchor, filed suit against Mr. Ailes, the Murdoch family, which runs 21st Century Fox, has made it clear that its decision to take the allegations seriously was in keeping with its desire to follow modern standards for office conduct, and that these needed to extend to Fox News, as well. The question in the environment is to what extent the Murdochs decide to continue on with Mr. Ailes’s current management team. That, in turn, could determine the future approach and look of the network, which is the outlet of choice for viewers seeking an alternative to the mainstream media. Speculation about who Mr. Ailes’s successor would be transfixed the media world on Wednesday, with focus on outsiders such as the CBS News president, David Rhodes, who had worked at Fox News for several years one of Mr. Ailes’s current lieutenants, like Bill Shine or Michael Clemente the New York Post chief executive Jesse Angelo or someone from conservative media like Christopher Ruddy, the founder and chief executive of Newsmax Media Inc. At least for the day, fears that some of Fox News’s stars, like Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren, would exercise contract clauses to leave with Mr. Ailes’s loss of his chairmanship, appeared to abate. Network staff members were acutely focused on Megyn Kelly, who had hinted in recent months she wanted to leave the network. She was one of the women who told Paul, Weiss investigators that Mr. Ailes had acted improperly with her, one of the people briefed on the inquiry said Tuesday. Ms. Kelly maintained her silence on Wednesday. But as the end of Mr. Ailes’s chairmanship approached, it appeared to embolden other women to discuss their own experiences at the network. Several spoke with reporters on condition that they not be named. In interviews, several current and former Fox News employees said inappropriate comments about a woman’s appearance and her sex life were frequent in the newsroom. The newsroom has been on edge in the weeks since Ms. Carlson filed her suit, one person said. Everybody wants to talk about the drama but nobody wants to talk in the open, the person said. As of Wednesday evening, staff members had not received an email from 21st Century Fox, Fox News or Mr. Ailes informing them about the events that have transpired, the investigation or the future of the network. The swift pace of events at Fox News — only two weeks passed between Ms. Carlson’s filing of her lawsuit and the negotiations to end Mr. Ailes’s leadership — were especially surprising for a network that has made its name by embracing “politically incorrect” themes, something in keeping with the brash personalities of both Mr. Ailes and the 21st Century Fox patriarch, Rupert Murdoch. Female hosts in skirts, sitting behind translucent desks that can highlight their legs, have always been a network trademark. To completely move away from that ethos would be to fundamentally change the network. And 21st Century Fox’s leadership will have to be mindful of maintaining its special relationship with viewers that Mr. Ailes has so carefully cultivated, and which is central to the financial and ratings success of the network. Mr. Murdoch will ultimately determine that direction in close consultation — and perhaps even some deference — to the two sons he is grooming to succeed him, Lachlan and James Murdoch. The latter, at least, is known to have different politics from his father. So far, none of the three has made any public statement about the network, its future or, for that matter, Mr. Ailes. | 0fake |
Here’s What The Fracking Industry Gave To Oklahoma In 2015 (IMAGES) | The fracking industry has given the state of Oklahoma a new claim to fame that no one in Oklahoma wanted. In 2015, Oklahoma had more earthquakes than the entire continental United States combined. There were 857 earthquakes in Oklahoma with a magnitude of 3.0 or higher. The total number of earthquakes for the continental United States with a 3.0 magnitude or higher was 1,556.Nearly two dozen peer reviewed, scientific papers have been published that show that there is a likely link between waste water injection wells used by the fracking industry and the increased number of quakes that have rocked the state.Oklahoma has seen a dramatic increase in the number of earthquakes over the past few years, that coincide with the state s fracking boom. In 2014, there were 585 quakes, a record for the state. In 2013, there were a comparatively stable 106.Here is a chart that shows the rising number of earthquakes. It is important to note that there were 84 less quakes in 2015 than was projected. As devastating as the quakes can be for the local population, they are also a matter of national security. The small town of Cushing, Oklahoma is considered a top target for terrorist attacks. That s because Cushing is the largest oil hub in North America. Cushing holds a considerable amount of crude oil. Bloomberg reports that some of the tanks can fit a Boeing 747 jet inside of them. Though they are generally used to store around 10 million barrels of crude oil. On Oct. 10, 2015 a 4.5 earthquake occurred just three mules from Cushing.The irony that a process used to extract oil is putting the United States largest oil hub in grave danger, should not be lost on anyone.In 2015, the ban on oil exports was lifted, setting the stage for increased use of fracking in the United States, far more so than what was already expected to occur.Featured Image Credit: Oklahoma Office Of The Secretary Of Energy & Environment via Ecowatch | 1real |
SNL Perfectly Skewers Trump And His Band Of Malicious Merry Morons (VIDEO) | With everything going on at Donald Trump rallies lately, it was only a matter of time before Saturday Night Live took notice and included it in one of their sketches. However, they took it one step further and perfectly wove Dr. Ben Carson s endorsement of Trump into this past Saturday s cold open.Jay Pharoah appears as Carson and says: Donald and I are very different. We re like night and day. Ebony and orangey. But he backs The Donald nonetheless and leaves the stage only to moments later reappear with a Trump steak over one of his eyes. This is when Darrell Hammond as Trump says to the crowd: Guys, what did I say? Not this one. This is one of the good ones! Clearly insinuating that Carson was beat up because he was black and his supporters mistook him as one of the many protesters getting beat up recently at Trump rallies.The racism and violence coming out of the Trump campaign is utterly abhorrent. Trump himself is not only condoning it, but offering to pay legal fees, and encouraging it. Kudos to Saturday Night Live for this hilarious satirical spin. However, the reality of what s going on is no laughing matter at all. Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
Why Obama Calls Islamic Terror Group “ISIL” While Terror Experts Call Them “ISIS” | Nothing about this man surprises most of us anymore .DECODING OBAMA S SPEECH REVEALS SOME STARTLING REVELATIONS And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Genesis 12:3 (KJV)In one press conference after another, when referring to the Muslim terror super-group ISIS, United States President Barack Obama will use the term ISIL instead of their former name ISIS or current name Islamic State. Have you ever wondered about that? We have.ISIL stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. Now, to us Westerners we don t really make much of a distinction, do we? No, honestly from our perspective its all about the same. But how would a Muslim living in the Middle East view it? Just what is the Levant anyway? Let s take a look.The geographical term LEVANT refers to a multi-nation region in the Middle East. It s a land bridge between Turkey to the north and Egypt to the south. If you look on a map, however, in the near exact middle of the nations that comprise the Levant, guess what you see? Come on, guess!It s Israel.WHEN BARACK OBAMA REFERS OVER AND OVER TO THE ISLAMIC STATE AS ISIL, HE IS SENDING A MESSAGE TO MUSLIMS ALL OVER THE MIDDLE EAST THAT HE PERSONALLY DOES NOT RECOGNIZE ISRAEL AS A SOVEREIGN NATION, BUT AS TERRITORY BELONGING TO THE ISLAMIC STATE.Listen as Obama painstakingly spells out the letters I-S-I-L so there is no doubt in your mind:Now you know why Obama says that he has no plan, no goal, and no stated aim for dealing with ISIS. But he does have a plan, and it s a really nasty, diabolical one. Obama s plan is to drag his feet for as long as he can, doing only the bare minimum that Congress forces him to do. His plan to buy ISIS as much time as possible to make as many gains as they can.And it s working.The Islamic State has garnered millions of dollars, a vast cache of weapons, and in their latest foray have captured Syrian fighter jets. With each passing day that Obama fulfills his stated aim of doing nothing, the Islamic State grows by leaps and bounds. The ultimate goal, of course, has not changed and will never change.THE ULTIMATE GOAL IS THE DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL.Now you know a little bit more why Obama chooses his words so carefully, and what s really in a name. Shakespeare had it right.Terrorist experts refer to Islamic terror group as ISIS yesterday during this recent analysis of the strength of ISIS:Via: Nowtheendbegins | 1real |
Eureka! Every California Republican Votes to Replace Obamacare - Breitbart | Every single Republican member of the state’s congressional delegation voted for the American Health Care Act on Thursday, helping the legislation to squeak by on a narrow vote. [Many of the state’s 14 Republicans were not committed to the bill until the final hours before it was offered on the floor. But while 20 Republicans, mostly moderates, voted against the bill, California Republicans stood with party leadership and President Donald Trump. The state’s Democrats, however, are perhaps even happier than the White House. The Los Angeles Times notes that half of those 14 Republicans represent districts in which former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won in last fall’s presidential election. Democrats believe that they can turn the vote to replace Obamacare into a campaign issue that could see many of those seats flip to the Democratic column, helping fuel what they hope is a nationwide surge. Some Republicans declined to speak to the media, merely releasing press statements. One of those, according to the Fresno Bee, was Rep. Devin Nunes ( ) saying: Central Valley residents have been saddled for far too long with high prices, while many participants are burdened by minimal health care choices, with some participants even forced to travel to the Bay Area or Los Angeles to see specialists. The bill passed by the House today will make health care available to every American who wants it while protecting those with conditions. The Times also notes that Trump singled out Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy ( ) for praise at a Rose Garden celebration of the bill’s passage, and that Rep. Darrell Issa ( ) — previously undecided — sat in the front row. Some are already feeling the backlash. The Los Angeles Daily News reports that Planned Parenthood held a rally against Rep. Steve Knight ( ) in Santa Clarita. The Senate is expected to offer its own new version of the bill. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 0fake |
White House Panics Knowing Flynn Is Going To Take Them Down | While Donald Trump has been taking vacations, special counsel Robert Mueller has been working hard on the Russia investigation. Instead of golfing this weekend, we suggest that the former reality show star huddle with his lawyers. Trump s former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations with the Russian ambassador and he s fully cooperating with Mueller. As part of the plea deal, Flynn admitted that he was directed by a senior member of the Trump transition team to make contact with Russian officials in December. In addition, Flynn is prepared to testify that Trump as a candidate, ordered him to make contacts with the Russians.This marks the first instance of solid proof that there was collusion between team Trump and a hostile foreign government.On Friday, just after the news broke, the White House insisted that Flynn s guilty plea will not implicate Trump or anyone else in the White House.The White House said in a statement that Flynn was fired for making false statements to Trump officials, and that he worked for the administration for a short time and that he was a former Obama administration official. The false statements involved mirror the false statements to White House officials which resulted in his resignation in February of this year, said White House lawyer Ty Cobb. Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn. The White House then referred to Flynn as the former National Security Advisor at the White House for 25 days as well as a former Obama administration official. However, the White House left out a few important details. President Obama fired Flynn as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and he also warned Trump about Flynn during a discussion two days after the election and emphasized that he had concerns about him joining the national security team for the new president.On top of that, just after Flynn was forced to resign, Trump called him a wonderful man who was treated unfairly by the media.Photo by David Becker/Getty Images. | 1real |
Obama LIES To French Reporter, America “One Of Largest Muslim Countries In The World” [VIDEO] | Barack Hussein Obama has been laser focused on making the promotion of Islam in America a priority since his first day in office. He s also made a point of discrediting Christians in America. Is it any wonder he s ignored the slaughter of Christians in the Middle East? Does anyone care he s sending Christian refugees back to extremist Muslim nations from the US, while bringing in hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees? Here is a perfect example of the master Muslim propagandist:OBAMA TO FRENCH REPORTER: We have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam. If you actually took the number of Muslims Americans ah, we d be one of the largest countries in the world. REALLY? Is #38 one of the largest Muslim countries in the world Barry?HERE are the FACTS:Eighty-three percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians. Most of the rest, 13 percent, have no religion. That leaves just 4 percent as adherents of all non-Christian religions combined Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and a smattering of individual mentions. | 1real |
Goldman Sachs: Almost One Million H-1B Foreign Workers Hold University-Level Jobs Here - Breitbart | Goldman Sachs estimates that almost one million foreign contract workers are now employed in jobs throughout the United States, even though many media outlets routinely say the federal government approves only 85, 000 visas per year. [Goldman’s February estimate of the huge population also ignores multiple other visa programs which invite foreign graduates to work in the United States. These other temporary work visas are used to employ an additional 470, 000 foreign college graduates in the United States, according to a study released on March 7 by the Economic Policy Institute. The EPI study, titled “Temporary foreign workers by the numbers,” says U. S. companies employ roughly 470, 000 foreign professionals via the O, L, J, OPT, and TN visas. The EPI study estimates that the population at a much lower level of only 460, 000 employees, partly because EPI says many workers quickly get permanent green cards, which converts them into legal residents, not contract workers. If Goldman’s estimate of almost one million is combined with the EPI’s estimate of various other skilled visa programs, then the government data shows that U. S. companies employ roughly 1. 4 million temporary workers in the United States. The imported workers are not immigrants, citizens, legal residents or green card holders, but are supposed to return home after several years. Companies have used them to fill enough outsourced jobs to fully employ nearly all Americans who graduated from college with skilled degrees in 2015 and 2016. This population of temporary workers has pushed many established U. S. workers out of jobs, partly because none of the visa programs require that Americans be hired before foreigners. “I’m working at one of the Home Depot [hardware store] … there’s a lot of people in my position,” said Les, a former New York City technology worker for Disney, Pearson publishing, and other U. S. companies. He was pushed out of the business when companies outsourced their U. S. workplaces to Indian companies, many of which need U. workers to link their U. S. clients to outsourcing offices in India. Les has a teenager to raise, and would return to the sector if he got a job offer, he said. “That’s what I know — it is not like I could go back to school to become a dentist or lawyer or a teacher,” he told Breitbart News. The two new reports also that U. S. companies also employ roughly 185, 000 foreign temporary workers, plus roughly 200, 000 foreign temporary workers. The EPI report also says the population of agricultural is roughly 75, 000, or just seven percent of at least 930, 000 university trained resident in the United States. Campaign Promises, The huge U. S. population of foreign contract workers — ranging from 1. 4 million up to 1. 8 million — is a problem for President Donald Trump, who repeatedly promised to reform the program during his 2016 campaign. “I will end forever the use of the as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program,” said a Trump statement in 2016. “No exceptions. ” In his inauguration speech, Trump declared his national economic policy is: “Buy American, Hire American. ” So far, Trump has not revamped the program, although his deputies have temporarily ended a approval process supported by business groups. That change was adopted amid intense lobbying by companies — including Google, Microsoft, Facebook — to preserve the annual inflow of cheap workers. On April 3, the Department of Labor will start distributing another 85, 000 visas to companies, as required by law. Statements from White House officials suggest that a reform of the program will be linked to a larger plan to comprehensively reform the nation’s immigration system into Trump’s proposed immigration system. Business groups will likely oppose Trump’s immigration reform unless they can negotiate a promise for additional contract workers. In 2013, Democratic politicians supported this negotiated demand by business groups, because the business groups promised to pressure GOP politicians to create “a path to citizenship” for the resident population of at least 11 million illegal aliens. Trump would be reluctant to endorse any increase in contract workers because polls show that voters — especially his voters — want Americans to get jobs before companies can import more contract workers. For more than 20 years, have been slashed by the large population of 8 million working illegal immigrants, and by the legal immigration of roughly 800, 000 immigrants each year. Americans now face a growing economic threat from the inflow of contract workers. No matter their skills, American workers face a huge disadvantage because the have a much greater incentive to work long hours at low wages. The distorting incentive is the federal government’s willingness to offer a deferred bonus of citizenship to foreign workers who stay in their temp jobs for six to 10 years. This deferred compensation package is worth many millions of dollars to contract workers, partly because the citizenship benefit can be duplicated for their spouses, children, parents, siblings, and descendants. Those benefits of citizenship are vast — they include all of the rights enunciated in the U. S. Constitution, plus the right to live in a society largely free of petty corruption, clannishness or tribalism, of class, caste, racial or regional discrimination, plus full access to the efficient economy, the free education system, the massive federal welfare system and the national banking system, plus the physical security ensured by gun rights, neighbors, efficient police and military services. But companies cannot offer American this subsidy instead of wages because the Americans already are citizens. If they want to hire an American instead of a foreign contract worker, companies have to pay Americans their full, unsubsidized marketplace value. So the hidden federal subsidy of skews hiring practices in favor of foreign workers, much to the disadvantage of the 800, 000 young Americans who graduate with skilled degrees each year. Federal data shows that relatively few American graduates even get jobs in the sectors which they studied — at great cost — in university. The U. S. Census Bureau reported in July that 2014 that: 74 percent of those who have a bachelor’s degree in science, technology, engineering and math — commonly referred to as STEM — are not employed in STEM occupations … According to new statistics from the 2012 American Community Survey, engineering and computer, math and statistics majors had the largest share of graduates going into a STEM field with about half employed in a STEM occupation. Science majors had fewer of their graduates employed in STEM. Roughly 660, 000 foreign workers are employed throughout the U. S. software business, says the Goldman report. Many are employed in writing software, but many foreigners are hired as cheap managers, business experts, financial analysts, and salesmen by American and companies. An additional 340, 000 contract workers are employed throughout the nation as doctors, therapists and pharmacists, professors, engineers and financial planners, managers and designers, soccer coaches and economics teachers, government scientists and university lab technicians, architects, lawyers and even journalists, according to job descriptions found at MyVisaJobs. com. Amid this widespread use of contract workers, the salaries of young American professionals have stalled since the bubble imploded. In the last five years, they’ve grown by roughly one percent a year — after deducting inflation — according to a January 2017 report titled “National Compensation Forecast,” by the Economic Research Institute. During the same period, salaries, increased company profits, and sales have pushed the Dow Jones Index of stocks up by 60 percent. If the programs were sharply reduced, Americans companies would be forced to compete for the limited pool of Americans by offering higher salaries. The resulting “tight labor market” for Americans graduates would push up average salaries, give underemployed graduates an escape from jobs (such as at Starbucks) boost recruitment of older professionals, spur technology investment, and also greatly increase the opportunities for American teenagers, dropouts and the unemployed to study for college degrees. Even minor reforms of the program — such as rules — would boost salaries by 10 percent for the many U. S. employees of outsourcing companies, says the Goldman Sachs report. The Population, The lack of public data about the number of resident is “absurd,” said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies. “This is a basic piece of information that the public should know, and the problem is not even that the government has the numbers and isn’t releasing them — rather the government doesn’t know the number itself,” he said. The establishment media tend to ignore the issue of numbers or just to highlight the annual inflow of instead of describing the full resident population. Calculating the total numbers is difficult. The program is managed collectively by the departments of Labor, State, and Homeland Security. Each agency collects data on different aspects of the program, including the number of requests for work visas, the number of visas that are approved, and the arrival or departure of contract workers. Also, the regulatory details of the program are complex. The basic regulations say each visa lasts for three years — and can be automatically extended for another three years. In theory, that would limit the population to a maximum of six times the annual apparent cap of 85, 000, or a total of 510, 000. But, the program has many loopholes which are used by immigration lawyers to bring in an extra 20, 000 extra workers per year, to lengthen the stay of many by several years and to get work permits for some spouses of workers. Goldman Sachs’ February study, titled “The Visa Debate: A Global FAQ for Investors,” tried to count these extra workers and extra years, saying: “We estimate that 900k to 1mn individuals are working under visas in the US today, based on the assumption that most existing visas are renewed for a second term, and that about of qualified visa holders eventually apply for a green card (based on average wait times and green card quotas for countries affected) … figures would be slightly higher when including spouses of visa holders (which could be as many as 500k people based on prevailing marriage rates of roughly 50% across countries). That number is much larger that a 2011 estimate by the Center for Immigration Studies, which estimated the population of to be roughly 650, 000. Additional Visa Programs, Both the EPI and the Goldman studies ignore different parts of the massive contract labor force in the United States. The Goldman report understates the total number of contract workers in the United States by downplaying several additional visa programs that are similar to the program. In contrast, the EPI report shows that these additional visa programs keep an extra population of roughly 450, 000 skilled workers in the United States. For example, the EPI study says the J visa delivers roughly 56, 000 professionals, the Optional Practical Training program employs almost 140, 000 graduates, the visas supply another 50, 000 professionals, and the L visas allow 350, 000 or foreign company employees to work in the United States. The Goldman report also shows — but does not count — the annual inflow of workers via the L, B and O visa programs. The 2015 inflow of these contract workers is 180, 000, said the report. A calculation suggests these visa programs are used by a resident population of 200, 000 residing in the United States. But the Goldman report also does not mention the J visas or the Optional Practical Training visas, which together deliver almost 200, 000 foreign college graduates to work in the United States, according to EPI. The EPI study ignores the fact that President Barack Obama allowed the spouses of workers to get jobs. The Goldman report says that roughly 500, 000 spouses of workers are now allowed to get jobs in the United States. The Goldman report does not say how many of the spouses are working in skilled jobs, but if that number is only of the resident spouses, then the number of foreign contract workers would climb by up to 100, 000 people. If Goldman’s estimate of almost one million is combined with the EPI’s estimate of other skilled visa programs, the data shows that U. S. companies employ roughly 1. 4 million foreign contract workers in the United States. That’s enough jobs to fully employ nearly all Americans who graduated from college with skilled degrees in 2015 and 2016. Even if the EPIs lower estimate for the population is correct, then the extra visas programs show the number of contract workers in the United States up to roughly 940, 000. Goldman’s estimate of almost one million is much higher than the EPI estimate because Goldman estimates many are waiting for green cards instead of returning home. Green Cards, Roughly of workers apply for green cards, says Goldman. The pipeline for green cards is very backed up because only a maximum of 140, 000 green cards are awarded to foreign employees and their family members each year. This pipeline ensures that many stay in the United States longer than six years by getting or renewals as they wait to get green cards. In contrast, the EPI report reduces its estimate of the resident population by concluding that 140, 000 visa workers quickly got permanent green cards in 2011, 2012 and 2013, so reducing the number of contract workers in the program. Both reports acknowledge that many contract workers get green cards and remain in the United States. But neither report counts the number of former contract workers who have won green cards, and who are free to compete against American graduates for jobs. That number is difficult to count because the federal government distributes 140, 000 green cards to company employees each year, but those cards must be shared with family members, including spouses and children. The green card numbers add up. For example, if 40, 000 skilled workers get Green Cards each year for the next decade, that delivers another 400, 000 skilled workers into the U. S. labor market to compete against Americans. If of those 400, 000 future green card workers are they will be enough to grab 54 percent of the extra 488, 500 new technology jobs that the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects will be added to the economy over the next decade. In 2016, Breitbart surveyed the data for three Midwestern states, and concluded up to 75, 000 foreign college grads have gotten green cards since 1990. Like many other companies and universities, Goldman hires thousands of workers for jobs sought by young American business graduates and tries to get green cards for hundreds of its employees. The company numbers are shown by this chart found at MyVisasJobs. com, which relies on government data to track the marketplace. The annual inflow of skilled workers with green cards would be far higher if the 2013 “Gang of Eight immigration bill had passed. That bill allowed universities to get green cards for an unlimited number of foreign customers who paid for a Masters Degree at a U. S. university. Thea plan died in 2014 when GOP House Speaker John Boehner recognized the high level of public opposition to the amnesty and bill. Universities and The Goldman report does not mention the supply of visas granted to universities and affiliates of major companies. can hire as many workers as they wish each year, and now employ roughly 85, 000 workers as professors, doctors, researchers, and designers. That 85, 000 estimate is only for contract workers holding the renewable visas, and it excludes workers who are in the process of getting green cards. The Goldman report says of holders try for green cards, so pushing up the universities’ likely employment of up to roughly 130, 000 foreign contract workers. That overall university population is likely included in Goldman’s estimate of almost one million resident . Other Contract Workers, The EPI estimate says the resident population of contract workers is roughly 95, 000 workers plus roughly 90, 000 unskilled “Summer Work Travel” workers, many of whom work jobs at vacation resorts. The EPI data also suggests that 200, 000 unskilled contract workers live in the United States. Follow Neil Munro on Twitter @NeilMunroDC or email the author at NMunro@Breitbart. com, | 0fake |
JULIAN ASSANGE GETS EMOTIONAL Over His Family, Especially Young Children, During Exclusive Sean Hannity Interview [VIDEO] | I know what I m doing. I m prepared to wear the consequences of the conflict but my family s innocent. During an exclusive interview, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange gets emotional while telling Sean Hannity about the effect his virtual imprisonment has had on his family, especially his children. I know what I m doing, but my family is innocent they didn t sign up for that fight. | 1real |
China urges North Korea to stop persisting on a dangerous course | BEIJING (Reuters) - China s Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged North Korea to stop persisting on a dangerous course and called on the United States to stick to promises of non-aggression towards Pyongyang, according to a statement release by the ministry on Friday. No matter the changes in circumstance, no matter how long it takes, not matter the difficulties we face, China will always persist in the goal of denuclearizing the peninsula, in moving towards talks, Wang said, speaking at the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday. | 0fake |
Leaked Email: ‘If She Wins, Hillary Will Own The Supreme Court for the Next 30 to 40 Years’ | Leaked Email: ‘If She Wins, Hillary Will Own The Supreme Court for the Next 30 to 40 Years’ Tweet
This. Is. Horrifying.
In another Wikileaks email , this time from Chairman of the National Jewish Democratic Council Marc Stanley to Hillary campaign chairman John Podesta dated February 11, 2016, Stanley lays out his best argument for why voters should choose Hillary over Bernie…
(click to enlarge)
He writes:
I tell the voter that I like Bernie and I like Hillary, but that’s not what matters. What matters to me is that there are 4 justices on the Supreme Court who will be in their 80’s and be replaced by the next president – and that President will appoint 40 year old Justices and they will serve for 30 or 40 years. | 1real |
U.S. government may provide up to $80 billion in Harvey aid: Texas congressman | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government could provide up to $80 billion in aid to victims of Hurricane Harvey, only a fraction of what the total impact could be from the storm, Texas Representative Pete Sessions said on Thursday. “(People) think the federal government is going to pay for this. In fact ... it may be $60, 70, 80 billion, but it’s a $1 trillion impact,” Sessions told Fox Business Network. He did not specify what he meant by impact and all damage estimates remain preliminary. | 0fake |
Washington insiders give Trump big U.S. Supreme Court win | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Donald Trump started thinking during his campaign for the presidency last year about filling a Supreme Court vacancy, he turned to a group of Washington insiders at the controls of a well-oiled machine that puts conservative judges on the bench. That disciplined network of operatives, shepherded by judicial activist Leonard Leo, on Friday delivered for Trump his first major accomplishment as U.S. president: the confirmation of conservative Neil Gorsuch as a Supreme Court justice. Unlike the chaotic rollouts of other Trump policy initiatives, the Gorsuch nomination went relatively smoothly. Democrats put up a fight in the Senate, but they lacked the votes to block the Republican majority and they lost. Other key players included experienced Washington hands such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, former Senator Kelly Ayotte and White House Counsel Don McGahn. “It worked because it was all planned out before the nomination. We know what works, what doesn’t work, what resources we need. We know the other side’s arguments and how to answer them. It’s like war,” Leo told Reuters on Friday. The only surprise stumble in the effort came when Trump attacked judges who blocked his order banning U.S. entry by people from certain Muslim-majority countries. Gorsuch distanced himself from the president’s Twitter messages. Other than that, discipline was maintained from the first of five meetings that Leo, a veteran of Bush-era judicial confirmation battles, attended with Trump. The two met twice before the election. Leo helped compile a list of potential nominees for Trump. That helped win over conservative activists unsure of Trump’s ideological compass at a time when he was still fighting for the Republican presidential nomination. A second, longer list came in September. It included Gorsuch, a federal judge. The campaign for Gorsuch’s confirmation would not have happened without McConnell, who stopped former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, from filling the high court vacancy created when conservative icon Antonin Scalia died in February 2016. After Trump won the election, he named McGahn, a Washington-based campaign finance lawyer at Jones Day, as White House counsel. Known by his colleagues as “The Quiet Man,” McGahn managed the nomination from inside the administration. Leo, who reported to McGahn, pushed back against Democrats’ claims that Trump basically out-sourced the nomination process to outside groups. Leo said McGahn carefully scrutinized the lists of nominees and was not simply a rubber stamp. The Gorsuch campaign got heavy marketing and promotion backing from the Judicial Crisis Network (JCN), a coordinating body for conservative and grassroots groups. It launched $10 million in pro-Gorsuch advertising, targeting in particular Senate Democrats facing re-election contests in 2018. The JCN was born during the administration of former President George W. Bush, when Republicans realized a strong outside campaign was critical to getting conservatives on the court. Carrie Severino, the group’s chief counsel, said the fact Trump agreed to stick to the nominees list made her job easier. “We were prepared for several possibilities, and we had ads, websites, research packets, and much more ready to launch the moment a name was confirmed,” she said. Leo said conservatives have borrowed techniques from the liberal coalitions that worked to defeat the nomination of Robert Bork by Republican then-President Ronald Reagan in 1987. The JCN also tapped social media and communications professionals. Washington public relations heavyweight Ron Bonjean played a role, reporting to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. At the White House, McGahn and a team in his office held “murder boards” where Gorsuch was bombarded with questions senators might ask. Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short and his team organized visits with senators and worked with Ayotte. Asked to accompany Gorsuch around Capitol Hill, Ayotte accepted, she said in an interview. Ayotte had lost her re-election bid in November and had criticized Trump. But she helped arrange meetings for Gorsuch with almost 80 senators. In the end, said sources close to the Gorsuch effort, it worked because it was highly regimented. Leo said the machine that got Gorsuch on the bench is here to stay although he will return to his job as executive vice president of the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers’ group. Leo hopes Trump will tap that machine for a possible second nomination during his presidency. “Supreme Court confirmations have become full-blown political campaigns,” he said. | 0fake |
Women Suspected in Killing of Kim Jong-nam Are Charged - The New York Times | KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Two women were charged with murder in a Kuala Lumpur court on Wednesday in connection with the assassination of Kim the estranged half brother of the North Korean leader, Kim . Siti Aisyah, 25, of Indonesia, and Doan Thi Huong, 28, of Vietnam, could receive the death penalty. The police said the two women rubbed a deadly nerve agent on Mr. Kim’s face as he prepared to check in for a flight at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on the morning of Feb. 13. The women were charged as North Korea began a diplomatic effort to repair the damage from the killing, sending delegations to Beijing and Kuala Lumpur in a rare bit of outreach by the reclusive nation as it faced accusations that it had carried out the brazen assassination. The delegation to Beijing was led by Vice Foreign Minister Ri said the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, which did not provide further details. The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed that Mr. Ri was visiting at its invitation and would meet with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi. Mr. Ri is the most senior North Korean official to visit Beijing since a delegation met with President Xi Jinping of China in May. His trip came five days after the North lashed out at China in unusually bitter language for tightening sanctions by suspending all coal imports from North Korea for the rest of the year, depriving North Korea of one of its most important sources of hard currency. The two women charged in Mr. Kim’s murder were arrested soon after the Feb. 13 attack and have said they thought they were participating in a prank. The police have also arrested a North Korean man, Ri and are seeking seven others. South Korean officials have accused the North Korean government of ordering the assassination. There was no word yet on whether Malaysian officials would charge Ri in the attack. With relations between Malaysia and North Korea fraying over the killing, a North Korean delegation, including the former deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Ri arrived in the Malaysian capital to discuss taking Mr. Kim’s body to North Korea, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported from Kuala Lumpur. Ri the envoy, said he also would demand the release of Ri Yonhap reported. “We are here to discuss human rights issues and find an agreement,” Mr. Ri told reporters outside the North Korean Embassy. North Korea is widely considered to have one of the world’s worst human rights records, one that includes enslavement and torture of political prisoners, extrajudicial executions and forced abortions. Mr. Ri also said he would discuss “strengthening friendly relations” with Malaysia. Whether Malaysia is prepared to discuss friendly relations remains to be seen. Officials at the Malaysian Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the standoff over the release of the body and the detention of the North Korean suspect. | 0fake |
Kellyanne Conway, Trump Jr. Spread False Info About Capitol Shooter To Blame It On Liberals | It took Trump s family and friends under an hour after a mass shooting at a congressional Republican baseball practice to win the awards for Worst Reaction to a Mass Shooting. And sadly, many Trump voters appear to be eating it up.Both Kellyanne Conway and Donald Trump Jr. managed to promote unsubstantiated and largely debunked information coming out to push a narrative that the shooter had targeted Republicans and not Democrats. The reality is: Nobody knows why the shooter did it. Not yet.Don and Kellyanne both used a single source: Rep. Jeff Duncan, whose narrative began coming to pieces shortly after he had made the comment.The man Duncan and other Republicans described as having asked whether the people playing baseball were Republicans or Democrats looked nothing like the man who later shot at them, as numerous reporters began noting.The description of the guy who asked lawmakers if GOP or Dems was practicing and the actual shooter appear to be different people. Kyle Feldscher (@Kyle_Feldscher) June 14, 2017.@RepDeSantis says the guy who asked him if it was GOP or Dems was in running clothes.@JeffFlake said shooter was wearing jeans. Kyle Feldscher (@Kyle_Feldscher) June 14, 2017Especially since DeSantis said the guy wasn t carrying anything at the time. AR-15s not the easiest to hide. Emily Crockett (@emilycrockett) June 14, 2017In fact, as Andrea Mitchell reported, the FBI is now saying it does not appear to, at first glance, have a political motivation.FBI takes over investigation discounts reports of political motive Alexandria police say 5 people transported to hospital community is safe https://t.co/ZifZ6pZa4V Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) June 14, 2017Despite that lack of confirmation, right-wing media ran with the unsubstantiated reports like they were official statements by investigators. Drudge, in one egregious example, even misquoted one of the Republicans at the scene to make it seem like the shooter said he wanted to kill as many Republicans as possible. Breitbart and InfoWars both quickly joined in. No such words were said.The White House released a statement saying the president had been briefed on the situation, but it s unclear what his briefing looked like. Trump gets much of his news from Drudge, Breitbart and Fox News. It s entirely possible that the President of the United States believes the lies being spread by right-wing media and his advisors.At this time no one knows the true motives of the shooter. Police have him in custody and, unlike Trump s son, are conducting a thorough investigation before blasting out unsubstantiated reports into the public. Rather than waiting, the right-wing media and Trump s own White House decided to exploit the tragedy in order to further their agenda of smearing liberals. It s beyond maddening to watch the group who once called President Obama divisive for expressing sorrow for Trayvon Martin now openly and gleefully delight in spreading vitriol and lies about their political opponents.UPDATE: FBI investigators identified the shooter as James Hodgkinson. There is evidence to suggest he supported Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary. Police have again dismissed the idea that he had asked people at the baseball game what political affiliation they were.What still isn t known is why he decided to go on a shooting spree.BREAKING: Gov't official: Suspect in shooting of congressman in Virginia identified as Illinois man named James T. Hodgkinson. The Associated Press (@AP) June 14, 2017UPDATE 2: Rep. Duncan says he still believes the man who approached him earlier in the morning was the shooter. Adds that it isn t uncommon for people to drop by and ask questions.Rep. Duncan says he had the conversation with person he believes was shooter, who asked if team practicing was GOP or Democrat Caitlin Huey-Burns (@CHueyBurns) June 14, 2017Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 1real |
LOL! SARAH PALIN Has EPIC Response When MSNBC Reporter Asks If She’s Ever Been Sexually Assaulted | MSNBC reporter Kasie Hunt began her segment on sexual harassment in Washington by telling the show s viewers, Funnily enough, I caught up in the basement of the capitol today with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin today. Funnily enough? Isn t this the same network who spent an excessive amount time criticizing Sarah Palin s grammar?Hunt asked Palin, who endorsed the embattled Roy Moore in the Alabama GOP primary race, to share her thoughts on sexual harassment with their viewers. Palin told Hunt, It s not a partisan issue, so when we see this happening today, I think that it leads to a lot of questions about what standards are going to be applied to whom. WFB Hunt followed up by asking Palin whether she has ever experienced sexual harassment in the workplace as an ambitious woman in public life. I think a whole lot of people know that I m probably packing, and so I don t think there s a whole lot of people who would necessarily mess with me, said Palin, a vocal advocate of the Second Amendment. I don t mean to be lighthearted; this is a serious issue. WATCH:Sara Palin on sexual harassment: "I think a whole lot of people probably know I'm probably packing so I don't think there's a whole lot of people who would necessarily mess with me." pic.twitter.com/WqORpJ594P MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 16, 2017 It really stinks for women in the workplace that for too long, men have thought they can get away with kind of being that old-school thinking that it s OK to belittle and harass women, Palin continued.Palin s comments about sexual harassment came hours after Democratic Sen. Al Franken (Minn.) was accused of groping and kissing KABC anchor Leeann Tweeden without her consent during a rehearsal for a skit for troops during a USO tour in the Middle East in 2006. The floodgates are really open right now, Palin said. That could lead to a lot of false accusations that really harm an innocent person. Palin s comments about false accusations may have been a reference to the sexual misconduct allegations against Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore.Palin endorsed Moore in the Republican primary against Luther Strange a few months ago. | 1real |
Mother Jones Is Named Magazine of the Year - The New York Times | Mother Jones was named magazine of the year on Tuesday for finding “new ways to engage audiences and continue its practice of fearless journalism,” the sponsors of the National Magazine Awards announced. New York magazine and The New York Times Magazine each won three awards: New York for magazine section, video and issue, and The Times Magazine for feature writing, essays and criticism, and public interest. California Sunday won for design and photography, and Mother Jones won for reporting as well as for magazine of the year. Nineteen titles had received nominations in multiple categories, led by New York with 10. The Times Magazine received seven, and The New Yorker received five. Known as the Ellies for the statuettes given to winners, the National Magazine Awards are sponsored by the American Society of Magazine Editors in association with the Columbia Journalism School. The awards were announced at a ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in Manhattan. Three publications were winners: GOOD for personal service, Huffington Post Highline for multimedia, and The Marshall Project for general excellence in literature, science and politics. Huffington Post Highline and The Marshall Project were the first winners in those categories. Bon Appétit and ESPN The Magazine were repeat winners for general excellence: Bon Appétit in the service and lifestyle category, and ESPN The Magazine in news, sports and entertainment. Bon Appétit won a general excellence award in 2014 and ESPN The Magazine won in 2003 and 2006. Modern Farmer won its first award for general excellence in special interest magazines. Also honored were Pacific Standard for feature photography, National Geographic in the website category, and Harper’s Magazine for columns and commentary, all for the first time in those categories. | 0fake |
Kelsey Harkness: Women’s Strikers Ignore Atrocities in Muslim World | Kelsey Harkness, senior news producer and reporter at the Daily Signal spoke with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam on Wednesday regarding the hijacking of International Women’s Day by America’s radical feminists, as detailed in her recent article, “Why It’s ‘Devastatingly Selfish’ For Strikers To Hijack International Women’s Day. ”[Below is an excerpt from Harkness’s Federalist item found here: For more than a century, March 8 has been globally recognized as International Women’s Day. The movement is celebrated by the United Nations, which works to “create a historic legacy of strategies, standards, programs and goals to advance the status of women worldwide. ” While American women still have plenty worth fighting for, the status of women internationally doesn’t compare. Women’s strikers’ decision to hijack this day shows just how far out of touch they are with the more serious problems facing hundreds of millions of women worldwide — problems ranging from human trafficking, sexual exploitation, forced marriage, and female genital mutilation to brutal murders masked in “honor. ” Our foreign sisters need our help, and International Women’s Day should be about them. Not us. Said Harkness to Kassam regarding today’s protests ignoring many issues that plague the Muslim world, such as genital mutilation, “I think one of the reasons we don’t often hear about it from these women’s march feminists is because it’s a very inconvenient narrative to what they stand for … . Harkness continued, a lot of these injustices are actually occurring in Muslim countries and they don’t want to being attention to it. One of the founders of the women’s march is Muslim. Why aren’t we hearing from her on International Women’s day about this issue?” Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. | 0fake |
COPS ASK MAYOR TO REMOVE “Black Lives Matter” Banner Hanging At City Hall…His Response Is ASTOUNDING! | Imagine what it must feel like for these officers who put on their uniforms and go to work, risking their lives in a city whose Mayor has arrogantly displayed an in-your-face banner supporting a cop-hating movement over the front entrance of the City Hall Somerville police officers are asking that the city s mayor remove a banner supporting the Black Lives Matter movement from City Hall and replace it with one proclaiming All Lives Matter. In a Tuesday letter addressed to Mayor Joseph Curtatone, the Somerville Police Employee s Association, the bargaining unit for 90-95 patrol officers, called the city s support of the Black Lives Matter movement and the display of the banner deeply troubling. It is as inconceivable to us as it is demoralizing that our City would propagate its support for this movement while standing silent over the seemingly daily protest assassinations of innocent police officers around the country, the association wrote.Citing what they saw as fringe elements of the movement, officers in the association argued that the activists have at times provoked violence against police around the nation, including the recent shooting in Dallas that killed five officers. The point is that these incidents have incited more than protests; they have incited some within the protest movement to use violence against police officers who had nothing to do with the shootings of black men, and have done so before all of the facts of each case were known, the letter said.While the association acknowledged that black lives, as well as those of other minorities, matter just as much as white lives, it argued that Somerville s open support for the movement could imply that the department thinks otherwise. At the same time, we strongly object to a public banner sponsored by the City that [implicitly] paints police officers as the killers of innocent citizens of color when there is no evidence whatsoever that the police officers in the City are in anyway using their police power in a discriminatory of unlawful way, the letter said.Instead, the officers asked that the banner be replaced with one that reads All Lives Matter, a move they believe would have the mayor standing in solidarity with the police department. The vast majority of police officers across this country are tasked with shielding, protecting, and assisting elements of the protest movement that loath them, spit on them, intentionally injure them and wish death upon them, the association wrote. Nonetheless, it is generally true that officers perform these very tasks with professionalism, honor, integrity, courage, and without hesitation. The letter didn t sway Curtatone, who said he doesn t plan to remove the banner. My unwavering support for our police officers does not and cannot preempt our commitment to addressing systemic racism in our nation, Curtatone said in a statement to Boston.com. I ve made very clear to our officers that we should be thankful for and reinforce what we have here in Somerville: a safer community thanks to the highest quality policing by a force dedicated to community policing, de-escalation, proper use of force, and anti-bias awareness. Via: Boston Heraldh/t Police Mag | 1real |
Reddit administrators accused of censorship | Administrators at the popular online forum Reddit have been accused of censorship after quarantining a subreddit titled 'european.'
Subreddits, which are also known as communities, are forums dedicated to specific topics.
“The administration has decided to censor free speech for Europeans and they quarantined the subreddit on the 12th of May 2016,” says a note on the subreddit link. With the subreddit set to private, the note adds that “You must be a moderator or approved submitter to visit.” Visitors to the subreddit were also urged to continue their discussions on Voat, another online forum.
The question of bias in social media has erupted recently. The Reddit accusation came just days after anonymous allegations that contractors at Facebook deliberately suppressed conservative news on the site’s Trending Topics section. Facebook has denied any political bias, saying there is “no evidence” of the alleged activity.
Reddit told FoxNews.com that the 'european' subreddit violated the forum's content policy. "Quarantines on Reddit are rare - there are thousands of vibrant conversations flourishing on the site every day," it explained, in an emailed statement. "Subreddits are quarantined only when the content is clearly offensive to the broader Reddit community."
Quarantining aims to prevent the content from being accidentally viewed by those who do not wish to do so.
"A subreddit is quarantined when there are concerns that its content is extreme and could be offensive to people outside of that community," explained Reddit. "The quarantine process doesn’t end the conversation; it adds an opt-in measure so that people have the choice to join the conversation," it added.
Restrictions on a quarantined subreddit include requiring an explicit opt-in, requiring an account with a verified email address, no use of custom images and the removal of revenue generation.
Related: Reddit updates content policy, bans a 'handful' of groups that exist 'solely to annoy' others
The ‘european’ quarantining prompted a mixed reaction elsewhere on Reddit. Some users say that racist views were expressed on the subreddit, while others say that it hosted a range of opinions and cite the importance of open dialogue.
Reddit, which had over 277 million unique visitors last month, uses teams of volunteers to moderate subreddits.
The forum updated its content policy last year, consolidating multiple rules and policies into a single set of guidelines.
A blogger with an interest in numbers, who uses the name Curious Gnu, recently crunched a Reddit dataset of 4.6 million comments and noted that 78 percent of Reddit threads with over 1,000 comments mention Nazis or Hitler. The blogger found that around 2.6 percent of comments in the ‘european’ subreddit mentioned Nazis or Hitler. A slightly higher percentage of comments on the ‘AskHistorians’ subreddit mentioned Nazis or Hitler, with around 2.75 percent of comments on the ‘history’ subreddit referencing the topics.
Related: No censorship in Chinese Internet, says China's top censor
Reddit prohibits illegal content, spam, publication of someone’s private and confidential information, sexually suggestive content featuring minors and anything that incites harm or violence against an individual or group of people. Content that harasses, bullies, or abuses individuals or groups is also banned.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | 0fake |
Court hearing on Trump travel ban draws more than 2.6 million listeners | (Reuters) - More than 2.6 million people tuned into cable TV or went online to hear dramatic audio-only coverage of a federal appeals court hearing on U.S. President Donald Trump’s temporary travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries and refugees. For more than an hour, people around the United States listened to arguments from attorneys for the U.S. government and Washington state, which sued to challenge Trump’s executive order imposing the ban. For those using their TVs to hear the coverage, there were also simple graphics and photos. Others listened to streaming online audio. The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco pressed the government’s attorney on the lawfulness of Trump’s Jan. 27 order, which triggered chaos and protests at U.S. airports and oversea. The order barred travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the country for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days. It banned refugees from Syria indefinitely. The Republican president, who took office on Jan. 20, has defended the measure as necessary to protect Americans. Critics said it discriminated against Muslims and violated the U.S. Constitution. Last Friday, a federal judge in Seattle suspended the executive order. Many travelers who had been waylaid by the ban quickly moved to travel to the United States while it was in limbo. The government appealed the decision, and the San Francisco judges heard arguments in the case on Tuesday night. All three major U.S. cable news networks aired either parts of or the entire hearing, which ran from 6 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. EST. Only the audio was available because the hearing was conducted via conference call. More than 2.5 million people combined tuned in on CNN or MSNBC, while another 3 million listened to segments of the hearing on Fox News, according to Nielsen data provided by Fox News. As many as 137,000 people listened to the court’s live feed of the session, said David Madden, assistant circuit executive for the 9th Circuit. The lack of visuals did not scare away those interested - and even led some to liken the experience to huddling around a radio in the pre-TV era. “@CNN this is television gold. Reminds me of when I was grounded and had to listen to the radio. #WAvTrump #9thCircuit,” Jon Eekhoff (@joneekhoff) said on Twitter. Madden was surprised by the amount of interest in the hearing, “but I think the court was prepared for it,” he said by email. As lawyers grappled with questions from the judges, law experts and academics, including Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe, provided the kind of play-by-play commentary generally reserved for major sporting events. The ability of the public to listen to the hearings was particularly important given Trump’s questioning of the judges as “so political” and the hearing as “disgraceful,” Tribe said. “It was a moment for an important kind of civic education and public engagement in the process of government,” Tribe said. | 0fake |
Everything We Know About Assange, Wikileaks And The Frantic Attempt To Shut Him Up (VIDEO) | pay-for-play that the Clinton campaign has taken. Here’s a great video by my friends from Truthstream Media with even more revelations. Wikileaks says they have 50,000 of Podesta’s private emails.If they keep releasing them in batches, there’s a distinct possibility that we will get some on election day itself. I wonder if Wikileaks is keeping the best for last? The desperate attempt to silence Julian Assange The efforts to shut up Assange have led all sorts of ugly places. If you can’t drone him ( like Hillary Clinton suggested ), then frame him and accuse him of pedophilia. Wikileaks has provided a timeline and supporting links for the sustained efforts to discredit Assange. May , when self-claimed dating agency “ToddAndClare” (T&C) approach saying they were contacted by the Russian government. Sep 3 , T&C email Assange’s Swedish lawyer Per Samuelson offering one million dollars for Assange to appear in a video advertisement for the “dating agency” ToddAndClare.com (See attachment). This is the first contact. Sep 15 , email sent from a member of Mr. Assange’s defence team to [email protected] requesting further details (See attachment). Sep 19 , [email protected] email with elaborate bonafides, proposed agreement and the claim that the source of the US$1 million is the Russian government. The email states that T&C was approached by Russian representatives in May 2016 and that “The source of the $1,000,000 is the Russian government” . The email then goes on to “verify” bonafides by giving a detailed description of the interior of the house and desk of Mr Assange’s lawyer, Helena Kennedy, who is a member of the UK Parliament, including a reference to a photo of Tony Blair (Kennedy states that the Blair reference is accurate, although out-of-date). Sep 20 , a representative of Mr Assange’s defence team writes to [email protected] stating that the proposal appears to be an “elaborate scam designed to entrap Mr Assange’s reputation into unwanted and unwarranted publicity”. writes stating that “The offer expires at midnight, October 31 st 2016.” Late Sep , WikiLeaks announces a press conference for Oct 4 for its ten year anniversary. Late Sep , Press widely misreport that WikiLeaks is going to launch its “October Suprise” against Hillary Clinton on 4 October, misinterpreting its press conference call Oct 4 , T&C files its “Assange pedophile” libel through the UN’s Global Compact system, alleging that there is an active criminal investigation in the Bahamas against Julian Assange for the abuse of an eight year old girl and claiming to have chat logs and photos. The allegation appears on the UN website with a UN Gobal Compact letterhead and is contextualised with a complex backstory. The request targets the UN WGAD (part of the UN Human Rights system) which found that Mr Assange is being illegally detained by the United Kingdom and Sweden. Oct 4 , T&C files claim through the UK courts, apparently using it as a method to place the pedophile accusation into the public record (See attachment). Oct 4 , WikiLeaks holds a press conference, where it becomes clear that its publishing of Clinton-related documents will occur later. Oct 5 , T&C’s UK court claim arrives at Ecuadorian embassy in London Oct 7 , WikiLeaks commenses its release of the Podesta Emails Oct 11 , T&C pushes out its Assange pedophile claim through the PRWeb newswire service. Oct 12 , UN Global Compact delists T&C , citing “integrity” issues. Oct 12 , T&C issues a press release opposing the UN delisting with an elaborate story, claiming that Julian Assange is threatening US citizens (T&C). Oct 17 , Investigative report into Toddandclare.com prepared for Mr Assange’s lawyers is concluded, finding “T&C Network Solutions exhibits the characteristics of a highly suspicious and likely fabricated business entity” (See attachment “FINAL REPORT T&C 17 Oct 2016”). Oct 18 , The pedophile part of the plot is launched through US Democrat-aligned website DailyKos and pushed by pro-Clinton twitter accounts. Now, I’m no stranger to the tinfoil, but this seems to me the most blatant attempt to discredit someone that I’ve ever seen. The timing is quite the coincidence, don’t you think? For more Assange, here are some of the conspiracy theories that have been going ’round the internet lately. Assange has made some incredibly powerful enemies. His longevity is far from certain. And then there was that day that the US internet got hacked. First, there was this tweet by Wikileaks, which was pinned on Twitter all day. Zero Hedge reported : The “police” presence apparently began to amass earlier this week just as Wikileaks confirmed that the Ecuadorian had agreed to cut Julian Assange’s internet access after a little political pressure from John Kerry…and as an allegedly bogus plot, with links to the Clinton campaign, was revealed that attempted to link Julian Assange to a pedophilia ring. Shortly after the Tweet appeared, the internet went down over much of the United States. Dozens of websites such as Twitter, Reddit, Amazon, Netflix, the New York Times and Spotify, as well as general internet service in certain areas of the country, were all down for part of the day (the entire list is at this link) . A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack was blamed for the outage. Ironically, NorseCorp , the company that has the real-time cyber attack map, was also down for most of the day. This happened not once, but twice. The FBI and the DHS are investigating the cyber attack so I’m sure we’ll get the *truth* soon. Rumors abound, including blaming Russia (of course, and after VP Biden’s idiotic threat to cyber attack them , could you really blame them?), that it was our own government hoping to cover up some even they’d like to distract us from, or, interestingly, that it was a hacker group who did this in defense of Julian Assange. (Wikileaks seems to think that too – see the screenshot below of their Tweet.) But…another group altogether has taken credit for the massive hack. SHTFplan reports that this is the beginning of WW3 – which could be fought online : A hacking collective calling itself “New World Hackers” are taking credit – and they are based out of Russia and China, so there is little doubt that it will fuel the narrative for more war, tighter security and an age of online instability as the new world (where the dollar is no longer king) is sorted out. New World Hackers responded to a request for an interview with Anon Intel Group . Their message to the world? “Stay educated.” Anything to add to Survival Saturday? What do you think of Assange and Wikileaks? Love him or hate him? Why? Share your opinion and any supporting links in the comments below! Please join the discussion! Submit your review | 1real |
ST PAUL, MN PUBLIC SCHOOLS ‘White Privilege’ TRAINING ASKS TEACHERS: “When do you wear the hood?” | Minnesota the hotbed of liberalism and diversity in the Midwest While teachers blow the whistle on the breakdown of discipline for black students in St. Paul Public Schools, a photo has emerged from an equity training that might leave some to wonder what s actually being taught to teachers.Aaron Benner, a fourth grade teacher in the district, told EAGnews about how black students are frequently not held accountable for their actions due to white privilege training for teachers and administrators. As a black man I can say that they are hurting black kids, Benner said. I ve never seen anything as idiotic as PEG. Everything we do, PEG is at the forefront. It s so comical. PEG says shouting out in class is a black cultural norm, and being on time is a white cultural thing. It s so demeaning, so condescending to black kids. If a white person were making claims like this, black people would be in an uproar. You are not doing kids any favors by making excuses for them because they are black. It s not a matter of culture if you re talking about norms that all cultures need to abide by you cannot throw things or attack your teacher, regardless of your race. Now, a source has provided photographic evidence of the tenor of some of the white privilege training being administered to St. Paul teachers.According to the source, the photo is from a training this year at Bruce Vento Elementary during a staff meeting.It features a figure wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood with the question, When do you wear the hood? The principal allegedly displayed the picture and asked the staff to sit in silence and reflect on it for 3 to 4 minutes. The source refused to elaborate out of fear of retribution.Another source said, This picture and the idea that it would be helpful in some way is totally unbelievable. An email to Scott Masini, principal of Bruce Vento, was not immediately returned.Last May, the Pioneer Press reported the St. Paul district had spent at least $1.2 million on such training from Pacific Educational Group, a San Francisco-based company that conducts similar trainings in school districts across America.Last fall, the Star Tribune reported St. Paul schools inked a $246,500 contract with PEG for equity training $133,500 less than the agreement approved for 2013-14. Bruce Vento Elementary s website details the district s equity plan, which includes examining the presence and role of Whiteness. Via: EAG NewsFrom the Un-Fair Campaign which originates in Duluth, MN: This campaign is about white privilege and so these suggestions are focused on what white people can do. Use the resources listed below to learn more.Learn how historically white privilege has benefited you and other white people. Accept that you have unearned privilege and advantages write them down Start seeing/hearing the privileges and advantages you have:Below is a White Privilege video put together by the Un-Fair Campaign: | 1real |
Comment on Understanding Misleading Food Labels: An Infographic Breaks Down Which Foods They’re Used On & What They Mean by Understanding Misleading Food Labels: An Infographic Breaks Down Which Foods They’re Used On & What They Mean – Collective Evolution - walkertecharts.com | Share on Facebook Share on Twitter “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,” the great Hippocrates once said. This can sometimes be a torturous realization for me as I contemplate eating something that I know will not serve my body, mind, and spirit well. But if only it were that simple — merely having to decide between a cookie or a piece of fruit, rather than trying to understand how their ingredients may help or harm me. advertisement - learn more Labels in particular are one giant headache, but they can also make a world of difference between choosing a good food and a bad one. Labels on the majority of packaged foods need to meet strict requirements, relaying important information for people with food allergies, exposing food additives, and offering food storage instructions. But with the plethora of food labels out there, how can one keep up? It’s not even a matter of whether you can or not, or even want to or not; you simply need to know what you are putting in your body. We all shop for food, and as we do, whether it be online or in the store, we come across so many ingredients, brands, and ultimately, labels. There’s “cage free” and “humane certification,” there’s “natural”and “no antibiotics,” and then there’s “organic.” All of these labels can tell you important information about how animals are fed and handled, how crops are grown, and even how the workers are treated. They say ignorance is bliss, but when it comes to your health and humanity, the saying doesn’t always hold up. Have you ever seen a video online, listened to a descriptive story, or watched a full-length documentary about the way our food is made and by whom, and been utterly turned off, disgusted, or even beside yourself with anxiety and sadness? There’s a reason such exposures exist: to make people wake up and realize that the system isn’t as cut and dry as healthy and unhealthy. So when it comes to labels, while it can seem like far too much information to comprehend, it remains our duty to ourselves and to our families to learn what each signifies. And it doesn’t even have to be that difficult. advertisement - learn more Ghergich & Co. teamed up with Woodside to create an infographic on food labels in the hopes that they could easily share a go-to guide for consumers to understand exactly what the labels on the food they’re considering buying mean. They cover terms like cage free, certified humane, free range, free roaming, grass fed, and wild caught. Certified Fair Trade products, for instance, are made in safe and healthy working conditions. Both the farmers and producers receive a fair price and have a voice in how their workplace is run. “Natural,” on the other hand, doesn’t necessarily hold up to what consumers may assume. While these products don’t contain artificial ingredients or added colour and are minimally processed, growth hormones can still be used, they’re not always organic, and they don’t require that animals are raised in open space, either. Take a closer look at the following infographic to learn some valuable truths and important information for you to consider the next time you go grocery shopping.
The Sacred Science follows eight people from around the world, with varying physical and psychological illnesses, as they embark on a one-month healing journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle.
You can watch this documentary film FREE for 10 days by clicking here.
"If “Survivor” was actually real and had stakes worth caring about, it would be what happens here, and “The Sacred Science” hopefully is merely one in a long line of exciting endeavors from this group." - Billy Okeefe, McClatchy Tribune | 1real |
Russia tells North Korea, U.S. 'hot heads' to calm down | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia’s foreign minister said on Friday the leaders of North Korea and the United States should tone down their bellicose rhetoric and warned that a collapse of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers would only embolden Pyongyang. “The exchange of threats is quite bad, unacceptable,” Sergei Lavrov told reporters at a news conference.” We have to calm down the hot heads,” Lavrov said, adding that he was convinced a Russian-Chinese proposal could still pave the way for a diplomatic solution to the North Korea crisis. Lavrov added that a collapse of the Iran nuclear deal would give North Korea little incentive to drop its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. | 0fake |
Trump Supporter Jailed for Trying to Rig the Election By Committing Voter Fraud | By Sarah Jones on Fri, Oct 28th, 2016 at 9:04 pm So Donald Trump's warnings about almost non-existent voter fraud were right after all. The only problem is that it was a Donald Trump supporter who committed voter fraud by voting twice. Share on Twitter Print This Post
So Donald Trump’s warnings about almost non-existent voter fraud were right after all.
The only problem is that it was a Donald Trump supporter who committed voter fraud by voting twice.
Terri Lynn Rote, 55, was booked into jail Thursday on a felony charge of first-degree election misconduct after being arrested for suspicion of voting twice, according to the Des Moines Register .
Authorities say the registered Republican cast two electoral ballots in Polk County. She was held in jail on a $5,000 bond and released Friday.
Terri Rote caucused for Donald Trump: Terri Rote plans to caucus tonight for @realDonaldTrump down on the east side of Des Moines pic.twitter.com/dMdeH7sX0V
— Leigh Munsil (@leighmunsil) February 1, 2016
This does make it pretty awkward for Republicans, especially Trump supporters who’ve been told to “monitor” areas where liberals and Democrats vote, which is actually called voter intimidation and is also against the law.
In fact, Donald Trump’s unfounded claims that the election is rigged got the Republican Party sued for voter intimidation. And now one of Trump’s own supporters is arrested over voter fraud.
Makes sense. | 1real |
Someone Just Turned The Lights Off On Donald Trump (VIDEO) | It looks as though someone just finally had enough of looking at Donald Trump s face, because at a rally on Sunday in Atlanta, Georgia, while Trump was in the midst of speaking, the spotlight lighting up the stage went completely dark.According to the Associated Press: A protester at a Donald Trump rally in Atlanta, Georgia cut the spotlights Sunday, prompting a surreal scene in which Trump led his supporters in a chant of Turn off the lights! Lighting director Bob Hunter told The Associated Press that he stepped away from his booth near the front of the stage for a quick bathroom break.However, Trump being the Trumpiest Trump that he could be, played it of, saying, They didn t pay the electric bill. Even going so far as to say that he preferred the light being off. God forbid he be seen getting bested by a protester. Oh, heavens no. So, once the lights were restored he said, They re too bright, turn them off! and gets his minions to chant, Turn off the lights! It was then that the lighting director quickly obliged.Now, whether it was a protester or just a technical difficulty, that has yet to be fully determined, but either way, it is very true that Donald Trump looks much better with the lights off. Hell, even he agrees.Watch all the mayhem unfold below:Featured image via Screengrab from CNN | 1real |
In Afghanistan, U.S. senators call for coherent policy from Trump | (This story corrects the number of U.S. and other foreign troops in Afghanistan, paragraphs 15, 16.) KABUL (Reuters) - A bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators visiting Afghanistan on Tuesday called for a new strategy from the Trump administration to turn the tide against an increasingly strong Taliban insurgency and end the longest war in U.S. history. The delegation led by Senator John McCain was in Kabul on a regional trip that included two days in neighboring Pakistan. The visit preceded an expected Trump review later in the month of the strategy for the United States’ longest war, now in its 16th year, a subject that was largely absent from last year’s presidential campaign. Since the exit of most foreign troops in 2014, Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed government has lost ground to a Taliban insurgency in a war that kills and maims thousands of civilians each year and has made Afghanistan the second-ranking country in people seeking refugee status abroad last year, behind Syria. McCain said in a Kabul press briefing on Tuesday at NATO-coalition headquarters that “none of us would say that we are on a course to success here in Afghanistan”. “That needs to change and quickly,” added McCain, a sharp critic of Trump within their Republican party. McCain was accompanied by U.S. senators Lindsey Graham, Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon Whitehouse and David Perdue on the regional tour. Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said she came to get “the view on the ground about what is happening” in Afghanistan. “We need a strategy in the United States that defines our role in Afghanistan, defines our objective and explains how we can get from here to there,” Warren said. U.S. officials have told Reuters that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will present Trump with strategic options for Afghanistan by mid-July. Last month, Trump gave Mattis the authority to set American troop levels in Afghanistan, but as commander in chief Trump must sign off on an overall strategy for the war. U.S. security officials have privately said the most likely options will be to increase training and air support by 3,000-5,000 troops for still-inexperienced Afghan security forces, while also tracking down al Qaeda, Islamic State and other global Islamist militants based in Afghanistan. The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, has said “several thousand” more foreign troops – mostly trainers - are needed to break a military stalemate with the Taliban. In 2001, a U.S.-backed military intervention in Afghanistan toppled the Taliban regime, whose ultra-hardline interpretation of sharia (Islamic law) banned most women from public life and executed people not seen as sufficiently pious, such as men with beards not considered long enough. More than 15 years later, about 13,000 U.S. and allied troops remain in Afghanistan as part of a training and advising mission in support of an elected government that has increasingly been losing ground to a Taliban insurgency that now controls or contests some 40 percent of territory. Several thousand more American troops operate under a counterterrorism mission aimed at groups like Islamic State and al Qaeda. | 0fake |
Forty UK Conservative lawmakers ready to oust PM May: Sunday Times | LONDON (Reuters) - Forty members of parliament from Prime Minister Theresa May s Conservative Party have agreed to sign a letter of no-confidence in her, the Sunday Times newspaper reported. That is eight short of the number needed to trigger a party leadership contest, the mechanism through which May could be forced from office and replaced by another Conservative. May has been struggling to maintain her authority over her party since a snap election on June 8 which she called thinking she would win by a wide margin but instead resulted in her losing her parliamentary majority. Divided over how to extricate Britain from the European Union and hit by multiple scandals involving ministers, May s government has failed to assert control over a chaotic political situation that is weakening London s hand in Brexit talks. An earlier attempt to unseat May in the wake of her disastrous speech at the annual party conference fizzled out, but many Conservatives remain unhappy with the prime minister s performance and talk of a leadership contest has not gone away. May has lost two cabinet ministers in as many weeks: Michael Fallon stepped down as defense secretary after becoming implicated in a wider scandal about sexual misconduct in parliament, while Priti Patel resigned as aid minister after she was found to have had secret meetings with top Israeli officials. In the event of a leadership contest, if a challenger defeated May he or she would take over as Conservative leader and as prime minister. A national election is not necessary for that to happen. | 0fake |
“I DID THE RIGHT THING” Pro-North Korea Communist Helped Pull Down Confederate Statue…NOTE: It’s NOT About the Statues! | A member of the Worker s World Party pulled down the statue in Durham, NC. It s really not about the statues It s a culture war and a leftist revolution. In other words, this is serious business to the organized communist groups who became emboldened during Obama s 8 years in office. TheY don t want the progress to stop. The progress is destroying capitalism and making America more socialist and communist leaning. Don t believe us? Check out the WWP and you ll see it s another name for the communist party in America: Worker s World PartyMISSION: DESTROY AMERICAOne of the activists who toppled a Confederate statue in Durham, N.C., on Monday night is a member of an extreme leftist group that supports the totalitarian regime in North Korea and wants to abolish capitalism. COPS & KLAN GO HAND IN HAND Taqiyah Thompson, a student at North Carolina Central University, was arrested Tuesday following a press conference in which she defended the actions of the demonstrators and equated police officers to Confederate soldiers and Ku Klux Klan members. I did the right thing, she said. Everyone who was there the people did the right thing. The people will continue to keep making the right choices until every Confederate statue is gone, until white supremacy is gone. That statue is where it belongs. It needs to be in the garbage. Thompson is a member of the Worker s World Party (WWP), a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist group originally formed in 1959 as a hard-line offshoot of the more moderate Socialist Workers Party. In addition to supporting a wide range of far-left causes, the group also defends the North Korean regime of dictator Kim Jong-Un against alleged U.S. imperialism.Read more: Daily Caller | 1real |
Trump Posts INSANE Tantrum About The Media While Supposedly ‘Working’ On Vacation | Last time I checked, throwing a temper tantrum isn t considered working. But that s what Donald Trump did from his golf resort at Bedminster, New Jersey on Monday morning after the New York Times called him out for whining.Trump, of course, responded by whining about the media and claimed that his base is stronger than ever despite several polls showing that his base is starting to abandon him.The failing @nytimes, which has made every wrong prediction about me including my big election win (apologized), is totally inept! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2017The Trump base is far bigger & stronger than ever before (despite some phony Fake News polling). Look at rallies in Penn, Iowa, Ohio . Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2017Trump then desperately tried to make it sounds like he has accomplished things and called the Russia scandal fake news. . and West Virginia. The fact is the Fake News Russian collusion story, record Stock Market, border security, military strength, jobs .. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2017 Supreme Court pick, economic enthusiasm, deregulation & so much more have driven the Trump base even closer together. Will never change! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2017Hard to believe that with 24/7 #Fake News on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, NYTIMES & WAPO, the Trump base is getting stronger! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2017Then Trump had the audacity to claim that he is working hard even though he is playing golf.Working hard from New Jersey while White House goes through long planned renovation. Going to New York next week for more meetings. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2017Trump is currently on a 17-day vacation, which is twice as long as President Obama s first big vacation during his first year in office. While President Obama was capable of running the country and taking a break at the time, Trump has proven that running the country does not interest him near as much as playing golf does. And Trump already neglects most of his duties anyway and spends his mornings on Twitter instead of doing his job.The bottom line is that Trump has not signed a single piece of major legislation and is taking credit for Obama s economy. All the jobs numbers and stock market gains Trump has been bragging about are a continuation of Obama s economic achievements.And continuing to deny that his campaign colluded with Russia is seriously childish considering Trump s own son released emails proving that Trump campaign members did, indeed, meet with Russians to get dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government.It looks like even General John Kelly is incapable of keeping Trump from throwing a hissy fit on Twitter.Featured image via Ian MacNicol/Getty Images | 1real |
MINNESOTA CHURCH Places 1800 “Blessed Ramadan” Signs Around Twin Cities To Make “Muslims Feel More Welcome” [VIDEO] | Here s the truth about the Somali Muslim population in the Twin Cities where these signs are being placed around by a Christian pastor:Minneapolis-St. Paul has what the media refers to as an ISIS problem. It s no coincidence ISIS is recruiting in the Twin Cities area. There is a huge population of 30,000 Somali Muslims who live there.A recent Business Insider report states there has been a string of Islamic State-related arrests over roughly the last year due to the large Somali community. Andrew Lugar, U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, speaking at an FBI news conference stated: To be clear. We have a terror-recruiting problem in Minnesota Parents and loved ones should know that there is not one master recruiter organizing in the Somali community locally the person radicalizing your son, your brother, your friend, may not be a stranger. It may be their best friend right here in town. The deception in the Christian Church is absolutely astounding. Instead of heeding the words of the Apostle John, who aptly said, every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world, many have decide to listen to those of the antichrist religion of Islam. Sadly, many have no only listened to engage them, but they have even gone so far as to support them. Such is the case of 17 churches in Minnesota.Designated terror group CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) has supported Christian churches putting up Blessed Ramadan signs to promote an alleged unity between Christianity and Islam.Apparently, about 1800 signs were distributed in the Twin Cities and Duluth in order to help Muslims feel more welcome in the community, according to a Fox 21 reporter.I have been in St. Paul and Minneapolis. I have seen the Muslim neighborhoods and have heard from some of the people that live in the area around them that there is nothing but death and destruction that surrounds these people. Yet, they are supposed to be made to feel more welcome in the community by Christian churches that promote the holidays of a false prophet and antichrist? I just don t understand that.According to the report, the Blessed Ramadan signs are supposed to show support to Muslims who have recently been targeted after negativity stemming from the Orlando shooting.Rector Bill van Oss of St. Paul s Church says that the signs were put out with the goal to find the common ground that we have as believers in god to work toward a country and a world of justice and peace for all people. Watch here:Well, doesn t that sounds all euphoric and filled with happy unicorns? The fact of the matter is that Christians and Muslims are diametrically opposed to the person, work and nature of the Creator. Christians see that God has revealed Himself as one God, yet in three distinct persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Muslim only see God as both one person and one god. Therefore, while they will acknowledge Jesus Christ as a prophet, they will neither heed His words nor acknowledge his virgin birth and divinity.So, No Mr. Bill, these signs are not what you claim they are. They are capitulation on your part and the part of your professed Christian neighbors and parishioners to not feel uncomfortable with confronting Muslims with the false antichrist teachings of Muhammad and the Koran and calling them to repentance to the Law of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Via: Freedom Outpost | 1real |
Speaker At Trump Rally Says He Hopes Hillary Clinton Dies In A Fiery Car Crash (VIDEO) | Speaker At Trump Rally Says He Hopes Hillary Clinton Dies In A Fiery Car Crash (VIDEO) By Andrew Bradford on October 30, 2016 Subscribe
When historians write accounts of the 2016 race for the White House, it’s very likely that one of the things which will get special attention is the level of violence–both physical and verbal–which has emanated from those who slavishly support GOP nominee Donald Trump.
If you doubt this fact, consider what was said earlier today at a Trump rally being held in Las Vegas. Author and self-described “capitalist evangelist” Wayne Allyn Root was giving a rambling speech as a warm-up before Der Fuhrer Donald took the stage, and while portions of it were comparable to the rantings of Charles Manson after too much caffeine, it was the language Root used (highly militaristic and warlike) that you cannot help but notice. At various points in his unhinged diatribe, Root used the following phrases : “Trump warriors” “Trump army” “Trump revolution”
Then, in full psychotic rant, Root attempted to mix together plot elements from the O.J. Simpson case with the movies Driving Miss Daisy and Thelma and Louise , telling the ecstatic crowd : “It’s Hillary in a White Ford Bronco. She’s got Huma driving and they’re headed for the Mexican border. I have a name for the future TV movie. It’s called Driving Miss Hillary. And the ending, if we all get our wish, is like Thelma and Louise!”
Finally, Root ended his echo of Nuremberg by declaring: “I will give you my country when you pry it from my cold dead hands.”
When I listen to Wayne Allyn Root (or any of the other fanatical Trumpkins), the movie that comes to mind for me is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Featured Image Via Right Wing Watch About Andrew Bradford
Andrew Bradford is a single father who lives in Atlanta. A member of the Christian Left, he has worked in the fields of academia, journalism, and political consulting. His passions are art, music, food, and literature. He believes in equal rights and justice for all. To see what else he likes to write about, check out his blog at Deepleftfield.info. Connect | 1real |
17 Alleged Mexican Cartel Operatives Charged in Colorado | A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging 17 defendants for drug trafficking in direct connection with a Mexican drug cartel. [The arrests and indictments of the 17 defendants were the result of a investigation into a Mexican drug cartel operation that smuggled narcotics into the United States from California to Colorado, according to a statement from the Department of Justice. Jeff Dorschner, Spokesman for the Colorado U. S. Attorney’s Office, told Breitbart Texas, “During the course of this investigation law enforcement determined that a Mexican Cartel was involved. The identity of that cartel is not being released as it remains the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation. ” According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) the Sinaloa Mexican Drug Cartel is known to be the dominant drug cartel in both California and Colorado. Of the 17 defendants, 11 are from Mexico, four from El Salvador, and two are from California. Seven of the defendants are considered fugitives. The defendants are alleged to have brought large quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine into the United States through California using secret compartments in vehicles. The drugs were kept in stash houses in Aurora, Colorado, before being distributed at a local grocery store. A money transfer station at the grocery store was used to send some of the proceeds back to Mexico. The rest of the funds were smuggled back in secret vehicle compartments. “We are committed to dismantling and removing the threat posed by these criminal organizations flooding American communities with dangerous narcotics,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “This organization is alleged to have moved large amounts of meth and cocaine from Mexico to Colorado, with devastating impact on communities in their wake. I want to congratulate the outstanding federal, state, and local law enforcement cooperation that resulted in this highly successful operation. Replicating this kind of aggressive law enforcement take down is critical to breaking the backs of these criminal organizations. ” The Defendants from Mexico are: Jose 58, (naturalized) Selestino 45 Fredy age unknown “Bancholas” age unknown, (thought to be from Mexico) Rodrigo 49, (naturalized) Oscar age unknown Eduardo 37 “Changuito” age unknown, (thought to be from Mexico) “ ” age unknown, (thought to be from Mexico) Leopoldo Age Unknown And Heberto 43. The Defendants from El Salvador are Lara age unknown Claudia 41, (naturalized) Vilma L. Zamora, 67 and Jose age unknown. The Defendants from California are Juan Carlos 31 and Erik Parra. The indictment contains 45 counts, including an asset forfeiture allegation against the stash houses that were used to hide the drugs. Ryan Saavedra is a contributor for Breitbart Texas and can be found on Twitter at @RealSaavedra. | 0fake |
FBI clears Clinton in email review two days before election | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI said on Sunday it stood by its earlier finding that no criminal charges were warranted against Democrat Hillary Clinton for using a private email server for government work, lifting a cloud over her presidential campaign two days before the U.S. election. FBI Director James Comey made the announcement in a letter to Congress, saying the agency had worked “around the clock” to complete its review of newly discovered emails and found no reason to change its July finding. “During that process, we reviewed all of the communications that were to or from Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state,” Comey said. “Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July.” A law enforcement source told Reuters the decision closed the FBI probe of Clinton’s email practices. Comey informed Congress of the newly discovered emails more than a week ago, throwing the race for the White House into turmoil and helping to erode Clinton’s lead over Republican candidate Donald Trump in the final stretch before Tuesday’s vote. “We’re glad this issue is resolved but for the record, this could easily have been learned before 1st letter was sent,” Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon wrote on Twitter. At a rally in Michigan, Trump questioned the thoroughness of the FBI review and said he was confident the issue would not go away. “The investigation will go on, the rank-and-file special agents won’t let her get away with her terrible crimes,” he told supporters in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Clinton did not mention the FBI email decision during campaign appearances in Ohio and New Hampshire. U.S. stock index futures rose more than 1 percent after the FBI announcement, suggesting Wall Street was poised to end its longest skid in more than three decades. The U.S. dollar also jumped in Asian trading against the yen, euro and Swiss franc. U.S. Treasury futures dropped and Tokyo’s Nikkei share average opened up 1.31 percent. Global financial markets slipped last week as opinion polls showed the presidential race tightening. The latest emails were discovered as part of a separate probe of former Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Weiner is the target of an FBI investigation into illicit text messages he allegedly sent to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. Federal investigators got a warrant to examine the emails to see if they were related to the probe into Clinton’s private server. Democrats reacted angrily to Comey’s intrusion into the race and demanded quick action in examining the emails. “I am very grateful to the professionals at the FBI for doing an extraordinary amount of high-quality work in a short period of time,” Comey said on Sunday. But Democrats did not let Comey and the FBI off the hook. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California said Sunday’s announcement made Comey’s earlier letter “even more troubling” and called for the Justice Department to review its procedures to prevent similar actions to influence future elections. “By confirming that the new emails were meaningless, today’s letter underscores the irresponsibility of Director Comey’s original letter,” Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said. Republicans kept up their criticism of Clinton despite Comey’s announcement. “She simply believes she’s above the law and always plays by her own rules,” House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement, arguing that Clinton’s use of a private email server “compromised our national security.” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus said that while the probe had not led to criminal charges, it produced evidence that Clinton broke the law and “repeatedly lied to the American people about her reckless conduct.” News of the renewed probe had appeared to fuel a recent slide in Clinton’s poll numbers. The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Clinton with a 5 percentage point lead over the New York businessman nationally - 44 percent to 39 percent support - while races in the swing states of Florida and North Carolina shifted from favoring Clinton to being too close to call. The Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project estimates that Clinton has a 90 percent chance of winning the election. | 0fake |
“I SERVED WITH ROY MOORE IN VIETNAM”…Letter From Veteran Sets Record Straight On “Honorable, Decent, Respectable, Patriotic Commander and Soldier” | If it wasn t for people like Vietnam veteran William E. Staehle, who made the decision to publicly defend the character of Roy Moore in an op-ed, the only picture the American people might have of the former judge, is the one painted by the leftist media and the rabid Democrat Party, that struggles to identify a single legitimate reason for Alabama voters to support their candidate Doug Jones.I served with Roy Moore in Vietnam in 1971-72, where I knew him to be an altogether honorable, decent, respectable, and patriotic commander and soldier. I have had no contact with him since.He and I were captains and company commanders in the 504th Military Police Battalion, stationed at the base camp called Camp Land, just west of Danang.I knew him well in my first four months in-country before I was re-assigned within the battalion to another location. During that time, I grew to admire him.I am Bill Staehle, residing in Asbury Park, New Jersey. I am an attorney, practicing law continuously for 42-years. I began my career as an assistant United States attorney, and for the past 32 years, I have been the managing trial lawyer for the staff counsel office of a major insurance company.Allow me to relate to you one experience involving Roy that impressed me.While in Vietnam, there came a time when another officer invited Roy and me to go with him into town after duty hours for a couple of beers. That officer had just returned from an assignment in Quang Tri Province north of Danang, and we were interested to learn of his experiences.I had not met him before, and I don t believe Roy had either. On other occasions with other officers, we would go to the officers club at the air force base, but on this occasion, he told us he knew of another place in town.When we arrived at the place and went inside, it was clear to Roy and me that he had taken us to a brothel. That officer appeared to know people there, as he was greeted by one or two young women in provocative attire.The place was plush. There were other American servicemen there. Alcohol was being served. There were plenty of very attractive young women clearly eager for an intimate time.In less time than it took any of the women to approach us, Roy turned to me and said words to this effect, We shouldn t be here. I am leaving. We told the officer who had brought us that we wanted to leave. He told us to take his jeep and that he could get a ride back later, which he did. Roy and I drove back to camp together.That evening, if I didn t know it before, I knew then that with Roy Moore I was in the company of a man of great self-control, discipline, honor, and integrity. While there were other actions by Roy that reinforced my belief in him, that was the most telling.I reject what are obvious, politically motivated allegations against Roy of inappropriate dating behavior. What I saw, felt and knew about him in Vietnam stands in stark contrast to those allegations.I sincerely doubt that Roy s character had changed fundamentally and dramatically in a few short years later. He deserves, in my view, to be heard on the issues that are important to the people of Alabama and our country.Roy was a soldier for whom I was willing to put my life on the line in Vietnam if the occasion ever arose. Fortunately, it did not.I was prepared to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him then, and I am proud to stand by Roy now. William E. Staehle, Asbury Park, New JerseyVia: Yellow Hammer | 1real |
Pentagon probes Trump's ex-adviser Flynn over foreign payments | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon inspector general has launched an investigation into whether Michael Flynn, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, accepted money from foreign entities without the required approval, according to a letter released by House Democrats on Thursday. The new probe compounds the legal problems Flynn faces for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the state-run Russia Today (RT) television network and a firm owned by a Turkish businessman after the former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) director retired as an Army lieutenant general in 2014. Senior lawmakers said this week that Flynn likely broke the law by failing to request and receive permission to accept $45,000 to speak at a 2015 RT gala dinner at which he sat with Russian President Vladimir Putin. If substantiated, such a failure would violate regulations rooted in the Constitution that bar current and retired military officers from accepting “emoluments” from foreign powers, the letter said. White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters on Thursday that the inspector general’s probe was “appropriate.” “If they think there’s wrongdoing, then the department’s inspector general should look into that,” he said. Spicer said Flynn did not undergo a security review before he was named Trump’s first national security adviser. “Why would you rerun a background check on someone who was the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency that had and did maintain a high-level security clearance?” he said. However, a former senior White House official familiar with ethics and security clearance issues said that during the administration of former President Barack Obama, the White House Counsel’s office always conducted its own background investigations of candidates for senior White House jobs, even if they already held security clearances. These reviews included questionnaires and interviews, and would have included issues such as whether the candidate had drug problems, had hired prostitutes, or had personal or financial problems, the former official said. Flynn is also the subject of congressional probes into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election that U.S. intelligence agencies have said was intended to sway the vote in favor of Trump, the Republican candidate, over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Russia denies the allegation. The Defense Department inspector general is investigating whether Flynn “failed to obtain required approval prior to receiving any emolument from a foreign government,” according to an April 11 letter released by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. If substantiated, such a failure would violate military regulations that apply a constitutional provision that bars current and retired officers from accepting “emoluments” from foreign powers, the letter said. Representative Elijah Cummings, the House committee’s top Democrat, released other Defense Department documents on Thursday showing that the DIA found no evidence that Flynn requested permission to accept foreign funds, despite a 2014 warning against taking such payments. One document, a redacted version of a letter the DIA sent to the committee on April 7, said the agency had not found “any records referring or relating to LTG (Lieutenant General) Flynn’s receipt of money from a foreign source.” Flynn’s attorney, Robert Kelner, said in a statement that Cummings mischaracterized the DIA letter, saying a partially redacted section confirmed that Flynn gave the Pentagon “information and documents on a thumb drive” about the RT event. The materials included documents that Flynn used a speakers bureau for the event, said Kelner, adding that the former national security adviser also briefed the Pentagon before and after the Moscow visit. He called on the DIA to release the unredacted letter and details of the briefings. Kelner’s statement, however, did not address the issue of whether Flynn requested and received permission to accept foreign government payments. Separately, the committee’s Republican chairman, Representative Jason Chaffetz, asked the acting Army secretary for a “final determination” about whether Flynn violated the law by accepting foreign payments, according to a letter released by his office on Thursday. In addition to looking into the RT funds, the House committee is scrutinizing Flynn’s work last year as a foreign agent hired to promote Turkish government views by a Netherlands-based company owned by a Turkish businessman. The company paid Flynn’s now-defunct firm, Flynn Intel Group, a total of $530,000 beginning in August, when he was the Trump campaign’s top foreign policy adviser. Flynn registered as a foreign agent with the Justice Department only in March, weeks after he resigned as Trump’s national security adviser following his failure to disclose his contacts with Sergei Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, before Trump took office. | 0fake |
Parents Battle State of Georgia to Name Their Child ’Allah’ - Breitbart | The parents of a child are battling the state of Georgia over their daughter’s last name. [Elizabeth Handy and Bilal Walk say that the Georgia Department of Health refused to give a birth certificate to their infant daughter with the last name “Allah,” the Atlanta reported. The state of Georgia, on the other hand, says that their daughter’s name, ZalyKha Graceful Lorraina Allah, does not follow state law that requires the child’s last name to be Handy, Walk, or a combination of the two. The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia has stepped in to represent the couple, who say they cannot get a Social Security number for their daughter because she has no birth certificate and could potentially face issues with traveling, health care access, and enrolling in schools. “We have to make sure that the state isn’t overstepping their boundaries,” Walk said. “It is just plainly unfair and a violation of our rights. ” Lawyers representing the Department of Public Health say that Georgia state law “requires that a baby’s surname be either that of the father of the mother for purposes of the initial birth record. ” Once the birth record is created, the parents can petition the superior court to change ZalyKha’s surname, according to general counsel Sidney Barrett. ACLU Georgia Executive Director Andrea Young argues that the state’s decision is an example of government overreach that violates the First and 14th Amendments. The couple also claims that they were able to get a birth certificate for their son named Masterful Allah without a problem. Lawyers for Handy and Walk say the couple has been unable to obtain Medicaid coverage and food stamps through the SNAP program. The couple said they wanted to name their child Allah because it was a “noble” name and denied that it was for religious reasons. “Simply put, we have a personal understanding that we exercise in regards to the names,” Walk said. “It is nothing that we want to go into detail about, because it is not important. What is important is the language of the statute and our rights as parents. ” This is not the first time the state has rejected a request to name a child after a religious figure. A Tennessee judge rejected a family’s request to name their son “Messiah” in 2014 because she believed Messiah could only describe Jesus Christ and placed an “undue burden” on the child that he could not fulfill. That judge was later fired, and the judge’s decision was overturned. | 0fake |
AUSTRIAN Schools Are Being Radicalized By Young Muslim Migrants: “If She Doesn’t Obey [Wear Hijab], I’ll Just Murder Her” [VIDEO] | This story is a perfect example of how Muslim migrants do NOT assimilate in their host countries. Instead of assimilating, they are demanding Austrian students change their culture and even their religion, to satisfy the desires of the refugees who are essentially guests in their villages and towns The following news report about the radicalization of students in a Viennese high school begins with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan s recent comments about women, who he thinks should concentrate mainly on being mothers. Mr. Erdogan s words are taken seriously in Germany and Austria, since he has a strong influence on Turks there, even those of the second or third generation.Notice that the Chechens relatively recent arrivals are said to pose the most serious problem. The same story is told all over Europe: the Chechens are the biggest troublemakers, second only to the Somalis in areas that host Somali communities. You might call them the Somalis of the Caucasus.Via: Gates Of Vienna | 1real |
That Historic Cocktail? Turns Out It’s a Fake - The New York Times | For the last 20 years, if you were in the bar business and knew one thing about the bartender Adam Seger, it was that he was the man behind the Seelbach cocktail. The Seelbach is named after the Seelbach Hotel (today the Seelbach Hilton) a storied lodging in downtown Louisville, Ky. that is mentioned briefly in “The Great Gatsby. ” Shortly after being put in charge of the hotel’s bar and restaurant operations in 1995, Mr. Seger declared that he had discovered a recipe for a cocktail that was once the hotel’s signature drink. He tested it, liked it and put it on the menu. The news media soon picked up on the tale, and within a few years, the Seelbach cocktail was regarded as a rescued classic. It’s a tantalizing back story, one that has charmed cocktail writers and aficionados for years, and there’s only one thing wrong with it: None of it is true. After two decades of Mr. Seger, 47, who left the hotel in 2001 and recently helped open the Tuck Room in downtown Manhattan, has decided to come clean that he concocted not only the drink but also the story behind it. “I was nobody,” Mr. Seger said of his standing as a bartender then. “I had no previous accolades in the bar world. I knew I could make a great drink. I wanted it to be this promotion for the hotel, and I felt the hotel needed a signature cocktail. How could you have a place that F. Scott Fitzgerald hung out in that doesn’t have a damn cocktail?” Mr. Seger’s sin is hardly an original one bartenders have been telling tales since there have been bars to tend. It is, however, an unusual instance of legerdemain in an era when mixologists have made an effort to be more scrupulous about cocktail history. The Seelbach cocktail story began when Mr. Seger started digging into the hotel’s history. “We found old menus,” he said. “I was convinced there had to be a Seelbach cocktail. ” Except there wasn’t. So he created one, mixing bourbon, triple sec and Angostura and Peychaud’s bitters, and topping it all with sparkling white wine. He then came up with an elaborate origin story involving a couple from New Orleans who had honeymooned at the hotel in 1912. The man ordered a manhattan, the woman a Champagne cocktail. The clumsy bartender, spilling the bubbly into the manhattan, set the mess aside and made the drinks anew. But the accidental mélange got the barman thinking. Soon, the Seelbach cocktail was born. The Louisville was the first to write about the drink. Soon, it was included in “New Classic Cocktails,” a 1997 book by Gaz Regan and Mardee Haidin Regan. Later, it found its way into “Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails,” an influential book by the drinks historian Ted Haigh, known as Dr. Cocktail. To Mr. Seger’s amazement, no one ever asked him to produce an old menu with the drink on it. “When Ted’s book came out, I thought, ‘Oh, now this is getting too serious, because this is a history book,’” Mr. Seger said. Mr. Seger, who talked of how he had “carried this around” for years, recently confessed his transgression to Mr. Regan. “To be honest,” Mr. Regan said, “I always suspected that Adam had created the drink, but I really, really loved it, his story was almost plausible, and I needed recipes for ‘New Classic Cocktails. ’” When informed by a reporter of the drink’s new birth date, Matthew Willinger, the hotel’s director of public relations, replied that the cocktail “has certainly been a tradition of the hotel and will remain part of its future. ” Recipe: The Seelbach Cocktail | 0fake |
OKLAHOMA Supreme Court Rules Punishing Smokers With Cigarette Tax “Unconstitutional”…Lawmakers Forced To Fill SHOCKING Hole In State Budget | OKLAHOMA CITY The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled the cigarette tax passed late in the legislative session unconstitutional Thursday morning.The tax was expected to bring in more than $200 million of revenue for the state budget by tacking on an extra $1.50 per pack of cigarettes. The budget was planned and passed assuming the tax would hold.The tax was originally passed after the deadline for revenue raising bills, but Republican lawmakers tried to eke it through as a fee. A tax would have required a three-fourths majority to pass. Justices on Thursday ruled that, because the funds raised could be used for non-smoking related programs, the bill could not go through as a regulatory fee.The State now has a week to seek a rehearing. If it does not, the ruling is final.Gov. Mary Fallin issued a response to the Supreme Court s ruling:I am disappointed to hear the Supreme Court struck down the smoking cessation fee, but I certainly respect the justices authority. I will be discussing with legislative leaders from both parties the need to address the $215 million shortfall this will create for the Department of Human Services, the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, the three agencies that received the bulk of the money that was to be generated by the cessation fee.These agencies and the people they serve cannot sustain the kind of cuts that will occur if we do not find a solution. My belief is we will have to come into special session to address this issue.House Minority Leader Scott Inman released the following statement on the ruling:Once again, Governor Fallin and Republican legislators have failed Oklahoma. My caucus and I sounded every alarm bell we could to stop this from happening, yet here we are, just as we warned.Today, I m urging Governor Fallin to call for a special session and for Republican leaders to come together with myself and Sen. Sparks and draft a truly bipartisan and constitutional budget plan that will help to restore, reinvest in, and rebuild Oklahoma.With our state agencies facing more budget cuts and with even more rulings waiting, the time is now to work out a budget agreement before a special session of the legislature. By coming together now and putting a plan in place, we can save precious time and taxpayer dollars to fix the mess that their failed leadership has put us in because of their failed policies to cut taxes for the wealthy and well-connected.This cigarette tax was just a Band-Aid put on their gaping wound of a budget hole. Schools are down to 4-day weeks, hospitals are closing down, and public safety is in a crisis, not because cigarettes are too cheap, but because Republican policies benefitting their donors have failed us.For entire story: News 9 | 1real |
Trump Started A War With McConnell And The Oldest GOP Senator Is Coming For Him Guns Blazing | Donald Trump just LOVES attacking members of his own party. Seemingly not understanding that the 535 people in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate are a co-equal branch of government and can totally kneecap him and even remove him from office if they so choose, Trump has been steadily attacking a GOP stalwart: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.First, Trump decided that McConnell needed to get back to work on his failed healthcare legislation. Then, he suggested that McConnell should resign if he cannot get Trump s legislative agenda through the Senate. Well, it seems that other GOP Senators are sick and tired of Trump s bullying of their Senate leader, and are coming after him.First, Orrin Hatch, who is easily the oldest member of the Senate at age 83, had his office release the following cryptic message regarding Trump s attacks on McConnell:"@SenateMajLdr has been the best leader we ve had in my time in the Senate, through very tough challenges. I fully support him." -Hatch pic.twitter.com/3vD5nFgE36 Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) August 10, 2017Of course, Trump is not one of them. He ran an insurgent campaign and took over their entire party, as they watched helplessly. Now, slowly but surely, the establishment elected Republicans are realizing that this deal with the devil was a colossal mistake. Now that Senator Hatch has come out and stood with McConnell, surely more Senators especially those who have criticized Trump in the past are sure to follow. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John McCain (R-AZ), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) come to mind, for starters.Trump has no idea what he has done by declaring war on McConnell. These people have the power to end his presidency and perhaps even his freedom if he isn t careful. So, let the GOP infighting and the Trump bullying continue.Pop your popcorn, folks. This is about to get REAL good.Featured image via Olivier Douliery Pool/Getty Images | 1real |
Argentine survivor of New York attack pleads for justice, love | (Reuters) - What has the world turned in to? a friend of the five Argentines killed in the New York attack this week asked at a news conference on Friday, alongside three other surviving members of a group of former classmates. Guillermo Banchini, an architect, and friends were cycling in New York during a 30-year high school reunion trip on Tuesday when a driver of a pickup truck plowed down a bike path. How could someone think of, plan and do something like this? We cannot get our heads around it, Banchini said at the Argentine consulate in New York. Let there be justice. Let this not be repeated, not here nor anywhere in the world. Eight people, including a Belgian woman, a New Yorker and a New Jersey man, were killed and 11 injured in lower Manhattan in the attack along the Hudson River. The suspect, 29-year-old Uzbek immigrant Sayfullo Saipov, was charged with acting on behalf of Islamic State, whose followers have carried out vehicle attacks in several cities, mostly in Europe. The five deceased Argentines, businessmen and architects aged 48 to 49, were all alums of a polytechnic high school in Rosario, Argentina s third-largest city. Another member of the group, Martin Ludovico Marro, was injured and hospitalized in Manhattan and did not attend the televised news conference. Banchini, speaking on behalf of the other Argentine survivors, said the pain they were feeling would always endure, but they would move forward the way they had learned as close knit childhood friends. In the name of those values, and a way of life, we want to make a bet - love conquers hate, he said. | 0fake |
OBAMA’S AMERICA: INCOMING U.S. CITIZENS NO LONGER REQUIRED TO PLEDGE THEY WILL “bear arms on behalf of the United States” | If it were up to this President, we wouldn t have any arms to bear U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Tuesday said it will no longer require incoming U.S. citizens to pledge that they will bear arms on behalf of the United States or perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces as part of the naturalization process.Those lines are in the Oath of Allegiance that people recite as they become U.S. citizens. But USCIS said people may be able to exclude those phrases for reasons related to religion or if they have a conscientious objection.USCIS said people with certain religious training or with a deeply held moral or ethical code may not have to say the phrases as they are naturalized.The agency said people don t have to belong to a specific church or religion to use this exemption, and may attest to U.S. officials administering the oath that they have these beliefs.Via: Washington Examiner | 1real |
California bill to wean power sector off fossil fuels dies for this year | SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A long-shot plan to wean California’s power sector entirely off fossil fuels by 2045 was put on hold until 2018 on Saturday, as lawmakers recessed for the year without hearing the measure. The bill was strongly opposed by the state’s investor-owned utility companies, who said it would not protect consumers from the expense of speeding up the switch to renewable and carbon neutral fuels. Assemblyman Chris Holden, who held the measure in his Utilities and Energy Committee, said he would consider it again when the legislature returns in January for the second half of its two-year session. | 0fake |
Ivanka Defends Malia Obama From Attacks, Her Dad’s Fans Won’t Stop: ‘She Looks Like A Baboon’ | Ivanka Trump and Chelsea Clinton defended Malia Obama after conservative websites published breaking news showing the former President s daughter acting like a 19-year-old college student, which she is. Obama was seen in one photo kissing her Harvard University boyfriend, and a video circulated showing her blowing smoke rings and for some reason, that made Trump supporters heads explode. Malia Obama should be allowed the same privacy as her school aged peers, Ivanka Trump tweeted. She is a young adult and private citizen, and should be OFF limits. Malia Obama should be allowed the same privacy as her school aged peers. She is a young adult and private citizen, and should be OFF limits. Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) November 24, 2017Trump fans weren t having it. This woman suggested that Malia Obama bragged about it and somehow broke a law by blowing smoke rings.Maybe those girls should not be drinking underage and brag about it and going to adult clubs. If regular citizens would be arrested. Not protected and allowed to break laws Michelle Naylor (@Michell18500924) November 24, 2017Sorry but have to disagree with you there! Key word adult! Young or old she s still an adult Celina Maccadanza (@CelinaSivret) November 24, 2017 She looks like a baboon when she blows smoke rings. (((Randall Weems))) many are asking no i am not ga (@DSARubsHands) November 24, 2017She is a bad apple in a rotting barrel WW (@WW300mag) November 24, 2017Chelsea Clinton weighed in, too. Malia Obama s private life, as a young woman, a college student, a private citizen, should not be your clickbait, she wrote. Be better. Malia Obama s private life, as a young woman, a college student, a private citizen, should not be your clickbait. Be better. Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) November 24, 2017That, too, fell on deaf ears.Yes the high road, how much has she trashed trump??? Selective bullying, malia deserves all the bashing she s getting, let s hear Michelle talk anti smoking again schockerone (@myJuicePlusBiz) November 24, 2017Barron Trump does not have that and he is a child. Hypocrisy Dee (@Dee33305261) November 24, 2017It s somehow racist to not pick on Obama s daughter.Funny when prior presidents kids were picked on in media, but not obama s kids, horrible double standard, and racist. Darren Gaskin (@kentuckyrunner) November 24, 2017We don t need to be lectured by a Clinton, be better MarieTweets (@mkues65) November 24, 2017Ivanka finally said something most of us can agree on but her father s supporters aren t going to let up.Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images. | 1real |
Certain flight crew barred from U.S. entry after Trump order: IATA memo | (Reuters) - A new ban on U.S. travel for nationals of seven Middle Eastern countries caught the airline industry unprepared, with flight crew from those states also barred from entering, the International Air Transport Association said on Saturday. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has briefed the global trade group that passport-holders from states such as Iran and Iraq, including cabin crew, will be barred entry to the United States, IATA said in an email to its member airlines, seen by Reuters. The email underscores airlines’ confusion about the situation as well as the challenge some may face from crew scheduling. Airlines also stand to lose business: for instance, around 35,000 travelers from Iran visited the United States in 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “Much of this development has come over the weekend and at a time when IATA’s Facilitation team has been on duty travel. Unfortunately, our response has been slower than we would have preferred,” the email said. “A number (of questions) have yet to be resolved.” The executive order by President Donald Trump bans travelers with passports from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days. IATA was informed that lawful permanent residents of the United States - or green-card holders - from those countries are not included in the ban. However, a Trump administration official told reporters that green-card holders from the countries need to check with a U.S. consulate to see whether they can return, causing some confusion for airlines, which still plan to follow CBP guidance. Gulf airlines Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways said earlier on their websites that passengers would need a green card or diplomatic visa to enter the United States. An Emirates spokeswoman said “a very small number” of its passengers had been affected by the ban. | 0fake |
Living in Andy Cohen’s America - The New York Times | The Season 7 “Real Housewives of New Jersey” reunion show took place in October in a theater in Westbury, N. Y. An elaborate thing had been constructed on a stage that would soon seat the five Housewives, complete with a rug and zebra chairs, everything sparkling, everything . The set was erected so specifically and thoroughly that it included a kitchen in the back, unusable but complete, that you could see only a fraction of, and a fireplace that the cameras would never pick up. “That’s not a real fireplace?” I asked a production assistant, who answered, “It’s not not real. ” The five contracted Housewives arrived on Long Island the night before for this reckoning of the season’s tensions, equal parts State of the State panel discussion and of every lunchtime confrontation that occurred at my high school. The Housewives were shuttled in black S. U. V.s under the cover of darkness to a hotel more than two hours from where they live, in order to “throw off the scent to the press,” a publicist told me, though “scent” is a strange word choice here because anyone with a nose could have the place from the sheer concentration of applied Shalimar. But there was good reason for the secrecy. Leaks from these reunion shows have been rampant, and after a previous one, Andy Cohen, the mediator and the franchise creator (or as he says, “the person who gets credit for creating the franchise” when, really, a lot of other people were involved) realized that the leaks might be coming from the hair and makeup teams, who watch the live feed from a holding room. He told the producers to cut the audio to those dressing rooms. Since then, the integrity of his reunion show — if, again, “integrity” is the right word to describe the absolute ravaging of women by their former, current and future friends, accusing one another of everything from having had more than their admitted amount of plastic surgery to being an actual F. B. I. snitch — has been intact. The only leaks would be coming from Cohen, and they’d come when he decided they would come. Cohen prepared himself in a sunny, makeshift dressing room on the first floor, standing shirtless as he tried to choose a tie for the — yes, that’s — taping. His voice was a hoarse whisper, stubbornly projected through sheer will from deep behind his sternum. He had just come from disseminating his Andyness throughout the country on a speaking tour with his friend Anderson Cooper, in which both men told stories from their personal lives and drank Fresquilas on stage. There were a few appearances for his coming book tour for “Superficial: More Adventures From the Andy Cohen Diaries. ” He had been talking for hours on his weekly radio shows (plural) as well as negotiating and announcing his new book imprint, Andy Cohen Books. He had been hosting his nightly live talk show on Bravo, “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. ” And of course, he continued to the “Real Housewives” franchise, watching cuts of each episode for all seven cities, giving notes, hiring, firing, reconsidering and fielding text messages from the stars of those shows, sometimes replying purely with emoji. I told him that the Housewives, who were waiting for the taping to begin, seemed nervous. “A lot of them view me as kind of their daddy in some weird, sick way, and their boss, and their friend, and their boyfriend, and their enemy — and so there’s a lot of different psychological layers happening in a situation like this,” he replied. “Some of them are volatile women. So it’s all real. It’s all real. ” Below the street, in their dressing rooms, the Housewives breathed through the tension. They had lived their reality on camera and watched the results. They had heard their Housewife colleagues talk about their behavior in interviews. And they had built within themselves a caldron of anger, resentment and oh, yeah? s to what they had seen. So as not to dilute their fury, so as not to lose one moment of heat for the cameras, the publicists brought them to me separately through secured hallways, like Hannibal Lecter on his gurney. Teresa Giudice, who wore a satin evening gown and body shimmer (it was 8 a. m.) told me she used to be nervous about confronting certain cast members at these reunions, but now, since serving a prison term for fraud in 2015, which she continually refers to as “the time I went away,” she’s fine she’s ready for her day in court or whatever this is for her. She used to resent Cohen, because she thought he was hardest on her, but now she takes a more nuanced view. “I think he’s an amazing guy,” she said. “If he was straight, I definitely would date him. ” Jacqueline Laurita, who was Teresa’s best friend but has now replaced Melissa Gorga as Teresa’s sworn enemy for life, admitted that she was expecting a blood bath. “Yeah, it feels like you’re walking to the electric chair” is how she put it. She knew she would be held accountable for crimes that included calling Teresa a “criminal” and accusing Teresa’s allies of being her “soldiers. ” Jacqueline knew she just had to endure it. She has stopped trying to game Cohen at these things. “He greets you with a smile, and he has a way about him, and he makes you feel comfortable talking about things, and he can pull the best and the worst out of you with a smile on his face. ” She agreed that the best way to think of Cohen is the way you think of Jesus. You pray to him for blessings — to get more airtime, to get a rival off the show — but like Jesus himself, he answers prayers only sometimes. In his sunny dressing room up above, I asked Cohen how he’d feel if, like the Housewives, he were about to be confronted by everyone he’d interacted with this year. “I’m not on a reality show about my life” was his answer. It annoys him, this implication that what he’s doing is somehow cruel to the women who have signed up for it. But don’t you feel bad for them? I wanted to know. He shook his head, the way he would every time I didn’t get it. These women, who were once housewives, real housewives, are now businesswomen. Teresa Giudice is a New York Times author. Melissa Gorga has a successful clothing store. Jacqueline Laurita now has a platform to talk about her son’s autism and for her husband to sell a brand called the Little Kernel. “I’m in a business relationship with these women,” he said. “They know what they’re doing. ” He put on his shirt and picked the striped tie. Walking out, he was intercepted by Kathleen French, a senior vice president at Bravo, who said that things had become a little too crazy the night before at the end of the “Real Housewives of Orange County” trip to Ireland. “Don’t tell me any more,” he said. “Let me just see it. ” He took his place in the fake living room and sat down. “Very casual,” he said as the women out in their restrictive formal wear, a deep mustard and hair spritzed to within an inch of laws. “This is their Super Bowl,” he told me when I asked why they were in tie before 8 a. m. Over the next few hours, as they said things like “Oh, really, bitch?” and “I was friends with Teresa when she was chasing a prostitution whore out of a country club” and “Do I look like an ape?” and “I’m turning you off” and “You’re a dumb bitch,” Cohen’s placid cool sometimes gave way to frustration. “Stay on your couches!” he beseeched them. “Don’t push Daddy!” He put a finger gun to his head as Teresa accused Jacqueline of selling a story to a tabloid. He won’t like that I began this article with the “Housewives. ” Cohen has hosted a nightly talk show now for more than seven years that features scintillating conversation with celebrities and (O. K. yes) clips of Bravo shows, but his guests are legitimate stars, like Meryl Streep and Oprah Winfrey and (O. K. yes) Real Housewives. “Watch What Happens Live” is doing well, with nearly 800, 000 viewers a night. The set just expanded to accommodate twice its audience. But you can’t talk about Cohen without talking about the empire that he helped create in 2006 — a juggernaut of unscripted television, with all but one of the locales (it’s Dallas) averaging two or three million viewers per episode. “Real Housewives” is watched sincerely, it is watched as camp. It is it is it is it is pored over by at least one very funny podcast (“Bitch Sesh”) it is debated by feminists, it is singled out for a particular kind of cultural degradation that has seeped into our national conversation and it is fairly said to have been a factor in our recent elevation of a host to the highest office of this country, a man who apparently spent Thanksgiving asking his guests, style, whom he should pick for secretary of state. Cohen was at a Jewish Federation speaking gig in Washington recently when a man raised his hand and asked if he felt responsible for the level of discourse that the American republic had descended to in the last few months. It was two weeks before the election, and the question was fair. Over the 10 million episodes of “Real Housewives” I watched this fall, I heard people say to one another, “I just wanna friggin rip his balls off” and “Put away your penis . .. and maybe someone would treat you like a woman. ” I saw a woman flip a table when she was angry, a woman who threw her fake leg when she was angry (more on this later). I saw women demand respect, respect, respect, saying, “You don’t respect me” and “That is not respect” and “That’s disrespectful,” respect in the way that people who conduct themselves respectfully and respectably seldom feel the need to demand out loud. Over in the presidential debates, meanwhile, Hillary Clinton was called a “nasty woman,” and Donald Trump’s Twitter feed seemed as if it had been ghostwritten by Kelly Dodd, the Real Housewife of Orange County responsible for such Twitter pronouncements as: “Got my phone hacked with the fraud Dept. Going to get a private investigator and I’m going to sue press charges!! Good luck Thunderdome. ” But Cohen told that man in Washington this: “First of all, the ‘Housewives’ are entertainment. Second of all, in the ‘Housewives universe,’ you get punished for behaving badly. There are consequences to it. ” The consequences to Donald Trump’s behavior, by contrast, seemed to be more people loving him. Had he seen the polls? I asked. He had made a similar speech to me, and I was skeptical. Trump’s not going to win, I told him. Cohen pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows and tilted his head back and forth in consideration. “You never know. ” I didn’t listen to him. No one did, not even when he conducted two televised and dubiously scientific polls of the people who tuned into “Watch What Happens Live” and turned up numbers based on about 60, 000 votes that said, actually, yes, Trump was going to win. He’s used to that. “There’s a lot of times when I will say something about politics, and people will immediately discount me, and I think it’s the easiest way to discount my show too. It’s just like, Oh, that’s the ‘Housewives’ guy, who cares?” Cohen explained a few weeks after the reunion. We were at Cafe Cluny in the West Village for lunch in the 3 p. m. hour, which is the approximate time lunch happens for someone who goes to bed at about 2 a. m. each night, often following a massage. He ordered a salad and then stared down the three pieces of dark chocolate that came with the check. “I think I’m about it, but on the other hand, if that’s what I am, I’m also good with it because it’s a wonderful thing to be. ” His voice didn’t get less hoarse over the months I spent with him. “You know what I mean?” He opened his mouth to say something else, only to remember that control in an interview resides with the person who can stop talking. “Look, I was a thinking person before the Housewives ever came. ” He took a piece of the chocolate. “I’ve been a TV producer for a long time — not that that’s Mensa, but I’ve had a career, and I made my own way. So I just think, If I ever say something that someone doesn’t want to hear, it’s a very easy thing to then say, Oh, well, coming from the ‘Housewives’ guy, oh, really, Mr. ‘Real Housewives’?” He is lately, at 48, consumed with trying to gauge exactly where he stands in the national esteem. When I first met him, in his downtown office, a few minutes before he went on the air, he asked me why I wanted to do an article on him. “I’m just not that introspective,” he said. I took this to mean he possessed the natural discomfort that a producer might have with someone else telling his story. But soon I realized it was more about positioning: Do we think of him as the “Housewives” guy — or as a former Bravo head of development who has a thriving production company? Or a guy with his own channel on Sirius XM Radio that features shows with Sandra Bernhard and Dan Rather? Or the author of three books, or the host of a nightly talk show, the first one in late night with a working bar, no matter what James Corden says? He is no longer what he started out as on the talk show, the kind of person who could ask the question we wanted answered (like: Jacqueline, why would you sit on that woman’s lap after she threatened to “rage on your ass”? ). Now he’s one of the famous people. And so he is these days often trying to figure out a metric by which he can ascertain where he falls in the fame food chain. In “Superficial,” there’s a diary entry in which he talks about getting a invitation from his good friend Sarah Jessica Parker to be her date for the Met Gala — so that’s data. But he goes to Ralph Lauren to get a tux for the event and the one he likes is being held for Bobby Cannavale, and he spends a little time trying to process that he doesn’t have more pull than Bobby Cannavale. Another tux he likes is being held for Johnny Depp, which is O. K. with him, because of course Johnny Depp. “It didn’t piss me off,” he insisted when I asked about the incident and his calculations surrounding it. “No. I was like, oh, O. K. oh, good, here’s a ranking, and now I know where I stand. They’re telling me where I stand. I’m finding out how this works. ” He paused for a second. “I’m just psyched that I’m getting a tux. ” O. K. maybe it did sting a little when Vanity Fair had an article devoted to the hosts of late night, and Cohen seemed to be the only one excluded from it. Trevor Noah hadn’t even made his debut yet! But again, this is just data. “Everything’s good,” he insisted. “I have my health. I have my show. I have my life. You know what I mean?” But also, “I think my show is a late show, you know?” Don’t read any of this as defeated or bitter. If there’s one thing about Cohen, it’s that his respect for the democratic rhythms of popular culture and popularity in general is total. He wants to watch the rise and fall of things, even himself, without trying to manipulate the process. He wants it all to play out. The people will decide, and watching what the people decide and how they decide is far more important than the decision itself. From a young age, there was something about Andy Cohen that his mother couldn’t quite put her finger on. They would watch “All My Children” together during the era ( ) which she wondered if maybe other sons weren’t doing with their mothers. He had a Diana Ross poster on his wall. What was it, though? What was it? Then one day, she was watching him “prance” (her word) across the stage in his high school’s performance of “Carousel,” and a notion crept in and took hold. She got home that night and looked under his bed, where she found a healthy stash of gay porn. Now she was sure something was going on, but what? She spoke with a psychologist she knew who understood gay issues because he had a gay relative, and that psychologist told her that maybe she should stop looking under his bed. Andy was about to leave for college, for Boston University, and the psychologist said, “B. U. is a good place for him to go for that, he’ll meet a lot of other gay people,” and now his mother really began to suspect something was up. A few years later, Cohen wrote a letter to a friend that he left on his parents’ kitchen table, and his mother read it and sat him down and asked him if he was sure. And he told her he was. A mother always knows. He knew he wanted to be onscreen even in high school, but he didn’t want to play characters. He wanted to be famous for being himself, but at the time, that idea didn’t truly exist yet outside the news and shows like Oprah and “Donahue. ” “I liked the idea of being myself in front of the camera. So, just me being me. I used to think if I could work on a morning show then I could be me. ” He got a job as an intern at CBS News, then as a producer there, but he started to burn out after 10 years. After a run at the Barry Diller cable network Trio, he landed at Bravo, where he helped develop breakout successes like “Top Chef” and “The Millionaire Matchmaker. ” Lauren Zalaznick, at the time president of Bravo, recalls someone coming in with hundreds of hours of documentary tape from a gated community in Orange County, Calif. which the producers needed to work. In that footage, Cohen saw something. “I don’t want to pretend like it was like lightning in a bottle at the beginning,” he said. “I was like: ‘This is a soap opera. This is a soap opera. ’’u2009” It was also something else. “This is real life. ”’ Right before the first season aired in 2006, he had a minor crisis over the opening credits. The “Housewives” shows usually begin with an introduction of each Housewife, posing in Grade A evening wear and announcing her tagline, which is part defensive apologia, part mission statement, part brand definition. But at the beginning, when they were editing the first season of Orange County, they went with sound bites from the show, like “I don’t wanna get old” and “ percent of the women around here have had breast implants” and “Are the police involved?” When Cohen saw the first cut, he ran to the office of Shari Levine, Bravo’s vice president of production, and told her she had to call the production company. The Housewives were going to think the producers were sabotaging them. But Levine told him the Housewives had already seen it — and they loved it. Cohen learned that day that people stand behind their behavior, and that trying to protect them from themselves is a fundamental act of disrespect: “These women, but maybe all women. I mean maybe all men, too I think all people want to be heard and understood. ” He learned too that people don’t need you to fight their battles, that they are entitled to them, even if you think they’re ridiculous. He learned that an audience will respond to however eccentric or stubborn or mean or dumb or kind a person is if that person is being authentic. “The things that you think might embarrass them they actually feel like, Well, I was standing up for myself,” he said. I eventually watched the episode of “Real Housewives of Orange County” that Kathleen French had warned Cohen about. It was part of a arc in which the women go to Ireland so that one of them, Meghan, can track down her ancestors. (This is manifested as her actually tapping people on the shoulder in the street and asking if they are related to her.) Now, “Orange County,” which is the screechiest “Housewives” franchise, had experienced so far a year of immense healing, with the Housewives working on forgiveness. That went right out the window on this trip. Kelly, whom I mentioned earlier, is someone prone to saying things like: “What comes before Part B? !” She also does the old “What’s on your shirt?” and when you look down, she flicks you in the nose. Well, it was one such flick, which she administered to Vicki, that plunged the whole trip into darkness. Kelly wanted to know why Heather was so uptight about it, since Jews are supposed to have a good sense of humor. Heather called Kelly racist, and Kelly, of course, said: “I’m not being racist. I’m Mexican. ” Eventually, Tamra got involved, and Kelly said, “No wonder why her daughter isn’t talking to her,” which prompted Tamra to lunge for Kelly and curse and hit her, and they were all kicked out of the department store they were in. Something Cohen knows, a belief that began to take root in him back when he was watching “All My Children” with his mother, was that people who interacted would always create something interesting. That’s why he doesn’t understand why anyone would think that “Real Housewives” wasn’t real in some way. Or that it was too crass. Had people been on a subway recently? Had they read an online comments section? If anyone was under the impression that we were still in a Jane Austen novel in terms of national discourse and manners, it wasn’t Cohen’s fault that they were in for a rude awakening. It’s all real. It wouldn’t be compelling to watch if it weren’t. Teresa Giudice was having a real breakdown when she flipped that table in New Jersey. But in New York, when Aviva Drescher got angry and threw her prosthetic leg at Le Cirque, of all places, in a effort to make her onscreen presence more interesting, well, that was the last we saw of Aviva. “It is very real to them,” he said. “And by the way, when it’s not, they’re off the show. ” A few months after the women from Orange County returned from Ireland and watched the episodes through holes between their fingers, they pulled themselves together for the reunion. They put on clothing appropriate for Christmas dinner at the White House if it were Cinderella’s gathered on two separate couches with Andy in the middle, folded their hands in their laps and apologized to one another. A few days after the election, Cohen began book promotion for “Superficial. ” He started with a few local appearances, including one at the 92nd Street Y, where he was interviewed onstage by Sarah Jessica Parker. He had spent election night at her house, actually, and as soon as it became clear who the winner was, Cohen left the room to eat. A few days later, his optimism had mostly returned. Anderson Cooper told me when we met in St. Louis, “I think Oprah said to Andy, ‘You carry the light.’ When I heard that, I was like, That’s really true. ” Onstage at the Y, he had already come around enough to say that he thinks that at heart, Donald Trump is a Democrat. The liberal, largely Jewish crowd, who had been reading about the terrifying increase of hate crimes since the election and had begun to feel as if the world were closing in faster than they’d expected, responded with silence. We met at Cafe Cluny again a week later, and I asked him if he had noticed the silence. He said he didn’t get it. He wanted to know why everyone he knew was so surprised about all of this. I’d been watching the show, hadn’t I? I’d seen Tamra from “Orange County” call Alexis “Jesus Jugs,” hadn’t I? How was that different from calling Hillary Clinton “Crooked Hillary”? I’d watched in the primaries as Trump defended the size of his penis, right? “Wouldn’t that be the province of the Housewives if they were men?” He was right. Trump was not not like one of Cohen’s Housewives. He knew he had to be entertaining to stay on the show. He was willing to say anything to get his contract extended. Throughout his campaign, he pulled out the “I know something, but I’m not going to say it now” trick, most recently employed by Bethenny Frankel about dirt she has but won’t reveal about both Dorinda and Jules at the last “New York” reunion. At the debates, the candidates fought for time to speak and demanded that they be allowed the time they were promised, which is what happens at the reunions. When Cohen saw that, he told me, he thought, Lester Holt, I feel your pain. Anderson Cooper was a moderator of a debate in St. Louis that ended with the candidates saying something nice about each other, which is exactly how Cohen ends some “Real Housewives” reunions. It was one thing when people were copying his format for a talk show and pretending it was theirs, but now life is copying his format, and he’s still not quite getting credit for it — just blame. But isn’t that always the way for Cohen? He’s confronted from the audience, he’s confronted by that guy in Washington, and still he’s not getting the credit for what his gift actually is, which isn’t knowing how to deviously propel national discourse into the gutter but instead delivering to viewers what they want before they know they want it. And still, they mess up the name of his show, calling it “Watch What Happens Now. ” They accuse him of ruining America, when he carries the light. Even Oprah said it. Andy Cohen didn’t invent our society. To think that is to have missed the entire point of him. He simply predicted it. He saw it coming before we did, and he taped it. He has a lack of judgment about the way the world works, and therefore doesn’t have the willful ignorance that the rest of us do — yes, we’d seen Tamra call Alexis “Jesus Jugs,” and we insisted it was a tacky anomaly. But it wasn’t. It was the way the world works now. Andy Cohen isn’t how our culture got this way. He is simply a walking seismograph of it. Back at Cafe Cluny, I took one of the pieces of chocolate that came with the check he left the other two alone. I asked him what was going to happen next. He shrugged and opened his mouth to say something, pausing for what felt like a minute. Then he told me that it was all going to be O. K. and I decided to believe him. | 0fake |
‘More Artists Are Going to Boycott’: The Grammys Face Fallout After Fraught Awards - The New York Times | Before the 59th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, the music industry murmured about what it might mean for Adele to once again sweep the top awards, leaving Beyoncé snubbed in the major categories and with her third loss for album of the year. Having long faced accusations that the Grammys overlook young, progressive black artists — the last black woman to win album of the year was Lauryn Hill in 1999 — the Recording Academy faced a potential backlash for going on a white, traditionalist choice like Adele. Indeed, it happened again. Now, building on a conversation that was already bubbling, some artists and industry observers are considering the potential fallout. “More and more artists are going to boycott and step away,” Laura Stylez, a of “Ebro in the Morning” on the New York and RB station Hot 97, said in an interview, citing the absence of Drake, Frank Ocean, Justin Bieber and Kanye West from this year’s show, despite their major eligible releases and nominations. “You don’t want to lose today’s generation. They feel like they’re not represented. ” Charlamagne Tha God, an influential radio personality from “The Breakfast Club” on Power 105. 1, named Grammy voters his “Donkey of the Day” for their album of the year selection. “I tell artists all the time: Go where you’re celebrated, not where you’re tolerated,” he said, adding that Beyoncé had been “robbed. ” “They absolutely, positively got it wrong,” he said. “The Grammy committee should all feel foolish this morning, because even Adele acknowledged that she should not have won album of the year. ” Solange Knowles, Beyoncé’s sister and herself a Grammy winner this year for best RB performance, tweeted her dismay not long after Sunday’s final award was presented, linking to an earlier diatribe by the singer Frank Ocean. Mr. Ocean, one of the most critically adored artists of the streaming generation, had declined to submit his music for consideration at this year’s Grammys, calling the boycott his “Colin Kaepernick moment. ” In a blog post after insinuations from Grammy producers that his absence was because of a disappointing performance at the 2013 show, Mr. Ocean called out the Recording Academy for what he said was a “cultural bias,” referring specifically to last year’s show, in which Taylor Swift’s “1989” won album of the year over the rapper Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly. ” After Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” lost to Adele’s “25” on Sunday, Terrence Henderson, an executive at Mr. Lamar’s label, Top Dawg Entertainment, also expressed his frustration. “Maybe Frank had a point,” he wrote on Twitter. This year’s show was not entirely homogeneous. In addition to a Prince tribute and exemplary performances by Beyoncé and A Tribe Called Quest, Chance the Rapper won three awards, including best new artist, for what was essentially an online mixtape. But the broader pattern was hard to ignore. In the last five years especially, albums by Mr. Ocean, Mr. Lamar and Beyoncé have been passed over for the top award in favor of releases by white artists: Mumford Sons, Daft Punk, Beck, Taylor Swift and Adele. Though Beyoncé has 62 nominations and 22 wins overall, most have come in the designated RB categories, with only one in the big three of record, song or album of the year. “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” won best song in 2010. Only 10 black artists have ever won album of the year the last was Herbie Hancock, then 67, for a collection of Joni Mitchell covers in 2008. In light of Adele’s sweep on Sunday, the presentation of the award for best urban contemporary album, a minor hodgepodge of a category, to Beyoncé for “Lemonade” couldn’t help but feel like a consolation prize. She used her one speech on the telecast to highlight the importance of her children’s seeing themselves reflected at “the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the White House and the Grammys. ” Beyond that, Beyoncé, who is stingy with her extemporaneous commentary, has not spoken about her Grammy defeat. But she did have a surprise planned, win or lose: A new song with DJ Khaled and her husband Jay Z, released exclusively on his streaming platform Tidal, called “Shining. ” “All of this winning, I’ve been losing my mind,” she sings, seemingly above it all. “Don’t try to slow me down. ” | 0fake |
Trump Just Got CREAMED For Citing Right-Wing Propaganda Network As Credible News About Prostitute Pee (TWEETS) | After a report aired on One America News if you haven t heard of it, this is the news network that spawned mouthbreathing bleached bigot and Queen of White Grievance Tomi Lahren Donald Trump s FAKE NEWS tantrum over the whole golden showers thing stretched into yet another day. INTELLIGENCE INSIDERS NOW CLAIM THE TRUMP DOSSIER IS A COMPLETE FRAUD! @OANN Trump tweeted in all-caps Saturday morning.INTELLIGENCE INSIDERS NOW CLAIM THE TRUMP DOSSIER IS "A COMPLETE FRAUD!" @OANN Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2017Yes, nestled among hard-hitting reports about how Obama started the war on cops and something approaching three billion complaints about piss-gate was OANN fact-checking the full report, which was published by Buzzfeed. Sure, everyone has said from the beginning that some parts of the report are unsubstantiated, but that didn t stop OANN anchor and apparent Pleasantville extra Liz Wheeler from triumphantly celebrating the fact that not everything in the reports everyone has said from the start have some inaccuracies was inaccurate.Now, Wheeler is not an intelligence insider. In fact, it would be an amazing feat if she managed to open a can of soup without adult supervision. But to Trump, Wheeler s report is all the proof he needs to shut people up about that thing he allegedly did with the nice Russian ladies at a hotel in Moscow. Naturally, there was mockery to be had for The Donald:@realDonaldTrump It is certainly very rare that information in capital letters is ever wrong. Matt Haig (@matthaig1) January 14, 2017@realDonaldTrump @OANN hahahah. @oann is a radical right wing site w zero credibility. That's like me citing my cat for evidence of a claim Stefanie Iris Weiss (@EcoSexuality) January 14, 2017.@realDonaldTrump Angel, I'm sure "OANN" writes lots of nice things about you but nobody's heard of that news source. Bess Kalb (@bessbell) January 14, 2017@realDonaldTrump By intelligence insiders, do you mean the Kremlin? Kris Sanchez (@KrisSanchez) January 14, 2017@realDonaldTrump Oh, I get it this must be some new company that will gladly take your money in exchange for positive coverage. Kris Sanchez (@KrisSanchez) January 14, 2017@realDonaldTrump why "insiders?" Why not actual US intelligence officials, whose job it is to brief you? Kevin Collier (@kevincollier) January 14, 2017.@realDonaldTrump @OANN Your "credible" source is a conservative news channel that just added Corey Lewandowski. Speaking of fake news. Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) January 14, 2017@realDonaldTrump @OANN Your credible news site also has some FREAKY FACTS about Friday the 13th. pic.twitter.com/QifQ687U7s Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) January 14, 2017.@realDonaldTrump The key to persuasive writing is Caps Lock. Simon Hedlin (@simonhedlin) January 14, 2017@realDonaldTrump NO ONE HAS CLAIMED THAT. Jimmy Smagula (@JimmySmagula) January 14, 2017Interestingly, it was announced that former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski joined OANN as a commentator on Thursday just before Trump tweeted praise for the specious report.Trump may be tweeting about the intelligence insiders at OANN, but he has been ignoring the actual intelligence officials who have told him the report is very, very real. Every claim simply has not been substantiated yet just as literally the whole world has been reporting from Day One of Shower Time.Here s what is actually being reported: CNN and numerous people in the intelligence field have verified that documents exist accusing Trump s campaign team of directly colluding with Russia (and, yes, there s a bit in there about Trump giving some Russian women money to pee on his bed while he watched). The documents, which have been floating around since well before October, contain claims that are not fully vetted and some that have been recognized as inaccurate from the very beginning. Trump and Obama were both briefed on the documents on the same day, which sent Trump into a seemingly neverending all-caps tantrum over the situation.To make matters worse for The Donald, the BBC now reports that at least four sources back the claims, and a CIA contact told them that there is video and audio of Donald Trump in compromising situations with women in both Moscow (Putin s neighborhood) and St. Petersberg, which is known as a lively center of child prostitution attracting some Western men to take trips there. I saw the report, compiled by the former British intelligence officer, back in October, BBC correspondent Paul Wood said earlier this week. He is not, and this is the crucial thing, the only source for this. After reaching out for information, Wood says a source affiliated with the U.S. intelligence community explained there is more than one tape, not just video, but audio as well, on more than one date, in more than one place, in both Moscow and St. Petersburg. To make matters worse for Trump, at least three people have responded to Penthouse magazine s $1 million bounty on video of Trump enjoying golden shower time. Are the allegations true? We don t know but Trump is reacting more like a child who just smacked his classmate with a chair and immediately ran to the teacher to scream he hit me first in an effort to avoid trouble than an innocent man.Featured image via Getty Images (Spencer Platt)/screengrab | 1real |
Why our survival depends on the defeat of Jewish Power! | 784 Views Share:
Dr. Duke and Dr. Slattery show why our survival totally depends on defeat of Jewish Power!
Today Dr. Duke focused on the threat of Jews infiltrating and taking over movements with a potential to become a base for opposing Jewish power. The Alt-Right currently includes people who are extremely critical of Jewish power and those who either ignore it or downplay it. We must be wary of establishment efforts to parachute leaders into our movement who would focus attention away from the Jewish issue, whether it be Milo or Alex Jones.
Dr. Slattery joined the show and recounted how Jews created a culture of self criticism in the 1960s among whites and then used the resulting environment to push through an immigration act that fundamentally transformed the demographics of the country to the extent that it took a miracle for whites simply to elect the President of their choice.
This is an extremely informative and edifying show. Please share it widely.
Our show is aired live at 11 am replayed at ET 4pm Eastern and 4am Eastern. | 1real |
Obama’s plan to boost defense budget points to brewing national security debate | The battle over the budget that President Obama will submit Monday is emerging as a preview of the 2016 presidential election debate on national security, an area that for now appears to be the greatest vulnerability of Obama and the Democrats.
The president will ask Congress to break through its own spending caps — commonly referred to as “sequestration” — and allocate about $561 billion for Pentagon expenditures, about $38 billion more than is currently allowed under the law.
There’s broad consensus in both parties that the military needs more money to modernize its forces and meet its responsibilities in a world that seems to have grown more chaotic and dangerous in the past 12 months. It’s unclear, however, how Congress and the White House can come to an agreement on where to find the additional funds.
Even if both parties share the blame, a cash-strapped Pentagon could still provide an opening for Republicans — whose standing on national security issues was damaged by the Iraq war — to make an argument that they are the party best positioned to keep the country safe.
“A lot of Republicans see opportunity in an election that’s a referendum on Obama’s foreign policy,” said Danielle Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. A presidential election featuring Hillary Rodham Clinton, who served as Obama’s secretary of state, would raise the profile of international issues.
Democrats, though, are determined to prevent the reemergence of their pre-Iraq-war reputation as being the weaker party on defense.
The impasse over the defense budget has left the Pentagon’s top generals complaining that the spending caps, which have been in place since 2013, are damaging the military at a time when the country can least afford it. The list of new threats includes Islamic State fighters, who last year seized major cities in Iraq and Syria, a Russian-backed insurrection in eastern Ukraine and the collapse of the government in Yemen.
“The global security environment is more dangerous, and sequestration is still on the books as the law,” Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week. “It’s absolutely crazy for this country.”
Obama has in recent months been able to cite a resurgent economy, strong job growth and a low unemployment rate as proof that his economic policies are delivering for the nation. “Because of the policies that this administration put in place, our economy has bounced back stronger than ever,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Friday.
The public perception of the president’s handling of national security matters, amid the growing unrest in the Middle East and Ukraine, has not been nearly as strong. “We’ve had an interesting and, I would acknowledge, up-and-down year with respect to the perception of our foreign policy,” said a senior administration official who was not authorized to speak publicly ahead of the formal budget announcement.
In recent years, Republicans and Democrats have been able to blunt the worst effects of the budget caps by cobbling together short-term deals that modestly increased defense and domestic spending by finding offsets — essentially, cuts to other programs or fee increases. But each year that the budget caps are in place, it gets harder to find new savings to meet the Pentagon’s needs, lawmakers and White House officials said.
Republicans have shown little willingness to raise taxes to cover the costs of a bigger military budget. The White House, meanwhile, is not likely to back a budget compromise that would boost defense spending at the expense of prized domestic programs that have also been slashed in recent years.
“It looks like the administration is trying, but I don’t think the fundamentals are there for a compromise,” said Kathleen Hicks, who served as a top official in the Pentagon under Obama and now is a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Republicans, long divided between deficit and defense hawks, have not made additional spending on defense a top priority in recent years. But as the economy improves and the presidential election nears, they appear to be coalescing around the need for more Pentagon spending “for no reason other than expediency,” Hicks said.
“They’ll have to move to the center” on defense spending, she said. “And I do think world events are pushing them in that direction.”
It is unclear how hard the Obama administration is willing to fight for more military spending. Although the president’s blueprint includes a big boost for the Pentagon, some in the president’s party have questioned his commitment on the issue. The president did not mention the need for more military spending in his State of the Union address or in a major foreign policy speech at the U.S. Military Academy in late May— an omission that some hawkish Democrats found “worrisome,” Hicks said.
White House officials, though, insist that a failure to provide relief to the Pentagon would be devastating to the country’s military and its national security and that Obama will not accept a budget that carries the caps forward.
The promises of more money from Congress and the White House have yet to ease concerns in the Pentagon. The top brass have been complaining for years that the budget caps have forced them to pare back training, slash troop levels and gut their modernization programs.
Now their biggest worry is that lawmakers and the public have stopped listening to them on the issue and, absent a major crisis, will not fix the problem.
“At what point do we lose our soldiers’ trust, the trust that we will provide them the right resources, the training and equipment?” said Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff.
The military’s case for more money also has been hindered by the turmoil at the top of the Defense Department.
Former defense secretary Chuck Hagel, who was essentially fired by Obama in November, had little background in Pentagon budget issues and generally seemed overwhelmed by the job, military officials said. Obama’s pick to replace him, Ashton B. Carter, has not been confirmed by the Senate. He has a long background serving at top levels of the Pentagon and is expected to be a more forceful and articulate advocate for lifting the budget caps.
Meanwhile, liberal Democrats, eager to fend off the Republican critique that excessive domestic spending and government waste have caused the Pentagon’s budget woes, cite the supporters of the 2003 Iraq war as the real problem.
“These are the same guys who voted for a war in Iraq and forgot how it was going to be paid for,” said Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), a possible Democratic presidential candidate. “You know how it’s paid for? It’s paid for on the credit card. We don’t know how much it will cost by the time we take care of the last veteran . . . $3 trillion or $4 trillion. They weren’t worried about that.”
Missy Ryan and Steven Mufson contributed to this report. | 0fake |
The Failure of Democracy | Here's something interesting from The Unz Review... Recipient Name Recipient Email =>
I am now convinced that the Oligarchy that rules America intends to steal the presidential election. In the past, the oligarchs have not cared which candidate won as the oligarchs owned both. But they do not own Trump.
Most likely you are unaware of what Trump is telling people as the media does not report it. A person who speaks like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYozWHBIf8g&app=desktop is not endeared to the oligarchs.
Who are the oligarchs?
—Wall Street and the mega-banks too big to fail and their agent the Federal Reserve, a federal agency that put 5 banks ahead of millions of troubled American homeowners who the federal reserve allowed to be flushed down the toilet. In order to save the mega-banks’ balance sheets from their irresponsible behavior, the Fed has denied retirees any interest income on their savings for eight years, forcing the elderly to draw down their savings, leaving their heirs, who have been displaced from employment by corporate jobs offshoring, penniless.
—The military/security complex which has spent trillions of our taxpayer dollars on 15 years of gratuitous wars based entirely on lies in order to enrich themselves and their power.
—The neoconservartives whose crazed ideology of US world hegemony thrusts the American people into military conflict with Russia and China.
—The US global corporations that sent American jobs to China and India and elsewhere in order to enrich the One Percent with higher profits from lower labor costs.
—Agribusiness (Monsanto et.al.), corporations that poison the soil, the water, the oceans, and our food with their GMOs, hebicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers, while killing the bees that pollinate the crops.
—The extractive industries—energy, mining, fracking, and timber—that maximize their profits by destroying the environment and the water supply.
—The Israel Lobby that controls US Middle East policy and is committing genocide against the Palestinians just as the US committed genocide against native Americans. Israel is using the US to eliminate sovereign countries that stand in Israell’s way.
What convinces me that the Oligarchy intends to steal the election is the vast difference between the presstitutes’ reporting and the facts on the ground.
According to the presstitutes, Hillary is so far ahead that there is no point in Trump supporters bothering to vote. Hillary has won the election before the vote. Hillary has been declared a 93% sure winner.
I am yet to see one Hillary yard sign, but Trump signs are everywhere. Reports I receive are that Hillary’s public appearances are unattended but Trumps are so heavily attended that people have to be turned away. This is a report from a woman in Florida:
“Trump has pulled huge numbers all over FL while campaigning here this week. I only see Trump signs and sickers in my wide travels. I dined at a Mexican restaurant last night. Two women my age sitting behind me were talking about how they had tried to see Trump when he came to Tallahassee. They left work early, arriving at the venue at 4:00 for a 6:00 rally. The place was already over capacity so they were turned away. It turned out that there were so many people there by 2:00 that the doors had to be opened to them. The women said that the crowds present were a mix of races and ages.”
I know the person who gave me this report and have no doubt whatsoever as to its veracity.
I also receive from readers similiar reports from around the country.
This is how the theft of the election is supposed to work: The media concentrated in a few corporate hands has gone all out to convince not only Americans but also the world, that Donald Trump is such an unacceptable candidate that he has lost the election before the vote.
By controllng the explanation, when the election is stolen those who challenge the stolen election are without a foundartion in the media. All media reports will say that it was a run away victory for Hillary over the misogynist immigrant-hating Trump.
And liberal, progressive opinion will be relieved and off guard as Hillary takes us into nuclear war.
That the Oligarchy intends to steal the election from the American people is verified by the officially reported behavior of the voting machines in early voting in Texas. The NRP presstitutes have declared that Hillary is such a favorite that even Repulbican Texas is up for grabs in the election.
If this is the case, why was it necessary for the voting machines to be programmed to change Trump votes to Hillary votes? Those voters who noted that they voted Trump but were recorded Hillary complained. The election officials, claiming a glitch (which only went one way), changed to paper ballots. But who will count them? No “glitches” caused Hillary votes to go to Trump, only Trump votes to go to Hillary.
The most brilliant movie of our time was The Matrix. This movie captured the life of Americans manipulated by a false reality, only in the real America there is insufficient awareness and no Neo, except possibly Donald Trump, to challenge the system. All of my life I have been trying to get Americans of all stripes—academics, scholars, journalists, Republicans, Democrats, right-wing, left-wing, US Representatives, US Senators, Presidents, corporate moguls and brainwashed Americans and foreigners—out of the false reality in which they exist.
In the United States today a critical presidential election is in process in which not a single important issue is addressed by Hillary and the presstitutes. This is total failure. Democracy, once the hope of the world, has totally failed in the United States of America. Trump is correct. The American people must restore the accountability of government to the people. (Reprinted from PaulCraigRoberts.org by permission of author or representative) | 1real |
U.S. deportation raids target Central American families: lawyers | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. immigration officials have kicked off a new round of raids intended to deport hundreds of Central American mothers and children who have entered the country illegally, according to a legal group that works with the immigrants. Immigration enforcement officers as of Friday had arrested about 40 women and children encompassing at least 18 Central American family groups in Texas, North Carolina, South Dakota and possibly other states, said Laura Lichter, an immigration lawyer and a former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Reuters reported on May 12 that the raids were planned for May and June and likely would be the largest deportation sweep targeting immigrant families by the administration of President Barack Obama this year after similar raids in which 121 people were arrested over two days in January. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokeswoman Jennifer Elzea declined to confirm that the new round of raids had begun but defended the administration’s deportation operations as a whole. “We stress that these operations are limited to those who were apprehended at the border after January 1, 2014, have been ordered removed by an immigration court, and have no pending appeal or pending claim for asylum,” Elzea said. The immigrants arrested in the latest raids have been sent to two ICE detention centers in Texas, according to Belle Woods, a spokeswoman for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The deportation operations are intended to deter illegal immigration from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala and curb crossings of the U.S.-Mexican border by Central Americans, U.S. officials have said. Lichter said ICE was not following its own policy in the raids. “It’s the same thing we saw in January. These people deserve asylum, but didn’t get a proper chance to have their cases heard,” Lichter said. The issue of illegal immigration has figured prominently in the U.S. presidential campaign, with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump promising to deport all roughly 11 million people who are in the United States illegally. The White House on May 13 defended its deportation policy after complaints from Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and congressional leaders that the sweep targeting Central American illegal immigrants is inhumane. “I’m against large-scale raids that tear families apart and sow fear in communities,” Clinton said at the time. | 0fake |
Woes for ITT, a For-Profit School, Bode Worse for Its Students - The New York Times | The vise appears to be tightening at the education giant ITT Educational Services. Its profits are collapsing, its stock is below $2, and last Monday the company got bad news from the Education Department in Washington, a main overseer. ITT, which operates 138 campuses in 39 states, said it had received a letter from the government demanding $44 million to cover potential obligations that might arise, such as student refunds. The department cited increased risks at ITT as the reason for the demand. A call for $44 million may not sound like a death knell. But it was just the latest in a series of setbacks at ITT. And if the past is prologue, the company’s woes could have dire consequences for its current and former students. The situation has uncanny echoes of a collapse of a educational institution about two decades ago. According to its most recent financial statement, ITT provides programs to 43, 000 students at ITT Technical Institute and Daniel Webster College locations. In April, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools told ITT Technical Institute that its schools had not demonstrated that they met certain standards. ITT said it believed that the schools were in compliance, but acknowledged that if the schools lost the accreditation, they would lose access to government loan programs. As a consequence, the company said in a regulatory filing, “we likely would not be able to continue to operate our business. ” ITT may survive these threats. But if it doesn’t, thousands of customers will be left shouldering debt that they almost surely cannot pay off. How many students are we talking about? Two years ago, ITT had 191, 225 borrowers carrying $4. 6 billion in debt, a report published last fall by the Brookings Institution said. That averages out to about $24, 000 per borrower. That number has undoubtedly increased since then. Students who have taken out loans to attend a school that later fails encounter many problems. Consider what happened at the Wilfred American Educational Corporation, which operated beauty and secretarial schools back to the 1980s. Wilfred ran roughshod over students and profited on the taxpayers’ dime. In its heyday, Wilfred enrolled over 11, 000 students at 58 campuses across the country. It closed in the after regulators uncovered routine falsification of federal student aid applications. To attend the schools, Wilfred students took out more than 61, 000 loans between 1986 and 1994, court documents show. Decades later, many of these loans are still outstanding. The company received $405 million in federal student aid between 1980 and 1989, documents show, accounting for almost all of its revenue. Former Wilfred students later confirmed in a lawsuit against the Department of Education that the company had obtained some of those federal loans without permission from students or by falsely certifying borrower eligibility. Under these circumstances, students qualify for what’s known as a “false certification discharge,” a loan forgiveness arrangement created by Congress in 1992. In such cases, the secretary of education is supposed to “discharge the borrower’s liability on the loan (including interest and collection fees) by repaying the amount owed on the loan. ” But the Education Department never notified the former Wilfred students that they could be eligible for loan forgiveness, lawyers for the students say. For years, debt collectors hounded borrowers for repayment. Many have had their tax refunds taken away. The department’s failure to alert these students to possible loan forgiveness is the subject of the 2014 lawsuit brought by former Wilfred students. The suit contends that the Education Department violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs the activities of federal agencies. The Education Department has fought the lawsuit at every turn. A spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nicole Elam, an ITT spokeswoman, said in a statement that the false certification that occurred at Wilfred did not apply to ITT. “It’s not a fair comparison to raise it in any hypothetical involving our organization,” she said. Understandably, the Education Department doesn’t want to burden United States taxpayers by repaying Wilfred students’ loans. But the obligations are beyond onerous for the borrowers. Amounts owed have ballooned, thanks to interest costs and collection fees. And the debts have wrecked borrowers’ credit scores, making it impossible for many to rent an apartment or buy a car. Jane Greengold Stevens, director of litigation at New York Legal Assistance Group in Manhattan, represents the former Wilfred students in the lawsuit. She said that the average student’s loan was $2, 500 when it was taken out, but the average amount now owed has grown to $24, 000. In an interview, Ms. Stevens said she understood the government’s desire not to load forgiven student debts onto taxpayers’ shoulders. But the department, she added, “doesn’t seem to be taking into account the harm done to students who were desperate when they were recruited and who have lost part of their lives to these schools. ” The Education Department failed Wilfred students three ways, the lawsuit said. First, it didn’t take “reasonable steps to determine whether students’ eligibility for federally guaranteed loans to attend Wilfred was falsely certified. ” It erred again by enforcing Wilfred loan obligations without having taken those steps. Finally, the agency did not send notice about possible discharges “as required by statute and regulation. ” Lawyers for the former students began their battle with the Education Department in 2013 by asking it to notify all former Wilfred students that their loans could be forgiven. The department responded by saying it believed it had enough evidence to send notifications only to students who had attended one branch of Wilfred — in Philadelphia. But a 1996 documentation of Wilfred violations by a loan analyst at the Education Department, based on findings by its inspector general, concluded that fraud at roughly 50 of its locations was so pervasive that students submitting a valid application for a discharge should be approved. Anna Bernardez, of White Plains, is a plaintiff in the Wilfred case. In an interview, she harked back to 1987 when she attended a school in the Bronx, pursuing a degree in cosmetology. She dropped out after three months, and soon the school closed. “They made me sign papers, but I didn’t realize they were taking out loans in my name,” Ms. Bernardez said. What began as a $7, 000 loan ultimately grew to $22, 000. Repayment demands were unceasing. “It was a nightmare,” she said. “My credit was messed up I just started getting credit little by little now. ” Thirty years later. Last month, lawyers representing these students won a major court victory, allowing the suit against the Education Department to go forward. “The whole point of our lawsuit is that there are more than 50, 000 people out there who have no idea that the discharge application process exists,” Ms. Stevens said. “The Department of Ed is taking advantage of these people’s ignorance in the same way that the schools took advantage of their vulnerability. ” Wilfred dispensed 60, 000 loans. If ITT and other schools fail, hundreds of thousands of borrowers — maybe millions — could be in for the same treatment. Ugly, no? | 0fake |
‘Donald Trump’ Joins A Pro-Immigration Rally In LA And It’s Glorious (TWEETS) | On Sunday, thousands of protesters came together for the annual pro-immigration march in downtown Los Angeles, but this year it was as much an anti-Trump rally as it was an immigrant rally. The Republican frontrunner even joined the march and it was awesome.Protesters rolled out a huge balloon effigy of The Donald and marched through the streets chanting about inclusiveness:#MayDay rallies in Los Angeles carry strong anti-Trump theme for his anti-illegal immigration platform pic.twitter.com/xE7elZ8AAg News18 (@CNNnews18) May 2, 2016 #MayDay Los Angeles pic.twitter.com/6X0isdKPAW Mike (@mikemcgroarty1) May 1, 2016The march s organizer, Francisco Moreno told the LA Times that the billionaire frontrunner has no heart : He s plastic, he doesn t have a heart, he doesn t have a brain. We re not going to vote for Trump! Another protester, Gloria Carrasco, explained why she was at the rally, I m not a drug addict, I m none of what [Trump] says. I want immigration reform. In addition to the pro-immigration theme, protesters were also marching for LGBT rights, worker s rights, Muslims and against police brutality. One sign read, Stand with immigrants, black lives, Muslims, LGBTQ people and low-wage workers! Los Angeles wasn t the only city that held marches on Sunday. In Seattle, thousands of people held their own rally, but the positivity of that event is largely being ignored by media outlets. Instead of reporting about how amazing it was that so many people united for the rights of people across the country, they ve chosen to discuss a few protesters who clashed with police. Yes, nine people were arrested, but this is what the march actually looked like: Several thousand take to streets of Seattle for #MayDay immigration and labor rights details @KIRORadio pic.twitter.com/hKtVjj0Mej Josh Kerns (@joshkerns38) May 2, 2016Several thousand take to streets of Seattle for #MayDay immigration and labor rights details @KIRORadio pic.twitter.com/hKtVjj0Mej Josh Kerns (@joshkerns38) May 2, 2016Members of Seattle First Baptist Church giving water to passing marchers. #May1stSea#MayDaypic.twitter.com/LpztGSew4C El Comit (@ElComiteWA) May 1, 2016That s what May Day in Seattle actually looked like, not the videos of police violence that you will being played on a loop on the news today.What was clear from the marches in both cities is that the people of this country do not want the bombastic GOP frontrunner as their president. He does not represent us. He does not love this country or its people. The only thing he wants to do is divide us, and immigrants, workers, Muslims, etc. are the scapegoats he needs to appeal to his poorly educated supporters. So, remember that when you go to the polls in November and vote blue.Featured image via David McNew/Getty Images | 1real |
Kremlin says allegations it hacked U.S. Democratic Party 'made-up horror stories' | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Wednesday dismissed allegations Russia had hacked Democratic Party emails as “horror stories” dreamt up by U.S. politicians, saying it never interfered in other countries’ election campaigns. “Moscow is at pains to avoid any words that could be interpreted as direct or indirect interference in the election process,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters. “... We see that the Russian card is in the red corner on the writing table of all Washington politicians during the election campaign, and that very often they make it a trump card in their game.” Peskov was responding after U.S. President Barack Obama in an interview with NBC News said it was possible Russia would try to influence the U.S. presidential election after a leak of Democratic National Committee emails that experts have blamed on Russian hackers. “This reminds me of a company where they tell each other horror stories and then start being frightened of their own stories,” said Peskov. The Kremlin on Tuesday said unidentified individuals in the United States were trying to cynically exploit fear of Russia for electoral purposes. | 0fake |
TV Reporter FIRED After Being Caught On Video Calling A Cop A “F***ing Piece Of S**t” In Disgusting, Vulgar Tirade [VIDEO] | A television reporter has been fired after she was caught on video unleashing a vicious, expletive-laden tirade against a Philadelphia police officer.Colleen Campbell, 28, was filmed calling a cop a f***ing piece of s**t and trying to spit on another man after she was kicked out of Philadelphia s Helium Comedy Club on Sunday night.Campbell, who had bragged in the video that she worked at a f***ing news station , was fired from her job at PHL17 soon after the footage emerged.Watch the disgusting exchange here:The 28-year-old worked mostly in news production, but occasionally went on air as a reporter.She was asked to leave the club after multiple warnings for disrupting a show featuring comedian Craig Robinson with her loud whispering. She allegedly then got into a fight with bar staff on the way out.The video of her outside the club, which has since gone viral, was shared on Facebook by New York City comic Wil Sylvince. You guys are f***ing dictators You re f***ing c**k suckers, Campbell was filmed telling the police officer outside. I did not do s**t, I stood there and laughed like the rest of the audience like I should. I did not disrupt anybody. The officer, who remained incredibly calm, told Campbell and another man she was with to walk away. Or what? Or what, mother f***er? Lick my a**hole, Campbell told him. How about that? F***ing piece of s**t. That s why nobody likes f***ing police in this f***ing town. The cop proceeded to place Campbell in handcuffs after she appeared to spit in the face of a man standing outside the club. She bizarrely took off her shoe and told the man to smell it. What s that called? What s that called? Assault? Show me videotape, Campbell said after she was handcuffed. You can t. That s why everybody hates you guys! You can t prove it! You f***ing piece of s***s. For entire story: Daily Mail | 1real |
Lack of German government puts euro zone integration plans on hold | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The collapse of talks on a new German government means that the euro zone s ambitious plans for deeper economic integration could be put on hold, euro zone officials said on Tuesday. German government coalition talks collapsed on Sunday night as the liberal FDP party pulled out after weeks of exploratory talks, plunging the euro zone s most important economy into political uncertainty and raising the prospect of new elections. Euro zone leaders are to set a direction for deeper euro zone economic integration at a summit in the middle of December, at which Germany s input is crucial. As long as Germany does not have a clear position, it will by default not agree to anything. Therefore, delay is the most likely option, one senior euro zone official involved in the euro zone integration talks said. The summit is to launch six months of work that would lead decisions in June 2018 on whether or not the single currency area should have a budget, a finance minister and a euro zone assembly in the European Parliament. The deeper integration push, championed by French President Emmanuel Macron, also includes the transformation of the euro zone bailout fund into a European Monetary Fund and the creation of a sovereign insolvency mechanism. Things will go on hold until there is a formal acting German government, a second euro zone official said. At this stage I don t see what steps the leaders could take in December or June for deepening euro zone integration when there is a German government without a mandate, he said. Some officials said that a potential delay in the euro zone integration talks was not a big issue because they concerned the future architecture of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), now encompassing 19 countries. There is nothing that makes new decisions on the EMU especially urgent, so I don t believe this to be a real problem, a third senior euro zone official said. The June deadline can always be moved, if need be, the official said. But others noted the initial timing of the talks was to make use of a window of opportunity in 2018, when no major euro zone countries, except Italy, or EU institutions had to face elections and were therefore free to focus on euro zone reforms. If the talks were delayed, decisions on key issues, often sensitive politically, could be pushed back toward 2019 a year of elections to the European Parliament, the formation of a new European Commission and choosing new heads of the European Central Bank and the chairman of EU leaders. An official involved in preparations for the December summit said it would go ahead as planned. National elections happening all the time, all over Europe, are no reason to stop our work, the official said. But others said they expected the mandate that leaders would give to the Commission for further work on euro zone integration would probably be weaker than it would have otherwise been if no German government is in place by then. | 0fake |
BOOM! CHARLIE DANIELS Nails Obama And Democrats In Just One Tweet | Obama has been low key in the past few months even as he campaigned for a losing Hillary Clinton.Suddenly Obama and the Democrats decided they CARE about Russia and so Obama got all tough with Putin, which is sorta hilarious if you think about it. Dump on top of that the mess in Israel, Obamacare, the Iran fail, millions of Americans out of work, and the attempts at forcing states to fund Planned Parenthood, and you have a nice big MESS that Trump and his administration will have to figure out.Read more: Twitchy | 1real |
WATCH: Trump Supporter Says Women Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Be Leaders | If there is a special place in hell for a woman who works against the best interests of women, this Trump supporter already has a reservation.Young Turks reporter Jordan Chariton went to Donald Trump s rally in North Carolina on Wednesday before it began to interview several Trump supporters.When Chariton asked one woman if she had a birthday message for Hillary Clinton, rather than say something nice the woman said, Trump that bitch! We could care less about her birthday, the woman continued, going on to remark that she hopes Hillary won t be in the White House.The woman then proceeded to tell Chariton that she won t be happy about a Clinton being in the White House, even though it would mark the first time in American history that a woman has been elected President of the United States. Absolutely not, she said.And instead of citing her policies or anything else, this Trump supporter said she opposes Clinton because of her gender. I don t believe there should be a woman President, she said.And that means any woman. But why? I believe in Christianity and I see that she does not stand for the Christianity, she went on to say. Does Christianity say you can not have a female President? Chariton followed up. It doesn t say, she replied. I just don t believe there should be woman leaders. I believe women should stand back from things like this, especially the White House. In other words, this Trump supporter believes that a woman s place is being submissive to men just like conservative Christians believe. The woman Chariton interviewed doesn t even think women should be speakers. Translation: women should shut up and stay in the home and not have any say in political matters whatsoever.Later in the video, the same Trump supporter reversed herself by saying that Jesus might frown upon a woman being a leader and further stated her belief that Donald Trump feels the same way.She went to say that she thinks the 12 women who have accused Trump of sexually assaulting them were paid by the Clinton Foundation to do so. It s an accusation with ZERO evidence to support it. But there is lots of evidence suggesting that Donald Trump is a sexual predator.Here s the video via YouTube.To recap, Donald Trump thinks women are sex objects for men to conquer and do with as they please. His supporters don t give a damn about the victims he has harmed over the years. Trump supporters have also been calling for the 19th Amendment to be repealed, which would strip women of the right to vote. And now we have video of a Trump supporter saying that no woman should ever be allowed to be a leader or speaker.And yet Republicans wonder why women continue to leave the GOP.Featured Image: Screenshot | 1real |
Trump-Russia Connection or Wild Conspiracy Theory? | Email
The alleged connection between Donald Trump and Russia — asserted by Hillary Clinton in both the second and third presidential debates as a dodge for the leaked e-mails and other documents which have hounded her candidacy — has dominated much of the speculative attention of both the mainstream media and social media for weeks. Is there anything to it? Is Trump, in essence, Putin’s puppet, as Clinton claimed in the third debate?
In an interesting twist of logic (if one can use that word to describe the incoherent and dissonant arguments made by a woman who still denies — despite mountains of evidence to the contrary — that she sent and received classified data over her unsecured, private e-mail server), Hillary Clinton at once claims that Russia is responsible for the hack of the servers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in late spring and that there is no way her server was hacked by anyone. Leveraging the anti-Russian sentiment to its fullest, she and others in the DNC have sought to shift the focus away from what was on the servers and toward blaming Russia for the hack. After all, if Russia is trying to throw the election to Trump, wouldn’t the patriotic vote be for Clinton?
By the time WikiLeaks announced that a trove of damning documents and e-mails would be published on the Internet, Clinton and the DNC (along with their lapdog media) were already in full-blown "it was Russia" mode. On the same day that a video of Donald Trump emerged in which he can be heard bragging of his sexual abuse of women — which he has since claimed was just “locker room talk” — WikiLeaks began a rolling release of the promised leaked documents. Both of these stories deserved media attention . Only one got it.
By the time the media was ready to report anything on the WikiLeaks dump, it was to speculate as to what part Russia played in the initial hack. Clinton — in her role as the staunch anti-Russian — used the timing of the second debate to attack Trump for the video and his supposed ties to Russia, which she plainly blamed for the leaked documents, saying to moderator Martha Raddatz: But, you know, let’s talk about what’s really going on here, Martha, because our intelligence community just came out and said in the last few days that the Kremlin, meaning Putin and the Russian government, are directing the attacks, the hacking on American accounts to influence our election. And WikiLeaks is part of that, as are other sites where the Russians hack information, we don’t even know if it’s accurate information, and then they put it out. We have never in the history of our country been in a situation where an adversary, a foreign power, is working so hard to influence the outcome of the election. And believe me, they’re not doing it to get me elected. They’re doing it to try to influence the election for Donald Trump.
Clinton went even further in the third debate , bringing up Putin in an attempt to dodge a question about a leaked document showing that she gave a speech to a foreign bank in which she said, “My dream is a hemispheric common market with open trade and open borders.” She — again — put the emphasis on the fact that WikiLeaks was providing the leaked documents rather than on what the leaked documents have to say. Then she claimed, on the authority of “17 of our intelligence agencies,” that Russia was behind the hacked and leaked documents: But you are very clearly quoting from WikiLeaks. And what’s really important about WikiLeaks is that the Russian government has engaged in espionage against Americans. They have hacked American websites, American accounts of private people, of institutions. Then they have given that information to WikiLeaks for the purpose of putting it on the Internet. This has come from the highest levels of the Russian government, clearly, from Putin himself, in an effort, as 17 of our intelligence agencies have confirmed, to influence our election.
Trump rebutted by bringing the conversation back on topic (not his usual strongest point), saying: She wants open borders. People are going to pour into our country. People are going to come in from Syria. She wants 550 percent more people than Barack Obama, and he has thousands and thousands of people. They have no idea where they come from. And you see, we are going to stop radical Islamic terrorism in this country. She won’t even mention the words, and neither will President Obama. So I just want to tell you, she wants open borders. Now we can talk about Putin. I don’t know Putin. He said nice things about me. If we got along well, that would be good. If Russia and the United States got along well and went after ISIS, that would be good. He has no respect for her. He has no respect for our president. And I’ll tell you what: We’re in very serious trouble, because we have a country with tremendous numbers of nuclear warheads — 1,800, by the way — where they expanded and we didn’t, 1,800 nuclear warheads. And she’s playing chicken. Look, Putin...
At this point, Clinton interrupted to say, “Well, that’s because he’d rather have a puppet as president of the United States.”
So, getting past the he-said-she-said, what are the facts as we know them?
On Monday, the New York Times reported that after conducting a months-long “investigation into a Russian role in the American presidential campaign” in which “agents scrutinized advisers close to Donald J. Trump, looked for financial connections with Russian financial figures, searched for those involved in hacking the computers of Democrats, and even chased a lead — which they ultimately came to doubt — about a possible secret channel of email communication from the Trump Organization to a Russian bank,” the FBI “sees no clear link” between Trump and Russia. Of course, in typical leftist fashion, the Times not-so-gently insinuates that the FBI is guilty of pulling punches in the investigation. Interestingly, the Times seemed to miss that that is exactly what happened in the FBI's investigation into Clinton's e-mail server.
As for Clinton’s claims that the purpose of the hacked and leaked documents and e-mails was to influence the election for Trump, the Times article admits: Law enforcement officials say that none of the investigations so far have found any conclusive or direct link between Mr. Trump and the Russian government. And even the hacking into Democratic emails, F.B.I. and intelligence officials now believe, was aimed at disrupting the presidential election rather than electing Mr. Trump.
Also on Monday, Slate published an article claiming that a server belonging to Donald Trump was “communicating in a secretive fashion” with servers in Russia. By the next day, the Washington Post had debunked the Slate article, saying, “That secret Trump-Russia email server link is likely neither secret nor a Trump-Russia link.” Based in part on an interview with Naadir Jeewa, who “does consulting work on precisely the sorts of systems involved in” the scenario involving the server Slate claims was acting as a conduit between Trump and Russia, the article by the Post explains: To understand what's likely happening, we need to establish a few basics. First of all, the Trump server wasn't really a Trump server. It was much less of a Trump email server, for example, than Hillary Clinton's email server was hers. Clinton had a physical server that hosted her email. The trump-email.com domain that Alfa was connecting to was hosted by a company called Cendyn. Cendyn runs marketing systems for the hospitality industry, meaning that it offers an out-of-the-box solution for a company that owns a bunch of hotels to push out sales pitch emails to its customers. In other words, trump-email.com isn't the email server Trump used to send emails from his closet. It was a domain name that linked back to a Cendyn server. This is important for a few reasons. The first, Jeewa said, was that the trump-email.com was configured to reject a certain type of query from another server. Since its job was simply to push out thousands of enticements to come stay at Trump Soho (or whatever) it didn't need to receive many incoming requests (like incoming email). The second is that the conspiracy theory hinges on Trump's team using an offsite server hosted by someone else for its quiet communications with its Russian allies. Instead of, say, their own server, under their own control. Or an encrypted chat app. Or a phone call.
This writer has to admit to being amused to see the shoe on the other foot (or the tinfoil hat on the other head, in this instance) as the Left trots out wild conspiracy theories to create a Trump-Putin connection to make Clinton retroactively correct. In point of fact, Clinton might be better off trying to implicate Trump in the Kennedy assassination.
But, what about Clinton’s assertion that WikiLeaks is releasing documents pilfered by Russia for the sake of influencing the election for Trump? Aside from the FBI saying that there does not appear to be any attempt to influence the election for Trump, Julian Assange, the founder and public face of WikiLeaks, denies that Russian hackers are his source.
In an upcoming documentary made by Dartmouth Films, Assange speaks of the “Clinton camp” putting forth a “hysteria that Russia is responsible for everything.” He goes on to say, “Hillary Clinton has stated multiple times, falsely, that 17 US intelligence agencies had assessed that Russia was the source of our publications. That’s false — we can say that the Russian government is not the source.”
Furthermore, the Kremlin denies Clinton’s claims. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov called the claims “nonsense.” While that — in and of itself — would not carry much weight, when it is added to the body of evidence that includes Assange denying the Russian connection, the laughably far-fetched lengths to which the Left will got to promote easily debunkable conspiracy theories, the FBI stating that there is “no clear link” between Trump and Russia, and Trump himself denying that he has any dealings with Russia, it’s fairly easy to see that the only thing there is to see here is an imploding campaign by the woman who — the last time she occupied 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — claimed that her husband’s impeachment was the result of a “vast right-wing conspiracy.”
Some things never change. Photos: AP Images | 1real |
Biden to meet Kurdish officials in unannounced visit to Erbil | ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden made an unannounced visit on Thursday to Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, to show support for the Kurdish government. The Pentagon announced last week it would provide up to $415 million to Kurdish peshmerga forces, who have played an important role in pushing back Islamic State in northern Iraq. Erbil is also locked in disputes with Baghdad over an oil revenue-sharing deal and the region’s contested borders including, around the oil city of Kirkuk. | 0fake |
German court rules 'bookkeeper of Auschwitz' fit to go to jail | BERLIN (Reuters) - A German court ruled on Wednesday that a 96-year-old German known as the bookkeeper of Auschwitz was fit to go to prison, rejecting his plea for the sentence to be suspended. Oskar Groening, who is physically frail, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2015 for his role in the murder of 300,000 people at the Nazi death camp Auschwitz. However, he had not started serving his sentence due to a legal argument about his health. Prosecutors said in August that a medical examination showed Groening was fit to start serving his prison sentence, though Groening s lawyer disputed that. On Wednesday a court in the northern German town of Celle said: The higher regional court thinks, based on expert opinion, that the convicted man is able to serve his term despite his advanced age. It said enforcing Groening s sentence would not breach his fundamental rights and added that special needs related to his age could be catered for in prison. In a 2015 court battle seen as one of the last major Holocaust trials, prosecutors said although Groening did not kill anyone himself while working at Auschwitz, in Nazi-occupied Poland, he helped support the regime responsible for mass murder by sorting bank notes seized from trainloads of arriving Jews. Groening, who admitted he was morally guilty, said he was an enthusiastic Nazi when he was sent to work at Auschwitz in 1942, at the age of 21. Some 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust carried out under Adolf Hitler. | 0fake |
THE PLOT THICKENS: DEMOTED DOJ OFFICIAL’S WIFE Worked for Firm Responsible for anti-Trump Dossier During 2016 Election | This is a big deal even though we re sure the main stream media will ignore it. The connection between a now demoted DOJ official and Fusion GPS just got closer. His wife worked for the opposition research firm responsible for THE ANTI-TRUMP DOSSIER! The plot thickens Fox News reports:A senior Justice Department official demoted last week for concealing his meetings with the men behind the anti-Trump dossier had even closer ties to Fusion GPS, the firm responsible for the incendiary document, than has been disclosed, Fox News has confirmed: The official s wife worked for Fusion GPS during the 2016 election.Contacted by Fox News, investigators for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) confirmed that Nellie H. Ohr, wife of the demoted official, Bruce G. Ohr, worked for the opposition research firm last year. The precise nature of Mrs. Ohr s duties including whether she worked on the dossier remains unclear but a review of her published works available online reveals Mrs. Ohr has written extensively on Russia-related subjects. HPSCI staff confirmed to Fox News that she was paid by Fusion GPS through the summer and fall of 2016. Read more: Fox NewsJAMES ROSEN HAS THIS ON BRUCE OHR:KABOOOOOM !! Mueller Investigation CRUMBLES !!First Strzok and Paige then Weissmann, then Rhee and NOW Bruce Ohr BUSTED w/ both hands in the Fake Trump Dossier cookie jar !!#FireMueller #ShutItDown Investigating the Investigators pic.twitter.com/u9YgFa6421 STOCK MONSTER (@StockMonsterVIP) December 7, 2017Read more: Daily Caller | 1real |
U.S. lawmakers ask for disclosure of number of Americans under surveillance | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. congressional committee on Friday asked the Trump administration to disclose an estimate of the number of Americans whose digital communications are incidentally collected under foreign surveillance programs, according to a letter seen by Reuters. Such an estimate is “crucial as we contemplate reauthorization,” of parts of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that are due to expire at the end of the year, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Republican, and John Conyers, the panel’s top Democrat, wrote in a letter addressed to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. The request comes as some Republican lawmakers, many of whom have stridently defended U.S. surveillance programs in the past, express sudden interest in considering additional privacy safeguards to how U.S. spy agencies collect and share intelligence that contains information about Americans. That interest has been sparked by evolving, unsubstantiated assertions that the Obama White House used surveillance powers to improperly spy on the incoming Trump administration. Privacy advocates have for years demanded that the U.S. government share an estimate of how many Americans are ensnared by programs authorized under a certain part of FISA, known as Section 702, that allows for the collection of vast quantities of internet communications from foreigners believed to be living overseas. Some experts and lawmakers have said they believe data on millions of Americans could be caught under such surveillance, exposing them to warrantless searches by federal investigators. “It is clear that Section 702 surveillance programs can and do collect information about U.S. persons, on subjects unrelated to counter-terrorism,” wrote Goodlatte and Conyers, who requested a response by April 24. “It is imperative that we understand the size of this impact on U.S. persons as our committee proceeds with the debate on reauthorization.” In a separate letter sent last December to the outgoing Obama administration, members of the House Judiciary Committee said they were given assurances by officials that an estimate would be provided, likely by January of this year. Richard Ledgett, the deputy director of the National Security Agency, said “yes” when asked by a Reuters reporter last month whether an estimate would be provided before year end. He also said about 20 “vignettes” would be publicly released that show the important national security value of Section 702, which officials have described as among the most important intelligence tools at their disposal. Section 702 will expire on Dec. 31, 2017, absent congressional action. | 0fake |
BOOM! KELLYANNE CONWAY Has Advice For “Able-Bodied Americans” On Medicaid Worried About Losing Health Care: GET A JOB! [VIDEO] | Make America work again! White House counselor Kellyanne Conway says people on Medicaid who will lose coverage under the Republican plan to repeal Obamacare could find jobs that provide health insurance.When the Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid coverage, Conway said, that opened it up to healthy people who could theoretically work, Conway told ABC s This Week on Sunday. Obamacare took Medicaid, which was designed to help the poor, the needy, the sick, disabled, also children and pregnant women, it took it and went way above the poverty line to many able-bodied Americans, she said. They should probably find other at least see if there are other options for them. Conway went on: If they are able-bodied and they want to work, then they ll have employer-sponsored benefits like you and I do. .@KellyannePolls: Obamacare opened up Medicaid to "many able-bodied Americans who should at least see if there are others options for them." pic.twitter.com/fzqvuwXrXB ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) June 25, 2017Via: CNBC | 1real |
Obama administration seeks to curb methane emissions on public land | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In its latest move to combat climate change, the Obama administration on Friday said it will overhaul 30-year-old regulations for oil and gas operations on public and tribal lands to limit the “wasteful release” of natural gas and curb methane emissions. The proposal by the Interior department’s Bureau of Land Management would require oil and gas producers to use currently available technology to limit flaring at oil wells on federal land. It would also require operators to regularly check for natural gas leaks and replace outdated equipment that allows large quantities of gas and methane to escape into the air. The overhaul would also clarify when oil and gas companies need to pay royalties on flared natural gas. “These updated regulations, which would be phased in over several years ... would not only get more of our nation’s natural gas into pipelines and delivered to market but also reduce pollution and cut greenhouse gas emissions that are contributing to climate change,” Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Janice Schneider said. The proposal comes as a major methane leak from a natural gas storage site near Los Angeles has forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes for months and put a spotlight on emissions oversight. The BLM overhaul would only affect federal land. The overhaul would reduce flaring by up 60 percent and venting by up to 46 percent compared to 2013 rates. The BLM estimates that it would prevent the loss of up to 56 billion cubic feet of gas a year through venting, flaring or leaks, which could supply around 760,000 households annually. The agency said it would also avoid methane emissions that would be equivalent to up to 4.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. Methane is the second most prevalent greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. Though it only lasts in the atmosphere for 20 years, methane is 84 times more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat, and environmental groups have pressed the administration for tighter restrictions on leaks. Energy industry groups and some Republican lawmakers blasted the rule, announced as Washington prepares for a major blizzard, arguing that it deprives states of needed revenue and duplicates voluntary efforts by companies to reduce waste. “Another duplicative rule at a time when methane emissions are already falling and on top of an onslaught of other new BLM and EPA regulations could drive more energy production off federal lands,” said Erik Milito, director of upstream and industry operations at the American Petroleum Institute. The overhaul forms part of the broader Obama administration strategy announced last January to reduce oil and gas sector methane emissions by up to 45 percent from 2012 levels by 2025. The strategy includes an Environmental Protection Agency proposal announced in August targeting methane emissions from new or modified oil and gas processing and transmission facilities and wells. It comes on the heels of a BLM announcement last week that it will freeze new leases for coal production on public land. | 0fake |
Bernie Sanders to announce 2016 intentions on Thursday | Sanders, an independent senator who caucuses with Democrats, has been inching towards a presidential run for months by traveling the country and speaking to liberal groups in critical presidential states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Sanders' Senate office would not comment on his 2016 plans, but the source close to the senator said Sanders' Thursday announcement will likely be subdued. | 0fake |
Last Call at Pulse Nightclub, and Then Shots Rang Out - The New York Times | It was nearing last call. The music was still pounding but the night was drawing to a close at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando when shots rang out. At first, the crack of gunfire did not really register. “I thought it was firecrackers,” said Ray Rivera, 42, who was working at the club as a D. J. He lowered the reggae song he was playing to get a better listen. The gunfire did not let up. As round after round was fired early Sunday, people started dropping, some in panic, some because they were wounded, and others because they were dead. “I saw bodies on the floor, people on the floor everywhere,” Mr. Rivera said. “It was a chaos, everybody trying to get out. ” A man, identified by law enforcement officials as Omar Mateen, had come to the club to kill. And over the course of the next three hours, until he was shot and killed himself, he executed dozens of people. By the time the shooting ended, it would rank as the deadliest mass shooting in American history. Inside the club, there were 39 dead people along with the gunman, who was killed around 5 a. m. after a shootout with the police. Nine more people died either at hospitals or on their way to them. Another two bodies were discovered on the street just outside the club, according to Mayor Buddy Dyer of Orlando. people were wounded. Even in a world, where mass shootings have become so frighteningly common that the phrase itself is now a part of the lexicon, the bloody rampage at a small nightclub in Central Florida was shocking not only in its brutality but for the seemingly methodical fashion in which it was carried out. One out of every three people in the club was either wounded or killed. Some people had to hide for hours, crouched in bathrooms or in hidden corners inside the club, sending frantic text messages to the outside world begging for help. For others, the only way to get out alive was to scramble and crawl over the bodies of the dead. The mayhem was captured on video taken outside the club moments after the shooting. One group of men, some shirtless, carried a wounded man to a waiting pickup truck to be rushed to the hospital. Another group tried to help a man lying on the pavement, blood pouring from his wounds. A woman, apparently shot, staggered out into the night. The bloodshed ended only after a daring rescue operation by the police, in which they burst into a room in the club and freed 15 to 25 people before confronting the gunman and freeing another group being held hostage. As the investigation into the shooting continues, witnesses, the police and local politicians offered a vivid and gruesome portrait of how the carnage played out. Saturday was Latin Night at the club, which bills itself as “Orlando’s Premier Gay Nightclub. ” Located at 1912 South Orange Avenue, next to a Dunkin’ Donuts, the club is housed in a relatively small building on a street filled with chain restaurants and shopping centers near downtown, roughly 18 miles from Disney World. The club itself is divided into three separate areas, each with its own theme and music selection. On Saturday, it was a mix of reggaeton, bachata, merengue and salsa. A video taken inside the club in the hours before the attack captured the festive mood, with patrons taking shots, slugging back beers and dancing under neon lights. Lizbeth Alvarez, 31, who was in the club with her girlfriend, Aixa Soltren, 27, said people often are packed in shoulder to shoulder. The main dance floor is in a room called “The Jewel Box,” where scores of gays, lesbians, transgender people and bisexuals from across Central Florida flock to party. On Saturday, as on all nights, there was a security guard posted at the front entrance. It was unclear whether Mr. Mateen shot his way into the club or smuggled in his weapons — which included an assault rifle, handgun and lots of ammunition — and then opened fire. Joel Figueroa, 19, of Orlando, was with his friend, Stanley, dancing when the first shots rang out. “The only thing I could think of was to duck,” he said soon after the shooting, still obviously shaken. The moments that followed were a blur of panic and confusion. By the door, he saw his friend. “There was Stanley, on the floor,” he said. He was shot three times, but managed to stumble outside, blood pouring from a huge gash in his arm. His condition was unclear. In those first few frantic minutes, scores of people ran out onto the street, many wounded, as the police rushed to the scene. Word spread quickly, with the wounded texting friends and family. The club itself posted a message on Facebook shortly after the shooting began. “Everyone get out of pulse and keep running. ” One man wrote a text to his mother, saying he was shot and thought he was dying. Another mother showed reporters the stream of her son’s increasingly desperate text messages. “in bathroom,” he wrote at 2:46 a. m. “he has us” “call the police” “call them mommy” “I’m gonna die” It was unclear whether her son escaped. Luis Burbano, who gave interviews to several television networks, said that after the initial burst of gunfire, there was a momentary pause that he used to “jet for the door. ” On his way out, he saw a bartender hiding in a fitting room, “waiting for a miracle” along with other patrons. After he escaped, a man near him collapsed, his arm badly wounded. Mr. Burbano took off his shirt and wrapped it around the man’s arm. He then saw another man with a bullet lodged in his leg, and Mr. Burbano used another piece of clothing to try to stem his bleeding. With bodies littering the floor, at least 30 people remained trapped inside the club, according to the police. A group of 15 to 25 people were huddled in a room “isolated” from the gunman, Mr. Dyer told CNN. Another five to eight people were being held in a room with the gunman. The police, by now swarming outside, had established communication with Mr. Mateen, but it was unclear what they discussed. Heavily armed members of the SWAT team took positions around the building while other emergency medical workers rushed the wounded to a hospital, which was just a block away. Finally, around 5 a. m. the authorities took action. They breached the wall of the isolated room with an armored personnel carrier known as a Bearcat. “That is when the shooter opened the door and started shooting outside,” Mr. Dyer said. One officer was shot in the head, but was not seriously wounded because the bullet struck his Kevlar helmet. More than a dozen law enforcement officers took aim at Mr. Mateen and he was shot and killed. Next to his body was a battery pack, and the police were concerned that he might have been wearing an explosive device, so they investigated the scene first with a robot. It would take another hour before they could start to assess the extent of the damage. As they made their way deeper into the club, the toll grew higher. It would take hours for all of the bodies to be removed from the site, even as worried friends and relatives desperately sought information about people they feared might have been inside the club. Brian Reagan, a manager at the club who was there during the shooting, took to Facebook to try to convey just how overwhelming it was to be caught in the center of a nightmare. “I am scared, nervous, and concerned for every single person that was in that building,” he wrote. “Please pray. This can not be real. ” | 0fake |
MN: Mayoral Candidate Wants To DISARM COPS After Muslim Cop Kills Unarmed Woman | Minneapolis mayoral candidate Raymond Dehn proposes disarming cops in wake of Damond shooting. Only one year ago, the FBI named Minneapolis, MN as one of the most dangerous cities in America. Minneapolis is also home to the largest Somali refugee population in America. According to the Star Tribune, Minnesota remains near the top among states for refugee resettlement, measured as a share of state population. It is also the top destination for refugees who move from the state where they were originally resettled. Of the 2,338 total, almost 45 percent hailed from Somalia.In the wake of the shooting death of Australian Justine Damond, Raymond Dehn, a candidate in the race for Minneapolis mayor has proposed disarming police officersThe Australian woman was shot dead by police officer Mohamed Noor after calling 911 to report a suspected sexual assault. Officers don t need to carry a gun on their person all the time, said Raymond Dehn, one of the frontrunners in the mayoral race and who currently serves in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Currently, officers carry all sorts of assault weapons in their cars. So why can t one of those weapons be the side arm (such as a baton that sits on a holster)? It s important that we begin to have a conversation, and I would say that all things are on the table. We live in a culture where guns are pervasive. Cops carrying guns is part of a larger conversation about guns in our society, he said, according to the Star Tribune .Better yet, how about just disarm the cops who, like Mohamed Noor, are only on the force to demonstrate Minneapolis commitment to diversity, rather than because they re competent to be police officers?Even better still, how about hire and fire cops based on merit, rather than for their value as trophy Muslims or Somalis on the force?Nah that would be Islamophobic. Jihad Watch | 1real |
Accurate AI Machine Predicts Trump Presidency | Edmondo Burr in Technology // 0 Comments An artificially intelligent machine that predicted the outcomes of the last three U.S. presidential elections says Republican candidate Donald Trump is imminent to win.
MogAI, an artificial intelligence (AI) system created in 2004 by Sanjiv Rai, founder of Indian startup Genic.ai correctly predicted the results of the Republican and Democratic Primaries.
“ If Trump loses, it will defy the data trend for the first time in the last 12 years, ” Raj told CNBC.
The AI machine uses 20 million data sources from places like Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to make its decisions.
The Daily Express reports:
From analysing engagement on social media platforms and search results, the machine believes that Mr Trump has overtaken Mr Obama’s engagement numbers in 2008 – when the Democrat first came into power and his popularity was at its peak.
Mr Rai says that the AI system has shown which candidate will win an election just by looking at engagement data.
He told CNBC: “If Trump loses, it will defy the data trend for the first time in the last 12 years since Internet engagement began in full earnest.”
Despite Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton being ahead in most polls, Mr Rai says this data should remind her not to get complacent.
However, the businessman does say that there are limitations in what can be achieved by MogAI.
Mr Rai explains that just because someone engages with a tweet, for example, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they support him.
Furthermore, there are now more people on social media than in the last three elections for which MogAI was about, meaning that there could be more negative engagements which the machine would struggle to distinguish.
Mr Rai said: “If you look at the primaries, in the primaries, there were immense amount of negative conversations that happen with regards to Trump.
“However, when these conversations started picking up pace, in the final days, it meant a huge game opening for Trump and he won the Primaries with a good margin.”
Billionaire Mr Trump is now facing an uphill battle in his bid to become President of the US after a string of controversies dented his bid to beat Mrs Clinton in the race to the White House. | 1real |
Scottish Newspaper Hilariously Trolls Trump Inauguration With PERFECT TV Guide Description (IMAGE) | The Scots are geniuses when it comes to trolling Donald Trump. And this newspaper proves it.Sadly, Donald Trump s inauguration is on Friday and it is likely going to be an event that offends millions of Americans across the country as Trump makes the day all about him and attacking his critics.Trump s team has been desperate to find musical talent willing to sell their souls to Satan to sing for Trump and have only managed to get a reality show singer and a has-been band to commit.Furthermore, a massive protest against Trump has also been planned to occur at the same time. All in all, Trump s inauguration is going to be a shit show that ushers in a frightening period in American history that will impact this nation for generations as Republicans try to turn it into their own utopia where rich people and tyrants flourish while the rest of humanity suffers immeasurably.All the progress made over the last 150 years is about to go down the drain and one Scottish newspaper could only describe Trump s inauguration as the return of The Twilight Zone. The Sunday Herald describes this newest Twilight Zone episode as one of the most ambitious, expensive and controversial productions in broadcast history featuring four years of answers to the question of what would have happened if the Nazis had won World War II.Calling the event nightmarish, the Sunday Herald goes on to say that Americans were unbelievably duped to make Donald Trump president. This huge virtual reality project, which will unfold on TV, in the press, and on Twitter over the next four years sets out to build on an alternative present. The story begins in a nightmarish version of 2017 in which huge sections of the US electorate have somehow been duped into voting to make Donald Trump president. It sounds far-fetched, and it is, the description continues, but as it goes on it becomes more and more chillingly plausible. Today s feature length opener concentrates on the gaudy inauguration of President Trump, and the stirrings of protest and despair surrounding the ceremony It s a flawed piece, but a disturbing glimpse of the horrors we could stumble into, if we re not careful. Here s the full description via Twitter.The Sunday Herald TV guide on the inauguration of @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/R5zc6cLdK4 sunday herald (@newsundayherald) January 15, 2017Scotland is used to mocking Trump. Protesters often show up to demonstrate at the golf resort he owns there and after Trump praised Scotland for voting for Brexit, many Scots mocked Trump on Twitter because Scotland actually voted for the United Kingdom to remain with the European Union.@realDonaldTrump Scotland voted to REMAIN in the EU, you idiotic delusional psychopathic compulsive liar. Richard Cosgrove (@rcosgrove) June 24, 2016@realDonaldTrump Jeez you re stupid you sentient enema. Lachlan Buchanan (@lachlanbuchanan) June 24, 2016@realdonaldtrump Scotland voted Remain, you weapons-grade plum. Sue Perkins (@sueperkins) June 24, 2016@sueperkins @Johngcole @realDonaldTrump I m sorry, but ludicrous tangerine ballsack is the UK Trump insult of the day. Thomas Logan (@Penman1961) June 24, 2016And there s many more where came from. One Twitter user even made a meme with many of them.@ChrisCrary @arln1966 Drumpf is an insane loony toon pic.twitter.com/Y1EfWWEHut #illegitimateAF (@HillaryWasRight) June 25, 2016Featured Image: Twitter | 1real |
Donald Trump Says His Remarks on Judge Were ‘Misconstrued’ - The New York Times | Donald J. Trump, who said last week that a judge was biased against him because of his heritage, said on Tuesday that his remarks had been “misconstrued” and that he did not think that the judge’s ethnicity created a conflict of interest. “I do not feel that one’s heritage makes them incapable of being impartial,” Mr. Trump said in a long statement in which he continued to raise questions about his treatment in the Trump University case. Mr. Trump created a firestorm last week when he suggested that Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel, who was born in Indiana, was not handling his case fairly because of his immigration policies, which include deporting immigrants in the country illegally and building a wall along the southern border. The remarks were considered racist by Democrats and Republicans, several of whom distanced themselves from the presumptive Republican nominee. Mr. Trump said in his statement that he had many friends of Hispanic and Mexican descent and that he thought that his words had been twisted. The reversal was a rare one for Mr. Trump, who has tended to dig in after his provocative remarks have stirred controversy. However, after many Republicans started to panic about the direction of his campaign he tempered his tone toward the judge. “It is unfortunate that my comments have been misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage,” Mr. Trump said. “I am friends with and employ thousands of people of Mexican and Hispanic descent. ” “The American justice system relies on fair and impartial judges,” he added . “All judges should be held to that standard. ” Mr. Trump, who did not apologize for the remarks, continued to express doubts about Judge Curiel, noting that he was appointed to the federal bench by President Obama. “Due to what I believe are unfair and mistaken rulings in this case and the judge’s reported associations with certain professional organizations, questions were raised regarding the judge’s impartiality,” Mr. Trump said. “It is a fair question. I hope it is not the case. ” Heeding calls from Republican leaders to focus on issues that matter to Americans, Mr. Trump said he remained focused on bringing jobs back to the country. He also insisted that he would win the Trump University case. “While this lawsuit should have been dismissed, it is now scheduled for trial in November,” Mr. Trump said. “I do not intend to comment on this matter any further. ” In an interview with The New York Times last week, Mr. Trump said it was clear that he considered Judge Curiel’s heritage an issue: “I’m building the wall, I’m building the wall. I have a Mexican judge. He’s of Mexican heritage. He should have recused himself, not only for that, for other things. ” Some of Mr. Trump’s critics said that his statement did not go far enough. Jeb Bush, a former rival for the Republican nomination whose wife is from Mexico, has been largely silent since exiting the race but on Tuesday said that Mr. Trump should fully retract what he said. “Donald Trump should retract his comments, not defend them,” Mr. Bush wrote in a post on Twitter. “There is no place for racism in the GOP, or this country. ” | 0fake |
DONALD RUMSELD HUMILIATES “The View” Dingbat Joy Behar…Calls Her Out For Not Understanding How Presidents Are Elected [VIDEO] | There is no question that Whoopi Goldberg is a talented actress and has the ability to make people laugh, but the gift of comedy that Whoopi used to make herself so popular with her fans has mostly disappeared, and has been replaced with a hostility that is anything but funny. The most painfully ignorant co-host on the show however, is comedian Joy Behar. It s been hilarious watching her now admit that she actually misses George W. Bush. Behar has made some embarrassing attempts lately to bond with guests from former members of George W. Bush s cabinet who ve appeared as guests on The View . Bear is so completely enveloped with hate for President Trump, that she s actually convinced herself that the whole world hates Trump as much as she does. She s gone so far off the deep end, that she truly believes she can convince conservatives like Bush s former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who appeared on The View last month [Watch HERE] to join her in her never-ending obsession to bash and discredit President Trump. Things didn t work out how Behar planned however, when Condoleezza Rice who gave Behar and her co-hosts an education on how things actually work in government and not how they wished they worked.This time around, it was George. W. Bush s former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld who appeared on The View and gave dingbat Joy Behar an education on how presidents are elected in the United States.WatchWhoopi Goldberg asked Rumsfeld if Trump s presidency was unique to which he replied that, It s different. Rumsfeld went on to explain how President Trump won in the primaries against some very qualified candidates, and went on to win against a seasoned, well-known Democrat Hillary Clinton. Behar pressed on, suggesting that Trump really is not a legitimate president because he lost by 3 million votes. Rumsfeld then proceeded to educate the loudmouth, emotional Joy Behar about how presidents are elected. Rumsfeld continued to educate the rest of the dingbats on The View who insisted on engaging in hypotheticals when it comes to the leftist tin-foil hat theory, that Trump worked with the Russians to affect the outcome of our elections. | 1real |
BREAKING PHOTOS AND VIDEO: TRUMP AT THE MEXICAN BORDER | TRUMP SAYS THE BORDER PATROL IS PETRIFIED : | 1real |
Senate Confirms Scott Pruitt to Lead Trump’s EPA Despite Dems’ Delay Tactics - Breitbart | The Senate confirmed Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to be the next administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, on the Friday before Congress leaves for a Presidents Day recess. [“As I come here to the floor: I chaired the committee, the Environment and Public Works Committee, on Scott Pruitt’s nomination,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R. .) in the minutes before the bipartisan vote that saw two Democrats joining the Republican majority, West Virginia’s Sen. Joseph Manchin and North Dakota’s Sen. Heidi Heitkamp. One Republican voted against the nomination, Maine’s Sen. Susan Collins. “I listened to six and a half hours of testimony,” Barrasso said. “I listened and read through responses that he gave to 1, 200 questions being asked of him. He gave thorough answers. Perhaps not the answer the Democrats wanted to hear but answers that I felt were responsive. ” Barrasso took the nomination out of his committee by invoking a special rule approved by the Senate parliamentarian office, because Democrats boycotted the committee’s vote on Pruitt, which robbed the committee of a quorum. The chairman said despite the opposition from Senate Democrats, Pruitt was an excellent choice to run the EPA. “He is a nominee who, as Attorney General in Oklahoma, protected the environment, worked to strengthen the economy, and stood up for state’s rights, which continues to be most crucial. ” Outsider businessman Sen. David Perdue (R. .) said 0n the Senate floor Pruitt is the key man for lifting the regulatory burden off the private enonomy. “Scott Pruitt will return some sanity to the EPA, which over the past eight years has overzealously issued thousands of regulations with little environmental benefit, all while ignoring the high economic cost,” he said. “I look forward to working with Mr. Pruitt and President Trump to scale back the EPA and provide farmers, businesses, and the American people with some relief after eight years of blatant overreach,” he said. Senate Democrats did not have the votes to defeat Pruitt’s nomination, but they exercised the option to use all 30 hours of debate allotted to each confirmation, as they have with most of the other nominees. To eat up the clock, Senate Republicans have extended the chamber’s sessions and scheduled votes in the early morning hours, if that was when the debate time was running out. When senators came to Capitol Hill Friday morning, they were armed with news that a judge ordered Pruitt to turn over thousands of emails as part of an Open Records Request by an Oklahoma television station. Minority Leader Sen. Charles Schumer (D. . Y.) held a press less than four hours before the vote, where he and other Senate Democrats demanded that the Pruitt confirmation vote be delayed until Feb. 27. Rhode Island Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said the delay was necessary to fully understand Pruitt’s relationship with the industry figures in his home state. “Time will tell and facts will come out, but I believe our Republican friends will rue the day that they had this nomination rammed through the Senate on the very day that the emails were being litigated in Oklahoma, in order to get ahead of any . ” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R. .) — at his own press conference after Schumer’s — dismissed any calls for delay as more of the same. ”My overarching goal will be to lead in a way that our future generations inherit a better and healthier environment.” — Scott Pruitt, @EPA pic. twitter. — Senate Republicans (@SenateGOP) February 17, 2017, The Pruitt vote was scheduled for 1 p. m. but at 12:30 p. m. Sen. Al Franken (D. .) took to the floor to challenge the language used by Barrasso earlier in the day. Barrasso was making the point that Democratic tactics were not sincere. “These delays are all about obstruction,” the Wyoming senator said. “They’re all about denying President Trump his cabinet — that’s what this all about. It’s about pretending that their candidate, Hillary Clinton, didn’t lose the election in November. ” Franken said this characterization was a violation of Senate Rule XIX, which forbids senators from questioning the motives or impugning the character of another senator. This was the same rule Republicans used to call out and silence Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D. .) during the floor debate for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ confirmation. Unlike Warren, Franken did not force a vote after the presiding officer denied his point of order. But Fraken did walk from his own desk in the back rows to the well of the chamber to hash it out with Barrasso and McConnell. Americans believe that a great country deserves safe drinking water, clean air, and a hospitable environment. That’s where @EPA comes in. pic. twitter. — Sen. Al Franken (@SenFranken) February 17, 2017, Barrasso was clearly ticked off, and Franken gestured with his index finger at Barrasso, saying that it was not right to say that the Democrats were acting as if Clinton won the election. Before the exchange between the two senators got more serious, McConnell told Franken that he had lost his sense of humor. This brought Franken to a . Then, smiling broadly, he told McConnell: “Don’t tell me Mr. Majority Leader that I have lost my sense of humor. That is not impugning my motives — that is impugning my career!” With the point of order resolved, Franken then made a motion requesting the debate on the Pruitt confirmation extend another 248 hours — through the recess. That vote went down on party lines, . Sen. John McCain (R. .) and Sen. Joseph Donnelly (D. .) were not at the Capitol. When senators return Feb. 27, they are scheduled to vote on the nomination of businessman Wilbur Ross for Commerce Secretary. | 0fake |
Nuclear weapons will not bring security for North Korea: Tillerson | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The pursuit of nuclear weapons will not bring security for North Korea’s government and China’s assistance is vital to bringing Pyongyang’s atomic and missile programs under control, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday. “North Korea may assume that nuclear weapons will ensure the survival of its regime. In truth, nuclear weapons are clearly only leading to greater isolation, ignominy and deprivation,” Tillerson said at the U.N. Security Council. “If China truly desires to denuclearize the Korean peninsula to promote stability and to avoid conflict in that sensitive region right on its own border, now’s the time to work with the rest of us ... to put the kind of pressure on North Korea that can change its strategic calculations before it’s too late,” he added. | 0fake |
Kremlin says Russian-Saudi military cooperation not aimed at anyone | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia s King Salman had discussed military cooperation in talks on Thursday and said other countries should not worry about such ties. Work on this will be continued, Peskov told reporters on a conference call. The improvement of military cooperation between Russia and Saudi Arabia ... is not directed against a third party and we believe it s groundless to express concern about this issue. | 0fake |
Clinton Foundation Operates as Giant Slush Fund for Buying Influence |
Former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, the current Democratic Party presidential nominee, have attracted billions of dollars to their own foundation to trade power and influence, Wall Street investor and analyst Charles Ortel told Sputnik.
Charles Ortel is a veteran Wall Street investment analyst who has carried out major studies into the operation of the Clinton Foundation and its legal status, and runs a blog monitoring its activities. Ortel was the whistleblower that blew the lid off the General Electric financial discrepancies in 2008.
“The Clinton Foundation has been a gigantic slush fund,” Ortel said. “People can donate relatively small sums to the Clinton regime and get gigantic concessions worth hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars back.” During the four years that Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, hundreds of millions of dollars flowed into the Clinton Foundation from governments around the world, many of which then enjoyed favored treatment from the US State Department, Ortel noted. “To the world at large, the Clintons are open for business,” he stated. The US corporate media always refused to subject the Clinton Foundation to any kind of serious or skeptical coverage, in part because of fear of alienating the Clintons, Ortel explained. “This is such a big story that the US press is not doing its job. What we have in ‘Clinton Incorporated,’ is Tammany Hall on steroids,” he said.
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Contributed by Sputnik of Sputnik . | 1real |
Headless torso could belong to submarine journalist: Danish police | COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish police said on Tuesday the size of a headless female torso found on the sea s edge in Copenhagen suggested it could be that of a Swedish journalist who died after taking a submarine ride with the vessel s Danish inventor. Police said divers were still searching the area and they were investigating reports of other body parts that may have been spotted in Copenhagen harbor. Danish inventor Peter Madsen has been charged with killing Kim Wall, a Swedish journalist, in his home-made submarine. We re dealing with a torso where arms, legs and head were cut off deliberately. The length of the torso doesn t speak against it being Kim Wall, but we still don t know, Copenhagen police spokesman Jens Moller said in a video statement. Madsen told a court she had died in an accident on board the submarine and that he had buried her at sea, changing his earlier statement that he dropped her off alive in Copenhagen. Police are conducting DNA tests to identify the torso - found on Monday by a passing cyclist - and the results are due Wednesday morning, Moller said. The bizarre case has dominated Danish and Swedish media, and drawn interest from around the world. Madsen has been charged with the manslaughter of Wall, who has been missing since he took her out to sea in his 17-metre (56 feet) submarine on Aug. 10. He denies the charge. He was rescued a day later after his UC3 Nautilus sank in the narrow strait between Denmark and Sweden. Police found nobody else in the wreck. Madsen, an entrepreneur, artist, submarine builder and aerospace engineer, went before a judge on Saturday for preliminary questioning. The case is closed to the public in order to protect further investigations, police said. | 0fake |
SNL’s Head Writer Knows What Would Have To Be In Hillary’s Emails For Her To Lose (IMAGE) | With the news that there may be some undiscovered emails that may or may not be pertinent to anything going on with Hillary Clinton, it only leaves many to speculate what might be in them.One person who is taking his best guess at what a damaging email may look like from Hillary comes from none other than Saturday Night Live co-head writer Chris Kelly. He reveals what he thinks could actually be revealed to make the election close, or worse yet, make Hillary lose.You ll notice a stunning similarity to Hillary s opposition as you read Kelly s best guess at an email: Dear Huma,Psst. Just wanted to let you know I think climate change is fake. Also, women should be punished for abortions. Plus, Mexicans are rapists and criminals, and Muslims (all of them) should be treated like terrorists. Oh, and get this: I haven t paid taxes in years. Like, almost no taxes at all. Alright, gotta run, Tim Kaine wants to chat about how conversion therapy is good. And when we re done, I m gonna grab him by the cock, which I m allowed to do because I m famous.You re a 4 at best,HillaryP.S. What day do I have to be in court for my child rape thing again? Hillary's emails would literally have to say this for it to be a close call. pic.twitter.com/i46k3XeArh Chris Kelly (@imchriskelly) October 31, 2016That s right, exactly word for word can be substituted in as exactly who Donald Trump and Mike Pence actually are. Scary, right? We re living in a nation where people would actually vote for people like that. And people are because apparently people either agree with those sentiments or don t care.Now, if Hillary were to actually have written those things, she would undoubtedly be condemned for all eternity. However, Trump? Nope. He still has support even though he shouldn t.This satirical email and sentiment would be funny if it weren t so damn true, because if Hillary were even half as bad as Trump, she wouldn t stand a chance.Vote blue on November 8th like your life depends on it, because it just may.Featured Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 1real |
Czech lawmakers vote to force PM candidate Babis to face fraud charges | PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech parliament s lower house voted on Wednesday to allow police to bring charges against Andrej Babis, the leading candidate to become prime minister after an election next month, in a case involving suspected abuse of European Union subsidies. Babis, a billionaire businessman and founder of the ANO movement, denies any wrongdoing. He has repeatedly called the police actions against him a political ploy meant to hurt him in the Oct. 20-21 election. | 0fake |
Gamer’s Death Pushes Risks of Live Streaming Into View - The New York Times | Early on Feb. 19, Brian C. Vigneault was nearing the end of a marathon of live streaming himself playing the tank warfare video game World of Tanks when he left his computer to buy a pack of cigarettes. He never returned. During the break, Mr. Vigneault died in his Virginia Beach, Va. home. The medical examiner’s office in Norfolk, Va. said that Mr. Vigneault’s cause of death had not yet been determined. There was no indication of foul play, according to the police in Virginia Beach. But Mr. Vigneault’s friends wonder if the lengthy live streaming on Twitch, a website owned by Amazon that lets people broadcast themselves playing games, may not have helped. At the time of his death, Mr. Vigneault, 35, had streamed for 22 hours straight to raise money for the Foundation. Two of his friends said that he often broadcast his game playing for long periods. “He was looking really tired on the stream,” said Jessica Gebauer, a live streamer and a friend of Mr. Vigneault’s. “We were telling him, ‘Just to go to bed. It’s not a big deal. Nobody’s going to worry about it. ’” Calls to phone numbers registered under the names of Mr. Vigneault and his family members were not returned, and messages left were not answered. Ms. Gebauer said Mr. Vigneault’s family did not want to comment. Mr. Vigneault’s death followed reports of other players dying during or after lengthy gaming sessions in Taiwan and South Korea, intensifying a discussion about the health risks of a streaming culture that rewards people for staying online for long periods. At least one video game streamer has blamed long bouts of live streaming for his emergency heart surgery, and others have written about the potential dangers of playing for hours on end. Live streaming of video game playing has become popular in recent years. The activity has taken center stage on sites like YouTube and Twitch, which has nearly 10 million daily visitors. Professional game streamers, who often combine the prowess of an elite player with the patter of a talk radio disc jockey, can sometimes make a living off these sites through advertising, subscriptions and other revenue sources. Yet professional streamers typically endure a relentless grind to build an audience. Anytime they leave their computers, they risk having followers peel away to another channel. The resulting lifestyle is often unhealthy, requiring long sedentary periods with little sleep. Some gamers are fueled by junk food, caffeine and alcohol. The streaming lifestyle, like that of some other stationary professions, “intuitively and medically seems such an unwise way to spend one’s years,” said Dr. James A. Levine, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic who studies obesity and is the author of “Get Up! Why Your Chair Is Killing You and What You Can Do About It. ” The upshot may be health problems including cardiovascular disease and diabetes, he said. Twitch’s community guidelines bar destructive behavior, without directly addressing what some perceive as excessively long periods of playing. In an email, a Twitch spokesman said of Mr. Vigneault that “we are greatly saddened about the passing of one of the Twitch community. ” Wargaming, the company that makes World of Tanks, wrote in an email that it was “saddened to hear of the loss of streamer and tanker Brian Vigneault. ” Ben Bowman, 30, a professional Twitch streamer with more than 579, 000 followers, published an article on the video game website Polygon in January about the pressure to stream constantly, which he said in an interview could lead to exhaustion, high cholesterol and heart problems. He said he had developed a herniated disk from sitting for hours each day with no breaks because he wanted to attract the biggest audience possible on Twitch. “As a business thing, doing a stream allows you to stretch the widest net,” Mr. Bowman said. “There’s a cultural understanding that you have to be on eight to 12 hours a day with no breaks. I used my channel like that and that took a really massive toll on me. ” Soon after Mr. Vigneault’s death, Joe Marino, 45, who has more than 40, 000 followers on Twitch, wrote an article on Medium about the emergency heart surgery he had in 2015. In an interview, he said his relentless streaming schedule — at least seven or eight hours a day, seven days a week — led to the surgery, an experience from which he is still recovering. “Right now, I’m sitting here and I’ve got massive pain in my chest” he said. “And that’s always going to be there. ” Mr. Marino said he had since dialed back his streaming to focus on photography. “This part of my life is kind of closing off,” he said. Other game streamers have found a way to sustain a large following and a healthy lifestyle. Rob Garcia, who has streamed the widely popular multiplayer fantasy game World of Warcraft on Twitch for six years and has more than 532, 000 followers, said he regularly broadcast for 17 hours a day up to seven days a week at his peak in 2011. “People were loving it. They were like, ‘This guy never goes offline,’” Mr. Garcia said. “It became really bad for me. ” Mr. Garcia, 36, said his weight had ballooned to 420 pounds from around 280 pounds. He resolved to change things in 2011 after he could no longer walk for 15 minutes without losing his breath. Late that year, he started a strict diet and exercise program that helped reduce his weight to around 250 pounds by 2015. He now works out with a trainer four times a week and often takes days and evenings off. “There was a point in my streaming where I lost a lot of my viewers because I wasn’t binge eating and binge drinking — they like to see the extreme stuff,” Mr. Garcia said. “But my core viewers stuck around, and for them, it was amazing. ” For Jackson Bliton, 27, who also streams World of Warcraft and has more than 315, 000 followers, fitness is now a selling point. Mr. Bliton is a serious bodybuilder and gamer, and live streams both his workouts and fantasy battles. He said that his workouts draw the same number of viewers as when he plays a game other than World of Warcraft, around half his usual 1, 000 to 2, 000 concurrent viewers. Perhaps, Mr. Bliton added, the best way for live streamers to lead healthier lives would be to change their focus from rapid audience growth to longevity. “A marathon to me is more like a sprint,” he said. “The marathon for me is doing this consistently for years at a time. ” | 0fake |
KASSAM at CPAC Slams Establishment Media: ‘I’ve Been to Sweden, You Guys Just Don’t Get it!’ | Fresh from a tour of ‘ zones’ across Europe, Breitbart London Raheem Kassam has slammed the media establishment for playing down the phenomenon, telling them to “get your head out of your rears! ”[ Speaking at the prestigious Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) he explained: “I was there, in these zones, and I came back and we were talking about Sweden, and Donald Trump is talking about Sweden. ” He was referring to a speech by the president, in which he spoke of “problems” in the Nordic nation caused by mass uncontrolled immigration. It was widely mocked by many in the media, who claimed everything was fine there. President Trump hit back at the claims today at the same conference, remarking the violence in Sweden as well as other European nations confirmed his remarks. “And I was in Paris too, and I was in Brussels in [the municipalities of] Molenbeek too, and you guys at the back [the mainstream media] you just don’t get it!” blasted Mr. Kassam. “You don’t go there, you don’t see what’s going on! Get your heads out of your rears!” “I was in these zones, actually, and if you want to hear more about that … I’ve got a book coming out on it” he revealed. Mr. Kassam, who is just and has edited Breitbart London since its inception in February 2014, also told the crowd about his own background. “I was born in West London into a Muslim family. And I am now proud to say that I am a conservative I am a proud Englishman and, I am a robust Americaphile” he said to cheers. Finally, he moved on to introducing “Mr. Brexit” former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, describing him as a “father figure” and comparing him favourably to president Donald J. Trump. “But I’m here to introduce a man, today, who really changed my life in a very significant way who changed my country in a very significant way and I would argue, changed the world in a very significant way. “You know last year we had Brexit!” Mr. Kassam declared, to more rapturous cheers, “and Brexit was spearheaded by a man who loves his country, who wants an end to uncontrolled, mass migration … who wants us to be a proud sovereign nation again. “I used to work for that man. He is a member of the European Parliament. He worked tirelessly, travelled up and down the country sometimes speaking to rooms of three or four people at the beginning of his career, just to have his message heard. “Twenty years ago this movement started. “He’s been a mentor to me. He’s been a friend to so many of us. And he’s also been, really, a father figure to so many of us. He has survived cancer. He has survived a car crash. He has survived a plane crash. He has survived the BBC, CNN, the establishment [and] the European Parliament!” Watch Raheem Kassam at CPAC: | 0fake |
Turkey sends military vehicles, equipment to Syrian border: Anadolu | ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey sent 80 military vehicles including tanks to its southern border with Syria, the state-run Anadolu news agency said on Sunday. Citing a military source, Anadolu said the deployment was part of reinforcements for troops stationed along the border. The vehicles were sent to the Iskendurun district of the southeastern province of Hatay, Anadolu said. Late on Saturday, Anadolu also reported that the army had dispatched first aid trucks and military vehicles to the same location, along with heavy equipment. A third convoy of armoured vehicles was heading to Hatay s Reyhanli district, where Turkey s Cilvegozu border gate with Syria is located, Anadolu said. On Friday, Turkey s foreign ministry said Russia, Iran and Turkey had agreed to deploy observers around a de-escalation zone in northern Syria s Idlib region, which is mostly controlled by militants linked to a former al Qaeda affiliate. It said the observers would look to prevent clashes between forces of the Syrian regime and the opposition, and watch for ceasefire violations. Last month, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey was taking necessary measures along its 150 km (90 mile) border with Idlib. | 0fake |
Kidney Fund Seen Insisting on Donations, Contrary to Government Deal - The New York Times | The American Kidney Fund is one of the largest charities in the country, with an annual budget of over $250 million. Its marquee program helps pay insurance premiums for thousands of people who need dialysis, a lifesaving and expensive treatment for kidney failure. The organization has earned accolades for its efficient use of the money. Under an agreement with the federal government, the Kidney Fund must distribute the aid based on a patient’s financial need. But the charity has resisted giving aid to patients at clinics that do not donate money to the fund, an investigation by The New York Times has found. The actions have limited crucial help for needy patients at these clinics. The agreement governing the relationship between the group and the companies forbids choosing patients based on their clinic. In multiple cases, the charity pushed back on workers at clinics that had not donated money, discouraging them from signing up their patients for assistance. Until recently, the Kidney Fund’s guidelines even said clinics should not apply for patient aid if the company had not donated to the charity. “I watched many patients who were not able to get that assistance,” said Elaine Brecher, a former social worker at a small clinic in rural Arkansas. After an application for one patient was declined, she said, she did not apply for others, because a colleague believed that only clinics that donated could refer patients. Ms. Brecher now works at a clinic owned by Fresenius, one of the two largest dialysis companies along with DaVita. Together, the two companies provide nearly 80 percent of the charity’s funding. She said her current patients benefited from the Kidney Fund, whose assistance can amount to thousands of dollars in financial aid a year. “If our patients didn’t get that assistance, they would be owing great big huge bills to hospitals and doctors,” she said. The financial help is available to patients with kidney failure, known as renal disease, many of whom are unable to work. The money covers the insurance premiums for many types of coverage, including Medicare and employer and individual private plans. The Kidney Fund’s payments are part of an unusual deal it made with the government and the dialysis industry 20 years ago. The arrangement allows the dialysis companies to avoid violating laws. It allows dialysis clinics to donate to the Kidney Fund, treat patients whose insurance premiums are paid by the charity and then collect money from the insurers for those patients’ treatments — essentially guaranteeing a steady stream of paying customers for the companies. But the agreement also has a caveat: It requires that all patient applications be treated equally, regardless of whether their clinic donates. In an interview this month, LaVarne A. Burton, the Kidney Fund’s chief executive, said that the charity treated all patients equally, and that the fund had never denied anyone assistance if they qualified financially. “It is simply not true that we require any provider to contribute to the program,” she said. “Never have, and never will. ” She acknowledged, though, that the charity pushed clinics hard to donate, particularly if they applied on behalf of patients. “We believe there is a moral obligation for providers to contribute to the organization,” she said. Ms. Burton said the concerns raised by social workers like Ms. Brecher and others arose because many in the industry misunderstood how the charity worked. The charity recently updated its guidelines, she said, to provide more clarity. An examination of public documents, as well as interviews with more than a dozen social workers, employees of dialysis clinics, insurance officials and regulators, and a former executive at the charity, put the actions in a different light. Many of the clinic workers, from about a states around the country, were called randomly, to limit any chance of coordinated talking points. For years, The Times found, the Kidney Fund’s preference for patients at the biggest clinics has been an open secret among many social workers, who said that as a result they had stopped applying for assistance entirely. The findings also add to a list of concerns about the group’s relationship with the dialysis industry. This year, for example, the fund faced questions about whether it was helping dialysis companies game the Affordable Care Act. In some cases, insurers and government officials have argued, the dialysis clinics used the charity’s assistance program to push people who were eligible for Medicaid, government health insurance for the poor, into private health coverage available under the new law. The private plans pay the clinics much more than Medicaid — up to four times as much, adding up to an additional $200, 000 per patient per year — for the same dialysis treatment. In recent months, the federal government has raised concerns about how patients are steered into private plans. UnitedHealthcare sued one company, American Renal Associates, over the practice, claiming it was harming patients by converting them to less generous coverage. American Renal, which declined to comment for this article, has denied the claims and is fighting the suit. The suit against American Renal also says the Kidney Fund directed some donations directly back to patients at American Renal. As part of an investigation by Medicare, social workers and insurers have made similar accusations against the Kidney Fund. Ms. Burton denied those accusations and attributed the recent scrutiny of the insurance assistance program to insurers that want to avoid covering the often costly medical bills of people who need dialysis. “The insurance industry has let us have it full force,” she said. Dialysis filters toxins from the blood when a patient’s kidneys no longer work. The process is lifesaving, but also onerous, often requiring that patients be tethered to a machine for hours at a time, three times a week. Patients on dialysis often cannot hold jobs, studies have shown, and those receiving the treatment are disproportionately poor. The poorest people with kidney disease qualify for Medicaid, which covers all of their costs. But Medicare covers most of the 500, 000 or so Americans who need the treatment, regardless of their age, under a government program that has existed since the 1970s and that costs the federal government more than $30 billion a year. Even with help, people covered by Medicare are left with significant costs. Most must pay a monthly premium of about $120, as well as a portion of their medical expenses, which can add up to several thousand dollars a year. Until the late 1990s, the dialysis companies routinely paid these expenses. But a federal law outlawed that practice, out of concern that covering a patient’s bills might dissuade that patient from switching to another clinic that might provide better care. That was when the American Kidney Fund stepped in. In 1995, the charity was relatively small, with a $5 million annual budget and contributions from the dialysis industry that accounted for less than 10 percent of its donations. The Kidney Fund and the biggest dialysis clinics presented the government with a proposal that would allow the companies to indirectly pay insurance premiums for patients. The deal, reached with the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services in 1997, has had a profound effect on the charity. In 2015, the Kidney Fund reported revenue of $264 million, making it one of the country’s 100 largest nonprofits. The dialysis industry has also flourished. DaVita and Fresenius in particular have grown quickly, buying smaller chains, consolidating their market share and locking in profits. The Kidney Fund says it got 78 percent of its revenue in 2015 from two companies, which insurers, state regulators and others identified as DaVita and Fresenius. “There’s a long history of recognition of the unique needs of that patient population,” said Philipp Stephanus, a senior vice president at DaVita who handles patient support and insurance issues. The Kidney Fund, DaVita and Fresenius said the federal agreement prohibited them from disclosing what percentage of applications the fund approved from those companies’ clinics, or how much the charity paid in insurance aid for patients at those clinics. But the 1997 deal tried to prevent any preferential treatment, no matter how big the companies became. Kevin McAnaney, a former government lawyer who helped draft the original agreement, said fairness to patients was at the heart of the deal. Everyone understood that “they were covering free riders who weren’t contributing anything,” said Mr. McAnaney, a lawyer in private practice who previously worked at the Office of Inspector General. But if the rules are not followed, the Office of Inspector General has the right to end the agreement, which would profoundly change the relationship of the industry and the charity. “If all the conditions are not met, the opinion is without force and effect,” said Donald White, a spokesman for the agency. In keeping with the agency’s policy, he would not confirm or deny whether the agency was investigating the group. Tracey Dickey works as a social worker for a nonprofit dialysis clinic in rural Missouri with no connection to a big dialysis company, and many of her patients struggle to pay their medical bills, she said. They are exactly the kind of people the Kidney Fund says it is there to help. In November 2014, Ms. Dickey emailed an executive at the fund. She said she had heard that only clinics that donated to it could apply for financial aid for patients. Her clinic had not donated, she said — but she still had a patient in need. “I need to know the facts before I tell her there isn’t premium assistance,” Ms. Dickey wrote in an email to the fund. She provided a copy of the email to The Times. An executive at the fund wrote back the same day. He was noncommittal, but attached a set of guidelines that he asked her to review. “If your company cannot make fair and equitable contributions,” the guidelines read, “we respectfully request that your organization not refer patients. ” And so she didn’t. The patient, Ms. Dickey said, continues to struggle financially. This summer, after Ms. Dickey and other social workers shared their experiences in an industry discussion group, the Kidney Fund invited them to contact the charity about their concerns. When she followed up, the charity told Ms. Dickey that she would need some computer training to enroll in the program. She has not pursued it, she said. Ms. Burton said that Ms. Dickey had apparently misunderstood the exchange with the Kidney Fund employee and that had she applied, her patient would have been approved, assuming the person qualified financially. But Ms. Brecher and several workers at other nonprofit or independent clinics told similar stories. An administrator at an independent clinic in a Midwestern city said he had helped a handful of patients maintain their coverage through the fund after they transferred to his clinic from a large chain. He declined to be identified because, he said, he did not want to anger DaVita and Fresenius, who sometimes send him patients. Each time, he said, the charity’s workers later demanded that the clinic make a donation that at a minimum covered the amount it had paid for the patient’s premium. If he did not pay, he said he had been told, the patient risked losing the financial help from the charity for his insurance. The administrator said he had refused to donate to the charity. The Kidney Fund continued to help pay for the patients’ insurance, he said, but the aggressive approach angered him. Ms. Burton said the charity never declined a patient because a clinic did not donate. But she said the Kidney Fund did not hesitate to ask clinics for donations. “We are a charitable organization,” she said. “We for everything that we do. ” She said nearly 40 percent of the 213 dialysis companies whose clinics had successfully helped patients apply to the fund had never donated. She would not say, though, what percentage of the 80, 000 patients the fund helps annually comes from clinics that do not donate, or how many of those patients come from the biggest companies, which donate most of their revenue. Still, some social workers say the assumption at many clinics where they work is that the aid decisions are not always based on financial need. Jennifer Bruns, now a social worker at the St. John Transplant Specialty Center in Detroit, worked for years in dialysis clinics and said she had many clients who received assistance from the American Kidney Fund. She said sometimes patients would tell her that their insurance premiums — which the Kidney Fund had agreed to pay — had not been paid that month. Ms. Bruns called the fund to find out why, she said in an interview, “and they would say, ‘Well you haven’t made your contribution this month. ’” | 0fake |
Shi'ites gather in Iraq's Kerbala for mourning rite | KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - Chanting and flailing themselves in mourning for Imam Hussein, hundreds of thousands of Shi ite Muslims from around the world gathered in the Iraqi city of Kerbala on Friday for one of the most sacred rituals in their religious calendar. Arbain marks the culmination of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed who was killed in a 7th century battle in Kerbala. Shi ites believe his remains are entombed there. Exhausted pilgrims, including women carrying their children, marched long distances to reach the shrines. Many, arriving by air from Iran, Pakistan or Bahrain, had landed in Baghdad several days earlier. Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) south of the capital, was cloaked in black because of the robes worn by pilgrims, and bedecked in a sea of flags. Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, banned Shi ite gatherings for religious events for decades. Pilgrims have gathered in sacred Shi ite cities including Kerbala and Najaf for religious duties since a U.S.-led invasion toppled him in 2003. But those gatherings were marred by suicide bombings carried out by Sunni militants, notably from al Qaeda and Islamic State, who regard Iraq s majority Shi ites as infidels. Now that those groups have largely been defeated by U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces, Shi ite pilgrims may have more peace of mind during this year s Arbain, though security remains tight across the country. Groups of people build camps where they cook, share food with others, and display decorative objects. Banners featuring Imam Hussein s words are put up on walls and buildings. The ritual is a time for sorrow and self-reflection. Mourning Shi ites listen to recollections of how Hussein and his family were killed. The theme of martyrdom dominates, as pilgrims gash their foreheads with swords and beat themselves with chains. Hussein s death is interpreted by Shi ites as a symbol of the struggle against injustice and oppression. Tents have been set up in Kerbala to provide a resting place for pilgrims, where men serve them cups of free tea. Others offer free massages to those arriving on foot from different cities, while tailors work on religious flags at a market. | 0fake |
Connecticut governor vetoes budget as spending cuts loom | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy on Thursday vetoed the $40.7 billion biennial budget passed by lawmakers earlier this month, saying the bill would undermine the state’s fiscal stability, education system and economic development. Malloy, a second-term Democrat who is not running for reelection, had said he would not approve the Republican-supported budget. Without a budget, which is now nearly three months overdue, the state could implement severe cuts on Oct. 1 under an emergency spending plan put in place by Malloy. Republican lawmakers, who do not control the legislature but won support for their budget from a handful of Democrats, have said they may try to override the governor’s veto, which was expected. As the state continues to wrangle over how to close a 2-year, $3.5 billion budget gap, some Connecticut cities are in the firing because of reduced state aid. Credit ratings agency S&P Global Ratings on Thursday put nine cities and a school district on alert for possible downgrades. The warning “reflects Connecticut’s ongoing budget impasse and brinkmanship, which could reduce significant amounts of municipal aid payments to local governments,” said S&P analyst Victor Medeiros. “The credit quality of these municipalities could deteriorate further due to weaker reserves and liquidity concerns.” The cities - which include its largest, Bridgeport, and New Haven - are likely to dip into their reserves to offset losses in state aid. The drain on reserves would “make their financial position all the more precarious,” Medeiros said. The capital city, Hartford, was not on the list but has been downgraded four times in the last few weeks. On Wednesday, it fell multiple notches deeper into junk territory as it faces a potential bankruptcy. Under the Republican plan, Hartford would have lost $6.8 million dollars of state support “at a time when its financial future is in peril, almost certainly forcing it into bankruptcy,” Malloy said in his veto message. Malloy also took issue with proposals to cut state public pension benefits, which could lead to expensive court challenges from public employee unions, and an education funding plan that he said was inequitable. State Senate Republican President Pro Tempore Len Fasano said in a statement that the veto had “put Connecticut in chaos.” The veto means that cuts under Malloy’s “draconian executive order will remain in effect and create destruction for low and middle income families” unless lawmakers vote to override it, Fasano said. | 0fake |
How World War III Could Start | Source: ConsortiumNews.com
The U.S. acts as if its military has an inalienable right to operate close to the borders of other nations and those nations have no right to see these actions as provocative, writes Jonathan Marshall.
If humanity ever suffers a Third World War, chances are good it will start in some locale distant from the United States like the Baltic or South China Seas, the Persian Gulf, or Syria, where Washington and its rivals play daily games of “chicken” with lethal air and naval forces.
Far from enhancing U.S. security, the aggressive deployment of U.S. armed forces in these and other hot spots around the world may be putting our very survival at risk by continuously testing and prodding other military powers. What our military gains from forward deployment, training exercises, and better intelligence may be more than offset by the unnecessary provocation of hostile responses that could escalate into uncontrollable conflicts.
The most obvious example is Russia, which top Pentagon officials like to remind us “poses an existential threat to the United States” by virtue of its huge nuclear arsenal. So it was discomforting to learn a few days ago that U.S. and Russian warplanes are experiencing near misses in Syrian airspace “once every 10 days-ish,” in the words of Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeff Harrigian.
The risk of war with Russia would skyrocket , of course, if the United States were to try to impose a “no-fly-zone.”
Potentially deadly incidents aren’t confined to Syria. In September , a Russian fighter jet flew within 10 feet of a U.S. Navy spy plane over the Black Sea. Six months ago, reacting to an increase in NATO war games and maneuvers, Russian aircraft buzzed a U.S. Navy destroyer conducting exercises with Poland in the Baltic Sea.
Secretary of State John Kerry declared that the United States would have had every right to shoot down the plane. The Russians, noting that the exercises were taking place near the base of their Baltic Fleet, insisted they were simply exercising their rights to fly.
A couple of days later, a Russian jet intercepted a U.S. reconnaissance plane in the same region. A Pentagon spokesman condemned the Russian pilot’s “aggressive” and “unprofessional” maneuvers that could “escalate tensions between countries.” A Russian spokesman said its air defense forces had reacted prudently to “an unidentified target rapidly approaching the Russian border.”
Indignant over Iran
In the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy recorded 19 dangerous confrontations with Iranian vessels during the first half of this year, up from 10 in the same period in 2015. Another 11 such confrontations reportedly took place this July and August. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei speaks to a crowd. (Iranian government photo)
The most notorious incident, of course, occurred this January, when Iranian gunboats detained 10 U.S. Navy sailors for a day after they strayed into Iranian waters. The Obama administration, which had recently negotiated a nuclear accord with Iran, chose not to inflate the incident. In contrast, a trivial engagement between a U.S. Navy vessel and unarmed Iranian patrol boats in January 2008 fired up President George W. Bush and came perilously close to triggering another Tonkin Gulf Incident.
Although Iran is not a nuclear power, it could be a regional menace if drawn into war, with ballistic missiles capable of reaching Israel and Saudi oil fields, and mines that could make the Persian Gulf virtually impassable.
U.S. air and naval forces also engage in dangerous confrontations every few months with China, a nuclear state and the world’s fastest-rising conventional military power.
In late October, China’s Defense Ministry protested an allegedly “illegal” and “intentionally provocative” patrol by the guided missile destroyer USS Decatur, which was sailing close to the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea to protest Chinese maritime claims. The Chinese vowed to increase their own air and maritime patrols to “resolutely defend national sovereignty and security.”
This summer, in the space of less than a month, Chinese fighter jets twice intercepted U.S. Air Force RC-135 spy planes off of China’s coast. The Pentagon decried the Chinese response as dangerously “unsafe,” while the Chinese complained that U.S. insistence on carrying out “close reconnaissance activities against China . . . severely undermines China’s maritime security.”
Similar confrontations and now commonplace . They offer frightening reminders of the infamous 2001 Hainan Incident, which was triggered when two Chinese fighter jets intercepted a Navy EP-3 spy plane operating near the Paracel Islands and Hainan Island. One Chinese pilot maneuvered too close to the American plane and died when his cockpit was crushed. The damaged EP-3 and its crew managed to make an unauthorized emergency landing on Hainan. The George W. Bush administration brought the crew — but not the spy plane — home only after sending a letter of regret to defuse the international incident.
As geopolitical analyst Michael Moran observed at the time, “The drama of this aerial collision underscores an important and little-known post-Cold War reality: America’s surveillance network has grown so vast and formidable that in some respects it is feared as much as U.S. weaponry itself.”
Trouble with Aerial Spying
Of course, aerial spying first became a cause celèbre during the Cold War when the Soviets shot down Gary Powers and his U-2 spy plane in 1960. The resulting diplomatic crisis derailed a promising international summit on nuclear disarmament. Since then, the tempo of spy flights has dramatically increased , despite the availability of satellites to monitor the world.
“On any given day, there are more than a dozen ‘strategic’ reconnaissance flights, supplemented by dozens of shorter range missions by tactical listening aircraft and helicopters,” reported William Arkin after the Hainan Incident.
Unlike satellites, intrusive planes trigger their targets’ radar systems, light up their communications networks, and provoke military command responses. That’s why American military leaders value the tactical intelligence they provide. That’s also why countries like China view them with such hostility.
The spy flight that triggered the Hainan Incident cost only one life, but history shows the risks can be far greater, especially during times of great political tension.
For example, U.S. spy flights along the Soviet Union’s eastern border helped provoke the tragic downing of a Korean Air Lines passenger jet in September 1983, when it strayed into sensitive Soviet airspace over military facilities in the Far East. The loss of 269 lives was terrible enough, but the resulting propaganda barrage from the Reagan administration helped arouse fears in the Kremlin into that war with the United States might be imminent.
The two jittery superpowers came dangerously close to nuclear war later that month when Soviet early warning systems falsely reported the launch of U.S. Minuteman missiles.
Military professionals in the United States and many of its rivals generally contain these incidents rather than letting them get out of hand. But accidents, miscalculations, and political opportunism pose ever-present risks of escalating small engagements into much larger military confrontations.
There’s plenty of blame to go around. But at the end of the day, what’s striking is that virtually every one of these dangerous incidents takes place as a result of U.S. military patrols or exercises near the borders of countries with whom we are ostensibly at peace, not while defending our own borders.
Americans raised on a pervasive ideology of “exceptionalism” all too easily assume that our far-flung military presence is simply the natural order of things, and that any challenge to it must be countered. A little reflection, however, should suggest why countries — like Russia, China and Iran — grow hostile and even paranoid as they are tested almost daily by the air and naval forces of a superpower. Even if we do not appreciate their point of view, we should seriously ask whether our military really serves U.S. security interests by provoking new opportunities for deadly confrontations almost daily. | 1real |
Putin says will try to repair ties with U.S.A. under Trump | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is ready to do its part to fully restore ties with Washington following the election of businessman Donald Trump as the next U.S. President, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. Trump stunned the world by defeating heavily favored rival Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s presidential election, ending eight years of Democratic rule and sending the United States on a new, uncertain path. Among those uncertainties will be the Trump administration’s future relations with Russia. Ties between Washington and Moscow have become increasingly strained over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, and allegations of Russian cyber attacks featured in the U.S. election campaign. “We heard the campaign statements of the future U.S. presidential candidate about the restoration of relations between Russia and the United States,” Putin said on Wednesday at a ceremony to receive credentials from new foreign ambassadors. “It is not an easy path, but we are ready to do our part and do everything to return Russian and American relations to a stable path of development,” he added. “This would be good for both the Russian and American people and have a positive impact on the climate of world affairs.” Trump is widely viewed as friendly to the Kremlin and Putin has said previously his future counterpart is a talented and colorful character. The Kremlin said earlier on Wednesday Russia hoped coordination with the United States over the war in Syria, where the two countries back opposing sides, would improve under the new U.S. president. | 0fake |
The College Loan Bombshell Hidden in the Budget | In obscure data tables buried deep in its 2016 budget proposal, the Obama administration revealed this week that its student loan program had a $21.8 billion shortfall last year, apparently the largest ever recorded for any government credit program.
The main cause of the shortfall was President Barack Obama’s recent efforts to provide relief for borrowers drowning in student debt, reforms that have already begun to reduce loan payments to the government. For more than two decades, budget analysts have recalculated the projected costs of about 120 credit programs every year, but they have never lowered their expectations of repayments this dramatically. The $21.8 billion revision—larger than the annual budget for NASA, or the Interior Department and EPA combined—will be tacked onto the federal deficit.
“Wow,” marveled Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. “Whether or not it’s good policy to help borrowers with their payments, it’s obviously costly for taxpayers.”
The 40 million Americans with student loans are now saddled with more than $1.2 trillion in outstanding debt. And with higher education costs rising much faster than inflation, the already massive program has been growing at a spectacular clip; direct government loans alone increased 44 percent over the last two years despite an aura of austerity in Washington. The Obama administration has tried to ease the burden for some borrowers by reducing their payments to 10 percent of their income and forgiving their loans after 20 years; this year, the Education Department plans to make all borrowers eligible for that “pay-as-you-earn” relief.
Student loan defaults increased somewhat last year, but the department says the primary drivers of the unprecedented “re-estimate”—budget-wonk jargon for the update of expected loan costs—were Obama’s policy changes, the recent ones as well as the upcoming ones. And because of a quirk in the budget process for credit programs, the department can add the $21.8 billion to the deficit automatically, without seeking appropriations or even approval from Congress.
That’s a big quasi-bailout, increasing the deficit nearly 5 percent. The White House budget office was unaware of any larger re-estimates since the current scoring rules for credit programs went into effect in 1992. As a January Politico Magazine feature on the government’s unusual credit portfolio reported, the Federal Housing Administration has stuck more than $75 billion worth of similar re-estimates onto Uncle Sam’s tab over the last two decades, most of them after the recent housing bust led to a cascade of FHA-backed mortgage defaults. But it’s never had a one-year shortfall quite as drastic as this.
It’s not yet clear whether this will be a hefty one-time revision, or a harbinger of oceans of red ink as millions more borrowers get relief on their payments to the government. Several reports by Barclays Capital have warned that Obama’s generosity to borrowers could leave the student loan program as much as $250 billion in the hole over the next decade. And behind closed doors, officials in the White House budget office and the Treasury Department have criticized the Education Department’s loan models as overly optimistic, with some officials pushing internally for third-party audits.
But administration officials said there’s no reason to think this year’s shortfall will recur. They believe that their budgets going forward will accurately reflect their new efforts to help borrowers limit their payments, that pay-as-you-earn will be “baked into the cake.” Historically, re-estimates for the better and for the worse have tended to cancel each other out across the government. In fact, this year, the government’s credit portfolio increased to $3.3 trillion, larger than any U.S. bank’s, but the re-estimates for all the programs besides student loans netted out to less than $1 billion.
The administration argues that even the $21.8 billion student loan shortfall is a relative pittance for the Education Department’s $740 billion book of direct loans, the second-largest government credit portfolio after FHA mortgage guarantees.
“Any re-estimate should be considered in this context,” says White House Office of Management and Budget spokeswoman Emily Cain. | 0fake |
A South Sudan vote would heap disaster upon catastrophe, U.N. says | GENEVA (Reuters) - South Sudan s hellish war will get worse if its neighbors let President Salva Kiir hold an election before he accepts peacekeepers, a ceasefire and political opposition, U.N. investigators said on Wednesday. South Sudan was plunged into civil war in 2013 when Kiir fell out with his deputy, Riek Machar. Since then 50,000-300,000 people have died, according to the African Union (AU), and millions have been displaced or pushed to the brink of famine. It s just a story of absolutely unimaginable cruelty, Yasmin Sooka, head of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, told a news conference in Geneva. Last year Machar fled, but during his retreat Kiir s forces sparked a new conflict in the Equatorias region, boosting opposition to Kiir s Dinka tribe, which almost one in four South Sudanese belong to. Kiir s mandate expires in April, and he has made clear he wants a new election, which would be catastrophic, Sooka and her fellow commissioner Godfrey Musila said. You will not have a democratic Dinka president elected, Musila said. If the Dinka are to stay in power they will have to do that militarily. It has to be a police state. Outside powers must urgently find a way to generate a legitimate government, he said. The first task was to fully deploy a 4,000-strong regional protection force that Kiir and East African bloc IGAD agreed on a year ago. Although limited to the capital, Juba, the force would create conditions for the opposition to return and would free up U.N. peacekeepers to go further afield, helping to bring about a ceasefire, which the opposition, with no military supply lines, would accept, Musila said. Only 400 of the force have arrived so far. Sooka said the best tool to get action was the hybrid court that the AU and South Sudan agreed to set up, based on a mix of their laws, to prosecute suspects including top political and military figures. Sooka has an almost prosecutorial mandate from the U.N. Human Rights Council and plans to have a team of 16 on the ground this week, including forensic analysts and military advisers. On Monday, South Sudan Justice Minister Paulino Wanawilla Unango told the Council that the government was still incorporating last year s agreement with IGAD. Sooka said the AU must ensure consequences if the government failed to take the necessary steps, as it did in Gambia in January, when it intervened to oust president Yahya Jammeh. The West Africans camped outside of Gambia and told the president if you don t go, our armies will come in, she said. But will the East African community or IGAD do that? | 0fake |
Protesters try to block access to Trump rally in Arizona, ahead of big primary in border state | Protesters in Arizona briefly blocked access to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s rally Saturday morning in Arizona, kicking off a full day of campaign events in the border state, which holds key primaries Tuesday.
The protesters blocked a highway leading to Trump’s outdoor rally in Fountain Hills, Arizona, near Scottsdale, before sheriff's deputies removed them and towed their vehicles.
“We’re not going to let demonstrators intimidate this forum and this sheriff. Now we’re going to have a nice, nice rally for Donald Trump,” said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who led the effort to remove the demonstrators and who has endorsed the GOP front-runner.
Arizona has long been ground-zero for the politically-charged illegal immigration debate, with roughly 368 miles of border with Mexico and more border fence than any other state.
Roughly 30 percent of Arizona’s population is Hispanic. And in 2010, the state passed one of the strictest anti-immigration laws in American history.
“So much crime and drugs passing through the border. You know what? We’re going to build a wall, and we’re going to stop it,” Trump said at the rally, returning to his early and oft-repeated campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border and have Mexico pay for it.
Arpaio – the self-described “America’s toughest sheriff” – said at least 10,000 people were kept waiting in the Arizona heat for about an hour as a result of the roadblock, which resulted in three arrests.
Trump supporters and protesters exchanged words at the rally, but there were no initial reports of physical violence.
Trump, who early in his campaign visited the border, leads the GOP field in Arizona with 34 percent of the vote, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 21 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 13 percent.
Trump held a larger rally later Saturday at the Phoenix Convention Center.
Trump said protesters at his rally are "taking away our First Amendment rights" and vowed to take the country back if he's elected president.
He called one protester at his Phoenix rally, who wore the Klu Klux Klan hood, "disgusting." Another group, carrying a "Black Lives Matter" sign were also kicked out.
The rallies and protest follow a local border patrol union of Friday supporting Trump.
Local 2544 said Trump asked for the endorsement and that officials responded by saying he is the only 2016 White House candidate to “publicly expressed his support” of the Border Patrol’s mission and it agents and that he has been “an outspoken candidate” on the need for a secure border.
However, Art Del Cueto, president of the Tucson-based union, made clear that he would adhere to the larger National Border Patrol Council’s practice of not endorsing presidential candidates.
The Supreme Court later upheld the most controversial part of Arizona’s 2010 law -- commonly referred to S.B. 1070 and that allows police to try to determine the immigration status of anybody arrested or detained if they have “reasonable suspicion” the suspect is in the U.S. illegally.
However, the law also sparked widespread opposition including businesses threatening to leave the state.
Trump and Cruz essentially call for those living illegally in the United States to return to their home country, while Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders want to allow them to stay.
Several thousand miles away in New York, demonstrators also took to the streets to protest the Republican presidential hopeful.
The protesters gathered Saturday in Manhattan's Columbus Circle, across from Central Park, with a heavy police presence. Demonstrators chanted: "Donald Trump, go away, racist, sexist, anti-gay."
They marched across south Central Park to Trump Tower, the Fifth Avenue skyscraper where Trump lives. Then they marched back to Columbus Circle for a rally. | 0fake |
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