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Chaotic response to Somali bombing cost lives, medics say | MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Medics who rushed to help victims of a huge bomb explosion in the Somali capital Mogadishu that killed more than 300 people say the country s threadbare emergency services have been pushed beyond their limit. From a lack of ambulance drivers to break-downs of the ambulances themselves, to checkpoints blocking routes to hospitals to a shortage of blood, the chaotic response to the deadliest truck bombing in Somalia s history cost additional lives, they said. Officials say that Saturday s bombing, which also wounded at least 400 people, bore the hallmarks of the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, but the group has not claimed responsibility. More than three days after the bombing at a busy intersection in the capital, hundreds of people were still searching for relatives in hospitals and trying to access the blast site, Reuters witnesses said. Dr Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Aamin Ambulances, a privately-funded ambulance service responding to the attack, described the limitations of his country s emergency system. We have old ambulances and after working 24 hours for days, three broke down. The telephones got jammed and we had no walkie talkies. He said road blocks manned by the security forces delayed ambulances, and there were not enough medics to respond to the devastating attack. Somalia has been mired in conflict since 1991, when clan warlords overthrew a dictator and then turned on each other. One of the poorest countries in Africa, it faces severe food insecurity and relies on foreign donors to support its institutions and basic services. One ambulance driver said security forces badly hampered efforts at the blast site and even fired at vehicles. Ambulance driver Mohamed Saiid told Reuters: I could see people screaming in a burning public vehicle and police opened fire refusing [help] that could save them. When you want to save a screaming casualty but a soldier denies you access at gun point ... it is a tough work, he said. Such delays caused many injured people to die from blood loss, he said. Another ambulance driver said police stopped him entering the blast scene. I was stopped by forces at gunpoint as I was just some meters away from the blast scene, said Mohamed Howle, a driver from a hospital in the city. A spokesman for Mogadishu s mayor said safety was the top priority in the response and there was no delay in rescuing injured people. Spokesman Abdifatah Omar Halane said some injured people may have died while being carried from the scene: No one can save the lives of someone whose brain mucus was oozing. Police officer Mohamed Hussein told Reuters he was at the blast site several times daily since the bombing and ambulances were not fired upon. Soldiers often fire in the air in the city to clear traffic jams, he said, suggesting that guns may have been discharged by security forces to establish order. Information Minister Abdirahman Omar Osman earlier said Somalia does not have a blood bank. But doctors said the public had responded quickly to calls for blood donations. Countries including Turkey, Qatar and Kenya were providing medical assistance and evacuating wounded. We are requesting blood. We are requesting assistance for verifying the dead in order for their relatives to know, the minister said. Osman said the bodies of more than 100 people buried on Monday were blown beyond recognition . He hoped other bodies could still be identified. Mohamed Nur, head of the emergency unit at Medina hospital in Mogadishu said on Tuesday that doctors and nurses were working around the clock and the number of casualties had overwhelmed the hospital. Turkish doctors, mainly surgeons and specialists in spine injuries, arrived along with Turkey s health minister on Monday and were still treating injured in local hospitals, the minister said. Turkey evacuated 35 critically wounded Somalis to Ankara by plane on Monday, Turkish deputy prime minister Recep Akdag told reporters on returning from Somalia. An increasingly close ally of Somalia, Turkey opened a $50 million military base in the capital last month. Medicine from neighboring nations Djibouti and Kenya arrived by plane on Tuesday, the minister said. Qatar sent a plane with medical equipment and planned to evacuate injured people for treatment outside Somalia, Qatar s state news agency reported. | 0fake |
Obama's defense chief doesn't see big changes in Iraq campaign | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ash Carter, who until January was U.S. defense secretary, said on Tuesday he did not see major changes in the campaign against Islamic State since President Donald Trump took office, amid accusations the U.S. military may be relaxing rules protecting civilians. “I don’t see overall major changes and I certainly hope they stay on the path that we set because I think that’s the right path,” Carter said at a forum at Harvard University, in his first public address since leaving the post. Carter declined to speculate about the investigation into an explosion in Mosul believed to have killed scores of civilians, even as he stressed the importance of probes of such incidents. The U.S. military has acknowledged a possible role in the incident but also says Islamic State could be to blame. | 0fake |
Sanders in California Says Clinton E-Mail Problems Now Serious | “Now, you're right -- the Inspector General just came out with a report, it was not a good report for Secretary Clinton,” Sanders told host John Dickerson, according to a transcript provided by the network. “That is something that the American people, Democrats and delegates, are going to have to take a hard look at.”
Trailing Clinton among pledged delegates collected through state primaries and caucuses, Sanders said superdelegates -- party leaders and elected officials not formally bound to any candidate -- should, at the very least, cast their ballots at the Democratic National Convention in July with the candidate who carries a given state.
That would give Sanders a boost from states like Vermont, Washington and Alaska, although Clinton prevailed in populous states such as New York, Florida and Texas.
Sanders continued to press a case for superdelegates to switch their allegiance to him from Clinton, regardless of state affiliation, and said the e-mail controversy could become a drain on her in the general election.
“They will be keeping it in mind. I don’t have to tell them that,” he said. “I mean, everybody in America is keeping it in mind and the superdelegates sure are.”
Sanders trails Clinton by 1,769 to 1,499 in pledged delegates, according to an Associated Press count. When superdelegates are included Clinton's lead swells to 2,310 to 1,542, leaving the former secretary of state 73 short of clinching the nomination. She's likely to cross that mark when votes are tallied in New Jersey, one of six states to vote on June 7.
Speaking on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said it was time for party unity. "He ought to be able to read the sign posts as well as anybody else, and if he did that, he would know that it's all but over," she said of Sanders.
Still, Sanders insisted on CBS that "there is just a possibility that we may end up at the end of this nominating process with more pledged delegates than Hillary Clinton."
"I think we have a good chance to win here," Sanders said of California, the most populous U.S. state. Two opinion polls last week offered different outcomes for California. One showed the race basically a toss-up, with Clinton ahead by 2 points. The other put the former New York senator up by 18 points.
"Obviously if we don't do well in California, it will make our path much, much harder," Sanders said in a separate interview on NBC's "Meet the Press." "California is the big enchilada."
The State Department’s inspector general found in a report made public on Wednesday that the e-mail set-up violated department rules, that Clinton never sought permission for it, and that the proposal would have been rejected if she had. The report handed Clinton's Republican opponents a fresh line of attack - and Sanders, too, if he chose to take it.
Sanders won praise at a candidates' debate on October when he said, "Enough of the e-mails. Let's talk about the real issues facing America.'' At the time, his campaign used the comments in a fund-raising e-mail.
Fast forward seven months and for Sanders, the delegates on offer on June 7 represent a last-ditch effort to close the gap with Clinton.
A strong performance in California may boost Sanders's case that superdelegates should switch their allegiance to him on the basis of perceived electability against Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
That argument so far has been driven by opinion polls showing Sanders faring better than Clinton in a hypothetical matchup with Trump.
In another sign Sanders has taken off the gloves, his campaign late on Friday demanded the ouster of Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy and former Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank from a key platform committee at the Democratic National Convention.
Democratic officials rejected Sanders's request on Saturday, the Associated Press reported.
In a statement the Sanders campaign said Frank and Malloy were "aggressive attack surrogates" for Clinton. Sanders's lawyer said the pair can’t work impartially “while laboring under such deeply held bias.”
In a four-page letter hand-delivered to Democratic National Committee late Friday, Brad Deutsch, Sanders's campaign counsel, wrote of animosity by Frank toward Sanders dating to 1991.
Criticisms of Sanders by Frank and Malloy have gone beyond dispassionate ideological disagreement and have exposed a deeper professional, political and personal hostility toward the senator and his campaign, Deutsch said.
Frank on Saturday pondered the Sanders campaign's motive. "I hope it is not to lay the basis for an inaccurate claim that he was unfairly denied the nomination, and I do see some elements of this," he told Politico.
Also this week, Sanders, keen for network airtime before the California vote, appeared to get a boost when presumptive Republican nominee Trump agreed to debate him to raise money for a charity. The billionaire businessman backed out on Friday, saying it would be “inappropriate” to debate the second-place Democrat.
Sanders may not have given up hope, though. "Maybe we'll get a call in five minutes and he'll say yes again," he said on CBS. | 0fake |
Trump in TV event with Clinton, says Putin better leader than Obama | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump declared on Wednesday that Russia’s Vladimir Putin had been a better leader than U.S. President Barack Obama, as the Republican presidential nominee used a televised forum to argue he was best equipped to reassert America’s global leadership. Trump suggested at the event in which he and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton made back-to-back appearances that U.S. generals had been stymied by the policies of Obama and Clinton, who served as the Democratic president’s first secretary of state. “I think under the leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton the generals have been reduced to rubble. They have been reduced to a point that’s embarrassing for our country,” Trump said at NBC’s “Commander-in-Chief” forum in New York attended by military veterans. It was the first time Trump and Clinton had squared off on the same stage since accepting their parties’ presidential nominations in July for the Nov. 8 election. Clinton was grilled over her handling of classified information while using a private email server during her tenure at the State Department. FBI Director James Comey had declared her “extremely careless” in her handling of sensitive material but did not recommend charges against her. “I did exactly what I should have done and I take it very seriously, always have, always will,” she said.Trump’s praise of Putin and his suggestion that the United States and Russia form an alliance to defeat Islamic State militants could raise eyebrows among foreign policy experts who feel Moscow is interfering with efforts to stem the Syrian civil war. “If he says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him,” Trump said of the Russian president. “Certainly in that system, he’s been a leader, far more than our president has been.” Trump had called Obama “the founder of ISIS,” an acronym for Islamic State, in stump speeches several weeks ago. The statement drew broad criticism, prompting him to take a more disciplined approach to campaigning. He has since picked up ground on Clinton in national opinion polls. Trump also flirted with revealing what he had been learning in classified intelligence briefings given to him by U.S. officials because he is the Republican nominee. “There was one thing that shocked me,” Trump said. “What I did learn is that our leadership, Barack Obama, did not follow what our experts ... said to do, and I was very, very surprised. ...Our leaders were not following what they recommended.” Earlier on Wednesday, Trump pledged to launch a new U.S. military buildup, saying America was under threat like never before from foes like Islamist extremists, North Korea and China. The event offered a prelude to how Clinton and Trump will deal with questions on national security issues in their three upcoming presidential debates later in September and in October. Clinton began the forum saying her long experience in government as a U.S. senator and secretary of state made her uniquely qualified to serve as president. She said she had “an absolute rock steadiness” to be able to make tough decisions, a not so subtle dig at Trump, who Democrats say is temperamentally unfit for the White House. Moderator Matt Lauer doggedly pressed her about her handling of emails from a private server while secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. The issue has raised questions about whether she can be trusted to serve as president. Clinton said none of the emails she sent or received were marked top secret, secret or classified, the usual way such material is identified. Appearing in the second half of the hour-long show, Trump faced questions about his fitness for office. Asked if he would be prepared on Day One to be commander in chief, Trump said: “One hundred percent.” Trump quickly abandoned Lauer’s entreaties to avoid attacking his opponent and focus on what he would do if elected president in November. “She’s been there for 30 years,” Trump said. “We need change, and we need it fast.” The event brought together the meticulously prepared Clinton, 68, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, and Trump, 70, a New York businessman whose brash, freewheeling style has allowed him to dominate the headlines during his campaign. Clinton said she regretted her decision as a U.S. senator from New York to vote in favor of the much-criticized 2003 Iraq war and that Trump had been in favor of it as well. Trump has condemned the war during his campaign and said he would avoid lengthy conflicts in the Middle East. On the U.S. intervention in Libya in 2011, Clinton rejected Trump’s criticism of her support for the effort as secretary of state. “Permitting there to be an ongoing civil war in Libya would be as threatening and as dangerous as what we are seeing in Syria,” she said. Trump said Clinton’s handling of Libya proved disastrous. Republicans have made much of the fact that the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, was killed in an Islamist attack in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012. “She made a terrible mistake in Libya,” said Trump. Clinton said U.S. policies under her leadership at the State Department had helped promote security. “We made the world safer,” she said. | 0fake |
Ryan Lochte Apologizes ‘for My Behavior’ After Rio Robbery Claim - The New York Times | RIO DE JANEIRO — Ryan Lochte, the Olympic medal winner who claimed to have been robbed here last weekend by men identifying themselves as police officers, issued an apology on Friday “for my behavior” in an episode that has cast a pall over the Games. The apology came as testimony emerged from other American swimmers challenging Mr. Lochte’s initial version of events. In sworn statements to investigators, the other swimmers described Mr. Lochte, 32, as drunk and unruly, saying he had damaged property at a gas station and later misrepresented what happened. The case has ignited a debate that goes well beyond sports, eliciting an apology from American Olympic officials and outrage from Brazilians who accuse Mr. Lochte of smearing Rio’s reputation as it held one of the most important international events in Brazil’s history. In his original account, Mr. Lochte said he and three other American swimmers had been pulled over by armed men calling themselves police officers, one of whom put a gun against his head before taking the cash from his wallet. But police investigators said Thursday that Mr. Lochte had fabricated central elements of the encounter. The investigators said the swimmers had vandalized a gas station bathroom after leaving a lavish party and were confronted over the damages by security guards. At least one of the guards brandished his gun in their direction, the police said. “I want to apologize for my behavior last weekend — for not being more careful and candid in how I described the events of that early morning,” Mr. Lochte said in a statement on Instagram. Mr. Lochte did not give a full account of what happened during the episode, or explain the ways in which his earlier depictions of events were inaccurate. But he insisted that a gun was pointed at him and that he was forced to hand over money. “It’s traumatic to be out late with your friends in a foreign country — with a language barrier — and have a stranger point a gun at you and demand money to let you leave,” he said in the statement. In sworn statements to Brazilian investigators, Mr. Lochte’s teammates said that he was drunk and disorderly, had damaged property and was in need of calming down as they discussed the situation with an armed security guard. Two of the swimmers — Gunnar Bentz, 20, and Jack Conger, 21 — described public urination, vandalism and other drunken antics by the swimmers, the police said. In his testimony, Mr. Bentz said that the situation spiraled out of control shortly after the swimmers left a party in a taxi early Sunday and stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom. Once there, the men urinated around the bushes, and Mr. Lochte damaged a sign, according to a police description of Mr. Bentz’s account. The police said a bathroom door and a soap dispenser had also been damaged. Fernando Deluz, a D. J. who was passing by the gas station, said he interpreted for the swimmers, none of whom speak Portuguese, in an effort to prevent the situation from escalating. “There was a moment when they tried to escape, and that’s when the security guards stopped them,” Mr. Deluz said in nationally televised comments. “At no moment did anyone brush up against them,” he added. And when employees of the gas station discussed calling the police, the swimmers pleaded with them not do so, Mr. Deluz added. “They were saying, ‘Please, please, no please,’” Mr. Deluz said, explaining that the swimmers began asking in English how much they needed to pay for the damages done to the gas station. The swimmers then handed over Brazilian and American currency totaling about $50 to Mr. Deluz, who said he gave the money to a security guard, who then passed it to a gas station employee. “Then I talked to them and said, ‘That’s O. K. ’” Mr. Deluz said. The swimmers then went on their way to the athletes’ village, where they were captured on camera joking with one another and in possession of their phones and watches, items that are often taken from victims of armed assaults in Rio. Mr. Bentz said the swimmers tried to leave the station, having sensed that they could get into trouble after employees witnessed their behavior, the police said. But two men with guns — security guards at the gas station — approached the car, brandished their weapons and prevented them from leaving, Mr. Bentz said. The group of swimmers, which also included Jimmy Feigen, 26, then got out of the car. After being told by the guards to sit down, “Ryan got up and began talking to the men,” Mr. Bentz told investigators. At that point, Mr. Bentz said, he “asked Ryan to calm down and sit down again. ” In his testimony, Mr. Conger told investigators that he described the episode to his mother after arriving back at the athletes’ village and having breakfast with Mr. Feigen. He then saw Mr. Lochte’s accounts in the news media, telling investigators that he “perceived that Ryan was lying about what had happened. ” As the scandal over the swimmers grew this week, judges in Brazil sought to prevent the men from leaving the country. But Mr. Lochte had already flown to the United States before the police moved to seize his passport. The police removed Mr. Bentz and Mr. Conger from their plane as it prepared to leave Rio, but after providing their testimony, the two men flew to the United States. The police said they were planning to charge Mr. Lochte and Mr. Feigen with providing false testimony about a crime. But Mr. Feigen’s lawyer said that his client had agreed to pay about $10, 800 to a Brazilian charity as part of a deal to avoid prosecution, allowing him to leave the country. The International Olympic Committee also said Friday that it would start a disciplinary inquiry into the episode involving the four swimmers. In his apology, Mr. Lochte said that he was grateful to “the people of Brazil who welcomed us to Rio and worked so hard to make sure that these Olympic Games provided a lifetime of great new memories. ” But many Brazilians felt that the statement fell short. “Lochte apologizes but doesn’t admit lying,” said Rodrigo Mattos, a sports commentator for UOL, one of Brazil’s largest news websites. “He’s still portraying himself as a victim. So much arrogance. ” | 0fake |
GOP and Abortion in Age of ObamaCare: Time for new strategy | As thousands descended on Washington last week for the annual “March for Life,” the Republican House of Representatives was busy watering down an anti-abortion bill that restricted abortions after 20 weeks, except in cases of rape or incest, with exemptions allowed only after a police report had been filed. This after a small group of moderate Republican lawmakers challenged the bill and lobbied for a less restrictive measure.
It seems these moderate Republicans, fearing the bill could revive the Democrats’ phony “War on Women” mantra, erred on the side of expedience so as not to, as the Washington Post writes, “…expose Republicans in swing districts to a barrage of attack ads in 2016 from women’s rights groups and Democrats.”
The symbolism behind such a bill on the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision is understandable, but if Republicans are serious about advancing protection for the unborn in the age of ObamaCare, they will adopt a different strategy. They might start by looking back 50 years to the civil rights movement.
People who are old enough to remember, or have seen the film “Selma,” recall how pictures and personal stories helped move the hearts and change the minds of many Americans in support of civil rights legislation. Pictures of blacks being beaten by white police officers or being denied service at lunch counters or forced to use separate restrooms — even murdered — shocked much of the nation.
As Black History Month begins next week, the Republican Congress should hold a series of hearings on the impact the elimination of 55 million unborn lives has had on our culture. They can begin with testimony from black women and men like J. Kenneth Blackwell, a former Ohio secretary of state and currently a policy board member of the American Civil Rights Union.
In a recent column for The Washington Times, Blackwell cited figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and wrote: “black women continue to have the highest abortion rate of any ethnic group, with a gruesome 483 abortions for every 1,000 births.” That’s nearly one black baby in every three, according to 2010 figures compiled by the CDC.
If “black lives matter” — and they do and should — they need to be protected in the womb, as well as in the streets.
Congressional hearings should also include people who survived abortions and are glad they did. Women who regret having had abortions can testify that if they had had more information they might have made a different choice. I have met such women and heard their stories. They are legion and can be easily contacted.
This is the key to advancing the pro-life argument. Republicans should be about “empowering women,” giving them more information so that they will be fully informed before choosing whether to sustain a life, or end one. Sonogram technology is the best tool for providing that information. Some studies found that abortion-minded women changed their minds about having an abortion after seeing their child growing in their wombs. Others found the opposite to be true. Still, women should have the choice.
Choosing an empowerment strategy will put pro-choice advocates on the defensive. They then may be the ones seeking to keep women uninformed. Don’t we have federal laws requiring truthful information on food labels so that consumers can make informed decisions about what they put in their bodies? A sonogram requirement would give a woman the information she might need to make an alternative choice and spare the life of her child. Her access to this information should not be restricted.
This is the smart way to advance the pro-life vs. pro-choice debate and change the dynamic and direction from its current stagnation. Republicans will try it if they are smart. But that, too, could be debatable.
Cal Thomas is America's most widely syndicated op-ed columnist. He joined Fox News Channel in 1997 as a political contributor. His latest book is "What Works: Common Sense Solutions for a Stronger America" is available in bookstores now. Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribune.com. | 0fake |
21 Most Dangerous Islands in the World | The holiday season is just around the corner and an island seems to be the perfect destination for one to get out and explore. However, there are some you should avoid at all costs. Here are the 21... | 1real |
Desgranamos los perfiles de los posibles nuevos Ministros | Desgranamos los perfiles de los posibles nuevos Ministros RAJOY REJUVENECE EL GOBIERNO PONIENDO DE MINISTRAS A LA YENNI Y A LA DÉBORA
Aunque el Presidente del Gobierno, Mariano Rajoy, no hará públicos los nombres que conformarán el Consejo de Ministros de esta legislatura, las quinielas apuntan a que habrá una profunda remodelación.
A continuación, ofrecemos un breve resumen de los Ministros que más suenan para formar parte del Ejecutivo. Presidencia – Mariano Rajoy
Después de casi un año sabático recorriendo Europa como mochilero a fin de encontrarse consigo mismo, Rajoy retoma su labor como Presidente del Gobierno. Deberá afrontar temas decisivos para el país, como el reajuste de las pensiones, los nuevos recortes impuestos por Europa, y la renovación de memes de Internet.
Vicepresidencia – La Yenni
Con el objetivo de rejuvenecer el gobierno, la Yenni (22 años) aparcará su trabajo de gogó en la discoteca Sensaciones para asumir todas aquellas tareas a las que el Presidente no se vea capacitado, por ejemplo: todas.
Ministerio de Justicia – La Débora
Otro perfil joven en un puesto de alta responsabilidad. Debo asume la cartera de Justicia, una tarea que no se le presenta fácil, pues deberá compaginarlo con acabar la ESO, requisito indispensable si quiere que le compren una moto.
Ministerio de Defensa – Mario’John Cobra’ Vaquero
Aficionado al Tae Kwondo y al Jiu Jitsu, Mario ‘John Cobra’ Vaquero tendrá el cometido de aplicar serios recortes a Defensa mediante la implantación de la lucha cuerpo a cuerpo y la sustitución de los tanques por españoles o sudamericanos nacionalizados al alistarse al ejército. Será uno de los miembros más dialogantes del equipo de Rajoy.
Ministerio de Agricultura – John Deere 3036E Compacto
La serie 3E le ofrece más potencia y características que cualquier otro tractor estándar de su categoría, y resulta sumamente sencillo de manejar. Destacan su potente motor diésel de 3 cilindros, la transmisión hidrostática y tracción delantera mecánica, el enganche de tres puntos trasero Categoría 1 y la TDF independiente que aseguran flexibilidad para todo tipo de tareas. Consume menos carburante que su predecesor en el cargo.
Cuanto más trabaje, más apreciará el sistema Twin Touch™ controlando el avance del tractor por pedales, el respaldo alto ergonómico y la columna de dirección ajustable que hacen al 3E tan cómodo y productivo.
Ministerio de Interior – Ángel Marcelo
Es un ser incorpóreo de luz con sobrada experiencia al frente de Interior, pues ha sido la mano derecha de su predecesor en el cargo, Jorge Fernández Díaz, desde que se conocieron en Las Vegas. Los que le conocen destacan su capacidad de diálogo. Dirigirá el ministerio a través de Fernández Díaz, pues es la única persona que puede verle y hablar con él.
Ministerio de Sanidad – Virus del ébola
Es uno de los nombres que más ha sonado en el Ministerio de Sanidad por lo que a pocos sorprendería que le fuera otorgada una cartera microscópica.
Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores – Pedro Duque
El Presidente Rajoy pretende dar un golpe de autoridad con este nombramiento, pues nadie ha estado más al Exterior que el astronauta.
Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deportes – Rubén Doblas Gundersen
El proceso de rejuvenecimiento del Gobierno está encabezado por Doblas Gundersen. Entre sus propuestas más interesantes está la posible supresión del sistema educativo por videotutoriales de Youtube. Gran defensor de la idea de que aprender no debe ser aburrido, sino más bien un gameplay.
Ministerio de Medio Ambiente- Xavier Garcia Albiol
El ex alcalde de Badalona se hizo popular con su eslogan “Limpiemos Badalona”, un alegato a favor de la ecología y el cuidado de la naturaleza. Sus propuestas, de sobras conocidas, incluyen la reducción de emisiones de co2, de musulmanes y de contaminación acústica.
Ministerio de Industria, Energía y Turismo – Señor X.
La gran incógnita del futuro Consejo de Ministros. De él solo se sabe que tiene acento andaluz, que es un apasionado de los bonsais y que tiene una excelente relación con las grandes empresas energéticas. Según fuentes del gobierno, el hecho de no conocer su aspecto no es impedimento, pues lleva tiempo gobernando desde la sombra.
Ministerio de Cataluña – Señor Pantumáquez
El nuevo gobierno tiene muy claro que tiene un frente abierto en Cataluña. Por ello, ha creado el Ministerio de Lo de Cataluña, y ha colocado al frente a una persona consciente de la realidad catalana, y que confían en que será bien recibida entre los independentistas.
Ministerio de lo que quiera – Rita Barberà
La otrora Alcaldesa de Valencia, Rita Barberá, ve correspondida su labor en el partido y recibirá la cartera que ella misma escoja a fin de “poder sacar el mayor partido posible de sus aptitudes”. De este modo, Barberá podrá ejercer un cargo a medida, en un Ministerio donde podrá hacer lo que le venga en gana, sin tener que dar explicaciones. La sustituirán en el Senado seis personas de complexión normal.
Ministerio de Soyjefamandomucho – Angela Merkel
Por último, el gran poder de decisión de Merkel se ve oficializado con este Ministerio, que podrá imponer sus decisiones por encima de cualquier ley o decreto aprobados por el resto de carteras.
Este ministerio queda desierto hasta que el presidente electo averigüe lo que es “Fomento” Etiquetas | 1real |
MUSLIMS OUTRAGED: MUNICH ARTIST DISPLAYS “Funny” Racy Bare-Legged “Burka Barbies” [Video] | A German artist is in a whole heap of trouble. Is this artist so oblivious to how Muslims feel about this? She says it s funny . Yikes! Run for the hills lady!Despite describing her latest work as being apolitical, Munich-based artist Beate Passow was busy courting controversy in Berlin, Tuesday, displaying her bare-legged Burka-Barbies .The dolls are robed in vibrant, rainbow coloured burkas, but Passow has chosen to remove the modesty of the full body veil, and show her figurines in mini-skirts with uncovered legs.Yeah, real funny OUR PREVIOUS REPORT ON BURKA S IN GERMANY: ANGELA MERKEL Running For Re-Election Makes Stunning Announcement To BAN BURKAS, After Flooding Nation With 2 Million (Mostly Muslim) MigrantsANGELA Merkel today completed an astonishing U-turn as she formally endorsed a full burka ban following a backlash over her open-door migration policies.The German chancellor made the comments at a Christian Democratic Union (CDU) conference having recently declared she will seek re-election.She told the annual congress that it was legitimate to expect integration from newcomers, underlining her party s bid to ban the full face veil. The full veil must be banned wherever it is legally possible, she said to a large round of applause.Merkel also stressed her determination to ensure that there s no repeat of last year s huge migrant influx as she seeks a new two-year term in charge of her conservative party. Sun UKAn official within the ruling CDU/CSU coalition said regional states have to obey the law and warned those who didn t would lose funding.This comes in spite of German Chancellor Angela Merkel s long-standing open-door migrant policy, which began last year and has seen more than one million migrants enter the country since.The country is now home to more than 200,000 failed asylum seekers, who continue to live in Germany despite officials confirming they would be at no risk if they were forced to go back to their home countries. Express UK | 1real |
Trump manager says 'undercover voters' will deliver win in US election | The Donald Trump campaign is counting on “undercover voters” to win in November.
Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway outlined her vision of how the Republican nominee could win in November despite consistently trailing in polls, during an interview with Channel 4 in the United Kingdom for the documentary President Trump: Can He Really Win?
Conway insisted that Trump’s support was not reflected in polls because of the perceived social stigma of supporting the Republican nominee. “Donald Trump performs consistently better in online polling where a human being is not talking to another human being about what he or she may do in the elections … it’s become socially desirable, especially if you’re a college educated person in the US, to say that you’re against Donald Trump,” said Conway.
“People who are supporting Donald Trump, who have not voted Republican in the past, who have not voted in quite a while, are so tired of arguing with family and friends and colleagues about their support of Donald Trump that they just decided not to discuss it.”
Conway insisted: “We give people a comfortable way to express that maybe they don’t want to vote this year and why that is.” She described her method as “proprietary”. She said that as a result, she could reach these undercover voters “in many different ways”. She said: “We go to them where they live, literally.”
Conway’s statement echoes what in American politics is known as the Bradley effect, a phenomenon that describes the willingness of some white voters to tell pollsters that they are voting for an African American candidate while preferring the white candidate in the voting booth.
It is named for former Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, who was favored in polls in California’s 1982 gubernatorial election over his white Republican opponent, George Deukmejian, before suffering a narrow shock loss on election day. However, while its existence is disputed, anecdotal evidence for the phenomenon is mostly concentrated in the 1980s and 1990s. Conway’s argument is that something fundamentally similar is happening in the US in 2016.
Speaking to Channel 4 earlier this month, Conway buoyed her claims by citing the UK’s experience of the EU referendum vote.
Polling suggested the UK would remain in the European Union, but it became clear on election night that the vote was going the other way.
Conway said: “Voices are silenced in polls that really should be included because people are too reliant on lists, and they’re excluding people who maybe feel so passionately about that issue, Brexit, or so passionately about this candidate, Donald Trump, that they’re going to vote for the first time ever in many, many, many cycles.”
In the past week, Trump has begun to ditch his previous unscripted style, using teleprompters on stage at every rally. That is despite repeatedly bashing the technology in the past, saying in August 2015: “I say we should outlaw teleprompters … for anybody running for president.”
The shift toward making Trump a more predictable candidate came as Conway took control of the campaign. The top aide outlined the message she thought Trump should continue to emphasize: “The best Donald Trump is the Donald Trump who is talking about national and homeland security, economic growth and prosperity, ethics and why so many Americans dislike and distrust Washington and all its adjuncts, its consultants, its donors, its lobbyists, its politicians, its way of doing business.”
However, despite his adoption of teleprompters, Trump still veered badly off script in a rally in Akron, Ohio, on Monday night. The Republican nominee said: “You can go to war zones in countries that we are fighting and it is safer than living in some of our inner cities that are run by the Democrats.”
He continued to claim that if he were elected, “we’ll get rid of the crime. You’ll be able to walk down the street without getting shot. Now, you walk down the street, you get shot.”
Just as there may be a cohort of undercover Trump voters waiting to emerge in November, it seems that despite Conway’s best efforts, there is an undercover candidate who won’t let a teleprompter keep his penchant for controversial statements hidden. | 0fake |
'I can't take this any more:' Rohingya Muslims flee Myanmar in new surge | COX S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar fled to Bangladesh on Monday in a new surge of refugees driven by fears of starvation and violence the United Nations has denounced as ethnic cleansing. About 519,000 Rohingya have crossed the border since Aug. 25, when attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts in Rakhine state sparked a ferocious military response. The European Union (EU) is proposing shunning contact with Myanmar s top generals as a first step toward new targeted sanctions to punish the military for the violence, according to a draft document seen by Reuters. Reuters reporters on the Bangladeshi side of the border, in Palong Khali district, saw several thousand people crossing from northern Rakhine on Monday, filing along embankments between flooded fields and scrubby forest. Half of my village was burnt down. I saw them do it, said Sayed Azin, 46, who said he had walked for eight days carrying his 80-year-old mother in a basket strung on a bamboo pole between him and his son. Soldiers and Buddhist mobs had torched his village, he said. I left everything, he said, sobbing. I can t find my relatives ... I can t take this any more. Some new arrivals spoke of bloody attacks by Buddhist mobs on people trekking toward the border. Refugees and rights groups say the army and Buddhist vigilantes have engaged in a campaign of killing and arson aimed at driving the Rohingya out of Myanmar. Myanmar rejects accusations of ethnic cleansing and has labeled the militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army who launched the initial attacks as terrorists who have killed civilians and burnt villages. Among those fleeing were up to 35 people on a boat that capsized off the Bangladesh coast on Sunday. At least 12 of them drowned while 13 were rescued, Bangladeshi police said. We faced so many difficulties, for food and survival, Sayed Hossein, 30, told Reuters, adding that his wife, three children, mother and father in law had drowned. We came here to save our lives. Myanmar leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has faced scathing international criticism for not doing more to stop the violence, although she has no power over the security forces under a military-drafted constitution. The United States and EU have been considering targeted sanctions against Myanmar military leaders, diplomats and officials have told Reuters, though they are wary of action that could destabilize the country s transition to democracy. EU foreign ministers will discuss the situation in Myanmar on Oct. 16, and their draft joint statement said the bloc will suspend invitations to the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar/Burma armed forces and other senior military officers . Such a move would be largely symbolic, but could be followed by further action. The Myanmar government has said its clearance operations against the militants ended in early September and people had no reason to flee. But in recent days the government has reported large numbers of Muslims preparing to leave, with more than 17,000 people in one area alone. The government cited worries about food and security as their reasons. Some villagers in Rakhine said food was running out because rice in the fields was not ready for harvest and the state government had closed village markets and restricted the transport of food, apparently to cut supplies to the militants. The situation s getting worse. We have no food and no guarantee of security, said a Rohingya resident of Hsin Hnin Pyar village on the south of the state s Buthidaung district. He said a lot of people were preparing to flee. While the Myanmar military has engaged in a campaign of violence, there is mounting evidence that Rohingya women, men and children are now also fleeing the very real threat of starvation, rights group Amnesty International said. Senior state government official Kyaw Swar Tun declined to go into details when asked about the food, except to ask: Have you heard of anyone dying of hunger in Buthidaung? The reports of food shortages will add to the urgency of calls by aid agencies and the international community for unfettered humanitarian access to the conflict zone. The insurgents declared a one-month ceasefire from Sept. 10 to enable the delivery of aid but the government rebuffed them, saying it did not negotiate with terrorists. The ceasefire is due to end at midnight on Monday, but the insurgents said in a statement they were ready to respond to any peace move by the government. The ability of the group to mount any sort of challenge to the army is unclear, but it does not appear to have been able to put up resistance to the latest military offensive. Bangladesh was already home to 400,000 Rohingya who had fled earlier bouts of violence. Mostly Buddhist Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as citizens, even though many have lived there for generations. But even as refugees arrive, Bangladesh insists they will all have to go home. Myanmar has responded by saying it will take back those who can be verified as genuine refugees. Many Rohingya fear they will not be able to prove their right to return. The United States and Britain have warned Myanmar the crisis is putting at risk the progress it has made since the military began to loosen its grip on power in 2011. | 0fake |
EGYPTIAN COURT SENTENCES MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD LEADER AND 13 OTHERS TO DEATH AND LEADER’S “Peaceful” U.S.-Egyptian Brother To Life In Prison | But wait wasn t the Muslim Brotherhood s Arab Spring (Sharia Law for all Egyptians) supposed to be a good thing? An Egyptian court sentenced Mohamed Badie, leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, and 13 other senior members of the group to death for inciting chaos and violence, and gave a life term to a U.S.-Egyptian citizen for ties to the Brotherhood.The men were among thousands of people detained after freely elected Islamist president Mohamed Mursi was toppled in 2013 by the military under Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is now president.Sisi describes the Brotherhood as a major security threat. The group says it is committed to peaceful activism and had nothing to do with Islamist militant violence in Egypt since Mursi s fall following mass protests against his rule.Egypt s mass trials of Brotherhood members and people accused of links to the group, as well as its tough crackdown on Islamist and liberal opposition alike, have drawn international criticism of its judicial system and human rights record.The sentences, pronounced at a televised court session on Saturday, can be appealed before Egypt s highest civilian court in a process that could take years to reach a final verdict.U.S.-Egyptian citizen Mohamed Soltan was sentenced to life in jail for supporting the veteran Islamist movement and transmitting false news. He is the son of Brotherhood preacher Salah Soltan, who was among those sentenced to death.Mohamed Abdel-Mawgod, one of the defense lawyers, condemned the verdicts. The court did not differentiate between the defendants and put them all in the same basket, he told reporters at the courthouse. None of the defendants were present during the hearing.Badie is the Brotherhood s General Guide and has already been sentenced to several death and life sentences. His deputy Khairat El-Shater was given a life sentence on Saturday. OPERATIONS ROOM TRIALRights groups say Egypt, where a popular uprising toppled veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and started years of political turmoil, is now cracking down on all dissent. Sisi says stability is needed to revive the shattered economy.Rights advocates have criticized a U.S. decision to end a freeze on military aid to Cairo, saying Washington is putting human rights on the backburner. The United States has said the decision to end the freeze was in the interest of national security.Mohamed Soltan, 27, arrested in August 2013, had been on hunger strike while in prison. He deserves the punishment because of the money and instructions from the Brotherhood which were found with him, and for spreading chaos and horror in society, presiding Judge Mohamed Nagi Shehata told reporters.Sara Mohamed, a relative of the Soltan family, said they would appeal the verdict. It was a farce trial of the first class None of the defendants attended the session, she told Reuters by phone.A website calling for Mohamed Soltan s release says he was not a member of the Brotherhood, describing him as a U.S.-educated peace activist who was involved in youth events and charities. The website shows pictures of him lying emaciated on a stretcher while in detention.Saturday s case was known in local media as The Rabaa Operations Room trial. This is in reference to a sit-in at Rabaa square in 2013 in which hundreds of people protesting at the overthrow of Mursi were killed when security forces tried to clear the area by force.Cairo has defended its actions, saying it had given protesters the opportunity to leave peacefully and that armed elements within the Brotherhood initiated the violence.Saturday s session sentenced 51 people. Those who were not sentenced to death were given a life sentence. The long list of charges included leading and funding an outlawed group, overturning the constitution and planning to spread chaos, a court source said.Via: Reuters | 1real |
Senate panel chair says will hold hearings on health insurance market | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, chairman of the health committee, said on Tuesday he will hold hearings in the next few weeks on how to stabilize the individual health insurance market. Alexander’s comments come as a Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare collapsed on Tuesday over disagreements between conservatives and moderates. The individual insurance market has been hurt by insurers dropping out of the Obamacare exchanges. | 0fake |
UK police say cordon in Bolton lifted, package not suspicious | LONDON (Reuters) - British police said on Monday that a cordon in Victoria Square in the northern English town of Bolton had been lifted after a package at the site was found to be not suspicious. Greater Manchester Police had earlier evacuated the square as a precautionary measure while they investigated reports of a suspicious package. | 0fake |
BREAKING: Anti-Trump Radicals Caught Discussing Plans To SHUT DOWN METRO TRAINS In DC During Inauguration [VIDEO] | Listen here to @legbacarrefour explaining his plan to #ChaintheTrains and stop the Metro in DC. #DisruptJ20Exposed pic.twitter.com/XoT1tsLzPl James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) January 17, 2017 | 1real |
Donald Trump Calls A Black Supporter A Paid Thug and Kicks Him Out of His Rally | By Sarah Jones on Fri, Oct 28th, 2016 at 8:34 pm “We have a protester! By the way, were you paid $15,000 to be a thug?” Republican nominee Donald Trump yelled at a black man as he kicked him out. The man is was a supporter of Trump's. Share on Twitter Print This Post
“We have a protester! By the way, were you paid $15,000 to be a thug?” Republican nominee Donald Trump yelled at a black man from his lectern during a rally Wednesday evening in Kinston, North Carolina.
Trump went on suggesting that the man had been paid by Hillary Clinton to protest Trump. But it turns out, as usual, Trump’s paranoia got the best of him and he kicked out his own supporter, a man named C.J. Cary who happened to be wearing a GOP badge and holding a letter supporting Trump but urging him to stop being so offensive.
Watch here via Raleigh’s News & Observer:
The News and Observer reported, “Cary says he wanted to deliver a note to Trump urging him to be less offensive and more inclusive to four demographic groups: black people, women, people with disabilities and college students. Cary, an African-American, says he’s an ex-Marine who also worked in Afghanistan as a civilian for the U.S. Army.”
The irony is no doubt lost on the Trump crowd that this man came to urge Trump to be more inclusive of African Americans and he got called a paid thug and kicked out. So the answer to his plea seems to be, “Never gonna happen.”
Cary was wearing a GOP badge and his letter slammed Hillary Clinton and President Obama.
Leave it to Donald to shrink his own tent even more. It wasn’t enough that he tossed out a baby, now he’s going after his few minority supporters.
Some things never change. | 1real |
The Mothers |
October 28, 2016 The Mothers by stclair by | 1real |
Deutsche Bank Considering Alternatives To Paying Cash Bonus | By Zero Hedge
It has been at least a few weeks since Deutsche Bank appeared in the flashing red breaking news sections of newswires, with news that was – mostly – negative. And while the stock has since rebounded materially, wiping out all losses since the DOJ’s $14 billion RMBS settlement leak, it appears that not everything is back to normal for the largest German lender. Because in what may be the worst news yet for DB’s employees, moments ago Bloomberg reported that the German Bank is exploring “ alternatives to paying bonuses in cash ” as Chief Executive Officer John Cryan seeks to boost capital buffers.
According to Bloomberg, DB executives have discussed options including giving some bankers shares in the non-core unit instead of cash bonuses. Another idea under review is replacing the cash component with more Deutsche Bank stock.
The supervisory board may discuss the topic of variable pay at a meeting on Wednesday though no final decisions are expected, the people said, the day before it reports third-quarter earnings. The measures, if pursued in the coming months, would mostly impact the investment bank, the people said . The Frankfurt-based lender is still considering other alternatives, they said.
As Bloomberg adds, any bonus-related decision will depend on the size and timing of Deutsche Bank’s settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over a probe into the the sale of faulty real-estate securities. Last year, Deutsche Bank awarded staff 2.4 billion euros ($2.6 billion) of bonuses for 2015, 1.45 billion euros of which was for the combined investment banking and trading unit. Of the 2.4 billion euros, 49 percent was deferred stock and cash while the remainder was paid out immediately. It appears that DB wants to take the 49% number and make it bigger.
The idea echoes a similar move by Credit Suisse Group AG at the height of the financial crisis, when the Swiss firm used its most illiquid loans and bonds to pay employees’ year-end bonuses.
The report is comparable to a similar announcement made exactly one year ago , when DB announced it may slash bonuses by as much as one third. Since then, however, DB’s aggressive cost cutting initative has made life for the bank’s employees progressively more miserable. Since taking over in 2015, Cryan has suspended the dividend, reduced bonuses, cut risky assets, frozen new hiring and announced plans to shed some 9,000 jobs. The CEO has already said Deutsche Bank may fail to be profitable this year after posting the first annual loss since 2008 last year. Now, DB bankers may end up getting “paid” in some of the billions in impaired tanker loans, carried quietly on the bank’s book, if not CDS or interest rate swaps. Those DB certainly has a lot of.
Should DB be successful with this significant shift in compensation strategy without leading to an exodus of workers, it will likely be attempted at other banks as the core problems facing Deutsche Bank, namely declining profitability, have now become systemic across the entire banking sector. Which is bad news for investment bankers everywhere.
Source: Zero Hedge
| 1real |
Calm Down! Democrats Are Going To Stomp Trump Into The Ground | After Tuesday s semi-coronation of Donald Trump as the Republican nominee, a lot of people, both liberal and conservative, took to social media to hyperventilate over the impending disaster of Trump winning the 2016 election.Donald Trump is never going to be President of the United States. Ever. Hillary Clinton is going to be the Democratic nominee and she s going to mop the floor with him.Here are a few facts to consider:There s more but you get the idea. Trump is toxic in every way imaginable. His message of hate combined with pretending to care about the middle class will not scale up to the national level.Despite what you may hear, Hillary is actually a strong candidate. As a former First Lady, former Senator and former Secretary of State that s spent her entire adult life fighting for one liberal cause or another (women s rights, universal healthcare, LGBT rights, etc.), Hillary Clinton is insanely prepared and qualified to be president. She s also smart. Really smart. Obama smart. Run circles around Donald Trump smart.Whether you like her or not, you cannot deny that Hillary Clinton has strong grasp on the issues. She can rattle off facts and figures faster than most people can google them. She has detailed plans that she is more than happy to explain at great length if you want. Compare that to Trump s 4th-5th grade grammar and flimsy grasp of any issue and you re looking at a series of debates that will be humiliating for The Don. Something else to to consider is that while the GOP was hampered in its ability to attack Trump, the left will be under no such constraints. There are hours and hours of footage of Donald Trump saying horrible things about pretty much every group of Americans that are not white men. The ads write themselves and Trump s hate only sells with his chunk of the GOP s already racist base. Hillary will have an embarrassment of riches to choose from. Added bonus, she won t even have to play dirty to do it. While Hillary is no stranger to a down and dirty political fight (something else that will serve her well as president), she can take the moral high ground and let Trump fling mud at himself.Another useful Clinton fact is that she is the single most scrutinized and vetted politician on the planet. Yeah, yeah, yeah, she s untrustworthy and a crook but when you ask the people saying that what crime she s committed, you get vague comments about her emails or something about taking bribes as Secretary of State. They can t produce any evidence but, darn it! they KNOW she s guilty of .something!But after 20+ years of Republicans spending an unlimited amount of resources, manpower and time into digging up dirt on her, Hillary has yet to have a scandal stick. The liberal media has been trying to claim her scalp for just as long and have failed miserably. These are the people that uncovered some of the deepest, darkest secrets of the United States government but the best they could come up with on Clinton was rumors and innuendo.I don t know about you, but that suggests that maybe, just maybe, there s no real scandal to dig up. And let s be honest, the right has tried so hard, for so long, to pin something, ANYTHING, on her that the public has been inured to it by now. They overplayed their Benghazi hand so badly that it stopped being a campaign issue right when they needed it the most. The same thing will happen for all of their new scandals. They ll rush them out, the liberal media will breathlessly report them as total fact and then the scandal will crumble. Rinse, repeat.It didn t work on Obama and the public isn t biting anymore.And finally, this is what the electoral map looks like right now according to statistics genius Nate Silver:And it s only going to get bluer the more both Clinton and Trump speak.This doesn t mean we should get complacent. Quite the opposite, in fact! We have an unparalleled opportunity to take back the House, the Senate and several state governments. Trump will both energize the blue vote and seriously suppress the red vote and we should be swarming the polls to take back the country from the Tea Party idiots that made Trump the nominee in the first place.Stay calm and vote blue!Featured image via twitter. | 1real |
One year after Obama embraced Cuba, what has changed? | The US and Cuba normalized relations one year ago Thursday. Small changes have begun to percolate, but there's debate over whether that's progress.
How SNL's 'the bubble' sketch about polarization is all too true
Los Angeles Dodgers player Yasiel Puig, from Cuba, holds a young baseball player as he poses for photos before giving a baseball clinic to children in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday.
When Yasiel Puig, the Los Angeles Dodgers rightfielder and Cuban defector, was able to return home for a baseball goodwill tour this week without fear of detention by Cuban authorities, it was a sure sign of progress a year into the normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba.
So is the expanded public Internet access that Cubans now enjoy, something the Cuban government agreed to as part of the deal struck between President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro a year ago Thursday.
And so too is the agreement the two governments reached this week to resume direct commercial airline flights between the two neighboring countries for the first time in decades.
But for all that has changed in a year between the two longtime antagonists, much remains the same, both supporters and detractors of Mr. Obama’s opening to Cuba say.
The five-decade-old US economic embargo on Cuba remains, with little prospect of Congress lifting it anytime soon, while critics of normalization say the policy has yielded no improvement in the Communist government’s respect for human and political rights.
“Certainly it was a big step forward and there was reason for the great elation last year when President Obama and Raúl Castro announced their intention to normalize relations, and we do have positive results to see from that,” says Wayne Smith, a former US diplomat in Cuba who is now a senior fellow of the Center for International Policy’s Cuba Project in Washington. “However it’s been something of a disappointment as well,” he adds, “mainly over the inability to lift the embargo.”
Not just the embargo, but the status of the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba and the resolution of property claims between the two sides dating from the Cuban revolution also loom as stumbling blocks, Mr. Smith says, “These big, complex issues have us somewhat stymied.”
For their part, opponents of renewed relations say the Cuban government’s continued disregard for human rights and political freedoms is the strongest argument against closer ties – and proof that no amount of concessions will prompt the Castro regime to change.
“What we’ve seen instead of improvements is a huge spike in repression and in violence against the political opposition, repeated arrests of the same dissidents, and churches being shut down,” says Ana Quintana, a Latin America policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. “Because the Obama administration awarded these renewed relations without demanding anything in return,” she adds, “the US has lost its position of leverage.”
Obama continues to call for an end to the embargo, which he considers a Cold War relic, but no one expects the Republican-controlled Congress to oblige him – particularly not in an election year.
As a result, analysts like Smith say they expect “official” change to continue slowly – even as a transformation in the relationship between the two countries accelerates as “people-to-people” contacts expand.
“A Congress rushing to lift the embargo isn’t going to happen,” Smith says, “but already we’ve seen a notable impact on the personal relations between Cubans and Americans, and that’s going to continue.”
More Americans are traveling to Cuba – although the embargo still prevents them from visiting the island (and spending money) simply as tourists. Academic exchanges and “educational tours” are quickly expanding. At the same time, the improved public Wi-Fi availability in Cuba and eased travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans mean that contact between the island and Cuban communities in the US now is much like that for other immigrant communities from around the hemisphere.
Some members of Congress marked the first anniversary of Obama’s opening to Cuba by hailing the impact of the “small steps” that Cubans and American have taken toward each other.
“As American business leaders, scientists, academics, and artists are increasingly engaging in purposeful travel to Cuba, they are forging important new relationships with the Cuban people and supporting the country’s rising entrepreneurial class,” said Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, in a statement Thursday.
He called on Congress to “take steps to make the Obama administration’s advances permanent and lift all restrictions on American citizens traveling to Cuba.”
There is also evidence that the normalization of bilateral relations has prompted a surge in Cubans migrating to the US. A widespread fear in Cuba that “normal” relations will prompt the US to soon drop the special immigration status for Cubans reaching the US has led nearly 50,000 island residents to leave for the US this year. Cubans who reach US soil are allowed to stay and are granted residency, while those who are caught at sea are turned back. The number of Cubans arriving this year is more than double last year’s total – and about five times higher than in 2011.
Senator Cardin said the normalization of relations has resulted in “small but important changes on the island.” But he noted that the government continues to jail political activists and restrict “the emergence of a free press,” and he called on the Cuban government to make “meaningful progress” in “the second year of renewed engagement.”
Critics say there's no reason to expect Cuba to change.
“A year of stepped-up attacks on the Cuban people’s freedoms should not leave anyone thinking that somehow there will be a positive transition in the second year” of renewed relations, says Ms. Quintana of Heritage.
As for the power of people-to-people engagement, Quintana says she doubts it can have much impact in the case of Cuba, where she says a fearful government does its best to limit contact between average Cubans and visiting Americans.
“Spending time with Americans is considered subversive activity, so anyone who does it in an unofficial setting is suspect,” she says.
But there is one American she would like to see visit the island: Barack Obama.
“President Obama says he hopes to visit Cuba in 2016, and I’m all for it – if he insists on meeting and marching with the dissidents,” she says. “That’s the kind of personal engagement that could be a transformative moment in this relationship.” | 0fake |
House Republicans say IRS should blame itself for rough tax season | It was a tough tax season for the Internal Revenue Service, but GOP lawmakers in Congress says the agency only has itself to blame.
Last month, IRS commissioner John Koskinen said that years of budget cuts and staffing losses had led to “abysmal” customer service from his agency. But Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee say the agency’s financial problems stem from bad budgeting decisions, employee bonuses, and overspending on administrative costs.
“The IRS’s spending decisions have real consequences for taxpayers,” the GOP representatives said in a report on Wednesday. “Wasteful spending and failure to prioritize taxpayer assistance led to millions of calls going unanswered for filing season 2015.”
[In the IRS help line, dejection is standard]
Committee Republicans found that the IRS spent $60 million on employee bonuses in 2014, an amount they said could have been used to field over 7 million customer calls. The report also points to a $134 million cut in user fees allocated to customer support as another area where the IRS could have better utilized its already tight budget.
There is no denying that the agency budget has shrunk lately, with Congress cutting the IRS budget by more than $1 billion over the past five years. But the report found that the agency has reduced spending on customer service.
The IRS has the authority to decide how it spends some revenue from user fees that the agency collects. The amount of discretionary funds available to the IRS increased from $310 million in 2010 to $481 million in fiscal year 2015, but total funding for taxpayer assistance fell by 6 percent, according to the report.
In 2011, the agency spent $129 million on taxpayer services and $79 million on operations support. In 2015, taxpayer services funding was scheduled to drop to $49 million while support funds were set for $411 million. Committee Republicans argued that that shift in priorities could have been avoided.
Koskinen predicted the tax year would be difficult for taxpayers and IRS employees alike as early as January, when he wrote a bleak warning letter to agency employees.
“This year we are looking at a situation where realistically we have no choice but to do less with less,” he wrote.
The result was a tax season riddled with confusion and long lines like those revealed in a Washington Post article this month.
Koskinen is scheduled to testify before the Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday about the 2015 tax filing season and IRS operations. | 0fake |
Role of tech who set up Clinton's server unknown to bosses at State | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Soon after Hillary Clinton’s arrival at the State Department in 2009, officials in the information technology office were baffled when told that a young technician would join them as a political appointee, newly disclosed emails show. The technician, Bryan Pagliano, was running the off-grid email server that Clinton had him set up in her New York home for her work as secretary of state. But even as years passed, Pagliano’s supervisors never learned of his most sensitive task, according to the department and one of his former colleagues. Pagliano’s immediate supervisors did not know the private server even existed until it was revealed in news reports last year, the colleague said, requesting anonymity because of a department ban on unauthorized interviews. Clinton’s decision to side-step the official state.gov email system has since shrouded her campaign for the U.S. presidency this year in controversy and legal uncertainty. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is conducting one of several inquiries into the arrangement, which saw classified information passing through her unsecured clintonemail.com account. The newly disclosed emails show Patrick Kennedy, the department’s under secretary for management, oversaw the hiring of Pagliano. But Clinton and the department continued to decline this week to say who, if anyone, in the government was aware of the email arrangement. “There was no permission to be asked,” Clinton said earlier this month. State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to say whether this was correct, citing the ongoing inquiries. Before joining the department, Pagliano had worked on Clinton’s unsuccessful presidential campaign the previous year, and Clinton paid him separately to maintain the server, her campaign staff have said. Pagliano is cooperating with the FBI in exchange for a promise of a form of prosecutorial immunity, but it remains unclear whether even he knew Clinton was using the server for her work as the nation’s most senior diplomat. Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon declined to answer questions, but said in an email he was glad that Pagliano was speaking with the FBI because “there was nothing inappropriate about the IT services he provided.” The department gave copies of the emails to the Senate’s Republican-led Judiciary Committee, which is investigating the email arrangement, and they are cited in a five-page letter that the committee chairman, Senator Chuck Grassley, sent last week to Kennedy, who remains the department’s most senior manager. Kennedy shared Pagliano’s résumé in 2009 with Susan Swart, then the head of the department’s Bureau of Information Resource Management and chief adviser to the secretary on the department’s information technology systems, and her deputy, Charlie Wisecarver. “How did the conversation go and have you reached an arrangement?” he asked them, referring to Pagliano, in another email, according to the letter the committee shared with Reuters. Wisecarver and Swart, who had worked in the department for decades, were soon swapping emails expressing confusion and surprise that a political appointee, a so-called Schedule C employee who is more commonly hired to work in the secretary of state’s offices, should be joining the IT department’s ranks. Schedule C employees, who help presidential appointees and agency heads make policy, can only report to people appointed by the U.S. president or other senior executive officials. But no one like that worked in the IT office, so Kennedy ended up being Pagliano’s designated supervisor. The department told Reuters that Pagliano and Kennedy had little contact, and that Kennedy was unaware of the server or his subordinate’s role in running it. Nor did Wisecarver, Pagliano’s day-to-day boss, or Swart know, according to the former colleague, who said the IT office should have been informed. People who worked with Pagliano did not respond to messages. Pagliano’s lawyer declined to comment. Grassley’s letter also indicates that at least some department officials had learned of the server’s existence by the end of the second year of Clinton’s tenure. Pagliano received an IT security briefing in late 2010 or early 2011 “in connection with his work on the Secretary’s non-government server,” according to Grassley’s letter. Grassley’s staff, who have been interviewing officials as part of their inquiry, declined to provide more details. The State Department declined to confirm whether the meeting happened. | 0fake |
Saudi Arabia intercepts Yemeni missile, second in a month | DUBAI (Reuters) - A ballistic missile fired by Yemen s armed Houthi group at Saudi Arabia was shot down on Thursday near the south-western city of Khamis Mushait, the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya channel reported. It was the second ballistic missile fired from Yemen this month, after an earlier rocket was brought down near King Khaled Airport on the northern outskirts of the capital Riyadh. A Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen has closed air, land and sea access in a move it says is meant to stop a flow of Iranian arms to the Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen. The blockade has cut food imports to seven million people on the brink of famine. Air defense intercepted a ballistic missile, fired by the Houthis toward Khamis Mushait, Arabiya said on its Twitter account, without giving details. The Houthis and allied militias loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who have fired dozens of missiles into Saudi territory during a 2-1/2 year war, said on their official news agency they had launched a mid-range ballistic missile that hit its military target with high precision . SABA, quoting a military source, added the successful test was a new start of locally made missile launches . Saudi Arabia and its allies, who receive logistical and intelligence help from the United States, accuse the Houthis of being a proxy of Iran. The coalition has launched thousands of air strikes against the Houthis who still control much of Yemen s main population centers including the capital Sanaa and the strategic port and city of Hodeidah. The conflict has led to one of the world s worst humanitarian crises and killed at least 10,000 people. | 0fake |
WV Republican AG Spokeswoman BUSTED Appearing In Racist KKK Propaganda (VIDEO) | You know what s adorable? When a white supremacist Christian attempts to Jesus his or her way out of trouble after getting caught being him or herself. In this case, we re talking about West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey s now-former spokeswoman s participation in an extremely popular white supremacist propaganda video. THE Stop White Genocide Video features a bunch of women reciting lines from The Mantra, a sort of ode to whiteness written by popular South Carolina racist Bob Whitaker. The video, which boasts that is has previously been removed from YouTube and that it is banned in 18 countries, features Carrie Bowe reciting many lines that will surely embarrass everyone she holds dear. One line spoken by Bowe lays the groundwork for a string of hate speech even your racist, drunk uncle wouldn t break out at Thanksgiving dinner:I ve been thinking a lot about a phrase I ve been hearing: that anti-racist is a code-word for anti-white.The women, including Bowe, complain about the obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against the white race. In fact, the former spokeswoman even has the final speaking line: Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white. Bowe, who started working for WV s Republican attorney general in January 2015, was fired within hours of the Charleston Gazette-Mail exposing her role in the racist video. The employee s conduct and statements, which occurred years before being employed by the attorney general s office, were not previously disclosed until today, which is contrary to the transparency requirements for being a member of this office, do not reflect the opinion or the perspective of the attorney general or this office, Morrisey spokesman Curtis Johnson wrote in a statement regarding the termination.Bowe inexplicably claims that she didn t know what the finished product would look like despite the horrific phrases she personally spouts off in the white supremacist garbage video. In a post on Facebook, she attempts to garner sympathy from her friends by not even mentioning what she did:Bowe told West Virginia Public Broadcasting that she is embarrassed and heartbroken because she thought the video was meant to further discussion on race relation from a white perspective an assertion easily disproved by the very choice phrases she spoke. Growing up, you could not question why some races could talk or behave a certain way and it was seen as OK, whereby if the behavior was repeated by a white person, it was automatically racist, Bowe explained. As a child and a teenager, the inability to even question this was confusing and, really, the opposite of the honest dialogue we need to have in order to understand different cultures and their history better. She has not explained how the final solution to the black problem she references ties into an open, healthy discussion on race relations.One must wonder: was she fired because she spouted off KKK rhetoric, or was it because Morissey wants to be re-elected? In any case, we re sure there s a spot for her with the Trump campaign.Watch the video below:Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
Secret Service investigating incident at Trump rally: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Secret Service is investigating a confrontation between a Time magazine photographer and a Secret Service agent at a rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Virginia, the White House said on Tuesday. “The Secret Service is working with local law enforcement to try to get to the bottom of what exactly happened,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters during a briefing. “The leadership of the Secret Service has indicated that they’ll take appropriate steps based on the conclusion of that investigation.” The rally on Monday was interrupted by protesters, including some from the Black Lives Matter movement. A photographer who was trying to document their removal from the rally was grabbed by the neck and shoved to the ground by a U.S. Secret Service agent. (Reporting by Clarece Polke; Editing by Mohammad Zargham) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 0fake |
Reeking, Oozing Algae Closes South Florida Beaches - The New York Times | STUART, Fla. — A rancid smell penetrated the front of Marisa and Duncan Baskin’s house, which rests less than 100 feet from an inlet of the St. Lucie River in this tourist hamlet just inside the Atlantic coastline that bills itself as “America’s Happiest Seaside Town. ” But the Baskins — whose daughter, like Ms. Baskin, suffers from asthma — and their neighbors are not so happy these days. In the water of the inlet of their subdivision in Northriver Shores, an layer of bubbling ooze and slime emits a stench so overwhelming that none of the neighbors go outside. In fact, the Baskins were preparing Friday to stay with friends across town for the weekend just to get away from the green and blue algae bloom that has overtaken their small neighborhood marina, from which most neighbors have moved their boats. “Our lives revolve around the water we have a boat, surfboards, and there’s nothing really to do here without the water,” Ms. Baskin, 31, a lifelong resident of Stuart who works as a social worker at a local hospital, said Friday. “And I think our governor and local politicians are to blame. This isn’t the first time this has happened, but it’s definitely the worst. ” At play are many of the forces that define modern Florida: competing environmental, residential and agricultural interests, a failure by state officials to invest in managing the demands of growth, finger pointing between state and federal officials. The result has been an environmental nightmare playing out here, about 35 miles from the source of the problem in Lake Okeechobee. There, an aging dike system forces the Army Corps of Engineers to release controlled discharges through channel locks east and west from the lake to protect nearby towns from flooding. However, those discharges, which carry pollutants from agricultural lands that flow into the lake from the north, pour into rivers and lagoons downstream, which eventually dump into the ocean. When too much polluted discharge from Okeechobee hits areas downstream like the St. Lucie River estuary in Stuart, for example, the blend of fresh and salt water creates giant phosphorescent plumes of algae, making the water unsafe for human and aquatic life alike. This week, Gov. Rick Scott declared states of emergency in Martin, St. Lucie, Palm Beach and Lee Counties, and Senators Bill Nelson, a Democrat, and Marco Rubio, a Republican, both visited the scene, expressing concern. The Corps of Engineers is dealing with a dike nearly 80 years old with structural problems. It was originally designed during a time when environmental preservation was not an issue. Engineers also have to balance the concerns of environmentalists with the need to safeguard area residents — more than eight million people are affected by the water system, according to a corps spokesman, John Campbell. “We’re constantly having to balance the potential of an environmental impact from releasing water against the very real public safety hazard of containing the water and the hazard that poses by putting pressure on the dike itself,” Mr. Campbell said by telephone Thursday from Jacksonville, Fla. “The system is so constrained that everything that was fruit has been done so far. We are left with few options or constraints to work with. ” He said the water levels the Army Corps gauges to determine how to react to discharges are between 12. 5 feet and 15. 5 feet. The lake is currently at 14. 9 feet, roughly a foot higher than it was during the last crisis at the same time of year in 2013, Mr. Campbell said. With hurricane season yet to come, the Army Corps still has to carefully determine how to release and plug the dikes. It takes roughly one month to release six inches of water from the lake, Mr. Campbell said, so if significant rains fell, the dike could have “performance issues” and the Army Corps would have to take precautions to prevent a disaster that would bring “widespread damage and problems, especially if the water goes south, which is where the water wants to go anyway. ” But residents along the coast are tired of the excuses. They say there is enough blame to go around at both the state and federal levels, with Big Agriculture playing a significant role. “Everybody’s known about this problem for years — that there’s a big algae bloom, and now it’s worse than 2013,” Richard Day, 51, who has lived in Stuart since 1973 and works as an auto mechanic at a downtown garage, said Friday. “I’ve got friends who captain boats and they’re moving south to Jupiter in Palm Beach County. It’s just sad. ” Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, based in Stuart, said the state’s inability to close a deal to purchase thousands of acres of land south of Lake Okeechobee — to create a natural runoff from the lake into the Florida Everglades, where the diverse ecosystem could naturally filter toxins from the north — has been to blame for the problems being experienced by communities west and east of the lake like Stuart. But the area south of the lake has been controlled by sugar farmers for decades, and environmentalists like Mr. Perry say state legislators in Tallahassee kowtow to agricultural lobbyists who fund their campaigns. “The flow used to go south to the Everglades, and now this is a criminal disaster,” Mr. Perry said. “They, as in the state and federal government, say they can’t send the water south, but they can. This is an absolute atrocity that they are allowed to continue this in the name of agriculture. This is the worst I’ve ever seen it. ” The 2016 sugar harvest was the longest on record because of rain delays, making it also one of the most profitable on record, resulting in 2. 15 million tons of sugar. Under Mr. Scott, the board of the South Florida Water Management District failed in 2015 to carry out a plan to buy roughly 47, 000 acres of land from U. S. Sugar south of Lake Okeechobee that would have acted as a reservoir for the lake’s runoff. “The political leadership has not been putting the demand on the agencies to fix the problem,” Mr. Perry said. “This water was never meant to go east and west — it was meant to go south. ” Here in Stuart, where the algae lapped up on area shorelines, keeping public beaches closed — a first in the area — Ms. Baskin and her daughter stood outside in their front yard, wincing at the smell. She said she and her husband were considering whether to sell the home they purchased just two years ago. No one else was seen around the neighborhood. “Normally there are kids outside playing,” she said. “But not right now — it’s a ghost town. ” | 0fake |
Liberty Report talks to Vanessa Beeley: ‘Everything the US media says about Aleppo is wrong’ | 21st Century Wire says Why are western media lying and producing a fictional narrative regarding the situation unfolding in Aleppo, Syria?Ron Paul Liberty Report co-host Daniel McAdams talks with 21WIRE special contributor Vanessa Beeley about what is really happening in Aleppo right now. Beeley also reveals new information about the western covert creation, a pseudo NGO called the White Helmets in Syria.What s really going on in Aleppo? Are Assad and Putin exterminating the population for sport? Is it a war against US-backed moderates ? That is what the mainstream media would have us believe. Watch: SUPPORT 21WIRE and its work by Subscribing and becoming a Member @ 21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Saudi-led coalition to reopen Yemen's Hodeidah port, Sanaa airport for aid | DUBAI (Reuters) - The Saudi-led military coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen said on Wednesday it would allow humanitarian aid access through Yemen s port of Hodeidah and United Nations flights to the capital Sanaa, more than two weeks after blockading the country. The coalition closed air, land and sea access to the Arabian Peninsula country on Nov. 6 to stop the flow of arms to the Houthis from Iran. The action came after Saudi Arabia intercepted a missile fired toward its capital Riyadh. Iran has denied supplying the Houthis with weapons. Soon after the closure, U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock warned that the blockade could spark the largest famine the world has seen for many decades with millions of victims unless the coalition gave access to humanitarian aid. The Saudi-led coalition said in a statement on Wednesday that from Nov. 23 the Red Sea port of Hodeidah would be reopened to receive food aid and humanitarian relief, and Sanaa airport would be open for UN flights with humanitarian relief. We re monitoring these developments, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters in New York. If that were to happen that would be a very welcome and critically important development. We made clear the tremendous amount of needs on the ground, Haq said. Earlier this month the coalition said it would allow aid deliveries through the government-held port of Aden. However, around 80 percent of Yemen s food imports arrive through Hodeidah. The United Nations has said some seven million people in Yemen are on the brink of famine and nearly 900,000 have been infected with cholera, a waterborne disease that causes acute diarrhea and dehydration. Aid groups said there also needed to be commercial access to Yemen for food and fuel shipments. Humanitarian aid alone cannot meet the needs of Yemenis who are unjustly bearing the brunt of this war, Paolo Cernuschi, Yemen country director at the International Rescue Committee, said in a statement. Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council and a former U.N. aid chief, posted on Twitter, We need all ports to open and access for commercial food and supplies to large civilian population. Humanitarian aid alone cannot avert hunger. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday that it had evacuated from Sanaa five staff members in need of urgent medical assistance. The Saudi-led coalition has been targeting the Houthis since they seized parts of Yemen in 2015, including the capital Sanaa, forcing President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee. The Houthis, drawn mainly from Yemen s Zaidi Shi ite minority and allied with long-serving former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, control much of the country. | 0fake |
Obama pushes values and prods Trump in final, emotional address | (The story refiles, to fix quote in 14th paragraph to read “middle-aged white guy,” not “middle-aged white man”; read “has seen his world,” not “who’s seen his world”; add dropped word “and”) By Jeff Mason CHICAGO (Reuters) - With a final call of his campaign mantra “Yes We Can,” President Barack Obama urged Americans on Tuesday to stand up for U.S. values and reject discrimination as the United States transitions to the presidency of Republican Donald Trump. In an emotional speech in which he thanked his family and declared his time as president the honor of his life, Obama gently prodded the public to embrace his vision of progress while repudiating some of the policies that Trump promoted during his campaign for the White House. “So just as we, as citizens, must remain vigilant against external aggression, we must guard against a weakening of the values that make us who we are,” Obama told a crowd of 18,000 in his hometown of Chicago, where he celebrated his election in 2008 as the first black president of the United States. Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, proposed temporarily banning Muslims from entering the country, building a wall on the border with Mexico, upending a global deal to fight climate change and dismantling Obama’s healthcare reform law. Obama made clear his opposition to those positions during fiery campaign speeches for 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, but has struck a more conciliatory tone with Trump since the election. In his farewell speech, he made clear his positions had not changed and he said his efforts to end the use of torture and close the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were part of a broader move to uphold U.S. values. “That’s why I reject discrimination against Muslim Americans,” he said in a clear reference to Trump that drew applause. He said bold action was needed to fight global warming and said “science and reason” mattered. “If anyone can put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we’ve made to our healthcare system that covers as many people at less cost, I will publicly support it,” he said in another prodding challenge to his successor. Trump has urged the Republican-controlled Congress to repeal the law right away. Obama, who came to office amid high expectations that his election would heal historic racial divides, acknowledged that was an impossible goal. “After my election, there was talk of a post-racial America,” he said. “Such a vision, however well-intended, was never realistic. Race remains a potent and often divisive force in our society.” However, Obama said he remained hopeful about the work that a younger generation would do. “Yes we can,” he said. “Yes we did.” In an indirect reference to the political work the Democratic Party will have to do to recover after Clinton’s loss, Obama urged racial minorities to seek justice not only for themselves but also for “the middle-aged white guy who from the outside may seem like he’s got advantages, but has seen his world upended by economic and cultural and technological change.” Trump won his election in part by appealing to working-class white men. First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, his wife Jill Biden, and many current and former White House staff members and campaign workers attended the speech. Obama wiped his eyes as he addressed his wife and thanked his running mate. They all appeared together on stage after the address. The Chicago visit is Obama’s last scheduled trip as president, and even the final flight on the presidential aircraft was tinged with wistfulness. It was the president’s 445th “mission” on Air Force One, a perk he has said he will miss when he leaves office, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. All told, Obama will have spent more than 2,800 hours or 116 days on the plane during his presidency. Obama plans to remain in Washington for the next two years while his younger daughter, Sasha, finishes high school. Sasha, who has an exam on Wednesday, did not attend the speech but her older sister Malia was there. The president has indicated he wants to give Trump the same space that his predecessor, Republican President George W. Bush, gave Obama after leaving office by not maintaining a high public profile. | 0fake |
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Trump says Senate Republicans likely to pass healthcare bill | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday expressed confidence that the Republican-led Senate would ultimately prevail in passing legislation aimed at repealing and replacing the 2010 healthcare law passed under his predecessor, former Democratic president Barack Obama. “It’s very tough ... I think we’re going to get it over the line,” Trump told reporters at the White House ahead of a separate event on energy, adding that healthcare was “probably the toughest subject” to get passed in Congress. | 0fake |
U.S. will work with Britain, EU for a smooth transition post-Brexit: Blinken | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will work closely and carefully with Britain and the European Union to ensure a smooth transition after Britain voted to leave the European Union, the State Department’s No. 2 official said on Friday. “We will work very closely, carefully with both the UK and with the EU to do what we can to make sure the process ... goes smoothly as possible,” Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a conference in Washington. “It will not affect the special relationship with Britain.” | 0fake |
Woman Raped By Trump At 13 May Have Been Terrorized Into Dropping Suit | The woman who accused Donald Trump of raping her at age 13 has dropped her lawsuit after canceling a press conference slated for the middle of next week, and nobody knows why. However, she canceled the press conference because she had been getting death threats, and was too terrified to show up.On Wednesday, Lisa Bloom, the lawyer who organized the press conference that Ms. Doe canceled, said: Jane Doe has received numerous threats today, as have all the Trump accusers that I have represented.She is living in fear. She has decided that she is too afraid to show her face. She s been here all day ready to do it. But unfortunately she is in terrible fear. So it s entirely possible that Trump, his people, his supporters, and/or other misogynists literally terrorized her into dropping the suit. Her fears would be well-founded, too, given that Trump allegedly threatened her if she told anyone how he d violated her. One witness said: I personally witnessed Defendant Trump telling the Plaintiff that she shouldn t ever say anything if she didn t want to disappear like the 12-year-old female Maria, and that he was capable of having her whole family killed. That adds some credence to the possibility that she dropped the suit out of fear. She very likely stayed silent all this time because she was terrified of what would happen to her should she come forward. Now she s receiving death threats, which must seem to her like her worst fears coming true. It s horrific.On Friday, Jeffrey Meagher, Ms. Doe s lead attorney, simply filed a one-page notice dismissing the case without explanation. It merely reads: Pursuant to F.R.C.P. 41(a)(1)(A)(i) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Plaintiff, by and through her counsel, hereby gives notice that the above-captioned action is voluntarily dismissed against the Defendants. She may or may not be able to file this claim again, and her attorneys would have explained that to her. However, if she s being terrorized the way it sounds and that s entirely plausible given the really despicable natures of Trump and everyone close to him she may just want to let it rest and hope to live out the rest of her life in relative peace. That does not make her a liar, though, as many will no doubt say. That makes whoever is threatening her despicable and deplorable.Featured image by Joe Raedle via Getty Images | 1real |
Gay Journalist who Came Out as Conservative Shouted Down at Portland State University - Breitbart | Journalist Chadwick Moore, who recently came out as conservative in a column for the New York Post, was shouted down by students during a recent event at Portland State University.[ Conservative journalist Chadwick Moore was shouted down by students at a recent event at Portland State University. Students, refusing to wait until the event’s QA, shouted at Moore during the lecture portion of the event. “I am black, I am disabled, I’m a woman,” one attendee shouted, before storming out of the room and pounding her fists on the windows. After mocking”Girl, there’s still time, we can punch you too,” another student shouted after Moore mocked the disrupters’ low energy. “Sorry, not a threat,” the student added after several attendees gasped at the suggestion that Moore would be punched. “Can you not wait until the QA and be polite?” Moore responded. “Why don’t you shut up and have respect for your fellow students?” Despite the interruptions, the event featured some positive moments. One female student told Moore that his story had helped her feel more comfortable in being herself. “I was one of those people who wrote you a message when you came out,” said a young woman in the audience. “I want to personally thank you for being as loud as you are because you’re speaking up for people like me. ” During the lecture, Moore cited a Gallup survey, which revealed that one in five gay Americans is conservative. “If you decide to shun a huge percentage of your community simply because they might not agree with your political views … you’re denying people a chance to true happiness of living authentically,” Moore said. Other members of the Portland State University community praised Moore’s lecture. “I was impressed by Chadwick standing up to these bullies and speaking his mind,” recent graduate Mykle Curton said. “Just because I disagree with him on politics doesn’t mean I can’t like and support him. I agree with him about his rejection of identity politics. They argue that you can lump people into groups and generalize their experiences and beliefs. ” Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart. com | 0fake |
The Internet Wrecks Tomi Lahren For Halloween Costume Which Violates U.S. Flag Code | Tomi Lahren, the conservative media pundit, and newly-minted Fox News personality is the reason for blonde jokes. Lahren previously blasted black NFL athletes who choose to kneel instead of stand during the national anthem in a silent form of protest against racial inequality and police brutality. We don t like it. It s a disgrace to us, she shrieked while admitting that she has no idea what they are protesting. We love our country, Lahren said. We re just going to shut off the TV, we re not going to go to games. And they ll pay for it. Today, Lahren took to her Instagram account to show off her Halloween costume. Lahren is dressed as a #MAGA superhero with an American flag for a cape and included this caption, Oh LA get ready to find your safe spaces! What am I? Well if you re a conservative, I m American AF. If you re a lib, I m offensive. Let s go. Oh LA get ready to find your safe spaces! What am I? Well if you re a conservative, I m American AF. If you re a lib, I m offensive. Let s go. #TeamTomi #halloween #MAGA #Merica #makeHalloweenGreatAgainA post shared by Tomi Lahren (@tomilahren) on Oct 28, 2017 at 7:15pm PDTUproxx notes that Ryan Fournier, a frequent Fox News commentator and chair of the Trump Students group, called Lahren s outfit the MOST patriotic costume ever. Because nothing says patriotic like a red, white and blue fanny pack.And the MOST patriotic costume goes to .@TomiLahren!! #Halloween2017 #MAGA pic.twitter.com/ddUrfz0Fvq Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) October 29, 2017Nope. My husband got you beat. pic.twitter.com/DyGI0GIYrS Samantha Hamlin (@SamHam73) October 29, 2017While Tomi s outfit might have given conservative men a full-fledged freedom boner, comments poured in to remind Lahren that she s violating the U.S. flag code.The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free. The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free.Tomi was thoroughly mocked on Twitter.Who wore it better? pic.twitter.com/tkJcDX7ZeW Brandi Sheridan (@J_B_Sher) October 29, 2017For Halloween, Tomi Lahren dressed as a Flag Code Violation. pic.twitter.com/Ur24U6v2uB Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) October 29, 2017Someone tell them that wearing flags is far worse than taking a knee Carolyn Ellis (@CarolynEllis5) October 29, 2017I wish you could hear the room full of kids at my house laughing at you, Tami. andy lassner (@andylassner) October 29, 2017Bat ? crazy and looking like a beer can Janie (@TwinkleBerry83) October 29, 2017Do you know this guy? pic.twitter.com/r6n4vHryKs Mom (@alpha5150) October 29, 2017 pic.twitter.com/y1ILaQL0nV MRS HIG MA RN ?? (@hig68) October 29, 2017We are not triggered, Tomi, nor do we need a safe place. Well, maybe it would be nice to have a safe place from conservative stupidity, though. We get it. Lahren just wants some attention. Look at me, look at me! I m violating the U.S. flag code while disparaging black athletes who do not disrespect the flag. Photo via screen capture. | 1real |
CLAIM: Watching scary movies could help boost your immune system and promote weight loss | CLAIM: Watching scary movies could help boost your immune system and promote weight loss
Vicki Batts Tags: scary movies , immune system , weight loss (NaturalNews) Who doesn't love a good horror flick, right? There may actually be some health benefits to be found in watching scary movies, too. Experts say that when you watch something frightening, it engages your fight or flight response. This in turn raises the amount of adrenaline pumping through your veins, which can be pretty good for your body.Psychologist Mark Griffiths, a professor of behavioral addiction at Nottingham Trent University, says that there are a number of reasons why people typically seek out fear-inducing films. While the desire to experience something unusual isn't totally health related, Griffiths also commented on the potential healthy release some people may experience. "Watching such films 'may also be cathartic, providing an emotional release for pent-up frustrations,'" he told the UK's Daily Mail .But there could be more to it than just that, at least according to some new research. Evidence indicates that the fear you experience while watching a scary movie could help to temporarily bolster your immune system .Scientists from Coventry University took blood samples from a group of test subjects before, during and after they either watched a scary movie or spent time in a quiet room. Their findings, which were published in the journal Stress , revealed that white blood cell counts were increased in those who saw the horror film . Normally, white blood cells respond in this way when there is a sign of infection.According to Natalie Riddell, an immunologist at University College London, this is all part of our evolutionary process, which has been "geared to promote the survival of the individual." Getting scared can engage the "fight or flight" response, which in turn, causes the release of adrenaline.The surge of adrenaline then launches the immune system into action – leading to an increased white blood cell count.That's not all adrenaline can do, either. The survival hormone also elevates your heart rate and boosts your metabolic rate – the speed at which your body burns calories. You may think that the number of calories you could burn by watching horror movies is negligible, but studies have shown that you can actually burn a surprising amount of energy just by being scared. That's right, watching horror movies could help support your weight loss efforts.In 2012, researchers from the University of Westminster conducted an experiment to see how many calories volunteers could burn off while watching 10 classic scary films. On average, each film scared the participants into torching about 113 calories – which is equivalent to walking for about 30 minutes. The researchers found that the best horror movie for burning calories was none other than a classic Steven King film. That's right, when people watched The Shining directed by Stanley Kubrick, they burned away a whopping 184 calories.The classic films Jaws and The Exorcist came in second and third place, respectively, for total calorie burning. Dr. Richard Mackenzie, senior lecturer and specialist in cell metabolism and physiology at the university commented that each of the 10 films sent hearts beating and pulses racing. He explained, "As the pulse quickens and blood pumps around the body faster, the body experiences a surge in adrenaline. It is this release of fast-acting adrenaline, produced during short bursts of intense stress (or in this case, brought on by fear), which is known to lower the appetite, increase the basal metabolic rate and ultimately burn a higher level of calories."Overall, calorie burning increased by about one-third while the study participants watched the films. Of course, this doesn't mean that you should watch a movie instead of exercising or eating healthfully . But the next time you sit down to watch a movie, you might want to pick one from the horror genre. Sources: | 1real |
IRAN MAY HAVE RECEIVED Over $33 Billion In Cash AND Gold From Obama | Iran may have received an additional $33.6 billion in secret cash and gold payments facilitated by the Obama administration between 2014 and 2016, according to testimony provided before Congress by an expert on last summer s nuclear agreement with Iran.Between January 2014 and July 2015, when the Obama administration was hammering out the final details of the nuclear accord, Iran was paid $700 million every month from funds that had previously been frozen by U.S. sanctions.A total of $11.9 billion was ultimately paid to Iran, but the details surrounding these payments remain shrouded in mystery, according to Mark Dubowitz, executive director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.In total, Iran may have received as much as $33.6 billion in cash or in gold and other precious metals, Dubowitz disclosed.New questions about these payments are emerging following confirmation from top Obama administration officials on Thursday that it was forced to pay Iran $1.7 billion in cash prior to the release of several U.S. hostages earlier this year. The administration insisted that cash had to be used for this payment.Read more: WFB | 1real |
Images reveal crashed Schiaparelli Mars lander | Images reveal crashed Schiaparelli Mars lander page: 1 link We knew as time passed that Schiaparelli had failed in its mission to become ESA's first working lab on mars , now the efforts of ESA to locate their missing lander have provided the proof that Schiaparelli crashed on Mars , as suggested by the data returned before the event. If at first you don't succeed Looks like an impact crater to me. Mars succès rate is all told about 50%? originally posted by: gortex the efforts of ESA to locate their missing lander have provided the proof that Schiaparelli crashed on Mars R.I.P Schiaparelli, you never even got a chance to reveal some of the secrets of Mars. Okay, we're on a conspiracy site, i'll say it... Looks like an impact crater to me. Schiaparelli's impact. NASA have a good success rate landing on Mars probably due to them being well funded , in comparison ESA don't seem to have all of their ducks in a line to be able to take the next step. Shame really as we are going looking for life where NASA seems content to look for the conditions that would have allowed life to start. originally posted by: gortex NASA have a good success rate landing on Mars probably due to them being well funded , Shame really as we are going looking for life where NASA seems content to look for the conditions that would have allowed life to start. Nasa does have a good success rate, Curiosity's wacky landing putting the cream on the cake, since it obviously worked. Ihave to say though it's kind of weird that there were two failed events. The chute, then the rocket in the next sequence one aiding the other sort of, (I'm assuming that the rockets would have fired in a controlled fashion but then cut off prematurely) edit on 27-10-2016 by smurfy because: Text. | 1real |
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‘ANGEL’ MOMS of Sons Killed by Illegals Weigh in on Rockville Rape of 14-Year Old by Illegals: “This poor child is scarred forever” [Video] | 1real | |
Barber by Day, Wily Coyote Whisperer by Night - The New York Times | For Frank Vincenti, there is a certain truth to those old Warner Bros. cartoons in which Wile E. Coyote, scheming but hapless, always takes the fall in pursuing the speedy Road Runner. “You know, that cartoon is really correct — Wile E. Coyote and the real thing are not that much different,” said Mr. Vincenti, a barber by vocation, but also a advocate for urban coyotes. “Coyotes are always going to be controversial animals, but they get an undeserved reputation. ” By day, he gives $10 haircuts at his shop in Mineola, N. Y. but by night, he transforms into a coyote whisperer, dedicated to saving coyotes in and around New York City and to challenging the perception that the animals are too dangerous to coexist with people in urban and suburban areas. After spying a coyote in the Bronx, Mr. Vincenti started the Wild Dog Foundation in 1996, a nonprofit that protects coyotes. When he hears of a sighting, he closes his barbershop and heads to the scene. He may spend all night working as a human scarecrow, chasing the coyotes back into the underbrush. The goal is to keep them out of the public view and away from the traps set by specialists hired to euthanize them. On a recent weeknight, he closed his shop and drove to an area near La Guardia Airport where a family of coyotes had settled in the woodsy patches near the bridge leading to the Rikers Island jail complex. Officials from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, deemed the coyotes a danger to users of a nearby parking lot for airport employees and notified federal officials to have the coyotes removed. Since the fall, coyotes have been continually trapped and euthanized, despite Mr. Vincenti’s preventive efforts. “You want to know the irony of all this?” he said, gesturing toward Rikers Island. “You got accused murderers and rapists over there, and the government is afraid of a family of coyotes. ” Pacing the narrow visitors parking lot for Rikers, he recounted how by early last year, three adult coyotes had settled here, which led to a litter of eight pups roaming the area by July. “The coyotes were like mascots — people were driving by, taking pictures like they were on safari,” said Mr. Vincenti, who showed up every night to chase the coyotes back into cover. “You don’t want them just walking around in the open because that unnerves people. ” Lobbying for the coyotes to remain, he handed out fliers and assured local residents that the animals were not looking for confrontations. He approached parents at Little League games and told them the coyotes scared off geese and hunted rats. Pushed by swelling coyote populations upstate, some coyotes have inhabited wooded sections of the Bronx for 20 years, Mr. Vincenti said. There are active dens under the Whitestone Bridge and in Pelham Bay and Van Cortlandt Parks, he said. The adult coyotes near Rikers may have wandered down from the Bronx over the Hell Gate Bridge, which carries only sporadic freight train traffic. Mr. Vincenti said their puppies may have been the first born on geographic Long Island in centuries. He had hoped they would eventually migrate to eastern Long Island, but by last week, trappers had managed to kill all but one of the coyotes. “The coyotes had no chance,” he said. “My efforts were too little too late. I’m one man, on my own dime and my own time, and I had a lot of people against me. ” He stood by his car. It had a coyote rescue placard on the dashboard and a stuffed coyote dangling from the rearview mirror. Looking for the remaining pup, he examined tracks near a bicycle parking area. On Monday, he was back in his shop, which his opened in 1925. Mr. Vincenti said he began cutting hair there at 13. The walls were covered not with photos of hairstyles but with images of coyotes and other animals. Mr. Vincenti has carved out an underdog role, not unlike the coyote. He is short in stature but with an outsize personality and tenacity. Mr. Vincenti’s coyote advocacy seems thankless. He sets up tables at events and gives talks at local libraries, often facing residents who consider the coyotes a threat to their children and pets. Mr. Vincenti, who is married with a son, is a history buff and a fan of Napoleon. During slow times in the barbershop, he plows through history books, educates himself on wildlife issues and dreams of making a living protecting coyotes instead of cutting hair. The euthanized coyote family left him discouraged, but he could already hear the next coyote calling, in the form of a sighting near Farmers Boulevard in Queens. Once again, the Road Runner cartoon proved correct. “Wile E. Coyote always loses,” he said, “but no matter how they try to kill him off, he always comes back. ” | 0fake |
Jeremy Corbyn Is Re-elected as Leader of Britain’s Labour Party - The New York Times | LONDON — Jeremy Corbyn strengthened his grip on Britain’s opposition Labour Party on Saturday, beating back a challenge to his leadership by members of Parliament with increased support from the party’s rank and file. The results of the leadership struggle were announced in Liverpool, in northwestern England, on the eve of the annual Labour Party conference. Mr. Corbyn, a politician, won 61. 8 percent of the more than 500, 000 votes cast, up from the 59. 5 percent he won a year ago, when his victory shocked and divided the party. A revolt by Labour members of Parliament, who said they feared that Mr. Corbyn would lead the party to electoral disaster, came to nothing as their favored candidate, Owen Smith, won only 38. 2 percent of the vote. The result tightened Mr. Corbyn’s grip on the party and isolated many of its members of Parliament from a growing membership that is younger and more drawn by Mr. Corbyn’s policies to reduce inequality, make Britain and renationalize key areas of the economy, like the railways and energy. The party has almost tripled its membership to more than 500, 000, making it the largest political party in Western Europe, Mr. Corbyn said. But opinion polls regularly indicate that if an election were held tomorrow, Labour under Mr. Corbyn would suffer a historic defeat in the country as a whole. In a victory speech, Mr. Corbyn called for unity, said that more held “the Labour family” together than divided it and vowed that the party would win the next election under his leadership. Mr. Corbyn also promised forgiveness to the rebels, noting that many heated things are said in a campaign that are later regretted. “Let’s wipe that slate clean from today and get on with the work we have to do as a party together,” he said. There are concerns among the rebels in Parliament that Mr. Corbyn and his team will move against them. Electoral districts are to undergo boundary changes as the House of Commons shrinks from 650 members to 600, and Mr. Corbyn’s opponents fear the leadership team will use those changes to replace them with other candidates. Some of Mr. Corbyn’s allies have been pressing for “mandatory reselection” of all candidates in every district before another British election. Anticipating his victory before it was announced, Mr. Corbyn had issued a plea for unity. “Whatever the result, whatever the margin, we all have a duty to unite, cherish and build our movement,” he said. Mr. Corbyn and his allies see Labour as a socialist movement whose purpose is to change society. But most Labour members of Parliament, who regard Mr. Corbyn as a man of the fringe, believe the best way to effect change is to win power in elections, which in Britain has meant moving toward the center, not farther to the left. They have also criticized Mr. Corbyn for poor organization and weak leadership, and have said Labour is not doing its job as an effective opposition to the governing Conservative Party. But after this resounding victory, Mr. Corbyn is highly unlikely to face another challenge before the next general election, which is due in May 2020. Labour members of Parliament who refused to serve in his shadow cabinet, or who resigned from it as part of the revolt, will be under pressure to join it, even if they sharply disagree with his policies. Tony Travers, a professor of government at the London School of Economics, said the Labour Party was “like a miserable, unhappy family trying to coexist. ” Labour’s home affairs spokesman, Andy Burnham, told BBC radio that while the party’s “war of attrition” must stop, Mr. Corbyn must also build more support among the general public, not just among Labour activists. “No one gets the right to take Labour down to a devastating defeat,” said Mr. Burnham, who is trying to avoid the party’s parliamentary problems by running for mayor of Manchester. Some Conservatives have urged the new British prime minister, Theresa May, who took over from David Cameron, to change the law to call an election sooner, in order to get her own mandate and take advantage of the divisions in Labour. But she has said there will be no early election. The former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband, a centrist narrowly beaten to the party leadership in 2010 by his more brother, Ed, wrote in the New Statesman magazine this past week: “We have not been further from power since the 1930s. ” | 0fake |
Turkey's Erdogan says no problem with Russian S-400 purchases: Haberturk | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan said there was no problem with Turkey s planned purchase of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile systems and talks have also been held on the S-500 system, Haberturk and other newspapers reported on Friday. His Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted on Monday as saying NATO member Turkey could seek a deal to acquire a missile defense system with another country if Russia does not agree to joint production of the defense shield. Speaking to reporters as he returned on his plane from a trip to Ukraine and Serbia, Erdogan said there would be no joint production in the first stage of S-400 purchases, but in the second stage God willing we will take joint production steps , Haberturk reported. In our talks with (Russia President Vladimir) Putin we are not thinking of stopping with the S-400s. We have had talks on the S-500s too, he added, referring to a missile system currently under development. Ankara s decision to buy the S-400s has been seen in some Western capitals as a snub to NATO, given tensions with Moscow over Ukraine and Syria, while the deal raised concern because the weapons cannot be integrated into the alliance s defenses. However, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said this week Turkey was not seeking to antagonize the U.S.-led alliance by purchasing the system and is in talks with France and Italy to buy similar weapons. | 0fake |
Russian bombers hit Islamic State targets in Syria: agencies | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian long-range bombers hit Islamic State targets in the northeast of Syria on Saturday, Russian news agencies cited the Russian Defense Ministry as saying. | 0fake |
Trump HUMILIATED, Gets Booed After Telling Construction Workers They Voted For Him (VIDEO) | Trump humiliated himself on Tuesday while speaking to a roomful of construction workers at the North America s Building Trades Unions National Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. when he claimed that pretty much everyone present voted for him. If you watch the Democrats now the anger, the anger and hatred and they re trying to figure out where did all these people came that voted for Donald Trump? The Donald said before bragging about his heroic ascendancy to the Oval Office. I had the support of I would say, I would say almost everybody in this room, Trump bragged. We had tremendous, we had tremendous support. No, we did. There was scattered applause, but the sound that will be playing over and over in Trump s head for the next week is the chrous of boos that accompanied his claim. According to the Huffington Post s Igor Bobic, the boos began after one man yelled Nope, nope in response to Trump s allegation that he and others present voted for him.Trump says he had the support of almost everybody in this room.""Nope, nope! one man in audience says, followed by laughter, boos Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) April 4, 2017Despite his bloviations, Trump knows he is wildly unpopular. He recently became the first President* to skip the White House Correspondents Dinner in recent memory and even broke with the tradition of throwing out the first pitch of the baseball season which was probably smart:BREAKING: "Impeach Trump" banner unfurled by The Resistance during Washington Nationals opening game. pic.twitter.com/T9ZWV2012V Rogue CPI (@RogueCPI) April 3, 2017Watch Trump embarrass himself below:Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
NBC CORRESPONDENT Tells Panel Of Extremely BIASED Journalists: “Journalists Aren’t Biased”…Goes On To Totally Trash President Trump With Other BIASED News Hosts [VIDEO] | Watch as Katy Tur tries to hilariously convince the audience that the press doesn t have any biases: If we have any bias, it s a bias towards the facts . She then goes on to convince the audience what a horrible human being Donald Trump is, He didn t appeal to their better demons of voters in this country. He appealed to their most base fears and their most base frustrations and anger and that worked for him. Watch:During a news conference in July of 2016, NBC News correspondent Katy Tur asked Trump whether he has any qualms about asking a foreign government to hack into a system of anybody s in this country after Trump said he hoped Russia would find more emails from Hillary Clinton or the DNC. Hey, you know what gives me more pause, that a person in our government, crooked Hillary Clinton here s what gives me more pause, Trump said, as Tur tried to ask follow-ups. Be quiet, I know you want to, you know, save her. That a person in our government, Katy, would delete or get rid of 33,000 emails. That gives me a big problem. After she gets a subpoena. She gets subpoenaed, and she gets rid of 33,000 emails. That gives me a problem. Now, if Russia or China or any other country has those emails, I mean to be honest with you, I d love to see them. As Tur asked another question a few minutes later, mentioning Trump s poll numbers, Trump once again mocked her. Katy just said that, many polls show you are winning. Are you Katy Tur of NBC? It s a disguise, he said.This is far from the first time Trump has picked on Tur. In June, Trump told Fox & Friends that his campaign don t even let her in or let people talk to her because she s not a very good reporter. In December, Trump called out Tur in the middle of a rally, leading Trump supporters to point at her and boo. Little Katy, third-rate journalist, Trump said, as he complained about the news media.Watch candidate Trump tell Katy to Be quiet : If you want to know why the press is obsessed with taking down Donald Trump, watch this video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymoGq82Mhjw | 1real |
WATCH: Trump Caught On Video Praising One Of The Worst Dictators Of All Time | Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina on Tuesday night and once again his habit of simply saying what s on his mind led him to step in it. He decided that, while discussing terrorism, to praise a man once called the Butcher of Baghdad, Saddam Hussein.Sweet Moses pic.twitter.com/fL1u9R6VXm Jim Weber (@JimMWeber) July 6, 2016While conceding that Hussein was a bad guy, Trump praised him for killing terrorists, a job he did well. Apparently citing a Middle Eastern dictator as his model for combating international terrorism, Trump went on to praise Iraq under Hussein s iron fisted rule as a nation that didn t bother with reading rights to accused suspects.Moving forward to the current time, Trump said that Iraq in 2016 was like Harvard for terrorists. Like many of his other speeches outside of those delivered with a teleprompter, it didn t make much sense.When Saddam Hussein was captured by the U.S. after the invasion of Iraq, he was put on trial and accused of the murder of 148 people, torture of women and children, and with illegally arresting at least 399 people. He was found guilty of crimes against humanity, and was sentenced to death and hanged.Trump has consistently made a mess of speaking about terrorism, arguing for waterboarding (which military experts say is a useless tool for extracting information and is considered torture under the Geneva Conventions) and for engaging in the barbaric practice of murdering the families of terrorists, even if they had nothing to do with terrorist acts.The Republican nominee has also played fast and loose with the facts on terrorism, blaming the Orlando attack on Syrian refugees when the shooter was a natural-born American citizen. Trump has also been at the head of the line on the right that has blamed all terrorism on Muslims, and called for a ban on Muslim travel to the United States and a system to track Muslims within the United States.Trump s supporters have cheered on his advocacy of big brother, fascist policies, with some going so far as to refer to Trump as daddy, for the paternalistic world view he has offered many of them who are skeptical of a black President.In reality, President Obama has had more senior leadership within terror networks like al Qaeda and ISIS targeted and killed during his tenure than his predecessor. In Obama s time as commander-in-chief, American forces killed Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour.Featured image via Twitter | 1real |
Pardon Power: The Obamamometer’s Options | by Jerri-Lynn Scofield
By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She now spends most of her time in India and other parts of Asia researching a book about textile artisans. She also writes regularly about legal, political economy, and regulatory topics for various consulting clients and publications, as well as writes occasional travel pieces for The National .
Since FBI Director James Comey’s bombshell announcement Friday that the bureau was reviewing new evidence regarding Hillary Clinton’s email tar baby, many questions have arisen– among the Naked Capitalism commentariat, as well as more widely– about the scope and details of the President’s pardoning powers. There are a few things to clear up right away, because I’ve seen a considerable amount of misinformation bandied about as to what the United States Constitution permits. Readers will please indulge me if in the interest of keeping this post short and sweet, I don’t debunk each and every wrong argument I’ve seen since Friday. If I responded to all the crazypants stuff out there– tempting as that might be– I’d never get to my main points.
Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution says that the President “shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment …”
So allow me to summarize the salient points.
Absolute Power, Can Neither Be Reviewed nor Overturned As a Matter of Law
The President’s pardoning power is absolute. Pardoning decisions are not subject to judicial review, nor can any individual pardon be overturned by an act of Congress. The pardoning power’s also unlimited as to offenses against the United States, so in theory, at least as a matter of law, a President could pardon someone for committing any offense against the United States ( I leave to one side the question of whether such an action would be politically possible). A President could also, at least in theory, pardon him or herself– for anything except in cases of impeachment.
No Indictment Necessary
It’s not necessary for someone to be charged or convicted of a crime against of the United States for the President to pardon that person. The most famous example of a President granting a pardon in a case where no indictment had been brought is President Gerald Ford’s September 1974 pardon of Richard Nixon shortly after he resigned the office of President. Allow me to quote at length from Proclamation 4311 Granting Pardon to Richard Nixon :
Richard Nixon became the thirty-seventh President of the United States on January 20, 1969 and was reelected in 1972 for a second term by the electors of forty-nine of the fifty states. His term in office continued until his resignation on August 9, 1974.
Pursuant to resolutions of the House of Representatives, its Committee on the Judiciary conducted an inquiry and investigation on the impeachment of the President extending over more than eight months. The hearings of the Committee and its deliberations, which received wide national publicity over television, radio, and in printed media, resulted in votes adverse to Richard Nixon on recommended Articles of Impeachment.
As a result of certain acts or omissions occurring before his resignation from the Office of President, Richard Nixon has become liable to possible indictment and trial for offenses against the United States. Whether or not he shall be so prosecuted depends on findings of the appropriate grand jury and on the discretion of the authorized prosecutor. Should an indictment ensue, the accused shall then be entitled to a fair trial by an impartial jury, as guaranteed to every individual by the Constitution.
It is believed that a trial of Richard Nixon, if it became necessary, could not fairly begin until a year or more has elapsed. In the meantime, the tranquility to which this nation has been restored by the events of recent weeks could be irreparably lost by the prospects of bringing to trial a former President of the United States. The prospects of such trial will cause prolonged and divisive debate over the propriety of exposing to further punishment and degradation a man who has already paid the unprecedented penalty of relinquishing the highest elective office of the United States.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GERALD R. FORD, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974….
What Can Congress Do?
Article, section 4, of the US Constitution grants Congress the power to impeach any federal officeholder:
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Further, note that, Article I, Section 1, specifies:
The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.
Judgment in Cases of Impeachments shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust, or Profit under the United States, but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment, and Punishment, according to Law.
A few considerations to note here, even though an extended discussion of impeachment is beyond the scope of this post. First, impeachment is a political process, with the penalty (to reiterate from above) limited to “to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust, or Profit under the United States.” A party that has been convicted by the Senate in an impeachment proceeding “shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment, and Punishment, according to Law.”
Second, although we’re all well aware of the history of impeachment proceedings and the presidency (e.g., involving Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton), Congress can actually pursue impeachment proceedings against all civil officers of the United States. And in fact, there’s a long common law tradition of such proceedings. I mention impeachment only in passing because such power lurks in the background, particularly in divided government situations– but I defer a more comprehensive discussion of impeachment issues in the current context until we know who has been elected President, and what the partisan composition of each house of Congress will be.
What Will the Obamamometer Do?
Back to the pardoning question. So, now that I’ve outlined the constitutional authority for pardoning, the main issue I wish to address is: What Will the Obamamometer do?
On first glance, it’s obvious that a President who has been, at least to my mind, unduly concerned with his legacy, and who also fetishizes the concept of bipartisanship, would not want to touch the issue of pardoning Hillary Clinton with a barge pole. I should also point out that the Obamamometer has been an unusually timid politician, and has often articulated soaring rhetoric that’s never backed by bold action. In other words, all hat, not cattle.
What the Obamamometer wil do, I believe, hinges on the outcome of the election.
If Hillary Clinton Wins
If Hillary wins next Tuesday, I believe the Obamamometer will not grant her a pardon, for the simple reason that she won’t ask for one. To accept a pardon from Obama would be tantamount to an admission of guilt for her email practices, the Clinton Foundation’s activities, , influence peddling, and pay-to-play, among other issues .
Hillary Clinton as President can probably get away with foregoing a pardon, at least with respect to herself. After all, does anyone seriously believe that she will nominate candidates for high-level Department of Justice positions that will vigorously pursue investigations into her and hear activities prior to becoming President? I don’t think so.
The more interesting question is whether she’ll be able to contain investigations that have already started and will no doubt draw in members of her inner circle. I’m going to put these questions aside for the time being– I promise readers I will revisit them if they’re not moot, after the election. But in the interests of keeping this post short, and confining its focus on the main question at hand– the Obamamometer’s options– I’m not going to delve further into these issues now.
If Donald Trump Wins
If Donald Trump wins, we’re in a completely different ballpark.
Trump promised in the second debate to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton’s (alleged) corruption (although I think the Wikileaks revelations should dispense with the need to put in an alleged, even in parenthesis). I believe he will have to follow through on this pledge. His smart move would be to ask his Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor– nominally a Democrat– who has extensive experience investigating complex financial frauds, misuse of information, and influence peddling. And if Hillary Clinton also understands this to be Trump’s next move, this would leave her in the market for a pardon.
Now, there’s a lot of chatter out there that suggests the Clintons hate the Obamas and that the Obamas hate the Clintons. I’ve also heard it said that they’re all great pals.
For the purposes of my argument, however, it really doesn’t matter one way or the other. I think Hillary will ask for a pardon, and the Obamamometer will grant it. It will be justified on the grounds that she’s suffered enough in losing the election, and that she’s been the subject of an unprecedented political vendetta. The Democratic nomenklatura laid the groundwork for this point in the immediate aftermath of the second debate, where Trump was lambasted for calling for appointing a special prosecutor, if he were elected, into Clinton’s activities. This pledge was taken as a beyond-the-pale statement of vindictiveness rather than as a logical follow-through to investigations launched during the administration of a President of the same party as the candidate, into serious allegations involving mishandling of classified information and other offences. And I might add, Comey’s late innings interjection should suggest that these investigations were neither comprehensively conducted, nor concluded.
Given that Trump’s next move is fairly obvious, I predict that the Obamamometer’s is too. Hillary will seek, and he will grant, a pardon, while promoting the line that she’s suffered enough in not getting her turn to be President, and that further, she’s exposed to extreme vindictiveness from Team R. The unlikely outcome of a Trump victory will undoubtedly shake up the political, economic and cultural elite. It will trigger widespread concern that they might have to pay for their past sins. In order to forestall the possibility that punishment will indeed be meted out to fit crimes, wagons will be circled. The Obamamometer covets a reserved place at the top table, and to attain that, will have to deliver on a solution, and protect poor Hillary. Otherwise, no more summers on the Vineyard.
The more interesting question is how far the Obamamometer’s pardoning power will extend: will he provide get-out-of-jail free cards to Huma Abedin, John Podesta, Doug Brand, Cheryl Mills, any other Clinton minions, even the Big Dog himself? (I do of course realize Bill is probably untouchable). I don’t think so. Because although I have and will continue to criticize the Obamamometer for being politically timid– not to mention intellectually not all he’s been touted as being– I don’t think he’s personally corrupt in the narrow influence peddling sense. So let’s hope he takes the legacy stuff seriously enough to hold the line at a tightly-drawn pardon for Hillary only, in the unlikely event Trump wins next week.
As for the broader political issues– what Congress will do to address these issues– these will depend on the election results. Again, I defer further analysis until we see the election returns. | 1real |
San Bernardino divers reportedly pull object from water in evidence search | An FBI dive team reportedly pulled an object from a San Bernardino lake Friday, seeking evidence pinpointing the motive and history of the attackers who killed more than a dozen people during a holiday party.
One diver handed the unknown item to an official wearing gloves, who put the object in a plastic bag, the Press-Enterprise reports.
Investigators are looking for a hard drive that may have been dumped in the lake, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press. David Bowdich, chief of the FBI's Los Angeles office, said investigative leads indicated the shooters had been in the area the day of the massacre and said the search of the lake could take days.
Fox News has learned that in 2012, one of the gunmen, Syed Farook, conspired with former neighbor Enrique Marquez, the man who purchased the rifles used in the deadly attack in San Bernardino on Dec. 2. The plot would have targeted the Los Angeles area.
It appeared the two were scared off the idea by the November 2012 arrests of four Southern California men attempting to travel to Afghanistan to wage holy war.
The small, urban lake is about 3 miles north of the shooting site.
Authorities say Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, opened fire on his fellow San Bernardino County health inspectors during a holiday party, killing 14 people and wounding 22 others. The couple died hours later in a police shootout, leaving behind a 6-month-old daughter.
FBI Director James Comey has said Farook had been in communication with individuals who were being scrutinized by the FBI in terrorism investigations, but that the contact he had was not enough to bring him onto the law enforcement radar.
The FBI has interviewed hundreds of people and conducted searches looking for evidence. Bowdich says it's possible the agency will do neighborhood canvasses in the future, too.
Fox News' Adam Housley and The Associated Press contributed to this report. | 0fake |
Factbox: Trump on Twitter (Sept 25) - NASCAR, NFL, John Kelly, Puerto Rico, John McCain, Alabama | The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : - So proud of NASCAR and its supporters and fans. They won’t put up with disrespecting our Country or our Flag - they said it loud and clear! [0725 EDT] - Many people booed the players who kneeled yesterday (which was a small percentage of total). These are fans who demand respect for our Flag! [0731 EDT] - The issue of kneeling has nothing to do with race. It is about respect for our Country, Flag and National Anthem. NFL must respect this! [0739 EDT] - The White House never looked more beautiful than it did returning last night. Important meetings taking place today. Big tax cuts & reform. [0744 EDT] - #StandForOurAnthem [0902 EDT] - @CNN is #FakeNews. Just reported COS (John Kelly) was opposed to my stance on NFL players disrespecting FLAG, ANTHEM, COUNTRY. Total lie! [1826 EDT] - General John Kelly totally agrees w/ my stance on NFL players and the fact that they should not be disrespecting our FLAG or GREAT COUNTRY! [1828 EDT] - Tremendous backlash against the NFL and its players for disrespect of our Country. #StandForOurAnthem [1829 EDT] - Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble.. [2045 EDT] - ...It’s old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars.... [2050 EDT] - ...owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with. Food, water and medical are top priorities - and doing well. #FEMA [2058 EDT] - A few of the many clips of John McCain talking about Repealing & Replacing O’Care. My oh my has he changed-complete turn from years of talk! [2124 EDT] - Big election tomorrow in the Great State of Alabama. Vote for Senator Luther Strange, tough on crime & border - will never let you down! [2150 EDT] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR) | 0fake |
Trump fires opening salvo in risky test of wills with Beijing | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump indicated a tougher U.S. approach to China by speaking to Taiwan’s president last week, but how far he will push a risky test of wills to wring concessions from Beijing on issues from trade to North Korea is unclear. The call between Trump and Tsai Ing-wen was the first by a U.S. president-elect or president with a Taiwanese leader since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 1979. It prompted a diplomatic protest from China which the outgoing Obama administration warned could undermine progress in relations with Beijing, which has been carefully built up over decades by both Republican and Democratic administrations. Analysts say it could provoke military confrontation with China if pressed too far. Trump officials and Vice President-elect Mike Pence sought to play down the significance of the 10-minute conversation, saying it was a “courtesy” call and not intended to show a policy shift. However, Trump fueled the fire on Sunday by complaining about Chinese economic and military policy on Twitter, while on Monday an economic adviser to Trump, Stephen Moore, said if Beijing did not like it, “screw ‘em.” Analysts, including senior former U.S. officials, said the call appeared to be at least an initial shot across China’s bow to signal a tougher approach to Beijing, which includes plans for a buildup in the U.S. military, in part in response to China’s growing power in the Asia-Pacific region. Jon Huntsman, reportedly among the candidates to become Trump’s secretary of state, was quoted by The New York Times as saying at the weekend that Taiwan might prove a “useful leverage point” in dealings with China. Trump adviser and China hawk Peter Navarro, and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, another in the mix for the top U.S. diplomatic role, have both proposed using degrees of escalation on Taiwan to pressure China to step back from its pursuit of territory in East Asia. Navarro, who has produced books and multipart television documentaries warning of the dangers of China’s rise, has suggested stepped up engagement with Taiwan, including assistance with a submarine development program. He argued that Washington should stop referring to a “one-China” policy, but stopped short of suggesting it should recognize Taipei, saying “there is no need to unnecessarily poke the Panda.” Bolton though, in an article in January, countenanced a “diplomatic ladder of escalation” that could start with receiving Taiwanese diplomats officially at the State Department and lead to restoring full diplomatic recognition. Evan Medeiros, a former official who served as President Barack Obama’s top adviser on East Asia, said this was a highly risky strategy. “Here’s the reality: China let us all know very clearly in the mid-1990s that the Taiwan issue is a war-and-peace issue,” Medeiros said. “Is that a proposition that the U.S. should test? “The Taiwan issue is so politically sensitive and ranks so high in Chinese priorities of interest they are not going to begin trading anything away for it. And if the U.S. decided to establish formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, it could easily precipitate a military crisis in Northeast Asia,” he said. Douglas Paal, a White House official under Republican administrations who served as U.S. representative to Taiwan from 2002-2006, said the approach of Trump advisers seemed rooted in the 1990s, when China was much weaker and the United States in a better position to take a tougher line. “The problem is that Beijing decided in 1996 on a 10-year (military) buildup so that it would never have to swallow such stuff again,” Paal said. He said Chinese President Xi Jinping is seeking to cement his position at a congress of the ruling Communist Party next year. “Were he to look soft on something like making the U.S. office in Taipei into an official diplomatic outpost, Xi would be devoured by his rivals, and he won’t let that happen,” Paal said. Chris Murphy, a Democratic member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said using Taiwan as a way to pressure China to cooperate on North Korea’s nuclear program or on trade could be counterproductive. “Pressing China on Taiwan won’t likely bring them to the table on North Korea and currency,” he wrote on Twitter. “Risks backing them into a dark, nasty corner.” Two sources familiar with the debate on China policy within the Trump camp said Bolton and other hard-liners had encouraged Taiwanese leaders to approach the president-elect. However, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and others advising Trump and his transition team have cautioned against an open break with the four-decade “One China” Policy, they said. As a result, Trump first presented the request for a phone conversation as a personal matter rather than a harbinger of a shift in U.S. policy, which left Japan and other U.S. Asian allies unfazed. However, the sources said that after Trump tweeted about Chinese currency manipulation, import tariffs and the South China Sea, some Asian leaders were asking whether he was deliberately provoking China, potentially leading to a dangerous escalation of tensions. Chas Freeman, a former U.S. diplomat who was then-President Richard Nixon’s interpreter on his historic trip to China in 1972, said he thought Chinese officials were waiting to see what Trump’s intentions were as president. “They (Chinese) don’t want to humiliate Mr. Trump or get into an emotional confrontation with him,” he said. “So the immediate impact of this will be they will give him the benefit of the doubt, that he didn’t know what he was doing, and didn’t understand the significance of this, that perhaps he was manipulated by people around him.” | 0fake |
Democrats sue to get documents on Trump's Washington hotel | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. congressional Democrats filed suit on Thursday seeking the release of government documents related to Republican President Donald Trump’s ownership of a Washington hotel that critics say represents a conflict of interest. In the lawsuit, Democrats on the House of Representatives’ Oversight and Government Reform Committee said the General Services Administration (GSA), the government’s property arm, illegally withheld documents about the Trump International Hotel. The 14-page suit marks the latest legal skirmish over the luxury hotel a few blocks from the White House, which has become a rallying point for anti-Trump protesters. Critics say the hotel violates government rules barring elected officials from taking part in a lease of federal property. Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said the GSA had ignored federal law by refusing to provide documents about the hotel’s operation, foreign payments to the hotel or the legal reasoning that Trump could be a party to the lease. “We have no transparency - no ability to check for ongoing conflicts of interest or unconstitutional foreign payments,” Cummings said in a statement. The suit filed in U.S. District Court names acting General Services Administrator Timothy Horne as defendant. Pam Dixon, a spokeswoman for the agency, said it would not comment on pending litigation. Cummings and other critics have argued that the hotel housed in the government’s historic Old Post Office represented a conflict of interest because Trump is both landlord and tenant of the building. A GSA contracting officer said in March that the hotel was not in violation of federal conflict-of-interest rules. Thursday’s lawsuit said the GSA rebuffed three requests from committee Democrats for information about the hotel since Trump took office in January. The requests included ones filed under a law which mandates that a federal agency turn over information requested by at least seven members of the committee. Under the same law, the GSA had produced documents about the Trump International Hotel while Democrat Barack Obama was president, the suit said. Trump is facing numerous lawsuits targeting his alleged failure to distance himself from his business empire while in office. The president ceded day-to-day control of his businesses to his sons, Eric and Donald Jr., in a move he said would steer clear of conflicts of interest. | 0fake |
BROKE City of Chicago Spends Taxpayer Money Sticking It To Trump With HUGE ‘F YOU’ Installed Right Outside His Luxury Hotel | The Windy City is under fire for turning public art into a political message using taxpayer dollars! The BROKE City of Chicago installed a golden sculpture that spells out Real Fake right smack in front of Trump International Hotel and Tower in the city s downtown area. So the city spent money they don t have to slam President Trump? No wonder people are leaving the city in droves Filmmaker @ImAndrewMarcus (me) reacts to #RealFake sculpture that #RealBroke Chicago PAID to install outside Trump tower. #RealDumb pic.twitter.com/2ap792wxF0 Andrew Marcus (@ImAndrewMarcus) June 30, 2017 Any questions about the artist s intention or the artwork s background should be directed to the artist s gallery Kavi Gupta, wrote Christine Carrino, the communications director for the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. The statue is bolted into a large public sidewalk space in front of Trump Tower, an area that over the past year has been commonly used for Trump protesters who gather to demonstrate and for tourists and supporters who want a picture in front of the glistening blue sky scraper. Art at its best makes a statement. And this piece certainly makes a real statement. Spokesperson for Chicago Mayor Rahm EmanuelCarrino did not respond to questions about the placement of the sculpture. The Chicago Tribune reports in an article that Carrino said the artwork is up for interpretation. Yes, we ve interpreted it alright. Does the city of Chicago want to lose even more money if tourists boycott the already broke city? Americans who voted for Trump might just have to do that Read more: FOX News | 1real |
Kicking Money Out of Politics: Trump Boots Koch Brother from Golf Course - Breitbart | Donald Trump told a critical biographer and guest of billionaire David Koch to leave his West Palm Beach golf course on New Year’s Eve, forcing Koch to leave with him. [Trump’s gesture was another slight against the “free trade” billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who opposed Trump during the Republican primary season and refused to help him during the general election. It also signals Trump will not necessarily play nice with the GOP political establishment and Beltway right. The Kochs swooped in during the Tea Party revolt in 2010, training amateur political activists and trying to channel populist energy against the Obama administration into supporting the alliance that wanted more cheap labor and lesser sentences for drug traffickers, under the umbrella term of “smaller government. ” But the “grassroots army … was not controllable,” as one former Koch staffer lamented, and the Kochs appeared curiously unwilling to make any concessions to Americans who wanted populist, nationalist policies, and relief from the relentlessly eroding forces of mass immigration and globalization. A majority of voters — some of whom saw more demographic change take place in their communities than many countries saw in a millennia — want immigration slashed in half or reduced to zero. Trump captured that energy and it propelled him to the White House, much to the Kochs’ and their network’s chagrin. The Kochs wanted candidates amenable to their will, and Trump didn’t fit the bill. They considered him a distraction before he rocketed to first in the polls, and even toyed with the idea of spending tens of millions of dollars to attack him. Trump mocked the Kochs while on the campaign trail, calling their preferred candidates “puppets” enacting their donors’ agenda: I really like the Koch Brothers (members of my P. B. Club) but I don’t want their money or anything else from them. Cannot influence Trump! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2015, I wish good luck to all of the Republican candidates that traveled to California to beg for money etc. from the Koch Brothers. Puppets? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2015, While I hear the Koch brothers are in big financial trouble (oil) word is they have chosen little Marco Rubio, the lightweight from Florida, — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2016, Little Marco Rubio, the lightweight no show Senator from Florida, is set to be the ”puppet” of the special interest Koch brothers. WATCH! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2016, I turned down a meeting with Charles and David Koch. Much better for them to meet with the puppets of politics, they will do much better! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2016, Koch’s guest: Harry Hurt III, who authored the 1993 book, Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump, which stated Ivana Trump accused her of “raping” her in a sworn deposition during their divorce. In a Facebook post published on the same day, Hurt recounted the incident in third person: Donald Trump personally booted the author of an unflattering biography off Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Friday. Harry Hurt III, who penned the 1993 biography, Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump, had come to play with billionaire industrialist David. H. Koch, a Trump club member, and two other golfers. Hurt, who has a scratch handicap and plays in colorful knickers, walked over to Trump on the practice range prior to his group’s assigned tee time, only to suffer a tongue lashing from the . “I said, ‘Congratulations, sir,’ and shook his hand,” Hurt recalls. “Trump said, ‘You were rough on me, Harry. Really rough. That shit you wrote. ’” Hurt says he looked Trump in the eye, and said, “It’s all true,” to which Trump rejoined, “Not in the way you wrote it. ” Among the juicy tidbits in Hurt’s tome was Ivana Trump’s allegation in a sworn deposition that Trump had “raped” her during their divorce battle. Trump told Hurt it was “inappropriate” for him to play at the club, and had his security detail escort Hurt, Koch, and their playing partners to the parking lot. “David [Koch] was appalled,” says Hurt. “He branded Trump ‘petty’ and vulgar.’ We played Emerald Dunes instead, which is a much, much better golf course than Trump International. ” Accusing Trump of “raping” his ex wife, Ivana Trump, was a false media accusation arising early in the Republican primaries — and a weapon the Democratic Party planned to use in the general election after Fox News’ Megyn Kelly and the Daily Beast “rushed it on air” and into print, using Hurt’s book, before bothering to check with Ivana about its truth. It backfired spectacularly when Ivana slammed the allegations and endorsed her for president. ““I have recently read some comments attributed to me from nearly 30 years ago at a time of very high tension during my divorce from Donald. The story is totally without merit,” she said in a July 2015 statement. “Donald and I are the best of friends and together have raised three children that we love and are very proud of. I have nothing but fondness for Donald and wish him the best of luck on his campaign. Incidentally, I think he would make an incredible president. ” Breathless media coverage of the New Years’ Eve encounter between Trump, Koch, and his guest framed it as Trump having little tolerance for criticism: Nearly every headline focused on the biographer and his critical book, not Koch. Read Politico’s report, including more from Hurt and a transition official’s account, here. | 0fake |
Чуркин: Россия против «технического продления» мандата миссии ООН и ОЗХО | Короткая ссылка 27 октября 2016, 03:36 Постоянный представитель РФ при ООН Виталий Чуркин выступил против идеи «технического продления» мандата совместной миссии ООН и Организации по запрещению химического оружия (ОЗХО) по расследованию случаев применения химических веществ в военных целях в Сирии
«Мы считаем, что рамки этого механизма были слишком узкими, и ценность их результата сомнительна, при всем уважении к тяжелой работе, которую они проделали. Необходимо серьезное обсуждение. Некое быстрое техническое продление не будет работать», — приводит РИА Новости заявление Чуркина.
Ранее постпред Франции при ООН Франсуа Делаттр заявил, что Франция выступает за продление мандата миссии, срок которого истекает 31 октября. При этом глава миссии Виргиния Гамба сообщила, что не считает целесообразным продление мандата миссии.
Ранее стало известно, что в четвёртом экспертном докладе механизма ООН и ОЗХО, который будет рассмотрен на заседании Совета Безопасности ООН 27 октября, признаётся ответственность властей Сирии за химическую атаку в провинции Идлиб 16 марта 2015 года. Подписывайтесь на наш Telegram , чтобы быть в курсе самых важных новостей. Для этого достаточно иметь Telegram на любом устройстве, пройти по ссылке и нажать кнопку Join. | 1real |
Turkey's Erdogan, Iraq's Abadi to discuss Iraqi Kurdish referendum | ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will meet Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi this week to discuss their concerns about an independence referendum in Iraq s Kurdish region. Turkey, the United States and other Western powers have advised authorities in the semi-autonomous region to cancel the vote, worrying that tensions it would generate might act as an unwelcome distraction from the war on Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. With the largest Kurdish population in the region, Turkey also fears that a Yes vote would fuel separatism in its southeast, where militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have waged an insurgency for three decades. Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said on Friday the referendum would go ahead as planned on Sept. 25. Speaking to reporters on Sunday before departing for New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly, Erdogan said Ankara and Baghdad had the same view regarding the referendum. We will have a meeting with Mr Abadi in the United States, and from what we can see our goal is the same. Our goal is not dividing Iraq, said Erdogan, who earlier said that Barzani s decision to not postpone the vote was very wrong . Late on Saturday Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the referendum was an issue of national security and Turkey would take any necessary steps in response. In Istanbul, close to a thousand people gathered to protest the inclusion of Kirkuk in the referendum, at an event organized by the nationalist opposition MHP party. Kirkuk, an oil-rich province claimed by authorities in both Baghdad and the Kurdish region, was included after its governor, Najmaddin Kareem, voted in favor of taking part. Iraq s parliament voted on Thursday to remove the governor from office following a request from Abadi, according to several lawmakers present, a move Barzani condemned. Last month, MHP leader Devlet Bahceli said the referendum should be viewed by Ankara as a reason for war if necessary , but the prime minister dismissed the comments. Bahceli s ideas reflect those of a segment of Turkish society fiercely opposed to the idea of an independent Kurdistan and supportive of Iraq s Turkmen ethnic minority, which has historical and cultural ties to Turkey. With Barzani pressing on with the referendum, Erdogan said the Turkish government had brought forward planned national security council and cabinet meetings to Sept. 22 and that Turkey would announce its position on the referendum afterwards. Turkey has, however, built good relations with Barzani s administration, founded on strong economic links and shared suspicions of other Kurdish groups and Iraq s central government. The Kurdish Regional Government, led by Barzani s KDP party, exports hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil every day to world markets via Turkey. Iraqi President Fuad Masum on Sunday called on the country s leading politicians to start urgent dialogue to defuse tensions linked to the referendum plans. Masum, a Kurd, holds a largely ceremonial position under the Iraqi federal power-sharing regime, which concentrates executive powers in the hands of the prime minister, a Shi ite. | 0fake |
Climate Change Deniers Get A PERFECT New Name From Dan Rather That Applies To Trump Supporters | Legendary news anchor Dan Rather just gave us a new name to use when referring to those who deny climate change and facts in general.As we all know, Trump supporters and conservatives now think science and anything the media reports is a hoax. Instead, they live in their own little echo chamber where they will only believe what right-wing media tells them to believe.But Dan Rather has come up with a new name to call them.In a Facebook post, Rather talks about how he once visited the Northwest Passage to report on climate change and how warming temperatures are going to one day melt all of the ice and open it up. Well, the New York Times now reports that temperatures are spiking in the Arctic, and Rather s report is actually happening with his lifetime. I think at this point, we can stop calling them climate change deniers, Rather wrote. Reality Deniers is closer to the truth. A few years back, I traveled to the famed Northwest Passage, to report on how climate change might eventually melt the icy blockades which had thwarted explorers for centuries. Well later seems to have become much sooner than scientists expected.And the leader of the Reality Deniers is about to take over the White House. Indeed, Donald Trump is the king of denying reality and he apparently intends to pretend that climate change is not real and wants to purge the government of employees who research it, which is why he sent a letter to the Energy Department demanding the names of people who work on climate change and the labs where climate change research is taking place.This is dangerous to our country considering that sea level rise will likely wipe out the coastline if we continue to deny reality and do nothing to prevent these impending disasters.Climate change is real and those who refuse to believe the scientists are going to pay the price for their ignorance.Featured Image: Larry Busacca/Getty Images for IFP | 1real |
Trump says he'll accept 'clear' election result, reserves right to challenge | DELAWARE, OHIO (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump on Thursday said he would accept a “clear” election result but reserved the right to file a legal challenge, clarifying his stance a day after he refused to promise he would trust the outcome if he loses on Nov. 8. “Of course, I would accept a clear election result, but I would also reserve my right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result,” Trump said at a rally in Ohio. Asked on Wednesday at his final debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton if he would accept a losing outcome, Trump said he would “keep you in suspense.” | 0fake |
France's Macron invites Hariri and family to France | PARIS (Reuters) - Lebanon s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri and his family will travel to France in coming days, a French presidential source said on Wednesday, after Emmanuel Macron invited him as part of efforts to defuse tensions in the Middle East. Speaking in the German city of Bonn after a climate conference, Macron said his invitation was not an offer of exile for Hariri, who announced his abrupt resignation as premier 11 days ago from the Saudi capital Riyadh. Lebanese President Michel Aoun, who has refused to accept his prime minister s resignation, earlier on Wednesday accused the Saudis of holding Hariri hostage - and called this an act of aggression. Asked if he was offering Hariri exile, Macron said: No, not at all. I hope that Lebanon will be stable, and that political choices should be in accordance with institutional rule. We need a strong Lebanon with her territorial integrity respected. We need leaders who are free to make their own choices and speak freely. France has close relations with Lebanon, which was under French control between the world wars, and with Hariri, who has a home in France and spent several years in the country. His father Rafik was a close friend of former French President Jacques Chirac. Macron s invitation came after he spoke to both Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Hariri by telephone, the Elysee said in a statement. Saudi Arabia has denied detaining Hariri or coercing him to quit. One source in the presidential Elysee Palace said Hariri was expected to arrive in France in the coming days . France s offer appeared to be a last-minute one, with no indication from French officials this morning that this was on the cards. A French government spokesman in a weekly briefing even called on Hariri to return to Beirut to offer his resignation. French diplomats in Paris appeared caught off-guard. They said Macron had found a way to get Hariri out of Saudi Arabia without any side losing face, but questioned how this would pan out in the longer term. This has come out of the blue, one diplomat said. The president wants to ease tensions ... but we re also going round in circles. Are we just inheriting the problems? Hariri on Wednesday reiterated on Twitter that he would soon return to Beirut. It was not clear whether he might stop in Beirut before coming to Paris. France s foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, arrived in Riyadh on Wednesday evening to dine with Crown Prince Mohammed and will meet Hariri on Thursday afternoon. Saudi Arabia has long been considered Hariri s main external supporter. Aoun is a political ally of Lebanon s Hezbollah, a powerful Shi ite Muslim group with close ties to Iran. Lebanon s coalition government was formed last year through a political deal that made Aoun president, Hariri prime minister, and included members of Hezbollah in the cabinet. Macron last week made a last-minute stopover in Riyadh on his way back from the Gulf to see Crown Prince Mohammed, and has since spoken to Aoun and hosted the Lebanese foreign minister in Paris on Tuesday. | 0fake |
Speaker of Ethiopian parliament submits resignation | ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The speaker of Ethiopia s lower house of parliament submitted his resignation on Sunday, one of the highest-ranking officials to do so since the ruling EPRDF coalition came to power in 1991. Abadula Gemeda did not disclose reasons behind his decision, but said he would disclose the factors once his move was approved by parliament. Analysts in the Horn of Africa country said Abadula, an ethnic Oromo, may have decided to step down owing to disapproval of the government s response to unrest that roiled Ethiopia s Oromiya region in 2015 and 2016. The violence there forced the government to impose a nine-month state of emergency that was only lifted in August. Given the existence of circumstances that do not enable me to continue in this position, I have submitted my resignation to my political party and the House of People s Representatives, he said in a short speech on national television. I will disclose the reasons behind my decision once my request is reviewed by the House of People s Representatives, the former defense minister added. The unrest was provoked by a development scheme for the capital Addis Ababa that dissidents said amounted to land grabs and turned into broader anti-government demonstrations over politics and human rights abuses. It included attacks on businesses, many of them foreign-owned, including farms growing flowers for export. In April, a government-sanctioned investigation said 669 people had been killed during one period in the violence and more than 29,000 people arrested | 0fake |
WATCH: MI DEMOCRAT Candidate For AG Makes Ad Promising Not To Show Her P*nis If She’s Elected | Who can you trust most not to show you their penis in a professional setting? Democrat Dana Nessel asks in the new ad. Is it the candidate who doesn t have a penis? I d so say. She then makes several promises to her voters: I will not sexually harass my staff. And I won t tolerate it in your workplace either. I won t walk around in a half-open bathrobe. The ad follows allegations of sexual misconduct against U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., among others.Conyers, who allegedly used taxpayer money to settle with an accuser, won t seek re-election next year, Detroit s WDIV-TV reported.Nessel, a former assistant prosecutor vying against Republican state House Speaker Tom Leonard and Democratic state Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker, told WJBK-TV that she does not think the ad crosses a line. I think the ad was rather tame when it comes to the news stories that have come out whether they are journalists, whether they re in Hollywood, or whether they re political representatives, she said. We ve heard some pretty lewd stories coming out. Fox News | 1real |
OAS may request new Honduras election to correct 'irregularities' | TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The Organization of American States (OAS) said on Wednesday it may call for new Honduran elections if any irregularities undermine the credibility of results in last month s disputed vote that has sparked a crisis in the Central American nation. In a statement, the OAS also called for an immediate return of constitutional rights such as freedom of movement. The Honduran government imposed a curfew last week when protests erupted over the vote count in the Nov. 26 presidential election, which has been tarnished by allegations of electoral fraud. The statement, released by OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, said the election result was not yet certain, and measures including a partial recount should be undertaken to clarify the outcome and restore credibility. It is clear that it is not possible, without an exhaustive and meticulous process of verification that determines the existence or not of an electoral fraud ... to restore the confidence of the population, the statement said. Official results showed Honduras conservative President Juan Orlando Hernandez with a narrow 1.6 percentage point lead over center-left opposition leader Salvador Nasralla. However, no victor has yet been declared by the election tribunal. Nasralla on Wednesday evening called for an international arbiter to oversee the recount, saying he no longer recognized the Honduran tribunal because of its role in the process. If we hadn t had international participation, we would truly be in the law of the jungle, he said. David Matamoros, head of the country s electoral tribunal, told reporters that the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship, which Nasralla fronts, must still deliver its voting tally sheets and documentation so the tribunal can review the election results. Then the tribunal will discuss the OAS recommendations and what can be done to implement them, Matamoros added. When asked about the possibility of a new election, Matamoros said if the complaints about the process are borne out, the whole issue of the vote will need to be revalidated. However, this would only be possible if the tribunal was in a position to review all the tally sheets, he added. Eight Latin American governments said in a joint statement on Wednesday they supported the tribunal s decision to hold a total recount of the disputed ballots, and urged Hondurans to remain calm while awaiting final results. Uruguay was added to a list of seven originally issued by Mexico s foreign ministry. Nasralla has demanded a recount and encouraged his supporters to protest, triggering demonstrations. At least 14 people - including two police - have died in the protests, according to a human rights group in Honduras known as COFADEH. Hernandez s center-right National Party said it would hold a march in Tegucigalpa on Thursday to show solidarity with the president, pledging a turnout in the thousands. The U.S. State Department on Wednesday advised U.S. citizens to delay or cancel unnecessary travel to mainland Honduras due to ongoing political protests and the potential for violence. The election results also show Hernandez s National Party winning the most seats in Congress. But third-placed presidential candidate Luis Zelaya, of the Liberal Party, said on Wednesday that irregularities in the vote had polluted the results for legislators as well as the presidency, and reiterated that Nasralla had won the top job. He did not specify what the alleged irregularities were but said his party would share its copies of ballot sheets, including those disputed by the opposition, with the OAS. On Tuesday, Nasralla said the electoral tribunal should review virtually all the ballots. If the tribunal was unwilling to do that, he proposed a run-off between himself and Hernandez, something not allowed for under Honduran law. Hernandez, who as president has won praise from the United States for his crackdown on violent street gangs, has not claimed victory in broadcast comments in recent days and indicated on Wednesday that his party would support a recount. | 0fake |
White House says Trump tweet meets Comey tapes records request | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said in a letter on Friday that a tweet by President Donald Trump on Thursday was the formal answer to a request by the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee for information about records of conversations with fired FBI Director James Comey. The letter to Republican Representative Mike Conaway, who is leading the panel’s investigation into Russian interference to the 2016 election, and Representative Adam Schiff, the committee’s top Democrat, said: “In response to the committee’s inquiry, we refer you to President Trump’s June 22, 2017, statement regarding this matter.” The House panel said on June 9 it had written to Don McGahn, the White House counsel, asking about the existence of any recordings or memos covering Comey’s conversations with Trump and asked that copies of the materials be provided to the panel by June 23. Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday, a day before the deadline, that he did not know if there were recordings of his conversations with Comey, but he did not make or have any such recordings. Conaway told reporters Friday morning that Trump’s tweet was not a sufficient response. Schiff said in a statement on Thursday that Trump’s Twitter comment stopped short of denying the White House had tapes or recordings and said the White House must respond in writing. (This version of the story corrects Conaway’s role to leader of investigation from chairman in second paragraph) | 0fake |
Trump’s Shady ‘Charity’ Hurt Children, And This is How | Donald Trump s controversial foundation is once again being exposed for engaging in unsavory practices. Already connected to possible tax evasion and use as a weird piggy bank for Trump and his family, now it is apparent that the Trump Foundation s funds were used to hurt children.The Daily Beast followed the money trail between the Trump Foundation and the anti-vaccination group Generation Rescue, headed by former Playboy model and actress Jenny McCarthy.Donald Trump has not only spread dangerous misinformation about the links between vaccines and autism, but he s also given money to the anti-vaxxer cause.His monetary support for the conspiracy theory came in the form of a $10,000 check to an anti-vaccine charity run by former Playboy model and television host Jenny McCarthy.Trump s monetary and moral support for McCarthy s discredited ideas have real, harmful effects they contribute to the mainstreaming of a conspiracy theory at a time when parents are increasingly deciding to opt out of vaccines despite medical advice.Vaccination is of supreme importance, especially among children who are susceptible to numerous diseases and are often exposed to them in a school environment where they must interact repeatedly with each other. Opposing vaccination and sowing doubt about them harms and kills children. The anti-science, anti-vaccination movement has led to a return of several diseases including whooping cough, which has now killed more children in the last 5 years than it has in a long time.Trump has previously gone on the record with his anti-vaccination views, pushing the idea that they are dangerous, which is absurd as his claim that climate change was a conspiracy created by the Chinese or that Ted Cruz s father was part of the operation to kill President John F. Kennedy.So in addition to the Trump Foundation being used to raise Trump s profile as a donor to charity with him rarely actually putting any of his own money in now it is enabling dangerous propaganda that hurts children.Featured image via Flickr/Flickr | 1real |
WATCH DINESH D’SOUZA’S GREAT COMEBACK To A Student Who Called Him A “Hack” [Video] | If you want to call me a hack, you should probably be able to point out at least one thing I said that was demonstrably false. pic.twitter.com/3UCo3z2umH Dinesh D Souza (@DineshDSouza) March 26, 2017 | 1real |
‘Family Values’ GOP Governor Caught In ‘Inappropriate’ Situation With Woman (VIDEO) | Alabama governor Robert Bentley admitted today that he made inappropriate statements over a period of time with his aide, Rebekah Mason. In a press conference, Bentley denied he had done anything illegal while also denying that he had a physical affair or sexual activity with his aide.Gov. Robert Bentley denies "physical affair." #alpolitics pic.twitter.com/YURnodcVD4 Tim Lockette (@TLockette_Star) March 23, 2016The revelation comes after Spencer Collier, the former Secretary of Alabama Law Enforcement, claimed that the governor was involved in an extramarital affair.Spencer Collier, who was fired Tuesday, has come forward with claims that he heard a recording that indicates the governor had an improper personal relationship with political adviser Rebekah Mason, and that Bentley refused to end the relationship even though it cost him his marriage to Dianne Bentley.Collier also claimed that, according to a New York Times report, he had cautioned the governor about the risk of illegal conduct if any state resources were used to facilitate an affair A local news website, Al.com, has heard the tape in question.AL.com has heard the recording though not from Collier in which a man who sounds like Bentley speaks to a woman he calls Rebekah. On it he describes how he likes to approach her from behind and put his hands on her.At other times he says he loves her, and that he should re-arrange his office to make it more private.Like many other conservative Republicans caught in these situations, Bentley identified himself with the family values movement on the conservative right.The 72-year-old Bentley, a Republican serving in his second term, repeatedly has touted his Christian faith and conservative family values to attract voters. He long has served as a deacon at First Baptist Church of Tuscaloosa. Bentley made national headlines in 2011 when, shortly after his inauguration, he said, Anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I m telling you, you re not my brother and you re not my sister. And I want to be your brother. It s only matter of time before all of the family values GOP politicians are caught in some kind of sexual scandal or another.Featured image via Flickr | 1real |
DISTURBING: Tomi Lahren Panders To “The View” Hags, Says She’s Always Been “Pro-Choice”…OOPS!…Video Emerges Of Lahren Calling Pro-Choicer’s “Straight Up Baby Killers” Only 3 Months Ago | FORMER CONSERVATIVE darling Tomi Lahren made a big deal about her upcoming appearance on The View. I know, because I set the alarm on my phone to remind me when she would be on their show so I wouldn t miss it. I figured there would certainly be fireworks, and at the very least, a few memorable moments with the marxist loudmouth hosts of The View. I thought if nothing else, it would be entertaining to see her put Joy Behar in her place. People have come to know and love The Blaze s conservative firebrand Tomi Lahren for her outspoken commentary on current political and social issues. Until now, most of us have believed that she actually meant what she was telling us. When she finally appeared on The View last Friday, she was mostly dealt softball questions and her answers were clearly more about getting along with the angry hosts than the defense of conservatism. That s okay I could live with that. As disappointed as I was in her wimpy responses to their ridiculous questions, nothing could have prepared me for the moment she decided to step out of her conservative persona and cross-over to the dark side, when host Sonny Hostin asked her about her position on abortion.Lahren: No, I m pro-choice, and here s why. I am a constitutional, you know, someone that loves the constitution. I am someone who is for limited government. So I can t sit here, and be a hypocrite and say I m for limited government, but I think that the government should I think that the government should decide what a woman can do with their bodies. I can t sit here and say that as a Republican. And I can say, ya know what, I m for limited government, so stay out of my guns and you can stay out of my body as well. Joy Behar jumped in (panting with excitement): You need to go out and speak to women about that. Lahren responded: I do. I do every day. And I get a lot of attacks from conservative women as well. I think it s equal hate from all sides for me. Really Tomi? You argue with women every day about your position on abortion? Maybe you can explain how only 3 months ago, you called people like Lena Dunham who were pro choice straight up baby killers! (Watch 2nd video below)Here is a short clip showing the abortion exchange: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOT3EiKCL-w&feature=youtu.beHere s Lahren calling anyone who is pro-choice a straight up baby killer . Note the Christmas tree in the background. That s because this video is only 3 months old. Wow apparently a lot happens in 3 months! Does she realize how damaging she is to her own narrative? Think about it: the pro-choicers are supposed to be about rare and safe abortions. That s how they avoid sounding like straight-up baby killers.Then we have Lena freakin Dunham out there wishing she could have murdered a fetus. Wishing for the option to kill your child doesn t exactly say much about the cause, her character, or the pro-choice movement.And here I thought the loving Left were all about peace, and love, and light, except when it comes to the unborn, I suppose. Then it s a different story, a story they write and rewrite to fit their narrative. | 1real |
Why Do You Want a Pet? Can You Afford It? - The New York Times | Americans love their pets. of all households in the United States have at least one. That includes 86 million cats and 78 million dogs, according to the American Pet Products Association, and the total climbs to 310 million when you include all the birds, fish, small animals, horses and reptiles. But suppose you are in the minority. Should you get a pet? Here’s a checklist. Philip Tedeschi, the executive director of the Institute for Connection at the University of Denver, said the motives for getting a pet could be complex. If you don’t fully understand the reasons, that can lead to problems. For instance, a owner driven by profound loneliness or isolation might be incapable of evaluating whether the pet is being treated properly. Owners have to be aware of their pet’s social and emotional needs. Otherwise the animal might behave in an antisocial or way. “The old adage that you have to love yourself to love someone else or that you need to be healthy to be in a healthy relationship can apply to our relationships with animals,” he said. The average cost of veterinary care per household in 2011 was $375, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. Consider, too, the costs of unforeseen illnesses or injuries and the need for extra care. Add food, boarding, grooming and toys, and you can expect to tack on several hundred dollars more a year in expenses. When it comes to adopting a dog or a cat, “you will probably have this pet longer than your car, your job and possibly even longer than your current relationship,” said Arden Moore, who hosts “Oh Behave,” a podcast on Pet Life Radio. • Is anyone at home allergic to animals? • How tolerant are you about shedding, dander and pet messes? How much do you value an immaculate home? • Are there children at home? If so, how old are they? Will they be compatible with a pet? • Where will you get your pet? People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals recommends rescuing stray animals or adopting from a shelter. • Do you live in an apartment or a house? Can you provide the amount of space that a pet will need to be comfortable? • Do you have friends, neighbors or relatives who could look after your pet while you are away? • Would your lifestyle and work schedule allow you adequate time to interact with your pet? Do you travel often? | 0fake |
The U.S. National Bird Is Now a Drone | (128 fans) - Advertisement -
Officially, of course, the national bird of the United States is that half-a-peace-sign that Philadelphia sports fans like to hold up at opposing teams. But unofficially, the film National Bird has it right: the national bird is a killer drone.
Finally, finally, finally, somebody allowed me to see this movie. And finally somebody made this movie. There have been several drone movies worth seeing , most of them fictional drama , and one very much worth avoiding ( Eye in the Sky ). But National Bird is raw truth, not entirely unlike what you might fantasize media news reports would be in a magical world in which media outlets gave a damn about human life.
The first half of National Bird is the stories of three participants in the U.S. military's drone murder program, as told by them. And then, just as you're starting to think you'll have to write that old familiar review that praises how well the stories of the victims among the aggressors were told but asks in exasperation whether any of the victims of the actual missiles have any stories, National Bird expands to include just what is so often missing, and even to combine the two narratives in a powerful way.
Heather Linebaugh wanted to protect people, benefit the world, travel, see the world, and use super cool technology. Apparently our society did not explain to her in time what it means to join the military. Now she suffers guilt, anxiety, moral injury, PTSD, sleep disorder, despair, and a sense of responsibility to speak out on behalf of friends, other veterans, who have killed themselves or become too alcoholic to speak for themselves. Linebaugh helped murder people with missiles from drones, and watched them die, and identified body parts or watched loved ones gather up body parts.
Even while still in the Air Force, Linebaugh was on a suicide watch list and had a psychologist recommend moving her to a different sort of job, but the Air Force refused. She has episodes. She sees things. She hears things. But she's forbidden to discuss her work with friends or even with a therapist who doesn't have the proper "security clearance."
We let Daniel down even more than Heather. He says he actually opposed militarism but was homeless and desperate, so he joined the military. We could have given him a house for much less than we paid him to help murder people at Fort Meade.
Lisa Ling worked on a database filled by drone surveillance that compiled information on 121,000 "targets" in two years. Multiply that by a dozen years. With 90% of victims not among the targets, add up how many people would die in the targeting of the whole list. That'd be over 7 million. But it's not numbers that have poisoned the souls of these three veterans; it's children and mothers and brothers and uncles lying in pieces on the ground.
Ling travels to Afghanistan to see the place at ground level and to meet with drone victims. She meets a little boy who lost his leg and his 4-year-old brother and his sister and his father. On February 2, 2010, drone "pilots" at Creech Air Base murdered 23 innocent members of one family. - Advertisement -
The filmmakers have voices read the written transcript of what the drone operators said to each other before, during, and after sending in the missiles that did the damage. This is worse than Collateral Murder . The people whose job it is to identify children and others who should not be murdered have identified children among the group of people being targeted. The "pilots" at Creech are eager to reject this information and to get onto killing as many people as they can. Their lust for blood drives the decision process. Only after they've killed 23 people do they recognize children among the survivors, and the lack of guns.
We see the bodies brought home to bury. Those injured describe their suffering, physical as well as mental. We see people being fitted with artificial legs. We hear Afghans describe their perception of drones. They imagine, just as many Americans may imagine, and just as viewers of Eye in the Sky would imagine, that drone operators have a clear, high resolution view of everything. In fact, they have a view of fuzzy little blobs on a computer screen that looks like it was created in the 1980s.
Linebaugh says there is no way to distinguish the little "civilian" blobs from little "militant" blobs. When Daniel hears President Obama claim that there is always near certainty that no civilians will be killed, Daniel explains that such knowledge is simply not possible. Linebaugh says she was often on the side of the conversation telling the "pilots" at Creech not to murder innocents, but that they always pushed for permission to kill.
Jesselyn Radack, attorney for whistleblowers, says in the film that the FBI told two whistleblowers that a terrorist group had put them on a kill list. She said that the FBI has also contacted Linebaugh's family and warned her that "terrorists" have been searching for her name online, suggesting that she fix this problem by shutting up. (She had written an op-ed in the Guardian ).
The FBI also raids Daniel's house, arriving with 30 to 50 agents, badges, guns, cameras, and search warrants. They take away his papers, electronics, and phone. They tell him he is under investigation for a possible indictment under the Espionage Act. This is the World War I-era law for targeting foreign enemies that President Obama has made a routine of using to target domestic whistleblowers. While Obama has prosecuted more people under this law than did all previous presidents combined, we probably have no way of knowing how many people have been explicitly threatened with the possibility. - Advertisement -
While we should be apologizing to, comforting, and aiding these young people rather than denying them the right to speak to anybody and threatening them with decades in prison, Lisa Ling did manage to find some kindness. Victims of drone strikes in Afghanistan told her that they forgave her. As the film ends, she's planning another trip to Afghanistan. View Ratings | Rate It http://davidswanson.org David Swanson is the author of "When the World Outlawed War," "War Is A Lie" and "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union." He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works for the online ( more... ) | 1real |
Brexit talks postponed to hand negotiators more flexibility: Britain | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Tuesday the next Brexit talks had been postponed until Sept. 25 to give negotiators the flexibility to make progress in the September round . Earlier, Brussels diplomats told Reuters a new round of talks between Britain and the European Union had been delayed until the end of the month to let Prime Minister Theresa May make a key speech on Sept. 21. The UK and the European Commission have today jointly agreed to start the fourth round of negotiations on September 25, a government spokesman said in a statement. Both sides settled on the date after discussions between senior officials in recognition that more time for consultation would give negotiators the flexibility to make progress in the September round. | 0fake |
Samantha Bee Goes There In Funniest NSFW Takedown Of Trump’s Ego Yet (VIDEO) | When it comes to Donald Trump one thing is clear: he loves himself a lot. He admires himself to the point where he may actually believe everything he touches turns to gold. He tells crowds of people, that for some reason believe him, that he s going to Make America Great Again. How? Pfft, who needs details? He s just going to do it, duh.Noticing what a braggadocios windbag the Republican presidential frontrunner is, is well, everyone, but taking to the next level is Full Frontal host Samantha Bee. On her Monday show she completely skewered the living heck out Trump and his speeches full of how much winning he is going to bring to the nation.During a rally in Albany, NY, Trump said: We re gonna start winning again. We re gonna win so much. We re gonna win at every level We re gonna win economically. We re gonna win with the economy. We re gonna win with military. We re gonna win with healthcare and for our veterans. We re gonna win with every single facet. We re gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning, and you ll say please, it s too much winning. We can t take it anymore. Mr. President it s too much, and I ll say no it isn t. Noticing how clearly this speech is more reminiscent of Fifty Shades of Grey than any sort of policy proposal, Bee appears in a blindfold asking Trump to win me harder win all over me just, try not to win in my hair. Bee then says: Sorry, I thought I was listening to my audio book of Fifty Shades of Great. I listen to the audio book because I need my hands free and the rest you ll have to see below.Let s just say, she hits the nail on the head on how much Trump loves himself, as well as how much he thinks we should all love him and his ideas and how much he s going to be winning for the country, and we should just take it, because you know, even if we hate it, we re gonna love it.Well done, Sam.Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
Russia Says Talks With U.S. Will Discuss Deal for Aleppo Rebels - The New York Times | BEIRUT, Lebanon — With the Syrian rebel enclave of eastern Aleppo shriveling, Russia said on Monday that it would start talks with the United States this week on a deal for holdout insurgents to leave, and that any who refused would be regarded as terrorists subject to deadly assault. Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia, who conveyed the announcement at a news conference in Moscow, also said Russia and the United States were close to an agreement. Mr. Lavrov added that Secretary of State John Kerry had submitted a proposal for the routes and timing of the fighters’ departure after meeting with Mr. Lavrov in Rome over the weekend. American officials acknowledged the possibility of talks with the Russians in Geneva this week but would not confirm the substance of Mr. Lavrov’s remarks, which appeared to have taken them by surprise. They also condemned the indiscriminate bombing of eastern Aleppo by Syrian forces and reiterated their calls for a humanitarian pause in the fighting, a step that Russian and Chinese diplomats vetoed on Monday at the United Nations. Mark C. Toner, a State Department spokesman, said in Washington that there had been discussion of “technical talks taking place this week, but we don’t have anything to confirm at this point. ” The United States shares Russia’s antipathy for militants linked to Al Qaeda who are hiding in eastern Aleppo. But the Americans also support other groups of fighters there who oppose President Bashar of Syria. While the United States agreed that the fighters in Aleppo were a problem, Mr. Toner said, “there’s a moderate Syrian opposition that should not and does not deserve to be bombed into submission. ” American officials, as well as the special United Nations envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, have up to now called only for a deal to evacuate several hundred fighters linked to Al Qaeda, not all the insurgents, who are believed to number several thousand. The White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, suggested there was little the United States could or would do if Syrian and Russian forces targeted any eastern Aleppo holdouts. But he denounced the aerial assaults targeting the area, calling them “disgraceful. ” Russia’s assertion that an agreement with the United States on Aleppo was close played a role in the diplomatic wrangling on Monday at the United Nations Security Council, where Russia and China vetoed a resolution that would have imposed a . Russia said the measure was unnecessary, as talks were underway with the Americans. The United States said there was no breakthrough and therefore no reason to delay a humanitarian pause. “Today, we had a chance not to end — but to briefly stop — the ongoing butchery in eastern Aleppo,” said Michele J. Sison, the deputy United States ambassador to the United Nations. “We have failed because of a cynical act. ” United Nations officials have pleaded for a cessation in fighting in order to get food and medicine into the besieged portion of Aleppo. Mr. Lavrov’s comments came during another terrifying day for civilians in Aleppo, the formerly vibrant commercial center of Syria, which has become a pivotal battleground in the nearly Syria war. Two Russian nurses in western Aleppo were killed when mortar rounds apparently fired by rebels hit an army field hospital set up to help people who had fled from areas during the government offensive. The nurses’ deaths prompted calls from supporters of the Syrian government for Russia to escalate its involvement in the battle. In the shrinking rebel redoubt on the eastern side of the city, intense artillery shelling and airstrikes forced residents to cower in basements. Some barrages were striking at the rate of a shell every second, residents reported via text message, transmitting what appeared to be audio recordings of the blasts. It was unclear how many people were killed in the Monday barrages, as makeshift health care systems in eastern Aleppo collapsed, but residents described seeing bodies on the streets because no one could pick them up. On the government side, eight people were killed by rebel shelling on Monday, state news outlets reported. The Russian news media said the two nurses were killed by shelling on an Aleppo park that had been turned by the army into a field hospital for the displaced. They were among the deaths of Russian military personnel helping Mr. Assad. Russia’s military assistance has been crucial to keeping the government afloat, and Russia has been providing food and services to people fleeing eastern Aleppo in the recent fighting, even as it has been blamed by the opposition for backing indiscriminate bombing by the government. Mr. Lavrov said he was confident that an agreement on a rebel withdrawal would be reached with the United States during talks to be held in Geneva starting on Tuesday or Wednesday. “Those armed groups who refuse to leave eastern Aleppo will be regarded as terrorists,” Mr. Lavrov told reporters. “We will treat them as such, as terrorists, as extremists and will support a Syrian Army operation against those criminal squads. ” | 0fake |
The Week That Hillary Clinton 2016 Speculation Moved From Trickle To Stream | And it looks like that time is nigh. Clinton is starting to deliver public orations again, as consultants start to eye the chessboard and grassroots activists start to gin up support and raise ducats for a campaign-in-waiting. There's no doubt that we're still several steps short of a critical mass -- let alone an announcement from the former secretary of state and presidential aspirant herself. But whatever dam had been previously holding back the flood has started to show some signs of cracking, and the discussion has begun anew.
We must pause here at the outset and offer praise to Clinton for doing everything in her power -- by which I mean, nothing at all -- to delay the sort of advance-hype for the 2016 election cycle that we might otherwise be in up to our waist. See, as long as Clinton says nothing definitive about whether she's running, she effectively "freezes the field." Other Democratic contenders can't start contending. Republican rivals who lack real game have to keep their mouths shut as well. We're not drowning in stories, speculating about when Andrew Cuomo is going to visit Des Moines (though I'm sure Des Moines can't wait), and no one is getting tumescent over the tricksy consultants Martin O'Malley is hiring.
And that's great for America! Most people can't wait to keep right on waiting to spend their every waking hour reading about the 2016 election. I don't know if there is some large group of non-partisan, single-issue voters whose primary desire is to be allowed to not have to contemplate elections four years before they happen, but if such a voting bloc exists, they all owe Hillary Clinton their support, for being a force for good in this area. They should also stop reading now, because I'm going to cave in, and try to highlight what's interesting about these recent developments.
Despite Clinton's best field-freezing efforts, we were never destined to live in a world where hot speculation over her presidential prospects were restrained. The biggest news that came out of Clinton's appearance on "60 Minutes" alongside President Barack Obama was Obama playfully calling interlocutor Steve Kroft "incorrigible" for asking whether he was endorsing Clinton for president. Days later, people went nuts over a Public Policy Polling poll that found that the state of Texas was "in play" for Clinton. And grousing from political speculators over Clinton's coyness began to manifest itself. Chris Cillizza wrote a post insisting in one breath that "Clinton likely won't have as much time to luxuriate in not working -- and not thinking about whether she wants to run in 2016 -- as she might want," and admitting in the next, "It's hard to pinpoint a particular date but it's hard to imagine her being able to wait much beyond the 2014 midterm elections."
If I'm not mistaken, Bill Clinton also launched an "office of Bill Clinton" website after his term ended, so if you wanted to hew to safe assumptions, you would probably just contend that Hillary Clinton is following the same practice. But CNN continued in an altogether different vein, contending that the photo was "attention-grabbing," that there was special meaning in the way her old website sent visitors to the new one that was a de facto reason to speculate on her presidential ambitions, and that there was a special mystery in the way that the "site was purchased through a service allowing the purchaser to remain anonymous."
It's not uncommon, of course, for political luminaries to find themselves the beneficiaries of supporters who want to build a "campaign-in-waiting." Back in 2008, Ed Rollins tried to do much the same for Mike Huckabee. Similar efforts were made on behalf of Jon Huntsman and Mitch Daniels. The efforts didn't amount to much. Huntsman was the only one of the three who ran, and he didn't get much out of the odd surreal motorcycle ads that were created ahead of the launch beyond low-single digits in most national polls. Rollins, failing to earn Huckabee's assent, migrated to the campaign of Michele Bachmann. It was a strange arrangement, and it did not end well.
But what Clinton supporters may have brewing could end up being a thing apart. For starters, this undertaking is going to move real money. My colleague Michael McAuliff offers a game prediction: when the next round of campaign filings are perused, you're going to see donations in the amount of $20.16 moving in Clinton's direction. With Carville's imprimatur, Ready For Hillary PAC is going to catch some of that scratch for its coffers. That means the unannounced Clinton "campaign" is going to have a double-freeze on the field -- money will be piling up in her corner from the grassroots, and big institutional donors will remain leery of backing someone else's horse until an official decision from Clinton makes it okay to mull backing an O'Malley or a Cuomo.
More importantly, these supporters aren't taking a flier on an unknown. If you recall the draft effort to bring Gen. Wesley Clark into the 2004 campaign, in the apparent belief that his military background would be a compelling "x-factor" in the Democratic field, this isn't it. DraftWesleyClark did a respectable job -- in the opening two-week stretch of Clark's campaign, they raised over $3.5 million. But Clark ran from an underdog position, never manifested much facility for communicating on the stump, badly miscalculated by avoiding the Iowa caucuses (where the entire campaign storyline shifted in John Kerry's favor), and ended up as one of the field's semi-respectable also-rans -- not a guy who'd proved worthy of being "next in line."
Pareene suggests that the "rebranding" efforts the GOP is currently embarked upon might serve as a vital check against the possibility of a return to the paranoid style of Clinton bashing. But between now and 2016, there's going to be a midterm election. The vagaries of redistricting makes the GOP's retention of a House majority a rather easy hang. In the Senate, they have a puncher's chance at returning Harry Reid to minority status, and even if they don't, their filibustering super-minority is working out just fine. By the time the dust has settled on Election Night 2014, the GOP may well declare their "rebranding" to have been a success. | 0fake |
Turkey in Turmoil and Chaos Since Purge Aimed at Dissenters - The New York Times | ISTANBUL — When Aynur Barkin became one of roughly 40, 000 teachers purged from Turkey’s education system after last year’s attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, she was not immediately replaced. As a result, her students were forced to join the third grade, tripling their original class size. “I could pay attention to each of them one by one,” said Ms. Barkin, 37, who was fired in February from a school west of Istanbul. “But their new teacher can’t do that. ” That is one example of the administrative upheaval and chaos caused by the government’s vast purge of Turkish institutions since the failed coup in July — the backdrop for a referendum on Sunday to expand the president’s powers. Mr. Erdogan’s government has sought to root out any remaining dissent by targeting nearly every segment of society. It has also used the purge as cover for a crackdown on dissidents of all stripes, including leftists like Ms. Barkin. The numbers are extraordinary. The government has fired or suspended about 130, 000 people suspected of being dissidents from the public and private sectors. Most are accused of affiliations with the Gulen movement, the Islamic followers of Fethullah Gulen, the cleric accused of orchestrating the putsch. More than 8, 000 army officers, 8, 000 police officers, 5, 000 academics and 4, 000 judges and prosecutors have been forced out, according to estimates. The social cost has been significant. Watchdogs say that around 1, 200 schools, 50 hospitals and 15 universities have been closed. Affected schoolchildren have usually been able to find places in local state schools — but their purged parents have mostly been frozen out of the job market. Turkey has become “like an prison,” said Sezgin Yurdakul, 40, who was fired from the Istanbul ferry system because his daughter attended a school on a scholarship. Mr. Yurdakul’s name is blacklisted on a national database, so no employer has yet dared to give him a new job. He, like thousands of other purged employees of the state, is now living off his savings. The vacuum left by people like Mr. Yurdakul has prompted many Turks to question which individuals are permitted to fill the void — and which factions, if any, have benefited. Mr. Erdogan’s allies argue that a wide range of groups has filled the void. But some claim that the gaps have been largely plugged by members of other Islamic orders, or loyalists from the president’s Justice and Development Party, known as the A. K. P. “The A. K. P. ’s own cadres are filling the void,” said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the largest opposition party. “They want to establish a bureaucratic structure that accepts whatever the politicians say. ” Mustafa Karadag, the head of the judges’ union, says that gaps in the judiciary have often been filled by novices who can provide letters of accreditation from a legal guild with links to the A. K. P. “This has allowed access to the judicial and prosecutorial professions to those who receive lower marks but who have a closer relationship to the government, or who are able to procure references from them,” Mr. Karadag said. The government denies this. Ibrahim Kalin, the president’s official spokesman, said in a recent briefing with reporters that those let go had been “replaced by ordinary people” who had “all gone through very transparent, open examinations. ” But even some of the president’s critics say the situation is too chaotic, and the purges too widespread, for one faction alone to have benefited. To fill the holes in the bureaucracy and the political sphere, some say, Mr. Erdogan has had to rely on nationalists, nationalists, novices and recalled retirees, as well as party loyalists and Islamists. “The perception among Turks is that Erdogan rules everything, but that’s not the case,” said Orhan Gazi Ertekin, a judge who heads the Democratic Judicial Association, a liberal legal watchdog. “There are various groups, all different to each other, that previously plotted against each other, but are now in alliance” against the Gulenists. The most striking example may be that of Dogu Perincek, the leader of the tiny Patriotic Party. He was jailed for plotting to overthrow Mr. Erdogan before his conviction was quashed in 2014. Upon his release, Mr. Perincek pledged to “demolish” Mr. Erdogan’s government, which he accuses of undermining Turkey’s secular system. Yet, in a recent interview, Mr. Perincek offered qualified approval of some of Mr. Erdogan’s recent policies. “There’s no reason for us to fight. We became side by side. They are now following our program,” he said, referring to Mr. Erdogan’s government. Mr. Erdogan also has the unlikely support of the Nationalist Movement Party, also known as the M. H. P. a nationalist group whose votes helped him secure parliamentary backing for the referendum. In return, senior officials with the nationalist group privately say, they expect cabinet seats after the referendum. If they get what they want, it would constitute an unlikely for a party whose leader once called Mr. Erdogan a “political disaster. ” In the military, the firings of thousands of officers have led to no obvious ideological victor. Mr. Erdogan raised eyebrows with the appointment last August of Adnan Tanriverdi, a former general, as his new military adviser. Mr. Tanriverdi was expelled from the army in 1996 because of concerns over his religiosity. He has since run a group for other soldiers fired for similar reasons in the late 1990s, known as the Association of Justice Defenders. His appointment as Mr. Erdogan’s adviser prompted claims that the president had enlisted Mr. Tanriverdi to help install loyalists in the army. But Mr. Tanriverdi’s allies said that no other members of his association had been appointed to positions of significance. Other observers have concluded that a mix of factions has benefited from the purge of the military. ultranationalists — known as Eurasianists and sometimes associated with Mr. Perincek — have profited at the expense of officers, according to two military experts at Sabanci University in Istanbul. “It seems for now that the Eurasianists will hold on to their influence and ranks, but for how long remains a question,” Megan Gisclon and Metin Gurcan, a former officer in the Turkish special forces, wrote in a briefing last year. One former military prosecutor says such was the scale of undercover Gulenists’ infiltration over the last two decades that they are still the largest faction in the armed forces. “In the Turkish armed forces,” said Ahmet Zeki Ucok, who once led investigations into Gulenists in the military, “if there is a group that currently is influential, it’s still the Gulenists. ” In some parts of higher education, the vacuum has not been filled. At Ankara University, half of the 14 professors in the university’s human rights law department have been let go, and it has had to scrap more than half its courses. It will not admit new students during the next academic year. The remaining professors have had to triple the number of students in their care, and they have no ability to supervise new arrivals. “How can we write our dissertations?” asked Emine Ay, a master’s student who has been left without a supervisor. Her department head, Prof. Kerem Altiparmak, said: “If our professors are not reinstated, this program will end. These are the last students we will see in this program. ” Some wonder if this, in fact, is the goal: to dismantle one of the country’s liberal strongholds. In the judiciary, the number purged is of Turkey’s 12, 000 judges and prosecutors. “If you purge 30 to 40 percent of the judiciary, in a sense you purge it all,” Judge Ertekin said. “There’s no tradition left and no knowledge left. ” Mr. Karadag, the head of the judges’ union, said the government was filling the vacancies with loyalists. Some say the situation is dangerous for Mr. Erdogan because it leaves him vulnerable to groups beyond his control, just as his relationship with the Gulenist network once did. “As long as he depends on these alliances,” Judge Ertekin said, “a new betrayal may be on the horizon, too. ” Mr. Erdogan’s newfound allies in Parliament, the M. H. P. offer a glimpse of this vulnerability. While the party’s leadership supports expanding the president’s powers, several of its lawmakers do not. Many in the party’s ultranationalist rank and file also have yet to be convinced. In the case of Mr. Perincek, the leader of the party, his support for Mr. Erdogan goes only so far. While he applauds the president’s recent policies, he says the president has eroded the country’s secular character. Significantly, he also vehemently opposes the expansion of Mr. Erdogan’s powers, and therefore opposes the referendum. “Turkey,” Mr. Perincek said, “is not going to carry Tayyip Erdogan on its shoulders. ” | 0fake |
Leaked Deutsche Bank Speech Shows Clinton Asking Wall Street To Police Itself, Supporting US Pivot To Asia | Videos Leaked Deutsche Bank Speech Shows Clinton Asking Wall Street To Police Itself, Supporting US Pivot To Asia Clinton’s October 2014 speech to Deutsche Bank was leaked as part of WikiLeaks’ archive of John Podesta’s Gmail account, revealing more of the nominee’s agenda for the financial sector and global affairs. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton waves to supporter as she arrives at a town hall meeting, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015, in Coralville, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
MINNEAPOLIS — With just days to go before the election, a two-year-old speech to a prominent global bank provides new insight into Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s possible agenda if she takes control of the White House.
Clinton delivered the speech on Oct. 7, 2014 to Deutsche Bank in New York , but the content of that speech and an ensuing Q&A session wasn’t made public until WikiLeaks released it as part of the organization’s ongoing publication of emails and files taken from the private Gmail account of John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chair.
Clinton has faced pressure to release her speeches to banking executives throughout her presidential campaign, and particularly while vying for the Democratic nomination against Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who made campaign finance reform a central plank in his presidential platform.
In her speech, Clinton acknowledged the pressures facing Wall Street in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. She referenced the legacy of President Theodore Roosevelt in calling for moderate economic reforms:
“Remember what Teddy Roosevelt did. Yes, he took on what he saw as the excesses in the economy, but he also stood against the excesses in politics. He didn’t want to unleash a lot of nationalist, populistic reaction. He wanted to try to figure out how to get back into that balance that has served America so well over our entire nationhood.”
Roosevelt was known as a “trust buster” who was responsible for breaking up massive corporations, and he was outspoken about his wariness of big banks and wealthy business executives.
Clinton also acknowledged “that many Americans feel frustrated, some even angry,” about the economic downturn, adding: “And a lot of that anger has been directed at the financial industry.”
While recognizing the need for reforms, Clinton also seemed to suggest that the financial sector might be allowed to police itself:
“Today, there’s more that can and should be done that really has to come from the industry itself, and how we can strengthen our economy, create more jobs at a time where that’s increasingly challenging, to get back to Teddy Roosevelt’s square deal. And I really believe that our country and all of you are up to that job.”
According to one analysis of the speech and related emails, this attempt to acknowledge critics of the banking industry could have been intended as a way to placate Clinton’s critics in the event of the eventual release of the speeches.
“In an email on November 20, 2015 Clinton speechwriter Dan Schwerin explicitly noted how he left an ‘easter egg’ in the DB speech precisely in case the world came knocking and asking for Hillary’s speeches,” wrote an anonymous contributor at Zero Hedge using the name “Tyler Durden,” a shared pseudonym adopted by many writers at the site, in an analysis of the speech published on Wednesday.
In the 2015 email , Schwerin wrote:
“I wrote her a long riff about economic fairness and how the financial industry has lost its way, precisely for the purpose of having something we could show people if ever asked what she was saying behind closed doors for two years to all those fat cats. It’s definitely not as tough or pointed as we would write it now, but it’s much more than most people would assume she was saying in paid speeches. … Perhaps at some point there will be value in sharing this with a reporter and getting a story written.”
Ultimately, “Tyler Durden” noted, the Clinton campaign opted not to release the speeches .
Elsewhere in the Deutsche Bank speech, Clinton acknowledged the crucial role big banks will play in Washington’s strategic pivot to Asia. She said:
“Will we have the discipline and dexterity to follow through on our pivot to Asia where so much of the history of the 21st century will be written, while managing new and old crises in the Middle East and Europe?
Can we get our relationship with China right, navigating between the twin shoals of excessive accommodation and the potential for dangerous conflict?
Will our traditional allies in Europe and East Asia step up and share the responsibilities of upholding a global order under pressure from so many fronts?”
The focus on Asia, started under the Obama administration and likely to continue under Clinton, if her speech is any indication, involves encircling China with economic and military allies as a way to undercut China’s growing global influence. However, some historic allies like the Philippines have begun to push back against U.S. influence in the region.
Many analysts see the Trans-Pacific Partnership , a controversial trade deal, as a key element to the U.S. pivot to Asia. While initially supportive of the deal, Clinton now promises to oppose the TPP as president after facing intense pressure from Sanders and activists opposed to the deal . | 1real |
More than 60 Rohingya feared drowned as U.S. steps up pressure on Myanmar | COX S BAZAR, Bangladesh/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - More than 60 Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar are believed to have drowned when their boat capsized, the latest victims in what the United Nations says is the world s fastest-developing refugee emergency. The refugees drowned in heavy seas off Bangladesh late on Thursday, part of a new surge of people fleeing a Myanmar military campaign that began on Aug. 25 and has triggered an exodus of some 502,000 people. International anger over the crisis is growing. In New York, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley called on countries to suspend providing weapons to Myanmar over the violence. It was the first time the United States had called for punishment of Myanmar s military, but she stopped short of threatening to reimpose U.S. sanctions which were suspended under the Obama administration. Buddhist-majority Myanmar rejects accusations of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity and has denounced rights abuses. Its military launched a big offensive in response to coordinated attacks on the security forces by Rohingya insurgents in the north of Rakhine state on Aug. 25. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council the violence had spiraled into the world s fastest-developing refugee emergency, a humanitarian and human rights nightmare . Colonel Anisul Haque, head of the Bangladeshi border guards in the town of Teknaf, told Reuters more refugees had arrived over the past day or two after the number had seemed to be tailing off, with about 1,000 landing at the main entry point on the coast on Thursday. The refugee boat capsized in driving rain and high seas as darkness fell. An official with the International Organization for Migration said 23 people were confirmed dead and 40 were missing. Seventeen survived. We re now saying 40 missing, which suggests the total fatality rate will be in the range of 63, the official, Joe Millman, told a news briefing in Geneva. One survivor, Abdul Kalam, 55, said his wife, two daughters and a grandson were among the dead, who were buried at tearful funerals on Friday. Kalam said armed Buddhists came to his village about a week ago and took livestock and food. He said villagers were summoned to a military office and told there were no such people as Rohingya in Myanmar. After that he decided to leave and headed to the coast with his family, avoiding military camps on the way. A spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency said a fifth of new arrivals were suffering from acute malnutrition. The Bangladeshi Red Crescent said its clinics were treating increasing numbers of people with acute diarrhea. The World Health Organization has said one of the diseases it is particularly worried about is cholera. We re seeing the absolute perfect breeding ground for a major health crisis, said Unni Krishnan, director of Save the Children s Emergency Health Unit. In a ramping up of the pressure on Myanmar, also known as Burma, Haley echoed U.N. accusations that the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in Rakhine state was ethnic cleansing. We cannot be afraid to call the actions of the Burmese authorities what they appear to be - a brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority, Haley told the U.N. Security Council. The United States said earlier the army response to the insurgent attacks was disproportionate and the crisis raised questions about Myanmar s transition, under the leadership of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, after decades of military rule. Suu Kyi has no power over the generals under a military-drafted constitution. She has nevertheless drawn scathing criticism from around the world for not stopping the violence. The public in Myanmar, where Buddhist nationalism has surged over recent years, largely supports the offensive against the insurgents. Haley said the military must respect rights and fundamental freedoms, and those who had been accused of abuses should be removed from command and prosecuted. And any country that is currently providing weapons to the Burmese military should suspend these activities until sufficient accountability measures are in place, she said. There was no ethnic cleansing or genocide in Myanmar, its national security adviser, Thaung Tun, said at the United Nations, adding that Myanmar had invited Guterres to visit. China and Russia, which have veto powers in the Security Council, expressed support for Myanmar. The U.N. Human Rights Council extended the mandate of a Myanmar fact-finding mission by six months, until September 2018, over the objections of Myanmar, China and the Philippines. Myanmar s representative said the mission was not helpful, was not in line with the situation on the ground and would do no good to finding a solution to Rakhine issues . Myanmar says it will not grant visas to mission investigators. | 0fake |
Hollow Earth, Flying Shields and Ant-like Gods — History of the Ancient Hopi | Not only did the ancient Hopi believe their Gods inhabited the inner parts of the Earth, they also depicted mysterious Ant-like beings and flying shields thousands of years ago.
Interestingly, their legends also speak of a great flood which is a clear parallel to ancient Sumerian legends of the Great Flood .
‘Hopituh Shi-nu-mu’ is the name that one of the Native American tribes is called and means “peaceful people.”
The history of the ancient Hopi goes back thousands of years and makes them one of the oldest cultures in the world.
Unlike other mythologies of different cultures which speak of gods that descended from the heavens, in the ancient legends of the Hopi , a different story is told, speaking of mighty gods who reside in the center of the Earth.
But who were they? In a similar way, nearly all pre-Columbian cultures just like the Hopi believe that one day, not too far away, the gods who have shaped human culture will come back to Earth.
They have always lived according to the teachings that were given to them by Masauwu, the Master of the Fourth World, where ethical concepts are deeply rooted in their culture.
However, contrary to many other mythologies that are widespread around thew globe, the Hopi believe that their gods do not live in the infinite spaces of the cosmos, but live in the heart of the Earth, conveying the idea of a hollow earth existing right below our feet.
The ancient Hopi speak of their deities as ‘ant men.’ In fact, some of the petroglyphs found near Mishongnovi, Arizona, created by the ancient Hopi depict the enigmatic beings with antennas’ offering an idea of how these strange ant-men looked like.
According to the mythology of the Hopi, at the beginning of time, Taoiwa, the Creator, created Sotuknang, his nephew, giving him the task of creating nine universes or worlds: one for Taiowa, one for him and the other seven for the overabundance of life.
In a cyclical conception of time, in a similar way to Aztec mythology, these worlds would continue cyclically.
The mythology tells that story that the first three worlds, Tokpela, Tokpa, and Kuskurza have already been inhabited and subsequently destroyed due to corruption and wickedness of men.
The Hopi speak that the end of each cycle is marked by the return of the gods, and announced by the appearance of the Blue Kachina Star the sign of the ‘Day of Purification,” in which the old world is destroyed, and a new one begins.
Each time one of the worlds is destroyed, the Hopi, the faithful are saved and taken by the gods to the underground cities to escape the destruction of the planet.
In each cyclic destruction, and always according to the mythology of the Hopi, the ‘men-ant’ are crucial for human survival.
The so-called ‘First World’ (Tokpela) was apparently destroyed by the fire of global proportions, perhaps a kind of massive volcanism, or the impact of an asteroid or even a large coronal mass ejection from the Sun of catastrophic proportions.
The ‘Second World’ (Tokpa), however, was destroyed by the cold. Most likely due to a pole shift that caused a massive ice age that destroyed life on the planet.
Interestingly, in the course of these two global cataclysms, the members of the Hopi tribe were guided during the day by a cloud of strange shape and a moving star overnight, leading to the presence of the so-called ‘Ant-Man’ which the Hopi call Anu Sinom.
This creature escorted the Hopi to underground caves where they found shelter and sustenance.
Interestingly, in the ancient Sumerian language, Anum or Anu was the god of the. He is the creator of creation.
In the Hopi legend, the mysterious creature that resembled a humanoid-ant is described as a generous and hardworking creature, willing to provide food to the Hopi, and to teach them methods of food preservation so they could survive.
As you can see, like many cultures around the globe, the ancient Hopi believed in the existence of subterranean chambers, cities which are eerily similar to other theories of the Hollow Earth.
The Ancient Hopi also mention the mysterious ant-men gods who helped the ancient Hopi progress through time. However, the ancient Hopi also speak of the patuwvotas or ancient ‘ flying shields .’
According to Frank Waters , author of Mystic Mexico: The advent of the Sixth World of Consciousness (1975) it is in the ‘third world’ where the ancient Hopi introduce the concept of the Patuwvotas, or “flying shields’.
In the third cycle, it is said that humanity built a very advanced civilization, and developed the concept of “flying shields,” a sort of vehicle that can quickly travel to different places in the world and devastate entire cities on Earth.
The Third World was destroyed by Sotuknang, the nephew of the Creator, with a great flood.
Also, in this case, there is a clear parallel with the Sumerian tradition in which we talk about the great flood that destroyed all previous civilization on the planet.
This story is told in the Epic of Gilgamesh , a text which was then taken to biblical tradition in the history of the Flood and Noah’s Ark .
According to the traditions of the Hopi, the survivors of the flood are scattered in different parts of the world, under the guidance of Masauwu, the Spirit of Death and the Master of the Fourth World.
A fascinating petroglyph of the Hopi is that where Masauwu is represented piloting a wingless boat that has the shape of a dome. The similarity between the “flying shields” and what we today consider as airplanes or flying saucers, is mind boggling.
It seems evident that the flying shields or ‘ships without wings’ are something ancient cultures around the globe witnessed in the distant past.
The ancient Hopi used the term to refer to something that was capable of flying through the skies and transporting people.
Humans Are Free SOURCE | 1real |
Oath Keeper Leader: If You ‘Waco’ The Bundy Militia, There Will Be ‘Bloody, Brutal Civil War’ | The occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Reserve in Harney County, Oregon, has now reached the two week mark, and there are no signs of a coming resolution. Many people want this over and done with, especially those whose lives have been disrupted by the presence of Cliven Bundy s sons and a bunch of other pathetic wannabe patriots. Well now, the founder of another militia group, the Oath Keepers, has a message for the authorities who are monitoring the situation.Stewart Rhodes uploaded his warning message to the group s website, and insisted that the government better watch out because there will never again be a free Waco, and if they aren t careful there will be a conflagration so great, it cannot be stopped, leading to a bloody, brutal civil war. While Rhodes and his group are deliberately staying out of the Bundy situation, his message was no less threatening. In the piece, entitled Warning to U.S. Military and Federal LEOs: Do Not Follow Orders to Waco Ammon Bundy Occupation, or Risk Civil War, Rhodes said: This situation (Oregon occupation) must not be handled in a military or paramilitary fashion, using military assets, military rules of engagement, or otherwise attempting to end it suddenly by use of dynamic assault, resulting in catastrophic loss of life, as has occurred twice in recent American history, with horrific results (at Ruby Ridge in 1992, and at Waco Texas in 1993). If you do it Waco style here, you risk pushing this nation over the edge into a civil war, because there are no more free Wacos. This is precisely why, frustrating as it is, these people are still being allowed to occupy this space unlawfully. The authorities have already suggested that another Waco is exactly what these idiots want. Rhodes went on to say: Despite that reality of there being no emergency here, we have very good reason to believe that ideologue leftist bureaucrats within the Obama Administration such as within the D.O.J., and their politically minded perfumed prince puppets within the D.O.D. are pressuring you to prepare to use military assets and military rules of engagement to conduct a dynamic raid. We hear things. We ll just leave it at that. After this warning, Rhodes went on to attack the Obama Administration, as well as President Obama, himself. We agree, and therefore we warn you to do this right, no matter what the Obama Admin overlords try to demand. Do it right, or risk starting a conflagration so great, it cannot be stopped, leading to a bloody, brutal civil war. And do it right, because it is your duty to refuse those orders, under your oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And that includes the domestic enemies now occupying Washington D.C. Your brothers in heaven are watching. Do the right thing. Stand down, and refuse to obey evil, ghoulish sociopaths who salivate at the prospect of watching Americans die on camera, like they watched during Benghazi, he stated. Tell them that if they want American patriot blood, they need to strap on a plate carrier, chest rig, and an M-4 and go do it themselves. That s what these numbskulls don t get. These people are not patriots. They are criminals. This occupation cannot go on forever. Something will have to be done. While it is understandable that no one wants to see bloodshed, this cannot continue indefinitely.Then again, the Oath Keepers are a fringe group of lunatics much like these Bundy idiots, only much more organized, which also makes them more dangerous. Hopefully, the authorities aren t listening to a word they have to say, and will move to get these yahoos out of that wildlife refuge so that the local residents can get back to living their lives.Featured image via screen capture from Raw Story | 1real |
FBI SHOCKER: Hillary’s WEINER Database Exposed As More MASSIVE Than We Thought | The FBI found something, but no one had any idea it would be THIS BIG! Huma Abedin clearly never knew what Anthony Weiner had been up to on his electronic devices. That, perhaps, is the understatement of 2016. Allegedly, he was sexting countless women, some of them underage. Some of the pictures that he sent to other women were selfies that revealed his family life. The revelations are disturbing and merit investigations of their own. Given the bizarre nature of Anthony Weiner’s digital habits, who would have ever dreamed that the 2016 Presidential Election would be rocked by the far out notion of critical governmental information on a pervert’s device. No wonder Huma was seen crying on Hillary’s airplane. Huma Abedin, reportedly, says that she has no idea how the emails ended up on her estranged husband’s devices. Could Huma, and her boss, Hillary, be setting Anthony Weiner as a scapegoat? It sounds like something they might do. Perhaps more shocking is the massive amount of emails found on Weiner’s laptop. According to The Washington Post, FIVE DIGITS worth of emails are being researched. That indicates a minimum of 10,000 messages that could implicate Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton, and their new best friend, Anthony Weiner. Oddly enough, Abedin was not a regular user of the device in question. Perhaps the messages were moved there as part of a backup process? Maybe Huma did not have her device family sharing settings configured properly. At this time, Officials do not believe that any of the messages are duplicates. The FBI will certainly use programs designed to “dedup” or weed out duplicates. Any email messages that remain will be examined to determine criminality. Is this new investigation enough to bring down the person who many believe is on course to be the first female President of the United States of America? The irony of a female Presidential candidate being investigated because of a pervert male former Congressman is not lost on me. | 1real |
Honduras tribunal says partial vote recount shows same result | TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras electoral tribunal said on Sunday that a partial recount of votes from the disputed presidential election showed broadly the same result as previously, giving the lead to current President Juan Orlando Hernandez. In the partial recount of 4,753 ballot boxes, the conservative Hernandez won 50.1 percent of the votes, against some 31.5 percent for his rival Salvador Nasralla from the center-left coalition Opposition Alliance against the Dictatorship. The tribunal did not specify exactly how many votes from the Nov. 26 election were recounted. There are some 18,000 ballot boxes overall. Including all votes, Nasralla trails conservative Orlando Hernandez by 1.6 percentage points according to the official count, which has been questioned by the two main opposition parties and a wide swathe of the diplomatic corps. Observers from the Organization of American States (OAS) issued a series of recommendations this week to authorities including a recount of disputed ballots. What we can say is that the results of the recount are extremely consistent with what we had originally, David Matamoros, president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) said. The election has been plagued with problems since voting stations closed, sparking concerns of deepening political instability in the poor, violent Central American nation. The tribunal declared Nasralla the leader in an announcement on the morning after the vote, with just over half of the ballot boxes counted. However, it gave no further updates for about 36 hours. Once results then started flowing again, Nasralla s lead quickly started narrowing, sparking a major outcry. Since early December, the government imposed a curfew which is still in place in 5 of the country s 18 departments. Opposition parties on Friday presented formal requests to annul the election. On Sunday afternoon, opposition groups were expected to take to the streets to protest the results. The electoral tribunal has until December 26 to declare a winner. | 0fake |
WATCH: Keith Olbermann SKEWERS Trump And GOP For Undermining Our Democracy | In a video that everyone should see, GQ special correspondent Keith Olbermann had strong words for Donald Trump in response to his refusal to accept defeat if Hillary Clinton wins on Election Day.During the debate in Las Vegas last night, moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump point-blank if he will accept the results of the election. Trump replied by saying that he will have to look at it at the time and that I will keep you in suspense. In other words, Trump is leaving open the possibility that he will reject the results on Election Day and refuse to concede defeat because he thinks he will be cheated of victory, which gives his rabid supporters the opening to follow through on their threats of bloody violence if the election doesn t go their way.Trump s insistence that the election is rigged and his refusal to say that he will accept the results and bow out with dignity like every other losing presidential candidate has done throughout American history is a threat to our democracy and the public safety.And Keith Olbermann was so outraged by Trump s debate answer that he exploded in righteous condemnation.Olbermann said Trump s remarks make him ineligible to run for president and told Trump to burn in hell for undermining our sacred democratic tradition of peaceful transfer of power. It was the first time in American history, through dozens of venomous painful campaigns and a series of impossibly close elections, the first and only time that a candidate of a major party had violated the fundamental precept of our democracy. It shakes every one of our freedoms, it mocks every dead American soldier, it spits in every sacrifice made under our flag. It has no comparison, Olbermann continued, citing Al Gore, Andrew Jackson, and Samuel Tildon as examples of candidates who conceded defeats after close nasty elections. It foments revolution. It was and is the moral equivalent of treason. And this time it slipped passed no one. Not the moderator, not Fox News, not even Breitbart.com. No one. It was not a flash of anger from a man who gets angry once an hour. It was not another slab of red meat thrown to his crazed supporters. It was not another outrageous statement to throw up against the wall in this cheap reality game show version of a presidential campaign. He meant it! He means it! Olbermann made it clear that Trump is a danger to our values and Constitution and he only got angrier as he outed Trump as the unpatriotic sore loser that he is. Donald Trump is not invested in Democracy! Donald Trump is not invested in our Constitution! Donald Trump is not invested in America! Donald Trump is not invested in preventing people from being killed on the streets after an election like this were a Third World police state! Burn. In. Hell! In fact, Trump is so dangerous now that Olbermann called upon Republican leaders to to do everything within legal means to end Trump s candidacy because if they do not, they are responsible for whatever happens on Election Day and after. This is bigger than who is the next president of who is the next RNC chair or who is the next Speaker of the House, Olbermann declared. This is our democracy imperiled from within by a man you have permitted to speak for you. Compel him to withdraw! Now! Litigate against him, find enough doctors and have him declared psychiatrically incompetent. At minimum, cut off his funding completely and denounce him in the strongest possible terms because this nightmare, this fascist, this Trump is now your responsibility He must not be allowed the opportunity to keep us in suspense. Here s the video via Twitter.NEW: after he again subverts the sanctity of our elections, my message to @realDonaldTrump: Burn. In. Hell. pic.twitter.com/q2gvPAgq9P Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) October 20, 2016Donald Trump is insane and his supporters are insane enough that they may end up committing acts of bloody violence whether Trump concedes or not. That s how deranged they are because of Trump s rhetoric.The Republican Party needs to be severely punished at the polls for this on Election Day. They need to lose by a landslide to end this extremism and bloodthirstiness once and for all.Featured Image: Screenshot | 1real |
BOOM! PRES TRUMP Rips Media And Critics: “I was not elected to please the Washington media” [Video] | President Trump gave the commencement speech for the Coast Guard graduating class and hit back at the media during the speech: The Coast Guard Academy was the location for the speech but the speech could be directed at all Aemricans plus the media and critics of Trump. He says what everyone else is thinking Awesome! Now I want to take this opportunity to offer you some advice. Over the course of your life you will find that things are not always fair. You will find that things happen to you that you do not deserve You have to put your head down and fight, fight, fight! Never ever, ever give up. Things will turn out just fine . No politician in history has been treated worse or more unfairly. You can t let them get you down. You can t let the critics and naysayers get in the way of your dreams. TRUMP ADDED: The people understand what I m doing and that s the most important thing. I didn t t get elected to serve the Washington media or the special interests, he said. I got elected to serve the forgotten men and women and that s what I m doing. Great speech! He nails it!FULL SPEECH:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNzZXf2gk7U | 1real |
Battle for the Ages | Here's something interesting from The Unz Review... Recipient Name Recipient Email =>
Donald Trump’s red wave on Election Day was an unprecedented body blow against neoliberalism. The stupid early-1990s prediction about the ‘end of history’ turned into a – possible – shock of the new. The new global nativism? Perhaps a new push towards democratic socialism? Too early to tell.
Once again. A body blow, not a death blow. Like the cast of The Walking Dead, the zombie neoliberal elite simply won’t quit. For the Powers That Be/Deep State/Wall Street axis, there’s only one game in town, and that is to win, at all costs. Failing that, to knock over the whole chessboard, as in hot war.
Hot war has been postponed, at least for a few years. Meanwhile, it’s enlightening to observe the collective American and Eurocrat despair about a world they can’t understand anymore; Brexit, Trumpquake, the rise of the far-right across the West. For the insulated financial/tech/think-tank elites of liquid modernity, criticism of neoliberalism – with is inbuilt deregulation, privatization a-go-go, austerity obsession – is anathema.
The angry, white, blue collar Western uprising is the ultimate backlash against neoliberalism – an instinctive reaction against the rigged economic casino capitalism game and its subservient political arms. That’s at the core of Trump winning non-college white voters in Wisconsin by 28 points. Blaming “whitelash” , racism, WikiLeaks or Russia is no more than childish diversionary tactics.
The key question is whether the backlash may engender a new Western drive towards democratic socialism – read David Harvey’s books for the road map – or just nostalgic nationalism raging against the neoliberal Washington/EU/NAFTA/ globalization machine.
Read my lips: much lower taxes
Trump is proposing to turn the tables on the neoliberal game. Throughout his campaign he criminalized free trade – the essence of globalization – for decimating the American working class, even as US businesses blamed free trade for forcing them to squeeze workers’ wages.
So let’s see how Trump will be able to impose his priorities. In parallel to addressing the appalling structural decline in US manufacturing, he wants to pull a China: a massive $1 trillion infrastructure project over 10 years via public-private partnerships and private investments encouraged by lower taxes. That’s supposed to create a wealth of jobs.
Lower corporate taxes in this case translate into a whopping $3 trillion over 10 years, something like 1.6 percent of GDP. That would be the way to incite huge multinationals to repatriate the hundreds of billions of dollars in profits stashed abroad. This fiscal shock would create 25 million jobs in the US over the next 10 years, and propel a 4 percent growth rate.
And then there’s the protectionist drive that will renegotiate NAFTA and kill TPP for good. Not to mention raising import tariffs over manufactured products (many by de-localized US multinationals) imported from China and Mexico.
It’s open to fierce debate how Trumponomics will manage to square the circle; with more economic growth fueled by less taxes, imports will rise to satisfy internal demand. But if these products are subjected to stiffer tariffs, they will become more expensive, and inflation will inevitably rise.
Anyway, the bottom line of protectionist Trumponomics would be a huge blow against global trade. Deglobalization, anyone?
Asia braces for impact
Predictably, the heart of deglobalization will be the Trump-China relationship. Throughout the campaign, Trump blamed China for currency manipulation and proposed a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports.
In Hong Kong banking circles, no one believes in it. Key argument: the already strapped basket of “deplorables” simply won’t have the means to pay more for these Chinese imports.
Another thing entirely would be for Trumponomics to find mechanisms to hurt US companies that de-localize in Asia. That would translate into serious problems for outsourcing Meccas such as India and the Philippines. Outsourcing in the Philippines, for instance, serves mostly US companies and attracts revenue as crucial to the nation as total Filipino worker remittances from abroad, something like 9 percent of GDP.
It’s quite enlightening in this context to consider what Narayana Murthy – founder of Indian IT major Infosys – told the CNBC TV-18 network; “What is in the best interest of America is for its corporations to succeed, for its corporations to create more jobs… to export more… so I’m very positive.”
Four months ago Nomura Holdings Inc. issued a report titled “Trumping Asia” . No less than 77 percent of respondents expected Trump to brand China a currency manipulator; and 75 percent predicted he will impose tariffs on exports from China, South Korea and Japan.
So no wonder all across Asia the next months will be nerve-wracking. Asia – and not only China – is the factory of the world. Any Trump trade restriction over China will reverberate all across Asia.
Brace for impact: deglobalized Trumponomics vs. Neoliberalism will be a battle for the ages.
Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007), Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge and Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009). His latest book is Empire of Chaos . He may be reached at . (Reprinted from RT by permission of author or representative) | 1real |
Coalition of 13 states to challenge Trump on vehicle emission standards | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New York State’s attorney general and 12 other top state law enforcement officials said on Friday they would mount a vigorous court challenge to any effort to roll back vehicle emission rules by the Trump administration. In March, President Donald Trump ordered a review of U.S. vehicle fuel-efficiency standards from 2022-2025 put in place by the Obama administration, saying they were too tough on the auto industry. The push to weaken the rules by the Trump administration comes as automakers are worried that consumers shift to larger vehicles and low gas prices will make it expensive or impossible to meet the regulations. They also fear a prolonged fight with states over the rules could make revising their product plans difficult. Democratic state officials have been increasingly aggressive in challenging Trump administration regulatory rollback efforts. “In light of the critical public health and environmental benefits the standards will deliver, if EPA acts to weaken or delay the current standards for model years 2022-25, like California, we intend to vigorously pursue appropriate legal remedies to block such action,” the state attorneys wrote in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency including Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Iowa, Washington State, Oregon and Rhode Island. An EPA spokesman said Friday the agency is reviewing the letter. Automakers including General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Toyota Motor Corp say the Obama administration did not conduct a proper review to ensure those rules are feasible. Automakers have met with Trump administration officials in recent months and hope to reach a deal with California and other states on vehicle fuel efficiency standards. Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group, said automakers “urge everyone to avoid pre-judging the results” of the ongoing review. “A process is now under way again for a thoughtful and coordinated analysis,” California has opposed weakening the rules, threatened to pursue tougher standards unilaterally and could mount a legal challenge. The White House plans to hold negotiations with car companies, California and potentially other states. A deal would remove uncertainty for automakers, who need years of lead time to engineer future models and want uniform rules across all 50 states. The Obama administration’s rules, negotiated with automakers in 2011, were aimed at doubling average fleet-wide fuel efficiency to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Under the 2011 deal, the 2022-2025 model year rules had to be finalized by April 2018. The Obama administration completed a review of the 2022-2025 rules days before leaving office. Without a deal, automakers could be forced to meet one set of standards in California and a dozen states that have adopted its rules and other rules in the rest of the country. In 2011, Obama said the rules would save motorists $1.7 trillion in fuel costs over the life of the vehicles, but cost the auto industry about $200 billion over 13 years. | 0fake |
Brilliant Facebook Post Puts Idiocy And Hypocrisy Of ‘All Lives Matter’ Into Razor-Sharp Focus | Nobody shouted all lives matter until people started saying, black lives matter. There s an easy, albeit disgusting, reason for that and it s because the all lives matter crowd is uncomfortable with actually focusing on massive social problems that they perpetuate. Also, the crowd that tends to shout all lives matter, is overwhelmingly, white, straight, cisgender, and Judeo-Christian.But all lives matter isn t racist, sexist, religion-phobic, transphobic, homophobic, or anything at all to this crowd.There s a Facebook post making the rounds that describes the hypocrisy of this white, straight, cis, Judeo-Christian crowd that s feeling left out because we say black lives matter. It s absolutely brilliant. It s so brilliant that it s easier to post it than it is to explain it.Image via FacebookAnd there is the hypocrisy in all its vile glory. Holloman s take on all lives matter is amazing. All lives do not matter. The only lives that matter to the all lives matter crowd are those of the straight, white, cis, Judeo-Christian crowd. They wouldn t know the meaning of the word all if it came up and spit fire in their faces.Explaining why all lives matter is such a terrible thing to say first takes convincing that particular crowd that there s even a problem. White people who like that phrase won t acknowledge there s a problem, as recent, blatant racism from various officials has demonstrated. So saying the black community is still oppressed, and floating statistics, telling stories, even getting first-hand accounts and testimonials to prove it, is a massive waste of time.These analogies might be a waste of time, too, but they explain it a little better:#AllLivesMatter is like I go to the Dr for a broken arm and he says All Bones Matter ok but right now let s take care of this broken one Belac Micheal (@djsoap92) July 6, 2016saying #AllLivesMatter is like running through a cancer fundraiser & saying THERE S OTHER DISEASES TOO judes (@judychen_) July 8, 2016#AllLivesMatter is like someone tweeting Pray for Nice and I say what about all the other cities in the world? They ve suffered too Nomnso (@Nomnso_94) July 15, 2016Or, if these aren t enough, how about this? Your house is on fire and the fire department is pouring water on it, trying to put the fire out. Your neighbor, whose house isn t burning, comes over and says, My house needs water too, hellooooo!! Why are we ignoring my house and focusing only on yours?! What are you going to say?In short, black lives matter is calling attention to an emergency situation like the ones above. Black lives do not matter nearly as much as white lives, and it s a serious problem. But Holloman s post illustrates not just the ignorance and offensiveness of all lives matter, but it shines a very uncomfortable light on those who continue to utter that phrase.Holloman is right. They really don t know what all means.Featured image by Mark Makela/Getty Images | 1real |
null | There are lots of diiferent truths , when i hear the FBI come out and admit they ran the false flags and helped cover them up , i'm a believer . At the moment its one side much the same as the other . Lets face it if they cant even arrest or solve the JFK murder and expose the truth then there wont be any . One thing we can be certain of the crooks at the very top running the rest of the crooks will never be mentioned and while that exists nothing much will change i dont think . Its like a theftfest and when they crash it they will still have all the loot . Soros is a bigger threat to world peace and they dont stop him in fact they fund him , go figure . | 1real |
Leading Republican Corker says Trump immigration order 'poorly implemented' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations committee, said on Sunday that President Donald Trump’s executive order on refugees and immigration had been “poorly implemented,” particularly for green card holders. “We all share a desire to protect the American people, but this executive order has been poorly implemented, especially with respect to green card holders,” Corker said in a statement. “The administration should immediately make appropriate revisions, and it is my hope that following a thorough review and implementation of security enhancements that many of these programs will be improved and reinstated,” he said. | 0fake |
Comment on "The Working Class Won the Election" by Paul Craig Roberts | Here's something interesting from The Unz Review... Recipient Name Recipient Email =>
The US presidential election is historic, because the American people were able to defeat the oligarchs. Hillary Clinton, an agent for the Oligarchy, was defeated despite the vicious media campaign against Donald Trump. This shows that the media and the political establishments of the political parties no longer have credibility with the American people.
It remains to be seen whether Trump can select and appoint a government that will serve him and his goals to restore American jobs and to establish friendly and respectful relations with Russia, China, Syria, and Iran.
It also remains to be seen how the Oligarchy will respond to Trump’s victory. Wall Street and the Federal Reserve can cause an economic crisis in order to put Trump on the defensive, and they can use the crisis to force Trump to appoint one of their own as Secretary of the Treasury. Rogue agents in the CIA and Pentagon can cause a false flag attack that would disrupt friendly relations with Russia. Trump could make a mistake and retain neoconservatives in his government.
With Trump there is at least hope. Unless Trump is obstructed by bad judgment in his appointments and by obstacles put in his way, we should expect an end to Washington’s orchestrated conflict with Russia, the removal of the US missiles on Russia’s border with Poland and Romania, the end of the conflict in Ukraine, and the end of Washington’s effort to overthrow the Syrian government. However, achievements such as these imply the defeat of the US Oligarchy. Although Trump defeated Hillary, the Oligarchy still exists and is still powerful.
Trump said that he no longer sees the point of NATO 25 years after the Soviet collapse. If he sticks to his view, it means a big political change in Washington’s EU vassals. The hostility toward Russia of the current EU and NATO officials would have to cease. German Chancellor Merkel would have to change her spots or be replaced. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg would have to be dismissed.
We do not know who Trump will select to serve in his government. It is likely that Trump is unfamiliar with the various possibilities and their positions on issues. It really depends on who is advising Trump and what advice they give him. Once we see his government, we will know whether we can be hopeful for the changes that now have a chance.
If the oligarchy is unable to control Trump and he is actually successful in curbing the power and budget of the military/security complex and in holding the financial sector politically accountable, Trump could be assassinated.
Trump said that he will put Hillary in prison. He should first put her on trial for treason and war crimes along with all of the neoconservatives. That would clear the decks for peace with the other two major nuclear powers over whom the neoconservatives seek hegemony. Although the neoconservatives would still have contacts in the hidden deep state, it would make it difficult for the vermin to organize false flag operations or an assassination. Rogue elements in the military/security complex could still bring off an assassination, but without neocons in the government a coverup would be more difficult.
Trump has more understanding and insight than his opponents realize. For a man such as Trump to risk acquiring so many powerful enemies and to risk his wealth and reputation, he had to have known that the people’s dissatisfaction with the ruling establishment meant he could be elected president.
We won’t know what to expect until we see who are the Secretaries and Assistant Secretaries. If it is the usual crowd, we will know Trump has been captured.
A happy lasting result of the election is the complete discrediting of the US media. The media predicted an easy Hillary victory and even Democratic Party control of the US Senate. Even more important to the media’s loss of influence and credibility, despite the vicious media attack on Trump throughout the presidential primaries and presidential campaign, the media had no effect outside the Northeast and West coasts, the stomping grounds of the One Percent. The rest of the country ignored the media.
I did not think the Oligarchy would allow Trump to win. However, it seems that the oligarchs were deceived by their own media propaganda. Assured that Hillary was the sure winner, they were unprepared to put into effect plans to steal the election.
Hillary is down, but not the Oligarchs. If Trump is advised to be conciliatory, to hold out his hand, and to take the establishment into his government, the American people will again be disappointed. In a country whose institutions have been so completely corrupted by the Oligarchy, it is difficult to achieve real change without bloodshed. (Reprinted from PaulCraigRoberts.org by permission of author or representative) | 1real |
Trump to deliver statement on shooting of lawmaker on Wednesday | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will deliver a statement at 11:30 AM ET on the shooting of senior Republican lawmaker Steve Scalise on Wednesday, the White House said. In the wake of the shooting, Trump has spoken with Chief of Capitol Police Matthew Verderosa, Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Scalise’s wife, the White House said. | 0fake |
Blast hits Afghan capital near Shi'ite mosque, killing at least one | KABUL (Reuters) - Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide attack near a large Shi ite mosque in the Afghan capital on Friday that killed at least one person and wounded five others. The blast hit the Qala-e Fatehullah area of the city, near the Hussainya mosque, and came as security forces were on alert for possible attacks during Ashura, the holiest celebration in the Shi ite religious calendar. President Ashraf Ghani issued a statement saying that the attackers would not be able to shake the unity of the Afghan people with their inhumane and irreligious attacks. A statement from Islamic State, which has claimed a string of attacks on Shi ite targets over the past two years, said its fighters had carried out the attack. Afghanistan, a mainly Sunni Islamic country, has mostly avoided the sectarian violence that has devastated countries such as Iraq, but there have been increasing numbers of attacks on Shi ite targets in recent years. Security officials said at least two attackers had been killed as they carried out the operation, apparently intended to hit the mosque, just a month after 20 people were killed during prayers at another Shi ite mosque in Kabul. A hospital run by the Italian aid group Emergency said five wounded had been brought in following the blast but a witness at the scene said eight or nine people had been wounded or killed. The local affiliate of Islamic State has claimed several attacks on Shi ite targets in Kabul in recent years and the government has allowed the Shi ite community to place armed guards near mosques ahead of Ashura. No reliable census information exists on the size of the Shi ite community in Afghanistan, but estimates range around 10-20 percent, with most coming from the Persian-speaking Hazara and Tajik ethnic groups. | 0fake |
Hybrid Wars 8. Strategies Against Africa – Introduction | Africa , China , Hybrid Wars , United States By Andrew KORYBKO (USA)
The most colonized and exploited continent in the history of the world is once more the center of global competition, albeit this time the form of rivalry between the Great Powers has taken on a much more nuanced, though no less intense, form. The US, France, and their unipolar allies want to retain Africa as their exclusive labor, market, and resource reserve for the foreseeable future, both out of their own material self-interest and with the added strategic benefit of depriving China and others of its economic fruits. Contrarily, China wants to integrate the world’s fastest growing economies and populations into the unfolding multipolar world order and give them a fair chance at succeeding in the global system. The contrast between the West’s neo-colonialism and China’s liberating sovereignty couldn’t be more crisp, and it’s this opposition of diametrically opposed global strategies and development models that sets the stage for the grand proxy battle between the US and China over Africa.
Just as much as China needs Africa in order to maintain its steady growth rates into the foreseeable future and ensure its domestic stability, so too does the US want to ‘poach’ Africa from China in order to offset the structural sustainability of its number one rival’s global leadership. The nature of the African-wide proxy conflict is that China is ardently working to finance, construct, and connect various infrastructural projects to one another in order to create a supraregional web of intermodal transport corridors that could then perfectly complement the maritime portion of the One Belt One Road (“New Silk Road”) global vision, while the US is trying with equal fervor to seize control of key nodes along these transnational routes as well as strategically disrupt crucial portions in order to increase China’s dependence on the unipolar-influenced areas. As the ultimate last resort, however, the US, the “world island” in all the manners that it can be strategically understood as, will pull out all the stops and unleash a ‘scorched earth’ trail of Hybrid War destruction in its wake while it strategically retreats back to its self-sufficient “Fortress North America” as the final coup de grace in the African proxy war against China.
More than likely, it won’t ever get to that dramatic of an absolute point whereby the US fully retreats from Africa or totally destroys the continent with Hybrid War, but realistically speaking, there’ll likely be a blended development of scenarios that takes place in this heated theater of competition over the coming decades that integrates elements of both extremes. China will predictably succeed in spearheading several ultra-strategic New Silk Road development corridors in Africa, while the US will probably sabotage a few others and unleash a handful of Hybrid Wars to keep the existing ways indefinitely at bay from fully actualizing their envisioned geo-economic potential. There’s no surefire way to know with absolutely certainty what the future will bring, but it’s possible to acquire an educated expectation about the structural and systemic manner in which the identified group of states will be targeted by US-provoked Hybrid Wars. Even accounting for the possibility that some of the forthcoming examined scenarios might be “naturally occurring” in that they require little if any external pressure to instigate, there’s still a strong likelihood that at least some of the investigated possibilities will eventually occur to varying extents and that the geopolitical repercussions will indisputably impact quite negatively on China and the larger multipolar world’s grand position in the New Cold War.
This section of the book is organized in such a manner that Part I will describe Africa’s overall geopolitical situation, highlighting the influence of hegemonic and institutional regionalism (sometimes overlapping, other times not) over the continent’s affairs in order to clearly illustrate the preexisting advantages and obstacles to China’s New Silk Road vision. The subsequent chapters of the African Hybrid War research will then comprehensively examine the five separate categories of states and their pertinent neighbors that the author has already identified as being relevantly incorporated into the immediate thesis. To remind the reader about what was described in Part III of the book’s Introduction and to expand upon the earlier presented paradigmatic map in a more structurally detailed manner, the following cartographic revision will be henceforth used as the point of reference in guiding the research beyond Part I:
Key
* Yellow – East Africa/East African Federation
* Blue – Central-Southern Africa
* Black – Failed State Belt
* Red – Lake Chad Region
* Hashed/Thatched Lines – countries that will inevitably become involved in the targeted category states’ Hybrid War destabilization, whether as an aggressive actor, a passive victim, or a blended mix thereof. Schematic Observations
A few comments need to be stated about the above map before commencing Part I of the African Hybrid War research:
Southern African Cone:
Firstly, while it’s conceptually possible for all states in Africa (or anywhere in the world, for that matter) to be afflicted by Hybrid War, keeping in accordance with the axiom that this method of warfare is more often than not applied in disrupting multipolar transnational connective infrastructure projects and/or seizing control of them, it can be surmised that the ones which could most radically revolutionize the continent’s geopolitical and geo-economic would be most actively targeted and consequently receive the highest likelihood of some sort of Hybrid War destabilization in the coming future. All of this will be described in detail in Part I, but for now it’s enough to know that the identified states lay along the paths of China’s presently constructed Silk Road routes or most probable forthcoming projects that it could pursue in achieving its grand strategic ends.
It should be clarified at this point that the Southern African Cone was not included in the above model because its economic corridors are relatively well-established and have already been utilized for some time by all sorts of Great Powers, the West obviously included. Furthermore, concerning Namibia and Botswana’s global connectivity via South Africa, and to an extent, even Zimbabwe and Mozambique’s as well, this mostly deals with the one-way transport of natural resources and less so with each respective state’s labor and market potential. While each of these countries have a given role that they play vis-à-vis the Chinese economy, none of them except for South Africa (the hub through which most of their exports, barring Mozambique’s, pass) is integral enough to be targeted by their own Hybrid War.
Theoretically speaking, disruptions in the regional periphery around South Africa could have a strategic effect in putting pressure on the country’s multipolar leadership and pave the way for a regime change scenario, but given the rotten nature of corrupt South African politics, it’s more expected that traditional ‘soft coup’ means such as constitutional technicalities and simple Color Revolutions (i.e. the anti-Rousseff coup in Brazil) would be used in this instance. Additionally, the resources of the population-sparse countries of Namibia and Botswana and the general market and labor potential of South Africa are already pretty much integrated into the larger global economy, so there are many existing unipolar stakeholders that would also be adversely affected by a severe disruption in or around their common point of African access. The same can’t be said so much about Zimbabwe and Mozambique, the former rich in minerals such as diamonds and platinum while the latter is poised to become one of the world’s largest LNG exporters, so it’s entirely possible that they may be targeted sometime in the future. But even so, it would be less in connection with China’s multipolar transnational connective infrastructure projects than with their own individual standalone potentials in their respective fields, thus strategically differentiating them from the other countries included in the present study (although that is not to say that Hybrid War techniques would not be used – they probably would to a large extent).
Insular Importance:
In relation to the above, the insular countries of Africa were also not included in the continental overview, although they too play an important role in its evolving geopolitical paradigm. Nevertheless, because they’re island nations, they’re not directly connected to anything else besides the high seas, so although they may have valuable transit node status for China as an integral component of its Sea Lines of Communication, they’re not as directly affected by the region-stretching Hybrid War study that was commenced for the mainland. Nevertheless, because each of them could play a pivotal role in influencing continental affairs if properly utilized by a partnering Great Power, it’s worthwhile to very concisely comment on how they fit into the larger strategic equation that will be described throughout this work:
* Yellow – Canary Islands (Spain): This legacy holding allows Madrid to exert influence near the coasts of Morocco and Western Sahara, both thought to be rich with fish and possible energy resources.
* Green – Cabo Verde (formerly Cape Verde prior to late-2013): The former Portuguese colony connects the North and South Atlantic and offers a strategic position near the mouth of the Senegal River, as well as being positioned along an important oceanic route that the US and EU must take to access West Africa.
* Blue – São Tomé and Príncipe: Another former Portuguese colony, this one is crucially located in the hydrocarbon-rich waters of the Gulf of Guinea and in close proximity to the shoreline of Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria.
* Violet – Comoros and the French overseas department of Mayotte: These two locations are almost on top of northern Mozambique’s LNG-prospected Rovuma Basin and thus near what will likely become a major energy exporting area in the near future.
* Orange – Seychelles: The former UK-colonized island chain lies along the route of approach that India and China must take in accessing the burgeoning East African marketplace, and it’s for this strategically competitive reason that New Delhi has proactively sought to build a naval base and position some of its military units there in order to “contain” China.
* Unmarked – Mauritius and the French island of Reunion: These two insular areas are not directly relevant to Africa’s mainland geopolitical order, although they do acquire significance vis-à-vis Madagascar and the US-controlled Indian Ocean bastion of Diego Garcia.
Transregional Conflict Overspill:
One of the most striking aspects of the reference map is that it clearly delineates the geopolitical fault lines where Hybrid War conflicts could easily become transregional:
Out of all of the areas designated by the map, it’s most probable that the uncontrollably violent processes in the Failed State Belt of the Central African Republic (CAR) and South Sudan would be the ones to spread to other parts of Africa, at least as regards the continent’s conflicts that are presently ongoing (and not accounting for those that have yet to possibly erupt). In particular, CAR’s chaos could result in a refugee and militant overspill to Cameroon and Chad, possibly leading to these respective Christian- and Muslim-led governments supporting their own confessional sides in the country’s unresolved civil war. The misleading “Clash of Civilizations” narrative that would assuredly be purposely pushed by the Western mainstream media will be discussed later on when addressing the Failed State Belt, but at this moment it’s useful just to be aware of the transregional “infection” potential that the CAR has in affecting the Lake Chad region. Additionally, the country’s domestic difficulties could also spread southward into the northern reaches of the Central-Southern state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), representing a dual destabilization threat emanating from the CAR.
South Sudan can do something similar to the CAR in relation to the northern part of the DRC, but possibly even to the Horn of Africa state of Ethiopia and the East African state of Uganda as well. Tellingly, these latter two states are actively involved in the conflict resolution process in South Sudan and are jostling against one another for influence there in order to carve out defensive buffers (but also markets, of course) to protect themselves from this scenario. It should go without saying that South Sudan was only brought into existence because it was forcibly severed from Sudan proper over a three-decade-long civil war period, and the dynamic of anti-Khartoum action hasn’t stopped since Juba gained its independence in 2011. Therefore, South Sudan represents an even larger asymmetrical regional threat than CAR does, and their combined destabilization potential explains why they’re both categorized together as part of the Failed State Belt.
If their respective conflicts somehow merged into a transnational conflagration, then that would represent a large-scale Hybrid War threat in the geographic heart of Africa, but the closest this has henceforth come has been the over-exaggerated threat of Joseph Kony. With reference to the Failed State Belt’s Hybrid War vulnerabilities and the transregionalization that its internal conflicts pose, it’s little wonder then that the US exploited the mystique around this warlord in order to deploy a limited but very strategic contingent of its special forces to Uganda, South Sudan, DRC, and CAR. Almost as an afterthought but drawing on the tangent of transregional conflict overlap, it’s topically pertinent to recall the Darfur Conflict and how this essentially was a proxy competition between the Lake Chad regional state of Chad and the extended Failed State Belt and somewhat Gulf-influenced state of Sudan. It’s no longer as relevant of a geopolitical item as it once was during the mid-2000s, but it nevertheless still has the potential to re-erupt in the future, especially if the externally directed Sudanese dissolution process speeds up and makes headway in the states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan.
Lastly, there’s the realistic possibility that the US’ attempts to instigate a Hybrid War in Burundi could set off a chain reaction of destabilization in the eastern DRC, Rwanda (and by extent, possibly up to Uganda), and western Tanzania, thereby making this geographically tiny state a disproportionately large trigger in upsetting the regional balance. Although there’s not yet an active conflict in Burundi anywhere on par with the scale of what’s been raging in the CAR and South Sudan over the past couple of years, this doesn’t mean that one can’t quickly develop if the entire state collapses under Hybrid War pressure, and this disturbing scenario will certainly be explored more at length later on in the work.
Mapping out the expected transregional conflict overspill zones in Africa, one can unmistakably see that it’s the entire Upper-Central (Failed State Belt) and the eastern portion of the Central-Southern zones of Africa that are most at risk of this destructive process unfolding. Accordingly, this realization leads one to conclude that the DRC and the areas immediately abutting it provide the most fertile ground for the transnationalization of domestic conflicts, which somewhat (but not totally) explains why the Second Congo War eventually came to involve states located far away from the actual battlespace and be nicknamed “ Africa’s World War ”. To put it another way, the Hybrid War vulnerabilities of the identified area combined with its obvious geostrategic centrality to the African continent makes it doubly capable of sucking countless states into a literal Black Hole of Chaos that could easily become the ultimate proxy war climax between the US and China.
To be continued…
Andrew Korybko is the American political commentator currently working for the Sputnik agency. He is the author of the monograph “ Hybrid Wars: The Indirect Adaptive Approach To Regime Change ” (2015). This text will be included into his forthcoming book on the theory of Hybrid Warfare.
PREVIOUS CHAPTERS: | 1real |
California governor signs 'sanctuary state' bill | LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A bill to make California a sanctuary state, by preventing police from inquiring about immigration status and curtailing law enforcement cooperation with immigration officers, was signed into law by the governor on Thursday. The signing of the bill by Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, enacts on a state-wide level protections for illegal immigrants that exist in several cities, including Chicago and New York. Illinois approved a similar measure earlier this year. The enhanced protections for illegal immigrants by California, the nation’s most populous state, sets the stage for a political battle with President Donald Trump, who has made a crackdown on illegal immigration one of his main priorities. Senate Bill 54, which California lawmakers approved last month, bars local governments from forcing undocumented immigrants to spend extra time in jail so that immigration agents can pick them up for deportation. It also prohibits police from asking about the immigration status of people during routine interactions. “These are uncertain times for undocumented Californians and their families, and this bill strikes a balance that will protect public safety, while bringing a measure of comfort to those families who are now living in fear every day,” Brown said in a statement. The law will take effect in January. California leads the nation in its population of illegal immigrants, with more than 2.3 million people lacking legal status, according to Pew Research Center. The U.S. Department of Justice immediately criticized Brown’s action. “The state of California has now codified a commitment to returning criminal aliens back onto our streets, which undermines public safety, national security and law enforcement,” Department of Justice spokesman Devin O’Malley said in a statement. Attorney General Jeff Sessions this year sought to cut off sanctuary cities from certain federal grants, but judges have blocked that effort. The law will not affect major aspects of U.S. immigration enforcement, Brown noted in his statement. It does not prohibit sheriffs from allowing federal immigration authorities into their jails and does not freeze deportation proceedings for prison inmates, Brown said. | 0fake |
Trump, at NATO, vows unwavering fight against terrorism | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump told fellow NATO leaders on Thursday that the United States would never stop fighting terrorism, calling the Manchester attacks “savage” and “barbaric”. While he also accused low-spending members of the alliance of owing “massive amounts of money” to NATO, Trump said he and allies would drive out militants and urged all nations to do the same. “We will never waiver in our determination to defeat terrorism and achieve lasting security, prosperity and peace,” Trump said after unveiling a memorial to the Sept.11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington at the NATO headquarters. “Terrorism must be stopped or ... the horror you saw in Manchester and so many other places will continue forever,” Trump said, referring to Monday’s suicide bomb in the northern English city that killed 22 people, including children. | 0fake |
After Badger Buries Entire Cow Carcass, Scientists Go to the Tape - The New York Times | Scientists reviewing video from camera traps watched dumbfounded as a badger worked four days to bury a calf carcass. Badgers, carnivores native to the American West, are generally nocturnal and spend most of their time in burrows. They are known to cache food to eat later — squirrels and rabbits, typically. No one has ever seen a badger put away such a large hunk of meat. The scientists had put out seven calf carcasses in an attempt to study scavenging behavior. At one site, the carcass had completely disappeared. A look at video from the camera trap was enough to see what had happened. After burying the carcass, the badger built a den next to his large food supply. No other badger visited the site. “It’s a substantial undertaking,” said Ethan H. Frehner, an associate instructor in biology at the University of Utah. | 0fake |
U.S. judge to mull release of Trump video testimony | SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel said on Wednesday he would take more time to decide whether video excerpts of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump answering questions under oath about his Trump University seminars should be made public. Curiel is overseeing two class-action lawsuits in San Diego over the real estate seminar venture. A separate fraud case by New York state’s attorney general is pending. Trump has suggested Curiel is biased against him because of his campaign rhetoric about illegal immigration. Curiel was born in Indiana but is of Mexican descent. On Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers fought release of the videos, arguing that they would be exploited during the presidential campaign. “There’s all kinds of potential for mischief,” Daniel Petrocelli, a lawyer for Trump, told Curiel. Jason Forge, a lawyer for the students who claim they were misled and defrauded by Trump University, said Petrocelli could not point to any particular harm if the videos are released since transcripts are already public. The lawsuits accuse Trump of bilking students who paid as much as $35,000 each to learn his real estate investment strategies. The students claim they learned little. Trump has claimed a majority of students were satisfied with the seminars. | 0fake |
Mike Pences Plane Slides off Runway at LaGuardia | Mike Pence's Plane Slides off Runway at LaGuardia page: 1 Mike Pence's campaign plane has slid off a runway at LaGuardia. No injuries have been reported at this time. This is a developing story. Campaign plane carrying Gov Mike Pence skids off runway while landing at LaGuardia Airport Watch on facebook edit on 27-10-2016 by reldra because: (no reason given) he was going to a fundraiser and it appears he is not going anymore. edit on 27-10-2016 by reldra because: (no reason given) | 1real |
Cuomo Commutes Sentence of Judith Clark, Driver in Deadly Brink’s Robbery - The New York Times | Judith Clark, who drove a getaway car in the infamous 1981 robbery of a Brink’s armored car in Rockland County, N. Y. that left a guard and two police officers dead, went into prison defiant, with seemingly little chance of getting out. The judge who sentenced her saw her as beyond rehabilitation, giving her a minimum of 75 years in prison and all but ensuring she would die there. But Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, citing what he called Ms. Clark’s long sentence and “exceptional strides in ” commuted her sentence on Friday. Mr. Cuomo’s action does not undo Ms. Clark’s conviction on murder and robbery charges, but it reduces her sentence to 35 years to life and makes her eligible for parole in 2017. If Ms. Clark is freed, it would be in recognition of her evolution from radical to model prisoner, and serve as a coda to a notorious case that was among the last gasps of violent extremism seen in the 1960s and 1970s. Ms. Clark, 67, must still win over the parole board, and law enforcement groups are expected to fight her release. Ms. Clark’s efforts to obtain clemency have gained wide attention in recent years, particularly as other participants in the Brink’s robbery have been released or granted parole hearings. Two of those involved, Mutulu Shakur, the stepfather of the rapper Tupac Shakur and described as the ringleader of the holdup, and David Gilbert, a leader of the Weather Underground who was also involved, remain incarcerated. Mr. Cuomo noted that Kathy Boudin, now a professor at Columbia University, was released in 2003 after receiving a as part of a plea deal. The commutation was part of a raft of clemencies announced by the governor on Friday, which were hailed by a wide swath of criminal justice advocates. About 100 people who had finished serving time for nonviolent crimes they had committed as minors were pardoned, and the sentences of several other inmates were commuted. The clemency actions were the largest number by a governor in the state’s history, a spokesman said. The governor met Ms. Clark, who had one of the longest sentences of those in the Brink’s case, during a prison visit this year. A range of people have attested to Ms. Clark’s transformation, including Elaine Lord, former superintendent of the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for women, the prison where she has spent almost all of her 35 years behind bars. Ms. Lord wrote to . David A. Paterson in 2010 that she had seen Ms. Clark “change into one of the most perceptive, thoughtful, helpful and profound human beings that I have ever known, either inside or outside of a prison. ” A group of 13 former presidents of the New York City bar association signed a letter seeking clemency for her this year. In the years before the robbery, Ms. Clark had bounced from mainstream civil rights causes to a group called the May 19th Communist Organization, an offshoot of the Weather Underground that believed a revolution was in the offing. She did not quickly renounce her radical ideology once in prison. Deemed a major security risk, she spent two years in solitary confinement after being caught helping to plan an escape. But her attitudes began to change. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees while incarcerated, and led educational programs for inmates, including a prenatal course and an program. Her release has been opposed by law enforcement groups and by some relatives of the men who were killed in the robbery and ensuing search: Sgt. Edward O’Grady and Officer Waverly Brown of the Nyack police, and Peter Paige, a Brink’s guard. Ed Day, county executive of Rockland County, called the push for clemency for Ms. Clark, “a vicious slap in the face to every member of law enforcement. ” “The blood of Nyack police Sgt. Edward O’Grady, Officer Waverly ‘Chipper’ Brown and Brinks guard Peter Paige will be on her hands until the day she dies,” he said in a statement on Friday. “Judith Clark is a domestic terrorist. Her only place in a civilized society is behind bars. ” Ms. Clark’s lawyer, Steven Zeidman, said on Friday that his client was aware of the concerns of the victims’ families. “She’s grateful for this opportunity and is very ecstatic, but is very fully aware that it’s painful and difficult for those who lost loved ones that day,” he said. Though Ms. Clark did not fire any shots, she was a willing participant in the robbery, which the militant group viewed as an “expropriation” for what they called the Republic of New Afrika. According to her account from that day, she had parked in a corner of a mall in Nanuet where other members of the group attacked an armored car, grabbing $1. 6 million while leaving Mr. Paige dead and another guard in a pool of blood. Gunfire was also exchanged later with the police. Ms. Clark’s radicalism had hardened by the trial. She called herself a “freedom fighter” and called the court officers “fascist dogs. ” In an email on Friday, Edward J. O’Grady III, the son of the slain officer, said that he was still processing the news. He called his father a hero and said he felt the pain of his loss every day. But, he said, “the release of Judith Clark will take no more away from me and will bring no more hurt to my life. ” He also wrote about Ms. Clark’s daughter, Harriet, a lecturer at Stanford, who was 11 months old when her mother was arrested. “She did no more to deserve her lot than my sisters and I did to deserve ours,” he wrote. “If it brings an end to the suffering that Harriet has to deal with every day, then perhaps I can be happy for both of them, and I can assure you, I’ll still be able to sleep at night. ” | 0fake |
Obamacare Enrollees Anxiously Await Supreme Court Decision That Threatens Their Coverage | “I’ve got my six-month, regular cancer checkup in June, and so I’m saying I hope they don’t come out with any kind of decision, just in case it’s bad news, until after,” Hines said. “You always get nervous, usually a day before or day of, going for a checkup. But I think I started a little more on the worrying ahead of time.”
Hines, 59, has been relying on health insurance purchased through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces to help cover the costs of those checkups. But she has the misfortune of residing in a state, Virginia, where the federal government is operating that marketplace. Because of that, she could end up losing her tax subsidy to help purchase coverage right at the time her health takes a dive for the worse.
The Supreme Court will issue a ruling this month on a lawsuit engineered by conservative activists alleging that a brief phrase in the law -- “exchange established by the state” -- means subsidies can only be provided to individuals residing in states that set up their own health insurance exchanges. Should the justices side with Obamacare's critics, Hines would be one of an estimated 6.4 million people in 34 states whose subsidies will disappear. Many will be forced to drop their health insurance because of heightened cost.
For someone like Hines, who has had breast cancer three times, most recently in 2009, this presents a Hobson's choice. She considers health care coverage essential and must get screenings twice a year to ensure her cancer doesn't come back. But she has little money to afford insurance on her own. A former public relations professional, she’s devoted her life to caring for her ailing, octogenarian mother, and currently works part-time as an educator at the aquarium near her home in Virginia Beach. Her low income qualifies Hines for a subsidy that cuts the price she pays by about half, to $200 a month.
“I could probably manage another year,” Hines said when asked if she could afford the coverage without the subsidy. She would have to draw down more of her retirement savings to pay for health care. But doesn’t have enough money to hold on to health insurance until she turns 65 and becomes eligible for Medicare, she said.
Hines was one of six people the Huffington Post featured in a report this March on the case surrounding Obamacare's subsidies. At the time, the Supreme Court was hearing oral arguments on the case and the prospect of those subsidies potentially disappearing was becoming less abstract for those in states with federally run exchanges. The clock is ticking even louder now. And so, we decided to catch up with those we interviewed to see how their circumstances, health and mental well-being has changed.
Lucas had an aortic aneurysm in 2010, so he has to keep monitoring his heart condition. Even though his most recent tests came up clean in May, Lucas knows the computed tomography (CT) scan he needs as part of his checkup every two years would cost him $11,000 without insurance, instead of $50 now. He also knows his prescriptions would run to $2,600 every three months rather than $65 with insurance. Lucas, who is self-employed, earns $25,000 to $30,000 a year, he said.
Lucas might be shielded from the ramifications of a ruling against the subsidy if Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) persuades the GOP-majority state legislature to go along with his proposal to set up a state-run exchange. But as Lucas takes stock of the court decision to come, he's struck by what he sees as dramatically misplaced priorities among lawmakers in Washington.
“Billions of dollars in corporate welfare to oil companies and whatnot, you know, and that’s not a problem for them, but I’m a person who gets $2,400 a year in subsidies to help pay for my insurance -- and I pay almost three times that much in taxes, so it’s not like I’m taking them on the negative side,” Lucas said.
Blitz turns 33 on Monday. Since birth, he has dealt with aortic valve stenosis, meaning he has a heart valve that is too narrow. He recently received good news from his cardiologist that he can delay an expensive major operation he thought he’d need this year. But he will have to undergo a less serious procedure at a later date.
All this would be difficult to handle on its own. But it's compounded by the problems Blitz has had in navigating the health care law. He ended up with a plan he doesn't recall picking. He lost his subsidy of $30 a month even though his income level should qualify him for some tax credit. And he assumed that his home state would get rid of all Obamacare exchanges entirely if the court ruled against the subsidies (in fact, state Republicans have passed a bill saying that Arizona won't set up a state exchange. The federal one will remain regardless).
Were he to ultimately lose the subsidy, Blitz would figure out a way to pay for his insurance. He calls himself "fortunate" in that regard, compared to those who don't have savings to dip into or expenses to cut or friends to rely on. But Blitz's fortune -- if you want to call it that -- comes at a cost, and it underscores how the damage from a Supreme Court ruling for the plaintiffs extends beyond those who currently receive tax credits.
Without the subsidies, most of the low- and moderate-income people using the health insurance exchanges will exit the exchanges, leaving those with the greatest health care needs -- people like Blitz with medical conditions -- as an increasing share of the market. Because people with greater medical needs generate more medical bills, that would increase expenses for insurance companies, forcing them to increase premiums. Those higher premiums, in turn, would lead more people to drop coverage. In the industry, they call this a “death spiral.” | 0fake |
Influential U.S. senator mulls retirement | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the influential Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Monday he had not yet decided whether he would run for re-election to a third Senate term in 2018. “While we are in a strong position, I am still contemplating the future and will make a decision at the appropriate time,” Corker, 65, said in a statement. “I think everyone in the Volunteer State knows, as they did in 2012, that running for re-election has never been an automatic for me,” he said. However, Corker will be ready to run if he decides to go ahead. A source with direct knowledge said he has $7.5 million in cash on hand for the race. A former mayor of Chattanooga and successful businessman, Corker is expected to win easily if he does run in the solidly Republican state. Aides to the senator had said for some time that he had not yet decided whether to run. He had ruled out talk that he might run for governor of Tennessee earlier this year, and the issue arose again last month when President Donald Trump said on Twitter that Corker was “constantly asking” him whether or not he should seek re-election. Trump had considered Corker as a potential vice presidential running mate or secretary of state, and he has worked closely with the administration. But he has broken with the Republican president on some issues. Trump issued his tweet after Corker responded to Trump’s comments about a neo-Nazi white supremacist rally by saying Trump had not yet demonstrated the stability or some competence to be successful. The president was broadly criticized for his reaction to the rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, including his observation that there were good people on both sides. Corker issued his statement after CNN reported on Monday on an interview with him last week in which he discussed possibly ending his Senate career. A fiscal conservative, Corker is seen as a pragmatist willing to work with Democrats on a range of issues including foreign affairs but also domestic policy matters such as immigration. | 0fake |
HYPOCRITES! CHECK OUT Massive Structure Party Of OPEN-BORDERS Built To Keep Legal Citizens Out Of DNC | It s interesting how the media has completely ignored this massive wall while making a big deal about the extra security measure Republicans had taken to keep their guests safe You know, after radical Democrat affiliated groups, like Black Lives Matter and the New Black Panthers threatened GOP members with violence To the Democratic National Committee elites, keeping average Americans away from their convention is a good idea, while protecting the southern border from intruding terrorists, rapists and murderers is a bad one.The DNC has erected a four-mile fence around its convention site at Philadelphia s Wells Fargo Center. (Isn t it ironic they re doing so much to protect a site named after a bank?)The DNC fence,surely they would have built a bridge !! pic.twitter.com/6RzjM6rBov Jay Hooks (@mojobubba) July 24, 2016The fence, which appears to be about 8 feet tall, is intended to keep out any individuals with whom Democratic Party leaders, delegates and other liberal elites would rather not mingle.The familiar temporary 8 foot high security fence up again,from Broad&Pattison down to 95 ramps for DNC @FOX29philly pic.twitter.com/3LXOzf8ncX Steve Keeley (@KeeleyFox29) July 20, 2016Worried abt th fence Trump will erect?Welcome 2 th Dem's fence in Philly! pic.twitter.com/Z46wWBnBVp Still Not Russian (@BKrab1) July 24, 2016Via: American Mirror | 1real |
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